A week passed… dungeons continued to pop up randomly in the world, and subjugation has been the top priority for all governments. Yet there had been some governments that were unable to handle the massive surge of dungeons, countries in Africa lacked manpower and resources to stop the wave of monsters and fell. Those lands became the homes for countless beasts that came through a massive gate.

Countries like America and China were handling the gate situation well, successfully pushing the monsters away from society. In Japan, gates are closed at a quick pace with the help of a high levelled brawler that earned the name Boulder. This person was Atsushi, along with the Owl, Karin, Divine Druid, Kinuko and Lion mage Shiki. These four are the number one team in Japan, famous for their efficient teamwork as well as their high level.

Dungeons have also been given ranks, as yellow being the lowest E, orange is D, red is C, green is B, blue is A and purple being S. The only known purple dungeon is the one that broke out in Southern Africa, decimating a large area around the portal.

However… there has been reports of dungeons closing on their own, once reported but never found when players reach the gate. A total of 13 of these gates suddenly vanished without a trace, one was even reported to have been spewing high levelled Lizardmen, yet the only thing left were dried up corpses…

>>>

A swordsman frowned as he stepped out of the gate of a red dungeon, annoyed to find a man in a clean suit with a thin frame standing before him. The man gave his best smile and bowed. “We meet again, expert. Now I think you would be interested to he--“

“Not interested.”

The man blinked, surprised that the swordsman that was just in front of him was now meters behind. He turned hastily, catching up to the swordsman. “Please sir, just listen to what I have to say!” “I already told you I don’t want to be shackled, a group like yours will restrict my freedom.”

“Sir! As we have explained countless times, the Shadowless group intends on creating a team of top levelled players that protects the country, we don’t intend on shackling the players we shelter.”

Han Ling snorted, “Isn’t protecting the country shackling? I don’t intend on staying in one place for so long. I’ll be leaving before long to fine better dungeons.”

“You’re leaving? Better dungeons?” The businessman was incredulous, the man just walked out of a C rank dungeon, it was impossible for anyone to solo a dungeon like that. Yet he wanted to find stronger dungeons? Was he mad?

“In that case sir… Where will you be leaving to?”

Han Ling glanced at the businessman before smirking, “Why should I tell you? So you can follow me and bother me again?”

The businessman grumbled, knowing Han Ling would never tell him.

ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ

The businessman pulled out a phone, frowning a little before excusing himself. “Yes?”

A scared and panicked voice erupted from the other side of the call, “Sir! An extremely high levelled boss appeared in the middle of Tokyo!”

The businessman widened his eyes, “The rank C one? Wasn’t that already taken cared of?”

“The boss that emerged from the gate is a level 30! We can’t even scratch this thing!”

“Damn it! I’m sorry but we need your he—huh?” The businessman cursed before ending the call and turned behind to notify the expert. Yet he was gone, and in his place was the faint smell of metal…

>>>

A giant crocodile the size of four school buses rammed into nearest building. It reared its head, roaring and ramming the players like slapping away flies.

A brawler was running from the top of a building, leaping off the edge, falling right on top of the head of the crocodile. He raised both his hands, breathing in and out…

His eyes shown a deep sea blue and blueish mana coated his large fists.

WUONG!!

“Flowing Fist Technique! Waterfall form: 3rd movement! Crash!”

Atsushi brought both fists slamming down on the head of the croc, yet only a small number of 290 appeared on top of the giant croc, a miniscule amount for his 20000 health. Atsushi cursed, leaping off the crocs head just in time for its jaw to come snapping in his direction.

On top of a building not far from where Atsushi was, a golden arrow zoomed towards the eye of the beast, yet the croc merely closed his eye for a second, bouncing the arrow off its iron scales.

Karin scowled as she was useless against this armoured behemoth. She was currently level 10, an apprentice hunter, yet she could do nothing against a level 30.

Atsushi himself was already level 11, but he couldn’t even do decent damage against the beast. She slowly felt her hope being gnawed away by despair… yet she fired arrow after arrow, hoping one would hit its mark.

On the ground, countless teams of players launched skill after skill after skill, yet the highest damage player was Atsushi and even then the boss regenerated 1% of his hp every minute, it would be useless to battle it without damaging past the regeneration.

After nearly 30 minutes of attempting the boss, many fell into despair, a monster like this cannot be stopped…

The Divine Druid Kinuko cast healing after healing, depleting her stamina quickly, leaving her slow and panting. Yet she braved on, determined to save everyone. But she quickly felt fatigue take her, dropping on the ground with her eyes half lidded.

To her horrible luck, the croc noticed her, and opened its gigantic maw, closing in on the healer. Atsushi and Karin dashed forward attempting to save her. The brawler used his strongest punch, attempting to divert the crocs attention, yet he did nothing of that sort. Kinuko watched as the beast’s terrible maw shadowed over her, closing her eyes to wait for the inevitable death.

Yet she felt nothing, she slowly opened her eyes, gasping at the sudden appearance of the man standing between her and the croc.

He wore a long black coat with a black hood over his head and in his hands was a sleek white blade with a red ruby in the centre of the guard. Kinuko widened her eyes further, recognizing the red sword, her ends of her mouth arched upwards. The man’s hand blurred, and blood spurted from the giant croc’s maw.

A great blood curdling screech tore through the city centre as a great tongue flopped heavily on the ground. But it was dried of blood, the dark red liquid floating around the swordsman.

[Six Blood Forms: 1st Form. Red Burst]

A total of nine red sabres materialized from the blood, gleaming under the sunlight, menacing and blood curdling.

The man turned around to face the divine druid. He wore a strange black mask, with red carvings all around, making it seem like the face of a demon.

“This is what I owe from healing me before…” the man pulled a blue bottle and handed it the druid. Kinuko looked down at the bottle and saw the blue screen lit up, showing the name of the bottle.

[High Rank mana bottle]

Refills mana to full and increase mana regen speed by 200%.

Kinuko widened her eyes at the bottle, “N no I can’t accept this!” but Han Ling already turned, raising his sword at the thrashing crocodile.

The giant croc’s eyes were red with mad anger, it opened its maw again, lurching forward with a roar.

BOOM!

The croc was blown back, crashing into another building causing the entire building to collapse on the hapless beast. Atsushi couldn’t help but shudder at the sight, a beast he could barely damaged was thrown back like a ragdoll.

He jumped over to Kinuko, checking on her first before bowing to the expert. “Expert! Thank you for saving Divine Druid!” Han Ling nodded before placing a hand on his shoulder, “Good job holding out, but I’ll still need you guys to do damage.” As he spoke, he raised his swords, along with the nine blood sabres, all hovering around the swordsman. “I’ll tank the boss.”

Atsushi laughed loudly, surprising the other players nearby. “Of course, sir!”

The other players all frowned, confused as why a swordsman would tank the boss. Mad Berserker snorted at the side, being level 9 he could barely block the boss and he’s a berserker. “Hmph! That swordsman will die in one hit!” Atsushi noticed Mad Berserker’s comment and only snickered.

The giant croc exploded out of the rubble, roaring angrily, eyeing the swordsman with red eyes. It charged straight at the swordsman, ramming through rubble and buildings. Han Ling also dashed forward, all nine blades orbiting their owner.

As he closed the beast, he whispered softly…

[Six Blood Forms: 3rd Form. Cell Counter.]

The nine sabres all converged in front of Han Ling, forming a single great red shield. The shield and croc slammed together, stopping the croc in its tracks, just as a nearly half of the boss’s health disappeared. But the force of the croc was too much, causing the scales to crack and explode, revealing the soft flesh underneath…

Han Ling raised his sword to the air, “ATTACK!!!!”

Atsushi roared as he activated all his skills, slamming the croc with all the damage he could muster. Every single player launched their skills one after another, dealing decent to good damage. Numbers sprung all over the croc’s body, Karin’s arrow stuck into the croc’s eye, Atsushi’s fists ploughed the Croc’s throat, Shiki’s new pet wolf ravaged the arm of the croc. But even then, Han Ling was the scariest of all, every single slash dealt 200 damage, and the blood sabres slashed and diced the hapless croc.

The croc’s health plummeted, reaching the red zone. Yet when the croc’s hp reached 2000, many stopped attacking, hoping somebody would do enough damage so they can steal the kill. Atsushi and his group were furious, the one major contributor to this raid was the swordsman, and you all wish to steal from him?

All four of them inwardly shouted, “Not on my watch!”

But before they could do anything, Han Ling stopped as well, confusing everyone. “Why did he stop?” “Maybe he wants to kill steal as well?”

The Mad Berserker was grinning at the swordsman, “Heh! Want to steal my kill? Unless you can do 2000 damage, don’t even think about it!”

But Han Ling then raised his sword with both hands, the bloody blade gleaming in the sunlight. Suddenly, a horrifying amount of mana swirled around the blade. And a torrent of mana swirled around the swordsman.

[Sword Aura]

[Mana Body]

[Mask of Dark skill activated: Fury]

[Temporary enhanced attack by 200% for 5 seconds]

Han Ling’s eyes were dark behind the mask as the red sabres vibrated violently, suddenly flying towards the sword in his hands. All nine sabres merged into the one sword, causing it to glow a terrible blood red.

[Six Blood Forms: 5th Form. Severing Blood]

He brough the blade down with a terrifying roar, exploding a wave of mana towards the giant croc, severing its body in half. A massive red number appeared above the giant croc…

-2982

And the familiar tri-ring sounded everywhere…

[LVL 31 Crocodile King has been slain…]

[Player with the highest contribution…

???. 9347 damage. 2290 damage. 1921 damage…]

Silence weighed down at the centre of the city, heavy…shocked…silence.

Han Ling gazed around, sighing softly before unsummoning his blade and walking away as if he was taking a stroll. Nobody moved… watching the swordsman with a pot of emotions, awe, envy, jealousy, fear, admiration…

Mad Berserker himself was red with rage, nearly berserk at the fact he failed to steal such a powerful boss. It was then some people levelled up due to the death of the boss, shattering the silence like a bowling ball on glass.

Blood Mask.

That was the nickname given to the swordsman.

The strangest thing was the man’s level, even after killing the level 30 boss, not a single gold curtain coated the man, which brought people to guess the man was already level 25+. Except…

Han Ling grinned under the mask, feeling his level increase to level 19. This mask I much better than I thought…

Mask of Dark (Serene Silver)

Type: Mask

Rarity: Unique

Defence: +5

Abilities:

Enhances a single attack by 200% for 5 seconds. CD 30 minutes. Conceals the player’s stats, name and level against player and beasts that are a lower level.

Han Ling was lucky enough to obtain a silver loot box from one of the C rank dungeons and also got the Mask of Dark as well as the Coat of Night.

Coat of Night (Silent Silver)

Type: Coat

Rarity: Rare

Defence: +9

Resistance: +10

Abilities:

Blend In. Conceals the player for 5 seconds. CD 5 minutes. No Peeking! Conceals all stats of player’s armour and weapons.

Han Ling couldn’t help but frown at the weird skill name, but he shrugged it off anyway.

Even then it was time for Han Ling to move…