"Thank you for your cooperation. You can leave now," said Minjoo and gave them the polite bow she used on everyone.
Poop Eating Prince and Cultivating Immortal Dragon came back to Ashen Hollow's square and looked at each other.
"What could Miss Yoon want with Loki-nim, Brother Poop?" Immortal Dragon asked, all curiosity and no filter.
Poop Prince sighed like a kettle. "Probably wants to give him money so he can carry her to level three and leave this place."
"Hm, that does make sense. You're so smart, Poop Brother."
"Stop saying 'poop'—poop—in every sentence!"
Immortal Dragon pressed his lips together, failed not to grin, and then elbowed him.
"Anyways, let's go hunt and reach level 3. We are almost there."
Poop Prince snorted and checked the straps on his battered shield.
"Yeah. Let's go."
...
[You have reached level 3]
They stood there breathing, then Immortal Dragon laughed and yanked Poop Prince into a hug.
"Brother, we did it. We can finally escape this death game," Immortal Dragon said into his shoulder, half laughing, half crying.
"I can finally get rid of this name," Poop Prince muttered and hugged harder.
After a while of talking about their real-life stuff, they decided to finally leave.
"Well, Brother Poop, this is it, huh?" Yong-hun said, eyes shiny.
"Don't call—" Do-ha started, then let it go with a tired smile. "Yeah. I guess it is."
"It was a short time, but I really liked your company," Yong-hun said, earnest to the bone.
"Yeah, yeah. Me too," Do-ha said, trying not to sound like he meant it that much.
Yong-hun stuck out his hand. "Once again, I'm Jang Yong-hun."
Do-ha stared at the hand, then took it. "Park Do-ha."
They logged out.
Do-ha opened his eyes to a ceiling he knew too well. He lay there and let a breath out slowly. "Finally, it's over," he said to the quiet room, a smile pulling at his mouth.
He picked up his phone to see how the situation around the world was when he came across a video with the title 'It's not over yet!'.
He read the title and then watched the video.
"Eh", was all the response he could give.
Night came.
Yong-hun hit him at the spawn like a missile.
"Brother Poop—! You're back!" He was crying in the wild, unashamed way of someone who'd been alone too long.
Do-ha stood very still, then put a hand on Yong-hun's back. When Yong-hun let him go, Do-ha looked up at the ash-grey sky and said, very quietly,
"So this is my life from now on, huh." A single tear slid, hot with frustration. "And I'll be known as Poop Prince now."
...
They climbed into the darker lanes of Ashen Hollow, where the canopy pressed low and the air cooled. Their gear had improved: a rare iron-rim shield for Do-ha, a clean, straight rare spear for Yong-hun.
"Bro, this spear is awesome," Yong-hun said, testing the flex. "How's your shield?"
"It's good. I don't get pushed back as much now," Do-ha answered, rolling his shoulder to feel the weight.
The boss found them first.
[Thornback Hollow-Tusk — Common — Lv. 3 (Boss)]
It broke through the brush on iron hooves, boar-big with bark plates grown over its ribs and thorned spines along the back. Breath steamed pale in the shade. It charged as if it had been waiting for them all morning.
"Left—!" Do-ha barked. He set his feet and took the first impact square, shield ringing like a gong. The shove slid him half a step and no more.
Yong-hun's point flicked into the seam behind the foreleg, quick, then quick again. "Come on, come on—take it—"
The Hollow-Tusk slammed again. Do-ha met it, teeth bared, felt the shock roll up his arm and tried to ride it instead of break against it. He pivoted on the third hit. "Now!"
The spear found the soft of the eye. The boar screamed, shuddered, and tried one last wild hook. Do-ha stepped inside it, drove the rim into jaw, and Yong-hun put the point through the roof of the mouth.
It collapsed like a felled cupboard and turned to Light.
Yong-hun blew out a laugh. "Hah. We can kill them so quickly now. I almost feel like we can take it easy."
Do-ha shook his head. "Don't get careless. Remember what Loki-nim said— never drop your guard against these monsters."
"Yeah, yeah." Yong-hun rolled his eyes. "You're such a fanboy."
"Don't forget it's because he taught us that we've made it this far without dying even once."
Yong-hun scratched his cheek, grudging. "Well… true, I guess."
As they walked through the forest, and argued about stories. They heard a fight. Wood breaking, metal clanging in the wrong rhythm, someone swearing.
Yong-hun lifted a hand. "Hear that? Someone's fighting."
"Let's check it out," Do-ha said, already angling toward the noise.
They followed the noise through a stand of split pines and came up behind a party getting taken apart by a rare.
[Grave Silverback — Rare — Lv. 4 (Boss)]
It was a gorilla made of storm and scar. Silver fur matted with black blood and grey dust, forearms corded like ship rope, knuckles that smashed the ground into bowls.
The party fighting it was losing. Finally, their line bent and broke. In desperation, one man shoved a girl hard into the path of a backhand and sprinted away while the boss turned on the one he'd sacrificed.
"That's some really shitty behavior, right, Brother Poop—?"
Yong-hun turned, but Do-ha wasn't there.
"Hey! Gorilla bastard!" Do-ha shouted from an open patch twenty paces off. He threw a rock that clipped the boss's temple.
The Silverback's head snapped. It roared and thundered at him, murder in its eyes.
"Brother Poop, what are you doing? That's a Rare! We can't fight that!" Yong-hun squeaked, half panic, half trying to sound brave.
"I'll buy time. Go check on her!" Do-ha said in a voice that was not a shout. Just the solid tone he'd learned when the world went wrong.
The monster ran toward him, and he braced.
The gorilla hit like a falling tree. The rare shield howled but held. Do-ha slid back three steps, planted, and took the next.
"Ugh", he grunted. His shoulder told him exactly how stupid this was.
Yong-hun sprinted to the girl the coward had thrown.
"Hey lady, you ok?"
She lay on her side, air wheezing in, then out. Blond hair clumped with dust and blood, a thin trickle from one nostril, eyes pissed and very alive. She sat up by force and spat red into the dirt.
"Fuck—my head," she growled, then jabbed a thumb at the retreating back of the man who'd used her as cover. "I'm gonna pulp that bastard later."
She cupped a hand, blocked one nostril with the other, and blasted out the blood. Then she tipped her chin and yelled into the trees, voice like a thrown brick. "Hey! Don't just watch! Heal me! I almost died, you little slug!"
A second girl lounged on a low branch nearby, legs swinging. Soft, round face, big eyes, everything about her relaxed. She wore priestess whites that had somehow stayed cute through a war. "You're fine, Hye-jin," she said, low energy and sing-song. "I haven't seen you lose a fight. I am sure you won't lose this one either. Also, like can you stop yelling? You're more gorilla than the gorilla, I swear."
"Stop saying stupid shit and cast the heal!" the blond snapped.
"Yeah, yeah," the priestess said, and swung her staff. "You'll live, babe."
Ryu Hye-jin stood up in one angry flow. Her hands lit from wrist to knuckles in a heat-shiver halo, like coals breathing. She rolled her neck once.
"Let's see what you've got, fucker."
She ran.
Do-ha met the next hammer-blow with a shout from somewhere under his ribs, felt the rare shield flex and give the hit somewhere to go. The Silverback raised its hands for the smash that craters people and ends conversations, and Hye-jin cut in on the angle, both fists up, screaming a wordless challenge.
The first punch landed on the hinge where muscle met bone. The second drove into the gut. The third cracked the jaw sideways.
"Omggg she's so cool," the priestess said, dreamy, healing motes climbing off staff toward Do-ha now. "Okay, okay now go help her~"
Do-ha risked a glance. "Thanks."
"Uh-huh," she said, smiling like a lazy summer day. "Try not to die, ok? Like I just healed you and stuff."
Yong-hun found his window and gave it everything. Point through tendon. Point again. Bounce away when the swing came wild. He breathed the rhythm: her fists, his spear, Do-ha's shield, the priestess's soft glow keeping bones from quitting.
Together, they dragged the Rare down. It fell the way big things do, reluctantly and all at once.
They lay flat for a moment, looking up at the broken strips of sky through the canopy.
Hye-jin pushed herself to her feet first, swiped a forearm under her nose, and walked straight to Do-ha. "Why'd you jump in?" she asked, blunt. "You didn't owe us shit."
Do-ha sat up and met her eyes. "I can't stand people like that," he said. "Throwing someone to save themselves. I just wanted to help. That's all."
Hye-jin's mouth crooked. She held out a hand. "You've got guts. I like that. Wanna party together?"
Do-ha finally had time to see her properly — the gold-dyed hair, the fight in her eyes, the way her mouth couldn't quite stop being fierce even when she smiled.
His face went red from collar to cheekbones.
"Y-yes, ma'am," he said before his brain caught up.
Hye-jin barked a laugh. "Ma'am? That's a first."
The priestess drifted over, hands tucked at her sleeves. "I'm Baek Garin," she said, voice like a cat stretching in a sunbeam. "Alias Fluffy Garin, I guess? I'm, like… a healer. I do heals." She made jazz hands, then giggled at herself. "Nice to meet you, new bros."
"Jang Yong-hun," Yong-hun said, charmed instantly. "Alias Cultivating Immortal Dragon."
"Park Do-ha," Do-ha said. He almost added 'Poop Eating Prince' but stopped last second.
"We finally have a proper party, brother Poo—" Yong-hun caught himself too late, eyes bright with mischief.
Hye-jin muttered, "Wait, you're the Poop guy?".
"Lol, that's like totally disgusting," Garin said, absolutely sincere.
Do-ha's face went scarlet. "You bastard, don't call me that and use my name", Do-ha lunged at him for exposing his alias.
"They were gonna find out anyway when you were gonna become friends, hahah", he laughed as he ran.
Do-ha died a little and lived anyway.
'Next time I am gonna push him in front of a monster, ' Do-ha decided.
...
They were in the forest again, farther than before.
A Rare went down hard under a clean sequence: Do-ha taking the crush, Hye-jin breaking the line, Yong-hun stitching the openings, Garin's light keeping the scaffolding from falling apart.
All four hit five at once and then cheered.
"Fuck yes," Hye-jin said, flat and victorious. She flopped onto her back, chest heaving, then propped herself on her elbows to grin at Do-ha. "Nice wall, Do-ha. You held like a mountain."
Do-ha tried to look cool and failed. "Thanks," he said, very aware of the stupid smile tugging his mouth sideways.
Garin padded over and dropped to sit cross-legged, skirt puffing. "Omg, I'm starving. I so could go for a bubble tea right now."
She poked Yong-hun's shoulder with a grin. "Dragon boy, your spear was, like, pew pew. Very wow."
"I am just glad you kept us in the party even after you learned his… alias," Yong-hun said, half joke, half serious.
Hye-jin gave Do-ha a long look under half-hooded lids. "Names don't fight. People do. He can tank a storm and doesn't run. That's all I care about."
Do-ha felt like he could cry, ' I love her.'
Yong-hun opened his mouth to tease and then shut it when Do-ha's death glare promised pain later. He coughed into his fist instead.
"Heyyy," Garin sang from a few paces off. "Come look at this?"
They followed her voice to a thick-trunked tree where a sigil, half buried under lichen, was glowing faintly.
"What is that?" Hye-jin asked, chin up, ready to hit it if it tried anything.
"Dunno," Garin said, delighted. "But it looks pretty." She reached out and pressed two fingers to it.
The bark rippled. A panel unfolded in the air like a puzzle box opening.
"It's a Puzzle!" Yong-hun clapped once, then looked embarrassed and tried to look serious. "I'm really good at these. Let me try it."
"Go, Dragon," Garin cheered, low energy but all in.
He stepped into the light and began to work, moving shapes with careful, clever hands. Minutes stretched. The forest hummed. Do-ha and Hye-jin stood guard without talking about it.
Something clicked.
[Ancient Gods' Trial 1/4 — Solved]
Garin squealed and launched herself at Yong-hun, hugging him so hard he staggered back two steps. His face went scarlet, his arms locked awkwardly at his sides, and then his brain shut off as his cheek met the priestess's chest.
He cried a little from overwhelmed happiness and mumbled into fabric, 'Thank God I'm good at puzzles.'
"Lol, like well done," Garin said, patting his hair like a proud owner.
Lines of faint light reached out from the sigil like veins, pointing deeper into the woods.
"It's telling us where to go next," Yong-hun said, eyes gleaming.
"If it says one of four, there are three more," Do-ha said, already turning to face the direction. "Let's find them."
"Let's go!" Yong-hun bounced on his heels. In his head: I hope she hugs me again.
Time slid forward over roots and rocks.
"And… done," Yong-hun said at the fourth site, sliding the last piece into place as if the forest itself had been waiting for it.
[Congratulations! You have completed the condition for the Trial.]
[The Trial will begin shortly.]
Light rose like a curtain from the ground and arced overhead, knitting into a dome that turned the sky to glass and the forest to a room. The hum sang in their bones.
Garin's mouth made a small 'o'. "Omg, pretty… and maybe a little terrifying."
Hye-jin rolled her shoulders and cracked her knuckles, fire already waking along her fists.
Do-ha lifted his shield and set his feet, the old fear and the new resolve finding their meeting point. Yong-hun swallowed, then smiled because he had learned to.
[Proceed to the center of the dome.]
[The Ancient Gods' Trial begins in 30 minutes.]