The next day, Revival’s members traveled back to where they belonged. Leon returned to America, Sophie returned to Britain, and Michel returned to France. However, Sumire and Ilayda Van said they would remain in Korea.

Sumire explained, “I want to stay and help Unni more. Also, I want to seriously learn more martial arts from Shin-nim.”

“But Sumire…” I said weakly.

She chirped happily, “Take good care of me!”

Apparently, Sumire had been living by herself as both her parents passed away. As such, there was no problem deciding where she would stay. As the people from her country practically worshiped her, she was somewhat reluctant to go back.

As for Ilayda Van, I was genuinely surprised that she wanted to remain in Korea. After all, Turkey was certain to have problems where her power could be of help. When we revealed our surprise, she explained as she nodded, “When I left Turkey, I had already told them that I would not be coming back. Since I’ll have to focus on climbing the dungeon, I won’t have time to deal with other affairs.”

“Mmm.”

“Please accept me. I’ll serve you faithfully,” she said almost pleadingly.

I said weakly, “No, you don’t need to serve me at all…”

We decided from there that she would be living in our guild house mansion. After all, we would need someone to stay here. After we saw Ilayda Van enter the dungeon after contacting Laz Michel, we each went back to our work. I, of course, had to continue what I left off yesterday – choosing new explorers.

Then, someone sat down next to me as I was going through the documents Hwaya printed with new applications since yesterday. Thinking it was Elfa, I turned my head to the side. However, it turned out to be Ludia.

“Ludia?”

She hesitated and finally said, “You know how you…picked a new healing ability user.”

“Yeah, didn’t I tell you about it?” I asked.

“I was in the dungeon, so I didn’t hear you well. Um, you know Shin…”

A hint of uneasiness surfaced in Ludia’s eyes. I looked at Hwaya. She shrugged, gesturing that she didn’t know what was going on.

“What’s up?” I asked, giving her my full attention.

She continued, “I’m doing my best. I’ll be Gold rank soon too. B-Because you said not to stick to you so much, I’m stopping myself from going into your room. Because you said not to fight, I’m not doing anything even with more girls joining in. So don’t throw me away, aak!”

After flicking her forehead once, I did it three more times. Ludia looked at me with tears in her eyes.

“You hit me!” she exclaimed, pouting.

I tapped her again gently. “I’ll hit you more if you keep saying stupid things. Throw you away? Do you think you’re trash? It’s better to have two healers than one. You at least know what 1 + 1 is right?”

“Then you won’t throw me awa… Ow!” she shrieked.

I mumbled while giving her a look, “What am I going to do with this girl?”

I thought she had gotten better since she had stopped being reliant on me physically, but apparently that wasn’t the case. As I sighed, Hwaya spoke instead of Ludia, “Ludia’s just worried that she’s useless to you.”

Ludia glared at Hwaya with malice and snapped, “What do you know?”

Hwaya shrugged. “We like the same guy. Isn’t that enough to know each other?”

She sputtered, “I…I don’t like him! I just can’t live without Shin…”

Hwaya waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah. If you want to say something, you can say it over a drink later. If you stay here, it’s going to hinder our work, so leave.”

“Eeek, Hwaya Mastiford!” Ludia screamed.

Hwaya’s telekinetic magic slowly pushed Ludia out of the room. Ludia tried to use her power, but she soon suppressed it, seemingly afraid that she’d destroy the mansion. In the end, she was chased out as she howled in rage. Ye-Eun, Walker, Yua, Father, and the others who were peeking in were also pushed out like bowling pins by Hwaya’s magic power. I didn’t know why they were watching us so curiously. To lighten up the awkward atmosphere, I purposely laughed aloud.

“Hahaha, it’s great that everyone’s so merry!”

Hwaya shot me a look. “Go back to work, Guild Master.”

I replied meekly, “Yes, Ma’am.”

That day, we chose four new explorers. They were all S+ ranks. Since we thought that they all had potential, we made them all First Dungeon explorers.

We were slowly using up our appointments, but with the four new explorers working hard, we would be able to recover them soon. This was also why we prioritized picking high ranked explorers.

Once we met them and had them sign the contracts, I finally had the time to enter the dungeon again. Beyond’s 14th floor was hell where Giant Ghouls and Skeleton Knights appeared together.

[Human…Your delicious smell is tickling my nose!]

[Cut him to shreds! Kill all living be— Kuhuk!]

I crazily shot my crossbow bolts the moment I ran into them. Peika and Ruyue were floating around me, while Sharana was currently infused into my body.

I commanded hastily, “Stop the Skeleton Knights! Prevent them from opening their mouths!”

[That’s easy!] Peika said haughtily.

Ruyue shouted eagerly, [Leave it to me, Shin!]

Ruyue’s freezing energy filled the area, while Peika’s lightning quickly ravaged our enemies. At the same time, I charged through all the enemies and shot my bolts crazily. I was targeting the Skeleton Knights’ skulls and the skeleton mounts’ legs! It would be my victory as long as I could stop their screams and charge.

[Humaaaaaaan!]

“Elemental Blade!”

[N-No! I got on aga…Uuuk!]

[Whee~]

Countless number of elementals flooded toward me, and I swung the spear blade that had extended beyond thirty feet, instantly severing the legs of the skeleton mounts headed my way. I got critical hits one after another, and with Skull Breaker’s effect added, the damage I did extended to their entire bodies. I didn’t even need to describe what happened to the Skeleton Knights riding on them.

[Guoooooooooo!]

At that moment, a Giant Ghoul roared and swung its claws as if to protect the Skeleton Knight squadron that had lost its formation. I boldly jumped into the fray and shouted, “Ruyue!”

[Winter Curtain!]

The Giant Ghoul’s claws were slowed by the numerous ice crystals fluttering in the air. I smirked and jumped on top of its arm. I compressed the Elemental Blade and instantly re-expended it to penetrate the Giant Ghoul’s head. However, an undead monster wouldn’t die from just having its head pierced.

I guffawed. “If you want to win against me, you’ll need to come by the hundreds!”

In the next moment, I jumped off the arm and slashed down with my spear. After splitting its head into two, the Elemental Blade continued down to its body, causing an explosion. Before its Diehard skill could even activate, I had crushed it.

The Giant Ghoul’s corpse disappeared, and I could once again see the Skeleton Knights that had readied themselves to charge forward once again. They were using Giant Ghouls as defense, Skeleton Knights as offense. The formation made sense.

“Unfortunately, that’s not enough! Wind King’s Rage!”

I charged toward time before they could stampede toward me. They raised their heads to use Undead Roar, but Peika and Ruyue didn’t let that happen. Both ice and lightning were specialized in stopping the enemies’ movements. With the two of them working together, not even the Skeleton Knights could do anything about it.

“Haaaap!”

The first Skeleton Knight I ran into made a silent scream as it was sent flying. This was only the beginning. They were all grouped since they were preparing to stampede towards me. After using Wind King’s rage, it was on cooldown for another three hours, so I had to kill as many of them as I could right now.

“Come! I’ll crush you all!”

[You have used Provoke! All enemies will attack you uncontrollably!]

[Kuaaaaaaaa!]

[Kill him! Kill him!]

“Divine Speed!”

When they raised their weapons, I used Divine Speed. It went without saying that the faster I was, the more damage I dealt. One, two, three…Each subsequent Skeleton Knight sent flying flew away faster and covered a larger distance. All the skeleton mounts had already become dust.

This continued until not a single one of them remained with their feet on the ground. As I had been pushing them to a single spot, they were all piled on top of each other.

[Powerful…human…!]

[How? It’s only a single human…!]

I laughed as I approached. “If I wasn’t strong, would I be here?”

There were over forty Skeleton Knights clumped together. I could tell how many Skeleton Knights were filling up a single passageway. The power of wind and lightning gathered by Wind King’s Rage was ready to go berserk. I charged into the mountain of bones made of Skeleton Knights and let it explode.

“Hasta la vista!” I screamed happily.

[Critical Hit!]

They were thoroughly annihilated.

“Huu, huu…” I gasped for breath.

The dead monsters turned into particles of light and scattered into the air, brightening up the slightly dark passageway. I stabbed my spear into the ground to catch my breath. I had managed to finish them all without being hit.

I wiped the sweat off my brow. “Whew…That was easier than I thought!”

[I did well, right?] Ruyue asked eagerly.

Peika struck a pose. [Huhu, how was it, Master?]

“You guys are the best.”

I smiled and complimented the two elementals flying next to me. If they hadn’t stopped the Skeleton Knights from using Undead Roar, it would have been difficult for me to defeat them. I had no problem getting through this area with their help.

The key was preventing the Skeleton Knights from using Undead Roar and crushing their mounts’ legs. Accomplishing those two points practically decreased their strength by half. Although the Giant Ghouls acting as their shields were annoying, Beyond’s 14th floor was more or less a breeze. I was looking forward to my next opponent on the 15th floor.

“Ghoul plus skeleton. Isn’t that just a ghoul with bones?”

I laughed, imagining a monster that easily tripped on its own bones. Of course, when I thought about the Thunder Power Knight from the 10th floor, I knew that probably wouldn’t be the case.

I mused, “Hopefully, another skill of that type drops. It feels a bit lacking to use Skill Synthesis with just two skills…”

I thought about the skills I received from Beyond’s 10th floor boss and the First Dungeon’s 60th Floor Master and smirked. I was a bit worried that I had gotten too addicted to Skill Synthesis, but I couldn’t help looking forward to the outcome. I raised the spear back up as I felt full of strength once more.

I shouted happily, “Let’s go, guys! We’re going to breeze through it!”

I successfully broke through Beyond 14th floor in just two days. A person could do quite a lot when they were enthusiastic and full of energy. When I left Beyond and returned to Earth, I marveled at the infinite potential of humans. Then, Hwaya gave me a report.

“Two explorers…died.”

Humans really did have infinite potential.