Skeleton Master Chapter 040
An intense heat struck against his skin.
Was it just hot?
With this doubt, he surveyed ahead.
Oh no...
What appeared before his eyes could hardly be called a dungeon.
Should he call it a vast grassland?
White smoke was billowing from the crater located in its center. It was undoubtedly an active volcano.
A living volcano. Occasional slight tremors could be felt, and it wouldn't have been surprising if it erupted at any moment.
Surely it won't erupt...
Though nothing was certain.
He might actually die if the volcano erupted.
The only option was to hurry as much as possible.
Moo-hyeok stepped forward quickly.
As he was moving, trying to circle widely around the volcano in the center, a rock about the size of a medium-sized dog right below began to stir.
As he stepped back in surprise, it had already taken complete form.
It was the appearance of a golem flickering with flames.
The size was just over 1 meter.
The problem was that four such small flame golems were born simultaneously.
Looking at their appearance, Moo-hyeok muttered.
"Small Agni..."
Agni, a monster derived from the fire spirit Agni.
Though made entirely of stone, it's a rare monster that breathes fire.
A normal Agni is around level 75.
However, Small Agni is a level 37 monster, much smaller and weaker.
The problem would be that multiple ones appear simultaneously.
Could there be an Agni here too?
He shook his head at the thought.
It's a level 70 monster.
That's impossible...
Most likely that active volcano had something to do with it.
His thoughts ended there.
"Summon Skeleton Warrior. Summon Skeleton Archer."
If there were five of them, Moo-hyeok had 12 summons.
Bone Sword 1, 2 to the left.
Bone Sword 3, 4 to the center.
Bone Sword 5, 6 to the right.
Bone Sword 7, 8 to the back.
He had the Bone Archers each keep one Small Agni in check.
He made it so two Bone Swords and one Bone Archer formed a team to face one Small Agni.
Although the summons had stats equivalent to late level 20 to early level 30 users, taking down a level 37 Small Agni was by no means easy.
First of all, just getting close caused them to take flame damage and lose HP.
Moreover, Small Agni could attack from range, and since the damage was applied as magic, defense was useless.
You could say they were natural enemies to skeletons with their weak magic defense.
Bone Sword 1, back. Shield.
Bone Sword 5, retreat.
Bone Archer 2, rapid fire.
Bone Sword 2 to the front of Bone Archer 1.
Commands continued rapidly as he observed the situation.
If it weren't for Moo-hyeok's command, more than one skeleton would have been unsummoned.
That's how tricky monsters with magic damage were.
This is troublesome.
Moo-hyeok paused his commands and transformed his staff.
He nocked an arrow to the bowstring and aimed at the target.
Thwang!
The shot arrow narrowly grazed over the Agni's head.
Damn it!
In the moment he paused commanding, Bone Sword 7's HP hit rock bottom.
Bone Sword 7, fall back!
Moo-hyeok kicked off the ground to take Bone Sword 7's position.
Then he swung the Skull Staff downward.
When Moo-hyeok's high damage struck the Small Agni, the stones making up its body shattered and fell to the ground.
As the retreating Agni stretched out its hand, the fallen pieces flew up and reattached to its body, returning to its original form.
I need to destroy the core.
The core located where a human's navel would be.
That's what I need to target.
Click.
He pressed the skull to extend the blade.
Bone Sword 8, shield charge.
The skeleton charged with its shield, throwing the Small Agni off balance.
Since Moo-hyeok had been following closely behind Bone Sword 8, he didn't miss this opening.
He thrust his staff forward, aiming precisely where the core should be.
Shunk.
The blade pierced true.
[Critical hit triggered.]
[Deals 256 damage.]
[Core destroyed.]
[Total HP reduced by 50%.]
[Recovery ability removed.]
Thanks to destroying the core in one go, the Agni was momentarily stunned.
Moo-hyeok swung his staff mercilessly.
Thwack, thwack thwack!
He was able to finish it off before it could recover from the stun.
That was fortunate. Since he knew the core's location, he could deal with it easily like this, but if he hadn't, it would have been incredibly difficult.
Whoosh.
But something felt off.
The fallen Small Agni's body began to vibrate violently. Then small stones scattered in all directions.
Moo-hyeok instinctively raised his arm to shield his face.
"....."
There wasn't any significant impact.
As he slowly lowered his arm, he was dumbfounded by the scene unfolding before his eyes.
Kyuu!
About the size of a fist?
Around a hundred tiny Micro Agni were moving around the area.
Their gazes slowly shifted to Moo-hyeok and his skeletons. They tilted their heads, then began charging with hostile intent.
A startled Moo-hyeok hastily swung his staff.
Kiek!
One Micro Agni disappeared with a single attack.
W-what is this...?
He had never heard anywhere that killing a Small Agni would spawn a hundred Micro Agni.
Though Moo-hyeok was surprised, he wasn't foolish enough to just take the Micro Agni' attacks.
Of course, with their sheer numbers, he couldn't block them all.
[You take damage.]
[HP decreases by 10.]
[You take damage.]
[HP decreases by 10.]
[You take...]
Fortunately, their attack power was very low. Thanks to that, his initial shock was greatly diminished.
First, the distance.
Calmness settled in.
After quickly creating some distance, he observed them. When the distance increased, they stopped attacking.
As he was contemplating whether to approach them again.
Kyuu.
With a strange sound, all hundred Micro Agni vanished simultaneously.
"....."
A message followed.
[Experience points increased.]
The experience points from the Small Agni had finally come through.
*
He killed one Small Agni.
Once again, Micro Agni appeared. Unlike before, Moo-hyeok began killing them off at a rapid pace.
After some time had passed, the remaining Micro Agni disappeared again.
Only then did Moo-hyeok discover something dropped on the ground.
Diamonds!
After directing his idle Bone Swords and Bone Archers to engage another Small Agni, he picked up the diamonds that had fallen to the ground.
[You obtain 1 Diamond.]
[You obtain 1 Diamond.]
[You obtain 1 Diamond.....]
As he did so, things became clear in his mind.
When a Small Agni dies, it creates Micro Agni, and when Micro Agni die, they each drop 1 Diamond. They disappear after a certain amount of time.
The drop rate was higher than on the first floor. However, since they only dropped one at a time, the difference wasn't very noticeable.
If only he could kill all the Micro Agni, it seemed he could collect diamonds much faster.
Finally....
The Micro Agni were likely special monsters. He had never heard about Micro Agni anywhere before.
Of course, while he couldn't be completely certain since he didn't know every monster, he prided himself on knowing more about monsters than anyone else after watching countless videos.
For someone like Moo-hyeok to have never heard of or seen a monster before, it was definitely strange.
Well, he'd find out soon enough.
After collecting all the diamonds, he adjusted his grip on his staff and moved to an area that looked problematic.
Bone Sword 4, shield charge.
He attacked the Agni's core using the same method as before.
[Deals 128 damage.]
Though he failed, he wasn't concerned.
He continued targeting the core.
After two more attacks.
[Core destroyed.]
[Total HP reduced by 50%.]
[Recovery ability removed.]
He finished off the stunned creature.
Kyuu!
Micro Agni appeared from all directions.
Slash.
With one attack, a single Micro Agni lost its life.
They were dropping diamonds at quite a high rate when they died.
It felt almost like a bonus round for collecting diamonds.
But unfortunately, before he could finish them all off - no, before he could even kill a quarter of them - they vanished.
What a waste.
Such a terrible waste.
How many diamonds could that have been....
It's not like he could call back the ones that disappeared either.
"Haah."
With a sigh, he could only glare fiercely at the last remaining one.
This time, he would definitely kill them all.
After dealing with another Agni.
All Bone Swords, stop attacking.
All Bone Archers, stop attacking.
Everyone move forward.
He quickly gave orders to his skeletons. At that moment, about a hundred Micro Agni were born.
All Bone Archers, rapid fire.
All Bone Swords, charge!
Bone Swords, attack!
Moo-hyeok moved as well.
His staff cut sharply through the air.
Thwack, thwack thwack!
This time, he counted the time while attacking.
20 seconds, 21 seconds, 22 seconds.
When it reached 30 seconds.
Kyuu.
The Micro Agni disappeared.
This time he had managed to take out about half of them, but it still felt like such a waste to not be able to deal with all the remaining Agni.
If he could just catch them all, he was certain he could amass diamonds at an incredible rate.
Then he would become stronger much faster, and his dungeon clear speed would increase as well.
[You obtain 1 Diamond.]
[You obtain 1 Diamond.....]
After collecting all the diamonds, Moo-hyeok sat down to take a mental break.
"Unsummon."
Then he took out his disposable crafting tools.
Clang!
He swung the hammer.
A harsh metallic sound rang out.
[You've matched the grain.]
[Progress increased (3.8%).]
After swinging the hammer a few times, he found himself focused.
Clang! Clang!
He concentrated solely on crafting the sword.
That's when it happened.
[You've matched the grain perfectly.]
[Progress is doubled.]
[Progress increased (7.8%).]
[7 consecutive grain matches.]
[Bonus progress (0.6%) increased.]
Messages appeared, but Moo-hyeok didn't see them.
He kept messages turned off while crafting since checking them one by one was bothersome.
Thanks to this, his concentration remained unbroken.
[You've matched the grain perfectly.]
[Progress is doubled.]
[Progress increased (7.6%).]
[2 consecutive perfect grain matches.]
[Achieved perfect hammering through intense concentration.]
[First achievement.]
[Title 'Lucky Craftsman' obtained.]
[8 consecutive grain matches.]
[Bonus progress (0.7%) increased.]
[Sword completed.]
[Title effect applied.]
Suddenly, the sword was completed.
"...?"
A look of confusion crossed Moo-hyeok's face. Since he hadn't seen the messages, he couldn't understand why the sword had been completed so quickly.
He tilted his head as he examined the sword.
[Soul-Infused Longsword]
Attack Power 69
Additional Damage +10
Strength +3
Durability 150/150
The options caught his eye.
How should he put it...
It was somewhat incomprehensible.
Damage of 69?
And what were these options below?
The additional damage was a whopping 10.
It was an even better option than the Strength stat of 3, but what was more amazing was that it had three more strength-related damage modifiers attached below.
Excluding the sword's base attack power, the options alone provided an incredible 19 damage increase.
It was truly a sword of overwhelming quality. This alone would have made Moo-hyeok cheer.
But... the one thing that had the biggest impact on price wasn't there.
Level requirement.
Why wasn't there one?
Questions and anticipation.
Was it really not there?
Or was there something else?
He tried using the sword to check.
-----------!!!!
All the options were being applied.
He felt like he'd been hit on the head with a hammer. After all, this overwhelmingly powerful sword had no level requirement.
It still didn't feel real.
What an incredible stroke of luck.
But as time passed, it sank in.
This was reality.
This was real.
"Ha, haha..."
Only then did a laugh of disbelief escape Moo-hyeok's lips.
