I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 78

Chapter 78

The figures of the Knight Commanders grew smaller and smaller. The sky stretched endlessly far, and my body began to plummet towards the ground.

The monsters on the bridge, seeing me falling, tried to prepare for battle, but I was already far below before they could do anything. Bows and spears were meaningless.

This was the fastest way to clear the Abyss Dungeon, as I had mentioned. Accurately aligning the angle and position, and then jumping straight down.

At first glance, it seems easy, but in reality, it was anything but.

The developers, being people with their own thoughts, had increased the base HP of the monsters on the bridge and adjusted the height to prevent exploits through plunge attacks.

Negating damage with a plunge attack is only possible when the target can die. If the monster survives, the player is destined to fall to their death alone.

They even placed most of the monsters in blind spots and calculated the distances to prevent players from accidentally landing on top of monsters with jumps.

So, from the moment you fell from the bridge, death was inevitable. Everyone thought so.

‘Though it was a method discovered by that very chance.’

It all started with some unlucky soul. They misused their roll and tumbled off the bridge, falling for a long time and dying at the bottom of the dungeon.

While that incredibly unlucky situation became a laughingstock, someone said, ‘If you fall all the way to the bottom and land a plunge attack, can you skip the middle part?’ And…

The undead, who had nothing better to do and were engaging in all sorts of antics, latched onto that idea and started trying it out. I was included as well.

There were only two conditions, but each one was incredibly difficult.

First, you had to be able to jump off and go straight to the bottom of the dungeon without hitting anything in the middle, and there had to be a monster at the bottom where you could land a plunge attack.

The second condition, in particular, was outrageously brutal. Monsters tend to wander around unless they spot the player, so you had to get the timing exactly right to succeed.

But who were we? Weren’t we the humans who, when told to play a bonsai game, would beat each other with the bonsai trees, and if there was a competitive element, would struggle to climb even a little higher than the opponent?

After long attempts, we finally succeeded. We calculated the distance the monsters moved from the moment we entered this dungeon area, and even where and how we had to jump off.

And this was the result.

Countless bridges and tree branches grazed past me. It was a close call, enough to make me think that if I had made even the slightest mistake in positioning, I would have definitely crashed into one of them and died.

There were occasional monsters shooting arrows, but they were far from reaching me. The thudding sounds of arrows hitting the walls could only be heard from above.

‘Ah, that was damn hard.’

A shiver ran down my spine as I saw the monster that had just passed by me, its size easily three or four times that of a human. That was the mid-boss of this dungeon.

It was already difficult enough to fight it on the narrow bridge, but in true Darkest Light mode fashion, archers were firing arrows from the nearby cliffs, making it even harder.

I was glad I didn’t have to fight it now. If it weren’t for the terrain and the arrows, it would’ve been just a regular mob, but it sure acted like a big shot.

I continued to fall further down even after passing the mid-boss. There was still no sign of reaching the bottom.

Of course. It was as if they had released this dungeon in place of adding a new area in the DLC, so they had to secure enough playtime with just this one dungeon to rival a decent-sized new area.

This was the process of skipping the entire middle part while moving from one end of such a place to the other. A few minutes wouldn’t cut it.

As time passed, the appearance of the monsters on the bridge began to change.

If the monsters near the entrance were carrying crude weapons and wooden shields or bows, as I descended, more monstrous-looking monsters appeared.

Shields were replaced by hard carapaces, spears by sharp claws and teeth, and bows by black liquid spewed from their mouths. Their size was also much larger than an average person.

Of course, it didn’t matter since I had passed all of them.

‘It’s about time I arrived.’

At some point, not only the dungeon walls but also the bridges crossing the center were all dyed black. It meant I was almost at the heart of the Rune Dungeon.

Soon, the bottom of the dungeon began to come into view in the distance. The entire floor, which looked like nothing more than a muddy swamp, was writhing as if it were alive.

I looked for a place to land. A monster was slowly walking towards that area.

‘Thank goodness.’

I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. Even though I had jumped in confidently, it didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous at all. I had a slight worry in the back of my mind, but…

It was a relief that my ominous premonition was wrong.

I raised the Bloodstained Sword. An attack buff was meaningless. The core of the plunge attack’s damage wasn’t the weapon’s own damage, but the additional damage that increased proportionally to the distance fallen.

Falling from this height would finish off even a boss in one hit.

The distance between the monster and me rapidly decreased. I pulled my right shoulder back slightly and landed right on top of the monster’s head.

ㅡCrackle!

“Kyaaaaaaaaak!”

The monster screamed in agony, taking the full brunt of the impact of the fall that I should have received. I grabbed its neck and spun my body around.

The monster’s upper body twisted sideways and slammed into the ground. A sickening thud echoed as its back seemed to burst open.

We tumbled across the floor, entangled with each other. The rolling stopped when the monster was on the bottom and I was on top. I plunged the Bloodstained Sword into its head.

The monster convulsed as if struck by lightning and then went still. After confirming that it was no longer moving, I slowly pulled out the sword and got up.

Unlike the monster lying on the ground in a gruesome state, I was perfectly fine without a single scratch.

It was a success.

I glanced upwards. It should have been a straight line to the entrance, but instead of seeing the sky, everything was dark. Tree branches and bridges were densely packed in between.

I could easily count over a hundred bridges just within my sight. I was struck by the sheer depth of this dungeon.

I lowered my head. There were still things to take care of. Monsters that looked exactly like the one I had just used as a landing platform for the plunge attack. I had to deal with them as well.

Without hesitation, I plunged the Bloodstained Sword into my abdomen. This was, in terms of the main game, a dungeon that belonged in the late-game area. Without an attack buff, it would take forever to kill them.

I pulled the sword out of my stomach and walked to within the aggro range of the nearest monster. Its head creaked as it turned, its eyes glowing red as it looked at me.

Thump, the monster took a step.

The last monster collapsed onto the ground. A splattering sound echoed as black mud splashed everywhere.

“Ugh, this is disgusting.”

I wiped the black liquid off my face with the back of my hand. I didn’t expect it to splatter all the way up to my face. It was probably harmless to the human body, but it felt unpleasant.

The Bloodstained Sword had already returned to its original color. The buff had run out while I was dealing with the last monster, so it took a bit longer, but it more or less matched the time I had planned.

I trudged through the sticky black mud. My feet sank up to my calves with every step.

This was why I hated this place. It forced the player to walk and even restricted rolling.

Areas classified as swamps had similar effects, but this was worse. In swamps, you could at least do the heaviest roll, but on the black mud, rolling was completely sealed, leaving you with nothing but walking.

Grumbling that it was a perfect section to raise one’s blood pressure, I emerged from the mud and saw a narrow alleyway stretching between walls and something resembling a statue next to it.

It was a statue that allowed players to quick save and quick travel, but it wasn’t particularly useful to me right now.

I hadn’t met the conditions to unlock the statue yet, and even if I did, it wouldn’t be of much help.

‘What’s the point of using it alone, leaving the Knight Commanders behind?’

How many situations would there be where I would be moving alone in the future? Besides, even if I activated it, I would never come back here again.

If this were a game, I would have activated the statue, restocked on potions, taken a short break, and then challenged the boss, but not here. I ignored the statue and continued walking along the path.

And before long, I arrived in front of a massive door.

Behind this door was the boss of the Abyss Dungeon. I briefly sheathed the Bloodstained Sword, placed my hand on the door, and slowly pushed it open with force.

The door creaked open, slowly revealing the scene inside. At least the boss room was no different from my memory.

“Sob… Sniffle… Sob…”

It seemed like a woman’s crying could be heard from inside.

It was a sob that was both incredibly sorrowful and chilling to the listener. I flung the door wide open and entered the boss room. The door closed automatically with a thud.

In the center of the room was a woman kneeling, her hands clasped in front of her mouth, weeping and praying. She was wearing the clothes of the battle nuns of the Raphaella Holy Kingdom.

Almost every part of it was torn, tattered, and rotten, leaving her practically naked. I guessed that the remaining fabric covered less than 10% of the original garment.

Since less than 10% of the outrageously revealing nun’s habit remained, it was as good as not wearing anything at all.

“Sob… Sniffle…”

The nun didn’t stop crying even as I stepped further inside. Black liquid trickled down from between her closed eyelids.

ㅡSplash.

Drip.

And the moment I stepped on the mud, the crying stopped.