The Lycan that had flown over his head was now looking at him with fear . Its tail lowered, the wolf began to step backwards .

    “Huh…?”

    Was this the result of putting all of his points into strength?

    As he stared at his fist with an open mouth, the headless body of the Lycan convulsed with a finality then stopped moving . A familiar electronic sound rang through Jinwoo’s head .

    ring~

    You’ve defeated the Steel-tooth Lycan .

    You’ve leveled up!

    “I’ve leveled up?”

    Make sure he didn’t mishear, Jinwoo quickly opened his status screen .

    Name: Sung Jinwoo

    Level: 2

    Class: None

    Title: None

    HP: 205

    MP: 22

    Fatigue: 0

    Stats

    Strength: 32

    Constitution: 11

    Agility: 11

    Intelligence: 11

    Sense: 11

    (Available stat points: 0)

    Skills

    Passive Skills

    -(Unknown) (Lv . Max)

    -Unyielding Spirit (Lv . 1)

    Active Skills

    -Sprint (Lv . 1)

    [1]

    He really had leveled up . With it, all of his stats had increased by 1 point . Jinwoo realized that the quest rewards were not the only way to raise his attributes . It was apparent that leveling up increased them as well .

    ‘To think that I could level-up!’

    Something that he had only dreamt about was now a reality before him .

    His heartbeat quickened .

    ‘And the total points I’ve gained is bigger than the daily quest . ’

    The stat points he received from quests were 3 .

    The stat points he gained from leveling up were 5 .

    Although he could not freely distribute these 5 points, the total benefit from a level-up was much bigger than the quest reward .

    ‘And I leveled up after taking down just two of them . ’

    In a video game, low level characters were able to level up quickly .

    Jinwoo was currently level 2 . You could say he was at the bottom of the barrel . But his level did not properly reflect his strength . After all, his strength was already above 30; if you treated one level-up being equivalent to one point of strength, Jinwoo already had the strength of someone above level 20 . And when a level 1 character hunts with the strength of a level 20?

    ‘I think they call this “power leveling”?’

    The destructive power of his punch that surpassed all expectations was a testament to his progress .

    ‘I’ve tripled the strength attribute, but I feel more than just three times stronger than before . ’

    Jinwoo’s original strength stat was 10 . The difference between 10 strength and 30 strength was a factor of 3, but his power felt much greater than that .

    ‘Maybe…’

    What if value of his attributes became weighted as they increased[2]? That would explain this destructive power . On top of that, his movements had also become faster . If it was the old him, he could not imagine dodging the beasts’ fast attacks or make the wind howl when he made a punch .

    “I suppose increasing my muscles would make me faster . ”

    It seemed that increasing the strength stat increased both his ‘strength’ and ‘speed’ . His battle with the Lycan was the proof .

    But what about the agility stat? If not his mobility, what would it increase?

    Jinwoo knew he could not satisfy his curiosity without more stat points .

    ‘Even if I had some…’

    It felt a little wasteful to use up the points from quest rewards in agility . If he could raise both his power and speed through the strength stat, why put points into agility?

    If that’s the case, there was one answer .

    ‘Increase my level as fast as possible . ’

    He would obtain points in the agility stat through leveling up, gathering clumps of dirt until he had a sizeable hill . Surely the result of the incremental increases would be noticed eventually .

    ‘Then, shall I get started?’

    He remembered the remaining Lycan .

    “But, where did that bastard go?”

    The Lycan that had cowered nearby had disappeared . Jinwoo looked around but could not find traces of the beast . It appeared to have ran away while Jinwoo was focused on his status screen .

    “Bleh . ”

    He rolled his tongue in his mouth, disappointed at the loss of experience points . As he began to walk away,

    ‘Wait, do these things drop magic cores?’

    He stopped himself in thought .

    Every magic beast found in Gates had a magic core in their body; sometimes, a single magic beast could carry multiple cores . If you were lucky, you might even find a Runestone . The magic cores, which had many uses, and the Runestones, which taught valuable skills, could be sold for a high price . It would not be an exaggeration to say that the primary objective of most Hunters in a raid was to obtain magic cores .

    Jinwoo was a Hunter . Walking away from a hunt empty handed made him feel disappointed . Just in case, he had cut open the belly of one of the Lycan but found nothing . It seemed like these things were something different than a magic beast .

    In his Hunting experience, Jinwoo did not recall hearing anything about a wolf-like magic beast that resembled these Lycans .

    As Jinwoo wiped his hands and got up to leave,

    “Hmm?”

    He saw something shining in the Lycan’s mouth . Jinwoo opened its jaws . One of the Lycan’s teeth was sparkling with light . When he reached out to it, a message appeared .

    You’ve found a “Lycan’s canine”

    Would you like to acquire it?

    “Acquire . ”

    Lycan’s canine

    Rarity: None

    Type: Junk

    A Lycan’s large and sharp canine .

    You may keep this item in your inventory .

    You may sell this item in the shop .

    Jinwoo read the canine in his hand and was taken back .

    ‘There was a shop?’

    Where in the world did this unhelpful System come from? To think that it would force the user to figure out everything on his own . Jinwoo recalled how it had given him no explanation about the penalty quest; it just threw him in the penalty zone and expected him to run from death until his body gave out .

    Jinwoo gritted his teeth and called the shop .

    “Shop . ”

    He half expected an NPC shopkeeper to popup out of nowhere . He was disappointed to find that the ‘shop’ just ended up being another information screen floating like a hologram . As if that wasn’t enough, the green letters on the screen displayed just two words .

    Buy

    Sell

    “ . . . ”

    Wow . What an amazing shop .

    Jinwoo selected “buy” . Although he had no money in his pockets, he was curious on what kind of items could be found in this shop . But of course, the System was not very kind .

    Your level is insufficient to use the “buy” function .

    He was used to being turned away from places that needed money .

    “Yessir, yessir . ”

    Not paying mind, he turned his eyes toward the other function .

    Would you like to sell the Lycan’s canine?

    “Sure . ”

    With a sound of coins dropping, his inventory opened up . At the base of the inventory screen, the section that said “Gold” was now displaying 20 . Yesterday, it was 0 .

    ‘20 gold . ’

    Unable to use it in real life or in the System, he was not sure what the value of this amount was .

    ‘I doubt anything from an E-rank Dungeon would be useful . ’

    Even if there was a difference between a Dungeon and an Instant Dungeon . Still, Jinwoo started to head over and collect the other Lycan’s teeth . He facepalmed .

    “Right . I blew off its head…”

    Disappointed, he turned to leave . He was disappointed at the loss of 20 gold, the value of which he wasn’t even sure about, but he was not about to waste the time to look for a tiny tooth that could’ve flown off to god knows where . As he turned around, his disappointment melted away like snow .

    grrrrrrrrl

    grrrrl

    grrrrrrrl~

    The Lycan that had ran away had returned with many more wolves!

    Jinwoo’s face bloomed into a smile . At a glance, there were more than 20 of them .

    “Eureka!”

    ‘Wait, that’s not the word… . Whatever . ’

    What was certain was his happiness . He squeezed the hilt of his sword .

    “Thank you for the meal~”

    At his greedy gaze, the Lycans cowered and trembled .

    Jinwoo leaped toward the beasts .

    You’ve leveled up!

    You’ve leveled up!

    You’ve leveled up!

    As expected, his level rose quickly . Having ran around the entire first floor looking for Lycans, Jinwoo’s level had already increased to 7 . A rather large leap of 5 levels .

    whimper-!

    As he took down the last remaining Lycan, a strange message appeared .

    ring~

    You’ve obtained the title, “Wolf Slayer”

    “Title?”

    Wolf Slayer

    All stats increased by 40% against beast type monsters .

    A title given to a hunter experienced in slaying wolves .

    His status screen reflected the new title as well:

    Name: Sung Jinwoo

    Level: 7

    Class: None

    Title: Wolf Slayer

    HP: 766

    MP: 81

    Fatigue: 3

    Stats

    Strength: 37

    Constitution: 16

    Agility: 16

    Intelligence: 16

    Sense: 16

    (Available stat points: 0)

    Skills

    Passive Skills

    -(Unknown) (Lv . Max)

    -Unyielding Spirit (Lv . 1)

    Active Skills

    -Sprint (Lv . 1)

    A stat boost against beast type monsters . Although the effect was limited against certain types, a 40% boost was nothing to scoff at .

    ‘There’s a lot of beast type magic beasts out there, wonder if it works against them?’

    If it did, it would help a lot in Raiding . Still, the loot so far was rather disappointing .

    ‘34 canines, two rusty daggers, an adventurer’s clothes and a return stone . ’

    Every once in a while, a wolf’s belly would contain items . However, most were not particularly useful . The rusty daggers had lower attack power compared to his steel sword, and the adventurer’s clothes ended up being junk items that he could not use . After selling all the junk he had picked up, Jinwoo had earned about a thousand gold .

    Current Gold: 1,060

    “ . . . I can’t tell if that’s a lot or little . ”

    No matter how much he collected, there was nowhere he could spend it .

    Ignoring the gold, the only other item that he had now was the return stone . He recalled the invisible barrier that stopped him no matter how much force was applied . The System had told him he required one of these to exit . So, now he knew he was able to leave .

    Jinwoo was at a crossroad .

    Ahead was the stairs descending to basement level 2 .

    In his hand, the return stone .

    ‘Forward or retreat…’

    If it was his old self, he would’ve ran away without a second thought . After all, it was the only way he survived the many Raids with his weak abilities . Others called it a miracle, but he knew it was due to his clever movements .

    But it was different now .

    He did not want to turn back .

    If he left now, he felt like he could not return .

    “I’m sick of running away . ”

    It was about time he faced danger head on . He put the return stone back in his pockets .

    His footsteps down the stairs were light .

    Translator’s Notes:

    [1]: Oh shit, I just realized I can stack the stat screens horizontally… I had to keep making page breaks when I had them vertical . Hope it doesn’t impact the mobile readers too much .

    [2]: Sorry, I’m actually not a 100% sure what the original phrase is referring to (???? ????? ???? ?????) . Lit would be “as attributes go up” “weighted value” “is applied” . From context, I just gathered it to mean that the increases in his abilities were not arithmetic (straight line progression) but geometric (increasing progression) .

    Sponsored Content

    I Alone Level-up: Chapter 14.

    .

    The Lycan that had flown over his head was now looking at him with fear . Its tail lowered, the wolf began to step backwards . .

    .

    “Huh…?”.

    .

    Was this the result of putting all of his points into strength?.

    .

    As he stared at his fist with an open mouth, the headless body of the Lycan convulsed with a finality then stopped moving . A familiar electronic sound rang through Jinwoo’s head . .

    .

    ring~.

    .

    You’ve defeated the Steel-tooth Lycan . .

    .

    You’ve leveled up!.

    .

    .

    .

    “I’ve leveled up?”.

    .

    Make sure he didn’t mishear, Jinwoo quickly opened his status screen . .

    .

    Name: Sung Jinwoo.

    Level: 2.

    Class: None.

    Title: None.

    HP: 205.

    MP: 22.

    Fatigue: 0.

    Stats.

    .

    Strength: 32.

    Constitution: 11.

    Agility: 11.

    Intelligence: 11.

    Sense: 11.

    (Available stat points: 0).

    Skills.

    .

    Passive Skills.

    -(Unknown) (Lv . Max).

    -Unyielding Spirit (Lv . 1).

    .

    Active Skills.

    -Sprint (Lv . 1).

    [1].

    .

    He really had leveled up . With it, all of his stats had increased by 1 point . Jinwoo realized that the quest rewards were not the only way to raise his attributes . It was apparent that leveling up increased them as well . .

    .

    ‘To think that I could level-up!’.

    .

    Something that he had only dreamt about was now a reality before him . .

    .

    His heartbeat quickened . .

    .

    ‘And the total points I’ve gained is bigger than the daily quest . ’.

    .

    The stat points he received from quests were 3 . .

    .

    The stat points he gained from leveling up were 5 . .

    .

    Although he could not freely distribute these 5 points, the total benefit from a level-up was much bigger than the quest reward . .

    .

    ‘And I leveled up after taking down just two of them . ’.

    .

    In a video game, low level characters were able to level up quickly . .

    .

    Jinwoo was currently level 2 . You could say he was at the bottom of the barrel . But his level did not properly reflect his strength . After all, his strength was already above 30; if you treated one level-up being equivalent to one point of strength, Jinwoo already had the strength of someone above level 20 . And when a level 1 character hunts with the strength of a level 20?.

    .

    ‘I think they call this “power leveling”?’.

    .

    The destructive power of his punch that surpassed all expectations was a testament to his progress . .

    .

    ‘I’ve tripled the strength attribute, but I feel more than just three times stronger than before . ’.

    .

    Jinwoo’s original strength stat was 10 . The difference between 10 strength and 30 strength was a factor of 3, but his power felt much greater than that . .

    .

    ‘Maybe…’.

    .

    What if value of his attributes became weighted as they increased[2]? That would explain this destructive power . On top of that, his movements had also become faster . If it was the old him, he could not imagine dodging the beasts’ fast attacks or make the wind howl when he made a punch . .

    .

    “I suppose increasing my muscles would make me faster . ”.

    .

    It seemed that increasing the strength stat increased both his ‘strength’ and ‘speed’ . His battle with the Lycan was the proof . .

    .

    But what about the agility stat? If not his mobility, what would it increase?.

    .

    Jinwoo knew he could not satisfy his curiosity without more stat points . .

    .

    ‘Even if I had some…’.

    .

    It felt a little wasteful to use up the points from quest rewards in agility . If he could raise both his power and speed through the strength stat, why put points into agility?.

    .

    If that’s the case, there was one answer . .

    .

    ‘Increase my level as fast as possible . ’.

    .

    He would obtain points in the agility stat through leveling up, gathering clumps of dirt until he had a sizeable hill . Surely the result of the incremental increases would be noticed eventually . .

    .

    ‘Then, shall I get started?’.

    .

    He remembered the remaining Lycan . .

    .

    “But, where did that bastard go?”.

    .

    The Lycan that had cowered nearby had disappeared . Jinwoo looked around but could not find traces of the beast . It appeared to have ran away while Jinwoo was focused on his status screen . .

    .

    “Bleh . ”.

    .

    He rolled his tongue in his mouth, disappointed at the loss of experience points . As he began to walk away,.

    .

    ‘Wait, do these things drop magic cores?’.

    .

    He stopped himself in thought . .

    .

    Every magic beast found in Gates had a magic core in their body; sometimes, a single magic beast could carry multiple cores . If you were lucky, you might even find a Runestone . The magic cores, which had many uses, and the Runestones, which taught valuable skills, could be sold for a high price . It would not be an exaggeration to say that the primary objective of most Hunters in a raid was to obtain magic cores . .

    .

    Jinwoo was a Hunter . Walking away from a hunt empty handed made him feel disappointed . Just in case, he had cut open the belly of one of the Lycan but found nothing . It seemed like these things were something different than a magic beast . .

    .

    In his Hunting experience, Jinwoo did not recall hearing anything about a wolf-like magic beast that resembled these Lycans . .

    .

    As Jinwoo wiped his hands and got up to leave,.

    .

    “Hmm?”.

    .

    He saw something shining in the Lycan’s mouth . Jinwoo opened its jaws . One of the Lycan’s teeth was sparkling with light . When he reached out to it, a message appeared . .

    .

    You’ve found a “Lycan’s canine”.

    Would you like to acquire it?.

    .

    “Acquire . ”.

    .

    Lycan’s canine.

    Rarity: None.

    Type: Junk.

    A Lycan’s large and sharp canine . .

    You may keep this item in your inventory . .

    You may sell this item in the shop . .

    .

    Jinwoo read the canine in his hand and was taken back . .

    .

    ‘There was a shop?’.

    .

    Where in the world did this unhelpful System come from? To think that it would force the user to figure out everything on his own . Jinwoo recalled how it had given him no explanation about the penalty quest; it just threw him in the penalty zone and expected him to run from death until his body gave out . .

    .

    Jinwoo gritted his teeth and called the shop . .

    .

    “Shop . ”.

    .

    He half expected an NPC shopkeeper to popup out of nowhere . He was disappointed to find that the ‘shop’ just ended up being another information screen floating like a hologram . As if that wasn’t enough, the green letters on the screen displayed just two words . .

    .

    Buy.

    Sell.

    .

    “ . ”.

    .

    Wow . What an amazing shop . .

    .

    Jinwoo selected “buy” . Although he had no money in his pockets, he was curious on what kind of items could be found in this shop . But of course, the System was not very kind . .

    .

    Your level is insufficient to use the “buy” function . .

    .

    He was used to being turned away from places that needed money . .

    .

    “Yessir, yessir . ”.

    .

    Not paying mind, he turned his eyes toward the other function . .

    .

    Would you like to sell the Lycan’s canine?.

    .

    “Sure . ”.

    .

    With a sound of coins dropping, his inventory opened up . At the base of the inventory screen, the section that said “Gold” was now displaying 20 . Yesterday, it was 0 . .

    .

    ‘20 gold . ’.

    .

    Unable to use it in real life or in the System, he was not sure what the value of this amount was . .

    .

    ‘I doubt anything from an E-rank Dungeon would be useful . ’.

    .

    Even if there was a difference between a Dungeon and an Instant Dungeon . Still, Jinwoo started to head over and collect the other Lycan’s teeth . He facepalmed . .

    .

    “Right . I blew off its head…”.

    .

    Disappointed, he turned to leave . He was disappointed at the loss of 20 gold, the value of which he wasn’t even sure about, but he was not about to waste the time to look for a tiny tooth that could’ve flown off to god knows where . As he turned around, his disappointment melted away like snow . .

    .

    grrrrrrrrl.

    .

    grrrrl.

    .

    grrrrrrrl~.

    .

    The Lycan that had ran away had returned with many more wolves!.

    .

    Jinwoo’s face bloomed into a smile . At a glance, there were more than 20 of them . .

    .

    “Eureka!”.

    .

    ‘Wait, that’s not the word… . Whatever . ’.

    .

    What was certain was his happiness . He squeezed the hilt of his sword . .

    .

    “Thank you for the meal~”.

    .

    At his greedy gaze, the Lycans cowered and trembled . .

    .

    Jinwoo leaped toward the beasts . .

    .

    .

    .

    You’ve leveled up!.

    .

    You’ve leveled up!.

    .

    You’ve leveled up!.

    .

    As expected, his level rose quickly . Having ran around the entire first floor looking for Lycans, Jinwoo’s level had already increased to 7 . A rather large leap of 5 levels . .

    .

    whimper-!.

    .

    As he took down the last remaining Lycan, a strange message appeared . .

    .

    ring~.

    .

    You’ve obtained the title, “Wolf Slayer”.

    .

    “Title?”.

    .

    Wolf Slayer.

    All stats increased by 40% against beast type monsters . .

    A title given to a hunter experienced in slaying wolves . .

    .

    His status screen reflected the new title as well:.

    .

    Name: Sung Jinwoo.

    Level: 7.

    Class: None.

    Title: Wolf Slayer.

    HP: 766.

    MP: 81.

    Fatigue: 3.

    Stats.

    .

    Strength: 37.

    Constitution: 16.

    Agility: 16.

    Intelligence: 16.

    Sense: 16.

    (Available stat points: 0).

    Skills.

    .

    Passive Skills.

    -(Unknown) (Lv . Max).

    -Unyielding Spirit (Lv . 1).

    .

    Active Skills.

    -Sprint (Lv . 1).

    .

    A stat boost against beast type monsters . Although the effect was limited against certain types, a 40% boost was nothing to scoff at . .

    .

    ‘There’s a lot of beast type magic beasts out there, wonder if it works against them?’.

    .

    If it did, it would help a lot in Raiding . Still, the loot so far was rather disappointing . .

    .

    ‘34 canines, two rusty daggers, an adventurer’s clothes and a return stone . ’.

    .

    Every once in a while, a wolf’s belly would contain items . However, most were not particularly useful . The rusty daggers had lower attack power compared to his steel sword, and the adventurer’s clothes ended up being junk items that he could not use . After selling all the junk he had picked up, Jinwoo had earned about a thousand gold . .

    .

    Current Gold: 1,060.

    .

    “ . I can’t tell if that’s a lot or little . ”.

    .

    No matter how much he collected, there was nowhere he could spend it . .

    .

    Ignoring the gold, the only other item that he had now was the return stone . He recalled the invisible barrier that stopped him no matter how much force was applied . The System had told him he required one of these to exit . So, now he knew he was able to leave . .

    .

    Jinwoo was at a crossroad . .

    .

    Ahead was the stairs descending to basement level 2 . .

    .

    In his hand, the return stone . .

    .

    ‘Forward or retreat…’.

    .

    If it was his old self, he would’ve ran away without a second thought . After all, it was the only way he survived the many Raids with his weak abilities . Others called it a miracle, but he knew it was due to his clever movements . .

    .

    But it was different now . .

    .

    He did not want to turn back . .

    .

    If he left now, he felt like he could not return . .

    .

    “I’m sick of running away . ”.

    .

    It was about time he faced danger head on . He put the return stone back in his pockets . .

    .

    His footsteps down the stairs were light . .

    .

    Translator’s Notes:.

    [1]: Oh shit, I just realized I can stack the stat screens horizontally… I had to keep making page breaks when I had them vertical . Hope it doesn’t impact the mobile readers too much . .

    [2]: Sorry, I’m actually not a 100% sure what the original phrase is referring to (???? ????? ???? ?????) . Lit would be “as attributes go up” “weighted value” “is applied” . From context, I just gathered it to mean that the increases in his abilities were not arithmetic (straight line progression) but geometric (increasing progression) . .