Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

A fancy chandelier.

Expensive liquor is set up on the table.

Vice President Lee Min-sung was drunk as usual in the VIP room.

Normally, there would be loud laughter and intimate physical contact, but today the atmosphere was different.

Crash!

“Ah!”

The lady who was entertaining him screamed in surprise at the sound of the glass he threw shattering.

“I wonder why our oppa is in such a bad mood today?”

Shortly after, the madam who came into the room sat next to him with an elegant smile.

At the same time, she gestured with her eyes for all the other employees to leave.

The young ladies quickly left the room.

The room fell silent in an instant.

Tink.

As the madam poured him another drink, she discreetly observed Lee Min-sung’s mood.

He had been staring at his phone with a fierce look in his eyes for a while now.

“What’s going on?”

The madam glanced at the screen he was looking at.

“Comments?”

The corners of the madam’s eyes twitched slightly.

-So who is the hunter who humiliated the hyenas?

-Yeah, I heard he went into Gwanak Mountain alone and saved everyone.

-Amazing. Who is he?

-Info: He wore a mask so nobody saw his face.

-Why hide his face after doing something well?

-Isn’t it obvious? There’s a rumour that the hyenas are backed by the Death Guild, so he has to hide his identity.

-Yeah, even if we don’t know who he is, we shouldn’t reveal his identity. He’ll be retaliated against by the Death Guild.

On the internet, people were still talking about the Gwanak Mountain incident.

They were speculating fervently about the identity of the hunter who had allegedly solved the problem on his own, but the evidence was too scarce to come to a conclusion.

They were speculating fervently about the identity of the hunter who had allegedly solved the problem on his own, but the evidence was too scarce to conclude.

-But who is he really?

-But who is he?

-Well, he took down a boss monster alone, so he’s at least an A-rank hunter, right?

-No, no. If he just has good skills, he could theoretically be a B-rank hunter.

-No, no. If he just has good skills, he could even be a C-rank or D-rank hunter.

D grade is a joke lol.Ah, write your novel in a diary.

Thousands, even tens of thousands of comments were all curious about the identity of that hunter.

While many comments were nonsense or jokes, the overall consensus was summed up in one sentence.

A hero.

As the Hyena Guild’s malicious actions were gradually exposed, their image was becoming more devilish. In contrast, the sympathy for the hunter who had single-handedly destroyed them was skyrocketing across the country.

“What? You still haven’t found out their identity?”

In an instant, Im Min-seong’s expression crumpled at Madam’s words.

Thunk.

He glared at her.

“Who are you making fun of?”

“Oh, I’m not making fun. Of course, I’m worried. Our vice president’s informants will try to get hints even from comments if they can’t do their job properly.”

Thunk.

“That’s just pathetic. What about the informants who were supposed to go find survivors? What about them?”

“They used double swords.”

“Double swords?”

“And they summoned demons.”

“Summoned? Oh my.”

Madam covered her mouth in surprise at Im Min-seong’s response.

“This is strange. Are there hunters who can do such a thing among summoners?”

“There are none.”

“None?”

“Someone used some trickery to confuse the information with a summoning skill. It could be an illusion skill or it could be more than one person involved. Perhaps there was a summoner hiding in the background. No, I’m sure of it.”

No matter how much he thought about it, this was not something that an individual could do alone.

In any case, there was one fact that was the most meaningful.

That Broki was killed with double swords.

“If that’s the logic, then all you have to do is hold the double swords in your hands.”

“Right. That’s why there’s no information.”

“What is this? Boring.”

Madam lifted the shot glass on the table with a facial expression that indicated disappointment and drank it all at once.

“I thought it was something amazing when he caused a commotion, but it was just because he took some medicine. It’s childish.”

But she understood.

Im Min-sung had always lived a winning life since he was born until now.

As a child, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

In his youth, he became a Korean Wave star.

And when the great upheaval broke out, he awakened as an A-class hunter right away.

It was as if he was on a solid path.

At this point, it was not an exaggeration to say that the entire universe revolved around Im Min-sung.

“But suddenly his own driver became an S-class hunter.”

“But suddenly his driver became an S-class hunter.”

And it happened just when Im Min-sung awakened, and the whole world was congratulating him.

It was on that evening when his long-time friend and driver, Lim Tae-gyu, suddenly became an S-class hunter.

At that moment, Im Min-sung…

became blinded by jealousy.

Because the hierarchy that seemed like it would never change was turned upside down in an instant.

“…Well, it’s a good thing, though.”

Easy-to-handle people like those who have complexes are not easy to come by.

Madam smiled wryly and poured Im Min-sung some more alcohol.

“Don’t be too upset. You’ll catch up someday. Should we talk about business now?”

“Okay.”

Im Min-sung’s face calmed down at her words.

“Star Dust.”

Madam asked with an even more seductive smile.

“Are there any defective products among the test samples this time?”

“…There are no defects in the product. The people who ate it were defective.”

“People were defective? How defective do they have to be to eat an amplification potion and die? I’m scared to use it.”

Contrary to her words, Madam didn’t seem scared at all.

And Im Min-sung, too…

“How many people died?”

“Well, I only heard about 30 people. But strangely, only low-level hunters died. Are people really defective?”

“If only low-level hunters died… as expected, Star Dust is also affected by the magic constitution after all. Hm.”

Im Min-sung, who was focused only on the effect of the test sample and had no emotions about the fact that people had died, asked, “So when will the next shipment come out?”

But Madam had one more thing to say.

“Anyway, the people who didn’t die are waiting for the next shipment.”

“Soon.”

Min-seong coldly glanced at Madame, who was flattering herself with a smile.

“Try to hurry up the devils.”

At that moment, Su-ho was facing an important decision.

[You must choose one of two random boxes.]

[Blessed Random Box]

Provides the player with desired items.

[Cursed Random Box]

Provides the player with necessary items.

[Which one will you choose?]

“Desired and necessary? What kind of wordplay is this?”

[These two choices of hidden rewards may seem like wordplay at first, but there are distinct differences.]

Berger, who had been watching from the side, explained.

[What you “desire” may not actually be necessary once you receive it. On the other hand, what you “need” may result in something you don’t want.]

“So it must be the cursed random box.”

[That’s right. For example, in a situation where a powerful weapon is needed, a terrible bomb that destroys everything, including oneself, may appear…!]

“Is that possible? It’s a system inherited from our father, so there shouldn’t be any danger as a quest reward, right?”

[Keheh. That is also correct.]

Su-ho didn’t need to think any further.

“The cursed random box.”

[Oh! That one? You’re bold!]

“I still don’t know exactly what I want since my level is still low. But I need so much.”

He had no idea what items were beyond the system, and the category he could imagine was too vague.

Su-ho chose the reward with a smug smile.

“Besides, our father always knew better than I did about what I needed since a long time ago.”

[This reward is given by the system, not by the lord…]

“That’s the same thing.”

Su-ho replied, spreading his hands.

Then a small box appeared on top of it.

It was a box wrapped in a solid-coloured wrapping paper with a ribbon tied around it.

I carefully opened the box.

Ding!

[You have acquired the item: Vulcan’s Horn.]

At that moment, the box disappeared and a sword appeared in the hands of the guardian.

“What’s this?”

[Item: Vulcan’s Horn]

The difficulty of acquisition: ??

Type: Sword

Attack Power +40

A sword made from the horn of the greedy demon, Vulcan.

It inflicts more damage with the power of Vulcan.

-Effect: “Destructive Urge” – increases physical damage by [30%].

-Effect: “Demon Devourer” – the power of Vulcan becomes stronger as it devours the soul of demons.

[Devoured demon souls: 0]

As the guardian read the item description, their eyes grew wider and wider.

“It’s a growth item!”

[Wow!]

The description of “increases physical damage by [30%]” clearly meant that the increase would become greater as they hunted more demons!

Furthermore, the basic attack power itself was 10 higher than Lakan’s Fang!

-Ahem. However, it had the “contempt for the weak” and “lethal wound” effects, so when considered carefully, I am a bit stronger…

Lakan’s Fang muttered something next to them, but no one was listening.

“This is great, a really necessary item came out.”

The guardian happily raised Vulcan’s Horn with one hand.

Bwooong!

As they swung it around once with great momentum, the sound of the wind being cut like a windmill was very intimidating.

However, the weight of the sword was a bit heavy.

The guardian immediately invested all the ability points received as a daily quest reward into strength, and handling it became much easier.

“I really like this. Now all I need is a demon.”

But they had never heard of a dungeon with demon-type monsters appearing recently.

“It seems like they were all exterminated a long time ago.”

Maybe I should search the internet once I get out.

The guardian immediately took out the key to the Shadow Dungeon.

Shoo-wa-ack!

[I have left the Shadow Dungeon.]

But when I went outside, I found that I had missed 5 calls on my phone.

The caller was Assistant Lim.

“Why is the assistant calling me?” Suho wondered and immediately called him back.

And then he received an unexpected proposal from Assistant Lim.

“Suho, do you want to do a part-time job?”

“Suddenly?”

“Yeah. A few of the scheduled collectors suddenly disappeared.”

“Thank you so much for coming, Suho! Thanks to you, I’m alive!”

Assistant Lim was prostrating himself as if to pray when Suho arrived on time for the appointment.

“Well, it’s not often that something like this happens, where several people disappear at once.”

“Did you write up a contract?”

“Yeah! What about it?”

Assistant Lim clenched his fist, thinking of the hunters who had suddenly become unresponsive.

“Those guys are definitely out drinking and partying somewhere.”

Assistant Lim’s anger was justified.

Collectors and miners usually work in teams, so in cases like this, the whole team would be fined for contract violations.

But now there was nothing to worry about.

Suho was here to help!

Assistant Lim placed his hands on Suho’s shoulders and spoke seriously.

“Suho. You have to earn your keep today. I’m counting on you.”

What he was counting on was none other than Suho’s summoning skills.

Didn’t his summoned creatures perform admirably during the mining operation last time?

“I’ll make sure to double your pay since I called you in so suddenly.”

[Pay?]

Berger suddenly appeared and looked at Assistant Lim with wide eyes.

Assistant Lim was taken aback and quickly corrected himself.

“I-I’ll give it to you. No, I’ll dedicate it to you.”

[Right. Since you were kind enough to summon us to this humble place, we’ll keep up that attitude.]

Berger glared at Assistant Lim with an expression that said he would eat his entire head if he didn’t comply…

In the meantime, Suho turned his head slightly to look at the dungeon he was going to enter today.

[Seoul Station Field]

※ Danger zone

The subway station entrance is where the blue mist rises slowly.

The Seoul Station Field was a field that had been abandoned for a year because the basement was too deep and the structure was too complicated.

Looking at it, Suho suddenly had this thought.

The cursed random box that promised to give necessary items.

And the horn of Volkan that came out of it.

Was the reason why the sword that preys on that devil came into his hand really because he needed the “twin sword”?

Or… was it because he would soon have to face the “devil”?

“Teaching assistant, so what are we going to catch here today?”

Suho giggled and asked the assistant teacher.