I Alone Level-Up

Yoo Jinho placed emphasis on the words, "fair price".

"He"s not wrong…"

Jinho"s suggestion would be the best course of option for Jinwoo to safely obtain all the magic cores. Currently, the owners.h.i.+p of the magic cores was clear. No matter how greedy the man was, Hw.a.n.g Dongseok could not take them with him to the afterlife. As such, Yoo Jinho had the legal rights to all the magic cores they carried. And now, the young man was offering it all to Jinwoo. This was different than taking them by force.

"No reason to turn away good fortune like this…"

After all, if it wasn"t for him, Yoo Jinho would already be dead or taken as hostage. In that line of thinking, it indeed was the fair price for Jinwoo to obtain all the magic cores.

Watching Jinwoo"s expression soften, Yoo Jinho was sure that he had hit the right mark.

"As I thought, the magic cores are the price of the blood he spilled taking down Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s party. That"s why he won"t refuse them."

The two men"s idea of the "fair price" was completely different, but neither of them would realize this.

"Alright."

At Jinwoo"s agreement, Yoo Jinho"s face brightened. The young man felt a little awe at what he perceived to be the Jinwoo"s ironclad conviction. But then, Jinwoo"s face became cold again.

"But how would I be able to trust you?"

Jinwoo thought back on the initial goal of this conversation. He did not frighten the young man for a material gain; he just wanted to make sure the events of this Raid would not cause him troubles in the future.

"How could I betray the hyungnim that saved my life multiple times?"

"You could always ignore the promise and go around blabbing your mouth off."

Well, it wouldn"t really hurt him in the long run. Killing Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s party was 100% in self-defense. It was eight armed men versus just him, and they were the ones who attacked first. With the world"s laws having changed in the advent of Hunters, he would definitely be found not guilty in all of this. Still, he wanted to avoid all that if he could. For that, he needed Yoo Jinho"s cooperation.

"Well?"

Jinwoo pressed his question and stared. Yoo Jinho responded with a fierce look in his eyes.

"I wouldn"t dare do such a cowardly thing! Especially to the savior of my life!"

"Hmm…"

He realized where he had seen that determined look in Yoo Jinho"s eyes before. It was the same eyes he defiantly stood up to Hw.a.n.g Dongseok with.

"Kid… you"re the real thing, aren"t you?"

Give and Take.

With his life on the line, Yoo Jinho chose to stand with Jinwoo. Putting his faith in him, the young man was ready to fight eight Hunters. And so, Jinwoo decided to return some of that faith.

Well… after putting in some final touches.

Jinwoo went over and picked up Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s s.h.i.+eld.

"You know, I"m still p.i.s.sed about Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s betrayal."

Casually turning the s.h.i.+eld over in his hands, Jinwoo suddenly threw the s.h.i.+eld at the wall.

Crack!

The s.h.i.+eld became half embedded into the wall. Yoo Jinho gulped, and his body began to sweat.

"My dongsaeng[1] won"t betray me like that, would he?"

"Of-of course not, hyungnim."

The Dungeon shook again, more violently than before.

Shaaaaaake-!!

Alright. Jinwoo was done teasing the young man. From the start, he had no plans to hurt Yoo Jinho. He felt that he had done enough and made his final decision.

"Okay. Go grab their magic cores. We"re leaving the Dungeon."

"Thank you very much, hyungnim!"

Yoo Jinho stood up and bowed his entire upper body, making a 90-degree angle at the waist. The smile returned to his face.

While Yoo Jinho went around gathering Hw.a.n.g Dongseok party"s bags with the magic cores, Jinwoo went and picked the pocket of Hw.a.n.g Dongseok.

"Gotta take what"s mine."

The contractual wage for today was 2 million. He was not going to let the man go to the afterlife without paying him. In Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s wallet, he found just a little over 2 million won. He recalled Hw.a.n.g Dongseok saying he would be paid in cash, right after the Raid; it seemed the man was not lying. After all, you couldn"t cut off the tail every time. If nothing unusual like the appearance of mana crystals had occurred, they would"ve probably finished the Raid with no trouble.

"Thank you for today"s wages."

Jinwoo thanked no one in particular, then got up and left. Yoo Jinho, who had gone to place the Hunters" magic cores in his bag, panicked when he saw Jinwoo missing after coming back.

"Hyungnim?"

Only the corpses of Jinwoo"s victims were scattered about.

"Aaaaahhhhhh!"

Turning blue, Yoo Jinho frantically chased after Jinwoo.

-

At the scene of the incident, the a.s.sociation"s investigators and staff had arrived. The protocol in the case of a death during a Raid was simple. They would have to report the incident to the a.s.sociation and undergo a brief investigation. The investigator this time was a strict-looking middle-aged woman.

"Your names?"

"Sung Jinwoo."

"I"m Yoo Jinho."

A Hunter"s death in a Dungeon was unfortunately a common occurrence, so the aftermath investigations were more or less routine. It was just a matter of keeping proper record of everything that had happened. It would all go smooth… as long as nothing suspicious was noted.

"…Hmm, you"re telling me all the C-rank Hunters died, but you two, a D-rank and an E-rank, got out safely?"

The investigator pushed her gla.s.ses up and asked, her eyes narrow.

"In a normal Raid, the first to die are the weak ones…"

As she carefully looked over the survivors, something caught her eye, and she spoke with a raised voice,

"Oh my!"

She approached Yoo Jinho with sparkles in her eyes.

"Isn"t this one of Maya Company"s new products? The long sword, Kallion? And oh my, this is one of master artisan Gredos" works, the Royal Series s.h.i.+elds!" [2]

Yoo Jinho put on a proud expression.

"You know your stuff!"

"Hohoho, oh no. I just love looking through new product catalogues."

The longsword"s price was 700 million, and the s.h.i.+eld was 500 million. Produced from magic cores worth hundreds of million won and other expensive materials, these were powerful equipment that could raise the level of a D-rank Hunter to C-rank. A theory of what happened in the Dungeon was created in her head.

"If it was with these gear…"

A D-ranker just might"ve been able to defeat the boss in a situation where all the C-rankers had died.

"The E-ranker probably survived by hiding away in some corner."

Of course, the truth was completely opposite. Still, she had made her conclusion. Someone who could afford such gear would not have betrayed his comrades for few paltry pieces of magic cores. There was also no way that the E-ranker could do anything against the C-rankers. As such, Hw.a.n.g Dongseok and co."s deaths would be ruled as an unfortunate accident.

"Well, I think that should do it."

With a satisfied expression, she finished the recording of the incident.

"The investigation is now over. You are both free to leave. I know today must"ve been hard. The a.s.sociation thanks you for your cooperation in this matter."

"Thank you."

Jinwoo answered for the pair.

The investigator left as quickly as she had arrived.

"Thank you as well, hyungnim."

Yoo Jinho bowed again in a 90-degree angle. Even after coming out of the Gate, his at-attention-att.i.tude did not change. The young man probably went through a lot of scary things back there, Jinwoo thought.

"You did well, too."

"Eh, I didn"t really do anything. It was all hyungnim. Here, your magic cores."

Yoo Jinho respectfully held out a bag with two hands. Jinwoo took the bag; it was filled to the brim with magic cores. The highest price for a magic core from a C-rank Gate was 10 million, even the lowest would be worth at least several million. Jinwoo tried to obtain a rough count of the magic cores he was holding and screamed inside in delight.

"How much is all of this…?"

He had to hold back the laughter of joy. Suddenly, drops of water appeared on the bag.

drop.

drop.

Jinwoo raised his head. The sky that began to darken after noon was now beginning to rain.

"Good thing I sent her with an umbrella."

He smiled at the sudden thought of his little sister.

-

Deep into the night.

The moment he arrived home, he opened his stat screen.

"Stat!"

Stats

Strength: 53

Const.i.tution: 30

Agility: 38

Intelligence: 30

Sense: 32

(Available stat points: 10)

He still had the 10 stat points from the emergency quest. He was itching to use them up. It was an amount that normally required three days of daily quests (albeit missing a point) or two level-ups (but not freely distributable).

"First and foremost, agility. Then, sense."

He put 7 points into agility and the remaining 3 into sense.

Stats

Strength: 53

Const.i.tution: 30

Agility: 45

Intelligence: 30

Sense: 35

(Available stat points: 0)

"Okay."

His attributes had risen quite a bit. Agility had almost caught up to his strength, and in no time, his sense had reached 35 points. Once agility and strength reached the same level, he planned on focusing on const.i.tution. Leaving aside intelligence, which he still did not know the effect of, he wanted to raise his stats evenly.

"Let"s check today"s progress."

Name: Sung Jinwoo

Level: 21

Cla.s.s: None

t.i.tle: Wolf Slayer

HP: 2600

MP: 390

Fatigue: 0

Stats

Strength: 53

Const.i.tution: 30

Agility: 45

Intelligence: 30

Sense: 35

(Available stat points: 0)

Skills

Pa.s.sive Skills

-(Unknown) (Lv. Max)

-Unyielding Spirit (Lv. 1)

Active Skills

-Sprint (Lv. 1)

-Bloodl.u.s.t (Lv. 1)

What made him the happiest registered first: his level, which had jumped by 3 levels, and the newly earned "Bloodl.u.s.t" skill. Thanks to the 10 stat points, his attributes looked great as well. Just all this would"ve made a very productive day, but this was not all that he had earned today.

"On top of the wage of 2 million,"

He opened the bag full of magic cores and started counting.

"11 magic cores from the spider. 38 from Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s team."

All in all, he had 49 magic cores!

At an average price of 5 million each, he would be walking away with over 200 million. [3]

"200 million in one day…"

Having collected ten, no, nine people"s shares all to himself, Jinwoo had earned an incredible amount. It was an unthinkable stroke of luck.

"All that"s left is to sell these."

It was not difficult to sell magic cores. The demand was so high that they would be s.n.a.t.c.hed up the moment they were put up on the market. The question was where to sell them. He could sell them personally to another individual, to a Guild or through a business. Looking at the amount he was holding, Jinwoo concluded that instead of a personal sale or using an online market, he would go to an intermediary for brokerage.

"Wonder if I can just sell these in the shop?"

It would be rather convenient if the shop took the magic cores at face value like the junk items. Thinking about the shop, Jinwoo put away the bag. He realized the one other progress he had made today.

"It said I could use the buy function of the shop now, right?"

He quickly opened the shop. The gold that he had collected in the Instant Dungeon was sitting in his inventory, figuratively collecting dust.

"Buy."

ring~

With that familiar electronic tone, a seemingly endless list of purchasable items appeared before his eyes. They ranged from cheap potions and miscellaneous accessories to expensive armors and powerful weapons. Every one of them was being sold for gold. Obviously, the better the item was, more expensive the gold cost. Some of the most powerful items cost as much as 10 billion pieces of gold.

"Whoa… 10 billion…"

His current gold was at 112 thousand. It was far too low to purchase anything that appeared to be useful, but there was no need to rush. He had plenty of time.

"So as long as I gather the gold, I can buy all of this, right?"

He hummed as he continued to browse through the list of items. He had obtained one more reason to enter an Instant Dungeon.

Jinwoo was already antic.i.p.ating the reward from tomorrow"s Random Box.

Translator"s Notes:

[1]: "dongsaeng" (동생): Another super common Korean noun used to refer to someone makes an appearance. This one is used by older siblings to refer to their younger sibling (unlike oppa/hyung, it"s gender neutral). Just like oppa/hyung, it"s used in general population between unrelated people as well (older person to a younger person of a relative close age).

[2]: "Maya Company", "Kallion", "Gredos" (마야 사, 칼리온, 그레도스): What appears to be bunch of proper nouns.

[3]: No, not a mis translation. Technically 245 is above 200...