Penetration

The city district of Floor 4. Stone buildings of two and three stories lined the streets—some with their roofs torn open, some reduced to nothing but walls. Plenty of them, of course, still stood intact.

Come to think of it, my mana's gone up quite a bit, hasn't it?

The swollen pool was obvious the moment I looked. It had climbed well past where it used to sit. Has to be the Slaughterer's Seal.

Anyway. Might as well try the skill.

The Spear of Penetration. First thing was to see what it could actually do.

A low roar gathered overhead, and the sky bled slowly red. Out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of that red fell a different rain.

KRA-KOOM! KRA-KOOM! FWOOOSH—! It smashed. It burned. It pierced.

…Hard to call that anything but a spectacle.

A sight I barely had words for. From where I was standing, anyway.

I killed them anyway, buildings or not. The count still came in a little short of last time. Before, I'd cleared twelve hundred.

The buildings, probably. And how wide this place is.

Floor 4 was bigger, and four thousand people had entered it. The ground to cover was broad, the headcount was high, and unlike the forest there were buildings everywhere. Even so, this much was… fine.

Glug. Glug.

I drank the potion and walked on, out of the city streets and toward the central plaza. Maze-like alleys showed themselves here and there between the blocks. I didn't spare them a glance.

Right. They said stealth-types spawn in there.

Change the terrain, and the monsters change with it. One of them was the stealth-type that haunted the alleys. A spell would kill one in a single cast, sure. The trouble was never knowing where the thing would come from. No sense asking for trouble.

Is that a gargoyle?

I was crossing the central plaza—a dried-up fountain, a wide stretch of open ground. A broken statue stood there. A gargoyle's corpse.

Looked like the magic I'd cast had reached this far. A few of the corpses gave off the glow that meant they could be looted.

I looted what I could and swept a look around the square. Somewhere in the middle of it, my mana filled back to the top.

So that's the cathedral.

One building caught my eye—the cathedral district of Floor 4. Three stories above ground, an ossuary below, and nothing but undead-types inside. The place was fairly famous. Every monster that appeared was an elite, the drops ran to a high grade, and people came in numbers because of it.

"We have to move. If a crowd piles in, this turns into a headache!"

"I think JUNE came here too. This is bad!"

"Hiding in the building won't work! We finish this and get out, no matter what!"

Proof enough—far off, I could see a group. By the look of them, hunters out of Europe. They poured into the cathedral in a rush.

Hm. Should I put a shot into that?

Mana was full again. No reason not to use it. I flicked a finger toward the cathedral.

A rumble rolled over the roof. KRRRUMBLE. Storm clouds massed above the cathedral, and out of them came the pour—SHAAAAA, SHAAAAAAA—shards of stone raining from the sky.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The burning shards hammered the cathedral. KRA-KOOOOOOM! Struck without a pause, the building couldn't hold, and down it came in a crash. …So I brought the building down too.

Hunternet. The usual comment shill was on the clock again today.

And the little comment op landed. A troll at first; a hidden master now. Not one comment cursing him. Nothing in there but praise.

That was when it happened. An odd comment went up. A comment saying JUNE was slaughtering.

Public opinion flipped. They'd thought hiding in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a building would be enough.

The reviews went up too. Not only across the world—they came out of the Heavenly Dragon Gate as well.

"What did you say? Something fell from the sky?"

"…Pointed stones the likes of which I have never seen in my life poured down like rain. So great was their force that they pierced the buildings as they fell, and we were struck down with no way to answer."

"Hah."

What was that even supposed to mean? Why were stones falling out of the sky?

"Not a rain of fire—stones? And they pierced clean through the buildings?"

And how, exactly, was anyone supposed to dodge that?

A neighborhood general hospital. Sejin was working the front desk, and before she knew it her shift was drawing to a close.

Good, not many patients. If I leave right when I clock out, I can pick up Ayun and Doyun straight away.

Sejin got off at four. After work, the only thing waiting was collecting the children. She just wanted four o'clock to hurry up and come.

And right then—

…Oh. My god.

She had heard he was only just about to enter Floor 4. They said the scale changed completely from the fourth floor up. …He swept that place too?

"Oh my, did you see the message?"

"Wow. Who on earth is this JUNE?"

"Right? Honestly, who would've thought someone like that would come out of our country?"

The coworkers beside her were murmuring.

"Sejin, did you see it too?"

"Hm? Oh—yes. It's really incredible. Haha…"

"Seriously. Turn on the TV these days and it's nothing but that person, I'm telling you. Look! He's on right now!"

Sejin's eyes went to the television in the lobby.

A public-service ad from the Emperor Guild. The concept was genuinely outrageous—because it was an ad to recruit JUNE.

…My god. The Emperor Guild is out here trying to sweet-talk my husband with a commercial.

"Isn't it incredible that the Emperor Guild made a public-service ad just to recruit him? And it's a recruitment ad for JUNE alone!"

"I know, right? Everyone says your life takes off if you get into that guild. Even the member on the lowest salary makes a hundred million won a year. A hundred million!"

"Makes you blurt out 'a hundred million' whether you mean to or not, I swear. You think someone like that lives alone? Or does he have a family? If he does… how happy must that family be."

The staff envied JUNE. Watching them, she felt a smile rise on its own.

"I'll head out first!"

"Aigoo, it's already four. Go on, clock out. You worked hard today."

"Thank you for all your work, Sejin."

Four o'clock had arrived before she knew it. Sejin left at once.

"But did something good happen to Sejin?"

"She's getting off work. I smile like that when I clock out too."

"Ah. Right, true…"

The smile at the corner of Sejin's mouth would not fade.

The second attack brought the cathedral down. A mana potion bought a third on top of it, and because of that the clear took a fair while. The potion alone had eaten a good twenty minutes.

And with that, the kill count updated anew. Four thousand, for the first time.

Ability-exclusive? What's going to come out of this?

I checked it at once.