Levelling Up In An Exclusive Dungeon

Chapter 25

The assailant had never expected his surprise attack to fail.

It was fortunate that he had covered his face with a mask.

If his face had been exposed, Kang Jin-hyuk would have clearly seen his expression filled with embarrassment.

‘Damn it!’

The assailant’s dagger was heavily coated with a highly concentrated paralysis potion.

Its potency was enough to instantly paralyze even an elephant with a single small syringe.

If even a small scratch were to occur and the potion were to enter the skin, it would be the end.

However, no matter how threatening a weapon was, it was meaningless if it didn’t hit its target.

“Who the hell are you?!”

Kang Jin-hyuk, who had dodged the assailant’s dagger with swift movements, reached out to remove the opponent’s mask.

However, the assailant, who had anticipated Kang Jin-hyuk’s actions, retreated a step ahead and cast the Camouflage Skill again.

Kang Jin-hyuk was confused as the person disappeared and reappeared before his eyes as if he were watching a magic show.

He didn’t even know the opponent’s purpose or reason.

There were a few things he could roughly guess, but unless he heard it directly from the person involved, it was just speculation.

Kang Jin-hyuk looked around, channeling an aura created using Holy Power throughout his body.

‘He’s still nearby.’

He could faintly hear footsteps.

He couldn’t pinpoint the exact location because the assailant was maintaining a precarious distance.

‘This is only disadvantageous for me.’

The enemy could clearly see where he was and what he was doing, but he couldn’t see the opponent at all.

If this situation continued, he might reveal a weakness and eventually allow a surprise attack.

Kang Jin-hyuk, who was contemplating a solution, soon started running with all his might.

The assailant, who was hiding, thought Kang Jin-hyuk was trying to escape when he suddenly started running.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

The assailant had no intention of letting Kang Jin-hyuk go.

He was determined not to give up until he had snatched the new type of monster’s corpse that Kang Jin-hyuk possessed.

The assailant, who was chasing after Kang Jin-hyuk, finally followed him out of the alley.

As soon as he exited the alley, facing the buildings and the large crowd, the assailant realized Kang Jin-hyuk’s intention.

“Did he deliberately come to a crowded place……?”

To hide a tree, hide it in a forest.

If he hid in a crowded place, the assailant wouldn’t be able to easily find Kang Jin-hyuk with just his eyes.

“Not a bad idea, but you chose the wrong opponent.”

Standing in the middle of the crowd, the assailant cast the Tracking Skill.

Although the surprise attack had failed, the moment Kang Jin-hyuk dodged the dagger, the assailant had succeeded in placing a mark on him.

As long as that mark was there, it was possible to find Kang Jin-hyuk with the Tracking Skill no matter where he ran.

“There he is.”

The assailant found out which building Kang Jin-hyuk had hidden in.

“How did he get to the department store across the street so quickly?”

It hadn’t even been a few minutes since they had left the alley.

The location of Kang Jin-hyuk that he found with the Tracking Skill was the department store across the street.

It was impossible to get there ahead of him at such a speed, crossing the large crosswalk twice.

“The way he blocked the surprise attack earlier, and……. It seems catching that new type of monster wasn’t just luck.”

When he had only heard the rumors, he thought it was just a lucky nobody who had gotten a reward beyond his capabilities.

But after facing him directly, his thoughts changed.

The person he thought was a common C-rank Hunter had considerable skills and decent coping abilities.

It would have been better if he had prepared more thoroughly, but the assailant didn’t have the luxury of time.

“I have to finish this before he hides and calls for backup.”

The assailant hurriedly ran towards the department store.

As things became more difficult than expected, the assailant grew impatient.

The assailant entered the department store entrance with his dagger raised, ready to pounce the moment he saw Kang Jin-hyuk’s face.

When the assailant opened the glass door and entered the building, Kang Jin-hyuk, who was hiding right next to the door, immediately threw a punch.

“Ugh!”

The assailant, caught off guard by the unexpected attack, tumbled to the floor.

The shock even dispelled his Camouflage Skill.

The assailant, who barely managed to get up, hurriedly drank a potion.

‘H-How did he……?’

Kang Jin-hyuk clicked his tongue in disappointment, seeing that the assailant hadn’t fainted.

As expected, even if he guessed the location, he couldn’t aim for vital points because he couldn’t see him.

“If one hit doesn’t work, I’ll just keep hitting him until it does!”

Kang Jin-hyuk dashed towards the assailant before he could disappear again.

The assailant, in a desperate situation, frowned.

The potion only reduced the pain; his shoulder, broken from being hit by the bat, showed no signs of moving.

With a body like this, even if he used the Camouflage Skill, he couldn’t create much distance.

‘I don’t know how he’s doing it, but that guy knows my location when I get close……!’

Unless he could create distance, the Camouflage Skill wasn’t of much help.

The assailant had no choice but to extend his left hand and cast a defensive skill.

“Shield!”

A translucent shield appeared in front of the assailant’s body, just like the ‘Holy Shield’ Kang Jin-hyuk used.

Seeing that, Kang Jin-hyuk realized that his opponent was a ‘Magician’.

There was no other class that could use Shield.

‘Originally, I would be at a disadvantage, but the situation is different now.’

Magicians had powerful ranged skills.

However, their current location was a crowded department store.

He couldn’t imagine what kind of disaster would occur if he unleashed ranged skills in a place like this.

Kang Jin-hyuk believed that if his opponent was a sane person, he would never use skills here.

Kang Jin-hyuk threw a punch with all his might, feeling relieved.

And at the same time, he didn’t forget to imbue his fist with an aura using Holy Power.

Bang!

The moment the baseball bat collided with the Shield, a loud noise like an explosion erupted.

Everyone in the department store simultaneously turned their heads towards the source of the noise.

There stood the masked assailant, aghast as he watched his Shield Skill shatter into pieces.

“This is crazy!”

The assailant couldn’t believe his eyes.

How could a C-rank Hunter break a Shield Skill with a single blow?

Moreover, the information he had gathered stated that his class was a Cleric.

It was absurd for a Cleric, who only had support skills, to break a Shield with his bare hands.

The assailant couldn’t just stand there, surprised by this unbelievable outcome.

The fist that had shattered the Shield in one blow was now aiming for him.

Among the skills the assailant possessed, there was only one that could block that.

Even though the choice was clear, the assailant couldn’t easily make it.

‘If I use that here…….’

The assailant fell into deep thought due to the tiny bit of guilt remaining in his conscience.

But as he was driven to the brink of defeat, the assailant finally extended his hand towards Kang Jin-hyuk.

“Flame Storm!”

Kang Jin-hyuk was horrified by the name of the skill and the flames erupting from the assailant’s hand.

The storm, mixed with high-temperature flames, engulfed Kang Jin-hyuk and the nearby civilians.

Sprinklers went off from all over the ceiling, trying to suppress the flames, but the fire that had engulfed the department store showed no signs of dying down.

The flames grew even fiercer, burning clothes and other materials.

People who were suddenly caught in the blaze screamed.

“Aaargh!”

“Somebody help!!”

The flames were raging fiercely at the department store entrance, making it impossible to go that way.

Trapped inside, people tried to escape by breaking windows.

“Heh heh…….”

The assailant laughed hollowly, looking at what he had done.

He hadn’t expected the incident, which he had started out of greed for the new type of monster’s materials, to escalate to this extent.

The assailant regretted not having learned a wider variety of skills beforehand.

“It’s a good thing I covered my face.”

The assailant thought that since no one knew his identity, he could escape and no one would be able to find him.

It was a shame that he couldn’t collect the monster’s materials from Kang Jin-hyuk, who had probably burned to death, but it couldn’t be helped.

If he wasted any more time here, there was a high chance he would be caught by the people from the Association.

The assailant, getting up from his spot, stealthily headed towards the department store entrance while people were in a state of panic.

“What a damn unlucky day.”

“That’s my line, you bastard.”

“What……?”

The startled assailant turned his head towards the unexpected reply.

The assailant was speechless at the sight of Kang Jin-hyuk, standing there in clothes that were charred black.

“H-How are you still alive?!”

The assailant had clearly seen Kang Jin-hyuk get hit directly by the flames.

Normally, in that case, he should have been dead, burned to a crisp.

“Damn it!”

The desperate assailant extended his hand once again.

It was only difficult the first time; doing what he had already done twice was nothing.

Since he had already attacked another Hunter and harmed civilians, if he were caught here, the minimum sentence would be life imprisonment, or even the death penalty.

As Hunters possessed abilities superior to ordinary people, the punishments inflicted on them for the sake of public safety were harsher than those given to ordinary people.

The assailant chose to cause another incident rather than be caught here.

“Flame St……!”

The assailant, who was almost finished reciting the skill name, saw something flying towards him.

And the moment he realized it, the assailant’s head exploded with a thud.

The last thing the assailant saw was the thermos that Kang Jin-hyuk had thrown with all his might.

Kang Jin-hyuk was aware that if he threw the thermos at that speed, whoever got hit would surely die.

He knew it, but he had no choice.

It was self-defense, and he couldn’t even fathom the extent of the damage that would occur if he didn’t stop the assailant here.

“Damn it!”

Kang Jin-hyuk collapsed as he watched the assailant’s headless body fall backward.

It wasn’t because of guilt from killing someone.

Of course, it was shocking to have killed a person, but the opponent deserved to die.

The reason Kang Jin-hyuk’s expression was distorted was because of the Hunter’s characteristics and the Cleric’s conditions.

When a Hunter killed a person, the title ‘Villain’ was attached to their stat window.

Since this was something that other Hunters could also see, it was no different from a stigma.

To make matters worse, a Villain couldn’t even use Cleric skills.

Even if the skills were listed in the skill window, they would be treated as unusable.

It meant that his Holy Power would disappear, and he wouldn’t be able to use the Aura he had worked so hard to learn.

“That damn bastard…….”

What tormented Kang Jin-hyuk even more in this worsening situation was regret.

He thought the assailant would behave himself if he came to a crowded place, but he never imagined he would do something so crazy.

Would things have turned out differently if he had finished him off in the alley?

As he was feeling troubled by such thoughts, a message window popped up with a notification sound.

『Karma points increase due to homicide.』

『The title ‘Villain’ is not generated due to justified homicide.』

『The ‘Cleric’ skills will be altered.』

『Level up.』

『You have fulfilled the 2nd Job Advancement condition（Hidden）.』

Kang Jin-hyuk was bewildered after checking the messages.

Not disappear, but alter?