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For the time being, I had banned the members of Team Seolhwa from hunting Gates.

Seol-ah, upon hearing the news, said she would focus on training with the team.

A lot of Ji-young's opinion was reflected in that decision, and her defeat in the rankings match seemed to have been good medicine for her.

I also asked Lee Seong-jin to protect my parents, but he had already acted by attaching security guards to their residence.

[He’s pretty good at his job as a puppet.]

‘You have an eye for it.’

[Kukuku. It’s rare for you to compliment me.]

‘I’m just speaking the truth. Anyway, I have to move a little quicker.’

[Is it because of So-eun’s call?]

"..."

Today, Yoo So-eun could not come to work at our guild due to an emergency at the Management Bureau.

It was absurd, but the hunters I caught yesterday had disappeared without a trace overnight.

She said they hadn’t been able to check their identity yet, and nothing was caught on the cameras.

It was as though they hadn’t existed in the first place.

Yoo So-eun apologized profusely to me for this, but I told her not to worry because it wasn’t her fault.

[Hmm, I thought we could get something from that Japanese guy.]

‘What else can we do? I have to keep working on what I have already started. If I keep shaking them, we'll find more clues.’

Even as I said that, it seemed the problem was escalating.

The initial goal had been to shake the Phoenix Guild after they provoked me, but I couldn't erase the feeling that other matters kept getting involved.

The appearance of that Japanese hunter with the mark of the old Wu-Tang Clan and their mysterious disappearance from Bureau custody seemed to be just the start.

“I have to move first.”

I immediately left the guild office to go to the Hunter Institute, where one of the Phoenix Guild's money lines was located.

Keep shaking their funding. This was what I would do from now on.

Then I thought I could find what the Phoenix Guild, no, specifically Oh Young-seok, was planning.

Initially, the primary source of income for the Phoenix Guild was the sale of available potions and the production and sale of weapons.

Their regular potions were still selling well, but if more places produced BnS Vitality Potions, they would naturally have no choice but to close their business.

Just like what had happened in the past when they targeted smaller guilds. Undoubtedly, this was why they wanted to deal with us.

The Phoenix Guild's next source of income was to process and sell weapons and artifacts obtained from the Gate.

Processing entailed making them suitable for hunters by working on parts and mana stones gathered from monsters.

As it was the foremost guild in the industry, it sold a plethora of high-quality weapons and artifacts obtained from large Gates, so it was highly sought-after by hunters.

[Aren't there any hunters who can craft artifacts yet?]

“Not yet, but in the future, there will be. As the number of Gates with Stone Golems increases, weapon-crafting Skill Books will also become more widespread. There will even be guilds created that specialize in weapon crafting. And after the Third Cataclysm, the system will be updated to include 'jobs' related to crafting skills.”

[System update... There's nothing more to do now, then. But you don't seem to intend to make money from weapon production.]

“I learned the Dwarven crafting technique as a special reward from the system, but it takes too long to craft. Even just making weapons for our guild seems daunting.”

[It's a waste of a Skill Book you worked so hard to get.]

"To make arms, we also need to collect parts. It won't be too late to sell them after I do some crafting in my free time."

[Yes, martial arts training comes first.]

I don't think it was tiresome for him to reiterate that training should come first, every time.

[Where are you going now? You don't seem like you’re going to the Gate.]

“My goal this time is where they make Angel Dust, which is their third main source of income.”

After speaking, I took off.

Whooosh!-

To reach Sinchon, where their research center was located, I utilized the Heavenly Demon Air-Stride technique.

I deliberately didn’t use the car this time.

I couldn't just throw away time in traffic, and more than anything else, I needed to practice.

Because there were few opportunities to use it, I hadn’t improved from 60% on the Heavenly Demon Air-Stride.

However, once I reached the stage of Harmony and was able to freely control my inner power, my movement speed and flight time drastically increased.

My last time in the air, only around 20 to 30 minutes, had now increased to allow for a leisurely flight of nearly an hour long.

With this, I could fly anywhere in downtown Seoul.

Thanks to that, I arrived at the Hunter Institute in no time. It was located behind Yeonje University Hospital in Sinchon.

On the surface, it was supposed to be jointly managed by the Guild Association, but in reality, it was solely controlled by the Phoenix Guild.

[I can feel the energy of a Gate inside.]

"You're right. It's in the basement of the lab. The wild plants inside that Gate are the raw material for Angel Dust.”

[A plant, not a monster?]

“Well, it isn’t an ordinary plant. This Gate is also one of those that must be destroyed.”

[Is there a reason why?]

“These lunatics later experimented with an improved version of Angel Dust on ordinary people.”

Until the Third Cataclysm, Angel Dust continued to improve and develop.

The side effect of Angel Dust was hallucinations that came with a sense of extreme helplessness.

For hunters, the symptoms lasted only a few minutes, but if ordinary people took it, death wasn’t out of the question.

[They created a drug.]

“Yes. When later exported to China, it was sold to them under the name of 'Swirling Energy.'”

[So, it means good energy swirling around.]

“It's not good energy that's swirling.”

While chatting with the Heavenly Demon, I entered the depths of the laboratory and came near the entrance of the Gate.

There was a hunter of the Phoenix Guild sitting and dozing off beside it.

I pinched his Sleeping Point, ensuring he wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, and stepped right into the Gate.

***

After avoiding as many battles as possible, I destroyed the Summoning Stone.

[Tsk, I guess you'll have to do special training once this job is over.]

On the way back after destroying the Summoning Stone, the Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue.

“It’s just annoying to deal with them one by one.”

[Who said earlier that it would be nice to have Seol-ah or Eun-joo’s fire-attribute weapon and skill?]

When I had dealt with the monsters that appeared here to collect their sap, I indeed said that.

[Moving Flora Lv. 18]

[Category: Plant-type monster, Attacks First]

[Status: Hunger]

[Skill: Lv. 2 Bondage]

The monsters I dealt with were the plants that grew naturally within this Gate.

These carnivorous plants, which looked like flytraps, bound their targets with their stalks and absorbed nutrients from the helpless prey.

They had a low level and gave little experience, but they were one of the trickiest monsters to deal with.

They had better regenerative power than a Troll, so they would constantly attack no matter how much I cut them.

However, as they were plants, they were weak against fire-attribute attacks. Of course, they weren’t affected by normal fire.

If I had used the second stage of the Demonic Dragon’s Eight-Blade Style and the Blade Breaking Technique, I could have blown them away without a trace, but the efficiency was low.

That's why I avoided battle altogether, but the Heavenly Demon didn't seem to like it.

He thought that avoiding battle was against the martial arts he pursued.

[Among the skills taught at our school, there are martial arts that deal with the principles of yin and yang. It may be difficult for you, who have only just reached the Harmony stage, but it wouldn't hurt to learn it.]

“What can’t you do with martial arts?”

[I did everything I wanted to do with them.]

This reply was nothing less than expected from the great Heavenly Demon.

"..."

[...]

"Ha!"

[Ha!]

After our conversation was suddenly cut off, there was silence, and then we both snorted.

It was because we felt a strange energy simultaneously, and it was quite familiar.

That energy had a wicked nature that I had once felt before.

[At this point, isn’t this a pattern?]

"Yeah. It’s like Team Rocket, who appeared on Pokémon all the time.”

[Pokémon?]

“It’s nothing. Anyway, it's boring when things like this become a pattern..."

Before I finished speaking, I heard the sound of the wind being cut.

Shhhhh-

Shish!!-

Clank!! Clank, clank, clank!!-

A rain of arrows fell on me, and I deflected them with my fake Demonic Dragon Blade.

The Skeleton Archers had reappeared.

After confirming their presence, I immediately hid with the Heavenly Demon Stealth.

When I suddenly disappeared, they stopped attacking and started moving around in a daze.

[It seems to have changed a little this time.]

"I know. Where the hell do they come from...?"

Like the Heavenly Demon had said, there was a change in their composition. Ghouls, another Undead Monster, stood behind the Skeleton Archers and Warriors.

However, I couldn't finish that thought while I looked at them.

Several of the Undead wore the familiar clothes of a hunter’s outfit.

Seeing that, a rage welled up in me.

If I was right, they were probably the missing hunters the Bureau searched for.

It was clear that someone had turned them all into Undead.

“Who the hell..?!”

[I don't feel any life in them. Don't mind it too much and wipe them away.]

The Heavenly Demon was right: they were no longer human. There was no need to think about it.

Their bodies should be allowed to take a rest.

I calmed down and slowly built up my inner power.

The black-hued Strong Energy formed around the fake Demonic Dragon Blade and extended outward.

I also released the Heavenly Demon Stealth, and they retaliated once more.

I nimbly evaded their strikes again and immediately retaliated.

I aimed to wipe them all out with this single stroke.

“Demonic Dragon Era! Demonic Dragon Force!”

As the two forms were linked, the black-colored mass of Strong Energy greatly expanded. Then, I added the following Demonic Dragon Skywrecker.

It was the first time I connected the three forms of the second stage in practice.

When Demonic Dragon Skywrecker was added to the black-colored Strong Energy that expanded from Demonic Dragon Era and Demonic Dragon Force, the Strong Energy squirmed and sped up.

It began to take the shape of a Dragon.

'It wasn't clear then, so I couldn't check properly...’

It was a mysterious black dragon that I couldn’t fully describe in words.

Watching it sweep over the Undead monsters, I felt I was growing little by little.

Gwoooooohhhhh-

The gathered Strong Energy gave the illusion of a roaring Dragon.

Sheeeeeeek-

RUMBLE!

Thunderbolts erupted from all sides, and a huge airwave swirled inside the Gate.

All of this happened in a split second, shorter even, than a breath.

<SYSTEM: All magic power was consumed, and the ‘Two Hearts’ title effect was applied.>

<SYSTEM: Your magic power has recharged again.>

After a while.

Whoosh-

A bleak wind blew over the path the black Dragon carved.

All that was left was ruins. Not even dust remained.

[Hmm, it's a power I haven't felt in a long time, but I don’t feel particularly good about it.]

True to what the Heavenly Demon said, it was an immense power.

Just by connecting them once, all of my inner power was depleted, but the vacant energy center was replenished thanks to the title of Two Hearts.

To top it off, the system recognized the consecutive attacks of the three forms as an explosive-type skill, and that title effect was also applied.

It was a good result, but I didn't feel as pleased as the Heavenly Demon.

Those hunters had turned into Ghouls.

Then a gloomy voice reached my ear. No, it would be more accurate to say that it resonated in my head.

-<Ho! Indeed, that was the power of the Demon God!>-

“Who is it?!”

[What an impressive master, communicating through energy!]

I started to search for the source of the voice, raising the Heavenly Demon’s Origin Art to the maximum.