I Alone Level-Up

"Er, yes, that"s right…"

"Ah, I apologize. This way, sir. I"ll lead the way."

"Ah… Okay."

Thinking that it would be a headache to try and clear up whatever misunderstanding this was, Jinwoo decided to go with the soldier for now. As he followed, he observed his surroundings,

"Now that I take a closer look…"

Something had clearly happened in the area. The roads were empty, and the only people around were soldiers and policemen. On top of that, the area was scattered with abandoned cars, damaged buildings and the corpses of magic beasts.

Jinwoo roughly understood what had happened.

"Looks like a Dungeon Break[1] happened nearby."

In today"s world, the proper management and monitoring of Gates meant that most of them were discovered on time and taken care of. However, every once in a while, a Gate appears in a hidden place and goes unnoticed until it"s too late. Once that happens, the military is deployed to buy time before the Hunters can arrive.

Of course, the weapons of the military did not work on the magic beasts. Yet they still fought to the best of their abilities; in order to protect the citizens and provide time for their escape, someone had to be the sacrifice. As such, the military bravely stood up and became meat s.h.i.+elds. It was a job that had to be done, and the young men of this country n.o.bly did that job.

"Thank you."

The soldier that was leading him suddenly thanked Jinwoo.

"Hmm?"

"It"s thanks to the Hunter-nims that we are able to live."

"Ah…"

Grat.i.tude.

Jinwoo was the one who wanted to thank the soldier.

The soldier to the Hunter. The Hunter to the soldier.

As men who both fought to protect the people, both sides wanted to thank the other.

"...Roger. Over and out."

The soldier"s face lit up after receiving a report through his radio.

"Most of the magic beasts in the area have been taken care of. They said there is just one big one remaining."

Jinwoo nodded. He already knew this without the soldier"s report. Through his raised sense stat, he was able to detect the presence of a powerful lifeform nearby, surrounded by the energy of multiple hunters.

His instincts told him the powerful lifeform was the boss.

Soon, the boss"s figure came into their view. In an empty lot ahead, ten-something Hunters were fighting with a giant made out of stone. The giant"s height was a little above a street light; it was a golem type magic beast.

"My G.o.d…"

The soldier took a step back. As if it was the first time he had seen a magic beast, the man froze as he saw the golem. Any ordinary human would do the same. The presence of a magic beast in person was quite different than seeing it over the television or a computer screen.

Compared to the soldier, Jinwoo calmly looked over to the battle.

"Healers! Please focus your healing on the Tanker!"

"We"re doing our best!"

"Why is it not going down!"

"Dealers[2], what are you doing?! He doesn"t seem like he"s taking any damage!"

"His defense is too high! We need a few Mage-cla.s.s Hunters!"

As Hunters who were called over on a short notice, their ranks did not appear to be that high. Both their defense and offense were lacking.

Bang!

The golem slammed his stone fist onto the ground, and resulting shockwave caused the Hunter in charge of tanking to buckle.

"Cough!"

The man spat out blood.

"Oh no!"

"The Tanker"s going go die at this rate!"

"What can we do?! Our magic power"s almost gone!"

"Where are the high rankers?!"

The Hunters were reaching their limits.

As he watched, Jinwoo"s gaze sharpened.

"If it"s this much… I should be able to do it."

He slowly took few steps backwards. All the golem type boss had going for it was its high defense; its overall level seemed to be low. Compared to the pressure he faced against the "blue poisoned-fanged whatever[3]", the golem was a step below.

"So if I can just get through its defense..."

What the Hunters needed was a powerful attack to get through that stupid piece of rock. At a good distance, Jinwoo c.o.c.ked his arm back into a throwing position. He tightened his grip on the broken sword, and the muscles of his arm expanded. Thick veins appeared all the way to the back of his hand.

All of his strength was focused on his right arm.

Then, the arm that was drawn back like a bowstring shot forward at the speed of sound.

"Go!"

-

The D-rank Hunter, Lee Hansoo, despaired; he was at his limit. The s.h.i.+eld that he was so proud of was cracking. The healing Hunters" magic power must"ve hit rock bottom; the healing on him had decreased noticeably. At this rate, the entire party would be wiped out.

He had to make a difficult choice.

He decided to buy time for the other Hunters to run away and hope that the high ranking Hunters would arrive in time to take the golem down.

"Or else we"ll all die here."

Lee Hansoo"s brows glistened with cold sweat. He was ready to die.

He turned and shouted,

"I"ll take it from here, so everyone-"

It was in that moment he saw it. Something flashed from a distance and was flying this way.

Rather, instead of seeing it, it was more like he felt it. His eyes could not possibly see that attack.

BANG!

That something obliterated the golem"s head.

"W-what?"

Lee Hansoo"s eyes widened. The headless golem began to falter. Not noticing, the Hunters pressed their attacks.

"It"s working! The attacks are working!"

"It"s going down!"

"Just a little more!"

They were all too focused on attacking and did not appear to have seen the "something" that had flown over. Only Lee Hansoo, who stood right before the golem, caught a glimpse of it.

groooooan-

The golem finally went down.

Koong!

Its heavy body threw up a large cloud of dust.

"Yeaaaaaah!"

The Hunters shouted and cheered.

"We did it!"

"We took it down!"

Only Lee Hansoo, who saw what happened, shook his head.

"No. Our attacks weren"t even working."

He quickly searched around the fallen golem.

"Just what the h.e.l.l blew apart its head?"

Scanning the ground, Lee Hansoo came across the pieces of a broken sword. Although it had magic power, it was a rather plain steel sword.

"That thing was something over 10 Hunters were having difficulty taking down… And someone blew its head open by throwing just this?"

He was at a loss for words. Looking back and forth between the golem"s corpse and the remnants of the sword, Lee Hansoo walked past the cheering Hunters to the direction the sword had flown from.

"Oy!"

There was a soldier standing there.

"Sir? Are you talking to me?"

"Yes, you!"

As the large physique of the Hunter walked towards him, the soldier stiffened and gulped. Such was the pressure Hunters gave off towards ordinary people.

Lee Hansoo held out the sword and asked,

"Did you throw this?"

"Ah, that was-"

The soldier gestured behind him, then stopped.

"Wait, what? There was a Hunter-nim right here."

There was no one there. As the soldier panicked and looked around, Lee Hansoo scratched his head and looked at the sword in his hand again.

"That power... that destructiveness… Did a high ranking Hunter come here?"

As the man in question had disappeared, he had no way of knowing.

-

At that time, Jinwoo was on the way home. He had already turned to leave when he saw the golem falter.

He had taken down the golem. Normally, a dead magic beast"s drops belonged to the person taking it down. If he wanted, he could"ve laid a claim on the golem"s corpse.

"But the problem is that I"d have to prove that I was the one who took it down."

Who would believe that it was an E-rank Hunter"s attack that took the golem down? He had no proof; the broken sword or the soldier standing by did not seem like it would be enough. Even if he was able to prove it, he would have to reveal how he obtained the power to take down a golem. No matter how Jinwoo looked at it, the costs outweigh the benefits.

The unique ability to level-up.

He had no intention of revealing this historical occurrence over a mere golem"s corpse.

"Regrettable, but what can I do."

Well, it wasn"t all for nothing. No, there was an unexpected boon. A message appeared to him, when he took down the golem:

You"ve leveled up!

Taking down the golem gave him one level.

"So I CAN level-up by taking down magic beasts."

It was good to know. This was enough for him, for now.

-

At the outskirts of the city, there was an old and worn down apartment. Jinwoo"s house was on the 9th floor of this building.

The house was dark when he entered.

"Looks like Jinah"s being diligent."

His little sister was probably at the library. There was dinner on top of the table. It was Jinah"s work, having picked up the slack after their mother"s hospitalization few years ago. There was a small note next to the food, written in cute letters,

"Don"t starve. I"ll check whether or not you ate."

Having received the news of his discharge today, she must"ve taken the time to do this, even during her busy schedule. Jinwoo smiled and sat down at the table, but there was something he wanted to check before eating.

"Status screen."

Name: Sung Jinwoo

Level: 18

Cla.s.s: None

t.i.tle: Wolf Slayer

HP: 2220

MP: 350

Fatigue: 2

Stats

Strength: 48

Const.i.tution: 27

Agility: 27

Intelligence: 27

Sense: 27

(Available stat points: 0)

Skills

Pa.s.sive Skills

-(Unknown) (Lv. Max)

-Unyielding Spirit (Lv. 1)

Active Skills

-Sprint (Lv. 1)

It was a long day. In that long day, he was able to go all the way to level 18. His strength was nearing 50, and his other stats had also risen greatly. Additionally, he was able to learn the effects of the agility and sense stats.

"On top of all that, I got a nice dagger with good effects and a good amount of gold… that I can"t spend yet… still."

Putting aside the venom that he didn"t want to use…

The attack on the Instant Dungeon was a big success.

-9. Lizards-

People who left their homes in the dawn of day always made a point to do so quietly. After all, they didn"t want to wake up their family. Jinah was no different. Thinking of her sleeping brother, she quietly locked the door and turned to leave for school.

"Going to school?"

"Eh?!"She abruptly turned to see her brother jogging toward her. He was wearing a tracksuit and sneakers, his head covered by a hoodie. It looked like he was coming back from a run.

Jinah stared at her brother with wide open eyes.

"What the. You were awake, oppa?"

"For a while now. Have a good day."

"Ah… okay."

She watched her brother go inside the house with her head tilted.

"Huh. To think that there"d be a day where oppa woke up before I did."

It was not that Jinwoo was lazy, but Jinah was a diligent student who often got up at the crack of dawn for school, so it was a rare sight for her to see her brother in the morning like this.

"Now that I think about it…"

Her brother"s shoulders were a bit wider than she"d remembered.

"Eh, I must be mistaken."

Human bodies were not rubber bands. They don"t stretch like that in just a few days.

Translator"s Notes:

[1]: "Dungeon Break": A reminder, a Gate undergoes full opening after 7 days, then a Dungeon Break occurs. The magic beasts that were normally confined to the inside of the Gate can now leave the Gate, causing destruction and mayhem outside.

[2]: "Dealers" (딜러): The word is in english, "Dealer". Korean gaming terminology to refer to "damage dealers"; in the west, more commonly called the "DPS" (damage per second).

[3]: Not a mistrans. Jinwoo forgot the name…

Thank you /u/Aetherpon for some grammar corrections/suggestions!