Farmer Rewards

Sung Jinwoo looked over his torn jacket in the hallway. While it was still wearable, it was almost certain that he would have to ditch it before he got back to the real world.

So far, Jinwoo had spent the remainder of his time farming the beasts in the dungeon. His storage was now filled with monster drops as well as a few miscellaneous items.

Calling forth his inventory, the items he had collected were displayed before him.

'32x Steel Fanged Lycan Fang

67x Steel Fanged Lycan Claw

30x Steel Fanged Lycan Fur

13x Goblin Claw

2x Instant Teleportation Stone

55x Black Shadow Razan Pelt

12x Razor Clawed Briga Claw

1x Mana Infused Iron Dagger - Poor'

From his dedicated hunting, Sung Jinwoo had collected a plethora of items for him to play around with later on.

Conveniently, he had found himself getting a few shoddy weapons to drop from the goblins he had beaten. This had allowed him to continue hunting like a civilised human, as opposed to whacking everything with his fists.

However, he now found himself with a close to death dagger and nothing more.

Besides his loot drops, he had been able to discover a few more things about the instance dungeons, some of which were different from the normal dungeons.

He had noticed that no matter how much he battled, the monsters would appear from both behind and in front of him, albeit at differing intervals, this led him to investigate how, after all, it would affect his future plans. From his investigations, Sung Jinwoo found that monsters within the instance dungeon would respawn after varying time intervals. Goblins only took 25 minutes while Steel Fanged Lycans took 40 minutes. 

This gave rise to the possibility of farming for both experience and items, if time allowed it.

"It's a shame, but I'm on the clock this time..."

He hadn't informed anyone that he was going away, thus he couldn't spend too long in the dungeon.

"Besides, I don't know how much time has passed outside... I swear if Jinah is an old lady, my older brother dignity will be long gone..."

Along with the usual drops, the dungeon had graced him with not one, but two teleportation stones.

From what he could infer, this was the only way other than defeating the boss, to exit the dungeon. Well, death was another option, though that option was to be avoided if it could be helped.

Besides the drops, there was one more bonus Sung Jinwoo had noticed. Depending on his actions, he was able to earn titles.

'Title: Beast Hunter'

'Bonus 20% damage to beast type monsters'

His title had started out as 'Wolf Killer' but eventually had transitioned into 'Beast Killer'. From what Sung Jinwoo could tell, these titles were awarded due to specific actions he took in the dungeon and could 'Level Up' or 'Evolve' if he carried on further. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to progress further with the titles, he was essentially throwing darts in the dark.

Looking over his dirtied clothes, Jinwoo evaluated his stat progress.

"I wonder if I am strong enough for that..."

A familiar staircase, the staircase to the train platform laid before him.

Except today, it felt like the stairwell to hell.

He had found this staircase long ago, but purposefully avoided it, after all, a true beast was waiting for him down below.

Standing before the entrance alone left his body tense.

Thus, he had made the executive decision to farm even more to ease that feeling a little.

"I can't really say its eased..."

A wry smile sat upon his lips as he looked down below.

'STATUS'

'NAME: SUNG JINWOO'

'LEVEL: 16'

'JOB: NONE'

'HP: 1540'

'MP: 110'

'STRENGTH: 38'

'AGILITY: 38'

'SENSE: 29'

'VITALITY: 28'

'INTELLIGENCE: 25'

'REMAINING POINTS: 0'

His consistent farming had resulted in a large increase in his status, something Sung Jinwoo was very relieved by. As he was fighting, he had noticed that the monsters he was fighting started to die easier, while giving a lot less experience towards his level ups. With each level up came a point in each stat as well as an additional bonus point for him to assign.

"Even with this status boost, my body feels almost as tense as before..."

Sucking up the fear growing inside of him, Sung Jinwoo took his first steps down.

Making his way out of the stairwell, a prickly aura assaulted him moments after his feet touched the station ground.

The volatile aura threatened to envelop him whole if he let his guard down.

As Sung Jinwoos eyes scanned the area, he noticed the large amount of plant growth in the area. It gave a post apocalyptic feeling, something he had seen from movies. The areas above were similar, but it was very clear that nature had dominated this area.

'Why is there a dungeon here... an instance dungeon no less...'

It was a question he had mulled over from the moment he had received his key, yet no matter what he searched on the internet, there was never any mention of instance dungeons or a dungeon being in Hapjeong Station. Despite all this, Sung

Jinwoo was stood on the largest platform in the station after fighting monsters upon monsters, waiting for his next foe to show.

He wasn't waiting long before Sung Jinwoo noticed small vibrations along the ground, causing the debris around the floor to shake slightly.

The shaking grew more violent.

In seconds, pieces of the roof began to fall, tiles that had seemingly lasted for years crashed onto the ground beside Jinwoo.

Just as Sung Jinwoo readied his weapon, a large entity burst out of the tunnel before him. 

Its sleek body glistened as it rose high into the sky, towering over Sung Jinwoo.

Jinwoo quickly jumped backwards, making as much distance between the two of them.

His eyes focused on the head of the new beast.

Noticing Jinwoos gaze, the beast opened its mouth, revealing two blade like teeth, longer than Sung Jinwoo himself.

'A snake? A Basilisk?'

His mind raced as he tried to identify the beast he had never seen before, not even in the Hunters Association Monster Encyclopedia they allowed new Hunters to read.

'Definitely just a snake, we have been holding a staring contest for two minutes now and my heart hasn't stopped...'

While this sent a wave of relief over him, it was by no means brilliant news. A snake boss this large was something he had never heard of, besides, Snakes are reputable dangerous animals in the normal world, let alone mana-infused killing machines.

His gaze lingered above the beasts head shortly after his staring contest, revealing the beasts name.

'KING OF THE SWAMP'

'BLUE VENOM-FANGED KASAKA'

'I assume 'King of the Swamp' is a title, but either way, slithering around with a title like that means it can't be weak'

Breaking out into a nervous sweat, Sung Jinwoo quickly steeled himself for the battle ahead. Though its name was orange, the aura radiating from it was intense.

Though it felt like a lifetime had passed since the twos eyes had met, no more than 5 minutes had passed.

That was 5 minutes too long for the King of the Swamp.

Its body shot out like an arrow, head first, aimed directly for Sung Jinwoo.

He had little time to react, little time to dodge. All he could do was brace himself for the impact and avoid the teeth at all costs.

As the beasts head got closer, the sheer size sent a shiver down his spine. Even if he had dodged, there was a high chance of taking a hit.

The Kasakas head clashed against Sung Jinwoos blade as sparks flew from the impact.

The glistening scales felt harder than rock as the impact nearly weakened his grip.

His body flew backwards, with his feet leaving the floor.

Sung Jinwoos mind blanked slightly before he felt a heavy impact on his back.

He groaned slightly as he moved away the rubble on his legs.

"Brilliant, this guy hurts more than flying into a wall..."

Grabbing his blade that had fallen to the side, Sung Jinwoo noticed a large crack had appeared through the middle. 

"This thing will break the moment it touches the scales and I doubt it will be able to stab it anyways"

An annoyed murmur left his lips as he returned the blade back to his inventory and looked at his options.

Though the daunting realisation that he could either run away with the teleport stone or somehow fight this thing, with no weapon, made Sung Jinwoo want to cry.

He was left with no other weapons.

As he took a few deep breaths, he remembered his fights from before, how he had used his body, his fists and legs to massacre the beasts that surrounded him.

"Note to self, I should practice more martial arts after this"

This was a vow to stay alive and a vow to get stronger in any way he can.

The Kasaka had no patience for mid battle chats.

Its body slithered into orientation before launching at Sung Jinwoo once more.

There was no surprise this time. Jinwoo could see everything.

He lept to the left, allowing the Kasakas large body to graze past him.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Sung Jinwoo twisted his body as he scrunched his fist, hitting the Kasaks body with a right hook.

His fist crashed into its thick body sending a cracking feeling along his arm.

The Kasaka hissed as it rolled to the side slightly, its head twisting as it did.

Using the brief break to get away, Sung Jinwoo made more distance once again and inspected his hand.

'No broken or in pain?'

He was puzzled by the cracking from before, it was slight but there was a vivid feeling transmitted to him.

Eventually it dawned on him.

His eyes inspected the area he had punched from a distance. To be precise, the small crack that had appeared on the Kasakas flawless scales.

The beast noticed it as well as it hissed angrily at Sung Jinwoo.

'I can hurt him!'

This small but important realisation boosted his confidence greatly as he got ready to resume.

Unlike before, Sung Jinwoo was the one to charge this time. He threw his body straight towards the beast, watching its movement.

He got closer with his arms primed to attack at a moments notice.

Unfortunately, the 'King of the Swamp' was not so easy.

From the corner of his vision, he noticed a large object flanking his left side.

His instincts kicked in as Sung Jinwoo launched himself high into the sky, narrowly avoiding the assailant from the side.

'Its tail?'

The Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka had switched strategies. The beast was making full use of its muscular body, using its every part as a weapon.

"Tch"

Sung Jinwoo tutted before landing on the ground once more, allowing himself to roll further backwards.

"Frontal charges won't work out too well it seems"

His eyes stared at the 'King of the Swamp' whilst Sung Jinwoo thought about the best way to get in close to the beast.

Though the beast wouldn't allow this.

Its tail rose high into the sky before slamming down onto the ground, causing Jinwoo to shoot a puzzled look.

His confusion was short lived as the beasts intent was soon very evident.

A large subway train was sent barreling towards the corner Sung Jinwoo occupied.

Shards of glass and sheet metal flew from the subway train as he smiled wryly at the intelligence his foe was showcasing.