I Alone Level-Up

As she was shaking her head in disbelief, Jinwoo suddenly came back out and held an umbrella towards her.

"Why an umbrella?"

She took the umbrella and looked up to the sky. It was still dark at dawn, but the sky appeared to be clear.

"I don"t think it"s going to rain today."

"Just take it."

"It"s going to be a ha.s.sle…"

"Just take it still. It"s not that heavy, stop crying."

He closed the door and went back inside.

"Sigh- always so stubborn."

She tapped the door rebelliously with her foot few times, then put the umbrella in her bag and started walking.

"Wait…"

She recalled her brother"s figure just now. It was strange. Her brother was distinctly taller than she had remembered.

"Do men still keep growing after 20?"

"Can"t be…"

She shook her head again and walked towards school.

-

click

Jinwoo locked the door and opened his inventory.

"Storage."

Storage. Inv. Inventory.

After experimenting, he found that the spoken command did not have to be that exact. Same with the messages. Various phrases with the intent and meaning of "opening" worked.

He took the umbrella obtained from today"s Random Box and put it into the digital storage before his eyes.

"Today"s was a bust again."

It had been four days since his first trip into an Instant Dungeon. Since then, he had hoped for another key from the Random Boxes but was not so lucky.

"How disappointing."

He went to his room and sat on his bed.

There was something he had to decide today.

"Stat."

Stats

Strength: 48

Const.i.tution: 27

Agility: 27

Intelligence: 27

Sense: 27

(Available stat points: 12)

Four days" worth of stat points were piled up in his stat screen. He had not missed a single daily quest, and of course, diligently collected the rewards. But he had not used any of the points yet. He wasn"t sure what to do with them.

"...This is hard."

Indeed it was. It was not an easy decision to make.

Strength. Good stat. No regrets in dumping every point in it so far.

Agility. Also good stat. Not needed against low level enemies, but absolutely critical against stronger foes. Speed was relative, after all.

Const.i.tution and sense. Having higher health was always a good thing, and sense turned out to be surprisingly useful as well.

Intelligence…

...This was the problem. This was the sole attribute that he had no information to go on. Even after his levels rose, he didn"t really feel smarter. His memorization didn"t exactly improve, nor did his mental math become any faster.

"I"m sure it"s related to magic…"

Perhaps he didn"t need it after all.

That left just strength, agility, const.i.tution and sense.

"...Still, it"s hard."

Even with one less choice, he still was not sure. The synergy between strength and agility was clear; no matter how hard he could hit, it meant nothing if he couldn"t hit his target. On the same hand, no matter how accurate he was, it meant nothing without power behind the attack. With that in mind, strength and agility were a set.

"Since my strength is at a good place, I should bring up agility to a similar level."

At the same time, if he chose to raise the agility stat, he would have to put a lower priority on const.i.tution. The synergy between agility and const.i.tution was bad. With high agility, his ability to evade the enemy"s attack would increase; on the other hand, const.i.tution only s.h.i.+ned when he took the enemy"s attack head on.

"Of course, I"ll always need some minimum amount, just in case…"

Still, raising both agility and const.i.tution at the same time did not seem like the best distribution of his points.

After thinking about it for some time, he came to a conclusion:

First, agility. Second, sense. Third, const.i.tution.

He had already invested quite a bit into strength, so he"ll leave it as is. He"ll focus on bringing agility to a matching level; with the focus on agility, he"ll also put sense ahead of const.i.tution.

Having made his decision, Jinwoo put 2 points into strength[0].

ring~

Stats

Strength: 50

Const.i.tution: 27

Agility: 27

Intelligence: 27

Sense: 27

(Available stat points: 10)

He just wanted to have his strength at an even 50. Wouldn"t anyone do the same?

He put the next 8 points into agility for the same reason. He wanted the number to end on a nice "5".

Stats

Strength: 50

Const.i.tution: 27

Agility: 35

Intelligence: 27

Sense: 27

(Available stat points: 2)

"Numbers always look nice when they"re in multiples of 5."

50 strength and 35 agility. The multiples of 5 gave him a pointless sense of satisfaction.

"And the last 2 points."

He put them into sense. And with that, the distribution of his points was over.

Stats

Strength: 50

Const.i.tution: 27

Agility: 35

Intelligence: 27

Sense: 29

(Available stat points: 0)

The fact that he couldn"t get sense to 30 felt a little sad.

"Can"t do much about it with no points left."

Other than that, everything looked good to him. Const.i.tution and intelligence would have to be raised through level-ups.

"Is this good enough?"

Of course, he could not be satisfied 100% in everything. Still, having made the decision after much thought, he felt that it was good enough.

ring~ ring~

He heard the phone ring from the living room.

"Is it a call from the a.s.sociation?"

In the past, he would hold out picking up as long as he could, afraid to be called to Raids. But now, his body was itching to face magic beasts with his raised attributes. He quickly went and picked up the receiver.

"This is Hunter Sung Jinwoo."

-"Ah, there you are."

It was not the a.s.sociation. Jinwoo felt a little disappointed.

-"Student Jinwoo, why haven"t you picked up the phone in a while?"

It was a familiar voice. It had been 4 years since Jinwoo had graduated from high school and left behind the t.i.tle of student, but the landlord, who had watched over Jinwoo since he was a kid, still called him one.

"Sorry landlord ahjussi. I was hospitalized for a while after an accident."

-"Oh no. Is that so? That explains that. So, er.. Student Jinwoo, I haven"t received this month"s rent yet. How is it, do you want to push it back to next month?"

"Oh no, that"s fine. I"ll send it now."

-"Ah, okay. Don"t push yourself too hard. I know you"re working hard to take care of your mom and little sister. Money is money, but don"t neglect your body."

"I understand. Thank you very much."

He ended the conversation and took out his bankbook[1] from a drawer. His account had 800 thousand won.

"Sigh…"

He could not help but let out a long breath. After 500 thousand won for rent, the amount left over for living expenses this month would be just 300 thousand won[2]. Even the 500 thousand rent was due to the fact that he lived at a worn-down apartment on the edges of the city; on top of that, the landlord, who had a soft heart for Jinwoo"s situation, had not raised the rent in the past few years.

It would be hard to find a place for 500 thousand these days. It would be even harder to live on 300 thousand for the month.

"First, let"s earn some money."

He had picked out the priority goal.

He was not the same man who had struggled in taking down a single E-rank magic beast.

-

How does a Hunter earn money?

The best way was to take down magic beasts.

The rank and S-rank Hunters had the luxury of being sponsored, filming commercials and making TV appearances, but they were in the minority. For the rest, the Hunters earned their keep in Dungeons.

Your income was dependent on the quality and quant.i.ty of the Dungeon. And your Dungeon was dependent on your capabilities.

Higher the Rank, higher the Dungeon. More experienced you were, more Dungeons you could get into.

As an E-rank Hunter under the a.s.sociation, Jinwoo had never entered anything above a D-rank Gate. As such, he had neither the rank nor the experience to prove his worth.

Jinwoo furrowed his brows.

"Forget any conditions, if I could only get into a raiding party[3]..."

He browsed through the job boards[4] on Hunter websites and even made a few phone calls but made no progress. n.o.body wanted an E-rank Hunter. The Hunters who put up listings on the job boards were there for personal raids. As such, they were looking for reliable people to watch their backs and were strict in their criteria for selection.

These people were those that fell in an awkward place in the Hunter world. Too weak for Guilds but too strong to work under the a.s.sociation.

"Even those Hunters make several ten million a month."

High risk, high return. Putting their lives on the line, the reward was just as great. There was a reason Hunters were the target of envy. To Jinwoo, it was rather frustrating.

"Should I just go get retested[5] and raise my rank?"

Jinwoo shook his head. No matter how long he thought about it, it was a stupid idea. It didn"t matter if his new rank was rank, B-rank or even C-rank. A Hunter"s Reawakening would be big news. The people loved gossip, and Hunters made prime gossip material. If he got re-tested now and entered the public"s perception, it would only be a matter of time before his special circ.u.mstances would be discovered. After all, he had no plans to stop his growth.

"A Hunter that can raise his abilities?"

"He gets stronger with time?""Who is that Hunter?"

"How could he do such a thing?"

"How could I do something like that?"

Surely, many people would become interested. There was never a Hunter like him in history. Amidst their interest, there would definitely be those that would try to use him or antagonize him.

"And if any of them are stronger than me…"

The thought scared Jinwoo. He still lacked power. Until he was confident in his ability to protect himself, he did not want to reveal himself to the world. So, a ranking retest was out of the question.

"Still, I need a way to make money somehow…"

He couldn"t get an ordinary job. He did not know when the a.s.sociation would come calling. If he got called to a Raid, he would be able to earn experience points and money; he didn"t want to throw that chance away for some pocket money.

As Jinwoo pondered on what he could do, he noticed a new listing on the job board.

We"ll take anyone, regardless of ranking, first come first serve!

His eyes shot open. It was a newly created post. Quickly checking the details, he realized the location wasn"t far from his house. Jinwoo quickly picked up the phone. As if waiting, the other side also picked up quickly.

-"h.e.l.lo?"

Jinwoo gave a brief introduction and inquired about the job posting.

-"Ah, you"re an E-rank?"

The response was better than he had hoped.

-"That"s fine. You just have to come and help us fill the headcount. But since it"s a C-rank Gate, you probably won"t be much help in the fighting. So we"ll have to leave you out of the loot distribution. Instead, we"ll give you a flat amount of 2 million, how"s that sound? Could you make it?"

Flat amount of 2 million!

It was an incredible compensation for just filling the headcount. The conditions were not that bad. Although regrettable that he"d be excluded from the loot, he could not let 2 million slip out of his hands.

"For now, let"s start with this."

An opportunity like this didn"t come every day. 2 million would be more than enough for the month.

Jinwoo accepted the proposition,

"I"ll be there in 15 minutes."

Translator"s Notes:

[0]: This G.o.dd.a.m.n troll.

[1]: "bankbook" (통장): In Korea, people often have these physical representations of their bank balance, which also records deposits and withdrawals. A relic from days before online banking, you"d have to take these to banks to get an update on your account status. They look like thin checkbooks.

[2]: Just a reminder, when converting from KRW to USD, just divide it by a thousand (it"ll be off by few %, but good enough for story purposes). His rent is ~$500 and he would have ~$300 left over for the month.

[3]: "raiding party" (공격대): "attack/attacking" 공격 + "group" 대. Since the context refers to hunters that would group up and attack a dungeon, I decided to translate it as "raiding party".

[4]: "job board" (구인란): "wanted" 구인 "board/column" 란. Normally refers to "wanted" section or "cla.s.sified" in newspapers. I really wanted to call it the "LFG" board of the Hunter website but thought that"d be going too far.

[5]: "retested" (재심사): "re/again" 재 + "test" 심사. I used it as a verb for the context but will come up as a noun in the future.