Chapter 69 - Chapter 69 (2/2)

'For this kind of rewards, killing one or two monsters is a walk in the park.'

Jin-Woo was genuinely elated now and thought about finishing this quest real fast to receive those rewards, only for his eyes to bulge out after confirming the quest clear condition.

"Ten thousand?!"

He gasped out in sheer shock.

This was already far beyond the notion of killing one or two monsters.

'What the hell, what kind of slave labour is this?!'

He had no idea what kind of a monster these demons could be, but hell, ten thousand was a scary-high number, indeed.

Still, a smile crept up on Jin-Woo's face.

'Well, that would have been, if I was alone.'

Currently, the number of shadow soldiers he possessed was 50.

If each one killed 200, this quest would be cleared. If he pushed his soldiers to work hard, surely this sort of quest would prove to be nothing but a cakewalk.

[Will you accept the 'Normal Quest: Collect the Souls of Demons! (1)'?]

'Of course.'

He had no reason to refuse.

[You have accepted the quest.]

The penalty for failing this quest would be him wasting a bit of time, that'd be all.

'Compared to other quests, uh-whew.....'

Without a doubt, this was truly a wonderful quest when compared to the Class Change Quest or Emergency Quests where his life was on the line.

Jin-Woo raised his head.

'I wonder, is that thing supposed to display my progress from now on?'

As soon as he accepted the quest, a counter he hadn't seen before appeared in the air, just above his line of sight.

[Collected souls of demons: 0/10,000]

'Ten thousand... so far away....'

A bitter chuckle leaked out of his mouth once he got to physically confirm the number that had been floating inside his head as nothing but a vague notion until now.

It was then that he discovered a different counter to the left of that one.

'Huh?'

[Exp. needed for the next level up: 60,000]

There it was, sixty thousand clearly displayed via the holographic display.

As soon as he met that, he'd level up, or at least that's what was written there.

'Even my experience points are being displayed now?'

However, he had never seen anything like that prior to his entry into the Demon's Castle.

'Maybe....'

To make sure, Jin-Woo took a step backwards and left the Demon's Castle.

Sure enough, both the counter for souls and experience points disappeared. When he stepped back inside, they showed up again as if they had never disappeared in the first place.

'Yeah, they only show up inside the Demon's Castle.'

Although it was unfortunate that he couldn't see them outside the castle, but at the least, it'd be quite convenient to have them inside, that's for sure.

If he looked at it from another perspective....

'Does this mean that it'll take a long, long time for me to conquer this place?'

That was a distinct possibility.

Jin-Woo carefully read through the quest details one more time and closed the message windows.

'That should be enough preparation, I think.'

Finally, he had some leeway to take a closer look at the interior of the Demon's Castle.

'Heok?!'

Jin-Woo's eyes widened immediately once he did.

Wuuuuu-....

Inside of the castle was.... a ruined city. Quite unexpectedly, it was a field-type dungeon.

'What is this place? Is this Seoul?'

If everyone in Seoul died and a hundred years had passed by, would the city look like this?

Within this lifeless, ash-grey cityscape, only the lonesome street lights flickered as if they were having a seizure.

'I never expected it to be a field-type dungeon, though....'

Not only that, a dungeon created to look like the metropolis of Seoul.

This was the kind of scale that utterly disallowed any comparison to other instant dungeons that were based around a special location such as subway stations or department stores.

Jin-Woo's eyes narrowed to a slit.

'So, like, where should I go now?'

Where should be his destination?

Jin-Woo's gaze scanned the surroundings and the distant horizon. Thankfully, his dilemma didn't last for long.

In the far-off distance, in the direction where the famed Namsan Tower should have been, there stood a massive pillar of light stretching beyond the sky.

'Let's head over there.'

Jin-Woo began walking in that direction. He also made sure to memorise the surrounding area of the castle's gates in case he got lost on the way, too.

However....

His steps had to come to a stop not long after.

"Kekeke."

"Kekekek."

Monsters with smallish physical sizes began creeping out from the gaps of ruined buildings, one by one.

[Low-Ranked Demon]

Jin-Woo immediately recognised what they were from the dark-red name floating above their heads.

'They look like....'

These creatures reminded him of Gargoyles, but without wings. There were a total of eight of them.

Seeing them, the corners of Jin-Woo's lips arched up.

'Well, for starters, I got myself eight souls.'

Right away....

Kwajeeck!

The 'Baruka's Dagger' pierced deeply into the forehead of one of the demons.

[You killed a Low-Ranked Demon.]

[You have earned 100 experience points.]

[You have collected (1) Soul of Demons.]

"Kiaahk?"

"Kiieehk?"

The moment the demons' attention had shifted to the one with the dagger stuck to its forehead, Jin-Woo rapidly approached another one to separate its head from its body.

Slice!

[You killed a Low-Ranked Demon.]

[You have earned 100 experience points.]

[You have collected (1) Soul of Demons.]

This one also gave him 100 EXP.

'And I need sixty thousand experience points....'

If he hunted down 600 Low-Ranked Demons, then he'd get to raise his level.

The remaining demons were taken care of in the blink of an eye.

"Kiiiiehhk?!"

"Khek!!"

He had collected eight souls, and the experience points earned were eight hundred.

'Hey, this is not too bad.'

And they said that the journey of a thousand miles started with the first step – Jin-Woo's eyes began sparkling brightly as he began searching for his next prey.

***

Inside the office of the White Tiger Guild's Guild Master.

Baek Yun-Ho was browsing through several documents he had been neglecting in the past few days because of his busy schedule.

Beep-!

He picked the phone up after hearing that beep.

- "Master, Min Byung-Gu Hunter-nim wishes to speak to you. What should I do, sir?"

"Let him through."

- "Yes, sir."

A short while later, a familiar voice came from the phone's speaker.

- "Baek Hyung, why did you switch your mobile off?"

Baek Yun-Ho spat out a long sigh.

"Because of the d*mn reporters. I was thinking of being out of the public's eye until this whole thing dies down."

- "Ahh, that! The Red Gate incident! Yeah, I saw the news here in Japan, too. Hyung, I had no idea that you were that photogenic, you know?"

"Stop riling me up, man. I'm not in the mood to kid around. If I find out just who leaked it to the media, I'm gonna..."

- "Hyung, don't sweat over it too much. The whole thing's gonna get buried soon, anyway. You see, there is going to be bigger news, soon."

"Big news, is it? From Japan?"

- "Yes. This is going to be a bigger issue than you can imagine. You'll most likely hear about it soon in Korea, too."

"What happened?"

About a week ago, the Japanese Hunter's Association secretly contacted several of Korea's large Guilds. They said that they needed advice from the Korean Hunters.

And so, two days after that, a few of Korea's elite Hunters travelled to Japan. The Hunter Min Byung-Gu was one of them.

Baek Yun-Ho had been curious about that matter for a while now.

"Stop building up the suspense and tell me what happened already. This was the first time the Japs have asked for advice from us. What made them do that? What did those prideful b*stards want?"

- "Baek hyung..... I'm sure you still remember the ants of Jeju Island, yes?"

Four years ago, a rank S Gate opened up on the island of Jeju. Ants came out of there.

There had been three separate subjugation operations since then, and all of them ended in failure.

In the end, the Korean government gave up on the island, and it was now a barren land ruled by monsters.

"How could I forget? I nearly died back then."

- "Well, looks like there's been some kind of a mutation."

"A mutation, is it? But, what does it matter to us? Aren't they just going to fight among themselves while being confined to that island?"

- "Well, the thing is...."

The voice coming from the phone sounded rather troubled.

- "The Japs found a corpse of a winged ant on the coast of Japan, actually."

< Chapter 69 > Fin.