Chapter 6

Resolution (2)

The old warehouse district on the outskirts of Thebes.

In the mouth of an alleyway that reeked of rot, a pool of bloody water had collected.

In this place where not a single proper ray of light entered, a corpse—someone who must have been precious to another just hours ago—was growing cold.

“Kekekekeke. The harvest is already pretty good.”
“Look at these F-raters crawling up the Tower thinking they can climb.”

A man in a black hood wiped his bloody blade carelessly on his sleeve and snickered.

On the ground lay a novice hunter, who seemed to have just passed twenty, dead, staring into the void. The horror of his final moments was frozen on his face.

“This guy’s gear is pretty good, huh? Some chaebol’s son? A-grade gear for a D-rater.”

He spat as he stripped the armor from the corpse. This night, a tragedy for someone, was just a pleasant hunting time for them.

“This is the seventh one just today. Everyone’s leveled up quite a bit, right?”
“Of course. EXP is the same whether it’s from monsters or humans. I’m already level 6.”

They were members of the assassin guild ‘Um (Darkness)’. Within a day of arriving in Thebes, they had hunted dozens of hunters. To them, human life was merely material for EXP and equipment.

But there was something they didn’t know.

The fact that another hunter, targeting them, was already close by.

Step.

The sound of footsteps came from the alley entrance.

“Who’s there?”

The hooded assassins turned simultaneously. A single silhouette slowly approaching through the darkness. Its outline became clearer under the faint moonlight.

“What’s this? Did you see everything?”
“Huh, he’s alone? Since he witnessed our business…”

Before the words even finished, a greatsword tore through the space. A perfect slash that didn’t even make a sound of wind.

Swaa-

A thin red line was drawn across one thug’s neck, and then his head plopped off and rolled on the ground.

An eerie scene of a torso still standing, but without a head.

“Wha, what! Using a greatsword like a dagger!”

The remaining assassins gasped in shock and hurriedly drew their weapons. But it was already too late.

Kim Jun fully revealed himself from the darkness. Blood still dripped from the greatsword in his hand.

“Vermin.”

A voice filled with rage pressed down on the entire alley.

“Why did I let you live?”

The assassins looked at each other.

What they saw in each other’s eyes was primal ‘fear’.

An absolute sense of powerlessness felt before overwhelming strength. The instinctual fear of prey before a predator paralyzed their entire bodies.

Tremble tremble tremble-

Kim Jun slowly walked towards them. But they couldn’t move a single step, let alone run. Their limbs were frozen.

“Hey, look…”

One who seemed somewhat smarter began to plead in a trembling voice.

“We’ll give you all our coins, equipment, information, just please spare our lives—”

Stab-!

“Kheuk!”

The greatsword pierced his chest. Blood gushed from his mouth.

“Information?”

Kim Jun looked down at him with cold eyes.

“Information? I don’t need it. I already know everything.”

If these scum hadn’t existed, his previous life would have been very different.

If the hunters they hadn’t killed, if Han Soo-in, if the Tower’s residents had lived, if they had all combined their strength to climb to the 100th floor…

So what Kim Jun was cutting down wasn’t just the heads of insects.

What Kim Jun was cutting down was his own foolishness for forgetting the very first thing he needed to do.

A weak fragment of himself, so caught up in immediate growth that he overlooked the enemy right before his eyes.

The moment the greatsword severed the enemy’s breath, Kim Jun simultaneously cut away something within himself as well.

“I’ll kill you all.”

Stab-!

“Kheuk!”
“Uwaaaaah! Run!”

If sin has swallowed everything human about a person, can you still call that a person?

“Die.”

And so, what Kim Jun was cutting down was also ‘sin’.

“This should be about it.”

Scrape scrape-

Sweeping the ground with his greatsword, he walked towards the place reeking of foul odor, as if connecting a fuse.

The sound of the blade scraping the ground echoed like a sinister prelude.

Not far away.

The den of ‘Um (Darkness)’.

“Kekekekeke.”
“Looks like we can start hunting stronger guys now?”

Laughter coming from the darkness. Their outlines were clear to Kim Jun’s eyes.

Roughly thirty of them.

He adjusted his stance.

With the intention of ending it in one strike.

Whoosh-

Dragon flames began to wreathe the sword,

Flare-

And soon spread across his entire body.

“What’s that?”
“Fire?”

Whoaaaa-!

Then, Kim Jun’s single-minded resolve to kill the vermin was transmitted through the flames.

[「Berserk D」Activated.]
[Current Rage Level: Stage 2.]
[Current Effect: Attack Power +5% / Agility +5%]
[Warning: Possibility of loss of self if rage threshold is reached.]

“What the hell is that guy?!”

The raised greatsword was brought down upon the ground with full force.

Fwaaaaaa-!

Splitting the ground, the dragon’s flames spreading in a fan shape turned the scum into ashes.

“Kuaaaak!”
“What are you doing! Kill him!”

The thugs who avoided the flames quickly regained their senses and began to glare at Kim Jun.

Assassins composed of A-ranks and B-ranks. They drew their weapons as if to show off their individual skills and abilities.

Swish-

They each took out their hidden weapons and began throwing them at Kim Jun. Dozens of sharpened metals glinting in the darkness flew at him from all directions.

Someone targeted his back with swift movements. Hiding in the shadows, aiming for a fatal blow.

“Die, damn it!”

Thud-

“Ugh!”

But what was caught wasn’t Kim Jun, but the thug’s own neck.

Crunch-!

Those who saw their comrade’s neck crushed before their eyes tried to flee, but it was already too late.

Step-

With every step he took,

Thud-

A head falls.

Splash splash-

Soon the entire floor of the alley was soaked with blood. While the red tide rose to their ankles, Kim Jun’s gaze didn’t waver in the slightest.

The surviving assassins, seemingly judging survival impossible like this, simultaneously drew daggers from their waists.

Poisonous liquid glistened with a green hue on the tips of the daggers.

“Just one hit and you’re finished.”

Swish-

At one person’s signal, hundreds of poisoned daggers rained down towards Kim Jun.

Pabababak-

“No matter how strong you are, you can’t dodge all of this!”

But Kim Jun just stood silently amidst the rain of daggers.

“Given up? Well, you can’t avoid my secret technique.”
“You’re dead now!”

The thugs cheered, certain of victory. Their paralytic poison was a lethal toxin that could instantly neutralize even an S-rank hunter’s nervous system.

But contrary to the assassins’ expectations, a red light began to emanate from Kim Jun’s body.

“「Dragon Blood Awakening」.”

With Kim Jun’s low utterance, his entire body began to glow red.

The blood vessels flowing beneath his skin heated up like lava, illuminating his whole body.

[「Dragon Blood Awakening S」Activated]
[All Status Ailments Removed]
[All Toxins Neutralized]
[Temporary Attack Power Increase +30%]

The daggers embedded in Kim Jun’s body began to fall to the ground, one by one.

“Wh, what is this?!”

Despair flashed across the thugs’ faces. The victory they were sure of had reversed in an instant.

They couldn’t understand it.

Even S-rank hunters die if their vitals are pierced. If their neck is cut or their heart is pierced, it’s over. That was the natural order.

Even S-rank hunters called superhumans couldn’t ignore the laws of physics. But that guy…

“「Dragon Slash」.”

Pakakakak-!

The being before them was surpassing all common sense they knew.

No attack worked. No poison worked. No weapon worked.

Like beasts lined up in a slaughterhouse waiting their turn, they simply had their necks cut, one after another.

“Hoo.”

Kim Jun slowly lowered his greatsword, caught his breath, and looked around.

The entire alley was covered in corpses and blood. The remnants of the assassin guild had all been dealt with. Well, almost all.

Just as he was about to leave, a small box placed in the corner caught his eye.

It was an unremarkable wooden box, but it seemed to have a faint glow about it.

Curious, he opened the box to find something wrapped in black cloth.

Carefully removing the cloth, a robe with a strange luster appeared underneath.

“This is…”

When Kim Jun lifted the robe, the light around it seemed to bend subtly.

Its outline blurred as if trying to become one with the shadows.

[Item Discovered]: 「Embrace of Shadows」
[Grade]: C
[Type]: Robe
[Effect]: Enter stealth state when worn. Movement Speed decreased by 30%.

“This would be perfect for Soo-in.”

There was another object at the bottom of the box.

A dagger of peculiar shape.

The curved, twisted blade reminded one of a serpent’s fang, and runic patterns were finely engraved on the hilt.

[Item Discovered]: 「Serpent Fang」
[Grade]: C
[Type]: Dagger
[Effect]: Target’s Bleed Chance +25%, Bleed Damage +40%
[Additional Effect]: Can use skill 「Viper’s Strike」

“This is good too.”

Kim Jun placed both items into his spatial pouch. Such luck wasn’t common. Especially equipment of C-grade or above was hard to obtain in the early Tower.

Swish-

He fixed the greatsword on his back and brushed off his blood-stained clothes. Taking one last look around, he silently exited the assassins’ hideout.

As Kim Jun’s footsteps faded, a slight movement occurred amidst the pile of corpses.

One assassin quietly rose from under his comrades’ bodies.

“Grrrr…”

He spat blood from his mouth and barely managed to stand, leaning against the wall.

There was a wound on his neck where Kim Jun’s sword had grazed him, but it wasn’t fatal. His comrades’ corpses had shielded him.

“I will kill you. Kim Jun…!”

Morning of the second day since the Tower opened.

“Freshly baked bread here!”
“Recovery potions for sale!”

Thebes’ shopping district was bustling with hunters who had flocked from all directions. Street vendors were busy calling out to customers with lively voices.

“Hyung? Hyung!”
“Min-soo?”

Kim Jun turned his head at the booming voice of Park Min-soo running from afar. Behind him, Lee Seo-yeon, Ryu Ji-ah, and then Han Soo-in appeared in turn.

“Was that you, hyung?”
“Was what me?”
“The dragon slayer! The one who got the hidden class!”

Park Min-soo’s eyes shone with excitement.

He had intuitively realized that the news of the dragon subjugation and hidden class acquisition delivered to all hunters was Kim Jun’s achievement.

“It was you!!”

Park Min-soo said in a convinced voice. If it wasn’t Kim Jun, no one else could have done it.

“I suppose so.”
“Kyaa! I knew it! I knew this would happen, so I told everyone! That the identity was none other than our hyung! Hahaha!”

Park Min-soo cheered and patted Kim Jun’s shoulder, but Kim Jun’s gaze was already fixed elsewhere.

Towards Han Soo-in, standing quietly in the back.

“…”

Standing there silently, without a single word, as always.

The image of her cold, lifeless body from his previous life overlapped with the vibrant Han Soo-in before him.

“You’ve worked hard.”
“…?”

Kim Jun approached and gently placed his hand on Han Soo-in’s head, softly stroking it.

He could feel the warmth seeping through her black hair.

‘…!?’

Han Soo-in’s eyes widened in surprise. It was rare for the guild master, who was always as quiet and blunt as herself, to show such affection.

What she felt from that hand wasn’t just a simple greeting. For some reason, it carried a sense of relief and affection.

“Oppa! Me too! I was the first to change class!”

Ryu Ji-ah cut in with a whiny voice, pulling on Kim Jun’s arm. Her face was filled with a playful smile.

“Hehe. Sure, Ji-ah. You worked hard.”
“Ah, Park Min-soo was last again!”

At Ryu Ji-ah’s playful teasing, Park Min-soo’s face crumpled. Everyone burst into laughter at his expression, like a squashed teapot.

“That, that again! The Tank class change test takes a long time! The instructor told me to hold a shield and endure attacks for a whole hour! And he kept hitting me with an iron hammer, saying ‘A true tank is an unbreakable wall!’ And on top of that…”

Park Min-soo waved his arms around in protest, but his desperate excuses only provoked more laughter.

“Yeah, I don’t believe you.”

Ryu Ji-ah shook her head side to side.

“I, I’m telling you it’s true!”

Lee Seo-yeon wiped her tear-filled eyes with a handkerchief and said.

“It’s okay, Min-soo. Tanks are always reliable.”

Kim Jun quietly watched this peaceful moment. His comrades laughing, chatting, and joking.

The five members of Guild ‘Han’ walked together through the streets of Thebes. Through the sun-drenched streets, the lively shops, and amongst the laughing, chatting people