Resolve (2)

On the outskirts of Thebes, in a crumbling warehouse district, blood had pooled at the mouth of an alley where the stench of rot hung thick in the air.

In this place, where not a sliver of light could properly reach, someone who had likely been precious to another only a few hours ago was cooling into a corpse.

"Heh-heh-heh. Not a bad haul to start the night."

"What did I tell you? Even F-class trash are crawling up the Tower these days."

A man in a black hood carelessly wiped the blood from his blade against his sleeve, snickering as he did so.

On the ground lay a rookie hunter who looked barely over twenty, dead with his eyes still fixed on empty space. The shock of his final moment had frozen into his face.

"Hey, this guy's gear is actually pretty good. What, was he some rich kid? A D-class punk wearing A-class equipment?"

He spat as he stripped the armor from the body. For them, this night of tragedy was nothing more than an enjoyable hunting trip.

"That makes seven already today. They've all leveled up pretty well, haven't they?"

"Of course. Experience is experience, whether it's monsters or humans. I'm already level 6."

These were members of the assassin guild Dark. In the single day since they had arrived in Thebes, they had hunted dozens of hunters. To them, human lives were nothing but raw material for experience and equipment.

But there was one thing they didn't know.

Another hunter had already come close enough to stalk them.

Step.

Footsteps sounded at the entrance to the alley.

"Who's there?"

The hooded assassins all snapped around at once. A single figure was slowly approaching through the darkness. Under the faint moonlight, his outline sharpened.

"What, were you watching all of it?"

"Oh? He's alone? Since he witnessed our work, then—"

Before the sentence could finish, a massive sword tore through the space between them. It was a perfect slash, one so clean it didn't even make a sound of wind.

Swish—

A crimson line appeared across one of the assassins' necks, and his head fell away with a dull thud, rolling along the ground.

His body was still standing, only now it had no head. The sight was grotesque.

"W-what kind of greatsword moves like a dagger—!"

The remaining assassins drew their weapons in shock and panic, but it was already too late.

Kim Jun stepped fully out of the darkness. Blood still dripped from the greatsword in his hand.

"You cancerous filth."

His furious voice crushed the entire alley.

"Why did I ever leave you alive?"

The assassins looked at one another.

What filled their eyes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was primitive fear.

The absolute helplessness that came from standing before overwhelming power. The instinctive terror of prey before a predator paralyzed their entire bodies.

Tremble, tremble, tremble—

Kim Jun walked toward them slowly. But they couldn't run. They couldn't even take a single step. Their limbs had frozen solid.

"P-please…"

One of them, who seemed a little smarter than the rest, began to beg in a shaking voice.

"We'll give you all our coins, all our gear, and every bit of information we have, so please just spare our lives…"

Thud—!

"Gah!"

The greatsword punched straight through his chest. Blood gushed from his mouth.

"Information?"

Kim Jun looked down at him with cold eyes.

"Information? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I don't need it. I already know everything."

If these men had never existed, the regression would have looked very different.

If the hunters they had killed had lived, if Han Suin had lived, if the residents of the Tower had lived, and if they had all joined forces and climbed all the way to the 100th floor.

So what Kim Jun was cutting down was not merely the necks of maggots.

He was also cutting down his own stupidity—the foolishness of having forgotten what needed to be done first.

A weak part of himself that had been obsessed with immediate growth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and had let the enemy right in front of him slip by.

The instant the greatsword severed the enemy's breath, Kim Jun cut something inside himself as well.

"I'll kill you all."

Wasn't it said that you should hate the sin, but not the sinner?

Thud—!

"Khhhk!"

"Aaaagh! Run!"

If sin had devoured everything human in a person, could you still call it human?

"Die."

So what Kim Jun cut down was also sin.

"About here, was it?"

Thud-thud-thud—

Dragging the greatsword along the ground, he walked toward the filthy, stinking place as if following a lit fuse.

The sound of the blade scraping against stone rang out like a grim prelude.

Not far away.

The lair of Dark.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh."

"Looks like we can hunt something pretty strong now."

Laughter drifted out of the darkness. To Kim Jun's eyes, their outlines were crystal clear.

Roughly thirty of them.

He adjusted his stance.

He meant to end it in a single strike.

"What the hell is that guy?"

The greatsword, raised high overhead, came crashing down with all his strength.

Fwoooosh—!

The Dragon's flames split the ground and spread in a fan, turning the men caught in its path to ash.

"Aaaagh!"

"What are you all standing around for? Kill him!"

The assassins who escaped the blaze quickly recovered their senses and turned their eyes on Kim Jun.

They were an assortment of A-class and B-class killers, and they drew their weapons as if to flaunt their own skill and ability.

Whoosh—

They began hurling their hidden weapons at him. Dozens of razor-sharp blades flashed in the dark as they came flying in from every direction.

Some of them moved quickly to attack from behind, bodies hidden in shadow as they aimed for a fatal opening.

"Die!"

Tap—

"Hng!"

But what was caught was not Kim Jun.

It was the assassin's neck.

Crack—!

The moment the others saw their comrade's neck crushed before their eyes, they tried to flee, but it was already too late.

Step—

With every step he took,

Thud—

another head dropped.

Swish, swish—

Soon the entire alley floor was soaked in blood. As the red tide climbed to their ankles, not a trace of hesitation remained in Kim Jun's eyes.

The surviving assassins seemed to decide that escaping alive was no longer possible, and all at once they drew the daggers at their waists.

The tips of the blades glistened with a greenish poison.

"One hit is all it takes, and you're dead."

Whoosh—

At a single signal, hundreds of poison-coated daggers rained down on Kim Jun.

Papapapak—

"No matter how strong you are, you can't dodge all of this!"

But Kim Jun simply stood there, quietly, as the rain of blades poured toward him.

"Have you given up? Well, you can't dodge my secret technique."

"You're dead now!"

The assassins shouted in triumph. Their paralysis poison was lethal enough to cripple even the nervous system of an S-class hunter in an instant.

But contrary to their expectations, red light began to rise from Kim Jun's body.

The daggers embedded in Kim Jun's body began to drop away one by one.

"W-what is this…?"

Despair flickered across the assassins' faces. Victory, which they had been so certain of, had been overturned in an instant.

They couldn't understand it.

No matter how powerful an S-class hunter was, if a vital point was pierced, they should die. If their throat was cut or their heart was torn through, that should have been the end of it. That was the law of nature.

Even the transcendent beings called S-class hunters could not ignore the laws of physics. And yet this man…

He was moving beyond every piece of common sense they knew.

No attack, no poison, no weapon worked.

It was as though they were beasts lined up in a slaughterhouse, waiting their turn one by one for the blade to fall.

"Hoo."

Kim Jun slowly lowered the greatsword and took a breath, then looked around.

The entire alley was covered in corpses and blood. The remnants of the assassin guild had all been dealt with. No—almost all of them.

Just as he was about to leave, a small box in the corner caught his eye.

It was an ordinary wooden box, yet somehow it seemed to carry a faint glow.

Curiosity led him to open it, and inside was something wrapped in black cloth.

He carefully unfolded the cloth, and beneath it appeared a robe with an odd, muted sheen.

"This would suit Suin perfectly."

There was another item at the bottom of the box.

A dagger of unusual design.

The curved blade arced like the fang of a serpent, and faint rune patterns were carved into the hilt.

"This is good too."

Kim Jun put both items into his subspace pouch. Luck like this was rare. Especially in the Tower's early floors, C-grade equipment and above were difficult to come by.

He fastened the greatsword to his back and brushed the blood from his clothes. After one last glance around, he slipped silently out of the assassins' hideout.

As Kim Jun's footsteps faded away, a slight movement stirred among the pile of corpses.

One assassin slowly rose from beneath his fallen comrades.

"Ghh…"

He spat blood and braced himself against the wall, barely managing to stand.

There was a wound along his neck where Kim Jun's sword had brushed him, but it wasn't fatal. One of his comrades' bodies had shielded him.

"I will kill you. Kim Jun…!"

The morning of the second day since the Tower opened.

"Fresh bread for sale!"

"Recovery potions here!"

The shopping district of Thebes was packed with hunters who had swarmed in from every direction. Street vendors were busy shouting out to passersby in lively voices.

"Hyung? Hyung!"

"Minsu?"

Kim Jun turned at the booming voice of Park Minsu as he came running from afar. Behind him, Lee Seoyeon, Ryu Jia, and Han Suin appeared one after another.

"That's you, isn't it, Hyung?"

"What is?"

"The one who killed the dragon. The one who got the hidden class!"

Park Minsu's eyes were shining with excitement.

He had immediately realized that the news that had spread to every hunter—that the dragon had been slain and a hidden class had been obtained—pointed directly to Kim Jun's achievement.

"That's right!!"

Park Minsu declared it with absolute certainty. If it wasn't Kim Jun, then it simply wasn't possible.

"Seems that way."

"Kiaaa! I knew it! That's why I told everyone! I kept saying the one behind it was none other than our guy here. Hahaha!"

Park Minsu cheered and slapped Kim Jun on the shoulder, but Kim Jun's gaze had already shifted elsewhere.

Quietly standing behind them was Han Suin.

As always, she was silent, saying not a single word.

Her image overlapped with the cold, lifeless Han Suin he remembered from the regression.

"Good job."

"…?"

Kim Jun walked over, placed a hand gently on Han Suin's head, and ruffled her hair softly.

Warmth seeped between her black strands.

…!?

Han Suin's eyes widened in surprise. It was rare for the guild leader—who was usually as taciturn and blunt as she was—to show such a gentle side.

What she felt in that hand was not just a greeting. It carried something she couldn't quite name, something close to relief and tenderness.

"Oppa! Me too! I was the first one to class change!"

Ryu Jia cut in with a whiny voice, grabbing Kim Jun's arm. Her face was full of a mischievous smile.

"Heh. Good work, Jia."

"And Park Minsu is last again!"

At Ryu Jia's teasing, Park Minsu's face twisted up. Everyone burst out laughing at the look on him, all scrunched and sour like a dented kettle.

"H-hey! The tanker class advancement exam takes a long time, okay! The examiner told me to hold up a shield and endure attacks for an entire hour! And he kept bashing me with a sledgehammer the whole time, yelling, 'A true tanker is an unbreakable wall!' while swinging again and again! And then there was—"

Park Minsu flailed his arms in protest, but his desperate excuse only made everyone laugh harder.

"Nope, don't believe you."

Ryu Jia shook her head.

"I-I mean it!"

Lee Seoyeon wiped the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, tears of laughter in them as she spoke.

"It's all right, Minsu. A tanker is always reassuring."

Kim Jun quietly watched this peaceful moment. His companions ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠laughed and joked and teased one another.

The five members of the Han Guild walked together through the streets of Thebes, through sunlit avenues, lively shops, and people laughing and chatting all around them.