A searing pain spread under his jaw.

  He heaved a sigh and watched as dark droplets hit the surface of Breakneck Brook, the water thirstily drinking them up as each drop bloomed into smoky red plume.

  Before the brook’s current could snatch the tendrils, the portal absorbed the misty red and started to glow.

  The burst of blood had painted a splash up his jaw and into the ash-gray hair above his ear. The rest of the blood sluiced over the collar of his coat, a hot cascade that plastered down his chest in seconds.

  So, as a result, the right side of his coat and shirt ended up soaking wet with red.

  [Remaining HP: 0%]

  Instant death.

  But as Shane’s pathetic F-rank HP hit zero and his vision shook, another notification popped up.

  [Cheat Death] Charge: 0

  A killing blow will drop you to a sliver, not a grave.

  (Refresh when HP returns to full. Does not stack.)

  Shane checked his HP bar again. Sure enough, the number had changed.

  [Remaining HP: 1%]

  It was an effect attached to his [Absorb Wound] skill. He basically had a spare life as long as his HP was full.

  The effect had been a shocking revelation when he’d first found it. He’d never even heard of the skill, so he hadn’t expected it to have such a broken function. It must’ve been added to the game while he was gone.

  He brought two fingers to his forehead, wiping a smear of blood away from his eyebrow just before it dripped into his eye.

  [You have been afflicted by the curse, Unstoppable Bleeding(D)]

  [Curse Immunity(C-) has been activated!]

  [All negative status effects have been purged.]

  Meanwhile, the [Unstoppable Bleeding] curse from the dagger was completely negated by his C-minus [Curse Immunity]. He’d been a little worried the open wound might try to drain his HP again.

  It was hard to tell at first beneath the mask of red, but the bleeding had stopped on its own. The gash was still there since [Curse Immunity] wasn’t a healing skill.

  HP in this world was a lethality meter that only measured how close you were to dying. A life-threatening wound could drop a hunter’s HP to one, but a bruise after that might not make it budge at all, since they didn’t bring him any closer to death than he already was.

  The guide’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. “Th-that... that was not wicked...”

  Shane just stood and watched him fall backward.

  [The ???????? stirs from its deep slumber.]

  [The ???????? looks down upon you.]

  [The ???????? tastes the echo of your end and finds the flavor satisfying.]

  [The dormant gateway awakens at their command.]

  By offering up the blood containing “the life of one player” as a sacrifice, Shane had forced the portal to start opening again.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Thankfully, the game treated that Shane had technically died once because his HP had hit zero. He was definitely lucky, because without [Cheat Death], this would have been impossible to try in [Honor Mode].

  But there was one thing he hadn’t accounted for.

  A wave of dizziness hit him, and as he stumbled, Josh yanked him away from the stream and snatched the dagger from his hand.

  “What the hell? Are you out of your mind? This thing has a D-rank curse on it! You don’t just... Jesus! If you die using my dagger, what the fuck am I supposed to do here?”

  What?

  Shane cocked his head and stared down at Josh. Now this was interesting.

  It sounded like Josh was afraid he’d end up a suspect if Shane died using his dagger. Shane had to admit, the NPC’s motivations sounded pretty human.

  The way Josh was more worried about going to jail than about the guy dying right in front of him…

  As the HR guy for the infamous Wynn Guild, Josh had to know that if “murder” appeared in a headline next to the guild’s name, the damage wouldn’t stop with him.

  If Shane actually had died here, would Josh have just buried the body in the mountains so no one ever found out?

  But still, it was just an NPC. It needed to chill.

  Shane decided to tell him to let go of his arm now.

  “Shut up.”

  The fuck?

  Let go, was what he meant to say. His words came out way stronger than intended. Shane scowled as he realized it was the side effect of his [Behavior Lock].

  Damn it. He didn’t have time for this. At least the Lock didn’t stop his next move.

  He calmly tilted his head to the side and hooked a finger into the blood-soaked collar to pull the fabric away from his throat.

  To prove the point, he used his thumb to wipe a thick smear of red from around the gash.

  There was a raw line on his skin that was already sealed shut by a dark crust. Shane knew one wrong move could tear it all open again, but for now, he wasn’t dying.

  Shock washed over Josh’s face again.

  “How?”

  Shane figured the ‘How?’ was aimed at the negated curse, not just the fact that his wound had closed. At least the grip on his arm weakened.

  Without answering, Shane shook off the hand.

  Jumping toward the dungeon’s gaping maw hidden beneath the stream, his mind raced, already planning which dungeons he should clear after he got his hands on the sword inside.

  There wasn’t much time before the Cataclysm. He would have to take the most extreme leveling route possible.

  The moment he stepped inside the dungeon, he completely forgot about Josh Miller and the guide he brought with him.

  ***

  Josh stared, aghast, at the dungeon portal. What shocked him wasn’t the dungeon itself, but the rank floating above it.

  S-rank.

  Putting aside the fact that a dungeon of this level only appeared once every few years, if it wasn’t cleared in time, it could trigger a dungeon breach.

  That meant it would become an SS-rank disaster with monsters pouring into the real world.

  On top of that, dungeons had a strict limit on the number of people who could enter. The absolute worst-case scenario was a low-rank hunter getting stuck inside and taking up a valuable slot.

  If they were lucky, they’d die and the government would give them a funeral with full honors.

  But if they got trapped for days, preventing a high-rank hunter from entering, and then had to be rescued? It was a nightmare for everyone.

  Not that he had much room to talk, having just tripped and gotten stuck in the dungeon portal himself.

  “Hunter Miller! There you are, sir. You said to meet you at the base of the mountain after the patrol?” The Wynn Guild’s raid party, assigned to patrol with him, was finally here.

  Their arrival broke the spell, pulling Josh from his shock.

  The party immediately took note of the scene. The fainted guide, the scorched earth, and Josh himself, soaked, pale, and standing next to a bloody puddle.

  Everyone seemed to be confused, though, some acted fast enough to check on the fainted man.

  “Is… is that an S-rank dungeon?” a team member in full plate armor asked Josh.

  The guy gave Josh a look that clearly said, Why haven’t you reported this yet?

  The guild-issued armor made him look tough, but Josh knew Whitley Barlowe was just a C-rank swordsman. Their job was to scout for hidden dungeons while clearing up the monsters in the mountain.

  No S-rank dungeons had shown up in the US in years, it had been natural for the guild to send a team that was mostly C-ranks.

  Completely useless for an S-rank dungeon.

  Seeing his teammates, Josh was hit with the reality of what he was about to do, all because of a whacko who had saved his life before jumping headfirst into the dungeon.

  “Don’t tell me you’re actually planning on going in there,” Whitley said nervously, as if he was worried Josh might drag him along.

  “I am.”

  “Um, then, when does the Vice Guildmaster get here?”

  “Troy is out of the country.” The only S-rank in their guild was unavailable. Typical.

  Whitley started sweating noticeably. “Are there any other high-rank hunters available?”

  “No.”

  “Right. Well, not right here, obviously. It’d take time to get backup. How long until support arrives?”

  “I’ve already reported it, but there’s no immediate support coming.”

  “Are… are you out of your goddamn mind?” The swordsman’s tone did a complete one-eighty, finally stopping to avoid facing the reality of their situation.

  Josh figured a guy this obsessed with saving his own skin was bound to live a long life. Of course he’d need to learn how to hide his cowardice if he wanted to continue a career as a hunter, but that wasn’t Josh’s problem.

  God, this was why he hated being a hunter.

  He quickly explained to the raid team that a hunter had entered the dungeon just moments ago, and that he’d already notified the Hunter’s Association.

  His priority now was rescuing the lunatic.

  “I’m going in alone. If I can’t find the hunter within five minutes, I’ll come back out.”

  He told the team that if he felt he couldn’t escape, he would take measures to ensure he “wouldn’t take up a slot.” The only thing he asked of them was to relay the news of his death to the Vice Guildmaster.

  Then he loosened his tie and dove through the entrance without a second thought.

  “Hunter Miller!”

  Josh ignored the cry of his teammates. He knew he was acting reckless and stupid. But he did have a reputation to keep as one of the first-generation hunters.

  Who knows, a hunter bold enough to charge into a high-tier dungeon might just be good enough at running and hiding to still be alive.

  ...Who was he kidding?

  The man was probably dead by now and he was risking his neck for nothing.

  But when he entered the dungeon, the sight that greeted him was neither a mangled corpse nor a hunter locked in battle.