Hope everyone enjoys!

Honestly, it feels like I wrote less than normal for these four chapters since two of them were fucking chunky boys.

-]|[-

Jinwoo grunted as he woke up suddenly, “Whuh?” He looked confused for a moment before looking left. Miho was there, smirking lazily at him. She looked vaguely catlike as she gently traced her finger around his left nipple. He blinked, before looking to the right. Joohee was there, her face completely beet red.  He blinked again, before he lifted his head and looked down.

Oh. That was what woke him up.

Soohyun’s eyes were gleaming brightly as she stared at him, nose pressed to his pelvis. He groaned as the sensations hit him all at once, fisting the bedsheets to both sides. It was the most fantastic thing he had ever felt. Soohyun looked incredibly amused as she slowly dragged her head up. And up. And up.  Her cheeks were completely indented, and she was sucking like she was trying to steal his soul. And she was succeeding. He grunted again as she reached the head of his cock and then let go, her lips making an audible pop. “Good morning.” She said cheekily.

“Good mornING!” He whimpered back, shouting the last bit as she took him in her mouth again and went all the way down her throat in an instant. “Fuck!”

Miho chuckled on his left, before lazily slinking down and moving his left leg. Jinwoo swore the world went white for a moment as she took his balls into her mouth.

“Jinwoo.” Joohee’s face was still red as he looked at her, but she had a competitive gleam in her eyes. She kissed him more passionately than she ever had before and Jinwoo hurried to get her on top of him. He instantly realized as he groped her thick ass that she wasn’t wearing anything. She pulled back, a heated look on her face. She got on her hands and knees and crawled up. Jinwoo’s eyes widened as she placed her pussy right above his face. “Jinwoo…” She whimpered as she dropped her hips, pressing her lips to his. He wrapped his hands around her thighs to pull her down, feasting like his life depended on it.

It was the best morning he’d ever had.

-]|[-

They all deadpanned as they saw Jinho. “…You took a taxi here, wearing that?” Jinwoo asked, sweatdropping lightly. “We were going to pick you up…”

“Well, you guys are all helping me out! I would have walked if I had to!” Jinho replied, wondering why all four of them were practically sparkling.

Miho palmed her face, “Why is it that you have a new set of armor every time we see you?”

“Never mind that!” Jinho grinned as he patted the van Miho had bought for their raids. “Your chariot awaits!”

They all got in and Soohyun smirked, “Alright cousin, before we get out of here… we gots something to share with you.” She sing-songed.

“Share?” Jinho blinked, looking back over at her. Miho had taken shotgun today.

“Mhmmm.” Miho was still smirking like the cat that had gotten the canary. “So, you remember the Double Dungeon that fucked us?”

Jinho blushed a little, “Well, not in those exact words, but yes.”

Soohyun smirked, “Well, we’re finally ready to show you the prize we got for surviving it.” Jinho’s eyes widened as her smirk widened, “Invite Yoo Jinho to party.”

[You have been Invited to the Party by Yoo Soohyun. Limited access to the System will be provided. Do you accept?]

[If refused, you will not be able to be invited again.]

Jinho flinched so violently at the screen popping up in front of him that a normal human would have gotten concussed. “Wh-Wh-Wh-What the hell?!” He yelped, trying to smack it away, only for his hand to pass through it.

“So yeah,” Jinwoo smirked at him, “Surviving it turned us into video game characters.” Jinho gaped at him.

“And as of…” Joohee looked at her watch, “-twenty-eight hours ago, we have the ability to each invite one other person to share it.”

Jinho looked like his software had crashed. He continued to sit there, mouth gaping and eye twitching, for at least a minute before blowing the top off the van. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

…

After ten minutes, they all had answered all of his questions. Jinho had accepted and they had started driving. “Oh, we have one more person to pick up.” Soohyun said before giving Jinho Songyi’s address.

“Hey Songyi, meet us outside in ten minutes.” Jinwoo called her and let her know they were on the way, “We’ll give you a ride to the Gate.”

Joohee sighed and looked to Soohyun. “He’s utterly clueless, isn’t he?” Her girlfriend snickered.

“Songyi?” Jinho asked, “Isn’t she the girl from…”

“Our Strike Squad? Yeah.” Jinwoo confirmed, not noticing Jinho twitch.

Once they arrived, Jinho snarked, “Should I call Songyi ‘Miss’ from now on?” Miho bit her fist.

“What are you on about?” Jinwoo blinked at him, “She’s my sister’s best friend.” Soohyun pressed her face into Joohee’s shoulder, shaking quietly.

“Hello everyone!” Songyi had prettied herself up and put her hair in a ponytail today. She even had some light eyeshadow. “Oh, hello to you too, Mr. Yoo!”

“Hey Songyi. Were you able to get any sleep?” Jinwoo asked. Joohee bit her lip, trying to keep her laughter in.

“Just a bit. Even though I was exhausted, I was too wired when we got in, and the sun started lasering my face.” Songyi grumbled, “I need better shades. How about you four?”

“Oh, we got a bit.” Miho threw gas on the fire with an evil smirk.

“Mhm…” Soohyun poured more on, “Of course, after last night, no one would have been able to stay awake.”

Jinho’s jaw dropped further and further, ‘They saw each other last night? All five of them were exhausted? They got in late enough that the sun was coming out?!’ He had a dead look on his face, “Guys…” He got their attention, feeling he had to speak up, “Miss Songyi is underage…”

“Your point?” Jinwoo asked cluelessly, and Miho lost the battle and began howling with laughter. “What?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Joohee patted his cheek mockingly as Soohyun began to shake with laughter.

Jinwoo rolled his eyes, “Let’s just get this over with.”

…

Jinho almost started to cry as he finally got to do some actual fighting inside one of their raids! The people outside had raised a small fuss when Songyi was allowed to join them, but a look from Miho set them straight.

Jinwoo had crafted a full set of armor for him using two mammoths and a few yetis. Jinho was now resplendent in shadow armor not unlike the ridiculous set he had worn on their first day. The one that he’d been stuck on his back like a turtle after Jinwoo gently pushed him over. He now had a shield that looked like it was constructed out of a mammoth’s skull. There were even tusks, which he was using to shield-bash their enemies with. In his right hand was a greataxe that he was wielding with one hand.

Normally it all would have been too heavy for him to wear and wield, but the items themselves had given him a good increase in stats, just as Songyi and Heejin’s gear had. Enough to put him over the weight threshold. He was actually being useful. In a Dungeon that the party numbers had turned into an A-Rank! He was leveling up very fast and just oh so happy that his friends and cousin had decided to share this gift with him.

But he was astounded by Songyi, who was whipping around the battlefield and laying down hellish fire with her arrows. She was getting better and better at targeting multiple enemies at once. Every time she drew back the string on her bow, she was able to fire a dozen smaller arrows that still hit like howitzer shells. “Did-Did you make better gear for her, sir?”

“Hmm?” Jinwoo looked over at him, “No, your gear is about the same quality. Yours is a little better, actually, since the Frost Bears I used as materials for her were a good bit weaker than the yetis and especially the mammoths.”

He didn’t really think ranks mattered as much as other people, but she was actually an E-Rank. Right? “But then how-”

“Honestly Jinho, you haven’t figured it out yet?” Soohyun rolled her eyes and snagged him with an arm, bowing him over and giving him a noogie through the mammoth-tusked helmet. He yelped for mercy. “We weren’t exhausted this morning because we were gang fucking her all night.” Jinwoo choked as he finally realized what Jinho had been worried about. “We got stuck inside a Red Gate.”

“SERIOUSLY?!” Jinho gaped, finally managing to shrug her off when she loosened her grip.

“Yes, seriously.” Jinwoo gave Jinho a gimlet gaze, very unimpressed.

“Uhhh…”

“And for the record, she’s nineteen in a month.” Miho smirked and decided the fire needed stoking, “She’s legal everywhere else.”

“What does that matter?” Jinwoo glared at her.

Joohee rolled her eyes and patted his cheek, “You’ll find out when you’re older.” Now she got the glare.

“I’m uhhh…” Jinho raised his hand sheepishly, “Going to go back to killing things.”

“You do that.” Jinwoo said, before rounding on Miho, “And seriously, why does that matter?”

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” Miho snarked as she took a seat on a boulder to continue watching Songyi absolutely going to town on the beasts.

Jinwoo looked at the ceiling of the cave, begging for patience. And he needed patience, because if the System granted him more strength instead, they were all getting spanked.

-]|[-

In America, an A-Rank Hunter named James was almost shitting his armor. ‘Impossible! Our Strike Squad got wiped out?’ He swallowed heavily as he stared at the culprit: a single man. Or at least he looked like a man. An incredibly muscular man with long, shaggy black hair. ‘Is he a humanoid beast?!’

James had known something was wrong right from the offset of this disastrous raid. There hadn’t been a single magic beast inside of it! When they got to the boss’s lair, they had just seen this man sitting on a capsized sailing vessel, calm as you please. The man had even spoken, but the guild had been so spooked that they attacked.

They had been annihilated. The man had defeated each and every one of them with single hits each. ‘The mana emanating from him is stronger than the mana of this entire A-Rank Dungeon! How is this possible?!’

“Damn man, can you guys stop freaking out?” The man asked, making James stiffen in terror. “I said I wasn’t interested in fighting. Your friends aren’t dead. I just knocked them out.”

“H-How were we supposed to react?!” James yelled, “You’re stronger than the entire Gate and there were zero beasts inside here!”

The man shook his head and grinned, “Like intelligent people, not morons. You wouldn’t attack an S-Rank, would you?” James ‘eeped’ as the man’s visible eye glowed gold. “Look, I’m Korean, and the only thing I want is to go home.”

James swallowed, “…Alright… W-we can get you out of here, at least.”

“Good man.” He said before starting to gather the fallen B and A-Ranks and throwing them over his shoulder. All of them. Armor and all. James quickly led him into the light, and the man took a deep breath of clean air for the first time in years. Even as the rest of the Guild gaped at the sight of an A-Rank Dungeon closing before they could extract any wealth at all from it, the man’s grin widened. Something had appeared in front of him.

[Quest Completed!

You have returned to Earth.]

[Level Up!]

-]|[-

“Cheers!” They all declared as they raised their glasses and clinked them together. They had run three more raids instead of the requisite one, seeing as a few of the Strike Squad didn’t feel like bothering for just one. They’d gone over their contract by a bit, but none of them really cared.

They had a large table at a bar and grill with plenty of meat surrounding them. Jinho smiled sheepishly, “I wanted to take you somewhere fancy to celebrate but…”

“Are you kidding?” Miho grabbed some meat off the sizzling grill in front of them and dropped it in her mouth, chewing rapturously. “This is way better than some stuffy fancy place. I’d come here any day of the week!”

They all chuckled as Jinho’s grin became more genuine. “So, what are your plans now that our raids are over?” Jinwoo asked him.

“Now, I just take a simple written exam at the association and get my Guild Master’s license.” Jinho said softly, “After that, it’s just trying to strike a deal with my father.”

“Uhh, I’m a bit out of the loop.” Songyi, pouting as she was the only one who couldn’t get some alcohol, said. “What’s going on?”

“Long story short,” Soohyun said, “Yoojin Construction is trying to create a Guild.”

“But they’re going about it in a frankly stupid way.” Miho snarked.

“Right. They’re just going about trying to create a Guild in their control… while just asking every loosely affiliated S-Rank to be the Guild Master.” Soohyun said, shaking her head, “Meanwhile, their plan is to make Jinho’s older brother the Vice Guild Master.”

“Except his brother isn’t Awakened.” Jinwoo said, “Forget being a D or even E-Rank, he has no powers at all.”

“Which means that, in truth, whatever Hunter they manage to make the Guild Master will have total control of it.” Joohee said.

“You’re right, that is stupid.” Songyi muttered, before looking at Jinho, “I take it you were getting something out of our raids even without being able to level up?”

“That’s right. All I need to take the Guild Master exam is twenty completed raids.” Jinho said, “I ran my first raid with Jinwoo… though it was a bit of a disaster.” He winced, “In any case, if I go ahead and get my Guild Master License, I can bargain with my father and take over the Guild myself.”

“Or…” Jinwoo smirked at him, “You can just join our Guild once we make it.”

Jinho froze, gaping at him.

Miho finished chewing another piece of steak and swallowed. “Honestly, your plan was kinda stupid. No offense Jinho, but no S-Rank would take orders from a legitimate D-Rank. We went along with it because it gave us easy EXP so we could level up, even if it was benefiting you too.” Jinho twitched, “But raids are public record. Everything about them can be looked up, from the rank of the Dungeon to who entered it. Your father could easily just look up the records of our raids and decide that you completed them so easily because of us.”

“Which, knowing Uncle, is what he’ll do.” Soohyun said softly, patting Jinho on the shoulder. “Especially once we go and get Reassessed. Uncle will give you what you want but make it contingent on recruiting us. Which isn’t going to happen.” She said softly.

“W-Would you really…” Jinho teared up a little.

“Hey, you’re my idiot cousin. Of course we’d take you.” Soohyun laughed as Miho slapped him on the back in a friendly manner.

“Think about it.” Joohee told him, smiling gently. “You have the ability to level up now. So all you have to do is keep running raids and eventually become S-Rank yourself. You could become a real Guild Master if you’re a little more patient.”

“…” Jinho was silent for a few moments and took another shot of his alcohol. He already had a rosy blush from it, since he didn’t get Kandiaru’s Blessing. “Honestly… my brother and I are more than ten years apart. He doesn’t like me very much and we’ve never spent much time together growing up.” He looked at Jinwoo bashfully, “You’ve saved my life,” He looked at everyone else except for Songyi, “And you’ve all helped me achieve my goals, and now have even given me the ability to make them truth rather than fiction.” He smiled tearfully at them, “Soohyun might already be my favorite cousin, but the rest of you have been more like brothers and sisters than the ones I grew up with.”

“Dawww.” Soohyun gave him a hug.

Miho, Joohee, and Jinwoo smiled. “Well then.” Jinwoo said as he held up another shot glass full of alcohol, “I can’t refuse a heartfelt request like that-” He smirked, “Lil bro.” Joohee and Miho started to giggle.

Jinho teared up. “Siiiiir!” He cried out, “Can I hug you?!”

“Don’t cause a scene!” Soohyun shook her head in amusement. “Couldn’t you have waited until he wasn’t drunk?!”

“I’m not druuuunk!” They all sighed and rolled their eyes in amusement over his antics.

-]|[-

“Damn leeches.” Baek Yoonho sighed as he sat heavily in his executive chair at the White Tigers Guild HQ. He loosened his tie and even popped a few buttons. “They really know how to sniff out a story.” He pulled out a glass and popped a perfectly clear ball of ice into it. He then poured himself three fingers of the finest American whiskey, taking a fortifying sip. “As if my bratty sister hadn’t already given me enough of a headache.”

He stared outside the floor-to-ceiling window. “Miss Heejin is unofficially an A-Rank. She’s the… fifth strongest in the guild now. She could easily slot into the main squad without an issue.” He rubbed at his forehead, “And that’s to say nothing of how Miho now outclasses me by a frankly embarrassing margin.” He sighed. “What the hell happened to them inside that Double Dungeon?!” He slammed a fist on the table, before taking a far-too-large gulp of a very expensive drink.

Each and every one of the survivors he himself had pulled from that disaster Dungeon had been as weak as kittens. He could not understand how someone could even be considered Awakened with magical powers that weak! They were barely better than baseline humans. Guns would probably have worked on them.

He quite simply could not have allowed his sister to throw her life away like that. His parents had entrusted him with her safety before a Dungeon break had claimed them, and he could not let them down. He had been a bit of an asshole about it, but he knew damn well his sister was too prideful to accept it otherwise.

She had enough money to retire and start a family that would have been set for generations. She should have retired.

Instead, she had quit the Guild over it while obviously aware that she was recovering. But now it was apparent that she hadn’t been simply recovering. They hadn’t been simply recovering. They had been growing stronger. Surpassing every benchmark they had once had. Like they had been playing a video game and had been reset to-

He sat up like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. One of his favorite video games as a child had been God of War. In the second game, the main character Kratos had been drained of all of his power from the previous title and forced to start back at level one, essentially.

Could that have been what happened? Or at least something along those lines? But that was ridiculous! Hunters couldn’t gain strength! The ONLY way for a Hunter to become stronger without a straight-up Second Awakening was through gear.

“By all reports, that Dungeon was weird as hell. Maybe it really did happen. Those damn statues that all the Hunters reported on, even the room itself had vanished. What says other weird shit couldn’t have happened?”

He let out a frustrated groan. Without speaking to them, there was no way to know for sure. He gulped down the rest of his whiskey without enjoying it and then put the cold glass on his forehead.

“Ah, Guild Master?” His phone lit up.

“What is it?” Yoonho groaned. Not another reporter?!

“Uhh, Mr. Min Byung-Gu is on the line. What would you like me to do?”

“Go ahead and put him through!” Yoonho was excited to speak to a friend. They hadn’t spoken in quite some time.

“Yoonho, why was your cell phone turned off?” Byung-Gu asked.

“The leeches we call the media.” Yoonho deadpanned, “Come on, Min, you know the game.”

“Oh, that’s right! I forgot about that!” Byung-Gu exclaimed, “It was on the news even here in Japan. Did a C-Rank really turn into a Red Gate? And did you seriously only lose the one A-Rank that went in?”

“Yeah.” Yoonho sighed, “It was pure luck that my sister and her friends had gone inside. They were able to get everyone out safely.”

“But hadn’t she been De-Ranked somehow?” Byung-Gu sounded confused.

“Yeah, and now they’re stronger than me. Don’t make my headache worse because I have no fucking idea.” Yoonho grunted. “What are you doing in Japan anyway?”

“The Association asked me to come.” Byung-Gu filed the information away for later. He’d grill his friend in person because that sounded juicy. “A week ago, someone from Japan secretly contacted them. I came just to check things out and things are worse than expected. The news will reach Korea soon too.” His voice turned grim.

“What happened?” Yoonho sat up at his friend’s tone. “What could have caused them to contact the Association?”

“They needed someone who had participated in the Jeju Island Raids.” Byung-Gu now made his previous grim tone sound positively cheery.

“That damn hellscape?!” Yoonho started to sweat, “Four years we’ve had to endure ridicule over losing our island! Three times we’ve gone there to wipe them out, and three times we’ve been forced back with our tails between our legs. We gave up on retaking it after losing so many people last time. It’s a nightmare I just want to forget! What the fuck do the Japanese want with it?”

“The ants are mutating.” Byung-Gu said, leading to a moment of silence. “They found the corpse of one of the damn things here. It had wings, Yoonho.”

Dread that made him entirely forget about his sister’s strangeness engulfed Baek Yoonho.

-]|[-

“Wait, you’re going on another trip?” Jinah asked, looking irritated. “Look bro, having girlfriends is good and all, but-”

“We’re not going together.” Jinwoo deadpanned.

“And yet all four of you will be unreachable for a week. Come on, Jinwoo, I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night. What are you really doing?”

“Fine, I confess.” Jinwoo sighed, “I’m going to use this key-” He held it up, “To open an S-Rank Dungeon at Daesung Tower, which I will climb, and defeat any enemy I see in order to get stronger as a Hunter. The girls are all going to different areas to open their S-Rank Challenge Dungeons.”

She stared at him, “Fine, keep your secrets.” She shook her head and turned away. And then she screamed in fright as Jinwoo materialized in front of her in a burst of speed.

“Jinah.” Jinwoo chuckled. “Think I could have done that a few months ago? As an E-Rank?”

Jinah swallowed suddenly. “N-No…”

He had discussed this with the girls many times, but Joohee was right. It wasn’t right to keep it from her. “As unbelievable as it sounds, that really is what I’ll be doing.” Her eyes widened, and then he spent the next several minutes telling her everything about the Cartenon Temple and the powers surviving it had granted them.

Jinah had always been scared for him, but he always seemed to get out of things okay. She had never truly understood. She had never been terrified like this. The more he spoke, the more scared she got. “I don’t want you to go!” She cried out.

“I have to.” He hugged her, “I must. Because of this.” He summoned the recipe for the Elixir of Life.

“What is it?” Jinah tearfully asked him, “What could possibly be worth going into an S-Rank Dungeon?! You KNOW what happened every time they went to Jeju even with half a dozen S-Ranks!”

“It’s a crafting recipe.” He said softly, “And if I get all the ingredients… I might be able to heal mom.”

Jinah froze before tearing up. “…” She sniffled, “Damn you…”

He hugged her tight; and she hit his chest several times as she started to cry. “I’ll be fine, Jinah. I’m an S-Rank myself now.”

“But you’re ONE person! YOU ALL ARE!” She yelled at him.

“And we’ve survived worse.” He told her firmly. He smirked at her, “And you’re wrong.” He summoned Igris, Blades, and Beste. “I’m never alone. Not anymore.” His eyes gleamed blue as Jinah let out a shrill squeak. “I’ve got an entire army in my Shadow.”

Her jaw dropped, “That… that is so badass!” She stared open-mouthed at three of his four Elite Knights.

He grinned as they all dispersed. “They definitely are.” He summoned one of the regular Knights. “You. Keep her safe.” He said, and the Shadow bowed, before turning into a black mass and entering Jinah’s Shadow.

“Woah, what the heck?!” Jinah poked him in the chest, “Don’t just go around sticking Shadows where they don’t belong, big bro!”

“You won’t even know it’s there unless you get attacked for some weird reason.” Jinwoo reassured her. “And don’t worry about the girls either. They’re all strong and have been through too much to fail in these Dungeons. Especially when the System wants us to succeed.”

Her bottom lip quivered again, before she rushed at him and hugged him. “If you die, I’ll kill you myself!”

He chuckled in response. “See you in a week.” He grabbed his pack and put it in his inventory.

“Jinwoo!” She called out as he walked to the door, “…Are you really S-Rank?”

He smirked at her when he turned back, “Yesterday, I brought Songyi to a Dungeon so she could see what one was really like.” Jinah’s jaw dropped, “My intention was to either help her become a real Hunter if that was what she wanted, or to scare her straight and send her back to school. Things… did not go as planned.”

“What happened?! Is Songyi okay?!” Jinah demanded, “If she got hurt because of one of your stupid plans-”

“She’s fine.” Jinwoo rolled his eyes, “And while she is going to become a real Hunter now and join us on raids so she can level up, the girls and I convinced her to at least go back for her diploma, if for no other reason than to keep you company.”

“You shared the System with her and not me?!” Of course that was what she would take away from it.

“Jinah.” Jinwoo said seriously, “You’re not a worthless scrub like I was for the last decade. You have a future ahead of you.” His sister’s eyes widened as he revealed what he had thought of himself for so long. She even teared up because of it. “Even if you did Awaken, I wouldn’t let you Hunt.”

“…I’d call you an ass… but I think I’d be too scared anyway.” Jinah said, “Especially after what you told me…” She sighed, “How did things not go ‘as planned?’”

Jinwoo chuckled, “First, the Association probably used a faulty Mana Meter and misranked a B-Rank Dungeon as a C-Rank.” Jinah’s stomach dropped, “Then the Gate turned into a Red Gate, which turned it into a much more dangerous A-Rank that we could not escape from.” Her jaw joined her stomach. “And finally, the four of us being in there made the System compensate for the extra EXP and raise the difficulty accordingly.”

“ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!”

He put a hand on her head and rubbed her scalp, smirking. “So you see, little sister… I’ve already cleared an S-Rank Dungeon.”

Jinah swallowed… “Then go.” She hugged him, “I love you, Jinwoo.”

“I’ll be back before you know it. Stop giving me Death Flags.” Jinwoo deadpanned. She started to giggle, and he joined her.

-]|[-

Jinwoo took a deep breath as he arrived at Daesung Tower and grabbed his key. He had been level 30 when he first entered this place, so his level had more than doubled. Not only that, but he had more than a month’s worth more skill points invested, and his Shadow Army had grown exponentially.

He was ready. He raised the key and turned it. Instantly, a blazing fire engulfed Daesung Tower as the rest of the city burned away behind him. Buildings reappeared in collapsed, burned-out husks. Chains were now securing the tower to the ground. The tower’s entrance was also replaced with a massive steel double door.

He walked up to the gate and a glitch keyhole appeared in front of him. He grabbed the other key, the one he had acquired after he defeated Cerbie, and then popped the gate open. He raised an eyebrow when he walked inside, and the massive double doors closed behind him. It was a massive, cavernous entrance hall decorated with statues of demons. He frowned. “Great, statues again.” He muttered before walking on. But the statues didn’t attack. Hell, they felt just like regular statues.

“Is this really just a hallway?” He asked in confusion. When he was halfway through, a screen opened in front of him.

[QUEST

Regular Quest: Collect the Demons’ Souls. (1)

The demons’ castle is swarming with demons. You will receive a special reward for defeating them and collecting their souls.

Quest requirements:

- Collect 10-]

“A HUNDRED THOUSAND?!” He cried out in shock. “There’s that many in here?!” He shook his head and continued to read, musing that he wouldn’t even be able to use his Shadow Monarch skills on that many demons.

[- Collect 100,000 Demon Souls.

Rewards:

1. A Random Cursed Lootbox.

2. Any one item from the shop.

3. Bonus stats +30.]

“Damn, those are actually awesome rewards!” He grinned, now determined to complete this mission. “Some of the items in the shop are worth billions of gold. Way more than I actually have. Even Igris only gave me a million-and-a-half.”

It was bound to be a difficult quest, but this reward would be well worth the trouble. He walked on and pushed into Demon Tower proper, only to be shocked by what he saw. “What the-? Is this a Field-Type Dungeon? The System created a massive replica?” He had never actually experienced a Field-Type Dungeon before. The only one that had ever been created in South Korea was on Jeju, and it was inside the mountain, so the landscape hadn’t actually been affected.

He knew other, less-fortunate countries had them in spades. North Korea, for instance, was covered in them as the Hunters who Awakened there were too busy overthrowing the existing regime to, you know, worry about the monsters coming to eat their faces. Once the Dungeon Breaks started happening, North Korea had simply died. The few people who managed to escape had fled to outlying regions. Even now, the borders with the former country were manned with hundreds of Hunters who prevented the beasts from entering their neighbors. No one had dared try to actually clear out all of them.

He supposed that it was fortunate that those hundreds of Gates had never been anything higher than B-Rank. And once the humans were either culled or fled as refugees, new Gates stopped spawning there. Which meant they at least didn’t have to worry about A and S-Rank Dungeon Gates spawning in areas now infested with Magic Beasts.

But he was getting distracted. For good reason, apparently, as he was surrounded by demons who were so weak Jinwoo was legitimately disappointed. “…Seriously? This is an S-Rank Dungeon?” He sighed as he took out one of his daos and swiped it, unleashing an Umbral Rend that killed a hundred demons in one go. “…Okay, I’ll bite, what gives?” He asked the System but received no answer. He rolled his eyes, “Alright, well, might as well extract their shadows. Arise.”

[Error.

The Mana is contaminated.

Shadow Extraction is not available.]

His left eye twitched. “Get out here and start killing shit before I explode.”

His army rose behind him and started rampaging through the city.

-]|[-

“Hello darkness my old friend.” Soohyun sang in deadpan as she walked back into Cursed Seoul. “I’ve come to fuck with you again~.” She looked around, a hand on her hip as she wondered what she was actually here to do.

[QUEST

Regular Quest: Free the Souls of the Damned. (1)]

“Oh that’s just a lovely start.” She deadpanned.

[Seoul has been the site of generations of painful and agonizing deaths throughout the ages. Those unable to move onto the afterlife have been cursed and must be purified. You will receive a special reward for defeating them and freeing their souls from their torment.

Quest Requirements:

Free 100,000 souls.]

“Okay, it’s literally a video game quest.” Soohyun let out a dry giggle. “But the reward…”

[Quest Rewards:

1. Any one item from the shop.

2. Bonus stats +30.

3. A Random Cursed Lootbox.]

“Alright then.” She cracked her neck. “Don’t worry, my uglies. Your Abyssal One is here.” She held up her finger, which was glowing red with a Spatial Divergence. She was answered with howls of defiance, which was instantly overridden by the sheer noise her attack generated. The small, sparse area around her was annihilated, as were the vengeful spirits.

She let out a whistle. “Man, I always forget how freaking strong that is.” She looked around, frowning in confusion. “That killed about a thousand… what next?” She scratched the back of her head, “How is this an S-Rank Dungeon? These things are weak as shit…” She turned around and watched as hundreds of the things seemed to be congregating together. “What are they…” Her eyes widened as the monsters started to fuse. They formed a solid black mass that stood as tall as a skyscraper, making Soohyun’s jaw drop. “Holy crap, it’s huge!”

It then opened its jaw and a red light formed in front of its bony mouth. Soohyun blanked. “If you fire a gigantic Divergence at me, I’m going to lose it.” Thankfully, it was not, in fact, a version of her own attack. It was, instead, a massive energy beam. She wiped her forehead in relief, “Well, at least I don’t have to fight my own powers a-” And she was engulfed.

-]|[-

Joohee was back on those fluffy clouds. She quite honestly hadn’t expected to ever willingly enter this place again… but look how things changed. She smiled slightly as she walked to the golden gates the unicorn had guarded and slowly pulled them open. As they swung, they didn’t make a sound. She took a deep, fortifying breath, before walking forward and straight off the cloud. She fell, slowly gaining speed, and yet it didn’t feel like she was falling at all. She had no worries whatsoever about hitting the ground. At times she even felt like she was falling up instead. It was difficult to tell with the featureless white void around them.

[QUEST

Regular Quest: Ascend the Spheres of Paradiso and collect the Fragments of Brilliant Light. (1)]

Aaaaaaand she balked. “I swear to God, if you make me FIGHT GOD-”

[There are three Spheres of Paradiso, guarded by the Heavenly Host.

Defeat them and collect their Fragments of Brilliant Light.

Quest Requirements:

Collect 100,000 Fragments of Brilliant Light.]

“What the heck is a Fragment of Brillian- WOAH!” She suddenly flipped in the air and landed on her feet. The area had completely changed. She appeared to be standing on the surface of a lake and could see the reflection of a massive moon. She looked up and dropped her jaw. She had never in her life seen such a clear, starry sky. And the moon itself… it looked lived on. Architecture that made her head kind of hurt dominated it. How the heck could she make out details even with it as ‘close’ as it appeared? She blinked her eyes shut and shook her head.

[Quest Rewards:

1. Any one item from the shop.

2. Bonus stats +60.

3. A Random Cursed Lootbox.]

More importantly, she could feel that the angels were approaching. She instantly transformed, her light and flame blazing outwards. In moments, she was surrounded by enemies. She could see they were avian-like creatures and nothing like what she had expected from angels. They appeared to almost be made of marble and gold. She balked as she noticed human-like faces on them, because their necks were coming out of the faces’ mouths.

They were white-named angels called [Affinity.] They let out screeches and charged in flurries of feathers, and Joohee readied herself. She parried the thrust of a golden spear with her shining morningstar, before smashing its head squarely in the Affinity’s chest. A horrendous crack rang out as its armor broke, and disgust crossed Joohee’s face as the marble fell and revealed fleshy, bloody innards. “EWEWEWEWEW!” She smashed it across its face and its mask exploded off of it, revealing not a beak, but a maw with sharp daggers for fangs.

“I THOUGHT THESE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE ANGELS!?” She retched even as it fell to the ground, dead. Its halo exploded into golden fragments of light, which entered her body. “Well, now I know what the Fragments are. Couldn’t it just call them ‘halos?’” She shuddered as she took to the air and backed away from them. She readied a Golden Star and threw it at the Angels, sighing in relief as they were incinerated rather than leaving behind those hideous corpses. She sighed as she saw another wave of defenders coming.

She hoped that there would be breaks between these waves of enemies, otherwise she might just starve.

[Notice: Daily Quests have been disabled.]

Her eyes widened and she let out a whimper.

-]|[-

“Alright System, what bullshit have you cooked for me this time?” Miho grinned as she stepped onto the island again… only to freeze as she looked around. The last time around, it had been a lush jungle. Now, as she flew high into the sky, it looked like a land of devastation. Like the entire area had been decimated by a gigantic fire. “How the hell am I supposed to survive here? Did anything even survive?!” She cried out. She slowly turned, before sighing in relief as she saw surviving patches of green here and there.

[You have entered the Dragons’ Summit.

A Quest has arrived! Much time has passed since your last visit to this land. The weak have been culled and the strong now thrive. Hunt and kill the beasts of this land.

Time Dilation has been removed.

EXP Penalty and Skill EXP bonus has been removed.

You may not consume outside food]

“YES!” Miho screamed in excitement. She wouldn’t have to be STUCK here for two months again! Hopefully…

[You must survive off the land. Kill the beasts of this world. You will be unable to leave before completing this quest. No outside food may be consumed.

Thunderlord Zinogre: 0/10

Scorned Magnamalo: 0/10

Ebony Odogaron: 0/10

Jade Barroth: 0/5     

Glavenus: 0/5

Deviljho: 0/1

Black Diablos: 0/1

Grimclaw Tigrex: 0/1

Silver Rathalos: 0/1]

She rubbed her hands together eagerly, wondering which of the monsters she should go after first. “Could give me some more info.” She grumbled, “Like biomes and stuff.” She grinned a little bit, “Weeellll…” She sang, “If I remember correctly, I found the regular Zinogres… here.” She shot off towards the mountain and grinned viciously when she saw her target. “Alright motherfucker.” She grinned as she picked up speed, “Let’s see what you’ve got now!”

She crashed into its spine feet-first and drove it into the mountainside. She heard its back shattering as she did so and grinned even more when it let out a shocked shriek and tried to electrocute her. Her Dragon’s Resistance meant it didn’t even tickle. Laughing with delight, she reached out with Ruler’s Hand and seized the top of its jaw before jerking her arm back, ripping its skull in half.

She was almost disappointed as she hopped off the dead beast. It had given her so much trouble during her Job-Change Quest that she couldn’t quite believe how easily she had dispatched this one. She chuckled, “Then again, last time I faced one I didn’t have an Intercontinental Ballistic Miho.” She began carving away at it for its delicious meat. “Hmm, last time I couldn’t put them whole in my inventory, but we did manage to fit the Jeep in Jinwoo’s… maybe.” She tried, but it still resisted her. “Ugh, it would have been nice to get Jinwoo some Shadows from this place.”

Still, she shook her head and kept on carving.

-]|[-

Jinwoo was a bit disappointed with the Demon Castle thus far. When he had entered the Field-Type Dungeon he had been shocked by the utter weaklings he had encountered. It just made the rank of the key beyond strange. His soldiers had rampaged through the area, with Titan especially being an utter menace with his earthquakes and had slaughtered the demons in droves. It was an hour in and more than three-thousand demons down before one of his Shadows had come and delivered a strange scroll. It was an entry permit that allowed access to the second level. He had immediately mounted Tank and sped off for the glowing gold divination circle that towered into the sky where N Seoul Tower used to be. That was when the Dungeon had started making more sense.

He knew the upper levels would be difficult, but he legitimately would have been able to enter the lower levels directly after he had defeated Cerbie. He probably would have been able to get to floor twenty at that point in time with how weak these demons were.

However, while they were weak, the EXP he was able to get from them certainly wasn’t. There were just so many of the damn things on each floor of the Demon Tower that he was leveling up about once every six hours. He was also using his skills more and more, even deciding to take a few floors solo so that he could rank up skills other than his shadows.  

He turned his twin daos into sawblades with Ruler’s Hand; combined it with Umbral Rend to devastating effect to shred demons and buildings alike; punched holes through buildings with nothing but the wind pressure of his blows…

It was a slog and a grind that made him realize that he certainly wouldn’t be getting to the top floor in a week. Especially if his conjecture that there would be a hundred floors was correct. That… annoyed him.

Even with him ignoring everything on each floor as soon as he had the [Entry Permit] in hand to try to speedrun while his supplies lasted, it still took him four days before he got close to what he was assuming was the halfway point. At that point, he had already given up on beating the entire Demon Castle. It was just taking too long, and more importantly, not only did he not have enough food to last him, but each and every floor had slowly gotten hotter and more inhospitable. He would get as far as he could with the supplies he had, but he was well aware that he would have to come back for round two.

The quest, which he had thought would be difficult, had ended up being anything but. He finished it before even getting halfway.

[Quest Complete]

He read as he sat on one of the collapsed buildings, one leg hanging off of it. “I thought it was going to take me all one-hundred floors.” He shook his head in amusement. “It seriously is being generous, huh.” He grinned, knowing exactly what that meant. “So I’d get fucked without it, huh? Accept reward one.” He held out his hand, “Now, just what are you going to be, I wonder?” He deadpanned as the bow unraveled and a glowing purple ball floated up as the box collapsed and disappeared. “It wouldn’t happen to be a key, would it?” The ball elongated and then the color vanished, dropping… something into his hand. “What the hell is this? Why did the System give me a useless lump of metal?” He rolled his eyes. Well, he supposed it being a cursed lootbox made sense now.

He snorted; now super glad he hadn’t chosen the box back when he and Miho had discovered the secret quest. “Alright, now, accept reward three.” He grinned in excitement as he saw the extra points. He would wait to use them for now though. “And finally… accept reward two.”

This would be his free shop item. Now, did he want gauntlets and greaves or new swords? “Hmmm…” He decided he would flip a coin on it. Aaaaand then realized he didn’t have a coin. He rolled his eyes and summoned Titan down below. “Flip a car into the air for me, Titan.” The mammoth trumpeted and hooked his tusks under the frame of a car. He jerked his head up and flipped the car so high into the air Jinwoo had to shield his eyes with his hand as he tracked it. “…Maybe a bit high.” He chuckled as he waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Titan sweatdropped.

And then the car started to fall, before landing with a thunderous crash. When the smoke cleared, Jinwoo saw that the roof was crushed and the wheels were technically up. Technically, because all four wheels had gone flying off. “Swords it is, then.”

He opened up the shop and spent a minute or so setting some search parameters for new blades. He let out a whistle when he saw the most expensive one in the shop. It was a new dao that was worth five-hundred billion gold. It was almost more than he had, so buying one would leave him with only a hundred million gold left. More than enough for potions, and it wasn’t like he had really used the shop much. He could have upgraded a couple times already. “Purchase item for free.” He said, hoping it would actually be worth the price.

The dao appeared in his hand, and he was instantly aware of how different it was from his previous blades. It was more curved, for one. The blade was much wider and widened towards the tip. It was also longer than the blades he was used to. Despite that, the weight and balance felt utterly perfect. The metal was black as the night and glowing purple runes ran along nearly the full length of the fuller. It had a regular guard, but below it looked like a demon’s head was eating the blade. The handle was slightly canted in the opposite direction of the blade, and the pommel looked like a clawed fist holding a large gem.

Jinwoo looked confused, “This thing looks like it was created via Shadow Crafting.” It was certainly an excellent blade though.

[The Monarch’s Dao

Rank: S

Attack +300

Set Effect will activate if wielded at the same time as ‘The Fallen Ruler’s Dao.’

Set Effect ‘The Monarch’s Strength’:

Additional attack boost will be applied to each dao via direct conversion of the strength stat.]

“Oh fuck yes.” Jinwoo exclaimed as he read the effect and immediately found the Fallen Ruler’s Dao in the shop. It was the same price as the Monarch’s Dao, and so he bought it immediately. It looked much the same as the Monarch’s Dao in shape, though the adornments were different. It had a design that looked a bit more elegant. However, the blade was as black as the other one.

But really, the blades themselves didn’t matter as much as the power he could feel coursing through him. His attack power underwent a massive boost in potency. He couldn’t wait to test them.

Which meant it was time to hop right into the next floor: the fiftieth one.

“Well now.” Jinwoo smirked as he felt the massive jump in strength of the enemies on this floor. There seemed to be few of them, however, so he quickly made his way to what seemed like an open-air, demonic throne room made out of massive rib bones. There were over a thousand demons in front of him, outnumbering his relatively small army five-to-one. And unlike the riffraff he had been facing so far, they looked much more powerful. They even wore heavy armor, making them look like Demonic Knights. They were guarding an incredibly fat demon sitting on his bone throne.

[The Ruler of the Lower Floors: The Avaricious Vulcan]

The enemy’s name was as red as its body. “Finally.” Jinwoo grinned and was interested to note that Titan would have been an appropriately-sized mount for it. Its arms were like tree trunks and heavily muscled, rather than fat. Its legs looked baby-sized from how short and squat they were. He smiled, “Go. Leave the big one for me.” He expected the big one to be very tanky.

His Shadows and the Demonic Knights charged as one. They were much stronger than his own knights to a frankly embarrassing degree, and each of them killed half a dozen of the weaker Shadows before Jinwoo sighed and shrank his forces even further. Now it was a bloody melee for the most part, with his yetis, mammoths, and frost bears going wild. Each of them matched decently well with the knights. The exchanges were much more even, with the kills going one-to-one for both sides.

Of course, that was if he didn’t consider his elites. Kasaka, Buryura, the Gnoll Chieftain, Cerbie, Igris, Tank, Titan, Blades, and Beste were wreaking utter havoc on the enemy forces. Beste had already frozen fifty of them in eternal ice. Titan had half a dozen of them impaled on his tusks. Blades and Igris were going around taking heads, arms, and legs with ease, the knights’ armor doing absolutely nothing to stop their blades. Tank and the Gnoll Chieftain were crushing them like tin cans and Cerbie even had one in each maw. Kasaka and Buryura were leaving melted husks in their wake, their poison and acid respectively killing droves of them.

‘They’re doing well.’ He thought to himself in satisfaction. ‘But Vulcan seems satisfied with just chilling there. He hasn’t made a single mo-’ He blinked, and in that tiny moment, Vulcan vanished. Jinwoo’s eyes widened as the behemoth wielding a massive club appeared behind his elite Shadows. They all tried to react, but Vulcan’s attack was so fast that all they managed to do was turn around.

A single swipe from Vulcan’s club was enough to kill all of the Knights and send his Elite Knights flying. He could tell that if his Shadows had been any weaker at all, even they would have been annihilated. His Mana took a huge hit, going to half from that one attack.

He growled as he flew out of the dust cloud his enemy had created. As his mana surged, the sleeve of his jacket tore. “You bastard!” He roared as he blasted Vulcan in the jaw. He growled in satisfaction as he saw one of the massive lower fangs shatter and go flying through the air. He didn’t notice it land on one of the demonic knights, killing it instantly. Vulcan himself got blown halfway across the city in an instant, taking down several precariously-leaning buildings before coming to a stop in a crater in a final building.

“What the?” Jinwoo blinked as he landed, “All I did was punch him! I didn’t even have my gauntlets equipped!”

Vulcan was very pissed off about that and as he got to his feet, he roared, sending out a shockwave of mana through the air.

[The Avaricious Vulcan has used the skill ‘Titanic Fury.’

Health recovered to full.

Incoming damage reduced by 50%.

All stats increased by 50%.]

“Oh you bit-” Jinwoo growled as he summoned his two new weapons, not even getting to finish his insult before Vulcan was above him with his massive club ready to turn him into paste. And then the club hit his blades and Jinwoo more than matched him. The club went flying, split into two halves, and a sick grin crossed Jinwoo’s face as Vulcan backed up, looking shocked as he looked at the stub of his weapon. Jinwoo hadn’t even used his ranged attack!

[The Avaricious Vulcan has been shocked out of ‘Titanic Fury.’ Effects have ended early.]

Jinwoo blurred, appearing behind the boss who let out one final howl of agony as his legs, chest-and-up, and both sides went in separate directions. A tidal wave of blood nearly drowned Jinwoo, and he had to hurry to get out of the way. The other demonic knights took one look at Vulcan before turning and fleeing for their lives. “I don’t think so.” He crossed his blades, unleashing an Umbral Rend cross cut that took all of them out. He looked at his two new daos with glee all over his face, “Best. Purchases. EVER!”

“I’ve got to tell the girls about these. Surely they’ll have excellent gear to buy as well.” He mused as he recalled his Shadows. “Now… what do we have?”

[You have defeated The Avaricious Vulcan.]

[Level Up!]

[You have acquired the Demon Monarch’s Earring.]

[You have acquired the Orb of Avarice.]

[You have obtained two Vulcan’s Horns.]

[You have obtained Fragment of the World Tree.]

He blinked and summoned the World Tree Fragment, “Huh, this thing is huge.” He muttered as he read the description. He eyed the second screen and grinned very widely when he realized it was the first of three ingredient items for the Elixir of Life. He put it in his inventory and grabbed the Demon Monarch’s Earring.

[Demon Monarch’s Earring

Rank: S

Type: Earring

Strength +30

Vitality +30

Set effects will be activated when worn with the ‘Demon Monarch’s Necklace’ and the ‘Demon Monarch’s Ring.’

Set Effect 1: Not active

Set Effect 2: Not active]

“Damn, this thing is good.” He equipped it immediately before looking at the orb. His eyes widened, “Doubles magic damage? Damn! Soohyun would love this if he could give it to her.” He muttered before blinking and summoning Beste. “Hold this for now.” He tossed the Orb of Avarice to her, hoping she would actually be able to hold it. And to his excitement, she was. “Oh, the next floors aren’t going to know what hit them.”

…

With his new gear, Jinwoo made quick progress of the next two dozen floors. His stronger Shadows steamrolled through the demons with ease, while the others put on a great effort as they leveled up. Several dozen of the weaker Shadows even managed to get enough EXP to promote to Elite rank, which made clearing the floors even easier. His Elite Knights leveled up quite a few times, but none of them managed to get enough EXP to promote. It was quite surprising to Jinwoo, seeing as how Igris in particular had already hit level twenty. He had thought that would be the level where Elite Knights maxed out, but clearly that wasn’t the case.

When Jinwoo reached floor seventy-five, he already knew that it would be the final floor for this dive. He was almost completely out of food and just had a few protein bars left. Not only that, but after floor fifty, the environment itself became increasingly hostile. He started having to completely waste Beste just to keep himself cool, and once he did so, the Tower threw a curveball, and he had to suffer through a floor where it rained lightning. And then the floor after that was a scene straight out of a pre-Gates disaster movie. There were multiple tornadoes shredding the fallen city. And then the floor after that was a blizzard so extreme that it made the Red Gate look like a temperate wetland. And then it was back to heat so extreme that Jinwoo went through about an eighth of his remaining water by the time Igris came back with the permit.

With the Store not offering a damn thing to help counteract the effects, it became incredibly obvious that he was supposed to leave. With that in mind, he went into floor seventy-five. He was expecting there to be another boss on this floor, and he was not disappointed.

Well, he was, but not because there was no boss. “…Man, I’m so glad I’m a Shadow Monarch and not a necromancer.” He grimaced as he punched the head off a decaying, decrepit zombie. Not only did they look awful, but they smelled horrifying. “Alright, go kill these things.” Jinwoo said as his soldiers attacked. “AND NO ONE EAT ANYTHING! I WANT ZERO ZOMBIE PARTS IN MY INVENTORY!”

He yelled at their backs as they rampaged. “Now, if I were a regular old necromancer, where would I be?” He mused before vanishing in a burst of speed.

Minutes later, [Metus, Guide of Souls] was staring out at the encroaching Shadow Horde in shock. His guards and slaves were being overwhelmed, which was something he had never experienced before. His zombies were just worse versions of these Shadows that could not reconstitute themselves!

“I’ll admit, this is getting kind of one-sided.” Jinwoo sighed, sitting on the chair above Metus’s head. The Demonic Lich flinched and turned his head, gaping at the sight of the human just chilling on his chair. “Didn’t expect it to turn out like this? Well, I’m afraid I’m a better Necromancer than you.” Metus couldn’t even move from the sheer and utter dread he was experiencing. “Well, I always did wonder if the Undead would be able to feel fear. Guess I have my answer.”

Metus turned and tried to run into his own horde, only to fall apart into pieces as Jinwoo landed in front of him, his new daos already dispersing.

[You have defeated Metus, Guide of Souls.]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[You have obtained Spring Water from the Forest of Echoes.]

[You have obtained the pieces of Metus’s Broken Staff.]

[You have received the Demon Monarch’s Necklace.]

He grinned, “Time to see what this set effect is all about.” It DID mean that he was going to have to remove the Gatekeeper’s Collar, unfortunately, since necklaces couldn’t be layered, unlike rings. That meant he would lose the twenty points in Agility and Perception that it gave him. He shrugged, “I can always give it to Songyi. Besides, this thing is great.”

[Demon Monarch’s Necklace

Rank: S

Type: Necklace

Agility +30

Intelligence +30

Set effects will be activated when worn with the ‘Demon Monarch’s Earring’ and the ‘Demon Monarch’s Ring.’

Set Effect 1: +5 to all stats.

Set Effect 2: Not active]

So in actuality, he wasn’t losing twenty Agility, though he was losing fifteen Perception, which was annoying. Hopefully, he would be able to get it back with the final item in the ‘Demon Monarch’s’ line. In exchange for the collar, the necklace granted him a net fifteen Agility and thirty-five whole Intelligence.

That left his stats looking mighty fine once he dumped the thirty free skill points plus the twenty-one points he got from his dailies in.

Name: Sung Jinwoo

Level: 90

Job: Monarch of Shadows

Fatigue: 0

Title: Demon Hunter

HP: 30600

MP: 9690

Strength: 250

Agility: 177

Perception: 165

Vitality: 152

Intelligence: 186

Available Ability Points: 0

He crunched down on his final protein bar as he stared at the towering pillar of light leading to the next floor. ‘Just one more item.’ He glared at it, ‘Just one more item, and mom will wake up.’ He flung the wrapper off the side of the building and turned around. ‘Next time, I’ll finish it.’

-]|[-

“-gain.” Soohyun finished her statement as the beam petered off and revealed her. Her coat was fluttering in the breeze, and two deep trenches had been dug around her. She stood on a narrow plinth of stone and dirt with everything behind her annihilated. “That was rude.” She said, sighing as she appeared right in front of its pointed nose. She swiped a hand down and the gigantic beast’s face, head, and torso down about a hundred feet split apart into two halves like they were spring-loaded. She dropped down to her feet and scratched the back of her head. “That was… kinda easy? Is this really an S-Rank Dungeon? Or am I just super overleveled?”

The monsters howled around her, and she chuckled as more and more of them started to swarm at her. “Good thing AOE is my SPECIALTY!” She yelled as the entire landscape flattened around her in exchange for a quarter of her mana. She grinned as thousands of Souls were freed, before blinking. “Hmm? An entry permit?” She rolled her eyes, “Is this going to be a tower climb? Fine.” She raced over to the gaping black hole that had opened and dropped in. “Hmm, looks like descent is more appropriate.”

Everything went dark, and when Soohyun opened her eyes once more, she was in a new town. “Hmm, this town looks better put together than the last one. The architecture looks the same though.” And so did the screaming monsters. She rolled her eyes again, “Well, hopefully this will all be quick then.”

…

The ‘tower’ ended up being pretty strange, if she could say so herself. The monsters seemed to swap every floor. The first-floor monsters she ended up calling ‘Hollows’ due to the gaping holes that could usually be found on them.

The second floor ended up having more-traditional evil spirits. Walls that turned into thwomps and tried to slam down on her when she passed by, monsters which warped the architecture around her, etc. Soohyun ended up calling them ‘Cursed Spirits.’

The third floor threw vampires at her. “WHY THE HELL DID I GET THE SUPERNATURAL DUNGEON?!” She yelled as she buried another bloodsucker into the dirt. “Ugh!” She leapt up and flew away as the vampire popped like a blood blister. “For fucks sake.” She grumbled before thousands of shadowy vampire bats tried to take bites out of her. A large pulse of gravity turned them into a cloud of blood mist, which she forced to rain down on the lesser vampires so hard that they were pierced and turned into mulch.

And so on, and so forth. There were ghosts, shadowy constructs, telekinetic beings that tried to match her powers, and on and on and on. “Why couldn’t I have gotten a normal dungeon?!” She hissed as she formed a huge zone of gravitic anomalies around her so she could eat. “Ugh, I’m going to either have to completely clear a floor or learn how to do this in my sleep to rest. I wish I had some Shadow Soldiers that could just fuck shit up and guard me at the same time.” She grumbled before getting back to work.

On the eleventh level, she was surprised to see Hollows again, only they were much stronger than the last set. Not enough to make her worry, but at least half of them were made up of those gigantic, skyscraper-sized monsters. Great big targets, but they flung around those death lasers like they were having a ‘going-out-of-business, everything-must-go’ sale.

And they also ate the lesser ones. “Ugh, why does it just keep getting weirder.”

…

Soohyun ran out of food surprisingly quickly, and she was very disappointed by how much progress she was able to make. When she checked the party page on the morning of the seventh day and noticed Jinwoo was already at level eighty-six, it made her level seventy-eight look a bit paltry by comparison. He was starting to pull away from the rest of them, with even Miho now five levels behind.

Of course, she was human and needed real rest. Each day, she lost at least six hours to her beauty sleep. Sleep which Jinwoo could get and farm at the same time due to his Shadows. “The Shadow Monarch is bullshit. Where are MY minions?!” She grumbled as she jumped in the black hole through to level twenty-five. This was definitely going to be her final level for this raid. With the damned permits only showing up every once in a while, she had actually only managed between three and four floors a day.

The enemies had started getting harder as well. She was curious to see what the next floor would look like, only to go “Huh???” As soon as she appeared there. She was in another formless void with what looked like a pillared hall leading towards a portal. “What now?” She sighed, before twitching as she looked around. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the details. Specifically the décor of the path leading to the portal. Blue marble. Gold… “I swear to everything, if this is him again!” Soohyun stomped towards the portal and through it. She appeared on a circular platform with four massive portal gates in the four cardinal directions. Everywhere else was nothing but formless void.

And then what she had been expecting showed right up. A portal opened and Aes Fucking Sidhe landed before her, dressed in far more exquisite gear and looking altogether more dangerous. “DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING CRUSH ON ME OR SOMETHING?! I’M TAKEN, ASSHOLE!” She screamed before launching a Spatial Divergence at him.

He was engulfed by the devastating gravitational waves, only when the dust cleared, he was uninjured. A vein started to pulse on Soohyun’s head as the beast brushed itself off, before summoning its spear/staff thing. “God damn it.” She hissed as it flew at her far faster than it ever had before, piercing a portal on the ground with its spear and sending eight giant replicas at her from more portals. She used Void Aegis to dodge while she charged, punching outward with Ruler’s Hand empowering her just for the satisfaction of physically hitting it. She nailed it and was stewing in satisfaction as it was forced back, purple blood flying from somewhere.

Aes Sidhe made some sort of noise as a sideways portal appeared and then engulfed it. “Where are you?” She hissed, looking around, up, and down. Her eyes caught the flash from a portal, and she turned a little blue as an absolutely gigantic version of Aes Sidhe appeared from one of them. It was bigger than most of the statues as it uncrossed its arms.

She reacted immediately, reaching out with Ruler’s Hand and squeezing her fist to use her implosion technique on its chest. The giant Aes Sidhe rocked but did not get annihilated. A waterfall of purple blood erupted from where its mouth should have been, but it was not defeated. Not by a long shot.

It stopped bleeding and then a howling sound erupted as a blue-white jet of plasma erupted from its head, bathing the entire platform. Soohyun tried to fly above it but gasped as gravitational pressure, unlike anything she had ever felt before, forced her to stay on the ground. “Shit!” She cursed as she used Void Aegis continuously to defend herself. Even with her giant mana pool, she was burning through it rapidly.

Finally, the attack stopped and the giant enemy fell back through the portal. She immediately used Gravitic Nihility, forming a ball above her head that she chucked at the portal. The structure collapsed as its pillars and arch were collected. The second she saw the small portal Aes Sidhe loved to use form; she flung her ball of detritus at it.

It smashed into the boss, beating it against the portal directly opposite the one she had destroyed. She then sent it and her enemy with it down into the abyss, the huge rocks battering it all the way down until she could no longer see it when she looked over the edge. “Did that do it?” She murmured but knew it hadn’t. She didn’t get any notices from the System.

Both remaining portals flashed orange, and she shot back to get eyes on both as best she could. “WHAT THE FUCK?!” Soohyun yelled as two titans, both bigger than any boss she had ever seen and so heavily covered in muscles that her entire body was probably smaller than a single strand of it, punched out at her. She screamed as they began destroying the platform with their powerful blows. The shockwaves were impossibly strong, and it took her a moment to set her feet. She dashed forward and cut off one of the behemoth’s arms, delighting in the howl of pain. She turned and fired a Spatial Divergence at the other. Its arm blew apart as the tiny ball traveled. The aftermath would have looked like the barrel of a shotgun that had gotten completely plugged if her attack hadn’t also destroyed its head and made it vanish.

And then she got stabbed from behind. “GAH!” She yelled as she was driven forward, blood bursting from her lips as seventy-five percent of her HP vanished. Aes Sidhe pulled back and tried to drive a final blow forward, but she teleported behind it for once. A ghostly hand appeared on it and grabbed. “DIE!” She screamed as she lifted it up into the air and drove it down. “DIE!” She did it again. “DIEDIEDIE!” Soohyun yelled as she slammed Aes Sidhe again and again, howling in fury. “AND FUCKING STAY DEAD THIS TIME!” She squeezed her fist and a black hole formed in front of her, annihilating every atom of her enemy.

She gasped for breath as she leveled up three whole times from defeating the bastard. She fell onto her butt as she got a hold of herself. “I hate this fucking dungeon. From boring and easy, if tedious, to nearly getting killed from facing an actual boss.” She rubbed her forehead for a moment, “What did it give me?”

[You have acquired the Core of Aes Sidhe.]

[You have acquired the Ring of the End.]

[You have acquired the Bangles of the End.]

[You have acquired Aes Sidhe’s purified blood.]

“YEEEEEESSSSSSS!” Soohyun fell back, crowing in delight. “If it’s giving me its parts, that means that I’ll never have to look at its stupid face again, right?!” She sat up, “Let’s see what these rings do.”

[Ring of the End

Rank: S

Type: Ring

+20 Agility

+20 Perception

+20 Intelligence]

[Bangles of the End

Rank: S

Type: Bracelet

+30 Intelligence

+30 Strength

Set effects will be activated when worn with the ‘Ring of the End’ and the ‘Robe of the End.’

Set Effect 1: +5 to all stats.

Set Effect 2: Not active]

“Oh fuck yes!” She put the ring on her right hand and the bangles on both wrists, delighting as she felt the power course through her. “Now how about this blood? Don’t tell me it’s another consumable.” She sighed and her face dropped as she saw that it was, in fact, a consumable. “Well, bottom’s up.” She grumbled as she drank it down.

[Kasaka’s Gaze has been upgraded to Gaze of the End.]

“Ooh.” Soohyun’s eyes widened as she read the new effects. The effect was permanent now, so nothing would ever be able to hide from her. It also changed from infrared like a snake to the ability to see magic itself. In precise detail, meaning she might actually be able to learn new magic on the fly. It also gave her a huge buff in her ability to channel her own magic. Her charging time for spells, which had been one of her big weaknesses, was now nearly instant. She would be able to throw huge spells around with tons of mana behind them much faster. Finally, it gave her a skill of the same name. She would be able to summon a giant magical eye anywhere to spy on any potential enemies and learn how strong they were. And share her vision with allies. It would be indispensable for any Dungeon Breaks. Hell, she might even be able to lead a clearing raid on North Korea if Jinwoo’s army got big enough.

She was almost afraid of what the Core was for. She was surprised to find it was the big item that she needed for the crafting recipe she had received last time! She immediately used the System to craft her new item and was surprised to find it was a large purple ball with floating metal plates shaped like Celtic knots orbiting around it. The entire item floated around her even without her paying it any attention.

[You have acquired the Orbis

Rank: S

Attack Power +500

The Orbis will allow you to channel your magic through it for drastically increased potency. It will also autonomously attack your enemies.]

“Oh, that sure would have been useful SEVEN DAYS AGO!” Soohyun glared at it before sighing and rubbing her forehead. “Okay, let’s see what it can do.” She raised a hand and channeled her magic, thrusting her hand forward. The second-to-last portal was annihilated. The entire structure from about five feet up simply ceased to be. She blinked, frozen in shock. “Holy shit.” She then channeled it again and the orb flew forward. The metal plates sprang apart and arrayed themselves around the orb in an hourglass-like shape. Plasma beams not unlike the giant one Aes Sidhe had tried to hit her with burst from each plate, crossing into the orb and forming an event horizon. A gigantic explosion happened, forcing even her back and almost through the final portal. “Damn, this thing is awesome!” She scratched the back of her head, “I don’t even know what to do with the free store item now…” Before shrugging, “Guess I can save it for later.”

She sang and put it away. “Now, what the hell was up with the Cursed Lootbox?” She summoned said reward and opened it, watching as it dropped a thin shaft of black metal in her hand. “…The fuck?” She tilted her head to the side in confusion. Rolling her eyes, she first tried to just throw it away, and then just put it in her inventory. “How the fuck is a useless lump of metal a key item?” She grumbled before checking her stats.

Name: Yoo Soohyun

Level: 81

Job: Abyssal One

Fatigue: 0

Title: Goddess of Death

HP: 33100

MP: 22010

Strength: 107

Agility: 167

Perception: 179

Vitality: 162

Intelligence: 270

Available Ability Points: 0

It was finally time to go home.

-]|[-

The Angelic Host seemed never-ending. Joohee honestly couldn’t even count the number of them she had to slay so far. But not only were they never-ending, they were all disgusting. Those gold and marble exteriors were all false façades. Beauty hiding the ugliness beneath. In actuality, they were fleshy monstrosities with too many eyes where none belonged.

There were many kinds here on the Third Sphere. The Affinities which were birdlike; the Cachets, which looked like floating heads with split faces and giant gold wings; Dears, which were not unlike the Cachets, although they had marble, elderly looking faces. Like the heads had been ripped off ancient statues from classical times; Enchants, which were literal wheels; and finally, Acceptances, which were winged horses with the torso of a man. Which would have been fine if the head hadn’t been in the belly rather than above the neck.

Each and every one of them attacked in droves, determined to kill the invader to their realm. Joohee hardly got a break, and there were no places to hide in the featureless lake she was somehow standing on. Her Angelic form might have given her much more stamina and minimized her hunger, but it hadn’t eliminated either issue. She just had to fight and fight and fight until she was so exhausted that she began getting stupid ideas.

She used one of her Golden Stars, only she pumped it so full of mana that it exploded prematurely into a light that blinded the Angels. She was immune to it herself, thankfully, and just popped her stealth skill and flew up at the moon in the distance. She expected it to take a while or for her to start choking from lack of air but got lucky. She made it up there in no time at all and found some place to hide as she dismissed her transformation. Really, she should have used her stealth skill more often since it was just going to waste, but she had never found much use for it before. She wasn’t an assassin.

Now, she wasn’t sure why these creatures needed architecture, but she was thankful for it. While hiding away, she mused how useful even a couple of Jinwoo’s Shadows would have been. She slept fitfully in her little nook, though thankfully she wasn’t found and was able to get some rest. These Angels didn’t really seem too smart, which was all the better for her. Food was a bit more difficult since warming anything up meant risking the Angels finding her, but she hadn’t brought enough protein bars to last her by themselves.

At least she didn’t have to worry about dailies.

Once she was ready, she stealthed up again and went back down. There were now thousands of the damn things, and so she started charging multiple Golden Stars above her head. To her surprise, they were invisible too! As soon as she sent them down, however, they became completely visible. The Angels shrieked and cried as they all burned in her inferno. The dark irony almost made her grin.

New ones started appearing too. First Archangels, and then, when it became obvious that they were losing, Principalities. She hadn’t expected much from the Ardors or the Allegiances since they just looked like Affinities and Acceptances with better armor and weapons, but she had needed to actually work to crack their carapaces and defend against their weapons.

She noticed the enemy load getting lighter and lighter as she fought, but she hadn’t expected to wipe out the entirety of the Third Sphere.

[All Enemies cleared.

The Third Sphere has become a safe zone the Player may revisit at any time if they are not in combat.]

“YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!” Joohee cried out pitifully after striking the final blow on an Allegiance as she sank down and lay back on the still surface of the lake.

[Quest info:

50,000/100,000 Fragments of Brilliant Light collected.]

“Hmm, guess I’m probably only getting to the Second Sphere.” She muttered. Not that she hadn’t known she wasn’t going to conquer the entire Dungeon this go around. It had taken her a good couple of days to reach this point thus far.

[Your Fragments of Brilliant Light have integrated into your Angelic Transformation.]

She blinked as she felt a pulse of energy flow through her body. She got up to look at herself in the mirror-like reflection. “Woah…” Her halo had grown bigger and more elaborate. She had also sprouted a third pair of wings. “That’s cool, but is that it? I just look a bit different?” It was not.

[You have usurped the Authority of the Third Sphere.]

[Intelligence +20.]

[Job-Specific Skill Acquired: Authority of Paradiso Lv. 1.

You may now summon Angels of the Third Sphere to fight on your behalf.]

“WHAT?!” Joohee shrieked, now wide awake.  “Did I just get a Shadow Monarch-Tier Skill of my own?!” She read further, before drooping. “I suppose that would have been a bit much to ask for.”

[Expend your Mana to summon members of the Heavenly Host. The amount of Mana required for each summon is related to the strength of the summon.]

Still, this was amazing. It likely wouldn’t be super useful once she went onto the Second Sphere since they were bound to be more powerful than the Angels of the Third Sphere… but even a couple summons would surely help speed things up here. She wondered if any of the others had gotten any similar skills. She was also curious about how many she would be able to summon.

To her surprise, a book appeared in front of her. The Hierarchy of Paradiso specifically. She opened it up and a smile rose on her face. The Angels like the Affinities were a measly fifty mana each, so she would be able to summon quite a number of them. They were likely only able to match D-Ranks and much weaker than even the weakest of Jinwoo’s summons… The Principalities cost five hundred mana each. If they matched their combat capabilities from her fights with them, then they would be about equal to C-Ranks.

With that elating thought in her exhausted mind, she went to sleep without worry for the first time in three days.

…

And then, she went on to the Second Sphere, which was a city that looked like it was taken straight out of Rome… if Rome had been made entirely out of marble and gold. Immediately, she realized that these enemies were much stronger than the riffraff she had been facing on the Third Sphere.

There were still Third Sphere enemies here, but they were accompanying Second Sphere enemies in most occasions. And to her annoyance, they didn’t even drop Fragments! Her actual prey were a good bit more difficult to fight, if only because of their sheer strength and defensive capabilities. First, the enemies were much bigger. The Beloveds were hulking behemoths about the size of the mammoths from the Red Gate, wielding gigantic battleaxes. They were even capable of summoning meteor storms to mess with her.

It took a decent number of hits with her morningstar to crack it open, and unfortunately for her, these enemies had at least some degree of resistance to her attacks. It made sense. They were using the same element. Though once their shells were broken, the innards burned as easily as any beast usually did.

But it wasn’t just size and power that made them annoying, oh no. It was the fact that they could be weird too. As she killed Angel after Angel on the second level, more and more enemies came down from the heavens to try and ruin her day. Beliefs were one-armed monstrosities the size of the Beloveds, except they were fast. Insanely so for their size, and more dangerous for it. She had only been caught by their attacks a couple times, but they always took large chunks of her health away.

Then came the Kinships and the Worships… which had left her so stunned with utter bemusement that she had taken a couple Angelic Missiles to the face. What else was she supposed to do when confronted by missile boat Viking vessels with oars and everything and Angelic ICBMs that shot laser beams?

The Urbanes, Fairnesses, and Graces and Glories, by contrast, were much less weird… but much more deadly. All of them had elemental abilities. They were all fast with powerful attacks and were incredibly aggressive. Grace and Glory especially were deadly. Their sharp claws were engulfed in fire and lightning respectively and fought like assassins. Get in, deal massive damage, get out before they can get hit. If Joohee’s Agility and Perception hadn’t gotten so high, she likely would have gotten disemboweled the first time they had attacked.

Her new summons did help… but not by much. To her disappointment, they were degraded, and she couldn’t exactly use spam tactics like Jinwoo could. Well, she could, but the Angels frankly weren’t really worth the mana in a Dungeon like this. She mostly summoned squads of Principalities to help with the larger Second Sphere Angels, or even to just kill the weaker Third Sphere ones. They were very good at killing the riffraff, though needed two-on-one encounters with themselves.

Slowly, her progress towards quest completion increased. But when there were five thousand Fragments left to collect, she was left confused. There were no enemies left. “What the heck? Did I clear out the Second Sphere?” As lo and behold, an answer to her question appeared.

[WARNING! SECOND SPHERE CLEARED OF ENEMIES. PREPARE FOR INVASION FROM FIRST SPHERE!]

“Shoot!” Joohee cursed as she got ready. She was rather wary of what this would mean. A large, Angelic summoning circle appeared in front of her, and she almost fell over when she saw what awaited her. The Angel in front of her had a very elaborate halo, which contrasted entirely with the almost femme-fatale appearance she had. If she had been ‘wearing’ anything it would have been skintight and hid nothing. Like all the Angels, she was covered in a gold and marble carapace, though this one also appeared to have jade or emerald adornments. “Okay Joy…” Joohee deadpanned as she read the orange name, “You’re not going to shake it for me, are you?” She snarked.

The Joy tilted her head to the side, before in a moment, Joohee was facing herself. The Joy sprang forward as Joohee yelped and tried to slam an identical morningstar on her head. She blocked with her own, only to cough up some spit as the Joy moved like lightning and slammed her foot into Joohee’s stomach.

“Ugh!” Joohee groaned as she slid back, before calling down a Celestial Beam. The Joy warped again, turning into Miho, speeding away from the light pouring from above. Miho’s poisoned spear struck her Divine Bulwark and recovered her mana, but the Joy was so fast with its follow up strike that she was able to slice deep into Joohee’s side.

Instantly, fire crawled up Joohee’s side as the poison took effect. Even just the attack had dealt about ten-thousand HP’s worth of damage. “You bitch!” Joohee snarled as she understood the Joy’s game. She reached out with Ruler’s Hand as her poison was cleared by Kandiaru’s Blessing, and the Joy jerked to a halt with a shriek of shock.

Joohee blazed forward and slammed her morningstar into the false Miho’s chest. She flinched as the Joy’s shriek sounded exactly like her girlfriend for a moment, but the illusion had crumbled, as had the marble on the Joy’s chest. The Joy released a smattering of feathers, all of which pointed themselves at Joohee and started unleashing lasers at her. Joohee ducked and dodged, aiming Guiding Bolts at the feathers to destroy them, only for something that shocked her to occur.

The Joy spawned out a second Joy, just as strong as the first. Uninjured too. “Oh, crap!” Joohee cried out as she realized they were either summoners too or able to clone themselves. “That’s so unfair!” She grumbled as she summoned a horde of ten Ardors. “Harass them! Don’t get hit!” She said as she drank down some Mana Potions. She had sacrificed almost half of her mana for that.

The Ardors weren’t even attacking, only doing their best to dodge the Joys. And they were failing, badly. In the time it took her to drink those potions, half had already fallen. The Joys were toying with them. One of them had even summoned a whip and was shredding the Ardors’ armor.

Well, weaklings like these were only good for distraction anyway. She used her Stealth to vanish and quickly charged a Golden Star into the head of her morningstar. She got behind the fresh Joy and swung, slamming her attack into its head. An explosion of golden flames engulfed them both, though her powers did nothing to harm her. They absolutely harmed the Joy. Her head popped like a grape before she was completely incinerated.

The first Joy let out a shriek of shock as Joohee didn’t waste a moment. She reached out with Ruler’s Hand and yelled, “NOW!” The three remaining Ardors all reacted instantly, slamming the Joy with all of their swords and impaling her three ways. She let out a shriek of death and then exploded into light. The pieces of her halo clattered on the ‘floor’ before getting sucked into Joohee.

She let out a squeak as she felt the power rush through her.

[Quest Complete!

10,000/100,000 Fragments of Brilliant Light collected.]

[Your Fragments of Brilliant Light have integrated into your Angelic Transformation.

Angelic Transformation has reached level three.

All light attacks will now deal Fire damage as well as Light.]

She let out a cry as a fourth pair of wings popped out of her back and all of them became wreathed in more forks of golden lightning. Her halo also became just as elaborate as the one the Joy had had.

[You have usurped the Authority of the Second Sphere.]

[Intelligence +20

Strength +20]

[Authority of Paradiso has leveled up.

You may now summon Angels of the Second Sphere to fight on your behalf.]

She grinned as she looked at the items that she had received.

[Cloak of Joy

Rank: S

Type: Cloak

+20 Agility

+20 Perception

+20 Intelligence]

[Ring of Dominion

Rank: S

Type: Ring

+30 Strength

+30 Intelligence

Set effects will be activated when worn with the ‘Cloak of Joy’ and the ‘Necklace of Cardinal Virtue.’

Set Effect 1: +5 to all stats.

Set Effect 2: Not active]

“Oh, wow! These are great!” Joohee exclaimed and immediately put them on. But there was one more screen available and it made her eyes pop in shock.

[Crafting available.

Utilize the remnants of fallen foes to upgrade your gear.]

“How did I forget about this?” She grinned as she put her morningstar into the screen. She eyed what she would need, and it was a lot of material. Thankfully, gathering a hundred thousand Fragments of Brilliant Light had given her just enough rare drops to upgrade her morningstar.

“Craft.” She commanded and watched as her inventory emptied of all the requisite items. A crafting bar slowly inched towards completion as she waited, before announcing a successful craft. Joohee’s new morningstar landed in her hand and she was honestly taken aback by how beautiful it was. It looked like her wings and the Heavenly Host both. White marble with veins of gold crawling through it. The spiked head was the most impressive part. It glowed with an even brighter light than it had previously and was wreathed in flame. And the stats made her jaw drop.

[Blood of Ashborn

Rank: S

Type: Morningstar

+350 Attack

+50% effectiveness to Fire and Light attacks

May channel Mana for extra effects.]

Joohee gave it a try, channeling her mana through it before swiping through the air. A short-range burst of golden fire engulfed her vision momentarily. It was as though she had used a Golden Star in miniature. “Hmm, I wonder.” She channeled Mana through it once more, but this time also used Ruler’s Hand. She swiped it down this time and gawked as a giant version of her arm and morningstar crashed down in front of her. The entire building was crushed and a huge plume of her golden fire exploded upwards. “Wow!” She exclaimed, smiling. “I was going to buy a new one in the store with my free item, but there’s no way anything in there will be better than this.”

Thinking on that for a moment, she decided to just save it for later. “Okay, Cursed Lootbox please!” She declared, and then frowned when a thin, lightning bolt shaped hunk of metal fell into her palm. She looked at in confusion for a good couple of seconds, before putting it into her inventory. “Let’s just see those stats…”

Name: Lee Joohee

Level: 84

Job: Seraph of Light

Fatigue: 0

Title: The Light of Ardor

HP: 30350

MP: 11770

Strength: 201

Agility: 182

Perception: 160

Vitality: 151

Intelligence: 206

Available Ability Points: 0

The last thing she did before exiting the Dungeon was muse that the Joohee of three months ago would not have even slightly recognized her.

-]|[-

“IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT?!” Miho roared gleefully as she dodged an absolutely massive, glaive-like tail. She had been hard at work, clearing out all of the beasties on her list. She had already eliminated all of the Thunderlord Zinogres, Scorned Magnamalos, and Ebony Odogarons. They had been easy, making her almost worried that this was going to be a snoozefest. Hell, she had farmed the beasts, taking every single one she had seen for more exp.

And it was a good thing that she had, because these Glavenuses were tough. A whole other level of tough, if she were honest with herself. Their hide was much thicker, they were faster, they were stronger. Each and every one of them could have been the boss of an A-Ranked Gate. She thought they would give her brother a run for his money. Especially when every failed blow from that tail seemed to ignite it with hotter and hotter flame.

If she hadn’t been immune, she probably would have been smelling like burnt hair already. Every time its sword-like tail hit a canyon wall or the ground in a missed attack it threw around fire and explosions. She waited for her moment and charged, piercing it through with her Fang of the Wyverns, which was in its ice form as these creatures were weak to it.

The Glavenus snarled in pain as she backed away, barely dodging a hit that would have bisected her. She ignored the flames since they couldn’t harm her and landed lightly on her feet. Once she was done with this one, she would only need three more to-

Her thoughts were jarred to even mental silence as something jumped down the canyon wall with a roar. The Glavenus let out an agonized shriek as it was driven down into the rock. A dust cloud covered the two up and Miho stared at the cloud warily. A roar that seemed to shake her bones erupted from within the cloud as the beast moved out of it.

[Deviljho]

It looked not unlike a tyrannosaurus rex, though only in that it was a therapod. It was much thicker and covered in powerful muscles. Its hide was covered in spines that ran down its spine, and its maw was covered in multiple rows of fangs that spread outwards from its mouth.

Her hands felt clammy as she realized just how powerful this thing was. Its name was red and the sense of foreboding she experienced was something she had rarely felt before. Swallowing, she readied her spear as this beast was on her list anyway, but she wouldn’t take it anywhere near as lightly as she had taken the others.

The Deviljho roared and puffed up. Its neck muscles expanded and bloated, showing its innards as it spat some black and red… substance at her. She leapt over it, but it still caught her left leg, and she screamed in pain.

[-7000 HP]

Her leg was spasming incredibly badly as a Status Affliction screen appeared in front of her. Whatever this was, even Kandiaru’s Blessing would take a few seconds to eliminate it. A few seconds she didn’t have as the Deviljho used its lower mandible like an excavator and flung solid rocks out of the ground at her.

Miho dodged as best she could and regained her mobility as the blessing eliminated the affliction. And then the damn thing leapt ten feet into the air and crashed down on top of her. Even with her transformation, she still took over half her total HP in damage in an instant. With a roar and a quick usage of Ruler’s Hand strengthening her own body, she flung it off its feet and took to the air. She eyed her HP and saw that she had less than ten-thousand left. Off two attacks. And she hadn’t even been able to try attacking yet.

Biting her lip furiously, she was forced to back away and abandon the hunt. She could feel that the bastard was beyond her right now. Or at least when she was already at sixty fatigue from her prior hunts. A tactical retreat was her best option, right now. Her pride was absolutely bruised to bits though.

The Deviljho howled in triumph as it turned to the broken, but still living Glavenus. It stomped over to it and broke its neck before beginning to feast.

…

When she settled down for the night, Miho turned to the shop. She hated to spend her gold like this when Jinwoo could craft gear AND she was going to get a free item anyway once she completed this quest… but needs must. She had gotten cocky and had forgotten how useful good gear was.

She didn’t worry about her spear. She could tell from the shop that nothing was actually as good as any of her Fang of the Wyvern’s component spears. Nothing had the transformation ability nor good enough attack damage upgrades for her to want to abandon her old spear. She also saw through their stat screens that Jinwoo, Joohee, and Soohyun had all gotten accessories that were themed to their Dungeons. She assumed the same would happen to her, and so she turned instead to armor. But nothing really seemed as good as her current armor either. Some pieces had better individual stats, but she’d be losing stats as well.

“Crafting.” She said, glaring at the screen. There were no recipes, but there were places for her to shove her current armor. She unequipped her Armor of the Fanged Wyverns and put it into the crafting system, and a smile crossed her face as new screens popped up. There were five individual pieces, head, chest, legs, feet, and hands. Each of them could be enhanced. “Well, it’s a good thing I haven’t bothered selling my mob drops.” Miho grinned.

The helmet gave her elemental resistance, the chestplate gave her damage reduction, the gauntlets gave strength, the pants gave vitality, and the boots gave agility. And each of them could be empowered by the monsters she had already killed. Sacrificing everything that she had available, she checked out her newly-upgraded set.

[Armor of the Fanged Wyverns +10

Rank: S

+60% Physical Damage Reduction

+40% Elemental Resistance

+40 Strength

+40 Vitality

+40 Agility]

“Now we’re fucking talking.” She equipped everything once more and mused that all the pieces were different colors now before they faded away, leaving her in her skintight outfit. “You better be ready Deviljho, because I’m going to fuck you up for that kill steal.” She hissed.

…

“Is this thing always fucking hungry?” Miho grumbled as she followed the trail of carcasses the Deviljho left behind. It had killed several of the beasts she needed to finish her quest and had devoured them almost whole. How the hell wasn’t this thing full already?

She continued to track it, following the blood trails and footsteps it was leaving behind. She continued to fly, wanting to ensure that she would get the drop on it. Finally, she spotted it, fighting yet another beast. It looked like an upgraded version of the Glavenus, and it was winning. She waited until it knocked the Glavenus over and then raced down. Its perception was apparently so high that it saw her, but it was too late. With a roar of fury, her fist landed square in its jaw with a thunderous BOOM and sent it flying through the cliff face.

The Glavenus got to its feet and roared, spitting at her. Its damn spit was explosive, and the inside of its throat looked like a furnace. She dodged it rapidly while spying an injury left by the Deviljho. She summoned her spear in ice form and jammed it in the wound. The Glavenus howled in agony as a huge lance of ice burst from its other side before falling, dead. A screen popped up, but she ignored it, dodge-rolling away from the Deviljho. It howled and spat that weird black and red stuff at her.

“Noth this time, motherfucker!” Miho yelled as she used Ruler’s Hand to not only block the spray but also wrench its jaw shut. Its eyes bulged as the substance sprayed out from its distending flesh. It was a catastrophic rupture. The Deviljho stumbled about drunkenly, howling its agony out.

Miho leapt up and slammed her fists in a hammer blow on its skull, shattering the bone and sending the beast down to the ground.

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

“Fuck yes!” She hissed as she saw all the EXP she had just gotten from the two beasts. She had already been close to a level so these two had given her just enough for three level ups. “Looks like I was right. This was a variant. Hellblade Glavenus, huh?” And to make things better, killing the stronger variant had actually given her credit for two kills. She only needed three more of the damn things.

Should be easy with the Deviljho taken care of.

…

“Me and my big mouth!” Miho snarled as she dodged another Deviljho’s tail, retaliating with a stab from her spear. The beast was absolutely littered with cuts, and it seriously irritated her that she had been surprised on another hunt by one of these damn things. It had even stolen another kill from her: A Jade Barroth specifically. To her shock, her increased elemental resistance had done nothing for its weird breath attack. It had done the same amount of damage that the first one had done!

It used its ‘shovel the earth at her’ attack again and this time, she decided to just punch her problems away. The shockwave blasted the rocks apart and even knocked the Deviljho back a bit. It then ran full tilt at her and dove at her with its maw gaping. Miho’s hands glowed magenta as she used Ruler’s Hand on both. Her feet dug into the terrain as she was forced back, holding the beast’s jaws open. She saw the inside of it glow as it prepared to blast her point-blank with that breath shit, and she was having none of that.

Her own dragon breath blasted out of her jaws and straight down its throat. Fire and lightning mixed for devastating damage as the Deviljho writhed and tried to get away from her. She kept pouring out the attack, draining her mana rapidly. But it did the job, and bursts of flame and lightning exploded from its neck as she ripped its head off.

She held it above her head and unleashed a roar that echoed throughout the land.

…

The hunts had proceeded smoothly after that. Now that she had the taste for Deviljho, she went out of her way to kill every one of them that she came across. It wasn’t many, but she had actually killed five so far… unveiling a hidden quest. With that, she went back and hunted as many of the beasts on her list as she could, over and over again.

And now, she was up against her fifth and final Silver Rathalos. She could have completed the quest a day ago, but the fifth of these ‘Flying Wyverns’ as she had taken to calling them had proven elusive. And then one had decided to try to outduel her in the sky.

Miho grinned as she rolled to the side, tucking her wings and entirely avoiding the blue flame breath that got shot at her from above. “Hello beastie!” She grinned before firing her own electrified fire up at it. It breathed again, and the two bursts of flame met in between the two of them. A brilliant ball of flame formed in the middle before exploding like a firework.

Miho veered off and flew at speeds that would have made a fighter jet cry tears of envy. But she was far more maneuverable than one of those. She turned on a dime several times, G-Forces that would have turned a regular human’s insides into purée barely something worth noticing. The sound barrier shattered around her, which she knew meant stealth was completely unviable.

Not that she needed stealth. The wyvern screeched as it turned upside down to face her, only for the draconic Miho to land feet and claws first onto its chest. She let out a screech as she blasted it in the chest with her draconic breath. Fire and lightning tore at its scales as she continued to claw at it.

This was the problem with these wyverns. They had no front claws. Or at least, they had no front claws which weren’t attached to their wings. Their hind legs were perfectly good defensive instruments, and they were surprisingly flexible, but she was small enough that it quite simply couldn’t get her with them. It left them very vulnerable to her attacks if they fought in the air, which Miho had come to prefer.

And with the Silver Rathalos so preoccupied with not dying, it didn’t realize it was heading for terra firma until it was far too late. They hit the ground with an earth-cracking impact. Miho was thrown off her foe, but she was just fine. She had more than enough damage resistance for that.

The Rathalos wasn’t so lucky and writhed in pain before stilling.

[Level Up!]

[You have completed the Hidden Quest!

Accept Rewards?]

“Fuck yes!” Miho smirked, “Show me the goods, baby!”

[You have acquired Deviljho’s Brute Necklace.] Which looked like it was made from its bones, which was metal as fuck.

[You have acquired Silver Rathalos’s Earrings.] Which looked like silver scales with blue flames trapped inside.

“Not bad, not bad.” She grinned as she equipped them.

[Deviljho’s Brute Necklace

Rank: S

Type: Necklace

+30 Strength

+30 Vitality]

[Silver Rathalos’s Earrings

Rank: S

Type: Earrings

+30 Agility

+30 Perception

Set effects will be activated when worn with the ‘Deviljho’s Brute Necklace’ and the ‘Ring of Ancient Dragons.’

Set Effect 1: +5 to all stats.

Set Effect 2: Not active]

“That can’t be it for a Hidden Quest, can it?” She frowned for a moment.

She got her answer a moment later.

[Job-Specific Skill Acquired: Draconic Channel.

Channel your draconic energy through your body.]

[Job-Specific Skill Acquired: Draconic Absorption.

Drain items and slain dragons of their magic and incorporate them into your being.]

Her eyes widened as power infused her. Her body writhed for a moment as fire and lightning began to course around her. She floated of her own accord for a moment before the elements collected in her hand. A massive spear formed, which she threw. It hit a cliff and absolutely obliterated it.

A savage grin crossed her face as she looked down at the dead Rathalos. She wrenched its jaws open and inhaled. What looked like its own azure fire began to burn in its chest before rapidly siphoning out and into Miho’s mouth.

[Draconic Breath has been upgraded to Lv. 2.]

Her chest began to glow blue as well before extinguishing. She took a step forward and then breathed out her upgraded attack. Blue flames and lightning charred the landscape before her, shocking even the rock and stone into shattering just from the heat.

“Oh, it’s good to be me.” Miho purred as she dismissed all the screens and looked up her status. “Hmm, though it appears as though I’ll actually have to start putting points into Intelligence now. Channel and Breath are using up too much mana.” Shame. Oh well, she could just do like Jinwoo and add it to her cycle.

She was about to exit the Dungeon when a thought occurred to her. “Wait… items too?” She wondered and summoned her spear. Despite being an S-Rank item, it was quite weak. It was its uniqueness in being able to absorb other weapons that made it strong, though the actual stat increases were marginal. “…” She eyed it, “I hope I don’t regret this.”

She clenched her fist, and the spear began to glow before all of its magical power flowed out of the weapon and up her arm. Once the glow disappeared into her core, the spear turned dull and grey and then just snapped in half.

[Additional elements acquired for Draconic Breath and Draconic Channel:

Water Lv. 1

Ice Lv. 1

Poison Lv. 1]

Dragon’s Summit truly was the gift that kept on giving. She summoned a spear, though it wasn’t an actual weapon. No, this was a spear made through Draconic Channel that seemed like solidified green mist. Aka: Kasaka’s Venom Fang. She jammed it into the ground tip first and it ate straight through the rock. It was much weaker than her fire/lightning and by a lot too, but it was an option.

She was entirely unsure of what to do with her free item from the store, so she would just hold onto that for now. Something Joohee and Soohyun had both done as well. “Now, let’s see how cursed this lootbox is.” It dropped into her hand and popped open. “…The fuck?” She looked at the moon shaped hunk of metal. Rolling her eyes and assuming it was really useless like most of the junk they usually got, she tossed it over her shoulder. “Now-” The item dropped down in front of her, and she caught it reflexively. “…” She glared at it for a moment, before putting it in her inventory. “Fine then.”

Finally, she looked at her stats again and dumped all her free skill points in before checking her stats over.

Name: Baek Miho

Level: 86

Job: Sovereign of Annihilation

Fatigue: 0

Title: Draconic Scourge

HP: 34100

MP: 3050

Strength: 242

Agility: 212

Perception: 187

Vitality: 166

Intelligence: 103

As she checked her party members, she let out an infuriated growl when she realized Jinwoo had pulled away even more. He was so going to get it when they all got home.

-]|[-

And that’s a wrap. Four more chapters with some serious chunky bois. Had a blast writing ‘em, but it’s probably time to move on again. Shame, since I was really hoping to get to best girl Esil, but oh well. Next time, baby.

Also, since I KNOW some of you will be freaking out about Ilhwan, all I’ll say is :EvilMiko:

Hope you all enjoyed! New week will be more Big Tiddy.