The briefing room smelled like stale coffee and stress.
I sat in the back, trying to be invisible. Didn't work. The other five Hunters kept glancing at me—quick looks, assessing. Measuring. Wondering why an ex-porter D-rank was on their investigation team.
Fair question. I was wondering the same thing.
"Alright, listen up." The team leader stood at the front—a woman named Park Somin, C+ rank, late thirties, the kind of tired that comes from seeing too many people die in gates. She had a scar across her jaw and eyes that didn't blink enough. "We're entering Gate D-2847 at 1900 hours. Primary objective: investigate the anomaly that resulted in four Hunter fatalities. Secondary objective: recover any artifacts or evidence."
She pulled up a holographic display. The gate's layout appeared—twisting corridors, the boss room at the center.
That room.
My throat felt tight.
"The gate has been sealed since the incident," Somin continued. "No one's gone in. Whatever killed Park Minseok's team might still be there. We proceed with extreme caution. No heroics. No splitting up. We go in as a unit, we come out as a unit."
One of the Hunters raised his hand—a guy named Cho Minwoo, C-rank, built like he lifted trucks for fun. "What about him?" He jerked his thumb at me. "Why's a D-rank on this mission?"
"Kang Hajun is the sole survivor," Somin said flatly. "He knows the layout. He's seen whatever's in there."
"He says he's seen something," another Hunter muttered. Woman, early twenties, archer based on the compound bow across her back. Lee Hyejin, C-rank. "Could just be covering his ass for screwing up."
I said nothing. Let them think what they wanted.
Yuri was there too, sitting two seats over. She caught my eye and made a small gesture—stay calm.
Easy for her to say.
"Kang Hajun's role is observer and porter," Somin said, her voice leaving no room for argument. "He stays with me. Anyone has a problem with that, file a complaint after we get back."
Silence.
"Good. Gear check in thirty. We leave in ninety." Somin's eyes found mine. "Hajun, with me."
The others filed out. The room emptied until it was just us.
Somin studied me for a long moment. Up close, I could see the lines around her eyes. The silver threading through her hair. The way her hand rested near her weapon even in a safe room.
"I read your report," she said finally. "Shadow Knight. B-rank. Killed four Hunters in seconds."
"Yes."
"You hid."
"Yes."
"And it just... let you live."
I met her eyes. "I don't know why it did."
That was true, technically. I didn't know why the Shadow Knight chose me. Didn't know why it shoved its hand into my chest and changed everything.
Didn't mean I was going to tell her about it.
"Here's the thing, Hajun." She leaned against the table. "I've been doing this for twelve years. I've seen a lot of weird shit in gates. But I've never—never—seen someone walk away from an encounter that killed everyone else without a scratch."
"I got lucky."
"Maybe." She didn't sound convinced. "Or maybe you're hiding something. And if you are, if you put my team at risk..." She let the threat hang.
"I'm not here to cause problems," I said. "I just want answers."
"Then we want the same thing." She pushed off the table. "Gear up. And Hajun? Whatever happened in that gate—whatever you're not telling me—I'll find out. I always do."
She left.
I sat there in the empty briefing room, listening to the hum of the ventilation system.
My shadow was doing that thing again. Moving when I wasn't.
"Yeah," I said to it. "I know. This is a bad idea."
It rippled in what might have been agreement.
The gate hung in the air like a wound.
We stood in the same parking lot where I'd stumbled out three days ago. The purple light cast everything in sick colors. Made everyone look like corpses.
Or maybe that was just my imagination.
[Warning: Entering high-risk area]
[Quest Active: "Return to the Beginning"]
The System's notifications were quieter now. Subtle. Like it knew this wasn't the time.
"Standard formation," Somin ordered. "Minwoo on point, Hyejin and Joon on DPS, Yuri on tracking, Kwon on support. Hajun, you're with me in the middle. We enter on my mark."
The team moved into position. Professional. Practiced. These people knew what they were doing.
I was just trying not to throw up.
The gate's surface shimmered like oil on water. I'd been through dozens of gates as a porter. It never got easier. That moment of transition—reality breaking, the world tilting—
"Mark," Somin said.
We entered.
The transition hit like diving into ice water.
One second, Seoul's humid evening air. The next, the dungeon's cold. That particular kind of cold that doesn't come from temperature—it comes from something wrong with the space itself.
The corridor looked exactly like I remembered. Stone walls. Torches that burned without smoke. The faint smell of copper and something organic, rotting.
"Jesus," Kwon muttered. He was the healer, thin guy with nervous hands. "This place feels wrong."
"It's a gate," Hyejin said. "They all feel wrong."
"No, this is different." Yuri was kneeling, running her fingers along the stone floor. When she pulled them away, they were wet with something dark. "The mana here is... corrupted. Unstable."
Somin looked at me. "Is this how it was before?"
I thought back. Tried to remember past the panic and the dying.
"No," I said. "Before, it felt normal. Like any other D-rank gate. This is..."
New. This was new.
[Warning: Environmental hazard detected]
[Recommendation: Proceed with caution]
We moved deeper.
Every step echoed. The torchlight threw shadows that moved wrong—too slow, too fluid. Like they were struggling through something thick.
My own shadow kept pace beside me. Darker than the others. More defined.
I wondered if anyone noticed.
"Contact," Minwoo hissed.
Three goblins appeared from a side passage. Small, twisted things with yellow eyes and crude weapons.
Standard dungeon trash.
Hyejin's arrow took the first one through the eye before I registered the movement. Minwoo crushed the second with a mana-enhanced punch. Joon—silent this whole time, dual-wielding daggers—cut the third's throat in one smooth motion.
Three seconds. Three corpses dissolving into black smoke.
"These are normal," Somin observed. "Weak. Standard D-rank spawns."
So the gate itself wasn't corrupted. Just... changed. After.
After the Shadow Knight.
After me.
We kept moving.
The boss room door was open.
That stopped everyone.
"It shouldn't be open," Somin said quietly. "Boss rooms seal until the boss is defeated. That's fundamental gate mechanics."
"Maybe it was defeated?" Kwon suggested.
"Then where's the core?" Yuri pointed at the door frame. "Every boss drops a core. High-grade mana crystal, worth millions. If someone killed the boss, they'd have taken it."
Unless the boss wasn't really defeated.
Unless it just... left.
Somin made a hand signal. The team tightened formation. Weapons out. Mana flowing.
We entered the boss room.
It was exactly how I remembered.
Fifty meters across. High ceiling disappearing into darkness. Stone floor marked with old bloodstains that the dungeon hadn't cleaned away yet.
Four spots where bodies had fallen.
All empty now. Association recovery team had taken them.
But the room wasn't empty.
In the center, where the dungeon ogre had died, something new stood.
A monument.
Black stone, maybe three meters tall, covered in symbols that hurt to look at. They shifted when you focused on them, rearranging themselves into new patterns.
"What the hell is that?" Minwoo breathed.
Somin approached slowly. "I've never seen anything like this in a gate before."
"It's a Monarch's Seal," Yuri said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her. She was staring at the monument with wide eyes. "I've read about them. Theoretical artifacts from before the gates. They're supposed to be myth."
"Looks pretty real to me," Joon said. First words he'd spoken all mission.
Somin turned to me. "Was this here before?"
"No." My voice came out hoarse. "Before, there was just the ogre. Then the Shadow Knight appeared from the ceiling and..."
And killed everyone.
And chose me.
And disappeared, leaving this behind.
"Don't touch it," Somin ordered. "Kwon, scan it for curses or traps. Hyejin, watch the perimeter. Everyone else, defensive positions."
They moved to follow orders.
I stood there, staring at the monument.
Something about it called to me. A pull, deep in my chest. Right where the Shadow Knight had grabbed me.
[Monarch's Seal detected]
[This seal marks territory claimed by the Shadow Monarch]
[Warning: Multiple faction seals are active in this region]
[Conflict between Monarchs may occur]
Multiple seals? Multiple Monarchs?
What the hell was I involved in?
"It's clean," Kwon reported. "No curse marks, no obvious traps. But the mana signature is... wrong. It's not dungeon mana. It's something else."
"Something older," Yuri added.
Somin was about to respond when the room's temperature dropped twenty degrees.
Everyone felt it.
"Defensive formation!" Somin barked.
Too late.
The shadows moved.
Not my shadow. All of them. Every shadow in the room suddenly stretched, reaching toward the center. Toward the monument.
And from those shadows, something emerged.
Not the Shadow Knight.
Something else.
Dozens of figures, made of solid darkness. Man-shaped but wrong—too tall, too thin, with eyes that glowed red.
[Warning: Shadow Soldiers detected]
[These are remnants left by the previous Shadow Monarch]
[They will attack any who approach the seal]
"Undead!" Hyejin shouted, loosing an arrow. It passed through one of the shadow figures like it was made of smoke.
"They're not undead," I said. The words came out automatically. "They're shadows."
Everyone stared at me.
"How do you—" Somin started.
The shadow figures attacked.
Minwoo met the first one with a punch. His mana-infused fist connected—and the shadow absorbed the impact, wrapping around his arm like tar.
He screamed.
Joon's daggers cut through two others, but they reformed instantly. Hyejin's arrows were useless. Kwon tried a purification spell—the holy light just made the shadows darker.
"Fall back!" Somin ordered. "We can't fight these!"
But the door was sealed now. The boss room had activated.
We were trapped.
A shadow soldier lunged at me.
My body moved before my brain caught up. My own shadow rose like a shield, blocking the attack.
The two shadows collided with a sound like tearing cloth.
The enemy shadow recoiled.
Everyone was staring again.
"Hajun," Somin said carefully. "What are you?"
Good question.
I didn't have a good answer.
The shadow soldiers circled us now. Dozens of them. Too many to fight. The team was strong, but these things were designed to counter normal Hunters.
But I wasn't a normal Hunter anymore.
I stepped toward the monument.
"Hajun, don't!" Yuri shouted.
Too late. I was already moving.
The shadow soldiers parted for me. Let me pass.
Like they recognized something.
I reached the monument and pressed my palm against the black stone.
It was cold. Smooth. And vibrating with power that made my bones ache.
[Monarch's Seal recognized]
[You bear the Shadow Monarch's mark]
[Do you wish to claim this territory?]
[Warning: Claiming territory will alert other Monarchs to your existence]
The smart move was to refuse. Stay hidden. Stay safe.
But my team was dying behind me.
And I was tired of being weak.
Yes.
The monument exploded with light—black light, if that was even possible. It poured into me like ice water in my veins.
[Territory Claimed]
[You are now recognized as a Monarch Candidate]
[Shadow Extraction unlocked]
[Level Up! 4 → 5 → 6]
[Class Evolution available]
The shadow soldiers stopped attacking. They turned toward me and knelt.
All of them.
"Arise," I said.
The word came from somewhere deep. Somewhere that wasn't quite me.
The shadow soldiers dissolved. Their essence flowed into my shadow, making it grow, darken, become something more.
And I understood.
This was Shadow Extraction.
The ability to claim the shadows of the defeated. To make them mine.
To build an army.
I turned back to the team.
They were all staring at me like I'd grown a second head.
"Hajun," Somin said slowly. "What the fuck did you just do?"
I opened my mouth to answer.
That's when the ceiling exploded.
Again.
And something descended.
Not the Shadow Knight this time.
Something worse.
Something that radiated power so intense it made my teeth hurt.
A figure wreathed in golden light, wearing armor that looked like frozen starlight. Where the Shadow Knight had been darkness incarnate, this was its opposite.
Beautiful. Terrible. Wrong.
[Warning: Hostile Monarch detected]
[Monarch of Light: Rank Unknown]
[Recommendation: FLEE IMMEDIATELY]
The figure looked at me with eyes like miniature suns.
When it spoke, its voice echoed from everywhere at once.
"The Shadow Monarch has chosen a successor. How... unfortunate."
Its hand rose.
"I cannot allow that."
Light filled the world.
And everything went white.
I woke up to someone shaking me.
"Hajun! Hajun, wake up!"
Yuri's voice. Distant. Getting closer.
My eyes opened.
I was lying on stone. The boss room. But the monument was gone. The shadow soldiers were gone.
The Monarch of Light was gone.
"What..." My voice was raw. "What happened?"
"You saved us," Somin said. She was bandaging Minwoo's arm. "That thing attacked. You... your shadow grabbed all of us and pulled us through the floor somehow. Teleported us to the entrance."
I didn't remember doing that.
"The gate's collapsing," Yuri said urgently. "We need to leave. Now."
She was right. The walls were cracking. The ceiling rumbling.
The team scrambled for the exit. I let them pull me along, my legs moving on autopilot.
We stumbled through the gate just as it imploded behind us.
Back in the parking lot. Back in Seoul.
The gate's purple light flickered once, twice, then went dark. The spatial tear sealed itself with a sound like reality sighing in relief.
Gone.
Association medics swarmed us. Questions. Examinations. Chaos.
I sat on the curb, staring at my hands.
They were shaking.
[Quest Complete: "Return to the Beginning"]
[Shadow Extraction unlocked]
[Level 6 achieved]
[Warning: You have been marked by the Monarch of Light]
[Other Monarchs will now be aware of your existence]
[The war is coming]
I looked at my shadow.
It was darker now. Deeper. And when I focused, I could feel them inside it.
The shadow soldiers. Dormant. Waiting.
Mine.
"Hajun."
Somin stood over me. She looked ten years older than she had this morning.
"We need to talk," she said. "About what you are."
I nodded slowly.
Yeah.
We probably did.