Go Byeonggap and his group moved quickly.

The underground passages twisted and turned like a maze. At every corner, swarms of monsters greeted them.

-Bang! Ta-ta-tang!

Gunshots rang out in succession. The hunters with firearms fired as if venting the grievances of the past days. Every monster died with its head blown apart.

As they ran frantically, they came to a fork shaped like a ‘T.’ Yeom Jeonghwa advanced well but then suddenly stopped dead.

“Grrrk! Grrrk!”

“Kiyaaah!”

“Uwoooh! Woooooh!”

The monsters surged in without pause — like an ant swarm that had caught the scent of pheromones.

“Aaaaah!”

“Die, you fucking bastards!”

Park Sutae, Jo Yeonghun, and Choi Minyeong each held one direction, unleashing indiscriminate barrages. Even without that, the gunfire was loud enough to resonate off the walls and rattle eardrums loose.

“What’s going on! Which way do we go!”

Go Byeonggap bellowed at the top of his lungs. Yeom Jeonghwa was right beside him, but it was obvious that without that volume, his voice would drown entirely.

Yeom Jeonghwa glanced around with uneasy eyes.

“Why did you stop! Where is it!”

“Here!”

“What?”

What Yeom Jeonghwa pointed at was a wall.

Go Byeonggap thought, Is this woman talking nonsense? He jabbed a finger at the three-way fork ahead and asked back.

“You’re saying the boss monster is in one of those?”

“No! It’s beyond this wall!”

“Beyond the wall?”

“There are too many monsters! They’ll break through any second!”

“Jimmy! Why’d you stop? Which way do we go?”

Choi Minyeong and Park Sutae shouted with their backs to each other.

Just as they said, the creatures would be on them any moment now.

Then Yeom Jeonghwa suddenly cried out.

“Everyone, get away from me!”

“What’d you say? Fall over?”

“Back off! Yes! Farther! Farther!”

The people backed up five or six steps from Yeom Jeonghwa. As soon as they did, she began to emit an enormous amount of karma.

“Hyaaaaaah!”

Pink karma surged from her entire body. Her hair lifted, and the torches on the wall flickered as if caught in a gale.

Then she settled into a stance. The karma all converged into her ring-blade.

“Hahp!”

In an instant. Yeom Jeonghwa shouted and swung the blade.

—Crack! Boom!

The ring blade struck the wall with a thunderous crack. The entire underground passage shuddered from the impact.

A cloud of dust billowed up, blurring the view. Coughs erupted from all around.

‘What the hell is this?’

Beyond the collapsed wall was a precipice. Go Byeonggap craned his neck to peer down. An immense space stretched out below.

Swarming hordes of monsters.

At the center sat something clearly out of the ordinary — a cocoon larger than a full-sized bus.

‘Is that the boss monster?’

“Jump!”

Before the word even finished, Yeom Jeonghwa leaped. It was a drop of over eight or nine meters, yet she showed no hesitation.

Go Byeonggap followed right behind her, and the remaining hunters, grimacing, had no choice but to dive into their own death-defying plunge.

A height that would have meant a splattered death for any ordinary person was, for hunters, merely a hard landing they could weather.

“Mr. Byeonggap! Join me against the boss! The rest of you handle the lesser monsters!”

“Got it!”

“Please, just finish this fast!”

“Watch your heads, everyone!”

Jo Yeonghun said this as he reached into his bandolier, pulled out a grenade, and hurled it at the collapsed wall.

The next instant—a colossal explosion rocked the wall’s vicinity. Shrapnel and chunks of monster debris sprayed in every direction.

The wall collapsed completely, sealing the entrance. They’d cut off any further monster reinforcements from pouring in.

‘Seasoned. And skilled.’

Go Byeonggap was admiring Jo Yeonghun’s quick judgment.

But the shadow of death still loomed over them. There were easily two hundred monsters packed into this space alone.

Go Byeonggap shed every piece of cumbersome gear, keeping only his sword in hand.

“Mr. Byeonggap! Let’s go!”

“Yes! Just don’t shoot me in the back!”

“Quit worrying about that and just kill the damn boss already!”

Yeom Jeonghwa and Go Byeonggap launched themselves forward like coiled springs.

“KYAAAAAAH!”

“Get lost!”

“Gguk!”

He cleaved the spider-like freak, the Lanky Ghost, clean in two with a single stroke. The moment he did, a spear came screaming toward his temple. He ducked fast, twisting to check his flank. A skeleton soldier.

“Uwaaaah—eok!”

He swung his blade horizontally, splitting the skeleton’s waist. Looking forward again, a Sand Golem was bringing its clasped hands up for a crushing blow.

Before Byeonggap could react, Yeom Jeonghwa split the Sand Golem vertically in two. The two exchanged a brief glance before both spurred their feet toward the cocoon.

“Keurrrrrk!”

“Uwaaaaaah!”

“Son of a bitch!”

The monsters blocked their path with furious tenacity. They were clearly defending that cocoon.

Blades, tentacles, fists—every kind of attack came flying in.

Byeonggap cut, dodged, parried, and forced his way forward step by grueling step. Corpses piled up on both sides of him.

-Tak! Tak! Tak! Bang!

“Kkueeeeek!”

Gunfire, roars, screams, groans, battle cries.

Every kind of noise blended into a single cacophony—this place was a true pandemonium. If hell were real, this had to be it.

Yeom Jeonghwa gathered her karma once more. She pushed off the ground in a charge, sweeping her curved blade in a wide arc. Monsters were flung in every direction as if struck by an invisible, colossal pillar.

She leaped high into the air, aiming to make a direct strike at the cocoon.

But the instant she did, dozens of spears flew up toward the sky. The skeleton soldiers had hurled them in unison.

“Kkeuk!”

The Karma Barrier around her body absorbed the damage, but her advance was halted.

After landing, she glared at the cocoon with sharp, venomous eyes.

‘Dangerous!’

The cocoon’s karmic output had already surpassed B-rank. Whatever was inside it, if it hatched, they’d likely be unable to handle it.

What’s more, the cocoon’s growth rate was accelerating with every passing moment.

‘So that’s why the presence suddenly swelled? I need to deal with this fast. It’s going to hatch soon.’

Yeom Jeonghwa’s heart grew impatient.

“Kyaaaah!”

Meanwhile, from behind, a chilling scream rang out. Park Sutae had been caught by a lanky ghost. The ghost fired a volley of tentacles, turning Park Sutae’s body into a sieve.

“Uncle! You… you bastard!”

Choi Minyeong, his face a mixture of fear and fury, fired his gun in a continuous barrage.

The lanky ghost was turned into a sieve, too.

—Click!

“Hah! Hah! R-reloading… Aaah!”

A Skeleton Warrior swung a massive club. Choi Minyeong was sent flying, tumbling across the floor. The arm he’d been hit with bent at a grotesque angle.

“Aaaargh! My arm! My arm! Aaaaaargh!”

“Calm down! There’s a potion in your bag! Get it out and drink it!”

Jo Yeonghun guarded Choi Minyeong’s front. He calmly fired aimed shots, driving back the approaching monsters.

“Hngh! Hnng! Hngh!”

Choi Minyeong, tears streaming down his face, opened his backpack. The hand reaching for the potion trembled violently.

With just one hand, he struggled to twist off the potion’s cap. Just as he finally got it open, Jo Yeonghun collapsed heavily beside him.

“Ah… Aah…?”

“Cough!”

Jo Yeonghun’s side was torn open. A wound from the tail of the scorpion monster, a Scorpion Larva.

‘Fuck. This is a shitshow!’

Go Byeonggap watched the rear, grinding his teeth. There were too many monsters crowded together in this enclosed space.

The lower-ranked awakeners had given up ground too easily and were helpless against the onslaught of the monster horde.

If he left things as they were, they’d be wiped out in less than five minutes.

Go Byeonggap’s eyes darted rapidly.

The monsters formed a massive wall, blocking Go Byeonggap and Yeom Jeonghwa. To make matters worse, Yeom Jeonghwa’s condition was poor.

She had consumed far too much karma.

There was no hope in dragging this out any longer. Judging it so, Go Byeonggap ran toward Yeom Jeonghwa.

He swept his sword, killing two monsters in a single stroke. Yeom Jeonghwa, breathing heavily, looked up at him.

“Ms. Jeonghwa! Open a path!”

“But the monsters…”

“I can’t open it! You have to!”

Yeom Jeonghwa’s eyes trembled for a moment. Then, she nodded solemnly.

“I’ll open a path!”

Yeom Jeonghwa released her karma once more, even pulling in all the karma she’d invested into her barrier.

She crouched low, her posture that of a beast about to spring on its prey.

Go Byeonggap ducked behind her without a second thought.

“Hyaaah!”

In a single instant, Yeom Jeonghwa surged forward. It was a speed the human eye couldn’t track.

Every monster ahead scattered like shrapnel. Limbs, heads, necks—nothing remained attached.

The path before them opened as if a massive war chariot had plowed through.

“Mr. Byeonggap… p-please…”

Yeom Jeonghwa collapsed in a heap. Forcing out that much power had drained her completely.

Go Byeonggap’s legs were already moving.

‘Faster! Faster! Even faster!’

He channeled ki into his leg muscles. In an instant, they visibly swelled.

For a fleeting moment, he attained propulsion comparable to a higher-grade awakener. He leaped high into the air.

The cocoon was right there. Without pause, Go Byeonggap flooded his longsword with karma.

His reserves of karma were pitiful. There was no question of wrapping himself in a barrier or detonating it for a boost like Jeonghwa had.

But he had just enough to coat a four-span blade.

Sky-blue karma coiled around the edge.

‘Strike deep!’

This time, he amplified the muscles in his arms. Gripping the sword in a reverse hold, he dropped straight down like a stone.

-Chwarak!

The tip bit into the cocoon’s surface. Then it sheared through the outer shell, plunging inward.

Go Byeonggap kept his focus razor-sharp. Moments later, something snagged on the tip.

“Kyaaaaaaagh!”

A tearing scream followed.

-Crunch! Crack! Snap!

The blade punched through something hard. Go Byeonggap twisted the sword with all his strength.

Whether he’d hit the monster’s head or its torso, he was determined to pulp it into mush.

“Die! Die! Don’t live! Die!”

His arm moved without rest. He stabbed like a madman—stabbed, stabbed, and stabbed again.

“Graaaaaaagh!”

“Keok!”

Then came the searing pain. Something sent him flying dozens of meters.

Even through the haze of agony, he kept his eyes ahead. A massive shape burst through the cocoon’s ruptured shell.

Those were two arms.

‘Son of a bitch!’

The master of this dungeon.

It was a colossal spider-human hybrid, the Queen Anakne.

A grotesque horror with the torso of a human woman on spider legs.

In appearance, it recalled the lanky ghosts, but in strength and scale, they were worlds apart.

Queen Anakne was rated B-rank. But there was a far bigger problem.

That monstrosity was over six meters tall—classified as an ultra-large-class.

Each leg alone was thick as a telephone pole. And the massive arms that made even those legs look slender stole the show.

“Kyaaaaah!”

Queen Anakne roared.

The creature wasn’t in top shape either. Go Byeonggap had carved it up, leaving its head and torso a shredded mess.

Worse, it had hatched ahead of schedule, so its body was underdeveloped. Its half-formed legs couldn’t bear the mass and were crushed flat. Other parts sagged like melted chocolate.

But the situation was still a catastrophe.

Yeom Jeonghwa lay motionless, face-down.

Park Sutae, Jo Yeonghun, and Choi Minyeong were sprawled together to one side.

All of them were unconscious.

To make matters worse, the monster minions stood guard before Queen Anakne…

‘After all that slaughter, this many are still left?’

“Damn it!”

With the strength he had now, he couldn’t break through the meat shields and reach Queen Anakne.

But…

It wasn’t as though there was no way out at all.

With no eyes watching, he could finally pull out his hidden card.

“Hoo.”

He steadied his breath, then shouted.

«Turka! Kiriyan! Dorma! Come out at once!»

The gate connecting to Asvillam opened. Like lightning, three goblins appeared.

They stared around with wide eyes.

«My Lord! Wh-what in the world is this?»

«No time to explain. Listen carefully!»

«Yes, my Lord!»

«Kiriyan, Dorma. Hit that big bastard with your strongest attacks. And Turka.»

«Command me!»

«Can you leap to that monster’s spot while holding me?»

«No problem!»

«Then start now!»

«Yes!»

Kiriyan and Dorma focused their power.

Kiriyan summoned a massive bolt of lightning.

Dorma conjured a dark sphere of condensed karma.

Turka scooped Go Byeonggap up without a word. Then he coiled his body, ready to spring.

«Fire!»

Go Byeonggap shouted. The lightning bolt and dark sphere shot out in unison. At the same moment, Turka pushed off the ground and soared high.

“Kyaaaaah—Krrrrack!”

The lightning bolt seared Queen Anakne. Before it could recover, the dark sphere slammed into its torso.

A tearing scream echoed through the vast space.

«Turka! Throw me!»

«Yes!»

Turka, at the peak of his leap, hurled Go Byeonggap. He flew forward with tremendous force.

Go Byeonggap squeezed out his last reserve of strength, wrapping his sword in karma.

Queen Anakne instantly tried to block by drawing its arms together.

But—

Boom!

Kiriyan and Dorma intercepted the arms at once.

The lightning bolt and dark sphere each claimed one arm for themselves.

Queen Anakne’s arm went limp and fell away, leaving her torso fully exposed.

“HYAAAAAAAH!!!”

A desperate battle cry.

The honed blade.

For an instant, the world stopped—and when it started again, a torrent of fresh blood sprayed through the air.

“Gkkk! Kkeok-heok!”.

Queen Anakne’s torso was severed clean through.

Her enormous spider body collapsed, crushing monsters beneath it.

A moment later. The escape portal opened.

The hell was over.

* * *

“Mmm?”

Kim Taeyong, dispatched from the Association, felt a chill run down his spine.

He turned around—the rift was rippling.

People were coming out of it.

Finally over?

That carefree thought lasted only a moment.

“Uh, huh? Wh-what the hell is this!?”

A man was staggering out, carrying four people on his back at once.

He was the D-rank hunter Go Byeonggap.

But something was off about them. Blood-soaked was the baseline—only Go Byeonggap was still conscious.

And even he was a hair’s breadth from blacking out.

Go Byeonggap rasped out the words with a cracked voice, barely getting them past his throat.

“Potion… Bring me a potion!”

Then he pitched forward and crumpled to the ground.

Horror spread across the faces of those waiting.

“Medic! Medic!”

“Medic, get over here! Now!”

The Association staff had to scramble into a full-blown commotion.

The five hunters who’d been deployed for the subjugation received emergency treatment and were immediately transported to the hospital.

By a stroke of luck, not a single one died.