Kill the Hero

After stepping into the gate, they were surrounded by white lights which soon disappeared, revealing their surroundings.

They were in a jungle, reminiscent of the Amazon Rainforest. A stifling and humid heat wrapped around them.

[Survive for 5 days.]

At that moment, the quest notification appeared, causing almost everyone in the dungeon to exclaim.

“What? A survival quest?”

“Damn! This is the worst!”

“Shit!” (TL: This one was in English, took me by surprise)

‘Survival Quest…In the end, even if you want to leave, you still need to survive at least four days.’

In other words, regardless of what they did, the first floor would take five days to be completed, but for 2 Floor Dungeons, it was always best to finish the first floor as quickly as possible.

“A survival quest in an A+ rank…that means there’s probably an incredibly strong monster.”

Regardless, the fact that surviving was a quest meant that it wouldn’t be easy. So naturally, many players became even more nervous, including Lee Jin-ah.

He turned to Kim Woo-jin and asked,

“What do we do?”

“We start the test.”

“Test?”

When he remembered the last test, a shiver ran down Lee Jin-ah’s spine and his knees shook a bit.

“I have to test some new items.”

“O-, Oh! Right!”

Relief was visible on Lee Jin-ah’s face. After that the two of them started moving.

Cheoduk!

A lonely goblin stumbled and fell to the floor, an arrow sticking out of its back. The goblin had just been walking through the underbrush, was now lying motionlessly on the floor, a single arrow through the heart its only wound. It was truly a great showcase of skill.

“What the fuck?”

Lee Jin-ah, who witnessed the kill from the side could barely keep his mouth closed.

‘It’s possible to hit a vital point from this far in a dense forest?’

Killing a goblin with one arrow wasn’t hard, but to kill a moving goblin in a forest from over 100 metres away with a single arrow was hard to believe.

So at that moment, Lee Jin-ah made a promise with himself.

‘Let’s not think too much about it.’

He decided then to never compare himself to Kim Woo-jin again.

Meanwhile Woo-jin who’d finished his hunt, didn’t move yet.

‘Nothing is nearby.’

After confirming there were no monsters or players near them or the goblin, Kim Woo-jin approached the prey he’d killed.

[You have summoned a Skeleton.]

Immediately after arriving at the body, Kim Woo-jin summoned it’s skeleton.

“Hehe, nice to meet you.”

When Lee Jin-ah saw the appearance of a new Skeleton Soldier, he couldn’t help but come over and try to stroke its head.

However the Skeleton Soldier stepped back and avoided his hand.

“Eh?”

Lee Jin-ah frowned slightly as the Skeleton Soldier stepped away from him before once again reaching for the skeleton who avoided him.

“Haha! Then let’s see what you’ve got!”

Boom!

A strange confrontation of reaching and dodging broke out between Lee Jin-ah and the skeleton.

As he watched this odd scene, Kim Woo-jin reached into his inventory, pulled out the Grim Reaper’s Mask and put it on.

[You have received the achievement ‘Wearer of the Grim Reaper’s Mask’.]

He heard a notification, but there didn’t seem to be any special effects, it felt like he was just wearing a mask.

However when he turned toward where Lee Jin-ah and the skeleton were fighting, he noticed something interesting.

‘Huh?’

On the head of the skeleton, a black thread appeared, floating toward him.

As Kim Woo-jin reached forward and grabbed the thread, a notification appeared before him.

[Connected to Skeleton.]

The Skeleton Soldier stopped moving the moment the notification sounded and at the same time the Skeleton’s field of you appeared in Kim Woo-jin’s eyes.

‘Ha! I got you!”

It was then that Lee Jin-ah lunged forward and pressed his hand to the skeleton’s skull.

‘I understand now.’

Only then did Kim Woo-jin truly understand the ability of the Grim Reaper’s Mask. What the mask did, was take control of a summoned undead monster.

If you use the mask, you would be able to see exactly what the monster could see.

‘I can also control it…’

It seemed that he was also able to control it.

“Move your hand.”

It also seemed like he could use the Skeleton Soldiers to speak.

“Oh…huh…huh!”

Lee Jin-ah was shocked at the turn of events and took a few steps back, his face pale.

“Skel-, the skeleton can speak?”

As the skeleton stared at him, Lee Jin-ah couldn’t help but gulp a bit especially when the skeleton’s flaming eyes began burning with golden flames.

[Eye of Horus Activated.]

A notification sounded in Kim Woo-jin’s ear and he couldn’t help but think.

‘Johann Georg would’ve died of envy.’

Survival Quest.

It was a quest with only one condition. Survive for a specific amount of time.

In a way, it was a very simple quest. It was natural to think that quests to hunt a fearsome monster, or to kill thousands of monsters would be harder to complete. However, the situation was way different from what you would imagine.

“Goddammit! survival quests are like a heaven for monsters…”

The monsters that could be found in survival quests were much more than in any other type of quest.

“It’s not just that there’s a lot of them. It’s so annoying how many different types there are!”

For example, when doing a quest to kill 1000 Orcs, usually the only monsters that the player would encounter would be orcs and the total number one could find would be between 1000 and 3000 depending on the difficulty of the quest.

However in a survival quest, especially one with a time limit of 5 days, one could probably find every monster capable of spawning in a dungeon’s first floor and their numbers varied without any real limit.

“A+ rank and a survival quest…the worst possible combination.”

“I don’t even want to think about how many there will be.”

With the rank being A+ it was very possible for players to encounter more monsters than they ever had before. Moreover, with the situation being the way it was now, the players were left with two tough choices.

“What do we do? Stay here?”

“The monsters will smell our food and flock to us. Rather, it’s better to be constantly on the move and hunt them as we go.”

Staying on the move and killing the monsters as they encountered them, or trying to hold a spot while withstanding the attack of the monsters.

“It’s better to move.”

Most players chose the former.

“There are so many players around, we could join forces with them.”

“We’ll have to move around for a few days first, to assess the general situation.”

It wasn’t wise to make rash decisions in an environment where you didn’t know what direction the monsters were coming from and when you didn’t know what could happen.

But of course everyone didn’t make the same decision. Rather than run from the monsters, there were those like Lee Jin-ah and Kim Woo-jin who went after the monsters instead.

Which wasn’t good news for the monsters.

The three Orcs that were facing off against Lee Jin-ah at the moment in a three-on-one. The Orcs had an advantage in numbers and size.

“Here’s my politeness injection punch!”

Puk!

However against the three orcs, Lee Jin-ah dished out unadulterated violence.

Puk!

He used his fists to slowly crush the bodies of the orcs like he was molding clay.

Puk!

A nose broke under the blow, the orcs skull sinking by a third and it flew backward. It didn’t get up after that.

When he saw this, Lee Jin-ah looked down at his fist and thought,

‘I’m also strong.’

He was strong. It wasn’t being self-absorbed, or narcissistic.

‘I’m not weak.’

As he thought that, Lee Jin-ah turned his head to look across the clearing he was in. There a Skeleton Soldier was destroying the last of a group of five Orcs using only a scimitar.

‘It’s that guy that’s a complete monster.’

He looked at the skeleton and couldn’t help but recall just a few hours ago.

Having learned that the Grim Reaper’s Mask could access and control his skeletons, Kim Woo-jin immediately began testing it. He wanted to see just how much he could do with the control he had.

‘At first, it wasn’t that scary…’

Naturally, controlling a creature isn’t like manipulating a character by pressing buttons on a controller or a keyboard. Instead it was like trying to tame a wild horse. It couldn’t be done perfectly from the start. But as time progressed, Kim Woo-jin became increasingly better at controlling the Skeleton Soldier.

‘Now…it’s insane.’

The five dead orcs at the skeleton’s feet were the best proof.

‘These little skeletons are no joke…’

The Skeleton Soldier controlled by Kim Woo-jin had more than twice the combat efficiency of the normal Skeleton Soldiers.

‘I’ve never seen a summoned skeleton like this before.’

When using the skeleton, skills that Kim Woo-jin possessed such as Blood Weapon and Blood Poison didn’t work, but he was still able to use skills like Bone Sword and Summon Skeleton.

Eye of Anubis and Eye of Horus could also be used although there was a penalty. When used by the Skeleton Soldier, the skills used about three times more magic power than normal.

‘Though if he defeated someone with the Skeleton Soldier, the experience he gained was reduced.’

Though it was a small price to pay compared to the things he could do with the Grim Reaper’s Mask.

“Lee Jin-ah.”

Suddenly the Skeleton Soldier turned toward Lee Jin-ah and called. This caused Lee Jin-ah’s expression to become ugly.

“Isn’t polite to talk to someone face to face? Huh?”

It didn’t feel good to be treated like a subordinate by a mere skeleton.

“Would you like to try my politeness injection punch?”

Lee Jin-ah didn’t back down, because it was just the Skeleton Soldier and not Kim Woo-jin himself, but before he could try anything…

“How are you feeling?”

A voice filled with murderous intent sounded behind Lee Jin-ah’s back.

“Ugh!”

Lee Jin-ah was startled, spinning around quickly to see Kim Woo-jin approaching him.

‘Fuck! This bastard! Pretending to control the skeletons while approaching from behind!’

“How’s your body’s condition?”

As Lee Jin-ah had his internal struggle, Kim Woo-jin repeated his question, though his tone was much lower than when he asked the first. Almost as if to say he wouldn’t ask another time.

Because of this, Lee Jin-ah quickly answered.

“I’m fine! Ready to inject politeness into anyone who doesn’t have it! No one should have bad manners!”

Lee Jin-ah’s voice sounded much quieter than his usual boisterous tone.

“Good. Now it’s time to hunt.”

“Huh?”

Lee Jin-ah’s smile stiffened.

‘Haven’t we been hunting this whole time?’

During the three hours since the dungeon had been opened, Kim Woo-jin and Lee Jin-ah had killed more than 100 monsters. Ordinary players couldn’t reach such a number even after trying for two days.

Wasn’t that considered hunting?

“So what do you call what we’ve been doing so far?”

In response to Lee Jin-ah’s question, Kim Woo-jin gave a simple answer,

“A warm up.”

When he saw how serious Kim Woo-jin’s serious expression without a hint of mischief, Lee Jin-ah knew he meant it.

“Actually, I think it’s not a good idea for me to continue like this…Where am I? What time is it?…Ah! I have anemia! Yes, I have anemia, it makes me so dizzy…”

Kim Woo-jin said nothing to Lee Jin-ah.

Tuk!

Instead it was the Skeleton Soldier that walked over to them and stabbed Lee Jin-ah in the ass, causing him to scream loudly and jump away.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“You said you have anemia, I was trying to give you some iron.”

“Iron? That’s not an injection!”

“Does it matter? Iron is entering your body anyway.”

“Dammit, how does that make sense!”

Lee Jin-ah really felt like crying. This Kim Woo-jin bastard was too much.

Kim Woo-jin glanced at his expression and nodded.

“Since you look so angry, that means your anemia went away. Lets go.”

As he heard this, Lee Jin-Ah gave up his futile effort.