Level Up - Chapter 6

An artifact…

There’s a small chance to obtain a treasure made with mana after the dungeon is cleared.

And that treasure just appeared in front of them.

As it was a weapon artifact, everyone was eager to jump off and snatch it for themselves. However, no one dared to move.

In a raid, the person who contributes the most has the right to take the artifact. This was a rule decided not by players, but by the dungeon. Only the person with the highest contribution could take it. The artifact will also disappear and turn into mana if no one takes it after a certain amount of time.

In gaming terms, the item will turn into exp.

Hyun Seok was calmly looking at the sword. In contrast, Chang Soo and his group couldn’t stand still.

“Is he not going to take it? There’s not much time left…”

Hyun Seok scanned his surroundings. Around 30 people were watching them with excited eyes.

Hyun Seok could easily differentiate players and commoners because of the translucent name tag above a player’s head.

One could assume that there would only be players in a dungeon spawning area, but that wasn’t the case. There were a lot of commoner workers from the Dungeon Headquarters, and some were here just for sightseeing. A place where black and white vortexes were everywhere in the air was a magnificent sight to see. Thus, tourism flourished in dungeon areas. Ordinary people didn’t even have to worry that they’ll be drawn into the vortexes since only players can enter a dungeon. Furthermore, a closing dungeon with an artifact appearing was quite a sight to see.

Hyun Seok grabbed the floating sword, conscious of the players, tourists, and surveillance cameras of the Dungeon Headquarters.

Suddenly, with a cracking noise, a wave of mana spread in every direction with Hyun Seok at the center.

Hyun Seok calls this process as Artifact Materialization.

Holding the sword, Hyun Seok turned towards Chang Soo’s group and said: “That’s it for today. I’ll get back to you guys later.”

Chang Soo gave Hyun Seok a funny look as he left with those words.

“Is he for real?”

No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t believe Hyun Seok was a twenty year old. There was no way someone that young could order them around like this.

“What should we do now?” Park Myung Seok asked.

Chang Soo turned towards the group and saw that everyone was in a bad state. After going through those awful dungeons, of course they would!

“How did he manage to find those types of dungeons?”

Chang Soo was bewildered but he decided to just stop thinking about it.

“Let’s rest first. He’ll probably call us on his own.”

They didn’t even dare to bring up the distributions.

Chang Soo began to walk back, wishing Hyun Seok wouldn’t call them that often.

* * *

There were a total of ten doors managed by the Dungeon Headquarters on the wall surrounding the dungeon spawning area.

Within those doors were inspection rooms to check the player’s possessions.

Primitive methods such as a full body checkup were ruled out by a mana meter that could instantly identify any item that has mana.

Also, the items had to be placed on a table. It would later be returned after going through a separate verification and recording process.

But if a person tries to smuggle something, it will be confiscated.

That’s why no one dared to take such a risk. It’s not like the Dungeon Headquarters was trying to steal or harm anyone, anyway. They were  just recording it, so no one gave much thought about it as it was only a standard management procedure.

But in truth, this process’ purpose was to sort out objects that can pose a threat to the world.

Hyun Seok approached the table and saw three men watching him and spotted a name tag above their heads.

“They’re all players..”

A man called Kim Soo Han asked Hyun Seok, “Please place the things you got from the dungeon on this table.”

Hyun Seok placed the sword in his hand down first. After all, everyone must have already seen him carry it, and the cameras would have captured him with it as well.

Hyun Seok placed his hand on his short sword and asked, “Do I need to put this down too?”

He was asking whether they were going to inspect the equipment he originally wore.

Kim Soo Han smiled and nodded.

“I’d appreciate it if you would.”

He spoke softly, but it was more like a polite command, as it was required. Hyun Seok threw the short sword on the table like it was nothing and took out some items from the bag that he was carrying.

Everyone was surprised at what he brought out.

“That’s a large core you got there.”

Kim Soo Han said while looking at the core in astonishment. They were staring at the core that Hyun Seok got from the Devil Vine.

These three men were in charge of the surveillance cameras, so they already knew where Hyun Seok got this core.

Although Hyun Seok cleared the Bronze 1 dungeon quite fast and also obtained an artifact, other than that, there wasn’t anything noteworthy.

The size of the core in front of them was about the size of a core that would come out from a Gold 5 dungeon. The market price for a core like this was at least 400 million won. (Around 3-400k USD)

Hyun Seok then placed two smaller cores on the table.

The surprised Kim Soo Han said, “You must be very lucky today to get three cores from one dungeon.”

Hyun Seok didn’t bring out the other cores. Instead, he brought out the monster’s by-products on the table. He only took out the ones that were well-known for their usage.

Lightning pouches, pieces of eyeballs, a fruit that grew on the Devil Vine… he brought them out one at a time.

“Is that all?” Kim Soo Han asked out of formality.

Hyun Seok didn’t reply.

It was common to get byproducts after clearing a dungeon, but if you’re lucky, you can get magical cores. With some more luck, you might even get an artifact.

Kim Soo Han thought that Hyun Seok had already used up his lifelong luck today in this dungeon.

Kim Soo Han then raised a large mana meter that looked like a giant magnifying glass.

It was to check whether Hyun Seok was hiding anything. This rarely happened, so it was also just a formality.

Kim Soo Han roughly scanned Hyun Seok and nodded.

“We’re done checking. You can leave now.”

Hyun Seok packed all the stuff on the table into his bag and left the room leisurely.

* * *

Hyun Seok headed straight to the Dungeon Headquarters after going back to the city. He decided not to go back to his one-bedroom apartment, so he was planning to find a house near the headquarters.

Hyun Seok sold the three cores for 500 million won and deposited it in his bank account.

He went to a nearby real estate to find a suitable studio apartment.

Since he had enough money, he definitely could find a house where he could move in right away.

He wasn’t planning to live here for a long time anyway. If he could increase his mana pool a little more, he could obtain a place for himself. Others may not know, but Hyun Seok knew how.

Entering the empty apartment, Hyun Seok placed down his bag in the middle of the living room. That bag contained the 30 cores and byproducts that he hasn’t sold.

The reason why Hyun Seok could smuggle it in without getting caught was because of his exceptional mana control. He used his own mana to restrain the mana in the bag from flowing out. This was Hyun Seok’s unique ability, and he hadn’t met a single player that could do the same thing, even in his past life.

Hyun Seok smuggled these things for the item he was trying to make.

“I wonder how many I could make with these…”

Many ingredients were laid out on the floor, but the most essential ingredient was the magical core. He had 30 cores with only 1200 mana, so 90 will be the limit no matter how efficient he is.

Hyun Seok picked up the ingredients he needed and slowly injected his mana into them.

The most crucial part of this task was mana control. If one didn’t have decent control, it was impossible to mix the ingredients in an appropriate proportion and would end as a failure.

However, Hyun Seok was confident that he could do it without failing. He had done this more than a thousand times in the past.

At that time, this was a part of his hunting preparations.

Hyun Seok began to move his mana with exquisite control with the materials and magical core in his hand.

Mana is really a mysterious power, as it was able to combine the ingredients and stone together.

Hyun Seok was concentrating so hard that he started sweating.

Although he was familiar with the process, it wasn’t easy because his mana wasn’t as abundant as before.

The work was soon completed. Hyun Seok gasped and looked down at the results of his work.

There were three green jelly pieces on the floor.

It was as big as an adult’s thumb but there’s mana swirling within.

It would have been hard for people other than Hyun Seok to see the mana within the jelly because it was trapped inside.

Hyun Seok carefully examined the jelly and nodded his head shortly after.

“I made it pretty well.”

Hyun Seok honestly thought that he would fail due to his low mana pool, but the result was better than what he expected.

“That aside… When am I going to finish making these at this speed?”

Hyun Seok sighed while looking at the ingredients all over the floor.

After succeeding three times more, Hyun Seok was now too exhausted to continue. He felt as empty as that time when he drained his mana attacking the Devil Vine.

It would take a couple of hours to refill his mana.

“I still have to continue!”

He had to. This would pave the way for his future.

Hyun Seok slowly closed his eyes and began to focus on restoring his mana.

The jelly that he created was an item that would drastically change the dungeon hunting a decade later.

It was also the top contributor to the clearing of a Diamond-tiered dungeon, which was considered impossible to clear at that time.

Hyun Seok smiled as mana slowly drew towards his body and seeped in, quickly recovering his mana.

Three days later…