The Slaughterer's Seal

The Emperor Guild's conference room.

Hunternet had gone mad. Guilds were frantically throwing up recruitment posts, one after another.

"...Shouldn't we post one too?"

"Post it where? Don't tell me you mean Hunternet."

"Oh, come on. We still have our pride. Wanting JUNE is one thing, but have you forgotten? We're Emperor. Emperor."

And yet that pride was still alive. Just because everyone else was posting didn't mean they should stoop to it. It would be undignified.

"It's still too early."

Guild Master Park Minsik of Emperor felt the same.

"If JUNE is even considering joining a guild, the answer's already decided, isn't it?"

Emperor was the overwhelming number-one guild in South Korea, and the home of Baek Kangwoo, the current rank one.

"He won't need to look anywhere else. He'll be thinking of Emperor and Emperor alone. So we wait."

"Oh, of course. The guild master is absolutely right!"

"True enough. What would he find anywhere else? Nothing. Not besides us."

The others agreed. If he was coming, he would come here. That was what all of them believed.

And then, right at that moment—

"...!"

"...!"

A Floor 3 clear message had flashed up out of nowhere.

"H-hold on. 1,320?"

"...Over a thousand?"

"..."

"..."

Park Minsik couldn't get another word out. He only blinked, staring at the record.

Is that... is a number like that even possible? He even cut three whole minutes off his Floor 2 time?

Words failed him. No—did this even make sense? Goosebumps prickled over his entire body. What in the world had he just seen?

But it wasn't over.

"...!"

"...!!"

It had climbed again. All the way to two thousand.

"G-good God."

"H-he took out two thousand people..."

"What's the maximum headcount on Floor 1 right now?"

"T-two thousand!"

"Which means he eliminated every hunter in that phase..."

"Th-that's impossible..."

"Hah."

No one could find the words. Clearing 1,320 had already been staggering, and on top of that he had pushed the count to two thousand.

"Ah!"

In that instant Minsik snapped back to himself. This was no time to freeze.

"P-post it, now! Hunternet! Spread it across the blogs too! Twitter! A-and our guild homepage! Ah—! Call the networks! Blast ads saying we're looking for JUNE! Right this second!!"

Minsik's dignity hit the floor.

The place I came back to from the Tower was a small room. I'd gotten up a little early that morning, gone up, and come home.

"...That message just now was you, wasn't it?"

I stepped in to find my wife waiting in a chair, still in her pajamas.

"Yeah. After Floor 2 ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I made something called a mana potion. The skill I use is insanely strong, but it burns a ton of mana. One cast used to empty me completely, so I refilled with the potion, cast it again, and came back."

I rattled on without meaning to. Honestly, how incredible was this? I wanted to tell someone.

But who was I going to tell? Try announcing I'm JUNE! in the current climate, and there was no telling what would happen.

My wife was all right, though. We were family, riding the same boat.

"...I still can't wrap my head around any of it. You suddenly becoming an Awakened was strange enough, but an Awakened the news won't shut up about?"

Well, I felt the same. To think I'd turn into this overnight.

"But you. You haven't told anyone around you, have you?"

"Of course not. It's not something I can bring up at the company."

"Let's keep this between us. You remember my old friend Seryeong? Her husband awakened as a hunter too, and once people found out, things got really hard for them."

"Why? What happened?"

"What do you think? 'You're a hunter now, you'll make a fortune—lend me money.' Every time something came up, 'Send that hunter husband of yours.' 'How stingy, you won't even do this much for us?' All of that. Ugh."

My wife shook her head, thoroughly sick of it.

"Anyway, I don't think anything good comes from people knowing. Even at your company, you said plenty of hunters got attacked once their identities came out."

"I wasn't planning to tell anyone but you anyway."

"Mm-hm. Let's do that. I think that's best. Breakfast is ready, so eat."

"Y-yeah, go ahead and start. I've got something quick to take care of, then I'll be right out."

Creeeak.

My wife left. Which meant—

First, check the materials I picked up.

This time the haul was enormous. I'd killed two thousand people, and this had been Floor 3.

Floor 1 was full of people who, like me, had only just awakened, so empty bags were common. Here, it was different.

Packed absolutely full.

I checked the materials. Most of them numbered around four thousand. An absurd stockpile.

But what's this?

Among them, a material marked Special Reward stood out. I'd never seen anything like it, not even while working at the company. What was it?

"Whoa."

What was this? It raised my stats according to my kill count? One percent for every hundred kills?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

My heart was pounding. The dopamine, day after day, was no joke.

"Hoo."

All right, calm down. I still had things to do. I opened the crafting bench at once.

I can raise ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the crafting bench's level.

With materials stacked through Floor 3, a level-up was available.

I skimmed the lists. The basic item list had grown, of course, and a hidden crafting list had appeared as well.

Hidden, huh...

I knew exactly what that meant. Every floor had a hidden monster.

They weren't called hidden for nothing. Each had spawn conditions, and every one was different. Naturally, almost none of those conditions had ever been revealed.

And even if you found one, it wasn't something you handled alone.

Meeting the conditions was a problem in itself. Taking one of them down took dozens of people. They were practically raid-class monsters, which made for a pretty entertaining sight.

They were feral things desperate to kill one another, but they knew they couldn't handle it alone, so more often than not they banded together.

Romantic, if you could call it romance. From what I'd heard, that was how it used to be.

Anyway. So what could I make? I looked over the hidden item list.

The material names alone were vicious. One look and you knew they were nothing ordinary. So what about the performance?

Whoa. This was built entirely for a mage—a fire mage, at that.

Fire Rain would count as fire-type, wouldn't it?

Of course I needed it too. After looking at ordinary items, something like this made my mouth water.

The problem was how rarely anyone even laid eyes on a hidden monster...

There were a few more items besides that one. The Jungle King's Dagger, which ignited on its own against an enemy it had cut, and several kinds of armor as well.

Hidden monsters.

Ah, I wanted to hunt them so badly. Even for me, it'd be tough, wouldn't it?

After a rough once-over I stepped out of the room, only to find they still hadn't eaten. They were waiting. ...I'd told them to start without me.

"I told you to eat first."

"It's bad for the kids. They should wait until Dad gets here."

"Yeah! If Dad's not here, we have to wait!"

"Dad comes first! First!"

Ha. Well then.

"Let's eat."

I hadn't expected the kids to wait too. I dropped into my seat in a hurry, and partway through the meal—

Ah. I never checked the achievement reward!

I'd have to hold off on morning climbs from now on. Trying to squeeze the Tower in before work left my head spinning. ...Or maybe wrapping things up at the company would be better.

Hunternet was in an uproar again today, and a troll had shown up.

Naturally, people ignored him. Trolls like that had always been around. But.

The troll's tip sounded plausible. In truth, the method was already spreading quietly behind the scenes.

China. Shanghai.

Heavenly Dragon Gate, ranked fifth in China.

"It isn't as if there's no method. Floors 1 through 3 are forest by nature, so we were helpless, but from Floor 4 on we can avoid the rain of fire well enough."

"That's right. There's no need to panic. The area of effect is fairly wide, but if it doesn't hit you, that's the end of it."

"And it isn't only us. Other guilds seem to be putting countermeasures together along the same lines."

Several ways of dodging the rain came up. Floor 4's backdrop was a ruined downtown. Abandoned buildings or otherwise, there were plenty of places to take cover.

"What's more, we're spreading the word. Korea, of course. The United States, Japan, Europe, and the rest. We're posting it over and over on every Hunternet, so they'll all figure out how to dodge on their own."

They were working the comments as well. This sort of thing was their specialty. Now, whoever it was, they would dodge.

"Good. Then that fellow JUNE's growth will slow."

"Yes. It should. If he's still below Floor 5, he almost certainly has only one skill. However strong it may be, once it's sealed off he'll have no further way to grow."

They had a single objective: stop JUNE's growth. How dare he, a hunter from some minor nation...

"Very well. Proceed as we are. To suffer this humiliation from a mere Korean hunter... At any rate. How is the Floor 5 hidden monster matter coming along?"

"Ah, yes. We're currently at about eighty percent."

"Fortunate that we happened upon the spawn conditions. When the time comes we'll need to commit a large force to Floor 5, so gather plenty of guild members capable of climbing that far."

"Yes, understood!"

Between countermeasures for JUNE and preparations for the hidden monster, Heavenly Dragon Gate—set on writing its name into history—was in full motion.

The parking lot, on my way out to work. Before getting into the car, I checked the reward.

"Whoa."

The Slaughterer's Seal had already been the reward for two thousand kills. And now the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠achievement reward itself had been upgraded?

A total wipe really does pay off.

Well. It wasn't as if that was easy. Still, what was going to come out? I used it at once.

Options appeared. But this...

This would turn Fire Rain into a completely different skill, wouldn't it?

It wasn't simply a matter of widening the range and cutting the mana cost.

It was on the level of transforming Fire Rain entirely.