First Clear and the Flag of Zerathus
The Constellations' Game: [Laika]
To put it simply: we did it.
We killed Myrves on our very first attempt and cracked open the hidden dungeon, no less.
[The demonic energy of 'Myrves' has been successfully sealed.]
['Myrves' has entered the 'Irrecoverable' state.]
[Party member 'Leo' has dealt a critical blow to 'Myrves'!]
['Myrves, Servant of Abrasyl' has been successfully defeated!]
[The Gatekeeper of the Rift has been slain.]
[A special condition has been fulfilled.]
[The power of the full moon descends upon the warped space.]
As it turned out, Leo had been a far bigger wild card than I'd given him credit for.
Who would've guessed he'd suddenly bust out Divine Sword Unity at a moment like that?
It was fair to say that our shortfall in damage had been solved entirely by his awakening.
And even that wasn't the end of it.
Having taken down Myrves, we went ahead and blasted our way straight into the hidden dungeon.
Honestly, once you've killed Myrves, the difficulty of the hidden dungeon isn't exactly a problem.
[You have discovered a hidden rift within the 'Moonlight Garden'.]
[Entering the 'Rift' will grant access to the 'Ancient Moonlight Garden'.]
And of course, I didn't forget to collect on my bets, either.
"There you have it, honored Constellations. You did see all of that, didn't you? A deal's a deal."
"He actually went and found the hidden dungeon;;;"
The Constellations who'd lost the bet groaned and wailed about it, but hey, that was none of my business.
[The ancient half-demons, the 'Lycans', are awakening from their deep slumber.]
The only thing that worried me, if anything, was that clearing the hidden dungeon would take a fair chunk of time.
Running a dungeon designed for five with a party of two meant it was inevitably going to eat up a lot of clock.
So I'd been slightly worried that with such a long runtime, the… prospects — no, sorry, the Constellations — might get bored. But…
"By the way, honored Constellations, this Ancient Moonlight Garden is going to take quite a while. I hope it won't bore you?"
Fortunately, that didn't seem to be an issue at all.
One look at that blazing wall of support was all it took to know where I stood.
[You have dealt a critical blow to the 'Lykan' monster!]
[You have successfully slain the 'Lykan' monster!]
On top of that, my viewer count actually kept climbing the longer we ran the hidden dungeon.
Now this — isn't this what they call a happy Laika?
"M-my dear boy, do go a little easy on us."
Do you think I will?
[A condition has been fulfilled.]
[The master of the Ancient Moonlight Garden, the 'Shadow Lykan', reveals itself.]
Anyway.
After a full six hours of grinding through the place, we finally managed to clear the dungeon.
['Shadow Lykan', Servant of Zerathus, has been successfully defeated!]
[You have successfully cleared the 'Ancient Moonlight Garden' dungeon!]
[You are the first on the server to clear a 'Hidden Dungeon'! Fame increased by 100.]
The boss showered us with richly deserved rewards for all our hard work, too.
Whoooom-!
Kwoooh-!
Welcome, Lunar Veil set. Come right in.
Was that too lucky?
No. It wasn't.
The Lunar Veil set is the first-clear reward of the Ancient Moonlight Garden, after all.
Well, granted, if you want to argue that nobody having found this place until now was the luck, I don't have much of a comeback…
"Th-that's insane."
Even so, it's hardly a wonder Leo's eyes went saucer-wide.
Lunar Veil is one of the only set-equipment lines in the entire 3T bracket.
Each piece was worth a minimum of 500 LP — a serious haul by any measure.
And even that wasn't the end of it.
Because among the first-clear rewards, the main dish was still to come.
[The seal on the Demonic Realm rift has been lifted.]
[You have discovered a hidden relic of the Demonic Legion Commander.]
Yes. This is what I was talking about.
A relic of Zerathus, one of the Thirteen Calamities of the Demonic Realm.
The item whose acquisition message read:
◈ The hidden relic of Zerathus, Commander of the 13th Demonic Legion.
That's right — Zerathus's Flag, the trigger item for advancing into not one, not two, but three different hidden classes, had been waiting here all along.
Now the question was… would this thing even fetch a market price at this point in time?
Put it in the right hands, and it could easily go for 100,000 LP…
While I was mulling that over, a surge of golden energy suddenly began to swirl up from the Shadow Lykan's corpse.
Guoong- guoogoong-!
Wh-what the hell?
Okay, this is actually kind of scary…
GOOOOOOHHH-!!
[An ancient relic has been conceived within a dimensional rift.]
Insane.
A Numbered Gear item? On Beginner's Island?
Is this for real?
This isn't some rigged prank-clip setup… right?
[Dungeon rewards will be distributed automatically according to contribution.]
['Veil of the Moon Pendant (Set)' has been distributed to player 'Leo'.]
['Veil of the Moon Earrings (Set)' has been distributed to player 'Leo'.]
[……omitted……]
['Zerathus's Flag' has been distributed to player 'Dave'.]
['Chaser of the Night (No. 967)' has been distributed to player 'Dave'.]
Could I be dreaming?
This isn't some jackpot prank-clip… kind of thing, is it?
[Fame condition achieved. Streaming tier has increased.]
[Your streaming tier has been promoted from UnRanked to Bronze.]
Maybe all the misfortune I burned through grinding on the beta server… was just one long, cosmic run of bad luck finally paying itself off?
A celebrity reflects the dreams and desires of the masses in their most radiant form.
That was why they were called stars — and in that sense, in the world since the Gates had opened, the brightest stars of all were the Rankers.
They were the ones who struck down the monsters pouring out from beyond the Gates and guaranteed humanity's survival —
and, at the same time, beings who could transmute even mortal danger into a "show."
Rankers were mythologized across countless broadcasts and articles like heroes out of legend, and every move they made became the talk of the world.
And Chae Yu-hyun — the Sword Princess — was someone who had grown disillusioned with that two-faced show business.
Despite being, herself, the very woman at its center.
"Unni, you've got the sponsor meeting soon. You remember, right?"
"Yeah, I know."
That was why Yu-hyun always wore a mask.
The public consumed it as an icon; the press prattled on about it being a "mystique strategy."
None of that mattered to her.
Every bit of business that happened outside the Gates was, for her, nothing more than a means to one end: getting stronger.
"Crank up the energy, unni! The advertiser you're meeting today is the Segwang Group of all things!"
"Yes, yes. I know that one too."
A low sigh slipped out of Chae Yu-hyun's lips.
How long am I going to have to keep doing this dog-and-pony show?
Today's meeting was with the Segwang Group — every bit the global conglomerate her manager was gushing about.
South Korea's largest manufacturer and distributor of artifacts, an unlisted dinosaur of a company whose market capitalization was the biggest in the country.
Which meant that, however unwilling she was, she had no choice but to play to their tastes.
Getting stronger from here would take enormous amounts of money, after all.
If I can just pull off the third class advancement… then maybe there'll actually be a chance.
Few knew it, but Chae Yu-hyun had a single goal she could never, ever give up on.
Her obsessive, almost deranged pursuit of strength existed, in the end, because of that goal alone.
If the hidden class I really did discover is what I think it is… then maybe — just maybe — I could surpass that man.
Yu-hyun, having let someone's face surface briefly in her mind, shook her head briskly, picked up her smartphone, and checked the time. She took a sip of the coffee sitting on the table, then rose from her seat.
She'd stalled long enough; now it was time to move.
"If we leave now, we won't be late, right?"
"Right, unni!"
She'd raised her phone to stuff it into her pocket when something occurred to her, and she opened her messaging app to check.
Figures. Nothing yet.
What she was waiting on most eagerly right now was news of the commission's outcome — the final key to launching her expedition into the Demonic Realm.
It's only been a day, I suppose.
Hiring an outfit as big as Silver Knights meant she'd have to pay a hefty success fee, but if it got her the hidden class, that amount would mean nothing at all.
With such thoughts drifting through her head, Yu-hyun began to walk.
Tap- tap-
And then, in the very next instant—
Bzzzzt-!
Her phone buzzed violently in her hand.
"…!"
Yu-hyun reflexively tapped the screen and read the message.
But what appeared on it was something she had not expected in the slightest.
Flustered, Yu-hyun had fired back a reply right away — and the answer that followed only deepened her bewilderment.
She bit her lower lip before she even realized she was doing it.
So then… Zerathus's Flag…
She typed the question, and the reply came back cold and clean.
They appear to have taken it.
Apparently, the situation had tangled itself up quite thoroughly.
Hah. And here I thought things were going a little too smoothly.
Still, she couldn't fold here. Not now.
The clue to the third class advancement she'd staked her life on uncovering — she couldn't throw that away over a hiccup of this size.
Besides, Zerathus's Flag falling into someone else's hands was never a variable she'd ruled out in the first place.
Though that disagreeable Silver Knights handler did mutter something that left a faint, sour aftertaste.
After all, we now have our own reason to find this person as well.
Your own… reason?
That is all I am at liberty to say.
It was none of her business, anyway.
As long as I secure Zerathus's Flag, nothing else matters.
That was what she believed — right up until that moment.