Magnus of Ice

CEASELESS GROWTH PT. 1

[ENEMIES REQUIRED TO BE KILLED: 7; ENEMIES KILLED: 1]

"J-Jun-Tae!" Dong-Suk yelled out, causing other hunters to turn away for a second. The ones that didn't saw an even more sinister smile on Magnus's face, as if excited to finally live up to his threats against their lives.

As Jin-Woo's dagger sliced through Jun-Tae's throat, separating his head from his body, he stood still. His head was down; his bangs fell over his eyes, blood dripped from the right side of his face, slowly heading down his chin as gravity forced it to pool into a drop and fall to the floor. As Jin-Woo had his head down, he saw the blood hitting the floor, creating a small splatter. That tiny drop of blood did not compare to the pool of blood forming because he was next to the body. As it was ever slowly creeping towards his feet, Jin-Woo had a single thought in his mind.

'I ended up killing a person. A human...'

He continued down this path. 'Although I can say that the system ordered me to, it doesn't change the fact that I killed someone.' Before his thoughts could get darker, something caught his eye.

Ice had started to crystallize the pool of blood. When it had started, the blood-red ice looked like a garnet vein that a miner had found inside a mountain. But as the ice kept 'covering' the blood, it garnered a purplish hue, as the blue of the ice mixed with the red of the blood. As Jin-Woo saw this happening, a gleeful smile made its way onto his lips.

'Ah, that's right... I won't be alone in this path.' He thought as he grasped his dagger ever so tighter. 'If I don't kill, I will be killed... actually, I don't think Magnus would ever let anyone come close to it ever again... Not after those... monstrosities... almost succeeded.' Lifting his head, he once again made eye contact with Magnus, who seemed to be waiting for him to get out of his head. A second ago, he had a crazed look on his face, but now that his baby was looking at him, only love and adoration could be made out. Those who saw this almost thought that his crazed look was just their imagination. This thought made everyone think they were going crazy.

'That's right... I have him now. I've always had him by my side. If I want to stand side by side with him... I can't run away anymore!!' Narrowing his eyes, one more thought made its way as a brief surge of memories overtook him. 'If only the strong survive....'

What followed was a surge of memories of that fateful day. The portal's spawning point, how it had formed in the middle of a building that was being built. Mr. Kim could be seen waving at Jin-Woo and Magnus, yelling a question, "Yo, Sung! Jin! Have both of you eaten yet?" "What the fuck do you care, old man." Magnus shouted back, still irritated at the fact that this old man had called Jin-Woo by his unofficial title 'World's Weakest Hunter.' Jin-Woo was caught by surprise at his best friend's sudden violent outburst. Too shocked to say anything.

The scene swiftly changed to inside the dungeon, where Mr. Kim turned around to talk to Jin-Woo "Try not to get injured behind us, okay?" He said with a mocking smile. Awkward at the sudden attention, Jin-Woo scratches the back of his head. "Haha... Okay." "The fuck do you mean? He won't get injured cause I'm here to protect him. How about you don't go and break any bones. You're not young anymore; you just might trip and break your hip." Magnus bit back as he watched the older of the two flinch and kept walking away without responding to Magnus's comment.

Next, the buzzcut hunter in a tracksuit stood closer to the front, saying how he thought they should go through the doors that they managed to find within the dungeon. Slowly agreements could be resounded, each supporting the buzzcut hunter's choice. Right after, what was shown was the same hunter missing his head as the statue with the double-sided ax killed him. His blood dripped down the blades of the statue's weapon, as the sudden movement of the weapon caused a burst of wind pressure to shoot towards the wall nearby, causing cracks that patched up as soon as they appeared.