Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo startles at a wave of water that crests from the flooded train tracks, he's not quick enough to get Kim’s sword in front of him when the tail of a great blue snake hits him in the chest and flings him against the wall. 

He coughed wetly, the taste of copper on his tongue telling him that it's blood blocking his airway. 

Jin-Woo panicked at the recognizable symptoms of dying. 

Would the Player like to begin Second Try? 

[ Yes/No ]

_________

Sung Jin-Woo growls as he looks at the glowing semi transparent screen hovering in front of him. He's standing at the top of the stairs before the boss room again. 

Second Try. 

You have chosen to try again. 

Your health reached zero when battling against King of the Swamp, Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka. 

You have been brought to the last automatic save point. 

(Player should be advised that Second Try is only available in Dungeons given by the System.)

Jin-Woo knew that he was a Player but he hadn't realized that his life would actually be like a video game now. Even before the world went to shit, before he lost his father, before his mother fell into eternal sleep, before he had finally got comfortable with himself; he had never been interested in video games. 

It pissed him off that he was being forced into something by some unknown higher power. 

Having acknowledged and dismissed the screen, Jin-Woo couldn't help the frustration that bubbled when the screen didn't automatically blink out of existence. 

He eyed it closely trying to find the difference between this one and all the ones before when a bright red ‘i’ in a circle caught his attention. 

Recognizing the symbol, Jin-Woo grumbled. 

“Information.” 

Another semi transparent screen popped up in front of the other.

Information on Second Try:

Second Try:

Can only be used twice per Dungeon. 

Causes Beast(s) to lose level of difficulty.

Dropped items will be lower level(s) or less in number.

Gives Player the option to face a second or third Beast(s) to regain loss of dropped item(s) and experience.

Jin-Woo dropped his head forward with a sigh, it figured that the System would do something to make sure he leveled up in the most ridiculous fashion as well as forcing him to work harder to get his originally promised items. Giving a grunt of acknowledgement Jin-Woo rolled his neck, cracking it to relieve the pressure and started down the stairs to the lower level again. 

The blue snake monster was waiting.

________

Jin-Woo panted tired from flinging his body around trying to dodge the snake monster's tail. The first hit he had taken on his Second Try at this monster wasn't as brutal as the first time, the hit that had killed him even before he had even tried to deal any damage. It may have been because of the monster's level drop, or because he was prepared and already defending his torso before the hit. 

The second hit had again thrown him into a wall, that's what he gets for not watching where he was going and tripping over some rubble. 

Grunting he pushed himself back up onto his feet and glared at the snake as it lunged at him again. This time he was again better prepared for an attack. Kim’s sword met the side of the snake as he twisted out of the way, sparks flew as the chipped and cracked metal met the side of the snake before two thirds of the blade snapped off. 

“Shit!” Jin-Woo all but screamed in frustration at the realization that the snake's hide was too thick for him to cut through. 

A flicker of his strength stat flickers through his mind as the giant snake rears back in preparation for another strike. 

It lunges at him, mouth open and fangs bared. Jin-Woo throws his broken sword with all his strength into the snake's open maw, he sees the edge of the glade cut into the soft tissue of the snake's mouth easily as its jaws snap shut on instinct. 

He feels the bloodthirsty smile bare his teeth in return, the snake's skin is tough, but it's insides are soft. 

Jin-Woo watches carefully as the snake rears back again over its coiled body, he needs to get the timing right on the first try or he will lose the element of surprise. 

The snake lunged at him again, the same speed as before, and Jin-Woo waits until the last second to push off in a jump that gets him high enough to twist just so and land on the snake with his arms and legs wrapped around it in a simulation of a hug before he's using all of his strength in his limbs to crush the snake.

Part of him wishes he was strong enough that the pressure he is exerting on the beast would make its head pop off, images of ripping the heads off of the dolls his parents used to but him flash through his mind briefly distracting him as the snake loses its fight and its glowing eyes dim. 

Notice:

Player has defeated: King of the Swamp, Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka.

( experience calculating)

Reward(s):

Kasaka’s Venom Fang

• Rarity: C-Rank
• Type: Dagger
• Attack +25

A dagger made from Kasaka's Venom Fang. Has two effects: Paralyze and Bleed.

Second Try, Second Beast:

Begins in five seconds unless the Player chooses to use Hearthstone. 

The glowing screens that suddenly invaded his vision had Jin-Woo releasing his death grip on the blue snake and sliding off his side in surprise. 

By the time he had finished reading all of the screens and had made his decision to call up his inventory to get the hearthstone, another screen flashed into existence overlapping the other three. 

Notice: 

Second Try, Second Beast has been activated. 

The ground shook as the floor under Jin-Woo heaved, making a startled sound Jin-Woo threw himself to his feet as quickly as he could and tried to find his new opponent. 

“Inventory, equip Kasaka's Venom Fang.” He snapped, angry at the lack of choice he had actually been given. 

The World Snake, the Rainbow Serpent, Ayida.

The new beast's title and name hovered over it in an orange so burnt in color it boarded on being a rusted red. Jin-Woo swallowed nervously as he looked over the monster taking in its iridescent scales even though it was decided down the center of its body. One side was red, the other blue, both so vivid that they warned Jin-Woo easily of its toxicity.

Flipping his new dagger into a back handed grip Jin-Woo centered himself both physically and mentally as the newest snake hissed making his bones feel like they were going to vibrate out of his skin. 

“E-rank dungeon my ass, I know I've leveled up. I am strong enough, I will get even stronger after defeating you!” Jin-Woo yelled at the snake. 

He made the first move and lunged at the monster this time, launching himself across the room and slashing at the snake's hide with the dagger as he flashed past it. 

Notice:

Paralyze and Bleed ineffective against The World Snake, the Rainbow Serpent, Ayida.

Jin-Woo snarled at the screen that popped up and dismissed it quickly, he figured that the effect wouldn't work on the dungeon boss' boss. He did feel a slight thrill at seeing the purple iccor that dripped from the faint line he had scored on its side. 

The new snake may be a higher level but it wasn't as thick skinned as the first, or the dagger was a better quality than he had thought. 

Dodging a flick of the snake's tail, Jin-Woo hopped up onto the beast's back and started to run as quickly as he possibly could up the writing creature. Once he was half way up the long body the snake lunged at him with bared fangs making Jin-Woo jump again, this time he aimed himself as best he could towards the base of the snake's skull. 

Sticking the landing with a little wobble , Jin-Woo wasted no time to drive his dagger as deep into the snake as he could before flinging his body downwards with a death grip on his dagger and let gravity do most of the work in cutting the snake in half as best he could. 

Notice: 

Player has defeated The World Snake, the Rainbow Serpent, Ayida.

(experience calculating.)

Reward(s):

Kasaka’s Venom

• Rarity: A
• Type: Elixir

A pouch containing the refined venom of Kasaka. Drinking will give you toughened skin, but the venom will also damage your muscles.

• Kasaka’s Armored Scales: Physical Damage Reduction +20%
• Weakened Muscles: Strength -35

Hypnosis:

• Rarity: A
• Type: Skill

A skill that allows you to hypnotize an opponent who is weak mentally. 

• Mana cost: 20

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo groaned a little as he heaved his tired body back up the stairs of the train station, he was tired and wanted to sleep off the physical exertion that the quest had put him through, he was just glad he had already finished his daily quest on exercise and could hopefully crash as soon as he got him. 

“What are you doing?” A voice called out as soon as he was in the open air. “Why did you come out of there? Didn't you hear the announcement?” The questions flew at him in quick succession. 

Jin-Woo turned towards the voice, a soldier was walking towards him in full combat gear. Jin-Woo looked at him curiously and a little surprised, soldiers usually didn't roam the city in full gear. 

“What happened?” He asked before he could stop himself.

“Are you kidding?” The soldier asked incredulously. 

Jin-Woo stiffened even as he felt the assessing gaze over his torn clothes and the small cuts and bruises blooming on his exposed skin. Never before had he been more thankful he had invested in sturdy A-rank chest bindings. 

“Are you a hunter?” The soldier asked urgently.

“Ah, yes, but.” Jin-Woo agreed hesitantly. 

The soldier snapped to attention, suddenly more professional and stiff. “I will escort you to the situation, follow me.” 

Jin-Woo held back a groan as he trailed behind the soldier wondering what was going on and feeling sorry for himself at being caught up suddenly in something else he shouldn't be. 

“A D-rank gate broke, all the smaller monsters have been dealt with, there is only one large one left.” The soldier told him. 

Jin-Woo pulled up his inventory and pulled out one of the daggers he had won by taking out the red wolves, he didn't plan on getting into the thick of the fighting but after the amount of levels he had climbed from the System's dungeon he figured that he would be able to at least break some of the monster's defenses by throwing a weapon. 

The scene that he arrived at was something he had seen time and time again, weaker ranked hunters fighting desperately to finish off a boss that was possibly a higher rank than it should have been given the level of magic the gate would radiate. 

Shifting away from the crowd of civilians that were watching the fight Jin-Woo wound up and threw the dagger as hard as he possibly could at the monster's eyes, it landed and seemed to almost sink far enough into the monster that it was a one hit kill. 

The hunters gave a loud and surprised cheer as the monster stumbled and then fell over dead, they looked around at one another trying to figure out what had happened. 

Jin-Woo surprised himself at killing a dungeon boss with one hit and quickly shuffled away from the scene and into a shadowy alleyway where he quickly walked away and back towards the hospital as quickly as he possibly could. 

_________

Status : 

Name: Sung Jin-Woo 

Level: 18.                   Fatigue: 76

Job: None.                 Title: Wolf Assassin 

HP: 2220

MP: 350

Strength: 48.              Heath: 27

Agility: 27.                 Intelligence: 27

Sense: 27

Available Ability Point(s): 12

Daily Quest:

• Push ups {100/100}

• Sit ups {100/100}

• Squats {100/100}

• Run {0km/10km}

If the daily quest remains incomplete, penalties will be given. 

Jin-Woo eyed the two screens that floated in front of him as he used the bottom of his t-shirt to wipe the sweat off his face. It was late in the evening, Jin-Woo planned on running him from the hospital and taking a bath, cooking his sister some dinner, and going to bed, he could distribute his points tomorrow morning after sleeping in his own bed.

“Excuse me!” A chipper female voice called from behind him. 

Jin-Woo turned around an eyebrow raised in question, only for it to take a sharp dip into a confused furrow at the fidgeting nurse standing in the doorway of his hospital room. 

“You're being discharged today, right?” The nurse asked suddenly. 

Feeling even more confused, Jin-Woo nodded. 

“Can I have your cell number?” The nurses newest question was even more baffling to Jin-Woo. 

“Ah, my phone was broken in the dungeon.” He told her bluntly, it bothered him suddenly that he hadn't taken the time to go get a replacement. At least the one he got from the hunters association was free because it was technically a work phone. 

The nurse blushed bright red and spun quickly, all but running out of his room. Jin-Woo stared at the open door for a few moments before shrugging and turning to start gathering his belongings. 

________

It had been a day since he had been released from the hospital, Jin-Woo knew he needed to go on a raid but something about the one he agreed to go on was setting off all kinds of warning bells as he shook hands with the leader of the strike team he was contracted to currently. 

Jin-Woo easily ignored the jibes being thrown at him from the rest of the party as he started to read over the contract he needed to sign for the raid to be legally binding. He signs it quickly, it's a generic contract for a strike party needing a full in or two. 

“I guess you and I are just here for the headcount.” 

Jin-Woo glances out of the corner of his eye and fights back a flinch at the glare from ridiculously shiny armor. 

“My name is Yoo Jin-Ho, I'm twenty-two and a D-rank.” The walking, talking, armor glare says. “I'm not a member of the strike team either, I was recruited just like you.”

“Right.” Jin-Woo reluctantly agreed, blinking away the spots in his vision. 

He takes a moment to look at the male who just spoke once his eyes had adjusted to the glare, the man looked his age, eyes sparkling with far too much innocence to be a seasoned hunter, his grin full of perfectly straight white teeth. Jin-Woo wondered for a moment if he was some billionaire's son. 

Shaking off the idol and useless thoughts Jin-Woo turned his attention back to the leader of the team and asked. “What am I doing then?” 

The leader smiled, it made even more warning bells go off in Jin-Woo’s mind, it was a little too harsh, and had a few too many teeth showing. 

“Carry out bags and keep up.” Is what he's told. 

Jin-Woo is unimpressed, they have no healer on the team, every time there is no healer on the team he ends up in the hospital. Gritting his teeth Jin-Woo prays that he has leveled up enough that the C-rank gate won't be enough to hurt him too badly. 

“Don't be so worried! I'll protect you!” The walking mirror chirps at him, giving a ‘good guy' pose. 

Jin-Woo regrets his choices. 

Chapter Text

“Rumor is that the chairman of the company took nine hundred million won and fled the country. All of the employees and investors are in a panic. Are the backpacks heavy? Are you okay? Do you need me to take anything?” The words tumble out of mirror armor's mouth in quick succession. 

Jin-Woo tries his best to ignore the other man's words, he's not really interested in making friends with a temporary teammate, far too used to them turning on him in an instant. 

“Are you always so quiet?” 

“Are you always so chatty?” Jin-Woo counters the question. 

“Oh? Was I being too talkative? Most people love hearing what I have to say. Being a hunter is just a new hobby I'm trying.” The newly named ‘Mr. Chatty’ says lightly. 

Jin-Woo grits his teeth in frustration at hearing that. People who treat hunting as a hobby piss him off, they never take the danger seriously and they don't understand that being in a gate with monsters is life or death, even being in a gate with other humans is life or death. 

“Jin-Woo, do some gates not have magic beasts?” Mr. Chatty asks.

Jin-Woo holds his index finger up to his lips to silence the other. He focuses on his hearing and hears quiet chittering, he recognizes the sound of insect type monsters. 

“Insect type.” Jin-Woo calls to the strike team. 

They descend into chaos.

“I don't see anything.”

“It's too dark.”

“Are we in an ant hill?”

“Calm down man! It's only a C-rank.” 

“Give us more light Kyu-Hwan.” 

Another fireball is cast into the labyrinth.

“There are too many caverns!”

“Dong-Suk, can you see any sign of them?”

“No! I can't see anything.”

Jin-Woo feels another pang of regret as he watches these supposed seasoned hunters freak out over ants. He does understand the fear, Jeju Island is a nightmare that hangs over all of Asia, but that's no reason to lose your composer. 

“Above.” He calls telling the team the direction. 

“Light ‘em up, I'll draw aggro for the ones that make it to the floor.” The leader orders. 

The fire mage who had been supplying light gets directly under the largest tunnel and shoots a steady stream of flame into it. Many ants make it past the flame and onto the ground. The leader of the team growls and screams as his shield lights up a burnt orange and the ants start rushing him. 

“Stay behind me, I'll keep you safe.” Mr. Chatty orders Jin-Woo.

Jin-Woo easily steps back, he wants to watch this strike team, something about them is a little too rough for his liking. 

He watches arrows and fire fly as swords flash through the air. It reminds him of watching the magic beasts fighting, driven by bloodlust and instinct, nothing remotely human in their vicious movements. 

The fighting stops almost too suddenly, the quiet surprising Jin-Woo enough that he jolts a little at the lack of noise. 

“How did you know they were coming from above?” The team leader asks. 

“Just a feeling.” Jin-Woo answers softly.

“You have good instincts, hopefully they don't pick up anything unnecessary.” The leader says in return. His voice is filled with a dark warning. 

Suddenly Jin-Woo is struck with a warning he had gotten from Song Chi-Yul. 

“You need to be careful, there are other hunters out there that would happily kill you to keep your share of the gate. We call them lizards, they cut off their tail to get away with higher rewards, even if it is only a few won.” 

“You said your gear was expensive right?” Jin-Woo inquires softly.

“Huh? Yeah, my dad bought it for my first raid.” Mr. Chatty answered. 

“Mmm, I'm not certain but I think we need to be more careful.” Jin-Woo warns his temporary teammate.

Jin-Woo keeps himself and Mr. Chatty at the back of the group, his warning seems to have frightened the other, but Jin-Woo can't feel too terrible for it. They needed to be quiet and observe. 

“T-this is!”

“Holy crap!”

“Look at all the mana crystals!”

“Wonder how much it's worth?”

“We hit the jackpot!”

Mr. Chatty trots forward, he's asking about the contract and Jin-Woo isn't listening as he hands the papers over to him. 

There is a discussion happening around him but Jin-Woo is focused on using his senses to gauge if he can take on the giant spider that's the dungeon boss by himself and struggle or if it will be something fairly easy to beat. ‘C-rank Dungeon Boss’ glows above the spider's body in a red that borders on orange. 

The sound of an explosion and falling rock breaks Jin-Woo out of his one sided stare down of the boss, he turns around to where the cave opening was with a resigned huff. 

“Jin-Woo, what do we do? They collapsed the entrance!” Mr. Chatty's voice was raw with despair and shock. “Those bastards are trying to kill us! Over what, some mana crystals?” 

Jin-Woo dropped the bags carelessly, letting the contents spill out wherever they wanted, his attention back on the dungeon boss and he heard the clattering of mandibles. 

Mr. Chatty stepped in front of him, shoulders thrown back, shield and sword held in front of him in preparation for an attack. 

“Jin-Woo, stay behind me! I…I'll do whatever I can to protect you!” Mr. Chatty shouts. 

Jin-Woo wants to snort, but he's too busy silently calling on his new dagger and assessing the spider boss for weak points. 

“It's okay, Jin-Ho.” Jin-Woo uses the other's name for the first time. “You can stay put. This one is mine.” 

“What? Are you crazy? Only a B-rank or higher has a chance against a C-rank boss alone!” Jin-Ho shouts. 

Jin-Woo smiles at Jin-Ho over his shoulder. “Don't worry, it will be okay.” He assures. 

Jin-Woo launches himself at the boss using more force with his left foot to make his body spin through the air, his dagger slicing into thick skin and slowing his rotations. He lands behind the boss with a soft skid. 

The boss roars, Jin-Woo feels pleasure and adrenaline rush through his veins making his cheeks heat. 

The spider starts to flail its legs around, stomping and shaking the earth with its force and weight as it tries to flatten him. Jin-Woo bobs and weaves around the limbs trying to find a pattern. 

The spider is unpredictable with its movement. Jin-Woo grits his teeth and tries to think of another strategy, it's then that he notices that the exoskeleton on the spider's legs doesn't fully cover the joints. 

He aims for those breaks in the exoskeleton, using all of his strength to cut as deeply as he could with his dagger, hoping that with enough small cuts the spider would bleed out. 

A glow of green from the boss' mouth caught his attention, Jin-Woo threw himself away from the spider as it spat out a large quantity of green liquid, it hissed and smoked as it made contact with the ground. 

“Acid?” Jin-Woo found himself asking, feeling stunned by the ability.

Shaking off the surprise, Jin-Woo took a deep breath to calm himself a little. The purple iccor that all magic beasts bled was staining the spider's exoskeleton and the ground, he knew he needed a critical hit for the daggers effects to work. 

Eyeing the spider's head Jin-Woo grit his teeth against the fatigue he felt dragging on his body. 

Notice:

Player has activated speed. 

You have gained 30% speed. 

Jin-Woo felt his attention zero in on the spider's head, the rest of the cave blurred as he sped forward and launched himself at the boss. His feet planted firmly on the monster as he drove his dagger into the spider's head before flipping and using the force to split the boss' head open. 

You have defeated the Dungeon Boss.

Jin-Woo blinked at the notification, it was a shorter fight than he had expected. 

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo takes a deep breath and almost chokes on the smell of the decaying ants, the blood and the spider's innards. It's gross but he needs a moment to get his breath back and center himself for the fight he knows is coming. 

He's glad he doesn't have to dig into the spider's corpse for the magic stone, it is sitting goopy and pretty in the center of the spider's head, just waiting for him. 

Jin-Woo hears the explosion of the rock fall and a bunch of yelling and talking from the strike team and Jin-Ho, he doesn't really pay attention to it as he starts to wander closer to the group. 

“Kill Sung Jin-Woo.” The leader says darkly. 

“What?” Jin-Ho asks, horrified and confused.

“Kill Sung Jin-Woo, become our accomplice. It's the only way you are going to get out of here alive.” The leader explains. 

Jin-Ho turns and looks at him, his face is a mask or fear. Jin-Woo feels sorry for him. 

“It's okay, of course you would want to betray me. I'm weak.” Jin-Woo says flatly. 

“What are you doing?” The leader asks. 

Jin-Woo isn't sure when he closed his eyes but he opens them to find Jin-Ho standing in front of him, but the other is facing towards the strike team. Jin-Ho’s shoulders are square and his stance is low, protective of Jin-Woo. 

An urgent quest has arrived! 

Defeat the enemies!

There are enemies nearby that intend to KILL the Player . Destroy all enemies and ensure your safety. 

If Player fails this quest there will be a Penalty. 

{ Number or enemies 8 }

{ Number of enemies defeated 0 }

Jin-Woo feels his heart stutter, he has never killed anything but monsters, he isn't sure he can kill a human. 

Penalty will be the Players heart will stop beating!

The System's warning registers in the same moment that a fire ball hits his chest and throws him into the cave wall. 

Jin-Woo lays there for a moment, stunned. 

As he heaved himself from the rubble Jin-Woo feels himself boxing up his emotions and humanity. If the System wants to use him like it has been, and even worse use him like this, he will use the System however he can in return. 

“Since you all are playing with people's lives, I'm going to assume you are ready to face the consequences.” Jin-Woo feels himself say. “You call yourselves hunters, I wonder if you know what it's like to be hunted?” 

Jin-Woo doesn't wait for an answer. He moves. 

The first lizard falls quickly, Jin-Woo’s dagger slicing through his neck like a hot knife through butter. Jin-Woo is already at the second and giving him the same treatment before the first’s head hits the floor.

The fire mage is casting a fireball again, Jin-Woo is already moving before the mage can finish, this time he doesn't go for a single strike kill and slashes the mage multiple times. The mages body slowly falls apart in a messy heap at Jin-Woo’s feet. 

Two of the lizards lunge at him at the same time. Jin-Woo leans out of the first one's attack then takes a step to get past him, he uses his dagger to remove this one's head as well. The second lizard in this attack swings his sword at Jin-Woo who redirects the attack by pushing on the lizard's arm and uses the lizard's own momentum against him to bury his dagger into the man's stomach and pull up, cutting the man from belly to throat. 

Jin-Woo shakes the lizard off his dagger and slowly stalks towards the remaining three. The leader of the lizards has stepped behind the other two, hiding himself as best he can. Jin-Woo will not let him get away. 

Jin-Woo wastes no time, he uses his speed to disappear from the lizard's view and get between them, a backhanded slash takes the first down, and a diagonal one takes care of the second. 

Jin-Woo grabs the lizard leader's face and slams him into the ground, he hasn't really registered what's happened but he feels like he should get some verbal confirmation on how many people this team has killed. 

“Spare me, if it's money you want I'll give it to you. Take all the mana crystals, the essence stones too. Just, don't kill me.” The lizard begs. 

“You've ordered my death three times.” Jin-Woo counters. 

The man stands and lunges at him, Jin-Woo sighs and flicks his dagger up, slicing into the man's chest. 

“You won't get away with this! Don't you know who my brother is?” The lizard yells. 

“Nope.” Jin-Woo answers easily. “Don't care, he will die too.” 

The lizard screams and lunges forward again, this time his hands are stretched out reaching for Jin-Woo’s throat. 

Jin-Woo just sighs and slashes his dagger out, removing the lizard head from his body with a careless movement. 

Urgent quest complete!

Quest rewards. 

• Status recovery

• Ability points +10

• Skill: Bloodlust 

Chapter Text

After the lizard dungeon Jin-Woo decides he needs some time to re-center himself, to unpack his emotions and humanity after shoving it deep down and away so he could finish the urgent quest. 

He needs to spend some time with Jin-Ah, she is the center of his world, his daughter and his sister all rolled into one. Jin-Ah is probably the only thing that has kept him going in the last four years, she was the first he had come out to even before their mother had fallen into eternal sleep. 

Jin-Woo had only just turned eighteen when his mother fell asleep, Jin-Ah had been ten. It had broken them both in different ways, they had both lost their remaining parent, but Jin-Ah had been so young she hadn't fully understood. 

Jin-Woo shook his head to throw off the dark thoughts and focused back on watching Jin-Ah out of the corner of his eye as she devoured the fried chicken that he had ordered for dinner. It wasn't often he was able to buy Jin-Ah anything other than the basic necessities, Jin-Woo hoped that that would change with having the System now. 

“Oppa.” Jin-Ah called for his attention. “You never did answer, what's the occasion for the chicken?”

Jin-Woo shrugged as he answered. “Good raid, and your last report card.” 

Jin-Ah flushed as she went back to her food. Jin-Woo was ridiculously proud of Jin-Ah, she had maintained a four-point-oh average all throughout her schooling. Jin-Woo had never had grades that good across the board, he had been good with languages, his parents had signed him up for online classes young after he had been placed in advanced English and had shared his interest in being an interpreter. He spoke five languages and hoped with a better income he could start learning more. 

“Oh, did I tell you parent teacher conferences are coming up?” Jin-Ah asks. 

Jin-Woo nods, he remembers filling out a form for it, it had put the date and time into his phone calendar. Jin-Ah nods back at him, her cheeks puffed out from the amount of chicken she was stuffing into her mouth. Jin-Woo snorts at her softly. 

_________

Jin-Woo has the hood of his sweater pulled up over his head as he enters the posh cafe that Jin-Ho had invited him to. A quick look around finds Jin-Ho already seated at a table and fidgeting with a napkin nervously. 

“Jin-Ho.” Jin-Woo calls for the man's attention.

Jin-Ho jumps out of his chair, it makes Jin-Woo snort softly. 

“Can I get you anything to eat or drink?” Jin-Ho asks. 

“No, I'm okay.” Jin-Woo answers before asking. “Why am I here?” 

Jin-Ho waves his hand at the other chair at the table, Jin-Woo slides to sit on it and watches Jin-Ho do the same across from him. The other male fidgets for a while in silence. 

Seeming to finally gather his courage he blurts. “Sir! I want to make a private strike team!” 

“No.” Jin-Woo says bluntly. 

“Just twenty times, no wait, nineteen times!” Jin-Ho yelps loudly. “I only need you on the team for nineteen dungeons.” 

Jin-Woo looks closely at Jin-Ho trying to find his motivation. 

“You want to apply to be a guild master.” He concludes. “I thought hunting was only a hobby.” 

Jin-Ho blushes and shakes his head. 

“My father is forming a guild under the company, Yoo construction. He wants the company to be self-sufficient. He plans on hiring an S-rank hunter for guild master and letting my brother take vice master, but my brother is unawakened.” Jin-Ho explains. “My father wants the guild to run like a company, it will never work. So I figured I could become the guild master and finally make my father proud.”

Jin-Woo cringes internally. This plan won't work.

“This.” Jin-Ho says as he slides a thick folder of paper across the table. “Is what I'm offering.”

Jin-Woo flips the folder open and through the pages, his eyebrows climb in surprise as he reads the content. The offer is ridiculously in his favor, he needs to accompany Jin-Ho on enough raids for the man to qualify to take the guild masters exam, in return he gets to keep fifty percent of all crystals and stones, as well as get paid thirty billion won. 

Jin-Woo closes his eyes, he isn't desperate for money right at this moment but this could give him something to finally add to Jin-Ah’s college fund that his parents had started for her after she was born. 

He could finally upgrade her phone and get her a new laptop that wasn't ten years old. He could finally replace their wardrobe so they weren't wearing second hand clothes. He could finally pay back the loan from the hunters association to pay for his mother's medical bills. 

Swallowing down the frustration at feeling like he is backed into a corner, Jin-Woo held out his hand for a pen. 

“I need a down payment, I have a family I need to support.” Jin-Woo grits out the admittance. 

“Oh! Of course!” Jin-Ho chirps as he hands over the pen. “Ten billion won will cover a week won't it?” 

Jin-Woo wants to slap the man, ten billion won will cover more than a few weeks. He feels dirty, like he's prostituting himself, he knows the feeling well. 

“Just the two of us will enter the gate, I don't want everyone to know about my abilities.” Jin-Woo adds. 

“Of course you don't want anyone to know you're a false ranker.” Jin-Ho waves off Jin-Woo’s words.

“I'm not.” Jin-Woo counters. “The double dungeon a while back, my rank keeps jumping, I don't know what it actually is right now, I plan on getting a reassessment once it levels out.”

Jin-Ho looks at him stunned. “That makes me feel better.” The man whispers. 

Jin-Woo snorts. “I don't want rumors spreading about me leveling up, it's odd enough to me but imagine how other hunters would react.” 

Jin-Ho has a calculating expression on his face. “Okay. I can figure out some loopholes in the rules.” 

Jin-Woo signs the contract after filling in the details, he hopes the dirty feelings go away soon. 

“Once the money is deposited and you have the gates let me know.” Jin-Woo says as he stands to leave.

He gives a wave over his shoulder not looking back or listening to anything else Jin-Ho has to say. 

Chapter Text

The morning after his meeting with Jin-Ho there are four alerts on his phone about two billion five hundred million won being deposited into his account. It makes Jin-Woo shudder at the gross feelings that spread through him again, it makes him get up and dress quickly before shoving on his runners and heading to the park for his daily run. 

He loses himself to the steady thump of his sneakers on the pavement as he lets his mind drift. 

Jin-Woo knows that this isn't like before, he isn't selling his body to hunters for a quick fuck and leaving with a small amount of cash in his pocket, but something about it is making him feel the same desperation he had felt when he had been forced to prostitute himself to make ends meet. 

The quiet chime that tells Jin-Woo of the completion of part of his daily quest goes ignored as he keeps running. 

A second louder chime makes Jin-Woo trip in surprise, he looks up at the transparent screen keeping track of his exercise and is surprised to see that he had doubled the amount of kilometers he is supposed to run daily. It made him pause, if only to wonder not only why it kept track but what would happen if he doubled all of the exercise goals. 

Jin-Woo sighs heavily as he wanders over to a tree planning on doing the rest of the daily exercises and his own stretches in the shade. 

Player has doubled their daily quest! 

Rewards!

• Status recovery.

• Ability points. +3

• Random Blessed Gift Box.

• Random Cursed Gift Box.

__________

That night Jin-Woo stands in front of some office building he was being drawn to with the reward from the cursed gift box sitting in his hand, the key is red in color and pulses with mana. A screen floats just out of the corner or his eye with the information of the item. 

Item.

Key to the Demon King's Castle. 

• Rank Level: S

• Type: Key

Key allows you entrance to the Demon King’s Castle (System Dungeon). 

Jin-Woo doesn't know how long it will take or even if he can complete the dungeon. He had spent the morning after his workout getting groceries and making lunches and dinners for Jin-Ah to last her for three days. He honestly hopes that this dungeon will let him out if need be, or that the hearthstone from the first System Dungeon will work to get him out. 

As he gets closer the air pixelated into a keyhole, Jin-Woo twitched in surprise, not at all used to the odd happenings of the System. He inserted the key and twisted it, making a gate swirl into existence. 

Jin-Woo wants to turn around the second he steps into the gate, his skin dries and it's hard to draw in any of the hot air. The dungeon looks like a metropolitan area on fire. 

A tri-pitched growling catches Jin-Woo’s attention, he squares his shoulders and steps forward, careful not to step on any flame. The sight of a three headed dog brings him to a halt and makes him summon his dagger. 

The Gatekeeper of Hell, Cerberus. 

Glows in bright red above the monster's head. 

“I won't let myself die here.” Jin-Woo promises to himself. 

The middle head of the Cerberus howls, Jin-Woo takes that as the challenge it is and pushes himself forward slashing at the monster's legs. He notices that he gains speed and feels the slow decrease of his mana as he keeps running and flipping around the monster, scoring deep lines on its hide. 

Notice!

Gatekeeper of Hell, Cerberus has used skill Rage! 

• Cerberus will be in a state of rage for 3 minutes.

• All of Cerberus’s stats will increase twofold.

• Cerberus does not feel any pain. 

Jin-Woo can't help himself from feeling cheated at the notice. He goes to back off and figure out a new strategy, but before he can he feels the left head of the monster bite into his left arm and shake him like a chew toy. 

He's thrown away and skids across the ground before he slams into some rubble that lays in the streets. Jin-Woo looks at his injured side and wants to gag when he finds that his left arm and shoulder are only holding on to his torso with a bit of muscle and strips of skin.

Giving a growl of his own Jin-Woo bark out. “Status recovery.”

Being automatically healed is weird, Jin-Woo decides, it's not that he doesn't appreciate it, it just fucks with his head that he was injured enough to die and now he feels like he just got out of bed. 

The Cerberus is on him again in a flash, Jin-Woo snaps his arms out and grabs onto two of the monster's fangs, one upper and one lower, before he's using all or the strength in his body to twist and throw the Cerberus off of him. To his surprise it twisted the monster's neck so violently that its neck broke. 

The middle head of the Cerberus hangs between the other two as the monster's left head growls and its right whimpers. 

Jin-Woo pushes himself off the ground and back onto his feet before he growls back at the monster. 

“I won't die here.” He says again.

Dagger materializing in his hand again, Jin-Woo jumps at the whimpering head, he figures it looks the most distracted by the limp middle head that it will be easier to kill. 

His dagger ends up buried in the monster's eye followed by his hand. It's grosser than he imagined it would be. Jin-Woo jerks his hand and dagger out of the monster's eye confident that he had killed that head as well by piercing its brain through the eye socket. 

The left and only head still alive is barking now, but it seems that it can't move anymore. Jin-Woo guesses that having three heads means it needs at least two to move its body. He feels a slight bit of sympathy towards the clearly frightened monster and jumps forward with enough force that he is able to cut through the creature's throat. 

You have defeated the Gatekeeper of Hell, Cerberus!

Reward(s).

• Item: Wardens Necklace 

• Item: Key to the Castle 

• Item: Cerberus’ Fang

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

Jin-Woo gapes in surprise, he hadn't expected that he would get five levels from one monster, and not even a boss monster. 

“Shit. I'm not strong enough to go any further.” He grumbles to himself. 

Jin-Woo summons the hearthstone from his inventory and crushes it. 

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo was torn, he didn't need the money from a D-rank raid, but it would be out of character for him to decline. He had eventually agreed to the raid, but was taking his time to get to the gate when he would usually hurry. 

“Excuse me.” A familiar voice said from behind him. 

Jin-Woo didn't really think of it as he stepped to the side and looked up at whoever was trying to pass him. 

“Jin-Woo?” The voice said, sounding confused.

Jin-Woo focused on who was talking only for himself to feel a spark of surprise.

“Song, it's nice to see you.” Jin-Woo said. 

“But, your leg! How?” Song Chi-Yul gasped. 

“Ah.” Jin-Woo scratched the back of his head before explaining. “When I woke up in the hospital it was back, all my other injuries were gone too.” 

Jin-Woo’s attention was drawn to Song Chi-Yul’s empty sleeve. 

“Ah, sorry.” He said lamely. 

“Don't worry about it.” Song dismissed. “It's a small price to pay, and I'm just glad you're alive.” 

Jin-Woo smiles softly. Song Chi-Yul had never treated him badly and had tried his best to teach Jin-Woo about the world of hunters from their first meeting, it's why Jin-Woo was able to forgive him for leaving him behind so easily. 

Song didn't give a lame excuse and run like the others, he had tried to get Joo-Hee to get him out first before she had lost control of her body. 

Jin-Woo idly listened to Song talk about his students at the dojo he owned as they walked together to the gate. 

“Oh…” Song Chi-Yul cut himself off. “What a…special day.” He murmured.

Jin-Woo looked up only to find that at the gate were three people who had survived the double dungeon. 

“Jin-Woo?” Joo-Hee gasped, her hands covering her mouth as tears welled up. 

“Hey Joo-Hee, sorry I'm a bit late.” Jin-Woo says jokingly to lighten the mood. 

Joo-Hee slaps him on the arm even as she wipes away her tears. Jin-Woo rests his own hand on her shoulder for comfort, not pulling her into a hug like he would his sister, but offering some support. 

A wolf whistle splits the air. 

“Thin’s are gettin’ steamy!” A voice yells out. 

Jin-Woo turns and pushes Joo-Hee behind himself at the sight of men in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs climbing out of a windowless van. 

“Or are hunters finally fucking these days?” A second asks. 

Jin-Woo feels himself bristle, hunters have always dated each other, and more often than not they fuck one another too. It was hard to be awakened and have a relationship with someone who wasn't. 

“Shut up. This isn't a picnic.” A new voice says coldly, this man in a suit and glaring at the others. 

“What's this?” Song Chi-Yul asks. 

Jin-Woo ignores the conversation happening and shuffles Joo-Hee so she isn't in full view of the prisoners, it's not a solution but he hopes that he can shield her a tiny bit. Even after they entered the gate he does little else, not paying any attention other than trying to protect Joo-Hee and find the reason he feels so uneasy.

It's only after they spit up that he finally relaxes. 

“Something is so wrong with this raid.” He grumbles. 

“Is that why you were putting yourself in between me and those men?” Joo-Hee asks.

Jin-Woo nods before admitting. “I recognized one of them, he tried to assault my little sister a few years ago, it's a good thing that there was another hunter there to protect her.” 

Joo-Hee’s eyes are wide when she asks. “You have a little sister?”

Jin-Woo can feel his cheeks flush as he nods. 

“She's everything.” He admits. 

Joo-Hee smiles brightly, and Song coughs from her other side. 

“I think that's the first time we've been told anything personal about you.” The older man says. 

Jin-Woo shrugged, he didn't like talking about personal things with strangers, and there was always at least one on any of their previous raids together. 

A scream rips through the air only for it to be cut off violently. Jin-Woo feels himself spin and run towards the sound without any real thought given. If the prisoners were escaping he needed to be on the front line to protect Joo-Hee and Song. 

What they find is three dead prisoners, one dead hunter, and one dying hunter. 

Jin-Woo feels a shift in the air, his hand snaps out and grabs onto the suited hunter's hand. The man's own dagger aimed at Joo-Hee. 

“You're fast.” The man compliments. “No matter, I wanted to kill her first so she couldn't heal you, but you'll all die soon enough.” 

Jin-Woo glares. 

“What? Why are you doing this? Aren't you part of the association?” Song questions as he picks up the sword of one of the dead hunters. 

“Joo-Hee, cast some buffs on me.” Song orders. 

Urgent quest!

An enemy is planning to KILL you. 

Jin-Woo doesn't bother to finish reading the alert, or let Song get any further in his plan before he steps in front of him and Joo-Hee. 

“Sorry Song, but could you just focus on projecting Joo-Hee.” He says. 

Song doesn't get a chance to answer before the agent is on Jin-Woo. Their daggers meet with a screech of metal and sparks. The agent pushes off and away. 

“Strong too. Well I can be a teacher before I kill you.” The agent says. 

Jin-Woo snorts before he gets behind the agent and slashes his dagger at his back. 

“Ooooh, an assassin, that makes it all the better, I can truly school you now.” The agent sings as he hops away. 

Jin-Woo scowls, but he follows the agent. They trade blows back and forth, neither of them taking any damage. Then suddenly the agent starts to move faster, Jin-Woo gets a cut across his cheek and retaliates by picking up his speed as well. 

The agent gets a cut across the bridge of their nose and stabbed in the thigh in return before he starts to move faster again. Jin-Woo huffs, this little game is annoying, it's even worse because he can tell the agent is yapping on about something but he honestly doesn't care enough to listen. 

Somehow the agent disappears, and it isn't until he hears a gasp and the clang of metal that he realizes that the agent went after Joo-Hee again. 

Jin-Woo throws his dagger and follows it seconds behind, only to be surprised as the dagger sinks into the back of the agents neck cutting his spinal cord. 

You have defeated the enemy! 

You have leveled up.

Chapter Text

Woo Jin-Chul was having a good day, he had cleared his desk of paperwork and had gotten the chance to go to a nearby cafe to get actual coffee and not the mud water that he usually got at the association. 

His day took a bit of a dive when he got a call on his work phone from an agent who was frantically asking him to come down to a gate that they were at. 

Quickly grabbing his coffee Jin-Chul started searching for information on the dungeon he was being called to, when seeing the first name on the list was one of his employees he picked up his pace. 

Kang Tae-Shik was already under investigation because of the fact that none of the party members or the prisoners he escorted into a gate ever came back alive. Jin-Chul hoped it hadn't happened again, he was frustrated that he could never pin anything on the man simply because of office gossip always tipping him off. 

Once he was at the gate he didn't waste any time with pleasantries, simply barking. “Report.” 

The agent at the gate flinched, but Jin-Chul was beyond frustrated. 

“The gate was cleared forty minutes ago, three hunters left the gate. Lee Joo-Hee B-rank support, Song Chi-Yul C-rank fire mage, Sung Jin-Woo E-rank physical fighter.” 

Jin-Chul was surprised, he was expecting to only hear of Kang leaving the gate. 

He stalked up to the three hunters and was shocked to find that Sung Jin-Woo looked different, he was half a foot taller by Jin-Chul’s guess and seemed like his clothes were almost a size too small.

“Hunter Sung, we meet again.” Jin-Chul said blithely. 

“Oh, you're that surveillance agent.” Sung murmured, sounding surprised. 

“Yes, Chief Woo Jin-Chul of the surveillance department.” He acknowledged. 

Jin-Chul turned his body to include the other two hunters in their conversation. 

“From my understanding one of my agents has caused you a problem, we will of course be issuing an apology after we have completed our investigation.” Jin-Chul began his usual spiel after finding out his department had fucked up something. 

“As chief of the surveillance department I've personally taken on this investigation. Will you all cooperate with the investigation?” He asked seriously. 

The three hunters nodded, all of them quiet. It was that reaction that made him think there was going to be a lot of bullshit shoveled in his direction.

“To the point then.” Jin-Chul sighed. “Who killed agent Kang Tae-Shik?”

Jin-Chul was half surprised at seeing hunter Song step forward and say. “I did.”

Jin-Chul felt his eyebrows rise, he was doubtful but he kind of wanted to sweep this under the rug and call it a day. He had never liked Kang, the man had been shifted from department to department because of his attitude until he ended up under Jin-Chul where he had stayed the longest because the only other division left was human resources. 

“How did a C-rank defeat a B-rank hunter?” He asks just so he can get the story. 

“Do you not see who's behind me?” Hunter Song asks. “Joo-Hee is a B-rank supporter, it was only because of her and the fact that I am a dojo owner that I could kill him.” 

Jin-Chul blinked, he never expected hunters to have other jobs and when he found those that did it was usually not something legal. 

“Alright, if you would come to the association to write an official report?” He made sure to make his demand sound like a question. 

Jin-Chul started to lead hunter Song away before he remembered that he did actually need to share some information with hunter Sung before he left. 

“Hunter Sung, the incident from Hwang Dong-Suk’s strike squad being wiped out, has gotten out. Hwang Dong-Suk’s younger brother is a S-rank hunter in America. You and hunter Yoo now have targets on your back.” He explained. “The biggest problem is that there is no way to control an S-rank hunter. I suggest you lay low, get out of the country, we at the association cannot protect you.”

______

Jin-Chul gets home to a dark apartment, it's late and he is tired, he's always tired. His good day had gone to shit and he is sure he can blame hunter Sung Jin-Woo for that. The man had seemed so innocent in the hospital but the paperwork he had generated with his last two raids was giving a different story.

He yawns as he pulls off his suit jacket and lays it on the back of a kitchen chair as he passes it towards the bathroom, he strips himself of his ‘uniform’ and climbs into the shower. 

His thoughts swirl around the physical difference of hunter Sung, as well as the fact that he was able to actually feel the others' mana when he hadn't before. 

He feels a flush rise on his cheeks as he allows himself the thought that Sung was attractive. He had been cute before, but now that he was a little taller and seemed to have filled out his clothes he was attractive. 

He wondered if he would see the hunter again any time soon.

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo blinks at the scene in front of him. There is a group of eight hunters, three of them with casts on a limb, three of them look like they are drunk or high, and the last two look too young to even be registered at all. 

“What is this Jin-Ho?” He asks tired and incredulous. 

“You said you wanted to go in alone, so I found some hunters who couldn't actually go into the gate, and some that shouldn't.” Jin-Ho answers from somewhere behind the group. 

Jin-Woo groans to himself but nods it is what he told Jin-Ho, and honestly the man had a good idea, hunters who were unable to hunt for any reason could be desperate enough to do something foolish but giving them a way to make money would help. 

“They get three million won per gate just waiting for us!” Jin-Ho chirps. 

Jin-Woo nods again. Honestly it's smart even though he knows most of the money is hush money so they won't blab to the association. 

He starts towards the gate, trusting that Jin-Ho will follow only to stop and stare at the man. 

“Jin-Ho…” He says as he holds onto his patience with a death grip. “What the hell are you wearing?”

The armor that Jin-Ho currently has on is ridiculous, it's black with red edging, it looks heavy and cumbersome to move in. It reminds Jin-Woo of the pictures of samurai armor, but flashier with its red detailing and the flack that it sparkled like a disco ball. 

Jin-Woo pokes Jin-Ho’s chest plate and has to hold back laughter as the other falls backwards and starts to flail his limbs. Jin-Ho looks like a turtle abandoned on its back. 

“Take it off.” Jin-Woo demands. 

“Uh, sir.” Jin-Ho says hesitantly. “I can't get up.” 

Jin-Woo can't stop the snort of amusement even as he easily helps the other to his feet. He turns away so he doesn't laugh as Jin-Ho starts to take off the armor grumbling the whole time. 

He checks his phone quickly to make sure that nothing important has come up. Not like he expected anything, but he had gotten into the habit to check before any gate, and he sent Jin-Ah a quick text that he loves her and will be home later. 

“Alright, let's go!” Jin-Ho exclaimed suddenly. 

Jin-Woo tenses in surprise, then he looks at Jin-Ho and shakes his head. The other is wearing casual clothes with the helmet of the armor, he doesn't have a shield or a sword, just a backpack. 

Jin-Woo shakes his head, this kid was something else. 

_____

All three gates are easy to close, Jin-Woo only leveled up once per gate, he was mildly annoyed but kept himself from sulking too much. 

The only thing he is happy about is that he finally reached level forty in the last gate, and that a quest had finally come through that was murdering someone trying to kill him. He had dismissed the alert without opening it, he could do that later when he was home and had a chance to read thoroughly. 

He is surprised however to find two suited men standing just outside of the perimeter line, at first glance he thinks they are from the association, but the second glance tells he they aren't simply because their ties aren't black nor are they tight to their throats. 

“Hunter Sung Jin-Woo, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Ahn Sang-Min, chief of recruitment at the White Tiger guild.” One of the men introduced himself.

Jin-Woo can feel his right eyebrow twitch, he wondered why this man and his associate were there and looking for him, he thought that Jin-Ho would have covered his tracks enough not to catch anyone's attention. 

“If you have some time I would like to speak with you.” The man says. 

Jin-Woo represses a sigh, but he nods in agreement, anything to get this man away from him right then. He needed a shower to get the sweat off, and he needed it twice as badly to get the gross feeling off his skin that he had been feeling ever since he agreed to his arrangement with Jin-Ho.

The walk to an upscale cafe is quiet, Jin-Woo is pretty sure that he's radiating enough annoyance that the men beside him are only keeping quiet so he doesn't cause a scene and put a mark on their guilds name. 

The cafe staff seat them quickly in an area that gives the illusion of privacy with partitions that block the view of other people in the cafe. It's just Jin-Woo and the White Tiger guild recruitment chief sitting at the table. 

“I'm sure you know of all the top guilds in the country, I have to say out of all of them the White Tiger guild is the finest.” The man says. “I'll get right to the point.” 

The man gives Jin-Woo a smile he is sure is meant to be inviting and says. “Hunter Sung, I tracked you down to invite you to join the White Tiger guild. We will double whatever Yoo construction is offering.” 

“How expensive is the guilds building?” Jin-Woo asks. 

The recruiter blinks before his eyes widen. 

“We aren't using all of the floors in the building, if I were to guess the amount of only our floors I would guess fifty billion won.” The recruiter answered.

“You would have to give me that, and another ten billion won.” Jin-Woo tells the man flatly.

“Thirty billion won?” The recruiter yells. 

Jin-Woo winces at the volume, but he nods slowly, holding eye contact with the man to prove his seriousness.

“I…I don't have the authority to offer that kind of money.” The recruiter admits. 

“Then the conversation is over.” Jin-Woo tells him as he stands. 

“How did you find me, or anything about me?” Jin-Woo asks. “You ran an in-depth background check, didn't you?”

“Ah?” The man breaths in question. 

Hypnosis activated. 

Jin-Woo glares at the man, before saying slowly. “You will not tell a soul about any of the information you found, you will order your subordinates to not share anything either.” 

Jin-Woo is surprised to find that his voice is so smooth as he speaks, it's melodic in a way that seems to lull the recruiter into a trance. 

“You will allow me to call in a favor for wasting my time today.” Jin-Woo adds for some unknown reason. 

“Have a good rest of your day.” He says in his normal voice before he activates the skill he had found from his encounter with the association agent and ghosts away without any witnesses. 

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo had kept his promise to Jin-Ho over doing the quest that the System had given him. There was no time limit on it and he wanted to finish his contract as soon as possible because he couldn't stand the groom's feelings lasting longer. 

He was happy it was only a week. Jin-Ho had even been a little too overzealous and had ended up purchasing twenty-one gates instead of the agreed on nineteen. Jin-Woo didn't mind the extra two, it let him level up more than he had expected when a few of the gates were a high C-rank instead of the lower end like the first three were. 

Now he was in the middle of one of the wooded parks in the industrial area going through his new stretching routine. 

Glowing violet in front of him was the gate for the System’s quest. It was a job change quest. Jin-Woo couldn't help but wonder why the quest came now, he honestly had no idea how games worked but he personally would have waited until level fifty to offer a job change, but he was weird and like things in multiples of odd numbers. 

Jin-Woo sends his customary text to Jin-Ah saying that he's not sure when he will be home but that he loves her and Sood is in the fridge with heating instructions before he's putting his cellphone into his inventory and cracking his neck. 

“Alright, let's do this shit.” He says to himself in anticipation as he passes into the dungeon. 

“Fuck!” Jin-Woo shouts as he has to duck immediately after he enters the dungeon. 

A sword had tried to take off his head before he had even had a chance to look around and examine the dungeon. He materializes his dagger as quickly as he can before stabbing at his opponent. 

There's a screech of metal on metal as Jin-Woo finally takes in the monster that had attacked him, it's a suit of armor, Jin-Woo groans as he notices that there is only a shallow scratch from his dagger. 

With a resigned sigh he dematerializes his dagger and balls his fists tightly, a punch to the breastplate caves it in and makes the suit of armor clatter onto the floor in pieces. 

“Fuck you.” Jin-Woo spits at the monster.

He gets two minutes to try to plan as he walks before another suit is on him, this time it's wielding a war hammer. Jin-Woo hops and plants his left hand on the shoulder guard and grabs the jaw of the helm and rips it off as he lands behind the armor. 

Seeing how easy it is to take out the suits of armor Jin-Woo doesn't allow himself time to stop as he quickly makes his way through the halls of what seems to be a castle of sorts. 

Notice:

• Player is not permitted to leave without hearthstone. 

• Consuming potions will have no effect!

• Shop function has been suspended.

• Players statuses will not replenish on leveling. 

Jin-Woo curses at the notice, he wishes that the System would have told him any of this beforehand, he would have browsed the weapons available in the shop before entering the dungeon. It also made him pause on realizing that he hadn't completed his daily quest before entering. 

With a curse Jin-Woo stomped down the hall taking the suits of armor out with a new viciousness. 

You have leveled up. 

Jin-Woo scoffed at the notice before he pulled up his inventory to see if he had gotten anything worthwhile from defeating the Knights. A satisfied smirk tugged on his lips at he noticed that he had pieces of armor he could equip, the smirk grew when he found that the armor didn't actually physically show when he equipped it. 

He pushed himself as he made his way through the longer than it should be hall, he lost time as he took out his lingering negative emotions on the empty walking armor. 

The sight of a dusty and half rusted ornate set of tall double doors is a relief and a surprise to Jin-Woo. With a sigh he takes a moment to lean between a pillar and the wall so he can take a breather and drink some of the room temperature water that had been dropped by the Knights. 

Feeling he had wasted enough time Jin-Woo approached the doors and was mildly surprised when they opened with a touch, not even making a sound even though their look made him think they would creak ominously. 

“A throne room?” He asked curiously. 

A shudder ran down Jin-Woo’s spine as he felt a pressure on his chest and a sudden sense of doom. The clank of metal on stone pulled Jin-Woo's attention outward and away from his mild inner crisis and back to the room. 

Armor the color of freshly spilled blood slowly but smoothly made its way across the raised platform where the throne sat and stood tall in front of the actual throne. 

Knight Commander, Igris the Red.

The knights title from the System glowed an alarmingly bright red above its head. Jin-Woo swallowed nervously as he took in his new opponent. 

The knight took one slow step down the stairs from the platform, then in a blur it was suddenly in front of Jin-Woo and swinging its broad sword. He barely ducks the weapon, its so sharp that it shears off millimeters of his hair that hadn't settled with his quick movement. 

Jin-Woo throws his body weight behind the the slash he delivers with his materialized dagger to the knight only to cringe and dodge again as the blade makes contact and doesn't do anything other than scream in protest as it glances off the armor and nothing else. 

He has to throw himself out of the way again and do some creative flips to get away from the knight and his broadsword. 

Hypnosis activated. 

Jin-Woo tries a skill with a negligible mana drain. 

“Stand down.” He orders. 

Igris the Red is resistant to hypnosis. 

Jin-Woo curses, it seems like he's going to have to put his trust in his strength stat and go for a bare knuckle fight. He dismisses his dagger and cracks his knuckles in preparation, lamenting that the shop wouldn't work and thinking about investing in a set of brass knuckles or something similar. 

The knight tilted its head in an oddly human manner before it stabbed its broad sword into the stone floor. It nodded at Jin-Woo before it reached up and unclasped the fastenings for its cape, and the it's belt that looked to hold two daggers in stealths. 

Jin-Woo blinked in surprise at the dungeon monster disarming itself so it could fight him on equal but still very unequal footing. 

Jin-Woo is assessing the knight again with narrowed eyes trying to find anything that could lead to him being able to beat the monster. 

He doesn't get the chance to make the first move, the knight is in his space and throws him into a wall before Jin-Woo can even blink. He grunts at the impact and bites off a screamed swear as the knight is in his space again and punching at him. 

Jin-Woo only has enough time to cross his arms to defend his chest from the punch, he gets punched through the stonewall much to his bewilderment and skids across the stone flooring of another room. 

It gives him a chance to breathe and halt his panicking thoughts.

The knight is on him again, it's all Jin-Woo can do to keep trying to block critical areas on his body, and occasionally throwing in his own attack.

It's not until the knight grabs his shoulder and throws him into a spin making him parallel to the floor. Jin-Woo uses that to lash out with his leg and kick the knight in the head. 

To his utter lack of surprise nothing happens other than the knight grabbing his ankle and flinging him through a new part of the wall. 

Jin-Woo rolls across the floor and ends up flipping and landing in a sprawl on the throne.

The sound of the knight walking towards him and then away is the only thing he hears as his mind whirled. The only two weak points he could find were the eye slits and the right under its helmet. 

The knight is walking towards him now, the sound of its broad sword dragging across the stone floor the only sound before it all halts. Jin-Woo can't believe he is going to have to use the Second Try option again unless everything works in his favor along with every ounce of luck he has built up in his life. 

His left hand snaps up and grabs the sword as it descends, it cuts into his palm with a sharp bite as his right hand summons his dagger before he's thrusting it into the knights eye slits. 

The knight lets go of its sword and jerks back in almost comical pain. Jin-Woo throws the sword away and lunges at the knight, his bodyweight carries them far, slamming the knight into a nearby pillar. 

Jin-Woo knows he can't let the knight have any quarter and dismisses his dagger before summoning it again, he stabs it into the small space between the knights helm and the armor of its torso and holds onto the knights shoulder guard tightly as it twitches and then goes still. 

You have defeated the Knight Commander, Igris the Red! 

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

Chapter Text

Reward(s):

Crimson Knights Helm.

• Rank Level: S

• Type: Item 

Physical damage reduced by 15%, Heath +20, Strength+20

Leather Pouch.

• 1,500,000,000 gold

Hearthstone.

• Instant teleportation 

Commanders Touch.

• Rank Level: A

• Type: Rune stone

• Mana Cost: 5

Crushing this stone will grant Player the skill of telekinesis. (The higher the skill level the less mana this skill will cost.)

Jin-Woo grins as he equipped the helm and crushed the Rune stone in his hand. He was ecstatic that he hadn't had to use the Second Try, he could only imagine the monster that would have followed the knight. 

His brow furrowed though when he realized that the dungeon wasn't fracturing like it had in the last one. 

A crackle of static catches his attention and makes Jin-Woo look over his shoulder. A gate looks to be forming, it's a dark swirl of energy that sparks blue, purple and teal. Jin-Woo feels his shoulders drop in resignation before he slaps his knees and stands to face the gate. 

Job Change Quest Will Now Begin!

“Oh come on.” Jin-Woo groans at the notification. 

You will accumulate more points the longer you stay alive. 

• Higher points will equal a higher class job title. 

Clock.

00:00:00

“Fuuuuuck!” He screams as the first suit of armor steps out of the gate. 

Clock.

00:00:10

Jin-Woo throws himself at the first cluster of knights, he feels every tiny injury that he has, he's tired and angry at the quest. The anger is enough to push him through the first fifteen minutes of seemingly endless armor monsters. 

He takes a brutal side swipe from the blunt part of a sword and gasps from the absolute agony that radiates from his ribs. He activates the camouflage skill that he had taken off the body of the association agent he killed without giving any true thought to the mana cost. 

A mage has cast Detection and has revealed the Players position.

The stripping of his camouflage skill feels like he's being dunked into ice water, it makes even more frustration bubble in his chest. 

His inattention costs him, a war hammer slams into his side and sends him flying and then sliding across the floor. 

• You brought this on yourself.§ A painfully familiar voice says from within the crowd of armor. 

• You are extremely lucky to have lived as long as you did before the System came into your life.§

Jin-Woo spins trying to find the person talking as he dispatches suits of armor, what he finds makes him freeze. 

He is standing in front of a copy of what he looked like a few months ago, but it's not him wearing his chest bandages, it's him or a female version of him.

• I can't believe we're the same person, sure you grew a little and are presenting yourself as male, sure you look strong, but it's only your physical body that's changed. You're weak Sung Jin-Woo.§ The image of a female him hisses. 

Jin-Woo is so distracted that he gets slammed into by a pile of armor and pinned to the ground. 

• You have so far to go still before you're worth anything.§

Jin-Woo lays on the floor stunned, sure he has dark thoughts, what person doesn't, but he's used to them only being this clear and loud, if he's been injured or it's late at night and he can't sleep. 

Notice:

Daily Quest has not been completed.

Player will now be transferred to the Penalty zone. 

The stone floor gives way to sand. Jin-Woo can only stare up at the sun with angry bewilderment. That apparition had really fucked with his head. 

“Store.” Jin-Woo groaned, he was hoping that now that he wasn't technically in the dungeon everything was back in working order. 

He bought a few healing potions as well as mana replenishment potions and quickly downed them as fast as he could. Only the less serious injuries he had accumulated healed, but his fatigue was almost gone and his mana was full again. 

“Hope there's enough monsters so I can level up and get a status recovery.” He muttered to himself 

The ground shakes and Jin-Woo lets a sadistic smile tug at his mouth. 

“Stay still.” He says as he activates hypnosis. 

All of the giant sand millipedes stop moving, Jin-Woo laughs darkly as he summons his dagger and jumps at the first monster. 

It's a one sided slaughter with the use of his dagger and his hypnosis skill for three and a half hours Jin-Woo does nothing else but slaughter the millipedes and level up. 

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

Jin-Woo grinned as he jumped off the last millipede finding that no others were breaking through the surface of the sand. 

“Store, weapons, dagger.” He barked at the system. 

Chapter Text

Clock . 

04:20:42

Jin-Woo glares at the throne room full of knights as he feels the sand turn back into stone under his feet. He had his new dagger that's dramatically named the knight slayer tied onto his hand by a bandage that he had pulled from his inventory so he wouldn't drop it due to getting fatigued. 

He quickly used his camouflage skill and leapt forward into the center of a cluster of armor, this time the ice cold sensation of having camouflage ripped away didn't stop him, he used his ability only so he could find the mage he knew was hiding in the room. 

Now knowing where at least one of the mages was hiding he cut his way through the armor around him quickly before summoning his first dagger and throwing it at the mage once he spotted a clear path. 

New skill learned! 

Dagger toss.

• Skill Level: 1

• Mana Cost: 30

Skill will inflict damage on any opponent with equal or lower defense to the Player. 

Able to inflict higher damage with higher skill level.

Jin-Woo sighed, feeling relieved as a bunch of the suits of armor suddenly crashed to the floor no longer held together by mana, and then rolled his eyes as he read over the skill he had apparently learned. 

Taking a moment to look around Jin-Woo thought of a way to get a better look at the room. He grinned to himself as he spotted candle holders jutting out of the pillars that hadn't been destroyed by his fight with Igris. He jumped and grabbed onto the nearest one as he activated camouflage again. 

This time he was able to see where the mages were as they cast detection and made bright yellow and green eyeballs hover over their heads. Jin-Woo counted five mages that he would need to destroy before he could finally be done with the job change quest. 

Using commanders touch Jin-Woo called the fang dagger back to him before throwing it at the nearest mage, after it sliced through the monster he used commanders touch to redirect the dagger to the second mage closest to him. 

The cold feeling of being revealed washed over him again, Jin-Woo let go of the candle holder as he pushed off the pillar with his feet and dove back to the ground slashing out with his bare hand and the knight slayer as he went ping-ponging towards where the final three mages had cluster together and looked to be casting some sort of large scale spell. 

“Nuh-uh, not letting you finish whatever you're casting.” Jin-Woo mumbled to himself. 

He planted one foot on the chest plate of a knight trying to sneak up on and and used it as a launching pad to get to the mages as he called back the fang dagger. The dagger cut through one of the mages as it flew into his palm and he used it and the knight slayer to finish off the other two. 

You have completed the job change quest!

The notice appeared in front of him with a loud chime. 

A job will be assigned according to the Player's history and gathered points!

Jin-Woo groaned, he didn't want an assigned job, he wanted to pick his job. 

Wherever the Player goes Death follows.

The smell of blood fills the air, and the Player leaves behind a trail of corpses. 

The Player yearns for great power and refuses to rely on others. 

Jin-Woo starts to feel dread build in his stomach. 

You're desire to be the most powerful calls to the wandering spirits within the valley of the dead. An army of the dead will follow within your shadow, and clear a path on which you will walk.

Jin-Woo tries to swallow, he thinks he knows where this is going and doesn't like it. 

You have been assigned the class: Necromancer. 

[ Accept/Decline ]

“Decline.” Jin-Woo says slowly and waits for the System to do something to sweeten the deal. 

Necromancer is a hidden class, would you still like to decline? 

[ Yes/No ]

“No.” He grunts, a hidden class sounds like something you would have to pay for in a video game, like an extension pack or something. 

You are qualified for a high-rank placement in your class because of the points you have gathered, including additional point given for:

• You have exceeded expected play time. 

• The hearthstone was not used.

• Your remaining Heath is over 50%.

You have exceeded the point limit! 

You have been promoted from Necromancer to the Monarch of Shadows.

Jin-Woo barely was able to bite back a scream as pitch black shadows suddenly surged towards him and sunk into his body, making him so cold it burned. He stood gasping for breath as he tried to get used to the new feeling settling under his skin. 

Once his vision cleared Jin-Woo sighed at being able to see little notices floating above the clusters of armor as well as the mages cloaks. 

Please assign a command for shadow extraction skill!

“Arise.” Jin-Woo said clearly and firmly. 

Command word accepted!

Jin-Woo glared at the screen, the System seemed to be evolving along with him, gaining its own personality, he didn't like it, it most likely meant that as he leveled up whoever was behind the System was paying more attention. 

He shook off the thought and went to study the information he had available on his new job status only to squeak in surprise as he found himself now in a room full of knights made of black shadows with bright blue glowing visors looking at him expectantly. 

Once the knights seemed to feel his attention they kneeled as if a single entity and bowed their heads. 

Jin-Woo had his attention caught by the color red at the other end of the room, Igris had a notification that it could be extracted floating above its form. 

He stalked over to the Knight Commander and cleared his throat. 

“Arise.” He repeated. 

Nothing happened but another notice popping into his vision. 

Player only has three chances to extract a Shadow.

“I beat you, that means you're mine now. There is no point in guarding an empty throne.” Jin-Woo growled. 

“Arise.” He said for the third time. 

The Shadow of Igris rose from his empty armor and kneeled down on one knee. 

Shadows with a high enough rank need to be named! 

Jin-Woo groaned. “Your name is still Igris.” 

Chapter Text

Between the buzz under his skin from his new job title, the eyes he could feel watching him from his shadow, and the reemergence of his gender dysphoria, Jin-Woo couldn't sleep. 

It was a blessing and a curse. His lack of sleep let Jin-Ah remind him of her parent teacher conference, but it made him feel lethargic as well as itching to do something. 

After sending Jin-Ah off to school and a shower, Jin-Woo stared at himself in the mirror dressed only in boxer briefs and his chest wrap with a scowl as he looked himself over. 

He had never had money for surgery to remove the breasts that he had from being born female, it never really bothered him because they were so small that they were almost unnoticeable even without the wrap, but he felt better with it on because it removed almost any indication he had breasts when he was dressed.

Truthfully having surgery to correct his gender had never crossed his mind, simply because the gender dysphoria never reared its ugly head after he had changed his name and started going by the correct gender terms. Jin-Woo can only assume that he's having an issue from the apparition that appeared in the dungeon from his job change quest. 

With a glare at his reflection Jin-Woo decided that he was going to do something a little crazy for himself and go spend some of the money that he had gotten from Jin-Ho on himself and get his haircut and update his wardrobe. 

_____

“Who are you and what have you done to oppa?” Jin-Ah asked flatly the moment she saw him. 

Jin-Woo smirked softly, he figured that the difference was a little startling. He had gone to a barber and had left his haircut and style up to the barber because he had been cutting his own hair for the last four years. He felt good with the choice that had been made to give him an undercut and a trim for the hair that had been left unshaved. It would be easy to take care of and wouldn't need any kind of daily styling. 

He had even gone a little crazy with the new clothes and had gotten a few sets of business casual wear instead of sticking to jeans, t-shirts and hoodies. He had still bought mostly clothes that would fall into the category of comfortable but it was all new, he hadn't bought anything from the thrift store. 

Jin-Woo was honestly a little proud of himself for spending money on himself, he even splurged and had bought a few blinders for everyday wear as well as a few hunter class ones, they looked more like undershirts than binders which had thrilled him beyond words. 

“I thought I looked okay.” Jin-Woo countered. 

“You look fine.” Jin-Ah said with a pout. “I just didn't realize a person could change so much so quickly.” 

“Don't worry, you can have your makeover whenever you want.” He told her with a tiny smile.

Jin-Ah smiled brightly at him and took in his new look before turning and gesturing for him to follow her homeroom teacher's office. 

______

“I didn't know Jin-Ah had such an attractive brother.” The teacher said as Jin-Woo opened the door to her office. 

Jin-Woo cringed, he had attended this school, granted he was still pretending he was a girl and his name had been Suk-Ja when he had attended. He also felt a swell of joy to know that he looked so different now. 

Jin-Woo sat where the woman directed him and waited for her to start the conference. 

“Jin-Ah is a fantastic student, she is always in the top five students of her grade and the staff believe she will be elected as the student representative of her grade when graduation for her class comes closer.” The woman tells him. 

Jin-Woo nods along with the information, he figured that would be the case. 

He was proud of Jin-Ah.

“I'm sure you already know Jin-Ah is aiming for medical school.” The woman continues. “Her practice test scores are always outstanding, and she's pretty much guaranteed a spot in any pre-med program she chooses. I can only ask that you don't pressure her too hard.” 

“Understood.” Jin-Woo agrees, he has never pressured Jin-Ah and wasn't planning to start any time soon. 

“I believe I used to teach one of your siblings…” The teacher says hesitantly. “And there's a rumor…”

Jin-Woo raises an eyebrow in question. She used to teach him, but if she wanted to believe he wasn't her previous student he would let her. 

“I've heard that my previous student is a hunter now, you are as well aren't you?” She asks. 

Jin-Woo nods, he wonders where this is going. 

“If Jin-Ah were to awaken would you ever encourage her to become an active hunter?” 

The question makes every single time he had ever been injured or near death flash through his mind in quick succession and every cell in Jin-Woo's body turn to ice. 

“Never!” Jin-Woo says, barely holding himself back from snarling at the woman.

The woman jerks in surprise at the vehemence behind the word. 

“Ah, good then.” She says even though her expression is telling him she has more to say. 

Jin-Woo waits for her to continue as she fiddles with the hem of her skirt, he's patient, he can out wait her in any circumstance. 

“We…I was hoping you would be willing to have a conversation with another student on the danger of being a hunter.” She finally says. 

“Who?” Jin-Woo asks, he may be patient but he wants to know who the student is. 

“Han Song-Yi.” The woman says quietly, nervously. 

The name is one Jin-Woo knows well, Song-Yi has been Jin-Ah's friend for many years, he's heard a lot about her even though he had never met her other than in passing. 

Song-Yi is important to Jin-Ah, that means he will do anything to make sure she will give up on the idea of becoming an active hunter. 

Jin-Ah’s happiness is the most important thing to him and if she were to lose her friend, Jin-Woo didn't want to even consider how heartbroken she would be. 

Han Song-Yi’s days of wanting to be a hunter were now numbered in his mind. 

Chapter Text

Jin-Ah watched her brother closely, after his meeting with her homeroom teacher he had come out of the room with a stony expression and a protective determination glinting in his grey eyes. It was an expression she had only ever really seen when she had been in trouble of some sort. 

“Oppa.” She asks, trying to get an answer without actually questioning him. 

“Your teacher had nothing bad to say about you or your academics, but she brought up another student that seems to be making a bad choice.” Jin-Woo answers her. 

Jin-Ah wonders who could have brought the protective big brother out in him before she remembered that Song-Yi had been skipping school and had been asking about Jin-Woo’s life as a hunter. 

Song-Yi had thought she had been quiet when she had petulantly said she would make being an E-rank hunter look good. Jin-Ah had pretended not to hear her, but she had, and it had made her mad. Jin-Woo put his life on the line so he could care for her, and she was just as protective of him as he was of her. 

“It was Song-Yi, wasn’t it?” She asks. 

“Yes.” Jin-Woo tells her. 

He tried not to lie to her about anything other than his health or his injuries. Jin-Ah knew that Jin-Woo would and had done things for her comfort and happiness that he hid from her, but she had heard him crying at night. 

“It will take something extreme to make her change her mind, but I know you will shield her the best you can.” Jin-Ah tells him confidently. 

Jin-Woo just grunts at her in agreement. 

Jin-Ah can't help the fond smile that blooms on her face, her brother is so odd, he sucks at emotions and connecting with people, always has.

The walk home is quiet, but she hadn't expected anything else from him.

_______

Han Song-Yi is surprised to see Jin-Ah’s brother leaning against a light post in front of her apartment building. She cant help the scowl that tugs at her lips at the sight of him, he had changed so much in the time since the latest problem that had put him in the hospital. 

“Song-Yi, I know we haven't been properly introduced but I was wondering if we could get a coffee and talk.” He called out to her.

“Fine.” Song-Yi huffed.

“You know, Jin-Ah is everything to me.” He starts the conversation as they walk. 

“I would burn the world for her happiness.” The words are said casually, but Song-Yi can feel the truth in them.

“Good for you.” She snarks. 

Jin-Woo throws her a glare, it makes something in Son-Yi shrivel.

“Song-Yi, if you weren't my sister's friend I wouldn't give a shit. You could become a hunter, die in the first time you actually enter a dungeon, and I would not care an iota.” The words are harsh even if the way he delivers them is even and cold. 

He opens the door to the cafe he had been leading her to and lets her go in first, they order their drinks, he pays, and then they find a table to sit at quietly. Song-Yi watches him as he takes a sip of the drink and levels her with a cold hard look. 

“As one E-rank to another, I should be dead. The only reason I’m not is because the strike teams I was usually put on had a B-rank support hunter on the team. If she had not been on the strike team I would have dined every single time I entered a gate.” He says. 

Song-Yi scoffs, as if she believed him. 

“You can believe me or not, but I have set up something to show you the truth of being a hunter. An acquaintance of mine is part of a guild and he has agreed to let us accompany a team into a B-rank gate with one of their strike teams.” Jin-Woo’s words make her perk up. 

“Great! Some real experience, I can’t wait to get into a gate and show you what a real E-rank can do.” Song-Yi says to hide her fear. 

Jin-Woo snorts at her, Song-Yi can tell it's full of condensation and that he's looking down on her. She ignores the twist in her chest.

“Have Jin-Ah text me when it’s happening.” She says as she stands and walk away from him with a smirk. 

Chapter Text

“Where are we?”

This doesn't look like a dungeon!”

“What happened to the gate?”

“Oh god we're all going to die!” 

Jin-Woo is unimpressed with the chaos of the strike team as he listens to them freaking out. 

“Jin-Woo.” Song-Yi calls his name quietly.

He feels her step closer to him and grab onto his sleeve. 

“It's a red gate, stay close.” Jin-Woo orders her. 

He had wanted a gate that would scare her, but he hadn't wanted to have her stranded within a red gate where survival was low. 

A twang of an arrow being released caught his attention, making him focus a small amount of mana into his eyes and arms, a second twang followed. 

The first arrow found its mark in the throat of one of the hunters, the second he sees heading directly for Song-Yi. His left hand snaps out and he closes his hand around the shaft of the arrow, it freezes his hand to the arrow with a thick casing of ice. 

His eyes track the trajectory and into the trees where he finds two humanoid figures standing casually on high branches of a naked and frozen tree. He bares his teeth threateningly at them and watches one of them drag its finger across its throat before flitting away with a burst of speed.

Jin-Woo clenched his fist, this gate was about to prove a large problem. 

“Let me introduce myself again” a man he had noticed before entering the gate spoke loudly. “I am Kim Chul, an A-rank hunter, meaning I'm the highest rank of this group, therefore the leader.”

Jin-Woo’s feeling of regret for entering this particular gate doubles with every word out of the heavily armoured man's mouth. He knows this time even if the words are slightly different, this idiot is going to take only the perceived strongest and leave the rest of them to die.

He scoffs quietly to himself as he ignores the posturing from the other hunters. He knows that they need to find shelter and a source of food soon, the hunters that are leaving with the arrogant A-rank probably won't live long. 

With a sigh Jin-Woo turns to the forest and cocks his head, going in there will allow them to forage, wood will burn and they can make temporary structures with it, fire will let them melt the snow for water. 

“We'll head into the forest." He tells everyone left behind.

As he leads them through the forest, Jin-Woo feels Song-Yi press further into him and shiver. With a few silent commands he has the Systems store open and quickly navigates to where he can buy clothes meant for the cold. 

Reaching in his buys a coat and pants made of fur for Song-Yi in the same size he would buy for Jin-Ah and pushing it into the girl's hands. 

“Put these on Song-Yi.” He orders. “The rest of you tell me your sizes, oh and shoe sizes.” 

The mage that had stayed behind with them even though he could tell she was an A-rank blinked at him. 

“My shoe size is an eight.” Song-Yi tells him. 

Jin-Woo is grabbing her a pair of boots and a pair for himself before the others finally clue in to the fact he can give them clothes to better handle the cold and give their own shoe sizes first before the others he needs. 

“Tell no one of this, don't ask me questions, and do as I say.” Jin-Woo orders using hypnosis on the group.

With all of them dressed in fun and no longer shivering he gives a satisfied nod and starts to lead them further into the dense forest. 

“We can't go any further!” The mage suddenly exclaimed. “There are territorial markings on those trees.” 

Jin-Woo turns to her. 

“That's exactly why we are going deeper. Territorial markings means no ice slayers.” He tells her. 

_____

The first ice bear goes down with a back handed slap that breaks its neck, Jin-Woo would feel bad but now they have a good source. He knows that it's just a scout and the rest will come once they notice that it doesn't come back. 

He has to butcher the bear because no one else knows how and he mysteriously has information show up on a screen on how to do it with picture guides. He's not going to spend gold on seasoning so the party he is with is out of luck if they want gourmet ice bear for dinner. 

As he crews through his portion he wonders if his daily quest counts for each day in the gate, or if it counts the time outside of the gate. He can't disappear on the four people counting on him for four hours and hopes that it's outside. He's just glad he had finished it before entering the gate and would know by the next morning if he had to do it again. 

________

Jin-Woo wandered away from the camp, the mage is keeping watch and he wants to find the rest of the ice bears and maybe a cave they can use for better shelter. 

He is only an hour away from camp when he stumbles on a cave and the ice bears gather in a large hunting party. He smirks and decides to send his Shadows into battle for him. 

“Come out.” He orders. 

The buzz of his magic dances on his skin for a moment before the shadows he had risen burst forward and into the group of bears. 

“Igris, stay behind.” He calls catching the plume of the knights helm. “Once the alpha bear shows itself you can have it.”

It doesn't take long for the biggest bear of the group to roar and stand on its hind legs. Igris is off like a shot. The bears in the knight's path are all cut down quickly, even the fight with the alpha bear is short. It makes Jin-Woo swallow with the knowledge that he really was no match for Igris and should have never won the fight. 

The field is quiet in the aftermath, and Jin-Woo is only broken from his thoughts as a soft thump echoes. He looks down to find Igris kneeling at his feet with the alpha bears head in front of him in offering. 

“Thank you.” He murmurs. 

His army slip away back into his shadow, Jin-Woo looks intently at the bears. 

“Arise.” He commands, each of them does with little prompting. 

_____

Baek Yoon-Ho, White Tiger guilds master, sits at his desk contemplating the paperwork that is waiting for him to finish filling out on his computer screen. He wonders why he doesn't allow himself to just gate hop anymore, and sits here pushing paper. 

Before the gates he had been training to be a professional mixed martial arts fighter, he had hated being still and had never dreamed of some corporate job. 

Now that he's an S-rank hunter he sits behind a desk most days in a suit and doesn't move from his tasks unless it's to get a refill of his tea or to use the restroom. He's praying for something to shake up the monotony when his phone rings.

“What?” He snaps as he answers. 

“The B-rank training gate has become a red gate.” the voice of his head recruiter blurts, sounding panicked. 

Yoon-Ho feels himself lose control over his mana a little, and his reflection in the window of his office proves he has with how his eyes glow gold. 

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo pouts the morning after the red gate as he sits in the living room of his and Jin-Ah's apartment, he was one part satisfied and three parts pissed off. 

He had gotten a new dagger from the gate boss, and getting Song-Yi out of the red gate were the satisfying things. The fact that the A-rank hunter that had left them behind had turned back up and threatened to kill them had pissed him off, and then he had been unable to raise the shadow of the ice slayer had annoyed him even more, the part that tipped the scales was the meeting with the White Tiger guilds master. 

Jin-Woo was not part of the man's guild, and he owed the man nothing after saving three of his guild members when they had been abandoned by the rest of the party because they were regarded as weak. 

Jin-Woo hated people like that more than anything, the strong should protect the weak in his opinion it was one of the largest flaws of being human. 

Shaking his head to banish the thoughts from his mind about the morals of other humans. 

“Inventory.” He calls out, the semi transparent screen pops up quickly. 

Jin-Woo slowly scrolls through it, taking note that he can sell off a lot of monster parts that were automatically added into his inventory. When he had first noticed that happen he had checked the prices he could sell the parts back to the system before he went and compared the prices to the black market prices. He had snorted at the system when it had quickly started to offer more money than the black market for items he wanted to sell. 

One of the items he had gotten from defeating the cerberus caught his attention. He had honestly forgotten about the Demon King's Castle quest with everything else going on, it also made him wonder if he was strong enough to start climbing the levels. 

He had one hearthstone, from the job change quest and he couldn't purchase more, if he went he needed to get at least half way on the first time unless the dungeon dropped another hearthstone. That meant that he needed to be away for a number of days, and even though Jin-Ah was fifteen he didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone that long. 

Sighing loudly in the empty apartment he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and tried to decide would be better with checking in on Jin-Ah. 

His only real options were Song Chi-Yul and Yoo Jin-Ho, they were the only two people other than Lee Joo-Hee he would ask something like this from. Joo-Hee would have been his preference, but she had already moved to Busan.

Sending a text to both men with his request Jin-Woo moved his attention back to the system, he would need to make sure he had enough food and water in his inventory to last a few months. 

_____

Jin-Woo stared down the gate into the demon king's castle, he had a cloak he had purchased to protect him from the flames he had seen when he had faced the cerberus. He passed through the gate, his attention focused to make sure he wasn't ambushed.

He makes his way past the cerberus’ body, the little notice floating above its corpse draws his attention. 

“Arise.” He orders. 

The shadow rises without any fight, Jin-Woo can't help the pleased smile that spreads on his lips as the giant three headed dog rises as a shadow and then slips into his shadow after dipping its head and wagging its tail. 

The doors he had seen his first time here are the same crimson and gold. Jin-Woo is expecting them to be heavy to open once he's unlocked them so he pushes with his bodyweight behind and nearly lands on his face when the doors swing open.

It's a hallway that looks like a less run down version of the job change quest, he looks around carefully waiting for a monster to pop out and try to kill him. 

When nothing comes he takes a few steps in, the door closes behind him with a loud bang making Jin-Woo twitch at the sound. 

Quest Notice

Collect the Demon Souls!

The Demon king’s castle is swarming with demons. You will receive a special reward for defeating and collecting their soul. You will not be able to use a hearthstone before completing this quest. 

Quest Requirements :

• Collect 10,000 demons souls

Rewards :

• Choose any singular item from the shop 

• Bonus stats +20

• Hearthstone

• Undisclosed reward 

Jin-Woo can't stop his eye roll at the newest notice from the System, it's no real surprise that he has to kill demons in the Demon King's Castle. 

As he walks down the hall he notices that there are murals painted on the walls. Some look like battles between six winged angels and monsters that came out of the gates, others were of battles between monsters. 

The one caught his attention the most, it was a pile of monster bodies, a six winged angel on top of it skewered by lances and swords leaking shadows. 

Jin-Woo had to pull himself away from the mural with a surprising amount of effort. He kept looking over his shoulder to see the mural as he marched his way towards the door he could see at the end of the hall. 

Casting one last look over his shoulder Jin-Woo pushed the door open only to stutter a step in surprise at the landscape of a completely destroyed Seoul.  

Level one! 

Souls collected. [ 0/10,000 ]

Jin-Woo stared at the little display screen, it would be annoying to have it float in his peripheral vision, but it would be helpful to have the counter telling him how far along in the quest he was. With a sigh he set off through the flaming rubble filled streets. 

Five minutes later he's confronted with the first group of demons, they are small and move slowly, by the white titles that float above their head Jin-Woo knows that they are easy pickings. 

He throws the fang dagger the second it manifests in his hand, and swings the ice slayer dagger he had gotten from the red gate, he's mildly surprised at how easily it cuts through the demons but doesn't give himself any time to think on it as he starts to move through the crowd of demons that seemed to have multiplied with his split second of inattention. 

Level one!

Souls collected. [ 205/10,000 ]

Chapter Text

Yoo Jin-Ho was not his father's favorite child in any sense of the words, he was the youngest of three, both of his elder siblings regarded highly within his father's company where he was seen as clumsy and incompetent. 

When Jin-Ho had awakened, the only one out of his siblings to do so, his father had scoffed at his D-rank and told him that his siblings would have at least achieved A-rank. It had hurt, but it had also made him more determined to be acknowledged by his father. 

Once he had gotten his guild master license he had scheduled a meeting with his father, it hadn't gone well and he had felt a pit open in his stomach. 

His father had told him in polite words that if he didn't recruit Jin-Woo he would be disowned. It had made him panic, he had started transferring money from his account under his parents into an account he had set up a long time ago that his parents couldn't touch. 

He knew that he grew up spoiled with the amount of money he was given as an allowance or for a bribe to leave his siblings alone, he had saved almost all of it and had only spent the money he was given in hard cash from his mother. 

She gave him money weekly, an absurd amount, to hold off the guilt of him being neglected. It had only taken her two days to find out what he was doing from the account, she had just handed him a backpack full of won and told him that he could contact her directly if he needed more. 

Jin-Ho had left that encounter feeling a little more broken, but at the same time secure that his mother would go behind his father's back for him. 

He only hoped that someone would hire him once he inevitably failed his father's task. The memory of Jin-Woo calling him his little brother flashed through his mind, he couldn't help but believe that the other man would help him if he needed it. 

It had been a half surprise when he had gotten a text from Jin-Woo asking him to watch over his little sister because he was going to be off grid for a week and didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone that long. 

A spark of joy lit within his chest at his friend trusting him. 

Jin-Woo had been more open to talking to him in the gates they had gone in together without any one else following them, he had told Jin-Ho about how his little sister was the center of his world. Pride swelled within him at the thought of being trusted enough to be asked to watch over something so important to his friend. 

After he had agreed he had gotten a picture of Jin-Woo and his sister Jin-Ah so he would know who he was to watch over. He grinned at the picture of a purple haired girl grinning at the camera and Jin-Woo standing behind her holding up a peace sign and looking bored. 

Jin-Ho now stands outside of Jin-Woo’s little sister's school dressed in a three piece suit leaning against the sportscar his mother had bought him on his eighteenth birthday, waiting for her to come out of the doors. 

“Sung Jin-Ah.” He calls her name once he spots her. 

The girl looks up surprised and wide eyed. Jin-Ho has to bite back a silly grin when he thinks about how open she expresses her emotions compared to her brother as she walks over to him. 

“Hello?” She greets him with a question. 

“Your brother, Jin-Woo, asked me to watch over you while he's gone. I'm Yoo Jin-Ho!” He introduces himself and gives an explanation why he's there. 

“Show me proof.” Jin-Ah demands. 

Jin-Ho hadn't expected that but he pulls out his cell phone and opens it to the text thread between him and Jin-Woo and hands the phone over to the girl. She reads through it quickly and snorts as she gives the phone back. 

“That's why he wanted us to get a selfie.” She muttered.

Jin-Ho grins, he hadn't known it was a new picture, but it makes sense that Jin-Woo would want to send a new picture so that there was more proof for Jin-Ah. 

“Now, I can take you home or out for a treat.” Jin-Ho offers. 

Jin-Ah gives him a slow look from head to toe, it makes him want to shrink in on himself and preen at the same time. 

“Treat?” She asks.

“Mm, I figured an afternoon spa trip today, and tomorrow we can do a shopping trip cause it's the weekend.” Jin-Ho answers.

He wants to go to the spa, he needs a massage and some pampering after the difficult last few weeks. 

Jin-Ah beams at him brightly. 

“You, good sir, are good in my books. I've never been to a spa. Oppa and I have done stuff at home, but never got anything professionally done!” Her enthusiasm is clear as she gently prods his arm for him to move so she can get into his car. 

Jin-Ho smiles softly and opens the door for her to get in. He knows that this could be considered a bribe to get Jin-Woo contracted under Yoo construction’s guild so he will be using his father's account, but that's honestly not what it's about. Jin-Ah is Jin-Woo’s sister, and Jin-Ho wants to give the Sung family anything he can. 

They chat about nothing on the way to his mother's preferred spa, once there they are separated for their massages but brought back together for everything else where they pick their conversation back up. 

Jin-Ah tells him about herself and her brother, their lives and how difficult it had been without their parents around, she tells him about things that don't seem important but hold a deeper meaning when strung together properly. 

Jin-Ho feels his heart break and shatter on the floor when he hears about their difficult lives, he is going to milk his father's bank account as much as he can under the guise of bribing Jin-Ah to get Jin-Woo to sign a contract for his father's guild. 

He doesn't care if Jin-Woo actually agrees or not, it will be worth every won he can use to give this girl the world like she deserves. 

Chapter Text

Level twenty six!

Souls collected. [ 5,101/10,000 ]

Jin-Woo groans as he tilts his head and cracks his neck. He had noticed within the first five floors that each level had approximately two hundred and five demons; it made him snort after sitting and using his finger to draw in the dirt to try and do the math.

Jin-Woo sucked at math but he thought that this quest would be finished by level forty nine and if there were only fifty floors he would be done within the week. If there were more than fifty floors he would need to use the hearthstone and come back later. 

He had called one of his shadows up on the first floor, it had been the ice bear alpha and had used it as transportation to get to the gate that would get him to the next level and had found that if one of his shadows killed a demon it still counted for his quest. 

He hadn't really called up his shadows for the last twenty or so levels, only using the newly named Tank, the ice bear, and Fluffy, the cerberus to get around quickly. 

Level thirty one!

Souls collected. [ 6,160/10,000 ]

Jin-Woo groans, he plans of calling up his shadows and taking a quick nap for level thirty one, he hasn't been sleeping properly even though it's been a few weeks he's been in this dungeon going by the usual red gate time of twenty four hours inside being equal to one hour outside. 

He guessed that he had been in the dungeon for about a month and a half, he had another four before the week outside was up. 

Tank is the shadow he has out currently, he motioned for it to lay down before he leaned against it and called the rest of his shadows out. 

“Search and destroy, I'm gonna nap.” He tell them. 

Igris tilts his head before turning and pointing at ten of the lower level knights and then at the ground. Jin-Woo interprets it to mean that they are meant to guard him as he sleeps. 

Level fifty!

Souls collected. [ 10,045 /10,000 ]

Quest complete! 

Rewards:

• Choose any singular item from the shop 

• Bonus stats +20

• Hearthstone

• Undisclosed reward

Jin-Woo stared at the transparent screen, he had been correct that he needed to finish level forty nine only to get a hearthstone, he still didn't know if it meant the dungeon was done or if there were more levels. 

With a sigh he chose a cursed gift box for his item from the shop, unsurprised when it opened up and was another dungeon key. He the accepted the bonus stats and the hearthstone as he fed most of the twenty points into his intelligence. The stone was put away in his inventory, he would kill this level's boss and then see where to go from there. 

The undisclosed item made his eyes widen and hope bloom in his chest, it was a recipe for a potion that was meant to cure anything. He pushed the hope away, there was no guarantee that it would work on his mother, it was better to have no hope than to be disappointed when it didn't work the way you wanted. 

A groan and a stretch had him finally looking around the level, it looked much the same as the others, only this one had a giant demon sitting on a throne of bones. Above its head was the first indication that Jin-Woo was going to struggle with it. 

Ruler of the Lower Floors, Vulcan the Avaricious!

The demon's title and name are a deep copper red, Jin-Woo is mildly concerned about his life facing off something that big and bordering on very out of his capabilities. 

“Go, search and destroy, just like the other levels.” Jin-Woo orders his shadows. 

This time Igris grabs hold of Iron’s shoulder guard as he goes to leave and holds the ex A-rank hunter still. Jin-Woo figures that this time the four strongest of his shadows would stay with him for the fight. 

The giant demon stands and roars, then it grabs a club that's leaning against its throne and swinging down. 

Would the Player like to begin Second Try?  

[ Yes/No ]

Chapter Text

Second Try. 

You have chosen to try again. 

Your health reached zero when battling against the Ruler of the Lower Floors, Vulcan the Avaricious . 

You have been brought to the last automatic save point. 

(Player should be advised that Second Try is only available every twenty five floors of the Demon King's Castle.)

Jin-Woo groaned, he was once again standing next to the gate to the fiftieth floor, luckily he had saved all the changes from his quest rewards before ascending. 

He wasn't sure how he was going to beat this level, but he knew that the nerf that the System had given the boss would make it doable, it just meant that whatever came after the boss now would be a giant pain in the ass to deal with, he hoped that the drops and experience points were worth it. 

Jin-Woo called his shadows out before moving, Tank, Fluffy, Igris and Iron stood close to him at the ready as the others broke off already knowing their orders. 

This time the demon's title and name were glowing orange, a warning that it was at least equal to Jin-Woo in power. 

“Distract him, I'm going to try to find a way to kill him as you do.” Jin-Woo orders the four left with him. 

Tank, Fluffy and Iron all sprint away, attacking recklessly. They get hit with the club and get dispersed quickly, but Jin-Woo has noticed over the last ten or so floors that his shadows are learning and growing. 

Igris doesn't move from his side, Jin-Woo has accepted that the knight has a little more individuality than the others, he guessed it was because of the title the knight held being the highest. It made him wonder if the others would eventually grow themselves. 

Notice!

Ruler of the Lower Floors, Vulcan the Avaricious has used skill Rage ! 

• Vulcan will be in a state of rage for 3 minutes.

• All of Vulcan’s stats will increase twofold.

• Vulcan does not feel any pain. 

Jin-Woo is a little glad that the demon activated the rage skill, he had noticed with the cerberus that it was much less intelligent once the skill was activated. 

Jin-Woo called the four shadows with him back and used the upgraded commander's touch, now dominators touch to pull himself towards the demon. Use used the force of the pull along with the System granted strength to punch the demon with enough force to send it flying. 

He then landed in front of it with the use of dominators touch again. He stood there until the demon focused on him again and stood. He grinned, turned on his heel and ran. He had caught sight of a skyscraper about to collapse and had come up with a ridiculous plan. 

Using dominators' touch and flipping in the air, Jin-Woo felt his feet tap lightly on the side of the building that was now parallel with the ground. 

He calls two of his daggers, the knight slayer and the ice slayer, at the same time he calls the four shadows and pushes off the building. 

The five of them reach the demon at the same time. Igris and Iron attack the sides of its knock making blood spray, Fluffy and Tank both dig in their claws at the demon's chest and slide down, opening him up with sixteen long cuts. Jin-Woo lands on the demon's head and stabs it in the eyes. 

You have defeated Ruler of the Lower Floors, Vulcan the Avaricious! 

Reward(s): 

• Vulcan’s horn x2

• Demon Monarch’s earring. 

Second Try, Second Beast:

Begins in five seconds unless the Player chooses to use Hearthstone. 

Jin-Woo sighed as he made his way away from the demon's body, he equipped the earring without a second thought or checking its stats, he figured if it belonged to a Monarch it had to be strong. 

The ground shook and an ear piercing shriek made him cover his ears. He noticed that his shadow summons had returned sometime during the fight, one of them was standing off to the side holding something. 

Looking up Jin-Woo felt his shoulders tense as a Demoness rose from wherever the System had hidden it. 

Queen of the lower levels, Mammon the Mothers Greed.

Jin-Woo gulped at the demoness’ six arms and talon like nails as he wondered if it was the demon he just defeated, mother or his wife. 

“Status recovery!” Jin-Woo yelped.

The ground shook under its feet as it sprinted at Jin-Woo with another shriek. Iron ran at the demoness only to be flattened under her foot, Igris shook his head beside Jin-Woo, and he couldn't stop the hysterical giggle that burst from him. 

The demoness looked a lot like the depiction of Kali the World Ender. He shuddered at the thought of the Hindu goddess being real and having to fight her. 

A look at his shadow had all of his summons swarming out and at her ankles, Jin-Woo and the four that had fought the first demon boss of this level hung back long enough to notice that she never seemed to sense anything coming at her from the left hand side. 

He didn't need to give an order. Igris and Tank broke off from Iron and Fluffy, the first pair headed to get behind the demoness on her left side, the second pair charges her directly from the front at her right, leaving Jin-Woo to attack her front left. 

He waited a few moments to watch the demoness’ face. He saw that her left eye socket was empty and he could use that his his advantage later he hoped. He would prefer to send one of his summons into her skill if needed but would do so if they couldn't.

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo sat panting for breath on the torso of the demoness, he was wounded pretty badly and would need to either knock back a few healing potions or pray he leveled up enough to get back into good enough health. Both had their drawbacks, but he wasn't sure at the moment if he wanted to push on or not. 

Reward(s):

• The Orb of Avarice

• Fragment of the world tree

• Leather Purse

• Hearthstone 

• Bonus Stats+20

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

“I guess I should be okay for now, I'll take a healing potion on the way home.” Jin-Woo mutters as he starts to slide off the corpse. 

Igris is waiting for him on the ground, the only shadow that hadn't been killed the last time the others were, having been the summon to sacrifice himself into stabbing at the demoness’ brain from inside her skull. 

Jin-Woo had left them in his own shadow after noticing how low his mana had gotten. Igris is holding the scroll that would allow them to go to the fifty first floor. 

“Let's go home, I need to get some actual sleep and I'm worried about Jin-Ah.” He tells Igris as he holds out his hand for the scroll. 

He trades the scroll for a hearthstone as Igris melts back into his shadow. 

The demon king's castle fractures and pixelates around him, turning back into the random skyscraper that had been the entrance to the dungeon. Yawning Jin-Woo pulls his cellphone out of his inventory and checks the date, it has only been six days he thinks as he starts on his walk home. 

______

Jin-Woo blinks trying to change the scene he had just walked in on. 

Jin-Ho is in his living room, Jin-Ah's feet in his lap as he paints her nails, getting polish all over her toes. Jin-Ah is waving around a drumstick of fried chicken as he talks to him. Both are wearing fluffy bathrobes, Jin-Ho’s is a soft purple, Jin-Ah's is baby pink. 

“I'm home?” He announced himself questioningly. 

“Oppa!” Jin-Ah cheers.

Jin-Woo blinks again, and shrugs before he walks past the two towards the bathroom. Jin-Ho was a good man, he wouldn't have done anything to compromise his sister. 

“There better be some food left for me.” He calls over his shoulder.

Jin-Woo finishes his shower and finds a new nightwear set on the sink counter along with a dark gray bathrobe that matches the other two. He smiles as he pulls on the clothes, Jin-Ah must have bought them for him in case he came home early.

“We set a plate in the microwave before we ate, we wanted to make sure there was food for when you got home.” Jin-Ho says ounces Jin-Woo is back in the living room. 

Jin-Woo gets his plate of food and sits on the floor in front of the couch in between Jin-Ho and Jin-Ah. He feels fingers brush the hair of his undercut and presses into them. 

“How was your week?” He asks before taking a bite of food. 

“Jin-Ho and I went to the spa, then we went shopping. He has been here every day you've been gone.” Jin-Ah answered.

Jin-Woo nods at the words, it looks like he owes Jin-Ho a thank-you of some kind. He was glad that the slightly younger man took his request seriously. 

“He was great, even helped me with some of my english homework.” 

Jin-Woo grunted, he didn't know Jin-Ah was having problems in English. A frown tugged at his lips. 

“Your sister is the best!” Jin-Ho exclaimed. “She was really great at the tailor we went to, wouldn't let the man change her choices. If she didn't want so badly to be a doctor I would suggest Jin-Ah become a stylist!” 

Jin-Woo snorts at that, Jin-Ah when they had the money to shop for clothes was very skilled at finding bargains and still looking fashionable in her thrift store clothes. She claimed that any style was her style and that nothing would look bad on her. He had agreed, Jin-Woo’s style was comfortable and versatile in black and gray preferably. 

“Thanks Jin-Ho.” Jin-Woo says softly to the other man. 

“It's no problem! Oh we can paint your nails next!” Jin-Ho brushes off his thanks and suggests with a flash of his own pink fingernails. 

Jin-Woo laughs softly, usually the idea of painting his nails would have chafed at him, but seeing the two smiling eagerly at him with two different shades of pink on their nails he thinks it won't be too terrible of an idea. 

“I'm heading out again in a few days.” Jin-Woo warns them. “I didn't finish my training, it's going to take at least another week. I didn't want you thinking I had gone missing or anything.” 

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo is back at the demon king's castle after a day and a half of rest, he wants to get to the seventy fifth level this time, he has two hearthstones, hopefully more are going to be rewarded but he feels like he should be on the lower end of S-rank now, he just wants to do another push to confirm that's where is he before going and getting a reassessment. 

He breezes through floors fifty one to seventy with the use of his shadows, they fight for him and alongside him easily. 

Tank, Igris, Fluffy, and Iron stay the closest to him, it's surprising when they gain strength faster than the others. Jin-Woo assumes it's because they don't die as often as the rest. 

Floors seventy one to seventy four offer a little bit more of a challenge, he levels up twice per floor unlike how he only leveled up once per floor before. Jin-Woo feels that floor seventy five is going to be a struggle. 

Once there he notices that it seems to be a necromancer that he's going to be up against, Jin-Woo can feel the snarl tug on his lips. He is the Monarch of Shadows, all necromancers should bow to him. 

Jin-Woo gives no quarter, he and his shadows are ruthless and bloodthirsty as they rip through the monster's with prejudice. 

He stands over the dead dungeon boss' with another sneer tugging at his lips. The fight was easy, too easy like the monsters had just given up and rolled over for him to slaughter them. 

Reward(s): 

• Spring Water from the Forest of Echoes.

• Demon Monarch's Necklace.

• Hearthstone.

• Leather Purse.

• Bone of the Linch King. 

• Bonus Stats +20

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

You have leveled up.

Jin-Woo raised an eyebrow at the bone, it could be something to sell or just give to Fluffy or Tank to chew on if it wasn't worth anything. 

With a shake of his head Jin-Woo dismisses the screen and summons one of his three hearthstones before crushing it.

______

Jin-Woo slipped through the window of his mother's room at the hospital. He took the rolling stool that was always shoved under the edge of her bed and sat on it with a tired sigh. 

He had been gone two days, it was late Saturday night and no one would be around to check on his mother any time soon. 

“Eomeoni.” He whispered. “I wonder if you'll accept me.”

Jin-Woo had still been Suk-Ja when his mother had fallen into eternal sleep. He wasn't sure how his mother would take to having a son, or if she would ever accept him if she found out how low he had fallen. 

“I hope that this potion works, I'm afraid it will at the same time.” He admits. 

Jin-Woo sighs deeply and brushes some of his mother's hair behind her ear. 

“I love you, eomeoni. Jin-Ah does too.” He kisses her cheek softly after those words and slips out the same way he came in. 

______

The morning after his visit to the hospital finds Jin-Woo trying to catch up on his chores and errands. He's tired from lack of sleep and being worried about his mothers judgment if the potion works. 

Standing in line at the cafe that sells his favorite caramel flavored coffee Jin-Woo is surprised to see the surveillance department chief standing in front of him. 

Just as the man goes to pay for his coffee Jin-Woo nudges him aside and orders his own before pulling out enough won to cover both and a tip.

“Chief, I have a question.” He says in greeting. “Hopefully the coffee will be enough for a bit of your time.” 

The surveillance department chief side eyes him briefly. 

“Ask.” He demands quietly. 

“Do I need to schedule a reevaluation, or do I walk in like I did the first time?” Jin-Woo asks straight to the point. 

“I'll pencil you in for ten tomorrow morning.” Is the clipped response. 

Jin-Woo doesn't get the chance to even nod before the blonde man is striding away, it makes him snort softly. 

_______

“Next please!” A chipper voice calls. 

“You can go first.” The man next to him says. 

Jin-Woo nods and silently follows the female assessment officer into the room. He looks over the machine and giant black orb in the center of the room. There were more screens than the first time he was here, they must have found a way to gather more information from the assessment in the last four years. 

“What's your name?” The woman asks. 

“Sung Jin-Woo.” He answers slowly. 

“Ah what's with only E-rank hunters ever coming in for a reassessment.” He hears her mutter. 

Jin-Woo lifts an eyebrow at the rude comment but ignores it easily enough. 

“Please place your hand on the orb and focus your mana.” She says louder this time. 

Jin-Woo follows her instructions and watches in fascination as swirls of electric blue and violet swirl across the giant orb. It hadn't done that last time. 

The panel that the woman is standing at is beeping like crazy, it must make enough sound because it draws the attention of another assessor. 

“Please hold on a minute.” The woman calls to him. 

Jin-Woo stays where he is watching the mana dance over the orb, he knows that the two staff members are talking about him but doesn't pay any attention. 

“We can't get an accurate read of your mana, we will have to borrow one from one of the larger countries. If Hunter Sung would please reschedule an appointment for three days from now.” The second assessor asks.

Jin-Woo nods and backs away from the orb slowly, he's disappointed that he can't watch the play of bright mana against the smooth black surface any longer. 

When he exits the room to leave the assessment offices he notices that the surveillance department chief is standing next to the reason he had been called ‘the weakest hunter'. 

Jin-Woo feels bad for breezing past the department chief, but he has no want to talk to the man hailed ‘the strongest hunter’, even if the man doesn't know he's the reason Jin-Woo was mocked it stairs something dark in his chest that he doesn't want to think about right then. 

Chapter Text

Woo Jin-Chul hates that he's invading someone's life like this. 

Even though hunter Sung was a pain in his ass and had crashed his coffee break the other day it didn't make it okay to camp outside his mother's hospital room to ambush him. 

“Were you the one who defeated the beasts in the double dungeon?” Jin-Chul finds himself asking without permission. 

“No.” Jin-Woo answer's automatically. “We do seem to keep running into each other though chief Woo.”

“The surveillance department exists to manage Hunters, or in other words to be able to catch and punish those that break the law “ Jin-Chul says coldly. 

He had lost control of the interaction the moment that he had opened his mouth. 

“There is someone who would like to meet you, if you have time, Hunter Sung.” He says trying to get back on point. “Please follow me.”

Hunter Sung follows him down the hallway and into a waiting room quietly. It unnerved him how little sound the hunter made. He wondered what classification the hunter would be, signs pointed to someone long range or an assassin. 

“Chairman Go Gun-Hee is in the waiting room.” Jin-Chul tells the hunter with a gesture to his left. 

Hunter Sung looks at him out of the corner of his eye before he's stepping past him and into the room. Jin-Chul pulls the door closed once he is past him and then leans against it. 

Something about the hunter bugged Jin-Chul, it wasn't in a fully negative way, but something nagged at him in his mind when he was near the hunter.

It was like looking at a wolf in sheep's skin. More controlled violence and blood lust than he had ever sensed from the other S-rank hunters he had to deal with, but it was careful leashed and not at all directed at humanity. 

Half an hour later Jin-Chul was straightening up as he felt the barest of flickers of mana on the other side of the door. 

It opened and hunter Sung paused at seeing him. 

“I wasn't lying, and your eye wasn't wrong. I did not defeat the beasts in the double dungeon.” Hunter Sung says harshly. 

Jin-Chul feels a bit taken aback, but he can tell that the younger man is being truthful. He nods in response as the hunter walks away. 

_______

Two days later Jin-Chul wants to rip is hair out as he finds that Hunter Sung has signed on for a second day of mining for the Hunter guild, he feels like it needs a deeper investigation because he just doesn't understand the hunters motives. 

With a groan he stands from his desk and walks out into the cubical lined floor. 

“Team alpha report to the garage, we are heading to the Hunter guilds A-rank gate.” He barks as he walks to the elevator. 

The drive is quiet, Jin-Chul can only assume it's because his team can tell he is even more agitated than usual with whatever is going on. He's out of the car as soon as it's safe and striding towards the gate purposefully. 

“Where is Sung Jin-Woo?” He asks loudly. 

A few people answer him, the word ‘porter’ is the only one he acknowledges before he's storming back to the car and his team. 

“Suit up, we are entering that gate.” He orders. 

Jin-Chul straps on the upper half of his armor, just the chest plate and arm guards before he's leading the team into the gate. 

He takes note of the larger than normal orcs and swears in his head. This is something that a team of A-rank hunters won't be able to clear. High orcs like these larger ones are usually beasts that would have a strike team of this level turning around and calling for help. 

That they didn't makes him look back, and he holds back his groan at seeing some type of barrier preventing them from leaving. 

He marches forward, determined to get hunter Sung out of this gate and somewhere he will stay put for the rest of the time before the next assessment appointment. 

“Sweet mother of all.” One of team alpha says lowly once they enter a cavern.

Jin-Chul can't help but agree. 

Before him is a massacre of high orcs and some sort of summons battling it out. Hunter Sung is standing on a raised platform in front of the body of the biggest orc Jin-Chul has ever seen. 

“Arise.” Hunter Sung commands. 

Jin-Chul shivers at the word as it tugs at him from under his center. 

He's unsure if it's from hunter Sung’s mana or attraction he knows has been building from the moment he had seen the hunter in the hospital after the double dungeon. 

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo stared at the mass of reporters wondering why they were there. 

He didn't think that his new rank had been announced or could have been leaked by someone. From what he understood everyone that knew was under a non-disclosure contract with pretty heavy penalties. 

He pulled his hood over his head and slipped his way through the crowd gently pushing through the people to get to the building. 

Once at the stairs he's stopped by some guy in a suit with a lime green tie so bright that it makes Jin-Woo’s eyes water. 

“Who are you? Do you work for the association? Can't you see all the reporters?” The man yells at him as he tries to walk up the stairs. 

“I have an appointment.” Jin-Woo replies calmly. 

“The entrance is blocked off right now! You're not allowed to pass through here! Go away!” He keeps yelling. “Don't you know who that is behind me?”

Jin-Woo rolls his eyes, but is paying attention to the group of actual association agents and the chairman coming out of the building. 

“Who said he isn't allowed to pass through?” The chairman asks. 

The man who had been yelling at him as well as the one behind him balked at the sight of the chairman and all of the agents. 

“Hunter Sung is my guest.” Chairman Go says blandly, “And please do remember who even gave clearance for this press conference.”

Jin-Woo blinks placidly at the chairman and the man who had been yelling at him before he walks past him and shakes the chairman's hand. 

Chairman Go leads him past the line of suited men and into the building. Jin-Woo closes his eyes in exasperation when he sees the guild masters Baek and Choi giving him bows as he and the chairman walked past. 

He ignores what the chairman is saying as they walk down the hallway, he knows that the man is most likely going over the power struggle that would happen if he joined one of the already established guides. 

“Hello hunter Sung. Before we begin our evaluation we need to check your skill set so we know how to classify you.” A different man says. “Would you please show us your skills?” 

Jin-Woo looks down at his shadow, Fluffy surges to the surface and sits beside him now in a physical form patiently waiting for an order. 

“Things like this.” Jin-Woo says as he scratches the cerberus where he can reach. 

The assessors’ jaw drops. 

“Hunter Sung, that's not all you can summon, is it?” The chairman asks skeptically.

Jin-Woo stops himself from facepalming. He hadn't wanted to alarm them but given the expectant look the chairman is giving him he bites back a groan before looking at his shadow again. 

The room is momentarily pitch black before it recedes leaving most of his shadow army standing behind him at the ready. Tank has taken the spot next to Fluffy, Igris is at his free side and Iron next to him. 

“I can summon about one hundred and fifty in total…right now.” Jin-Woo informs them. 

“That's…that's…one hundred and fifty?” The assessor stutters. 

“And their ranks?” Chairman Go asks. 

“Currently between low B and high A-rank.” Jin-Woo answers alluding to the fact that the ranks of his shadows rise.

Chairman Go hums in understanding before asking. “Any other skill we should know of?”

“Spacial magic, telekinesis, camouflage and others I am still learning.” Jin-Woo tells them with a small pout. 

He doesn't want to give away all of his abilities, but he can't lie to or brush off the chairman. He needed to play nice to make sure that his request for his information to be hidden and any other requests he has are met. 

Jin-Ah's safety comes before anything else. 

The chairman hums again, then he is ushering Jin-Woo over to where they take pictures for a hunter's license as well as a picture for the association's database leaving the still slack jawed assessment officer behind. 

Chairman Go smiles at him as he hands over the new card and takes his old one. He's a little sad to see his old one being taken from him, but he understands.

Jin-Woo slips his new license into his wallet before putting his wallet back into his pocket as he pushes through the doors back into the lobby. 

“May I have a moment of your time?” Guild master Baek asks after he leaves the assessment room.

“Ah sorry.” Jin-Woo says unapologetically. “I have meetings to get to.” 

He pushes open the door to leave the association before remembering the crowd of reporters, he pulls it closed again quickly at the first sign of a camera flash. He hopes he hadn't actually been caught but it's unlikely.

He activates camouflage before trying again, this time he ghosts around the guild leaders and reporters before letting the skill fall away and merges into the foot traffic on the sidewalk. 

________

Jin-Woo is at home going over their finances when the door bursts open to let Jin-Ah into the apartment. 

“Oppa you should have warned me, people at school were gossiping and I didn't know what to tell them.” She starts to rant the second the door is closed. 

He can't stop from smiling at his sister's antics as she throws her bag on the floor next to where he's sitting at the coffee table, then stomps to her room to change. 

“I swear oppa, if we're going to be famous now we may need to move, I don't know if the security here is good enough.” She yells through her bedroom door.

____

An hour later there is a knock on the door in an odd pattern, smushed into his side where they are sitting on the couch watching some show Jin-Woo isn't paying any attention to, Jin-Ah perks up before racing to the door. 

“Jin-Ho.” She chirps as she opens the door. 

“Ji-Ji-Jin-Ahhhhhhh. My fa-father dis-dis-disooooooowned meeeeeeeee.” Jin-Ho wails as he enters the apartment. 

Jin-Woo raises an eyebrow at Jin-Ah as she pulls the sobbing man into the living room. 

“It's okay, you can stay here for a few days until you find an apartment.” Jin-Ah comforts him. 

Jin-Woo nods at the younger man when he looks at him for confirmation. It makes Jin-Ho wail louder as he tries to thank them. 

Jin-Woo doesn't understand how a parent could do something like that. He would never do it to Jin-Ah, she was just as much his daughter as she was his sister. 

Then he thinks about how his mother could react to him and shudders, he didn't think she would disown him, but he didn't know. Maybe he would nudge Jin-Ho into getting a two bedroom apartment just in case. 

Having Jin-Ho here would also allow Jin-Woo to go back to the demon king's castle for the final push to the top floor. 

After the two are asleep, Jin-Ho on the couch, Jin-Woo directs a bunch of the knights into Jin-Ho's shadow before he sneaks into Jin-Ah's room. 

In Jin-Ah's shadow he places the high orcs bodyguard’s. He will not leave her unprotected now that he was exposed as the tenth S-rank in Korea. 

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo is standing just outside of the gate of level seventy six when he decides that he should really check what the orb of avarice does. 

Orb of Avarice 

• Rarity: A

• Type: Magic Item

It’s a Orb made from the blood of the high-demon Vulcan.

The Orb will empower the wielder’s magic and increase the destruction caused.

• Effect ‘Desire for Destruction’: Your magic damage is doubled

“Tusk.” Jin-Woo called the high orcs gate boss from his shadow. 

The shadow rises and dips its head in a bow. Jin-Woo nods back and pulls the orb out of his inventory and hands it to the orc. 

“Have fun.” He orders as points towards where the demon's of this level are starting to come from. 

Tusk nods at him before starting his magic summoning, first he makes himself larger, then he uses the dragon's fire. 

The effect of Tusk having the orb is complete annihilation, the buildings are engulfed in flames, and the demon's are turning to dust where they had been standing. 

“Huh, okay that's cool, you can keep it.” Jin-Woo says, stunned. 

The rest of his shadows rise, Igris looks around them with what Jin-Woo assumes is approval, Iron is flipping between pouting and cheering. 

Jin-Woo shakes his head in exasperation at the shadow. 

“Search and destroy.” He orders his summons.

The shadows scatter other than his usual four protectors and Tusk. Jin-Woo starts to pick his way through the rubble carefully, he's on alert for an attack but he trusts the five enough to not be full on defensive. 

The small party makes it to the gate within a few hours, Jin-Woo giving up on walking and using Tank as his mount for the trip. It takes another hour before his shadows all rush back to him, only one still in solid form and holding the scroll key to get them up to the next level. 

________

Level eighty is where Jin-Woo runs into a true problem, he had set up most of his shadows into teams after the last level had them all dying every few seconds when they had been hunting on their own. 

He had kept Fluffy with him, Tank had the rest of the ice bears, Tusk had taken the high orcs, Iron had taken half the knights, and Igris had taken the rest of the shadows. 

Tank's team had been taken out first, Iron’s had followed before Jin-Woo had called them all back, still tired from the chaos of level seventy nine. 

Jin-Woo groans and calls the strongest five out of his shadow again. 

“I need sleep, keep watch.” He orders them. 

The next morning Jin-Woo feels better, his mana is less depleted and the rest was enough to clear the headache he had felt building. 

He sends out the teams again, Tank, Iron and Igris are all attacked.

Only Igris survived the attack out of that attack on the hunting party, it's not surprising, Igris is his strongest shadow still. 

Jin-Woo expects that the summon will evolve somehow soon. 

Jin-Woo sits on his heels and draws out where he had sent the hunting parties in relation to himself, next to it he does the same with where he had sent them the day before. As he studies the two he sees that he had sent them in a slight rotation, meaning that he had sent Tank to the location that would be next to be attacked if the attackers were to keep moving in a clockwise direction. 

With a sniff of irritation Jin-Woo glares at his drawings in the dirt. He's going to have to get into this fight personally.

“Com’on Fluffy, we need to go north.” Jin-Woo tells the three headed dog as he stands. 

Fluffy lays down to let Jin-Woo climb onto his shoulders and grab hold of the center heads collar, once he's stable the cerberus is up and running to where Tusk’s team had been searching and destroying. 

There he takes another nap, he will need to be on full alert to face whatever is coming. 

Jin-Woo jerks awake when he feels a slight dip in his mana from his guard being destroyed, he activates camouflage quickly as he gets up and surveys the area around him. 

Demon Knight.

Demon Knight.

Demon Noble. 

Demon Knight.

Demon Knight.

Glow over the heads of the group of five dressed in armor, the noble is sitting on a horse as the knights rip through his summons. 

The nobles title is white telling Jin-Woo he could dispatch them easily, the knights titles are orange telling him he would get a decent warm up against them. 

Releasing camouflage and his summons, Jin-Woo uses the knight's confusion at the disappearance of their opponents to kick the closest one in the neck. 

He feels the metal of the knights armor give way as their neck breaks. 

The remaining three knights all charged at the same time. Jin-Woo scowls at them and summons the knight slayer and ice slayer daggers. 

The knight slayer is thrown at the knight to his left, it ends up buried in the center of the visor of the demon knights helm. Jin-Woo dismisses it and recalls it just in time to catch the blade of the knight in front of him, as the ice slayer deflects the lance of the knight to his right. 

You have leveled up.

“I wonder how you were able to take out my summons.” Jin-Woo mused. 

He dismissed the knight slayer and used the unbalancing of the demon in front of him to turn the one on his right lace into the weapon that killed it. 

The lance holder stilled in surprise at killing its comrade, Jin-Woo didn't waste time in sliding the ice slayer between the plates of armor protecting the knights torso and piercing the knights heart from between their ribs and shoulder. 

Jin-Woo turned slowly, schooling his face into his usual apathetic mask, to look at the demon noble. They slide off their horse, armor clanking at the movement and continuing even as they stand still, only shaking in what Jin-Woo assumes is fear. 

In a flash the demon noble is stabbing at him with an oddly thick rapier. Jin-Woo dodges, then flicks the knight slayer up, it cuts through the rapier like a hot knife through butter. 

“I surrender.” The noble's tinny voice calls loudly. 

Jin-Woo stills with his hand on the demon's helm. 

“I surrender.” The tinny voice says again. 

Jin-Woo uses his grip on the helm to pull it away. Surprised purple eyes and a pale gray face greet him. Jin-Woo blinks in surprise of his own, this demon is very humanoid, other than the odd hair, skin and eye color, the only things telling of her ‘otherness’ is her ears and fang like incisors. 

“I, we're at fault, don't kill me.” The demoness almost begs. 

Jin-Woo glares at her, he's pissed at the loss of mana, but he did level up killing her guard. 

“As the guardians of this place, we couldn't let someone assho-, some being hunt down all its inhabitants.” The demoness says. 

Jin-Woo scoffs and turns from her. Static of a dagger hitting a mana wall makes him turn back to the demoness with a scowl. 

“Spare my life and I will give you anything!” The demoness cries as she throws herself to the ground. 

“I want the scroll to pass onto the next level.” Jin-Woo says coldly. 

“Anything!” She cries again. “It's at my home, my clan protects it.” 

Jin-Woo raises an eyebrow, he wants to see if she's going to offer anything else. 

“I know where they are on each level, I can get them for you, just spare mine and my clan's lives.” She says, sounding desperate. 

Jin-Woo activated hypnosis as he spoke. “You will do as you promised, you will show me to every scroll, you will take me to your home and show me hospitality, you will not try to betray me.”