Outside the F-rank Gate, Derelict Courthouse of Judgment. Is the investigation task force of the Association, having finally reached their destination after they have been intercepted by the conspirator’s force. No actual death on their side but a lot of them ended up have to retire from their duty due to how brutal it was.
They wouldn’t have much of their own force left if it weren’t for one of the Association’s rising stars to be also included in the task force’s line up. Having dispatched their opponents, they made their haste toward the designated Gate that Jihoon has given the coordination.
The grizzled D-rank looks with dismay at the F-rank Gate. He can only hope that he isn’t too late.
“Sung Jiwoon. You will rout any Gate monster that comes your way. Your task is to eliminate the leading Hunters who planned this subjugation, save the F-rankers who unknowingly joined this Gate unaware of the danger. And most importantly, find this guy in the picture”. The D-rank Hunter said as he presents the picture of Jihoon to the rising star.
A girl with long jet-black hair, dressed in modest jeans and a shirt. Wielding dual daggers in both hands and a belt of throwing knives across her waist. She looked at the picture with familiarity as if she somewhat remembered the person in the picture but returned to the usual cold demeanor that she has.
"And the turncoats responsible for orchestrating this massacre?" Her tone remained carefully measured, but carried a razor edge.
The D-rank's face twisted into a mask of disgust. "If they're still among the living, we bring them in by any means necessary. Extreme prejudice is authorized and encouraged."
He braced his warhammer, giving Jiwoon a sidelong look. "You're our best shot at cutting through that unholy ruckus and getting to Hyunwoon before it's too late. I'll rally what's left of the task force in order"
With no hesitation, the task force made their entrance.
A thunderous explosion drowned out his words as a massive section of the Gate ruptured outward in a billowing shockwave of rubble. They dove for cover, shielding their eyes against the debris maelstrom until the worst had passed.
As the dust settled, they caught sight of a horrifying scene - what remained of the rookie Hunters scattered in battered disarray, cowering from an implacable titan of antique steel amid the ruins. Its halberd moved with the inexorable finality of a executioner's blade as it advanced, clearly singling out specific individuals among the hapless rookies for its wrath.
"By the god..." the D-rank swore, recognizing the telltale markings and gear born by the judicator's targets. "That's no mere rampaging boss monsters. It's gunning for the turncoats behind this whole soul-harvesting debacle!"
Jiwoon was already in motion, knives whirling in a blurred cyclone as she charged headlong toward the chaos. The D-rank quickly followed suit, hammer leading true alongside his most capable Hunters.
No matter the collateral damage compounding this situation, one thing was clear that their reckoning had arrived, and truth and justice would be met this fateful day. No matter how high the cost it may be.
Back to Jihoon, who is now separated entirely from everyone else can only walk his way through the ruined judicial hall. He can only pray that Jin is alright. Yet, the undead are unusually absent from here onward and he couldn’t think of a reason why.
The surroundings changed once more as down the hall is a line of armored suits by the wall, each armed with the same halberd as the knight in the grand courthouse before. But unlike before, there is no one in these decayed armors.
Jihoon lets out a sigh of relief until someone just crossed his path. Of all the people, it has to be that sinister leading D-ranker. His body is stained in blood that doesn’t belong to him which is impossible when the monsters here are all undead.
And as if to dispel any doubt, the D-ranker’s killing intent is aimed directly at him. As if to drop the façade now that the raid team has been broken apart by the judicator, the apparent malice and greed unbound beneath has completely erased any trace of humanity in that D-ranker.
Jihoon draws his halberd against the D-ranker’s maul. He knew that his record against such an opponent wasn’t so stellar, but a stand has to be made and it is now.
"So, the little songbird has found his way into the shadows," the D-ranker sneered, hefting his wicked maul. "I have to admit, I didn't expect one of you feeble-minded rookies to catch on to our operation."
Jihoon's grip tightened around his halberd's shaft as the haunting memories of the gate delve resurfaced. The anomalous threats, the conspiratorial air surrounding the deployment itself - all had pointed to this sick, depraved truth.
"You sacrificed your own people," he bit out, jaw clenched. "Traded innocent lives away like cattle just to amplify those boss monsters into sick loot pinatas!"
The D-ranker threw back his head with a bark of cruel laughter. "And for that, I'll be living like a king when this is all over!” His smile was a rictus gash, cruel eyes glittering with unfettered malice. "You really think a worthless scrap like you is going to stop us from reaping what we've sown?"
Jihoon tensed as the fallen Hunter rushed him, maul swinging in a lethal arc. Their weapons met with a bone-jarring clang, the impact staggering Jihoon back a step. Every ounce of his being strained against the D-ranker's inhuman might as their blades ground together.
But Jihoon refused to falter, calling upon the wellsprings of his magic. The dreadful introduction played as his character theme “Exceed!” played, lending steel to his resolve to overcome this twisted being. The sanctity of the Hunters' creed pitted against as this has become personal to him with Jin’s involvement.
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Exceed!
Classification: Song Magic
Rank: Intermediate
Effect:
-+75% to all Physical Attributes of self.
'A music piece composed of unyielding defiance. Even if one’s circumstances have fallen into misfortune and ill-fate, hope only remains if one lives with determination. To surpass the previous self of yesterday, one must overcome challenges of today and tomorrow with confidence in self.’
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
Blow by punishing blow, their duel raged. The abhorrent depravity its traitors had descended into made his disgust apparent. Again and again, Jihoon weathered the D-ranker's berserker onslaught, his halberd weaving in time with the soaring refrains of fighting spirit.
Somewhere in the distance, the echoes of fresh combat reached Jihoon's ears. He could only hope against hope that reinforcements were arriving, that this malignancy festering within could still be excised before it was too late.
Until then, his steadfast belief would have to light the path - a bastion of stalwart principle amidst the surrounding darkness. No matter how his muscles screamed in protest, Jihoon refused to yield even an inch against this twisted embodiment of corruption.
Jihoon felt his body screaming in protest with each parry and riposte, the D-ranker's inhuman might slowly overwhelming his defenses. A hairline fracture formed along his halberd's shaft from the relentless impacts. Gritting his teeth, Jihoon dredged up every last ounce of fortitude, fueling his retaliations with the thunderous refrains of "Exceed!".
Without realizing it, the grueling exertions of their duel were steadily pushing Jihoon's physical limits. His Strength edged up another increment as he deadlifted the halberd to deflect a bone-crushing overhand smash. Endurance crept higher with each ragged inhalation, stoking his battered body's reserves. Agility and Dexterity honed through the dance of evasions and reflexive counters.
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Name: Jihoon Hyunwoon
Level: 7
EXP: 252/281
Class: None
+Physical Attributes:
-STR: 5.9
-END: 5.9
-AGI: 5.9
-DEX: 5.9
+Non-physical Attributes:
-INT: 5.2
-CHA: 4
-MAG: 8
Attribute Points: 0
+Musical Prowess: Mid-Intermediate
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
______-----{////\\\\}-----______
-STR: 5.9 -> 6
-END: 5.9 -> 6
-AGI: 5.9 -> 6
-DEX: 5.9 -> 6
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
______-----{////\\\\}-----______
Quest completed!
Get Your Life Together
Difficulty: E
You have managed to get back to where you originally belong.
But remember, this is still only the beginning. Even still, any progress
meaningfully made is still deserve of celebration.
Objective:
-Raise all your Physical Attributes to 6 at minimum.
Reward: 2,000 EXP
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
Suddenly, a well spring of power burst within him. That quest from like a month ago which he has nearly forgotten after the incident of his first Gate delve, the meeting of his old friend Jin and the sacrificial operation that he got caught in its thrall. The reward effectively grants him 7 level up thus 7 Attribute Points to use in this instant.
Jihoon then proceeds to assign all of them into MAG stat, the number of the stat then swelled up into 15 which is the first to break into the double-digit threshold. Feeling the power of his Song Magic becomes stronger by nearly double. Jihoon takes action once more.
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Exceed!
Classification: Song Magic
Rank: Intermediate
Effect:
-+155% to all Physical Attributes of self.
'A music piece composed of unyielding defiance. Even if one’s circumstances have fallen into misfortune and ill-fate, hope only remains if one lives with determination. To surpass the previous self of yesterday, one must overcome challenges of today and tomorrow with confidence in self.’
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
Talk about a literal main character moment.
Immediately, the reverberating chords of "Exceed!" swelled with redoubled intensity, a crimson ember igniting into an incandescent inferno within Jihoon's soul. His body flooded with preternatural vigor, halberd strokes growing faster, heavier, more precise with each passing second.
The D-ranker's momentary lapse gave way to a snarl of frustrated rage as he realized the tables turning inexorably against him. Jihoon had shattered through his own mortal shackles as his calculated stat combined with ‘Exceed!’
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-STR: 6 (+9)
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
-END: 6 (+9)
-AGI: 6 (+9)
-DEX: 6 (+9)
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
One stat alone isn’t much. If 10 is the maximum of an unawakened individual such as deadlifters, sub-2-hour marathon runners or martial master pre-Gate. Having a 15 even in one attribute puts one into the threshold of E-rank Hunters.
However, having all 4 Physical Attributes being 15 makes them far more than the sum of their own parts. When an attack is imbued with all combined physical stats of 15 land, even that is going to retire a D-rank if it lands a critical blow.
The D-ranker barely had time to raise his maul in a desperate guard before Jihoon's halberd lashed out in a blur of exponentially amplified might. Steel rang against steel with a thunderous concussion that made the entire chamber quake.
But Jihoon's assault didn't relent, each empowered strike carrying the concentrated potential to shatter bone and pulverize armor like tinfoil. He battered aside the D-ranker's frantic blocks and parries, steadily breaking through his defenses with relentless, unstoppable force.
Finally, Jihoon saw his opening - a fractional gap in the D-ranker's guard as his foe made his misjudgment as he overcompensated for an overhead slash. Pouring every ounce of strength, speed, and precision behind one focused swing, Jihoon wrought his halberd's wicked blade straight into the traitor's midsection.
There was a sickening crunch of rending plate as the halberd punched through the D-ranker's defenses like they were papier-mâché and his halberd ruined equally on that forceful impact. Jihoon could feel the solid impact tremor up his arms as the corrupted Hunter's armor buckled and burst apart in shredded fragments, bloodied steel sinking deep into his abdomen.
A gargled scream tore from the D-ranker's throat as he stumbled back, hands clutching the impaling shaft in vain. Jihoon twisted the embedded blade with merciless finality, threatening to bisect his foe entirely at the waist as he glares into the D-ranker's wild, anguished eyes.
"You sacrificed your own to feed the boss monsters..." Jihoon hissed through gritted teeth. "Traded innocent souls like cattle to amplify them into loot-drunk pinatas. All for power and greed."
The D-ranker could only claw weakly at the protruding halberd as his lifeblood poured forth in torrents. "M-Mercy...I beg you..."
But Jihoon's stare was as cold and pitiless "You tried to corrupt everything the Hunter's Creed stands for...twisted it into some sadistic self-fulfillment for your own self-serving ends."
"My friend is somewhere out here because of your machinations...and who knows how many died sating your vile hunger." Jihoon said as the halberd's broken edge moves, further agonizing the crippled D-rank.
With a heaved motion of his entire body, Jihoon pulled the halberd out as blood flowed incessantly. Unable to move at all due to crippling pain that drowns out every faculty, the D-rank Hunter can only await his demise approach in slow motion as Jihoon prepare for an upward slash of his halberd.
As his halberd cleaved into the stone flooring itself, flexing every amplified muscle fiber to its utmost limit. Grinding sparks and screech of tearing alloy with just mere strength applied. The shaft itself bends as the potential kinetic force builds up within his halberd’s end.
Then once the halberd’s blade leaves the ground, it moved in an upward swing that left no room for observation. The D-rank’s body is bisected in half vertically with the sheer force applied. The halberd itself snapped from its shaft as it lodged into the D-ranker’s torn body.
Nothing left to say to the disgraced D-rank Hunter, Jihoon stared at the corpse strewn across the floor along with the rubble as a spreading pool of viscera formed underneath. And just as his enemy’s life ends, so too is the final cadence of ‘Exceed!’.
“I need to find Jin, fast”. Jihoon said as there is nothing left to recover of his broken halberd either way. Quickly leaving the scene as he tries to navigate the ruined hall that only becomes further broken as this delving goes on.
Back to the investigation task force, Sung Jiwoon having punched the judicator to death until the helmet crushed. Thus, terminating the remnant persisting life force within its undead husk. It is proven that it has been targeting those using the ill-gained equipment that gained from sacrificial boss.
But even with its death, the Gate didn’t terminate which proves that this isn’t a Gate Boss. If anything, it was only a or Elite Monster or a mid-stage boss in video game terms. Yet such a thing caused numerous damages to the dilapidated judicial hall and now the investigation task force has to be a lot more careful navigating the ruined hallway.
The grizzled D-rank made his inquiry of the remaining F-rank survivors about the situation and what happened.
The D-rank quickly gathered what remained of the battered F-rank Hunters, his grizzled features etched in a deep frown as he surveyed their bloodied, shell-shocked states.
"Alright, I need full sitreps, people. Don't leave anything out - we're dealing with powers way beyond anything you nuggets signed up for."
The F-rankers shared haunted looks, but one spoke up, voice wavering. "S-Sir, we were deployed as usual for a standard Subjugation op. But that damned knight...it singled out the veteran leadership like it could sniff out their corruption!"
The D-rank's frown deepened further. So the depraved turncoats' sacrificial operations had indeed tainted them in some perceptible, damning way. No wonder the ancient judicator had lashed out with such single-minded fury.
Another rookie piped up, nursing a badly wrenched arm. "It devastated our formations, divided us up like it was herding sheeps. We just kept getting separated further and further apart as the whole place started collapsing."
"Casualties?" The D-rank's tone was grim, already dreading the answer.
The F-rankers looked around at their diminished numbers, expressions haunted. "...We're all that's left, sir. The rest were cut off, buried under the rubble, or..." A tremor ran through the speaker's voice.
"We hunkered in what was left of the antechambers, just trying to stay out of that monster's path." The young man shook his head slowly. "Wasn't until your team breached through that the killing frenzy finally stopped. And that was just the opening bout by the looks of it..."
A deafening silence fell over the shattered hall. The D-rank worked his jaw tightly as he processed the foreboding implications. He exchanged a loaded look with Jiwoon, her knives already slipping back into her hands.
The D-rank grunted, gaze drifting to the path ahead where the courthouse ruins showed only increasing disrepair. "Then it stands to reason there's gotta be one concentrated hellhole up ahead. The focal point of corruption this whole place has been built around."
His eyes narrowed to blazing slits. "Jiwoon, take point and cut us a path to whatever malignancy is waiting at the heart of this place. The rest of you greeners, stay on my six and keep your wits about you. We're ending this perverted operation once and for all."
The D-ranker’s grip on his warhammer tightened. If his glove was off, one would see his wielding knuckle turned white from all the repressed fury.
Back to Jihoon, as he made through the decided path again. The supposed route that led to where the Gate Boss is. Then another courthouse that he just came across but smaller by comparison. And there’s another judicator knight at the center with its halberd stabbed into the ground.
Not wanting to go through the same ordeal again, Jihoon carefully makes his way around as he approaches the other exit away. Then when he opened the door, Jin was about to open it from the other side.
“Jin! Thank heaven that you’re alright. I do not want to imagine the scenario that I lose you forever”. Jihoon said as he tried to hold onto Jin.
“I thought that I lost you too”. Jin said that although he looks dirty, he is far from any harm that befalls him. Lucky simply didn’t cut it for the two of them to cross path again so soon.
And just as when they were about to leave the courthouse behind uneventfully. Jihoon suddenly felt a sharp gaze staring at him from the back, penetrating through even the wall itself. He knew that something just triggered that judicator but he was sure that he has none of such thing on him.
Before he could say anything to Jin. The judicator burst through the door as its halberd threaten to struck Jin down on the spot. Jihoon played ‘Exceed!’ again through his System as all of his physical attributes converged to barely deflect back the judicator’s powerful strike with his spiked hand-axe. The result sends him back reeling, but it has activated and designated them as sinners.
“Jin! Did you loot anything from the deceased D-ranker or special geared Hunters!?” Jihoon said as he utilized everything of his physical stats of 15 across the board to withstand the judicator.
Jin didn’t respond with anything as he seemed paralyzed in fear but that doesn’t seem to be the right description. The pallid complexion, the slightly too-wide eyes, the tremors wracking his limbs - it wasn't mere fear paralyzing his friend, but something far more insidious.
In that haunted gaze, Jihoon saw the reflection of his own private torment. A soul bearing scars invisible to the naked eye, psychic wounds inflicted by unfathomable cruelties and losses. Just what unspeakable trials had Jin endured to reduce him to this haunted shell of the man Jihoon once knew?
But as his friend remained frozen in that haunted, thousand-yard stare, Jihoon felt a pit of dread expanding in his gut. Disparate clues started clicking together like tumblers in a cosmic locked.
“Is your guitar case...” Before Jihoon could complete his question. Jin already replied.
“No… The guitar case is genuine but… I’m just as far gone as you can guess. 10 years, Jihoon, that amount of time can change someone by a lot”. Jin said as he seemingly grasps for something in his own shadow that cast by the ambiance light.
A breech-loader cartridge rifle emerged from the shadow as Jin extracted it. Already moving into standing firing stance, the judicator had no chance to retaliate as a streak of cerulean lanced forward like a runaway freight train. All that left behind is a cauterized tunnel-wound still sizzling that same cerulean flame.
The judicator crumbled, its immortal vigil ended by Jin’s shadow-wrought firearm.
Jihoon can feel his own psyche reeling as the spectral item’s description rolls into his mind’s eye.
______-----{////\\\\}-----______
Der Freischutz (The Freelancer)
Classification: Firearm
Rarity: Legend
ATK+: 108
An accursed firearm that changed forms numerously across history. Wrought by a promise that will only result in further misery. Seven bullets are dealt, six will fly true as its shooter’s desire and the last shot will be the devil’s.
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
Jihoon's mind reeled as he stared at the accursed firearm in Jin's grasp. As a composer who inevitably have to go through a lot of story to get their theme correctly, he can’t possibly not know about that Germanic folklore about the bullets that grant preternatural accuracy at a soul-rending price it has.
"Jin..." he started, voice trembling. "How...?"
His friend's expression was haggard, haunted. "You want to know the story, Jihoon? Fine, I'll give you the abridged version."
Jin's grip tightened around the shadowy rifle as he gathered himself. "Ten years ago, the Gates descended and tore our lives asunder. Arisen Studio was one of the first casualties, our entire livelihood snuffed out in an instant."
A muscle twitched in his jaw. "I tried to stick it out, make an honest go as the world came apart at the seams. Tried to make myself useful with what skills I had - because what else was there?"
He laughed then, a hollow bark devoid of mirth. "I got conscripted as a grunt laborer, part of teams sent to clear rubble, set up refugee camps. Pretty quickly, we became nothing more than bait for the encroaching monstrosities..."
Jin's gaze turned inward, reliving dark memories. "One such sweep, our entire convoy got ambushed. It came out of nowhere, this...abomination. Hunter teams already on site were getting butchered left and right before they could even mount a counterattack."
"I was the last one standing after it mowed through my squad. Just pure, blind luck that it has become weak enough after numerous sacrifices were made to it." His voice grew quieter. "It was toying with me at that point. Wanted to make the last soul it reaped suffer, I suppose. Didn’t expect that I found an anti-tank rocket launcher to do the thing in at the last moment."
Jihoon could feel the bile rising in his throat as Jin pressed on in a flat monotone. "I found this rifle just...lying there, in its blown up corpse. I didn't care at that point as I just wanted it to end. But little did I know that there really is a life worse than death await me when I take it"
A tremor passed through Jin's frame. "Just like that, a conscripted laborer had felled a boss-tier threat that butchered entire Hunter teams without breaking a sweat. And somewhere in the back of my mind, that depraved part of me thought - if I could do that by sheer chance, just imagine what I could achieve if I really tried..."
Jihoon's insides twisted as the terrible realizations crashed over him. Jin's harrowing brush with death, the way Der Freischutz appeared before him with seemingly impossible odds. Could that singular event have driven his friend down such a dark, winding path of obsession?
Jin seemed to read the horrified realization in Jihoon's expression. "I'm not asking for your forgiveness, old friend." His tone was laced with weary resignation. "After the things I've done to feed my hunger for power...I don't deserve it."
"Just know that I didn't want to drag you into this sick saga." He jerked his chin toward the open doorway. "Get out of here while you still can, Jihoon. I've already strayed too far into the abyss to ever find my way back."
Jihoon felt his throat constricting as a maelstrom of emotions warred within him. Part of him raged at Jin's descent into depravity, howled to bring his former friend to justice for whatever unnamable atrocities he had perpetrated.
Yet another part couldn't bear to simply abandon Jin to his self-appointed damnation. Not after everything they'd been through together, the bond forged over years of creative collaboration and musical kinship. There had to be a way to reach him, to pull him back from that bleak, shadowed brink...
Steeling himself, Jihoon stepped forward - only for Jin to raise Der Freischutz in rebuke. "Don't try to stop me, Jihoon. I won't have your soul weighing on my conscience too."
Before Jihoon could protest further, Jin turned and fled through the shattered doorway, the shadows swallowing his retreating form. Left in his friend's wake, Jihoon felt a profound sense of loss welling up as it mingles with his anger and dismay.
He gazed at the fallen judicator's weapon lying amidst the wreckage. The halberd’s description burned itself into his mind once more.
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Judgment of Light (Decayed)
Classification: Polearm
Rarity: Heroic
ATK+: 35
A sacred relic wrought by an order of noble paladins, now diminished to a decayed fragment of its former glory amid the tides of corruption. Perhaps in the hands of a virtuous soul, it may yet be reforged into its original splendor once more...
------_____{\\\\////}_____------
Jihoon's fingers closed around the shaft of the dilapidated halberd as a sense of purpose solidified within him. If confronting Jin was now an inevitability, then he would have to be prepared - mind, body and soul. No weapon seemed more fitting for such a daunting trial than this faded emblem of justice and righteousness, no matter how lofty its requirements.
A tight nod to himself, and Jihoon turned to seek out the path ahead. The investigation taskforce had to be made aware of Jin's involvement, of the true depths his friend had plunged in pursuit of that damned firearm's profane power. Only then could he take the first steps toward redeeming Jin...or stopping him once and for all should redemption prove impossible.
No matter how this grim road unfolded from here, Jihoon vowed to walk it with the same fortitude and conviction that had seen him through so far. He owed Jin that much, at the very least.