Ch 195: The D-rank Dungeon

"Who the hell are you calling a crazy cat lady!" fumed the girl as she marched closer.

"You are the one who started with the name calling. Did we steal anything from you?" asked Akeno.

The girl opened and closed her mouth, shocked that the three women would dare claim innocence, but… They hadn't actually stolen anything.

As she was trying to find something to say, Akeno sighed and used Item Creation again, making a calico cat plushie.

"How about I offer you this as a peace offering, and we forget about the previous incident?"

"…make me two more, and we'll be even." said the girl.

Akeno shook her head with a smile as she made her two more plushies, and the girl quickly put them into her backpack.

"I am Akeno Himejima. It is nice to meet you properly, miss?"

"Meilin. Meilin Fisher." nodded Meilin. She was dressed this time in a white and black dress with detached black sleeves puffing at the wrists, stockings and knee-high boots. She had a headband with black, fake cat ears on her head and a red flowers hairpin above her left ear. A black cat-themed pouch hung from her waist. A short black whip was also tied to her belt.

"Miss Meilin, did you meet with them before?" asked Song Chi-Yul.

"…I did, but… it doesn't matter. Sorry for being late, Chi-Yul." apologized Meilin before she turned to Akeno. "Are you going to participate in taking on this dungeon?"

"That is the plan, yes." nodded Akeno.

Meilin looked at Chi-Yul, who shrugged.

"Now that everyone is here, let's dive in!" said the old man. The others had agreed to make him the leader for this trip, as he was a C-rank veteran, and Akeno didn't mind.

The Hunters entered the shining blue vortex and found themselves in a tunnel of rough stone. Luminescent crystals regularly sprouting from the stone gave them enough light to see clearly.

"Jinah, what are the rules of engagement? I think that if the loot belongs to the ones delivering the killing blow, it is frowned upon to attack monsters when another monster is already attacking them?"

"Right, but it depends on the situation. If the hunter is in obvious danger, then it is of course okay to help, even expected, and the core of any monster you kill while helping belongs to you. As for bosses, the core is typically sold, and the money evenly shared with every hunter who participated in the fight."

"It makes sense. Although I'd prefer a system where all the loot is considered common property, then sold and shared evenly at the end." said Jeanne.

"Hei, Meilin. Is that whip your weapon?" asked Alter.

"Yes? What about it?"

"Isn't it going to be difficult to use in a tunnel like this?"

"Ah, no worries about that." grinned Meilin as she took her whip from its belt, but didn't uncoil it completely. She whipped it around a few times, making sharp cracks as it hit the ground, not bothered by the ceiling or walls.

"See? As long as I control its length, I can use it purr-fectly. Besides, I'm a mage. I'm not supposed to fight up close and purr-sonal."

Akeno smiled at the pun.

As the group walked down the irregular tunnel, they reached a larger section, and they heard the sounds of many somethings coming for them. A group of twenty or so monsters turned the corner and charged them. A mix of goblins armed with stone knives, kobolds, fur-covered humanoids with wolf heads and long, sharp claws, and gray-scaled lizardmen armed with stone swords.

Jeanne Alter immediately joined the front line, happy to have something to bully after months of quiet, while Jeanne and Akeno stayed slightly behind.

Akeno watched how the others were fighting.

Meilin waved her whip around, and summoned two human-sized masses of water, shaped like cat limbs. She used them for opportunity strikes at monsters. The water under her control was too soft and malleable to pierce their hide or inflict crushing blows, but the giant cat paws could still push them around and break their balance, exposing them to attack from other hunters.

It seemed the hunters had an agreement with her regarding loot distribution, as those she helped only thanked her.

Kim Sangshik was a swordsman and used his weapon with obvious competence. Song Chi-Yul appeared to be even more skilled with the sword, but also caused two goblins to be engulfed in flames. Akeno could feel the heat while standing five meters away and could tell those flames were hotter than normal.

Kang Jeongho was using a sword and shield. Park Beom-Shik waved his sword with more strength than skill. Lee Joohee stood beside Akeno, casting a strength-enhancing buff on the frontliners.

Jinwoo and Jinah were cornering a pair of goblins. Jinah managed to spear one in the guts, but the fatally wounded goblin seized the spear's shaft, and Jinah couldn't free her weapon. The other goblins noticed and changed target from Jinwoo to Jinah. Jinwoo managed to intercept it in time, but his hasty movement broke his posture, and the goblin ducked under Jinwoo's attack and slashed at his ribs. A golden shield appeared against his side to stop the blow, and Jinwoo pierced the goblin's throat, killing it.

Jinwoo stared at the dissipating shield for an instant before looking at his companions, found Akeno smiling at him, and nodded gratefully.

The fight lasted when than twenty seconds.

"Hey, Alter. Leave some of the monsters for others, okay?" smiled Akeno. Jeanne Alter had slaughtered almost half of the monsters by herself.

"Tsk." unhappily said Alter, before she turned to the others. "You guys, if I don't claim the loot, it is okay if I kill as many monsters as I want, right?"

The hunters looked at each other with slight smiles and nodded at each other.

"Ah, it's fine, miss Alter. Please fight to your heart's content." grinned Chi-Yul.

"Alter hasn't fought for a while, and she was getting quite frustrated." apologetically said Akeno.

"And she seems very strong. Come to think of it, I haven't asked. What hunter rank are you, miss Alter?"

Alter glanced at Akeno for confirmation, then shrugged.

"A-rank."

"Whoa!" exclaimed Chi-Yul in surprise. He wasn't the only one. When they turned to Akeno, she smiled.

"Jeanne and I are A-rank as well. We chose this dungeon to get a little experience before we start thinking about joining a guild."

"I see. Which of you three is the strongest, then?" asked Chi-Yul.

"It's Akeno." shrugged Alter.

"Miss Akeno, as the highest-ranked hunter present, do you wish to lead the raid?"

"Thank you for asking, but I will decline. The leader should be one with ample experience with dungeon diving, regardless of rank."

"Thank you for your trust, miss Akeno." smiled Chi-Yul.

The hunters resumed their progress. This dungeon was a long tunnel with occasional rooms, and more groups of monsters attacked them every few minutes. But the dungeon never offered them multiple paths to choose from.

After close to an hour in the dungeon, they encountered an irregularity.

"This is strange." frowned Chi-Yul, one hand scratching his chin as he watched the side wall of a room, partially collapsed, revealing a dark passage.

"What is strange about it?" asked Jeanne.

"Do you see the stones on the ground? If this tunnel was a natural part of the dungeons, they wouldn't be there. It is as if those stones were originally part of the wall, but something destroyed it to reveal that tunnel. Besides, it's not normal for the tunnel not to have any lighting."

"Oh…"

"Could it be, a double dungeon?" suggested Kim Sangshik.

"Double dungeon? Aren't those very rare, and dangerous?" asked Jinah.

"They are very rare, but not always dangerous." replied Jeongho Kang, considering. "They are like another dungeon that somehow grafted itself on another, but most dungeons are C, D or E-rank… Do we go in?"

"I vote yes. We have three A-ranks with us today, so I'm feeling brave." smiled Kang Jeongho.

As the others debated, Akeno was staring at the dark passage. With her night vision, the darkness didn't bother her, but the passage wasn't straight, so she couldn't see what was on the other end.

Still, she was able to add two and two together, and with a suspected protagonist in the group, the seemingly rare occurrence of a double dungeon, and her first quest rewarding good results with a System, she had a strong suspicion that this passage would lead to the Carthenon Temple.

Turning away, she watched the others.

Emboldened by the presence of three A-ranks, almost everyone was in favor of exploring this double dungeon. Only Jinah and Jinwoo were hesitating.

But one of the rules Jinah had told her about was that inside a dungeon, when people voted on one decision, everyone was expected to go along with it. Leaving the group because you didn't agree would be seen as betrayal.

So it was time to make some preparations.

Akeno opened her status screen.

Name: Akeno Himejima

Age: 20

Level: 117

Exp: 226 120 / 2 355 000

STR: 65 (+48)

AGI: 72 (+72)

END: 75 (+46)

MAG: 150 (+57)

CHA: 50 (+20)

Unattributed: 0

Personal Skills: Charming Beauty, Hide Presence, Holy Lightning, Magecraft.

Inherited skills: Cooking, Martial Arts.

Shared skills: Automated Translation, Greater Healing, Hands of Nirvana, Improved Rest, Greater Cure, Negative Effects Immunity, Item Creation, Regeneration, Lie Detection, Night Vision, Teleportation (sealed), Augment, Shunpo, Fertility Control, Shared Infinite Lifespan, Hard Light Arsenal.

Slaves: Artoria Pendragon, Scathach, Britomart, Medb, Medusa, Sakura Tohsaka, Rin Tohsaka, Darkness, Erika Chiba, Honoka Mitsui, Airi Isshiki, Touko Tsukushiin, Mash Kyrielight.

Little sisters: Asuka Shikinami Himejima.

Sacred Gear: Divine Dividing

Yin Points: 317 725

Yang Points: 4 750

The first thing Akeno did was open her Yin-Yang Store and consider buying some additional attribute points. They could not be bought as 'unattributed' and had to be directly added to specific attributes.

Akeno hadn't considered buying some previously because she hadn't felt the need for it, and the cost went up exponentially. The first ten points for each attribute would go for 1 000 Yin points each, then 2 000 Yin points for the next ten attribute points, then 3 000, and so on.

Akeno decided to buy 20 STR points for 30k Yin points, 30 AGI points for 60k Yin points, and another 30 END points.

And just like that, almost half of the reserve Noah had saved up for a long time was gone.

[I'm sorry, Albion. You'll have to wait for a while longer before being revived.]

[I do not mind, Mistress. Your safety is more important than a delay. If you want to make up for it, play with me a lot tonight.]

[Ufufu, I will.]

After boosting her attributes, Akeno reviewed the list of abilities from the Path of the Avenger. Most didn't seem useful to her, as they focused on finding specific targets or were already redundant with skills like Augment or Shunpo, and she didn't think she would be able to combine them. But she still found several skills that would increase her power. She selected one in particular.

“Bullet Time. The user can trigger a localized time dilation around themselves for one second, extending subjective time to ten seconds. Repeated uses in a short time will lead to exhaustion and reduced duration and effectiveness. Can later be evolved into Chronomancy. Cost: 40 000 Yin Points, 1 200 Yang Points.”

There were others abilities that could be useful, but she decided she had spent enough points already.

And there was something else she could do.

"Everyone, before we enter that double dungeon, how about I make you all new weapons? I think I can make better ones that what you're using."

All the Hunters had seen her make a sword and a spear for Jinah and Jinwoo, but they hadn't asked her for the same favor, aware that it would be very rude. But now that she proposed it herself, they gladly agreed.

After Akeno was done, she pointed to Jeanne.

"Jeanne is able to create a defensive barrier around herself, and she is pretty strong. If the situation turns bad, please make sure to stay close to her, everyone."

"Yes." smiled Jeanne with a nod. "I may not strike as hard as Alter or Akeno, but I am confident in my ability to defend myself and others."

"That's great to hear." grinned Meilin. "I'll make sure not to stray from her side."

Akeno nodded and started to walk carefully down the dark tunnel, creating a few globes with Hard Light Arsenal and making them float above her head and in front of the group.

She drew Eclipse from the sheath tied to her waist, increasing her effective attributes further.

As the group advanced further, no enemy came to greet them. After maybe two hundred meters, the tunnel started enlarging, until they found a door. A double door made of gray stone with reliefs, almost eight meters tall.

"That door is truly massive." whistled Kim Sangshik.

"Yes. Let's try it." said Kang Jeongho. He walked to the door, placed his hands on them, and pushed. They started opening without difficulty. "Oh? It's easier than I thought"

When Jeongho set foot in the room, blue flames appeared on the top of the columns near the door, and dozens of torches mounted on the circular wall near the ceiling lit up with blue flames, illuminating the room in all its splendor.

The room was about 150 meters in radius, with a dome-shaped ceiling that had to reach a hundred meters at its highest point.

Directly facing the entrance, against the opposite well, was a giant throne. An equally giant stone statue sat on it, representing a man wearing some kind of halo-like crown, and having streaks of black from its eyes to the sides of its chin, as if the statue had cried tears of black blood.

Akeno frowned at the size of the statue, estimating that it would reach around thirty meters in height if it stood. And she had no doubts that it would stand.

There was also the not so minor consideration of the 40 five-meter-tall statues around the periphery of the room, most of them armed with a variety of weapons. They all seemed to have a different one, and a few held musical instruments instead of weapons. Maybe they would perform some kind of sound attack.

The Hunters carefully walked to the center of the room.

"Look, there's a statue holding some kind of tablet." said Song Chi-Yul, walking closer to one on the right side of the room.

Akeno, Joohee, Jinah and Jinwoo walked closer to the statue as well.

"It's written in runic text, but I can read it." said Chi-Yul. "Let's see… Carthenon Temple's commandments. First, worship the Lord. Second, Praise the Lord. Third, prove your faith. Those who do not follow these commandments… will never return alive."

"Th… There… The huge statue…" said Joohee, suddenly scared as she looked to the side and up, and tugging on Jinwoo's sleeve.

"Its eyes moved!"

Akeno had seen it, too. Even when she walked toward the tablet-holding statue, she had kept her gaze fixed on the giant statue's face.

The statue had returned its eyes to their initial position almost immediately, staring forward, and some hunters missed it, wondering if the tension wasn't getting to Joohee.

And after a few seconds, the eyes moved again, staring down at the group. They started shining with a golden light, and Akeno immediately created ten layers of shields while pointing a sword to the 'Lord', as if in challenge.

"Everyone, get down!" suddenly screamed Jinwoo, forcibly bringing his sister to the ground with him.

The statue fired a large stream of energy from its eyes, targeting Akeno.

The beam hit Akeno's shields, and destroyed them almost instantly.

Akeno panicked for an instant and jumped to the side while renewing her shields, then used Shunpo to jump to the other side of the room. She gulped as she saw what the attack had done. A deep, wide furrow of melted stone started when she had stood, and pursued her for over a dozen meters. The statue almost had the firepower of a Demonic Pillar, but concentrated into a single beam, and its attack was much harder to avoid!

"Akeno! You must bow your head! It won't attack, I think!" urgently shouted Jinwoo.

Akeno, remembering what Chi-Yul had said from the tablet, decided to give it a try, bowing her head. She still created even more shields and prepared herself to use Shunpo the instant she came under attack.

Jinwoo appeared to be right, as the light gaining intensity in the statue's eyes stopped growing more intense and began to dim.

"No one try to leave!" yelled Akeno. "This attack is way too fast. You'll only die if you run!"

"H-How did you manage to move so fast?" asked Kim Sangshik.

"Now isn't the time for questions!" replied Akeno as she activated Augment.

Jinwoo looked at the tablet, then back at the others, and shouted.

"Everyone, please bow to the Lord! I think this is what the first Commandment means!"

After a short hesitation, The hunters changed their posture, kneeling to the Lord instead of crouching.

The statue turned its head to look at the other hunters, but didn't attack. Seeing them all kneel in front of it, the expression on its face changed.

The Lord displayed a smile that revealed too many teeth. A grin so exaggerated that anyone seeing it would instantly be creeped out.

"The second commandment is 'Praise the Lord'." said Alter. "Anyone knows what it means?"

The Lord slowly rose from its throne.

It walked toward the closest Hunter, Meilin. She froze stiff as she looked up in fear.

"Meilin, move!" screamed Chi-Yul.

Akeno used Shunpo and picked up Meiling in her arms, then jumped well away from the giant that was about to step on her.

"Are you okay, Meilin? Can you walk?" asked Akeno.

"…Yes…I'm, feline fine." nodded Meilin.

"You're okay if you can still make cat puns." breathed out Akeno as she let Meilin on her feet.

The lord had chosen another target already, and Kim Sangshik was running from it. When the hunter came close to the wall, the Lord paused.

Sangshik was about to breath in relief, when Akeno used Shunpo to appear close to him and urgently carried him away.

"W-What?" blurted Sangshik.

"One second later and you were dead." said Akeno, pointing with her sword. Sangshik Kim glanced back and saw the statue holding a shield slowly return to his original posture. He paled as he understood that the Lord wasn't the only threat in the room.

The lord was now walking toward Alter, but before he reached her, a trumpet sound came from one of the statues. Jinwoo was standing at its feet.

"Everyone! I think this is how you praise the lord! You must go for the statues that hold musical instruments!"

Akeno nodded and focused on keeping watch of the hunters, ready to use Shunpo again when needed.

The Hunters quickly found out that the musician statues could only offer refuge to one person, and spread to identify enough statues for everyone. She had to use Shunpo to help Jinwoo after he forced Jinah to occupy the statue he first found, then struggled to find one for himself in time, then used Shunpo again to reach the last one.

With every hunter 'offering praise', the Lord walked back to sit on his throne, and his expression returned to his neutral mask.

Akeno walked away from the singer statue, testing their reactions, but none moved.

"The Commandment for the third phase is 'prove your faith', right?" asked Jeanne.

"Right." nodded Akeno as the Hunters gathered, keeping a wary eye on the Lord and the other statues.

"I wonder how we're supposed to do it." sighed Jinah.

As if to answer her question, the room's central stone started rising in the air and stopped at waist level. Then nothing happened for a minute.

"It's an altar." said Akeno, frowning.

"An altar?" asked Lee Joohee, trembling. "You mean, we have to prove our faith, by sacrificing one of us?"

"I'm afraid so." sighed Chi-Yul… he finally nodded to himself.

"I am the group's leader, and the oldest among us. My life is already more than half over. I will be the sacrifice."

"No, we're not sacrificing anyone." firmly said Akeno. " And didn't you say earlier that you have a wife and a daughter waiting for you to come back to them?"

"Jeanne, Alter, I will count on you both to protect the others from the small statues. Go all out if you have to, and try to get closer to the door."

"Yes, you can count on us, Akeno." nodded Jeanne.

"Miss Akeno, what are you doing to do?" worriedly asked Chi-Yul.

"I will show that so-called Lord that there are lines not to cross, even for a dungeon creature. Joohee, buff me, please." said Akeno, taking from her inventory her second Eclipse.

"Ah, yes!" said Joohee as she applied her buff. Akeno didn't feel any difference, but she supposed every little bit helped.

As she walked to the center of the room, Akeno stopped by the altar. Looking straight at the Lord, she raised her right arm, and slashed diagonally at the altar, severing a portion of it.

The challenge was obvious, and the Lord made that creepy smile again.

All over the rooms, the statues moved, slowly advancing toward Akeno and ignoring the other Hunters. Even the statues equipped with musical instruments joined them.

Akeno wasn't going to wait for them to corner her. Still holding her swords, she pointed her right hand's middle finger and index at the statue armed with a bow and fired a strong Gandr. The bolt of black energy reached her target in an instant and exploded against the statue's chest. Akeno could see that the statue's chest was damaged, but that it would take more to bring it down.

She fired two more Gandr in quick succession to confirm, and the statue fell into pieces

During the time it took her to kill the bow-armed statue, the others had reduced the distance separating them from her by a quarter.

But that was fine for Akeno.

Now that she had an estimation of the kind of attack it would take to bring them down, Akeno created four large lances of light and aimed at the chests of the four statues closest to the fallen bow armor.

One of them, armed with a sword, managed to deflect the lance just enough to lose an arm instead of being destroyed.

Akeno dashed in the opening created inside the encirclement, she slashed at a statue's leg with one of her katanas she passed by. The armor was tough, and she felt some resistance, but she was still able to overcome it, severing the leg completely.

"I should have taken that armor-piercing skill." muttered Akeno to herself as she turned back to face them, and threw two more spears, destroying two more statues.

She thought she would easily dispatch the whole group, but the Lord didn't seem to want to let her do that so easily. She saw its eyes shine, and immediately jumped, using light footholds for sudden changes of trajectory as she created more light shields.

And that was a mistake. Akeno had underestimated the Lord's ability to track her movements, and despite renewing her shields as fast as she could, part of the attack still caught her.

"Miss Himejima!" shouted Joohee, fear visible on her face.

"Argh!" screamed Akeno, feeling intense pain as she fell to the ground, thankfully some distance away from any statue. One Eclipse clattered on the ground beside her, and Akeno glanced down at her body.

The right side of her torso and her right arm were severely burned, her flesh red and black. She could even see some of her bones in some of the most damaged areas.

The Lord seemed to taunt her with its manic grin.

Akeno immediately cast Greater Healing on herself. It would take her maybe fifteen seconds to heal completely, but she was still very much in the fight!

The closest of the armored statues was already lifting its massive shield to smash her, but Akeno didn't pay attention to it. With gritted teeth, she decided to use her trump card.

"Balance Break."

The Divine Dividing armor quickly covered her body, leaving only the head free, and Akeno pointed to the Lord.

"Divide."

When she used Divide, Akeno felt a huge resistance from the statue, far more than any other opponent before. But her 207 MAG attribute wasn't for show, and she gritted her teeth and persevered, finally managing to overcome the Lord.

She knew she wouldn't be able to stack another Divide on it, or even maintain it for long, but it would be enough.

As the shield of the other statue was about to reach her, Akeno used Bullet time, then Shunpo to appear right in front of the Lord's face, using light footholds to stabilize herself. With a cry of pain and anger, holding the single Eclipse she still had with both her healthy and her damaged hands, she drove the black blade into the Lord's right eye.

The lord's body was far more resistant than even the armored statues, but the black blade still managed to go deep through the stone, creating fractures that caused the whole eye to shatter.

As soon as the eye was gone, Akeno created a massive sword of hardened light and pushed it right into the Lord's left eye, feeding into the weapon more of her internal energy than she had when she sliced apart the GAU warships.

The light sword penetrated the left eye with difficulty, but it did, and that was enough.

Bullet time ended, and Akeno hurriedly jumped away to avoid being swatted by the Lord's right hand. He could move much faster than the armored statues.

"That was for my arm! How do you like them apples?" yelled Akeno.

The Lord leaped from its seat, its right foot aiming for a landing on Akeno's body.

Akeno used Shunpo to evade and pick up her second Eclipse. The Lord jumped again in her direction. She frowned as she realized that the loss of its eyes didn't seem to prevent the Lord from locating her.

Then something changed. Half of the thirty armored statues stopped trying to corner her and turned to the other hunters, their intentions obvious.

Jeanne immediately deployed her Magecraft barrier, while Alter stepped in front of her, grinning.

"Alright! I'll go all out as well!"

She held her black sword above her head, and red flames surrounded the blade.

"Everything to ashes! Everything to dust! My hatred shall reap all of thee! Le Grondement de la Haine!"

Dozens of huge, metal tipped spikes blazing with flames burst from the ground near the statues' feet, impaling them with so much force that the statues were lifted from the ground, even held up by the stakes piercing them from multiple angles. After a few seconds, the statues shattered into pieces, and the stakes dissipated into fiery motes of light.

"I don't have enough mana left to do this again, but it felt great!" laughed Alter, watching the countless stone fragments with glee. The Hunters looked at her in awe.

Alter had just destroyed close to thirty statues, targeting not only the group threatening them, but also most of those still pursuing Akeno. There was only a handful of them left.

"This… isn't the power of a A-rank." muttered Sangshik, his eyes wide.

"A-rank is the ranking the Korean Hunters Association gave us." shrugged Jeanne. "I will deal with the remaining small statues."

"Okay." nodded Alter.

Jeanne sprinted toward the closest one, jumped to avoid being speared, and used the shaft of the spear as a foothold to jump again, sinking the spear tip of her battle flag into the statue's throat. She twisted the weapon in the wound, and the statue's neck shattered. Jeanne was already heading to her next target before the statue's body hit the ground.

Akeno, now fully healed, was using her small size to her advantage, slipping past the Lord's defense and gradually inflicting wounds on it. She jumped to the back of its neck, sunk Eclipse into the Lord's body as deep as she figured she could afford while retaining the ability to pull it out easily, and pressed a hand on the blade, using it as a conductor to send as much Holy Lightning as she could into the Lord's body.

She had hoped to give the Lord convulsions or paralysis, but it didn't have that effect as the Lord didn't possess a nervous system. It did, however, cause a few cracks to appear around the wound.

She had to jump away once again to avoid being slapped, but soon returned, using the same method to strike a meter away from the previous wound and cause more cracks.

The third strike did the trick, and with a huge crumbling sound, the Lord's head separated itself from its shoulder. Jeanne had to jump away to avoid being crushed by the massive body collapsing.

Akeno, panting from the exertion, deactivated Divine Dividing, her appearance returning to her civilian clothes. Her damaged clothes, exposing one side of her breast. Grumbling, she took a sweater from her inventory and put it on.

Keeping only one Eclipse in hand, she looked around.

"Is everyone safe?"

They nodded without a word, too stunned to speak.

"Good job, Jeanne, Alter."

"Thank you, Akeno." nodded Jeanne.

"I'm almost drained." said Alter.

"Yes, we'll see to that soon." replied Akeno, looking at the Temple's doors who were opening.

As they looked at the door, the hunters rejoiced. Jinah hugged her brother, and the others were laughing or grinning in relief.

Something suddenly appeared in Akeno's vision.

"System Alert.

You have defeated every enemy in the Carthenon Temple.

For this achievement, you have gained the right to become a Player.

Do you accept? YES / NO"

"What's this?" blurted out Park Beom-Shik.

"I am hallucinating, and I haven't taken any catnip!" complained Meilin as she rubbed her eyes.

"There's a weird window floating above me!" reported Jinah.

"Do you have the same thing, Jeanne, Alter?"

"Yes. Should we accept?" asked Jeanne.

"Yes." said Akeno as she oved her finger to touch the 'Yes' option, but her finger went through the window. Making the conscious decision to accept seemed to satisfy the System, however, as the window disappeared, replaced by an interface she was more familiar with.

[Local System Assimilated. Perception (PER) attribute added. New daily quests feature added. Local store added, using a new currency (Gold Coins). Title feature added. Equipment window added. Class feature added (unlocked after killing 10 000 monsters).]

[You have gained the Title: Giant Slayer. If equipped, you will inflict 40% more damage to enemies over four times your size.]

[Daily Quest received: Getting ready to become stronger.

Goal:

[Incomplete] Push-ups [0/100]

[Incomplete] Curl-ups [0/100]

[Incomplete] Squats [0/100]

[Incomplete] Running [0/10km]

Warning: Failing to complete the daily quest will bring a penalty.

Time remaining: 23h 59m 46s.]

"Everyone, I advise you to accept." suggested Akeno. "If my intuition is correct, this might be some kind of second awakening, or maybe something even better."

"That's what my guts tell me, too. I hope we're not making a huge mistake." smiled Chi-Yul, accepting.

"…What's this daily quest? We're being forced to work out now?" frowned Jeongho.

"Oy! There are cores inside the golems!" called out Sangshik.

Akeno could see a few cores embedded inside the golems' fragments.

"Those are cores? They look different from those of the monsters we killed before." said Alter.

"Yes." Nodded Chu-Yul, examining one of them closely. "Cores from D-rank monsters are shaped like octahedrons, but those of higher-ranked beasts look vaguely like sea stars, and the more 'arms', the higher the rank. Four for C-Rank, six for B-rank, and eight for A-rank. Those golems were B-rank, from the looks of it."

"I wonder if that Lord has a core as well." mused Akeno, searching among the debris and breaking down some of them.

"Ah!" exclaimed Akeno, showing a larger core with ten branches. "So it was a S-rank, right?"

"It seems so." sighed Sangshik in admiration. "Do you realize just how wealthy the three of you have become? B-rank cores go for over 6 million Won, and a S-rank core basically doesn't have a price! As far as I know, only one other exists, when the Americans killed a huge dragon years ago!"

"Oh, that much?" wondered Akeno, looking at the core in her hand. If exchanges rates were anywhere comparable to her own world, 6 million Won should be somewhere around 600 000 Yen, or 4000 USD.

If this S-rank core was so rare, she wasn't sure she wanted to sell it. On the other hand, keeping it would paint a target on her back… But so would having a fat bank account.

"Okay, everyone." finally decided Akeno. "I'll hang on to this core for a while. Maybe I'll have a use for it one day. Please do not tell anyone that the Lord had a core, or some greedy people are going to go after me."

"I don't think many people would want to pick a fight with someone who killed a S-rank monster." smiled Sangshik.

"And if they did, they would come to regret it. But I'd rather not have to make an example with fellow Hunters."

"But as for the B-rank cores, I want to share them evenly."

"Are you sure?" asked Chi-Yul.

"I agree." nodded Jeanne. "We all faced danger together, so it is only fair that we share the spoils."

"I don't care either way." shrugged Alter.

"Really? that's very generous of you all." smiled Jinah, feeling very grateful.

"Forty B-rank cores, divided by the eleven of us… Let's round it up to each of you getting four cores, and Jeanne, Alter and I will share the remaining eight cores. We do not really care about money, and since we'll do a lot of high-ranked dungeons in the near future, we won't miss it." decided Akeno. "More importantly, about this system thing. I suggest that we share phone numbers and meet regularly, to share any information we learn about it. Or maybe create a group chat."

"This seems like a sensible idea." said Chi-Yul.

"Do we keep the existence of the system for ourselves, or publicize it?" asked Jinah, frowning.

"I say we publicize it. This could be our ticket to join the big league!" suggested Jeongho.

"Let's keep quiet until we're certain that this system can make us strong enough to survive being in the big league in the first place." said Akeno. "It wouldn't be too late to make it public after we know more and can protect ourselves. You must all keep in mind that the instant we out ourselves as having a strong potential for growth, there will be many wanting to recruit us, but also some wanting to kill us before we start competing for the benefits and fame they enjoy, and maybe exceed them. Jealousy is an ugly thing."

Akeno's warning had a sobering effect on her companions, and they agreed to be careful about this.

"Alright. So, we say that we found the double dungeon, we don't mention the Lord or the commandments, only a large room full of those statues, and that the three A-ranks defeated all the B-ranks and chose to share the loot, then?" asked Sangshik.

The Hunters all nodded, and after a last look at the room, they started their travel back to the first dungeon. They still had a D-rank boss to kill to erase all traces of the double dungeon before they left.