Job Change Quest (1)

The aftershocks of the Guild War showed no sign of dying down.

That was how astonishing Shinseong's championship was — a miracle by any standard, anywhere in the world.

On top of the championship came the recruitment of 'Little Witch' Ah Seo-ah, a member of the Hunter Academy's golden generation. Speculation pointed to the fact that the guild possessed the national-treasure Bronze Bell, and that its roots lay in the mighty Cheonseong Group.

Shinseong's stock price had been soaring — a moonshot stacked on top of a moonshot.

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Among the public, Shinseong was no longer just a rookie guild.

It fit perfectly with the Republic of Korea — the land that had achieved the Miracle on the Han River.

It had become, by rights, one of the guilds representing Korea itself.

With me excluded, the guild members had begun moving in perfect sync.

Shin Yeon-hee could now walk and run like an ordinary person, and even Ah Seo-ah had reined in her temper considerably and settled into the guild.

The deciding factor was simple: every single member was far too strong.

The Sect Leader of the Cheongnyong Sword Sect. The White Dragon, Baek Seo-ha.

Little Witch, Ah Seo-ah.

All-Master, Shin Min-woo.

Divine Archer, Shin Yeon-hee.

With that insane lineup on one team, they'd been clearing A-rank gates as casually as a stroll through the neighborhood.

It was a dream team you could only see while the guild was still small — and if I were in that lineup too, I doubted even an S-rank gate would be out of reach.

Still, as I'd announced before, I intended to clear gates strictly solo.

There were things that were awkward to attempt in company with others.

Hidden routes, hidden quests, that sort of thing.

Too many eyes on me made everything inconvenient in a dozen different ways.

"Guild business is cruising along smoothly."

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What remained was—

"Collecting my reward."

My growth, and nothing else.

This time, it had climbed to A.

A realm that could, without exaggeration, be called upper-tier.

And then—

A newly added element of the status window.

I activated my status window to take a look.

"A class, huh."

Taking everything that had been added so far and reasoning it through, a class seemed to be roughly the concept of a 'job'.

A mage, a warrior, a rogue — that kind of thing.

You pick the job you want, then learn the skills that go with it.

It was a structure simple enough that anyone could grasp it at a glance. But—

"What's the point?"

It didn't apply to the hunters of this era.

It wasn't as if you could only acquire a certain kind of skill by holding the matching class.

If you wanted one, you could master any skill you liked with a skill book.

Stat imbalance would make it inefficient, sure.

But if you wanted it, you could have it any time.

"The fact that there's a separate 'Class Skills' entry means there are class-exclusive skills, then…."

As ever, I couldn't guess my way to the answer.

Just like when I'd acquired traits, there was nothing to do but obtain it and find out for myself.

"I accept."

The moment I conveyed my assent—

the world sank into darkness.

A completely different feel from the Trait Training Grounds.

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in the center of an enormous temple.

"…The sky's a galaxy again."

Where the Trait Training Grounds had felt mystical, this place — the Corridor of Dimensions — felt somewhere along the lines of grand and solemn.

You might say it was the sort of place a god out of myth would dwell.

It was a special quest, so the quest window looked a little different from usual.

"In a word: the more strong foes I cut down, the better. Simple."

Nothing about it looked difficult.

An icon had materialized in the middle of the corridor.

Once that hit one hundred, the Job Change Quest would be over.

Ssssssssss!

The galaxy overhead shimmered, and the corridor summoned forth monsters.

What appeared were three goblins brandishing stone knives.

"Krek!"

Baring their yellowed teeth, they charged all at once.

Maybe they're going easy on me since it's the start.

This was far simpler than I'd hoped.

I swept my spear across in a light, horizontal arc.

Whuum! Crack!

In a single stroke, the goblins' bodies split open and their entrails spilled out.

Thankfully, the corpses dissolved into light.

So the corridor wouldn't end up buried under a mountain of monster remains. Good to know.

An orc — massive frame, crude axe in hand.

Perhaps because I'd dispatched the first enemy so quickly, the monster's level had suddenly spiked.

"Kroooooar!"

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

The orc came stomping toward me, swinging its axe.

"As I thought, for now…."

Before the beast could even close the distance, I drove my spear in, threading just a bit of mana into the thrust.

That alone punched clean through its torso and blew it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠apart into shards.

"Way too easy."

Struggling against monsters like these—

I'd simply outgrown it.

Crash!

The enormous boar with jet-black bristles toppled to the ground.

The forty-fifth enemy — the boss-grade individual of the Chaos Boars.

"Whew!"

Only now did I feel like I was actually breaking a sweat.

Watching the pig dissolve into light, I ran through a brief train of thought.

Forty-five fights in, and one thing had become clear.

Every one of these things is an opponent I've fought before.

The Chaos Boar Alpha that had just vanished — I remembered it with total certainty.

A monster unleashed from a Mutation Gate before my regression.

It had torn through downtown Los Angeles, leaving a staggering toll of dead and wounded in its wake.

And then there was the thirtieth, the Corpse Devourer, and the twenty-second, the Orc King.

I had subjugated or at least crossed blades with every last one of them.

"Dragging my pre-regression experience into this too? Isn't that a bit much, even for you?"

Fortunately, the next enemy was someone I'd faced in this very lifetime.

The galaxy streamed past, and in the heart of the corridor appeared a familiar humanoid monster.

"Ho…."

At the nostalgic face, curiosity stirred alongside something almost like warmth.

Back when I'd challenged the B-rank gate, I'd had a genuinely hard time with this one.

How do I do against him now?

A perfect opportunity to measure my growth.

Pah!

Cheonmagwi swung his sword.

Still that baffling, unfathomable footwork — but—

"I can use it now too."

Tracing his movements, I parried every single strike.

"Keeeagh!"

"Was he always this slow and this light?"

Back then, merely weathering his attacks had pushed me to my limit.

Now, the gaps between blade and blade looked vast enough to drive a cart through.

My spearhead tore the wedge on the mummy's body to shreds.

Shatter!

The wedge crumbled on the spot, dissolving into powder.

Strength drained from Cheonmagwi's frame, and he dissolved into light where he stood.

The Cheonmagwi I'd barely beaten back then by borrowing the ring's power — I'd just finished him in a handful of exchanges.

A hot surge of exhilaration welled up in my chest.

I've gotten stronger.

I was growing at a speed the old me couldn't even have imagined.

My fist tightened around the shaft of my spear.

I couldn't wait to face the next opponent.

This time, it took quite a while for the next enemy to be summoned.

"Who's it going to be?"

I'd fought so many foes that it was hard to guess.

It'll be at least a B-rank gate boss or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠above, presumably.

As far as I could tell, the Soul Analysis Rate climbed based on the 'time' a battle took.

Roughly speaking, killing an enemy within a minute yielded 1%, within two minutes, 2% — about 1% per minute, regardless of the enemy's level.

'Face many enemies,' it said.

Which meant I needed to drop each foe as fast as possible, so I could face as many as I could.

The faster I did it, the higher the quality of the class I'd receive in the end.

"If you're going to show up, come as a single body."

The moment I voiced that modest wish—

What appeared was an army of High Orcs led by the boss-grade 'High Orc Champion'.

"Krooooar! Grrak!"

"Of all things, it had to be you lot."

Every time I saw High Orcs, that day came back to me, and my mood soured.

And there were so many of them, on top of that.

"In that case, there's nothing for it but to send every last one of you off at once."

I wrapped the rising Karma Flame around my spear.

"Flame Soul Moon Blade…."

Just as I was about to unleash the thrust—

Zzt!

The High Orc Legion warped.

Flickering as though riddled with static, they gradually changed shape.

"What the…?"

The static gradually died down, and the High Orcs began to move again.

No.

The things that had been High Orcs.

"Those are…!"

Headless corpses, chunks of their bodies carved away.

A deathless legion, slaughtering the living with neither reason nor instinct — only blind purpose.

The monsters I had seen that day, in the B-rank gate.