Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 195

There were ten men and seven women. In general, they looked human, but some of their features were different. There was a person with asymmetrical horns, a person with five eyes on each side, all of them of different sizes, and a person whose arm had turned into something like a crab’s claw. The one thing they had in common was that they were all clearly hostile to Ji-Cheok and the team.

One of them was holding a staff made of twisted tree branches, spreading protective shields over their heads.

Boom!

Tsss!

Their blue protective shield successfully blocked Ha-Na’s attack.

‘Wow…? Ha-Na’s meteor arrows are very powerful, but they stopped them! Is that Hunter specialized in defense?’

“Is that a bike? There’s a guy riding a bike in the dungeon!”

“Debuff him ASAP!”

Ji-Cheok heard them talking in bewilderment.

‘Hey, I would be as surprised as you guys if I saw a guy riding a bike and running wild in a dungeon.’

One Hunter that didn’t seem surprised, waved their staff that was covered with skulls and bones.

[You have been exposed to [Advanced Curse: Pain].]

[Your powerful Qi is resisting the curse.]

[You have successfully resisted the curse.]

‘That debuff is insane! But it’s nothing against my Qi! And you guys! Except for that one Hunter who tried to put a curse on me, you guys are so surprised that you’re not doing anything!’

Dudududu!

A barrage of bullets rained down on the ones who were hesitating. In an instant, many were injured by the bullets. Ji-Cheok also rushed toward them.

Shing!

Ji-Cheok let go of the handlebars and took out his swords. Thanks to his riding skills, he could ride the bike without his hands!

‘I’m gonna cut you all!’

Roar! Tssss!

He infused his Augmented Qi into his swords. In one of his hands, a fiery blade extended several meters, and in the other, an ice blade that radiated cold air balanced it out.

“What is that?!”

“That’s Sword Qi!”

Both the ones who were injured and the ones who weren’t screamed in surprise and fired their skills at him. Unfortunately, their skills were blocked by the bullets fired by Mu-Cheok and exploded mid-air. As he rushed through the smoke and swung his swords, the enemies reacted quite fast. There were some who turned into shadows to avoid the attack, some who fled with the light, and some who jumped up quickly. Many evaded his attack.

‘They’re higher level than I thought!’

Slash! Slash!

“ARGH!!”

However, those that had been punctured by the barrage of bullets earlier could not escape, and they were instantly cut into pieces. It was cruel, but he had to do it. They were enemies. Not just enemies, but Hunters that had accepted being turned into monsters!

Vroom!

While he was driving the Mono Bike G, Mu-Cheok kept shooting. But the ones that were alive were also pretty strong.

“O, Great Giant! I will crush the enemy with your power!”

“Flame King of Wrath! Please give me your strength!”

Some of them doubled in size and their muscles swelled up instantly, while others were engulfed in flames. They raised their weapons at Ji-Cheok while defending themselves from the bullets. They were indeed high-level Hunters!

Unexpectedly, a moment later, a new wave of beings charged into the fray to help him.

“Kiiaaak!”

They were the Half-Ghouls that had scattered into the forest! Dozens of the Half-Ghouls appeared and attacked the mutated Hunters. In total, there had to be hundreds of monsters that Reable had scattered in all directions.

“Undead?!”

“Do not pay attention to the Ghouls! Just kill the—ARGH!”

A mana bullet fired by Mu-Cheok eventually succeeded in punching a hole through the head of the Hunter with a staff. He was the one who was shielding the others.

Paching!

The shields were finally broken. Then, a rain of arrows fell from the sky.

Boom!

Ha-Na’s arrows hit the ground and exploded spectacularly. In the meantime, Reable’s army of the Undead rushed at them without even thinking about their own lives.

‘Wow… That looks spectacular…’

The explosion of a single arrow covered a radius of several meters, and those arrows just kept raining down! Ji-Cheok’s eyes widened as he witnessed the carpet bombing once more.

A few moments later, the bombing was over. Ji-Cheok stopped his bike and looked at the scorched ground. Only one of the corrupted Hunters had survived, and he was missing an arm.

“Keuk… You fuckers… Which agency are you from…”

?Master, you should not give out information.?

Ji-Cheok agreed with Cheok-Liang. It didn’t make sense to give out their information to the enemy, even though they were about to die.

“It would have been less painful for you if you had just let us kill you… Your future will be—”

Boom!

The Hunter’s head exploded like a watermelon. Ha-Na had shot an arrow with her sniper skill to kill the last Hunter.

‘Wow… That’s scary.’

Ji-Cheok immediately looked away. Living as a Hunter meant that he had to get used to these things anyway. The glamorous appearance that people saw was only a small part of a Hunter’s life.

“Mu-Cheok, how was it? Did you level up?”

Ji-Cheok turned his gaze to his younger brother. Mu-Cheok, who was sitting behind him, was putting his guns back in their holsters.

“I did. This place is no joke. Everyone leveled up ”

“What’s your level right now?”

“I’m already at 72.”

“That’s crazy…”

‘Can he reach level 80 in this place?’

“If I leveled up this fast, it means that the level gap between us and the enemy must be at least 20…” Mu-Cheok said.

“Wait, that means those [Twisted and Mutated Entities] have to be around level 90! They seemed pretty weak for that, honestly.”

“It just shows how strong our team is. Especially you, hyung. You said that you have four times more Qi than before, and it’s stronger too. I was shocked when I saw that earlier. What the hell was that frightening Sword Qi?”

“It’s possible because I have a lot of Qi. It’s nothing special. Anyone can use it if they use tons of Qi. It’s just that not everyone does it because they don’t want to waste their Mana or Qi.”

‘That’s right. My Qi is overflowing at the moment. Call me the fresh prince of Qi!’

“You’re crazy… Really…”

Mu-Cheok was looking at his older brother as if he was insane.

‘Where is the respect? You should respect your elders if you see them doing something great! Anyway…’

While they were having a small talk, Ji-Cheok got off the bike and checked out the corpse of a [Twisted and Mutated Entity].

[Madre Duanche]

[Age: 38

Gender: Male

Level: 89

Race: [Twisted and Mutated Entity]

Occupation: Forest Warrior

He is the warrior of the forest. He becomes even more powerful in the forest.

However, he has now become a mutant due to the Fragment of the Twisted God. As his race has changed, he has acquired additional attributes and abilities.

Attribute: Since he has become a monster in the [Forest of the Twisted God], he cannot leave the dungeon except during a Dungeon Break.

Attribute: Regeneration

Attribute: Recovery by Eating]

There was a slightly more detailed description than the one Ji-Cheok had heard from Ji-Han. However, it didn’t include any of the important parts that he wanted to see.

‘I thought there would be a description about being ‘brainwashed’ or something about ‘affecting the mind’, but I couldn’t find it. So this means that they attacked us of their own will… Have they been corrupted by living in a place like this for so long? Or maybe they were villains long before they were mutated? What is Recovery by Eating, anyway?’

[Recovery by Eating]

[Class: Rare

After eating something, the recovery rate increases dramatically. (Including humans)]

‘That’s some fucked-up attribute… Well, if they’re eating people, they’re already fucked up…”

“Did you find anything?”

“There’s nothing really different from what we learned during the briefing, but…”

Ji-Cheok picked up the weapon dropped by the man named Madre Duanche. It was an axe, with a handle that appeared more like natural wood rather than processed wood or some artificial material.

[Axe of the Forest Guardian]

[Class: B

Type: Weapon (Artifact)

An axe of mysterious power bestowed by the forest to those who protect it. The user’s ability increases when used in the forest.

Function: Increases all stats by 25% when equipped in a specific location. (Forest)

Function: Recovers 100 Stamina per second when equipped in a specific location. (Forest)]

‘Oh… That effect is a bit different from other recovery abilities! The ability to continuously regenerate 100 Stamina per second is definitely a powerful one. That means minor wounds would be healed instantly. Of course, the Troll’s Ring of Regeneration also heals minor wounds, but that regeneration power consumes blood. Even I can only use it because I’m wearing another item that regenerates my blood faster. If not, I might get anemia while healing my wounds.’

In addition to the axe, there were several other items, all of which were very precious. As Ji-Cheok was checking those out, his team members came down from the cliff.

“Ji-Cheok~ How is it?”

Even though Ha-Na’s question was out of context, since they were on the same team, Ji-Cheok understood her perfectly.

“To start, they’re all high-level Hunters. Their levels were in the mid to late 80s. And all of their equipment was expensive. If you add them all together, I think it would be over one hundred billion won.”

“Holy cow!”

When it came to earning money, everyone in Ji-Cheok’s team, including himself, yielded to no Hunters. However, even though Hunters always spent their wealth on upgrading their equipment, it was not common for them to earn billions of won in one go. That was why they were all surprised. Even for B-rank items, the price ranged from a few hundred million won on the cheaper side to tens of billions for expensive ones. And there were several items here in that expensive price range.

“Did you talk to any of them? Ji-Han asked.

“Nope. That guy was talking about something and then died. He said something about how it would have been less painful for us if we had been killed by them. He stopped talking after that.”

Ji-Cheok’s answer made everyone turn pensive.

“Then let’s get going. Hunter Um Ji-Cheok, please store all items in your Shadow Pouch. If necessary, we will take them out and use them.”

“Alright.”

Ji-Cheok opened his shadows and put the items in. He was thinking about putting the corpses in, but in the end, he decided not to.

“We will aim for the rocky mountain.”

Nobody disagreed with Ji-Han.

* * *

The Fortress of the Rocky Mountain was visible from the top of the trees. It looked far away, and the rocky mountain itself looked quite high, maybe four or five hundred meters tall.

It would have taken ordinary people at least a few hours of walking to get to the mountain, but they were all superhuman. It didn’t take them that long to reach it.

The problem was the monsters. Thanks to the four-day-long hunt, the sheer number of monsters was no longer an issue, but still, small groups of monsters appeared and slowed them down. It took them longer than they thought, but eventually, they got to the bottom of the rocky mountain.

“What the…”

As they got closer to the rocky mountain, Ji-Cheok realized that the mountain was larger and wider than he had thought. It was about half the size of Bukhansan in Seoul. It was indeed about five hundred meters tall, but to Ji-Cheok, it seemed like he had to hike several times to reach the fortress on the top of the mountain.

There were also barricades put in place all over the rocky mountain. There were plenty of improvised palisades made of wood, with skulls hanging from them. It felt like those structures would attack those who were trying to climb the mountain. Ji-Han definitely had his reasons to come here, but that did nothing to change the fact that the mountain looked rather menacing.

1. Bukhansan is a mountain on the northern periphery of Seoul, with three main peaks around 800m in altitude

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