Cha Hae-In had already said that an E-rank hunter volunteering for an A-rank dungeon was pure insanity. Now, she was certain Jin-Woo had some kind of hidden power. The previous day, she had declared she was going into the portal alone, and when the chief offered backup, she told him to relax—it was personal business. But then, she realized she had forgotten her sword and asked if anyone had a spare weapon. The chief handed her a rock pickaxe, and she was like, “Got anything better? Maybe a sword or spear?” But yeah, asking a mining crew for combat weapons wasn’t going to work. She returned the pickaxe, saying she’d be fine, but the chief hit her with the classic, “You sure you want to walk in there empty-handed?” And just like that, she instantly regretted her life choices.
Meanwhile, inside the boss room, the atmosphere was downright terrifying. The squad was already shaking at the thought that if all those Superior Orcs got out, the city would be wiped out in five minutes. That meant they had to take down the boss, but even his four guards looked like nightmare fuel. The soldiers were just waiting for the signal to jump the shaman when the Orc King suddenly removed his mask and asked if the humans were afraid of him. Did he even need to ask? The entire squad looked like they were about to have a full-blown panic attack.
Baek Yoon-Ho somehow mustered his courage and asked why they had been brought there when 60 Orcs had already been more than enough. The Orc King just laughed and said it was all for fun—he planned to crush their skulls one by one for entertainment. Then, mid-monologue, he suddenly noticed someone unusual among the humans. Baek, meanwhile, was losing his mind, realizing they were nothing but playthings for the monster. He gave the order to attack, but no one moved—they were so terrified they might as well have been turned to stone. In the end, he charged in alone, but the boss casually summoned a magic ice spike and launched him across the room. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, the Orc King started using gravity magic to play catch with Baek’s head against the floor. Just as he was about to slam him into the abyss, someone intervened—it was Jin-Woo.
Jin-Woo told the Orc King that this dungeon belonged to the Hunter Guild, and he shouldn’t be messing around here. But since the entire squad was about to be wiped out, he asked if he could just delete all the monsters in the room. One of the Orcs tried sneaking up on him, but this time, it was the Orc who got bounced around like a ragdoll. Jin-Woo turned to Baek, who was practically begging him to save them all. The Orc King acknowledged that Jin-Woo was strong for a mere human and asked how long he thought he could last against them all. Jin-Woo admitted he had never felt energy this powerful, which only made the Orc King more arrogant—until Jin-Woo hit him with a smirk and said, “Oh yeah? This fight’s gonna be brutal… for you guys.”
And with that, he summoned his Shadow Army—stronger than ever.
Outside the portal, Woo Jin-Chul pulled up in his fancy limo, and the miners were left scratching their heads. Why was a high-ranking inspector so interested in Jin-Woo? He asked the chief where Jin-Woo was, and at this point, that was the second time that day someone had asked him that. The guy with the permanently scared face—the one who had tried intimidating Jin-Woo before—admitted something had always felt off about the kid. Dude was so terrified that he looked like his soul was about to get evicted. The chief finally spilled the beans—Jin-Woo had volunteered as a tank in the attack squad. Woo Jin-Chul just stood there like, “What in the actual hell is this kid thinking?” Someone even asked if Jin-Woo had killed anyone, and Woo just sighed, “Guess we’ll find out in tomorrow’s headlines.”
Then, out of nowhere, a massive energy explosion rocked the portal, nearly flattening everyone. Cha Hae-In was trying to figure out how Baek’s team had managed to take down so many Superior Orcs, but she knew that if that energy belonged to the boss, none of them were making it out alive.
Back in the boss room, the Orc King was straight-up mocking Jin-Woo, laughing at his “pathetic little soldiers” and claiming they were no match for his mighty army. Jin-Woo just smirked and warned him not to underestimate them—because they were about to get erased. He activated Monarch’s Domain, boosting his Shadow Soldiers’ strength by 50%. That was a skill he had obtained after climbing 70 floors in the Demon Castle, and now, his army was built different. The mages watching the fight could barely comprehend what they were seeing—while they struggled to summon two soldiers, this random human had an army with energy levels off the charts.
The Orc King finally gave the signal, and his horde charged into battle. Iron tried trash-talking them, but the Orcs were too OP, so he just went full Thor mode and smashed them into oblivion. Igris, on the other hand, was on demon time—slicing through 30 Orcs in the blink of an eye. But even they couldn’t compare to the real monster.
Jin-Woo was out there treating this like recess at the playground, and the squad was watching in shock—dude fought just like Vice-Leader Cha. They were all wondering why the hell he had been hiding that he was this strong. Except for Igris, Iron, and Tank, the rest of the Shadows were basically at a B-rank hunter level, so Jin-Woo had to wipe out as many Orcs as possible before his mana ran out.
Out of nowhere, the boss dropped the Dragon Fire Anthem, wiping out almost all of Jin-Woo’s Shadow soldiers. He mocked them as useless little puppets, but Jin-Woo just smirked and warned him, “Better watch yourself, bud,” since his soldiers would keep respawning as long as he had mana. The boss then tried dropping an iceberg on Jin-Woo’s head, and before he could react, he was already eating a full magic combo. The Orc King screamed that he’d keep obliterating those Shadows until Jin-Woo’s mana ran dry, while the weaklings ran for their lives, dodging the crossfire.
Outside, the association measured the portal level and realized it was way stronger than expected, so they ordered reinforcements ASAP. Back inside, the Orc King was dying of laughter, thinking Jin-Woo must be running out of mana. But who gets the last laugh? Unlike in his class change quest, here Jin-Woo could chug as many mana potions as he wanted. That’s when things got real fun—Jin-Woo extracted Shadows from all the defeated Superior Orcs, then looked the Orc King dead in the eyes and said, “You’re next, buddy.” That set the boss off. He tried to say “Shadow Monarch,” but the system hit him with a mental blue screen of death before he could finish. Instead, he sent his generals into battle, ordering them to bring back the humans’ heads.
Over at the Hunters’ Guild HQ, Chairman Go got the news. He thought Keihon’s team should be enough to handle it, but just in case, he ordered his assistant to gather the strongest hunters. If necessary, they’d even request backup from other guilds.
Back in the boss room, the four strongest Orc warriors charged in. The first one immediately got wrecked by Iron. Igris was dueling two at once, even dropping his sword—but the blade zipped right back into his hands. Tank wanted in on the action too and slapped an Orc so hard it basically got deleted. Jin-Woo smirked, saying, “Looks like my generals are stronger than yours, huh?” The attack squad was about to step in, but the Orc King activated the Hymn of Agony, paralyzing, blinding, and locking them in place. He smirked and said, “Side characters don’t belong on the main stage.”
Now, he was about to show everyone what happens when you mess with the great Carallon. He unleashed all his magic at once, but it shattered instantly, and Jin-Woo just scoffed, saying he was immune to such weak curses. He summoned his mages to destroy that annoying iceberg, and with the Orb of Avarice, they became even stronger. A fireball pierced through the shield and exploded right in the boss’s face—now that really pissed him off.
Meanwhile, Cha finally arrived in the middle of the chaos, still rocking her mighty pickaxe. She couldn’t believe how many soldiers Jin-Woo had summoned. She sprinted over to the attack squad like, “What the hell is going on?” but even they couldn’t explain it. Carallon, on the other hand, was done playing—dude combined 300 spells at once and vowed to crush that kid like an insect. He stomped down like a colossal titan, but Jin-Woo just scoffed, saying he had bad memories with giant enemies. Bro was just throwing salt in the wound at this point. First, the boss launched a massive fireball, then, just for good measure, he launched 50 more, wiping out both the Shadow Soldiers and the Superior Orcs. The boss smirked and asked, “Are you starting to regret it, little human?”
Before he could blink, Jin-Woo was already on top of him, shoving a dagger straight into his eye. He hit him with the ultimate disrespect—”The bigger you get, the easier you are to hit.” Then, he really rubbed it in, saying a mere shaman like him was no match for an assassin. And let’s be real, Jin-Woo isn’t just any assassin either. Channeling the spirit of Indiana Jones, Jin-Woo dodged every single attack, then sniped two daggers that broke the boss’s defenses and chained him up with a castle chain. He used Carallon’s own strength to slam him into the ground like a ragdoll.
Lucky for us, this fight even had a VIP audience—the association’s inspector finally pulled up to witness the spectacle. He said they came to help, but, uh… it looked like they wouldn’t be needed anymore. Cha, meanwhile, was watching with sparkling eyes, saying, “This is the strength of an elite hunter, not some rank E scrub.” Then she asked, “Who even is this guy?” and even Woo had no answer.
Jin-Woo smirked, saying, “Once a mage loses his guardians, he’s finished.” Right on cue, the Orc King started panicking, screaming that there was no way he could lose in this body. He started rampaging, throwing his own soldiers everywhere, but then they slammed his face straight into the ground—and that was game over. The last thing he saw was his own former general burying a sword deep into his chest.
Just like that, Jin-Woo officially cleared the dungeon boss, racking up tons of XP and loot. Even though he soloed everything, he figured it wouldn’t look too good if he just kept all the rewards for himself. But one thing he definitely wasn’t sharing? Extracting the boss’s Shadow. The crowd couldn’t believe their eyes—the massive monster that had been terrorizing everyone was now kneeling before this kid. When it was time to name him, Jin-Woo straight up forgot what the dude was called, so he just went with “Tusk.”
This was the first time he had ever scored a Shadow Soldier with Elite Knight rank, which was more than deserved for an A-rank dungeon boss. Not to mention, those Superior Orcs were way stronger than his usual soldiers. Jin-Woo was so locked in collecting Shadows that he didn’t even notice Inspector Woo standing right there.
Of course, the second everyone snapped out of it, the questions started flying. But the chief stepped in real quick, saying that Hunter Sung Jin-Woo’s situation was top secret. He told everyone to keep their mouths shut about what they saw. The assistants were going to escort him outside, and Woo asked everyone to cooperate and make sure his exit was low-key.
Before he could leave, Keihon spoke up. He said he wasn’t going to ask why Jin-Woo was hiding all this power. One thing was for sure—the only reason they all made it out alive was because of him. So he straight-up thanked Jin-Woo for saving his entire squad. Just like that, the whole crew bowed their heads in gratitude.
Jin-Woo suddenly remembered—oh yeah, he still had to return that healer’s journal. Meanwhile, Cha really wanted to talk to him, but one of the mages cut in like, “Uh, Vice-Captain, why are you holding a pickaxe?” Cha instantly turned bright red and nervously asked Jin-Woo, “Do… do I look weird with this?”
Back at the Hunters’ Guild HQ, Chairman Go let out a deep sigh of relief. It all worked out in the end—first, Jin-Woo saved White Tiger, and now he saved them. Go still couldn’t wrap his head around just how much power this kid had been hiding. He asked his assistant, “Who do you think is stronger, him or me?” and the assistant just hit him with, “Sir… do you really think you could solo an A-rank dungeon like that?”
Even Go had to admit—not a chance. Now, they had one mission: do whatever it takes to recruit that kid.
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