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Taken from Light Novel Bastion. All credits goes to the original translator and editor.
10. The Taste of Money! Manticore (5)
I momentarily got lost in thoughts of doubt and hesitation.
Thoughts of self-justification slowly crept their way in, too.
Occasionally when I went to hunt monsters with a party,we hunted a few of the nearby Manticores.
Before they approached me, I used frost orbs to freeze the wings and legs, and poured electric discharge at them until they died.
No matter how many come, it’ll be fine as long as I kill them before they come near me!
That’s possible, right?
****
– Tti-Dik. Please scan your card.
– Tti-Dik. Please scan your fingerprint.
– The dungeon will now be activated.
I got lost in thoughts again, but before long, I found myself in the dungeon.
It appeared I had convinced myself unconsciously.
‘Perhaps I should’ve said I wanted to be a businessman,’ I thought to myself.
I waited until the six person party, that was previously on standby, entered first.
As soon as I saw they were gone, I entered.
I was a sophomore in high school, way past being in a sophomore in middle school, yet it seemed I had not completely recovered from the illness.
“At least I received the ‘Boots of Speed’ that Sang-Min used to use.”
The ‘Boots of Speed’ dramatically increased movement speed, so they were usually used by tankers or sub-tankers.
Mana mages usually used boots that increased vitality or agility, but I invested all of my stats to vitality, so I figured that speed would be far more efficient and complementary.
“Now, shall I take it for a ride?”
KURURURUNG!
Due to a special nature of Manticores, getting their attention was easy. As long as I made eye contact with one of them, a whole horde would rush over.
Even though this was my first time fighting a mass number of monsters at once, I didn’t find it difficult.
[Experienced earned 600.]
[Experienced earned 600.]
[Experienced earned 600.]
.
.
.
Without much difficulty, I gathered Manticores around me. The hunt had started.
Of course, this was smaller in number in comparison to what we handled in a five people party.
I was disadvantaged, as I didn’t have the buffs or debuffs that Li In-Ah and Jo Young-Hun provided.
With them in my party, it only took two shots to finish off these monsters. By myself, it took 4 to 5 rounds of tries.
Using the money earned from hunting with Sang-Min’s group, I learned ‘Frozen Shield.’
Thanks to it, I could fight the Manticores without taking damage.
Frozen shield was a skill that formed an effective protection layer of ice.
It could shield me from enemy attacks for up to three minutes.
It costed 300 mana, and had a cool down of 10 minutes.
I could ignore the mana cost, but the cool down was driving me insane.
I couldn’t even dream of purchasing an expensive unlimited-use shield that didn’t have any cooling time.
‘Frozen Shield’ could block most moderate attacks.
However, if the attack strength was twice that of my vitality, then the shield would be destroyed.
Regardless, since Manticores had nowhere near enough attack strength, so, I didn’t need to be concerned about it happening.
Once I had enough money, I planned to learn all classes, and all kinds of shield magic.
Once I did, I was going to activate my shield at random, without a care for cooling time. It was a solid plan.
While hunting, I started getting excited as I gained experience at a crazy fast rate, and there were many bloodstones floating in mid-air, giving off a luxurious red shine.
Instead of sharing with five people, they all went into my own pocket.
Moreover, this was despite the fact that my minimum level doesn’t even qualify to be in this dungeon.
“To all those trust-fund babies and rich kids, listen up. Become independents. Stop living under the shadow of your parents so shamelessly. Stand by yourself with pride and leave their shadows, just like I did. Face the world, head on. Be reborn!”
I thought that the rich kids and I belonged in different worlds.
However, the ones I used to look at, with eyes soaked with inferiority, I felt were now below me.
I finished off the last group of monsters, who were in the 3 o’clock direction, and headed to the dungeon’s main exit. Everything was going smoothly, until…
I heard a noise.
KUAAAAAAANG!!!!
KUAK! KUAK!
“What’s this? Is there a monster left?”
Fearsome howling pierced through the dungeon.
While I was thinking ‘No way, it can’t be……’
KUWOOOOAH!!
An incredible one suddenly appeared in front of me.
“Is this beginner’s luck? Am I hitting the jackpot?”
It was a Manticore three to four times the size of an ordinary one. It was called Kelvecore.
Its wing and tail were similar to an ordinary Manticore, however it had three heads.
The middle head was an old lion, the left head was a dog, and the right was a dragon.
The heads were all howling and baring their fangs at each other, as if they were fighting for dominance over the body.
“Wow, this really looks like something……”
Looking at the clock, I still had 15 minutes until the dungeon ended.
If I stayed out of sight for 15 minutes, I could exit the dungeon.
However.
10,000,000.
The money I could get for slaying that monster was 10 million.
“Was this good luck or bad luck? There was no need to think it over. Even if I couldn’t win, I at least had to try.”
Due to all the combat experience and successful kills, I was chock-full of confidence.
So, without hesitation, I drew Kelvecore’s attention.
KAAH! KURUNG! KRUUURUNG!
Moments ago they were busy fighting each other until moments ago, but now, as if they had found a common target, their eyes locked onto me.
‘As long as I tie down their movements, there shouldn’t be much more to it, right?’
KIAP!
With both hands, I concentrated the electric discharge and poured it at them.
CHIRIK! ZIZIZIZIZIZIK!
It hit their heads dead on. However, it didn’t do much damage.
It only made Kelvecore briefly stop, before he resumed flying at me with its swift wings.
Despite this, I didn’t panic. Instead, I aimed for the part where the wings attached to the body, and shot frost orbs. The wings slowly started to freeze over.
Perhaps it was due to realizing its wings were freezing and becoming unresponsive, but the heads charged towards me, going at what seemed like their top speed.
DUGUDUGUDU! DUGUDUGUDU! CRASH!
Due to its charging speed, the frozen wings, which were spread wide open, were torn apart by the air resistance.
“Okay! Now that I’ve stopped its air, I just need to tie up its legs.”
The front legs steered the body, and the rear legs provided propulsion.
I chose to freeze the rear legs.
When the heads came charging at me, I used the ‘Boots of Speed’ and ran diagonally to the left.
This reduced the distance between me and the heads, and it also gave me an angle that would allow me to strike at their rear legs.
TADAK! TADAK! TADAK!
Despite the tremors from the monster’s rapid movements, I managed to perfectly shoot two frost orbs to its rear legs.
The rear legs gradually froze over, and the distance also gradually increased… I had confirmed my victory.
“Frozen Shield.”
Now that I had activated the shield, the only thing left to do was to go all out and kill the bastard.
Holding the rod in both hands, I had just started releasing electric discharge when…
SHAAAACK!!
PUSHOOOOK.
The dragon’s head shout out powerful fire, that hit my left hand, dead on.
Soon after, poison needles launched from the tail, and pierced my left shoulder.
This was the first blow taken from the monster, and, due to the excruciating pain, I couldn’t think straight.
I had invested all of my stats points to vitality, but one blow from this crazy hidden boss made me helplessly collapse.
Because the shield had been pointlessly destroyed by the fire, I ended up allowing a strike on my shoulder.
“Ugh. Ha, Ha… Crazy……”
The pain in my left arm’s was dominating my body.
My left hand was burned to a crisp.
The only thing it maintained was its shape, I couldn’t feel or move it.
My sight was gradually becoming blurry.
The monster appeared to have regained feeling in its rear legs, and was starting to charge at me again.
“Kuk, damn it, this crazy little mutt……”
I wanted to live.
This was a chance that was hard earned.
It was a chance for me to be happy.
I didn’t want to lose this chance; I couldn’t lose this chance.
At that moment, I was thinking that ‘I could die.’
After that thought, I began to feel something emanating within me.
That feeling made me feel as if I was fully dosed in painkillers, and it also made me forget the pain on my left arm for a moment.
When I used both my hands my skill casting time doubled, which was a sharp comparison to when using only one, but I didn’t let that bother me.
I used the same method as before!
I had decided to use it carefully this time, and focus on precision.
Once again I aimed, and shot frost orbs at the rear legs and the dragon head.
Just in case, I prepared myself for the second round of its tail needle attack.
It was as if my combat senses had spiked due to the threat of immediate death.
My field of vision also widened substantially.
Before long I had the monster completely immobilized.
I sent twenty electric discharges towards it.
I could not make the same mistake twice.
Mistake meant death! To avoid that, I continued to move my body and cast skills.
The dog head lost strength and dropped.
The dragon head was already frozen and broke in half.
The remaining lion head was roaring with murderous intent and stared at me.
And then.
KRUAAAAANG!!!
“So long 10 million.”
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.
My memory ended there.