Tag: I Never Run Out of Mana

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65. Ally? Foe? Ally!

Report of Kim Ho Jin after 5 days of surveillance.

-06:30 Wakes up.

-After waking up, feeds pet: Dumpling. (Not very cute for a dog.)

-07:20 Personal care before leaving. (The type to eat breakfast no matter what.)

-07:30 Says goodbye to daughter Kim Jeong-yeon and wife before leaving. (Wakes up earlier than expected. Guess the entire family is one of those morning people types.)

-08:00 Arrives at the level 13 dungeon to find a party to join.

-Afternoon. Until Jong Ho and his group of members arrive, tags along with other Awakened who seem decent enough to hunt. (Hunts for over 12 hours, like I do. Seems he has some goal in mind.)

-20:00 Finishes hunting, returns home.

-22:00 Sleep. (This looks more like how a soldier lives.)

“What the. Did he really leave the association?”

Too much time had passed to call it a vacation period given from the association.

It was nearly 2 weeks since he had hunted with Jong Ho, after all.

Eavesdropping on Ho Jin and his wife, I was able to confirm that he really did quit.

While I was keeping up surveillance on Ho Jin, Jong Ho informed me that Ho Jin asked about me.

Following my instructions, Jong Ho avoided the questions by changing the topic or made up stories about me as needed.

For very specific personal questions, he just replied that he didn’t know.

From what I’ve seen so far, Kim Ho Jin appeared to have left the association and was living the life of an average Awakened.

That’s why today, I’ll be appearing in front of him.

It was for the information I wanted from him.

And it seemed that he was hoping for me to appear before him anyways, so there was no reason to delay.

The hunting was finished deep into the night due to the delay cause by the surveillance I kept on Ho Jin.

Obtaining information and an ally is important, but growing stronger took priority.

Like keeping a knife sharp, I kept up my daily hunting routine to the dot.

After a short nap, I headed towards Ho Jin’s house so I can meet him as he left for his daily hunting.

I could see him leaving his apartment.

-beep

He was walking towards a white SUV.

‘Why is an Awakened using a vehicle to get to the hunting grounds?’

I myself had used a similar method until recently, but he could just use the Warp skill to get there.

Ho Jin stopped walking towards the vehicle, and facepalmed.

A monologue followed.

“Ah. I’m out of it… This is why habits are scary.”

“Mr. Kim Ho Jin.”

While he was looking blankly at the vehicle, I went towards him and spoke.

Turning his head to where he heard the voice, he didn’t seem that surprised seeing me standing there.

But hiding his expression again, he played stupid.

“Who…?”

“It’s Kim Min-Cheol. We met at the level 13 dungeon before.”

“Ah! Now I remember. Sorry about that. My memory isn’t the best. What business brought you here, I wonder…”

“We also met at the level 28 dungeon, right?”

Seeing my smirk, there were beads of sweat running down his face.

“Huh? Haha… No way. Since I Awakened later than others, I’ve just started to run the level 13 dungeon, you know?”

“Drop the acting please. You don’t seem to have any talent in doing so. Don’t have time to waste either.”

“W… What do you mean…”

“Sorry to say this now, but I’ve been watching you for the past few days.”

“….”

“Let’s change locations. Looks like a fly is amidst us.”

Looking through the Eye of Insight I casted beforehand, I was able to find someone using a stealth skill to spy on us.

The radical faction?

No. There was no way that they’d put someone as green as this person to a target that had taken out Jin.

Probably to keep tabs on Kim Ho Jin.

Perhaps he had also noticed, because he nodded his head and followed me to the alleyway next to the entrance of the apartment complex.

Turning the corner to get out of the line of sight of the spy, I casted Mass Stealth Jutsu and Silent.

The range was enough to cover both Ho Jin and me.

“Now we can proceed. Let’s continue talking. What do you want from me? Why are you trying to find out about me?”

Ho Jin let out a heavy sigh, and then began to speak with a serious expression.

“Whew… Before I answer your question, let me first talk. I don’t know who you are. The only thing I know is that you can hunt things over your level. Not sure what ability you have, or how strong you are, I have no clue. And…”

He paused a moment as if to gather his thoughts.

As if coming to a decision, his words were heavy.

Perhaps it was a form of resignation.

But for some reason, his expression looked different, almost calm.

“I’m not sure which side you are on.”

“You are saying that you don’t know if I’m with the radical faction, right? Perhaps even hoping that I am?”

“Haha. Glad you’re straightforward. That’s right. I’ll speak without hiding anything. There was something I decided on this morning as I left the house.”

“What would that be?”

“I was on my way to expose the truth behind the association. The truth that the association is aware of the radical faction, yet all they’re trying to do is to turn a blind eye to the whole thing. Both association and the government.”

“If that’s the truth, and I was of the radical faction? You could be killed here right now, without a sound. Is that your choice? No regrets?”

“If I can stand proudly in front of my family, and if it is just my life, I do not have any, not in the slightest.”

I could tell from the surveillance I’ve carried out so far, but now I was sure that he had nothing to do with the radical faction.

And I just realized today that the association is keeping tabs on him too.

He’s probably similar to Yoon Jong-sun, a man of righteousness.

“I understand your resolve, but please think of your family when you’re risking your life. I understand. First off, I’m not of the radical faction. Actually, I’m more like a threat to them?”

“Really?”

From his eyes, I could feel desperation.

“Yes. I think I answered your question well. Now can I expect you to answer mine?”

“What I want from you is… strength.”

“Strength? I expected as much, but for what do you need it?”

“Currently, most of those who hold power in this country are connected to the radical faction.”

“I knew it…”

“If they continue to hide the truth from the national organization as well the citizens, something big is going happen for sure.”

“So you’re asking me to give you the strength to smash the radical faction?”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“What can you do for me then? You know that a one way trade is unfair.”

“That…..”

To Ho Jin, who was mumbling, I spoke with gusto.

“Information. I need all the information you have on them, as well as how to prevent the association from knowing about my growth as well. Is that possible?”

****

I finished our conversation that continued on for a while.

To avoid being discovered by the association’s assassin, he headed for the level 13 dungeon using Warp.

I planned to head to the hunting grounds myself as usual.

If Ho Jin agrees to my plan and finds a way for me to enter the dungeons without any data being sent back to the association, I was planning to head to dungeons above the level 28 dungeon.

If the dungeons didn’t work, I was planning to enter even if I had to smash open the portals.

Until I was able to achieve the level of strength I wanted.

I moved towards the midget’s office to use the portal and head to the hunting grounds.

I rushed to catch a taxi, and was able to arrive quickly.

-beep. Ending ride.

“It’s 14,000 won.”

“Okay.”

Paying my dues, I left the taxi.

Then.

-glop

I heard a mushy glopping noise that seemed to echo through a small alleyway, giving me the chills.

The world around me began to turn dark.

Pitch black darkness covered my vision.

Almost as if in a room completely isolated in darkness, I could not see in front of me as there was not a speck of light coming in.

In that short time, I was trapped.

“What….”

I casted my shield spells out of instinct, and then casted spells with both hands so I could see with the light coming off of them.

But I still couldn’t see anything.

I didn’t know where I was or what happened, so I looked about.

A man’s voice began to reverberate from all directions.

The voice echoed as it would in a cave, so I could not tell exactly where the voice was coming from.

“It was you, you bastard. The one who killed Jin.”

Hearing his words, I could immediately tell who it was.

Joker, one of the three leaders of the radical faction, had appeared before me.

Knowing my existence as well as Jin’s, I was sure it was him.

 

“Joker? Oh boy. I got to meet a lot of people today. Did you come here because you wanted end up like Jin?”

“Funny. This is your last chance. Lend your strength to me.”

“Did any of you lend your strength to me? Stop talking shit and get over here.”

“2 days. I’ll be back in 2 days. Think carefully about your answer. Submit or die. One of these two answers will be the equivalent to anything you spit out, after all.”

‘Eye of Insight.’

From far away, I could see his form.

However, the distance was too far to see anything but a red dot.

Too far for me to attack.

“ORAAA!”

I began to run at full speed so I could take him down.

I felt that I wouldn’t be satisfied until I smash Meteor on his face at the least.

However.

-glop

I heard the same sound from when I exited the taxi, and the darkness cleared.

The red dot I saw was no longer there.

“Crap….”

After leaving the darkness, my vision was filled with light again.

My regret of letting him escape only lasted a moment, as the taxi was still next to me.

It was the same taxi that I rode to get here after finishing my talk to Ho Jin.

Looking at it carefully, I could see that the driver was still counting the money I handed to him.

I was sure that at least 3 hours passed since I was surrounded in darkness.

But this scene, it was same as the moment I handed the driver the money.

‘Did he stop time or something?’

It seemed that he teleported me to another dimension that was not affected by time.

It was likely that it was an executioner class ability.

“Two days….”

Joker was moving faster than what Jin told me.

Turning away from the direction of the midget’s office, I began to walk.

I called Jong Ho on the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey, hyung.”

“Yeah. Did you meet with Mr. Kim Ho Jin?”

“Yes. Just finished talking with him.”

“How did it go? Pretty sure he did quit the association. What about the other thing? Do you think he’ll help out?”

“Not a hundred percent sure, but he did want something from me, so it looks like it’s likely to happen.”

“Glad it went smoothly”

“Yeah. Things did work out smoothly.”

Perhaps he noticed that something was off, because Jong Ho asked me.

“What’s up? Why are you sounding so glum?”

“Hyung.”

“Yeah. You can tell me.”

Banwol Jincheon. I had lent them to Jong Ho.

I was planning to take them back when I had to face Joker and the radical faction again.

Jong Ho knew it as well.

Mustering up as much of a serious voice I could, I spoke.

“I need those swords again.”

---

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64. Enemy? Ally?

Hot air blew, matching the desert like theme of the dungeon.

Meteor Call and Iceberg no longer had cooldowns.

The floor of the dungeon was covered in flames.

If there was one thing, I was kind of disappointed with what happens when I used both skills together.

When both skills met, they cancelled each other out entirely.

It dealt no damage.

But that didn’t really matter.

As long as I continued to cast one of the two skills repeatedly, all monsters would be completely wiped out without any traces left.

The clear time of my hunting was fast enough as it was, but now it became incomparably faster.

I could pretty much clear the dungeon in the time it takes me to run to the end of it.

This clear speed could not be reached even with a 10 man party.

I loved this growth speed, but it worried me that the association would catch on again.

Without any time between each run, they would become suspicious of this party.

The solution I came up with was to purchase a ton of IDs.

I categorized each ID by class and level, dividing it into 4 different groups.

Each time I ran the dungeon, I swapped these four groups around.

With this, they would not become suspicious from just the data alone.

‘Guess I studied hard to come up with great schemes like this.’

Two days ago.

I went to the level 13 succubus dungeon to meet up with Jong Ho.

This was where I met him in the first place.

The level 13 portal that exploded then had become a dungeon, a treasure trove that filled the bellies of the Awakened.

Back then, it took 30 minutes borrowing Jong Ho’s car to get here from the restaurant.

It was an unlit hiking trail before.

However, now the area had restaurants and stores.

Parking lots were a given, and they even had a specific zone for the warp gates.

“Wow. It used to be just a hiking trail with nothing of note… but it developed like this.”

The surrounding area had changed to the point where I couldn’t even recognize it anymore.

Jong Ho and his party group were walking out after clearing the dungeon.

Including Jong Ho, the party consisted of 6 members.

Out of them all, it couldn’t be helped that Jong Ho’s weapons and armor were sticking out like a sore thumb.

In each hand was a Banwol Jincheon, as well as an emerald Lizardman’s Gauntlet that covered his wrist.

Ah. The gauntlet was a gift to him in repayment for all the gauntlets he helped me sell each weekend.

I already had obtained a gauntlet that gave me 20% magic resistance.

That’s why I gave him the one I was wearing before, which gave 18%.

True to his character, he did not put it on until I said I was ‘lending’ him the gauntlet.

Looking from the outside, he looked like a tanker that was running the dungeon to help the other members level up.

I called Jong Ho, who was busy selling the loot after the hunt.

“Hyung!”

“Yo! Bro.”

“Armor suits you a lot better than your regular clothes.”

“Do you have to laugh while saying that?”

“I can’t cry though. Do you go on dinner dates while dressed like this?”

“Can’t help but laugh thanks to you.”

I went towards Jong Ho, greeting all of his party members that hunted with him.

“Hello. I’m Jong Ho hyung’s dongsaeng.” ¹

“Nice to meet you.”

“I heard many things about you. My name is Hee Park.”

While I was greeting everyone, a man I was familiar with came into view.

A man in his mid 40s.

He was looking at me, with the faintest of smiles on his face.

A man who seemed too old to be running a level 13 dungeon.

Most people become Awakened before they hit their 20s.

Most people gathered here were in their early to mid 20s.

‘Did he Awaken late?’

Well, there are cases like hyung who was doing managerial work until Awakening late.

This wasn’t about when he was Awakened, or what his appearance was like.

It was because I felt like I saw him somewhere before.

‘Where did I see him before….?’

Jong Ho finished dividing up the loot, and was ready to leave.

Saying farewells to the party members, we distanced ourselves from the group.

‘Silent’

I wasn’t sure what was happening, so I casted a spell that prevented us from behind overheard.

“Hyung. Who is that man in his 40s?”

“Ah, someone I’ve been hunting with for a week. Why?”

“I have a feeling that I’ve seen him somewhere before…”

“He said he used to work for the association. You sure you’re not confusing him with someone who looks similar?”

“No. It’s definitely someone I know. I’m sure of it.”

“No way. It doesn’t look like he knows you.”

“…..”

Wait, Ho Jin?

That was when I remembered his name and face.

Department head of the Awakened special control unit, Kim Ho Jin.

I was sure of it.

He was the one who brought all the association hunters, as well the as cleric ranker to wait for me.

No. He was trying to catch me.

‘What is this. Are they hiding around here?’

My head was filled with possibilities.

A member of the association was clearing a dungeon.

And since he was able to go in and out of the dungeon as he wished, it meant he was an Awakened.

‘An Awakened that works at the association? That’s something mothers would be bragging about to others about her son.’

It was someone I could not understand.

“You said he used to work at the association?”

“Yes. He didn’t go into detail about it, but he said he quit due to a quarrel with his boss.”

“Hyung. Remember how I told you that I wasn’t able to hunt for some time thanks to all those hunters from the association showing up?”

“Yeah, that’s when your fake ID got suspended, right?”

“Yes. The man who is responsible for that is Kim Ho Jin.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure either on why he’s here right now. It could be that he approached you on purpose because you have a connection with me, or it was a coincidence while he was trying to live the life of an Awakened after quitting the association.”

“What, seriously. Just what is happening?”

“I think he also recognized my face.”

“Of course. Just by looking up your ID, your face would come up.”

“Yes. But back then, I was stealthed, so there is no way he can recognize me. I think I’m just paranoid, thinking that he recognized me.”

“What should we do? Should we change the party members?”

“No. If he left the association completely, he should have nothing to do with me, but if he didn’t, then doing so would only make him more suspicious. Just hunt with him like you usually do.”

“After that?”

“Just hunt as much as you can.”

“What?”

“Until I find out his identity and what’s really going on, please act normally as you usually do.”

“How will you find out? How can you reveal his agenda?”

“I can stealth. Even if it slows down my hunting, I need to find out.”

“Alright. For now, I get it. Fate really is fickle.”

“If he really did leave the association…..”

****

Leaving the conference room, Kim Ho Jin was cursing and swearing all sorts of profanities while heading to his office.

This act of corruption by his superior happened right before his eyes.

He couldn’t just stand there and watch the president lead the country down a path of ruin.

Those who worked with him gazed at Ho Jin.

However, he was quietly packing up his belongings in silence.

“Greedily taking tax money from the country. But if you are too busy only caring about your life, how can this country run properly!”

27 years ago. He had Awakened at the age of 18, just like Min-cheol did.

However, instead of wanting to live a cozy life, he decided to become a member of the association.

This was before the radical faction showed, and a time of recovery after the attacks of the portal explosions occurring all over the place.

You could say that mankind was finally stabilizing towards peace after the attacks from the monsters paused.

On the other side of the coin though, the Awakened began causing trouble all over the place, to the point where they could not be handled.

It was because there was no laws clearly set for Awakened, as well as a way to enforce those rules.

This was why he thought he needed to join the association.

It didn’t take him long for him to pack, almost as if confirming that those 20 years were worth nothing.

Half of his entire life was spent dedicated to the association.

But he let go of his title without any hesitation.

The only thing he could do now was to grow stronger.

It was late, far too late for him to trying growing strong enough to fight against the radical faction.

But he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

He couldn’t just watch his country and humanity as whole be slowly destroyed from the inside out any further.

Before going out on his first day of hunting, an idea that had come to him hundreds of times over came again.

Telling this juicy story to those crocodiles in the swamp, the reporters of the press.

He wanted to tell the truth.

To the entire world.

But, for someone who has been in the association for 20 years, there was no way they weren’t aware of all the dirty work they do behind the scenes.

He knew that whoever they put on him for surveillance would get rid of him the moment he did anything rash.

If he was the only one who’d suffer, it wouldn’t matter.

If that was the case, he could accept the consequences of doing so.

However, thinking about his wife and daughter, he couldn’t bring himself to do so.

“I’m just the same as them, looking out for my life… How pathetic of me…..”

And so a week had passed hunting.

In between his association work, he leveled whenever he could, reaching level 85.

Well, for someone who has been Awakened for 27 years, he was a very low level.

He was hunting at the level 13 dungeon that was appropriate for his level, forming up a party.

His hunting for the day was nearly finished, and that’s when it happened.

“Hyung!”

“Yo. Bro.”

He couldn’t believe his eyes.

It was Kim Min-cheol.

The person who, within two months of being Awakened, clearing dungeons of great difficulty and level by himself, had appeared before him just like that.

It appeared as though he was friendly with Jong Ho, who had first approached him to form a party together.

He couldn’t help but smile.

‘A man of that caliber….. He might be able to change the world.’

Of course, he didn’t know much about him.

He could be part of the radical faction.

But it felt as though he was the only hope left he could bet on.

‘Who are you, Kim Min-cheol.’

****

‘Mass Stealth Jutsu’

Pausing my regular hunting routine, I began to spy on Kim Ho Jin.

I already had learned of his address by following him back on the day we met at the level 13 dungeon.

If I used Silent and Mass Stealth Jutsu, I should be able to get the information I need without being exposed by anyone.

“Where is the entrance to the girls’ onsen… just kidding. I think it was the 3rd floor of this apartment.”

-click

I finally caught him, just as he was about to leave for work.

I was going to watch him for a while, but if he headed for the association right now, that would mean that he approached Jong Ho and me on purpose.

As Ho Jin was putting on his shoes, his spouse spoke.

“Whew. You are old now. You should just rest at home.”

“I’m a little restless, you know.”

“Even after marriage, I don’t see you staying at home even once. Well, do take care. Keep your promise to stay here at least on the weekends! Jeong-yeon, you should go say bye to papa, right?”

“Daddy. Bye.”

“Haha. Alright. I’ll be heading out now, honey.”

‘Hmm…. Did he really leave the association?’

The reason why I was interested in him was for the information he possessed.

Jong Ho was very knowledgeable in monsters, hunting, dungeons, and the loot dropped.

Unlike him, Kim Ho Jin had stayed in the association for a long period of time.

If I was able to obtain information regarding the radical faction and the government, it would be like obtaining a thousand units for reinforcement.

That was a good reason to keep him under surveillance for a bit longer.

‘Kim Ho Jin, who are you?’

---

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63. Age of Chaos

It’s been a week since the level 29 portal exploded.

After that incident, a level 28 portal and a level 29 portal exploded in a row.

This strange incident was occurring only in Korea, and thus all eyes of the world were on Korea.

All the areas where the portals were exploding were in the abyss of the sea.

Using the epicenter of the earthquakes caused by the portal explosions, they could trace the general location of the portal. However, finding the exact location still proved to be difficult.

Currently, the International Awakened Organization had made plans to hire professionals to assist in the investigation efforts.

40 years ago when the monsters first appeared to the present time, many nations fell to the monsters.

Most countries did not last the first two years, disappearing into the chapters of history.

Currently, only 80 countries remained, and most of them were in the International Awakened Organization.

The organization was able to do its job starting 12 years ago when the portal explosions stopped at the level 28 dungeon.

The goal of the organization was to research on the portals and monsters, and to prevent further damage against the monsters that have taken over those fallen nations.

They also used the bloodstones and item drops obtained from the monsters to convert them into a source of energy.

The Portal Erasure Test project was rushed into action by the organization, as each of the nations contributed.

In a week, the members deployed from the organization would be arriving here.

They’ll probably form investigation teams and start searching for the reason of the explosions.

If a situation like this occurs, all the nations would not hesitate on using all their resources to help out, as the situation could go out of control and turn into a massive crisis that could affect them as well.

At the same time.

President of the Awakened association Choi Man Seo called all the department heads.

It wasn’t to provide assistance to the organization, but avoid taking the blame for the incident.

The reason was the following.

Each nation had their own radical faction that disagreed with the way the government ran the nation, dreaming about unrealistic ideals instead.

However, there wasn’t such a deeply rooted radical faction as the one in Korea.

The world suspected that it only came to be like this because of how corrupt the government in Korea really was.

After the Central Plant Center exploded, many terrorist attacks followed, but none caused any serious damage.

Without treating the infection and thinking that it’ll just heal on its own, many years had passed.

If the radical forces are to blame for these explosions due to them stepping up their game and they are not stopped, it was obvious that Korea would be expelled from the International Awakened Organization.

Since this group was a threat against humanity, the nation of Korea that harbored them would be completely cut off and isolated, rotting away until its complete disappearance.

And if the radical faction still was a threat against the world, brute force would be used to destroy this small little country.

The president of the association Choi Man Seo spoke.

“I’m sure everyone is already aware of this, but within a week, members from the IAO will arrive.”

“…..”

“….”

“But here is the thing. If they find out the real reason for the portals exploding, what do you think would happen? Oi. Department head Kim Ho Jin. Been looking gloomy for a while. What do you think?”

The president as well as subordinates already knew that the culprit was the radical faction.

However, instead of discussing it with the government, they were too busy keeping it all hushed up.

To his question, Ho Jin replied with the same disapproving frown as he kept his stance on the matter.

“If the tooth is rotten, you can still pull it out!”

“As expected. If people like you were born earlier in the past, you would’ve left quite the name. But you won’t live for long. There’s even an ad about this. How when everyone says yes, you are the type of person to say no.”

“President, you already know how big their group is! If you say nothing and try to keep this silent, this will blow up into something huge…”

“Enough. Find the portal location within a week. And write it on the report that you’ve taken down some of the portals around the area. Understood? Right now, the citizens of Korea are praising the association that contained 3 portal explosions. Don’t go ruining it for us. Do you think I’m the only one covering my eyes and ears to live?”

“Then what will you do when the radical faction comes to attack us? 6 years ago after the attack on the Center Plant Center, the attacks from the radical faction continued, and it wasn’t just a few cases! At this rate, we will be kicked from the International Awakened Association without a doubt, and it’ll only be a matter of time before this nation is destroyed not by monsters, but by war.”

“Hold up. Did I hear that correctly? Radical what? Radical Faction? Does anyone here know what is this Radical Faction he’s talking about?”

To the president’s inquiry, everyone rolled their eyes about and remained silent.

Jumping up from his seat, he charged Choi Man Seo as if to kill him.

“Do what you want! You disgusting figurehead!” ¹

“Oh ho! Take this bastard away immediately! Do you think that mighty radical faction only exists in this small little country like Korea? Stop acting out when you don’t know anything at all. What are you doing! Take him away now.”

As the Awakened guards were dragging Ho Jin out of the conference room, he did not stop cursing out at the president.

Because he knew that this situation with the radical faction only came to be due to people like the president taking care of situations like this.

“And you call yourself the president of the association! It wouldn’t be a stretch to call you a subordinate of the radical faction! I’ll get you for this, and you’ll pay!”

“Well aren’t you out of your mind. Really giving out your resignation statement spectacularly. Get rid of his desk immediately, and have people supervise him so that he can’t even as much as squeak! Everyone, you understand what I said today, right? Let’s stop for today. One week. Forget about going home and focus on getting this resolved quickly.”

“Yes….”

Department head Kim Ho Jin’s furious yelling could be still heard clearly, despite being too far to be loud anymore.

“All of you in there are the same, you bastards!”

****

“Dark Lady….”

“Yes, master.”

“So you did it. I thank you for your loyalty.”

“You humble me, master.”

“I asked Ghost to find a portal that’s level 30 or above. Once the portal is found, you can proceed without any issues, right?”

“Of course.”

“Good…. Thanks to you, that day can come a little bit quicker.”

Radical faction’s boss. Master Zekill.

He commanded all three of the leaders to gather at Incheon, where Dark Lady ran the city in order to formulate a plan for the mass chaos would be ensuing soon.

He planned to have the currently government collapse, and did not hesitate on his goal to raise a new rule.

The strong obtains power and political control, and rule over the weak.

His first goal was to blow up the portals, because that would cause the expulsion from the International Awakened Organization.

If that happened, no one would care if this country is taken over or devoured by them.

A complete isolation from the organization.

After that, it would be time to take over the entire country and use it as a base of operations to increase the strength of the radical faction around the world.

“Joker.”

“Yes, master.”

“Lend Dark Lady your strength.”

“Yes… master.”

Joker was the best of the three leaders before, but now having lost his spot, was seething in rage.

It was fact that he wasn’t getting recognized by the boss. And now he had to role of being a support for someone who was weaker than him.

Looking downwards, he briefly paused to calm down.

However, it was interrupted by Zekill speaking.

“I heard of a strange rumor.”

“What would that be…”

“I heard that Park Hyun, one of our financial backers, died due to a single Awakened. Is that true Joker?”

“Yes. That is the truth. He had quite the ability, so I tried to capture him, but since he fiercely declined the offer, I already took care of him.”

“Is that so.”

Joker lied to hide the fact that he was trying to use Min-Cheol, who had infinite mana, for his own use.

He could reveal Min-Cheol’s existence to him right now, but since Dark Lady had succeeded in the portal explosion, it would look disloyal if it was found out that Joker had tried to do this on his own.

There was nothing to gain from speaking up.

He swallowed his saliva as Zekill continued.

“One month. Within one month, everything will change. We’ll be in the center of it all. For that day…”

“Yes, master.”

“Yes, master.”

Finishing, Zekill hid from view once more.

After that, Dark Lady went towards Joker and started to taunt him.

“You heard what the master said, right?”

“…..”

“I think I need more mana. Send 200 magicians to me, Joker.”

“You little bitch, running your mouth without any concern. Dark Lady….”

“Pfft. So, it seems the rage of a male lion chased out from his own pack isn’t anything to be afraid of.”

“… I’ll follow his orders. But soon, you’ll regret saying those words.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it, Joker Gen-er-al~.”

Leaving the room, Joker began to quietly murmur to himself.

“Seems… Seems my only option is that boy.”

****

“Whew. Finally all that tedious hunting is over. But why is my ear so itchy? Is someone talking about me?”

For me who had been only focusing on growing stronger physically, something more important happened.

It was selling the Lizardman’s Gauntlet each weekend.

It wasn’t for the money.

For a magician class, more important that their physical prowess was the skill level of their skills as well as their MP amount.

This wonderful, amazing essence maker was enough to get rid of the stress of Awakening the skills I possessed.

It was too wasteful to Awaken a C ranking shield?

It was true that I used to think like that up until recently.

It only took a few hours for me to realize that it was incorrect.

It was a week after selling the 5 gauntlets.

The amount of essences I had never fell below 5.

Other than the Frost Orb that I got at level 1, all shields, buffs, and debuffs were already Awakened.

The moment they hit level 100, I immediately Awakened them using the essences.

No matter how low the skill ranking was, by Awakening them and leveling them enough, both the destructive capability as well as the usefulness was ridiculous.

For example, I could use Lightning Spray again.

It really shined on low level dungeons, but as dungeon levels increased, it didn’t do much. However, after Awakening it, it succeeded on causing small amounts of damage to even level 28 dungeon monsters.

And the monster was a lizardman, who boasted almost unfair amounts of physical and magical resistances.

“It wouldn’t be that bad to become an essence collector.”

I obtained Iron Skin, as well as the other skill that Jong Ho obtained for me.

Both were S ranking shields with the same cooldown and duration.

The one difference was that while Iron Skin could possibly cause the enemy to become immobilized, the new skill Holy Block inflicted holy element damage, which was hard to defend against, even with high magic resistances.

Of course, it had a low chance to activate the secondary effect.

Let’s say that I use three of these shields at the same time.

Then my attackers could be hit with the reflected damage, immobilized, and holy elemental damage.

At least one of the shields would activate its secondary effect.

I thought that my Mana Shield was everything I needed, but I was pleasantly surprised at these shields that I never knew existed in the first place.

My level was now nearly 300, and my main attacking spells Meteor Call and Iceberg were nearing level 200.

The cooldown would be zero.

‘Have you seen a hunter who spammed Meteor without a care? That’s me.’

---

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62. The Best Merchant Kim Min-cheol

 

I had to obtain a powerful shield.

To do so, I had to get enough essences to purchase one.

While talking with Jong Ho, something came to me!

It was the Lizardman’s Gauntlet.

I wasn’t able to obtain the best gauntlet I could, but I had a few mid to high mid rarity gauntlets.

I could just sell these.

I went into my room with Jong Ho and brought the box sitting in a corner.

“Hyung. Do you think I can get some essences with this?”

Opening the box cover, Jong Ho couldn’t help but be surprised.

Lizardman’s Gauntlet could only be obtained from defeating the level 28 dungeon boss, and there were 5 of them in there.

His hands were shaking as he held them.

“What… What are all these?”

“What do you think they are? Lizardman’s Gauntlets of course.”

“Yeah I’m aware. Where did they all come from is what I’m asking.”

“Guess they drop a lot more frequently than I thought?”

The rarity of the gauntlet was due to the low number of Awakened that could manage to clear the level 28 dungeon.

The actual drop rate from the boss wasn’t that low.

The best one that could drop would offer me 20% magic resistance, but the one I was wearing gave 18%.

All the ones gathered in the box were of lower quality.

Jong Ho began to equip each of the gauntlets, noting the stats and resistances it gave.

Until you equipped the item, the stats could not be checked, so he was equipping them to approximate the worth of each gauntlet.

He put a post-it on each of the 5 gauntlets, and then he turned to speak to me.

“With this, it seems you won’t have to worry about the essences.”

“Really?”

“Of course! The lowest quality ones have a 10% magic resistance stat, but all of these have over 14%.”

“Okay. Let’s go sell them right away.”

“Firstly, we should sell the two highest ones at 16%, each under a separate ID and to make the deal in person. As for the other three, you should ask that midget friend of yours for help. If you put out so many amazing goods at once, especially 5 of them, it would draw unnecessary attention.”

“Yes. I thought they would sell for pretty penny, so I was collecting them. Are each of them worth an essence?”

“Looks like the average gauntlet offers 15% magic resistance, and go for 1 essence each. For the ones that don’t reach 15%, we could cover up the difference with money to receive the essences.”

“Wow. They’re worth more than I thought. I’ll have to start hunting again tomorrow, so let’s take care of this today.”

“Agreed.”

****

Since the item was rare to the point where none were on the market, it took less than an hour after putting it up on the trade website for tons of messages to arrive.

I already asked the midget to take care of the two 15% ones, as well as the one that is 14%.

Since the market had already set the price, there was no need to use any of the black market routes.

I just have to use two Awakened IDs provided by the midget to go vendor them.

The midget had already succeeded in selling two of the gauntlets.

The gauntlets we decided to sell on our own were worth twice in value.

It was only 1% higher than the average 15%, but the cost had doubled.

It was possible for us to get two essences for each gauntlet.

I almost felt bad for putting them in a worn out cardboard box.

And since this equipment was so rare to the point that it didn’t exist on the market, some of the messages sent to us said they would offer up to 3 essences for each of them.

If I took my time and sold them by using basic market principles of supply and demand, I could probably get even more than that.

However, I could get more gauntlets as I pleased, and I needed a new shield spell as quickly as possible, so I settled on getting 3 essences for each of them.

“Hyung, should we use the midget’s office as a trade location?”

“Do you like that place so much? I heard you even set the Warp spell there?”

“I dunno. It’s just comfortable there.”

“Well, there is no reason to meet with them here and give away information on our personal lives. It’s probably better to take care of it over there.”

“Then I’ll go contact them right now.”

****

The clock was showing 4pm.

The sky could not ignore the change of season, and was already becoming darker outside.

I arrived at the office where the deal would take place, as well as the 3 essences the midget obtained from selling the mid-tier gauntlets.

Since I had to purchase the shield soon, I brought Jong Ho as well.

Jong Ho and the midget had already greeted each other over the phone. The information regarding what skill books to buy using the black market was passed on as well during the call.

We finally arrived at the office.

“Welcome. So you’ve arrived.”

“Yes. Hello.”

“I’ve only introduced myself via phone. My name is Lee Jong Ho.”

“Yes, yes. Glad to meet you.”

“The last one hasn’t been sold yet?”

“The buyer said they will be arriving within 30 min. For now, please take this.”

He went towards his desk and retrieved a check, as well as two awakened essences.

I thought that check was for the 14% gauntlet that needed some money added onto the deal to make it worth an essence.

However, the check I received was something I did not expect in the slightest.

Staring at the check in disbelief, I heard the midget speak.

“Well… the market price was set at one essence per gauntlet, but since it was such a rare item, the price offered was more than what we expected. The additional money we received aside from the essence as well as the extra money from the buyer arriving soon should add up to something, even if it’s not worth an entire essence.”

“Oho…?”

The midget was acting completely different from what I knew him as.

Following my orders, all he had to do was give 3 essences as promised.

But he was trying to give me the extra money he received from the dealers as well.

“Is business going well for you?”

The midget couldn’t help but be flustered at my words, and seeing the whole ordeal, Jong Ho couldn’t help but laugh.

Disbelief couldn’t be helped, as the midget I knew only cared about money.

But showing me a side of him like this, I couldn’t help but feel awkward as well.

Perhaps ashamed, he gave a smile.

“Haha… That… They say even hatred is a form of caring. Our relations didn’t start off very well, but in the hopes that our partnership will prosper, I was hoping you’d take his as an apology…”

“Well sure. I am benefiting from this partnership. And I’m sure I’ll need a lot more from you in the future ahead.”

“Of course. That’s true.”

“But…..”

He was trying to determine my mood.

His smile was replaced with a serious look.

“I won’t take this money. Please use this to cover some of the debts.”

“What… Didn’t you already repay all of the debt?”

“I’m sure there are a lot more than just me.”

“……”

“As I said before, how about changing your occupation to being a middleman for trades? It makes quite the earnings, you know? And all three of you are Awakened.”

“I understand what you’re saying. The extra money will be used to clear up the debts of others.”

“Yes. Think carefully. With this much money, I think they could all be taken care of.”

I’m not trying to live like some nameless saints who donate massive amounts of money secretly, trying to pay off the debts of others.

It was because money held no meaning for me anymore.

But there was no reason to let others to suffer like my mother and I did due to money.

And I also wanted to give this midget another chance, since he didn’t seem like a bad person at his core.

Almost as if ventilating the heavy air the office was filled with, the door opened and the gauntlet buyer entered.

“I’m here to buy the gauntlet.”

****

“Hm… Guess we just have to wait?”

So far, 10 essences were collected from selling all the gauntlets.

This was a lot more than all the essences I’ve obtained so far.

Just looking at how much essences I had, I thought I wouldn’t need the mimic to reappear.

To think that I was able to get essences this easily with the level 28 dungeon runs that I could clear with ease.

After defeating the radical faction first, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad life to settle down selling gauntlets for a living.

The wait didn’t last long.

Both the midget and brawler class goon entered the office hurriedly.

“Huff, huff…. Here it is.”

“Thank you. You worked hard.”

The skill book was handed off to Jong Ho, who scanned it using his smartphone.

“While the cost was high, thankfully there are many of it readily available on the market.”

-Iron Skin-

Usable Class: Warrior. Paladin. Brawler. (If obtained by other classes, the mana cost increases tenfold)

Mana Cost: 10% of total mana

Skill Introduction: *A shield that absorbs damage appears.

*Attackers who hit the shield has a chance to become immobilized. ¹

*As the skill’s level increases, the shielded amount as well as the duration increases.

*Able to defend against (???) ranking skills and lower.

Cooldown: 120 seconds.

Duration: 60 seconds. (Per 20 levels, the duration increases by 5%.)

Skill Rank: Defensive rank S

Estimated Skill Book Value: ???

That was the information on the skill book showing up the smartphone’s screen.

The reason why the cost was so high was because it was a skill that was used often by tankers.

No matter how many stat points you invest into HP, no tankers could last without shields.

Another important factor was that instead of consuming a specific amount of MP, it used up 10% of total MP.

Usually only offensive skills had % mana consumption, but it was different for Iron Skin.

It was a warrior class shield skill that consumed % of the user’s mana.

So even a level 1 Awakened could benefit from the incredible amount of defense this shield provided.

“Whew. This cost us 5 essences?”

“It may look weak to you, but as it is an S ranking skill, it provides an insane amount of shielding. And the duration increases as you level it up too.”

“Hm… Let’s say I reach level 200 with this. I guess there will be a 30 seconds gap that I will have to cover with another shield.”

“Yes. And we didn’t get the other skill book today, but that skill book is a skill that could fill that 30 second gap.”

The midget’s group spoke up.

“Um… Using Piercing Sword and Heal, as well as Lightning Spray… Are you a Third class?”

“Ah…..”

When I went into the dungeon to give these goons a good thrashing, I didn’t think ahead and just used a bunch of skills.

The Third class he was talking about was a class with two subclasses, having a total of three classes.

Jong Ho and I didn’t even know of its existence before.

We only learned of it while investigating how Joker had a subclass.

They probably do exist out there, but not much was known about them.

Similar to the skills that were beyond ranking.

“Ah… Well, it’s just that my mana regen is a bit fast. That’s why I’m able to use skills from many classes.”

“Ah.. That’s why. It just seemed odd how all the skills you were purchasing up until now had class requirements that were all over the place. It made me very curious as to why.”

Hearing his words, Jong Ho and I gave each other a knowingly smile as our eyes met.

It was probably because Jong Ho himself was tricked like this before as well.

With an amused look, I asked Jong Ho.

“What’s the other skill you were talking about before?”

---

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61. Unexpected Event. Portal Explosion. (3)

-CRASH!

“Damn it all to hell…”

“…..”

Joker had received the news that the level 29 portal explosion had succeeded.

His anger had reached its limit, and so his table was smashed apart.

His subordinate who came to make the report was shaking like a leaf.

From behind the curtain, he asked, filled with rage.

“Who was it… Ghost? Dark Lady? Who was the bastard!”

“It was Da.. Dark Lady.”

“AHHH! That bitch was able to make quite the impression….”

Joker’s rage does not subside easily.

All three leaders were to work on this project, as ordered by the head of the radical faction.

Dark Lady had succeeded in the portal explosion before him.

The only female leader in the radical forces, Dark Lady.

Her class was a tanker. And her subclass was an assassin.

Attack and defense. She had the perfect balance without any gaps.

Other than the head of the radical forces, she was the second strongest, following right behind Joker.

“The one…. Where is the location of the sun?”

“Th.. that’s… Supposedly he is at Incheon as of now.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes. We were able to find out from spies that have infiltrated Dark Lady’s forces.”

“I see.”

The leaders fought against one another to obtain even the slightest amount of favoritism.

The group hadn’t moved for a while, but the boss claimed they would be soon. Finally, it was starting.

The boss had always visited Joker, for he had the greatest combat capabilities, but it was different this time.

After the portal exploded, he had headed towards Incehon, where Dark Lady was residing in.

“He went to meet Dark Lady….”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“Come over here.”

“… Yes?”

“Come over here and clean this up.”

“Ah… Yes, leader.”

Joker spoke while pointing at his broken table.

Following his orders, the messenger headed through the curtain towards Joker.

The messenger’s eyes were already adjusted to the dark, but he did not have the courage to look at Joker’s face.

Trying to calm his shaking hands, he was trying to clean the debris when…

Joker’s giant hand grasped his head.

Joker whispered quietly.

“That glory, it should have been mine.”

“…. W-What do you mean….?”

“The glory that the Dark Lady achieved, it should have been mine. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes of course! It should’ve been yours, leader. The Dark Lady…”

Interrupting his rambling, Joker lifted his head to face him at eye level.

The messenger, now pale in color, looked towards Joker.

Almost as if his eyes were going to burst in flames, Joker asked while staring him down.

With a chilling smile plastered on his face to boot.

“What do you think the reason was for this glory that should have been mine being stolen?”

“That’s… All I can think of is that it was due to luck…..”

“Luck?”

“Yes! Dark Lady could have only succeeded on the project because she got lucky.”

Hearing his answer, the smile on his face fell, replaced with killing intent.

“Wrong.”

“T-Then what… KUWAK!”

-CRACK

Joke smashed the head he was holding onto into pieces.

The messenger was an Awakened.

But despite being an Awakened, his head was easily crushed like tofu.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and the air was filled with a metallic odor.

Joke tossed the limp corpse towards the entrance, and wiped the blood from his face.

And then he muttered to himself.

“The reason? That my luck was bad? AHAHA! Not funny in the slightest. I’ll tell you the correct answer.”

Opening his eyes wide in the dark room, Joker was staring at the headless corpse.

With huge lumbering steps, he headed towards it.

“It’s because of fools like you who are so afraid for your lives that you can only care about being tactful. Of course, you would be one of them. Or was.”

Underneath his feet, a darkish red aura began to form.

It was almost as if his rage was taking physical form at his feet.

However, this was a skill that the executioner class had, called Enhance Killing Intent.

Most skills the executioner class had were hand to hand combat oriented.

Out of those skills, Enhance Killing Intent allowed a portion of the body to turn into a weapon.

Almost like tenderizing meat with a hammer, he began to kick at the corpse that started to go cold.

“When you meet Jin in hell, look at him and regret on your existence. You would finally learn how pathetic you were…..”

****

“This is the location where the level 29 portal exploded, Jebu Island. The situation has been handled, and the surrounding area is being investigated. All Awakened guild members who participated in the fight are receiving protection from the association and are being escorted out.”

“Reporter Wang Seok-hyun, has all the monsters been taken care of?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Due to the association’s policy for safety, we were unable to capture any footage on the battle against the monsters. However, we can still see the how intense the battle was from the blood splattered all over the place. There are enormous corpses of monsters sprawled everywhere. These corpses are so disfigured, I’m having a hard time telling what they once looked like.”

“Is that so. I heard that there is much credit to give to general Yoon Jong-sun. How is his condition right now? Are the other Awakened safe?”

“Yes. Thanks to the quick response from the association as well as his brilliant commanding skills, all the structures and residents, as well as the Awakened are all safe and sound.”

“So they are.”

The scene of the battlefield changed to the studio’s desk, and the news anchor spoke while facing the camera.

“Can’t really put it in any other way. The credit goes to the amazing skill the Awakened from the association possesses. Thank you for all your hard work. This was the first time in history that a level 29 portal exploded. It is scheduled that the association will be releasing a statement of the reason for this occurring, what this could mean for the future, as well as their plans to deal with such possibilities should they arise. It’ll be covered at 8 o’clock on the special news report segment. Thank you.”

Today was Sunday. A day I did not go to hunt.

I had Jong Ho come over for a meal. We were snacking as we watched the TV.

The portal explosion incident that started at 9PM had finally settled down by daybreak.

After that, due to the association’s influence, reports started pouring in as early as 7AM.

Without much concern, Jong Ho and I watched the news.

“Guess they stopped it somehow.”

“Of course. Even if they are monsters from the level 29 dungeon, if the association arrives, they can stop it. 3 rankers were deployed as well.”

“Well, I guess there wasn’t anything for me to do there.”

“But I wonder why the level 29 portal exploded. It never happened before.”

“That’s true. I was thinking about it, and I couldn’t help but suspect that the reason is related to what I saw recently.”

“The thing you showed me before?”

“Yes. Well, the association will be briefing about the reason of the explosion soon enough, so let’s listen in.”

“Jeez. Are you still believing everything that idiot box is telling you? Out of everything they say, you can’t even trust 10% of what they are saying.” ¹

“I know that as well. Just wondering if they have any information on them.”

“That’s that but, how are you doing as of late?”

“About what?”

To my question, Jong Ho lowered his voice and whispered to me.

It was because he was worried that my mother would hear it from the kitchen.

“What do you think. Talking about the radical faction.”

To his question, I responded by casting Silent.
Now this conversation between Jong Ho and I could not be overheard.

No reason to cause pointless worry for my mother.

“Ah. Nothing at all.”

“After their last move, there hasn’t been anything else?”

“Yes. It’s so quiet, I wonder if I really took out Jin in the first place.”

“That just makes me worry more, you know?”

“That’s why I’m trying to get stronger as if my life depends on it. Because it does.”

“Of course. What’s your level now?”

“Going to be level 280 soon.”

“What? That’s insane. Weren’t you level 80 about 2 months ago?”

“Hyung. Isn’t this the difference between being determined and not? Difference due to how determined you are!”

“You sure it isn’t due to the difference in the ability we possess?”

“Well, that could be a part of it too.”

“Oh you. Ah! I forgot that I was going to give you this.”

Jong Ho began to dig through his pockets.

I was wondering what kind of new information he was going to give me.

“Surprise!”

“Huh?”

Going beyond my expectations, Jong Ho was holding out an Awakened essence.

On his palm it lay sparkling, as big as a thumb.

Raising his chin proudly, he continued.

“You know my personality doesn’t let me have a debt go unpaid.”

“But how did you get this? You hunt in a group. Did you kill them all and stole it from them?”

“Hey! Don’t say that nonsense. Thanks to you, I was able to hunt like never before at a time where I wasn’t even in a position to hunt, so I had a lot of time leftover. Lending amazing weapons such as Banwol Jincheon, the interest should at least be worth this.”

“You really killed them all, didn’t you?”

“To level up my skills that were falling behind, I ran the level 10 dungeon! You little shit!”

“Oh? Like how you explained before, you were farming for an essence?”

“Yeah. I did it for a whole week, but only one dropped.”

Since I used the last essence on the Mass Stealth Jutsu, I was at a situation where I had none left.

To heal all the fatigue I accumulated from the continuous hunting, I had used Heal to the point where it had reached level 100.

Other than Glacial Field and Formless Weapon Aura that I acquired recently, all skills had hit at least level 100.

What I needed now was to improve my defensive capabilities, so the correct choice seemed to be to invest my essence on a shield spell.

Lich King’s armor set as well as the Lizardman’s Gauntlet.

The reason why I obtained them was to increase my defensive capabilities after all.

However, compared to my amazing defensive equipment, all the shields I had other than my Mana Shield ranked only at a C rank.

The Reflect Shield that reflects attack at a certain % chance was already Awakened at this point.

It was too wasteful to use an essence on a C ranking shield.

“Hyung, can I really use this?”

“Yeah. I think at least until next year, none of my skills will hit level 100.”

“Ah, that’s right. You told me that you don’t have any skills leveled high enough to Awaken, right?”

“Yeah. I have a long way to go.”

“Then, even if it is very shameless of me, I’ll be using it.”

“You’re trying to be modest even after lending me 2 Banwol Jincheons? Don’t make me feel worse.”

I quickly took the essence off his hands.

Once again, I learned just how much of a bro he was.

I desperately needed not just the essence, but his capabilities as well.

I shoved the essence into my pocket, and asked him.

“Hyung. I’m trying to learn a new shield skill. What do you think would be good?”

“You already have Mana Shield, right?”

“This one isn’t for hunting.”

“Ah. Okay. Okay. Hmm…. It doesn’t matter if the skill is from a different class, right?”

“Of course. Doesn’t matter what the class is, I need a powerful shield.”

“Alright. A powerful shield is great. But you don’t have many essences to trade with, right? You could buy essences with money, but even with your stamina, you’ll probably find one or two more who are willing to sell at best.”

“Ah… Right. Darn it…..”

I wondered if it was time again to visit the midget’s office again to borrow some.

I could just repay them later.

Then, an idea came to me all of a sudden.

“Hyung!”

---

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60. Unexpected Event. Portal Explosion. (2)

Thanks to the unprecedented level 29 portal explosion, the association was in a state of chaos.

It wouldn’t take much longer before the government representatives arrived as well.

Before the representatives arrived, they had to figure out the reason of the portal’s explosion, as well as a way to deal with this.

Fire was around their feet.

Due to the association’s president raising his voice, the head researcher continued.

“Something you’re suspicious of? What is it?”

“That’s… Did you ever hear of something called the Portal Erasure Test?”

“Isn’t that a completely failed experiment?”

In the days when portals were first appearing. Roughly 3 years after the first Awakened began to appear.

While trying to research a way to eliminate the portals that grew stronger each year, this experiment came to be.

It was to have a lot of Awakened gather up their mana and send it towards the portal.

With condensed mana, they were supposed apply a physical force on the portal itself.

“Yes. While they tried to destroy the portal, it ended up only hastening the portal’s explosion instead. A failed experiment.”

“What. So what does this have to do with our current situation?”

“This is something I heard from the survivors of that experiment. Due to the failure of the experiment, the portal exploded and the monsters that came out from it supposedly were bigger in size and had higher destructive capabilities.”

“… So this matches what Yoon Jong-sun reported?”

“Yes. That’s correct. However, after the failure of the experiment, the cleanup was completely classified, so not much information is available. This is only an eyewitness report.”

“Hm…”

Listening to the department head, the president of the association stroked his chin with a serious expression on his face.

If this explosion was achieved due to deliberate malicious intent, then this situation was going to get out of hand.

Contemplating for a while, he opened his mouth to speak once more.

“Everyone, listen up. What the research head said, not a word to anyone else. The government officials that will be arriving soon cannot learn of this.”

“….”

It was then that Kim Ho Jin of the Awakened special control unit stood up.

Even though everyone was busy trying to save their own necks and trying to match the president’s whims, he stood.

Staring directly at him, Kim Ho Jin spoke.

“What’s the reasoning? In this dire situation of all times.”

With a single phrase from him, he had everyone’s attention.

He had asked the one taboo question that no one was willing to ask.

Noticing the furious look on the president’s face, they stayed silent.

“Ah, department head Kim Ho Jin asks a good question.”

“….”

“Let’s say the portal was blown up intentionally. Who do you think would be behind that?”

“Well that would be…”

“It’s not like the local thugs got together and poured their mana into it! This situation, let’s not make it any bigger than it already is and just find a reasonable excuse! If you can’t find any reasonable excuse, just make one up! Understood, everyone? Just cover it up saying we have a special unit investigating it for now!”

“Yes.”

“Yes president.”

Finishing his spiel, Choi Man Seo stormed off out of the room.

The radical faction. Everyone here probably has the same idea.

But everyone in the radical faction were Awakened.

The blame would also fall the association, because it is their jurisdiction.

That’s why they were trying to cover up the truth with a simple portal explosion story.

To avoid the responsibility they were supposed to carry.

After the president left, Kim Ho Jin couldn’t help but lash out in anger.

“Damn it… You all are only good at taking care of yourselves, aren’t you?”

“Ha, the nerves of yours to say things like that. It can’t be helped.”

The people left in the conference room followed the orders they were given, and started to debate on how to explain the portal’s explosion.

It would be more accurate to say that they were making up the reason though.

They were making it up as they went, relying on the information the association hunters were relaying from the scene.

****

-CRUNCH.

“KWAAAAA!”

The gargoyles were in the middle of charging towards the breakwater.

However, the Mage Gargoyles in the rear were stopped.

It was because they were frozen from the frost magic attacks that over a hundred Awakeneds had cast.

Their wings and body slowly froze, each of them screaming in pain.

The countless magic attacks that were heading for Yoon Jong-sun stopped at the same time.

The gargoyles that used melee attacks did not reach landfall yet.

“ORAAAA!”

Yoon Jong-sun, who was only defending with the shields, began to cast offensive magic.

An orb in one hand, a staff in the other.

A spell materialized between them, and shot itself forward onto the frozen gargoyles.

“KU..KWUA.”

“KWUH!”

The sky colored in yellow by the star shells turned blue in a split second.

Like a huge rainstorm, countless frost arrows hailed upon them.

It was a skill called ‘Frozen Shower’.

The mana cost was a massive 2500, but he was casting one on each of his hands.

It was only possible due to the mana stat he had, as well the weapons he held in each of his hands.

The weapons both raised the mana stat by an enormous amount.

Their bodies frozen and unable to move, they could only receive the full brunt of the attack.

It was as if hammers and chisels were chipping away at them, as the gargoyle’s bodies were being broken apart.

Their final cries were only befitting of just how many monsters were gathered here, reaching all the way to the breakwaters.

If these monsters were regular level 29 dungeon gargoyles, at least half of them should have perished.

Because an A+ ranking attack was casted twice, after all.

However, they were at least 1.5 times larger than their regular counterparts.

They had received a massive amount of damage, but only a few had lost their lives.

Checking on the condition of the monsters, he muttered to himself.

“Guess I underestimated them by a lot. They aren’t just big in size.”

He was the Yoon Jong-sun, the one who had cleared the level 29 dungeon countless times.

While he didn’t expect wiping them all out in one go, he at least thought he could take most of them down.

However the results did not look favorable.

Even after expending 5000 mana, he wasn’t able to deal much damage.

After he finished his attack, the healer next to him spoke.

“General. Most of the vanguard gargoyles are nearly here.”

“How much are you able to restore? My mana that is.”

“Even if we use up all our mana, we can only give you about 2 thousand tops.”

“Hm… We’re not even in a condition to cast shields, huh.”

“What should we do?”

“At that speed, the moment we retreat, this place will become a war torn barren wasteland.”

“Then…”

“We’ll have to hold. Reinforcements should arrive soon. We just have to hold until then.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Yoon Jong-sun turned to the Awakened behind him.

“Looks like it’s going to be a tough fight.”

Magic attacks from over a hundred Awakeneds.

Even with ranker Yoon Jong-sun’s attack, these monsters were not retreating.

The fighting spirit that burned in their eyes was changed to fear and despair.

“Are… are we going to die at this rate?”

“This is crazy. If only I didn’t draw the short end of the stick… Who knew level 29 dungeon monsters would be this strong.”

Each of them were talking with disbelief in their hearts.

The level 29 dungeon could only be cleared by a very small fraction of the Awakened, known as rankers.

They were not able to recognize that the monsters they were fighting were bigger and stronger than the average gargoyle.

They could only tremble in fear at the sheer power of the monsters.

Casting all those AoE skills, the mana expended by the Awakened was enormously high.

Despite being the highest level Awakened from their own respective guilds, it was difficult to cast it more than 4 times.

Yoon Jong-sun split the group in half.

He spoke to everyone on the left side first.

“This side, please cast shields on me. Use spells with the least amount of mana cost.”

“Understood.”

“Yes.”

“This side, when the mage gargoyles begin to thaw out, please cast frost magic on them once more. To take both ranged and melee attacks is too much to handle. Everyone who has nearly spent all their mana, please begin casting shields on me.”

“Yes.”

It was to make sure the mana was used efficiently.

The goal was to hold this location until the ranker magicians of the association arrived.

Even while as he commanded, many magician Awakened had arrived to assist.

Those who could not join immediately due to the Warp skill cooldown were finally arriving via vehicle transportation to provide aid.

As soon as he finished his explanation, the vanguard gargoyles began to attack.

Their sharp talons were ripping apart the shield easily. It was almost laughable how easily the shields tore away.

If the mage gargoyles attacked at this moment as well, both Yoon Jong-sun and the rest of the Awakened gathered here would be instantly wiped out.

“Uah…. Damn it all.”

“KWUAAAA!”

To add onto the dire situation where his mana was running out, the Crowd Clown aggro skill ran its full duration.

If the aggro he was holding was let loose, the entire line would fall apart.

Expending half of the 2000 mana he had left, he took the aggro once more.

Both healers that stood by his side were busy transfusing all the mana they had the moment it regenerated for them.

About 10 minutes had passed like that.

The number of Awakened that stood on the right side freezing the mage gargoyles lessened with time.

That meant that most their mana were used up at this point.

At this rate, it wouldn’t take longer for the ranged attacks come as well.

Yoon Jong-sun’s body was already covered in blood.

If he continued to use his personal shield spell, he wouldn’t be receiving this much damage.

However, due to the limited mana he had left, he had allowed these attacks to go through.

His breathing was ragged.

He did not have any mana left at this point.

“Huff… Hu…..”

“General! You should retreat for now…”

“I’m fine. How are you all doing? Enough mana, right?”

To raise morale, he shouted, and in response the Awakened redoubled their effort on the skills they were casting.

It happened in a flash! All the gargoyles that were attacking were ripped apart.

“KWUAAAA!”

And so….

In the darkening sky, at the end of the breakwater, voices that one could only welcome were heard.

“Oh boy. Grandpops, that’s quite the burden you are carrying.”

“The old man is quite energetic.”
“General!”

“Huff…. Hu, you’re late even here?”

Finally, 40 members from the association had arrived as reinforcement.

As if on the verge of letting out his final breath, he sighed and welcomed them.

Out of the 40 Awakened, there were three that led them.

They were all magician rankers that ranked right below Yoon Jong-sun himself.

“Let go of the aggro, old man. Do you have a nice place reserved for you down in the afterlife or something?

“Ah… Ahahahah!”

Saying some humorous nonsense and arriving next to Yoon Jong-sun was a man in his early 40s.

Yoon Jong-sun, despite his face being matted in dry blood, could only laugh at him.

The new arrival looked towards the healers who were his followers.

It was a silent command to take away those who had received grievous wounds from the battlefield.

Both healers nodded their heads, and while supporting Yoon Jong-sun, began their retreat.

“Granny came as well, so make sure you get proper care.”

“Sang-Ho. I’m counting on you.”

Nodding his head, he casted the aggro spell identical to the one Yoon Jong-sun casted.

At the same time, two other rankers that came with him stood next to him.

“Mage gargoyle.”

“I’ll take care of those.”

“Good.”

“Then Hye Won-Ih, you and I will take care of these.”

“Yes. Understood.”

“Shall we get started?”

---

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59. Unexpected Event. Portal Explosion.

“You should not be afraid from just this!”

It was shouted toward the group of scared Awakened.

The owner of that voice was the magician ranker Yoon Jong-sun.

His gaze was focused only on the flying monsters on the horizon.

Without any trace of doubt, he was both bold and brave.

It could be due to the equipment he had on hand.

The Awakened around him felt something else from him though.

The aura he brought with him was something special.

He was strong and sharp like a whirlwind, but gentle as the warmth of the sun.

Around him, two healer classes stood.

It was for attack and defense buffs, as well as support skills that helped him recover a small amount of mana.

Looking at this scene, the Awakened began to whisper amongst themselves.

It was as if they were looking at a celebrity.

A guy who would only show up on TV and news was on the scene for a level 29 portal explosion after all.

“Is it Yoon… Yoon Jong-sun?”

“No way… That can’t be…”

“I’m sure of it. It’s magician ranker Yoon Jong-sun.”

As if replying to the whispers amongst them, he turned around and spoke calmly.

“I’m not sure if this old man can be of any help, but let’s stop them. It’s for our family and friends back home.”

“Ha… huh.”

“He’s the real deal?”

Words that seemed to belong in a novel.

The Awakened were astonished from confirming that this was indeed Yoon Jong-sun.

That only lasted a moment, as they gave out a fierce war cry. It was as if a thousand had rallied to their cause.

The Awakened assembled here did not come out of their own volition.

Even if they were the top 5% of their guilds, the level 29 portal monsters were a force to be reckoned with.

Each probably had their worries and fears about it.

A level 29 portal had never occurred before, after all.

But as soon as Yoon Jong-sun, a ranker that every Korean knew about, appeared, moral was through the roof.

Just from his words and presence alone, those around him regained their fighting spirit.

Yoon Jong-sun looked around to see those eyes that were filled with doubt now filled with determination instead.

With a smile on his face, he looked towards the monsters that were flying towards them.

His level wasn’t revealed to the public, but it was estimated that his level was around 550 to 600.

Korea’s representative top ranker, but he did not have a secondary class.

He had made his way to the top only with the magician class.

Due to the sponsorships he received from the corporate giants, there was a time when he was labeled as corrupt, only seeking money.

However, he only used his strength to assist his nation and his people.

His righteousness was known by many Awakened.

The monsters flew with ferocity.

Their forms could almost be seen with the naked eye now.

Yoon Jong-sun’s calm face seemed to show a small amount of dread.

Casting Silent, he spoke to the healers next to him on each side.

“These are not your average level 29 dungeon monsters.”

Both of the healers who could not find anything special about these monsters flinched at his word.

They both looked towards the monsters, and could not hide their astonishment.

“Something is wrong. General, when we entered the dungeon with you, the monsters were different in size.”

“That’s right. It looks like they’re at least 1.5 times bigger.”

“It’s going to be a difficult fight… Be prepared.”

“Yes!”

“Yes general.”

Canceling Silent, he turned around.

More than a 100 Awakened stood before him.

He could not let the moral fall.

That’s why he had casted Silent so they could not hear.

Most probably never even entered the level 29 dungeon.

And even if they did hunt in there, they would have nowhere enough experience to compare to Yoon Jong-sun.

Looking at them for a brief moment, he spoke.

“This old man is planning to take command… Will you follow me?”

There wasn’t any who would disagree.

After all, the only hope they have of returning home safely was Yoon Jong-sun.

Taking their silence as agreement, he spoke to them again.

“The association magicians are delayed due to the Warp cooldown, and will be joining us in about 30 minutes. Let’s hold on until then.”

An unprecedented level 29 portal explosion.

There was no way that the association would sit still.

Since no one knew what could happen at any given time, ranker Yoon Jong-sun did not use the Warp skill carelessly, always having it ready.

The Warp cooldown was 12 hours long.

And just like the Blink spell, it did not have a skill level, so the cooldown could not be reduced.

He kept it off cooldown to make sure that he was able to get to the places that needed his help promptly.

However, he was the only one who did so, as others did not have a heart burning with righteousness like him.

Unless the rankers were commanded, they only moved quickly for their own benefits.

“Yes.”

“Give us your command.”

“I’ll be your shield, so please be my spear.”

“What do you mean…”

“As you know, the monsters that are coming towards us are gargoyles.”

“….”

“Out of all the monsters humanity has fought so far, it is the most difficult monsters for us humans to take down. If you allow them to attack, your bodies will become petrified, turned into stone.”

“Ha….”

The group began to nervously whisper amongst themselves.

Ignoring that, he spoke once more.

“The petrification occurs at a 50% chance, and even if you avoided that, their offensive capabilities are beyond your imagination. With your average health stats, it would be difficult to avoid being torn apart.”

“…”

“However, my Titan Boots will prevent the petrification. I will also be taking on all their attacks. If you could pour your attacks according to my command, then all of us can return home safely.”

“Understood.”

“Yes.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Finishing his little speech, his gaze returned back to the ocean once more.

And then.

“ORAAAA!”

-ZAP!

As he raised his staff into the air, a powerful light powered out.

Suddenly, it was as if all the gargoyles were targeting only him, and rushed him accordingly.

The skill he had casted was called Crowd Clown.

It was an aggro skill that made all monsters within a large range only target him.

Almost half of the 500 gargoyles who were known as Mage Gargoyles began to pour their attacks on him.

-ZAAAP!

-CRACKLE.

Lightning bolts the size of soccer balls smashed directly into Yoon Jong-sun.

Quickly casting shields, he was blocking their attacks.

Both the healers also began casting buffs and shields on him.

Blocking their fierce attacks, he shouted.

“Frost! Use AoE freezing magic!”

-WHOOSH.

To his command, they all began to cast their spells.

Each had their own skills to use, but all of them were of the frost attribute, giving off a blue glow.

Waiting for spells that had a casting time, he made sure everyone was ready before giving the command.

“Toward the Mage Gargoyles in the rear! Now!”

* * * *

Each time after clearing the level 28 dungeon, at least three text messages came out.

Using the data that was sent from the dungeon clears as a basis, the system determined who would be helpful to the cause, and sent texts accordingly to the target recipients.

It was the same for all the Awakened gathered here.

Those who were preparing to enter again had their phones constantly ring from all the message alarms.

The portal had exploded after 9PM.

It seemed that it wasn’t taken care of, even though it was nearing 12AM.

Unlike the succubi portal explosion, which was taken care of in 1 hour, it seemed that a difficult battle matching the portal level was occurring at this very moment.

Finishing my 16 hours hunting, I headed towards the portal that I casted before.

Using Warp for the first time, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

After I put my foot through the gate, I was sucked in.

In a blink of an eye, the surroundings had changed to the midget’s office.

‘Who knew it would be this useful.’

I felt stupid for not using it all this time.

At least the hunting grounds I went for weren’t that far away from the dungeons.

Exiting the empty office, I grabbed a taxi.

It was to head home.

It didn’t take long to arrive at home.

Mother was watching the TV in the living room.

“Did you come back?”

“Yes. I’m home.”

“What about food?”

“I ate around there.”

“Oh you. You should at least eat a homemade meal once a day.”

Hearing my mother’s nagging, which I didn’t mind at all, my gaze went towards the TV.

It was about the level 29 portal explosion today.

Following my gaze, she spoke.

“No matter what channel I turn to, it’s all about that.”

“How is it?”

“Didn’t you receive any texts?”

“Yes. It did come, but it was too far away for me to go…”

“Yoon Jong-sun or Yoon Jong-sun, apparently he’s at the frontlines blocking the monsters. He’s strong despite his age.”

‘Yoon Jong-sun… I met him at the dungeon where Louvier and Gwidon appeared.’

“Apparently since this is the first level 29 portal explosion, they’re struggling.”

“I see…”

“Go take a shower and rest. You worked hard today.”

“Yes. It is late. You rest as well, mother.”

Even after confirming mother returning to her room, I could not take my eyes off the TV.

After the portal exploded, high ranking officials were swiftly making their way towards the association headquarters.

Countless reporters surrounded them, camera flashes blocking their vision.

Kim Ho Jin’s face appeared as well.

“People from the association, of course.”

* * * *

They had gathered at the association headquarters.

From the vice division leader to above him, all had gathered due to the portal explosion today.

The president of the association, Choi Man Seo, spoke to the man by the beam projector.

“Begin the briefing.”

“Yes. This is the first time a level 29 portal has exploded. Currently in the frontlines, Yoon Jong-sun is spearheading the operation. In 10 minutes, other ranker magicians should be arriving…”

 

Before he could finish talking, the president spoke with ferocity.

“Hey. We already know all that. I’m asking if there is any new information! If we don’t take care of this portal explosion properly, the association will be disbanded, and we’ll all be done for!”

“Yes. This is coming in from some of the association members who are currently deployed. All monsters that have appeared at Jebu Island seemed to be gargoyles from the level 29 dungeon, but seemed to be at least 1.5 times bigger in size.”

“What? Is this true?”

“Yes. Ranker Yoon Jong-sun agreed as well. It is accurate.”

“Oi, head researcher. What’s happening?”

The focus of the room headed from the president to the head researcher, who studied monsters’ weaknesses, ranked them, and came up with strategies to fight them.

Adjusting his glasses, he replied.

“I… This has never been reported before.”

“What do you even do? Do you want to get destroyed by the public?”

“There is one thing I’m suspicious of…”

The head researcher, after shrinking away from the president’s yelling, carefully opened his mouth.

---

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58. Adding a Rhythm to Growth (2)

The Union Lizardman was not a hidden boss, and appeared 100% of the time.

A boss that appears after defeating all the mobs in the dungeon.

That’s why the chance for an item drop was high.

What I wanted to get was the Gauntlet.

Covered in the tough scales of the lizardmen, it was a defensive equipment with amazing properties.

It increased all magic resistances by 20%.

However, despite having a high drop chance in comparison to the hidden boss, this wasn’t a dungeon that was open to everyone.

Only the highest rankers could clear this dungeon, or it was split between a party group.

The Lich King’s armor set gave 20% magic resistance and 20% physical resistance.

In comparison, the Gauntlet only increased my magic resistance by 20%.

Even if it was dropping from a level 28 dungeon, it was far lower in quality than the equipment dropped from the level 23 dungeon.

However, the Lich King was a hidden boss. It could not even begin to compare with the Union Lizardman in terms of both offensive and defensive capabilities.

The lowest ranking Lich King was stronger than the Union Lizardman after all.

The higher level dungeons had greater amount of experience and lots of stronger monsters, but the items you could obtain from the boss were only affected by the boss’s rank, not the dungeon itself.

Suddenly, from within the boss, a bone chilling noise was heard.

“….”

It was enough to give me goosebumps.

It sounded like a pot filled with cockroaches were fighting over food.

The bugs seemed to be susceptible to fire and electricity.

However, attacks like Glacial Field that had a frost attribute only seemed to slow them down, not causing any serious harm to them.

They really were like cockroaches, showing resilience in all types of environments.

With my hand raised to the sky, a huge Meteor Call answered.

Since time was of the essence for my growth, I had to take it down as fast as possible.

Meteor struck directly onto its body.

The weapons and armors stuck onto the mass of bugs fell apart.

If I wasted any more time, it would be able to recover its form.

I had to rip their core cells apart with powerful magic before they began to regenerate.

I ran towards the area where some of them fell apart to.

I had to immediately run toward the center and cast Fire Shock.

The bugs that fell apart were crushed underfoot, the sound of them popping continued as I made my way.

Each bug was weak.

They were being squashed like normal bugs, not monsters.

But as they grouped, they used their synergetic ability to obtain power and defensive capabilities.

That’s why while they were blown apart by powerful magic, it was my only chance to cause some serious damage.

Within a 15m radius, the area was dyed in red flames.

A level 200 Flame Shock was being cast.

The flames consumed not only bugs, but armor and weapons made from condensed mana as well.

All within the range of the spell were removed from existence, almost as if they never existed in the first place.

It was then.

“Kurururu.”

“Guess you need to get hit one more time?”

The bugs that were blown apart began to regroup once more, reforming a body roughly half its original size.

I really wanted to cast Iceberg.

But their resilience was insane even within the spell, so it couldn’t cause much damage.

To effectively damage them, they needed to be split apart, but Iceberg could not do that.

Thankfully, both the cast time and cool down of Meteor Call were 1 minute.

So it would only take 2 more minutes before I was able to use my powerful Meteor Call again.

Even if Meteor Call hit numerous numbers of bugs, I could only obtain a single use worth of the skill.

If each bug gave me 1 use of Meteor Call in terms of skill experience, I would have been able to hit level 200 in one go.

Thanks to my Meteor Call, it was completely annihilated.

A massive rank A stone appeared.

Since it wasn’t a hidden boss, it did not drop a skill book.

However…

“Did it drop?”

I saw the form of the gauntlet, unaffected by the glow of the stone.

It was giving off jade-like glow.

And like the rainbow, each scale was emitting a slightly different color.

Even without the defensive capabilities, this gauntlet would be a work of art.

I stopped myself from admiring it for too long, and equipped the gauntlet.

Unlike how the exterior appeared at first glance, it allowed smooth movement without issues.

I looked up at the status window.

*All physical resistances up by 40%.

*All magic resistances up by 55%.

“Huh?”

It was supposed to be up by 60%.

There was a missing 5%.

“Ah. So they are split apart by ranks?”

The Lich King’s helmet and armor was from defeating the red glowing Lich King, so the item drop had the maximum stats possible for the gear.

With a sigh, I settled for less with the mid-tier gauntlet for now, equipping it.

All the other Awakened cleared the level 28 dungeon about 3 to 4 times on average a day, despite the dungeon staying open for only an hour after entering.

If an Awakened hunted for 10 hours, it would make sense that they clear it 10 times.

However, since that was not the case, it meant that it would take that long to recharge their mana.

Unlike them, I could clear the dungeon in 40 minutes, and continue to run without the need to rest.

Thanks to all the skills that were rising up in levels, I needed tons of Awakened Essences.

Now with all the Gauntlet drops I’ll be getting, I could sell it for Awakened Essences, since no amount of money could buy one.

If the highest ranking one drops, I’ll be wearing it of course.

Hunting, growth, and even gear could be obtained with this method.

It didn’t take long for me to arrive at the exit portal of the dungeon with my backpack filled with goodies from the run.

It was annoying, but I casted Silent and Mass Stealth Jutsu before heading outside.

Annoying bugs could be waiting outside too, after all.

* * * *

Since I could run into Awakened who could be trying to enter the dungeon, I made my body as small as possible before heading outside.

Oddly enough, it was quiet and still outside.

Almost as if the dungeon exit took me to another place altogether.

“… What the? Where is everyone?”

There were roughly a 100 Awakened here before.

But within the 40 minutes of clearing this dungeon, there wasn’t enough half the number left.

And the remaining Awakened, instead of making small talk like before, were looking at their smartphone with serious expressions.

It was then.

The smartphone that wasn’t ringing before due to the interference of the dungeon began to shake.

Missed calls as well as text.

It vibrated for about 20 times before stopping.

“What? I shouldn’t be getting this many calls…”

My hand naturally went towards the smartphone.

Checking the message, I knew something big went down.

The message said the following.

-Emergency Situation-

Current time 21:32.

Near Hwaseong’s Jebudo Island beach front, a level 29 portal explosion occurred.

All residents are to evacuate to the nearest Association building immediately.

All magicians in the area are to gather at the designated location.

Address: Hwaseong- si, Gyeonggi-do….

“….”

A level 29 portal and above exploding has never happened to this day.

All the portals that exploded so far were level 28, but there was a text that said a level 29 portal has exploded.

‘An earthquake out of nowhere, and now a portal exploding?’

A level 29 portal required at least 100 Awakened ranging at levels of 300 to 400 to clear it.

And since no physical attacks work on it, only magicians could do it.

However, since humankind can still handle a portal of this caliber, it shouldn’t cause any severe damage before being cleared.

If it was like before in the past, I would’ve ran straight towards it.

A level 29 portal explosion would have massive rewards following it.

However, money was not of the importance to me at this moment.

And the area was far away from where I lived.

The chances of any damage reaching there was low.

“Hopefully they can take care of that stuff. Let’s go hunting!”

-click.

-beep.

* * * *

Hwaseong’s Jebudo Island beachfront.

Countless warp gates were formed.

Answering the call from the association, these were from magician classes.

Since using Warp Gate required you to visit the destination beforehand, many cars were being used for those that have not visited the area before.

Since the portal’s explosion was detected early on, the monsters have not crossed the waterline yet.

Awakened with levels reaching 100 showed themselves already.

Due to the massive reward?

No. If it was an Awakened with enough power to clear the dungeons of this area, it would be more beneficial to clear the dungeon rather than to show up for money they’d receive for responding to this event.

The reason why they still showed was due to their guild.

To clear the high level dungeons, or to get into stronger groups, one would join a guild.

The guild didn’t get involved in things directly most of the time, but they were still under control by the government and association.

It was a group made up of strong Awakened.

It was obvious that it needed oversight.

Guilds with 500 or more members were required to respond to national emergencies as requested with personnel.

Only the top 5% of the guild, the strongest they had to offer, were summoned.

The reason why they were set on a certain percentage was that the ranks of the guild determined how many members you could have.

500 members meant that it was a guild ranking in the middle ranges, rank 4.

Greater numbers weren’t always a plus.

Each of them were complaining.

“Wew. I thought things finally calmed down.”

“Yeah. And now a level 29 portal. This never happened before.”

“…. I don’t know what’s going on anymore.”

That only lasted a moment.

The horizon seemed to be filled with black fog.

A huge horde began to appear, taking up the entire horizon.

The sky grew dark due to how late it was.

To take them down only using moonlight would be difficult.

The military shot out star shells to light up sky.

The area became lit for a moment, and the Awakened who made their stand around the light house and the breakwater became much more nervous.

Towards landfall, monsters easily over the size of 5m were flying towards them.

In sync, they flapped their wings.

Over 500 in numbers, it was a terrifying sight.

One man amongst the group shouted out aloud.

Looking from behind the man, he seemed to emanate a powerful aura.

“You should not be afraid from just this!”

---

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57. Adding a Rhythm to Growth

After Kim Ho Jin and his associates left, I entered the dungeon without any issues.

However, when I tried to re-enter the dungeon by presenting my license, the machine replied.

-Invalid ID-

‘What?’

I tried once more, but the result was the same.

The ID was suspended.

‘They already suspended the ID that short span of time?’

I had predicted this ahead of time though.

Because the owner of this ID was nowhere to be found at the level 28 dungeon after all.

It was obvious that the ID would be suspended.

They also changed the identification machine as well.

Due to my ID being suspended, I could not hunt anymore.

I still had my ID with my name on it, but if I used this, it was the equivalent of me admitting that I was the one using the forged ID to enter the level 28 dungeon.

Even if I took breaks between the runs, the bugs would get in the way of using my talents fully.

That’s why the message I sent before entering the dungeon was to the midget.

I was planning to purchase at least 10 of these IDs.

The reason was as follows.

If I kept clearing the dungeon by swapping between the IDs and solo clearing, all the data sent would increase their suspicion and it wouldn’t be long before they suspend all my IDs.

They’re already suspicious of this whole thing already.

The IDs would only be good for one use then.

Then instead of using them one at a time, by using them all at once, it’ll look like I’m entering as a party.

My thoughts were interrupted.

A call from the midget came.

Instead of taking the call at the dungeon entrance, I used blink to get some distance before taking the call.

My stealth was not taken off as well for the same reason.

I spoke as quietly as I could.

I was using the Eye of Insight, but it was possible that there were others observing me without me knowing.

“Hello.”

“Yes. What occasion would it be this time.”

“Just as the message said.”

“How many do you need?”

“How many can you get today?”

“Hm… As you know in this market, there’s not enough money for all the goods out here.”

“Then please get me 10.”

“10?”

“Yes. I’ll be there in 2 hours.”

“Yes, yes. Understood.”

He didn’t seem very happy, and showed it in his reply.

Right before I hung up, I stopped myself and spoke his name once more.

“Ah. One more thing!”

“Yes. What would that be?”

“I need all the IDs to date before 2000.”

“Yes, that shouldn’t be hard.”

“Also make sure they’re all of different classes. That wouldn’t be hard, right?”

“Of course, of course. I’ll see you at the office in 2 hours?”

“Yes. I’ll see you there.”

The reason why I wanted variety in classes as well as the IDs to date before 2000 was that I didn’t want them to have suspicions if this was an actual party or not.

If the date was that far away, most people would’ve quite high in levels.

Even if they entered the level 28 dungeon, it wouldn’t be that suspicious.

After hanging up, I now had 2 hours of leisure time.

I knew exactly what to do with those two hours.

“Hello?”

“Yes. Hyung, it’s me.”

“Hm. What’s up?”

“Out of all the level 28 dungeons, can you find out which one has the greatest popularity?”

“Why? Did your ID get suspended?”

“Yes. About 40 members from the association showed up.”

“Guess they really have their sights set on you.”

“I’ll be counting on you.”

“Alright, I got it.”

“Ah! Hyung, could I meet with you in 1 hour?”

“Sure. But why?”

“Hm. I’ll be visiting you in an hour.”

“Sure. Call me when you arrive.”

“Yes.”

* * * *

After receiving my phone call, Jong Ho went outside of his house to greet me.

Not sure if he was about to go hunting, he was wearing simple clothing that one would wear under their armor.

Recently, he’s been hunting from late afternoon till dawn.

Not sure if he has a specific reason for doing so, but it seemed that the group he hunts with seem to hunt at that time as well.

Seeing me, Jong Ho happily greeted me.

“Yo. Bro.”

“Hello, hyung.”

“What brought you here today?”

“Surprise gift?”

“What. Doesn’t look like much of a surprise with the expression on your face?”

“Wow….”

‘Oh boy. This guy.’

I gave him both Banwol Jincheon that I was holding with each of my hands.

“Use this, hyung.”

Hearing my words, his expression grew stiff.

And with a rare serious voice, he spoke to me.

“Why?”

“I’m going to the level 28 dungeon, so I have no need for a blade.”

“Do you know how much this cost? Do you know how many essences you need to purchase this?”

“Who said I’ll give it to you? I’m lending it to you.”

“Why? Why not hold onto it?”

“To use the ID and the gross fake hand imprints, I won’t have enough hands to hold the weapons.

And they could also make a lot of noise. It’s really annoying, so you should use them instead.”

Hearing my reasoning, a smile appeared on his face.

Guess he couldn’t hide it.

I mean it is a rank M/A Banwol Jincheon after all.

With the current B ranking weapon he was using, it was on another level altogether.

If you factored in the bonus strength stats the weapon provided, it was a weapon at least 5 times stronger than his current one.

With a face full of happiness, he asked.

“Can I really use it?”

“Looking at your expression, it looks like you’re already using it though?”

“Hey you! You’re supposed to pretend that you didn’t see it.”

“Since hyung is a dual wielding warrior, seems it met its master.”

“Yeah… It really is a surprise…”

“You do admit, huh?”

“I admit 100%.”

“Pfft.”

Jong Ho held both weapons with each of his hands.

I went behind him massaged his shoulder.

Jong Ho was confused and asked.

“What are you doing? Are you planning to end your life soon? Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

“Come on, you’re going to have to stand tall and proud in front of the guys who are about to hunt. You’ll have to be ready.”

“Ah. That’s true. I guess I’ll have to warn them to not let their jaws drop too much.”

“Anyways, I met with you today to give you this. I’ll be going now.”

“Sure. Thank you. If you need it back, just let me know, okay?”

“Yes.”

The day I get back my Banwol Jincheons is the day I’ll be taking down Joker and the radical group.

* * * *

After meeting Jong Ho, I headed to the office to pick up the 10 IDs.

As I asked, all the IDs were dated before 2000, and with a variety of classes.

Giving the price they asked for, I left.

I finally arrived at the Awakened market.

It was to purchase the skill I needed to ensure smooth sailing with my task of leveling.

“Please come in.”

The store assistant welcomed me with a stiff greeting.

“Do you have the warp skill book?”

“Of course.”

The assistant finished answering me and guided me through the store.

Out of all the skills books filling the store, the assistant brought a tall step stool to reach for the warp skill book way up above.

After using a smartphone to scan the skill book, the book was handed to me.

“It’s the Warp spell.”

“Yes. Can you ring me up?”

“Do you not need any other items?”

“Ah. Please give me Silent as well.”

Warp was a skill that most classes obtained as part of the basic skill set.

It’s a skill book with a 12 hour cooldown.

It made a gate to the location I wanted to arrive at.

I wish that it would let me travel back and forth, but it was only a one way trip.

But for someone who hunts for more than 12 hours a day, it was not a problem.

Silent.

It was a skill that made a barrier which blocked out all the sound around it.

It was to silence the ID terminal when I was trying to sneak in.

‘Guess I’m done preparing. Shall I go?’

Listening to the advice that Jong Ho gave to me about where the most populated level 28 dungeon is, I headed for Hanam.

I wish I could get there immediately using the Warp skill, but it only allowed the user to teleport to a place they’ve been before.

Guess I’d have to use the taxi this once.

* * * *

I finally arrived at Hanam’s level 28 dungeon.

I could not see the regular crowds of people I was used to seeing at the manticore dungeon.

All of them were from guilds or through connections.

Because it was a dungeon that was difficult to clear on just a whim.

About 100 Awakened members were outside of the dungeon, maintaining their gear.

With a party of 8 to 10 per group of course.

The level 28 dungeon was long and had many monsters.

A 10 man party took 1 hour to clear it once.

Most Awakened used up all their mana after one run.

That’s why it would take so long to prepare for their next run.

I had to be hidden while using the terminal.

And not only did I have to use one ID, I had to use at least 8 along with the fake fingerprints.

If it was a low level dungeon that had many people constantly entering and exiting, I would never get close enough.

Stealth only hid my body, not turn me into a spooky ghost or something.

In front of the dungeon entrance, I casted Warp.

The Warp was connected to the midget’s office.

I could connect it to my room, but it was safer to connect it to the office instead.

The gate that was spawned was the shape of a portal before it exploded.

But instead of being purple, it was blue.

Since the skill had a 12 hour cool down, I casted it to start the cool down early.

‘Guess I’m done preparing to return home.’

 

From a corner far away, I casted Mass Stealth Jutsu.

Then I moved toward the entrance, looking around to make sure I was in the clear.

Because I could not progress if a group was ahead of me, getting ready to enter.

It would take a minute, but it was good to be sure.

Other than talking about gear or discussing strategies, they weren’t doing much.

‘Guess I’ll go?’

I stood in front of the terminal, and casted the Silence spell.

It was a level 1 skill, but the range was quite far.

Even if the level was low, it should be able to easily block out the noise from this machine.

As I used the IDs, I kept a good watch around me.

‘Because of all these bugs, I have to live like this.’

After that, I used the fingerprints.

Everything worked as planned, and I was able to enter the dungeon.

* * * *

“Wew! I thought I was going to suffocate.”

Entering the dungeon, I was able to complain aloud.

Since I didn’t have to look out for prying eyes, I could relax.

It should be okay to talk in this isolated space.

With powerful skills in each hand, I charged forward.

Since this run was delayed for two hours, I tried to do it faster.

After killing all the dust lizardmen, I arrived at the end.

The boss was waiting for me.

Union Lizardman was its name.

Eating all the corpses of the lizardmen, and even running off with their armor and weapons, this was the boss of the dungeon.

The disgusting bugs from before, it was kind of obvious I guess.

They grouped up to form the shape of a giant lizardman, hence the name.

With the armor and weapons they’ve taken, they haphazardly put together this frankenstein of a monster.

The inside was filled with bugs that looked similar to water striders, controlling the mass of bugs as if a single body.

It was disgusting, but I had to face it nevertheless.

Because the armor they drop is amazing.

“Please drop this time!”

---

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56. Out of the Way! An Unwelcome Guest of the Dungeon Comes. (3)

The inside of the dungeon was quiet.

It was enough to make me question if this was a level 28 dungeon.

According to the intel, there were supposed to be thousands of monsters appearing.

But from what I could tell, it didn’t seem that way.

It was as if the dungeon was already cleared.

 

The interior was similar to the manticore dungeon.

The difference was that instead of being a wide desert field, there was a winding desert road.

The width of the road was about 30m or so.

The floor was covered with finely ground sand, while the each side of the road stood wrinkly tress, their shells making a wall.

 

“Looks similar to a place I know, yet oddly different to it too.”

 

Finishing my monologue, I casted Mana Shield and shot forward.

Even after running for 2 minutes, I didn’t encounter a single monster or any of their cries.

I didn’t let it bother me, and continued forward.

Because it was normal as usual.

It was then.

“KWAACK”

“KRURU!”

The road was covered with my footprints.

Hundreds of monsters came out onto the road that I passed, howling and screaming all kinds of noise.

Dust Lizardmen, monsters with different sets of equipment and armor appeared.

Monsters that only do melee attacks.

Each swinging their weapons and surrounding their targets.

All of them possessed strength equivalent to a level 100 warrior. Quite troublesome to handle.

They looked similar to lizards.

1.5m  in size.

They proudly showed off their reflective scales.

These scales were so tough that most magic could not even leave a scratch on them.

Not only were they immune to physical attacks, but they had a flat 20% magic damage resistance.

They were breaking the shifting magic and physical resistance pattern the dungeons had every 3 levels.

Kicking up a cloud of dust, they stomped their feet on the ground furiously.

However, Meteor Call had already finished casting in my hand.

Both Meteor and Iceberg had already hit level 159.

Thanks to these guys, these skills will become stronger.

A 10% reduction in cast time as well the cooldown.

 

To the mass of mobs that were staring at me, I casted Eye of the Storm to group up the mobs that were still spread apart.

 

Utility skill Eye of the Storm pulled in all lifeforms in the area together.

The level 100 skill didn’t even cause the mobs to budge.

Those strong gusts, they stood still as if it was a breeze from a fan.

 

“Guess they’re high ranking?”

 

Both Heal Canceling and Lower Resist were the same.

Debuff skills did not work either.

The marks on the chests that appeared if the skills hit were nowhere to be found, after all.

Resistance was a major factor, but monster level and ranking were to be reckoned with as well.

 

“I’m curious as to see what will happen.”

“Take this!”

 

The size of the Meteor was enough to block out the sky.

With one swift movement of my hand, it collided against them.

 

The entire dungeon shook from the destructive force.

The massive shockwave from the noise rang throughout the dungeon.

 

The flames from the meteor was enough to consume even the very sands it blew into the air.

The hot winds from the destruction came towards me.

The remains of the meteor covered where the lizardmen used to be.

The flames continued to burn fiercely, and a message followed.

 

[20,000,000 experience obtained.]

.

.

.

[Level up.]

 

“Shit!”

 

I had barely taken care of half the monsters.

I had leveled up from 1/5th of my experience bar being full instantly.

Each monster offered 20 million points worth of experience.

And the numbers of monsters were not just hundreds, but nearly a thousand.

I heard that people leveled up all the way to 500 from this dungeon alone, but I didn’t know it would be this good.

Even high level Awakened have to form up 5 man parties to get in, so they only get 4 million worth of experience per kill.

But I was keeping 20 million experience to myself.

 

Leveling in the level 18 dungeon, I was able to level up 12 times faster than the average Awakened.

But now I was running the level 28 dungeon that only one person was able to solo run in the entire world before.

Perhaps 20 times? Over even greater than that seemed possible.

I was overcome with goosebumps after confirming the sheer amount of experience I’ve obtained from them.

I was only surprised for a short moment though.

-crack

My Mana Shield was shaking with great intensity.

I was at least 30m away from them.

However, in a blink of an eye, they had caught up and were attack me.

If it was another shield, it would’ve come apart and the attacks would’ve reached me.

If these mobs had this much destructive force, they had to be taken care of immediately.

The reason why about half of them were able to survive was surprising though.

They had come together to form a defensive formation, blocking the damage of the Meteor Call.

That’s why they were able to retaliate.

“KYAA!”

Their sharp beak like mouth had drool spilling out of them.

When the drool landed on the ground, smoke was formed, the scent of sulfur thick.

It was obvious that it was highly acidic.

“Don’t spit at me!”

-CRACK!

A huge iceberg started to form, enough to swallow up the dungeon that was nearly 40m wide.

The ice broke apart and reformed nonstop.

Even as their bodies were being crushed and torn apart, the lizardmen continued to resist.

All the monsters I’ve met so far had been instantly taken out from the sheer amount of damage the Iceberg did, but these monsters…

I was able to reconfirm just how strong these monsters were.

[Iceberg’s skill level rose.]

“Is it finally level 160?”

The cool down and cast time had become 1 minute each.

I was able to cast this destructive spell every 2 minute.

I used Holy Missile and Explosion to get rid of the stragglers.

The sand was painted in blood, the red matching the glow of the Bloodstones.

I collected all the stones and stood up.

I had to take down more lizardmen, after all.

Behind me, I could hear strange noises.

-crunch. -crunch.

“Ah! Right. The janitors.”

I turned around quickly to make sure I didn’t miss this strange scene.

Bugs the size of my fist appeared, eating away at the corpses of the Lizardmen.

Almost like how thousands of locusts eat away at the crops, they came in droves, attaching themselves onto the corpses like waves.

Covered in black, it didn’t even make a minute before everything but the armor and weapons of the lizardmen to remain.

Even dragging away the bones, they hid themselves into the sands once more.

“A lot more disgusting than I thought…”

* * * *

The dungeon’s road seemed to be without an end.

I was curious what kind of ability Choi So-Hyeon had to be able to clear this dungeon by himself.

After taking down the boss, the exit gate appeared.

I was very thankful for one thing.

Other dungeons had the exit open up in the center of the dungeon.

To move all the way to the center in this enormous room was a task in itself.

Thankfully the gate appeared at the end of the dungeon.

“Wew. With just one run, I already leveled up once and have 77% of my gauge filled.”

It was a high class dungeon far beyond my expectations.

Before I left through the gate, I casted my Mass Stealth Jutsu.

-sha sha sha sha

Casting it above my head, the air shimmered and swayed, like a disturbance on a surface of a pond.

Including me and everything that came in contact with me were hidden from view.

If I didn’t have Eye of Insight, I wouldn’t know what I was holding onto.

“All right. Shall I exit?”

* * * *

 

It was already 5 pm.

Maybe it was due to the dungeon being so bright, but the outside felt darker than usual.

I didn’t have time to waste. I had to hunt some more.

I was about to use the ID scanner when…

‘Who are these people?’

The level 28 dungeon was famous for its rare visitors.

It was to be expected, as there were not many who could clear this dungeon as it was only possible to clear with a party.

However, the dungeon had roughly 40 people surrounding it at this very moment.

About 20 of them were equipped with armor and weapons.

The rest had clean uniforms, using hand gestures to communicate between one another.

I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of a combination was this.

It was because I saw a granny staring directly at the entrance of the dungeon.

‘Seems like either the radical faction or the association.’

However, I could tell they were from the association.

It was because one of the people in the group was  Se-Jin Kim.

I was focused on the grandma once more.

Yoon Jong-sun also had the look of a retired grandpa.

Most rankers had quite the age on them.

That grandma looking at this direction must also be very high leveled.

I felt that she was a cleric.

Because to see hidden targets, you needed Eye of Insight.

My monologue ended there.

The person next to the grandma spoke.

 

“Honored lady. It’s about time that he would be exiting. Please give us the signal if you see him.”

“Yes. Understood. He doesn’t appear to be out yet, though.”

“Not yet? Do you see anything?”

“Don’t worry. My Eye of Insight is nearly level 100.”

“Of course. I trust you.”

‘What are you saying with me right in front of you?’

The bag on my shoulder.

In my hand I held my ID and the finger imitation.

I was sure that the cleric ranker could not see me.

‘Glad I Awakened my stealth skill. The essence wasn’t a waste.’

Should I just leave out of their sight?

No way. If I do that, they’d be 100% suspicious of my existence and dig deeper to find me.

Just in case the stones in my bag made a noise, I carefully moved my ID to the machine.

It was to make them think that the scanner was broken.

I was carrying out my plan to confuse them right before their eyes.

“Beep. Please present your fingerprint.”

Unlike how it was when I entered the dungeon, the sound from the machine felt much louder than before.

Hearing that noise, all 40 of them began to talk amongst themselves.

Then the man standing next to the elderly spoke.

“Lady! Is there anything at all?”

“Yes. I think you made a mistake today Mr. Kim. As you know, there isn’t stealth that I cannot detect. There is no one at the entrance.”

“No. Impossible! Please check it again. Lady!”

Ho Jin, filled with frustration, looked about despite not being able to see.

Then the elder spoke.

“I’m sure that the machine is faulty. Then shall we end it here?”

“Yes! Of course. Sorry for taking up your time despite your busy schedule, lady.”

“Ohoho. It’s enough that I get to see a young’un such as yourself, filled with energy and rearing to go. Please take care of the rest.”

“Yes! Thank you for your hard work.”

The elder finished talking and was heading to the car.

Kim Ho Jin couldn’t help but wear his suspicions on  his face.

He continued to stare at the entrance of the dungeon.

Our eyes finally met.

He was staring at the dungeon, and I was staring into his eyes.

After a long while, he called his subordinates.

“Did you check the ID?”

“Yes, dept. head.”

“Yeah, who is it?”

“Yoon Hyun-se. Awakened date is year 01, month 03. Busan is his where his residency is.”

“First check the list of missing. Send a team over to check if the machine has a problem.”

“Yes. Understood.”

“If you find him, contact me immediately.”

“Yes!”

“Please present your fingerprint.”

While Kim Ho Jin was busy giving orders, the voice of the machine crackled out once more.

-beep

Without hesitation, I brought the fake finger towards it.

The dungeon entrance formed.

I didn’t know who this ID belonged to, but once they found out the owner, it would be impossible to use it again.

‘Hm…’

Sending a text message to someone, I entered the dungeon once more.

---

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