Chapter 58

Perhaps because the gun Jaeha used was made entirely of iron, it weighed considerably more than a standard gun.

Of course, given Jaeha’s physical abilities, it wasn’t a burdensome weight, but in a battle where even the smallest gap could mean life or death, the discomfort from the imbalance in weight was quite significant.

“One-handed swords and two-handed swords are clearly different, and swordsmanship with one hand versus two hands is a different thing entirely.”

Having understood that, Jaeha left a word of thanks to Chrise and headed up to his room. Once in his room, Jaeha fell into thought.

‘Should I learn something like dual-wielding swords? Or maybe I should look up something like that dual-practice technique from old novels?’

Lost in thought for a while, Jaeha began searching all sorts of things on the internet. While searching, he came across something called Bayonet Art.

Of course, the bayonet combat used in the military was a technique of attaching a blade to the muzzle of a rifle and fighting the enemy with it. But since there was no guarantee that a skill like that would appear, Jaeha started looking up videos of bayonet combat.

‘Well, if what I want doesn’t show up, I can just delete this skill and pick up dual-wielding or something later.’

Thinking casually, Jaeha watched the video.

[Bayonet Combat]

[Rank: Rare]

[Aids in handling both gun and sword simultaneously, providing significant support in using the gun]

[Mechanism: Total Ability × 150]

[Proficiency: 100%]

As the skill appeared, Jaeha smiled and immediately went down to the sparring ground to try it out. Then he began sparring with Chrise again.

* * *

“Huff, huff.”

Only ragged breathing echoed through the training hall. Then Jaeha spoke.

“Alright. That’s enough.”

“Phew. Good work.”

Having said that, Chrise looked at Jaeha.

“That skill of yours is truly frightening. Making you proficient in the blink of an eye like that.”

“Haha.”

Jaeha smiled faintly and thought.

“Alright. Now I can use the sword with one hand and the gun with the other hand with full efficiency.”

Having learned bayonet combat, Jaeha felt no burden at all in handling the gun with his previously empty left hand.

‘Should I enchant all the bullets I have too? I’ll make a small amount of fire-type, but I should use a lot of ice-type and wind-type. I’ll make gravity-type spells too.’

Jaeha smiled as he said this and went to the blacksmith shop to start enchanting in bulk. After enchanting all of his massive stockpile of bullets, Jaeha smiled.

‘But is there a way to know which skill the enchanted bullet being fired is from?’

Thinking about that, Jaeha practiced various things in the training hall. Thanks to the bayonet combat skill he’d acquired, Jaeha discovered that the next magazine would automatically load.

* * *

‘I can’t alternate or switch magazines, but at least I can choose what comes next, so that’s fine.’

With everything sorted out, Jaeha checked the time and headed up to the living room.

“Lee Seungho.”

“Huh?”

Jaeha called out to Seungho, who was lounging around in the living room.

“I’m going to a dungeon.”

“A dungeon?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll check out a few places.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.”

After thinking for a moment, Seungho got up from his seat.

“Then I’m coming too.”

“You too?”

“Yeah. Nothing else to do anyway.”

“Well, suit yourself.”

Having said that, Jaeha headed to the dungeon with Seungho. When they arrived near the dungeon, Seungho spoke to Jaeha.

“What the. We’re hunting vampires again?”

“Yeah. Let’s start here. I haven’t been to other places, but I’ve been here before.”

“That’s true, but isn’t this place a bit too crowded?”

“Other places are probably similar.”

“I guess……”

At Jaeha’s words, Seungho got out of the car. He began preparing, and shortly after finishing, he spoke to Jaeha.

“Let’s go in.”

“Yeah.”

And so the two entered the dungeon. Once inside, Seungho spoke to Jaeha.

“What about the broadcast?”

“Next time.”

“Is that so? Alright. Then let’s take it easy.”

Jaeha pulled out his gun and sword from his inventory and gripped them in both hands. Then he began walking forward.

“Easy.”

“Right?”

At Jaeha’s words after clearing the wave room, Seungho nodded and gathered the byproducts from the vampires’ bodies scattered around.

“So this is that True Blood.”

Seungho muttered as he stared at the blood that, unlike the other blood, had a bluish tint.

“That’s a good one.”

“You know what it’s used for?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s it used for?”

“You could call it the main ingredient for making elixirs.”

Saying that, Jaeha got up from his spot.

“Let’s take care of the boss right away.”

“Alright. But where are we headed after this?”

“I’ve got two places in mind. I plan to hit both, but if it gets too late, we’ll do the other one next time.”

“Yeah? Where?”

“One of them is the Snow Mountain.”

“The Snow Mountain? Forget how dangerous it is—that place is so cold you can’t do anything there.”

“Ah, I’ve got the spirits with me.”

“Oh…… right. And the other one?”

“The Poison Swamp, or whatever. That place.”

“Hmm. Didn’t know a place like that existed.”

Chatting like that, Jaeha and Seungho soon reached the boss room, took down the boss in no time, and exited the dungeon.

After leaving the dungeon, the two did a quick cleanup and headed straight for the Snow Mountain.

Episode 5

“Hey.”

“Huh?”

“Just in case, though……”

Saying that, Jaeha opened his inventory, pulled out a resistance potion, and handed it to him.

“The spirits might not be able to cover you properly, and we could get separated during a fight.”

“Ah, fair enough.”

“Keep it on you.”

After handing over the resistance potion, Jaeha stepped straight into the Snow Mountain. The moment he entered, he was caught off guard by the cold that instantly squeezed his body. The chill was far worse than he’d expected, and he could feel firsthand why the Snow Mountain was an unconquered unknown dungeon.

“Sylph.”

<You called?>

“Block out some of the cold.”

<Okay.>

With that, Sylph did something. The cold around them dropped noticeably—enough to make a real difference.

“Phew, that’s bearable.”

That’s what Jaeha said, but it was still cold, so he ended up drawing up the fire energy he’d gained through the Five Elements Art.

He could have summoned Salamander and kept it by his side, but unfortunately, Salamander’s fire was no help to him at all. Still, the good news was that the Five Elements Art gave him at least some fire energy to work with.

“Not bad.”

“Ugh, hey. I can’t do this.”

Saying that, Seungho drank the resistance potion.

“Whoa, that’s a bit better.”

“Alright. Shall we go?”

“Yeah.”

And so the two walked into the dungeon.

* * *

Jaeha and Seungho, who had walked boldly into the dungeon, came back without even meeting a yeti—unable to endure the cold. They’d been inside for less than 20 minutes before they came back out.

“Hoo. This place really is impossible.”

“They say this dungeon is a place where even fire freezes over.”

“I genuinely second that.”

Chatting like that, the two headed home. After getting some rest at the house, Jaeha and Seungho took it easy for a while. Then the next day, they left the house to head to a new dungeon.

The dungeon Jaeha and Seungho were going to this time was the Poison Swamp—the one they’d planned to visit yesterday but skipped for one reason or another. Unfortunately, since this dungeon wasn’t in Korea, Jaeha and Seungho traveled to the nearby country of China.

The reason Jaeha was going through the trouble of traveling abroad to reach the Poison Swamp was the Darkin that lived there.

Since creating the Reverse Heaven Jiangshi, Jaeha hadn’t used Corpse Puppetry even once. Part of it was that he hadn’t needed to, but the bigger reason was that he didn’t have the Darkin’s poison.

The Poison Swamp wasn’t a dungeon that had never been cleared, but it wasn’t a place that had been conquered either.

There were various reasons, but apparently the boss was just too troublesome to take down. The Darkin, the boss of the Poison Swamp, could yield nearly 10 liters of poison in a single capture.

The problem was that both getting to the Darkin and killing it were extremely difficult. On top of that, the Darkin’s poison was a lethal toxin of the highest order—in the past, a single drop dissolved into a well was said to be enough to wipe out an entire nation.

And since the Darkin attacked by recklessly spraying poison of that toxicity, it was no wonder it wasn’t easy to kill.

‘Come to think of it, how did the Alchemist get ahold of that stuff?’

Going in with the intent to catch the Darkin was the right call. But the bigger purpose was to check the difficulty. If he caught the Darkin and obtained the poison, that would be killing two birds with one stone. So Jaeha boarded the plane to China without much ambition.

* * *

Arriving at the Poison Swamp, Jaeha immediately entered the dungeon with Seungho. The dungeon was, literally, a swamp.

It wasn’t the kind of swamp that swallowed you the moment you stepped in, but the problem was that the dungeon itself was steeped in poison. Just the fact that the occasional puddle of water was purple was enough to tell you this was a poison swamp of an extreme level.

In any case, since Jaeha and Seungho had entered the dungeon, they had to go deeper to hunt. Carefully making their way inward, Jaeha spotted monsters after about thirty minutes of travel.

Unlike the Snow Mountain or the Vampire’s Sanctum, the Poison Swamp didn’t have just one or two types of monsters. A great variety of monsters appeared, including some that came from other dungeons. And the monster Jaeha had just encountered was a Two-Headed Serpent.

“Careful. They say these are A-Rank dungeon monsters, but every monster that comes out of here is said to carry lethal poison.”

“Don’t worry. I’m already on edge.”

“Alright. Shall we?”

Nodding, Jaeha decided it would be better to use a bow than to fight with a sword, so he put away his sword and gun and took out his bow.

“But why pull out a bow when you could just use the gun?”

“I don’t have any normal bullets. They’re all magic-enchanted. It’s not like the trees are going to catch fire or anything, but rather than shooting and pulling aggro, I think it’s better to hunt slowly and move forward.”

“Seriously though, you enchanted all of them?”

“Well, I’ve got the bow too.”

Saying that, Jaeha smiled and loosed arrows at the Two-Headed Serpent. After two arrows flew and pierced both of its heads, the serpent met its end. As it died, Jaeha spoke.

“It won’t drop any useful byproducts anyway, so let’s leave it.”

“Sure.”

Then Jaeha and Seungho began walking deeper inside. The dungeon was far deeper than expected.

“Whoa. It’s deep.”

“Yeah, and the toxicity seems to be getting stronger too.”

“Are we still going in?”

“Well, I made and brought antidote potions anyway, so it’ll be fine.”

With that, Jaeha walked deeper into the dungeon alongside Seungho.