Chapter 6 – Hoarding

The big-eared monkey is a tricky monster.

It’s not particularly strong, but it knows how to use weapons and moves nimbly.

Moreover, if it feels even slightly disadvantaged, it runs away and calls for its companions.

If you underestimate them, you’ll quickly find yourself skewered by the suddenly increased number of enemies.

Min Do-jun was currently in such a situation.

Screech! Screech! Screech!

Six big-eared monkeys surrounded Min Do-jun.

Each of them held a spear in their hands.

There was no space to dodge.

If they all thrust at once, a single shield wouldn’t be enough to block.

Knowing this, one monkey gave a signal.

Screeeeech!

The monkeys thrust their spears simultaneously.

It was at this moment that Min Do-jun activated his skill.

“Keu-heo-eo-eong-!!!”

The big-eared monkeys froze in their spear-thrusting postures.

Thud!

Boom!

Crash!

As he pushed them away with Shield Charge, the statues shattered into pieces.

[Experience +90]

[Experience +90]

[Experience +90]

[You have acquired an E-grade magic stone.]

‘Lucky.’

Min Do-jun grinned at the welcome notification.

To think he’d get an E-grade magic stone, which usually requires killing 200 monsters, after just 42 kills.

‘With this, I’ve made my daily wage.’

The selling price of an E-grade magic stone was 5 million won.

He had earned the average daily income of an E-grade hunter.

Moreover, Min Do-jun had just finished his first dungeon.

-Completion rate: 42/80 big-eared monkeys

-Time remaining: 2 hours 32 minutes 12 seconds

It took less than 30 minutes to kill more than half.

‘As promised, I can clear it in an hour.’

Min Do-jun stepped up his monkey hunting.

* * *

“Huh……”

Park Dong-yun, who came after receiving the call, couldn’t hide his bewilderment seeing Min Do-jun waiting at the dungeon entrance.

‘To think he’d really clear it in an hour…’

Once you enter a dungeon, you can’t come out even if you want to give up.

You have to either proceed with the conquest or wait for the time limit to pass before you can exit.

The fact that Min Do-jun had come out before the time limit was up meant only one thing.

Dungeon cleared.

Above all, the dungeon break time reset to 120 hours was proof of this.

‘This guy is really crazy!’

It wasn’t meant in a bad way.

It meant he was insanely strong for his grade.

“Hunter, you really came out in an hour. Wasn’t it difficult?”

“No, not really.”

“A-amazing. Are you hurt anywhere…?”

“No.”

It was visible to the naked eye.

There wasn’t a single scratch on Min Do-jun’s body.

‘How is this possible? Does he have an S-grade characteristic?’

He was very curious, but it was impolite to ask a hunter about their characteristics.

After all, characteristics were the secret weapon that determined a hunter’s abilities.

But he could at least ask about the level.

“Hunter, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your level…?”

“23.”

“Huh!”

An unbelievable growth rate for someone who had awakened just three days ago.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, nothing. It’s just that your level-up speed is quite fast.”

“Not really. It’s still only two digits.”

For Min Do-jun, who had approached level 5,000 in his previous life, this wasn’t a satisfactory performance.

“Haha, such modesty… Anyway, you must be hungry? Shall we go for lunch? I know a good soup restaurant…”

“No. I’ll just go to another dungeon. Please find me another big-eared monkey dungeon.”

“But you should at least eat…”

“It’s fine.”

Park Dong-yun, seeming to give up on persuading, operated his tablet to find a dungeon.

“You’re looking for an empty one, right?”

“Yes.”

“There’s one about 20 minutes away. Shall we go?”

* * *

There are about 5,000 dungeons in the country.

Of these, 1,700 are E-grade dungeons, and there are about 300 big-eared monkey dungeons nationwide.

In the metropolitan area where Min Do-jun is located, there are about 100.

Therefore, there was no need to worry about a shortage of dungeons.

‘Phew, is this the seventh one?’

Min Do-jun had conquered seven dungeons today alone.

All of them were big-eared monkey dungeons.

“Hunter. You’re going to stop now, right? You’re not going to do more, are you?”

Park Dong-yun asked with a fearful expression.

It was already close to midnight.

“Yes. Let’s stop here for today.”

“Thank you so much!”

Park Dong-yun was genuinely pleased.

If Min Do-jun had insisted on continuing, he might have had to stay up all night.

Instead, he would have received additional pay, but he didn’t want to work that much.

After parking the car in front of the house, Park Dong-yun asked curiously.

“Um, Hunter. What’s your level now?”

“37.”

“Gasp!”

Just 12 hours ago, he was only 23, and now he’s 37?

It was an astonishing speed.

“A-at this rate, you might be promoted to E-grade by tomorrow?”

“That’s right.”

Once you exceed level 50, you get promoted to E-grade.

And you get an additional skill slot.

‘Wasn’t he just level 1 not too long ago?’

It usually takes at least two months to go from F-grade to E-grade.

But the hunter in front of him was on track to hit E-grade in just a week.

It was unbelievable, but there was no choice but to believe it.

The level written in the ranking was proof of that.

‘Well, he did solo E-grade dungeons, so it’s natural to level up rapidly.’

Even so, it was too fast, but Park Dong-yun just accepted it.

There were too many things he couldn’t understand to question it.

“You must have gotten a lot of by-products today too. Since you went through seven dungeons…”

“A few pieces of equipment and some unnecessary skill books. About 4 E-grade magic stones.”

“……”

Park Dong-yun was too surprised to speak.

He got four of those 5 million won items.

‘2,000 million won a day is almost a C-grade hunter’s income?’

Min Do-jun, seemingly uninterested in whether Park Dong-yun was surprised or not, got out of the car.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Ah, yes! Hunter! Take care!”

Min Do-jun tilted his head slightly at the excessive greeting and walked towards his house, closing the door.

Watching his back, Park Dong-yun thought.

‘He’s a person who will rise to C-grade hunter, or even beyond.’

If a hunter he manages shows tremendous growth and becomes famous in the future?

His own status as the manager will also rise.

Park Dong-yun valued Min Do-jun as more than a C-grade hunter.

* * *

Han Sang-jun, the magic stone appraiser, was wide awake from the morning.

It was because of Min Do-jun who came to sell magic stones.

“W-what is all this?”

“E-grade magic stones.”

“I know that, but how did you get so many…”

In front of Han Sang-jun were four magic stones.

All of them E-grade.

When he first brought ten F-grade ones, he thought he had collected them over time.

But today he brought four more.

Magic stones are hard to get even one a day, but he got four the next day?

‘How did he get these?’

He was curious, but he couldn’t get an answer from Min Do-jun.

“Please process them quickly.”

“Ah, I’m sorry! I’ve confirmed them, you can go now.”

At those words, Min Do-jun immediately turned around.

“Thank you for using our service!”

After Min Do-jun disappeared, Han Sang-jun tilted his head and stored the magic stones in the safe.

Then he approached the female employee at the desk and asked.

“That hunter who just left.”

“Ah, Hunter Min Do-jun?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t he seem suspicious?”

“Huh? How so?”

“Yesterday and today, he brought multiple magic stones. You know how hard it is to get magic stones.”

“Really? That’s strange.”

“Right? It’s weird, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not that… That hunter awakened less than a week ago.”

“What?”

Han Sang-jun was shocked.

“Is that true?”

“Yes. A few days ago, a security guard witnessed his awakening effect right in front of here.”

“……”

Han Sang-jun put on a serious expression.

Now that he heard it, it seemed even more suspicious.

He ruled out the possibility that he had obtained all those magic stones alone.

It was something that didn’t make sense common sense-wise.

* * *

[Deposit 20,000,000 won]

Min Do-jun indifferently put his smartphone back after seeing the text message.

He didn’t feel particularly excited even though such a large sum of 20 million won had been deposited.

When he was ranked 1st, he had earned even 2 billion won in a day.

And anyway, it was money that needed to be invested for the future.

That’s why he visited the Hunter Wholesale Market again.

‘I need to buy the Lion’s Roar skill in advance.’

Lion’s Roar is a high-priced skill that will sell for 200 million won in a year.

Although it’s selling for only 200,000 won now, if you just have it, you can make a 1,000-fold profit, so it’s worth investing in.

‘It has to be now. I need to hoard when I have the chance.’

It’s most efficient to hunt in the big-eared monkey dungeon until level 120.

Therefore, there would be no need to spend money for the time being.

Ding-

“Welcome!”

Min Do-jun, who entered the store, immediately approached the merchant.

“Do you have the Lion’s Roar skill here?”

“Huh? Lion’s Roar?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t know.

It was because it was the first time he had seen someone looking for the Lion’s Roar skill.

“We do have it, but…”

“How many do you have?”

The merchant touched the monitor to check the inventory.

“We have 5.”

“I’ll take them all.”

“Pardon?”

Let’s say we can understand choosing a non-mainstream skill.

But asking for all the remaining stock?

“You could just buy one, why…”

“Do I need to explain that too?”

Min Do-jun retorted sharply.

There was no need to explain, after all.

“I’m just curious…”

“If you don’t want to, I’ll go somewhere else.”

“Ah, no! I’ll sell them!”

Of course, as a merchant, there was no reason not to sell.

There was no reason to refuse when someone was willing to buy all the stock, including the skill books that were just gathering dust due to lack of popularity.

“It’s 200,000 won each, so 1 million won in total.”

He felt strange but also pleased, but he didn’t know.

He had no idea that the skill books he sold for 200,000 won each would rise to 200 million in the future.

“Thank you.”

Min Do-jun left the store in a good mood.

And he entered another store and hoarded in the same way.

“Welcome!”

“Do you have the Lion’s Roar skill here?”

“Huh? Ah, yes, of course!”

“Give me all you have.”

“Pardon? A-all of them?”

Each time, the merchant would make a puzzled expression, but it didn’t matter.

Lion’s Roar wasn’t popular enough to regulate hoarding anyway.

“Thank you! Please come again!”

Rather, the merchants kept bowing their heads in gratitude for clearing out the troublesome items that were rotting in their warehouses.

In this way, Min Do-jun was able to hoard skill books by going around various stores.

‘Are there no more?’

He had obtained 100 Lion’s Roar skills by going around all the skill book stores.

He had spent 20 million won and secured 20 billion won.

‘This should be enough funds for future use.’

The more money, the better.

You can buy necessary items or use it for something else.

Money has countless uses.

Even though it was all just a fund for revenge.

‘Ranking system.’

[Domestic Ranking]

1st – Shin Kyung-min (Born 1995) – Level 2431 (A-grade)

2nd – Kang Hyuk-soo (Born 1981) – Level 2426 (A-grade)

3rd – Jung Hye-won (Born 1995) – Level 2420 (A-grade)

—————

———-

—–

34,119th – Min Do-jun (Born 2000) – Level 37 (F-grade)

Currently, Shin Kyung-min is the No. 1 A-grade hunter in the Korean ranking.

The reason he’s not S-grade yet is because his level is below 3,000.

Anyway, it’s an incomparably high level compared to Min Do-jun.

‘I need to keep growing.’

Right now, even if he met Shin Kyung-min, he couldn’t even scratch him.

To take revenge, he needs to become strong enough.

For that, overwhelming growth is necessary.

Ordinary growth won’t be enough to catch up.

Of course, Min Do-jun had also risen to No. 1 with overwhelming growth in his previous life.

It was thanks to the S-grade characteristic called Revenge.

‘But it took 10 years to reach No. 1.’

10 years is too long.

He needed faster growth than in his previous life.

‘I’ll take revenge within 7 years, no, 5 years.’

Even 5 years was quite a long time, but it was just the time until he could take revenge on Shin Kyung-min.

There were 14 more targets for revenge besides Shin Kyung-min.

18,982nd – Shim Jin-seop (Born 1999) – Level 140 (E-grade)

Shim Jin-seop was one of them.

‘I’ll come for you soon.’

The firewood of revenge lit a fire in Min Do-jun’s chest.