The party continues deeper into the dungeon. Jaehoon at the back is looking at the system
He suddenly thought; "Weird…. I gain exp from the sand drakes even though I killed none…. Is it because I'm in a raid party? That's probably it. Seems like I can even gain exp while I'm in a raid party. Then I'll increase some stats. I leveled up 2 times. I should have 10 stat points to allocate. Alright. Then all in resilience," as he allocates the available stat points
[Resilience: 30 to 40.
[Your resistance to negative effects have been increased from 11% to 17%]
He continues thinking; "That's great. Now I have higher tolerance for negative effects. It's not that high but it's sufficient. I also found out that poison is one of the negative effects. What else could be a negative effect? Paralyze, bleeding, drugged…. That's probably it," Jae-hoon continues to think as he lists all the possible negative effects.
Yoon-jung turns around and looks at Jaehoon just to see him thinking hard about something. She then says; "Are you okay, Lee? You seem full of trouble inside your brain," feeling concerned for Jae-hoon.
"No. Just thinking of some private matters. I'm fine, Yoon-jung-sunbae," he replies with a smile
"That's the first time someone called me 'sunbae'. It kind of makes me feel a little old," she says, feeling old from Jaehoon calling her sunbae.
"It's not to insult you or anything! After all it's a respect towards my seniors. I'm still a college student," he says, reassuring Yoon-jung that it's not an insult but rather respect.
She replied to him with; "No, it's fine. I don't take it as an insult. Rather I expected that answer from you. You're a kind person, Jae-hoon," as she smiles at Jaehoon
Jae-hoon smiles back slightly at Yoon-jung. After that interaction, Jaeh-oon starts to look around and finds several remains of dead sand drakes. He then decides to call Soo-won over to him.
"Captain. Come look at this," he called out.
"What is it, Lee? Did you find some clues?" Soo-won asks him.
Jae-hoon replied; "Not exactly. But these remains are from the sand drakes. Look at this. The skull is cracked," as he examines the remains.
"That's weird. Why do you think that happened, Lee?" Soo-won asks, wondering if Jaehoon knows something about this.
"It couldn't be because they're fighting each other. I don't really know either. These cracks are not caused by a bite. More like a smash using a blunt weapon. There's no monsters that can do this here. Plus, the mummies are mindless. They can't possibly pick up weapons. They can't even walk properly without bumping into stuff," he explains all the details about the current situation but Jae-hoon is still clueless about what's happening.
"This is a field type dungeon. But I'm still confused as to why there's not a single ruin here. You can clearly see the vast desert. But this is a dungeon. There should at least be one structure here. We've been walking for a while but there's no signs of any structure. All we can see is just sand. And monsters remain," he continues.
"That's true…. I wonder why…." Soo-won says as he rubs his chin.
"Let's just continue. We'll see what we will encounter sling the way," he continues.
Jaehoon and the other replies with; "Yes, captain."
They continue on walking. Along the way they encounter mummies and sand drakes. Sometimes juvenile sandworms. But there's still no sign of any structure in sight. They keep on walking and walking in the vast desert but still nothing. After a lot of walking, they decided to stop to get some rest.
Soo-won sits down on the ground as he says with a tired voice; "This is impossible. We can't even find anything here. At this rate, we can't get out if we don't defeat the boss."
"That's true. It's tiring even for us," Yoon-jung says as she wipes some sweat off her face.
Meanwhile, Jae-hoon just casually drops off the stuff he's carrying. This made Soo-Won a little bit suspicious of him.
"Lee. How can you still have energy despite the situation? Are you strong but hiding it?" he asks.
"Um…. I just have a lot of stamina. I used to be an athlete back in highschool…. Hehe…." he replies
In his mind; "That's close! I almost got caught! If I misspeak a word, my secrets will be revealed. I'm glad I'm still able to keep them from everyone."
"Ah. That explains everything," Soo-won says, not knowing the truth.
Jae-hoon lets out a sigh of relief. He then noticed a strange shadow in the middle of nowhere. He decides to look up and see a structure that looks like a castle.
"Um…. Captain…. There's something above us," he says as he calls out to Soo-won
"What are you talking about?" Soo-won asks before looking up.
"What's that?! A floating castle?!" he says in a surprised tone.
"That's what I'm thinking at first but it's weird. How can a floating castle appear? Plus, it shouldn't be possible since this is not the world where it belongs. Look. There's grass and trees growing on it. This dungeon doesn't even have clean water unless it is at least 2 kilometers into the ground," Jae-hoon explains everything that's not adding up to the situation to Soo-won.
"That's true…. We should find out what's up with that castle then. Plus, how are we going to get up there?" Soo-won understood and now he's asking how to get up there.
"Maybe through that light?" Yoon-jung says as she points at a beam of light that shines from under the castle.
Jae-hoon and the other party members look at the direction she's pointing at
"You're a genius, Yoon-jung-sunbae!" Jaehoon appraises her.
"No…. I just noticed the weird beam of light so I pointed it out," she says, explaining the situation.
"Then, let's go, everyone!" Soo-won says as he stands up readying himself.
The others also follow his lead and stand up and ready themselves.
"Let's do this, Captain!" one of the party members.
"He's right. Let's do this!" another one joins in.
"That's the spirit! We can win this!" Soo-won shouts, giving everyone courage.
In Jae-hoon's mind, he's thinking; "Captain really is amazing. He's always supportive. Guess I'll follow his lead for now. Speaking of which, after that walk I haven't allocated my stat points since I leveled up 2 times too. That should be 10 stat points. Where should I allocate them? Last time I allocated them on resilience. I'm currently at level 17. And my stats are rather not that high. Then I have to increase other stats as well. Then, strength. Can I even do it even not talking out loud?"
[Strength:29 to 39]
He thought again; "Oh. It worked. Well, that's convenient. I'm guessing my strength is at least C-rank. I'll test it out later when I get back."
Everyone starts to walk to the beam of light. When they all arrived at the beam of light, they all suddenly got transported straight into the castle hallway. Everyone seems surprised but not Jaehoon.
He thought to himself; "A transportation spell, huh? I guess that's how we can get up here. But this type of mana presence.... Why is it different from monsters. It's not human either.... It feels like it's coming from another race. Not the mummies nor the sand drakes emits this type of mana. Not even humans."
"Captain. We should be careful. I can sense a weird mana presence in here. It doesn't completely feel like any monsters we have encountered. I can't comprehend what it is but I'm sure it's not the sand drakes nor the mummies," Jae-hoon says, telling Soo-won to be careful.
"Everyone heard him. Everyone be on full guard!" Soo-won says, telling everyone to be on full guard. Everyone does just what he told them to do.
"Let's move in. Again, be careful, everyone," he said before slowly walking down the hallway on full guard.