Rating
Solo Leveling Novel Chapter 39 Average 5 / 5 out of 1
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42nd, it has 5 monthly views
Summary
‘Should I get started, then?’
Shadow soldiers were summoned behind Jin-Woo. Not just the regular foot soldiers, but also the magic soldiers, the beast soldiers, as well as the two knights, too.
And in front of them stood Jin-Woo.
The two knights strode forward and stood on either side of him. Jin-Woo took a glance at Igrit to his right, and Iron to his left, and a grin formed on his lips.
‘Feels so reassuring.’
Even though this was his own skill, the fact that he had comrades watching his back helped greatly to calm his mind.
However….
‘Still, it’s a bit too much to go with a frontal assault, isn’t it?.’
The whole thing looked kinda dangerous. And that was all thanks to that wooden-looking club held tight in Vulcan’s grip.
‘It’s just unbelievable that a tree that big actually existed, right?’
He guessed from the size of Vulcan and the wooden club that one swing from the demon would be enough to wipe away his entire platoon.
‘It’s fine if they get swept away, but….’
The real problem would be the MP required to regenerate the fallen soldiers. Without a doubt, continuously regenerating his soldiers that got repeatedly obliterated by that thick blunt weapon would bottom out his MP in no time at all.
In that case, there was only one way to do this.
‘I’ll have to take care of the boss.’
In other words, he’d let his boys deal with Vulcan’s underlings, while he himself would fight the boss.
This was the best plan he could think of.
‘Well, all I have to do is hunt it without getting hit.’
Unlike with his soldiers, Jin-Woo was confident of dodging Vulcan’s attacks. In order for his plan to work, though, he had to separate Vulcan from his underlings first.
Jin-Woo ordered his magic soldiers to initiate the assault first.
‘Use the ranged attacks to summon Vulcan’s lackeys over here first, and I’ll fight that big guy lumbering along at the rear.’
It was a simple enough plan to carry out.
‘Now.’
When Jin-Woo gave his signal, flames flew out from the hands of the magic soldiers.
Swiiiish…
Swiiish….!
Kaboom!!
The flames exploded near the subordinates of Vulcan, signalling the beginning of the operation.
Tti-ring!
[The Sovereign of the Lower Floors, the Avaricious Vulcan has discovered the intruder!]
[Vulcan’s loyal guard has discovered….]
[Vulcan’s loyal guard has discovered….]
Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring!!
The warning beeps resounded out in his head at a frightening pace. And at the same time, Vulcan and its lackeys all turned their heads towards Jin-Woo and his army.
‘Alright…’
He succeeded in drawing their attention.
In order to hit Vulcan coming up from the lackeys’ rear without getting discovered, Jin-Woo activated ‘Stealth’ and hid himself.
Shururu…
Everything seemed to be unfolding according to plan.
That’s what he thought, but then….
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!!!
‘…..?!?!’
Vulcan broke his expectation and bolted forward like a streak of lightning.
‘What the hell?? What is up with that movement? It’s like I’m looking at video footage sped up several times!’
Quite literally, in the blink of an eye! Vulcan had ran past its lackeys and arrived before the shadow soldiers.
‘Oh, crap!!’
Jin-Woo’s eyes widened considerably.
This demon with a huge, mountain-sized body mass managed to exceed his imaginations.
“M-mm!”
Vulcan lifted the club up high.
Just before the club pointing to the sky fell down on the defenceless magic soldiers, Iron jumped out of nowhere and raised his black shield.
Whoosh-!!
Kwajeeck!!
The attack was defended against somehow, but…. Both arms of Iron were shattered into pieces. The sturdiest, toughest among the shadow soldiers couldn’t withstand a single attack and was rendered unable to fight any further.
Scatter….
The shattered pieces of Iron’s arms fell to the ground and scattered away.
“M-mm? M-mm?”
Perhaps finding its previous attack not to its liking, Vulcan tilted its head this way and that, while staring deeply at its club. But that was only for a brief period.
The b*stard slammed down with the club once more.
“M-mm!!”
Kwajeeck!!
Iron, who had lost all means to defend himself, as well as the magic soldiers behind him, were crushed to oblivion next.
Crack.
Witnessing that event unfold, something inside Jin-Woo loudly snapped into two.
‘This son of a b*tch dares to….’
Jin-Woo bit his lower lip.
What he did next wasn’t because his head told him to do it.
Paht!
When he regained his senses, he was already in mid-air, leaping towards Vulcan.
His target was already set. And that would be that surprisingly beady little head attached atop the mountainous body.
Jin-Woo twisted his body in mid-air. The muscles of his shoulder and the arm cocked rearward ballooned up. When he focused all his might on his clenched right fist, ‘Stealth’ came undone automatically.
“M-mm??”
Belatedly, Vulcan discovered Jin-Woo.
Too bad, Jin-Woo’s fist was not slow enough for the giant monster to dodge when it was already near its nose.
Swiiiick!!
His fist punched out like a bullet and slammed into the side of Vulcan’s face.
KWABOOM
Vulcan was flung away. The giant demon rolled away on the ground for a long, long time, before crashing into the skeletal remains of a building and came to a stop.
Rumble, crash!!
Then, the barely-standing remains all tumbled on top of Vulcan, burying the demon underneath.
Tap.
Jin-Woo lightly landed back on the ground, his eyes quite wide open.
‘Why did it fly away that easily??’
Unable to comprehend what just happened, he stared at his own fist in disbelief. He couldn’t even spot a single nick or a scratch on his fist that managed to blow away such a huge creature.
Then, he suddenly recalled something.
‘Ahh… now that I think about it….’
Jin-Woo raised his head. He summoned the Stat Window, and it quickly floated up there.
[Stats]
Strength: 150
Endurance: 109
Agility: 139
Intelligence: 109
Perception: 111
‘….That’s how it was.’
He may have learned several assassin-related skills, and his Class was set as a magic type, so he had been forgetting about a crucial part until now.
[Strength: 150]
‘…….’
He had been using up all the spare bonus Stat points on Intelligence, yet Strength was still ahead by 1.5 times.
‘Well, uh, I really did invest in Strength blindly, didn’t I?’
On top of this, his level had increased explosively, as well.
Just from checking out each of his Stats, he could definitely feel the results of all that grinding. One of those results was this.
Jin-Woo stared at Vulcan, still buried underneath the rubble with a dumbfounded face, before a wry chuckle left his lips.
“Huh…..”
It was hard to feel it when he was busy massacring the ‘regular’ monsters, the Low-Ranked and Mid-Ranked Demons. But, after punching the boss-level creature, he was certain of it now.
‘I’ve definitely…. become stronger.’
Clench!
He felt strength flowing into his clenched fists. Heightened excitement filled every inch of his body.
It was then.
The familiar mechanical bleep rang inside his head.
Tti-ring.
‘What was that?’
Jin-Woo raised his head.
“M-mm? M-mm??”
The fallen Vulcan used the club to prop itself and stood up from the rubble.
‘Did the warning chime go off because the monster is getting up?’
Was his System that friendly, to begin with? As Jin-Woo tilted his head, the culprit for that beep popped up in front of his eyes.
[The Sovereign of the Lower Floors, the Avaricious Vulcan, has activated ‘Skill: Rage’.]
‘Uh??’
Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring.
The warning chime went in his head one after the other.
[The ‘Rage’ state will be continuously maintained.]
[All of Vulcan’s Stats will be increased by 50%.]
[Vulcan will feel less pain.]
‘Isn’t that skill from…?’
Even before Jin-Woo managed to recall the memories of Cerberus, Vulcan, with its two reddened eyes, rushed towards him like an unstoppable tidal wave.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!!
The ground rumbled, accompanied with the loud rumbling footsteps.
Jin-Woo sneaked a glance behind him. Vulcan’s lackeys were currently engaged in a bitter battle with the shadow soldiers there.
“Krooar!!”
“Kiieehhck!!”
In the midst of this confusing melee, Jin-Woo still could locate Iron. The impact force must’ve been too great, because Iron was still in the middle of regeneration.
“Iron!”
Jin-Woo called out.
Iron quickly threw his shield to Jin-Woo.
After catching the shield, Jin-Woo shifted his glance away to find Vulcan standing right before him.
‘If I back off here, my soldiers will get wiped away.’
Without his soldiers, it’d become far too difficult to hunt down Vulcan and its subordinates. So, Jin-Woo chose the method that could ensure the safety of his soldiers.
He raised the shield, and his arm muscles tensed up.
“M-mm!!”
Shortly thereafter, Vulcan slammed down with its club.
Slam!!
Kwang!!
Boom!!
Fearsome attacks that rocked the earth landed several times in a row without rest, but Jin-Woo patiently endured them all. His high physical defence and Endurance Stat allowed him to block these attacks.
“Mm? Mm??”
When its attacks did not work, Vulcan became even more frenzied and pounded away with that massive club.
Slam!! Kwang!! Boom!! Kaboom!!
However, Jin-Woo was steadfast and his knees buckled not even once.
‘Still….’
Still, standing around like this blocking all the time wouldn’t let him hunt the boss down.
Deep frowns formed on Jin-Woo’s forehead.
The thing was, unlike how it was with Cerberus, Vulcan’s ‘Rage’ skill didn’t have a time limit, the trade-off being the skill not as overpowered as the gatekeeper’s version.
Meaning, he couldn’t remain passively defending forever like this.
Slam!! Boom!!
Jin-Woo gritted his teeth.
‘Constantly getting pounded on isn’t my thing, either….’
Kwang!!
Just as the club bounced off of the shield for the last time….
Jin-Woo had been getting ready to counter-attack and took the opening to leap towards Vulcan’s head.
However, he wasn’t the only one waiting for an opening.
“Mm!!”
Matching the timing of Jin-Woo’s jump, Vulcan quickly leaned its upper torso back.
‘What?!’
And then, the club flew in towards him from the side while drawing an arc in the air.
‘….He got me.’
If there were places where his hands or feet could touch, the story might have been different, but there was no way he’d be able to dodge the attack in the middle of air.
And, even if he managed to block it, who knew just where he would end up from the rebound?
Swooosh-!!
As the time slowed down in his perception, Jin-Woo stared at the club approaching ever closer and leaked out a groan.
‘A way…. There must be a way!’
If he could move his body, then surely, he’d be able to dodge this no problem.
When his thoughts arrived at this point….
‘Moving my body?’
An idea suddenly popped up in his head.
There was no time to think about this. As soon as the idea formed in his head, Jin-Woo activated the skill ‘Ruler’s Reach’ and pushed at Vulcan.
“M-mm?”
Of course, the power behind the skill ‘Ruler’s Reach’ was far too low to move the massive body of Vulcan. However, the rebound meant that it was Jin-Woo who was pushed back, instead.
Whoooosh!!
The tip of the club missed him by a hair’s breadth.
‘I did it!’
Jin-Woo was flung away some distance and rolled on the ground a few times, but compared to what might have happened when hit by that club, his landing this time should be seen as far, far gentler.
“Whew-!”
Jin-Woo managed to find his balance and sighed in relief.
“M-mm?”
On the other hand, Vulcan’s expression had crumpled quite unsightly. It attacked, feeling proud and all, but in the end, it was all for nothing. That fact caused its fury to reach the peak.
“M-mm!! M-mm!!”
Jin-Woo scratched the side of his head while staring at Vulcan’s reddened face.
‘Now what should I do about this?’
If he jumped to its front, the d*mn thing would evade him with not much difficulty.
But then, attacking other body parts instead of its head didn’t look like he’d be able to critically wound it, what with all those layers of flesh getting in the way.
‘Is there a way to make it impossible to dodge?’
It was at this point that yet another, and an arguably excellent, idea popped up in his head.
The corners of Jin-Woo’s lips arched up.
Suddenly, he turned around and ran. Vulcan mistook this action as him trying to escape, and hurriedly chased after him.
Rumble, thud, thud, thud!!
Jin-Woo moderated his running speed so Vulcan could chase after him. As soon as he discovered a suitable remnant of a building, his eyes began gleaming brightly.
‘That one.’
On the other hand…
“M-mm!!”
When the distance between Vulcan and Jin-Woo closed up, the giant demon lifted its club high up in the air behind it.
To squash this bug-like creature!
Finally, the chance to crush this annoying pest once and for all was here!
A disgusting smile formed on Vulcan’s face.
And so, as the club came down with a whoosh…
The insect-like creature suddenly sped up and ran up on the outer wall of the destroyed building.
“M-mm??”
Something felt wrong here, but it was too late for the demon to slow down the descent of the club.
“M-mm?? M-mm??”
In an instant, the insect had run up high enough to be at the demon’s eye line, before he powerfully kicked the wall.
Crack!
As the spiderweb-like cracks spread on the wall, something shot towards this demon with never-before-seen speed.
It was none other than that insect.
“M-mm!!”
Vulcan’s eyes grew wider.
A smile spread on Jin-Woo’s face as he looked into those large eyes.
The ‘Baruka’s Dagger’ gripped tightly in his right hand sliced past the bulging artery of Vulcan’s neck.
Slice!!
From the blood vessel as thick as a grown man, blood spurted out like an overflowing fountain.
“M-mm?! M-mm!!”
Vulcan hurriedly discarded the club and tried to stem the loss of blood with both of its hands.
“M-mm!!”
Unfortunately, it was insufficient to block the overflowing of blood.
At that moment, there was a visible tremor shaking Vulcan’s eyes.
“M, m-mm??”
Before it had the time to notice it, Jin-Woo had climbed up the demon’s back, and buried the blades of his daggers deeply into that thick neck.
‘I guess, once isn’t enough, huh?’
Jin-Woo tilted his head and pulled the daggers out, before activating his skill once more.
‘Vital Points Targetting!”
Two daggers stabbed deeply into Vulcan’s neck again.
Stab!!
Stab!!
Only then did the messages he was waiting for pop up.
Tti-ring.
[You have killed the Sovereign of the Lower Floors, the Avaricious Vulcan.]
[You have earned 150,000 experience points.]
[The souls of demons trapped inside Vulcan’s stomach have been released.]
[You have acquired (72) Soul of Demons.]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
THUD!!
Vulcan fell to the ground, hard. Jin-Woo relaxedly walked out from the thick, ash-grey dust clouds rising up, and took a look around him.
He was thinking of assisting the Shadow Soldiers right away, but even they seemed to be getting close to finishing up, as well.
“Kiiechk!!”
“Khekeck!!”
“Kheeck!”
As the shadow soldiers hacked away with their swords, the number of Vulcan’s underlings rapidly decreased.
‘Status.’
Jin-Woo studied his Status Window. Since he had levelled up only a moment ago, both his HP and MP were full.
‘I’ve plenty of Mana, so I don’t really need to help out, huh.’
As long as there was sufficient Mana, shadow soldiers would be exactly like immortals. Now that was the true power of an undead army.
Leaving the mop-up of the remnants to his trusty soldiers, Jin-Woo turned around in order to collect the loot.
“Hmm.”
Was this feeling similar to unwrapping a gift? Seeing that dead body of Vulcan, a smile automatically formed on his lips.
‘I wonder what’ll come out this time?’
He could spy several lights sparkling on the body. Just like before, Jin-Woo extended his hand towards the lights. Then, item acquisition messages popped up in his view.
Tti-ring!
[You have discovered ‘Item: Demon Sovereign’s Earrings.’ Will you take it?]
[You have discovered ‘Item: Bead of Avarice’. Will you take it?]
[You have discovered ‘Item: Vulcan’s Horns’ x2. Will you take it?]
[You have discovered ‘Material Item: Fragment of the World Tree’. Will you take it?]
He had been feeling rather optimistic about fighting Vulcan, even before the battle started. And as he expected, items were quite literally pouring out from the dead demon.
Having checked the list only once, Jin-Woo’s face was brightening up considerably already.
‘I can pretty much tell that Vulcan’s Horns should be japtem.’
From its name to the total number he found, it wasn’t that hard to guess that ‘Vulcan’s Horns’ were japtem only good for additional Gold, just like the Demon’s Horns he got after killing various demons.
Which meant the remaining three were the ‘real’ items….
And there was this one item that attracted his attention more than the others.
[You have discovered ‘Material Item: Fragment of the World Tree’. Will you take it?]
‘What is this Material Item thing?’
What could he possibly make with something like that? Or, was the System trying to imply that it might be something related to a quest?
Jin-Woo’s curiosity roused from its slumber after reading about a type of item he hadn’t heard of before. If he wanted to read the explanations on the items, he had to acquire them first. So, he chose ‘yes’ on all the item acquisition messages.
“Take them all.”
The lights glittering from different parts of Vulcan all morphed into items and appeared near his feet as soon as he said that.
A pair of earrings, a red marble-like object, and timber as big as a grown woman. He could immediately tell which one was the ‘Fragment of the World Tree’ among them.
Jin-Woo looked at the timber. When he did, the information on the item popped up.
[Material Item: Fragment of the World Tree]
Rarity: ??
Type: Material
Remaining part of ‘Vulcan’s Club’, originally fashioned out of a branch of the World Tree, after the contaminated portion had been removed. Timber from the World Tree possess extraordinary magical energy, and is seen as top material for the crafting of the very best magic tools available.
‘Top material for the very best magic tool, is it?’
He was curious about just what could be made from this piece of wood, but too bad, that wasn’t disclosed. Still, there was no doubt this thing was no ordinary item. Simply by standing near it, he could sense a powerful aura coming off of it.
‘This timber… I think it’ll come in handy later.’
Instead of selling off this ‘Fragment of World Tree’ to the Store, he decided to store it in his Inventory.
After he finished doing that, Jin-Woo confirmed the details on the other loot as well.
[Item: Demon Sovereign’s Earrings]
Rarity: S
Type: Accessory
Endurance +20, Stamina +20
When worn together with ‘Demon Sovereign’s Necklace’ and ‘Demon Sovereign’s Ring’, set bonuses will be unlocked.
Set bonus effect 1. (locked)
Set bonus effect 2. (locked)
‘This one has hidden set bonuses?’
If only its additional Stat boosts were concerned, then it was not that different from the ‘Gatekeeper’s Necklace’ in terms of usefulness, but this ‘Demon Sovereign’s Earrings’ had hidden set bonus effects as well.
Even if those set bonuses were ignored, the item itself was still quite brilliant. Both his Endurance and Stamina got a boost of 20 points, which was considerable.
‘Every level up gives me 5 Stat points, so….’
He’d need to level up 8 times to get that many Stat points, in other words.
Feeling genuinely pleased now, Jin-Woo picked the earrings up.
[Will you equip ‘Item: Demon Sovereign’s Earrings’?]
‘Equip.’
Just like with other items, earrings disappeared from the view, but their options still activated with no problem. A satisfied smile formed on Jin-Woo’s face after confirming the rise in his Stats.
So, the accessory set of a demon sovereign, then.
‘Other accessories should be around here somewhere. Right?’
What with the word ‘demon’ in their names, he could easily guess that those items must be somewhere inside the Demon’s Castle.
Just what kind of set bonuses would be unlocked if he managed to find the other two? He had found only one part of the set, but there was nothing he could do about his anticipation soaring higher.
However, Jin-Woo’s smile didn’t last for long.
‘What is this now….?’
[Item: Bead of Avarice]
Rarity: A
Type: Magic Tool
Bead created by solidifying superior demon Vulcan’s blood. Will strengthen all magical effects and cause greater damage.
Effect ‘Appetite for Destruction’: x2 magic damage
It was a spherical red object the size of a billiard ball.
Jin-Woo tightly grasped the ‘Bead of Avarice’. But, there was no change to his Stats.
He then summoned and checked the Class-related skill windows, since those were the only things that could be called ‘magic’ in his repertoire, but he saw no change to the number of shadows he could extract nor the number that could be stored.
‘Maybe it’s not something I can use?’
Jin-Woo’s head tilted this way and that.
An increase of 100% in magic damage. That kind of performance was quite incredible, indeed.
Now originally, tools that boosted magic cost an arm and a leg, so only a few mage-type Hunters could afford to use them. Even then, Jin-Woo had never heard of an item that could double the power of magic among all those uber-expensive artefacts.
If there were, then it’d been utter chaos, with headlines and special reports and whatnot. So, there was no way he’d be unaware of one until now.
However, this ‘Bead of Avarice’ or whatever could supposedly double the amount of magic damage.
‘But, so what? It doesn’t really help me, anyway.’
Jin-Woo licked his lips.
An item that doubled magic damage but did nothing else, would not have any effect on him. Both his ‘shadow extraction’ and ‘shadow storage’ had nothing to do with damaging something, to begin with. And the rest of his skills weren’t magic-related, either.
At this point, he’d rather prefer to have an item that raised his Intelligence Stat, instead.
‘Tsk.’
Jin-Woo formed a wistful expression and lightly tossed the Bead of Avarice up and down in the air. Meanwhile, his soldiers arrived near him one by one after taking down Vulcan’s remaining underlings. The first one to arrive was Igrit.
In the right hand, three, and another three in the left; he carried a total of six demon heads and placed them before Jin-Woo.
“…..”
Jin-Woo looked at Igrit kneeling before him and scratched the side of his head.
“Uhm, hey man. Can’t you stop doing that?”
Of course, Igrit and his gravely-lowered head didn’t reply.
“Because of you….”
Jin-Woo’s gaze slowly shifted over to Iron.
Nobody could tell just when he did it, but Iron had cut Vulcan’s head off and dragged it all the way to Jin-Woo, before kneeling on the ground
“….This guy is starting to imitate you, you know.”
More importantly, Jin-Woo hunted Vulcan down, not Iron!
Jin-Woo spat out a long groan while keeping his stare fixed to Iron. It was at this point that an amusing idea popped up in his head.
‘Just like how I used Iron’s shield, maybe should I try and let these guys use this Bead of Avarice?’
What a good timing it was, since he spotted the magic soldiers slowly walking behind the regular infantrymen. They were far slower compared to normal shadow soldiers, never mind the two knights.
Jin-Woo summoned the first of the three magic soldiers to arrive in the vicinity.
When he beckoned with his hand, the magic soldier decked out in the black robe hurriedly walked towards him.
‘….Maybe I should go there myself.’
Jin-Woo lightly shook his head and took large strides towards the magic soldier, before handing over the Bead of Avarice. And then, pointed at the remnant of the building he used to run up during his battle against Vulcan.
Since all shadow soldiers could be controlled via his will, he didn’t really need to issue any particular commands here. Jin-Woo simply gave the signal.
“Fire.”
Right at that moment, a ball of flames that was double the size of the usual attack suddenly materialised at the tip of the magic soldier’s raised hand.
‘Heok?!’
Jin-Woo’s eyes opened super-wide. Without giving him enough time to get shocked, the ball of flames quickly flew out from the magic soldier’s hand.
Swooooosh–!!
KWABOOM!!
“Huh?!”
Jin-Woo’s jaw dropped to the floor.
The building was swept up in the grand explosion and collapsed like a house of cards. And the ferocity of the burning flames didn’t show any signs of weakening at all afterwards.
Jin-Woo stared in pure shock at the roaring flames, before he hurriedly took the Bead of Avarice back from the magic soldier. He then quickly checked the item information once more.
‘It’s not there. It’s definitely not there.’
He went through the explanation several times to make sure, but without a doubt, there was nothing about him being prevented from lending this ‘Bead of Avarice’ to someone else.
Didn’t this mean he could potentially sell this item?
Gulp.
Jin-Woo swallowed his dry saliva, before his gaze shifted back to the burning building.
Rumble! Crackle!!
Yet another part of the still-burning building issued a loud rumble and collapsed to the ground. Seeing that, the corners of Jin-Woo’s lips began quivering uncontrollably.
‘Well now. This is…’
Mage-type Hunters would definitely go mad with greed over this thing.
His previous wistful look was long gone by now, replaced by the expression of anticipation slowly filling up his face.
In the middle of a sunny afternoon.
“The young man from the apartment 902, you say?”
An auntie tilted her head and replied a short while later.
“Hmm, I’m not sure. I haven’t seen him lately.”
“Ah, is that so? Thank you for your help.”
Hyun Ki-Cheol lowered his head and said thanks.
It had been four days since he began waiting for Hunter Seong Jin-Woo near the youth’s old apartment building. However, he hadn’t run into his target until now.
At this point, Hyun Ki-Cheol was beginning to feel that making veggie juice every morning was a bit of waste now. He let out a helpless sigh and pulled his phone out.
Ring…. ring….
Shortly afterwards, the recipient answered the call.
- “I’m here, Ki-Cheol.”
“Section Chief.”
The recipient was, of course, the Section Chief Ah Sahng-Min.
“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim is nowhere to be seen. Residents of the building say they haven’t seen him lately, either.”
- “Really?”
“Yes, sir.”
- “It can’t be helped, then. From tomorrow onwards, come back to the office.”
“Understood.”
Click.
Ahn Sahng-Min ended the call and tilted his head.
Just where did Hunter Seong Jin-Woo go to?
No one could contact him for the past few days now. Wondering if he was avoiding phone calls for the time being, Ahn Sahng-Min had dispatched Hyun Ki-Cheol over to where Seong Jin-Woo lived, but the news wasn’t good. No one had seen the young Hunter for a while.
Ahn Sahng-Min couldn’t help but wonder if something had strange happened.
‘I can’t figure out why I should be worried about him, though.’
In any case, this kind of felt rather weird to him.
Tap, tap.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder, and when he turned around to look, he found Hunter Park Hui-Jin standing to his side. She opened her mouth first.
“Apparently, he told his little sister that he’d be going on a trip with his friend for a week or so.”
“You mean, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim said that?”
“Yes.”
“In that case… he’s probably not on Earth anymore.”
“Pardon?”
Park Hui-Jin’s eyes opened wide. Ahn Sahng-Min quickly explained himself.
“We haven’t found any evidence of him going overseas. And there is no record of him drawing money from his bank or using his credit card, either.”
“You can even find out things like that?”
“Well, it’s our job to follow around various Hunters, after all.”
“….Oh, my god.”
“Anyways. On top of this, according to the Association’s last known location records, the communication with his phone was cut off in the middle of the city, as well. And that happened about five days ago. Doesn’t all this sound too mysterious to you?”
“He couldn’t have been kidnapped, right?”
Park Hui-Jin inadvertently voiced her worry in the ensuing confusion. However, the gazes of the two people soon met, and they began chuckling almost at the same time. It was hard to tell who started first.
Seriously now. Just who was Seong Jin-Woo?
He was none other than a Hunter who soloed a high-ranking dungeon. Not only that, a Red Gate, to boot.
Ahn Sahng-Min scratched his cheek and spoke up.
“If you want to kidnap Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim, well, you’d need at least the rumoured Chinese special forces to show up. You know, the one supposedly made up entirely of high-ranking Hunters.”
Park Hui-Jin nodded her head in agreement.
Ahn Sahng-Min continued to grin, but then, found something rather odd and asked her.
“By the way, how did you find out about him going on a trip?”
“Ah, that. It’s from Hahn Song-Yi. I talk to her often, you see. She goes to the same school with Mister Seong Jin-Woo’s little sister, so I asked her for a favour.”
“Aha….”
With Ahn Sahng-Min’s reply, their conversation came to an abrupt end.
And then, they began thinking the exact same thing.
‘Just where did that guy disappear to?’
< Chapter 39 > Fin.
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