Chapter 74: A Dungeon Boss Defeated, but a Deadly Trap Awakens

Bang! Baaang!

The skeletons shambling toward them from the front were struck by lightning and collapsed. Their shattered bones flew into the air before bouncing off the protective barrier surrounding Seong Ju-an.

Perhaps it was because the skill cooldown had been reduced as a reward for their last dungeon conquest, but whenever Baek Eun-hoo used his skills, he seemed to become one with the lightning itself.

It was a spectacular sight, watching the skeletons get blasted away by lightning before they could even approach.

While Eun-hoo took a moment to catch his breath after wiping out all the nearby skeletons, Ju-an shouted at him.

“Mr. Baek Eun-hoo, your skill cooldown has been reduced, but that doesn’t mean your mana supply is infinite! There’s a limit to how much you can replenish with potions, too!”

Everyone nodded in agreement, but Eun-hoo acted as though he hadn’t heard a word.

Meanwhile, a group of skeletons began charging toward them from deeper inside the dungeon. Perhaps they were using poison, because blue liquid sprayed out of them whenever they moved.

“Everyone, come over here. I’ll give you the Hug buff.”

Ju-an called his party members into the protective barrier he was standing inside. Gong Se-yoon, Joo Ji-chan, and Mo Jun-young each took turns hugging him before heading back out.

“Mr. Baek Eun-hoo, why aren’t you coming?”

“Don’t need it. I’ll kill them all before they get close.”

Eun-hoo swung his whip. Everywhere it passed, flashes of light burst forth, bright enough to sting the eyes. The skeletons were blown away as clouds of bone dust before they could even release their poison.

“If you’re not going to take the buff, at least work with the rest of us!”

Seriously, what was wrong with him? What had gotten under his skin this time?!

Ju-an swallowed the rest of his complaints and sighed.

The other party members, having heard him, moved toward Eun-hoo. At Mo Jun-young’s roar, the skeletons swarmed him and clung to his body. They fired poison at him relentlessly, but their attacks were meaningless against someone who had received the Hug skill.

When Se-yoon froze the skeletons with his skill, Jun-young broke free, and then Ji-chan blew them up.

Meanwhile, Eun-hoo dealt with the skeletons that had failed to latch onto Jun-young, taking them out one by one. It was a deliberate choice. If too many skeletons used poison at once, Eun-hoo would be in danger, since he had no resistance and hadn’t received the Hug skill.

‘…Maybe I should’ve taken the Hug skill after all.’

The thought came a little too late, but Eun-hoo clenched his fist.

He couldn’t go back on his decision now.

Baek Eun-hoo had resolved to avoid all physical contact with Seong Ju-an for the time being. That night, which he had thought was something special, had apparently meant nothing to Ju-an.

The realization that he was no different from the other party members filled him with anger.

The emotion that began as anger turned into self-loathing, eventually ending in a profound sense of emptiness.

Caught in a whirlwind of emotions he had never experienced before, Eun-hoo arrived at a ridiculous conclusion. He would distinguish himself from the other party members, who were all desperate for the Buffer’s kisses and attention.

Eun-hoo gathered up every last bit of his remaining mana and unleashed Deathbolt. His whip extended to roughly three times its original length, forming a gleaming golden thread.

Rising into the air, Eun-hoo rode along the line of lightning all the way to the far end of the dungeon.

Bang!

With a deafening explosion, the dungeon began to shake.

Mo Jun-young, who was surrounded by the poison skeletons, spoke with a grave expression.

“We’ve killed quite a few skeletons. Doesn’t that mean the only thing left is the boss?”

Ju-an immediately checked the dungeon status and sighed.

The ordinary skeletons had already been wiped out, and they had nearly finished off the poison skeletons, too. Only around fifty remained. Even a quick glance made it clear that these were all the monsters in the dungeon.

“Haaah. Seriously, what is wrong with him?”

Joo Ji-chan answered as he smashed a skeleton’s head.

“Who knows what goes on in that head of his? Maybe he’s still bitter about getting trapped last time. You know how he holds a grudge.”

Gong Se-yoon seemed utterly unconcerned with whatever Eun-hoo was doing. After freezing the last group of skeletons all at once, he pressed himself against Ju-an’s side and rubbed his cheek against Ju-an’s shoulder.

“Hyung, did any poison splash on you?”

“I’m fine. I was inside the protective gear, remember?”

“Then that’s all that matters. Hyung, I really missed you.”

Ju-an almost pointed out that they saw each other practically every day, but he closed his mouth.

The biggest problem right now was Eun-hoo, who had gone deeper into the dungeon.

The four of them finished off the remaining poison skeletons and headed inside.

He’d been throwing his skills around recklessly, so he must be running low on mana by now…

Worry crept into Ju-an’s heart. He took Se-yoon’s hand and activated the Handshake skill.

“Se-yoon, I’m sorry, but could you carry me on your back and run?”

“Of course! Anything you want!”

Se-yoon crouched down. As soon as Ju-an wrapped his arms around Se-yoon’s neck and climbed onto his back, Se-yoon took off at a terrifying speed.

As they continued forward, explosions began to echo from the far end of the dungeon, accompanied by flashes of blue lightning.

‘Ah, he must’ve taken a potion. That’s a relief, at least…’

The only monster left should have been the boss. Could Eun-hoo really be trying to fight it alone?

No matter how crazy he was…

Uneasy premonitions gnawed at Ju-an, and he gripped Se-yoon’s shoulders tightly.

Noticing his anxiety, Se-yoon created a current of water to propel them faster.

In an instant, the two reached the end of the dungeon. The sight before them was so shocking that neither could even breathe.

“W-what the hell…”

“Oh my God.”

Baek Eun-hoo was relentlessly attacking a three-headed skeleton, but his strikes seemed to have absolutely no impact.

He held a whip in one hand and a potion in the other, continuing the pointless battle and replenishing his mana with the potion whenever it ran low.

Thankfully, the three-headed skeleton couldn’t move around and was attacking from a distance. If it could move, Eun-hoo would already be dead. At least the reduced skill cooldown was working in his favor.

“Mr. Baek Eun-hoo, are you all right?”

Ju-an started toward him, worried that he might be injured, but Eun-hoo shouted at him.

“Don’t come over here!”

“…Why?”

Eun-hoo was too preoccupied with attacking to answer, so Se-yoon spoke in his place.

“It’s holding an axe. It must’ve thrown it or something. I think Mr. Baek Eun-hoo has a wound on his leg, too.”

At Se-yoon’s words, Ju-an lowered his gaze.

Eun-hoo’s clothes were torn from his thigh all the way down to his calf, and blood was seeping through the gaps.

Ju-an’s head spun.

If he hadn’t made that mistake during yesterday’s phone call with Eun-hoo, the man might not have done something so reckless…

“Then we need to treat him! What else do we have the Healing skill for?”

As Ju-an moved toward Eun-hoo, Se-yoon stepped in front of him and pointed over his shoulder.

“Everyone else is coming. Let’s take down the boss together first, then treat him afterward. If Mo Jun-young doesn’t use his Roar skill, the skeleton’s attacks will focus on the weakest person here, hyung.”

Se-yoon created a wall of ice and set Ju-an down inside it.

Mo Jun-young arrived just in time and used his Roar skill to draw all three heads toward himself. As the target changed, an axe blade came flying toward him, embedded itself in his arm, and then bounced away.

“Gasp! Are you okay?”

Ju-an cried out in alarm at the sight, but Jun-young merely nodded before immersing himself in the fight again.

“If you were going to come, you could’ve gotten here a little sooner.”

At Eun-hoo’s remark, Joo Ji-chan roared at him.

“Who told you to charge in alone like an idiot? It’s not like you could take it down by yourself anyway!”

The words stung his pride, but Eun-hoo merely laughed.

In truth, Ji-chan was wrong.

When Eun-hoo had created a path of lightning and sped away on his own during their coordinated attack, it hadn’t been because he intended to fight the boss alone.

He simply couldn’t bear to watch Ju-an hugging and kissing the other party members under the pretext of giving them buffs.

Even if he was a madman who couldn’t see reason whenever his emotions got the better of him, he wasn’t foolish enough to behave so childishly in a battle where lives were at stake.

Baek Eun-hoo was, after all, a more pragmatic person than anyone else.

His mistake had been overlooking the fact that coordinating their attacks had increased the party’s overall damage output.

According to his calculations, he should have been able to fight the remaining monsters for a while, giving Ju-an enough time to finish distributing the buffs before coming over.

He hadn’t expected Ju-an and the others to lure out and eliminate every last monster lurking deeper inside.

“Well, I just wanted to test how much the reduced skill cooldown would help. I had no other motive.”

With that excuse, Eun-hoo stepped aside and let Se-yoon take his place.

Se-yoon stood before the skeleton and activated his skill. Hundreds of ice spikes rained down onto the skeleton’s heads, piercing them one after another.

Since the monster was slow-moving anyway, it was better to whittle down its HP as much as possible.

Joo Ji-chan, with a flamethrower strapped to his shoulder, pulled the trigger. The skeleton was engulfed in flames in an instant.

The boss tried to hurl its axe at Ji-chan, but thanks to the Roar skill, its attacks repeatedly missed their mark.

Just then, Eun-hoo downed a skill potion in one gulp and unleashed his pale lightning skill at the boss.

The three broken heads came tumbling to the ground.

“Is that it? That was disappointingly easy.”

“Gaaah!”

At the familiar voice coming from behind them, all four men turned around at once.

Seong Ju-an was clutching his stomach and rolling on the ground.

“Hyung!”

“Seong Ju-an!”

“Ugh…”

Ju-an lay collapsed inside the wall of ice, writhing on the ground.

Despite the low temperature, a searing pain burned through his stomach. His vision went black, and it felt as though something sharp were stabbing him in the abdomen.

“D-don’t come near me! Don’t come near me!”

It was a trap.

Even as he writhed in agony, he instinctively knew it. If this wasn’t a trap, there was no way he could be experiencing such pain without having been directly attacked.

“P-please… don’t come near me. It’s a trap.”

He forced the words out through a voice that barely worked, but the four men paid him no heed and rushed toward him.

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