When he finally got back home, it was already dark outside, and it was still pouring.
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, he opened his status window.
[ STATUS ]
[ NAME: SUNG JIN-WOO ]
[ LEVEL: 21 ]
[ JOB: NONE ]
[ TITLE: THE WOLF SLAYER ]
[ HP: 2600 ]
[ MP: 390 ]
[ FATIGUE: 0 ]
[ STRENGTH: 53 ]
[ DEXTERITY: 38 ]
[ SENSES: 32 ]
[ VITALITY: 30 ]
[ INTELLIGENCE: 30 ]
[ AVAILABLE STAT POINTS: 10 ]
He still had 10 stat points from the quest. It tempted him to use them. This was an amount that usually required three days of daily tasks (missing one point) or two levels (but those points couldn't be freely distributed).
First, I will focus on dexterity. He saw today how useful this stat can be.
It could even save his life.
So, he allocated 7 points to dexterity and the remaining 3 points to his senses.
He was very happy with the three levels and points. Just like the money he earned.
49 cores. With an average price of 5 million each for most of them and 19 million for the spider core, he would get around 259 million in total. (191805 USD)
This was an astronomical amount of money that he had not earned in all four years of being a hunter.
Of course, the cores wouldn't be sold yet, so he didn't have the money.
Selling magical cores wasn't difficult, as the demand was so high that they were snatched up as soon as they hit the market. The question was where to sell them. He could sell them personally to someone else, to the Guild, or through a company. Looking at the sum he had, Jin-Woo concluded that instead of personal sales or using the online market, he should go to a broker for intermediation.
In a way, he was curious whether he could sell those cores in a store.
It would be convenient if the store accepted magical cores at face value, like trash.
Thinking about the store, Jin-Woo put down his bag. He realized another progress he had made today.
He had forgotten that the system had told him, upon reaching level 21, that he now had access to the store.
With that familiar electronic tone, an apparently endless list of items for sale appeared before his eyes. These ranged from cheap potions and various accessories to expensive armor and powerful weapons.
Each of them was sold for gold. Of course, the better the item, the higher the gold cost. Some of the most potent items even cost 10 billion gold each.
His current gold was 112,000. It wasn't enough to buy something that seemed useful, but there was no need to rush. He had plenty of time.
And some of those items did look quite tempting.
While he was browsing the store, his sister returned to the apartment.
- Fried chicken wings? - Jin-Ah asked in surprise upon seeing her brother indulging in the purchased wings and watching TV.
The truth was he was looking at the shop window, not the TV, but it might have looked a bit strange from her perspective. The TV noise didn't bother him.
Seeing what her brother had bought, Jin-Ah quickly changed, tossed her books from the library into her room, and came into the living room, grabbing the wings.
- What's the occasion? Something must have happened, you usually make everyone worse.
- Well, I don't really know. Today, I just had a very profitable raid, and I'm in a good mood.
Jin-Woo shrugged, opening a can of beer and taking a sip.
After a moment, his hand trembled in surprise as he placed the can on the table and a system message appeared before his eyes.
[ NOTICE! ]
[ A HARMFUL SUBSTANCE HAS BEEN DETECTED... ]
[ EFFECT: DETOXIFICATION HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. YOU ARE NOW BEING HEALED. ]
This was something new.
[ 3,2,1... YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY DETOXIFIED. ]
Was this also the system's doing?
Well, since he was receiving messages, it had to be.
Jin-Woo finished the rest of the can of beer and, seeing that his sister was busy channel surfing, opened another can, downing it in one go.
Despite drinking two cans of beer in such a short time, he felt nothing.
So he started searching his system mailbox for any messages explaining this poison removal.
It turned out that he had to go back to the very beginning of the inbox.
[ REWARD FOR COMPLETED QUEST: "COURAGE OF THE WEAK" ]
[ BLESSING OF THE GREAT SPELLCASTER KANDIARU:
THIS BLESSING ENSURES THAT YOU WILL BE HEALTHY AND FULL OF STRENGTH FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. ]
[ TEMPORARY EFFECT: FULL REGENERATION OF DAMAGED LIMBS. ]
[ PERMANENT EFFECTS:
LONGEVITY, IMMUNE TO ALL DISEASES, POISONS, AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS IN YOUR STATUS, SLEEP SIGNIFICANTLY ACCELERATES REGENERATION. ]
Apparently, it was thanks to this reward that he had regrown his leg. And this reward prevented him from getting drunk by removing all toxins from his body...
Wait a minute.
All poisons?
That would mean that...
Getting up from the couch, Jin-Woo headed to his room.
Closing the door to his room, Jin-Woo activated his equipment and took the familiar bag of liquid from it.
[ ITEM: RASAKA'S VENOM GLAND]
[ DIFFICULTY LEVEL: A ]
[ TYPE: POISON ]
[ A BAG WITH PURIFICATED RASAKA'S VENOM. IT CAN BE OBTAINED BY DEFEATING RASAK. LOW CHANCE OF GETTING IT. DRINKING IT WILL HARDEN YOUR SKIN, BUT AT THE SAME TIME IT WILL WEAKEN YOUR STRENGTH. ]
[ EFFECT "RASAKA'S SCALES"
- REDUCES PHYSICAL DAMAGE RECEIVED BY 20% ]
[ SIDE-EFFECT "MUSCLE DAMAGE"
- DECREASES STRENGTH BY 35 POINTS. ]
In theory, the negative effect should be negated by his ability.
If it worked on things given to him by the system in some way... since he was the one who created that underground dungeon, those monsters, and that reward.
He won't be sure if he doesn't take the risk.
He had 50 points.
Losing them would hurt him greatly.
He would be left with a paltry 15 points.
But he really wanted to find out.
He who doesn't take risks is dead.
Jin-Woo closed his eyes and drank the substance, a thick, decidedly unpleasant liquid flowing down his throat.
And damn, it was so bitter!
No medicine or drink had ever been as bitter as this vile stuff.
[ HARMFUL SUBSTANCE HAS BEEN DETECTED IN YOUR BODY ]
[ 3,2,1... YOU HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY DETOXIFIED. ]
After a while, another window appeared.
[ EFFECT: "MUSCLE DAMAGE" FROM ITEM: "KASAKA'S VENOM GLAND" HAS BEEN REMOVED. ]
Great!
Fantastic!
He quickly opened his status window.
[ STRENGTH: 53 ]
[ DEXTERITY: 38 ]
[ SENSES: 32 ]
[ VITALITY: 30 ]
[ INTELLIGENCE: 30 ]
[ PHYSICAL DAMAGE REDUCTION: 20% - ACTIVE ]
Now all physical damage will be reduced by as much as 1/5!
Plus, he couldn't be poisoned in any way, as it turned out!
These two aspects were indeed useful.
While he quietly celebrated this step forward, Jin-Ah knocked on the door of his room and, after a moment, stuck her head in.
- Do you know someone named Yoo Jin-Ho?
- Who?
- He's on the phone right now.
Jin-Woo frowned in confusion.
***
Woo Jin-Chul wondered who was drunk or crazy enough to write the report he was reading.
It wasn't about spelling or stylistic errors, because there were none, but about the whole meaning of this incoherent nonsense.
- Boss.
Seeing one of his subordinates approaching his desk, Jin-Chul fought back a long sigh and looked at the documents the agent held in his hands.
Jin-Chul loved his job and devoted himself to it wholeheartedly. He just wished that the never-ending stack of papers on his desk could become... well, a bit more finite.
He wished that the hunters would stop behaving like children in a sandbox, constantly snatching each other's toys, because Korea wasn't a sandbox, and instead of toys, they had plenty of valuable buildings around them, easily damaged when you had the power of a wrecking machine.
He wished he could finally get up and make himself a cup of coffee.
- What's the matter? - Jin-Chul asks calmly, trying not to look suspiciously at the unknown files in the agent's hands.
He didn't want to read them and put them on that miserable paper tower.
If he adds one more briefcase, this leaning tower will turn into a ruined tower and he will be buried under paper rubble.
And he didn't want the president to strain his delicate heart by worrying when he received the news that Jin-Chul had been killed by being crushed by the avalanche of reports.
- It's about an incident. Eight hunters died in the C-rank dungeons underground, - An employee reports. - Only two hunters survived, one of them with a D-rank and the other with an E-rank.
Reluctantly taking the folder with information from the agent, Jin-Chul begins to look through it.
Nothing interesting.
- They probably managed to escape. What's so special about it?
- They didn't escape. They cleared the entire dungeon.
Taking his eyes off the information, he looked sharply at the man standing at his desk.
Okay, maybe it wasn't as boring as he initially thought.
- Yoo Jin-Ho had high-quality equipment. He might have been able to defeat the boss. On the other hand, the boss shouldn't have been a challenge for this group. It's strange that there were so many casualties.
- So, this hunter has experience.
- No, sir. According to him and confirmed in the reports from the Association, this raid was his first.
A fresh D-rank hunter was supposed to defeat a C-rank boss single-handedly?
Unreal.
He would have to be incredibly talented to pull it off.
Unless the entire group died and seriously weakened the boss and he was lucky and only finished the job.
- Get to the point. - Jin-Chul asked calmly, trying not to look at the pile of work that awaited him today, even though it was already five o'clock. - Why are you bothering me with this?
- Well, among the surviving hunters, there was one who was also involved in another dungeon incident. I'm talking about Sung Jin-Woo.
- That guy? - Jin-Chul asked in surprise, forgetting about the files scattered all over the desk screaming for his attention.
Sung Jin-Woo, an E-rank hunter, suspected of reawakening.
Mistakenly.
It could have been a simple coincidence.
The guy probably just had really bad luck.
- Maybe it all looks suspicious, but there's nothing to worry about. The device we used to check him was top-notch; we obtained it from an A-rank monster. Re-awakening is a rarity; there's no need to suspect him. We checked him once, and that's enough.
However, the agent didn't seem convinced.
- I'd like to think that way too, but this case is bothering me. Because one of the victims was Hwang Dong-Suk.
- Hwang Dong Suk? Hwang Dong-Su's older brother?
Refraining from banging his head against the desk, Jin-Chul realized that his stacks of paperwork would have to wait for at least an hour.
Sung really seemed to have absolutely terrible luck.
- In that case, I can't ignore it.