Solo Leveling - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I Alone Level-up: Chapter 11

The moment he spoke the words to accept the reward, a subtle blue glow covered his body .

‘Oh… this feeling is?’

Juhee’s face immediately appeared in his mind .  It was a similar sensation he felt when he received healing magic; the feeling was comparable to breathing in crisp, fresh air after being stuck in a muggy, stuffy room .

shooooo-

He felt the glow subside but had hoped it would last a little longer .

Standing up from his spot, Jinwoo stretched and moved his body around .

“Whoa!”

The heart that felt like it was about to explode had calmed down, and the shortness of his breath had also disappeared .  There was not a trace of exhaustion remaining . His body that was on the brink of collapse now felt like it had woken up from a good rest .  The effects were unbelievable .

‘This is amazing . ’

His eyes were open wide in wonder .  He wasn’t sure if it was magic or something else, but the powerful effect it had left a great impression on Jinwoo .

‘Then the “stat points” must be…’

Turning his head toward his bed, he saw a small box and a status screen before his eyes .

‘That must be the random box it was talking about, and…’

His attention was focused on the status screen .  The information box that hung in the air contained various data regarding his status .

He recalled the online RPGs he had played in the past; his stats were reminiscent of a freshly created character .

‘So these are my stats?’

Current level 1 .  All stats at a basic level .  

Faced again with the reality of being the weakest E-rank Hunter, his stat numbers did not surprise him .  Rather, his eyes were focused on his skills . The passive skills ‘Unyielding Spirit’ and active skill ‘Sprint’ .  They were strangely familiar to him .

‘Now that I think about it… Yesterday…’

Yesterday .  More accurately, the dawn of today .  He recalled the messages he received while being chased around by the centipedes in the Penalty Zone .  It was around the 3rd hour of running from the clutches of death .

He did not pay attention at the time, his entire mind focused on running, but now he was able to take a closer look .

‘So because I ran like a dog, I learned these two skills?’

The logic was sound .  This meant that repetitive actions that met certain criteria unlocked skills .

“Amazing!”

The merits of this were incalculable .  Normally, the repertoire of skills that Hunters used were received and fixed at the moment of their Awakening .  Only the rare Runestones[3] that sometimes dropped from A-rank or higher magic beasts could be used by a Hunter to learn a new skill .  This is why the price of Runestones ranged from hundreds of million to tens of billion won . He recalled a recent event of a Runestone being sold at an auction for the price of 70 billion won .  It was a Runestone that taught a powerful healing magic that could completely restore an injured person, purchased by an anonymous foreign S-rank Healer-class Hunter who emptied his wallet for it .

Jinwoo’s heartbeat sped up .

A skill to increase his movement speed and a skill to reduce damage taken .

Not quite skills that would cost tens of billions of won, but they were still useful skills .  And he had earned such skills for free . Although it probably was difficult to make full use of “Sprint” with his low magic power, the fact that he had these skills now was amazing .

‘And the “Unyielding Spirit” doesn’t even take any mana…’

It seemed like “mana” was referring to “magic power” .  This meant that even his body that lacked magic power could take advantage of the “Unyielding Spirit” .  This alone was a great boon to Jinwoo .

‘However… What is this skill…’

“Unknown” that took up a line under his passive skills .  As a passive skill, it should be something that activated automatically, but its information screen did not reveal any details .

‘I have no clue what this is . ’

There was nothing he could find or figure out about this unknown skill .  Realizing his worries would get him nowhere, Jinwoo turned his attention to the other section of his status screen .

‘Stat points…’

The stat points he received as the reward for the Daily Quest remained undistributed .

‘So I can raise 3 points worth of stats?’

Five different attributes were under the stats section .  Being level 1, his points across the board were rather low .  But remembering all that he had experienced up until now, he could not carelessly distribute his points .  If the assignment of points truly enhanced his abilities, how could he make the decision lightly?

His expression hardened .

‘The meaning behind “Strength” is pretty clear…’

Strength, constitution, agility .  He grasped the meaning behind these attributes quite easily .  After all, they were some of the more straightforward ‘stats’ in video games .  The problems were the “Intelligence” and “Sense” stats . The curt and distant System revealed no additional details to Jinwoo .

Would he become smarter if he increased “Intelligence”?

Or more keen and sharper if he increased “Sense”?

Regardless, those two attributes did not seem particularly useful to him .  He was a Fighter-class Hunter . What he needed the most was strength, mobility and durability .

‘If I had to choose one, it’d be strength . ’

Increased strength would rather make a lot of things easier .  He was curious on what kind of change his body would undergo when he increased his stats .  As such, he selected the stat that would probably result in the most physical change in his body .

“3 points into strength . ”

ring~

‘Is… is that it?’

That was it .

All that changed was the number in front of “Strength” going from 10 to 13 .

In his mind, he had expected the recreation of the scene in movies or cartoons where the hero pulled forth an unknown power from within .

“Well, did anything change?”

Jinwoo decided to test out his strength .  He stood next to his bed and lifted it . He felt a slight resistance from the bed’s weight but was able to easily lift it off the ground .  Still, he was unable to tell whether this was due to the lightness of the bed or his increased strength .

‘Should’ve made a comparison before and after I used up the points . ’

As his points were already distributed, it was hard for him to distinguish the before and after of his changes .

‘If I just had few more points…’

Rolling his tongue in his mouth, Jinwoo suddenly remembered something:

“The reward from the Penalty Quest!”

He had remembered that it wasn’t just the Daily Quest he completed today .  Although he had almost died from it, he did complete the Penalty Quest and even remembered the reward message from it as well .  He quickly opened his message box .

“It’s there!”

He clenched his fists .

Of course, the answer is “Yes!”

Compared to the Daily Quest, there was no reward of status recovery, but what he needed now the most were stat points .  Initially worried that a Penalty Quest might give reduced rewards, Jinwoo was relieved to see that it still gave him 3 stat points .

He distributed the points in delight,

“Add 3 more points into strength!”

ring~

His strength had increased from 13 to 16 .  He went before his bed once more and used his arms .  Compared to before, the bed felt much lighter in his hands .  He was able to fully comprehend the difference this time .

“It’s true…!”

He really had become stronger .  By simple math, going from 10 to 16 points meant that his strength had increased by 60% .  The result was blatantly clear to him now . Unable to control his excitement, Jinwoo loudly went from corner to corner of his room, lifting every furniture that he could get his hands on .  He had to stop when a passing nurse peeked in and glared at him .

“…Sorry . ”

After she left, he sighed a breath of relief .

“Phew-“

But his excitement could not be abated .  His heart was beating vigorously .

ba dum ba dum

A Daily Quest and stat point rewards!

As long as this strange occurrence continued, his life would turn around completely going forward .  It was an incredible opportunity for him . On top of that, the “level” he saw under his status screen,

‘It should be possible for me to raise my level as well, right?’

He tilted his head .

‘Eh… probably not . ’

It was but a dream; he did not expect himself to go that far .  Just the daily rewards were good enough .

Using stat points to increase his attributes .

Yesterday then today, today then tomorrow, he would become stronger every day .

‘To think that I, an E-rank Hunter, the “Weakest Soldier”, could become strong?’

Forget the A-rankers and S-rankers, even his C-ranked and D-ranked comrades would laugh at him .

Sung Jinwoo becoming strong?

That weakling Sung Jinwoo?

But he did not care that he would be laughed at .  No, he was already used to it after all . He was just happy that this opportunity had arrived in his hands .

Then a question appeared in his mind,

‘Perhaps this is the process of a Second Awakening?’

It was a rare event, but there were cases where a Hunter at the bottom of the barrel shot up to first class through Reawakening .  Maybe all those Reawakened Hunters had gone through the same phenomenon that he was experiencing right now?

‘Let’s find out . ’

The now curious Jinwoo sat in front of a computer in the corner of his room .  As he was designated a special patient by the Association, the VIP room that he was placed in even had such luxuries for his use .

clack clack clack clack

His fingers moved quickly across the keyboard .

Search after search after search .

He went through dozens of websites, including sites only accessible by those with Hunter licenses .  Going as far as purchasing paid information, he gathered and went through as many documents he could find on Reawakening .

But nothing he found matched what he was experiencing now .

‘It’s different…’

His newfound powers were completely different from a Reawakening .

The Hunters that went through Reawakening underwent the same process as their first Awakening[4] .  No one mentioned hearing any voices on the verge of death or a video game like System that gave them stat points that increased their abilities .

Translator’s Notes:

[1]: “Unyielding Spirit” (근성; geun-sung): The word on its own just means someone’s disposition or natural spirit .  Contextual clues imply the “spirit” in this situation is one that would not give up even at 30% HP, so I chose to add the “unyielding” in front of it .  The skill description also goes as far as to say “You have an unyielding/untiring spirit . ”

[2]: “Sprint” (질주; jil-joo): Lit . “speeding” or “sprinting” .  Shortened to just “sprint” based on contextual clues .

[3]: “Runestones” (룬석; rune-suk): “Rune” in english + “stone” suk .  Pretty straightforward .

[4]: I just want to clarify this with information gathered from context throughout the story (not a spoiler) .  All Hunters go through their first Awakening, receiving some form of power . This power includes a combination of increases in physical ability, magic power and a list of skills .  What they get at their first Awakening does not change (except for new skills learned through Runestones) . A second Awakening (Reawakening) is exactly the same: An Awakened Being would receive power again which includes a combination of increased physical ability, magic power and new skills .  After Reawakening, same as before, a Hunter’s power does not change .

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