I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents

What appeared next to the corpses of the two players was a rectangular object.
An object that looked like a cube.

I knew the identity of this cube from what I had heard from the Transcendent Gallery seniors.
An object that materialized the inventory of deceased players.

I had heard that this cube-shaped object couldn’t simply be put into an inventory.

Clank-

When I grabbed the cube and pressed the button in the center, the cube expanded like a supply box in an FPS game and spread out.

But even so, these were items possessed by players below the 10th floor.
No items of great use caught my eye.

Of course, I gathered all the recovery potions and moved them to my inventory.

Sun Haoran’s cube had almost nothing useful, and from Baek Jin-young’s cube, I picked up the item that seemed most useful.

I organized all the items.

Now, it was time to enter the hidden boss room.
The difficulty of the hidden boss room marked on the map was five stars.

According to Laura, a Hard difficulty player, five stars meant the maximum difficulty for hidden boss rooms.

It’s clearly a dangerous situation to enter alone, but I had no intention of changing my decision.

A strong desire came over me.
A desire for leveling up.

The level increase from killing the boss monster, Kobold Champion, was 1.
And the guaranteed level increase from killing Sun Haoran was 2.

If I increase 5 more levels from my current level of 15, it becomes 20.
I’ll reach the stage where I can use sword energy.
I was very curious about that point.

Swish-

I took out my terminal and opened the Transcendent Gallery.
And I wrote a post.

Title: Wonder what kind of monster will appear in the exchange meeting’s hidden boss room.
Author: ㅇㅇ*

-It’s a dungeon called “Kobold’s Cradle”. Only Kobolds have appeared so far. A Kobold Champion appeared in the boss room.
The hidden boss room difficulty is five stars.
Oh, I just finished the boss room and killed two guys from the exchange meeting who suddenly tried to kill me.

The reason I casually added the last line about killing the two was that I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.

Of course, the comments in the Transcendent Gallery didn’t flow as I thought.

ㄴ DragonKing) Ooh, Beltui- The climber has been tainted by darkness a bit.
ㄴ What darkness are you talking about, you seem like the one who would kill most casually without a second thought.
ㄴ DragonKing) Beltui- I’ve been found out.

ㄴ ArchMage) Hmm, did you confirm the kill?
ㄴ IceQueen) Freeze! Confirming the kill is important!
ㄴ HeavenlyDemon) Unnecessary compassion only invites trouble.

ㄴ These Hard bastards, if this was his first time killing someone, they should comfort him or something, but they’re just asking if he confirmed the kill or not.
ㄴ GalleryMaster) They’re all just comforting him in a roundabout way.
ㄴ Lololol What kind of 360-degree turn is this?

There were also a few comments on the topic I had written about earlier.

ㄴ This crazy bastard should think about not entering when it says five stars.
ㄴ But even if it’s five stars, it’s hard to stop him since the Pandemonium difficulty seems even tougher.
ㄴ For real lolol I’m not sure if this will be harder than the 2nd floor stage he cleared lol

ㄴ AbsoluteMonarch) Hmm, if a Kobold Champion appeared in the boss room, then a Kobold Great Warrior might appear in the hidden boss room… or, there’s a small chance the Kobold King might appear.

ㄴ Um… it might be better to stop saying “small chance” now. He’s been hit with all those small chances.
ㄴ For real lololol Which bastard set this to Pandemonium. Did he sell a holy sword to the demon realm in his past life or something?

ㄴ ㅇㅇ*) Is the Kobold King strong? Kobolds themselves seemed quite weak.

ㄴ Priestess) Kings should not be underestimated. The Kobold King, King Kobold, is a true king unlike those who are kings just because of the characteristics of their group, like the Queen Anstrotrope that Climber Gong killed.

ㄴ SpearKing) The Kobold King can even overwhelm an Orc Great Warrior alone. That’s what it means to be the king of a species.
ㄴ You’re not saying weird things, did you drink?
ㄴ SpearKing) No….

ㄴ LightSword) The kings of all races have something extraordinary compared to their regular species. Those recognized as kings by the Tower system are like that too. If it’s the Kobold King, there’s a chance he can use sword energy (劍氣). You should be careful of that.

Be careful of sword energy.
In the end, I’ll only know once I enter the hidden boss room.

As I stood in front of the black door, text appeared before my eyes.

Ding!

[Do you want to enter the hidden boss room of the dungeon ‘Kobold’s Cradle’?]
[Dungeon Difficulty – ★★★★★]

Suddenly, a point of light flickered in the air, and a piece of paper fell.

[Exchange Meeting Return Scroll]
Description: A return scroll for the brave souls challenging the hidden boss room alone in the exchange meeting dungeon below the 10th floor!
Effect: If you tear the return scroll, you can return after 10 seconds! + But if you die within those 10 seconds, you die for real!

This is the first time I’ve seen an item with such high tension.
I put the return scroll in my inventory.

I probably won’t need to use it.

The next notification that appeared in front of me was asking whether to enter the dungeon or not.

[Yes / No]

Of course, I pressed ‘Yes’.

Boom boom boom!

The door opened.
The scenery of a vast room came into view.

In the center of the hidden boss room was a gold-plated chair.
Sitting there was a monster that didn’t quite fit.

[King Kobold]

King Kobold.
Black fur covered its entire body like a lion.
Its golden eyes were closer to those of a beast of prey.

In the giant Kobold’s right hand was a sword even larger than its body.

Grrrr-

A growl unlike a Kobold’s echoed through the space.

Kwaaaaaaah!!

The roar shook my eardrums.
It was a proper sense of pressure that I hadn’t felt in a while.

For a moment, my body stiffened, crushed by the killing intent.

[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.4 – Activating skill.]

Endure it.

[Concentration Enhancement Lv.4 – Activating skill.]

The King Kobold charged with a fierce glint in its eyes.
Just before the collision.
I completely broke free from the killing intent that had bound me.

[Mental Barrier Lv.1 – Skill acquired.]

I barely deflected the horizontal sword strike by leaning on the blade surface.

Clang!

The recoil from deflecting the great sword sent my body lurching backward.

I carefully observed the King Kobold’s movements.
Its knees bent forward. I could see its thighs swelling greatly.

Boing!

The large body sprang up like a spring.
It raised both arms high. A blue aura flashed on the great sword.

Blue sword energy.
After hearing LightSword’s words, I had vaguely expected it. If the opponent was the Kobold King, it would surely use sword energy.

If I had known this, instead of overwhelmingly neutralizing that 3rd-tier knight I faced on the 2nd floor stage, I should have gotten a taste of sword energy.

The King Kobold’s body fell like lightning.
Dust spread thickly from the ground.

Dragon Slaying Sword Defense Technique 1st Form Libra.
The blade of the great sword Karnavalt that blocked the vertically swung great sword shook violently.

King Kobold.
The king of a species.
Its raw strength wasn’t much different from an Orc Army Commander. But its combat sense felt overwhelmingly superior to the King Kobold.

Vertical, horizontal.

Half of the sword strikes were swung according to the Dragon Slaying Sword’s forms. Half were swung subconsciously.

Clang clang clang clang clang!

The King Kobold’s sword path and my sword path intertwined.

Sword strikes extending in all directions were all blocked.

[The level of skill ‘Fighter’s Movement’ increases. Lv.4]

Countless frictions of blades.
The King Kobold’s instinctive swordsmanship gave me deep insights.

Along with intense pain.

Rip!

The armor was pierced. From the left shoulder to the right waist, a diagonal blade cut through.

After swinging the sword strongly once, I distanced myself from the King Kobold.
From the pouch tightly tied to my waist, I took out a small syringe-shaped object.

It was the [Pain Suppression Doping Agent] I bought in the 3rd floor waiting room.
Without hesitation, I injected the doping agent into my right waist.

I also roughly poured a low-grade health recovery potion on the wound.
The pain that had been torturing my brain gradually began to disappear.

Kwaaaaaaah!!

The Kobold closed the distance again like a short-distance marathon runner.
I drew another sword that I had kept at my waist.

Tss tss tss tss tss!

Blue sword energy burning fiercely on both sword blades.
The trajectory containing that sword energy approached like a wave.

Evasion isn’t always the best option.
I chose to face the wave.

I lowered my body and concentrated the mana in my body to both feet.
The muscles in my thighs swelled greatly.

Like the King Kobold did, I bent my knees and then exploded forward.

The best charge.

In a split second difference, I twisted my body to the right to evade the blue trajectory approaching first.

Clang!

I deflected one with a horizontal strike, Þursahǫgg.

Lightning struck in my vision.
I had allowed another diagonal cut.

Red blood dripped down.

[Due to the abnormal state – Bleeding ‘Critical’, Doombringer is activated.]

[The level of skill ‘Doombringer’ increases. Lv.2]

[Your body temporarily surpasses its limits.]

The world looked clearer in proportion to the blood I shed.

The opportunity is fleeting.

Slash!

I cut the King Kobold’s shoulder with the great sword Karnavalt in my right hand.

Kaaaak─!!

I swung the Dagger of Blood in my left hand towards its neck.

Crunch!

The King Kobold, opening its lizard-like mouth wide, bit the blade of the dagger with its teeth.
I could feel its will to kill me in its golden eyes.

My body moved by instinct.
I threw the great sword Karnavalt to the ground and grabbed the Black Javelin.

Stab!

Once in the King Kobold’s heart.
And immediately retrieved it and stabbed its neck once.

Clank-

Its mouth opened wide, and the Dagger of Blood it had been desperately biting fell to the floor.
Soon after, the King Kobold’s body went limp.

[You have defeated the hidden boss monster!]
[Level has increased!]

[Lv.15 → Lv.17]

[‘Strength’ increases by 12.]
[‘Agility’ increases by 10.]
[‘Vitality’ increases by 10.]
[‘Mana’ increases by 9.]

[You have achieved an achievement!]

[Achievement – Fall of a Species]
: Achieved when eliminating the pinnacle of a species

[You have eliminated the king of the Kobold species!]

[Achievement experience is granted!]

[Lv.17 → Lv.19]

Just one step away from level 20.