Chapter 45

The headless queen ant began charging madly.

With the Tashim Sword in hand, I rushed towards the charging queen ant alongside Palgili.

At the perfect moment, my Tashim Sword and Palgili’s shield clashed with the queen ant’s attacking limbs.

**KAAANG!!!**

The impact from the collision of the sword, shield, and the queen ant’s sharp claws sent me flying due to my lack of toughness stats, but Palgili’s hand caught my waist.

“Thank you!”

Seeing the queen ant up close made my heart pound heavily.

I’ve always liked aliens.

I hated horror movies, but I loved monster films.

Among many monster films, I thought the Alien series had the coolest vibe. It was a shame I couldn’t watch the earlier movies in theaters, but I remember enjoying the later sequels in theaters.

I liked it that much, and the design of this queen ant, resembling the Alien, really appealed to me. It’s a bit of a shame it doesn’t have a head.

I wonder how cool its head would have been if it had one.

But right now, what’s in front of me is the boss of this dungeon.

Alright, [Annihilation Persona] through [Vengeance]!

As I raised the Tashim Sword to my right shoulder, the black aura of [Annihilation Persona] enveloped the sword.

“Huuuuh…!!!”

With a force even I could barely handle, I slashed through the queen ant’s limb.

The intense black aura of [Annihilation Persona] wrapped around the queen ant’s limb.

13200!

“Huh?”

Normally, with full buffs, [Annihilation Persona] should easily deal over 20,000 damage, but it only dealt 13,200, almost half of what it should have…

Ah, the [Vengeance] skill disappeared, right? With 30% of the final damage gone, this kind of damage makes sense.

“Arang!”

Distracted by the lower-than-expected damage, I failed to notice the queen ant’s incoming attack.

**THUD!**

A powerful shockwave hit me, dealing massive damage that instantly halved my HP.

I couldn’t dodge the next attack due to the shockwave, but I calmly thought about how to handle the next move.

A pure white aura enveloped me as Palgili appeared in front, blocking the queen ant’s attack with style.

I took a deep breath, and as soon as the stun from the shockwave wore off, I moved beside Palgili.

With Palgili perfectly holding the queen ant’s aggro, I easily moved behind the queen ant.

Now, the proper party boss strategy began.

Palgili, the main tank, took the queen ant’s attacks and held aggro.

Baedeokgae, the healer, cared for Palgili, while Sunchoo and I attacked the queen ant.

Since it was a main quest dungeon, there weren’t any particularly difficult mechanics.

The occasional regular ants rushing to protect the queen ant were annoying, but they didn’t pose a significant threat.

[Controlled Queen Ant]

[■■■□□□□□□□□□□□□]

The queen ant’s HP was almost gone.

As its health decreased, the queen ant’s body began to crumble. Its once-cool body parts fell to the ground one by one.

I knew it wouldn’t end like this, and I was right.

The cordyceps on its severed neck began to multiply, and small stems controlled the queen ant’s body like a puppet.

The attacks became stronger and faster, and Palgili’s health started to drop rapidly.

Baedeokgae, panicking at Palgili’s sudden health drop, focused all her healing on him.

As a result, Baedeokgae’s mana was visibly depleting.

“I can’t hold on much longer! Palgili, focus on defense!”

“Got it!”

The queen ant, now berserk, attacked wildly, causing the nest to shake violently. All the monsters in the nest rushed to protect the queen ant.

At this rate, Baedeokgae’s mana would run out in less than a minute.

This meant the current mechanic was simple yet challenging.

The tank had to withstand the attacks of the queen ant and numerous monsters while maintaining aggro. The healer had to protect the tank.

And we, the dealers, had to defeat the queen ant before the tank and healer collapsed.

I canceled all skill delays, unleashing every skill in a single moment without any delay, slicing through the queen ant’s body.

As its health dropped, the queen ant thrashed more violently, and the cordyceps’ thin strands writhed, transforming into sharp tentacles that surged to take over the surroundings.

Sunchoo, the ranged dealer, quickly backed away while continuing to attack.

But I didn’t retreat. Unless it was a boss’s strong attack, nothing could touch me.

I just had to deflect everything.

The Tashim Sword in my right hand emitted a blue light as it deflected the frenzied tentacles of the cordyceps, and I thrust the sword into the queen ant’s body.

The blade tore through the queen ant’s body, destroying the thick root-like core of the cordyceps and obliterating the nucleus inside.

As the nucleus controlling the queen ant was destroyed, a massive storm erupted, emitting a blinding light and dazzling particles.

“Wow… that was close.”

“I was down to my last mana…! Ugh…”

“Arang, good job!”

I high-fived Sunchoo and opened the system window to check the equipment obtained from clearing the dungeon.

[Exoskeleton Gauntlets]

Level: 400

Physical Defense +650

Magic Resistance +1100

Health +2500

Attack Power +500

The equipment level was 10 levels lower than the crafted gear Baedeokgae made. The stats were also slightly lower.

Clearly, being a regular dungeon, the drops weren’t particularly appealing.

==

After safely finishing the dungeon and disbanding the party, I entered the guild house I had bought with my own money.

Lying on the sofa on the first floor, I checked the damage meter from the dungeon we just cleared.

Even with all that parrying, the damage numbers on the meter didn’t satisfy me.

Without [Vengeance], the damage was significantly lower.

Maybe because the [Vengeance] effect and the satisfying feel were missing, it felt a bit lackluster.

What I realized while running this dungeon was that Soma had left my hands.

I need to prepare to switch to another job. I should reach max level to equip the gear obtained from raids immediately.

The job I’m considering is none other than [Assassin], known as the most extreme job in Leore.

It’s a backstab DPS job that requires all attacks to be from behind, and it has the lowest HP and defense among all jobs, making survival difficult.

The damage is strong for a pure DPS, and it uses daggers with skill effects that give off a cool assassin vibe with red blood and a red moon, making it a popular job.

The problem is the restriction of having to attack from behind and the ridiculously low HP, making it the job with the most deaths in all raids, giving it a terrible reputation among players.

Players even call it “Assassin trash.”

And I’m thinking of becoming that Assassin trash.

Assassin, daggers, blood, and the red moon. Honestly, it’s the coolest. That’s why many people still play it despite the reputation.

I headed to the city to get the [Assassin] job.

After receiving the first-tier Assassin job in the city, I returned to the guild house and equipped the dagger I received.

Instantly, all my max-level gear was stripped off.

I was left in my underwear.

Since it’s rated for 15+, it’s all covered up.

I quickly equipped level 1 gear.

The level 1 adventurer gear was just a plain skirt and a T-shirt, so it didn’t look cool at all.

The dagger looked like something picked up from the ground, making me sigh.

First, leveling is important, but style comes first.

As an assassin, the black armor costume I had wasn’t suitable. If I’m going to do it, I should wear a tights costume like a real assassin.

I immediately opened the shop and went costume shopping.

Scrolling through, it seems Leore really doesn’t make good costumes.

I felt the same when choosing the Soma costume last time—it’s hard to find something I like. After spending a lot of time, I finally found a costume I liked.

It had the sexy vibe of an assassin.

A leotard with short shorts to cover a bit of the risqué parts, and a cool coat with a red scarf as a point—it was a costume I liked.

It wasn’t the perfect assassin outfit, but it was quite fitting.

Being a legendary costume, it was quite expensive.

It’s just a costume with no stats, but it costs 150,000 won. If it were the old me, I would’ve cursed and not bought it…

But now, with 100 million won in the shop, it’s pocket change. I clicked the buy button without hesitation.

I immediately took out the costume from my inventory and put it on.

“Wow…”

It looked good in the preview, but wearing it myself, it looked even better.

And I thought the shorts were part of the 15+ rating, but it turns out they’re detachable.

Should I try taking them off?

*Ding.*

The shorts came off, and as I looked at myself…

Even I, who likes risqué stuff, thought this was too much. It felt like it crossed a line.

I was about to put the shorts back on when…

*Click. Click.*

The sound of screenshots echoed through the guild house.

I turned my head towards the sound and saw Baedeokgae, nose bleeding, covering her mouth with her hand.