Shadow Summons
The arm Kim Ji-seon had locked around her spear began to shake.
Picking off newbies was something she had always done. There had been failures, of course, but only when she failed to drag them into the party. Once someone was accepted as a member, success was guaranteed. Those with a bit of skill were used as meat shields and killed afterward. Those without were cleaned up on the spot.
Items, skill books, and points harvested from newbies had let Kim Ji-seon's party live in comfort. She herself—ruling an all-male party through the mental-type skill Charm—was this party's queen. Not once had she so much as imagined a moment like this.
Their opponent was nothing more than a single newbie who had only just climbed to Floor 50. They, by contrast, were veterans who had survived four full years on Floor 50 alone, skilled enough that advancing to Floor 51 at any time would have surprised no one. Having preyed on newbies all the while, Kim Ji-seon's party also had far more experience in fights against other players than most. Neither she nor her people could have imagined being cut down so miserably by one newbie fresh onto the floor.
"M-monster..."
He was a monster, plain and simple. His Agility was so high his movements barely registered to the eye, and his Strength was just as monstrous—enough that a single casual slash had split Kang Woo-sung, the party's tank and the member with the highest Durability, clean in two along with the shield in his hands. The way a suit of armor and a sword had appeared on him in an instant made it certain he possessed an Inventory skill as well.
"Ugh..."
Terror took Kim Ji-seon before she knew it. She backed away, spun, and ran at full speed—an action born of nothing but the will to live.
The lodging. I have to reach the lodging.
If she fled into the safe zone there, even that monster would be unable to touch her.
"Grraaah!"
Orcs spotted her and closed in.
"Out of the way!"
She had no attention to spare for mere orcs. Her spear swept them aside in a rough, heavy blow, and she sprinted with everything she had toward the city.
Why did we come out this far?
They had chosen a remote stretch to stay out of other parties' sight, and because of that the city was far too distant.
"Gruk!"
The pack on her heels swelled fast. If they caught her, she wouldn't die to the monster newbie—she would die to the orcs.
Then a group of players hunting orcs came into view.
Cha Hee-soo?
It was Cha Hee-soo's party, the one on bad terms with her.
I'll dump them on her.
Kim Ji-seon ran straight for them.
"What is that?"
"Are you insane? Why are you coming this way?!"
The orc pack she was dragging had already swollen past fifty. For Cha Hee-soo's party of only seven, it was a number they could never handle.
"Kruk!"
Some of the orcs trailing Kim Ji-seon peeled off, aggroed onto Cha Hee-soo's party. Already tangled with about ten orcs, it was the worst situation imaginable.
"Kim Ji-seon! Have you lost your mind? What are you doing?!"
Cha Hee-soo's shout meant nothing to her. She had to save herself first, didn't she? And this was the party that had been picking fights with her all along. If they all died here, so much the better.
"Hey! You—stop right there!"
Cha Hee-soo bellowed. Kim Ji-seon didn't answer.
Stupid bitch. Yelling like that would only pull more orc aggro. Good.
Thanks to Cha Hee-soo's party, the pack on her heels had thinned noticeably.
I can make it to the village.
The instant she thought it, a strange sound cut the air, and her body pitched violently forward.
Her upper half tumbled across the dirt. Horrific pain crashed over her in the same breath.
"Aaaagh!"
Face-down on the ground, Kim Ji-seon screamed. The reason was simple. Both of the legs that had been pumping so hard were already severed from her torso.
"Gruk!"
"Kuruk!"
The orcs that had chased her, thoroughly enraged, swung as one. Blades and clubs rained in from every side.
"Aagh! Ghk—kuh!"
Her vision flooded red. Through that red she saw the monster newbie in his metal armor.
He swung his sword lightly. A silver flash, and a thin red line was drawn across the orcs and across Kim Ji-seon alike. Blood fountained, and bodies—orcs and woman both—split in two.
I dragged people who had nothing to do with this into it.
Jin-soo frowned. The one mercy was that no one was dead, or even badly hurt, yet. Steel hissed and bit as he swept the orc pack away in an instant, a sword in each hand.
"W-we're alive."
"Thank you. Thank you."
The members of Cha Hee-soo's party, who had been surrounded and marked for death, bowed and thanked him again and again.
Who is he?
Cha Hee-soo didn't realize the one who had saved them was the newbie who had warned her earlier. The metal armor he wore was a single sealed suit that covered him perfectly from head to toe.
Wait. That sword?
As she studied him, her eyes caught the blade in his hand.
That's the sword the newbie who joined that bitch's party was carrying. Did this man kill him and take it? No. The voice is the same.
An unbelievable conclusion took shape.
Don't tell me she was running alone from that orc pack because the newbie turned the tables on her.
She couldn't believe it. Kim Ji-seon's party was a veteran group that had settled on Floor 50 long before her own. That party, taken down by a single person—a newbie who had only just reached the floor? But she had just watched him sweep away the very orcs that had driven them to the brink. She had no choice but to believe it.
"Some of you are hurt."
Jin-soo used the skill bound to his Ring of Recovery and treated the wounded.
"Whoa!"
Cha Hee-soo's party gaped at the appearance of a healing skill. They still had no healer, and a healing-class change tome or item was something they desperately needed—but the price was so high they hadn't even dared to consider it.
"Thank you. Truly."
Cha Hee-soo bowed her head.
"Not at all. If anything, I'm sorry for dragging you into a mess that wasn't yours."
With that, Jin-soo picked up the skill book that had dropped from Kim Ji-seon's corpse.
Level 1
Skill Book
As expected. A mental-type Charm skill. Just as he'd thought. The original level must have been fairly high. High enough to have reached even him. Mental Charm skills come with quite a few drawbacks. She seemed to have worked around them well enough in her own way. Might as well check the information.
Jin-soo opened the Charm skill book's details.
"Ugh!"
A cry tore out of him the moment he read them.
It's an active skill, but it's mixed with the properties of a passive. And only on men.
Mental Charm skills generally worked more strongly on the opposite sex than on the same sex. This one, though, had its target gender locked entirely to men.
So that's why the whole party was male.
The bad blood between Cha Hee-soo and Kim Ji-seon had likely come from the same place: the skill simply didn't work on a woman.
In exchange, the power itself is stronger than an ordinary Charm.
It was a case where fixing the target's gender as a penalty had been used to raise the skill's potency. On top of that, despite being active, it carried an option that auto-activated around the clock at low power, like a passive.
I am never learning this.
A skill for seducing men... The mere thought was revolting.
Jin-soo stored the Charm skill book in his inventory along with the items Kim Ji-seon had been carrying.
Still, she piled up a lot of points.
He had only taken down a single party, and nearly seven million points had come in. Set against the average holdings of Floor 50 players, it was an overwhelmingly high figure.
Since I'm out here anyway, I might as well clear that place.
His destination set, Jin-soo left—abandoning Cha Hee-soo and her party where they stood, still waiting quietly in the hope of getting a word with him.
Steel bit, and orcs screamed. Jin-soo cut across the forest, slaughtering pack after pack.
Floor 50.
Of all the lower floors, this was where he had spent the longest time. Many of those memories had faded over the years, but they came back at once.
The title Orc Slayer has been granted.
The title Orc Slayer has been extinguished.
Titles bloomed and died, over and over.
His level climbed and dropped, again and again.
Here.
In the midst of it, he reached his destination.
Still here. Just as I thought.
Before his regression, it had taken Jin-soo more than a year to reach Floor 50. The hidden dungeon had been here even then, so of course it remained now, when he had arrived far faster.
Not that finding it is anything close to possible.
He stood at the very edge of Floor 50. Before the regression he had nearly died to monsters and only reached this place by chance, barely alive.
This time is a little different. He hadn't stumbled here after nearly dying. He had arrived by slaughtering the monsters on the way. Shall I go in, then.
Alone, Jin-soo stepped into the hidden dungeon he had once entered with his party before the regression.
The reward is different.
Jin-soo's eyes gleamed as he read the messages.
Before the regression, when he and his party had entered the Shadow Dungeon, the rewards had numbered six: unique skill books to summon a Shadow Knight, a Shadow Warrior, a Shadow Assassin, a Shadow Archer, a Shadow Mage, and a Shadow Healer.
A unique skill book for Shadow Summon. Does that mean I can summon all six?
What they had gained in the Shadow Dungeon had given his old party real wings. Skills that summoned a different kind of summon for each of them—in practice, one party fighting with the strength of two.
That would be huge. Things aren't the same as before the regression.
What Jin-soo had been allotted as his share back then was the unique skill book for summoning a Shadow Mage. A shadow mage able to cover the weaknesses of a warrior-type like him had been a considerable help.
Well. Later on, it wasn't much use.
For one thing, a unique-grade skill existed as only a single copy, and perhaps because of that peculiarity its level barely rose at all. That much, effort could have overcome. The truly decisive problem was the nature of the Shadow Summon skill itself.
I should have picked warrior or assassin. Knight or archer, at the very least.
Like Inventory, Shadow Summon was a shared skill that both the holy and dark affinities could learn. But it was not called Shadow Summon for nothing.
When I first learned the skill, I didn't know a shadow summon was affected by the summoner's stats.
A shadow cannot exist alone. Something has to cast it before a shadow appears, and depending on what casts it, the shadow grows larger and darker, or smaller and fainter. Shadow summons were the same.
Who the summoner is changes the shadow summon's specs.
That was the foundation of a shadow summon—something no amount of skill levels could overcome. A shadow mage carrying the stats of a warrior-type like Jin-soo could not grow stronger no matter how badly it wanted to.
It was a choice meant to cover the party's weakness, and it turned out to be the worst move possible.
But that was already in the past.
The me of now is not the me from before the regression.
He had entered the Shadow Dungeon alone, not with a party. The reward was one, not six. And his stats were nothing like they had been.
Right now, every one of my stats is 922.
Stats that could draw out peak performance no matter which shadow he summoned—knight, warrior, assassin, archer, mage, or healer.
Let's clear this quickly.
Jin-soo fixed his gaze straight ahead. Shadow stirred, and six enemies took shape: a Shadow Knight, a Shadow Warrior, a Shadow Assassin, a Shadow Archer, a Shadow Mage, and a Shadow Healer.
This will be over fast.
He thought clearing the Shadow Dungeon would be easy. Before the regression it had been a place they barely survived, and only after tremendous hardship.
I'm not who I was then.
Stats, skills, class, items—all of it was on another level from that time. Jin-soo summoned armor from his inventory, equipped it, and launched himself forward with everything he had. His first target was the Shadow Healer. The Blood-Sucking Sword came around in a cut—and a Shadow Knight that had closed in at tremendous speed caught it on a great shield.
In that same instant the Shadow Warrior swung a greatsword two meters long. A dagger and an arrow came with it, the Shadow Assassin and the Shadow Archer striking from his blind spot at once. He stopped the greatsword on the Blood-Sucking Sword, knocked the dagger aside with a shining longsword, and turned the arrow off the flank of his armor.
Then the Shadow Mage's attack magic arrived. A spell of flame detonated, and Jin-soo's body was shoved straight back.
What?
Bewilderment washed over his face. Before the regression, the shadow summons had not moved this fast or this precisely, and neither their physical blows nor their skills had hit this hard.
Their defense and durability are on a completely different level from the last time I came here.
The Shadow Knight held the front. The Shadow Warrior and the Shadow Assassin supported him, while the Shadow Archer and the Shadow Mage poured out harassing attacks without pause.
Why are they this strong? This isn't Floor 50.
Combat power on another plane from the shadow summons he had faced before the regression.
Don't tell me...
One hypothesis rose in his mind. A shadow summon's combat power was decided by its summoner's specs. If that same law applied even to the clearing of the Shadow Dungeon itself—
Then their strength changes according to the challenger's specs.
That would explain it. Why these shadow summons possessed combat power so far beyond the pathetic level he remembered.
I'm screwed.
The ease that had been overflowing Jin-soo's face twisted into something wretched.