Solo Leveling Chapter 148:
'The raid must've started by now . '
The Association President Goh Gun-Hui looked at his wristwatch and smiled softly to himself . The raid in question was, of course, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's .
If it was at all possible, he wanted to see for himself, but . . . . due to the nature of his job, it was simply not feasible, so all he could do was to send in an Association employee he trusted greatly as a proxy, instead .
He was getting all worked up already, thinking about what Section Chief Woo Jin-Cheol's report would entail .
'Ah, right . I shouldn't be doing this right now . '
Goh Gun-Hui shook his head lightly to get rid of the distracting thoughts . There were mountains of documents sitting on top of his desk right now . They were practically forming the towers of documents at this point .
Ever since the dungeon break inside the high school happened, this pile of documents didn't want to decrease no matter how hard he worked every single day . No, they seemed to get even taller, instead . That was how insanely busy he was, yet his interest in Hunter Seong Jin-Woo didn't wane one bit .
If only his body was healthy – wouldn't he have cleared some dungeons together with Hunter Seong, too?
'Huh, I'm also being hopeless, aren't I?'
Goh Gun-Hui shook his head one more time and returned to his work with a smile on his face .
And so, just how long did he concentrate on the documents?
Knock, knock .
He raised his head after hearing the knock on the door, and realised that three hours had flown by .
"It's Woo Jin-Cheol, sir . "
The news he was waiting for had finally arrived . Without a single hint of fatigue visible on his countenance, Goh Gun-Hui welcomed Woo Jin-Cheol into the office .
"Please, come in . "
Creak .
Goh Gun-Hui's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets after he saw Woo Jin-Cheol's face as the latter cautiously entered the office .
'What's this?'
He expected there to be no problems, yet Wool Jin-Cheol looked as if he got dragged through a wringer, instead .
'It's not just anybody but Hunter Seong Jin-Woo we are talking about here, so how come Chief Woo looks like that . . . . ??'
His confusion only lasted for a short while, though .
"May I sit down for a little while, sir?"
Woo Jin-Cheol sounded desperate, so Goh Gun-Hui quickly pointed to the couch .
"Of course, it's fine . Do take a seat . "
He then got up from the President's chair behind the desk to settle down in the opposite side to Woo Jin-Cheol .
Plop .
Woo Jin-Cheol powerlessly sunk deep into the couch . He rubbed his face with his hands, showing how tired he was .
Just what happened inside the dungeon?
Even before Woo Jin-Cheol could start explaining himself, Goh Gun-Hui couldn't win against his curiosity and started first .
"What happened to you? Why does your face look like . . . . ?"
"Pardon? Is there something on my face, sir?"
"You look incredibly tired right now . As if you couldn't sleep a wink for the past few days . "
"Ah . . . . . "
Nod, nod .
Woo Jin-Cheol wordlessly nodded his head a few times as if he could understand everything now .
"It's probably because I'm just too shocked, that's all . Sir . "
"Shocked . . . . ? Please, tell me more in detail . My friend, didn't you accompany Hunter Seong Jin-Woo to observe his raid?"
Woo Jin-Cheol lowered his gaze and slowly shook his head .
"That, sir, that wasn't a raid . It was . . . . . "
" . . . . It was?"
Woo Jin-Cheol raised his head, shock and fear still writ large in his trembling eyes .
"Sir, it was the scene of a massacre . "
The charismatic leader of the Monitoring Division, Woo Jin-Cheol, often thought to be possessing an inborn heart of steel, was speaking with a voice that trembled ever so softly .
"A massacre, is it . . . . . ?"
Goh Gun-Hui swallowed his saliva .
Woo Jin-Cheol replied without hesitation, evidently not even thinking of changing or denying his description .
"Yes, sir . "
Was there any other description that fit what happened in there? It was as the word suggested, a total massacre . Woo Jin-Cheol didn't hold back on anything and confessed to everything he saw at the behest of the Association President .
"The dungeon was a nest of Nagas, sir . "
Goh Gun-Hui narrowed his eyes as he combed through his knowledge of various monsters .
'If it's a Naga . . . . '
Creatures that resembled a hybrid of a human and a sea snake, preferred to live in damp areas, and experts of both melee and magic attacks, capable of giving many experienced Hunters a hard time – those points were the Nagas in a nutshell .
They were also known as really tough opponents to contend with as they moved around in large groups, even though they were high-ranked monsters .
However . . . .
'But, someone of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's level shouldn't be having a hard time against a handful of Nagas going around in groups?'
As if he had read Goh Gun-Hui's inner thoughts, Woo Jin-Cheol clarified himself .
" . . . . I even felt sorry for the Nagas at some point, sir . "
" . . . . . !!"
Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the scenes back then . When a group of 30-strong Nagas suddenly made their appearance, he even momentarily forgot who was next to him and tensed up greatly . Nagas were dangerous enough existences to warrant such a reaction from him .
But then . . . .
" . . . . The surrounding areas suddenly became 'dark', sir . "
Or, more specifically, he should have said that a massive black shadow suddenly extended out from beneath Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's feet .
All the hair on Woo Jin-Cheol's body stood up after he realised that something big was about to happen . And precisely at that moment, soldiers emerged above ground one by one from the extended shadow .
And the battle – no, a massacre, commenced .
- Kiiiaahk!
- Kiihhaaak!
- Kiiaaahhh-!!
Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's summoned creatures pounced forward and proceeded to mercilessly rip the Nagas apart into many **** pieces .
"At least, those summons wearing black armours, like the humanoid types and the High Orcs types, were a bit more humane . But then . . . . . "
The summons resembling bears and ants were far too feral even for his tolerance level .
"Some of the ants even began eating the corpse of the monsters . Hunter Seong Jin-Woo became so incensed that he even physically kicked them . "
Woo Jin-Cheol began shuddering after remembering this one ant that tried to sneak a dead Naga's head into its mouth, only to get discovered by irate Hunter Seong . It got splendidly buried deep into a wall from a powerful kick .
Although, he still couldn't tell whether he was shuddering from the horrifying summons, or from Jin-Woo who could unhesitatingly kick a summon like that into a wall .
Seeing the tense look on Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes, even Goh Gun-Hui became extra tense as well, dry saliva gliding down his throat .
"Were his summons strong?"
"They were really strong, sir . "
There was no need to even mention it . Soldiers resembling humans, Orc-type soldiers, bears and ant type soldiers; not one of them could be called weak by any stretch of the imagination . But, the biggest highlight of them all was . . . .
"There was this one summon with a red mane attached to its black helmet . "
Woo Jin-Cheol raised his dipped head again and stared straight into Goh Gun-Hui's eyes .
"Would you believe me when I told you that particular summon could shoot lightning out of its sword every time it took a swing, sir?"
"Oh my **** . . . . . "
Goh Gun-Hui was feeling completely astonished now . The lightning magic contained the destructive power of fire-based magic as well as the speedy nature of the light-based magic .
Because of that, only a handful of very high-class Mage-type Hunters could cast such magic spells . Even then, firing them consecutively was out of the question .
But then, a summon could shoot such magic all the time by swinging its sword around?
Goh Gun-Hui could only shake his head in helplessness . He definitely wouldn't have believed it if it weren't coming from the subordinate he deeply believed in . But then, the unbelievable story continued on even further .
"In my opinion, that particular summon should be above rank A in terms of power, sir . "
"Are you serious??"
Goh Gun-Hui's voice rose up higher .
How could a single summon possess powers almost at the level of a rank S?!
Unfortunately, Woo Jin-Cheol guaranteed it . And he was right at the peak of rank A Hunters too, ability-wise, so he knew what he was talking about .
"If I were to fight that summon one on one . . . . Honestly, I'm not confident of winning, sir . "
Indeed, if such an evaluation came out from Woo Jin-Cheol's mouth, someone with strong self-confidence, then it would be no problem to evaluate that summon as a rank S .
"Huh-uh . . . "
Goh Gun-Hui leaned against the couch's back .
He already had a good idea how capable Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was, but to think, each and every one of his summons would possess such a high level of power, too .
What a regretful thing it was, not being there to personally confirm it with his own two eyes .
Goh Gun-Hui was getting shocked just from hearing it second-hand, so how would Woo Jin-Cheol have felt as he was actually there? Suddenly, it became rather easier to understand the worn-down appearance of Woo Jin-Cheol . He must've been slapped in the face constantly with one surprise after another .
"However, sir, there was an even more shocking spectacle, sir . "
Woo Jin-Cheol carried on as if that was not even the end of the tale .
"The ants . . . . they began 'working', sir . "
Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes trembled again as he recalled those scenes .
Ants received pickaxes from the bag carried by Ah-Jin Guild's Vice-Master . And then, they proceeded to mine out the Mana Stones from the dungeon walls .
Ants were also in charge of carrying away the mined Mana Stones as well as the remains of the dead monsters . Woo Jin-Cheol simply couldn't tear his eyes away from the perfectly-organised ants and their unbelievably fast working speed . They were basically the incarnations of efficient 'operation' .
Woo Jin-Cheol was deeply astonished back then, and he was feeling admiration now .
"What I saw, sir, it wasn't something as simple as a one-man raid team . Not at all . "
No, this one man was capable of clearing a dungeon, retrieving the remains, and also mining out the minerals, too .
Woo Jin-Cheol was definitely sure of it . And that would be – calling Hunter Seong a one-man raid team was actually insulting the man .
"No, sir . That man, he's actually an entire Guild rolled into one . "
He was not a one-man raid team, but a one-man Guild, instead . Technically speaking, there was that not-that-helpful Vice Master too, but nothing would've changed even if he wasn't present, so Woo Jin-Cheol's assertion wasn't wrong at all .
Goh Gun-Hui slapped his knee .
'I knew it . My eyes weren't wrong!'
A broad smile didn't want to leave his face now .
Like how he had been anticipating it since the beginning, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo would definitely go on to become the brand-new ballast that keeps the balance neutral in the Korean Hunter community . But now, he began to think that the youth might even go on to change the map of the Hunters worldwide, too .
"And then . . . . we finally arrived at the boss chamber, sir . "
The story hadn't ended yet??
Goh Gun-Hui quickly refocused on the tale once more . Woo Jin-Cheol carried on .
Normal Nagas would be around two, three times larger than regular human beings . But, he said that the boss Naga found within the boss room was easily four-times larger, and the pressure it emitted was incredible as well .
"Did Seong Hunter use his summons to quickly finish off the boss-level monsters?"
Woo Jin-Cheol slowly shook his head .
"No, sir . He actually cancelled the summoning altogether, except for those ants busy with retrieval and mining operations . "
"What? But, why would he??"
Goh Gun-Hui gasped out in surprise, and Woo Jin-Cheol could only reply with a stiff face .
"I was also curious as to why, so I asked him . I questioned him why he would cancel the summoning when he was about to fight the boss . "
Goh Gun-Hui was so invested in the tale that, unbeknownst to him, he had begun leaning forward .
"And what did he say?"
"Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim told me this . . . . "
Woo Jin-Cheol took his time a little as if to drag out his unwilling memories to the surface, and cautiously opened his mouth .
"If he relied too much on his summons, then his . . . . . "
***
" . . . . My instincts would become softer, you see . "
Jin-Woo spoke up and took a step forward as the pair of 'Demon King's Shortsword' was grasped in his hands .
He didn't even need to call out his soldiers . There was only one boss-level monster and four others guarding said boss creature, after all .
Jin-Woo kicked the ground and dashed forward .
'Quicksilver!'
Even before any of the guardian monsters could react, he slipped past them and closed the distance with the giant Naga at the back .
'Violent Slash!!'
Dozens upon dozens of silvery light flickered and descended on the lower body of the boss monster .
Slice-slice-slice-slice!!
"Keuhaaaakk!!"
The boss writhed and screamed, and in the meantime, the guardians tried to pounce on Jin-Woo . But he simply used the head of one of the guards to jump straight upwards .
Taht!
And when his eyes drew level with the boss's way up above in the air, he swung his shortsword sideways .
SWISH-!!
"Kiiiahk!!"
The boss's head was sliced off clean and it flew away . At the same time, a new System message popped into his view .
Tti-ring .
[You have killed the owner of this dungeon . ]
[Level up!]
Jin-Woo's expression brightened at once from that wonderful message .
'Ohh!!'
He landed softly back on the ground and spun around once . That caused all of the guard monsters trying to rush at him to collapse to the ground at the same time .
Strangely enough, the System messages didn't end there .
Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring . . . . !!
Suddenly, he was inundated with a constant barrage of mechanical beeps .
'What's this?!'
His fluster could only last for a short while, though .
[You have reached level 101 . ]
[Levels of all your Class-specific skills have risen . ]
[Skill: 'Shadow Extraction' has levelled up . ]
[Skill: 'Shadow Storage' has levelled up . ]
[Skill: 'Sovereign's Territory' has levelled up . ]
[Skill: 'Shadow Exchange' has levelled up . ]
Jin-Woo's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets at the rising wall of messages .
< Chapter 148 > Fin .