Solo Leveling, Vol. 1, page 12
On top of that, I got a very useful dagger with a bunch of debuffs and tons of gold, even if I’m not sure how to use them yet……
He didn’t bother counting the strange poison as part of the day’s achievements.
All in all, his raid on the instance dungeon had been a big success.
People who leave home early in the morning are usually careful not wake up their family, and so Jinah locked the door quietly so as not to disturb her brother, who was usually in a deep sleep at this time of the day. But when she turned around…
“Going to school?”
“Huh?”
Jinah’s head jerked up, startled by the voice coming from nearby.
Jinwoo was jogging slowly toward her. He was dressed in sweats and running shoes. With the way he had his hood pulled down low, it looked like he’d been out jogging.
Jinah’s naturally big eyes got even bigger.
“Wait. You were already up?”
“Been up for a while. Look out for traffic.”
“R-right……”
She watched, confused, as her brother went inside the apartment.
Huh. He actually got up before me.
Jinwoo wasn’t lazy by any means. Rather, Jinah tended to wake up unusually early for someone her age, so she was often the first in the family to start the day.
Somehow……
She got the feeling that her brother’s back seemed wider than before, but that didn’t make sense. The human body wasn’t an elastic band that could get bigger or smaller in the span of a few days.
I’m probably just seeing things.
She was shaking her head when Jinwoo suddenly handed her an umbrella.
“What’s this for?”
Jinah took the umbrella and stared up at the sky. It was the crack of dawn and consequently still dark outside, but the sky looked pretty clear.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s gonna rain.”
“Take it with you.”
“But it’s heavy.”
“Take it anyway. It’s a folding umbrella, so it’s not that heavy. Don’t be a baby.”
Slam.
He closed the door on her.
“What the—? So bossy.” Jinah lightly kicked the door to show her disapproval but shoved the umbrella in her bag and headed off.
Wait……
She mentally calculated where her brother’s eye level had just been.
That was weird. It was definitely higher than before.
“Do men get taller even in their twenties?”
Nah, that couldn’t be it. She shook her head again and hurried off to school.
Click.
Meanwhile, Jinwoo locked the door and called up his inventory as he walked into the apartment.
“Storage.”
Storage, inven, inventory. He’d found out after a few experiments, but the command word didn’t matter as long as the meaning got across.
It was the same when opening his inbox. Open, access, reveal, etc. As long as the command word indicated that the inbox should open, it worked.
He stuffed the umbrella he’d acquired from today’s mystery box in his digital inventory.
“Another dud.”
It had been four days since he’d first entered an instance dungeon. He hoped for another key to an instance dungeon every time he opened a mystery box, but it seemed to be a pretty uncommon item, and he hadn’t gotten another yet.
That’s that for now.
He went to his bedroom and sat on the edge of his bed. He had a decision to make today.
“Stats.”
[Stats]
Strength: 48
Stamina: 27
Agility: 27
Intelligence: 27
Perception: 27
(Available ability points: 12)
He’d been accumulating ability points for the past four days. He hadn’t missed one daily quest, and of course, he’d made sure to accept every single reward. He hadn’t been distributing the ability points, though.
The problem was…
“…It’s too hard.”
Indeed, he was finding it too difficult to make a decision.
Strength. A good stat. He’d never regret investing any points there.
Agility. Also a good stat. Agility didn’t matter against a weak enemy, but it was crucial for the high-rank ones, since speed was relative.
Then there were stamina and perception. Stamina was obviously better the higher it was, and perception was proving more useful than he’d expected.
Intelligence.
……Well, there lay the problem. It was the only stat whose function he wasn’t sure of. Even though it had increased quite a bit, he didn’t feel any smarter than when he’d started. He hadn’t gotten any better at memorization or math.
This stat’s probably related to magic, but……
Perhaps he didn’t need that one quite yet. That still left four, though—strength, agility, stamina, and perception.
“Still too difficult to choose……”
Eliminating one option hadn’t helped at all. He just couldn’t be sure.
He knew that strength and agility worked well together. Being able to deal a lot of damage was useless if he couldn’t hit a target. And vice versa, being able to hit a target was pointless if he couldn’t deal much damage. He could regard strength and agility as a set.
It’d be a good idea to increase agility to the same level as strength.
If he increased agility, stamina wouldn’t be as important for now. Agility and stamina weren’t very compatible. With his agility up, there was less of a chance he’d get injured, but stamina was only really useful when he was in a position to receive a lot of damage.
I can’t not invest in stamina, but……
It seemed inefficient to increase agility and stamina simultaneously.
With that, he’d finally decided on the order of importance. First was agility, second was perception, and stamina was third. Since he’d already invested heavily in strength, he’d put it on the back burner, and since he was planning to increase agility, it made more sense to raise perception instead of stamina for now.
With that in mind, Jinwoo first added two points to strength.
Ping!
[Stats]
Strength: 50
Stamina: 27
Agility: 27
Intelligence: 27
Perception: 27
(Available ability points: 10)
He wanted to start off by hitting fifty points for strength. It had been on Jinwoo’s mind for a while now.
Next, he spent eight points on agility.
[Stats]
Strength: 50
Stamina: 27
Agility: 35
Intelligence: 27
Perception: 27
(Available ability points: 2)
There was no special meaning to this. He simply wanted to make the stats multiples of five.
I prefer having them as multiples of five over some other random number. It looks cleaner……
Strength was fifty, and agility was thirty-five. Having them as multiples of five was an arbitrary decision on Jinwoo’s part, but he felt a small sense of satisfaction looking at them.
And the last two points…
Jinwoo invested the rest on perception. With that, he finished distributing his points.
[Stats]
Strength: 50
Stamina: 27
Agility: 35
Intelligence: 27
Perception: 29
(Available ability points: 0)
It irked him slightly that he hadn’t been able to get perception to an even thirty.
I know I had no choice because I ran out of points, but…
He was content with everything else. He was okay with increasing stamina and intelligence by leveling up.
“So I guess that’s it?”
It’s hard to be 100 percent satisfied with any one thing. Given that this was the result of much deliberation, though, Jinwoo was pretty happy with the results.
That was when the phone in the living room rang.
Riiing, riiing!
Could it be the association?
The old Jinwoo would’ve gone as long as he could without answering because he didn’t want to get called on a raid, but the new Jinwoo was itching to test his abilities on magic beasts.
He quickly picked up the receiver.
“This is Hunter Jinwoo Sung.”
“Ah, you finally answered.”
The phone call wasn’t from the association. Jinwoo felt somewhat disappointed.
“Kiddo, why’s it so hard to reach you these days?”
The voice coming over the phone was very familiar to Jinwoo. He hadn’t been referred to as a kid since he’d graduated from high school four years ago, but his landlord had known Jinwoo since childhood, so he still called him “kiddo.”
“I’m sorry, sir. I was in the hospital due to an accident.”
“Tsk, tsk. I see, so that’s why. So, uh, kiddo…… I haven’t received the rent for this month yet, but if this month is looking tight, I can push it back a month or two.”
“That’s okay, sir. I’ll transfer the money today.”
“All right, then. Don’t work too hard. I know you’re taking good care of your mom and sister. Money’s important, but make sure to take care of yourself.”
“Yes, thank you for your concern.”
The phone call ended.
Jinwoo took a bank statement out from a drawer. The balance read 800,000 won.
“Haaah…” He couldn’t help but sigh. Once he paid the rent, 500,000 won, the budget for the rest of the month would be 300,000 won.
The rent was only 500,000 won because the apartment building was an older, shabby structure located outside of Seoul, and the gracious landlord hadn’t raised the rent since a few years ago due to the unfortunate situation of Jinwoo’s family. These days, it would be difficult to find a place to rent for only 500,000 won.
It would be even more difficult to live a month with only 300,000 won.
“I need to make some money soon.”
Jinwoo had a clear goal for now. He wasn’t the same guy who, just a few days ago, had been afraid of and struggled to kill a single E-rank beast.
How did hunters make money? The best way was by killing a magic beast.
S- or A-rank hunters received sponsorships, shot commercials, and appeared on TV shows, so they raked in tons of cash, but that was a select minority of hunters. They were the elite few.
With the exception of those extremely high-rank hunters, most of them made their money from dungeons. Rank and experience—those were the two factors that determined a hunter’s earnings. For Jinwoo Sung, an E-rank hunter in the eyes of the association who had never experienced a dungeon higher than C rank, these were quite harsh guidelines.
Jinwoo grimaced.
Never mind the rules—it would be great if I could somehow join a strike squad……
He’d called several job postings on the hunters’ website, but they’d all been dead ends. No one wanted an E-rank hunter.
Most of those who posted these job openings were freelancers, so they tended to be extremely careful when forming their strike squads, as they’d often have to watch their own backs in fights. They were usually hunters who weren’t good enough to join a guild but were too skilled to stay with the Hunter’s Association. This made them outsiders.
I’ve heard that even those hunters make more than 10,000,000 won a month.
It was high-risk, high-return. They made big money in exchange for risking their lives. There was a reason hunters were often the targets of envy.
But it was frustrating for Jinwoo.
Would it be easier to get reevaluated and raise my rank?
He shook his head. No matter how many times he considered it, he concluded it would be a stupid thing to do.
An E-rank hunter becoming a high-rank hunter! It didn’t matter if it was a promotion to an A, B, or even C rank. A reawakening was always newsworthy.
People liked to gossip, and hunters were hot topics. When there were five mouths, there were also ten eyes. Meaning the more people talked about him, the more eyes there’d be on him. And since his abilities would keep increasing, it’d be only a matter of time before people found out his secret.
“A hunter who can keep increasing his abilities?”
“He gets stronger as time passes?”
“Which hunter is that?”
“How is that possible?”
“How can I be like him?”
He’d get way too much attention. There had never been a hunter like him. It would be inevitable that some of the people who showed interest would either want to use him or harm him.
And if those people are powerful……
He felt queasy just thinking about it.
He still wasn’t strong enough. Jinwoo didn’t want to reveal his secret until he was absolutely sure he could protect himself.
Getting reevaluated wasn’t an option.
But I still have to make money somehow.
It wasn’t like he could do some ordinary part-time job, since he didn’t know when the association might call him. He couldn’t pass up an opportunity to make money and gain experience at the same time via a dungeon just because he was too busy trying to make ends meet.
As he pondered what to do, a new job posting caught his eye.
—Urgent!! Hunters of any rank welcome as long as they get here quickly!
Jinwoo’s eyes lit up. A hot post that had just been uploaded. He quickly skimmed the details and noted it wasn’t far from home.
He gave them a call right away. The other side must’ve also been in a hurry, as they answered the phone before the first ring completed.
“Hello?”
Jinwoo gave a brief explanation of why he was calling and calmly awaited the other person’s response.
“Okay, so you’re an E rank?”
That wasn’t a bad reaction.
“That’s fine. We just need you to help meet a head count quota. But it’s a C-rank gate, so you might have difficulty hunting. We can divide the spoils among the rest of us and compensate you 2,000,000 won. What do you think? Can you get here right away?”
2,000,000 won for a day’s work!
That was a lot of money for helping to fill a quota. It was a pretty good deal. It was unfortunate he wouldn’t get a share of any other rewards from the dungeon, but he didn’t want to be greedy and potentially miss out on the 2,000,000 won.
Let’s put out the fire first.
This kind of opportunity didn’t come around often. 2,000,000 won was more than enough money to live on for a month.
Jinwoo accepted the offer. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
He was out the door in a second and flagged down a taxi to get to the meeting point.
There were already nine people waiting for him. A person who seemed to be the leader waved to Jinwoo.
“Over here! It’s this way.”
The guy was quite big and had a beard. He wore a friendly smile as he approached Jinwoo.
“Are you Jinwoo Sung?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, good. You found us with no problem. Why don’t we introduce ourselves, since we’ll be working together today?”
The bearded guy quickly introduced the other members. Eight of them, including the leader, were part of the same squad, and the last person had joined the team for the day just like Jinwoo.
Jinwoo scoped out his new squadmates as he greeted them. He had a good sense of what each member’s level was due to his increased perception stat.
Five of them seem to have similar ranks, and four of them have lower ranks. So five C rankers and four D rankers or lower.
There were rules to attacking a C-rank gate. There had to be a minimum of ten people in the party, and at least half the hunters needed to be C rank or higher. The association would give the green light once those conditions were met.
They weren’t kidding that Jinwoo really was just there to fill the quota.
“Now that introductions are out of the way, let me briefly go over some important points.”
The bearded man’s name was Dongsuk Hwang, and he’d told Jinwoo he was a C-rank tank. He had the composure of someone who had participated in a raid many times before.
While Dongsuk gave them a comprehensive overview of this mission, someone else approached Jinwoo.
“Um, I guess we’re the temps?”
It was a bright young man Dongsuk had brought in to fulfill the head count. He wasn’t a noncombat member like Jinwoo, though. He was a D-rank hunter and was expected to join the battle.
He was a twenty-two-year-old named Jinho Yoo.
He tried to greet Jinwoo, who merely nodded and purposefully looked away. Jinho had wanted to strike up a conversation but ended up awkwardly standing there at Jinwoo’s clear dismissal, so he rubbed the back of his neck and returned to his original position.
“Bro, that’s enough. Let’s get moving.”
“We’re going to kill everything anyway, so we don’t need any details.”
“Agreed. Our ears’ll bleed from all your nagging.”
As his squad teased him, Dongsuk clapped his hands and laughed. “Fine, I’ll stop here, and we can head in soon.”
Everyone started prepping to go inside.
“Oh, could you two please sign this?” Dongsuk handed Jinwoo and Jinho each a piece of paper.
It was a simple contract.
“Please write out your name and sign on the bottom.”
Jinwoo would be paid 2,000,000 won immediately but would not hunt or share in rewards. The stipulations were as per their phone conversation.
Rather than that, the very last condition caught Jinwoo’s eye.
I recognize that the party is not responsible for accidents that may occur inside the dungeon……
Unlike a raid hosted by the association, there was no other financial compensation provided for an individual raid. Because of this, insurance companies wouldn’t cover them. Hunters had to protect themselves.
It finally sank in that Jinwoo was legitimately part of a strike squad.
