The Maze of Sensory Deprivation (1)
To pass through the seventh floor of Hell, Kim Jun needed a total of five materials.
So first, he decided to revisit the floors he had already cleared.
“The 6th Floor and the 9th Floor.”
The Tower allowed him to descend to any floor he had already conquered. It was just a little inconvenient that he had to return to the 5th Floor, to the base city of Thebes, and then make his way back up again.
Compared to the effort of actually obtaining the materials, though, that was nothing.
6th Floor
The moment Kim Jun set foot on the 6th Floor, the familiar stench of blood hit him in the nose.
Still the same.
Goblin corpses were scattered everywhere, and low-level hunters were moving about in a frenzy among them.
“Be careful! There may still be some left!”
“Hold your sword tight! If you let it slip, you’re dead!”
They were drenched in sweat, watching each other’s backs as they fought for their lives.
To them, this was a battlefield where death was always close.
I used to be like that too.
Lost in thought for a moment, Kim Jun soon turned away.
His target was the cave.
The place where the goblin shaman, the hidden boss, had been.
Fwoosh—!
Kim Jun spread his demonic wings.
Instantly, a powerful gust tore through the area.
Dust and the smell of blood surged together in the air.
“Aaaah! Wh-what was that?!”
“Th-that’s…!”
The low-level hunters, startled, whipped around.
Black wings.
A man rising into the sky.
“Wings…? Is that a boss monster?!”
“No, the color’s wrong! That’s…”
“A hunter?”
“Is that a hunter?”
“Looks like it.”
Their gazes locked onto Kim Jun.
But Kim Jun didn’t even look at them.
He simply flew toward his destination.
Whoosh—
A black shadow cut through the air and vanished into the cave entrance in an instant.
“...”
For a brief moment, silence fell.
“Wow…”
Someone let out an awed sigh.
“T-that’s what a high-ranker looks like…”
“He even has wings. Someday, we’ll…”
“Let’s work harder! We can do it too!”
Kim Jun could still hear the low-level hunters talking, but by then he was already deep inside the cave.
The stench of rot, the smell of blood, and the strange residue of magic still lingering in the air.
On the altar, the goblin shaman’s corpse remained exactly where it had fallen.
Pale, stiff skin.
Eyes dried shut and sunken.
Fingers unnaturally long and twisted.
Even in death, it still radiated a bizarre aura.
Witch’s Finger.
So that was the ingredient for a potion that granted immunity to status ailments.
“…An ingredient like this?”
He frowned.
What was more, the finger still seemed alive, twitching ever so slightly.
Should I just not bother drinking it and keep going?
That thought crossed his mind for an instant.
But then—
Snikt—!
His blade flashed, and the corpse’s finger was severed cleanly.
◈ Status ailment immunity potion ingredient
◈ Still twitching faintly
“One down.”
A red liquid, impossible to tell whether it was blood or poison, dripped from the severed fingertip.
Kim Jun casually shoved it into his subspace pouch and walked back out of the cave.
But the strange sensation clinging to the tip of his finger lingered far longer than it should have, refusing to fade even as he moved on.
9th Floor
The library of the mage Belfast.
The ceiling soared so high it seemed to disappear into the void, and the bookshelves were tangled together like a maze.
Tens of thousands of books were crammed between the endless shelves. The pages rustled all on their own, as if the books were breathing.
Finding a specific book here was effectively impossible.
But then—
Thread of Ariadne.
Fwoom—!
Thread of Ariadne traced a line through the air and pointed in one direction.
Every time Kim Jun took a step, the shelves rattled.
Creak—
The groan of old wood.
Third floor, western section, in front of the seventh bookshelf.
The thread disappeared, and a dust-covered book appeared in its place.
Mage Chronicle, Volume 6.
◈ A record of magical research and theory
◈ Dusty, but intact
“Two down.”
Kim Jun nodded in satisfaction.
Thunk—
Somewhere, a single book dropped to the floor.
Then, from deep within the shelves, there came a low rumble, like wind seeping through a crack.
Too low to be wind, too vague to be called a whisper.
...A magic built into the library itself.
The 9th Floor’s library was often called a living space.
The books moved themselves around, the shelves shifted and rearranged as though they had a will of their own, and every now and then, it made those incomprehensible noises, just like now.
Kim Jun listened for a moment, then shook his head.
It wasn’t a threat.
Just the nature of this place, the residue of some ancient magic.
With that thought, he turned and left the library.
Of course, this was still a place where he could easily obtain D-rank and lower skill books.
If he was lucky, he could even get up to C-rank.
But for Kim Jun, trivial loot like that no longer mattered.
His goal was a single thing.
Ingredients for the status ailment immunity potion.
“Return—Artemis.”
Whoooosh—!
Space distorted, and Kim Jun’s body vanished into the light.
...
On top of a bookshelf, at a height equivalent to the 5th Floor, a man leaned against the railing and looked down below.
His face was hidden in shadow.
But his eyes were clear enough.
Hatred.
A dark, deep, burning hatred.
In the man’s hand was an old book.
Half-open, its pages faintly glimmering with dull red text.
Forbidden Class Change Book - Hunter Devourer
One who grew stronger by devouring his own kind.
A twisted smile spread slowly across the man’s mouth.
“Wait for me, Kim Jun.”
His voice was low and heavy.
“Your power, your place, everything you have.”
He slowly turned the page.
Dark crimson letters were carved into every page.
A forbidden class that grew stronger the more hunters it killed.
“I’ll make it all mine.”
The entire library shuddered then, ever so slightly.
Books rattled in unison, and the shelves creaked and trembled.
As if the library itself were warning him against that taboo.
The man slowly straightened.
Then he tucked the book into his chest and vanished into the darkness.
Drip—
Drip-drip—
*
Pitch black.
It was a world that could only be described with that one word.
“Ugh, I seriously hate this kind of thing.”
“Ow! Stop grabbing my arm!”
“No way! Musclehead, just hold still for a second!”
“I’m telling you it hurts after working out!”
“Then don’t work out before the raid!”
“How the hell am I supposed to not work out?”
Park Minsu grumbled.
The two of them were bickering as usual, but there was tension in their voices.
They couldn’t see a thing.
Not the sky, not the ground, not even the tips of their own fingers.
It felt as if they were floating alone in an endless night sky.
No—
This darkness was deeper and thicker than that.
Kim Jun pulled out the Everlasting Torch he had obtained on the 11th Floor.
Fwoom—!
The flame surged upward, but…
It wasn’t bright enough.
The light only reached a meter ahead.
The darkness covering the 26th Floor swallowed even the torch.
Heehee—
Kiiiiik—!
Sharp sounds burst from all around them.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
“Aaaah!”
Ryu Jia screamed.
Something jet-black shot out of the darkness.
It was only the size of a palm.
But it came at them fast, baring sharp teeth.
“It’s tiny, but damn, it’s fast!”
Park Minsu raised his shield.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Dozens of them clung to him at once.
In that instant—
Slash—
Han Suin’s sword moved like lightning.
Just 0.1 seconds before they could make contact.
She cut down the invisible enemies by nothing more than the faintest flutter of fabric and the smallest shift in the air.
Inferno
At Ryu Jia’s shout, red flames exploded outward.
BOOOOM—!!
Fire swallowed everything around them.
Dozens of the creatures fell, burning with shrieks.
Kik! Kik!
But it still wasn’t over.
More came surging out of the darkness.
“This is insane! There’s no end to them!”
Ryu Jia muttered in irritation.
Kim Jun simply watched the scene.
He didn’t help.
The battle continued.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.
Monsters kept pouring in without end.
Park Minsu held the front line with his shield.
Han Suin’s sword cut down the enemies hidden in the dark with terrifying precision.
Ryu Jia’s magic cleared away the sheer numbers.
And Lee Seoyeon’s barrier held them all together.
They’ve grown a lot.
The speed was incomparable to before Kim Jun’s regression.
Both himself and his comrades.
But—
Kim Jun’s gaze sank.
Still not enough.
The 100th Floor.
The so-called “All-Mighty.”
That crushing despair of having done absolutely nothing.
That was the first true hopelessness Kim Jun had ever felt.
If he wanted to make sure none of them ever experienced that again, he had to make them stronger—faster, and harsher than before.
“Anyway, keep leveling up.”
“What? Where are you going?!”
“To kill the boss.”
“Again by yourself?”
“Yeah.”
It was a short, firm answer.
If he helped here, their experience would rise, but their senses would not.
In the end, they had to fight on their own, endure on their own, and grow that way.
And if anything, that was better for the team as a whole.
“Aren’t you gonna be okay going alone, hyung?”
Park Minsu asked anxiously.
“I’ll be fine.”
Of course, the Mark of the Administrator was still there.
But as long as he didn’t trigger it, there wouldn’t be a problem.
Besides, the 26th Floor boss was a troublesome one.
If his comrades forced themselves to come along, they might just end up in danger for no reason.
If there’s a variable I can’t predict, I should be the one to bear it.
His steps slowly turned toward the boss room.
The sounds of his comrades fighting faded into the distance, and the darkness grew thicker and thicker.
*
How long had he walked?
Far ahead, a massive door came into view.
A door made of black marble.
There was nothing carved on its surface.
Just pure black.
Kim Jun stopped in front of it.
Creak—
The door opened slowly.
Beyond it lay an even deeper darkness.
Kim Jun took a step forward.
Shh—
Your vision has been blocked.
“Hm.”
Everything went pitch-black before his eyes.
He couldn’t see the torch, the mana light, or anything else at all.
Kim Jun took a second step.
Your hearing has been blocked.
All sound disappeared.
Not even the sound of his own footsteps, his breathing, or his heartbeat remained.
Absolute silence.
A third step.
Your sense of touch has been blocked.
The flow of air vanished.
The feeling of the ground beneath him, the weight of his own body.
He could not even feel his fingertips anymore.
Emptiness.
A space that could only be described by that one word.
A battlefield where you could not see with your eyes, could not hear with your ears, and could not sense the enemy through touch.
The Labyrinth of Sensory Deprivation.
That was the name of this place.
Before his regression, Kim Jun had struggled here.
No—struggled was putting it lightly.
Fighting an enemy you couldn’t even see while having your senses stripped away was close to impossible.
Back then…
The memory of his past life flickered through him.
The boss room he had entered with his comrades.
The instant they lost all their senses, everyone panicked.
They couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel anything.
They couldn’t even tell whether the person beside them was an ally.
There was no way to distinguish the boss’s attacks from their comrades’ skills.
So they just.
Fired off their skills blindly.
They trusted luck and prayed they would hit something.
And in the process, they attacked one another.
Ryu Jia’s lightning scorched Kim Jun, and Kim Jun’s flames swallowed Park Minsu.
There was no way to tell who was friend and who was foe.
They only knew someone had been hurt, and that Lee Seoyeon’s healing mended the wound afterward.
That was the only signal they had.
He’s still alive.
The fight is still going.
Only Lee Seoyeon’s endless healing held them all together.
They had lasted thirty minutes that way.
No, maybe it had been an hour.
In a place where even the sense of time had vanished, it was impossible to know for sure.
Somehow, Ryu Jia’s area magic had struck the boss.
Only then, at the very last moment, had they managed to clear it.
Yeah. This place has to be cleared alone.
Before his regression, Kim Jun had been strong, yes.
But he had still been growing along the normal path of a hunter.
Even if he accidentally hit an ally, it would only be a serious wound at worst.
But now?
One blast of Ragna Explosion, and comrades, boss, everything would vanish without a trace.
It was enough to warp the very shape of the land.
If they came in with him and even a single one of his skills went off, their lives would be in danger.
Whoosh—
Something moved in the darkness.
Of course, Kim Jun couldn’t sense a thing.
Nystalos, the Shadow Lord.
The owner of this space.
The one and only being that could move freely here.
Swish—
Kim Jun drew his sword.
He still couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel anything.
It’s fine.
Kim Jun knew.
He knew exactly how to fight.