Taming Master Chapter 38:
Chapter 38: Mysterious Dungeon (1)
TL: Haku
Editor: Hungry Panda
Sponsors: Kennedy P . and Anonymous
The inside of the dungeon was a corridor-like structure that was neither that narrow nor was it an open expanse .
‘I like that it’s not complex and simple instead . ’
It was good to fight a narrow and complex dungeon with other party members, but because it was easier to get caught in traps and ambushes, so Ian didn’t prefer that sort of configuration .
‘But it feels a bit spooky…’
Ian, who felt the same feeling as when he first went to a haunted house at an amusement park when he was younger, made Ddukdae take the lead and carefully moved his feet one step at a time .
There was no way of knowing what kind of dangers lurked in an unidentified dungeon .
Kyahhh- .
A sound similar to a ghost-calling rang out, riding the long and wide corridor .
‘Damn, since nothing is appearing, it’s making me even more nervous . ’
Ian grumbled at his stifling heart .
And just then, as if they had heard his complaints, the wall to his left broke down and monsters appeared .
Koo-reu-reu-reung- .
The monsters that appeared through the broken wall had a ghost-like form that matched the dungeon’s atmosphere very well .
An interesting point was that they were not ghosts with a human-like form, but ghosts with a drake-like form, like a lizard with wings .
“Ddukdae, Ice Wave!”
As Ian did not let down his guard, he immediately reacted .
Thud- Thu-Thu-Thud-!
Along with Ian’s command, Ddukdae stomped his foot with strength .
And a blue ice wave spread out into its surrounding .
The Ghost Drake has suffered 175 damage .
For 10 seconds, the Ghost Drake’s movements will slow down by 30% .
The monster’s name was ‘Ghost Drake’, just like how it looked .
There were a total of three Ghost Drakes that appeared and they immediately charged towards Ddukdae, who had attacked them .
‘Err, I still need to wait a little more for Ly to use Berserk…’
Ian moved quickly as he thought about how he should fight .
Familiar ‘Ddukdae’ has received 1466 damage from the ‘Ghost Drake’ .
Ian slightly flinched at the Ghost Drake’s Offensive Power that was even stronger than the Ice Trolls .
‘This could be a little harder than I thought?’
If it was about one or two of them, he wouldn’t have been as nervous as now, but as he had to face three at the same time, a cold sweat slid down his spine .
However, it wasn’t as if he was seized with fear because of that .
Ian was discovering as he hunted up until now that the Summoner’s fighting spirit had a big influence on their Familiars’ fighting spirits as well .
“Ly, deal with the left one! It’s alright if you can’t attack, just buy as much time as you can and hold out!”
Grr-!
Ly, who understood Ian’s words, immediately threw his body at the drake on the left .
And Ian moved shortly after as well .
Along with the invoking of his Weak Point Capturing skill, he lodged his fist exactly into the drake’s weak point and landed a critical blow with his first hit .
You have dealt critical damage to the ‘Ghost Drake’ .
The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 905 .
The ‘Ancient Summoner’s Steel Knuckle’ invoked the ‘Response’ skill .
As the steel knuckle’s inherent ability, Response, was invoked, Ian let out a shout of delight on the inside .
‘Alright! Lucky as well!’
Familiar ‘Ddukdae’s ‘Ice Wave’ will be borrowed .
He inwardly anticipated for Berserk to pop up but Ice Wave was just as helpful as well .
Ian’s fist lit up blue and a large wave spread out .
Thu-Thu-Thud- Thud-!
The Ghost Drake has suffered 635 damage .
For 10 seconds, the Ghost Drake’s movements will slow down by 30% .
Thanks to Ice Wave popping up one after another, the slowing effect overlapped each other, and although it was only for a moment, the Ghost Drake’s movements noticeably slowed down .
And Ian knew very well that within that momentary time, he needed to successfully land as many hits as he could .
“Ly! Come over here and let’s attack this one first!”
After receiving a hit and also landing one, he roughly got a sense of what his opponent’s stats were like .
His opponent was an Offensive-type monster .
Their Offensive Power was on the strong side, but he discovered that their Defensive Power and Vitality were low in comparison .
‘I thought they were a lot stronger than the trolls because they dealt a **** ton of damage, so I freaked out . ’
The Ghost Drakes’ Offensive Powers were significantly stronger than the trolls’, but their Defensive Power was on the low side by quite a lot .
And Ian, who confirmed this, chose the method to quickly remove one of them first .
And right now, where the slowing effects were overlapped, was a good opportunity .
Puck- Pu-Puck-!
Ian and Ly’s attack hit multiple of the drake’s weak points in an instant and Ddukdae, whose fists looked like they were swinging around carelessly, were quite sharp .
Screech-!
The Ghost Drake let out a horrible shriek as it twisted its body .
By the looks of how its name started to blink, it seemed like its Health dropped below half .
However, just then, the other two drakes attacked from the back .
Hweeek-!
“Ack-!”
After Ian barely dodged the drake’s tails that rushed towards him, he gasped for air .
“Huff… Huff . ”
He only felt a difficult battle would continue if left like this .
He needed to find a solution . Ian discovered Bbookbbook, who was dazing off in a corner .
‘Bbookbbook… Let’s do at least something!’
And he gave a command to Bbookbbook .
“Bbookbbook, attack those two and grab their attention!”
He wasn’t expecting much .
It was simply a command he gave in the off-chance .
Bbook!
However, surprisingly, Bbookbbook crawled valiantly towards the two drakes .
Bbook- Bboo-Bboo-Bboo-Bbook-!
Because Ly disappeared from their sight, the two drakes, who were immediately looking for another opponent to attack, turned their heads shortly after at Bbookbbook’s strange noise .
Glare-!
Bbookbbook glared at the drakes with a frightful(?) gaze and fortunately, the two drakes charged towards Bbookbbook at the same time .
‘That’s right . Good job, Bbookbbook!’
Ian attacked the one drake altogether with Ly and Ddukdae, while glancing slightly at Bbookbbook .
He did believe in Bbookbbook’s incredible Defensive Power, but it was because he was concerned .
However, Bbookbbook was doing an incredibly good job .
Sook- .
As the two drakes attacked, he quickly slipped into his shell .
Familiar ‘Bbookbbook’ has received critical damage .
‘Bbookbbook’s Vitality has been reduced by 1 .
‘Bbookbbook’s Vitality has been reduced by 1 .
Despite receiving critical damage, he only received 1 damage, so Ian was completely reassured and was able to focus on the one drake . And the result, Ian was able to kill the drake shortly after .
You have killed the Ghost Drake . You have obtained 3078 EXP .
Ian wanted to cheer while seeing the EXP that was written .
On top of its base EXP being higher than Ice Trolls, with the effect of being the very first discoverer of the dungeon overlapping, he had received an incredible amount .
As he checked the EXP, the drakes that were burdensome just a moment ago, were looking like EXP lunchboxes .
Ian, whose fighting spirit grew more, began to pour out his attacks more violently .
You have dealt critical damage to the Ghost Drake .
The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 912 .
The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 562 .
The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 557 .
Gaining strength from Bbookbbook’s active role, Ian, who killed all three of the drakes in an instant, gasped for air .
It was only for a moment, but since he moved with all his power, he was out of breath .
“Ha, ha . ”
In the middle, Ly allowed a couple of attacks on him, receiving enough damage to almost kill him, but because the reward was as sweet as honey, his fighting spirit lit up .
‘But drakes are normally high-level monsters that are over lv 90… Is it because these ones are ghosts, so they can’t be that strong?’
These Ghost Drakes were around lv 65 .
Another reason why Ian was first intimidated was because drake monsters in general were strong monsters that were hard to hunt before he had reset .
“First Aid!”
While Ian collected his breath, he restored his Familiars’ Vitality with First Aid .
And he didn’t forget to praise Bbookbbook .
“Good job, Bbookbbook . You just need to do things like this!”
Bbook-!
Bbookbbook’s triumphant expression!
Ian gave Bbookbbook another meatball for doing a good job for the day and started moving again .
‘Huehue… Good, good!’
Ian grinned like a Cheshire cat .
Battles repeated without end, but it seemed as though he got used to it as he went on, as he was able to go around the dungeon, exploring without hesitation .
His hunting speed got faster as well .
And shortly after, a delightful message popped up .
You have leveled up . You have reached lv 43 .
“Alright!”
It was an alarm that was nice to hear whenever .
Ian, who was having fun, made up his mind to abstain from eating and drinking and just hunt until his buff for being the very first discoverer of the dungeon ended .
‘If I hunt like crazy until then, wouldn’t I be able to reach about lv 49?’
If he could maintain this pace, it seemed possible enough .
Monsters that were a little stronger than the Ice Trolls appeared, but as their Vitality and Defensive Power were much weaker, his hunting speed was instead faster .
In return, though, it was that much more dangerous…
Ian, who continued to hunt, discovered something and momentarily stopped .
‘Oh? It wasn’t a one-floor dungeon?’
Normally, dungeons formatted like this, with wide corridors that continued windingly, finished with one floor in a lot of cases, but he had discovered an entrance that went down lower .
‘There’s still a lot of monsters leftover… Should I go down after I’ve wiped them all?’
Ian momentarily thought about it, but shortly after he moved his feet towards the entrance to go down lower .
‘Still, since clearing the dungeon is number one priority . ’
Because he could only focus his mind on hunting with a comfortable heart once he checked what was at the end of the dungeon and cleared it, Ian had the mind to clear the dungeon first and foremost .
And along with the endless hunting, another day passed by .
@
“Wow, as expected, Himenes, you’re amazing . You’re already at lv 45… Even though Black Magicians are supposed to be fast at leveling, that’s really incredible . ”
Im Eunyoung, YTBC reporter, was logged onto her Kailran character ‘Lucia’ and was interviewing the Black Magician user Himenes, who made an exclusive contract with the broadcasting company .
“Haha, it’s nothing . It was only possible because the Titan guild is fully supporting me . Of course, I didn’t ride a bus[1] or something like that . Hoho . ”
Himenes was currently the highest-level user between the known Black Magicians .
And Lucia received a bonus from the broadcasting company as the price for getting an exclusive contract with him .
Even though Black Magician was a class that was faster in leveling up compared to the other classes, a lot of people’s attention was on him for reaching lv 45 within 3 weeks since the server opened up .
‘His snobby actions disgust me, but since I’m even getting a bonus thanks to this guy, I’ll endure this much . ’
Lucia knew that Himenes had leveled up quickly through the ‘hunting ground gathering’, which was not much different from bussing[2], but she didn’t nitpick about it .
‘It pays to be nice, so…’
Lucia continued with a bright smile, just like a pro reporter .
“Well then, Himenes, please tell the many users that are watching this a tip or something of the sort that they should know in order to level up a Black Magician quickly . ”
“A secret, right?”
“Yes!”
Himenes cleared his throat as he continued .
“Hmm, because I need to survive as well, I can’t reveal all my know-hows, but starting now, I’ll reveal some pretty good tips . Haha . ”
Lucia held back the urge to lodge a fist into Himenes’ face and continued with a smiling face .
“Hoho, then viewers . Shall we now listen to the tips that Himenes, the number 1 ranking Black Magician, will tell us?”
“Firstly, Black Magicians, that is . ”
Himenes’ self-praise began .
However, while Himenes chatted excitedly, Lucia was thinking of something else .
‘Was it Loren? The lv 37 Summoner, I need to find that person fast . ’
Loren was the name of the highest-level Summoner user that she had discovered from asking around .
And if they were lv 37, there was a high chance they were the highest-level Summoner amongst the existing ones .
Just like how she grabbed a contract with Himenes, she needed to find Loren before any of the other employees in the broadcasting company and clinch a contract with them .