Solo Leveling

Chapter 12

‘Wellll- just in case…’

To cover his bases, Jinwoo left an anonymous post in a Hunters-only forum.

“Something strange has happened”

I’m suddenly able to see floating screens in the air like a video game, and I’m able to use stat points to increase my ability. Has anyone experienced something similar?

The replies were not kind.

“Hahahaha nice bullsh*t.”

“Think you’re crazy, bro.”

“Check the floor for some loose screws.”

“Think you’ve been playing too much games.”

“Are you a comic book writer?”

“Here’s the direction to the nearest hospital, lol.”

“Can you give more details?”

“Looks like we need to curate who can post here”

The next few dozens of comments were the same.

“Sigh…”

He was at it for few more hours, to no avail. The members of the forum just called him crazy and cursed at him. Since he got this far with no new information…

“I suppose I’m a unique case.”

To be unique[1] (唯一無二)...

The only Hunter in the world!

Of course, he had to wait to see just how far this System would take him. Just how much of a help will it be? Just what was the limit of his growth? It would take time for him to find out, but he did not feel bad about it at all.

As he looked around, he realized it was already deep into night.

“Where did the time go…?”

Furrowing his brows, he massaged his eyes that were strained through hours of computer use. He stood up and started stretching. As he moved his body back and forth, he saw the two boxes on the floor.

“Ah.”

Random Box.

It looked like something that could be found in a game. Neatly wrapped in gift paper, the two boxes lay on the ground, topped with ribbons.

‘I must’ve pushed them off the bed while running around the room.’

He had forgotten about these rewards. He grabbed one of the boxes and opened it up.

‘...Bandages?’

As he looked at what looked like rolled up medical wrappings, an information screen with green letters popped up.

Bandages

Plain bandages. Use on small wounds.

You may keep this item in your inventory.

“It’s really just bandages.”

He wondered if it had special effects like the treasures found in Dungeons, but that did not appear to be the case.

‘I suppose I never heard of bandages being found in Dungeons…’

Half disappointed, half anticipating, Jinwoo opened the other box.

A pen was inside.

He turned it over in his hands, clicking one end and checking the tip.

It was an ordinary pen.

Pen

An ordinary pen. Good for writing memos.

You may keep this item in your inventory.

Fitting to their name, the Random Boxes truly produced random items.

“Hmm…”

But he was not completely disappointed. Although he had little uses for the two random items, he learned something valuable from observing the items. The first was that the information screen on items did not popup from observing other items around the room. As such, he surmised that this function was limited to items from the Random Boxes[2]. The second information was far more valuable:

The existence of an inventory.

“Inventory.”

As he spoke the words, an information box showing dozens of item slots appeared before him. Fitting of a level 1, his inventory was almost completely empty, but Jinwoo was surprised to see a familiar item in the first slot.

‘Thats…?’

He took the item out.

ring~

Kim Sangshik’s Steel Sword

Attack Power +10

It was Mr. Kim’s sword that he had picked up back in the temple. He had thought that it was left behind in the Gate.

“Good to see you again, you bastard.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. Remembering his last moments in the temple, he felt like the two had shared a special bond. Seeing the sword back in his hand was a welcoming sight. Additionally, he felt a shame hiding away an item like this in his inventory.

‘Kim-ssi[3] ahjussi said he bought it for 3 million won?’

Although the Hunters’ weapons may appear ordinary, they were anything but. Magic beasts could not be harmed by weapons with no magic power. As such, weapons created for the purpose of facing such existences were very expensive.

‘Looks like I’ll have to use this for a while.’

Up until now, he could not afford a Hunter’s weapon and fought with his bare hands. As such, even though it was a relatively cheap sword (compared to better weapons), Jinwoo was very grateful for it.

‘It’s mine now.’

Kim-ssi will probably ask for it back, foaming at his mouth, if he saw it in Jinwoo’s hands. After all, he was a selfish person who could leave behind his life’s savior. To Jinwoo, both the sword and his newfound powers were things he had earned with his life. He had no plans to give them back easily.

His eyes became fierce.

In that temple, he had learned two things.

One. He had to become strong.

Due to his weakness, he faced death multiple times. Not only that, even knowing what would happen, he could not stop the choir Hunter from dying. Even when he knew Kim-ssi ahjussi was in the wrong, he could not help Song-ssi ahjussi. To survive, he was forced to turn a blind eye on what was right and wrong.

And two.

‘There is no need to be needlessly kind.’

His kindness was rewarded with betrayal from his comrades. Three of his comrades left behind his incapacitated body and ran. His pleading shouts falling on their deaf ears. To think that they would forget who had saved their lives moments before.

‘Give and take.’

From now on, he vowed to never put his life in danger for the sake of others, at least, not out of some imagined goodness of his heart. After all, the most important thing in his life was… his life.

These were the two lessons he had learned while on the brink of death.

To become stronger. To become cold.

“I can do it.”

He was a man who did not easily forget his lessons.

In some streetside food stall[4], nurse Choi Yura and her friend conversed late into the night.

“Ah, right.”

Yura suddenly realized that her friend was a Hunter Association employee. It was due to her friend that she was able to find employment at the hospital designated for Hunters.

“You know a lot about Hunters, right?”

“As much as anyone else, why?”

“Do you know of Hunters that can heal their injuries really fast?”

“Of course, the Healer-class Hunters. When they use their healing spells, any injuries just go woosh~!”

“No, no. Not with a spell. While unconscious.”

“While unconscious?”

“For example if they were knocked out… or maybe even sleeping.”

Her friend shook her head.

“Eh, there’s no way. That’s an amazing ability called regeneration. It’s a special power that only appears in A-rank or higher magic beasts. Even then, only in special ones.”

“And no humans have this ability?”

“Yeah. I’ve never heard of a Hunter with such abilities.”

“Is… is that so?”

Was she mistaken? Yura nodded along as she listened to her friend. Then her friend continued,

“Well… I’m not completely sure, but maybe it’s possible in S-rank Hunters.”

Yura raised her head at her friend’s words,

“S-rank?”

“Well the S-rank Hunters are filled with monsters, and information regarding their powers are hard to come across. Let’s see, I’ve heard the Baekho Guild’s Hunter Baek Yunho could even transform into an actual monster.”

But Sung Jinwoo was an E-rank Hunter. The information regarding a Hunter’s rank was publicly available through the Association’s website; anyone was able to easily look it up. Earlier that morning, out of curiosity, Yura had already read up on Sung Jinwoo through the Association’s website.

‘His rank is too low to have such an ability- ah!”

The Reawakening of Hunters!

She recalled overhearing something about a Reawakening when she had passed by his room yesterday.

‘Did that man Reawaken as a high level Hunter?’

Forget being friends, the ordinary person couldn’t even dream of meeting an S-rank Hunter. This was due to their low numbers and incredibly busy schedules. But to think that one of her patients had become such an existence. An E-rank becoming an S-rank…

‘Hmm, if no one had noticed that man’s value…’

This was her only chance to earn some brownie points with Jinwoo. It was not everyday someone got a chance to befriend an S-rank Hunter. Their value was so high that it was even hard for others to meet them by spending money. Imagining all sorts of things here and there, a smile crept on Yura’s face.

“Oh my. Girl- did something good happen? Why’re you suddenly smiling?”

“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”

Even as she shook her head, Yura could not ease up on the smile on her face.

-8. Level-up!-

“Whoa, look at that body!”

“Was that patient’s body that good when he came in?”

The two young nurses who caught Jinwoo’s figure as they passed him whispered to each other.

Pretending not to hear, Jinwoo returned to his room.

It had been a week since he started doing the daily quests. Many changes had happened since then.

First was the change in his body. He went up to a mirror in his room.

“Hmm. Hmm.”

He looked up and down his body in front of the mirror. Embarrassed at acting like a girl examining her outfit, he faked a cough, even though no one was watching. Still, there was a clear difference. His body was changing.

‘My muscles are bigger.’

It was the first thing that he noticed. The fat had disappeared here and there, replaced by muscles. His shoulders had widened, and his height seemed to have increased as well.

‘I don’t look that frail any more.’

Useful muscles had appeared all across his body. If he had to describe the feeling, it was “nimble” or “agile”. Even as a man, his body looked nice to him. It made sense that it would turn the nurses’ heads.

‘And all this is thanks to…’

He opened his status screen.

ring~

Name:Sung Jinwoo

Level:1

Class:None

Title:None

HP:100

MP:10

Fatigue: 0

Stats

Strength:31

Constitution:10

Agility:10

Intelligence:10

Sense:10

(Available stat points: 0)

Skills

Passive Skills

-(Unknown)(Lv. Max)

-Unyielding Spirit(Lv. 1)

Active Skills

-Sprint(Lv. 1)

In no time, he had raised his strength to 31. As he was not yet sure about the effects of other stats, he had focused all his points toward strength for now. After all, the thing that was most helpful in fighting magic beasts was strength.

‘The body doesn’t just change like this after few days of exercise.’

If he thought of it like that, there was only one possibility. His body was changing accordingly to the increases in his strength attribute; to grow muscles to maximize the usage of his rising strength. He could not think of another possibility.

However, he did worry at times that he was putting too much points into strength. But seeing his changed body, he became satisfied and forgot about his worries.

‘It really does catch the eyes.’

Day by day, his name appeared more and more in the nurses’ conversations. As women who constantly worked around the human body, they were probably more sensitive to the changes in his body. With his keen hearing, he did not miss a single mention of his name around him.

‘Maybe it’s about time I got discharged.’

Notes:

[1]: “to be unique” (유일무이; 唯一無二): “only” + “one” + “no” + “second”. I think it’s a phrase that basically translates to “being unique”.

[2]: “this function was limited to items from random boxes.” (방 안의 다른 물건들은 정보가 뜨지 않는 걸 봐선 랜덤 박스에 서 나온 물건들만의 특징인 듯했다) This part threw me off as it was blatantly wrong. The information screen literally pops up on the sword in the next section. Not sure if I’ve missed something in the translation or if the MC came to a conclusion too quick.

[3]: “-ssi” (씨; “ssi”): I used “Mr.” or “Ms.” for this Korean honorific up until this point, but as I go deeper and deeper in the story, just using “Mr.” started to not fit that well in certain situations. The honorific is used as basic courtesy when people talk or refer to each other, especially common in older ages.

[4]: “streetside food stall” (포장마차; “po-jang-ma-cha”): This is a commonplace shop in Korea. A cross between food cart and an actual restaurant, vendors would set up a giant tarp to act as the inside of a shop and serve various food and drinks.