Chapter 34

▶ Chapter 34. Coin Arcade Gate (2)

The Palgongsan Rank 7 Unique Gate.

It really is unique.

There was a Buddha statue at the summit of Gwanbong on the southern side of the mountain.

A red gate floated directly above it in the air.

Just from its location, anyone could tell it was one of the extremely rare “Unique” gates found around the world.

The moment we entered, a completely white space filled my vision.

[Notification: You have entered the Badger Den, Rank 7, Permanent, Unique Gate.]

[Mission: You may choose one of the following two options.

(1) Eliminate all monsters, including the boss.

If you wish to face the boss, eliminate every normal monster, then shout, “Permanent Gate Boss Appear.”

In this case, the gate will disappear permanently.

(2) Eliminate every normal monster except the boss.

In this case, normal monsters will respawn 35 days after the final monster is eliminated.

After eliminating them all, shout, “Complete As Is,” and your mission contribution will be calculated. You will then return to the original world.]

[Time Limit: Within 35 days of the gate’s creation

Reward: Determined according to contribution.]

[People inside the gate are recognized as members of the same party, so attack skills will not cause damage to one another.]

Up to this point, it was the same as other permanent Rank 7 gates.

But what came next was different.

[This is a Unique Gate. The “Coin Arcade” rule applies.

A number of Rank 7 monsters equal to the number of Rank 7 mana stones placed inside the circle on the floor will be generated.]

In other words, if you inserted one Rank 7 mana stone, one normal Rank 7 monster appeared.

Since you only needed to deal with one monster, completing the mission itself was simple.

Hunters really hate this gate, though.

Even one normal Rank 7 monster was dangerous.

And since the gate was located at the top of a mountain, traveling back and forth was inconvenient.

The materials dropped by the monsters had little value.

Flight items could not be used inside the gate either, making movement difficult.

Flight skills work, though.

But very few people possessed those.

Because of all these circumstances, hunters disliked the gate.

Instead of a guild, it was managed directly by the Hunter Association.

One of the two reasons Han Yonghwan had chosen this gate was exactly that.

The first was that it was extremely useful for leveling.

The second was,

“When I told them HunterAnham would be accompanying us, the Hunter Association immediately approved it.”

He had expected this reaction.

“They also approved HunterAnham’s portal use from Seoul to Daegu, of course. To stop reporters from appearing, they promised to keep both HunterAnham’s portal use and the gate clear completely secret.”

We had traveled from Seoul to Daegu through a portal in an instant.

There really was not a single reporter nearby.

Only one tight-lipped Hunter Association employee had been present in Seoul and one in Daegu.

I’m glad I visited the Association President.

It was satisfying.

I should visit him again soon.

The Association President probably would not like that.

Anyway.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes. I’m ready.”

Normally, a Rank 7 gate contained a maximum of seventy normal monsters, excluding the boss.

Each one normally gave 180 experience points.

That meant a total of 12,600 experience points.

But this time was different.

Thanks to Twelve’s 50 percent bonus experience, each monster gave 270 points.

Hunter Han Junggeun is currently Level 26, with a total of 515,700 experience points.

The amount remaining before Level 30 was 84,300 points.

That means he needs to kill 312.2 Rank 7 normal monsters, exactly 313.

This gate produced one normal Rank 7 monster for every Rank 7 mana stone inserted.

If we put in 313 mana stones, 313 monsters will appear.

In other words, we could level him up at ridiculous speed.

Nobody had thought of this method before.

One Rank 7 mana stone cost five million won.

313 stones cost 1.565 billion won.

An enormous amount.

But a wealthy hunter could afford it.

And when the monsters were killed, they would drop an equal number of Rank 7 mana stones.

There was another reason nobody had tried it.

No matter how many monsters you summon in this gate, they all appear at the same time.

Normally, five hunters entered a gate as one party.

One tank, one healer, one buffer, and two damage dealers.

Even a highly skilled party could only safely fight around twenty Rank 7 monsters at once.

It would be dangerous and troublesome.

There was almost no reason for hunters to climb all the way here just to kill twenty monsters.

But we had come.

Not to kill twenty.

We came to kill 313.

A number nobody else would even dare imagine fighting.

But right now,

I was here.

“Then we’ll begin.”

Han Yonghwan took an enormous sack out of his inventory.

It contained 313 Rank 7 mana stones.

He dropped the entire sack directly into the circle on the floor.

[Notification: 313 Rank 7 mana stones detected.

313 Rank 7 normal monsters will appear in 10 seconds.]

While Han Dongju stepped backward, Han Yonghwan stood in the center and began casting skills on himself, his two brothers, and me.

“Stamina Increase.”

As the name suggested, it increased the total stamina of all party members.

Normally, the increase was around 10 percent and lasted a maximum of thirty minutes.

Han Yonghwan’s skill increased it by an incredible 20 percent and lasted for an entire hour.

No.

Thanks to the bracelet, it now increased stamina by 22 percent and lasted one hour and six minutes.

“Stamina Recovery Enhancement.”

A skill that increased the speed at which consumed stamina recovered.

It was a buff that healers could use.

Including the effect of his bracelet, Han Yonghwan could increase recovery speed by 33 percent.

“Barrier.”

It had the disadvantage of only being usable on each person once per hour.

However, it was a skill that created a protective layer around the entire body.

Han Yonghwan’s barrier had already been incredibly thick and powerful.

Thanks to the bracelet, its effect had increased by another 10 percent.

[Remaining time: 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second....]

≪Stealth≫

I cast Stealth on all four of us as we stood close together.

Since we were party members, we could still see each other.

Then I created a transparent hemispherical barrier around us.

[313 Rank 7 normal monsters are appearing.]

Immediately afterward, the gate interior, which had felt rather narrow before, expanded endlessly.

Countless badger monsters appeared around the three brothers and me, surrounding us from every direction.

They looked like real badgers, except their eyes glowed bright red.

There were not one or two.

There were hundreds.

An ordinary civilian would have fainted immediately from fear.

Then they would have been torn apart and eaten.

But neither I nor the three brothers were ordinary civilians.

All four of us remained calm.

Well, to be exact, the three brothers were slightly excited while also feeling tense before the battle.

What about me?

This was my first time inside such a Unique Gate, so I found it a little interesting.

That was all.

“Gyaaak?”

“Gyaak?”

Because of my Stealth skill, they could not see us.

A few monsters that directly touched the barrier seemed to notice something.

Even then, they could not figure out exactly what was there.

Han Yonghwan silently pointed his right index finger toward the sky.

It was the signal.

Even though hundreds of monsters surrounded us, Han Dongju calmly pulled the trigger of the bazooka water gun resting on his shoulder.

The barrier recognized Han Dongju as a party member, so his not-quite-an-attack passed straight through it.

A large ball the size of a human head shot toward the badger monsters farthest away.

The ball flew above their heads, then burst with a pop.

The compressed water inside scattered in every direction.

There was quite a lot of water.

Most of the badger monsters were splashed.

After confirming that, Han Dongju repeatedly pulled the trigger of the bazooka water gun.

Amazing.

Han Dongju was exploding the water balls precisely above groups of around twenty monsters.

His sense of distance and timing were unbelievably accurate.

“They’re extremely strong and have very sharp claws, but their intelligence is low, and their eyesight and hearing are poor. They probably won’t notice our location until Dongju fires around ten times.”

Those were the characteristics of the badger monsters that Han Yonghwan had explained beforehand.

Of course, he had also sent them to me as an attachment.

That was why Han Yonghwan had created this plan.

He had decided on it after I explained how I could knock out a large number of monsters.

Hunter Han Yonghwan really is smart.

He had not become the leader of Wish Guild simply because he was the oldest brother and the first one to awaken.

He was the best strategist.

“Gyaaak?”

“Gyaak?”

Just as Han Yonghwan predicted,

when Han Dongju fired the eleventh shot, most of the badger monsters finally noticed the direction the water balls were coming from.

Hundreds of pairs of glowing red eyes turned toward us.

Han Dongju seemed to feel a chill and his eyes became tense, but he did not stop.

He quickly fired the twelfth water ball.

Now the badger monsters were certain.

Their eyes glowed even brighter red as they charged toward us.

Boom! Thud!

Those were the sounds of them crashing into my barrier.

The badger monsters seemed to realize that something invisible was blocking them here.

“GYAAAAAAAAK!!!”

They screamed and stabbed at the barrier with their claws or rammed their entire bodies against it.

Of course,

not even a single scratch appeared on my barrier.