The Lycan that had flown over his head was now looking at him with fear . Its tail lowered, the wolf began to step backwards .
“Huh…?”
Was this the result of putting all of his points into strength?
As he stared at his fist with an open mouth, the headless body of the Lycan convulsed with a finality then stopped moving . A familiar electronic sound rang through Jinwoo’s head .
ring~
You’ve defeated the Steel-tooth Lycan .
You’ve leveled up!
“I’ve leveled up?”
Make sure he didn’t mishear, Jinwoo quickly opened his status screen .
Name: Sung Jinwoo
Level: 2
Class: None
Title: None
HP: 205
MP: 22
Fatigue: 0
Stats
Strength: 32
Constitution: 11
Agility: 11
Intelligence: 11
Sense: 11
(Available stat points: 0)
Skills
Passive Skills
-(Unknown) (Lv . Max)
-Unyielding Spirit (Lv . 1)
Active Skills
-Sprint (Lv . 1)
[1]
He really had leveled up . With it, all of his stats had increased by 1 point . Jinwoo realized that the quest rewards were not the only way to raise his attributes . It was apparent that leveling up increased them as well .
‘To think that I could level-up!’
Something that he had only dreamt about was now a reality before him .
His heartbeat quickened .
‘And the total points I’ve gained is bigger than the daily quest . ’
The stat points he received from quests were 3 .
The stat points he gained from leveling up were 5 .
Although he could not freely distribute these 5 points, the total benefit from a level-up was much bigger than the quest reward .
‘And I leveled up after taking down just two of them . ’
In a video game, low level characters were able to level up quickly .
Jinwoo was currently level 2 . You could say he was at the bottom of the barrel . But his level did not properly reflect his strength . After all, his strength was already above 30; if you treated one level-up being equivalent to one point of strength, Jinwoo already had the strength of someone above level 20 . And when a level 1 character hunts with the strength of a level 20?
‘I think they call this “power leveling”?’
The destructive power of his punch that surpassed all expectations was a testament to his progress .
‘I’ve tripled the strength attribute, but I feel more than just three times stronger than before . ’
Jinwoo’s original strength stat was 10 . The difference between 10 strength and 30 strength was a factor of 3, but his power felt much greater than that .
‘Maybe…’
What if value of his attributes became weighted as they increased[2]? That would explain this destructive power . On top of that, his movements had also become faster . If it was the old him, he could not imagine dodging the beasts’ fast attacks or make the wind howl when he made a punch .
“I suppose increasing my muscles would make me faster . ”
It seemed that increasing the strength stat increased both his ‘strength’ and ‘speed’ . His battle with the Lycan was the proof .
But what about the agility stat? If not his mobility, what would it increase?
Jinwoo knew he could not satisfy his curiosity without more stat points .
‘Even if I had some…’
It felt a little wasteful to use up the points from quest rewards in agility . If he could raise both his power and speed through the strength stat, why put points into agility?
If that’s the case, there was one answer .
‘Increase my level as fast as possible . ’
He would obtain points in the agility stat through leveling up, gathering clumps of dirt until he had a sizeable hill . Surely the result of the incremental increases would be noticed eventually .
‘Then, shall I get started?’
He remembered the remaining Lycan .
“But, where did that bastard go?”
The Lycan that had cowered nearby had disappeared . Jinwoo looked around but could not find traces of the beast . It appeared to have ran away while Jinwoo was focused on his status screen .
“Bleh . ”
He rolled his tongue in his mouth, disappointed at the loss of experience points . As he began to walk away,
‘Wait, do these things drop magic cores?’
He stopped himself in thought .
Every magic beast found in Gates had a magic core in their body; sometimes, a single magic beast could carry multiple cores . If you were lucky, you might even find a Runestone . The magic cores, which had many uses, and the Runestones, which taught valuable skills, could be sold for a high price . It would not be an exaggeration to say that the primary objective of most Hunters in a raid was to obtain magic cores .
Jinwoo was a Hunter . Walking away from a hunt empty handed made him feel disappointed . Just in case, he had cut open the belly of one of the Lycan but found nothing . It seemed like these things were something different than a magic beast .
In his Hunting experience, Jinwoo did not recall hearing anything about a wolf-like magic beast that resembled these Lycans .
As Jinwoo wiped his hands and got up to leave,
“Hmm?”
He saw something shining in the Lycan’s mouth . Jinwoo opened its jaws . One of the Lycan’s teeth was sparkling with light . When he reached out to it, a message appeared .
You’ve found a “Lycan’s canine”
Would you like to acquire it?
“Acquire . ”
Lycan’s canine
Rarity: None
Type: Junk
A Lycan’s large and sharp canine .
You may keep this item in your inventory .
You may sell this item in the shop .
Jinwoo read the canine in his hand and was taken back .
‘There was a shop?’
Where in the world did this unhelpful System come from? To think that it would force the user to figure out everything on his own . Jinwoo recalled how it had given him no explanation about the penalty quest; it just threw him in the penalty zone and expected him to run from death until his body gave out .
Jinwoo gritted his teeth and called the shop .
“Shop . ”
He half expected an NPC shopkeeper to popup out of nowhere . He was disappointed to find that the ‘shop’ just ended up being another information screen floating like a hologram . As if that wasn’t enough, the green letters on the screen displayed just two words .
Buy
Sell
“ . . . ”
Wow . What an amazing shop .
Jinwoo selected “buy” . Although he had no money in his pockets, he was curious on what kind of items could be found in this shop . But of course, the System was not very kind .
Your level is insufficient to use the “buy” function .
He was used to being turned away from places that needed money .
“Yessir, yessir . ”
Not paying mind, he turned his eyes toward the other function .
Would you like to sell the Lycan’s canine?
“Sure . ”
With a sound of coins dropping, his inventory opened up . At the base of the inventory screen, the section that said “Gold” was now displaying 20 . Yesterday, it was 0 .
‘20 gold . ’
Unable to use it in real life or in the System, he was not sure what the value of this amount was .
‘I doubt anything from an E-rank Dungeon would be useful . ’
Even if there was a difference between a Dungeon and an Instant Dungeon . Still, Jinwoo started to head over and collect the other Lycan’s teeth . He facepalmed .
“Right . I blew off its head…”
Disappointed, he turned to leave . He was disappointed at the loss of 20 gold, the value of which he wasn’t even sure about, but he was not about to waste the time to look for a tiny tooth that could’ve flown off to god knows where . As he turned around, his disappointment melted away like snow .
grrrrrrrrl
grrrrl
grrrrrrrl~
The Lycan that had ran away had returned with many more wolves!
Jinwoo’s face bloomed into a smile . At a glance, there were more than 20 of them .
“Eureka!”
‘Wait, that’s not the word… . Whatever . ’
What was certain was his happiness . He squeezed the hilt of his sword .
“Thank you for the meal~”
At his greedy gaze, the Lycans cowered and trembled .
Jinwoo leaped toward the beasts .
You’ve leveled up!
You’ve leveled up!
You’ve leveled up!
As expected, his level rose quickly . Having ran around the entire first floor looking for Lycans, Jinwoo’s level had already increased to 7 . A rather large leap of 5 levels .
whimper-!
As he took down the last remaining Lycan, a strange message appeared .
ring~
You’ve obtained the title, “Wolf Slayer”
“Title?”
Wolf Slayer
All stats increased by 40% against beast type monsters .
A title given to a hunter experienced in slaying wolves .
His status screen reflected the new title as well:
Name: Sung Jinwoo
Level: 7
Class: None
Title: Wolf Slayer
HP: 766
MP: 81
Fatigue: 3
Stats
Strength: 37
Constitution: 16
Agility: 16
Intelligence: 16
Sense: 16
(Available stat points: 0)
Skills
Passive Skills
-(Unknown) (Lv . Max)
-Unyielding Spirit (Lv . 1)
Active Skills
-Sprint (Lv . 1)
A stat boost against beast type monsters . Although the effect was limited against certain types, a 40% boost was nothing to scoff at .
‘There’s a lot of beast type magic beasts out there, wonder if it works against them?’
If it did, it would help a lot in Raiding . Still, the loot so far was rather disappointing .
‘34 canines, two rusty daggers, an adventurer’s clothes and a return stone . ’
Every once in a while, a wolf’s belly would contain items . However, most were not particularly useful . The rusty daggers had lower attack power compared to his steel sword, and the adventurer’s clothes ended up being junk items that he could not use . After selling all the junk he had picked up, Jinwoo had earned about a thousand gold .
Current Gold: 1,060
“ . . . I can’t tell if that’s a lot or little . ”
No matter how much he collected, there was nowhere he could spend it .
Ignoring the gold, the only other item that he had now was the return stone . He recalled the invisible barrier that stopped him no matter how much force was applied . The System had told him he required one of these to exit . So, now he knew he was able to leave .
Jinwoo was at a crossroad .
Ahead was the stairs descending to basement level 2 .
In his hand, the return stone .
‘Forward or retreat…’
If it was his old self, he would’ve ran away without a second thought . After all, it was the only way he survived the many Raids with his weak abilities . Others called it a miracle, but he knew it was due to his clever movements .
But it was different now .
He did not want to turn back .
If he left now, he felt like he could not return .
“I’m sick of running away . ”
It was about time he faced danger head on . He put the return stone back in his pockets .
His footsteps down the stairs were light .
Translator’s Notes:
[1]: Oh shit, I just realized I can stack the stat screens horizontally… I had to keep making page breaks when I had them vertical . Hope it doesn’t impact the mobile readers too much .
[2]: Sorry, I’m actually not a 100% sure what the original phrase is referring to (???? ????? ???? ?????) . Lit would be “as attributes go up” “weighted value” “is applied” . From context, I just gathered it to mean that the increases in his abilities were not arithmetic (straight line progression) but geometric (increasing progression) .
Sponsored Content
I Alone Level-up: Chapter 14.
.
The Lycan that had flown over his head was now looking at him with fear . Its tail lowered, the wolf began to step backwards . .
.
“Huh…?”.
.
Was this the result of putting all of his points into strength?.
.
As he stared at his fist with an open mouth, the headless body of the Lycan convulsed with a finality then stopped moving . A familiar electronic sound rang through Jinwoo’s head . .
.
ring~.
.
You’ve defeated the Steel-tooth Lycan . .
.
You’ve leveled up!.
.
.
.
“I’ve leveled up?”.
.
Make sure he didn’t mishear, Jinwoo quickly opened his status screen . .
.
Name: Sung Jinwoo.
Level: 2.
Class: None.
Title: None.
HP: 205.
MP: 22.
Fatigue: 0.
Stats.
.
Strength: 32.
Constitution: 11.
Agility: 11.
Intelligence: 11.
Sense: 11.
(Available stat points: 0).
Skills.
.
Passive Skills.
-(Unknown) (Lv . Max).
-Unyielding Spirit (Lv . 1).
.
Active Skills.
-Sprint (Lv . 1).
[1].
.
He really had leveled up . With it, all of his stats had increased by 1 point . Jinwoo realized that the quest rewards were not the only way to raise his attributes . It was apparent that leveling up increased them as well . .
.
‘To think that I could level-up!’.
.
Something that he had only dreamt about was now a reality before him . .
.
His heartbeat quickened . .
.
‘And the total points I’ve gained is bigger than the daily quest . ’.
.
The stat points he received from quests were 3 . .
.
The stat points he gained from leveling up were 5 . .
.
Although he could not freely distribute these 5 points, the total benefit from a level-up was much bigger than the quest reward . .
.
‘And I leveled up after taking down just two of them . ’.
.
In a video game, low level characters were able to level up quickly . .
.
Jinwoo was currently level 2 . You could say he was at the bottom of the barrel . But his level did not properly reflect his strength . After all, his strength was already above 30; if you treated one level-up being equivalent to one point of strength, Jinwoo already had the strength of someone above level 20 . And when a level 1 character hunts with the strength of a level 20?.
.
‘I think they call this “power leveling”?’.
.
The destructive power of his punch that surpassed all expectations was a testament to his progress . .
.
‘I’ve tripled the strength attribute, but I feel more than just three times stronger than before . ’.
.
Jinwoo’s original strength stat was 10 . The difference between 10 strength and 30 strength was a factor of 3, but his power felt much greater than that . .
.
‘Maybe…’.
.
What if value of his attributes became weighted as they increased[2]? That would explain this destructive power . On top of that, his movements had also become faster . If it was the old him, he could not imagine dodging the beasts’ fast attacks or make the wind howl when he made a punch . .
.
“I suppose increasing my muscles would make me faster . ”.
.
It seemed that increasing the strength stat increased both his ‘strength’ and ‘speed’ . His battle with the Lycan was the proof . .
.
But what about the agility stat? If not his mobility, what would it increase?.
.
Jinwoo knew he could not satisfy his curiosity without more stat points . .
.
‘Even if I had some…’.
.
It felt a little wasteful to use up the points from quest rewards in agility . If he could raise both his power and speed through the strength stat, why put points into agility?.
.
If that’s the case, there was one answer . .
.
‘Increase my level as fast as possible . ’.
.
He would obtain points in the agility stat through leveling up, gathering clumps of dirt until he had a sizeable hill . Surely the result of the incremental increases would be noticed eventually . .
.
‘Then, shall I get started?’.
.
He remembered the remaining Lycan . .
.
“But, where did that bastard go?”.
.
The Lycan that had cowered nearby had disappeared . Jinwoo looked around but could not find traces of the beast . It appeared to have ran away while Jinwoo was focused on his status screen . .
.
“Bleh . ”.
.
He rolled his tongue in his mouth, disappointed at the loss of experience points . As he began to walk away,.
.
‘Wait, do these things drop magic cores?’.
.
He stopped himself in thought . .
.
Every magic beast found in Gates had a magic core in their body; sometimes, a single magic beast could carry multiple cores . If you were lucky, you might even find a Runestone . The magic cores, which had many uses, and the Runestones, which taught valuable skills, could be sold for a high price . It would not be an exaggeration to say that the primary objective of most Hunters in a raid was to obtain magic cores . .
.
Jinwoo was a Hunter . Walking away from a hunt empty handed made him feel disappointed . Just in case, he had cut open the belly of one of the Lycan but found nothing . It seemed like these things were something different than a magic beast . .
.
In his Hunting experience, Jinwoo did not recall hearing anything about a wolf-like magic beast that resembled these Lycans . .
.
As Jinwoo wiped his hands and got up to leave,.
.
“Hmm?”.
.
He saw something shining in the Lycan’s mouth . Jinwoo opened its jaws . One of the Lycan’s teeth was sparkling with light . When he reached out to it, a message appeared . .
.
You’ve found a “Lycan’s canine”.
Would you like to acquire it?.
.
“Acquire . ”.
.
Lycan’s canine.
Rarity: None.
Type: Junk.
A Lycan’s large and sharp canine . .
You may keep this item in your inventory . .
You may sell this item in the shop . .
.
Jinwoo read the canine in his hand and was taken back . .
.
‘There was a shop?’.
.
Where in the world did this unhelpful System come from? To think that it would force the user to figure out everything on his own . Jinwoo recalled how it had given him no explanation about the penalty quest; it just threw him in the penalty zone and expected him to run from death until his body gave out . .
.
Jinwoo gritted his teeth and called the shop . .
.
“Shop . ”.
.
He half expected an NPC shopkeeper to popup out of nowhere . He was disappointed to find that the ‘shop’ just ended up being another information screen floating like a hologram . As if that wasn’t enough, the green letters on the screen displayed just two words . .
.
Buy.
Sell.
.
“ . ”.
.
Wow . What an amazing shop . .
.
Jinwoo selected “buy” . Although he had no money in his pockets, he was curious on what kind of items could be found in this shop . But of course, the System was not very kind . .
.
Your level is insufficient to use the “buy” function . .
.
He was used to being turned away from places that needed money . .
.
“Yessir, yessir . ”.
.
Not paying mind, he turned his eyes toward the other function . .
.
Would you like to sell the Lycan’s canine?.
.
“Sure . ”.
.
With a sound of coins dropping, his inventory opened up . At the base of the inventory screen, the section that said “Gold” was now displaying 20 . Yesterday, it was 0 . .
.
‘20 gold . ’.
.
Unable to use it in real life or in the System, he was not sure what the value of this amount was . .
.
‘I doubt anything from an E-rank Dungeon would be useful . ’.
.
Even if there was a difference between a Dungeon and an Instant Dungeon . Still, Jinwoo started to head over and collect the other Lycan’s teeth . He facepalmed . .
.
“Right . I blew off its head…”.
.
Disappointed, he turned to leave . He was disappointed at the loss of 20 gold, the value of which he wasn’t even sure about, but he was not about to waste the time to look for a tiny tooth that could’ve flown off to god knows where . As he turned around, his disappointment melted away like snow . .
.
grrrrrrrrl.
.
grrrrl.
.
grrrrrrrl~.
.
The Lycan that had ran away had returned with many more wolves!.
.
Jinwoo’s face bloomed into a smile . At a glance, there were more than 20 of them . .
.
“Eureka!”.
.
‘Wait, that’s not the word… . Whatever . ’.
.
What was certain was his happiness . He squeezed the hilt of his sword . .
.
“Thank you for the meal~”.
.
At his greedy gaze, the Lycans cowered and trembled . .
.
Jinwoo leaped toward the beasts . .
.
.
.
You’ve leveled up!.
.
You’ve leveled up!.
.
You’ve leveled up!.
.
As expected, his level rose quickly . Having ran around the entire first floor looking for Lycans, Jinwoo’s level had already increased to 7 . A rather large leap of 5 levels . .
.
whimper-!.
.
As he took down the last remaining Lycan, a strange message appeared . .
.
ring~.
.
You’ve obtained the title, “Wolf Slayer”.
.
“Title?”.
.
Wolf Slayer.
All stats increased by 40% against beast type monsters . .
A title given to a hunter experienced in slaying wolves . .
.
His status screen reflected the new title as well:.
.
Name: Sung Jinwoo.
Level: 7.
Class: None.
Title: Wolf Slayer.
HP: 766.
MP: 81.
Fatigue: 3.
Stats.
.
Strength: 37.
Constitution: 16.
Agility: 16.
Intelligence: 16.
Sense: 16.
(Available stat points: 0).
Skills.
.
Passive Skills.
-(Unknown) (Lv . Max).
-Unyielding Spirit (Lv . 1).
.
Active Skills.
-Sprint (Lv . 1).
.
A stat boost against beast type monsters . Although the effect was limited against certain types, a 40% boost was nothing to scoff at . .
.
‘There’s a lot of beast type magic beasts out there, wonder if it works against them?’.
.
If it did, it would help a lot in Raiding . Still, the loot so far was rather disappointing . .
.
‘34 canines, two rusty daggers, an adventurer’s clothes and a return stone . ’.
.
Every once in a while, a wolf’s belly would contain items . However, most were not particularly useful . The rusty daggers had lower attack power compared to his steel sword, and the adventurer’s clothes ended up being junk items that he could not use . After selling all the junk he had picked up, Jinwoo had earned about a thousand gold . .
.
Current Gold: 1,060.
.
“ . I can’t tell if that’s a lot or little . ”.
.
No matter how much he collected, there was nowhere he could spend it . .
.
Ignoring the gold, the only other item that he had now was the return stone . He recalled the invisible barrier that stopped him no matter how much force was applied . The System had told him he required one of these to exit . So, now he knew he was able to leave . .
.
Jinwoo was at a crossroad . .
.
Ahead was the stairs descending to basement level 2 . .
.
In his hand, the return stone . .
.
‘Forward or retreat…’.
.
If it was his old self, he would’ve ran away without a second thought . After all, it was the only way he survived the many Raids with his weak abilities . Others called it a miracle, but he knew it was due to his clever movements . .
.
But it was different now . .
.
He did not want to turn back . .
.
If he left now, he felt like he could not return . .
.
“I’m sick of running away . ”.
.
It was about time he faced danger head on . He put the return stone back in his pockets . .
.
His footsteps down the stairs were light . .
.
Translator’s Notes:.
[1]: Oh shit, I just realized I can stack the stat screens horizontally… I had to keep making page breaks when I had them vertical . Hope it doesn’t impact the mobile readers too much . .
[2]: Sorry, I’m actually not a 100% sure what the original phrase is referring to (???? ????? ???? ?????) . Lit would be “as attributes go up” “weighted value” “is applied” . From context, I just gathered it to mean that the increases in his abilities were not arithmetic (straight line progression) but geometric (increasing progression) . .