Chapter 78. Under the Two Moons (1)
It didn’t feel like a long time had passed since the midterms, but the finals had ended today. Resolved to score at least a B+, I crammed with my textbooks the day before the test. My base intelligence was 20, which became 32 after receiving 12 bonus stats from various effects! Although I suspected that it was still updating, my memorization and comprehension abilities were noticeably high. In other words, it wasn’t hard to get the questions right on my tests.
“Huu, I feel like I’m not really a college student, just pretending to be one.”
“A lot of college students feel that way.”
When I murmured, watching the teaching assistant leave after collecting the tests, Su Ye-Eun replied as sprawled on her desk. Her face showed how happy she was to be finally free. Even though she must have less work than me, her grades weren’t as good as mine. It was probably the result of me raising my intelligence to 20.
With today’s test, the finals were over. It seemed there wouldn’t be any more tests in this lecture room for the day, as groups of students stayed after the teaching assistant left and chatted.
“Shin.”
“Yeah?”
Absently watching the trajectory of the camera following the students loitering in the front of the lecture room, I replied to Su Ye-Eun. She then asked.
“It’s winter break now. What are your plans?”
“I’ll be in the dungeon.”
“… Chii.”
“You?”
“In my room, playing games.”
“I think I’m better off than you.”
In any case, I was now done with my tests. I stretched and started packing my bags. Su Ye-Eun tried to say something, but hesitated. There was only one situation where she couldn’t get her words out. I turned around. There were three people, two girls and one guy. They were all pretty or handsome.
“Hey, you’re Kang Shin, right?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, we’re freshmen too, so you don’t have to be polite. Um, you came straight from high school, right?”
“Yeah. Su Ye-Eun, did you fail your entrance exam and have to take a gap year?”
“Do you want me to hit you?”
They asked with more relaxed expressions.
“There’s a department MT1. All the freshmen are coming.”
“All of them? The entire business department? There’s over 400 of us.”
“Yep. It’s to celebrate the end of finals for first semester. We’re all going from this Friday to Saturday.”
“That’s tomorrow! Pass.”
I shouldered my bag. Then, the guy stepped forward and stopped me.
“Neither of you guys really hang out with others. From what I hear, you guys didn’t come to the freshmen opening party nor to the MT in the beginning of the semester. No one even knows your phone numbers.”
“Because I didn’t tell anyone. I don’t really know why you want a loner like me to come to the MT…”
I really was curious. My social circle? I was content with the one I built with the people from the dungeon. As for college, I had my hands full with just Su Ye-Eun. Because I didn’t want to get involved with others, I didn’t talk to anyone and only politely responded to whoever talked to me first. As for group projects, I just skipped them. Who had time for that? I had to run the dungeon!
This time, one of the girls stepped forward.
“There are a lot of people who want to get close to you guys. You’re both famous.”
“Su Ye-Eun, she says you’re famous. Good for you.”
“She said you are too!”
“Anyways! You guys have to come to this MT! We’re leaving from school at three pm, so be there!”
The other girl looked at me and emphasized. Then, she even managed to get my phone number. She was undoubtedly going to call me if I didn’t come. Watching the three people leave like the wind after coming like the wind, I asked Su Ye-Eun.
“Don’t people usually leave outsiders alone? They don’t go this far, right?”
“Let’s go!”
Su Ye-Eun completely ignored what I said and kept going, her eyes sparkling.
“It sounds fun!”
“Have fun.”
“Let’s go together. Please? Let’s go!”
“Huu.”
I became immersed in thought. If I could get to the 35th floor by the end of today then… yeah, if I finished my three Floor Master battles tomorrow morning, then I could go to the MT without losing out on much. Plus, going to the MT didn’t sound all that bad. Since they went through the trouble of inviting me, I would feel bad if I didn’t go.
“Alright, sure, I’ll go.”
“Whoo! Just the two of us… I mean, the MT’s going to be fun!”
“Are you saying it’ll be fun because it won’t be just the two of us?”
“Auuuuuu, no!”
I punished Su Ye-Eun by flicking her forehead. Just think about all the times you made me get fries with you!
“I’m not going with you for fries today.”
“Why!?”
“You wanted me to go to the MT. I have to go to the dungeon if I want to go to the MT.”
“Chii, you always say dungeon this dungeon that… what’s so fun about fighting scary monsters? Isn’t it more fun hanging out with me?”
I poked Su Ye-Eun’s puffed up cheeks and advised her.
“If you don’t fix your attitude, you’re going to be in danger one day.”
“… But.”
“If you want to fix it, tell me. I’ll help you.”
Su Ye-Eun had monsterphobia, but monsterphobia could be fixed. You just had to drive the fear out of your heart. It wasn’t incurable, and if she didn’t fix it, Su Ye-Eun will undoubtedly come to regret it. At my serious advice, Su Ye-Eun nodded her head meekly.
“Yeah… one day.”
“Alright, I’m off.”
I said my goodbye to Su Ye-Eun and turned my back to her. For some reason, however, I felt the gazes of other students on my back. As I left, I tried my best to ignore their gazes and their whispers.
“Are they really not going out?”
“They said they aren’t! In any case, he said he’s going to the MT.”
“Argh, I want to make him mine!”
“Yeah, keep dreaming.”
*
The 31st floor was extremely quiet. Even when I yelled Commence Exploration, no monsters appeared. Thinking something strange was going on, I walked onward. The pathway was the same as always.
The only difference was that there were sets of medieval armor here and there. They each held their own weapons like cleavers, claymores, and rapiers up into the air. Although they weren’t moving at all, their appearances were very solemn and suspicious.
“They must be it, right?”
You guys weren’t here until now. You thought I wouldn’t notice if you stood still!? I charged at the nearest armor. When I got close, the armor creaked and began to move. Although the cleaver in its hand looked heavy and sharp, it didn’t matter as long as I wasn’t hit.
“Ruyue!”
[Auuuuuuu!]
With me riding her, Ruyue let out a lively howl and collided with the armor with her body. The part of the armor she contacted froze up and fell on the ground. Using the spear giving off golden lightning from Peika, I stabbed the frozen part of the armor. At that moment, a blinding light exploded.
[Critical Hit!]
The armor shattered. The ownerless cleaver struck the ground with a thud, and soon disappeared into particles. I was quite surprised by how well Peika and Ruyue worked together.
The armor could not have had bones, meaning my Skull Breaker effect didn’t apply. Even so, the armor shattered in a single critical hit. No, were these guys just weak to begin with? For testing purposes, I put Ruyue on standby for the next armor and only used my spear clad with Spirit Aura. I had to stab four times for the armor to break.
“Oh, amazing, Ruyue.”
[Did I do well? Did I do well?]
“Yeah, you did very well.”
It seemed having Ruyue did more than just give me one more elemental, as she showed synergistic effects.
[Master doesn’t praise me…]
“No. Of course, Peika is doing well too. We wouldn’t be doing so well without you either.”
[Really?]
“Of course.”
[Ehehe, thanks Master!]
Although I didn’t really feel it when I only had one elemental, but now that I had two, it felt like I was traveling with two children. Not that I minded with how cute they were.
To an Elementalist, communicating with his elementals was a very special and happy thing to do. Compared to when I was a normal dungeon explorer (though I suspected I was never normal to begin with), I was sometimes surprised by the new facts I knew and acted upon after becoming an Elementalist. Even so, I did not regret becoming an Elementalist and being able to meet my elementals.
After I finished praising my elementals and looked up, the armors that were lined up along the pathway like decorations were closing in on me with their weapons in hand. Those guys, would Tempest send them flying? I immediately gave it a go, but they didn’t budge. As I thought, they were heavy.
I corrected my posture on Ruyue’s back, leaning forward slightly and aiming my spear to the front. I lessened the amount of mana I put into Spirit Aura and transferred the focus to Ruyue. As a result, the amount of freezing energy coming from Ruyue’s body increased. It was as if dry ice was placed all around Ruyue’s feet.
I patted Ruyue’s head and spoke.
“Ruyue, let’s run.”
[Okay!]
“Go!”
[Auuuuuuuu!]
Ruyue howled at the top of her voice and kicked off the ground. The moment she began to run, her incredibly fast speed made the scenery flash by like movie films. The armors, the so-called living armors, each swung their weapons at Ruyue and me and blocked our path. However, Ruyue wasn’t a normal wolf. Before any of the weapons could touch us, we became clad in an armor of ice, which blocked their weapons and froze the living armors.
I then shattered their frozen bodies with my spear of lightning.
[You obtained 400 gold!]
[You obtained 420 gold!]
[You obtained a Fragment of Living Armor!]
[You obtained 430 gold!]
[You obtained a Fragment of Living Armor!]
“Kuhat, this is fun! Ruyue, let’s go faster!”
[Auuuuuuu!]
She really did speed up! Without the Riding skill, I would have been knocked off her back a long time ago. Now that we were incredibly fast, the living armors from far into the 31st floor pathway woke up and swarmed us. As expected, these guys were also only strong in numbers.
Woosh! Whoosh!
“Haap!”
With more than five weapons attacking me from the front, I put more strength into my arms and struck them down. Ruyue’s freezing energy then froze them in place. The only sound the living armors made was the creaking of their armor, but now that they were frozen quiet, they really looked like ordinary armors.
Even while I ran forward on Ruyue’s back, I fished the frozen armors with my spear and sent them crashing against the wall.
“Stupid armor cosplayers!”
[You obtained 410 gold!]
[You obtained 440 gold!]
At this rate, I would be able to make it to the end of 31st floor within a few hours! With a violent smile on my face, I encouraged Ruyue.
“Ruyue, run! Faster!”
[Aauuuuuuu!]
“Come at me all at once, you leftover canned food!”
How were they similar? They were both empty on the inside!
Just like that, Ruyue and I swept through the 31st floor.
Until now, I had used my Dash skill to speed up running through the floors, during which I had to watch out for my stamina and the enemies’ attacks. Now that I had Ruyue, who ran much faster than me and even blocked the incoming attacks, my dungeon clearing speed shortened drastically. Just like that, I could see Lin’s rotten expression in just 3 hours.
It was a secret that I enjoyed his expression very much.
1. School outing at Korean colleges.
