‘Did my healing abilities awaken along with my past life?’ When he had awakened, he had received a huge amount of mana. His body not only strengthened but his healing ability, or more specifically, his healing power also strengthened as well.
‘He’s here!’
The Troll Berserker approached him from the front, so he didn’t have time to think deeply on the subject.
The Troll Berserker shrieked and swung its sickle. The faint memories of his past life warned Sung Joon of the danger.
The Troll Berserker aimed for Sung Joon’s with its sickle and unleashed a flurry of attacks, but Sung Joon deflected them while aiming for the Troll Berserker’s heart. He had to aim for a vital area to kill the Troll, due to its high regeneration rate, but it proved difficult.
The Troll Berserker screamed and deflected Sung Joon’s sword.
“Shit!” Sung Joon cursed.
It hadn’t gone as he would’ve liked. The Troll immediately counterattacked but Sung Joon withdrew his sword quickly in order to respond to its attacks.
In the midst of a battle where one couldn’t afford to breathe freely, Sung Joon gave and received blows. His physical body was fine but his mind was starting to feel the strain.
The moment he felt regret, a familiar voice resounded in his mind.
‘A Troll? If you can’t overpower it, cut off its arms and legs. Crush his stance so that his arms and legs can’t regenerate. Then, it won’t be too late to aim for a vital point.’
Those were his past life’s memories.
Sung Joon aimed for the Troll Berserker’s heart and suddenly, his sword turned and cut the Troll’s leg. He had displayed a highly ranked swordsmanship, which couldn’t be demonstrated previously with his lack of real battle experience.
If Sung Joon hadn’t absorbed a portion of his memories and he hadn’t soloed plenty of dungeons to train, it would’ve been difficult to make use of his past life’s swordsmanship.
The Troll Berserker had lost its center of balance and there were gaps in its defense. Sung Joon didn’t let the opportunity go and stabbed his sword into its heart.
Once the Troll Berserker’s heart was pierced, it died. Just like other monsters, its body dissipated and it dropped a magic stone and leather armor.
The measuring tool reacted. Sung Joon grabbed his measuring tool out of his pocket and brought it to the leather armor.
Beep.
The measuring tool’s screen changed.
D-rank
Verifying Defensive effect.
He thought he would be able to wear the armor if he just repaired the hole in the chest. Sung Joon put the leather armor into his bag and sighed.
“Soloing a C-rank dungeon was a bit too much for me.”
He must’ve reached his limit fighting the Troll Berserker because he now felt a weak pain all across his body. Sung Joon used ‘Heal’ as first aid and walked up the stairs to exit the dungeon.
The moment the doors opened and he saw sunlight, he felt a piece of his memories awaken.
In Sung Joon’s past life, Sword Saint Roukel and someone who appeared to be an attendant of sorts, confronted dozens of orcs. He fearlessly swung his sword and in a single blow, swept away dozens of orcs.
“Watch closely, disciple. From now on, I will show you the discipline you will need to reach the position of Swordmaster.”
Roukel raised his hand and absorbed the blue mana that rose from the dead orcs.
“This is the method to absorb mana. It’s a small amount, but you can steadily raise the limit of your mana this way. From now on, I’ll teach you this method.”
The moment he explained the Mana Absorption method, the recollection of his memory ended. Sung Joon’s hands felt numb. At the same time, Sung Joon could recall the method of absorbing mana from his faint memory.
Sung Joon trembled in joy.
‘With this, I’ve gotten one step further.’
Sung Joon smiled coldly.
* * *
The appraised amount he had received from selling the magic stones from the C-rank dungeon was $56,000.
He spent $1,000 on the repair of the Troll Berserker’s Leather Armor. He sent the $50,000 which he had received from the D-rank dungeons to his father. Yet, his bank balance still had more than $50,000 left.
‘This time, it’s taking a bit longer.’
After lunchtime, he spent his leisurely afternoon drinking coffee but the Dungeon Bureau had yet to contact him. Sung Joon’s eyebrows furrowed.
The dungeon could be soloed without worrying about ratings and cleared quickly, but if there weren’t any dungeons available, an appointment couldn’t be scheduled.
‘I should train.’
Sung Joon climbed up the mountain behind his house.
A little while ago, he decided to slowly feel for the hazy memories of his past life, reaching and grasping each memory one by one and then began practicing his swordsmanship.
The more he practiced his sword techniques, the clearer his memories became. When he thought he had mastered one movement, he would remember a new one.
He felt as if he got stronger as he trained. In reality, he was actually getting stronger.
“Does the body get stronger the more I manage my mana?”
He finished his training after two hours in the mountains behind his house. Sung Joon felt like his movements were now faster than a few days ago.
‘My body feels a bit different.’
Sung Joon examined his body. As he had been eating well and hadn’t missed training, his lean frame had started to build muscle.
On his way back home, the Dungeon Bureau called him.
“Hello, Hunter. This is the Dungeon Bureau.”
“Have you scheduled an appointment?”
“Lately, there have been a lot of people applying to solo the D-rank Dungeons. Therefore, we are experiencing unexpected delays in the waiting line.”
Normally, there weren’t a lot of solo players out there. However, the rumor that the Legend had cleared the D-rank dungeon by himself had spread on Hunter.com and arrogant Hunters had started to apply for solo play.
‘They seem to be dying in droves. It looks like it wasn’t enough.’
According to the bulletin board message from Hunter.com, as of late, nine out of ten solo players exited as corpses.
They should’ve understood the danger but they hadn’t stopped, so Sung Joon couldn’t help but burst out into laughter.
‘However, it doesn’t concern me.’ He smiled icily.
“If it’s an E-rank dungeon, you could even go right now.”
Sung Joon thought for a moment and made his decision.
“Then let’s do that. If you tell me the location, I’ll go immediately.”
“Thank you for understanding, Hunter. We will guide you with a message.”
At a glance, it seemed as if he was being considerate to the Dungeon Bureau but truthfully, everything was going as planned.
E-rank dungeons weren’t profitable but they were perfect for testing the Mana Absorption method.
Eventually, he got a message.
Sung Joon went to the location in the message and after receiving authorization from the Dungeon Bureau worker on standby, he proceeded to the dungeon.
Obviously, weak Goblins appeared. With a single blow, Sung Joon killed two Goblins. Then he raised his hand.
Sung Joon absorbed the blue mana from their corpses before they disappeared.
“I’ve recovered my stamina?”
The words came right out because of the revelation. He hadn’t used much stamina, so he didn’t know exactly how much it had recovered but it had certainly recovered, along with his mana.
‘Isn’t this an infinite supply of power?’
‘Heal’ only treated injuries and didn’t restore stamina. Also, the reason Hunters couldn’t continuously attack dungeons was because their stamina ran out.
If you were tired, your fighting ability would definitely decrease. However, due to Sung Joon’s new ability, Mana Absorption, he could recover both his mana and his stamina. With unlimited power, he could now hunt without rest.
“Hahaha!”
He laughed unceasingly.
In a world without potions, he had become quite a unique Hunter.