Ch.139139. Sacred Mausoleum of the Dead

The preparations for the Mausoleum raid required quite a bit of time.

It wasn’t that the two new members were incompetent.

Rather, the schedule was delayed because they were too competent.

“We’ve ended up on the Dungeon Association’s blacklist.”

They had cleared seven dungeons in just one week.

As a result, people lost their jobs in seven locations, and that’s why a blacklist with their names circulated among the offices managing each dungeon.

‘Well, those people are just trying to make a living too.’

It seemed questionable that seven dungeons could be cleared so quickly, but this was due to the special nature of dungeons.

Dungeons form when mercenaries seeking quick riches gather at places like troublesome company research facilities.

The problem was the combat power of the explorers (mercenaries).

Dungeons could be maintained partly due to the explorers’ interests, but the combat power aspect was much more significant.

Since their combat power was mediocre, they couldn’t completely eliminate dungeons, and that’s how dungeons persisted for years.

In such places, Amon’s party was nothing short of an invasive species.

Among the 5 party members, 3 were security director level, and the other 2 were company executive level.

For this overpowered party, dungeons were places they could clear in a day, like a morning walk.

“I never dreamed we’d grow this much in just a few years.”

But to the explorers who made their living from those dungeons, they must have looked like a swarm of locusts turning wheat fields into wastelands.

“The California dungeons are boycotting us.”

As a result, Amon’s party’s personal information spread among dungeon management bureaus, creating the unfunny situation of being restricted from entry.

In this situation, Kathy casually suggested a solution as if it were nothing.

“Want me to fix this?”

There were many options.

They could apply pressure with money, or use laws that only apply favorably to Megacorp.

Going to extremes, bribery, kidnapping, and murder were also options.

But Amon chose none of these options.

“It’s fine. Our goal was just to synchronize anyway. We’ve done enough of that in a week.”

There was no reason to fixate on California dungeons anymore.

Their next target wasn’t California, but the Middle East.

“Pack your bags. We’re going to Jerusalem.”

There, they would reap the fruits of what they had been preparing for the past 20 years.

*

Even right after his birth, Amon was strangely unattached to miraculous encounters.

Of course, countless options crossed his mind.

Finding a hidden legendary gun was one option, and finding a forgotten overpowered hacking module was another.

But Amon chose none of these options.

Rather, he focused only on improving his basic specs, never once showing any interest in actively seeking miraculous encounters.

It wasn’t because he disliked such encounters, or because he valued diligence as the only virtue.

It was simply because finding other miraculous encounters would be not just wasteful but actually harmful to obtaining the miraculous encounter he was aiming for.

‘Azrael’s Beheading Sword.’

The ultimate weapon created by the first protagonist to exterminate demons.

In the game, it was an item dropped by the final boss, the Sinful Saint, after defeating her.

Naturally, one might wonder what use such a weapon would be after defeating the final boss, but…

‘It was a special weapon for the second playthrough.’

It was a weapon provided to make the second playthrough more enjoyable after clearing the final boss in the first playthrough.

This special weapon traditionally appeared in Punk City 2 and 3 as well, and as the name “special” suggests, it had monstrous performance.

‘All attacks receive a bonus equal to the faith stat coefficient.’

Critical hit chance, damage, movement speed, attack speed, and so on.

Numerous stats increased in proportion to faith with this weapon.

However, this weapon had one fatal penalty…

‘For each mythic weapon and skill, an additional penalty is applied.’

The reason lies in the process of creating the sword,

as it was forged by smashing the head of the ‘Sinful Saint’ with the Ten Commandments tablet, then collecting the broken pieces and her blood.

Among them, two commandments written on the Ten Commandments are the cause of this penalty.

– You shall have no other gods before me.

– You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor bow down to it.

These two clauses are reflected in the sword, adding serious penalties for collecting other mythic miraculous encounters.

‘Even with just one, damage taken increases tenfold for each additional mythic item obtained.’

From two, maximum health decreases to 1/10,

three causes stamina recovery speed to decrease tenfold, and so on.

In short, just possessing mythic weapons or skills creates many problems.

And in this world where the game has become reality, it’s impossible to know what qualifies as mythic.

A gun picked up somewhere could be mythic, or a hacking module could be mythic.

If a learned skill gets classified as mythic, Amon would suffer for the rest of his life.

That’s why he didn’t seek miraculous encounters.

Rather than leaving uncertain factors, he wanted to be sure.

‘There was a reason I deliberately limited essences and equipment to legendary grade.’

Calculating that mass-produced items wouldn’t be classified as mythic, Amon had been adjusting everything for 20 years just for this one sword.

And now, after that long period of endurance, the time had finally come to reap the rewards.

*

“Before entering the Mausoleum, let’s organize the information provided by the Vatican.”

Amon listed several pieces of information on the blackboard.

By the way, he had stopped using formal speech with the siblings.

In dungeons, maintaining formalities could cost lives.

“First, the dungeon’s name is <Mausoleum of the Holy Dead>. For convenience, I’ll just call it the Mausoleum.”

“This dungeon is currently unexplored, of course. The monsters inside are fallen angel types.”

For some reason, the Mausoleum is overrun with countless monsters.

The Vatican believes these monsters are the vengeful spirits of knights and citizens who died unjustly during the Crusades, but Amon thought differently.

‘They’re probably priests who received divine punishment, like Higgjen Group employees.’

They might be cardinals or the pope who disappeared at that time.

He was likely correct.

Perhaps they were the same classification as entities due to corruption by divine power.

“There’s no need to explain about fallen angel-type monsters… I’ll explain about the interior. Currently, the Vatican can’t get past the mid-boss.”

Therefore, the information available is quite limited.

At most, they know up to the mid-boss’s phase 2 patterns.

Amon’s party would have to discover the rest.

“It’s also possible that it’s not even a mid-boss but just a rare monster.”

For this reason, Amon repeatedly emphasized to his party members:

“Don’t think this is like the dungeons we’ve faced so far. It’s a place where even high-ranking holy knights can lose their lives if they’re careless.”

It’s easy to be misled because it’s the mausoleum of a good protagonist and a place where the Holy Nation trains high-ranking holy knights, but it was by no means a gentle place.

Rather, it was a space where even high-ranking holy knights could lose their lives if they didn’t know when to retreat.

“So don’t rush. We’ll advance one level at a time. Let’s go.”

“Ohhh!”

Sunwoo alone let out an energetic shout.

And the cold gazes of the other companions all turned toward him.

Embarrassed, he scratched his head and said:

“What? We always shouted together at the entrance.”

“We agreed not to do that here.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Strictly speaking, we’re here to loot. It’s not something to rally about.”

“Ah…”

At Sunhwa’s point, Sunwoo lowered his head awkwardly as if he just remembered.

Then he said:

“Um… should we do a silent prayer instead?”

Hahaha!

Thanks to their cute youngest member, the party entered the dungeon in a cheerful atmosphere.

*

The five people headed into the dungeon, relying on lantern light.

Of course, they could create light with holy magic, but in a situation where they didn’t know how much power they needed to conserve, it was necessary to save resources.

Divine Power was a resource, and the mental energy to maintain holy magic was also a resource, so they decided to use flashlights instead when not necessary.

Not long after entering, the party encountered their first monsters.

-Kyaruruk!

Naked baby angels letting out cute laughs.

Wiggling their chubby, adorable bodies, the angels aimed heart arrows at the group.

If clueless lovers had come here, they might have volunteered to be hit by those arrows.

However, Amon’s party knew the secret of those arrowheads.

Bang!

Before the baby angel could release the string, Sonia pulled the trigger.

The party watched the falling angel with cold eyes.

“Be careful not to touch the arrowheads. Unless you want to sleep in separate rooms.”

Taking Sonia’s warning to heart, Amon kept his distance from the arrowheads.

According to prior information, these arrowheads had virtually no physical destructive power.

Even if hit, they would just be absorbed into the body without causing any wounds.

The problem was the effect after being hit.

Like Cupid’s arrows in legend, the arrows had two effects:

One was the blue arrow that made you hate the first being you encountered to the point of death.

The other was the red arrow that made you love the first being you encountered to the point of death.

The effects of these two arrows were absolute, and reports said that same-sex holy knights had engaged in relationships or drawn swords against each other on the spot due to their power.

(Holy knights especially feared the effect of the blue arrows more than the red ones.)

And the arrow aimed at Amon was a blue arrow.

Even one hit could endanger the party.

Therefore, Amon retreated to the back line as a precaution, and instead, Sonia and Kathy faced the baby angels at the front.

“Be careful~”

At Amon’s encouragement, the two nodded and faced the angels.

Each arrow that rained down while they fought was sufficiently threatening, but none reached them.

They finally succeeded in annihilating all the angels they encountered.

Amon urged them to collect the arrowheads as a precaution against potential party wipeout.

“Everyone collect arrows for now.”

There was a reason for this action.

The two arrowheads had the effect of nullifying the effect of the other arrowhead.

Therefore, they were collecting them as insurance in case someone was hit by a red arrow later.

While they were collecting the arrows, Sunhwa quietly observed their expressions.

The women were strangely flushed as they ‘deliberately’ wrapped the red arrowheads in styrofoam before collecting them.

When their eyes met, they awkwardly turned away.

Watching them, for some reason, Sunhwa’s chest ached.

‘What is this?’

Sunhwa actively denied the fact that this emotion was close to envy and began preparing for the next battle.