久久大陆

Sol danced around the slashes, moving without little elegance as he stumbled about, letting out small yelps as the water slices narrowly missed him.

Moving ahead, Yeong-Un and himself leapt up before Sol could reach the sharkman, attacking him in unison.

"Black Dragon, Red Phoenix!" Yeong-Un yelled out.

Both of the dual spellblade's weapons became engulfed in their own element; the black blade manifested an erratic, unstable black lightning while the white-handled blade produced a wide, awakening flame.

"Black Ripper–!"

[Spirit -100. Remaining Spirit: 1800/3200]

His daggers exhibited a dark essence, bringing him to a swiftter speed as he approached the sharkman.

He unleashed his attack first, embedding the dozen slashes of darkness across the battered body of the sharkman before dashing away out of the splash zone of Yeong-Un's incoming attack.

Yeong-Un's attack launched itself in a swirl of black lightning meshed with an expanding heat, landing against the shark in a heaping explosion.

Though a storm of electric flames surrounded the shark, a retaliation still burst through as a water-swirled fist of the armored shark pushed through, slamming directly against Yeong-Un.

A singular hit packed enough force to release a small shock wave, knocking the wild-haired adolescent directly against the platform.

"Yeong-Un!" He called out.

Yeong-Un leapt back to his feet, though nearly fell over, "I'm fine!"

"You're bleeding from your head, idiot! You're not–"

Just then, they both fell silent as the mammoth of the water was directly before them spreading its maw of endless teeth as it rushed towards them with its imposing stature looming over them.

"Death," that was the one feeling that exuded from the daunting form of the sharkman.

"Cast: Blitz Lance!"

From behind the shark, the yell released in close to a tremble, but what followed left the sharkman immobile.

The silver spear of Sol had shot directly through the large humanoid's chest–sinking through its heart in one fell swoop.

"Sol…?!" He let out in surprise.

Yeong-Un was left dumbfounded at what just happened.

As they both stood there in shock from the unexpected save from Sol, the stagnant body of the giant shark slowly toppled forward, forcing them both to move out of the way as its large size plummeted.

["Holy Deep Sea Tyrant" Defeated. EXP + 1500. Angel Coins +500 | Current Angel Coins: 3150]

[Congratulations. You've reached [Level 23]. Current EXP: 1100/12000.]

[Resources [Health] and [Spirit] have been fully restored. Remaining Health Points: 3200/3200 Remaining Spirit: 3500/3500.]

[Remaining Skill Points: 3]

[Assassin Proficiency: +2 | Level 24]

Just like that, his wounds and exhaustion subsided, and the same seemed to happen for Yeong-Un, who leveled up as well.

Nice, more coins…I'll definitely be stocking up on ingredients later. A nice feast will do after an expedition like this, he thought, nodding to himself a few times.

"...Well, shit! Ya' do have some balls, after all. Maybe one," Yeong-Un smiled, slapping Sol on the shoulder a few times.

Sol accepted it, though held his shoulder afterwards, "I have two balls, thank you very much!"

"Enough talk about balls," he sighed, reuniting beside the two, "Looks like our real spoils are here."

It seemed defeating the shark tyrant resulted in the waters dying out as they sank away, revealing a few chests sitting on the surrounding platforms.

"Hell yeah!" Yeong-Un called out, rushing towards one of the chests.

"Please tell me one of these has a potion…" Sol begged, going towards one.

"A magic tool would be nice," he muttered, heading towards the third chest.

With each chest opened, resounding disappointment was found as none of them released any sort of indication of excitement.

"Armor for a Black Mage…" He sighed.

"Same here," Yeong-Un huffed.

"...I found this," Sol displayed a small, red crystal, not knowing what it was.

It seemed none of them knew exactly what it was as they inspected its iridescent, crimson form that shined against the light of the hanging, golden torches.

"Dunno," Yeong-Un muttered with a raised eyebrow.

"I guess keep it? Maybe somebody back home will know," he added.

"Yeah, you're right," Sol tucked away the crimson stone.

Heading upwards, there was nothing left in the tower-like chamber, ascending the spiraling, magically-levitating stairs before stopping at a lone platform at the summit.

"Huh? There's nowhere else to go!" Yeong-Un called out in confusion.

"Weird," he added quietly, looking around.

Suddenly, the platform began to lift upwards through some unseen force, causing them to momentarily lose and regain their balance as they looked upwards at the same time.

"An elevator…?" Sol realized.

"Seems like it," he replied.

A few moments later, listening to the hum of the mystical platform, they were brought to the next, higher-stationed chamber, being left in a peculiar space.

"Huh…?" Yeong-Un voiced what they all felt.

Contrary to just about every experience they had with dungeons before, the environment they were greeted with left them speechless for a lengthened moment.

The walls still stood tall and pure in their quartz form, but the flooring was forged mostly with luscious soil, and ivory grass. Lengthy, colossal trees with seraphic, lightly-glowing leaves inhabited the chamber.

Though that wasn't where the oddities with the unorthodox landscape of nature stopped; the limbs of the platinum trees extended over them like a ceiling–intertwining, curving, and twisting as the golden leaves swayed above their heads.

"A forest…?" He asked out loud.

"Weirdest forest I've ever seen," Yeong-Un added.

"...Let's be careful, okay?...There's a lot of blindspots here," Sol gulped.

The hazel-haired member of their trio was completely correct; it was a vast space–wider than any single room any of them had ever been in, occupied by an artificial, heavenly forest of unknown occupants.

"Should we head back?...I mean, this dungeon is a lot more than I thought it'd be," Sol suggested, rubbing his own arm.

"Huh?! We've been killin' it! Whatcha mean?! Ya' been killin' it the most!" Yeong-Un reassured him, repeatedly slapping him on the back as he always seemed to do.

"...I have to agree," he added in, "...Mostly because I don't think we can go out the same way we came in."

"Really? Yeong-Un looked at him.

The curly-haired young man nodded, tapping his boot against the platform, "It's not exactly moving back down, is it? I think we'll probably have to find the "boss" of this place and defeat it before we can leave."

"That's what we planned to do anyway! Ha-ha!" Yeong-Un laughed.

"We did?!" Sol let out in surprise.

Pushing forward, the three kept close when entering the depths of the seraphic forest, soon surrounded by countless, foreign trees that exuded glowing particles.

It was an illustrious environment, but at the same time frightening, considering the nature of a dungeon in the first place.

After marching through the fields of thick, ivory grass that crunched beneath their boots, the group came to a stop as Yeong-Un held his arm out, leading from the front.

"Yeong-Un?" He called his name quietly, narrowing his eyes as he focused.

"Somethin' is coming," Yeong-Un warned the two.

It was thanks to the supernatural, animalistic senses the scar-covered adolescent possessed, standing still and watchful as his dark-blue coat swayed in the wind, revealing his sleeveless, mesh shirt beneath.

The other two became aware of the warned presence as the bushes began rustling from their apparent north–visibly moving as something approached.

"...Crap, is it going to be a bear?...Please, please, please don't be a bear!" Sol prayed to himself, holding his spear like a shield.

–Out from the bushes, the enigmatic entity swept out, stomping outwards into the clearing as it roared out, displaying its vicious canines and large fists that it slammed against the ground.

A…gorilla?! He thought.

Clearly not just any normal gorilla, either–it possessed red fur, and possessed a height twice of the tallest of their group, Yeong-Un, even while hunched over with its fists acting as its front legs.

["Inferno-Inferno Ape" Identified | Level 25]

"Another boss?" Yeong-Un asked, placing his hand on only one of his blades.

"I don't think so, but it seems pretty strong for just a normal enemy…" He replied.

However, before any of them could engage the fiery-furred gorilla, a shadow of another presence cast over it, looming over the gorilla that fell still in its salivating rage–halting the beating of its chest.

"Easy catch-o!" ???

With a single hit, the gorilla was slammed into the soil below with a thunderous impact, resulting in a small-scale explosion that easily put the wrathful animal down in one blow.

"...What the…?" Sol let out in a confused whisper.

Appearing from behind the now deceased gorilla, a man walked out, wearing a bright smile and heavy-duty, illustrious gauntlets that covered his fists and up to his forearms, forged of white steel and decorated with azure gems.

Another person? In this dungeon? Is he a friend, or foe…? He questioned.

"Yo!" The man greeted them, raising a single hand as a greeting.

He was huge, though that felt like an understatement. Standing well over two meters, he possessed a muscle-filled physique to match, with a dark-brown complexion foreign to Korea. Unlike their uniforms, which were usually equipped with coats, he wore a simple, sleeveless, skin tight shirt of bright-yellow fabric and fuzzy flares around the holes.

"...Yo?" He replied.

"Ya' took our kill!"

–Of course, Yeong-Un wasn't pleased with his "prey" being stolen right before him, but the peculiar man simply laughed it off cheerfully, rubbing the back of his own head.

He had purposefully shaggy, platinum hair, with matching eyes that almost felt as if peering into a silver kaleidoscope.

[Player Identified…]

[Maverick King | Level: 26 | Class: Luminate Pugilist]