Chairman Ko Geon-Hee glanced down at the watch on his wrist and a smile crept onto his lips. Hunter Sung Jin-Woo's raid. If it were possible, he would have gone in person to observe it, but circumstances made that impossible, so he had sent his most trusted employee in his stead. He was already looking forward to what Section Chief Woo Jin-Cheol would report.
'Right, this isn't the time for that.'
Ko Geon-Hee shook his head and brushed away his thoughts. On his desk, a pile of paperwork had accumulated like a mountain—something that hadn't been there before. The so-called tower of documents. Ever since the dungeon break occurred at the school, no matter how hard he tried to focus on his work, the height of the tower only grew. Despite being pressed for time to this degree, his interest in Hunter Sung never waned. If his health had been better, perhaps there would have come a day when he roamed dungeons alongside Hunter Sung.
'I really am getting carried away.'
Ko Geon-Hee shook his head once more with a chuckle and got to work. He must have been concentrating for a while, because when a knock sounded at the door, he looked up to find three hours had passed.
"It's Woo Jin-Cheol, Chairman."
The news he had been waiting for. Ko Geon-Hee welcomed Section Chief Woo with a bright face, showing no trace of fatigue.
"Come in."
Creak. As Woo Jin-Cheol stepped carefully inside, Ko Geon-Hee's eyes went wide.
'What?'
He had expected Woo Jin-Cheol to return uneventfully, but the man looked utterly haggard.
'Someone else, maybe—but he was with Hunter Sung Jin-Woo. So why does he look like that...?'
The confusion lasted only a moment.
"Pardon me, but may I sit down for a moment, Chairman?"
At Woo Jin-Cheol's earnest request, Ko Geon-Hee quickly gestured toward the sofa.
"Of course. Please, sit down."
He then rose from the chairman's chair himself and settled into the sofa opposite Woo Jin-Cheol. Thud. Woo Jin-Cheol collapsed into his seat. He dragged both hands down his face, clearly exhausted. What had happened inside? Before Woo Jin-Cheol could even open his mouth, Ko Geon-Hee's curiosity got the better of him.
"What happened? Your face... why do you look like that?" "Huh? Is something on my face?" "You look terribly tired. Like someone who hasn't slept in days." "Ah..."
Nod, nod. Woo Jin-Cheol seemed to agree, silently bobbing his head several times.
"I think I'm in shock, Chairman." "Shock? Tell me everything. Didn't you go to observe Hunter Sung Jin-Woo's raid?"
Woo Jin-Cheol lowered his gaze and slowly shook his head.
"It wasn't that kind of raid." "What do you mean, it wasn't?"
When Woo Jin-Cheol raised his head, his eyes were still a mixture of fear and disbelief.
"It was a massacre."
Known for his composure as head of the Surveillance Division and regarded as having an iron nerve, Woo Jin-Cheol's voice was trembling.
"A massacre...?"
Ko Geon-Hee swallowed hard. Woo Jin-Cheol answered firmly, with no intention of taking back his words.
"Yes."
What other word could describe it? It could only be called a massacre. Woo Jin-Cheol recounted everything, holding nothing back, exactly as the Chairman had requested.
"That dungeon was a naga's nest."
Ko Geon-Hee's eyes narrowed as he recalled his own memories of the creatures.
'Nagas, huh...'
Creatures that looked like a cross between a human and a sea snake, fond of damp places, adept at both combat and magic, capable of giving even seasoned Hunters a hard time. Known as dangerous magical beasts that, despite being high-rank, always moved in packs. However.
"But if it's Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, a few nagas grouped together shouldn't have posed a problem."
As if reading Ko Geon-Hee's thoughts, Woo Jin-Cheol answered.
"...I ended up feeling sorry for the nagas." "...!"
Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the scene. When over thirty nagas appeared in a swarm, he had briefly tensed up, even forgetting who was standing beside him. That was how fearsome nagas were. But then.
"The surroundings went dark."
Or rather, black shadows began spreading from beneath Hunter Sung Jin-Woo's feet. The moment his hairs stood on end, sensing that something was about to begin, black soldiers emerged from the shadows and rose up onto the ground. It was the start of combat—no, the start of the massacre.
-Kiaaaaah! —Kihah! —Kiaaaah-!
Hunter Sung Jin-Woo's summoned creatures burst forth and began tearing the nagas apart without mercy.
"The ones that fared somewhat better were the humanoid soldiers in armor and the summoned creatures with high orc faces. But..."
The bear-shaped summoned creatures and the ant-form summoned creatures were beasts through and through.
"Some of the ants even tried to eat the magical beast corpses, and when Hunter Sung got angry, they got kicked."
Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the ant-form summoned creature that tried to swallow a naga corpse's head in one bite, only to be kicked by Hunter Sung straight into a wall. He shuddered. Whether it was the terrifying summoned creature itself that made him tremble, or the fact that Jin-Woo had sent it flying without a moment's hesitation, he still couldn't say. Seeing Woo Jin-Cheol on edge, Ko Geon-Hee grew tense himself and swallowed hard.
"Were the summoned creatures powerful?" "Powerful is an understatement."
There was no question about it. Humanoid soldiers, orc-form soldiers, bear and ant-form soldiers. Not a single weak summon among them. But the one that truly stood above the rest.
"There was one summoned creature with a long, thin mane flowing from its helmet."
Woo Jin-Cheol lifted his head, which had been slightly bowed, and met Ko Geon-Hee's eyes.
"Could you believe it if I told you that lightning crackled from its sword every time it swung?" "Good heavens..."
Ko Geon-Hee was stunned. Lightning magic carried both the destructive power of fire and the speed of light-type magic. As such, it was a skill only high-level magic-type Hunters could use, and even they struggled to cast it consecutively. But this summoned creature produced it with every swing of its sword? Ko Geon-Hee shook his head. If the words hadn't come from a subordinate he trusted, he would have found it hard to believe. And yet, even harder to believe words followed.
"In my eyes, that summoned creature looked to be beyond A-rank." "Is that—are you serious?"
Ko Geon-Hee's voice rose. How could a mere summoned creature possess abilities nearing S-rank? But then Woo Jin-Cheol, who ranked among the very top of A-rank Hunters, confirmed it.
"One-on-one, I'm not sure I could win against that summoned creature... honestly, I had no confidence."
Naturally. If a fiercely proud man like Woo Jin-Cheol made that assessment, the summoned creature could safely be called S-rank.
"Good grief..."
Ko Geon-Hee leaned back into the sofa. He had long known how extraordinary Hunter Sung Jin-Woo was, but to think his summoned creatures were that powerful too. It was a shame he couldn't go see it for himself. Just hearing the story secondhand like this was astonishing enough—what must it have been like for Woo Jin-Cheol, who had been there the entire time? Woo Jin-Cheol's haggard appearance made sense now. It must have been one shock after another. But as if that weren't the end of it, Woo Jin-Cheol continued, saying there was an even more surprising sight to come.
"The ants started working."
Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes wavered. The ants had taken the pickaxes from the bag carried by the vice president of the Ah-Jin Guild and begun mining the mana crystals sprouting from the cave walls. Transporting the mined mana crystals and the magical beast corpses was also entirely their job. Woo Jin-Cheol couldn't take his eyes off the ants' seamless, disciplined pace of work. Incarnations of productivity. He had been filled with nothing but admiration.
"That wasn't some one-man raid team."
This was a single individual capable of dungeon clearing, corpse collection, and ore mining all on his own. Woo Jin-Cheol was certain. Calling Hunter Sung a one-man raid team was an insult.
"He was an entire guild."
Not a one-man raid team, but a one-man guild. Strictly speaking, the vice president was there too, but he didn't seem to make much difference either way, so it wasn't wrong.
'As expected, my eyes aren't mistaken.'
Chairman Ko Geon-Hee slapped his knee. A smile never left his face. Just as he had initially hoped, Hunter Sung Jin-Woo would serve as a new counterbalance in the Korean Hunter community—and perhaps even reshape the world's Hunter map.
"That was how we reached the boss room."
The story wasn't over yet? Ko Geon-Hee refocused. Woo Jin-Cheol said the naga boss was normally about four times the size of regular nagas, which themselves were already two to three times a human's size, and its intimidating presence was immense.
"The boss-level magical beast must have been dispatched quickly using the summoned creatures too?"
Woo Jin-Cheol shook his head.
"Actually, he dismissed all the summoned creatures except the ones working." "What—why?"
At Ko Geon-Hee's surprise, Woo Jin-Cheol answered calmly.
"I was curious too, so I asked. Why he was sending the summoned creatures away right before facing the boss."
So caught up in the story, Ko Geon-Hee had unknowingly leaned forward.
"And then?" "This is what Hunter Sung Jin-Woo said."
As if searching his memory, Woo Jin-Cheol paused briefly, then slowly spoke.
"If I rely too much on my summoned creatures..."
* * *
"I'll lose my edge."
Jin-Woo stepped forward and summoned the 'Demon King's Dagger' into both hands. He didn't need to use the soldiers. In front of him were one boss-level magical beast and four nagas serving as its escort. Jin-Woo pushed off the ground and charged.
'Swift Shadow.'
Before the escorts could react, the distance between him and the giant naga vanished in an instant.
'Slashing Barrage.'
Dozens of silver flashes poured into the boss's lower body. Thud-thud-thud-thud-!
"Kuaaaah!"
While the boss screamed and writhed, the escorts lunged at Jin-Woo. Jin-Woo stepped on one escort's head and shot vertically upward. The moment his eyes met the boss's from high above, Jin-Woo brought his dagger down.
"Kihah!"
The boss's head split vertically, and a message appeared. Ding.
[Dungeon lord eliminated.] [You have leveled up!]
Jin-Woo's expression brightened at the welcome System message.
'Oh!'
Jin-Woo landed on the ground and spun once. The four escorts that had surrounded and attacked him collapsed simultaneously. But the System messages didn't stop there. Ding, ding, ding...! The mechanical chimes went on endlessly.
'What's this?'
The surprise lasted only a moment.
[You have reached level 101.] [Skill 'Shadow Extraction' level has increased.] [Skill 'Shadow Storage' level has increased.] [Skill 'Ruler's Domain' level has increased.] [Skill 'Shadow Exchange' level has increased.]
Jin-Woo's eyes went wide as the messages scrolled by faster than even his own eyes could follow.
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