Chapter 39: The Heroic Key and the Shadow Below

“There’s only one, …but they are wiping everything out with the Enchanter buff and Hammer of Fury. The hunting speed is insane.”

Yoo Jang-hyuk replied to Kim Yuri’s question.

“How fast are we talking?”

“Faster than a standard five-man optimized party. If you think about the XP efficiency, it’s easily more than double.”

Even though a party could have up to six people, the most efficient configuration was usually five.

Despite that, Kang Juho and Kim Seokju were hunting faster than even those optimized parties.

“That much?”

Kim Yuri couldn’t help but be shocked.

“Yeah. The real issue is…”

Yoo Jang-hyuk continued…

“Now the passives start unlocking.”

The “Battle Blacksmith” class had only one active skill: Hammer of Fury.

The rest were passive skills to support it.

Right now, Kang Juho was still low-level, with few passives.

But as his level increased and more passives unlocked…

He wouldn’t just grow stronger by a multiple—he’d scale steadily and dangerously.

“Shouldn’t we nerf the skill’s performance instead of making the class advancement quest harder?”

Kim Yuri asked.

Yoo Jang-hyuk had initially proposed increasing the class quest difficulty, but after hearing more, it was clear a difficulty increase might not be enough.

“But this is Kang Juho we’re talking about.”

Yoo Jang-hyuk answered.

“Ah…”

At that, Kim Yuri let out a sigh of understanding.

Kang Juho, who had class-advanced into Battle Blacksmith, was definitely the same Kang Juho from the PC version, a core member of the Earth guild Immortals.

As before, he’d likely be decked out in legendary gear.

Which meant that even nerfs might not affect him much.

“If we balance around him, we could ruin the class for everyone else…”

Battle Blacksmith wasn’t a Kang Juho-exclusive class.

They couldn’t ruin the whole class just because he was OP.

So, the best option was to leave the class strong, but make the advancement quest much harder.

“…How much harder are we talking?”

Kim Yuri asked.

“I’ve considered a few things. First—”

***

Puren Temple, where insane priests of levels 150–170 reside.

“Foolish mortals!”

“Foolish mortals!”

The priests in deep violet robes shouted with blank eyes.

“!@$!@%”

“!!@#$%”

They began chanting spells.

“Attribute Shackle.”

Kim Seokju cast the skill on the chanting priests.

Eight of them were bound mid-chant, and their spells were interrupted.

“Hammer of Fury!”

Kang Juho charged in with his skill activated.

Wham! Swish!

Wham! Swish!

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The priests collapsed after just two hits.

Hammer of Fury could strike up to four times, but he didn’t even need all of them anymore.

‘Ugh…’

But killing fast wasn’t always a good thing.

His skill [Relentless] had just reached level 4, reducing cooldown from 5 seconds to 7 seconds.

To benefit from [Relentless], he needed to land normal attacks.

But he was killing enemies in just two hits—rendering some of the cooldown reduction pointless.

Hammer of Fury lasted 20 seconds.

If enemies were nearby, it would be fine.

But these insane priests were spaced far apart— meaning he was losing 14 seconds of uptime between fights.

‘Do I need to unequip some gear?’

He couldn’t give up Attribute Shackle.

If he waited until after the chant, they’d put up barriers, and even four full Hammer hits wouldn’t be enough.

So, skills like Attribute Shackle and Multi-Chain were essential.

While pondering the issue—

“…?”

Kang Juho noticed something strange in the loot window.

• 3 Pieces of Mad Priest Robe
• 2 Fragments of a Shattered Crystal Ball
• 1 Puren Temple Underground Key

Only the robe pieces and crystal fragments usually dropped here.

But now there was a completely new item.

‘Underground key…?’

The name alone stood out.

Kang Juho looted it and immediately checked its info:

〈Puren Temple Underground Key [Heroic]〉[Untradeable]

• A key required to enter the underground section of Puren Temple.
• Remaining uses: 3

“…!”

Just as he suspected, it unlocked a previously unknown underground area.

But that’s not what surprised him most.

‘Heroic.’

That rank.

For a mere entrance key to be heroic-tier?

Just how dangerous was the place it unlocked?

“Hyung?”

Kim Seokju walked over and called him.

Kang Juho snapped out of it and shared the item info.

“…!”

Seeing the description, Seokju looked up in shock.

Then Kang Juho spoke:

“Want to go check it out?”

If there was only one entry, he’d prep thoroughly.

But with three uses, they could afford one exploratory run.

“Yes! Let’s go!”

Seokju was just as curious.

So, they began scouring the temple for unexplored areas.

***

“Think it’s a boss zone?”

“Could be…”

They talked as they walked.

“Maybe it’s just stronger priests?”

If there were three entry chances, maybe it wasn’t just a boss room— but a full area with high-level enemies.

“Foolish mortals!”

“Foolish mortals!”

“Attribute Shackle!”

“Hammer of Fury!”

They cleared through more priests until eventually—they found a massive sealed iron door.

“This has to be it.”

“Yeah, and there’s a keyhole here.”

“Refresh the buffs.”

They might enter straight into combat, but their current buffs were almost expired.

“I’ll give you the full buff set this time.”

“Alright.”

Until now, they had skipped Physical Buffs.

But they needed everything this time.

“Physical Boost…”

……

[+18% Defense for 5 minutes]

[+16% Movement Speed for 5 minutes]

[+6% Physical Resistance for 4 minutes]

“Opening it.”

With the buffs active, Juho pulled the key from his inventory, inserted it into the keyhole, and turned.

[You have used the Puren Temple Underground Key.]

[You may enter with your party.]

Clink—

The key vanished as a message popped up.

Creaaak!

The giant iron door began to open.

“Seokju.”

Juho called softly.

Kim Seokju stepped back a little.

Juho raised his shield and cautiously backed up.

Thud!

[The door will close in 5 minutes.]

The door fully opened—and silence followed.

“Nothing at the entrance.”

Seokju finally broke the quiet.

“Still… I’ll go first, just in case there’s a trap.”

No need to rush. They had 5 minutes.

Kang Juho stepped inside.

[You have entered Puren Temple – Underground.]

Thankfully, no traps.

Once sure it was safe, he looked around.

Thanks to a massive crystal in the ceiling, the entire area was lit up.

‘Five passageways… and five to seven guards each…’

It was a huge open cavern.

Five passageways extended in different directions, each guarded by black-robed priests.

Black robes.

They were different from the surface priests, who wore purple.

Swipe.

Juho gestured to Seokju.

He entered, and Juho spoke:

“Let’s start from the left.”

The middle paths could trigger aggro from multiple groups.

Safer to take the edge.

They hugged the left wall and approached.

“…Foolish beings…”

“…Foolish beings…”

These priests didn’t just dress differently.

Even their speech had changed.

And shockingly—

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Their barriers activated instantly, with no chants.

Juho frowned.

‘I was supposed to kill them before they could react…’

“Seokju—Attribute Shackle.”

Juho charged in.

“!@#$#”

“#%@#”

Thankfully, their attacks still required chanting.

“Attribute Shackle!”

Seokju cast the skill.

The priests were bound.

“Hammer of Fury!”

Juho, relieved, activated his main skill.

CRASH! Swish!

A blast exploded as the hammer hit the barriers.

Cracks appeared—huge ones.

‘One more should do it.’

CRASH!

The shield shattered.

“Argh!”

“Argh!”

The priests flinched. Juho didn’t stop.

Wham! Swish!

Wham! Swish!

‘Figures…’

Even with Hammer of Fury, they didn’t fall.

Annoyed, he swung again—

Wham! Wham!

Finally, one collapsed.

Two extra hits—not bad.

But during that, the other priests’ chants finished.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Juho was hit five times and checked his HP.

‘1,000 per hit…!’

Five priests remained.

That was 5,000 HP gone in one salvo—and it wasn’t over yet.

Each priest could cast three times per chant.

Juho raised his shield to block the incoming white flames.

Blocking didn’t reduce damage, but it did prevent flinch/stagger.

‘Maybe I should get a shield with magic resist.’

His current shield, Shield of Valor, had no magic resistance.

So the damage was full.

Even so, the stagger immunity made blocking worthwhile.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

He kept blocking and striking back, clearing the priests one by one.