Uber-Talented Gamer in the Omniverse

A/N :

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

[ ] : System, Akasha, Minerva,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

« » : Artificial Intelligence,

| | : Sung Jin-Woo's System Panels, Sung Jin-Woo's System Messages,

"Bold text" : Shadows & Deathborns.

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Sung Jin-Woo POV

It's strange. One second, I was hearing the sounds of people around us, the next, silence. It was completely unnerving, seeing an entire city skyline, and having it be perfectly silent, save for the humming of electricity, the movement of the wind and running water.

"Hah! I've finally gotten it. The EXP grinding cheat of a lifetime is now in my hands." Dante's voice causes me to refocus onto him. "What is this?" I ask him, still trying to see if he just separated this space, or did something to the people. Also, the Gate is no longer there.

"This, my friend, is an Instant Dungeon. A blank Instant Dungeon, but an Instant Dungeon nonetheless." He says, moving his hands as if he's scrolling through something. He must be checking the details of the skill.

But, blank, huh? I guess that's why there's no life in here. There's no birds or even insects around, just inanimate objects. "You said that I could level up with this. How would that work out when there's nothing here?" I ask him.

"That's where the levels come in, Jin-Woo. At Level 1, the skill does just this. It creates a copy of the environment around its user with no life inside. But as the level of the skill goes up, the user gains the ability to edit the environment." He says, then another pulse of energy goes out of him, and I hear everything again.

"Really? You just created the same things that we left?" I ask him, only to feel the now familiar mana of the Gate once again. "I only destroyed the ID. Nothing serious." Sorry, he did what?! "You destroyed it?" I ask him, and he looks at me like it's normal.

"Oh, right. You could only clear yours or use the Hearthstone if you wanted to get out. I guess that was just the limit of your system." He says with a shrug. "Just rub it in, why don't you." I say, and he just chuckles.

"Either way, here's the deets of the skill. You can tell me which one you want." He says, and flicks his hand, causing a golden window to show itself in front of me.

[ID Create (Active) LV MAX]:

[A skill to create an instance. User can create stronger instances with stronger enemies inside as you level up the skill.

At Level 50, mutations can occur with the beings in all instances.

At MAX level, all instances gain a time dilation field.

Current available instances:

Empty Instance - Monsters inside: None.

Goblinoid Instance - Monsters inside: Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, Trolls, Bugbears.

Beast Instance - Monsters inside: Lycans, Shrikes, Boars, Felids, Apes, Snakes, Canids, Hyenas, Bats, Birds, Bears,

Insectoid Instance - Monsters inside: Mantises, Ants, Beetles, Bees, Wasps, Spiders, Butterflies, Centipedes, Scorpions.

Monstrous Humanoid Instance - Monsters inside: Yetis, Werewolves, Vampires, Harpies, Gorgons, Gnolls, Satyrs, Centaurs, Minotaurs, Giants, Ogres, Lizardmen, Frogmen, Kobolds, Drows, Snow Folk, Arachnes, Lamias, Gumihos, Cyclopes.

Undead Instance - Monsters inside: Zombies, Skeletons, Death Knights, Dullahans, Liches, Undead Dragons, Undead Beasts, Ghouls.

Elemental Instance - Monsters inside: Elemental Spirits, Elemental Beasts, True Elementals, Phoenixes.

Inanimate Animate Instance - Monsters inside: Mimics, Golems, Automatons, Living Armors, Homunculi, Puppets, Simulacra.

Dragon Instance - Monsters inside: Draconians, Nagas, Wyverns, Drakes, Wyrms, Shenlongs, Imoogis, Dragons.

Demon Instance - Monsters inside: Imps, Fiends, Balrogs, Incubi, Succubi, Demonic Beasts, Cambions, Baphomets, Demon Nobles, Pillar Demons, Sin Carriers.

Ocean Instance - Monsters inside: Sahaugin, Merfolk, Sirens, Crabs, Sharks, Krakens, Scyllae, Leviathans, Sea Serpents, Ghost Ships.

Ghost Instance - Monsters inside: Wraiths, Banshees, Phantoms, Doppelgangers, Poltergeists, Spectres, Shades.

World Instance - Monsters inside: All instances above.

Simulation Instance - Monsters inside: Customizable.]

What the hell am I looking at right now?! All I got were some shitty keys that opened Gates that only I could enter, but you're telling me that Dante gets to create entire worlds at the snap of his fingers. "Wait, is this what you have, or are you showing me what the MAX level skill could be like?" I ask him, skeptical of what I'm seeing.

After all, he did just get the skill, so there's no way he's already gotten it to MAX level. Right? "Oh, yeah. I forgot that you don't know. Any skill I get reaches MAX level immediately after its first use. So, yes. You are looking at what I've got." No way that's actually for real, right. Right?!

You know what, I'll just stop bothering myself over this. He's already been doing absurd stuff, so there's no point in getting surprised over something like this. I might as well make the best of this.

"Okay. So which one do you want to create?" I ask him. "Well, I think I'll just make a World Instance. That way, there'll be enough soldiers for you to raise. I've got enough of my own, for now." He says, looking at me with a smile.

"Now, come on. Let's get going." He says, grabbing my shoulder. "ID Create: World Instance." With those words, space shifts once again, but this time, I could sense a massive number of lifeforms around us, just within the city.

Looking down from the rooftop, I see a number of monsters sauntering about. Some of them seemed like panthers, much like the Black Shadow Razan that I faced in my first Instant Dungeon, only much larger. However, I also see a ton of zombies and skeletons walking about.

The city is generally populated with zombies, skeletons and goblins, with some wolf and panther like monsters dotted around here and there. Going off the sheer number of enemies in the city alone, I feel like I could very possibly level up enough to get to Level 175.

*Snap!* A loud snapping of fingers goes off behind me, and before I can question it, I see a dome appear, that surrounds the entire building and everything in a 50 meter radius of the building. "There. You've got your safe zone up, so you don't have to worry about not having a place to sleep or chill." Dante says, then creates a couch and sits on it.

"Now, go on. They might kill themselves, but you won't get EXP that way." He says, taking out a bucket of popcorn from his inventory, then inhaling... Yes, literally inhaling a handful of popcorn into his mouth like a vacuum cleaner. Shaking my head, I jump down to the ground, and quickly summon all of my shadows.

"Go, kill everything." With that simple order, all of my shadows charged at the monsters, with roars, shouts and screeches coming out from them. In all honesty, I feel like this may be overkill, but the fact that I can feel so many monsters that have a similar level of power to Beru when he was still alive is making me abandon that thought.

"Well, I've also got to put in some work." I say, then pull out Kamish's Wrath, and dash in to join in the battle.

Narrator POV

"You didn't show him everything, did you?" Shiraori asked Dante. "Of course I didn't. Imagine how it would be if he found that I could create entire universes as IDs. His mind would crack in half." He said, flicking a kernel of popcorn into his mouth.

"True. Not to mention that you could also make time pass in said universes so quickly that they'd become older and larger than almost all other universes out there within seconds." Shiraori said with an understanding nod.

"Yeah." Dante said with a sigh. "Popcorn?" He said, offering his bucket to Shiraori. "Sure." She said, choosing to lay on the couch, with her head on his lap. "Aaahh." She opened her mouth, indirectly telling him to drop some of the popcorn in her mouth.

He sharply exhaled in amusement, then dropped a handful into her mouth. "Well, I guess we can have this as something of a movie marathon, don't you think?" Dante said, creating a massive screen that showed Sung Jin-Woo's battle with the beings in this instance.

...

It had taken Sung Jin-Woo three hours to entirely clear the city of monsters, and in that time, he had gotten a considerably high amount of EXP. And before heading out to the other cities and places surrounding them, he decided to check his status board and allocate the additional stat points he had accumulated.

|Stats|

|Level: 172

Strength: 678

Stamina: 652

Agility: 668

Intelligence: 697

Perception: 639

Reduction in physical damage: +65%|

In even more pleasant news, Igris and Beru had hit their max level. And Sung Jin-Woo had taken in a plethora of new shadow soldiers, with his most noteworthy ones being an elite felid monster known as a Berserk Blade Panther, a mutant goblin that was two times larger than normal goblins, had four arms and pale white skin known as a Gulgob, and an elite canid monster known as a Bloodhorn Wolf.

Each of these monsters was actually more powerful than the Ant King, putting them at similar levels of power as the giants that attacked Japan. He named the panther Khan, the wolf Lupa, and the Gulgob Stix.

While Sung Jin-Woo had cleared the mobs and elite monsters, he had left the boss monster for last. It was a Doppelganger, a monster that had the ability to copy the appearance and abilities of its enemy.

Since this one's base power was higher than the rest of the monsters in the city, when it used its mimicry, it would essentially become a stronger version of the monsters. But for Sung Jin-Woo, this would be a cakewalk.

The Doppelganger had made its abode in a shopping mall, with it wandering about the ground floor. Stopping outside, Sung Jin-Woo looked at his shadow soldiers, and decided to leave this hunt for his most recent recruits. After all, it would be using monsters from within the city to take out the boss monster of the city.

"Khan, Lupa, Stix. I'll leave this to you three. Don't disappoint me." He said calmly, and the three shadows dashed into the building with fervor. After a few seconds of searching, Lupa found the Doppelganger.

With a white androgynous humanoid body, a featureless face, and a seemingly gelatinous makeup, the Doppelganger faced off against the shadow wolf. After a few seconds, its form began to shift, eventually turning into a mirror image of Lupa.

A feral grin made its way onto Lupa's mouth, as she howled out loudly, calling upon her fellow shadows. The Doppelganger lunged at Lupa, only to suddenly get hit in the side by a strong, bladed tail, as Khan showed up.

Before it could even hit the ground, four large arms came swinging down on the same area that had been hit by Khan's tail. After smashing the Doppelganger into the floor, Stix kicked its head, sending it further away.

After Stix landed and righted his stance, the three shadows dashed at the Doppelganger. The Doppelganger, still using Lupa's form, quickly stood up and lunged at Khan, who was in the middle of the three, only to get its right forelimb blasted off by a highly pressurized stream of blood.

Khan, taking this as his chance, elongated his claws to the length of daggers, and swiped at the Doppelganger's face, leaving deep gashes on its head. However, this didn't slow down the Doppelganger, as its body morphed, this time copying Khan, and it reciprocated the panther's attack.

Unfortunately for the Doppelganger, this just put it in the line of attack of both Lupa and Stix, who both charged up their skills. Lupa dashed forward, and stabbed her horns into the Doppelganger's belly, and Stix held his arms aloft, as they were soon enveloped in reddish mana, then slammed them onto the Doppelganger's back.

With a mighty howl, Lupa's horns suddenly grew to a meter in length and 7cm in width, then pumped a great amount of mana that churned violently within the Doppelganger's torso. Stix slammed his arms onto the Doppelganger's back, and the reaction between his mana and Lupa's mana caused an explosion that eviscerated the Doppelganger from within.

As the dust that had been kicked up by the explosion cleared, the three shadows heard slow claps coming from the entry area of the mall. As they turned to find the source of the clapping, they saw Sung Jin-Woo looking at them with a satisfied expression. "You've all done well. Now, let's return to the safe zone."

As he said that, a portal opened behind him, leading to the Dominion Guild's building. He recalled all his soldiers into his shadow, then crossed the portal.

After making it up to the roof, he saw Dante and Shiraori waiting for him, still on the couch. "I've got to give it to you, Dante. You've outdone yourself with this. I went up by over 20 levels in an hour." Sung Jin-Woo said, genuinely impressed with the World Instance.

"But I've got to ask, how long are you planning on having me be here?" He asked, fully understanding that their continued presence in the instance was completely dependent on Dante's whims. "A month. It should be enough time for you to get your stats to the max that the system will allow." Dante replied, his hands caressing Shiraori's face, as she laid her head in his lap.

"A month, huh. If that's the case, how much time is passing back on Earth?" Sung Jin-Woo asked. "Not long, only a day." Dante responded calmly, then continued. "The Gate will open tomorrow at around the same time as when you came back to the building, so by then, you'll be ready to fully receive your inheritance."

Deciding that he had finished with his questions for the time being, he left the building. As he stepped foot outside the entrance, he sighed, wondering out loud if he should have left a shadow at the mall.

"By the way, if you want to ever come back to the safe zone, just think of returning and I'll open up a portal for you to use. Same thing if you want to go back." Dante told him telepathically, then opened a portal in front of Sung Jin-Woo.

Huffing, Sung Jin-Woo stepped through the portal, then brought out all of his shadow soldiers. "Everyone! For the next month, we're going to go all out with our hunting. Kill any and every monster you see that isn't a shadow. Now, go!" He relayed his orders, and they moved swiftly to carry them out.

"I should also get going, but first..." He said, then reached out to the remains of the dead Doppelganger. "Arise." He said, raising the Doppelganger as one of his soldiers. He got the standard notifications from his system, including the one telling him to name the new soldier. "Mimi." He said simply, naming the Doppelganger after its ability to mimic others.

"Now, join them and hunt down any monster you come across." He said, and the Doppelganger nodded, before speeding away to search for monsters. After Mimi left, Sung Jin-Woo refocused himself, then began his own hunt.

...

Sung Jin-Woo POV

"Whew. Finally done. We really cut it close." I say, wiping sweat off my face, while looking down at the massive Hydra that I had just killed. If Dante stuck with Earth's landmass, I'd currently be in the Philippines. But moving past that thought, I look at my status board, and smile.

|Stats|

|Level: 532

Strength: 999

Stamina: 999

Agility: 999

Intelligence: 999

Perception: 999

Reduction in physical damage: +99%|

After a total of 360 level ups, I had finally hit the absolute limit of stats that the system would allow. When my Intelligence reached 999 points, I was happy, but I noticed that it stayed there even after leveling up. To be sure I checked if it would be the same with my Strength, and it was, so I just ran with it.

Quickly raising the Hydra, I name it Multrag, since it's a dragon with multiple heads. After that, I think of returning to the safe zone, and as usual, a portal opens up nearby. Standing up, I walk through the portal, and end up on top of the building this time.

Before the portal closes, I recall all my shadows, most of which have hit their max levels. "So, you ready?" Dante says, as he waves his hand, clearing all my fatigue. "As ready as I'll ever be." I say, and he snaps his fingers, after which I hear what seems like glass shattering.

Immediately, the sounds of human activity hit me. I inhale the air, then let out a breath, relaxed, or I guess relieved would be more accurate here. That thought lasts until I turn to look at Dante, who has a dagger in his hand. "Now that you're done, let's get the final part over with.

... What the fuck is going on?!

Chapter End.

Word Count: 2,813

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