Second day of dungeon entry.
Having had a simple breakfast of hunter-style combat rations, the Genesis Guild and Seong-jun’s party headed into battle with the same formation as yesterday.
Unlike the early stages where they had worried about aerial monsters, perhaps thanks to Seong-jun’s even stronger buffs, the hunting was proceeding smoothly without any significant injuries.
And despite being a team of just four, Seong-jun’s group was achieving far superior results compared to the other teams.
“There, five of them.”
In the direction Yuseon pointed, five harpies were loitering around.
As for drakes, they are restricted in flight, so they usually move on the ground and only take to the air when they spot an enemy or are spotted themselves.
“Just like yesterday, I’ll draw aggro first, hyung Gwang-taek, you take three.”
“Okay.”
Gwang-taek agreed, and Seong-jun immediately cast his basic attack skill, Surge of Holy Arrows.
‘Surge of Holy Arrows!’
Whoosh!
Whooosh!
Whoosh!
With the skill level increased, Surge of Holy Arrows could now summon up to ten arrows.
Seong-jun split the light arrows into five each and fired them at two drakes.
Swish!
Swish!
Swiish!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
KABOOM!
Not only the two drakes hit directly by the holy arrows, but also the three drakes nearby all charged at Seong-jun at once.
“Kieeee!”
“Kuaaaaa!”
As the drakes rushed toward Seong-jun.
‘Form Transformation! Shield!’
Seong-jun immediately transformed his mace-shaped weapon into a shield.
Whoooosh!
At the same time.
“Chain of Light!”
Chwarurururu!
Gwang-taek cast Chain of Light and pulled away the three drakes that hadn’t been hit by Surge of Holy Arrows.
Then began the close-quarters battle between Seong-jun and the two drakes.
“Kuaaaaa!”
Boom!
Boooom!
Boom!
Crash!
Thud!
Fwoosh!
The drakes’ powerful attacks rained down on Seong-jun, but he dodged most of them.
As a result, most of the drakes’ strikes either cut through empty air or only hit the ground.
‘I felt it yesterday too, but two is definitely manageable. At this rate, three shouldn’t be a problem.’
Having no particular reason to engage in close combat, he had only been providing support or occasionally attacking from a distance.
But now, using Divine Combat Technique for close quarters after a long time, Seong-jun found it surprisingly doable.
“Kyaaaa!”
“Kwaaaaaang!”
Boom! Boooooom!
Though he was busy dodging their fast and powerful attacks one after another, he kept dealing damage by casting Surge of Holy Arrows in between.
Swish!
Swish!
Thud!
Crash!
Boom!
Bam!
Weaving between the two drakes, Seong-jun evaded leisurely, occasionally exploiting gaps to land shield attacks.
‘Shield Attack!’
Thump!
‘Shield Charge!’
Thwack!
Shield Attack and Shield Charge were tanking skills he had gained after absorbing Pellis Truian’s Essence.
There were more tanking skills, but they required a blunt weapon or a sword, so he couldn’t use them at the moment.
‘Anyway, I need to get myself a decent mace.’
Since he had transformed his weapon into a shield, he couldn’t use the mace anymore.
That meant all his close-combat mace skills were effectively sealed.
So Seong-jun planned to acquire a good mace later, use it as a secondary weapon normally, and switch to it as a main weapon when he transformed his weapon into a shield.
Bang!
Crash!
Boom!
Thud!
While Seong-jun was buying time by dodging or deflecting the drakes’ attacks with ease, the three drakes that Gwang-taek had pulled away were falling one by one under the relentless assault of Yuseon and Chang-su.
“Just wait a little! We’ll finish up here and come right away!”
At Yuseon’s shout to wait a moment, Seong-jun replied confidently.
“I’m fine here! Take your time and subdue them properly!”
It wasn’t just empty talk; judging by his tanking, he genuinely looked relaxed.
And a moment later.
“Kuuuuaaaa……”
Thud!
Yuseon and Chang-su, who had taken down all three drakes Gwang-taek was tanking, immediately moved to Seong-jun’s side.
At the same time, Gwang-taek quickly relocated and used an aggro skill on another drake.
“I’ll take one! Yuseon and Chang-su, deal with the ones on Seong-jun first!”
“Got it!”
Although Seong-jun had gained aggro skills along with his new tanking abilities, he didn’t use them.
As a sub-tanker, he wanted to leave the main tanker free to use aggro skills to pull the monsters away at any time.
Crash!
Bang!
Thud!
Thus, the two drakes Seong-jun had been tanking were split equally with Gwang-taek, one each, and Yuseon and Chang-su dealt with them in turn.
“Kuuuuaaaa……”
Thud!
As the last drake collapsed to the floor.
“Hoo, it seems the hunting speed is a bit faster than yesterday.”
The time to kill five drakes, A-rank monsters, was around six to seven minutes.
Compared to yesterday, when it had taken nearly ten minutes under the same conditions, the hunting time had definitely decreased.
“It’s proof that we’re adapting to the drake strategy. By the way, Seong-jun oppa, your tanking was much smoother than yesterday. Yesterday you blocked or deflected more than you dodged, but today it seemed like you dodged most of them.”
“Well, there hasn’t been much opportunity to use Divine Combat Technique until now. But here, taking on the sub-tanker role, it feels like my proficiency in Divine Combat Technique is rising quickly.”
As he said, up until now, there had been no need for Seong-jun to step forward and engage in close combat.
There were plenty of tanks and melee dealers to fight on the front lines, so just buffs, healing, and Divine Magic were enough to handle the situation.
But here, fighting in close quarters as a sub-tanker, the Divine Combat Technique he had neglected was quickly becoming second nature.
“I always say this, but oppa is really broken. At this rate, you’ll be able to play both tank and melee dealer soon. Maybe you should switch your armor to heavy tank gear or light dealer gear?”
“I do feel the need to train Divine Combat Technique a bit more, but I don’t plan to switch to a melee class. Supporting and attacking from the back is more efficient than tanking on the front lines.”
Although he never knew what situation might arise, and he needed to increase his proficiency in Divine Combat Technique, shifting the focus completely to that side was inefficient.
From an efficiency standpoint, supporting allies with buffs and healing, and attacking enemies with Divine Magic, was far more efficient in many ways.
“True, there’s definitely a difference between oppa participating in attacks and not. By the way, seeing you today, don’t you think we can challenge an A-rank dungeon now? Of course, it’d be tough to take on elites or the boss, but ordinary monsters seem doable.”
Indeed, if it was just dealing with small groups of ordinary monsters, it seemed possible.
Before, Gwang-taek could only tank one monster at a time, so they hadn’t even considered A-rank, but now he could handle up to three.
Seong-jun also felt he could tank that many if he wanted, and Yuseon and Chang-su’s damage had increased significantly.
All these changes were due to Seong-jun reaching S-rank, but in any case, it seemed the time had come to challenge an A-rank dungeon.
But Seong-jun thought it was still premature.
“Of course it’s possible, but there’s one thing that bothers me. That organization that made the device. If we enter an A-rank dungeon and they activate that device, we’d have no way out. Unless we solve that problem, there’s no need to take on such risk.”
Even if the device were activated, they could somehow manage in a B-rank dungeon.
But if the device activated in an A-rank dungeon?
Even someone as capable as Seong-jun would have no choice but to face death.
“Oh right, those bastards. If the device triggers in that situation, we’d be dead for sure. Tch, now we have to worry about those guys while clearing dungeons.”
“Even if they weren’t there, I would have waited a bit longer for an A-rank dungeon. At the very least, we need to be able to handle elites by ourselves to deal with unexpected situations. But we’re not at that level yet, are we? For now, focusing on B-rank dungeons and raising our combat power is the right move.”
Just because they could handle small groups of ordinary monsters didn’t mean they could recklessly enter an A-rank dungeon.
Dungeons themselves are dangerous places where variables can occur anytime, anywhere.
Therefore, to increase the dungeon grade, they should only do so when they judged they could adequately handle all those variables.
“Message received. Besides, B-rank dungeons are more than enough for now. Anyway, three drakes over there.”
“Oh, really? Let’s hurry. We need to kill as many as possible if we want to clear the dungeon by tomorrow.”
Tomorrow would be the third day since entering the dungeon.
Although the First Entry Benefit lasted until the day after tomorrow, it was better to clear the dungeon as quickly as possible, so Seong-jun urged them to hurry.
*
The clear rate increased day by day.
Recording 27 percent on the first day, it became 34 percent the next day, totaling 61 percent.
On the third day, they even took down the elites, achieving 99 percent.
This was possible because not only Seong-jun’s party but also the Genesis Guild members adapted to Seong-jun’s buffs and the drake strategy, dramatically increasing their hunting speed.
“Now only the boss is left.”
At Seong-jun’s words, Ju So-jeong smiled and said.
“Indeed. It’s all thanks to Healer Kim Seong-jun.”
“Not at all. But before we tackle the boss, let’s confirm once more. The ordinary monster corpses and mana stones, the priority reward selection rights, and the boss’s corpse and mana stones. That’s half of each for us and for you, correct?”
Before entering the boss room, Seong-jun reconfirmed the contract terms.
“We care about money, rewards, and loot, but more than that, the title of solo clearing an A-rank dungeon is more important. Of course, I’m not sure if this can be called a solo clear, but since even Changcheon had Healer Kim Seong-jun’s help, at least we can stand on the same level.”
If they’d only considered profit, they wouldn’t have proposed such terms.
After all, even the boss’s corpse and mana stones of an A-rank dungeon were worth tens of billions, and half of the ordinary monster kills were worth hundreds of billions.
But more than that was the priority reward selection rights.
Although the First Entry Benefit guaranteed an SS-rank item, it was only one.
Of course, there was a slim chance of two appearing, but that was extremely rare.
In other words, giving up the priority selection meant giving up the only SS-rank item.
Yet Ju So-jeong insisted on these terms not only because without Seong-jun they couldn’t even dream of clearing an A-rank dungeon, but also because of her firm determination to stand on the same level as Changcheon.
“Good. Then let’s enter now.”
Having reconfirmed the terms and seeing no reason to delay further, Seong-jun immediately entered the boss room.
[You have entered the Boss Room. In 5 minutes, the boss of this dungeon, [Twin Head Drake], will be summoned.]
A notification appeared that the boss would spawn.
“It’s almost time. Everyone, get ready.”
Before entering the boss room, they had already reorganized the party, so Genesis’s core members had transferred to Seong-jun’s party.
With the rough strategy already established, they began moving as soon as Seong-jun finished speaking.
*
Korea Awakener Association.
Association President Jeong Tae-hoon, seizing the opportunity, mobilized all of the association’s resources and focused all efforts on damage control and prevention measures.
Following Seong-jun’s interview, the criticism toward the Korean Association had significantly decreased due to comparisons with the Japan incident, and he aimed to use this momentum to create a more favorable public opinion toward the association again.
“Haha, I never thought the day would come when I’d receive help from Japan. Thanks to that, public opinion toward the association has become quite favorable.”
“Exactly. But given that scale, shouldn’t they have swallowed their pride and asked for help? I don’t know how they intend to deal with the aftermath. Over 600,000 casualties occurred.”
The Dungeon Break incident in Japan left an indelible scar.
While Dungeon Breaks had occurred around the world, the highest casualties until now had been around 100,000.
But Japan had set a new record far exceeding that.
Nevertheless, the Japanese Awakened Association was absurdly praising itself for resolving the situation on its own without foreign aid.
No matter how much right-wing factions controlled Japan, how many people could understand and accept such an absurd situation?
Naturally, public fury erupted, and the Japanese Association was under heavy fire.
“They’ll handle the aftermath on their own. Surely they didn’t start this without anticipating this much. Well, anyway, pride, what is it?”
In fact, Jeong Tae-hoon himself had hesitated when someone suggested asking Japan for help, out of pride.
Though it was ironic for him to talk about pride, if he judged there was no other way, he would have bowed his head and asked Japan for help.
But the Japanese Association didn’t do that.
Despite the enormous damage expected, they were trapped in the frame of having to solve it on their own, just like Korea had, and ended up making that unreasonable decision.
“Thanks to that, the public opinion has turned around, so it’s a relief. Ah! And the International Awakener Association has finally contacted us. But it’s a bit ambiguous.”
The International Awakener Association, where they had submitted a request for Seong-jun’s irregular evaluation.
When the president heard they had finally contacted, he looked puzzled.
“Ambiguous? If it’s approval, then approval; if rejection, then rejection. What’s ambiguous about it?”
“Haah, the International Awakener Association says they want to see Healer Kim Seong-jun in person and conduct a few tests.”
At the sudden words, the president said in disbelief.
“They want to test him themselves? What kind of nonsense is that? We already sent all the video and related documents. What more do they need to test? So, are they asking Healer Kim Seong-jun to come to the US?”
“They said they’ll adjust to Healer Kim Seong-jun’s schedule, but they’d like a visit within a month if possible.”
At that, the president’s expression twisted slightly.
“This is ridiculous. Why do they need additional tests? With that much video and documentation, they should be able to judge. Don’t they have some other ulterior motive? Trying to lure Healer Kim Seong-jun to the US?”
The video and materials the Korean Association sent to the International Awakener Association were more than sufficient to make a judgment.
And normally, when evaluations were ambiguous, they would usually issue a rejection.
But now they suddenly want additional tests?
Of course, it was natural to suspect some hidden intention.
“I think the decision should prioritize Healer Kim Seong-jun’s own wishes. Let’s talk to him once he returns to Korea.”
No matter how suspicious, it was ultimately Seong-jun’s decision.
Whether to go to the US for additional tests or not depended entirely on him.
“So, what about Genesis and Healer Kim Seong-jun? Haven’t they come out of the dungeon yet? Today is the third day, right?”
“Yes. Considering the time with Changcheon, the probability of finishing the clear today is high. Although they entered a drake dungeon, an aerial monster, unlike the troll dungeon Changcheon cleared, back then Healer Kim Seong-jun was A-rank, and now he’s S-rank, so considering that, they’ll likely clear the dungeon today.”
When Changcheon solo-cleared the troll dungeon, they had finished in three days.
And now Seong-jun was S-rank.
Even considering that drakes were tricky aerial monsters, it was hard to believe they’d take longer than Changcheon.
“That would be the case.”
Just then.
Knock knock!
“Association President!”
Someone knocked on the president’s office door.
“Hm? Come in.”
At the permission, the manager of the Awakened Management Department opened the door and entered.
“They say Genesis and Healer Kim Seong-jun’s group have just finished clearing the dungeon in Taiwan.”
As expected, they had cleared it in three days, and the president looked satisfied.
“Is that so? I thought so. Then, are they returning to Korea immediately? Or resting in Taiwan for a day?”
“Well… right before they finished clearing the dungeon, a Break Dungeon appeared near Taoyuan Airport. So it seems the Taiwan Association has requested help from Healer Kim Seong-jun and Genesis.”
What was this now?
A Break Dungeon?
“What? A Break Dungeon? What grade?”
“B-rank. There was about 1 hour and 20 minutes left, and when Genesis and Healer Kim Seong-jun came out of the dungeon, there were only about 30 minutes remaining.”
With Taiwan’s Hunter strength, stopping a B-rank Dungeon Break was virtually impossible.
The only blessing was that Seong-jun’s party and Genesis happened to be there.
In a way, it was a silver lining in a stroke of misfortune for Taiwan.
I Became an EX-Class All-Round Priest Chapter 108
E-book publication date: 2025.11.14
Author: Kim Hyeon-jun
Publisher: Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Published by: Poten
Address: [04783] Seoul, Seongdong-gu, Yeonmujang 11-gil 8, 10th floor
Phone: 02-6320-8500
Fax: 02-6320-8585
ISBN: 9791175302167
Price: 100 won
© Kim Hyeon-jun 2025
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