＜ 9. The thief who stole the country (1) ＞
“What, this floor is easier than I thought?”
“that’s···.”
The 26th floor was by no means an easy floor.
The common monsters that appeared on this floor were flying and receiving a buff that became faster as time passed. They were monsters that had no choice but to be frightened by their speed as they chased after them hurriedly, with only close-range attacks.
If there is a remote dealer, the story is completely different.
“Why are monsters so weak? I only used two hits, but I die in one hit.”
Trisha was in a state of tension as the monsters she faced right before were the three ungrateful brothers. But when it ended so blandly, I couldn’t help but feel discouraged.
“It’s an easy place for a class that can do long-range attacks. Guys like me who don’t have a ranged attack method have to wait for that f*cking bird’s head to land and then jump on the soles of their feet.”
Andrea said as if making an excuse. In fact, even if there is a ranged attack method, it is not that easy. If you don’t catch it quickly, it’s because the rogue birds are so fast that you can easily evade the attack you just threw.
But Tricia, who was born to shoot an arrow, had no problem. It is a skill that has been used to shoot birds flying in the sky. No matter how fast the birds were in the room where the ceiling wasn’t that high.
In exchange for speed, the rooks had extremely low defense and resistance. The result, as you can see, was that all monsters were annihilated before even 3 turns had passed.
“Anyway, this time I benefited a bit. right?”
“That is not natural. Nice work, Trisha.”
It was said to be easy for long-distance classes, so it was a joke, but when the real praise came back, Trisha felt rather embarrassed. It wasn’t that special for Andrea, who thought that praise was unnecessary.
‘I wanted to try using a card whose identity is unknown, but… Well, I guess I can use it on the next floor.’
Andrea and Tricia exited and walked down the aisle. This time, the treasure chest contained nothing different.
“Tricia, don’t put that card in your deck.”
“No, I didn’t put it in.”
A card with similar efficiency to hitting came out, but Trisha was paying attention. If I didn’t have eyes to see, I probably wouldn’t really put it in the deck.
Taking only the gold, Andrea and Trisha descended the stairs. As she raised her hand toward the deck, wondering if she could explain the situation to Marco, Tricia stopped Andrea unexpectedly.
“Andrea, wait. Could you please stop summoning Mr. Marco? I have something to say.”
Andrea looked at Trisha, wondering what to say. Tricia took a moment to catch her breath before opening her mouth.
“Mr. Marco… is he really someone I can trust?”
It was a pretty random question. Andrea tilted her head and asked Tricia back.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“No… Mr. Bul, that man tried to eat you. Not figuratively, really.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary to say metaphorical meaning.”
“That’s not important! Think carefully. Marco is a person who does not choose any means for an end. If he kills us, we get a chance to escape out of the dungeon and meet his daughter. Then what action will you take?”
“Of course they will kill us.”
“Yes, of course… huh?”
Trisha hesitated for a moment at the unexpected answer. Andrea continued talking nonchalantly.
“In that way, Trisha, you are the same, and so am I. There will be conflict for a while, but there is a high probability that you will make the choice to give up your comrades for your long-cherished wish. We do have a bit of a bond, but to be honest, it’s not that deep. right?”
Andrea was looking at the current situation from a very realistic point of view.
‘Tricia and Marco are great colleagues. However… their long-cherished desire to find the person they want is quite earnest. Guilt will hold them back for a moment, but in the end they will usually give up on me if the alternative situation presents itself. Me too, it might not be very different.’
It was close to the truth, but Trisha seemed quite shocked. Andrea added a secondary explanation.
“Tricia, but it would be foolish not to doubt and trust the colleague next to me right now, just because I thought so. Actually, the situation in which you have to choose between a colleague and a long-cherished wish is an overly extreme assumption, isn’t it? We will help each other and cooperate in most situations.”
“…”
“It is true that Marco made an inhuman decision for a while for his daughter. But even so, I have no intention of treating Marco-san as a defeated criminal. A dungeon is not a place to hide such things, and Marco-san has been doing his job well so far.”
Trisha was at a loss for words. More than anything else, I couldn’t help but deeply sympathize with the statement that a dungeon is not a place to hide such things.
Even so, the feeling of embarrassment that remained in my heart was not easily erased.
“Damn it, I… really hate it.”
It was a word about the dungeon, about myself exploring the dungeon, or about everyone else who explored the dungeon. Andrea bowed her head with a heavy heart.
Come to think of it, Andrea also had a question she wanted to ask when Marco was gone. He cautiously asked Trisha.
“Tricia, this is a rather personal question, so if you don’t want to answer it, you don’t have to. Before becoming a hunter… what were Trisha’s parents like?”
Even in the game, Trisha did not hesitate to talk about her days as a hunter, but she kept very quiet about her days as a slave and the past before that.
Since he had never clearly revealed all of his past, Andrea also had doubts about this part.
Trisha had been struggling for quite some time over whether she could speak. The reason she spoke was that she was almost at the entrance on the 27th floor.
“My mother and father were both ordinary Helios. My mother got sick and passed away, and my father was in the f*cking crusade before that. When he came back, of course, he was ashes.”
‘!?’
Andrea had a rather vague guess, but she was thinking that Tricia might be Marco’s daughter. However, to say that he personally confirmed his father’s remains was completely unexpected.
Andrea asked more directly while he was dismissive.
“You said before that the first time you saw Marco, you were familiar with something. Do you really remember where you saw it…?”
“What are you? Are you saying that man might be my father?”
It wasn’t Trisha who wouldn’t notice the context of the story. While Andrea hesitated, not knowing what to say, Trisha shook her head slowly.
“I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere… but that man probably isn’t my father. First of all, the names are different, and if my father were still alive, he would have been over 40, but Marco doesn’t seem to have aged that much.”
Trisha’s eyes contained dry emotions. It was a look in the eyes filled with worn-out sadness that didn’t even inspire anything else.
“And you said it earlier. I saw my father’s remains with my own two eyes.”
Trisha obviously didn’t want to say more, but Andrea, who knew the dungeon well, couldn’t help but ask more.
“…were those remains cremated by any chance?”
“Stop, stop. Let’s just talk about it here.”
But if Tricia was so adamant that she stopped talking, she couldn’t ask for more.
Silence prevailed. They opened the door on the 27th floor in a rather awkward atmosphere.
Andrea let go of her thoughts and took a quick look around the room. In a dungeon where a moment’s judgment could tell the difference between life and death, it was a luxury to be immersed in other thoughts.
It was quite large compared to the other rooms I’ve been through, the floor was dirt with sparse weeds, and the ceiling was blocked with rocks. There was a cave dug behind it, as if it could be a shelter.
Two on the left, two on the right. A total of four normal monsters were seen as targets.
It was a four-legged animal with a sleek body like a leopard, purple fur, red speckles, protruding tusks, and a tail that seemed to hang from metal.
After confirming her appearance, Andrea quickly gave instructions to Tricia.
“It’s a blade tail. It is important to quickly reduce the number of people because the group uses the tactic of rushing in and out at the same time. First, take down one of them first.”
Trisha nodded and drew a card. Defense, strong fire, and containment fire were selected.
Due to the effect of the rainbow lantern, the current mana was 2. She used a strong shot and put an arrow on her bowstring.
Paeng –
Certainly, the sound of cutting through the air was different from before. The arrow went deep between the eyebrows of the blade tail that was showing its teeth on the right side.
‘Keying! Keng!’
When hunting in groups, start with the boss. Trisha did not forget the basic rules of a hunter.
‘I’ve encountered these guys before. The guy who was the first to attack was the leader.”
“One fell down, so the boss will come out soon. Be careful.”
However, I heard unexpected advice from Andrea.
“What does that mean…”
Trisha, who was about to ask a question, had no choice but to shut up. From the cave in the center, a guy clearly bigger than the other blade tails crawled out.
‘Kreurreu…’
The other guys didn’t die, but they looked like they were poisoned. Trisha belatedly recalled that the current situation was an ordeal with 25 levels added.
Among the cards drawn, Andrea used the defensive strike first. Led by the boss in the center, a group of blade tails rushed towards them.
“Don’t shoot at the boss! It’s thick leather anyway, so it’s hard to damage it!”
As Andrea advised, Trisha aimed for the blade tail on the left. Sharp arrows were once again fired at the ferocious predator.
pick-
‘Keying!’
The arrows that were not reinforced were only shallowly embedded in the leather, even for non-bosses. Tricia clicked her tongue lightly, blaming the bow’s performance.
Andrea brought out a tall bottle suitable for dealing with the thick-skinned and powerful boss.
“A club is medicine for crazy kitties.”
It was an earth crusher’s hammer that was a bit burdensome to say that it was a club.
When dealing with gargoyles, he lacked strength and swung around like he was dragged by a hammer, but now things have changed. To Andrea, whose strength was over 30, the earth crusher’s hammer was no more than a heavy weapon.
“Mr. Marco, I’m sorry! I’m in a hurry, so I’ll write some first!”
Boo – Woong
A hammer that was swung so wide that no one could approach it at all. Tired of the menacing momentum, the blade tails stopped all at once.
Andrea stood still holding the hammer she had wielded. The distance between them was only five or six steps.
The boss cleverly figured out that it would be difficult to wield that weapon quickly. While stealthily approaching, he jumped up and attacked.
‘Kwow!’
‘I thought so.’
Andrea could clearly see the pattern of the blade’s tail. You must have judged that it would be difficult to deal with such a quick surprise attack with a hammer, but this side had already prepared.
The polar dawn, which had been hidden in the palm of her hand, appeared in Andrea’s hand like a thorn sprouting.
It didn’t stop there. Andrea knew very well that in order to give the boss a valid impact, she had no choice but to throw her sword.
Just before reaching the boss, Andrea put down her hammer and used a jump while simultaneously kicking off the floor.
“Huap!”
At the unexpected response, the boss stiffened his body without being able to bite. The heavy weight of the beast and the piercing power concentrated in one point collided.
hooked!
The result was that the cool blade slightly pierced the leather.
‘As expected, it’s impossible to inflict such a fatal wound.’
Andrea was buried under the body of the leader as it was. Regardless of the injury, the leader opened his mouth and tried to bite Andrea.
Tricia wasn’t just watching the situation.
pick-
‘Kyaung!’
He aimed for the eye, but due to his violent gesture, the arrow slightly missed. However, it was enough of a threat for the boss to back down in surprise. Andrea took advantage of the gap and pulled herself out.
When the leader withdrew, the henchmen also withdrew. Andrea was quite an attack of conversion, but it was regrettable that it did not work. It seemed that another way was needed to inflict damage beyond that thick hide.
‘As expected, don’t think about piercing it, but somehow match the timing and crush it with a hammer…’
It’s turn 2. Once I saw the draw. One of the cards in her hand caught Andrea’s eye.
‘This···.’
‘[unique] ??? (? Cost): ??? (This card is revealed the first time it is used in battle.)’
I wondered if this might be the right moment to try out this unknown card.
＜ 9. The thief who stole the country (1) ＞ End