Chapter 151

The White Tiger Guild had been tracking the villains down, but they were having a very difficult time of it.

“Vice Guild Master! We’ve lost track of the villains again.”

Miho frowned at the report. “Is that right?”

The area around Jisan Prison in Pocheon was surrounded by extremely lush forests and mountains. For two days now, the guild had been searching the likely routes the villains could have taken—following the Hantan River and combing through the mountainsides of Bojangsan, Bulmusan, Eungjangsan, and so on. The results were always the same.

“Team B and C have reported that they lost track of the villains as well.”

“Again? I see...” Miho nodded, looking toward a mountain slope lit by bright sunlight in dismay. A cool breeze moved along it. They were deep within a thick forest. It was a perfect place for villains to hide, but they were nowhere to be found.

Miho compiled all the clues that she’d found so far.

The villains scattered at a certain point after getting out of Jisan Prison.

At first, she’d assumed that they had fallen out with each other as soon as they escaped, splitting into multiple groups. It was the most likely scenario, realistically speaking. The goal of escape had been the only thing bringing them together, after all. Hwang Dongsuk, their leader, was only a C-rank villain, and it was unlikely that he could have maintained control of them indefinitely.

But for them to suddenly scatter and vanish, with not a single one of them to be found?

Is this really a coincidence?

It can’t be.

Miho sensed a special purposefulness to their movements, and that could only mean one thing. “It seems they didn’t part ways as we thought. They must have agreed to meet again elsewhere after the split,” she said.

The guild member nodded with a grave look. “I agree. Hard as it is to believe, it seems that all five hundred villains are moving with a unified purpose in mind. I don’t know what it is they want, but the most likely reason is—”

“Hwang Dongsoo,” Miho cut in, and the guild member fell silent. That was a natural response. If an S-rank villain was involved, this was a very serious case indeed.

Miho sighed quietly and continued, “So, it’s becoming more and more likely that Hwang Dongsoo was involved in this incident.”

“I’ve been told that Sung Suho said such an outcome is unlikely.”

“Yes, he did,” Miho muttered, considering the information Suho had given her. “Hwang Dongsuk and Hwang Dongsoo are not actually close.”

Suho had learned of this truth when he met Taeshik. In return, Miho had shared the routes her guild was currently searching. As a result, Suho had excluded those regions and started tracking with Gray elsewhere. They were cooperating as they’d agreed, sharing information in the process.

Miho had been greatly relieved by Suho’s information. Taeshik, a professional bounty hunter, had only shared it with Suho, which spoke of its great value. The biggest reason other hunters were unwilling to get involved in catching the escaped villains was the possibility that Hwang Dongsoo might be involved.

“Perhaps that information is wrong,” the guild member said. “Or rather, even if the brothers are at odds, perhaps Hwang Dongsoo doesn’t want his brother to die regardless.”

“Because they are family, is that it?” Miho said, looking troubled. The very outcome she had been hoping against seemed more and more likely to be the truth. An S-rank hunter was a natural disaster in terms of the damage they could inflict. Hwang Dongsoo was not a man the White Tiger Guild members assigned to this matter could deal with.

We could hurt him, of course, if we staged a full-on attack, but...

They would have to risk their lives to do so, perhaps even total annihilation.

Only other S-ranks can truly fight an S-rank hunter.

Miho concluded her thoughts and came to a decision. “We will need to ask my father—that is, the Guild Master—for help.”

“Yes! Right away!”

The guild member immediately contacted the guild master’s office, and a response arrived soon enough.

“He will come to Pocheon as quickly as he can!”

At the news, Miho sighed with relief.

The master of the White Tiger Guild, Baek Yoonho, had not been involved from the start for a very simple reason—he was busy. It wasn’t simply a matter of how monetarily valuable his time was. S-rank hunters were few and far between, and they were constantly occupied dealing with the most dangerous dungeons in the country. Therefore, tasks that involved legwork, like this one, were usually handled by the vice guild master, Miho. It was the most efficient way, and also the most effective when it came to ensuring citizens were safe from dungeons and magic beasts.

But the legwork

is done here,

Miho thought. Of course, the time they had spent, even without any results to show for it, was not in vain. They could now exclude all the regions they’d already visited, which left only a few, including the one up ahead.

Yami Village.

Miho was leading her guild members to a small village in Pocheon that hadn’t been searched yet. She realized that Suho said he would be searching in this direction, which meant he had probably passed through. The fact that he hadn’t gotten in touch yet made it likely that he hadn’t found anything. Looking at the village from afar, it seemed too quiet for anything to be happening there.

Miho smiled bitterly and commanded her hunters, “We’ll pass through as quickly as possible so we don’t make the residents anxious.”

As soon as they stepped into the village, they found it quiet and peaceful, just as expected. It was just a remote village. There wasn’t even anyone out and about in the streets.

However, Miho shuddered and frowned. She’d just noticed something odd about this place. “What’s this...?”

The guild members, who were beast transformation hunters, picked up on the same thing.

“Vice Guild Master! Something isn’t right here!”

“I can’t detect a living soul here at all!”

***

“The White Tiger Guild?” At the same moment, Suho noticed the guild members’ presence. He was in the middle of fighting and racing in the direction that Beru had pointed, looking for Harmakan. Miho had just stepped into the village with her guild members.

Suho was taken aback as he neared them, continuing the battle as he went. However, a system message he’d never seen before suddenly popped up in front of him with a

ding.

[You can’t leave this dungeon. Please defeat the boss or use a Teleportation Stone.]

“Huh? What’s this?” Puzzled, Suho knocked on the transparent wall blocking his path. “Is it a barrier?”

Something even more intriguing happened after that.

“Vice Guild Master! Something isn’t right here!”

“We can’t sense anybody. Maybe...”

The guild members could walk through the barrier without any problems. However, they vanished from Suho’s sight as soon as they passed through.

“What?” Suho watched them, eyes wide. It seemed that the transparent wall marked a separation of spaces. He tried to force his way out, but he got the same message again.

[You can’t leave this dungeon. Please defeat the boss or use a Teleportation Stone.]

Beru, realizing what was happening, examined the barrier with a concerned look. “Don’t tell me...”

“Do you know something about this?” Suho asked.

“We appear to be within an instance dungeon.”

“An instance dungeon?” Suho asked, taken aback. As far as he knew, there were only two kinds of dungeons—ordinary dungeons accessed through a gate and field-type dungeons. He had never heard of an instance dungeon. Putting aside the question of whether such a place even existed, Suho didn’t remember passing through a gate in the first place. “Did we come through a gate without realizing it?” he asked Beru.

“That’s not it. Instance dungeons are not substantially real.” There was a different reason for Beru’s concern. “Instance dungeons were developed by Kandiaru, the being who engineered the leveling system. And their only purpose...” They had only existed to help Sung Jinwoo, the vessel of the Monarch of Shadows, grow!

Suho’s expression hardened. “Kandiaru made them? So how did Harmakan make one?” Even now, Harmakan’s massive hands were attacking Suho, who was trapped in the village. As his palms thudded to the ground, Suho evaded every attack, his eyes gleaming. “Well, I’ll just ask him myself.”

“Yes. We’re almost there,” Beru said. The shadow ant had helped locate exactly where Harmakan was hiding.

Finally, Suho broke through a building that somehow remained intact despite the rampant destruction.

“Goddamn it! You managed to find me!” Harmakan shouted as he encountered Suho. He uttered a spell through gritted teeth. “But that doesn’t mean you can kill me! My sorcery is already complete!” He quickly opened his hands and released his magic circle. Countless spirits rushed out of his palms, attacking Suho.

Suho wasn’t fooled. “Illusions to the end, huh?” He dodged, sending the Vulcan’s Horns flying off to the side.

Ruler’s Authority!

Blinding rays of light intersected at random, tearing the space apart. Suddenly, there was a short moan as one of the Vulcan’s Horns plunged into what appeared to be empty space. The real Harmakan slowly came into view, the sword having pierced his wizened body.

“H-how in the world...” The moment that Harmakan, upon whom the magic circle depended, was attacked, invisible waves rippled outward from his location.

Ding! Ding!

[Polluted mana has been purified.]

[Polluted mana has been purified.]

The spirits of the death knights that had been sullied by Harmakan began to be purified—not that Harmakan could afford to care.

“Th-this power... It can’t be...” Harmakan was staring down at the weapon impaling him, looking severely shocked. He wasn’t simply surprised that Suho had seen through the illusion and found his hiding place. Rather, he had sensed Ruler’s Authority in Vulcan’s Horn.

“H-how is it that someone like you can use Ruler’s Authority?” Harmakan shouted at Suho, distraught. It was not a simple levitation skill. As its name implied, only Rulers could use it. It was the symbol of angels born of light, a unique ability that allowed them to fly. Flying soldiers could use wings to travel through the air, but Rulers could fly as they pleased without, and it was Ruler’s Authority that enabled this. So how was a mere human able to use this skill?

“Don’t tell me a Fragment has entered... No, it can’t be.” Having seen Suho with his own eyes, Harmakan was certain—while Suho was no ordinary human, he had been using the power of the Monarch of Fangs and the Monarch of Iron Body. Those powers were diametrically opposed to that of the Rulers.

“No, wait...” Harmakan then realized something huge. His eyes slowly filled with terror. “D-don’t tell me...”

A descendant of the Monarch of Fangs, and of the Monarch of Iron Body?

But it should have been impossible for someone to continue the powers of the Monarchs, who were born of darkness, while also using Ruler’s Authority, which stemmed from light. There could only be one exception to this rule. “It can’t be... The Monarch of Shadows...”

Suho, who’d defeated the spirits and death knights around him and had been dashing toward Harmakan to deliver the finishing blow, paused. He looked a little troubled as he muttered, “Ugh, you figured it out.” He turned to look at the death knights around him, laying prone on the floor. “Can’t be helped, then.”

[Target is eligible for shadow extraction.]

[Target is eligible for shadow extraction.]

[...]

Countless messages floated above the purified death knights. Suho smiled faintly, looking somewhat gratified. “Arise.”

All at once, uncountable shadows began to rise around Harmakan as he looked on in shock.