Chapter 24

Chapter 24.

 

The Raiders guild did not have a good reputation.

If things started to go south, they had a habit of abandoning their guest members and running.

Even so, they had never once fallen from their place among the four major guilds.

Because the other guilds made similar choices when it came down to it.

The reason the Raiders drew so much hatred was their attitude.

They were far too quick to decide to abandon their teammates,

and whenever anyone criticized them, they answered with nothing but, “So what?”

It was only natural that the public’s opinion of them was a complete disaster.

Ha-kyung quickly swept his gaze over the area.

‘I have to stop thinking those bastards might come back. We need to survive on our own.’

There were three tanks left.

Including Ha-kyung and Ma Do-hyuk, that made five of them.

There was no way that many people could withstand that overwhelming tide of monsters.

Which meant they had no choice but to find an escape gimmick somehow.

Ha-kyung hurried over and joined the tanks.

“We need to get out of here first. The Raiders abandoned us.”

“What? Already?”

“The moment they saw how many monsters there were, they ran. We are on our own now!”

“Damn it. Understood.”

The tanks immediately fell in behind Ha-kyung.

Judging by how quickly they reacted, it seemed they had all been keeping betrayal in mind.

They just had not expected it to happen this soon.

Ha-kyung predicted the Banshees’ movement patterns.

‘There are an insane number of monsters, but we can push through somehow. The Specters cannot really see us properly anyway.’

As long as the Banshees did not scream, the odds of being attacked were low.

It was not as though they were going to stubbornly rely on brute firepower like those Raiders idiots.

Ha-kyung was confident he could get them out.

Of course, that did not mean there would be no danger at all.

Whenever the Banshees’ paths overlapped, a fight became unavoidable.

But each time that happened, Ha-kyung’s overwhelming power shone through.

“Scree...”

Splurt—!

Just as a Banshee was about to let out a scream,

Ha-kyung’s Abyss Refinement split it clean down the middle.

It happened in the blink of an eye.

Ma Do-hyuk widened his eyes and mimed applauding.

“Wow! That is insanely fast. What in the world are you?”

“You have been traveling with me for over a week, and you are still saying that?”

“That is because every time I see you, there is something new. Just look at them. They cannot even close their mouths.”

Ha-kyung glanced behind him.

The tanks were staring in a daze.

They were so busy whispering among themselves that they did not even seem to realize he was looking at them.

“Does it even make sense to cut down an Unfathomable-rank monster in one hit?”

“And he is a melee damage dealer, so he should be at a disadvantage against ghost-type monsters.”

“So all that talk in the community about him being the biggest free-agent prize and the Immortal Demon King was actually true?”

It seemed Ha-kyung’s performance was astonishing even to top-tier awakened ones.

Then again, had not Yoon Chang-ho himself, one of the masters of the four major guilds, acknowledged him?

He was even stronger now than he had been in the Fusion Abyss, so that kind of reaction was only natural.

Of course, Ha-kyung quickly averted his eyes.

‘This is kind of embarrassing.’

Anyone would probably react the same way.

They were full of questions, but in the end, it was no different from praise.

Ha-kyung focused solely on cutting a path forward.

After advancing for quite some time while killing nothing but Banshees, they finally saw the end of it.

A path leading up to the newly formed second floor had appeared.

Ha-kyung stopped halfway up the stairs and looked carefully above.

‘Just in case, I should check thoroughly.’

There had been no traps so far, but there was no harm in being cautious.

A monster might be hiding up there, waiting to ambush them.

Fortunately, nothing like that happened.

When Ha-kyung climbed to the second floor, a small exclamation escaped him.

“Huh? What is this...?”

“Why all of a sudd— Huh!”

Ma Do-hyuk, who had come up right after him, also let out a dry laugh.

The sight on the second floor was rather startling.

A massive figure stood firmly in the center.

It was a ghost-type monster that looked like a Banshee enlarged a hundred times over.

That thing was probably the boss of this dungeon.

The Shroud Wraith.

But at the far end, on the opposite side, a group was standing there.

It was the Raiders guild.

Ha-kyung immediately picked up the Whisperer.

“The five survivors from the front line have reached the second floor. Are we continuing the raid?”

“...Of course.”

After a brief pause, Choi Hyun-ki’s voice came through.

At once, Ma Do-hyuk exploded in anger.

“They throw us away without a second thought, but now that the boss is here, suddenly they want to kill it?”

Without the front line, a raid could not even exist in the first place.

In that short span of time, Choi Hyun-ki seemed to have done a great deal of thinking.

Turning to the tanks, Ha-kyung asked, “Are you willing to keep fighting?”

“To be honest, not really. But we made it this far. We cannot just give up now. Let us do it.”

“A wise choice.”

Now was not the time to let emotion lead the way.

The tanks had made a rational decision.

All they had to do now was regroup

and continue the raid.

Ha-kyung began moving along the outer edge of the second floor in a wide arc.

But then the Raiders guild members started moving in the opposite direction.

He could only stare in disbelief.

“No, why are you going that way?”

“Monsters from the first floor came up through the stairs. We had no choice but to move, so change direction.”

“Understood.”

They would have to circle back the way they came, but what else could they do?

With the boss raid looming ahead, there was no point in wasting strength for nothing.

Ha-kyung decided it would be better to take the longer route.

And then, right at that moment, [The Layered Abyss creates a new terrain.] apparently, they had taken too long.

Rumble! Rrrrumble!

After rocks came showering down,

a third floor formed this time.

Naturally, the Shroud Wraith disappeared from sight as well.

And just like on the first floor, countless ghost-type monsters came swarming in.

That put them right back where they had started.

Furious, Ma Do-hyuk snatched up the Whisperer.

But he could not spit out the curses rising in his throat.

Ha-kyung stopped him with a hand.

“We can criticize them later. Finding the way up comes first.”

“Damn it! At this rate, I am going to become a saint.”

“It will be easier if you just think of it as the rational choice.”

“Yes, yes. I know. We are not amateurs, after all. We cannot just act on our tempers.”

He said that, but Ma Do-hyuk ground his teeth audibly.

He looked ready to grab Choi Hyun-ki by the collar.

In any case, if they wanted to raid the boss, they had to climb another floor.

Just then, Ha-kyung’s senses caught the Banshees and Specters.

‘What the hell? They got stronger.’

Visually, there was not much difference.

But the amount of Abyss energy each one possessed had increased.

It seemed that every time a new floor formed, the monsters were strengthened as well.

Ha-kyung predicted the Banshees’ movement paths.

After wandering around the second floor for a long while, they found a hidden staircase.

When they climbed to the third floor, an unexpected sight greeted them.

Ma Do-hyuk could not hide his shock.

“This is insane... It is even bigger than before.”

The Shroud Wraith had grown about one and a half times larger.

Just as the dungeon description had said, it had likely grown stronger as well.

Ha-kyung pointed to the Raiders guild at the opposite edge of the floor.

“And they are still far away.”

If they tried to regroup by circling the edge again, the same thing would happen all over.

He immediately grabbed the Whisperer.

“At this point, it would be better if we both head straight for the center and start the boss raid at the same time.”

“Understood. We will secure aggro first.”

“All right.”

Before long, the tanks began moving forward.

The Shroud Wraith sensed their presence and immediately turned toward them.

“SKREEEEEEE!”

Along with a ghastly shriek, countless black masses came pouring down.

The tanks raised their shields and blocked them,

but something unexpected happened.

Ssssss! Crunch!

Their equipment rusted in an instant,

then crumbled away without resistance.

[The Curse of Aging corrodes equipment.]

Ordinary crafted gear turned into scrap metal.

Artifacts barely held together.

On top of that, the Curse of Aging was affecting the human body as well.

Since they were awakened ones, they did not age to death on the spot, but it drained an enormous amount of their mana.

The main tank at the very front shouted in panic.

“I cannot hold this any longer!”

The front line was on the verge of being swept away.

That was when

Ha-kyung stepped in.

[Abyss Challenger’s authority, ‘Distortion,’ overturns space.]

Sphiiiiing—!

The Curse of Aging that had been pouring down like rain vanished in an instant.

Then a purple disc suddenly appeared.

From it, a flood of black masses came bursting out.

Straight toward the Shroud Wraith’s back.

Pow-pow-pow-pow!

“Kiiiieeeek!”

Struck by its own projectiles, the boss jolted violently,

and the tanks turned around with bewildered expressions.

Instinctively, they had realized that Ha-kyung had just supported them.

“Secure aggro first!”

The moment he shouted, the tanks snapped back to their senses.

All kinds of taunt skills were slammed into the Shroud Wraith’s body.

Fortunately, they managed to establish aggro properly.

From there on, it was supposed to be the ranged damage dealers’ turn to shine.

Since it was a ghost-type monster, there was no need to break through armor first.

But no fire support came at all.

Ha-kyung whipped around.

“No, why are they not att— ...No. It is not that they are refusing. They cannot.”

The Raiders guild was still trapped under the Curse of Aging.

That did not mean Ha-kyung could use Distortion on them as well.

They were too far away, and he had only just used it.

Even so, he had assumed that, as one of the four major guilds, they would manage to overcome it somehow.

Sure enough, the Raiders escaped the crisis by retreating at once.

Just as the boss raid was finally about to get back on track,

another anomaly struck.

[The Shroud Wraith has absorbed a large amount of mana and grown stronger.]

[The rank of the Abyss dungeon rises.]

[Rank: Extreme]

[The evil spirit’s scream weakens mental strength.]

[Skill activation time increased by 40%]

[Chance of skill failure occurs: 20%]

The dungeon rank rose to Extreme,

and even the debuffs reached an insane level.

The density of the Abyss energy pouring from the Shroud Wraith also deepened.

“Kiiiieeeeyaaaah!”

“Urgh!”

With a single roar, it was enough to make the tanks stagger backward.

Even Ha-kyung could not hide his shock.

‘The team was already falling apart, and now this...’

From the beginning, Choi Hyun-ki had assembled the raid team for an Unfathomable-rank dungeon.

If he had known it was actually Extreme-rank, he would have cooperated with another of the four major guilds.

He would never have challenged it alone.

So what choice would the Raiders make now?

[The escape gimmick has been activated on the third floor of the Layered Abyss.]

After seeing the system message, Ma Do-hyuk burst into curses.

“You worthless bastards! The moment it gets a little harder, you dump your team again? We could still win if we joined forces!”

Ha-kyung felt exactly the same.

But at the same time, another thought crossed his mind.

“Was this not exactly what we expected? They were the kind of people who tried to run off on their own over problems even smaller than this.”

“Hah! True enough. But what do we do now? Aggro is already secured, and we have lost fire support and healing.”

If things continued like this, all that remained was total annihilation.

At the same time, it would not be easy for the Raiders to make it to the escape route either.

They were too far away, and the Shroud Wraith would catch up to them in no time.

Which meant there was only one option left now.

They had to finish the boss raid.

Stepping to the very front, Ha-kyung shouted,

“Stop using taunts. From this point on, I will take over as the main tank.”