The Weakest Hunter Ascends

The commandments

Every Hunter left alive heard Arthur’s voice ring across the chamber.

"!!"

"The instruments?"

A desperate ray of hope instantly ignited in the eyes of the survivors.

In stark contrast to when he had ordered them to bow, this time everyone moved with unbelievable, frantic speed.

If Arthur's deduction was wrong, the moment they stepped near a monument, they would be hacked to pieces by the guardians holding the musical artifacts.

Yet, not a single person in the room questioned his logic.

Mr. Sterling was the first to dive in front of a stone statue carrying a carved harp.

"……"

Sterling fought to control his ragged breathing, raising his eyes to stare up at the looming gray shape.

And as if by some miraculous design, the stone fingers of the statue smoothly shifted, strumming across the strings.

Cling, clang...

A hauntingly beautiful, fluid melody began to ripple through the air.

"It's working!!"

"Hurry! Get to the ones with the instruments!"

The remaining Hunters sprinted toward the nearest correct pedestals, their boots slapping wildly against the flagstones.

A statue holding a long stone trumpet raised the horn to its lips, blowing a triumphant fanfare.

Another with a flute began to pipe a crisp, ancient tune.

One carrying a classical lyre masterfully plucked at its strings.

"Haaah... haaah..."

Sensing that his physical parameters were completely hitting their limit, Kim pushed his legs forward, barely collapsing at the base of a guardian holding a classical bouzouki.

Twang, twang...

The moment the stone fingers began to pick at the strings, emitting a rich acoustic rhythm, the gargantuan deity froze in its tracks, abandoning its pursuit of Kim.

Overrun with sheer, desperate emotion, Kim slumped to his knees, hot tears streaming down his face.

"Thank God... oh God..."

Behind Kim's position, the titan slowly turned its massive stone torso.

It swept its lifeless gaze across the cathedral floor, scanning for its next target.

"Son of a bitch," Arthur hissed as his eyes locked directly with the titan's stone irises.

He pivoted, sprinting harder than he ever had in his life.

His heart hammered so violently against his ribs it felt on the verge of exploding, and his tactical vest was already entirely soaked through with cold sweat.

Why?! Why isn't this one triggering?!

Arthur shot a resentful, frantic glare up at the guardian directly in front of him.

The statue holding a heavy stone drum remained perfectly, infuriatingly motionless.

THUD!! THUD!! THUD!!

The titan closed the gap with terrifying speed.

Arthur had practically crossed to the opposite end of the cathedral, yet the colossal entity was eating up the distance in a matter of seconds.

Arthur swallowed hard, a terrible realization striking him.

Could it be because there are two of us here? Me and Julie?

It was the only logical explanation.

Every other monument had activated the exact second a single Hunter took refuge beneath it.

There's no time left to weigh the options.

Arthur quickly set Julie down, bracing his body to draw the aggro away.

"Ar... Arthur..."

Still completely paralyzed by the horror around them, Julie clung tightly to the fabric of his sleeve.

Arthur leaned in, his voice a calm, urgent whisper against her ear.

"If we stay in the same circle, we both die."

Tears instantly welled in Julie's eyes, her fingers trembling violently as she tried to maintain her grip on his gear.

But there simply wasn't a fraction of a second to explain the mechanics to her.

Arthur carefully but firmly pried her fingers away, spun on his heel, and bolted in the opposite direction at a dead sprint.

Boom... boom... boom...

When he glanced over his shoulder, the guardian behind Julie had already raised its stone mallets, striking the drum in a slow, resonant rhythm.

Good. She's safe.

Now there was only one thing left to do:

Outrun a titan and find another musical monument before he was flattened into paste.

Because Arthur was the only human left unprotected by the acoustic barriers, the absolute, concentrated fury of the deity was directed entirely at him.

Arthur threw his body into frantic zigzags, desperately evading the shadow of a foot that rivaled the size of a multi-story apartment building.

THUD!

THUD!!

He lost his footing, tumbling hard across the stone floor, but the desperate momentum allowed him to narrowly roll out from beneath the descending sole of the titan's boot.

"Haaah... haaah..."

He might only be an E-Rank, but his physical class configuration was classified as a frontline combatant.

That baseline martial durability was the only thing keeping his bones intact as he scrambled back to his feet.

Just a little further! Come on!

Keeping one eye tracked on the titan's trajectory, Arthur forced his burning muscles to accelerate.

His pace quickened.

The distance between him and the next guardian narrowed to a mere dozen feet—

"Arthur, no! Stop! That's the wrong one!!"

Sterling’s roar echoed across the room.

Arthur had been so hyper-focused on tracking the titan's movements that his brain stalled at the warning.

He snapped his head forward to evaluate the pedestal.

"Ah!!"

It wasn't a musical instrument.

He realized too late that the rounded silhouette he had mistaken for a shield drum from a distance was actually a heavy combat aegis.

And sure enough, the guardian statue woke up instantly, driving the razor-sharp rim of the stone shield down toward his chest like a guillotine.

"Ugh!"

Arthur violently threw his weight to the left, diving out of the arc.

"Arthur—!!" Julie screamed.

Arthur rolled repeatedly across the rough flagstones.

The moment his momentum died, he pushed his chin up—only to find the towering, impossible mass of the titan standing directly over him.

"One thing after another..."

His forehead had been deeply gashed during the rough fall, and a thick trail of blood was pooling into his eyes, blurring his vision with a heavy crimson haze.

His field of view was entirely restricted.

He couldn't see further than a few yards.

Arthur frantically scanned the immediate area.

An instrument... where is an instrument...

No matter how hard he blinked through the blood, there wasn't a single musical monument within reach.

Above him, the titan slowly raised its colossal leg, lining up the strike directly over Arthur's torso.

"Move!"

THUD!!

Arthur threw himself into a desperate roll once more, the concussive force of the impact rattling his teeth as the boot pulverized the flagstones inches from his hip.

But he had hit his absolute limit.

A powerful, suffocating vertigo washed over his brain, and his equilibrium shattered completely.

He couldn't even find the balance to push himself into a crawl.

Please...

If there was a real God listening in this forgotten hole, Arthur thought he might actually start praying.

Right then, through the crimson blur, Arthur spotted a unique monument against the near wall.

It held absolutely nothing—no weapon, no shield, no musical instrument.

Is that it...?

Arthur decided to stake his entire existence on that single, empty pedestal.

Dragging his heavy, uncooperative limbs across the stone, he hauled himself to the base of the statue.

He managed to flip onto his back, staring up into the looming shadow of the approaching deity.

He didn't have a single drop of energy left to move.

"Haaah... haaah..."

Arthur stared directly into the descending gaze of the titan, his chest heaving as he dragged ragged breaths into his lungs.

The stone facial features of the deity were far more twisted and contorted than before, completely warped with an ancient, furious rage at Arthur's persistent survival.

The titan came to a halt directly over him.

Looking up at a creature that literally blocked out the high vaulted ceiling like a skyscraper, Arthur felt the air completely leave his lungs.

"Haaah... haaah..."

Did the anomaly view him as nothing more than a cornered rat?

The titan simply loomed there, staring down at his broken form without striking immediately.

This is it. I'm done.

Looking straight into those massive stone sockets, Arthur could feel the cold, absolute certainty of his own demise settling over him.

But then...

Hummmmm...

From directly behind his head, a beautiful, ethereal resonance rippled through the air.

Arthur forced his neck to tilt, trying to see past the pedestal.

The stone lips of the statue holding the blank open book were smoothly gliding apart.

And as they did, a divine, operatic hymn drifted into the space, filling every corner of the colossal cathedral.

The furious, distorted facial lines of the titan slowly began to relax, smoothing back down into a lifeless, emotionless gray facade.

The terrifying killer intent evaporated completely.

The moment the guardian's operatic solo reached its final, echoing note, the titan turned its massive torso away.

True to the mathematical design of the room, it took slow, heavy strides back toward the center of the cathedral, ascending the steps and settling back down onto its towering throne as if the entire slaughter had been nothing but an illusion.

THUD!!

The final echo of the deity taking its seat reverberated against the masonry, followed by a dead silence.

"Haaah... haaah... I'm... I'm still breathing..."

A faint, exhausted smile tugged at the corner of Arthur's lips.

From across the massive expanse of the cathedral floor, Julie broke into a desperate sprint.

"Arthur!!"

She ran with every ounce of physical strength she possessed, collapsing hard onto her knees beside him as hot tears poured down her face.

"What do I do... oh God, what am I supposed to target first..."

Channeling the absolute remainder of her arcane capacity, a brilliant emerald light flared from her palms as she slammed her hands onto his chest, activating her high-tier healing magic.

But the spell didn't seem to stabilize him the way it usually did.

One by one, the scattered survivors began to drift across the room, gathering around Arthur's prone form.

Every single face was masked in a grim, hollow expression.

"Arthur... Jesus, man..." Kim muttered, looking away.

Only Julie remained hyper-focused, weeping hysterically as she poured more mana into the glow.

"Hold on! Please, just hold on!"

Why was everyone looking at him with such pity?

Arthur’s lips parted, trying to articulate a question, but his vocal cords couldn't muster enough strength to produce a sound.

Realizing he needed to see for himself, he braced his elbows against the flagstones, attempting to hoist his upper torso off the floor.

"……?"

The moment he shifted, he noticed a massive, dark pool of blood completely saturating the stone beneath his waist.

It was then that the neurological shock finally cleared, and he realized what was missing from his body.

"Ah……"

Everything below his right knee was entirely gone.

Arthur’s gaze reflexively tracked back toward the perimeter wall, locking onto the guardian statue holding the combat aegis.

A thick, wet trail of crimson was painted clearly across the sharp stone rim of the shield.

And lying on the flagstones directly beneath it was the rest of his right leg.

Drip. Drip.

Heavy drops of dark blood began to spill from Julie's nose—the ultimate clinical sign that her physical stamina and mana core were completely redlining.

The healing magic of a B-Rank support specialist was unparalleled, but it was structurally incapable of regenerating a completely severed limb.

What she was doing was the arcane equivalent of pouring water into a shattered vase.

Her capacity was rapidly draining into nothingness.

"It's fine... Julie," Arthur managed to rasp out, his voice weak. "Save your mana... stop..."

"No! I'm going to fix it! I can close the vascular wall! Just let me work!"

The surrounding Hunters could only watch the display with hollow, miserable expressions.

Out of the seventeen vanguard who had entered the double dungeon, only six remained breathing.

And out of those six survivors, two were permanently maimed.

Sterling had lost an arm.

Arthur had lost a leg.

They had technically beaten the encounter, but not a single soul felt like celebrating.

Right then, another deep, mechanical rumble shook the foundation of the room.

RUMBLE...!!

Directly in the center of the cathedral floor, the complex geometric magic circle began to physically shift, grinding upward against the flagstones.

Arthur closed his eyes, a dark, heavy thought settling into his mind.

The final phase.

"Prove your faith"...

He already had a terrifyingly clear idea of what those words required.

*****

The circular stone platform in the center of the sanctuary continued its noisy ascent, finally locking into place after rising a few steps above the floor level.

"An altar..." Arthur muttered, his voice barely a whisper.

The word immediately triggered a hyper-vigilant reaction from the surrounding Hunters.

An altar...?

He said it's an altar...

The individual who had successfully navigated them through the first two lethal mechanics wasn't a veteran C-Rank or a corporate scout.

It was Arthur, an E-Rank rookie who had been the literal butt of every joke in the Association office for the last two years.

If it wasn't for that kid, every single one of us would be ash right now...

That exact realization was shared by every survivor in the circle.

In this room, Arthur's deductions were the absolute law of survival.

And he had just identified the structure as an altar.

Kim was always exceptionally quick to adapt to a shift in leverage.

He caught the brutal implication of the word before anyone else in the group could even process it.

"I get it now," Kim murmured, his voice turning cold. "I see exactly how this layout works."

With a sharp, metallic ring, Kim unsheathed the steel shortsword hanging at his hip.

Under normal circumstances, that blade was reserved for carving through low-level goblins or beasts.

But right now, he was eyeing it for a completely different utility.

"Even a dumb bastard like me can read between the lines on this one."

The remaining rookies nervously swallowed, their eyes tracking the cold, polished reflection of the steel.

"Whoa, Kim. What are you doing drawing steel right now?"

"Let's just take a breath, man. Let's talk about this first."

The highest-rated Hunter left in the room—Mr. Sterling—was heavily mutilated and down an arm, meaning there was no one present with the physical leverage to override Kim, who boasted a highly aggressive, high-damage D-Rank combat loadout.

Kim leveled the point of his sword directly toward the newly raised stone platform.

"The Third Commandment: 'Prove your faith.'"

"And suddenly a sacrificial altar pops out of the floor right in the middle of the room."

Kim’s gaze slowly shifted away from the stone, locking directly onto Arthur's pale face.

"We need a blood offering to open those doors, don't we?"

"Isn't that the trick, Arthur?"

Arthur didn't answer immediately.

He simply gave a slow, somber nod.

His own mind had reached the exact same clinical conclusion.

One of the surviving six had to be laid upon that stone.

That's what the final verse meant...

Arthur felt a sudden shift in the air.

He raised his chin, tracking Kim's approach.

The look in the older Hunter's eyes was completely devoid of empathy.

It was the look of a man willing to do whatever it took to see daylight again.

A heavy bead of sweat rolled down Arthur’s temple, mixing with the blood on his cheek.

"Kim... what are you doing?"

"You shut your mouth, kid! Stay right where you are!"

Kim barked, his voice cracking with a manic, defensive rage as he swung the tip of his blade around to point directly at Mr. Sterling's throat.

Sterling was currently kneeling right beside Arthur, checking the status of the youth's tourniquet.

"Who was the one who dragged us into this extra room in the first place?!"

Kim snarled, his chest heaving.

"Wasn't it this old veteran?!"

"Yeah!"

"It was Sterling!"

"He's the leader of this raid!"

"It's only right that the commanding officer takes the ultimate responsibility for the body count!!"

"Kim, you coward!"

Arthur snarled, trying to force his broken body up in a flash of pure anger, but a heavy, calloused hand suddenly clamped onto his shoulder.

It was Sterling.

His grip felt like the roots of an ancient oak, completely pinning Arthur in place.

Arthur stared up at the veteran in absolute disbelief.

"Mr. Sterling...?"

Sterling didn't look at him.

He simply gave a slow, silent shake of his head, his weathered eyes pleading with Arthur to drop the argument.

Arthur had a dozen counters ready to fly, but the sheer, dignified weight of the old man's gaze forced him to swallow his words.

Slowly, deliberately, Sterling pushed himself up onto his remaining foot, standing at his full height.

"Kim is right," Sterling said, his voice completely level, echoing with a calm authority that silenced the room.

"The tactical failure of this raid lies entirely on my shoulders."

"I will accept the consequence."

"Well, look at that," Kim sneered, a twisted, relieved smirk breaking through his panic as he gestured toward the steps with his sword.

"At least the old man has some honor left."

He kept the blade leveled at Sterling's chest.

"If you understand the math, then get moving."

"Over ten good people are dead in the dirt because you wanted to chase a corporate payday, old man."

"Go fix it."