Levelling Up In An Exclusive Dungeon - Chapter 2

Kang Jinhyuk closed his attic door and proceeded to his living room.

He sat in a chair and looked like he was deep in his thoughts.

Anyway, it’s impossible to know why or how a dungeon randomly appeared in his attic.

The matter that he was thinking about now was ‘how do I deal with this labyrinth?’ 

The most realistic and safe move was to report this matter to the Association.

But there’s no way Kang Jinhyuk would choose to do that.

According to the manual, that decision would obviously be the best.

But that was a matter of the association’s policies.

And it was the worst thing to do if Kang Jinhyuk was to take into consideration his own interests.

“If the association finds out the truth, I’d be kicked out right away.”

Although monsters always existed in this world, the matter of ‘dungeons’ was new and had never been discovered.

If the association finds out about the dungeon, they’d order an investigation immediately.

The investigation would be launched with only the elite hunters dispatched by the association, and Kang JInhyuk, a D-rank hunter, would be banned from accessing it.

Kang Jinhyuk would receive only a few rewards in return.

“Do they think I’m crazy that I’ll just give this up like nothing?”

Even though it’s a house that he rents monthly with his wage, this place was Jinhyuk’s home and that attic is his property as well.

However, there’s a way that he can prevent that from happening.

Kang Jinhyuk remembered today’s events with the Titans.

They didn’t spare even a single monster, and those people in the association belong in the same category as them. 

The association is responsible for this since they were the ones who neglected the tyranny of the large guilds.

He’s going to turn over the dungeon to such people?

Just imagining it made his blood boil.

If it’s possible, Kang Jinhyuk wanted to make the dungeon exclusively for himself.

However, for that to happen, he has to verify something first.

“Those monsters…. They’re unable to cross over here, right?”

The goblin doesn’t recognize the attic environment at all.

However, just because the goblin doesn’t recognize it doesn’t mean it can’t cross over.

Kang Jinhyuk had no choice but to check with his own body.

He grabbed his baseball bat and entered the attic again.

“It’s going to be a big problem if I’m able to cross…”

Kang Jinhyuk’s hunter rank was only D-rank.

His limit was only 2-3 monsters that he can take head on.

As soon as his limit is reached, it’s going to be a big problem for him if monsters were to come out of the attic.

“Please, please.”

Jinhyuk prayed earnestly in his heart as he entered the attic.

When his body completely entered the dungeon, an alarm rang in his head.

[You’ve entered the dungeon.]

[Current Location: Floor 1 – Goblin’s Labyrinth]

A message appeared in front of Jinhyuk. He expected this.

As expected, this place was a dungeon.

“Screech?”

While Jinhyuk read the notification, a goblin inside the labyrinth started approaching him.

He realized it when he heard the goblin screech.

“Screech!”

When the goblin rushed towards him while waving a stone axe, Jinhyuk ran away.

He can take on a single goblin by himself, but he had something to confirm first right away.

Kang Jinhyuk hurriedly exited the dungeon and arrived back to his attic, which left the goblin puzzled.

Then, the goblin stood on the boundary between the attic and the dungeon and waved his stone axe.

The place which the goblin hit made a sound as if there was a transparent wall.

“Not only can the goblin not see through, he can’t come here as well.”

His face brightened when he saw this.

Now that he confirmed that it was safe, there’s only one thing left for him to do.

Kang Jinhyuk swung his bat at the goblin immediately right when he reentered the dungeon.

“Screeeech!”

The goblin, hit hard by the aluminum bat, screamed and collapsed.

It seems like Kang Jinhyuk wanted to make a porridge out of the goblin since he hit his head over and over.

“Screech!! Screech!”

After a few moments, the goblin who screamed on and on was completely beaten.

At the same time, Jinhyuk felt his strength rising.

[Level Up]

As he levelled up from Level 3 to Level 4, Kang Jinhyuk felt touched.

It was his first time eliminating an enemy since he became a hunter.

He shouldered the burden alone.

Only by himself.

He hunted the monster without worrying about his set limit.

“Grrrr….”

Kang Jinhyuk couldn’t suppress the laugh that formed inside him.

It’s been three years.

He stayed in Level 3 for three years, but just catching one goblin like this made him level up immediately.

Jinhyuk realized just how ridiculous the large guilds were.

“Those b***h-a** bastards. They don’t have an ounce of conscience in them.”

Right now, he could acquire 30 million won just by catching this goblin alone.

Large guilds dominated these kinds of monsters all the time, so they must have earned a lot of profits.

“It’s because these guilds monopolized the monsters that their reward is so expensive now. Fxxk them.”

Monster’s corpses are expensive, so equipment and items used to hunt them are naturally sold at high prices as well.

Hunters below C-rank, who lack money and capital, are in a continuous trap of becoming poorer.

Jinhyuk grew angrier and angrier as he thought of the crimes of these large guilds.

Just this morning, he felt helpless and couldn’t do anything, but it’s different now.

An opportunity, in the form of this ‘dungeon’, came to him.

As long as such natural luck comes to him, he has no more reason to be heartbroken or resentful.

If he had any complaints, he could just hunt monsters and become stronger.

However, it’s not possible to do so immediately.

An alarm in his handphone rang, informing him that it’s almost time for his next part-time job.

“Ah…”

Kang Jinhyuk felt like he wanted to abandon his part-time job and just hunt here instead.

But he knew that he would cause a big nuisance if he quit his job without giving prior notice.

Since the kind-hearted Jinhyuk didn’t want to be a burden to other people, he left the dungeon and went to work for the last time today.

* * *

After finishing his last shift at his job, Kang Jinhyuk visited the Association’s trade market.

Even though it’s already night, the trade market was quite crowded.

Hunters were selling their loot and buying items for their next hunt.

Since the market has a lot of customers, the number of employees here was not small as well.

“Come in, come in! What’s your business here today?”

“I’m here to sell a monster corpse…”

“Get a queuing number and wait, I’ll evaluate it as soon as it’s your turn.”

Kang Jinhyuk followed the worker’s order and took a numbered tag from a machine near the entrance.

Considering the large number of people in the market, the queue wasn’t that long.

Only three people were in front of Kang Jinhyuk.

After 10 minutes, his turn finally came. 

“What are you selling here?”

The appraiser that welcomed Jinhyuk looked like a middle-aged man with a lot of experience.

Instead of just answering, Jinhyuk took out the monster’s corpse from his inventory and placed it on the table.

“Uhmm, one goblin…”

This was a very uncommon material here, even in a place where numerous hunters gathered.

The appraiser looked through the corpse presented by Jinhyuk and looked disappointed.

“I see you don’t have a lot of hunting experience.”

“What? How could you know…”

“It’s obvious from the way that the bones are almost powdered.”

The goblin arm picked up by the appraiser hung like a sobbing mollusk.

“If you catch them like this, their value falls by a lot. Next time, it’s better if you just aim for their vital point.

He spoke in a harsh tone with no courtesy to the customer, but his words itself were good experience-based advice.

The appraiser finished twice as fast as the other ones, and he gave his appraisal to the goblin.

“For this corpse, I can’t give you more than 3.2 million won.”

It was a low price, with only 200,000 increase from the minimum.

But Jinhyuk accepted the result with no hesitation.

It’s understandable because of the damaged intestines, useless bones from severe fractures, and others.

All the points that the appraiser raised were reasonable.

“I’ll sell it at that price.”

“Good. All that’s left to do is for you to tell me where you caught this monster, and then I’ll confirm and deposit it for you.”

“W-where I caught the monster? Do I really have to tell you that?”

“I know it’s a bit troublesome, but it’s the law so you have to comply.”

Kang Jinhyuk is placed in a dilemma because he can’t just reveal that he caught the goblin in the dungeon.

‘Should I say that I caught it in the Olympic Park?’

It’s a reasonable excuse to say that a monster escaped while the Titans were off guard.

However, he couldn’t put that idea into practice.

When he turned his head in the direction of the crowd, he saw a group of hunters entering the store.

“What’s that?”

Seeing that they wore a similar design of the Titan’s uniform, it was clear that they were hunters from some guild.

At the sight of those hunters, the appraiser hit his forehead and sighed.

“I see you’ve come.”

Looking at the appraiser’s reaction and the hunters’ harsh expressions, it seems like they never came here for a good purpose.

And that hunch was completely right.

A hunter skipped right to the front, right beside Jinhyhuk.

“Oh?”

Even before asking the reason why Jinhyuk was here, the hunter grabbed his back.

“Is it you?”

“W-what?”

“Are you the one who caught a monster in our hunting territory?”

Kang Jinhyuk was flustered and couldn’t give a proper answer.

He was about to say that he caught this monster in Titan’s territory, so he felt like he was stabbed in the head.

Fortunately, the appraiser defended Jinhyuk, who still couldn’t open his mouth.

“He’s not the guy you’re looking for.”

“So which one is it?”

“It’s the blonde guy chatting around over there.”

A man laughing and trembling, without even noticing that the store had gone noisy, was seen in the direction where the appraiser pointed.

The man holding Kang Jinhyuk’s neck let go immediately and headed towards the blonde guy.

And then, he flipped the man’s shoulder and faced the guy towards him.

“Ahk!”

The blonde was hit by a flying fist to his face and passed out.

He couldn’t even get up as another man had kicked him.

“Ahk! Cough!”

When I saw the assault take place, the colleague who was just talking to the blonde man came towards us suddenly.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Shut up if you don’t want to die.”

“What?”

The blonde man’s colleague was about to rush in.

However, the guild members approached much faster than he could.

“This man hunted monsters in our guild’s area without permission.”

“If you don’t want to end up like him, stay in your lane.”

When the guild hunters spoke with their fierce eyes, the blonde man’s colleague took a step back.

The scene of assault at the store ended only when the beaten man could barely catch his breath.

They stopped hitting him when they saw that he might die with another hit.

It’s because of this vicious event that he can’t just open his mouth.

The hunter grabbed the blonde’s hair and forced him to raise his face.

“Hey, were you walking around in our territory? Perhaps you’re eyeing to kill us?”

“W-what nonsense is that…”

The blonde tried to say that the hunter was mistaken, but the hunter hit his head before he could say anything.

“You could’ve been the crazy killer that’s running around these days. Let’s patrol around and investigate for a bit. Sounds good?”

The hunter asked the blonde man, who couldn’t even speak as he had already fainted.

Then, they finally left the store and abandoned the blonde man who couldn’t even talk properly.

After the hunters from the guild left, the whole store erupted with a sigh of relief. 

The appraiser, who witnessed the whole scene, clicked his tongue.

“They just rip off the money and leave calmly. They even go after things as ridiculous as this.”

The appraiser gave Jinhyuk some advice.

“If you don’t want to end up like that man, don’t even think of hunting on those guilds’ territory.”

“…”

Kang Jinhyuk was speechless.

It doesn’t make sense that they monopolize the country, but how could they beat up a person so mercilessly just because he caught a monster in their area?

Kang Jinhyuk felt chills in his spine.

Even a guild that’s not as famous as the TItans can do such a thing.

What more if the Titans hear that he crossed their territory to hunt a monster?

Maybe his legs wouldn’t even be left intact by those bastards.

“How did that guild know where to find the blonde man?”

“What do you think? All guilds of a certain size have access to our servers.”

“Did that man who got beaten up say where he caught the monster?”

“If you get caught lying about where you caught the monster, your Hunter’s License will be confiscated for the rest of your life. We don’t really have much of a choice.”

The more he learned about them, the more he realized that those guilds have so much advantage over the ordinary hunters.

Kang Jinhyuk felt ridiculous and just returned the goblin to his inventory.

“I don’t want to sell it anymore.”

“Huh? You’re leaving without selling that one?”

“Yes. I changed my mind…”

It was the best decision because he couldn’t afford to honestly reveal where he hunted this monster.

He had to leave while the other hunters’ attention were focused somewhere else.

Just like that, Kang Jinhyuk left the store and ran away.

‘F**k it! F**k!’

Jinhyuk burst into anger on his way home.

He’s just doing his job as a hunter, yet he ran away feeling like a sinner.

Kang Jinhyuk thought that all of this was because he lacked power.

He needed more power and strength to live the life that he wants without worrying about those large guilds.

“We’ll see, you dirty bastards.”

Kang Jinhyuk had his own dungeon.

As long as the dungeon was with him, he could train and be as strong as he wanted.

All he needed now was time.