Chapter 213 – Ancient Knight

The person most astonished by the unbelievable sight was Kang Hyuk-su.

‘Slicing through a guard along with its armor…?’

Having fought them himself, he knew just how tough the guards’ armor was. He also understood the immense damage required to cut through both armor and body in one strike.

‘Just how high is his damage output…?’

The other party members were equally stunned.

“Wow! Magic Swordsman, did you just kill it in one hit?” one exclaimed.

“I didn’t even see the sword swing,” another added.

The hunters ranked 5th and 6th couldn’t stop marveling at Min Do-jun. They had heard of his fame for solo-killing named bosses, but witnessing it firsthand was a different matter altogether.

Shin Kyung-min, too, struggled to calm his shocked heart.

“Do-jun, are you really level 3,200? How do you move like that?”

“I just moved quickly, that’s all,” Min Do-jun replied.

He wasn’t pretending to be nonchalant; he genuinely felt it was no big deal. All he had done was imbue his weapon with a buff and swing it swiftly.

That said, Min Do-jun wasn’t oblivious to their reactions.

‘I knew they’d be surprised if I showed my strength.’

He was well aware that his power far exceeded what his level suggested. Because of this, he couldn’t help but deliberate over his actions.

‘Should I reveal my strength or not?’

Honestly, he had agonized over this decision right up until he struck the guard. Whether to showcase his true power or hold back.

‘Hiding my strength would make me less suspicious.’

Unlike now, where he openly displayed his might, if he had maintained a low profile from the dungeon’s entrance, acting as if he were concealing his true abilities, he could avoid suspicion when he eventually killed Shin Kyung-min and Kang Hyuk-su. It was a tactic he had used several times in past revenges.

‘In simple terms, hiding might be the better choice. But…’

That only applied when he wasn’t well-known.

‘Now that I have fame, hiding my strength won’t work.’

A hunter who solo-killed a named boss and gained 100 levels in two days suddenly pretending to be weak? That would only make him seem more suspicious.

‘I need to reveal my strength to some extent.’

Not everything, but enough to match the rumors of his boss-killing prowess.

‘Did I show too much, though?’

All he did was kill a mere mob, yet he was receiving excessive attention. The party members’ gazes felt almost piercing.

“Aren’t we going to hunt?” Min Do-jun prompted.

“Oh, right. Let’s go,” someone replied.

As the group resumed moving, Min Do-jun followed behind. Not long after, three more guards appeared, and the party members raised their weapons in caution.

However, unlike before, no one stepped forward readily. They merely glanced at Min Do-jun, gauging his reaction.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“It seems everyone is hoping you’ll take care of them, Hunter Min Do-jun,” Kang Hyuk-su said.

As if to confirm this, the party members nodded slightly.

‘It’s not like they’re scared of just three guards. They must want to see more of my strength.’

Understanding their intent, Min Do-jun willingly stepped forward. There was no reason to refuse when they were offering him the chance. Besides, he had already decided to reveal a certain level of his power.

Slash- Slash- Slash!

Thud- Thud- Thud!

Each flash of his sword sent a guard’s head tumbling. He deliberately avoided cutting through their armor this time, aiming cleanly for their necks to avoid further astonishment.

But even so…

“To cut only the neck so precisely…”

“So fast and accurate.”

To the party members, even this was astonishing.

“Honestly, I thought you might be stronger than me, Hunter, but I didn’t expect it to be to this extent,” Shin Kyung-min admitted, acknowledging Min Do-jun’s prowess.

Even Kang Hyuk-su, though silent, was inwardly marveling.

‘Incredible. He might really be stronger than Kyung-min.’

Having seen Shin Kyung-min’s strength up close, Kang Hyuk-su could make the comparison.

‘No matter how much Kyung-min pushes his telekinesis, he couldn’t kill them this easily and quickly.’

In short, Kang Hyuk-su was overwhelmed by the sheer gap in power.

‘If rankings were based on combat power, he’d easily be domestic rank 1.’

As someone obsessed with strength, a spark of desire ignited in Kang Hyuk-su’s eyes.

‘I have to make him mine, no matter what!’

Creating the ultimate party to hunt monsters-that was Kang Hyuk-su’s ideal vision.

‘Come to think of it…’

Kang Hyuk-su suddenly recalled how proud he had felt after killing just one guard earlier.

‘Ugh, how embarrassing…’

He couldn’t lift his head, ashamed of trying to show off in front of someone so much stronger.

At that moment-

“Leader, look over there!” a party member shouted urgently.

Clank- Clank-

Grind- Grind-

A knight clad in sleek, full-body armor approached, dragging a massive two-handed sword. It was the Ancient Knight, known as a mid-boss in this dungeon.

“To encounter it this early…” someone muttered.

“Leader, what’s wrong? Is it strong?” another asked.

Kang Hyuk-su, showing a rare tense expression, replied, “According to the guides, it’s incredibly strong. Its armor is on a completely different level, and as you can see, there are no gaps like with the guards. It has no weaknesses.”

“…”

“It’s said to be somewhat vulnerable to magic, but even then, after a few hits, it develops resistance and takes no damage at all.”

“What…?”

“No way…!”

A monster immune to both physical and magical attacks?

“That sounds like a boss, doesn’t it?”

“It’s not a boss. It’s considered a mid-boss because it’s slower than a true boss. But since no one has seen the actual boss here, you could say it’s effectively the boss.”

“Ah…”

Every dungeon has a boss. However, the boss of the Ancient Temple of Magic had yet to be discovered. No one had ever seen it.

“If it’s just a mid-boss, shouldn’t we be able to handle it?”

“No. The guides say it’s best to avoid it. Engaging it is just a waste of time.”

“Yeah, if it doesn’t take damage, how are we supposed to kill it…?”

Having already lost their will to fight, the party members lowered their weapons and prepared to flee. All except Min Do-jun.

“Do-jun, what are you doing?” Shin Kyung-min asked, eyes wide as Min Do-jun stepped forward.

“You’re not planning to fight it, are you…?”

“Everyone, stay back.”

He swallowed the words, *‘This experience is mine.’*

‘It’s a good opportunity to test my strength.’

Though he didn’t want to reveal too much of his power, he couldn’t let such a perfect chance slip by.

‘I won’t go all out.’

There was no need to use his full strength on a mere mid-boss.

‘I’ll face it with just two buffs.’

A rainbow-colored aura enveloped Min Do-jun’s blade. On top of that, he imbued his weapon with the fire attribute using Elemental Sword.

Fwoosh-

As Kang Hyuk-su had mentioned, the guide’s information about the knight being weak to magic was accurate.

‘It’s also true that it develops resistance after being hit a few times.’

More precisely, it builds resistance to the specific attribute used against it.

‘So, to defeat it, I need to mix various attributes.’

In that sense, Elemental Sword, which allowed him to freely assign any attribute, was the perfect tool to take down the knight.

“Hunter Min Do-jun!”

Seeing him charge toward the Ancient Knight, his comrades shouted, thinking his actions reckless.

The knight, having spotted Min Do-jun, raised its sword overhead.

BOOM-!

A cloud of dust rose.

The knight had slammed its two-handed sword into the ground.

Fortunately, Min Do-jun appeared unscathed, having dodged the monstrous strike.

“Hunter! You should get away while you still can…!”

BOOM-!

Another explosive sound rang out.

Just from the noise, one could tell the sheer force behind the blow.

“You’d die from just one hit. Shouldn’t we stop him?”

“Hey, open your eyes and look properly.”

At Park Kwang-jin’s words, Kim Ki-yul focused on the battle again.

BOOM-!

“Huh?”

Another explosive sound echoed, but it wasn’t from the Ancient Knight.

The knight was only just raising its sword again.

“What… what? Hunter Min Do-jun is… dominating?”

Every time Min Do-jun’s sword struck the knight’s armor, it crumpled like an aluminum can.

“So… the sounds from the start weren’t the knight attacking, but Hunter Min Do-jun hitting it?”

BOOM-! BOOM-! BOOM-!

Min Do-jun dodged the knight’s attacks with relative ease, counterattacking each time. By changing the attribute of his weapon with every strike, each hit landed as a critical blow.

BOOM-! BOOM-! BOOOOM-!

Occasionally, when the Critical Hit trait triggered, multiplying physical damage by four, the armor didn’t just dent-it was pierced through.

It didn’t take long for the knight’s armor, continuously dented, to become riddled with holes and cracks.

[You have defeated the Ancient Knight!]

[Experience +1,650,000] (Contribution 100%)

[An S-grade Magic Stone has dropped.]

[An S-grade Magic Stone has dropped.]

[An S-grade Magic Stone has dropped.]

[The Ancient Knight’s Shield has dropped.]

[Skill Book: Giant’s Strike has dropped.]

[According to party rules, the roulette will spin automatically.]

[The winner is Min Do-jun.]

Looking at the items, Min Do-jun showed a slight expression of disappointment.

‘Nothing useful for me.’

Even the experience points were less than expected for a mid-boss.

‘Of course, compared to the effort, it’s a lot.’

Min Do-jun had counted the number of strikes while fighting the knight.

‘Took a total of 16 hits to kill it.’

He had defeated it using only buffed normal attacks, without any magic.

‘If I had used magic as well, I might have killed it in one hit.’

Satisfied with the test of his strength, Min Do-jun felt content with the results.

However, to the party members, the situation was simply absurd.

‘To take down the Ancient Knight so easily…’

‘The rumor about solo-killing bosses wasn’t a lie.’

Though it took 16 strikes, in terms of time, it was less than 30 seconds. To the party members, it felt like they blinked in surprise, and the fight was already over.

“Amazing, Hunter!”

“That was incredible!”

The party members didn’t hold back their praise for Min Do-jun’s display of supreme prowess. Even Shin Kyung-min and Kang Hyuk-su looked at him with newfound respect in their eyes.

‘Don’t look at me like that. You’re both going to die today anyway.’

The Ancient Temple of Magic was a dungeon where the boss’s existence had yet to be revealed. However, Min Do-jun knew.

He knew where the boss room was.

‘I’ll lead the party members to the boss room. Then, I’ll execute my revenge.’

The boss of this dungeon was the Ancient Archmage. Perhaps because of this, the area before the boss room was rigged with magical traps.

‘It’s a trap that shows each person a different hallucination.’

It could show the most painful past or the happiest moments.

‘To enter the boss room, you inevitably have to trigger it; there’s no way to avoid it.’

Min Do-jun planned to use this to his advantage by leading the party members to the boss room, ensuring they would fall into the hallucinations.

‘Most won’t be able to break free from it.’

The duration varied per person, but generally, they would remain trapped for the remaining time in the dungeon.

‘There is a way to break the hallucination.’

But aside from Min Do-jun, who knew the future, no one else would know how.

‘If they can’t escape the hallucination, they’ll be stuck there for the entire duration.’

At that point, Min Do-jun, having broken free of the hallucination himself, could kill the two still trapped in their visions.

‘It’s the perfect way to kill them without anyone noticing.’

With their eyes and ears blocked by the hallucination, the other party members wouldn’t even realize the two had died.

‘At best, they’ll only find out after the dungeon run ends and they break free from the hallucination.’

Even then, they wouldn’t suspect Min Do-jun of killing them.

‘They’ll assume they died due to the boss’s trap.’

It was the perfect method to eliminate them without arousing suspicion among the party members.

‘Now, shall I lead the party members to the boss room?’

Having formulated his plan, Min Do-jun secretly smiled to himself.