After the burning pain vanished from my chest, I stood up to find the Boss seated upon a throne that had manifested out of thin air. The stench of blood hung heavy in the air of the Boss's lair. I quickly checked my status window to confirm my active titles.[TITLE EFFECT ACTIVATED: Immunity to Panic]
[TITLE EFFECT ACTIVATED: Destroyer of ???? — Level Gap Detected. All Stats 2x Increase]With these two titles active, I felt like a different person. I could feel the very vibrations in the air and a surge of raw strength running through my veins and muscles. The 2x stat increase made me twice as powerful as before, but I knew it still wasn't enough to bridge the gap. I drew the dagger I had always carried as a last resort. The moment my fingers gripped the hilt, the system binged.[TITLE EFFECT ACTIVATED: Maximum Proficiency — Dagger Mastery Rank: MAX]The dagger, once a clumsy tool in my hands, now felt like a natural extension of my own body. I felt as if I could slice through anything. "Is this really the power of my title?" I whispered.The Boss kept its eyes closed, seemingly unaware of my presence—a stroke of fortune I realized must be due to my Luck reaching Maximum. I saw my opening. I would copy Choi Hyun's skill to soften it up before finishing it with the blade. "Can my life finally flip around?" I wondered. I focused on the memory of the spell and commanded the system to Copy.[SKILL ACTIVATED: Basic Spell Copy — "Fireball"]I chanted the word. Instantly, a massive blue flame erupted, so large it momentarily engulfed my own body before screaming toward the Boss. The explosion was colossal, the heat so intense it evaporated the remains of my fallen party and scorched my clothes away, leaving me in nothing but my underpants.Yet, as the smoke cleared, the Boss lunged through the heat, furious. It was still alive. It slashed at my face, and I barely parried the strike with my dagger. Its health bar had only dropped to half. A Mutant Boss was truly on another level.I dodged and wove through a flurry of lethal claws, waiting for the perfect moment. I backed toward the rugged stone wall of the lair, luring the beast in. As it unleashed a desperate, rapid-fire strike, I spun away at the last millisecond. The Boss's claws drove deep into the solid stone, becoming stuck.This was it. My revenge. I leapt onto the beast and stabbed my dagger repeatedly into its skull. Trapped by the wall, the monster could only howl in agony until its body finally went limp.[NOTIFICATION: Level Up! (Lv. 1 -> Lv. 5)]
[15 Stat Points Received]
[TITLE ACQUIRED: Mutant Boss Slayer]I checked the new title immediately.[TITLE: Mutant Boss Slayer]
Effect: +5 Strength and +5 Agility when facing a Boss. (Passive: Permanently increases Mana Regeneration by 10%)The effect was significantly better than a standard title. It wasn't just a small boost; it gave me the sustainability I lacked.
I realized that using my stat points on Intelligence was the best move. Luck couldn't be raised manually, and while Strength and Agility could be improved through physical grind, I needed a higher mana capacity and better flow to stabilize skills like Fireball. I invested 6 points into Intelligenceimmediately, feeling a sudden clarity as my mana pathways widened and remaining to my strength and agility .I took one last look around the boss's lair. There were no bodies left to mourn; the sheer heat of my blue flames had reduced my teammates to ash. With a heavy breath, I stepped through the shimmering exit portal.
Waiting for me on the other side was Kang Deok, the President of the Hunter Association. At only 28 years old, he looked like a god among men—thin yet lethally muscular, with sharp blonde hair that seemed to shimmer like gold. He had the arrogant, regal air of a king combined with the cold, bored eyes of a predator. As a Fire-type SS-Rank, the heat radiating from him was suffocating, a physical weight that made the air tremble. This was a man who had reached Level 95, standing at the very peak of what the System allowed for most of humanity. The chilling pressure of his presence would have crushed a normal E-Rank, but it slid right off me thanks to my Title effects.
I wondered, if a Level 95 was this intimidating, how monstrous were the SSS-Class hunters? There were only nine of them in the world—individuals who had bypassed the Level 100 System Lock that restricted everyone else. For a normal hunter, even reaching Level 50 was a dream, yet those nine had stepped into the boundary beyond.I was quickly rushed to the hospital. The exhaustion hit me all at once; fighting a Mutated Boss as my very first real combat encounter had drained me completely.Later, Kang Deok entered my room to begin the questioning. I spoke first, asking why the President himself was at a C-Rank site. His answer chilled me: we had been inside that dungeon for six days. It wasn't a normal gate; it had been flagged as a Mystery Dungeon.Mystery Dungeons were anomalies where no one ever returned, and their true nature remained unknown. To date, only one person in the entire world had ever survived one: Korea's sole SSS-Ranker, Jin Youl.I gave the President a carefully edited version of the truth. I left out my death and the System Error, explaining instead that I had a "lucky encounter" upon entering the boss room that granted me a new Title. I downplayed the threat, describing the boss as just a mutated werewolf rather than a world-ending threat.Since the boss was "only" a werewolf and a "nobody" like me had survived, Kang Deokdecided to suppress the information to avoid a public panic. He gave me a final, lingering look of suspicion before excusing himself and walking out.