Rank
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Summary
The sole surviving Lycan, the one that flew over Jin-Woo’s head just now, lowered its tail after seeing this scene and began taking faltering steps backwards.
“Huh….?”
Was this the result from him raising his Strength Stat?
The utterly stunned Seong Jin-Woo couldn’t close his slack jaw as the headless Lycan’s legs shook like a leaf, before its movement stopped for good.
That was when he heard the familiar mechanical beep going off again.
Tti-ring.
[You’ve killed an Iron-Fanged Lycan.]
[Level up!]
***
“My level rose up?”
To make sure that he didn’t mishear that, Jin-Woo hurriedly accessed his Status Window.
Name: Seong Jin-Woo
Level: 2
Class: None
Title: None
HP: 205
MP: 22
Tiredness: 0
[Stat]
Strength: 32
Stamina: 11
Agility: 11
Intelligence: 11
Perception: 11
(Available points to distribute: 0)
[Skills]
Passive skills:
– (Unknown) Lv. Max
– Tenacity Lv. 1
Active skills:
– Dash Lv. 1
His level really did go up.
And when a level went up, a single point was added to all of his Stats.
As it turned out, it wasn’t only the quest rewards that could impact the values of his Stats. It was also possible to improve his Stats through levelling up, too.
‘To think, I can actually level up!’
He only carried a vague expectation, but it actually became reality. His heart began to beat faster and faster.
‘On top of that, I get more additional points from levelling up.’
The Stat points he got from the quest rewards were 3. Meanwhile, he got 5 from levelling up once.
Although he didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t freely distribute those points the way he liked to, but still, his growth through levelling up was much greater.
Also, there was the thing about quests only being available once per day, but there was a good chance that levelling up wouldn’t suffer from such restrictions.
‘I only killed two, but my level rose up.’
This was the same as in video games. When his level was low, he could raise it up by a lot during a short space of time.
And currently, Jin-Woo was only a level 2. It was not an exaggeration to say that he was right at the bottom of the pile. However, he was not what one would call a normal low-level player, either. His Strength stat already exceeded 30.
If the Strength stat rose up by one point every time one levelled up, then the Stat value of Jin-Woo’s Strength was equivalent to level 20 or higher.
What if a ‘user’ possessing level 20’s worth of Strength stat hunted in the ‘level 1’ beginner’s hunting area?
‘In other words, explosive levelling up….’
As if to prove his guess, the destructive might behind that punch easily exceeded his own expectations.
‘The Strength stat might have been multiplied by just over three times, but…. The difference in actual, physical strength was well beyond that.’
Jin-Woo’s original Strength value was 10.
There was the difference of three times the value between the Strength stat of 10 and 30, but the difference between the actual forces produced was well beyond that.
‘Could it be….?’
What if, as the Stat’s value rose up, the weight was also added as well? If that was the case, then such a destructive power output could easily be explained away.
Besides that, his movement speed had increased as well.
If it was in the past, there was no way he’d be able to lightly evade the all-out attack of an animal, nor could his punch move fast enough to produce the sound of the air splitting apart.
“Right, the physical strength in my muscles has increased so, obviously my speed would have increased along the way, too.”
Simply by raising his Strength stat higher, both his power and speed had gone up. The battle against the Lycans proved this.
So, what would happen if he increased his Agility, instead?
His curiosity was at its peak, but he didn’t have any method to find out at the moment. If he wanted to satisfy his burning curiosity, then he simply had to increase his Stats, ASAP.
‘Even still….’
He couldn’t help but think that investing points he got as quest rewards in the Agility Stat kinda felt a bit wasteful. If he shored up his Strength Stat, both his power and speed would go up anyway, so what was the point of investing in the Agility Stat?
Since his thoughts were as such, there was only one way to go forward here.
‘I gotta level up lots of times, really fast.’
Indeed, he’d raise the Agility Stat through levelling up. Every little cent saved would eventually net him a buck later down the line. If he increased the values one point at a time, he’d feel the difference sooner or later.
Jin-Woo pried loose the sword off the ground.
‘In that case, shall I get started for real, then?’
There was one more monster he needed to kill, after all.
“By the way…. Where did it disappear to?”
The Lycan that was definitely somewhere nearby had gone with the wind before he had noticed it. Jin-Woo hurriedly scanned his surroundings, but he couldn’t find a single trace of the creature.
Quite likely, it had turned tail and ran away while he was immersed in the Status Windows. Well, he should’ve known something was up when it lowered its tail and cautiously studied his ‘mood’.
“Tsk.”
Jin-Woo smacked his lips, realising that a bundle of experience points had just escaped from his grasp.
‘Hang on, do these things give away things like magic crystals, too?’
The sudden thought popping up in his head stopped him in his tracks.
Monsters appearing within the Gates all possessed one, or sometimes, several, magic crystals in them. If one got lucky, a Rune stone might drop, too.
Magic crystals could be used for a variety of purposes and they alone exchanged hands for princely sums; no need to even mention the Rune stones, which could be used by Hunters to learn brand new skills.
It was not an exaggeration to say that the reasons why Hunters participated in raids was not just because of the promised payment from the related organisations, but also these magic crystals, as well.
Jin-Woo was also a Hunter.
He was successful in killing these monsters, so not being rewarded for his work kind of felt a bit like he was wronged somehow.
Feeling a little rueful, he sliced open the Lycan’s stomach, but it turned out to be a waste of time. It seemed that these creatures were fundamentally different from the regular monsters.
The thing was, he had entered quite a few different dungeons in his career so far, but he had never seen these wolf-like monsters before.
Jin-Woo dusted his hands and was about to stand back up, but then….
“Mm?”
He spotted something glittering within the dead Lycan’s mouth. So, he opened the creature’s maws. One of the Lycan’s fangs was emitting a beam of light. When Jin-Woo reached out, a new message popped up before him.
[You found the ‘Item: The Canine of a Lycan’. Take it?]
“Sure thing.”
[Item: The Canine of a Lycan]
Rarity: None
Type: Miscellaneous
A large and sharp canine of a Lycan. Can be stored in the Inventory or can be sold at the Store.
Jin-Woo got flustered a bit while staring at the canine tooth.
‘There was a Store, too?!’
Where would you find a System less friendly than the one he was saddled with?!
To think, it was designed in such a way that the end user had to personally experience it with his own body before learning about any of its functions….
Hell, he wasn’t given much of an explanation during the penalty quest and he almost died as a result back then.
Jin-Woo gnashed his teeth and tried to summon this ‘Store’ thing.
“Store.”
He couldn’t help but feel his anticipation build up, wondering if a shop with a signboard declaring ‘Store’ and manned by an NPC merchant, kinda like from video games, might really appear before him.
However, what appeared instead was a bunch of green letters floating in the air like hologram projections, just like when he accessed his mailbox.
And there were only two words there, too.
‘Buy’ and ‘Sell’.
“…….”
What a simple-tastic Store this was.
Jin-Woo selected ‘Buy’.
He didn’t have a single cent in his pockets, but he was still curious about the stuff available within the Store.
Unfortunately for him, the Store turned out to be one cold customer.
[Your level is too low to access the ‘Buy’ function.]
He was already familiar with the cold-shoulder treatment from the places that required him to pay up, so this was fine.
“Sure, sure.”
Jin-Woo didn’t think too much about it and shifted his gaze away to ‘Sell’.
[Will you sell ‘Item: The Canine of a Lycan’?]
“Yup.”
With the clinging sounds of coins, his Inventory appeared next. Right at the bottom of the display, in the column saying ‘Gold’, he could see the number 20 appearing there. That space had been empty yesterday.
’20 Gold, eh,’
He couldn’t really use that ‘money’ in real life, and he couldn’t even use the Store properly yet, so he had no idea just how much this 20 Gold was actually worth.
‘Oh well. A creature from the rank E dungeon wouldn’t have given me any decent loot, to begin with.’
Even if there was a difference between the dungeons found beyond the Gates and this so-called instant dungeon, it would be the same difference at the end of the day.
Still, Jin-Woo wanted to make sure, so he was about to collect the canine from the other dead Lycan, but he ended up doing a facepalm, instead.
“Ah. I blew away its entire head, didn’t I….”
Jin-Woo felt bitter as he turned around to go somewhere else.
20 Gold and its unknown worth were calling back to him, but he couldn’t waste time searching for a single canine that could’ve flown to pretty much anywhere under this dim lighting.
However, as soon as he turned around, the feelings of bitterness dissipated in an instant.
“Growl!!”
“Grrr….”
“Growl!!”
“Grrr!!!”
Well now, the Lycan he thought had ran way actually came back with a bunch of its friends!
A wonderfully bright smile bloomed on Jin-Woo’s face. Even at a casual glance, there must be over 20 of them here.
“Eureka!!”
Hang on a minute, was that the right word to use in this sort of situation?
Whatever.
It was definitely a word to express one’s joy, anyway.
Jin-Woo tightly grasped the sword and spoke up.
“With the exception of your canines, I’m gonna massacre all of you.”
When the chilling glare of a man who was obsessed about making money landed on the Lycans, they became intimidated and shuddered slightly.
It was at this point that Jin-Woo pounced on them without mercy.
***
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
As he expected, his levels rose up quite quickly.
Simply from searching every nook and cranny of the first floor and killing all the Lycans he could find, Jin-Woo’s level shot right up to 7.
He had jumped up five flights of stairs, in other words.
“Whimper…..”
When he caught up and killed the very last monster running desperately away from him, a strange message popped up into his view.
Tti-ring.
[You have acquired the ‘Title: Slaughterer of Wolves’.]
“A Title?”
[Title: Slaughterer of Wolves]
A Title given to a hunter skilled in hunting wolves. When facing animal-type monsters, all of your Stats will increase by 40%. (TL: the ‘hunter’ is a lower case here, because that’s what’s in the raw. The ‘Hunters’ until now had been written in English, actually.)
When he opened his Status Window to take a look, the ‘Title’ column indeed had been updated.
Name: Seong Jin-Woo
Level: 7
Class: None
Title: Slaughterer of Wolves
HP: 766
MP: 81
Tiredness: 3
[Stat]
Strength: 37
Stamina: 16
Agility: 16
Intelligence: 16
Perception: 16
(Available points to distribute: 0)
[Skills]
Passive skills:
– (Unknown) Lv. Max
– Tenacity Lv. 1
Active skills:
– Dash Lv. 1
A bonus boost to his stats when fighting against animal-type monsters….
Although the effect was a bit restricted, still, having his Stats increase by 40%, now that didn’t sound too bad at all.
‘There are plenty of animal-type monsters out there, so would this apply to them as well?’ (TL: the author had been using the Hanja word for monsters to describe those found in the Gate’s dungeons until now, but the creatures found in the instant dungeon are written in the English word, ‘monster’. That’s why we get this line.)
If that was the case, then he’d be able to easily kill monsters when participating in the future raids.
However, he still earned big time even when disregarding his new Title.
’34 wolf canines, two rusted daggers, a set of traveller’s clothes, and one return crystal.’
While killing these wolves, he learned that he could sometimes find loot from their bellies. Of course, none of them was all that useful.
The rusted daggers possessed lower attack power bonus compared to the sword he’d been using until now, and the traveller’s clothes were not something he could actually wear, but just some random japtem (ED: ‘Vendor Trash’, essentially.) that he could hawk off to the Store.
When he sold them all off, he earned just over a thousand Gold.
[Current Gold: 1,060]
‘….Even then, I can’t really celebrate, can I?’
Well, no matter how much he hoarded this Gold thing, he couldn’t use them anyways. At least not for now.
The only thing remaining, besides the Gold, was the return crystal. When he was trying desperately to escape from the dungeon back then, the message said he’d need a return crystal if he wanted to leave. And now, if he wanted to, he could escape at any time.
He found himself on a crossroads.
In front, the stairs leading down to the second floor.
And in his hand, a single return crystal grasped tightly.
‘Do I continue on, or do I back out….?’
If it was in the past, he’d not hesitate and choose the latter. That was how he managed to survive all those raids with his pathetic Stats. Everyone said that him surviving until now was a miracle, but well, he was trying to be smart about his choices, actually.
However, the story was different now.
He didn’t want to retreat here.
He felt that, if he turned away to leave now, then he’d never be able to take another step forward in his life.
“I’ve retreated enough times already, right?”
Wouldn’t it be okay for him to jump in headlong, at least once in his life?
Jin-Woo pocketed the return crystal. His steps climbing down the steps to the 2nd floor was light.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
Unlike the dungeons of the Gates, there was a thing called ‘respawn’ within the instant dungeon. While he was sweeping away every single monster found on the second floor, all the monsters on the first respawned. While he went back upstairs to deal with them, monsters on the second floor respawned. So on and so forth.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
Jin-Woo hopped between the first and second floor and killed monsters until his level no longer rose up.
‘Who knows when I’ll ever run into another opportunity like this one?’
Along the way, he got so used to this place that he was able to predict from where and how the monsters would try to attack him.
“A monkey, falling from the ceiling….”
He lightly evaded the claws of the monkey-type monster falling from the ceiling and stabbed it in the chest with his sword. And then….
“Kkiiieeck!!”
“….One cat each from left and right.”
…And then, he orderly sliced the necks of the black panther-like creatures jumping at him from his sides.
“Kyahk!”
“Kkahk!!”
[You’ve killed a ‘Blade-Claw Briga’.]
[You’ve killed a ‘Black-Shadow Razan’.]
[You’ve killed a ‘Black-Shadow Razan’.]
And with these three, he had arrived at the end of the second floor.
He had cleared out the second floor once more. However, his level hadn’t been moving from 15 for a long time now. It seemed that reaching that high was the limit for the first two floors.
“Stats.”
[Stat]
Strength: 45
Stamina: 24
Agility: 24
Intelligence: 24
Perception: 24
(Available points to distribute: 0)
With him being level 15, his Stats had risen up by quite a lot. His Agility was now almost at 25. He finally got to feel the difference between the Agility and the Strength Stat when the former hit the value of 20.
The Agility did not increase his speed, but rather, it was as if the opponent’s movement had become far slower in his perception, instead.
‘Exactly like watching a slow-motion video.’
The scenes of the monkey falling from the ceiling and panthers pouncing on him played out in slow-motion.
Should he describe it as him being able to manipulate the time flow as he wished? It became easier to evade enemies’ attacks, and it also became easier to hit them as well.
As the word implied, he had indeed become more ‘agile’.
The so-called speed was wholly dependant on who was looking at it. The higher his Agility Stat, the bigger the difference between him and his enemies would become; from their perspective, he’d look as if he was moving at an unbelievably quick speed.
‘If both the Strength and Agility increase concurrently, their synergy should be pretty incredible.’
That was his final assessment of the Agility Stat.
“Besides all that…”
Jin-Woo shifted his gaze away.
“What should I do now….?”
He was looking at the stairs leading down to the third floor.
There was a reason why he continued to hunt in the first two floors even though there was a way to go even lower.
‘It’s giving me the creeps.’
With his Perception Stat so much higher, he could sense the aura of something ominous lurking down there far better than before. Without a doubt, something really strong was hiding somewhere down below.
He didn’t have to see it to know.
Jin-Woo recalled the message he saw back by the entrance of this instant dungeon.
[You can not exit the dungeon. Please defeat the boss first or find the return crystal.]
The existence of the ‘Boss’.
Jin-Woo had been roaming the first two floors in order to raise his levels until he couldn’t anymore, all for the purpose of fighting this ‘Boss’.
He had prepared himself as much as he could but, when the time to actually go down there came, he was getting all sweaty and nervous.
Jin-Woo lightly slapped both of his cheeks.
‘I mean, I’ve entered a dungeon, so I can’t just leave without taking a look at what this boss looks like, now can I?’
A certain amount of tension was a must in order to maintain the peak condition. And this amount was just about right for him.
Jin-Woo gripped the sword tightly with both of his hands slowly descended the steps. Could he have been mistaken when the steps felt unusually longer than before?
He swallowed dried saliva down.
The lighting was worse than the first two floors, but there was no problem with seeing where he was going.
‘Is it because of my Perception Stat?’
He couldn’t help but feel that his eyesight had improved greatly.
He cautiously climbed lower until eventually spotting the railway tunnel used by the subway trains.
No, he saw where the railway used to be.
The tunnel that should’ve been used by trains was now filled with jet-black liquid, instead.
‘What is this?’
Rather than a subway tunnel, it was…. more like a lake or a river now.
Just as Jin-Woo took one more step forward to take a closer look….
A long log-like object shot out from the surface of the black ‘water’.
Swish!!
‘It’s fast!’
The thing that arrived in front of his nose in the blink of an eye was not a log, but a snake with the thickness rivalling one, actually.
“Heop!!”
Taken by surprise, Jin-Woo could only swing the sword and strike the head of the snake away from him.
Clang!!
Jin-Woo’s eyes opened wider.
“What the hell?!”
He did succeed in deviating that direction of the lunging snake, but his trusty steel longsword ended up breaking apart from the impact.
Jin-Woo looked back in surprise.
The snake must’ve been surprised by his counterattack as well because it didn’t try to follow up right away, but instead chose to simply glare at him while coiling itself up a distance away.
‘The ruler of the swamp, Poison-Fanged Blue Kasaka.’
Jin-Woo could clearly see the orange-coloured name of the monster.
It was a creature incomparably faster and hardier than those with their names written in white.
‘Even then, for a sword reinforced with magic energy to break like that….’
Jin-Woo swallowed nervously and cautiously studied the Boss monster called Kasaka.
Blue scales covering its entire body gleamed in an oily manner. As if it had draped itself with thick armour, those scales had no gaps to speak of.
Sword strikes wouldn’t have worked in the first place. It’d be the same story for punches, too.
When Jin-Woo’s thoughts arrived there, the Kasaka must’ve finished its own analysis on its prey, because it finally lunged at him once more.
No matter how one looked at it, it was a frightening turn of speed, that’s for sure.
Swwwiiiish!!
Jin-Woo narrowed his eyes.
‘It’s coming!’
When he concentrated hard, he could now clearly see the attack of the Kasaka, which was something he couldn’t even properly decipher in the beginning. This was all due to the increased Agility Stat.
Just before the Kasaka opened its maws wide and tried to swallow him, Jin-Woo swiftly sidestepped and let the attack brush past him. At the same time, he wrapped his arms around the creature and caught it in a headlock. He then tightened his grip.
*SFX for bones breaking*
Jin-Woo’s Strength Stat was almost at 50.
An unbelievably powerful pressure tightened around the snake’s main artery. The snake could not escape from his grip and thrashed around as if it was in pain. Jin-Woo gritted his teeth and strengthened his arms even more.
Slam!! Boom!!
Jin-Woo’s body slammed against the walls and on the floor, but he never released his arms.
‘If I didn’t raise my levels as high as I could before coming here….’
There was literally no end to wondering about ‘what-ifs’ and ‘what could have beens’.
However, all kinds of thoughts still swirled in Jin-Woo’s head.
If he didn’t raise his level to the limit….
If his Strength Stat wasn’t so illogically high….
Then, he’d have gone through incredible hell in order to kill the Kasaka.
No, he might even have died here.
So, his decision not to come down right away proved to be the smart one. His choice was indeed the right one.
Crack!!
Accompanied by a rather awful noise, the skull of Kasaka gave in and cracked apart.
[You have killed the ruler of the swamp, Poison-Fanged Blue Kasaka.]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
As expected of a boss mob.
His level rose up by 2 after killing the Kasaka.
Jin-Woo tightly clenched his fists.
The level that had been stagnating at 15 had jumped up to 17.
In just a single day, he crazily raised his level from 1 all the way up to 17.
‘However!’
No one hunted boss mobs for experience points!
Indeed, if it was a boss mob, then it’d be all about the loot drops!
When he started checking out the dead snake, two spots of light began gleaming from somewhere within its limp body.
‘Two items, because it was a boss?’
His expression one of elation, Jin-Woo reached out towards the spots of light.
Tti-ring.
[You have discovered ‘Item: Poison Fang of Kasaka’. Take it?]
[You have discovered ‘Item: Poison Sac of Kasaka’. Take it?]
“Take them all.”
As soon as he said those words, a dagger made out of a bone and a small pouch with liquid in it appeared on his palms.
[Item: Poison Fang of Kasaka]
Rarity: C
Type: Dagger
Attack +25
A dagger fashioned from the poison fang of the Kasaka. There are traces of the Kasaka’s poison on it, so when attacking, it will cause Paralysis and Bleeding status effects. Can be stored in the Inventory, or can be sold at the Store.
Status effect ‘Paralysis’: the target will be unable to move. Success rate is fixed.
Status effect ‘Bleeding’: the target’s stamina will be reduced by 1% per second.
Jin-Woo nodded his head.
‘A dagger made not out of bone, but from the fang, huh. It’s not a bad item with those options, yeah?’
Next up was the pouch.
[Item: Poison Sac of Kasaka]
Rarity: A
Type: Medicine
A pouch containing the refined poison of the Kasaka. Can be found very rarely when hunting Kasakas. Drinking this poison will give you strong skin, but the toxicity will permanently damage your muscles.
Effect ‘The Iron Scales of Kasaka’: 20% reduction in physical damage.
Side effect ‘Damaged Muscles’: Strength -35
Jin-Woo’s expression alternated between joy and anguish.
The Poison Fang of Kasaka was a good weapon to replace the broken longsword. Not only did it possess over twice the attack power, but he really liked the two status effects of Paralysis and Bleeding, too.
‘However, this poison sac is a bit….’
Initially, he was really pleased to find an item with the ‘A’ Rarity rating, but when reading the description, he realised this was not something he could feel completely chuffed about.
Of course, that effect of reducing all physical damage taken by 20% was a great option befitting an A-rank item. However, it also carried a fatal penalty of decreasing his Strength Stat by 35.
It’d be a really painful loss for him especially when he invested all of his points on increasing his Strength stat.
Was this the famed double-edged sword, then?
No, the expression of ‘chicken ribs’ suited this item far better, instead. (TL: a Korean idiom. It means something like ‘people not giving up on chicken ribs even though there isn’t all that much meat around there’.)
Maybe, he might be able to use this thing only when his Strength Stat had risen so high that the loss of 35 points wouldn’t affect him in the slightest, which should be in the distant future. It was impossible to drink it right now.
“…..For the time being, I should just hold onto it.”
With a rueful expression, he stored both inside his Inventory.
Maybe, if an A rank dagger and a C rank medicine came out, then he might have felt not as bad as he did now. Well, he’d have just gotten rid of the C-rank medicine if it was useless, after all.
It was then, a new message popped up.
[With the death of the Boss, the interior of the dungeon will revert back to its original state.]
Suddenly, his sights blurred for a bit, and then, they were restored back to normal, along with a slight bit of dizziness assaulting his senses. When he took a look around, he found himself inside a normal subway station.
The lights overhead shone brightly, and the black liquid filling up the tunnel was all gone, too.
“….But, where is everyone?”
Not just people, but even trains were strangely absent.
He even checked the time while thinking that the trains had stopped running for the day because it was so late already, but the clock was indicating 10 PM.
He entered the Hapjeong station around the lunch hour, so he had spent over 9 hours inside that dungeon.
‘I was in there for a long time, wasn’t I?’
If it weren’t for his Tiredness Stat being refreshed every time he levelled up, he’d have keeled over from the accumulated fatigue several times by now.
‘Anyway. Isn’t it still too early for the trains to stop running?’
Jin-Woo tilted his head as not one train showed up, no matter how long he stood there waiting. He decided to leave the station for the time being.
While he was trudging towards the exit, he couldn’t spot a single person. But, as he climbed up the steps to get to the surface, someone shouted at Jin-Woo from above.
“Who goes there?”
Who knew that the voice of another person would sound this welcoming?
Jin-Woo quickly raised his head. He saw a soldier wielding a rifle.
“Who are you? Why are you coming out from there? Haven’t you heard the broadcasts?”
The expression of the soldier was so serious that even Jin-Woo’s own expression hardened in an instant.
“Did something happen?”
“What the? How can you even say that?”
The soldier approached closer, but then, he spotted the broken sword in Jin-Woo’s hand.
After it broke, it could no longer be stored in the Inventory, and Jin-Woo didn’t feel like leaving it behind, so he just carried it outside like this.
Seeing that, the light within the soldier’s eyes changed rapidly. He then carefully studied Jin-Woo’s current appearance.
Now that this soldier had taken a closer look, Jin-Woo’s clothes displayed various hints of the youth participating in many fierce battles recently.
The crumpled expression of the soldier lightened up in an instant.
“Are you a Hunter by any chance?”
< Chapter 8 > Fin.
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