The moment he spoke, his entire body was enveloped in a faint blue aura.
'Uh... what is this feeling?'
Ji-Hee's face immediately came to mind. He'd felt something similar when receiving magical treatment for injuries. If he had to describe it, it was like fresh air flowing into his lungs and then leaving again. Shuwook— he could feel the blue aura gradually fading away. A strange sense of wistfulness washed over him. Jin-Woo stood up from where he was, jumped up and down a few times, and stretched his body from side to side.
"No way!"
His pounding heart calmed down, and his rough breathing stabilized. He felt no fatigue at all. His body, which had felt like it was about to collapse, now felt refreshed, as if he'd just woken up from a good sleep. The effect was perfect.
'That's amazing.'
Jin-Woo's eyes went wide. Whether it was magic or something else, this phenomenon could have a powerful impact on him. Then what about those things called ability points? Jin-Woo looked up, and a small box on the bed and a status window floating in front of his eyes came into view.
'So the Random Box must be that box...'
The important thing was the status window. The status window displayed a brief summary of his information.
Name: Sung Jin-Woo Level: 1 Class: None Title: None HP: 100 MP: 10 Fatigue: 0
[Stats] Strength: 10 Endurance: 10 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 10 Perception: 10 (Available ability points: 3)
[Skills] Passive Skills: (Unknown) Lv.MAX, Tenacity Lv.1 Active Skills: Dash Lv.1
It looked similar to the stats of a newly created beginner character in an online game from back in the day.
'So these are my current stats?'
Level 1 for now. All stats at their base values. Given that he was considered the weakest among even E-rank Hunters, this was hardly surprising. What caught his eye was the Skills section. The passive skill 'Tenacity' and the active skill 'Dash'. They seemed strangely familiar.
"Ah, come to think of it, yesterday..."
Yesterday— or to be precise, last night— these had been the words contained in the messages he heard while being chased by centipedes in the Penalty Zone. It must have been when he'd been running for his life for about three hours? A message had suddenly popped up.
['Skill: Dash Lv.1' has been acquired.] ['Skill: Tenacity Lv.1' has been acquired.]
At the time, he'd been too focused on running to think about what it meant, but now things were different. Jin-Woo checked the skill details.
[Skill: Dash Lv.1] Active Skill. Mana required: 5. Running has strengthened your legs. When the skill is cast, movement speed increases by 30%. While active, mana decreases by 1 per minute.
[Skill: Tenacity Lv.1] Passive Skill. Mana required: None. You possess tenacity that does not give in to exhaustion. When endurance drops below 30%, Tenacity activates and damage received is reduced by 50%.
'So I was able to learn [Dash] and [Tenacity] because I kept running persistently?'
That made everything fit together. In other words, by repeating the same action and meeting certain requirements, a skill could be learned.
"Oh my god!"
This was an incredible advantage. The skills that Hunters could use were ones obtained either at the time of their first awakening or through rune stones that occasionally dropped from A-rank or higher magical beasts. The price of rune stones ranged from a minimum of hundreds of millions to over tens of billions. The most expensive rune stone sold at a recent auction had gone for approximately 70 billion won. It contained a skill capable of fully restoring numerous injured people to their original condition, and was reportedly purchased anonymously out of pocket by a foreign S-rank healing Hunter. Jin-Woo's heart started to race. A skill that increased movement speed and a skill that reduced damage received. They couldn't compare to skills that had sold for tens of billions, but they were plenty good enough. And he'd learned them for free. With so little mana, it would be hard to use them properly, but at least he had learned them.
'Besides, the Tenacity skill doesn't even require mana...'
Mana seemed to refer to magical power. That meant even someone like him, who was lacking in magical power, could at least use the Tenacity skill freely. That alone was a huge gain.
"But... what is this 'Unknown' thing?"
[Skills] Passive Skills: (Unknown) Lv.MAX
'Unknown' occupied one slot among his passive skills. Since it was passive, it should be an automatically activating skill, but no information was displayed at all.
'There aren't even any clues.'
The information he could obtain was far too limited. Dwelling on it at this point didn't seem like it would lead to any answers.
So Jin-Woo shifted his attention elsewhere.
'Ability points, huh...'
He still had three ability points from his reward, undistributed.
[Stats] Strength: 10 Endurance: 10 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 10 Perception: 10 (Available ability points: 3)
'So I can raise a stat by 3 points?'
There were five stats on the list. Since he was level 1, all of them were straightforward. But considering this was reality, he couldn't think about it so simply. If his actual abilities could change based on a moment's choice, who could make that decision lightly? Jin-Woo's expression turned serious.
'Strength should be physical power...'
He had a rough idea of what Strength, Endurance, and Agility meant. They were the kind of 'stats' commonly encountered in games. The problem was the Intelligence and Perception stats at the end of the list— and true to the System's consistently unhelpful nature, there was no explanation for them this time either. Would raising Intelligence make him smarter? Would raising Perception make him more sensitive? Either way, neither Intelligence nor Perception looked particularly useful. He was a combat-type Hunter. What he needed was strength, speed, or endurance.
'If I had to pick one of the three, it'd be strength.'
Having more strength would be convenient in many ways. And he was curious to see what kind of change an increase in a stat's value would actually produce in his body. So he invested all his points into the Strength stat, where the changes would be most visibly obvious.
"Three points into Strength."
Ding.
[Stats] Strength: 13 Endurance: 10 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 10 Perception: 10 (Available ability points: 0)
'Is that... it?'
That was all. The only change was the Strength stat number floating before his eyes like a hologram, going from 10 to 13. There was no uncontrollable surge of power coursing through his body like in a manga or movie.
"Did anything actually change?"
Well, let's test the strength first. Jin-Woo walked over to the bedside and tried lifting the bed. He could feel some weight, but it came up more easily than he'd expected. However, he couldn't tell whether that was because the bed wasn't that heavy or because his strength had actually increased.
'I should have lifted it once before spending the points.'
Since he'd already spent all his points, it was difficult to tell the difference between before and after the investment.
'If I had more points...'
As he smacked his lips in longing, a memory suddenly flashed through his mind.
"The Penalty Quest reward!"
He hadn't just completed the Daily Quest today. He'd nearly died, but he had definitely completed the Penalty Quest too, and a message had appeared confirming the reward. Jin-Woo frantically pulled up the message window.
[Penalty Quest completion rewards have arrived.] [Would you like to check the rewards?] (Y/N)
"I knew it!"
Jin-Woo clenched his fist in triumph. Of course it's YES!
[The following rewards are prepared for you.] Reward 1. Ability points +3 Reward 2. Random Box ×1
[Would you like to accept all?]
Unlike the Daily Quest completion, there was no option to recover his condition, but what he needed were ability points. He'd been worried that the rewards might be different since it was a quest given as a penalty, but fortunately he received the same 3 points. Jin-Woo cheered.
"Three additional points into Strength."
Ding.
[Stats] Strength: 16 Endurance: 10 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 10 Perception: 10 (Available ability points: 0)
Strength jumped from 13 to 16. Jin-Woo stood before the bed again and put force into his arms. The bed came up far more easily than before. Now he could clearly tell the difference.
"It's real...!"
He had genuinely gotten stronger. In terms of stats alone, it was a full 60 percent increase from his original value of 10— how could he not feel the difference? Excited, Jin-Woo started lifting not just the bed but all sorts of furniture around the hospital room, making a racket. He finally stopped only after being scolded by the head nurse, who had happened to pass by and heard the noise.
"...I'm sorry."
After the head nurse left, Jin-Woo let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew."
But his excitement hadn't subsided. His heart was pounding fiercely. Thump-thump, thump-thump. It almost hurt. Daily quests that came every day, and ability point rewards! As long as this phenomenon didn't suddenly stop, he could live a life completely different from before. This was a huge opportunity. And on top of that, the level he'd seen in the information window.
'Maybe I can even raise my level?'
Jin-Woo shook his head.
'Nah... surely not.'
It sounded too much like a dream. He wasn't hoping for that much. The quests and rewards alone were enough. Use ability points to boost his abilities. Better today than yesterday, better tomorrow than today. Growing stronger day by day.
'Me— an E-rank Hunter, and one called the weakest of the weak at that— getting stronger?'
There was no need to aim as high as S-rank or A-rank. Even the C-rank and D-rank Hunters he'd worked alongside would laugh if they heard this. They'd clutch their bellies and point fingers. Sung Jin-Woo getting stronger? That Sung Jin-Woo of all people? But he'd gladly take the mockery. No— he was already used to being mocked. He was simply happy to have this opportunity in his hands. But then a question suddenly occurred to him.
'Could this be an awakening process after the initial awakening?'
It wasn't common, but there were definitely cases of bottom-tier Hunters who had undergone reawakening and risen to the top tier. Then couldn't it be that all Hunters who got stronger through reawakening had experienced this same phenomenon?
'Let me look it up.'
Curious, Jin-Woo seated himself at the computer set up in the corner of the hospital room. Since this was a VIP room provided by the Association, it came with a computer and all sorts of convenient amenities. Tap-tap-tap. Jin-Woo's fingers moved quickly across the keyboard. He searched, searched, and searched again. He visited countless websites. He even accessed sites that were restricted to holders of Hunter licenses. He paid for paid information and combed through related documents endlessly. But he found nothing even remotely similar.
'It's different.'
It was completely different from a normal reawakening. Most reawawakened Hunters gained their power through an awakening process similar to the one they experienced when becoming Hunters in the first place. There were zero cases like his— hearing a strange voice right before death, or seeing ability point values like in a game and growing stronger by raising those numbers.