The Hidden Boss of Ebes Mountain
Ebes Mountain's high plateau.
This spot, once a famous tourist viewpoint bustling with crowds, now held only three grim-faced men.
The entire mountain had turned into a dungeon, after all. It was only natural.
"That makes thirty."
Kwachik!
Gale, the scarred man, pierced a giant slug's core with his sword.
"Heh heh, I wonder how many that other party caught?"
Gale tossed out the opener, and the quick-witted porter jumped right in.
"Maybe ten at best?"
"Nah, even with a student in tow, one of them's 3rd rank. That's too lowball."
Gale held up his index and middle fingers.
"I'll be generous and say twelve."
The porter and Gale burst out laughing. That's when a despairing mutter came from the side.
"......Fucking hell."
Gale and the porter whipped their heads around.
The voice belonged to a man with unusually thick eyebrows.
"First words I've heard from you all day... What's with the sudden cursing, Brigo?"
Gale trailed off.
It was the terror in Brigo's eyes. He was staring past Gale and muttering.
"Broom of Extermination... Is this how you handle things...?"
"Huh?"
Both the porter and Gale turned puzzled eyes backward. Only then did they understand Brigo's reaction.
"Kki-yook?"
A ferocious bird glared at Brigo with sharp eyes while tearing into a giant slug with its yellow beak. A monstrous bird with thick, developed legs instead of atrophied wings. It was clearly something called [something] they hadn't been warned about before the hunt.
"Fuck."
"Holy fucking shit."
The porter's dying gasp.
Gale sighed inwardly.
'Well, slugs the size of people... A bird that eats those would have to be that big.'
The monstrous bird threw its head back and roared.
"Kki-yo-yok!"
The beast towered larger than two grown men stacked vertically.
"Hey, porter! Why the hell's there a boss here?"
Gale backpedaled as he shouted. He'd never heard anything about a boss on Ebes Mountain in the briefing.
"I didn't get any report either... Ack?!"
The porter clutched his chest in pain and looked down. Somehow, the monstrous bird Haperus had closed in, piercing the porter's upper body with its yellow beak.
Eujik, eujik.
"Kki-yo-yo-yok!"
The blood-smeared beast bellowed.
Originally a ruler of mountain ranges in another dimension, Haperus was no enemy for a 3rd-rank Saber.
"No wonder luck felt good today..."
The porter muttered, staring at his gaping chest wound.
"Damn it! We're all gonna die!"
Gale cried out in despair.
He knew full well that even turning tail now wouldn't save them from Haperus. In this dire moment, Brigo just kept mumbling.
"Catch this guy and the dungeon clears instantly... The guild didn't know about the boss? Something's off..."
"Hey, man, we're about to die here! Who gives a shit about that? Pull out your Magic Tool already!"
Gale yelled desperately, sword at the ready. Only then did Brigo nod and activate his Stigma.
"Fine. Might as well go down swinging."
An unnatural surge of mana.
By the time Zien's party sensed something wrong and rushed over, the situation had deteriorated badly. The senior porter was dead, and Brigo lay collapsed, missing an arm.
"Hah... why'd you come here?"
Gale, covered in blood, said to Zien.
"What the... Urp."
Marceline dry-heaved at the vibrating stench of blood.
"Just more bird food now... Marceline, get the student out of here quick."
As he spoke, Gale wrapped mana around himself. He glanced briefly at Zien.
"Hey! Watch close, kid. The academy's the best. Out here, it's a dog's life..."
"Kki-yok!"
Haperus assumed position, beak forward, growling.
Ragged Gale gritted his teeth.
'One shot, maybe two at best... Shit, bad day.'
As Gale braced for the end, Zien stepped forward.
"Senior."
"Leave the rest to this junior."
Worrying about others even now. Gale's personality was rough, but as a Saber, he'd shown true class.
Bam!
Haperus kicked off the ground. An earth-shaking charge from its massive frame.
Zien activated his Stigma to counter.
Sensory Amplification
His senses sharpened, thoughts accelerating. Time itself seemed to slow.
Zien hadn't gotten faster; it was just his perception of time. But the effect was dramatic.
Kwak!
Zien's Black Fang struck Haperus's beak dead-on. The off-balance beast toppled.
Kuwoong!
Dust billowed from its massive body.
Zien turned to Marceline, who had finished retching.
"Senior, you ready?"
"...Ready? You mean ready to die?"
Even in this mess, Marceline kept her humor. Zien chuckled.
"Obviously, ready to kill."
The monster manifested on Ebes Mountain.
Haperus, the unnamed monstrous bird ruler from some unknown mountain range in Zone 4.
"A 3rd-rank and two students against a 4th-rank boss. This ain't a movie..."
As Marceline said, Haperus—classified 4th-rank difficulty—was beyond what a 3rd-rank Saber and students could handle.
'If they were ordinary students.'
Luckily, Zien was anything but ordinary.
"Yeah. Let's shoot a movie."
Zien wrapped mana around Black Fang.
Haperus, poised to strike, let out an odd noise.
"Gu-reuk, gu-reuk."
Its body rippled. Seeing its torso swell unnaturally, Zien shouted.
"Dodge!"
The moment the words left his mouth.
"Groo-wek!"
Haperus spewed digestive fluid at Marceline.
The beasts in Haperus's home mountains were all above 2nd rank. Its acids could melt those predators— a weapon in themselves.
"Ah!"
Marceline twisted away. A tree behind her hit the fluid and melted into brown sludge. If she'd taken a direct hit...
'Just bones left...'
A chill ran down Marceline's spine.
"Senior, got any diet plans?"
"Nope!"
"Then aim for the neck on the next breath."
Haperus pecked at Zien with its beak. Wherever the yellow blade touched, earth and rock cratered equally.
"Kki-yook!"
Student in uniform against a body of weapons. From afar, Gale saw Zien's sword as a mere toy against the giant bird.
"That kid..."
Zien dodged every attack by a hair's breadth, as if reading them all.
"Keu-yok!"
He steadily piled damage on Haperus. Yet even that wasn't enough to fell it.
They needed a decisive blow.
Zien's expression soured.
'This makes two.'
He glanced at his Stigma.
The first was in a virtual gate—no issue. But now it was real.
A clear reality. He had to account for the handicap.
'Moon Sword.'
A Zone 3 skill that slashed foes using mana, stamina, and even vital energy as fuel.
Of course he feared it. No one would want to repeat their past life's end in this second chance.
"Gu-reuk, gu-reuk."
Haperus's torso rippled again.
The tell before spewing acid.
"Please take care of me."
Zien charged Haperus instead. At that range, even he couldn't dodge the fluid. But he wasn't alone.
"Don't worry!"
Marceline activated her cherished Magic Tool. As promised, her spear pierced Haperus's throat.
"Geu-yook!"
Acid refluxed back, Haperus writhing in agony. Finally, an opening from the 4th-rank boss.
"Die already!"
Zien's Stigma glowed as he invoked the skill.
Moon Sword
Though night was far off, moonlight gleamed on Zien's Black Fang. The subtle glow harmonized beautifully with the black blade.
'Damn.'
The one flaw: it wasn't mana coating the sword, but Zien's own vital energy.
Chwaaak!
Haperus's steel-like body was cleaved. The once-mighty beast, now bisected, lost all menace.
Susuk.
Haperus's corpse scattered like dust.
Not just Haperus. The gate penalty over Ebes Mountain lifted.
No more otherworldly monsters would appear here. Low-level ones like the giant slugs vanished too.
"We... we did it! No, we pulled it off!"
Zien eyed where Haperus's body had been. Sure enough, two artifacts remained.
'Artifacts from a dungeon.'
A rare case where gate clear rewards dropped in a manifested dungeon—something even his past life rarely saw.
By rule, the guild owning the dungeon should claim them, but not in this situation.
'Broom of Extermination...'
Zien had already pieced together why the boss was hidden. His past life had seen similar cases; predicting it wasn't hard.
'Debts must be paid.'
Broom of Extermination.
The top floor of their massive building.
Bluma's taste for high views had made this her office. An entire vast floor for one office—luxurious.
"Isn't it wild? Reporters have noses like bloodhounds. They sniff everything out."
Bluma pocketed her phone.
"Hotshot rookie's giving a no-name third-rate guild master a private audience. What's up?"
Bluma.
Guild master of Broom of Extermination, always top-tier in monster cleanup.
A 6th-rank Saber who'd hit overall ranking 17. Her words carried her own brand of sarcasm.
"We're sorry about Ebes Mountain. On behalf of the guild, I apologize."
"You should be. Losing a prime dungeon like that."
Bluma's eyebrow twitched at Zien's words—but only for a split second. She reverted to her earlier amiable tone.
"Dungeon clears are what cleaners aim for. ...But sorry? Why?"
Bluma's eyes narrowed. Her words chilled the air like frost.
'Intimidating a student. Dirty trick.'
Zien felt the mana rising around Bluma. She'd been subtly leaking it since earlier.
In a sealed space like this, high mana density crushed ordinary people breathless.
But Zien wouldn't back down.
"You're not behind it, right?"
Defying the pressure, Zien pulled something from his pocket and set it on the table.
Thud.
Bluma glared at Zien instead of the item.
"Why bring this?"
Her question, asked despite knowing, hardened Zien's gaze.
"You know exactly what it is. Can't separate it from this incident."
Tension crackled.
The invisible clash between Bluma and Zien hung taut in the air.