SLICE.
The sensation of hide tearing and thick bone being severed traveled through Yoo Woo-min’s fingertips.
He wiped the warm droplets of blood from his cheek with his sleeve and released a short breath.
“Phew.”
Three dead Ironclad Rats were already sprawled at his feet.
Without delay, he crouched and cut open their chests with his dagger. With practiced movements, he extracted the cloudy mana stones concealed within the blood.
It had already been three days since he began hunting.
Ever since sweeping through the abandoned factory on the first day, Woo-min had returned here every day as though reporting for work.
In terms of profit, it was the worst kind of loss-making dungeon. Mana-stone prices were rock-bottom, while merchants refused even to purchase the tough hides and bones.
But Woo-min wasn’t here for money.
He hunted solely to fill the belly of the Unnamed Sword.
Woo-min pressed the three blood-soaked mana stones against the blade one after another.
HUMMMM.
With a faint vibration, the solid stones seeped into the sword and disappeared.
[Current Growth: 52%]
A faint smile appeared on Woo-min’s lips when he checked the number on the information window.
“It’s definitely changed a lot.”
The changes to the sword itself were far more dramatic than the floating text.
Not a trace remained of the hideous reddish rust that had covered the base of the blade on the first day. Having shed years of grime, the steel now revealed its natural color and radiated a cold gleam.
Its appearance wasn’t the only thing that had improved.
Cutting through hide felt incomparably smoother than it had on the first day. Its sharpness could easily rival the mass-produced E-grade longswords that cost hundreds of thousands of won at Hunter shops.
As his weapon improved, his hunting speed naturally increased.
The time it had taken him to kill twenty rats on the first day was cut in half on the second. Today, his third day, it had decreased even further.
‘There’s still no reason to overdo it.’
Woo-min took a water bottle from his bag and moistened his dry throat.
Just because the sword had become sharper didn’t mean his body had grown tougher along with it. If an Ironclad Rat bit him, it would still tear away a chunk of flesh.
He strictly limited the area he would cover and the number of monsters he would hunt each day. The moment he reached his target or felt his stamina beginning to fail, he left the dungeon without hesitation.
During his years as a porter, he had seen countless low-ranking Hunters place too much faith in a single piece of equipment, only to end up as monster food.
He had only one life. If he was injured, his parents’ living expenses and hospital bills would immediately stop.
That undeniable reality always kept his steps measured and calm.
“Let’s see. Exactly ten left until I reach today’s target.”
Woo-min loosened up by lightly shaking out his stiff wrist.
Holding the lantern before him, he slowly proceeded toward a darker section deeper inside the abandoned factory.
The deeper he ventured, the stronger the rank animal stench became.
Only the occasional, precarious creaking of the old steel framework hanging from the ceiling broke the strangely profound silence.
Not a single pair of the red eyes that had swarmed throughout the outer sections could be seen here.
Woo-min instinctively stopped and quieted his breathing.
‘It’s too quiet.’
A section that the weaker creatures wouldn’t even approach.
Any Hunter who had entered enough dungeons understood what such a pattern meant without needing to be taught.
Woo-min covered the lantern and slowly began backing away.
CRUNCH!
Something crushed a thick piece of scrap metal in the darkness.
A massive silhouette soon emerged at the edge of the lantern’s light.
Woo-min furrowed his brow.
“What the hell is that?”
It appeared to be at least twice the size of an ordinary Ironclad Rat. Its massive body reached the waist of a grown man, and instead of fur, a thick, dark-gray carapace covered its back and tail like heavy armor.
Rather than an official boss monster, it appeared to be a mutant alpha that had grown abnormally large within this habitat.
GRRRRRR.
When the creature opened its maw, thick saliva dripped between its sharp, yellowed incisors. Its bloodshot red eyes fixed squarely on Woo-min.
What were his chances if he confronted it directly?
Woo-min rapidly calculated the odds in his head.
With his current strength, he couldn’t pierce that thick gray carapace in a single strike. If he tried to stop a charge from a beast that large head-on, his bones would break or his organs would rupture.
He reached his conclusion immediately.
Trying to overpower it would be idiotic.
BOOM!
The Alpha Ironclad Rat kicked off the ground with its hind legs and shot forward like a bullet.
At the same moment, Woo-min turned and hurled himself in the opposite direction without looking back.
SCREEEEECH!
The pile of scrap metal where Woo-min had been standing shattered into pieces. The creature’s charging power was on an entirely different level from that of the ordinary rats outside.
Panting, Woo-min rapidly scanned the abandoned factory’s complicated terrain.
‘Somewhere narrow. Somewhere that’ll kill its speed.’
Instead of fleeing in a straight line, Woo-min abruptly turned toward a complicated passage formed by collapsed conveyor belts and discarded materials.
The alpha pursued him ferociously, smashing through every troublesome obstacle in its path.
CRASH! CLANG!
The thunderous sounds of bending steel frames and bursting pipes echoed through the empty factory.
Woo-min glanced back and accelerated toward a section where the passage grew increasingly narrow.
Massive machines densely packed both sides of a cramped gap.
Woo-min barely managed to slip between them. He then braked sharply and spun around.
The pursuing alpha didn’t stop. Blinded by the killing intent to tear apart the prey before it, the beast shoved its head straight into the narrowing passage.
SCREEEEECH! BOOM!
“I knew you’d do that.”
Woo-min muttered quietly.
The creature’s massive shoulders had become firmly wedged between the machines on either side.
Every time it struggled to free itself, the old machinery shook and produced a harsh grinding noise. Its body was so large that it couldn’t easily move forward or backward.
No matter how ferocious its strength or how thick its carapace, a beast trapped in a narrow space and unable to move was nothing more than a large target.
Woo-min didn’t rush. He steadied his ragged breathing and approached the creature.
GRAAAARGH!
The alpha thrashed and raised its jaw.
That was the moment Woo-min had been waiting for.
The thin flesh beneath its jaw, unprotected by the gray carapace, was fully exposed.
Tightening his grip around the sword, Woo-min kicked off the floor.
The sword shot forward without hesitation, its tip penetrating the creature’s weak point with perfect accuracy.
SQUELCH!
With a sickening rupture, the cold blade pierced beneath its jaw and burst through near the crown of its head.
The alpha’s massive body trembled briefly before losing all strength and sagging over the pile of scrap metal.
The end had been almost anticlimactically easy, but Woo-min didn’t relax. Only after confirming that the creature was completely dead did he slowly pull out his sword.
Dark-red blood gushed from the wound.
“Haa, haa......”
Woo-min wiped the sweat from his forehead and braced his hands on his knees.
The running and baiting had lasted only a short while, but the intense concentration he had expended during those few moments left his legs aching.
He immediately drew his dismantling dagger and cut open the alpha’s belly.
A thick, heavy mana stone emerged from the blood, incomparably larger than those of ordinary Ironclad Rats.
Rather than cloudy gray, it was a dense stone with a dark, ashen hue.
Woo-min roughly wiped it with his sleeve before pressing it against the Unnamed Sword.
BZZZZT!
A far more powerful vibration than usual surged up his wrist. He could vividly feel the sword rapidly devouring the mana stone like a starving beast.
The number on the translucent window began changing rapidly.
[Current Growth: 78%]
[Current Growth: 91%]
The number continued soaring until it displayed the maximum value.
[Current Growth: 100%]
At that moment, a faint light flashed across the entire sword before fading away.
The text on the information window updated.
[F-Grade Growth Complete]
[E-Grade Advancement Requirement: Absorb 1 E-Grade or Higher Mana Stone]
Woo-min narrowed his eyes and read the floating text.
“An E-grade or higher mana stone.”
The inevitable had finally arrived.
He had suspected that he wouldn’t be able to feed the sword F-grade scraps and grow it indefinitely. Even so, encountering the unmistakable barrier of an advancement requirement left him with a strange feeling.
Woo-min searched his pocket and removed one of the bean-sized mana stones he had collected from an ordinary Ironclad Rat.
He pressed it experimentally against the blade.
Tap.
There was no vibration or light. The mana stone bounced away and rolled across the floor like an ordinary pebble.
The sword’s growth had been completely halted.
He could no longer overcome the problem through sheer quantity.
Instead of picking up the fallen mana stone, Woo-min silently examined the weapon in his hand.
The hideous iron bar he had first picked up in the abandoned dungeon was nowhere to be seen.
In its place was a well-formed longsword with a cold, dark sheen.
Its balance settled perfectly into his hand, while the edge looked sharp enough to cut with a mere glance.
Even in its current state, it was a superb weapon capable of tearing through an F-rank dungeon with ease.
However, Woo-min’s gaze remained fixed on the new advancement requirement floating in the air.
One E-grade or higher mana stone.
“To get one of those...... I definitely can’t keep doing what I’m doing now.”
Woo-min muttered impassively.
An E-grade mana stone wasn’t something he could obtain by digging through the corners of an F-rank dungeon and hoping for a miracle.
At the very least, he would have to enter a higher-grade dungeon or personally kill an E-grade or stronger monster.
The only alternative was paying an enormous sum for one at the Hunter Association Shop.
Naturally, he had no intention of spending money he had earned with his own blood.
That left him with only one option.
Woo-min skillfully flicked the blood from the sword and slid it into its old scabbard.
Inside the abandoned factory, where darkness lay thick around him, Woo-min secured the transformed weapon at his waist.
His mind was already working through the next stage with meticulous calculation.