Red Gate [6]

Jin-Woo was quick to skulk into the shadows of an alleyway, leaning against one of the walls and looking around for any sort of surveillance. Upon finding nothing, Jin-Woo took a deep breath and pulled the dungeon key from his Inventory.

[Instant Dungeon Key]

[Rank: E]

A key that creates a Gate that only the Player can enter. Can be used at any location.

"An E-Rank dungeon all on my own…. Well, I guess I'm not all alone, am I?" Jin-Woo glanced at the shadow of a nearby box, sensing Igris within it.

His Summon's presence calmed him.

Jin-Woo pressed the key into the air, turning it. The E-Rank didn't even have a chance to suspect if he'd done things correctly, because the place where he pressed the key instantly transformed into a blue Gate, swirling around and around with dense mana.

"It'll just be a Gate. I can run away if things go poorly. That's my single reward for having fiercely trained for the last several days of intense running," Jin-Woo nodded to himself, taking a deep breath and stepping into the Gate. Igris's shadow was quick to follow.

However, as soon as they stepped in, Jin-Woo was hit with an awful feeling in his gut. Every bone in his body was desperately begging him to run away.

"This feeling…. No… no… no!" Jin-Woo tried to take a step out of the Gate, but he only hit what felt like a solid wall. He quickly pulled out Legacy and tried to slash through the wall, but it didn't do anything to the thick, impenetrable mana.

Jin-Woo wailed on the wall, but nothing changed. He was trapped. Trapped within a Red Gate.

"Damn it! Is this some sort of divine sorting for my ridiculously good luck?! Was getting the System, Igris, and Legacy too much on top of one another?!" Jin-Woo groaned, pounding his fists into the blocked barrier.

He hadn't properly stepped through the Gate, so he was in an odd location, within the Gate but not on the other side of it. As soon as he stepped all the way through, he'd be left in an entirely different world, with no one around to help him.

No one around to help him but himself and Igris.

After a moment of sulking, Jin-Woo rose to his feet.

"Okay. I think it's about time I get a move on," Jin-Woo dusted his legs off, turning and looking out the Gate. The environment was constantly changing, from a desert to a tundra to a dark castle. "I'm the only one who can do this. So, I will, that's the only option here."

He stepped through the portal, Igris's shadow right behind him.

As soon as he stepped through, he was on guard. He looked all around, and the first thing he noticed was the giant, entirely green trees all around. Upon closer investigation, he realized they weren't trees, but massive individual blades of grass.

He looked down to the ground, noticing the massive expanse of dirt underneath his feet. He tried to peak above the blades of grass, and when he did, he then noticed an awe-inspiring tree in the distance. It stood tall like a tower, peaking far beyond the clouds.

The grass rustled intensely, making way for a gigantic creature.

"Don't tell me…."

Through the grass, a giant ant crept towards Jin-Woo, standing at just about the same height as a large wolf. Its diamond mandibles quivered.

"A giant world with giant insects… joy," Jin-Woo whispered to himself, swallowing back his growing anxiety. He looked above the ant's head, seeing its name.

[Diamond Mandible Myrmidon]

Jin-Woo stepped back, the ant stepped forward.

Jin-Woo pulled Legacy from his Inventory, his heart thumping in his chest. He was staring down what had to at least a D-Rank monster. Any Hunter in the world could tell that the insect was the predator, and the E-Rank was the prey.

But the prey could still kill the predator.

Jin-Woo readied himself. He pushed away everything insignificant until it was just himself, his weapon, and his enemy. Even the time between now and then became irrelevant to Jin-Woo.

As soon as the ant left the ground, a blur was left where Jin-Woo once was.

The ant's head whipped around, trying to find Jin-Woo.

"I'm underneath you," Jin-Woo informed his enemy, but he didn't give his words enough time to sink in. Jin-Woo spun in a circle, taking the legs of the myrmidon clean off.

Pain swept through the ant's body as all six of its legs were cut off at their bases. The monster couldn't even shriek in pain before a red sword pierced straight through its head.

Igris cut straight through the ant's entire body, both halves falling to Jin-Woo's sides.

"Those diamond mandibles of yours are irrelevant if I completely avoid them," Jin-Woo looked at the ant's corpse, a blank expression on his face.

[You have defeated the Diamond Mandible Myrmidon.]

[You have leveled up.]

Jin-Woo wished he could revel in his victory, but the presence of several more ants slowly approaching him from the forest of grass stopped him from doing so.

He glanced back, his heart pounding in his chest. As he looked at his enemy's body, a notification appeared. Jin-Woo didn't even have to read it.

"Arise," He smiled.

In an instant, the mana of the ant was entirely sucked from its body, and formed into a new body, comprised of pure mana. The black ant stood by Jin-Woo's side, with Igris on the other side.

Even with the two summoned beasts, Jin-Woo was firmly outnumbered by the twenty to thirty ants on the opposing side.

One ant charged, but it was quickly slashed in half by Igris. Another one charged, only to be fully halted by Jin-Woo's newest Summon. Jin-Woo quickly jumped over his Summon and stabbed the halted ant in its head, killing it instantly. Blue blood splattered on Jin-Woo's face.

With the keyword for Soul Revival, Jin-Woo gained two more summons. The other ants flinched, hesitating to take a step towards Jin-Woo and his four soldiers.

"When I compare you guys to those statues that I couldn't do anything against…. You're just too weak," Jin-Woo stared his enemies down, and after a moment of silent quivering, they turned tail and fled.

-----

Jin-Woo sat on the corpse of an ant, scrolling through his status screen.

"Hmm… leveling up brings all my stats up by one, but it also gives me three stat points to allocate wherever I want. It's just like the RPG's I played years back. However, if that's the case… I need to choose a stat to specialize in, right?" Jin-Woo hummed, looking through his options.

However, Jin-Woo suddenly noticed something near the top of the blue screen.

[Name: Sung Jin-Woo]

[Level: 0]

[Class: Necromancer]

[Title: None]

"I'm level… zero? Wasn't I level one before? What sort of game tells you that you've leveled up, only to bring your level down?" Jin-Woo asked no one in particular, glancing to his right to see his summoned beasts hard at work.

The ants took the dropped items from their corpses and sat them at Jin-Woo's feet, while Igris was fervently cutting off the heads of the insects, bringing them to Jin-Woo's feet.

Jin-Woo sighed at the red knight's odd choices. He gave the knight a small thumbs-up, and the monster seemed particularly pleased, a certain glint in his eye. The red knight even puffed up his chest.

Jin-Woo shook his head and looked back at his stats. He didn't know what to do, so he took a moment to look at his stats.

"I'm… a necromancer, so wouldn't Intelligence be the wisest decision?" Jin-Woo felt a little sour in his mouth.

His deduction made sense, seeing that his number of summonable beasts would increase as his Intelligence shot up. If his Intelligence increased, surely his summons would become stronger as well.

But….

"I don't wanna leave my summoned soldiers to do all the fighting! Even if it was theoretically safer, that's now how I've fought for my entire life, and I don't have any plans of changing that now," Jin-Woo nodded to himself, defiant against choosing Intelligence to put his stats into.

"What I need right now is… this!" Jin-Woo smiled, tapping his stat points into his desired stat.

[Agility: 2 -> 5]

Jin-Woo swiped away his status screen and grabbed the items sat at his feet by Jin-Woo's summons. All they dropped were a few diamond fragments from the myrmidons' mandibles.

Jin-Woo softly looked over the item before shoving it into his Inventory. Jin-Woo slowly rose from his spot, looking out into the forest of grass.

The white eyes of the myrmidons locked onto Jin-Woo's group. There was far, far more than before.

"It looks like they didn't run away, they just grabbed some reinforcements," Jin-Woo swiped Legacy through the air, pointing the bloody blade towards his enemies. Igris stood by his side, holding his greatsword within his hands. The ants stood behind the duo, ready to strike.

"I don't think it's even worth worrying over you all. Compared to those statues… no, compared to that dragon, or to Alnair, you're nothing!" Jin-Woo charged towards his enemy, a flurry of swings flying towards his enemies.

The first ant he faced stopped his dagger in its tracks, grasping it with its diamond mandibles. Another ant leapt towards Jin-Woo's head, but the young man didn't stop. Jin-Woo pulled his other hand back, slamming it atop the monster's head.

The insect was stunned for just a moment, and Jin-Woo pushed past the insect's mandibles, slashing right through the monster's head. The insect coming towards him was suddenly stopped in its tracks as well, suddenly being batted away by Igris's sword.

Igris stepped forward and cut the myrmidon's head clean off, blue blood spurting high into the sky.

A bright smile grew on Jin-Woo's face.

"This is plenty of good experience points. Don't die too easily, or else I'll feel bad. Eh, what does it matter? I'm gonna massacre you all," Jin-Woo grinned, the blood on his face making him look like a monster, even to his enemies. The myrmidons shivered.

"I must fight…!" Jin-Woo slashed his enemies up, using his speed to its highest abilities. "I must become stronger…! So, I'll fight, and fight, and fight…!"

[You have leveled up.]

Blood splattered across the E-Rank's face, but he didn't flinch. He moved forward.

"I'll become strong, so I can protect those who are important to me!"

[You have leveled up.]

Igris covered Jin-Woo's weaknesses, and he assisted Jin-Woo incredibly.

"I'll become strong, so I'll never be betrayed again!"

[You have leveled up.]

"I'll become stronger!"

-----

Jin-Woo massacred the nearby monsters. In a Red Gate it seemed like the monsters kept on coming and coming, and yet he didn't ever stop his conquest for strength.

He gained 14 levels in no time at all, dropping him to a -14.

All his stats were over 15, and he was getting a decent grasp of his abilities. However, despite his growth, due to the strong mana waves, he was positive that he couldn't handle the boss yet.

Something that somewhat worried him was that there wasn't one, but two locations where mana was being radiated in large amounts.

"My level hasn't been rising anymore… it looks like these monsters won't be enough experience. I can't stay here for much longer either. If these insane things are what's coming in the day, I can only imagine the beasts that'll come out in the night. I've got about another hour before things get too bad to handle," Jin-Woo wiped sweat off his brow, panting.

A giant spider, properly named Poisonous-Steel Arachnid, slowly skulked out of the tall grass before suddenly leaping towards Jin-Woo. He flicked his gaze over to it once before Igris cut off the legs of the monster in an instant, and the myrmidons bit down into it, holding it down.

He slowly walked over to it, spinning his dagger in his hand before stabbing the monster in its head a few times, killing it.

"What I need to do is rest up a little bit before heading to the boss, whichever one it is," Jin-Woo sighed, laying a hand on the fallen monster's head. "This should fill out my current numbers. Arise."

The fallen arachnid's mana rose from its corpse, lowering its head to the ground and bowing to Jin-Woo. Jin-Woo waved the magical beast off, and it stopped bowing to him once he did.

Jin-Woo ordered his soldiers to keep watch for monsters and swiped open his status screen. He ignored his HP and MP, he was at a decent level in both, so he wasn't worried. He hadn't even gained any skills that required him to use his MP yet.

[Name: Sung Jin-Woo]

[Level: -14]

[Class: Necromancer]

[Title: None]

[Strength: 15]

[Dexterity: 15]

[Agility: 18]

[Vitality: 15]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Faith: 15]

[Luck: 15]

[Status Points: 42]

"There's something about my level being a negative number that kind of… ticks me off," Jin-Woo clicked the level category, but unfortunately, nothing worth noting appeared. For now, he'd just have to accept the cards given to him.

He was able to accept it quickly. The blessing of being able to grow at all was more than enough to make him shrug off the oddity of being below level zero.

Jin-Woo pulled up his skills as well, specifically Soul Revival and Soul Storage.

[Soul Revival (Active) | Lv. 1]

Revive the soul of recently killed being. Can only revive monsters killed by the users hands. The chance of failure increases the higher the target's stats are.

Souls able to be revived: 16/16

[Soul Storage (Active) | Lv. 1]

Store the soul of a revived being. Stored souls can be summoned and stored at the user's will.

Souls able to be stored: 2/2

Jin-Woo clicked his tongue.

"To think that I could revive so many but could only keep two of them. That's gonna leave a bad taste in my mouth," Jin-Woo sighed.

It wasn't because he was particularly close with his summoned monsters, it was quite the opposite. He couldn't really trust the summons, despite his role as the master in the relationship.

He worried that if the summoned creatures had a chance to kill him, they would. He acknowledged that the idea was somewhat farfetched, but he hadn't heard any stories of necromancers that necessarily proved him wrong. From the knowledge he knew, the master/servant relationship between a summoner and the summoned was enforced by strength and a contract of sorts.

Normal summoned creatures would basically be signing a contract with their summoner that allowed them to assist them and have some sort of presence as a creature in their summoner's life. With creatures of the dead being brought back to life, Jin-Woo was pretty sure that the contract part of a normal master/servant relationship was completely void.

However, despite not being able to truly trust them, the work they assisted him in was undeniable. Without them, he doubted if he'd be alive.

"Maybe it's odd, but while I don't trust them, I don't want to get rid of them either," Jin-Woo silently sighed, his shoulders falling. "Still, there's not a whole lot I can do about it for the moment. I could dump my stat points into Intelligence, but there's no guarantee that'll make a difference."

Jin-Woo sighed, a depressive breeze running over him. He looked over his summoned monsters, and sighed again, drooping even further.

After a moment, he tapped five points into his Intelligence and confirmed the change. He was quick to check if his two skills had changed in the slightest, but upon nothing looking different, he let out yet another depressed sigh.

He swiped the two screens away and tapped his points into his stats, confirming the changes with a fourth depressed sigh.

[Strength: 15 -> 25]

[Dexterity: 15 -> 20]

[Agility: 18 -> 40]

[Intelligence: 15 -> 20]

Jin-Woo chipped up upon seeing his developed stats. They were so low just this morning, but they'd grown quite a bit in Jin-Woo's quest for strength.

Jin-Woo was pulled away from the numbers of satisfaction as his summoned soldiers grew hostile, a half-dozen of poisonous-steel arachnids heading his way. His soldiers grew ready to fight, but they all instantly stopped when Jin-Woo spoke up.

"Stand down. I want to take these guys down on my own," Jin-Woo smiled, running a finger over Legacy's blade. The blue blood dripped onto the ground. "I think I know the perfect way to get rid of them."

Jin-Woo glanced at Legacy, noting the new ability under its description.

[Legacy]

Ability 2: Void Slash (Proficiency: 0%)

Although the skill didn't have a single word of description, the name alone was enough for Jin-Woo to guess what the ability would do.

With a grin, Jin-Woo dashed, leaving afterimages in his wake. The oversized spiders didn't even know what hit them.

"Void Slash," Jin-Woo's dagger was coated in a pitch-black essence, and through a combination of his speed, his strength, Legacy, and Void Slash, the six spiders were torn to pieces in an instant.

Blue blood rained down from the sky as uneven chunks of spiders plopped into the soil.

Jin-Woo looked at his blade, seeing the skill's presence slowly fading away.

"Huh, I didn't think I'd ever be able to cover a weapon in my mana," Jin-Woo smiled, "Y'know, I think I like you, Legacy,"

[You have leveled up.]