15 Chapter 14 (2/2)

However, what appeared instead was a bunch of green letters floating in the air like hologram projections, just like when he accessed his mailbox.

And there were only two words there, too.

'Buy' and 'Sell'.

”....”

What a simple-tastic Store this was.

Jin-Woo selected 'Buy'.

He didn't have a single cent in his pockets, but he was still curious about the stuff available within the Store.

Unfortunately for him, the Store turned out to be one cold customer.

[Your level is too low to access the 'Buy' function.]

He was already familiar with the cold-shoulder treatment from the places that required him to pay up, so this was fine.

”Sure, sure.”

Jin-Woo didn't think too much about it and shifted his gaze away to 'Sell'.

[Will you sell 'Item: The Canine of a Lycan'?]

”Yup.”

With the clinging sounds of coins, his Inventory appeared next. Right at the bottom of the display, in the column saying 'Gold', he could see the number 20 appearing there. That space had been empty yesterday.

'20 Gold, eh,'

He couldn't really use that 'money' in real life, and he couldn't even use the Store properly yet, so he had no idea just how much this 20 Gold was actually worth.

'Oh well. A creature from the rank E dungeon wouldn't have given me any decent loot, to begin with.'

Even if there was a difference between the dungeons found beyond the Gates and this so-called instant dungeon, it would be the same difference at the end of the day.

Still, Jin-Woo wanted to make sure, so he was about to collect the canine from the other dead Lycan, but he ended up doing a facepalm, instead.

”Ah. I blew away its entire head, didn't I....”

Jin-Woo felt bitter as he turned around to go somewhere else.

20 Gold and its unknown worth were calling back to him, but he couldn't waste time searching for a single canine that could've flown to pretty much anywhere under this dim lighting.

However, as soon as he turned around, the feelings of bitterness dissipated in an instant.

”Growl!!”

”Grrr....”

”Growl!!”

”Grrr!!!”

Well now, the Lycan he thought had ran way actually came back with a bunch of its friends!

A wonderfully bright smile bloomed on Jin-Woo's face. Even at a casual glance, there must be over 20 of them here.

”Eureka!!”

Hang on a minute, was that the right word to use in this sort of situation?

Whatever.

It was definitely a word to express one's joy, anyway.

Jin-Woo tightly grasped the sword and spoke up.

”With the exception of your canines, I'm gonna massacre all of you.”

When the chilling glare of a man who was obsessed about making money landed on the Lycans, they became intimidated and shuddered slightly.

It was at this point that Jin-Woo pounced on them without mercy.

***

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

As he expected, his levels rose up quite quickly.

Simply from searching every nook and cranny of the first floor and killing all the Lycans he could find, Jin-Woo's level shot right up to 7.

He had jumped up five flights of stairs, in other words.

”Whimper.....”

When he caught up and killed the very last monster running desperately away from him, a strange message popped up into his view.

Tti-ring.

[You have acquired the 'Title: Slaughterer of Wolves'.]

”A Title?”

[Title: Slaughterer of Wolves]

A Title given to a hunter skilled in hunting wolves. When facing animal-type monsters, all of your Stats will increase by 40%. (TL: the 'hunter' is a lower case here, because that's what's in the raw. The 'Hunters' until now had been written in English, actually.)

When he opened his Status Window to take a look, the 'Title' column indeed had been updated.

Name: Seong Jin-Woo

Level: 7

Class: None

Title: Slaughterer of Wolves

HP: 766

MP: 81

Tiredness: 3

[Stat]

Strength: 37

Stamina: 16

Agility: 16

Intelligence: 16

Perception: 16

(Available points to distribute: 0)

[Skills]

Passive skills:

- (Unknown) Lv. Max

- Tenacity Lv. 1

Active skills:

- Dash Lv. 1

A bonus boost to his stats when fighting against animal-type monsters....

Although the effect was a bit restricted, still, having his Stats increase by 40%, now that didn't sound too bad at all.

'There are plenty of animal-type monsters out there, so would this apply to them as well?' (TL: the author had been using the Hanja word for monsters to describe those found in the Gate's dungeons until now, but the creatures found in the instant dungeon are written in the English word, 'monster'. That's why we get this line.)

If that was the case, then he'd be able to easily kill monsters when participating in the future raids.

However, he still earned big time even when disregarding his new Title.

'34 wolf canines, two rusted daggers, a set of traveller's clothes, and one return crystal.'

While killing these wolves, he learned that he could sometimes find loot from their bellies. Of course, none of them was all that useful.

The rusted daggers possessed lower attack power bonus compared to the sword he'd been using until now, and the traveller's clothes were not something he could actually wear, but just some random japtem (ED: 'Vendor Trash', essentially.) that he could hawk off to the Store.

When he sold them all off, he earned just over a thousand Gold.

[Current Gold: 1,060]

'….Even then, I can't really celebrate, can I?'

Well, no matter how much he hoarded this Gold thing, he couldn't use them anyways. At least not for now.

The only thing remaining, besides the Gold, was the return crystal. When he was trying desperately to escape from the dungeon back then, the message said he'd need a return crystal if he wanted to leave. And now, if he wanted to, he could escape at any time.

He found himself on a crossroads.

In front, the stairs leading down to the second floor.

And in his hand, a single return crystal grasped tightly.

'Do I continue on, or do I back out....?'

If it was in the past, he'd not hesitate and choose the latter. That was how he managed to survive all those raids with his pathetic Stats. Everyone said that him surviving until now was a miracle, but well, he was trying to be smart about his choices, actually.

However, the story was different now.

He didn't want to retreat here.

He felt that, if he turned away to leave now, then he'd never be able to take another step forward in his life.

”I've retreated enough times already, right?”

Wouldn't it be okay for him to jump in headlong, at least once in his life?

Jin-Woo pocketed the return crystal. His steps climbing down the steps to the 2nd floor was light.