Chapter Text
"YOU AGAIN?!" Hwang shouts, pulling his hand away from the chief manager of the Hunter's Association. "Out of the way, or I'll show you what a real punch from an S-rank feels like, Woo Jinchul!"
"I'm afraid I cannot allow that." The man says, dropping his hand and holding the now bare arm carefully. "If there's one thing that Korea doesn't need right now it's the two of you trying to kill each other in the middle of a civilian neighborhood."
Jinwoo snarls again, the guild master holding him back forcing him to withdraw. He glares at Jinchul's back, unsure if he's happy the man is here or not. If there was anyone that could maybe make this maniac fuck off it would be him or his boss, the chairman.
"He murdered my brother in cold blood." Hwang yells. "I'LL KILL YOU, SUNG JINWOO!" He shouts but the rest of the reinforcements have arrived, and the media was beginning to close in.
Jinwoo glares at Hwang. "It was self defense. And you attacked my friend without any reason!"
"He was an accomplice!"
"To what? Trying not to get killed by your stupid brother's strike team? You're pathetic!"
"I'll show you pathetic—!"
"That's enough." Jinchul snaps, his usual cool demeanor gone. He glares at Hwang and then Jinwoo. "You're both going to be under investigation for this already, should we add some penalties to that as well? Maybe you'd like to be banned from participating in gate raids until the foreseeable future?"
"Tch!" Jinwoo clicks his tongue and looks away, crossing his arms. If only I'd picked up earlier…
"This is bullshit!" Hwang continues to argue but with the crowds closing in, Jinwoo gives up the fight.
Hwang's arguments and subsequent guidance into a black vehicle were enough for them both to realize if they wanted to kill each other, it wasn't happening today. Jinwoo sits on a piece of rubble, running his hands through his hair with agitation and glaring at the ground.
This is all my fault. I nearly got Jinho killed… I need to get stronger…
"Jinwoo?" A voice calls after an unknown amount of brooding. It's Jinchul, looking at him with anxious eyes. "Are you alright?"
"Fine." He mutters, sighing. Jinwoo looks at the ruined suit sleeve on Jinchul's arm. A half smirk crawls onto his face. "I didn't realize you were so strong, being able to deflect an S-rank punch isn't nothing."
"He pulled the punch at the last second." Jinchul smiles back. He approaches Jinwoo and looks at him— really looks at him— before shaking his head. "You two will have to get over each other's differences soon enough, considering the recent news…"
"Right…" Jinwoo nods. He was Korea's newest S-rank. It wouldn't look good to be associated with Hwang in any shape or form for the foreseeable future. "I need to go check on Jinho." He says, standing.
"I understand. Apparently a large 'shadow with a red feathered helmet' brought him to the hospital. How about I drive you over, before the reporters catch you?"
"While I appreciate the sentiment," Jinwoo says, slowly turning invisible to the agent like grains of sand in the wind, "I think I'll be alright on my own."
With that, the hunter disappears from sight.
Surprised, Jinchul just stares where the man had been seconds before before letting out a little laugh. "Full of surprises, aren't you, Hunter Sung?"
For the first five days of Jinho's treatment, Jinwoo is banned from seeing him. It doesn't stop the hunter from sneaking into his room and checking on him, or assigning a team of infantry to hide in nearby shadows. Yet… The guilt of knowing this was due to him… He understood why Jinho's family was barring him from seeing the young man.
I'm not strong enough. I need to be able to protect those I care about… I need… Jinwoo grunts as he finishes his last rep of push ups for the daily quest. I need to get stronger!
That fight with Hwang Dongsoo was no joke— If the man had been more focused, Jinwoo has a feeling he'd only scratched the surface with the man's power. If Hwang could control his temper, he'd be a force to be reckoned with. As it were, Jinwoo was lucky he hadn't been squashed by the collapsing building or killed in action.
"Where are you going? I thought you said that Yoo Jinho was still hospitalized, which means you aren't doing any raids…"
"I'm going on a small trip." He says to Jinah, patting her head. He's packed lightly, but a bag hangs off one shoulder. "There's some money on the table for groceries. Don't go crazy, and make sure you go to school on time."
"Ah? Seriously? Do you ever take a break? First it was dungeons and now it's travel? I wanna go too!"
"Next time." Jinwoo smiles, before slipping on his shoes.
"Wait!" Jinah cries out as he opens the door. A sudden weight on his back alerts him of his younger sister grabbing him from behind. "I just… You seem so busy lately with all these gates and stuff… I just… I'm worried about you. Don't go doing something stupid."
It was the closest that Jinah would get to saying 'be safe, i love you' but it warmed his heart either way.
"I'll be fine, just stick to your books like the good kid I know you are." Jinwoo smiles, turning to hug her back. "And I'm not going far, just to the next city. I'll be back in a week."
"Ugh! Fine!" Jinah grumbles, struggling to get away from her brother who savours the hug a little longer. "Get off!"
That's more like it. Jinwoo chuckles before pulling away and closing the door behind him. Now that Jinah was taken care of, with four infantry lurking in the shadows of the apartment; Jinwoo was able to leave without worry.
He walks down to his destination, Daesung tower, and pulls out a key from his inventory.
[Key to the Castle of the Devil]
[Item Rank: S]
[Item Type: Key]
[The user can use this key at Daesung tower in Songpa District to enter the Dungeon: Castle of the Devil]
[Rewards for completing Instance Dungeon: Holy Water of Life]
"Huh? What's this…?" He asks himself while looking at the key's stats. Holy Water of Life? His screen changes in front of Jinwoo, making his face glow with it's ominous blue light. "… Can cure any…" His eyes widen and he looks back to his previous screen.
[Rewards: Holy Water of Life]
[Item Rank: ??]
[Item Type: Consumable]
[A mysterious potion that can cure any disease with powerful magic. The effect will only take place when the entire bottle has been consumed.]
[Ingredients: ??, ??, ??]
Any disease? He asks himself. As in… Eternal Sleep? Could he… Could he really— Revive his mother?!
Although it's been years since there was a time when he'd hoped she would… A sliver of desperation of seeing his mother awake again strikes a chord through him. If not for him then… Jinah…
He had to do this. If he could pass through this dungeon— Then—
Jinwoo holds up the key to the air, turning it in the lock that fabricates out of nowhere. "Maybe I can level up too…" The gate that opens, the System ranks it S… "Which means… This is probably going to be harder than it looks…" He mutters, but the promise of such a precious reward… Well—
He'd be an idiot not to take the bait, right?
Jinwoo steps into the portal that has opened, the world washing away into a fiery hellscape. It was still downtown Seoul— Except it wasn't. There was rubble of buildings he'd passed on his way to Daesung Tower which was lit with a blaze of hellfire. Chains clinked and swayed with the ominous breeze, hanging from buildings and towers as if someone had chained them to the ground. There was fire everywhere, as if he'd entered hell itself.
Worst of all?
A loud roar comes from up ahead, guarding a large iron gate… A giant canine-like beast with three heads that snapping their teeth in warning at Jinwoo. It guards the entrance to Daesung Tower, it's name glowing in red over it's three snarling faces.
[Hell's Gatekeeper Cerberus]
Each of the canine's faces was different, but had protruding horns that looked sharp as hell. The far right had a mane of brown fur and a mask that protected the majority of it's snarling face, glowing red eyes watching him with the trepidation of a wild animal. The far left and middle heads had manes of fiery orange flames, pronounced fangs dripping with saliva as it rears back to make itself as large as possible against Jinwoo. The beast had to be at least a quarter of the size of Daesung Tower, it's growl alone making the ground shake.
"You're strong." Jinwoo acknowledges, pulling Kasaka's Venom Fang and Knight Killer from his inventory. "But," He begins to approach the beast with determination, "I am not going to die here!" He yells.
The beast rushes him, faster than fast— On par with how fast Kang Taeshik was. It takes Jinwoo's dash ability to barely escape being thrown through a building.
"How's the arm?" Asks Go Gunhee, as he offers his chief of management a cup of coffee.
"It's alright." Woo Jinchul sighs, wiggling his fingers a little. He felt ridiculous, a top tier A-rank like him with a cast… Absolutely ridiculous. "I should've let them heal me sooner, I didn't realize the bone had broken until it was past the wait time." He says with a sigh.
"I'm just glad you were able to stop them, quite impressive." Go Gunhee hums, looking out the window. It was past nightfall now, and the lights of Seoul reflected back in their faces. The two were watching the horizon, a small niggling bit of anxiety between the two.
There had been a reason Woo Jinchul had been at the White Tiger's Guild right before the fight between hunter Sung and hunter Hwang had broken out. He'd been speaking with Baek Yoonho about…
"They should have reached Jeju Island by now…"
"Mn." Woo Jinchul agrees with a small hum. The forbidden territory... A place that no one had stepped foot in at least three years… Some of the S-ranks had left some things unfinished on that island. It was understandable why people like hunter Choi Jung-In were determined to finish it once and for all. "I believe they were scheduled to make landfall at 1:00 AM." He says, recalling the documents he'd handed to Baek Yoonho six days previously.
In the back of his mind, despite the many very important things that he should be focused on… Woo Jinchul couldn't help the way he kept replaying that night. Sung Jinwoo… He'd never seen someone who was usually so level headed explode like that— To think that Hwang had gotten into his head like that so easily…
S-ranks really were scary…
"What's on your mind?" Go Gunhee asks, leading them away from the large windows in his office and over to the couch.
Woo Jinchul tries to ignore the uncomfortable ache in his arm as he shifts his weight to sit down at the chairman's insistence. "Not much, I just hope we get good news…" He says softly, sipping his drink.
"They agreed to refrain from any fighting, it's strictly for recon. I can't imagine we will have any issues."
"Still…" Something about this entire thing felt bad. And considering hunter Sung was still under investigation by the Hunter's Association for his fight with Hwang, he hadn't been contacted about this secret mission to Jeju. "I feel as if… Something is missing." Jinchul says slowly.
"I see. And what does hunter Woo think that might be?" Go Gunhee asks, smiling like he knows something that Jinchul doesn't. Hell, he probably does.
"I'm not sure. Perhaps it's just my own worries."
"The Jeju Island dungeon break was after I'd stepped down," Go Gunhee says, tracing the lid of his coffee. "Were you involved in that raid, at all? I've read reports but…"
"I was on perimeter," Woo Jinchul murmurs, thinking back to that dark day in his past. They'd lost so many good hunters that day… For even the S-ranks to be forced to pull out… "It was… There were a lot of good men and women lost that day."
"I see. Any insight to what may have changed?"
Woo Jinchul gazes at the chairman for a long moment before looking back down to his arm which was hanging in a blue sling. "Nothing good."
"AGH!" Jinwoo gasps as he's launched through a series of buildings with a force that could rival most of the monsters he'd fought until now. It felt like the fight with Igris all over again.
Except… Igris couldn't help him now. Ever since entering this dungeon, he'd had a floating notification from the System ominously lurking in his peripheral.
[Not enough shadows to foster army]
The fuck did that mean, you might ask? It apparently meant that the fires in here were not casting shadows at all, burning so bright like the sun that there was no where for his shadows to spawn in. He couldn't summon them at all!
[You have levelled up!]
If it weren't for the recovery after levelling up, he wouldn't have survived this long. Even his potions weren't making a dent in his health bar.
"So… Strong…" He coughs weakly, squinting as blood drips down his face and into his eyes. he wipes it off quickly, dashing from where he fell just in time to dodge another powerful swing of Cerberus' armored tail.
He has to get closer, dodging his attacks won't help him here if he can't kill the beast! Determined to end the fight, Jinwoo uses his stealth to vanish from sight.
In the moments he has, he jumps up onto the ledge of a levelled building and tries to figure out how to approach the monster. It was fast, for something so large, it shouldn't be possible.
Cerberus sniffs the air in three different directions, growling as it stomps past his hiding place, behind a large slab of concrete. Not to mention, the heat in this dungeon was unreal, making it difficult to grasp his daggers with his sweaty hands.
Suddenly the dungeon goes quiet. No stomping paws approaching him, no growling, no crackling flames. Jinwoo looks over his little shield of concrete and flinches, unable to dart away in time—
Cerberus! He was—
"FUCK!" Jinwoo cries out ducking as one of the behemoth's mouths tries to bite him. This thing can see through his stealth ability?!
He was so screwed!