Chapter 22: Light Bringer (1)
◆Monster
Giant Forest Troll
(Boss)
(LV5)
A massive monster, towering over 4 meters tall.
Its skin is entirely green and cracked like tree bark.
With flowers and mushrooms even growing on it, it’s hard to distinguish it from a tree when it stands still.
It easily hunts through camouflage, but it’s also surprisingly fast and strong.
When enraged, it displays immense strength by uprooting nearby trees and wielding them like clubs.
Once caught in its enormous hand, it’s over.
With a crushing grip strong enough to shatter rocks, it’ll hold tight and bite your head off.
In truth, up to this point, it’s not much different from other monsters.
Being a level 5 boss monster, it’s naturally strong.
The Giant Forest Troll’s most notable feature, however, is its terrifying regenerative ability.
Most wounds heal before they even start bleeding, and it can quickly regenerate even severed limbs.
It’s an opponent where dragging out the battle leads to no solutions.
No matter how much you attack, it quickly recovers and counterattacks.
To kill a Giant Forest Troll, you have to either decapitate it or destroy its mana stone.
[If you want to sell the mana stone, it’s best to decapitate it.]
“Leave it to me!”
Whirrr!
The plasma lightsaber flared up for the first time in a while.
Back when I hunted the Gung-gi, just using it for a few seconds almost depleted all my mana.
Now, having leveled up and replaced my heart with a mana stone, it wasn’t as bad.
I could sustain it for about a minute now.
Of course, in this situation, one swing of the plasma lightsaber was enough.
The plasma lightsaber extended to about 2 meters.
Sensing danger, the Giant Forest Troll instinctively raised a massive tree like a club to block it.
It turned out to be the worst possible choice.
The plasma lightsaber effortlessly sliced through the tree trunk and then through the thick neck of the troll.
Slice!
No matter how strong the troll boss was, it couldn’t survive after being decapitated.
As the severed head and the troll’s body hit the ground almost simultaneously, the earth shook as if an earthquake had struck.
Rumble!
It’s generally accepted that taking down a boss monster requires at least 3 to 4 hunters of the same level.
Especially if it has unique abilities like the Giant Forest Troll, more preparation and a longer battle are needed.
But this powerful boss was defeated in a single blow.
“Whew~ The small fry were more of a hassle.”
[Master, managing your mana is more important. Anyway, it’s a relief we ended it easily.]
Like before, Nova had detected entropy and found this dungeon.
Fortunately, the boss monster appeared, and I managed to hunt it cleanly.
After defeating the boss monster and clearing the dungeon, a portal and rewards appeared to take me back to the entrance.
《Emblem Acquired》
Emblem
Giant of the Forest
(Rank A)
▷Condition: Defeat the Giant Forest Troll alone
HP +5
All Regeneration Rates +20%
“Oh! I didn’t know there was a condition like that.”
Traveling alone wasn’t always a bad thing.
As a result of hunting and exploring dungeons on my own, I managed to acquire much better emblems.
Next up was an item.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much, but I hit the jackpot.
《Artifact Acquired》
Artifact
Self-Healing
(Skill Book)
Heals your own wounds
I even got a skill book, which is said to be incredibly rare.
Although it’s much less efficient than skills gained through leveling up, having another active skill that only requires sufficient mana is incredibly valuable.
Moreover, it’s a healing skill.
I wonder how much I could sell this for at the auction house...
[After checking the current market, this skill book is selling for about 2.5 billion won.]
“2.5 billion won? That expensive?”
[Healing skills are in high demand. Of course, it’s nowhere near as effective as my Healing Factor, though.]
Well, I’ve heard that some wealthy families with support classes or low-tier jobs have used skill books to become hunters. With just a few attack skills, they could manage decent hunts. It would cost an enormous amount of money, but to those rich people, spending billions isn’t a big deal, right?
“They’re good customers.”
It was like holding an expensive house in one hand. Even though hunters make a lot of money, this was an unexpected windfall.
“Even adding up everything I’ve earned so far, it’s not even close to 500 million, is it?”
[It’s approximately 680 million won.]
“Really? I’ve earned more than I thought.”
When hunting, Nova automatically sends the GPS coordinates to the Mir Trading Company.
I’ve been hunting like a dog without even calculating how much I’ve earned, but to think I’ve already made 680 million won.
"Is it really okay to be earning this much?"
[You should also consider the taxes that will be deducted. You’ll need to file your year-end tax return as well.]
"Oh! That’s right. Taxes."
Although hunters have preferential tax laws that provide many benefits, they still have to accept that at least 20% will be taken.
Even so, it’s still an incredible income.
“I’ve been earning all this money, but I haven’t even thought about spending it. Should I buy a house?”
The place I live in now is the single-room I’ve been staying in since I was a porter. I’ve earned enough money to move to a better place.
"Is there really any need to buy a house when I just sleep and then go straight out to hunt?"
It somehow felt like a waste.
I’m not really interested in expensive cars or watches either.
If I transform Bipo, I have my means of transportation, and luxury items like high-end watches never really caught my interest.
Then Nova came up with an idea.
[How about selling the skill book to buy another skill book?]
"A skill book?"
That thought hadn’t crossed my mind. A new skill...
"But what kind of skill book should I buy? Is there anything I need?"
The skills I obtain from my EX-rank profession are far superior to those from regular skill books.
Is it really worth buying a skill book with poor cost-effectiveness?
When I voiced my concerns, Nova replied as if it were obvious.
[Shouldn’t you take advantage of your excessively high mental strength stat?]
"My mental strength stat?"
[Yes. It’s too much of a waste to only use it for mental defense.]
"What are you suggesting?"
[Didn’t Hyun Suho from another world, Phantom, teach you? You should use telekinesis as well.]
"Ah!"
Now that I think about it, psychic powers do consume mental strength, don’t they?
If I could use psychic powers, my mental strength stat wouldn’t be wasted.
[After searching the auction site, I found several psychic skill books, including telekinesis.]
"Is there really such a thing?"
I’d heard that there were various skill books, but I didn’t expect there to be ones related to psychic powers.
"How much are they?"
[It varies slightly by grade, but they average around 1 billion won each.]
“Ugh! They’re disgustingly expensive.”
Buying just two or three would wipe out all the profits I’ve made so far. But if they’re really effective, it might be worth the investment.
[I suggest you start with telekinesis, which is highly versatile. If it performs well, you could consider buying other skills as well.]
"What other skills are there?"
[There’s ‘Electric Discharge,’ which seems to align well with your profession’s characteristics.]
"Got it. Then, check out the auction items for me."
[Understood.]
As we talked, I realized I’d forgotten the real purpose of coming here. First, I dragged the dead boss monster’s body to the entrance portal and started butchering it.
Slice! Slice!
First, I took the mana stone.
If I requested it from the Mir Trading Company, they’d collect the mana stone as well, but I decided to take it out myself just in case someone found it and stole it before then.
Besides, feeding it to Bipo could be used as a secondary energy source.
It could sell for a lot of money, but today, I wasn’t here for the mana stone.
Finally, it was time to replace the muscles and bones.
But that wasn’t all.
Carefully slicing, I extracted an organ from the Giant Forest Troll. It was the liver.
“Hmm... Is this really the best choice?”
I took out the liver to utilize my body modification skill. This, too, was Nova’s recommendation.
[Master, beings like yourself are vulnerable to poison. If you modify your body with the forest troll’s liver, you’ll never have to worry about poison or acidic substances again.]
I had indeed heard the news about a famous ranker who died stupidly because of poison secretly mixed into his drink.
This modification wouldn’t just protect me from assassination but also from poisonous traps found in dungeons.
Nova didn’t recommend this liver without reason.
"I’ve finally achieved invulnerability to poison!"
[Please stop reading martial arts novels.]
"I was just trying to lighten the mood."
I laid the bones, muscles, and liver on a flat surface and used the skill.
"Body Modification."
The troll’s materials began to glow and were absorbed into my body.
Zzzzzt!
"...Is it done?"
I clenched my fist and felt an incredible surge of power.
Now I felt like I could crush a boulder with ease.
[Congratulations, Master. As expected, your strength has increased significantly, and you’ve gained resistance to poison and acid, as well as an improvement in your body’s regeneration rate.]
“Even regeneration?”
[Yes, in addition to faster wound healing, your skin regeneration has improved, so you’ll maintain baby-soft skin. You’ll never need to visit a dermatologist again.]
That’s some good news.
[And Master, you’ll never get drunk again.]
“Huh? Really? Then I can occasionally enjoy a can of beer with peanuts...”
[It would be like drinking bitter water.]
“Damn it!”
There were side effects too.
This was surely something Nova had hidden from me.
Well, even if I had known, I would have still done the body modification...
"I’ve become a lot stronger. I guess I should modify the next part after leveling up?"
[Of course. And you still need to hunt down the boss dragon.]
I was wondering why the dragon heart hadn’t come up yet.
Anyway, today’s expedition yielded more results than expected.
I’d been so focused on getting stronger that I hadn’t even realized how much money I’d been making.
Aside from indulging in as much beef as I wanted, my spending habits hadn’t changed much from my days as a porter.
“Being frugal leads to a good life.”
No matter how professional a hunter I’d become, it seemed I couldn’t shake off my miserly nature.
I didn’t see any reason to spend money anyway. As Nova suggested, I’d save it to buy skill books. Just as I was about to head back...
[You have a call from Jin Seo-yeon of the Jinryong Group, Master. Shall I connect it?]
An unexpected person was calling.
* * *
Dungeon Break.
A phenomenon that occurs if a dungeon randomly generated on Earth isn’t cleared within a certain time frame.
The dungeon collapses, and an enormous number of monsters pour out through the exit.
Nowadays, thanks to the efforts of the Hunter Association and others, Dungeon Breaks are rare, but in the past, cities and even entire countries were destroyed due to them.
The monsters that appear during a Dungeon Break are usually the ones that primarily roamed inside the dungeon.
The number and difficulty of these monsters vary depending on the difficulty of the dungeon.
With the successful training of hunters, Dungeon Breaks have become a rare occurrence.
With satellite cameras constantly monitoring the dungeons that appear all over the world, it’s hard for them to go unnoticed.
But there are always exceptions.
On a cliff in the Kumgang Mountains, so high and rugged that even wild animals don’t venture there, a dungeon appeared where satellite cameras couldn’t reach.
The dungeon there had begun to collapse.
Fortunately, there were no cities nearby, so the evacuation was minimal.
Unfortunately, the difficulty level of this dungeon was significant.
According to the Hunter Association’s estimates, it was a disaster-level dungeon capable of destroying an entire country.
Not only were all the prominent guilds in Korea mobilized, but renowned guilds and rankers from abroad were also invited.
Naturally, the Jinryong Guild was also summoned. While the Jinryong Guild is originally one entity, it’s currently divided into several factions led by various successors.
Including Jin Seo-yeon, there are four factions in total.
Although the government was well aware of this, they had no choice but to summon Jin Seo-yeon, who is a ranker and a Fireballer.
And Jin Seo-yeon requested help from Hyun Suho.
As Hyun Suho arrived at the camp near the Kumgang Mountains, Jin Seo-yeon personally came out to greet him.
"Suho...?"
Jin Seo-yeon tilted her head as she looked at Hyun Suho.
"Yes, it’s me."
"Why the mask?"
Hyun Suho was currently wearing a black mask over his face.
It was Nova’s suggestion.
Nova thought it would be troublesome if people found out that he had an EX-rank profession.
Although Nova could hack and change the information on the terminal, there might be people who remembered him from his days as a porter.
Realizing this, Jin Seo-yeon didn’t find the mask strange any longer.
"Thank you for coming."
"Thank you? I’m getting paid quite handsomely for this."
He had come here as a mercenary.
He was being paid a whopping 300 million won just for fighting for a day. A Dungeon Break is a kind of quest too. Depending on the contribution, he could receive substantial rewards. Who would turn down an opportunity to earn both money and rewards?
"There are a lot of people here."
There was still time before the Dungeon Break was expected. Many hunters had gathered at the camp set up by the government. A significant number of foreigners were present, likely those who had been invited. Unsurprisingly, the top rankers were not here. All the hunters present were state-level hunters with a power rating of 10. Hiring them required astronomical amounts of money. While dealing with the Dungeon Break was important, bankrupting the country’s economy wasn’t an option either.
"By the way, I heard Silver Knight is also coming out for this expedition today."
"Silver Knight?"
Silver Knight, Eun Hui-gwang. He was the same age as Hyun Suho, and they both had EX-rank professions. This was the first time he would appear in public after being nurtured under government supervision.
With a curious look in her eyes, Jin Seo-yeon gazed at Hyun Suho.
"All the EX-ranks in our country are gathering in one place."
