Dungeon Predator (WN)
Chapter 141: Parmarl Underground Labyrinth (1)

Kang Oh's party left Nedav Village (east) and headed for Modrak Village (north).

Because it was the only village here that had an intercity transfer gate, Modrak Village was the most prosperous area within the Great Forest.

Of course, Modrak Village wasn't their final destination.

They'd go there to repair their equipment and then head west, where the Parmarl Underground Labyrinth was located.

Plus, it was too far to go straight there from Nedav Village.

"Does Modrak Village have an auction house?" Kang Oh asked from atop his Yuma.

"I don't think it does," Anracoum said.

"Hmm."

During his battle with Aman, Kang Oh had used the BB-rank gloves as fodder for Gluttony. Thus, he needed to buy some more disposable equipment.

"Do I need to go to a nearby city..." Kang Oh muttered.

"Why do you need the auction house?" Sephiro asked, riding side by side with him.

"One of my skills needs equipment to activate, but I don’t have anything on hand."

"Does any item work?"

"It has to be at least BB-rank and have a minimum level requirement of 100."

The higher the level requirement, the better. After all, using better equipment would yield a longer duration time.

Sephiro pulled out a black bow from his inventory.

"I used this bow a while back. How about it?"

Kang Oh examined the bow.

The Black Horn Bow was an A-rank bow, and also had a minimum level requirement of 150.

"It's just right."

If he used an A-rank item like this as fodder for Gluttony, then his abilities would triple. Plus, with such a high level requirement, he'd be able to maintain the skill for more than 10 minutes.

"Would you like to buy it?"

Obviously it wasn't free.

"How much?'

"I'll sell it to you for just 300 gold!" Sephiro said, speaking as though he were doing him a service.

"I'm not buying it."

Kang Oh shook his head.

"Tch. Since it's you, I'm willing to sell it at a loss. How about 250 gold?" Sephiro haggled.

'That sounds about right.'

If he put the Black Horn Bow up for auction himself, then he'd probably get around 250 gold for it.

"Let's go with 230 gold."

"That's..."

"If you sold the bow for 250 gold in the auction house, then you'd only be getting 225 gold after paying the 10% commission fee. 230 gold is better than that, wouldn't you say?"

"Ugh. Understood."

"Here you go."

He paid 230 gold in exchange for the Black Horn Bow.

After that, Kang Oh's party continued to traverse through the Great Forest via their Yumas.

Halfway through, they encountered a Kruger and were forced into an intense battle, but they were somehow able to defeat it.

In any case, Kang Oh's party safely arrived at Modrak Village.

"We should spend the night here," Kang Oh gazed at the setting sun and said.

"There's a place I often stay at. Let's go there."

Sephiro took the lead.

A short while later...

After they had procured lodging in the form of a tree house, Kang Oh's party went their separate ways to rest.

Kang Oh laid on top of a hammock, which lay on one side of the room, and opened his message window. He'd received a message from Asu.

- Oppa.

- Yeah?

- You know we're on for 6 o'clock this Saturday, right?

- Of course.

- I've sent you the address and directions to the store via KakaoTalk.

- Where is it?

- Have you heard of Yurim before?

- Nope.

- Look forward to it. It has great food and a great atmosphere!

- Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.

* * *

Once it became bright outside, Kang Oh’s party left Modrak Village.

Ming!

Four Yumas forcefully ran through the Great Forest.

Was it because they'd left early in the morning?

They reached their final destination, the Parmarl Underground Labyrinth, by midday.

"Let's head to the entrance."

Kang Oh moved quickly.

He couldn’t help but speed up at the thought of a new demon sword just waiting for him inside the dungeon.

Once again, Kang Oh stood before a stone gate that possessed eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

This was not only the entrance to the Parmarl Underground Labyrinth, but the exit too!

Kang Oh took a look around. He was making sure there weren’t any players nearby just in case.

'I'm not going to let others partake in something I've worked hard for!'

Fortunately, there wasn't anyone else here besides his companions.

"I don’t think there’s anyone else here."

"Indeed."

Sephiro looked around as well. Even he couldn’t see anyone else with his sharp gaze.

"Alright then!"

Kang Oh removed the two beads from his inventory.

The Nuwak Tribe's Token and the Nedav Tribe's Token were both black beads, but the former emanated a green light and the latter a red light.

Kang Oh placed the beads within both 'eye sockets'.

They fit perfectly. The eyes began to radiate light, and the door's face reminded him of someone who'd just awoken after a long nap.

Creak!

The center of the gate opened like an automatic door, giving way to a path leading into the underground labyrinth.

'Finally!'

Kang Oh clenched his fists.

"My work here is finished it seems," Anracoum said, staring at the entrance of the underground labyrinth.

He didn't know anything about the inside of the labyrinth. Thus, it'd be impossible for him to act as a guide inside.

"Thank you for everything," Kang Oh said.

"We were able to avoid a lot of danger because of you. Here, this is your guide fee."

Sephiro paid him his due.

"Thank you for all your hard work."

Eder shook Anracoum's hand.

"Good luck to you all."

Anracoum rode his Yuma and departed.

Now, things had gone back to normal; only Kang Oh, Eder, and Sephiro were left.

"Let's go."

Kang Oh entered first, with Sephiro and Eder following behind him.

[Entering the dungeon, Parmarl Underground Labyrinth.]

Once he entered, he received a system message. As expected, this was indeed the Parmarl Underground Labyrinth!

But upon entering, the door behind them closed shut.

"It seems like the door is designed to only allow those with the tokens through," Kang Oh looked at the closed door and said.

"That's good."

Sephiro grinned.

With this, the dungeon belonged to them and them alone.

"Shouldn't we form some kind of plan? After all, it is a 'labyrinth'," Eder asked.

After all, a labyrinth was designed to make it difficult to find the exit.

"If I could, I would've made one already. But we don't have any info on the labyrinth, so forming any sort of plan is impossible," Kang Oh said.

If all they encountered was complicated and/or forked roads, then they would have nothing to worry about. Kang Oh would be able to find the right way forward, even if it took a longer amount of time than usual.

On the other hand, they could face a more complicated labyrinth. One in which the labyrinth itself continuously changed, or one with transfer magic circles spread all across it, or even a labyrinth that was set up so that one got lost and was forced to continuously roam through it.

These kinds of labyrinths couldn't be cleared with just time. One needed to use a special method to clear these labyrinths.

"Which means that we'll have to gather as much information as we can once we get there," Sephiro said.

"If we get trapped, we can always just use a return scroll," Kang Oh said.

"Ah!"

Eder looked as though he clearly understood the situation.

"Let's go."

There was a stairway that led underground.

"I feel like the labyrinth will truly begin once we've gone down the stairs," Sephiro said.

"We don't know what kind of monsters or traps we'll face, so stay on guard."

"Alright."

Kang Oh's party descended the stairs.

* * *

The ceiling was filled with crystals, and the walls were covered with red and brown vines. Then there was the forked road too!

Now it was looking like a proper labyrinth.

"You never know, there might be traps or magic circles that'll take you who knows where, so be careful."

Kang Oh's party took the right path.

"Wait!"

Sephiro suddenly raised his hand.

"It's a trap."

His eyes narrowed sharply.

"Where?"

"Over there."

Sephiro pointed at the ceiling. There was a small hole there.

"If you walk through the center of the road, then arrows will shoot out of that hole. Let's hug the wall."

Kang Oh's party put their backs to the wall and passed the trap without incident.

"Mr. Sephiro," Kang Oh called.

"Yes?"

"It looks like your Disarm Trap skill is at quite a high level..."

"It'll hit the intermediate rank soon."

"Please take the lead."

"Alright."

After that, Sephiro continued to prove himself. He saw through every trap, and he'd either disarm the traps himself or teach them how to avoid the trap.

"As expected of you, Mr. Sephiro!"

Eder gave him a thumbs up.

'How can I use this guy even more...' Kang Oh thought maliciously.

In any case, Kang Oh's party was able to make their way through the labyrinth via Sephiro's skill in Disarm Trap.

Of course, that didn't solve all of their problems. They eventually encountered their first monster.

"Hmm. I've never seen this monster before," Sephiro said.

"I haven't either," Kang Oh said.

"What do we even call that?" Eder asked.

The monster was scarlet, as if it were covered in blood.

It was more than 2 meters tall as well.

The humanoid monster possessed two arms and two legs, and its body swelled with muscle like a bodybuilder. Its round face resembled a snake.

"Muscleman?" Sephiro asked.

"We'll find out after it's dead."

They'd know after they killed it.

Bam!

Kang Oh kicked off the floor.

Whoever took the lead would win!

He swung his sword downwards as quick as lightning.

Kyaoh!

The monster shrieked and swung its fist.

Its forearm was as thick as a log! The muscles in its forearm bulged.

Whoosh!

Its swing gave off a 'whoosh' as it pushed through the air!

Kang Oh put all of his weight into the blow in order to deal the most damage possible!

His sword and its fist clashed.

Spurt!

Kang Oh's sword left behind a lengthy wound on the muscle monster's chest, which resulted in an explosion of shards of light!

Whereas the muscle monster's fist had struck nothing but air.

Kang Oh had neither retreated nor moved to the side; he had instead moved even closer to the muscle monster and had simultaneously attacked and evaded.

"Haht!"

Eder rushed towards the muscle monster.

Then, the monster opened up its palm and swung it at Eder.

Eder positioned his shield in front of him.

Smack!

Its palm struck the top of his skull shield.

"Ugh!"

As if its muscles didn't make it clear enough, its physical strength was immense. Thus, Eder slightly wobbled around even though he'd blocked the attack with his shield.

But then...

The muscle monster brought down its fist.

Whack!

A fistful of light shards fell from Eder’s body.

"Get a grip!" Kang Oh yelled.

However...!

The shards of light, which normally should've disappeared into the air, were sucked into the monster's body.

'This is...'

This was the first time he'd seen something like this in Arth. However, he could pretty much tell what had just happened.

"Life Steal," Sephiro yelled.

Life Steal. It was exactly that; it would take one's HP for itself.

Sephiro shot an arrow.

The muscle monster suddenly jumped backwards like a frog, dodging Sephiro's arrow. Then, Kang Oh used that opportunity to stand in front of Eder.

Kya!

It rushed at Kang Oh and swung its fist.

Kang Oh used the side of his sword to block its blow.

Then...!

Boom!

A small explosion came out of its fist.

That skill was...

'Heavy Blow?'

That was definitely Eder's main skill, Heavy Blow.