Chapter 21

Chapter 21

“What was that?”

Choi Yura asked me.

“I do not know either.”

“You did it, so why do you not know?”

“I told you, I do not know.”

This time, Captain Im asked.

“Mr. Eunseong, just now, that was…….”

“I do not know either. If I had to describe it…… the goddess of luck? Something like that, I suppose.”

“Pardon……?”

“It says it raises our luck. By about 120% for five minutes.”

“Ha ha…….”

Captain Im looked troubled.

He probably had no sense of what it meant for luck to rise by around 120%.

I was the same.

How was I supposed to verify that the probability of an abstract concept like luck had increased?

Even I, the person involved, could not get a feel for it.

“Ah.”

Just then, I saw a jar.

After a brief moment of thought, I found a good way to test the effect of the [Luck] card.

“Everyone, please step back.”

After warning the group, I kicked and smashed a trap jar that dropped something from above when touched.

RUMBLE!

The moment the trap activated, a rectangular block of stone fell from the ceiling toward my head.

Flinch!

The stone stopped as if by a lie, about thirty centimeters above my head.

Normally, the block of stone would have flattened me into dried fish, but seeing it stop made it clear that luck had definitely activated.

“What did you just do?”

“You saw it, so why ask? I tested it.”

“Tested it???”

“Whether my luck had really improved or not.”

“Wow.”

Choi Yura looked at me with renewed astonishment.

“You really are a crazy bastard, are you not?”

“You are suddenly swearing at me?”

“Do you have ten lives or something? You?”

“I think it is true that I have two, but I do not know whether I have ten.”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

“There is something like that.”

“You really are insane.”

Choi Yura shook her head, looking fed up.

“M-Mr. Eunseong? Even so, I would appreciate it if you refrained from testing an ability by risking your life. It is far too dangerous.”

“I am sorry if I startled you. I will keep that in mind.”

“Thank you.”

“Let us continue looting. There is still a lot to pick up.”

The Wreckers’ Spirit Swords were also targets for looting.

I approached the dead Wreckers’ corpses.

Swords, axes, daggers, and so on.

The masterless Spirit Swords were stored in cards.

“T-Team Leader.”

“Shh. I am watching too.”

Captain Im calmed his startled subordinate.

Yes, they must have been surprised.

They had probably never even imagined that someone could absorb another Awakened’s Spirit Sword.

‘What am I supposed to do with all of these?’

There were already nearly twenty Spirit Swords inside the Deck of Infinity.

If I added together the ones I had seized when I first awakened and the ones I had just seized now, it was roughly that many.

I did not know whether I was supposed to use them all or whether they were merely for collection.

People commonly said that a Spirit Sword was the materialized form of the Ether possessed by an Awakened... but I did not know.

I still did not know what [Guide] was, or what kind of job [Collector of Madness] truly was.

‘I will find out once my rank rises.’

The higher an Awakened’s rank rose, the stronger they became, and their abilities were strengthened as well.

‘How much is left?’

I concentrated my mind and examined my current status.

[Cha Eunseong]

Guide

Collector of Madness

★

(89.5%)

Thanks to Choi Yura and Captain Im’s group giving me their Ether, there was not much left until my rank increased.

It was probably also because this [Cursed Citadel] was a high-rank dungeon, so the quality and density of the Ether I had absorbed were high.

“Let us get moving. If we see any jars along the way, we will break them.”

After finishing the looting, we headed toward the first floor.

***

Creak. I carefully opened the door leading to the first floor.

“Crunch, crunch!”

“Smack, smack!”

Nearly a hundred monsters were greedily tearing into corpses that were presumed to be the Wreckers’ companions.

I gently closed the door.

“Why did you close it?”

“They seemed to be having a company dinner, so I thought we should not disturb them.”

“…….”

Choi Yura understood what I meant and shut her mouth.

“Let us take another route.”

The first floor of the [Cursed Citadel] was closer to a massive lobby, so one wrong move could easily result in being surrounded by monsters and wiped out.

In other words, the Wreckers had not fled down to the first basement floor and died at our hands for no reason.

“This way.”

I waved the [Search] card and guided the group toward a detour.

In truth, I had cleared this dungeon so many times in my previous life that the [Cursed Citadel] was vivid in my mind even without the [Search] card.

“Is this the right way?”

“It is.”

“It has already been an hour.”

“The path is complicated, that is all. We are going the right way, so do not worry.”

The first basement floor was like a maze, so even if you took the correct route, it could feel as if you were wandering.

If measured in a straight line, the path was not that long, but the structures forced you to go around and around.

“It is here.”

Creeeak!

When we arrived in front of an iron door, I opened it without hesitation.

Then a narrow spiral staircase appeared.

“This staircase can take us all the way to the seventh floor in one go, so let us go without worrying.”

“There was a secret passage like this here?”

“How would I know? The card told me.”

It was a blatant lie, but everyone seemed to believe it.

“I will take the lead.”

Captain Im’s group climbed the stairs first.

“Hunter Choi and Mr. Eunseong will stay in the middle, and we will handle the front and rear.”

“Good.”

Choi Yura seemed a little hurt in her pride, but she did not insist on anything.

Captain Im’s suggestion was a reasonable and wise judgment.

In a narrow spiral staircase, a Hunter like Choi Yura, who swung a long weapon, would not be able to fully display her combat power.

If it had been a spear-like weapon, she could have gripped it short and dealt with enemies by thrusting, but a weapon that had to be swung like a whip to secure kinetic energy could not easily show its power in a confined space.

By the same principle, it was also difficult for such a weapon to display its full strength underwater due to resistance.

This was why tactics were important.

A Hunter had to clearly understand their own strengths and weaknesses, knowing when and where they were strong or weak, and respond accordingly each time.

“Here.”

“What is it?”

“Just in case.”

“Tch.”

Choi Yura pouted and accepted the Bren 2 carbine I handed her.

We formed a tactical line, climbed the spiral staircase in single file, and arrived on the seventh floor.

“Kyaaaak!”

“Kyaaa!”

As soon as we left the secret passage, monsters rushed at us, but because we were in a narrow corridor inside the building, we were able to suppress them without much difficulty.

Whoooosh!

After one round of combat ended, Ether coiled around me.

Your rank has increased!

Along with the notification window, my rank rose.

[Cha Eunseong]

Guide

Collector of Madness

★★

(1.23%)

And so, I became a 2-Star Awakened from a 1-Star Awakened.

“Congratulations, Mr. Eunseong.”

“Congratulations.”

“Congratulations. Our little chick is 2-Star now?”

Choi Yura and Captain Im’s group congratulated me.

The [Alchemy] card has been created!

The [Hero’s Kit] card has been created!

Alchemy?

‘What is this now?’

I examined the cards closely.

[Alchemy] depicted a burly old man holding a hammer in a workshop, and [Hero’s Kit] was a leather backpack.

[Alchemy]

★★

A card that allows card synthesis, Etherium refining, processing, combination, and more.

As the card’s rank rises, the results of the crafted products also improve.

[Hero’s Kit]

★★

A backpack capable of holding an enormous capacity.

Its fixed weight is 7kg.

When the card’s rank rises, it can easily hold even 70 tons of weight.

I roughly understood what it meant.

Of course, I would not know precisely until I tested it directly.

“Let us keep going.”

Seventh floor.

777, 777.

When we arrived at the coordinates, a lone wardrobe was sitting there.

“This is the entrance to the hidden dungeon?”

“That is right.”

When I flung the wardrobe open as if to show them, a portal leading elsewhere appeared.

“I-It really is.”

“To think there was a place like this in a dungeon.”

Choi Yura and Captain Im were surprised.

“I told you there is nothing much to be careful of, so let us quickly clean it out and head straight to the boss room.”

Without hesitation, I crossed the portal and headed into the Rift.

***

When we crossed the portal, a dense, lush forest spread out before us.

With a light drizzle falling as well, I could feel on my skin that this was an entirely different space from the Cursed Citadel where we had been.

★★

“Goblin Mountain Stronghold?”

“Since it says stronghold, is it something like a bandit lair?”

“Maybe.”

Choi Yura nodded at my words.

“I see it over there.”

After walking through the forest for a while, we saw a bandit lair surrounded by a wooden fence in the distance, and Goblins were loitering around it.

“They are only Goblins, so let us wipe them all out.”

“We will go first.”

Captain Im’s group took the lead and poured bullets into the Goblins.

“Kek!”

“Kyaaaak!”

Every Goblin that appeared was knocked down.

Since they were monsters that died easily even to bullets, dealing with the Goblins was not particularly difficult.

“Kyaaaak, kyak kyak, kkeheeet!”

A large Goblin that seemed to be the bandit leader looked as if it might show us something, but in the blink of an eye, the iron chain Choi Yura swung ground it into a lump of meat.

Tsk. It would have been better for it to just die from a bullet.

“What, there is nothing special here. We came all this way just to catch a few Goblins?”

“We should still check whether there is anything here.”

Pretending I knew nothing, I feigned ignorance and searched the mountain stronghold.

“Here! It is here!”

One of Captain Im’s subordinates shouted.

‘They found it.’

It was a building that looked somewhat like a wooden hut, and when we went there, Etherium and all kinds of items were piled up like a mountain.

“W-What is all this?”

“It seems to be the treasure the Goblin bandits have collected so far.”

“This is incredible.”

Choi Yura clicked her tongue in amazement.

There seemed to be nearly five hundred Etherium pieces piled up in the treasure room.

Of course, most of them were 1-Star Etherium, so they were not especially valuable, but there were some higher-rank ones mixed in here and there, so at a rough estimate, it looked to be worth about ten billion won.

Yes, this was the taste of a Rift.

Depending on the dungeon, one could aim to strike it rich overnight, so in my previous life, it had also been common for high-rank Awakened to endlessly run through low-rank dungeons while aiming for Rifts.

Though that would be something that happened after I revealed information about Rifts on Hunter Link.

“Let us divide it here immediately. If we divide it after getting out, things will become complicated in various ways.”

“Understood.”

“I agree too.”

We decided to divide the Etherium and various items inside the Goblin bandits’ treasure room in a ratio of 5 to 3 to 2.

Of course, I got the 5.

I was the one who had provided the information about the Rift, after all.

Now then, let us see how many assets our Goblin bandits had gathered.

Was there anything good?

I scanned the Goblins’ treasure with hawk-like eyes.