Chapter 10

While forging swords at the smithy, I checked the auction house from time to time.

After three days, I was finally able to acquire all the necessary items.

[Iron Sword of Monstrous Strength]

Attack Power 16

Strength +1

Durability 80/80

[Sturdy Shield]

Defense 7

Shock Absorption 50%

Agility +1

Durability 110/110

[Steel Helmet]

Defense 2

HP +1

Durability 60/60

Usage Restriction: Strength 12

[Light Belt]

Agility +1

Usage Restriction: HP 10

Durability 30/30

[Leather Shoes]

Defense 1

Strength +1

Durability 35/35

Usage Restriction: Strength 10

[Black Plated Ring]

Reaction Speed Increased by 0.5 Percent

Durability 50/50

Usage Restriction: Strength 10, HP 10

[Reliable Leather Armor]

Defense 3

Strength +1

Durability 70/70

Usage Restriction: HP 12

[Surging Lower Garment]

Defense 2

HP +1

Durability 65/65

Usage Restriction: HP 11

[Charming Wrist Guards]

Magic Resistance 3

Durability 50/50

Usage Restriction: Knowledge 7

[Earrings of Life]

HP Recovery Rate Increased by 15 Per Minute

Durability 40/40

Usage Restriction: Wisdom 8

[Necklace of Vigor]

Magic Resistance 1

MP Increased by 80

Durability 35/35

Usage Restriction: Knowledge 9

[Infinite Sheath]

A sheath charged with ten daggers with an attack power of 5. It automatically recharges one dagger every 10 minutes when used. However, if all 10 are used, a recharge time of 24 hours is required.

Usage Restriction: Agility 9

It was somewhat lacking, but still decent enough to use.

I wondered how much my stats had increased with these items equipped.

Character Information.

The item window disappeared, and the character window popped up.

Attack power was 85, and defense was 24.

The HP recovery rate per minute was also close to 40.

Even 60 would recover 1 HP per second, which would greatly help with combat endurance.

Above all, I was very satisfied with the increase in attack speed, movement speed, and reaction speed.

Especially reaction speed.

Finally, it exceeded 101 percent.

Only a 1.4 percent increase.

But even this alone would allow me to live a slightly different life than other users.

In the fleeting moments, this small difference would feel very significant.

Besides, Dexterity exceeded 20.

Good.

Now, only one last thing remained.

Enhancing the Skeleton.

Muhyuk left the kingdom for the first time in a while and headed to the habitat of giant bears.

A short while later.

He easily dealt with a bear he encountered in the giant bear’s habitat.

Approaching the creature turning gray, he used his skill.

“Corpse Dissection.”

Then, a hologram appeared before his eyes.

It was a bone shape resembling a bear.

As he pushed the prepared butchering dagger into the gray form, a part of the hologram glowed blue.

Following the light, he repeatedly moved the dagger here and there until the butchering was finished.

When the gray light disappeared, the giant bear’s bones and hide remained in place.

“Skeleton Summon.”

After summoning a Skeleton, he laid it down on the ground.

Then, using the Bone Assembly skill, he extracted one of the bones that made up the Skeleton’s body.

[The Skeleton’s ‘HP’ decreases.]

[Due to the influence of ‘Dexterity’, a decrease of ‘0.18’ occurs.]

This was the effect of Dexterity.

Without Dexterity, he would have lost 0.2 of the HP stat just by extracting the bone.

But thanks to the Dexterity bonus effect, he lost 0.18 of the HP stat.

Since his Dexterity stat was in the 20s, a bonus effect of 0.02 was triggered.

It would be 0.03 in the 30s, 0.04 in the 60s, and 0.05 when it reached 100.

It was a small difference, but those small things would accumulate and become huge.

Moreover, Dexterity didn’t only affect when extracting bones.

[The Skeleton’s ‘HP’ increases.]

[Due to the influence of ‘Dexterity’, an increase of ‘0.22’ occurs.]

The moment he inserted the giant bear’s bone into the empty space, the Dexterity bonus effect was triggered again.

The HP stat increased by 0.04 with a single replacement.

He was very satisfied.

Good.

Perhaps it was thanks to the excitement.

His concentration sharpened, and his hand movements became increasingly skillful.

He extracted the Skeleton’s bone and inserted the bear’s bone. Of course, the stats didn’t increase every time he swapped them.

Extracting the bone was the same.

[The Skeleton’s ‘Agility’ decreases.]

[Due to the influence of ‘Dexterity’, a decrease of ‘0.08’ occurs.]

The problem was when inserting it.

If the giant bear’s bone and the Skeleton’s skeleton didn’t match well.

[The Skeleton’s ‘Agility’ increases.]

[Due to the influence of ‘Dexterity’, an increase of ‘0.06’ occurs.]

The stats could even decrease like this.

Couldn’t he just extract it again?

Once an area was extracted, it could only be extracted again after exactly 10 days.

It was a longer time than he thought. But Muhyuk’s hand movements were unwavering.

He kept the areas where the stats decreased and would replace them again later.

The areas that increased would be left as they were.

Moreover, influenced by Dexterity, if he succeeded, it would increase more, and if he failed, it would decrease less.

So, by repeating this, the Skeleton’s stats would eventually increase.

There was no shortcut.

He would only see the effects by working on it for a long time.

The fact that it would become stronger was certain.

About 30 minutes passed before he could finish the work.

“Stand up.”

The creature slowly raised its body.

Kireek?

It moved its body from side to side. Perhaps because it was swapped with the giant bear’s bones, the Skeleton’s skeleton had become quite large.

He wanted to see the detailed information.

But there was no summon information window yet.

It would be updated soon.

Well, he could look at it then. He should also give it a name. He couldn’t keep calling it Skeleton.

Muhyuk thought for a moment.

There would be many more creatures he could summon in the future.

Complicated names wouldn’t do.

Yes, something simple.

“Okay, from now on, you’re Golgolil.”

The second would be Golgoli.

The third would be Golgolsam.

The names would continue like that.

Kireek, kireek!

Golgolil seemed to dislike the name and repeatedly made its unique sound, but Muhyuk deliberately ignored it.

The work wasn’t over yet.

Currently, Muhyuk could summon two Skeletons.

It was thanks to leveling up once by constantly summoning and canceling Skeletons whenever he wasn’t working at the smithy or resting.

[Skeleton Summon 2Lv (7%)]

You can summon 2 Skeletons. As the skill level increases, the number of summonable creatures and the MP consumed per 10 seconds increase.

-MP consumed every 10 seconds: 1 Mana per entity

[Zombie Summon 1Lv (75%)]

You can summon 1 Zombie. As the skill level increases, the number of summonable creatures and the MP consumed per 10 seconds increase.

-MP consumed every 10 seconds: 1 Mana per entity

So, he had to assemble one more.

He was short on giant bear bones.

Muhyuk wandered around to hunt.

He hunted dozens of bears, dissected their corpses, and used the bones to start assembling the second Skeleton’s bones.

[The Skeleton’s ‘Strength’ decreases.]

[Due to the influence of ‘Dexterity’, a decrease of ‘0.08’ occurs.]

[The Skeleton’s ‘Strength’ increases.]

[Due to the influence of ‘Dexterity’, an increase of ‘0.22’ occurs.]

After repeating this for 30 minutes, he finished working on Golgoli.

The corners of Muhyuk’s mouth turned up as he looked at the two creatures.

With this, he had completed all the preparations to challenge the special Dungeon.

Shall we go now?

To reduce MP consumption, he unsummoned Golgolil and Golgoli.

He passed through the eastern gate and entered the kingdom, then exited again using the western gate.

This place was dangerous.

The level of the monsters that appeared was around 80.

Rankers would need at least half a year more to hunt here.

Only then would they have a chance to reach level 80.

He was walking through such a place. It was dangerous, but he just had to avoid colliding with the monsters.

If he met them?

He would have to die.

He would repeat this and find a safe path.

Because he knew the location of the Dungeon anyway.

The biggest reason he chose the Arsen Kingdom as his starting point was this.

Although it was dangerous, the Dungeon was located not too far away.

You couldn’t enter if you were over level 15.

You couldn’t enter even if you weren’t level 15.

If you entered and died, it was over.

Accidentally came out of the Dungeon?

It was over too.

You couldn’t challenge it twice.

The Dungeon was a limited content that you could only challenge once at level 15.

He had to go through it no matter what. Even to survive as a Thug Necro.

Based on seven deaths, Muhyuk found a safer path.

This was his eighth attempt, so he was a little tired, but he didn’t give up and continued to move forward.

He would definitely succeed this time.

He took a step forward with that determination.

Swoosh.

Of course, he was very careful. He didn’t let up on looking around.

He was cautious even while walking on the path he had previously identified as safe.

Perhaps thanks to that, he was able to reach near his destination without encountering any monsters.

Just a little further.

The strange excitement that came from the thought that he was close to arriving made him impatient.

At the same time, he snapped back to his senses.

No, let’s stay calm.

He had died twice just from that.

He took a deep breath again.

After surveying the surroundings, he took a step forward.

How many steps had he taken?

Despite being in the forest, the sunlight that had been guiding him disappeared.

The branches, piled up densely beyond lushness, and the leaves that filled those branches, denied the space itself.

It’s dark.

He took a step back.

His vision was secured.

But as expected, he couldn’t see anything in front of him. He became anxious.

This was his first time coming this far, so he never imagined there would be such a path.

There was no such process when he watched the videos.

It was natural since they showed from inside the Dungeon.

He checked the map again.

This is the right place…

He regretted it belatedly.

He should have brought something. Anything that could light a fire.

He had thought about it in his head so many times, but this was the result.

He was feeling with his whole body that what he encountered in writing was clearly different from what he experienced in reality.

Everything was easy when he only encountered it as information, but when he actually experienced it, many things were lacking.

But he didn’t want to turn back after coming this far.

Then, he would eventually have to overcome the fear of the pitch-black darkness before him.

Yes, it’ll be there if I just go a little further.

He took another step forward.

It’s dark.

So dark that he couldn’t see anything.

That wasn’t a reason to be afraid.

It’s just a game anyway.

He steeled his heart and gave his actions firmness.

He continued to move forward without hesitation for 3 minutes.

His hand, which was naturally swaying back and forth, felt a sensation.

He carefully touched it, and it seemed to be a wall.

He had to choose one of the left and right sides, so he headed to the left first.

But he soon reached another blocked area.

Is it the right?

He turned and went right for a long time.

That was the moment.

“Uh, uh…!”

His legs floated in the air, and his body fell down with a whoosh.