Part 0: Prologue

[Routine Quest is now available]

An articulate voice of male voice

Huh...of course it's not a dream. What even i'm thinking.

But his sound definitely resounded in my head, and also what the hell is in front of me, a quest window floating in mid-air.

'Could it be... today too?"

While the voice talking in my head, I cautiously opened the information window.

Zeet...

[Routine Quest: Building Muscle]

Push-Up, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)

Sit-Up, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)

Squat, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)

Running, 10 km: Incomplete (0/10)

※Warning: Incompletion of Routine Quests will result in appropriate levels of punishment.

As soon as I got to confirm the contents of the Daily Quest, I began cussing out reflexively.

"Aww...Just how many days it has been already!?"

***

Part 1: Rank E Player

Rank E Player, Kazuya Sai

No matter where he going, this title always followed him around.

Sai's overall strenght was almost the same as a regular goblin. With the exception of being a bit stronger and his healing ability slightly faster, Sai was about the same as regular goblin in every other aspect.

It was par for the course then, that he'd always end up getting injured. He nearly died several times, too.

Of course, it wasn't as if Kazuya Sai liked being a Player.

The work was dangerous, others made fun of him, and to confound the matters even further, the pay was pretty pathetic, as well.

If it weren't for the medical aid paid out by the Player Association to the Player in their "payroll", he'd have turned in his Player licence and quit by now, and live his life like a regular person.

Unfortunately, someone like Kazuya Sai, in his mid-twenties and lacking in any tangible job skills, there was no other way but to remain as a Player if he wanted to pay for his little brother's hospital fee of millions of yen every month.

Should one say that he had no choice in the matter?

That was why, even though he didn't want to, he simply had to participate in the raid supervised by the Association.

***

Players operating within the same area tended to know each other pretty well. In the event of a Dungeon opening up, all the Players in that district would be asked to come, that's why.

The Players who had arrived early sipped on the cups of tea handed out by the Association's employee and shared cordial greetings with each other.

"Oh, hey. Natsu , Over here. Here."

"Oh? Mister Shinichi, what are you doing here? I thought you were giving up on being a Player?"

"Well, that... My sister going to an academy."

"Hahahaha, is that so. Yeah, for a Players to earn big in one go, participating in a raid is the best, isn't it."

Natsu jovially burst out in laughter. Mister Shinichi followed suit with a sheepish chuckle, before asking Natsu.

"By the way, why do I feel like that the Association is calling on us less and less nowadays? Did the number of Gates decrease or something?"

"Eii, of course not. That's only because the Guilds are getting all worked up over clearing the Dungeons; it's got nothing to do with the Association. I hear that various Guilds are jumping in with both feet since there is big profit involved in this whole thing."

"Well, in that case, since this raid is being supervised by the Association, it should be safe, no?"

Mister Shinichi took a glance around as if he was getting nervous.

If a Guild was not involved today, that meant there wasn't enough profit to be had, and if there wasn't enough profit to be had, then that could only mean that this particular Gate's difficulty would be low.

Of course, nothing in this world was 100% absolute.

It wasn't just Mister Shinichi; other Players were nervously glancing around as well.

"Hmm. I wonder...."

MNatsu finished the rest of his tea while avoiding answering his friend, before spotting a certain someone and raised his hand in happiness.

"Uh! He's here. Hey, Mister Sai!! Mister Sai!"

Other Hunters also displayed joy at discovering that young man.

"Ah, hello."

It was none other than Kazuya Sai.

Sai performed a simple nod of the head at the joyous Natsu and walked by.

After making sure Sai was well out of earshot, Natsu began sniggering while confidently speaking up.

"So, Kazuya Sai showed up. Then it's going to okay today, too."

Mister Shinichi's eyes widened up and he hurriedly asked Kim.

"What was that? Is that Player Kazuya Sai really strong?"

"Ahh. Right, of course, you wouldn't know who he is. He's a Player who started working shortly after you left, you see. However, every Player here knows who that kid is by now."

"He's really that strong? Wait, why is he working for the Association, then? Why not for a Guild or as a Solo Player?"

Natsu sniggered some more before narrowing his eyes.

"You know what that guy's nickname is?"

"How should I know that? C'mon, man. Just tell me already."

"The World Most Weakest Player."

"....Weakest? Not something like, the ultimate strongest?"

"Dude, that's the nickname for the rank S Players Kazuya Aito. That kid is the 'weakest weapon'. I'm pretty sure he's the weakest Players in the Republic of Korea."

"Really, wait why he has the name of The strongest players?"

Shinichi began frowning deeply.

Kazuya Aito was his father, and Sai was a forbidden child.

When Shinichi's head tilted this way and that, Natsu chuckled and poked the side of Park with his elbow.

"Eii! The raids Kazuya Sai participates in will only have low difficulty because he's so weak. The Association would never entrust him with a tough job, don't you get that? They don't want to see him get killed, right?"

Only then did Shinichi's expression brightened up.

"R-right. Yeah."

His sister was deeply worried about him since this would be his first raid in quite a while. Honestly, even he himself was worried, too. However, now that he listened to Natsu's words, he felt like a weight was lifted off his mind.

Natsu continued on.

"That guy, there was a rumour not too long ago that said, he got injured participating in a raid of a rank E Dungeon and spent a week in the hospital."

"A Player got injured by a rank E Dungeon?"

"That's right. No one expected to see a Player getting injured during a rank E Dungeon raid, so they didn't even bring along a Healer, apparently!"

"That's why he spent a week in a hospital?! Pu-hahaha!"

When Shinichi began guffawing too loudly, Natsu hurriedly hushed him.

"Stop it, man. Mister Kazuya might hear you."

"Aigoo. I didn't think of that."

Park cautiously checked Sai's reactions as he continued to giggle.

Thankfully, the distance was far enough and the youth didn't seem to have heard them.

Of course, they were mistaken.

'I can hear everything, you geezers.'

A bitter smile formed on Sai as he tried hard to ignore them. At times like today, he couldn't help but blame his unusually-acute sense of hearing.

It seemed that he arrived too early and the raid was yet to commence.

'Did I arrive too early?'

Sai looked around to while away the waiting time, spotted the Association employee handing out warm tea, and walked closer.

"Can I get a cup of tea as well?"

"Oh. Player Kazuya Sai... I'm really sorry, but we ran out of tea just now."

"......"

The cold Winter breeze brushed past the tip of his nose.

Sai quietly wiped his nose with his index finger.

What a sad day it was, for the tea to run out as soon as it was his turn to get one.

***

"Why do you persist on being a Player, Mister Kazuya Sai?"

"I'm sorry."

Sai lowered his head and apologised.

The young, beautiful girl using healing magic in front of Sai, Yukine Ai showed how unhappy she was with a pouting expression.

"I'm not trying to get you to apologise, you know? I'm only worried about you. If you continue being Player, sooner or later you'll be faced with a truly dangerous situation."

Sai glanced past Yukine Ai's shoulders and took a look at other Players fighting over yonder.

When one entered through the Dungeon, one would arrive at a place called 'Palace'. The rank of this particular dungeon should be around D.

A dozen-plus Players were taking care of the monsters inside this Palace without so much as breaking a sweat.

Unfortunately, for a rank E, such a feat was nearly impossible.

Normally, the job of healing the injured Players from the back fell on the Healers. Since he always got injured during raids, Sai was rather well-known among the Healers.

Yukine Ai cautiously asked him.

"Perchance, is there a reason why you can't give up being a Player?"

Sai resolutely shook his head.

He didn't want to reveal anything personal to other people.

"I'm only doing this to earn money. If I don't do this, I'll probably die of hunger, actually."

Yukine Ai pouted even more.

"If you continue on with this hobby of yours, soon you'd be raiding a dungeon in the netherworld, you know?"

Sai was taken off-guard from her remark and ended up chuckling out loudly.

Thanks to that, Yukine's nagging intensified.

"Ah, ahh!! Don't laugh! Don't! Your injuries might get worse!!"

Sai giggled before asking her.

"Where did you even learn to say stuff like that?"

"What do you mean, where? It's from Mister Natsu waaay over there."

"Ahh, that old man really went and did it, didn't he...."

As they chatted and laughed, his treatment was almost over.

It was already too late by then, though. It seemed that the raid was pretty much over now.

Sai's expression hardened.

'I only killed a single monster today. 'A rank E creature, no less. Kazuya Sai began fidgeting with the rank E magic crystal in his hand.

The lowest grade magic crystal from a rank E monster fetched less than hundred thousand yen. For something he bet his life to earn, it was a pathetically small amount. (TL: Just over $88.)

'A magic crystal from a rank C monster can sell for over ten million yen, though....' (TL: $8830+)

Too bad, a rank E Hunter such as himself couldn't even attempt to kill a monster with a rank as high as C.

Finished

Part 1

Kazuya Sai look around as he hear of someone calling he and found another path, without hesistate he run toward the path.

"There really is another path?"

Just as that Sai said, there was an entrance hidden within the dungeon itself.

"A dual dungeon, is it... So, such a thing actually exists for real...."

Sai looked into the hidden entrance and displayed how surprised he was.

The interior of the hidden, cave-like passage was dark and nothing could be seen. Sai activated his low-grade magic, fire ball magic, and tossed it further forward into the passage.

The fire ball flew forward and illuminated the interior. The passageway seemed to go on forever. Soon enough, the fire ball lost its forward momentum, fell to the ground and smouldered for a bit before flickering out of existence.

The passage was shrouded in darkness once more.

"Hmm..... if this path can make me strong i beat any challenges"

"As i know, a Dungeon will not close unless the palace's boss is killed. Since the Dungeon itself is still intact even though we took care of all the monsters here, that can only mean that the boss is beyond that passageway

"Now normally, i supposed to relay this information back to the Association and wait for their decision first, but... But, if i do that, i might end up handing over the task of killing the boss to other Players, I need to be strong that why i came here."

Sai stand brave and take all guts to him and step to the Palace's Boss.

At this rate, there'd be no meaning behind him risking his life to become strong.

Since this was a low difficulties dungeon, then the hidden dungeon couldn't have been that difficult, either.

Actually, Sai was worried inwardly as well. Now normally, he would never try to take on any unnecessary risk. Not only did he lack the abilities to do so, but he was also not brave enough, too.

'I've no money saved up....'

Currently, Jin-Woo was twenty-four years old.

He was at an age where he should be concentrating on his academic pursuits, but he gave up on that dream because, well, he had no money. He saved up all his money to cure his brother diseases.

Right now, every cent was precious to him.

Part 2

The passageway went on and on forever.

Sai walked to the Palace's, He try his best to stay calm in this situations.

Sai still recovering from his wound previously, If it weren't for the presence of the outstanding Healer ranked B, Yukine Ai, Sai wouldn't have been able to carry on living unaffected, never mind working as a Players. It was a small wonder why such high ranked and hard-to-find Healers were valued so greatly within the halls of the Association.

Yukine Ai was a Healer-type Hunter, a rarest of the rare breeds.

Not only that, she was a genius ranked at 'B' as well.

"I found it!!"

"It's the boss chamber!"

Sai saw a huge stone door blocking the passage.

Sai immediately surrounded this door.

"What is this? Why is there a door at the end of the cavern?"

"Have i ever encountered a boss chamber with a door before?"

"This is definitely the first time, I'm sure of it."

Sai began to express his doubts and fears one at the time.

Since Sai own lives were on the line here, Sai had to be cautious and meticulous.

However, if Sai were to become too cautious, Sai would end up failing to grasp the heaven-sent opportunity in the first place. Sai figured this was one such case.

"Am i all planning to return empty-handed after coming this far?"

Sai placed his hands on the door.

Suddenly there a voice of male

"Became Strong"

"If that's what you want, I'm pushing ahead, even if it means I'll be going to sacrifice my own life."

Sai pushed the dungeon's door and it creaked open.

There must've been some sort of mechanism installed on the heavy-looking door, since the physical strength of a my strength was enough to easily open it.

Slam!

Now that the door was wide open, the huge open interior revealed itself. Sai hurriedly rushed in.

As soon as Sai sat foot inside, flames erupted on the numerous torches packed tightly on the walls all at the same time. Thanks to that, the interior brightened up considerably.

"First time seeing a dungeon like this one."

Sai cautiously studied their surroundings. The overall atmosphere of the place was similar to that of an ancient temple.

Not only that, an old and somewhat decrepit temple, something that might be buried and hidden beneath the ground; moss and weed could be seen sporadically on the floor, walls and the ceiling.

However, one couldn't help but feel that it was still inadequate.

The interior was nonsensically huge. The chamber was shaped like a giant dome. It was as large as several Olympic stadiums, the one found in Denmark, were put together – no, maybe it was even bigger than that.

The reason for that was rather obvious.

"N-no freaking way that thing's the boss, right?"

In the deepest part of the dome, something so logic-defyingly humongous sat on a throne just as big as itself. It was none other than a huge stone statue of a god!

Well, Liberty was a woman, while the one sitting on the throne was a dude, though.

'No, hang on. Maybe it's even bigger than that...'

Sai's began nervously swallowing his saliva near the foot of the god statue. The taut and heavy apprehension and anxiety were clear to see on his faces as he worried about this statue being the dungeon's boss.

However, the statue did not budge an inch.

What a fortunate thing that was.

"Whew...."

Sai spat out a sigh of relief.

The chamber of the stone god statue might have been massive, yet its actual inner structure was on the simpler side. On the walls, countless torches could be found there. And in front of these walls, more stone statues, slightly taller than a human being, stood tall and unmoving. There were lots of them here as well, found at a certain distance from one another.

"They are all rather beautiful, aren't they? It's like, they are works of art"

Objects held by each of the stone statues were varied and different.

Some held weapons, there was one with a book, some carried musical instruments, and even torches.

"It's as if.... They are like statues of a holy temple or something."

"Mm?"

Then, Sai found something beneath his feet.

"This... Isn't this a magic formation?"

He found a magic formation that he had never seen before located in the middle of this temple.

"Look like something written here"

Sai discovered a statue that was different from others.

Only this statue featured a pair of wings and carried a stone slate. What the Sai focused on was the letters carved into this slate.

"It's Rune alphabet."

Words that could not be found anywhere on Earth, and found only within dungeons; only the Players who had 'awakened' the magic-related professions could decipher them.

"The laws of the Kargantua temple."

Sai read the very first verse.

However, someone suddenly tugged at his arm.

When he looked back, he spotted Yukine Ai, who have been followed him all the time.

< Chapter 2 > Finished.

Yukine's complexion was incredibly poor; Kazuya Sai was deeply taken aback by this sight.

"What's wrong? Are you ill somewhere?"

"T-there. Over there."

Sai's eyes followed Yukine's trembling pointing finger. She was pointing at the giant god statue. More specifically, she was pointing at the god statue's face.

Sai could only tilt his head in confusion because it looked pretty much the same as before.

"....?"

Yukine stuttered some words out.

"The, the eyes... The eyes of the god statue moved towards us. Just now."

"Pardon me?"

Sai looked again several times, but nothing seemed to have changed. There was no visible change to the god statue.

"Eii... I'm sure you've made a mistake."

However, it seemed like Yukine didn't hear him; her head stayed lowered, and as she held onto Sai's arm, her entire body trembled even harder.

'Hang on a sec here.'

Even Sai picked up on this strange but ominous sensation now. The world was eerily quiet. So much so, it felt just too bizarre.

'No sounds....?'

Even the sounds of the flames burning on the torches could not be heard anymore.

"First law."

In the meantime, Sai's voice continued on as he read the contents of the slate.

"Worship the god. Second law. Exalt the god. Third law. Prove your piety. Those who do not keep to these laws shall not leave this place alive."

It was then.

SLAM!!

Sai was jolted back to their senses at the sudden explosion of noise.

"What, what was that?!"

"Where did that sudden noise come from?!"

The first person to notice the change in the situation was none other than Sai. Because his senses were running at full tilt already, he could tell where the noise was coming from right away.

"The door!! The door is closed!!"

Sai shifted his gazes towards the doorway. The door he left open was now firmly shut close.

"Look like the door closed, now no way to back"

Sai with an expression that contained all of his dissatisfaction before he spun his head around and angrily grabbed the door handle.

It happened, then.

Sai's eyes grew extra large.

….Their troubles only had just begun.

Didn't Yukine say it earlier?

"That, the eyes... The eyes of the god statue moved towards us. Just now.

"If what she said is true...."

A chill rapidly ran down his spine.

Sai forced his stiff neck to turn around so he could look behind him.

Part 3: Commencement of the attack

It was then, the god statue's two black eyes changed to red.

Was this the instincts of a Player?

No, the instincts of a living being were sending out urgent warning signals.

Something was coming.

Something none of them could contend with!

Sai turned towards the Yukine and cried out as loudly as he could.

"Get down!!"

Almost at the same time, red beams of light shot out from the eyes of the god statue. Jin-Woo hugged Ju-Hui and threw their bodies to the floor.

"How, how can such a thing even be..."

Not Sai had ever experienced such a powerful attack before in his lives.

"....."

While still lying prostrate on the ground, Sai glared at the god statue.

Its eyes were still glowing in red, but it did not attack again.

'Is the attack... over?'

Sai looked underneath him. The scared-silly Yukine Ai was trembling in his arms.

This was the reason why she worked for the Association and not for a big Guild, and participated in simple raids like this one, even though she was nominally an excellent Hunter with a rank as high as 'B'.

Yukine's breathing was getting rougher by the second.

He couldn't let her be like this. He had to do something.

Sai was about to raise his body up, thinking that he gotta do something here, but then, Yukine grabbed his shoulders and pushed him back down, hard.

"Don't get up."

"S-sai, your, your... Your arm?!"

"This is nothing. I can still hold on."

"But, but, still...."

Sai swallowed down his saliva'.

Sai's other hand that wasn't pressing down on Yukine's shoulder, his left arm, was gone.

"..."

Sai studied Yukine's conditions for a bit, before he took off the T-shirt he was wearing, and while not even showing the enormous amount of pain he must be feeling, he wrapped up what was left of his left arm.

"Help me tie up the end, please? It's difficult to so with only one hand."

Yukine could only nod his head then.

They were able to somehow stop the bleeding for now.

Rather than a scream or a pained moan, Sai let out a long sigh.

"Fuu....."

Now that the first-aid was over, Sai's gaze became a level sharper as he studied his surroundings. Although the god statue stopped attacking them, their situation hadn't improved in the slightest.

And like so, seconds continued to tick by

But, what could i possibly do here? If my suspicion was correct, then the moment we moved, we will get attacked.

And, even if we got lucky and managed to evade the beams and reach the door, there were the two stone statues guarding the doorway to worry about, as well.

This were a big problem too, actually.

The movements of the doorkeepers were so fast that he couldn't see it with his eyes. Could i or anyone else open the door and escape before those statues attacked we?

It sounded completely impossible.

Which meant it was just a matter of time before we die.

When his thoughts arrived there, a strong sense of disharmony filled him up.

An event that couldn't have happened, but it happened anyway.

But Yukine seemed to have picked up on "it" yet.

'Something... We missed something here.'

Without a doubt, the answer to their salvation hid in that

*something*

he throw his sword, while, Sai hurriedly turned his head to look at the god statue. Just as he suspected, the eyes of the statue were fixed on the back of that sword.

And then, the chilling red ray shot out from those eyes.

BUZZ!!

The beam crushed the sword into dust.

Sai's expression crumpled.

As expected, the god statue could easily finish we off if it felt like it. It'd be easier than stepping on squirming bugs, actually.

'If that's the case, then.... Why hadn't it?'

It could kill we, yet it hadn't done that.

This was a completely different pattern of behaviour compared to the monsters that attacked as soon as spotting human Players in their vicinity.

These statues only moved if certain conditions were met: the doorkeepers that only attacked if someone approached the door; the eyes of the god statue firing that red beam if someone moved.

It was like a game with a set regulation.

'Hang on... Could there be some kind of rules in this chamber?"

It was here that a piece of puzzle found its place in Sai's head. He began recalling the contents of the stone slate he was reading not too long ago, that was why.

'The laws of the... Kargantua temple, was it?'

'Regulation' was 'rules', and 'rules' could be 'laws' as well.

The key to their safe escape from this camber had to be buried within those warnings found on the stone slate.

"....Worship the god."

That was the first law.

Sai shifted his gaze back to Yukine.

Sai simply placed his index finger on his lips. It was a sign asking for a bit of time to think.

'If my thoughts are right...'

Sai slowly rose up.

Sai shook his head while carrying a determined expression.

Sai learned something important just now.

'It's not attacking someone who's not moving around.'

As long as he was squatting low to the ground, he could go anywhere he wanted to and the statue's eyes would remain still.

However, if one stood up, then the red beam would be fired without hesitation.

That was why Sai throw his sword on proving this theory right just now.

And now, he was sure of it.

The meaning behind the first law, that was!

< Chapter 3 > Finished.