Light of Arad: Forerunner

Chapter 50

Jinseong had a clear reason for urging Shinda to complete the Artie Marpisa armor set.

Normally, if a user progressing through a contaminated quest was identified, it would be necessary to quickly pursue and assess the situation. However, Jinseong realized he didn’t have the luxury of time.

‘Even Michelle was stronger than I expected. I was fortunate that Tacco’s surprise attack helped; otherwise, it would’ve been truly difficult.’

Although Jinseong was confident that Michelle, Deshang, Mia, and the rest of the Cypher trio wouldn’t have subdued him, that wasn’t the whole story.

Even if he had managed to fight them to a draw and retreat, his body would have been in tatters.

‘Michelle’s whip alone looked incredibly painful. And Mia’s tree root attacks… Imagine if the hundreds of wasps Deshang sent all swarmed me. Ugh.’

Jinseong shivered as he quickly patted himself down, feeling the state of his body.

His appearance still resembled the Dark Knight class from the game Dungeon & Fighter.

However, the unfamiliar sensation he felt through his hands—a distinct, rigid touch.

The armor pieces of the Artie Marpisa set, crafted from the carapaces of spider monsters called Marpisa, were unmistakably present.

‘Yeah, this should be… good enough. The Artie Marpisa armor is around level 40, maybe level 45.’

Thanks to the advantage he obtained from Nemer, Jinseong, who was level 35, could equip all five pieces of the Artie Marpisa armor.

The downside was, of course, that his existing armor could not be worn.

‘Switching from the top to the reduced my skill level…’

Still, there were significant compensations that made up for all these downsides.

By equipping all five Artie Marpisa armor pieces, he gained additional set options: attack speed +2%, and a one-level increase each in the Dark Knight skills and .

The individual item options were also significantly better than the previously equipped series, and the boots provided an additional movement speed boost, making Jinseong feel lighter than ever.

And that wasn’t all.

‘A small downside is that I can’t use the skill level boost from the Artie Marpisa Top. Sigh, that skill is learned at level 40… Well, at least I managed to reconfigure my combos with level 35 skills.’

Jinseong had experienced an unexpectedly rapid level-up himself.

There had been occasions when his level increased even without defeating monsters, which he had chalked up to some “unique type of quest” assigned to him.

But this level-up was something different yet again.

‘My level suddenly increased during a fight. Does my way of gaining experience work differently? Hmm, if this is reality… I suppose one could learn from the experience itself.’

The exact reason was unclear, but it hardly mattered.

Since the changes seemed to work in his favor, Jinseong decided not to dwell on it further.

The key was that his level had risen, and he had obtained the complete Artie Marpisa armor set from Shinda.

In other words, he was fully prepared…

“Grumble.”

“Shh.”

Jinseong re-entered the dungeon area: Nosmire, tailing the female Ghost Knight user.

* * *

Having once again dashed through the green city of Grozny, Jinseong let out a sigh of relief.

At the very least, the adventurer—specifically the current user, the female Ghost Knight—had successfully subdued Michelle, and the final persuasion of Michelle was also progressing smoothly.

“You’re wrapping it up nicely with fancy words. Let me say it again: go back. I won’t use my power for the sake of ‘normal people.’”

Even in her subdued state, Michelle didn’t back down.

In this episode, an NPC who accompanied the user, ‘Poison King’ Louise, glared menacingly at Michelle.

‘Ugh, I’m sorry. My actions probably worsened her already severe distrust of humans…’

Even as Jinseong looked at Michelle, he couldn’t help but feel apologetic.

However, it was still a situation where he could afford to breathe a sigh of relief.

“…Then why not use your power for your own people, the Cyphers?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m proposing a deal. You said you’ve always lived on the run, right? That’s why you hid here. Once this situation is resolved, as long as you’re in the backstreets, the Cyphers will be protected under the names of Poison King Louise and Princess of the Slums, Paris.”

If you were to name the famous figures who ruled the backstreets, it would be those two.

The ‘Princess of the Slums,’ Paris, who had once been with the Dark Elves’ nation, Penneth Kingdom.

And currently, standing beside the user, was ‘Poison King’ Louise.

“We may be unrestrained, but we’re not without loyalty. If you significantly contribute to restoring order in the backstreets, no one there would dare to discriminate against you.”

Despite their notorious reputations, their infamy had grown because they protected their own. Thus, the offer of protection from these two to the Cyphers would likely sound appealing to Michelle.

‘Moreover, staying in Grozny itself is bound to make her uneasy. Ugh, it’s all because of me… Oh, Michelle! She was one of the NPCs I liked in the game! I even briefly played Cyphers back in the day, not just Dungeon Fighter!’

Of course, it was a somewhat depressing situation for Jinseong, who had to play the villain to rectify the contaminated quest and make Michelle accept all these proposals.

“…Alright. I’ll trust you. The young Cyphers are still scared of the looks they’ve received. So that they can grow up in a brighter world…”

Thus, with Michelle accepting Louise’s proposal, the user, Louise, and Michelle formed a team to venture through the dungeon area: Nosmire, fighting to find the source of the plague and clues for its cure!

Jinseong carefully followed their footsteps, checking for any signs of quest contamination.

The female Ghost Knight user skillfully wiped out ‘mob’ monsters as she progressed through the dungeon.

‘It must be her secondary character. Judging by the use of a creature and the auto-loot artifact, yeah. Sigh, there’s nothing among the small items this time that would be of use to me…’

Such small bonuses, after all, were nice to have but not essential.

To Jinseong, who could obtain unique items from the monsters’ corpses, gathering materials for crafting items like the Artie Marpisa armor set—currently equipped and once commonly used but now discontinued—was far more advantageous.

Thus, without hesitation, Jinseong continued to trail behind the user, whose pace in clearing the dungeon was faster than ever.

‘She’s already cleared the Gearhan Hakudo and the Dog Handler Myojin in no time, and she’s already at the City of Temptation, Hamelin.’

The dungeon where Peter the Piper, a follower of Diregie, the dark disease, stood as the boss.

A dungeon that no Dungeon & Fighter player like Jinseong, who had played the game extensively, could ever forget.

‘The Nosmire episode always had amazing BGM. Hamelin too, and soon they’ll probably encounter—… Ugh.’

The sound of a flute began to echo in Jinseong’s ears.

At some point, when the repetitive yet rhythmic melody began, Jinseong felt chills.

‘…Isn’t this melody flow the old Hamelin BGM? Damn, but there’s no accompaniment, so it feels—no, the tempo is slightly slower, making it sound oddly ominous.’

The flute’s tune matched the notes Jinseong remembered.

However, it wasn’t exactly the same.

With key changes and tempo adjustments, the BGM, which had sounded somewhat lively in his memory, now felt more unsettling.

“My shield can’t block the sound. Considering the situation, it seems the flute holds some power. Stay sharp. You never know when you might be swayed by its sound.”

Hearing Michelle’s voice from afar, Jinseong gritted his lips and steadied his mind.

Regardless of items, perhaps because it affected his level, how long had he been listening to this irritatingly unsettling music?

When he noticed that the flute’s sound abruptly stopped, Jinseong also realized.

‘He’s dead.’

The flute player, Peter the Piper, had been killed.

In other words, the female Ghost Knight user was clearing at a breakneck pace.

The three were now heading towards another village located in the northern part of the dungeon area: Nosmire.

Or more precisely, they had arrived at what used to be a village.

Where the village once stood, within a short time, it had turned into a barren, sandy area with only remnants of buildings remaining.

And what of the residents who hadn’t evacuated in time and remained there?

Moths and insects burst forth from a large cocoon that throbbed like a heartbeat.

They were slightly larger than an average person.

“Pretty… devastating… isn’t it…”

Louise struggled to voice her observation. A village that once bustled with people had now turned into a wasteland, and its residents had all turned into insects.

Jinseong knew this too.

Back when he used to explore this part of the dungeon in the game, he often felt inexplicably uneasy.

‘It’s a part that shows just how strong Diregie’s influence is. The shocking part is that Diregie hasn’t even actively done anything.’

Apostle Lotus had struggled for survival.

Its efforts affected Behemoth and the GBL Church.

But Diregie

? It hadn’t done a thing.

Stuck in a transposed state, Diregie simply remained enclosed.

And yet, it had enough power to devastate an entire region, making one suspect that it might be the most dangerous of all the Apostles.

The female Ghost Knight user, Louise, and Michelle fought their way through the former humans, now giant moths or insects.

Thus, from entering the dungeon area: Nosmire, clearing individual dungeons like ‘Green City Grozny,’ ‘Corrupt Thief,’ ‘City of Temptation Hamelin,’ and up to finishing the current dungeon ‘Dance of Pina,’ how many encounters had they faced with major NPCs or monsters?

Jinseong surveyed his surroundings with a serious expression.

‘…The main encounter is delayed. The actual contaminated presence and the main card appearance are late.’

He had experienced this in the Penneth Kingdom.

The male Priest user’s quest hadn’t actually been contaminated.

This was precisely why Jinseong had ventured into Nosmire first.

‘I won’t make the same mistake twice. And thanks to those actions, I discovered that Michelle’s dialogue had changed. It’s a definite contamination signal. That female Ghost Knight user’s quest is contaminated.’

His thoughts were already organized.

When Jinseong met Michelle and realized the contamination.

Clearly, there were no users ‘around.’

But if the female Ghost Knight user had been receiving a quest from the Queen of the Duchy of Bell Meyer at the same time?

Since the user was already progressing through the [Nosmire Episode]. While hearing various stories from the Queen of the Duchy of Bell Meyer, the ‘contamination’ would have triggered, and Jinseong, who had ‘moved first,’ would have caught the contamination signals. He had concluded this was likely the case.

‘Yeah, I wasn’t wrong. There’s no other possibility. But if the main still hasn’t appeared yet, it means…’

It implies it will appear later.

It means it will only surface at the final stages of the main scenario quest in the dungeon area: Nosmire.

Trusting his judgment, Jinseong followed them closely.

From the user’s perspective, it was already several rooms into the individual dungeon ‘Dance of Pina.’

After confirming that there were no abnormalities until this dungeon, a voice came from around Jinseong.

“Who… are you?”

Although he hadn’t sensed any presence, there was someone standing near Jinseong.

As he looked at the person who called him, Jinseong was left speechless.

‘Azelia… Azelia Lot!’

The one who had called out to Jinseong was Azelia Lot, the leader of the ‘Grim Seeker.’

She was someone perhaps even more important than the organization known as Grim Seeker itself.