Solo Leveling, Vol. 1, page 17
“How can I betray you? You saved my life a few times!”
“You could break your promise and tell people what happened here, no?”
Even if Jinho did, it wouldn’t be a big deal for Jinwoo. Killing Dongsuk’s squad had been in self-defense. All eight of them had been fully armed, and they’d attacked Jinwoo first with a powerful magic spell. The law had changed since the advent of hunters, so Jinwoo would be acquitted for sure.
Still, he wanted this incident to go away quietly without any trouble. To do that, he needed Jinho’s full cooperation. Even though his method for securing that cooperation was problematic, it was definitely effective.
“Well?” Jinwoo stared hard at Jinho as if demanding an answer.
The novice hunter was determined. “I’d never do such a cowardly thing. Especially to someone who saved my life.”
Wait……
The look in Jinho’s eyes was familiar. It was the same as when he’d refused to be an accomplice to Dongsuk and his men.
This guy…… He’s telling the truth.
Give-and-take. Jinho had chosen Jinwoo in a life-and-death situation. He’d trusted Jinwoo and gone against eight other hunters. So Jinwoo decided to trust Jinho this once.
Of course, not right away…… He’d give him a bit of a wake-up call first.
Jinwoo picked up the shield that Dongsuk had thrown on the ground.
“My back still hurts from getting stabbed by Dongsuk.”
He inspected the shield before throwing it at the wall with his full strength.
BAMMM!
More than half of it lodged in the wall. Jinho broke into a cold sweat and swallowed hard.
“My little bro won’t disappoint me, will he?”
“O-of course not, boss.”
Right then, the dungeon shook hard again.
RRRRRUMBLE.
They were out of time. Jinwoo never had any intention of harming Jinho, so he thought that was enough.
He ordered, “Pack up all the essence stones. We’re leaving the dungeon.”
“Thank you, boss!” Jinho stood up and gave a deep, ninety-degree bow. A smile returned to his face.
Jinwoo searched Dongsuk’s pockets while Jinho retrieved his bag.
Can’t forget my payment.
His fee for the day was 2,000,000 won. He didn’t want to leave even one cent.
There were a few dozen 50,000 won bills in Dongsuk’s wallet. He counted a total of forty-five bills. It was a little over 2,000,000 won.
Dongsuk had promised he would pay Jinwoo right after the raid, and it looked like he’d had the money ready. After all, sometimes there was no need to cut the tail.
“Thanks for the money.” Jinwoo said a last farewell that wasn’t heard by anyone and went on ahead.
Jinho belatedly returned, clutching the bag of essence stones.
“Boss?”
All he saw were the corpses of the hunters killed by Jinwoo.
“Eek!” A pale-faced Jinho ran to catch up to Jinwoo, hoping not to lose him.
A member of the Surveillance Team of the Hunter’s Association arrived at the scene.
The procedure was simple whenever hunters died in a raid. Deaths were reported, hunters were questioned, and that was it.
The investigator this time was a strict-looking middle-aged woman. “Your names, please.”
“Jinwoo Sung.”
“I’m Jinho Yoo.”
An investigation was no more than a formality, since hunters died so often. It was just for records’ sake.
Unless, of course, there was something suspicious.
“……So all the C-rank hunters were killed, but a D ranker and an E ranker survived; have I got that right?”
The investigator adjusted her glasses as she interviewed them. Her eyes narrowed.
Normally, the victim is the weakest in the group……
She was carefully looking them over when she spotted something, and she let out a squeal.
“Oh my!” Her eyes twinkled as she approached. “Isn’t this Kalion, the newest sword from Maya Inc.? Oh wow, and this is a Royal-series shield made by the craftsman Gredos, right?”
Jinho’s face lit up. “You know your weapons!”
“Oh, I don’t know them that well. I just keep up with what’s new. Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!”
The sword cost 700,000,000 won. The shield cost 500,000,000 won. These weapons were made with an exorbitantly expensive essence stone along with other valuable elements. They were powerful tools that could make a D-rank hunter more powerful than a C ranker.
A theory automatically formed in her mind as to what had happened in the dungeon.
With these weapons……
Defeating the magic beasts would be possible even if all the C-rank hunters were killed.
And that E ranker was probably able to save himself because he hid somewhere.
It was the complete opposite of the truth, but that was the conclusion she’d drawn. It was highly unlikely that anyone who could purchase pricey weapons like this would betray his colleagues for a few essence stones. And the E-rank hunter couldn’t have done anything to harm multiple C-rank hunters, so the deaths of Dongsuk and the seven other hunters had to have been accidents.
“Okay.” The investigator looked satisfied and put away her notebook. “With this, the case is closed, and you’re free to go. It must have been a tiring day, so thank you for cooperating with the investigation.”
“Thank you.” Jinwoo spoke for the both of them.
The investigator left the scene as quickly as she’d arrived.
“Good work, boss.” Jinho bowed deeply again. His impeccably good manners remained even outside the gate. It looked like he was really scared of Jinwoo.
Jinwoo tutted internally.
“You too.”
“No, I didn’t do anything. You did all the work. Here are the essence stones, boss.” Jinho politely handed the bag over to Jinwoo.
The bag was filled with essence stones. An essence stone from a C-rank dungeon could be worth up to 10,000,000 won. Even a small one could cost several million.
Jinwoo roughly counted the essence stones with his eyes and tried to contain his excitement.
How much is all this worth……?
He did his best not to laugh out loud.
Suddenly, drops of water fell inside the bag.
Plip.
Plip.
Jinwoo looked up. The sky had gradually gotten cloudier all afternoon, and it now started raining.
……Good thing I made Jinah take an umbrella.
A small smile came across Jinwoo’s face at the thought of his sister.
Later that night, Jinwoo summoned his stat screen as soon as he got home.
“Stats!”
[Stats]
Strength: 53
Stamina: 30
Agility: 38
Intelligence: 30
Perception: 32
(Available ability points: 10)
He had ten points that he’d received as a reward from the urgent quest. He was itching to use them. They were equivalent to the rewards for three daily quests plus one more point, or for leveling up twice.
First agility. Then perception.
He invested seven points in agility and the rest in perception.
[Stats]
Strength: 53
Stamina: 30
Agility: 45
Intelligence: 30
Perception: 35
(Available ability points: 0)
“Excellent.”
Overall, his abilities had increased significantly. Agility was almost equal to strength, and perception was at thirty-five points now. He was thinking of investing points in stamina once strength and agility were at a similar level. He wanted to balance all his stats except intelligence, which he still didn’t know how to use.
“Should I check out today’s achievements?”
[Name: Jinwoo Sung]
[Job: None]
[HP: 2,600]
[Fatigue: 0]
[Level: 21]
[Title: Wolf Assassin]
[MP: 390]
[Stats]
Strength: 53
Stamina: 30
Agility: 45
Intelligence: 30
Perception: 35
(Available ability points: 0)
[Skills]
Passive skill: (Unknown) Lv.Max, Willpower Lv.1
Active skill: Dash Lv.1, Murderous Intent Lv.1
His eyes zoomed in on his level, which had risen three times, and then on the newly acquired Murderous Intent skill. His stats were also in great shape, thanks to the ten points he’d just distributed.
All these things were remarkable accomplishments, but that wasn’t the end.
The daily fee alone was 2,000,000 won.
And he had a bag filled to the brim with essence stones. Jinwoo counted them.
Eleven essence stones from the spider and thirty-eight essence stones from Dongsuk’s team.
Forty-nine in total! Even if each stone was worth only 5,000,000 won, he’d still have over 200,000,000 won.
“I can’t believe I made two hundred million won from just one raid…”
It was a lot of money because he’d taken the shares of ten people all for himself. He’d unexpectedly gotten to have his cake and eat it, too.
All I need to do is sell these.
Selling essence stones wasn’t hard. They were snatched up as soon as they hit the market because there were so many buyers.
The problem was how he wanted to go about it. It was more common to sell to another hunter in a private transaction, but sometimes a guild or a company bought stones as well. Jinwoo was leaning toward a specialty store instead of doing private or online sales, since it was a big haul.
Can’t I just sell these in the shop?
It would be convenient if the shop in the system bought essence stones at a fair price. Jinwoo shoved the bag in a corner as he pondered.
He suddenly remembered something else he’d accomplished.
I can purchase something from there now, can’t I?
He summoned the shop right away. It wasn’t much, but he still had all the gold he’d collected from the instance dungeon at Hapjeong Station.
“Purchase.”
Ping!
Endless items for purchase showed up with the familiar chime. From cheap potions and miscellaneous accessories to expensive protective gear and fancy weapons, countless items were being sold for gold in the shop.
It was a given, but the better the item, the more expensive it was. The most expensive cost 1,000,000,000 gold.
“Wow…one billion gold.” Jinwoo had only 112,000 gold. It was way too little to buy anything good, but he wasn’t in any rush.
There was plenty of time.
So I can buy this stuff if I save up enough gold, right?
Jinwoo started humming as he continued checking out the expensive items. Now he had another reason to raid instance dungeons.
He couldn’t wait for the Mystery Box reward after tomorrow’s daily quest.
It had been three days since Jinwoo returned from the C-rank gate.
Jinah came home early because it was Saturday. She kicked her shoes off as she sniffed the air at a familiar scent.
“What, you ordered fried chicken?”
“I asked for it to be delivered for when you usually come home.”
“Wow!”
Jinwoo waved Jinah over from his seat at the table, and she beelined toward him.
“What’s up? Did something good happen to my stingy brother?”
“Hey, put your bag down first. No need to rush.”
“Whatever. It’s not heavy at all!”
Hadn’t she complained a few days ago about a mere folding umbrella being too heavy for her? Jinwoo raised an eyebrow at her but couldn’t stop smiling.
Did something good happen?
Of course. His bank account balance had gone from 800,000 won to 180,300,000 won. He’d gotten 180,000,000 won after selling the essence stones and had already paid the landlord 500,000 won for the rent.
180,000,000 won! Jinwoo had made 180,000,000 won from a single raid. He’d been working as a hunter for four years, but he finally felt like he was a real one, since, these days, people equated hunters with big money.
He vividly recalled the face of the employee from the essence stone shop.
“D-did you get all these by yourself?”
“Somehow I did.”
“Oh my…… That’s incredible.”
Forty-nine C-rank essence stones. They were evaluated at a little over 300,000,000 won initially. Who knew the tax was so high!
“Tax is forty percent?”
“Yes, the tax is forty percent for individuals and ten percent when a guild sells them.”
“Why does the guild pay less tax?”
“Because, unlike squads, guilds have to respond to calls for mobilization.”
When Jinwoo thought back to the double dungeon, he remembered hearing that the Surveillance Team and White Tiger Guild had arrived at the scene together. As much as guilds got special treatment, they had to cooperate with the Hunter’s Association and the government.
He thought about it a little bit.
Should I hang on to these essence stones and sell them after joining a guild?
But he soon gave up on that idea. By the time he joined a guild, he’d be working on A- or B-rank gates. Essence stones from those would be incomparably more valuable than the ones from a C-rank gate.
Currently, he needed every cent he could get.
And I can’t sign a contract with any random guild just to pay less taxes.
“Understood. I’d like to exchange these, please.”
The remaining amount was 180,000,000 won.
The fried chicken and beer were indeed for celebrating, just as Jinah had asked.
“Thanks for the food!”
Jinwoo flicked Jinah’s forehead with his finger when she tried to sneak a can of beer.
Tak!
“Ouch!”
“This is yours.” He passed Jinah a soda.
“Geez…… I was just joking……”
While Jinah rubbed her red forehead, Jinwoo cracked open a beer and took a swig. As soon as he did…
Ping!
Jinwoo tensed at the chime.
Why the sudden message?
[A harmful substance has been detected.]
[Buff: Detoxing has been activated.]
[3, 2, 1…… Detoxing is complete.]
Detoxing a harmful substance? Is the system talking about alcohol?
Jinwoo finished the rest of the can and opened another one right away.
Gulp, gulp.
[A harmful substance has been detected.]
[Buff: Detoxing has been activated.]
[3, 2, 1…… Detoxing is complete.]
He received the same message.
He’d finished two cans of beer in the blink of an eye, but he didn’t feel drunk at all. The effect or buff or whatever it was called worked really well.
What is this?
Jinwoo cocked his head. He’d never met a hunter who could’ve placed the buff on him before. Most hunters with that kind of special ability worked in a guild. He’d never encounter any as a member of the association.
In any case, if someone put the buff on me secretly, the system would’ve told me.
So there were two possibilities. He’d gotten the buff either when he’d been unconscious or way before the system had been activated. He personally thought it was more likely to be the latter.
“What’s wrong? Heartburn? You should’ve been more careful.” Jinah became worried at his serious expression.
“I just remembered something urgent. You keep eating.”
He went to his room. He thought back, combing over every single memory in case he’d missed anything.
Oh.
Something suddenly occurred to him.
Every quest so far had rewards. Even a penalty quest had them. But there’s one quest I haven’t checked the rewards for.
Jinwoo quickly opened the inbox.
He’d brushed this off because he’d known nothing about the system, rewards, and so on, but he’d definitely received a message about completing the requirements at the time.
His heart started racing. He found the message at the very bottom of his inbox.
[Congratulations on becoming a Player.] (Read)
Jinwoo’s voice shook.
“Check.”
Ping!
[This system is designed to assist the development of the Player.]
[Failure to comply with the system may result in a penalty.]
[The rewards have been delivered.]
Just as he surmised. There was a mention of rewards.
When he’d heard the voice in the dungeon for the first time, it had said that.
[You have fulfilled all the requirements to complete Secret Quest: Courage of the Weak.]
The secret quest had also been one of the quests. But he’d never checked the reward. He’d thought he was hearing things back then.
[Failure to comply……may result in a penalty.]
[The rewards have been delivered.]
[Would you like to check your rewards?] (Y/N)
Yes.
Ping!
[SECRET QUEST: COURAGE OF THE WEAK COMPLETION REWARDS.]
The Great Spell Caster Kandiaru’s Blessing.
The Great Spell Caster Kandiaru was amazed by your courage and gifted you with this special blessing. With Kandiaru’s blessing, you may enjoy a strong and healthy life.
“May the challenger’s days be filled with light.”
—Temporary Buff: Spirit of Rehabilitation: All injuries will be healed.
—Long-lasting Buff: Health and Longevity: You are immunized against all diseases, poisons, and any other debuffs. Your healing ability increases exponentially when you are asleep.
