Dungeon Predator

They didn't find anything noteworthy in the mansion.

"This is strange..."

Kang Oh furrowed his brow.

"Your Hyper Intuition still hasn't found anything yet?" Eder asked.

"Yeah."

"Then why don't we take another look around. You never know."

"Sure."

Kang Oh and Eder searched the mansion once more, but the result remained the same.

"Tch. Was I wrong?"

Kang Oh clicked his tongue.

Was there no hidden dungeon related to Kudal in the first place?

"Well, it's not the first time that you didn't find a hidden dungeon," Eder consoled him.

"Hmm."

Kang Oh took out the Renji Flower from his inventory.

He immediately felt something off about it, which meant that there was nothing off with his Hyper Intuition.

"Where exactly do you use this?"

The Renji Flower definitely held some sort of secret.

"I'm not sure."

Eder shrugged his shoulders.

Kang Oh stared at the Renji Flower. His Hyper Intuition had never been wrong before, so it was probably right this time too. 

'I can't give up here.'

Kang Oh decided to look around some more, but where exactly would he go from here?

"Eder, do mansions normally only have one building?" Kang Oh asked.

Eder lived in a mansion himself, so he knew more about mansions than Kang Oh.

"It depends. At times, they have accommodations for butlers and maids. There can also be more than one building as well."

"Then let's look around the mansion one more time. There may be another building nearby."

"Alright."

Kang Oh and Eder left the Ishmael mansion, and began to walk around the forest-surrounded mansion.

* * *

If you knock, then the door will open!

"This is it!" Kang Oh cried.

Finally!

He’d finally found the place that his Hyper Intuition had been leading him towards. 

"Is this really it?"

Eder pointed at the statue.

He was pointing at a statue of Renji, the woman they'd seen in one of the portraits.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

While searching the mansion's premises, Kang Oh and Eder had discovered a small road that led to the back of the mansion.

They followed the road and found this place where several statues lay.

Kang Oh’s Hyper Intuition flared when he saw the centermost statue of Renji. 

"Hmm."

Eder observed Renji's statue.

Renji's statue lay atop a marble slab, which had an inscription written on it.

‘My eternal love.’

"My eternal love... This must have been written by Kudal, right?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Mm. He really was a romantic."

"Now then..."

A flower which held a secret, and the statue that stored the secret. 

A nod is as good as a wink.

Kang Oh retrieved the Renji Flower from his inventory and placed it atop the marble slab.

"Ooh."

Once he placed it atop the marble slab, the flower melted into a red liquid.

The red liquid filled the grooves of the inscription, and caused 'My Eternal Love' to radiate in a red light.

At the same time...!

A portal was created.

It was an oval-shaped portal, plenty large enough for Kang Oh and Eder to go through.

---

[You have discovered the hidden dungeon, Kudal's Secret Laboratory.]

[You are the first to discover it,.]

[Fame has increased.]

[Hunting within Kudal's Secret Laboratory yields two times the experience. Item drop rate is also doubled.]

---

Upon reading the system message, Kang Oh felt a chill on his spine and his entire body shivered. 

What was the best way to put it? As a dungeon hunter, there was nothing more exhilarating than finding a dungeon that no one else had found before.

He'd obtain a huge payout by going into a place that no one else has gone before!

Naturally, Kang Oh's lips curled upwards into a smile.

"Let's go!"

"Ok."

Kang Oh and Eder entered the portal.

Once they did, the portal spun and became smaller. Soon, it completely disappeared.

* * *

---

[Entering the hidden dungeon, Kudal's Secret Laboratory.]

---

The portal had seemingly led Kang Oh and Eder into some kind of building.

Kang Oh stroked the walls.

The corridor's walls were painted white, and they saw several rooms without any doors or windows.

Something came out from one of the rooms. 

Gyaruru!

It was a monster with the heads of a fox and a wolf. The wolf head possessed steel teeth, while the fox head's emitted flames whenever it breathed.

"It's a combination of a Nuram and a York. This is bizarre."

Kudal's artificial wolf and fox: the Nuram and York. Those two artificial animals had been fused together, creating the monster that lay before them.

"Its body looks different though," Eder said.

As he said, the monster's body had a tiger's stripes on it.

"The body's from a Muho."

The monster's body came from Kudal's artificial tiger, the Muho.

"It looks like... a chimera," Eder said.

A chimera was a mixture of several different entities to create one monster.

It was a monster that frequently made an appearance in games, though in those, it would often possess the head of a goat, the body of a lion, and the tail of a snake. 

However, this particular chimera possessed the body of a tiger and the heads of a wolf and fox.

Kuah!

Once the chimera took notice of Kang Oh, it charged.

Eder opened his mouth wide, and out came a chain.

Slowing Curse!

The chain wrapped around the chimera and then disappeared. As a result, the speed of its charge had dropped.

Kang Oh drew his demon sword and charged at the chimera. Eder charged right beside him.

He cleaved diagonally, but the chimera blocked his blade with its wolf head's steel teeth.

Whereas the fox head spewed flames at Kang Oh.

"I'll take care of it."

Eder approached Kang Oh from the side and raised his shield. The flames crashed against the surface of his shield.

Kang Oh seized that opportunity and thrust his sword at the chimera's heart.

He'd aimed there because his Hyper Intuition had informed him that that was the chimera's weakness.

The chimera swiped with its front paw, deflecting his blade with its tiger claws.

Clang!

He could feel its strength transmitted through his sword.

'It's pretty strong. I think it's about level 150.'

Kang Oh quickly assumed his position and unleashed a Slash.

Swish.

His sword had cut through its side.

Kya!

The wolf head came for Kang Oh's neck, but he turned his sword horizontally.

Kyaahk!

Its steel teeth bit his sword.

Kang Oh gripped his sword with both hands more forcefully than before. 

Screech.

The friction between the chimera's steel teeth and his blade emitted a sharp, grating noise.

The wolf head couldn't keep Kang Oh's sword in place; Kang Oh was much too strong for it.

Splurt.

Ultimately, Kang Oh's sword cut through the inside of the wolf head's mouth once it let go.

Red shards of light exploded from its mouth and the wolf head shrieked in pain.

"Nice!" Eder yelled.

Eder was diligently fighting against the fox head.

Whack!

Eder had struck the top of the fox's head.

The chimera aimed for Eder's flank, swiping with its front leg.

Eder swung his shield.

Shield Bash!

The edge of his four-colored skull shield deflected the chimera's paw. 

At that moment...

Kang Oh thrust his sword into the chimera's heart.

Splat!

Red shards of light spilled out like a fountain of blood.

---

[Chimera #27's HP has dropped below 10%.]

[It has gone berserk.]

---

Chimera #27 possessed the ability to go berserk. The eyes of the fox and wolf heads now glowed with a red hue.

The chimera swiped its front paw at Eder, while the wolf head attacked Kang Oh.

Berserk had caused the chimera's attacks to become quicker and more powerful than before. 

Kang Oh retreated. 

Once he did, the chimera focused all of its attacks on Eder.

Eder halted his attacks and quickly raised his shield to defend himself against the incoming onslaught.

Bam, bam, bam.

It attacked him with everything it had: the wolf head's steel teeth, the tiger's front legs, and the fox head's flames! All of its attacks scorched the surface of Eder's four-colored skull shield.

The force behind its attacks rocked Eder's body.

"Mr. Kang Oh!" he called resentfully, clinging to his shield for dear life.

"Hold out for a little bit. I'll take care of it quickly."

Kang Oh kicked off the floor and dashed towards it. As he approached, the chimera ferociously swiped with its front paw.

He slid under the chimera's paw and cleaved through the beast from beneath.

"Huahp!"

As he slid, he continued feverishly swinging his sword. His sword cut through the chimera's heart three times.

Red shards of light rained down like a waterfall.

By the time he'd slid to the chimera's tail, the chimera fell to the floor with a thud.

---

[You have defeated Chimera #27.]

[You have leveled up.]

---

Kang Oh and Eder, having defeated the chimera, went further into the dungeon.

* * *

Kudal's Secret Laboratory was filled with chimeras.

There was Chimera #27, which was a combination of the Nuram, the York, and the Muho. 

Then there was the chimera with a human-shaped body with an orc head and four arms. It seemed like a chimera composed of the artificial orc, Rorc, as well as the four-armed Kong.

The Chimera #33 was a Parle with a Horned Ant's horns attached to its stem. 

There were several chimeras like these that were a fusion of different types of monsters.

Of these, the most powerful chimera was Chimera #44, which was a combination of all the plant-type monsters: the Cocurion, the Gallud, and the Parle.

Its torso and its legs belonged to the Gallud, while its arms were attached to the Parle's venus fly trap leaves and snake-like stem.

There was a flower bud, or a Cocurion, on its back, much like a tortoise shell. Thorn vines crazily popped out of the Cocurion's 'mouth'.

Fighting against Chimera #44 was tough for Kang and Eder. However, they weren't weak enough to falter against an enemy that wasn't even a boss.

"That was quite tough," Eder said after they'd defeated Chimera #44.

The remains of the chimera were sprawled beneath his feet.

"Well, it's the guardian that protects the door to the boss room, so it's the 2nd strongest thing in here," Kang Oh said.

"The boss room?"

"Look over there. That door over there leads to the boss room. It was protecting that room."

Kang Oh pointed to the door that Chimera #44 had been protecting with the tip of his sword.

There was an ornate pattern drawn on the door. In general, a door with such a flashy pattern would lead to the boss room.

"Ah, you're right. But do you think Kudal is the final boss?"

"He could be, but there's also a chance he's not."

Since the dungeon was called Kudal's Secret Laboratory, there was a chance that Kudal was the final boss. Of course, there was a chance that he wasn't as well.

"If Kudal is the final boss, then... wouldn't he be too strong for us? He was a Master Alchemist."

Eder looked concerned.

"It depends. Your original body was higher than level 400, but once you became a monster, you became a lot weaker. And there's also a chance that Kudal isn't the final boss."

"In the end, we have no other choice but to go inside and look."

"That's how it goes for whoever goes first."

"I hope it's a weak boss, whatever it is."

"It's better to fight a harder boss than a weak one, since it'll give you that much more once you beat it."

Eder was a worker who received 3 gold per day. He obviously preferred easy jobs to hard ones.

Whereas Kang Oh was his employer. He wanted more profit, even if he had to incur more risk.

"Then shall we open the door?"

Eder politely pointed towards the door.

"Let's go!"

Kang Oh forcefully opened the boss room door. 

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