Chapter 29: Talent Upgrade! Clearing the Valemont Castle Dungeon
Arc remained silent for a moment. He could either deny the fact that he was trying to ditch her, which could make things more complicated and ruin his plan if Felix were to actually arrive with the party. Or he could still ditch her anyway, but that would expose himself and make it difficult to hoard resources in the future.
"What makes you think that?" he asked.
"C’mon, I didn’t tell the party about what I saw at the Crimson Goblin Island, and don’t plan to. I know you could easily try to kill me right now, but we can work together. I don’t mind hoarding resources with you, and I promise to keep quiet about it and assist you in any way I can," Liz stated.
"I know you’re doing this to get stronger, and I totally understand your selfish approach. But so am I. I was just a girl lost in her own world who now has to fight to see the next sunrise." She stepped in front of him.
"I’m scared, Arc. I don’t want to die. I need this; I need to get stronger. So please... take me with you," she pleaded.
Arc peered into her eyes to see if she was genuine and worth investing in... or if she was better off dead.
Liz didn’t shy away from his gaze this time, letting him read her heart like an open book.
"How would you ensure no one would find out?" he asked.
"I swear I won’t tell anyone—"
"That’s not enough." He cut her off.
"You’re in a party with the others. They can see when you level up without them, and they also receive EXP points from your kills." Arc made his point clear.
"Then I’m going to leave the party—permanently. And you can teach me how to hide my info as well," Liz quickly replied in anticipation. She didn’t just say it, but immediately navigated through her player system and left the party without hesitation.
"And what do you have to say when they ask about it?" Arc asked again.
Liz was taken aback by the question, as she clearly hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. But she wasn’t about to lose the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to partner with him.
"I... I-I don’t know—but I’ll think of something pretty fast. Just please, trust me on this one. I won’t disappoint you... No one’s ever going to know," she said convincingly and held her breath for his reply, shifting her gaze between his eyes.
"You have to do exactly as I say, and don’t ask questions," Arc said after a moment of silence.
Liz breathed a sigh of relief. "You can count on me," she replied with suppressed excitement.
"Tell me, you have the [Appraisal] skill, don’t you?" Arc asked sharply.
He wasn’t about to believe she’d spotted the dungeon gate naturally using just her intellect. It took more than that. It took experience.
Liz was visibly stunned, and her mouth parted several times, but no words came out. She had indeed been making use of the [Appraisal] skill to identify their surroundings when it flagged the dungeon gate.
She wasn’t sure Arc had seen it, but had made it known to him in hopes that she’d get the opportunity to partner with him to clear the dungeon, just the two of them.
"Yes," she managed to say and was about to ask how he’d known when his earlier words rang in her head.
’No questions. Got it.’
Arc shifted his attention to the dungeon description.
[Valemont Castle | C-Rank Dungeon]
An abandoned vampire estate swallowed by darkness and time.
Its masters are long dead. Its servants still roam.
Yet beneath the lone cherry blossom tree blooming at the center of the ruined grounds, a knight continues his endless vigil.
Dungeon Type: Undead
Rank: C
Level Requirement: Level 20 - 35
Clear Conditions: Kill the Boss.
—
After reading the description, Arc had a rough idea of the C-rank Dungeon. There was a level requirement of 20, whilst Arc was at Level 23, making it hard for anyone who wasn’t within that level range to enter the dungeon, like Liz, who was at Level 12.
But there was a loophole around the level requirement.
"I sent you a party invite," he said to Liz, who quickly accepted as soon as she received it.
So far, there was someone in the party who was within the level range, and members with a lower level were almost always overlooked by the system—which was mostly strict with higher-level players entering low-level dungeons.
There was the option to adjust EXP point distribution among the party members, which was set to a default of 50-50. But Arc didn’t bother adjusting it to get a higher EXP share, as he wasn’t planning on holding back. He had the [S-rank Double EXP] Talent in his possession and was about to upgrade it on the spot.
He highlighted the S-rank Talent and activated the [DOMINATOR] skill.
[Do you wish to upgrade Talent: S-rank Double EXP?] [Y / N]
He clicked the ’Y’ option to proceed.
[Please choose a premature Talent to merge with: S-rank Double EXP]
...
There were quite a few good Talents on the list, but none as good as the Double EXP Talent. So he dragged them over to be devoured by the S-rank Talent.
[Talent Evolved Successfully!]
[S-rank Double EXP >>> SS-rank Triple EXP]
Again.
[Talent Evolved Successfully!]
[SS-rank Triple EXP >>> SSS-rank Random EXP Multiplier]
’Random multiplier?’
Arc was thrilled. His double EXP was guaranteed if he wasn’t lucky. But it could easily become 10× or 100× EXP if Lady Luck was on his side.
He didn’t waste any more time and lifted his head. "All right. Let’s go."
With that, they approached the dungeon gate when Liz grabbed his sleeve. Arc turned to look at her and saw that she was nervous, but she didn’t say anything. He turned back and got sucked into the portal.
His vision swam for a moment, and when it cleared, he was standing at the gate of a ruined estate that hadn’t seen the sun in forever. The sky was covered in thick dark clouds, and undead creatures roamed about the estate.
Dungeon mobs didn’t give any EXP points immediately after being killed. Instead, the EXP was accumulated, calculated, and distributed with the clear rewards after killing the dungeon boss.
There were two things that heavily affected the clear assessment and rewards: Efficiency and Speed.
The higher your clear result, the better the rewards.
Arc was aiming for the best rewards.
He turned to Liz, who was behind him, snapping her neck toward every little sound.
"What’s the plan?" she asked, keeping her voice steady.
"Plan?"
"You... you have a plan, right?"
"Sure. You stay here while I move ahead to the boss room."
"W-What?" Liz stuttered as she shifted her gaze across the undead mobs. "You want to leave me here all alone?" she asked in fright.
"Do you want to get stronger or not?"
Liz couldn’t find her words and bit her lips.
"B-But I don’t have a weapon. I lost my grimoire at the Crimson Goblin Island."
Arc swiftly pulled out the two Rare-tier Blood-Soaked Grimoires in his inventory and slapped them together so fast that Liz had barely seen the upgrade glow before he tossed the result her way.
"Now you do. I’ll come back for you when I finish in there."
Liz stared at the grimoire in her hands, her eyes widening in shock at its Epic tier, while her previous starter grimoire had only been Common tier.
A surge of adrenaline immediately coursed through her veins, and she looked up confidently. "I’ll finish up here quickly and come assist you."
Arc smiled in amusement. "That’s the spirit. I’ll be off then."
With that, he dashed toward the estate’s main building before she could reply. But to Liz, Arc had simply disappeared from the spot.
She didn’t have time to dwell on it when she was forced into a battle stance after a chain of undead creatures had their aggro pulled by Arc’s trespassing. And when they couldn’t find him, their aggro naturally transferred to her.
The grimoire flew open and floated to her side, letting her cast spells without having to look through the book for the incantations.
She was surprised when it took only a couple of flame balls to scorch the Level 20+ undead creatures to a crisp. The Epic-tier grimoire had explosively increased her damage output and even reduced the casting time of some basic spells.
Then a beam of white light suddenly shot into the sky from the estate’s main building, dispelling the surrounding dark clouds and making Liz immune to all negative debuffs while also increasing her damage output against undead mobs.
She immediately understood Arc was behind it and was likely already in the boss room, which shocked her to the core. She immediately prioritized casting her strongest AOE spell to take out the majority of the undead mobs in the compound with her new buffs, planning on speedrunning the battle to quickly assist Arc in the boss room.
She soared into the air as her hair scattered in the wind, glowing crimson as she cast the [Hail Storm] skill with a halved casting time of seven seconds. But just before she could complete the casting...
Boom—
A shockwave rolled through the estate that made the undead mobs freeze in their steps.
[Knight of the Valemont Castle has been defeated]
[C-rank Dungeon Valemont Castle has been cleared]
[Calculating rewards...]
[For additional rewards: Kill all the Valemont Castle servants...]
"W-What?!"
