Dark Predator

Huh? What's going on? Jin-soo and Shin Sua had been living well enough — sleeping in the tent, eating the food they'd packed — and a week had slipped by that way. The undead had stopped multiplying. His gaze went to the Demilich. Only a short while ago it had been blazing with rage, dark mana pouring off it in thick streams; now it sat as still as a battery that had given up its last charge.

Don't tell me. He watched it with uneasy eyes, but the Demilich only stood there, motionless as a stone statue. He stepped in close. Not a speck of dark mana remained on it, and the eye sockets that had streamed blood-red light were utterly empty.

Is it... dead? Every undead monster had vanished, and still the Demilich gave no reaction. Maybe it's restoring its dark mana? Hopeful, he waited for those hollow sockets to blaze crimson again.

They never did. With a dry rustle the Demilich betrayed him, collapsing where it stood and crumbling into a handful of dust.

How empty. He'd been sure he could keep the undead refilling for a month at least, two or three if luck held. And it hadn't lasted a week? Pathetic.

He had firmly believed it would show more staying power than the Black Mana Orb of the Undead Hidden Dungeon. A Demilich was supposed to be a higher order of undead, wasn't it? That faith was betrayed. It hadn't even outlasted the orb.

He could roughly guess why. Probably because it mass-summoned mid- and high-tier undead. The Black Mana Orb had produced greater numbers, but in quality the Demilich's side had been overwhelmingly superior. What Jin-soo needed, though, was quantity, not quality. Blessing growth depended on how many monsters of the same species you killed.

And it didn't even grant an Impossible Feat. He'd received a first achievement, true enough. Next to an Impossible Feat, it fell badly short. A shame, but it can't be helped. The thing was already gone. What was he supposed to do about a result that had already come in?

A whisper of dark air, and the Demilich was reborn as an Army Summon. Good. He'd already turned the undead Bone Dragon into an Army Summon, so he'd expected the Demilich to succeed as well. There had been no guarantee — but it went through without a hitch.

The loot's generous, too. Two necromancer skill books. Dullahan and Death Wizard were added to his summon list in that instant. I'll test them on the next floor. His existing forces were already so solid that two new summon types weren't likely to raise his power by much. Still, better to have them than not.

When the ninety-nine seconds elapsed, a wash of brilliant light carried Jin-soo and Shin Sua to Floor 101.

"Let's move."

"A time attack, huh. Got it."

Jin-soo immediately mobilized the summons and started the hunt. They'd rested thoroughly on the Floor 100 clear, so no further break was needed.

"Leo. Kkami."

"Nyaaaaang!"

"Kkaak! Kkaak!"

At his call, Leo burst out with a vigorous roar and dragged the monsters in, while Kkami took to the sky in search of the boss. Clear every floor through Floor 150 in twenty-two hours, twenty-two minutes, and twenty-two seconds. Only then would the blessings grow even a little faster.

"Grrrrrng!"

"Kyaaaang!"

The monsters converged in a rumbling mass. The Bone Dragon unleashed its breath, and the other summons hurled themselves into the pack. Jin-soo called the Demilich. Two of them took shape — one with a body white as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠snow, the other black as obsidian.

Let's see ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what you can do. At his command, the pair summoned undead in their own image, one host snow-white and the other pitch-black. Downgraded. Between them, the undead they called didn't even number two hundred. At least they're bringing mid-tier undead. That's something — but the ratio's miserable.

About eighty percent were low-grade, and only about twenty percent mid-tier. Their combat power was also markedly weaker than the specimens he'd faced on Floor 100. Well. Even this much earns their keep. And unlike the original, the two Demiliches used magical attack skills as well. Flames roared up; explosions tore through the ranks.

They're dying faster than they're gathering. Only natural. Jin-soo already carried specs that vastly outstripped Floor 101. Still, I should test the skills I just got. He learned the Dullahan Summon and Death Wizard Summon skill books and used them at once.

That's all? A single Dullahan and a single Death Wizard. I'll set them both to level 822. He applied Level Lock to both skills, and the count of each rose to eighty-two. Now they're worth using. He threw them into the fight.

"Krooooh!"

Dullahans in full plate charged the monsters, swords in their right hands and helmeted heads clutched in their left, and cut them down like straw.

"Uwooooh!"

The Death Wizards linked their mana and cast a massive area-of-effect flame spell. Fire roared, and the blast swept the field. Dullahans and Death Wizards mowed the monsters down with tremendous force — but the face of the man watching them was not particularly bright.

Yeah. You really can't beat raw levels. They were showing solid combat power, but they weren't a serious addition to his forces. Dullahans and Death Wizards were mid-tier undead, yet they lost so badly on level that they were far weaker than the Skeleton Knights. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠They didn't take his stats or blessings the way Shadow Summons did, and they didn't take their materials the way Dragon Tooth Soldiers did. Nor did they grow any stronger just because the skill level rose, the way Army Summons did. They possessed exactly the combat power of a level 822 Dullahan and a level 822 Death Wizard, nothing more.

Right now they're stronger than the undead the Demiliches summoned. Give it time, though, and the undead called by the Demilich Army Summon would probably surpass them. A shame. Any other player would have been grateful for even this much. Jin-soo wasn't satisfied in the least. Well. Better than nothing. Summon numbers raised hunting speed. Their combat power lagged behind the rest, but they were perfectly fine for automated hunting.

Jin-soo and Shin Sua turned the summons loose and climbed the Tower at speed. The schedule wasn't as tight as before.

"Not a forced march. This is so much better," Shin Sua said, all smiles.

From Floor 50 to Floor 100 she had been so worn down that the dark circles had sunk nearly to her jaw. Not now. One full rotation of buffs, and the summons hunted on their own. The stone golem's role had shrunk sharply, but that caused no trouble for her experience. A healer's class didn't level by killing monsters directly in the first place; simply supporting the fighters was enough to receive a share. Diligently buffing the summons was all it took for Shin Sua to gain experience.

Of course, set beside Jin-soo the gap was huge. He was the one who had summoned them, and he was running summon-exclusive buffs on top of that, so his share of the experience was bound to be overwhelming. Shin Sua had no complaints. Many a little makes a mickle — even with a small contribution, the sheer number of monsters the summons killed poured experience in at a mad rate.

"It's comfortable for me, too."

Once there was room to breathe, Jin-soo felt just as much at ease.

"But the way this is going, we're basically wiping out every monster on a floor before we climb, aren't we?"

"Pretty much."

They'd scattered the summons to hunt, and on top of that he was holding to twenty-two hours, twenty-two minutes, and twenty-two seconds, so the floors he advanced through were on the verge of being stripped of monsters entirely.

"Good thing we haven't run into other players," Shin Sua said with a laugh, and Jin-soo felt a small pang of guilt.

It's not that we haven't run into them. Through Kkami's scouting he had confirmed they were there. The players had simply taken one look at the Bone Dragon bombing the ground from the sky, the Shadow Summons slaughtering monsters at a terrifying pace, and the advance of more than four hundred Dragon Tooth Soldiers, undead summons, and Army Summons — and fled in terror. He'd ordered the summons not to attack players, so none of them had been harmed. Still, if sweeping the monsters away counted as harm, then it was harm.

Well, the numbers recover on their own, given time. The same went for each floor's boss. The one drawback was that the boss — the clear condition — respawned immediately, while ordinary monsters took at least several days. That's the players' choice. Anyone pressed for time had a golden chance to walk bloodlessly straight to the boss. Anyone who wanted to raise their level through hunting and climb step by step only had to wait a few days.

If anything, player survival rates ought to jump because of me. Ten days wasn't all that generous. One of the biggest reasons so many died on each floor of the Tower was failing to reach the boss within that limit, and thanks to Jin-soo sweeping the monsters away, that problem had been neatly solved. The one thing even he couldn't help was the nerves of the players scared witless by the sight of the summons — Bone Dragon included — massacring monsters without discrimination.

Floor 130 now? A shame. Blessing growth that had crawled like a grub had at least risen to a turtle's pace from Floor 120 through Floor 129. That, too, was over. Slow growth is a pity, but if we keep on like this we'll reach Floor 150 in no time. The only floor that needed his attention was Floor 149.

A survival mission. Last a week, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and you cleared it. That's where I grow the blessings properly. The site where you had to hold out for seven days was a snowfield. The brutal cold and the snow that never stopped falling were threats to survival in themselves. Ice Orcs and Ice Trolls were the main force.

Their ambushes, bursting out of the snow, had been extremely troublesome. The Ice Orcs attacked without pause, as if determined to allow no rest, and the Ice Trolls struck in the middle of a meal or in your sleep. Every single day had been hell. Before the regression, I was too busy hiding, forever searching for the safest place I could find. The grind had been so harsh that a day felt like a week.

It's different now. The Floor 149 survival mission could be cleared at the leisurely pace of winter camping. The more Ice Orcs and Ice Trolls came at him, the better. But clearing the mission wasn't what mattered to Jin-soo.

I have to get it this time, too. The Dark Predator class book — one of the treasures that, before his regression, had let him reach second place among the Tower's highest-ranked players. I found it by chance, while I was looking for somewhere safe. Unique grade: a class book for a job that existed only once in the entire Tower, and a job packed with outrageously broken skills.

The problem is its compatibility with the blessings. In the worst case, Dark Predator's greatest advantage might turn out to be completely useless. Nothing to do but hope that doesn't happen. First priority was getting the class book in hand. Not that I could use it right away, even if I obtained it.

Jin-soo could hold two holy-type classes and two dark-type classes. Sovereign Necromancer already occupied one holy slot, and Dominator Necromancer one dark slot. The remaining slot of each had to be kept empty as synthesis material for a new class's skills, so he couldn't recklessly use the Dark Predator class book. Worst case, I might have to give up adding another synthesis skill — or choose between Dominator Necromancer and Dark Predator...

For some reason, he had a feeling the blessings might offer him a way through.