Was it because of all the restrictions?
The loot drop rate turned out to be rather excellent.
Jin-Woo only defeated three knights, yet two of them dropped an item each. As far as percentages go, that was 66.6%.
It was an unimaginably high drop rate compared to other instant dungeons.
Especially considering the fact that, when all he got after clearing a floor of an instant dungeon several times in a row would be a few japtem and stuff he had no use for other than to sell them off at the Store.
[âItem: Superior Knightâs Breastplateâ has been found. Take it?]
âOf course Iâm taking it.â
Just a thought, and the breastplate of the now-headless knight kneeling and unmoving on the ground disappeared and reappeared right before his feet. And its information popped up in his view.
[Item: Superior Knightâs Breastplate]
Rarity: B
Type: Armour
Reduction in physical damage: +7%
(Your movement will slow down if your Strength is below 80.)
7% increase in physical damage reduction!
When added to what he had already, the physical damage reduction would be 27%!
âIf this number reaches 100%, does that mean I become completely impervious to all physical damage?â
He briefly wondered about that, before realising that a defensive item ranked âBâ in rarity only added 7% to the overall value, and his thoughts rapidly changed.
Even if he found himself an item with a rarity of âAâ, the reduction may not go above 30-40%.
So, maybe it was impossible to add up to 100%?
âStill, every little bit helps, soâ¦..â
He was sure of benefiting greatly if he continued to increase that Stat bit by bit.
He already had witnessed the power of good items through Yu Jin-Ho, after all.
âSo, I do it like this, right?â
Jin-Woo picked up the breastplate. As expected, a message regarding equipping the armour popped up in his view.
[Will you equip âItem: Superior Knightâs Breastplateâ?]
No matter who looked at it, this breastplateâs design was rather clunky and embarrassing, and heâd never wear it in public.
If he didnât have prior experience with the âGatekeeperâs Necklaceâ, he mightâve hesitated a great deal before reluctantly agreeing to put it on, but nowâ¦
It was a different story now.
âYes.â
Tti-ring.
[âItem: Superior Knightâs Breastplateâ has been equipped.]
â¦.The breastplate disappeared from the view.
Jin-Woo summoned the Status Window and confirmed his Stats.
[Reduction in physical damage: 27%]
âSo, it really went up.â
Jin-Woo felt around his chest area. He couldnât feel anything weird. He moved his body around this way and that, but didnât feel anything strange or out of place.
It was exactly the same as when he equipped the Gatekeeperâs necklace for the first time.
âNice.â
Next, Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to the unmoving knight stuck in the distant corner.
It was bent and crumpled so badly that nothing looked salvageable, but still, the flickering light indicating the lootâs presence could be seen on it quite clearly.
[âItem: Leather Pouchâ has been found. Take it?]
Of course, he was the one responsible for that, but even he had to concede that he had gone a bit overboard there. He fought barehanded and well, it was really hard to control his strength, that was whyâ¦.
ââ¦â¦â
With a solemn expression on his face, Jin-Woo walked closer and reached out to take the loot away.
âAcquire it.â
[âItem: Leather Pouchâ has been opened.]
[30,000 Gold is inside.]
[30,000 Gold has been acquired.]
âHuh?!â
Nothing entered his hands yet he got a message declaring that he acquired some Gold, instead.
Was it a bit different from regular items?
Jin-Woo remained somewhat mystified as he accessed his Inventory, and sure enough, his Gold amount had really increased by 30,000.
[Current Gold: 863,400]
âI got 30,000 Gold in one go?â
Was it because knights were supposed to be wealthy or some such?
He abruptly remembered that most humanoid-type monsters usually gave out more loot than any other types in video games.
Now that he thought about it some more, not finding a greater number of useful items on a human being, when compared to an animal or an insect, didnât make a whole lot of sense, now did it?
He couldnât be sure if this dungeon followed that principal or not, though.
In any case, it could only be good news to him.
He was planning to save up more Gold and buy a few items from the Store, and if Gold kept showing up as loot in this fashion, then his planned shopping day would arrive much sooner than his initial estimation.
âIs there anything else that I can take with me?â
Well, human greed supposedly knew no limits, soâ¦.
Jin-Woo momentarily forgot about his true goal of wandering in this dungeon and greedily searched around his vicinity.
The armour worn by the knights were all pretty much mangled beyond recover from the fight just now so, it was a noâ¦.
Eventually, Jin-Wooâs eyes found the knightsâ swords.
âThey kinda look useful, donât they?â
Those longswords mustâve been brand new, looking all shiny and slick like that.
Although he couldnât use them properly since they werenât daggers, he could either sell them in the Store or if he couldnât, he could try hawking them off to other Hunters at a later date.
Jin-Woo picked up a sword.
However, as soon as he did, the sword rapidly rusted up and dissolved into a pile of dust, before scattering away.
âWhat the hellâ¦.?â
This process happened in only a couple of seconds.
âIs it because Iâm not supposed to touch them?â
What a regrettable thing this was, but naught he could do about it now.
Jin-Woo dusted his hands off and picked up the torch he left on the ground.
When he walked around the bend where the knights showed up from, yet another passage with no end in sight greeted him.
ââ¦â
It looked like there was still a long way to go.
These battles felt like he was revisiting school work.
The notion sounded funny, but thatâs what Jin-Woo ended up thinking, totally out of the blue.
During the past two hours of hunting inside the dungeon, he met four different types of monsters.
Knights, Mages, Assassins, and Archers.
âIs it Stealth this time?â
An assassin-type suddenly vanished from his senses.
Jin-Woo didnât panic and extended his Perception to its fullest. And soon enough, picked up on the presence sneaking up on him from behind.
Swish!
Jin-Woo powerfully smacked away the assassinâs dagger with his trusty Poison Fang of Kasaka, and seizing the opening created as the monster was pushed back, stabbed forward in a deadly and accurate attack of his own.
The Poison Fang accurately landed in the middle of the targetâs chest.
Stab!
[You defeated the assassin.]
[Level up!]
The assassin received a fatal wound and turned into a wisp of black smoke before disappearing from his view with nary a scream.
Plop.
And where it once stood, only the leather clothes it used to wear remained.
âWhy are they all humanoid-type monsters, anyway?â
Every time he âkilledâ them, he felt as ifâ¦.
Jin-Woo slowly shook his head.
One nice thing here was that he couldnât see the monstersâ faces; knights wore helmets, assassins and archers used deep hoods, and mages used hats attached to their robes to hide most of their faces.
Jin-Woo turned around to continue on his journey.
But then!
A flash of blinding light exploded right in front of his eyes. A mage had hidden itself and quietly completed a light magic spell.
Kaboom!!
An ear-splitting explosion occurred next.
However, Jin-Woo was already well behind the mage by the time that happened.
ââ¦..!!â
The mage sensed his presence behind it and flinched grandly as he hurriedly recited another chant. Too bad, Jin-Woo didnât miss this opening and swung his dagger diagonally.
The mage, too, turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared.
Plop.
Jin-Woo glared down at the ownerless robe on the ground and stored the dagger back in the Inventory.
âI got hit by one of those, way back when I got too careless.â
The thing was, he was already ready to react as soon as he began sensing Mana gathering around in a single point.
Joh Gyu-Hwanâs Light magic â Jin-Woo wasnât dumb enough to get hit by a similar magic to that dead guyâs.
This was one of the reasons why he thought that all these battles were like him studying and revisiting his past fights.
âThatâs not all, is it?â
In order to defeat different types of monsters, he needed different Stats.
For knights, it was Strength. For assassins, Perception. Archers, Agility. And finally, for mages, it was Stamina.
The whole thing was set up in a way that if any of the corresponding Stats werenât high enough, heâd have a real hard time trying to deal with the individual monsters.
If his Strength was lacking, then he wouldnât have been able to cause enough damage to the knights, and if his Perception was too low, heâd have gone through hell in order to locate the assassins.
âMe raising Stats evenly has really paid off dividends here.â
His Intelligence Stat was still on the low side, but all he had to do there was to economise his MP usage. That was all.
[âItem: Leather Pouchâ has been opened.]
[â20,000 Goldâ, and âCanteen Containing Lukewarm Waterâ are inside.]
[â20,000 Goldâ, and âCanteen Containing Lukewarm Waterâ have been acquired.]
Jin-Woo summoned that canteen as soon as it showed up in his Inventory and took several gulps.
âFuuâ¦.â
His fatigue was piling up noticeably now.
âJust how far am I supposed to go here?â
Could there be no end to this place?
Jin-Woo put the empty canteen down on the ground and placed his hands on his hips. It had been over three hours already since he entered this dungeon. Both his body and mind were getting fatigued now.
ââ¦.Should I take a short break?â
Jin-Woo sat down and leaned against the cave wall.
âStatus Window.â
Tti-ring.
[Tiredness: 66]
The âTirednessâ Stat had sneaked up to a dangerous level; above 70, his body and mind would start to get negatively affected.
He needed to take a short nap and decrease that Stat right away.
Jin-Woo leaned his head against the wall.
Sleepiness came over him almost instantly.
He was so tired that, even when in an environment as dangerous as this place, he didnât need a lot of effort to fall asleep.
Howeverâ¦
Swish-!
He heard the sharp whistle of air parting ways!
Time slowed down, and Jin-Woo accurately snatched the flying arrow with his hand.
Grab!
Jin-Wooâs eyes opened up.
He saw an archer nocking another arrow from some distance away.
âSo, itâs still too early to fall asleep, is it?â
Jin-Woo summoned the Poison Fang of Kasaka once more and stood back up.
Crunch!
One single punch caused the knightâs breastplate to crack and cave in; the lifeless monster slowly slid to the ground in between Jin-Wooâs stretched fist and the wall.
It didnât move again as it lay sprawled on the ground.
Tti-ring.
[You defeated the knight.]
[Level up!]
Although it was quite unfortunate that his condition didnât recover, his levels continued to rise up steadily as he fought more and more battles.
Jin-Woo looked down on his slightly-skinned fist and clicked his tongue.
Only a short break wouldâve taken care of such a small wound by now.
However, these abominable monsters didnât give him a moment to rest.
Still, he earned quite a lot in the meantime.
[Equipped items]
Gatekeeperâs Necklace (A)
Superior Knightâs Breastplate (B)
Intermediate Assassinâs Shoes (B)
Inferior archerâs Gloves (C)
Superior Mageâs Ring (B)
Other useful things he found along the way were now all safely tucked away in his Inventory.
âItâd been nicer if I found a weapon, thoughâ¦.â
What an unfortunate thing it was â the daggers used by the assassins featured similar levels of attack damage bonus as the Poison Fang of Kasaka, but none of them possessed additional effects, so they were deemed not as good compared to his current weapon.
âWhat would this guy give me now?â
Jin-Woo reached out towards the fallen knight and the flickering light coming off from it.
Tti-ring.
[Item: Superior Knightâs Gauntlet]
Rarity: B
Type: Armour
Reduction in physical damage: +3%
Additional effects: Prevents injuries to wearerâs hands.
(Your movement will slow down if your Strength is below 80.)
âOhhhâ¦.â
With a bright smile, Jin-Woo quickly âacquiredâ the Superior Knightâs Gauntlet and equipped it immediately.
Just like with all the other items, these metallic gloves didnât affect him in the slightest and he could freely move his fingers.
âNice.â
Jin-Woo moved his fingers around for a bit, before raising his head to look at the far side of the passageway.
Finally.
The torchlight revealed the end of the road.
And that end was blocked off by a huge castle gate.
It was quite rare to see the boss room with a door like that. Naturally, he recalled the dual dungeon. No one was adequately prepared back then, and because of that, the losses incurred were great.
However, it was different now.
Jin-Woo took a look behind him, at the passage he had been walking on to get here.
âIt took me six hours to get here, tooâ¦.â
His level was now 45, and he was kitted out in some good armour as well.
He was ready.
He wouldnât have minded taking a small break and recover some of his spent stamina, but whenever he tried to do that, monsters always managed to appear with the perfect sense of timing to disrupt his sleep.
He couldnât afford to summon more monsters and waste his energy that way.
[HP: 4511/8330]
[MP: 660/790]
[Tiredness: 43]
âI gotta win with this.â
Finishing up with confirming his condition for the last time, Jin-Woo reached out and grasped the handles of the doors.
Creak, creaaaakkk-!
The heavy-looking doors slid open rather smoothly, as if there was some sort of an unseen mechanism.
Fin.