Chapter 58 – Shortcut (1)
“Ain, how many minutes do we have until the dungeon opens?”
“Approximately 10 minutes…”
“Damn, I have no time to explain it. Well, it really doesn’t matter. You’ll soon realize how to go through an area with monsters over level 300.”
“…?”
While the rest of the party had question marks on top of their heads, a few seconds passed.
Kwaa-!
Suddenly, they began falling.
“Wh-What…!”
“Kyaa! The floor…?!”
A hole appeared on top of the crater where the party was standing.
As if there had been a trap from the beginning, they were sucked into the pit of the crater.
A waterfall made of snow dropped through the volcano’s crater!
Seen from the sky, it looked like a demon’s throat that devoured everything on earth.
The party, which was swept away by a torrent of snow, began falling.
The dungeon’s only entrance was a hole so deep that its end couldn’t be seen.
It was the Ice Thorn Dungeon. A place where monsters that were over level 300 roamed around.
“This…”
Even though the party kept dropping from the top of the mountain, after a few seconds, they kept falling.
“How long are we going to keep falling?!” Practice shouted while feeling uneasy.
Most people weren’t used to the sensation of falling down.
As the feeling of floating covered their bodies, they felt as if the wind was entering their body through their pores.
“Everyone, keep yourself balanced! We’re going to be falling down for a while,” Hyun shouted to the rest.
At first, Practice and Jini didn’t understand Hyun’s words. But then, they understood.
They could see the ground only after 10 seconds had passed since they began falling.
After seeing what was down there, Jini and Practice’s hearts sunk.
What was waiting for them wasn’t a flat surface. It was a very steep slope.
It looked like the hardest course of a ski resort.
To make things worse, they’d have to go through there with speed inherited from the fall!
“Be careful. The floor is made of ice.”
“What…?”
Jini wanted to ask something.
After falling down from the sky, they had to slide through a cliff-like slope. Was that the only way to enter this dungeon?
But because of the current situation, she couldn’t get herself to ask the question.
Hyun and Ain, who had high Agility stats, were naturally sliding down as if they were ski-jumping Olympic athletes.
“Ugh…!”
Practice also stumbled, but he managed to get into position and slide down the slope.
But Jini, who was a Priest, had only focused on her Magical Power and Vitality, so she lost her balance and started rolling down.
“Kyaa!”
From the party interface, they could see Jini’s HP dropping.
“Tsk,” Ain said while rolling her tongue. She complained while picking up Jini.
“This happened because you didn’t increase your Agility!”
From the outside, the sight of the smaller Ain picking up a woman bigger than herself looked funny. But in Asrian, your physical abilities depended on the stats you had, so it wasn’t a weird sight to see.
“Wait, this is too fast! Ugh, I almost fell again!”
Practice shouted while moving his arms.
His body was sliding so fast that he couldn’t properly control it, and it made his mouth dry.
It was a normal reaction. After all, they were sliding down a very steep cliff.
“Is this a racing game?!”
Jini, who had finally come back to her senses, asked, dumbfounded.
Just like Jini said, their speed was faster than the speed of most racing game cars.
The dungeon was structured like a bobsled track.
It was a hellish race where you couldn’t step on the brakes.
The only good thing was that it was 50 meters wide, so there was no risk of hitting the wall.
“Hyun, can’t we take a break?!” Practice asked with a nervous tone of voice.
“We can’t. First of all, there’s no way to stop, and we need to maintain this speed.”
Hyun immediately refused Practice’s request.
Practice hated Hyun because of it, but those thoughts quickly disappeared.
He saw giant monsters following them.
It was an army of monsters that were over level 300.
Monsters of an overwhelming size were trying to get them as if they were food.
“You’ve asked me how we’re going to go through the dungeon, right?”
Hyun answered the question Practice had asked him before they entered the dungeon.
How would they go through a dungeon full of monsters over level 300? They weren’t even at level 100.
“You go through it like this.”
The answer was to pass through the section before they got surrounded by monsters!
With the momentum of the fall and going down a steep cliff without any brakes, they were going as fast as a bullet.
Suddenly, demons appeared from the sides and blocked them.
Crack-! They were aggressively scratching the ice.
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But the attacks didn’t reach Hyun or the rest of the party thanks to their incredibly fast speed.
They were way past the demon’s attack range in the blink of an eye.
Before demons could approach them, they were slipping down the underground cavity.
The speed was way above what a normal human could experience in real life.
[You went through the area of the middle boss ‘Lamia’!]
[You’ve explored 12% of the dungeon!]
Just like Hyun said, both dungeons were connected from the inside.
The message they got wasn’t from that place but from the Evil Seed’s Dungeon.
Because they shared the depth, they could explore the dungeon in such a way.
Jini was horrified at the message.
“12%? Didn’t we go through at least five kilometers?!”
“The Evil’s Seed Dungeon is extremely large. Just like I said before, if we went through the normal route, it would have taken us at least a month at least,” Hyun answered.
“That…!”
The party went through all the opponents very quickly.
All the monsters near the entrance couldn’t keep up with their speed and fell down. So there were just the four of them sliding down the ice.
Although there was no one chasing them, they couldn’t slow down.
Hyun shouted again when two paths appeared in front of the party.
“We need to take the left route!”
“Okay.”
Crack- Ain changed direction first while scratching the ice.
Translator – Daniel Shin
Proofreader – ilafy
* * *
Because of the inertia, Practice almost couldn’t change directions and fell to the right side. But thanks to Hyun, he could join the rest of the party.
[You’ve explored 16% of the dungeon!]
After making sure everyone had taken the correct route, Hyun spoke with a very serious voice tone.
“It’s going to get dangerous from here, so everyone, please be careful.”
“How can it get more dangerous than now…?!”
“The monsters that appear from this point onwards react faster than those before.”
Twirl-!
Suddenly, something flew toward Hyun.
Hyun quickly changed direction and avoided being hit.
The party turned their heads after the danger was over. Just then, they saw what had flown toward Hyun.
“A frog…?”
A monster with a disgusting appearance was flicking its tongue.
What had targetted Hyun was that monster’s tongue.
Just like a bear snatching a salmon from a torrent, it had tried to grab Hyun.
Soon, they got far away from the monster. But the appearance of that ugly demon had gotten imprinted in the group’s memories.
“Everyone saw it, right? You have to dodge that thing very well.”
“Dodging something so fast…? It seemed too close.”
“Well, we’re going through at a very fast speed, so each one will probably be able to attack us once. It isn’t as hard as it seems.”
Swoosh-!
Another tongue came flying toward them.
That time, it was targetting Ain.
Ain jumped up with Jini in her arms.
“Ugh?!”
Jini subconsciously screamed at the same time that Ain jumped.
Although Jini was surprised, because she was a professional gamer, she didn’t close her eyes.
She was a professional gamer because she could react to any situation.
Ain flew for a short while because she’d jumped from the slope.
She could make acrobatic movements in the air thanks to her high Agility stat.
Crack- A short while after jumping, she landed on the track and matched the speed of the rest.
“It’s okay. I have more Agility than Hyun.”
Hyun nodded.
If it was Ain, she could probably go through the area even with Jini in her arms.
The two looked at each other and then changed the formation.
Hyun at the left, Ain at the right.
They left Practice in the middle.
Because the edges were more dangerous, they’d placed Practice in the middle.
It wasn’t that they were underestimating him.
Everyone would have trouble imitating something they’d seen only once, so they wanted him to get used to the current speed.
“Don’t relax.”
Twirl, Twirl-!
As they entered the frogs’ territory, tongues flew to them from both sides.
Any user under level 300 would instantly die.
Not only that but they would get eaten by the monster. It was a horrible way to die.
Jini, who was already disgusted by the monster’s appearance, was horrified.
“Please, dodge them. You’re the only one I can trust…!”
It seemed like she’d imagined herself entering the monster’s digestive system.
But because her Agility was low, all she could do was rely on Ain.
“I’m concentrating, so please remain silent.”
Ain went through the middle of a lot of monsters.
She saw the monsters targetting them from the front and the sides.
Swoosh-! The moment three tongues flew toward them, Ain threw Jini into the air.
“Huh…?!”
She avoided the first one by moving diagonally and dodged the second one by blending her back.
The last one she brushed away with her arm.
Then, she jumped again.
Another tongue was about to wrap around Jini.
But before it could do it, Ain grabbed Jini.
“Ugh…!”
Jini, who had been grabbed by Ain, took a deep breath.
She was so surprised that she couldn’t find any words to say.
Ain landed on the floor and kept sliding down.
At the same time, many attacks went flying toward Hyun too.
No, there were probably more monsters targetting Hyun.
Hyun laughed at the sight of the numerous tongues flying toward him.
“You’re not going to get me.”
The tongues of many level 300 monsters tried to smash where Hyun was standing.
That horrifying sight was probably a death sentence for Hyun.
But Hyun’s body wasn’t there anymore.
Just before being hit by the tongues, Hyun had «Assimilated» into Ain.
Hyun had chosen the more dangerous side because he had the most OP skill to avoid being hit, «Assimilation».
When he «Disassimilated», he inherited Ain’s inertia.
As long as he remembered that, he wouldn’t have any trouble.
‘Damn, he’s going to get hit!’
A tongue flew toward Practice.
Practice still hadn’t gotten used to sliding down.
The moment he was about to get hit by the tongue…
‘«Disassimilation»!’
Hyun suddenly appeared in front of Practice and blocked the flying path of the tongue.
He had received the hit in place of Practice.
The long tongue managed to grab Hyun in the air.
Practice’s heart sunk after seeing Hyun in trouble, but he was worried about nothing.
While being dragged by the tongue, Hyun scattered away into light and entered Ain.
As long as Hyun had the «Assimilation» skill, the average attack wouldn’t be able to get him.
Krrrr-! The demonic frog cried angrily.
But the only thing it could do was angrily look at its prey getting away.
“Oof, thanks, Hyun…!”
“I told you these things won’t be able to get me.”
Soon, tongues stopped coming from the sides.
They had successfully gone through the demonic frogs’ territory.
Numerous system messages appeared in front of the party.
[You went through the Demonic Beast Kendanis’s area!]
[You went through the dark bridge!]
[You went through the middle floor!]
[You’ve crossed the blood river!]
[You’ve explored 42% of the dungeon!]
There was still a long way to go.
