It all started with a single phrase. "Come out."
A vibration far greater than any mana wave the shaman had released radiated outward in every direction. But the changes didn't stop there. The moment his mana opened, a shadow spread from beneath Jin-Woo's feet. It blanketed the floor at terrifying speed, like black ink spilled across the surface of a still lake.
"Huh!" "Wh-what is that?"
The Hunters on Son Ki-Hoon's team stared at the shadow creeping past their feet in horror. How were they supposed to interpret this? It was something even veteran Hunters had never seen before—something they'd never even heard of. *Tremble, tremble.* A vague, nameless dread crept over them. Even Son Ki-Hoon, who lay powerless on the floor staring up at Jin-Woo, shuddered from head to toe.
*What... what is he trying to do?*
As if in answer to Son Ki-Hoon's question, the shadow covered the entire floor of the boss room. *Sllrrrk.* The surface of the shadow rippled, and soldiers clad in pitch-black armor rose one by one.
[Skill: Domain of the Monarch has been cast.] [The stats of shadow soldiers fighting on the caster's shadow are increased by 50%.]
A faint smile crossed Jin-Woo's face.
*Good.*
This was a class-exclusive skill he'd acquired after reaching level 70 in the demon castle. He could feel the boosted morale of his newly strengthened soldiers. Naturally, his expression settled into satisfaction. The fifty summoned shadow soldiers surrounded Jin-Woo as if to guard him.
"Krrk!" "Grrk!"
The High Orc warriors, fierce to a fault, were intimidated by the pressure radiating from Jin-Woo and his soldiers. They retreated one step, then another.
"Th-the orcs are pulling back!" "What the hell is going on..."
The Hunters trembled, unable to believe what they were seeing, yet a sliver of hope began to stir.
"You felt it too?" "Yeah." "Does this... does this even make sense?"
The magic-type Hunters, attuned to mana, couldn't stop their own hearts from racing. From the man they'd believed to be nothing more than an E-rank—a substitute they'd brought along as a porter—an overwhelming torrent of mana was pouring out.
*No, wait—is this even mana in the first place?* *A presence more ominous than the High Orc shaman's...!*
The mana pressure filling the boss room made it hard to breathe. The fact that this much power wasn't directed at them was an immense relief. Among the High Orcs, however, tension spiked to a fever pitch. The shadow soldiers' appearance had reduced the gap from 1 to 150 down to 50 to 150. And those 50 were no ordinary soldiers. Their strength was beyond calculation—on an entirely different level. As if to prove that very fact, Jin-Woo was the first to surge forward. At that moment, the shaman screamed.
"What are you doing! Why haven't you killed that human yet!"
Spurred by the shaman's voice loaded with mana, the High Orcs roared and raised their weapons.
"GRAAAAH!"
*Shashashk. Skck!* The Domain of the Monarch skill belonged to the shadow soldiers alone. But even without the stat-boosting buff, Jin-Woo demonstrated strength on another dimension entirely.
"GRAAAH!" "GRAA—GRAAAH!"
The High Orcs shrieked. Body parts, sliced clean by Jin-Woo's twin daggers, flew through the air in a spray of blood. His movements were so fast that even top-tier Hunters could see afterimages burned into their vision.
"That..." "Yeah, just like the vice president."
Cha Hae-In's nickname had been "the dancer." She was quiet by nature, but the moment combat began, she moved with the agility of someone performing a fast-tempo dance, cutting down monsters with breathtaking precision—and that had earned her the nickname. The person herself had banned its use out of embarrassment, so it never saw widespread adoption, but it still surfaced from time to time. Now, the porter was displaying movements equal to Cha Hae-In's—or even beyond them. If Cha Hae-In was a dance, then the porter was a storm. He was the eye of that storm, crushing monsters in his wake. *Grrraaah!* The shadow soldiers held nothing back. Starting with Tank, the former alpha of the Ice Bears, charging with its forepaws, the shadow soldiers' assault began. Iron led the charge. As always, Iron threw his chest out and bellowed a war cry before plunging into battle. Wooooooh!
[Iron uses Skill: Taunting Shout.] [Targets' resistance is too high. The effect does not activate.]
Enraged that his skill had failed, Iron let out a furious roar. Then he began smashing High Orcs to pieces with his massive iron hammer. *Vwooom—Crack! Snap!*
"GRAAAH!" "Kieek!"
One had to feel sorry for the High Orcs standing in Iron's path. Igrit, by contrast, was the picture of elegant efficiency as she cut through enemy necks. The High Orcs who faced Igrit had no time to scream before their lives ended. *Skck!* Igrit's blade swept in a clean arc, and another High Orc's head rolled free. The ordinary shadow soldiers struggled against the High Orcs, but they possessed tireless stamina and near-infinite regenerative ability. As long as they could buy time, the mages' hellish barrage of fire was sure to rain down without fail. *Kwaaaaa—!* *Fwooosh!* The High Orcs' numbers plummeted. The shaman's pig-like jowls quivered with fury.
*This insolent human!*
The shaman's gaze was locked on Jin-Woo. First, he had to take care of this human. Those soldiers in black armor were summonings the human had conjured! Kill the human, and the soldiers would vanish too. To capture Jin-Woo, the shaman began chanting.
"..."
The shaman's lips moved rapidly. Song of Slowing, Song of Blindness, Song of Fever, Song of Agony, Song of Sleep. Five powerful curses were completed in the blink of an eye and shot toward their target.
"Got you!"
The corners of the shaman's mouth curled upward. The moment the curses were complete, Jin-Woo also sensed the movement of mana.
*Magic?*
Jin-Woo and the shaman locked eyes. The shaman grinned.
*Too late, human.*
Curses were different from ordinary magic—they couldn't be dodged. The moment they activated, it was over. Once reduced to a walking corpse by every curse in the book, this human would be torn to shreds by the warriors' blades. A fitting end for someone who didn't know his own place. But then—familiar mechanical tones rang in Jin-Woo's ear. *Ding.*
[Abnormal status has occurred.] [The effect of Buff: Immunity has removed the abnormal status.]
*Ding. Ding. Ding.* The tones came rapid-fire.
[Curse: Slowing has been removed.] [Curse: Blindness has been removed.] ...
All five curses were erased before they even had a chance to activate. *Grin.* This time, Jin-Woo was the one smiling. He'd had a buff since becoming a player.
[Grand Sorcerer Candiaru's Blessing] - Continuous Effect 'Longevity': Grants immunity to all disease, poison, and abnormal effects. Regeneration while sleeping increases dramatically.
Thanks to this, he had no need to fear abnormal status magic like curses.
"N-no!"
The shaman shuddered. As befitted the boss of an A-rank Dungeon, he quickly realized that the curses he'd cast had been nullified by some other power.
*How could this one's curses be—?*
It made no sense. Nullifying curses required a blessing or dispel magic from someone with even greater power.
*There exists a human sorcerer more powerful than this one?*
But before the shaman could dwell on it any longer, he had to scream from the agonizing pain shooting up from the top of his foot.
"GAAAAAAH—!"
Looking down, he found a dagger embedded in his foot.
"Grrrrgh..."
It was Jin-Woo's dagger, "Knight Killer." The shaman raised his head and glared at Jin-Woo with bloodshot eyes.
"You dare..."
Jin-Woo, who had just cut down a High Orc charging at him, mouthed a message to the shaman.
—Wait your turn quietly.
Stop doing pointless things. The shaman, who had been glaring at Jin-Woo, flushed as red as a ripe persimmon.
"A mere human!"
So he still had energy to spare for anger. Jin-Woo's expression turned cold. In truth, he could have eliminated the shaman the moment combat began if he'd wanted to. But he hadn't. Just as the shaman had done to the Hunters, Jin-Woo wanted to plant the emotion of fear into this creature. Yet this much didn't seem enough to awaken terror in that arrogant monster. The light in its eyes was still alive. In that case.
*I'll show you something entertaining.*
From here on was the true domain of a necromancer. As the Shadow Monarch, the sight around him was nothing short of a lavish festival. Black smoke rose lazily from the High Orc corpses scattered everywhere, curling upward as though waiting for Jin-Woo's call. Jin-Woo summoned them.
"Arise."
[Attempting Shadow Extraction.]
As the System message confirmed the skill's activation, horrifying screams—like the death throes of damned souls—wailed from somewhere. Waaaaaah—the shaman's eyes went wide.
"What is—!"
The shaman couldn't finish. Before he could even get the words out, black hands were surging upward from the shadows of the High Orc corpses.
[Shadow Extraction succeeded.]
Jin-Woo smiled at the newcomers joining his shadow army.
*My warriors... as undead...!*
The shaman trembled violently. Roughly fifty fallen warriors had been converted. That many more figures now stood clad in black armor.
*Then those soldiers he already has are also... all...?!*
At last, the shaman realized that the unidentified human wasn't wielding ordinary summoned creatures. And he realized just how overwhelmingly that power disadvantaged them. The fight of 50 against 150 had become 100 against 100. The High Orc warriors—who had fought bravely even against enemies stronger than themselves—saw their comrades resurrected as shadow soldiers and rapidly lost their will to fight.
"Krr... krrk." "Krk." "Kraaah."
High Orc warriors who had never feared the sight of blood began openly backing away. To die and not ascend to the warriors' holy land, but instead be turned into puppets of the enemy—it was a nightmare for any High Orc warrior. The Shadow Extraction skill had clearly had its effect.
*It worked on the warriors. Let's see how the shaman holds up.*
Jin-Woo studied the shaman's expression.
*Oh.*
Jin-Woo's face brightened. At last. He found it—fear in the shaman's eyes. The shaman was shuddering, remembering the being who could resurrect the dead as shadows. There couldn't possibly be more than one person with that kind of power. He was the one.
*That man is... then why are we here?*
The instant the shaman became aware of "himself" and "themselves," his mind went blank and his memories cleanly vanished. The only emotion left behind was fear. Jin-Woo looked satisfied.
*Good. Stay like that.*
The shaman would be dealt with last. His plan to keep the shaman trembling with fear until the very end had been a success. Smiling, Jin-Woo turned around—and spotted a familiar woman standing in the distance at the entrance threshold. Jin-Woo tilted his head.
*Who was that again?*
Familiar, yet distant. It took a brief moment before her name came to mind. Cha Hae-In, the S-rank Hunter from the Hunters' Guild.
*But what's she doing here?*
Jin-Woo was surprised to see Cha Hae-In, but she was infinitely more stunned than he was. Eyes wide as saucers, she stared at Jin-Woo and his shadow soldiers.