Levelling Up In An Exclusive Dungeon

-chapter 3-

Kang Jin-hyuk immediately entered the dungeon and began his hunt.

Despite his low level, goblins were the weakest of the weak monsters, so they were not hard to deal with.

When he encountered five or six at once, he recalled the advice from the Emotion Reader.

This time, he aimed precisely for their heads and swiftly took down the goblin group in no time.

[You have leveled up.]

Kang Jin-hyuk opened his inventory and stuffed the goblin corpses into it.

It was quite surprising to see goblins, each as tall as 110 cm and the size of a small pouch, getting easily packed in.

The downside was that this cheap inventory could only hold monsters and items.

“Still, there’s enough empty space for now.”

Kang Jin-hyuk was thrilled to have unexpectedly found a gold mine.

However, no matter how excited he was, he had to value his life above all.

In case of an emergency, he took out two return stones from his inventory, placing one outside the attic and securely putting the other in his pants pocket.

“Each costs 500,000 won, but if I don’t use it now, when will I?”

Now, if anything happened, he could use the return stone to escape right outside the attic.

It was a 1,000,000 won escape method, but it was better than getting stuck here.

With his safety insured, Kang Jin-hyuk took out a disc that resembled a handheld mirror.

“I can’t believe I might actually use this.”

He had been tricked into buying a search radar (retail price 398,000 won) with the promise that it would allow him to locate monsters anytime, anywhere.

As expected from a home shopping product, it turned out to be a piece of trash that could only detect within a 50m range.

The manufacturer had run off after taking their money, leaving him with a non-refundable, unusable item, but now it was finally starting to work.

Numerous dots appeared on the disc.

This indicated that there were multiple monsters nearby.

“Awesome!”

In the winding maze, the radar guidance was a great help.

With a baseball bat in hand, Kang Jin-hyuk dashed toward the nearest dot.

“Kiik?”

By the time the goblin realized an intruder was approaching, it was already too late.

Swinging the bat with all his might, Kang Jin-hyuk crushed the goblin’s face like a hitter against a fast pitch.

The crack of the impact resonated deeply within him.

“Home run!”

As he cheered at the goblin flying backward, another notification popped up before him.

[You have leveled up.]

Feeling like he had accumulated enough levels, Kang Jin-hyuk decided to check his stats for the first time in a while.

[Kang Jin-hyuk]

Level: 13

Race: Human

Class: None

Strength: D

Agility: D

Magical Power: F

Stamina: C

Though his level had increased significantly, his stats were dismal, remaining far below expectations.

Being a lower-class hunter without any skills typically resulted in such mediocre stats.

“I can just raise them from here.”

Yesterday, he would have sighed just by looking at the stats, but now things were different.

Now, he had a dungeon overflowing with monsters.

He no longer had to worry about leveling up.

“Alright, where to next?”

The radar indicated that the nearest cluster contained three dots.

As expected, they were goblins as well.

True to the name “Goblin’s Labyrinth,” it seemed all the monsters in this area were indeed goblins.

Although monotonous, it served as the perfect hunting ground for a low-level Kang Jin-hyuk.

Realizing there was nothing more straightforward and exhilarating than smashing goblin heads, he ran around the dungeon following the radar.

“Kiik!”

“Kiiaak!”

For three straight hours, the labyrinth was filled with the screams of goblins.

Only after verifying the limits of his inventory did Kang Jin-hyuk finally stop swinging his bat.

“Ugh… Have I already filled it up?”

At best, there was only space for one more monster.

He wished he could leave the corpses in the maze and come back for them, but that wasn’t a wise approach.

Goblins were known to devour their fallen kin without a second thought, and leaving corpses behind would only feed them.

To continue hunting, he would need to clear his inventory first.

“If this is the last one, I’d rather have a bigger one.”

Among the goblins, those over 130 cm tall would fetch him more money.

Stronger and larger monsters supposedly provided better quality leather and bones.

Just then, he spotted a glowing dot shining in the direction to his left.

The dot was approaching the corner, even without Kang Jin-hyuk needing to go to it.

“Waiting here for an ambush should make this easy.”

Kang Jin-hyuk firmly gripped the bat with both hands, leaning back against the wall.

He waited patiently for the goblin to turn the corner.

As soon as the dot came within his line of sight, he instinctively swung the bat.

It wasn’t until the bat crushed its head that he realized the target was not a goblin.

Hearing the sound of metal clashing followed by the figure cradling its head in pain crumpling to the ground.

“…I messed up.”

He had mistaken it for a goblin because of its size.

The dark-haired, bearded figure threw off its helmet and yelled.

“ᛋᚢᛞᛒᚢ! ᛏᚺᛖᛋᛒᚱ!”

Even though the figure was shouting angrily with a flushed red face, Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t understand a single word as it was a completely different language.

However, he could roughly guess its meaning.

It was likely that it had asked about his parents three times over.

“I’m sorry!”

Unable to communicate verbally, Kang Jin-hyuk bent at a 90-degree angle to express his sincerest apologies.

If he looked pitiful enough, perhaps his intentions would be conveyed.

‘Who would have thought I’d encounter a person in the dungeon?’

It was smaller than an average person, and heavily bearded, but at least it didn’t resemble a monster.

“ᚢᚱᚨᛈᚫᚳᚢᚳ!”

“I’m really sorry! I’m sorry!”

All Kang Jin-hyuk could do was keep bowing his head as the figure continued to shout incomprehensibly.

Then, the individual who had just been hit pulled out a necklace from their pocket and threw it at Kang Jin-hyuk.

As Kang Jin-hyuk caught it in confusion, the figure mimicked putting on the necklace with their hands.

“Is this… for me?”

He had no clue why they were suddenly giving him a gift, but he decided to just follow their lead.

As soon as he put on the necklace, the previously incomprehensible words became clear.

“Now you get it? You little shit!”

Surprised, Kang Jin-hyuk widened his eyes without responding, prompting the bearded figure to shout again.

“Can you hear me, you little punk?”

“It’s you who’s the punk, not me…”

“What did you say?”

“N-no, nothing! I’m sorry!”

Seeing Kang Jin-hyuk bow his head in apology again, the bearded figure clicked his tongue.

“For crying out loud, in my 132 years as a dwarf, I’ve never met such a useless idiot.”

“D-dwarf?”

“Yeah! You’ve never seen a dwarf before?”

Kang Jin-hyuk nodded immediately, the dwarf looking incredulous.

“Never even heard of the term? Where in the hell are you from?”

“I’m from Bangi-dong…”

“Where is that? Some backwater place?”

“It’s Korea.”

“Never heard of it. Guess it must be a rural area.”

Kang Jin-hyuk thought the dwarf was someone from a completely different world.

Ignoring the communication gap was one thing, but not knowing Korea was odd too.

With how notorious the chubby guy in the North was, one would think he would have at least heard its name.

Nevertheless, dwarves didn’t exist on Earth in the first place.

“What’s your name?”

“Huh? Why are you suddenly asking for my name?”

“Just trying to figure out the name of the punk who bashed my head!”

“Kang Jin-hyuk.”

“Kang Jin-hyuk? Whatever, you have a pretty poor name.”

“Look, I might have made a mistake, but could you tone down the insults?”

“Why should I give a damn? You made me drop all my stuff!”

Grumbling, the dwarf began to pick up the scattered equipment from the ground.

Watching the scene unfold, Kang Jin-hyuk felt his irritation growing.

He realized that while it may be unjust, the dwarf’s anger did have some validity.

“Why are you just sitting there? It was because of you, I’m in this mess! Hurry up and help!”

Hearing the dwarf’s command, Kang Jin-hyuk’s annoyance sparked.

He understood that he wasn’t in a position to argue, but listening to constant insults was unbearable.

Feeling as though the bat was thirsty for blood, Kang Jin-hyuk took a deep breath.

“Fine. I’ll help.”

He put down the bat and began assisting the dwarf in organizing their belongings.

Some of the fallen items included a hammer, tongs, and many more pieces of equipment.

Every time Kang Jin-hyuk picked something up, a message appeared before his eyes.

[You picked up a rare item.]

[You picked up a rare item.]

“…”

Messages that would only typically appear once in a lifetime for hunters were now popping up consecutively.

Kang Jin-hyuk gazed at the screen in disbelief.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Did you see a ghost?”

“N-no, it’s nothing.”

He was tempted to ask for an item or two.

However, given that he had just tried to split the dwarf’s head, he couldn’t bring himself to do so.

‘Should I sneak one?’

Finally, he shook his head at a fleeting moment of greed.

If the dwarf caught him, he would probably end up dead.

Judging by the impressive array of rare items the dwarf possessed, he must expect to be of high level.

A low-level hunter like Jin-hyuk could only expect to be legally beaten black and blue if he tried to fight back.

While Kang Jin-hyuk was lost in his thoughts, the dwarf finished retying his bag and reached for the bat that Kang Jin-hyuk had set aside.

“What the hell did you hit me with that’s still getting me dazed?”

He inspected the bat closely, wondering if it was a weapon made from good-quality iron.

Without even asking for permission, he picked it up and began analyzing it.

“I’m really curious about what this is all about!”

The dwarf, oblivious to Kang Jin-hyuk’s protests, swung the bat around, examining it from every angle.

Kang Jin-hyuk suddenly noticed the dwarf’s odd behavior.

“What are you doing with my bat?”

Although he asked, he got no response in return.

Looking closely, he saw that the dwarf’s shoulders were trembling.

At first, he thought it was a result of the impact, but that wasn’t the case.

With a ghostly pale face, the dwarf rushed toward him.

“Where the hell did you get this!?”

“W-why?”

“Why?!”

The dwarf took a deep breath and shouted as if trying to make the whole maze tremble.

“This is orihalcum!”

“…That’s aluminum, though?”

“You guys call orihalcum that way?!”

“This is just aluminum, hence I’m calling it aluminum…”

Kang Jin-hyuk was taken aback by the dwarf’s outburst, wondering why one would attach such a grand name to something like aluminum.

The orihalcum he had encountered in games or novels was treated as some sacred metal of the gods.

Yet here was a dwarf screaming about it while holding an aluminum bat.

From Kang Jin-hyuk’s perspective, the dwarf seemed either insane or suffering from a severe case of late-onset otaku syndrome.

“Come on, be honest. You stole this, didn’t you?”

“Are you out of your mind?! I bought it with my money!”

“Bought it? Are you serious?”

Kang Jin-hyuk felt irritation bubbling up inside him.

Here he was flapping his mouth off about stealing an aluminum bat, of all things!

It was frustrating to hear someone insist it was stolen while refusing to acknowledge that he actually purchased it.

“What’s so special about this shabby bat?”

“How can you call orihalcum shabby!?”

“Wait, what the hell is orihalcum, anyway?”

“What kind of uneducated swine are you? Do I really have to explain it all with words?”

For a moment, Kang Jin-hyuk struggled to keep his blood from boiling.

He wasn’t sure how renowned this orihalcum was, but his bat was just an ordinary item.

“I don’t know how impressive orihalcum is as a metal, but my bat is just an average item, okay?”

“Quit talking nonsense. Where’s the part that’s average about this?”

“Are you hearing me or lost in your own thoughts? If you don’t believe me, try smashing it with your hammer!”

While saying that, he was prepared to seek compensation with whatever means if it ever came to that.

But contrary to his expectations, the dwarf didn’t raise the hammer.

Instead, he kept rambling on about how orihalcum becomes refined only with special processing.

Kang Jin-hyuk felt the dwarf was making the wrong assumption.

As it was stated, while orihalcum could become splendid with special processing, aluminum remained a soft metal even after treatment.

‘If I played this right, I could exploit the dwarf’s stubborn pride.’

Kang Jin-hyuk resolved to make a bet with the dwarf.

“How about we make a wager?”

“A wager? What kind of wager?”

“It’s to prove whether that’s actually orihalcum or not.”

“I’ve already told you it is. Why do you need me to keep repeating it?”

“Then show me the evidence. I can’t take your word for it.”

“Oh, what the hell! You’re really something!”

The dwarf pounded his chest with his fist in frustration.

“Fine! I’ll show you! Just don’t backtrack later!”

“That goes for you too when it gets exposed as cheap stuff!”

“Get your act together and prepare to face the consequences!”

Kang Jin-hyuk stifled a chuckle upon seeing the dwarf get all riled up.

With the certainty that the aluminum bat was nothing special, he was convinced that the dwarf’s rare equipment was soon to be his.