10. Undead Leaders(1)
Was it because he had heard the news that the man meant to kill the undead leaders?
Dukon tried to put together a dedicated team and attach it to him no matter what, but Lee Jin-hyeok refused to the end.
His main purpose was finding inner cores.
Moving alone and quickly was far more efficient.
"Even so, how you can mean to do that by yourself......"
"I am truly fine. Ah, there is one thing I would ask."
"Yes. Only say the word, whatever it is."
"Lend me a single sword. And give me a map as well."
"Will that truly be enough for you?"
"It will."
After receiving a sword from Dukon.
Without saying anything further, he leapt over the white castle wall and headed outside.
***
There were four undead leaders in <Dead Run>.
'Odusasa,' leader of the corpse snakes and charged with the role of Cleaner.
The zombie leader, 'Flu Flower.'
The skeleton leader, 'Skull Lord.'
The ghoul leader, 'Dead Skin.'
These leaders had each taken a quarter share of the <Imugi's Inner Core>, making them the only undead to possess a self.
Because of them the necromancers around <Dead Run> ran rampant, and <White Castle> was inevitably put in danger.
The strongest leader among them, Odusasa, had already been subjugated by Lee Jin-hyeok.
Now it was time to kill off the remaining three, one by one, and obtain the inner cores.
-"There are four undead leaders on Floor 2 in all, Brother."
Passing through mist thick with corpse poison, he recalled his conversation with Dang So-wol.
-"If you were to fail the trial and obtain the inner core from Odusasa, then go up to Floor 2 and obtain the rest from the others......"
-"Then you could certainly get as far as the Imugi's power."
-"And that is no small thing. An Imugi is the strongest living creature after the dragon race. With the dragon race extinct, it may be the strongest living creature there is now."
That was right.
With the dragon race extinct in the Tower as things stood, the next strongest species was the Imugi.
Obtain that power, and he would gain potential beyond any comparison with the human body he currently had.
Of course, the Constellation's vessel (body) he currently possessed already gave him potential at a level without precedent in the Tower.
But the Imugi's power being added meant potential on top of that.
It was the concept of a plus alpha, something that could raise 100 to 120, or 130.
'Of course, like what I have now, it might leave me permanently under <Poison> or <Curse> status ailments.'
As long as he held <Indomitable Star>, it was a penalty with nothing to worry about.
"Good. First."
FLASH.
"Shall I find myself a guide?"
***
Floor 2, <Dead Run>.
Here, the overwhelming majority of players never came outside <White Castle>.
Because there was nothing to gain by coming out to this already dead land.
But even in land like this, there were two categories of players who moved about openly.
Necromancers, who researched or handled undead.
And players who excavated, hunted, and tracked down whatever items happened to be lying here.
These were the ones commonly called <Scavengers>.
"So what you're saying, boss."
One of a band of Scavengers burst an undead's head while holding an enormous sword on his shoulder.
"is that Floor 2 <Dead Run> used to be fertile land?"
"That's what I said. A curse and a calamity came down and turned it into this rotted-out land. They say the ancient dragon race lived here and the land split in half, or something. The point is!"
CRUNCH!
"this is a land of opportunity. And one nobody else knows about."
The man who appeared to be their leader swung two swords about.
His name was Keln.
He was originally a treasure hunter by trade, a skilled player who had cleared the Floor 5 trial and come back down.
'To think I found this out. Heh heh. I was lucky.'
Keln had learned something tremendous a few years back.
According to the records in the ruins, there had once been an empire here that shone with a brilliant civilization.
A calamity that struck at some point had turned it into the world called <Dead Run>, but the countless items and treasures that brilliant civilization left behind still lay sleeping.
Unlike the vast majority of players, or of Scavengers, Keln knew the locations of a great many items 'exactly,' through the records in the ruins.
So he had put together a mercenary band of trustworthy players and come to collect those items.
"Keep one thing in mind. Avoid the leaders and the necromancer bastards no matter what."
"Yes. Yes, boss."
"There he goes nagging again."
The items were buried among countless undead and corpses, so they were not easy to dig out, and with bad luck one had to go into a dungeon.
But of all of it, the ones to be most wary of were the necromancers and the undead leaders.
Run into things that knew how to handle undead, and it would be an enormous headache.
"Boss. But over there."
"Hm?"
Into the Scavengers' view came a single player.
"What is that?"
"How did he get all the way out here?"
His appearance did not look particularly impressive.
He merely wore clothes easy to move in, with no items equipped at all.
All he carried was one ordinary-looking sword.
Perhaps he was quite worn out, as he was quietly drinking water in a spot with no undead.
"Shall we just pass him by? He looks like a complete beginner."
"Hold on."
After studying the man for a moment, Keln took out an item.
[Using the item <Floor Detector>.]
[The target is currently a player who has cleared up to Floor 2.]
'Well, look at that.'
Keln grinned.
'A beginner among beginners, is he? Just came up to Floor 2 and struts around without knowing any better.'
In truth, Keln had seen plenty of men like Lee Jin-hyeok.
Beginners who believed false information about hidden pieces, sold their items, and charged alone into special dungeons.
Most of them either died, or if they lived, crawled back out empty-handed.
"Boss. Let's just let him go. It's a waste of time."
But at that moment, something caught Keln's eye.
Frost-covered armor through a gap in the man's clothing.
"Hm?"
Keln's expression hardened for a moment.
"You see that. That armor. The chill running off it."
His subordinates tilted their heads and asked.
"What? There's a bit of something like frost."
"Don't tell me?"
"Isn't that <Eternal Frost>?"
"That's right. Epic grade chill armor. Top tier even among the Floor 1 hidden pieces."
The area around them buzzed.
"B, boss. Something like that, you'd have to be in at least a mid-to-upper-tier guild to use it, wouldn't you?"
Keln furrowed his brow.
It was strange. When he had checked with the Floor Detector, that bastard was plainly nothing more than a Floor 2 clear player.
There was almost no chance of coming out of Floor 1 wearing that armor.
In that instant, exactly one scenario surfaced in Keln's head.
'That's it. That bastard found the hidden piece we were after first.'
Tight grip.
'By luck.'
Nothing else explained it.
'That was an item that should have been ours. We bought the information, we approached it first. He took it from us.'
Keln muttered in a voice full of rage.
"Thieving bastard."
"What?"
"He just found the hidden piece first, that's all. It isn't that we couldn't find it. That bastard stole it out from under us."
One of his subordinates cast an uneasy look.
"But boss. What if he got it by his own ability? If he's in a large guild or something......"
Keln shook his head.
"If he were really that skilled, we couldn't be watching him in secret like this. We'd have been spotted and killed before we ever got this close."
The subordinates nodded as though accepting it.
Certainly, a man skilled enough to obtain the very best of the hidden pieces alone would not be sitting there letting them look at him.
"All right. If it's as you say, boss, then now's our chance."
Keln's eyes gleamed sharply.
"That thing. Let's take it back."
The Scavengers raised their weapons one by one.
Then they slowly formed an encircling net and approached the player of unknown identity.
'Blame yourself for wandering in here without knowing better.'
'We have to eat too.'
Even though he had sensed people nearby, the man simply tore at his jerky at leisure and showed no particular reaction.
The look and bearing of someone watching an insect pass by.
"This bastard?"
That attitude soured the mood of Keln, who had already made him a target.
"Living the good life, are we?"
Keln approached with sword in hand while the other Scavengers built the encircling net.
Only then did the man react.
"Do you have business with me?"
At the man's blunt attitude, Keln snorted.
"Doesn't seem to grasp the situation. Is that what being a beginner does?"
"From the look of it, you didn't come here with good intentions."
"That's right. I didn't come with good intentions. You know your stuff."
Keln drove one of his two swords straight into the ground.
"Hand over everything you have and I'll spare your life."
Seeing that, the man snorted.
"So you know what this armor is."
"<Eternal Frost>. I don't know how you got it, but you can't beat us."
"......."
"So put it down and get lost."
"Wait, boss......?"
"Did you eat something bad?"
"Why have you gone so soft?"
At the reactions of the other three, Lee Jin-hyeok tilted his head.
"Is putting a blade to a man in broad daylight and telling him to hand over everything he has being soft?"
"Of course it is, you bastard!"
In fact, Keln was in the middle of showing a measure of mercy.
"I could just kill you and take the items, but I'm sparing you, as a special favor."
"Count yourself lucky."
"Lucky, is it."
The plainly dressed man, Lee Jin-hyeok, rose with his eyes gleaming.
"Right. I am lucky."
Grin.
"Because people like you probably know the terrain around here well."
'What?'
A chill.
'That attitude, as though he had been waiting for someone to come......?'
A creeping feeling ran through him for a moment, but Keln forced himself to ignore it.
"This bastard still hasn't come to his senses."
"Forget it! Wreck him!"
But his subordinates were already charging out.
'Bastard. All bluster.'
Seeing it, Keln snorted.
The band of Scavengers.
Six in total.
'Tsk, tsk. Even when I try to spare him.'
There was no need for him to step in himself.
Those men were veterans among veterans, every one of them having cleared the Floor 3 or even Floor 4 trial.
Their levels ran between 20 and 30, which was quite high.
It was not a level that a man with nothing but armor and one shabby standard-issue sword could handle.
It was a fight they could not lose even if they tried.
"Damage the armor as little as possible! Better to aim for the face and just kill him!"
"Yes!"
Now the opponent had come within the attack range of every one of his subordinates.
'That's that.'
When a player dies, their points evaporate on the spot.
That was why he had meant to keep the man alive, wring the points out of him by force, and then take the items as well.
There was nothing to regret.
The man had bought information about hidden pieces anyway, so he would be penniless.
'Shall I get ready to collect the items?'
But the scene that unfolded next was nothing like what Keln had expected.
"Gu, gurk!"
CRASH!
Along with the sound of something bursting, one of his subordinates was sent flying in an instant.
It was unbelievable brute strength.
"......?"
Seeing it, Keln quickly raised his sword.
'What? He plainly just finished Floor 2......'
And that was not the end of it.
Before the other subordinates could even react, the man ducked his head and avoided every blade.
At the same time, he seized one of them by the hair with his fist and forced his head into another's.
CRASH!
A sound loud enough to make one think, at this rate hasn't his skull cracked? -was what came to mind.
But the man's outlandish work did not end there.
"Hrgh!"
"Stab! Stab down on him!"
The subordinates pulled back the swords they had swung and drove them down at the opponent below.
There was nowhere to dodge.
So the man forced a place to dodge into being.
He used his shoulder to shove one subordinate aside, making a gap, and slipped out through it.
"Gurgh?!"
CRASH!
The shoved subordinate was sent flying in an instant and slammed into a heap of corpses.
"Die!"
"You son of a bitch!"
Perhaps because they were the only ones in the Scavenger band who had cleared up to the Floor 4 trial, they swung their blades at the man without panicking even in a situation like this.
And that was not all.
Keln, having grasped that this opponent was no pushover, quickly came back and joined in.
It was a systematic display, clearly different from the players who had floundered in the tutorial or on Floor 1.
'But.'
Looking at them, Lee Jin-hyeok's eyes gleamed.
'that's all it is.'
THWACK!
After dodging a blade far too easily, he swung a fist and shattered one man's nose.
SLICE.
He drew the <Scale Breaker> he had hidden inside his robes, gripped it reversed, and cut another man's throat.
SLAAASH—!
Blood shot up in an instant.
'An opening!'
That a subordinate had taken a fatal wound was regrettable, but Keln did not let the chance slip.
If he could not subdue or kill the man here and now, he could not save the subordinate anyway.
BANG!
'He got faster?'
Along with a gust of wind driving in, Keln's movements became tremendously fast.
"With this!"
SLICE.
"it's over!"
<Cross Blade>.
Keln raised mana in both swords and cut in an X shape.
It was the Rare grade skill, <Cross Blade>.