Chapter 2

I'm Leveling Up Alone: Ragnarok - Chapter 1 (2/176)

I'm Leveling Up Alone: Ragnarok Chapter 1

“Do you really like ants that much?”

At the art gallery of Korea University.

Assistant Professor Im Do-geun, from the painting department, looked at the paintings of Suho and made a face of disgust.

On one wall of the exhibition room, paintings of ants were densely packed.

There were oil paintings, watercolors, and all kinds of sketches.

The types were diverse, and the appearances of the ants depicted varied greatly.

Assistant Professor Im attached the name tags he had brought below them.

“You must have drawn enough ants to fill a truck since you were a freshman. If you were going to do this, why didn’t you go to the entomology department instead of the art school?”

“I thought about it, but there’s no separate department for ants.”

“You only like ants, not insects in general?”

“Yes. For some reason, I’ve liked ants ever since I was a child. When I found a line of ants, I would walk carefully to avoid stepping on them by accident...”

“Ever since you were a child? Your taste is really consistent.”

Assistant Professor Im chuckled and continued to look at Suho’s paintings.

Then he stopped.

“This ant looks different?”

In front of him was a human-shaped ant with black energy burning fiercely.

“Hmm. The composition is dynamic and good. Did you draw a monster?”

“No, just an ant that appeared in my dream when I was a child.”

“Ha. You’re really something. How much do you have to like ants to dream about them? When you were a child?”

“Before the Great Cataclysm.”

The Great Cataclysm.

It referred to the sudden apocalyptic crisis that came to Earth two years ago.

Mysterious gates appeared all over the Earth.

And terrifying monsters poured out of them, invading the Earth.

Fortunately, a small number of people among humans awakened to special abilities, and humanity barely managed to overcome the crisis.

That was just two years ago.

At the time, Suho was twenty years old, a freshman.

But the period when Suho was having the ‘ant dreams’ was much earlier, during his middle and high school years.

“Anyway, you’re really a unique one.”

Assistant Professor Im chuckled and looked at Suho’s paintings again.

“But you really do draw well. The ants in your paintings look like they could jump out and bite. Oh, did I go too far? Your paintings are that vivid, I guess.”

Suho smiled inwardly at that.

‘No choice.’

It wasn’t just a figure of speech; the ants in the paintings were his nightmares themselves.

They were the monsters that would jump out of his dreams and try to kill him during his teenage years.

‘...Looking back, it was a really intense dream.’

Suho recalled the dream.

In the dream, Suho had to fight for his life against monsters without knowing why.

Endless armored knights and ant armies blocking his path, and later, even giant dragons.

When he killed the monsters, he leveled up like in a game.

If he died, he would reset.

He would have to start all over again from level 1.

The only way to escape the dream was to survive and reach the final boss’s room.

After fighting tirelessly and finally reaching the final boss, the face of the final boss was...

‘It looked like my father.’

He chuckled.

Indeed, it was a dream from his teenage years, and he smiled bitterly.

But from some point on, he stopped having that dream.

‘That was probably... around that time.’

Yes, it was exactly during the summer of his first year of high school.

After his parents went missing.

...Suho’s peaceful daily life was shattered.

* * *

At that time.

In a corner of the art gallery building, something ominous was happening.

“Here, you said?”

“Yes, senior. Assistant Professor Im said they were gathered inside.”

Creak.

The painting department students opened the warehouse door to collect the exhibits.

Their eyes widened when they saw ‘it’ inside.

“Huh?”

Sizzle! Sizzle!

A black hole floating on the wall.

“Aah! It’s a gate?!”

“Quick, report it!”

The students, frightened, stepped back.

One of the seniors, a fourth-year student, urgently stopped them as they were about to report it with trembling hands.

“Calm down! It’s clearly a closed gate!”

“Oh, right. The blue mist hasn’t come out yet.”

“Exactly. It’s far from the dungeon break.”

“Phew. I really got scared.”

The students, who had belatedly understood the situation, sighed in relief.

A dungeon break referred to the phenomenon where monsters poured out of a gate.

However, a dungeon break didn’t occur immediately after a gate was created.

First, the ‘blue mist’ had to flow out from inside the gate and contaminate the surroundings before the gate could open and the monsters could come out.

“So we’re still safe. Hehe.”

“S, senior. Why are you laughing so nervously? It’s still dangerous, so let’s report it quickly.”

“You fools. Haven’t you heard the rumor? That you can become an Awakened by drinking the blue mist?”

“Ah!”

The juniors’ ears perked up at the senior’s words.

The true nature of the blue mist was still unknown.

But a rumor had been spreading quietly on the internet like an urban legend.

The rumor was that the mist was actually condensed magic power, and drinking it could awaken magic power in ordinary people.

“Isn’t that just a rumor?”

“It hasn’t been debunked either.”

“Hmm.”

“Hehe. So let’s check it out this time. Who knows? We might get an S-rank Hunter among us.”

“...!”

The juniors’ eyes changed dramatically at the senior’s secret voice.

They thought of the astronomical amounts of money S-rank Hunters earned.

Since the advent of the Great Cataclysm, the profession of Hunter, which could gather all the wealth from the monsters’ corpses and the minerals in the dungeons, had become a symbol of wealth and glory.

But it had only been two years since the Great Cataclysm.

How to awaken magic power was still not clearly understood.

“Besides, you know Assistant Professor Im is an E-rank Awakened, right?”

“I’ve heard. He always complains that being an E-rank Hunter doesn’t pay well, so he works as an assistant during the semester.”

“Tsk. You don’t know anything. That’s just a facade. Do you know how much he earns just by going into the dungeon with a mining team, not even a raid team?”

“How much?”

The senior whispered as if revealing a great secret, and the juniors’ eyes widened.

“What? He earns that much?”

“Even as an E-rank?”

“Yeah. If you’re lucky enough to become even a low-rank Hunter, you can earn that much. Are you going to miss this great opportunity? Huh?”

“Wow, Hunters really are the best. But why is Assistant Professor Im still at the school if he’s earning so much?”

“He earns money from the dungeon and spends it lavishly on art. Plus, working in the assistant’s office gives him many exhibition opportunities.”

“Really, that’s a jackpot.”

The income of an E-rank Hunter was more convincing than the rare S-rank Awakening, which was rarer than winning the lottery.

Convinced by the senior’s persuasion, the juniors finally put down their phones.

“Well, the blue mist is said to be safe for a while even if it starts to flow...”

“T, then, shall we wait a bit? Just a little?”

“Damn, you guys. Now you’re talking. It’s a one-shot deal in life. As soon as the mist comes out, we’ll take just one sip and report it. It won’t be dangerous.”

And a little later.

Finally, a blue mist began to seep out of the gate.

* * *

Boom!

The building suddenly shook.

‘Huh?’

Suho, who was in the exhibition room, lifted his head.

‘What is it? An earthquake?’

Something was off.

The space itself felt like it was undulating.

But Suho was the only one who sensed the anomaly. No one else in the exhibition room noticed anything.

Then.

Thud.

“Ugh.”

A student was limping into the exhibition room.

Assistant Professor Im, who was near the entrance, approached him.

“Younghwan, I told you to go to the warehouse, why are you so late...”

“I, I, I tried to stop them.”

“...Younghwan?”

“S, senior kept...”

“Park Younghwan?”

“Smoke...”

Creepy.

‘Something’s wrong.’

Assistant Professor Im’s expression hardened as he got a closer look at Younghwan’s condition.

His pupils were trembling uncontrollably.

His mouth was mumbling incomprehensible words.

“Park Younghwan? What’s that in your mouth?”

When Assistant Professor Im asked, Younghwan finally realized his condition.

Sssss.

Blue smoke was seeping out of his mouth and nose.

“No, no, this, this isn’t right. Gah.”

Younghwan panicked and tried to cover his mouth with his hand.

But the more he did, the more smoke seeped out between his fingers.

And.

Whoosh!

A hot heat enveloped Younghwan’s body as the blue smoke consumed him.

“Assistant Professor!”

Suho, who had just run over, grabbed Assistant Professor Im and pulled him back.

“Gah! H, hot...!”

“...!”

Assistant Professor Im, who had stepped back, widened his eyes.

Younghwan’s body was engulfed in blue smoke and began to burn.

“Aaaah!”

“What, what is that!”

The students nearby screamed in terror at the horrific sight.

Then.

Wheeeeee!

The school’s speakers suddenly blared a chilling siren.

The students began to murmur at the unexpected sound.

“...?!”

“A, a gate?”

“Shit! It’s here!”

“Aaaah!”

“Aaaah!”

The chaos intensified.

The students, pale with fear, started running.

Seeing a person burn to death right in front of them, the terror was indescribable.

But there was one problem with getting out.

The burning corpse of Younghwan was right in the middle of the exhibition room entrance.

To get out, they had to pass by the corpse.

Whoosh!

A student who had run ahead recoiled in shock from the intense heat.

‘Where’s another exit...’

He frantically looked around, but there was none.

There was only one exit.

As the students panicked and ran around.

An unbelievable thing happened.

“Huh?”

“T, that person?”

The charred corpse of Younghwan was getting up.

Enveloped in blue smoke.

“W, wait. Could it be?”

Assistant Professor Im’s eyes widened.

“It’s a monster! Get away from there!”

Assistant Professor Im’s urgent cry.

But it was too late.

The blue smoke monster, using Younghwan’s corpse as a host, lashed out with its whip-like arm.

Boom!

“Aaaah!”

The students’ bodies were thrown to the ground, spitting blood.

As the blue smoke clung to their clothes, their bodies began to burn.

“Aaaah! Fire! Fire!”

“Aaaah!”

The students scattered in terror.

Painful screams filled the air.

“Oh my God. It’s really a Mist Burner...”

Assistant Professor Im quickly took out his phone.

A Mist Burner was not something an E-rank like himself could handle alone.

Suho urgently asked Assistant Professor Im, who was sending a support request.

“A Mist Burner? What kind of monster is it?”

“If you get hit by it...”

Assistant Professor Im bit his lip.

“You’ll turn into the same thing.”

Just then, the bodies of the students attacked by the Mist Burner stood up, burning with blue smoke.