Chương 46: Chapter 45
[ COLLECTED DEMON SOULS: 0 / 10,000 ]
10,000 souls... this would be a long road.
After a while, he also discovered another slightly stranger counter.
[ POINTS TO NEXT LEVEL: 60,000 ]
The holographic letters clearly displayed the number that told him he would level up once he surpassed that number.
Seeing this counter was surprising because up until now he hadn't seen how many points he needed to reach the next level. To be honest, sometimes it was really annoying.
The system didn't show how many points he received for killing any monster either.
He was currently at level 61, which didn't seem like some important milestone for such a counter to suddenly appear. What's more, Jin-Woo hadn't seen this counter before setting out for the Demon Castle.
Jin-Woo took a step back and left the Demon Castle. This made both the soul counter and the experience counter disappear. When he returned, the two counters reappeared, as if they had always been there.
So that's how it was.
Both counters were only there when Jin-Woo was inside the Demon Castle.
Too bad he wouldn't be able to see the experience counter outside, but it would certainly be convenient while he was here.
On the other hand, did this mean clearing this place out would take that long?
He closed the window with a sigh. He already knew everything, there was no point in stalling any longer.
It was finally time to explore the interior of the Demon Castle.
When he took a few more steps, he sighed weakly at the sight that greeted him.
A ruined city stretched before his eyes. A dungeon under the open sky. Just like the Red Gate.
Could this be Seoul?
Perhaps if everyone in Seoul died and a hundred years passed, it might look like this. The dead city had taken on a gray color. Here and there, a few sparse street lamps flickered on and off. Jin-Woo saw a burning building or two in places.
It was possible this dungeon used Seoul as a base.
Now the question arose, where should he go first?
And where was his goal? Jin-Woo looked around here and there.
This place must have had some kind of boss. Only where the hell was he?
Luckily he didn't have to wonder long what to do. From afar, where Namsan Tower was supposed to stand, in its place there was a gigantic pillar of light.
He could always try going there.
However, he didn't get far before something blocked his way.
Here and there, small rather ugly monsters crawled out from among the buildings.
[ LOW-LEVEL DEMON ]
The monster's name said it all and nothing.
The monsters before him were apparently quite weak, but their name didn't suggest what they might be.
There were eight of those strange monsters before him.
He already had practically eight souls.
Not wanting to stall, Jin-Woo summoned Baruka's dagger and rushed at them.
[ YOU DEFEATED 3 LOW-LEVEL DEMONS ]
[ YOU RECEIVED 3x 100 EXPERIENCE ]
[ YOU RECEIVED THREE DEMON SOULS ]
The monsters were indeed quite weak. And slow by Jin-Woo's standards.
[ YOU DEFEATED A LOW-LEVEL DEMON ]
[ YOU RECEIVED 100 EXPERIENCE ]
[ YOU RECEIVED ONE DEMON SOUL ]
Now it was just a race against time.
On the other hand, he told his sister it would only take a week, but now Jin-Woo feared that would be too little time for this place.
***
After being damn busy for a few days, Baek Yoon-Ho was going through documents and reports that he had definitely neglected for too long.
However, his work was interrupted by the sound of the landline phone ringing on his desk.
He picked up.
- Boss, Hunter Min Byung-Gyu is asking to talk. Should I connect him?
- Yes, please.
A moment later, a familiar voice came from the receiver.
- In-Ho why haven't you been picking up your phone?
Baek Yoon-Ho sighed deeply,
- I want to disconnect for a while until this thing blows over and the reporters finally leave me alone.
- Ah! The Red Gate. They're talking about it in Japan too. Did you piss off your boyfriend again and he decided to spite you?
- I hope not. Besides, you know we keep our private and professional lives separate. What are you even doing in Japan anyway?
- Japan secretly contacted the Korean Hunters Association. About a week ago. I double checked it myself to be sure and something big is brewing.
- Speak clearly! Why would Japan contact the Korean Association? President Go Gun-Hee doesn't like overtures, you know that.
- They asked to consult with the hunters who took part in the Jeju Island raid.
A rank S gate opened on Jeju Island four years ago. The dungeons were inhabited by ant-type magical beasts. South Korea tried to reclaim the island three times. They failed three times. Ultimately, the government gave up on recovering the island which was completely taken over by the monsters.
- Give me the details! - Baek Yoon ordered right away, completely forgetting about those stupid reports in front of him.
Min Byung-Gyu sighed loudly.
- You know we almost died because of all that mess, right?
- You're right. It was a nightmare I'd rather forget. So why would anyone want to dig up that shit pile?
- It looks like some kind of mutation occurred.
- Mutation? - Yoon-Ho asked through gritted teeth, annoyed, feeling a shiver run down his back.
He thought he had put that nightmare behind him. But that gate was clearly never going to leave them in peace.
- That shouldn't matter. That island's cut off from the world. Mutation or not... why bother with it?
- Well... - Byung-Gyu's voice sounded very audibly worried. - Now they can leave it. By flying over the ocean. A winged ant was found on the Japanese coast. Those bastards evolved into even worse monsters.
- Motherfucker.
Beak Yoon-Ho completely pushed aside the papers he had been working on and looked at the phone on his desk with wide open eyes.
***
[ YOU DEFEATED A LOW-LEVEL DEMON ]
[ YOU RECEIVED 100 EXPERIENCE ]
[ YOU RECEIVED ONE DEMON SOUL ]
[ YOU DEFEATED A LOW-LEVEL DEMON ]
[ YOU RECEIVED 100 EXPERIENCE ]
[ YOU RECEIVED ONE DEMON SOUL ]
[ YOU DEFEATED A LOW-LEVEL DEMON ]
[ YOU RECEIVED 100 EXPERIENCE ]
[ YOU RECEIVED ONE DEMON SOUL ]
Jin-Woo had been hunting low-level demons for two hours now. He checked the current number of souls.
[ ACQUIRED DEMON SOULS: 309 / 10,000 ]
It was going slowly.
Additionally, at the current pace, he would level up about every two hours of hunting. His current level was 61. It took nine C-rank dungeons for him to advance from 60 to 61, which took over two days. Compared to that, he would be able to gain one level after four hours of hunting here.
So even if it was going slow, leveling up here was still faster than in the C-rank dungeons.
How long had it been since he enjoyed hunting this much?
He nostalgically recalled his first system dungeons. Jin-Woo had continuously hunted on the first and second subway levels until he stopped gaining levels.
That hunting had been really profitable.
He still plowed through the weak demons, letting his thoughts flow freely. The monsters here were too weak to harm him at all.
One fell, then another, a third, a tenth.
The experience points and number of souls rose accordingly with the fallen demons. In addition there were also the horns he collected from the dead opponents.
[ ITEM ]
[ ITEM: LOW-LEVEL DEMON HORN ]
[ ITEM CLASS: NONE ]
[ TYPE: TRASH ]
[ TWO SMALL HORNS FROM A LOW-LEVEL DEMON'S HEAD. ]
[ USED AS INGREDIENTS FOR HIGH-LEVEL MAGIC, CAN ALSO BE SOLD. ]
Such a horn sold for 200,000 gold pieces.
For the fangs of the much stronger cerberus he got 150,000 gold pieces each.
On the other hand, it was possible the cerberus wouldn't be a dangerous opponent for him now either, just like these demons here.
After recently getting a taste of the shop's value, trash was no longer just "trash" to Jin-Woo. It was most often valuable gold that was very useful.
As he was searching the corpses, he came across something unexpected. Something that definitely wasn't ordinary trash to sell.
[ ITEM: ENTRY PASS ]
[ ITEM CLASS: ??? ]
[ TYPE: ??? ]
[ AN ENTRY PASS ALLOWING ACCESS TO THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE CASTLE. CAN BE USED IN THE MAGIC ENERGY PILLAR ON THE FIRST FLOOR. ]
Unfurling the scroll, Jin-Woo found several letters and shapes he couldn't read.
It was surprising that a dungeon, even a hunting-type one, had multiple floors. Up until now he had neither heard of nor encountered anything like it.
Did this mean this place had a hundred floors just like the Daesung Tower?
At the very thought, Jin-Woo opened his mouth and stared with wide eyes at the pillar of energy visible in the distance.
That would be rather unrealistic.
Right?
Actually, there was only one way to find out.
He looked at the pillar of energy again.
Well, that had been his goal from the very start, but he got distracted hunting the low-level demons and ended up going in the opposite direction.
However, he was glad he had proceeded like that.
If he hadn't killed all the demons here, he wouldn't have gotten the scroll and probably wouldn't have been able to go further, which would be frustrating.
- Arise.
The Shadow Soldiers stored in the Shadow Storage didn't require any specific command to summon. It was about the intention itself. It didn't matter what he said or if he said anything at all.
He could choose whether he wanted to summon a specific soldier, a group, or the entire small army.
That is, if the current pathetic number of 50 shadows could even be called an army at all.
Probably not, their number was still a bit too pitifully small to be called the "Army of Shadows"
A shadow extracted from the ice bear alpha appeared before Jin-Woo.
This teddy bear was a really comfortable harmless pillow, its combat abilities weren't bad but it still didn't match up to Iron or Igris.
Now, however, it was going to serve another purpose for Jin-Woo.
The monstrous bear stood on its hind legs. It towered at least twice as high as Jin-Woo. Yet to him it was no different than a trained puppy.
- Sit.
The Shadow Beast obediently lowered its body and Jin-Woo sat on its back.
- Forward.
The beast lunged forward with surprising speed for such a massive bulky animal.
Their destination was approaching surprisingly fast, and every now and then an obstacle in the form of a demon would get brutally rammed on the way.
Seeing this, Jin-Woo smiled with satisfaction.
He thought such a ride might be fun so he tried it out, but it was much faster and more effective than he initially expected.
Jin-Woo decided he would use it as a mount in the future, he even gave it a name.
- You're one crazy guy. From now on you'll be our tank.
Finally, after a few minutes of mad charging during which Jin-Woo was forced to cling to the tank's longer blue fur, the bear reached the energy pillar.
- Good bear.
Jin-Woo dismounted the bear, patted the beast on the head, then ordered it to return to his shadow.
Jin-Woo took out the scroll from his inventory and stuck his hand holding it into the energy pillar. The scroll dissipated after just a second.
[ 2ND FLOOR OF THE DEMON CASTLE OPENED. ]
The magic circle began shining brightly as if to encourage him to enter.
Oh.
It was just an elevator.
The moment he understood the purpose of the energy pillar, Jin-Woo entered it and got carried up.
2nd floor.
Then 3 and 4.
Further 6 and 7.
And so on until the 27th floor.
That was the progress he had made in two days.
***
The Deputy Secretary General for Hunters Affairs stood in the Main Office of American Hunters in an interrogation room on one side of a one-way mirror, on the other side there was a strange Asian man in handcuffs.
- Is that him?
- Yes.
- Have you identified who he is yet?
- He claims to be a hunter from South Korea.
If he tidied up his messy tangled hair and beard, he would look like an ordinary middle-aged Asian.
- How did a hunter from South Korea end up in dungeons on the other side of the world?
- Apparently, he got stuck in a dungeon 10 years ago after the gate closed behind him. Before he realized it, he was in the USA.
- So when he opened his eyes again, he just like that was in America?
- That's what he claims.
This was a real precedent. Not only was he able to survive inside an A-rank gate for so long, but he also easily defeated other A-rank hunters.
The Deputy Director put a hand to his forehead. How would he explain all this to the director? He was already feeling an oncoming headache.
- Is that all? That's all you got out of him?
- We suspect he may be a monster possessing human memories. Without support from an S-rank hunter, we cannot take any action. If something goes wrong, the entire capital may be in danger
That was certainly a possibility. Since he defeated a large group of A-rank hunters, he could be very dangerous. They couldn't make any reckless moves.
- We contacted the Scavenger Guild and from what we found out, there is currently one S-rank hunter who knows Korean staying in Washington.
- Mr. Hwang.
That wasn't a question but a statement.
The Deputy Director was very familiar with all the S-rank hunters from the Scavenger Guild.
He was one of the guild's top hunters. Bringing him to the US required a lot of effort from the FBH.
- Oh... What's his name again?
The interrogation chief had trouble pronouncing the name. He checked the report provided to him by one of his subordinates again.
- His name is, hm... Sung Il-Hwan.
***
Considering the increasing speed at which he was clearing each floor, Jin-Woo gained hope that he might be able to reach the 100th floor within the remaining five days.
Jin-Woo looked around. Another ruined city. Each floor imitated some city that looked like it came from a post-apocalyptic movie.
However, he couldn't say which city it was. Or if it even imitated any of Korea's cities.
He didn't see any old European architecture, no tenements, churches or castles.
He couldn't attribute this place even to any of the continents.
It was possible it was caused by one factor.
The destruction of the cities deepened as he climbed to the next floors.
He checked his watch, it was 11 pm. There was no night or day in this place. He had to rely on his watch to keep track of time. If it was eleven, he should rest a bit. To continue the raid, proper sleep was necessary.
***
Despite his concerns, the speed at which he was clearing this place did not slow down at all as he continued climbing upwards.
With each floor, he also understood this place a little better.
Although each city was referred to as a floor, it was a separate world.
The cities, location of the energy pillars, monsters. Everything differed from floor to floor.
Passes to the next floors could only be found in the bodies of monsters, and would drop from them randomly.
Initially he assumed that he had to find the right monster, but since the monsters varied from floor to floor, even if only slightly, this hypothesis quickly failed.
It didn't have to be the last monster on a floor either.
He simply had to get lucky. Sometimes the scroll would drop from the third monster killed on a floor, sometimes from the fortieth. Regardless of which monster he obtained the pass from, he tried to kill them all so as not to waste experience points.
Along the way, his Dominance Touch, which he used very often because that skill did not drain mana, leveled up which was a nice gift, because he could lift larger and heavier objects as well as monsters.
He also noticed that the strength of the monsters grew exponentially with the difficulty of each successive floor.
Floor 48.
Floor 49.
Floor 50.
Finally he reached the halfway point of this place.
He felt as if he was hunting an endless horde of demons here, but the wall known as 10,000 was still very high.
He only had 2,561 souls so far. That wasn't even half of what was needed.
The pace of leveling up was much faster than collecting souls.
His level was already 69, and he entered here at level 61.
Looking at the increasing difficulty of gaining levels in normal C-rank dungeons, the eight levels gained here were a very nice result.
Jin-Woo shifted his gaze to the pillar of shining energy. At this level, the energy pillar was guarded by a gigantic demon surrounded by many high-level demons. Jin-Woo looked over the head of the gigantic demon.
[RULER OF THE LOWER FLOORS, GREEDY VULCAN]
The demon had a gigantic, muscular body that looked like it weighed tens, no, hundreds of tons. In his hands he held a large, crudely made wooden club.
Ruler of the lower floors, huh?
Jin-Woo had quite pleasant memories of bosses in the Hunter system's dungeons. They always gave a large amount of experience points and dropped good items.
There was no point in hesitating much longer.
The Shadow Soldiers appeared behind Jin-Woo. His army consisted of infantry, mages, beasts, and two knights.
The two knights stepped forward and took their places at Jin-Woo's sides. Igris on his right, Iron on his left.
Looking at those two, Jin-Woo could not hold back a proud smile.
They were reliable in combat.
The enemy, however, looked like a dangerous guy. Mainly because of that huge stupid club.
He wondered what kind of freakishly large tree that club had to have been made from.
Considering Vulcan's gigantic body and the size of the wooden club, one blow would destroy his entire army.
The problem was the limited amount of mana he had to expend regenerating the entire army.
If he rushed at the boss in an ill-conceived manner, dragging the entire army with him, his mana level would plummet to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. He had to deal with this meat sack himself.
His army would handle Vulcan's scattered guards while Jin-Woo fought the gigantic demon alone, undisturbed by other demons. He felt this was the best approach to the fight.
What was even the point of having much weaker guards?
Jin-Woo really didn't understand why those trash mobs were placed around Vulcan.
But that didn't matter now.
He had to focus on not getting hit by that club.
Unlike his soldiers, Jin-Woo was confident in his ability to avoid Vulcan's attacks. The Hunter ordered the Shadow Mages to fire the opening shot.
A fireball exploded near Vulcan's guards, signaling the start of the battle.
[VULCAN'S GUARD DETECTED AN ENEMY]
[VULCAN'S GUARD DETECTED AN ENEMY]
[VULCAN'S GUARD DETECTED AN ENEMY]
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