Late afternoon, the sun was slowly setting, dyeing the sky red.
It would soon be evening, but the Adventurer Guild was still bustling with adventurers.
“Yes, Adventurer! Here is your request form.”
Just as one adventurer reached for the dungeon request form the receptionist was handing him—
“A fledgling like this is entering a dungeon?”
A hand suddenly shot out and snatched the request form.
The man quickly scanned the request form and smirked at the receptionist.
“Wasn’t this dungeon Bronze-rank just a few days ago? Then why did its rank suddenly drop?”
The dungeon written on the request form was indeed one that had been downgraded from Bronze-rank to Iron-rank.
“It is a matter decided by the Guild. I do not have the authority to discuss it with you.”
The receptionist, Ralli, replied in a cold voice.
In truth, she didn’t know why that dungeon’s rank had dropped either.
She had simply obeyed because the branch manager ordered it so. But she wasn’t so tactless as to say that outright.
“And please return that request form immediately!”
Despite Ralli’s demand, the man pocketed the request form.
“I’ll put this to good use myself. There aren’t many dungeons we can go to these days, are there? They’ve blocked off the areas near the Demon Realm.”
“That’s because you, Sir Marcel, are not a Silver Badge adventurer.”
The Seil Kingdom was surrounded by a large mountain range to the north. Crossing that mountain range led one to enter the Demon Realm proper.
The Demon Realm.
It was a land of death swarming with monsters and dungeons.
In such a place, nothing that happened was strange. Those who set foot there without fear never returned.
Thus, the Adventurer Guild imposed one restriction.
They issued permits for dungeon requests in the Demon Realm only to adventurers of at least Silver-rank.
Of course, the minimum requirement was being a Silver-rank adventurer.
Possessing a Silver Badge didn’t mean one could travel the entire Demon Realm. The limit was, at best, the outskirts.
And Marcel before her was not a Silver-rank adventurer.
He wasn’t even Bronze-rank, but Iron-rank.
‘You’re a fledgling too.’
Ralli thought to herself.
It was absurd for the Iron-rank Marcel to call another adventurer a fledgling.
But Marcel didn’t back down.
“Ah, that’s why I brought someone I know.”
As soon as Marcel finished speaking, a man who had been behind him revealed himself.
The man was wearing a robe and held a staff in one hand.
Anyone could easily tell he was a mage.
“Stop it, Marcel.”
“Yes, Boss!”
At the man’s single word, the chattering Marcel immediately shut his mouth.
After confirming Marcel had quieted down, the man went straight to the receptionist.
He took out a Silver Badge from inside his clothes.
“Do you happen to have a suitable dungeon?”
A Silver Badge adventurer had appeared.
Ralli verified the Silver Badge.
“Your name is… ah, Kim… Minjun, is that right?”
“Yes! Our Boss is someone who came from another world! He’s even a great mage!”
Marcel, who had reappeared at his side, puffed up proudly.
Ralli had guessed as soon as she saw the name.
The name Kim Minjun was not one commonly heard on the continent.
‘It was probably that place called Earth.’
When had it started?
People had begun coming to the continent of Eldorad from other worlds.
They had appeared quite a long time ago—to the extent that even children in small villages knew of beings from other worlds.
Of course, Ralli, in her position as a receptionist at the Adventurer Guild, had to be well-informed about the world. At the same time, she wasn’t unfamiliar with the fact that her counterpart came from another world.
There were actually people from other worlds among adventurers.
“If you are looking for a dungeon in the Demon Realm…”
The man was a Silver Badge adventurer.
And usually, adventurers of that rank preferred dungeons in the Demon Realm, even if they were dangerous.
This tendency was especially strong among adventurers in the Seil Kingdom, which was close to the Demon Realm.
Ralli began checking the request forms.
After rummaging for a while, she soon bowed her head.
“I apologize. Currently, there are no dungeons remaining in the outskirts of the Demon Realm…”
The timing was bad.
All the dungeons in the outskirts of the Demon Realm had already been assigned.
What remained were dungeons deep within the Demon Realm, places that Silver Badge adventurers could not enter.
“None of that matters! Our Boss is someone who will soon possess a Gold Badge!”
“Marcel.”
Marcel piped up again before immediately closing his mouth.
But Marcel’s words were true.
Kim Minjun currently possessed a Silver Badge, but he had the power to rise to Gold-rank at any time.
His trait was Mana Sense.
It was the ability to sense and read mana better than others.
It was an A-rank trait.
“Then, the request form Marcel snatched—can we have it? It doesn’t seem like there’s anyone to claim it anyway.”
“Ah.”
The rookie adventurer who was the original owner of the request form had already disappeared.
But there was one more problem.
“That dungeon is Iron-rank, isn’t it?”
It was a dungeon that didn’t match Kim Minjun’s level.
She asked out of courtesy, but the man shook his head.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Ralli reluctantly nodded and transferred the rights to Kim Minjun.
“As expected of the Boss!”
Marcel bowed at the waist as if in admiration.
But Kim Minjun spoke indifferently.
“Understood? Then take care of your party members. Prepare yourselves; we depart in the evening.”
“The evening? Wouldn’t that be too late?”
Even if it wasn’t the Demon Realm, the mountain range adjacent to the Seil Kingdom was dangerous.
It was late today, so wouldn’t it be better to leave early tomorrow morning instead?
“It doesn’t matter, so don’t talk back.”
“Yes.”
Kim Minjun’s insistence on departing in the evening raised questions for Marcel. But he soon brushed them from his mind.
After all, Kim Minjun was a Silver-rank adventurer.
No matter how rugged the mountain range was, it wouldn’t matter to him.
And the dungeon they would enter was, at best, Iron-rank.
There wasn’t much significance to what time they entered, so Marcel rubbed his hands together and flattered him.
“Truly, our Boss is incredible!”
And he headed to where his party was.
For Marcel and his party, there was no reason to refuse when a Silver-rank adventurer was accompanying them into a dungeon.
‘Including Marcel, that makes four.’
The number of Marcel and his party totaled four.
Two men and two women.
In truth, Kim Minjun didn’t care what dungeon it was.
Rather, he preferred this current Iron-rank dungeon over one in the Demon Realm.
‘Since I have to kill them all anyway, an easy place is better.’
From the very beginning, Kim Minjun had intended to kill not only the dungeon monsters but also Marcel and his party.
He had approached them for that very purpose.
He had now been on the continent of Eldorad for barely two months.
Before being summoned to the continent, he had worked as a Hunter on Earth.
Ordinarily, Hunters were those who entered dungeons and hunted monsters, but he was different.
Kim Minjun was a villain who hunted Hunters.
His Hunter grade was C-rank.
In truth, even this was a grade he received while hiding his true strength.
His A-rank trait, Mana Sense.
Because he could freely manipulate mana, he could tamper with mana assessments.
He could have received at least B-rank, but he deliberately got C-rank.
There was a reason for this.
The perception of a C-rank Hunter was exactly a middle grade—not high, not low.
Thanks to this, even when Kim Minjun went around killing Hunters, he could avoid suspicion.
Among the serially murdered Hunters, there were even a few B-rank Hunters.
No one would have thought a C-rank Hunter was the murderer.
But a long tail is bound to get stepped on.
Eventually, his crimes were exposed, and Kim Minjun became a fugitive from the government and the guild.
‘Well, I was lucky. To be summoned at just the right time.’
At the moment when the Hunters trying to capture him were tightening their net.
He was summoned to the continent of Eldorad.
If he had been caught there, he wouldn’t have died a clean death, but to come to Eldorad with such good timing.
Moreover, the continent of Eldorad had a far richer mana density than Earth.
For someone with the Mana Sense trait, this meant his potential for growth was higher than on Earth.
If he grew here and returned to Earth, there would be no one who could stop him.
Kim Minjun thought as much.
Of course, separate from growing stronger, he hadn’t stopped killing since coming here.
Rather, with less surveillance, he ran even more rampant than on Earth.
The reason he harmed others?
There was no such reason.
It was simply entertainment.
Whether on Earth or here on the continent of Eldorad, he prioritized only his own amusement.
Kim Minjun used the method of approaching rookie adventurers under the guise of his Silver Badge. The moment they entered the dungeon together, he killed them.
It was the perfect crime.
Of course, if he kept this up, he would get caught eventually.
But it didn’t matter.
By then, no one would be able to oppose him.
Kim Minjun was confident he would become far stronger than he was now.
“There were two women in the party, right?”
Kim Minjun smiled as he pictured the faces of the women in the party.
He was already looking forward to it.
No matter how much he enjoyed murder, he was still a man.
‘Time to relieve some pent-up urges.’
Evening would soon fall.
When darkness fell outside, he would take them and head for the dungeon.
From then on, a world of his own making would unfold.
“Heh.”
He believed it without the slightest doubt.
* * *
The dungeon’s appearance had changed completely not long ago.
The dungeon’s structure had changed, and the types and number of monsters had increased greatly.
All of this was a miracle wrought by the Great Being.
As his lieutenant, Celia felt joy at these changes, yet also a bitter emotion.
“I have relied on the Master’s power yet again…”
None other than the Master had directly used His power.
Until now, Celia had expanded the dungeon and stopped intruders through her own trade with the merchants.
She had thought that alone meant she was doing well, but it seemed she had been mistaken.
“If only I had done a little better…”
Celia rebuked herself to the point of self-reproach.
But she soon shook her head and clenched her fist tightly.
“Of course, the Master must have done it out of consideration for us.”
The Master was a merciful being.
Perhaps He had used His power directly for the sake of those in the dungeon.
Otherwise, would He have provided houses for the goblins to live in and created a space for one as insignificant as herself?
He had even taken care to create a space for the captured human adventurers.
How could all this be explained if not by the mercy of the Great Being?
“Ah, thank you.”
A Skeleton Soldier handed Celia a warm cup of tea.
This too was a monster the merciful Master had assigned as an extension of Himself.
“That’s right. I have no reason to lose heart.
All I need to do is continue doing my best going forward.”
Clack.
The Skeleton beside her nodded its head in affirmation.
At that sight, Celia smiled.
Yes, what good would it do to sulk?
She had to pick herself up again.
“But I don’t even have a decent offering to give the Master…”
A small altar stood at the end of the dungeon.
It was the only space to present offerings to the Master.
The Master had used His power directly for their sake, yet she had been unable to offer a single sacrifice to Him.
She had originally intended to offer the artifact that the adventurers who had intruded a few days ago had possessed, particularly the one the female adventurer had.
But would He truly be pleased with such an artifact?
Absolutely not.
The Master is a Great Being.
Such an artifact wouldn’t satisfy Him in the slightest.
“As expected, it would be best to offer a human as a sacrifice.”
An offering of a living human might be better than an artifact.
But these adventurers were a dud.
One had died instantly, and another had become a ghoul.
The female adventurer was toiling for the dungeon. Of course, this was being forced upon her, but from Celia’s standpoint, it was irrelevant.
“I wish someone would come soon.”
The next opponent would definitely become an offering for the Master.
There could be no greater honor than to be offered to the Great Being.
“If possible, of the highest quality.”
Even among humans, there was a clear difference between ordinary people and mages who could wield mana.
If choosing between the two, it was obvious who would be offered as a sacrifice.
Surely the Master would be satisfied as well.
With a proud heart, Celia eagerly awaited someone to enter the dungeon.