SSS-Rank Passive Skill and Return

His breath hitched, he gasped for air.

— Huff… huff…

Even with C-rank defense, it hurts so much!

[Recovery].

He raised his head and looked at the portal.

— Ah…

He didn't even have the strength to curse; he just sighed softly.

Whoosh-whoosh!

Instead of one portal, three began to form.

Monsters poured out of the portals.

The yellow portal shimmered.

A D-rank dungeon.

It was a signal for the imminent appearance of monsters.

Jonghyun, looking at the monsters emerging from the three portals, trembled and turned around.

Behind him was a solid wall.

He tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

— How am I supposed to handle this alone…

He couldn't die here.

Jonghyun gathered his courage, blinked a few times, and looked around.

Sticky, green, skin-like slime.

Goblins emerged from the portals.

There were at least a hundred of them.

Short creatures with daggers, bows, and some, unfortunately, with magical abilities.

The goblins, having emerged from the portals, exchanged glances, jabbered something in their language, then looked at Jonghyun and laughed maliciously.

Hee-hee-hee-hee!

Although they were of the same D-rank as the Shadow Hounds, the child-like goblins were cunning and intelligent.

They were considered one of the most challenging opponents. Even teams with C-rank hunters sometimes perished at the hands of goblins.

Fortunately, there were no mutants among them.

He grabbed the nearest weapon.

He couldn't wear armor, but he could use swords, spears, and other weapons.

Albeit not at full strength.

— Better than nothing.

He took the shield in which he stored the artifacts and used it as cover. In his other hand, he held a dagger. Leaning against the wall, he watched the monsters.

He felt his stats increase.

Before, it was difficult for him to hold the shield with both hands, but now he could hold it with one.

— Well, come at me.

He had A-rank artifacts, but they were far away. Fortunately, the goblins seemed to only see him.

For some reason, as soon as the fight began, all the artifacts, except those Jonghyun held, disappeared like a mirage.

Perhaps he was imagining things.

Can the goblins not see them?

One of the goblins rushed at him, brandishing an iron sword.

Jonghyun blocked the blow with his shield and, finding a gap in the goblin's defense, plunged the dagger into its stomach.

The dagger only slightly scratched it.

Seeing this, the goblin grinned maliciously.

It wasn't afraid of Jonghyun, knowing that its kin were behind it.

Looking at this goblin, Jonghyun remembered the faces of Kim Gwangsu, Lee Joohyun, and Park Sihu.

He wondered what they were doing now.

And here he was, fighting for his life.

Do they feel even a shred of guilt?

He gritted his teeth and screamed. Emotions overwhelmed him.

He unleashed all his anger on the goblin.

— !!!

He poured out everything that had accumulated over 10 years of working as an E-rank hunter.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

Anger, sadness, and despair mingled in his cry.

It was a bestial roar, and the goblin froze for a moment.

Jonghyun, seizing the opportunity, struck its head with his shield.

Thwack!

The edge of the shield bent.

The goblin's head caved in.

Gurgle.

The goblin let out a short cry.

It was still alive.

If Jonghyun had left it alone, it would have died, but he, as if in a frenzy, began to beat its body with the shield.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The goblin's body turned into a bloody mess.

Green blood splattered Jonghyun's face and clothes.

— Ha… ha…

It was the first time he had killed a monster with such brutality.

His breathing evened out. The goblins, sensing his power, became frightened.

I need to pull myself together.

He mustn't show his fear.

Now the goblins were afraid of him.

None of them wanted to attack first.

They understood that they could end up like their kin.

When Jonghyun first struck the goblin with his shield, it had looked at him with hatred, but now everyone was silent.

Having killed the Shadow Hounds, he gained a bit of confidence.

Now's the time.

Although his stats were higher than a single goblin's, if all one hundred attacked him at once, he wouldn't have time to regenerate.

He raised his shield and rushed at the goblins.

— Your pathetic weapons won't pierce my shield!

He fought without holding back.

Fire erupted between him and the shield.

[Fireball + Impulse].

As with the Shadow Hounds, he used his body as a conduit for a powerful explosion.

Boom!

Jonghyun burned alive, but continued to attack the goblins like a fiery moth.

He grabbed weapons from the ground and slit the goblins' throats, causing explosions of gas escaping from their bodies.

[Learn "Corpse Explosion"?]

In 10 years, he had never seen such a message.

Incredible, but I need to take this chance.

His throat was burned, and he couldn't speak, so he accepted the skill with his mind.

A few goblins remained. They didn't dare approach him, thinking he was dead.

[Recovery].

They didn't know about his passive skill and didn't bother to check if he was alive or not.

Jonghyun slightly opened his eyes and watched them.

He even held his breath so as not to give himself away.

His lungs burned.

Or have they already burned?

About fifteen goblins remained.

Ten of them were incapacitated due to burns.

Five goblins approached him. He didn't know what motivated them — curiosity or a thirst for revenge.

Fortunately, they're cowardly.

He shed his burned skin like a snake and grabbed the throats of the two nearest goblins.

[Body restored].

His body became clean, as if reborn.

He felt stronger.

What? Am I lighter? Probably my imagination.

But he was definitely stronger.

Jonghyun looked at his status window, ignoring the monsters in front of him.

Now he was strong enough not to be afraid of goblins.

Stats:

Attack: D

Defense: C

Stamina: D+

Strength: D

Agility: D

Mana: E+

— Damn! Stamina and strength increased!

The "+" sign after a stat meant that it was continuing to grow.

Is this the effect of the elixir?

Probably, his stats increased after he exploded along with the monsters.

The A-rank Super Regeneration passive skill allowed him to recover many times faster than with normal Regeneration.

His body had turned to ash, but fully recovered in less than an hour.

He would have died before.

He experienced what he had previously only seen in martial arts movies.

A hunter who becomes stronger after each death?!

So far, it was just a theory.

He stretched and approached the remaining goblins.

— Kee-ya! Kee-ya!

The goblins screamed and ran away.

He finished off the wounded goblins first.

Now everything was reversed.

[You have destroyed the goblin pack].

I used to struggle with a single goblin.

The portal from which the goblins emerged disappeared.

It was time to go home!

He collected the potions and artifacts for his sister and prepared to leave.

He had drunk the elixir to survive, but he still had many good potions left.

— Phew, my phone!

The phone was lying among the artifacts where it had fallen during his fall. It was intact.

Jonghyun looked at the cracked screen.

— Damn, expensive repairs, probably?

Even in this situation, he was thinking about money.

He turned on the phone.

Crackle!

— No signal here.

He had hoped in vain.

They say new phones get reception even in dungeons. I should have bought a better one.

Although there was no connection, he could check the time.

Saturday, 11:00 AM.

Will I make it to the hospital in time?

He visited his sister in the hospital every Saturday.

She regained consciousness between 4 and 5 PM.

He anxiously awaited the appearance of the portal.

Ding.

He thought it was his phone ringing and pressed the power button.

A cross appeared on the screen, meaning the sound wasn't from the phone.

A message appeared above Jonghyun's head:

[Training complete].

— Training? So the Shadow Hounds and goblins were just training?

Training was a system that helped players get used to the game.

Usually, after the training, the main game began.

— No way…

He felt a sense of emptiness.

The corpses of the Shadow Hounds and goblins crumbled to dust and vanished into the air.

Like a mirage.

Jonghyun raised his head and looked at the place where the portals had been.

[24:00].

The number "24" appeared where the portals had been.

He guessed what it meant.

The system message didn't specify what would happen in 24 hours, but given the circumstances, it wasn't hard to guess what would appear when the timer reached zero.

[23:59:59].

When the last second disappeared, he understood everything.

His legs buckled, and he fell to the ground.

He didn't want to die. It would be too unfair.

He believed that by killing all the monsters, he could return home.

24 hours — enough time to prepare!

He was a low-rank hunter, but he had survived in dungeons for 10 years.

And he would survive this time as well.

Thanks to the elixir, he could become stronger.

The closer he was to death, the stronger he became.

It wasn't just a feeling.

He began rummaging through the treasures, looking for anything useful.

Despite the explosion, all the artifacts and skill books were safe and sound.

I suspected it, but can only I see them?

He began to think that all these artifacts and skills were meant only for him.

After all, even A-rank artifacts should have been damaged by such an explosion, but they remained intact.

Perhaps this was his only chance to survive.

He set aside the potions and other consumables, trying not to use them.

They might be useful for his sister.

— If I had known there were such potions here, I wouldn't have drunk the elixir.

He slightly regretted drinking the elixir.

The potions he set aside were also A-rank and above, but still wouldn't compare to the elixir.

He put the artifacts away so they wouldn't interfere with him in battle. He couldn't use them anyway.

— Huh?

He approached the pile of treasures to prepare for the next wave of monsters.

He was looking for skill books that might be useful to him.

He had very little mana, and having learned Fire Impulse, he couldn't learn other skills.

He had been searching for three hours when he stumbled upon a battered backpack.

— What's this doing here?

An old, faded, brown backpack. It looked like it was over a hundred years old.

[Bottomless Backpack (S)].

He was about to throw it away when…

— What?!

He saw the backpack's rank and the word "bottomless" and froze.

[Skill: Subspace].

[Weight constant].

In his hands was a subspace backpack — one of the rarest artifacts, second in value only to the elixir.

There were only five such artifacts in the world, and all of them had a limited capacity.

And this backpack was described as "bottomless."

— Where did this come from?

The names of artifacts usually reflected their properties.

Sometimes artificially created artifacts with grand names turned out to be worse than ordinary weapons, but artifacts from dungeons always lived up to their names.

That's why artifacts from dungeons were valued much higher than artificial ones, even if they were of the same rank.

The ability to store an unlimited number of items was a huge advantage.

If he took only a small part of these treasures, he would regret it later.

Jonghyun, without hesitation, began putting everything into the backpack.

The weight of the backpack didn't increase by a single gram.

If he had found this backpack earlier, maybe he would already be at the hospital?

But even if he could escape the dungeon, those three wouldn't leave him alone.

They would take the backpack and kill or cripple me.

Even Harin had tried to steal artifacts from him.

I wonder how Harin is doing?

He worried that something might have happened to her.

He chuckled. It was funny that he was worried about someone in this situation.

Who am I kidding?

New monsters would appear in 18 hours, and he was thinking about a girl.

Jonghyun continued searching for skill books.

He had very little mana, and having learned Fire Impulse, he couldn't learn other skills.