Thunder Emperor Descent
Eh? Crackle.
The moment he felt something flash, one of the goblin elite guards riding the werewolf he was on flew off into the distance along with it.
"Kiekekek!"
"Kyaaang!"
I casually swatted away the bastards and watched them soar, staring down at my fist in shock at the unexpected power.
Crackle, crackle.
Pure white electric arcs danced relentlessly around my fist.
'Whew~ This thing is seriously badass.'
My first S-rank attack skill. Hell, at this level, it was practically an all-in-one offense and defense skill.
If it spewed lightning in all directions, I could've vaporized those incoming spears from earlier without a trace.
As far as I knew, Thunderbolt was a skill possessed by only one person.
'One of the original seven, right?'
His nickname was Thunder Emperor or something like that? I remembered it having some wuxia-style title attached.
"Kirruk?"
"Kekek!"
"Krrrng."
The goblin elite guards glanced at each other with faces full of terror. Even the werewolves were tucking their tails between their legs and backing away hesitantly.
The tide had completely turned.
All that was left for me was to see how many I could hunt before the skill's duration ran out.
"Alright! Let's go wild!"
Crackle.
The electric arcs racing through my nerves guided me into a new world I'd never experienced before.
Everything slowed to a crawl—the world's sights, the flicker of the enemies' eyelids, even the quiver of their fur felt vividly tangible.
And in that world, the fastest mover was me alone.
"Whoa!"
I let out a fierce shout laced with that exhilarating thrill.
"Kyaaang!"
At the same moment, another werewolf carrying a goblin went flying off into the distance.
Boom!
The two monsters slammed into a corner, their bodies trembling faintly as the encircling electric arcs electrocuted them.
Watching this from a hidden spot along one of the ridges was a man—Kim Cheon-wook, the C-rank hunter assisting Professor Kim Tae-min for this class.
His eyes were wide in disbelief.
'Wh-what the hell is that?!'
As far as he knew, only Thunderbolt had a skill like that.
It was the powerful ability that earned his master the nickname Thunder Emperor.
'How the hell does that cursed skill end up with that guy?'
It was the ultimate attack skill that struck fear into all of the original seven.
And it was also the damnable skill that had slowly gnawed away at his master's body, ruining him.
He swallowed hard, staring at his sweat-soaked hands, then roughly wiped them on his thigh.
'I have to report this! No matter what that guy's deal is, this is beyond my pay grade.'
He gazed down at the battlefield that had ended in an instant, then sank into his own shadow.
Thunderbolt (S)
Crackle, crackle.
The electric arcs encircling my body gradually faded and vanished.
'What? That short?'
It had felt like over ten minutes, but in reality, the skill canceled out in less than a minute.
True to S-rank form, the mana consumption was beyond imagination.
'Huh? Wh-what?'
Thud.
The instant the skill ended, my legs gave out, and I collapsed to the ground.
Tremble, tremble.
Soon, my arms and legs began shaking like someone with a tic.
'What the? Side effect?'
No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than excruciating pain surged from the mana tree's trunk throughout my entire body, branches and all.
"Urgh!"
Overwhelmed by the onslaught, I writhed on the ground face-down.
'F-fuck!'
Even for me, who'd endured pretty much every pain imaginable as a hunter, this was a first.
It felt like needles stabbing every nerve and blood vessel in my body simultaneously.
"Huff! Huff... Heuk, heuk... Urgh..."
How much time passed? After clawing at the dirt and thrashing for what felt like ages, the pain finally ebbed.
I exhaled the breath I'd been holding and lay flat on my back.
A crystal-clear, cloudless sky greeted me.
"Whoa, I really thought I was gonna die."
It had been agony so intense I wondered if this life was over right there. Even if asked to do it again...
But as I lifted my head to look at the distant corpses of the fallen foes, I trailed off.
'If I don't wanna die like that, I'll do it again. Probably.'
I forced a bitter smile, struggled to my feet, massaged my still-numb limbs, and slowly made my way back to our camp's rear.
"Kieeeek!"
"Die, you goblin bastards!!"
"Wooooah!!"
A cacophony of battle cries from the fierce fighting afar carried on the wind.
Limping along, I pulled up my status window.
'Huh? Rank went up?'
Last time it was D-rank, but now it was C-rank.
'From catching that golden goblin? Or from getting a new legendary skill?'
Honestly, I'd never heard of anyone ranking up this fast, so I had no clue which it was.
'All those skills are gone.'
Aside from the C-rank Leap gained by consuming the D-rank Powerful Strike, everything else had vanished.
It stung a bit, but with that juicy S-rank Thunderbolt taking prime spot, my lips kept twitching upward.
'Whimsical God's Roulette, huh.'
I didn't know who named it, but damn if it wasn't spot-on.
Whichever capricious god asshole it was, feeding it skills to spin the roulette clearly spat out whatever the hell it wanted.
'If even one A-rank skill had been missing earlier?'
I'd have been suffering with high heals for ages before dying for sure.
Chill.
Realizing how close I'd come to death, I rubbed the goosebumps rising along my arms.
Good thing an S-rank attack skill came out— if some random support skill had popped instead, I'd have been in real shit.
'Gotta be careful with this one.'
I didn't even fully get the mechanics, and there was no guarantee it'd always give higher-rank skills.
For all I knew, three A-ranks in and it spits back an A or lower. Name's Whimsical God for a reason.
Anyway...
'Can I relearn the lost skills?'
That was my biggest worry. First thing after leaving the dungeon: check that.
If consumed skills couldn't be relearned, that'd be a huge problem.
With those thoughts sorted, I slipped quietly into the back of our camp.
Timing was perfect—the dungeon entrance was about to reopen.
I planned to blend in like nothing happened.
Vwoooong.
Sure enough, the black vortex at the cliff's end began swirling with a heavy rumble.
"The dungeon's opening! Everyone, just a bit more!"
"Wooooah!!"
Moments later, the dungeon reopened, and the academy's security team—including several professors—pushed inside.
Whoosh!
A massive fireball streaked through the air, incinerating the goblin horde's center, and the grueling fight ended swiftly.
Zero deaths, 12 serious injuries, 75 minor. Not bad for a dungeon mutation outbreak.
Credit to the 11 assistants who fought selflessly, but from some point, the goblins lost their organized assault and charged chaotically, making it easier.
And above all, Park Chan-gyu's fluid plays turning crises around were huge.
After exiting, the other assistants kept glancing at him.
His feats felt subtly off even to veteran eyes.
Whatever. He played dumb and encouraged the rookies who'd held up well.
The seriously injured were rushed to specialist awakener hospitals; minors got treated at the school infirmary.
I approached Jae-wook, slumped on the ground in a mess.
"What'd you do to turn into a raccoon? You bear-raccoon. Huh? You like limes~?"
"Dude, what about you? Why you look like that?"
He snickered, pointing at my head with his swollen eyes.
"What? What's wrong with my hair?"
I fiddled with it, tilting my head.
Then I realized it was standing straight up toward the sky.
Later I learned half my eyebrows were singed off, hair too.
Good thing—no one'd suspect I skipped the fight for the golden goblin.
I reeked of desperate battle.
Most waiting at the infirmary looked like me.
"No breaks though? Fought well, huh?"
"Like you said, used skills without holding back."
He mimed a big yell and laughed.
His swollen right eye twisted in pain, and he whined dramatically.
"Damn, got hit by a goblin and just a bruised eye? Ain't you ashamed as a D-rank?"
"Thought they were jokes too, but damn, it hurts when it hits."
"Whew~ Tough day. Right?"
I leaned back in the chair with a long sigh.
"Yeah. Good work, man."
"You too."
I smirked and bumped fists with him.
His huge fist met mine. Unconsciously activating Information Viewing, I stared at him in surprise.
One of his inactive skills, Physical Enhancement, no longer had the inactive tag.
'Well, well, look at this guy?'
Hiding it? Thought he was a dumb bear, but he had some rolling skills.
I chuckled and tapped his shoulder.
He stared at me with big doe eyes, like "What?"
Oh ho, playing dumb all the way?
'Cheeky little bear.'
I faced forward, closed my eyes, and smiled faintly.
A bear might roll, but it's still in the trainer's palm. Every rolling bear has a trainer flying overhead.
This incident seemed to wrap up quietly without much fuss. At least on the surface.
Publicly, it was announced as a routine dungeon system glitch.
But internally, a heavy meeting dragged on for hours.
"This was found in the dungeon core."
Thud.
Hunter Park Chan-gyu tossed a blackened magic stone onto the table.
"This is?"
"A Black Stone. Seems it disrupted the dungeon flow, if only briefly."
"No way. A real Black Stone?"
A man in silver-rimmed glasses looked at him in shock.
"Crude replica. If real, we'd all be dead."
"Hmmm, I see."
He sat with an ambiguous expression—disappointed or relieved, hard to tell.
"So the escapees were lackeys from that organization."
"Likely. CCTV shows two hours deleted. They planted it then."
"The insider?"
"On leave, but probably missing."
"Family?"
"None."
"Hmmm. Could be turned. Dig deeper."
"Yes."
As Park Chan-gyu finished, the man adjusted his glasses and scanned the room.
"Regrettably, this was deliberate. Not just this—six months ago, northern Gangwon. Four months, southern Jeolla. Two months, central Gyeongsang. Now here. Every two months, tampering with dungeons. Fallout's escalating. At this rate, a major incident's imminent."
The room nodded gravely at Hunter Park Tae-jun, head of the Hunter Association's Special Crime Investigation Unit.
"So, what's the plan, Team Leader Park?"
A sweating man dabbed his brow with a handkerchief despite the AC.
"Round 'em all up."
Park Tae-jun smiled softly at the question.
His eyes stayed cold, only his mouth curved—a chill emanated, like the room temp dropped degrees.
"Their tracks never caught before. Got a lead?"
"No. Still ghosts. So, time for a trap."
"Trap?"
The others eyed him curiously at the sudden word.
"Targeted dungeons were all former S-ranks, cleared and downgraded sharply. Thirteen similar left in Korea. Three unstable, fluctuating."
"Monitor all three?"
"No. Eliminate the other two on schedule."
"Ho~ Funnels 'em to one."
"Exactly. And when they enter—net closes."
Most nodded, pleased.
"Won't they suspect? They're cautious; we've missed every time. Even the famed Special Crime Team Leader Park."
"..."