Shadow Monarch: Multiverse Ascendance

Hahaha, it's an indication of how much grind I did today. The levels that seemed to stop at 17 shot up to 19. I started the day at level 1; I had leveled up like crazy since then.

'However,'

There was no one who hunted a boss mob just for experience points.  When it comes to taking down a boss, the number one thing is items!

And I wanted that dagger that paralyzed opponents. 

As I looked over the sprawled out body of the snake, I saw two sources of light coming from its body.

With a delighted face, I stretched my hand towards the light.

Ding~

You've found "Casaka's Poisoned Fang"

Would you like to acquire it?

You've found "Casaka's Venom Gland"

Would you like to acquire it?

Of course, I will "Acquire all."

As I spoke, a dagger made out of black Steel and a pouch containing some substance appeared in his outstretched hand.

Casaka's Poisoned Fang

Rarity: C

Type: Dagger

Attack Power +25

Inflicts 'Paralysis' and 'Bleeding' on the attack.

  'Paralysis': The target has a chance to become immobilized.

  'Bleeding': The target will lose 1% health per second.

A dagger made of Casaka's poisoned fang, still dripping with its poison.

You may keep this item in your inventory.

You may sell this item in the shop.

I nodded as he read the item's description. It was the same.

Its stats and effects are pretty good. Of course, I will keep it as one of my main weapons. While I was looking at the daggers I was reminded of how in the later story Jinwoo used all his daggers like Gilgamesh uses rules authority or telekinesis. I will do the same just better than him...

I looked at the pouch next.

Casaka's Venom Gland

Rarity: A

Type: Elixir

Buff 'Casaka's Armored Scales' applied on consumption.  

Debuff 'Weakened Muscles' applied on consumption.

  'Casaka's Armored Scales': Physical Damage Reduction +20%

  'Weakened Muscles': Strength -35

A pouch containing the refined venom of Casaka.  Drinking will give you permanently toughened skin, but the venom will also permanently damage your muscles.

Rare drop from Casaka.

You may keep this item in your inventory.

My expression flickered back and forth between joy and sorrow.

Casaka's Poisoned Fang was a good weapon to replace the broken steel daggers. That was now damaged beyond my control as now even with a boost they won't even be able to cut human bones. On top of the fact that the dagger's attack power was more than double of the sword, it even had special effects like 'paralysis' and 'bleeding'.  

'But the venom is a bit…'

At first excited about an A-rank rarity item, I quickly realized it was not that great of an item after reading its description.  Of course, reducing all physical damage by 20% was an effect worthy of an A-ranked item. But the penalty of losing 35 points of strength was too much.  Especially when I considered the fact that I had focused most of my points into strength so far.

Although a double-edged sword, it was still an item I did not want to throw away.  Perhaps later in life someday, when my stats were so high that a 35 point reduction wouldn't hurt that much, I would use this item.

"...For now, into the inventory you go."

With a disappointed expression, I stored the dagger and the elixir in inventory.  If only an A-rank dagger and a C-rank elixir had come out instead…

Now let's see if I can store you in the inventory I thought while looking into dead Casaka. 

Even though he was only a D- - rank monster it still could have some use plus my shadow servants can level up so he could still be useful. When the limit of my summons would increase.

I thought as I touched Casaka's dead body and wished to store it in the inventory and it happened as Casaka's dead body disappeared in front of my eyes. 

I instantly looked at my inventory, I noticed there was a thing stored in one of the slots. Clicking on it I saw it in bold letters " body of 'Ruler of the Swamp, Blue Poison-fanged Casaka'"

Yes. So I can store the dead things inside the inventory just like I thought I would. As I contemplated the idea, I received a message.

As the boss was defeated, the Dungeon will return to its normal interior.

My surroundings blurred.  I felt slightly dizzy as the world came back to me.  Looking around, I was standing in the middle of a normal subway station.  The lights were on brightly, and the waters that filled the tracks had disappeared and the same with the dead bodies, all the blood and mess that I made.

On top of the lack of humans, there were no trains either. I checked the time.  The clock was pointing to 5 AM. He had entered the Instant Dungeon a little after 5 PM and had spent nearly 12 hours in it.

'A lot of time passed.

If my level-ups were not accompanied by a status recovery, I probably would've collapsed a while ago. 

As I opened the quest window and saw the daily quest was there.  So I nodded and it was good I came here with food and water...

Walking through the second and first levels. I looked at my clothes which were in a bloody mess and tattered up. I used the inventory to take out a few clothes for me to change into. 

After changing I locked myself even though my clothes were good I was still bloody with my hair wet with green blood. But nothing could be done now. I need to clean up and get rid of this mess. I thought As I walked up the last flight of stairs, a man shouted to me,

"Sir!"

A human voice was a rather welcoming sound to me. I raised my head. It was a military soldier holding a gun.

"Identify yourself! What were you doing down there? Did you not hear the announcements?"

Seeing the man's serious expression, I knew the story was going smoothly. 

"Did something happen?"

"What do you mean if 'something' happened?! Do you not know?!"

The approaching soldier's eyes suddenly fell on the broken sword I was holding.  I learned that being broken, the sword was not able to be placed into the inventory.

This is a very interesting thing after all rusty daggers that were part of loot could be stored in inventory but a broken sword can't. 

And how can a dead body be stored in it? Does it count them as part of the loot or is there something else I am not aware of? Something I will look at later. 

But aside from that. Not wanting to throw it away, I held it in my hands while walking. Seeing the sword, the soldier's eyes changed.  He carefully looked up and down at me, noticing the traces of battle on my face and hair which now had green and red blood on it. 

The soldier who had maintained a hard attitude suddenly became friendly,

"Are you a Hunter-nim by any chance?"

"Yes, that's right… but is really that hard to grasp upon don't see I literally bathed in blood." I said I shuffled my hair and drops of green blood splashed everywhere even on the soldier's face. 

And this put fear into him as his personality changed from a boss to a worker. 

"Ah, my apologies Sir.  This way, sir. I'll lead the way." he said with fear on his face. As everyone knows a normal person can't stand in front of a hunter…

And if something happens the authority still favors the hunters. They literally had the power to topple governments and countries especially the top ten the big guild's and the national-level hunters can do this very easily. 

They had governments, the media, and everything in the palms of their hands. They do what they want, what pleases them. It's a hard and cold truth everyone knows but no one acknowledges.  

I thought while nodding as I followed him. As I followed, he observed my surroundings,

'Now that I take a closer look…'

Something had clearly happened in the area.  The roads were empty, and the only people around were soldiers and policemen.  On top of that, the area was scattered with abandoned cars, damaged buildings, and the corpses of magic beasts.

I understood what had happened.

'Looks like a Dungeon Break happened just like the story.

In today's world, the proper management and monitoring of Gates meant that most of them were discovered on time and taken care of.  However, every once in a while, a Gate appears in a hidden place and goes unnoticed until it's too late. Once that happens, the military is deployed to buy time before the Hunters can arrive.

Of course, the weapons of the military did not work on the magic beasts.  Yet they still fought to the best of their abilities; in order to protect the citizens and provide time for their escape, someone had to be the sacrifice.  As such, the military bravely stood up and became meat shields. It was a job that had to be done, and the young men of this country nobly did that job.

"Thank you."

The soldier that was leading him suddenly thanked me.

"Hmm?"

"It's thanks to the Hunter-nims that we are able to live."

"Ah.. well it's my job to protect. Just like you. We fight for saving just like you. The only difference is our battlefields."

Gratitude. It felt good, something I hardly experienced in my old life.  

"...Roger.  Over and out."

The soldier's face lit up after receiving a report through his radio.

"Most of the magic beasts in the area have been taken care of.  They said there is just one big one remaining."

I nodded. I already knew this without the soldier's report. Through my raised sense stat, I was able to detect the presence of a powerful lifeform nearby, surrounded by the energy of multiple hunters.  

My instincts told me the powerful lifeform was the boss. And he was stronger than the Boss I just faced.

Soon, the boss's figure came into their view.  In an empty lot ahead, ten-something Hunters were fighting with a five-meter tall gorilla. Its whole body radiated with power with its white fur, grey eyes, black skin, and torn-up giant shackles by its wrists. A beast-type magic beast.

It had many similarities to the DanMachi's 

Silverback gorilla that Bell defeated in season one 

25 meters away the soldiers surrounded the gorilla with some media and normal civilians recording the whole fight. There was even a helicopter that was recording and reporting all this. 

*WOOOOOO!!!!*

The Gorilla is named Grimhand in color darker Orange. Which means it was at least a D- -rank monster. The Gorilla roared at the hunters then charged at one of the tanks with both of its fists drawn back and slammed down at him. 

"Crack Crack Snap aaaaaa"

As the moment was transferred the tanker shield and the shield shattered like pieces of a broken glass as the tanker was sent flying toward his congrats. 

"My god…"

The soldier took a step back.  As if it was the first time he had seen a magic beast, the man froze as he saw the black gorilla.  Any ordinary human would do the same. The presence of a magical beast in person was quite different than seeing it over the television or a computer screen.

Especially when it's a high ranking like this. 

Compared to the soldier, I calmly looked over to the battle.

"Healers! Please focus your healing on the Tanker!"

"We're doing our best! But his arm had shattered and his legs broke with other serious injuries as well"

"Yes we are already running out of Mana if this continues he won't live longer we had to send him to the hospital."

"Why is it not going down!"

"Dealers, what are you doing?! He doesn't seem like he's taking any damage!"

"Hi- His defense is too high! We need a few Mage-class Hunters!"

As Hunters who were called over on short notice, their ranks did not appear to be that high. Both their defense and offence were lacking.

Well, that's an entirely new monster from the one I have seen in the book or Manhwa. Again the future doesn't seem to be right on track as this monster is much stronger than the golem that was supposed to be in his face. 

Bang!

The Grimhand slammed his fist onto the ground, and the resulting shockwave caused the Hunter in charge of tanking to buckle.

"Cough!"

The man spat out blood.

"Oh no!"

"The Tanker's going to die at this rate!"

"What can we do?! Our magic power's almost gone!"

"Where are the high rankers?!"

The Hunters were reaching their limits.

As he watched, my gaze sharpened.

If it's this much… I should be able to do it. Plus it's a great source of exp for me and that's what I want the most. 

I slowly took a few steps backward.  All the Gorilla boss had to go for it was its high defense, its strength, and speed without any skills so it's possible that he had just touched the rank of D.  Overall level seemed to be higher.  Compared to the pressure I faced against the 'blue poisoned-fanged. So I should be able to take it down, the Gorilla was a step higher.