I Alone Level-Up

Even as the bugs continuously bit and tore away at his defense, Hw.a.n.g Dongseok calmly waited for the moment of opportunity. He wanted to make sure the aggro was focused on him even when the Dealers began their counterattack.

"This should be good enough!"

Now would begin the real hunt. The bugs would learn why Hunters are called Hunters!

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok roared with strength,

"Deal!"

In response to the single word, the entire team"s firepower rained upon the bugs.

screech-!

screeeeeech-!

The cry of the magic beasts rang forth here and there. As part of the Raid agreement, Jinwoo watched the party"s battle from the rear. As he a.n.a.lyzed the battle, he imagined how he would fight against the bugs.

"How frustrating…"

He suppressed the urge to step forward. There were too many openings in the magic beasts; unfortunately, many of the Hunters seemed to miss those openings completely. Yet, he was forced to stand in the back, doing nothing. It was frustrating.

Nonetheless, the damage to Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s team was minimal. Their teamwork was that good. It appeared that the carefree att.i.tude Hw.a.n.g Dongseok maintained before the Raid was not for nothing.

"Jinseok, 11 o"clock!"

"Hyung, from the right, too!"

"Joontae, Sukmin, Gyuhwan! Take the right!"

"Yessir!"

"Cheoljin, your wrist is swelling. Get to the rear!"

"Hw.a.n.g hyung, I can handle this much!"

"You think we"ll be done after this? We don"t know how many more battles are waiting here, don"t go all out from the start! Control your pace!"

"Alright, alright, I got it!"

Having been through many battles together, even their conversations showed experience. Proper communication in battle was the key to teamwork. Compared to the chaotic formations of the a.s.sociation"s Hunters, these men were different.

"Even he"s doing just fine."

Jinwoo looked over to Yoo Jinho. As a magic beast crashed into his s.h.i.+eld, Jinho kicked away the bug and swung his sword. The expensive blade cut straight through its head. Even as a mere D-rank Hunter, Jinho was putting up a good fight.

"I guess the equipment"s covering for his lack of power and experience."

There was a reason why Hunters sought good equipment.

Meeting his eyes, Yoo Jinho made a thumbs-up at Jinwoo.

"…"

Relenting under Jinho"s bright and hopeful gaze, Jinwoo returned a thumbs-up back at the young man. Yoo Jinho looked satisfied.

screeee-

Regardless, the battle was nearing its end. As the rest of the party cleaned up the remaining magic beasts, Hw.a.n.g Dongseok ordered his subordinates,

"Grab all the magic cores! We"ll be dividing it up exactly 9 ways."

"Yessir."

"This is my favorite part."

"Me too."

Watching his teammates work happily, Hw.a.n.g Dongseok approached Jinwoo.

"Oh boy, I gotta thank you for that."

"Hmm?"

"You"re the one who shouted the warning in the beginning, right? How did you know?"

"Just a… gut feeling."

Jinwoo made up an explanation. He could not say that it was due to his raised sense stat.

"Ah, is that so? A gut feeling. You got some luck in ya. If we were just a step late in discovering them… phew-"

Suddenly, one of the Hunters who was going through the corpses gestured to Hw.a.n.g Dongseok.

"Hw.a.n.g hyung, come take a look at this."

His subordinates were gathered around something. Hw.a.n.g Dongseok headed towards them.

"What is it?"

"There"s something off about these guys."

The Hunters parted to make room for Hw.a.n.g Dongseok. He sat down and looked over what they were pointing at. There wasn"t anything wrong at a first glance; it was just dead bugs.

"What"s off about them?"

One of his subordinates pointed to the leg of one of the bugs. Its end showed traces of being torn off messily.

"That wound, I don"t think it"s from us."

"…"

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s forehead wrinkled. After taking a closer look, he noted,

"Looks like… it was bitten off by something."

"Right? And this isn"t the only one. Look, this one. And that one too. This one even had a wing ripped off. I think they were like this before they fought us."

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s face hardened. Despite their numbers, it did feel like the magic beasts went down easier than expected.

"Were they… fighting each other before this?"

In that moment, it was very brief, but Jinwoo felt the 8 Hunters" gaze fall on him. When they saw that he was looking, they quickly turned back. With that, Jinwoo became sure.

"As I thought…"

His first intuition was correct. Their good teamwork was indicative of their long history together. But how was it that they came this far without a Healer? No matter how good they were, people were p.r.o.ne to making mistakes from time to time. Even just now, if it wasn"t for Jinwoo, their formation would"ve broken down at the sudden appearance of the bugs.

The pieces of the puzzle fell together in Jinwoo"s head, and a smile appeared on his lips.

"I might be able to make use of them…"

As long as they moved according to his expectations.

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok chuckled as he got up,

"Now, now. Let"s keep going. Looks like we won"t have any issues if it"s just this level."

His loud voice was not for the benefit of his teammates; they were right next to him, after all.

In the meantime, Yoo Jinho approached Jinwoo with a wide smile.

"Hyung, did you see that? You saw me, right? I just wooshed! And bam! All these magic beasts-"

He swung his sword around with a flourish.

Jinwoo ask him,

"Your sword and s.h.i.+eld, they"re quite expensive, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. My father took special care on me when he heard that I was going on my first Raid."

"You"ll have to be careful, too, then."

Jinwoo patted Yoo Jinho"s back, then headed after the other Hunters.

"Huh?"

With a confused look, Yoo Jinho followed after him.

-

The party traveled deeper into the cave but did not come across any more magic beasts. As a Dungeon with a long single path, it couldn"t have been that they had went around any.

"Were the ones at the entrance it?"

"Nah, there"s no way."

"How strange."

"There should at least be a boss, right?"

"You think a Gate would open up with no boss in it?"

The Hunters exchanged different opinions back and forth as they walked through the large but empty Dungeon.

"Hold up."

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok stopped the party. At his sudden action, few people b.u.mped into each other as they stopped. The Hunter who smacked his face into Hw.a.n.g Dongseok"s back asked as he rubbed his nose,

"Ow, Hw.a.n.g hyung, what is it?"

"Gyuhwan, s.h.i.+ne your light here."

Jo Gyuhwan moved his ball of light from their rear to the area where Hw.a.n.g Dongseok was indicating.

"Holy s.h.i.+t…"

"They"re all…"

The Hunters let out quiet groans.

Insect wings, legs, bodies and even heads were littered across the ground. Corpses of the bug type magic beasts were everywhere. The dead bodies piled up more and more deeper into the cave, and at the end of the tunnel:

"It"s the boss room."

Someone uttered. Hw.a.n.g Dongseok nodded in agreement.

"Everyone, gears out."

They responded immediately, faces filled with nervousness. The party quietly sneaked towards the boss room, with Hw.a.n.g Dongseok at the vanguard. Suddenly, the man who had b.u.mped into Hw.a.n.g Dongseok exclaimed,

"Holy- holy s.h.i.+t!"

It was the height of stupidity to make loud noises in a Dungeon; it would only serve to attract magic beasts that could"ve been avoided. But n.o.body rebuked the Hunter who had shouted.

"Who"

"How much would all this be?"

"This is a big score!"

They were all exclaiming in admiration.

"Hold."

As Jo Gyuhwan"s light lit up the area from above, what the Hunters had discovered in the room became clearer. A large amount of jewel like rocks were embedded on the walls.

"It"s mana crystals![1]"

"The entire wall is filled with them!"

The Hunters" eyes sparkled brighter than the light reflecting off the mana crystals.

Mana crystals!

It was one of the treasures that could be found in Dungeons. Although they contained less magic power than the magic cores from magic beasts, they were normally found in large amounts. Mining them would result in an impressive income for a raiding party. The amount that the party had come across was even more impressive; the entire wall was filled to the brim with crystals.

"By my rough estimates…"

One of the Hunters, quick with his calculations, started counting the crystals.

"If we got all of it out, it"d be roughly 1 billion. If we divided it by 9 shares, each person could walk away with over a 100 million."

A big smile appeared on the Hunters listening. Suddenly, Yoo Jinho, who was standing next to Jinwoo, poked Jinwoo"s sides with his elbows.

"Hyung, give me your contract for a second."

"The contract? What for?"

"Just trust me, I"m pretty good with these kinds of things."

Jinwoo shrugged and handed his contract over. Yoo Jinho took it and walked over to Hw.a.n.g Dongseok.

"Excuse me, sunbae-nims[2], I have something I want to say."

He unfolded and held out the contract for all to see.

"Leader, this is Jinwoo hyung"s contract. As you can see, there"s nothing in here about being excluded from mana crystals, only mana cores."

Everyone understood what Yoo Jinho was trying to say. It was standard agreement that income from treasures and artifacts would be divided evenly across all members of the raiding party. This was different than magic cores only going to those who took down the magic beasts. As such, the mana crystals should be divided up 10 ways, not 9.

The look in the other Hunters" faces changed, but Hw.a.n.g Dongseok stepped in front of them with a smile.

"Of course, we"ll divide it up across all of us. I know this. But there"s something we have to take care of first."

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok pointed forward with his finger. Yoo Jinho got startled for a second; he thought the man was pointing at him. But turning around, he saw a giant spider resting in a faraway corner.

"Whoa…!"

Yoo Jinho started walking backwards after discovering the creature and covered his mouth. Thankfully, the spider did not move; it appeared to be sleeping. The lifeless husks of bugs littered its surroundings. The half-eaten corpses reminded the Hunters of leftover food sitting at the bottom of a garbage can.

"It"s the boss."

"Was it the one that ate all those bugs?"

"He sure had a feast."

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok gathered the Hunters, including Jinwoo and Yoo Jinho.

"As you"re all aware, if the boss goes down, the Gate will start closing. So why don"t we mine all the mana crystals before we take the spider down?"

They all nodded in agreement.

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok turned to a bald Hunter.

"Cheoljin, did you grab the gear?"

Lee Cheoljin shook his head.

"No. Who would"ve thought to find mana crystals in a C-rank Dungeon? I left all the mining gear back in the car."

"You punk… Didn"t I tell you to be prepared at all times?"

"Sorry, sorry. Really sorry."

Lee Cheoljin apologized to everyone with a smile.

Hw.a.n.g Dongseok scratched his head and spoke,

"Sigh, this is going to be a ha.s.sle. Can you two stay here while we go grab the equipment?"

Translator"s Notes:

[1]: "mana crystals" (마나석): "mana" in english + "stone/rock" 석. Stylized the translation into "crystals" because of their s.h.i.+niness.

[2]: "sunbae-nim" (선배님): "sunbae" is a Korean word used to address one"s seniors in the same profession. In rare cases where someone younger than you was at the company longer than you were, that person would still be your "sunbae". "Nim" is added with respect occasionally. j.a.panese equivalent = senpai.