Goodbye, Highten (1)
Han-bin and his party huddled together and looked down at the unidentified piece of black crystal.
“So…”
Effir muttered.
“It’s called ‘Fragment of Complete Omphalos’s Blessing’?”
Ryu Han-bin answered in a carefree way.
“Yes.”
“What a long name.”
“It’s long, and the grammatical meaning is ambiguous.”
What the hell was Omphalos’s Blessing?
Artis became even more curious.
“Are you sure that’s what the Guideline says? Any further explanation?”
“No.”
Picking up the black crystal, Han-bin frowned.
“Let’s just put it aside for now. What do we do with this?”
The black crystal was part of the darkness that the Earthling had.
The darkness brutally mutilated its master and killed him.
Effir furrowed her brows.
“It’s an impregnable thing. Wouldn’t it be better to throw it away?”
If they dug deep in a deserted place and buried it, it would be enough to prevent it from getting into other people’s hands.
Artis was against the idea.
“The situation is too serious for that, considering it’s related to the Devil.”
Ryu Han-bin also agreed.
It had the name Omphalos.
“I’ve got a clue about the Devil as far as I’m concerned. It would be a waste to bury it.”
Nevertheless, it was dangerous to carry a Unique Item around without any countermeasures.
It would be wasteful to throw it away, and they would be leery of carrying it around.
Artis agonized about their predicament for quite a while before reaching a conclusion.
“Let’s seal it and take it with us.”
They purchased a Demon-wrap from the Mage Guild and stored the crystal in there.
“This should be enough.”
* * *
Ryu Han-bin’s daily life didn’t change much after he went through the Alien incident.
Hardly practicing the Maxbrid Martial Arts, he exerted all his efforts to raising the levels of Artis and Effir.
The plan to level up the two members of the Dragon Race had changed slightly.
Since they had been fed enough energy, they needed to build up the appropriate combat experience.
“Let’s close up Rastol Dungeon, Han-bin.”
“I agree. It’s time to hit a different Dungeon.”
He didn’t bother joining other Hunters’ teams because they had already achieved the goal of spreading rumors about how powerful they were.
They were more than enough to close down Dungeons.
Cread, Safira, Kephal, and Hythedas.
Four more Dungeons banished from Latna.
A huge amount of Devil’s Spirit Stones, Magic Tools, and Four artifacts had been looted.
It had been a month since then.
Han-bin and his party had started attacking the Telvas Dungeon, the most powerful Dungeon in Highten.
* * *
The huge Gyger lake was already in darkness.
Under the magical light source that rose into the air, a large monster that looked like a combination of warts and spiders howled.
Grrrrr!
Grand Slasher, Guardian of the Telvas Dungeon.
The demon was powerful enough to completely destroy a team of 10 top Hunters of Level 48.
Yet the Grand Slasher was being pushed back by a single little silver-haired girl.
-Magic Swordsmanship: Wind Rush!
With her body speeding up, Effir took a low stance and attacked the left side of the beast.
The Grand Slasher roared, causing the insect’s overlapping eyes to glint.
Arghhhhhhh!
Dozens of flaming arrows were formed in the air and rained down like a firestorm.
At the same time, spiky stalagmites shot up from the floor, aiming for Effir.
“Huh!”
Through elegant maneuvers, she avoided all the attacks.
Her speed didn’t drop, either.
She took the most efficient evasive actions that required minimal movements and no unnecessary delays.
Wasting no time, she pierced her twin blades into the fragile crevice between the shelled jaws of the beast.
-Magic Swordsmanship: Howling Thunderstorm!
Powerful shells protected the Grand Slasher, but its interior was soft.
A blitzkrieg flowed through the double swords, burning the body of the demon.
Argh!
The Grand Slasher struggled with its last scream.
After a while, it stopped moving and started producing a well-done barbecue scent.
After pulling out the weapons and shaking the body fluids off of them, Effir laughed delightedly.
“I got you!”
Ryu Han-bin, who was only watching from afar, applauded.
“Congratulations, Effir. You’ve reached level 50.”
Collecting the Spirit Stone of the Grand Slasher, Artis also praised her.
“You managed to get rid of this beast by yourself, Effir.”
He watched her battle intently like Ryu Han-bin.
Though quite familiar with the battle itself as a Magic Swordswoman, Effir still lacked ample amounts of combat experience.
They decided to make her battle the Guardian alone to make up for that weakness.
“Level 50. Did I catch up with Artis?”
Artis shrugged.
“I’m Level 52 now.”
“Eh? When did you level up?”
“Yesterday.”
“Huh, I was hoping I’d catch up with you.”
With a sigh, Effir sheathed the twin blades by her side again.
“Well, I’ve still got a long way to go.”
She wanted to be strong and helpful. She grumbled.
Artis soothed her in a soft voice.
“You don’t have to rush. With your talent, it’ll be possible, sooner or later.”
He didn’t seem to care at all about how strong Effir had become in just a few months.
A Dragon’s life span was long.
It lasted anywhere between 500 years old and 1,000 years old.
Their levels rose proportionately slow to how they aged.
It took too long to become stronger compared to short-lived species.
The acquaintances of Artis had had too many experiences to overtake them in a flash.
As such, it didn’t hurt his pride that Effir would be at a higher level than him.
He would be stronger than her 100 years later.
Why?
By then, Effir would be old and dying already.
Of course, Artis didn’t really think about that.
It meant that his pride was hurt when he thought of such a thing in the first place.
It just meant that he was insensitive to others getting stronger quickly than him.
After all, a Dungeon’s Guardian had been cleared. He had nothing left to do in the Telvas Dungeon.
Ryu Han-bin stepped forward.
“Then let’s close this one as well. Take the Artifact.”
The Dungeon Core could be seen behind the fallen Grand Slasher.
Fluttering in the air was a white robe.
Han-bin clicked his tongue after looking at the Guideline.
“There’s something useless attached to it?”
[Robe of Self-Repair (Artifact)
Chanting the activation word ‘Recovery’ would restore the damaged area to its original shape.
Level Requirement: Lv. 45. Number of uses: 30 times a day.]
“It’s just automatic mending.”
It wasn’t a useful function for combat at all.
He didn’t have to mend his clothes anyway.
“By the way, this world’s Magic Tool concept is weird.”
Artifacts were stronger than available magic items, but Unique Items weren’t stronger than Artifacts.
Their value depended on its number of uses available as well as the level requirement.
As a result, there were quite a few useless Artifacts.
“I can’t even sell it.”
It would be better to wear a robe with other useful special traits for combat than to wear the one they got.
However, Artis coveted it.
“Can I have it, please?”
“What? What are you going to use it for?”
“I’ve torn my robes a lot lately. I want to stop doing a strip show.”
“I see. Artis, it would be quite useful for you.”
It would be better to wear one of those than carrying around a bunch of robes.
“But don’t you need it more, Effir?”
Whenever Effir went back to being a Wyvern, her clothes would get torn as well.
Artis shook his head.
“I thought of that, too, but it’s a robe. Can you put on that fluttering robe and fight against gladiators, Effir?”
“It’s too much. I don’t know if it’s an armor that can be recovered automatically.”
Eventually, the robes of self-recovery fell to Artis’s care.
Pulling the robe out of the air, Ryu Han-bin grinned.
“Then Telvas Dungeon is out of business.”
The space warped, and the Dungeon began to close.
* * *
A period of ‘Energy Digestion’ naturally followed after filling their cores with it.
Artis was in the midst of his magic research that day as well.
He opened several books and scrolls and continued to operate mana, experimenting with what he was learning.
It was all to study Burning Flare, a Level 52 Magic spell.
Ryu Han-bin, who was watching from the side, raised a question.
“How’s it going?”
Frowning, Artis grumbled.
“It’s difficult. There’s too little data.”
Thanks to Han-bin, Artis leveled up at a tremendous speed.
Every time he did, he spent all his money on buying scrolls.
The higher the level of magic, the higher the price of scrolls.
He had already been economically broken a long time ago.
Just recently, they had the following conversation.
-I’m penniless. Han-bin, lend me some money.
-You said you’d pay me back for your life. Is it okay for you to owe me more?
-I have so much debt that I can’t pay you back right away. I’ll just increase my debt. Then I’ll pay you back all at once!
-… Do you have much pride or not? You’re confusing.
Of course, Ryu Han-bin lent him money without hesitation.
He didn’t need the money anyway.
Artis, who had learned magic so quickly, slowly reached a limit.
If he had money, he could buy magic scrolls and learn spells easily up to level 50.
However, orders beyond that level couldn’t be obtained from such changes.
Artis had no choice but to learn from his own research.
“There’s nothing I can do but to study hard.”
“You suffer many hardships.”
Artis grinned at Han-bin’s words.
“It’s no hardship. I have no conscience if I level up as easily as I do yet still complain.”
He gradually reached level 52 Mage.
He was level 60 in his Dragon form.
His Dragon level was 52 when the Mage was level 36. He felt like the Dragon’s level didn’t increase as much as he thought.
However, it was a natural result.
When using Level 36 magic, the Dragon’s physical strength was greatly reflected in its practical ability.
It was the difference between a child holding a sword and an adult holding a sword.
On the other hand, magic above level 50 was now available.
His magic power had greatly increased, so instead of a sword, it was more like he had a gun.
At the point of holding a gun, the gap between children and adults was greatly reduced.
The stronger he became as a Mage, the less he needed to rely on his Dragon form’s physical strength.
“If it weren’t for you, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to raise my level so fast. Thank you.”
“It’s all because I need it. You are welcome.”
Feeling embarrassed, Ryu Han-bin changed the topic.
“By the way, Effir leveled up a lot too, didn’t she?”
In the backyard outside the window, they could see a beautiful silver-haired girl practicing magic.
-Magic Swordsmanship: North Wind Winter Snow!
White snow fluttered like petals as part of the colorful sword dance.
In between, her twin blades passed by in detail, drawing an elaborate orbit.
“It’s refreshing to see it again.”
Even if she could just buy a scroll and learn Magic Swordsmanship from it, her skills could only be improved through sheer effort.
Effir was a hardworking genius.
She quickly mastered most of the Magic Swordsmanship after purchasing their respective scrolls.
She also made enough progress with the Maxbrid Martial Arts to be able to use it intermediately.
‘I’m still in the beginning stage.’
Of course, Ryu Han-bin also had his own sets of achievements.
In his own way, he had achieved amazing results.
He could lightly punch in the air.
A lightning-fast punch was delivered and retrieved without a sound.
Han-bin liked it and shrugged his shoulders.
“Now I can control my strength, Yo.”
He finally reached the point where he could choose not to kill a man with his bare fists!
Artis, who was watching, replied with a sullen look.
“Let say it’s okay with bare hands. How about holding a sword?”
“That’s not yet…”
Regardless, everyone had become quite stronger than before.
Artis continued.
“You think we’ve reached the limit of this city?”
Artis and Effir no longer saw the enemies in the Dungeon City of Highten as powerful.
Though pulling energy in lump sums, the rate of their level-ups had slowed down.
They had closed even Telvas, the most powerful Dungeon.
Leveling up there had become inefficient.
“Yeah, I do.”
Ryu Han-bin looked out the window with a serious look on his face.
“It’s time to leave Highten.”
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