Chapter 3: Blacklung Burial Mine Dungeon Raid [2]

They soon came across a section with multiple metallic doors on each side of the cave walls.

They counted four doors on one side and entered the fifth.

Then, they shut the door behind them.

"If we soak the room with gasoline and trap the boss inside, we can destroy the heart and conquer this dungeon quickly," Levi said, pulling a small transparent gasoline bottle from the utility bag at his waist.

He turned to look at Jonathan and the others.

They also brought out their gasoline-filled bottles.

They extinguished their fire torches except for two before pouring the gasoline around the edges and walls.

Once they were done, they retreated back to the sides of the door. They let the door shut, but didn’t close it fully. While one group hid on one side of the wall, the other group hid on the other side. One person held a fire torch, while the other held onto their weapons.

They used handkerchiefs to cover their noses to avoid being affected by the smell of the gasoline.

BAAMM!!!

The metallic door swung open.

Levi and the others held their breath as the Warden stepped into the room.

"ATTACK!" Levi shouted as he dashed towards the Warden with his sword drawn.

CLINK!!

The Warden spun and blocked Levi’s strike with his axe handle.

At the same time, Victoria charged from the other side with her spear.

Due to the intensity of both attacks, the Warden stepped deeper into the room, distancing himself from the entrance.

Seeing that their plan was a success, Levi ordered, "Do it now!"

Jonathan and Cynthia threw the fire torches in their hands into the room and immediately ran for the door.

The gasoline ignited into a raging inferno that devoured the room.

FWOOSHH!!

Levi and Victoria had also run out of the room ahead of them.

They swiftly exited the room and shut the metallic door behind them. They couldn’t lock the door, but they could seal it shut, making it difficult to open.

Without hesitation, they went to the unlit fire torches hanging from the wall, took them, and lit them on fire.

Levi wiped the beads of sweat on his head with his hand as he placed it over his rapidly beating heart.

The others did the same.

Cynthia could barely support herself as Jonathan helped her stand upright.

Although they were well prepared to carry out the plan against the Warden, experiencing the battle themselves was on a whole other level.

"This should trap him until we find the heart and destroy it," Victoria said, breathing out in relief.

"Let’s go before it recovers and escapes," Levi said.

He knew that the fire wouldn’t hold the final boss forever if they continued stalling here.

The others nodded.

However, just as they were about to race forward, the metallic door swung open with force, slamming against the wall on the other side.

BAMM!!

To their shock and surprise, a humanoid being, whose figure was wrapped in worn bandages, dressed in a worn-out, dirty miner’s uniform with a worker’s hat on his head, walked out of the room, bathed in a raging inferno. His bandages were slightly blackened by flames, but still, the Hunters were sharp enough to recognise who the figure was.

The Warden of the Burial Mine. The Final Boss of Level one Dungeon, the Blacklung Burial Mine, in which they were currently in.

**

As Abel stepped out of the room bathed in a blazing inferno, he looked at his attire. Though the heat had affected him to some extent, it wasn’t to the point of causing him damage.

Because his weakness was the fear of fire, not fire itself.

However, if he had remained in the blazing inferno for several moments longer, then he would’ve surely been harmed. If it had been the former Final Boss, who was afraid of fire, the flames would’ve trapped him in the room far longer until he was able to break out.

This also meant the Final Boss entering a rage state after his emergence.

Unfortunately for the Hunters, he was the one who had taken control of the Final Boss.

Amidst the raging flames from the room behind him, Abel turned his head to the side and stared at the Hunters menacingly.

[+100EP] 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

[+100EP]

[+100EP]

—

[400EP]

[Congratulations, you can now use [Emotion Points] to increase the proficiency of your status. Please note that the more significant the improvement, the higher the cost of the Emotion Points. The amount of Emotion Points will affect your reward.]

He racked up four hundred Emotion Points in an instant.

Abel instinctively knew that all of them were afraid.

Meanwhile, the group finally reacted to his arrival.

"This isn’t possible? Isn’t fire his weakness? How can he walk out of the fire unharmed?" Victoria said, her voice shaking, her expression trembling in a mixture of shock and surprise before settling on fear.

"I read and watched the completed dungeon run over and over until I memorised every single detail to complete the dungeon. The Warden is a Level One Final Boss with a huge weakness of being afraid of fire. He would do anything to avoid it. The last thing he would do is walk through the fire or escape the trap so quickly!.. This is impossible!" Jonathan spat, his eyes widening in terror.

"This.." Cynthia’s expression paled in fright.

"...Let’s get out of here quickly!" Levi shouted, breaking out of the frozen terror that had temporarily paralysed his body. He turned around and immediately raced down toward the exit of the tunnel.

At the same time, his mind continued spinning in the process about what had gone wrong with the plan.

"We can still do this..." Levi said, gritting his teeth in desperation.

If they couldn’t trap the Final Boss, then they would head over to the Boss room and destroy the heart before the Warden could catch up to them.

Victoria ran behind him.

"Hey, wait for us!" Jonathan and Cynthia followed behind them.

Abel watched them run away. In truth, he was hesitant to attack the group because he didn’t want to kill his fellow humans. So he decided to try out the limit of how many Emotion Points he could garner until the dungeon run was over.

Nonetheless, Abel knew that currently they saw him as a monster and would do anything to harm him.

Abel didn’t want to die. He wanted to see what else this other world had to offer from the eyes of those standing above it. And they were all Hunters, his aspiration and the inspiration he woke up to every day.

Abel swung his pickaxe in their direction.

SWIISSHHH!!

Sensing the sound of the chains nearing them from behind, Jonathan and Cynthia quickly moved to the side of the wall. Their sleeves provided protection for their bodies as they grazed the jagged stones on the sides of the walls.

SHRRKK!!

It happened too quickly for anyone to notice.

The pickaxe penetrated deep into Victoria’s chest.

"Wha..?" Victoria froze, her mouth hanging open as she stared down at her upper chest, pierced with a familiar pointed metal now drenched in fresh blood. She had been momentarily stunned earlier, creating a brief lapse in her judgment that caused her to fail to protect herself.

PTUII!!

SWISSHH!!

Abel pulled back the pickaxe, dragging Victoria along and causing blood to gush out from her open wound.

Victoria’s lips were stained with blood as she looked upward at the dark cave ceiling, until she was met with the chilling visage of her attacker. She sensed its chilling gaze on her body through the bandages wrapped around its skin.

Sensing her life steadily draining, as her flesh was being eroded by the Final Boss’s ability, Victoria smiled wryly. "You’re a terrible Final Boss... If only I had raided another dungeon, I wouldn’t have encountered you. I’m so unlucky," she muttered with a soft sigh, before her gaze went devoid of life and her head fell limply.

THUD!!

[+150EP]

[+120EP]

[+120EP]

—-

[790EP]

"AAHHH!!"

"AAHHH!!"

"AAHHH!!"

The entire group screamed in terror, but they did not slow down their steps. Because they knew that they were next.

’The fear of death is greater than that of terror,’ Abel thought to himself as he looked at the lifeless huntress on the ground.

He was frozen in his step after realising that he had killed a human being, so he didn’t pursue the others as they fled away in terror.

At best, he had only intended to seriously injure her and hoped she would perish from blood loss, because he didn’t have the courage to kill a fellow human being. At most, she would’ve deflected and taken cover, enabling him to obtain more Emotion Points.

Unlike what he had heard from others, who said that it was merely a phase, Abel didn’t enjoy the feeling. It felt as though something within him had changed.

Abel was certain that he would feel different if he were killing monsters, as they weren’t humans.

Unfortunately, Abel couldn’t feel his heartbeat rise. He only felt a rush of excitement. This wasn’t his body. Even if he had full control over it, it still belonged to a Final Boss.

He had just discovered that he gained a certain amount of Emotion Points every minute before they refreshed the next minute, depending on the emotion they felt. For now, Abel was only able to deduce fear. But that was understandable because he was, after all, the Final Boss. And considering his hideous appearance, it would be unreasonable for someone to see him and be happy.

So he decided to accumulate as many Emotion Points as he could. However, he had underestimated the power of the weapon in his hand and his strength against ordinary Hunters. If they kept running, they might enter one of the other rooms, and what awaited them was much worse than death.

Abel realised that he needed to end this quickly. He held his chained pickaxe in his hand and quickly chased after them.

Meanwhile,

"This is impossible! This is impossible!!" Levi muttered in an incomprehensible tone like a madman as he ran down the passageway with Cynthia and Jonathan.

Soon, they arrived at the door of one of the rooms. They hesitated to enter.

Apart from the empty room that was currently engulfed in a blazing inferno, the rest of the rooms were filled with other denizens of the dungeon. Due to numerous dungeon runs stating how to avoid the other rooms in order to completely conquer the Blacklung Burial Mine, and avoiding them altogether, no one knew what they would face within the rooms, except that they were mummified workers tortured by the Warden within them, and it was in their best interest not to disturb them.

If they had known that they would end up in this situation, they would’ve spent more time studying the entire dungeon. Unfortunately, there was no use crying over spilt milk.

"We’re going in," Levi said, recovering his composure and hiding his fear. He turned to Jonathan and Cynthia.

They both nodded in agreement. At this moment, it was best for them to stick together rather than part ways and give the Warden an easier time hunting them down.

Then, they opened the metallic door and slammed it shut behind them.

Within a few moments, Abel arrived and saw them entering the room. He realised that he was too late.

They had already entered the workers’ room.

He arrived at the door and pulled it open.

As he walked into the room, he was immediately met with the sight of dissected mummified corpses on the floor, with several others still alive, slowly marching in one direction in the room.

Abel quickly spotted Levi, Jonathan, and Cynthia in that direction with their backs against the corner of the wall.

They fought against the mummies.

There was a flickering bulb hanging from the corner of the room, casting a dim light on the entire atmosphere so he could easily spot their figures.

Upon noticing his arrival, the Hunters pushed their backs further against the wall and trembled.