Episode 8: This is Frustrating

At the bedside of his mother Park Kyung-Hye, who lies lost to the Eternal Sleep Disease, Jinwoo decides to build his strength before storming the Demon Castle for the elixir ingredients. At Cafe Pene the next day, a delighted Yoo Jinho hears him agree to nineteen raids, but only if the two enter gates by themselves and merely pad the eight-hunter quota with hires, the very tactic Hwang Dongsuk relied on. Jinho embraces it, since flawless, casualty-free clears would win his father's approval.

Meanwhile, a Yoojin Construction manager pitches S-Rank Cha Hae-In on heading their planned Yoojin Guild, an offer she later admits to Choi Jong-In she turned down. During a strained drive, Yoo Myunghan spells out his plan to rival the five major guilds by founding one under an S-rank, with his older son Jinsung as vice master, which sidelines Jinho and leaves him on edge. Now at level twenty-six, Jinwoo discovers he can no longer overclock his daily quest into another Demon Castle key, and when a city alert calls hunters to an urgent D-Rank gate, he grudgingly takes it.

That same alert reaches two Cartenon Temple survivors: Song Chi-Yul, who refuses retirement despite his missing arm, and Kim Sangshik, set on going to provide for his family. Guild heads Baek Yoonho and Choi Jong-In confer over the Yoojin threat, and Choi voices his resolve to retake Jeju Island, where Baek's comrade Eunseok fell. At the gate, five Double Dungeon survivors come together again. Joohee beams with open relief, while a guilt-stricken Kim and Kang Jeongho cannot meet Jinwoo's gaze. The reunion is broken off by three handcuffed C-Rank convicts brought in under a Substitute Hunter program, watched over by B-Rank Association escort Kang Taeshik.

Jinwoo signs on to Yoo Jinho's strike team, setting the terms that they clear gates effectively on their own. The guild Yoojin Construction, run by Jinho's father, tries and fails to land Cha Hae-In as its guild master. Choi Jong-In reveals he means to mount a return to Jeju Island. Most of all, Jinwoo reunites with the Cartenon Temple party's survivors: among them Lee Joohee, Song Chi-Yul, and the pair of Kim Sangshik and Kang Jeongho, all converging on the urgent D-Rank gate beside an unnerving escort of convict hunters.

This episode covers chapters twenty-seven and twenty-eight, scripted by Shunsuke Nakashige and directed by Hiromu Oshiro at A-1 Pictures. Song dwells on the irony that decades of swordsmanship went to waste once he awakened as a mage, while Jinah is taken aback to see her brother set off for a raid without any gear at all. A trivia note points out that the cyan jacket Cha Hae-In wears here is the same one she has in the revised timeline near the webtoon's ending.