Chapter 17: Rank 3 (1)

A few lizardmen fell to the ground from Hellfire.

Tired of fighting with Ho Jung's group, the Lizardmen didn't have the strength to resist Kang Yu, so the monsters were dying one by one.

'That's all.' Kang Yu glanced over the swamp covered with corpses.

Even strong people would vomit at the sight of such a spectacle, but Kang Yu was walking in the swamp like nothing had happened.

Flesh and blood scattered all over the earth was what he had grown used to seeing in Hell.

At that time in his life, he had seen much scarier landscapes every day.

That's why he wasn't bothered by the scenery around him — he'd gotten used to it a long time ago.

— Well, here we go.

The hundreds of bodies lying on the ground were like a banquet for Kang Yu.

'I barely got any experience points.' In fact, most of these monsters were killed by Ho Jung's comrades, which was why he barely got any experience points.

If he had been a regular player, he would have probably been upset, but Kang Yu also had his own ways of raising his level, so he wasn't discouraged.

He didn't hurry to get to the place where most of the bodies lay.

The black smoke, as always, wrapped up the dead bodies of the Lizardmen.

Along with the horrible sound of broken bones and flesh-eating, Kang Yu's body was being infused with the flow of Magi.

A notice came up.

[Magi raised by 1 unit]

'Great.' Just looking at the number of monsters, it was clear that this time he would raise his Magi by a decent number of units.

Kang Yu continued pulling energy out from the bodies while looking at the message that came up.

The number of corpses began to decrease rather quickly.

At that moment, another notice came up.

[Security Warning: You can't use the Devourer's Power].

— What? — A new message came up before his eyes.

He was shaking his head, looking at the notice.

'System warning?' He remembered hearing a phrase like this before. He'd heard it on his return from Hell to Earth.

He'd killed over a hundred monsters before, but no such message had ever come up.

— Ah... — Kang Yu remembered Ho Jung's party. — I think they died here, too. —

He noticed Ho Jung's body with a spear pierced through his chest laying atop the pile of bodies.

Apparently, while using the Devourer's Power on the bodies of monsters, he'd accidentally hit Ho Jung's body.

'I guess the warning was about eating the Player's body.' Kang Yu didn't know exactly what the system warning meant, but this message had never shown up before when he applied this Power on monsters. So his guess might have been right.

'Then, the Devourer's Power cannot be used on other Players.' That was the answer to the question Kang Yu had been thinking of from the moment he first found out that each Player had a special ability. He'd wondered if the other Players' abilities could be pulled out by the Power of the Devourer.

He'd believed that since he could take Powers from a demon, there was a good chance that he could take Powers from Players too.

'Well, it's not that important.' Kang Yu looked at Ho Jung's body without any regrets.

Besides, the Players' special abilities didn't play an important role for Kang Yu.

He was almighty as it is, with 666 Powers in his arsenal.

'It's not the Powers that matter, it's the amount of Magi that counts.' It took a lot of Magi to be able to use all 666 Powers freely.

That was the most important thing for Kang Yu right now.

He bypassed all the bodies except for Ho Jung's Party members.

There had been several notifications.

[Magi raised by 2 units]

[You have reached 30 units of Magi]

— Ha, — Kang Yu took a deep breath and felt for Magi in his body.

Having sucked Magi out of more than 100 bodies of monsters, he felt his body become stronger with the significant increase of Magi.

'This time I managed to raise Magi by 5 units.' It wasn't such a bad result.

No, it's not. Without moving a finger, he'd gotten as much as 5 units of Magi - this was a promising result.

'Magi doesn't just add up in numbers, I can feel it.' Kang Yu, now with 30 units, felt many times stronger and more alert than before.

He decided to try one of Andras' forces.

There was a black flame on his palm.

Comparing the Hellfire that he'd used a couple of hours ago to the fire burning now, the difference was obvious. The flames were much bigger.

'Wonderful.' He felt the difference between 20 and 30 units of Magi clearer than when he promoted it from 10 to 20.

— All that's left is to raise the level. — Kang Yu, gathering the mana stones lying on the ground, nodded his head with satisfaction.

Soon he will get rank 3 and find out if the force that sealed his Man Ma Jung was really weakening with each increase in rank.

'Is it worth a little more hunting?' Kang Yu walked past the cold bodies of Ho Jung and his comrades in cold blood.

***

It's been three days since Ho Jung and his guys died.

Kang Yu continued the mass hunting of Lizardmen and quickly raised his level.

As a result, he reached level 19 in three days, whereas most Players took a month to do so.

If someone saw the speed at which it was going up, it would probably seem strange or even absurd to them.

— I think I'll get rank 3 today,— Kang Yu said excitedly at breakfast to Han Sol.

'Accordingly, I can go to a higher level gate.'

He will obtain the right to enter a Level C Gate, but to do so he must obtain a Level C Player ID by selling more mana stones and receiving Rank 3.

Since the Level C Gate is very different from the Level D Gate, Players usually need training.

In fact, there were few cases where Players get Rank 3 but continued to hunt at the level D Gate because the monsters at the level C Gate were too strong.

That's exactly what Ho Jung's party had been like.

'They say that the entrance check is stricter there...' Kang Yu heard at some bar that unlike Level D and E Gate, where the only ID is checked at the entrance, Level C checks everything.

It could be burdensome if he decided to use the Force of Blind Faith and sneak in.

'I'll settle for selling the mana stones collected today and raise my level.' He'd earned 92,000,000 won in the last three days.

He also collected 23 Class D mana stones, killing over 400 Lizardmen.

These mana stones were more than enough for a promotion.

— Kang Yu, are you going to hunt today too?

— Yeah, I'll probably be back tonight.

— Aren't you tired? It's been a while since you've rested.

— It's okay, — Kang Yu said calmly.

In fact, physically, he didn't feel a drop in fatigue.

As soon as his Magi exceeded 30 units, the easy hunt for Lizardmen had become even easier.

He was stronger than two or three parties united together, so it couldn't have been difficult for him.

— Oh, I see.

— And when does your training end?

— I don't think there's more than a couple of days left. Today we're going on a real goblin hunt to raise our level.

— Wow.

— I'm not sure if I'm going to get a good special ability, but I want to get rank 2 as soon as possible.

— You'll get it soon.

After a short conversation with Han Sol, Kang Yu immediately headed towards the Gate.

Before the gate, as always, there were many people who were either looking for Players to join their own party or looking for a party for themselves.

'I think I'm used to it.' Six days have passed since he returned to Earth.

He was finally getting used to seeing people walking around. In Hell, he'd always been surrounded by demons.

'I'll get to rank 3 and it will get much easier.' For the sake of a fun and carefree life on Earth, accumulating strength and money was important, and because of this, he could not yet enjoy what he really likes.

After being promoted to rank 3 and selling the mana stones he collected, he planned to rest and have some fun.

— Excuse me, are you looking for a party?

— No one will take robbers into parties...

— Ha! Then, how about joining us?

— Oh, really?

When Kang Yu reached the gate, he heard a familiar voice.

— Huh? — He turned his head towards the voice.

It turned out to be Kang Dae Su, whom he met while hunting goblins.

He had already assembled a party of several people and was now talking to a robber who no one wanted to take in.

'Nothing changes.' Kang Yu smiled and entered the gate.

'I should say hello to him.' Even though they barely knew each other, Dae Su was the kind of person who didn't annoy Kang Yu with his behavior, so he wouldn't mind a conversation.

'But first, let's raise my level.' Wanting to quickly raise his level after being stuck at 19 for so long, he went in search of Lizardmen.

There were more important things to do before dealing with Dae Su.

'Found some.' He noticed three monsters near him and immediately used the power of Hellfire, directing it towards the lizardmen.

Immediately, three monsters in flames fell to the ground with wild screams.

— Okay. Next... — At that moment, the familiar sound of notification rang out to him, announcing a new notice.

[Level D Boss successfully destroyed]

[Level increased by 1 unit]

— Huh? — Kang Yu looked at the notice with confusion.

Fwoosh-!

"Kiieekk..."

The horde of lizardmen covered by the hellfire collapsed to the ground.

They died from KangWoo's attack without being able to offer resistance because they were tired after fighting against Jeong HoJun's party.

"Did I clear everything up?" KangWoo murmured while looking at the swamp that had become a valley of death.

It has a horrible landscape that would make anyone vomit, but KangWoo calmly walked across the swamp.

He had seen the grotesque scene of corpses mixed with blood a lot while in Hell.

While in Hell, he'd seen everyday scenes more horrifying than the swamp covered by corpses.

He had seen too many things in Hell to be impressed by that much.

"Then, should I start?"

For KangWoo's eyes, the hundreds of corpses of lizardmen looked like a feast.

'Although I got almost no experience...'

Since most of them had been killed by HoJun's party, he had gotten almost no experience from the lizardmen.

If he were an average player, he would've felt a bit disappointed, but KangWoo had another way to get stronger besides leveling up.

KangWoo walked toward the corpses of the lizardmen.

Black smoke emerged from his body and covered the lizardmen.

Crunch-! Crunch-!

While making the horrible sound of flesh being munched, the demonic energy inside the lizardmen's souls began entering KangWoo.

Ting-!

[Your Demonic Energy stat has increased by 1!]

'Good.'

Because a lot of lizardmen had died in this battle, a considerable amount of demonic energy entered his body.

KangWoo kept using the Authority of Predation while looking at the notification that said his demonic energy stat had increased.

More than a hundred lizardmen began quickly disappearing.

It was at that moment...

Ting-

[You cannot use the Authority of Predation on a target that's receiving the protection of the Gaia System.]

"Hmm?"

A message window different from the ones he had received until then appeared in front of him.

KangWoo tilted his head while looking at the message window.

'Gaia System?'

It was the word he had heard when he'd first arrived on Earth. He wasn't sure what it meant.

KangWoo frowned after receiving a message he hadn't gotten before despite having killed hundreds of monsters.

"Ah."

It was at that moment when KangWoo remembered Jeong HoJun's party.

"Now that I think about it, they were also underneath here."

Among the mountain of lizardmen corpses, he found Jeong HoJun, who had been killed by a spear.

It seemed like, while using the Authority of Predation on the lizardmen, the Authority had spread to his corpse by mistake.

'Does a target that's receiving the protection of the Gaia System refer to players?'

He wasn't sure what the Gaia System was, but considering that he had never seen that word while using the Authority of Predation on monsters, there was a huge chance it was referring to players.

'Then this means that I can't use Predation on the corpses of players.'

The first time he'd heard about the attributes of players, he'd naturally thought about whether he could absorb other peoples' attributes with his Authority of Predation.

Since he could absorb the Authority of demons, he thought that he should be able to obtain the attributes of other players.

'Well, I guess it doesn't matter.'

Without feeling disappointed, KangWoo turned his head from Jeong HoJun's corpse.

The attribute of other players meant nothing to him.

He already had 666 Authorities that were close to being omnipotent.

'The important thing isn't the attribute but the amount of demonic energy.'

The most important thing to him was getting enough demonic energy so that he could freely use his 666 demonic Authorities.

Crunch-!

KangWoo finished absorbing all of the lizardmen corpses with his Predation.

Ting-

[Your Demonic Energy stat has increased by 2.]

[Your Demonic Energy stat has reached 30.]

"Oof."

KangWoo let out a short sigh after feeling the demonic energy spread through his body.

After absorbing the corpses of hundreds of lizardmen, he felt that quite a considerable amount of demonic energy had been stacked inside his body.

'My stat has increased by five.'

It wasn't a bad result.

The fact that he had been able to obtain so much demonic energy without doing anything was an incredible achievement.

'It seems like the quality has gone up along with the stat increase.'

After reaching 30, the demonic energy had become darker.

KangWoo used the Authority of Andras as a test.

Fwoosh-!

* * *

Fire the size of a person's head appeared in his hand.

A more ferocious energy was coming out of the hellfire compared to before.

'Good.'

He could feel a bigger difference from 25 to 30 than when it went from 10 to 20.

'Now, I just need to increase my level.'

KangWoo nodded while grabbing the mana stones that were on the floor.

Now he just had to level up and reach the third awakening, and then he would finally be able to confirm if the seal of the Ten Thousand Demon Core got weaker with each awakening.

'Should I hunt a bit more?'

He slowly walked away while leaving behind the corpses of Jeong HoJun's party.

* * *

Three days after the incident with Jeong HoJun's party.

KangWoo was increasing his level at an incredible speed while horde-hunting lizardmen.

It took most people about two months before reaching the third awakening, but he was already at level 19.

If someone heard about the speed at which he was leveling up, they would've been horrified.

"I'll probably reach the third awakening today," KangWoo mumbled after eating breakfast with Han Seol-ah.

'Once I complete the third awakening, I'll go to a higher-ranking Gate.'

To enter a C-rank gate, on top of the mana stone sell certificate, you needed a certificate that said you had completed the third awakening.

It was a safety measure they'd put in place from the C-rank gate onwards because monsters that couldn't be compared to those in a D-rank gate appeared.

The monsters in C-rank gates were so strong that many players stayed in the D-rank gates even after completing the third awakening. Those people usually earned a living by operating a bus party.

Jeong HoJun's party members were one of those kinds of players.

'They said that, from C-rank gates onwards, the control becomes much stricter...'

Unlike the D and E-rank gates, where they barely looked at the IDs of players as if they were in a bar, from C-rank gates onwards, they checked all your information to ensure you had permission to access.

KangWoo wasn't sure if he would be able to enter it just by using his Authority of Blind.

'Since I have enough certificates of mana stone trading, I just need to level up.'

In just three days, KangWoo had earned 90K USD.

The price of a D-rank mana stone from a lizardman was 230 USD, and he had hunted more than 400 of them.

He had already surpassed the trade volume required for increasing his player rank a while ago.

"Mr. KangWoo, are you going to the gate today, too?"

"Yes, I'll probably be finished by night."

"Aren't you trying too hard? You haven't taken a rest these past few days..."

"I'm okay," KangWoo said with a calm voice.

He really wasn't feeling tired.

After his demonic energy stat had surpassed 30, hunting lizardmen had become even easier.

He had a strength that couldn't be matched even with two tothree bus parties, so there was no way he would be tired.

"Hng, understood."

"Ms. Seol-ah, when is your education going to end?"

"In just a few days. Today we're going to go and start goblin hunting to increase our level."

"I see..."

"I'm not sure if I'll get a good attribute... But I want to reach the second awakening as fast as possible."

"You'll reach it soon."

After having a short conversation with Han Seol-ah, KangWoo went toward the gate.

In front of the gate, just like always, some people were looking for other party members.

'I've gotten used to this scenery.'

It had been six days since he returned to Earth.

Now he'd become used to seeing people wandering around instead of demons.

'I should take a break after completing the third awakening.'

Becoming stronger and earning money to enjoy life on Earth was okay, but he hadn't been able to do any of the things he'd been craving.

KangWoo walked toward the gate while thinking that, once he completed the third awakening, he should enjoy and spend some money he'd earned by selling mana stones.

"Hey, Mister. Are you really struggling that much to find a party?"

"Yes. No one wants a rogue..."

"Haha! Then why don't you join us?"

"Woah! R-really?"

While he was walking toward the gate, he heard a familiar voice.

"Hmm?"

KangWoo turned his head around.

'Did he complete the second awakening?'

It was the young man called Kang TaeSoo that he had met while goblin hunting.

Although they were already with a couple of other party members, they were talking to a rogue with whom no one wanted to form a team.

"Just as always..."

While smirking, KangWoo entered the gate.

'I should say hi later on.'

Did they say it was fate, even if your clothes brushed against each other? It wasn't that he hated people like TaeSoo, so he thought that he should at least say hi.

'But leveling up comes first.'

While looking at his level that had been stuck at 19 for a while, he quickly went to a group of lizardmen.

He had something more important to do than saying hi to TaeSoo.

'I found them.'

After finding a group of three lizardmen, KangWoo threw a hellfire the size of his head toward them.

Fwoosh-!

"Kiieekk!!"

After making a desperate scream, the three lizardmen died instantly.

"Good, then next..."

He was about to go and find the next targets when he heard a familiar sound.

Ting-

[You've successfully killed a D-rank Lizardman.]

[Your level has increased by 1.]

"Huh?"

KangWoo was disconcerted by the message window he was seeing.