The Dungeon Ranks Keep Climbing
“It's an A-Rank boss!?”
“How did this come out of a D-Rank!?”
“Stay calm and prepare! Watch out for the petrification—that's the real danger!”
Lee Min-hyuk roared out the warnings like a man who'd been through this before. In the same instant, the support hunters cast mental reinforcement skills over the A-Rank fighters.
“This should do it…!”
Lee Min-hyuk readjusted his grip on the greatsword and charged straight at the Medusa.
“Haaap!”
KWAANG!
The Medusa's blade and Min-hyuk's greatsword crossed, and the exchange began in earnest.
CLANG– CLACK-CLACK-CLACK– BOOM– SCREECH!
The ring of steel against steel echoed across the sand.
“Fire Rain (B)!”
Song Joo-min, the A-Rank mage, backed Min-hyuk up with his own magic.
FWOOSH-FWOOSH-BOOM!
A rain of searing flame melted away the Medusa's heads.
“Nice!”
SHUNK–!
Two of the Medusa's necks came off under Min-hyuk's greatsword.
KIEEEEEEEEK!!!!
The Medusa shrieked, writhing in agony.
“A-are they going to be okay, hyung!?”
The members of Team C were all safe—Poppy and Choco were holding back the Medusa's roar with their mana. Inside the mana barrier, Kang Gi-tae clenched his fist, but he couldn't quite bring himself to step forward.
“…Probably.”
Kim Jin-woo wasn't a combat-type either, so all he could do was hold position in the rear. For now, all anyone could do was marvel at the defensive power of Poppy and Choco, and pin their hopes on Min-hyuk, Song Joo-min, and the support crew.
BZZZZT–
“Petrification attack! Everyone close your eyes!”
Every hunter shut their eyes.
Everyone except Ji-hoon.
He opened his and stared the Medusa dead in the face.
The petrification magic glanced lightly off Poppy and Choco's barrier and dissipated into nothing.
Min-hyuk and Song Joo-min, eyes squeezed shut, relied on instinct alone to put distance between themselves and the monster.
“Whew… whew…”
Min-hyuk caught his breath for a moment, then exchanged a signal with Song Joo-min.
“HRAAAP!”
Min-hyuk swung his greatsword and flung a huge mound of sand up toward the Medusa.
Into the swirling cloud of dust that bloomed in the air—
“Burn it ALL down!”
Song Joo-min's A-Rank skill, Fire Wall (A), erupted in a blaze.
Through the fire, the silhouette of the Medusa thrashing in agony was visible.
“NOW!”
SHUNK– WHOOSH–
KWAANG!
Kieee…
KUUUNG!
The Medusa—easily three times the size of a grown man—collapsed, every last one of its heads severed. A roar of celebration erupted from the hunters.
“Hahahaha! That was nothing!”
“Don't worry, everyone! We've got this!”
The heroes of the hour, Lee Min-hyuk and Song Joo-min, raised their weapons triumphantly and soaked in their victory.
Meanwhile, Baek Kang-hyun soared low over the sands, searching for the missing hunters.
FWIP-FWIP-THWIP–
“Hm?”
A powerful mana signature flared into existence, then vanished. Judging by the raw energy, it was A-Rank—or at least upper B.
Kang-hyun's gaze swept slowly across the surroundings. Something was off. The Medusa was definitely down. The mana reaction had cut out, too.
And yet.
…Something feels strange.
The tips of his fingers tingled faintly. This wasn't the settled calm of a finished battle. If anything, it felt like something was still building, still pouring in.
That was the moment.
KRRRK–
A crack split open to his left.
GRRAAAGH!
“Orc warriors?”
A horde of B-Rank monsters, orc warriors, came boiling out of the fissure.
“Out of my way!”
SHWAAAK–!
Kang-hyun swept the orc warriors aside with a single Piercing Heavenly Sword arc, then blasted another rift open with his blade.
FWIP-FWIP-THWIP–
A mutated gate…!
Please, let me not be too late!
SHUNK– SHWAAK–!
Carving through wave after wave of incoming monsters, Kang-hyun tightened his grip on his sword aura as his earpiece crackled to life.
—What on earth is happening with the gate!?
It was Jin Seo-yoon's voice.
“The monster regeneration speed is abnormal. We just cleared an A-Rank, and now another B-Rank wave is coming through.”
—What!? Is that even possible…?
“I'm watching it with my own eyes and I still don't believe it.”
Kang-hyun drew up his cyan-white mana, poured it into his blade, and—
“Piercing Heavenly Sword, First Blade.”
A single strike, dead center on the fissure.
FLASH–
KWAAAAH!
The entire rift was blasted apart. Only then did the monster regeneration finally stop.
“Guild Master Yoon Do-ha. Anything confirmed on your end?”
—Can't say much for certain, but one thing's clear. Mana is converging on a single point.
“Converging…?”
Yoon Do-ha muttered in an unmistakably excited voice.
—That one point… that's where the hunters must be. Ahh, ahh, Branch Director, please give me this chance—hunters overcoming this crisis, a chance to study their mana in full flow!
“…I'm going in after them. Guild Master Jin Seo-yoon?”
—Support requests are all sent out. I'm coming in too.
BZZZZT—
At that moment, a tremor rolled through the space somewhere dead ahead.
“Again!?”
Cutting a path through the oncoming monster wave, Kang-hyun's eyes and mana both locked onto the hunters' trail.
Watching Lee Min-hyuk and Song Joo-min from a distance, Ji-hoon had to admit he was impressed.
Strong. They hadn't earned those A-Ranks for nothing.
“H-here, drink this!”
Kim Ji-eun handed over a bottle of gathered spirit water. Min-hyuk gulped it down in one go.
“Ooh, that's good stuff! Tastes like it's got a mana recovery effect?”
“Thank you. We burned through a lot of mana back there.”
“Yes, yes! It's spirit water! Drink more, there's plenty!”
“Thanks, missy. Alright then—time to collect the corpses!”
Just as Min-hyuk stood there triumphantly, greatsword planted in the sand—
“It's… not over yet….”
Kim Jin-woo's trembling voice cut through the celebration.
“Hunter Kim Jin-woo! What did you say?”
“Min-hyuk-ssi, there's… there's MORE coming!”
The mana was churning again. Same pattern as before. But what came out this time was no Medusa.
“Orc knights…?”
“Now we're down to B-Rank monsters!?”
“Everyone, battle stations! Hey, snap out of it!”
“W-wait, hold on, I'm still recovering from that Medusa roar….”
And so Lee Min-hyuk and Song Joo-min had to move again. So did the rest of Team C. Poppy and Choco, meanwhile, lightly dispatched the charging orc knights while calmly observing the battlefield.
[Hyung, something's wrong here.]
“I know. You feel it too, right?”
[That's not quite it… doesn't this gate feel different from the ones we've been through before?]
It wasn't simply a matter of how the mana was moving. Monsters of wildly different varieties kept pouring out. This place was practically several gates mashed together into one space. If an A-Rank Medusa had appeared, something even stronger could follow.
“Any smell of the Hell Farm kids on any of them?”
[None, Hyung.]
[Nothing at all! Nobody knows the Hell Farm family better than me!]
Before long, the orc knights were finished off too.
“Hah… hah… Another one, Hunter Kim Jin-woo? Is there another!?”
“…Here it comes again!”
Yet another wave, one after another.
“Goddammit…!”
Medusas again.
“That regeneration rate is anything but normal!”
“Holy hell, re-form the line, NOW!”
“Brace for the roar!”
While the hunters threw themselves at the freshly spawned Medusas, Ji-hoon stared wide-eyed at the situation unfolding before him.
This is wrong.
Wrong to this degree?
This wasn't some simulation space cooked up by the Management Bureau. This was a real gate, one actually administered by the Awakening Management Bureau. A gate that had been rated D-Rank.
[Warning: Dungeon rating is being recalibrated from D-Rank to C-Rank.]
[Warning: Dungeon rating is being recalibrated from C-Rank to A-Rank.]
[Warning: Dungeon rating is being recalibrated from A-Rank to B-Rank.]
[Warning: Dungeon rating is being recalibrated from B-Rank to A-Rank.]
Not only was the dungeon's rating recalibrating over and over to match each wave of monsters—
“HAAAP!!”
KAANG–!
“Ngh…!”
Min-hyuk's attacks, which had landed cleanly just minutes ago, no longer worked on the newly spawned Medusa.
“The monsters are getting stronger with every respawn…?”
Ji-hoon took hold of one of Poppy's feathers and plucked it off at the tip.
“Golden Milestone (S).”
A heat haze shimmered into being.
This was the same skill that hadn't reacted at all when they first entered the gate. And now—
“…Goddammit.”
The haze was rising directly above the respawned monsters' heads.
“Ghh… grrgh!”
CLANG-CLANG, KAANG, KAKANG!
CLANG-CLANG-BOOM!
CRUNCH!
Then, with a shriek of snapping steel, Lee Min-hyuk's greatsword split clean in two and slammed into the ground. The Medusa smacked its lips and swung its blade down at him.
“N-no….”
“Choco, throw!”
[Mmph!]
In an instant, Choco swelled to full size, plucked an iron quill from his own spike-fur, and hurled it with all his might.
SHWIIING!
THWIP
KABOOM!
The Medusa's body was skewered clean through by the iron spike, and it died right where it stood.
“Hah… hah….”
“Are you alright, Min-hyuk-ssi?”
“K-Kim Jin-woo… I-I'm alive.”
“Don't relax yet. More could come.”
Kim Jin-woo ran his Mana Scanning again and again—and sure enough, more monsters were regenerating inside it. Thankfully, no A-Ranks this time, so even a weaponless Min-hyuk was enough to clean them up.
“Ji-hoon-ssi, we've got wounded over here too!”
And so Ji-hoon tended to the injured alongside Kim Ji-eun, one eye glowing with the Golden Milestone still active.
Something's wrong.
The heat haze rose… but it vanished whenever a monster was killed. Only it didn't just vanish.
When a monster with the haze rising above it died—
“Why is it floating up into the sky?”
“I'm sorry, what did you just say…?”
WHOOSH!
At that moment, Song Joo-min slew the B-Rank boss monster, the Orc Shaman. And the haze that had been rising above the shaman's head—
SWISH–
—scattered skyward like grains of dust.
“…Ji-eun-ssi, hold on a second.”
“Yes? Ji-hoon-ssi, where are you going!? Wait!”
Ji-hoon broke into a sprint, chasing the direction the haze had drifted. When he reached its end, he thrust his right hand into the air.
“HEY! You! RIGHT THEREEEEE!!!!”
The spike bracelet on his right wrist—Choco's quill—began to resonate.
“You felt it too, didn't you?”
[Felt it! Felt it for sure!]
Ji-hoon's eyes changed, burning with conviction.
“Ji-hoon, little bro! Where are you going!?”
“Please hold the monster wave here!”
“You—!”
“I…!”
Deploy Poppy or Choco here, in the middle of all these hunters?
No. Who knew what kind of chaos that would set off?
But just standing here yelling his lungs out wouldn't accomplish anything either….
KWAANG–
FWOOM-FWOOM– WHOOSH, FLASH!
SCHWING, CLANG!
The sounds of the hunters' desperate battle rang out around him. He couldn't send a boss monster—couldn't send Poppy and Choco—out here without justification.
He needed a pretext. A pretext… a pretext…!
“HUNTER LEE JI-HOON!!!!”
“THERE'S my pretext!!!!”
“We have a serious problem— huh?”
The instant Ji-hoon laid eyes on Baek Kang-hyun, who had come streaking in like lightning, he grabbed the man by his shirt and shoved him straight toward Poppy.
“Uh? Wha—whawhawha—”
“POPPY!!!!”
[YES, HYUNG!!!!]
FLASH–
KRRRUMBLE!
Poppy spread his massive wings wide and swelled to the size of a house.
KROOOOOOOOAAAAAR!!!
With Poppy's roar, pure, radiant mana scattered from the griffin's outstretched wings. If shooting stars were made of mana, surely they would shimmer this beautifully as they fell—or so the sight made one imagine. His form was beautiful enough to trick the eye entirely.
“Let's go up!”
FWOOSH–
KWAAAAAHNG!
A single beat of the Griffin King's wings sent a tremendous gust of wind pressure slamming down into the ground. Lower-rank hunters were blown clean off their feet, and even the A-Ranks could barely withstand the crushing pressure.
“Wh-what is that…!?”
Every eye turned skyward and went wide.
Golden mana was gathering, and a fissure had opened. The mana inside that rift fused with the golden light—and from where the griffin and Baek Kang-hyun hung in the air, a pure white radiance burst forth.
At the same moment—
KUGUGUNG–
Lightning flashed briefly across the sky, and then—
SHHK, SHIIIK–
Covered in white scales. A reptile so immense it could coil its own tail into its mouth and carry it there.
KIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!
The white serpent, having swallowed every last wisp of the heat haze.
Jormungandr.
“Jor…mun…gandr…?”
In that instant, someone dropped their weapon. Someone else couldn't even breathe. Instinct itself was screaming a warning:
That thing—
is not something you fight.
And yet that very creature had just been labeled—
“…A sub-boss, you say?”
That was the moment.
Jormungandr's tail
came crashing down.