Per Shield Warrior’s earlier advice, I listed my ar for cash on a trading site, and in less than a day it was all gone.
I’d put up fifty million won’s worth of ar at a price higher than the current rate, but Shield Warrior had said people would still buy at that price, so I trusted him and posted it—and the fact that it really sold out in a single day was just… wild.
There must really be a lot of people who pour crazy money into their hobbies. Before I knew it, nearly fifty million won had hit my bank account, making my wallet feel deliciously heavy.
With that kind of money, I really could quit the PC bang now, so I went and told the boss.
“Sir, I think I need to quit the part-time job.”
“Hm? What’s this all of a sudden?”
“I have to focus on school, and I need some time. Thank you for everything.”
“Hmm. If it’s like that, nothing I can do. Can you work about one more week? If I find someone sooner, you can stop right away.”
“Sure, that’s fine.”
“You’re really quitting?”
Jaejung, halfway through his jjajangmyeon, set it down with a clack and looked at me.
“Yeah. Why—are you going to miss me?”
“Miss you? If you stacked all the meals I bought you, it’d fill a truck. Study hard. School… now that’s a nostalgic word.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
He did look a little disappointed.
Suddenly, after half a year here, actually quitting the PC bang made my chest feel a little tight.
Well, it is time to stop.
There’s no reason for me to keep doing this, and I shouldn’t, either. I’d already planned on another week, so I told them early.
When the boss said he’d treat us to pork belly before I left, that warm smile made me realize I’d been working in a pretty good place. I’d probably remember this for a long time.
***
< Welcome to the world of Lost Sky. >
Brainwaves confirmed.
Joo Seungho. Male.
Character name Jooho. Level 13.
Loading…
Name: Jooho
Level: 13
【STR 2】 【AGI 4】 【VIT 3】
【INT 0】 【MANA 1】
3 Wolf Helm / DEF 3+3
3 Wolf Armor (Top) / DEF 5+3 ◀ NEW
3 Wolf Armor (Bottoms) / DEF 4+3 ◀ NEW
3 Trine’s Shoes / DEF 2+3 / Movement Speed +1
3 Wolf Arm Guards / DEF 3+3
3 Wolf Leg Guards / DEF 3+3
4 Wolf Longsword / ATK 3+4 ~ 5+4 (×2) ◀ NEW
***
Logged in and checked my status: INT was 0.
For what Jaejung said—raising it to 2—I’d need to hit level 16. Meanwhile, everyone except me—Charming, PrettyGirl, Shield Warrior—was already 15.
Even the people who played more than I did hadn’t broken 16 yet, so it might take me longer than I thought. Good thing I’d been rolling with higher-level mobs than me; otherwise it would be worse.
After I quit the PC bang, I’d have time to catch up in levels anyway, so it didn’t bother me much.
If we happened to get a grimoire and my stats were short, should I burn the stat reset? I still had a Stat Reset item in my inventory. You can change stats up to level 15.
For now, keep it.
I’d bought the top and bottoms in town at a premium and had them enhanced. Tops and bottoms don’t drop often. Shoes were covered with Trine’s, so pass.
Charming and Shield Warrior hadn’t arrived, so I pinged them and waited in town, watching the busy foot traffic. One by one they showed up. After quick greetings and topping off potions, we headed back to the dungeon.
“Charming, try raising AGI next time.”
“Huh?”
“Well, it’s like this…”
I relayed the conversation I’d had with Jaejung, and Charming finally nodded. It made perfect sense to me, too.
“Okay. I’ll put more into INT and unlock one more slot, then I’ll raise it. I’m still short on magic slots. I guess I should practice dodging regularly, too?”
“Probably. Mobs keep getting faster. People, too.”
Honestly, people were scarier. Charming had that scuffle over a mage before, so she’d get it. But “practice dodging” is easier said than done—a mage can’t just fight up front with sword and shield. Different fighting style. Best is to fight a lot in varied situations.
Binding and then disengaging is one method. Once more spells come out, there will be more options. If we find a good practice scenario, we’ll grind and practice at the same time.
“Also, I heard mages on the 3rd floor drop an enchantment grimoire that’s basically like sword aura.”
At that, PrettyGirl and Shield Warrior both looked at me.
“Do mages use it?”
They were stuck in the mindset of fixed classes. I had been, too.
“There aren’t classes to begin with. As long as you meet the conditions, anyone can use it, and you maintain it with MANA. Duration depends on MANA. Supposedly it makes the sword give off light.”
At “a sword that shines,” PrettyGirl’s eyes sparkled. She clearly wanted it.
“How do you use it?”
She was definitely interested—full of questions.
“You have to raise INT to 2. That’s two stat points—so four levels.”
PrettyGirl flicked open her stat pane, then wilted. You could read the disappointment right off her face.
“I don’t have enough stats.”
I couldn’t not sympathize. I was short, too. Pulling two points into INT would hurt our immediate hunting.
“What about accessories? Don’t the accessories made with Wolf Soul come with stats?”
Charming chimed in, and we all nodded.
“Right, accessories.”
With Wolf Soul, you can craft accessories—necklaces, rings, bracelets. The catch: they roll one random stat, and they guzzle a ridiculous amount of Wolf Soul. Drop rate’s as stingy as enhancement stones. Farming as many as you want could take forever.
Well, once you make them, not a single stat is truly “trash,” so it’s fine—but you can’t just target exactly what you need.
“We’re going to have to kill a lot of wolves.”
Shield Warrior muttered. Looked like he wanted to try sword aura too. Skills mattered a lot—just look at mages.
***
“Should we skip the 2nd floor?”
Shield Warrior asked, serious. Bows sold for good money, but mages were better. Mages were walking gold bars. Shake them a little and gold dust might literally fall out.
“Mages are the issue, sure, but the warriors won’t be pushovers either. Minimum level twenty.”
Minimum level twenty—Jaejung had confirmed it from the EXP he got while fighting them. Sometimes level 21 or 22 show up. Could we even handle that?
“Let’s still go!”
PrettyGirl’s heart was already on the 3rd floor. Charming’s eyes quietly gleamed too. If we cut down a bunch of mages, we could get grimoires and mage gear.
“Let’s do it.”
Hard to deny eyes that expectant. If it doesn’t work, we can just come back up.
Around the Wolf Den entrance, there were even more people than yesterday—recruiting parties, buying and selling, haggling.
“There are way more people.”
“Yeah—numbers jumped since evening. Now it’s hard to even count everyone at once.”
“Who are those folks?”
A cluster standing by the cave wall a bit away from the entrance, selling and buying.
“Oh! Middlemen. They set up out of nowhere yesterday, and now you kind of miss them when they’re not there. They mostly sell potions, buy items cheap, and run back to town. Potion prices are a bit gouged, but considering the trip, it’s convenient. Town’s just too far. And honestly, anyone diving a dungeon at this point values their time more than potion money.”
She made a circle with her thumb and forefinger. In other words: cash.
Town wasn’t close, so yeah, you could make money brokering like that—ferry to town, take a fee. Profit on potions, profit again flipping gear.
We slipped past the recruiters, entered the mouth, and cut across the 1st-floor corridors. The 1st-floor hunting spots were packed, and the 2nd floor was no different—every room dense with players.
“It’s only been a day…”
“I told you—lots of people blow cash on their hobbies. Don’t know about the 3rd floor, though. We haven’t gone down yet.”
With the 2nd-floor hallways and rooms all in use, a light warm-up took us surprisingly quickly to the 3rd-floor entrance. If the 2nd floor was short on hunting spots, the 3rd might be the same.
As we moved to enter the 3rd floor, a man with a big shield—part of a party farming near the entrance—called out.
“That’s the entrance to the 3rd floor.”
“Yeah. We’re going to 3rd.”
Shield Warrior answered without fuss. The man looked us over like appraising gear—an unpleasant gaze.
“Four in your party? That’s it?”
“Yeah. Did you need something?”
Stopping passersby without any connection wasn’t normal. Unless there was business, there was no reason to chat. The man shrugged.
“Nothing. Do your best. We’ll be seeing you again soon.”
What did that mean? I was about to ask when mobs respawned and the man vanished back into his party.
***
“The 3rd floor, huh…”
With Shield Warrior in front, we all started down the stairs. Lanternlight flickered on the steps; we watched our footing and soon reached another corridor. Shield Warrior eased into a broad passage and scanned the area.
“You can come out.”
Charming, PrettyGirl, and I stepped off the stairs in order.
“It feels really different here.”
Charming glanced around. Up to the 2nd floor it was just dirt walls, but from here, those walls were etched with strange patterns running on and on—mysterious, translucent glow. Patterns you couldn’t make heads or tails of.
Even when I put out the lantern, I could still see fine. Dimmer overall, but not enough to hinder vision.
“Alright, lantern away.”
We listened. No sounds of fighting. If people could farm the 2nd floor, they should be able to farm down here, too—but near the entrance we didn’t see anyone. Maybe deeper in.
“Let’s move.”
Shield Warrior took point again.
We’d barely gone down the passage when two War Wolf Warriors came loping toward us.
Shield Warrior hadn’t even closed distance yet when one warrior suddenly kicked off and charged, the other right behind it.
“Proactive aggro.”
On the 1st and 2nd floors, if you didn’t touch them or get too close, they wouldn’t rush you. The 3rd floor was different.
Their size didn’t differ much from regular War Wolves, but their kit did. Not claws—huge swords, one in each hand. Almost greatsword-sized, swinging one-handed. Their armor looked tougher, too.
When the War Wolf Warrior brought its blade down on Shield Warrior’s shield, the impact boomed like a shell hit, his knees buckling halfway as his upper body sank.
Shield Warrior yelled, urgent.
“Don’t clash head-on. They hit hard.”
Thud, thud!—the sword drummed the shield again and again, fast as hell. This was on another level from War Wolves.
Charming hurried a Bind, then yelped in surprise.
“No good. It won’t hold.”
Whatever the reason—level gap or what—Bind didn’t take.
I rushed in with my longswords to help Shield Warrior, but the other warrior got to me first and chopped down.
I threw myself back to avoid it, used the rebound to stab straight for the neck—only for it to read it and slip aside.
I yanked the stabbing blade back and cut horizontally with the other, but it knocked my sword aside with its greatsword and lunged again. Not kidding around. How much AGI does this thing have? The recoil through my hands was brutal.
I spun with the deflected blade, followed that momentum, and went low—targeting the legs. It jumped to avoid it. It can jump?
I rolled to avoid the greatsword slamming down from that jump. The difficulty just spiked.
While I disengaged, PrettyGirl charged in. Her glaive met the warrior’s greatsword and—bang—she was knocked well back.
I couldn’t get to Shield Warrior. If you got stuck trading like that, your HP would drop and you’d die.
“PrettyGirl, go to Shield Warrior. I’ve got this one.”
I set my blades and rushed the warrior again. Fast and strong. Forget landing big hits. I had to nibble it down—tight stance, quick, short movements, minimizing big body turns.
I slipped the next downward chop and carved its side with a short rotation—finally, one clean hit. Another chop came; I glanced it off my blade, used the rebound to clip it with a short swipe.
Once I stabilized in close, Charming’s support magic started to hit. Looks like earlier we were too pressured for her to find a window. A Fire Arrow coming in at an unavoidable angle and speed smashed into the warrior, and flames roared up its body.
I kept dragging it away from Charming while shaving it down. Fire Arrows kept landing, and the warrior finally dropped to its knees and collapsed.
How about the other side?
Shield Warrior’s HP was way down—potions were struggling to keep up. PrettyGirl seemed to be getting the hang of it, dodging as much as possible and landing occasional hits.
Good. They were holding.
Charming and I joined them, and the War Wolf Warrior went down soon after.
We all clicked our tongues once it was over.
“This place isn’t right for us. I thought I was dead. The damage through my shield—ugh.”
Shield Warrior let out a sigh of relief.
“These guys are a bit much.”
Still wired from the fight, PrettyGirl chimed in. She wasn’t exactly low AGI, but she’d struggled more than expected—first time facing them, too.
“Bind doesn’t work. Offense spells do, though.”
Charming looked genuinely shocked that the Bind hadn’t taken.
“It’s probably just our level being too low.”
At my comment, Charming nodded.
We could kill them. But how many potions had we burned? Even hits on armor were shaving HP. With the level gap, our damage probably wasn’t landing well either.
These weren’t the kind you could solve with low-level numbers. Under a certain threshold of stats and control, you couldn’t put in real DPS—just donate potions. If you swarmed them at our level, you’d get massacred or blow all your pots for a couple kills. With higher levels and stats, maybe. With better gear, maybe. Right now, definitely not a “good spot.”
Now I understood what that guy at the 2nd floor meant about “seeing us again soon.” A lot of people must have gone down and come right back up.
“How many pots did you use?”
Everyone checked and called out.
Shield Warrior: seven. PrettyGirl: eight. Me: three. Charming: none.
Better than I’d feared. If it had been more, I would’ve said we go straight back up. No point emptying our belts for a handful of kills.
We could hunt here—but not for long. That was exactly where we stood.
“Can you manage?”
PrettyGirl and Charming nodded. Shield Warrior thought for a moment, then looked at me.
“We didn’t come all this way to turn around. Let’s at least test the waters.”
I nodded back.
Shield Warrior checked the drops and smiled.
“Wolf Souls are dropping like crazy.”
He held up two Wolf Souls. Suddenly, those stat accessories that had felt out of reach didn’t seem so distant—gear that could cover several levels at once.
This might be a richer vein than I thought. The fallen War Wolf Warriors were starting to look like treasure chests.