Seungwoo drew his bow and started positioning behind Zhang and Woo-jin. Si-Long was in the middle of the group, whilst he was at the back. Usually, the healer or support class would be situated in the safest spot, while ranged archers like him would watch their flank.

They moved swiftly across the corridors, which were narrow but contained torches to light the way. They walked through several rooms, all plain and empty without any furniture, but containing remnants of bones and skeletons. The silence of the surrounding place was something that he had not anticipated. The sound would pick up very well in this game, so the fact he only heard their own footsteps was not a good omen. Some trap rooms would often use sound as a trigger, or perhaps even a mechanic to solve.

"Up here," Woo-jin announced quietly, pointing at a wooden double door, "I hear something faint."

Seungwoo and Si Long huddled close with their group until they were all hugging the door. Woo-jin was right. He could hear something on the other side. It was faint but sounded like the clacking of bones or old ornaments in tow.

"Ready?" Woo-jin signalled as he put his foot up towards the door.

Three.

Two.

One.

He signalled with hands. After he closed them in a fist, he kicked the door with all his might, and it came whirring through the room. The door had unhinged completely, flying across. Seungwoo braced himself. Inside the room was a large library. One that was grand, containing a fair number of books. It would have been great to check out the contents, but that was not the first problem.

The first glaring problem was that the room was filled with skeleton knights. Undead skeletons had shields, helmets and swords that were sharp. Seungwoo got his Ranger's Bow ready, but it was Zhang and Woo-jin that sprung into action. Rushing forwards, they created an opening in the horde of monsters.

Si Long did not hesitate to activate her effect. Seungwoo didn't even know what it did, since he forgot to ask, but an Obelisk spawned near them, floating in the air and radiating light green. A small circle formed around the obelisk, and Seungwoo immediately realized that the health bar of both Zhang and Woo-jin started ticking upwards.

"Sweet baby," Zhang smiled, "Good skill, good skill!"

"Thanks," She smirked, "I got some more."

This time, an animated stone golem spawned. It wasn't large by any means, just a tad bigger than a normal human, but its durability was nice to have since it was supporting him as the mobs tried to get close. Seungwoo used the golem to his advantage, making sure to fire his bolts in quick succession. He activated his Skill, Nightshade's Poise and started firing multiple arrows.

Although he could only fire one at a time, they were quick enough to stop the onslaught of skeletons. Changing his hand position, he imagined firing three at the same time. Luckily for him, the attack system was very intuitive. If you could think of the play, you could probably do it in the game. Three arrows materialized on his bow instead of one, but his drawback speed was heavier than usual. His rate of fire decreased a bit, but his area of damage increased.

Zhang wasn't interested in using his ability. He had a colossal greatsword, which he swung around without any hesitation. Huge cleaves and strong balance sent torrents of energy across the room. The abilities didn't destroy the surroundings, since the objects in the rooms were invulnerable, but the same couldn't be said for the skeletons.

Repeatedly they fell, but after supposedly dying, they reanimated themselves once again. Seungwoo presumed that their gimmick was that they revived one or two times before completely dying off. He couldn't see any gems or any markers of any weak spots, so he just prioritized shooting as many arrows as possible.

After several minutes, they cleared the room with little or no damage taken. Most of the damage was healed up with Si Long's ability, but their fatigue was growing on them. Fatigue in the game was a modifier affected by how much Swiftness you had. More swiftness means the less fatigued affected you. Since he was the only one with a decent amount of Swiftness in his stats, everyone else was panting more than he was. Swiftness also affects player movement speed, along with faster fatigue recovery. It also decreased the cooldown of your skills.

"Is everyone alright?" Woo-jin sat down, "Damn, my Swiftness is terrible."

"Same with mine," Zhang coughed, "Mine is even worse than yours."

"I didn't move as much," Si Long replied, "But I did use a lot of mana."

"I'm good," Seungwoo raised his hand, "My Swiftness is pretty high."

"What type of stats are you prioritizing?" Woo-jin asked, "Swiftness and Crit rate?"

"Swiftness and Domination, I think."

He shook his head in disapproval, "Nah, Domination ain't that good on ranged."

Seungwoo frowned, "It's not?"

"Yeah, since your class doesn't have hard CC," He replied, "Domination increased damage, but only on stunned, staggered, or monsters under debilitating effects. Silences, Blinds, and Weakness effects don't proc domination."

"You think I should go into Crit?"

"Crit and Specialization."

"So, Swiftness, Crit and Specialization?"

He nodded firmly, "You want Specialization focus because your class ability is really good. Maybe it will increase the blind duration, or decrease the number of stacks required to cap out. Might even apply extra stacks."

"I see," Seungwoo nodded, "Good to know. I'll make sure to look for accessories that focus on that."

"Anyways, everyone here good to go on?"

"I'm good," Zhang raised his hand.

"I'm also set," Si Long replied, "But, look at the ceiling."

Seungwoo looked up, along with the rest of his teammates. There was a large ceiling with a rune on it. The rune was large enough to be noticeable by everyone but wasn't glowing or performing anything out of the ordinary. Seungwoo didn't know what the rune meant, or if the rune was an intentional design by the creators or something the art department just decided to cook up for looks.

"This dungeon is a puzzle dungeon," Si Long replied, "There are no traps, and we aren't immediately in the boss room, so this is a puzzle room with a boss at the end of it."

"Can we hit it?" Zhang asked.

"I'm a summoner, I don't have range," She shook her head, "My ability only lets me control my summons. I can't throw fireballs or anything of the sort."

Seungwoo understood immediately, "I got it."

He fired an arrow at the ceiling. As soon as it hit the rune, the rune glowed in a faint bluish light but faded away after a few seconds. He tilted his head, but the rune didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

"Is it supposed to do that?" He pondered.

"Try again."

Another arrow. Same result.

"Hmm," Si Long frowned, "Did we check the room? See if anything changed."

"What if we have to shoot it, whilst checking the room at the same time?" Zhang pitched in.

"That could be the case," Seungwoo replied, "Let's check around."

"Agreed," Woo-jin replied.

The group divided themselves into the four corners of the room, inspecting their area. Once they had memorized their relative spots, a 'Ready check' was performed. After everyone confirmed the check, Seungwoo fired another arrow onto the ceiling. Once again, the rune lit up, the same bluish hue with faint glowing. He used that time to look around. Nothing changed. Not even a peep or a hint.

"Don't see anything," Seungwoo spoke out.

"Me neither," A voice from across the room replied.

"Try one more time!"

Fwoosh.

"Nothing," Seungwoo was careful to look extra thorough this time.

"Have we tried checking the books?" Si Long asked, "This is a library, after all."

"We can try that!"

Finding the nearest bookshelf, he opened several books. One by one, they all contained blank pages. Perhaps the pages were in secret ink, so he pulled them up the light, but nothing. That, or the developers forgot to fill it with any content worth sharing. This was a dungeon after all. Maybe they didn't expect the players to be reading the books.

"My pages are blank," Si Long said.

"Mine are too," Zhang replied.

"Mine actually has something in it," Woo-jin sounded slightly surprised, "Oh! That's cool. It's a skill book."

"Anything good from it?" Seungwoo frowned.

Skill books were the same as Skill seeds. It contained a Skill you could learn, but the only difference was that Skill books could be used multiple times, while Skill seeds were one-time use. Finding a skill book was rare, but it depended on the skill obtained and the rarity of the skill. Most skill books were sellable, so they could use them on themselves and sell them for a reduced price.

"Nah, not that good," He replied, "We can check all the books though. There might be a good one in the pile of rubbish."

"What about the rune at the top?" Si Long questioned.

"Well, we don't have any leads, so might as well."

After the whole group decided it was a good idea to look at every book, Seungwoo just knocked some over as soon as he looked at the first page. Blank books didn't contain anything useful, so he would just throw them out immediately. During the several minutes they checked books, he could only find one Skill book. It was a common Skill book, which increased the skill of mining. Not a combat skill, but rather a skill for professions.

"Ay, I found something interesting," Zhang yelled, "Mine has a key in it. They cut out the pages and put a cool looking golden key inside them. Same rune at the top, too."

"Maybe we have to throw the key at the rune?" Seungwoo raised his eyebrow.

"I doubt that," Woo-jin replied, "It sounds too obscure, but we can try."

"Here goes nothing," Zhang threw the key as hard as he could at the top of the ceiling. The key hit the ceiling and the rune lighted up. Seungwoo had thought they figured something out since it started glowing, but after it faded away once again he realized that wasn't it.

"Maybe it's a fakeout?" Si Long questioned, "Some puzzle dungeons have fake puzzles to throw you off."

"That could be the case..." Woo-jin put his hand on his chin, "I think the key is important though, so we should keep it. We can always backtrack if we get stuck in the future, so let's just move on for now."

After resting and removing their fatigue, they sauntered deeper into the dungeon. The scenery did not change at all, and there were only small groups of mobs in the later rooms. Room after room, they cleared mobs and moved close to their destination. There weren't any hidden mechanics, or crazy rooms, just passageways. Eventually, however, they reached a long and large corridor, much more refined-looking with more royal themes. There stood a large double metal door, with one of the room inscriptions matching the ones that they had seen in the library.

They moved cautiously to the front of the door and realized the deadbolt had three keys in a triangle formation. Seungwoo looked at the keyhole, which corresponded with the shape of a rune. He frowned as he looked, but then he got it immediately.

"There are three libraries," He blurted out.

"I agree," Si Long also chimed in, "We didn't explore the whole dungeon. There must be two more keys."

"Right, and the keys correspond to the other runes!"

"Alright, fuck," Zhang groaned, "Group up, everyone. We're retracing our steps."

"Yeah, this is gonna take a long time," Woo-jin chuckled.

It didn't take that long.

After realizing the gimmick, clearing the other two royal libraries was a cakewalk. Since the mobs were the same, their positions were matched on all two, and Seungwoo learned to maximize his damage. The time to clear each library decreased by a lot. Since they weren't wasting their movements, it gave them extra time to search for the book that contained the key.

Si Long suggested that instead of opening each book one by one, they just feel the weight. The hollow book would be much lighter than the rest, so that shaved off sometimes as well. They had found more Skill books along the way, but it all seemed to be a common grade or something that wasn't of value.

Of course, there were runes on top of the library as well. Different ones, but they all did the same thing as well. Glowed a hint of bluish hue and then nothing. They had tried to experiment with different objects. Throwing the Skill books, and the blank books but nothing. Si Long was probably correct in her assessment. It was most likely a gimmick to throw the team off. Perhaps a less coordinated team would argue over which rune did what, resulting in a slower clear speed.

"Alright, found the last one," Zhang shook the hollow book and heard a key jingle inside, "Let's regroup on the main floor."

"Sure."

After regrouping, they got out all the keys and started turning them inside the lock one by one. After all three keys were inserted, the door opened with a loud creak, and there stood a throne in the middle of a circular room. The circular room had plenty of space to move around, but Seungwoo immediately drew his weapon. Everyone else was on the same page.

This was the boss room.

The runes that they had seen before were situated at the edges of the circular room in a triangle formation. Three lines jutted out from the centre of the room towards the runes. Seungwoo something was up.

"I think we're supposed to touch the throne or something," He stated.

"Who's gonna be our guinea pig?"

"I'll do it," Zhang raised his hand, walking towards the throne. The throne was facing the opposite direction, so they actually didn't know what was behind it, but Zhang quickly put that question to rest. It was a dead king that was completely bone, with a crown on his head and a small staff held firmly in his hand.

"It's a lich," He shrugged," It's definitely a lich."

"Alright, but how do we activate it?"

"Steal the crown."

"Wait, don't steal the crown," Woo-join paused, "Can we set up formation first?"

"Sure, hurry up."

A few seconds passed, "Alright, yoink the crown."

"Yoink!" Zhang said enthusiastically as he stole the crown off the dead king. As predicted, the whole room started rumbling, and the runes started glowing a heavy dark blue. As the room was emanating a harsh glow, Zhang jumped back and got into position. The dead skeleton started floating into mid-air like a ghost and turned towards them. Its eye sockets, which were originally black and hollow suddenly had two crimson red dots in the middle.

You have awoken Sariel, The Necromancer King!

The skeletal king has been waiting for an invader to steal his crown in his fortress. Be wary of his three lives and skeletal minions!

Health:  25,000/25,000