“Frost, do you know what the best feeling is after clearing a Gate?”

“...When you get greeted by reporters worshiping you?”

“No. That does feel good, but it’s whatever at this point.”

But no matter what, there was always one thing that made his heart pound.

“It’s when you receive the rewards.”

Like Gates, Dungeons gave rewards once you cleared them.

“This Dungeon is a door-type, too. It’s closed-off.” It would give better rewards than typical, open-type Dungeons. Not only that, but this particular Dungeon had a unique maze feature and it even contained high-level monsters.

Shick, shick. 

Seo Jun-Ho rubbed his hands in anticipation and approached the Wall Mantis Queen’s corpse.

“...Oh no.” His face fell immediately. Her exoskeleton had become soft after being melted by Banjo’s fireballs.

‘I won’t be able to use this. Tsk, I should’ve just hunted her myself, even though it would've been more troublesome.’ 

He felt a sense of regret as he started to dig around her insides.

“Found it.” He pulled out his hand, holding a brown orb the size of a baseball. A boss monster of this size was guaranteed to have one of these.

The Frost Queen seemed curious. “What is that?”

“It’s a core. The core of the Wall Mantis Queen,” Seo Jun-Ho explained.

“Hm. I was not aware that monsters carried such items.”

“Huh? You had one too.”

“Huh…? I did?!” The Frost Queen cried out in shock. She started to pat herself down. “W-where is it? Is it that big?”

“No, yours was on the smaller size. It was about the size of a ping-pong ball.”

“Ugh… I do not enjoy this.” She seemed slightly disturbed at the notion that her old body had contained a core, and jut out her bottom lip.

“Don’t worry about it too much. It has a 95% drop rate among boss monsters,” Seo Jun-Ho said. Even though the Frost Queen had once been a human in her own world, such was the nature of the ‘Floor rule.’

“...Still, it was not mentioned when the contract was made,” she muttered.

“Huh? Contract? What contract?”

“The contract with the Floor Admin… Huh?” The Frost Queen tilted her head. “What is this memory? Does it… belong to me?”

“How should I know?” He lifted the Frost Queen from his shoulder so that they were facing each other. “Explain. You said you lost all your memories. You said you didn’t remember anything.”

“Such was the case… But I feel as if I am starting to recall some things…”

“...”

She didn’t seem to be lying. This meant something was allowing her memories to return.

‘What about her has changed…?’ 

Seo Jun-Ho looked down at the Frost Queen. She was hanging in his two hands, swinging her legs. She had been a mere 40 centimeters tall before, but he had already adjusted to her new size at some point.

“...Wait, is it because of your spirit grade?” That was the only difference from back then. She was now a Low Spirit… Or, according to her, a Grade 2 Arch Spirit. When he pointed this out, she seemed to agree.

“It is possible. Now that I have become a Spirit, it makes sense that my memories would gradually return as my grade gets higher…”

“You’ll have to eat a lot more Spirit Crystals from now on.”

“...?” She tilted her head. “What are you saying? I have never eaten a spirit crystal… Nor do I plan to,” she said with a frown.

“Oh, I mean… Um, you should eat them from now on. That’s what I meant. You should stop being picky.”

“Contractor, ‘picky’ is a term that only applies to food. Why would I eat a rock? I refuse to do so.”

Or so she thought… Unfortunately for her, there was a solution for everything.

Seo Jun-Ho placed her on the ground and crouched down. “So what do you remember? Tell me the details.”

“Hm…” The Frost Queen cupped her chin, deep in thought. She eventually spoke, “After my kingdom was destroyed, I remember meeting a being known as a Floor Administrator.”

“A Floor Administrator. Was it Grey?”

“No, it was not a man. I remember that it was a woman…”

“Do you remember anything about her appearance?”

She shook her head. “I apologize. I do not think my memories have fully returned yet. But… I do not recall being told that I would have a core once I became a boss monster. That’s all I remember at the moment.”

“...Do you remember anything else about the contract?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.

“I remember being told that I was being given a second chance…” She kept scrunching her nose in frustration. “Haaa, perhaps I really do need to eat a spirit crystal.”

Perfect.

Seo Jun-Ho comforted her as she wilted. “You don’t have to push yourself. Just tell me if you remember anything else, okay?”

“I understand.”

Dungeons didn’t give out rewards the same way as Gates. While Gate rewards were delivered instantly, Dungeon rewards had to be picked up individually. Seo Jun-Ho entered the treasure room beyond the Boss Room and discovered a box.

“Oh, man. My heart’s pounding.” It had been a while since he had been this excited. It was the similar feeling he would get as a kid on the way home after buying a new game.

As he carefully opened the box, he discovered a single book and a heavy pouch of gold.

“This looks like about 100 gold.” The equivalent of a million dollars, or a billion won. If a party of 30 had entered the Dungeon, each person would have only received about 30 thousand dollars, or about 40 million won, so it wasn’t all that much.

‘But I’m the sole recipient.’ 

In that case, it was a large amount. Seo Jun-Ho put the gold pouch into his inventory with a clatter and looked toward the book with his heart pounding.

‘It’s a book.’ 

And 99% of the books that appeared in a Dungeon were skill books. If you got really unlucky, sometimes they would give literature from ancient kingdoms or something, but that wasn’t the case this time.

“Item data.”

He had avoided the 1% chance.

[Skill Book - Shadow Wall, Active]

Grade: C

Effect: Allows the user to move along walls as a shadow for 1 minute.

“Ooh!”

“Wow.”

Their jaws dropped. Even though it was just a low-grade skill and only had a duration of 1 minute, it was still a useful ability.

“In other words, it gives you the unique ability of the wall mantises,” Seo Jun-Ho noted.

“It would be useful for assassination or for eavesdropping,” the Frost Queen remarked.

[Do you wish to learn ‘Shadow Wall?’]

“Yes.”

[You have learned a new skill ‘Shadow Wall(C)’.]

[You possess a higher-grade ability of the same attribute, ‘Watchguard of Darkness (S)’.]

[Skill combining is possible. Allow ‘Watchguard of Darkness’ to absorb ‘Shadow Wall’?]

“...Huh?”

Skill combining? Seo Jun-Ho blinked. It was the first time he saw such a message.

“Higher-grade ability of the same attribute… Allow Watchguard of Darkness to absorb Shadow Wall? What does this mean?”

Seo Jun-Ho was confused. It was his first time being in such a situation. The Frost Queen wasn’t part of the Player system either, so she was also staring blankly.

The only one that offered an opinion was ‘Keen Intuition.’ Seo Jun-Ho’s temples vibrated intensely, pulling like a large dog tugging at its owner’s clothes.

It told him to combine them.

“...Hmmm.” Usually, he would have gone along with Keen Intuition without a second thought, but this time, he was torn.

‘Watchguard of Darkness is my signature skill.’ 

It was the alpha and omega of Specter and was no different from his very identity. What if combining the skills made it degrade? Or made it disappear altogether? 

‘I can’t let that happen.’ 

Besides, Keen Intuition had been incorrect merely a few hours ago. Seo Jun-Ho wasn’t sure if he could trust it.

Vrrrr. 

His head rang again as if Keen Intuition was telling him that things were different this time.

[Would you like an explanation of Skill combining?]

“Oh, thank god.” Seo Jun-Ho nodded along to the System’s polite offer.

[Unless a unique skill can inherently facilitate Skill combining, there is only one case in which it is possible.]

[That is when two skills possessing the same attribute or effect are acquired.]

[In the case that Skill combining is selected, the effects of the lower-grade skill will be absorbed into the higher-grade skill.]

[The lower-grade skill will disappear, but its associated effects will manifest in the higher-grade skill.]

[According to the effects of the higher-grade skill, the effects of the lower-grade skill may also be strengthened.]

“...Hmmm.” Both he and the Frost Queen thoroughly read over the explanation several times over.

“I get it!” The Frost Queen clapped her hands together. “Contractor. In other words, if you combine the skills, Shadow Wall (C) will disappear,” she explained.

“But I’ll still have the ability to travel across walls if I use Watchguard of Darkness.”

“In the end, you will not lose anything if you combine the skills, correct?”

“...Now that you say that, yeah.”

Keen Intuition pushed its opinion again. Its actions were making him nervous…

‘But it seems like a good choice according to both the System’s explanation and Frost’s analysis.’ 

There was nothing to lose by combining them. The line saying, ‘According to the effects of the higher-grade skill, the effects of the lower-grade skill may also be strengthened,’ stood out to him.

‘Watchguard of Darkness is affiliated with darkness, which is known as the most powerful element.’ 

This fact alone made it a powerful S-grade skill. And if Shadow Wall was consumed by such a skill?

‘It’ll be nice if it gets strengthened, but it won’t get weakened either.’ 

Seo Jun-Ho made his decision and nodded. “Skill combining… accept.”

[Skill combining is complete.]

This was the only message that appeared. It felt anticlimactic and almost felt pointless.

“...I-is that all?” The Frost Queen muttered, sounding quite disappointed.

But Seo Jun-Ho’s reaction was different.

‘I can feel it.’ 

He could feel a new sensation, one that he had been chasing after for the last 26 years.

“...Watchguard of Darkness,” he whispered. Shadows bloomed from his body.

“Isn’t it still the same?” the Frost Queen asked. As she said, the effects of the skill were still the same.

But only in the beginning. In the next moment, Seo Jun-Ho’s flesh and blood melted into darkness and rose into the air. His body had successfully become a shadow.

“...Wow, it works.” The ‘darkness’ flying in the air spoke in Seo Jun-Ho’s familiar voice.

Wooosh! 

As he reabsorbed his magic, his body returned to normal.

“C-Contractor, are you alright? You became a shadow…!”

“Of course I am. Actually, I’m more than okay…” he said bashfully, trailing off. “I’m so emotional, I’m tearing up.”

Even back when he had been the most powerful Player in the world, he had always been thirsting for more. He wanted to bring himself up to the next level.

“Back then, I looked for a way to improve Shadow Step.” He could hide all his sounds, appearance, traces, and presence… But he wanted to become pure darkness. Only then would Shadow Step be perfected. “But turning my body into a shadow was impossibly hard.”

Darkness wasn’t liquid like water, gas like wind, or solid like the earth. It was simply a phenomenon. The only way that humans could create it artificially was by removing all surrounding sources of light.

“I failed…”

If he wanted to arrive at a certain destination, he had to know the way there. At the very least, he had to know which direction to go. But back then, Seo Jun-Ho knew nothing.

“I consulted famous biologists, physicists, particle physicists, and theorists… and even philosophers. I gathered all sorts of scholars into a single lecture room to consult them.”

About how he could become darkness…

At that, all those world-renowned scholars had become like clueless college freshmen.

“We couldn’t even come up with a theory, so I gave up… But I didn’t know that I’d get it like this.” Seo Jun-Ho let out an amused laugh. He shouldn’t think like this, but he wished that Shim Deok-Gu would hurry up and contact him.

After all, Specter would always be looking for the fiends on the 1st floor.

‘Ah, I wonder if I could find a fiend hideout on the 1st floor or something.’ 

All he could think about was how much he wanted to hunt fiends with his newfound ability.

Editor’s Note: Rank ⇒ Grade The terms have been interchangeable so far, but now, we are only going to use Grade for everything for consistency’s sake. Thanks~