"Lee Su-jin, First Assault Squad, Teinen Guild. And you are......"
"Park Kang-hyeok, an E-rank Hunter who took part as a porter."
"I see. Could you tell me what happened inside the dungeon?"
Kang-hyeok nodded and repeated exactly what he'd told the manager earlier.
"A-And the other Hunters......"
"Some should still be alive. The Death Knight...... I killed it, after all."
At his answer, Su-jin's face twisted.
"What are you saying? You killed the Death Knight?"
"It seems I Re-Awakened. Thanks to that......"
Kang-hyeok gripped the blade lying on the ground and called up pitch-black sword energy.
Thoom—!
Su-jin and the rest of Teinen Guild's Hunters and staff hastily backed away.
"I cut down the Death Knight, the Liches, and the Dullahans, and recovered their Mana Stones."
Kang-hyeok let the sword energy fade and showed them the Mana Stones in his pack.
"An S-rank......"
At the sight of the Death Knight's Mana Stone, Su-jin swallowed hard.
'Re-Awakening or not, that aura just now......'
It had felt like the S1-rank power of a guild master.
Could that even be possible?
Going from E-rank to S1-rank in a single leap?
Su-jin looked at Kang-hyeok with a tense face.
"Do you happen to have any potions on you?"
At Kang-hyeok's question, Su-jin hesitated a moment, then nodded.
"Yes, we brought potions along just in case."
"My internal injuries are severe...... could I purchase a potion with these Mana Stones?"
Su-jin slowly nodded.
They'd brought plenty of potions.
One mid- or high-grade potion would be no problem.
And so Kang-hyeok received a high-grade potion in exchange for a single S-rank Mana Stone.
Su-jin looked at the S-rank Mana Stone and quietly closed her eyes.
With the power Park Kang-hyeok had just shown, cutting down a Death Knight was surely within his reach.
'Chan-seok couldn't have slain a Death Knight with his abilities.'
Still, the suspicion wasn't so easily dispelled.
'I have to consider the possibility that Hunter Park Kang-hyeok killed Chan-seok and the others.'
Kang-hyeok downed the potion, then met Su-jin's eyes.
"There are survivors inside the dungeon. In the boss room alone, there were about eight, as far as I know."
"What?!"
"It hasn't been ten hours since I killed the Death Knight."
"We'll send in a rescue team right away......!"
"The dungeon's structure kept shifting. Of course, since the Death Knight was slain......"
"If the boss is dead, the structure won't change anymore. But why did you leave them behind......"
"S3-rank Hunter Lee Seong-ho and the other Hunters and porters had all lost limbs — their injuries were severe. I lost my left arm and took heavy internal damage too, but...... at least I could still move my legs, so I decided to escape first and get help."
"Ah......"
"With the power I gained from Re-Awakening — enough to slay a Death Knight — I figured my odds of surviving were high even if I ran into monsters on the way out."
Su-jin nodded, convinced.
"I left X marks along my escape route. Follow them and you'll either loop back around or hit a dead end."
"I'll keep that in mind."
As Su-jin led the Hunters into the dungeon, Association personnel and a paramedic crew arrived after them.
Kang-hyeok was loaded onto a stretcher and transported to a hospital.
His internal injuries had been treated with the high-grade potion.
The bleeding at the stump of his left shoulder had stopped, too.
The reason he went to the hospital was to get away from the scene.
After hearing from the doctor that he was clear to be discharged, Kang-hyeok went straight home.
"I'll update my rank tomorrow."
Today, he just wanted to lie in bed and sleep in peace.
"Well, I don't know whether Teinen Guild will even pay me......"
The Mana Stones in his pack already secured his compensation.
"They won't try to take them from me later, will they?"
Of course, he had no intention of handing them over meekly.
The thought of anyone coveting what belonged to him, the Heavenly Demon God......
Perhaps because he'd never once imagined such a thing?
Kang-hyeok let out a small, dry laugh.
"First, I'll need to build a guild. No — while I'm at it, should I just found a nation?"
As it happened, there was a suitable stretch of territory, too.
North Korea, now the domain of demihumans and monsters.
If he cleared out all of North Korea in exchange for a portion of its land, wouldn't the Korean government look on it favorably?
Because of North Korea, Korea had been in an island nation's position ever since its founding.
Even now, with North Korea destroyed, it was the same.
The demihumans and monsters attacking from the north had thrown Korea back into crisis.
'Jeju Island first, and now parts of Jeolla and Gyeongsang lost to the demihumans......'
Its territory kept shrinking.
And the demihuman threat kept coming.
Remove that threat and expand their territory, and the Korean government would surely welcome it.
"First things first — let's build the organization."
Kang-hyeok gave a small smile, caught a taxi, and headed home.
Lying in bed, he switched on the TV, and as luck would have it, they were reporting on the Gwanggyosan Gate incident.
S2-rank Hunter Yu Chan-seok, once called one of Korea's finest, had died in a B-grade dungeon.
Naturally, it was causing an uproar.
"Huh?"
Lee Seong-ho appeared on screen.
"So he made it out."
Based on the survivors' testimony, an Association executive was giving an interview.
[We are still investigating the details. However, we have confirmed the Death Knight's corpse and Mana Stone, and we have found discrepancies with what Teinen Guild reported.]
[I hear a Hunter who took part as a porter achieved a Re-Awakening and slew the Death Knight! Is that true?!]
[Nothing has been confirmed with certainty yet. However, we have already secured testimony that the Hunter you mentioned did slay the Death Knight.]
[Is there any chance that Hunter concealed his abilities before entering the dungeon?]
[Having reviewed his record up to now, the notion that he was hiding his abilities is......]
Watching the reporters' questions, Kang-hyeok let out a small sigh.
His information was leaking out from somewhere.
Given that slander about him was spreading, he had to consider that Lee Seong-ho might be involved.
'If it's Lee Seong-ho...... he'll get Teinen Guild's help to secure a highest-grade potion.'
Teinen Guild bought up highest-grade potions and sold them to its own members at a discount.
At around sixty or seventy percent of the winning bid, sure, but it still eased the burden on the Hunters considerably.
The next day, Kang-hyeok packed his bag and headed to the Korea Hunter Association's Seoul headquarters in Yeouido.
When he approached the reception desk for his re-evaluation, a female staffer hurriedly rose from her seat.
"Ah, we've been expecting you. Please wait a moment in front of Testing Room One."
Kang-hyeok nodded and followed her guidance to Testing Room One.
A short while later, the Association President and executives came out to greet Kang-hyeok in person.
"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Lee Ho-seok, President of the Korea Hunter Association."
A man in his sixties with cropped hair and sharp eyes.
Kang-hyeok took the hand he offered and shook it.
"Park Kang-hyeok."
"We've already heard about you. Would it be all right if we observed the re-evaluation?"
"Of course."
Kang-hyeok agreed readily and looked at the massive wall installed in Testing Room One.
A blue wall over ten meters in both height and width.
The President and executives entered the measurement room to assess Kang-hyeok's ability.
[Hunter Park Kang-hyeok, please strike the Mithril Wall about five times. This is to measure your rank, so we would appreciate it if you gave it your full effort. First, weapons are arranged on the right-hand wall. Please choose the one you'll use.]
Kang-hyeok nodded and took a blade from the case mounted on the right wall.
[Once you've chosen your weapon, please begin with your first strike.]
Kang-hyeok started channeling mana into the blade.
Revealing his full power right away would be dangerous.
It might draw the demihumans' attention.
'The heads of each dimension may well possess power on a level similar to mine.'
The reason they didn't move recklessly was surely that they were all wary of one another.
They were probably concealing their own information as best they could while investigating each other.
'Mid-grade Grandmaster should do......'
Yes, this much would be enough.
Enough to become the strongest in Korea.
At the sword energy Kang-hyeok called forth, President Lee Ho-seok and his aides flinched.
"P-President......"
"Yes. A terrifying aura. This much......"
At last, Kang-hyeok loosed a slash at the Mithril Wall.
KABOOOM—!
The Mithril Wall shattered, and the Association building shook.
The executives dropped low against the tremendous quake and covered their heads.
Ho-seok, on the other hand, checked the power of Kang-hyeok's slash through the monitor.
"Ohh......"
Unmeasurable.
Most S1-rank Hunters couldn't so much as break the Mithril Wall.
It had been slightly reinforced for testing.
Coated in mana, no less.
Those who had broken a Mithril Wall were said to number only about ten in the entire world.
People called them State-Power-Class Hunters.
"In Korea......"
A State-Power-Class Hunter, surpassing S1, had been born.
Re-Awakening or not — could this even be real?
"President! We're getting reports of an earthquake all across Yeouido......!"
Fortunately, the quake wasn't large.
Most of it had been contained within the testing room.
Had Kang-hyeok's slash landed in the middle of a city......
A small city would have been reduced to rubble in an instant.
Power on par with a nuclear weapon, in the most literal sense.
"Would it be all right...... if I began the second strike?"
At Kang-hyeok's question, an Association executive, face pale, snatched up the microphone.
[S-Stop! Please, stop! This should be more than enough!]
The wall was already destroyed — what more could there be to strike!
At the executive's frantic voice, Kang-hyeok lowered the blade and nodded.
The President and executives hurried down to the testing room.
Ho-seok gave a small smile and approached Kang-hyeok.
"Congratulations. Your rank has been determined as S1."
"I see."
At Kang-hyeok's flat reaction, Ho-seok looked puzzled.
"It seems you were expecting it."
"Yes. When I slew the Death Knight...... I had a rough idea."
"A jump from E-rank straight to S1-rank...... is likely a rarity even worldwide. And on top of that, there has never been an S1-rank Hunter in Korea who broke the Mithril Wall. To those who shatter this wall......"
"State-Power-Class Hunter."
The title of a nation's strongest Hunter was bestowed upon them.