CHAPTER 35

To the other Hunters, Jinwoo and Yoo Jinho's actions were just suicide with extra steps. There was a reason why the Association placed a restriction of a minimum headcount for C-rank Gates: 10 Hunters, with at least half of them being above C-rank.

"Tsk, tsk."

A man with greying hair took out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth.

"I tell you, rashness is the death of many youths."

A white smoke filled the air.

"…"

"…"

The Hunters became at a loss for words. Having felt like they'd assisted in someone else's suicide, they did not feel good. Even if it was a complete stranger, no one wanted to see, or rather, know that someone was about to die at the Gate in front of them. Not only that, they felt disappointed at the idea that they would not be paid for the remaining 29 Raids. It was regrettable, but there was no way those two men would be coming back alive.

"Should… should we call the Association?"

"No, what if we get blamed during the investigation?"

At that time, the Gate rippled, and Jinwoo and Yoo Jinho came out of the Dungeon.

"pant, pant, pant."

Yoo Jinho was taking vigorous breaths but there was big excitement on his face as he had seen something he had never seen before. The two men's faces were filled with exhaustion.

"Oh!"

"They escaped safely!"

"Thank goodness."

The Hunters greeted the pair with a welcome. Because of the short time they were in the Dungeon, the Hunters had thought that the pair wandered aimlessly at the entrance and managed to run away. But suddenly, the Hunters' expressions started changing. Someone shouted,

"Th-the Gate! The Gate is closing!"

What?

They all turned towards the Gate.

"Holy shit!"

"It is!"

"They-they took down the boss?!"

As it always would when the boss was taken down, the Gate was rippling and blurring, signaling its closing. While the Hunters opened their mouths wide in surprise, Jinwoo quietly slipped away from them and asked Yoo Jinho,

"Where's the next one?"

"It's about an hour's drive from here, Hyungnim."

"Let's go."

Jinwoo and Yoo Jinho got in the van. The Hunters were watching their backs with dumbfounded expressions. Realizing the other Hunters were not moving, Yoo Jinho shouted after them,

"Let's go please, Hunter-nims. We have to cover two if not three more Gates today."

The other Hunters' mouths opened even wider. The middle-aged Hunter with the greying hair didn't even realize his cigarette had fallen out of his open mouth.

'They just smashed a C-rank Dungeon and they're going on another Raid? And planning to raid two more?'

He wasn't the only one with the thought. All the other Hunters were thinking something similar.

'Just what are those two?'

...…

Day 1.

….

JINWOO POV

groooooan

The zombie horde approached.

"Hyungnim, here they come!"

"Alright."

The first one I cleared with magic so now it was time to do it with a dagger as there are still a few more skills that I needed to be a good physical attacker. As I don't think Antares would go down with just magic alone and any Power is for the fact of the matter.

I smoothly slipped through the approaching zombies. As I passed them, the heads of zombies fell onto the ground. Their numbers diminished quickly.

One left.

stab!

groooan!

As I stabbed its chest with the dagger, the familiar electronic tone rang.

Ding~!

You've leveled up!

Sweet 1 more level and with this I am 4 levels behind 50.

Watching from the rear, Yoo Jinho clapped rapidly in awe.

"Hyungnim! You look so cool!"

"The magic cores."

"Ah, right."

Yoo Jinho quickly started to gather the magic cores into his bag. Meanwhile, the electronic tone that only I could hear continued after the level-up message.

Ding~!

You've learned a new skill 'Vital Stab' (Lv. 1)

My expression became bright. As this was the skill I wanted.

How long has it been? I immediately opened my skill screen with joy.

Skills

-The Way of the Shamblu.

Passive Skills

-Courage of The Weak'

-(Unknown) (Lv. Max)

-Unyielding Spirit (Lv. 1)

-Mana Flow (Lv. 2)

-Mana Manipulation (Lv. Max)

-Mana Breathing (Lv. 1)

-Lesser Mana Affinity (Lv. 2)

-Dagger Proficiency (Lv. 1)

Active Skills

-Sprint (Lv. 2)

-Meditation (Lv. 2)

-Sharpen (Lv. 2)

-Weapon Enhance (Lv. 2)

-FireBall (Lv. 2)

-Dagger Throw (Lv. 2)

-Blood Lust (Lv. 1)

-Fire Manipulation (Lv. 1)

-Ice Manipulation (Lv. 1)

-Water Manipulation (Lv. 1)

-Electricity Manipulation (Lv. 1)

-Earth Manipulation (Lv. 1)

-Vapour Manipulation (Lv. 1)

-Steam (Lv. 1)

-Ice Wall (Lv. 1)

-Ice Arrow (Lv. 2)

-Water Ball (Lv. 1)

-Water Bullet (Lv. 2)

-Water Blade (Lv. 2)

-Wind Strike (Lv. 1)

-Wind Blade (Lv. 2)

-Wind Ball (Lv. 1)

-Air Cutter (Lv. 1)

-Sonic Boom (Lv. 1)

-Stone Wall (Lv. 1)

-Earth Spikes (Lv. 2)

-Stone Canon (Lv. 1)

-Fire Arrow (Lv. 2)

-Fire Wall (Lv. 1)

-Call Thunder (Lv. 1)

-Lightning Arrow (Lv. 2)

-Drain Life (Lv. 2)

-Claws (Lv. 2)

-Body Enhancement (Lv. 2)

-Stealth (Lv. 1)

-Vital Stab (Lv. 1)

Having used it so often, 'Sprint' Lightning Arrow, Fire Arrow, Earth Spikes, Ice Arrow, Wind Blade, Water Blade, Water Bullet, and FireBall were leveled up to level 2.

And this happened because, in the last dungeon, I continually spammed those spells clearly much faster. In fact, I cleared the dungeon in 10 minutes which should at least be a world record.

And after the Boss died I spent the remaining one hour spamming the spells to level them up as I used a skill faster than it levels up.

And I can't use them outside because of the destruction they could cause and I can't show the world what I am capable of before I become S-Rank.

So dungeons are the best place not only for grinding levels but also for grinding skills.

That's the reason I am constantly using the skill Body Enhancement. And it got leveled up so fast.

Ding~!

Body Enhancement

Level: 2

Rank: Unique++ (A++)

Skill Type: Active

Mana Cost: 200 MP (+20/Second)

AOE: None

Cool Down: None

Damage: None

Effect: You have learned and mastered and had a good grasp on the inner structure/working of your/humanoid body,

So by allowing the mana to flow into every cell/ muscle in your body. (allowing them to be more resistant to tears while contracting) and bones, you have gained the skill, Body Enhancement, after activation it boosts in every stat besides mana and health by 2%. Costs 20 mana per second to maintain.

The higher the level of the skill the greater the boost will be.

Upon Maxing the skill you will learn the skill "Reinforcement."

Pretty amazing skill with a 2% boost in every stat besides health and mana. It costs a lot if you don't count my mana stat.

Also maxing out would give me an extraordinary skill…

Reinforcement. By the name alone I can already indicate it's a skill that is pretty famous in Nasuverse. It's similar to Body Enhancement, just better. And it's not limited by flesh or weapons no, the skill could boost anything from a stick to a pan, from a printer to a gun to a bullet to a motorcycle to a ship to a Jet to a house.

It could be anything and the only limitations are your mana and you must know the inner workings of things you are about to reinforce.

It sounds much but in reality, it's not. You just have to know how a gun gets fired, what a bullet does, how a house is made, how a propeller spins, how a motor pumps, And so on.

It basically fills in gaps in molecular structure with Mana. This reinforces the physical shell of the object until the mana is decomposed by reality. But of course, If you pump too much mana into a physical object, it causes a violent break of molecular bonds which causes the item to fall apart at its weakest point (or just explode if the item has no glaring molecular structure faults).

But as A cheater with one of the greatest cheats. It won't be happening to me, as the right amount of mana would be handled by the skill and I would just have to think about it with general knowledge of its structure and it would work…

And I also got an active skill, 'Vital Stab'. Which is pretty sweet.

[You are out of mana. 'Body Enhancement' will be canceled.]

Bummer and just like this using this skill constantly my mana tends to run out. Same with stealth skill but of course I don't need to care about it much as my mana gets full in less than five minutes but also means I also run out of mana in five minutes as I recover slower than I consume mana.

….

Ding!

Your running has strengthened your legs. Skill 'Sprint' has leveled up.

Sprint

Level: 2

Rank: Rare (A+)

Skill Type: Active

Mana Cost: 5 (+1/Minute)

AOE: None

Cool Down: None

Damage: Increase speed by 40

Effect: Activate to increase your movement speed by 40%. Costs 1 mana per minute to maintain.

'The movement speed boost went up.'

The skill had gone from a 30% to a 40% boost in movement speed. Even just a 10% improvement was huge. 'Sprint' was my most used skill, after body enchantment after all.

Increased damage when wielding a dagger! It seemed that since he had solely used a dagger up until now, I had received a dagger-specific skill.

But there are still a few skills that I want such as double welding. Power Strike, Double Strike, Elemental Strikes, Dominating Blow, Frenzy, Blade Flurry, and so much more.

Then there are fighting and assassin skills, Hunting Mastery, Killing Mastery, Psychological Mastery, Body Language Analysis, Combat Perception, Intimidation Mastery, Killing Intent, Poison Artillery, Poison Weaponry, Power Perception, Shadow Camouflage, Weakness Detection, Critical Impact, Weakness Strike.

And how can we forget about all types of Weapon Proficiency, not mastery just Proficiency?

Of course, I will still be preserving throwing magical spells from far from danger rather than going into the battlefield, I have an army for that. That's the point of being a necromancer fighting behind the line and letting your army march on the battlefield.

But I still can't neglect my physical power and weapons as so many things and powers cancel out magic.

'Looks like it'll be less effective to use other weapons now. But I still like to gain the Proficiency and the bonus skills that come with it.

On the other hand, it'll now be more effective than ever to use a dagger. More so, I had become used to wielding a dagger, and it did not seem like he would change weapons from Casaka's Poisoned Fang for the time being. But nothing could be done about gaining Proficiency.

'Lastly.'

I looked at the other new skill with interest.

Ding~!

Vital Stab

Level: 2

Rank: Rare (A+++)

Skill Type: Active

Mana Cost: 70

AOE: None

Cool Down: None

Damage: Dagger-specific skill, varying on the part of the body, the player inflicts damage on.

Effect: Stab the enemy's vitals with fatal damage. There is a big chance of skill evolving with level up.

You've learned to strike effectively.

This was also a dagger-specific skill.

'A way to strike effectively…'

Now that I think about it, the final attack that I used on Kang Taeshik and the final attack on the last evolved zombie just now both left a similar feeling in my hand. It could somewhat be described as satisfying. The moment I stabbed with the dagger, the feeling in his hand told me that the fight was over. Or the feeling of throwing a last spell.

'So that was 'Vital Stab'.'

Just like though, being able to repeatedly use the skill I would discover new skills!

My heart raced. Having mindlessly slashed and stabbed with the dagger until now, receiving an official offensive skill was like finding water in a desert.

'Awesome!'

Level-up and new skills.

This was a good start.

Day 2.

You've leveled up!

With the new offensive skill, the hunting speed had become drastically faster. With only using hands while throwing spells in another one.

You've leveled up!

One shot, one kill!

Every time I used 'Vital Stab', a magic beast would fall. Yoo Jinho watched each kill with eyes wide open.

....

Pov Switch

'Where was he hiding such skills and so many spells, spells never even heard of?'

As I always thought that you could only learn spells from a single element.

Just what was the limit of Hyungnim's abilities? Yoo Jinho could not help but be amazed. At the same time, he became curious about Jinwoo's true rank.

'He easily defeated C-rank Hunters, and the last dungeon slayed at least a B-rank monster so much so without even lifting a finger; he just threw spells one after another which killed him in two minutes…'

Then he would just mindlessly throw spells after a small break of five minutes and he will do this when the dungeon is about to collapse.

Then in the next dungeon, he would do the same thing, this would be physical and kill every beast without even breaking a sweat.

Where does all this magical energy come from how he can fight so well even without magic?

What is Hyungnim's true rank? It shouldn't be lower than A++ or maybe even S- rank.

How can someone have so much power?

It's not fair.

Does fate exist? If so, why is it often so unjust?

Why is Fate always like this, giving few everything while others none?

I wonder how many people don't get the one they want, but end up with the one they're supposed to be with.'

Unfortunately, the young man was too scared of asking Jinwoo directly, so he just settled for watching him with an open mouth.

In the meantime, Jinwoo felt a flaw in hunting with his new and old skills.

Insufficient mana to use the skill.

Insufficient mana to use the skill.

You are out of mana. 'Body Enhancement' will be canceled.

Jinwoo scrunched his face in annoyance.

'Dang, it Again?'

I have to solve this mana issue soon, and it's better to be sooner than later. It's causing me to be stuck between raids. And dungeons are very unpredictable places.

It's very much possible that an S-rank monster popped out of nowhere so I can't let this continue any longer,

Especially when it's affecting my improvement level up.'

Essentially I had to do it, even though I am still not very profound in doing it currently, still it will be better not to rely on positions. Especially when their costs are sky-high.

.............

.....

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