If a Hunter fails to clear a floor or does not climb the Tower at all, monsters appear in reality through Gates.

Then what about World Bosses?

The conditions for a World Boss’s emergence were still unknown.

The first World Boss, [Source of All Evil]. The second World Boss, [The Immortal Knight].

Both had appeared suddenly, without reason.

I had taken care of [The Immortal Knight] by sheer chance.

But [Source of All Evil]... That one left catastrophic consequences on the world.

Had things gone slightly wrong, the entire planet could have been thrown back to the Stone Age.

Fortunately, the destruction had been limited to just the United States.

One of the remnants left behind was the ‘Demonized.’

Hunters who had been consumed by [Source of All Evil] and turned into villains.

But even spirits could become villains.

‘Corrupted… In this case, would it be called a Malignant Spirit?’

The limits of Ideation were clear.

No one knew how to train the mind.

Muscles grow stronger by tearing and repairing, but Ideation was not something that could be trained the same way.

My Ideation stat was 11.

After spending time in the sunlight of the Daily Dungeon, it had increased by 1.

Considering that most academy freshmen had single-digit Ideation, it was a considerable amount.

But it wasn’t omnipotent.

There were areas beyond the reach of my synesthesia.

To observe what lay outside my Ideation, I had to open my eyes.

Blink.

I peered beyond the walls and bookshelves, piercing through the folds of space and expanding my vision.

Beyond the retina was a sense that perceived the very fabric of reality itself.

Visual data and conceptual information synchronized.

Thus, even those forms incomprehensible to the human visual cortex were no longer beyond my sight.

The moment I laid eyes on it, I understood.

Spirits were beings formed by overlapping meanings. Faith and fear, wind and water, time accumulating and intertwining into pure forms.

Lake Biwa.

Water that had flowed for a thousand years, Legends and faith passed down since ancient times… Japan’s deepest and largest lake.

The Water Spirit who had sought my help was a being born of such history.

But it was no match.

Before the Book of the Dead, it was nothing more than a stray ghost.

‘That’s why it sought help.’

Loran adjusted her bow. We had crossed paths before.

She was the one who had casually told me about Transcendent Enhancement at the bathhouse.

A high nose bridge and a petite jawline with red hair that swayed at her waist, carrying a sense of solitude.

Now that I looked closer, her personality seemed rather sharp.

“So, you’re saying there’s a spirit here?”

“What are you doing?! Close the book and run! We have to approach this cautiously! If we offend the spirit…!”

“Do you even know how much money I poured into skill enhancements? You couldn’t earn that in your lifetime. With this gear and these skills, I have nothing to worry about, and you’re telling me to run?”

“Then what do you suggest? You can’t even see it.”

“I may not see it, but you said it’s here, right? If I capture it, I might get a good item. Or if I do it a favor, maybe I can command a spirit myself.”

Haruki stomped her feet in frustration, but Loran refused to listen.

She was a battle-hardened Hunter and she didn’t even consider the possibility of losing.

Her focus was solely on defeating her enemy and reaping the rewards.

‘Is her confidence based on her equipment?’

Her body was clad in items used by only the highest-ranked Hunters.

Just checking their grades made my eyes widen, one of her arrows alone could cost more than an average Hunter’s entire weapon.

“Hey, Ghost Eyes. Just sit back and watch.”

“Ghost Eyes?!”

“Well, you have eyes that see ghosts, so you’re Ghost Eyes. Though, it doesn’t seem very useful right now.”

Whoosh!

Blue mana flowed through Loran’s arrow, forming an ethereal glow.

The intangible energy on the arrow rippled outward like waves.

This wasn’t mastery, it wasn’t a skillful technique that imbued her arrows with inner power.

It was purely the power of high-end equipment.

But… she was aiming in the wrong direction.

Among her skills was [Clairvoyance], but despite her confidence, she still couldn’t see the target properly.
(TL:Note It seems that Loran has a version of the MCs own Clairvoyance. I'm debating on calling what she has ‘True Sight’. Let me know what you guys think :D.)

“What? Even with Clairvoyance, I can’t see it?”

The unexpected development left her visibly shaken, and that hesitation led to catastrophic consequences.

The Malignant Spirit stomped its foot and black chaos surged forth.

A dark, sinister energy flared and spread in all directions.

A violent torrent erupted and Loran was engulfed.

She didn’t even have time to scream as her body was lifted into the air.

A fleeting moment of weightlessness followed by a brutal impact.

CRACK.

Her small frame slammed into the library floor, her bones creaked ominously, and her body went limp.

“……!!”

Next, the Malignant Spirit turned its gaze to Haruki.

I knew what it meant to be unable to see and the depth of that fear.

If nothing appeared even within the vision of [Spiritual Vision], then that fear would turn to despair.

Haruki’s face drained of color, but she didn’t even seem to realize it yet.

The overwhelming terror, shock, and tension stimulated her sympathetic nervous system and her bladder overreacted.

A warm liquid spread between her legs, pooling onto the floor.

‘She’s more fragile than I thought.’

Even the Water Spirit trembled, an instinct older than time itself weighed it down.

Existence itself clutched at its throat like claws.

Spirits could not stand against beings beyond their class.

It wasn’t a matter of logic or will, it was a fundamental law of existence.

The Book of the Dead contained a spirit of royal rank.

From the perspective of Spirit Studies, it was a natural enemy.

I clicked my tongue and drew my pistol.

[Asadia] overlapped quietly, and a sense of exaltation surged within me.

To unleash its full power, it needed to take the form of a sniper rifle.

But even in pistol form, I could still stack its effects.

‘It doesn’t know I’m here.’

When the enemy cannot see me but I see the enemy… that was one of the most crucial principles of sniping.

However, there was one major problem. This was a library.

A ridiculously vast one at that. I hadn’t even realized there were other students in here.

Endless rows of bookshelves stretched on, forming a maze.

Ballistically, it was a nightmare.

Projectile weapons like firearms couldn’t perform optimally in a place like this.

With such restricted sightlines, securing a proper firing line was impossible.

My eyes could see through walls, but bullets could not pierce them.

‘If only bullets had homing capabilities.’

I recalled a recent martial arts class.

There were sword techniques of supreme power in the world.

The pinnacle of swordsmanship, [Sword Flight].

Not merely becoming one with the sword but surpassing it.

A technique where the sword flies at will, slashing precisely as intended.

What if that concept could be applied to bullets? What if a bullet, once fired, moved according to my thoughts?

The moment I pulled the trigger, fate would be sealed.

The target would never escape.

However… a sword and a bullet were different.

Once a bullet left my hand, it broke the sound barrier. Its speed was too fast, its size too small, and far too difficult to control.

It was a realm beyond my current reach, so instead, I moved my feet.

If the angle wasn’t right I simply had to move to where it was.

My upper dantian stirred.

A flash of insight erupted within the realm of instinct.

I absorbed the footwork I had witnessed before, imprinting it into my brain.

As if my inner energy had a will of its own, it adjusted my flow.

The mnemonic phrases aligned naturally.

Energy wove itself into an intricate formation, solidifying the flow.

There was no need to force it, I had [Heavenly Demon’s Body].

My body was already capable of wielding energy at will.

‘Lightening the body, that’s what movement techniques are about.’

I was still just a first-year at a stage where basic physical training and theoretical studies were the focus.

I had never properly learned footwork techniques.

But I had once witnessed the ‘Twins of Ruin’ activate a skill.

And since I had seen it once… It was now mine.

[Stormflow Light Step].

Inner energy was mass.

Techniques like heavy swordplay or the thousand-kilogram hammer used this principle.

Mastering agility wasn’t that different.

The key was to open all the meridians in my body and adjust my acupoints to redistribute weight.

As my body lightened, the constraints on my movements loosened.

A solid aura of demonic energy coiled around the Yongcheon Acupoint on the soles of my feet.

What would happen if I detonated this energy mid-step?

The energy rippling off my feet was intense and a surge of force erupted from my soles.

Whoosh!

In an instant, my body transformed into a streak of light.

Like a tornado, I shot forward in a single bound.

Objects seemed to cut apart and reassemble before my eyes.

The once-distant scenery expanded in an instant into the realm of masters.

I did not flail about, unable to control my speed, because my eyes could handle everything.

Sticking precisely to the predicted path and trajectory I arrived at the ideal position and calmly assumed a shooting stance.

Prone position, and the target was in clear view.

Nothing obstructed my line of fire as I hugged my sniper rifle tightly.

My sleek curves adjusted slightly as I held it.

‘Uncomfortable.’

I ignored the trivial sensations. Only the target mattered.

My level was only 10. Even if I fired all day, it would be meaningless.

[Devil’s Bullet], which forced fixed damage, and [Satan’s Bullet], which swept across wide areas with firepower, were useless here.

There was a specific way to deal with spirits.

A single magic circle ignited and my unique mana coursed through it.

A sensation of controlling fire arose within me.

But, what condensed within wasn’t flame.

My Savant’s brain sparked with brilliance. [Entropy].

Nature always sought to increase disorder.

Particles moved ceaselessly in random motion.

When temperature rose, it meant those particles were moving faster.

Then, what if I stopped that movement?

Instead of gathering heat in one place, I robbed it of its flow.

By decelerating the motion of particles bit by bit, slower and slower, the heat energy lost its momentum.

0 Kelvin. Absolute zero.

A temperature theoretically impossible to reach.

A state of complete stillness.

Of course, I couldn’t lower it to that extreme.

To reach absolute zero, infinite energy would be required.

But lowering it significantly… That was possible.

Fire and ice were fundamentally the same concept applied in different ways.

Heat always moves from high to low.

If one could control fire… There was no reason one couldn’t control ice.

Boom!

The magic circle contracted instantly. Not expansion—contraction.

Within the isolated space, the temperature plummeted.

Frost drew moisture from the air.

The circle before me froze over, glowing a chilling blue.

Air that had dropped below freezing crystallized into clear, transparent ice.

And then I loaded a bullet made of ice.

A Frozen Bullet.