500 (1)

Kaaang!

“Hoo!”

Shaaaaa!

The Protective Barrier, completely destroyed by Aikan’s second attack, shattered into pieces and emitted a flash.

It was the Devastation effect.

Because of that, the thick shield surrounding Aikan’s body disappeared at the same time.

This was because Aikan’s shield had the characteristic of being maintained by surrounding mana.

Since its foundation had disappeared, naturally, it could no longer be manifested. Of course, the mana that had temporarily evaporated completely would be filled again by the surrounding mana.

But at this very moment, Aikan’s reliable insurance, its shield, did not exist, and this was an opportunity.

Pshit!

A very faint gunshot came from behind Kang-hoo. It was so small that one would not even notice unless they tried to listen carefully.

It was Ayane’s skill, “Magic Bullet - Break,” also called her sniping finishing move.

It was a concept far above Full-Load Single Strike, loading an enormous amount of mana into one blow. In other words, it maximized destructive power.

Fwoosh!

Krrgh!

‘Good.’

Ayane’s magic bullet, which flew in the blink of an eye, pierced Aikan’s right shoulder and left a large wound.

Amid that, Aikan also twisted its body like the highly mobile boss it was and avoided a fatal wound, but that was all.

‘Let’s save Blood Flower. Not yet.’

When Kang-hoo saw the heavily wounded Aikan, he was about to activate Blood Flower right away, but held back.

That was only a thought focused simply on his own purpose as an assassin who always looked for opportunities.

Considering Aikan’s condition, it was something he had to avoid. It had not yet reached the level where Blood Flower could kill it.

When an opportunity came with guys like this, he had to be able to send them straight to the afterlife. Otherwise, they would somehow survive like leeches and become a headache.

‘It’s coming right away.’

The next expected pattern appeared.

When Aikan suffered a large wound, the attack pattern that immediately came out was Demon-Slaying Sword Energy.

It was a destructive attack that poured dozens of small sword energies onto one point at once. At the same time, it was also a “counterattack.”

It was also a means of forcing the opponent to dodge, thereby drawing out Aikan’s mobility enhancement.

In other words, if one was fooled by the appearance of Demon-Slaying Sword Energy and tried to dodge as Aikan wanted, one would only be doing a favor for the enemy.

Kwa-ga-ga-ga!

Dozens of small sword energies created from the tip of Aikan’s sword soon flew toward Kang-hoo with sounds of tearing through the air.

However.

It was blocked by Stage 3 Protection.

Since Demon-Slaying Sword Energy took the form of a rapid chain of strikes in an instant, a momentary invincibility was enough.

Tung! Tung! Tung!

When the attack it had brought out as something like a finishing move was helplessly blocked by Protection, Aikan’s face twisted.

Kang-hoo did not take even a single step backward from where he stood. Instead, he was smiling and mocking it to his heart’s content.

Kroooot!

Kwaang!

Aikan, whose mood had been greatly ruined, withdrew Demon-Slaying Sword Energy and immediately slammed its greatsword down with all its strength.

The powerful downward slam, each attack strong enough to gouge the ground, was also one of Aikan’s specialties.

But this too was blocked by Stage 2 Protection.

The fierce sword wind gouged the ground deeply, but Kang-hoo, whom it had wanted to press down, was perfectly fine.

Protection’s barrier ignored Aikan’s powerful blow far too easily, as if it were a trivial attack.

Pshoooot!

Krrooooo!

In the meantime, Ayane’s Magic Bullet - Break flew in again.

Aikan’s face instantly turned ashen.

Unable to find a way to remove this annoying human in front of its eyes, it was being openly sniped from long range in the worst situation.

Clearly, before the battle began, it had been confident of an easy, overwhelming victory…….

But now, it could not think of what it should do, as if its mind had gone completely blank. Something had gone wrong.

As the battle continued, damage accumulated one-sidedly on Aikan.

The moment Ayane’s Magic Bullet - Break pierced the chest of Aikan, who was flailing with a slowed body inside Kang-hoo’s Tricolor Formation - Red Circle Formation.

Kang-hoo activated Blood Flower and turned it into a perfect critical hit.

Aikan did not die, but it had effectively lost the ability to resist, and from then on, it was nothing more than a large corpse.

Kang-hoo spread Heaven-and-Earth Dragnet - Kill generously, intending to completely crush the staggering Aikan.

Kooong!

In the end, Aikan died inside the killing net, its whole body split apart.

The giant body that had once been majestic and full of momentum turned into dozens of chunks of meat in an instant.

‘One left.’

The amount of experience obtained from Aikan’s death was unimaginably large.

That probably meant that very few hunters had entered Dungeon No. 17 so far, and even fewer had succeeded in clearing Aikan.

Even so, it was almost miraculous that a dungeon break had not occurred.

No, perhaps it had already happened, and the monsters had scattered and disappeared into the surroundings.

There was no CCTV here, nor any stationed personnel, so there was no way to know whether incidents or accidents had occurred.

Tudududuk!

Three red mana stones immediately dropped.

They came out perfectly for distribution.

Kang-hoo immediately picked up the mana stones and tossed one each to Ayane and Park Dong-jae. The signs were good from the start.

A brief rest period.

Ayane focused on cooling and maintaining her mana-shot pistol, while Park Dong-jae focused on recovering the mana he had excessively consumed throughout the battle.

Meanwhile, Kang-hoo immediately plundered the skill he had been eyeing from the beginning among the plunder skill list activated on the dead Aikan.

The other skills were based on greatsword use, so they did not suit Kang-hoo, who mainly used daggers.

But this skill alone seemed to have many uses in any form, on the premise that he used a sword, so he could not give it up.

He did not forget to activate the filtering setting to compare the difference between the state where proficiency had not been worked on and the state where it had reached maximum.

Thanks to Dimension Plunderer, the changes added to the skill upon achieving maximum proficiency would be displayed in parentheses.

‘If I lack mana, I can use Dark Energy, and if the situation calls for it, I can use both. Either way, it’s a more-is-better type, so there’s nothing for me to lose. On top of that, strong homing ability has been added within close range.’

It was a bit late to think about it, but he wondered whether he would be where he was now if not for Dimension Plunderer.

Plundering boss monster skills was broken enough, but being able to immediately max out that skill’s proficiency was even more broken.

Thinking about it, in the original story, he had often set good skills on bosses like this.

That way, he could increase the appeal of the bosses the protagonist Jang Si-hwan would clear, and when he succeeded in clearing them, the catharsis would feel even greater.

To the point that readers had asked whether that skill should have been given to Jang Si-hwan rather than the boss monster.

That was how much effort Kang-hoo, as the original author, had put into shaping boss monster skills. To a degree that could be called excessive.

‘Whatever else may be true, as long as I keep going to dungeons and clearing boss monsters, at least skill acquisition won’t stop. That alone makes my potential infinite. That is an unchanging fact, and the source of my growth.’

Even skills he thought were useless could be reborn through synthesis into skills with newly gained utility.

Since there was not a single skill that was unnecessary to Kang-hoo, he looked forward even more to the future.

No matter what he obtained, it would surely gain value that had to be used.

For enemies who would oppose him, the number of choices that made Kang-hoo difficult to deal with would continue increasing as time passed.

As if the successful clearing of Aikan had served to unblock their flow, Kang-hoo’s group’s clearing afterward advanced with unstoppable momentum.

Until the 90% point of the dungeon, in other words, the position not affected by the Extreme Period, there was nothing that could be called a crisis.

They could have pushed forward in the same momentum into the remaining 10%, the territory of the main boss monster.

But at that point, pitch-black dungeon night arrived, forcing the group to rest.

As Park Dong-jae and Ayane were also exhausted at just the right time, a natural atmosphere of rest was created.

After setting up a simple base camp, Kang-hoo stood the night watch while the remaining two went to sleep first.

They were so tired that they passed out as soon as they closed their eyes. Ayane even snored hard, though she normally did not snore.

After confirming once again that everyone was sleeping soundly, Kang-hoo came out to a place with a wide-open view and stood comfortably.

There were no suspicious movements felt nearby. He had placed Mumyeong farther forward just in case, so if an uninvited guest came, it would react first.

‘Finally.’

Seeing the number 500 clearly stamped in the level space, Kang-hoo made a deeply moved expression.

On the first day he opened his eyes in this world, when he woke up in Cheongmyeong Detention Center.

To Kang-hoo, level 500 had been a distant future that felt impossible to reach, like a star in the night sky.

At the time, Kang Dong-hyun, whom he considered his greatest enemy and an insurmountable wall, had been in the 500s.

Growth that might have taken years, no, perhaps over a decade through a normal growth process, had ended in a few months.

Since many things changed starting at level 500, the symbolism of this number was truly huge.

A simple example was that “all dungeons became accessible.”

This was because most of the highly attractive dungeons in this world had level restrictions.

That standard point was usually 500.

Dungeons that hunters below level 500 could not even enter. There were quite a few such dungeons around the world.

‘First, let’s go to the roulette.’

His eyes went to the roulette he had been looking forward to for a while. The tips of his lips dried slightly, showing that he was a little nervous too.

The roulette was a lottery with no blanks, so there was nothing to lose. That was why, if it was a lottery he would win anyway, he wanted a better prize to come out.

Yes, it was swarming greed.

A familiar message sounded.

Whether he delayed or spun it immediately, the result should already be decided. Kang-hoo spun the roulette right away.

Countless results were imprinted in Kang-hoo’s vision inside the roulette and then disappeared.

Rewards that were quite tempting appeared, and rewards he wanted to avoid also passed by. The types were truly diverse.

The roulette gradually began to slow down. Along with that, the rewards visible on the list also became clearer.

‘Please.’

A reward that made him unconsciously clasp his hands and hope!

Tututung! Tung! Tutung! Tung…….

Soon, the roulette came to a complete stop and output the reward Kang-hoo would obtain at level 500.