Breaking Up with the #1 S-Class

There are various grades of gates.

Usually, it’s common to classify gates according to their danger level using English alphabets.

However, not all gates are like that, as there are special gates that aren’t assigned alphabets.

And these gates have one thing in common.

They are all terribly dangerous.

Astaroth-class gate.

The above gate is also one of those special gates.

It’s referred to as the primordial gate that appeared at the very beginning when gates and hunters first emerged in our world.

It’s a gate where many hunters have faced terror and despair after challenging it.

It’s a single-player gate with extreme difficulty, and if there’s something a bit unusual about it, it’s that you don’t lose your life even if you fail.

It’s such a kind(?) gate where even if you die here, you can return to the original world.

But the scary part of this dungeon isn’t that it takes your life.

If a hunter dies in this gate, they will definitely lose something.

It could be memories.

It could be emotions.

It could be abilities.

It could be physical bodies.

It’s a gate where you definitely lose something, making it a gate that no ordinary hunter would ever challenge.

However, despite this, people who challenge this gate emerge every year.

The reason is because of the rumor that if you clear this gate, you can obtain an ‘EX-class skill’.

Nobody knows the source of that rumor, but it certainly makes sense.

An EX-class skill that no one in the world has ever possessed, but I also think that if I clear the Astaroth-class dungeon, it could give such a reward.

Moreover, just clearing the Astaroth-class gate itself was the highest honor a hunter could achieve.

But that’s the story if you clear it…

“Damn it. What the hell am I supposed to do now.”

I continued to lament.

Right now, my insides are burning with anxiety.

Because the gate I’ve entered is the Astaroth-class gate, and it was clear that I would never be able to clear this gate.

In the first place, throughout the long history of hunters, even Yoo Eun-ha, who was praised as a once-in-a-generation genius hunter, failed this Astaroth-class gate.

How could I, a mere A-class, a hunter who had once retired, clear such a gate…

It was a gate where failure was too obvious.

What should I do?

Damn it. How can one be this unlucky?

I couldn’t help but blame myself for having such cursed luck.

I just wanted to challenge a C-class gate.

Who would have known that I would enter not a B-class or A-class, but an Astaroth-class gate…

It was truly a hopeless situation.

I already felt wronged about being dumped by my girlfriend, and now why is this happening to me? It’s truly disheartening.

‘Haah… I guess I have no choice but to leave and accept the penalty.’

Amidst my sighs, I had to quickly come to a rational conclusion.

While it’s clear that if I leave the Astaroth-class gate, I’ll receive a penalty of losing something, I had no choice.

There’s no possibility for me to clear this, and in any case, I need to give up quickly.

It’s obvious that I’ll lose something as a penalty, but I just hoped it wouldn’t be anything significant.

“I need to leave.”

So I walked back toward the gate I came through.

Because there was no more meaning in staying here.

“Huh? Why can’t I exit?”

But strangely, I couldn’t leave.

I walked through the gate I had entered, but I simply passed through it; it didn’t return me to the original world.

“Surely… there was no such thing…”

I felt puzzled now.

As a hunter, I had read about the Astaroth-class gate in books.

So I know something about the Astaroth-class gate, and usually, leaving was standard.

You receive a penalty, but it’s a gate where you can leave immediately.

But I couldn’t exit.

Why on earth?

Ding!

[You cannot leave before the boss battle is decided.]

As I pondered these questions, a message-like notification reached me.

“What boss battle? I haven’t even killed a single mob?”

My confusion continued.

I remembered hearing that you can’t leave during the boss battle in the Astaroth-class dungeon.

I recalled that.

But that’s something that happens after killing thousands or tens of thousands of hell’s demons.

It’s something that happens after defeating all of those thousands or tens of thousands of demon legions, each with the power of B-class or A-class.

But right now, I haven’t killed even a single mob, let alone an ant.

Why am I seeing this message about a boss battle?

The wording didn’t match at all.

This is driving me crazy.

I feel like I’m going insane right now.

‘No. Something’s strange.’

With these thoughts and questions in mind, I looked around with a strange feeling.

“There are no mobs at all?”

And I realized one fact that I hadn’t noticed because I was flustered.

It was because the thousands or tens of thousands of demon legions that should have appeared, didn’t.

Normally, when entering the Astaroth-class dungeon, the first thing to do is to defeat those,

Then the second task is to defeat the four mid-bosses called the Four Heavenly Kings,

And the final task is to defeat the boss called the Demon King.

Right now, not only the first task but even the second task had been skipped.

Ordinarily, this vast world should have been filled with demon legions, but now it was eerily quiet.

I was alone, quietly remaining in this vast world.

No, I wasn’t alone.

“What is that?…”

Looking around, I discovered one more thing.

It was a creature wearing black armor, fallen and bleeding.

Going closer to check, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

A giant demon figure with a goat’s head sporting black horns.

I know the identity of this from books.

‘It’s the Demon King, isn’t it?’

It was undoubtedly the boss monster commonly called the “Demon King,” who serves as the boss in the Astaroth-class gate that I had seen in books.

That boss monster had collapsed.

Moreover, it had collapsed in a state just a step away from death.

Its condition looked very serious. The wounds were very severe.

The armor was already shattered, and it was bleeding profusely through the breaks in the armor.

“Are these wounds inflicted by Yoo Eun-ha?”

But they were familiar wounds.

I recognized them at a glance. That these were wounds inflicted by Yoo Eun-ha.

It was a technique Yoo Eun-ha typically used on bosses when conquering gates: using ice abilities to break them, inflicting damage that renders defense useless.

The wounds matched almost exactly with flesh that had been frozen and shattered.

‘Could it be… that I entered the gate right at the point when Yoo Eun-ha failed to conquer it?’

At this point, I could vaguely guess.

The situation I was in now.

I don’t know why this happened to me, but from the start, it didn’t make sense that a C-class gate would become an Astaroth-class gate.

I really feel it anew, but being a hunter seems to be a profession that always faces sudden dangers.

Looking at that Demon King, I vaguely think that Yoo Eun-ha was indeed a monster.

I also think that what I briefly saw in the news, saying she almost defeated the boss, wasn’t said in vain.

But that didn’t seem important right now.

Twitch!

“…”

By the way, did it just move?

I thought it was my imagination, but it definitely wasn’t.

As I was appreciating the Demon King, it started to move.

And signs of it trying to recover began to show.

I couldn’t help but be terrified.

“… Should I kill it first?”

I was struck by the thought that if I left it alone, I might be in trouble.

What if it recovers and suddenly tries to kill me…?

I faced such thoughts.

So I had to kill this Demon King.

Before it got me.

Swoosh.

I drew out the sword I had.

And I approached the Demon King and delivered the final blow.

Fortunately, the Demon King soon turned into black ashes and disappeared.

[The Demon King has been annihilated.]

I caught my breath for a moment.

And then messages began to flood in.

[You have defeated the Demon King of the other world.]

[The Goddess sends her gratitude to you.]

[The Goddess bestows an EX-class skill upon you who has conquered the Demon King Astaroth.]

EX-class skill?

Ah. Come to think of it, didn’t they say you get an EX-class skill if you conquer the Astaroth-class dungeon?

With an excited heart, I listened to the message.

+

[Peak of Humanity: Hero]

Rank: EX

Effect: As a hero who has defeated the Demon King, the following abilities are bestowed upon the skill’s owner.

All physical abilities are greatly increased overall.

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.

“What is this ridiculously overpowered skill?”

I could tell at a glance.

That the skill I had acquired was an absurdly overpowered one.