They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World-Chapter 210: Mini Boss!

The descent through the next few floors of the dungeon was agonizingly tense, but not because of the monsters.

It was because of the eyes burning into the back of my head.

As we walked, I could feel Rolf constantly glancing at me.

Every time I shifted my weight or paused to adjust my boots, his eyes would dart in my direction.

When I casually looked back over my shoulder, he would immediately flash that nervous, sheepish smile and look away.

But the slight furrow in his brow gave him away.

He’s wondering why the poison isn’t working, I thought, suppressing a grim smirk.

He’s probably waiting for me to suddenly clutch my chest and drop dead.

But the neurotoxin had long since been neutralized, and I simply kept walking, keeping my breathing even and my posture relaxed.

Let the bastard sweat.

But what was far more concerning than Rolf’s creeping panic was the absolute emptiness of the dungeon.

We navigated through the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors without drawing a single weapon. The sprawling cavern systems, the ruined underground temples, the dark grottos... they were all completely barren.

"This doesn’t make any sense," Mira muttered, her bow lowered but an arrow still loosely pinched between her fingers.

"No guild has pushed past the fourth floor in months. If we haven’t been here... why is it completely empty?"

"Maybe the beasts migrated up?" Garf suggested, his heavy boots crunching on the loose gravel. "Or maybe whatever is down at the bottom ate them all."

"Shouldn’t it be better if we all just head back, then?" Rolf chimed in, his voice trembling perfectly. He wrung his hands together, looking around at the shadows.

"I mean, if it’s this quiet, it’s probably a trap. We should report this to the guild and come back with a raid party."

I narrowed my eyes at his back.

You just don’t want us finding the staging area you were talking about.

"No," Edric said flatly, not even breaking his stride.

He led us deeper into the seventh floor, down a narrow, claustrophobic corridor that seemed to end in a solid, featureless stone wall.

Rolf sighed in exaggerated relief.

"Dead end. See? Let’s turn aro—"

Edric suddenly stopped. He tilted his head, his dark eyes narrowing as he stared directly at the blank stone.

His hand drifted to the hilt of his sword.

Without a word of warning, Edric drew his blade and unleashed a ferocious, horizontal slash of condensed mana directly at the rock face.

The air shattered like a mirror.

And the stone wall violently rippled, dissolving into a cloud of fading magical sparks, revealing a massive, vaulted chamber hidden behind the illusion.

And waiting in the center of that chamber was a nightmare.

A hulking, four-armed monstrosity that looked like it had been carved out of obsidian and bone.

Thick, purple miasma leaked from the jagged vents in its armored back, and its eyes burned with a sickening, violet fire.

I opened my debug vision, scanning it.

A level forty-eight Mini-Boss... Corrupted Vault Guardian !

The rest of the Vanguard party didn’t flinch.

In fact, their entire demeanor shifted the moment they saw a target they could actually hit.

Mira let out a sharp, thrilling laugh, a wicked grin spreading across her face as she fluidly nocked an armor-piercing arrow.

"Finally! I was starting to get bored."

Garf slammed his war axe against the center of his heavy iron shield, the deafening clang echoing into the hidden chamber.

He let out a deep, booming laugh.

"Alright! Time to kick some ass!"

Yenna stepped forward, flames already igniting around her fists. She glanced back at me, Tessa, and Scarlet.

"Stay out in the corridor, kids," she ordered, her tone brooking no argument. "That thing is way above your league. Watch our backs."

Edric didn’t say a word. He just blurred forward.

The chamber erupted into absolute chaos.

The Mini-Boss roared, the sound physically shaking the stone beneath our feet.

It swung two of its massive bone-blades, aiming to cleave Edric in half, but he seamlessly ducked under the swing, slicing a deep gash across its knee.

Garf charged in a second later, using his [Shield Bash] to intercept a devastating downward strike, holding the beast’s attention while Mira’s arrows rained down on its weak points.

Yenna bombarded its flanks with superheated fireballs, creating massive explosions of steam and ash.

Even Rolf joined the fray, darting in and out of the monster’s blind spots with his twin daggers.

I watched him closely. He was purposefully holding back, deliberately missing critical strikes and taking glancing blows to maintain his facade as a mid-level rogue.

It was sickeningly good acting.

I took a few steps back into the corridor, leaning against the cool stone wall and sliding down until I was sitting on the ground.

There was no point in me stepping into that chamber.

Scarlet and Tessa dropped to the floor beside me, keeping a safe distance from the shockwaves echoing out of the boss room.

"They’re incredible," Tessa whispered, her eyes wide as she watched Yenna incinerate one of the beast’s arms. "I’ve never seen a party coordinate like that. Do you think we’ll ever be that strong, Jin?"

I just gave a distracted nod, my mind completely focused inward.

I closed my eyes and pulled up my interface.

[STATUS]

Name: Jin Raith

Age: 17

Class: Debugger

Level: 29

EXP: 40/7,150

Rank: C

MC (Mana Capacity): 436/450

Affinity: Dark Lightning

HP: 1,234/1,325

MP: 712/813 (325 + 488)

STR: 43

VIT: 42

AGI: 89

INT: 110

WIS: 55

LUK: 29

Allocation Points: 10

Skills:

Active: Light Orb, Alchemy (Intermediate), Debug Vision, Rolling Thunder

Passive: Poison Resistance (100%), Social Engineering, Iron Will, Mana Reservoir, Combat Analysis

Combat: Orthodox Fang (Mastered), Lightning Fang (Proficiency: 47%)

--

My eyes locked onto the newly updated line. Dark Lightning.

So the purification potion didn’t just erase the miasma... it forcefully assimilated the lingering corruption into my mana channels.

That explained the terrifying, black electricity I had used to slaughter the assassin. It was highly destructive, but volatile.

More importantly, I am now Level 29.

If Rolf decided to drop his act and wipe us all out, I needed every ounce of survivability I could get.

My Agility was already massively inflated from the mid-fight dump earlier, making me fast, but my physical chassis was still too fragile.

[Allocation points: 10]

I didn’t hesitate. I needed to hit harder, and I needed to be able to take a hit without my ribs instantly shattering.

Allocate 5 to STR and 5 to VIT

A deep, bone-deep ache radiated through my chest and arms as the system densified my muscle fibers and reinforced my skeletal structure.

[STR: 43 -> 48]

[VIT: 42 -> 47]