-The Longest Night(1)-

Holding his scythe like a grim reaper, Kenshin stood guard in front of the teleportation gate of the first floor. Behind him, three zombies were slaughtering the respawned zombies of the first floor. They are summoned by Kenshin to assist him in the fight.

Due to his repeated killing of these zombies, his title bonus had already reached 3000% long ago. With that, he had also released his seal once, unlocking another 20% of his power. It took him some time to adjust, but he had managed to do so.

Then he opened his attribute panel.

[ATK:339(-50%); DEF:270(+60)(-50%); AGI:330(-50%); PHY:294(+10)(-50%); INT:103(+2)(+515); WIS: 33(+165); WIL: 30(+150); LUK: 35(+175)]

All stats had increased after releasing 50% of his total power. Even so, these stats were not something a level 16 hunter should have. It was all possible due to the contract. Kenshin was infinitely thankful for it as it would help right now. What made him even happier was that after increment, his base ATK becomes 339. Right now his title bonus provides him with a 3120% bonus, and still increasing every second. 3120% of 339 is 10576; that’s a huge number for any monster below level 9 dungeons.

The only problem was it increases his base ATK only. If not, he would have alone stopped the dungeon break. It’s a very good thing that his three zombies were summoned when his bonus was 2500%. They had gained half of it as their base ATK, making them even more powerful than when Kenshin entered this dungeon.

Suddenly there was a rumble near the teleportation gate, the opening which was large enough to handle a single person only, expanded ten times of its size. From the expanded gate, skeletons poured out like waters from a pipe.

“They are here” muttered Kenshin as he took his stance. Today, no matter how many monsters come out, he would try his hardest to not let a single one slip past him. All these monsters are only mob class with HP in double digits. With the amount of ATK Kenshin had, only a simple touch would be enough to kill them.

Kenshin vanished from his spot, with his phenomenal AGI, even a simple running was enough to escape the scope of vision of a normal person. Holding his scythe in his right hand, he rotated it at a very high speed like a fan. Every monster that came in contact with it were shredded into ribbons.

At the same time, EXPs poured like they are falling from the sky.

His Scythe Mastery was at a very high level allowing him to perform unconventional attacks easily. Every now and then, he would kick a nearby skeleton, killing it in the process. He too was attacked by skeletons, but due to his high DEF, forget about damage, he didn’t even feel an itch. With a renewed vigor, he continued his slaughter fest.

Five minutes later, he had successfully stopped the first volley. His title bonus was now at 5000% increasing his base ATK to even higher degree. Only now did he realize just how much of a balance breaker this title bonus was. With this title, he can take the mantle of an absolute nightmare for specter type monsters.

Now, even a casual swing of his hands was enough to send vibrations and shock waves through the air. He was sure that he can now punch holes in a wall of steel. With his increased PHY, stamina and recovery speed had also increased. Slaughtering this many monsters, he didn’t even break a sweat.

The skeletons that had appeared now belonged to the second floor. As of right now, the second floor was completely empty. Kenshin shifted his perception to the third floor. Among all floors, this floor was the most annoying one. Shades dominated this floor. Unlike any other monsters, shades didn’t have a corporeal form, making physical attacks useless against them. In actuality, they only have a very high resistance against physical attacks. If one’s physical attack was greater than their defense, then they can harm them with physical attacks too.

But these shades were very weak against magic attacks. So weak that even a low-level magic skill user can slaughter them, given enough time. As to why Kenshin thought they were annoying, It’s because they have the capability to fly, which Kenshin didn’t have. With their ability to fly, they could easily escape his cordon.

Before he ran here, Core asked him to hang on for 8 hours. That’s how long it will take him to sort out all the problems in the dungeon. Until then, all the monsters would irregularly spawn and pushed away from the dungeon. The best example would be the never-ending zombies spawning behind him. Kenshin was afraid that sooner or later, the spawning rate of these zombies would surpass the killing rate of his three zombies. At that time they would break out from here.

‘Suguro, I hope you have made enough preparations’ Kenshin thought looking at the nearly infinite number of zombies spawning.

“KWAAAA!!” suddenly a bone-chilling sound was heard as a ghostly apparition came out of the teleportation gate.

Kenshin’s eyes widened when he saw the apparition because it had a very familiar face. No wonder he couldn’t find Hashimoto even though he was using the privilege given by the contract. He had actually died and turned into a shade.

The shade stared at Kenshin for some time. Suddenly, its hollow eyes glowed as if it recognized him. It seems his hatred for Kenshin was so strong that it remained even after he was turned into a shade.

Seeing the rapidly approaching shade, Kenshin simply punched it. That punch landed heavily on its transparent body. Suddenly it stopped on its tracks and started shaking violently. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared all over its body. Slowly it began to fade from existence.

Becoming a shade was the worst thing that can happen to a living being. According to ancient texts, if one becomes a shade, it means it no longer had any place in the afterlife. They couldn’t even reincarnate. They would simply fade from existence after being killed.

They are forever barred from the cycle of Samsara.

“Sigh…I am sorry Hashimoto” Kenshin apologized. He knew it was not his fault, but for some reason, he felt like he should apologize. Hashimoto's appearance was just the teaser, slowly a huge amount of shades came out of the gate, bearing faces similar to the ones died in this dungeon for past four decades.

Kenshin didn’t know all of them, but he recognized some of the familiar faces. One of them was the person with whom he partied for the first time in life. A trace of sadness flashed through his heart after seeing so many familiar shades, before it transformed to determination and anger.

A huge flaming pillar surrounded him before it transformed into a massive dragon. The temperature increased exponentially, melting some of the rocks. At that time, Kenshin, who had his eyes closed suddenly opened it.

“I am sorry!” with a very loud scream, he sent the dragon flying towards the approaching shades.

Today he had decided to purify all of them.