Chapter 64: Chapter 64

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Chapter 64

[Lv.120 Unknown Space]

He entered the level 120 Unknown Space.

An empty space of nothingness.

The sky was dark, and the ground was covered in thick fog.

It felt like he was standing on top of the sky.

Nevertheless, the ground was hard, like asphalt.

Jeong-Hoon took out Anima.

“Where is this again?”

Anima asked, climbing onto Jeong-Hoon’s shoulder.

“Unknown Space.”

“Unknown Space? What’s that?”

“I don’t know.”

Unfortunately, Alessandro hadn’t explained the Unknown Space in detail.

Their conversation had been cut short due to multiple dungeons opening while he was busy boasting.

So from here on, Jeong-Hoon had to find the hidden theme himself.

‘This will take a while.’

He walked and searched for nearly an hour, but couldn’t find anything special.

The surroundings remained the same, giving him the illusion that he was walking in circles.

“Are there no monsters? I don’t sense any presence.”

“That can’t be right.”

One thing was certain: this Unknown Space was a dungeon.

There had to be monsters in a dungeon.

Jeong-Hoon drew his bowstring once.

‘I’ve never been here before, but I’ve been to countless similar places.’

Dungeons weren’t just places to hunt monsters.

There were places like mazes to solve, places with severe hallucinations, and even terrible environments where you would die as soon as you entered.

Jeong-Hoon, who had experienced all of them, judged that this dungeon was similar to a maze.

He focused his keen senses to read the flow of mana around him.

‘…The sky?’

Jeong-Hoon looked up.

He sensed a powerful mana, irregularly sparking like electricity, coming from there.

That was the energy axis that made up this space.

He aimed at the axis and released the drawn bowstring.

Whoosh!

The arrow shot out and pierced the axis.

Crack.

At the same time, he heard a faint sound of glass cracking.

“Oh, what was that sound?”

“The sound of the correct answer.”

Jeong-Hoon drew the bowstring again and shot an arrow.

Usually, in mazes like this, you had to destroy the surrounding tricks to move on to the next stage.

Crack.

The sound of the surface cracking became clearer.

It was really hard.

He drew the bowstring again and shot an arrow.

Crack. Crack!

As the third arrow hit, the energy axis shattered, and the gathered mana scattered.

The mana scattered, followed by a shattering sound, and the Unknown Space shattered like glass.

And then the original dungeon unfolded before Jeong-Hoon’s eyes.

“What is this?”

“Yes. It’s a graveyard.”

The newly revealed place was a graveyard.

A graveyard with an eerie atmosphere.

The graveyard was very large, but there was only one grave.

A very large grave.

[Lv.120 Maiden Ghost]

[Lv.120 Bachelor Ghost]

Then, translucent ghosts appeared on the ground, overgrown with weeds.

A man and a woman ghost, dressed in white mourning clothes.

“Wh-What are those?!”

Anima was startled.

“It’s tailored to Korea.”

If Alessandro had entered, monsters tailored to his country would have been summoned.

Since Jeong-Hoon was Korean, ghosts familiar to him were summoned.

Their common features were pale complexions and dark circles under their eyes.

However, their appearances were all different.

As if each had their own story, some ghosts had blood-soaked clothes, while others had half of their faces torn off.

The most horrifying one was the ghost whose upper and lower body were severed and moving separately.

It was a scene that sent chills down his spine.

“Creepy guys.”

Anima seemed to feel the same way, hiding behind Jeong-Hoon.

He was trembling inside Jeong-Hoon’s clothes, making it hard to believe he was a dragon.

“You… You’re really scared even tho your a dragon?”

“Is there a law that says dragons can’t be scared?”

“Not really, but…”

“Hmph, I’m a dragon who hates scary things. When I was a dragon, if anyone told me a scary story, I’d blast them with my breath.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Then he had to finish this quickly.

Jeong-Hoon put the bow into his inventory for the frightened Anima.

Anima, who had been flinching inside his clothes, also went into the bow.

“Then let’s finish this quickly.”

Jeong-Hoon used his movement technique to approach the grave.

The ghosts followed Jeong-Hoon, making strange noises.

‘Ghosts can’t be dealt with just by hunting them like monsters.’

Physical attacks didn’t work on them.

Even when ghosts attacked users, they didn’t use physical attacks but instead cast debuffs like curses to drain the user’s life force.

Just like now.

[You have been cursed.]

[Your health starts to decrease.]

[All stats decreased by 10%.]

He was cursed, and his health started to drain rapidly.

If a user didn’t know how to deal with this, they would fail even if they were higher level than the ghosts.

But Jeong-Hoon knew the strategy better than anyone.

He knew that to get rid of ghosts, he had to hunt down the necromancer who summoned them.

In most cases, the boss was the necromancer.

‘If it were the old me, I would have looked for the necromancer first.’

Because he couldn’t damage the ghosts.

But Jeong-Hoon wasn’t the same anymore.

[The curse has been lifted.]

He had divine power that could lift curses.

And his hand was glowing with divine power.

Bam!

Jeong-Hoon’s fist landed squarely on the bachelor ghost’s face.

“!@#!@”

The bachelor ghost’s head spun as it rolled on the ground and then disappeared.

“&@#$!@?”

“!@#!@”

The ghosts faltered, speaking in an unknown language.

Their faces were full of bewilderment, as if they hadn’t expected him to attack.

“Oh… What the? This guy is not ordinary.”

Jeong-Hoon was also a little surprised.

If he had punched the ghost in the face, it should have scattered like fog, not rolled on the ground.

But he had just felt a proper impact.

Those things.

They weren’t just ordinary ghosts.

‘When a necromancer’s level is high, they can summon ghosts with deep grudges.’

That was probably the case here.

‘But it’s fine, I can purify them with divine power.’

Their weakness was divine power.

Necromancy was a kind of black magic, so it could be purified with divine power.

Of course, it required a level of divine power that surpassed black magic, and Jeong-Hoon’s divine power had exceeded 200, so it was more than enough to purify the ghosts in front of him.

“Come on in if you want to get hit.”

Jeong-Hoon beckoned the ghosts with his finger.

“$@#$!@#”

“&^&^%”

The ghosts, enraged, rushed at him all at once.

* * *

The ghosts were beaten so badly that it was pitiful to watch before they finally disappeared.

“What the…”

A voice filled with shock came from inside the grave.

It was such a small voice that he wouldn’t have heard it if he didn’t have keen senses.

Jeong-Hoon walked towards the grave.

There was a small entrance in the grave.

A small entrance that could barely fit one person.

He even had to crouch down to enter.

‘Is this the passage to the hidden theme?’

Jeong-Hoon, entering the grave, immediately realized that this was the place he was looking for.

It was very similar to the structure of the abandoned house where he had found the hidden theme in the starting village.

Inside the grave was an old coffin, lying alone.

There must be a crystal ball somewhere here that would lead to the hidden theme.

Jeong-Hoon ignored the ghosts’ screams and continued to walk towards the coffin.

There was a small entrance in the coffin.

A small entrance that could barely fit one person.

He even had to crouch down to enter.

‘Is this the passage to the hidden theme?’

Jeong-Hoon, entering the coffin, immediately realized that this was the place he was looking for.

It was very similar to the structure of the abandoned house where he had found the hidden theme in the starting village.

Inside the coffin was an old coffin, lying alone.

There must be a crystal ball somewhere here that would lead to the hidden theme.

However, there was one thing he had to do before that.

“I know you’re in there. Come out.”

Jeong-Hoon said, staring at the coffin.

The culprit who had summoned the ghosts in the graveyard.

He had to take care of the necromancer, the boss of this dungeon.

Whoosh.

At that moment, blue flames erupted from the floor where Jeong-Hoon was standing.

The flames surrounded Jeong-Hoon in a circle, burning brightly as if determined to burn his body.

“Keuh-heuh, you’ve been caught!”

And the owner of this dungeon, the necromancer, floated above the coffin.

[Lv.140 Ancient Soul Necromancer]

Ancient Soul Necromancer.

He was the master of the dungeon and the owner of the tomb he was currently in.

He must have been quite famous at one time, as his body was covered in dazzling accessories.

“Caught, you say.”

Jeong-Hoon smirked and took a step.

The fiercely burning flames engulfed his entire body.

But they couldn’t harm him.

This was because he had created a barrier with his divine power to protect his body.

The divine power, exceeding 200, perfectly protected its owner as if the flames were nothing.

“What the…”

The necromancer’s face turned pale when his surprise attack failed.

He was incredibly timid for the master of a dungeon.

“It’s time for you to go.”

Divine power glowed faintly in Jeong-Hoon’s fist.

“Gulp…”

The necromancer had clearly seen Jeong-Hoon’s battle through the ghosts.

And he was certain.

He couldn’t beat him in close combat.

So he set a trap and subtly leaked his voice.

The luring was very successful.

Jeong-Hoon had fallen for the trap perfectly.

But even this trap couldn’t inflict the slightest damage on Jeong-Hoon.

Woosh-

Jeong-Hoon used his movement technique and threw a punch at the necromancer’s face.

But the necromancer hurriedly knelt, causing the fist to cut through the air.

“Surrender! I surrender!”

“…”

“Please spare me! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone like you, so I misjudged you!”

Jeong-Hoon withdrew his extended fist.

“Spare you?”

It was absurd.

He was just testing the waters because the necromancer seemed timid, but he hadn’t expected him to surrender so vehemently.

Was this guy really the master of the dungeon?

As he glared at him with suspicious eyes, the necromancer buried his head in the ground and wailed loudly.

“Sob… I’ve already died once. Why would I lie?”

“Since you’ve died once, you might not be afraid of anything.”

“No! I can’t die!”

A long time passed before the necromancer stopped crying.

‘This is troublesome.’

He didn’t like killing someone so attached to life.

If it were before his regression, he would have mercilessly cut him down.

But was it because he had once been on the verge of death and come back to life?

He found it strange that he felt empathy for a mere monster.

However, this guy was a monster.

The necromancy he had shown earlier seemed quite useful, but there was no way to avoid killing him.

“Really? But what can you do? This dungeon closes when you die.”

This was because the dungeon closed when the dungeon master disappeared.

“I-I’m not a monster! I have a name, Michael!”

He shouted urgently.

“Michael? You have a holy name, unlike your appearance.”

“Yes! I’m a very good person, despite how I look.”

“Okay. So I’ll send you to the afterlife.”

Yes, this wasn’t killing, it was annihilation.

This kind of dungeon was a one-time event, so once it disappeared, it was gone forever.

So there was no other option.

“No! Not until I get the guy who did this to me…”

Michael didn’t want to disappear here.

He still had something to do.

The culprit who had cornered him and killed him.

He couldn’t be annihilated before taking revenge on him.

“Is that so?”

A strange light flashed in Jeong-Hoon’s eyes.

“Yes…”

“There is one way you can live.”

“What is it?!”

“Become my subordinate.”

There was a class called Tamer in New World.

It was one of the unpopular classes, with few guides posted online, similar to the martial artist class.

Tamers had almost no combat skills and could be described as a class that fought battles by taming monsters in fields or dungeons and using them as their vanguard.

‘Jeong-Hoon, you’re not an all-master yet!’

That’s what Yoo-Chan, a Legendary Tamer who was his colleague, had said.

‘Why?’

‘Because you don’t know how to tame.’

‘…I don’t need to. I’m not greedy for the title of all-master.’

‘Oh, but a true all-master should know how to tame, right? So I’ll teach you about taming.’

The taming he had learned reluctantly should come in handy at a time like this.

Originally, Tamers used skills to tame monsters.

And Yoo-Chan knew the working principle of that skill.

Only after months of one-on-one tutoring from him was Jeong-Hoon able to tame a single monster.

“I’ll do it!”

The necromancer shouted urgently and bowed his head.

Jeong-Hoon nodded at his resolute will.

“Alright.”

Taming wasn’t easy.

This was because the caster forcibly bound the monster with their own magic power.

Therefore, the tamer had to be of a higher level than the monster they were trying to tame.

However, if the monster was favorable towards taming, the story was different.

There was no need to engage in a power struggle, so even if the skill level wasn’t high, they could tame a higher-level monster.

Currently, Jeong-Hoon didn’t have any skills related to taming, so he had to deploy the technique himself.

‘It’s a technique I’ve drawn countless times.’

Jeong-Hoon channeled magic power into his index finger, and a blue mana flickered slightly on it.

He then began to draw the technique on the ground.

Stroke by stroke.

As he quickly drew, the technique was soon completed.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

[The technique is too perfect!]

[Martial Artist exclusive skill, ‘Steadfast Will’ is activated.]

[Skill, ‘Taming (Epic)’ is acquired.]

Steadfast Will quickly reacted to the flawless technique.

‘So fast?’

Jeong-Hoon’s eyes widened slightly.

Steadfast Will, which normally reacted after drawing it 100 times, had reacted after just one time.

It was a bit surprising.

As Steadfast Will had reached Unique grade, his learning ability had also greatly increased.

[Using Taming.]

The necromancer’s body was enveloped in a blue light, and then a white light burst out, reconstructing his body.

It was a sign of success.

[Taming successful!]

[You can now use the Monster Collection System!]

[This monster is not in your collection!]

[You have acquired 5,000 achievement points!]