BXBX NOVEL Chapter 79: Hidden Dungeon, Part II
Chapter 79: Hidden Dungeon, Part II
Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
There was no way to escape the blood curse once inside the Blood Prince’s domain. The blood curse itself was severely detrimental.
The video continued on.
“What!”
“A deva just…”
“There’s a deva out there that can hold his own against the Blood Prince?” They couldn’t believe what they just saw. Even after the video ended, everyone in the conference sat in shocked silence.
“At the last part when the Blood Prince refused to leave his Blood Pool, do you think it was because he was afraid of that deva?”
“Yeah, right. It’s the Blood Prince, the worst of all deities.”
“Then what else could it be? He stood there for thirty seconds before Ang-te showed up. You know what kind of monster the Blood Prince is!”
“That’s…” They were sure that Blood Prince couldn’t have been afraid, that he was always eager for a fight but they could see him not move a single muscle for the entire thirty seconds.
The Myth Guild knew quite well how much the Blood Prince loved fights, the more vicious and bloody the better. This new sight was, for lack of a better word, strange to them.
“I think…” After watching the video in complete silence, Ebonene spoke up. Everyone else in the room, including Shin, turned to look at him.
Ebonene became a deva after the age of sixty, but had looked after Shin since she was a child. He was one of the pivotal members of the Myth Guild. He fought the most against the Blood Prince, and was even responsible for killing the Blood Prince once.
“He’s contemplating whether or not to use Blood Rush.”
“What?!”
“That’s just unbelievable. The Blood Prince wanted to use Blood Rush on one person?” It was totally unbelievable that the Blood Prince actually thought about using Blood Rush on a single deva.
This was the Blood Prince they were talking about; the deity that terrorized the Myth Guild for a year and a half now! The Myth Guild was only able to properly retaliate once against him.
The Myth Guild had incurred unspeakable losses to him. Three to four thousand devas had lost their lives at the hands of the Blood Prince. Most of them had even died multiple times to his savagery. The Blood Prince was a true monster to the Myth Guild.
“I agree with the vice-master,” said Benenti. Benenti was an Unrivaled of the Myth Guild, and was also the guild’s main tanker. Benenti was always there whenever the Myth Guild fought against the Blood Prince.
Everyone else in the room fell silent when two experts on the Blood Prince agreed with one another. Denying what the two just said was pretty much blasphemy.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. But did no one else notice anything strange?”
“Huh?”
“So you’ve noticed, too,” Ebonene nodded.
“The deva that fought against the Blood Prince is an Unrivaled.”
“Yes, we know that.”
“Didn’t that become obvious when the blood curse didn’t work on him?”
“What’s so strange about that?”
“The Unrivaled skill is… currently best used by tanks. Right now, I’m level 617. I learned the skill at level 500, and used the two skill points I have received since towards tank skills. In other words, my ATT is rather low. My STR is above 1,000 thanks to the extra 10 Stat points I’ve been getting every time I leveled up, but it is still lower than the vice-master’s.”
It was then that the others understood what Benenti meant.
“Let’s watch the video again. Notice anything about the Blood Prince’s expression? He’s feeling pain and getting annoyed. When have we seen him make such a face? It happened only once… when we managed to kill him!”
“That… did happen.”
“I see.”
“Unrivaled devas have the ability to receive 50% less damage from deities, making them the perfect shield against deities. But all that means is that Unrivaled devas can withstand attacks from deities better than normal devas. They don’t have the ability to inflict significant damage against them. If a deity and an Unrivaled deva fight to the death, the deity will win. That much is obvious.” Benenti looked around the room as he spoke.
“However, we just saw the deva in the video force the Blood Prince to use Blood Pool as defense, and not attack. A single deva did this. Furthermore, this deva doesn’t seem to have any other skills besides Unrivaled.” Benenti’s words brought to light what they couldn’t see before. They could now see that this never-before seen deva was stronger than they initially thought.
“He’s looks like an Oriental. Is he Chinese? Japanese? They all look the same to me, so I’m not too sure,” Shin finally spoke up after listening quietly.
(TL Note: Whoa, whoa, whoa lady. TF? Jk, you right.)
“It’s true that they do look similar, but there are distinct differences if you look carefully. That man… looks like he’s South Korean.” No one said anything to contradict Ebonene. He had the most overseas experience out of everyone in the room.
“I see. We don’t need every Tom, Dick, and Harry to take on the Blood Prince. As you all know, they just end up becoming Health Potions for him,” said Shin. Everyone nodded in agreement. The wounds on their bodies attested to that.
“The Blood Prince will once again call for our surrender. We’ve rejected him twice already, and if we reject him again…we’ll incur the Coward debuff. All Myth Guild members’ abilities will decrease by 15%.”
The first time the Blood Prince attacked the Myth Guild, he didn’t go through any formalities and instead attacked the guild members indiscriminately. However, the Myth Guild persevered, managing to turn the tables around and killed the Blood Prince once. That was when the Blood Prince decided to switch up his tactics and began to chip away at the guild.
“What we need right now are champions, and powerful ones at that! We need them to fight the Blood Prince for us, so we can think about how to deal with future challenges.”
The Myth Guild believed that they just needed to defeat the Blood Prince once more.
“The invasion of the Myth Guild is nigh. We must prevent it! No, we can stop it if we can defeat the Blood Prince once more in battle. Find him! Find anyone who can stand up to the Blood Prince. Promise them whatever is needed! You have the blessing of the only descendant of Horemheb!”
“Yes ma’am! Understood!”
“We will find them, no matter what.”
Ebonene and Shin’s administrators all knelt on one knee and bowed, shouting in unison. They all set out to find Lee Jiwon.
---------------------------------------------------------------
“Time for a break.” After wiping out a small platoon of undying soldiers and commanders, I found a small, cave-like recess to hide in. I gathered some boulders around to block the opening.
“The entrance’s safe zone is too far and it’s too wasteful to use another one-day Safety Crystal. I should have done this earlier.” For a few days, I hunted around the dungeon’s entrance, but the monsters there just weren’t enough. I decided to venture deeper into the dungeon but soon, I ended up pretty far away from the entrance. It was short enough to go back and forth, but it seemed like a waste of time.
“It’s been twenty days now, so I’ve got, what, ten days left? Hmm…I may or may not be able to reach level 300 at this rate. I need to try harder these next ten days.” I could see myself getting stronger by the day. I wasn’t tired after hunting for twenty days straight. I even wanted to sleep less to make the most out of the thirty days, but I knew that the high fatigue would slow me down. I had to make sure to rest properly.
---------------------------------------------------------------
At the same time…
“Have you still not found him yet?”
“…”
“…”
“Apologies, ma’am.”
The Myth Guild’s officials could only apologize to Shin with their heads bowed.
“We found out twenty days ago from the flight logs that the man’s name is Lee Jiwon. So why haven’t you found him yet?”
“Well… we searched all of Cairo and the rest of Egypt, but there’s no sign of him anywhere.”
“We have more than 1,500 guild members searching through Khufu’s Pyramid dungeon, but he’s not there either.”
The man trying to destroy the Myth Guild was the Blood Prince. If the Myth Guild could stop the Blood Prince, they could stop their destruction. They needed a champion, someone who won’t become another potion for the Blood Prince and instead someone who could really give the Blood Prince a hard time. That was Lee Jiwon, and the Myth Guild really needed him.
“There is a chance he used a Warp Scroll, so keep all options open. We have to find him!”
The fate of the Myth Guild depended on whether or not they could find Lee Jiwon. Could they protect all of Egypt from the Blood Prince, or would they just disappear from history?
“Haa…OK. The fate of the Myth Guild rests on our ability to stop the Blood Prince’s next attack. Please, do your best.”
The officials nodded. Egypt was the Myth Guild’s roots. If they lost Egypt, there was no way they could survive.
---------------------------------------------------------------
It had been 29 days since I started hunting in Khufu’s hidden dungeon.
==[You have 24 hours left in Khufu’s Hidden Dungeon. You will be automatically teleported out of Khufu’s Hidden Dungeon after 24 hours.]==
“I know…” I closed the kind message telling me that I had one day left while I finished off the last undying soldier in front of me.
“I’m level 298 now…I really want to get to level 300 before I leave.” I was gaining an average of two levels a day now. It was only possible because it was a dungeon and because of the double EXP gains.
“Huh? It’s that thing again.” I picked up a bloody note that appeared in the mounds of dust left behind by the undying spearmen and soldiers.
“Item check.”
---------------------------------------------------------------
[Undead’s Note of Revenge (No Rank)
A note written by an undying soldier, spearman, archer or commander. Cursed with undeath and endless time, these undead warriors dream of happier days. They have lost their loved ones, their once youthful skin is now in rags, and their bodies continue to rot. These warriors continue to pray for death, but death continues to escape them. Enraged, these warriors have vowed vengeance. They have stolen a treasure from the cursed treasure room and have hidden it away, writing its location on one of these notes.
Collect 10 notes to attempt to assemble a complete page. Success reveals the location of the cursed treasure that the undying warriors have hidden away.
Failing causes the notes to disappear.]
---------------------------------------------------------------
“I failed each time.” I was really happy when I first found a note. I had a hope that I could actually find the treasure while I was here, but I failed each and every time.
“I think I tried more than forty times already.” These notes were hard to find, as well. I could only find maybe thirteen or, fourteen a day. It was nothing compared to the number of monsters I killed in one day. They were much rarer than Cursed Soul Shards.
“I have ten notes right now; should I try it again?” I wasn’t expecting anything at all, at this point. Besides, I was out of here tomorrow, so there was no point in saving them, anyway.
“Assemble Notes of Revenge!”
[You have gathered 10 Undead’s Notes of Revenge. Beginning 1 assembly attempt.]
The ten pieces of paper gathered together in the air and began spinning in a circle.
“I bet it’s another dud like all the others,” I muttered to myself as I watched the papers spin.
[Congratulations. You have successfully assembled the Notes of Revenge into a treasure map. You can use the treasure map to navigate through the hidden dungeon to find the treasure.]
“What…” The unexpected message took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting it at all after forty fails, but I was all the more happy that it worked with just one day left.
“Ehehehe! Nice!” It was exhausting on my mind and body hunting for a month straight without interacting with anyone. Finding the treasure map seemed to wash all of my fatigue away.
“Activate treasure map!” Almost right away, a line pointing to one end of the dungeon appeared before me.
“I guess I have to follow it.” This was now more important than leveling up. I had to find it now if I was going to be flung out of Khufu’s hidden dungeon tomorrow. I quickly followed the line, ignoring the monsters around me.
“Why’s it so far?” I still couldn’t see the end after two hours. I didn’t think I came this far while hunting during the past month. Hell, I didn’t even know that the dungeon went this deep!
Soon, I came to a little crevice in the wall just enough to crawl through. It was impossible to find normally. I crawled through and continued on.
Thirty minutes later, a very out-of-place indoor oasis appeared before me. There were flowers and trees all around.
The inside of Khufu’s hidden dungeon was not hostile, with only grey boulders and no sign of vegetation anywhere. But there was a small stream of clear water running on one side and colorful flowers in full bloom everywhere.
“This…is very not dead.” The note clearly said that the treasure was supposed to be closely guarded by death, but there was nothing dead about this place.
I continued farther in. Soon, I came upon a chest sitting in the middle of a field of flowers.
“That must be it.” It had to be what the map led to!
I walked over to it and opened the chest. Inside, there was a single item. I had never seen the item before, but a smile grew on my face. Finally, an item worth finding!
I had finally found a weapon after all this time! It was a spear glowing with a beautiful red light. I quickly picked it up.
“Item check!”
[Heart’s Blood Harrier (Rank 8)
A spear crafted not for practical use, but for decoration. It is a beautifully and masterfully crafted weapon that exudes neither danger nor ambition, but protection. However, Death did not like this weapon when it came across it by chance. Death believed that all weapons were created to kill, and didn’t understand the existence of this weapon, and so Death placed a small amount of his power into this decorative spear.
Successful attacks drain 1000 HP from enemies. Absorbed HP is used to restore wielder’s lost HP. (If no HP is lost, absorbed HP disappears.)
Decrease ATT speed by 8%
Increase Penetration by 167
Increase CRIT chance by 4.1%, increase CRIT damage by 255%
Increase STR by 350
Increase VIT by 500
Increase HP by 200,000
Durability: 945,000/945,000
ATT: 6,780, MATT: 950]
“Holy!” I had finally found a spear. I had been forced to constantly put aside getting a new weapon for other items. I was able to make do with the greatsword, but I always wanted a new one.
“Each successful attack absorbs 1000 HP…that’s basically another 1000 points of damage.” This was just amazing!
It must have had to do with the spear’s name, but it increased VIT by 500 and HP by 200,000. Of course, the penetration, CRIT chance, and damage were just as high.
“Props to me too, I guess. To think that I could have all these rank 8 and rank 10 equips. Time to go. I want to try out my new weapon.” I was itching to see what this spear could do. I retraced my steps back to the main part of the dungeon.
---------------------------------------------------------------
As soon as Lee Jiwon left, the area of green began to change. The blooming flowers and green trees began to disappear, and the hidden area once more looked like the rest of the dungeon.
---------------------------------------------------------------
“Chaa!” I charged at an undying commander with my spear pointed in front of me. The spearhead easily stabbed through the commander’s body.
[The Harrier is unable to absorb HP from undead monster types.]
I quickly pulled my spear out and stabbed the monster again. I already knew about undead and absorbing HP, and just continued my attacks.
After three strikes, the undying commander fell to a cloud of dust.
“Hah! Is that all?” I shivered at the sight.
“At this rate, I can do it!” If I could take out a commander in three hits, I could probably reach level 300 in five hours!
“Hehehe!” I gripped the Harrier tightly in my hands and rushed at a new spawn of monsters. I didn’t need to hide my grin anymore.
“Warrior’s Brave Spirit!”
[Warrior’s Brave Spirit Level 1 has been activated.
- Level 1: 8 hour cooldown. For one hour, raise your ATT by 20%, CRIT chance by 1%,
CRIT damage by 50%, movement speed by 5%, and ATT speed by 2.5%. For one hour,
Slightly Awkward Indomitable Spirit effect is placed (Slight Awkward Indomitable Spirit
decreases chance to avoid damage by 10%). Fatigue does not rise while skill is in
effect.]
“Let’s go all out until the end!”
I had eighteen hours left!