Reunion (1)
“I said no.”
“I said let’s go.”
“I said no.”
“I said let’s go.”
“I said no!!!”
“I said let’s go!!!”
Inside the boss room of the Lion King’s Citadel, Park Minsu and Ryu Jia were practically nose-to-nose, bickering like a pair of children.
The reason was simple.
“I’m telling you, there’s definitely something over in Shadow Land!”
“Just hurry up and go to your brother already!”
The problem was the place itself: [Shadow Land].
Ryu Jia was insisting that they detour through that eerie region not far from here before moving on.
“I’m serious! There’s something there! I can feel it!”
She stubbornly demanded that they stop by there first, while Park Minsu dug in his heels, refusing to be dragged along any longer than necessary.
“Feel what? Are you a pervert?”
He insisted they needed to reunite with Kim Jun as quickly as possible.
“Can we just go already?!”
“I can feel the vibes of a jackpot, okay?”
Park Minsu struggled as if he were being hauled off against his will, while Ryu Jia kept shoving him forward. Their voices rose higher and higher.
To be fair, neither of them was entirely wrong.
Park Minsu was only level 26 right now, and most of the others were in their mid-twenties too.
Strictly speaking, the most efficient choice was to kill the boss, take the portal, and move on to the next floor.
But if they failed to explore the entire field, they might miss out on some very worthwhile rewards.
“Then go by yourself!”
“I’m weak, you know?”
“Then I told you to reinforce your armor, didn’t I?! Ugh!!”
“I already used up all my mana!”
Crack.
A vein twitched at Park Minsu’s temple.
“Then maybe you should’ve saved some mana—gaaah, my neck!”
In the end, the argument did not last long.
There was no way he was going to win.
Ryu Jia’s stubbornness was harder than most monsters’ skulls.
Once she decided she was going, trying to change her mind was like demanding that a stone Buddha start reciting sutras.
Park Minsu was about ready to burst.
At their current level, they were only in the mid-twenties; if they wanted to grow quickly, of course they should be using portals to ascend as fast as possible.
And yet here they were, forced to poke around in the dangerous reaches of Shadow Land.
“Fine. Just this once.”
“Yes! Haha!”
“...Tch.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The desolate swamp was steeped in the cries of the dead.
From within the pitch-black mist, muffled wails drifted out like sobbing.
And then, cutting through the fog, grotesque forms began to emerge.
Shadow wraiths.
Black shapes that seemed to swallow the light itself.
Each finger ended in a sickle-like claw, flashing with blue light.
“You’re telling me to kill something this disgusting...?”
Park Minsu had just swallowed the curse rising to his lips when—
Slash.
A red line flashed.
It was Han Suin.
The instant her blade passed, the heads of three wraiths dropped at once.
Their forms dissolved like smoke and vanished.
“...”
Without a word, she stepped forward again.
At a speed so fast even their footsteps could not be heard, she was already slicing into the other wraiths.
Rattle!
Blue claws rained down from every direction.
But a beat faster than that came a crossing flash of sword light, carving away every threat before it could land.
Shhk-!
The wraiths’ torsos split apart in vain, and only black smoke spilled out from within.
They came in all kinds of hideous shapes.
Some had arms bigger than their shoulders.
Some crawled like spiders, all dozens of legs splayed out from their bodies.
And then—
Gwaaaaaaah!
One lunged out of the mist with only its face showing, shrieking so loudly it seemed to rip through their eardrums.
“Kyaaah!”
Ryu Jia screamed in shock.
“Agh! Damn it! You startled me worse, you idiot!”
Park Minsu jumped straight up.
The high-pitched scream that exploded beside him was far more jarring than the monster itself.
And then—
──!
The face that had shot out of the air was split clean in two and dissolved like smoke.
No matter how terrifying the creatures were, Han Suin’s gaze never once wavered.
If anything, her steps only grew faster.
“Noona...?”
Park Minsu stared at her with wide eyes.
When had she gotten that fast?
Since awakening as a hidden class, Han Suin’s movements had already reached a level no ordinary human eye could keep up with.
“Yes! That’s it! Unnie, wipe them all out!”
At some point, Ryu Jia had attached herself to Park Minsu’s back and was cheering loudly.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
Park Minsu ground his teeth.
“Cheering!”
“......”
He pinched the bridge of his nose.
She was the one who dragged them here, and now she was cheering as bright as day.
The battle went on.
The wraiths’ claws were cut off before they could even swing.
Even the cries they used to terrorize their prey were severed by the blade as if their tongues had been sliced away.
Wherever the sword passed, silence followed.
As if nothing had ever been there in the first place.
Shhk.
Clack.
Only the sound of the blade returning to its sheath broke the stillness.
“I, I’ve got nothing to do...”
“Then cheer too!”
Ryu Jia had run out of mana, so she had an excuse. Park Minsu, though, did not even have a chance to jump in.
In the end, the two of them could only watch—and the only one really making her presence felt was Lee Seoyeon.
She supported Han Suin’s movements by casting Haste and Shield at precisely the right moments.
In the end, the battlefield belonged entirely to Han Suin.
The overwhelming sword dance continued, and before long, an hour had passed.
And then, at last—
[Shadow Land - Corpse Heap Cavern]
At the deepest part of the swamp, a vast cave finally appeared.
A sinister aura shivered at its entrance.
A black curtain, twitching as though alive, blocked the cave mouth.
Without even time to catch their breath, the four of them pushed through it and stepped inside.
For an instant, the curtain rippled like water and swallowed them whole.
Jelly-squelch.
After a strange sensation, like passing through a mass of gelatin, the cave’s interior came into view.
“Ugh!”
Ryu Jia clapped a hand over her mouth.
Dozens of corpses were tangled together across the cave floor.
And those corpses were writhing, merging into one enormous mass.
Arms and legs, heads and entrails—everything was fused together, heaving like some gigantic mountain of flesh.
[Boss: Twisted Corpse]
[Grade: D]
[Level: 30]
[HP: 444,444 / 444,444]
A monster soaked in blood and stench so foul it made it hard even to breathe.
But Han Suin’s eyes never once lost their focus.
Shk.
The moment her sword slid free of its sheath, the atmosphere of the entire boss room changed.
It was as if every sound had died away, leaving only a single rhythm to rule the space.
The giant mass of corpses swung an arm.
A shadow as enormous as a collapsing mountain came crashing down.
Shhk-!
Light flashed, and Han Suin’s figure vanished.
Moments later, a gray-white slab of meat dropped from the boss’s forearm.
It moved too fast for the eye to follow.
Every time the blade brushed past, dozens of layers of flesh split apart like paper.
Kwa-dudududuk!
The mass howled and thrashed.
But the struggle meant nothing.
Before a single movement could become an attack, it had already been severed and rendered useless.
Pale blood scattered through the air, and blood, flesh, and innards poured down like a rain of dark red.
Even so, Han Suin’s steps never faltered once.
It wasn’t a sword swing.
It was a dance.
A sword dance that made even death beautiful.
Shhk, shhk-
Ssssshk-!
Wherever the tip of her blade passed, the monster’s cries were cut short and new wounds were carved into it.
But then—
Tzzzzzzzt-
The severed arms and legs stitched themselves back on, and the gaping wounds were filled with revolting lumps of flesh.
The corpses strewn across the cave floor lurched forward, crawling over to be absorbed into the monster’s body.
Splorch!
Cut-off heads and rotten organs mixed into the mass, and its body swelled even larger.
“...”
Han Suin’s eyes went cold.
At this rate, no matter how many times she cut it apart, it would keep dragging in corpses and endure forever.
In the end, she had to cut it down perfectly, all at once.
Her toes brushed the floor lightly.
At that instant, even the air seemed to tighten.
As if she intended to finish this now, once and for all, she settled into her stance.
“Flash.”
───
In an instant, the world was swallowed in colorless light.
Time stopped.
Within that blinding instant, something faster than light cleaved through the darkness and passed by.
The monster’s vast body remained frozen, unable to even perceive the moment.
It was only an instant, but in that blink of time, countless sword strikes were engraved into it.
The blade had already passed; the wounds would blossom only a heartbeat later.
Whoosh—!
The light receded.
Chajajajajajak-!
Only then did the countless tangled limbs split apart all at once.
Heads, arms, legs, entrails.
Everything burst apart like fireworks and scattered through the air.
Only then did the monster realize it had been cut.
But before that realization could even fully form—
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!
The flesh mountain that had towered like a peak collapsed powerlessly.
You have defeated Twisted Corpse.
Once the giant heap of corpses disappeared, a single black book was left behind.
◈ A skill book containing necromantic power.
◈ Use it to gain the ability to command the dead.
“Ugh...”
Ryu Jia frowned and took a step back.
“That’s kind of gross. You mean it controls corpses...?”
Park Minsu shot her a wicked grin from the side.
“Fits you. You boss people around all day anyway.”
“What, what did you say?!”
“I’m kidding. Why are you taking it so personally?”
“I only boss you around.”
“You little—”
“Ugh, forget it. I’m not taking that. It’s not my style.”
Unhappy with the reward, Ryu Jia stormed out of the boss room in a hurry.
“Hmm...”
One person, however, watched with interest and picked up the Lord of the Dead skill book.
It was Lee Seoyeon.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“I wonder how far ahead Brother has gotten by now?”
Park Minsu muttered to himself.
“Wouldn’t he have reached around the 25th floor by now?”
Ryu Jia answered with her arms folded.
“If we’re talking about Guild Leader Kim Jun... then at least that far, yes~”
Lee Seoyeon added with a soft smile.
After passing through Shadow Land and making their way back to the Lion King’s Citadel, they reached the 19th floor in about a week.
Just as they were wondering what sort of field would open up next—
“What is this?”
Park Minsu came to a stop.
Along the road leading to the 19th floor, all ten gates had already been opened.
No, to be exact, they hadn’t been opened.
They had been broken.
Clank, clank.
Debris was scattered everywhere, and every pillar had been smashed to pieces.
Where soldiers had once stood guard, only an empty wind now swirled through the passage.
“This has to be Master’s doing, right?”
The moment Park Minsu finished speaking—
Pop.
From between the cracks in the ruined wall, a respawned soldier appeared.
But the instant he returned to life, his body was already engulfed in dark red flames.
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
With a scream of flesh burning, the soldier turned to ash and scattered away.
“......”
Black Flame.
Kim Jun’s signature dark red fire still lingered.
Even the tower’s respawns could not withstand it.
Every newly spawned soldier was swallowed the moment he appeared.
Even the occasional groups that managed to emerge were cut down helplessly before they could put up a fight.
And so they passed through the 2nd gate, the 3rd gate...
All the way to the final 10th gate without a single proper battle.
And at last—
“That palace over there must be where the boss is.”
They arrived before a massive curtain.
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