Chapter 148
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When I first entered the dungeon, I felt confused.
The ‘Sea Monster Habitat’ mainly has aquatic monsters.
As the name suggests, there are fish-shaped aquatic monsters that live in the sea, and most of the monsters that appear inland on the uninhabited island also possess aquatic-type magic runes.
Therefore, the double dungeon located there was naturally related to water, and I thought the monsters would also come from that category.
“The surroundings are quite fiery.”
“…Yeah.”
But the double dungeon was completely different from the ‘Sea Monster Habitat’.
The interior of the dungeon was narrow and enclosed, and flames flickered all around.
The type was similar to the ‘Underground Dungeon of the Academy’.
Especially considering the information window in front of me and the heat around, the monsters appearing would definitely possess fire-type abilities.
Then, Kwon Oh-jun’s and my expressions simultaneously grew perplexed.
“The compatibility is not good.”
That goes without saying, the compatibility between the support mages of our party and the monsters was bad.
Kang Juyeon and Yoon Ji-ah are fire-type.
Kim Seong-cheol is wind-type.
All three mages were either the same element or an element that had difficulty dealing big damage.
“We can’t help it. We can’t always encounter favorable matchups.”
“Um.”
Encountering monsters with ineffective matchups while hunting happens often.
In most cases, we gather intel on the hunting ground beforehand and prepare, only taking party members with good matchups, but…
In situations like now where we discovered a new dungeon or are facing a boss monster with special mechanics, bad matchups are inevitable.
There’s not much we can do then.
We have to overwhelm them with skill.
It’s not reasonable to bring mages of every element just to prepare for every special situation.
As Kang Juyeon has shown several times before, overwhelming power makes matchups almost meaningless.
“I’ll reorganize the party roles.”
I spoke while looking around at the party members.
With 10 people assembled again, we needed to rearrange the roster.
“First, Ms. Akiba and Juyeon will be taken out of the search team. After observing, it seems Juyeon has the best magic detection in our party. She was the one who found this dungeon too.”
I continued speaking, alternating my gaze between Kang Juyeon and Akiba.
“So although not an archer-type, I will assign her the search duty. You two search from the back focusing on unauthorized warp gates and onsite evidence.”
At this, Kang Juyeon quietly nodded, and Akiba also replied in her characteristic curt tone that she understood.
But for some reason, the other members’ reactions were strange.
“…Juyeon?”
“Hmm – You just complimented her unnecessarily while assigning duties, right? I heard that correctly, right?”
“Holder Lee Soo-mi. Please put on more clothes. This is embarrassing to look at.”
…I can hear everything they’re whispering about even though it’s amongst themselves.
What delusions are they having?
Also, at Kim Seong-cheol’s snarky comment, my eyes inadvertently wandered to Lee Soo-mi’s outfit.
…It is embarrassing.
No matter how much I see it, I can’t get used to it.
Is that person really a divine Holder?
“Focus everyone. This is an important operation, and Do Jae-hyun is currently the party leader. You are all too distracted.”
“Sorry.”
“Sorry.”
Fortunately, Kwon Oh-jun, the de facto leader of the party, brought the mood back on track.
I lightly thanked him and continued speaking.
“The rest are all dungeon attack personnel. We don’t know how far the smugglers’ influence stretches within the dungeon, so we’ll push the attack as far as we can, to the boss room if possible.”
Cave dungeons have a lot of space.
Even along the attack route, secluded areas pop up here and there, and those areas are naturally like ‘rooms’ that can store goods and items.
That spatial convenience and leeway were probably why the <Villains> and smugglers targeted this dungeon.
“However, Holder Shin Yu-na will be in charge of escorting the rear search team. She has to deal with any monsters we miss upfront. Got it?”
“Yeah, got it!”
And so, we began clearing and searching the double dungeon.
Not long after the attack began, unfamiliar forms of monsters rushed at us.
Kwaa, kwaaang-!!
Kaeng – kaeng-
“Mages provide support fire faster! Focus more on crowd control than dealing damage! We’ll take them down primarily through physical attacks!”
Amidst the coordinated movements of the party members, I shouted orders at the top of my lungs.
This double dungeon, tentatively called ‘Smuggling Cave’, had a difficulty far from easy.
The level of the emerging monsters was much higher than expected.
The monsters appearing most frequently were akao-ni (red ogres) and hell hounds.
Their appearances matched the images evoked by their names. These guys freely wielded fire-type magic runes and made the battle situation complicated.
Ssss-
Grrr…!!
Kung! Kwaang-!!
“F*ck. So damn sticky.”
“Park Jin-woo! This time you need to deal damage too. Magic support isn’t very effective.”
“I know…!!”
Fierce combat continued repeatedly.
Both the akao-ni and hell hounds are A-grade monsters.
Normally, a pack of A-grade monsters should be dealt with by a B-grade Holder party at minimum, but this battle was not normal.
The compatibility between the mages who had to hunt the monsters and the monsters was the same or close to invalid, and because of this, there was burden on the frontline.
In particular, this ‘smuggling cave’ is narrow inside the dungeon itself.
Due to spatial problems, the battle structure was bound to be limited, and as a result, the number of monsters to deal with at once increased.
‘Even though…’
Fortunately, the situation was not at all hopeless.
With the mages’ support weakened because of their bad matchups with the monsters, the frontline tanks had to make up for it with damage…..
And our setup for that was quite good.
Me, Park Jin-woo, and Kwon Oh-jun on the frontline.
The three of us Holders were all bruiser-types who could both tank and deal damage, and the assassin-type Choi Dong-wook also showed himself at the right moments to supplement damage.
That is, our physical attacks were able to penetrate the monsters’ defenses.
This allowed the battle to progress somehow.
‘And Team Leader Kwon is fighting so well.’
While blocking the monsters’ attacks, I glanced at Kwon Oh-jun repeatedly.
As the only A-grade Holder and seasoned team leader of Hunting Team 5, his performance was tremendous.
Focused wholly on combat without needing to give orders, Kwon Oh-jun saved the party multiple times from crisis with his overwhelming skill and keen senses.
“Hup…!!”
Kagagang-
Grrr-?!
With a shout, Kwon Oh-jun’s spear pierced the hell hound’s head in one strike.
It looked like an unremarkable piercing attack.
However, concentrated magic and the essence of spearmanship were contained within it.
Thanks to it, Park Jin-woo who had been surrounded was able to catch his breath for a moment.
“Ah, thank you.”
“Save the thanks for later!”
“Yes.”
And so the fierce battle continued repeating.
***
Ippotranslation
***
A few hours had passed since the attack began.
Overcoming the early difficulties, our party was finally able to clear through to the end of the middle section of the dungeon.
The skilled <Judgment of Fire> Hunting Team 5.
The capable <Anti-Villain> members.
With the two teams combined, even high rank dungeon attacks were not an impenetrable wall.
[You were victorious in the duel! Due to your great contribution in the duel, your victory is acknowledged. With the Rune Hunter’s miraculous power, you can replicate one of the opponent’s runes. Please select a rune to copy.]
[You have selected the ‘The Dead Firework’ rune. Since it is a level 8 rare rune, the level will drop to 4 when registered.]
[You have obtained a new rune.]
[You gain 1 Magic and 1 Fire Resistance from the rune’s attributes.]
I obtained a new rune as well.
The rare rune [The Dead Firework] aids in handling fire-type abilities.
It was a similar form to the [Fiery Flame] I already possessed.
Since I had obtained so many runes from monsters until now, new types didn’t come out easily anymore unless it was a monster I hadn’t seen before…
I was lucky this time it seemed.
“Ms. Akiba. Have you collected all the items?”
“Yes, Jae-hyun. I’ve completely recovered a total of 128 illegal items. Combined with items that were lost or haven’t been traded yet, there would be many more, but… I believe we’ve recovered all the items that were in this dungeon.”
With the attack nearly finished, the search was also successful.
As expected, the double dungeon ‘Smuggling Cave’ was a smuggling site.
In some of the open spaces we passed through while clearing, we found traces of transactions and discarded illegal items, all of which we recovered and processed as we went by.
‘And there were warp gates too.’
In particular, those spaces had additional ‘unauthorized warp gates’ installed.
I had been suspicious the whole time how they made a place with A-grade monsters prowling all about into a smuggling site, and it turned out they had created [Warp Gates] in special spaces the monsters couldn’t reach.
That’s how we recovered 5 unauthorized warp gates.
And with a total of 128 illegal items…
We were able to complete the onsite investigation we had aimed for.
And….
“Now there’s just one thing left.”
My gaze left Akiba and turned towards another entrance deeper in the dungeon.
Pulsating with intense magic.
The final point of this arduous dungeon we had fought through.
The boss room of the ‘Smuggling Cave’.
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