Confrontation in the White Void
I looked around.
A completely white space stretched out in every direction.
I pulled up the list of clear rewards I had set aside earlier.
[Selection Rewards]
1. Necromancer Unique Skill Shadow (A) Enhancement
2. Total Mana increased by 100
3. Acquire Necromancer Unique Skill Grasp of the Death Flame (A)
[Additional Rewards]
1. 5 A-class Magic Stones
2. Seraph’s Cloak
3. Essence of Undead
The selection rewards were a new type I hadn’t seen before.
Skill enhancement.
To see exactly how it worked, I tapped the highlighted Shadow entry.
The description now had an extra line.
— You can summon and unsummon corpses or spirits regardless of location.
It looked like the enhancement removed the delay that occurred when storing things in the shadow.
Judging by the wording, it probably meant I could summon spirits even from outside the Tower.
If that was true, my combat strength outside the Tower would skyrocket.
What really caught my interest, though, was the brand-new unique skill listed below.
Just the name screamed that it was a proper offensive ability for a necromancer.
With equal parts anticipation and nerves, I checked the skill details.
Grasp of the Death Flame (A)
— Summons a hand of flame made from pure mana.
Contrary to my expectations, that was the entire description—just one line.
Was this the Tower’s way of telling me to figure it out through trial and error?
Anyway, I stored the additional rewards—the Seraph’s Cloak and the potion-like Essence of Undead—inside my spatial pouch, along with the five radiant A-class magic stones.
After some internal debate over the selection rewards, I finally made my choice.
I pressed down firmly.
Unique Skill Shadow (A) has been enhanced.
Shadow (A+)
— You can store corpses or spirits revived through necromancy.
— Corpses or spirits stored in the shadow slowly recover any damaged flesh.
— You can summon and unsummon corpses or spirits regardless of location.
The reason I chose to strengthen Shadow was simple.
The inherent delay of the skill.
Right now, Shadow worked by extending a shadow from beneath my feet to swallow or release the undead.
Whether summoning or unsummoning, it consumed a physical amount of time while the shadow stretched out.
That brief window was the most fatal gap in my defense, a glaring weakness.
There was a high chance that tiny delay would become a decisive stumbling block someday.
Besides, I already had more than enough offensive options.
The three Civilization Destroyers I’d claimed on the third floor.
The Black Saintess and the Cleaner.
And the Arcane Revolver on top of that.
Picking some mysterious attack skill whose effects I couldn’t even guess at felt too risky.
After choosing my reward, I decided to test the upgraded skill by summoning the Black Saintess.
She appeared instantly at the exact spot I wanted, without the shadow even needing to extend.
‘Looks like I can freely summon within a fifty-meter radius…’
Just from using it once, I instinctively understood the new range.
“Yohan.”
The Black Saintess, now standing right in front of me, called my name.
Startled by the sudden change in how she addressed me, I stopped thinking and met her gaze.
“Please stop interfering with my past self any further.”
Nothing will change anyway.
Her quiet, continued words reached me.
I hesitated for a moment, then let out a small snort.
“And if I don’t want to?”
“…You’ll only end up disappointed in me.”
“Are you scared of that? That I might get disappointed in you?”
“Yes. I am afraid.”
Her body trembled slightly. Eyes filled with fear. Fists clenched tight.
“So I’m begging you.”
Her honest, straightforward answer left me at a loss. I swallowed hard.
Then, just like before, I held my hand out to her.
“I promise.”
“I will never be disappointed in you.”
“No matter what terrible things the Saintess might have done in the past.”
“Well, you don’t exactly look like the kind of person who would.”
“And if it turns out you really did something that bad, I’ll just consider it getting scammed once.”
For a split second, the Black Saintess’s expression crumbled.
She whipped her head away, turned her back, and walked across the white space.
Once she was far enough from me, she crouched down on the floor.
She wasn’t some moody teenager, for crying out loud.
I burst out laughing at the sight, then returned to reality.
After successfully clearing the third floor, I followed my usual routine and browsed the hunter community sites.
Every time I broke a new record, the entire internet filled up with stories about me.
How was I supposed to resist looking?
That said, I wasn’t creating a fixed nickname on the Hunter Gallery to farm attention, nor was I pretending to know things on throwaway accounts.
I simply lurked in silence.
‘Why is everyone so obsessed with my nationality?’
It was safe to say more than half the posts were questioning the nationality of “Yohan.”
People were throwing out every wild theory imaginable—that I’d already made contact with several major guilds, that I’d been specially recruited by the Association, and so on.
After reading through all the baseless speculation, I quickly lost interest, closed the gallery, and headed to the Hunter Association.
The purpose of this visit was the same as last time: to sell A-class magic stones.
‘Maybe I should keep one.’
It might be worth saving one as a trump card for the Arcane Revolver.
I was about to dispose of the stones just like before when I noticed the massive crowd of reporters and cameras blocking the entrance to the Association building.
The sheer density of people left no gaps whatsoever.
‘What the hell?’
As I drew closer, I spotted a man surrounded by reporters, giving an interview.
“You’ve set consecutive new records on Hell difficulty. How do you feel?”
“Is the rumor that you’ve officially joined the Association true?”
“Hunter Yohan! They say you chose your real name as your nickname because you’ve always admired Hunter Han Su-hyun. Is that correct?”
The man the reporters kept calling “Yohan” waved his hands in obvious discomfort.
“Ha.”
They’d gone and found an impersonator now.
Honestly, it would’ve been weirder if no one had tried.
Officially, “Yohan” was a mysterious hunter who had never shown his face in public.
I wasn’t sure why that image had stuck, but that was how the public currently pictured him.
‘How should I crush this guy?’
I ignored the scene for now and entered the building, but I had no intention of letting the impersonator run around freely.
I didn’t want my name getting dragged through the mud over things I hadn’t even done.
It would be best to nip this in the bud before he caused any real trouble.
While I was waiting at the kiosk for a service ticket and pondering my options, several men in black suits and sunglasses approached me.
One of them, a familiar face, stepped forward and bowed.
“Hello. My name is Kim Young-hyun, manager of the Magic Stone Trade Department.”
I remembered him.
He was the employee who had handled my previous magic stone transaction.
The polite one who had also walked me through the rental service.
“The Association President would like to meet with you, Hunter Yohan.”
“…”
The unexpected words momentarily froze my brain.
“Alright. Please lead the way.”
I knew a moment like this would come eventually, so I recovered quickly.
I followed Kim Young-hyun.
“This is the President’s private elevator.”
The other suited men left us.
I boarded the elevator with Kim Young-hyun.
Through the glass walls, I could see the swarm of reporters and the fake “Yohan” still conducting his interview.
“You knew from the beginning, didn’t you?”
“…”
“The name Yohan isn’t exactly common… and a brand-new hunter who just registered just happened to be selling high-quality A-class magic stones…”
It would have been difficult not to notice.
I hadn’t made even the slightest effort to hide my identity.
The fact that this farce was still happening despite that probably meant…
“We’ve arrived.”
I stepped out of the elevator behind Kim Young-hyun.
Knock, knock—
Kim Young-hyun knocked carefully.
—Come in.
A deep, resonant voice answered from inside.
Kim Young-hyun opened the door and bowed at the waist.
When I entered the room, he straightened up, closed the door politely, and left.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Hunter Yohan.”
“Hello, Association President. It’s an honor to meet you in person.”
I bowed in greeting. My eyes caught the nameplate on the desk.
[Yang Min-chul]
Yang Min-chul. An S-class hunter of South Korea.
A first-generation hunter who had played a major role in clearing S-class gates.
His alias was the Dragon Slayer.
When an S-class gate had broken, an S-class monster—a dragon—had appeared over Seoul and begun devastating the city.
Hundreds of mages had been deployed to create a barrier, temporarily isolating the dragon.
He had entered that barrier alone and, after a desperate half-day battle, ultimately slain the dragon.
To think I was now standing in front of a man I had only read about in textbooks.
Though he was in his fifties, he looked no older than his late thirties.
“Calling an old man who has already stepped back from the front lines a ‘hero’ on our very first meeting is a bit much.”
Yang Min-chul gave a gentle laugh and rose from his seat to guide me to the guest chair.
“So… what business brings you to see me?”
When I cautiously brought up the main topic, Yang Min-chul took a sip of tea.
“I—the Hunter Association—would like to offer you our full support, Hunter Yohan.”
“Support… in what way?”
“There are various benefits across many areas, but the most notable would be… tax exemption.”
“Excuse me?”
“In addition, free rental of S-class equipment, priority gate-clearing rights, first-choice residency in safe zones…”
“Wait, hold on a second.”
The stream of absurd benefits pouring from the President’s mouth made me cut him off without thinking.
“Exactly what do you want from me?”
“There is only one thing the Association wants from you, Hunter Yohan.”
Gulp—
What on earth could it be?
What did they want from me that they were willing to offer such ridiculous perks?
In all my twenty-two years of life, I had never been this tense. I waited for the President’s next words.
“Please, stay in South Korea.”
“…Huh?”
That was it?