I Alone Level-Up

BOOM!

Volkhan fell. From the dust blown up by its giant body, Jinwoo stepped out. He looked around. He was about to go to the aid of his army, but it looked like they were finis.h.i.+ng up as well.

"Kiiiiek!"

"Kekek!"

"Keeeek!"

With the combined might of the Shadow Army, Volkhan"s minions rapidly fell left and right.

"Status screen."

Jinwoo looked over his status. Because he had just leveled up, he had recovered all of his health, mana and stamina.

"With my mana refreshed, I don"t need to help them."

As long as there was mana, the Shadow Soldiers were immortal. That was the power of the undead army. Deciding to leave the trash mobs to the soldiers, Jinwoo turned back to Volkhan"s corpse to collect the drops.

"Hmm."

It felt like he was about to open his Christmas gifts. Jinwoo could not help but smile while looking at Volkhan"s body.

"Wonder what I"ll get?"

There were multiple lights coming from the corpse. As always, Jinwoo stretched a hand towards the light. The item message appeared.

ring~!

You"ve found the "Monarch of Demons" Earrings"

Would you like to acquire it?

You"ve found the "Marble of Avarice"

Would you like to acquire it?

You"ve found 2 "Volkhan"s Horns"

Would you like to acquire it?

You"ve found a crafting ingredient, "Fragment of the World Tree"

Would you like to acquire it?

[1]

Jinwoo had a good feeling while fighting Volkhan. As expected, multiple items dropped from the boss"s corpse. A joy filled the Hunter"s face as he looked over the drops.

"Of course, Volkhan"s Horns are probably junk items."

Just looking at the name and the amount acquired, Jinwoo was sure Volkhan"s Horns were the same as the horns dropped by the other demons: just junk items to be sold. That left the other three items… One of them grabbed Jinwoo"s attention.

You"ve found a crafting ingredient, "Fragment of the World Tree"

Would you like to acquire it?

"Crafting ingredient?"

What could he craft with it? Or was it part of the quest? His curiosity peaked at the new type of item he had found. In order to read the item"s information, he had to first solidify the item from the light. And so, Jinwoo decided to pick up all the items.

"Acquire all."

The multiple lights disappeared from Volkhan"s corpse, and an equal amount of physical objects appeared in front of Jinwoo out of thin air. Two earrings, a red marble…

...And a giant piece of wood the size of a grown man.

Jinwoo instantly knew which one of these was the Fragment of the World Tree. He stared at the giant piece of lumber, and the corresponding information popped up.

Fragment of the World Tree

Rarity: ??

Type: Ingredient

Volkhan"s Club was made out of wood from the World Tree. This piece of wood remained after the contaminated parts were removed from the club. The wood obtained from the World Tree contains a strong magic power and is the highest-cla.s.s material for crafting magic items.

"The ingredient for the highest-cla.s.s magic items."

Jinwoo wanted to know just what he could make with this thing. Unfortunately, that information was nowhere to be found. Still, it was certain this was not an ordinary item. Standing close to it, he was able to feel a powerful energy emanating from the piece of wood.

"I have a feeling… this wood will be useful somehow."

Instead of selling it, Jinwoo put the Fragment of the World Tree into his inventory. He pored over the other items" information.

The Monarch of Demons" Earrings

Rarity: S

Type: Accessory

Strength +20, Const.i.tution +20

Set: The Crown Jewels of the Monarch of Demons[2]

1. The Monarch of Demons" Earrings

2. The Monarch of Demons" Necklace

3. The Monarch of Demons" Ring

Set Bonus:

1. ??? (2 Items)

2. ??? (3 Items)

"A set item?"

While the base effects were similar to the rank Gatekeeper"s Necklace, the Monarch of Demons" Earrings had an unknown set effect. Even without knowing the set effects, it was an amazing item, increasing both strength and const.i.tution by 20 points.

"Since one level-up is equivalent to five stat points."

In that line of thought, this was the same as leveling up eight times. With a happy heart, Jinwoo picked up the earrings.

Would you like to equip the "Monarch of Demons" Earrings"?

"Equip."

Like always, the earrings disappeared and its effects were applied to Jinwoo. He smiled in satisfaction at his increased stats.

The Crown Jewels of the Monarch of Demons.

"I"m sure the other pieces will drop here."

With a name that included the word "Demon", it was to easy to understand that the full set would drop from a place called Demon Castle. Just what would the set effects be? Even though he had obtained only one part, Jinwoo"s expectations were great. However, his smile would soon disappear.

"This is…?"

Marble of Avarice

Rarity: A

Type: Magic Tool

Effect "Desire for Destruction": Your magic damage is doubled.

It"s a marble made from the blood of the archdemon Volkhan. The marble will empower the wielder"s magic and increase the destruction caused.

It was a red ball the size of a billiard ball. Jinwoo held the Marble of Avarice in his hand. There was no change to his stats. He pulled up the skill information on the only thing he had that might qualify as magic, his cla.s.s-specific shadow skills, but there were no changes. The limits on the number of shadows remained the same.

"Is it not something I could benefit from?"

Jinwoo tilted his head.

Doubling the magic damage. Its effects were incredible.

Out in the real world, magic tools that empowered the user"s magic were prohibitively expensive. Because of that, they were only used by a handful of the Mage-cla.s.s Hunters. However, Jinwoo had never heard of an artifact that increased your offensive power by a 100%. If something like this was found, it would"ve made waves across the entire world. There was no way someone had kept something like that hidden.

And here he was, holding an item that doubled one"s magic damage.

"Still, it"s useless to me."

An item that simply increased magic damage did nothing for him. After all, the shadow skills technically did not do damage on their own. His offensive skills weren"t even magic. If only an item that increased intelligence appeared.

"Tsk."

While he tossed the marble up and down disappointedly, the Shadow Soldiers had finished the trash mobs and gathered before him. The fastest among them was Ygritte.

Three in his right hand. Three in his left hand.

The knight walked up to Jinwoo and placed six demons" heads in front of the Hunter.

"..."

Jinwoo scratched his temple while looking at the kneeling knight.

"Could you please stop doing that?"

Of course, the respectfully bowed head of the knight did not reply.

"Because when you do that…"

Jinwoo was not sure when the other knight managed to do it, but Iron had cut off Volkhan"s head and dragged it over to his master as well.

"...He also does it."

"I mean, I"m the one who took it down, right?"

Jinwoo fixed his gaze on Iron and sighed deeply. Looking at the kneeling giant knight, an interesting idea occurred to him.

"What if I can give the Marble of Avarice to one of them like how I was able to use Iron"s s.h.i.+eld?"

Right on cue, the Shadow Mages were slowly approaching Jinwoo behind the infantry. Compared to the knights or even the infantry, the mages were rather slow. Jinwoo called over the nearest one to him. When he gestured with his hand, the indicated mage slowly walked over to his master.

"...Maybe I should go to him."

Jinwoo shook his head then quickly walked over to the mage. He placed the Marble of Avarice onto the mage"s hand, then pointed to the building he had used to jump towards Volkhan. As the Shadow Soldiers moved according to his will, he did not particularly need to explain the details.

Jinwoo gave the signal,

"Fire."

With it, a fireball twice the size of what he was used to seeing appeared in the mage"s hands.

"Whoa!"

Jinwoo"s eyes widened. Ignoring his shock, the fireball flew from the mage"s hands.

WOOOOOSH-!

BAAAAAANG!

"Wh!"

Jinwoo"s mouth opened wide. The building was swallowed by the explosion and blew apart like a toy house. The fire consuming the building did not look like it could be put out easily.

Flaaaare!

Watching the fireworks caused by the mage"s spell, Jinwoo quickly took back the Marble of Avarice. He pored over the item information, looking for a specific phrase,

"It"s not there. It"s really not there."

No matter how much he looked up and down on the description, the item did not say that it was untradable. Did that mean he could sell this?

gulp

Jinwoo looked back at the burning building.

flaaare!

Even few parts of the building that remained standing fell eventually with a cras.h.i.+ng sound. Jinwoo smiled at the destruction.

"This thing…"

It"ll drive the Mage-cla.s.s Hunters crazy. His disappointment was nowhere to be seen, replaced by an antic.i.p.ation.

-

A bright afternoon.

"The young man in 902?"

A middle-aged woman thought for a moment then replied,

"Hmm, I"m not sure. Haven"t seen him around lately."

"Ah, okay. Thank you."

Hyun Gicheol bowed his head. It had been four days since the deputy had been waiting for Jinwoo near his house, but the man had not ran into the Hunter. He had been making vegetable juice nonstop. With a sigh, he took out his phone.

ring~ ring~

Someone picked up.

- "Oy, Gicheol."

"Chief."

It was Chief Ahn Sangmin.

"I haven"t seen Hunter Sung Jinwoo-nim. The neighbors also said they haven"t seen him recently."

- "Really?"

"Yes, sir."

- "Well, can"t be helped. Start coming to the office tomorrow, then."

"Yes, sir. Understood."

click

Ahn Sangmin hung up and tilted his head. Where did Hunter Sung Jinwoo go? The man fell off the grid few days ago. Thinking that he might be purposely avoiding their calls, Hyun Gicheol was sent to the Hunter"s residence but could not find him. The Second Management Division Chief began to worry if something had gone wrong.

"Well, not sure who"s worrying about whom."

Still, the man felt restless.

tap tap

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw Hunter Park Heejin behind to him.

"According to his little sister, he"s gone on a trip with a friend for about a week."

"Hunter Sung Jinwoo-nim?"

"Yes."

"If that"s the case… I don"t think the destination is on Earth."

"Huh?"

Park Heejin was taken aback. Ahn Sangmin quickly explained,

"There"s no record of him leaving the country. And there are also no records of him pulling funds or using his card from the bank."

"You can obtain that kind of information?"

"Well, it"s our job to keep an eye on Hunters."

"Oh my."

"On top of that, according to the a.s.sociation"s tracking records, the last place he was noted in was in the middle of the city, five days ago. Isn"t it all too mysterious?"

"Do you think he got kidnapped?"

The moment the words left her mouth, she realized how stupid they sounded. The pair met each other"s eyes and laughed.

Just who was Sung Jinwoo? He was the man who solo cleared a high-level Dungeon, a Red Gate at that. Ahn Sangmin scratched his cheek and spoke,

"If you want to nab Hunter Sung Jinwoo-nim, you"ll need to call in that Chinese special forces unit. The one solely comprised of Hunters."

Park Heejin nodded in agreement. Stifling his laughter, Ahn Sangmin became curious and asked a question,

"By the way, how did you find out that he was going on a trip?"

"Oh, it was Han Songyi. We still keep in touch. She goes to the same school as Sung Jinwoo-ssi"s little sister, so I asked her to find out."

"Aha…"

With that, the pair"s conversation was over. But they were thinking the same thing,

"Just where did the man go?"

Translator"s Notes:

[1]: Lots of item names

1. "Monarch of Demons" Earrings" (악마 군주의 귀고리): Pretty literal. The word used for "monarch" is the same words as "Monarch of Shadows". "Demon" 악마 + "monarch/king/lord" 군주 + "earrings" 귀고리. One thing to note here, just like "Shadow Monarch vs. Monarch of Shadows", 악마군주 is more closely read "Demon Monarch or Demonic Monarch". I am making a purposeful style choice to flip the words.

2. "Marble of Avarice" (탐욕의 구슬): Pretty literal. Same word "Avarice" as Volkhan"s t.i.tle. "greed/avarice" 탐욕 + "marble" 구슬

3. "Fragment of the World Tree" (세계수의 파편): Also literal. "world tree" 세계수 + "fragment" 파편. "World tree" can also refer to Yggdrasil from nordic mythology, but I don"t know if it fit the context of the story.

[2]: Original korean says the "Accessory Series of the Monarch of Demons" (악마 군주 장신구 시리즈). I styled it up a bit.