Chapter 10 (1/2)

10. The Taste of Money! Manticore (5)

I momentarily got lost in thoughts of doubt and hesitation.

Thoughts of self-justification slowly crept their way in, too.

Occasionally when I went to hunt monsters with a party,we hunted a few of the nearby Manticores.

Before they approached me, I used frost orbs to freeze the wings and legs, and poured electric discharge at them until they died.

No matter how many come, it’ll be fine as long as I kill them before they come near me!

That’s possible, right?

****

– Tti-Dik. Please scan your card.

– Tti-Dik. Please scan your fingerprint.

– The dungeon will now be activated.

I got lost in thoughts again, but before long, I found myself in the dungeon.

It appeared I had convinced myself unconsciously.

‘Perhaps I should’ve said I wanted to be a businessman,’ I thought to myself.

I waited until the six person party, that was previously on standby, entered first.

As soon as I saw they were gone, I entered.

I was a sophomore in high school, way past being in a sophomore in middle school, yet it seemed I had not completely recovered from the illness.

“At least I received the ‘Boots of Speed’ that Sang-Min used to use.”

The ‘Boots of Speed’ dramatically increased movement speed, so they were usually used by tankers or sub-tankers.

Mana mages usually used boots that increased vitality or agility, but I invested all of my stats to vitality, so I figured that  speed would be far more efficient and complementary.

“Now, shall I take it for a ride?”

KURURURUNG!

Due to a special nature of Manticores, getting their attention was easy. As long as I made eye contact with one of them, a whole horde would rush over.

Even though this was my first time fighting a mass number of monsters at once, I didn’t find it difficult.

[Experienced earned 600.]

[Experienced earned 600.]

[Experienced earned 600.]

.

.

.

Without much difficulty, I gathered Manticores around me. The hunt had started.

Of course, this was smaller in number in comparison to what we handled in a five people party.

I was disadvantaged, as I didn’t have the buffs or debuffs that Li In-Ah and Jo Young-Hun provided.

With them in my party, it only took two shots to finish off these monsters.  By myself, it took 4 to 5 rounds of tries.

Using the money earned from hunting with Sang-Min’s group, I learned ‘Frozen Shield.’

Thanks to it, I could fight the Manticores without taking damage.

Frozen shield was a skill that formed an effective protection layer of ice.

It could shield me from enemy attacks for up to three minutes.

It costed 300 mana, and had a cool down of 10 minutes.

I could ignore the mana cost, but the cool down was driving me insane.

I couldn’t even dream of purchasing an expensive unlimited-use shield that didn’t have any cooling time.

‘Frozen Shield’ could block most moderate attacks.

However, if the attack strength was twice that of my vitality, then the shield would be destroyed.

Regardless, since Manticores had nowhere near enough attack strength, so, I didn’t need to be concerned about it happening.

Once I had enough  money, I planned to learn all classes, and all kinds of shield magic.

Once I did, I was going to activate my shield at random, without a care for cooling time. It was a solid plan.

While hunting, I started getting excited as I gained experience at a crazy fast rate, and there were many bloodstones floating in mid-air, giving off a luxurious red shine.

Instead of sharing with five people, they all went into my own pocket.

Moreover, this was despite the fact that my minimum level doesn’t even qualify to be in this dungeon.

“To all those trust-fund babies and rich kids, listen up. Become independents. Stop living under the shadow of your parents so shamelessly. Stand by yourself with pride and leave their shadows, just like I did.  Face the world, head on. Be reborn!”

I thought that the rich kids and I belonged in different worlds.

However, the ones I used to look at, with eyes soaked with inferiority, I felt were now below me.

I finished off the last group of monsters, who were in the 3 o’clock direction, and headed to the dungeon’s main exit. Everything was going smoothly, until…

I heard a noise.

KUAAAAAAANG!!!!

KUAK! KUAK!

“What’s this? Is there a monster left?”

Fearsome howling pierced through the dungeon.

While I was thinking ‘No way, it can’t be……’

KUWOOOOAH!!

An incredible one suddenly appeared in front of me.

“Is this beginner’s luck? Am I hitting the jackpot?”

It was a Manticore three to four times the size of an ordinary one. It was called Kelvecore.

Its wing and tail were similar to an ordinary Manticore, however it had three heads.

The middle head was an old lion, the left head was a dog, and the right was a dragon.

The heads were all howling and baring their fangs at each other, as if they were fighting for dominance over the body.

“Wow, this really looks like something……”

Looking at the clock, I still had 15 minutes until the dungeon ended.

If I stayed out of sight for 15 minutes, I could exit the dungeon.

However.