The darkness beyond the door was absolute.
Then light bloomed—torches along the chamber walls igniting simultaneously with blue flame. Cold, unnatural light that cast harsh shadows.
The boss chamber was massive. Circular arena, maybe eighty meters across. Stone floor covered in ancient cracks and bloodstains. High ceiling lost in shadow.
And in the center, waiting.
The Stone Minotaur.
Three meters tall. Humanoid bull creature, massively muscled, covered in gray stone-like hide that looked harder than granite. Its head was pure bull—massive horns curving forward like siege weapons. Eyes glowing dull red.
In its hands: a warhammer the size of a person. Stone head, iron bands, handle as thick as my torso.
It saw us. Snorted. Steam rose from its nostrils.
[BOSS ENCOUNTERED]
Stone Minotaur (C+ Rank)
HP: ~8,000
STR: 340
DEF: 380
AGI: 120
Equipped: Stone Warhammer (Blunt damage)
Skills: [ANALYZING...]
Threat Level: EXTREME for D+ rank hunter
Recommended: Party combat with A-rank support
"Stay behind me," Hye-jin said, her aura flaring brighter. She was preparing to engage.
"No."
She glanced at me. "What?"
"Don't intervene unless I'm about to die."
"Suho, that's a C+ rank boss. You're D+. It'll kill you in seconds."
I stepped forward. "I need this experience, Hye-jin. Real combat against something stronger than me. That's why I'm here."
"This is insane—"
"Just watch. If it's about to land a killing blow, step in. Otherwise, let me handle it."
"You can't be serious."
I activated [Isolation], focusing on the Minotaur. My right eye glowed blue beneath my glasses.
"Completely serious."
The Minotaur roared. The sound shook the chamber. Dust fell from the ceiling.
It charged.
The ground trembled with each footfall. That massive hammer swung in a horizontal arc that would pulverize anything it touched.
I dove forward, under the swing.
The hammer passed over me, wind displacement nearly knocking me off balance.
Came up inside the Minotaur's guard. Drove my fist into its stone hide.
Pain exploded through my knuckles. It was like punching a concrete wall.
[DAMAGE DEALT: 12] Your attack was ineffective Target's defense too high.
The Minotaur backhanded me.
I flew six meters and hit the ground hard. Rolled. Got up immediately.
[DAMAGE TAKEN: 156]
HP: 520/676 (77%)
Protection of Vishnu: Not activated (non-lethal hit)
Everything hurt. That single hit had taken nearly a quarter of my health.
"Suho!" Hye-jin shouted.
"I'm fine!" I wiped blood from my mouth. "Stay back!"
The Minotaur charged again. Faster this time.
But I was watching with [Isolation] active. Could see its mana flow—how energy circulated through its massive body.
[MANA FLOW ANALYSIS]
Target: Stone Minotaur
Observation: Active Mana circulation pattern detected:
├─ Primary flow: Legs → Core → Arms
├─ Purpose: Strength enhancement ├─ Efficiency: 78% (crude but effective)
├─ Method: Channels mana through muscle fibers
└─ Multiplicative effect: +40% base strength
Note: This is a passive enhancement technique
Note: Can be replicated with sufficient understanding
It was using mana to boost its strength. Not a skill—just efficient mana circulation.
I could do that.
I pushed mana through my own body, mimicking the pattern I saw. Legs to core to arms. Felt the energy settling into my muscles, reinforcing them.
[TECHNIQUE LEARNED]
Minatour mana circulation technique (Basic)
Effect: +25% STR while active
Cost: 5 mana per minute
Current STR: 28 → 35
The Minotaur swung its hammer down vertically.
I sidestepped. The hammer cratered the stone floor where I'd been standing.
Countered with a mana-enhanced punch to its ribs.
[DAMAGE DEALT: 47] Improved effectiveness.
Still not enough to seriously hurt it. But better.
The Minotaur roared and swung again. I ducked under, landed three quick strikes to its midsection.
[DAMAGE DEALT: 45, 51, 48] Cumulative damage: 191
Its hammer came at me in wide arcs. I dodged, weaved, stayed inside its reach where the hammer was less effective.
Landed hits whenever I could. Mana-enhanced strikes to joints, ribs, neck.
It hit me twice more. Each attack barely touched me but the impact rattled my bones, I could barely stay standing.
[CURRENT STATUS]
HP: 312/676 (46%)
Mana: 43/140 (31%)
Stamina: 54%
Damage dealt to boss: ~600/8,000
Boss HP remaining: ~93%
I was losing. Slowly but inevitably.
But I was learning.
Every exchange taught me something. How it moved. How it thought. Where its defenses were weakest.
Hye-jin watched from the edge of the arena, hands clenched. I could see her struggling not to interfere.
The Minotaur swung high. I ducked.
It anticipated, brought the hammer down in a crushing overhead strike.
I rolled left. The hammer missed by centimeters.
Came up on my feet. And jumped toward the minotaur closing the distance between us completely an placed my hand on its torso. Point-blank range.
Activated [Fire Lance].
[FIRE LANCE] Mana: 43/140 → 38/140 Maximum power.
The flaming projectile shot directly into the Minotaur's chest. Zero distance, no chance to dodge.
It exploded on impact.
The Minotaur staggered back, roaring. Smoke rose from a massive burn across its torso. Stone hide cracked and blackened.
[CRITICAL HIT]
Damage dealt: 1,247
Boss HP: 8,000 → 6,153 (77%)
Significant damage. Finally.
But not enough.
The Minotaur's eyes blazed brighter. Its roar became something different—primal, insane.
Its entire body began to glow red.
[WARNING]
Boss skill activation detected BERSERKER (B-Rank Skill)
Effect: STR x2, Near-limitless regeneration
Cost: Massive mana drain
Duration: Until mana and stamina depleted or death
Note: Inflicts status effects 'Madness' 'Blood Lust' 'Mindless Rage'
Boss STR: 340 → 680
Boss regeneration: 200 HP per second
Oh shit.
The Minotaur blurred.
Its speed doubled. The hammer came at me impossibly fast.
I tried to dodge.
Not fast enough.
The hammer caught me in the side. I felt ribs shatter. My body ragdolled across the arena.
[DAMAGE TAKEN: 428] HP: 312/676 → -116/676 LETHAL DAMAGE DETECTED [PROTECTION OF VISHNU ACTIVATED]
Automatic defense triggered User protected from death Attacker repelled with force Cost: 1000 mana (Jung Hye-jin's mana pool)
Golden light exploded from my body.
The protective barrier manifested, solid, radiant, powerful.
It caught the Minotaur's follow-up attack and launched it backward. The creature flew ten meters and crashed into a stone pillar.
But I was barely conscious. Everything hurt. Blood in my mouth, my vision swimming.
[CRITICAL STATUS]
HP: 48/676 (7%) [CRITICAL] Multiple broken ribs Internal bleeding Severe head trauma.
One of the health potions Hye-jin had given me automatically activated from my inventory—must have been proximity-triggered or something.
[MINOR HEALTH POTION CONSUMED] HP: 48/676 → 248/676 (37%)
Bleeding: Slowed
Critical status: Stabilized
The Minotaur was already getting up. Berserker mode made it nearly immune to knockback.
It charged again.
"Suho, get out of there!" Hye-jin screamed.
"No!" I forced myself to stand. Everything screamed in protest. "Don't interfere!"
"You're going to die!"
"Not yet!" I activated [Isolation] at maximum intensity, focusing entirely on the Minotaur's Berserker skill.
I needed to understand it. I need to be able to fight in close combat. I Needed to see how it worked.
Even if it killed me.
[ISOLATION - MAXIMUM OUTPUT]
Target: Berserker (B-Rank Skill)
Observation: ACTIVE
Mana cost: 10 per second Analyzing...
Mana flow pattern: COMPLEX
Physiological changes: EXTENSIVE
Mental state alteration: SEVERE
The Minotaur's hammer came down.
I rolled. Barely avoided it.
It swung horizontally. Caught me in the shoulder.
[DAMAGE TAKEN: 312] HP: 248/676 → -64/676
[PROTECTION OF VISHNU ACTIVATED]
Attacker: REPELLED
Again. The protective buff saved me. Launched the Minotaur back.
Second potion activated automatically.
HP: 136/676 (20%)
But I was seeing it now. The skill's structure. How mana flooded the muscles, overclocked them. How it suppressed pain receptors, rational thought, self-preservation.
The Minotaur charged again. I couldn't dodge this time—too hurt, too slow.
It grabbed me with one massive hand and slammed me into the ground.
[DAMAGE TAKEN: 267] HP: 136/676 → -200/676
[PROTECTION OF VISHNU ACTIVATED]
Third activation Warning: Multiple activations detected.
The golden barrier threw the Minotaur off me again.
I coughed blood. Everything was broken. Everything hurt.
But I understood now.
[SKILL OBSERVATION COMPLETE]
Berserker (B-Rank)
Observation: 10/10 [COMPLETE]
Understanding: 100% Acquisition available Warning: This skill has severe side effects Warning: Mental state alteration may be dangerous Warning: User acceptance required Acquire skill? [YES] / [NO] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Yes," I gasped.
Knowledge flooded my mind. Not gentle—violent, invasive, overwhelming.
How to channel mana into every muscle simultaneously. How to override pain, fear, rational thought. How to become a living weapon at the cost of sanity.
[SKILL ACQUIRED] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Berserker (B-Rank) - LV 1 Effect: STR x2, Enhanced regeneration, Pain immunity Cost: 50 mana activation + 20 mana per minute Side Effect: Reduced rational thought, Aggression increase Duration: Until dismissed or mana depleted Current STR: 28 Berserker STR: 56 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But the side effect hit immediately.
My head exploded with pain. Not physical—mental. Like my skull was splitting open.
Madness clawed at the edges of my consciousness. Rage. Bloodlust. The overwhelming urge to destroy everything in sight.
I gritted my teeth. Focused. Pushed back against the insanity.
I'm not a mindless beast. I control the skill. It doesn't control me.
The headache was horrific. Blinding. But I held on.
Activated [Berserker].
[BERSERKER ACTIVATED] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Mana: 38/140 → -12/140 [OVERDRAWN] Warning: Insufficient mana Emergency mana conversion: Using stamina Stamina: 54% → 28% STR: 28 → 56 Pain receptors: SUPPRESSED Regeneration: ACTIVE (15 HP per second) Mental clarity: 67% (Fighting side effects) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My body surged with power. Muscles swelled. Strength flooded through me.
The Minotaur charged again.
This time, I met it head-on.
Its hammer came down. I caught it.
Caught it.
My hands gripped the stone hammer mid-swing. My enhanced strength—doubled by Berserker—held it in place.
The Minotaur's eyes widened in shock.
I ripped the hammer from its hands and threw it aside. It clattered across the arena floor.
Drove my fist into its gut. The impact cratered its stone hide.
[DAMAGE DEALT: 342] Berserker-enhanced strike ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Minotaur staggered. I didn't let up.
Combination punches. Left, right, left. Each strike landing like a sledgehammer.
[DAMAGE DEALT: 298, 315, 289] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
We were even now. Two berserkers trading blows in close combat.
It headbutted me. Those massive horns caught me in the chest.
[DAMAGE TAKEN: 234] HP: 136/676 → -98/676 [PROTECTION OF VISHNU ACTIVATED] Fourth activation ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The golden barrier repelled it again. But it was getting up faster now. Its regeneration was outpacing my damage.
And I was running on fumes.
[CRITICAL WARNING] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HP: 36/676 (5%) [CRITICAL] Stamina: 12% [CRITICAL] Mana: Depleted Berserker: Draining life force to maintain Time remaining until collapse: ~30 seconds ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The madness was getting worse. Harder to think. Harder to focus.
Just wanted to destroy. To kill.
The Minotaur charged one final time.
I tried to dodge.
My body didn't respond. Too damaged. Too exhausted.
The Minotaur's fist came at my head. This would be lethal. Completely lethal.
Protection of Vishnu activated again—fifth time.
But the Minotaur was in Berserker mode too. It powered through the repelling force, fist still coming.
This was it.
I was going to die.
Then Hye-jin was there.
She materialized between us impossibly fast. Her buffed agility made her a blur.
One hand caught the Minotaur's fist mid-swing. Stopped it completely.
Her other hand—glowing with golden light—drove into the Minotaur's chest.
Skill: Divine Palm Strike (A-Rank)
OVERWHELMING ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The impact was like a bomb going off.
The Minotaur's chest exploded. Stone hide shattered. Ribs disintegrated. Its entire torso caved inward.
It flew backward, crashed through a stone pillar, and hit the far wall.
Didn't get up.
[BOSS DEFEATED] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Stone Minotaur: ELIMINATED Party experience gained Dungeon clear: 87% complete ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I deactivated Berserker immediately. The madness receded, leaving only exhaustion.
My legs gave out.
Hye-jin caught me before I hit the ground.
"You idiot," she said, voice tight. "You complete idiot."
"Did... we win?" I managed.
"I won. You nearly died. Multiple times." Her hands were shaking. "What were you thinking?!"
"Had to... learn..."
"Learn what?! How to get yourself killed?!"
My vision was going dark. Blood loss, exhaustion, mana depletion—everything catching up at once.
"The skill..." I whispered. "Needed... the skill..."
"What skill could possibly be worth—"
But I didn't hear the rest.
Darkness took me.
The last thing I saw was Hye-jin's face—anger and concern mixed together—as consciousness faded completely