42 Chapter 33: The Big Week & Prelude to the Beginning of the End

A/N :

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

[ ] : System, Akasha, Minerva,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

« » : Artificial Intelligence,

| | : Sung Jin-Woo's System Panels, Sung Jin-Woo's System Messages,

"Bold text" : Shadows & Deathborns.

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Narrator POV

After Sung Jin-Woo's entry into the Demon Castle, Dante quickly rushed to Park Kyung-Hye and Sung Jin-Ah, telling them that Jin-Woo wanted to stay and train with him and Shiraori. When asked about Sung Jin-Woo contacting them, he told them that he had given Sung Jin-Woo a new phone after Jin-Woo lost the old one to a monster's attack.

After giving them that bit of reassurance, he left them, but not without putting some of his deathborns in their shadows. At this point, Dante had already begun implementing the plan to keep the National Rank Hunters safe. Teleporting around the world, he placed one deathborn in each National Rank Hunter's shadow, but he also went for another person thay he hadn't told Sung Jin-Woo, Sung Il-Hwan or Go Gun-Hee about.

...

In a penthouse in Los Angeles, an African American woman was sipping on a cup of coffee while wearing a silk robe. She turned to face her shadow, almost as if there was something there. The woman, Norma Selner, had no idea that she would be experiencing one of the most important days of her life today. She wasn't the only one for whom this day would be important, as in South Korea, Yu Jin-Ho was going to make a life changing decision.

...

Yu Jin-Ho had gotten a considerable amount of free time, as with Aurora's aid, he completed the paperwork before 4pm. Steeling himself, he decided to set up a meeting with his father, Yu Myung-Han, owner of the highly successful Yujin Construction & Yujin Guild.

He called his father and set up the meeting in a luxurious restaurant, where he waited for him to come. About 30 minutes passed before Yu Myung-Han arrived. After he had settled down , he asked his son for the reason for the meeting, and Yu Jin-Ho swallowed a mouthful of saliva before speaking.

"Father. Before we begin, I want to show you this." Yu Jin-Ho said as he slid him his Guild Master license as well as the records for all the raids he had been on with Sung Jin-Woo. Looking at the items, Yu Myung-Han formed a frown and asked Yu Jin-Ho why he would bring up his status as a guild master when he had been granted the rights to the Yujin Guild in all but an official handover.

Yu Jin-Ho stayed quiet as he contemplated telling his father the news he had brought. Taking a deep breath, Yu Jin-Ho told his father news that would forever change his involvement with the family. "Father, I don't want to become the guild master fro the Yujin Guild anymore."

Hearing this, Yu Myung-Han was rightfully surprised. He had explicitly told his youngest son that he had no issues with him taking leadership of the guild that he owned, and his son accepted, only for him to suddenly call for a meeting to tell him that he doesn't want to take leadership of the guild.

Choosing to remain rational, Yu Myung-Han let out a breath. "I see. So what exactly brought this on? I don't expect that the pressure of leadership is what would cause this now, would it?" He asked.

"It's because I will continue to face the opposition from my brother and sisters that have an interest in inheriting the legacy you have built." Yu Jin-Ho said in what his father could only see as a moment of unabated clarity.

"And, I've been given the opportunity to become the leader of another guild, one that may very well become the top guild in the world within the year." Hearing his son's words, Yu Myung-Han looked at Yu Jin-Ho with blatant skepticism.

"And why, or rather, how do you believe that such a thing would come to be?" He asked, slightly interested in what was so special about a guild that his son would make such a claim.

"It's a guild that will have Jin-Woo-hyung, Dante and Shiraori as its members."

Hearing his son's claim, he nodded for a short few seconds, until it hit him. His son was talking about the three newest S Rank Hunters that Korea had gotten, that have shown great capability as well as prominence, clearing multiple dungeons a day, without any wounds coming to their fellow Hunters, let alone casualties.

And more than anything else, he looked at his son with a tinge of jealousy, as he had tried to get a business deal with Dante and Shiraori in hopes that he could build an amicable relationship with them. Of course, getting some money on the side never hurt.

"Ah, I see." Yu Myung-Han said and let out a breath, his body relaxed, releasing tension that he didn't know he had. "Then, I wish you success in your endeavors, my son." He said with a significantly relaxed voice, when compared to when he came in.

"Thank you, father."Yu Jin-Ho said as he got up, took his guild master license and his dungeon raid record and left his father in silence with his thoughts.

Dante POV

'Well, that's gonna be on his mind for a while.' I think to myself as I move my sights away from the meeting that Yu Jin-Ho and his father had 3 days ago.

Yep, it's been 3 days since Jin-Woo went into the Demon Castle, and in that time, I've been working out the capabilities of my authorities. Since my authorities span the entire omniverse, it also means that my options for power have increased in both variety and quality.

For example, my Combat Overlord authority has made it extremely easy for me to master fighting styles that I have even a bit of surface knowledge on, and that's without the boost from my Overlord of Mastery. My Dragon Overlord authority has also given me a few more dragon skills, like Dragon's Fear, and Dragon Eye which was taken by my Oculus Overlord authority.

[Dragon's Fear (Active) LV MAX]:

[Release a powerful, energy-infused roar from your soul that puts all those weaker than you in a perilous panic.

Causes Status Effect: Terror in all those affected.

Causes Status Effect: Confusion in all those affected.

Causes Status Effect: Disruption in all those affected.]

[Dragon Eye (Passive& Active) LV MAX]:

[The eyes of a dragon are never to be judged by mortal minds.

The ability held by dragons to visually dissect any bring they see by merely looking at them, allowing them to see all physical and spiritual qualities, as well as the capabilities and personalities of any they choose to observe.]

My Eldritch Overlord authority made me more sensitive to the other Eldritch beings and Outer Gods that exist. I even gave a wave to Shub Niggurath and her kids. Yog Sothoth also looked at me with some interest before backing away.

The Mystical Overlord authority made me to not only have the ability to use all forms of energy, it also made me able to master whatever power system existed for those energies.

The one that did give me a bit more interest than the others, was my Oculus Overlord authority, which not only improved the power of all the eye related abilities I had. It also allowed me to access other ocular abilities from around the omniverse.

So the Dōjutsu from the Narutoverse, the Mystic Eyes from the Nasuverse, the All-seeing Eyes from Kekkai Sensen(Blood Blockade Battlefront), the Alpha Stigma eyes from Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu(The Legend of Legendary Heroes), the Six Eyes that Gojo Satoru has, and even the myriad of reality breaking eyes from IMITA were accessible to me.

Most of my authorities allowed me to just pick out abilities from another universe without me even being present in that universe, same for any multiverse or anything similar out there. It was crazy.

But leaving the absurdity that is my authorities, I've been spending some time with Shiro and our babies, and I'll be honest, lazing about is fun. Sometimes I make a miniature sun and we just stay there and bask in the warmth.

And speaking about the babies, some of them chose to migrate to New Sariella, where Sariel now rules, with Ariel as the princess, and another group chose to migrate to Sanguinus, Sophia and Merazophis' domain in the northern mountains, where they rule the vampires that Sophia made while we were in the Demon Realm. It's also been a good way for us to catch up with them, ever since we left their world.

From what I remember, Wrath has become the commander of the Imperial Army that Balto, who is now the ruling Demon Emperor, had set up. Huey has trained to become the most powerful magic user on the planet, that isn't Ariel, Sophia, Sariel or Güliedizstodiez, becoming the Empire's head magician.

Most of the commanders from the war have taken up new positions as nobles, with Agner being the Archduke of the current Demon Empire, and 3 Duke level nobles, Bloe being the only Duke, while Sanatoria and Phelmina are Duchesses.

And all this only in 5 months. Well, then again, they're all pretty powerful when compared to most humans here, not to mention the presence of two beings that would count as deities to the rest of them. So seeing that degree of activity and progress isn't so farfetched.

As for the guild, it's successfully been established, and we've put up our conditions to the Association; that Shiro, Jin-Woo and I would hunt solo. There was no argument over me and Shiro, but they were, how do I say it, reluctant to allow the same for Jin-Woo.

Of course, with a bit of persuasion (read Intimidation) from me and Gun-Hee, as well as a quick showcase of Jin-Woo's abilities, courtesy of yours truly, they shut up and gave us all our full raiding rights.

This didn't mean that we couldn't join other raids, it just meant that we could choose to go on raids by ourselves with no hassle. We could also make our raids as warning signals for other Hunters to stay away from certain dungeons. The irony would totally floor Jin-Woo.

Moving past the guild drama, Jin-Woo has gotten far past the 50th floor of the Demon Castle, with Vulcan's death being some floors behind him. Compared to the original timeline, the battle was finished a lot quicker.

With Shūndō, Jin-Woo was able to move with increased momentum at all times, so he just used it to increase the power of his slashes as he cut Vulcan down to size by zooming around like a Beyblade in a pinball machine.

As for his shadows, they've been leveling up from killing the other demons, and Iron has picked up Igris' bad habit of presenting the heads of dead foes to Jin-Woo. Baruka however, hasn't gotten rid of his tendencies as one of the Snow Folk, as he tortures some of the demons before killing them.

Tank has taken quite well to his role as a battle steed, and has been pretty good at bashing and clawing through hordes of demons. He's also got a penchant for biting off the heads of smaller demons and playing with them before he eventually squashes them.

If I had to make an estimate based on Maera(pronounced meh-rah), the world we were born in, then the weakest of Jin-Woo's shadows is about as strong as your average Gunesohka. Which isn't all that strong, but when compared to other normal monsters that aren't at the peak of A Rank or above, they're all pretty strong.

Onto more urgent news, the ants from Jeju Island have successfully reached Asia's mainland, specifically Japan. In other words, the beginning of the end is nearby, as the day that the dungeon on Jeju Island is conquered will mark the commencement of the Monarchs' actions to subdue humanity.

But since I've not only brought back Il-Hwan, but also made Jin-Woo stronger and given all Hunters better chances to escape death, they'll have a lot more than some flimsy obstruction to their plans.

And speaking of which, it's about time I began spreading the potions around the world. Since practically every country knows of the dangers that their Hunters face every single time they go into dungeons, the only way that they'd reject an olive branch such as my potions is if their leaders are absolutely braindead.

And I'm not even going to make the potions that expensive, they'll only be $500 a pop, or the equivalent price in other currencies. Which given the average earnings of Hunters, even E Ranks, was a lot easier to get than it seemed.

Looking to my right, I set my sights on Japan, specifically their leaders and S Ranks. I can hear their foolish plans to force Korea to rely on them by letting Korea's S Ranks die to the ants, then killing the ants afterward. "Seriously, if you're going to try and fuck and entire country over, at least use the brains you were given." I say with a disappointed voice.

Sung Jin-Woo POV

Five days have passed since I came into this hellscape called the Demons Castle, and I've made considerable progress. Right now, I'm at level 79 and I've gotten to the 80th floor.

I had said that I'd stay here for a week, but I guess I might have underestimated myself a bit too much. The 50th floor boos, Avaricious Vulcan, was kind of easy to beat, since I only punched him and took away a good chunk of its health. When it went into its rage state, I used Shūndō to move faster than it could ever hope to be and slashed it all over its body, until it eventually died.

As for the 75th floor boss, Metus, he was even easier as I and my army had grown even stronger than when we faced Vulcan, so we just bulldozed him and his undead. I did get some loot from both of them, but I also found out something that was pretty disappointing; I couldn't raise them. To be exact, I can't raise demons because, their mana, as the system says, is contaminated, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.

I'd also completed the quest and gotten some pretty good rewards. There were the 20 bonus stats, the item of my choosing from the system shop and a so called hidden reward.

I invested all 20 points into Intelligence, boosting my mana and my information processing speed. For the item, I chose a Cursed Random Box, mainly out of curiosity. But the item I got from it was strange, to say the least. It looks like a key, but it has absolutely no description on it. Maybe I'll ask Dante to help me analyze it when I get back.

As for the hidden reward, it was something that was pretty good. It was a crafting recipe for a potion called the Spring of Might. If the description of the potion is correct, then it's meant to increase all stats by a staggering 20 points. It might not be as impressive as the results of Dante's training, but it's still the same as levelling up 20 whole times.

Getting up from the floor after downing one of the Stimulants that Dante gave me as part of my supplies, I use the gate entry permit to go to the next floor. Despite the growth that I and my shadows have gone through, the higher floors are proving why they're where they are.

...

Despite spending 2 whole days hunting down demons, we were only able to clear up to the 87th floor. But this was because my shadows still need to get stronger, before they can properly support me in battles with truly powerful enemies.

And besides, I said I was only going to spend a week away, so despite the fact that I could actually keep going, I made the decision to return home today. "I wonder how the guild's doing. I guess I'll check it out first." I say to myself as I walk through the Gate.

Narrator POV

While Japan and Korea's S Ranks were preparing for the inevitable raid on the Jeju Island dungeon, a particular S Rank Hunter in America was in a rage.

Hwang Dong-Su was livid. His brother had been killed about 6 weeks ago and he had tried to get to one of the culprits. Not because of some brotherly bond or fondness, but because he couldn't accept that anyone in Korea would be so disrespectful as to harm anyone with a relation to him.

He was however, to his disgruntlement, unable to get to the easier of the culprits to reach because he was in a Red Gate. Now hearing that the same person he was trying to attack 2 weeks ago had not only been certified as an S Rank, but was now also a part of a guild with two other highly prominent S Rank Hunters, made him infuriated.

He would have geared up to attack Sung Jin-Woo by now if it wasn't for the warning he was given by the head of the Scavenger Guild, Thomas Andre, earlier today.

Flashback

"Hey, Dong-Su. I heard about your trip to Korea to look for someone." A giant of a man in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and sandals said with a toothy grin that quickly turned into a serious face.

"Listen and listen well. I don't care about your grudge with him over him killing your brother, but he's involved with the same Hunters that make the potions and new armor. You might not get the importance of the deal that was made with them for this, but I do." Andre said as he took of his shades.

"So understand that if your actions cause this deal to fall through, then you won't have to worry about them coming after you, I'll get rid of you myself, guild member or not." He said as a profound pressure came of him as his eyes let off a subtle gold colored glow, impacting Hwang Dong-Su. "Understand?"

Hwang Dong-Su nodded in a cold sweat, as while he had no concrete idea of Sung Jin-Woo's strength, he did for his guild master, the man known as the Goliath, and it frightened him to this day.

Flashback end.

After his outburst, Hwang Dong-Su goes into the bedroom and just sits on the bed, staring into the city skyline with obsessive hatred in his eyes. And against all better judgement, he decided to himself that he would kill either Sing Jin-Woo or Yu Jin-Ho the moment he gets the chance, consequences be damned. Unfortunately for him, this decision would be the one that marks the countdown to the end of his life.

Chapter End.

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