Chapter 4 – Level Up! (2)

“Huh? Is this for real?”

Surprised, Woojin flicked open his Status Window.

Level : 1

Name : Kang Woojin

Class : Necromancer (Advanced)

Grade : Middle Rank

Achievement : 4

Magic Point : 0/0 Energy : 0/0

<Stat>

Strength : 15 Speed : 13 Health : 17 Wisdom : 15

Magic : 0 Vitality : 0 Recovery : 0 Healing : 0 Control : 0

Undistributed Points : 99

<Skill>

Combination Box Summoning (lv 1) (Advanced Skill) (Impossible to add points)

Achievement Shop (lv 1) (Advanced Skill) (Impossible to add points)

Undistributed Points : 99

The Status Window looked a lot different from the one he’d had when he was first summoned to Alphen, but the implications were soon clear.

“Ha, it hadn’t disappeared.”

He had assumed that everything he had accumulated on Alphen had been stripped away when he’d returned to Earth.

Advanced.

As the Status Window indicated, his level had been reset to 1. But in return, he had received several benefits. Two advanced skills, and his stat and skill points were significantly higher than when he’d first started as a level 1.

“Also, my class is the same. Necromancer.”

He had achieved everything as a Necromancer. He’d controlled and used the Undead, known as the ultimate existence.

This wasn’t bad at all.

Seoul seemed to have changed in a weird way. The future was still a mystery, but it would never hurt to have power. At the very least, he needed enough power to safely escape the dungeon.

As he leveled up, Woojin started to feel relieved. Recovering the strength he’d thought he’d lost would allow him to increase his margin for error. At the very least, he didn’t need to be as vigilant when it came to dangerous situations.

He started to make his way back to the broken down convenience stores. He wasn’t going to wait around for more monsters to be drawn to the splattered blood. When he judged he’d put enough distance between himself and the Drabbit corpses, he opened the window for his newly formed Advanced Skills.

[Combination Box Summoning]. From the name, it seemed as though he could combine ingredients to receive a new item. Perhaps, it could also work in reverse, allowing him to extract a key ingredient from items.

“How do I use this?”

It was a skill he had never seen before, so he hadn’t the faintest idea how to use it. He tried speaking the activation command, but that failed. It was only when he was looking through the Inventory that he found his answer.

A button labeled Combination Box was nestled away in the lower half of the Inventory. Touching the button opened up a separate Inventory Window with two more buttons at the bottom.

[Combine] and [Extract].

“Che, the Inventory returned to its original state.”

His Inventory only had three columns of space now. The capacity of one’s Inventory usually increased with one’s level, but it seemed that he hadn’t received any bonuses from his efforts on Alphen.

Of course, the most disappointing part was that the items he had carefully hoarded on Alphen had all disappeared.

Grumbling under his breath, Woojin touched the other Advanced Skill, [Achievement Shop].

Once again, it took a few experiments to find the verbal command to open the Achievement Shop. He practiced opening and closing it, and soon had it down to a simple mental command.

The virtual shelves of the Shop were lined with Skill Books, Equipment and Consumable Items. But each item came with an exorbitant price tag of Achievement Points.

“This is fun.”

Alphen didn’t have an Achievement Shop, and to suddenly have access to items at a moment’s whim felt like he’d found the online store of a game.

“Hrm, there isn’t anything I want to buy right now.”

The only equipment he could buy were low grade, but the thing he needed the most at the moment was a Skill. However, even the lowest grade skill required ten Achievement Points.

After poring over the options for a minute, Woojin eventually shortlisted three skills.

[Search], [Detect], and [Skeleton Soldier Summon]

Each Skill cost ten Achievement Points, but he felt it worth the cost. [Search] would help him find more items, and more importantly, locate the Return Stone.

On the other hand, [Detect] was a passive skill that would alert him of danger in advance. It was an essential skill in helping him survive.

Lastly, [Skeleton Soldier Summon] was the bread and butter skill of a Necromancer.

Perhaps it was because his level had reset, or the fact that his class had been automatically selected, but there seemed to be limits on the types of Skills he could learn. He could freely learn common Magic and Weapon Skills, but he was limited to the Class Skills of a Necromancer.

“Well, I don’t need to worry about it right now. I don’t have enough points anyway.”

The four Achievement Points he had stared mutely back at him. It seemed pretty straightforward. One Drabbit gave one point. He’d be able to purchase a Skill if he defeated six more Drabbits.

The only thing he needed to defeat the monsters safely was his ability to fight. Thankfully, that was a problem he could solve without purchasing a Skill. He looked down at his Stat Window.

<Stat>

Strength : 30 Speed : 30 Health : 30 Wisdom : 30

Magic : 10 Vitality : 0 Recovery : 10 Healing : 10 Control : 9

Undistributed Points : 0

With a flick, Woojin distributed his points. He lightly swung the hammer as he looked at the updated Stat Window.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

The sound the hammer made as it moved through the air had grown significantly sharper. He checked his body, rolling his shoulder and flicking out a quick jab. His reaction speed had significantly improved, and his entire body felt as light as a feather.

At a guess, he outstripped a normal human’s limits ten times over. Woojin estimated that he was three times stronger and faster than a fit adult male. It also felt like his stamina had grown by a similar amount.

“I’m not sure if I’m three times smarter.”

His ability to memorize and calculate had definitely improved. It just felt like his brain worked faster. However, he could feel the difference in his body much more clearly.

“Ok, let’s go.”

He had to defeat six Drabbits. He could only escape the dungeon if he found the Return Stone. And for that, he needed [Search].

Woojin headed back into the dungeon, lightly hefting his clawed hammer.

***

Woojin breathed out, hard, “Ha, there are so many of them.”

On Alphen, Drabbits were so common that it was hard not to trip over them. They were easy to find, and easier to defeat. But still, fighting them over and over again in the narrow confines of the subway station was exhausting.

Woojin took in a ragged breath.

He’d methodically cleared the hallway at the bottom of the stairs of all the Drabbits he could find. As he killed his way forward, his Achievement Points steadily ticked up to thirty-one.

As he regained his breath, he used his Achievement Points to purchase [Search] and [Detect].

Immediately after Woojin confirmed his purchase, the respective Skill Books appeared in his Inventory. He wasted no time in learning them.

It cost him a Magic Point every time he used [Search], but when he invoked it, he didn’t see anything that could be called a Return Stone.

He had gone up and down the hallway and failed to find it. Which meant there was only one place left.

“Do I have to go down there?”

Woojin crouched behind the railing as he peered down the second set of stairs. It led to the deepest part of the station, the wrecked subway platform.

As he peeked over the railing, he could see more than twenty Drabbits milling about. Woojin was relatively confident about facing three or four Drabbits in a tight hallway, but twenty Drabbits in an open space was a different matter. If they surrounded him, he’d die as soon as they knocked him off his feet.

“Whew. It really isn’t in my personality to do everything myself anyway.”

Woojin smirked as he glanced down at the bloodstained hammer.

He opened the Achievement Shop and purchased [Skeleton Soldier Summon] with his remaining points.