A few days have passed since the red gate incident, everything has returned to normal and everyone has returned to their usual activities.
The funeral was held in honor of the Hunters who died in the incident in front of the senior officials of the Hunter Association. The Hunters who were assigned as rescue teams that day were also present.
The hunter's family has been informed by the agency that their family died in the line of duty as a government agent, and there will be compensated for their sacrifices for the family they left behind.
Izuku is currently on vacation after two raids in the A and B-rank dungeons that appeared in Kyoto. He still didn't use his job skills in front of others along the raid, he just didn't want to be bothered with the questions that would come later, only Todoroki knew about his skills. Moreover, Izuku has become a B-rank Hunter not long ago.
Speaking of Todoroki, he and Izuku are now friends. After chatting with him that day, his personality became slightly more relaxed.
Their raid team was surprised by the sudden change in Todoroki's personality. They even thought he was a monster pretending to be him, but after a long explanation, they finally understood.
Izuku is currently doing his daily training in the morning as usual. He did a morning run around the dormitory, but couldn't focus because he had a lot of thoughts. After the red gate incident, there was no horrendous incident afterward, but the raid schedule has been improved recently to prevent the same incident, no wonder there are two raids in a day.
ring~
Alarm
[Daily Quest: 'Preparing to Become Strong' has been completed]
-Push-ups: (100/100)
-Sit-ups: (100/100)
-Squads: (100/100)
-Running: (11/10km)
While Izuku was busy with his thoughts, he didn't realize that he had exceeded his daily quests and had left the dormitory area. He finally stopped after the notification that popped up.
" Oh!, looks like I accidentally overdo it, but why is this still taking notes when I have completed the quest? will this be a hidden quest? let's make sure. . . .
but, where am I? "
After finding his way back to the dormitory while doing his daily quest twice as much as usual, a notification finally appeared in front of him. As Izuku guessed, there was a hidden quest from the daily quest. The reward he gets is still the same as the daily quest reward, but there's an addition to the random box. He has to choose between 'Blessed Random Box' or 'Cursed Random Box'. Izuku chose the 'Blessed Random Box' which contains the S-ranked item.
ring~
[You Have Obtained the 'Demon Castle Key']
[Item: Demon Castle Key]
Item Class: S
Type: Key
A key that allows you to enter the 'Dungeon Demon Castle'. Can be used in Tokyo Tower.
' S-rank item, this is the second time I have gotten an S rank item aside from Igris's helmet, I will check it out later, for the time being, I need breakfast '
*
*
*
After finishing some preparations, Izuku finally arrived at Tokyo Tower. He wasn't wearing his raid gear, but only wearing a hoodie, training pants, and shoes. He used stealth skills to hide his presence. It would be suspicious to see a 9-year-old wandering around unattended, especially at this hour.
He pushed the key forward, the red energy along with the flash of red lightning swirling around the key that only he could see. The room began to distort and a gap appeared that opened the gate to the Dungeon Demon Castel.
Izuku walked in, the environment around turned into a burning city. In front of one of the buildings sat a three-headed dog monster whose body was almost as big as a house.
[Hell's Gatekeeper Cerberus]
Looking at the monster, he knew it wouldn't be easy. His survival rate was low just by looking at the first monster that he encountered. Since it is an S-rank dungeon, the difficulty is high.
This is the first time Izuku has entered the S-rank gate, which is a good opportunity to test his limit as well as to level up. He stepped forward ready to face his enemy.
" change Title! "
ring~
[Title: Wolf Slayer]
Izuku jumped and aimed at Cerberus' feet, but his attack did not seem to have a significant effect on that monster. Izuku's attack seemed to anger the gatekeeper.
Alarm
[Hell's Gatekeeper Cerberus uses 'Skill: Wrath']
Alarm
[Wrath will last for 3 minutes]
[Cerberus statistics will be doubled]
Thanks to the activated skills, Cerberus's attack speed increased a lot, he ignored all the pain and only focused on attacking. Izuku manages to avoid being bitten by the beast.
" Okay, it's just warm up. "
He immediately activated the 'Sprint' skill and attacked the monster. Because Cerberus couldn't feel anything, his attack did not slow it down at all despite receiving fatal injuries. Izuku continued to attack it, he kept aiming at Cerberus's vital points that left several holes and many scratches on its body.
ring~
Alarm
[You have killed Hell's Gatekeeper Cerberus]
[You leveled up]
[You leveled up]
[You leveled up]
Alarm
[You have obtained 'Warden's Necklace']
[You have obtained 'Castle Door Key']
[You have obtained 'Cerberus's Fang']
[Item: Warden's Necklace]
Item Class: A
Type: Necklace
Agility 20, Sense 20
[Item: Castle Door Key]
Item Class: A
Type: Key
Key that can open the gate of the demon castle, obtained by killing the guards
[Item: Cerberus's Fang]
Item Class: None
Type: Fang Material
that can be obtained by defeating Cerberus
After a tough fight, Cerberus was finally defeated, and the drop items were also as expected. Behind where Cerberus stood was a door with intricately carved decorations. After resting for a while recovering his mana and health, Izuku went straight to the door.
Behind the door is a hallway decorated with statues of demons on both sides along the hallway. The hallway itself is not very long with a door similar to the entrance at the end.
Izuku couldn't feel the presence of monsters when he arrived inside, but a quest notification appeared in front of him.
ring~
[A Quest has arrived]
Quest
[Normal Quest: Collect Demon's Souls (Part 1)]
Hunt demons and collect their souls for special rewards.
Quest Completion Requirements:
-10,000 Demon Souls
Reward(s):
- 1. Item of Your Choosing
- 2. Stats Bonus 20
- 3. Hidden Rewards
' a quest? it's been a while since I received a quest like this '
Izuku walked down the hallway until he reach another door at the end of the hallway, he opened the door indicating what was on the other side of that door. He was quite surprised by the scene in front of him.
A city was devoured in flames, destroying buildings and ruins scattered around it. He looked around and realized that this was the city that he was familiar with. This dungeon is a replica of the burning city of Tokyo.
" field-type dungeon?, is this dungeon rebuilding the entire content of Tokyo? I didn't expect it to be a field-type dungeon.
But after seeing the content of the quest, it is impossible to complete it in just one day, if I rush it, it may take a week to complete. Well since I'm here, I should at least try to accomplish it. "
" Arise! "
A shadow army formed behind Izuku's back. He didn't mean to hold back in the first place. Leading his knights, Izuku charged forward, killing every demon he encounter along with his army.
Notifications kept popping up endlessly as he and his army slaughtered demons in the dungeons. There is even an exp level earned among the notifications that appear.
He smiled throughout the battle looking at the many notices in front of him. Izuku then quickened his pace, from now on it is a battle against time, he can't waste a single precious second here.
*
*
*
After 4 hours of unilateral slaughter, Izuku ascends to the next floor using the Pass He obtains after killing a certain demon.
[Item: Entry Permit]
Item Class: ??
Type: ??
Permission to enter the next floor in the demon castle can be used in the Floor Movement Magic Circle on the 1st floor
After arriving on the 2nd floor, Izuku restarted the unilateral slaughter of the demons on that floor.
Each floor of the Devil's Castle dungeon is made of a different world. Monsters holding the Entry Permit will randomly appear on each floor and you can only proceed to the next floor with an 'Entry Permit'. If this huge tower has 100 floors, it can be said that there are 100 different worlds in this tower.
2nd floor
3rdfloor
4thfloor
.
.
.
27th floor
As time passed, Izuku climbed from one floor to the next at a terrifying speed. The souls he has collected so far total 2,116 souls. He still got a long way to go.
[Collected Demon Souls: 2,116/10,000]
At first, when Izuku got the key, he was worried that this place would be similar to the S-rank dungeon that he often read about in the raid records belonging to the association, but the worry gradually disappeared and the battle became boring.
He decided to stop here since it was difficult to predict the time inside the dungeon, and he couldn't check it because the electronic device didn't work inside the dungeon.
When he came out of the dungeon, the sky was already dark. There was no one around and there was only himself. He checked his mobile phone, and it was already 2 a.m.
He sighed as he walked home, there was no train or bus left at this hour, the only option was to take a taxi or walk. Izuku chose to take a taxi since there will be a raid schedule today.
It took a while, but he finally got a taxi. After showing the address of the dormitory, then they headed to their destination.
Or so he thought. At first, Izuku didn't pay much attention to it, but as the taxi drove, the direction began to deviate from its original destination.
Izuku tries to talk to the driver but he ignores him, claiming that they are on the right track and speeding up his taxi even more. Just as Izuku wasn't paying attention, sleeping gas billowed from inside the cab.
ring~
Alarm
[Harmful substances have been detected]
[Buff: The effect of 'Cure Poison' cures you]
[3, 2, 1... 'Cure Poison's' has been completed]
' WHAT?! '
Looking at the notice that appeared in front of him, Izuku couldn't help but surprise. Knowing that something was wrong, he decided to come into play temporarily by pretending to be unconscious before deciding what to do next. He secretly sent a message and his location to the police just in case something bad happened.
After driving for nearly 20 minutes, they arrive at an empty warehouse. The taxi driver checked Izuku on whether he was conscious or not and took him into the warehouse. Izuku could feel some other human presence from inside the warehouse.
Izuku was then placed in a dusty storage room containing several wooden boxes arranged in such a way. The taxi driver left him with several people who were already been captive in the room with their hands tied.
He opened his eyes as soon as he didn't feel the threatening presence around him. He got up and looked around. There were 5 people besides himself, 2 adult women and 3 children. They looked at him with pitying gazes for having the same fate as them. One of the women look him and tried to talk to him.
" Hey kid, are you okay? "
" I'm fine, but where are we? "
" I don't know, I'm going to go home, I just fell asleep for a while in the taxi and when I woke up I was here, it seemed that we had been kidnapped "
" I can see that "
He then untied his knot and then helped the others. The woman was surprised by how quickly Izuku untied his tied and how calm he was in this situation. She then looked at him and asked.
" How can you do that? don't you feel scared? "
Izuku smiled at her and then replied.
" I'm just well trained "
After hearing Izuku's ambiguous answer, she narrowed her eyes but decided to ignore it. She and other women gathered the children who were still crying and tried to calm them down. Izuku looked at them and began to think how he should get them out of here.
Izuku then looked around the room, the room itself was closed and very stuffy, there was only one way in and out. He could feel some presence behind the door. 5 in total, he could have beaten them easily. Although he rarely fights humans, he still knows how to deal with them. He had already sent a message to the police about the location, it was only a matter of time before they got here.
The remaining question is, whether he should deal with them while protecting the people behind him, or just sit and wait here, buying time until the police arrive. He could escape here easily but he couldn't leave these people. Besides, there are only women and children here. He had considered using his shadow soldiers but risked exposing his abilities that he wanted to keep secret for the time being, until he could fully understand it. Also if he uses his skills, the police will not let him go easily, and his actions will be regarded as a violation of the rules for using his quirk for personal gain.
He was so busy mumbling that he didn't notice that the others were giving him a strange look. One of the women decided to step up and pat him on the shoulder, to bring him back to reality.
" Are you okay there? "
Izuku was a little surprised, he didn't realize that he was doing his habit in this situation.
" u-um, I-I'm fine, looks like I did my habit unconsciously, sorry "
He scratched the back of his head because of the habit he showed unconsciously. The woman nodded in response to Izuku's answer.
" so what are we doing now? "
Another woman holding the children spoke up. Izuku set his sights on him and began to answer.
" I have already contacted the police and sent the location to them, they should have arrived here at any moment, but the problem is how to prevent the villains from leaving as soon as the police arrive "
" Are you crazy?!, you are going to fight with them? "
" not fighting, just trying to buy time until the police get here "
While they were still arguing, the sound of the doorknob opening shocked everyone in the room. The moment the door was opened, Izuku knew that this would not end well.
.