‘Build a path here! A path of corpses, Until the day the end of that path reaches the altar. On that day, I shall gladly return what you have lost. Offer the blessed sacrifice. Thus, the one who has reached death shall return to your side.’

A deserted island in the West Sea. The land was so barren, it should have been treated as a large reef rather than an actual island. And yet, atop this desolate land stood a gate. The White Labyrinth. Or perhaps the entrance to the Fairy Kingdom, with corridors entirely stained in white. At the end of the hallway, a marble altar was set up, marking the interior structure. This was a special type of dungeon where no monsters appeared.

“Sacrifice...”

But this place was clearly Greek territorial waters. Strangely, the altar of the dungeon was inscribed with a command in Slavic. “If you pave the path with corpses, those who have met death will return to your side.”

“Blessed sacrifice?”

Beast had always liked EX-grade dungeons. While it wasn’t as thrilling as hunting down giants like the Nuckelavee, it still had its charm, almost like a puzzle game.

At first, she casually picked up the carcass of a wild animal and tried laying it out in the dungeon. But nothing happened. Then, she dug up graves in a foreign country, using human corpses to create a path. Even then, there was no change in the dungeon.

“What on earth is a blessing?”

“Should I kidnap the pope and make him pray over the corpse?” she thought. It was around that time that Beast finally grasped the clue that would solve the mystery of this place.

– Sparkle!

In a moment of desperation, she thought to herself and decided to cut off her little finger, placing it in the hallway.

Tuk.

The dungeon, as if acknowledging that this was the right answer, formed a red and elegant “path” where her tissue had fallen.

***

Back to the present, Beast, whose true identity had been exposed, held her trademark bone mask in her hands and pondered for a long time.

What should I do next? And how did that Asian find out my identity?

At that moment, Giryeo, standing quietly, spoke to Beast through a translator. In truth, he wasn’t really interested in the response, but there was no choice but to stall for time.

“I’ll tell you in advance, I have no intention of carelessly revealing your identity, Brooklyn.”

“...”

“But this is just me asking out of curiosity... Why did you do that to Jung Haseong? What was the reason? Did Haseong perhaps commit some major offense in the past?”

He asked, trying to maintain a friendly attitude as if he was gambling. Then Beast tilted her head to one side and said.

“Dungeons are mysterious.”

The conversation, which started with a somewhat random question, quickly shifted to the explanation of the root cause of the incident. It turned out that the mysterious EX-grade gate she discovered while traveling alone around the world had been the catalyst. Brooklyn openly confessed that she had been collecting the bodies of awakened individuals under the orders of the gate, and that this is what led to the current situation.

“If you’re a Hunter, you’d know. Dungeons never lie to us, at least.”

There was a time when she wished to return to an era without magic. But when Brooklyn encountered the mysterious dungeon and felt the possibility of bringing back her husband, she realized something. She didn’t long for a time before dungeons shocks; rather, she missed the simple days she shared with her spouse. She didn’t want to continue living in pain; she wished, instead, to return to a time in the distant past when happiness had been unknown.

“Are you saying there’s a gate that promises to bring the dead back to life?”

But Korea’s fourth S-rank Hunter reacts negatively as soon as she hears Beast’s story.

“Wait a minute, Brooklyn, listen to me carefully. You’ve been scammed.”

“Scam?”

“I, I’ve been through exactly the same thing, so I know. I’m serious!”

The alien standing here, despite his appearance, was an archmage who specialized in soul analysis. Thanks to that, he knew just how absurd a pact to resurrect the dead was. As Brooklyn continued her explanation, a sudden realization hit him. That EX-grade gate was a trap, set up to toy with the human heart.

Upon reflection, the phrase Brooklyn described on the altar never used the blatant word “resurrection.”

‘Perhaps the reward from that place is nothing more than creating some grotesque creature based on the memories of the challengers.’

Moreover, this method of creating twisted entities had already been attempted in Alphasph. After struggling to complete the task presented by the food box, the reward would only be something like a distorted Hell Golem, just as mentioned earlier.

The despair that comes from the effort being in vain. And the sorrow that her choice had led to the memories of her loved one being handed over to such a clumsy monster.

Of course, from the perspective of the energy-harvesting entity, it wasn’t an intentional deception. It just used this method, which produced decent energy and led to the evolution of the feeding box. However, the truth remains unchanged that this was a trap set by an alien creature to feed on negative emotions.

But, of all people, how did Beast end up falling for something like that?

“I can guarantee you. The person brought back from there is definitely not the one you knew! The Gate will just read memories and create a shabby puppet, and that’s it.”

However, the response he got was amazing.

“Oh, I see.”

“Yes!”

“But that doesn’t matter to me.”

He paused.

Kim Giryeo doubted his own ears after hearing the voice from the other side. However, after calming himself down and re-engaging in the conversation, the response from the other party remained unchanged.

“Even if it’s in that form, it’s fine. Even if a clumsy imitation of the person who died comes out as a machine, I would still be happy.”

“Huh?”

“It doesn’t have to be all real in this world. After all, I just want to repeat the things that happened in the past.”

I’m not exactly sure what you mean, but are you saying you’re willing to hurt someone just to get a puppet or something?

“Well then, why not just grab any random corpse from a graveyard and offer that instead? Why specifically Jung Haseong...?”

Giryeo, confused by Brooklyn’s attitude, asks again. But the woman standing in front of him, whose hair has been completely shaved off, simply brushes her scalp and laughs loudly.

“Hahaha. A graveyard, huh? I’ve considered that idea myself, but the bodies of awakened ones are harder to come by than you’d think.”

“I hate that I agree with that,” Giryeo thought to himself, closing his eyes tightly to steady his emotions. Meanwhile, the American Hunter continued speaking without pause.

“...And the word ‘blessed’ written on that EX-level gate also includes the meaning of ‘fresh.’ So, corpses that have been dead for a long time weren’t considered viable materials for the path.”

“Brooklyn.”

“So in the end, as the easiest option, Beast used her identity to kill awakened individuals and supply their corpses...”

“...”

“Honestly, even without that altar, I had a feeling that this day would come eventually.”

She mutters without changing her expression. Some of her remarks are difficult to understand from a third-party perspective.

“I killed people. Quite a few Awakened people, to be exact.”

“That’s right.”

“But I don’t feel guilty about this. What does it matter? After all, people with superpowers always use their magic however they want. So, I guess it’s okay for me to do it just once.”

“Yes?”

“Did you expect that no accidents would happen when people in the world randomly held machine guns?”

“That’s...”

“This is what mana is like. That’s why I find this mystery uncomfortable. As you can see, when people with superpowers appeared, the world became even more of a mess.”

Instead of whining about just a few people, you should be grateful that I haven’t killed every awakened person I see.

Brooklyn spat out hateful words towards sorcerers in a harsh voice. Upon hearing this, Giryeo looked like he had a lot to say, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to speak. Having not regained his peak abilities, he lacked the power to recklessly oppose someone else’s opinion.

“Anyway.”

And at that moment, when someone’s delay had only lasted about 3 minutes.

“Personally, I feel sad about this. Honestly, I didn’t want to torment someone like Mr. Jung, who lives so diligently.”

“Then let it go.”

“But now, there’s not much time left until we receive the gift. The path is all set, and once we place the ‘most blessed corpse’ that the altar demands, it’ll be over.”

Brooklyn tossed the beast mask she was holding onto the ground. Then, with a strange look in her eyes, she began to scan the man in front of her.

“But why did Korean S-classes come into this dungeon? It’s such a shame, especially you.”

“What a shame?”

“I had marked you as a candidate for Beast.”

The blond man paused at those words.

“A superpowered individual whose affiliation hasn’t been revealed, and who has developed a strong public image of being incredibly powerful. Oh... isn’t that a good condition?”

As she said, Brooklyn Morgan had been keeping an eye on the usefulness of the hunter, Kim Giryeo, for a long time. He was someone who, if things went well, could be framed with the suspicion of being a Beast.

179 cm. The same eye level as her own height without wearing high heels. Similar physical conditions. A refined silhouette, mystique. And, according to the registered system, he was also an equally top-tier awakened individual.

“The moment the S-rank gate appeared in Japan was the busiest time since I was born. The guild demanded a lot from me.”

“...”

“So, it was purely by chance that I took a break from Beast activities. But when I saw you participate in that raid, an idea suddenly came to me. In fact, while role-playing, I sometimes pretended not to know English for fun. So, it wasn’t impossible to present a Korean Beast.”

Of course, using such shallow tactics wouldn’t work if it were to run into something like the British treasure, Justitia. Brooklyn was just going to quietly create the atmosphere without causing any problems.

She deliberately targeted the time when Koreans would be sleeping to carry out her activities. She had learned the [Binding] skill for some future scheme. And she was satisfied with spreading the rumor that Kim Giryeo might be a Beast.

But today’s encounter completely ruined all of those plans.

Kim Giryeo and Beast. They, who should never have been in the same place, ended up facing each other head-on today.

“Moreover, your past is unclear, so you were truly a perfect candidate for Beast.”

“You were trying to create a fake Nuckelavee killer. That’s why you hesitated at first and didn’t attack me!”

Giryeo understood the series of events. And at that moment, Brooklyn gathered her body’s magic power and activated a spell...

“Hmm.”

Swish.

With her simple gesture, the pale skin returned to its usual state. Her modern, golden bob cut and the sharp, arching eyebrows. With a single motion, Brooklyn perfectly regenerated her facial burns and the hair she had removed. Seeing this, Giryeo instantly realized the secret behind her innate spellcraft.

“The process is crude!”

The power to crudely achieve what one desires without proper medical knowledge. That’s right, in this, this is an act that can truly be called magic. When Brooklyn saw her husband’s corpse, she realized the spell to restore the body out of her desire to bring him back. Having suppressed her violent personality her entire life, the longing that settled in her mind led to the acquisition of spatial manipulation.

Whether it was body restoration or spatial manipulation, Brooklyn’s awakening abilities, unfortunately, all had a costly, overconsumption attribute. Moreover, she had achieved miracles without any knowledge related to magic, completely skipping the principles that should have been considered. As a result, the side effects that followed were even more costly than the wounds, potentially causing severe aftereffects.

“Since everything’s been revealed anyway, I don’t want to be like this in front of you.”

The wastefulness of fuel. And the individualistic spells that couldn’t be used in a sacrificial manner. But ironically, this magic-hating individual was one of the few in the world who had been deeply loved by mana. Her awakening level was slightly higher than Jung Haseong’s.

[World Hunter Ranking] [1. Brooklyn Morgan]

That’s right. This ranking was a chart that listed the ‘magic capacity’ of hunters worldwide. And because of this, she was able to handle all of these problems. Like thousands of tons of water trapped in a dam, there was a source of miracles inside her body that didn’t need any refining.

“But since you’ve kept up with this boring conversation so far, would you mind answering just a few of my questions in return, Giryeo?”

Brooklyn gripped her real weapon, the Battle Axe, with both hands, not the external rapier, and spoke to the man.

“What on earth did you do in the past?”

“...”

“How could you possibly know the identity of the Beast when you can’t even follow the swing of my axe with your eyes?”

“...”

“Giryeo, what is your awakening attribute? Telekinesis? If so, can you use that Binding technique you used in Japan again?”

The conversation ended there. Soon after, Brooklyn quickly whispered in a deep, thick voice, as if some ‘switch’ had been flipped inside her.

“No, no, that’s not it. Forget it. Now, it’s not even worth listening to... I might as well just kill that one too and place them on the altar.”

“Brooklyn?”

“Either way, if I do that, it’ll immediately reveal whether you’re S-rank or just a fraud.”

What followed was the sound of an axe striking, like a perfectly ripened watermelon being split open.

“You damn Asian. Do you think no one knows you’re for Ghang’s support?!”

Crack!

Immediately after, the American S-rank hunter transformed into a hungry beast, raising her weapon and charging. And, as expected, there was no way for the F-rank to avoid it.