The years spent I
It was a hard couple of years for Hein. He went from the weakest and cursed hunter to an S-ranked hunter. After he got the system he didn't waste any time. Unlike Sung Jin-Woo, Hein had no family to take care of and made sure he didn't form any bonds. Not that he was still immature and was afraid of them, but he knew that very soon he would leave the country.
When he leaves the world he will give the reigns to Jin-Woo and have him take care of everything. He was not planning to take anyone with him from this world.
Hein had gotten through the same obstacles that Jin-Woo did in the story, but in a faster and more controlled manner. He made sure to spend his points wisely and used dungeon keys to push his limits and grow stronger. It was generally just fun for him. He liked to destroy monsters and increase his fighting experience.
Unlike Sung Jin-Woo, Hein used a spear or a sword. Although he wanted to use a Katana he didn't have enough money to afford one. But that changed very soon after his 'double-awakening'.
1. Month:
Hein followed the path that the Architect and Ashborn had prepared for him. It was a good way to start his path to power as 'Hein' in this world, so he did it.
First, every morning was a daily task. From that, he got a full heal, a mystery pack and most importantly three free Attribute Points (AP). Hein made sure to train first to have an easier time inside the dungeons. Because he gained more if he did not level up but focused on stats.
So that is what he did for close to two weeks. He eventually had to try and ask for a new mission due to monetary problems. Hein was not very welcome when he walked into his guild building that day. Nevertheless, he was able to get a job and therefore some money.
This got better though. Over the month he did the daily missions and eventually used the dungeon key to grind some. He did manage to get to level two during the raid with his guild, but he held himself back. He would have to leave the city soon probably and he didn't want to be too weak should some hunters try to take revenge for their comrades if they thought he was responsible for their deaths.
Now during the dungeon run that was located underground at a train station, he milked it dry for experience. Just like in the manga, he had to fight against wolves primarily and other similar monsters. And Hein noticed that they kept respawning and he could keep killing them for as long as he wished.
Normally someone would not do that due to either it being boring or it just taking too much time to level up eventually.
But Hein had no such problem. He had packed enough food to last him two weeks and using his powers very subtly, he removed the ceiling to his boredom. This meant that he would never get bored no matter what he did. And it worked.
For as long as he had food, Hein milked the dungeon and killed those monsters over and over and over again. Truly he showed an amazing amount of dedication.
Now after killing the Boss monster, which was easy after levelling up for two weeks, he was still happy to get out of the dungeon and finally have a shower.
And that was the result of his first month.
2.-3. Month
The second and third months were spent similarly. Hein started to go to more dungeon raids and participate more. He made sure to hide his abilities somewhat and not gain any attention.
That was not very successful though as Heidi, his contact in the guild, started to notice his buffer physique and fewer injuries.
It came the time when Hein finally managed to grind his way to the appropriate level to get his 'Job change quest'. And he was very excited about it. This was his status then.
Status
NAME: HEIN LV.39
CLASS: NONE
TITLE: THE ONE WHO SURVIVED DOOM
(+1 MORE)
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HP: 8500
MP: 720
FATIGUE: 0
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STRENGTH: 81 STAMINA: 75
AGILITY: 78 INTELLIGENCE: 67
PERCEPTION: 67 AP: 0
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PHYSICAL DAMAGE REDUCTION: 13%
MAGICAL DAMAGE REDUCTION: 0%
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Using his knowledge of the story and the occasional dungeon keys, Hein was able to over-level and reach level 45 before he did the job-change quest. And he was happy about it. He still did intentionally not do the daily quest that day and chose to do the quest in the evening.
This meant that similar to the story, the daily-quest penalty could potentially save him should he need it.
.
He needed it. Hein had an easier time going into the dungeon as he was expecting knights and had prepared for it. He bought a katana as he wanted to from the shop with all the gold he had gathered and managed to clear the kights quite fast.
He took his time going into the last room with the Blood-Red commander Igris. Before entering he sat down on the floor and tried to catch his breath and waste some time. He needed to make sure that the next part of the job change would fall into the penalty of the daily task.
Fight with Igris:
Hein entered the room where he knew Igris was waiting. It was the same throne room that he saw in the manhwa and he was impressed seeing it himself. He would one day also have such a throne, only would his be thousands of times cooler.
There he stood the Blood-Red Commander Igris. Igris was a large knight covered from head to toe in blood-red armour with a Y-shaped hole built into his helmet. He also wore a tattered red cape, wielded a massive red sword that was equal to him in height, and had a long red hair-like ornament extending out of the back of his helmet.
It was just like the manhwa. Hein got goosebumps, he knew this would be a very demanding fight for him. And yet, he wasn't worried. He had something the knight didn't have... and that was experience.
He was the god Hades who was controlling an avatar. He would be the victor of this fight even if it would be a hard one to win.
White lights seemed to ignite behind the helmet of Igris. It was as if he was looking right at Hein and judging him.
"Are you the boss of this dungeon?", Hein asked feigning ignorance. He knew that he was the boss of the first part of the quest.
Igris of course did not answer as he did not see Hein as worthy just yet. No matter ... he would change that soon.
"Well? Are we going to stand here all day? Or are we going to fight?"
The red knight began to move. He walked down the stairs dragging the huge sword after him. Hein prepared himself for the clash. And just as he predicted, Igris burst into a sprint and appeared in front of him.
The speed was beyond Hein's level and the strength Igris created with that longsword was also beyond his. But it didn't matter. Carrying such a heavy and long blade meant that he was limited in the use of it. And Hein knew how to exploit such a weakness.
The only problem was that he had to get a hit in himself otherwise he was sure that the knight could outlast him in terms of stamina.
Hein ducked the swing and used this chance immediately to strike himself. He had already grabbed the handle of his katana and unsheathed it while putting a lot of strength into his legs.
He positioned his upper body forward and slashed at the knight's neck.
There were a few ways that Igris could respond to this. One, he would dodge by bending backwards. However, that would pretty much end the fight as Hein could exploit that lack of defence.
The second option was that Igris would block by positioning his longsword in my katana's way. That was the most likely thing that would happen and Hein prepared for it.
Truly, Igris defended as he suspected. It showed the experience the knight had and was commendable but he was not fighting a normal 25-year-old man. He was fighting something much older and more experienced.
Hein was ready for the block and did not even finish his swing. On the contrary, he used the momentum to pull his arm back and get it into a perfect thrust position.
By the time Igris had gotten his longsword perfectly positioned to block the swing, Hein had already pulled back his arm and thrust it forward with all he had.
His goal: the narrow space between the helmet. It was the perfect spot and threatened to end the fight immediately. Naturally, Igris felt the danger and defended in the only way possible.
He moved his arm upwards in a circular position to be able to pull the longsword upwards and block the strike. Why would he do that? Because the weight of the sword was too much to be able to stop his momentum and then have it block with the blade upwards. He simply didn't have enough time.
Perfect chance of Hein that was. He let his katana impact with the longsword. But he was already focused on the next thing. When the katana struck the sword it pushed Igris back a bit. Not much, as he was far too strong and heavy with his armour. But enough to grant Hein a split second.
From the start of the battle until now not even 5 seconds have passed and Hein was already gaining split seconds after split seconds. And he was not done yet.
Using the split second he got, Hein raised his left leg slightly and pushed it forward. This would have normally been too big of a step to attack but he didn't want to attack ... not yet.
No, he wanted to gain more split seconds and increase his advantage. He did not strike the ground with his left leg, but the left leg of Igris.
That's right, he pushed Igris' left leg back and to the side, inbalancing him.
Hein was on fire right now. Using the advantage he had just worked for, he closed the distance between him and the knight. The katana in his right hand was once again positioned perfectly to swing it from the right side. And that is what he did.
He swung the katana from the right trying to hit Igris in his midsection. Igris was not out of the fight, not by a long shot. He used his monstrous strength to bring the sword around and swung from his left to Heins' right. His idea was to have Hein back off from his push and gain space to gain some breathing room.
But who was his enemy but Hein? He had of course anticipated this and prepared. His goal had never been Igris' midsection. It was his right leg. In a fight such as this where your opponent has all the advantages, you don't go for the kill right away. No, you make them bleed and chip them down slowly, waiting for your chance and then you kill them.
As Hein was swinging his katana from the right side, he positioned his feet perfectly and ducked under the swing of Igris. And then the katana struck Igris' leg. To be more precise he hit Igris' hip joint.
The joint is a weaker part of the armour of the knight. And when he struck the hip joint he managed to slice it open slightly. And even though it was only slightly ... the fight had already been decided right there.
Igris was in a very bad spot. His long sword was to his right, leaving him wide open, his centre of gravity was actually behind him, meaning he was slightly bent backwards and he had just gotten a wound on his right leg.
It was the perfect chance for Hein to end it all. And end it, he did. Like a madman, Hein sped up and pushed himself to his limits striking at every part he could see. When Igris tried to defend, Hein would just redirect the attack and slice another part of his armour.
After not even 2 minutes of fighting, Hein got around Igris' defence one last time and with one last slice, cut off the Blood-red commander's head.
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Puh, that was a long fight scene to write for me. Although I thought it came out well. (wink)
Tell me what you think.
Now I am getting desperate to have Hades return. There are so many ideas I have for the Underworld and what other things he will experience and do and many other worlds I want to go to.
This means that I will not go into that much detail in Solo Leveling. Canon is dead and Hades will reign supreme. So maybe one or two more chapters telling you what he did in the years before we finally get back to DC and the Titanomachy.
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