A week ago, after several days of relentless 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 the total 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.
The same went for this place.
Calling out the cadence, I led the way through the mana field.
Ssshhhk.
That sticky, unpleasant, yet familiar sensation unique to mana washed over me, and everything around 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 blanketed the forest, and faint moonlight filtered through the gaunt branches.
The new hires, who had realized what was happening too late, looked around in panic.
“Gasp!”
“W-We’re screwed.”
“Wait. What rank is this Gate? Why is it so huge?”
The third-week Tosa mastiffs, on the other hand, were completely unfazed.
“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 deathly 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 the place could get a rough idea from the name alone. The eerie atmosphere, the forest so unsettling that the mere sight of it sent chills down your spine.
This was a realm ruled by a black wizard—a necromancer.
“Lord Fuck! Senior Jin Taekyung!”
One of the pups rushed over and pleaded with me.
“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 them.”
“Trauma?”
“Nothing that serious. I’m just scared.”
“Perfect. This is a great chance to experience them in 4D.1 They’re monsters, anyway.”
“No, that’s not…”
“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.
From among the grinning Tosa mastiffs, one man shot forward like a bullet.
“You called?”
“Yeah.”
It was Kim Jinsoo, who had quietly taken on the role of leader among the Tosa mastiffs.
He had good leadership skills and excellent combat ability, so whenever we went on a raid together, he served as my right hand.
Of course, I’d long since stopped speaking formally to him.
“I have a special assignment for you. It concerns this gentleman here.”
“Yes.”
“Put him in front.”
The pup had just begun to sigh in relief when he sucked in a sharp breath.
“D-Did you say in front?”
“Why? Is there a problem? Judging by that tower shield, you’re clearly a tank.”
“But…”
“If you want to sit this out, go ahead. Just be prepared to get fired.”
“F-Fired?”
“If you refuse to join a raid because you’re afraid of ghosts, why would I keep employing you? Besides, are there any ghosts inside a Gate? They’re all monsters. Jinsoo, am I wrong?”
Kim Jinsoo answered without hesitation.
“You are absolutely right—a hundred, a thousand times over.”
“If everything here were a ghost, why would I bring Hunters? I’d bring exorcists instead. Right?”
“Absolutely right—a thousand, ten thousand times over.”
“That’s our Jinsoo. You certainly have a way with words.”
“Thank you.”
“So, would you like to remain a Hunter with the Peace Guild, or would you rather get fired and change 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 put them through a fairly rigorous selection process, but there was always one guy like that wherever you went.
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.
The conversation behind me gradually faded into the distance.
“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 to round up the prey.”
“What?”
“That guy’s nickname is the Pied Piper.”
The Tosa mastiff added cheerfully,
“I can’t be the only one going through hell. Let’s do our best together.”
“…”
I roamed the forest, making enough noise to ensure everything nearby could hear me, and it didn’t take long to get a response.
Crack! Rumble!
—Guaaaar!
—Ngh… nghhh…
Click, clack, clatter-clatter-clatter!
Grotesque cries rang out as the corpses sleeping beneath the earth and inside their graves awakened.
Ghouls with rotting flesh dripping from their bodies. Skeletons with not a scrap of flesh left on their gaunt white bones.
In an instant, the cursed dead known as Undead Monsters covered the forest and hills.
“Hey, hey! I’m going slowly, so make sure you keep up! Got it?”
—Guaaaaaar!
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The old image of zombies shambling around with limp bodies was hopelessly outdated.
More than once, seeing these bastards sprint had made me wonder if they had trained at Taereung Athletes’ Village.2
Of course, they still weren’t fast enough to catch me.
We’ve got new hires today, so I should bring back a smaller group.
I raced through the forest, glancing over my shoulder every so often to check their numbers.
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 prepared thoroughly and developed plenty of nerve.
There’s a reason I call them Tosa mastiffs.
Three times their number was standard, and sometimes I’d brought back more than ten times as many monsters. After I’d shown them the threshold of hell a few times, a fierce glint had begun to burn in their eyes.
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 we repeated the process several times a day, I became both their common enemy and someone they trusted.
I don’t want to go this far, but… I don’t have a choice.
This was an intensive crash course. I needed to plant weeds capable of surviving harsh conditions in the Peace Guild’s yard as quickly as possible.
In less than a month, several people had already given up and transferred to other teams. I hadn’t tried to stop them, nor did I resent them for leaving.
The decision is theirs to make.
Everyone had a life of their own. I had only stepped into theirs 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. Keeping my pace under control, I soon saw the Gate entrance ahead.
“Here they come!”
“Jin Taekyung, you son of a bitch…”
“Still, maybe because it’s their first time, he didn’t bring that many.”
“Gasp! Skeletons!”
Some loudly announced the monsters’ arrival, while others cursed me or calmly assessed the enemy’s numbers.
The greenhorns had no real combat experience yet, and I could see them shrinking back in fear.
Of course, the human Tosa mastiffs who had already experienced my brutal training weren’t about to stand idle.
“What the fuck are you doing over there? The line’s giving way!”
“Don’t back up. Hold your shield tight. What? You need to piss? Then piss yourself!”
“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 complete trash.
It was absurd, but I held my tongue. Fine. That was what it took to snap the rookies out of their panic.
People badmouth even the king behind his back. What can you do?
Of course, I memorized every face.
As I approached the Hunters who had already formed their battle line, I sprang into the tallest tree and shouted,
“Shields together!”
Rumble!
Everyone moved in perfect unison.
Like dogs left staring up after the chicken they had been chasing, the undead monsters gazed toward the distant treetop before turning their grotesque faces away.
Then they spotted the more than fifty Hunters arrayed on the hill where the Gate entrance stood.
One of the skeletons raised its Bone Sword high and unleashed a hideous shriek.
—GRAAAAR!
It wasn’t an ordinary skeleton.
The bones that should have been exposed were wrapped in battered armor, and the Bone Sword raised as though to pierce the moon blazed with an 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 Skeleton Knights were powerful monsters universally recognized as A-rank.
I’ve encountered them often in the Black Forest, but there’s something different about that one.
Encountering an A-rank monster like a Skeleton Knight inside an A-rank Gate was perfectly normal. They were stationed throughout the Black Forest, each commanding lower-level Warriors and Mages.
I narrowed my eyes and studied it.
Then—
—GRAAAH!
—GROOOAR!
Tss-tss-tss-tss!
Two more monstrous cries rang out, followed by two surging streams of aura.
I muttered in surprise,
“Three Skeleton Knights in one group?”
That was a first.
A skeleton horde was an army, and its knight was the general who led it. Every independent army had only one general.
Did three hordes form an alliance?
But my prediction was spectacularly wrong.
Rattling their bones, the two newly appeared knights approached the Skeleton Knight that had emerged first. They dropped to one knee and drove their Bone Swords into the ground.
It was an unmistakable act of submission.
Purple light flashed within the empty hollows where the first knight’s eyes should have been.
Fwoooosh!
The light bursting from that abyssal darkness was intense.
The moment our gazes met, it erupted into blazing flame.
—GRAAAAR!
Krrrck!
The creature roared, and its body began to change.
Every bone grew thicker and longer, its surface gleaming with a strange black sheen.
The transformation didn’t end there.
Shrrrraaaak!
Its armor, rusted and cracked in places, restored itself as though time were flowing backward. Broken chains reconnected, and the faded skull emblem on its chest regained its vivid color.
Finally, a dark green cloak fluttered in the wind.
Once the transformation was complete, the creature stared silently at its palm.
Instead of bare white bone, it saw a hand encased in a sturdy gauntlet.
And then—
“Not. Bad.”
“…”
The air surrounding the forest trembled.
Everyone, myself included, stared at it in speechless silence.
A Skeleton Knight. A great knight reduced to a corrupted undead.
But it was no longer a Skeleton Knight.
System
Level 105 Skeleton Warlord
“Come. Down. Hu. Man.”
Its blazing purple eyes fixed directly on me.
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