Return To Level Up

Chapter 28

In fact, looking back on the first disaster, the damage could have been reduced.

The biggest reason for the damage at the time was carelessness.

Until then, the dungeon had never had a direct negative effect on reality.

The second reason was neglect.

Large corporations and giant guilds had many private dungeons.

Also, there were quite a number of dungeons managed by organizations in the shadows, such as Taesan and Geoseong.

There were even dungeons secured by the black market, so how many dungeons were not revealed to the world?

Before the first catastrophe, the Awakening Administration was also a little looser.

The management agency’s human resources and budget were limited, so if the number of dungeons exceeded the management limit, they had no choice but to leave it alone.

We had to conquer the dungeon and get rid of it altogether, but if the Awoken decided not to do that, the management had no way to do it either.

So, it was operated in a way that adjusted the number of dungeons while ensuring a moderate advantage to large corporations or large guilds.

Even if there is no problem, if the number of dungeons is too large, the number of people who become anxious will increase, so such operation was reasonable for now.

At least, that was the position of the Awakened Management Agency.

But it eventually helped to scale up the first catastrophe.

The first catastrophe starts suddenly with many dungeons appearing at once.

While the dungeons were distracted and countermeasures were being prepared, the dungeons that had been neglected in the meantime burst sequentially, and countless monsters swept the world.

To prevent that, the response to the newly appeared dungeon was not done properly, and as those dungeons exploded, the problem grew.

That was the first disaster.

Some countries were completely destroyed, and Korea suffered a lot of damage.

Fortunately, around the same time as the first catastrophe occurred, the number of Awoken increased rapidly.

If it were not for that, the world would have suffered irreparable damage and was on the verge of destruction.

Ha-jin Kang dreamed of revenge after his return, but he did not simply run for that goal.

What will you do if you take revenge? If the world collapses, revenge or anything else is of no use.

The world before the return was half-collapsed and it was very different from what it is now. Many people died of starvation, and the gap between the rich and the poor was huge.

At that time, Ha-jin Kang turned away from the world. Because he went beyond what he could do.

However, he felt uncomfortable all the time, and he had no choice but to step on his eyes whenever he saw such a reality.

So, after his return, he wanted the world to be very different from the future he knew.

That is why he considers revenge as well as many other things when making plans.

And that was the reason I was standing in front of this dungeon right now.

It was a long story, but this dungeon was not only a dungeon that was a great threat when the first disaster came, but it was also a dungeon where you could get the items you need right now.

It was a dungeon located in a wetland by the Nakdong River, and the monsters that appear are quite difficult, but there is nothing to gain, so it is not very popular.

So it was a dungeon that had no choice but to be left unattended.

The governing body was the Awakening Administration. There was a simple checkpoint right next to the dungeon, and an employee dispatched from the management office stayed there.

The employee was sitting at the checkpoint and dozing off.

Since no one came, of course, monitoring and management had to be neglected.

However, there was a camera attached to the checkpoint, so the portal was monitored 24 hours a day.

As long as you’re careful, sneaking into this dungeon was nothing.

Hajin Kang approached the back of the camera and attached the equipment prepared in advance to the camera.

It was a device that stopped the operation of the camera, and it was a device that stopped the screen being taken and made the monitor not notice the strangeness for a while.

The price was very expensive, but the equipment was well worth the money. Especially in the current situation.

Hajin Kang attached the equipment to the camera and leisurely entered the dungeon.

Even then, the staff inside the checkpoint was still asleep.

* * *

Hajin Kang, who entered the dungeon, first checked the distribution of monsters.

There were no monsters near the portal, but a monster lingered about 300 meters away.

With a little exaggeration, it was huge enough to say that a small mountain was moving. It was a monster that looked like a caterpillar whose body was made of mud.

The reason this dungeon is unpopular is because of that monster.

[Mudworm][Level: 21][Life: 32000, Magic: 0][Signal emission (P), signal detection (P)]

The level is only 21, but the health is 32000.

Moreover, no matter how much he killed, he was a monster that could not obtain the Mana Stone.

Because his whole body was made of mud, he could not get any useful by-products.

It’s hard to kill, and it doesn’t help much for leveling up, and there’s nothing to gain, so who’s going to catch it?

Besides, it was a problem with the skills they had. When attacked, it automatically communicates its situation to allies.

As soon as the fight started, the rest of the teammates rushed in.

Their attack is very simple. Just take a picture and press it with your body.

Once properly caught by him, he is buried in the mud and suffocated. Its movement is also quite fast compared to its size, so you should never be vigilant.

In the early days of the discovery of this dungeon, the Awoken suffered a lot and suffered a lot of damage.

It was not easy to avoid such a monster as dozens of monsters came from all directions.

It was terrifying to think that more than a hundred of these guys went out.

This dungeon was located not far from Busan. When this dungeon exploded, over a hundred mudworms moved to Busan at once.

The mud bugs that went out left tremendous material and human damage until they were annihilated.

“They are really easy to deal with if you know their weaknesses.”

Kang Ha-jin muttered like that and ran towards the mud bug.

The mud worm also sensed the strong Hajin, wriggling and rushing towards it.

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

A long muddy path was formed on the floor.

Hajin Kang floated right before he collided with the mud bug.

The target was the upper part of what appeared to be the head of a mud worm, and he put his hand very precisely there.

Since his body was initially made of mud, he went all the way to his forearm without feeling any resistance.

‘That was correct!’

Ha-jin Kang grabbed the hard stem he was holding in his hand and pulled it out as it was.

👌👌👌👌👌

The mud worm just collapsed.

Hajin Kang stood on a puddle of mud and held an ocher-colored stem in his hand.

That was the antennae of the mudworm.

It was the organ that allowed the mud bug’s two passive skills, signal emission and signal detection, to be used, as well as the core that maintained the mud bug’s body.

And it was also a byproduct that could never be obtained if you just cut down your stamina.

Because these antennae themselves are the life force of a mud worm.

“No matter how much you catch with this, leveling up would be impossible. What… are we going to expect the core here?”

Hajin Kang secretly poured magical energy into his antennae.

This is rough, but it emits a signal. Perhaps soon the other mud bugs will be swarming around like crazy.

Soon, mud worms began to come into view. Hajin Kang put his antennae into the subspace and ran towards the mud bugs.

It was the beginning of the hunt.

* * *

In Mudworm Dungeon, the core was just like that. Still, I had hoped that the level would rise by even one level because I got rid of the dungeon by myself, but I betrayed my expectations without any doubt.

As soon as Ha-jin Kang destroyed the dungeon, he immediately went to see Dong-hoon Dong.

Dong-Hoon Dong was seated on the Cheonan side, and, of course, Ji-Hye Kim and others were also there.

He was operating a plausible studio in a fairly large building.

Of course, most of the work was close to training to improve one’s own skills, but a lot of high-quality equipment came out nonetheless.

The equipment was first paid to Ji-hye Kim and her party, and the rest was sold through the black market.

Kim Ji-hye was in charge of all the work.

Kim Ji-hye occasionally visited the dungeon with the Awakens who were with her.

It wasn’t an official hunt. She hunted by procuring dungeons through the black market.

Originally, it was something I never tried because there weren’t many people, but she’s been taking on the challenge little by little since hunting with Ha-jin Kang.

Anyway, in the midst of that, Ha-jin Kang visited, so everyone was a little excited. Maybe it was because of the expectation that she might be able to do an exciting hunt together again.

Ha-jin Kang sat down with Dong-hoon Dong and placed one of the antennae of a mud bug on the table.

“What is this?”

“I would like to ask you a favor.”

Yoo Dong-hoon looked at Kang Ha-jin and his eyes lit up. He had only received help, but now his heart pounded with joy at the thought of being able to help with something.

“What you want is a locator.”

“Location tracker? I don’t think that’s my area of ​​expertise, but wouldn’t it be better to find an electronics expert?”

Hajin Kang shook his head.

“There is no risk of being caught. If you use this, you will probably be able to make enough.”

“Can I really make something like that?”

Yoo Dong-hoon tilted his head in disbelief. Then he picked up the mud worm’s antennae and looked around.

“Something… I have a strange feeling.”

“It’s the antennae of a mudworm.”

Ha-jin Kang explained the habit and skill of mud bugs, sending and receiving signals.

Yoo Dong-hoon listened to the explanation with a serious expression. Various thoughts crossed my mind.

Yoo Dong-hoon, who had been organizing his thoughts for a long time, nodded his head heavily.

“Let’s do it right now. I don’t know if it will work or not until I try it.”

Donghoon Dong entered the studio with his antennae.

Probably not soon. You will have to go through some trial and error, and you will have to add several improvements to get the desired performance.

Ha-jin Kang added an appropriate amount of antennae to Yoo Dong-hoon’s studio and went to see Ji-hye Kim and others.

He couldn’t just wait here blindly, so he was thinking of going to the dungeon with Kim Ji-hye and others.

Come to think of it, it’s the first time I’ve seen Kim Ji-hye since level 200. Hajin Kang reflexively used the peeping skill.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

[Name: Jihye Kim][Level: 148][Strength: 38, Agility: 52, Stamina: 43, Spirit: 98, Mana: 240][Wound treatment (A)]

She seemed to have leveled up a few more times in the meantime. When she first met Ha-jin Kang, she was level 129.

By the way, it’s already 148. It’s also Hiller.

She could guess how fiercely Kim Ji-hye hunted.

Not only her, but the rest of the people also raised her level a lot.

It wasn’t level 100 yet, but it was close to that. They also fought fiercely.

“Everyone has leveled up a lot.”

“I hunted hard. It’s no longer true that we can do it on our own. It’s a bit risky, though.”

Jihye Kim ran her only goal of her leveling up. Because she did not produce magic stones or by-products of high-value monsters, she hunted mainly for dungeons that were relatively less popular.

Since the dungeon was procured through the black market, due to its nature, it had to be moved very carefully.

“Still, there are three dungeons that we have eliminated. Well, there were more dungeons that I couldn’t even dare to do.”

Ha-jin Kang brightened her eyes at the words that the dungeon was removed.

Of course, it wasn’t a difficult dungeon, but even so, it was quite difficult for a few Awakeners of that level to do it.

Because they weren’t strong.

“I’d like to run some dungeons together. How about it? Do you have any thoughts?”

Kim Ji-hye’s head moved up and down her mindlessly. So violently that I was worried that her neck might fall.

“I will! I will definitely do it! Everyone will love it!”

The expressions of the people who were overhearding the conversation between Ji-hye Kim and Ha-jin Kang suddenly brightened.

They clenched their fists, vowing to surpass level 100 this time.

Kang Ha-jin looked at it and thought that it would be okay to slowly form a guild.

To do that, you need to know their past. You have to know what your mindset is, and you need to fully understand what kind of situation you are in.

‘We should have an in-depth conversation soon.’

It’s still not 100% perfect, but so far everyone has built up enough trust.

Hajin Kang decided to clean up the dungeons that would become a disaster with them.

Some dungeons were easy dungeons that did not require strong Hajin if they knew how.

Wouldn’t it be much more efficient to entrust those dungeons to Ji-hye Kim and her party and deal with the more difficult dungeons yourself?

‘Well, there’s still plenty of time left, but there’s nothing wrong with being in a hurry.’