Chapter 5
Resolution (1)
“It’s getting crowded now.”
“Must be the latecomers.”
The plaza before the gates of Thebes was packed with people.
Because all the bosses from the 1st to the 5th floor had vanished, the Hunters who had started their ascent later could reach this place much more easily than expected.
There was a burly man with a massive round shield on his back, a woman in robes holding a staff embedded with gems, and an agile-looking young man with twin daggers at his hips.
Hunters with various weapons and equipment were passing through the city gates one by one, entering Thebes.
“Who the hell slayed a dragon already?”
“First of all, dragons are at least A-rank, so why was one on the 5th floor?”
“Maybe they’ve already gone past the 10th floor?”
“The major guilds have all declared their participation, so it must be one of them.”
People were buzzing about the announcement that had echoed throughout the entire Tower hours earlier.
Everyone was curious about the news of the dragon’s subjugation and the identity of the unknown person who had acquired the unfamiliar term, ‘Hidden Class’.
It was only natural. Only a single day had passed since the Tower opened, and dragons were legendary beings that appeared extremely rarely, even outside the Tower, only in Red Gates or Mutant Gates.
“Welcome, Hunters!”
A bright voice called out from inside the city gates. A resident of Thebes, dressed in simple clothes made of white cloth, was waving her hands to greet the Hunters.
“I am Celia, a guide of Thebes. I’ll give a brief explanation for those of you visiting for the first time!”
People gathered around Celia. Eyes full of curiosity focused on her.
“Here in Thebes, we offer you a special opportunity to become stronger. It’s the ‘Class Advancement’ system!”
Celia gestured towards the massive spires in the central plaza.
“You can advance to a different class at each of those five temples! Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Guardian, and even Priest!”
“Classes? Sounds like a game.”
“What changes if you advance?”
Questions full of skepticism poured out.
“By advancing your class, you can learn powerful skills specialized for that class! And most importantly…”
Celia’s eyes sparkled.
“You can continue to grow through leveling up! It’s completely different from the old fixed-grade system!”
“Ah, we already know about that.”
“It popped up in the notice when we entered the Tower.”
“The level system, right? That’s why we’re here.”
People responded indifferently, as if they already knew. The level-up system was information given to all Hunters upon entering the Tower.
“The advancement quests for other classes aren’t too difficult. But the Warrior advancement quest is different! It’s truly dangerous. However, you can’t take the test right now. Because someone already went and slayed the dragon that was the test subject.”
The Hunters wore varied expressions.
Those who had intended to become Warriors to utilize their original traits looked disappointed, while others were excited about new possibilities.
“Is everyone here for the first time?”
Just then, an affable voice sounded from within the crowd.
“You must be new here? We arrived early. This seems like a place we’ll need to be for a while, so let us guide you.”
A few individuals with black hoods pulled low approached the people.
Their faces weren’t clearly visible, but their voices were quite polite.
Several Hunters showed interest.
Especially those who had come alone, unable to join a guild or party.
“We’d appreciate a guide.”
“Please follow us this way. It seems there are hidden places, hidden level-up systems in Thebes.”
The hooded figures led them away from the plaza into a narrow alley.
A shadowy alley between buildings. Deeper and deeper into a place where people seldom tread.
“What’s supposed to be here…”
The moment one Hunter turned around, puzzled—
Shhhk—!
“…!”
A red line was drawn across his neck, and blood gushed out like a fountain.
Before the remaining Hunters could even grasp the situation, daggers flashed from all directions.
“Gyahk!”
“Spare…”
Thud! Thud!
They fell one by one, unable to even scream properly.
The sounds of daggers digging between ribs and piercing hearts with a squelch echoed through the alley.
Red blood seeped into the rough cracks between the stones on the ground, filling the entire alley with the stench of blood.
The hooded figures began looting the corpses.
“What’s this? For a C-ranker, he had some pretty decent gear.”
“Quite a few coins too.”
As they collected the stripped armor, weapons, and blood-soaked coins, a transparent window appeared before their eyes.
Ding-!
[Experience Gained]
[Level Up!]
They smiled with satisfaction and left the alley in search of their next prey.
“Impossible.”
Balderion muttered with an expression of astonishment.
Kim Jun showed him what was visible to his own eyes.
[Class Advancement Complete!]
[Hidden Class ‘Dragon Slayer’ Acquired]
“Impossible. This… this is the first time since Kaiser…”
Balderion’s voice trembled. A feat no one had accomplished for hundreds of years.
The last person to have single-handedly slain the Red Dragon was Kaiser, the founder of Thebes.
“You… you truly did it.”
“Yes. And that’s not all.”
Kim Jun replied calmly and pulled something out of his subspace pouch.
A heart of an immensely massive size.
The Dragon Heart, shimmering like a red ruby, still pulsating.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
“T-This is!”
Balderion held his breath. A Dragon Heart. And in a perfectly intact, still-beating state.
“D-Dragon Heart…!”
The legendary treasure said to have been obtained by only one hero since the Tower’s creation a thousand years ago.
The absolute essential element for the ultimate awakening of a Dragon Slayer.
And above all, the unique medium that allows the destructive language ‘Dragon Tongue’, which only the dragon race could use since the beginning of time, to be imprinted upon a human body.
It was the miraculous key that allowed a mortal human to wield that ancient power, which even the ‘Absolute One’ revered.
“Balderion.”
Kim Jun’s voice echoed up to the high ceiling of the temple. His voice contained absolute conviction.
“I will set you free.”
“…!!”
The outsider with black hair.
They had met face-to-face barely an hour ago.
So how did he know? The desperate wish harbored by the Tower’s residents for hundreds of years.
The liberation of all residents trapped in the Tower. Salvation from this endless ordeal. The hope for a true hero who would one day appear.
This young man was looking straight at him and declaring it. That he would liberate the people of the Tower, just as Balderion so desperately wished.
As if it were fate. As if it were a promise.
He couldn’t tell how much this young man knew, but strangely, his heart felt at ease. It felt as if the despair that had pressed down on him for so long was slowly lifting.
Kim Jun placed the Dragon Heart back into his subspace pouch and slowly turned. His retreating back walked towards the temple’s massive door.
‘He didn’t have to come…’
Balderion watched that figure for a long time.
His confident shoulders, his unwavering gait. And above all, the aura surrounding him was different.
‘If it’s truly him…’
Balderion’s heart began to race. That dream he had given up on after being trapped here for hundreds of years.
The liberation of Thebes. The conquest of the Tower. And the salvation of all.
‘He might just be able to do it.’
He, too, had had his fiery years. The days of his youth when his vigor surged as he cried out for the Tower’s liberation.
The era when he tried to arm all Thebans as warriors, turned blades against the monster invasions, and vowed to plant the flag of Thebes at the Tower’s summit.
But before the flow of time, letting things go one by one had become a habit.
The honor of Thebes, the liberation of the Tower… he had given them up one by one, convincing himself they were impossible dreams.
But look at that outsider. He had calmly declared he would achieve that grand dream Balderion himself had abandoned.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Thump. Thump—
And so, the old warrior had no choice but to rise from the seat he had occupied for so long.
‘I can’t just dump all the baggage onto that young man.’
He had to prepare. He didn’t know when the time would come, but he had to lay the groundwork for the perilous path that young man would walk.
Thump. Thump—
Blood began to flow once more into his decaying muscles. The soul of the warrior, long asleep, was awakening.
“Draconis.”
“Yes.”
“The time has come.”
Implanting the Dragon Heart into a human body was a gamble with one’s life.
A massive vortex of mana would wrap around the entire body, twisting the internal organs, and the body could explode during the process of accepting the alien mana of the dragon race, unable to withstand it.
But Kim Jun had already experienced that hellish pain. The memory of enduring it with willpower alone, without anyone’s help, was vivid.
“I have to go through it again.”
Kim Jun smiled wryly. This time, he planned to do it differently.
His current level was 30. Back in his previous life, he was only level 8 when he was tackling the 6th floor, so his growth was already three times faster.
And if he implanted the Dragon Heart on top of that?
He would be able to climb unimpeded all the way to the Fortress of Kaldion on the 50th floor.
However, there was one problem. At his current low level, it was difficult to withstand the powerful recoil of the Dragon Heart alone.
To offset that fatal side effect, he absolutely needed the help of the S-rank Healer, Lee Seo-yeon.
Step. Step—
As Kim Jun walked the streets of Thebes, he spread out waves of mana. Fine vibrations spread out in concentric circles, rippling across the entire city.
It was a detection spell to find his comrades.
“Hmm?”
But then, within those waves, he sensed an unmistakable aura of blatant malice.
“Someone died.”
It was impossible for monsters from other floors to have invaded Thebes on the 5th floor already.
Recalling his pre-regression memories, this was definitely an event that hadn’t occurred at this point.
“Then that means… Ah.”
Kim Jun slapped his own forehead hard.
How could he have forgotten? How could he have almost overlooked those bastards?
The ones he should have dealt with first.
“Am (Darkness).”
The assassin guild ‘Am (Darkness)’.
A murderous organization composed of agile and cruel individuals.
Even before the Tower appeared, they had stabbed fellow Hunters in the back inside Gates, monopolizing magic stones and equipment.
Born scum who thought nothing of betraying and killing their comrades.
When the Tower appeared and the class system was created, they all advanced to the Assassin class to utilize their vile aptitudes.
Human trash who hunted innocent Hunters who entered the Tower, and even went on to kill and plunder residents.
“Soo-in died because of those bastards.”
Kim Jun’s fist clenched automatically. It was these very bastards who had killed Han Soo-in, the S-rank Assassin and his precious comrade, on the 32nd floor.
Who could have imagined? That in the face of a common goal like the Tower, fellow humans would stab each other in the back.
“I won’t let it happen this time.”
Kim Jun began to caress the hilt of his greatsword.
Whoosh—!
Moving faster than anyone else, he shot towards the source of the malicious aura.
