The Support Ate it All

Soon, we arrived at the dungeon building and made our way downward, alternating between the spiral stairs and the elevator.

Before long, we stood in front of the dungeon we were about to tackle.

[No.688] [Fire Goblin Temple]

Lee Seong-hyeon cast a glance at the entrance, then asked over his shoulder in his deep, gravelly cave voice,

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

Song Cheon-hye and I gave short replies, then followed Lee Seong-hyeon through the teleportation portal.

A wave of sweltering heat hit us in the face immediately.

It might once have been a lush forest, but now, everything had withered away.

The trees were reduced to bare branches, and some were charred black.

It wasn't hard to find the cause.

Far in the distance stood a building that looked like a temple.

From time to time, flames flared up from within, revealing something going on inside.

Gazing fixedly at it, Lee Seong-hyeon and Song Cheon-hye each made a comment.

"Can't say much about goblins yet, but I do see fire… and a temple."

"That's probably our final destination. But we'll have to take care of other objectives first."

Though [Fixed Zone] was a core rule, it was still just a constraint.

The actual dungeon objectives were [Crystal] and [Defense].

We'd experienced it several times by now, so it was familiar to all of us.

Especially for [Crystal] rules, what we had to do was obvious.

"Let's find the crystal."

Only after that would we worry about recharging or defending it.

Normally, we'd have to search the dungeon thoroughly, but that would be a waste of time.

So I decided to at least point us in a direction.

"How about over there?"

"You think it's there?"

"Maybe. Just a guess."

It's not like I could explain that I had the whole dungeon strategy memorized. They wouldn't believe me anyway.

Easier to pass it off as a coincidence.

The only problem was that, without solid reasoning, it was easy to run into objections.

Of course, I already had something in mind to convince them if needed.

Fortunately, both Song Cheon-hye and Lee Seong-hyeon seemed more or less on board with my suggestion.

"Let's give it a try. It's not like we have a better plan."

"True. I considered splitting up to search, but that'd be a bad move here."

"It's too dangerous. We're better off sticking together."

"Agreed."

And so, we began pushing our way through the desolate forest.

Lee Seong-hyeon took the lead as a melee fighter, with Song Cheon-hye and me following behind.

After walking for a while, we heard a snorting noise that sounded strangely familiar.

– Kereurk,

– Keeek,

We quickly slowed down and scanned the surroundings. Song Cheon-hye was the first to spot the source of the noise.

"It's goblins, after all."

"It was about time they showed up."

Given the dungeon's name of "Fire Goblin Temple", it was a foregone conclusion they'd appear.

What set them apart from regular goblins was their skin color, which was a dark brown that blended in with the barren landscape. It was camouflage adapted to their environment.

Their weapons too were different. They had crude tools fashioned from igniting stones, which indicated a fire attribute.

– Kereuk?

– Kruk kruk.

They kept their distance, observing us, but showed no signs of attacking.

Lee Seong-hyeon shared his theory.

"They probably judged they can't win if they attack now."

"This isn't a Fixed Zone yet."

The [Fixed Zone] rule only applied to specific areas within the dungeon.

So for now, our specs were much higher, and the goblins seemed to be content forming a loose perimeter rather than rushing in.

I shrugged.

"Even better. That just means we can look around in peace for a while."

"Optimistic. But not wrong."

Either way, we needed to secure the crystal, and if the goblins got in our way, it'd become way more of a hassle.

Still, now that the enemies had shown themselves, it was best to wrap things up quickly, so we picked up the pace.

Just as Song Cheon-hye started getting anxious, silently asking with her eyes, "Is this really the right spot?" and "Should we try somewhere else?"…something glittering appeared up ahead.

We approached to check, and sure enough, it was a crystal that was half-buried in the ground.

Lee Seong-hyeon looked at me and said,

"Got it on the first try, huh?"

"Just lucky."

"Luck is part of skill. Saved us a lot of trouble."

Of course, the most tedious part of the [Crystal] rule was the search.

No one liked poking around here and there.

Even more so when you were surrounded by sweltering heat and goblins.

So it was only natural that good words came out once we got through that tedious process quickly.

When we dug up the buried crystal, it turned out to be almost the size of a soccer ball or basketball.

It would be a hassle to carry around, but looking at it another way, it also meant that this one thing was all we needed.

It had been the same in the replay we watched before entering.

Song Cheon-hye said,

"Next, it's time to get it charged."

"Right."

We had already identified the place to charge and defend the crystal.

Given the circumstances, it was obvious, even without watching the replay.

Time to head to the temple.

As one, we sharply turned and started walking toward the Fire Goblin Temple.

How far had we gone?

As the temple loomed larger and larger, a notification message popped up in one corner of my vision.

[Warning!! You are entering a Fixed Zone!!]

A Fixed Zone was a distinctly artificial space.

It imposed rules on everyone within its range, and if used well, it could allow someone to defeat an opponent far stronger than themselves.

There were even cases where an F-rank goblin takes down an A-rank fighter.

Not that it's all-powerful, though.

It takes a huge amount of resources just to deploy, and while there are only a few ways to disable it, they do exist.

Its critical downside was that it couldn't be hidden. Just getting close was enough for the system to issue a warning.

Like it just did for us.

That's to give people a choice. To either prepare and keep going, or turn back.

Of course, we had already steeled ourselves from the moment we entered the dungeon, so without a moment's hesitation, we pressed on.

Then another message appeared.

[Entering Fixed Zone.]

[The rank of certain skills/traits/equipment will be adjusted.]

When we each checked our status windows, sure enough, our ranks were fixed at E.

Lee Seong-hyeon let out a confident laugh.

"Then they'll be coming in soon."

Because the goblins would know this too.

We began preparing for the battle that was soon to come.

In reality, there wasn't much change for me or Song Cheon-hye compared to when we first entered the dungeon.

When it came to main gear, all we had were the sapling and the gloves, really.

On the other hand, Lee Seong-hyeon had only been carrying a longsword until now for ease of movement.

But it seemed he now felt the need to fully gear up and began switching out his equipment one by one.

First, he pulled out a suit of armor from his inventory, gleaming with a dark, smoky sheen.

Black Knight Set.

Each piece was a growth-type item, with components like helmet, armor, gauntlets, and more.

The full set was even more powerful when completed, but collecting all the parts was no easy feat. True to his reputation as a promising student, he'd apparently managed to do it.

Soon, the armor began reacting to Seong-hyeon's mana, fitting itself snugly to his body.

A helmet covered his head, and his torso was encased in armor.

Then, all of a sudden, he seemed to grow taller until he was almost at eye level with me.

Height-boost boots.

Compared to these, high heels wouldn't even make a dent.

It also looked like the gloves had some sort of arm-lengthening effect.

Finally, instead of a longsword, he now held a greatsword as tall as he was (with the height boost applied), and in his other hand was a large tower shield.

Then, suddenly, he turned to me and asked,

"How do I look?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you think I look cool?"

"Yeah, you look cool."

"Don't you think I look manly?"

A fully-armored knight did look cool, sure…but did it really have to be about manliness?

Song Cheon-hye also looked a bit puzzled, clearly unsure what any of that had to do with being manly.

Though, I had a rough idea.

He probably had some kind of complex about it.

Still, I had no intention of just telling him what he wanted to hear. I decided to answer honestly.

Starting with the compliments.

"When it comes to weapons, bigger and thicker is always manlier. And a greatsword is the ultimate man's weapon. Wielding it one-handed? That's extra credit."

"You really get it."

Lee Seong-hyeon grinned with clear satisfaction.

Must've been exactly what he wanted to hear.

But I wasn't finished with my feedback yet.

"If there's one downside, it's the shield. The armor set alone should be plenty for defense. Did you really need to bring a shield too? That's a definite manliness point deduction."

"Well, uh… I can't argue with that."

He fell silent for a moment, staring down at the shield.

Then he said with a grim expression—

"…If it were up to me, I'd toss it away right now. But I can't do that. As a knight, I have a duty to protect my allies."

"I think that part's admirable."

"Good."

Lee Seong-hyeon gave a short chuckle again and took the lead, saying as he walked ahead,

"I'll clear the way. You two just back me up."

This was after we had already finished discussing our strategy before entering the area.

Now that the [Core] had dropped to E-rank, our total mana pool was limited. So for mages like me and Song Cheon-hye, it was important to use our skills as efficiently as possible.

On the other hand, Lee Seong-hyeon was a knight-class.

His reliance on mana was far lower, and E-rank goblins were the kind he could easily mow down without using any mana at all.

So until we reached the temple, he had taken on the role of handling the combat.

Something came to mind, so I asked,

"Come to think of it, weren't you ranked second in the placement exam?"

"I was first, but someone named Go Hyeon-woo pushed me out. I still think it's a shame."

Lee Seong-hyeon wore an expression full of competitive fire, saying he'd get his revenge someday.

Meanwhile, I answered casually.

"Second's not bad. I was in the middle of the pack. Scored something like 600 points."

Though I only used three minutes out of the ten-minute time limit.

Then, as if we had the same thought at the same time, we both turned to look at Song Cheon-hye and said,

"Don't think I saw your name in the rankings back then."

"What was your score?"

Song Cheon-hye's gaze wandered, clearly unsure where to look.

"Um… does that really matter?"

"It's not important. Just curious."

It was a long time ago, so we could talk about it for fun.

I had just shared that I was only in the middle range myself.

Song Cheon-hye seemed to be thinking along the same lines…..until something came to mind, and she started flinching over and over again.

"B-Back then, I was still very inexperienced."

"Weren't we all?"

"……."

"If it's really that hard to say, you don't have to."

"It's not that…"

Seemed like it wasn't the score itself she was embarrassed about. There must've been some other reason.

Song Cheon-hye just kept opening and closing her mouth, stuck in indecision.

What ended up rescuing her from the awkward moment was, unexpectedly—

– Kereuk!

– Krrruk.

A group of fire goblins appeared up ahead.

Among them was one particularly large one. It was a Beheader Goblin, something we hadn't seen in a while.

Lee Seong-hyeon glanced briefly at the creature, then said shortly to us:

"Let's go."

Then he strode forward without hesitation. The moment the enemies came within range, he swung his greatsword in a wide horizontal arc.

Sswaa—shhk—!

More than a dozen fire goblins were instantly split in half, from top to bottom.