Dungeon Predator (WN)

The Saul Graveyard was Kang Oh's most recent soul dungeon.

"I'd love to expand the dungeon, but..."

The dungeon's reward was dragon materials. If he expanded the dungeon, then he'd get so much more of them. And with the extra yield, he'd be able to create more dragon equipment, and turn more of a profit.

However, no one visited the Saul Graveyard. The only players in the Goddess's Land were Kang Oh and Sephiro after all.

It's not like they could bring over players using Eder's transfer magic circle either. There was no reason to share the Goddess's Land with others.

Luring in NPCs would be a stupid idea too. He tried to convince the Church of Death to send their paladins here, but it didn't work!

'Well, I guess it can't be helped.'

Ultimately, Kang Oh decided to ignore the Saul Graveyard for now.

With this, he'd finished managing all of his dungeons, so Kang Oh went back to exploring the Goddess's Land with Eder and Sephiro.

* * *

Whoosh!

A violent blizzard blew in the snowy white fields. A cluster of tents was there, keeping those within safe from the snowstorm.

In order to explore Yuki-Onna's Paradise, the Storm Guild's northern expedition force had created a base camp. The executives were currently gathered in the largest tent here.

"Mr. Galla, please take team 1 and explore the north," Han Seol said. She was both the Storm Guild's vice-captain, and the leader of this expedition.

"Understood," Galla, a man wearing thick fur clothes, immediately said.

Han Seol nodded her head and looked at another man. "Mr. Goraebap, take team 2 and explore the west."

"Yes," the bushy-bearded man said.

"Find whatever you can, whether it be dungeons, non-humans capable of speech and their villages, hunting grounds, secret locations, etc. The best would probably be treasure."

"Understood."

"Hoo, I hope we find something big this time." Han Seol sighed.

Their guildmaster, Hernandez, was the one that'd pushed them to explore the north. And yet, he was missing from the expedition force. Thus, Han Seol, as the guild's vice-captain, was forced to assume responsibility of the expedition force.

'He's always like this.'

Whenever Hernandez stirred up trouble, it was her responsibility to clean up after him.

Anyhow, the guildmaster had pushed for it, so they had significant manpower and resources. However, they didn't find anything here that could justify the amount of resources they'd invested. It was so bad that Han Seol sighed dozens of times a day.

"No pain, no gain. We'll definitely find something big soon." Galla encouraged her, knowing what was on her mind.

"I hope you're right." Han Seol forced herself to smile.

As the old saying goes, out of the frying pan into the fire.

Her and the Storm Guild's future wouldn't be bright. After all, they'd entered the vengeful Krishan's domain!

* * *

[The live code is Marco#9119.]

Jin Cheol sent him a message.

"Oh, that's today?"

So today was the day that Blue Sky's leader, Marco, fought the Spider Queen, Benolov?

Jae Woo tossed his phone away, logged into Arth's official site, and entered the live code. Then, his monitor showed Marco's live stream.

"We're beginning the hunt! Everyone, be careful!" Marco said to his raid team, which included the members of Blue Sky, and players he'd recruited using his connections.

"Yes!"

Marco turned around, showing a view of Benelov's domain. Croc Mountain was beautiful; it was filled with yellow maple leaves. But as they say, every rose has its thorns.

Several players had died here from a single misstep.

"Let's go!" Marco yelled, and the thirty or so members of his team entered Croc Mountain.

"Ah, that's right." Jae Woo went to the kitchen and pulled out a bag of popcorn from the drawer.

'You gotta have popcorn when you're watching a fight!'

He'd bought the popcorn beforehand, so he'd have something to snack on while watching Marco's hunt.

Whir!

Ding!

He pulled out the popcorn, which looked like it'd burst from the seams, and placed it into a bowl.

Hum-hum-hum!

Jae Woo hummed and sat in front of his computer with a bowl of popcorn. He stared at the screen and kept munching on the popcorn.

Whizz, whizz, whizz!

Dozens of arrows, which reminded him of a spider's legs, came flying at Marco's team.

The Spider Queen's nickname was the Grim Reaper's Sniper! As an expert marksman, she was capable of hitting anyone at any range, so long as they were within her domain.

Thus, a raid team needed some way of stopping her long-range attacks.

"Arrows!"

"She's sniping us!"

"Raise your shields!"

The easiest and most effective way was using shields! Marco and his teammates had prepared giant shields to protect themselves.

"Move!" Marco yelled.

The next obstacle they faced was a group of monster spiders, which were about as large as bulls. Not only were they hideous, but they possessed fatal venom, were agile, and their spider webs were incredibly tough! Plus, there were more than 50 of them.

The humans and spiders fought, with Benolov continuously sniping them from afar. The battlefield was pure chaos. But Marco's party was able to overcome the spiders, and make their way to the top of the mountain.

They repeatedly encountered groups of spiders, and were sniped from a distance. However, the Great Adventurer, Marco, wasn't famous for nothing. That held true for Blue Sky too.

They overcame every obstacle and eventually came across Benolov herself. However, she would prove to be an even greater obstacle.

Two figures stood beside the Spider Queen. They were huge men who were just as sculpted as Greek statues. However, their upper bodies were attached to spiders legs, and they had eight eyes as well.

These were the Spider Queen's children, the Spider Brothers. Each was as strong as a boss! They posed the greatest challenge to hunting Benolov.

Benolov herself was powerful enough, but she was protected by two bodyguards who were just as strong. Moreover, the three had a special ability; if one of them was weakened, then the remaining two got a huge power up. Thus, a raid team had to spread the damage equally amongst the three.

"Attack!"

"Uwooh!"

The boss fight had begun.

Munch, munch.

Jae Woo ate some more popcorn and watched the intense battle.

As expected, Benolov and the Spider Brothers' power was the real deal. Occasionally, monster spiders would appear from all sides too.

"Tch, tch." Jae Woo clicked his tongue.

'You brought too many people with you.'

Marco had brought more than 30 people with him. However, that had become a problem. The more people you brought, the more monster spiders spawned.

At some point, they couldn't completely eradicate the swarm of monster spiders. Plus, Benolov and the Spider Brothers went on a rampage.

Marco and his teammates were slowly forced on the defensive, and it seemed like just a single death would have a domino effect.

At that moment...

"We're using that!" Marco yelled, and pulled something out of his inventory.

"Got it!" Lisa, a member of Blue Sky, pulled something out too. It was a magic scroll.

Marco and Lisa immediately ripped the scrolls. The scrolls radiated intense clumps of light, which hit the Spider Brothers.

Then, something fascinating happened. The Spider Brothers were encased in giant crystals.

"Hoh!"

He didn't know exactly what spell they'd used, but a spell powerful enough to freeze the Spider Brothers had to be a top-tier spell.

'Each scroll must've cost several thousand gold.'

A scroll of that power could only be obtained from the Tower. However, the Tower didn't just hand out magic scrolls like that to just anyone. What kind of price did Marco have to pay in order to procure those magic scrolls?

"Focus fire on Benolov!" Marco yelled.

His team focused their attacks on Benolov, who'd lost her bodyguards.

"Mm."

Countless shards of light were exploding out of Benelov's body.

At this rate, the Spider Brothers' strength would be amplified significantly. However, they were currently sealed away. They wouldn't be able to attack, even if they were that much stronger.

Moreover, they used two more scrolls to seal the Spider Brothers once they saw cracks in the seals!

"Jeez, how many of those scrolls do they have?" Jae Woo was truly shocked.

'They might be able to beat her.'

However, something no one could've expected happened.

"There were more than two of them?"

Another monster appeared. It looked just like the Spider Brothers, but it seemed so much stronger than them.

Spider Consort, Adalaxon!

Benelov's husband had appeared.

"Shit, we don't have much time left! Focus fire on Benolov first!" Marco yelled desperately.

However, Adalaxon was crazy powerful.

"Ugh!"

"Gyaahk!"

He killed Marco's team one or two at a time.

'It's way too strong. It seems like the Spider Queen has to be in trouble for it to appear. Does it become stronger the more danger she's in?'

He'd gained some good information. Jae Woo also felt relieved that he hadn't been the first one to fight it.

With no other options, Marco was forced to use another magic scroll on Adalaxon.

"Focus fire on Benolov!"

"Aaahk!"

"Yaahp!"

However, they had a limited number of magic scrolls, and the magic wore off before they could finish off Benolov.

"Aah!" Marco groaned.

Benolov was covered in wounds. If they had attacked her just a little bit more, then they would've been able to finish her off! But now, the Spider Brothers and the Spider Consort stood in front of her protectively.

Marco realized that he'd failed, so he came to a decision. "Everyone, retreat!"

Like an ebbing tide, the surviving members of his team began to run. They needed to get out of the mountain. With this, Marco had failed the hunt.

Jae Woo finished off the rest of his popcorn.

Munch, munch.

Gulp.

He rubbed the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand and smiled.

"One down."

'I hope Strong Punch and Snow Flower both fail!'

* * *

Yuki-Onna's Paradise.

The atmosphere in the Storm Guild's base camp was unusual.

"Annihilated?" The expedition leader, Han Seol, couldn't believe it.

"Yes. We were all killed without putting up much of a fight," a high level player scratched the back of his head and said.

He'd just come back after a game over. Team 2, who'd gone with him, had suffered the same fate.

"What was it?" Han Seol asked.

"A giant plant. It looked like a flower bud with several vines and tentacles attached to it. We've uploaded the footage onto our guild site, so please take a look at it later."

"Is it a raid boss?"

"Probably. But there's something strange about it."

"What is it?"

"Normally, whenever you encounter a boss, you get a system message that tells you what its name is. But we didn't get a system message this time."

"The entire team?"

"Yes. So we're not entirely sure what it is."

"A raid boss, huh... That's better for us. A raid boss that no one has ever found before. The Storm Guild will be the first one that takes it out! This makes our northern expedition worth it."

Defeating a raid boss! That'd be a huge accomplishment.

"Where is it exactly?"

"Go straight west from the base camp. It's inside of the cave there."

Clear and concise. How nice.

"Alright. We'll create a raid team with our most elite members."

Sometime later...

They received word of something unimaginable. The Storm Guild's elites had been completely annihilated.