Solo Leveling - Chapter 44

Chapter 44

I Alone Level-up: Chapter 44

An eye watering smoke filled the room .

“cough, cough . ”

Yoo Jinho covered his face with a hand and coughed, but he was more worried about Jinwoo than himself .  The lizardmen magician’s attack was dangerous, and his hyung appeared to have caught the brunt of it . Fortunately, Jinwoo appeared from the smoke, looking unharmed .  Yoo Jinho was amazed,

‘Sasuga hyungnim!’

They say the lizardmen were one of the toughest magic beasts to face in a C-rank Dungeon, but Jinwoo had skillfully dodged a lizardmen magician’s attack without having a hair on him harmed .  Somehow, it felt like the man was becoming faster everyday .

‘ . . . It can’t be, right?’

Jinwoo spat out small bits of rocks from his mouth .

“spit . ”

The spit on the ground was black .

‘These bastards…’

A mere lizardmen using paltry tricks forced him to breathe in some smoke .  Jinwoo was annoyed by this, and it showed on his face .

His wide open eyes radiated a powerful, murderous rage .

The lizardmen hit with the bloodlust panicked .

“Ssuwack?” [1]

“Ssurukka?”

Jinwoo took advantage of the chaos and threw Casaka’s Poisoned Fang .  The dagger flew in a straight line, right into the forehead of one of the lizard spearmen .

stab!

In their debuffed state, Jinwoo’s dagger was too fast to avoid .

“Ssukwa!”

Watching his comrade fall, the other lizard spearman roared with anger and thrust his spear .  But his weapon struck nothing but air . Jinwoo had already disappeared into thin air .

“Ssurukahnakka!”

The lizardmen magician shouted with panic .

“Ssurukahnakka!!!”

As the magician repeated his words to the spearman, the warrior lizard turned to the magician and let out a beastly roar .

“Ssuukwa!”

The spearmen bared his teeth and approached the magician .  The magician did not lose in fighting spirit .

“Sswarik!”

Suddenly .

“Kak!”

A hole appeared in the spearman’s chest .  The blood spilled all over the magician, who took a step back in surprise .

“Ssuwak?”

shoooo-

As ‘Stealth’ was released, the spear that had pierced the lizard spearman’s chest showed its form .  The hands wielding it belonged to Jinwoo . He let go of the weapon, and both it and the corpse stuck to it dropped to the ground .

thud

While the body fell, Jinwoo resummoned Casaka’s Poisoned Fang from the other corpse’s forehead back into his hand .

“Ssuwaaaaaarik!”

The lizardmen magician’s hands collected fire again .  Jinwoo had no intentions of letting the thing annoy him again .

‘Sprint!’

The distance between him and the lizard shrank in an instant .  The lizard magician’s eyes widened . Its reptilian eyes were rather unpleasant .

flaaare-

Jinwoo easily dodged its flames and appeared behind the magician’s back .  Before the lizardman realized what happened, Casaka’s Poisoned Fang was sticking out of its spine .

‘Vital Stab!’

Stab!

The magician screamed .

“Kiaaaaaak!”

The second time it was stabbed, the scream was a lot shorter .

Stab!

“Kak!”

The lizardmen magician threw up blood and fell .

thud

In his head, Jinwoo pumped his fists .  It was a clean fight .

‘Alrighty!’

As if congratulating him, the System’s electronic tone rang .

ring~

A familiar message and an unfamiliar one .

‘A “milestone level”?’

At this point, Jinwoo had no idea what this meant .  But reading the messages that followed, Jinwoo’s heartbeat raced to the point it was almost hurting .  He had to spend some mental effort to try and calm himself .

ring~

‘Class… Class Advancement Quest?’

Up until now, he had focused on his levels and stats and did not give much thought to a certain part of his status screen .

The third line of his status screen, “Class” .

‘If there is such a thing as Class Advancement Quest…’

Instead of “none”, it would finally be the opportunity to place a different word there .

He would obtain a class .

In most video games, the player character had a lot of choices in choosing their class .  The System that operated like a video game should be the same .

BA DUM BA DUM

His heartbeat was roaring .  In the face of another opportunity to become stronger, he could not calm himself .

The “(Y/N)” kept blinking in front of his eyes .

‘Of course it’s yes…’

What kind of an idiot would throw this chance away? Jinwoo prepared to accept the quest, but stopped instinctively .  

‘Wait . ’

There was no knowing what kind of a quest he would receive .  The instinctive hesitation was followed by a feeling of caution .

‘We’re inside a Dungeon right now . ’

They were in the most dangerous place in the world right now .  Even if he had gotten used to the C-rank Dungeons, a Dungeon was a Dungeon .  There was no need to ignorantly invite danger here .

On top of that, Yoo Jinho was also here .  It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the young man .  But there was no need to clue him in on the System or show him a strange phenomenon that may appear when he accepted the quest .  Things might get complicated if he did .

‘Also, the quest might result in Jinho becoming hurt . ’

What if the quest suddenly spawned monsters?

‘Well, just that would be fine . ’

He just had to take them down as fast as possible .  But from his experience, a mere monster hunting was not the limit of the quests .  For example, the 2 emergency quests he had to complete .

‘This quest might tell me to kill the nearest Hunter next to me . ’

It was a faint possibility, probably not a realistic one, but Jinwoo was not about to risk it .  While he was lost in thought, Yoo Jinho ran up to him .

“Hyungnim!”

It looked like the lizardmen magician’s last attack landed near the young man, his face was covered with soot and dust .

“I just saw you disappear and reappear! You had a skill like that?”

Despite of his dirtied face, Yoo Jinho’s eyes were sparkling with awe .  It seemed that the young man was fascinated by seeing the rare skill .

‘I’m more fascinated by your face right now . ’

Instead of replying, Jinwoo took out a handkerchief from his inventory; it was one of the random items received from a daily quest .

“H-hyungnim?”

Jinwoo roughly wiped Yoo Jinho’s face with the handkerchief .

“Oof, mmph!”

The clean, white handkerchief quickly turned black .  Jinwoo handed the item to Yoo Jinho . The young man looked at the dirty cloth and realized what his face was like .  He walked away and quietly cleaned his face .

“Jinho . ”

“Yes, hyungnim . ”

“Something came up . ”

Yoo Jinho turned his face towards him with surprising alacrity .

“Do you have to go?”

“After finishing up here . ”

“I understand . I’ll cancel the reservation on the remaining Gates . ”

Yoo Jinho did not want to show Jinwoo his disappointment, but he deeply regretted the fact that they would have to give-up on the remaining 3 Gates .

‘I’m starting to run out of funds…’

To the young man who did not particularly have a source of income, the “funds” for his plan came from the allowance that he had saved up until now .  Because he was acting without his father’s knowledge, he could not easily access the family’s money in his plan . If he cancelled the reservations, he would not be able to get the fees back .  It would be money down the drain . Because of the unusual method in their Raiding, he had to spend a lot more than he had budgeted for . To think that he would be wasting the reservation fees for today… Yoo Jinho’s shoulders sunk .

But Jinwoo replied with a calm expression,

“Why would you cancel it? It’s so wasteful . ”

Yoo Jinho tilted his head in confusion .

“Hmm? If we reserve a Gate and not enter it in two days, the raiding rights are automatically forfeited, hyungnim . ”

Of course Jinwoo knew this basic fact of hunting .

“Leave it to me . ”

Did he have a plan?

Yoo Jinho was curious .  At the same time, he felt strangely proud of his reliable hyung .

Baekho Guild Headquarters .

“Chief Ahn! Is your head on straight?!”

A loud berating was heard from the Second Management Division office .  The owner of the voice was Baek Yoonho . He was Baekho’s Guildmaster, and the one who acted as the organization’s president .  As often is the case, when someone who was basically the head of a company came down to a lower floor, it was not a good thing .

“What do you mean we still don’t have a Gate for new recruit training? We’ve already pushed the training back four days!”

The employees of the Second Management Division could not raise their eyes .  They all looked away, hoping to avoid the Guildmaster’s wrath . In front of Baek Yoonho, Ahn Sangmin was receiving the verbal abuse with his head lowered .

“ . . . ”

Unlike his subordinate Hyun Gicheol, Ahn Sangmin did not have the ability to skillfully steer the conversation to calm the wrath of the other person .  In times like these, his best response was just to endure it with a closed mouth . Ignoring the man’s feelings, Baek Yoonho angrily waved the division’s report that had found its way to his desk this morning .

“What kind of an excuse is this?! Some other team was bidding too high, so we couldn’t reserve any? Is our Guild lacking funds? Is the other team some chaebol’s son?!”

Ahn Sangmin really, really, really wanted to speak up at that last sentence .  But the man held his silence with an iron will . He remembered the promise with Jinwoo .

‘If I open my mouth now, the topic will naturally change to Yoo Jinho and Sung Jinwoo . ’

Not knowing just how much Ahn Sangmin’s insides were in turmoil, Baek Yoonho continued his shouting .  The S-ranker’s roaring voice was enough to almost chase away the entire room .

“I don’t care if it’s one hundred or two hundred million, reserve a damn Gate! Do you understand?!”

It was in that moment .

Ahn Sangmin’s phone rang .

[Sorry I couldn’t pick up earlier~ I was meeting my friends~ shy shy shy~] [4]

He glanced at the caller and opened his eyes wide in surprise .

“Guildmaster, I have to pick this up . ”

“ . . . ”

Timing was the key to the main purpose of the Second Management Division: new recruit scouting .  Ahn Sangmin was the boss of that division . No matter what kind of a mistake the man had made, it would be the height of foolishness to not let him do his job .

“Well? Pick it up . ”

Baek Yoonho gave a blunt permission .

Ahn Sangmin apologetically bowed his head to the Guildmaster then answered the phone .

“Hello, this is Baekho Guild’s Ahn Sangmin . ”

Baek Yoonho watched the man with his arms crossed .

“Yes, yes . I understand . I’ll come right over, please wait right there . ”

After hanging up, Ahn Sangmin immediately spoke up .

“Guildmaster, I have to leave on an urgent business . ”

The ace of the Second Management Division .  If that Ahn Sangmin spoke of an “urgent business”, even in this situation where he was being berated… Baek Yoonho’s face relaxed ever so slightly .  

“Is it related to new recruit scouting?”

“Yes, sir . ”

Looking at the man’s confident and determined face, Baek Yoonho realized something .

‘And the division chief himself is going?’

It meant that the target was not an ordinary Hunter .  Baek Yoonho’s face that was filled with rage suddenly showed a smile .

“How could I stop the recruitment specialist from doing his job? Don’t worry about here and go . Do your thing . ”

Translator’s Notes:

[1]: Random noises made by the lizardmen

[2]: “milestone level” (요구 레벨): “demanded/asked” 요구 + “level” in english . Contextually changed it up to a “milestone” instead .

[3]: “Class Advancement” (전직): I’ve mentioned this before, but the literal meaning is “to change jobs” . I’ve taken a translator’s liberty and changed “job” into “class” . No real impact on the story .

[4]: I took the translation directly from a kpop lyric translation website .  For those of you into k-pop, yes, Ahn Sangmin is a Once .

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