Ch.7979. The Pyramid of Inti-Ra (1)

In Dungeon & Adventure, dungeons used for leveling, like the “Battle of Ten Gates” dungeon, share a common characteristic.

That is, there are two conditions for clearing the dungeon.

Usually, if you don’t meet a certain high-difficulty condition, even if you clear the dungeon by achieving a relatively easier condition, the dungeon doesn’t disappear. Instead, it reopens after a few days.

From the developers’ perspective, rather than adjusting the difficulty of dungeons that are too challenging, they probably intended to add a middle ground between success and failure, something like a “postponed clear”…

However, this led to an outcome the developers never intended—these repeatable dungeons became the best spots for leveling.

In Dungeon & Adventure, dungeon raids are generally the easiest way to quickly earn experience, but to prevent leveling from becoming too easy, dungeons typically disappear once cleared…

When dungeons that could be challenged again every few days appeared, even with conditions attached, it was perhaps inevitable that they would become the best spots for experience farming.

Of course, the development team recognized this issue and immediately nerfed the experience gain. Unless completely cleared, repeatable dungeons now yielded less than half the original experience, but…

Despite such an extreme nerf, dungeons still overwhelmingly remained the best places for leveling.

Among these dungeons, I decided to send Bjorn to grind in some of the default dungeons rather than randomly generated ones.

Typically, dungeons are randomly generated in locations that meet certain conditions, but there are some default dungeons—ones that exist regardless of all constant values.

For such dungeons, veteran players who have nothing better to do usually create efficiency charts by digging through game files.

Naturally, I couldn’t remember these charts since I last saw them years ago, but there was a way.

Being a god, it was trivial for me to recall information from charts I had seen in the past just by reading a bit of the soul’s records.

‘Hmm… Ah! This is it!’

After briefly searching through my inner knowledge, I found a dungeon that met the conditions.

※ ※ ※

‘The Pyramid of Inti-Ra.’

As the name suggests, this dungeon is a ruin from an ancient civilization that occupies the Egyptian position in this world, transformed into an otherworldly space.

Based on the tomb of the legendary Pharaoh ‘Inti-Ra,’ this dungeon naturally spawns various undead monsters, starting with mummies.

Skeleton-type enemies with identical data except for Egyptian-style clothing.

Unnecessarily powerful mummified magical beasts and intermediate-level mummies.

And non-undead guardian golems protecting the pyramid.

Befitting a high-level dungeon, it’s swarming with intermediate-level monsters, making it likely for even high-level players to be defeated in the war of attrition against the endless waves of monsters.

Additionally, this dungeon boasts a complex structure with rooms connected like a maze, and the traps feel particularly malicious.

One wrong step could trigger a combo of consecutive traps that could kill even an advanced tank if they hesitate.

Moreover, since the boss room appears randomly among these labyrinthine chambers, players might not even find it before the time limit expires and they’re ejected outside…

But the worst situation would be encountering the boss unprepared.

The boss here is, of course, the mummy of Pharaoh Inti-Ra, the pyramid’s owner.

Not only is he a “Mummy Pharaoh,” a first-class monster among the strongest undead, but Inti-Ra is still a divine apostle even as a mummy, giving him infinite MP.

Furthermore, Inti-Ra can summon hundreds of intermediate mummies as his royal guard using the Mummy Pharaoh’s special ability “Pharaoh’s Army,” control desert-style golems and jeweled scarabs…

And crucially, being a high priest, he bombards players with various divine spells from the rear while his army buys time.

His sphinx summons are particularly problematic—the Mummy Pharaoh can summon sphinxes that are second-class monsters, and he can even summon two of them.

Sending Bjorn would be fortunate if he could last even a minute against Inti-Ra, let alone defeat him. Even full parties equipped with counter-builds sometimes fail to clear it.

If you encounter the boss unprepared, it’s game over instantly.

Of course, as if to compensate for this high difficulty, the rewards from “The Pyramid of Inti-Ra” were among the best of high-level dungeons.

Befitting a dungeon generated in a pharaoh’s tomb, it offers gold coins and jeweled accessories as basics, luxury items like jewel-decorated scarabs (golden dung beetles) and ivory scabbards, along with ancient Egyptian-style magical items.

Items like scimitars that fly and cut enemies on their own, necklaces that summon chariots pulled by two skeletal horses, or cloaks that protect against sandstorm effects.

‘I need to gear up Bjorn too…’

One reason I was targeting “The Pyramid of Inti-Ra” was to outfit Bjorn with equipment through these luxurious material rewards.

Currently, Bjorn only has weapons, armor, and an amulet as his confirmed equipment.

In the game, players could equip up to 10 accessories as long as they didn’t overlap in placement, plus armor and either two-handed weapons or two one-handed weapons.

However, as reality changed, the number of equippable items increased—accessories could be equipped in unlimited numbers as long as they didn’t overlap in placement.

In other words, 10 rings, one bracelet on each arm, and so on—multiple equipment could be stacked… Judging that the importance of equipment had increased even more, I decided on this “Pyramid of Inti-Ra” expedition.

※ ※ ※

‘…Phew’

When Bjorn, who had gone to sleep, opened his eyes, he saw an unfamiliar place.

However, having experienced this several times already, the now-accustomed Bjorn was about to get up nonchalantly, summon his equipment, and start clearing the dungeon when…

“…Huh?”

His eyes caught sight of a girl standing right in front of what appeared to be the dungeon entrance, a rectangular hole made of limestone.

Though he had never met her, he had heard about her from the wolf beastkin messenger—she appeared to be a vampire, one of Ma-Duk’s subordinate races.

Skin so pale it went beyond mere lack of pigmentation, appearing completely bloodless.

White hair almost as pale as her skin, contrasted by blood-red eyes that glowed crimson.

This girl, faithfully embodying the vampire characteristics mentioned by the wolf beastkin, was holding a parasol with a design similar to her rather elaborate black clothing.

As he was looking at her, the girl also noticed Bjorn, and with elegant steps, she approached him and spoke.

“Pleased to meet you, Apostle Bjorn. I am His messenger and your guide for this dungeon.”

“…Messenger?”

Bjorn momentarily doubted the girl who called herself a messenger, but he soon sensed the divine aura flowing from within her and dismissed his suspicions.

“Ah, then perhaps the other messenger…”

“That one is busy these days, so I came instead.”

The vampire messenger answered Bjorn’s question dismissively, then suddenly seemed to remember her original purpose and cleared her throat before continuing.

“Ahem. Well, let’s get straight to the point. Apostle Bjorn, He wishes for you to explore this dungeon, and that’s why He sent me as your guide.”

“As a guide, you say?”

Having cleared countless dungeons until now without ever receiving a guide, Bjorn questioned this curiously.

“Yes. This dungeon was not created by Him, and it’s more dangerous than you can imagine, so I’m here to guide you, Apostle Bjorn.”

The answer that came back was also something Bjorn hadn’t imagined.

“This place is the tomb of Inti-Ra, one of the pharaohs who ruled the ancient desert empire, now transformed into a dungeon. Because you might lose your life if you venture alone,” He sent me.

“…I see. Does the God of Vengeance believe that the two of us can clear—”

Before Bjorn could finish, the vampire messenger interrupted suddenly yet firmly.

“Even the two of us cannot face Inti-Ra, the dungeon’s boss. He was an apostle of the ancient sun god and a priest said to have been closest to divinity.”

“Then…”

“Yes, He instructed me to guide you solely to help you gain strength through exploring this place. Keep that in mind… and let’s go!”

The girl said this with a somewhat imposing air, then stepped in front of him as if to lead the way toward the dungeon entrance visible ahead, when…

“—Mkyeek!?”

Thud!

…Suddenly, as if she had tripped over nothing on the flat ground, she made a strange noise and fell face-first onto the floor.

‘…Is she going to be okay?’

Seeing his guide’s extremely unreliable behavior, Bjorn felt a sense of unease from somewhere.