Evolution Theory of the Hunter

The next day, after waking up with a mean hangover, I got out a piece of paper to write down my skill level, proficiency, and reward points.

[0,5,5150]

Strength 50.

Endurance 50.

Reflexes 50.

Total Capacity 100.

After 50 percent, it was reasonable to think the next level up would put me at 100 percent. It wasn’t the multiplication of leveling up that I had initially thought but I could live with this. I was determined to get each and every ability to its total capacity. I figured it the best idea to just focus on raising just one physical ability. It would probably help me more if I improved in all areas evenly.

I was able to work on my strength and endurance at the neighborhood gym. As soon as I raised them both to 100 percent, I saw that 2,000 reward points had been deducted.

Now I had 3,150 points left. I again worked on my strength. This time 1,500 points were deducted in trade for a 150% increase in strength. Simply, this meant I could carry a 500kg backpack without breaking a sweat. With this kind of strength, I could probably bend rebar and crush concrete with my fists.

1,650 left. I decided I would use the rest towards increasing my reflexes.

I called Jung Sooah and headed to the park. I waited 30 minutes until she finally appeared.

The relflex exercise was the same as what we did the last time. Jung Sooah threw the balls and I dodged them. It was simple, but produced the necessary results.

“What are you going to do about Park Jungbeh?”

She asked while throwing the balls.

“What do you what am I going to do?”

“I’m sure he’ll come after you to get his armor back!”

“He should be thanking his lucky stars he made it out alive.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Hey. Focus on throwing thosse balls.”

I grabbed the ball flying toward me in one hand and said as I stretched out my hips. But it seemed she couldn’t stop from worrying.

“…Is it because of me?”

“What?”

“If you’re being like this because of me then you don’t have to. Because if I think that you might get hurt because of me…”

I threw the ball at her.

“Euk! What the hell?”

“Wake up. Why would you think I’d put myself in danger for you? If you don’t fix that bad habit of thinking that everything revolves around you, you’ll end up getting scammed by someone someday real soon.”

“So, so that’s not it?”

“And I did all of that for a good reason. And it’s not like I’m going to run into any real problems anyway.”

“What?”

“I got this in trade for saving his life. I even recorded him on top of having a couple witnesses so he can’t do anything to me legally.”

I just received what was rightly owed to me. Since I did what I needed to do, there was no reason for Park Jungbeh to come after me, really. If he ignores that and tries to forcefully take back the armor and sword, I’ll just cross that bridge when I get to it. No, I actually wish he would. Because then I would have good reason to give him a well deserved whooping.

“Well, if you say so. Then I’ll be throwing again. But seriously.”

The ball she threw bounced off the wall with a nice sound. Yep. That’s the speed I’m looking for.

***

As we finished reflex training, Jung Sooah looked as if she would pass out from exhaustion. This was to be expected because the pitcher uses way more energy than someone who just has to evade the ball. On top of that, I already had my endurance at 100 percent. In any case, my reflexes were finally at 100.

At this point, even without any equipment, I should be good enough why my new physical ability to easily kill level 1 monsters. Instead of cutting into their hides, I could just snap their necks or simply hit them to cause the necessary damage to go in for the fatal kill.

If I had just two level 2 equipment on top of this, I should be able to clear a level 2 dungeon just fine. But I decided I would stick with my current party – at least for the time being. It wasn’t because I had any sentimental feelings for them or anything, it was for the reward points. The weaker the party, the more chances I would have to make the kills myself and collect the points.

Not only would I be able to get about 2,000 points for every dungeon we clear, if an irregular appears then I’ll be able to try out my new upgrades. I’m sure if I had to face a wolf boss head on without any tricks, I’d be able to do it easily with the help of my team. And if we ever get into a pickle, we had the escape scroll. Everyone else can use it while I run away.

[0,9,650]

Alright. 650. I thought about what might be good to use this on, when I got an idea.

“Hey. Hit me.”

“What? Where?”

“Anywhere. Minus. The crotch area.”

“…what are you thinking?”

“Just do what I tell you to do. Come on.”

“I can’t just hit you with my hand…”

She shook the hand holding a ball.

“Why don’t I hit you with this?”

“Ah. Yeah sure. That could work.”

“Here I go.”

“Okay!”

Smack!

She threw the ball right into my face. Hard.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Keep doing it.”

Smack!

“Euk.”

This time it hit my chin. Why the hell is she aiming for my face.

“Stop throwing it at just my face and throw it in other places too.”

“Whatever.”

Well, I don’t have anyone else I can ask to do this for me. We kept training just like this as people passing by stared at us with strange looks. I guess I must have looked a bit crazy standing there and letting myself get hit.

Smack!

And in the next instant, the balls weren’t hitting as hard. I yelled out.

“Why are you throwing so softly?”

“What. What. I’m not! I’m throwing super hard.”

“Really? Wait a second.”

“I closed my left eye and checked my stats.

[0,10,150]

500 points had been deducted.

“Yes!!!”

“I did it because you told me to but what the hell were we doing?”

“You can’t tell? Defense. I figured maybe I’ll get stronger if I kept getting hit.”

“Are you kidding me…you can do something like that too?”

“I guess so. But it feels like it didn’t upgrade as much as any of the other skills. “

Of course the pain did lessen. But humans have a weaker constitution than other living beings to start out with. Just because I increased my defense by 50%, I highly doubt that would be enough for me to have a strong enough body to not need any armor.

I realized I needed to invest much more reward points into defense so that I can be as strong as if I were wearing at least a level 1 armor.

This would take some time.

“Let’s call it a day.”

“Ha. You need to pay up alot for today. It feels like my arm’s just about to fall out of its socket.”

“Be quiet. 100 is plenty for just working 2 hours.”

“Chet. Scrooge.”

“Let’s start picking up the balls.”

Now that I was out of all my reward points, I needed to think of how to go on another raid. Since no one was hurt, we could technically go as early as tomorrow. And since we were bumped out of our reservation early, it should be fairly easy to get a spot. I guess I just need to contact everyone and see if they were up to it.

Ring-

While I was busy picking up the balls and planning the next raid in my head, my phone started ringing. When I checked the caller ID, it was Han Joonseok.

Why is he calling out of the blue?

“Hello?”

[Party head? Did you see the news just now?]

“What?”

What is this all about?

[10 minutes ago, all the level 1 dungeons in the country just disappeared. Everyone who happened to be in a dungeon at that time were transported out so there were no casualties or missing persons, but it seems any raids would be all but impossible for us anytime soon.]

“If all the level 1 dungeons disappeared then it’s not that it’ll be impossible for us anytime soon…it’ll be impossible for us forever….no?”

[Well, we should monitor the situation for now…but what is going on.]

Han Joonseok and Cho Yeongoo were just getting into the rhythm of being hunters but they were still beginners. Their equipment and skills were both still at level 1. You could say that if the level 1 dungeons were truly gone, any chance of them doing any more raids were up in smoke. Like I said earlier, you needed level 2 equipment to clear a level 1 dungeon safely…and you needed level 3 equipment to clear a level 2 dungeon safely. Anything less meant you were flirting with death. Our team was only able to clear the level 1 dungeons (and just barely at that) because of my level 0 skill – a bit of an anomaly

“I’ll see if I can find out some more info on this and call you back.”

As soon as I hung up, Jung Sooah asked.

“What were you talking about? What did you mean by all the level 1 dungeons are gone?”

“Exactly what I said. Let’s head on home first.”

I went back to my place with Sooah and turned on the computer. The internet was already in an uproar with this new turn of events. Because of the irregulars, raids had been reduced to nearly half its number…hurting our economy due to the lack of rare ores. Now that all the level 1 dungeons were just gone..things would become critical. Just what is going on?