Release From the Shackles
The reactions of his comrades, after hearing the whole story, were all different.
“That happened?”
“Hmm... We’ll have to be more careful from now on.”
“Guild leader. Please, for the love of God, go. To. Ge.ther.”
At Lee Seoyeon’s sharp tone, even Kim Jun had no choice but to nod.
There was nothing to feel wronged about.
If I don’t know what triggers it, then the safest choice is to avoid being isolated as much as possible.
The brand on him still hadn’t vanished.
It just wasn’t activating because the conditions weren’t met.
It could forcibly summon him again at any time.
Still, there was something else.
“But what exactly is this guy, hyung?”
Park Minsu pointed at Andras, who was grinning in a disturbingly pleased way.
“Ah. He’s my summon.”
When Kim Jun answered as if it were nothing, all of their eyes widened at once.
“...A summon?”
“A demon? Oppa?”
“Hmm...”
The three of them stared at him in unison.
Surprise, suspicion, and a faint unease all mixed together in those looks.
Andras seemed to enjoy the attention. His mouth twisted higher, and he bared a hideous smile.
“Kihihihihi... Nice to meet you, humans.”
Flinch—
The three of them all took a step back at once.
Their instincts had reacted to the murderous aura.
Kim Jun sighed and waved a hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry. He’s absolutely obedient.”
“That is a lie, Master.”
“Please shut up.”
*
“Ah, finally. I’m free.”
“Feels like I can breathe again!! Master!”
Twentieth floor.
The moment they set foot here, the Law of DarkSoul that had been pressing down on them on the previous floor shattered into pieces.
The heavy gravity that had wrapped around their bodies vanished, as if the shackles clamping down on their blood vessels had been released.
His muscles reacted sharply again, and every movement turned light as a feather.
And more than anything else—
Wooooooong—!!
Overflowing mana flooded his body like a waterfall.
For an instant, the power expanding through his veins felt like it might burst them apart before pouring all the way to his fingertips.
The Lion’s Talisman, Blue Abyss Talisman.
At last, the equipment that had been bound by the floor’s “law” and unable to show its true value had regained its original power.
Now I can breathe.
This wasn’t just recovery.
It was endless replenishment.
Even if he unleashed his skills nonstop, his mana gauge would refill before it could ever run dry.
As if the concept of “mana depletion” itself had disappeared.
Kim Jun clenched his fingers and smiled.
He swung his sword once.
Shk—!
It was nothing more than a light Slash, yet the monster horde filling the space dozens of meters ahead was cut down all at once and collapsed.
Blood and black-red flames mingled together, staining the grassland.
“Waaah...”
Park Minsu, watching from behind, let out a gasp of awe before he could stop himself.
The twentieth floor. The Monster Plains.
There were no complicated puzzles here, no hidden paths.
Only an endless plain and roughly two thousand monsters massed upon it.
The condition was simple: cut them all down.
That was the only gate leading to the twenty-first floor.
In other words, it was the complete opposite of the suffocating pressure of the nineteenth floor.
“Kihehehehehehehehe!!”
This was, quite literally, a stage for slaughter—something you simply carved through as far as your power could take you.
Kugugugugung—!
The monster horde surged forward in a storm of dust.
Massive ogres, hundreds of wild wolves, Reaper Knights covered from head to toe in blades.
The sight of all those different monsters flooding in like a tidal wave was, in itself, a catastrophe.
And yet Kim Jun remained relaxed.
His steps were light, his breathing calm.
Kwaaaang—!
An ogre brought its club down.
The ground split and stone exploded, but Kim Jun’s sword didn’t budge even an inch.
Instead, the club shattered to pieces, and the ogre’s arm was torn apart with it.
Shiiiiiik—!
The next instant, the monster’s torso was cleanly severed.
“W, wow...”
Ryu Jia licked her lips without thinking.
Hundreds of monsters charged at once, but Kim Jun moved faster.
The black-red Black Flame erupted as if exploding outward, swallowing the monsters one line at a time.
Ogre defeated: +120
Wild Wolf defeated: +28
Crystal Golem defeated: +16
...
The system windows kept appearing without end, until they nearly covered the entire screen.
“This isn’t hunting. It’s just slaughter.”
Park Minsu shrugged his shoulders.
Han Suin silently lifted the hand holding her sword, then lowered it again as if deciding there was no need for her to step in.
Even Lee Seoyeon stared with wide eyes, catching her breath, unable to stop the admiring words from slipping through her mind.
Kwa-dr-dr-dr-drak—!
Kim Jun’s sword drew a semicircle.
The dozens of monsters touched by that arc were flung into the air together and ripped apart.
Through the scattered fragments, Black Flame burst open and swallowed another pack in an instant.
The monsters that survived did not cower in fear.
That was because the system had forcibly ordered them to advance.
For monsters, they almost looked pitiful.
They were like livestock being driven toward a slaughterhouse.
Kwaaaang—!
When Black Flame detonated in a straight line, the orc formation split cleanly in two.
A normal hunter would have been sweating buckets just facing one orc pack.
But Kim Jun’s sword wasn’t merely cutting.
It was closer to erasure.
“We can’t just stand around watching! Let’s jump in too!”
Thud—!
Park Minsu planted his shield into the ground.
The iron flail of an Iron Troll that came charging in late slammed into it, and sparks flew.
His legs sank into the earth and mud splashed up, but the front line didn’t budge at all.
“Kya-ha, this is my specialty.”
From behind him, Ryu Jia gathered mana.
Crackle—
A deep blue circle drew itself across the floor, and lightning leapt up from its center.
In an instant, more than a dozen monsters were engulfed and burned by the bolt.
Fwoosh—!
Lee Seoyeon’s spells flowed out one after another.
Circles of light flashed beneath their comrades’ feet, then burst upward.
Their movements sharpened, and their speed surged until it dominated the battlefield.
Park Minsu’s shield grew even sturdier.
Popopopopopop—!
Kwa-jijijijik—!
Ryu Jia’s casting continued without hesitation, and without pause.
Han Suin stepped up beside Kim Jun.
“...”
No words passed between them, but their two swords moved in perfect sync.
Kim Jun swung his blade with heavy force, sweeping out a single black-red flame that burned away the entire front line.
Without missing the opening he created, Han Suin’s Dragon Tail slipped in like a shadow.
Each time the blade flashed, surviving monsters lost their heads, their arms scattering through the air.
It was a combination of crushing force and speed.
It was as if Kim Jun was washing away a massive wave while Han Suin erased the spray left behind.
And seeing that, Andras laughed out loud.
‘Master’s mate has arrived.’
‘...;’
The battlefield was nothing short of a slaughterhouse.
In the center of the enemy lines, Kim Jun and Han Suin split the monster formation apart.
At the front, Park Minsu held the line and kept the charge from collapsing.
At the rear, Ryu Jia’s fire and lightning erupted in chain explosions.
And Lee Seoyeon constantly reinforced every part of it all.
Faat—!
A beam of light brushed Park Minsu’s shoulder, and the torn wound healed in an instant.
The army of thousands of monsters surged in like a tide, but—
Kiiiiiiooooo—!
Kieeeeeek—!
In the end, the tide could not rise over the rocks.
Kwa-dr-dr-dr-drak!
Sword light and magic crossed, shield and light held the line, and within only thirty minutes, every last one of them had fallen.
Twentieth floor cleared!
The entrance to the twenty-first floor has opened.
They could breathe again.
Thanks to passing through the nineteenth floor, where the Law of DarkSoul had crushed them, and then letting loose on the twentieth floor.
“Phew, I feel alive again, seriously.”
“There’s no way that kind of theme shows up again, right?”
Their mood lightened considerably.
But Kim Jun’s expression was different.
“Hmm...”
Because the whereabouts of Fresentia and Pertra were still completely unknown.
The only good news was that the quest still hadn’t changed to “failed.”
Which means they’re definitely alive somewhere.
The seventy-fifth floor, Master.
Yeah.
If Ariadne’s Thread had reacted clearly on the seventy-fifth floor, then it was certain the two girls were there.
The problem was that they couldn’t go there right now.
75th Floor Quest Conditions
- Eliminate the wraith knights of Drakenhart (0/12)
- Destroy the key facilities in the occupied zone (0/3)
At first glance, the conditions looked simple.
But those were only the minimum requirements.
The reality was completely different.
There weren’t just twelve wraith knights; there were thousands of them swarming in the area.
Every single one of them had combat strength on the level of a semi-boss.
And below them, there were more than ten thousand wraith soldiers.
It wasn’t a scale he could bring down alone, and at his current level, it was almost impossible.
We need to grow stronger, Master.
Yeah. That’s right.
Even Kim Jun and Andras had no choice but to nod.
That didn’t mean hope had gone out.
The fact that the quest was still marked in progress was proof that the two girls were, at the very least, not dead.
If an NPC died, the system would have mercilessly marked it as a failure.
And if he thought back to what Pasia had said, it felt more like someone had targeted them and carried them off than simply attacked them.
In other words, they weren’t trying to take the girls’ lives—they had sealed them away somewhere.
Then what I need to do now is...
Faster.
Stronger.
Climb higher.
Kim Jun’s will burned hot.
If it was to save Fresentia and Pertra, then he would break through any floor in his path.
And after steadying his heart and pressing onward—
You have entered the twenty-fifth floor.
Quest triggered: Save the invaded Artemis.
Objective: Eliminate all monsters that descended from other floors, or drive them back.
Reward: Artemis unlocked.
Before he knew it, they were on the twenty-fifth floor.
He could barely remember how they had crossed the twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth floors while keeping his focus locked tight.
But the moment Kim Jun set foot on the twenty-fifth floor, his awareness snapped back to reality in an instant.
Kwa-kwakwa-kwakwang—!
Because of the scene spread out before him.
A burning fortress.
Blood-colored smoke rose above collapsing towers, and the cries of screaming soldiers filled the floor with their groans.
The sky had already turned black, and scarlet flames roared up the walls as if the whole place might collapse at any moment.
“Everyone, get ready.”
Kim Jun’s voice rumbled low.
The sight in front of him was not some ordinary hunting ground.
The twenty-fifth floor, Artemis.
A land as important to hunters as Thebes, a city of knowledge where skills were born and evolved.
This was the floor where hunters could fuse the skills they already had into entirely new forms, or learn unique abilities that existed nowhere else.
Swish—
As completely as possible.
As quickly as possible, so that it could function properly.
Fwooooooosh—!
“Acceleration.”
55