Evolution Theory of the Hunter

Wait. I feel like An Gyu-bum said this to me.

I hurriedly shook my head to erase the unpleasant memory.

Either way, as long as I had a level 10 armor and level 10 skill it wasn’t that difficult of a task to win against a single arctic bear in close combat. I had experience killing the level 10 Black Tiger with a level 8 weapon after all.

The physical ability improvement of the Effort skill was just that great.

The arctic bear was not able to land a single proper strike on me so I got on its back and simply cut its neck.

Even if its carotid it was still a level 10 monster.

A wound of that level would soon recover but I had a level 7 Bloody Sword.

Even if it was just shoved into a wide wound it would be able to slow the recovery rate.

The Bloody Sword’s ability to suck blood in real time got stronger causing the monster to collapse of severe blood loss.

All I had to do after that was to stick the sword into its heart.

It was far too simple for a method of hunting a level 10 monster.

Even another level 10 hunter wouldn’t be able to kill it with such a method.

It was also thanks to the Effort skill but it was also thanks to my experience of desperately fighting and collecting data to the very end.

I knew the weak point of most monsters after all.

The way of movement to attack patterns, I knew all of it.

Even if its level went up, it was a bear in the end. It was the reason why it was easier to fight against beast type monsters.

If a tentacle type or ghost type immateriel came out then it would be really annoying but these guys just die if you remove its blood and stab its heart you see.

“Good job.”

I could hear An Gyu-bum’s voice from behind.

As I turned my body to glance at him I could feel him flinch.

“What are you glaring at so scarily?”

“Well. It can’t be helped if I get mad if a guy causes a mess and runs away.”

“I told you I did it because I thought you would be able to kill them.”

“If only you couldn’t talk.”

He was a cheeky bastard. I was wondering how to straighten him up when a message appeared in front of my eyes.

– You have obtained a level 0 skill book.

Huh?

It was a level 0 skill. It had been a long time since it dropped since Soo-ah’s Friendship skill.

The anger that was bursting out shimmered instantly.

Yeah. There was nothing good about messing with such a guy.

I opened the item list while feeling my own cunningness. I wonder what skill came in.

It was a bit of a let down that it required an extra skill slot because it wasn’t a confined skill but it wasn’t that difficult for the current me to purchase an additional skill slot.

Effort (0) : Able to improve the user’s abilities through reward points.

I doubted my eyes.

No, thinking about it, there was no rule that said that the same skill can’t drop twice.

Even so, it felt unreasonable to be the Effort skill again when a level 0 skill that’s so difficult to find dropped.

“Hm. Either way, do these guys not drop any items?”

An Gyu-bum tilted his head as he inspected the locations the arctic bears returned to the void.

I was thankful that I could avoid something annoying thanks to the Automatic Collection function. Of course, I wouldn’t have distributed any items to this guy even if it dropped.

Ah. But to think it’s the Effort skill.

Repetition is unreasonable.

I was sighing while inspecting the Effort skill when another message appeared.

– Will you learn the Effort skill.

I currently didn’t have any skill slots available. Due to that, I couldn’t learn this even if I wanted to.

I tried pressing accept while doubting myself.

Flash.

While light suddenly exploded in front of my eyes. Oh crap was all I could think about.

The first time I learned the Effort skill I collapsed for 3 nights and 4 days straight. I was in a state where I didn’t move to the point that I was thankful I wasn’t bedsore but if I were to collapse for several days this time as well that would be awkward.

Of course, Edward was here so he would take care of me somehow but the problem was An Gyu-bum. That guy could take my equipment as he wanted after all.

There was no rule that said that conglomerates didn’t covet others’ property. Reversely, rich people had a tendency of desiring others’ property even more.

I was anxious as to what would happen if I lost consciousness here when my sight slowly recovered.

I doubted that several days passed in that time but I could see An Gyu-bum’s dazed expression, the still stiff faced Jeon Min-jeong, and Edward who had his arms folded as if everything was a pain in the ass.

“What did you do just now?”

An Gyu-bum asked. Even I didn’t know the specifics so I couldn’t explain.

“Did something happen?”

“No, something like a halo above your head…….”

“Halo?”

It’s because I’m good looking or so I was going to say but I endured. I would have said it if Soo-ah was here but if I did it in front of these guys only the atmosphere would become weird.

Either way, it seems like several days didn’t pass thankfully. I wasn’t certain if it was because I experienced it before or if it’s because I had a sufficiently good physical ability.

Either way, I now had something like 2 Effort skills somehow.

Adding Effort on Effort (0) : Able to improve the user’s abilities through reward points. Receives two times more reward points. The ability improvement amount increases to double.

This was okay. I was just thinking that the reward points were stingy. Since reward points didn’t go up if I hunt using the monster army I didn’t get much points at the Yellow Sea.

If I got all the reward points from killing the Chungho Group members I would have had at least several hundreds of thousands of points.

However, the amount I had right now was about 60,000.

With this much it would be used up after raising the proficiencies 10 times or so. The period of rapid growth was basically over already.

However, if I were to get double the reward points I would be able to aim for the same growth rate as before.

Since the improvement rate doubled as well the Effort skill’s value basically quadrupled.

Thinking about it this isn’t on the level of being okay?

I endured my mouth from opening wide and turned my sight toward An Gyu-bum. I had something to obtain from this guy as well.

“Since I killed the bear. Tell me about the ruin.”

“You didn’t forget the condition of trading right?”

“Yeah. If your information is useful then I’ll tell you what I know.”

“Good. Then let’s talk inside. It’s too cold here no matter how you look at it.”

An Gyu-bum said so as he shivered while only wearing a suit.

Now that I think about, was this guy okay with just that? If that suit was the same thing as the one given to Jong Sa-won there wouldn’t be any temperature adjusting function.

I decided to take this chance to inspect him again.

Name : An Gyu-bum

Equipment : Sword of Judgement (8) , Eternal Immortality Suit ++ (10) , Black String Armor (5) , Gaiters of Elasticity (7)

Skill : Martial Arts of Death (8)

The thing this guy was wearing was definitely the Eternal Immortality Suit.

But there was something weird attached to it.

I was wondering what that was so I opened the additional explanation of the Eternal Immortality Suit.

Eternal Immortality Suit ++ (10) : Returns the body to its prime condition. Aging is stopped and becomes immune to diseases. Can regenerate missing body parts. Can use additional functions through strengthening.

Additional Function 1 : Protects the wearer from the outside environment. Survival is possible regardless of temperature, pressure, and atmosphere condition.

Additional Function 2 : Etherizes the equipped items. Able to take them out when needed.

There were incredible things attached to it.

In other words ‘++’ meant that there were additional functions attached to it I suppose.

Of course, that in itself might not be that great. One can just get an item with such a function after all.

That can be said to be custom made for An Gyu-bum who found it annoying to carry about several items at once. Conclusively, this could also be seen as a type of money flaunting.

Of course, there’s a practical side to it as well.

For people that don’t have the Manual like me the fact that one can etherize equipment and take it out when needed is an incredible advantage.

On top of that, there are items that can’t be overlapped.

The effect on Additional Function 1 was especially something that could only be seen on full body suit type items.

The fact that such an effect is constantly active without having to wear it all the time is a definite merit.

There was much more meaning to the fact that such options were attached to a level 10 item.

Level 10 equipment were thought to be impossible to strengthen or upgrade but with this it was possible to minimize equipment carried around and make more powerful equipment.

No matter how good of an option an item has, hanging a dozen of them would be inefficient after all.

There was no way such a thing would appear as a drop so I thought that there would be a method to making it.

It would be nice if it was possible to beat the hell out of him and figure it out.

I did think for a moment that it was possible to kidnap him and force him to spit it out but there was a high chance that it wasn’t something this guy knew but something discovered by the GE Group System Research Laboratory or whatever. It probably meant that it wasn’t something that would be solved by beating up An Gyu-bum.

This side had to give something for that side to give something.

What An Gyu-bum always proposed was that type of negotiation and it was true that I saw a lot of profit from it. I thought that it would be better to go towards looking for an item this guy wants for now.

I decided to check the ‘Effort X 2’ skill before going into the ruin.

Skill Name : Adding Effort on Effort (0) , Immortality (4) , Aura Blade (10)

Additional Technique : Overwork, consumes the Endurance stat to raise another stat for 24 hours.

Proficiency : 52

Reward Points : 65,000

Stat Increase : Strength 550 Endurance 450 Reflex 750 Concentration 400 Defense 400

Upgrade : 1,573/10,000

‘Adding Effort on Effort’ you say.

It was a name that had too much spirit in it. I thought that I was putting in enough effort until now so why did it feel like I was getting urged on.

I started feeling like I should become lazier like how you don’t want to study when someone tells you to study while you’re studying.

Either way, I tried pouring the reward points into Strength.

As much as it had to increase from 550 to 600 it costed 6,000 reward points.

If it was in the past, I would have been able to raise the proficiency several times at once but, well, it wasn’t hard to accept that more effort was needed the stronger you become.

– Strength stat has become 650.

It should have gone up by 50 if it was like before but it went up by 100 and became 650. This is what it meant by the ability increasing by double the amount.

If I wanted to raise it from 550 to 650 it would normally have costed 6,000 + 6,500 for a total of 12,500 reward points but it was achieved with less than half of that amount.

I got excited and so poured the remaining reward points into upgrading my stats.

Strength 750 Endurance 650 Reflex 850 Concentration 700 Defense 700

Proficiency : 63

Reward Points : 0

I raised the Endurance, Concentration, and Defense stats mainly as they were the lowest.

The most useless among these was actually Defense but I decided to think of it as an investment for the future. I felt like I would be able to deflect a pistol bullet.

I still got the feeling that I would die if I got beaten up by monsters with my bare body no matter how much I raise this but it wasn’t like I could wear my armor all the time and emergency situations could arise at any time so I was raising it as something like an insurance.

In other words, as long as I didn’t die of a disease or something there was a slim chance of me dying outside of a raid.

Also, Concentration.

If Reflex decided speed in close combat then Concentration helps greatly in mid to long range battles of at least 10 meters.

In other words, it helps in battles against large monsters that require that amount of distance.

The reason I overlooked it until now is because there weren’t many occasions where I had to fight against large monsters but thinking about how I’m going to meet level 10 monsters rather frequently from now on this way was better.

It would also work as preparation for when I meet Baek Gyeong again. To approach while dodging the Hadron Cannon which is his greatest weapon fast speed is really important after all.

Since the proficiency passed 60 on impulse level 6 dungeons will soon disappear as well.

“How about you come here and clear this?”

An Gyu-bum pointed at the collapsed entrance in front of the ruin.

Who was he treating like a laborer?

“I will if you request me.”

“Please clear this away. I request it of you.”

An Gyu-bum said so without a bit of hesitation. I felt like I got hit once since I thought that he would rampage saying that there’s no way he would do so.

“…… Do you not even have any pride?”

“I can push around a level 10 hunter with a few words so why would pride matter?”

I nodded my head at An Gyu-bum’s words. His words were certainly correct.

It might be that I’m the one with overblown pride. He was cheeky but I did have to engrave what is correct.

“Everybody get out of the way.”

I covered the Dancing Sword in Aura Blade and threw it towards the ruin entrance.

As the sword penetrated the boulders it started destroying the boulders as if they were exploding.

Boom! Booboom!

“Ahh?”

As the boulders instantly got destroyed into pieces the debris scattered into the surroundings. An Gyu-bum getting completely covered in that debris is a complete coincidence.

A coincidence.

…….

Yeah, I’m a petty person.