A gate identical to the exit appeared .
The color was similar, but the shape was definitely different .
A gate that rarely appeared in level 23 dungeons .
There is no official name for the gate .
But between the Awakened, it is called Hell's Gate or the Fisherman's Needle .
Most experienced Awakeneds know the gate very well .
But it was rare for anyone to come back alive after going into it .
For certain dungeons that have hidden bosses such as the level 23 dungeon that can have any one of the 7 different ranks of the Lich Kings appear . In that gate, all 7 Lich Kings would be there .
Of course, the reward for clearing the portal would be amazing .
But the number of people heading into the gate was few at best .
A sweet temptation .
But that would be too much!
They would stare at the gate as if a fish looking at a fat juicy worm on a hook .
Unless they were real fish, they wouldn't bite into bait like that .
The exemption would be Rankers hunting for the Lich King's Armor set .
"I'm even happier seeing this more than seeing a mimic . "
For any regular Awakened, this would be too much .
But I was going to enter the gate .
With many level ups, I had obtained a decent amount of stamina .
Even if the red eyed rank 1 Lich King used a skill beyond ranking, my 5 shields would protect me .
And even after casting my shield, I had two free hands .
An exit and a gate to hell .
Looking at each of them back and forth, I moved my feet towards the gate of hell .
* * * *
Inside the gate was another world .
A desolate land filled with igneous rocks as far as one can see .
The lost souls embedded in the ground howled at the skies .
Without eyes or tongues, struggling as if falling deeper into a swamp .
I felt relieved that the dungeon was large .
If the dungeon was small, all 7 of them would aggro at the same time .
Looking at the different colors of their eyes, I planned to pair two a time to take them out according to their ranking .
I had obtained the quick single spells Explosion and Holy Missile — A ranking skills that will perfectly fill the gap between my main attack skills as both skills did not have cast time or cool downs .
Explosion was a fire type magic, shooting a fireball the size of a basketball .
It was similar to the F ranking Fire Orb, but the difference in damage dealt was incomparable .
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Once Explosion hits its target, it didn't disappear until there was nothing left to consume .
So unless healing skills or remove status effect skills were used, the flames would not extinguish until the target turned to ashes .
The next skill I obtained was the Holy Missile .
Magicians, Shamans, and Priests use this skill .
Causing holy type damage, it boasted massive amounts of damage against the undead .
A skill perfect for Ghouls or Lich Kings .
* * * *
Casting Meteor and Iceberg towards my right, I ran at full speed ahead .
From afar, I could see 2 Lich Kings .
It was important to determine the glow of their eyes, so I stayed out of their aggro range and stared .
Green and purple .
Both were low ranking bosses .
"Yah!"
With one fluid motion, I struck one on each of them .
Almost like a welcoming tackle?
Receiving heavy amount of damage, they tried to condense their mana to heal themselves, but I casted Fire Shock, which does more damage the closer you are to the target .
"GWOAHHHH!"
"KURURUK"
They howled and flailed about in pain, unable to even attack once .
Just in case any Lich Kings were nearby, I adjusted the range on the Gravity Laser .
With my continuous attack, I was slowly blowing through the Lich King .
After that I used about 10 Explosions and rained down Holy Missile .
It looked as if light bulbs shattered across the floor .
The holy attribute of the attack, when met with the undead, begins to eat away at their form .
It didn't take long .
"Ku… uuu… . . "
The rank 7 Lich King, now just a ball of flame, had the life from his eyes snuffed out .
Then .
[5,000,000 experience obtained . ]
Now there was only one target left .
I stopped using Gravity Laser and began to pour away the new skills that I've learned .
Since I did not have a limit on mana, I could spam away without a care .
If I had brought Banwol Jincheon with me, I could've made quite the scene .
Soon, eyes that glowed green from the rank 4 Lich King were snuffed out .
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[8,000,000 experience obtained . ]
"Oh?"
The difference between ranks were made obvious .
You could obtain more experience from the higher ranking ones .
The more you learn about them, the more I find them amusing .
There were 30 minutes left before the level 23 dungeon closed .
But it's been 5 minutes since I entered the gates of hell .
I didn't know which the 1 hour limit for the dungeons will apply to .
To be on the safe side though, I considered as if I had 30 minutes left and hurried .
Tossing the loot into the bag, I quickly moved on .
I had arrived at the furthest I could go towards the east, and now headed towards the north end .
The bag became heavier with the drops, but my footsteps only became lighter .
* * * *
"Ha… Ha…"
After taking down the Lich Kings in pairs, only the rank 1 with the red glowing eyes remained .
Trying to catch my breath, I used heal to regain my HP .
Most attacks I absorbed with my shield .
However, any attacks I didn't recognized I did my best to avoid .
Since high ranking bosses appeared, I was incredibly nervous .
If they made someone like me with incredible amounts of strength this tired, I can pretty much guess how tough they are .
If these bosses weren't (??) ranking bosses, I would use skills to lower their resistances and prevent healing .
Would've have been an easier time for me .
Sadly it didn't work on them .
Most support and curse skills didn't work on hidden bosses after all .
The last one .
Out of all of them that I've taken down, none of them dropped the armor set .
But I felt that this one would be different .
Meteor and Iceberg were on cool down .
"Come out Blue!"
"KWUHHHHHHH!"
The Devil Avatars appeared .
As I hoped for, both the summoned were of the ice attribute .
Thinking about how long the cool down and cast time for my main spells will be, I had to buy quite a lot of time .
"I'll break through his shield . Put an icicle in his face for me, will ya?"
Both nodding their heads, they stood next to me on each side .
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'They'd be cute if they didn't yell all the time . '
I charged at the Lich King .
"Ugh! He doesn't even have a cast time for that?"
As if the Lich King heard my plan with the avatars, he began to pour down a blizzard on me .
Frosted arrows covered the skies, and began raining down below .
The force from the attack tore apart the ground, leaving holes as if a volcano erupted .
Getting close as I could, I casted Fire Shock and then began pouring skills until his shields fell apart .
"ORAAAAA!"
While pouring down those skills, a Holy Missile was reflected towards me .
Surprised, I twisted my body reflexively to avoid the attack .
To even use a Reflect Shield to reflect my attack .
He definitely deserved the title of grand magician .
-CRACK!
His shield finally broke apart .
The avatars finally moved on my command .
To make sure they didn't get one shot, I made sure there was plenty of distance between them .
I also commanded them to make sure they spread apart from each other .
The two avatars began to pour away frost magic at the enemy .
"3 more minutes! Then it all ends . "
"KUWAAA!"
"Oh boy . All the bulky ones seem to be always good at yelling . "
* * * *
Finally, the last Lich King slowly lost the glow from his eyes as it collapsed .
The glow from his eyes were like the light from a candle, swaying in the wind .
"Ugh, gah… . "
After quite a while, I was able to take down the Lich King .
Then .
The Lich King's armor and helmet broke free from his body, and began to float around .
The dungeon did not have any sunlight, but the sheer size almost made shadows appear .
Finally, when the glow from his eyes were snuffed out . .
The floating armor set fell towards me .
The size began to shrink to fit me perfectly, and I could use it without having to worry about my movements being hindered .
"Oho? So this is how it works?"
It was as if the Lich King's armor set wandered about to search for its new owner until settling on me .
The shape was a bit different from what magician ranker Yoon Jong-sun had .
There were no unnecessary ornaments and looked similar to sleeping wear, thus, it destroyed the concept that armor has to be thick .
Even if I wore a shirt over this, no one would think that I was wearing armor underneath .
The Darkness armor set, which even consumed the light around it .
While I didn't care much about the design, the special ability it provided was perfect for me .
"I guess the armor set you can get depends on the ranking of the boss? While the helmet is a bit embarrassing to wear, I made quite a fortune here . "
I was tapping and admiring my armor .
"Wait, this isn't the time for that . "
I headed towards his corpse .
The skill books are a must, as well as the A ranking stone . But it would be disappointing if it ended there .
Because the main dish of Awakened Essences are left .
Two of them, both the size of my thumb, had dropped .
Since I was short on time, I had hurriedly shoved in all the drops from the other Lich Kings without checking them .
I was thinking about the blissful time I would be spending outside as I checked through all the loot .
There was a chance that while taking the stones and skill books, Awakened Essences might have slipped in there too after all .
* * * *
Through the gates of hell and out the exit portal, I was teleported outside of the dungeon .
Taking the stuffed backpack with me, I headed towards the bench, refreshed as I could be .
Suddenly, I heard the sound of someone stepping on dry branches .
Reflexively, I looked towards the source of the noise .
I saw a man in a suit .
From the bushes, he was staring at me .
As soon as our eyes met, he tried to run away as fast as possible .
'Huh? Why is he so pathetic?'
In a blink of an eye, I arrived at his location .
"U… Uwa…"
"What is it?"
"… . "
Looking at his movements, he wasn't an Awakened .
He tried to flee as if a regular person came across a dog with rabies .
If I got too excited and grabbed onto him, he probably would've exploded into pieces from where he stood .
We only ran for 10m down the hill, but he was gasping for breath .
"Uwa… wew… . "
"Who are you? What were you doing here?"
���… . . "