Only I Level Up

Was it because of all the restrictions?

The loot drop rate turned out to be rather excellent.

Jin-Woo only defeated three knights, yet two of them dropped an item each. As far as percentages go, that was 66.6%.

It was an unimaginably high drop rate compared to other instant dungeons.

Especially considering the fact that, when all he got after clearing a floor of an instant dungeon several times in a row would be a few japtem and stuff he had no use for other than to sell them off at the Store.

['Item: Superior Knight's Breastplate' has been found. Take it?]

'Of course I'm taking it.'

Just a thought, and the breastplate of the now-headless knight kneeling and unmoving on the ground disappeared and reappeared right before his feet. And its information popped up in his view.

[Item: Superior Knight's Breastplate]

Rarity: B

Type: Armour

Reduction in physical damage: +7%

(Your movement will slow down if your Strength is below 80.)

7% increase in physical damage reduction!

When added to what he had already, the physical damage reduction would be 27%!

'If this number reaches 100%, does that mean I become completely impervious to all physical damage?'

He briefly wondered about that, before realising that a defensive item ranked 'B' in rarity only added 7% to the overall value, and his thoughts rapidly changed.

Even if he found himself an item with a rarity of 'A', the reduction may not go above 30-40%.

So, maybe it was impossible to add up to 100%?

'Still, every little bit helps, so…..'

He was sure of benefiting greatly if he continued to increase that Stat bit by bit.

He already had witnessed the power of good items through Yu Jin-Ho, after all.

'So, I do it like this, right?'

Jin-Woo picked up the breastplate. As expected, a message regarding equipping the armour popped up in his view.

[Will you equip 'Item: Superior Knight's Breastplate'?]

No matter who looked at it, this breastplate's design was rather clunky and embarrassing, and he'd never wear it in public.

If he didn't have prior experience with the 'Gatekeeper's Necklace', he might've hesitated a great deal before reluctantly agreeing to put it on, but now…

It was a different story now.

'Yes.'

Tti-ring.

['Item: Superior Knight's Breastplate' has been equipped.]

….The breastplate disappeared from the view.

Jin-Woo summoned the Status Window and confirmed his Stats.

[Reduction in physical damage: 27%]

'So, it really went up.'

Jin-Woo felt around his chest area. He couldn't feel anything weird. He moved his body around this way and that, but didn't feel anything strange or out of place.

It was exactly the same as when he equipped the Gatekeeper's necklace for the first time.

'Nice.'

Next, Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to the unmoving knight stuck in the distant corner.

It was bent and crumpled so badly that nothing looked salvageable, but still, the flickering light indicating the loot's presence could be seen on it quite clearly.

['Item: Leather Pouch' has been found. Take it?]

Of course, he was the one responsible for that, but even he had to concede that he had gone a bit overboard there. He fought barehanded and well, it was really hard to control his strength, that was why….

'……'

With a solemn expression on his face, Jin-Woo walked closer and reached out to take the loot away.

'Acquire it.'

['Item: Leather Pouch' has been opened.]

[30,000 Gold is inside.]

[30,000 Gold has been acquired.]

'Huh?!'

Nothing entered his hands yet he got a message declaring that he acquired some Gold, instead.

Was it a bit different from regular items?

Jin-Woo remained somewhat mystified as he accessed his Inventory, and sure enough, his Gold amount had really increased by 30,000.

[Current Gold: 863,400]

'I got 30,000 Gold in one go?'

Was it because knights were supposed to be wealthy or some such?

He abruptly remembered that most humanoid-type monsters usually gave out more loot than any other types in video games.

Now that he thought about it some more, not finding a greater number of useful items on a human being, when compared to an animal or an insect, didn't make a whole lot of sense, now did it?

He couldn't be sure if this dungeon followed that principal or not, though.

In any case, it could only be good news to him.

He was planning to save up more Gold and buy a few items from the Store, and if Gold kept showing up as loot in this fashion, then his planned shopping day would arrive much sooner than his initial estimation.

'Is there anything else that I can take with me?'

Well, human greed supposedly knew no limits, so….

Jin-Woo momentarily forgot about his true goal of wandering in this dungeon and greedily searched around his vicinity.

The armour worn by the knights were all pretty much mangled beyond recover from the fight just now so, it was a no….

Eventually, Jin-Woo's eyes found the knights' swords.

'They kinda look useful, don't they?'

Those longswords must've been brand new, looking all shiny and slick like that.

Although he couldn't use them properly since they weren't daggers, he could either sell them in the Store or if he couldn't, he could try hawking them off to other Hunters at a later date.

Jin-Woo picked up a sword.

However, as soon as he did, the sword rapidly rusted up and dissolved into a pile of dust, before scattering away.

"What the hell….?"

This process happened in only a couple of seconds.

'Is it because I'm not supposed to touch them?'

What a regrettable thing this was, but naught he could do about it now.

Jin-Woo dusted his hands off and picked up the torch he left on the ground.

When he walked around the bend where the knights showed up from, yet another passage with no end in sight greeted him.

"…"

It looked like there was still a long way to go.

***

These battles felt like he was revisiting school work.

The notion sounded funny, but that's what Jin-Woo ended up thinking, totally out of the blue.

During the past two hours of hunting inside the dungeon, he met four different types of monsters.

Knights, Mages, Assassins, and Archers.

"Is it Stealth this time?"

An assassin-type suddenly vanished from his senses.

Jin-Woo didn't panic and extended his Perception to its fullest. And soon enough, picked up on the presence sneaking up on him from behind.

Swish!

Jin-Woo powerfully smacked away the assassin's dagger with his trusty Poison Fang of Kasaka, and seizing the opening created as the monster was pushed back, stabbed forward in a deadly and accurate attack of his own.

The Poison Fang accurately landed in the middle of the target's chest.

Stab!

[You defeated the assassin.]

[Level up!]

The assassin received a fatal wound and turned into a wisp of black smoke before disappearing from his view with nary a scream.

Plop.

And where it once stood, only the leather clothes it used to wear remained.

'Why are they all humanoid-type monsters, anyway?'

Every time he 'killed' them, he felt as if….

Jin-Woo slowly shook his head.

One nice thing here was that he couldn't see the monsters' faces; knights wore helmets, assassins and archers used deep hoods, and mages used hats attached to their robes to hide most of their faces.

Jin-Woo turned around to continue on his journey.

But then!

A flash of blinding light exploded right in front of his eyes. A mage had hidden itself and quietly completed a light magic spell.

Kaboom!!

An ear-splitting explosion occurred next.

However, Jin-Woo was already well behind the mage by the time that happened.

"…..!!"

The mage sensed his presence behind it and flinched grandly as he hurriedly recited another chant. Too bad, Jin-Woo didn't miss this opening and swung his dagger diagonally.

The mage, too, turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared.

Plop.

Jin-Woo glared down at the ownerless robe on the ground and stored the dagger back in the Inventory.

'I got hit by one of those, way back when I got too careless.'

The thing was, he was already ready to react as soon as he began sensing Mana gathering around in a single point.

Joh Gyu-Hwan's Light magic - Jin-Woo wasn't dumb enough to get hit by a similar magic to that dead guy's.

This was one of the reasons why he thought that all these battles were like him studying and revisiting his past fights.

'That's not all, is it?'

In order to defeat different types of monsters, he needed different Stats.

For knights, it was Strength. For assassins, Perception. Archers, Agility. And finally, for mages, it was Stamina.

The whole thing was set up in a way that if any of the corresponding Stats weren't high enough, he'd have a real hard time trying to deal with the individual monsters.

If his Strength was lacking, then he wouldn't have been able to cause enough damage to the knights, and if his Perception was too low, he'd have gone through hell in order to locate the assassins.

'Me raising Stats evenly has really paid off dividends here.'

His Intelligence Stat was still on the low side, but all he had to do there was to economise his MP usage. That was all.

['Item: Leather Pouch' has been opened.]

['20,000 Gold', and 'Canteen Containing Lukewarm Water' are inside.]

['20,000 Gold', and 'Canteen Containing Lukewarm Water' have been acquired.]

Jin-Woo summoned that canteen as soon as it showed up in his Inventory and took several gulps.

"Fuu…."

His fatigue was piling up noticeably now.

'Just how far am I supposed to go here?'

Could there be no end to this place?

Jin-Woo put the empty canteen down on the ground and placed his hands on his hips. It had been over three hours already since he entered this dungeon. Both his body and mind were getting fatigued now.

'….Should I take a short break?'

Jin-Woo sat down and leaned against the cave wall.

'Status Window.'

Tti-ring.

[Tiredness: 66]

The 'Tiredness' Stat had sneaked up to a dangerous level; above 70, his body and mind would start to get negatively affected.

He needed to take a short nap and decrease that Stat right away.

Jin-Woo leaned his head against the wall.

Sleepiness came over him almost instantly.

He was so tired that, even when in an environment as dangerous as this place, he didn't need a lot of effort to fall asleep.

However…

Swish-!

He heard the sharp whistle of air parting ways!

Time slowed down, and Jin-Woo accurately snatched the flying arrow with his hand.

Grab!

Jin-Woo's eyes opened up.

He saw an archer nocking another arrow from some distance away.

'So, it's still too early to fall asleep, is it?'

Jin-Woo summoned the Poison Fang of Kasaka once more and stood back up.

***

Crunch!

One single punch caused the knight's breastplate to crack and cave in; the lifeless monster slowly slid to the ground in between Jin-Woo's stretched fist and the wall.

It didn't move again as it lay sprawled on the ground.

Tti-ring.

[You defeated the knight.]

[Level up!]

Although it was quite unfortunate that his condition didn't recover, his levels continued to rise up steadily as he fought more and more battles.

Jin-Woo looked down on his slightly-skinned fist and clicked his tongue.

Only a short break would've taken care of such a small wound by now.

However, these abominable monsters didn't give him a moment to rest.

Still, he earned quite a lot in the meantime.

[Equipped items]

Gatekeeper's Necklace (A)

Superior Knight's Breastplate (B)

Intermediate Assassin's Shoes (B)

Inferior archer's Gloves (C)

Superior Mage's Ring (B)

Other useful things he found along the way were now all safely tucked away in his Inventory.

'It'd been nicer if I found a weapon, though….'

What an unfortunate thing it was - the daggers used by the assassins featured similar levels of attack damage bonus as the Poison Fang of Kasaka, but none of them possessed additional effects, so they were deemed not as good compared to his current weapon.

'What would this guy give me now?'

Jin-Woo reached out towards the fallen knight and the flickering light coming off from it.

Tti-ring.

[Item: Superior Knight's Gauntlet]

Rarity: B

Type: Armour

Reduction in physical damage: +3%

Additional effects: Prevents injuries to wearer's hands.

(Your movement will slow down if your Strength is below 80.)

'Ohhh….'

With a bright smile, Jin-Woo quickly 'acquired' the Superior Knight's Gauntlet and equipped it immediately.

Just like with all the other items, these metallic gloves didn't affect him in the slightest and he could freely move his fingers.

'Nice.'

Jin-Woo moved his fingers around for a bit, before raising his head to look at the far side of the passageway.

Finally.

The torchlight revealed the end of the road.

And that end was blocked off by a huge castle gate.

It was quite rare to see the boss room with a door like that. Naturally, he recalled the dual dungeon. No one was adequately prepared back then, and because of that, the losses incurred were great.

However, it was different now.

Jin-Woo took a look behind him, at the passage he had been walking on to get here.

'It took me six hours to get here, too….'

His level was now 45, and he was kitted out in some good armour as well.

He was ready.

He wouldn't have minded taking a small break and recover some of his spent stamina, but whenever he tried to do that, monsters always managed to appear with the perfect sense of timing to disrupt his sleep.

He couldn't afford to summon more monsters and waste his energy that way.

[HP: 4511/8330]

[MP: 660/790]

[Tiredness: 43]

'I gotta win with this.'

Finishing up with confirming his condition for the last time, Jin-Woo reached out and grasped the handles of the doors.

Creak, creaaaakkk-!

The heavy-looking doors slid open rather smoothly, as if there was some sort of an unseen mechanism.

< Chapter 47 > Fin.