I Alone Level-Up

The moment he spoke the words to accept the reward, a subtle blue glow covered his body.

"Oh… this feeling is?"

Juhee"s face immediately appeared in his mind. It was a similar sensation he felt when he received healing magic; the feeling was comparable to breathing in crisp, fresh air after being stuck in a muggy, stuffy room.

shooooo-

He felt the glow subside but had hoped it would last a little longer.

Standing up from his spot, Jinwoo stretched and moved his body around.

"Whoa!"

The heart that felt like it was about to explode had calmed down, and the shortness of his breath had also disappeared. There was not a trace of exhaustion remaining. His body that was on the brink of collapse now felt like it had woken up from a good rest. The effects were unbelievable.

"This is amazing."

His eyes were open wide in wonder. He wasn"t sure if it was magic or something else, but the powerful effect it had left a great impression on Jinwoo.

"Then the "stat points" must be…"

Turning his head toward his bed, he saw a small box and a status screen before his eyes.

"That must be the random box it was talking about, and…"

His attention was focused on the status screen. The information box that hung in the air contained various data regarding his status.

Name: Sung Jinwoo

Level: 1

Cla.s.s: None

t.i.tle: None

HP: 100

MP: 10

Fatigue: 0

Stats

Strength: 10

Const.i.tution: 10

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 10

Sense: 10

(Available stat points: 3)

Skills

Pa.s.sive Skills

-(Unknown) (Lv. Max)

-Unyielding Spirit[1] (Lv. 1)

Active Skills

-Sprint[2] (Lv. 1)

He recalled the online RPGs he had played in the past; his stats were reminiscent of a freshly created character.

"So these are my stats?"

Current level 1. All stats at a basic level.

Faced again with the reality of being the weakest E-rank Hunter, his stat numbers did not surprise him. Rather, his eyes were focused on his skills. The pa.s.sive skills "Unyielding Spirit" and active skill "Sprint". They were strangely familiar to him.

"Now that I think about it… Yesterday…"

Yesterday. More accurately, the dawn of today. He recalled the messages he received while being chased around by the centipedes in the Penalty Zone. It was around the 3rd hour of running from the clutches of death.

You"ve learned "Sprint" (Lv. 1)

You"ve learned "Unyielding Spirit" (Lv. 1)

He did not pay attention at the time, his entire mind focused on running, but now he was able to take a closer look.

Sprint (Lv. 1)

Active Skill

Mana Cost: 5 (+1/Minute)

Activate to increase your movement speed by 30%.

Costs 1 mana per minute to maintain.

"Your running has strengthened your legs."

Unyielding Spirit (Lv. 1)

Pa.s.sive Skill

Mana Cost: 0

When below 30% HP, all damage received is reduced by 50%.

"You have an unyielding spirit."

"So because I ran like a dog, I learned these two skills?"

The logic was sound. This meant that repet.i.tive actions that met certain criteria unlocked skills.

"Amazing!"

The merits of this were incalculable. Normally, the repertoire of skills that Hunters used were received and fixed at the moment of their Awakening. Only the rare Runestones[3] that sometimes dropped from rank or higher magic beasts could be used by a Hunter to learn a new skill. This is why the price of Runestones ranged from hundreds of million to tens of billion won. He recalled a recent event of a Runestone being sold at an auction for the price of 70 billion won. It was a Runestone that taught a powerful healing magic that could completely restore an injured person, purchased by an anonymous foreign S-rank Healer-cla.s.s Hunter who emptied his wallet for it.

Jinwoo"s heartbeat sped up.

A skill to increase his movement speed and a skill to reduce damage taken.

Not quite skills that would cost tens of billions of won, but they were still useful skills. And he had earned such skills for free. Although it probably was difficult to make full use of "Sprint" with his low magic power, the fact that he had these skills now was amazing.

"And the "Unyielding Spirit" doesn"t even take any mana…"

It seemed like "mana" was referring to "magic power". This meant that even his body that lacked magic power could take advantage of the "Unyielding Spirit". This alone was a great boon to Jinwoo.

"However… What is this skill…"

(Unknown) (Lv. Max)

Pa.s.sive Skill

"Unknown" that took up a line under his pa.s.sive skills. As a pa.s.sive skill, it should be something that activated automatically, but its information screen did not reveal any details.

"I have no clue what this is."

There was nothing he could find or figure out about this unknown skill. Realizing his worries would get him nowhere, Jinwoo turned his attention to the other section of his status screen.

"Stat points…"

The stat points he received as the reward for the Daily Quest remained undistributed.

Stats

Strength: 10

Const.i.tution: 10

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 10

Sense: 10

(Available stat points: 3)

"So I can raise 3 points worth of stats?"

Five different attributes were under the stats section. Being level 1, his points across the board were rather low. But remembering all that he had experienced up until now, he could not carelessly distribute his points. If the a.s.signment of points truly enhanced his abilities, how could he make the decision lightly?

His expression hardened.

"The meaning behind "Strength" is pretty clear…"

Strength, const.i.tution, agility. He grasped the meaning behind these attributes quite easily. After all, they were some of the more straightforward "stats" in video games. The problems were the "Intelligence" and "Sense" stats. The curt and distant System revealed no additional details to Jinwoo.

Would he become smarter if he increased "Intelligence"?

Or more keen and sharper if he increased "Sense"?

Regardless, those two attributes did not seem particularly useful to him. He was a Fighter-cla.s.s Hunter. What he needed the most was strength, mobility and durability.

"If I had to choose one, it"d be strength."

Increased strength would rather make a lot of things easier. He was curious on what kind of change his body would undergo when he increased his stats. As such, he selected the stat that would probably result in the most physical change in his body.

"3 points into strength."

ring~

Stats

Strength: 13

Const.i.tution: 10

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 10

Sense: 10

(Available stat points: 0)

"Is… is that it?"

That was it.

All that changed was the number in front of "Strength" going from 10 to 13.

In his mind, he had expected the recreation of the scene in movies or cartoons where the hero pulled forth an unknown power from within.

"Well, did anything change?"

Jinwoo decided to test out his strength. He stood next to his bed and lifted it. He felt a slight resistance from the bed"s weight but was able to easily lift it off the ground. Still, he was unable to tell whether this was due to the lightness of the bed or his increased strength.

"Should"ve made a comparison before and after I used up the points."

As his points were already distributed, it was hard for him to distinguish the before and after of his changes.

"If I just had few more points…"

Rolling his tongue in his mouth, Jinwoo suddenly remembered something:

"The reward from the Penalty Quest!"

He had remembered that it wasn"t just the Daily Quest he completed today. Although he had almost died from it, he did complete the Penalty Quest and even remembered the reward message from it as well. He quickly opened his message box.

The reward for completing the Penalty Quest has arrived.

Would you like to verify? (Y/N)

"It"s there!"

He clenched his fists.

Of course, the answer is "Yes!"

You"ve received the below rewards:

Reward 1. Stat points +3

Reward 2. Random Box x 1

Accept all?

Compared to the Daily Quest, there was no reward of status recovery, but what he needed now the most were stat points. Initially worried that a Penalty Quest might give reduced rewards, Jinwoo was relieved to see that it still gave him 3 stat points.

He distributed the points in delight,

"Add 3 more points into strength!"

ring~

Stats

Strength: 16

Const.i.tution: 10

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 10

Sense: 10

(Available stat points: 0)

His strength had increased from 13 to 16. He went before his bed once more and used his arms. Compared to before, the bed felt much lighter in his hands. He was able to fully comprehend the difference this time.

"It"s true…!"

He really had become stronger. By simple math, going from 10 to 16 points meant that his strength had increased by 60%. The result was blatantly clear to him now. Unable to control his excitement, Jinwoo loudly went from corner to corner of his room, lifting every furniture that he could get his hands on. He had to stop when a pa.s.sing nurse peeked in and glared at him.

"…Sorry."

After she left, he sighed a breath of relief.

"Phew-"

But his excitement could not be abated. His heart was beating vigorously.

ba dum ba dum

A Daily Quest and stat point rewards!

As long as this strange occurrence continued, his life would turn around completely going forward. It was an incredible opportunity for him. On top of that, the "level" he saw under his status screen,

"It should be possible for me to raise my level as well, right?"

He tilted his head.

"Eh… probably not."

It was but a dream; he did not expect himself to go that far. Just the daily rewards were good enough.

Using stat points to increase his attributes.

Yesterday then today, today then tomorrow, he would become stronger every day.

"To think that I, an E-rank Hunter, the "Weakest Soldier", could become strong?"

Forget the rankers and S-rankers, even his C-ranked and D-ranked comrades would laugh at him.

Sung Jinwoo becoming strong?

That weakling Sung Jinwoo?

But he did not care that he would be laughed at. No, he was already used to it after all. He was just happy that this opportunity had arrived in his hands.

Then a question appeared in his mind,

"Perhaps this is the process of a Second Awakening?"

It was a rare event, but there were cases where a Hunter at the bottom of the barrel shot up to first cla.s.s through Reawakening. Maybe all those Reawakened Hunters had gone through the same phenomenon that he was experiencing right now?

"Let"s find out."

The now curious Jinwoo sat in front of a computer in the corner of his room. As he was designated a special patient by the a.s.sociation, the VIP room that he was placed in even had such luxuries for his use.

clack clack clack clack

His fingers moved quickly across the keyboard.

Search after search after search.

He went through dozens of websites, including sites only accessible by those with Hunter licenses. Going as far as purchasing paid information, he gathered and went through as many doc.u.ments he could find on Reawakening.

But nothing he found matched what he was experiencing now.

"It"s different…"

His newfound powers were completely different from a Reawakening.

The Hunters that went through Reawakening underwent the same process as their first Awakening[4]. No one mentioned hearing any voices on the verge of death or a video game like System that gave them stat points that increased their abilities.

Translator"s Notes:

[1]: "Unyielding Spirit" (근성; geun-sung): The word on its own just means someone"s disposition or natural spirit. Contextual clues imply the "spirit" in this situation is one that would not give up even at 30% HP, so I chose to add the "unyielding" in front of it. The skill description also goes as far as to say "You have an unyielding/untiring spirit."

[2]: "Sprint" (질주; jil-joo): Lit. "speeding" or "sprinting". Shortened to just "sprint" based on contextual clues.

[3]: "Runestones" (룬석; rune-suk): "Rune" in english + "stone" suk. Pretty straightforward.

[4]: I just want to clarify this with information gathered from context throughout the story (not a spoiler). All Hunters go through their first Awakening, receiving some form of power. This power includes a combination of increases in physical ability, magic power and a list of skills. What they get at their first Awakening does not change (except for new skills learned through Runestones). A second Awakening (Reawakening) is exactly the same: An Awakened Being would receive power again which includes a combination of increased physical ability, magic power and new skills. After Reawakening, same as before, a Hunter"s power does not change.