Kim Giryeo was yelling from behind, telling him to keep his eyes shut and maintain the barrier. anwhile, in front of him, tiny demons—too blurry to even make out their forms—were darting around chaotically, driving him to distraction.
“The analyzer says their weakness happens to be bright light and high heat. Haseong, try expanding your skill’s range a bit more.”
“...Wait a second, your vision’s that ssed up right now, and you still managed to read all the text?”
“Y-yeah...”
It was dreadful. But now that he had entered the dungeon, there was no other way. Haseong soon focused on his teacher’s voice. Following the instructions of his industry colleague, he ignited flas close to his body and tried to engage in close combat as much as possible to avoid anyone getting caught up.
But of course, fighting like this was unbearably hot. Even for a superhuman who could endure heat better than others, it had its limits. On days when the flickering flas briefly clung to him, a paradoxical pain would rise—like scraping the surface of his skin with frozen ice. The more he fought, the more his skin burned with a cold, stinging pain.
First of all, there is a clear rank gap between an A-grade dungeon and an S-grade hunter. Jung Haseong, having hunted so many different beasts that he was practically a walking human database, managed to sohow make progress in the dungeon raid itself. Surprisingly, it went smoothly.
“Tak!”
It was around the ti when, in the middle of the dungeon, he was lighting a fierce fire and defeating all the enemies that sward like moths. Even while demonstrating such trendous power, the black-haired young man soon showed signs of dissatisfaction.
“Seriously, why did I have to awaken with this kind of attribute...”
The number one ranked hunter in South Korea’s hunter industry, Jung Haseong.
But what use is such a worthless title? No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t bring himself to care for his own talent. To be exact, it was a skill he simply could not love.
If it only had been a curse attribute like Seo Esther’s—one that targeted only living creatures and spared the buildings everyone had built with blood and sweat. Or better yet, an enhancent ability like Kang Changho’s, perfect for urban warfare. He didn’t even need anything that grand. Even if he had just awakened with a water attribute—sothing that directly contrasted with what he had now—he wouldn’t have co to hate his own future this much.
At present, Jung Haseong was diligently defeating his enemies.
3rd floor, 4th floor, 5th floor.
In this section, the enemies were mostly confird to be living creatures, so Kim Giryeo—or more precisely, Hydra—was able to provide a fair amount of support.
6th floor. At this point, a familiar-looking boss appeared.
“That’s the one! Can you see it too?”
“Yes. Even flipped over, that distinctive appearance is imdiately recognizable.”
“No wonder it fell out of our league... Damn, now that I look closely, the color on the epaulet is different. It only looks the sa on the outside, but its mana level is A-rank.”
A variant of the steel monster that appeared in the final battle of [Labyrinth of the 12th Month] has arrived in this world. Therefore, Kim Giryeo took a step back to focus on support, but Jung Haseong made many mistakes during the process of defeating this monster. Just like the old saying, “If the body is worth a thousand nyang, the eyes are worth nine hundred,” the complete obstruction of his vision had a significant impact.
“Back then, I could’ve just split it in half and killed it instantly.”
Whoong.
In the darkened world behind closed eyelids, the sound of sothing massive approaching could be heard, carried on the wind. Hearing this, Jung Haseong instinctively raised his sword, supporting the flat side of its blade with his other hand.
“Boom!”
Then, the monster’s iron fist—breaking through the wall of flas—clashed against his legendary blade. After several rounds of trial and error, he finally began to get a feel for the overall rhythm of the battle.
“If it continues like this...”
And in that mont, a flash of mory—of a past lesson crossed his mind. A ti when the cold wind had yet to fade, back when he had only made a single deposit of thirty billion won. Looking back, it seed like he had been preparing himself to handle situations like this all along.
“Jung Haseong, now that you ntion it, I heard this gym also provides first aid supplies. Do you happen to know where they’re kept?”
No matter how smart a genius he might be, there’s no way he had foreseen such a sudden Tower of a Hundred People incident and planned that kind of training for it in advance.
“...No, that’s not right. Now that I think about it, it sohow feels like even this might have been part of his plan.”
A being clearly standing on a higher step than himself—one who, even if it ant roughly grabbing his wrist and dragging him forward, had helped him realize this power.
The source of miracles—mana.
In the midst of this dire crisis, Jung Haseong recalled once again how to sense the flow that soone had taught him. And as a result, he was able to easily defeat the chanical monster he encountered again in the Tower of a Hundred People.
“Trust! Rumble rumble rumble...”
That kind of body would take far too long to lt down with sheer firepower anyway. Just like the death he had once experienced in the past—the crimson sunset blade pierced through its insides, and the monster t a swift and screaming demise.
Then, with the gatekeeper defeated—what kind of scene do you think unfolded next?
7th floor, 8th floor, 9th floor. By the ti they reached this level, surprisingly, everything had beco fairly manageable.
“At first, I had no idea how to handle this.”
Learning while getting hit definitely made for faster acquisition. Plus, in one corner of the dungeon, there was even a competent industry colleague who was correcting his shortcomings in real-ti.
Just as the Archmage had predicted. To be honest, the Tower of a Hundred People raid wasn’t the kind of ordeal that would cost anyone here their life. It was considered dangerous enough that Giryeo’s side had agreed to co along without too much thought. If it had been A-rank awakeners—those who t the standard challenge level—there would’ve been wailing and gnashing of teeth. But the challenger here was an S-rank hunter who had even absorbed the superior arcane knowledge of an alien world—hardworking and relentless. The premise itself was entirely different.
“That’s a relief. Co to think of it, I heard this gate has about ten floors total. Then... does that an the final boss is just around the corner?”
Ssssk.
The man who had been crouching in a corner, trying to avoid the flas, stood up. At that mont, Jung Haseong was defeating a variety of bosses that had appeared on the 5th floor, and just by roughly observing the flow of the battle, Giryeo was already confident in his comrade’s victory.
Then what would appear on the long-awaited 10th floor?
“Uhm?”
It was the mont when he felt sowhat relieved, thinking that the end of the workday was finally near.
“Kieeee...!”
The final beast of the floor let out a pitiful cry as it t its end, and before they could even mourn the creature’s death, the scene changed once more. The 10th floor. Compared to all the floors they had passed so far, it was an exceptionally large chamber.
Purple. And if you looked closely, the garishly painted walls were speckled here and there with sparkles reminiscent of shooting stars.
“This is the final opponent... of the Tower of a Hundred People.”
The two hunters, whose eyes had been montarily captivated by the room’s vibrant colors, suddenly turned their heads straight.
Tzzzzzt.
This was because dense mana had gathered in the center of the space where they stood. Moreover, the magical substance, having converged in one place, didn’t stop at rely increasing in density—it gradually began to take on a special form...
“What is that? That white thing?”
The Korean man with the neat appearance, nad Jung Haseong, suddenly furrowed his brows.
But although there was no change in his expression, in truth, he was the one most shocked of all.
“Oh my.”
For various reasons, his larynx seed to be slightly paralyzed compared to others—soon, the sound of a man’s damaged voice began to flow out.
“Is that thing... real?”
As soon as Haseong heard it, he turned his head back. In a reflection where up and down, left and right were all reversed and distorted, Kim Giryeo was staring at the enemy that had appeared in front of them, speaking in a grave tone.
For Hunter Kim Giryeo, who was usually so indifferent about everything, to like that...
“What on earth is that monster that just appeared?”
At last, they ca face-to-face with the glorious 10th floor boss of the [Tower of a Hundred People].
The monster that was appeared in this space looked like this. It was as if a marble statue in an exhibition hall had co to life, a specific white form with a cold and hard stone all over its body. Its head had eyes, a nose, and a mouth that looked similar to a human.
As a bonus, sothing resembling long, wavy human hair was neatly intertwined at the crown of its head.
“No, wait a minute. Now that I look at it closely, that’s completely...!”
Realizing it a mont too late, Jung Haseong shouted loudly. The creature that had just appeared was, no matter how you looked at it, clearly modeled after the human body.
An imitation of an Earthling. Jung Haseong had never encountered such a being during his ti as a hunter, so his body tensed up with instinctive discomfort.
But the hunter standing behind him wasn’t frightened for the sa reason.
“An entirely white body, and a form that closely resembles a human...”
Upon facing an enemy of this form, his brain suddenly recalled the word “angel.” Kim Giryeo then imdiately rembered that “angel” was a religious symbol widely believed in by many humans, and he shouted internally.
“The most sacred form of monster!”
Maybe Jung Haseong in front of him didn’t realize it, but to soone from Alphauri, this was sothing that could only cause shock.
“Sign of [Descent]!”
His mouth fell open involuntarily.
The occupation process of a certain alien species consisted of three stages. Even the interdiate stage, [Possession], progressing this quickly would have been shocking enough—but now, [Descent], which once turned half of Alphauri’s surface into a literal hellscape, was approaching. How could this not be a cause for utter shock?
And to make matters worse, he was still an Archmage who hadn’t even recovered a quarter—no, not even a fraction of a fraction—of his full power.
Right after piecing together the information from his days as Archmage in his mind, Giryeo was instantly gripped by fear, anticipating that this might be a sign of the [Descent] appearing.
“Hunter Kim, what’s wrong?”
But after a few seconds, the body he had taken control of began to clarify the misunderstanding.
“H, huh? Ah... Right, an original angel isn’t complete without wings... Wait a second. Then that thing isn’t even the final form of the Gismche?”
Oh my? He was startled for no reason.
While Jung Haseong glanced back and forth between the monster and his companion in confusion, Giryeo finished sorting through the indescribable thoughts in his mind and snapped back to the present. The first thing he did upon regaining focus was pull out his analyzer.
And as expected, the result matched his prediction.
“Beep.”
[???]
[Rank: S]
[Description: No description registered.]
“So now if it just goes beyond the existing range, the rank is automatically displayed?”
“Yes!”
“That thing in front of us is ranked S-rank.”
“Yes?!”
When the blond calmly said that, the national hero practically jumped in surprise.
That’s right. The final boss of the [Tower of a Hundred People] was, unbelievably, a being equal in strength to Haseong himself.
“Damn analyzer!”
“No wonder I get startled every ti you use strong language, Haseong.”
“Ah, I’m sorry?”
Back during the Nuckelavee incident, enemies like that were so rare, yet lately, powerful foes seem to be showing up far too easily.
It was the ergence of another S-class monster—following the recently nad Champagne Janus, who had appeared at the Black Dragon King incident and in the Six-Legged Corridor. However, Haseong wasn’t overly shaken.
“It’s not just our country’s problem.”
The recent academic papers confirming the clear rise in dungeon threat levels had shown their influence in various sectors, and as a result, this year alone, a total of two S-rank gates had been discovered—even overseas, including in South Korea.
“Both were said to have relatively low threat levels, like the Six-Legged Corridor case, so they weren’t considered national-topping threats...”
Now, even if an enemy appears that threatens the very top of the food chain, it’s no longer sothing to be terribly shocked by.
Then why did he suddenly curse at the analyzer?
Because the dungeon—an extra-dinsional space—doesn’t have perfectly uniform mana density inside (in fact, most planet atmospheres aren’t uniform either), sotis monsters appear that don’t match the entrance’s asurent results. It’s an event that happens with low probability. If luck is on our side, sotis a C-rank monster might even appear in a B-rank dungeon, so it’s quite a frustrating situation in many ways.
“Even after making that much noise, there’s no reaction. Is it a counterattacking-type monster?”
And there was more bad news.
“The magical power flowing outward is nothing special, but the energy contained inside is no joke...”
“Is that so?”
“Well, I guess it makes sense. The [Tower of a Hundred People] seems designed to always produce a dungeon boss-level evil entity, so it’s no surprise a strong one showed up.”
The blond man standing behind slowly explained.
“No matter how strong you are, Jung Haseong, if you tried to take that thing on alone, you’d probably end up getting overpowered instead.”
So even a skilled hunter who single-handedly crushed a nine floors shouldn’t recklessly attempt this hunt.
“But it’s okay.”
It was then. Until now, the Awakener had been silently hiding in the corner of the stairs, but he stepped forward. And as he tugged at the strap material covering the skin of his hand, he spoke.
“I’ll help you clear this floor this ti.”
“—?!”
“But I’ll only help once. And when I step in—that’s a secret for now. By now, your eyes should’ve adjusted well enough...”
“Hunter Kim.”
“If the dungeon is as straightforward as it claid at the entrance, then yeah... the trial wouldn’t be all that fun at all.”
In fact, there’s another reason why he can only help him once, and he’s shaless.
“Poor primitive. You’re getting your rent waived, so as the vanguard of sorcery, the least I can do is lend a hand like this.”
The hunter stepped forward a few paces, now standing on equal footing with Jung Haseong. He once again drew upon the source of his current arrogance from his wrist, preparing for battle.
[Midnight Gloves]
(Excluding the tax for February of the following year, which he didn’t know about) It was ti to show off his true ability worth 100 billion won.
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