Leveling Up Through Eating

PR: MattForgenti

“Shit……!”

Buckle, or Hyunwook in reality, couldn’t help but spat out some profanities after being forced to log out of the game. He had dropped his weapon, armor and gold. And that wasn’t all. He even dropped the Parchment of Reward’s Choice.

The Parchment of Reward’s Choice was a very, very, very special item. It was an item that could only be obtained after going through the 5th trial for 40 times. The Parchment of Reward’s Choice could be applied to the boss monster once the 6th trial began. It was an item that could maximize one reward while giving up another. In addition, there would be a four-item list that would be presented to the user.

1 Gold

2 Artifact

3 Food Ingredient

4 Experience Points

In addition, even if the 6th trial failed, the parchment would not disappear even if it was used at the beginning. It was a special privilege for the users who challenged the trials for 40 continuous times.

So far, Buckle had always chosen the ‘Artifact’ choice everytime he challenged 6th trial. It was in hopes of getting a ‘Legendary Artifact’ if he ever succeeded in the trial. But in the end, he had lost it all. What was worse was that this was something that they had done with his party members without even informing Guild Master Crone.

He had lost everything and even leveled down. And it seemed like it was not only Buckle who was experiencing such a setback.

[Taemin: Shit. I dropped my Rumadol’s Wand.]

[Haesok: I dropped my Caroman’s Dagger……]

[Hyunwoo: I lost a lot of items too……  I’m doomed…… I did it without my wife knowing it……]

[Jimin: Everyone. Please answer me seriously. Am I uglier than a Monk?]

[Taemin: ???]

[Haesok: ???]

[Hyunwoo: ???]

Hyunwook frowned.

‘Is there something wrong with Javin-nim, too?’

As soon as he stopped thinking about their plight, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

“Why the hell was he using a bow?”

It did not make sense to him at all. The arrows that he shot, the hit rate as well as the damage. No matter what he thought, it still did not make sense if he said that he wasn’t an archer.

Then, the phone rang. It was his Guild Master, Crone.

[Buckle-nim, you’ve been forced to log out?]

Once they had reached the 5th trial it was possible for them to run out of the dungeon whenever they wanted. In addition, there was also a passage that would lead outside in the 6th trial. This was one of the reasons why they were able to keep on challenging the dungeon. But only the Bachran Guild knew of this information.

“GM-nim, we had a conflict with the Frying Pan Killer.”

[The Frying Pan Killer?]

Hyunwook explained the full detail of what happened to his GM.

[Hooo…… So he’ll try to attack it by himself?]

“That’s right. But I don’t think he’ll ever be able to break it. It took us two months to break the 5th trial. And the 6th trial is really hard to break.”

Crone, or Kim Joobin, nodded his head at his words.

[You said that there will be an undead vampire coming out of the 6th trial?]

***

[That’s right. And the vampire is so tricky because once it sucks blood then all of the wounds and injuries that you have inflicted on it will be recovered. I thought that we would be able to hunt him down in a little while but……]

Joobin nodded his head. Buckle had told him that they would be able to break the 6th trial after some more time. After all, no matter how difficult it was, they have already attacked it 60 times. They already knew the know-hows of the final trial so they would have definitely broken it anytime soon.

He faintly understood something.

‘It seems like there’s a reason why there is an undead vampire at the final trial.’

There were no monsters related to the undead at all from the 1st to the 5th trial. But strangely enough, there was an undead vampire in the 6th trial.

When he thought back on Gorac’s Legends, it seems like it had been quite a long time and his minions would definitely not have survived against time. Thinking along those lines, he believed that the undead vampire was Gorac’s servant. And he estimated that his level was around Lv420.

‘If I arm Buckle and his party members with the best artifacts and support them with the most expensive potions then they’ll probably be able to break it.’

They would have to drink potions that cost a few platinum like water however, it would still prove to be more profitable to them if they would pass the 6th trial since they were already nearing its end. Callauhel of Black Stone had promised to give billions of won to anyone who found a disaster artifact.

‘How much money does he even have……’

The servers all around the world were still not integrated yet.

Yet he’s willing to give billions of cash to anyone who found disaster artifacts in this situation?

He was a truly amazing man.

And right now, the Frying Pan Killer was starting to challenge the dungeon. However……

‘There’s no problem at all.’

From what he heard, he was able to kill four of his guild members alone. However, each and every trial was difficult and he was quite confident that he wouldn’t be able to hunt the vampire in the 6th trial.

And just in time, a whisper came from Rak.

[Rak: We’ve already arrived in the tomb. It says that someone just finished the 1st trial and is currently going through the 2nd one.]

Other users were not allowed to enter when someone else was challenging the trials. This was because the dungeon itself was almost like an event. The amount of minutes and seconds that one stayed and challenged the dungeon would be displayed to boost the motivation of the next challenger.

However, the dungeon was too difficult to break that most of the users had given up. Eventually, the dungeon ended up being occupied by Bachran Guild.

Crone looked at the table in front of him. There laid a chart that Buckle had sent to him two days prior. The chart had the time table for each trial as well as what each trial consisted of.

He started explaining the details to Rak.

***

“Kaistra.”

“Huh?”

Kaistra was looking at the text that was floating in front of the tomb.

[Currently challenging the 2nd trial. 3 minutes 31 seconds.]

The numbers kept on increasing while Rak explained to him what he had heard from Crone.

“......The Frying Pan Killer?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm……”

Kaistra frowned slightly.

Meanwhile, Rak took out a pen and a paper as he wrote something while Kaistra watched him in rapt attention.

The first trial had already been cleared. And the second trial… he wrote down something continuously.

[2nd trial. Poison is spewed out of the wall. Bachran Guild: 13 minutes 26 seconds.]

[3rd trial. Mythril Ogre has a 3x higher defense than a regular Ogre. Bachran Guild: 17 minutes 38 seconds.]

[4th trial……  Omitted]

“What’s this?”

“Bachran Guild was almost at the end of the 6th trial. The total number of times that they had attacked the trials were almost at 70. In other words, there will be no one else who can break these trials aside from these people. So it means that we don’t need to worry about the Frying Pan Killer at all.”

Kaistra agreed with his words. Those people had already challenged the dungeon for almost 70 times so it meant that they must be veterans when it came to dealing with the dungeon.

In the case of the Frying Pan Killer, this was his first time challenging the dungeon. And he was even challenging it alone. He would not be able to break the trials at all. No, that was what he had thought so. But not a minute later, Kaistra was already frowning.

“Ra, Rak……”

His voice was trembling.

“Huh?”

Rak turned his head to look at where he was staring at.

“What the hell?!”

Rak’s eyebrows crumpled in shock when he saw the words floating in front of the tomb.

“I, is it a bug?”

He thought that the words were so ridiculous that there must have been an error in the system.

[2nd trial, Completed. 4 minutes 1 second.]

Rak turned to look at the chart that he received from Bachran Guild. He looked at the fastest time of the guild to break the 2nd trial.

[2nd Trial. Poison is spewed out of the wall. Bachran Guild: 13 minutes 26 seconds.]

“......!”

“......!”

The eyes of the two of them, who had just realized the situation they were in, met in the air.

“C, crazy……!”

“What the hell. Th, this…… This doesn’t even make sense!”

The Frying Pan Killer had killed and hunted four users all by himself so they were fully aware that he was strong. But this thing that was flashing in front of them did not make any sense at all.

Then……

[3rd Trial will begin. 1 seconds, 2 seconds, 3 seconds.]

The 3rd trial had begun. The two of them stared blankly at the words that were floating in front of them. They couldn’t help but hold their breath in trepidation.

***

Minhyuk was waiting for the 3rd trial.

During the 2nd trial, various poisons were fired from the walls. He had seen in the homepage that there was a device that would turn off the poison from firing off of the walls but it also said that even if one found it, they would still be poisoned no matter what.

However, Minhyuk on the other hand, just walked lightly.

Shwaaaaaaa━

While the green poison was spraying out of the wall, Minhyuk was mumbling to himself. All he could feel was a cool mist spraying on his face.

‘No drinking. Just leave it to my skin.’

It’s taste was something that he did not enjoy at all.

Finally, the third trial began.

[Your HP and MP have both recovered.]

[The third trial is beginning.]

[The time limit is 25 minutes.]

[We hope that you will be able to hunt the Mythril Ogre within the allotted time frame.]

‘Didn’t they say that there’s a super defensive ogre that will come out here?’

Along with the notifications, a huge ogre appeared with its body showing off a sheen that was akin to iron.

“Graaaaaaaa!”

The ogre ran as it roared loudly.

“Rain (Soar).”

Red light poured out of his sword as he began to run.

Shwaaaaaaaak!

A half-crescent blade from Rain (Soar) flew out. However, the ogre just ran forward. It looked like it was confident that it would not be able to cut through its thick skin.

At that moment, a very welcome notification rang in his head.

[Intangible Sword.]

[Your sword strike has ignored all of the enemy’s defenses.]

Shwaaaaaaaaaak!

Rain (Soar) slashed through the ogre’s body as it created a crescent mark on the wall behind it.

“Greuoooo?”

The body of the ogre that was running straight at him was split in half.

Thud!

[You have set a new record for Ructo’s Tomb\'s Third Trial.]

[There is a huge gap between the previous record breakers.]

[You have gained 40,000 EXP.]

[You have leveled up.]

[Your score will be based off of the new record and the gap between the 2nd place. You will be able to receive special rewards.]

[You have acquired 30 special points.]

[You can invest your special points on stats that couldn’t be raised with normal bonus points.]

‘Oh……’

Minhyuk was rewarded with a x2 increase in his EXP acquisition rate from the 2nd trial. But he had set a new record. Furthermore, since there was a huge gap from the previous record holders, he was also able to get special rewards.

‘The other users must be really bad at playing games……’

He titled his head in thought. The others were doing it together in a 5-man party but he was doing it all alone so he believed that they must have really been bad at playing games.

Minhyuk placed all of his special points on his DEX. Then, he passed through the third gate and entered the 4th gate.

[Your HP and MP have both recovered.]

[The fourth trial is beginning.]

[The time limit is 10 minutes.]

[Various traps will be attacking you strongly.]

[Please head on to the exit in front of you.]

Just as Minhyuk stepped foot inside……

Click━

His foot stepped on a trip wire that was laying on the floor quietly. At that moment, a huge axe swung in the air in front of him.

“Step.”

Minhyuk stepped twice as he moved as quickly as he could. When he stopped for a moment, a cannon with a dragon’s head blew out a burst of powerful flame towards his face.

Baaaaaang!

“Kghhk!”

Minhyuk couldn’t stop his body from flying backwards. He could see that just one shot had cut down his HP by 30%.

Not long after, he could feel a huge tremor from the ground. He quickly jumped up as dozens of spears sprang up from the ground.

Stab!

Even though he jumped up, his ankle was still pierced by one of the spears.

[You have received a huge shock from your right foot.]

[You will be restricted from using your right foot until you heal it.]

Minhyuk frowned. He knew that the higher the stage he went to, the more difficult the trial would become. However, the millstone. He needed to get that millstone. He limped and moved forward at the thought of eating those fresh, bouncy and steaming hot tofu.

The moment that he was about to eat the bread in his arms.

Baaang!

Another trap was triggered as huge flames sprang up engulfing his whole body. In the meantime, the first thing that he did was to protect his bread as he hid it as quickly as he could in his inventory.

Then he heard the notifications.

[Your HP has fallen below 50%.]

[Your HP has fallen below 30%.]

[Your HP has fallen below 10%.]

The explosion of flames had caused his body a considerate amount of damage. Minhyuk frowned at his HP that was closely approaching zero.

At that moment……

The skill attached to Ellie’s Kitchen Knife, which he had equipped back to his greatsword earlier, was triggered. In other words, He Who Overcomes had been triggered.

[He Who Overcomes.]

[Your HP has increased to 1. You are now invincible for 3 seconds.]

[All of your abilities have increased by 30% for 3 seconds.]

Minhyuk realized that his destination was not too far away from him.

‘If I’m invincible for 3 seconds……’

The remaining distance between him and the exit was 40m. If he did it well, then he would be able to pass through this place easily.

***

TL’s corner!

What will he ever use. Step can only allow him 1m of movement I think… hmmmmmm.

PR’s corner!

For those who play video games, 180 frames of invincibility is pretty insane.

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