Chapter 31: Korea's New S Rank, Return & Soldiers of A Different Time

A/N :

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

[ ] : System, Akasha, Minerva,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

« » : Artificial Intelligence,

| | : Sung Jin-Woo's System Panels, Sung Jin-Woo's System Messages.

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Narrator POV

Back on Earth, Shiraori was walking towards the dojo that Cha Hae-In used to attend to train. Upon reaching there, she saw Song Chi-Yeol, now with both of his limbs intact.

She greeted him and asked if she could test out his skills, which he happily accepted, despite knowing of the disparity in strength between the two of them.

The spar lasted for about 5 minutes before she overwhelmed him with sheer skill. "Hah, I never thought I'd ever see someone as skilled as you, Shiraori-ssi." He says while panting. "Please, just Shiraori is fine. I had heard from Hae-In that her teacher was quite skilled, so I felt the need to see for myself. And I can see that she wasn't overestimating you." She says softly as she pulls him off the ground.

As she helps him stand, she begins to feel a small tingle on her back, as if someone is using something with a heated tip to write on her back. She felt the tingle spread all over her back in the shape of something familiar, the crest that she received when Dante named her.

After the last line connected to the rest of the shape, she felt it shrink down to a small shape just below the back of her neck. After which, she felt her power begin to speedily climb.

Excusing herself, she told Song Chi-Yeol goodbye and left the dojo quite quickly. As soon as she was out of sight, she used the Godspeed Flicker to hightail it out of Earth, onto the Domina that was hovering behind the moon.

As her foot landed, the full surge of power hit and she felt her body begin to reconstruct itself to be better, she felt many of her abilities alter themselves to not only fit her better, but also become vastly more powerful.

She also felt the Domina shift, as if it was also undergoing its own reconstruction. She didn't hear the hum of energy that would signify Aurora's operation, nor did she hear any of the VIs that Aurora had created move anything.

This went on for a few minutes before it finally stopped. Choosing to test out how much her power had increased, she tried opening a gate back to her world of birth, and to her surprise, she successfully opened a gate into the Elroe Labyrinth, with many of her children staring back at her.

""Mama!"" ""Mother!"" ""Mom!"" The cacophony of her children's voices hit her, but her mind easily processed the information coming in. "It's been a while, my babies." She says, caressing the head of one of them. "Looks like Daddy's got a bit of explaining to do once he's back."

Switching over to the culprit for the surge, Dante stepped back into his office, where Sung Jin-Woo had chosen to wait, just to see what had happened to him after replicating Ashborne's authority.

One thing he noticed was that Dante's eyes no longer had the nine pupils or the draconic slit, they now looked like a pure blue iris that had a thin white circle in the place of a pupil. Another thing he noticed was that Dante's presence that seemed heavy, now seemed mystical and enigmatic, as if he wasn't meant to be understood by any mind.

"You're still here. That's good, cause I've got some stuff to tell you." Dante's voice shook him out of his thoughts. "First off, I know about your raids with Yu Jin-Ho. So once you finish with those, take the test for reawakening and get registered as S Rank. Being E Rank is going to be a bit problematic for you if you leave it that way, so doing this would me many times more helpful." Jin-Woo thought about it then nodded.

"What else did you have to tell me?" Jin-Woo asked Dante. "What do you know about your father's disappearance?" Dante asked him as he sat down. Sung Jin-Woo narrowed his eyes in solemnity. "Not much." He said as he sat down opposite Dante.

"All that we knew was that he and the raid team he was on went in and didn't come out, then the gate closed. Why?" Sung Jin-Woo asked, not knowing what to expect as an answer.

"Well, you can rest easy now, since I can tell you without a doubt that he's very much alive and well." "Huh?" Sung Jin-Woo looked incredulously at Dante after hearing that his father that had been feared dead for years was still alive.

"As for why he disappeared, he was chosen to be one of the few hunters that are vessels for the Rulers. Not to mention, he's one of the strongest of them." Sung Jin-Woo clenched his fist as he thought about how much his life and the live of others had been affected by the war between the Rulers and the Monarchs.

"So, what? Is he coming back or something?" Sung Jin-Woo asked with some expectation. "He's not just coming back, I'm bringing him back here, just for you. Don't worry about not being able to catch up with him, I'll get him up to speed on everything. You just go ahead and deal with the Demon Castleafter your reawakening test." Dante said, much to Jin-Woo's surprise.

"How did you know I'd be heading to the Demon Castle?" Dante just shrugged and sighed. "I can see everything, the future included." He said and refused to elaborate. Sung Jin-Woo noticing this, left to face the raids they had booked for today.

After Jin-Woo's departure, Dante teleported to the Domina, where he saw multiple Horo Neia walking around. ""Papa!"" ""Father!"" ""Dad!"" They shouted telepathically as many rushed to him.

He caught the few that jumped to him while growing out extra arms to pat the ones that ran to his legs. As for the rest, he patted their heads with energy constructs of his hand. "Hey kids, where's your mom?" They laughed and let out small chitters.

"Come on, Dad. We know you can see her already." Said the leader of this generation of Horo Neia, who Shiraori had named Saya. "Yeah, true. But that doesn't mean I can't ask." Dante said as he scratched her neck.

Dante walked to Shiraori's location, which was the plantation room, where all the helpful plants they have come across are grown and harvested en masse. "So, the power up doing you any good?" He asked her as he hugged her from behind.

"Yeah. But do you mind explaining what exactly happened." Shiraori says as she leans into him. Nodding , he created a couch and lay himself on it with her laying on him and explained why exactly she experienced such a drastic increase in power.

As they lay down together, the Horo Neia congregated at their location, cozying up to the two beings that served as their parents, all of them just soaking in the warm atmosphere.

Switching back to Sung Jin-Woo, a day had passed since Dante told him that he'll bring his father back from wherever he was trapped, and he had just cleared the last raid of the 19 he had agreed to clear with Yu Jin-Ho.

He had accepted Jin-Ho's invitation to a restaurant to celebrate the end of the raiding. While there, Yu Jin-Ho had told him of the few plans he had after this raid, the most major of those being him getting his official guild master license from the Hunter Association.

Jin-Woo told him that he would be out of contact for a while, not telling Jin-Ho that it would involve him having to clear a literal castle filled with demons.

Feeling that this could possibly be the end of a relationship that he didn't want to be cut off, Jin-Ho confessed that he felt that Jin-Woo was more of a brother to him than his actual biological brother and thanked him for looking out for him and protecting him for the time they had known each other.

Feeling a bit sympathetic towards Jin-Ho, Jin-Woo chooses to accept him as a younger brother of sorts, causing him to break into tears and try to hug Jin-Woo.

Shortly after, a news broadcast asking about the incident that was the Red Gate came on. The White Tiger Guild's master and S Rank Hunter Baek Yun-Ho gave out a statement acknowledging the severity of the incident, but stated that no outside parties were involved in the incident. He then ended the interview and left, leaving more questions for the reporters than answers.

The next day came fast, and Jin-Woo chose to take Dante's advice and get an official reawakening rank evaluation, so that his license would at least show his actual Rank, or at least the limit of what the ranking system can classify.

Sung Jin-Woo moved speedily through the city using Shūndō and soon reached the Testing Center. He informed the receptionist of his reason for being there and waited as others took their own rank evaluations.

About an hour passes by and it eventually reaches his turn. Following the instructions of the staff, Jin-Woo puts his hand on the testing device, and the staff that is attending to him immediately begins panicking.

The staff goes to call his supervisor and tell him of the very important news. After a few minutes, the staff rushes back to the room with his supervisor following closely behind him.

Seeing Jin-Woo's details, the supervisor quickly sends a phone call to the higher-ups of the Hunter Association, specifically the man that has been keeping the most focus on Jin-Woo, the head of the Hunter Association's Monitoring Department, Woo Jin-Chul.

The supervisor informed Jin-Chul of Sung Jin-Woo's current S Rank status. This prompted Woo Jin-Chul to immediately report the situation to the Chairman of the Hunter Association, Go Gun-Hee, who many had noticed, had surprisingly recovered from his old wounds.

"So he's the one that you two were talking about." Go Gun-Hee murmured to himself. "Tell him to send Hunter Jin-Woo over here to the main building. I'll personally attend to him." Hearing Go Gun-Hee's words, Jin-Chul nodded and sent the instructions, while still questioning who exactly Sung Jin-Woo was, that the Chairman of the Hunter Association would choose to personally oversee his rank evaluation.

Not long after, Jin-Woo arrived at the Hunter Association's main building, with Woo Jin-Chul waiting at tge entrance to guide him in. "It's been quite a while, Hunter Sung." "Indeed it has, Chief Woo Jin-Chul." After exchanging their greetings, they headed into the building for the evaluation.

"Mr Sung Jin-Woo. It seems that those two weren't overselling you in any way." Go Gun-Hee said as he faced Sung Jin-Woo. "I'm Go Gun-Hee, the head of the Hunter Association. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." He said and put his hand out for a handshake which Jin-Woo promptly gave.

They head into the evaluation room, where the staff asks Jin-Woo to show them his abilities so they could determine what class they would assign to him.

Sung Jin-Woo then summons out a few of his shadows, shocking them. Go Gun-Hee asks him to show the full capacity of his abilities and Jin-Woo brings out all 20 of his saved shadows. "These are all the ones I can summon currently, but I'll be able to summon more as time passes. Not to mention, they can get stronger as I hunt."

His revelation that he could gain more of these summons shocked the staff and Go Gun-Hee, but him telling them that the shadows could also grow stronger doubled that shock.

"He can also grow stronger as he hunts, old man. So grant him the right to raid dungeons as he wishes. Trust me, you won't regret it." Go Gun-Hee suddenly heard Dante's voice tell him in his head.

The idea that a hunter as strong as Jin-Woo could grow even stronger greatly surprised Go Gun-Hee, but he understood that if Jin-Woo was truly going to receive the powers of a Monarch, then he'd definitely not be limited to the level of strength that they are so familiar with.

After the evaluation was over, Sung Jin-Woo left the Hunter Association building, now an officially licensed S Rank Hunter. Using Shūndō, he sped back to his home.

As he got closer, he sensed two familiar mana signatures, and one that seemed familiar to him, inside the apartment. Apart from that, he also heard his mother and sister crying. Wondering what would have caused them to cry, he rushed to the front door and opened it, only to see his mother and sister hugging a man, a man he hadn't seen for years. "Dad?"

Dante POV

Leaving Jin-Woo and his family to reunite with their father, I decided it was time I went ahead to get own army. "I'm going to get my own army now, Shiro. I should be back in about an hour or two." I tell Shiro and kiss her, before delving into the spacetime continuum.

Focusing on the main timeline of this universe, I clone it and enter into the clone timeline. Landing in Seoul, I open a portal into the throne room, where Igris was at the time of Jin-Woo's Class Change Quest.

Walking into the room, I quickly locate Igris and send a slash in his direction that bisects him. I walk up to his corpse and use my Samsara Overlord authority to bring him back as my soldier.

His body and armor turn pitch black and his eyes take on a golden glow. His body started to glow a deathly green with purple undertones, and his aura became tinged with death.

This was because unlike the soldiers raised by a Necromancer or the Shadow Monarch, my soldiers are neither undead nor shadows, they are deathborns, a far higher rank of death-attuned being.

Looking at my newest soldier and first general of my army, I read through his stats.

[Name: N/A

Level: 1

Gender: Male

Attribute: Darkness, Death

Race: Deathborn Noble

HP: ∞

EP: ∞

SP: ∞

STR: 18,000

DEX: 17,272

VIT: ∞

INT: 11,200

WIS: 12,000

CHR: 10,050

LUK: 3,750

Background: A newly formed Deathborn of noble standing.

Emotions: Longing, Admiration.

Skills: [Advanced Sword Mastery LV 20] [Telekinesis LV 15] [Death Aura LV MAX] [Intermediate Martial Arts Mastery LV 13]]

Looking at his stats, I whistle, as his base stats without a name would put him among one of the strongest people in the original Gamer world. I think for a few seconds and eventually conclude on the name that I would give him. "Aefernox."

Similarly to Shiro all those years ago, he was wrapped in a cocoon, just that his was one of darkness rather than threads. His power skyrockets as time passes and bout 30 minutes later, he emerges from the cocoon being well over 100 times more powerful than before.

Smiling to myself, I command him to follow me as I go and get the others that would be generals in my army, starting with the Ice Bear and the Frost Folk. Of course, I also took the knights, mages, archers and assassins from the dungeon as the soldiers that he'd command.

Moving through time and space, I got all the monsters that could be gotten from the Gates, then I finally used the Demon Castle's Key to enter the Demon Castle to do the unthinkable, as not only did I take all the demons as my soldiers, I also took the replica of Baran, the Monarch of White Flames, as one of my most powerful generals.

It's too bad for the Radir clan, but they're now a part of my army. At least I won't do the same thing to them in either the main timeline or the one that Shiro and I are in, and Jin-Woo wont be able to.

Seeing that I could turn Monarchs into soldiers as well, I decided that I would turn the rest of them into my soldiers as well, leaving only the Jin-Woo of this cloned timeline as the last surviving Monarch.

I would have added Hunters, but I was already satisfied with the soldiers that I got, not to mention, all the solders I had gotten from monsters were substantially stronger than the ones I would have gotten from Hunters.

After I was done with gathering my soldiers, I returned to our timeline, after about an hour had passed. Shiro was back out our building, training Hae-In and Jin-Woo was with his dad, making a plan for the eventual arrival of the Monarchs.

Choosing to listen in to their conversation, I hear Jin-Woo say that he'll refrain from going into the Demon Castle for a while longer, as he wants to hunt in the Gates for a while longer. Thinking of the repercussions of Il-Hwan's return and Jin-Woo's choice to stay, I begin prepping for it, by contacting Yu Jin-Ho.

"Hello. May I know who's calling?" He says as he accepts the call. "Hello, Jin-Ho. My name's Dante. I believe you've heard of me. I have a proposal for you." I tell him, knowing that his father had given him the rights to run the company owned guild.

"Wait, you're Dante? As in the S Rank Hunter, that Dante?" He asks skeptically. "Yes, I am. You've been treating my disciple as an older brother for a while now, so it shouldn't be all that surprising that I know of you."

"Your disciple? A big brot..." He pauses as he stars to understand. "Jin-Woo-hyung is your disciple?" "Yes." He goes silent for about half a minute. "That still doesn't explain why you'd be calling me."

"Oh, it's nothing much. I just want to help you create your own guild. And with me, Shiraori and Jin-Woo, you'd have the minimum amount of people you'd need to create one." He gulps as he hears my words.

"But why me?" He asks shakily. "For the same reason that I took in Jin-Woo, a passing whim. One that is very likely to blossom into something that is ever so slightly interesting." My words cause him to shiver on the other side of the phone call.

"Really, but why should I agree?" He says with false bravado. "You don't have to. Just understand that choosing not to would be a loss for you." I say with a chuckle. "Tell you what, if you still don't want to make your own guild with us by this time tomorrow, then you don't have to take my proposal seriously. I won't hold you to it in any way, I promise you that."

He stays silent for a while. "Okay, then. I'll call you back tomorrow if I get interested. Good night." He cuts off the call. Leaning back in my seat, I begin preparing for Jin-Ho's eventual visit, inputting his bio-data into the building's security system. "He'll call back, there's no chance that he doesn't." I say and teleport to my and Shiro's bedroom.

Chapter End.

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A/N: Skipped the beatdowns that he gave the monsters and Monarchs, because Jin-Woo's battles with them would have been more cinematic and not just been them getting one tapped over and over. This doesn't mean that I won't bring up such fights again, it's just that it would have taken more time and chapter space than this did.

Also, below are the names I've been able to put down for Dante's soldiers to separate them from Jin-Woo's. Empty ones are available for you guys to name them. Most liked will be chosen if I can't think of a name for each of them before this time next week.

Igris - Aefernox

Baruka - ???

Tank - ???

Tusk/Fang - Thrall

Vulcan - ???

Cerberus - Fido

Metus - Kharon

Jima - ???

Beru - ???

Kaisel - ???

Kamish - ???

Baran(Monarch of White Flames) - Diablo

Rakan(Monarch of Fangs) - Malius

Tarnak(Monarch of the Iron Body) - ???

Queresha(Monarch of Plagues) - ???

Yogumunt(Monarch of Transfiguration) - ???

Legia(Monarch of the Beginning) - Talos

Sillad (Frost Monarch) - ???

Antares(Monarch of Destruction) - Andras