Chapter 16 – Dungeon

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“Arang.”

“Oh? You’re here!”

I was diligently practicing my skills when Pink Berry came to find me.

“Did you get home okay?”

“Yeah, I got home fine. What about you, Arang?”

“Well, as soon as you left, I logged into LEORE. Should we start recruiting a party right away?”

The Level 60 Dungeon, [Underground Cave], is LEORE’s first dungeon and drops level 70 equipment. Unlike other RPGs, LEORE isn’t about leveling up your character, but your equipment.

To start that first farming run, [Underground Cave] is the first place you have to go once you hit the max level of 60.

It’s a 4-person dungeon that requires a party composition of 1 Tank, 2 Dealers, and 1 Healer. Of course, you don’t necessarily have to clear it with exactly 4 people; it doesn’t matter if there are fewer or more.

However, fewer players increase the dungeon clear time, and if you can’t clear it within a certain time, the dungeon goes berserk, making the boss too strong to defeat.

On the other hand, bringing too many players doesn’t increase the number of items that drop, so the farming time increases.

So, in LEORE, it’s common to stick with the 4-person setup that the game is balanced around.

Right now, our party only has a Dealer Swordmaster and a Healer White Mage. We need one more Tank and one more Dealer.

“Who should we take?”

There are many jobs, such as Swordsman, Warrior, Fighter, Archer, Assassin, Magician, etc. From there, various 2nd job advancements occur, and the jobs become even more diverse.

“Since you’re a melee dealer, it’s more convenient to have a ranged dealer.”

“That’s true. Then let’s only allow ranged jobs to apply… Next is the Tank.”

There aren’t many Tank jobs, and even fewer people play them.

RPGs usually have a small number of Tank players, but LEORE is especially lacking. Since it’s a virtual reality game, you have to face actual monsters or bosses right in front of you, and the fear from the Tank Buster is said to be enormous.

I understand it well enough.

I remember how eerie it was when I first saw the Queen Spider’s Tank Buster, who is a Field Boss.

Fortunately, we don’t have to recruit a Healer thanks to Pink Berry.

==

“No one’s joining.”

Thirty minutes have passed since I posted the recruitment, but no one has applied.

Since it’s the first max-level dungeon, many people are running it, but the problem is that the party recruitment title says [Heading Party], so that seems to be the reason.

“There are hardly any people doing Heading Parties at this time.”

Pink Berry is right. People usually don’t do Heading Parties very often because they take too much time.

A Heading Party means clearing the dungeon by heading straight into it without looking at any guides.

The problem is that most Koreans don’t want to do Heading Parties. They look up guide videos on RyuTube in advance, familiarize themselves with the strategy, and then join a Try Party.

But in this virtual reality game LEORE, I want to experience all the dungeons and raids with my own eyes and body for the first time.

If I watch the RyuTube guide in advance, the feeling and excitement of seeing it for the first time will disappear.

“If it keeps going like this, there’s a problem… Hmm…”

We have a long way to go to the final raid, and it’s definitely a problem if the recruitment time is getting longer for each dungeon.

Then I’ll have to use a trick.

I’ll find someone like Pink Berry who has plenty of time and will suit my Heading Party.

Skilled players also sometimes join Heading Parties, just to watch the people who are heading. So, even if they know the gimmicks or strategies, they don’t say anything and won’t tell the heading person until they ask for help.

Let’s just find someone who can go with us until the farming is over, so we can get to the raid.

I told Pink Berry what I was thinking.

“Do you know anyone, Arang?”

“Yeah. There’s a streamer and Ryutuber named Kang Hangil.”

“Oh, the person who interviewed you last time?”

“Yeah. He said to call him if I needed help later, thanking me for the interview. Let’s call him here and make him a Tank. I saw that he’s also max level as a Tank.”

“But wouldn’t he be very busy?”

“Let’s contact him first.”

Besides, since he’s a famous person, wouldn’t he bring a Dealer from somewhere?

I sent a whisper to Kang Hangil, who I befriended during the interview.

==

Kang Hangil is a prominent streamer and Ryutuber in LEORE. Already famous, he became even more so after being the only one to interview Lee Arang.

Recently, he has been challenging the challenge created because of me, going around the Field Bosses.

Other Field Bosses have been cleared by people who cleared them with a Healer, putting in a lot of time and effort, but the Orc Chieftain’s solo clear has not yet been achieved.

Kang Hangil was about to go catch the Orc Chieftain after finishing the raid today when he suddenly heard a whisper notification.

Ding.

“Oh, what is it? A whisper?”

Kang Hangil is so famous that he receives countless whispers from viewers and strangers, so he basically turns off all notifications.

However, he set notifications only for whispers from important people, so he immediately opened the chat window to check.

“Huh? Why is *this* person contacting me all of a sudden?”

-Who is it?

-He’s trying to create another forced RyuTube angle.

-Don’t say weird things, let’s go Orc Chieftain.

-I have to go get my head torn off again.

-Are you backing out here?

-STFU

“No, no, wait a minute.”

Kang Hangil quickly looked at the contents of the whisper from Lee Arang, who he hadn’t contacted since the interview. The content, nothing more than a request to find a Tank slave.

“Everyone, I will postpone the Orc Chieftain Try indefinitely.”

-Coward?

-He’s running away here.

-What about the promise to the viewers?

[OOO, thank you for the 10,000 won donation.]

-Run away? Run away? Run away? Run away?

-He’s just making a mess of the viewers’ promise.

“Lee Arang said she reached max level and contacted me to run the dungeon together.”

-Lee Arang? Is that the Middle School Girl Lee Arang?

-Really?

-Crazy, I have to go right away, you idiot, what are you doing?

-Tell her to go quickly! I’ll find someone!

“I just sent a message saying I’ll do it right away. She said [Underground Cave].”

-Wow, but how did Middle School Girlchan catch the Field Boss even though she’s not max level?

-Level correction, so max level doesn’t matter.

-No, the important thing is that she did it even though she wasn’t familiar with the game.

-In the first place, who would think of catching the Orc Chieftain at that level, lol.

==

Kang Hangil ran to the front of [Underground Cave] as quickly as possible and went to Lee Arang, who was raising her hand and shaking it vigorously at him.

“You came very early?”

“I ran right away. Oh, and are you okay with me broadcasting now? I’m covering the screen for now.”

“It’s okay. If I was going to stop you from broadcasting until we ran all the dungeons, I wouldn’t have called you because I’d feel sorry. Oh, this is my best friend Healer Pink Berry.”

“Oh, hello. I’m White Mage Pink Berry.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Berserker Kang Hangil.”

“Mr. Kang Hangil, you read that we’re doing a heading party today, right?”

“Yes. I read it well. What kind of Tank do you want?”

“Let’s decide on the Tank that Pink Berry wants first.”

“I’m confident in healing, so any Tank that Mr. Kang Hangil wants is fine.”

“Are you sure? I’m a max-level Tank, but my equipment is really basic, and I can’t say that my skills are that good.”

Lee Arang smiled and said at Kang Hangil’s words.

“Hey, there’s a complete newbie here, so what are you worried about? Oh, and we need one more Dealer. Is there anyone you can bring? Someone with a lot of time.”

“I’ll ask one of my guild members.”

-There’s someone here!!!

-It’s dark, Hangil, is this hell…?

-Save me!!! Show me too!!!

-Show us Middle School Girlchan!

-Kyaaaaaaak

“Um… Is it okay to turn on the broadcast now?”

“Yes! Pink Berry, is it okay with you too?”

“Yeah, it’s okay.”

“Then…”

“Oh, before that, Pink Berry said she’s starting a RyuTube channel, so please give her some tips later.”

“I can definitely do that much. Then I’ll turn it on.”

Kang Hangil manipulated the menu, and a semi-transparent round camera appeared above him.

Lee Arang immediately went to the side the camera was looking at, waved her hand, and greeted.

“Hi everyone.”

-Nooooongㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Wakyapyahuknoongjjukㅋㅋ

-Crazy, how is that really 15 years old?

-Is this really for 15-year-olds?

-With those small hands, she crushed the Orc Chieftain’s head.

-So cute.

-Noongㅋㅋ

-Wakyapyahuknoongjjukㅋㅋ

-Wakyapyahuknoongjjukㅋㅋ

-Wait a minute, if our Class President is a Tank, doesn’t that mean we can’t see Arang?

-Heok

-Wakyapyahuknoongjjukㅋㅋ

“Arangnim is a normal person. Everyone, be careful in the chat.”

-Okay okay

-Don’t worry

-Noongㅋㅋ

One of the Dealers in Kang Hangil’s guild, a [Magician] who handles fire and electricity, came.

A hastily created 4-person party.

First, Kang Hangil. He decided to play a sub-job Tank instead of his main job [Berserker]. [Great Swordsman] who has the best damage among the main Tanks but has difficulty managing health.

Melee Dealer Lee Arang. The most common [Swordmaster] among the Swordsman jobs.

Ranged Dealer Mozza Whopper. The Pure Dealer [Magician] with the best damage among the Magicians.

Healer Pink Berry. [White Mage] who focuses on healing among the Healer jobs.

They entered [Underground Cave] with the party created like this.

“Please take care of me!”

Lee Arang entered the dungeon first, jumped up and down, and took out her weapon.

-Oh, Taseom Sword… I’m so jealous.

-So that’s what it looks like when it comes out.

-Lololol, a newbie who just reached max level has the Sword of the Corrupted Judge.

-Isn’t the probability higher if you solo clear?

-There’s a possibility lololol.

“I’m going to run!”

Kang Hangil held his greatsword, which was as tall as him, and ran forward.

Before long, dungeon mobs appeared. Four giant rats, at least 1M tall, flaunted their red eyes, and Kang Hangil first grabbed the aggro of the mobs with the Tank-only skill Roar.

As soon as the aggro was secured, Lee Arang immediately started stacking [Chain Attack] and the 10 stacks of Taseom Sword that she had practiced today.

She attacked one rat with [Pentagon], stacked 5 stacks, and then perfectly timed the Swordmaster’s skills without a single error, shoving in the area skills and maintaining the [Chain Attack] buff without interruption for a single moment.

Kang Hangil was embarrassed by the suddenly soaring aggro numbers.

Even if his Tank skills weren’t that good, he thought he was good at managing aggro, but the aggro of one mob suddenly jumped.

“Careful!”

Kang Hangil shouted at the rat’s attack that was trying to hit Lee Arang.

Clang!

The sound of parrying echoed, and Lee Arang killed the rat as it was.

-Crazy.

-No way, is the Soma stealing the Great Swordsman’s aggro?

-I’ve seen the Magician steal it, but the Soma stealing it lol.

-Isn’t it because the leader is bad? lololol

-That’s more likely lolololol.

-Leader, open the meter.