Leveling Up From Rank F

Although they had shortened their travel time to the swamp as much as possible, there was no way to reduce it any further. Just when they were on the verge of giving up, Jiwoo spoke up.

“Can I also join you… for the amputation?” He asked Gyutae.

The surgeon met Jiwoo’s gaze while Kanghyun and Taein’s expressions hardened. Their confusion soon warped into suspicion. 

Now that they thought about it, they did find it a bit strange. Whenever Kanghyun and Taein had the spare time, they would attempt to cut the corpses. Jiwoo did not. While they were suffering failure after failure, Jiwoo was especially quiet. The two of them wondered if he had actually managed to pull it off; they glanced at Jiwoo’s tattoo simultaneously as if they had planned it in advance.

Chakra Level: 6

Chakra Proficiency: 89%

“Woah!”

Taein’s jaw dropped and stayed open, he felt like he’d been swindled.

Gyutae silently held his knife.

“Very well. We don’t have time so let’s get started right away. You can start amputating from the bottom, you can avoid the parts necessary for organ harvesting. I’ll start from the top and extract them.” Gyutae stated.

Taein and Kanghyun prepared a body pack. Kanghyun tried to cut the corpse again, but was unsuccessful. The monster’s body firmly rejected his knife, like a baby who kept his mouth shut, refusing to eat the food.

“I won’t do it. I won’t! I won’t!”

Kanghyun got angry at the corpse for no reason. Since Kanghyun couldn’t do it, Taein didn’t dare try either. The numerical figures with his chakra proficiency were fixed boldly on his tattoo, consequentially he didn’t want to suffer any more emotional damage by attempting it pointlessly. Had it been any other time, he might have, but now was not it.

“Taein, please prepare a scale. Jiwoo, it’s difficult to get the exact weight right from the get go. Amputate while aiming for a little less than 100 kilograms. I’ll cover for whatever you miss.” Gyutae gave instructions to each member.

“Understood.”

At first, Kanghyun and Taein were both nervous whether Jiwoo could do the job properly, but they naturally came to terms with it. They didn’t have time to worry so everyone rooted for Jiwoo from the inside. The thought of 50 EXP being deducted was horrifying just to imagine it.

Jiwoo steadily improved his skill. That said, even though he had succeeded in cutting the body, it took him a long time to grasp the weight. 

Gyutae finished quickly and the two of them placed the body parts inside the pack along with the parts that Jiwoo had missed. 

Cutting off a slab of meat from the corpse was nothing compared to trying to amputate 100 kilograms of it. Jiwoo cut off 80kg, then 90kg. Embarrassed at how his work was all over the place, he ran away taking the body pack with him. It didn’t last long since he had to come trodding back quickly for a new body pack. 

Gyutae, who had finished his part, tried to assist the others, but everyone stopped him.

“We’ll try our hardest, if we don’t make it, then we can just receive a penalty. It’s better than having you overexert yourself.”

Jiwoo and Kanghyun nodded vigorously at Taein’s well-spoken words. Gyutae’s gratitude toward the low-level Hunters was piling up one by one.

After transporting the last pack, the team set off for the next swamp.

The ordinary clean-up workers wondered what was happening. They didn’t bother to ask though and simply accepted that if it was Gyutae, he could pull everything off in a short period of time.

Moreover, things were not looking hopeless for Jiwoo. Rather, it would be strange if he didn’t improve when he was repeating the same action over and over again. The margin of error in the weight gradually decreased. Later, about one out of the seven packs came out to a perfect 100 kilograms. When Gyutae came to harvest the organs and amputate the parts that Jiwoo had missed, he was astonished to see much had already been taken care of. He wondered whether or not the monster was originally small.

Kanghyun and Taein competed with each other as they carried out the body packs. After Jiwoo finished amputating his portion, he joined them and basically flew around transporting the packs out. The thought of losing 50 EXP gave them superhuman strength. Gyutae was tongue-tied, they almost seemed like monsters with the pace they were working.

“There’s only one swamp left now?” Taein asked as they made their way to the next location. It was unusual for the man to step up to ask something first. Usually, the team’s inquisitor was Kanghyun, but he had used too much chakra that his soul seemed like it was going to leave his body.

Gyutae encouraged the Hunters, saying that it was almost over. Chakra exuded from the three Hunters’ bodies, they were faced with strong pressure yet they held a strong desire to achieve and win.

The barrier which had obstructed them collapsed when they saw it. The monster inside the swamp was 3.8 meters long causing everyone to cheer out loud.  

“It’s a small one, it’s small. Woohoo!” Taein hummed. He opened the body packs and waited, indicating he’s more than ready to take care of whatever is placed inside.

Taein and Kanghyun became twice as busy. The weight of the carcasses that Jiwoo amputated became more and more accurate. Soon, they were confused whether it was Jiwoo’s work or Gyutae’s work.

“I think I’m gonna throw up.”

Taein repeated several times, as he walked back and forth, panting like a dog. Kanghyun laughed at first, yet soon he turned into the same state as him. Just as they were thinking they were really going to die at this rate, Jiwoo finished his tasks and helped the two.

They had cut it close. The four men escaped from the swamp and shortly after, the swamp disappeared. It was the first time Jiwoo had seen it vanish in front of his eyes. 

They made their way into Gyutae’s car, grumbling, unable to walk on their two feet properly.

Beep.

An alarm message came.

It was a text message stating the daily wage had been deposited. Despite that being the case, there was no room for joy. It was nothing compared to what they felt trying to defend their precious 50 EXP. 

Jiwoo could not even feel the excitement over defending his points either. It was essentially a life-threatening event.

Gyutae didn’t appear any different while Jiwoo felt like vomiting. For a while, the four of them couldn’t move. Drained, they remained so still one might mistaken them as dead. Everyone leaned back on their chairs, sprawled out.

“We escaped the penalty.” Kanghyun’s tone showed just how alive he sounded.

“That rule is so ridiculous. God. I can’t believe they would steal 50 EXP. That means you have to raid 350 times to get to E-rank. Sheesh. Unbelievable. This is blatant robbery. Robbery, I tell you.” Taein ranted.

Gyutae spoke up, seeing this as the moment to clear up the misunderstanding.

“I think all of you may have misunderstood a little. It’s 50 for every rank up. So it’s not just for E-rank. It’s a good thing you all know what exactly you’ve avoided after you’ve actually escaped it.”

Gyutae had quite the time calming down the shocked Hunters. Jiwoo didn’t even have the strength to open his mouth, so he listened to what they were saying before suddenly raising his arm.

“Huh…!”

All three of them turned to Jiwoo.

“My… My chakra level went up.”

Kanghyun, who was sitting next to him, turned and snatched his arm.

Chakra Level: 5

Chakra Proficiency: 16%

“Wow, that’s a sudden level up. I’m jealous, Hyung!” Kanghyun said after he had stared at the tattoo for quite the time.

Taein also turned to look at it and was astounded.

“You’re amazing, Jiwoo.”

“Thank you, Hyung.”

“By the way, Mr. Gyutae, what kind of weapon would be good for me? They told me to prepare to join the raid team next weekend.” Taein asked, but there was no response from the man. Taein had tried to aim for the right moment to announce it and be congratulated for finally getting into a raid, but his timing couldn’t have been any worse. Kanghyun was asleep with his mouth open, clutching onto Jiwoo’s arm, and Gyutae’s head was tilted, indicating he had fallen asleep as well.

The same applied to Jiwoo, who had just thanked him. Taein almost got upset about the situation, but he too passed out immediately. It was no surprise after they had consumed enormous amounts of chakra.

If they only had the energy to hold a knife and some extra energy to amputate the monster’s body, Kanghyun and Taein would’ve discovered that they were finally able to cut it. However, their fatigue was at the limit. What they needed the most right now was to close their mouths and go to sleep.

***

Taein’s posture as he entered the pizza shop was strange. He came in with his right arm stretched out. The three members, who had already arrived, burst out laughing since Kanghyun had done the exact same thing five minutes ago.

Kanghyun entered gloating, “I think my tattoo got heavier because my chakra figures shot up by three over the weekend.” 

They were like children.

“Mr. Gyutae.” Taein called to him.

“I’ll try amputating the carcass again.”

“We will try amputating the carcass again.”

“I think we can try amputating the carcass now.”

Taein, Gyutae, and Kanghyun spoke simultaneously.

Jiwoo cackled, “You guys are exactly alike.”

“Oh, that’s right, Jiwoo. My sister wanted me to tell you something. She says she’s willing to wait for you. I almost forgot.” 

His older sister had an iron will.

“…….”

Jiwoo briefly paused, pondering how he should go about saying no.

“She said that you seemed to have been hurt by a woman, but she is confident she can teach you not all women in the world are like that.”

“Tell her I got the message for now.” Jiwoo said.

“Okay, that much is fine.”

It hasn’t been long since they have seen each other, but Gyutae had missed them. Suddenly, the surgeon’s demeanor became serious causing the three of them to tense up too.

“I have something important to discuss with you all today.” Gyutae said.

“Yes, please go ahead.” Kanghyun replied first.

“All this time, we’ve been mainly in charge of transporting the corpses out of Class 5 swamps. I believe we’re now at the stage where we could take on higher-ranked swamps.”