I took two, three small sips of the healing potion and instantly felt warmth spreading through my body. Then the real work began. A twitching, shifting sensation in my chest, right where my broken rib had been. The bone knit itself back together. My forehead itched as fresh skin closed over the wound. I bent down, picked up the cork, sealed the potion, and unwrapped the bloody bandage from my forehead. The wounds were gone. But scars? Scars always remain.
This one would stay with me forever...just like the memory of that attack on the sports field.
Jiro sighed, the weight of his years pressing down on him. "You know what our problem is? What it’s always been?" He dragged a wooden chair across the creaking floor, spun it around, and sat on it backward, arms resting on the top of the backrest. His gaze flicked to the half-empty potion vial in my hand, then back to me. "We like to think the world changed in the past five years. That evil only started creeping into our lives when the Abysses appeared. But that's a lie. Evil has always been here. Inside us. Rooted deep. Rotting us from within long before we ever noticed it."
I scoffed. "Sounds poetic."
Jiro didn’t smile. "But whatever happened in that dungeon… it didn’t create the darkness inside you. It only fed it. And now, it’s taking hold."
"Bullshit."
For a second, even I was startled. I never spoke like that to older people. Damn, I barely even spoke like that to my friends.
But Jiro didn’t even flinch. "You think I’m wrong?" He leaned forward, voice dropping to a near whisper. "Then answer me this: when you fought in that dunegon, when you felt that power flooding through you, what did it feel like?"
I opened my mouth... then shut it again.
"That hesitation tells me everything," he muttered. "I’ve seen it before. Oh yes… not so long ago. That hunger. That… addiction. Whatever this force is, the one that has loomed over us since the Abysses appeared, it doesn’t just corrupt. It tempts. It calls to the ones who are strong. It offers them... something."
I swallowed, gripping the vial in my palm.
"And you took it, didn’t you?"
"I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about," I muttered.
Jiro exhaled slowly. "It doesn’t happen all at once. First, it whispers. Then, it takes. And by the time you realize what’s happening..." His fingers curled around the chair’s edge. "It’s already too late."
"I'm... fine!"
"You are not." His voice was firm, but not unkind. "If you think you can fight this alone,you’re mistaken. None of us ever have. And you? You’re in deeper than anyone I’ve ever seen."
"So what? You gonna tell me to stop dungeon diving? To throw away my shot at getting stronger? That’s not happening."
Jiro studied me for a long moment. Then, instead of answering, he reached into the chest pocket of his work overall and pulled out something small. He set it on the table between us.
A thin, polished wooden token. Inscribed with a symbol I didn’t recognize.
"This is from Beopjusa Temple," he said. "A place of cleansing. Of restoration. There are others like it. Five, to be exact."
I frowned. "And?"
Jiro hesitated. "You need to leave."
That caught me off guard. "Leave?"
I stared at the token. At the strange symbol carved into its surface. Something deep in my gut told me this wasn’t just a suggestion.
It was a warning.
"You need to go on a journey. A long one. One that will teach you how to control this. How to keep it from consuming you." His fingers moved subtly, tapping a command into the holographic display of his Nexus Link. The air between us flickered as the system registered the action.
A quest transfer.
Bzzzt!
My phone vibrated.
[New Quest Notification Received.]
There it was. Just like I expected. Dungeon Now had logged the request. Jiro had just issued me an official purification mission, straight from his Nexus Link, and the system had processed it in real time.
I glanced down, expecting to see the usual clean, corporate UI, the same as any other job. But just as I was about to tap the screen....
Pain.
A sharp, splitting sensation tore through my skull. My vision blurred.
And then another quest.
Not on my phone.
Inside me.
The text burned itself into my mind, raw and untethered, separate from the system-generated pop-up in my hand. Two quests. At the same time. One projected through my cracked phone screen, official, verified, controlled. The other directly in my soul interface... rewritten, changed.
Jiro's Nexus Link had the functionality to create private objectives. At least for internal use. But to carve them directly into my soul interface? That was something else entirely.
Was it magic? Or something more?
My stomach twisted. There was only one explanation.
My soul interface had processed Jiro’s words as an official directive. It had rewritten his warning into a real, functioning quest.
But that meant... The divide between magic and technology wasn’t just thinning. It was collapsing.
And somehow, I had become the crossroads.
[Spirit Quest: "The Five Temples of Purification."]
Jiro has seen it before. The creeping hunger. The rage. The thirst for power that twists even the strongest warriors into monsters.
It has already begun within you, Takuya.
You cannot fight this enemy with your fists. You cannot outlevel it. You must cleanse your spirit, or be devoured from within.
To do this, you must embark on a pilgrimage to five sacred temples, each concealed in the depths of Korea’s ancient lands. At each temple, you must complete the Rite of the 108 Bows, speak with the monks who guard the ancient knowledge, and offer a candle at the altar to light the path out of darkness.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
But beware: the corruption inside you will resist. It will whisper. It will twist. It will fight back.
Quest Objectives:
- Visit the Five Temples: Beopjusa, Haeinsa, Woljeongsa, Naksansa, and Jogyesa.
- Speak with the monks at each temple to discover a way to cleanse your soul.
- Uncover the true nature of the darkness within you before it consumes you.
[Accept] / [Decline]
Before I could even finish the thought racing through my greedy mind, Jiro cut me off.
"The reward is the experience you’ll gain on this journey. But once you complete the quest, come back to me. I have something for you. Along with a follow-up quest.”
Lousy experience? That was it? For a quest that could take me days, even weeks to complete?
Without hesitation, I selected [Decline]. Jiro’s request in Dungeon Now was instantly rejected.
"I don’t have time for this nonsense," I told the janitor. "I’m fine. Better than ever, actually. And… thanks. Thanks for the healing potion."
Jiro studied me for a long moment, his gaze unreadable, as if peering past my words down into something deeper. "Keep the rest," he said, his voice calm, steady, carrying the weight of someone who had seen countless fools walk the same path before me. "And when the storm within you rages beyond your control… come back. I will be waiting."
There wasn’t much to think about. A million other things were way more important right now. Getting stronger to protect Grandma. Making money in dungeons to make her happy.
I finally had a chance.
And I wasn’t going to waste it.
The moment I stepped out into the cool evening air, I pulled up Dungeon Now and started scrolling. I needed a raid. A real fight. Problem was... so did everyone else. Every A-rank dungeon in the designated zones had a massive signup pool. Monster Hunters picked the raid they wanted, but the system rolled the dice on who actually got in. Even most B-ranks around Seoul were the same, with way too many players in the queue, all hoping to get a slot.
"Too far away," I muttered. "Too late."
My thumb flicked faster, scrolling past full lobbies, past region restrictions, past raids that were already cleared until I finally found one that fit.
- Start time: 7:00 PM
- Close enough to reach in time.
- Party still needed two members to meet the minimum group size.
- No item-level requirement.
- Experienced raid leader...
...I checked his stats. Way too overgeared. Another Elysian Warden. Level 25 Paladin. My palms immediately felt clammy.
Another trap?
And then, another impossibility:
It was a C-rank dungeon.
A guaranteed death sentence for me. At least… if I had to fight one of the monsters alone.
It didn’t matter. I had no other choice. So I tapped [Join Raid] for Twilight Bell Monastery.
My phone buzzed again.
A message.
I expected it to be the raid leader, maybe an automatic confirmation of my spot.
Wrong.
It was Sin-Joo.
I stopped walking.
Stopped breathing.
What the hell did he want from me?
Fuck night classes. I’m near Everland Theme Park, in the forest. Click the link for the exact location. Get here ASAP.
I really had no clue what he wanted from me. Why he hadn’t just talked to me at school. Everland?! Why, of all places, there? The same place where, three days ago, we barely survived a gruesome ritual? Oh, wait… I didn’t. I actually died.
The coordinates he sent me were right on the edge of the world boss’s zone. From there, I could reach the Twilight Bell Monastery on foot. Probably in 20 minutes.
My pace quickened.
Yeah. No-brainer.
I broke into a jog, phone in hand.
On my way. ETA 30 minutes.
It wasn’t just about confronting Sin-Joo. It wasn’t just about joining the raid. Something else stirred inside me… something that shouldn’t have been there. A strange excitement at the thought of going back to Everland. A thrill I couldn’t explain. Didn’t want to explain.
The world boss. Who (or what) was it?
Then suddenly, a flashback. Freaking huge claws. Dragging me into the Abyss. And deep in my core, a hunger whispered.
Something inside me wanted to see that monster again.
With a Little Help from Your Friend [2/10]
Time left: 16:34:19
Just two days ago, a new Abyss had torn open on the outskirts of the world boss’s domain. And from it, monsters had poured out, corrupting the Geumhwa Seonwon Monastery. Once a proud sanctuary of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, it had stood nestled among the winding mountain trails of Taehwasan and Magusan, where monks once sought enlightenment beneath towering pines. But now, only whispers of the past linegred in the wind. The great bronze bell, once calling the faithful to prayer, had fallen silent...
Or maybe not?
Because right now, as I stood at the edge of a cemetery, a mile away, looking down at Everland, I heard it.
A deep, resonant chime, echoing through the mountains. A call.
But not for worship. For something else.
Something sinister.
Sin-Joo was sitting on a park bench, waiting for me. I sat down beside him, and without hesitation, fired my questions. Not just because I needed answers... but because I needed to prove to myself that I’d rather fight than talk.
"How much of what you said in the dungeon was true? Do you really despise me? Would you have traded me for anyone else at school?" I didn’t mean to sound whiny... but those were the questions that had been burning inside me the most.
"No," Sin-Joo muttered. "None of it was true. I never hated you. Never wanted someone else instead. But...." He let out a slow, tired breath. "That feeling I had, back in the dungeon, when we faced Nihilith... That was real. No question. In that moment, I hated you. With everything in me." He swallowed hard. "And I feel so ashamed of that."
Without thinking, I reached out and put an arm around him. For the first time, I felt how thin his frame was, how his bones pressed against his skin. And in that moment, I realized something strange... something that should have been obvious. We’d been friends for years. But we had never once been close. Never once had we physically touched. Not even a casual, stupid handshake like Do-Hyun and Min-Kyu always did.
Did it bother him?
"It's alright. What happened back there… that was all Nihilith. We weren’t Monster Hunters. We weren’t even ourselves. We were just his puppets, dancing on invisible strings in his sick little tragedy. He cast us as the leads in a play we never even wanted to be in."
Sin-Joo let out a dry laugh, shaking his head. "You still don’t get it, Takuya. You don’t know a damn thing."
"What? What’s that supposed to mean? Are you insulting me?"
"It’s not an insult. It’s just the truth. A cold, ugly truth, bro."
He was just as distant, just as hopeless as he had been in the dungeon. And that terrified me.
Whatever had taken hold of him... it was still there. Like a sickness with no cure. His fingers, pale as a corpse’s, fished his phone from his pocket. He unlocked the screen, scrolled through his files, then turned it toward me and pressed play.
And then, I saw him. Nihilith. Not as a four-armed, demonic puppeteer (with a voice like a frozen winter storm). But as a thin man with his top hat. In both hands, he controlled a marionette, its strings taut in his fingers. One that looked like a little white knight. He was performing a show at a children’s hospice. Just knowing that the kids gathered around him weren’t visitors, but patients, filled me with an unbearable sadness. Their time was running out. They were walking a road with no return. And yet…
Nihilith made them forget. For just a moment, he pulled them away from the pain.
And the children laughed.
The Nihilith I knew was a being of corruption. But this man, the one in the video? He was light in a dying world.
"And so, the little knight took up his sword and faced the darkness!" Nihilith’s voice echoed through the video, warm and full of wonder. "For he knew that even the longest night must break… and beyond it, the dawn will always rise."
Sin-Joo stopped the video.
I looked up at him.
"I had no idea that Nihilith....."
"His name was Elliot Graves."
I froze. "His… stage name?"
"His real name. But does it even matter anymore?" Sin-Joo’s voice barely rose above a whisper. "His entire existence crumbled. Vanished. Forgotten. Elliot Graves? Just another name swallowed by the Void. Just like Ryn Valen."
...Or Velric Valgarem, I thought. Did Sin-Joo even know who we had really fought in Blackridge?
"Elliot Graves spent his life performing for kids who had nothing left. Giving them something to smile about before their time ran out." His voice was hollow, almost lifeless. "And Nihilith? He was the exact opposite. But how? How does someone go from light to shadow? There’s only one answer." He exhaled slowly, as if the words themselves exhausted him. "It’s in us. In all of us."
I flinched inwardly. It was the same message Jiro had given me, just wrapped in darker, more hopeless words.
Sin-Joo’s fingers curled into fists. "Nihilith didn’t corrupt the world. He just pulled back the curtain. Showed us the truth. The sickness. The rot. Yeah, it’s always been there. This was never a battle of good versus evil. The only real question is... How long can the good survive before the darkness finally eats it alive?"
For a moment, he just stared at the ground, lost in thought. Then, his gaze lifted, and he looked at me. Through me?
"Tell me, Takuya. What happens when the little knight stops believing in the morning?"
A beat of silence.
I swallowed.
"Takuya?"
"Yeah?"
"I won’t wait for the darkness to take me."
His voice steady, empty.
"Sin-Joo, brother..."
I knew what I should say. We have to fight. We have to get stronger. We have to seal the Abysses and destroy whatever lurks beyond it. But the words wouldn’t come out. Instead, my lips formed something else entirely.
"Where were you, really? I mean, during those three days after Ryn Valen summoned that... thing."
My friend stared at me.
"Here," he whispered. "I was here the whole time."