Chapter 51
The reason for searching for the mages was quite simple.
‘If my thoughts are correct….’
And that was to confirm whether the supposition he made back in the Penalty Zone was correct or not.
Meanwhile, the knights all began rushing violently towards him.
Jin-Woo calmly jumped and stepped on the shoulder of the knight closest to him, and leapt up into the air. That allowed him to take in the interior of the boss room in one go.
‘Where are the mages?’
……Found one!
Not too far from him, he spotted a lone mage.
‘As I thought!’
What he witnessed back then was right.
Indeed, he didn’t see wrong.
Back then, when he was being squeezed tight by the group of knights and only his arm could flail about helplessly, Jin-Woo spotted something through the narrow gaps he couldn’t quite understand at the time.
‘…….’
And that was a mage continuously chanting a spell.
A mage busy chanting a spell… at a casual glance, that wouldn’t be something out of place. However, Jin-Woo still felt a strong sense of discord from that.
‘If that’s the case, then how come….’
How come he saw not one single spell flying at him?
Every attack he received came from the knights. Mages continued to chant, yet not once did they complete their spells and display their might.
No, there was that one time.
Back when one of them used something called Eyes of Detection and undid his Stealth. And when that was happening, for some reason, all the knights nearby stopped moving.
At first, he thought they only stopped because they had lost their target.
However, while he was hunting down the giant centipedes in the Penalty Zone, he belatedly realised something quite important.
Was it around the eighth centipede he killed? The level up message popped up and he clenched his fist tightly.
[Level up!]
His spent HP and MP were restored to full. After the short period of elation, a weird incongruency rushed in right afterwards.
‘My level can rise this easily, yet why didn’t I level up once in that place?’
The System said that his health wouldn’t recover through level up, but crucially, it said nothing about him being unable to level up.
Indeed, his level rose up by 5 on his way towards the boss room, too. However, only during the Class Change Quest, he didn’t level up once. Even though he endured for over six minutes and killed a hundred plus knights.
Mages busy chanting but not casting any spells.
Knights that apparently didn’t give out any experience points.
When he took these actions of the two separate groups that puzzled him so much and combined them into one singular puzzle….
A new possibility formed in Jin-Woo’s head.
‘It could be….’
It was possible that all of the knights there were fake.
The reason why all those knights stopped moving when the mage used Eyes of Detection could be that… it wasn’t because he had vanished, but because the mage had stopped casting.
‘If my guess is correct…!!’
He needed to confirm it right now.
Jin-Woo ignored the knights reaching out to grab him and ran towards the mage while using their shoulders and heads as his footholds.
‘….!’
He sensed the mage panicking after spotting his approach. And its casting speed had increased. Suddenly, the knights no longer attacked him without a plan and tried to gather around the mage to protect it.
With that, Jin-Woo was convinced now.
Tap!
He landed in front of the mage. Without a moment of hesitation, the dagger held in his right hand accurately pierced the mage’s heart.
‘Vital Points Targetting!’
Stab!
The mage soundlessly turned into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared from the view.
[You defeated a mage.]
And at the same time-!
Tumble!!!
Hundreds of knights rushing in to attack Jin-Woo all collapsed at the same time. It was as if they were puppets with their strings cut.
The knights collapsed on the floor were now, more or less, empty suits of armour.
‘This was my answer!’
Jin-Woo cried out inwardly in elation.
He had to go through several near-death situations just to get to this conclusion.
Knights were nothing to worry about. No, it was the mages that controlled these knights.
The real goal was to kill them, instead.
‘The first target my Knight Killer killed was a mage…..’
Jin-Woo couldn’t help but chuckle as he looked down at the empty robe discarded on the floor. He had that much leeway now.
Of course, he couldn’t continue to stand around doing nothing forever. After all, his quest hadn’t ended yet.
Rumble…
The ground shook again.
Jin-Woo turned around and saw that the knights had him surrounded from almost all sides with no gaps to speak of.
Meaning, there were other mages controlling these batches of knights hidden somewhere.
Knights pounced on him. Jin-Woo’s right hand moved so fast that naked eyes couldn’t even see its shape.
Slice!!
The knights standing in front of him all got cut in half.
Jin-Woo’s eyes opened real wide after witnessing that.
‘Wow!’
It was worth investing 2.8 million Gold on this dagger. The blade of his Knight Killer pierced and sliced open the knights’ armour as if they were made of paper.
It didn’t seem that the saw-like blade was the only reason for this.
Just as the item description, ‘dagger designed for use against knights’ said, he could sense a strong magic-like power emanating from this Knight Killer.
‘A weapon from the Store is actually pretty good, isn’t it?’
There was a slight deviation from the accepted norm here. Normally, most people would think of weapons sold in stores as something one would use in a pinch when there was no better alternative.
‘I shouldn’t be dismissing Gold from now, huh….?’
At a bare minimum, this dagger seemed a lot more useful than weapons designed for a Hunter. He even thought that, if he sold weapons from the Store to other Hunters, he would become rich in no time at all.
Well, he didn’t see any restrictions on the weapon descriptions that he couldn’t give one to someone else, which was different from ‘consumable’ type items.
‘Concentrate, man. Concentrate!’
Now wasn’t the time to get distracted. Knights were still tirelessly rushing at him.
Swish! Slice!!
Jin-Woo dodged this way and that while cutting them down.
However….
‘This will go on forever.’
When he shifted his gaze away just for a brief moment, far more knights than he had cut down appeared out of seemingly nowhere to fill the gap.
Slice!!
One more knight lost its head.
‘I gotta find the mages.’
Jin-Woo utilised the shoulders of the headless knight and leapt up before the creature collapsed to the floor.
‘Stealth!’
Jin-Woo’s form blurred in an instant. Of course, he wasn’t trying to hide via Stealth. What he was aiming for was….
[The mage has used ‘Skill: Eyes of Detection’.]
[The mage has used ‘Skill: Eyes of Detection’.]
[The mage has used ‘Skill: Eyes of Detection’.]
….The ear-piercing mechanical beeps rang out from several directions.
Jin-Woo ran on top of the knights and quickly confirmed the positions of the eye-like symbols.
‘There are a total of five mages!’
Jin-Woo targetted the closest mage to him.
‘……!’
The mage hurriedly gathered knights around it the moment Jin-Woo turned to stare at it, but….
Swish-!!
The Poison Fang of Kasaka flew out of his left hand in a straight line and stabbed accurately in the middle of the mage’s forehead.
Stab!
[You’ve acquired ‘Skill: Dagger Throw’.]
[You defeated the mage.]
Tumble…
Once more, hundreds of knights tumbled to the ground.
‘Four more left!’
Jin-Woo stepped on the knights’ heads and moved towards his next target.
Meanwhile, he sneaked a glance towards the ‘Poison Fang of Kasaka’ he hadn’t recovered yet. It was time to use his new skill.
‘Ruler’s Reach!’
Jin-Woo extended his left hand towards the dagger, and as if a magnet was pulling it in, the weapon flew back in.
‘Yes!’
Jin-Woo snatched the dagger off the air.
Now that he didn’t have to personally retrieve his dagger, he could take the most efficient route to his target. In the next second, he arrived before the next mage, and…
‘…..!’
Even before the knights could try anything, he cut the b*stard up in half.
[You defeated the mage.]
More knights collapsed again. With that, not even half of the original number of knights remained.
The initiative was clearly with him now.
Jin-Woo’s glare became harsher.
‘There are three left.’
Perhaps sensing the threat, the remaining mages all gathered in one spot. It wasn’t only them, either. The knights they controlled also gathered around them.
And then, the mages all chanted a certain spell together. Their ominous and creepy voices reverberated throughout the boss room and soon, they finished their spell.
Crack, creak.
The knights guarding the mages were suddenly pulled into one lump and got compressed as if they were thrown into an industrial crusher. And then, they were reborn as one huge metal Golem which began glaring at Jin-Woo right away.
Wuooo-!
‘Wow, this is no joke, huh?’
Jin-Woo leaked out a gasp of pure admiration after sensing the overwhelming pressure emitted from this giant monster.
However, he wasn’t scared by its appearance at all.
Perhaps because he had encountered several life-or-death situations already, he was feeling expectant rather than nervous.
Thud, thud, thud!!
Whenever the large Golem took steps, the ground shook.
What a fearsome presence it possessed.
Swoooosh-!
Jin-Woo ducked lower and dodged the Golem’s fist.
Kabooom!
The stone pillar behind Jin-Woo shattered into pieces after its metallic fist grazed it.
‘Well, that is pretty serious power…..’
Jin-Woo grinned slyly.
If he hadn’t yet figured out what was going on here, he would’ve been wracking his brain trying to figure out how to deal with this monster. However, there was no need for him to worry about that now. No need at all.
Kuoooaarr!!
Just as the Golem locked its hands together and raised them high to smash down…
Jin-Woo didn’t back away, but used his skill, ‘Dash’, and pounced forward. And then, he slid on the floor.
In the blink of an eye, he had slid in-between the legs of the Golem and shot right past it.
While the lumbering Golem was hastily turning around, Jin-Woo had already arrived before the three completely defenceless mages, still busy chanting their spell.
‘….!’
‘….!’
The shoulders of the panicking mages grandly shuddered.
‘Checkmate!’
A smile of contentment formed on Jin-Woo’s face.
The old saying went something like, by being together, you’d be safe and that separating from one another would mean death. Too bad for them, that was not the case this time around. It was far easier to kill them off because they had gathered in one place.
Jin-Woo freely swung his daggers about, and….
[You defeated the mage.]
[You defeated the mage.]
[You defeated the mage.]
The remaining three mages also became smoke and joined their already-departed comrades. And the Golem that was trying to hurriedly grab Jin-Woo shattered into pieces of armour and scattered all over the place.
Jin-Woo didn’t let his guard down, however.
‘Is this the end? Or, is there something more?’
He remained alert and ready just in case something else might happen, but then, the familiar beep went off in his head.
Tti-ring.
Jin-Woo swallowed his saliva.
Perhaps to laugh at his unnecessary worries, the System announced the end of the quest, instead.
[The Class Change Quest has been concluded as all monsters inside the examination chamber have been defeated.]
[Your Class will be determined shortly.]
[Depending on the amount of advancement points accumulated, it will be possible to change your Class to a high-ranking one.]
Only now…
Only now could Jin-Woo spit out a sigh of relief.
“Fuu….”
What a difficult battle this had been.
If he remained fixated on the Immediate Return Stone, he’d never have figured out how to counter the Class Change Quest monsters.
‘Yeah, I’d probably have been thinking about escaping all the time.’
He got unlucky – or perhaps got really lucky, instead – and lost the Immediate Return Stone. And that forced him to focus solely on surviving this battle. The end result was an unbridled success.
And now, it was time to receive his rewards.
Jin-Woo’s gaze drifted towards the timer.
[04:29:16]
The numbers on the timer had stopped moving. He had ‘endured’ for almost four and a half hours. And that wasn’t all.
In a quest that could be cleared simply by enduring the combined assault of the countless enemies for a while, he actually managed to kill them all.
Just from wondering about how many points he got to accumulate and what kind of a class he’d earn from that, his heart began trembling in anticipation.
[The suitable Class will be bestowed upon the Player after your past actions have been thoroughly analysed.]
‘Yup, that sounds good.’
If his past actions were used as the basis for the selection of his Class, then the odds of him ending up with something weird and struggling in the future would be close to zero now.
It was probably the most welcoming thing he’d heard in a while.
[The places where the Player stands are dyed with the hidden breaths of an assassin. Corpses fill the paths the Player has walked past, and the scent of blood is thick and strong.]
….He thought that this description was a bit too heartless and cold, but after looking back, he couldn’t come up with anything to rebut those words.
‘I only did those in order to raise my level, though….’
After entering an instant dungeon, he kept hunting monsters down until his level would not rise any more. And while inside a regular dungeon, he made sure to find every single hidden monster there and slew them all, too.
Also, although it wasn’t his intention, he ended up fighting other Hunters a couple of times, too.
‘Assassin’, ‘corpses’, and the ‘scent of blood….’
‘No matter how you look at it….’
Just as he suspected from the beginning, it seemed that his Class would be set at ‘Assassin’ now.
[Also, the Player thirsts for power, never relies on his comrades, and paves the new path for himself with his own strength.]
Nod, nod.
Jin-Woo nodded his head in agreement with the System’s assessment.
‘Well, it’s not like I had any trustworthy comrades, to begin with.’
However, he couldn’t understand why those points were being addressed during the selection of his Class. The System’s explanation continued on.
[Your thirst for strong power is intense enough to summon the spirits of the departed, and the army of the deceased that unquestioningly follows all of your commands will pave the road only for you, without anyone’s aid.]
‘………The army of the deceased?!’
Only now had Jin-Woo realised something had gone awry here.
Too bad, though.
“No, wait!!”
Even before he had any chance to raise his objections….
The System read off the result of the selection in its usual dry and humourless voice.
[Your Class has been set as ‘Necromancer’.]
“…..What the f*ck?”
Chapter 52
What was the meaning of this sudden slap to the back of his head?
Everything was going well, so why did ‘Necromancer’ pop out instead of the expected ‘Assassin’??
Jin-Woo dazedly stared at the message. He even rubbed his eyes several times, but nothing changed.
[Your Class has been set as ‘Necromancer’.]
The message still floated up there, unchanging.
He couldn’t believe it at first, then he became really angry next.
‘I’ve never even touched the Intelligence Stat, so what the hell?!’
Just how did he end up with a rare class not even found among countless Mage-type Hunters in the world??
From the moment Jin-Woo awoke as a rank E Hunter, he was always a close-quarters fighter. With the exception of the steel longsword, he always used daggers, and the skills he got until now were perfectly suited for the role of an assassin.
That was why he hadn’t even thought of the possibility that his class would end up belonging to a different type altogether.
It was a magic-type, no less… No, more than that, a Necromancer!!
His knowledge of different classes came from video games, but even then, he knew enough about what being a Necromancer entailed.
A gloomy-looking mage, and an army of undead following that dude.
No matter how much he thought about it, that image just didn’t correlate to him whatsoever.
Jin-Woo frowned deeply and shook his head.
‘….Let’s calm down, first.’
Even if his thoughts were complicated, his responses should be calm.
Being calm and cool-headed were Jin-Woo’s ultimate weapons. He controlled his rage and regained his cool head soon afterwards.
‘Hang on, isn’t this….’
Denial, then rage.
He suddenly felt like he was acting like a patient who just heard the diagnosis of terminal illness, and was going through the so-called five stages of grief.
‘Rage… then, it’s supposed to be negotiation, is it? Or was it compromise?’
Of course, there was no way he’d be allowed to negotiate or come to a compromise with the System.
If he were to think about the advantages of being a Necromancer, then…. just as the System alluded to, he could create his own army? About that much?
‘Well, the problem here is that army will consist of skeletons and rotting corpses.’
If he walked around with such an army, the whole world would be up in arms in no time.
Hunters were already the objects of aspiration and fear, yet he was being asked to become a Hunter who could lead around an army of the departed….
Never mind the question of this class being suitable to him or not, he wasn’t even confident of handling the fallout from that.
Tti-ring.
[Will you accept this Class?]
The System demanded his answer.
What a relief that was.
‘I can still say yes or no…..’
Jin-Woo spat out a sigh.
If the Class wasn’t forced down his throat, then that meant there was another opportunity for him. If he still had another shot, then there was no reason to sweat so much right now.
Jin-Woo gladly (?) refused the suggestion.
“No way.”
When he did that, the message asked him again.
[The ‘Necromancer’ is a hidden class. Will you still refuse?]
Although it was asking the same thing for the second time, he found himself unable to quickly answer back.
He was now hesitating.
‘A hidden class… is it?’
That term might sound like something straight out of a video game, but still, there were Hunters with rare and strange abilities even in reality.
Such as, Hunters who could create ‘Shields’, or buff others. Or, even…
‘….The Master of White Tiger Guild can apparently transform into a monster, too, according to the rumours.’
All those Hunters with rare and strange abilities were now enjoying a great deal of special treatment after being scouted by the biggest Guilds out there.
‘Could this hidden class thing be the same thing as the special abilities those Hunters possess?’
If that were the case….
‘This could be an opportunity, instead.’
Suddenly, such a thought popped into his head. The System did say something about this just now.
‘I thirst for power, and that’s why it’s recommending the Class of Necromancer to me.’
In other words, the Class of Necromancer had the potential to be truly powerful.
When considering the fact that most of the Hunters with rare skills happen to belong to ‘support type’, this could be seen as quite an encouraging thing for him, indeed.
A Hunter with a rare skill that could directly enter any battle.
His heart began beating just a little bit faster just from thinking about that.
‘If I could only get to experience the Class of Necromancer just for a bit, I wouldn’t even need to weigh my options this much.’
However, would anything in this world be that easy?
There was no way the matters of this world would revolve according to his wishes, and worse still, he had never heard of anyone possessing an ability similar to that of a necromancer.
The thing was, one wouldn’t be able to find a mage who commanded its own army, to begin with.
Just as his thoughts ended there…
‘…..Oh.’
Jin-Woo took a sweeping look at all the broken remnants of the knights strewn about this place.
‘Those mages!’
One could say that those mages in the Class Change Quest were using roughly the same ability as a Necromancer.
These knights were their army, in other words.
‘For sure….’
It was certainly very difficult to fight all those knights who attacked him with complete disregard for their own lives.
If he failed to figure out how to fight them until the end, or if the mages possessed very high close-quarters combat abilities, then….
‘The one lying on the floor right now would be me instead of these scrap metal bits.’
Jin-Woo stopped looking at the knights and raised his head.
A certain look of determination flashed by in his eyes.
‘I already possess the close-quarters combat ability.’
Meaning, he was different from those mages.
What if there was a mage possessing excellent hand-to-hand combat skills who also happened to command an army? Wouldn’t that be the worst of all worst possible nightmares for his enemies?
‘What if….’
Something he could only think about but couldn’t do – wouldn’t it be possible for him to enter a dungeon rated B or higher alone and clear it now?
Jin-Woo silently swallowed his saliva.
If he were allowed to continue raising his Stat values after becoming a Necromancer, then obviously, the army under his command would also grow even more powerful than before.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine the effect of that.
‘It’ll no longer be only me levelling up.’
His own army would be levelling up, too.
‘Wait. Could this be….?’
Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine. Jin-Woo raised his head and looked at the floating message. It was still patiently waiting for his decision.
[The ‘Necromancer’ is a hidden class. Will you still refuse?]
Unlike how it was usually, the System wasn’t urging him on. Jin-Woo couldn’t help question its motives in his mind.
‘Is this what you wanted from me?’
Of course, no replies came to him.
After a lengthy deliberation, Jin-Woo made up his mind.
If it was giving him power, then he’d accept it with open arms.
He no longer hesitated.
[Will you accept this Class?]
“I will.”
As if it was waiting, the System immediately displayed the following messages.
Tti-ring.
[Your Class has been set.]
[You will now be given the opportunity to change to a higher ranked version of this Class through the amount of advancement points accumulated.]
[Calculations have begun.]
[Tallying up your advancement points….]
While that was going on, Jin-Woo unwrapped the bandages from his right hand.
He’d been holding the dagger so tightly that his palm had swollen up rather painfully.
“Well, I’m gonna get blisters now.”
He lightly clicked his tongue.
Such a wound would’ve been taken care of with a drop from the healing potion, but not being able to use one was proving to be rather inconvenient in various ways.
He finished unwrapping the bandages and was about to store the Knight Killer back in his Inventory, when he heard yet another mechanical beep.
Tti-ring.
Jin-Woo reflexively raised his head.
[You’ve exceeded the expected time limit!]
[Bonus points will be granted.]
Bonus points, it said. But, that was rather obvious, wasn’t it?
‘Not sure how long was the expected time, but well, I did endure for quite a long time, didn’t I?’
He began smirking in satisfaction, then all of a sudden, several messages inundated his vision.
[You did not use Immediate Return Stone!]
[Bonus points will be granted.]
[Your remaining HP is over 50%!]
[Bonus points will be granted.]
[You eliminated all the enemies!]
[Bonus points will be granted.]
[Total advancement points tally has exceeded the Class-specific point limit.]
[According to the Contract, you will be given a special reward.]
Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring.
‘What’s this?’
His ears hurt from all the beepings, but Jin-Woo’s focus was fixed elsewhere and didn’t care anymore. As a matter of fact, he couldn’t even hear those beeps now.
‘A special reward?’
Those words jumped right up at him.
A reward.
Not only that, it was ‘special’, too.
Jin-Woo stopped trying to store the Knight Killer in his Inventory and concentrated on the message.
His stares were now firmly fixed on it.
Soon, follow-up messages popped up.
Tti-ring.
[Your Class has been upgraded from ‘Necromancer’ to ‘Shadow Sovereign’.]
[You have acquired Class-specific skills.]
[You have acquired bonus Stats.]
[You have acquired the title, ‘The One Who Overcame the Adversity’.]
‘Shadow Sovereign?’
Hearing that strange term, Jin-Woo hurriedly summoned his Status Window.
[Name: Seong Jin-Woo]
[Level: 51]
[Class: Shadow Sovereign]
Indeed, there was a new term added to his Class column.
‘It’s not a Necromancer anymore?’
The System definitely said that he’d be able to get a higher ranked version of his Class according to the amount of advancement points he had earned. And also, it mentioned that the point tally had exceeded the limits of the Class itself, too.
The end result from all that was this ‘Shadow Sovereign’.
“So, is this….”
….The special reward the System was talking about?
The thing was, though, Jin-Woo couldn’t continue on with what he wanted to say.
‘……??’
Right in front of his disbelieving eyes, a truly bizarre and hard-to-explain phenomenon began unfolding.
Behind the hologram-like messages….
Unknown black smoke was slowly and eerily leaking out from the knights strewn about on the floor like scrap metal.
No such thing happened prior to him getting his Class.
These bits of scrap metal were nothing more than ownerless junk, only until a minute ago.
However.
Jin-Woo closed the Status Window and swept his gaze around the interior of the boss room once. It wasn’t just one or two now.
That black smoke was rising up from every single knight on the ground.
[It is possible to perform Shadow Extraction on the selected target.]The roots of this story extend from novell bìn origin.
[It is possible to perform Shadow Extraction on the selected target.]
[It is possible to perform Shadow Extraction on the selected target.]
Whenever his eyes landed on ‘targets’ with black smoke oozing out from them, the words with hard-to-fathom meanings ‘possible to perform extraction’ popped up into his view.
‘Shadow extraction?’
He couldn’t understand why, but to Jin-Woo, those rising smokes looked like they were writhing in pain.
As a matter of fact, it felt like they were reaching out to him, begging him to save them.
Would it be strange if he said that…. he could hear their screams?
‘But…..’
He was sure of one thing.
He was sure of him being able to free them from their pain.
‘Shadow Extraction.’
[Please set the command phrase to activate the Shadow Extraction skill.]
‘I gotta set a separate activation phrase for this skill?’
Jin-Woo pondered for a bit, before muttering out almost instinctively.
“Rise up.”
When he did….
Wuuaaahhhh….
Thick, heavy moans resounded out from somewhere and at the same time, the shadows of the fallen knights began wiggling as if they were still alive.
Jin-Woo scanned his surroundings once more.
All the shadows found near him were beginning to move.
Soon enough, a black hand rose up from one of the shadows. It pressed down on the ground hard, and slowly, the arm attached to it rose up.
‘Oh my god!’
Jin-Woo’s eyes opened wider and wider.
Those things were…. people.
No, soldiers possessing the outer appearance of a person!
Soldiers kitted out head to toe in jet-black armour climbed out of the shadows one by one.
‘This is my new skill??’
By the time Jin-Woo recovered his wits, there were a couple dozen soldiers standing by his side, waiting.
[Shadow Extraction was a success.]
Tens of soldiers were now surrounding him.
‘What the hell is this….?’
Jin-Woo approached the nearest soldier.
The first thing he did was to touch it. When he placed his hand on it, he felt something metallic.
As it turned out, the metal-looking armours weren’t just for show.
Indeed, these guys were all outfitted in real black armour and real weapons.
‘At first glance, they look like people, don’t they?’
However, they weren’t people. He couldn’t sense any signs of life from them. They didn’t breathe, and there were no heartbeats he could hear.
On top of this….
“…”
Jin-Woo swallowed down his shocked gasp.
He sneaked a glance inside the helmet through the eye holes and found nothing but pure darkness in there. Jin-Woo slowly took several steps back after feeling like he was being sucked in.
‘These things came out from the shadows??’
He immediately checked his Skill Window.
Just as the System informed him, new Class-specific skills could be found there now.
[Class-specific skills]
Active skills
- Shadow Extraction Lv. 1
- Shadow Storage Lv. 1
He checked the details of the first skill.
[Skill: Shadow Extraction Lv. 1]
Class-specific skill.
Required Mana to activate: None
Creates a shadow soldier by extracting Mana from the recently deceased lifeform.
The odds of extraction failure will rise higher depending on the target’s original Stat values, as well as the length of time since its death.
Number of shadows that can be extracted: 30/30
Only after reading the explanation on the Skill did he realise the identity of these black soldiers.
‘…….They are all undead.’
Shadow soldiers – monsters, pulled out from the shadows of the dead.
Jin-Woo swallowed down his saliva.
‘If these things are really my soldiers, then….’
Jin-Woo raised his arm and pointed to his right.
And the soldiers all uniformly shifted their bodies to right.
The end of his hand slowly moved to his front.
And the soldiers too followed after his hand and slowly faced their front.
Jin-Woo stood in the middle of them.
He did his best to calm his pounding heart and lowered his hand.
And at the same time….
Every single soldier knelt down before him.
They were moving according to his will.
“Hah…..”
Jin-Woo let out a soft gasp of admiration as the ends of his lips arched up.
‘Isn’t this so cool?’
Chapter 53
‘Oops!’
A thought flashed by in Jin-Woo’s head.
‘I shouldn’t be wasting time like this.’
He had witnessed the power of his new skill. He could now turn the defeated monsters into his soldiers.
If that was the case, then wasn’t there a monster nearby that he just had to turn into his lackey right away?
Jin-Woo climbed up the pile of armours that once used to be the giant Iron Golem and stood on top. By being so high up, he could take in the entirety of the boss room.
‘……’
Jin-Woo searched around as his glare became sharper.
Found it!
Confirming the direction, Jin-Woo immediately ran over there. Perhaps he was feeling really psyched, he arrived there in the blink of an eye even though he didn’t use the Dash skill.
Gulp.
Jin-Woo looked the ‘corpse’ of the monster that he was planning to extract the shadow from, and swallowed dry saliva.
The creature remained in the exact same spot where he had killed it.
‘…..Igrit the Crimson.’
The sight of the red-armoured headless knight half-buried in the thick, sturdy wall told how desperate his situation was back then.
Jin-Woo stood before Igrit.
It might have been a fearsome enemy that threatened to kill him only a few hours ago, but now, it was probably the best ingredient he could find. Fortunately enough, he saw the black smoke slowly oozing out from Igrit, just like how it was with other fallen knights.
[It is possible to perform Shadow Extraction on the selected target.]
Jin-Woo’s expression brightened.
‘Nice.’
He already knew the drill. Jin-Woo took a short but deep breath and spoke out the command phrase.
“Rise up.”
He spoke the activation phrase for the skill, Shadow Extraction. However, the skill didn’t activate.
‘……..??’
Jin-Woo tilted his head this way and that way, and was about to say the command phrase again. But then, following a ‘tti-ring’, several warning messages popped up.
[You have exceeded the number of shadows that can be extracted.]
[If you wish to perform Shadow Extraction, you must return a portion, or all, of your soldiers back to the world of nothingness via ‘Extraction Cancellation’.]
[Once returned to nothingness, the shadow soldiers can’t be summoned back.]
‘Oh, yeah. There was something like that, wasn’t there?’
At the end of the skill’s explanation, there was something he should’ve taken note of.
[Number of shadows that can be extracted: 30/30]The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.
The maximum number of extractions he could perform was 30. Which meant the number of his soldiers was currently 30….
Jin-Woo looked behind him.
The shadow soldiers had followed him even before he had noticed it and they were standing in attention.
‘When did they?’
Perhaps fitting their title of ‘shadow soldiers’, they seemed to move around without making a single sound.
Whatever the case might have been, if he wanted to extract Igrit’s shadow, he had to get rid of one of these guys, just as the System had alluded to.
‘But….’
It had only been a short while, yet when he thought about them being his soldiers, he kind of didn’t want to dismiss any one of them.
Did he get attached to them already?
With a rueful, unwilling expression, Jin-Woo slowly scanned each and every one of his shadow soldiers. As his eyes swept past the soldiers, their names and levels appeared before his view.
[Shadow Infantryman Lv. 1]
Regular grade
[Shadow Infantryman Lv. 1]
Regular grade
Everyone possessed the same name and level.
‘Oh well, their origins were exactly the same, so…’
But then, he discovered three somewhat different-coloured soldiers right at the back of the infantrymen.
‘Are those….?’
Unlike the regular infantrymen, these guys were wearing robes.
[Shadow Magic Soldier Lv. 1]
Elite grade
“Oh.”
He quickly figured out what they were.
The three mages that were controlling the Iron Golem must’ve been revived as undeads as well when he gave out his ‘Rise up’ command just now.
‘So, 27 infantrymen and three mages, eh?’
This was why being ‘rare’ was a good thing. He excluded the low-numbered mages and selected the closest infantryman from him to cancel the extraction.
….And he was really sorry about this.
“Extraction Cancellation.”
Phush….
The soldier turned into black smoke and scattered in the air. Not even a trace remained of it.
‘……..’
Jin-Woo gazed at the spot of the disappeared soldier for a little while with an apologetic expression, before shifting his attention back to Igrit.
His preparation was complete.
He even had to sacrifice one of his wonderful soldiers just so he could turn Igrit into a shadow. So, he simply had to see some results here.
Time to act while the sun still shone.
Jin-Woo tried the extraction right away.
“Rise up.”
When he did that, the shadow cast beneath Igrit began to wiggle as if it came to life. It was the same reaction as when he extracted the shadows from the knights just now.
‘Okay, good!’
Jin-Woo clenched his fists tightly. He had a good feeling about this.
[Shadow Extraction has commenced.]
[Attempting to extract….]
What would Igrit look like after its extraction? Jin-Woo’s hands became slick with the sweat of anticipation.
Unfortunately…
Ting!
A mechanical beep akin to a metal plate breaking in half rang inside his head.
[Shadow Extraction has failed.]
“What?!’
[Two more attempts remaining.]
“Whew-woo….”
Hearing that he still had more chances remaining, Jin-Woo spat out a long sigh of relief.
‘Hang on, now that I think about it….’
The skill’s explanation definitely said that the odds of extraction failure would rise up depending on the target’s Stat values.
But having experienced it personally, he couldn’t help but be dumbfounded. It felt like he got slapped in the back of his head, this taste of his first failure.
Not only that, there was a restriction on the number of attempts he could try, too.
‘So, I have two more attempts remaining….’
If he failed in both attempts, then did that mean Igrit’s shadow would disappear into that ‘nothingness’, just as the sacrificed infantryman did?
Imagining the worst possible scenario, he felt dizzy for a second. Jin-Woo quickly shook his head to clear his mind.
‘Let’s stop thinking negatively about this.’
Indeed, only positive thoughts…
Didn’t someone say that if you believed earnestly enough, the universe would find a way to help you out?
While stewing inside anxiety and anticipation, Jin-Woo attempted the extraction for the second time.
“Rise up.”
Too bad, his expectation was shot down grandly once more.
Ting!
[Shadow Extraction has failed.]
[One more attempt remaining]
‘…..’
This guy gave him so much trouble while it was still alive, and even in death, it was managing to give him some serious headaches.
And here he was, hoping against hope.
Now that he had failed twice in a row, his vision seemed to have blurred, everything looking a bit bleak.
“Fuu…..”
Jin-Woo deeply inhaled and exhaled his breath.
There were no more attempts remaining after this. He had only one more shot left. Jin-Woo closed his eyes and reorganised his thoughts.
‘Well, it could be nothing more than percentages and odds, but….’
But, it was possible that his desire to possess Igrit’s shadow wasn’t earnest or strong enough.
Jin-Woo slowly reopened his eyes.
He sensed the black smoke rising up from Igrit reaching out to him, pleading with him to save it. Jin-Woo became a lot more serious than before.
And he reached out with his right hand as if to grab that pleading hand of the smoke.
“Rise up.”
He didn’t do it deliberately; he himself didn’t quite realise it then, but Jin-Woo’s voice sounded much heavier and graver than ever before and it reverberated throughout the boss room.
It was then!
Uwaaahhh-!!
A deep scream could be heard coming from somewhere, and chilling, eerie wind swept by the boss room.
‘Isn’t this it…?’
Jin-Woo’s expression brightened.
He remembered encountering a similar situation like this one before.
….Back when his infantrymen first popped out from the shadows.
Aaaaah-!
Just as he hoped for, as the lengthy scream came to an end, a long black hand emerged out from the shadow. And when that hand pressed down on the ground, a new message popped up in his view.
[Shadow Extraction was a success.]
Jin-Woo let out a cry of happiness.
“Yes!!”
He tightly clenched his fists. The taste of success was so much sweeter since he had to go through two failures to get here.
However, the good news didn’t end there.
[The sovereign’s voice had awakened the departed’s fighting spirit.]
[You have succeeded in strengthening your shadow soldier.]
[The shadow’s level will now start at 7.]
‘I succeeded in strengthening? What?’
A shadow’s starting level could be higher than 1?
Jin-Woo’s eyes widened once more. Just as the message said, the black knight emerging from the shadow carried ‘level 7’ in its status.
“Mm!!”
Jin-Woo spat out a short gasp.
The newly-emerged shadow looked exactly as it was in his memories.
The mane attached to the helm; the highly-fashionable armour wrapped around its entire body; that noble, dignified cape.
The only difference being that the blood-like armour now sported a pitch-black colour, instead. Everything else was exactly the same.
He’d have probably believed it if someone told him that Igrit had returned to life just now.
However…
‘…..’
The newly-born Igirt didn’t display a single hint of animosity towards him. No, it just stood there quietly, waiting for Jin-Woo to give it a new order.
Thump, thump.
Hin-Woo’s heart began pounding in excitement as he stared at Igrit. And there was a big grin etched on his face. Even though his heart was palpitating, there was something he was curious about.
Jin-Woo’s gaze shifted just above Igrit’s head.
‘Why doesn’t this guy have a name?’
[?? Lv. 7]
Knight grade
For some strange reason, there was a couple of question marks instead of its name.
‘And its grade is also different.’
He understood that its level was high because of that strengthening thing, but still, this guy exhibited quite a few differences from the regular infantrymen.
Perhaps it read Jin-Woo’s mind, because the System sent him a new message with excellent timing.
Tti-ring.
[You can bestow a name to a knight grade soldier.]
[The bestowed name will be maintained until the shadow soldier is dismissed.]
[Please set the soldier’s name.]
‘A name, is it?’
At first, he was at a loss with this unexpected demand, but soon enough, he recalled that this ‘guy’ already had a name and a smile crept up on his face. There should be no problem calling it by its original name, no?
[Please set the soldier’s name.]
The message blinked as if to urge him on with the naming already.
Jin-Woo opened his mouth.
“Igrit the Cri….”
No, hang on a minute.
When the System asked him to set the name, it meant that he’d have to use that name to call this guy from here onwards. So, didn’t that also mean that he’d have to call it Igrit the blah-blah all the time from now on?
Just thinking about that gave him a nasty case of goosebumps.
‘…..That’s way too cringey.’
In the end, he decided to shorten the name somewhat.
“Igrit.”
[Will you set the name as ‘Igrit’?]
“That’s right.”
As soon as Jin-Woo spoke, the question marks on the guy’s head disappeared and the name Igrit appeared there.
[Igrit Lv. 7]
Knight grade
All he did was to simply give it its original name, yet Jin-Woo still felt like he had accomplished something pretty amazing. He was filled with contentment, knowing that this guy was his loyal soldier now.
‘My own loyal soldier, eh….’
Jin-Woo took a look behind him.
29 shadow soldiers were still there, waiting for his orders.
For now, the number was too small.
‘Only 30, huh….’
Either this was because the skill level of ‘Shadow Extraction’ was too low, or because his Intelligence Stat hadn’t been raised high enough yet.
But, he was sure of one thing, and that was the number of his soldiers would gradually swell up.
‘Yup, I really have myself a new army.’
Not only that, they weren’t some skeletons and corpses, but an army of shadows.
Now, there was only one problem remaining.
And that was how he’d walk around with these guys. Now that gave him a bit of a headache.
‘Doesn’t matter skeletons or shadows….’
It’d be way too eye-catching if these guys freely walked around in the streets.
Would that be all?
This skill was already way past regular people accepting it as one of the many awakened abilities a Hunter could possess.
Either he’d be under the constant surveillance, or worse, someone might even demand him to dismiss the summoning, too.
‘Woo Jin-Cheol, the section chief of the Monitoring Division, the Korean Hunter’s Association….’
Thinking about how stuffy-looking guys like that man would come around every day and annoy him to no end in the future, Jin-Woo felt like he’d die from frustration already.
That was precisely why the next skill existed, probably.
‘Skills.’
Jin-Woo summoned his Skill Window.
[Class-specific skills]
Active skills:
- Shadow Extraction Lv. 1
- Shadow Storage Lv. 1
The skill he only checked its name and nothing else until now.
The ‘Shadow Storage’.
That name alone made him think that this skill would help him out in these sorts of situations.
Chapter 54
< Chapter 54 >
[Skill: Shadow Storage Lv. 1]
Class-specific skill.
Mana required to activate: None.
Stores the shadow soldiers inside the summoner’s shadow.
The stored soldiers can be summoned back into the open or absorbed back at any time the summoner chooses to.
Number of stored shadow soldiers: 0/20
‘I knew it.’
Jin-Woo nodded his head.
Since the skill’s name had the word ‘storage’ in it, he expected it to have something to do with storing away the soldiers. Unfortunately, there was a part that proved to be completely out of his expectations.
‘How come the number is….’
The number of soldiers he could store was noticeably lower than those he could create.
Indeed, he could create 30, yet he could only store 20. Meaning, he had to unsummon 10 more.
‘Now this sucks.’
Just which finger out of the ten in your hands wouldn’t hurt when you bite them? Just discarding one made his heart bleed, but now, he had to discard ten??
‘Hmm….’
Jin-Woo stared at the soldiers with a rather lonely expression on his face.
Obviously, the knight-grade Igrit was excluded.
Three ‘magic soldiers’ were also excluded, since they would be harder to replace and also fewer in numbers.
At the end of the day, the most disposable remained the infantrymen. Last time, he chose the one closest to him, so this time, he chose the ten that were furthest away from him and cancelled their summoning.
‘Sorry.’
He prayed for their happiness in the afterlife, and then….
Poof…
In the blink, those ten soldiers turned into dust and disappeared from this world.
Thankfully, his heart didn’t ache as badly as the first time. Did the wise old ‘they’ mean this by saying that the first time was always the hardest?
In any case…
Jin-Woo took one last look at the soldiers and activated the Shadow Storage.
When he did that, all the shadow soldiers, including Igrit, all returned to being shadows, as if they were melting like an ice cube caught in extremely high temperatures. Those shadows all gathered beneath his feet next.
‘So, this is that absorbing into my shadow thing….!’
It was as the label said; the shadows were absorbed into Jin-Woo’s shadow. It happened so quickly, too.
All of his soldiers disappeared without a trace in less than a blink of an eye.
‘….I’m the one who did it, yet I can hardly believe it myself.’
Utterly amazed now, Jin-Woo continued to stare at his own shadow.
It was then.
As if it was waiting for this, the mechanical beeps resounded out one after the other.
Tti-ring.
[You have experimented with all the class-specific skills.]
[Class Change has been now concluded.]
[Exit Gate will now be generated.]
‘So, it’s finally over, huh….’
What a long and difficult road this was.
Jin-Woo scanned the interior of the boss room, his eyes full of reminiscence. The evidence of fierce battle could be seen everywhere.
Broken-down knights; walls with cracks on them; a shattered stone pillar. And the Iron Golem responsible for shattering that very pillar, now nothing more than a scrap heap.
However, as the compensation for his struggles, he was now walking away with so much profit.
A new Class and skills, several other important things besides those, as well as powerful new allies.
A wide grin naturally floated up on his lips.
Without hesitation, Jin-Woo turned around. The Gate connecting to the outside world was quietly waiting for him as if to congratulate him on his successful adventure.
When he took a step outside, the surroundings changed in an instant. And he was back in the empty lot of the local mountainside. It was none other than the very spot where he initiated his Class Change Quest.
The time indicated was five in the morning. It was already time for the sunrise.
‘Oops.’
Jin-Woo clicked his tongue while confirming the time.
‘If I knew the quest would end up taking this long to complete, I should’ve left a message for Jin-Ah earlier.’
What a relief then, that he’d often come home late from raids taking longer than expected, back when he was working for the Association.
Jin-Woo took one last look behind him. But the Gate he exited from just now was already gone without a trace.
‘Huh….’
When looking at the spot where the Gate used to be, it kind of felt like he had woken up from a long dream.
Was it a dream?
No, that wasn’t possible.
Jin-Woo scanned his immediate vicinity.
The soldiers decked out in pitch-black armours – as soon as he thought about them, they rapidly emerged from his shadow.
‘……..’
At first, he simply thought of them as nothing more than monsters.
The shadow soldiers…
The monsters that stepped out from the shadows of the dead after they were summoned by him.
However, if these things were monsters, then just what should the guy who could freely control them be called now?
Jin-Woo smirked softly.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter one way or the other….’
Jin-Woo stored the soldiers back into his shadow.
He noticed that his steps going down the mountain were rather light and cheery.
Jin-Woo slept until late in the day. But, that couldn’t be helped. By the time he got back home, the sun had risen up pretty high already.
Ring~ ring~
Jin-Woo’s sweet slumber was eventually disrupted by the ringtone from his smartphone. His hand fumbled around near his head and with some difficulty, located his phone.
“H-Hello?”
His voice cracked up from his dry throat.
- “Hul…. Oppa, you were still asleep?? You know what time it is?”
Jin-Ah’s shocked voice came out from the speaker. So, he asked her back.
“Okay, what time is it now?”
- “It’s two in the afternoon!”
“Eh? What?”
He glanced at the time on the phone’s screen with half-open eyes. She was telling the truth.
- “…..Oppa, you haven’t forgotten that you’re supposed to come to my school today, have you?”
Her voice sounded anxious.
Jin-Woo finally raised his upper body, albeit very slowly.
“What time should I get there at the latest?”
- “Before five!”
“I won’t be late, so don’t worry.”
- “As expected of my orabeo-nim! When you’re near the school, gimme a call first, okay?” (TL: orabeo-nim = a higher form of honorific than ‘oppa’.)
Jin-Ah switched on her charm attack and ended the call soon afterwards.
Scratch, scratch….
Jin-Woo scratched his unkempt hair for a bit before slowly getting up from the bed. He didn’t have a lot of time left if he were to get ready.
‘Well, I’m going to meet my sister’s homeroom teacher after all.’
Not only that, this teacher would be in charge of her third year in high school, one of the most important periods in a person’s life.
‘So, I can’t just wear whatever now, right?’
He opened the closet and rummaged through the clothes in there. However, he was greeted by a rather dusty, mouldy odour.
Of course, it was not something pleasant to smell at all.
Jin-Woo’s frown deepened.
He continued to dig around, but all he could find was an old business suit he wore once during his own high school graduation.
‘Will it even fit me now?’
He was hoping against hoping but well, as expected – the clothes were too snug and he couldn’t even move his arms.
‘Yup, my body has grown much bigger lately.’
Putting on the old clothes painted a stark picture of his current reality. The suit was nearly bursting at the seams, literally.
….What should he do now?
Jin-Woo was pondering what to do, but then he spotted the bank book that Yu Jin-Ho gave him a day before. It was for the account filled with the proceeds from selling off all those magic crystals.
He alternated his gaze between his nearly-torn clothes and the bank book with its new stamp still sealed together, before a smile formed on his lips.
‘Been a while, but should I go on a shopping spree, then?’
Before that, though, there was this small thing he had to confirm first.
Actually, it was a bit bigger than that, but still.
Jin-Woo took off the old business suit and while sitting on the edge of the bed, summoned his Status Window.
‘Stats.’
With that, a long board full of letters and numbers appeared before his eyes.
Tti-ring.
[Name: Seong Jin-Woo]
[Level: 51]
[Class: Shadow Sovereign]
[Title: Slaughterer of Wolves (extra 1)]
[HP: 11035]
[MP: 1022]
[Tiredness: 0]
[Stats]
Strength: 132
Stamina: 91
Agility: 111
Intelligence: 70
Perception: 93
(Available points to distribute: 10)
Reduction in physical damage: 46%
[Skills]The origin of this chapter’s debut can be traced to N0v3l–B1n.
Passive skills:
- (Unknown) Lv. Max
- Tenacity Lv. 1
- High-Grade Dagger Technique Lv. 1
Active skills:
-
- Dash Lv. 2
- Intimidation Lv. 1
- Vital Points Targetting Lv. 2
- Dagger Throw Lv. 1
- Stealth Lv. 1
[Class-specific skills]
Active skills:
- Shadow Extraction Lv. 1
- Shadow Storage Lv. 1
[Equipped items]
- Red Knight’s Helm (S)
- Gatekeeper’s Necklace (A)
- Superior Knight’s Breastplate (B)
- Superior Knight’s Gauntlet (B)
- Superior Mage’s Ring (B)
- Intermediate Assassin’s Shoes (C)
(TL note: the author forgot to put ‘Ruler’s Reach’ in the Skills column. I left it as is.)
“Huh…”
Jin-Woo could only chuckle wryly as his Status Window seemed to go on forever and ever.
‘It was only a short while ago that there was nothing on this section over here.’
Indeed, there had been a time like that once. But now, just from looking at his skills and equipped items, his head grew fuzzy.
Even then, his Class still managed to snag his attention for sure.
[Class: Shadow Sovereign]
This column used to be ‘None’ only yesterday.
To be honest, he was kind of bothered by that word whenever he had to look at his Status Window. The reason for that was, naturally, the word that came before that ‘None’ being his ‘Class’.
If a Hunter was not participating in a raid, he’d be no different than a jobless bum. That’s what most others would think, anyway.
But then, he had to keep looking at the ‘No job’ in the Status Window where his Stat values were recorded, so how could he not feel bothered by it? (TL note at the end)
They said that once you got shocked by a turtle, you’d keep getting frightened by the pot lids; whenever he took a look at his Class column in the past, he couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated.
He knew that it didn’t really mean his job status, but he still felt quite bothered by it. However, from today onwards, he didn’t have to mind such things anymore.
“Hahaha!”
Jin-Woo chuckled out uncontrollably.
‘Yup, this must be what they call an inferiority complex, isn’t it?’
If he made lots of money like other Hunters, he wouldn’t have really cared about what others thought of his life outside of raiding dungeons.
But he couldn’t do that.
He couldn’t confidently reveal his status as a Hunter to anyone. Because, he was a measly rank E who could barely protect his own life, that was why.
‘I’m a rank E Hunter.’
Whenever he said those words….
Anyone with some knowledge of Hunters would always say that he was doing something very difficult for everyone’s sakes, but they would start mocking him when his back was turned.
That was why he ended up minding it even more than necessary.
But now, he was the possessor of a really cool job – no, a really special trait. His job still remained as a Hunter, of course.
If he were to describe it, then…. well, it’d be more correct to say that he now possessed a special trait of ‘Shadow Sovereign’.
‘Although this wasn’t the career path I was looking for….’
But, he had no regrets. No, rather than regrets, he was completely and utterly satisfied by how things had turned out.
If this wasn’t his room, he’d have summoned Igrit and the other soldiers right away. He really wanted to confirm the combat capabilities of his summons with his own eyes.
What if these guys were able to display 100% of their combat prowess while they were still alive?
‘I’m sure that won’t be the case, though.’
Still, just imagining it made his heart race.
Thump, thump…
Jin-Woo felt his heart beating roughly as he ran several simulations of future raids in his head.
Suddenly, he became really curious about how Yu Jin-Ho would react.
Smirk.
When Jin-Woo imagined seeing Yu Jin-Ho’s round, stunned eyes and his slack jaw falling to the floor, a chuckle automatically leaked out of his mouth.
‘Wait, now that I think about it….’
If he could transform any dead lifeforms into his soldiers, and if the targets weren’t restricted to only monsters, then….
‘Does that mean I can extract shadows from the dead Hunters, too?’
It was quite obvious, but he didn’t want to picture such a situation since he was talking about another human being here.
An undead soldier, emerging from the shadow of a dead person after hearing his call….
Just thinking about it gave him chills.
Even then… even still….
‘What if I extract the shadow of an A or an S rank Hunter?’
The combat potential of the resulting shadow soldier would simply be out of this world.
Even if a shadow soldier could only exhibit 50% of its original strength, it’d be eminently possible to solo high-ranked dungeons, as long as he had his shadows to back him up.
His beating heart picked up its pace really quick.
Thump, thump, thump!!
Still, Jin-Woo shook his head.
‘Even if that’s the case, turning a person into an undead is a bit…’
….Now that was something only a villain would do.
His combat potential might improve that way, but he didn’t want to go that far. Unless a really evil b*stard showed up that was worthy of such a treatment, he’d definitely not go down that route.
‘However, it’s not like opportunities to fight other dirty Hunters would come around every day, right?’
And, even if he did find that elusive opportunity, there would be many hurdles to overcome first. Well, a human wasn’t a monster, to begin with, after all.
Indeed.
For the time being, he had to be satisfied with the current soldiers.
‘Besides, I have Igrit and he used to be a boss, so that’s something.’
The level 7 knight-grade shadow soldier.
Just how good would its abilities be?
Jin-Woo couldn’t wait for the next raid.
Chapter 55: Chapter 55
Jin-Woo lowered his gaze slightly while feeling rather pleased with himself, then he spotted something else in the Status Window.
[Title: Slaughterer of Wolves (extra 1)]
‘…..There was another one?’
….Oh.
Now that he thought about it, he did earn a new ‘Title’ as well during the Class Change Quest, didn’t he?
Jin-Woo checked out the hidden title’s description.
[Title: The One Who Overcame the Adversity]
A Title only given to those who have splendidly overcome their adversity. Your Stat values will rise as your HP decreases. (1% of lost HP = 1% gain in Stats)
‘Hell yeah!’
It was a truly wonderful buff where his Stats would rise up as his HP was decreased.
The Title ‘Slaughterer of Wolves’ was a wonderful Title as well that would give him a 40% Stats increase against any and all beast-type monsters. However, because there was a strict activation condition attached to it, he often had to do without receiving the Stat buff.
‘It’s the same thing as not having a Title if I’m not fighting against beast-type monsters.’
But now, he had gotten a new Title with a wonderful effect. After reading the description, he thought that this Title’s effect would match up quite nicely with his passive, ‘Tenacity’.
Without wasting any more time, Jin-Woo changed his Title.
[Title: The one who overcame the adversity (extra 1)]
The Title he didn’t set would be hidden, and if he needed it, he could swap them at any time, too.
‘Next up, it’s my Stats.’
The rewards he got for exceeding the point limits of his Class yesterday were three.
One, his Class changed to a higher-grade version; two, a new Title; finally, bonus Stat points.
[Stats]
Strength: 132
Stamina: 91
Agility: 111
Intelligence: 70
Perception: 93
(Available points to distribute: 10)
Reduction in physical damage: 46%
He still had ten points yet to be allocated. If it was in the past, he’d have spent them all in Agility or Perception, but things were different now.
Jin-Woo dumped all ten points in Intelligence, instead.
Even then, his Intelligence value only reached 80.
Tti-ring.
[Stats]
Strength: 132
Stamina: 91
Agility: 111
Intelligence: 80
Perception: 93
(Available points to distribute: 0)
Reduction in physical damage: 46%
Compared to Strength or Agility, it simply fell way, way behind. As a matter of fact, it even fell behind Stamina, the Stat he decided to put on the back burner while raising his Agility first.
It was clear proof that he had been looking down on the Intelligence Stat until now.
‘Well, I never guessed that I’d somehow end up using magic, so it’s understandable.’
For the time being, he decided to invest every single bonus Stat point he earned into Intelligence. He wasn’t planning to change how he fought in the meantime, though.
‘I mean, the new skills I got are assassination type skills, after all.’
A new skill he acquired during the fierce battle – the dagger throw. He didn’t even have to take a gander at the skill description to know that it was a dagger-exclusive skill.
[Skill: Dagger Throw Lv. 1]
Active skill.
Required Mana to activate: 30nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.
Exclusive to daggers.
Causes damage by throwing your dagger. The higher the level, the greater the damage inflicted, as well as the accuracy.
‘Yup. I knew it.’
He had been fighting his battles as a close-quarter melee fighter. He wouldn’t change his current fighting style, just because he got himself a new Class and a couple of new skills related to that.
So, he was planning to use the shadow skills as his back-up, while the dagger would remain as his primary means of attack.
‘Well, at least until I manage to raise my Intelligence Stat to a somewhat more useful level, that is.’
Excellent combat abilities. And soldiers able to support him from behind.
The plan he formed in his head as he got his new Class hadn’t changed.
‘But, if there is one difference from my initial expectations, then that would be….’
That would be his soldiers potentially being a lot more useful than he thought. Who could’ve guessed that he was able to turn boss-level monsters into his underlings?
‘….Still.’
He felt that it’d be a bit of waste not to utilise his proficiency with daggers and the skills related to that if he were to rely solely on his shadows to fight.
Also, he bought the Knight Killer only a few hours ago, too.
‘If I knew I’d end up as a mage-type, maybe I should’ve bought a magic staff or something.’
Of course, if he did that, he wouldn’t have cleared the quest and ended up being buried under the knights, instead.
Jin-Woo closed the Status Window. With that done, he pretty much had confirmed every change that occurred to him.
‘Wait a sec. What’s the time now?’
While he was doing his thing, 20 minutes had flown by. Jin-Woo scratched the side of his head.
‘I guess I should hurry up, huh.’
The corners of Jin-Woo’s lips arched up.
The power of his enhanced Stats didn’t prove to be effective only when fighting against monsters.
When he concentrated, time slowed down. To be more precise, it was Jin-Woo who had gotten quicker, however.
He opened the door and left his room.
He entered the bathroom and took a quick shower.
He swiftly wiped the water off of him.
He put on whatever clothing he could find and stood before the mirror.
All this, and he only needed three minutes.
He could’ve moved faster, but he figured that this old, decrepit apartment would fall apart if he did.
‘My hair hasn’t completely dried out yet, but….’
The end result was him saving over 20 minutes, so there was no need to rush now.
Time to leave, then.
Jin-Woo was about to step out of his room, but discovered something and stopped in his tracks. He found the key for the apartment. It was sitting on top of his desk.
In the past, he’d have felt a bit lazy and unwilling, but still turned back to grab the key; however, he simply extended his hand instead of walking over there.
‘I mean, if I don’t use it in times like this, just when will I ever get to use this skill?’
The Ruler’s Reach!
The key crept forward bit by bit, before flying into his open palm as if a strong magnet was reeling it in.
Grab!
Jin-Woo snatched the key and grinned refreshingly.
Having gotten ready to leave in the proverbial blink of an eye, Jin-Woo closed the door to his room, a whistle escaping from his lips.
Jin-Woo’s first stop was at the bank.
He was wondering just how much cash from the sales of the magic crystals had accumulated in his new bank account.
‘I couldn’t come earlier because I’ve been so busy until now.’
As the raid team leader, Yu Jin-Ho was in charge of managing the magic crystals.
From what he told Jin-Woo, that kid had been selling all the magic crystals at the end of each day and deposited every single cent into this account.
He didn’t mention in detail how much the money would be, though.
‘That Jin-Ho. He reports to me every little thing that happens, but he doesn’t really mention much about money issues.’
Was it because he wasn’t really interested all that much? Perhaps because he grew up lacking nothing, Yu Jin-Ho’s interests were quite far removed from the matters involving money.
No, they tended to be along the lines of celebrity gossip, stories of raids, songs or movies he liked – those kinds of things.
Even if it was nominally a conversation, it’d be Yu Jin-Ho who yapped on and on all by himself, though. And Jin-Woo would simply listen quietly on the side and provide appropriate responses every now and then.
‘Ah, now that I think about it…’
A chatterbox guy like him also didn’t say anything about his family situation until now.
Now that was pretty strange. Jin-Woo combed through his memories starting from when they met for the first time, but he couldn’t remember a single instance of him mentioning his family.
While thinking that it was pretty bizarre, he had arrived at the bank.
‘Well now, that’s some crappy timing, isn’t it?’
All of the ATMs were currently under maintenance.
He was left with little choice, so Jin-Woo walked inside the bank branch. He got his number in the queue, waited for his turn, before eventually sitting down in front of a bank teller.
“Hello there.”
A female teller with a bob-cut hair reaching just below her ears and a refreshing smile asked him politely.
“How may I be of service today?”
“I’d like to see the amount currently in the bank account, please.”
“I understand.”
With a smile, the female teller took the bank book Jin-Woo presented to her.
While waiting for her to do her thing, Jin-Woo scanned the inside of the bank. It was a normal Thursday afternoon, yet there were quite a large number of people inside.
As he continued to look at the crowd, the female teller got to confirm the amount resting in Jin-Woo’s account and her eyes shot open super-wide.
‘Heok!!”
[Remaining amount: ₩1,482,920,000] (TL: Just over $1.315 mil)
She checked the number of digits again, but without a doubt, it started from a billion.
Not only that, he hadn’t even accumulated this amount over a long period of time.
For the past week or so, the records showed that over 100 million Won had been deposited every single day.
‘He looks so young, so how could he?’
The female teller initially took Jin-Woo as a university student who came to the local bank to get the bank book newly printed on because his mother asked him to. But, her expression had changed quite a bit now.
The female teller asked him, her voice containing just a sliver of ulterior motive.
“Oh, my goodness. May I ask, what you do for a living?”
Perhaps she herself was embarrassed by her own ulterior motive, the female bank teller’s cheeks blushed softly as she cautiously studied Jin-Woo’s reactions.
He replied as if it was nothing.
“I’m a Hunter.”
“Ah…..”
The female teller slowly nodded her head almost instinctively.
The popular rumour she heard was indeed true.
‘I heard that Hunters made lots of money, but….’
But to think, it’d be on this level….
All of a sudden, her life as a normal working-class employee came across as rather pathetic.
Only until a minute ago, this man was a regular customer, just like everyone else. But now, Jin-Woo looked like a person from another galaxy altogether.
‘He must be a pretty high ranked Hunter, right?’
This amount wasn’t something an average Hunter with average skills could ever hope to touch.
This would be her first time meeting a truly high-ranked Hunter, then.
The unexpectedness of this situation caused her heart to palpitate just a bit faster.
Thump, thump….
Her heart was indeed beating a bit quicker now.
A young customer possessing well over a billion Won in cash would certainly be a VIP in the eyes of the bank. And well, that customer was a Hunter, so he should be treated as a VVIP, instead.
And so, in order to ensure that this VVIP wouldn’t slip through the bank’s fingers, the female employee began advertising several of the bank’s financial products.
“Our bank has launched brand new products and services especially catered for VIP customers such as yourself.”
Her smile was no longer the business one, but a real one, too. The female bank teller’s gaze was now firmly fixed on Jin-Woo.
‘Oh, my. He’s….’
Seeing his current appearance, the one where he must have thrown on some clothes lying around, and that slightly dishevelled hair, her heart began beating faster than ever before. She realised that he must’ve been a very busy man who managed to find some free time to stop by the bank today.
“This product has proven really popular with our customers lately, so how about taking a closer look at the benefits it offers, sir?”
Too bad for her, Jin-Woo refused right away.
“No, thank you. I’m fine.”
“Ah…. is that so?”
The female bank teller’s voice was thickly laden with regrets over missed chances.
Sensing that this chat might get drawn out if he said something wrong here, Jin-Woo quickly took the bank book and stood up from the seat.
“Thank you for your help. Have a nice day.”
He made his quick getaway from the bank as the hot stares from the female bank teller continued to bear down on his back.
As soon as the bank’s door closed behind him…
“Fuu….”
Jin-Woo spat out a sigh of relief.
He picked up on the change in the bank teller’s expression the moment he revealed his job as a Hunter.
Attentions of strangers, and their interests.
It would probably be something normal for other Hunters, but it was still something new to Jin-Woo.
‘Well, I better get used to it now.’
The attention on him would get even worse than this, once he’s gone through with the re-assignment test and gets a super-high rank.
He heard that there were quite a few reporters and fans following around particular Hunters as well.
He raised his head slightly and saw a large electronic billboard displaying a cold drink advert featuring a famous Hunter, attached to the side of a skyscraper.
Before Gates appeared in the world, one would’ve found top sports stars or popular idols occupying that position.
That’s right.
This was the age where a Hunter would be at the receiving end of more attention and adulation than a celebrity. Even Jin-Woo wouldn’t be an exception now.
The only person who didn’t like Hunters nowadays were probably employees of various insurance companies.
‘Besides all that.’
Only after he made his escape from the bank did he get to confirm the amount in the account. And his eyes grew real wide afterwards.
‘1.48 billion….?!’
The total amount of money he earned after participating in nine raids was almost 1.5 billion Won. Meaning, each rank C dungeon netted him almost 160 million Won.
He got around 180 million from the dungeon he raided with Hwang Dong-Seok and Co. So, the average amount per rank C Gate he got was somewhere between 150 and 200 million each raid.
‘Yup, that’s why that bank teller was so shocked, wasn’t it….’
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