Solo Leveling, Vol. 1, page 10
Then came that familiar notification bell.
Ping!
[You have defeated a Steel-Fanged Lycan.]
[You have leveled up!]
“I leveled up?”
Wondering if he’d misheard something, Jinwoo hurriedly brought up his stat screen.
[Name: Jinwoo Sung]
[Job: None]
[HP: 205]
[Fatigue: 0]
[Level: 2]
[Title: None]
[MP: 22]
[Stats]
Strength: 32
Stamina: 11
Agility: 11
Intelligence: 11
Perception: 11
(Available ability points: 0)
[Skills]
Passive skill: (Unknown) Lv.Max, Willpower Lv.1
Active skill: Dash Lv.1
His level really had gone up! And it looked like leveling up meant one point was added to each of his stats. That meant rewards from quests weren’t the only way to upgrade his abilities. He could increase them by leveling up as well.
I can’t believe it!
The impossible had been confirmed to be possible right before his eyes. His heart started racing in excitement.
On top of that, I get more ability points by leveling up.
Completing a quest gave him three ability points. Leveling up gave him five. While he didn’t particularly care for not having the option to personally distribute the points, leveling up seemed to be a better way to increase his stats. Plus, quests were currently limited to one per day, but there was a higher chance that there was no limit for leveling up.
My level increased just by defeating two of these creatures.
This was how it worked in video games. People usually leveled up faster in earlier stages.
Jinwoo was currently level 2. It was safe to assume he was at the bottom.
But he wasn’t an ordinary low-level Player—his strength stat was already over thirty. If each level-up raised his stats by one, Jinwoo’s strength was equal to that of a level-20 person. What would happen if a user with a level-20 ability decided to go hunting in a level-1 hunting ground?
I’m overpowered……
The unexpected destructive power of his punch proved his theory.
Even though my strength stat is three times higher than what I started with……I’m more than three times stronger!
Jinwoo had started with a strength stat of ten. Strength at ten versus strength at thirty… The number had tripled, but the power he’d demonstrated was much more than three times his starting point.
Maybe……?
Maybe his power was increasing exponentially as his stats went up? That would explain this destructive power.
His movements had gotten faster as well. Before, he wouldn’t have been able to dodge the lycan that had come barreling at him so easily, nor would his punch have made that whistling sound.
“Then again, makes sense that my speed would go up when strength increases.”
Raising his strength stat developed his muscles, which in turn raised both his power and speed. The battle with the lycans had demonstrated this.
But then what would change if he raised his agility stat? He was dying to find out, but there was no way of doing so now. To accomplish it, he’d have to increase the stat.
But……
He felt it was a waste to use the ability points received from quests on agility. Why squander resources there when raising strength increased both his power and speed in one go?
That left only one other way.
I need to level up as quickly as possible.
He had to in order to increase agility. Every journey begins with the first step. He’d see a difference someday as long as he kept compounding it by one.
Jinwoo finally pulled the sword out of the ground.
Should I get going, then?
There was one more lycan left to kill.
“Hmm…… Where’d it go?”
The lycan that had been there not too long ago had disappeared. Jinwoo searched thoroughly nearby but couldn’t find a trace of it. It had probably escaped while Jinwoo was distracted by his stat screen. Thinking back, its tail had been down, and it’d been eyeing him for a chance to flee.
“Tsk.”
He pursed his lips in disappointment at the thought of losing a chance at gaining experience points. He was about to move on when it occurred to him.
Do these things not have essence stones?
He abruptly stopped.
Magic beasts found in gates had at least one essence stone in their body, if not several. If you were lucky, you might also get a rune stone from one. Both rune stones, which held hidden skills that hunters could learn, and essence stones, which had a variety of uses, could fetch a high price. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that hunters went on raids not just for the basic pay from the association but also to harvest essence stones.
Jinwoo was no different. He was disappointed to find no such items despite his success today.
Just in case, he cut open the dead lycan’s stomach, but it was a waste of time. These things were totally different from the magic beasts he knew. He’d been in many dungeons in his time but had never seen a magic beast that resembled a wolf.
Jinwoo shook his hand clean as he stood up.
“Hmm?”
Something shiny in the lycan’s mouth caught his attention. He forced its jaw open. One of its teeth was shining.
When Jinwoo extended his hand toward it, a message popped up.
[You have discovered Item: Lycan Fang. Would you like to acquire it?]
“Acquire.”
[ITEM: LYCAN FANG]
Acquisition Difficulty: None
Category: Miscellaneous
A lycan’s large, sharp fang. It can be placed in the inventory or sold in the shop.
Jinwoo blinked at the fang in his hand.
There’s a shop?
This system really wasn’t user-friendly! A user had to figure things out on their own as they experienced different scenarios. The worst offender had been the penalty quest, where he’d almost been killed with absolutely no explanation.
He angrily gnashed his teeth at the memory as he summoned the shop.
“Shop.”
He sort of expected a store with a large sign that said SHOP run by an NPC to appear out of thin air. All that popped up, though, was a hologram screen with green writing, similar to the other messages.
There were two words: Buy and Sell.
“……”
It was quite a simple setup.
Jinwoo chose to buy. He had no money, but he was curious about the shop’s inventory.
Alas, the system was very strict.
[You cannot buy anything at your level.]
He was used to being treated like dirt when it came to establishments that required payment.
“Yeah, yeah.”
He turned his attention to selling.
[Would you like to sell Item: Lycan Fang?]
“Sure.”
His inventory screen appeared with the sound of jingling coins. All the way at the bottom of the inventory, the space labeled gold had the number twenty written inside. It had been blank yesterday.
Twenty gold.
It wasn’t actual money he could use in real life, and he couldn’t buy anything in the shop yet, so he couldn’t really grasp how much twenty gold was worth.
I guess it’d be worth as much as something from an E-rank dungeon?
While an instance dungeon wasn’t the same as an actual dungeon, it had to be about the same level.
Jinwoo figured it’d be better to be safe than sorry and went to retrieve the other lycan’s fang but then face-palmed when he realized something.
“I crushed its head……”
His shoulders slumped as he changed direction. The lost twenty gold weighed heavily on Jinwoo’s mind even if he wasn’t sure how much they’d be worth, but he couldn’t justify wasting time looking for a fang that could be anywhere in this darkness.
His disappointment quickly dissipated when he turned around.
Grrraaar.
Grrr.
Grrrr!
Grar!
The lycan he thought had run away had come back with reinforcements! A delighted smile bloomed on Jinwoo’s face. There appeared to be at least twenty of them.
“Eureka!”
Was this the right time to use that word? Well, whatever. It was definitely used when expressing happiness.
He gripped his sword tightly. “I’ll beat every last one of you to a pulp and leave only your fangs.”
The lycans flinched in fear at the murderous glint in the eyes of this man who was hungry for cash. Then Jinwoo leaped toward them.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
Jinwoo’s level shot up quickly, as he’d expected. He’d already reached level 7 after scouring the first floor and exterminating all the lycans. He’d jumped up five levels.
Whiiiine!
An odd message popped up after he killed the last lycan, which was trying to run away with its tail between its legs.
Ping!
[You have acquired Title: Wolf Assassin.]
“Title?”
[TITLE: WOLF ASSASSIN]
A title given to those skilled at hunting wolves. When battling an animal-type monster, all abilities will increase by 40 percent.
When he opened his stat screen, his title had changed.
[Name: Jinwoo Sung]
[Job: None]
[HP: 766]
[Fatigue: 3]
[Level: 7]
[Title: Wolf Assassin]
[MP: 81]
[Stats]
Strength: 37
Stamina: 16
Agility: 16
Intelligence: 16
Perception: 16
(Available ability points: 0)
[Skills]
Passive skill: (Unknown) Lv.Max, Willpower Lv.1
Active skill: Dash Lv.1
An ability boost when fighting against animal-type monsters. It was limited to only a certain type of target, but a 40 percent boost would still be a big help.
Will this apply to animal types in regular dungeons, too?
If that was true, he’d be able to defeat the magic beasts in a raid with just a snap of his fingers.
In any case, Jinwoo had managed to gather quite a haul.
Thirty-four lycan fangs, two dull daggers, a traveler’s cloak, and a transportation stone.
He’d discovered that items could occasionally be found in a dead lycan’s stomach. Unfortunately, none of them seemed very useful. The dull daggers didn’t have much attack power compared to his steel sword, and the traveler’s cloak was less a clothing item and more of a miscellaneous item to sell to the shop.
He ended up receiving more than 1,000 gold for selling everything.
[Balance: 1,060 gold]
But I’m not particularly happy about it……
No matter how much gold he saved, he had nowhere to spend it.
The only thing left was the teleportation stone. Back at exit three, when he’d made a fuss about leaving, he’d received a message that said he could leave once he found a teleportation stone. He could leave here if he wanted.
He had two options now. The stairs leading down to the second underground floor were right in front of him. And he had the teleportation stone in his hand.
Push forward or retreat…?
The old Jinwoo would’ve chosen to wait until his next opportunity without hesitation. That was how he’d survived so many raids despite his dismal abilities. People said it was a miracle, but it was actually due to smart decision-making.
However, things were different now. He didn’t want to go back. If he gave up now, he felt like he’d never be able to move forward.
“I’ve done a lifetime’s worth of retreating.”
Shouldn’t he try to clash with what was ahead for once in his life?
He put the teleportation stone back in his pocket. His footsteps as he headed down to the second floor were as light as air.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
Unlike regular dungeons, monsters respawned in instance dungeons. Those on the first basement floor respawned while Jinwoo wiped out the ones on the second basement floor and vice versa.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
Jinwoo went back and forth between the first and second underground floors, defeating monsters until his level no longer increased.
Since I don’t know when I’ll get this kind of opportunity again…
At a certain point, he’d even memorized where and how monsters would come out and attack him.
“A monkey falls from the ceiling.”
He swiftly avoided the long claws of the monkey-like monster dropping from overhead and stabbed it in the chest.
Eeeek!
“Cats on both the left and right side.”
He beheaded the two black leopards that attacked him from either side.
Rrraaagh!
Grah!
[You have defeated a Razor-Clawed Briga.]
[You have defeated a Black-Shadow Razan.]
[You have defeated a Black-Shadow Razan.]
That was the end of the second underground floor. Jinwoo had cleared the floor once more, but it had been a while since his stats had frozen at level 15. It seemed like this was as far as he could progress on these floors.
“Stats.”
[Stats]
Strength: 45
Stamina: 24
Agility: 24
Intelligence: 24
Perception: 24
(Available ability points: 0)
By level 15, his stats had increased quite a bit.
His agility was almost at twenty-five. He’d clearly realized the difference between strength and agility once the latter had surpassed twenty.
Agility didn’t make Jinwoo faster but rather made it seem like his opponents were moving slower.
It’s like everything’s in slo-mo.
When a monkey fell from the ceiling or a leopard leaped toward him, they looked slowed down. It felt like he was seeing everything move frame by frame. This made it easy to avoid monsters as well as successfully pull off attacks. As advertised, he’d become more “agile.”
Speed was relative. As his agility stat went up, the gap between his and his opponents’ skills widened to the point where, to them, it looked like he was moving at superhuman speeds.
If my strength and agility keep increasing, that combo is going to be incredible.
That was the conclusion he reached regarding the agility stat.
“So…” Jinwoo turned his head. “…What should I do about that?”
He was looking at the stairs going down to the third underground floor. There was a reason he’d kept to the first and second basement floors even though there was a clear path to the third.
I’ve got chills…
As his perception stat increased, he detected more and more of a foreboding aura coming from the third underground floor.
Something powerful was down there. He didn’t need to see it to know that.
Jinwoo remembered the message he heard at the exit.
—You cannot leave the dungeon. You must either kill the boss or use a teleportation stone.
The big boss…
Jinwoo had kept going back and forth between the first and the second floors in order to level up as much as he could in preparation for taking out the boss. Even though he’d done that much preparation, he still felt nervous at the top of the stairs.
Jinwoo lightly slapped his cheeks.
Since I’m already here, I can’t go back without at least seeing its face, can I?
A healthy dose of stress was necessary to keep him on his toes. This was just the right amount.
Jinwoo gripped his sword with both hands and slowly descended the stairs.
5
BOSS ROUND
Why did it seem like there were more steps than usual?
Jinwoo licked his dry lips.
It was way darker here than on the first and second floors, but he had no problem seeing.
Maybe because of the perception stat?
He felt like his eyesight was much better than before.
He cautiously went down a bit farther and spotted the subway tracks. Or rather, he could see the space where the tracks were supposed to be. Instead of rails, the area was filled with black water.
What is that?
It didn’t look like a subway track…… More like a river or stream.
It happened the moment Jinwoo took a step forward for a closer look. In the blink of an eye, a large log-shaped object burst out of the water.
FFFSSSHHH!
Coming in hot!
What suddenly appeared before him was no log. It was a snake as thick as one.
“Whoa!”
Jinwoo hurriedly swung his sword at its head.
KLAAANG!
Jinwoo looked incredulous. “What the—?”
He was able to knock the charging snake’s head away from him, but his sword shattered. Shocked, he turned back.
Surprised by the counterattack, instead of rushing into its next strike, the snake stayed coiled up at a distance and glared at Jinwoo.
[King of the Swamp, Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka]
Jinwoo could clearly see its name floating in red letters. This snake was much faster and stronger than any of the ordinary monsters whose names had appeared in white letters.
