Next morning, Jinwoo went straight to Daesung Tower .

    ‘Man, it’s still so tall . ’

    A skyscraper with a hundred floors . Standing near it, you’d have to strain your neck to look up to the top .

    ‘There are a lot of people here today . ’

    Compared to the last time he had come here, there were a lot more people around . Guess that was the literal difference between night and day . Whether it was the lobby, entrance or the sidewalk, people came and went nonstop .

    ‘Man, if I just disappeared into thin air like last time, it’ll cause quite a commotion . ’

    There were already many eyes looking for him because of this so-called “unknown helper” incident . Was there a need for him to reveal himself and purposely attract attention?

    ‘Of course not . ’

    Jinwoo did not enjoy having attention focused on him . He walked over to a hidden corner and took out the Demon Castle Key . It was a slender, golden key . At a casual glance, it was clearly nonfunctional .

    ‘No one’s looking, right?’

    Jinwoo looked around and nodded .

    ‘Time to go . ’

    The Hunter used the ‘Stealth’ skill .

    shooo-

    The invisible man came out of his hiding spot then made his way through the crowd to the building . Because of how packed the streets were, he couldn’t avoid bumping into few people here and there, but none of them paid any mind .

    ‘Man, this skill can be used for some really bad things . ’

    No wonder high-rankers with ‘Stealth’ were under a lot of surveillance .

    flaaaare!

    In the meantime, he passed through the invisible threshold into a completely different world .

    ‘If I can hear the flames from here, just how hot is it?’

    Jinwoo looked up at the massive tower on fire . It stood where Daesung Tower was moments ago . The Demon Castle nearly filled his entire vision . Still, they say humans can get used to anything .

    ‘Feels less oppressive than last time . ’

    Indeed, Jinwoo’s anxiousness was practically nonexistent this time .

    Or perhaps,

    ‘It’s because I’ve grown that much . ’

    Jinwoo returned the golden Demon Castle Key to the inventory then took out a gray key .

    Castle Gate Key

    Rarity: A-rank

    Type: Key

    It is the key to the Demon Castle’s gates .

    Obtained after killing the Gatekeeper .

    It was what he obtained after killing the watchdog, Cerberus . He was unable to use it in the past, having just barely defeated Cerberus . Now, he would finally enter the castle . Next, he took out his weapon . Baruka’s Tanto in his right hand, the gate key in his left, Jinwoo carefully walked towards the castle gate . Curiously, he did not see Cerberus .

    ‘Do monsters not respawn in the Demon Castle Dungeon?’

    Might be just limited to the dog, but there was a strong possibility that it was a special rule of this place .

    ‘If that’s the case…’

    The interiors might be a little different than the Instant Dungeons where monsters respawned . Jinwoo sharply focused his senses .

    BA DUM BA DUM BA DUM!

    Because of the sense stat that had reached over a hundred, focusing his senses made his own heartbeat sound like thunder .

    ‘But I am not afraid . ’

    Compared to the past, what he felt now was not fear but an overwhelming confidence resulting from his power . Maintaining a sharpness and being afraid were two completely different things .

    ring~

    A message appeared in front of the castle door .

    Would you like to use the Castle Gate Key and enter? (Y/N)

    ‘No, miss System, I’ll just turn back and go home . ’

    Jinwoo laughed at the stupid question and selected “Yes” .

    creaaaak-

    He had not touched the door, but the giant gates swung open on their own .

    Clunk!

    ‘Huh…?’

    Jinwoo was taken back . Even though his senses were focused, he did not sense any monsters past the doors .

    ‘No monsters?’

    He had prepared for the exact opposite . His worst case scenario visioned a scene where a ton of monsters jumped him the moment he opened the door . It was this pessimistic thought that had carried him to the penalty zone for training .

    ‘But…’

    Just what was this? It seemed like his efforts were in vain . The inside of the castle was almost pathetically devoid of any monsters’ presence .

    ‘Huh… What now?’

    With a disappointed feeling, Jinwoo returned Baruka’s Tanto to the inventory and stepped into the Demon Castle . As these things usually go, that first step into the area triggered the response .

    ring~

    Jinwoo reflexively called his two daggers to his hands in a flash .

    ‘What! What is it?!’

    A quest has arrived .

    ‘A quest?’

    And it’s not the daily quest? Well that would’ve been weird; he had already made sure to complete the daily quest before coming here . Then this must be… just a quest .

    This was the first time he had received “just” a quest .

    ‘Every other quest up until now was hidden, emergency or something . ’

    Jinwoo checked the quest with a tilted head .

    Ordinary Quest: Collect the Demon Souls! Part 1

    The Demon Castle is full of demons . Please hunt them and collect their souls to earn a special reward . Normal demons contain only one soul, but the upper floors will have demons with multiple souls .

    Quest Requirement: Enter the Demon Castle

    Quest Goal: Demon Souls 0 / 10,000

    Rewards:

    Pick one item from every item possible

    Stat points +20

    Unknown Reward

    20 Stat points! As always, the first thing that grabbed Jinwoo’s attention was the stat point reward .

    ‘I can raise my intelligence by 20!’

    He could not help but smile . The disadvantages of low mana could not be understated .

    ‘I need a ton of mana to keep my soldiers regenerating . ’

    And mana wasn’t the only benefit of the intelligence stat . Jinwoo was finally able to learn that as his intelligence increased, the number of shadows he could extract and store increased as well[1] . Because of all this, increasing his intelligence was urgent .

    ‘There’s a limit with just level-ups and daily quests…’

    If he could earn 20 bonus stats through the quest, it would take care of a large problem .

    gulp

    ‘And…’

    Jinwoo looked up from the stat reward .

    “Pick one item from every item possible”

    Just the bonus stats were an insane reward, then there was this .

    ‘Really? Every item possible?’

    Jinwoo remembered the absolute highest-class equipments from the shop .

    ‘There were even…’

    S-rank equipment that cost billions, some even tens of billions, of gold . Jinwoo looked at Knight Killer in his left hand . This powerful dagger cost nearly three million gold, and he was still using it .

    ‘If a B-rank dagger costing nearly three million is this good, just how good are the S-rank daggers costing tens of billions?’

    He became curious . Looking at just the first and second rewards, even ignoring the unknown third reward, this was an incredible quest .

    ‘Considering the rewards, taking down few monsters will be as easy as eating-’

    Because Jinwoo’s eyes fell on the quest rewards first, he had not taken a closer look at the quest goal . The man finally looked at the number of zeros and was shocked .

    “Ten… thousand?”

    Jinwoo could not help but exclaim loudly . This was not just “taking down few monsters” .

    ‘It’s really, really not an ordinary quest . ’

    No matter what kind of monsters these demons were, killing ten thousand of them would be an ordeal . However, the Hunter smiled widely .

    ‘That is… if I was alone . ’

    The current number of soldiers was 50 . They each just had to take down 200 demons . Yes, with those soldiers, this quest would be doable .

    Would you like to accept the quest?

    ‘Of course . ’

    There was no way he would refuse .

    You’ve accepted the quest .

    If he failed, the “penalty” would be just the wasted time .

    ‘Compared the penalty of those other quests… bleh…’

    His life was on the line for the Class Advancement Quest and the Emergency Quests . Compared to those, this was truly a blessed quest . Jinwoo raised his head,

    ‘So that’s going to keep track of my progress?’

    The moment he accepted the quest, a counter appeared in the air .

    Collected Demon Souls: 0 / 10,000

    ‘10,000… This’ll be a long road . ’

    With the numbers he imagined in his head actually visualized, Jinwoo chuckled in disbelief . Suddenly, he discovered another counter to the left to the souls counter .

    ‘Huh?’

    Exp . to Next Level: 60,000

    The holographic letters clearly displayed a number, and it was telling him that he would level up once he filled that number .

    ‘Am I finally able to see my experience?’

    But he was Level 61 . 61 didn’t particularly seem like a milestone level for something like this to happen . Not only that, Jinwoo didn’t see such a counter before heading into the Demon Castle .

    ‘Let’s see…’

    Jinwoo took a step back and exited the Demon Castle . With that, both the soul counter and the experience counter disappeared . When he went back in, the two counters returned as if they were always there .

    ‘Looks like it’s only for the Demon Castle . ’

    It was a shame he wouldn’t be able to see the experience counter on the outside, but it would surely be convenient while he was in here . On the other hand,

    ‘Does that mean it’ll take that long to conquer this place?’

    That was certainly a possibility . Jinwoo pored over the details of the quest once more, then closed the message box .

    ‘Think I got the details down . ’

    Finally, it would be time to explore the interiors of the Demon Castle .

    ‘Whoa!’

    wooooooooo-

    A ruined city lay before his eyes . Unexpectedly, it was another field-type Dungeon .

    ‘Where is this? Is this Seoul?’

    Perhaps if everyone in Seoul died and a hundred years passed, it might look like this . A lifeless city faded to gray . Few street lights flickered on and off here and there .

    ‘To think that it’d be another field-type Dungeon…’

    On top of that, it was using the great city of Seoul as its base . Next to the Instant Dungeons that used a subway station or a mall as their base, this was incomparable . Jinwoo’s eyes narrowed .

    ‘Where do I go first?’

    Where was the goal? Jinwoo looked over here and there . Thankfully, he did not have to wonder for too long . From a distance, where Namsan Tower should’ve been, a giant pillar of light stood in its place .

    ‘Let’s try over there . ’

    Jinwoo started heading towards the direction . In case he got lost, he carefully remembered the area where the castle gate was . However, he did not go too far when he was interrupted,

    “Kik kik . ”

    “Kikikik . ”

    Small monsters crawled out from between the buildings here and there .

    ‘Low-level Demon’

    Jinwoo read the dark red names above their heads and understood what they were .

    ‘They look like…’

    If the gargoyle magic beasts had wings, it would look just like them . There were eight of them . Jinwoo smiled .

    ‘Got eight souls . ’

    Pierce!

    One of the demons sported Baruka’s Tanto out of its forehead .

    You’ve defeated a Low-level Demon .

    You’ve earned 100 experience points .

    You’ve earned 1 Demon Soul .

    “Kiak?”

    “Kiek?”

    While they were distracted by their fallen comrade, Jinwoo quickly ran over and removed another’s head .

    slash!

    You’ve defeated a Low-level Demon .

    You’ve earned 100 experience points .

    You’ve earned 1 Demon Soul .

    These things gave a hundred experience points each .

    ‘And I need 60,000 experience points to level-up…’

    Defeating 600 of these low-level demons should level him up . The remaining demons fell quickly .

    “Kiiiiiiek!”

    “Kek!”

    Current souls at 8 . Experienced gained was 800 .

    ‘Not a bad start . ’

    A marathon starts with just a few steps . Jinwoo’s eyes sparkled, looking for the next prey .

    Baekho Guild . Guildmaster’s Office .

    After being busy for the past few days, Baek Yoonho was going through the documents and reports that he had been neglecting .

    Beep-

    He picked up the phone .

    - “Guildmaster, Hunter Min Byunggu-nim is calling . Would you like me to connect?”

    “Yes, please . ”

    - “Alright . ”

    A moment later, a familiar voice came from the receiver .

    - “Baek hyung, why is your cellphone off?”

    Baek Yoonho sighed deeply,

    “Because of those damn reporters . I’m going dark until this damn story dies down . ”

    - “Oh, yeah, that! Red Gate! I saw the news from Japan . Hyung, you look pretty good on the TV . ”

    “Don’t test me . I’m not in the mood to joke around . Once I find who leaked that story, I’m going to just…”

    - “Don’t worry about that too much, hyung . That story’s going to get pushed over by a big news soon . ”

    “A big news? From Japan?”

    - “Yeah . The problem is worse than we thought . It’s going to make waves in Korea soon . ”

    “Why? What happened?”

    A week ago, Japan secretly contacted the Korean Hunter Association and the large Guilds of South Korea . They were informed that Japan needed a consultation with Korea’s Hunters . And so, several Hunters representing Korea headed over to Japan for a meeting . Min Byunggu was one of those Hunters . Baek Yoonho had been curious about the matter,

    “Stop messing around and spill it . This is the first time those Japanese bastards asked for our advice on something . Just what’s going on over there that could rattle those arrogant fucks?” [2]

    - “Baek hyung, you remember the ants of Jeju Island, right?”

    An S-rank Gate underwent a Dungeon Break four years ago on Jeju Island . The Dungeon was populated by ant type magic beasts . South Korea had attempted to reclaim the island three times . They failed three times . Eventually, the government gave up on the jewel of Korea, and Jeju Island became the land of the magic beasts .

    “How could I forget? I almost died during one of the reclamation efforts . ”

    - “There’s been a development in that area . ”

    “Development? Who the hell cares . Let them kill and eat each other on that island . ”

    - “That’s…”

    The voice on the phone became filled with worry and continued,

    - “They discovered a corpse of a winged ant on the coast of Japan . ” [3]

    Translator’s Notes:

    [1]: Oh, here it is . The actual confirmation that intelligence increased his maximum shadows .

    [2]: Err, in case anyone’s uncomfortable with the rather blatant racism, the relationship between Korean and Japan, especially for older folks, is not that good .

    [3]: In the next arc of SoloxLeveling, we’ll be visiting the Chimera Ant Island :P

    Sponsored Content

    I Alone Level-up: Chapter 69.

    .

    Next morning, Jinwoo went straight to Daesung Tower . .

    .

    ‘Man, it’s still so tall . ’.

    .

    A skyscraper with a hundred floors . Standing near it, you’d have to strain your neck to look up to the top . .

    .

    ‘There are a lot of people here today . ’.

    .

    Compared to the last time he had come here, there were a lot more people around . Guess that was the literal difference between night and day . Whether it was the lobby, entrance or the sidewalk, people came and went nonstop . .

    .

    ‘Man, if I just disappeared into thin air like last time, it’ll cause quite a commotion . ’.

    .

    There were already many eyes looking for him because of this so-called “unknown helper” incident . Was there a need for him to reveal himself and purposely attract attention?.

    .

    ‘Of course not . ’.

    .

    Jinwoo did not enjoy having attention focused on him . He walked over to a hidden corner and took out the Demon Castle Key . It was a slender, golden key . At a casual glance, it was clearly nonfunctional . .

    .

    ‘No one’s looking, right?’.

    .

    Jinwoo looked around and nodded . .

    .

    ‘Time to go . ’.

    .

    The Hunter used the ‘Stealth’ skill . .

    .

    shooo-.

    .

    The invisible man came out of his hiding spot then made his way through the crowd to the building . Because of how packed the streets were, he couldn’t avoid bumping into few people here and there, but none of them paid any mind . .

    .

    ‘Man, this skill can be used for some really bad things . ’.

    .

    No wonder high-rankers with ‘Stealth’ were under a lot of surveillance . .

    .

    flaaaare!.

    .

    In the meantime, he passed through the invisible threshold into a completely different world . .

    .

    ‘If I can hear the flames from here, just how hot is it?’.

    .

    Jinwoo looked up at the massive tower on fire . It stood where Daesung Tower was moments ago . The Demon Castle nearly filled his entire vision . Still, they say humans can get used to anything . .

    .

    ‘Feels less oppressive than last time . ’.

    .

    Indeed, Jinwoo’s anxiousness was practically nonexistent this time . .

    .

    Or perhaps,.

    .

    ‘It’s because I’ve grown that much . ’.

    .

    Jinwoo returned the golden Demon Castle Key to the inventory then took out a gray key . .

    .

    Castle Gate Key.

    Rarity: A-rank.

    Type: Key.

    It is the key to the Demon Castle’s gates . .

    Obtained after killing the Gatekeeper . .

    .

    It was what he obtained after killing the watchdog, Cerberus . He was unable to use it in the past, having just barely defeated Cerberus . Now, he would finally enter the castle . Next, he took out his weapon . Baruka’s Tanto in his right hand, the gate key in his left, Jinwoo carefully walked towards the castle gate . Curiously, he did not see Cerberus . .

    .

    ‘Do monsters not respawn in the Demon Castle Dungeon?’.

    .

    Might be just limited to the dog, but there was a strong possibility that it was a special rule of this place . .

    .

    ‘If that’s the case…’.

    .

    The interiors might be a little different than the Instant Dungeons where monsters respawned . Jinwoo sharply focused his senses . .

    .

    BA DUM BA DUM BA DUM!.

    .

    Because of the sense stat that had reached over a hundred, focusing his senses made his own heartbeat sound like thunder . .

    .

    ‘But I am not afraid . ’.

    .

    Compared to the past, what he felt now was not fear but an overwhelming confidence resulting from his power . Maintaining a sharpness and being afraid were two completely different things . .

    .

    ring~.

    .

    A message appeared in front of the castle door . .

    .

    Would you like to use the Castle Gate Key and enter? (Y/N).

    .

    ‘No, miss System, I’ll just turn back and go home . ’.

    .

    Jinwoo laughed at the stupid question and selected “Yes” . .

    .

    creaaaak-.

    .

    He had not touched the door, but the giant gates swung open on their own . .

    .

    Clunk!.

    .

    ‘Huh…?’.

    .

    Jinwoo was taken back . Even though his senses were focused, he did not sense any monsters past the doors . .

    .

    ‘No monsters?’.

    .

    He had prepared for the exact opposite . His worst case scenario visioned a scene where a ton of monsters jumped him the moment he opened the door . It was this pessimistic thought that had carried him to the penalty zone for training . .

    .

    ‘But…’.

    .

    Just what was this? It seemed like his efforts were in vain . The inside of the castle was almost pathetically devoid of any monsters’ presence . .

    .

    ‘Huh… What now?’.

    .

    With a disappointed feeling, Jinwoo returned Baruka’s Tanto to the inventory and stepped into the Demon Castle . As these things usually go, that first step into the area triggered the response . .

    .

    ring~.

    .

    Jinwoo reflexively called his two daggers to his hands in a flash . .

    .

    ‘What! What is it?!’.

    .

    A quest has arrived . .

    .

    ‘A quest?’.

    .

    And it’s not the daily quest? Well that would’ve been weird; he had already made sure to complete the daily quest before coming here . Then this must be… just a quest . .

    .

    This was the first time he had received “just” a quest . .

    .

    ‘Every other quest up until now was hidden, emergency or something . ’.

    .

    Jinwoo checked the quest with a tilted head . .

    Ordinary Quest: Collect the Demon Souls! Part 1.

    The Demon Castle is full of demons . Please hunt them and collect their souls to earn a special reward . Normal demons contain only one soul, but the upper floors will have demons with multiple souls . .

    Quest Requirement: Enter the Demon Castle.

    Quest Goal: Demon Souls 0 / 10,000.

    Rewards:.

    Pick one item from every item possible.

    Stat points +20.

    Unknown Reward.

    .

    20 Stat points! As always, the first thing that grabbed Jinwoo’s attention was the stat point reward . .

    .

    ‘I can raise my intelligence by 20!’.

    .

    He could not help but smile . The disadvantages of low mana could not be understated . .

    .

    ‘I need a ton of mana to keep my soldiers regenerating . ’.

    .

    And mana wasn’t the only benefit of the intelligence stat . Jinwoo was finally able to learn that as his intelligence increased, the number of shadows he could extract and store increased as well[1] . Because of all this, increasing his intelligence was urgent . .

    .

    ‘There’s a limit with just level-ups and daily quests…’.

    .

    If he could earn 20 bonus stats through the quest, it would take care of a large problem . .

    .

    gulp.

    .

    ‘And…’.

    .

    Jinwoo looked up from the stat reward . .

    .

    “Pick one item from every item possible”.

    .

    Just the bonus stats were an insane reward, then there was this . .

    .

    ‘Really? Every item possible?’.

    .

    Jinwoo remembered the absolute highest-class equipments from the shop . .

    .

    ‘There were even…’.

    .

    S-rank equipment that cost billions, some even tens of billions, of gold . Jinwoo looked at Knight Killer in his left hand . This powerful dagger cost nearly three million gold, and he was still using it . .

    .

    ‘If a B-rank dagger costing nearly three million is this good, just how good are the S-rank daggers costing tens of billions?’.

    .

    He became curious . Looking at just the first and second rewards, even ignoring the unknown third reward, this was an incredible quest . .

    .

    ‘Considering the rewards, taking down few monsters will be as easy as eating-’.

    .

    Because Jinwoo’s eyes fell on the quest rewards first, he had not taken a closer look at the quest goal . The man finally looked at the number of zeros and was shocked . .

    .

    “Ten… thousand?”.

    .

    Jinwoo could not help but exclaim loudly . This was not just “taking down few monsters” . .

    .

    ‘It’s really, really not an ordinary quest . ’.

    .

    No matter what kind of monsters these demons were, killing ten thousand of them would be an ordeal . However, the Hunter smiled widely . .

    .

    ‘That is… if I was alone . ’.

    .

    The current number of soldiers was 50 . They each just had to take down 200 demons . Yes, with those soldiers, this quest would be doable . .

    .

    Would you like to accept the quest?.

    .

    ‘Of course . ’.

    .

    There was no way he would refuse . .

    .

    You’ve accepted the quest . .

    .

    If he failed, the “penalty” would be just the wasted time . .

    .

    ‘Compared the penalty of those other quests… bleh…’.

    .

    His life was on the line for the Class Advancement Quest and the Emergency Quests . Compared to those, this was truly a blessed quest . Jinwoo raised his head,.

    .

    ‘So that’s going to keep track of my progress?’.

    .

    The moment he accepted the quest, a counter appeared in the air . .

    .

    Collected Demon Souls: 0 / 10,000.

    .

    ‘10,000… This’ll be a long road . ’.

    .

    With the numbers he imagined in his head actually visualized, Jinwoo chuckled in disbelief . Suddenly, he discovered another counter to the left to the souls counter . .

    .

    ‘Huh?’.

    .

    Exp . to Next Level: 60,000.

    .

    The holographic letters clearly displayed a number, and it was telling him that he would level up once he filled that number . .

    .

    ‘Am I finally able to see my experience?’.

    .

    But he was Level 61 . 61 didn’t particularly seem like a milestone level for something like this to happen . Not only that, Jinwoo didn’t see such a counter before heading into the Demon Castle . .

    .

    ‘Let’s see…’.

    .

    Jinwoo took a step back and exited the Demon Castle . With that, both the soul counter and the experience counter disappeared . When he went back in, the two counters returned as if they were always there . .

    .

    ‘Looks like it’s only for the Demon Castle . ’.

    .

    It was a shame he wouldn’t be able to see the experience counter on the outside, but it would surely be convenient while he was in here . On the other hand,.

    .

    ‘Does that mean it’ll take that long to conquer this place?’.

    .

    That was certainly a possibility . Jinwoo pored over the details of the quest once more, then closed the message box . .

    .

    ‘Think I got the details down . ’.

    .

    Finally, it would be time to explore the interiors of the Demon Castle . .

    .

    ‘Whoa!’.

    .

    wooooooooo-.

    .

    A ruined city lay before his eyes . Unexpectedly, it was another field-type Dungeon . .

    .

    ‘Where is this? Is this Seoul?’.

    .

    Perhaps if everyone in Seoul died and a hundred years passed, it might look like this . A lifeless city faded to gray . Few street lights flickered on and off here and there . .

    .

    ‘To think that it’d be another field-type Dungeon…’.

    .

    On top of that, it was using the great city of Seoul as its base . Next to the Instant Dungeons that used a subway station or a mall as their base, this was incomparable . Jinwoo’s eyes narrowed . .

    .

    ‘Where do I go first?’.

    .

    Where was the goal? Jinwoo looked over here and there . Thankfully, he did not have to wonder for too long . From a distance, where Namsan Tower should’ve been, a giant pillar of light stood in its place . .

    .

    ‘Let’s try over there . ’.

    .

    Jinwoo started heading towards the direction . In case he got lost, he carefully remembered the area where the castle gate was . However, he did not go too far when he was interrupted,.

    .

    “Kik kik . ”.

    “Kikikik . ”.

    .

    Small monsters crawled out from between the buildings here and there . .

    .

    ‘Low-level Demon’.

    .

    Jinwoo read the dark red names above their heads and understood what they were . .

    .

    ‘They look like…’.

    .

    If the gargoyle magic beasts had wings, it would look just like them . There were eight of them . Jinwoo smiled . .

    .

    ‘Got eight souls . ’.

    .

    Pierce!.

    .

    One of the demons sported Baruka’s Tanto out of its forehead . .

    . .

    You’ve defeated a Low-level Demon . .

    You’ve earned 100 experience points . .

    You’ve earned 1 Demon Soul . .

    .

    “Kiak?”.

    “Kiek?”.

    .

    While they were distracted by their fallen comrade, Jinwoo quickly ran over and removed another’s head . .

    .

    slash!.

    .

    You’ve defeated a Low-level Demon . .

    You’ve earned 100 experience points . .

    You’ve earned 1 Demon Soul . .

    .

    These things gave a hundred experience points each . .

    .

    ‘And I need 60,000 experience points to level-up…’.

    .

    Defeating 600 of these low-level demons should level him up . The remaining demons fell quickly . .

    .

    “Kiiiiiiek!”.

    “Kek!”.

    .

    Current souls at 8 . Experienced gained was 800 . .

    .

    ‘Not a bad start . ’.

    .

    A marathon starts with just a few steps . Jinwoo’s eyes sparkled, looking for the next prey . .

    .

    .

    .

    Baekho Guild . Guildmaster’s Office . .

    .

    After being busy for the past few days, Baek Yoonho was going through the documents and reports that he had been neglecting . .

    .

    Beep-.

    .

    He picked up the phone . .

    .

    - “Guildmaster, Hunter Min Byunggu-nim is calling . Would you like me to connect?”.

    .

    “Yes, please . ”.

    .

    - “Alright . ”.

    .

    A moment later, a familiar voice came from the receiver . .

    .

    - “Baek hyung, why is your cellphone off?”.

    .

    Baek Yoonho sighed deeply,.

    .

    “Because of those damn reporters . I’m going dark until this damn story dies down . ”.

    .

    - “Oh, yeah, that! Red Gate! I saw the news from Japan . Hyung, you look pretty good on the TV . ”.

    .

    “Don’t test me . I’m not in the mood to joke around . Once I find who leaked that story, I’m going to just…”.

    .

    - “Don’t worry about that too much, hyung . That story’s going to get pushed over by a big news soon . ”.

    .

    “A big news? From Japan?”.

    .

    - “Yeah . The problem is worse than we thought . It’s going to make waves in Korea soon . ”.

    .

    “Why? What happened?”.

    .

    A week ago, Japan secretly contacted the Korean Hunter Association and the large Guilds of South Korea . They were informed that Japan needed a consultation with Korea’s Hunters . And so, several Hunters representing Korea headed over to Japan for a meeting . Min Byunggu was one of those Hunters . Baek Yoonho had been curious about the matter,.

    .

    “Stop messing around and spill it . This is the first time those Japanese bastards asked for our advice on something . Just what’s going on over there that could rattle those arrogant fucks?” [2].

    .

    - “Baek hyung, you remember the ants of Jeju Island, right?”.

    .

    An S-rank Gate underwent a Dungeon Break four years ago on Jeju Island . The Dungeon was populated by ant type magic beasts . South Korea had attempted to reclaim the island three times . They failed three times . Eventually, the government gave up on the jewel of Korea, and Jeju Island became the land of the magic beasts . .

    .

    “How could I forget? I almost died during one of the reclamation efforts . ”.

    .

    - “There’s been a development in that area . ”.

    .

    “Development? Who the hell cares . Let them kill and eat each other on that island . ”.

    .

    - “That’s…”.

    .

    The voice on the phone became filled with worry and continued,.

    .

    - “They discovered a corpse of a winged ant on the coast of Japan . ” [3].

    .

    Translator’s Notes:.

    [1]: Oh, here it is . The actual confirmation that intelligence increased his maximum shadows . .

    [2]: Err, in case anyone’s uncomfortable with the rather blatant racism, the relationship between Korean and Japan, especially for older folks, is not that good . .

    [3]: In the next arc of SoloxLeveling, we’ll be visiting the Chimera Ant Island :P.