"You have to promise to save me first, no matter what," Park Sijun grumbled. "Do you have any idea how much this is worth? You don't even know how to use a shield. How about I use it for now and give it to you when we leave? I can give it back when there are about ten monsters left."

Standing there without his shield, he was a nervous wreck. It couldn't be helped.

The reality was that a player's items were ultimately more important than their class or skills. The advantage of having higher base stats couldn't compensate for the disadvantage of having no shield, especially for someone like Sijun, who was counting on it for survival.

But Kim Buja was firm.

"What if you run away then and just risk your life to kill the last ten? I have no idea what you'll do once we're out, so I need to get at least this much."

Sijun was left speechless.

"If your shield was so precious, you should have just gone your own way instead of giving it to me. If you could have survived in this dungeon alone with it, wouldn't it have been better to find the Legendary item that way? If you stick with me, you won't get the Legendary item anyway."

He had expected this, so he wasn't angry, but he wasn't about to do something stupid like take pity on a sucker whose every move he had already figured out.

[Iron Shield]

▶ Grade: Special

▶ Defense +30

▶ Strength +3

▶ Stamina +3

▷ A shield forged in the Flames of Desire. It is nearly indestructible.

Besides, looking at the shield's stats, he didn't feel sorry for Sijun at all. Even after bringing the vitality accessory set, Special-grade items just kept appearing out of nowhere.

Seeing this made him think that the rumors about there not being many Unique or higher-grade items in the world were all lies. Just look at Buja himself—including the shield, he was now decked out in five Special-grade items.

The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. That logic, which also applied in dungeons, made Buja even more ruthless.

"Your family probably has a ton of these in a warehouse somewhere anyway. Isn't it great that you get to survive with just one rotting item?"

Moreover, they weren't encountering that many monsters, and he had already seen Sijun just killing time while he took care of them.

"Still, this isn't so bad. It means we can look around a bit more."

Sijun nodded at Buja's words. There was no guarantee they would find the Legendary item, but he could only think about what came next if he was alive. He decided not to dwell on giving up his shield just to survive.

As he was steeling himself, Buja suddenly stopped and asked.

"By the way, those players your guild sent before. They were all stronger than you, right?"

At the sudden question, Sijun scowled.

"My class and skill are better."

"So you're saying that four or five guys similar to you, equipped with gear appropriate for clearing this dungeon, came in and still failed, right?"

"So?"

Unable to grasp the intent of the question, Sijun asked back. Buja clicked his tongue and spelled it out for him.

"Was it impossible to fight the monsters here with that gear?"

"No, well. I could handle one without much trouble."

"Then why couldn't four guys, similar to you, who came in geared up with Legendary items, clear this dungeon?"

"That's because…"

'Why?' Only then did Sijun stop and fall into thought. He had never once considered it. It was natural to assume failure. Weren't ninety-nine percent of players outside the dungeon nodding in agreement just by looking at the clear information? It was a Special dungeon, plastered with conditions players hated. No matter how well-geared you were, there were bound to be countless variables. That's what he had thought.

But the maze he experienced firsthand wasn't like that. Buja had shown unexpected strength, but he was still just a 1-star player. He couldn't possibly be stronger than four players of a similar level. So did those four just die because they were brainless and tried to brute-force their way through?

"They must have met an unavoidable variable."

"And what kind of variable would that be in a maze?"

It would be when they were forced into a battle with no escape route in a space where the only paths were forward and back. As that thought registered, a chill ran down his spine, and he hurriedly turned to look behind him.

'Phew.'

Fortunately, there were no monsters. He hadn't seen any on the way here, so even if a horde of monsters suddenly appeared from the front, there would be a way to escape.

Buja scoffed.

"You think they were stupid enough not to secure an escape route? There must have been a situation that made it impossible."

"Can you stop saying such unlucky things?"

Sijun knew, too. He knew how unavoidable situations were created.

'Rumble!'

It was a sound he had heard to the point of exhaustion over the past week. The noise, like the ground collapsing, was something he could never get used to, even after hearing it eight times a day.

What was even harder to get used to was the sight of the massive walls moving—a threat greater than any monster. If you didn't move quickly along with the shifting walls, you could be caught between the interlocking and merging walls, crushed into nothing without even leaving a splash of blood.

In fact, seeing these situations had made Sijun largely give up on the idea of recovering the Legendary items. He couldn't imagine even the sturdiest items maintaining their shape if they were squeezed between these walls.

"It's especially nasty today," Buja commented.

Still, the reason he couldn't give up hope was that the effects of a Legendary item were just that immense. Lost in thought, he moved frantically while the maze was reconfiguring. There was no plan, no strategy to find an exit. It was simply movement for the sake of survival. Fortunately, in the past week, they had never been isolated or endangered by the maze's changes. This time was no different. As always, after the change, the maze was still a maze.

But this time, it was a little different.

"Huh?"

"What is it?"

The maze, which had only ever forced them down a single path, for the first time revealed a wide-open space.

"There's a place like this inside the maze?" Sijun muttered in disbelief.

It was a space so vast it felt like they might have escaped the maze altogether. But the towering maze walls, still visible in the distance, confirmed they were still inside. For the first time, they saw sunlight and smelled the fresh scent of a forest. It was a paradise on earth, with a lake and lush grass. If that had been all, they might have happily taken a rest, knowing it might only be a sight that lasted for three hours.

But the creatures inhabiting this place proved that this was not the case.

"I think I know why they failed," Buja said, raising the shield.

Sijun nodded and held out his hand.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to lend it to me?" Sijun asked so definitely.

"Nope."

At a glance, dozens of monsters were emerging one by one, their eyes filled with curiosity and wariness toward the new prey. The area was open, but that only made it worse, as they were now surrounded by even more monsters—the worst possible situation.

There was only one silver lining.

"If we kill all the guys here, we'll clear this in no time."

"Is that supposed to be a good thing?! Let's just run and find the Legendary item. Huh?"

Sijun's suggestion was perfectly rational. That was the reason they had been taking their time killing monsters in the first place. Though for Sijun, the biggest reason was that he just wanted to escape.

Normally, Buja would have agreed. As inefficient and unlikely as it was, he also wanted to at least get a glimpse of a Legendary item. But not this time.

"I don't think that'll be necessary. If we just clean up the guys here, I think we can get the Legendary item too."

"What kind of crazy…" Sijun trailed off.

Because it was hanging around the neck of the massive beast leading the pack of monsters.

"Is the item a necklace?"

"…Why is that there?"

A colossal, three-headed hellhound. The question of why a hellhound was in this paradise was overshadowed by a more pressing one: why was a Legendary-looking necklace hanging around its neck?

At the same time, another question arose.

"Do items equipped on monsters have their effects applied?" Buja asked.

Sijun didn't answer. Not that Buja had expected one. Instead, he drew his dagger with his free hand.

"We'll know once we check."

3.

In all his life, Park Sijun had never seen a player who fought as well as Kim Buja. Among the many high-level players and in the dungeon clear videos with billions of views, there were plenty of players who moved fantastically, clearing dungeons solo with flashy skills.

But there weren't many who could display such overwhelming prowess purely with their own abilities. It was easier said than done. How hard could it be to see a monster's attack, dodge it, and then strike? Even if they were just 1-star monsters, it wasn't easy with the stats of a 1-star player.

Naturally, in Sijun's eyes, Buja's dual-wielding was just plain broken.

'He uses two weapons, so he's twice as strong,' he had thought. As a fellow offensive type, he had felt a slight sense of doubt about his own shield-bearing specialization. 'What if I had been an offensive class like that? If I dual-wielded and had the item advantage, I might not be able to dodge everything like him, but I could have swept through the battlefield and earned more fame and cheers.'

Until just ten seconds ago, that thought hadn't changed. Even while blocking monsters with his shield, he had glanced over with admiration at Buja slaughtering them.

But the assumptions that had been shaken for nearly a month were shattered once more in a mere ten seconds.

"Wh-what?"

If Kim Buja, wielding dual blades and rampaging across the battlefield, was like a hyena, then Kim Buja with a shield was a knight. The difference in their composure was as vast as that between a beast and a man. Of course, either way, the monsters ended up dead, so perhaps it didn't matter.

"He uses a shield 'like that'?"

The shield was Park Sijun's main weapon. Watching Kim Buja handle it went beyond simple admiration; it made him want to learn. Block, thrust, block, thrust. It was a simple repetition of actions, but the result was anything but simple.

"Insane…"

'What would have happened if I had challenged a guy like that?' He was so impressed that for a moment, he even had the foolish thought that the shield had found its true master. And as he watched Buja immediately charge at the three-headed hellhound, he even wondered if he might just slice off all three heads at once.

'Really?' he wondered.

Still, one look was enough to tell it was an elite monster. Could Buja really pull it off? If it had been any other player, Sijun would have scoffed, certain it was impossible. But with Kim Buja, he hesitated. As he mulled it over, a critical thought flashed through his mind. 'What if that necklace is a real Legendary item, and its effects are active on the monster?'

For all his reliance on gear and class to clear Unique dungeons, Sijun's instincts weren't entirely useless. 'There's no way.' Unless… did he have some unforeseen ace up his sleeve?

The moment the thought crossed his mind, Buja's shield slammed into the hellhound's heads.

Sijun saw it all in an instant: the moment of impact, and Kim Buja being sent flying backward.

* * *

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