The Support Ate it All

Rumble.

The sound of thunder echoed as soon as we entered the dungeon.

When I looked up, the sky was covered in dark clouds; it was pitch black.

Between the clouds, electrical currents surged, with a frequency so high it seemed excessive.

It felt like lightning could strike at any moment.

Looking down to survey the area, we stood in the middle of a canyon.

The width wasn’t very broad, and steep cliffs rose on both sides.

A lone statue of a goddess stood nearby.

I pointed at it and spoke to Seo Ye-in.

“Okay.”

If this had been an above-ground dungeon, it would have kindly waited until we were ready before starting with a countdown.

But underground dungeons don’t do that.

The attack had effectively started the moment we entered the dungeon.

The enemies would soon rush in, so there was no time to hesitate.

First, the replay.

To earn points in the underground dungeon raid, saving the replay was essential.

So I took out the replay crystal orb and infused it with mana.

As the orb activated, fragmented information appeared.

[Kim Ho_Seo Ye-in_979_Lightning Canyon.replay]

[Goddess Statue: 100%]

[Kim Ho: 100%]

[Seo Ye-in: 100%]

Next, I called up the week’s side quest and checked it again.

[Sub Quest: 11th Week Strategy Battle]

▷Objective: Protect the Goddess Statue.

▷Deadline: ~ midnight on Sunday.

▷Reward: Varies based on performance.

The “performance” in this raid wasn’t just based on the remaining health of the Goddess Statue, but also on the average health of Seo Ye-in and myself.

How well we endured the hostile environment would also be a part of the evaluation.

And the maximum achievement for the side quest?

Everything at 100%.

We needed to finish with a perfect game to get the best rewards.

However, this dungeon, as its name implied, was a hostile environment with a lightning attribute.

Even a slight graze could shave off 1%.

Lightning was harder to avoid than fire, and the chances of getting hit were much higher.

So why had I chosen this place over the other dungeons?

Because I won’t lose any points, even if I get grazed.

I cast the enchantment on Seo Ye-in.

[Used “Enchantment”.]

[You have granted the skill “Elemental Resistance (S)” to the target.]

[The rank of the granted “Elemental Resistance”: B.]

[Duration: 00:09:58.]

[Cooldown: 00:39:58.]

With an F-rank enchantment, the rank usually dropped by three levels when transferred, but with D-rank, the decrease was reduced to two levels.

Even so, two ranks down was still quite a significant drop.

But if it starts at S-rank, it doesn’t matter.

Even after the two-rank decrease, it was still a solid B-rank.

Plus, the duration was a full ten minutes.

More than enough time to clear the dungeon.

“…….?”

Seo Ye-in stared at the empty space in front of her.

She was probably seeing notification messages about acquiring a new trait and the remaining duration.

Soon, her gaze shifted to me, and I spoke in an impossibly arrogant tone.

“Do you feel the power?”

“Strong.”

I raised my hand and pointed across the canyon.

“Go, show them your strength.”

“I’ll finish them off.”

Seo Ye-in confidently moved forward with her magic gun.

Since it was an F-rank dungeon, there wasn’t a complex storyline.

All we had to do was protect the goddess statue from the enemies swarming in from both ends of the canyon.

Just as I thought that, the enemies appeared.

Large floating orbs of electricity started drifting toward us.

Lightning Spirits.

They were literally spirits made of lightning.

The attack pattern of the Lightning Spirits was simple.

If the enemy got within a certain range, they would shoot electrical currents.

If they got any closer, they would self-destruct and cause a burst of electrical explosions.

As expected of spirits, their magic resistance was quite high, making it difficult to inflict significant damage with magic.

The best method was to apply a certain amount of shock or physical force.

And this was one of the reasons I had chosen this dungeon.

“Physical force means Wind Force.”

Whoooosh

Wind gathered and formed a massive whirlwind.

The spirits that were approaching were pulled into the center, tangled and crackled, and soon a chain explosion occurred.

Boom boom boom!

The fate of the spirits following close behind was no different.

They were sucked into the whirlwind and burst apart one after another.

An easy win, successful.

As long as I kept linking Wind Force with Twister, this side of the defense was practically secured.

Now, the only question was how smoothly Seo Ye-in could hold off the other side.

Ratatatatatatata!

An assault rifle unleashed rapid blue bursts of energy.

It looked like she was firing haphazardly, but every magic bullet hit the Lightning Spirits with precision.

As the magic bullets struck, the spirits trembled violently before exploding on the spot.

Boom boom boom!

Seo Ye-in shot and hit every Lightning Spirit as soon as they appeared.

I watched her for a moment, then raised my gaze.

They’ll start dropping soon.

The reason this dungeon was named “Lightning Canyon” was due to one decisive factor.

It was the final trait of the Lightning Spirits.

When they exploded, they scattered faint static electricity in all directions. As this accumulated, it eventually acted like a lightning rod.

It summoned lightning.

And, as luck would have it, the sky was filled with dark clouds.

Crackle, crackle!

Soon, sparks began to fly wildly in midair.

Boom!

The next moment, a lightning bolt struck down, hitting the ground.

It hit an empty spot, so the displaced current spread widely across the ground.

“……!”

Seo Ye-in immediately stepped back, but the current spread faster.

It crawled up her legs and delivered an electric shock.

Fizzzzzzzz!

[Seo Ye-in: 100%]

[Seo Ye-in: 100%]

“……..?”

However, something like that couldn’t break through her B-rank elemental resistance.

Even a direct lightning strike to the head wouldn’t be enough to pierce through it.

Seo Ye-in tilted her head in confusion, then turned to look in my direction.

I gave a small nod of my chin.

“Strong.”

“Strong.”

Crackle!

Once again, sparks crackled in the air.

Having already experienced firsthand that lightning would soon strike, Seo Ye-in quickly distanced herself.

Lightning struck, and when sparks appeared in two more places, Seo Ye-in backed away even farther.

She relentlessly fired her assault rifle while constantly moving her feet and took down the lightning spirits.

Ratatatata!

The debris scattered by the spirits began to pile up and spread out, and as it did, the frequency of lightning strikes increased.

What started as one or two bolts now fell in groups of three or four.

Boom!

Although Seo Ye-in responded swiftly and kept moving, there were simply too many lightning strikes. The electric currents spread widely across the ground when they hit, moving with incredible speed.

Therefore, getting shocked every now and then was inevitable.

[Seo Ye-in: 100%]

Despite that, her health remained solidly at 100%, thanks to her elemental resistance doing its job effectively.

Still, getting shocked wasn’t exactly pleasant, so Seo Ye-in did her best to avoid getting hit by the lightning as much as possible.

“!”

At that moment, an exclamation mark seemed to pop up above Seo Ye-in’s head as if she realized something.

She quickly manipulated her bracelet, and a cloud the size of a fist popped into the air.

Crackle!

The cloud swiftly flew toward the spot where the sparks were crackling and swallowed it whole.

As a result, the lightning that should have struck didn’t fall.

That’s it.

The cloud from the Cloud Bracelet had the effect of nullifying magic.

While it was difficult to block the lightning itself, it could easily swallow up a lightning rod.

From my perspective, I had hoped she would remember that on her own, so I watched in silence. Thankfully, she quickly realized and put it to use.

The cloud busily moved around, swallowing the lightning rods one by one.

Thanks to that, Seo Ye-in had a moment to catch her breath.

I continued maintaining Twister while offering encouragement.

“Let’s keep it up like this. We’re almost done.”

“Okay.”

Seo Ye-in aimed her gun forward.

Ratatatata!

***

The swarming lightning spirits vanished without a trace.

The sky which was once black with storm clouds began to clear, and sunlight started to break through.

Bright rays of sunshine shone down like a spotlight on the goddess statue.

And naturally, both the statue’s health and our health remained intact.

[Statue of the Goddess: 100%]

[Seo Ye-in: 100%]

A perfect game.

Seo Ye-in trudged toward me.

“We finished them off.”

“Good job again. High five.”

We raised our hands for a light high five,

Crackle!

But static electricity shocked us, so we quickly pulled our hands away.

Seo Ye-in had been struck by lightning so many times that she’d practically become a static-charged sloth.

I stayed silent for a few seconds.

“Hmm.”

Then I lifted Root and held it over Seo Ye-in’s head.

Her gray hair slowly lifted from the static and clung to my Root weapon.

“……”

Seo Ye-in slowly raised her head to look up.

She reached out and tried to push Root away, but I dodged her hand.

After a while, I had a feeling she might throw a pot shot at me, so I decided to stop.

When I turned my gaze back toward the goddess statue, I noticed a small box lying there.

[Lightning Canyon Random Box (F)]

Just a single F-rank box.

The dungeon level was low, so it couldn’t be helped.

I asked Seo Ye-in.

“Want to open it?”

“Mhmm.”

I still have the side quest rewards left anyway.

Moreover, I still had to rely on her good luck for random boxes dropping in other underground dungeons, so I could generously let an F-rank box slide.

“……”

Seo Ye-in picked up the random box and stared at it silently for a moment, then casually opened the lid.

Flash!

In the next instant, instead of the box, Seo Ye-in was holding a piece of parchment with a question mark on it.

[Random Rank Up]

“Not bad.”

Even just one of these was a pretty decent item for something that dropped from an F-rank box.

“……”

Seo Ye-in glanced at the Random Rank Up for a moment, then gave me a questioning look.

It seemed like she was asking if she could use it now, so I nodded easily.

“Yeah, go ahead and use it.”

Random Rank Up.

An item that allows the user to randomly select one skill or trait they possess and, with a certain probability, upgrade its rank.

You had to beat the odds twice, and it wasn’t influenced by any luck-related bonuses.

Even when I had gotten Random Rank Ups from the arcade in the city, only one out of three managed to rank up my Inferno Fist skill, which in hindsight was a miracle.

In other words,

No matter how lucky she is, this one’s bound to fail.

I secretly hoped that Seo Ye-in would fail this time.

For the sake of her mental growth, shouldn’t even someone blessed with luck taste the bitterness of failure once in a while?

Like Shin Byeong-cheol, the woodcup collector.

Whether she sensed my thoughts or not, Seo Ye-in used the Random Rank Up with a blank expression on her face.

Flash!

The parchment slowly began to glow brightly,

Fwoosh—!

A wave of light seeped into Seo Ye-in’s body.

She actually succeeded.

She raised her rank with just one scroll.

It seems that the bitterness of failure and mental growth would have to wait for another time.

Still, it was something to be happy about that Seo Ye-in’s stats had improved.

“What did you level up?”

“Bullet Time.”

“From D to C?”

“Mhmm.”

I blinked in surprise.

“What the hell, why do you keep pulling off impossible things?”