Chapter 40

The intense heat struck his skin hard.

Was it just hot?

With that question in mind, he scanned the area ahead.

Oh, man…

A place that couldn’t be called a Dungeon appeared before his eyes.

It could be described as a vast prairie.

White smoke billowed from the crater located in the center. It was clearly an active volcano.

A living volcano. He felt faint tremors from time to time, and it wouldn’t be strange if it erupted right now.

Surely it won’t erupt…

Of course, he wasn’t sure.

He might really die if the volcano erupted.

He had no choice but to hurry as much as possible.

Muhyuk quickly strode forward.

He was moving around the volcano in the center as much as possible when a rock about the size of a medium-sized dog started to stir right below him.

Startled, he stepped back, and at the same time, it had already taken its full form.

It was a golem flickering with flames.

Its size was just over 1 meter.

The problem was that four such small flame golems were born at the same time.

Looking at its appearance, Muhyuk muttered.

“Lesser Agni…”

A monster derived from the fire spirit Agnis, Agni.

Its entire body was made of stone, but it spewed fire, making it a monster that was not easily seen.

The level of a typical Agni was around 75.

However, the Lesser Agni was a level 37 monster, much smaller and weaker than that.

The problem was that several of them appeared at the same time.

Could there be an Agni too?

He shook his head with that thought.

It was a level 70 monster.

That’s impossible…

It must be the influence of that active volcano.

That was all he could think.

“Skeleton Warrior Summon. Skeleton Archer Summon.”

If there were five of them, Muhyuk had 12 summons.

Sword Bone 1 and 2 to the left.

Sword Bone 3 and 4 to the center.

Sword Bone 5 and 6 to the right.

Sword Bone 7 and 8 to the rear.

He made the Bow Bones check the Lesser Agnis one by one.

He made one group of two Sword Bones and one Bow Bone face one Lesser Agni.

The summons had stats of roughly late level 20s to early level 30s users, but catching a level 37 Lesser Agni was by no means easy.

Just getting close would cause flame damage and reduce HP.

In addition, the Lesser Agni was capable of ranged attacks, and the damage was applied as magic, so defense was useless.

It could be said that it was the opposite of Skeletons, which were weak to magic defense.

Sword Bone 1, back. Shield.

Sword Bone 5, retreat.

Bow Bone 2, Rapid Fire.

Sword Bone 2 in front of Bow Bone 1.

He quickly directed while watching the situation.

If it weren’t for Muhyuk’s command, more than one Skeleton would have been unsummoned.

Monsters with that much magic damage were that tricky.

This is difficult.

Muhyuk briefly stopped commanding and transformed his staff.

He nocked an arrow on the string and aimed at the target.

Thwack!

The fired arrow barely grazed the Agni’s head.

Damn it!

While he paused his command, Sword Bone 7’s HP was running low.

Sword Bone 7, retreat!

Muhyuk kicked off the ground and took the place where Sword Bone 7 had been.

Then he swung the Skull Staff from top to bottom.

When Muhyuk’s high damage struck the Lesser Agni, the stones that made up its body shattered and fell to the ground.

The retreating Agni stretched out its hand, and the fragments that had fallen to the ground flew up and attached to its body, returning to its original form.

I have to break the core.

The core located in the navel area, as it would be in a person.

He had to aim for that.

Click.

He pressed the skull to make the blade pop out.

Sword Bone 8, Shield Charge.

The Skeleton charged with its shield, shaking the center of the Lesser Agni.

Muhyuk was already right behind Sword Bone 8, so he couldn’t miss that gap.

He stretched out his staff, looking directly at the location where the core would be.

Stab.

The blade dug in properly.

[Critical Hit!]

[Deals 256 damage.]

[Core destroyed.]

[Total HP reduced by 50 percent.]

[Recovery ability disappears.]

Thanks to breaking the core in one go, the Agni was momentarily stunned.

Muhyuk swung his staff mercilessly.

Thwack, thwack!

He was able to deal with it before it recovered from its stiffness.

That was fortunate. He knew the location of the core, so he dealt with it so easily, but if he didn’t, he would have suffered a lot.

Whoosh.

But something was strange.

The body of the fallen Lesser Agni began to vibrate greatly. Then small stones flew in all directions.

Muhyuk instinctively raised his arm to cover his face.

“…”

There was no particular impact.

He slowly lowered his arm, and he was lost for words at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

Kyuu!

Was it about the size of a fist?

Over a hundred Tiny Agnis were wandering around.

Their gazes slowly shifted to Muhyuk and the Skeletons. They tilted their heads, then began to rush in, showing hostility.

Startled, Muhyuk hurriedly swung his staff.

Kiek!

One Tiny Agni disappeared with a single attack.

What, what is it…?

He had never heard anywhere that killing a Lesser Agni would cause over a hundred Tiny Agnis to appear.

Muhyuk was embarrassed, but that didn’t mean he was stupid enough to be hit by the attacks of the flying Tiny Agnis.

Of course, there were so many of them that he couldn’t block them all.

[You have taken damage.]

[10 HP reduced.]

[You have taken damage.]

[10 HP reduced.]

[You have taken damage…]

Fortunately, the attack power was very low. Thanks to that, the embarrassment was greatly diluted.

First, the distance.

Calmness takes hold.

He quickly created distance and then observed them. They didn’t attack when the distance increased.

He hesitated and was about to approach them when.

Kyuu.

With a strange sound, over a hundred Tiny Agnis disappeared at the same time.

“…”

The following message.

[Experience increased.]

The Lesser Agni’s experience came in late.

He killed one Lesser Agni.

This time, Tiny Agnis appeared again. Unlike the first time, Muhyuk began to kill them at a rapid pace.

After some time had passed, the remaining Tiny Agnis disappeared again.

Only then was Muhyuk able to find something that had fallen to the ground.

Diamond!

First, he attached the idle Sword Bones and Bow Bones to another Lesser Agni, then picked up the diamonds that had fallen to the ground.

[Acquired 1 Diamond.]

[Acquired 1 Diamond.]

[Acquired 1 Diamond…]

Then his thoughts were organized.

When a Lesser Agni dies, it creates Tiny Agnis, and when Tiny Agnis die, they drop 1 diamond. They disappear after a certain amount of time.

The drop rate was higher than on the first floor. However, since they dropped one at a time, he couldn’t feel a big difference.

If he caught all the Tiny Agnis, he would be able to collect diamonds more quickly, but.

Lastly…

There was a high possibility that Tiny Agnis were special monsters. He had never heard of Tiny Agnis anywhere.

Of course, he didn’t know all the monsters, so he couldn’t be sure, but he prided himself on knowing more about monsters than anyone else while watching countless videos.

If Muhyuk had never heard or seen a monster like that, he could definitely say it was strange.

Well, he’ll find out soon.

After picking up all the diamonds, he readjusted his staff and moved to a place where the situation didn’t look good.

Sword Bone 4, Shield Charge.

He attacked the Agni’s core in the same way.

[Deals 128 damage.]

He didn’t care that he failed.

He continued to aim for the core.

Two more attacks followed.

[Core destroyed.]

[Total HP reduced by 50 percent.]

[Recovery ability disappears.]

He dealt with the stunned monster.

Kyuu!

Tiny Agnis appeared from all directions.

Slash.

One Tiny Agni lost its life with a single attack.

They were dropping diamonds with a fairly high probability every time they died.

It was as if it was a bonus round to acquire diamonds.

But unfortunately, they disappeared before he could deal with all of them, no, not even half of them.

It was a waste.

It was such a waste.

How many diamonds are those…

He couldn’t summon the disappeared ones again.

“Haa.”

With a sigh, he just glared fiercely at the last one left.

I’m going to catch them all this time.

Soon after, he dealt with one Agni again.

Sword Bones, stop attacking.

Bow Bones, stop attacking.

Everyone move forward.

He quickly gave orders to the Skeletons. At that moment, over a hundred Tiny Agnis were born.

Bow Bones, Rapid Fire.

Sword Bones, Charge!

Sword Bones, attack!

Muhyuk also moved.

The staff sharply cut through the air.

Thwack, thwack!

This time, he counted the time while attacking.

20 seconds, 21 seconds, 22 seconds.

When it reached 30 seconds.

Kyuu.

The Tiny Agnis disappeared.

This time, he dealt with about half of them, but he still felt that the Agnis he couldn’t deal with were too wasteful.

That’s because if he caught them all, the diamonds would definitely be collected at an incredible speed.

Then he would become stronger more quickly, and the Dungeon clear speed would also increase.

[Acquired 1 Diamond.]

[Acquired 1 Diamond…]

After picking up all the diamonds, Muhyuk sat down to take a mental break.

“Unsummon.”

Then he took out a one-time use crafting tool.

Clang!

He picked up the hammer and swung it.

A rough metallic sound rang out.

[Grain aligned.]

[Progress (3.8 percent) increased.]

After swinging the hammer a few times, he became focused.

Clang! Clang!

He was only focused on making the sword.

It was then.

[Grain aligned accurately.]

[Progress applied twice.]

[Progress (7.8 percent) increased.]

[Grain aligned 7 times in a row.]

[Bonus progress (0.6 percent) increased.]

The message popped up, but Muhyuk didn’t see it.

He turned off the messages when crafting because it was annoying to check them one by one.

Thanks to that, his concentration was not broken.

[Grain aligned accurately.]

[Progress applied twice.]

[Progress (7.6 percent) increased.]

[Grain aligned accurately 2 times in a row.]

[High concentration achieved, resulting in a perfect hammer strike.]

[First achievement.]

[Acquired the title ‘Lucky Craftsman’.]

[Grain aligned 8 times in a row.]

[Bonus progress (0.7 percent) increased.]

[Sword completed.]

[Title effect applied.]

But suddenly the sword was completed.

“……?”

For a moment, doubt settled in Muhyuk’s eyes. He didn’t understand why the sword was already made because he hadn’t seen the message.

He tilted his head and checked the sword.

[Soul-infused Longsword]

Attack Power 69

Additional Damage +10

Strength +3

Durability 150/150

The options caught his eye.

What should he say.

It was hard to understand at first glance.

Damage 69?

What the heck are the options below?

Additional damage was a whopping 10.

It was a better option than the Strength stat of 3, but what was even more surprising was that there were three more Strength stats related to damage below that.

Excluding the sword’s pure attack power, the options alone increased the damage by a whopping 19.

It was truly an overwhelming level of sword. Muhyuk would have cheered just for this.

But… the thing that had the biggest impact on the price was missing.

Usage Restriction.

Why isn’t it there?

Question and expectation.

Was it really not attached?

Or, was there something else?

He used the sword to check.

————!!!!

All the options were being applied.

It felt like he had been hit in the head with a hammer. Because there was no usage restriction attached to this overwhelmingly high-level sword.

He still couldn’t believe it.

Such a jackpot.

But as time went by, he realized.

It was real.

This was, real.

“Ha, haha…”

Only then did a burst of laughter come from Muhyuk’s mouth.