Chapter 14

Alone Leveling: Ragnarok Chapter 13

Meanwhile.

[You have defeated Steel Fang Lykan.]

[You have defeated Steel Fang Lykan.]

...

Right after Suho obtained the Sword of the Fang Lord.

He continued to advance, killing wolves to clear a path out of the dungeon.

With the raid party wiped out, Suho was the only hunter capable of fighting at the moment.

Suho kept swinging his sword, protecting the miners who cautiously followed behind him.

[Your level has increased!]

Another level up.

“Are you... not getting tired?”

“Yes, I'm still fine for now.”

“Huh.”

The miners were not just amazed but utterly astonished by Suho's endurance in continuously swinging his sword without rest.

To those who didn't know that leveling up restored health, Suho appeared to be an incredible monster with infinite stamina.

‘No, that can't be. He's just a human like us.’

‘Could he be enduring through sheer willpower despite the strain?’

‘Kuh. He must be hiding his fatigue so we don't worry about him.’

They recalled that just a few days ago, Suho had rescued people in this very art gallery until he fainted.

And now, they were the ones being rescued.

‘How can this be, even though we're both E-rank hunters?’

‘Especially since he's a summoner.’

It was truly a testament to his mental strength and willpower, beyond just his rank or abilities.

Of course, it was just a level up.

[Young Lord, I can see the gate.]

Berg pointed to the gate visible at the far end of the cave.

“We're saved!”

The miners, who had been tense and fearful, finally relaxed.

Wiping the sweat from his brow as he watched them rush out, Suho said,

“Aren’t you coming out?”

One of them turned back and called to Suho.

“No, I'll stay here in case there are any surviving hunters I can bring out.”

“Are you sure? You must be at your limit already...”

“I can still hold on for now.”

In reality, he was in excellent condition, but the situation required him to pretend otherwise.

[...]

Suho pretended not to notice Berg's gaze from behind.

* * *

Alone in the dungeon, Suho looked at the Sword of the Fang Lord and asked,

“Guide me to where you were.”

-...

Pretending to hand the sword to Berg, Suho said,

“Berg, do you want to eat this?”

[Chomp.]

-Wait.

The sword quickly responded, having seen Berg picking up and eating mana stones around them.

-Why do you want to go where I was?

“To save any survivors.”

-I killed them all... No, there might be some lucky ones still alive.

As Suho handed the sword to Berg again, the sword hastily changed its words.

-Go left.

Following the sword's guidance, Suho moved forward.

Although more monsters kept attacking, he was now free to act without the need to protect the miners, making his movements much less restricted.

After a while,

An unknown ruin appeared before Suho, with people lying dead and bleeding.

“Here it is.”

Suho checked each person's condition.

[They are all dead.]

-I told you... No, I couldn't help it. I have a duty to protect this sanctuary. Besides, I'm such a good sword...

The sword quickly made excuses, feeling Suho and Berg's gazes.

At that moment, information about the sword appeared in Suho's mind.

[Item: Fang of Rakkan]

Acquisition Difficulty: ??

Type: Sword

Attack Power +30

A sword made from the fang of Rakkan, the King of Beasts.

Possessed by Rakkan's spirit, it can take over the body of a wielder of lower rank.

-Effect 'Contempt for the Weak': Puts a designated target in a state of fear for 1 minute (all stats -50%).

-Effect 'Critical Strike': Has a 15% chance to deal more than double the critical damage.

Compared to a goblin's stone axe, this sword had a significantly higher attack power.

Moreover, it was likely that the hunters here were killed because the sword possessed one of their comrades, causing them to panic and die.

[It's a decent sword, but its abilities are despicable. It becomes stronger when dealing with those weaker than itself.]

-Despicable? What's wrong with the strong eating the weak? Which hunter targets prey stronger than themselves?

While listening to their conversation, Suho gathered the bodies of the dead hunters.

He removed all the monster byproducts from the carts the dead miners had been pulling and placed the bodies inside.

To his surprise, Suho saw black smoke rising from the bodies.

It was... their shadows.

[This is a target from which shadows can be extracted.]

[This is a target from which shadows can be extracted.]

[This is a target from which shadows can be extracted.]

Aaaaah-!

Suho heard the anguished screams of the dead hunters.

[If you wish, I can recruit these people as your soldiers, Young Lord.]

“No.”

Suho silently gathered the bodies while listening to their screams.

After finishing, Berg, who had been looking around, returned to Suho.

[I looked to see if there were any other relics of the Fang Lord besides this sword, but there doesn't seem to be anything special.]

“What exactly is this Fang Lord?”

With a bit of free time, Suho asked the question that had been on his mind.

Berg extracted black shadows from his hand and formed small shadow puppets.

The puppets grew and took on a specific shape.

[Once, in this universe, there were many lords besides the Shadow Lord Seong Jin-woo, Young Lord. The King of Beasts, the Fang Lord, the King of Insects, the Plague Lord, and many other lords all converged on Earth.]

Then, a particularly strong puppet brutally cut down the others.

[And they were all killed by your master.]

-Grr. How dare you...

Hearing this, the 'Fang of Rakkan' in Suho's hand trembled.

-I am enraged. If I had my full power, I would have torn you all apart and fed you to the wolves. If I had known you were the successor of the Shadow Lord, I would never have let my guard down.

“Full power?”

Suho looked at the Fang of Rakkan.

“Are you saying you don't have full power now?”

-Of course not. I am the strongest weapon created by the King of Beasts, Rakkan, from his own fang.

[Strongest? Your attack power is only 30.]

Berg mocked.

-That's because I'm incomplete! My original mission was to protect this sanctuary. Inside the sanctuary, I could wield almost the same power as Rakkan. But...

“But...?”

-I ultimately failed to protect the sanctuary. A divine artifact loses its power when it loses its sanctuary.

The Fang of Rakkan spoke in a somber tone.

[That's the natural result.]

Berg explained.

A world without its 'lord' as a focal point would be torn apart and drift in the dimensional gaps.

The remnants of wars.

That was what dungeons were.

[And when the apostles of the outer universe caused cracks in the dimensional walls to invade Earth, these dungeons became connected to Earth.]

Berg's eyes gleamed sharply.

[And these remnants all harbor grudges against this world, having been destroyed by your master. Of course, they attacked first.]

“So, this is a ruin of a defeated world, and there's nothing more to gain here.”

[Don't worry, Young Lord. Leave it to me.]

Berg looked at the sword with a greedy gaze.

[Even a dried squid can yield water when squeezed. I'll try to extract something.]

-Hmph. Threatening me won't get you anything.

The Fang of Rakkan replied arrogantly.

And ten minutes later,

The Fang of Rakkan revealed everything it knew.

* * *

A few days later.

[Young Lord, what are you thinking about?]

Berg asked Suho.

[Is it because you rejected their offers?]

After surviving the Korean University dungeon, several things happened to Suho.

When they came out, they encountered association hunters who had come to support the miners upon receiving their report.

When these hunters entered the dungeon, they found only the bodies of the monsters killed by Suho.

As a result, Suho received love calls from various guilds.

Of course, all the offers were to contract him as a gatherer or porter.

“No. It's not that.”

Naturally, Suho had no intention of accepting any of the offers.

Unlike other hunters, Suho could grow through the leveling system.

An ordinary E-rank hunter might have eagerly accepted a contract as a porter from a large guild, but to Suho, it was a completely unattractive offer.

“I was thinking about what the Fang of Rakkan told me.”

The Fang of Rakkan said that the sanctuary it guarded had been torn into pieces and scattered into the dimensional gaps, weakening its power significantly.

Even when it possessed Kim Yong-joon's body, it could control all the surrounding wolves, but once outside the sanctuary, it lost that ability.

Still, it wasn't entirely fruitless.

There were more sanctuaries like this one in the dimensional gaps, and they contained relics like the Fang of Rakkan.

Under Berg's persuasion (or coercion), the Fang of Rakkan finally revealed the location of one of these sanctuaries.

The problem was that they needed to enter the dungeon as soon as possible.

According to the Fang of Rakkan, it couldn't guarantee that these relics were still intact.

They were likely drifting in the dimensional gaps, gradually losing their power.

“But the location is...”

[It's a dungeon occupied by another guild.]

“Right. And it's the notorious Hyena Guild.”

The Hyena Guild was famous for being formed by former gangsters.

When the era of hunters began, some of these gangsters awakened and formed a guild that continued to engage in despicable acts, earning a bad reputation.

[Indeed, Young Lord is currently very weak, and any unnecessary conflict with other hunters could be dangerous.]

Berg was concerned.

Regardless, the fact that the power of the Fang Lord had entered Earth was not a good sign.

As seen in this incident, when it fell into the hands of an incompetent, it led to a massacre.

If the logic of the survival of the fittest from the Fang Lord's world were applied to Earth, most humans would become prey.

However, it was also impossible to ask Suho, who was still at a low level, to take such risks.

[Young Lord, you should focus on leveling up and building your strength... What are you doing?]

Suho was packing his gear.

“Ah, preparing to enter the dungeon.”

[What about the Hyena Guild?]

“I'll just sneak in.”