Emperor of Solo Play Chapter 63:
Deep Canyon Spring (2)
Sura Canyon .
After its discovery by the Red Bulls Guild, many people began to visit the Devil Goat-filled canyon . However, there were still many places unexplored by anyone .
Currently, there was no one that knew about the small spring located deep within the Sura Canyon . Even if there was, it was unlikely he would think too much about it . The fact that the spring was 30 meters deep, or that a cave could be found at that level, or that a secret area existed inside the 100-meter cave was something no one knew .
That is, until now .
“Puhu!”
Someone had discovered the secret .
After finishing up a long swim, Hyrkan inhaled a deep breath of air . Then, he crunched down on the candy in his mouth, crushing it into pieces . The 50 gold item that made one freely travel underwater disappeared just like that .
As a side note, the Undine Tear Candy tasted like a lemonade and made his breath carry the scent of lemon .
‘I’m finally here . ’
After finishing up the candy completely, Hyrkan climbed out of the pool of water back to land .
When he stepped on the ground, he naturally closed his eyes and focused on hearing .
[You have entered a dungeon . ]
[You have obtained the title, ‘One Who Discovered the Hidden Secret . ’]
[You have obtained the title, ‘Dungeon Explorer . ’]
The expected alerts popped out, and Hyrkan nodded with satisfaction .
‘I can never get used to hearing these alerts . ’
Although the titles he received weren’t particularly good, but no Warlord players would refuse them .
The worth of a dungeon wasn’t just this either .
Unlike field-type hunting grounds, one could obtain additional experience points or rewards in dungeons . Discovering a secret area within the dungeon, realizing the identity of the dungeon, completely exploring the dungeon, etc . Rewards and EXP could be received based on one’s results, and the EXP received as such bonuses was proportional to one’s level . That is, the amount of EXP one could receive was limited, but there was a definite percentage gain .
It was also the reason why Hyrkan came after hitting level 69 .
‘Alright, let’s get this over with . ’
Hyrkan didn’t stop to dawdle and prepared himself for exploration immediately . First, he started up the Light app, making his watch light up the dark cave .
‘Let’s see…’
He could see a tunnel, one that seemed like a gigantic ant had made . Hyrkan looked around and nothing special entered his eyes .
‘It’s going to take a while to go through the entire dungeon . ’
It didn’t seem like a dungeon he could completely explore in just one sitting . Time was gold, and Hyrkan wished to clear the dungeon as fast as possible . A tunnel style dungeon was an okay dungeon by Hyrkan’s standards .
‘I’ll give it a 70 . ’
Hyrkan was particularly good at fighting in a narrow space . His Golem could block the path and he could quickly get his Skeleton Warriors behind the enemy by throwing the Skeleton Fragments to its back . Considering the limited space for fights, he would be facing quality over quantity . Hyrkan’s Skeleton Warriors were especially good in this area .
Simulations of battles quickly flashed through Hyrkan’s mind, causing him to smile . It seemed that the result of the battle he imagined was satisfactory . With his smile still intact, Hyrkan threw a Skeleton Fragment on the ground . The fragment immediately turned into a Skeleton Warrior .
The Skeleton Warrior made from a Black Orc was carrying a scimitar-like sword, and its black bones easily blended into the darkness . Hyrkan drew a cross on its forehead, and two horns sprouted out from its skull .
Madness Helm .
In addition, Hyrkan casted Bone Armor on the Skeleton Warrior . White bones filled the Skeleton Warrior’s empty upper body, and its arms became covered by gauntlets . The D-Rank Bone Armor was now able to create both the breastplate and gloves .
Then, Hyrkan imbued curse magic onto the sword it was holding . Demon Curse, Slow Curse, Corrosive Ghost, and the recently learned Blind!
Once Hyrkan was done with his preparations, the Skeleton Warrior looked unlike a Skeleton Warrior . The black Skeleton Warrior wearing the white Bone Armor made it look like a knight . Its sword, imbued with several curses, also gave off a mysterious glow .
Watching his Skeleton Warrior, Hyrkan couldn’t help but smile bitterly .
‘There goes my magic power . ’
As he wasn’t facing a boss monster, it was a waste of mana to use so much magic power . It was unlike Hyrkan who was trying to save as much magic power as possible . In other words, his situation had taken a complete turn, as compared to when he had begun .
To replenish the lost magic power, Hyrkan began to chew on a 30 gold magic power recovery gum .
‘It’s literally raising proficiency with money . ’
In the past, he was frugal with his magic power due to having no money at all . Now, it was different . Although it wasn’t to the point he could change his car to a sports car, he had enough to buy any skillbooks or consumable items he wanted .
Thus, Hyrkan’s focus fell to raising his skills’ proficiencies . The only way to do so was to use the skills repeatedly . The magic power lost because of it would then have to be filled with magic power recovery items . It was truly buying skill proficiency with money .
As such, Hyrkan couldn’t help but laugh at himself .
‘You don’t even eat a 3,000 won per half a gram pork in real life, but you’re chewing on a 30,000 won gum in game . You are one crazy **** . ’
His laugh quickly turned into bitterness .
★★★
‘Oh?’
After entering the dungeon, Hyrkan began to explore it with his Skeleton Warrior in lead .
The tension on his face could be felt behind his hahoe mask, and it wasn’t until his first encounter with a monster that his expression changed .
‘A slime?’
The monster he encountered was a slime .
Slimes were common monsters in Warlord . Although they weren’t like pebbles on the side of the road, anyone could find one if they desired . However, slimes whose insides glowed was a different story .
The slime Hyrkan encountered was such a slime . Its translucent body glowed with a red light . When Hyrkan saw the slime, he knew what he was up against .
‘This is a spirit-form monster dungeon!’
Spirit-form monsters were one of the rarest monster types in Warlord . Appropriately, they were quite expensive for a rather simple reason . The items they dropped were used in creating attributed items .
Attributes were an important part of Warlord . Rich players didn’t just buy 1 item set, but rather multiple with different attributes .
Because of this, attributed items were always high in demand . A level 70 Rare item would easily go for 3,000 gold in the market . This would be the weakest item amongst them, and decent items would of course cost much more .
‘This doesn’t seem good . ’
As such, Hyrkan felt an ominous foreboding before he felt happiness .
The dungeon map he luckily received had the rare spirit-form monsters?
He was incredibly lucky .
He had been lucky quite often in recent days . The view count on his Bear Warrior video was piercing through the heaven, and the crafting material he obtained sold for an enormous sum of 50,000 gold . He had expected them to go for 20 or maybe 30,000 gold, but he had ended up receiving double the amount he expected . The reason was clear . It was because the Bear Warrior was Hahoe Mask Hyrkan’s first monster . The value of items changed depending on the designer and person who obtained the material . It seemed like one of Hyrkan’s rich fans purchased the Bear Warrior crafting materials .
‘Aren’t I just too lucky?’
Now, he was facing another incredible fortune .
‘I’m the type that the luckier I am early on, the unluckier l become later . ’
Hyrkan’s life had always been full of ups and downs . If he was lucky at one point, he was bound to be unlucky at another .
Hyrkan knew this better than anyone else .
As such, Hyrkan was scared how his string of incredible fortune would backfire .
Of course, his worries didn’t last long . His expression quickly loosened .
‘Well, I can’t say no to this . ’
It wasn’t like he could refuse thinking he’s too lucky .
‘Even if some disaster strikes me, how bad could it be? I doubt a truck would come flying through my window . ’
Hyrkan walked deeper into the dungeon with joy .
★★★
After his continuous string of encounters with slimes, Hyrkan arrived at a dead-end .
In this place, he encountered a spirit-form monster as he expected .
Salanmanda .
The Salamanda was a level 80 spirit-form monster . Its body changed length from as long as 4-meters to as short as 50 centimeters depending on the situation . Its body was made of fire, and thus it could only be damaged through continuous damage over time .
Considering the forces Hyrkan had available, it wasn’t a particularly good match .
Since the Skeleton Warriors had to close in to attack, it was ill-suited to fight against the Salamanda . Even if their evasive maneuvers were good, they couldn’t possibly dodge the Salamanda’s body heat . The Skeleton Warriors melted under the Salamanda’s intense heat, and the damage ate away at Hyrkan’s magic power .
Furthermore, ‘Salamanda’s Rage’ was activated whenever its HP fell below a certain level . Its heat then became high enough to melt even the Golem .
The Skeleton Magicians also did very little in the fight against the Salamanda . The D-rank Skeleton Magicians could only use fire-attribute magic, which obviously was ineffective against the Salamanda .
In a way, the Salamanda was a natural enemy of Hyrkan .
However, Hyrkan had one of his most peaceful battles in fighting the Salamanda .
“Good . Now cut his tail from behind! Well done!”
The battle itself was a close combat battle . Although the battle couldn’t be described **** with the lack of blood, it was still a fierce battle .
Hyrkan did not participate in the battle . He simply watched on from the back while sucking on his candies .
He participated in just two cases . One was to imbue curse magic onto the Skeleton Warriors’ sword…
“Hey, don’t approach from the front, go from side . Also, stabs don’t work well, so go for slashes . Got it?”
While giving commands no one could possibly understand .
The other…
“Come on, Golem . The skellies are doing well, what’s wrong with you? Stop! I’ll do it myself . ”
Was to furiously shadow box, controlling the Golem with Copy Mode .
That was it .
Of course, he used up most of his magic recovery items because of it, but Skeleton Fragment, Golem Summon, and Skeleton Magician skill proficiencies went up greatly as a result .
Just like that, Hyrkan killed the Salamanda without swinging his Orc Hero’s Sword even once . While tasting the Salamanda’s strawberry flavored ice-cream, Hyrkan couldn’t help but think…
‘Rich Lich… you must have had one **** of a time . ’
It was the first time Hyrkan felt the joy of being a necromancer .