1st Place In The Ranking Is A Villager

1st place in the ranking is the villager

- Volume 3 Episode 20

20. Cursed Underground Temple (2)

"Captain, have you already found a hint of the Hidden Peace in the cursed underground temple?"

"Yeah? Wow... How do you already find something hidden in that corner? It's poisonous, very."

After lunch at the NeoWords development team's office, team leader Kang Joo-won returned to his seat, listening to the employee, and sat down at his seat as if it was nothing special.

Although the text was found too soon than I expected, it was a hint I had put in to find it in the first place.

Moreover, it was not easy to organize a party that would satisfy the conditions.

Still, I looked at the rumors in my mind just in case, and again, players thought that one token was wearing the same item.

We needed something similar, but it wasn't an item.

As the rumor spread, the number of people who were aiming for the Hidden Peace and proceeding with the attack increased quite a bit, but none of them achieved the Hidden Peace yet.

'Well, regardless of the number of people who entered, everyone should have the same skill, wouldn't that be easy?'

Having the same skill means that they are at least in the same profession, but it will take at least a few more months to try and clear the challenge with such a balance.

At the current level of players, it was a little difficult to clear the cursed underground battle with one profession.

There will be no people who will leave the relatively easy path and go back the difficult path, and even if there are some special species, they will not be able to get to the clearing.

* * *

The place where Doban, who entered the dungeon, stood was different from the point where he started during the previous attack.

When I looked around, I couldn't see Hoya.

Instead, what he saw was the interior of the dark cave through the collapsed columns, the hole in the ceiling and the walls, and the huge door behind him.

It was in front of the door leading to the chapel where the rock shaman, the boss monster of the cursed underground temple, was located.

As soon as I entered the dungeon, I separated from Hoya and started in front of such a place.

Things were weird.

Thinking so, Doban first tried to send a whisper to Hoya to find out where he was, but the whisper was not sent.

Just in case, I checked Hoya's name on the list of friends I checked and saw that the light was on, so I was connected properly.

Fortunately, it didn't bounce.

The fact that the bouncing phenomenon occurred in Initium was absurd.

Anyway, that means that as soon as you enter the dungeon, something happened and you fell apart with Hoya.

Perhaps the cause of something also includes the reason the starting point has changed.

'...Have you really achieved the Hidden Peace?'

Dovan felt the same way.

If that was the case, it was understandable that things had changed.

However, if the hidden piece is really achieved, the question arises as to why the system message was not generated.

"......"After thinking about the question, it was not likely that the answer would come right away, so Doban decided to find Hoya and move on.

As Doban began to move, monsters who felt his presence rushed towards him like a ghost.

Even if the number of monsters exceeds 10, it becomes difficult to deal with them, so the Doban quickly hunted and moved as if they would not give the monsters a chance to gather.

I was worried about the name change of the monster, but I had to hunt the monster first.

After discovering Doban, the approaching monsters decreased one by one, and after a while, there were no monsters left around Doban.

“Whew, whoo…”

Dovan, who was holding his breath, felt doubtful about the current situation again.

'Even if it's fast, it's too fast.'

He finished organizing the monsters at a speed that he couldn't possibly afford by himself.

He also arranged the monsters in the area he had not yet set foot in.

Doban thought the cause was Hoya's hunting and went around the temple to find him.

After a while, Dovan could see something moving in the distance.

Unfortunately, something moving was a monster, not Hoya.

It was wearing the same old and worn black priest's uniform as the other monsters, but its right arm was unusually long and sharp.

When the monster's eyes met, a system message came to mind.

[Exposed to the gaze of a dead tree.]

[All stats, attack power, and movement speed are reduced by 15% until out of sight.]

"what......!"

What is this vicious debuff?

Doban flinched slightly with his body that seemed to have gotten a little heavier as his status went down.

Then, aiming for that gap, the monster swung his sharp arm towards him.

Chaeeng-!

Doban succeeded in blocking the monster's arm with his hammer.

Due to the monster's power transmitted from the hammer, Doban's hammer began to be pushed little by little.

Thinking it would be difficult to hold on any longer, Doban swung the shield in his left hand to shake off the monster.

However, for a short time, the monster that had avoided Doban's shield rotated its body and gave another shock to his shield.

"Wow!"

When Doban swung his hammer towards the monster's head, who was aiming for the shield and swung his sword, the monster moved away from him.

"Uh-."

Doban paused for a moment as the monster was far away, but the monster was deliberately far away from him.

When the monster made a sound that seemed to resonate in the cave, black spears were created in the air around the monster.

Doban saw it and wanted to see it, but it was after the black spears had already been shot at him.

He managed to dodge one spear, but two spears shot together had to be blocked with a shield.

Despite blocking with a shield, a considerable amount of damage was received.

At that time, Doban had a strange feeling.

It feels like I've seen something similar to the monster's attack from before.

And I feel like I've overlooked one strange thing.

Doban kept asking himself to find out what this strange feeling was, but the monster had no intention of waiting for him.

Doban, who was constantly repeating his questions while enduring the onslaught of monsters, noticed why he felt strange.

It was a question, not a strange feeling.

He allowed the first attack and immediately followed by a strong attack, a question that was overlooked.

Although he was clearly fighting, information about the monster was not coming to mind.

system error?

As I was thinking about it, a system message came to mind.

It wasn't the monster's information.

[The roaring cold air begins to freeze the body.]

[I was caught in a 'frostbite' of abnormal status.]

And at the same time, an event from the near past flashed into Doban's mind.

"Um, I can hang a statue..."

When he asked Hoya, who had finished the weapon, to tell him what kind of weapon he came out with, Hoya had briefly explained the effects of the weapon to Doban and Yooa.

One of them was that it could cast a status abnormality of frostbite.

And the 'roaring cold' used in the system, that was the name of Hoya's weapon.

Only then, the moment when the monster shot black spears before and Hoya's usual shooting spears of ice overlapped.

Maybe this monster in front of me is Hoya.

"You! Are you Hoya!"

Doban shouted at the monster, thinking that he was leaning towards that certainty, but the monster didn't respond.

The monster in front of whom no information appeared, as Doban had expected, it was Hoya.

It was a situation in which Hoya looked like a monster to Dovan.

Hoya's situation was not that different from Doban's.

The monster Hoya was dealing with with long arms and large fists, it was Doban.

They both looked like monsters to each other.

In such a situation, Doban noticed the identity of the monster.

Dovan continued talking to Hoya.

However.

"Woah-."

To Hoya, it could only be heard as the cry of a monster.

Just like how Doban heard it when Hoya said the skill name.

Hoya also thought the situation was strange, but he didn't stop attacking.Doban had used almost all of his skills in hunting before entering the dungeon and in previous battles, so there was no means for Hoya to notice his skills like Doban.

So Hoya was on an onslaught to end this strange situation.

When the monster continued to cry while Doban's words were being heard, Hoya took it as a signal before the monster showed any change and raised the intensity of the attack.

In Hoya's unbroken and intensifying offensive, Doban had no choice but to use the skill he had saved for the boss monster.

"God bless you!"

Contrary to its name, Rock Shaman, the boss monster of the Cursed Underground Temple, is a monster with dark properties.

So it was a skill I had been saving, but if I was killed by a monster that might be Hoya now, it would be a no-brainer.

It was a skill I used with that in mind, but as soon as Doban used God's protection, the monster's movement stopped.

Hoya stopped moving.

"what......."

The moment Doban was using God's Blessing, the appearance of the monster Hoya was looking at changed.

The appearance of the monster wearing the worn-out black priest's uniform was gradually erased as if the fog was cleared as soon as the Doban used the skill, and then the Doban appeared.

Seeing this, Hoya was able to think the same as Doban had thought.

But why did it suddenly return to its original shape?

Has his appearance to Doban returned to its original state?

Judging by the fact that the doban didn't put down his hammer, it seemed that he was the same.

Hoya felt the need to change her appearance like Doban.

But he doesn't know how.

Then, in Hoya's head, what he thought was the condition of the Hidden Peace came to mind.

Hoya, who had seen one proof, Doban using God's blessings and seeing him return, recited the skill name out of fear.

"...God bless you."

The same system message came to the two of them at the same time as Doban's eyes, seen through the helmets, opened wide.

[You have achieved the hidden piece of the dungeon 'Cursed Underground Temple'.]

[Additional rewards are obtained when you successfully clear the dungeon by defeating the boss monster.]

"......"

"......"

Regardless of the number of party members entering the dungeon 'Cursed Underground Temple', if all party members have the same skill, they will all be randomly scattered within the dungeon and each will appear as monsters.

After that, after hunting all the monsters in the dungeon except for the boss, the condition of Hidden Peace is to use the skills that everyone has the same to confirm their identity.

In a sense, it is a simple condition, but in reality it is not.

Having the same skill would mean that they were the same profession, but the cursed underground temple was not so easy to clear with a party biased towards one profession.

In addition to that, you have to deal with monsters in a situation where you are alone.

Then, inevitably, there was no choice but to remove a lot of skills, and if that happens, it was a structure that would lead to a hardship in the Rock Shaman.

However, Doban and Hoya found out that they felt a great sense of emptiness in a very simple condition.

There was no worry in their heads that they would struggle with the boss monster.

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