Goblin Kingdom

I cleared one floor per day.

Floor 4, Floor 5, Floor 6—I blasted through them like a madman.

The Tower was notorious for its stingy experience gains. If it were a game, plenty of people claimed it would have died instantly due to its abysmal leveling speed.

And even then, the experience had to be split among party members, so it wasn’t uncommon for even A-class hunters to take over ninety days before they could safely clear the sixth floor.

I didn’t lose momentum. I charged straight into the seventh, eighth, and ninth floors as well.

The floors below the tenth were called the beginner tier or the lower floors, but that didn’t mean they were easy.

Among C-class hunters and below, some spent over a year trying to escape these lower floors. Many ordinary D-class hunters simply repeated the same grinding loop until they retired there.

After breaking through the ninth floor, today was the day I would challenge the tenth—the final floor of the lower tier and the first true boss floor.

It had been exactly ten days since I awakened and began my challenge of the Tower.

Knock knock knock.

“Director! It’s me.”

“Come in.”

At the familiar voice of his secretary following the knock, Director Lee Won-hyung gave permission. Secretary Kwon Si-young hurriedly opened the door and stepped inside.

When she paused for a moment to catch her breath, Lee Won-hyung personally fetched her a cool glass of water.

“Drink and catch your breath. Anyone watching would think you were being chased by a tiger.”

“Th-thank you. However, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make jokes like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that to other people.”

“Was it not funny?”

“I simply don’t want my superior to be looked down on by others.”

“……”

Director Lee Won-hyung gave a bitter smile and asked Kwon Si-young for her business.

“Anyway, I’m quite curious what reason would make you rush here in such a hurry.”

“Hunter Ahn Humin has challenged the tenth floor today.”

“Hunter Ahn Humin? Is that true?”

“Yes. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just received the report from the reception desk.”

It was only natural that the name Ahn Humin carried heavy weight between them.

When he first began his clears, he naturally hadn’t drawn any attention.

An E-class attempting the Tower wasn’t exactly common, so it was unusual, but everyone assumed he would either give up quickly or simply add one more corpse to the pile.

Besides, even though his porter was supposedly A-class Level 34, the party only had the two of them.

People could already picture him running back out of the Tower in a panic.

Then the next day.

The same E-class applied to clear the second floor. His only companion was, of course, a single porter.

It was only natural that the reception desk flipped upside down.

Based on a standard four-man A-class party, it usually took about a week to prepare for the second floor.

That was the minimum time needed to hunt, level up, and safely challenge it.

The reception desk didn’t explode just because an E-class was attempting the second floor in a single day.

It was because he and his porter had cleared the first floor in just one day.

The reception desk immediately reported this to their superiors, and through Kwon Si-young, the information reached Director Lee Won-hyung.

At the time, Director Lee Won-hyung’s conclusion had been simple: This is a bit unusual.

With that, interest faded and the matter seemed to quietly disappear.

That is, until the very next day, when the E-class and his porter immediately challenged the third floor.

“What? He challenged the third floor? Didn’t he just challenge the second floor yesterday?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

The shock was only beginning.

The day after that he challenged the fourth floor, and the day after that the fifth. At that point, even Director Lee Won-hyung could no longer ignore the situation.

“Alright, I can stretch it and say the porter carried him through the second floor somehow. But even for an A-class Level 34, clearing one floor per day? And the porter is the one carrying him?”

“That’s… it doesn’t appear to be the porter, Director.”

“What?”

“When the reception desk asked Porter Han Sowon, she said she had not participated in combat at all. She claimed that Hunter Ahn Humin handled every single battle alone.”

“Is… is that true?”

It was unbelievable.

If that was the case, it meant an E-class hunter was clearing one floor per day, advancing one floor every single day. Was such a thing even possible?

And wasn’t this E-class an absolute beginner who had only started his first clear a few days ago?

“That’s impossible! To do something like that, he’d need to be at least SSS-class! Wasn’t there an error in the measurement?”

“According to Han Sowon, Ahn Humin was a trainee who was measured as E-class by the White Dragon Guild and subsequently expelled. When we checked with the White Dragon Guild, her statement was confirmed to be true.”

“Of course it was. If the White Dragon Guild had known Hunter Ahn Humin was such a monster, would they have been crazy enough to let him go? They would have used every means possible to keep him.”

“What should we do?”

At Kwon Si-young’s question, Director Lee Won-hyung immediately gave an order.

“For now, conduct a thorough investigation into Hunter Ahn Humin and everyone around him. He seems to have a particularly close relationship with Hunter Han Sowon, so extract as much information from her as possible. His family relationships, preferences, purpose for challenging the Tower—don’t miss a single detail. Do it as discreetly and quickly as you can.”

“Understood, Director.”

The hunter privatization system had been introduced as a last resort to increase the declining number of hunter applicants, but it was a double-edged sword.

The number of hunters had certainly increased, but their allegiance belonged to guilds and corporations, not the Awakening Management Bureau.

As a result, the influence of the guilds grew day by day. Companies that had once obediently followed the Bureau’s control were now reaching a point where they were nearly impossible to manage.

‘If, in this situation, a major conflict over interests breaks out between the companies that own the guilds…’

The Bureau lacked the military power to mediate. It was obvious that it would cause massive chaos and damage to society.

And in such a situation, if a being comparable to—or perhaps even surpassing—SSS-class like Ahn Humin joined one of the guilds?

‘Not only would the balance between guilds collapse, but it would undoubtedly create enormous repercussions. The citizens would bear the full brunt of the damage.’

Director Lee Won-hyung vowed that no matter what, he had to prevent that from happening.

Returning to the present.

“Don’t tell me he challenged the boss floor with just Han Sowon…”

“Yes. The two of them entered together.”

“This is insane…”

Boss floors, which could only be challenged every ten floors, had an absurdly high difficulty compared to normal floors.

The regular monsters that appeared received bonus stats, making them several times stronger than those on the floor below. The number of champion monsters with powerful special abilities was also significantly higher.

Above all, as the name suggested, the boss monsters unique to boss floors possessed abilities on an entirely different level from regular monsters.

For that reason, boss floors were usually challenged by multiple parties forming a raid alliance.

For example, a four-man party that could easily clear the ninth floor would gather at least a hundred similarly skilled hunters before attempting the tenth.

Even then, many failed, requiring countless retreats and attempts before finally succeeding. That was what a boss floor was like.

Yet he had challenged it with just two people, same as always? It was a choice that was hard to consider sane.

I knew it too. I knew exactly how dangerous boss floors were.

I had been taught about it to the point of exhaustion at the training center, and even without that, the danger of boss floors was common knowledge among anyone with even basic understanding of the Tower.

Otherwise, why would most people choose to give up on boss floors and remain on the floors below?

But I had sufficient confidence, and solid grounds for it.

As expected of the Goblin Kingdom, the dense, dark forest perfect for goblins to hide in was absolutely teeming with them—so many it made one wonder if this was even allowed.

The problem was that their stealth techniques were so excellent it was nearly impossible to detect their presence until the ambush actually began.

“Stay right next to me, Sowon.”

“Even if you told me to stay away, I wouldn’t!”

The moment we left the safe zone, the goblins’ ambush began.

From atop branches thick with leaves, from within dense bushes, from beneath piles of fallen leaves—poison darts and arrows rained down like a storm as goblins poured out in droves.

“Shadow Curtain.”

The moment the skill activated, a black barrier instantly unfolded in front of me. Instead of bouncing off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the projectiles that collided with the Shadow Curtain, it absorbed them into the barrier.

My current level was 19.

I had learned various skills during this time and raised the levels of many of them, but among them, Shadow Curtain was one of my most frequently used defensive skills.

Shadow Curtain absorbed attacks that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠struck the barrier instead of deflecting them. And it wasn’t limited to long-range projectiles.

“Kiiiieek!”

The goblins who had recklessly charged in to tear through the curtain were horrified when the daggers and short swords they swung were sucked into the barrier instead of cutting it. They immediately dropped their weapons.

If they didn’t let go, they themselves would be dragged in.

It was a wise decision.

If they had stubbornly held onto their weapons until the end, they would have been sucked into the curtain along with them.

Once sucked inside, there were two possible outcomes.

Those with high health would take massive damage and be thrown back out. Those with low health would die instantly and come out as corpses.

The boss-floor goblins would probably avoid instant death, but they would still suffer enormous damage before being ejected.

It was a little disappointing that the quick-witted goblins avoided the trap of the Shadow Curtain and retreated, but it didn’t matter.

“Night Crows.”

When I cast Night Crows, five Night Crows simultaneously flapped their wings and took flight from my fingertips.

The Night Crows instantly passed through the Shadow Curtain and attacked the approaching goblins.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom…!!

The goblins who failed to dodge the Night Crows collapsed on the spot, killed instantly by the black explosions.

The reason I could cast five Night Crows at once—when I could normally only cast one—was entirely thanks to a skill trait.

Skill traits were additional options that could be chosen once a skill reached Level 10. Depending on the trait, I could customize the skill to become far more powerful according to my preferences.

My current Night Crow skill was Level 11. When I had reached Level 10 with it, I had been given three trait options.

After careful consideration, I had chosen {Murder of Crows}.

{Greater Crow}, which increased explosion range and power as levels rose, was attractive. {Carrion Crow}, which could slowly kill enemies with continuous darkness damage even if it didn’t finish them in one hit, was also tempting.

However, even without the {Greater Crow} trait, the power of Night Crow was already incredibly strong at my current level. Continuous darkness damage wasn’t something I needed right away either.

Instead, what I needed more was the {Murder of Crows} trait, which allowed me to create far more corpses with a single cast.

Just look at right now—five goblins who failed to dodge the Night Crows had all become cold corpses at once.

This was how skill traits granted enormous bonuses to skills.

However, since the five randomly offered choices out of dozens of skills only allowed me to pick one per level-up, acquiring ten traits would require an extremely low probability.

That was why possessing even one skill with a trait was an incredible feat. For a Level 19 hunter to possess not just one, but two skills with traits was simply unimaginable.

That’s right.

“Minion of the Underworld. Summon.”

My trait-possessing skills weren’t limited to just one.

Expelled from the guild without knowing he was EX-class.