Chapter 446: Friendship Clan’s Friendship-Breaking Sound (1) |
‘Will it really be okay for us to go on just like this?’
Lee Chul-Woo’s dark expression perfectly represented the current situation. The Friendship Clan lacked money for them to achieve something great. In addition, the conflict from earlier had brought dark clouds over the party.
I accepted their apology while burying my head in the sand, and I forcefully created a friendly atmosphere. Unfortunately, it didn’t mean that the effects of the conflict earlier would simply disappear.
It got a lot better than before, but Gook Minji still didn’t look like she had any plans of playing chummy. I was sure that she was planning on just staying quiet for the rest of the expedition while suppressing her turbulent emotions.
She wasn’t picking a fight with me anymore, but she still looked hostile to me.
If I were the clan master of the Friendship Clan, I would have made the party abandon the expedition because the party couldn’t possibly fight properly at this point.
However, the Friendship Clan couldn’t do something like that after they had spent so much money on the Epic dungeon entrance fee, Rare rooms, insurance, et cetera.
If they were to return without accomplishing anything, then it would mean falling into debt.
‘This is going to be a headache…’
I was worried that I caused too much of a commotion, but fortunately, they bought insurance. Otherwise, I was sure that they would abandon the expedition even if they would suffer huge losses.
It wasn’t really strange because nothing was more valuable than life, after all.
Gook Minji’s party caused the current situation.
Of course, I felt bad as well because I was partly responsible for it.
“Don’t worry too much. I’ll do my best,” I said.
“No, it’s fine. Miss Ki-Yeon. Don’t overdo it. Just follow our instructions. If there’s a problem, we’ll do our best to handle it from our side,” Lee Chul-Woo reassured me almost immediately.
‘This guy…’
It was clear that he didn’t really have any expectations of me. I understood why he was acting that way, but I felt extremely disappointed that he was also looking at me that way.
‘Think what you want. Your noona here will take care of everything.’
The majority of the people around me in the Blue Guild were monsters, but I wasn’t that weak either. I was confident that I could at least survive an epic-ranked dungeon—no, I was confident of my competence.
Of course, I couldn’t use my skills to create dragon wings and tails because that would blow my cover, but I was once an epic Bioalchemist. The skills I had learned as Bioalchemist should prove useful in this dungeon.
I wasn’t carrying a bag full of Legendary-ranked catalysts, but I was still confident in my skills. Still, it was true that I wouldn’t be able to do much against monsters that were stronger than me, but Light Ki-Yeon wasn’t weak to the point that she would fail to conquer a mere Epic-ranked dungeon.
Wait, actually, Light Ki-Yeon should be strong enough to be an overlord here.
While I was nodding to myself, Kim Tae-Geon was doing his best to manage the emotions of the party members.
‘Yeah, that’s the least you can do.’
In addition to speaking to Gook Minji privately, he also started taking care of the other female members. It didn’t look effective, but it was better than nothing.
Gook Minji’s group looked a lot better after Kim Tae-Geon’s pep talk, and I got a strong feeling that they were going to endure it until the end of the expedition.
I noticed that two of Gook Minji’s party members seemed like they didn’t like this party as much as they liked it earlier, but they would probably do their best until the end. It was only natural because they had invested a lot in this clan.
This was just my assumption, but I had a feeling that the Friendship Clan would struggle to keep its members after this expedition. Gook Minji only really cared about Lee Chul-Woo, so she was probably going to stay here, but it wasn’t the case for the others.
The air around them felt so weird that I felt like they would directly fall apart once the expedition was over. I was sure that both Lee Chul-Woo and Kim Tae-Geon could feel that as well, and it was probably the reason why they were talking nicely to the others.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the fate of this clan depended on the results of this expedition. Yes, that had to be the case seeing the determined looks on the faces of the Friendship Clan’s core members.
- One minute left until the Friendship Clan’s turn…
“Let’s go, everyone. There was a minor conflict, but please don’t think about what happened earlier once we get inside. Minji,” Lee Chul-Woo called out.
“I’ll do my best, oppa, and I’m sorry once again,” Gook Minji apologized to me once more.
“No, I should be the one who should apologize, Miss Minji,” I replied.
- Please enter the Epic Museum Battle Room. There will be three waves of monsters, and there’s a High chance that an epic-ranked named monster will appear. There will also be three waves of random rewards. The battle will start as soon as you spin the wheel on the left side of the battle room, so please keep that in mind.
‘The wheel still exists?’
“It’s an interesting system.”
“Right? It’s kind of childish, but it’s still dangerous. Is everyone…” Lee Chul-Woo asked.
“We’re ready.”
“Me too, oppa.”
“I’m ready. too.”
“Okay, let’s get started,” he said.
[The wheel is spinning.]
Everyone looked at the wheel nervously. If a powerful monster spawned, then we would have difficulties fighting the next wave, so they were hoping that a rare-ranked monster would spawn.
It was the only way that would make all this worth it.
However, it seemed that it wouldn’t be that easy to conquer this dungeon.
[The wheel has stopped.]
[The low-grade epic-ranked named monster, Spirit of the Fallen Tree Ambrosia, has been selected.]
‘It’s not bad at all.’
Earth elemental monsters were easier to defeat compared to other monsters at the same rank. They were miles better to deal with compared to the Undead or monsters with poison attributes.
Fire elemental monsters were famous for being extremely hard to handle because they would drain one’s stamina even if one simply stood near them. Fire element artifacts were common, but earth element artifacts were a bit rare.
“Not bad.”
“This is our first time, and it seems that we got lucky enough to get a good one. Prepare for battle, everyone. We’ll start by studying its pattern. I’ll leave it to you, Tae-Geon,” Lee Chul-Woo instructed.
“Okay.”
“Please refrain from attacking or using magic until it has been completely aggroed. I’ll give you a separate signal, Miss Ki-Yeon,” he said.
“All right,” I answered.
“Let’s go.”
The sound of chains being dragged across the floor could be heard as a rotten tree appeared. It was bigger than we thought, so the calm expressions of the members disappeared. Actually, it was better to be slightly nervous.
Kim Tae-Geon started running, and the priest, Lee Chul-Woo, started pouring all sorts of buffs on him. Gook Minji stared intently at Kim Tae-Geon in case something unexpected happened.
Their movements weren’t as bad as I thought. They were decent, and their positioning was sufficient as well. However, it didn’t take that long for me to change my mind.
‘Wait… what are those guys doing?’
It was ridiculous how Kim Tae-Geon rushed toward the monster with confidence and started fighting it one-on-one. I could understand his desire to show his bravery to the world, but this was a party hunt rather than a solo hunt.
He was so ignorant and naive that it would be an insult to Park Deok-Gu if I were to compare him to Park Deok-Gu. After all, even Park Deok-Gu knew how to make space that his party members could use.
‘Wait, could it be that Deok-Gu is actually skilled…?’
Honestly, Lee Chul-Woo was the same as Kim Tae-Geon. His skills were a far cry from Sun Hee-Young, who was the main priest of the Blue Guild. There were idiots out there who thought that the priest’s job only involved just healing and giving buffs, but their job actually required mastering the art of timing, skill management, and mana management.
Knowing the right timing to use their skills was just as important as possessing a large amount of holy power. The most ridiculous part of all of this was that those two guys were the better members of the party.
I turned to look at Gook Minji and saw her doing nothing but jumping around and distracting the tank. The ranger was also shooting arrows for some reason, even though Kim Tae-Geon was still building up aggro. As for the woman whose job was to be a tank-hybrid-dps, I actually couldn’t understand what she was doing.
If I were to compare her to a member of the Blue Guild, I would say that her role was similar to Jo Hye-Jin’s. Unfortunately, she seemed confused about what she was supposed to do.
The worst one among them was the main DPS of the party, and she was the woman wielding a sword. She was the worst, but her role was extremely important and was equivalent to Kim Hyun-Sung’s role in the Blue Guild.
‘They’re complete garbage. And they… call themselves players?’
It didn’t make sense to compare them to our party, and I actually felt bad for my party members at the Blue Guild for comparing them to these people.
Not even the Blue Guild was as bad as the Friendship Clan, even when the members were still epic-ranked players. Individually, our stats were lower back then, but our teamwork was miles better than the circus in front of me.
‘These guys don’t know how to hunt.’
I was sure that they never had a mentor. I guess the difference between them and us was the fact that we had a strict regressor guiding us from the start.
I was sure that they had no idea what I was thinking because they looked proud of what they had done.
“It’s a good start.” Lee Chul-Woo remarked, looking proud of the Friendship Clan.
Gook Minji hadn’t really done anything, but she was smiling for some reason. I deduced that she was just trying to brag to me.
“I think we can start attacking!” Kim Tae-Geon yelled.
‘Wait, you guys weren’t attacking it all this while?’
“Okay…” I replied reluctantly.
“Please don’t overdo it. Please save your mana and be as efficient as possible… We can take care of it,” Lee Chul-Woo reminded me.
‘Are you sure?’
“Okay.”
He was getting annoying. I actually didn’t want to do this, but I wanted to show them the power of a Semi-Mythic player. I placed my hand into my Infinity Bag and grabbed a catalyst that I thought I would never get to use.
[Fire Giant’s Refined Magic Powder - Legendary Rank]
It was an extremely expensive catalyst, and it wouldn’t be profitable to use a catalyst like this against an epic-ranked monster. Of course, money didn’t really matter to the rich Light Ki-Yeon.
Therefore, I decisively snapped my fingers.
A large fist covered in flames started falling from the sky.
“Mr. Tae-Geon, wait,” I said.
“Okay.”
Fortunately, he was quick on the uptake. He started moving away fast when the spell started falling, and when I snapped my fingers again, a large hand popped out from the ground and grabbed the monster.
‘Why is it still alive?’
It was a legendary-ranked catalyst, but it seemed that it wasn’t as strong as I believed. It wasn’t as efficient as I thought as well. It would have been better if I used Dialugia’s catalyst, but right now, my arsenal only contained Unique and Epic alchemy spells.
Obviously, my attack dealt a lot of damage, but it was unfortunate that it didn’t manage to kill the monster in one blow.
I snapped my fingers again, and another large fist fell from the sky.
I snapped my fingers again, and the upper body of the Fire Giant manifested.
The Fire Giant looked extremely overwhelming compared to the tree spirit that it was treating as a punching bag. The Spirit of the Fallen Tree resisted and roared as if it was being wronged, but the Fire Giant wasn’t going to stop punching it.
Crack!
Booooooom!
Craaaaaack!
Boooom!
Craaaaack!
Boooooooooom!
The combined price of the catalysts I had sacrificed to manifest the Fire Giant was astronomical, but the members of the Friendship Clan were ignorant of my sacrifice.
They stared at the savage beatdown with their mouths agape.
“No… way…”
‘Yes, way!’