Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yeon Eunmi

“Mommy, the woman over there is strange,” a childish voice complained in the distance. “She wasn’t there a second ago.”

“Hush, Mi Min. You must learn when to keep quiet.”

“But—”

“That’s enough , child. Come on, now, you never know what sort of unsavory stranger lurks around the alleyways.”

My mind felt foggy, and I sensed a strange sort of disconnect from my body. What… The last thing I remembered, I’d been reading a manga a passing acquaintance had recommended to me — that’s right, Solo Leveling .

With a gasp, my eyes snapped fully open, and I found myself standing in an alley shadowed by two buildings on either side. A distance away I saw the bright, flashing lights of a street as cars drove by one after the other on the busy street. A few pedestrians were strolling down the sidewalk, hoisting grocery bags or simply walking for the experience of it, but none of them bothered to peer into the alleyway where I found myself.

This isn’t right , I thought. I fell asleep on my bed reading that manga. I’m sure of it. So how am I…

A peculiar group of figures walked past the alley, and my eyes widened. No, that can’t be right… it must’ve been some cosplayers. I must have been daydreaming and forgot what I was doing.

Still, I had to confirm for myself. I ran to the sidewalk and exited the alley, startling some passersby, and peered down the sidewalk. Indeed, my eyes hadn’t been tricking me, as five seemingly dressed-up men and women were walking down the sidewalk with their backs to me. One wore deteriorating metal armor, a large sword strapped to his hip. Another was dressed up in verdant green robes, like a mage, and yet another was dressed up with a set of faded gold armaments. But the most surprising fact about them was that the citizens around them barely spared them a second glance before continuing with their lives.

Raising my eyes, a jolt of disbelief shocked my system at the giant words that lit up the billboard. 

VANQUISH THE GATES AND DEFEND SOUTH KOREA. JOIN THE KOREA HUNTERS ASSOCIATION TODAY!

The billboard flashed again, and the advertisement was replaced by another.

WHERE HUNTERS FIND THEIR CALLING. APPLY FOR THE WHITE TIGER’S GUILD NOW! BENEFITS GUARANTEED.

Accompanying the advertisement was a strangely familiar face with a caption under it. A shock of orange hair, similarly colored eyes, and sharp teeth bared in a captivating, photogenic smile. Guildmaster: Baek Yoon-ho (S-rank) .

I flattened myself against the wall, ignoring the looks directed my way, as my breath came out faster and faster. No, this must be some kind of prank. But as the billboard switched again and again, the same words kept on surfacing. Hunter. Guild. 

Monster . Gate.

I’d always tried to be a level-headed woman. Stay calm, Eunmi. Be polite, Eunmi. Work hard and things will turn out okay, Eunmi. But there came a breaking point where things spiraled out of control, and there was no denying it here. My body was in refusal, and my mind ceased to function entirely. It was exceedingly difficult to stay calm in a world that did not make sense. A world that should not exist in the first place. Like a god had taken my entire reality, my entire world, and flipped it over within the span of one night.

In this incoherent state, I turned and ran deeper into the alleys. I’m not sure for how long, or how far, but at some point even my relatively fit body started to feel tired, and I paused to catch my breath as I looked around. Disbelief or not, I was still somewhat curious where I’d ended up in this wildly fictional world. Not completely. Don’t forget, the setting was still on Earth . This city should be familiar to be — well, somewhat.

Stepping out of the alleyway, I locked my eyes upon a large, simple building with a well-maintained lawn and a sports field visible in the distance. The sky was beginning to dim, and most of the windows were dark.

“Let go of me!” a high-pitched scream sounded nearby. “Help, somebody!”

“Oh, for god’s sake, shut up!” a second, deeper male voice snapped. “We’re not even asking for much, Jin-ah. Just give us your wallet, and no one gets hurt. We’ll let you go, and you can run on back to that pathetic brother of yours.”

“Don’t talk about Jin-woo like that!” Jin-ah yelled, the beginnings of a sob in her voice. “And I don’t have any money. You won’t find what you’re looking for.”

“Well, then, maybe I can get something else instead, li—”

Crunch . The burly gangster fell onto the cold cement with a dull thud , holding his cheek with wide eyes as if unaware he had the ability to get hit. Or that someone had the audacity to hit him, either way. “Leave the kid alone,” I threatened, “or else.” A run-in with some high school bullies had taught me what I needed to do, though granted they were not exactly “bullies” but more exactly “thin teenagers with an over-inflated ego who can barely throw a punch.” Inwardly, my mind was also in turmoil. Jin-ah? Jin-woo? As in, Sung Jin-ah and Sung Jin-woo? Did I literally just run into the Shadow Monarch-to-be’s sister? From the looks of it, he hasn’t begun growing in power yet…

The gangster shuffled back, his former confidence waning fast. “What — are you an Awakened?” he stammered, before scurrying to his feet.

“No,” I replied, trying to gather my courage as I settled into a ready stance. “Not that I need much more to deal with you .”

“Oh, come on, Chanwook,” the second gangster said with a disbelieving sneer. He cracked his knuckles. “This girl’s an Unawakened, we can deal with her easily. Don’t give up because of a few dry threats now.”

Stepping forward, I turned my head and whispered to Jin-ah, “Psst, I recommend running now.”

The girl’s eyes widened under the light of the lamp overhead before she bowed quickly. “Please be safe, unnie! Thank you so, so much!” Then she turned and bolted down the sidewalk.

I turned just as the second gangster stepped forward, launching a sloppy punch at my head. All idiocy and no brain, skill, or power , I thought as I blocked it and retaliated with a vicious blow straight to the gangster’s head that knocked him out cold. Thank god for all those years of self-defense lessons. The other two gangsters, including the one I punched in the beginning, eyed me uneasily before running forward together.

Two minutes later, the remaining two gangsters had dragged their fallen comrade away. They were also carrying a black eye and their fair share of bruises.

I gingerly touched the spot on my cheek and stomach where two of the gangsters had landed a hit, wincing at the numb feeling. Oh, well. A knee to the groin is more than enough retaliation. Now, whichever miracle isekai’d me to this world better have given me something to work with…

Reaching into my pocket, I fished out a wallet and a phone. The wallet, when opened, contained a handful of bills, a passport, a driver’s license with my face on it, and two folded slips of paper. After unfolding one paper, I moved closer to the lamp post to read the handwritten note.

Good luck, Yeon Eunmi.

There is no chance of you returning to your world, so adapt quickly.

P.S., your phone’s passcode is 828349.

As my expression twisted into an ugly scowl, I moved to unfold the second piece of paper. It merely contained an address, along with a second message informing me that four months of rent had been prepaid. So the forces at work can whisk me into a fictional world, but can’t make me rich , I thought dryly, chuckling despite myself. Oh, well. You said you wanted me to adapt? Sure, I’ll adapt. Just you wait.

Upon arriving at the address’s location, I found myself standing in front of an apartment building. After entering, I had a quick chat with the landlord, received my keys, and took the elevator up to my floor. After unlocking the door to my apartment, I closed the door and flipped open the lights. Then, settling onto the couch, I closed my eyes and tried to process all of the events that had just happened.

Sung Jin-ah

Jin-ah sprinted into her apartment and all but slammed shut the door. Jin-woo, who stood by the stove cooking dinner, immediately stopped the fire and started towards her with concern. “Jin-ah? Jin-ah! What happened?”

Jin-ah knew she must’ve looked a mess, with erratic breathing and frazzled hair. “I-I was heading home from school, and then… I was ambushed by some thugs. The thief wanted my money, but I didn’t have any, so h-he said that he wanted something else. Then a woman p-punched him in the face and told me to run…”

She looked up, feeling another wave of uselessness at the sight of the fresh bandage on his face. “Oppa…” She burst into tears, loud enough that the neighbors must’ve heard it two floors away. “I couldn’t do anything.”

Jin-woo immediately pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry for not being there, Jin-ah. But this woman sounds strong. I’m sure nothing terrible happened to her.”

The two stood there, with Jin-ah quietly crying into her older brother’s shoulder, until a knock sounded at the door.

Stepping back, Jin-ah wiped away her tears quickly before saying, “I’ll get it, oppa. You should finish cooking, just d-don’t burn the peas again.”

Her brother smiled in response, before giving her a shrug. “No promises.”

Opening the door, Jin-ah’s eyes widened. “Y-you’re—!”

“I’m sorry for intruding,” the woman who had saved her said with a smile. “But I heard you crying next door, and I thought I’d let you know I’m fine. I’m also, apparently, your new neighbor.”

“T-thank you so much, again!” Jin-ah said, bowing. “What’s your name? And c-can I call you unnie?”

The woman smiled, her eyes a touch distant, and nodded. “Of course, my name is Yeon Eunmi. And may I call you Jin-ah?”

“Yes, if you want to, unnie!” After looking at Eunmi again, Jin-ah thought that she was actually pretty in a subtle kind of way, with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and mesmerizing hazel eyes that gleamed with hints of gold under the light. She wasn’t tall, maybe a little taller than Jin-ah, but exuded a sense of quiet confidence from her stance and the look in her eyes. 

“Do you want to join us for dinner?” Jin-ah asked, sending Jin-woo a meaningful look.

Eunmi held up her hands. “I would hate to interrupt your life any more, as it was already quite rude of me to barge in here.”

“ Please ?” Jin-ah clasped her hands together and gave Eunmi her best puppy dog eyes.

The other woman coughed lightly into her fist, looking away. “Well, if you insist…”

“ Yes ! Oppa, make more food!” Jin-ah called triumphantly.

Yeon Eunmi

Dinner with the Sung family was a relaxing affair. Jin-ah and Jin-woo got along like two close siblings, bantering back and forth over random topics that were as spontaneous as they were interesting. I occasionally joined in from time to time, and even entered into a heated discussion with Jin-ah over which utensil to use for cake. The only time the mood dipped even once was when Jin-ah accidentally mentioned the siblings’ mother, and the table was cast into a gloomy silence.

I remembered the mother of Jin-ah and Jin-woo. She had fallen into a coma due to Eternal Slumber, and was eventually healed by Jin-woo some time after unlocking the System. Of course, as of now, Eternal Slumber was an incurable disease — as far as the Sung siblings knew, their mother was never going to wake up.

I kept my mouth shut, though, mainly because I didn’t want to seem suspicious, and I also didn’t want to give the siblings false hope. My presence alone meant that the storyline had the potential to veer completely off of the normal course, depending on how much I interfered.

Nevertheless, as the night dragged on, I started to view the two people in front of me as breathing, thinking, feeling living beings instead of two dimensional characters that lived in a fictional world. Several times throughout the night I felt my perception shift, the line between fiction and reality blurring. I was no longer watching them. I was a part of their world.

I didn’t know how to feel about that, and kept my mouth shut whenever the conversation wandered closer to uncomfortable topics like hunters or gates. I even felt some semblance of relief as the conversation quieted down and Jin-ah dragged both Jin-woo and me to the couch, turning on some over-the-top drama filled with corny dialogue and predictable characters. Predictable characters , I thought, catching my eyes unconsciously wandering over to Jin-ah, who was half-asleep with her legs on a snoozing Jin-woo’s lap. That’s what I thought they’d be.

“Unnie, unnie,” Jin-ah yawned as I made to leave. She was a true social butterfly, already having accepted me as a neighbor and friend within the span of one day. “Stay longer. The movie’s not over yet.”

My eyes widened as another face overlapped with Jin-ah’s, and a memory flashed through my mind.

“Eunmi! Unnieee! Don’t go,” Yeon Soomin pleaded. My younger sister’s hands held onto my arm stubbornly, looking up at me with wide blue eyes and an adorable pout. “The movie’s not over yet, and when it’s over, there’s still five sequels too.”

“Soomin,” I chided lightly before I let out a sigh and sat back down in exasperation. “Fine, but only until the end of this movie. There’s no way I’m staying for five of these.”

Soomin grinned mischievously. “Okay,” she chirped eagerly in agreement, before releasing my arm and lunging for the TV remote. “I’ll just have to restart the movie then!”

“Oh, no, you don’t! I’m not watching those horrible scenes again! Get back here!” I lunged after her, a genuine smile on my face as I tickled her mercilessly. “Give me that, you little scamp!”

If I'd known Soomin would fall terminally ill and pass away soon after, I’d have watched every movie she wanted with her. No matter how childish or how poor the quality, I would’ve watched them all until Soomin was snoring away in that adorable way of hers.

“Unnie?” Jin-ah asked, sitting up. “If you’re tired, you can definitely return to your room.”

I blinked. “Ah? Oh, no, I’m fine. Jin-ah, you should go rest though.”

Jin-ah shrugged, turning her eyes back to the screen. “I don’t wanna, tomorrow’s the weekend anyways.” Her voice softened and quieted as she fixed her eyes onto the television. “I wish Jin-woo would take a day off, though. He’s always going on raids and getting hurt when he’s only an E-rank.”

“Your brother… I can tell he is a hardworking man who cares dearly for you, Jin-ah,” I said, glancing at Jin-woo out of the corner of my eye. “A man like him wouldn’t die easily. I think the best thing you can do for him is support him however you can. Sometimes, something like that is enough.”

“What about you, unnie? Will you support Jin-woo?” Jin-ah asked, yawning again.

I coughed lightly. “W-well, of course I will if I can. What do you mean, Jin-ah…?”

Only a soft snore answered me.

Sung Jin-woo

As soon as Eunmi left, closing the door quietly behind her, Jin-ah bolted upright and shut off the TV. “Psst, hear that, oppa?” she whispered, grinning. “I found your future girlfriend already.”

Jin-woo opened his eyes, pointedly looking away from his younger sister. “Jin-ah, stop daydreaming about such things. You just met her, she just met us, and I don’t have time for such things. I’m busy with raids, you know that.”

Jin-ah giggled. “You’re right, I am daydreaming. She’s too good for you, oppa.”

“Quit it before I make you,” Jin-woo warned as he got up from the couch and headed to his room. Yeon Eunmi… even so, she’s such a curious person. There’s something different about her. And I don’t know why, but I find myself wanting to find out what.

Yeon Eunmi

“Thank you for coming,” I said with a smile as I handed another customer their books. I’d found a job at a kind, elderly woman’s little bookstore, working as the sole clerk. The peaceful store evoked a sense of calm in me, and I enjoyed reading some of the more interesting books in my free time. And even though Mrs. Wang, my boss, gave me several strange looks, I often flipped through The Hunter’s Guide to the Weaknesses and Strengths of Common Monsters in my free time.

I found myself having dinner with the Sung family several times more that month, mainly due to Jin-ah’s stubborn insistence. Any belief I had that this was a two dimensional world went away completely.

The bells above the door jingled cheerfully as the door swung open to reveal a thin man with spiky black hair wearing a black hoodie. The man looked around for a while before dropping a stack of four books on the counter. I looked over the titles, feeling a small tinge of surprise. I had looked over most of the books during my time as a clerk, and all four of them were books I never expected to sell. Three of them were older textbooks based on health and anatomy. They had fallen out of favor when miracle-creating healers had appeared. The last book was a book on Korean guilds written by the Fame Guild that trash-talked all of the other guilds and gave very little usable information.

I cleared my throat. I wasn’t supposed to interfere in the customers’ choices, but I honestly felt too bad for this man. “Sir, are you certain these are the books you want…?”

He grinned, completely oblivious. “Why? Is there something wrong with these?”

I coughed. “Well… the book on hunter guilds may not contain the most, ah, accurate information…” I trailed off, unsure of what to say.

“Yeah, it’s a joke for my friend who’s in the White Tiger’s Guild,” the man said. “The textbooks are just for my personal interest.”

“Of course, that’ll be 79,293 won,” I replied as I dropped the books into a bag. Why does he look familiar? Nah, there’s plenty of people who look like him. Must be my eyes.

The rest of my shift was uneventful, and as the sky dimmed, I was reorganizing the books on the shelf when the bells jingled again. I looked over to see a familiar face. “Oh, hey, Jin-woo.” I looked away quickly as an unfamiliar feeling warmed my cheeks. I was… happy to see him? Well, he is your neighbor, I thought lamely. Must be because of that.

Jin-ah’s brother smiled awkwardly. “I just finished my raid, so I thought I’d come see where you worked.”

“Well, you found it. Welcome to the Heavenly Library, where you’ll find dust and sneezing fits in every corner,” I joked as I shuffled around a few misplaced books in the fiction section. “Anything in particular you want to find today? I think I have The Complete Guide to Avoiding Injuries around here somewhere…”

Jin-woo laughed, a genuine chuckle that I rarely heard from the stoic hunter. “I wish,” he said softly.

“Yeah, that would be an ideal world,” I agreed. “Ah, here it is. The Prophecy that says Sung Jin-woo is Going to Strike it Rich . Written by the Oracle of Nonsense.”

The E-rank hunter laughed again, and I blushed before looking away quickly. Quit it with the feelings, Eunmi. “Anyways, I came here to ask if you could watch Jin-ah. I have a D-rank raid tomorrow, and…”

I hesitated, and an eerie sense of foreboding crept into my mind. Don’t tell me… no, it couldn’t be. “Be careful,” I said, while my thoughts whispered dangerously. The double dungeon was a D-rank, wasn’t it? But Jin-woo’s gone on D-rank raids before. This could just be one of them. “And of course I’ll watch Jin-ah.”

“Thanks,” Jin-woo said, standing stiffly by one of the bookshelves while mindlessly running his fingers over the books.

Grinning as I realized where he was standing, I took the opportunity to tease him. “Wow, Jin-woo, I didn’t know you were into romance.”

I laughed as Jin-woo’s face turned red. “What? No,” he denied hastily, “I wasn’t—” He hid his face behind his hands.

He’s too innocent to go through the things that the story has planned for him , I thought.

Flipping the sign on the door to Closed , I hold open the door for Jin-woo and close it behind us. “Come on, you’re going to be late to dinner at this rate. Jin-ah’s always worried sick about you when you’re back late from raids.”

He mumbled something quietly to himself, then looked away again and cleared his throat with difficulty. “Yeah, you’re right,” Jin-woo said. “Jin-ah’s cooking today, so we’d best get there soon and see if we can salvage the food.”

A chuckle left my mouth at his words. “You’re funny, Jin-woo. Race you?”

“Su — w-wait, you didn’t say go! Hey!” Jin-woo stuttered behind me.

His confidence must’ve appeared in later parts of the story, I thought as I sprinted down the sidewalk, my path illuminated by the lamp posts that lined the street. Seconds later, Jin-woo caught up to me, his long legs easily carrying him at a pace faster than mine by a lot. Of course the damn protagonist has long legs, is athletic, and happens to be good at most everything. A memory from a week ago flashed through my head, and I winced in guilt. Jin-woo, bandaged and bloody, coming back from a D-rank raid with a mess of cuts from a goblin and one request: Don’t tell Jin-ah . Jin-ah found out anyway, but Jin-woo’s determination to keep his sister happy caused an odd feeling to spread through my heart.

Jin-woo was standing in front of the apartment building door when I arrived, a teasing smile on his face. I rolled my eyes. “Try being my height, tall guy.”

A few minutes later, I stood in front of my apartment door, waving goodbye to Jin-woo, when Jin-ah poked her head out the door. “Hey, unnie! Wanna come over for dinner after I finish making it?”

“Depends,” I replied good naturedly. “How burned is it, on a scale of one to ten?”

“Probably an eleven,” Jin-woo said confidently, receiving an elbow to his ribs in response.

As she dragged her brother into their apartment, Jin-ah replied, “Zero, unnie! Shut up , oppa.” Their door shut, and I retreated to my own apartment. I opened the fridge halfway, opening the package of frozen chicken, and thought about defrosting it before I closed it again. Whether or not I’d realized it, dinner with the Sung siblings had become my normal routine.

Sung Jin-woo

“Who’s that guy?”

“You don’t know? His name is Sung Jin-woo, AKA the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind. Even among E-ranks, his mana levels are insanely low.”

“Shh, he can hear us.”

“Who cares? He’s just here as a porter to meet the raid requirements, anyways.”

Jin-woo fixed his eyes on the ground, clenching his jaw as the bandages on his face from yesterday’s raid throbbed painfully. He was used to the mockery. He was used to the criticisms. Used to the feeling of others looking down on him.

Who cares? I’m not even Awakened, and I’m living my life just fine , a familiar voice echoed in his mind, and he almost smiled subconsciously. Anyone who thinks like that isn’t worth talking to. They’re afraid of their own weakness.

“Hey, Jin-woo! Why so glum?” Kim Sangshik walked up to him, sipping on a cup of coffee that he held in his hands. “You know people don’t really mean it when they say things like that, they’re just skeptical because of… you know.”

“Yeah,” Jin-woo agreed quietly, looking at something random in the distance.

Sangshik walked closer. “Hey… are you blushing ? Come on, Jin-woo, tell me. Who’s the crush?”

“I don’t have one,” Jin-woo argued halfheartedly. A face appeared in his mind, with brown eyes that gleamed like gold under the sunlight—

Sangshik sighed dramatically. “Sure, dude, if you say so.”

Quickly walking away, Jin-woo approached the coffee stand. “May I—”

“We’re all out.” The man behind the coffee stand barely looked up, his eyes filled with the same pity that Jin-woo seemed to see reflected in people’s eyes everywhere. “I’m really sorry, Hunter Sung.”

“It’s fine.”

Lee Joohee stood up as he approached her, her eyes wide with concern. “Jin-woo! You got hurt again ?”

“Yeah. The others were all a higher rank than me, so they didn’t bother to bring a healer,” Jin-woo said, unable to keep the dejection from entering his tone. “It’s okay, it’s because I’m weak. I’m used to it.”

Joohee was quiet, looking at Jin-woo with concern.

“Everyone!” From in front of the gate, Song Chi-Yul raised his hand. “If there’s no objections, I’d like to be the leader of this raid!”

Sung Jin-ah

“Don’t leave me! No!” A man on the screen dramatically clutched his chest as he fell to his knees. The heroine, meanwhile, strode away with a smirk without looking back.

“Oh, come on, woman! That man lo—” Jin-ah ranted happily as Eunmi cooked dinner in the kitchen. Suddenly, her phone vibrated. Seeing as it was an unfamiliar number, Jin-ah accepted it warily.

“Is this Sung Jin-ah, the relative of Sung Jin-woo?” a male voice sounded on the other side.

Jin-ah froze, and replied uneasily, “Yes. Who is this?”

“You were listed as the emergency contact on the patient’s file, so I called to let you know. Your brother is in the hospital after the D-rank gate turned out to be an S-rank double dungeon.”

Yeon Eunmi

I watched with somber eyes as Jin-ah, crying, sat in the chair by Jin-woo’s hospital bed. “Don’t leave me, oppa. You c-can’t. Not after mom and dad. You promised. You promised! Wake up, oppa. Wake up—”

I quietly left the room, closing the door behind me, trying to give Jin-ah some space. Instead, I returned home and boxed up Jin-ah’s untouched dinner to give to her along with several sweets from a nearby bakery. Upon entering the hospital room again, I placed them on the table in front of Jin-ah, who sat on a chair looking blankly at her brother. “Eat,” I urged. “Take as much time as you need. I’ll call the school.”

Jin-ah responded with a quiet affirmative, and I left the room again. I could have warned him. I could’ve told him—

An agonizing feeling seized my heart, as if it was being held by a claw made of ice, and all air left my lungs as if the gods above were punishing me for even thinking about telling him his future. Go! Leave this world alone! I thought, opening my mouth but unable to draw in any air.

When I felt on the verge of collapsing, I fell back against the wall, heaving for air. Fine, I got the message. Can’t say anything about the storyline. Then why am I even here? Surely a new character would disrupt the story even more.

There was no response, not that I’d expected one in the first place.

Whatever. If you won’t respond, I’m fine with that. Just leave these people alone, or I’ll go find you and make you myself. Now I’m in this world. I’ve got new people that I care about. I’m not just going to abandon it now.

I stepped out of the hospital, a light rain shower falling from the sky. Dark clouds were gathering in the air ominously, signaling a heavier storm to come. Meanwhile, as I stood by the hospital doors, I was mentally categorizing the things I needed to do. I’ll figure out a way to get Jin-ah to go back to the apartment tonight, but she might want to head back tomorrow, so I’ll prepare some meals or something for her to do. Do kids nowadays like puzzles?

I let out a sigh. Calm down, Eunmi. Let’s just head back to our apartment first, then figure out everything there.

I was halfway back home when a sudden sort of crackling sound rang in my ears, along with a hair-raising distortion that told my body to get out of there . “What—”

A massive gate tore open reality on the quiet street, swallowing me whole. As reality warped around me, I must’ve been hallucinating, but I swore I felt a foreign sense of satisfaction…

Woo Jin-chul

Woo Jin-chul, chief inspector of the Surveillance Team of the Korean Hunters Association, felt a surefire headache coming on as he stood in front of an enormous red gate.

“ Damn it!” he scowled, kicking a nearby bench angrily before taking a deep breath and composing himself. “Get me the feeds from the security cameras. Who’s in there? Is there anyone in there?”

“Already done,” his assistant said. “Recovered feeds from the security cameras match those of a civilian named Yeon Eunmi. Unawakened, really just a low-profile nobody. Her apartment building is nearby, which explains the unfortunate timing, even if I can’t fathom how she entered. But, uh, sh—”

“Given the mana readings, it’s an A-rank, peak,” Jin-chul said, rambling over his assistant. “With the red gate, it might be worse. She’ll be dead—”

“Sir.”

“Yes?”

The timid man cleared his throat. “Her file’s… weird . It’s like her records were wiped. No, forget that. It’s like a month ago, she didn’t even exist . Like an outside force added her in, but didn’t even bother adding a backstory. I don’t know how our system missed this.”

“...What?” Just how many more unexplainable situations are going to happen today?

“Inspector! Inspector! As the chief inspector of the Korean Hunters Association Surveillance Team, do you have any comments as to this tragic and unfortunate event? Many of the citizens have been nervous now that a gate has spawned directly above an innocent Unawakened. Will these gates appear more frequently now? And do you have any words to reassure them?” Journalists and reporters had already flocked to the scene like wolves circling around a fresh carcass, cameras snapping with the bright flash of lights. His employees were already working to keep them at bay, barking orders that were barely heeded or cared for.

Jin-chul signed, pressing his hand to his head. Such a nuisance. The reporters don’t care at all, they’re just fishing for a good story. Nevertheless, ignoring them would give the press even more reason to light up the media. It’s at times like these that I almost envy the S-ranks. If they wanted to, they could’ve warded away these pesky newshounds with their presence alone. He stepped forward anyways, raising his hands placatingly in a fruitless attempt to calm down their vigor. Then, he started to speak the same, tired old words that he had already memorized in preparation for events like these. How many more times will I have to face events like these? When will this finally end? “I assure you, we at the Korean Hunters Association are working hard to keep tragic events like these from occurring again. This is the reason why—”

Chapter Text

Yeon Eunmi

Maybe I shouldn’t have disrespected a mysterious, potentially all-powerful force earlier , is my first thought as I stand in what can only be described as a massive labyrinth with stone halls that looked wide enough to fit a whale from end to end. I turned around frantically, but there was no exit. A red gate.

A feeling of dread grasped me in its icy hands, rooting me in place. Those are at least B-rank… and this is a red gate. No one’s coming to save me, no haloed angel descending from the heavens. Either I survive and somehow manage to defeat this place… or I don’t.

For the first time in my life, I felt with a bone-deep certainty that failure was not an option.

A quiet chitter echoed through the labyrinth’s ominous halls. The crumbling stone walls, which stretched up towards the invisible ceiling an unknown distance above, were overgrown with a riot of greenery. However, I had a feeling they wouldn’t break, no matter how hard I tried.

Insects the size of my head skittered across the ground, and even as I watched, a massive spider the size of an elephant rounded the corner of one of the labyrinth’s many paths. Its huge, reflective black eyes gleamed in the darkness. Its chitin was a dark, ebony black with the patterns of even more eyes covering its abdomen. It plodded forward slowly, the ends of its legs gleaming with a dagger-sharp edge.

I held my breath, hoping the shadowy gloom of the labyrinth would hide me, and slowly backed up into an intersecting path while pressing my back against the wall.

I saw the shape of the spider move, walking directly past the turn where I stood and continuing down the passageway.

Another chitter, closer than before, sounded to my right. Turning my head, I spotted a second spider standing there. Its eyes were locked directly on me.

I didn’t scream. I didn’t even think. I just turned, and ran.

I didn’t know how long had passed, only that I had run from all manner of unnatural horrors. Bloodthirsty spiders with fake eyes on their abdomens and legs like blades, colossal bats that glided over the passageways in colonies of dozens, giant snakes whose venomous fangs gleamed under the mysterious labyrinth light, and packs of enormous wolves with metal armor covering their gray fur and claws like swords. All of them had me shivering as I hid, wedged inside of a godsend of a crack within the labyrinth wall. The crack reached about four feet in, just large enough in its deepest point to support two adult human beings if they squeezed particularly close.

The four different types of monsters seemed to be in constant war with each other, and an altercation between a pack of wolves and two snakes was the only thing that stopped the wolves from sniffing down my tracks.

I clenched my jaw, a gash on my right arm feeling like I was being burned by a line of lava, courtesy of a giant spider. Blood was already starting to stain my clothes, and it was only a matter of time before I either bled out or was found. You can’t die like this , my mind whispered to me. Come on, Eunmi. Do something. You’re not dead yet, are you?

What do you need to do, Eunmi? You’ve got a cut, and you’re bleeding to death. Stop the blood flow. Gritting my teeth, I reached with my unharmed arm for the vine that hung over the crack. Pulling it towards me, I held it in place while picking up the only useful thing I’d scavenged — a sharper-than-average rock. Then, setting it against the vine, I started sawing away.

Feeling a small dose of achievement every time the cut in the vine became deeper, I smiled in bitter amusement to myself. What is this, an S-rank vine? Does junk like that exist now?

It was likely not junk but some sort of rare otherworldly plant that scientists would kill to get their hands on, but I was in neither the mood or situation to care. An unknown amount of time later, a length of usable vine dropped onto the ground. Immediately grabbing it, I winced at the small puddle of blood around me and did my best to wrap the vine around my wound and tighten it. I opened my mouth in a wordless curse, crouched inside a crack barely large enough to fit two people, eyes raised to the stone above me as my mind turned hazy and my thoughts unfocused.

[YOU HAVE COMPLETED ALL THE NECESSARY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SECRET QUEST ‘RESILIENCE OF THE HOPELESS’.]

[YOU HAVE OBTAINED THE RIGHT TO BECOME A PLAYER. DO YOU ACCEPT?]

Crap, was a side effect of the vine delirious hallucinations? Imagine that… in trying to save myself, I simply subjected myself to more torture. Raising my left arm, I moved my hand through the illusion-like golden box. Yes, yes. Whatever. Of course, the last thing I see is going to be a stupid, hallucinated game box… fate sure is cruel.

Right on cue, a sense of indescribable pain started to crawl through my body. Fire had invaded my insides, and was burning every nerve just enough to send maximum pain signals to my brain. Whether a relief or a curse, I knew I wasn’t dying. Wasn’t close to dying. The fire tore me apart, atom by atom. Or at least that’s what it felt like.

It was sweet salvation when I blacked out.

Sung Jin-woo

[NOTIFICATION!]

[CONGRATULATIONS ON BECOMING A PLAYER .]

Jin-woo’s eyes shot open and he sat up, gasping for air. Then his mind caught up with his body and he looked around, surprised at finding the familiarity of his surroundings. It was a hospital room, and he was the patient.

Looking around, he saw a box of opened, half-eaten food lying on the table.

The room door opened, and two men in formal black business suits strode in. The first man, who seemed like the boss by the way the other man constantly looked at him, had sunken and tired eyes. The man handed Jin-woo a business card. “My name is Woo Jin-chul, and I’m sorry for the interruption. My colleague and I are from the Surveillance Department of the Korean Hunters Association. We understand you may have some questions, especially after being out for three days, so we will do our best to accommodate them.”

“Three days?!” Jin-woo exclaimed, unable to hide his surprise. “What about Mr. Song and Johee…?

“Hunter Song has lost an arm, which may affect his future in the hunting business, and Hunter Lee Joohee is undergoing treatment for trauma. It is possible they will both retire as hunters,” the man said in a monotone voice. “There were only six survivors of the double dungeon incident. Because all of the survivors’ accounts matched, we didn’t suspect any foul play… but when we arrived at the scene, all of the statues were gone and there was only you, Hunter Sung, lying on the altar while miraculously healed.”

“...What? The statues are gone?” Jin-woo asked, disbelief evident in his tone. “There’s no way.”

Jin-chul cleared his throat and placed a device on the table. “This is my personal opinion, but we believe you may have Reawakened, so I will ask that you place your hands on this device to test your rank.”

Jin-woo did so, but the assistant’s face was clearly disappointed. “We apologize for taking up your time, Hunter Sung,” Jin-chul said. The two men rose to their feet, but before they left, Jin-chul turned. “Ah, one more thing. Based on accounts from your sister, you and your sibling are the closest known affiliations to the woman named Yeon Eunmi. She recently disappeared inside an A-rank red gate. Are you aware of any mysterious things regarding her?”

Jin-woo blinked. “What? No. She moved in around a month ago, and she’s just been really nice since. She always helps Jin-ah when I’m off on raids.” He coughed. “Wait, what?! An A-rank red gate? Is she—”

“Given the fact that it has yet to release monsters in a dungeon break or allow anyone inside we can assume so. Of course, we could always be wrong, as the chances of an Unawakened civilian surviving in a dungeon is… negligible .” With that, the Hunters Association officials left.

Jin-woo buried his face in his blanket. Why can’t I help but worry about her? She’s just my neighbor… just my neighbor…

Raising his head, he raised his eyes to the cheerfully oblivious blue box that glowed brightly above his head. And why does nobody else see this?

[YOU HAVE UNREAD MESSAGES.]

The door opened again, and Jin-ah entered, wearing a school uniform. “Oppa, what are you doing?” she asked, before running forward and hugging him. “Oppa, will unnie come back like you did? I told you to stop getting hurt, but then you came back unconscious and then unnie disappeared into a gate…”

“Jin-ah, what would you do to read an unread message box?” Jin-woo asked, only to receive a punch in the shoulder.

“What, did you hit your head too?” Jin-ah asked, returning to her normal self slowly. “Obviously, you would open it!”

“Open the message box…” Jin-woo said slowly.

Jin-ah rolled her eyes. “Whatever, just don’t overexert yourself anytime soon, ‘kay? Get better soon, oppa. I’m gonna go.”

Yeon Eunmi

My eyes shot open, and the first thing I noticed was the soothing lack of pain. Wait, what…? Gingerly touching the vine-wrapped wound on my arm, I pressed harder. No agonizing response. What the… does that mean I’m healed? I even have full use of my arm. Carefully, I untied the vines, which fell away onto the ground. There was evidence of dried blood, but the wound itself was completely healed. In fact, all of the small cuts and scrapes I had managed to garner through the length of my stay in the dungeon were healed.

I looked up.

[NOTIFICATION!]

[CONGRATULATIONS ON BECOMING A PLAYER .]

No… no way. Disbelief overtook my confusion. Isn’t this just like Jin-woo? Although I guess that makes sense for there to be more than one secret quest. This…

My mind started to work. Maybe this could get me out of here.

The part of my brain that refused to die whispered smugly, See?

[YOU HAVE UNREAD MESSAGES.]

Jin-woo received the daily exercise quest from this. If the System gives me that, though, I’d take dying in that penalty desert over running ten kilometers in this monster-infested maze. At least one of them offers a sliver of hope for survival. “Open messages,” I mouthed, fearing the consequences of making any sound in this hellhole. In fact, it was a miracle I hadn’t been found already. Perhaps the crack was deeper than I’d thought it was.

A second box appeared, complete with a mail icon at the top.

[CONGRATULATIONS ON SURVIVING 24 HOURS IN AN A-RANK DUNGEON AS AN UNAWAKENED.]

[{SPECIAL QUEST: SURVIVE AND CONQUER} HAS ARRIVED.]

Haa… I thought, slumping back against the rock. After taking a deep breath, I reached out and clicked on the first one. Bring it on, you artificial… something. Reaching out, I clicked on the first message.

[YOU HAVE RECEIVED A REWARD.]

[MYSTERY BEAST EGG OBTAINED.]

[{SKILL: SOUL BOND} OBTAINED.]

[GOOD LUCK, PLAYER.]

Without any fanfare or magical gimmicks, a large egg appeared in front of me. It was the size of my torso, with a smooth surface that constantly shifted in a myriad of rainbow colors. There was a timer floating above it, with twenty-four hours left. It was slowly ticking down. As I watched it, a second box appeared.

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE {SOUL BOND} ON MYSTERY BEAST EGG? 1/1 SLOTS LEFT.]

I stared at it doubtfully. On one hand, this sounded potentially suspicious. As far as I knew, the soul wasn’t something to be messed with casually. On the other hand, it was most likely the only way I’d have even a shred of hope on getting out of here. Already, I could feel fatigue sinking into my bones. Jin-woo’s sleep had lasted three days after unlocking the System, and I was in the middle of a blasted dungeon while he was snoring away in the hospital.

Then I remembered every time he’d showed up back at the apartment slung over the shoulder of his comrade, always injured in some shape or form. Whatever. This isn’t doing anything. I’ll check the description first.

Upon my prompting, the window helpfully appeared.

[SOUL BOND (LV. 1)]

[TYPE: ACTIVE]

[Bonds the player with a limited number of beasts, greatly enhancing the bonded creature’s strength and growth. The bonded beast is able to take on a dormant form on the player’s body, able to be summoned and concealed at will.]

[SLOTS USED: 0/1]

I saw nothing explicitly harmful in the skill description, and considering the fact that I highly doubted this was going to work on a high-rank dungeon monster that intended to kill me on sight, I accepted the prompt.

[BOND SUCCESSFUL.]

A warm sensation spread through my chest, and I stared curiously as the egg pulsed gently from where it leaned against the stone walls. Then I glanced at the timer. There’s only one hour left…?

Author’s Note: This is a random bonus scene that I threw in for no reason at all but my personal whims. Don’t take it too seriously.

Random Nurse Whose Name I Couldn’t Bother to Come Up With Because I’m Lazy

[UNNAMED NURSE] stopped by her assigned patient’s room. She let out a gasp at the sight of the patient collapsed on the cold, tiled floor. Sweat drenched his face, and he seemed to have passed out cold. “Oh my!” Hurriedly calling for help, she paused at the sight of several piles of sand scattered across the floor. Am I watching over a lunatic? But how in the world did it even get inside? This hospital is incredibly sanitary, and I know for a fact we don’t keep sand in the basement. She checked his file. Awakened, E-rank…? Perhaps his secret ability is making sand? She shrugged as some hospital employees rushed in and helped as they moved the patient back to his bed.

Don’t wanna know, hopefully never will know. I’ll just get my paycheck, go home at the end of the day, and go to sleep. No detours, and certainly no getting involved in this weird, nonsensical Hunter business.

Sung Jin-woo

He ran faster and faster, pushing his sore legs to take one step after the other. Onlookers stared at him strangely as the distance count in his eyes slowly ticked up, but he would have cared less. Actually, scratch that. He couldn’t have cared less.

When the distance count hit ten kilometers, he slowed to a stop and stumbled over to a nearby bench, collapsing into its hard wooden surface.

He’d been standing by the giant red gate that had taken Eunmi. Woo Jin-chul had been standing nearby, talking with a purple-haired Hunters Association official that had a look in his eyes Jin-woo didn’t like. He still remembered their words. It’s a miracle Mrs. Yeon has survived so long inside the gate. It seems the time dilation on this gate isn’t severe, but she’s still survived for eight days inside the gate.

It’s a shame , Jin-chul’s purple-haired colleague had said, typing things down on a tablet. All signs point to her having Awakened somehow in there, likely with a higher rank too — B-rank, at least, or even A or S-rank. Of course, she’ll be dead soon. Even Korea’s most experienced S-rank likely couldn’t solo this gate.

Jin-woo had felt a sudden, strong urge to punch the man in the face. Instead, he had walked away because, even if he couldn’t say it, he knew. He’d lost faith too. Lost the hope that Eunmi was ever stepping out of that gate alive, and steeled him to continue gathering power for the same of his remaining loved ones instead. Am I the one in the wrong?

Believing in people.

In the time since he’d become a hunter, he had not believed in Song Chi-Yul and the other hunters to safely make it through the gates from the bottom of his heart. Jin-woo had believed in them because there was no other choice, and for the opposite to come true would mean his guaranteed death. Truly trusting another human being that they would pass any insurmountable challenge laid before them? Never. The only person he believed he could fully trust was himself. If he had a choice, Jin-woo wouldn’t have chosen anyone to have his back. Not even Jin-ah, if only to keep her out of danger.

Yeon Eunmi was different. Jin-ah was family, but Eunmi was…

Stop thinking about her, Jin-woo. Keep running. Just keep running. You have to get stronger first, there’s nothing you can do for her as you are now…

Yeon Eunmi

By the time the egg hatched, I had been taking fitful naps and was starving and seriously considering suicidally sacrificing myself to the lone serpent that coiled in wait beyond my hiding spot. The green serpent was a juvenile one from the looks of it, smaller than the other serpents by at least a third. Its body was still as thick as a tree trunk, and of course not something I could tangle with, ever. It had been quietly hiding in the shadows so far, hiding when other monsters passed by — including other giant snakes. It seemed unwilling to disclose the location of its prey, even to other snakes. Reptilian rivalry, perhaps?

Hugged close to my chest, the egg shifted powerfully once, twice, three times. It had been doing so more recently in the last few hours, and as I watched, the timer ticked down from nine seconds. Nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… zero.

Right on cue, a hairline fracture appeared on top of the egg’s surface, its colors still shifting mysteriously in the limited light of my impromptu shelter. The cracks spread rapidly, spider webbing across the egg’s surface, until entire pieces started to break off and a baby creature emerged from within.

I remembered the dragons Jin-woo had faced as being deep red and breathing incredibly destructive fire. This dragon was nothing like them. If anything, it — he , I instinctively knew — was the opposite. The baby dragon’s scales were a deep, dark cerulean blue with an underside like plates of steel. Well, tiny plates of steel, of course, as the hatchling was the size of a medium dog. The dragon’s eyes were electric blue, and his horns were like icicles. When the dragon grew larger, he would surely become a terrifying monster, but as of now I simply saw him as quite… adorable.

[PLEASE NAME YOUR BOND.]

Hmm… I frowned, thinking, before deciding and bopping the hatchling on the nose. “Glacius,” I whispered softly.

[BOND HAS BEEN NAMED GLACIUS.]

[GLACIUS]

[RACE: ICE DRAGON]

[EVOLUTION: I]

And as if my body was taking this moment to remind me I was not supposed to go for an unknown number of days without eating food, I promptly passed out like the battle-hardened survivor I was.

Author’s Note: I may or may not have been inspired by the uniqueness of Jin-woo’s shadow warriors. This is a fanfiction, okay?! I’m allowed to plagia — ahem, I mean borrow some ideas. Unless I’m not? Okay, I’m rambling now.

Glacius

He was the first beast to be Chosen, and the first to be born. Glacius’s benevolent master had bestowed upon him her blessing, and he would not squander it.

Cautiously sniffing his master’s face, Glacius licked her fondly before glaring beyond the hiding spot. He could sense the presence of the snake, skulking about in the shadows. It did a poor job of hiding its presence, not that Glacius was going to complain, and he felt very much like killing it and devouring its magic and power to strengthen himself. Still, all his senses told him it still surpassed him by far, and there was a far more important task at the moment.

Even now, his master’s life was draining away. Glacius knew from the bond between them that she lacked sustenance after just a few days gone hungry. It only solidified the theory in his mind that humans were frail, fragile creatures. He would need to protect her, and to do that, Glacius needed power himself.

Food first. Hiding all traces of his presence, Glacius slunk through the shadows, his tongue tasting the air for directions. He slipped right past the foolish young snake, who groggily eyed the crack while waiting for its prey to come out. Soon, filthy reptile. Soon.

He continued moving, his frosty aura warding away the disgustingly warm, humid labyrinth climate. Up ahead, a giant pill bug the size of him skittered carefully through the tunnels, its short antennae feeling the air and its surroundings. Its thick, layered dark gray armor had kept it safe from harm from smaller foes, and even as he watched it the bug approached a thick tangle of vines. Pushing the vines aside, it vanished into the walls. Of course the insects have some way of getting around… do they nest in the walls?

Either way, he had just found himself a perfect hunting ground. Even better, as Glacius pushed aside the leafy tangle of vines and plants, a few thorns pricking his scales, he found the tantalizing siren smell of food. The bugs are already quite a catch, practically brainless livestock waiting to be slaughtered. When I grow, these tunnels will no longer be available to me… so I should reap the benefits from it now.

Yeon Eunmi

When I awoke, Glacius was waiting for me smugly with his claws wrapped around a blue-stemmed cut from some sort of dungeon fruit plant. There were four fruits, each the size of a grapefruit. I was no expert in dungeon plants, but the fruits’ faintly glowing magenta surface seemed bursting with ripeness. How did he… I thought, feeling the urge to question my newly hatched dragon on his secret draconic activities. Nevertheless, hunger overtook any urge for that, and I plucked one fruit carelessly before biting into it.

On second thought, had the fruit’s skin been as tough as wood, I likely would have broken something. But my teeth pierced it easily, and what followed was a mildly sweet bite of fresh goodness. To my parched and starving taste buds, it was a bite of juicy heaven. Heaven that tasted like a melon. Cantaloupe, to be precise.

I looked up, wondering just how Glacius had accomplished this while I slept, and nearly choked upon finding that my little dragon wasn’t so little anymore. Glacius had grown at a supernatural rate, which was to say, tremendously. I swore he had grown almost a foot already from nose to tail. Glacius knew it, too, from the way he preened proudly and moved his head under my free hand to demand scratches for a job well done.

Two of the fruits I finished off quickly, while the other two I saved for later. Meanwhile, I had to begin formulating a plan to do something about the gate. I couldn’t rely on Glacius forever.

Scratching in the dirt, I sketched out toddler-grade cartoons of the monsters I had seen or encountered thus far. There seemed to be four main types of giant monsters that fought each other, and amongst themselves, for dominance. There were the spiders and the giant snakes, who seemed to hunt for prey individually. The giant swarm of bats that dominated the labyrinth “skies,” if it could even be called that, and the enormous wolves armored with metal who stuck together in their packs. But this entire place is strange. These monsters don’t seem the type to exist here naturally… What is this, like some giant otherworldly experiment that I had the shitty luck to stumble upon? Or, like the labyrinths of lore, is it protecting something? Either way, something’s artificial about this set-up.

Furthermore, the dungeon monsters seem less focused on hunting down humans and more focused on surviving. Even the monsters that attacked me did it with hunger in their eyes. I’m lucky, now that I think about it. If I’d landed in a snowy tundra-themed red gate like I know Jin-woo does eventually in the story, I’d be dead, through and through. Nowhere to hide, a mortal’s body, and that freezing cold temperature…?

I knocked myself in the head. Focus, Eunmi. You have to get out of here. I have a feeling the only way to do that is conquer the labyrinth… somehow.

A plan, Eunmi, you need a plan. And a way to defend yourself, some power of your own.

I stared out of the crack, towards the shadowed gloom where I knew the juvenile snake lurked. Is food truly so scarce? Or is it too weak to get it? Either way, I knew the snake would be my first challenge.

Now that I thought about it, I’d spent many hours staring out the crack. More than several times other monsters had briefly passed by my passageway, and three times it had been a large beast dragging another’s corpse. During those times, I’d shrank against the hiding spot as far as I could, and the snake seemed to find some way to hide itself as well. The two of us, playing our little waiting game… sooner or later, one of us was going to break. So I started observing and thinking and planning, and as the snake watched through half-lidded eyes I started pulling down vines.

Chapter Text

Yeon Eunmi

I remembered someone had once told me that before humans rose to dominance as the most powerful species on earth, they were merely intelligent monkeys with opposable thumbs. Any sensible monkey would run when the tiger approached, as the two simply weren’t a fair match. One had muscles, claws, teeth, senses, and power. The other… well, the other had opposable thumbs.

Then the early humans had banded together in groups, and they had started crafting tools. First came stone. Eventually it had evolved into guns and tanks, nuclear missiles and giant steel ships. And then, as far as I knew, the gates had come, and with them, monsters.

Bullets ricocheted and missiles caused more damage to the surrounding infrastructure than did any real damage to the monster population itself. They emerged from the gates, or dungeon breaks as they came to be known, in hordes while gorging themselves on humans and livestock.

Then the hunters appeared, but the advances didn’t stop. With the hunters came the otherworldly materials found in dungeons and the carcasses of the monsters. Just as some hunters Awakened to fight and kill on the battlefield, others Awakened to forge tools for the warriors. Guns and bullets were largely replaced by magical weapons and armor fashioned from these very otherworldly materials.

I knew that if I sharpened a rock and tried to go for the snake’s scales, I would receive nothing but disappointment and a swift, brutal death. But monsters could be defeated by other monsters, and even if Glacius’s power was far from taking the snake on, the monsters of the labyrinth had left me very valuable gifts scattered throughout its numerous passageways.

In front of me was a long, jagged length of ivory-white bone — courtesy of Glacius’s stealth and tracking prowess. The meat had been picked clean from its yellowing surface by other monsters long ago, but the bones? The bones remained.

I was no blacksmith, or any other sort of craftsperson. But I would do what I had to to survive. I’d already promised myself that this labyrinth wouldn’t be the death of me. Not by a long shot.

Sung Jin-ah

According to her school counselor, Sung Jin-ah was depressed. According to her friends, Jin-ah was depressed. According to herself, Jin-ah. Was. Depressed.

She didn’t cry, or at least she tried very hard not to. Jin-ah had started to learn that crying solved nothing, yet sometimes the tears just flowed and she couldn’t stop them. She had cried herself to sleep in the weeks since her father disappeared, yet he had been missing for several years and was assumed dead. The only times she recalled his face was in photos.

His body had never been recovered, and he was simply another name in the long, long death tally. That was how so many deaths went these days, either ravaged beyond recognition by the monsters that lurked behind those shining blue portals or simply… gone . Years later, a few had curiously wondered how strong he had been, perhaps even S-rank, but what use was a high-ranking hunter that was dead?

Jin-ah had last seen him the day before he went missing in the gate, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. “ Aw, my little princess. Worried about your daddy? Don’t worry, I’ll be back. Daddy’s pretty strong now, you know. And once I’ve done what I need to do, I’ll be right here in front of you before you can blink. If you miss it, your dessert will be gone…!”

In the months following his disappearance, Jin-ah hadn’t touched a single rice cake placed in front of her. Not once. Even now, she had lost her appetite for them altogether.

Jin-ah had cried herself to sleep in the weeks since her mother fell into her incurable coma. Eternal Sleep Disease. It sounded deceptively magical for something so horrifying. Jin-ah’s mother was not waking up to some dreamy fairy tale ending. She had watched with her very own eyes as her mother’s face, once like the most beautiful goddess in the world, turned pale and sunken. The doctors had said it was hopeless. Until a cure could be found, there was nothing they could do. And what could the miraculous and magical healers do, when it was the magic of the gates and the magic of the hunters that had caused it?

And then Jin-woo had become the breadwinner of the family. And then he had become a hunter — the, as some mocked, weakest hunter in existence. Every week, Jin-ah had feared the day the call would arrive and he would never return home. As the years passed, it had gotten better. She moved on with her life, found solace in her friends, and eventually fell into some sort of rhythm. She no longer cried at night. And when Eunmi moved next door, just a few feet away from the apartment that she and Jin-woo shared together, it seemed like the world was finally getting better. Like she was finally moving on from the gates and dungeons and monsters and moving into a period of normalcy in her life.

Sometimes, Jin-ah wondered if her world had become a cruel joke. Like the universe itself was toying with her, tossing more and more tragedies her way every time she tried to break free of her past. A delicate glass bird, forever trapped within the diamond bars of its wicked cage, shattering into more and more pieces from everything thrown its way. Sometimes, she felt like that. She wasn’t even the one suffering, yet why—

“Hey.” Her brother’s voice freed Jin-ah from her thoughts, but she didn’t look up from her pillow.

“Go away,” she said, burying her face into her bed’s plush embrace. “Can’t you see that I’m sulking? Idiot.”

The mattress sagged as Jin-woo sat down next to her. He seemed heavier than usual — probably because the stupid idiot was working out all the time instead of just getting beaten up by goblins in a dungeon. “Don’t be like that,” he said quietly. “You can cry, you know, but you’ll only be giving her ammunition to tease you later.”

“Shut up,” Jin-ah replied in reflex, her voice muffled by the pillow. “...I can’t do it. I can’t pretend.”

“Okay,” Jin-woo replied in an infuriatingly calm voice. Since when did he get so mature? “Then don’t. But I know Eunmi. She’s strong. If there’s a way to conquer hell itself, she’d be the one to find it. Her survival time has already surpassed all of the predictions, so what they all say could be wrong. Is already wrong.”

“Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night? I didn’t take you as one to believe in miracles.”

For the longest moment, there was silence. Then, “Yes.”

“What?” Jin-ah paused. “Speak up, idiot. At this rate even the most skilled linguist in the world wouldn’t be able to decipher your words.”

“Says the one speaking into a pillow.”

“You—!”

“I do,” Jin-woo interjected, and Jin-ah fell silent. “I do believe in miracles, because sometimes, there’s things you just… can’t explain. But I also believe in her.”

Sappy idiot , Jin-ah thought, but the words didn’t make it to her mouth. A few moments later, Jin-woo’s hand tousled her hair affectionately. “Rest up,” Jin-woo said. “And if you can’t sleep, then do your homework.”

What sort of choices are those?! He’s making getting out of bed seem like the worst thing ever… forget maturing, his common sense has definitely backtracked. Rolling over, Jin-ah pulled the blankets over herself until she was wrapped in a large, soft cocoon of warm, plushy goodness. Still mumbling incoherently, Jin-ah closed her eyes and was promptly asleep.

Yeon Eunmi

I continued to labor over my plan for hours upon hours. Without Glacius, I would have been dead already.

He continued to bring me fruit, sourced from unknown locations within the giant labyrinth. In fact, I reckoned he knew at least a part of it like the back of his… talon? Anyhow. Glacius continued to grow as well at an astonishing pace, until not even the surprisingly idiotic snake monster hanging just beyond my crack was unaware of him. The now pony-sized dragon seemed to do a good job concealing himself, however, because the snake treated him no differently from the other insects that skittered about with supernatural speed in the shadows. Of course, the insects that skittered by either ended up as food inside the snake’s stomach or managed to scramble away and hide within the various holes in the wall. I suspected them to have an entire tunnel system in there.

As I gazed upon the fruits of my labor, I knew that the time for action drew nearer. The snake had been content to wait thus far, but was already growing restless. When no other monsters were in sight within the passageway, the glint of the reptile’s starving yellow eyes were sometimes seen under the gloomy labyrinth light. I didn’t even know why the snake hunted me . I probably had half the nutritional value of one of the insects that scurried about. That bit of that famous monster aggression towards humans showing through? It makes sense. Strange or not, this is technically still a dungeon.

And when the juvenile snake uncurled itself from its vigil, tongue flicking out to taste the air ominously, I knew that it was willing to wait no longer.

Glacius, who stood next to me with his blue scales smeared with dirt, bared his teeth silently and carefully closed his jaws around the first part of my plan. Taking up much of the crack’s space was a thick rope of tightly woven vine. I had tied its knot as best as I could myself and then told Glacius of the plan. He had demonstrated complete understanding of it, my smart little dragon, and was more than ready to do his job.

Then, as the snake unraveled its long, sinuous body from its gleaming emerald coils, it started to slither towards me in a way that could’ve been seen as lazy if not for the starved edge in its eyes. The fog of the labyrinth seemed to thicken around its meandering form, and its hood flared threateningly, head rising into the air, as its eyes remained fixated on my location. A scare tactic. Get its prey nice and terrified for an easy meal , I thought. Too bad I’m not letting that work on me today, you green menace.

Slowly, holding a length of the intertwined rope of vines in my hands, I stepped forward hesitantly until the light of the labyrinth covered my face fully for the first time in days. No doubt, I was a grisly sight to see, like some ragged and feral wild animal. I hadn’t had contact with modern appliances of any sort in enough days to know that I likely stinked more than a sewer rat.

The juvenile snake’s eyes lit up in anticipation as it took the bait. Rearing up with its hood flared wide, it lunged forward, maws wide and fangs flashing.

Even as time seemed to slow upon my surely impending death, a smirk touched my face briefly as I jumped back for the safety of the crack.

Glacius lunged as the snake did the same, the rope in his jaws, and the snake seemed unsure of what had happened as the loop in the vine rope landed around its head. Then I took my part of the rope, braced my foot behind a stalagmite, and pulled with all of my might, the loop closing fast around the snake’s maw.

Perhaps dazed and disoriented in the heat of the moment, my monstrous foe’s jaws snapped closed, and its eyes dilated in panic. It started thrashing wildly, but the other side of the rope was fastened securely around a pillar of nigh-indestructible labyrinth stone.

The plan wasn’t over yet. As Glacius took my part of the rope and started pulling, tightening it even more, I grabbed the final component of my undertaking: A long, sharpened spear of ivory-white monster bone.

I lifted the spear and darted out of the crack, holding the length of bone in both hands. It was the sturdiest and sharpest of the bones Glacius had found, if his limited communication skills were to be believed, and had been scavenged from the remains of one truly terrifying monster.

The rope stretched taut, and the snake’s head slammed into the stone not six feet from me. The monster’s strength was terrifying, even at a juvenile size, but the vines I had woven into the bindings were many.

Two giant reptilian eyes widened, and it tried to get its bearings, but it wasn’t fast enough. The bone pierced its eye with a gruesome finality, penetrating all of the way to the brain, before I immediately jumped back to cover’s safety as the rope weakened — an astronomic feat of strength. The snake thrashed, a final act of defiance, before going limp. The snake and I had played the game of life, just the two of us, and it had not come out on top.

My first challenge, simply one of many to come, was defeated.

It was almost fitting that the first thing to greet me in the aftermath of my lonely, bitter victory was an unfeeling thing that had a vested interest in keeping me alive. For what, I don’t know, only that I was rather desperate to live and the system provided me with a lifeline. I can practically feel its energy flooding into me.

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

…

[LEVEL 1→9.]

[TITLE GAINED: TRUE HUNTER.]

[DUNGEON MONSTER CONQUERED. REWARD GAINED.]

“I need to move,” I whispered quietly. While not catastrophically loud, it was only a matter of minutes before monsters started sniffing around for the disruptance’s cause. After all, a snake banging its body against the stone was not something that even insensitive monsters nearby could miss. And I estimated this dungeon to be at least B-rank, likely A-rank.

Glacius darted forward across the rock incredibly nimbly for his size, and before I can say anything, he began to devour it.

Gulping, I looked away. I couldn’t say anything, not really, when it was practically expected of dragons and monsters in general. And I was hardly surprised when the crunching of bone and flesh barely phased me at all. How long have I been in this dungeon, a week? I assigned my free points while I waited.

[NAME: YEON EUNMI]

[LEVEL: 9]

[JOB: NONE]

[FATIGUE: 19]

[TITLE: TRUE HUNTER]

[HP: 835]

[MP: 400]

[STRENGTH: 34]

[VITALITY: 24]

[AGILITY: 34]

[INTELLIGENCE: 19]

[SENSE: 24]

[REMAINING POINTS: 0]

By the time monsters began to appear around the three-quarters eaten carcass, I was long gone with Glacius in tow — along with the new reward I had obtained from the system. It seemed to have decided a spear was not the weapon for me, because it bestowed upon me a pair of daggers formed from the snake’s fangs. Balanced and most importantly: Sharp. My first, and so far only, weapons.

Or perhaps the daggers were the only things salvageable from the snake’s corpse. After all, I remember Jin-woo had received daggers from a snake as well. Perhaps it was their thing. Snakes and daggers.

Glacius rounded the corner, and I followed closely behind him. I had realized, by this point, that my not-so-little dragon’s physical prowess had exceeded mine. His intelligence was not to be underestimated, either. I had simply stated to him that we needed a new shelter, and he had led me…

Here. A giant wall draped in heavy greenery and more vines, not a shelter in sight, at the edge of the labyrinth. A black spider was in fast pursuit behind us, its mandibles clacking and clicking like the sound of impending doom.

I opened my mouth once and then closed it, before noting a discrepancy in the positioning of the vines. Clever dragon , I thought to myself. Glacius, you’re the best dragon in the whole wide world. Smartest creature ever to be born.

Pushing aside the vines, I could feel Glacius’s breath on my back, his snout nosing my hair, as I entered a tunnel. Not like the insect-dug tunnels scattered throughout the labyrinth. This one was cleanly cut in a rectangular shape, the walls decaying from age but betraying their origins in their shape. Too straight, too flat. Glacius, just what did you find?

Nooks in the walls held small, round orbs that sputtered weakly to life as I walked past. This whole place was old, abandoned almost.

The tunnel was relatively short and led to a slightly larger room, moss overgrowing every available surface like some nature-reclaimed site of reverence. I could practically feel the mystery in the air at the place I found myself in. And there, facing me, was a door.

The door gleamed like burnished bronze, and I felt like an adventurer as I stepped forward, taking it in. It had no handles and the seam in the middle was so thin that it could’ve been one solid slab of metal. The only thing of note was the large, round, almost dial -like structure in the center of the door. The dial had four imprints pressed into its surface, and if movies had done anything for me, I knew that I would need four objects to unlock the door. Keys , if you would. I took a closer look at the shapes.

A snake. A wolf. A spider. A bat. Shit. Not just one boss, four.

In other words, I was completely, utterly dead. Not that it had ever stopped me before.

Sung Jin-woo

He walked closer to the bookstore where Eunmi worked. Jin-woo had been completing his usual ten-kilometer run when he suddenly remembered the old lady who had hired Eunmi as her worker, and reflecting upon the fact that the elderly didn’t care for nor trust electronic news as much, he decided to stop by and make sure Mrs. Wang didn’t think her favorite employee had ghosted her.

The bell chimed gently as he tilted open the door to see the bookstore owner sitting behind the desk, using a pair of spectacles to read a book with impressively tiny words. “Ah, Mrs. Wang,” he said awkwardly in an attempt to get the elderly woman’s attention. It worked, and she glanced up. “I-I came to, uh…”

She gave him that signature look of the elderly which meant spit it out, get out, or buy something , and he chose the former. “It’s about your employee, Yeon Eunmi.”

The bookstore owner stood up slowly, grabbed her cane, and crossed the distance between them with a regal gait that had Jin-woo wondering about her next course of action. “She’s—”

Whack .

Jin-woo’s jaw dropped onto the floor as Mrs. Wang delivered him a solid hit on the side with her cane. Then she started talking, emphasizing each word with a gesture with her cane. “Now, you’d better apologize to my poor employee for whatever you’ve done to her. Your kind are nothing but trouble, I knew it from the second you walked in. And if she isn’t here working like the darling employee she is tomorrow, I’ll find you and you’ll find that there’s more to that where it came from—”

“W-what?! No, no, no. Eunmi — Eunmi’s trapped in a gate and she can’t get out, so that’s why she’s not here—”

The bookstore owner stared at him blankly before her look turned into one of Why are you wasting my time then? “Oh,” she said simply. “Hmph!” Turning her back on him, Mrs. Wang started walking back to her desk, her cane tapping rhythmically against the aging wooden floor. “Then what are you so worried about? If these gates were truly so deadly, we’d all be dead by now. Have you ever met Yeon Eunmi in your life, boy? I’ll tell you this: Never underestimate the power of youth, and never underestimate the willpower of my employee. We’re a quality establishment. Of course, an old woman like me would’ve croaked by now, but she’ll be out in a jiffy, and then I guarantee you she’ll be here helping with the books the next morning. Hmph! Now buy something or get out. You’re ruining the atmosphere.”

Jin-woo had never been so flabbergasted in his life.

Note: I had this down as Unnamed, but I decided it would be too cruel of me to not give this art-loving guy a title, at least.

The Weaver

It skittered across its lair, mandibles clacking thoughtfully as it stared over its life’s work, its masterpiece. An intricate network of webs stretched across the sprawling cavern it called home, clusters of glowing crystals providing ample light for its underlings to admire its work. To admire the gleaming stretches of pale silk it wove into being, hard and sharp enough to maul even the other powerful ones it shared this stone maze with.

It had never been as physically powerful as the others. Powerful compared to its weak-minded kin, yes, but not compared to the alpha wolf and the narcissistic snake and the tyrant bat. Yet the webs it wove, the beautifully lethal works of art it created, ensured they could never so much as touch it in its own territory. Its mostly mindless underlings roamed the other areas of its territory, bringing it food when it hungered, and like that it had lived a life of contentment.

The balance was being broken. Its routine, so carefully planned just like the placement of each web, was being nibbled apart by a pest . Its underlings were dying.

It was very, very angry.

So it wove its webs and spun its silk, layering trap over trap, until its lair was a nightmare to all but itself. It wrought its defenses into place until even its own servants moved across its lair with caution. Perhaps too much paranoia, but it had learned that being too paranoid was never a thing. Not in this world of stone.

It was patient. It awaited the pest, knowing that here , it was invulnerable.

It clacked its mandibles in some vague arachnid interpretation of glee and excitement. Underlings could be born anew, but the pest would die permanently. It had been so long since something had happened, and it wished to savor the feeling of slaughter once more.

Yeon Eunmi

Ever since I slew that first juvenile snake, a sliver of hope started shining through the labyrinth’s cold gloom. Perhaps it was the drastic improvements to my physical body. Perhaps it was Glacius, who had somehow managed to increase in size by half from eating the snake’s carcass alone, and was now the size of a large horse. Maybe it was simply an increase to my confidence.

Whatever it was, things started to look up. Between the two of us, we started decimating the local monster population, which happened to consist solely of giant spiders. Their territory, perhaps?

Either way, the spider boss didn’t seem like a very active hunter, and Glacius and I were able to hunt with no worries of being interrupted by any other than our eight-legged prey. The monsters’ territorial inclinations meant that they kept away the other three breeds of monsters while simultaneously attacking us as well.

I had no intentions of using the daggers for the rest of my life, definitely not because it seemed like Jin-woo’s gimmick, of course not. However, the Venomous Fang Daggers I had been granted were incredibly useful for their venomous properties. Using them, I was able to slowly poison spiders to death while Glacius did the strenuous task of drawing aggro and dishing out heavy hits. Then, as we lured the spiders, who were overly aggressive to their own detriment, to remote corners of the labyrinth one by one, I would wear them down and weaken them with poison enough so that Glacius could land the final blow. Then, as I stood guard, he would gorge himself on their corpses.

Within two days he was as large as an elephant. An elephant . Elephants were huge . Plus, this was an elephant-sized dragon who had a frosty aura and left ice in his wake. Every wound he left on a spider’s body began to freeze over.

I remembered dragons as fire breathing tyrants in Solo Leveling , which meant Glacius was automatically better than them. He was dignified and likely smarter than me.

Glacius’s size opened up a new avenue of joy for me in this miserable wreck of a labyrinth. I finally, finally had the chance to fulfill my childhood dreams.

I settled into a spot on Glacius’s back as he purred underneath me, cold air billowing from his nostrils as he unfurled his massive, membranous cerulean wings. We had already cleared this area of spiders in a dual team effort, meaning it was safe to have… say, a little fun .

Wind was kicked up in mini gusts around us, and I felt my stomach lurch as beneath me, Glacius began to fly. I held onto the ridged spikes on his back as he soared low over the labyrinth, each beat of his wings powerful and precise.

I had made it to level eighteen and was likely now able to survive two or so full-on hits from a giant spider without dying. It wasn’t a great number. The only reason Glacius and I were able to pick them off so easily were because of their sheer stupidity and overwhelmingly simple attack patterns, which were predictable down to the very last move. I doubted their boss would be the same. So we stayed away from the place where the spiders carried their prey, picking off the so-called small fry until I felt I was strong enough. Until we were strong enough. Two levels passed, and I hit twenty while once again stuck in a cycle of safety. And just like with the snake, I would have to break free soon.

That was when the system finally made its move.

Chapter Text

Yeon Eunmi

[SLAY THE WEAVER]

[TIME FRAME: 6 DAYS, 23 HOURS, 59 MINUTES]

[PENALTY: DEATH]

[REWARDS: KEY OF THE SPIDER, ?]

“Ah,” I mouthed silently, staring at the bright box that hovered before me as I rested in the chamber with the door, munching on a juicy blue dungeon fruit. Of course. It was bound to happen soon. After all, above all else, the system prioritizes the Player’s growth. If I remember correctly.

The system’s interference moved everything up. “I have to defeat the spider boss within a week,” I told Glacius, who was almost unable to fit in the chamber with his body curled around my sitting form. In fact, in order to have him transported in and out of the chamber, I used an incredibly useful skill that had been gathering dust for far too long.

[SOUL BOND (LV. 1)]

[TYPE: ACTIVE]

[Bonds the player with a limited number of beasts, greatly enhancing the bonded creature’s strength and growth. The bonded beast is able to take on a dormant form on the player’s body, able to be summoned and concealed at will.]

[SLOTS USED: 1/1]

Upon activating the dormant form and paying a fair amount of mana, Glacius turned into a blue dragon tattoo stretching from my shoulder to my collarbone. Unfortunately, I had scouted out the Weaver’s lair yesterday, and to Glacius’s great fury it was a place where only I could enter.

I could see where, or how, the Weaver earned its name. Great swathes of webs covered the lair from ceiling to floor. A single strand of silk, I found, was somehow as sharp as a razor edge. A length of experimental bone was sawed in half against its surface easily, too easily for my comfort. But that only solidified the fact that Glacius could not enter. I wasn’t willing to risk my only companion’s life, not for a million years, in that death trap. Even Glacius’s ability to freeze things caused no visible damage to the spider silk.

Fuck , I thought to myself, dropping my head and closing my eyes in an attempt to clear my mind. Normally, I didn’t curse, but in this situation I could make an exception. Come on, Eunmi, think. This is almost the same as with that snake. You were just a regular civilian then who’d never even seen a monster before, but you figured it out, didn’t you? Now you can call yourself a hunter. So figure your shit out and hunt.

One day later, I was crouched outside the Weaver’s lair. Glacius was waiting nearby, and both of us felt the trepidation of the task to come.

Then, with a deep breath, I began a slow journey into the lair, weaving around each razor-sharp strand of spider silk and thanking my luck that, at least, each strand was easily visible. However, the webs were placed so that there was no spot that was less covered than the other. If I were to fight in this place, I would likely be chopped into pieces on the web before my opponent can do anything. So I would sneak into the lair with a healthy six days left before the death penalty would be enacted, along with seven bone spears and my daggers because for . If I could, on the first day, I would try and analyze the Weaver's behaviors, weaknesses, fighting tactics — anything to give me an edge, since it wasn’t willing to show itself. The last five days would be spent figuring something out. It wasn’t a plan, at all , I knew that.

Glacius nudged my mind reassuringly, like a frosty embrace, and I took a deep breath before heading in. Picking my way through the webs, I gritted my teeth as one barely touched my arm and sliced through it like paper. Withdrawing my arm, I trusted in my enhanced healing abilities to patch over the wound quickly and continued on.

Author’s Note: I had a lot of fun writing this point of view section. Don’t take it too seriously, I’m warning you! I love Jin-ho’s character, I’m not trying to demean him in any way. Half of this was for my personal enjoyment.

Yoo Jin-ho

“Hey, looks like we’re both small fries meant to fill the numbers quota,” Jin-ho said, walking up to the so-called Weakest Hunter with an easy smile. Maybe he would find kinship with Sung Jin-woo. “I was called here as well, under the same circumstances.”

“Uh… okay…” Sung Jin-woo was looking at him with a strange look on his face, causing Jin-ho to follow his gaze to his equipment. Ah, admiring my equipment! The armor is really flashy. Yes, dad spared no expense to make sure I would stay safe… not that anything could happen here with five C-rankers and such an experienced raiding team. Then Jin-woo walked away to find the party leader: Hwang Dong-suk, a burly man with dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard. Ah, is he jealous…? Dang, I didn’t think of that effect my equipment might have on people… I have to make up for it! Then Jin-ho glanced at Hwang Dong-suk a second time. Why am I getting bad vibes from that guy? No, it must be my imagination.

Speeding up his steps, Jin-ho caught up to the E-ranker and patted him on the back comfortingly. “Stop worrying so much! You said you were an E-rank? I’ll protect you.” Jin-ho gave Jin-woo a thumbs up and a blinding smile while the other hunter looked like he was about to die of embarrassment, giving an awkward laugh. No, that can’t be right… I must be worse at reading peoples’ facial expressions than I thought.

As the raid party started to head in, Jin-ho noted the ease and efficiency with which Jin-woo hoisted the party’s packs and supplies. Wow, so this is the power of a veteran porter, even an E-rank one…!

Up ahead, Hwang Dong-suk was looking around at the half-constructed buildings with interest. “Is it because Gyeong-Gi hasn’t been in a good spot recently? It seems like construction was only halted recently.”

Jin-ho glanced at his comrade, who had that same dour expression on his face. “They say the boss fled overseas with 900 billion won just two months ago,” he informed Jin-woo helpfully. He knew because his father had told him. Apparently, he had never been on good terms with Gyeong-Gi’s boss. “Let’s just say the workers and investors are having a hard time.”

If anything, the E-rank hunter’s expression turned even more strained. Was he bored? Oh, is he the type that can’t stand to listen to long and boring rants? I’ll keep that in mind. “Is that bag heavy? Will you be fine?” he asked instead. I’m a D-ranker, and I think that even I would have a hard time carrying all that stuff… again, must be the accumulated experience.

“It’s fine, I can carry it,” Jin-woo replied tersely, keeping his eyes fixed ahead of himself.

“You’re older than me, so there’s no need to be so formal,” Jin-ho said. “Are you normally this quiet?”

The E-ranker coughed violently. “I think you talk too much…” he muttered.

“Did I bother you by talking too much?” Jin-ho laughed, feeling a smidge of embarrassment. “No one seemed to care while I was being raised, my bad.”

Sung Jin-woo’s face was strained to the point of turning into that expression permanently. Oh, was he actually under a lot of pressure from the bags but was holding it in?

“We’re here!” Hwang Dong-suk shouted, the raid leader motioning to the giant blue portal. Trails of blues mana snapped off its sides like sparks of lightning. A quiet murmur ran along the gathered party. It’s big , Jin-ho thought. This is a C-rank gate? Even the entrance looks intimidating…

Jin-ho swept his eyes across the assembled raid party. Five of them were C-ranks, and this team was experienced and more than capable of handling one C-rank gate. But why am I getting this ominous feeling?

One of the hunters caught him looking and flashed him a wide, toothy smile. The look in his eyes briefly shifted to one of pure malice and greed before he sauntered up to Jin-ho, that veneer of politeness back on. “Aw, don’t worry,” the hunter said, slinging his arm over Jin-ho’s shoulder. “The monster’s ain’t gonna get you while we’re here, ‘specially with all that fancy gear you got on.”

“Let’s go!” Dong-suk barked, and Jin-ho could’ve sworn the party leader shot his comrade a warning glare.

They entered the gate, the hunter’s hand still digging into his shoulder, as somewhere, a crooked laugh echoed in Jin-ho’s ears.

Once they were inside the gate, Jin-ho looked around uneasily. The dungeon was dark, and as soon as the mage created light, Jin-ho gazed upon a rocky cavern with multiple tunnels branching out from it. There were no sources of light within sight, and no monsters either. Eerie. Others seemed to think the same way, as a few made cautious remarks.

Holding his shield and sword out in front of him, Jin-ho glanced around at the other members of the raid party. “Can there be dungeons with no monsters?” he asked Jin-woo in a half-whisper. A shush was his only reply as the E-ranker glanced around, almost as if listening to something. Impossible. I don’t sense anything, and I’m a—

“Some dungeon monsters just take longer to show up,” another member of the raid party replied. “All dungeons have monsters.”

Oh, that must be it—

“It’s an insect-type monster!” Jin-woo shouted suddenly. What? How does he know?

The entire party broke out into cautious murmurs. “Insects? An insect nest?” The subtle vibrations in the rock along with the sound of hundreds, even thousands, of individual legs pattering against the ground increased gradually. Jin-ho looked around wildly, but the tunnels were empty.

“ Above us !”

And from the tunnel branching directly out of the cave ceiling, a veritable flood of red insects surged forth. Stay calm! I have to stay calm! “Stay next to me!” Jin-ho shouted at Jin-woo, readying his weapon as hundreds of hungry red eyes gleamed in the darkness. Shouts erupted around him, and a burst of magic flared forth from Cho Kyuh-wan, incinerating a dozen only to be replaced by two dozen more. Hwang Dong-suk let out a mana-infused shout, and most of the insects snapped their eyes towards him. A taunt.

The insects dropped onto the ground from the tunnel above, skittering across the ground at unnerving speeds, and Jin-ho lashed out wildly at the first one that arrived. The sword, swung wildly, cleaved through the insect’s carapace like a knife through butter and split it in half as a second one jumped fruitlessly at his shield and bounced off. Thank the universe for equipment , Jin-ho thought as he swung his sword again. And again.

When there was a slight reprieve in their numbers, Jin-ho glanced at Jin-woo, who was standing there with a bored look on his face. Then he looked at the rest of the party. Even though the damage dealers seemed to swing with reckless abandon, every hit was one more body piled at the warriors’ feet and every insect hit by magic was incinerated to death. So that’s the power of C-rankers… then what would B-rankers be able to do, or even A or S-rankers? I can see why they’re regarded as walking nuclear weapons now, if this is the power they have…

Once all of the insects were killed, Jin-ho followed Hwang Dong-suk in exploring the maze-like system of tunnels and caves. They encountered a few more waves of ants, most of whom were dealt with easily. What bothered him, though, was the greedy look in Dong-suk’s eyes when he peered through the disemboweled carcasses of the ants not killed by humans. Jin-ho had seen similar looks reflected in the eyes of businessmen he had met before. The unpleasant sort. I mean, they’re hunters. I suppose they would be excited at the prospect of money , he reasoned lamely. His mind stubbornly shied away from the truth. If, by chance, he had put his trust in the wrong party, it was too late to do anything about it now. His fate was no longer in his own hands.

“My god…” someone breathed, and Jin-ho broke out of his thoughts just as the mage illuminated the area with a fireball. Once he did, Jin-ho felt like copying that person’s words.

Great swathes of web covered every available surface in the cave, and wrapped in cocoons scattered throughout the webs were the mysteriously dying insects. Well, Jin-ho guessed they had found the cause. “It’s the boss room,” Hwang Dong-suk warned. “Get ready.”

As the party slowly entered the lair, the spider webs creating an unfamiliar sensation under Jin-ho’s feet, he felt his eyes widen. Mana crystals, hundreds of them, lined the walls in their glowing blue splendor. Clusters of them were stuffed into corners, nooks and crannies, enough for a small fortune at the very least. Exclamations of wonder bounced around the party, and as Jin-ho listened to the party’s conversations, he turned to Jin-woo. “Hey, hand me your contract for a second,” Jin-ho said. “I want to check it over. I’m pretty good at these things.”

With a shrug, Jin-woo did so, and after skimming through the lines quickly, Jin-ho’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Excuse me, sirs,” he said politely. “Team Leader Hwang Dong-suk, this is Sung Jin-woo’s contract. As you can see, there’s nothing here about dividing magic crystals except for the crystals from monsters. Isn’t it only fair that the crystals be divided amongst ten, not nine, members of the party?”

As if the veneer of politeness had been shed all at once, the other eight hunters’ expressions simultaneously darkened. Jin-ho felt like backing out of the conversation then and there, but stopped himself at the last moment. Relax. Backing out now will only paint you as weak , he chided himself internally.

Hwang Dong-suk smiled cheerfully, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Of course we’re splitting it evenly,” he said as he waved his hand dismissively. “I know that as well. But there is something we need to take care of before that, the boss.” He pointed to the ceiling, and following his gaze, Jin-ho’s eyes widened at the sight of the absolutely massive spider slumbering amongst its webs on the ceiling. “As you know, the dungeon closes once the boss is defeated, so we must mine the crystals before defeating the giant spider. Thankfully, it’s asleep… so this seems like the best chance to move them. Cheul-bin, did you…?”

“Oh, sorry, leader,” another hunter replied, grinning in a way that made Jin-ho’s skin crawl. “I mean, uh, who would’ve expected such a huge haul of mana crystals in a C-rank dungeon? I left it all in the car.”

“Pity, pity,” Hwang Dong-suk sighed exaggeratedly. “So troublesome. Sorry, could you two guard this place?”

Jin-ho’s eyes widened in shock. “What?! Y-you want us —?”

“The boss is sleeping right now, even when we’re making such loud noises,” Dong-suk replied cheerfully. “It’ll be fine. Just don’t provoke it.”

Jin-ho gulped. “But…”

“You said this was your first raid?” Dong-suk said comfortingly. “And it’s Sung Jin-woo’s first C-rank dungeon raid as well. Just trust me, ‘kay? This is a perfectly safe way to do it. Then, we’ll be back.”

As the eight hunters began to leave, Jin-ho caught Hwang Dong-suk’s order to the mage, Cho Kyuh-wan. “Collapse the entrance.”

Boom. Jin-ho’s yell of panic was drowned by the rumble that shook the cavern and the explosion that sounded like a clap of thunder.

Rocks the size of boulders rained down from the ceiling, collecting in a pile to block off the boss room’s entrance. Jin-ho felt his breath stop, as if the debris was blocking his airways instead of the entrance, and started to be overcome by a sense of despair. “What do we do?! The entrance is blocked. Those bitches are trying to kill us! Just because of the bloody mana crystals!” Jin-ho punched the wall of rubble lining the entrance, to no avail. Why…? I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die—

Thud. His head whipping towards the source of the sound, Jin-ho was greeted by the sight of Jin-woo dropping his pack onto the ground with a dull thump . The E-ranker’s expression was cold, colder than Jin-ho had ever seen on the hunter’s face, and he was staring up towards the ceiling — where the giant spider was beginning to move. We’re dead , his mind whispered. We’re both dead and there’s nothing I can do about it. Not even with this gear, there’s no way I can defeat that thing.

He had to try.

Raising his shield and sword, Jin-ho tried to settle into a ready stance and ignore how much his legs were shaking. “G-get behind me,” he stammered. “I’ll try and… try and hold the boss off.”

“Jin-ho, stay here,” Jin-woo said as he stepped in front of him. Jin-ho’s eyes would’ve fallen out of their sockets if they could. Idiot! Can’t he see? That’s a boss! A boss! Even a C-ranker couldn’t defeat it alone, the most I can do is buy some—

A dagger materialized out of thin air, landing in Jin-woo’s waiting hand, and Jin-ho’s internal monologue shut up. Fast. “This one’s mind,” the E-ranker said without looking back. There was no resignation in his tone, only pure confidence. Jin-woo genuinely believed he could defeat the boss.

“W-wait!” Jin-ho called after him. “What are you going to do?!”

“Defeat the boss,” came the mockingly simple reply. As if it was that simple. Just defeat the boss.

“You’re going to kill that thing?!” The amount of insanity Jin-ho’s mind could take was reaching its limits. “You’d have to be at least C-rank! No, B-rank! You’re just an E-rank, you’ll die!”

If dungeons were that easy, everyone would be an S-ranker—

Sung Jin-woo moved , and Jin-ho’s mind shut up once again. He stumbled back, disbelief visible in every aspect of his face. This was an E-ranker ?

Jin-woo moved like lightning itself, weaving around the spider’s body as his dagger flashed in his hands. The spider let out a hideous scream, a mixture of surprise and fury, as Jin-woo landed nimbly on the ground. Jin-ho had gone clammy with sweat, but he could’ve sworn the hunter’s eyes were glowing.

The two clashed again, monster against monster — no, hunter against prey. The spider stood no chance, Jin-ho could see that now, even with its vastly superior durability and strength. False ranker , Jin-ho thought, his body freezing up. There’s no other possibility.

His mind began to feel lightheaded. False rankers were usually psychopaths who killed people… for fun. Oh, maybe Hwang Dong-suk and his crew would get what they deserved, but… what had Jin-ho done to garner this fate? I don’t want to die , he thought again like a mantra, over and over again. He collapsed onto his hands and knees. “Why did I come to this place…?” he whimpered, suffering from a mental breakdown in his mind. “Father… I was wrong… I’m sorry… and I was the one who broke the vase and blamed it on my brother. I’m sorry, please forgive me in the afterlife when I see you again. And I’m sorry for all the horrible things I said but never apologized for. If I get a chance, I’ll apologize for that in the afterlife too. I’m sorry… I don’t want to die yet…”

The battle rumbled all around him, and Jin-ho looked up to see Jin-woo being slammed into the stone. He dropped his head again, tears falling from his eyes despite his attempts to suppress them. “And if it’s not the dagger that ends my life, I’ll be eaten alive by a giant spider. Father, I’m sorry! I don’t know what I did to deserve this fate. Let me atone for my sins… I don’t want to—”

“What are you rambling on about?”

Jin-ho looked up and let out a scared yelp, scrambling to his feet. Sung Jin-woo was standing there, looking at him with a decidedly unimpressed gaze. Jin-ho’s jaw hit the ground at the sight of the giant spider’s carcass behind him before his gaze swiveled to the magic stone held in the false ranker’s bloodstained hand. Clearing his throat, he hurriedly ran to the packs and hefted them up before scampering back to Jin-woo with sweat streaming down his face. “Ah, sir,” he said with a forced smile. “Would you care to store your magic crystals here?” His hands were trembling as he held out a bottle of water. I can’t get on the wrong side of this guy… must stay alive… at least humans can be reasoned with… “Are you thirsty, sir? Here’s some water.”

Catching sight of the mana crystals overflowing the walls of the cave, he hurriedly ran to them — if only to put reasonable distance between them. Taking out a pickaxe, he started mining away. “Ah, there was mining equipment in the bag! What bad people. Since we’re here, I’ll just mine them for you…”

Boom. A second explosion rattled the cavern as the rubble blocking the entrance was blown away. Standing there were eight very familiar silhouettes. The team of hunters who had abandoned them to die. Jin-ho gulped uneasily, refusing to look at the expression of the hunter beside him.

“No way, they’re still alive? The D-ranker’s gear must’ve been better than we thought to be able to slay the boss…”

“Yoo Jin-ho! Your father is the chairman of Yoo Jin Architecture, right?” Hwang Dong-suk asked, that infuriating smile back on his face. “I searched you up. Turns out you were the son of a big shot! I wanted to talk about something with you father, and I’ll spare your life if you kill Sung Jin-woo.”

Jin-ho’s face paled. “...What?” he whispered. Jin-woo was more than someone who could kill him with a single look. Technically, Jin-woo was his—

Savior.

“Kill Sung Jin-woo and join our group,” Hwang Dong-suk leered, his eyes reflecting the depth of his insanity. What was I thinking? How could I ever get involved with a man like him? “It’s the only way you’ll survive. Otherwise, accept your death and die by our hands.

“Why hesitate?” Dong-suk pressed, switching back to his easy smile from before. Two-faced liar. I bet you’ll kill me too, just to make sure there are no witnesses. “Nobody will know what happened inside the dungeon anyways. And this way, you get to keep your life. Are you perhaps… scared of him? An E-ranker ?”

There’s a series of snickers and jeers from Dong-suk’s comrades. They were laughing. They thought that this was some sort of entertainment .

Gulping, Jin-ho steadied himself and planted his feet in front of Jin-woo. “S-sir,” he whispered.

Jin-woo gazed at him, impassive. “It’s a given,” the E-ranker said. No, he couldn’t be an E-ranker. “I’m weak. It’s natural I’d be betrayed.”

Desperately trying to hide the shaking in his muscles, Jin-ho raised his sword and shield. “Y-you’ll have to get through me first to hurt him!”

Boom. A blast of magic slammed into Sung Jin-woo, and as Jin-ho watched with horrified eyes, the man was blown into the air. He crashed against the stone and lay there, unmoving. “Sir,” he said silently, trembling.

“Aw, c’mon, Yoo Jin-ho,” Hwang Dong-suk laughed. “Give up the dead and come join us. He was just an E-ranker, anyway. If your father wasn’t who he was, you would be trash just like him.”

“Huh, that guy is alive?”

Turning, Jin-ho felt a surge of… what, relief ? as Jin-woo stood up from the stone wreckage. “Come on, Cho Kyuh-wan,” one of the hunters teased. “Put some force into your attacks, for gods’ sake. Now we have to finish him off when your lazy ass fails to.”

“You played around with a human’s life. Are you ready to face the consequences?” Sung Jin-woo asked, walking forward calmly. Jin-ho found himself staring after the E-ranker, rooted in place. The bloodlust wafting off of the false ranker was so strong it was as if it was about to be given tangible form.

A couple of the hunters chuckled. “What’s this guy’s deal? What’s this bastard saying?”

“If you guys are hunters, you should prepare to be hunters,” was Jin-woo’s only reply.  And despite his words, Jin-ho couldn’t find it in himself to cringe, no, because he believed the man wholeheartedly.

Sauntering forward, a hunter sighed dramatically as he slung his arm over Jin-woo’s shoulder. “Looks like you don’t understand the situation yet,” he drawled.

Jin-ho couldn’t even see the dagger move.

Sung Jin-woo

“ One ,” Jin-woo counted calmly. A dash of red sprayed the air before his eyes, painting his skin a bloody shade of crimson, but he couldn’t care less.

The hunter’s body crumpled to the ground, wide eyes glazing over, and he analyzed the expressions that crossed each of the hunters’ faces. Utter shock. Gradual fury. The raw stench of fear. Growing wary now that their prey bared its fangs, unable to believe they’d miscalculated. Pathetic. They deserve to die. They’re lizards .

Lizards. Higher-ranking hunters who lured their weaker, unsuspecting victims into gates in order to murder them and steal their belongings. Laws weren’t enforced within dungeons. Couldn’t be enforced, really. As long as you didn’t kill the wrong people and had the right connections, you had a way of getting out scot-free every single time. Every E-ranker and D-ranker knew them. Feared them.

Still kept on diving into the dungeons day after day just to get a little more money, praying for safety and health, because what could one do?

The lizards were wary now, as they should be. And their leader, Hwang Dong-suk… the older brother of the Korean-turned-American S-ranker.

Retribution would be sure to follow if Jin-woo killed him… but through either his own anger or the system’s order, Jin-woo wanted to kill him. To slit his throat and cut his head off and savor the feeling of his death —

Jin-woo was angry . No, not even. He was the pure embodiment of rage. His fury stemmed from the double dungeon and his comrades’ betrayal. Sprouted from the feeling of being inferior and looked down upon every single day and becoming an object of pity towards whom fake whispers of condolence were directed. Trash in the eyes of the high-ranking hunters, trash in the eyes of the general populace. Trash in the eyes of himself. Believed in by only a select few, one of whom had practically been handed a death sentence for just trying to live her life—

Can’t these fuckers see how lucky they are—

His anger stemmed from Eunmi. She was trapped in a gate, alone, with no allies and no powers of her own, surviving against all odds in a monster den of B-ranks and A-ranks and who knows what other monstrosities. These lizards , these monsters in human skin, plundered the valuables and lives from honest hunters who worked hard for their families, their aspirations, and their survival. They deserved to die. They deserved what was coming for them.

Cho Kyuh-wan dashed forward, hand burning bright from his spell.

Dodge. Slash. Kill . “Your magic is annoying,” Jin-woo whispered in a half-feral hiss. Your entire existence is annoying , is what he left unsaid. If you died, who would mourn you?

The other hunters seemed to have found their bearings, because their faces went through a rollercoaster of emotions and finally landed on rage. “Bastard!” one shouted as two dashed forward and attacked. The warrior’s greatsword cleaved through the air… and hit dust.

Jin-woo’s dagger met the lizard’s throat. Three.

Bones snapped like lettuce, and the man screamed — before being silenced by a dagger to his gut. Three plus one equals four. Eight minus four makes four more.

“There’s no way this is an E-rank!” The remaining lizards shouted as fear overtook them and their attacks turned desperate… and sloppy. Jin-woo could almost taste their panic.

A little mouse dares to hunt the tiger , he thought darkly. I’ll show you just how wrong you were.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

“M-my whole team,” Hwang Dong-suk stuttered, before resorting to the only thing his type of people knew how to do: Insults and threats. “You bastard! I’ll show you that not all C-rankers are born equal—” a glow overtook his body, and he lunged forward with a snarl on his face. Jin-woo held out his hand, latched onto the bastard’s face, and slammed him into the stone with enough force to form a crater. The C-ranker laid there, cracks spreading from the stone beneath his body, his face twisted in shock and his mouth hanging agape.

“You’re right,” Jin-woo crooned softly, twirling his dagger in one hand. The murderer wasn’t worth his time or his voice, but he couldn’t stop the words that left his mouth. “Not all hunters are born equal. But you were a fool to think that couldn’t change. You all were. All of you except…” He trailed off, the magic in his eyes burning brighter and the icy expression on his face growing colder.

Crouching down, he raised his dagger with finality. “Little lizard, you never stood a chance.”

“W-wait! Do you even know who my younger brother is—” The dagger’s blade sang through the air, encountering little to no resistance as it cut through meat and bone alike.

Thud . Hwang Dong-suk’s head hit the ground and rolled to a stop, his fear still carved into his face, as his body fell to its knees before thudding against the ground.

How annoying. My clothes are ruined again , Jin-woo thought, flicking some of the blood off the dagger before putting it away. Then his eyes shifted to the side, and he caught Jin-ho retching up his guts, the D-rank hunter looking utterly ridiculous in his shiny, expensive new armor. Ah… I forgot he was here. Well… we should probably get out of here first…

Yeon Eunmi

The Weaver was not nearly as much of a behemoth as I’d imagined it to be, which was logical given the spaces in between its webs. It was noticeably larger than its underlings, but not by much. No, what set it apart was its other characteristics.

Its carapace was ebony black, shot through with streaks of silver. But more than that was the control and cunning with which it moved, dexterously scampering through its webs with grace. Its legs, like blades in their own rights, latched onto the webs with surprising elegance and the paths it took through its lair were perfectly spaced to accommodate its body size but far too unforgiving for me to even attempt to follow them. Point being, the Weaver seemed to enjoy conducting its business above the ground and mid-air far too much for my liking.

The eggs from which new baby spiderlings would hatch were bundled together in baby-friendly web cocoons and tucked in the far corners of the lair. The spider nursery, the space where the baby monsters would hatch, was the only area of the lair bare from the strands of deathly sharp silk. It was, in my opinion, the lair’s only weakness — and one I had no clue on how to exploit, given the Weaver’s preferred whereabouts. I wasn’t confident in waiting until it descended to lay eggs again.

Glacius wouldn’t fit into the lair at all, and even if I managed to sneak him into the spider nursery area, he wouldn’t have enough room to maneuver and fight. It was better that he stayed in the surrounding passageways, picking off the Weaver’s spider minions and making it seem like I was still there as well.

Think, Eunmi. What do you know? From what I’d seen, the Weaver seemed to have a poor sense of auditory hearing and operated off of tremors and sight. And even though the Weaver seemed to be careful around its own webs, the one time I’d seen it slip up, the silk had slid off of the carapace that covered its upper body harmlessly. Darn spider monsters.

Spider monsters. Spider… monsters.

A book’s cover suddenly flashed through my mind. The Hunter’s Guide to the Weaknesses and Strengths of Common Monsters , a book I had been flipping through for no reason at all in my free time. They had a few pages in there dedicated to… to arachnids. Most spider monsters’ weaknesses: the joints of their legs… and their underbelly. I glanced at the Weaver, which was resting on a web high above my head, as an idea started to form in my mind. The Weaver perched in lofty heights because its only enemies thus far were snakes, wolves, and bats. Bats wouldn’t survive against its webs, and on the off chance one of the land-dwelling monsters snuck in, it wanted to make itself an impossible target.

I took one of the bone spears from where it was strapped to my back, hefting it in one hand and testing its weight. I had a good throwing arm, and the Weaver was a lazy monster. I knew how to lure it. There was no better way to taunt an enemy than to expose their weaknesses in front of their very eyes. Now, what I needed was a stage for the battle. A stage where there would be no webs to hinder my movement. I glanced at the nursery, with its cocoons wrapped in spider silk, each holding dozens of baby spiderlings who would one day grow to be right menaces. The Weaver will be careful around its own progeny... right? Wait, were spiders the insects that ate their own children?

Was I ready? Of course not.

But the system’s death-enforced timer was ticking, and for all I cared, the Weaver could burn in hell.

Author's Note: To all of you spider lovers out there, I'm very sorry for what's going to happen. Please bear in mind that all of these characters and monsters are fictional and do not, to my knowledge, exist in reality.

Woo Jin-chul

Jin-chul had too many hours of overtime work and not enough coming in his monthly paycheck. In fact, at this point, it was safe to say the nine-to-five concept didn’t exist for him. Or many other Association workers, for that matter, but as Chairman Go Gun-hee’s right-hand man it was exceedingly accurate to say it was truer for him.

He’d known what he was signing up for when he became the Association's Surveillance Team chief, and keeping this country alive, whole, and not ripped to shreds by powerful hunters was enough payment for him. Most days, that was.

A throbbing migraine was blooming in his skull with all the subtlety of a firestorm as Jin-chul stared down a fast-dissipating blue gate and the two figures that walked out. One, pale and trembling, was decked out in expensive gear that was most likely the reason for his survival. That was, most likely . The second figure, however, was throwing Jin-chul’s mind and sanity into the grinder. Him. Why is it always him? Sung Jin-woo. My god , can’t the world just give me a break for once? I’d kill for a single day off without something going on in South Korea related to him.

The Weakest Hunter of All Mankind , and the man standing at the center of most unexplainable events occurring nowadays. That, along with the cause for several of Woo Jin-chul’s most recent headaches. But who cared about his headaches? He was simply an Association employee who hadn’t deigned to join one of the more wealthy and famous guilds despite his high rank.

Anyways. If not for the fact that he’d tested the equipment and gone to assess the man’s rank himself, Jin-chul would’ve thought that Jin-woo had truly Reawakened. So that option was out. But if that was the case, what was this?

All of the original team died. That was five. Five C-ranks were dead, along with the other lower-ranking hunters that had entered the gate. All save for two. Even worse, the party leader was Hwang Dong-suk. Hwang Dong-suk. The older brother of Hwang Dong-soo, the Korean — no, now American — S-ranker. When he was still a South Korean S-ranker, on the best of days, Hwang Dong-soo was a catastrophe to the country budget, a cantankerous and arrogant presence to society, and a nightmare given physical form to the Korean Hunters Association. On the worst of days… Well, Jin-chul didn’t want to think about it. If he could, he’d have the memories wiped from his brain like files from a flash drive. While Hwang Dong-soo’s immigration to America was a giant blow to the public morale and South Korea’s military power, it was also a huge relief to all of the workers that had to clean up after the results of his temper tantrums. Woo Jin-chul included, as he was always at the vanguard of every team sent to survey the damage and estimate the costs.

And that man’s beloved older brother had just died. Woo Jin-chul would be surprised if the S-ranker wasn’t on a plane to South Korea right now.

An S-ranker’s word was law. An S-ranker’s anger was the apocalypse.

Chapter Text

Author’s Note: I don’t know how I keep on writing scenes that make me feel sorry for the villains… I literally can’t write a purely evil, 100% hateable antagonist. And mine always end up being insane… (；′⌒`) Oh sorry, was that a spoiler?

The Weaver

It gnashed its mandibles together, feeling a dose of emotion it wasn’t used to. Anger. Impatience.

The pest was a coward. The pest would not face it head-on. And though that was how the Weaver’s fights normally went, it did not appreciate being on the receiving end of it. No, not one bit. The pest was becoming more aggressive beyond the boundaries of its lair, its underlings were dying , and the Weaver was receiving no results.

Its smartest underling scampered up to it, knowing better than to disrupt its master while in this mood but doing it anyway. It clicked its mandibles together angrily. Its annoyance had reached a point where even spinning new silk could not calm it.

The smaller spider, having more experience than its kin, lowered itself in a submissive position and started to communicate using a series of clicks and subdued motions.

Something was wrong? Something was wrong? Yes, something was wrong. The Weaver was annoyed, that was what was wrong.

The smaller spider quailed under the force of its master’s wrath, for a moment dreaming of the wolves’ sibling-like bond before quickly shutting that thought down lest it be killed for its disobedience. Hiding its fear, it started to communicate again. The pest was acting strange. Its behavior was a far cry from its usual tactics.

The Weaver contented itself with arranging the webs around it to quench its anger. This was what it had been broken from its thoughts for? Worthless subordinate. It raised one leg, and stabbed downwards faster than the second spider could track it.

Its underling twitched under its razor-sharp leg, spasming as its blood splattered onto the formerly pristineness of the white webs beneath it. Jerking once more, its body collapsed, being mauled apart by strands of silk before finally thudding onto the cavern floor.

The watching spiders shrank back, hiding their fearful shudders, before finding various excuses to leave the cavern in the time of their master’s anger. Hunt the pest, yes, they were going to hunt the pest. At least it would grant them a more merciful death than… that.

The Weaver hissed angrily, skittering back and forth on the now-bloodstained web, slapping the latest offering of food away to splatter against the cavern wall, and whatever spiders remained quickly found alibis to make themselves scarce. It was being outmaneuvered. It did not like it, no, not at all. It was the smartest one in the stone maze. It was one of four who had survived the longest, even without the snake’s venom or the wolf’s strength or the bat’s magic. Made it to the very end.

Pain.

Agony tore through its lower body as it shrieked, truly shrieked, for the first time in… a very long time. It staggered to the side, legs carrying it atop the webs through muscle memory alone, as it shook its body furiously and tried to dislodge the pain from its underside. It didn’t work, if anything entrenching itself even further within the Weaver’s flesh.

Another lance of agony spearing into its vulnerable underside. A splatter of green blood against pale silk.

A second scream tore itself from its throat as the pain turned it reckless. Snapping its eyes towards the source of the pain, it clambered down its webs and landed on the cavern floor, stone shaking from the force of its descent. The nursery. The pain had come from the nursery.

To think that the pest would hide itself amongst the eggs. Where was it? Where was it?

An unlucky newborn spiderling, trying to get its bearings, was crushed under its mother’s leg when it made the fatal decision of asking for food. Not here. Not—

Shrieking, the Weaver lost all semblance of sanity as it swung around, blood leaking from a wound on the joint of its fourth leg. Rot crawled into the wound, and it hissed angrily. It was venom, easily recognizable to it as those wretched snakes’ venom. Where had the pest gotten that ?

A second attack, this one also on its joint, and the Weaver finally saw the pest. And was immediately overcome with confusion, allowing the pest to land a third venom-laced attack, because it did not understand how the attacker was so small. A thin, stick-like body and a pale carapace. No, no carapace at all, and very little fur like the wolves either. The tiny glint of metal in its grasp resembled the armor that covered the wolves’ bodies, but the Weaver still could not understand how this being had caused it so much turmoil. So many losses.

I was bested by a WEAKLING ?! The Weaver raged . It was furious. So very furious. Furious at itself, furious at the pest, furious at whatever forces that may be for trapping it in this stone hell.

Attacking without abandon, its legs stabbed at empty air as the pest wove in between its attacks. If the Weaver had paid attention, it would have realized its attacks were becoming too simple, too choreographed, and too predictable. The only reason the pest was surviving.

But it didn’t, and it only knew the fact that the pest was surviving, allowing its bestial instincts to consume its mind, allowing poison to rot its system.

The game of cat-and-mouse played on for a few more minutes, and then the pest was nearly out of stamina but the Weaver was long gone from the realm of the sane. Poison was spreading through its blood and making its mind flinch back from the pain and the slowly paralyzing effects. The webs, the Weaver’s pride and glory, were splattered with its blood. Half of the growing eggs were crushed, mostly from their mother’s own incompetence.

One of the Weaver’s legs gave out from dozens and dozens of poisoned attacks, and as it gazed upon the pest that was slowly killing it, it saw its folly. Shifting its eyes, six of whom were slashed and blinded, to the webs that covered its lair, it realized it had forgotten the spider that had seen the webs and saw only beauty. The spider that had gathered its kin under one leader and led them to victory against their foes through synergy and traps, oh so many traps. That spider had been forgotten. The pest had forced it to see.

Two more legs gave out, and then three, until the Weaver was one breeze away from tumbling onto the ground forever. A hint of respect shone in its two good eyes as it sank to the cavern floor, feeling the snake venom eat it alive. Kill me , it thought as it clicked its mandibles slowly and relaxed its muscles, the poison spreading through its mind.

The pest ran forward and did so. And as the blade plunged through its brain, the Weaver found itself wondering what life would be like… outside of the labyrinth. Outside of the towering stone walls that had been its eternity since the moment it left its egg. There had been more monsters then, it remembered. Many more. But as time passed, there were only… four… remaining…

And now, it was three. Even with its personality warped over time, the Weaver had led the spiders to survival. Without it, they would undeniably fall. End it , its mind whispered weakly as the poison took it in its final embrace. End this dying world.

Yeon Eunmi

I stumbled off of the Weaver’s carcass, tugging out my dagger from its head, and spent the better part of five minutes destroying the rest of its eggs before promptly collapsing against a stone pillar. The system dinged insistently in my head, but I ignored it. I did what you wanted me to do. Now let me take a nap…

If I hadn’t targeted the Weaver’s weak points and taunted it in the beginning, I likely wouldn’t have caused it to lose its mind and go berserk near the end. In fact, the spider’s actions near the end had seemed almost… resigned . I found myself curious as to what it had been thinking.

In Solo Leveling , Jin-woo had the ability to speak to monsters. Either the spider didn’t speak, at least not coherently enough for the system to recognize, or my system didn’t come with that feature.

The system made doorbell-like noises inside my head again, and I grumbled a mess of gibberish before slowly opening my eyes again. My fatigue bar sat at a whopping eighty-one, which was likely the reason for my brain wishing I was a couch potato, but I perked up at the steady stream of notifications that seemed to be good news instead of bad.

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

…

[LEVEL 20→27.]

[{SKILL: WEAKNESS DETECTION} OBTAINED.]

[DUNGEON BOSS CONQUERED. REWARDS OBTAINED.]

[WARNING: THE OTHER DUNGEON INHABITANTS HAVE BECOME AWARE OF YOU.]

[YOU HAVE AN UNREAD MESSAGE.]

Before I forgot, I quickly assigned my free points. Then, just as I was about to fall back into a deep slumber, a keening rumble rang through the cavern. Ah, how could I forget…? Glacius was waiting… Pushing myself to my feet, I waved the system windows to the side for a moment and headed for the lair’s entrance at a heavy trudge. Without the threat of death looming over me, the webs were easy enough to traverse, and I made it through to my dragon with only a papercut-sized injury.

Glacius stood next to a veritable hill of fresh exoskeletons, looking at me up and down with huge, worried puppy dog eyes before loping forward and curling his body around mine. I put my hand on his neck and scratched the scales just behind his neck as he exhaled a gust of cold hair through his nostrils and somehow managed to convey towards me a sense of betrayal for abandoning him to go and deal with the Weaver alone.

“Aw, don’t be like that,” I murmured softly as I opened up the system notifications.

[WEAKNESS DETECTION (LV. 1)]

[TYPE: PASSIVE]

[Grants intuitive knowledge of weaknesses.]

Despite the simple description, I knew this was going to be a game changer. Instead of relying on out-dated information from a guide I read weeks ago, I could now find weaknesses as soon as I met the monster. Now for the rewards from the Weaver.

[{KEY OF THE SPIDER} OBTAINED.]

A stone dropped to the ground in front of me. It was black with white lines, shaped like a spider’s head, and I knew it would fit instantly with the slot in the door.

[{THE WEAVER’S BOW} OBTAINED.]

[{THE WEAVER’S QUIVER} OBTAINED.]

Two items dropped to the ground in front of me. One was an elegant, ebony black bow with swirls of silver that reminded me of the Weaver’s carapace. The bow string looked remarkably like the spider’s silk, but when I placed my finger against it, it only stretched slightly. The quiver was similarly black, and the two looked like a proper set.

[THE WEAVER’S BOW (S)]

[TYPE: BOW]

[ATTACK +170]

[A bow made from the Spider Queen. Exceptionally powerful.]

[THE WEAVER’S QUIVER (S)]

[TYPE: QUIVER]

[ATTACK +75]

[A quiver made from the Spider Queen. All of its arrows are infused with the sharpness of the queen’s silk. As long as the user has mana, the arrows will never run out.]

I let my jaw drop. S-rank? The Weaver was powerful enough to be S-rank?! I supposed it made sense. It was a red gate’s boss, after all, and this labyrinth was exceedingly strange in the first place with four different bosses.

The system dinged once more.

[{LARGE MANA CRYSTALS X648} OBTAINED.]

[INVENTORY UNLOCKED.]

[SHOP UNLOCKED.]

[AUTOMATICALLY ADDING MANA CRYSTALS TO INVENTORY.]

I glared at the system with a vehemence. So it chose to give me the shop now , when Jin-woo got it on the second day after he Reawakened. But then I looked at the mana crystal number, and then to the silk-covered walls of the lair. The webs had lost some of their former glow, which I had assumed was a natural property of the spider silk. There were mana crystals in the walls?! No, ignore that, Eunmi. You have to figure out how to get out of here before you can strike it rich. Okay. Check your message.

“Open mail,” I whispered. The system obliged, opening up a familiar golden box with bright words that gave me the serious urge to close my eyes and do away with it all.

[MINIMUM POWER THRESHOLD MET.]

[{DAILY QUEST: EDGE OF PERFECTION} HAS ARRIVED.]

Oh, I’d been wondering why I had no daily quest , I thought as I read through the window. Wait, but if I need to be this strong in order to unlock it, how hard is the daily quest itself...?

I opened up the quest’s details as Glacius sniffed the air and sent me an inquisitive growl, eyeing the spider lair hungrily as his tail beat the ground eagerly. “Huh?” I mumbled. “Oh, yeah, sure.”

Rising to my feet, I returned him to his tattoo state before making my way through the webs again and releasing him next to the Spider Queen’s carcass. He nudged me carefully with his giant snout in appreciation before diving nose-first into the boss’s dead body. I tuned out the grisly sounds of his eating and turned my eyes to the waiting notifications.

[QUEST INFO]

[DAILY QUEST: EDGE OF PERFECTION]

[ENTER TRAINING REALM? Y/N]

[CAUTION - IF THE DAILY QUEST REMAINS INCOMPLETE, PENALTIES WILL BE GIVEN ACCORDINGLY.]

[TIMER: 1 MINUTES, 8 SECONDS]

I took back my words of the system having a conscience immediately. There was no one-day grace period, and just one literal minute before I would likely be sent into the penalty zone. Insanity. Utter insanity. “Glacius, buddy,” I said, feeling relieved I hadn’t bothered to take that nap. My loyal dragon looked up immediately, intelligent blue eyes analyzing my facial expression carefully. “I have to go somewhere right now. I’ll be back.”

I pressed yes.

Landing in this “training realm,” the first thing I noticed was the rush of revitalizing energy that swept through my body, washing away all of my fatigue and leaving my thoughts crisp and clear. The second thing I noticed was my surroundings.

The system had transported me to what was perhaps the most artificial-looking realm of any I’d seen so far. No, I would bet anything that it was artificial. The floor was white and smooth, stretching on for as far as the eye could see, and cold white light illuminated the entire place. I wasn’t even in my ragged and torn old clothes anymore, dressed in some sort of plain workout outfit that was, true to theme, white. Maybe it doesn’t want any equipment buffs. Not that those ratty clothes would give me any special effects anyways. Which reminds me, the first thing I’m buying from the shop is clothes… oh, don’t I need gold or something for that?

Ding.

[{SPECIAL QUEST: ASSESSMENT DAY} HAS ARRIVED.]

[ASSESSMENT: RUNNING]

[10 Kilometer Run Record: N/A]

[10 Kilometer Obstacle Course Run Record: N/A]

[10 Kilometer Cross Country Run Record: N/A]

[ASSESSMENT: FIGHTING]

[The Arena Record: N/A]

[NOTE: Better performance will lead to better rewards. An excessive lack of effort will lead to a penalty.]

[BEGINNING ASSESSMENT IN 3… 2… 1…]

Wait, I don’t remember Sung Jin-woo’s daily quest being as complicated as this—

Glacius

He finished up the last of the spider’s tastier morsels and flicked the exoskeleton aside distastefully. Glacius had already devoured the magic stone, and felt the magic that surged under his scales like waves about to overflow from a basin. Change was close. His master vanished in a twist of reality, and if not for the fact that she was the one who had chosen to do so, Glacius would’ve given the robotic thing a piece of his mind, whether it liked it or not. He would always respect her choices.

But what was this ?

[YEON EUNMI HAS ACTIVATED DAILY QUEST.]

[{DAILY QUEST: BREAK THE FOOD CHAIN} ACTIVATED AUTOMATICALLY.]

[TRANSPORTING IN 3… 2… 1…]

A strange feeling enveloped his body, and he looked curiously as his surroundings distorted and warped before shifting scenery to a dense jungle and forest. The air was humid, and most importantly, warm . It was, in Glacius’s dignified opinion, the most disgusting place he had ever been to. The labyrinth was a close second. One day, he would have to take Eunmi somewhere cold to let her experience the frigid beauty of cold and snow.

Baring jaws full of teeth in his displeasure, the dense moisture in the surrounding air congealed together and dropped to the frosting-over ground in tiny, glimmering shards of ice. Frozen-solid leaves snapped like brittle twigs under his foot as he snarled quietly, repulsed by his surroundings in every way possible.

A flash of fur moved as a trace of mana entered Glacius’s senses as his tracker circled around him in the trees above his head warily, but his stealth was already of no use. The tracker’s admirable hiding skills had turned useless the moment Glacius had caught a whiff of the other’s mana.

Raising his wings slightly as he pretended to occupy his time with the freezing solid of a nearby tree, Glacius waited until the tracker was in the perfect position above him. A little more, and then… there.

His wings shot down and kicked up a great icy gust of wind as Glacius shot into the air. The tracker’s magic spiked temporarily from panic or fear, Glacius wasn’t sure, but as it attempted to flee it found its muscles slowed from a numbing cold.

Jaws snapping around the tracker’s throat, it barely twitched before it was dead, a familiar metallic taste coating Glacius’s tongue. Then, the monster’s limp body hanging from his jaws like a rag doll, Glacius dropped back down to the jungle floor, wings tucked in uncomfortably close to his sides in order to avoid the branches and trees.

Once he was back on solid ground, Glacius observed his kill carefully. The beast’s fur was dark and sleek and it was perhaps three-quarters the size of him. A black panther monster. Furthermore, from the amount of mana contained in its body, Glacius estimated the beast to be slightly more fulfilling than one of the Weaver’s underlings, yet also far below the strength of the boss itself.

For the first time, Glacius saw this irritating jungle as more than a curiosity and a nuisance. He saw it as the perfect hunting ground. Glancing at the timer ticking down in the corner of his vision, he bared his teeth in a draconic grin. One hour — better make it count.

Yeon Eunmi

The entire realm seemed to move around me as this “Assessment” started, tall white barriers snapping into place behind me and to my left until they formed a familiar oval shape with two straight sides. A series of dark lines appeared in between, and a bland white fence even appeared outside of the structure just in front of the barrier, as if the system was trying to make it familiar for me.

A track. It was a bloody running track, except done in dull shades of white and gray because the realm seemed incapable of incorporating color. One lane glowed to life in my vision, the innermost one, and I walked over to the starting line as I let out a deep breath. I was a hunter now, but my god I was about to run ten kilometers.

I glanced at the track, then at the distance count box hovering above my head. Would I rather have this, a chance to grow and push my physical limits, or face down an entire dungeon full of monsters with no preparation? This was training and a chance to grow. I needed it. And it seemed that my high school track was coming in handy.

I was a Player. I had been granted this opportunity to survive, and I would absolutely take advantage of it. Not pushing myself to my limits was a disservice to the last few weeks of my life. The system began to count down, each second accompanied by a beep.  

[3… 2… 1… GO.]

I sprinted down the track, each step taking me farther and faster than ever before, each stride pushing my speed to the maximum. I could see why the system had given me ten kilometers now. One kilometer would barely make my muscles burn, but ten kilometers would allow me to push and break my physical limits.

All of my thoughts emptied out of my head until there was only the track before me, the fast-growing burn in my muscles, and the exhilarating sense of freedom.

Ten kilometers later, I was sprawled across the track with every muscle in my body cussing me out as I gulped down water that was thoughtfully provided by a faceless system minion that melted back into the terrain as soon as I took the bottle. It was exceedingly strange, and the water tasted like tap water, but it was ice-cold so I didn’t complain.

My mind was happy from the run and my body was not, but already I could feel my greatly enhanced physique fast rejuvenating my muscles and stamina. A plethora of system boxes waited patiently above my head, but I was loath to look up at them because I still remembered I had three more assessments that needed taking.

Finally, when my body had cooled down sufficiently, I rolled over and the boxes immediately swooped over to adjust themselves to my perspective. I’m starting to think my system isn’t Jin-woo’s system. Who cares, anyways? This one’s better.

[10 Kilometer Run Record: 10:32]

My jaw dropped. Holy shit . Am I seeing what I’m seeing? This shouldn’t be humanly possible. Well… okay, I guess people stopped caring about possible after magic popped into existence. Still though.

[REFORMING TERRAIN…]

Sitting up quickly, I scrambled to my feet as the realm shifted once more. This time, twin barriers snapped into place to my left and right as one formed behind me, as if making sure I didn’t chicken out. Then, in between the two barriers, a tall ceiling appeared overhead and all manners of obstacles formed in a deadly, moving gauntlet course tailored to the Awakened.

At least the system had the benevolence to make the obstacles a darker shade of gray so I didn’t have to squint for the white outlines against a white background, but I wasn’t feeling terribly confident as giant, spiked wrecking balls dropped from the ceiling on chains and started swinging back and forth. While the wrecking balls weren’t dangerously quick, the floor shifted and yawned open in pits as several blocks started shifting back and forth over deep, seemingly endless chasms. Any trap one could think of that was dangerous, was here, and at the distant end of the course with its black-and-white checkered flag billowing cheerfully was the finish line. Which bastard came up with this idea? I thought sourly as the system began counting down. The ten kilometer run was the tame one.

The timer hit zero, and I dashed forward, timing my jump to miss the first wrecking ball as I wrapped my fingers around a long pole suspended horizontally in mid-air, catapulting myself over a row of spinning, razor-sharp gears. There’s no way I’m dying today.

Hwang Dong-soo

Bam. Bam. Thud. Dong-soo slammed his fist into the training dummy again and again, until cracks in the mana-reinforced stone under his feet began to spread. His eyes blazed red from his rage. It was the sixth dummy he had been taking his anger out on, all of them built to last against B- or A-rankers but being pummeled to pieces against his fury.

Couldn’t clear his schedule until two fucking months later. A D-rank and an E-rank of all hunters had been the only survivors of a C-rank dungeon raid when his brother and his party hadn’t. Dong-soo knew his brother, and the man wasn’t the type to throw away his life in some misguided sense of heroism for a stranger he’d barely met and likely planned on murdering. Those two low-rankers had been involved in Hwang Dong-suk’s death somehow, and Dong-soo didn’t care for the why or how. He only cared for revenge.

They had fallen apart naturally when Dong-soo left for America and the Scavenger Guild after tasting the Upgrader’s power, but an older brother was still an older brother at the end of the day. Dong-suk had still been his family, whether he liked it or not, and now his family was dead.

Dong-soo had underestimated South Korea’s stupidity. He’d thought that no one would have been stupid enough to go after his own brother , but it seemed his reputation had fallen into shambles after he’d left. Dong-soo was wrong that his name alone would protect his idiotic older brother from serious harm, and now he craved vengeance. Not a single fiber of his being would rest until his brother’s killers were dead, crushed into a paste under his own hands. It was just a D-ranker and an E-ranker, anyway. One was the son of some conglomerate chairperson, but the other one was fair game. And if he really wanted to, Dong-soo bet he could get away with killing both.

The training dummy was ripped off of its perch, mangled and dented beyond repair from the force of Dong-soo’s fists. He swept his eyes over the training room, which was wrecked with destruction and numerous cracks in the walls, until a familiar voice spoke with authority. The translator that always followed the source of the voice spoke, “Stop. That’s enough. The dummies are expensive, and not meant for you.”

Hwang Dong-soo turned slowly to face the hulking beast of a man who was his boss and also, whether or not he admitted it, entire leagues above him in strength. Fighting the urge to avert his eyes against the mind-blisteringly bright Hawaiian t-shirt the man had on, he unclenched and clenched his fists. Thomas Andre, Guildmaster of the Scavenger Guild, National Level Hunter, and the strongest human in the world, stared down at him impassively.

“Guildmaster,” Dong-soo said, letting the assistant translate for him.

A cigarette held in between his teeth, Thomas Andre grinned and replied in English before his words were translated again. “If you have pent-up energy, I would be happy to—” the translator winced— “beat you into the ground as much as you’d like, unless your superiority complex won’t allow that. But wreck up any more training dummies and it’ll be coming out of your next paycheck.”

Dong-soo couldn’t hide his scowl. “The bastards killed my brother.”

The guildmaster blew out a puff of smoke leisurely before crushing the cigarette in two fingers and dropping it into the trash. “Language. S-ranker or not, you’re still a part of my guild. And because of your value, I have tolerated your attitude, unsavory activities, and occasional disrespect. But you have to admit, your brother had it coming for him.” Pulling out another cigar, Thomas began walking away, turning and grinning down at Dong-soo with that vaguely beastly look in his eyes. Dong-soo had a moment to see the red gleam in the National Level Hunter’s eyes before he slipped on a pair of signature black-gold sunglasses and opened the door. “Know your value, Hwang Dong-soo, and know your limits. Don’t cause too much trouble in South Korea, and both countries are almost guaranteed to overlook any… unfortunate deaths. If I have to get involved… Well, you don’t want me to get involved, and let’s leave it at that. An S-ranker should be able to handle their own shit. I don’t enjoy playing babysitter.”

Hwang Dong-soo felt the subtle urge to rebel before he crushed it mercilessly. Thomas Andre was not a man he could fool around with. He was the strongest hunter in the world, and one of just five who survived the dragon Kamish’s tragic S-rank massacre. Bottling up his emotions, he glared at the wreckage around him before storming out, an arriving repair crew hurriedly making way for him in the hallway. His vengeance would be soon. Sung Jin-woo, just you wait, he thought venomously. Survive until I get there. I’m going to kill you myself.

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-woo

Pulling out a chair at the cafe, Sung Jin-woo sat down and faced the hunter in front of him. Yoo Jin-ho, D-rank hunter, and also the only witness to Jin-woo’s massacre in the C-rank dungeon raid gone wrong.

What in the world could a large conglomerate chairperson’s second son want with him? If Jin-ho was going to threaten to spill the beans on what happened in the raid with Hwang Dong-suk and his party, Jin-woo would have no qualms with disposing of him quietly, but he would at least hear the man out. In fact, the only reason he was out of the apartment and at the cafe in the first place was because Jin-ah believed her brother had finally found a friend and was abandoning his sociopathic ways. He wasn’t, not at all, but Jin-ah would try to kill him for not going. As a long-time older brother, Jin-woo had developed somewhat of a sixth sense tailored specifically for that type of event.

Waving away Jin-ho’s offer for coffee, Jin-woo cut right to the chase and asked, “How did you get my contact information, and what do you want?”

“Ah, I know some people in the Hunters Association,” the D-ranker replied almost sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “Are you sure you don’t want coffee…?”

“No,” Jin-woo replied near-instantly. Of course there would be moles in the Association, enough so that even a rich kid can get my personal information. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again, but if that’s all you wanted to say, I’ll leave now.”

“W-wait!” Jin-ho interrupted hastily. “First of all, you’re my savior, and I wanted to thank you personally for what you did.”

Jin-woo shrugged, keeping the discomfort off of his face. “I made some money with the crystals you gave me. I’d call that fair compensation… as long as you don’t cause any problems, especially with the information of the… raid. If you do something fishy, I will find out.”

The D-ranker held up his hands immediately. “What? No, I would never! Those bastards were trying to kill us first! It was just a fight between hunters, and no one could find out anyway since it was all in a gate.” Clearing his throat, Jin-ho seemed to be psyching himself up for something before blurting out, “Hyung-nim… I’m trying to start my own attack team, and I would greatly appreciate if—”

“I refuse,” came the immediate reply. Jin-woo sighed and stood up. “I—”

“I didn’t finish talking, hyung-nim!” the D-ranker yelped, his mind clearly flailing around for a viable argument. “You haven’t even heard me out yet!”

Taking a deep breath, Jin-woo let out an audible sigh and turned slightly so he was staring Jin-ho straight in the eye. “It’s painfully obvious where you’re going with this. You’re inviting me to join an attack team that you created, but I have no intention of playing along with some spoiled, rich kid’s theatrics.”

“Twenty times,” Jin-ho pleaded, looking at Jin-woo with eyes that made him look remarkably similar to a giant puppy. “No, just nineteen will be fine. You’ll be compensated handsomely, I promise.”

“To dungeons?” Jin-woo asked, not sure that his interest in the offer could be lower than it already was. Upon receiving the affirmative, Jin-woo let his annoyance slip into his tone. Didn’t this kid see the forces he was playing around with carelessly? Last time, his life had been two wrong moves away from ending forever, and now he wanted to jump head-first into danger again? “Do you not remember what occurred last time you went on a raid? Hunting isn’t some extreme sport. You could get lucky and live, or you could get unlucky and die. All it takes sometimes is one wrong move. And you’re telling me you still want to do it, to not only keep on hunting but create and lead your own attack team? I can’t tell if you’re brave or foolish. Most likely both, or the alternative is you have no common sense at all. Don’t tell me… you want to be a guildmaster ?”

“Yes!” Jin-ho nodded furiously.

Even after Jin-woo’s harsh rebuke, Yoo Jin-ho still looked up at the hunter with a stubborn resilience in his gaze that he couldn’t help but relate to himself, back in his early days of dungeon diving. Back when he was lucky anyone would take on an inexperienced, untrained E-rank high school dropout with mana levels that couldn’t possibly be any lower. Back when he was still struggling to cope with the looks of pity or quiet dislike that radiated from the eyes of every person he met, and it was only the unrequited help, both mental and physical, from a few generous hunters that saved his life and gave him the courage to continue as a hunter.

He sighed again. Pity and sympathy would never get him anywhere, but he couldn’t help but turn around to face Jin-ho fully again. If only to honor the memory of all those who had helped him , when he was in a similar — okay, not really similar — situation to Jin-ho in the past. “Why? Why do you want to become a guildmaster? Why aim for the license? I’m sure your household lacks nothing in the financial aspect.”

“Well… to be honest,” Jin-ho admitted, “the reason I’m trying to get my guildmaster license is related to that. My father is trying to create a guild as well, and is attempting to hire an S-rank to be the guildmaster.”

To Jin-woo, Jin-ho’s words weren’t outlandish at all. Ever since gates and magic had become a part of everyday life, the market for dungeon spoils had become exceedingly competitive and being successful in the hunter business was a surefire way to make a fortune. It made sense that most large conglomerates would have their sights set on doing something like creating a guild. “So the company-hired hunters would raid and clear dungeons, and the company would take the rewards,” Jin-woo summarized flatly. “You want to be self-sufficient as the second son, is that it?”

“Yes, hyung-nim!” Jin-ho replied brightly. “My older brother is going to be the vice guildmaster, and he’s capable but Unawakened.”

“Unawakened? Then there are sure to be conflicts between him and the guildmaster. After all, your brother is only an Unawakened. No matter how capable they are, ordinary people find it hard-pressed to function normally in an A-ranker’s presence, let alone…” Jin-woo trailed off, and Jin-ho nodded.

“Yes, exactly. So if I rack up accomplishments, then maybe my father will recognize me and acknowledge my worth to be a part of the guild,” Jin-ho said hopefully, a little more hopeful than was realistic if Jin-woo was being honest. “I swear I will keep your secrets about your true strength and take them to the grave with me! If you want to raid dungeons while hiding your actual skills, you’ll need an attack team, too! And completing a raid with an E-rank hunter instead of a high-ranking one benefits me as well, too!” The D-ranker’s face was flushed from passion, and he was actually breathing heavier from his little speech with both of his hands placed on the wooden table. He reminded Jin-woo of the joyful, carefree youth he had left behind the moment he became a hunter — no, more like the moment his mother fell into a coma. Sighing, he decided to humor the man a little more.

“So what do I get out of it?” he asked calmly, and Yoo Jin-ho simply handed him a sheaf of papers in response. Briefly skimming over the contents of its front page, Jin-woo’s eyes widened from the figures printed boldly on the paper. What in the world is this kid playing at?!

Yeon Eunmi

The almost robotic, simulated warrior’s blade cleaved through the air as I ducked and blocked the next swing with a snake fang dagger, slamming my foot into the warrior’s helmet and sending it flying several feet. It landed on its feet and charged again, making me seriously doubt the fairness of the duel as my opponent was decked from head-to-toe in sturdy metal armor that had very little gaps and weaknesses, yet still allowed the warrior to move freely and fluidly.

The obstacle course had been a nightmare that had taken me twenty-seven minutes to get through while the cross country run had been a mad dash through a monster-infested desert that took thirty. Both times had been inhuman speeds, but I knew I could do better. Would do better next time — which was only one day away, really. If each course didn’t come with a fresh wave of revitalizing energy afterwards and an uncomfortably painful healing session, I likely would have collapsed from the sheer exhaustion already. Yeah, this definitely… isn’t Jin-woo’s… system…

Deflecting the warrior’s next attack, I knocked it off its feet with a sweeping kick and aimed a stab for the gap in its helmet. It struck true, and the warrior soon melted into the floor while leaving behind the dagger in pristine condition — not a single drop of blood to be found on it at all. Unlike me, who was bleeding from several healing cuts on my arms and one on my cheek from when I was still struggling to get the hang of basic fighting.

[LEVEL 2 CLEARED.]

[LEVEL 3 BEGINNING.]

The levels were one after the other, with no break at all.

The massive wrought-iron gate at the far end of the colosseum-style arena, like the Roman gladiator arenas, receded into the air on soundless hinges as a bone-piercing avian shriek echoed from within its shadowed passageway. Then, soaring out of the massive gateway with its wings stretched out wide, was a giant vulture-like monster. Its wingspan had to be at least fifteen feet, and as it rose into the air, its beady black eye locked onto me with precise accuracy.

It was soaring lazily in circles a good thirty feet above my head, like a predator circling its prey. As I watched, unsure of its plan of action, it opened its beak and a jet of gunky acid shot towards my face. Barely dodging in time, I held my tongue as a stray drop hit my skin and immediately ate away the flesh, leaving a small but ugly gash in its place. Where the acid had hit the sand, it began to sizzle.

Then, with resounding cries that sounded eerily similar to a witch’s mad laugh, two more vulture monsters flew out of the gateway to join the first right before the gate thudded back into place. What the… oh, somebody’s got to be kidding me…

All three of the monsters soared far above the height where I was capable of reaching them with my daggers alone. Oh, I’m an idiot. Pulling my bow and quiver from my inventory, I dodged three more precisely aimed shots of acid that smelled sickeningly of rot and let the quiver draw at my mana, nocking an arrow. Everything else seemed to go away as the three giant vultures opened their beaks again one by one and I aimed at the closest one. It tilted, banking slightly to the left. I aimed and pulled the bowstring back before releasing the black-silver arrow.

It clipped the edge of the vulture’s wing, falling flat while pulling free a large black feather, and I had no time to lament my miss because three shots of acid were hurtling towards me in quick succession. They forced me to dodge and weave and twist, even as I pulled out another arrow. Not enough power. I misjudged. Focus .

Pull. Aim. Fire.

This time, the slowest vulture let out a cry that sounded more furious than hurt, its next jet of acid going awry as its flight path veered uncontrollably with my arrow sticking out of its left wing. I couldn’t help but feel a small dose of triumph, quickly rolling across the sand away from the remaining two attacks. Some splashed against my sleeve, and I flinched as a searing burn erupted on my arm. I aimed again, my increased stats affording me supernatural coordination and thought speed as two more arrows lodged into the remaining two vultures, one hitting the monster’s right wing while the last one easily pierced through the bird’s chest. It dropped like a stone from the air, unmistakably dead, and I continued peppering the vultures with arrows and dodging their acid until the remaining two hobbled their way onto the sandy arena ground and were swiftly dispatched by my daggers. As the bodies dissolved, the gate began to rise once more, and I started to wonder how many levels I would clear before I was defeated. And when I was defeated, would I die? Be reborn? Or was this entire thing a simulation, and my real body was safe and sound?

Those thoughts were swept out of the way and tossed into a mental trash can as the gate opened once more. The Weaver’s Quiver tugged at my mana reserves again, and I let it as I drew a still-materializing arrow, aiming it towards the gateway in preparation for my next foe as a surge of system energy swept through me, leaving me in tip-top shape to face my next foe.

Tromping out of the gateway next was a giant rusty-red lizard with a maw full of crooked teeth, each the length of my arm, and a serious underbite. Saliva dripped from its jaws as it raised its head and sniffed the air eagerly. A fatal mistake. Its position left it completely oblivious to the arrow that whistled through the air and lodged itself in its exposed throat, piercing through whatever defenses its scales offered it — the Weaver’s silk was no joke, and any gear made from its demise therefore wasn’t to be underestimated either. It let out a choked gurgle, hacking out a glob of blood onto the sand, before facing me in a frenzy and breaking into a lumbering charge. The arrow had sunk deep, and while it would almost certainly die out slowly if the wound was left unattended, the lizard seemed determined to take me down with it before its death.

Tough luck, buddy, I thought as I drew my daggers with an adrenaline-fueled grin. Wait, why do I feel like a murder hobo?

A few levels later, the last of the three ugly green orcs dropped onto the ground, arrows sticking out of its bare chest and throat and turning it into a glorified pincushion for arrows. I winced as the system patched up my wounds, scowling from a nasty bone break in my side where the burliest one had slammed me into the arena walls with one meaty, oversized fist. I gritted my teeth as the bone mended, the system giving me nothing in terms of pain relief. Cheapskate.

[LEVEL 6 CLEARED.]

[LEVEL 7 BEGINNING.]

[{SKILL: BEGINNER ARCHERY TECHNIQUES} OBTAINED.]

I blinked, feeling a subtle trickle of information flow into my brain, correcting my posture slightly, telling me how to aim properly, and informing me how to draw an arrow in the fastest and most efficient way. As the gate opened once more, I took a deep breath and steadied myself. Just as the first of my opponents strode into the sandy arena, dark eyes gleaming with visible bloodlust and ears pinned back to its head as it growled, it fell with an arrow lodged in its skull. The giant black canine’s body slipped to the ground near-soundlessly, almost as if it couldn’t believe what had just occurred. Inhale. Exhale. Release.

Inhale. Exhale. Shoot.

None of the monster dogs made it past twenty feet to my location.

[LEVEL 7 CLEARED.]

[LEVEL 8 BEGINNING.]

The gate opened once more as the bodies of the dogs vanished, and I took a deep breath as a different presence permeated the air. I could feel that my next opponent was going to be different.

I wasn’t wrong. A body of lithe muscle covered by sleek green scales moved in a hypnotizing back-and-forth motion as clawed hands grasped a carved wooden bow. A naga, and an archer from the looks of it. Unlike the earlier monsters, this one was the first to come with equipment.

Slit-pupiled golden eyes narrowed at me as it hissed, as if unable to believe a puny human like me dared to wield a bow. Drawing a feathered arrow from the large quiver on its back, the naga faced me and let out a deep, hissing challenge. I looked it straight in the eyes, knowing that was normally how it was done in the animal kingdom, and didn’t back down. Instead, my own arrow formed of magic in my hands and I placed it on my bow, the two of us simply standing there — or, in the naga’s case, coiling there — for several long moments.

It hissed again, and both arrows were released to fly through the air, except the naga’s was fast and powerful and — holy shit, was that magic ? I dodged to the side, but it almost wasn’t enough.

Booming forward at twice the speed, I felt all of the breath knocked out of me as the arrow, empowered by some sort of spell, clipped my side and sent me skidding back several feet. Snapping my gaze up, I saw the naga already releasing another one, but this time I was ready and jumped to the side as it zipped by my side. This won’t work. I can’t defeat it with archery, it’s probably been practicing a whole lot longer than I have.

My bow and quiver were dismissed as I pulled the snake fang daggers from my inventory, the edge already gleaming with snake venom — ready and waiting to be used. See, this is why you need to cover all of your bases , I thought as I dashed forward, the naga slithering back from the sudden shift in my fighting style. It hurts to be a one-trick pony.

Despite its scales offering some advantages in the way of defense, the naga could only hiss and try to whack me with its bow — its bow — as I covered its body in a dozen poisonous slashes. It tried, like a fool, to draw an arrow, but I cut its bowstring and put an end to its life by planting both feet on its chest and plunging my dagger into its throat.

[{RUNE STONE: POWER SHOT} OBTAINED.]

[LEVEL 8 CLEARED.]

[LEVEL 9 BEGINNING.]

As the gate withdrew once more, I fought the urge to curse as not one, not two, not three, not four, but five naga in shades of red, green, and copper slithered onto the sand. An archer, a mage, some sort of healer or support-type, and two warriors.

They wasted no time, working together like a well-experienced party. A gout of fire, a strange choice for a snake, blasted towards me as I dodged, an arrow whistling not an inch from my scalp. I didn’t have half a second to recoup before the two warriors were upon me, blades whistling through the air. I blocked one and dodged the other with a two-inch cut on my shoulder. They’re like a well-oiled machine. Complete with swords. I couldn’t find a single second of reprieve under their onslaught. Unfortunately, buddy, you’re not perfect, I thought as several spots of red shifted across the two nagas’ bodies. Weakness Detection was an incredibly useful skill, exposing minute gaps in my opponents’ defense. I grasped every weakness that appeared, thoughts melting away in the face of pure adrenaline and a wild dance of dodging attacks while landing my own. The nagas hissed harshly, but they were landing one attack for every three of my own. The support-type naga’s heals were getting slower and more sluggish, and I was wearing them out.

The first warrior fell not long after, and the remaining naga warrior screeched in fury. Its attacks became reckless and it swung wildly, allowing me to land a fatal hit easily. That left only three: The support, the archer, and the mage. None of those were of any good in close combat.

I grinned, and I must’ve seemed truly unhinged, because the healer slithered back two feet as the mage readied a blast of fire. Not so easily, I thought as I dashed forward. The archer shot, but I threw myself to the side and slashed down with one dagger. The mage shrieked as one entire arm was lopped off, but I put an end to its misery soon after. The archer was just as easy to defeat as the one before it, and the support-type was shaking so badly with fear it didn’t even try to put up a fight. A personality thing? I thought, letting out a quiet grunt as the cut on my shoulder was healed. Level ten next. If anything, it’s going to be a boss. Isn’t that how it normally goes?

[{SKILL: INTIMIDATING PRESENCE} OBTAINED.]

[LEVEL 9 CLEARED.]

[LEVEL 10 BEGINNING.]

[WARNING: DIFFICULTY HAS INCREASED DRASTICALLY.]

This time, I felt the monster before I saw it. No, it would be more accurate to say its very presence washed through the arena. It was a vile feeling, of rot and decay, and by the time the smell of poison and swamp wafted through my nose I was already less than eager to face my foe. And when its titanic body ambled onto the sands reeking of arrogance, every step creating a dull thud , I knew I had finally met my end.

Seven heads stared down at me, covered in armored plates of dark, dull green scales. A sickly, nefarious green light glowed under its armor, and a heavy, spiked tail swung out behind it in a hypnotic back-and-forth pattern. Bloody perfect, I thought. If my death here is the actual one, I’m suing the system.

Three of the heads opened their jaws wide, throats glowing an ominous green color, and I didn’t even have time to think before I was engulfed in a flood of sizzling green acid. Strangely, it only hurt for a split second, and then everything became… oddly numb.

[YOU HAVE MET YOUR CHALLENGE IN THE ARENA.]

[The Arena Record: Level 9]

Glacius

He glanced at the timer ticking down in the corner of his eye as he let out a wide, toothy yawn. Behind him was a small mountain of monster bones, the product of an hour of Glacius’s dedicated hard work. By purposely controlling his presence to make him seem like a weaker monster than he was after taking down a few monsters, the others had flocked to him eagerly. They had both been hoping to steal Glacius’s earlier prey and snatch up an easy kill, never bothering to wonder why he had taken down so many monsters in the first place. The last ten minutes had been dedicated to feasting on his hard work.

Just a little more. One more meal on the level of the Weaver, and Glacius would be pushed over the edge. He could feel it, the thrum of power in his bones. His first evolution was close. So close.

Snapping the air impatiently as the last few seconds ticked down, Glacius licked a drop of blood off of his snout as the familiar sensation of transporting enveloped him in its cold embrace. He didn’t mind the feeling.

The first thing he saw when he reappeared was his master, Yeon Eunmi, who was unceremoniously laying on her back as the fabric of reality stabilized around her again. She cast him a sidelong glance. “Oh, you too?” she asked. Glacius rumbled in agreement, even if he could not yet speak the human tongue, which was by all accounts an unnecessarily strange language. There were too many useless terms. “Wait, Glacius, how did you get bigger again ? You grew… over a meter… just from however long you were gone. Seriously, what did the system do, dump you in the middle of a titan-size banquet?”

Glacius tilted his head, trying to match her words to her intents, before letting out an unsure sound of agreement. Eunmi smiled, getting up to scratch him in the place where his jaw met his neck. He considered expressing his disapproval, as he was getting too old and mature for such childish acts, but simply leaned into the touch instead. It was his master, he told himself. Of course an exception could be made. No, it was not related to how good the act felt. If anyone else tried it, he would bite off their hands or freeze their bodies and snap them into pieces for the birds to pick apart once it thawed — that part he meant literally, of course.

“Well, we’ll probably be back there tomorrow again, anyways,” Eunmi continued, moving to hug his snout, which she was no longer able to wrap her arms around. “You do your best and I’ll do mine, and together, we’ll get out of here soon.”

Glacius closed his eyes briefly, exhaling a gust of cold air slowly as he savored the moment. Then both of them broke apart, and they exchanged understanding glances that said more than any conversation.

It was time to hunt. This dungeon’s monsters wouldn’t know what hit them. Then Eunmi frowned, and his thoughts paused as he stared at her curiously. She had opened one of those bright golden boxes and was scrolling through something, muttering something about “new clothes” under her breath.

Half an hour later, Eunmi walked into the passageway where he waited wearing a new, crisp white t-shirt with a black jacket and new pants. She even had a new pair of what she called “sneakers,” another of the irrelevant words humans had deigned to come up with. Glacius had been shooed away — shooed away, like a common house pest, while she did something she called changing — but now she seemed more than ready to conquer the rest of the dungeon.

“What do you think, Glacius, snakes or wolves next?” Eunmi asked him as she practiced shooting an arrow against the stone with a skill she called “Power Shot.” The stone cracked, giving Glacius a newfound appreciation for the seemingly harmless sharpened stick. “I don’t feel confident enough in my archery to go after the bats. I have a feeling they’ll be the trickiest to deal with, too, since they seem like the type to use swarm tactics. So, blink once for snakes, twice for wolves.”

Glacius considered the question, then blinked twice in distaste. Wolves were of the musky, stinky beast family with long-lingering odors, while snakes were draconic wannabes with scales and insufferable vanity. And while neither were particularly worthy opponents, at least the snakes had the decency to have scales. So they could enjoy a few more days of life, while the wolves were arrogant beasts who needed to be put down immediately. They shed fur , for gods’ sakes. Not that Glacius was religious, or believed in gods. That would be admitting there was an existence unfathomably above him.

“O-kay,” Eunmi said, smiling in amusement with a quiet, knowing chuckle. “It’s totally not because you’re biased towards things with scales, right?”

Glacius immediately turned up his nose in denial, shooting his master a betrayed look. He wasn’t that petty. Going after the wolves was simply the more convenient route at the moment.

For some reason, it only made her laugh harder.

Yeon Eunmi

Either the wolves knew that Glacius and I were coming or they simply functioned differently as a group than the spiders, because fifteen members of the wolf pack were resting at their lair, a handful of them watching their surroundings with an alert gaze. I had watched another pack, seemingly a hunting group, emerge from a different passageway while dragging a snake twice as large as the one I encountered along with them. The wolves seemed to travel in packs, and were never with less than six wolves per group.

My previous strategy of hunting them individually wouldn’t work at all here, and that wasn’t even counting in the alpha wolf pair. The alpha male was twice the size of an elephant, easily, and was decked in heavy metal armor. Weakness Detection kicked in then, showing me all of its weak spots as red blotches on its body, but there were frighteningly few and they were more washed-out than bold. The alpha female was a touch smaller than her partner with seemingly lighter armor, but she moved with a fluid grace and if anything had even less weaknesses than her mate. Those two are trouble.

The wolf pack as a whole wasn’t to be underestimated, either. They fought together with a level of coordination and skill that the spiders lacked and probably needed, making it obvious how they had survived so long in the labyrinth with their fewer numbers. Their routines were organized and efficient, but had one major flaw that reduced the rest of it to nothing.

Either the female or male alpha always stayed behind to defend the pups and lair, and as long as their opponent was capable of taking down a patrol of six wolves, the entire system would crumble. When hunting groups were no longer safe, the future of the wolf pack was doomed.

Unfortunately, the wolves were out of luck. Because of their telepathic link that Soul Bond gave us, Glacius and I could read each others’ intentions and next moves like twins in wildly different bodies. Thus, we fought together with a level of coordination and efficiency that even trained soldiers would have a hard time matching, hammering into place our fighting style while we were at it. Glacius would draw the enemies’ attention, which wasn’t difficult with his intimidating bulk — now almost the size of a wolf alpha — before we worked together to take them down. In fact, the way Glacius’s ice ability could drop the temperature around him to dangerous levels made him capable of slowing the wolves, close-range fighters, to a dangerous degree. They were basically sitting ducks, and one wolf who had attempted to latch onto Glacius’s neck had learned that the hard way. When I looked at the body, it was frozen solid. How in the world does that happen?

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

[LEVEL 29→31.]

[BEGINNER ARCHERY TECHNIQUES (LV. MAX)]

[INTERMEDIATE ARCHERY TECHNIQUES (LV. 1)]

The final wolf dropped to the ground as I smiled in satisfaction from the welcome system message. Though I didn’t know if I was naturally awesome at it or it was from the system’s interference, my skills with the bow and arrow were improving by leaps and bounds every time I faced a new foe. I opened up the system store, grinning like a fool at the best section of all: Consumables. But I couldn’t exactly help it, having grown sick and tired of dungeon fruit and not nearly desperate enough for raw monster meat. It was the only time I lamented Glacius’s lack of fire-based abilities.

Clicking on one item, I paid the most well-used five gold in my life and popped the piece of candy into my mouth, savoring the sugary sweet sensation in my mouth. Then, because one wasn’t enough, I bought another one before closing the store. Killing the Weaver and its ilk had netted me almost four million gold, an unreasonable sum if you asked me, but I wasn’t going to complain. I also paid a far larger sum for two healing potions, ten thousand gold each.

Glacius planted his feet on either side of me and snarled as the last of the wolves disappeared down his throat, prompting me to finish my candy and draw an arrow as the shifting of metal armor echoed from another passageway. So you arrive, finally, I thought as the alpha pair entered, followed by ten of their pack. If I counted correctly, that means there’s only… two guarding the lair and pups.

“It wasn’t personal,” I said.

The male alpha barked once in response, before breaking out in a toothy canine smile. “The weak shall be culled, and the strong shall hunt, as it has always been. You have been a worthy foe, Outsider. Let us sharpen each others’ blades in an honorable battle today, and may only one side raise their voices in victory.”

Glacius let out a roar, frost rushing to cover every surface in sight, as the wolves surged forward in a chorus of barks and growls and the alpha raised his head to the air and howled. Even the system got in on the action, dinging cheerfully in my head.

[SLAY THE STEEL ALPHA]

[TIME FRAME: 23 HOURS, 59 MINUTES, 57 SECONDS]

[PENALTY: DEATH]

[REWARD: KEY OF THE WOLF, ?]

Chapter Text

Yeon Eunmi

The air was filled with a cacophony of noise as ice and metal clashed. The Steel Alpha’s form glowed with a red aura, and the other wolves seemed to be bolstered with power under their leader’s magic.

I sent a trio of arrows flying through the air, felling a wolf to be crushed under Glacius’s power, before I drew my daggers and leaped into the fray. Quite frankly, daggers weren’t the most suitable weapons for me, as being as close-range as they required wasn’t my piece of cake. But they were the best things I had right now, because like the fool I was, I had forgotten the system store existed to check for better ones.

The female alpha let out a snarl, deflecting my next slash with steel-enforced claws as her fangs glinted like metal under the light. When I glanced down at it again, the edge was slightly chipped. “I can see why you’re the alpha,” I said, hiding my uneasiness under an easy smile. She didn’t fall for my bluff, baring her teeth in a pleased smile.

“Are your claws not sharp enough for your tongue, Outsider?” the wolf asked derisively as we circled each other. “You have murdered many of my kin, and though my mate may respect you, I do not.”

“I do not seek your respect,” I replied. “Were the circumstances different, we never would have known the other existed.” Even if they were fainter than the others, they were still there — little blotches of red across the wolf’s fur, highlighting the vulnerable areas of her body. Her weaknesses. “But now you have something that I need. So you will fall, just like the others.”

“Such arrogance,” the wolf grinned, looking every bit as ferocious as her mate. “Perhaps you’re different after all — one who does not shy away from the blade’s edge.” She lunged, and I pushed off to the left, digging my dagger into the chinks of her armor to steady myself on the alpha’s back. The daggers I wielded weren’t large weapons, not getting enough depth for any meaningful damage that way, but the venom was potent enough to take down the Weaver.

I stabbed down with one dagger, and it penetrated flesh as the wolf growled angrily beneath me. I had a feeling it was more wounded pride than a wounded body as I barely managed to pull out my dagger, the canine flinging me off easily.

As I turned to face the female alpha once more, a second wolf charged me from the side, and I let out a muttered curse as I dodged and jumped out of the way. The second wolf was insistent on aiding its leader, charging me again and again as the alpha joined it in a frenzied series of attacks. Their teamwork was solid.

This is dangerous, I thought, capitalizing on the smaller wolf’s weaknesses and weaving in and out around its body. The alpha was more cautious with its attacks around it — some sort of pack bond. It didn’t want to hurt its underling by accident, a far cry to the Weaver’s behavior. I grimaced subconsciously from the memory of its rampage.

“Scared, coward?” the alpha taunted, misinterpreting my expression. “Your pathetic little claws will not bring me down.”

“You wish I was scared,” I taunted right back as I ducked under the swing of a metal-tipped paw. “That would mean you have a shot in hell at survival.”

The wolf laughed, and I cracked a smile of my own. We stood there, breathing hard, until a wolf’s body crumpled against the stone wall and its gaze turned lethal and stone-cold, as if it was remembering whose side it was on. About the lives at stake. “Your death will not be a painful one,” the wolf promised.

“But you will—”

“Die today.”

Four minutes later, Glacius had practically transformed the entire labyrinth passageway into a glorified ice skating rink — a glassy layer of ice covered everything , which I had not accounted for whatsoever. Which meant that, while the wolves were busy trying to regain their footing as their metal claws scratched against the frozen surface, I was stuck in the same predicament as well.

It was a comical scene. The only one who was fighting easily, as if nothing had happened, was Glacius. We’re having a talk about your idea of “helpful” afterwards, I thought a touch irritatedly as I stopped my uncontrolled slide on a stalagmite and clambered up its frosty surface. Within half a moment, my bow was gripped easily in my hands, and I was nocking an arrow in half a moment more. One second, and the arrow was flying through the air. Two, and it plunged into a wolf’s shoulder as the monster snapped at Glacius’s wing. The dragon capitalized on the monster’s pained yelp easily, and we began to methodically slaughter the pack through my long-range attacks and his ferocious close combat skills.

A snarl alerted me two seconds before it was too late, and I turned with an arrow already nocked as the female alpha lunged towards me through the air. Her claws had found purchase in a patch of rougher ice, and she was sailing through the air with its jaws outstretched. I had to do something, or I was either dead or hanging onto the last few points of my health.

There was a giant spot of red in the wolf’s maw, and I began to think they were secretly fire breathing monsters when I realized. It was a weakness. The system was pointing out the most obvious weakness in the book.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and my muscles moved on instinct rather than thought. Before I could think twice, the arrow was already flying. It didn’t have to go far, and I let out the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding when the alpha was torn off her trajectory from the force of the impact, hitting the ground with a thud and lying still on the ice. She was dead. There was no denying it.

A mournful howl rang through the labyrinth as the Steel Alpha stopped his battle with Glacius to rush to his mate’s side. It was right then and there that I realized there was only one wolf left. Feeling a stab of sorrow for the alpha’s predicament, I began forming one final arrow, but instead of drawing it, I simply let it continue pulling on my mana, taking more and more until the construct was all but bursting with power. When I finally drew it, it was different. It glowed brilliantly under the light, as if telling the world, I’m different. Fear me.

The Steel Alpha raised his head and met my gaze evenly. “A worthy foe,” he rumbled, his voice hiding a deeper melancholy. “Up to the very last moment.” He didn’t even blink when the arrow ended his life. There was no great battle, no drawn-out ending like the Weaver’s. I had been weaker then, but the alpha had not grown any stronger.

We stood there silently for several seconds, Glacius and I. Even Glacius, proud dragon that he was, stood there for several moments in respect. A peace that was, of course, broken by the system’s familiar ding.

[{SKILL: INFUSED SHOT} OBTAINED.]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

…

[LEVEL 31→35.]

[DUNGEON BOSS CONQUERED. REWARDS OBTAINED.]

[WARNING: THE OTHER DUNGEON INHABITANTS HAVE BECOME WARY OF YOU.]

Great, like I need that right now , I thought, dropping to the ground and leaning back against the stone pillar as I bought a bottle of water from the system store and downed a quarter of it immediately. My mana was low and my fatigue was even worse, but all they needed was a good bit of rest. Which, hopefully, I would get now that the other dungeon monsters were apparently wary of me. Then, with a touch more eagerness, I turned to the rewards that began appearing. There weren’t many this time, but to get custom-made gear from every slain boss monster was more than every other hunter could say. But then again, getting trapped in a red gate alone, Unawakened, was also more than what every other hunter could say.

No pain, no gain?

[{KEY OF THE WOLF} OBTAINED.]

[ALPHA’S CLAW (S)]

[TYPE: SHORTSWORD]

[ATTACK +200]

[A blade forged from the claw of the ferocious Steel Alpha.]

[STEEL ALPHA’S CHESTPLATE (S)]

[TYPE: ARMOR]

[PHYSICAL DAMAGE REDUCTION +18%]

Two pieces of gear dropped to the stone in front of me with a clatter, along with a small and intricately carved piece of stone. The key went to my inventory immediately — I wasn’t willing to risk losing it, not now. And picking the first piece of gear up, I weighed it in my hand. A shortsword. Though I was no blade expert, it seemed perfectly balanced. The edge was slightly curved, reminding me of a claw, and true to its namesake, it seemed to be made from the same metal that the wolves had on their bodies. This will do. Glancing at the chipped, cracked form of the snake fang daggers, I placed the shortsword into my inventory and turned my attention to the chestplate. It was molded perfectly, and when I cautiously touched it to my body, it fit itself to my chest before vanishing. It was as if it was never there in the first place. Ah. I’d forgotten that could happen.

You still need to complete your daily quest… my mind suddenly reminded me, unhelpfully. Resisting the strong urge to groan as I covered my eyes with my hand, I felt like suing the system for a vacation. I surely deserved one. It had been, what, weeks? A month, even, in this hellish nightmare of a maze? I didn’t really know anymore. All I knew was I missed the real world. No, not the real world. Earth. I missed Earth, gates or not, and the kindly Mrs. Wang who ran the bookstore. Was the old lady confused as to why her employee had vanished so suddenly? I knew that she certainly wasn’t up to date at all with the news across the internet, and treated electronics like how a dog treated math textbooks. With no understanding at all, and about as much patience as… well, a cranky person on a bad day.

Even more than that, I missed the Sung siblings. Jin-ah, with her energetic youth and irresistible personality, had grown on me until I’d started considering her as more of a sister than anything. I didn’t even know how much time had passed in the real world, but I knew that Jin-woo certainly should have woken up by now, so she should be well taken care of. But why was I talking as if I wouldn’t be making it out? Shaking my head, I let a bitter smile touch my lips. I was most certainly making it out, lest this whole nightmarish ordeal be for nothing. You’re not stopping me, you dumb maze, I thought fiercely, glaring up at the distant ceiling.

With a sigh, I opened the daily quest and, after a quick warning to Glacius, reached my finger out to touch it. The quest’s fatigue-removing effects would be incredibly helpful, even if it did nothing for my mental exhaustion. But just before I touched it, Glacius let out a wide yawn and a satisfied grumble, the wolf corpses decimated, and his entire form seemed to glow. Like, actually glow, pulsing with a powerful magical energy that I could feel roiling against my skin, of frost and the cold.

[{GLACIUS} HAS UNDERGONE EVOLUTION.]

[TIMER: 11 HOURS, 59 MINUTES, 59 SECONDS]

My jaw hit the floor. “A little warning next time—”

Everything shifted, and the training realm opened up to swallow me whole before I could finish my complaint.

Author’s Note: I had a fun bonus idea, and I’d thought, why not? This really sprouted from my tendency to search up random things.

The Terror Bird

The terror bird stalked through the dense greenery of the jungle with only one thing on his mind: Food. Clicking his enormous beak together at the thought of it, the giant bird pressed onward, clawed talons digging deep grooves into the soil with every step, too-small wings stretching out on either side of him in anticipation. He was a savage, a predator, the avian menace of the jungle — and at over fifteen feet tall, with a bite powerful enough to make the other monsters flinch, he certainly lived up to his reputation. His meticulously groomed dark brown feathers, cleaned diligently until they were as soft as silk, certainly didn’t hamper his attempts with the females either.

Approaching a series of caves hollowed into the craggy wall beside a waterfall, he opened and closed his beak twice. Yet another tribe of goblins had made it their home, right in the middle of his territory — the little green pests truly never learned, not that he was complaining for the free food. While goblins tasted tough and bland, with only the chief having any worthwhile fat on his little frame, a full tribe was more than enough to satiate his appetite for a while.

Crushing a cluster of ferns under his giant foot as he approached the caves, stray drops of water rebounding off the rocks to land on his form, he could smell the goblins’ stink and resolved himself to slaughter them quickly. No female wanted a male whose territory reeked of vile goblin stench.

Urging his muscles into action, he burst into a sprint. The sound of his talons hitting the ground was partially muffled by the roar of the waterfall, and he absolutely relished in the look of shock, then horror, on the puny goblins’ faces as he burst into their little shelter. My territory , he thought viciously as he let out a shrieking war cry and lunged into the heart of the goblins’ camp with glee. Every time he closed his beak, one more goblin collapsed to the ground like a broken doll, and he enjoyed with a savage sense of victory the feeling of crushing them underfoot. One goblin with half an ounce of common sense ran, half-tripping out of the cave, but the terror bird let it and finally closed his beak around the goblin chief as it stood there with its head hung in defeat. Lifting the chief into the air, he wasted no time in swallowing the pest whole and let out a satisfied burp when the slaughter was done.

Strutting around the cave proudly, the terror bird was about to begin feasting when he realized the mouth of the cave was now ringed with frost. Raising his head warily, the terror bird clicked his beak inquisitively and glanced around the cave while searching for an answer. That wasn’t right. Had the goblin chief worked some strange magic? The warm season was still in full force, not to be replaced by the cold season for many more cycles to come. It was impossible and illogical and the universe was playing pranks on him, because the temperature was dropping several degrees by the second. He hadn’t even grown in his winter feathers yet!

Every step more cautious than the last, he slowly walked to the entrance of the cave and peered out uneasily. He shouldn’t have to tip-toe around like a rat within his own territory, but his every instinct told him he should, and he listened. He was, looking back at it, very glad he’d listened.

There, standing on the shore of the lake as the water froze by its talons into a thick sheet of ice, was the most terrifying creature the terror bird had ever seen. Rows of spikes, two massive wings, claws that could disembowel him alive like a chicken, and cold blue eyes — this was a true predator. Light seemed to bend around it, cocooning it in a glowing shell, and as he watched the dragon stalked into the largest cave without even glancing in his direction. The goblin that had escaped earlier was standing on the shore covered in frost, face still wide in shock and terror, frozen alive in the worst way imaginable. A stab of true and utter fear sank into his mind.

Head low and wings tucked close by its sides, the terror bird slunk away at a full sprint and started brainstorming places to mark his new territory. He was a terror bird, regal and majestic and proud, but not an idiot. And he wasn’t a coward , of course not. He wasn’t running away. He was retreating strategically and permanently, never coming back to this lake until the last traces of frost vanished and a healthy amount of time had passed, because as much as he was a monster with the aggression to match it he also knew exactly when to back down. The females could wait. His territory could wait. His pride and ego, as much as it pained him to admit, could wait as well. His life would have to come first.

Yeon Eunmi

When I returned from the training realm, Glacius was still slumbering with light wrapped around his silhouette. I was still aching from the phantom pain of the hydra’s teeth, but the system seemed to dull my senses somewhat. Or perhaps it was because I didn’t really die.

Unfortunately, the dungeon seemed content to move forward without me. Either to end me or lay claim to the sweet, now unprotected part of the labyrinth, there were newcomers. And these newcomers were noisy. Trying to move Glacius into tattoo form, nothing happened — probably the evolution interfering in some way. Taking a deep breath, I readied my shortsword, my original daggers all but broken down.

[SLAY THE TYRANT BAT]

[TIME FRAME: 11 HOURS, 58 MINUTES, 37 SECONDS]

[REWARD: KEY OF THE BAT, ?]

Piercing shrieks that made my ears bleed like nothing else echoed through the air, bouncing off the stone walls. Bats, dozens of them. The entire colony was here, including their boss, a bat twice the size of the others who swooped and dove at the heart of the swarm with uncanny agility. The wolf corpses had already been drained dry, reduced to fragile husks. Great, they’re bloodthirsty vampires too.

Glacius had truly chosen the worst possible time to evolve. The bats were relentless, moving as one as their membranous wings sliced through the air. Their hunting tactics were brutally efficient, and it was a wonder I hadn’t already been picked to pieces by the colony. They first let out piercing shrieks, disorienting their opponents, before diving in with fangs flashing and claws tearing. And even worse, they seemed content to not leave the air. Every bat that I felled with my arrows was replaced, and it was only Glacius’s light that kept them at bay. Kept them wary. It was only a matter of time before they realized he was more or less harmless.

As I jumped and twisted precariously to avoid three sets of snapping jaws, I managed to slash two across their wings. They screeched directly in my ear as they lost control and plummeted to the ground, but the damage was already done and I wouldn’t be hearing right until the battle was over.

The swarm just wouldn’t fall. The bats had the advantage of numbers, tactics, and air superiority. They tore and bit, and every bat I felled was replaced by two more. Like a giant swarm of fleas. I tried not to look at the fatigue, rising precariously in the corner of my eye, or the way my mana drained like water out of a broken  bottle. My health wasn’t faring too well either, my improved regeneration working to close the gashes on my skin, courtesy of too many close calls.

I didn’t know how to stop them. There was no time to devise some clever plan like I had done with the juvenile snake, or taunt the Weaver to near-madness. The bats had struck fast, and they had struck hard, and when I was gone I didn’t even want to know what would happen to Glacius.

A groan escaped my mouth as a bat slammed into me from in front. I kept its snapping jaws at bay with my shortsword, but it was too late to stop myself from impacting the rock behind me. Hard . The breath was knocked out of me completely, and I felt something break as sharp, all-consuming pain flared inside my body. Slumping to the ground, I tried to think past the pain and play dead.

Seeming more enticed by the bodies of the wolves than my meager, fleshy morsels, the bats circled overhead, seeming more like vultures than gliders. A few of the bats ventured lower, swooping for the carcasses, but a sharp shriek from within the swarm dissuaded them fast. The leader, the bat whom the system had called the Tyrant Bat. Tyrant was a fitting word. It moved with cunning and ruthlessness, every member of the colony adjusting their movements to match it. When it turned, they turned. When it moved, they moved. A memory surfaced in my mind — why now, of all times?

“No, don’t use the sword! Don’t go after the minions, the necromancer lord’s just going to summon more!” Soomin yelled in frustration, waving her hands wildly at me in exasperation before taking a deep sip from her soda like a weary adult sipping some caffeine. Despite it, there was still a beaming smile on her face as she paused the game in the PC cafe. I knew it was from the joy and fun of the experience instead of the victory rush — since we weren’t winning, not even close. “Sister, you’re helpless,” Soomin declared with finality, as if she had just revealed the grand truths of the world.

I smiled in return, feeling quite proud of myself despite Soomin’s chastisement. Just four minutes ago, I had finally mastered the basic controls and figured out which was which between the dash key and roll key. But apparently, I was now expected to know the enemies’ weaknesses and have the miraculous skills to switch between weapons in a quarter of a second. Perhaps it was the age gap between us, but Soomin was infinitely more skilled than I was.

“Okay,” Soomin said with a deep sigh, as if she was about to go through a stressful ordeal. “First things first: The necromancer has shitty health—”

“Soomin! Language!” I chided.

“Okay, okay, sor-ry,” Soomin said in the least apologetic tone I’d ever heard from her. “I knew I should have given you the support role… See, the only thing the necromancer can do is summon the skeletons and zombies. The necromancer lord has this aura around him that makes it impossible to kill him in close combat, but that’s why you have a bow! You’re an archer! You can shoot! As soon as you kill the lord, all the minions will die and then we can finally move onto the next level—”

I couldn’t stop the wistful smile that touched my lips. Even all these years later, Soomin was still aiding me. Jin-ah reminded me of her in so many ways, like a second little sister, and I would be damned if I died to some vampiric bats before seeing her again.

Even though it was easier on screen than it was in real life, I had a plan again. A goal. A light in the dark. A reminder of what I had to live for.

That was enough for me.

Ignoring the pain in my ribs, at least one of which was surely broken, I reached for my bow instinctively, and the inventory opened to let me pull it into my grasp. Reaching for an arrow, I wasted a second nocking it and stumbled to my feet, the Tyrant Bat’s eyes snapping to me instantly. “Still alive, Outsider?” the monster laughed mockingly as it spoke for the first time to me, a haunting rasp that sent shivers down my spine and chilled me to my bones. “Not for long.” Angling his wings, the entire colony banked to follow him as he aimed for me, probably intending to rip me to pieces alive. The bats moved in practiced formation, covering their leader in a layer of fur and skin, never giving me long enough for a clear shot, but the Tyrant Bat himself flew steadily. If the arrow didn’t have a path, it would make one.

I drained my mana immensely as the arrow burned to life, Infused Shot empowering it beyond what a normal arrow was capable of. It glowed like a beacon of light in my vision, but the bats weren’t dissuaded in the least. I wasn’t done. Power Shot hummed to life as I activated the skill, and my muscles strained from the way it wanted to fly, to soar through the air freely. My breath stopped, and all other thoughts slowed to a crawl until there was only the Tyrant Bat’s form peeking out from behind the colony. Only my target.

Survival or death.

Hit or miss.

Make it or break it.

Thirty feet. Twenty feet. My arm twitched, and the giant bat spun in the air as it twisted to the side, the other bats shifting with it, and as it leveled out there was a single beat of silence. Its maw opened and a truly hideous shriek left its mouth, a sound of fury laced with fear, as it realized it had been a feint.

I released the string, taut against my fingers, and the entire bow strained dangerously as the arrow shot through the air like a bullet. My eyes had no time to follow it, and there was only the sickening crunch before a hole was torn in the bats’ formation.

Then, all hell broke out. Their leader was gone, and there was no one to follow. Bats shrieked and flew in all directions, jostling each other mid-air, all semblance of grace and control abandoned as they twisted and snapped and slammed into each other in a shocking display of incoordination. Half the colony fled the scene outright, but my eyes were fixed on the Tyrant Bat, its form twitching weakly in its death throes and its body pinned to the ceiling by my arrow. Cracks surrounded its form, and the impact had been so deafeningly loud I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the labyrinth had heard it.

A cacophony of panicked cries filled my ears as the bats descended into mayhem and chaos, but I ignored them all as I snatched up my shortsword and half-ran, half-stumbled to Glacius’s side while fending off a few unorderly attacks from a couple of the monster bats. He still slumbered peacefully, blissfully unaware of the chaos around him, but I simply dropped to the ground as my vision became blurry. My mind seemed to have finally dispersed the adrenaline rush and registered the pain, and the shade of Glacius’s wing as well as the familiar comfort of his scales did wonders to help me not pass out on the spot as I downed a health potion, then a stamina and mana potion. A familiar warmth spread throughout my body, and I resisted the urge to gasp as it began to knit my body back together.

Yet beneath the pain, I wouldn’t have traded the pain for anything, because pain meant I was alive. That I still had a chance to get back to the real world, to Earth, to the world I had grown attached to.

The last of the bat colony was finally dispersing when I finally turned my attention back to the system notifications that hovered in my view.

[{INFUSED SHOT} AND {POWER SHOT} HAVE COMBINED TO FORM {DEATH SHOT}.]

[DEATH SHOT (LV. 1)]

[TYPE: ACTIVE]

[A shot infused with powerful destructive energy. It flies at incredible speed and, upon contact, cripples the opponent physically and magically.]

[{SKILL: SHORTSWORD TECHNIQUES} OBTAINED.]

[INTERMEDIATE ARCHERY TECHNIQUES (LV. 2→4)]

[WEAKNESS DETECTION (LV. 1→2)]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

…

[LEVEL 35→39.]

[DUNGEON BOSS CONQUERED. REWARDS OBTAINED.]

[{KEY OF THE BAT} OBTAINED.]

[RING OF AUTHORITY (S)]

[TYPE: RING]

[A ring imbued with the authority and presence of the Tyrant Bat. Increased damage against weak-minded foes.]

Taking a deep breath, I slipped the bat key into my inventory and slid the ring onto my finger, where it promptly vanished. It was cold and made of metal, but carried a sort of feeling of presence and authority that wrapped around me like a veil. Still resting against Glacius’s side, I checked his evolution timer.

[TIMER: 9 HOURS, 17 MINUTES, 12 SECONDS]

The hours couldn’t seem to pass fast enough, but monsters didn’t wait — not for anyone. I had wrecked the balance of the labyrinth, and I was now a threat to be eliminated so the final group could take over finally. And as the first rasp of scales on stone hit my ears, I knew who had finally come. They slunk through the shadows, glimmering reptilian eyes watching me from the shadows, surrounding us in a ring of scales and teeth. Rest, buddy, I thought to Glacius with a sort of numbness that came from experiencing too much death. I’ll handle this.

[SLAY THE SERPENT SOVEREIGN]

[TIME FRAME: 23 HOURS, 59 MINUTES, 57 SECONDS]

[PENALTY: DEATH]

[REWARD: KEY OF THE SNAKE, ?]

“Well, well,” I purred as I stood smoothly. My body embodied a sense of confidence that I only wished my mind could feel as well. As the titanic form of the giant snake rounded the corner, scales like rubies gleaming in the labyrinth’s dim light, I tilted my head and smiled. “Look who’s here. All of my enemies lined up perfectly in a row like the perfect present — I have to thank you for the consideration.”

The snake’s tongue flicked out, tasting the air, and I could’ve sworn it shot a distasteful glare towards the giant bat’s carcass. “I’d have thought the foolish bat could at least wear you down, but I suppose they are unreliable till the end. No matter. I will handle this myself. The dragon slumbers defenselessly still, and you, Outsider, will be a pile of bones who can do nothing to protect him. I will deal with him when you are gone.”

My smile vanished, and I didn’t need a mirror to know I was glaring at her more coldly than anyone else in my life. “You can try,” I said, holding Alpha’s Claw in one hand as I crooked my finger at her tauntingly with the other. She only laughed in response, her snakes still circling me warily. They were scared , I realized. They weren’t willing to risk their lives for their ruler. It was a battle between me and her, only.

With a hissing laugh, the Serpent Sovereign lunged. Planting my feet in front of Glacius, I met her in the middle.

Chapter Text

Yeon Eunmi

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP.]

…

[LEVEL 39→42]

[DUNGEON BOSS CONQUERED. LABYRINTH CONQUERED. {SPECIAL QUEST: SURVIVE AND CONQUER}.]

[LEAVE THE LABYRINTH]

[TIME LIMIT: 2 DAYS, 23 HOURS, 59 MINUTES, 54 SECONDS]

[PENALTY: DEATH]

[{SERPENT SCALES X37} OBTAINED.]

[{KEY OF THE SNAKE} OBTAINED.]

[GLEAMING VAMBRACE (S)]

[TYPE: ARMOR]

[PHYSICAL DAMAGE REDUCTION +19%]

The labyrinth was silent. Not even insects dared to interrupt the silence, as if their tiny, instinct-based minds understood that something had shifted in the air. That something had changed. The four lords had fallen, and there was a new ruler of the maze.

The Outsider had prevailed.

The massive body of the Serpent Sovereign laid lifelessly in the tunnel, ruby scales shattered and broken, all of her serpentine underlings having long deserted the scene. The stone surroundings were shattered and cracked, torn-open craters in the walls and floor. A gaping wound in her head, a shortsword still lodged in the snake’s skull, was what had ended the serpent’s life.

It was a scene fit for nightmares. Blood, both monster and human, splattered every available surface. A dark pool of the gleaming liquid pooled in the ground near the Serpent Sovereign’s head, the snake’s golden eyes still narrowed in shocked hate. A malicious being to the very end. “Serves you right,” I muttered to myself. The serpent’s parting gift throbbed painfully, a massive poisonous bite on my arm. I was lucky I hadn’t lost a limb, and the health potion was working as fast as it could.

I cared for none of it. I had followed the footsteps laid out before me. I had killed, and killed, and killed, and as soon as Glacius awoke I would be out of this dungeon. Out of this accursed maze.

Would I ever return to a dungeon again? That… wasn’t an answer I was ready to face. I should be terrified of the thought of it. The idea of more monsters. I should be sickened by the death. I shouldn’t be attracted to the pull of the hunt, the satisfaction of victory. I shouldn’t.

The system had chosen well.

All four bosses were slain. The order of things was in chaos. And despite the fact that there still were monsters, I knew none of them would dare approach me now. And to be frank, I didn’t care.

My eyes closed, and I was out like a light before my next exhale.

I woke to the feeling of scales nudging my side gently. A puff of cool air blew over my face, and I resisted the urge to groan. Despite my newfound energy, the cold stone floor of the labyrinth was… not pleasant to sleep on.

Wait. Scales? My eyes shot open as I jolted upright, and my jaw promptly hit the floor. Glacius was awake, and he was huge.

He had more than doubled in size. Now, his shoulder was at least twenty-five feet tall. His bulk was even more pronounced. His horns and spikes had sharpened and elongated, scales growing larger and rougher, and his whole body seemed more… mature, in a way. Intimidating. Old. Lost their concepts of youth, if dragons had such a thing. He truly looked like a representation of the cold, his cerulean scales gleaming under the light. His eyes burned with magic, the same electric blue as before.

[GLACIUS]

[RACE: ICE DRAGON]

[EVOLUTION: II]

[SOUL BOND (LV. 1→2)]

“Oh my god,” I breathed, staring at him in a mixture of shock and awe. He was, in my incredibly accurate opinion, beautiful.

A deep, smug voice echoed in my mind in return. “I know.”

“You can—!”

Glacius let out a draconian burp, a jet of frost freezing the air around him as frozen water particles dropped to the ground in a shower of ice. “I also have ice breath now.”

I shook my head. “I don’t even know what to say.”

Glacius rested on my skin in ink form as I approached the door I had found all those days ago. It stood there, exactly the same as I had left it, overgrown with greenery and humming with something mysterious and ancient. Reaching into my inventory, I first withdrew the Weaver’s key: a small piece of stone, carved into the shape of a spider.

It snapped into place on the dial instantly, as if drawn by a magnetic pull, and rivulets of light flared to life underneath its shape as a low hum rose in the air.

Not wasting a single heartbeat, I withdrew the wolf’s key, then the bat’s, and finally the snake’s. With every piece of stone, the lines of light spread, until finally the entire dial clicked and began to move. It rotated once, twice, and the entire structure hummed as the doors swung open.

Inside, torches blazed to life along the walls, illuminating a single stone pedestal upon which a single egg rested on a plush rest. I walked forward, hesitantly at first, but when no traps sprang to life I quickened my steps.

The egg hummed, its shell gleaming like obsidian under the flickering light of the flames. There was an incessant pull, the egg drawing me closer, until I finally placed my hand on its smooth, cold surface.

[{DARK EGG} OBTAINED.]

Almost like it had a mind of its own, the egg vanished into my inventory. Then, with a crackle of magic, a swirling blue portal bloomed into existence before me. A gate. An exit.

A way out.

"Finally," I breathed. "It's time to get out of this hellhole."

Sung Jin-ah

For some reason, ever since Jin-woo had met with that pushover-looking guy, Yoo Jin-ho, the fridge was always stocked with food — even the expensive stuff they’d normally never dream of — and there was a surplus of won in their bank account from what Jin-ah could see. Pushover or not, that Jin-ho guy was pretty rich, and all of Jin-woo’s exercise seemed to be doing something because the businessman’s son had wanted Jin-ah’s oppa to raid gates with him. Of course, Jin-woo didn’t trust Jin-ah with access to their bank account, but she now had a healthy amount of extra cash on hand to pay for regular hangouts with her friends.

“So, what’s up with you skipping classes?” Jin-ah asked as she automatically shoveled another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. Across from her, Han Song-yi glanced up from her own frozen dessert. “You’re a meanie for leaving me alone in history. I was half falling asleep from the professor’s lecture, and no one was there to wake me up!”

“I found a job hunting,” was Song-yi’s reply. “It pays well. I think I could totally make a living off of this.”

Jin-ah frowned, taking a moment to melt the ice cream in her mouth before replying. “Song-yi… come on, you know the dangers of hunting. Even S-ranks aren’t safe, let alone…. At least finish high school first, right? Then at least you’ll have that diploma if you ever want to go a different route.”

Song-yi let out an irritated grumble. “Oh, come on, Jin-ah! Don’t look at me like that and try to convince me like the teachers and the school counselor did. I’ve made up my mind, and I’m not changing it, no matter what you say. Besides, I’m not a super smart know-it-all like you are. My grades are pretty average anyways, and hunting pays just as well — no, better. It’s better than any regular job I could find with my academics.”

“You’re just not trying! Remember that time we studied the entire week together, and you pulled an A+ for the test?”

“My parents made me do that. If I need every single person in my life to hound me about my grades and my academics in order to do well, then maybe that’s not what I should be doing in the first place. Jeez, Jin-ah, I thought you of all people would understand. Your brother’s an E-rank, the same as me. Isn’t he still doing well?”

Jin-ah went still. “It’s not the same,” she whispered, hating how her voice was breaking up. “He didn’t have a choice. You do.”

Song-yi’s eyes widened. “Jin-ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I would never look down on what you and your brother have had to go through. I swear I didn’t mean it. I only said that because I saw him—”

Standing up, Jin-ah tossed her cup and spoon into the trash, but not before eating the last few bites in a hurry. Old habits died hard, after all. “Forget it. I hope you come back to school soon.” A deluge of harmful words hovered at the tip of her tongue, but Jin-ah left before they could spill out and ruin her relationship with her best friend, possibly forever. She needed to calm down.

Outside, the sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky, and Jin-ah remembered something her father had said to her when she had thrown a tantrum and broken her toy. “Jin-ah. When you feel like being overcome by your emotions, just look around you. Even on the worst of days, there are many amazing and beautiful things everywhere if you only take the time to look.” She hadn’t understood it then. Still didn’t, really. But she never forgot it. It was what her father had said just hours before he left to enter the dungeon that would take him forever, never to be seen again. But as she headed back to her apartment, mind still overcome by a flurry of negative emotions, she stopped in her tracks and felt her eyes widen from the commotion gathered around the one street she had always tried to avoid. After all, what if one day the gate turned blue again, but not a single soul came out?

The bloody red color of the gate that had swallowed Eunmi whole, always like an omen of death and dread to Jin-ah, was slowly turning a shade of sapphire blue. Even more, as she watched, the edges of the massive portal vanished slowly, wisps of mana dissipating into the atmosphere. The dungeon had been cleared. It had been cleared. Which meant that that distinct silhouette…

Jin-ah’s father had been right, even all these years later. There always was something amazing in the world.

Woo Jin-chul

By now, the Korean Hunters Association had come to one conclusion: Yeon Eunmi had miraculously Awakened, which was the reason for her continued survival. Their verdict didn’t change. She was going to die anyway, because the ability to survive did not overlap in any way, shape, or form with the ability to defeat a high-ranking dungeon boss. Even S-ranks would have trouble soloing red gates because hunters didn’t just solo a high-ranking dungeon, especially newly Awakened ones — S-rank or not. That was what parties were for. Even the strongest hunter in the world , America’s Thomas Andre, had started somewhere, and it certainly wasn’t dropped directly in the middle of a red gate.

Jin-chul, who liked to think of himself as a man grounded in reality, was one of those who believed the verdict. Had given the report to Chairman Go Gun-hee himself, even. So what in the name of everloving god was this?

The gate crackled and snapped like it had been doing for days, mana burning bright in its swirling crimson surface. But there, in the center of the portal, was a single spot of blue. It grew steadily, consuming the red, until all that remained was a regular blue gate portal that hummed with power. And that would’ve been a sure sign of Yeon Eunmi’s death, if not for the fact that the portal was dissipating, breaking up into nonexistence, and there was a clearly human silhouette standing in the eye of the magical chaos. She survived. Woo Jin-chul didn’t know whether to be overjoyed, relieved, or shocked. All three was what he settled on. Then he saw the flash of cameras in the corner of his eye, news reporters lining the street like flies to a carcass, buzzing about what the potential implications of this might mean. Already, Jin-chul’s agents were hard at work keeping them at bay.

“This is… unprecedented…” Jin-chul’s assistant mumbled, words flowing so fast from his mouth that a regular person would have a hard time keeping up despite the man being unawakened himself. Jin-chul grabbed his shoulder in a firm grip.

“Calm down,” he said. “We need to control the media first and foremost. I’ll handle the matters of the gate itself.”

As the gate vanished fully, Jin-chul shoved his disbelief and any feelings that were a hindrance to his job, cramming them into a box before striding forward with purpose. The woman standing in the gate’s place was easily recognizable as Yeon Eunmi, though changed enough that Woo Jin-chul did a double take.

She still had the same defining characteristics: Brown hair, hazel eyes flecked with gold, and lightly tanned skin. But she was now lean and fit, with a hard and wary edge to her eyes that likely wasn’t there before. Jin-chul thought he saw the hint of a tattoo underneath her shirt, which strangely wasn’t the one she had worn into the dungeon. Mysteries upon mysteries. South Korea is just a whole pot of mysteries lately, and I get this strange feeling it’s about to boil over…

Yeon Eunmi swayed dangerously as she stood there, looking at her surroundings blankly, before falling forward. Jin-chul ran forward to stop her from hitting the ground, feeling an icy tingle down his neck as if something dangerous was watching him, but he pushed through it and grabbed her shoulders half a second before she fell fully, supporting her body and lifting her back up. Exhaustion, severe. It makes sense, considering whatever horrors must’ve happened in that gate… even more surprising is the fact that she survived. Upon seeing that he meant Eunmi no physical harm, the icy presence retreated somewhat, but he still felt it watching. Why do I, an A-rank, feel intimidated by this thing’s mere presence…? Is it truly that strong? No, what did Yeon Eunmi bring out of that gate? Answers Jin-chul wouldn’t be getting, at least not until the young woman woke up.

Four hours later, Jin-chul was sitting in the nearest hospital waiting room, the implications of Yeon Eunmi’s survival not lost on him. She had Awakened as a hunter — a powerful one, S-rank if all the signs were to be believed. The media was already swarming around the hospital building, and news had likely reached the ears of every other country in the world. It was only a matter of time before recruiters came buzzing in as well like hunting dogs on a scent.

His phone buzzed, and Jin-chul fished the device out of his pocket as he viewed the name on the screen. Chairman Go Gun-hee. Accepting it quickly, the elderly man’s voice reached his ears soon after. “How is the situation?”

“Better than it could be,” Jin-chul answered. “Her signs are stable, and she’ll likely recover soon. My team is doing all we can about the media, and we’ve limited them to outside the hospital.”

The chairman’s sigh on the other side of the phone was not missed by him. “Annoying, that’s what they are. You’re doing well, Jin-chul. Keep up the good work. This whole situation… it’s just a mess and a miracle all in one. I just checked her file again. Do you know who’s listed as the emergency contact?”

“No, I’ll check her file again for it—”

“Sung Jin-woo,” came the grave voice with finality.

Jin-chul froze. Now that was a name he didn’t want to hear, from the sheer amount of strange events following it alone. “Pardon?”

“Jin-chul, her emergency contact is Sung Jin-woo. They’re neighbors, and witnesses have reported Yeon Eunmi as close with the Sung family. If this is a coincidence, then it’s the largest one we’ve had in a long while.”

Speak of the devil. Right on cue, the door clicked open. Without even sparing Jin-chul a glance, the figure of Sung Jin-woo stalked into the room, followed by a young woman who Jin-chul recognized as well, if only vaguely. Sung Jin-ah, the man’s younger sister, who stared at Jin-chul strangely as she carried a box of chocolates in her arms. Jin-chul, however, had his eyes fixed on the E-ranker who he wasn’t even sure was an E-ranker anymore. The man had changed undeniably, now taller and more muscular with an icy edge to his gaze. He was almost like an entirely new person.

“ —Jin-chul? Jin-chul?” Go Gun-hee was talking on the phone.

“Huh? Oh, yes. My apologies, sir.” Standing and leaving the room to avoid being overheard, Jin-chul muttered in a hushed voice, “Sung Jin-woo is here with his sister.”

A beat of silence. Then, “Don’t interfere. It’s not within our rights, and, well… simply monitor from a distance, and go in when she wakes up.”

I’m not even sure you can do anything about it, was what the chairman didn’t say. Jin-woo had become an enigma lately, a mystery wrapped in dungeons and monsters. Together with Yeon Eunmi, they had just become Jin-chul’s biggest headache yet. “Yes, sir,” he said simply.

Yeon Eunmi

[FOREIGN SYSTEM DETECTED.]

The system dinged quietly. By the time Yeon Eunmi woke, the message was gone.

I first gained consciousness to two familiar voices talking quietly — though it wasn’t so quiet anymore, not with my improved senses. I could hear them as clearly as if they’d been shouting in my ears.

“—said it was just exhaustion,” Jin-woo said calmly, his voice deeper than I remembered.

“Why was that man in the suit outside the door?” Jin-ah asked in return. “He’s creepy. He was there when you were in the hospital, too —”

“Jin-ah, be polite. That’s the Chief of the Surveillance Team at the Hunters Association you’re talking about. He’s probably here because of his job,” Jin-woo replied.

I cracked open my eyes groggily, the feeling of a real mattress like pure, blissful heaven underneath me. The first sight that greeted me was of a white-paneled ceiling, artificial white light streaming down on my face. The curtains were drawn, and two familiar siblings sat next to my bed. “Who’s here?” I asked.

The reaction was immediate. With an excited squeal, Jin-ah jumped up as I sat up and wrapped her arms around me in a fierce hug. “Hey, Jin-ah,” I smiled as I returned the hug. Jin-woo stood as well, though much more awkwardly, and gave me a quick hug as well. I blinked twice as he sat back down. Every ounce of boyishness had been stripped from his body until someone who was practically a stranger remained, though his gray eyes still held that same look in them. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said quickly.

“Jin-woo?” I asked, unable to stop my eyes from widening. “You look…” It was one thing to know he would change. It was another to experience it firsthand, with my very own eyes.

“Different, right?” Jin-ah chirped with her regular cheer, stepping back and all but tearing the wrapping off of a box of chocolates before presenting it to me with puppy-dog eyes. “Unnie, you don’t mind if I have some, right…?”

“It’s fine,” I said with a laugh as I took one. Jin-ah wasted no time in popping three into her mouth before continuing.

“Oppa’s, like, an exercise fanatic now. He’s always running and doing this weird routine in the morning. And I tried elbowing him yesterday, but it’s like his stomach is made of steel ,” Jin-ah informed me seriously through bites of chocolate. I arched a questioning brow at Jin-woo, even though I already knew what happened: the system. However, he’s staring at the air in front of him blankly, his eyes moving from left to right as if he was reading something. Probably is.

A quiet cough echoed through the room as the “man in the suit” entered, followed by another, casting a mildly apologetic glance toward the Sung siblings. “Excuse me, could I kindly ask you to vacate this room temporarily?”

Jin-ah let out an adorable pout but did so, Jin-woo following with furrowed brows. “We’ll be back tomorrow, even if I have to drag Oppa like a trash bag!” the younger Sung sibling promised cheerily over her shoulder. “Leave some chocolate for me!”

“ Jin-ah! ”

“I regret nothing about what I just said. Ow, ow! Oppa, this is unfair bullying! Wha — what the heck is with your stomach — Unnie, help!” The bickering of the siblings faded down the hallway, and I tuned their conversation out — even if I could still hear it clearly, as if they were speaking next to me.

With a sigh, the man sat down in the hospital chair like it was the most comfortable thing in the world. It didn’t seem like it, but everyone had their own tastes, I supposed. He was one of the more easily recognizable characters, with slicked-back orange hair, a stoic air of professionalism, and, most importantly, bags upon bags under his dark eyes that the artist hadn’t quite captured fully on paper. But then again, everything was different first-hand. I had slowly developed somewhat of a sixth sense, tailored to mana and all things magical, and he burned of tightly controlled magic constrained to his body, easily more powerful than the weak, dwindling sparks that were the unawakened. The man held such a fine degree of control and restraint over his powers that it was quite honestly impressive. “My name is Woo Jin-chul. I am the Chief Inspector of the Surveillance Team at the Korean Hunters Association, as well as an A-ranker,” he said by way of an introduction while reaching into his pocket to pass me his card. Though I was already relatively sure of his identity, I checked it over anyways curiously. “Mrs. Yeon, are you aware that you entered a red gate?”

“No,” I responded dryly. “I remember it opening on top of me. I haven’t entered a gate of my own volition in my life.”

“Ah, yes, my apologies for the confusing prompt. Next question: Did you Awaken?” Jin-chul asked, his assistant having somehow procured a notebook and pen from somewhere.

I hesitated. It was here that I could either spin a lie of lies and wait for further scrutiny, tell the truth and also await further scrutiny, or just give the vaguest answer possible. I chose the last option here. “I don’t know for sure. Maybe? I think so?”

“What else would there be?” Jin-chul’s assistant muttered under his breath, so softly that a regular person wouldn’t have been able to hear it. I didn’t show it on my face that I’d heard him, however.

Jin-chul most likely did, as he cleared his throat meaningfully before placing a strange device in front of me. It was an orb of rough purple crystal, set in a strange metal device that connected to a wire and a measuring device that sat in Woo Jin-chul’s hand.

“This is a device that measures the levels of mana in a human’s body,” Jin-chul explained. “It’s what Hunters Associations all over the world use to determine a hunter’s rank and overall power.” And their threat level, was what the inspector didn’t say. There was a reason S-rankers were as feared as they were admired. Many didn’t believe individuals should be capable of holding so much power, and I had read in numerous blogs and online posts before the… incident. It was a hot topic, some fanatical people even claiming it was better to die from the gates and monsters than live under the tyranny of the powerful. Those people had never seen a monster in real life before, I reckoned. Probably hadn’t gotten within fifty feet of a gate, either. Otherwise, they would be quaking where they stood.

“Mrs. Yeon? Mrs. Yeon?” Jin-chul was saying, snapping me back to the present. “As I was saying, if you could place your hand on the stone here, it would be able to accurately measure your mana levels.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry,” I half-mumbled, feeling a slight touch of embarrassment. Curiosity drove me more than anything else, and I reached forward to touch the stone before abruptly stopping half an inch away from its surface. Will Glacius being in his tattoo form confuse it? I wondered idly, because I did want to know my own rank. Was I an A-ranker? The dungeon had certainly seemed hard enough to complete that my power level probably neared the strength of one at the very least.

“I assure you, Mrs. Yeon, the procedure is perfectly safe and has never backfired or inflicted harm on the tester in any way, shape or form before,” the Chief Inspector assured me while completely misreading my concerns.

The doubtful look on my face came easily to me, though not for the reason he expected, and I finally decided to just go for it, placing my hand on the stone. There was a flicker, like a dying spark or ember, but the entire stone looked just as dead as it was before. I mean, what had I been expecting ? The stone wasn’t suddenly just going to grow legs and turn into a miniature golem, although that was a rather ridiculous and hilarious thought. “I want to eat him,” a familiar voice sounded in my head.

I suddenly realized having a giant, terrifying dragon in the middle of Seoul might be a teeny tiny bit difficult. You can’t, I thought back sternly with a voice as unyielding as steel.

“He would be tasty,” Glacius argued back, as if there were no flaws in his logic whatsoever. Although he had spent his entire life in a dungeon where he was actively rewarded for killing and I hadn’t said anything about it, I supposed my beautiful not-so-little dragon would be naive to the constraints of society. “Far more tasty than the other little morsels in this metal den. In fact, there are many tasty morsels here.”

Woo Jin-chul stood up suddenly, his stoic mask unchanged, but there was a flicker of turmoil in his eyes. “Thank you for your time,” he said formally before standing somewhat stiffly and leaving the room. "The Korean Hunters Association will contact you for your results soon." His assistant shot me a confused, apologetic look and followed.

“The morsel escapes,” Glacius whined petulantly in my mind. “Can I chase it?”

No. You lost all of your adorableness when you got bigger, I thought back.

“Not true,” the rebellious little scamp replied smugly and confidently. “You’re lying. You think I'm still as adorable as ever.”

I was , I still thought Glacius was as beautiful and adorable as ever, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. By the gods, how did Glacius change so much from one evolution? The ice dragon was like a child entering their rebellious adolescent years, if teenagers had claws and teeth and shot ice from their mouths.

As a nurse hurriedly entered the room after the Association workers left, checking to make sure everything was stable, she gave me a kind smile. “If everything progresses smoothly, you’ll be discharged tomorrow,” she said.

“Thank you,” I replied, checking the timer of the daily quest out of the corner of my eye. I still had a bit of time left before I would be pressed for time for it, and the hospital halls were silent with the sound of the nurse’s receding footsteps. The coast was clear.

Reaching into my inventory, I pulled out the “Dark Egg.” It had a faintly mystical quality to it, even in the hospital’s sterile atmosphere, its surface gleaming like dark, polished onyx. Rivulets of pale silver spiderwebbed across its shell, glowing and pulsing softly with a gentle inner light like a testament to the life and the potential it held within. Just staring at the egg, and all of its untold secrets, lulled me into a sense of peaceful tranquility. Now that I looked at it closer, there was a timer floating above it just like Glacius’s egg: An entire week left.

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE {SOUL BOND} ON DARK EGG? 1/2 SLOTS LEFT.]

There was no reason not to, in my eyes. Yes, I thought. And now that I could feel the magic in my surroundings more acutely, I was aware of the mana gathering within me, twisting together and somehow weaving an intangible thread between me and the unborn beast slumbering within the shell. I felt there was a second, much stronger thread there as well, linking me just as closely to the spiraling dark blue tattoo on my collarbone: Glacius.

The thread reached the egg, and then, after barely half a second, something reached back. Like two pieces of a puzzle fitting together, the thread snapped perfectly into place, blazing with renewed vigor, and the system dinged pleasantly in my ear.

[BOND SUCCESSFUL.]

When the sun dipped below the horizon and lamp posts blazed to life along the streets, I pulled up the system window that had been languishing in the back of my mind. The daily quest was not yet completed, something I felt the need to rectify.

Glacius stirred eagerly, his interest piqued. He had been complaining about his boredom and the “confines” of his tattoo form, before switching topics to his hunger instead. I was almost hoping he went back to the way he was before. Now that Glacius could actually voice his wants… well, let’s just say it wasn’t exactly pleasant.

As the hospital room warped, fading into a sterile white backdrop, I took a deep breath as the familiar scene of the ten-kilometer run track opened around me. The familiar countdown started, and everything else seemed to melt away until it was only me. Until there was only the need to run. Two faceless figures ran beside me, slowly lagging more and more behind as time passed. I knew who they were: my past selves. My past records.

It wasn’t exactly fair to those faceless figures, I figured, to race a future self with more stats, more power, and more experience. But it was, quite literally, Only compete against yourself come true.

I finished the race with my past selves a good distance behind me, gratefully accepting another faceless minion’s offered water bottle, and relished the feel of the cold liquid hydrating me as the realm shifted into the obstacle course. The system had changed the placement of the traps, the location of the wrecking balls, and how fast the obstacles spun — but it was still the same theme as before.

As I stepped up to the starting line, the system began counting down, a monotone familiarity amongst the unfamiliar terrain that had become my life.

[3… 2… 1… GO.]

A jet of acid hissed past my ear, chewing a hole in the sand within seconds , and a stray drop flicked past my vision in a blur of sickly green liquid. I didn’t feel any pain, but I knew where it had landed.

My hair , which I had always loved taking care of, spending time brushing the long brown locks for minutes at a time . This blasted hydra was going to eat away at all of my beautiful hair, which I had refrained from cutting short even in the miserable days of the dungeon. Even worse, I wasn’t even sure the system would bother healing it. But then again, was this my real body…? The technical implications boggled my mind, so I decided to pay attention to what I could focus on.

Payback was required. If I couldn’t kill the hydra, I could at least skin it alive.

From what I had seen so far, each head took just over a minute to recharge their deadly acid. Alternating, that left me to deal with one shot roughly every ten seconds. Not the greatest window of time, but better than nothing. The monster’s enormous bulk meant it was relatively slow, at least for a monster, but it still moved fast enough that when its heads snapped and bit at me, I was hard-pressed to dodge. Once again, I was thanking evolution for my small stature, which allowed me more agility than the hydra could ever dream of.

“Shoot!” I cursed as two of the hydra heads shot forward again, jaws opened wide to tear me in half. Fortunately for me, once the heads dedicated themselves to an attack, it was possible to predict their trajectory and dodge. Less fortunately… well, the monster had seven heads.

I really need a movement skill, I thought as I ducked out of the way. A precisely timed shot of acid blurred toward me almost faster than I could react, and while I twisted myself in mid-air in a maneuver that briefly made me feel like a dancer, my leg was clipped by the poison. I hit the sand hard, rolling awkwardly and rising to my feet while favoring my right leg. There was a brief moment of reprieve as three pairs of eyes watched me balefully, and before the hydra decided it wanted to attack again, an arrow nocked and aimed toward its centermost head. Death Shot.

The arrow blazed with danger as mana drained from me in a hurry, the arrow ripping through the air faster than the hydra could react. Its middle head snapped back, erupting in a burst of gore and blood, and the other heads shrieked in pain and fury, the first truly enraged sounds I had heard it make. It twisted around in a circle, its heavy spiked tail swinging towards me in a deadly fast arc, and I had no time to do anything but drop myself to the ground as it whisked over my head. Just barely rolling out of the way as jaws snapped close around the air where I was just moments before and the shadow of the hydra’s body loomed above me, I latched onto the opportunity before myself.

Summoning my shortsword, I lodged it into the tender and much softer scales beneath the hydra’s chin. It jerked, head snapping up as it tried to dislodge the human and blade digging into its flesh, but I was persistent and not exactly willing to die. The surrounding heads’ screams echoed in my ears painfully, but I hung on for dear life and heaved myself out of the way as a second head snapped — albeit more cautiously — at the area where I was dangling.

I tightened my grip on my sword, and perhaps sensing I was about to do something, the hydra’s head whipped back in an attempt to dislodge me. Horrible idea, but I wasn’t going to complain.

A spray of monstrous green blood splattered through the air, staining the sand a dark green, as my blade cleaved through the hydra’s throat in one go. Mythical monster or not, it still retained some universal weaknesses, as Weakness Detection assured me. Yet, just like in the myths and legends, I could already see the hydra’s famed regeneration at work. The blood loss was already slowing, and if I didn’t press the attack, I had no doubt the hydra would recover and perhaps even regain full use of its heads.

Oh, to hell with it. Gathering my energy, my eyes flitted across the hydra’s body, clocking every red spot across its scales. As two of its heads lunged forward, a shot of acid aimed toward my left, I gathered every last ounce of my remaining energy. Exhaustion dragged heavily on every bone in my body, and if I was anywhere else I’d already be snoring on the ground. But I didn’t want to die to the hydra again. I was so done with that, because while this was a training simulation, in real life I’d only get one shot.

Despite the system interfaces, the leveling up, everything… this was hardly a game. It was cold, hard reality and world-spanning rivalries wrapped in the guise of something meant to be fun.

Lifting my finger, I crooked it at the hydra tauntingly, grinning like someone rather insane. “Come on, then, you fat, overgrown, overpowered, acid-spewing lizard,” I purred. “Let’s play.”

Chapter Text

Woo Jin-chul

Jin-chul stopped in front of the doors to the chairman’s office, raising his hand to knock. Before he even finished his third knock, a familiar aged voice sounded from within. “Come in.”

Opening the door, Jin-chul closed it softly behind him as he entered the office of Chairman Go Gun-hee. The man had been a formidable and powerful S-rank hunter, and some people said the only pity was that he had awakened too late. Nevertheless, Go Gun-hee had taken on the position of Association Chairman after his retirement, and was now a hunter respected, if not admired, by all. If not for him and the diligent efforts of the other Hunters Association agents, Jin-chul believed it wouldn’t be wrong to say half of South Korea would already have been torn apart by rivalries between Korean S-rankers like Baek Yoon-ho and Choi Jong-in. For experienced hunters, the two of them often acted like bratty, bickering children… not that Jin-chul would ever say it to their faces. They tolerated him, if not respected him for his work, but straight-up insults would just be pure suicide. Plain and simple.

“I hope that your visit to the hospital was uneventful?” the chairman asked, looking up from his enormous mahogany desk as Jin-chul approached.

Describe uneventful in comparison to the craziness of modern day events, Jin-chul wanted to say. A honed sense of professionalism shoved those thoughts down immediately. “As well as one could hope,” he replied out loud. “My team has managed to limit the reporters to outside the hospital, but the guilds have no doubt already gotten wind of things. In fact, I expect the guildmasters of the various guilds will be waiting like hawks for her discharge.”

Go Gun-hee sighed deeply, shuffling a few papers around from the towering stack on his desk. “And the mana measuring test?”

At this, Jin-chul paused. After all, he was still struggling to comprehend the results himself. “The results were… very strange,” he said carefully.

The chairman paused. “Don’t tell me Yeon Eunmi is unawakened?”

Jin-chul shook his head. “No, I don’t believe so. Do you remember the mana measuring device’s result when two people placed their hands on it at the same time?”

Gun-hee nodded. “Yes. It was like a glitch, constantly shifting between their two ranks, before ending up with an error message. I think one of the earliest devices even confused itself into breaking down.”

Jin-chul nodded, withdrawing the mana measuring device he had used to test Yeon Eunmi. “Yes, well… it was a similar result. I could tell the device was acting like two people were there, except Ms. Yeon was the only one touching the device. I was sure of it.”

The chairman frowned, looking deep in thought. “I’ve never heard of something like that happening before. And what was the result?”

“Immeasurable, for both results. And then…” Jin-chul pointed to the spherical purple crystal, motioning for the chairman to take a closer look.

“What in the world…?” the older man murmured softly. Jin-chul couldn’t blame him. The stone was extremely durable, enough so that A-rankers and even S-rankers would find it hard to even put a scratch in it.

The entire crystal was split down the middle, looking on the brink of shattering into a dozen different pieces. Crawling up the sides of the fracture and faintly visible, spread throughout the crystal evenly, was frost.

Yeon Eunmi

I tuned out the hydra’s shrieks and roars of fury, the sheer volume of its rage alone enough to render someone permanently deaf. My shortsword was a blur of silver steel in my hand, and every hit I landed was one of the hydra’s weak points.

The monster was bleeding from dozens of cuts across its body, its powerful regeneration struggling to keep up. Four of its heads were no longer usable, hanging limply at its sides.

The hydra shrieked, one of its remaining heads lunging forward. I dodged, severing the tendons of its leg in response, and its entire body buckled under its weight and crashed to the sand. This time, the hydra didn’t roar. Instead, its three remaining heads wailed , a sound that caused me to stumble for just half a moment too long. Its heavy, spiked tail rammed into me, but I managed to deflect the impact enough that it hoisted me into the air instead.

My bow was in my hand in an instant, having gotten quite adept at switching weapons mid-flight, and as the hydra’s gaze swiveled to my form I released my arrow. Imbued with magic, it tore through the air, piercing the skull of the hydra’s rightmost head. Two left.

My sword was back in my hand as I plunged toward the ground, pushing off the hydra’s various necks to leave a litany of cuts in my wake. The monster’s strength was flagging, and its wounds were barely healing anymore. Despite all of its fearsome teeth and jaws, the hydra was actually far weaker at close combat than I’d thought. It was all brute strength, with very little speed to speak of.

A torrent of acid poured out of the jaws of one of the hydra’s remaining heads, but it choked and cut off its attack halfway.  Can’t spit out poison if your throat is punctured, now can you, you giant arse of a monster? The hydra hacked, snapping its teeth viciously, but it was essentially a sitting duck on sand now that its mobility and greatest attack was cut off. The rest of the battle was barely worth mentioning, ending with each of the hydra’s seven heads obliterated in some way, shape, or form.

[{SKILL: POISON RESISTANCE} OBTAINED.]

[SYSTEM FUNCTION OVERLAP WITH SKILL DETECTED.]

[{SKILL: POISON RESISTANCE} OBSOLETE.]

[{SKILL: POISON RESISTANCE} REDACTED.]

[{SKILL: HYDRA’S REGENERATION (LESSER)} OBTAINED.]

[SYSTEM FUNCTION OVERLAP WITH SKILL DETECTED.]

[{SKILL: HYDRA’S REGENERATION (LESSER)} OBSOLETE.]

[{SKILL: HYDRA’S REGENERATION (LESSER)} REDACTED.]

“Seriously?” I asked incredulously, glaring into empty air. “If you’re going to give me rewards, then give me something actually useful and stop taking all of my stuff away!”

Of course, the system didn’t respond, and I was left ranting in the general direction of the hydra’s dead body. A hydra that had taken my life, if it could be called that in this simulation-like Arena, more than once already. Already, its body was slowly breaking away into motes of light as the system kept on contradicting itself with a stream of messages that I couldn’t understand, though that didn’t stop the monster’s jaws from slobbering seven dark piles of drool all over the arena sand. The hydra’s tongues lolled out and its entire body was relaxed. In death, it looked… docile, almost.

[NOTE: SYSTEM CONTRADICTION DETECTED. ALTERNATIVE REWARD PROVIDED.]

[{TITLE: HYDRA-BANE} OBTAINED. STRONG SYNERGY BETWEEN {TITLE: HYDRA-BANE} AND {SKILL: INTIMIDATING PRESENCE}.]

[INTERMEDIATE ARCHERY TECHNIQUES (LV. 4→MAX)]

[ADVANCED ARCHERY TECHNIQUES (LV. 1)]

[LEVEL 10 CLEARED.]

[LEVEL 11 BEGINNING.]

The hydra’s body dissolved fully like it was never there in the first place, the last stains of its blood on the sand fading away to reveal pale, unblemished yellow and the seven dark imprints left behind by its slobber vanishing until the arena was exactly as it had been in the beginning. “System? What the heck was that?” I demanded. “A glitch does not bode well for my continued health and wellbeing.”

The gate, which had been halfway up, stopped abruptly — as if time itself had frozen — and a bright golden box popped up in front of me. No way. The system responded?

[THE SYSTEM EXISTS FOR THE PLAYER’S GROWTH.]

[DUE TO BEING THE SYSTEM’S SOLE PLAYER, A CONTRADICTION HAD BEEN LEFT UNRESOLVED.]

[CONTRADICTION HAS BEEN ALLEVIATED.]

“What… so, are you like Jin-woo’s system? Is some monarch going to descend and take over my body?” My voice dropped, trailing off. I never finished reading Solo Leveling , but I remembered that a monarch… the monarch… what?

It was as if a heavy, opaque fog was clouding my memories of life before. The idea wasn’t pleasant — that something was happening, gradually losing the Yeon Eunmi of a regular life without hunters and gates and monsters, replaced by a new one. Replaced by the Yeon Eunmi of a world filled with hunters and gates, monsters and magic… monarchs and angels, guilds and protagonists come to life. Was this how the elderly felt as they grew older and their memories started fading away? It was horrible.

I didn’t want to forget Yeon Soomin, my brilliant little sister with a smile that could light up the whole world and eyes that shone more brightly than the light of a thousand stars. With a laugh that could charm even the most vicious of monsters, and make a criminal mastermind forget they ever wanted to destroy the world.

[NOTE: THE SYSTEM OF “SUNG JIN-WOO” IS A TRASHY REPLICA OF THE TRUE SYSTEM.]

[NOTE: THE TRUE SYSTEM IS SUPERIOR IN EVERY ASPECT.]

[NOTE: THE ARCHITECT OF THE SYSTEM OF “SUNG JIN-WOO” HAS NO SKILL, AND THUS COPIED POORLY FROM THE BASE OF THE TRUE SYSTEM.]

[NOTE: THE SYSTEM OF "SUNG JIN-WOO" IS MADE FOR HIM TO BECOME A VESSEL TO INHERIT THE LEGACY OF THE "SHADOW MONARCH," WHILE THE TRUE SYSTEM ENCOURAGES INDIVIDUAL GROWTH.]

The two boxes appeared one after the other, seemingly in a rush, before vanishing barely a millisecond after my eyes finished scanning through them. Not a moment after, the gate continued to open as the eleventh level began in earnest, but my jaw was already on the ground. Holy shit. Does my system have a personality?

Sung Jin-woo

Eunmi was alive. Alive and well.

Jin-ah was ecstatic. She’d told him so, as Jin-woo was dragged along to buy a box of chocolates for Eunmi in the hospital. He’d heard about it again later that day, after meeting said person in the hospital, over an order of celebratory chicken and beer. Beer for Jin-woo, of course. Jin-ah got soda, and from the amount of sugar in the drink, the soda may have honestly been worse — but Jin-ah had always been athletic, seemingly burning off whatever junk food she ate, so Jin-woo let it be.

Jin-ah had told him again as she struck up a conversation online with Eunmi, still in the hospital, as the two siblings relaxed in front of the TV. Jin-woo was now tall enough he couldn’t fully stretch out on the couch without his head or feet hanging over the side, so he’d taken to sitting there as Jin-ah rested her legs on his lap. Jin-woo had half-listened to her insistent chatter over the consistent ding of his system as he tried, and failed, to get even a little bit drunk. After downing one can, he gave up trying on the account of it being useless.

“Oppa, did you know that unnie fought a giant snake in the dungeon?” Jin-ah chirped cheerfully as her fingers typed a message into her phone at a lightning-fast pace. “Ooh, she still has the scales from it! Apparently, they’re really pretty. And they’re red, like rubies! Oppa, do you think the jewelers can make jewelry out of giant snake scales? All the other girls would be so jealous. None of their neighbors are as cool as unnie.”

Jin-woo didn’t mention that any scale coming off of a high-ranking red gate’s monster wouldn’t even be dented by a regular jewelry maker’s tools, let alone shaped into jewelry. She would have to find a specialized Awakened for that, probably, especially if the “giant” part of giant snake held true. But the last time he had put a logical damper on his sister’s enthusiasm, he’d paid for it dearly. Jin-ah had given him one of those ‘ you’re-a-social-idiot ’ glares that somehow always made him feel like he’d stepped on an S-rank mine and it had blown up spectacularly in his face. What’s more, the next day, the precious stash of chocolate he kept hidden in the apartment was completely gone. He hadn’t made a remark like that again. Jin-woo wasn’t a fool who would make such a costly mistake twice.

Even worse, Jin-woo didn’t even know how she’d found out in the first place. Was Jin-ah secretly an Awakened hunter with the ability to find valuable things? No, if that was the case, she’d probably have stolen half of the riches, or candy, in Seoul by now.

“Hey, unnie’s getting discharged tomorrow!” Jin-ah said happily, popping a piece of chocolate into her mouth. “Apparently, the hospital can’t really hold hunters any longer ‘cause of their insane healing skills.” Eunmi had ended up letting them return with the entire box, saying she wasn’t feeling in the mood for chocolate. Jin-woo yawned in response, his mind inevitably circling back to that ominous message from before. A message from his system that had arrived unprompted, one he had never seen before. WARNING: FOREIGN SYSTEM DETECTED.

One thing was for certain, though. Somehow, somewhere, at some point in time, Eunmi had unlocked a system of her own inside the dungeon. Why was hardly the question. For survival, anything was possible. What he wanted to know was, did she know about his system as well? Next time they met, he would find out.

Something in his stomach gave an odd little flip at the idea of it, something he didn’t recognize at all. Jin-woo simply wanted to meet her again to find out the answer to his question. That was all. There was nothing else. She was his neighbor, someone who had taken care of Jin-ah when he couldn’t, and someone he considered a friend. He had plenty of reasons to want to see her again.

There was a familiar click, a shutter noise, and Jin-woo turned with a deadly glare to see Jin-ah holding up her phone. The camera was aimed directly at his face, and she was giggling about something as she typed something into the keypad.

Snatching the phone away from her with speed Jin-ah couldn’t hope to match, Jin-woo glared at the screen with a frigid glower that could stop an ice elemental in its tracks.

There was a photo on the screen, and Jin-ah had added a caption. The photo was already sent to someone Jin-woo recognized: Jin-ah’s friend, Han Song-yi.

BESTIE FOREVER :)

(Sung Jin-woo sitting on the couch with a faint hint of red just visible on his face.)

JLKW3819.JPG

My unflappable oppa, blushing!!! ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME PIC!!!!

NO WAY??!!!

WHODUNNIT??!!! WHO FLAPPED THE UNFLAPPABLE??

I swear ur brother is a rock sometimes, no emotions at all

Jin-woo scowled at the three moving dots that were already showing Han Song-yi’s next message, holding the phone above his head as Jin-ah struggled in vain to get it back. How the other person had managed to get three messages sent within the span of thirty seconds, he didn’t know. “Oppa! Give it back! Gimme!” Jin-ah demanded, but Jin-woo simply rose to his full height to ward her off. Immensely taller stature for the win — one good thing came out of his growth spurt, at least. Jin-woo had to replace all of his clothes, since they all no longer fit. “This is bullying!” Jin-ah complained with a pout.

“Taking photos of others without their consent is even more so,” Jin-woo noted blandly as he deleted the photo, then went and deleted Jin-ah’s message as well for good measure, at which point Jin-ah finally wrestled her phone back.

She pouted, holding her phone close to her chest like it was a precious treasure that needed to be protected. “You’re so mean, oppa. Buuut, your actions only prove that I’m right! You have a crush! And it’s prob — eek !” Jin-ah shrieked loud enough their neighbors would have a heart attack and zombies would leap out of their graves as Jin-woo picked her up as easily as a feather with one hand and dropped her unceremoniously back onto the couch. She glared at him resentfully behind a shield of pillows as Jin-woo simply took the fast food box and emptied-out beer can to the trash as if nothing had happened. “I would elbow you again, but I swear my elbow is already bruised from earlier,” she grumbled angrily with no real heat behind it.

“You should work out more if your body is that weak,” Jin-woo replied unsympathetically.

She gaped at him indignantly. “Excuse me! I’ll have you know I’m top of my class in academics and athletics—”

“If you have energy to complain, you have energy to do the chores too.”

That shut her up. Fast.

Yeon Eunmi

I didn’t make it farther than the hydra, getting thrashed by the trio of cackling, maleficent pixies in the eleventh level who enjoyed giggling back and forth to one another, spouting the names of random flowers as they turned the arena into a glorified garden, complete with every manner of exotic, deadly, and poisonous plants to match. The aroma wafting off the plants alone was poisonous, and though the system handled that for me, the living thorns and bombardment of spells was a different story.

Currently, I was having a staring contest with a Sudoku puzzle helpfully provided by the hospital for bored patients. I was also losing badly. A pencil lay on the paper, unmoved for the past five minutes. Is this even possible to solve without guessing? If I put the two there… no, because there could be a four and a seven in that box too… and all of the other sections have too few numbers on them, ugh, whoever came up with this puzzle deserves to get slapped upside the head.

Glacius, in a foul temper from being cooped up for so long as a tattoo, came back from wherever he went during the daily quest in a considerably better mood. What’s got you in such a good mood? I asked as I picked some fruit off of my breakfast tray, my muscles feeling like heaven after a good night’s sleep on a proper mattress. It tasted sweet and crisp, maybe a little sour, like a regular apple, but I instantly decided any fruit was better than the dungeon-grown ones I had grown sick and tired of over the past few weeks. Hmm… maybe if I try a nine there… well, it’s a fifty-fifty shot, right…? Nah, better not to risk it.

“I fed on fresh prey,” he replied with a pleased growl. Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “I’m not hungry anymore.”

Because god forbid the great Glacius ever doesn’t get what he wants, I thought dryly, purposely keeping my thoughts away from my draconic companion. I was to be discharged from the hospital this afternoon on account of having no injuries whatsoever, with only some exhaustion left over from the red gate. It was Sunday, which meant I could go back to work at Mrs. Wang’s library tomorrow. Unless she found a new employee, which was completely reasonable. And is that option even open for me anymore? I thought wistfully to myself. I’m afraid to even touch the media. There’s no way someone hasn’t figured out I left the gate alive. It was right in the middle of South Korea’s largest city, after all.

“If they bother you, I could eat them,” Glacius offered helpfully.

No.

“...Please? I sense a few morsels in the city that would be very tasty.”

No.

“But—”

No.

“Not even if—”

No.

Glacius snarled in frustration, and I thought over his predicament with a touch of guilt. He was a growing dragon, and on one hand, I felt horrible for denying him the space he wanted to stretch his wings, fly, and do all of those fun things. He was the reason I was still alive — Glacius deserved it. On the other hand, if I let him out now, in the middle of the city, there wasn’t a chance reporters wouldn’t be all over a giant blue dragon just appearing in the middle of South Korea’s largest city; it would be Kamish all over again, the world would freak out, and somebody was going to overreact. A lot. Which was justified, considering the havoc Kamish had wreaked on… America, if I remembered correctly.

I’ll find a time to go flying, I promised him. I mean, there’s probably not that many people out over the ocean, though I probably have to reveal your existence to the Korean Hunters Association. But that’s fine. I trust Chairman Go Gun-hee, even though I haven’t met the guy yet. Oh, yeah, I should probably pay a visit to the association sometime after this. I checked my phone, where a mystery number had introduced themselves as Woo Jin-chul and told me that he’d pick me up from the hospital.

Getting a bad feeling in my gut, I got off my hospital bed and went to the window, pulling back the blinds. There, a few stories below me, a small crowd of cameramen and paparazzi were gathered around the hospital’s entrance. I caught sight of one of them eating a snack, and when my eyesight sharpened, I saw another texting on his phone. They were clearly waiting for someone, and I had a niggling feeling it was me they were waiting for. Well, shit. How inconspicuous would it be to escape through the top floor and make my run for it on the rooftops?

If I was caught, I was done for, was the answer. Safer to take the camera-infested, but predictable, way.

Propping my head up on my hands, I opened my phone and began scrolling through the latest string of messages from Jin-ah.

Your FAVORITE neighbor ❤❤

Oppa found this super rich guy named Jin-ho to raid gates with

I thought rich guys were supposed to have big egos but this guy’s a huge pushover. He comes over sometimes, he’s always nice especially when oppas around

Do you think they make serpent scales into earrings?

Can you send me a pic?

(An image of a large, glimmering red scale on a hospital table.)

AEKD2993.JPG

(⑉⊙ȏ⊙)

Its so prettyyy, it looks like a giant ruby

(づ ◕‿◕ )づ

Can I have one? Pretty plz????

W/ 20 cherries on top and SSS-grade puppy eyes???

Ofc, one will be reserved for my favorite neighbor （＾ｖ＾）

:D

Plz adopt me

I dont want oppa anymore

Your brother would be devastated

Idc, ur right next door anyways

Unnie’s cooler

Y thank u

How many of them do u have?

37

( : ౦ ‸ ౦ : )

ヽ((◎д◎　))ゝ

WTH???!!!!!!

Unnie ur gonna be rich!!!!!!!

.

I actually hadn’t thought of selling them

（○Ａ○）

• _●

|||||／(￣ﾛ￣;)＼|||||||

（￣□￣；）

Sometimes u and my brother are such similar ppl because

HOW DO U FORGET ABOUT THE MOST OBVIOUS OF THINGS??!!!! UNNIE?!!!

Except hes so stingy and would pick up a penny from the street and would never forget about a chance to get money

Hey, can I have some of the profits for bringing up the idea?

Keep dreaming, Jin-ah

:P

Aww

Well if u change ur mind im here

I smiled in amusement before finally pondering what Jin-ah had brought up. She had made a valid point, as I genuinely did want to sell some of the items from the dungeon and rake in some well-deserved profit. I had thirty-seven scales from the last boss of the labyrinth, the Serpent Sovereign. Considering I wanted to sell some, give one to Jin-ah, and keep a few for myself, I could sell around twenty-five of them. After checking my inventory, I realized I also had… 648 mana crystals from the Weaver’s lair. My god, talk about gathering dust in the back of my mind. I had completely forgotten. I could sell all of those, and I would need something to do that on, of course.

I thought about trying my luck looking for sites online before deciding there was likely a far more knowledgeable person one message away.

Sung Jin-woo

Do u know an y good places to sell dungeon loot?

Yoo Jin-ho

Jin-ho chipped away at a cluster of mana crystals in the corner of the dark, gloomy cavern. He was in one of the C-rank gates he’d rented the rights to with Jin-woo, who was currently pinning the boss monster to the ground in an astounding display of power as he waited for Jin-ho to finish up. Ever since the incident where the red gate smack dab in the middle of Seoul was cleared , Jin-woo had been in an uncharacteristically good mood. As Jin-ho finished up with the mana crystals and started to lug them out of the gate, he gathered up the courage to ask why. “Ah, ahem… Jin-woo, I mean, hyung-nim… why are you in such a good mood?”

The taller man’s gaze turned frigid, cold enough to freeze a volcano mid-eruption, and a mask of stone slid into place on his face. “Nothing.”

“Hyung-nim, does it have something to do with the clearing of the red gate…?” Jin-ho guessed cautiously. He’d guessed right, because the man’s glare only turned even colder — how was that possible — as his hold over the giant lizard turned crushing. The boss monster, reduced to a mere ant in front of the other hunter, let out a pained yelp and squirmed desperately under the man’s foot. Sensing the dangerous shift in the air, Jin-ho hurriedly blabbered on. “I mean, of course, because the red gate clearing means that someone cleared a security risk to the city, right? So, naturally, all of the citizens can now sleep easier and… you have less things to worry about…”

“Yoo Jin-ho,” the hunter growled, killing the boss instantly with one stomp of his foot.

“Y-yes, hyung-nim?”

“Stop talking.”

“Yes, hyung-nim! Of course! I’ll shut up now!”

Jin-ho wasn’t sure, but he thought Jin-woo had let out a long-suffering sigh as he carted another wagonful of mana crystals out of the gate.

Outside, Jin-ho watched as Jin-woo peered at something on his phone with slightly creased brows; it was the look that meant he was thinking about something he actually cared about.

Right on cue, Jin-woo’s gaze snapped up, locking onto Jin-ho, and Jin-ho busied himself digging a protein bar out of his bag. Was I rudely staring? No. Yeesh, I got to know Jin-woo a lot better over the past couple of days, but he still scares me sometimes…

When he looked up again, Jin-woo was standing right in front of him. “Yoo Jin-ho.”

“...Yes, hyung-nim?” Jin-ho asked cautiously.

“Do something for me.”

Jin-ho’s eyes widened. Was Jin-woo asking him for a favor? Him? Sure, Jin-ho had gotten a degree in business and had practically been raised watching his father lead Yoojin Construction, so he had a fair bit of knowledge on contracts and legal specifics and things like that, but the fact that Sung Jin-woo was asking for help was… well. Am I really that good? “What do you need, hyung-nim?”

“My… friend has a question,” Jin-woo clarified. “I’d assume you know more about it than I do.” He handed Jin-ho the phone, pinning him with a glare that said, Do something wrong and you’ll regret it.

Shivering slightly in an intangible cold, Jin-ho took the phone carefully.

Yeon Eunmi

Do u know any good places to sell dungeon loot?

Jin-ho beamed, feeling recognized for once. That was his area of expertise. He may have awakened as a D-rank hunter, but he had researched the nuances of the hunter world extensively in preparation to become a guildmaster. A goal that didn’t seem too far away, with the rate they were blowing through gates. Hold up. Yeon Eunmi? Isn’t that… the woman who came out of the red gate? You know what? You don’t want to know, Jin-ho. Nope. Just… doing hyung-nim a favor. Don’t want to think about the chances.

He risked another glance at his dungeon-raiding partner (really, Jin-woo did all the work while Jin-ho picked up the loot). The man was still glaring at him dangerously. So now he cares about his social image.

Mulling over the list of sites in his head, Jin-ho started typing down a few different options. If one sold or bought materials on a sketchy online website, nine times out of ten it was a scam and the material would get lost somewhere in the middle — probably whisked away to the booming hunter black market for high-demand dungeon and monster materials, never to be seen by the buyer or seller again.

Hey, this is Jin-woo’s friend! I would recommend selling more common items, like mana crystals or lower-ranked monster cores, at the Hunters Association or one of the places that buys those things in bulk. More valuable things can be auctioned off online, and I personally recommend the International Hunter Trading Guild. There are even formal auctions where many guilds gather in person for the reveal of the most high-ranking materials, B-rank or higher at the least.

He sent the message, then handed the phone back. Wait, was that too nerdy? Did I sound like a giant hunter geek? Oh my god... I totally should have asked before sending the message... but he gave me the phone, so it's fine, right...? Right...? Oh, who am I kidding. Life was sweet. Hopefully death will be quick. Heaven, here I come.

Jin-woo looked it over, then typed in a message of his own before slipping the phone back into… who-knows-where. Honestly, it was like the man was capable of making things vanish into thin air. Literally. It only solidified the fact that Jin-woo was surely a false ranker. “We’re done for today,” Jin-woo addressed the entire group gathered around the rapidly-dissipating gate. This was really less of a job and more of a vacation for them; the other members of their raid ‘party’ had set up picnic chairs, brought snacks, and were playing video games on their devices. I’m the only one doing any real work, Jin-ho thought, a touch proudly. Even if it’s just mining crystals…

“Sure thing, boss!” came the cheerful replies as the team started to pack up, refolding their beach chairs and tossing snack wrappers into the trash can. I think I’m paying them too much, Jin-ho thought with a quiet grumble. They do nothing but laze around all day and still get a couple million won for their nonexistent efforts.

Chapter Text

Glacius

Glacius stretched intangible limbs within the strange space he found himself in whenever he retreated to dormant form. His master was moving, talking pleasantries with a nurse as she checked out of the hospital. Said hospital was, perhaps, one of the grimmest places Glacius had ever been in. He wasn’t speaking from extensive experience, but it was drab in its own way. The labyrinth had been unforgiving, but the hospital was a labyrinth and a challenge in its own right.

Everywhere he extended his senses, there were uniform hallways and even more uniform rooms. Clearly, the builder hadn’t put much thought into creativity in case a supernatural being decided to study the architecture to pass time. Pale, artificial light in some rooms, rays of warm sunlight in others. In one room, the blinds were drawn closed and the lights were off, the human occupying it nothing but a motionless lump in bed. Sickness permeated that one, so Glacius hadn’t lingered too long.

Many rooms were sour on Glacius’s senses, the slow march of rot and decay heralding the arrival of their master: Death. Others held flickers of hope and a human who stood gazing out the window, their eyes gleaming with anticipation as they breathed in the fresh air and studied the buzzing lives passing beneath. Some held humans who blazed with more mana than the others, whom his master called “hunters.” Glacius disagreed with the term. Squishy, weak beings like those could never be called hunters. It would be an insult to the meaning behind the term.

A twinge of annoyance rippled from across the bond, and Glacius focused in on the knot of humans dressed in black, hovering just beyond the hospital doors like sharks to blood. They carried gadgets called cameras in their hands. “Kill?” he asked hopefully, despite already knowing the answer.

…No, came the reply. The pause was longer than usual. Perhaps his master balanced on the edge of a decision?

One of these days, Glacius thought to himself. Maybe.

Glacius steadied his master with his presence as a familiar human wearing a suit met his master just within the hospital doors. The human’s name was Woo Jin-chul. Not nearly as impressive a name as Glacius, but at least this Woo Jin-chul knew his spot on the hierarchy of power, which was almost rock-bottom, just above every other human and basic goblins. Woo Jin-chul, along with his similarly clothed underlings, escorted Glacius’s master out of the dreadful hospital amidst an instantaneous storm of annoying little clicks and snapping sounds.

One of the waiting men, holding a camera, tried to scoot forward more despite the black-clothed humans’ best attempts. Feeling a rise of annoyance, Glacius reached out with his power and froze the human’s precious camera solid. As a tattoo, his power was annoyingly limited, but a parlor trick as simple as this was easy.

The human yelped and stumbled back, looking at the camera in his hands disbelievingly. What, he didn’t consider retaliation? If humans could be annoying, Glacius could be annoying too. No, he wasn’t having fun with this. He was a dragon. He was dignified. He was certainly not enjoying toying with a weak little human’s fragile mind and even more breakable gadget.

Woo Jin-chul led Glacius’s master to a black car that was parked by the curb, flanked by underlings on either side. Through continuous probing of his master’s treasure trove of human knowledge, Glacius was proudly assimilating more information on the human society he now found himself in. In a few weeks, he bet he would be more knowledgeable on their exploits than the humans themselves. And according to what he knew, this car seemed “expensive.”

If Glacius looked at it through a dragon’s eyes, it was an utterly useless hunk of black metal. Not strong enough to resist a single hit or a wayward tail whacking it in the side, nor was it fast enough to outrace a dragon in the air. Through a human’s eyes, it was apparently an indication of… wealth. And status. Which was completely wrong , because then why did his master not have fifty of them?

The engine rumbled to life, an interesting contraption that Glacius found looked more like frozen metal worms and other strangely shaped parts, all mashed together in a way that somehow worked. More cameras made their noises as the cameramen and women took their pictures. One tried to get rudely close to the car window, so Glacius froze his gadget too, and left some frost in his beard for good measure. Humans, Glacius found, had poor cold tolerance. He relished the ensuing noise of surprise and transmitted a sense of smug superiority to his master, who was staring at the flailing human curiously.

Woo Jin-chul drove the car to a tall, many-floored building in a city full of them. The Korean Hunters Association, his master thought. Wow, it actually looks sort of boring up close.

“I agree,” Glacius said. “Let’s k—”

No. Geez, am I raising an adorable little dragon or a soon-to-be murder weapon?

“Both,” he said smugly.

Glacius trusted his senses. And right now, his senses said that the old human sitting before his master would be very, very tasty, and also a challenge to kill. “Ms. Yeon Eunmi, welcome,” the human said with a kind smile on his face. His entire form blazed with carefully controlled mana that wrapped around his form like waves of golden light, but it also seemed weaker than it could be, as if the vessel was damaged. “I trust the journey here was pleasant?”

“Very,” his master agreed amiably. “Thank you for being so accommodating, Chairman Go Gun-hee—”

“Oh, please, no need to be so formal with me, Ms. Yeon,” Chairman Go Gun-hee said, waving his hand. “Please, sit.”

Once the person (and dragon) were seated, and Woo Jin-chul went to stand to the side, Go Gun-hee leaned forward while interlocking his fingers together seriously. “Ms. Yeon. When you placed your hand on the mana measuring device, did you purposely do anything other than circulate your mana?”

“Huh?” Glacius’s master asked. “No…”

With a nod, as if he’d expected that, the chairman placed a familiar purple crystal device on the desk. “Uh oh,” Glacius said. “Was that important?” He hadn’t meant to, it was just such an interesting toy and he might have expended a little too much power.

…Glacius, his master said. What did you do?

There was a crack running down the stone’s center, and there, laid out for the world to see, was quite clearly his frost. For some reason, Glacius felt like a dog who had just been caught chewing up the rug. He started planning several escape routes in his mind. Or, better yet, he’d just stay in tattoo form indefinitely until the whole incident blew over.

Well, it’s not as bad as it could be, his master said to him as she studied the crack. I wanted to reveal your existence to the chairman anyways. Preferably sooner, rather than later. “Oh,” she said out loud to the two watching men. “I know what caused this.”

“Could you kindly enlighten us?” Go Gun-hee asked as Woo Jin-chul whipped out a notebook and pen. “I assure you, this room is soundproof, and anything that you tell us in here will remain strictly confidential.”

“Is it related to your abilities?” Jin-chul added.

Glacius’s master was silent, and he could tell she was debating how to break the news. “Sort of,” she said finally. “I have a… bonded monster, of sorts. A familiar, if you would. The frost is his work.”

Woo Jin-chul

Familiar. The word rang across the room, reached Jin-chul’s ears, and bounced around in his mind for a little before it finally sank in. Although a significant number of hunters had tried to raise a monster as a companion, a servant, or even as a pet, they had all failed rather miserably. Most of the time, they had ended up getting themselves injured and had to kill the monster — or even worse, they bit off more than they could chew and ended up getting severely wounded by a monster they had tried to tame, but couldn’t control. Jin-chul only knew of a few cases where a registered hunter had successfully tamed and recorded a familiar.

But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was, there had been no one else in that hospital room with Jin-chul and Yeon Eunmi, and certainly not a monster. He had swept the room thoroughly with his senses and had only detected a faint hint of ice mana in the air, though that only fueled his suspicions of her being an ice mage.

“Pardon?” he said. “I don’t understand, Ms. Yeon. I was certain there were no other humans or monsters in the room.”

“He’s here,” Yeon Eunmi said, tapping her collarbone. There, the snaking form of a dark blue tattoo vanished under her shirt. Jin-chul had thought it odd that she’d gotten a tattoo that wasn’t in her recorded picture, but had merely assumed Yeon Eunmi had gotten it a short time before the gate incident.

Jin-chul felt like the world had dropped out from under his feet. That was her bonded monster? Monsters were capable of hiding themselves on human skin in forms that would never be discovered, unless on purpose? The implications were staggering, and the potential ramifications were deadly. The woman must have caught the look on his face, because she said, “I don’t think other monsters can do it. As far as I know, it’s an ability exclusive to me, so it can’t be used by a… monster.”

Gun-hee couldn’t stifle his sigh of relief. “Are you certain, Ms. Yeon, that your… companion is not a danger to society?”

Eunmi shook her head. “No. I mean, the only cases I can see are very extreme, or self defense. I could show him to you. He doesn’t like being in this form for long.”

The chairman looked around at his office, then likely decided he didn’t want it to be wrecked by a monster, however tamed, just yet. “Let me lead you to the Association’s training gym,” he said. “I’ll have it cleared of all hunters and staff. It’s standard practice for new hunters to get their abilities assessed, and even though there was supposed to be a three-day wait, I’ll tell you here and now: Congratulations, Ms. Yeon Eunmi. You have been tested and are officially an S-rank level hunter. And, before the guilds try to snatch you up, I’ll ask: Are you willing to join the Hunters Association? We may not be able to provide as many monetary benefits as the guilds, but we can still aid you in other ways…”

Jin-chul followed just a step behind the chairman as the three of them strode to the Association’s training area. Yeon Eunmi’s rejection of the Hunters Association’s offer stung, but it wasn’t unexpected. Rather, the chairman had predicted it, but made the offer anyway. “Yes, I need it cleared… special conditions,” he said into the phone. The operator on the other side had agreed readily enough, and was already in the process of clearing the building out. Not that there were many people there at this time to begin with. “The chairman authorized it.”

The elevator made a cheery little ding , and it opened up as the chairman led the way to the gym. It was an enormous, open room that was lit by rows of lights far overhead. There was also a connected armory of basic training weapons. “Feel free to take whichever weapon you feel suits you,” Gun-hee said as he motioned to the armory. “They’re not terribly high-quality, but they’re solid standard weapons with a variety of options. But first…”

Eunmi nodded. “Do you want to see my companion?”

“Indeed. However, I would ask that you are one hundred percent certain this is safe,” the chairman said. “Otherwise, I may be forced to subdue your companion.”

Eunmi’s lips twitched, so faintly Jin-chul thought he had imagined it. “Sure,” she said, something he couldn’t put his finger on in her voice. “Just a warning, he may be somewhat… intimidating.”

Before Jin-chul could think of a response, the mana in the air shifted , and a presence so overpowering it could only be attributed to S-ranks or similarly powerful monsters washed over the gym. The temperature in the air dropped, fast.

But just as fast as the presence appeared, it withdrew along with the dense mana. Jin-chul could recognize it as the traces of ice mana he had sensed in the air, once in the hospital room and once when surrounded by the irritating paparazzi hoping for a good scoop in the hunter world, but now it was so overpowering that it must’ve been weakened while in tattoo form.

Wicked claws carved gouges into the floor like how putty was shaped beneath a toddler’s fingers as two massive wings cast shadows over the ground. Eyes that blazed with blue fire seemed to glare into Jin-chul’s very soul, teeth bared in a disdainful growl. The first word that flashed through Jin-chul’s mind was Kamish. The fire dragon had been a calamity that had devastated America’s west coast, taking countless lives, and bulldozing through dozens of S-rank hunters before finally being brought down. And here was this monster with the potential to grow just as strong as, if not surpass, Kamish — in the center of the Association’s training room.

This dragon wasn’t nearly as large as Kamish had been recorded to be at the time of death. Its scales were deep blue instead of Kamish’s red, and the air around it reminded Jin-chul of standing near an open freezer instead of an active volcano. A dragon, however, was a dragon in the end and the monstrous power Jin-chul sensed contained within the dragon surpassed him by far. “This is Glacius,” Yeon Eunmi said as the massive dragon bumped his nose into her side almost affectionately. “He’s my companion, and means you no harm.”

The feeling Jin-chul got from the dragon’s presence was no less than the one he’d gotten when he’d stood near Baek Yoon-ho and Choi Jong-in when they’d been about to go to blows. It was… dangerous.

The dragon’s gaze swiveled to Jin-chul, observing him almost curiously, and he could only stand there like a statue before a heavy hand clapped him on the shoulder. “How fascinating,” the chairman remarked while subtly giving Jin-chul’s shoulder a gentle squeeze in reassurance. “And you said his name was Glacius?”

“Yes,” Eunmi said. “Glacius is very clever. He says that, following the rules of human society, he won’t attempt to eat you.”

“How… generous. He’s intelligent?” the chairman asked a touch curiously. “With Kamish, yes, it makes sense… I can see this causing a public uproar. Yes… Many so-called ‘tamers’ have attempted to domesticate dungeon monsters before, but it has always ended in either death or serious injury. Because of that, even the black market is stuck with only trading dungeon materials around.”

Yeon Eunmi shrugged. “I doubt you could… create another situation like this. It’s a part of my… skill set?” There obviously was something the woman wasn’t telling them, but that was only to be expected in this world where crazy had been normal for years. If the Hunters Association attempted to find the bottom of every mystery that popped up regularly, it would be a never-ending swamp of work and even more mysteries.

The chairman nodded. “Our first priority is always to ensure public safety. As long as you can guarantee the safety of our citizens with your companion, we will not do anything about it.” Not that we even could without the cooperation of the guilds, and even with them, Jin-chul thought. It was no secret that Chairman Go Gun-hee was getting old, his abilities and strength waning with his significant age. “We will register your companion with the Association. Is there anything else we should know?”

“Ah… yes. Besides Glacius, I’m also sort of an archer type,” Eunmi added. “And I can also do melee, with daggers and shortswords.”

“So, a ranger and a tamer then?” Jin-chul asked, recording the information down. How would she find her classification as an archer in a red gate…? You know what? Shove this into the box of mysteries that are not to be solved. Nobody asked. It’s a problem for dead me.

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“Thank you. If you would please give us a demonstration of your abilities? There’s a target on the far side there,” Gun-hee said, pointing to a dummy on the far side of the gym, “and bows in the armory. They may not be top quality, but are still sturdy enough for a demonstration, I hope.”

Yeon Eunmi nodded, heading off into the armory before returning with a bow and a quiver of arrows.  Is she shooting it from here all the way across the gym? It’s not so much the power, but the accuracy that some hunters struggle with… She nocked one, pulling the string back easily, before releasing it soundlessly.

At first, Jin-chul had thought the arrow had simply vanished, but then he caught the faint blur of the arrow as it raced through the gym. There was a muted boom and a section of the wall on the far side of the gym crumbled in a crater of impact, but if Jin-chul lined up the center of the crater and Eunmi’s firing point, it was a perfect headshot. The young ones are getting scarier and scarier these days… oh, god, I sound old.

“Don’t worry, Ms. Yeon,” Go Gun-hee said with the smile of someone who had been through this situation before. “The Association will handle all of the damage and repair costs.”

Glacius

He was an ice dragon, the greatest creature to ever lay eyes on the world. He had battled mighty foes and come out on top, feasting on their remains with delight. None could stand in his way. Gone were the days of sneaking around the dungeon, hunting insects to survive. Glacius was powerful, his scales were meticulously cleaned, and his mind was as sharp as his claws or his teeth.

Glacius’s emotions were once a more versatile mix, encompassing a wide range of feelings such as anger, pain, triumph, and even a tinge of fear (not that he would ever admit it). Nowadays, all he felt was boredom. Enough so, in fact, that he gave voice to his thoughts and told his complaints to his master. In response, she had only promised to take him out flying “soon.” How soon was soon ? Such vague responses should be banned by the universe. And when he asked why the “soon” couldn’t turn into a “now,” his master had responded with a number of reasons that he couldn’t relate with whatsoever. What use was laws and order in society when you could drive a spike of ice through the hearts of any dissenters? If the whole nest of humans gave you trouble, simply turn the metal nest into a tundra and live out life happily amongst the icebergs.

His master was very wise in many different fields, but Glacius daresay this was one field where he saw the big picture better. The only opportunities he’d had to stretch his wings, snap his jaws, and taste the sweet metallic tang of blood was during the daily quest. One hour there did not equate to twenty-four stuck as a tattoo in the human nest — not that he didn’t like being in close proximity to her.

And there was another matter gnawing at his thoughts, blooming from a mild interest to curiosity to something larger. Something he had never experienced before — jealousy strong curiosity. “What slumbers within the egg?” he asked. It wasn’t the first time Glacius had asked that question, but there was a different answer each time, so perhaps he’d learn something new. Speech, one of the perks he enjoyed courtesy of his evolution. Communication was a breeze now, no longer having to communicate with primitive gestures and feelings. Of all of humankind’s faults, a wonderfully diverse array of spoken expressions was not one of them.

The egg. A small, weak, but steadily growing flicker of life, a steady pulse of mystery wrapped within a dark shell of black and silver. According to his master, Glacius had been hatched from a very similar egg. The chances of Glacius’s master being wrong was slim, yet Glacius doubted her word on this particular matter anyways. This egg reeked of darkness! How could shadows and a lack of light ever compare to the unforgiving bite of a freezing wind that chilled one to their very bone? It couldn’t compare to the pure white of fresh snow, or the elegant icicles that dropped from under craggy overhangs and gleamed like gems under the light.

Truly barbaric. Darkness could never kill as cleanly as a simple freezing of the body, Glacius was sure. Nothing was as efficient as freezing a particularly bothersome enemy and snapping their body in half for good measure. The cold could even vanquish a wide variety of enemies, including one that Glacius’s master found particularly vile: the insect, particularly the buzzy ones with wings.

In order to keep the memory of those insects from surfacing to the fore of his mind, Glacius preferred not to think about them in all of their wrongness. Buzzing around like they had a right, just tiny little nuisances whose lives he could snuff out with a simple exhale. The problem wasn’t their strength, no, but the fact that where one dropped to the ground like a little ice statue, two dozen more took its place. They just never ran out.

They were infuriating, and much-loathed, and Glacius would rather deal with a hundred boss monsters in a “gate” than a single swarm of gnats. If Glacius ever met whichever being decided to create such demonic beings, their death would not be fast, nor would it be painless. No, he would freeze their body bit by bit, snapping it off carefully and waiting for it to heal, but keeping the nerves alive for maximum pain. It would be, perhaps, the most satisfying kill he’d ever make.

“Hmm?” his master asked, and Glacius realized his mind had wandered off. Him! It was, quite frankly, embarrassing for a dragon’s mind to be anything less than perfect. “Oh, what’s inside the egg?”

Glacius extended his senses and realized she was sitting on the “couch,” said egg nestled within a number of pillows and cushions to her right. Why did the egg require such redundant comforts? Perhaps, if the creature inside was born to such a soft environment, it would be soft too. No, he wasn’t jealous. Whoever said that could kiss goodbye to a good life and live out the rest of their meager seconds as an organic icicle. No, on second thought, even saying goodbye to life wouldn’t be allowed. There would only be death, and Glacius’s idea of death didn’t knock and wait politely at the door.

Was human culture rubbing off on him?

“Hopefully, a new friend,” his master said cheerfully. “Wouldn’t that be nice? Me being your only company can’t be good for you.”

“Unlikely,” Glacius grumped. His master simply huffed in amusement and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like dragon teenager under her breath, half her focus on a flat, rectangular screen in front of her. It glowed, lights constantly shifting to replicate scenes from far away. Apparently, it was called a “TV” and it was quite common in human society, used for entertainment. It contained numerous “movies” and “films,” like captured memories, within its dark surface just waiting to appear in a dazzle of bright lights and music. Aside from the music, most of the films were shockingly realistic — a product of human magic, he supposed, the little monkeys had to be good for something. Glacius felt like he was watching a separate reality.

Was Glacius entertained by these primitive monkeys’ little metal gadgets? Yes of course not. So what if that one show seemed to be just a few notches higher in quality and content than the rest of the TV’s large collection? Glacius was bored, he had to do what he had to do. Paying his full, undivided attention whenever that show came on was simply a way to stave off his boredom.

Chapter Text

Yeon Eunmi

Soon after my discharge from the hospital and the subsequent visit to the Hunters Association, I ate dinner with the Sung family. My phone was silenced, and if it had been on, there surely would have been a near-constant stream of calls from one guild or another. I hadn’t been besieged by guildmasters hoping to recruit a fresh S-rank on the way back to my apartment, thankfully. Both Choi Jong-in and Baek Yoon-ho were occupied in one gate or another — strategic timing on the association’s part, perhaps.

Jin-woo had ordered takeout, fried chicken, to celebrate my return. Jin-ah was enjoying a soda while digging into her meal, chugging a quarter of the can in one go before her brother stopped her. I bit into the chicken, which was perfectly seasoned and flavored, and relished in the flavor of fast food as Jin-ah enthusiastically told Jin-woo and I about one thing or another.

Glacius was being suspiciously quiet, especially considering his fierce dislike of Jin-woo. The one-sided animosity had started because of a reason I couldn’t make heads nor tails of. Considering his general demeanor, I doubted Jin-woo would care about the opinions of many people. His sister was an exception, of course. Would I be one as well? I couldn’t help but wonder.

Upon further inspection, I found Glacius reliving the taste of me eating fried chicken over and over. Wow… now that’s a fast food fan if I’ve ever seen one, I thought with amusement and a little bit of concern.

“This could possibly rival the taste of raw, tender, freshly slain monster,” Glacius said in an impressed tone. Considering him, it was the highest compliment that could be given to food. “No! Why are you reaching for the salad?! The fried chicken is right there!”

Blissfully ignoring the bratty little voice in my head, I continued reaching for the salad.

“Unnie, how much do you think I could sell this for?” Jin-ah asked as she carefully inspected every edge and curve of the gleaming red scale held in her hands as if it were a precious jewel.

“Enough,” I chuckled. “Enough that you wouldn’t have to worry about ice cream costs for years and years.”

“Woah! You’re so much cooler than Oppa, unnie!” Jin-ah’s eyes were as round as saucers, and I could practically see the shimmering money signs in them as Jin-woo snorted into his beer. His eyes had a distinctly betrayed look in them as Jin-ah grinned at him, unashamed. “Sorry not sorry, Oppa. You’re automatically uncool because I know how you forget where your wallet is when you just put it on the counter two seconds ago.”

“...do not.” Jin-woo frowned and shoveled another bite of chicken into his mouth.

“Do too!” Jin-ah accused, beaming brightly at the chance to make Jin-woo look bad. “You just did it this morning! You can’t say anything.”

I chuckled quietly and completely missed the way Jin-woo’s ears flushed red. “We all forget things sometimes, Jin-ah. Give your Oppa some slack.”

Jin-ah looked between us, head swiveling back and forth, until her eyes were shifting so fast I wondered if she’d awakened on the spot. “Ohh, so that’s how it is,” she said knowingly. “It’s you tw — eek! You darn six-foot devil! Give it back! ”

Jin-woo had stood up swiftly, holding Jin-ah’s soda over her head like a hostage as he smirked. With his vastly superior height, the younger girl had no chance of ever reclaiming her soda. His ears were also slightly red, but it must’ve been the food.

“Unnie! Help!” Jin-ah complained, turning her best puppy-dog eyes on me. “Oppa’s not playing fair!”

And because I’m an incredibly strong-minded individual, I give in immediately. Standing and maneuvering around the chair in the way, I jump up and, using Jin-woo’s shoulder as a booster, carefully pry the soda out of his fingers without spilling a drop. Jin-woo doesn’t put up too much resistance, likely because too much force could crush the can completely. Handing it to Jin-ah with a playful flourish, I’m rewarded with a blinding smile that was worth all the gems in the world to me.

Turning, I caught Jin-woo with a strange look on his face. He’s staring at his hand — did I accidentally scratch him or something? I swore I didn’t use any force…

Returning to the dinner table, Jin-ah seemed like a teenager with a secret. She was smirking mischievously the entire time she sipped her soda, earning her more than a few glares from her brother. “Oppa,” she sing-songed, “when are you finally gonna stop being single?”

Jin-woo’s glare darkened. “Jin-ah.”

“At this rate, you’re gonna be single forever when you have the per — ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, I didn’t say anything, I’m sorry, I regret it, Oppaaaa,” Jin-ah complained as Jin-woo pinched her lightly. “Hrmph.”

“Don’t worry, Jin-ah,” I tried. “Your brother is a very nice man. I’m sure he’ll find someone right for him.”

For some reason, Jin-ah only seemed to wilt further, staring dejectedly at her plate. Actually, now both of the Sung siblings looked like kicked puppies. What did I even say?

“This may be even more difficult than I thought,” Jin-ah sighed sadly for some reason. Jin-woo glared at his chicken like it owed him money.

Kids these days are confusing, I concluded sagely in my mind, taking a sip of soda. Actually, everything is confusing. I feel like I’m in the dark about something here. “Oh, yes. Jin-ah, how is school going? I remember you aiming to be a doctor, unless something has changed very drastically while I’ve been… absent.”

Jin-ah brightened considerably and started rambling about how she was acing all of her classes. Apparently, a quarter of her teachers were nice, a quarter were horrible at teaching and deserved to be fired, and half of them were just boring. “The parent-teacher conference is coming up soon,” she said matter-of-factly. “Which reminds me! Oppa, I swear to god, if you show up to my school wearing a hoodie and clothes that are too small for you… I will kill you. Kill you!” She waved her fork threateningly for dramatic emphasis.

“Seems reasonable,” I agreed amiably. I knew a little from the increasingly foggy memories, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around how he had seemingly grown half a foot since I’d last seen him. “Jin-woo, last I remember, you were not over six feet.” Not only had Jin-woo grown, he seemed far more… mature than before. His face had lost the bit of childishness that had remained before, and he had become more than a little athletic. He was… handsome. There, I said it.

“That’s what I said, unnie!” Jin-ah declared in righteous anger. “And the buffoon has the nerve to seem surprised when none of his hoodies fit anymore!”

I chuckled despite myself. The antics seemed childish, yet also completely fitting for Jin-woo’s personality. “I trust you’ve gone clothes shopping already?”

Jin-ah let out a long-suffering sigh. “Unnie, you could not believe. With Oppa’s insane growth spurt, we went to the mall, but he just picked out, like, five black hoodies and shirts and pants and left! Oppa’s tragically deprived of any sort of fashion sense. At this rate he’s never even getting a second glance from — hey!”

“That’s quite enough for you,” Jin-woo said calmly, picking his little sister up easily like one would a particularly naughty cat. “Too much food and your stomach will burst. And that’s enough soda for you, you have school tomorrow.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Jin-ah demanded, kicking her brother’s leg and letting out a faint ow . “You’re just too embarrassed to admit you have — eek!”

Several moments later, Jin-woo walked back into the small dining room, this time alone. His hair was slightly rumpled, as if someone had pulled on it, and Jin-ah stuck her tongue out at him crossly from her bedroom door. He cleared his throat, and I stood, quietly helping him clear the leftovers from the table. “Sorry for that,” he apologized. “Jin-ah is… being delusional.”

“Am not!” the teenager shouted back immediately.

“Do your homework,” was Jin-woo’s response.

Heading into the kitchen, I put the stack of dirty dishes in the sink and began to wash them. A moment later, Jin-woo joined me, and there was only the sound of water running from the sink faucet for a while.

Feeling his stare on me, I turned and caught his gaze, a silent look of communication passing between us. After all, there was something we both hadn’t spoken about with the other. The messages that were constantly piling up in the corner of my vision.

[FOREIGN SYSTEM DETECTED.]

[FOREIGN SYSTEM DETECTED.]

[FOREIGN SYSTEM DETECTED.]

“So… you too?” Jin-woo asked finally half an hour later as they both lounged on the couch. Jin-ah was asleep in her room and the TV was turned on at a low volume to muffle their conversation.

“Yeah. And you?” I replied.

“After the Double Dungeon. D’you know where yours came from?”

“No,” I said truthfully. A second System didn’t exist in the manga, unless my spotty memory was betraying me. There was only one Player, and that was Sung Jin-woo. “Not a clue. It just appeared, and…honestly, at the time, it seemed like a godsend. Like a way out of the gate, a chance of survival. I took it.”

“Yeah,” Jin-woo said. “These Systems have a knack for showing up when you can’t refuse them.”

“Truly devious,” I agreed. “Are you thankful?”

He paused, his gray eyes flicking from me to the screen briefly. “For the System…? Yes. I’m glad that it showed up to offer me a way to thrive in the living hell that was my life. I’m greedy for the power it offers. I want the strength that I can obtain with it. Am I a power hungry fool? What does that make me in your eyes, Eunmi?”

I stared silently at the television screen, where the reporter was talking about the slow but noticeable rise in gate spawnings everywhere. I’ve known Jin-woo to be many things: calculating, shy, tenacious, kind, angry, etcetera. But I never once saw him as someone I could grow to hate, or fear, or dislike in any aspect. “A good man,” I said finally. “You might think of yourself like that, but I’ll always trust you to have my back.”

A harsh exhale escaped him, Jin-woo’s fingers clenching almost imperceptibly in the corner of my vision. “You…”

“I’m sorry?”

“No, it’s nothing. Here’s the soap.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Sung Jin-woo

When Jin-woo awoke in the morning, it was to the sound of Jin-ah opening the apartment door to leave for school. Catching him looking, she gave him a pointed stare and mouthed “good luck.”

At that moment, Jin-woo realized Eunmi was still sleeping soundly against his side. Her head rested just under his, and at one point Jin-woo’s arm had draped itself over her shoulders. It was also, Jin-woo realized, one of the only nights he’d slept without scenes of the Double Dungeon haunting his dreams. He could never get the ugly face of that giant, cursed statue out of his mind for good. Jin-woo had been growing stronger, dealing with the dreams better, but they weren’t gone completely.

Maybe because that statue had been an opponent he couldn’t best. Maybe because it seemed, in his mind’s eye, to truly be “God.” An unsurpassable barrier. Not mortal. He could still see its mocking leer and too-wide grin when he closed his eyes.

But not last night. His night had been… peaceful, that was the word to describe it.

Wait. His arm was draped over her shoulders. Which made them look like a couple, a romantic couple (Jin-woo was reasonably sure). Which. They were not. Very much not. Was that why Jin-ah had been giving him that utterly mischievous look?

After getting chased by goblins and faced by malevolent, ugly sprites with wicked cackles, Jin-woo liked to think his panic tolerance was remarkably high. As in, skyscraper high.

But he would rather face Kamish blindfolded, alone, with his hands tied behind his back than face this predicament. To put it simply, Jin-woo was panicking internally. And he was panicking quite a lot. Someone help me…

After half a minute of careful maneuvering, with Jin-woo taking more care than he would in a nest of S-rank spiders, he managed to move his phone into view. Ah, he had a gate scheduled with Jin-ho today. Another C-rank one, at that.

Yoo Jin-ho

Hyung-nim, we have a C-rank gate scheduled at 11:13 AM today! I’ll send you the location.

K

I’m feeling pumped! With you, hyung-nim, we’ll surely blaze through everything!

K

Hyung-nim, are you even reading my messages fully?

K

…

11:13 AM. Jin-woo checked the clock: 7:32 AM. Normally, he was up by 7 AM at the latest. Not out of urgency, but old habits and a need to get moving. By 7:15 AM, he was normally done with his daily exercise for his quest. Today, though, there was no frenetic compulsion to run, or move, or do anything of the sort. His body was basically screaming at him to stay here, in this position, for the rest of the day. The penalty realm was perfectly worth it, his traitorous everything told him.

Jin-woo looked at the sleeping Eunmi beside him. She looked to be in a state of complete and utter peace. The two had known about each other’s Systems for a while now, skirting around the truth like it was hot coals, but the reveal had been quiet. Domestic. Completely casual, and not what Jinwoo had expected at all.

An icy chill shot down his spine, and Jin-woo was tense and ready to fight in less than a second. There was an icy presence nearby, and it was strong.

Pinpointing the source, confusion mixed with his wariness when Jin-woo tracked the mana to the sleeping woman beside him. But it wasn’t Eunmi radiating a chill spiked with killing intent. It was… the dark blue tattoo he could just barely see peeking over her shirt.

What in the world? Looking down, Jin-woo saw a trail of frost beginning to spread over his arm, his regeneration scrambling to catch up to the cold that sought to pervade his every vein.

Even worse, Eunmi shifted and opened her eyes sleepily, looking around in a daze. “Yeesh, why’s it so cold?” she mumbled. “Hey, Jin-woo, maybe turn the heater on… it feels like winter again.” With that, she was out like a light again.

Not even two seconds later, Eunmi’s eyes shot open again, this time shooting straight to the clock. “Oh, shoot, it’s 7:30 already! I have to get to the book store. Hopefully, Mrs. Wang has been managing without me… oh, shoot, how am I going to explain my absence?”

Eunmi was darting around almost faster than Jin-woo’s eyes could track, and that was saying something. Then she stopped abruptly, eyes going to the frost on his forearm. “Huh? Jin-woo, your arm is… oh my god, I’m so sorry. I have this bonded Companion, and… well, for some reason, Glacius just doesn’t like you very much. Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“No,” Jin-woo replied, shooting the tattoo with a dark look. The feeling is pretty mutual.

The chilly presence intensified, but now it only felt more… broody than threatening. “A bonded Companion?” he asked instead.

Eunmi nodded. “Yes, a dragon. In the city, he has a tattoo most of the time… Glacius is the only reason I made it out of the red gate alive, but he’s becoming less like a dragon and more like a teenager every day...”

“Oh,” Jin-woo said shortly. Now the chilly presence, Glacius, was exuding a tangible aura of smugness. So to not inflate the dragon’s ego any more than it likely already was, he said, “If you need help dealing with the dragon’s adolescent temper tantrums, let me know.”

The killing intent was back again. Under the purely murderous aura leaking from the tattoo’s dark blue ink, Jin-woo simply looked at it and gave it a tiny, pleasant smile. “Well, I’ll fix up some breakfast. You should eat before heading to the book store. After all, it doesn’t open until nine.”

“ Hold on ,” Eunmi said, seemingly just remembering something. “No, you stay back. Even with the microwave, you managed to mess something up. If you get a hold of the kitchen again, I’ll be taking an extended trip to the hospital.”

“I’m not… that bad…” Jin-woo muttered, half to himself and half to her. Am I? To be fair, his cooking skills had never been a primary focus for him. On a good day, he could manage some noodles, and on bad days, takeout was always a viable option. Jin-woo’s focus had mainly been on surviving, and even after the Double Dungeon, it was all fighting, fighting, fighting.

“Tell that to the poor burnt pajeon ,” Eunmi muttered under her breath. With his improved hearing, Jin-woo heard it anyway.

Yeon Eunmi

“Finally, child! I was starting to think you’d ditched me for another book store,” Mrs. Wang huffed in righteous annoyance. “Business has been manageable so far, but a new shipment of books arrived. I haven’t the time to unpack and shelve them, because my favorite employee just was up and out the door .”

“Sorry, Mrs. Wang,” I said apologetically. “I’ll get them.”

Mrs. Wang let out a hmph. “Next time, call in advance.”

“If I know I’ll be gone again, I’ll be sure to let you know,” I said dutifully, despite the fact that there was no way I could have known anything. However, I knew one thing with all of my soul: One didn’t contradict Mrs. Wang if they valued their life. Placing down the book I was just shelving, I headed into the back room where all the new books were always placed.

“This frail, elderly human has an intimidating aura,” Glacius said, impressed. “Might she be a hidden mighty one in disguise?”

“Curses!” My employer said at that moment. Her cane had fallen from her hand, clattering against the carpeted store floor. “Eunmi, get back here!”

“One moment.” I returned and bent down to pick up Mrs. Wang’s cane, handing it back to the elderly woman.

“Good manners, child,”  Mrs. Wang said. “Arthritis is developing like cancer these days… just two decades ago, I could still bend over easily. Ah, well, no use reminiscing. I’ll handle the front counter. Now go shelve!”

You were saying about a hidden mighty one? I asked, amused.

“...A psychic master, perhaps,” Glacius amended.

…Sure.

The hours had passed easily as I settled back into a familiar old routine. Perhaps due to coincidence or the old woman’s intuition, Mrs. Wang handled the front counter with the customers. I had just returned recently, after all, and memories of my face on the headlines were likely still fresh in people’s minds. I would rather not handle the publicity, so I stayed behind the cover of shelves putting books back and arranging displays for the most part.

The problem came at roughly 2 PM. “One person with a little bit of mana has entered the store,” Glacius yawned.

How much? I sighed.

“Miniscule. Even an ant could have more,” Glacius affirmed. “I believe humans classify a human like this as… S-rank? Hm. Or was it A-rank?”

…Wow, Glacius. I am in awe at your superior observation skills. S-rank, with less mana than an ant. Truly, I said. Next time, try to just start with that. I sensed the presence as well once I extended my senses after Glacius’s reminder. Perfectly contained mana in a human-shaped vessel, burning like a bonfire and very, very powerful. I estimated it was at least on par, no, more than the mana of Chairman Go Gun-hee. Very solidly over the line between A- and S-rank.

The presence had just entered the book store. “Yes, can I help you?” Mrs. Wang’s bored voice rang out. I sensed no hostile intent, but I poked my head out from behind the shelf just to make sure.

A perfectly tailored white business suit that looked out of place in a cozy, old-fashioned book store. Red hair, sharp and discerning eyes, and a photogenic smile. What the hell was Choi Jong-in doing in this book store?

Where I worked?

“Yes, I just happened to be walking down the street when I noticed this book store,” the Hunters Guild’s guildmaster said smoothly. “The front of the shop is very tastefully decorated, so I had to come in and pick up a book.”

Bullshit, I thought. I sent the man a slight glare, and his eyes shifted to me with superhuman reflexes. However, my reflexes were even more superhuman, and I ducked my head out of view.

“Hmph, good taste, young man!” Mrs. Wang said, clearly pleased by Choi Jong-in’s blatant flattery. “So many book stores just stack all the books by the front like that has any aesthetic appeal, but I knew I had to do better than that… so when I just opened this place, I went and took inspiration everywhere, from…”

I tuned out Mrs. Wang’s surprisingly energetic lecture on the importance of first impressions and the S-rank’s thoughtful agreement, slipping into the back room.

“Why are you hiding?” Glacius complained. “You could beat that guy.”

I’m not hiding.

“Are too. I know; I’m in your head.”

Grumbling under my breath, I took out a book I’d been reading earlier and flipped open to the next page, hoping the “Ultimate Soldier” actually did appreciate the decor or thought I was out for the day. It was not meant to be, however, because two moments later Mrs. Wang’s order came down. “Eunmi, help this nice young man find a book!”

I waited two moments, took a deep breath, let out said deep breath, and reluctantly headed out of the back room. “Yes, Mrs. Wang,” I said. “How can I help you today?” I asked Choi Jong-in, who was standing by a shelf looking through some of the books.

Annoyingly, he was far taller than me. Because for some reason, everyone was taller than me nowadays, besides Mrs. Wang. The System, unfortunately, didn’t come with a growth spurt.

“Oh, I’m not sure,” Jong-in said cheerfully, with that small, smug smile on his face. “Perhaps a book called Join the Hunters Guild ?”

Oh, so we’re playing this game. “I’m afraid we only have the sequel, The Answer is No ,” I replied apologetically.

"What game?" Glacius asked, clearly not comprehending. "I'm comprehending just fine, you and the human are simply being too confusing."

We're having a roundabout conversation, Glacius.

"Just say it straightforwardly the first time, and then your problem is solved. Speaking in code is so inefficient; humans clearly need better ways of communicating," Glacius announced righteously.

“That’s too bad,” Jong-in sighed calmly. “Maybe a title called Why Not ?”

"Why Not what? Is this what humans call a head injury?"

What? No, Glacius, I mean, I'm sure he's injured his head before in a gate or something, but... forget it. I needed to focus on coming up with a good comeback.

“Mm, unfortunately have never heard of that one. We’ve just received a new shipment, though, with an excellent novel called How to Take a Hint. I recommend it, it’s a fantastic read,” I said. Please, do take the hint. Not interested in diving into a gate again so soon, nope. Maybe after a well-deserved vacation and a nice beating up of some evil, evil pixies…

“Sounds interesting, perhaps I’ll pick it up sometime,” the S-ranker said, his smile not faltering once. Seriously, was this guy born with that little smile on his face? “I recently picked up an excellent book. It’s called Keeping an Open Mind: The Key to Success .”

“Never heard of it, sadly,” I sighed. “Another recommendation I have, though, is a book called Feeling Apathetic. ”

“Now there’s one I’ll definitely enjoy for sure,” Jong-in said. “What about Name Your Price ?”

“I recommend a title called Catch On ,” I replied. “It’s —”

The book store door all but slammed open, eliciting a deadly glare from Mrs. Wang behind the counter, as a second familiar face stormed in: Baek Yoon-ho, with his spiky orange hair and ridiculously tall, bulky frame (seriously, was everyone taller than me now?). “Whatever his offer is, I’ll beat it,” the White Tiger guildmaster said, glaring daggers at Choi Jong-in.

“Brute,” Choi Jong-in said, annoyed, every inch of him radiating intense dislike. "Ruining a wonderfully civilized conversation like that."

“Pompous little brat.”

“You don’t even know what was going on.”

Baek Yoon-ho scowled and was clearly about to retort with something uncivilized, while I took a deep breath in my mind. No losing composure around customers, as Mrs. Wang had firmly instilled into my mind. “Please read that sign up there,” I said, pointing to a sign that said, No Disturbances In My Book Store. “This is a book store. If you cannot respect the peace and tranquility of such a setting, then please step out.”

There was also the appearance of a camera or two beyond the doors as a passerby snapped photos of two of the most famous people in South Korea, which was, well. Not ideal.

“Froze the little metal thing,” Glacius said smugly. The pedestrian who had been trying to take a photo from afar suddenly looked down, alarmed, and dropped his phone.

Well done, I praised.

But the two S-rankers were now engaged in a ridiculous, but not unwelcome, contest. With deliberate, graceful movements, Choi Jong-in began methodically pulling books from shelves. To my surprise, the Hunters guildmaster actually pulled titles that I approved of, and some that I was looking forward to reading. Maybe he hadn’t been looking at the shelves for show.

Easily carrying upwards of ten books to the counter, Choi Jong-in pulled out a card from his wallet. “I’ll take all of these,” he said with an easy smile. I could practically see the stars in Mrs. Wang’s eyes as she gave me an approving look out of the corner of her eye.

Not to be outdone, Baek Yoon-ho gave the bookshelf a long, hard look. Then, clearly not too pleased with going through each one individually, the orange-haired guildmaster swiped an entire row off the shelf and easily carried it to the counter. “I’ll take these,” he said.

Mrs. Wang gave me an entirely too pleased smile as she checked out both stacks of books.

Clearly deciding that to let up now was to lose, Choi Jong-in pulled out his phone and made a call. Five minutes later, a very confused hunter from the Hunters Guild pulled up in a fancy black car, lifting a large cardboard box out of the back seat. Stepping into the book store, the hunter began loading the box with Choi Jong-in’s bought books, and the S-ranker took the opportunity to buy a dozen more.

His glare darker than darkness itself, Baek Yoon-ho also made his own phone calls.

An hour later, what must’ve been a quarter of the Hunters Guild and White Tiger Guild’s (very confused) staff and hunters made their way through the store, clearing out over half the books contained inside and packing them into cardboard boxes. After, seemingly satisfied with their literary spending splurge, I was handed two business cards, and sports cars began to pull out of the street. The once-quiet street was quiet once more, instead of crowded with A-, B-, and C-rank hunters.

“Very good! You caught some very fat, fat fish,” Mrs. Wang said, pleased. “Here’s the tips.” She handed me a fat wad of cash. “Go fishing sometime, Eunmi. You’d be very successful, hmm.”

“We’re rich,” Glacius cackled happily.