A week ago, after several days of tenacious negotiations with Lee Jungryong’s side, Team Leader Choi got everything he wanted.
Exclusive rights to more than twenty Gates, real estate, and an enormous amount of cash. I didn’t know the exact figure, but its value was clearly astronomical.
They were valuable spoils we could never have obtained if the ten Black Hunters and the close aides dispatched by Myeongdong Guild Master Park Tae Seop hadn’t fallen into our hands.
This place was no different.
I shouted out commands as I passed through the mana field first.
Ssshhhk.
With that sticky, unpleasant, yet familiar sensation unique to mana, everything surrounding me changed.
Ding.
System
You have entered the A-rank Gate, Black Wizard’s Black Forest!
Quest Gate Raid has been automatically generated!
“Left foot, left foot! One, two, three, four! Halt!”
“One, two! Fall in!”
By the time the human train came to a stop amid crisp call-and-response, more than fifty people had entered the Gate.
Darkness had settled over the forest, and faint moonlight filtered through the gaunt branches.
The new hires who realized what was happening too late looked around in panic.
“Gasp!”
“W-We’re screwed.”
“Wait a second. What rank is this Gate for it to be this huge?”
The third-week Tosa mastiffs, on the other hand, were completely calm.
“Black Wizard’s Black Forest again?”
“Ugh, I’m going to puke.”
“Good thing I brought my war hammer.”
They had joined less than a month apart, but the difference between them was enormous.
The day-one pups listening to the Tosa mastiffs turned pale.
“B-Black Wizard’s Black Forest?”
“It’s an A-rank Gate!”
An A-rank Gate: Black Wizard’s Black Forest.
Even people who knew nothing about this place could get a rough idea from its name alone. The eerie atmosphere and the forest scenery that sent chills down your spine just by looking at it.
This was a realm ruled by a black wizard—a necromancer.
“Lord Fuck! Senior Jin Taekyung!”
One of the pups hurried over and spoke with an earnest expression.
“Please, can’t you let me out?”
“Why?”
“I’m really scared of ghosts. Regular monsters are fine, but ghouls and skeletons… I don’t think I can handle those.”
“Trauma?”
“Not to that extent. I’m just scared.”
“Perfect. This is a good chance to experience the full 4D version. They’re monsters, anyway.”
“No, it’s just…”
“And I’m pretty sure you wrote on your Guild application that you didn’t have any problems like that.”
“I only wrote that so I’d get accepted in the first place… Please. I can’t even watch horror movies with my girlfriend.”
“Oh, you have a girlfriend. I see. Over here!”
I crooked a finger.
One of the people standing among the Tosa mastiffs, all of whom were watching me with sly grins, shot forward like a bullet.
“Did you call for me?”
“Yeah.”
It was Kim Jinsoo, who had quietly taken on the role of leader among the Tosa mastiffs.
He had a certain amount of leadership and excellent combat ability, so whenever we raided together, he acted as my hands and feet.
Of course, I’d started speaking casually to him long ago.
“I have a separate instruction for you. It concerns this person here.”
“Yes.”
“Put him at the front.”
The pup, who had been sighing in relief, swallowed hard.
“D-Did you say the front?”
“Why? Is there a problem? Judging by that tower shield, you’re clearly a tank.”
“But…”
“If you want to sit out, go ahead. Just be prepared to get fired.”
“F-Fired?”
“If you refuse to raid because you’re afraid of ghosts, why would I have any reason to employ you? And are there ghosts in a Gate? They’re all monsters. Jinsoo, am I wrong?”
Kim Jinsoo answered immediately.
“You are absolutely right—a hundred, a thousand times over.”
“If all the things here were ghosts, why would I bring Hunters? I’d bring exorcists instead. Isn’t that right?”
“Absolutely right—a thousand, ten thousand times over.”
“As expected of Jinsoo. You really know how to put things nicely.”
“Thank you.”
“So, will you continue being a Hunter for the Peace Guild, or will you get fired and switch careers to become an exorcist?”
The pup replied, his face rigid.
“I-I’ll be a Hunter.”
“Then if you run away during combat, I’ll send you to heaven with my own hands. Okay?”
“O-Okay.”
“Okay. Front! Okay! Heaven!”
I waved my hand, and Kim Jinsoo grabbed the man by the arm and dragged him away.
We’d gone through a fairly meticulous selection process to pick these people, but no matter where you went, there was always one guy like that mixed in.
What? He’s so scared of ghosts that he can’t even watch a horror movie with his girlfriend?
Damn it. What a load of bullshit.
I wasn’t angry about the girlfriend part. Really.
“…”
Whooosh.
The eerie wind circling through the forest made the empty space at my side feel cold. I shuddered once, then stepped toward the trees.
I could hear the conversation gradually fading behind me.
“E-Excuse me, mister.”
The frightened voice of one of the pups mixed with the Tosa mastiff’s blunt reply.
“What?”
“Where is Hunter Jin Taekyung going?”
“He’s going on a drive hunt.”
“A what?”
“That guy’s nickname is the Pied Piper.”
The Tosa mastiff added in a cheerful voice,
“I can’t be the only one going through hell. Let’s do our best together.”
“…”
I made my way around the forest, making enough noise for them to hear me, and the effect appeared almost immediately.
Crack! Rumble!
-
Guaaaar!
-
Ngh… nghhh…
Click, clack, clatter-clatter-clatter!
With grotesque cries, corpses sleeping beneath the ground and in their graves began to awaken.
Ghouls that shed rotting flesh with every movement. Skeletons whose flesh had completely disappeared, exposing their gaunt white bones.
The cursed dead known as Undead Monsters covered the forest and hills in an instant.
“Hey, hey! I’m going slowly, so make sure you keep up! Got it?”
- Guaaaaaar!
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The image of zombies dragging their limp bodies around with a stagger had become outdated.
Whenever I saw these bastards running, I wondered if they had come from the national athletes’ training center. It had happened more than once or twice.
Of course, they still weren’t fast enough to catch me.
There are new hires today, too, so I should bring back a smaller group.
I sprinted forward, checking their numbers with occasional glances over my shoulder.
There were roughly a hundred and fifty of them.
That was three times the number of people on our side, but even this was fewer than usual.
For one thing, ghouls and skeletons weren’t particularly powerful monsters. For another, our side had gained thorough preparation and plenty of nerve.
There’s a reason they call them Tosa mastiffs.
After dragging along monsters that outnumbered them three to one as a matter of course—and sometimes more than ten to one—and showing them the gates of hell several times, their eyes had begun to brim with fierce determination.
Of course, whenever things seemed genuinely dangerous, I stepped in from time to time even if I had been watching from the sidelines. Thanks to that, we had suffered injuries, but there had been no deaths.
After repeating that several times a day, I had become both their common enemy and someone they trusted.
I don’t want to go this far, but… it can’t be helped.
This was an accelerated crash course. I needed to plant weeds that could survive in harsh conditions in the Peace Guild’s yard as quickly as possible.
In less than a month, several people had already announced that they were quitting and moved to other teams. I hadn’t bothered to stop them, and I didn’t feel disappointed, either.
The decision is theirs to make.
Everyone had a life of their own. I had only stepped into their lives for a little while.
I could present them with choices, but I had no right to force them to choose.
Ssshhhoooom!
As befitted an A-rank Gate, Black Wizard’s Black Forest was vast.
But the area I had explored was only a tiny fraction of it. As I adjusted my speed and ran, the Gate entrance soon began to come into view.
“It’s coming!”
“Jin Taekyung, you bastard…”
“Still, maybe because it’s their first time, there aren’t that many.”
“Gasp! Skeletons!”
Some shouted loudly to announce the monsters’ arrival. Others cursed me or calmly counted the enemies.
They were still greenhorns, with no real combat experience to speak of, and I could see them shrinking back.
Of course, the human Tosa mastiffs who had been given a taste of my hard training weren’t about to stand by.
“What the fuck are you doing over there? The line’s getting pushed back!”
“Don’t back up. Grip your shield tightly. What? You need to piss? Then fight like that!”
“New people, get a grip. That Jin Taekyung bastard isn’t going to help you. He even started a charity foundation in advance because someone might die here!”
“…”
They were making me out to be a complete piece of trash.
It was ridiculous, but I held back. Right. If they wanted to keep the new people mentally focused, they had to go that far to snap them out of it.
People curse even the king when he isn’t around. What can you do?
Of course, I remembered all their faces.
As I drew closer to the Hunters who had already formed a formation, I quickly climbed the tallest tree and shouted,
“Close ranks with your shields!”
Rumble!
The movement was perfectly coordinated.
The undead monsters, reduced to dogs that had lost the chicken they were chasing, looked up at the distant treetops before turning their grotesque faces.
On the hill where the Gate entrance was located, they spotted the more than fifty Hunters who had formed a battle line.
One of the skeletons raised a Bone Sword high and let out a hideous shriek.
- GRAAAAR!
It wasn’t an ordinary skeleton.
Bones that should have been exposed were wrapped in battered armor, and the Bone Sword raised as if to stab the moon was engulfed in a dark, ominous aura blacker than the night sky.
“A Skeleton Knight?”
Just because they were all skeletons didn’t mean they were all the same rank.
Skeleton Soldiers, Mages, Warriors…
Their abilities and strength varied wildly from one individual to the next, and the Skeleton Knight was a powerful monster universally recognized as A-rank.
I’ve encountered them often in the Black Forest, but that one is different somehow.
Encountering an A-rank monster like a Skeleton Knight in an A-rank Gate was only natural. They were positioned throughout the Black Forest, commanding lower-level Warriors and Mages beneath them.
I was narrowing my eyes as I watched it when—
-
GRAAAH!
-
GROWL!
Tss-tss-tss-tss!
Two more monstrous cries rang out, followed by two surging streams of aura.
I muttered in a voice tinged with surprise.
“Three Skeleton Knights in one group?”
That was a first.
A skeleton group was an army, and a knight was the general leading that army. An independent army only had one general.
Did three groups form an alliance?
But my prediction was spectacularly wrong.
The two newly appeared knights rattled their bones as they approached the Skeleton Knight that had appeared first. Then they dropped to one knee and drove their Bone Swords into the ground.
It was an unmistakable act of submission.
Purple light flashed in the empty sockets where the first knight’s eyes should have been.
Fwoooosh!
The light that burst from the abyssal darkness was intense.
The moment I met its gaze, the light transformed into flames and blazed brightly.
- GRAAAAR!
Krrrck!
Along with its roar, the creature’s body began to change.
Every bone grew thicker and longer, and an unknown black sheen flowed across its surface.
The transformation didn’t end there.
Shrrrraaaak!
Its armor, rusted and cracked in places, was restored as if time had been reversed. Broken chains reconnected, and the faded skull emblem on its chest regained its vivid color.
Finally, a dark green cloak fluttered in the wind.
When the creature had finished changing, it stared at its own palm.
Instead of white bones, the hand was covered by a sturdy gauntlet.
And then—
- Not. Bad.
“…”
The air surrounding the forest trembled.
Everyone, myself included, stared at it without a word.
A Skeleton Knight. A great knight reduced to a fallen undead.
But it was no longer a Skeleton Knight.
System
Level 105 Skeleton Warlord
- Come. Down. Hu. Man.
The burning purple light in its eyes fixed directly on me.
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