Leveling Up through Eating

“M, Minhyuk-nim, your level……?” 

Javin had no choice but to react in surprise. This was because she truly believed that Minhyuk’s level was in the late 370s.

“Just like what you can see, it’s 305. Are there any problems?”

Minhyuk was quite taken aback with her reaction. As far as he knew, Ructo’s Tomb allowed the entrance and participation of users from Lv300. Perhaps he thought that they reacted this fiercely because his level was much lower than they thought and that he might interfere with their dungeon attack.

However, Buckle shook his head.

“No. It’s not a problem. It’s just much lower than what I expected.”

Javin nodded her head.

“I thought you were at least at Lv370 because of your hit rate and damage.”

“Is that so? Hmm.”

“Yes. But your job class is set to private?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. By any chance, is it something like a legendary class.”

Minhyuk smiled slightly and refrained from answering their questions. Buckle just nodded his head as if he understood already.

‘If he has a legendary job class as well as that epic bow then his hit rate and damage can easily be explained.’

He was quite convinced with his conjectures since most users who had a legendary class would always be reluctant to reveal the name of their job classes. Buckle nodded once more as he led them inside the dungeon. The first trial was well known to most users. Once they cleared all of the ordinary mob monsters and successfully hunted the boss monster only then would they be able to proceed to the next trial.

Buckle steadily stepped inside the dungeon in front of them with his party members.

‘I think we should go down the controlled path.’ 

He had attacked Ructo’s Tomb with his party, or to put it simply, his guild members dozens of times. However, he was still yet to cross the boundaries of the fifth trial. While they tried dozens of times, he was able to gleam and learn plenty of other information about the tomb.

He knew that there were about three paths towards the boss room. These three paths would lead to a dead end, the boss room and a controlled path. If you were wondering what the controlled path was…

‘It means that the current weapon that you have equipped will not be available to you once you enter the path.’

In other words, the archer user would not be able to use their bow. Or if it was a warrior user with an axe equipped, they should immediately switch to a weapon that was not an axe as soon as they entered the path. This was a difficult obstacle for users who were new to the tomb since most users did not carry a lot of weapons in their inventory. On the contrary, their group? They always made sure to carry two weapons with them.

These three paths always changed randomly but they always changed in a regular pattern. And today, the ‘middle path’ would be the controlled path. Even if Minhyuk was a strong archer, they would still want to lure him to the controlled path to have the most minimal damage to them.

Not long after, Buckle sent a whisper to the rest of the party members and Javin.

[Buckle: We’re going to lure him to the controlled path. Equip your auxiliary weapons.]

If they did this, then they would only be restricted in using their auxiliary weapons once they entered the path. And once they swapped it with their main weapon then they would be able to move freely.

‘Hmm……’ 

Minhyuk frowned at the scene in front of him but he quickly masked his expression.

Buckle thought that since Minhyuk was using a bow as his weapon then his auxiliary weapon was probably just a dagger or something similar. So if he thought about it like that, then?

It would be a walk in the park.

“Keuwooooooo!”

The first monster had appeared. And it was a troll. Everyone was aware that trolls were Lv350 monsters with strong regenerative abilities. The 2m troll ran straight to where they were with a large rusty axe ready and poised for an attack.

Minhyuk quickly pulled the strings of his bow. The Abyss’ Bow had a skill Master Archer’s Archery attached to it. There were three chapters in the skill in total.

The first chapter.

[Tornado Arrow.]

[The powerful spinning arrow will explode as soon as it strikes an enemy.]

Shwaaaaaaa!

Minhyuk’s arrow was aimed straight at the troll’s head.

Stab!

The moment the arrow got stuck in the head of the troll……

Spin, spin, spin!

The arrow drilled and dug deeper inside before bursting.

Baaang!

‘H, he one shotted the troll……!’

‘Crazy!’

Buckle, Javin and the rest of the group all widened their eyes in surprise.

“Th, that’s amazing.”

Buckle keenly felt that his class was truly a legendary archer class. The scene just made everything clear for them. Otherwise, his hit rate and damage wouldn’t make sense at all.

“Wow. I think things would be pretty easy this time since we’re with Minhyuk-nim, right?”

“Thanks.” 

Minhyuk nodded his head in thanks while taking out a choco pie from his inventory as he started to nibble on it.

“You always have to recharge with sugar!”

“Haha. Well then, let’s go.”

The party began to move again.

***

The Legendary Explorer Rak and the Envoy of Incarnation Kaistra were both riding on top of Penrus. Penrus was bravely dashing and running like a bullet.

Shwaaaaaak!

“Shit…… This is too fast……!”

Rak couldn’t help but be shocked. When he met with Kaistra, he had talked about the disaster artifacts. He also told him that the guild leader that he had contacted to ask for cooperation told him that his guild members in the tomb were unable to be contacted through whispers.

After they had run for quite some time, Rak asked Kaistra.

“Kaistra. Did you find him?”

“Not yet.”

“I hope you find him soon.”

Kaistra smiled slightly when he heard his encouraging words.

Rak was actually ranked much lower than him. He knew that Kaistra was among the top rankers with his 9th rank in the unofficial world rankings. However, aside from his rank, Rak really cared and thought about Kaistra like he was his own brother. And Kaistra also followed him well. Within the dark gamer alliance, Black Stone, the two of them were considered to be the best of friends.

And Kaistra, he had heard about a rumor once. He did not know where the rumors came from but someone had said that they had seen Chairman Kang Minhoo’s face in Athenae. However, it was still yet to be verified. But if he ever met him once then he would like to tell him this……

I’m really grateful to you. Thank you very much. It was all thanks to you that our villagers are not hungry anymore.

They continued to run like that when Kaistra suddenly asked something out of the blue.

“But Rak, what if someone else gets the millstone first?”

Kaistra was a bit concerned about the guild members of that guild leader not answering their whispers. But Rak just smiled at him.

“I already found all the information about the millstone. And there isn’t much to worry about even if someone found it first.”

“How come?”

“Because they wouldn’t know that it’s Gorac’s Artifact.”

Kaistra was filled with doubts.

They wouldn’t know?

“Gorac was a playful demon. Of course there were times when the artifacts were named as ‘Gorac’s XXX’ but that wasn’t the case for most of his artifacts. In the case of the millstone, there are still special conditions that need to be met before it can be unsealed.”

“Conditions?”

Kaistra tilted his head in confusion.

“They need to turn the millstone for 48 hours within 3 days. That’s the biggest problem. They also need to have a different Gorac’s Artifact in their hands. Because the power of Gorac’s Artifacts will only be displayed if there are more than one artifact in one’s hands otherwise it will not reveal anything at all.”

Kaistra nodded his head in understanding. Most users would want to go after powerful artifacts and excellent skillbooks. There were only a select few who would want to turn the millstone for 48 hours within 3 days. He felt somewhat relieved after understanding this fact.

***

‘Wow. We should definitely go with a good archer next time. The mob hunting is incredibly fast.’

This was what Buckle had thought. Their group was fast approaching the three-pronged path. Their journey was quite easy and relaxed since Minhyuk’s arrows had crazy accuracy and insane damage that could easily cut down the trolls.

Once they arrived at the three-pronged path, Buckle pretended to agonize over the choice.

“Hmm. Minhyuk-nim. Have you heard about these three paths before?”

“Yes. One path for the boss, one path that’s dead, and one path that’s controlled. Right?”

“Yes. That’s right. Where should we go?”

Buckle pretended to think for a moment then he pointed straight at the middle.

“A man should go straight, right?”

All of the party members nodded their heads in agreement. Buckle made sure to take the lead to clear out some doubts. Usually, those who took the lead would be exposed to the biggest risk. Meanwhile, Minhyuk was stationed at the rear. Archers were usually positioned at the rear of the formation. They went inside like that.

Then, Buckle heard the notification.

[The Controlled Path.]

[The Artifact type that you’re currently equipped with will be restricted for 1 hour.]

The weapons that they were currently wearing were all unequipped and the same went for Minhyuk. The bow and the arrows that were hanging behind his back were sucked back into his inventory.

Buckle smiled bitterly.

“This. It seems like we’re in trouble.”

He turned to look back at Minhyuk while he kept on sending his instructions via whisper.

[Buckle: Baron-nim, narrow the distance and stab him in the neck. Do it all at once. Make it neat.]

Baron was a Lv379 assassin class user. He specialized in a quick and strong strike that could easily decapitate an enemy. Besides he was literally the person with the strongest and highest level in their group.

Perhaps, once Baron moves, then he can easily overcome Minhyuk.

Buckle smiled bitterly and awkwardly as he secretly begged inside.

‘Please, let it drop. The bow!’

At that moment, Baron moved.

[Stealth Attack.]

[Your movement speed will increase by 2.5x for a moment to attack your enemy’s vital points.]

Dash!

Baron, who’s speed was so quick, aimed straight at Minhyuk’s neck. Minhyuk felt the whispers of the wind at that exact same moment.

“Step.”

Minhyuk quickly took a step back which resulted in Baron piercing only empty air with his dagger. Minhyuk frowned as he looked at both Baron and Buckle.

“What are you doing right now?”

He looked at the people around him sharply.

“…..You avoided it?”

Buckle looked at him in surprise. Minhyuk stepped aside so quickly that they thought that he was damaged by the attack when it only struck his afterimage. They did not expect him to have such skills. However, Buckle grinned wickedly. Aside from Minhyuk, the other four people were his people. Almost all of them were at Lv370 except for Javin who had the lowest level among them. However, it was still okay. They were quite confident in dealing with them since Minhyuk could not use his bow, which was an archer’s sole weapon. And even if he was able to use it, he would still not be able to deal with four people so easily.

“Oops. Oppa, sorry.”

Javin covered her mouth as she giggled mockingly. Minhyuk looked coldly at her as he grinned.

“You’re sorry, but I’m also sorry for you.”

“Huh?”

“……?”

Javin tilted her head in confusion.

Javin was the person who had approached him first. She was the one who offered to accompany him and Minhyuk only readily accepted her because of her Moon’s Wheat drops. And she was also the one who readily gave away the gold, artifacts and Moon’s Wheat drops. If it were him, he would have taken about 20% off of the drops. However, he knew that something was strange.

No matter how difficult the road was, was it necessary for her to give up that much?

Minhyuk had decided to not distribute any artifacts at all to test the waters. In fact, at that point in time, anyone would have definitely exploded in anger but Javin did not show her anger at him. She still willingly gave up the drops as if she felt sad about making him accompany her. And the point that he had doubted and also the point that made him certain about everything was when Javin and Buckle swapped their artifacts.

“Crazy bastard. You’ve been doing a lot of weird things since earlier. There’s definitely something wrong with your head……”

Just when she said that……

Crack, crack, crack~

The space in front of Minhyuk was slowly cracking apart as a gigantic greatsword appeared. Minhyuk stretched his hand out as he grabbed the hilt of the sword. Behind him, he had always made sure to use Pandora’s Helmet’s ‘Artifact’s Form Transformation’ and turn his frying pan into a rapier so he would always be able to guard against magical attacks.

“……!”

“……!”

“……W, what is this. A greatsword? Y, you’re an archer, how can you use a greatsword!”

There were restrictions for equipping items. Among them, the greatsword was an artifact that could only be used and equipped by warrior class users. Besides, the greatsword in front of them was so large that most of the warrior class users wouldn’t be able to wield it since there were usually restrictions attached to the artifact like ‘STR and STM’. But Minhyuk just held the greatsword in his hands like it was nothing at all.

At that moment, one of the users had launched a magical attack towards Minhyuk.

Shwaaaaaaak!

A fire arrow, with its destructive and penetrative power, flew straight at his back. It was a complete and utter surprise attack. And just as the attack struck Minhyuk’s rapier……

Clang!

The fire arrow created a loud clashing sound as soon as it made contact. At the same time, Minhyuk heard two notifications in his head.

[Magical Reflection.]

[You have returned the magical attack back to your enemy.]

[Pandora’s Helmet.]

[The Artifact Form Transformation has been undone due to the impact that it received.]

The Artifact Form Transformation skill would only be undone if the owner touched it or if there were external shocks or impacts that were applied on it. A frying pan suddenly appeared as the form of the rapier scattered and dispersed in the air.

Then……

Spurt!

Crackle, crackle, crackle!

“Keuaaaack!”

Leo, the mage user that launched the reflected fire arrow, shrieked in pain. Once Buckle saw the magic being reflected, he couldn’t help but take a step back in shock.

“T, this ability……?”

When he saw the magical attack being launched, it was already reflected back and all he could hear was the scream of his guild member.

Minhyuk finally took a moment to look at the situation before him. Then, his mouth twisted in a grim smile.

“Oops. You got caught?”

***

TL’s corner!

Times like these you realize that he’s really strong. Hehehehehe. Damn. Also… I can already see Minhyuk turning that millstone nonstop until he gets as much tofu and soy products that he could get.