Dark Stone

Finally, I can enter this strange place, this place is like a tent. Closed on all sides, I entered through the curtain. This place looks small, and there's nothing so weird about it. But I saw something was placed in that place, it was covered by a cloth. I could feel a familiar aura emanating from it. I was very curious then I tried to grab it. Suddenly there was a very loud sound from outside.

*boom* *boom*

I don't know what it was, but it was so loud it could be heard all the way here. I have to quickly check what's going on out there. I rushed out, and that I saw with my two eyes. It was the Orc King! Why is there an Orc King here? Is he in control of this place? Damn, this is really bad timing. I can't fight anymore, I've run out of mana.

It looks like the Orc King is furious that we attacked this place. Its size is bigger than an ordinary orc, to be honest, an ordinary person would definitely run away in fright. My mana remaining is below 100 it seems, this will be enough to use shadow steps a few times. My mana regeneration speed is still slow, I haven't had time to recover my mana yet. Looks like I should run away, but before that, I'll take this strange item with me. Then I went back into the place and took the thing that was covered with the cloth. I could hear the Orc King's footsteps getting closer to me, I rushed out. I recalled all my skeleton troops. Then I immediately used my shadow step to get away from this place.

*boom*

So terrifying, that Orc King destroyed the place with just 1 hit. The boss monsters here look much stronger than the other boss monsters. I rushed out of this orc settlement. After being far enough I then took a place to rest. Honestly, it was so horrible, I could have died there. Even though I had saved a lot of mana, I still lack mana at the end. This place should be safe I can hide here it seems.

While resting in this place, let me see what thing they are trying to hide. I took the item covered by the cloth, and I slowly opened the cloth. Suddenly I feel something familiar, this feeling is getting stronger. A black aura surrounded it, then I opened it. And it turned out to be a dark stone. What is this thing? I was so confused and sighed. A black aura is continuously emitting from this dark stone, I don't know what to do with this stone. But I can feel a familiar feeling from this stone. Then I tried to channel my mana into the dark stone.

Suddenly my vision turned dark, I felt short of breath. I feel this black aura permeating my body, I can't move. My hand is still holding the dark stone, but I can't let go. Slowly my consciousness disappeared and my vision darkened. Then I woke up in a strange place but was this in a dream? It's happening again, why am I in this dark place again. This is the 3rd time this has happened to me. Then I just stood still, I decided not to move. Until finally as expected the king of darkness approached me.

"Looks like you've got one of the shards." He said in a firm voice.

"what do you mean by the shards?" I asked in confusion.

"The stones you absorb, are shards filled with power that will help you in the future"

"What do you mean-" I suddenly came back to my senses.

Why did it happen again? I'm confused this is the 3rd time this has happened to me. Who is the king of darkness? Why does he always looking for me? And also he said something about shards. I looked at my hand, and the dark stone disappeared. I don't understand what happened to me, but so far my body is fine. Looks like my mana has also recovered. Looks like I'll have to go back soon, I've accumulated quite a bit of mana by now. I can make a lot of money with all this. Also, I'm a little tired after everything that happened, so I need to rest.

Then I walked towards the portal I entered. It turned out that the portal was quite far away, I didn't expect to have entered this deep into the portal. Finally, I arrived, then I entered the portal to return. Right after I came out suddenly there was a member of the Hunter Association there. There were about 10 members of the Hunter Association.

"Hunter Lee Won Myung, you're finally back" he spoke with relief.

"Did something happen?"

"Aren't you aware? You've been in the portal for 12 hours"

"What?!?!?! I feel like I've only been there for a while"

"That's why I called the association members in case something happened"

"Oh I see, then I'm sorry. I didn't expect to have been there that long"

Then I left from there. On the way home I still think about it. I wasn't aware of it, but I entered the portal in the morning, and now it was night. How could I be inside the portal for so long? I remember I was only there about 3 hours, then I passed out. Did I pass out for 9 hours? Impossible. If I had been there any longer the association members would have carried out an emergency raid into the portal. Once a person or party has entered the portal, no one can enter until the person or party returns. However, by using a large amount of mana stones we can forcefully open the portal. And that would cost a lot of money, as I know mana stones are very expensive. I will sell this mana stone first before going home.

Woah... I didn't think I'd be able to get this much money in one raid. Yesterday I earned 3 million won, but today I got 10 million won. This is the advantage of hunting alone. This was the same amount as the Hunter Association gift at that time. Now that I can make a lot of money myself, maybe soon I can buy an expensive apartment in Seoul. When that time comes I will take my mother and sister there. Before that let's see my stats.

"Status Window"

[Hunter Status]

Name : Lee Won Myung

Age : 20

Title : Goblin Slayer

Class : Swordman | Necromancer

HP : 500

MP : 1500

Stats :

Constitution = 41

Strength = 43(+2)

Dexterity = 45(+2)

Intelligence = 51(+1)

Magic = 50(+2)

Endurance = 39

Skills:

Call Upon the Death (Necromancer) MP : 20 (Max 15/20)

Blank Space (Necromancer) MP : 5

Bone Shaper (Necromancer) MP : 20

Shadow Step (Necromancer) MP : 15

Slash (Swordman) MP : 10

Side Step (Swordman) MP : 10

What the hell is this, how can my status increase this much? All my stats increased by 2 times from the previous one. I can even summon 5 more skeletons. How can I develop this fast in just one day? If you remember the king of darkness said something about shards. What is meant is the dark stone, and it seems I got the power from the dark stone. If that's what he meant then there were plenty of other shards I could get my hands on. With all those shards I should be able to become strong quickly. This is great, at this rate I can become a high rank hunter quickly. My stats should now be at the level of a C-Rank hunter, this is great. Tomorrow I will do another solo portal raid.

After taking a shower and cleaning my body, I lay down on the bed while opening the hunter application. If you look at it, there is no interesting news today. Then I scrolled down and saw the news about the conquest of the S-Rank portal in China. It was amazing, they managed to close the S-Rank portal. He said that the portal is one of the most difficult portals, China mobilized 300 hunters to raid the portal before the portal break occurred. There were 10 S-Rank hunters in China who participated in the portal raid. They said they also didn't need help from other countries' hunters. And it looks like they did manage to close the portal. Even though they lost around 50 hunters because of the raid. However they got some good items, there was an S-Rank artifact they managed to get. And also some good A-Rank weapons. With that much profit, they don't seem to have suffered a big loss.

Unlike ordinary raid portals, raid portals on low rank portals were very different from high rank portals. Low raid portals can close on their own when less mana comes out of the portal. So hunters are only free to hunt monsters inside. And soon the mana composition on the portal will decrease and soon the portal will dim and close after that. However, high rank portals from C-Rank to S-Rank. They have an objective to complete. The objectives can be different depending on the portal. And only by completing the objective can the portal be closed later. And when the portal is closed, the hunter will be forced back through the portal before the portal is closed. If the portal objective is not completed or the portal is left too long, a portal break will occur. Monsters will come out of the portal and attack the earth, just like what happened in 2017.

Well.. someday I'll participate in high rank raid portals, when I'm strong enough of course. Can I do a solo raid too on high rank portals? I'm not so sure, but for now I have to be grateful for where I am. At least my mother doesn't have to work anymore and my younger sister can study well too. This feeling isn't bad either.