Dozens of Stone Spirits followed behind Jeong Hyeon-su as he entered the corridor.
A long shadow fell over his very own raid party, no longer nameless but numbered from 5-1 to 5-50.
SSSST.
The boss of the fifth floor revealed itself at the intruder’s arrival.
It was a Word-Shadow Snake.
It was a snake so enormous and grotesque that one would never expect it to appear in a lower-floor section.
In a situation like this, most people would be shaken with surprise or open their mouths to prepare for battle.
However, because of what that boss truly was and the correct way to clear it, no one could allow even the sound of speech to pass their lips.
‘Technically, it was the emotion contained in a voice, but…….’
Could it be called a trial version of the Sentiment Lich, a monster that would appear in the middle-to-late section and was known as the nightmare of raid parties because it devoured emotions and souls?
In any case.
Before the boss mob, which had originally been designed on the assumption that a proper-looking raid party would come together, Jeong Hyeon-su planted himself squarely.
The Stone Spirits, who had been temporarily given names and obtained the condition for liberation, merely waited.
Possessing an emotional structure different from that of humans, they simply obeyed orders, and Jeong Hyeon-su, who commanded them, likewise showed no particular emotion toward the boss mob.
There was someone watching that standoff—the Master of the Library.
“Wh-what is that human?”
Despite being a rookie who should have only just begun climbing the Tower, he did not waver at the sight of an overwhelmingly enormous large monster.
On top of that, he was alone.
Of course, there had been those who challenged it alone, but even they revealed emotion when they saw such overwhelming physicality in the early stages, and that immediately became the snake’s food.
Was it possible to remain so indifferent before a Word-Shadow Snake that grew stronger in proportion to the swelling emotions it consumed?
Even if one controlled one’s expression, the snake should have caught and sucked away the emotional agitation that leaked out. Yet it only kept flicking its tongue.
Even so, its characteristic reaction did not occur.
Its body should have grown larger, its scales should have become lustrous, and its fangs should have sharpened.
THOOM!
Instead, it allowed the first strike, leaving the Master of the Library utterly dumbfounded.
“What is that thing?”
Jeong Hyeon-su had kicked off the ground and leaped upward.
Although his body was smaller than the creature’s head, he showed not the slightest fear of a giant monster.
‘It was not even funny.’
Right before his regression, the opponent he had faced was the Explosive Annihilation Dragon Atranaja, one of the Three Calamities.
Before that, he had also brought down the Titan King, another of the Three Calamities, and while heading out to eliminate them, the subordinates he had encountered had been the Dragon race and the Giant race.
He had long since grown accustomed to fighting colossal monsters. Since he even knew the clearing method, dragging this out would be absurd.
Jeong Hyeon-su, having leaped into the air, stretched out his hand.
WHOOSH!
At that moment, 5-1, who was below him, hurled the weapon he was holding.
Jeong Hyeon-su snatched the incoming longsword out of the air and, without breaking the motion, drove it between the gaps in the Word-Shadow Snake’s scales.
SHUNK!
Blood sprayed.
“Hmph! That will not be enough!”
The Librarian snorted. The Word-Shadow Snake was not something that could be cleared with a mere attack like that.
It might not have been strengthened through feeding on emotions, but unless its true Core was struck decisively, the shadow snake could not be subjugated.
BANG!
With its muscles rippling violently, the snake’s body dropped straight toward the ground.
A powerful body press!
If it crushed him, the attack would reduce him to a bloody pulp, leaving not even his corpse intact.
“Tch.”
As though he had expected it, Jeong Hyeon-su had already stepped on the longsword he had embedded, leaped off it, and avoided the attack with ease.
WHOOSH!
THUNK!
The Master of the Library’s expression twisted subtly.
The same happened after that. The snake surged into the air and tried coiling its body like a loop, yet every attack was neutralized.
At the same time.
‘That bastard…….’
Jeong Hyeon-su was drawing closer to the snake’s head.
His evasion was chilling. It was as though he saw through everything. The way he dodged, as if he already knew it all, was far too unnatural.
But was such a thing possible?
Even if Hunters who had encountered the snake first had taught him, how could it make sense for him to know and respond to every single pattern?
“Ugh!”
And yet that bastard somehow dodged everything. Even the tail spear, its decisive blow.
Even the attack of the tail spear, which it had saved until the very end before launching from a blind spot, was simply deflected with a casual twist of his body.
No matter how outstanding his movement, eyes, and skill were, it should have been impossible.
And yet it had become possible!
“Surely…….”
Then, after seeing the black haze gathering on the greatsword Jeong Hyeon-su drew, the Librarian was seized by an unknown sense of unease.
“No, surely not?”
But “surely not” always had a way of catching people.
The greatsword wrapped in haze struck precisely the place that must never be struck.
It was the fatal weakness of the Word-Shadow Snake.
How could he know that weakness, which had not yet been cleared and should only be revealed after information from beyond the sixtieth floor was released, and strike it with such pinpoint accuracy?
BOOM!
It was the venom gland that consumed emotions.
When he attacked the Core located above its fang with absolute precision, blood exploded like fireworks.
SCREEEEEECH!
The shadow snake screamed.
But that was not the end.
This time, along with a flashing gleam, the muscles throughout Jeong Hyeon-su’s entire body swelled fiercely.
It was the power manifested as the Heavenly Tyrant Ghost King Art, maximized by Tyrant Heaven Energy, was amplified by the effects of Mountain-Uprooting Strength, World-Overturning Spirit.
“No! Nooooooo!”
The Master of the Library finally let out a single shriek, but a blade was always merciless.
CRUNCH!
Through the power of the Black Heaven Return-to-Origin Art, the defensive mechanism protecting the Core returned to nothingness, and the power of the Overlord crushed the opening before it could regenerate.
The Stone Spirits obeying Jeong Hyeon-su’s command seized the snake’s weakened body.
BOOOOM!
In that state, the body of the Word-Shadow Snake, struck in the Core, twisted this way and that before soon collapsing powerlessly.
THUD!
With that heavy sound, the shadow snake ceased all movement.
However.
“Wh-what is this bastard?”
Jeong Hyeon-su’s actions did not stop there.
Like a surgeon in an operating room, Jeong Hyeon-su held out his hand, and 5-50 carefully handed him a dagger.
CRACK!
5-1, who had been watching, smacked 5-50 on the back of the head.
Then he personally demonstrated by holding the tip of the blade himself and offering the handle to Jeong Hyeon-su.
After receiving the blade that way, Jeong Hyeon-su began dismantling the shadow snake’s corpse.
He knew very well that there was an item to be obtained here.
[You have successfully extracted the Simultaneous Output Organ!]
The Simultaneous Output Organ.
Normally, one released skills or mana of different properties based on training and enlightenment, but if this organ was made into a spiritual medicine and consumed, it would save an enormous amount of time.
“Aaaaargh! That damned bastard! How does he even know about that?”
The intruder, who had thoroughly stripped the shadow snake clean, soon began walking straight toward the library.
The clear-complete message should have appeared, yet when the intruder approached him, the Master of the Library trembled.
“Fire.”
At Jeong Hyeon-su’s words, 5-1 picked up a torch. 5-1’s torch passed to 5-2. Just like that, fifty torches were ablaze in an instant.
“You had better bring me the materials I name before I burn everything down.”
“…Pardon?”
The Master of the Library looked stunned.
“Do you not understand that if you try any petty tricks, I will simply burn the entire place to the ground?”
Compared to the administrator ranks of the Tower, he was small fry, but in any case, Jeong Hyeon-su had no intention of negotiating verbally with the Master of the Library, who held a position in the Tower.
“Bring me the materials you have on Orc Warlords and Overlords, or on nameless kings. Before I take your name away.”
Jeong Hyeon-su was unleashing, one after another, the most powerful threats that were taboo in the Tower.
“Th-this will cause trouble for you, you know?”
“Are you talking about the higher-level administrators? Do you think I do not know that they will not care whether you die or not?”
Jeong Hyeon-su’s knowledge of the Tower was thorough as well.
“This will not do. Set it alight.”
The Master of the Library’s face turned deathly pale.
However, Jeong Hyeon-su showed no mercy.
WHOOSH!
He had come here because there was something he needed, but he thoroughly avoided wasting unnecessary time and movement.
The reason this being had become the Master of the Library was to make him guard this place. If he was robbed by a Hunter climbing the Tower?
Naturally, that would become a problem for him as well. However, Jeong Hyeon-su had already cleared the fifth floor perfectly by force.
“Stop! Stop! Stoooooop!”
Until now, other Hunters had either groveled before the Master of the Library in hopes of obtaining even one thing from him, or had fled from the snake and become utterly subordinate to him.
But the conduct shown by this plunderer, who had once been the king of the dark world as a Black-Warrant Criminal, was fundamentally different in its very footwork.
It was, in a way, only natural that the side with overwhelming information held the upper hand.
“I-I will give them to you! Please!”
Since Jeong Hyeon-su possessed the ability to bestow names and had liberated the Stone Spirits, and since the snake, the library master’s strongest weapon, had fallen, the Master of the Library had no choice but to declare his surrender.
WHOOSH!
“Wh-why…?”
“You should have brought them during that time.”
The invader was merciless.
***
A Gate had appeared near Soraesan in Incheon.
It was measured as B-Rank, and it was a large dungeon where great numbers of Greenskin Clan monsters, which could now be considered traditional among the mobs that emerged from Gates, appeared.
According to the risk-size classification method, it was determined to be a large dungeon with B-Rank danger, and the Gate Administration had approved Hanul Guild’s request to clear it. The raid was scheduled to begin soon.
The Battle Mages of Hanul Guild, one of the most prominent mage guilds in Korea, were each making their final preparations.
They checked their scrolls, combat Artifacts, staves, and short wands, and confirmed the potions and emergency items they would use.
The Combat Mages standing before the Gate for the imminent entry all looked somewhat irritated.
“…Why is he so late?”
Jeong Hyeon-su, who was supposed to be joining Hanul, had not yet appeared.
“There is still… one minute left.”
“Has he already caught main-character syndrome? No matter what, if this is a joint raid, should he not have arrived at least five minutes early?”
“If you think about preparation and strategy sharing, he should have been here an hour ago.”
“I wonder whether he even knows how to fight Orcs.”
“He is still from Garam, so he must have done at least that much.”
Im Hyeon-min, the captain of Hanul’s Third Raid Team, looked at his watch.
“We enter at the exact time.”
“That is our team leader for you. Sharp as a knife.”
“He asked to tag along, and now he is late. Honestly, Garam is something else.”
“He must have thought we would accommodate him. So what if he is a direct descendant of Jeong Cheol? We are Hanul.”
There were twenty seconds left.
[Announcement.]
At the now-familiar notice from the Tower, the Battle Mages’ eyes widened for an instant.
[Hunter Jeong Hyeon-su of the Republic of Korea has cleared the sixth floor of the Tower of Trials with an SSS-Rank record!]
Then the Tower’s teleportation gate opened.
Along with a fierce cluster of light, a pair of three-striped slippers could be seen walking out from within.
The Battle Mages were simply dumbfounded when they saw Jeong Hyeon-su wearing slippers, with a greatsword resting against his shoulder.
“He… cleared the Tower again in the meantime?”
“I am Jeong Hyeon-su. Shall we go now?”
Then Jeong Hyeon-su stood at the front, telling them to head into the Gate.