9

A SMOOTH START

For two straight hours, Jinwoo killed low-rank demons every chance he got. He checked the soul counter.

He’d completed 3 percent of the quest. If he was able to keep hunting at this speed, he calculated that he could level up in the next two hours. His current level was 61. To go from level 60 to level 61, it had taken him nine different C-rank dungeons and two whole days. But here he could level up in four hours?

That’s insane.

There was a smile on his face. When was the last time he’d enjoyed hunting this much?

Was that the last time?

He recalled his time at Hapjeong Station when he’d kept going back and forth between the first and second basement floors until his level wouldn’t increase any further.

Kree!

Whenever Jinwoo’s dagger flashed, without fail, at least one demon fell.

Kreeee!

Kik!

Ki-kik! Kree!

Sometimes, several fell. Once again, he defeated twenty low-rank demons in a blink of an eye.

This is awesome.

His experience points and the number of souls went up as the number of demons around him went down. Plus, there were item drops, too. Jinwoo grinned as he collected them.

Horns drop almost every time.

The demon’s horns. He could make 20,000 gold just by selling them in the shop.

The shop paid 15,000 each for the Cerberus fangs last time…… Monsters in the Demon’s Castle are quite generous, aren’t they?

Miscellaneous items were no longer junk to Jinwoo, because he’d discovered how useful the shop could be to him. Gold could become a tremendous boon later.

There’s really nothing to throw away.

Jinwoo searched the dead demons’ bodies for drops to either sell to the shop or store in his inventory. As he did…

What do we have here?

He found an item he’d never seen before. Something was protruding from the abdomen of a demon.

It was a rolled-up scroll.

Entry permit?

When Jinwoo opened the document, he took in diagrams and writings he couldn’t decipher or read. Ultimately, the only helpful information came from the item description.

An item that lets me go from the first floor to the second……

Could this be? Jinwoo looked around the area. He was inside the Demon’s Castle, but he was also inside Daesung Tower. If the castle was divided into floors like the tower, then this was the ground floor.

I didn’t think there would be different floors because this is an outdoor dungeon, but……

Could the dungeon consist of a hundred floors like Daesung Tower? He was awed by the size of this place.

……There can’t really be a hundred floors, can there?

There was only one way to find out. He had to uncover the magic circle.

There’s only one place that magic teleportation circle can be……

Jinwoo focused on the beam of light stretching toward the sky.

Over there.

He’d been heading in that direction at first but had gotten sidetracked by the temptation of hunting low-rank demons.

I guess I should head over there now.

He thought it was time to go. Besides, it looked like he had killed all the low-rank demons in the area anyway. That brought a smile to his face.

Summon.

Unlike extraction, summoning the shadow soldiers didn’t require a particular phrase. He just had to will them to come out.

Hwoom.

The enormous shadow beast that had been extracted from the ice bear leader’s shadow materialized before Jinwoo.

Grrrrrrr.

The big black bear stood on his hind legs. He was as huge as a house, but responding to Jinwoo, he was no different from a well-trained puppy.

“Down, boy.”

Grr.

The magic beast soldier went back on all fours, and Jinwoo mounted him.

“Hya!” As soon as he rapped the bear’s side, the beast started running at top speed toward the beam of light.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

Because of his speed, the shadow beast covered a lot of ground quickly.

Even when obstacles got in his way…

Kreeee!

Kik-kik!

Graaaawr!

He cleared them with one quick swipe of his massive paw.

Whoa.

Jinwoo was proud of his soldier.

I thought I’d ride him for fun, but this is pretty awesome.

Foreseeing that he’d be doing this quite a lot, he decided to give his new ride a name.

“From now on, your name is Tank.”

“Graaaaawr!”

The shadow beast, Tank, raised his head and roared. Did that mean he liked the name or not? Jinwoo wasn’t sure what the roar was supposed to convey, since the bear’s voice was always that loud.

They soon approached the beam of light. Tank began to slow down and eventually stopped right in front of their destination.

“Good job.” Jinwoo dismounted, petted him affectionately, and returned the bear to his shadow.

He turned forward.

He heard the familiar ping!

The magic circle was engraved on the ground, and the light emanating from it reached to the sky.

He stepped inside the circle.

……

Nothing happened. A little confused, Jinwoo walked a little farther and stood in the middle of the circle.

“How many floors are there?”

There was no answer.

Do I have to find out for myself?

Jinwoo considered this for a moment. Should he finish leveling up before going, since he was close to meeting the requirement, or should he proceed and level up as he went?

Monsters don’t respawn here like in other instance dungeons, so staying on one floor is limiting.

Besides, there were demons with more than one soul on the higher floors. Jinwoo concluded it would be better both for his experience and for completing the quest to head up as soon as possible.

All right.

Up it was.

Jinwoo spoke aloud. “Second floor.”

At the prompt, Jinwoo took the scroll out of his inventory, and it immediately dissolved into light.

Vwoooom…

An intense illumination emanated from the magic teleportation circle. Jinwoo realized something in that moment.

Oh… So this is…

It was simply an elevator. Right when Jinwoo came to that realization, he was teleported to the second floor in a brilliant flash of light.

Second floor, third floor, fourth floor… All the way to the twenty-seventh. That was what Jinwoo managed to accomplish in two days. He had told Jinah that he was going on a weeklong trip.

I have five days left.

Considering that the speed at which Jinwoo was clearing the floors was increasing, he thought it might not even take five days to reach the top.

He took a quick look at his surroundings. The landscape was desolate.

I can’t even tell which city this is supposed to be.

Each floor was modeled after a different city. However, as the floors got higher, the locales looked more and more devastated. By the twenty-seventh floor, Jinwoo couldn’t figure out where he was supposed to be. Was this what cities would look like after being carpet-bombed?

Jinwoo shook his head to get rid of the thought.

I’m wasting time.

He checked his wristwatch, which told him it was eleven PM. There was no day or night here, so he was relying on his watch to tell him. If it was eleven o’clock, then it was time to sleep so he could recharge for tomorrow’s battles.

But first…

Should I check where I’m at?

Jinwoo examined his progress.

Twenty-one hundred souls…

About a thousand demons a day. That was a lot of demons to catch in two days. Ten thousand was still a long ways away, but he had high hopes for the demons with multiple souls on the higher floors.

I need to push toward those higher floors.

Next, he checked his level.

“Wha…?”

Jinwoo couldn’t believe his eyes.

His level had risen to level 67 in a heartbeat. Low-rank demons netted him only a hundred experience points, but thanks to mid-rank demons that netted him three hundred points, he was leveling up quickly.

It’s making good progress.

Plenty of monsters, a high yield of experience points, and the right level of difficulty made the Demon’s Castle the best place to level up.

And his level wasn’t the only thing going up. Jinwoo’s proficiency with his different skills was increasing as well.

Even now, Knight Killer floated in midair over his palm. Ruler’s Hand, the power to physically move an object without touching it. Even when resting, Jinwoo took the time to practice his skills.

Since Ruler’s Hand doesn’t require mana anyway…

Practicing involved maintaining concentration, which was a little tiring, but it was a small price to pay to improve his proficiency. And he was rewarded for his efforts.

Nice!

Jinwoo leaned against a wall with a smile across his face. It put him at ease whenever he got a little stronger.

His eyes slowly closed.

Oh, Jinho should’ve gotten his guild master’s license by now.

Jinwoo wondered how he was doing. Perhaps because it had been quite some time since he’d worked alone, he suddenly thought of Jinho trailing after him. The elder son was a successful businessman, and the younger son held a guild master’s license but was still in college. That was going to be a minefield.

You can do it, Jinho.

He drifted off to sleep as he cheered Jinho on in his heart.

Jinho entered the fancy traditional Korean restaurant with a determined look on his face. He’d picked the place himself, based on his father’s tastes.

“Is Chairman Yoo here yet?”

“Yes, he’s already arrived.”

Jinho took a labored breath.

“This way, please.”

The server led him to a private room where his father, Myunghan, was seated.

Creeeeak.

Jinho’s anxiety shot up a few notches as the server pulled back the sliding door and Jinho saw his father’s face. He felt vulnerable for a moment, but Jinho strengthened his resolve and took a seat across from his father.

“What’s this about? This is the first time you’ve asked to meet me like this.”

“Father, please take a look at this before I explain.”

“This is……?”

“It’s my guild master’s license and a record of the raids I’ve gone on.”

“A guild master’s……license? You?” Myunghan’s surprise was evident, so Jinho nodded with a smile.

“Yes, Father.”

Myunghan took a look at the documents. He saw something interesting that put a gleam in his eye.

“……”

But his silence was causing Jinho’s heart to race and making it hard to breathe.

“So.” Myunghan pushed the documents aside before he continued. “Are you saying you want to be in charge of the Yoojin Guild?”

“That’s right, Father.”

“Hmm……” In that moment, Myunghan appeared torn.

I can’t believe he’s actually debating between my brother and me.

Jinho was thrilled. This was already a win for him. In the past, he would’ve been satisfied to have gotten this far, but he had no intention of backing down today.

“As you already know, it’s too risky to hand over that kind of power to someone outside the family, and—”

“Enough.” Myunghan raised his hand.

Jinho stopped talking immediately. His father’s “enough” was an absolute order that no one in the family could defy.

“There is someone I want to introduce you to.”

“Pardon?” Jinho was puzzled.

He’d been the one who’d organized this meeting, but his father had brought someone along? Who could it be?

As Jinho’s curiosity rose, the door on the other side of the room slid open.

“H-hello……” A man around his late twenties or early thirties awkwardly greeted Jinho.

Who was this? Try as he might, Jinho didn’t recognize the man.

Myunghan gestured for the fellow to sit beside him. “This is……Hunter Myunghwan Ko.”

Myunghwan Ko?

Jinho cocked his head. He’d never heard that name before.

His father nodded as if he was already aware of this.

“He’s from the White Tiger Guild, one of the survivors of the recent red gate incident.”

Jinho didn’t know how to react.

……“Red gate”?

Why was his father talking about that? It was a huge scandal, so Jinho had heard the story but couldn’t figure out the connection between that and this meeting.

Besides, the man is……

A survivor. What was someone the media had been dying to interview doing here? Jinho could hardly contain his curiosity.

Myunghan observed Jinho before saying anything. “I guess you don’t know.”

“Pardon?”

Myunghan ignored his confused son for a moment and turned to the nervous-looking Myunghwan.

“Hunter Ko.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Please tell my son about who was also there that day other than the White Tiger Guild trainees.”

“Understood.”

Myunghwan’s attention turned to Jinho. Jinho unintentionally made eye contact with him, and the hunter could almost see a question mark floating over Jinho’s head.

Myunghwan said, “A young female hunter who looked like a high school student…”

A young female hunter?

Jinho couldn’t have imagined whose name would come out of Myunghwan’s mouth next.

“……and Jinwoo Sung.”

Thump.

Jinho thought he could hear the sound of his heart sinking.

B-b-boss was in the red gate?

How had that happened? His scrambled brain got even more befuddled. Then he recalled something.

Wait, now that I think about it……

Jinwoo had spoken to Songyi like they were close even though he’d never acknowledged her presence before then.

“And the name of the young female hunter?”

“It’s Songyi Han.”

No way. Jinho’s jaw dropped. He now understood the secret to their relationship.

Does that mean……?

This “helper” the media kept speculating about was…

Myunghwan quickly confirmed what Jinho was thinking. “Songyi and us White Tiger members got out of the red gate alive because of Jinwoo Sung.”

Ha…ha-ha……

What had the boss been doing there? Jinho was half-surprised and half-delighted.

For a moment, he forgot his father was there and asked, “What happened inside the red gate?”

Myunghwan turned to Jinho’s father for permission, and the chairman nodded his approval.

Myunghwan had been dying to tell the story and continued excitedly. “So what happened was……”

Jinho paid close attention.

“In the beginning, we were confused why two E-rank hunters were going to observe our training……”

Myunghwan told the story like a child bragging about a present he’d just received. Eventually…

“An A-rank hunter?!”

Myunghwan wasn’t the only one excited now. “Exactly! He opened his hand just like this, and smack! Chul went down in a flash.”

“Whoa……”

Hearing about Jinwoo’s exploits had Jinho’s heart racing.

That’s just like the boss.

Taking down high-rank magic beasts with his bare hands was nothing for him, but Jinho didn’t know he could one-hit KO an A-rank hunter. He felt touched and proud that he was partners with such an incredible person.

Myunghwan continued his story. “When the ice elves appeared, we thought we were goners for sure, but……”

Maybe it was because they were so focused on Myunghwan, but time flew by in the blink of an eye. It was a long story, but Myunghwan was nearing its conclusion.

He got a bit loud and overzealous in the end. “It was unbelievable! Jinwoo is the savior of everyone who was there!”

Jinho was nodding in agreement without even realizing it. He related to how Myunghwan felt. He’d been saved by Jinwoo, too.

“The guild forbade us from telling anyone about Jinwoo. I already had a problem with the guild’s decision, but then Chairman Yoo contacted me, so—”

At that moment, the chairman politely cut in. “Hunter Myunghwan Ko.”

“Sir?”

“I think that’s enough.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I got carried away.” Myunghwan bowed his head in embarrassment.

The chairman turned to his son again. “So an unexpected name came up while I was gathering information about Hunter Jinwoo Sung.”

He held up his index finger, then pointed to Jinho’s name in one of the documents. It was the document of the raids Jinho had handed him earlier. He moved his finger smoothly across the document and stopped at “Jinwoo Sung.”

Strike squad leader Jinho Yoo. Strike squad member Jinwoo Sung. Jinho couldn’t deny the evidence.

I’m busted……

His father had found out that Jinwoo had helped him get his guild master’s license.

Jinho tensed.

“Hunter Jinwoo Sung was a big help in getting your guild master’s license. Do you admit that?”

“……I do.”

“Do you have anything else to add?”

“……”

Jinho thought it was curtains for him. Since the chairman had discovered that Jinwoo had intervened in the process of obtaining Jinho’s guild master’s license, his father would question Jinho’s ability to take charge of the Yoojin Guild.

……

His father gave him the look. Jinho felt his hands shake as they always had in the past because of that look.

Yet……

He couldn’t give up just like that. For the first time in his life, he stood up to his father. He lowered his head but raised his voice.

“Won’t you let me take charge of the Yoojin Guild?”

“Fine.”

“Huh?” Jinho’s head snapped up at his father’s unexpected response.

“You may have the guild.”

“What……?”

“You said it yourself. It’s too risky to hand over that kind of power to someone outside of the family. Why take that risk when I have you?”

“B-but I tried to deceive you, and……”

“So did you think I was going to punish you and then kick you out?”

Could it be? Jinho thought his father was smiling, even though his mouth was closed and his lips were straight as usual.

“Had you been careless and raided dungeons recklessly, I might’ve done that. But I don’t remember raising a fool.”

Jinho suddenly turned red.

I would’ve been punished and disowned if it wasn’t for you, boss.

No, he would’ve been killed before that happened. Jinho’s mind was finally at ease.

“But there is one condition.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Can you……bring Hunter Jinwoo Sung into the Yoojin Guild?”

Jinho’s eyes widened. “Bring the boss?”

Boss?

Myunghan’s curiosity was piqued for a fleeting moment.

“Yes, exactly.”

Jinho was at a loss.

Hnnngh……

Even little kids could’ve told him he needed to project confidence in front of his father. But the other party in question was the boss. Asking wouldn’t be an issue, but still… So Jinho told the truth.

“I don’t know.”

“Of course not. No one said meeting this condition would be easy.” The chairman drank some water and then dried his mouth with a handkerchief. “Fail, and I will turn the guild over to your brother. Still care to try?”

Jinho’s face shone with determination.

I worked hard to get this far……

If he gave up now, he wouldn’t be able to look Jinwoo in the eye.

Jinho replied with added resolve. “I’ll give it a go.”

“Good.”

With that, the deal between father and son was struck. Myunghan nodded without saying another word as Jinho got up and bowed before taking his leave. Myunghan removed the handkerchief from his mouth. It had been hard to keep a smile off his face.

That boy……

He’d actually asked to be in charge of the Yoojin Guild. He’d had an inkling of what Jinho wanted when he requested the meeting, but he hadn’t expected his son to be so plucky.

A tiger cub is still a tiger, after all.

The smile spread across his face.

Chairman Myunghan Yoo is smiling!

The stony chairman was infamous for not showing emotion, whether happy or sad.

As Myunghwan stared at the chairman in fascination, Myunghan turned to ask him:

“Do you have anything else to say, Hunter Ko?”

Startled, Myunghwan hastily shook his head. “N-no, sir.”

……Forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty. Jinwoo hit the higher floors at an incredible pace.

He expected to feel tired, but seeing his experience points and soul counter increase with each kill chased away the exhaustion.

Still less than half?

It seemed like he’d been hunting demons nonstop since he got here, but that goal of ten thousand still felt out of reach.

But his level…

He’d leveled up twice in one day. Although it wasn’t rising as quickly as it had at the start, it was still increasing faster than the rate of the soul counter. Even now, his experience points continued to rise.

Kreeee!

“Whew!” Jinwoo stretched his back and scanned the area after killing the last demon he’d come across.

Countless cadavers lay at the feet of his soldiers standing at attention.

Clap, clap.

Jinwoo applauded them gleefully. “Well done.”

The battle-weary soldiers returned to his shadow instantly. Soldiers could pick up essence stones, but Jinwoo was the only one who could gather items.

He had to answer each message from the system.

This is pretty inconvenient.

This was why he fought solo when there weren’t many demons and alongside his soldiers when a large contingent appeared. Once the fight was over, the collecting started.

Why did Jinho ask to keep doing this job? Is this fun for him?

Jinwoo chuckled as he grabbed an item from a dead monster’s body.

Another inconvenience was that it wasn’t possible to extract shadows in the Demon’s Castle. It didn’t matter whether it was a mid- or low-rank demon—the black smoke that indicated possible extraction never appeared. No matter how long he stared at the corpse…

The only message he received was that he couldn’t extract a shadow because its mana was contaminated.

Well, there’s nothing I can do.

As he searched the bodies while feeling disappointed, a message came up.

Ping!

Jinwoo beamed.

Of course!

He forgot his disappointment regarding shadow extraction as soon as he took stock of all the items.

Nothing I can use for myself.

Sell all! A large amount of gold was added to his balance after he dumped the miscellaneous items on the shop.

Whoa! Jinwoo inadvertently checked his balance and was floored. He had over 900 million in gold.

Well, I’ve killed more than four thousand demons, and each horn is two hundred thousand, so…

Because he profited from selling items each time, the gold was piling up.

Should I buy an S-rank weapon now?

He shook his head. Just because he had a lot of gold, there was no need to spend it unnecessarily.

I’m sure I’ll find a need for it someday.

Jinwoo dusted off his hands after closing the inventory. He was done clearing the area and had acquired the entry permit for the fifty-first floor some time ago, so all he had to do was get on the elevator. But……

He looked toward the beam of light. Something was standing a little ways in front of the magic circle.

It was a huge demon flanked by several high-rank demons. Jinwoo glanced up. The demon’s name was floating in black letters.

Its hefty body looked like it weighed several tens or even hundreds of tons. In its hand, the creature held a large and deadly-looking club.

But Jinwoo had a smile on his face.

So that’s the mid-boss, is it?

He only had good memories of the bosses from the instance dungeons, mainly because of the large amount of experience points and excellent item drops. Compared to magic beast bosses, which were a real challenge but yielded few rewards, monster bosses were like presents.

What kind of loot would that creature give him?

Whew.

Jinwoo took a deep breath and grinned.