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nThe sole surviving Lycan, the one that flew over Jin-Woo’s head just now, lowered its tail after seeing this scene and began taking faltering steps backwards.

n“Huh….?”

nWas this the result from him raising his Strength Stat?

nThe utterly stunned Seong Jin-Woo couldn’t close his slack jaw as the headless Lycan’s legs shook like a leaf, before its movement stopped for good.

nThat was when he heard the familiar mechanical beep going off again.

nTti-ring.

nYou’ve killed an Iron-Fanged Lycan.

nLevel up!

n***

n“My level rose up?”

nTo make sure that he didn’t mishear that, Jin-Woo hurriedly accessed his Status Window.

nName: Seong Jin-Woo

nLevel: 2

nClass: None

nTitle: None

nHP: 205

nMP: 22

nTiredness: 0

nStat

nStrength: 32

nStamina: 11

nAgility: 11

nIntelligence: 11

nPerception: 11

n(Available points to distribute: 0)

nSkills

nPassive skills:

n– (Unknown) Lv. Max

n– Tenacity Lv. 1

nActive skills:

n– Dash Lv. 1

nHis level really did go up.

nAnd when a level went up, a single point was added to all of his Stats.

nAs it turned out, it wasn’t only the quest rewards that could impact the values of his Stats. It was also possible to improve his Stats through levelling up, too.

n‘To think, I can actually level up!’

nHe only carried a vague expectation, but it actually became reality. His heart began to beat faster and faster.

n‘On top of that, I get more additional points from levelling up.’

nThe Stat points he got from the quest rewards were 3. Meanwhile, he got 5 from levelling up once.

nAlthough he didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t freely distribute those points the way he liked to, but still, his growth through levelling up was much greater.

nAlso, there was the thing about quests only being available once per day, but there was a good chance that levelling up wouldn’t suffer from such restrictions.

n‘I only killed two, but my level rose up.’

nThis was the same as in video games. When his level was low, he could raise it up by a lot during a short space of time.

nAnd currently, Jin-Woo was only a level 2. It was not an exaggeration to say that he was right at the bottom of the pile. However, he was not what one would call a normal low-level player, either. His Strength stat already exceeded 30.

nIf the Strength stat rose up by one point every time one levelled up, then the Stat value of Jin-Woo’s Strength was equivalent to level 20 or higher.

nWhat if a ‘user’ possessing level 20’s worth of Strength stat hunted in the ‘level 1’ beginner’s hunting area?

n‘In other words, explosive levelling up….’

nAs if to prove his guess, the destructive might behind that punch easily exceeded his own expectations.

n‘The Strength stat might have been multiplied by just over three times, but…. The difference in actual, physical strength was well beyond that.’

nJin-Woo’s original Strength value was 10.

nThere was the difference of three times the value between the Strength stat of 10 and 30, but the difference between the actual forces produced was well beyond that.

n‘Could it be….?’

nWhat if, as the Stat’s value rose up, the weight was also added as well? If that was the case, then such a destructive power output could easily be explained away.

nBesides that, his movement speed had increased as well.

nIf it was in the past, there was no way he’d be able to lightly evade the all-out attack of an animal, nor could his punch move fast enough to produce the sound of the air splitting apart.

n“Right, the physical strength in my muscles has increased so, obviously my speed would have increased along the way, too.”

nSimply by raising his Strength stat higher, both his power and speed had gone up. The battle against the Lycans proved this.

nSo, what would happen if he increased his Agility, instead?

nHis curiosity was at its peak, but he didn’t have any method to find out at the moment. If he wanted to satisfy his burning curiosity, then he simply had to increase his Stats, ASAP.

n‘Even still….’

nHe couldn’t help but think that investing points he got as quest rewards in the Agility Stat kinda felt a bit wasteful. If he shored up his Strength Stat, both his power and speed would go up anyway, so what was the point of investing in the Agility Stat?

nSince his thoughts were as such, there was only one way to go forward here.

n‘I gotta level up lots of times, really fast.’

nIndeed, he’d raise the Agility Stat through levelling up. Every little cent saved would eventually net him a buck later down the line. If he increased the values one point at a time, he’d feel the difference sooner or later.

nJin-Woo pried loose the sword off the ground.

n‘In that case, shall I get started for real, then?’

nThere was one more monster he needed to kill, after all.

n“By the way…. Where did it disappear to?”

nThe Lycan that was definitely somewhere nearby had gone with the wind before he had noticed it. Jin-Woo hurriedly scanned his surroundings, but he couldn’t find a single trace of the creature.

nQuite likely, it had turned tail and ran away while he was immersed in the Status Windows. Well, he should’ve known something was up when it lowered its tail and cautiously studied his ‘mood’.

n“Tsk.”

nJin-Woo smacked his lips, realising that a bundle of experience points had just escaped from his grasp.

n‘Hang on, do these things give away things like magic crystals, too?’

nThe sudden thought popping up in his head stopped him in his tracks.

nMonsters appearing within the Gates all possessed one, or sometimes, several, magic crystals in them. If one got lucky, a Rune stone might drop, too.

nMagic crystals could be used for a variety of purposes and they alone exchanged hands for princely sums; no need to even mention the Rune stones, which could be used by Hunters to learn brand new skills.

nIt was not an exaggeration to say that the reasons why Hunters participated in raids was not just because of the promised payment from the related organisations, but also these magic crystals, as well.

nJin-Woo was also a Hunter.

nHe was successful in killing these monsters, so not being rewarded for his work kind of felt a bit like he was wronged somehow.

nFeeling a little rueful, he sliced open the Lycan’s stomach, but it turned out to be a waste of time. It seemed that these creatures were fundamentally different from the regular monsters.

nThe thing was, he had entered quite a few different dungeons in his career so far, but he had never seen these wolf-like monsters before.

nJin-Woo dusted his hands and was about to stand back up, but then….

n“Mm?”

nHe spotted something glittering within the dead Lycan’s mouth. So, he opened the creature’s maws. One of the Lycan’s fangs was emitting a beam of light. When Jin-Woo reached out, a new message popped up before him.

nYou found the ‘Item: The Canine of a Lycan’. Take it?

n“Sure thing.”

nItem: The Canine of a Lycan

nRarity: None

nType: Miscellaneous

nA large and sharp canine of a Lycan. Can be stored in the Inventory or can be sold at the Store.

nJin-Woo got flustered a bit while staring at the canine tooth.

n‘There was a Store, too?!’

nWhere would you find a System less friendly than the one he was saddled with?!

nTo think, it was designed in such a way that the end user had to personally experience it with his own body before learning about any of its functions….

nHell, he wasn’t given much of an explanation during the penalty quest and he almost died as a result back then.

nJin-Woo gnashed his teeth and tried to summon this ‘Store’ thing.

n“Store.”

nHe couldn’t help but feel his anticipation build up, wondering if a shop with a signboard declaring ‘Store’ and manned by an NPC merchant, kinda like from video games, might really appear before him.

nHowever, what appeared instead was a bunch of green letters floating in the air like hologram projections, just like when he accessed his mailbox.

nAnd there were only two words there, too.

n‘Buy’ and ‘Sell’.

n“…….”

nWhat a simple-tastic Store this was.

nJin-Woo selected ‘Buy’.

nHe didn’t have a single cent in his pockets, but he was still curious about the stuff available within the Store.

nUnfortunately for him, the Store turned out to be one cold customer.

nYour level is too low to access the ‘Buy’ function.

nHe was already familiar with the cold-shoulder treatment from the places that required him to pay up, so this was fine.

n“Sure, sure.”

nJin-Woo didn’t think too much about it and shifted his gaze away to ‘Sell’.

nWill you sell ‘Item: The Canine of a Lycan’?

n“Yup.”

nWith the clinging sounds of coins, his Inventory appeared next. Right at the bottom of the display, in the column saying ‘Gold’, he could see the number 20 appearing there. That space had been empty yesterday.

n’20 Gold, eh,’

nHe couldn’t really use that ‘money’ in real life, and he couldn’t even use the Store properly yet, so he had no idea just how much this 20 Gold was actually worth.

n‘Oh well. A creature from the rank E dungeon wouldn’t have given me any decent loot, to begin with.’

nEven if there was a difference between the dungeons found beyond the Gates and this so-called instant dungeon, it would be the same difference at the end of the day.

nStill, Jin-Woo wanted to make sure, so he was about to collect the canine from the other dead Lycan, but he ended up doing a facepalm, instead.

n“Ah. I blew away its entire head, didn’t I….”

nJin-Woo felt bitter as he turned around to go somewhere else.

n20 Gold and its unknown worth were calling back to him, but he couldn’t waste time searching for a single canine that could’ve flown to pretty much anywhere under this dim lighting.

nHowever, as soon as he turned around, the feelings of bitterness dissipated in an instant.

n“Growl!!”

n“Grrr….”

n“Growl!!”

n“Grrr!!!”

nWell now, the Lycan he thought had ran way actually came back with a bunch of its friends!

nA wonderfully bright smile bloomed on Jin-Woo’s face. Even at a casual glance, there must be over 20 of them here.

n“Eureka!!”

nHang on a minute, was that the right word to use in this sort of situation?

nWhatever.

nIt was definitely a word to express one’s joy, anyway.

nJin-Woo tightly grasped the sword and spoke up.

n“With the exception of your canines, I’m gonna massacre all of you.”

nWhen the chilling glare of a man who was obsessed about making money landed on the Lycans, they became intimidated and shuddered slightly.

nIt was at this point that Jin-Woo pounced on them without mercy.

n***

nLevel up!

nLevel up!

nLevel up!

nAs he expected, his levels rose up quite quickly.

nSimply from searching every nook and cranny of the first floor and killing all the Lycans he could find, Jin-Woo’s level shot right up to 7.

nHe had jumped up five flights of stairs, in other words.

n“Whimper…..”

nWhen he caught up and killed the very last monster running desperately away from him, a strange message popped up into his view.

nTti-ring.

nYou have acquired the ‘Title: Slaughterer of Wolves’.

n“A Title?”

nTitle: Slaughterer of Wolves

nA Title given to a hunter skilled in hunting wolves. When facing animal-type monsters, all of your Stats will increase by 40%. (TL: the ‘hunter’ is a lower case here, because that’s what’s in the raw. The ‘Hunters’ until now had been written in English, actually.)

nWhen he opened his Status Window to take a look, the ‘Title’ column indeed had been updated.

nName: Seong Jin-Woo

nLevel: 7

nClass: None

nTitle: Slaughterer of Wolves

nHP: 766

nMP: 81

nTiredness: 3

nStat

nStrength: 37

nStamina: 16

nAgility: 16

nIntelligence: 16

nPerception: 16

n(Available points to distribute: 0)

nSkills

nPassive skills:

n– (Unknown) Lv. Max

n– Tenacity Lv. 1

nActive skills:

n– Dash Lv. 1

nA bonus boost to his stats when fighting against animal-type monsters….

nAlthough the effect was a bit restricted, still, having his Stats increase by 40%, now that didn’t sound too bad at all.

n‘There are plenty of animal-type monsters out there, so would this apply to them as well?’ (TL: the author had been using the Hanja word for monsters to describe those found in the Gate’s dungeons until now, but the creatures found in the instant dungeon are written in the English word, ‘monster’. That’s why we get this line.)

nIf that was the case, then he’d be able to easily kill monsters when participating in the future raids.

nHowever, he still earned big time even when disregarding his new Title.

n’34 wolf canines, two rusted daggers, a set of traveller’s clothes, and one return crystal.’

nWhile killing these wolves, he learned that he could sometimes find loot from their bellies. Of course, none of them was all that useful.

nThe rusted daggers possessed lower attack power bonus compared to the sword he’d been using until now, and the traveller’s clothes were not something he could actually wear, but just some random japtem (ED: ‘Vendor Trash’, essentially.) that he could hawk off to the Store.

nWhen he sold them all off, he earned just over a thousand Gold.

nCurrent Gold: 1,060

n‘….Even then, I can’t really celebrate, can I?’

nWell, no matter how much he hoarded this Gold thing, he couldn’t use them anyways. At least not for now.

nThe only thing remaining, besides the Gold, was the return crystal. When he was trying desperately to escape from the dungeon back then, the message said he’d need a return crystal if he wanted to leave. And now, if he wanted to, he could escape at any time.

nHe found himself on a crossroads.

nIn front, the stairs leading down to the second floor.

nAnd in his hand, a single return crystal grasped tightly.

n‘Do I continue on, or do I back out….?’

nIf it was in the past, he’d not hesitate and choose the latter. That was how he managed to survive all those raids with his pathetic Stats. Everyone said that him surviving until now was a miracle, but well, he was trying to be smart about his choices, actually.

nHowever, the story was different now.

nHe didn’t want to retreat here.

nHe felt that, if he turned away to leave now, then he’d never be able to take another step forward in his life.

n“I’ve retreated enough times already, right?”

nWouldn’t it be okay for him to jump in headlong, at least once in his life?

nJin-Woo pocketed the return crystal. His steps climbing down the steps to the 2nd floor was light.

n< Chapter 14 > Fin.

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