Vulcan

Jin-Woo, Izayoi and Gil were raiding, one floor at a time for quite some time. To travel to the other floor they needed a permit but, Gil being the genius magician he is overwrote the codes in the magical circle to travel without a permit.

They were now on the 51st floor.

Jin-Woo's sight shifted towards the pillar of light. More specifically, a short distance in front of that pillar.

And a massive demon, plus scores of high-ranked demons, were standing there, waiting.

Jin-Woo raised his sight up higher.

And he could see the giant demon's name, floating in the air in a deep crimson hue.

[The Sovereign of the Lower Floors, The Avaricious Vulcan]

That thing consisted of a huge mess of fatty flesh that must've weighed dozens of tons. No, maybe even several hundred, instead. And then, the massive club this thing was holding in hand looked rather horrifying as well.

Izayoi: "So this is the boss...huh."

Gil: "Heard that these guys have some fine weapons."

Izayoi didn't wait and went straight to fight the boss.

Jin-Woo: "That idiot!"

The guards spotted Izayoi but they were too slow to stop him.

operation.

[The Sovereign of the Lower Floors, the Avaricious Vulcan has discovered the intruder!]

[Vulcan's loyal guard has discovered….]

[Vulcan's loyal guard has discovered….]

Izayoi jumped and kicked Vulcan right on his face. The sheer force of the attack could destroy mountains.

Gil: "Gate of Babylon."

He decided to take care of the guards. Jin-Woo was carefully observing the fight, he was trying to figure out Izayoi abilities, he was definitely not a normal fighter class.

The system gave him another notification.

[The Sovereign of the Lower Floors, the Avaricious Vulcan, has activated 'Skill: Rage'.]

'Uh??'

Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring.

The warning chime went in his head one after the other.

[The 'Rage' state will be continuously maintained.]

[All of Vulcan's Stats will be increased by 50%.]

[Vulcan will feel less pain.]

Vulcan slammed his large wooden club on Izayoi, the attack caused Izayoi to flew far away, but he didn't do any damage.

When the distance between Vulcan and Izayoi closed up, the giant demon lifted its club high up in the air behind it.

To squash this bug-like creature!

Finally, the chance to crush this annoying pest once and for all was here!

A disgusting smile formed on Vulcan's face.

And so, as the club came down with a whoosh…

The insect-like creature suddenly sped up and ran up on the outer wall of the destroyed building.

"M-mm??"

Something felt wrong here, but it was too late for the demon to slow down the descent of the club.

"M-mm?? M-mm??"

In an instant, the insect had run up high enough to be at the demon's eye line, before he powerfully kicked the wall.

Crack!

As the spiderweb-like cracks spread on the wall, something shot towards this demon with never-before-seen speed.

It was none other than that insect.

"M-mm!!"

Vulcan's eyes grew wider.

A smile spread on Izayoi's face as he looked into those large eyes.

A whip-like kick right on the neck.

From the blood vessel as thick as a grown man, blood spurted out like an overflowing fountain.

"M-mm?! M-mm!!"

Vulcan hurriedly discarded the club and tried to stem the loss of blood with both of its hands.

"M-mm!!"

Unfortunately, it was insufficient to block the overflowing of blood.

At that moment, there was a visible tremor shaking Vulcan's eyes.

"M, m-mm??"

Before it had the time to notice it, Jin-Woo had climbed up the demon's back, and buried the blades of his daggers deeply into that thick neck.

'I guess, once isn't enough, huh?'

Arang.

Arang is an elbow smash performed on the opponent that sends a shockwave through them.

The attack destroyed the boss's interior organs, killing him one and for all.

Jin-Woo and Gil approached him to see the item dropped.

[You have discovered 'Item: Demon Sovereign's Earrings.' Will you take it?]

[You have discovered 'Item: Bead of Avarice'. Will you take it?]

[You have discovered 'Item: Vulcan's Horns' x2. Will you take it?]

[You have discovered 'Material Item: Fragment of the World Tree'. Will you take it?]

Gil was not interested in this loot so Jin-Woo took it. He kept Fragment of World Tree and sold the rest.

[Item: Demon Sovereign's Earrings]

Rarity: S

Type: Accessory

Endurance +20, Stamina +20

When worn together with 'Demon Sovereign's Necklace' and 'Demon Sovereign's Ring', set bonuses will be unlocked.

Set bonus effect 1. (locked)

Set bonus effect 2. (locked)

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In the middle of a sunny afternoon.

"The young man from the apartment 902, you say?"

An auntie tilted her head and replied a short while later.

"Hmm, I'm not sure. I haven't seen him lately."

"Ah, is that so? Thank you for your help."

Hyun Ki-Cheol lowered his head and said thanks.

It had been four days since he began waiting for Hunter Seong Jin-Woo near the youth's old apartment building. However, he hadn't run into his target until now.

At this point, Hyun Ki-Cheol was beginning to feel that making veggie juice every morning was a bit of waste now. He let out a helpless sigh and pulled his phone out.

Ring…. ring….

Shortly afterwards, the recipient answered the call.

"I'm here, Ki-Cheol."

"Section Chief."

The recipient was, of course, Section Chief Ah Sahng-Min.

"Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim is nowhere to be seen. Residents of the building say they haven't seen him lately, either."

"Really?"

"Yes, sir."

"It can't be helped, then. From tomorrow onwards, come back to the office."

"Understood."

Click.

Ahn Sahng-Min ended the call and tilted his head.

Just where did Hunter Seong Jin-Woo go to?

No one could contact him for the past few days now. Wondering if he was avoiding phone calls for the time being, Ahn Sahng-Min had dispatched Hyun Ki-Cheol over to where Seong Jin-Woo lived, but the news wasn't good. No one had seen the young Hunter for a while.

Ahn Sahng-Min couldn't help but wonder if something had strange happened.

'I can't figure out why I should be worried about him, though.'

In any case, this kind of felt rather weird to him.

Tap, tap.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder, and when he turned around to look, he found Hunter Park Hui-Jin standing to his side. She opened her mouth first.

"Apparently, he told his little sister that he'd be going on a trip with his friend for a week or so."

"You mean, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim said that?"

"Yes."

"In that case… he's probably not on Earth anymore."

"Pardon?"

Park Hui-Jin's eyes opened wide. Ahn Sahng-Min quickly explained himself.

"We haven't found any evidence of him going overseas. And there is no record of him drawing money from his bank or using his credit card, either."

"You can even find out things like that?"

"Well, it's our job to follow around various Hunters, after all."

"….Oh, my god."

"Anyways. On top of this, according to the Association's last known location records, the communication with his phone was cut off in the middle of the city, as well. And that happened about five days ago. Doesn't all this sound too mysterious to you?"

"He couldn't have been kidnapped, right?"

Park Hui-Jin inadvertently voiced her worry in the ensuing confusion. However, the gazes of the two people soon met, and they began chuckling almost at the same time. It was hard to tell who started first.

Seriously now. Just who was Seong Jin-Woo?

He was none other than a Hunter who soloed a high-ranking dungeon. Not only that, a Red Gate, to boot.

Ahn Sahng-Min scratched his cheek and spoke up.

"If you want to kidnap Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim, well, you'd need at least the rumoured Chinese special forces to show up. You know, the one supposedly made up entirely of high-ranking Hunters."

Park Hui-Jin nodded her head in agreement.

Ahn Sahng-Min continued to grin, but then, found something rather odd and asked her.

"By the way, how did you find out about him going on a trip?"

"Ah, that. It's from Hahn Song-Yi. I talk to her often, you see. She goes to the same school with Mister Seong Jin-Woo's little sister, so I asked her for a favour."

"Aha…."

With Ahn Sahng-Min's reply, their conversation came to an abrupt end.

And then, they began thinking about the exact same thing.

'Just where did that guy disappear to?'