Job Change Quest (Start)
Jinwoo had it easy as his way into his job change quest was at the base of a mountain, mine however just so happened to be at its peak instead. Hiking up the entire thing, a purple portal opens.
Walking in, the hallway of a cathedral is what welcomes me, and the surrounding windows only looked out into a pitch-black void.
The clanging of armor draws my attention, as well as the… scampering of feet.
Rounding the corner of the hallway, dogs with coats of red and unadorned breastplates gave me a single look before barking and trying to remove themselves from their owner's hand to rip my throat out.
Yet, the owner didn't budge an inch, leaving for a sense of anticipation and dread to fill me as it continued its slow walk. Suddenly, a gauntlet wraps itself on the corner of the wall and the body of the owner is revealed.
Staring at gray armor, that seemed old and worn, it 'looked' at me. The one blaring issue with saying it like that though, is that this knight was missing its head.
Releasing the grip on its dogs, they leapt toward me. Thinking that I could easily cleave through them, my eyes widen in surprise when they turn themselves in the air so that the edge of my now summoned blade hits their breastplate.
I manage to knock them away, but that simply puts us back at square one.
I slightly avert my gaze to look at their owner, but I tilt my head worriedly when I find it no longer there. My body then lurches sideways, avoiding a blade that had come crashing down onto where I'd been standing.
Twisting its torso ever so slightly, the knight glows a faint gold before disappearing. Appearing behind its dogs, it slowly points its finger at me. Following its command, the dogs lurch forward again.
Slicing my blade at them once again, they once again twist themselves in the air, but having fully expected this, their heads enter the trajectory of my blade which I had curved upwards. Being showered with their blood, my vision of their owner is blocked for a split second, and by the time the bodies hit the floor, the knight had once again disappeared.
Looking back and forth across the hallway, I feel the slightest premonition and look up. There, I find the knight jumping from the hallway's chandelier to try and cut through me.
Rolling away, the knight crashes into the ground. Running towards it, I try to pierce through its armor, but my blade doesn't even leave a dent.
Turning its hulking body towards me, I begin to ask myself how to kill something without a head. Even after striking its armor with my sword a few more times, nothing seems to work. Its attacks were slow and easy to read, but it lacked intent and the opponent could glow its golden color and then teleport away.
The battle drew on for another few minutes before I had lost patience, placed myself atop the knight's shoulders, and stabbed into the black abyss where its body should have been.
[You have slain a tamer knight!]
Slapping myself mentally for not having done that before, I say to myself, "Of course their core is in the pitch-black abyss of their bodies. It's a doll-type monster, so I guess I should have expected it, but it'll certainly be annoying to have to position myself above these knights every time I fight one."
One thing I didn't have to worry about while inside this dungeon though was lighting. After all, the chandeliers that hung on the ceiling provided the appropriate lighting. The bad thing about this dungeon though is that, much like an instant dungeon, I can't exit it until I clear it. Plus, there's no way to heal myself or regain mana since it's being restricted by the System. Though to bypass that function of the system, I have chosen to complete my daily quest (leaving myself with 1 pushup to finish it), though that held its own dangers, since I've never been in the punishment zone before. Deciding to just finish this quickly before that ever happened, I turn around and grumble.
Walking towards me, there was a singular knight wielding a flail that dragged along the ground and a great shield on his other arm that even curved so that it covered the opening in its head. Dashing forward, I dodge to the side when it flings its flail forward and then punch its outstretched hand, freeing the handle of the flail from its grasp.
Taking the flail for myself, I try and smash it into the exposed breastplate, but it immediately rebounds off the great shield that the knight had moved. Putting one of its legs back and leaning into its shield, the knight rushed forward, shattering the ground with its shield as it scraped against the ground.
Jumping straight up, I grab onto the chandelier and then fling myself behind the oncoming knight. Twirling myself around, I fling the flail at the knight who was recovering from its shield bash. Denting the armor just enough, the knight fell to the ground.
[You have slain a great knight!]
This knight also just so happened to have given me two items.
---
[Item: Dragon Skin Pouch]
Type: Container
A pouch made to carry money.
---
[Item: Great Knight Bracer]
Item Class: C+
Type: Armor
-15% fatigue growth
---
Equipping the armor, I can't help but say, "It's great that I can hide the design of this item. If someone saw this, they'd definitely think I'm crazy."
Next, I take the Dragon Skin Pouch out, opening it to find that it contained 10,000 gold.
[Total Gold: 793,600G]
Happy to have earned such loot, a sense of unease comes over me, like the feeling of being watched from afar. Turning my head towards the only place where something could be hiding, I don't find anything. Yet, the feeling that I was missing something was growing stronger.
With the single beat of a heart, I drop myself as far down to the floor that I can and see a war scythe fly over me. Swiping my foot around me as I stand up, I stab my katana straight down into the thing that I had knocked down.
[You have defeated a Mini Knight]
Staring at the knight that was barely tall enough to reach my knee, I'm not given time to think about it too much as arrows begin to fly at me. Looking in the direction of the shooters, instead of seeing six bow wielding archers, I find three knights, with four arms, holding two bows, shooting them simultaneously.
As I go to get closer, a wave of drowsiness, alongside the feeling to vomit, hits me.
Getting hit by a couple of arrows in my wave of confusion, I manage to catch a mage hiding behind the three archers, most likely casting multiple status effects on me. Luckily, the system's passive comes in, healing me of my status ailments and letting me cut down the archers and the mage.
Gritting my teeth as I remove the arrows from my arms and legs, what I had experienced thus far seems to have been child's play.
Three great knights with mini knights riding the tops of their shields and four archers behind them with seven mages behind them leaves me to regret ever coming here. Now, each of these enemies have their weaknesses, but their numbers are a problem to deal with.
All my strength goes towards the great knights. My sense goes towards the archer's arrows, my agility goes towards the mini knights, and my vitality goes towards the magicians. By the time I manage to kill them, my fatigue has already risen to an impeccable 69.
Getting a moment to breath after having dealt with that group, I begin to cry inside my mind when two beast tamers start to attack me.
Having to fight through an entire army of all those knights, I manage to get an actual break, just before the boss. Along with that, I had achieved a bit more armor.
Tamer Knight's Chest plate (B+), Debuff Magician's Ritual Glove (B), Four-Armed Archer's Belt (C), and Mini Knight's Boots (B).
"Even with this armor and all the leveling that I've been doing, I still don't think I'll be able to beat whatever's behind this door."
Feeling up the rather simplistic doors that led to the main room of the cathedral, I eventually steel myself and head inside. Even after having felt the killing intent of a man who had killed hundreds to thousands if not more, a chill runs through me, causing even my spirit to shiver.
Standing right next to the podium of the cathedral, there stands a knight. Though, calling it a knight might be wrong as it had wings which grew out from behind it. Its armor was a shining silver, it's eyes a glowing white, and its plume a blood red color. Raising its head so that it could look at me, it gives a slight nod before reaching behind its back and pulling its sword. The hilt, a silver color, but on the back end of the fuller, there was a gem which glowed a bright gold color.
Looking ever so slightly above its head, I read the dark red name.
[Order Commander Asmund]
Stepping down from the raised platform, it takes a singular step before flashing forward, it's wings flapping behind it. The benches that led up to the podium flew upwards as Asmund flew by them. Reaching me within a second, Asmund tries to decapitate me.
Ducking, Asmund's attack flies over, leaving a deep gouge in the solid door which had led me to him. Stabbing at his breastplate with my katana, it reacts like how I thought it would, bouncing right off his armor and leaving me completely defenseless to a downward slash.
Twisting my body to the point where the blade cuts the tiny hairs on my nose, I watch in awe as Asmund halts his full-force downward slash completely before then changing its trajectory to try and cut through me.
Barely being able to bend backwards enough to dodge the strike, I decide to go into a handstand and then bounce myself away from Asmund.
'Everything about this opponent is stronger than me.' I admit to myself, 'But that's only if we decide to play by the rules.'
Looking at its name once again, it makes me think about the Order of Chivalry. And so, if this knight decides to follow such codes, then I could use it to my advantage.
Dematerializing my blade, I put my fists up towards Asmund. Much to my relief, Asmund stabs his blade into the ground and his wings rest dormant behind his back.
Rushing towards one another at the same time, Asmund evades my first punch, grabs me by the collar of my shirt and then throws me into the opposing wall. Snapping my mouth shut as pain floods through my body, I put both of my arms up and defend against Asmund's oncoming punch, which destroys the wall and gives me enough room to slip out.
Holding my hand over the giant bruise that had immediately formed after that punch, I glare at Asmund who was stepping out of the dust. Holding his head high, he seems to laugh at my meager ability.
Once again running at Asmund, we enter a full-throttle brawl which I immediately begin to lose. Kneeing me straight into the stomach, I crash through the wooden podium and lay there on my back, barely holding onto consciousness.
By the time my eyes clear up, Asmund is standing over me, a light shining behind his back, with his sword ready to be brought down upon my head.
Diving towards him, I touch him with my hand which had the Ritual Glove equip.
---
[Item: Debuff Magician's Ritual Glove]
Item Class: B
Type: Armor
Effect: Inflicts 'Drowsy' and 'Nausea' upon any target touched by the wielder. (Your vitality will decrease if your intelligence is below 80)
---
Asmund's sword lost all momentum and hit off to the side of where I lay. Using Asmund's armor to throw myself up, I resummon my katana and stab it into Asmund's right eye.
Throwing Asmund into a wall, I see his hand glow golden, and his sword start to reform, but I rip my katana from his eye and use 'Ice Breathing First Form: Frost Fang', causing his armor to become brittle and easy to break when I slash at his neck again.
Watching as Asmund's head flies from his body, he slumps to the ground, bleeding white instead of red.
⸢You have slain [Order Commander Asmund]
[You leveled up!] x2 ⸥
Nearly collapsing myself, I make my way to one of the benches which hadn't been blasted away by our fight. Holding my head in my hand, I look at the items that I received from this obscenely difficult boss.
⸢ [Knight's Order Helm] [Light's Binding] [Dragon Skin Pouch] [Hearthstone] have been obtained. ⸥
"If these are any good, then it might have been worth the risk. Just maybe though."
⸢ [Item: Dragon Skin Pouch] has been opened. You have received [1,750,000 Gold]. Total Gold: 3,382,926G]. ⸥
"Now the S-Rank Item!"
---
[Item: Knight's Order Helm]
Item Class: S
Type: Armor
+20% physical damage reduction, +10 Sense, +25 Strength
---
Now that I look at my status, my eye can't help but twitch at how close all my stats are close to 100.
Strength: 124
Agility: 99
Sense: 109
Vitality: 90
Intelligence: 87
Physical Damage Reduction: 32%
Next came the rune and the hearthstone.
---
[Rune Stone: Light's Binding]
Type: Rune Stone
A Spell can be obtained by breaking the rune.
---
[Item: Hearthstone]
Type: Consumable
A Quest-exclusive item. If you break the hearthstone, you will instantly leave the dungeon. If the job quest ends, the dungeon is automatically destroyed. Cannot be stored.
---
Though, upon seeing the hearthstone, I finally remembered rather important when it comes to this job quest. …There's more to come.
Robotically turning my head, I find that 5 portals had opened behind me. "Well, f*"