Chapter 68

The appearance of the boss shattered like glass and crumbled down.

To be precise, in the world Amon saw, the boss crumbled down.

The fragments of the boss, pouring down like glass, floated back up, reassembled, and then poured down again, repeating the cycle.

This wasn’t the first time he had experienced this phenomenon.

It was something he had seen in the monsters that entered his vision the moment he stepped into this dungeon.

When Amon first saw this phenomenon, he wasn’t panicked.

Instead, just as one doesn’t need to learn how to breathe after being born, he naturally recognized that this phenomenon was a part of him.

When he first encountered a monster and this phenomenon began, he started to verify it.

By the time Amon arrived at the boss room, he had reached a conclusion about this phenomenon.

And to verify that conclusion, he had charged at the boss alone.

Amon closed and opened his eyes.

In the real world, the boss was still intact.

Amon entered the boss room.

The moment he entered, the boss took a combat stance.

As the boss swung its arm, pillars of light poured down from the sky without warning.

The stigma pattern.

It was a technique used by the fake saintess.

Though the lines were different.

[Accept evolution!]

For some reason, the chairman was shouting lines that should have been the doctor’s.

Amon knew what to do.

However, it was a bit different from before.

Back then, he had to roll on the ground to dodge, but now, a light sidestep was more than enough.

The boss seemed visibly flustered, perhaps not expecting the first attack to be dodged so easily.

Amon immediately went for the wings.

[AAAAAH!!!]

Where Amon’s sword passed, smoke rose as if the ground was burning, and the boss writhed in pain.

Then Amon blinked.

His vision shifted again, and he saw the boss in the hidden world.

The boss, crumbling down.

However, it was slightly different from before.

‘As expected.’

After Amon’s attack, the collapse accelerated.

This time, Amon aimed for the heavily cracked parts of the boss’s body.

When he returned to reality, the wound on the shoulder he had attacked began to grow larger.

Confirming this, Amon was certain of what his eyes were seeing.

‘Fate.’

His eyes could read the destined fate.

It wasn’t like Cash, who could see the future, but he could tell when someone would die.

However, the reason the monsters here shattered and reassembled was because they were beings that were neither alive nor dead.

Beings infinitely close to death but unable to escape this dungeon.

That’s why the existence he glimpsed was one of repeated collapse and restoration.

At first glance, the eyes seemed useless in combat, but their potential was limitless.

For example, the shoulder Amon had attacked.

The wound on that shoulder was also eating away at the boss’s body in reality.

And in the hidden world, the boss’s collapse was accelerating at an unprecedented rate.

The boss was dying faster than its predetermined lifespan.

In other words, Amon could intentionally shorten fate.

‘The verification is complete.’

Now it was time to fulfill Cash’s request.

Even though Amon could kill the boss, he deliberately didn’t and instead studied its patterns.

Outside the boss room, Sonia was recording the patterns.

After some time, Amon judged that the boss had shown everything it could.

He pulled out a slightly long dagger from a pocket with spatial technology.

He threw the dagger, piercing the boss’s thigh.

The boss writhed, trying to escape from Amon, but with its wings cut and a blade stuck in its thigh, escape was impossible.

Amon reached close to the boss.

And just as Amon was about to swing his sword—

The chairman gave a bizarre smile.

“?”

Amon instinctively sensed that something was up, but he swung his sword anyway.

Just before his sword made contact, a voice came from the doctor’s head attached to the back of the chairman’s head.

[That’s a nice sword. How about selling it?]

With those words, Amon’s sword disappeared.

Without any warning.

And Amon felt a heavy weight in his pocket.

Glancing down, he saw a bundle of bills stuffed into his pocket.

‘Huh.’

This was a new pattern.

While Amon was marveling, the boss didn’t miss the chance and swung its staff.

Though the staff wasn’t exactly a formidable weapon, with the boss’s strength, it could crush most human skulls.

‘Most.’

The problem was that Amon wasn’t part of that ‘most.’

*Thud!*

[Guh!]

[Kuh-ek!]

Amon’s left arm blocked the staff, and his right elbow struck the boss’s solar plexus.

The boss had overlooked one thing.

In the end, close-quarters swordsmanship always comes down to martial arts.

Wrestling, karate, boxing, etc.

It was an area swordsmen had to master in case their swords got tangled.

Though not at the level of those who specialized in it, they were still quite skilled.

The idea that swordsmen were weak in hand-to-hand combat was a prejudice.

*Thud!*

Amon struck the boss’s side and retreated.

The boss clutched its side and used the technique the fake saintess had used, but of course, it didn’t work.

Amon easily dodged with Sky Step and moved behind the boss.

Then he kicked its side again.

He repeated this several times.

The boss’s body began to collapse from the side.

The lifespan Amon saw was also rapidly decreasing.

He broke the staff with his knee, struck the boss’s stomach several times to disorient it, and kicked the back of its knee to make it kneel.

*Thud!*

Even kneeling, the boss’s gaze reached Amon’s shoulder due to its massive size.

Amon looked down at the lowered boss.

[That fist… has commercial value…]

[I see the direction evolution should take…]

The boss muttered nonsense as if it had lost its mind.

Compared to the fake saintess, it lacked any semblance of presence.

Amon pulled out a dagger from his coat pocket and slit the boss’s throat.

*Thud.*

The massive body collapsed to the ground.

As the boss turned into particles and was gradually absorbed by the dungeon, Amon turned to Sonia.

“Did you record it?”

“I recorded everything. Except for the part where the weapon suddenly disappeared at the end, it was all a downgraded version of the fake saintess.”

“I felt the same.”

“But where did the weapon go?”

Amon showed his pocket.

A bundle of bills was inside.

“They paid the full price.”

“Isn’t that the one Cash specially ordered for you?”

“Yeah…”

Amon sighed.

The boss itself was manageable.

But the pattern of suddenly removing equipment was a bit painful.

You could buy it back with money, but some limited-edition items couldn’t be replaced.

Sonia added a note about the boss.

“Never bring expensive equipment.”

Amon chimed in from the side.

“At least someone who knows how to use their fists…”

At that moment, a strange sound came from the boss’s direction.

*Clang.*

The two turned their gaze toward the boss.

The boss was already gone.

Instead, a familiar orb was there.

“Essence?”

Amon immediately picked up the orb.

Yellow.

Another legend.

Sonia’s eyes sparkled.

“Let me appraise it!”

Now that she had learned the skill, she could appraise it.

While she appraised the essence, Amon thought about it.

‘Another legend?’

It was strange.

The fake saintess was definitely a boss that could drop a legend, but this boss objectively wasn’t at that level.

Yet a legend dropped.

Of course, it could be luck, but Amon had gotten two legendary essences in a row recently.

It was too strange to just chalk it up to luck.

While Amon was deep in thought, Sonia finished appraising and approached.

“Done.”

“What’s the result?”

“Sewing. It allows you to sew without any gaps.”

“Not bad.”

Sonia also nodded.

At first glance, it seemed useless, but sewing was a broad concept.

Though it only brought to mind sewing with thread, someone using a whip or harpoon with this essence could wield terrifying power.

It meant that once a weapon was thrown, if it was connected by a line, you could control it freely like sewing.

Essences were always like this.

Powers that touched the concept itself.

Amon’s Sky Step was also an extension of this, allowing him to use bizarre tactics.

So the concept of sewing wasn’t a dud.

It’s just that Amon and Sonia had no use for it.

“Let’s sell it at an auction or to the company later.”

Sonia also nodded and put the essence in her pocket.

“Are we leaving now?”

At Sonia’s question, Amon thought for a moment and shook his head.

“Let’s stay for another two weeks.”

“Why?”

“Two legendary essences dropped in a row. There might be some pattern. Is that okay?”

Sonia nodded vigorously.

There was no reason to object.

School was on break anyway, and as long as Amon was with her, she didn’t care where they were.

In fact, it meant they could have a date in their hometown during the free time.

Sonia asked Amon teasingly.

“So what are we doing for the next three days?”

“Hmm. Want to go on a date?”

“Where?”

“First, the amusement park tomorrow.”

Sonia nodded happily.

—

Two weeks later, Amon and Sonia returned.

The two headed straight to Cash’s office.

“You look tired.”

That was Amon’s impression upon seeing Cash, dressed in a suit, melting on her desk.

Cash spoke in a dying voice from the desk.

“I’m not tired…”

“With that look?”

“I’m not tired, I’m dying…”

“You do look like you’re dying.”

Amon placed a bottle of alcohol he had brought from his hometown on Cash’s desk.

It was Colorado beer.

Craft beer made from real barley, not GMO.

It was made by Johnson, the goat beastman who had retired from the office.

“I brought it for you.”

“Thanks.”

Cash put the beer in the fridge and regained her composure.

“So, the results?”

“Sonia will explain it well.”

Amon stepped back, and Sonia approached.

She handed over the report she had compiled over the two weeks.

Cash skimmed through the report indifferently.

But as she reached the end, her eyes widened.

“This… is it real?”

“We only have 10 samples, so we can’t be sure, but it seems correct.”

“Even so, this is valuable enough.”

Cash pointed to a page in the report.

It was about the boss’s special pattern.

<The boss can purchase equipment without any warning. The criteria are based on the most valuable equipment in that location, and if the values are similar, it prioritizes the most threatening weapon.>

At first glance, this made the boss seem not worth defeating, and there was no reason for Cash to be surprised.

The real value of the boss was in the next part.

<When the boss purchases equipment, the value of the equipment affects the rarity of the essence dropped when the boss is defeated.>

The report included a chart.

Equipment worth over 100 million often dropped legendary essences, while equipment worth around 10 million dropped unique-grade essences.

Unfortunately, Amon and Sonia didn’t have much equipment, and time was limited, but the credibility was still high.

Cash immediately contacted the External Cooperation Department.

“Yes, this is Director Cash Rekhetio. I’m in a hurry, so I’ll send the relevant documents later, but could you prepare the dungeon acquisition process? Yes. Thank you.”

Dungeons were generally public.

If left unattended, they became spaces where mercenaries came to coexist, as they were difficult to dispose of or manage.

In other words, if someone had the confidence to manage or dispose of them, they could own them.

Though, in this world, finding something that couldn’t be bought with money was faster.

After hanging up, Cash nodded in satisfaction.

“You did an excellent job this time. I’ll give you a bonus later. It’ll be more than you imagine.”

“Oh, speaking of which…”

“Hmm?”

Amon awkwardly stepped back from Cash.

Then he suddenly bowed his head.

“I’m sorry! I used up all the new equipment you gave me!”

The equipment listed in the report was all provided by Cash.

And from her personal funds.

Combined, it was worth the price of a small business, so Amon felt he had no excuse.

Of course, Amon knew it wasn’t a burden for Cash.

But there’s such a thing as the thought behind a gift.

Not apologizing for this would leave a bad taste.

“I’m sorry!”

Sonia also apologized beside Amon.

Though she hadn’t done anything wrong, it felt like the right thing to do.

The two bowed their heads to Cash.

A brief silence fell in the office, and then Cash spoke.

“It’s fine.”

“Really?”

“Equipment is consumable anyway. It’s fine to use it up. It’s not hard to get more.”

Besides, this level of support was basic…

Cash swallowed her words.

It wasn’t the right time yet.

Instead, she praised the two for their efforts.

“Take a break until the dungeon acquisition is complete. I’ll give you the bonus then. It’ll be more than you imagine.”

With that, Cash stamped the completion of the request.

Afterward, the three chatted for a bit before parting ways.

When Amon and Sonia returned to their beloved home,

Cash picked up the phone again.

“The people on the list I’m sending now. Keep a close eye on them for the next three months. Especially the ones marked in red, no leaving work.”

“Change the head of External Intelligence. … At least keep the reporters away for two weeks.”

“Yes, Torso. Is Vance with you? Good. Sorry, but can you pull some shifts with me for a while? I can’t trust anyone else with this.”

Cash made calls everywhere.

Her nights were longer than others’.

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