Antlion Pit (2)

Waiting outside the mansion had paid off. Shadow had already been on the move from the moment that unfamiliar, distinctive face emerged. They had tailed him and witnessed him preparing to enter a B-rank gate.

The demon gate in Incheon. Its difficulty score was 80. He was about to enter alone, even though B-rank awakeners went there in groups. That must have been how confident he was.

'Kim Minwoo...'

Han Baekgil narrowed his eyes.

They had followed him this far without a single obstacle. If they went in now, their intrusion would go just as smoothly. That was precisely what made him suspicious.

It was easy. Far too easy.

'One of two things.'

Either he was so carefree that the possibility of intruders hadn't even crossed his mind, or...

'He arranged this deliberately.'

Han Baekgil looked around. From Number One to Number Seven, everyone's eyes were gleaming.

"Boss. We're going in, right?"

They had been prepared to sacrifice at least half their number to kill Kim Minwoo. Yet things had worked out unbelievably well.

Entering a gate in disguise? He might as well have been advertising himself as prey. Who knew when another opportunity like this would come? Naturally, they were getting impatient. Even Han Baekgil, for all his suspicions, felt the same.

So, would they stay outside?

No. In the end, they had no choice but to enter. Hadn't they already decided to kill him? Backing down now would be the worst possible move.

"... The moment he enters, we follow."

Everyone nodded. The assassins used their stealth skills, while the others concealed themselves with magic or items from the treasury.

They approached the gate. Two B-rank awakeners and one A-rank awakener guarded the entrance, but that meant nothing.

[Using Sensory Disruption (S)!]

[Using Dream Breath (S)!]

[Using Comforting Oblivion (S)!]

Under the barrage of skills from the S-rank awakeners, the guards' senses were disrupted, their memories erased, and their eyes glazed over. In an instant, they became like wooden puppets. It would take them several minutes to come to their senses, after which they would resume their watch without noticing anything amiss.

The nearby soldiers were just as helpless.

[You are in a party!]

[Han Baekgil and 18 others are entering the B-rank gate, Demon's Castle!]

[You are intruding!]

[All party members will be scattered!]

They could enter as a party, but intruding came with a penalty. Everyone was scattered to a different location.

That didn't matter. Han Baekgil took out a crystal orb.

[The 'Eye of Darkness' displays your party members' locations!]

A Special-grade item. It was one of the items he had received through prayer in the past. Nor was Han Baekgil the only one who had one. All nineteen of the other party members possessed one too.

The ability to locate party members even inside a gate made it extraordinarily useful, especially during an intrusion like this.

More impressive still, it didn't simply display their locations. It could also mark key party members in different colors.

Han Baekgil was pitch-black. Numbers One through Seven, along with the two S-rank reinforcements, were red. The remaining trainees were blue.

Multicolored lights filled the crystal orb. Shadow's members had already agreed on the plan: regroup around Han Baekgil.

Before long, they began joining him one by one.

Then one of the blue lights on the crystal orb winked out.

'... Dead?'

An extinguished light meant death. One of the trainees had suddenly been killed.

Then another winked out. And another. And another. And another.

The blue lights farther away began going dark in rapid succession. With each one lost, the remaining lights moved faster.

Those who had hurried to regroup stared blankly at the crystal orb.

"Goddamn it."

"How the hell is he that fast?"

"This bastard's a complete monster."

The awakeners sent from Japan and China wore equally grim expressions. They knew about Kim Minwoo too. He had pulled enough audacious stunts to make a name for himself overseas.

Even so, they hadn't expected this hunt to be particularly difficult. If anything, they had thought the Korean branch was making far too much of a fuss.

The Korean branch alone had sent no fewer than eight S-rank awakeners on this hunt. Thanks to their rapid leveling, their levels were far higher than those of ordinary S-rankers, too.

Meanwhile, even a generous estimate would put Kim Minwoo at around level 200. Levels were the foundation of combat. It was hardly strange that they had thought the Koreans were overreacting to a fight they should win overwhelmingly.

But now...

'Damn it.'

'This won't be easy.'

Five trainees had died to a single man. Those trainees had even been equipped with stealth items.

'Wait, isn't he supposed to be a necromancer?'

What on earth was he using to slaughter all those concealed trainees?

Even an A-rank awakener who could have made quite a name for themselves outside had died in mere seconds. Even accounting for the small size of Demon's Castle, the speed was absurd.

Only after six trainees had died did everyone finally manage to regroup.

Nineteen had become thirteen. A huge portion of their force had died before they could even get started.

"... We'll kill him. No matter what."

Han Baekgil spoke through clenched teeth. The atmosphere grew oppressive. Utterly serious now, the group set off in search of Kim Minwoo.

* * *

He had killed six of the bastards sneaking around in hiding.

Land of Death. The skill was practically the natural enemy of anyone using stealth. Ordinarily, taking damage broke stealth. Even S-rank stealth was no different. It merely withstood more damage before breaking.

And Land of Death? It dealt area damage over an enormous radius.

This gate was small to begin with. As soon as he summoned his skeletons, he spread them out in every direction and activated Land of Death. Each use caught two or three of the bastards.

Of course, it also caught the demonic monsters inhabiting the gate.

[The effect of 'He Who Took Balkan's Eye' activates!]

[The demons feel an overwhelming sense of intimidation!]

[They dare not attack!]

Apparently, the trickle of damage wasn't enough to overcome their fear. Rather than attack, they fled in every direction. Even dealing far more damage might not be enough to make them fight back.

Besides his countless skeletons, Kim Minwoo had another scout: Snowy.

The clever little bird was not only fast and stealthy, but intelligent enough for them to exchange signals. Finding prey took no time at all.

Then Merhen took over. When he asked whether she had any magic that could hold enemies in place, she created some on the spot.

[Underwater Prison (S) activates!]

[Earth's Binding (S) activates!]

The fleeing enemies had their feet trapped in sunken ground and thrashed inside water prisons that formed in midair. As B- to A-rank awakeners, they didn't die to a single spell. They managed to buy some time by using their skills and struggling desperately.

'Not that it helped.'

Once Cedric and Minwoo reached them, it was game over. Their flawless coordination saw heads severed before their enemies could exchange even ten blows. Each kill earned him at least one level.

The experience was staggering.

Thanks to that, he was now level 188. That brief hunt had earned him a full eight levels. He would have needed to kill far more monsters to gain the same amount.

After hunting for a while, he entered a reception room inside the castle. He killed every demon within and closed the door.

'This is why I like Demon's Castle.'

The map had "castle" right in its name. Naturally, a castle had plenty of rooms. Unlike a wide-open plain, the layout offered little risk of being surrounded and made surprise attacks difficult. Once you shut yourself inside a room, assassins had no way to sneak in.

This reception room in particular was practically a completely clear space, without so much as a window.

'The front door is the only entrance.'

To get in, they would have to smash the door down or turn the handle and open it. Assassins didn't have teleportation skills that let them pass through walls.

Mages did, but teleporting through the door all alone would be tantamount to asking to be killed.

'Usually, they just open the door.'

Seven reception rooms spawned inside the castle. If they smashed every door just because it might be dangerous, they would soon run short of mana. The doors were quite sturdy.

He figured Han Baekgil's group would probably open the door and check inside too.

'Just four left now.'

He recalled the condition for activating the hidden piece: one person had to kill ten people in total. It could be easy or difficult, depending on how you looked at it. Under ordinary circumstances, though, it was hard to trigger.

'This hidden piece was still here years later.'

For starters, this was a B-rank gate. The awakeners entering it were high-caliber veterans with extensive experience. Since solo play had its limits, the vast majority operated in guilds or social groups.

In other words, this gate attracted groups of seasoned awakeners who worked well together. Even an S-rank assassin would find it extremely risky to intrude alone.

They would need to work in pairs or trios, but then they generally couldn't get ten kills, since they would split the kills between them.

And if someone tried betraying their own party inside...

'The investigation would catch them.'

Getting ten kills usually meant killing everyone else and emerging as the sole survivor. Would anyone believe they had simply been lucky enough to survive alone?

Awakeners weren't that gullible. Naturally, there would be an investigation. With so many classes in Gate Hunter, there were awakeners with all sorts of skills. Keep investigating, and the culprit would eventually be caught.

And once caught?

Their life was over.

They might be an unstoppable warrior inside the gate, but the world outside was vast. By B-rank, almost no one was willing to gamble their whole life on one big score. That was why this condition had remained unfulfilled for so long.

'I didn't know the activation condition either.'

He had been completely unaware of it until he slaughtered all the assassins who entered this place. He had only learned the condition after stumbling upon it by chance.

Killing all thirteen remaining enemies might be another matter, but killing four of them?

'Easy.'

Especially if weaklings like the ones he had killed earlier were scattered among them. That would make it much easier.

After drinking a bottle of mana potion, he looked at Merhen and Cedric.

"Get ready."

The two legion commanders nodded. Dolsoe, the skeletons, and the specter unit had long since finished preparing for battle.

[Merhen begins commanding all mages!]

[One hundred mages attempt 'Magic Circle Construction'!]

[Success!]

[A medium-sized magic circle has been completed!]

[Four hundred mages begin channeling 'Corpse Explosion' into the magic circle!]

[Merhen begins gathering mana!]

He had scattered demon corpses all around the doorway. The instant the door opened and they showed their faces, they would start things off with a slap in the face.

Soon enough...

CREEEAK.

The reception room door opened.

Only one awakener was visible through the open doorway. Apparently, they had picked a sacrificial pawn to open the door.

A pointless effort. He had already anticipated that much.

[Casting Land of Death (S)!]

[All allied undead's stats increase by 20%!]

[Merhen uses Cyclone (SS)!]

Have a taste of SS-rank magic.

A tremendous wind began raging outside the door.

WHOOOOSH!

In an instant, the doorway was sucking everything in like a vacuum cleaner.