Chapter 44

After arriving at the room that appeared to be an altar, what caught our eyes was the figure of a woman.

Her hair was disheveled, making her face barely visible, and her skin was as pale as a dead person.

She was wearing tattered white mourning clothes and holding what looked like ritual tools made of bones in both hands. She definitely didn’t look normal.

‘What the…?’

“Hehehehehe! You’ve come! You’ve come! The sacrifices have arrived!”

Judging from her words, she seemed to be the boss monster of this dungeon. I hadn’t expected a boss monster in human form, so I was momentarily stunned.

Lee Jae-hyo and Park Da-rim remained still, seemingly not planning to step forward this time either.

“Oh, Zephar! I offer these sacrifices to you!”

‘Zephar?’

I didn’t know who Zephar was, but hearing her call us sacrifices didn’t seem like a good thing.

Yoo Ju seemed to notice the woman was up to something and shouted to everyone.

“Everyone, prepare for battle! Take your positions and get ready to attack! Our goal is to approach and kill that woman!”

The Hwashin Clan also seemed to be preparing for the attack.

“Hehehehe! May Zephar’s grace be with us!”

As the woman shouted, chunks of flesh rose from the ground and enveloped her, as if she were inside a cocoon of flesh.

Then, more flesh rose and clumped together, forming a large number of Evil Eyes.

‘…So she’s the type to summon monsters while being protected by that cocoon?’

With so many Evil Eyes, it seemed impossible to approach the cocoon directly. It looked like we’d have to defeat these creatures first before getting close to the cocoon to kill her.

The Evil Eyes began charging at us, screeching, but we were already prepared.

Ho-won immediately blocked them with his shield, drawing their attention, while the rest of us calmly started reducing their numbers.

We’ve dealt with Evil Eyes before, so everyone was familiar with the fight. It seemed like we could handle this without much trouble.

The real problem, though, was the boss monster. I didn’t know what she was doing inside that flesh cocoon, but it definitely wasn’t good for us.

The situation changed when we had reduced the number of Evil Eyes by about half.

“Hehe! Living humans! Living humans!”

“Die! Die! Die!”

Suddenly, Wraiths appeared out of thin air.

The sudden appearance of the Wraiths caused some panic, and one member of the Hwashin Clan got injured.

“Agh!”

“Injured members, fall back!”

The Hwashin Clan quickly pulled the injured member to the rear.

“Ugh…!”

“Uncle!”

Ho-won also seemed to have been injured on his arm by a Wraith that appeared from behind. I quickly cast a spell.

“Hieeeeeee! Hot! Hot!”

The Wraith that attacked Ho-won burst into flames and disappeared.

Ho-won retreated to the rear to receive healing from Yoo Hyun.

“Heal!”

“Phew…”

Even though it was a rare-grade dungeon, everyone seemed to be struggling a bit.

Yoo Ju, who hadn’t shown much of her skills until now, infused her spear with magic and swung it a few times, instantly taking out three Wraiths.

“What the hell, is this really a rookie?”

“…Crazy.”

Seeing Yoo Ju dominate the battlefield, the Hwashin Clan members couldn’t believe this was the work of a first-year rookie.

Kim Myung-jun, in particular, was staring at Yoo Ju with his mouth wide open.

With Yoo Ju stepping up, the tide of the battle quickly turned in our favor. However, I wanted to use magic, but my mana was depleted, leaving me useless.

‘Damn it…’

I realized how useless I was in battle.

‘My mana stat is too low. Damn it…’

I couldn’t help but worry about Yoo Rim, who was fighting precariously on the front lines. Yoo Ju, being a Returner, wasn’t a concern, but Yoo Rim was young and fighting up front.

As I bit my lip, unable to do anything due to my depleted mana, a Wraith suddenly appeared behind me.

It was too late to dodge the attack.

‘I can’t avoid it…!’

Just as I braced myself for some injury.

“Yoon Seong!”

Yoo Ju instantly appeared in front of me and swung her spear, obliterating the Wraith.

‘Crazy…’

“Phew… Yoon Seong, are you okay?”

“Ah… yes, yes. Thanks to you, I’m fine. Thank you, Yoo Ju.”

The speed at which Yoo Ju reached me when I was in danger was beyond normal. Honestly, I was more shocked by Yoo Ju suddenly appearing in front of me than by the Wraith.

“In case more Wraiths appear near you, it’s better to stay with Ha-eun and Yoo Hyun.”

“Understood.”

“Alright, then…”

She dashed back to the front lines after hearing my response.

After steadily reducing the number of monsters, when their numbers dropped to single digits, something strange happened with the flesh cocoon.

*Squish. Squish.*

Small holes appeared in the flesh cocoon, and black liquid began to ooze out.

Everyone kept an eye on the cocoon while fighting, sensing something was off.

‘…Is it not just for protection?’

I thought the flesh cocoon was just protecting the woman, but it seemed to have another purpose.

*Splat—*

The flesh cocoon burst open, revealing a different form of the woman.

Someone muttered upon seeing her.

“…A Wraith?”

No, it was different from a Wraith.

One thing was clear: she had abandoned her physical body and taken on a spectral form. As evidence, the withered body of the woman lay on the ground where the cocoon had burst.

‘Is this dangerous?’

I glanced at Lee Jae-hyo, who seemed momentarily intrigued by the boss monster’s appearance but showed no intention of stepping in.

‘They must think we can handle it ourselves.’

It seemed Lee Jae-hyo and Park Da-rim believed we could take it down on our own.

‘Then this dungeon is still a rare-grade one.’

The situation had changed.



For a moment, I worried that the dungeon might be of Hero rank due to the appearance of the Boss Monster, but if it were a Hero-rank dungeon, Lee Jae-hyo and Park Da-rim wouldn’t have stayed idle.

[The Boss Monster, a Wraith-turned-maid named Marybeth Kelly, has appeared.]

“Hihihihihihi! Lord Zephar has granted me power!”

While everyone was stunned by the Boss Monster’s transformed appearance, Yoo Ju spoke up.

“The Boss Monster appears to be a spirit type like a Wraith, and judging by the large scythe it’s holding, it will likely attack by swinging it. If anyone’s magic is depleted, retreat to the rear. Those who can fight, step forward.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Yoo Ju approached the Boss Monster and swung her spear, but the Boss Monster blocked it with its scythe.

*Clang!*

The moment the Boss Monster blocked Yoo Ju’s attack, it suddenly vanished. It happened in an instant.

“…What the?”

Just as I began to question where the Boss Monster had gone, its form emerged from Hyeon-jin’s shadow.

*Whoosh!*

Fortunately, Hyeon-jin sensed its presence and rolled away just as the Boss Monster swung its scythe.

“…Can it move through people’s shadows?”

Seeing it reappear from Hyeon-jin’s shadow, it seemed the Boss Monster could hide within shadows.

I immediately shouted to everyone, “The Boss Monster can hide in people’s shadows! If it disappears, be careful of your shadows!”

Hyeon-jin stood up and swung his sword, infused with magic, at the Boss Monster. The monster was cut by the blade, screamed in pain, and vanished again.

“Kyaaaaah! It hurts! It huuuurts!”

The Boss Monster wasn’t particularly strong, but its ability to hide in shadows made it incredibly tricky to deal with.

As the battle dragged on, both our party and the Hwashin Clan members were visibly tiring.

The problem was that if the monster stayed visible, we could all attack together, but since it kept appearing and disappearing, we lacked the time to deal significant damage.

Especially for Kang I-seo, the archer, there was a risk of hitting allies if she tried to shoot the monster appearing from someone’s shadow, leaving her unable to act.

“Damn it…! This sneaky bastard! What kind of monster is this?!”

The mages were in a similar predicament. The Hwashin Clan’s mage couldn’t cast spells for fear of hitting allies, and Song Ha-eun also seemed unable to do anything.

‘Ranged classes can’t do anything.’

In the end, only the melee classes were slowly chipping away at the Boss Monster.

‘…The Boss Monster isn’t strong, but it’s annoying.’

If this continued, we’d eventually defeat the Boss Monster, but more injuries were likely. Already, some were starting to get hurt.

‘Is there no way to stop it from moving through shadows?’

As I pondered, an idea came to mind. The problem was that I was out of magic, so I needed Kim Myung-jun.

Since the mages couldn’t do anything anyway, I approached Kim Myung-jun.

“Senior.”

“…Yes?”

Kim Myung-jun seemed surprised that I was talking to him in this situation.

“Do you have any magic left?”

“Ah… yes, I do, but…”

He sounded confused about why I was asking.

‘Damn, this idiot.’

“Is there another mage besides you who still has magic?”

“Yes, there’s one more mage…”

“Please bring them here.”

Lee Jae-hyo and Park Da-rim looked curious about why I was gathering mages. In this situation, they probably thought mages couldn’t do anything, so their confusion was understandable.

Kim Myung-jun also seemed skeptical and asked, “…May I ask why?”

‘Listen up, you fool.’

From his perspective, I probably looked like a useless freeloader, but in this urgent situation, his hesitation was infuriating.

“I’ve thought of a way to stop the Boss Monster from moving through shadows. Please hurry and bring them.”

“…Really?”

He didn’t seem to believe me. It was understandable since he couldn’t think of a solution, but it was frustrating.

Finally, I snapped, “You idiot! Stop asking questions and just bring them here!”

“…What?”

He stood there, dumbfounded.

“Hurry up—!”

After I shouted again, he finally ran off to fetch the other mage.

“Sigh…”

Soon, Kim Myung-jun returned with a female mage.

Glancing at her status, she wasn’t as strong as Kim Myung-jun but was far better than me, so it should work.

I spoke to them, “Listen carefully. Kim Myung-jun, you’re fine. Can you use Light Source Magic?”

“Ah… yes, but why?”

A rookie like me giving orders probably didn’t sit well with her. I felt a surge of anger but held it in and continued.

“Both of you, use Light Magic. Create multiple light sources and fill this area from the outer edges to the center. Shine light from various angles.”

“What’s the point…?”

On Earth, hospitals have shadowless lamps in operating rooms to prevent mistakes caused by shadows during surgery.

Using a similar principle, I thought we could eliminate the shadows in this area. It wasn’t that large, after all.

“I’m planning to prevent shadows from forming.”