The moment permission was granted, the gate to the 16th Floor opened.
A brilliant white light enveloped Min-hyeok’s body, pulling him toward his next destination.
As the sensation of being forcefully dragged vanished, he exhaled a long breath and looked ahead.
Just like when the Goblin army had been present, wooden fortresses were visible in various places.
For a moment, Min-hyeok looked back, wondering if he was still on the 15th Floor.
Behind him lay the debris of the Goblin fortress he had already destroyed.
“Is this the same place from back then?”
It was a sight he had not seen during his repeated clears.
It was the landscape he had witnessed when he defeated the Goblin Lord, who had successfully performed the Descent of God during the Special Quest.
Relieved, Min-hyeok turned his head and murmured as he surveyed the surroundings.
“So, is this Orc territory from here on out?”
He frowned as he looked at a red flag decorated with skulls planted before him.
At that moment, System Windows began to appear before his eyes.
[**You have reached Level 16. Your Mana and physical abilities have increased significantly.**]
[**By clearing the Special Quest, you have caused a major change to the 15th Floor and below. Additional Mana and physical abilities are granted based on the scale of the current changes.**]
[**Main Quest: Subjugate the Orc Lord!**]
[**Sub-quest: Liberation!**]
[**※ Free the residents of another world who have been enslaved after being defeated by the Orcs!**]
[**Skill Quest: Find additional clues regarding the materialization of Fighting Spirit!**]
[**※ A portion of the Fighting Spirit created by the Goblin Lord has been engraved into your body. Find the remaining methods by observing how the Orcs use their Fighting Spirit.**]
[**Base Special Quest: Liberate the Mine!**]
[**※ Liberate the mine occupied by the Orcs! Upon clearing the quest, the oppressed demi-humans in the mine will become part of your Base and assist you.**]
His Mana and physical abilities had surged again just by reaching the 16th Floor.
However, because an even greater amount of Mana was being hammered into his body all at once, his head felt dizzy, as if he were being oversupplied with oxygen.
“Whew…”
Min-hyeok exhaled a long breath and quietly adapted to the changes occurring in his body.
It was then that the sound of drums echoed from far away, as if signaling the start of a battle.
*Boom! Boom-boom!*
The sound carried a special Mana wavelength, allowing the drumming from beyond the mountains to reach this far.
It seemed the drums did not merely signal the start of combat, as shouts began to erupt from all across the mountain range.
Fascinatingly, each shout was laced with Mana, causing the very air to tremble.
“Is there… something else?”
Thinking that this was likely for more than just raising morale, he stepped across the boundary line.
It was as if they had been waiting for Min-hyeok to cross.
Flames began to erupt from the mountain peaks.
Signal fires announced the arrival of an intruder, and fire arrows soared into the sky from all directions.
The drums of war grew louder.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
Shouts rose in rhythm with the drumming, creating a strange flow of Mana throughout the entire mountain range.
Seeing this, Min-hyeok recalled the evaluations of Orcs he had seen on the Hunter Net.
*A well-trained army.*
*Warriors who utilize Mana and Fighting Spirit effectively.*
*Their pure application of Fighting Spirit is superior to monsters in their 20s.*
There were many such assessments.
The only reason they remained monsters in the 10s was purely due to their “weight class.”
No matter how good one’s combat techniques were, it was difficult to overcome an overwhelming difference in Mana capacity and physical ability.
Against monsters that possessed massive amounts of Mana proportional to their giant physiques, being slightly better at combat techniques held little meaning.
Furthermore, the System usually arranged things so that Hunters would only hunt a few at a time, preventing them from grouping into an army.
But Min-hyeok was different.
Because his starting point had been placed in such a terrible location, the enemies had more than enough time to gather.
Like his battle against the Goblins, he had to face those coming at him in army-sized units all by himself.
‘This is going to be tough.’
A groan escaped him at the thought that this would be even harder than the fight against the Goblins.
Contrary to his sound, however, Min-hyeok’s eyes were already preparing for the battle against the swarming enemies.
He utilized the information about Orcs he had memorized from strategy guides, the patterns he had identified through clear videos, and his perception of the Orcs’ levels by spreading his Mana around the area.
Based on all the information he could gather before the fight began, illusions were generated in his mind.
Simultaneously, numerous lines spread out based on the senses Min-hyeok perceived.
“They’re coming.”
The moment he muttered those words to himself, a sharply honed axe flew toward his body.
*Thwack!*
As he lightly dodged, axes and butcher knives began to fly at him from everywhere.
The weapons looked crude, with handles roughly tied with cloth and some still stained with blood.
They seemed poor enough that Min-hyeok could shatter them with his own weapon, but the power contained within them could not be ignored.
‘They contain Fighting Spirit.’
Min-hyeok could also release Fighting Spirit and compress it to fire it over a distance.
He was already somewhat proficient through basic applications.
However, the Fighting Spirit contained in the weapons he had just dodged was of a different kind.
Normally, the power of a Fighting Spirit discharge decreases rapidly as the distance increases because the energy scatters in all directions while in flight.
However, the Fighting Spirit in the Orcs’ weapons retained its full power.
It was like seeing a glimpse of the power the Goblin Lord had shown through the Descent of God.
And that was not the only surprising part.
*Boom! Boom-boom!*
“Uwaaaaah!”
The drums sounded again, and the Orcs began to swarm in with a collective roar.
The strange thing was that as the sound drew closer, the Fighting Spirit of the Orcs began to fill the area around Min-hyeok.
“Uwaaaa!”
‘Is the sound acting as a medium?’
The Orcs’ Fighting Spirit began to settle heavily in the surroundings, making it feel as if they were creating the optimal dueling ground where they could fight at their best.
‘I’ll have a lot to learn.’
Min-hyeok smiled unconsciously and charged toward the Orcs that were beginning to surround him in earnest.
*Clang!*
While Min-hyeok blocked an attack with his axes, an Orc wielding a spear lunged at him.
Min-hyeok twisted his waist in a movement bordering on instinct, dodged, spun, and took off the Orc’s head.
Immediately, another Orc swung a hammer filled with Fighting Spirit, looking as if it intended to blow away everything in the vicinity.
*K-boom!*
Min-hyeok, who had leaped into the air with the explosion, wore a faint smile.
In just that single exchange, he had clearly grasped the difference between Goblins and Orcs.
Goblins covered their individual weakness with a well-trained military formation.
Conversely, Orcs covered their relatively weaker individual power through solidarity born from honed combat senses.
They both used numbers to supplement individual weaknesses, but their dispositions were completely different.
Unlike Goblins, where the commander’s competence stood out, Orcs moved according to instinct.
They were an elite army formed through bonds forged over long periods of fighting together.
As if to prove it, even without specific orders, they launched a coordinated attack using different weapons to corner Min-hyeok.
An Orc wielding a sword, the fastest-moving weapon, jumped forward.
Meanwhile, other Orcs threw small hand axes imbued with Fighting Spirit.
Right behind them, an Orc carrying a hammer leaped up to deliver a massive finishing blow.
*Boom!*
Min-hyeok twisted his body to dodge the hand axes and parried the sword, but in the end, he could not avoid the hammer while in midair and was sent flying back.
Even though he had used Fighting Spirit to defend, the impact was enough to make his internals feel as if they had been shaken.
Yet, rather than a grimace, a bright smile was plastered on Min-hyeok’s face.
“This is good.”
Unlike the Goblins he had hunted easily in the beginning, this felt tough from the very start, but that was why he liked it more.
He felt that by overcoming this crisis, he would become one level stronger.
Thinking that he might once again feel the sensation of rapid growth he had experienced after reaching the 10th Floor, Min-hyeok laughed and charged back at the enemy.
“Uwaaaa!”
Were they afraid of Min-hyeok as he rushed at them with such a terrifying aura?
The Orcs flinched for a moment but then let out a collective shout to drive away their fear, charging at him as a group.
Their combined shouts became a harmony that dominated the surroundings.
However, that was not the only force pressing down on Min-hyeok.
The axes they threw, the corpses of the warriors who had died by Min-hyeok’s hand, and the blood of their comrades—the Fighting Spirit remaining in all of these reacted to the warriors’ shouts, tightening around Min-hyeok.
‘Is it sorcery?’
The strange patterns engraved on the Orcs’ bodies reacted to each other’s Fighting Spirit, creating a dueling ground that pressured the enemy while empowering their allies.
Even after death, the Orcs played a role in empowering their comrades.
They were the very definition of warriors.
However, even a dueling ground created through such noble sacrifice was meaningless before overwhelming power.
“…Yes. This was the feeling.”
It was the feeling Min-hyeok had when he fought the Goblin Lord using the Butcher’s Blade Dance.
Unfortunately, he had not been able to feel it during the repeated quests because the Goblin Lord there was not the same one from the Special Quest who had sacrificed everything to manifest a god.
Furthermore, because he had not cleared the 12th to 15th Floors all at once, the difficulty had been lower.
Perhaps that was why Min-hyeok, who was experiencing that long-lost sensation from the very beginning, muttered with a look of enjoyment.
“Have I managed to catch up a little?”
Min-hyeok recalled the overwhelming movements of the illusions created by the Butcher’s Blade Dance and shook his head in dissatisfaction.
Min-hyeok currently had one goal: to imitate the sword dance from his fight against the Goblin Lord before he could officially use the skill again.
He wanted to feel that sensation more, but his surroundings were already filled with Orc corpses.
“It is only the beginning.”
The battle that had felt burdensome moments ago began to fill him with anticipation.
As if he had finally warmed up, Mana settled throughout his body, and the Fighting Spirit leaking out naturally began to take shape.
*Boom! Boom-boom!*
At the sound of the drums echoing once more, Min-hyeok reflexively began to run toward the source.
Then, shouting loudly, even more Orcs than before swarmed toward him.
“Good!”
Smiling at the approaching enemies, he moved toward them with even greater speed.
Unlike the Goblins, these enemies collided with him in a straightforward manner.
Unlike those who had tried to defeat him with all sorts of traps and tactical movements, the Orcs’ bellicose behavior allowed Min-hyeok to purely enjoy the battle without stress.
Perhaps that was why Min-hyeok’s eyes were gradually becoming dyed in red.
As they did, he became even more daring, and the Fighting Spirit he discharged became rougher.
“De… mon…”
The Orc who had been beating the drum until the very end looked at Min-hyeok with eyes full of terror.
This was a monstrous being that had slaughtered his comrades in an instant, as if butchering them in a slaughterhouse.
There was no respect for the warriors.
The human simply swung his blade with chilling precision, as if he were butchering animals for a meal.
That made the Orc even more afraid, but even as a drummer, he was still a warrior.
Suppressing his fear, he picked up the large axe he had left beside the drum and channeled his Mana.
Even if he could not hone his Fighting Spirit properly, and even if he was not recognized as a perfect warrior, he charged toward the demon-like human to prove that he too was a comrade-in-arms.
*Slash!*
Unlike his life-risking charge, the Orc collapsed fruitlessly.
Leaving yet another corpse behind him, Min-hyeok’s two eyes were already fixed on his next enemy.