Chapter 218

[Lost Path]

Grade: Hidden

Rewards: EXP, Gold, Steel Peak Dwarf Favorability

Find a way to reclaim the lost route for the Steel Peak dwarves by wiping out the monsters.

If one simply stumbled across a dungeon and cleared it, that would be the end of it. When tangled stories like this came into play, however, the path naturally led to a quest instead.

Do-Jin walked toward the meeting point while dragging the Quest Window around. Even though there was no point to it, he had grown too bored on the way to the rendezvous spot.

He’d chosen the cave entrance at the base of Mountain Tigrek as the rendezvous spot because there was no way he could ask his party members to cross the snowy mountains just to reach the dwarf village. As long as someone opened the route from either side, the result would be the same, so he picked the starting point that was easiest for them.

“This cave is supposed to be a dungeon?” Theresa asked, staring at the massive cave entrance as soon as she joined up with him.

“Yeah, it’s a worm nest. The village that handles our item crafting is on the other side, but they can’t use this route anymore, so they’re pretty much fucked.”

“So we just kill everything inside, right?” She grinned and waved her hammer. “Then let’s move! The EXP event’s ticking down by the second. Come on, come on.”

Theresa seemed unusually energetic. Meanwhile, Soso and Tanto remained quiet as always. However, Soso was frowning hard enough to wrinkle her nose.

“Worms...”

Clearly, just the thought of that monster type disgusted her. Theresa caught that and smiled like a menace.

“What, are you scared?”

“Not even a little,” Soso answered, slapping Theresa across the bridge of the nose.

“Agh!”

Although Theresa didn’t take any damage, she was certainly startled.

“Hey!”

Theresa glared at her, but Soso didn’t even bother acknowledging it. Since they got up to these hijinks all the time, Do-Jin simply ignored it and focused on prepping for the hunt. Even Tanto was used to it now, pulling out his weapons and calmly applying poison and oil while completely tuning out the chaos. In a way, it was peaceful.

How long had it been since this group stood in front of a normal hunting ground like this? Lately, they had only been thrown into battlefields where death was basically guaranteed. Standing in front of an ordinary dungeon almost felt unreal. No wonder Theresa looked like she was on a field trip.

She shot Soso an annoyed glare after getting no response, then turned to ask, “Do-Jin, can I turn the stream on today?”

“Yeah. Do whatever you want.”

Theresa smiled and immediately turned the stream on. She’d been in the middle of a farming stream when Do-Jin contacted her, and she’d ended the stream rather abruptly, which had left her chat annoyed ever since. Naturally, nothing calmed an angry chat faster than a hunting stream with this lineup.

“Tada! I felt bad for cutting the stream so suddenly earlier, so I prepared something big for you guys today.”

The chat exploded like a bomb.

└ It’s fucking Do-Jin!

└ Mr. Do-Jin, please fuck her up properly today!

└ She’s gotten way too strong lately, so it’s boring as hell. She flexes nonstop and acts like hot shit, and it’s honestly fucking insufferable. Please knock her ego back into the dirt.

As soon as they saw Do-Jin, the chat started screaming for him to put Theresa through absolute hell. After sticking close to him and growing into a top-tier tank, Theresa no longer had to feel inferior to anyone, and the chat hated that more than anything.

“Hehe. Cry all you want. It won’t do you any good. I’m a real-deal tank now, so I’m not about to suffer in some shitty, low-tier dungeon like this.”

└ Fuck, that pisses me off... but she’s right.

└ Goddamn it. Where did Theresa go who used to cry her eyes out and run away clutching a giant hammer when mobs stacked up?

└ This isn’t world-class syndrome anymore. She actually turned into a real world-class monster.

While Theresa screwed around with the chat and soaked up the attention, the rest of the party finished their preparations.

“Let’s go.”

At Do-Jin’s signal, Theresa immediately stopped messing around, pulled out her equipment, and stepped forward.

“Alright. Let’s go get some levels.” She banged her shield with her one-handed hammer and charged straight into the cave.

They had just come back from fighting something that looked like a colossal curse given physical form, a monster so massive that it was impossible to take in its full body at once. Looking at the small game now, she felt almost nothing.

Worms in a place like this... We don’t even need Tanto or Do-Jin to step in. I can crush everything with my hammer al—

Just then, a deafening crash shattered her train of thought. The sound came from the left side of the ceiling and a massive Great Worm burst out, charging at her with a mouth as enormous as its body. The diameter of its open jaws looked roughly as tall as a grown man.

“An elite monster right from the get-go?” Theresa asked, caught off guard.

At a glance, she assumed it was either a named monster or, at the very least, an elite. The crushing pressure that slammed into her shield was more than enough to turn that assumption into certainty.

“Ghk!”

Right after the collision, the creature tried to bite straight down on her. Theresa swung her hammer upward, smashing into its gaping mouth. However, the impact felt way too solid.

My attacks can’t punch through its physical resistance.

Fortunately, the party’s damage dealers were already moving. Tanto tore into the worm’s side without holding back. The Great Worm twisted violently, as if it was irritated by the attack.

“Guh!” Tanto’s health dropped like it was melting off his bar.

Soso panicked and dumped heals into him, barely keeping him standing. Soon after, Do-Jin’s magic detonated. Fire and lightning flared through the cave, flooding it with blinding light before fading.

Theresa finally relaxed. Once Do-Jin’s magic landed, monsters usually either staggered or died outright. That wasn’t even a thought anymore. It was muscle memory built from experience.

However, the Great Worm still didn’t die. Even after taking Do-Jin’s spell head-on, it thrashed its exposed body wildly, flailing around like it had completely lost its mind.

“Hey!” Theresa, who was closest, reacted on instinct and swung the bladed edge of her shield upward, smashing into the thing’s jaw as it lunged at her.

The result was her getting launched. Theresa went flying and slammed straight into the wall. Still, she managed to break the Great Worm’s frenzy pattern and briefly stun it.

Do-Jin didn’t waste the opening. He activated Flame Pillar to deal sustained damage while layering in additional attacks. At the same time, he carefully adjusted the flames so they wouldn’t spill into the space where Tanto was dealing damage.

Under the concentrated burst of firepower, the Great Worm spasmed violently, letting out a screech before its massive body went limp. Despite all that, it was still alive. It had gone straight from stunned to groggy instead.

This thing is way tougher than I expected.

The level difference was overpowering. With his usual combo alongside Tanto, it shouldn’t have taken this much effort, but he had underestimated its tenacity.

Still, it’s not like this is some kind of nightmare.

With that thought, Do-Jin poured the Power of Ruin building up in his gauntlet straight into a spell and fired it. A straight-line blast of flame tore through the air, blowing off the head of the already exhausted Great Worm.

Theresa stared at the scene with a hollow expression, still slumped against the wall from the impact earlier.

└ LMAOOOO wasn’t this supposed to be an easy normal dungeon? Where did that confidence go?

└ Yep, that’s Theresa alright. That’s our gal.

└ Watching her fly like a kicked pebble was fucking beautiful.

└ I mean, she looks like a dumbass, but she’s actually a crazy strong tank now. Why did that take so much effort.

└ Is that really the issue? What kind of monster tanks that much damage from that DPS lineup? Was that a named mob?

The chat spammed messages, half mocking Theresa and half stunned by how absurdly durable the Great Worm had been.

“This is already sketchy right from the entrance. If a named-tier thing pops out this early, we should probably stay on edge. Right, Do-Jin?” Theresa asked, steadying herself and brushing the dust off her clothes.

“Named? No. That was just a regular monster.”

Theresa froze mid-motion. The out-of-breath Tanto also looked over with a bewildered expression. On the other hand, Soso stayed far away, clearly grossed out by the worm.

“W-wait, what are you saying? No matter how I look at it, that thing was at least elite or named-tier. Hell, it wouldn’t have been weird if that was a boss.”

“It was a normal monster. It just has a high level.”

“How high are we talking?”

“Probably over 200,” Do-Jin revealed.

Even Do-Jin, who had been scamming and squeezing EXP out of every possible angle, hadn’t hit Level 170 yet, and this thing was over 200.

“TWOOO HUNDREEED?!” The sound burst out of Theresa’s mouth the moment her brain restarted after the brief shutdown.

“Why? I know it’s tough, but it’s not impossible.”

Do-Jin said it casually, which made Theresa immediately vent her frustration.

“It is hard for me. Being a tank is fucking miserable, do you even know that?”

When it came to normal hunting, tanks were supposed to have it a little easier. Having to constantly deal with monsters this brutal was the kind of thing that slowly ground a tank’s nerves down to dust.

“I know you’re suffering. Of course I do.”

“The tank is the most important role in the party and the one who suffers the most. It’s not just me. Everyone knows that,” Do-Jin said, glancing at Soso and Tanto.

Tanto nodded emphatically. “That’s true. Everyone works hard, but the tank definitely has it the worst.”

“Suffering, my ass. You live like a fucking sloth in real life, so you should at least move around a bit in here.” Soso, unsurprisingly, wasn’t kind.

Naturally, Theresa let that comment go in one ear and straight out the other.

└ Of course only Soso would say that. No bullshit!

└ And Theresa doesn’t even pretend to listen, holy shit.

Do-Jin patted Theresa on the shoulder and spoke again. “Come on. Since we have to do it anyway, let’s just get it over with fast.”

Theresa knew that already. She knew they had to do it. Since this was tied to item crafting, there was no real choice in the matter. Still, she had been hoping that during the EXP event, at least the farming would be comfortable. Having that expectation crushed left her a little bitter.

Theresa trudged forward in silence, and her back looked painfully pitiful.

“It’ll be done in a day. One day, I promise.”

Of course, Do-Jin was lying. The fights against the absurdly strong Great Worms didn’t end for over a week. People said nothing in life came easy, and crafting relic items ranked high among the especially brutal parts of it.