Dungeon Predator

The Tomb of Beskamen II went up, whereas the Tomb of Beskamen I went underground.

'So there's a mummy at the end of this tomb, huh...'

A pyramid and a mummy. He felt like it was missing something.

"Are there any sphinxes here?"

When referring to Egypt, there were three things that often came to mind.

Pyramids, sphinxes, and mummies!

He'd seen pyramids and Grano had mentioned a mummy, so all that was left was a sphinx.

"What is a sphinx?"

Grano tilted his head.

"It has a human's face, a lion's body, and... Well, that kind of thing..."

Kang Oh attempted to explain what a sphinx was, but Grano looked like he had no idea what he was talking about.

"Is it a monster?"

"It is indeed a 'monster', but..."

"To my knowledge, there are no sphinxes in the Bariton Desert," Grano said.

'Well, I guess it's possible that there isn't one.'

There was no outright rule that stated that if there were pyramids and mummies, there had to be sphinxes as well.

"Anyway, what kind of monsters appear in this dungeon?" Kang Oh asked.

"Only one kind of monster appears down here," Grano said.

"What is it?"

"That."

Grano pointed forward.

Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle.

He heard something's feet quickly coming towards them, as well as several presences.

The light that reflected off the bronze mirrors illuminated them.

"Celtus!" Kang Oh yelled.

His eyes gleamed.

Beetles that were about as large as a human face, the Celtus!

They were rare monsters that could occasionally be found within deserts or forests.

Kang Oh had always wanted to encounter them.

"Heh."

Kang Oh smiled.

Their nickname was Gold Bug!

They were beetles with a golden shell and if defeated, they would drop gold.

A large group of Celtuses appeared. From a single glance there looked to be more than thirty of them.

"Come here, you lumps of money!"

Kang Oh couldn't control his excitement and dashed over.

"Man, I knew he'd be like that."

Eder's expression seemed to say, 'Of course that's what he'd do.'.

"If you're obsessed with money when you're young, they say you go bald when you're old..." Grano stared at Kang Oh with a concerned expression.

"He's so obsessed with money that I wouldn't be surprised if he turned bald tomorrow," Eder whispered as if this were his only chance to insult Kang Oh.

"I see. It would be kind of funny to see a bald-headed Mr. Kang Oh," Grano chimed in.

Either way, Kang Oh pushed into the center of the Celtus and swung his demon sword.

"Hahahaha!" he laughed like a madman.

"Tch, tch."

"Tch, tch."

Seeing that, Grano and Eder simultaneously clicked their tongues.

* * *

Kang Oh swung downwards, bashing on the Celtus' shell.

Thump!

Whenever a Celtus took damage, they would release golden powder rather than shards of light.

Thus, Kang Oh tingled whenever he attacked them.

Is this what it felt like to be swimming in a pool of gold?

"Man, look at the gold powder fly."

Kang Oh grinned.

Flutter, flutter.

The Celtus possessed transparent wings beneath their golden shells. They flapped their wings and flew towards Kang Oh.

They were aiming for his head, chest, and stomach!

Kang Oh tilted his head to the side, which allowed him to avoid a Celtus' tackle, and deflected the Celtus aiming for his chest with his demon sword.

Finally, he dodged the Celtus aiming for his stomach by turning his body to the side.

Kang Oh performed all of these maneuvers smoothly.

In the midst of that, Eder and Grano joined the fray.

Once he began fighting, Eder cast his Cursed Ground's Domain. 

Thud!

Thud!

He activated the Ruined Ramparts and Rusty Sword curses in succession.

"Uoh!"

Eder bashed an incoming Celtus with his shield.

His shield was shining radiantly.

Shield Bash!

Shield Bash increased damage done by a shield and had a fixed chance to stun.

Thump.

The Celtus began to fall to the ground.

Eder advanced forward, chasing after the Celtus he'd sent flying.

Heavy Blow!

He bashed on the Celtus' shell with his mace.

Boom.

Due to its explosive effect, the Celtus went flying even further.

The other Celtuses flew over to him.

Eder sent them flying with his shield, mace, and feet.

He too, began to get excited as he saw the gold powder.

"Hahaha!" he burst out in animated laughter.

Indeed, there was something about the gold powder that would bewitch a man.

Flutter!

Four of the Celtuses charged at Grano. The sound of their fluttering wings was quite boisterous.

Grano cast a spell and raised his free hand.

Water Wall!

Water rose from the ground, forming a wall of water in front of him.

Bam!

The Celtuses slammed their heads into the wall, but they didn't have enough strength to get through it.

On the contrary, they pitifully floundered around as their wings were wet.

Grano stretched out his hand.

The water wall turned into a wave and scattered everywhere.

Woosh!

The wave completely swept the Celtuses away.

There was no cleaning without water!

There was only one problem: the water swept away the airborne gold powder as well.

The more time passed, the more the Celtuses' numbers dwindled. Ultimately, Kang Oh's attack felled the last remaining Celtus.

"Heh."

Kang Oh grinned.

He saw more than 30 Celtus bodies strewn around him, as well as gold coins.

Kang Oh would normally have asked Eder to pick up all the loot, but this time was different.

He bent his back and began picking up the gold himself.

"One, two, three..."

"They dropped 10 gold."

Kang Oh smiled. It was the feeling of walking across the street and finding some money laying on the ground.

Then, Grano came over and took three coins from his hand.

"Huh?"

"I get 30%."

Grano smiled impishly.

"Ahem. Of course."

Kang Oh decided to stash the rest of the gold in his breast.

However, Eder decided to come over now with three gold in hand.

"I'll take today's payment in advance."

Eder too smiled impishly.

"Ahem."

He'd need to give him that money anyway, but it felt like Eder had stolen it, rather than him freely giving it to him.

"Now then, let's continue hunting. Time is money!"

The only thing that could fill this empty feeling was gold!

"Time isn't money, bugs are," Eder said.

"Yeah, kill everything that'll make money."

Kang Oh advanced with his eyes wide open.

A while later.

Crack!

Kang Oh's demon sword had crushed another Celtus' shell.

Bang!

While Eder bashed on a Celtus' shell with his mace.

Woosh.

Grano finished them off with water.

Kang Oh's party was unwilling to lose even a single Celtus and thus, killed every single Celtus in sight.

* * *

The Tomb of Beskamen I was quite complex. 

There were crossroads and even three forked roads as well. There were even forked roads that went down and ones that went up.

Grano knew where the boss was, so they didn't have any trouble finding the right path.

They shouldn't have at least...

"It's this road."

Of the two paths (one going up and one going down), Grano picked the one going down.

"Then let's go this way."

Kang Oh pointed towards the opposite path.

"Mr. Kang Oh. I know how much you love Celtuses, but... If we keep going the wrong way, then even I will have trouble finding the right way," Grano sighed and said.

"Just one more time!"

Kang Oh clasped his hands.

That's right.

He wanted to take as many detours as possible to kill more Celtuses.

Therefore, he purposefully refused Grano's instructions and walked along a different path.

"Haa, fine. This will be the last time... This really will be the last time."

A deep sigh came out of Grano's dignified face.

"Ok."

Kang Oh grinned and continued along the path he'd chosen.

* * *

Rumble.

A boulder the size of the passageway rolled behind them.

"Run!"

Kang Oh, Eder, and Grano avoided the boulder and ran through the passageway they'd just passed.

"Heok, heok. I told you that this wasn't the right way!" Grano yelled as he ran.

"Haa, ha. It's... already too late. Hoo, hoo! Do you... have any way of getting us out of this mess?"

Kang Oh ran diligently.

The boulder began from a slope, so it only got faster and faster.

Which meant that it was closing the distance between itself and Kang Oh's party.

"Uahk, I swear I have the worst luck!"

Eder, who had manned the front, had swapped places and was running behind the two of them.

In other words, he would be the first to be crushed by the boulder.

Of course, Eder wouldn't be the only one. At this rate, Kang Oh and Eder would be flattened too.

'Should I use Devil Trigger?'

If he used Devil Trigger, then he'd gain access to all sorts of darkness-related abilities. If he used Abyss Transfer, then he'd be able to avoid that boulder!

Plus, if he timed it right, he could summon Eder to safety as well.

The problem was Grano. He couldn't think of a way to save him too.

At that moment, Grano stopped.

"Please hold tightly onto my robe."

"Do you have a way out of this?"

"Hurry!"

Kang Oh and Eder grabbed onto Grano's robes.

Grano retrieved a magical device from his subspace. It was a mirror with a magic circle engraved onto it.

He raised the mirror high and yelled, "Teleport!"

Once he spoke the key word, the mirror began to radiate light.

Slurp.

Kang Oh's party was sucked into the mirror.

They disappeared and the mirror rolled onto the floor.

At the same time!

Rat-a-tat-tat!

The boulder passed through where Kang Oh's party had once been.

It proceeded all the way to the end of the passageway and slammed into the wall with a 'thud', only then stopping.

The passageway was filled with silence and dust.

The mirror was still on the ground.

Although it was broken, the magic circle and the broken shape fused together into what looked like a smile.

It was as if it were smiling because it had finished its job!

* * *

Normally, spatial magic was incredibly complex and difficult to even attempt.

Therefore, it required a lot of time and preparation.

If not, then it required massive magic circles like with the intercity gates, as well as people to maintain them.

However, teleportation was a type of spatial magic, yet it didn't have any of the aforementioned limitations described above.

In other words, it didn't require much, if any, preparation, and it didn't take much time to cast.

One could even activate it instantaneously like Grano with a magical device.

However!

It had a huge problem; one couldn't choose where they would end up.

Plus, it had a very short range.

Thus!

Kang Oh, Grano, and Eder fell onto the ground, still within the Tomb of Beskamen I, in some unknown passageway.

Thump!

"Ugh!"

Eder, who was at the bottom, squirmed. He had essentially become a human hamburger and tried to wriggle out of it.

"Mr. Grano, please move!" Kang Oh, who was in the middle, yelled.

"Ah, I'm sorry."

Grano finally got a grip, grasped the situation, and stood up.

Next, Kang Oh and Eder stood up, and dusted themselves off.

Kang Oh looked around. Fortunately, there weren't any boulders rolling their way.

"Phew, we came back to the beginning."

Grano sighed.

Teleportation was great for avoiding danger, but the random location it transferred them to just had to be the beginning of the dungeon.

Kang Oh just grinned.

"Heh, I guess it can't be helped. We'll just proceed while killing Celtuses on the way."

It looked like he had another chance to kill more gold beetles, or Celtuses.

"In exchange, you're going to follow my lead. I don't have any more magical devices that can get us out of danger," Grano stared at Kang Oh and said.

"If we had just been a bit more careful..." Kang Oh disagreed, asserting the opposite.

"Do as you wish. If that's how you want it, then I'll leave," Grano said firmly.

"I'll leave with you, Mr. Grano."

Eder stuck right next to Grano.

"Ahem. Fine, I understand."

Kang Oh had no choice but to follow Grano.

After that, Kang Oh's party proceeded through the Tomb of Beskamen I with astonishing speed.

Grano not once chose the wrong path. Plus, there were no more rolling boulders either.

"We're here."

Grano stopped.

There was a stone gate that was tightly shut on both sides in front of them.

"We really got here quick."

Eder stared at Kang Oh with a look that said ‘If not for you!’.

Kang Oh felt as though he'd been pricked. He avoided Eder's gaze and asked, "Is the mummy inside?"

"Yes."

"Let's take a look at this mummy, shall we?"

Kang Oh strode forward and pushed open the stone gate.

Creak.

The stone gate began to open on both sides.