Max Talent Player - Chapter 195

Chapter 195

Elder Bufafa went to the house of his old friend, Bwarara. Just like Elder Bufafa’s house, Elder Bwarara’s house looked like a burning smithy.

He opened the door.

“Long time no see, my friend!”

Bwarara and Bufafa embraced. They didn’t see each other often, but whenever they did, it was a truly joyful and enjoyable affair.

Elder Bufafa smiled widely. “I’ve come to see you three times in a row, so it’s your turn next time.”

“You were here just two years ago.”

Dwarfs sought less social contact than humans. Although they hadn’t met in two years, for dwarfs, they met relatively frequently.

“Anyway.” Elder Bwarara welcomed Bufafa inside. “How about a drink?”

“Sounds good.”

The two elders tipped back their first drink together in a while.

“Right, right. Bufafa. You look like you’re itching to say something.”

“That’s right. How’d you know?”

“You look like you have an itch in your butt. What’s up? Is it about that human from before?”

“The rumors have reached you, too?”

“Of course. The story of the human who drew near to Athenae, the Sacred Flame only blessed dwarfs can approach, has already spread like wildfire through the Winter Castle.” Elder Bwarara drank his alcohol. “Kyaa. Good stuff.”

In truth, Elder Bwarara did not have much goodwill towards humans. He neither disliked or liked them, but dwarfs generally either ignored or excluded other races, especially races that had terrible production abilities like humans.

“Well, it’s true he’s an impressive human. But it’s not like he’s the only such human, right?”

“That’s true.” He wasn’t the only one. Bufafa continued, “But that’s only if he was from the Sword Forest.”

“He’s not from the Sword Forest?”

“He definitely isn’t.”

“He’s not a Sword Forest native, but he was able to get close to Athenae?”

Elder Bwarara put down his mug. “I thought for sure he was a Sword Forest native.”

“Bwarara. Think about it. Even in the Sword Forest, how many humans from there can approach Athenae? They’re few and far between.”

“That’s true, isn’t it?”

“But a human who’s not from the Sword Forest got close.” Bufafa took a deep breath. “And he had the transcendent artifact, Lady Isabel, with him.”

“What did you say?!”

Bwarara jumped to his feet. He got up so forcefully that his beard struck Bufafa in the face.

“Lady Isabel? Whoa. A human had that?”

“Not only that, but a part of the ego was awakened.”

“Whoa.”

Bwarara stared at Bufafa in disbelief.

“Are you sure? You saw it with your own eyes?”

“I did. It was for a very brief moment, but the ego was definitely active.”

“Holy Athenae. You’re telling me a human had that?”

“He’s the sword’s bride.”

Bwarara blinked his two eyes.

“The first sword’s bride in 700 years… Is he qualified?”

“Actually, I wanted to talk because of that.”

“Hm?”

“The sword’s bride came with a crown.”

“Isn’t that a common occurrence?”

“He asked me… to engrave a return authority while restoring it.”

“A return authority? Isn’t that pretty normal?”

“But it’s not something a sword’s bride that has only just begun to toddle should know.” Bufafa’s eyes turned serious. “And I engraved the return authority like I was bewitched.”

“Like you were bewitched?”

“When I snapped out of it, I found that I had restored the Old Crown into a Crown and finished engraving the return authority on that crown. Without getting any compensation.”

Of course, he followed the commandment and the rules of the quest, but Bufafa earned nothing of material value.

“Eh? You, a dwarf who holds the value of labor more sacred than anything else?”

“That’s what I’m saying. It was like I was bewitched or something.”

He was played like a damn fiddle. Bufafa considered the value of labor sacred. Labor had to be compensated, if only a little. That was the correct attitude of a working dwarf.

“I only realized it after everything was done.”

Bufafa emptied his mug, too. Then, he opened his mouth again.

“Our ancestor said the same thing happened to him 700 years ago, right?”

“Then what shall I do?”

I foresaw the Exploring Baptist’s test, and as such, I said this to the dwarf elder Bufafa.

–Oh, before I forget. I have a request, Elder.

To go back to what Bufafa said, he was having an audience with Isabel. That was why he accepted my request without much resistance.

–A return authority? Not a problem. I will do it for you.

As a result, there was a return authority on the ‘Crown’, and one personally engraved by a dwarf elder. Even Players ten years later would have a hard time breaking that authority, so was the current Jackson capable of the feat?

‘He’s not.’

I raised my right hand, my palm facing the sky.

“This is what I’ll do.”

Golden light began to pool on my palm. Infinite rays of light gathered, and then I heard a notice.

The golden light suddenly took the appearance of a crown, the restored crown we had gained with dwarven help. Jackson made a shrug of defeat upon seeing the crown sparkling brightly under the sunlight.

“It’s my loss.”

“…”

“Did you expect this?”

“I thought there was at least a 50% chance of it happening.”

“It’s as they say. There’s always someone better.”

Jackson actually looked pleased. Vela was just tilting his head, not comprehending what was going on.

“Hey guys. What’s going on?”

There was no real need to give Vela an explanation. This was an issue between Jackson and me.

“C’mon, fellas. Clue me in, too.”

“Guys?”

“Hyukjin? Jackson?”

“Tch. Meanies.”

Vela muttered to himself before shutting his mouth. He then proceeded to mutter, “I’ll beat you jerks up.”

“I’ll open the door now,” said Jackson. “Only, opening a gate is much easier with an item called a Gate Opener. I think that will greatly reduce the difficulty of the dungeon. And of course, it will also make it easier for me to open the gate.”

“A Gate Opener?”

We had that. More precisely, Vela had one, acquired from the Gatekeeper Lee Sungcheol. Vela stared at me.

“Oh. You finally wanna clue me in?”

“No, not that. Gate Opener.”

“Gate Opener?” Vela tilted his head. “What’s that?”

“…”

It was actually terrifying that this was his true self. He couldn’t even remember the name of an item he acquired. His forgetfulness was probably exacerbated by the fact that the item wasn’t related to direct combat.

“The item you took from Gatekeeper Lee Sungcheol in front of the D-Tower.”

“Ah…!” Vela’s two cells finally rubbed together and made a spark. “Bottle opener?”

“Yeah, that thing.”

With a spark of understanding, Vela started rummaging in his Inventory. His Inventory wasn’t sorted at all, so it took him a long time to locate it. This guy was strangely super good at item switching, but apparently, that only applied to fighting.

“Found it!”

He took out the Gate Opener and gave it to Jackson.

“Here.”

Even the amazing Jackson couldn’t help but make a face at Vela. “You’re just going to give it to me?”

“What’s wrong with that? I’m going in there.”

“That’s true, but this is a consumable item. This item can be used a total of three times.”

Vela and I were planning on entering a dungeon right now. Jackson couldn’t come in since entry was limited to only two people. In other words, if Vela gave the Gate Opener to Jackson now, it was unlikely that he would ever get the Gate Opener with two additional uses back.

Vela, this naive soul, asked back, “And?”

“After using it once here, there will be two uses left. But you are going into the dungeon, and the Gate Opener with additional uses will remain in my possession.”

“Ah. Is that a problem?” Vela flashed an easy smile. “Take it, it’s yours.”

“…”

Jackson stared at Vela like he couldn’t quite keep up.

“What’s wrong?”

“…”

I felt a strange sense of kinship with Jackson.

“Why are you giving it to me?”

“Cause I can’t use it?”

“Can’t you just sell it?”

“That’s so troublesome.”

Vela’s personality was beyond logic or reasoning to begin with. I thought he was just exaggerating it for the screen on Youtube, but this was his real personality. It was, in some respects, extremely shocking.

Vela said, “Well then, hurry and open the hidden field.”

* * *

Near the exit of the underground parking lot, an entrance was activated.

Vela and I already fulfilled that qualification.

The ‘Map of the Gran Seoul Dungeon’ that was acting as the entrance ticket went up in flames. A black, shimmering entrance appeared, visible only to us.

Jackson bade us a casual goodbye.

“Have a nice trip.”

In the past, Jackson might have been the one to go in here with Vela, but now, I was taking his place.

‘The shimmering of the entrance… is black.’

Normally, the color of a gate didn’t change like this.

‘It’s similar to what you see when shadow monsters appear.’

I’d have to go in to find out more.

The Gran Seoul Dungeon’s hidden field was a place even I had no idea how to clear. I felt humidity in the air.

“It looks exactly the same,” said Vela.

We were standing on the road going into the underground parking lot. The place looked the same as it did from the outside, but the air was more moist and damp.

It was structured like we were walking down a ramp underground. I took the lead.

“Let’s go.”

I couldn’t feel any impressive presences from the monsters I could sense.

Kikik!

Kikikik!

Kigigik!

The cries of monsters came some distance down, from a place we couldn’t see.

‘Goblins.’

I was surprised that such weak, low-level monsters would be in a place like the Gran Seoul Dungeon.

“Vela. There are Goblins down there.”

“Goblins? They’re super weak.”

We continued walking down the ramp. There really were Goblins waiting for us. There were about thirty of them.

“This’ll be quick, eh?”

“No, don’t kill them.”

Why? was a reasonable question—

“Got it.”

But Vela agreed remarkably quickly.

Kigik!

Kigigik!

A few Goblins clambered onto Vela, but their clubs couldn’t penetrate Vela’s defense.

“They’re annoying. Can I just kill them?”

“Leave them be.”

“Got it.”

Vela was surprisingly obedient.

“When’s the strong fella gonna come out?”

“Not sure.”

It couldn’t just be Goblins. We continued walking down, ignoring the Goblins. Even if they attacked, they couldn’t harm either of us. We weren’t level 1 Players, after all.

“Huh. They’re not chasing us anymore.”

The Goblins stopped chasing us when we reached a certain point. We kept going down.

“Ugh. How long do we have to keep going down?”

We had already walked down for two hours straight.

“There are monsters lurking around us.”

“Really?”

“Assassin class monsters.”

“Are they good at fighting?”

Vela’s fighting spirit finally began to burn.

“No. They’re good at stabbing and ambushing, but they’re probably weak at direct combat.”

That was probably why they were remaining hidden, waiting for their chance to attack.

“But how do you know that?”

“Cause I’m an archer. Archers have special eyes.”

“Ah. That’s true.”

He didn’t even ask the extremely natural question, ‘I thought you said you weren’t an archer?’ He just took me for face value and accepted my explanation. How could someone be this single-celled?

‘The monsters wheeling around us right now are Shadow Soldiers.’

They were moving rather stealthily, but I could see them clearly. Thanks to experiencing them before through Lao Yu, I could follow their movements far better.

‘The problem is… this probably isn’t all.’

Were Shadow Soldiers really the final enemies? Even the lower-leveled Lao Yu had a few of them tamed. Shadow Soldiers had an average level of around 30.

‘Things will get super exhausting if something like a Shadow Knight shows up.’

Worse yet—

‘If a Shadow Sovereign were to appear here…’

We would really have to fight for the clear with our lives on the line.

‘Both the Goblins and the Shadow Soldiers aren’t very dangerous enemies.’

That meant there were definitely dangerous ones around somewhere.

‘And there aren’t any real traps to speak of.’

It was just an open path we had to keep walking down. Basically, the difficulty was extremely low. It shouldn’t be like this.

We walked down for another two hours straight. It became darker and darker. Magic lights were illuminating the surroundings here and there, but it was still not to the point of being able to see clearly. Those lights had descriptions.

At some point, I could see the end of the path, a discovery that was accompanied by a booming thud.

‘Our retreat has been blocked.’

A physical wall thudded into place behind us, blocking our retreat. We were trapped in an enclosed space. And then, I heard a voice.

<Welcome, offerings of the shadow.>

Welcome. Offerings of the shadow. These words were familiar to me.

‘Shadow Sovereign.’

Deep underground, in the Gran Seoul Dungeon’s hidden field, was a Shadow Sovereign.

‘It’s too disadvantageous for us to fight here.’

A Shadow Sovereign’s presence meant there were also Shadow Knights. This place was too restrictive; it was the optimal environment for them. We had to first get out of here somehow. If we didn’t, we would die here.

We were trapped in darkness.

‘There is… a way.’