MDPS 19

Chapter 19 

 50th Floor (2)

《You have purchased Legendary Archmage’s March Helm (Accuracy).》
《You have purchased Legendary Archmage’s March Boots (Accuracy).》

“Whew… finally. All set.”

After buying the last set of equipment for Caligo, I flopped down onto the bed.
Naturally, my gaze drifted to my bank account balance.

All the money I had saved up until now had gone into buying items, leaving me with just 20 million won.
I couldn’t even remember how many hundreds of millions I had poured into this.

Well… honestly, I didn’t want to remember.
Thinking about how much I’d spent would probably make me physically ill.

Even low-level gear is this expensive… later on… ugh, I don’t even want to imagine.

I’d sold off every summoning scroll I had just to scrape together the funds for this gear.
And the thought of having to shell out this kind of money again every time I get a new summon… it was enough to make my head spin.

Still, I had no regrets about spending it.
It was necessary—and worth buying.
In fact, I was relieved that I still had 20 million left over after all that.

That much would be enough to live off for a few months without a problem.

Anyway… is the 50th floor still as infamous these days?

Maybe it was because I was going to tackle the 50th floor tomorrow, but sleep wouldn’t come.

For an adventurer, clearing the 50th floor meant being recognized as a competent, independent player.
Internationally, it meant veteran status. Domestically, it meant breaking into the top 100 rankings—basically, a spot where you could show off with pride.

Naturally, just typing “50th floor” in the community forums would bring up an avalanche of heated discussions.

• The 50th floor is literal hell. I couldn’t do a thing and just used a return scroll to bail.

• Is clearing that bastard Vargh even possible?

• Man, if I could just clear 50, I could cruise straight to floor 90.
  └ Haha, 90 is pushing it, but yeah… the 50th floor’s level design is absolute garbage. Feels like the difficulty spikes out of nowhere.

Apparently, the 50th floor was where an adventurer’s true talent was tested.
The way people spoke about it made it sound like a nightmare.

The floor boss was a spider-type monster called Vargh.

The upper body was human, but the lower body was that of a spider.
On its head, which was adorned with giant spider eyes like decorations, was the face of a human—crying tears of blood.

It was… the ultimate embodiment of a vampire’s twisted tastes.
In regions ruled by vampires, grotesque monsters like Vargh often appeared.

But the strategy guide the government distributed… wasn’t very appealing.

Party play?

The government had been recommending party play from floor 46 onward, citing the bizarre enemy patterns and the stability of having more allies.

I could understand the logic—it was a feature added to help newcomers ease into the game.

But there was a catch: the boss’s stats scaled according to party size.

If I were only aiming to kill the “main boss” of the 50th floor, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea…

“You’re still thinking like a newbie. I have no reason to follow that strategy.”

The 50th floor’s hidden boss—Vargh, the Blood Fanatic.

Tomorrow, I would crush him without fail.

《You have cleared Concluding Night Desert Tomb – Floor 49 of the Tower of Trials.》
《Unbelievable record!》
《Clear time: 12 minutes 11 seconds》
《You have set a new record for fastest clear!》
《Clear rank: “SSS”》
《You have set a new record for highest clear rank!》
《Level up! Your adventurer level is now 46.》

Oh yeah.

That money was worth it.

I’d cleared floor 45 in 22 minutes, but floor 49 had gone down in just 12.

My summons seemed to feel the growth too.

“As they say—clothes make the man. You’re rolling pretty fast for a sluggish bug, Caligo.”
“Haha! Now I can pull my weight without relying entirely on your dirty tricks, Hertia!”

Honestly, I was excited myself.

How fast could I clear it?
Where exactly was my limit?
Who knew the Legendary Seven better—Lucifer back then, or Oh Hyun-woo now?

My heart pounded endlessly.

Yeah… back then, this was the fun part.

The thrill of strategizing.
The catharsis of success.
The anticipation of growth.

I’d forgotten too many feelings over the years.
I’d been so focused on just scraping by day-to-day… I’d forgotten who I was, what I liked.

But now I remembered—what I loved most was tackling challenges head-on.

Alright. Gear checked. Artifacts equipped. Emergency escape scroll ready.

Even with a solid strategy, there’s no guarantee things won’t go wrong.
I just hoped I wouldn’t have to use that escape scroll.

《You have entered Blood Palace, Floor 50 of the Tower of Trials.》

What greeted us on the 50th floor was a massive fortress.

Beyond its black, blood-stained walls—painted as if a giant bucket of gore had been poured over them—came the screams of the dying.

“Aaaargh!”
“Help!!”

It was nothing like the previous floors.
There were no minor mobs; the entire floor was just one colossal palace.

“The stench of rotting blood… how vile.”
“This will be the perfect place to put my new medicine to the test, Master.”

Caligo seemed to tremble with excitement just from sensing the presence of vampires and their thralls.

“Don’t get carried away, Caligo. One mistake born from recklessness could ruin the entire plan.”
“…It seems I let my reason slip for a moment. Forgive me, Master.”

Caligo was a key figure in this raid—there was no room for him to mess it up.

“Then let’s begin.”
“Yes!”

《Entering Blood Palace.》

The moment Oh Hyun-woo stepped inside, he took a deep breath.

The air, heavy with the reek of blood, filled his lungs.

A smile slowly formed on his lips.

It was a rush completely different from the in-game version of this dungeon—alive, tangible sensations that attacked every nerve.

The stench of rotting blood in his nose, the icy air against his skin, the faint sound of soldiers’ footsteps…

It was a realism a monitor could never capture, and his heart thundered wildly.

The excitement he’d felt during the tutorial surged back.

Bigger than I thought. There are troops stationed outside Hertia’s reach.

The range of Hertia’s Principle wasn’t limitless.
As vast as her power was, she couldn’t cover the entire Blood Palace at once—she had to move herself to break through.

“Herr.”
“You called, Master?”
“Take Iron with you, scale the upper-right wall, and kill the one in black armor with a red sword and helmet.”
“As you command.”

The moment she received the order, Hertia soared upward.

Tap.

With graceful, light steps, she landed on the wall.

The defending soldiers tensed instantly, drawing swords and nocking arrows.

The air grew heavy, their breathing uneven, but Hertia only smiled leisurely.

“Heh… you needn’t strain yourselves. No matter how much you try, you won’t so much as touch a strand of my hair.”

Tap.

With her step, a black veil spread quickly, threads of death seeping into the gaps of their armor.

The aura was suffocating—breathing itself felt like a crime.

Snap!

She flicked her fingers.

A vortex of death bloomed atop the wall, a deafening roar swallowing the soldiers whole.

“Uwaaaah!!”

Even seeing it approach, they couldn’t move—despair freezing them in place.

But the black-armored commander was different.

He rammed his sword into the ground, stubbornly holding his ground against the deadly wind.

When the roaring vortex died down, he lifted his head, locking eyes with Hertia.

He’d survived—now all he had to do was swing his sword.

…But something was wrong.

When he tried to pull his blade free and advance, his body refused to move.

“Oh… so you do have some worth.”

Hertia’s lips curled into a haughty smile.

“But insolence must be punished. In His presence, you kneel.”

She stretched one hand above her head.

From below, Iron was pulled upward by artifact power.

Whooosh!

A massive chunk of rock shot up toward the wall.

“Iron—bring it down!”

The moment she slammed her hand down, Iron’s massive fist crashed onto the commander’s head.

“Ghhhk!!”

BOOOOM!

The wall crumbled entirely.

Screams and blood mixed, staining the ground red.

The soldiers crushed under the debris didn’t even have time to scream before they were unrecognizable pulp.

“Haaah!”

Iron rose slowly from the rubble, brushing dust off himself before glancing up at Hertia in disbelief—only to quickly lower his head at her sharp gaze.

“Master!”

At Hertia’s call, Oh Hyun-woo smiled calmly and gave the order.

“Well done, Hertia. Now, Iron—show them your new ability.”
“M-my… new ability?!”

Leaving the terrified Iron behind, Hertia stepped lightly toward the opposite wall.

“Iron—charge into the wall!”
“Whaaat?!”
“Stop making that stupid face and punch a hole bigger than your body through it!”

Using her artifact, Hertia hurled Iron forward.

《Effect of A Knight Will Do It! (Forward Deployment) activated.》
《Iron covers his eyes and charges in a straight line!》

His massive body shot forward from the base of the wall like a boulder.

The soldiers paled as they saw the incoming mass of stone and steel.

“Fire arrows and magic! Stop that charge—stop him!!”

But their shouts soon turned to screams.

The wall was reduced to rubble in seconds.

And with that, Oh Hyun-woo gave his next command.

“Caligo. Temina.”

His voice was low, cold.

“Leave no survivors.”
“I’ve been waiting for this!”
“My flames will burn them all!”

In the Blood Palace, now nothing but despair and slaughter…

Oh Hyun-woo’s demons announced the return of their master,
and the festival of blood began.