Breaking Up with the #1 S-Class

I momentarily recalled the Hero skill.

[Peak of Humanity: Hero]

Rank: EX

Effect: As a hero who defeated the Demon King, the following abilities are granted to the skill’s owner:

Overall physical abilities are greatly increased.

Immunity to all status ailments.

Immunity to all diseases.

All growth rates increase by 3 times.

All growth limits are removed.

The Goddess watches over you.

A single skill with a total of 6 effects. This was the EX-class [Hero] skill I currently possessed.

It had been about 3 days since I obtained the Hero skill. And now on the fourth dawn, I had been relying on the [Hero] skill, whether I liked it or not, and had thought about it extensively.

And in doing so, I naturally realized one thing about the Hero skill.

That is, the more difficult combat experiences I have, the more rapidly I become stronger.

Since obtaining the Hero skill, I had been training every day—swinging a sword, doing muscle training, and so on.

As training to become stronger, it wasn’t a bad effect at all.

However, while doing such training and feeling like I was getting stronger, I realized something from the gate incident.

Specifically, when I directly engage in combat and fight in life-or-death situations, I become much stronger compared to muscle training and other training methods.

It was similar to the phenomenon where, when I swung a sword before, I could constantly think about how to swing it better and find areas for improvement.

It was as if my combat algorithm was gradually improving as I fought more.

Dodging attacks, defense, hit rate, power, strategy, combat sense, and so on.

Every time I experienced combat, I felt the necessary abilities rising dramatically.

And this was even more pronounced in more difficult battles.

I felt much stronger when dealing with the gang party in the gate than when I defeated the King Poison Snake.

So, the conclusion is quite simple.

To become stronger, I needed to face the most difficult enemies possible and push myself to my absolute limit.

“Hmm…”

I turned on my smartphone. And opened the Hunter Association’s official app.

I surveyed the gates around me.

I could see various difficulty gates—C-class, B-class, A-class, and so on.

Originally, to prioritize safety, I would have looked for C-class or B-class gates…

But today is different. Today, I came out determined to train.

I excluded C-class and B-class gates and narrowed my search range to A-class gates.

Ding!

There was a single-person A-class gate nearby.

Close to our house, near the guild where Park Jin-soo belongs, and very close to the [Hunter S] guild I’m currently attending.

There was no need to hesitate. I headed straight there.

It didn’t take long to arrive.

I reached my destination and faced an A-class gate that I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

“It’s been a while… about 3 years.”

During the time I was active as an A-class hunter, I had encountered A-class gates quite often, but I hadn’t faced one in three years.

I felt a somewhat inexplicable sense of familiarity, but the emotion that was more prominent was the chilling pressure I was feeling after a long time.

The gate’s rank and number of people are the same as the hunter’s rank and number of people.

An A-class single-person gate is a difficulty level that one A-class hunter can clear.

A B-class 5-person gate is a difficulty level that 5 B-class hunters can clear.

In that sense, the gate I’m standing in front of now was a difficulty level that one A-class hunter could clear.

Gulp…

Was it because of my anticipation of the A-class gate I’m seeing after 3 years?

Or was it worry about what I was about to do?

I swallowed hard.

I know my strength as a hunter better than anyone.

At first, I didn’t know, but as I repeated combat, my skills became clear.

Right now, I’m at the top of B-rank, or maybe at the lower end of A-class.

So, originally, I shouldn’t challenge this gate.

The possibility of me clearing it is extremely low.

Attempting this is probably close to being a foolish act.

“I’m doing it…”

I muttered quietly while steadying my trembling body.

As I said, I need to challenge this gate right now.

In fact, after obtaining the [Hero] skill, I realized one more thing: the skill seems to have various additional abilities beyond its description.

Though it might be an extension of the “[1. Overall physical abilities are greatly increased]” item, I feel my intuition has significantly improved lately.

Just like how I somehow sensed during the raid with Park Jin-soo that they had some hidden agenda, I can now intuit one thing.

An intuition that ‘If I don’t get stronger, I’ll die.’

Tonight at home, another intuition came to me.

That is, if I don’t quickly become stronger, I will definitely die.

There’s no basis for this intuition. The word ‘intuition’ itself is nothing more than a baseless feeling.

But I’m certain it won’t just remain an intuition.

I had no time.

No leisurely time to wait.

“Whew…”

After taking a deep breath, I entered the gate.

I entered and looked around. The surroundings were completely dark and hard to see, but soon my eyes adjusted, and I could tell where I was.

It was a room with medieval European knight armor and helmets on display.

[You have entered the Hall of the Corrupted Holy Knight.]

A message sounded.

Apparently, the name of this dungeon is the Hall of the Holy Knight.

“Where are you?”

This is inside the gate, and now it’s my battlefield.

So from now on, I can’t let my guard down for a moment.

I must be prepared to risk my life.

I quickly scanned the surroundings.

And sharpened my vigilance.

And I began searching. For the enemy I need to defeat.

“Haa…”

At first, I was flustered because I couldn’t see my enemy.

But now, I could tell who my enemy was.

Once I knew the identity of my enemy, I could only sigh.

Clank.

A sound of metal colliding came from the displayed helmets and armor.

And with that sound, the armor connected to form the shape of knights.

These knights are probably my enemies now.

“About 100, maybe?”

There were so many I couldn’t even count them on my fingers.

I made a rough estimate and just settled on around 100.

“This will be tough…”

I could only mutter quietly.

The gate I’m in now is an A-class gate.

Even the ordinary monsters here are equivalent to B-rank.

It’s a completely different dimension from the trivial C-class and B-class gates I used to go to.

Where before I felt like I was going to train, now it feels like I’ve come to war.

But.

Boom!

“First, one.”

This war is what I wanted.

This war will make me stronger.

I needed to become much stronger.

Clang!

Clang!

I began cutting down the armored knights one by one.

The dull sound of metal scraping against metal echoed through the gate.

And with each echo, the knights fell.

“Ugh…”

But eventually, I started to tire.

As the interval of the echoes grew longer, the knights began to counterattack.

It seems I don’t yet have the skill to effortlessly defeat 100 B-rank dimensional monsters.

But if I push myself, I can defeat them.

Clang!

Clang!

I don’t feel fatigue.

I just can’t move my body well.

I don’t feel much pain, but I can clearly feel the damage accumulating.

This was a trial for me.

I had to overcome this trial.

I had to become stronger by overcoming this trial.

“Huk… huk…”

After about an hour of this trial, I finally felt relief.

It seemed I had defeated all the knights before me.

I began to catch my breath.

And started to calm my heated body.

Clank. Clank.

“Not even giving me time to rest…”

Just as I was taking a brief, sweet rest, a presence was approaching me with a cold metallic sound.

A pressure completely different from the knights I had defeated was spreading throughout my body, making me tense.

“Is this the boss?”

A knight in black armor stood before me.

The black knight began to emit a red glow as it looked at me.

This guy was the gate’s master and the true trial.

[The Knight of Death reveals himself.]

“Haa…”

I got up.

And gripped my sword, taking my stance.

I had checked the dungeon’s boss on my smartphone before coming.

Rank A, name: Knight of Death.

The enemy I must now defeat alone.

“…”

As I gripped my sword, the Knight of Death also took a stance as if greeting me.

[Grrrrrr]

The ground began to shake.

The full-scale battle was about to begin.