Chapter 263 – EX-Rank Dungeon

Late at night.

Min Do-jun, who had arrived in Pyeongtaek, found the dungeon by looking at the address written in the article.

‘Is this it?’

He could see a portal that looked no different from any other dungeon, but the contents were completely different.

[Pyeongtaek Absolute One’s Dungeon]

– Difficulty: EX

– Party Limit: 1 person

– Entry Requirement: Level 9,999

– Objective: ???

– Failure Penalty: ???

– Time Limit: 999 hours

– Time until dungeon break: 992 hours 34 minutes 28 seconds

Looking at the information window, Min Do-jun couldn’t help but feel tense.

‘I can’t know the objective or the failure penalty.’

On top of that, the time limit was 999 hours.

‘That means I might have to endure for 999 hours…’

As everyone knows, you can’t bring any items into a dungeon except hunter equipment and the clothes you’re wearing.

In other words, he might have to starve for 42 days.

‘Even I can’t endure that long.’

Even though his stamina stat was high, he was still human after all.

In an environment without water or food, it would be hard to last even a week.

‘But I still have to go in.’

A dungeon that only Min Do-jun could clear.

If left alone, there was no telling what might happen.

‘Ye-rin. Wait for me. I’ll clear it quickly and come back.’

Tssss-

Min Do-jun, armed with hunter equipment, stepped into the portal.

* * *

As soon as he entered the dungeon, Min Do-jun looked around.

Nothing was visible.

Woooong-

He turned on his rainbow-colored Aura Blade to illuminate the surroundings.

A dark passage with not a single light was visible.

‘Let’s go.’

He stepped forward tensely.

It was an EX-rank dungeon where he didn’t even know the clear conditions, so it was natural.

‘I don’t know what might jump out when.’

Min Do-jun was grateful for having the Presence Detection trait.

Being able to know of a monster’s existence in advance reduced his psychological burden.

‘Hmm?’

A faint light was leaking from where the passage ended.

When he went to look, there was a spacious area lit by torches.

In the center was a platform arranged like a stage.

‘It’s obviously a place where something will pop up.’

Sure enough.

As soon as he stepped onto the platform, something rose up from the center.

It was a shadow in human form.

‘Huh?’

Min Do-jun couldn’t help but be surprised when he saw the Weakness Detection information window that automatically appeared.

[Test1]

– Description: Kill me.

– Combat Style: —

– Weakness: —

‘What is this?’

It was natural for Weakness Detection to appear since he saw an opponent, but this kind of insincere explanation was a first.

‘The name is Test1? And what does “kill me” mean…’

While Min Do-jun was confused by the explanation that seemed written as if it knew about Weakness Detection.

The shadow moved.

At a faster speed than expected.

Swish swish swish swish swish-!

The shadow with claws sharpened like blades swung wildly.

It was fast, but not fast enough to catch up with Min Do-jun’s movements.

‘Pretty good? At least faster than the monsters that come out of Dragon’s Nest.’

He was impressed by the level beyond expectations, but that was all.

Min Do-jun, who had no intention of playing around anymore, swung his sword at an unavoidable speed.

However.

Whoosh-

‘Huh?’

The attack hit, but the shadow took no significant damage.

‘There’s no feeling of hitting anything either.’

He tried cutting again, but since it was a shadow, it only felt like cutting through air.

‘Physical attacks don’t work? But I thought buffs contain magic power so they should work to some extent?’

Min Do-jun tried using magic just in case.

“Hellfire.”

When the hellfire clung to it, the shadow suffered and disappeared.

[Experience +3]

‘What? Experience went up?’

He had expected magic to work, but he didn’t expect experience to increase.

‘I’m definitely at max level so experience shouldn’t increase.’

Moreover, the experience was pitifully small compared to the shadow’s skill.

‘Less experience than a horn rabbit. This is ridiculous.’

Not only was an experience message appearing when it shouldn’t, but the experience was absurdly low.

‘Is it a meaningful number somehow?’

When he was wondering, he heard the sound of a wall moving.

Krrrrrrr-

A hidden stone chamber door opened.

“So I should go in there?”

Min Do-jun advanced without hesitation.

After passing through the passage, the same space appeared again.

‘It feels like I’m being tested somehow…’

However, this time there were display cases full of weapons around.

“What is it this time?”

As if answering his question, a message appeared.

[Specific weapon equipping is temporarily restricted.]

“What?”

At the same time, the Excalibur that Min Do-jun was holding disappeared.

When he checked in surprise, fortunately it was still in his inventory.

‘It was just unequipped.’

The problem was that he couldn’t equip weapons.

‘Damn. If I can’t hold Excalibur, my overall stats will drop…’

The magic power increase when holding Excalibur was 14,998.

Originally it was 9,999 like his level, but there was a 50% option increase rate due to the Weapon Enhancement trait.

So Excalibur had a big impact on his stats…

‘As expected, my stats dropped by about half overall.’

Stats that had exceeded 30,000-40,000 dropped below 20,000.

Of course, he was still strong, but.

‘What are they trying to do by making me unable to use weapons?’

The question was quickly resolved.

Something rose up from the center of the platform again.

‘This time I have to fight without weapons?’

Then the shadow opened its mouth wide and shouted.

Kraaaaaaaa-!

[The shadow roared and inflicted mental confusion.]

[Strong Mind trait is activated.]

[Debuff nullified.]

Fortunately, he had the trait so he wasn’t affected by mental confusion.

“You think I’d fall for something like that?”

A long greatsword appeared in the silent shadow’s hand.

At the same time, it charged and struck down where Min Do-jun had been.

Crash-!

“Feisty guy.”

Min Do-jun, who chuckled, responded with magic.

Whiiiiing-!

Ten Gust Blades tore the shadow to pieces.

No, he thought they did.

‘It’s fine?’

Seeing the magic pass right through, he tried Hellfire again.

But the magic that had worked before didn’t work this time.

‘This time only physical attacks work?’

Since he couldn’t equip weapons, he had no choice but to throw a punch.

However, whether only weapon attacks worked, the shadow took no damage at all.

Min Do-jun’s eyes turned to the weapons in the display cases.

‘Okay. They want me to fight with those?’

Understanding the dungeon’s intention, Min Do-jun ran to the display case while avoiding the shadow’s attacks.

But looking now, there were no ordinary weapons.

Whips, halberds, spears, bows, shuriken, etc…

He couldn’t see any mainstream weapons.

‘It doesn’t matter. I have Weapon Mastery anyway.’

Since he could use all weapons due to his trait effect, he picked up anything.

[Test Halberd2]

– Category: Weapon

– Grade: EX

– Attack Power: 1

– Effect: Cuts shadows.

– Durability: 3/3

– Usage Restriction: Level 9,999

– Description: Figure it out yourself.

‘What kind of information is this?’

The weapon name, attack power, and description.

All completely insincere.

‘But I can equip it at least.’

Min Do-jun with the halberd immediately swung at the shadow.

Thwack-!

The halberd’s axe blade embedded in the shadow’s shoulder.

‘As expected, it’s effective.’

While avoiding the swinging greatsword, he successfully attacked again.

Thwack- Thwack-!

But due to low durability, the weapon broke after just a few uses.

‘There are plenty of weapons anyway.’

Min Do-jun picked up another weapon and one-sidedly beat up the shadow.

By the time he had broken his third weapon, the shadow disappeared.

[Specific weapon equipping restriction is lifted.]

With the welcome notification, another stone chamber door opened.

‘It’s like clearing game stages.’

He also felt like he was being tested, which was unpleasant.

‘Fine. Let’s see this through to the end.’

Min Do-jun entered inside for the next stage.

* * *

Ting ting ting-!

Min Do-jun’s body turned golden as he blocked shadow arrows pouring from all directions.

‘Damn. They finally made me use Reflection.’

This time they made it impossible to equip all equipment, so he had no choice.

Judging by the destructive power of the shadow arrows, he would have been fatally wounded by just one hit.

‘If I had legendary items equipped, I could have reflected at least 90%, but I can’t even do that…’

To make matters worse, he had used up all three uses of the Second Twin’s Blessing that blocks fatal strikes.

‘How am I supposed to block those arrows coming from unavoidable angles without equipment?’

He was amazed by the ridiculous difficulty, but this wasn’t the time to relax.

‘I have to somehow avoid the next attack to survive.’

But contrary to his worry, there was no next attack.

Krrrrrrr-

The stone chamber door opened as if he had passed.

‘Now I understand. What this dungeon is demanding.’

Going through various stages, Min Do-jun realized.

‘It’s not trying to kill me. It’s trying to confirm what traits I have.’

So far, the dungeon had tested Min Do-jun through various processes.

‘Making situations where I had no choice but to use Reflection, or situations where I had to handle various weapons, all to make me use my traits.’

Only now did he notice, but the dungeon was adjusting situations to force him to use specific traits.

‘Especially making me use the traits of former revenge targets.’

Making only magic work at first was to check the power of the Magic Swordsman trait.

The experience appearing seemed to be checking if the Rapid Growth effect applied.

‘The way the text was written as if it knew about Weakness Detection, making me handle various weapons to check for Weapon Mastery!’

Creating situations where I had to use mental confusion skills or the Second Twin’s Blessing and Reflection traits.

All of it was just procedures to check if I had the revenge targets’ traits.

‘It’s too obvious to be a coincidence – it’s specifically checking only the revenge targets’ traits.’

Then it was easy to predict the next stage.

‘There was a situation where I had to use Parasite before, they made me heal by causing minor injuries…’

Thinking about it, most traits had been checked.

‘I think I’ve used each one once? What other revenge target traits are left?’

Min Do-jun entered the stone chamber, passed through the passage, and stepped onto the next stage.

And he found out.

What the remaining trait was.

“This is…”

Looking at the shadow floating in the air, the Weakness Detection information window automatically appeared.

[Test15]

– Description: Try moving it with telekinesis. You have 5 minutes.

– Combat Style: —

– Weakness: —

‘Telekinesis is Shin Kyung-min’s trait!’

He wasn’t now, but Shin Kyung-min had also been a revenge target.

‘The dungeon wants to check if I have Shin Kyung-min’s trait.’

But unfortunately, Min Do-jun didn’t have telekinesis.

Since Shin Kyung-min was removed from the revenge targets, he hadn’t killed him.