Chapter 57

A week-long expedition awaits Jinwoo, who must venture inside the Demon King's Castle and shrugs off his sister Jinah's comment that he is hardly ever home. What drives him is the Elixir of Life, a fabled item rumored to rouse his comatose mother, Park Kyung-Hye. The moment he steps into the looming tower, a system message hands him a brutal objective: cut down ten thousand magic beasts. He takes it on without pause. Floor after labyrinthine floor, he carves through swarms of demons that prove sharper-witted than ordinary monsters, his levels climbing fast while his shadow army thins the crowds. For added muscle, he calls up a hulking shadow ice bear and dubs it Tank.

Far from the castle, Jinho approaches his father, Yoo Myung-Han, asking to be handed the reins of the Yoojin Guild. The meeting unfolds in an upscale restaurant, where Go Myung-Hwan, brought along to testify, retells the Red Gate Incident and the staggering power Jinwoo displayed. After Go confirms that Han Song-Yi never took part, Jinho turns the question back to his father. Doubtful of whether his son is ready, Yoo Myung-Han names a single term: should Sung Jinwoo enlist in the Yoojin Guild, then Jinho gets his promotion. Trusting his friend completely, Jinho says yes on the spot. The chapter shuts on Jinwoo standing over heaps of demon corpses, aware the road remains long, yet unwilling to halt before the castle falls.

Hunting the Elixir of Life for his mother's sake, Jinwoo breaches the Demon King's Castle and takes a system-issued objective to fell ten thousand magic beasts. While ascending the floors and growing stronger, he raises a new shadow soldier, an ice bear he names Tank. Elsewhere, Jinho lobbies his father for command of the Yoojin Guild, and Yoo Myung-Han consents on the lone condition that Jinwoo become a member, which Jinho readily accepts.

Adapted as the fifteenth anime episode, this entry launches the Demon Castle Arc. The ten-thousand-beast objective frames the sheer magnitude of Jinwoo's lone climb, and Tank arrives as a fresh addition to the shadow ranks. By tying Jinho's takeover to whether Jinwoo signs on, the guild thread links the hero's rising strength to a family power struggle outside the dungeon.