Chapter 34: Ready to go!(2)

Min-hyuk looked at the system window with a faint smile, even as it pressured him.

It felt as though the moment he had been waiting for had finally arrived.

Just as there had been massive changes to the Korean server after he conquered the fifth floor, he had a hunch that clearing the ninth floor would trigger something new.

“Whew… Let’s do this.”

Shaking off the tension that gripped his body, Min-hyuk stepped through the gate.

He was instantly transported to an area where a gentle breeze rustled through the air and light shimmered everywhere.

**[You have reached Level 9. Your mana and physical abilities have increased significantly.]**

**[※ Cross the desert and reach the pillar of light.]**

**[※ Minimum clear condition: Reach the first point. — On the ninth floor, you can only exit from mid-way outposts.]**

**[As a reward for a Perfect Clear of floor 8, your affinity with light and fire elements has increased significantly.]**

**[Floor 8 exploration is complete. Through the Blessing of the Desert, your earth elemental power has increased significantly.]**

Min-hyuk felt the mana surging through his body and looked straight ahead.

The pillar of light he had seen after clearing the eighth floor had seemed impossibly distant, but from here, it didn’t feel quite so far.

“So, this is how it feels.”

He had heard from other hunters who had entered the ninth floor that merely standing on the boundary would cause the monsters of the grasslands to glare and stay on guard.

The scene unfolding before him was exactly as described.

The creatures that had been running freely all stopped at once, their gazes fixed on Min-hyuk.

They glared at him with such intensity that he could practically read their thoughts: they were waiting for him to step onto the grass so they could swarm and crush him.

Between the rows of monsters, small sparks of light flickered.

“There it is.”

From the first point of light, which served as the minimum clear condition, several beacons rose at intervals, acting as a guide toward the final pillar of light.

Unlike the relatively close first point, the second cluster of light was a vast distance away.

It was the tower’s way of warning him: if he didn’t want to die, he should give up once he reached the first point.

‘Did they say to time the run?’

The standard method for hunters on the ninth floor was to wait until the herds of horses moved as far away from the first point as possible before making a dash for it.

However, Min-hyuk did not do that.

The areas where the light leaked out — the outposts — were designed to make a person take a detour to reach the pillar.

Min-hyuk stood straight, facing the direction that would take him there in the shortest distance possible.

‘A straight line.’

In an instant, the countless lines visible to Min-hyuk began to stretch out in a straight path toward the shortest distance, responding to his will.

Normally, even with this resolve, several lines would have remained, but now it was different.

As if to prove how much he had grown, only a single, thick line stretched out before him.

“Whew…”

Min-hyuk exhaled a long breath to release the tension and gathered mana in his legs.

Simultaneously, the monsters on the grassland began to stir their own mana.

*Crunch!*

He exerted force into his legs, gouging the sand as his body launched toward the grassland.

Immediately, the monsters that had been poised to pounce began to charge.

The zebras were the first to react.

As if they couldn’t forgive an intruder, the massive herd surged forward, their mana manifesting into a collective form.

Though the fighting spirit of each individual was weak, the total sum of their combined aura was stronger than a boss-level monster.

Had he entered while they were scattered and grazing like other hunters, he wouldn’t have faced such a powerful, coordinated attack.

But he had no regrets.

The current Min-hyuk possessed more than enough power to handle it.

“Hah!”

He violently swung the greatsword in his right hand, slicing through the fighting spirit.

A zebra leading the pack lunged at him with fierce speed.

Acting on reflex, Min-hyuk spun and swung his blade at the horse as it bore down on him with immense momentum.

*Slice!*

In a single stroke, its head was sent flying.

Min-hyuk stepped off the collapsing body of the zebra and leaped into the air.

Perhaps due to their momentum, the entire herd of zebras exchanged glances as they looked up at the airborne Min-hyuk.

They wanted to stop, but they knew that doing so abruptly would cause an even bigger pileup.

The herd quickly pivoted, planning to circle back and strike from behind.

It was a sensible decision, given that many other predators on this grassland were also targeting him.

“Buffaloes next?”

The moment he landed on the ground, he saw a herd of buffaloes charging from the distance.

A group of gazelles approached from the right, while rhinoceroses swarmed from the left.

Even a flock of ostriches was closing in from behind.

‘Are they trying to surround me?’

The creatures that usually moved in separate cycles were now forming a perimeter with the sole intent of killing him.

Unlike before, however, he felt no fear.

Rather, he was curious to see how far he could go.

The difference in level between floors six through nine wasn’t that massive.

The monkeys on the sixth floor had been tricky because of the jungle and their fruit bombs.

The seventh floor featured schools of fish and marine monsters that utilized the sea.

The eighth floor had been difficult due to the desert monsters, their venom, and the urgency of the approaching sandstorms.

If he had faced even the giant desert elephants a few at a time, he would have hunted them easily.

The ninth floor was at that same level.

It was only difficult because the monsters moved in much larger numbers.

In comparison, Min-hyuk had grown steadily.

He was far more powerful than when he had conquered the eighth floor.

Determined to face the stampeding buffaloes head-on like a madman, he poured mana into his greatsword and swung it horizontally.

“Moo…?”

One buffalo, wearing a dazed expression, was sliced apart and collapsed.

Immediately, the buffaloes beside it were also cut down in a line.

The ones following behind tripped over the leaders and began to tumble over one another.

*Rumble!*

With a thunderous roar, the buffaloes became a tangled mess.

Seeing this, the other monsters hesitated.

They realized that the human they were trying to hunt was anything but ordinary.

‘He isn’t prey.’

They had thought him a weak human they could drive off the grassland in an instant if they pooled their strength.

But after that single strike, their perception shifted — this human might be a hunter capable of slaughtering them all.

Reading their fear, Min-hyuk smiled.

He stopped running for a moment and looked across the grassland.

When he first entered, it felt like an African savanna, but now it looked different.

“Is this a ranch?”

He felt like a butcher standing in the middle of a ranch that raised various animals.

*Screeech!*

Whether it was offended by its own fear or simply aggressive, an ostrich shrieked and sprinted toward Min-hyuk.

Following its lead, the other monsters forming the encirclement also began to charge.

Watching them, Min-hyuk started running forward again.

Seeing the man who had looked ready to kill them all now “fleeing,” the monsters grew even more emboldened.

Min-hyuk stole a glance at the swarming monsters that had fallen for his bait and let out a small smile.

‘Mobbing.’

He didn’t know what would appear later, but if they were at this level, he planned to gather them all and finish them in one go.

It was a chore to hunt down animals that scattered in fear.

It was much easier to pretend to be weak, draw them in, and wipe them out all at once.

Soon, a fierce pursuit unfolded as Min-hyuk dashed across the grassland with the monsters hot on his heels.

*Thump, thump, thump!*

The high-speed chase shook the very earth, sounding like a large-scale war.

In an instant, they reached a point where a small fortress built beneath the pillar of light was visible.

Just then, a group of dairy cows moved to block Min-hyuk’s path.

However, something was strange. Instead of running on four legs, these cows were standing on two and holding clubs.

“Moo!”

“Ha.”

Absurd as it was, Min-hyuk stopped running.

He confirmed the rest of the monsters were following and began to expand the mana concentrated in his legs to his entire body, preparing for a true dance of blades.

The monsters realized too late that the threat they had sensed earlier was real, but it was far too late to run.

Min-hyuk’s strike was already splitting the front line in half.

Diving into the chaos of the crumbling formation, Min-hyuk began his hunt in earnest.

“Moo!”

“Pawooo!”

“Whinny!”

Min-hyuk danced with his blade among the monsters trying to stand and flee.

Even he couldn’t catch every single fleeing creature, so his “dance” ended sooner than expected.

He clicked his tongue in disappointment, staring at the monsters scattering in all directions. Just then…

“Moo!”

He saw a group of dairy cows kneeling and lying flat on the ground.

Min-hyuk retracted his killing intent with an exasperated expression.

At that, the cows stood up one by one and began to gather the monster corpses scattered around the area.

They even put on a performance, trembling piteously as if they were terrified of being killed.

“You guys… can you also milk yourselves?”

Knowing they might not understand, he pulled a slime bottle from his sub-space and tossed it to them.

Being quick-witted, the cows took the hint and began to milk themselves, filling the slime bottles to the brim.

Hundreds of bottles of milk were produced, and the corpses were piled high in one area.

The cows then looked at Min-hyuk with wide, watery eyes.

“Moo?”

They looked as if they were asking, ‘Are you still going to kill us?’

Min-hyuk chuckled and tossed his greatsword back into his sub-space.

The cows went a step further, providing a service by personally moving the corpses and the slime bottles into the sub-space rift that had opened behind him.

“Good work.”

*Bow!*

At Min-hyuk’s words, the cows bowed deeply in unison as if thanking him for sparing their lives.

Leaving them behind, Min-hyuk stepped into the area of the light pillar, which looked like a small fortress.

In that moment, the system window appeared.

**[You have successfully completed a Perfect Clear of floors 1 through 9!]**

**[As a reward, and limited to the Korean server, additional rewards will be granted based on the conquest rate of floors 6 through 9.]**

**[Additional materials will be generated on floors 6 through 9.]**

**[Floor 6: Fruit and plant-type monsters added.]**

**[Floor 7: Marine monsters added.]**

**[Floor 8: Oases and rock salt zones added.]**

**[Floor 9: The golden fields change to wheat, sugarcane, and rice.]**

“That’s a lot.”

The rewards were as massive as he had expected.

However, it seemed that achieving a Perfect Clear for all the single-digit floors was an even greater achievement than he had realized.

The rewards weren’t over yet.

**[Limited to the Korean server, quests to receive special rewards for floors 2 through 9 will be created, similar to floor 1.]**

**[Safe zones will be established on each floor according to the Korean server’s conquest rate. (※ Ranching and farming are possible within safe zones.)]**

Even Min-hyuk’s eyes widened at the incredible rewards.

He reread the notifications several times to make sure he hadn’t misread them.

Just then, as if to say it wasn’t over, another system window popped up.

**[A special quest for the 10th floor has been sent to the conqueror who achieved a Perfect Clear of floors 1 through 9.]**

**[Prevent the swarming enemies and repair the collapsed bridge. — Solo Quest]**

**[Reward: Conquerors on floors 10 through 19 can visit floors 1 through 9.]**

**[Reward 2: Colonization possible. Depending on the conquest rate, hunters from neighboring countries on floor 9 and below may visit the Korean Tower.]**

**[※ Permission from the base owner is required.]**

**[Reward 3: As long as the base (conquest rate) is maintained, a portion of the transaction volume (1%) from base users can be collected as tax.]**

Min-hyuk stared at the system window with wide eyes, stunned by the massive rewards attached to the quest.

**[Will you challenge this quest?]**

Normally, a hunter would move on after reaching the growth limit of floors one through nine.

That would allow them to dominate with even more overwhelming power.

The system had offered this special quest on the premise that he would challenge it right now.

The risk would be greater than his original plan, but the rewards were too significant to hesitate.

“Fine.”