Solo Dungeon

Sung Jinwoo stood in front of Hapjeong Station, his expression tense. To the outside, he looked like someone who should be avoided on the street.

Sung Jinwoo took a few deep breaths before pulling up his status screen once more.

'STATUS'

'NAME: SUNG JINWOO'

'LEVEL: 1'

'JOB: NONE'

'HP: 100'

'MP: 10'

'STRENGTH: 16'

'AGILITY: 16'

'SENSE: 13'

'VITALITY: 13'

'INTELLIGENCE: 10'

'REMAINING POINTS: 0'

He had spent the entire morning mulling over whether or not the stats he had achieved so far were good enough for the dungeon, but in the end, he had decided the only way to find out would be to try it first hand.

Realistically, he had been told that his original mana reading was not much better than an average human. Therefore, Jinwoo held a deep worry that despite the increase in stats, the results would not be much better.

Holding out the key as he approached one of the station underground entrances, he noticed the area around the entrance very quickly begin to distort.

The area before his eyes became opaque, as though there was a thick blue wall before him.

Blinking at the world altering phenomena, Sung Jinwoo noticed a business woman casually pass through the opaque wall beside him.

'They can't see it?'

Much like the system panels themselves, it seemed like only Sung Jinwoo could actually see everything.

He reached his free hand out and noticed that despite the wall being before him, he could actually pass through it without issue.

It was only then did he noticed a comparatively small keyhole in front of him.

Looking at the key in his hand, Jinwoo nodded before slotting the two together.

'Whatever this system is... it's much more than a skill'

It had become clear the day that he was running around from carnivorous bugs, that this system was able to bend the laws of earth.

The very thought sent shivers down Sung Jinwoos spine.

As the key slipped in, he noticed a familiar scene before him. A gate. The entranceway had become a gate.

'It seems smaller and more controlled than the gates I have been to, but this is definitely, a dungeon gate...'

He gulped as he looked around once more.

He was alone in this, even if he wanted, no-one else could see the gate, no-one could experience this with him.

'I doubt there is a way to drag someone in with me...'

Despite those thoughts, he knew that this was the best way for him to get stronger, to explore this dark unknown path alone.

Sucking up all his apprehension, Sung Jinwoo passed through the gate.

A familiar sensation ran through his body as he found himself pushing through what felt like a thin film of air, soon appearing on the otherside. 

However one thing was majorly different...

"Or should I say the same?"

No matter how he looked at it, he had stayed in the same area, rather he had just entered the station like normal. From the signs to the corridors, they all looked the same.

"Wait no, its different, it looks more... run down?"

Everything around him looked just like the station he knew all too well, but it seemed almost abandoned.

Inspecting his surroundings as he moved, Sung Jinwoo continued forward, his body stiff from the tension.

It wasn't long before he found something. Rather they found him.

In front of him sat, two green beasts the shape of children were hunched in front of him, their mouths filled with razor sharp teeth while they held what looked like stone knives.

They had noticed Jinwoo already as they smiled with glee at the thought of slaughtering him.

Cold sweat appeared on his brow as Jinwoo summoned a dagger he had acquired from the item box reward.

'ITEM: Simplistic Mana Dagger'

'Rank: E'

It had no special attributes, despite that, it was much better than anything he had used so far. He knew this from the level of mana contained within the dagger.

"A warm up should be good"

Bearing the swelling fear inside of him, Sung Jinwoo clenched his dagger before sprinting towards the goblins with all of his strength.

Much to his surprise, his body felt light as he cut through the air. He was fast, much faster than before.

He had no time to praise his own progress as the goblins reacted just as fast. Their small bodies were nimble as they dodged away from his simple attack. The two spacing themselves out to flank each side of Jinwoo.

Their tongues hung from their mouth as they made jeering noises towards him.

The fear from before quickly settled down as Sung Jinwoo thought back to the Unholy Demon he had already faced before.

He darted off once more. A simplistic charge like before.

The Goblins jeered as they moved out of his path.

Except, this time he connected. Sung Jinwoo launched himself to the side, piercing his dagger into the chest of one of the goblins before kicking off of its body, using the momentum to dash towards the confused spectator Goblin.

In no more than a second longer, Sung Jinwoos dagger claimed the second goblins life.

A vile scream escaped its lips as the dagger tore through its neck.

Sung Jinwoo cleaned off his dagger with a spare cloth as he caught his breath. 

"I did it..."

A slow realisation settled upon him as he looked down at the bodies of the beasts. 

"Right! Mana Stones!"

Just as Sung Jinwoo crouched beside the corpses, a system panel appeared before him, his inventory screen.

"This is new?"

Sung Jinwoo stared at the weapon icon stored within the inventory slot. Focusing on the weapon icon, Jinwoo finally realised what it was.

'ITEM: Tattered Mana Dagger'

'Rank: E'

The dagger itself quickly appeared within his free hand as he thought about it. The design was almost identical except the Goblins dagger proved its long years of use.

"This thing is about to break..."

Putting the worn dagger away, Sung Jinwoo continued onwards down the train station corridor, dagger in hand as he stretched his 'Sense' as much as he could.

It wasn't long before a low growling could be heard at the end of the corridor. Despite his 'Sense' stat, he could barely make out the presence of a beast. Had it not been for the echo of the corridor, he would not have noticed so fast.

Slowly approaching the sound, Sung Jinwoo gripped his dagger as his eyes stared straight forward, intent on seeing his next foe.

Very soon, the dark shadows grew thin, revealing a dirty red beast on all fours at the end of the corridor. The beast made the mountain wolves the world knew, look like puppies.

"A Steel-Fanged Lycan..."

Much to its name, the bottom jaw of the beast before him was a large metallic maw, something that could decimate cars.

One thing Jinwoo took notice of, its name was red. Unlike the Goblins of before, whose name were yellow, the Steel-Fanged Lycans name glowed a deep red.

From that alone, Sung Jinwoo knew, he was outclassed.

Without delay, the Steel-Fanged Lycan bent down slightly before launching itself towards him. Luckily his instincts caught in, forcing Sung Jinwoos body out of the trajectory of the beast.

Its speed far surpassed the goblins of earlier. Even his new stats were nothing compared to the beast before him.

'One bite from that jaw and my body is gone...'

The further he analysed the true strength of his opponent, the more he realised it was a miracle that the match wasn't ended immediately.

"Well, you may be strong, but you're nothing compared to that Demon!"

With that rousing scream from within his soul, Sung Jinwoo clutched his dagger before dashing towards the beast. His body was low to the ground, almost eye level with his four legged foe.

"You are moving out of my way!"