Chapter 10: Cyclops

After tumbling down for a while, it felt like we'd fallen not just 5 floors but 5 floors underground.

No idea how that works, but whatever. We fell for quite a while into the abyss.

It felt like a miracle we even survived.

"...Geum Tae-yang, you fucking bastard! At least act like you're from an adult manga! Stop doing stupid shit!"

"Ack, sis. I mean, come on, what guy wouldn't want to press a button like that?"

"You little shit. Weren't you always the type to ring doorbells and run away as a kid?"

There's no escape route anywhere.

In other words, we're fucked.

According to the novel's setup, every dungeon has traps. Obviously the Cloud Dungeon is no exception. In a boss room with no exit, there's only one way out.

Eliminate the boss. Which means this is a boss room.

"Did Bbeum-mi's amazing oppas not deal with the trap boss?"

"Hawawa, Bbeum-mi doesn't know!"

I want to beat her ass. For real.

Wait, then what's the trap boss? Given that the Cloud Dungeon mainly has slime mobs, the regular boss would be from the slime series. Then the trap boss is...?

Thud- Thoom-Thud

Some unpleasant sounds are coming from that dark area ahead.

"Miss Mariko. Light it up over there."

"Okay."

The torch villain Mariko lit the torches lining the walls.

And slowly the boss's silhouette started coming into view.

Twice the height of an adult male with muscles several times more defined than a human's. A giant with ashen gray skin like it's covered in ashes and one massive eyeball.

B-Class monster Cyclops.

Of all things, this fucker known for preying on novice Hunters shows up before us.

"Hawawa hawawa this is bad!"

"Fuck, we're screwed. Of all things, a B-Class monster Cyclops."

What do we do? My acceleration probably won't work on something like that.

I'm all about winning with speed. The Cyclops has a tough body too. No way I can pierce its skin with just a knife.

Even physical enhancement won't work.

Maybe if it was Choi Si-woo with his Divine Sword. At least for me, I can't guarantee victory in this fight.

"We're fucked."

Looking at Bbeum-mi going "hawawa", she can't handle the Cyclops either. Torch villain Mariko takes a fighting stance but her hands are shaking so she's out. And Geum Tae-yang who only falls for traps and is now just staring blankly at the Cyclops isn't even worth mentioning.

"And the party composition is the worst possible too."

If I had to classify the party members by class right now, party leader Bbeum-mi is a mage, and Mariko is closer to a mage than a ninja. Since I use a knife to kill enemies in one hit I'm an assassin, and Geum Tae-yang is what, a warrior? Well looking at his durability he's no tank.

DPS mage, support mage, assassin, warrior.

Wow what a fucked up party composition.

And D-Class Hunter is our highest rank.

The enemy is a B-Class monster.

If I was Si-woo maybe, but as the irregular Eun-ha this is tough. Maybe use acceleration and parallel circuit to stab the Cyclops's eye?

"Hoeee. Hoeeng."

This one's hopeless.

"Geum Tae-yang. Can you tank?"

"Sis, do I look capable of that to you?"

"What CAN you do?"

Something feels off about this.

It's not like we have no options. The Cyclops's weakness is that huge eyeball.

Of course, stabbing the eye won't kill it.

But the eye is the weakest part of the Cyclops's body, so if we can somehow deal with the eye and knock it down, we can gang up on it.

Hey, not bad actually?

"Bbeum-mi and Miss Mariko, use magic to draw its aggro."

"Hoeee. What's White Hair planning?"

"We need to knock it down first."

She's asking like it's some casual hobby.

"Sis. What about me?"

"You watch for now and when the Cyclops falls, start dealing damage."

Since things turned out this way, what can we do. I reluctantly decided to take command.

"Gruaaaaaaah!"

The Cyclops let out a roar like a scream.

At the same time, Bbeum-mi and ninja apprentice Mariko started casting magic.

"Hoeee! Bbeum-mi Thunderbolt!"

"Suiton Water Bomb!"

The water and lightning appropriately tormented the Cyclops as the elemental combo attack landed the decisive hit.

And now was the time.

I used acceleration and parallel circuit simultaneously.

[When the two mages cast magic on the Cyclops, its movements became sluggish.]

[I can't give the enemy first strike or my allies will be in danger. I gripped my knife tighter and charged forward.]

[Taking advantage of the gap after the magic attack ended, I climbed up its body and drove my knife straight down into its eyeball.]

Stab!

[I stabbed its eye again before it could scream.]

[Magic power infused in the knife meant this wouldn't end as just a simple blade wound.]

"Kuaaaaaagh!"

[I stabbed and stabbed and stabbed again. Until it fell. After all, this is all just a dream. And the opponent is just a monster appearing in a dream.]

Stab! Stab! Stab!

I'd already stabbed it dozens more times before it could raise its arms to resist.

By now the mages' magic had started scorching the Cyclops's limbs.

Without stopping, I drove the knife deep into its eye and used the weight to drag it down.

"Kuk...kuhuaaagh!"

Finally it reached for me, but I'd already jumped off its body.

Thud!

"Finally my turn?"

As the Cyclops dropped its massive body to the ground, Geum Tae-yang immediately started striking its body with close combat using physical enhancement.

Surprisingly he seemed to have some martial arts ability, his form was quite proper.

"Heeyah!"

With a shout, he completely immobilized the fallen Cyclops's joints starting from the neck.

After several cracking sounds, the Cyclops was effectively unable to get up.

I was thinking of adding some final damage, but my knife had shattered at some point.

"Bbeum-mi Power! Rolling Thunder!"

The final flourish was Bbeum-mi's ultimate.

Mariko used suiton to soak the Cyclops with spit from her mouth and brought down a massive lightning bolt on top.

Crackle!

And just like that the Cyclops became barbecue in an instant.

I guess that's what being a Hunter means. To be able to use magic like that, though honestly it's super gross how she goes "Bbeum-mi", "hawawa" at that age.

Well, she's age-appropriate in the chest department at least. But you can't help being curious, right?

"Hey, Bbeum-mi."

I gently called out to Bbeum-mi.

"Hoeee. Why are you calling?"

"Do you really have to say 'Bbeum-mi Power Rolling Thunder' when casting magic?"

"Hawawa. That's my ability - magic gets stronger when I say it!"

Ah, so that's why she does the Bbeum-mi thing. This is kind of pitiful. When I gave her a sympathetic look, she kept referring to herself as Bbeum-mi so I decided to just ignore it.

Sometimes there are conditional abilities. Like how Kim Ji-hye gets super strong when holding a bat, that kind of thing.

To think that was a condition for her ability. She might want to die. Thankfully the ability the writer forced on me doesn't have conditions.

"Then don't tell me this Geum Tae-yang too..."

"Oh, why sis?"

"Fuck, you really don't fit in this dream."

More importantly, when did this bastard ever see me to keep calling me sis.

"Huh? Anyway, this bastard has a lot of cores? He's got 5 B-Class cores."

"Hmm, then how should we split them?"

"Hoeee. Mariko and Bbeum-mi helped, but White Hair sis landed the killing blow. White Hair sis should take 2 and we'll split the other 3 one each!"

That's pretty generous of her.

"How much does a B-Class core sell for?"

"If we sell to my oppas, market price is 500,000 won!"

Wow, corpse cleaners work all day for 50,000, but we get 500,000 for killing one tough monster - this is pretty good.

"Should we sell to them right away?"

"Hawawa. Let's think about it after we get out of here!"

Really pitiful. She can't even use magic without living like that.

Anyway, leaving around now isn't bad.

We beat the trap boss so there's no reason to suffer through the monster-filled 5th floor. We've basically cleared the dungeon.

It feels like bugs are crawling on my body again. The already dark dungeon seems to be turning pitch black.

I reach into my pocket looking for cigarettes but find none.

Seems I forgot to bring them.

"Geum Tae-yang. Give me a cigarette."

"Oh, here sis."

As I put the cigarette in my mouth, Geum Tae-yang naturally lit it for me.

As my brain gets soaked in nicotine, my vision clears up.

The itching in my body starts to ease too. For a moment I almost fell backwards.

"Ahh, that's the stuff. Finally feeling better."

"Oh sis. Making that face while smoking is dangerous. But about that ability from earlier..."

"What?"

I glared at the overly friendly Geum Tae-yang with contempt as I answered.

"That speed was no joke. Like you disappeared and reappeared. Almost like you were controlling time or something."

"Maybe I was. It's my ability."

An ability that darkens the sky when used continuously.

An ability that darkens my vision. But the performance is solid so it's not bad. With proper weapons I could have taken it down myself without Bbeum-mi.

Getting some equipment might be good. At this rate I'll have to become a Hunter anyway.

"Hoeee. You two have such good chemistry!"

"Be quiet."

What's with this Bbeum-mi trying to ship me with Geum Tae-yang. Getting annoyed, I pinched and pulled Bbeum-mi's cheeks.

"Hawawa hawawa Bbeum-mi's cheeks are stretching!"

"Nice and squishy."

After pulling Bbeum-mi's cheeks for a while, we sorted out our shares. Two B-Class cores means 1 million won. Made 1 million won in just one day. For a student who's not even a Hunter yet, earning this much is pretty amazing.

After leaving the dungeon, we stopped by the guild run by Bbeum-mi's oppas to sort out the cores.

"Wow, Bbeum-mi sis is part of a major guild? Amazing."

"Hawawa. No compliments! My face is turning red!"

The guild Bbeum-mi belonged to was Reform, one of South Korea's major guilds.

Reform had no S-Class but lots of A-Class and pretty good performance as a major guild.

For a guild of this size, that's probably why an executive gave his sister a whole dungeon.

"White Hair sis, Blonde oppa."

"What?"

"Yes, Bbeum-mi sis. Speak."

"Give me your numbers! So I can call you again. It's annoying recruiting from job sites!"

For me it's not bad since I get a way to make money.

But is it okay for students to just enter dungeons like this?

It feels weird bringing this up now, but I got curious.

"But is it really okay for students to keep going into dungeons like this?"

"Why is White Hair sis asking after already coming with us? From the start, sis has a free pass as a Hanseong Academy student and Divine Sword Yoo Jin-seok's sister! That blonde oppa over there can go without guardian permission too because of his high grades!"

Well if that's the case, I have no complaints. For me, any way to make money is good.

Should I just completely refuse to attend the Academy at this rate?

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