Chapter 20

Chapter 20: For the Emperor (3)

This world was a space I needed to study. Because the novel didn't show everything. The spotlight was on Marina and Gatess. Background details like this had zero illumination.

Background knowledge gained, item one: dungeon floor tiers. Roughly — up to 35 floors was C-rank, up to 70 was B-rank, up to 100 was A-rank, over 100 was S-rank.

"Hey, aren't we going way too deep?"

Children were creatures of adaptation. He'd apparently adjusted to this speed, because he managed to speak even while I was sprinting.

"The boss is down there."

And the deeper we went, the more there truly was nothing. Just the same square rooms, roughly the size of the first floor, repeating endlessly.

Monster infighting happened in dungeons, of course. Sometimes they even wiped each other out entirely. But the walls and floors showed no signs of combat at all.

"Even my oldest brother hasn't come this deep. I'm gonna be in so much trouble."

"Your Highness has just surpassed Prince Gatess."

"Really?"

Children were simple creatures. A little flattery and he was beaming again. The chase between me and the boss was nearing its end.

Unfortunately, the dungeon boss was faster than me. Among S-rank Hunters, I'd never been particularly fast. In raw speed, I was actually on the slower side.

But I was relaxed. Faintly, I could feel the fleeing creature's trail in my grasp. What mattered was that the dungeon was sealed.

"There's always the type that refuses to come out and earns extra beatings."

Those types frustrated me. Probably just trying to survive. I kept punching through the floors.

Before long — the very bottom. I could feel it. One more stomp and I'd bounce off. Gatis was looking around with wonder. The dungeon boss was at the far end of this floor.

"Can't you just come out already?"

This wasn't a siege defense. Then I felt something phasing through the wall. There it was — the dungeon boss. Activating Supersensory, I could even make out its silhouette.

"Hel... lo......"

I reflexively looked at Gatis. But Gatis stared back as if to ask why I was looking at him. So it wasn't Gatis. The voice had been far too faint, anyway.

That meant it had come from the monster. A talking monster. That put it at A-rank minimum.

"I... sensed you could... feel me......"

With those words, a form draped in what looked like a desk cloth gradually — as slowly as its speech — materialized.

"My name is... Tomi......"

"All right, Tomi. Hello."

A greeting deserved a response. Prince Gatis apparently still couldn't see it.

"Your Highness, you said you were eight?"

"Yep."

"Then it's past your bedtime."

"I guess it is?"

Tap. Tap.

The first tap was me striking the back of Gatis's neck. The second was his head going limp. I gently placed him in the farthest corner and shielded the space with mana.

"That child... carries royal blood......"

"Yeah. He does."

"...You do not."

Tomi's form was identical to what I knew as a Wraith. A draped sheet with two black holes for eyes.

The author was probably no genius when it came to inventing every monster from scratch. She'd likely borrowed a few from our world. And this was one of them.

"According to the pact... with my friend... those who do not carry... royal blood... are to be eliminated......"

Tomi's sheet defied gravity, billowing upward. Red light began slowly pouring from the black holes. Excruciatingly slowly.

"So you want to fight?"

"...Indeed. Repent... your folly......"

"Ha ha."

I laughed in sheer disbelief.

I closed my eyes. Opened them. Composure settled over my mind. Blood sharp, heartbeat slow. My mindset for battle.

"I've eaten... every monster from floors fifty through one hundred and fifty... for a thousand years......"

Tomi's form became grotesque. Matching a Wraith Queen's lore. Monsters fell into two categories: man-eaters, which consumed only humans, and omnivores, which devoured other monsters as well.

Wraiths were omnivores. Consuming monster souls made them stronger. They'd always been a weak species, so I'd never seen a particularly powerful Wraith Queen.

Tomi's sheet kept expanding. Its formerly white color flickered and shifted through multiple colors, flashing intensely enough to trigger a photosensitive episode in Gatis if he'd been awake.

Tomi's body now filled half the dungeon floor. I'd never seen a Wraith Queen this bloated and gaudy.

"You won't kill royalty, but you'll kill non-royals?"

"The pact... dictates... as much......"

Tomi answered. Damn — that was exactly the kind of thing I hated. Being S-rank meant people constantly tried to shower you with privileges, and I'd done my best to decline. VIP seating, S-rank-only corridors — I never used them. It didn't suit my constitution.

Not that I judged other S-rank Hunters for accepting perks. They'd earned the right. I just didn't see the point.

But setting all that aside, there was an even more absurd reason.

"Hey, can you even fight?"

"What... Do you mean...?"

Every monster had a rank classification. Named or Uncommon variants meant single-number rankings didn't apply. For example, Goblins were rated E to D+.

The Wraith Queen I knew had the widest range of any monster. E to S-. Meaning no matter how many souls Tomi had devoured, the ceiling was S-.

"I'm pretty sure I'm better than you."

I let my fighting spirit rise. I'd never gone all out in this world. There'd been no reason to. It would've just looked like showing off.

Some S-rank Hunters got drunk and smashed buildings. I wasn't that type. Some showed off for attention. That stuff always became a laughingstock eventually.

Use your power when it's time to use it — that was how you learned to respect it. And right now was the time. At S-, I honestly couldn't guarantee victory in my current state without going all out.

"Swaddling cloth, I don't particularly respect Trafviche the Great or anyone else."

"Do not... insult... royal blood......"

"Then why are you insulting me?"

I said. Tomi's slow mouth gradually closed.

"I won't get the same glory here because I don't have royal blood. But I deserve it just as much."

Come visit my house back in Korea. Order of National Merit, Eulji Medal, Cheonsu Medal — I've got them all. But having received them taught me something.

"Turns out, none of that matters. What matters is where I think I stand."

"You talk... too much......"

"So stop leaning on your friend's promise and live your own life — or, well, your monster life."

I'd gotten too into it and misspoke. Correction:

"If you get to keep living, that is."

***

Gatis was in a palace of candy and cookies. He was the emperor of this palace, and his subjects were cookies. Man-shaped cookies bowed before him, snapping in half from the waist, becoming two cookie pieces.

"Bring me chocolate."

A cookie dragged something gooey toward him on a sugar leash. It looked like a slime but was made of chocolate.

"Enjoy, Your Majesty."

Click!

"Ugh, crumbs everywhere."

Gatis sighed and bit into the chocolate, which oozed thick syrup. A snack his father forbade him. Nothing but fat, unfit for an emperor, or something like that.

The chocolate slime sweated richer the more he sucked. When the syrup grew strong enough to taste bitter, Gatis pulled away. His mouth was smeared with chocolate. He'd never felt this happy in his life.

Then it happened.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Someone was bombarding the palace. Confections crumbled from the ceiling. Gatis scrambled to pick up the fallen sweets and eat them. So sweet. So delicious.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Who is it? Father?"

Fearless, Gatis opened the gates and stepped outside. Brilliant light awaited him. The light enveloped him.

***

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

Ah, hitting this thing had a satisfying impact. Tomi's sheet was now nearly shredded, and its red glow had faded to a listless pink.

Tomi had never landed a single hit on me. Speed and movement were different things.

"Your movement... what is it......"

The exhausted Tomi opened its slow mouth. Intelligent monsters had always said the same thing to me. Other Hunters too.

The clueless B-rank-and-below Hunters who'd watched me fight called me the most ordinary-looking S-rank Hunter.

Every S-rank Hunter had a celebrity-style epithet. Mine — embarrassingly — was "Phantom Slayer," and old man Gu Gonghwan's was "Iron Fortress."

But those were just headlines. What the public called you tended to shift.

In my case, it was "Normal Hunter." My fighting looked truly bland, apparently. Just sliding around and slicing. No flashy effects whatsoever.

- Hey, Normal Hunter. When are you taking a commission?

- Iron Bucket, how about you quit your celebrity career?

- Whatever. People have no eye for talent, though. Nobody fights with as much flair as you do.

- What flair? It's a movement.

- Apparently you have to be all dramatic for it to count as movement.

- That's called jealousy.

I considered that movement my signature, but few people appreciated it. Just the handful of S-rank Hunters I'd worked commissions with. And since S-rankers almost never worked together, only my closest few knew.

Chaerin — the middle-school S-rank Hunter — had sparred one-on-one with me and described my movement like this:

- God, sparring with you pisses me off. An afterimage appears above and then you come from the left. An afterimage below and you come from the right. If you're gonna fight like this, don't even bother.

- Is that your generation's idea of a compliment?

- It's just way too dirty to fight against.

I'd never given the movement a name, but this world did it for me.

【Unique Skill: Phantom Shadow Lv. MAX — Unlocked】

Tomi lurched backward, then opened a mouth like a massive black hole and disgorged monsters. The souls of creatures Tomi hadn't fully digested — their bodies hollowed out.

Some looked quite impressive. Bringing back even one of these would guarantee a top-five finish. They'd been consumed from below the hundredth floor, after all.

"Well, well. Eating the finest cuisine."

"Be quiet......"

Tomi had to know by now. It couldn't beat me. It probably didn't even have the strength to flee. That's right — the initiative was mine now.

"You've become docile, Tomi."

I said, almost taunting. Tomi's swollen cloth was now tattered, without even a hint of its former rigidity — just limp and sagging. This was the moment to ask, when honest answers could be extracted. If I'd asked from the beginning, I wouldn't have gotten the truth.

My lips began to part as slowly as Tomi's.

"The soul of Trafviche the Great hasn't been digested yet, has it?"

At my ambush of a question, Tomi's pink eyes went wide.