Level Up!

Two yellow eyes rose out of the corridor’s darkness.

Yellow. Long and slit. Eyes that looked at a person and saw only prey.

This is really pissing me off…

I froze ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on the bed. The lantern was out. Cold water was already spreading from the overturned bucket. From the hallway came the scrape of wet claws on stone.

Scrape.

Scrape-scrape.

Only a moment ago this place had felt almost cozy. A narrow bed. Dry bread. Cheese. I’d actually thought I might be allowed to rest for a single day.

This other world, it turned out, could not stand the sight of a man resting.

I groped beside the bed. Weapon? None. Staff? None. Sword? Of course not. The only thing my fingers closed around was a chunk of dry bread.

“……You want me to fight with this?”

A low growl, and the thing’s body emerged. Bigger than a dog. Lower than a wolf. A row of bone-like spines ran down its back, and drool dripped steadily from its jaws. One forepaw stepped into the room.

Screeech.

Claws dragged across the stone floor.

When the Fang Wolf opened its mouth, red mana flickered between its teeth.

I bit my lip. The Fang Wolf dropped its stance—the coiled posture of something about to launch. I shoved my hand under the bed. Something hard snagged my fingertips. A black stone chip. A fragment that had fallen from the wall. Palm-sized. My first weapon.

A rock.

I blinked.

“……You can raise something like that?”

The instant I muttered it, the Fang Wolf sprang.

“Ah, shit!”

I flung the stone on pure reflex.

Whish.

Thok.

It smacked the creature square in the forehead, but the thing didn’t ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even blink. Its teeth were already filling my vision. I rolled sideways.

CRASH!

The fangs shattered the bedpost.

“Is this supposed to be a shelter or what?!”

I scrambled across the floor and snatched up the stone again. This time I looked at the character properly.

Throw.

Golden strokes settled onto the stone’s surface. A thin line formed behind it, like a bowstring drawing taut. It worked. This worked.

I threw again.

Whish!

Faster this time. The Fang Wolf merely twisted its head and the stone buried itself in the wall.

“Just throwing isn’t enough.”

I called up Strike.

Strike. Hit. Impact. The moment I wrote the character on the stone, text appeared.

“Ah.”

Throwing was weak. Striking required contact. Then—

“What if I stick them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠together?”

The Fang Wolf was gathering mana into its teeth again.

I clenched the stone fragment. First character: Throw. Golden lines wrapped the stone. Second character: Strike.

In that instant the stone bucked in my palm. The two commands shoved against each other. My fingertips went numb.

“Hey, hey. Don’t fight each other.”

The Fang Wolf was right in my face. Its breath reeked of a rotting sewer.

“Combine!”

The golden strokes bent. The final stroke of Throw hooked onto the first stroke of Strike. The two characters that had been shoving each other folded together by force. The throwing command took the lead; the striking command shoved from behind. The two characters overlapped like a single sentence.

I threw the stone.

Thung.

But the stone itself was gone. A single golden stroke tore through the dark. The instant it touched the Fang Wolf’s forehead—

BOOM!

At the point of impact, Throw and Strike overlapped again. Hurl. Hit. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠two commands folded inward and detonated the force. The Fang Wolf’s head snapped back. Its body spun half a turn in midair and slammed into the wall.

THUD!

Black blood spattered the stone.

I stared at the floating text, dazed. Then my mouth fell open a beat late.

“Rank increased?”

I looked back and forth between the Fang Wolf crumpled against the wall and the stone dust in my hand. It was powder so pathetic you could barely call it a weapon.

“Did I…… just hit Rank 2?”

Even saying it out loud felt ridiculous. A few days since I’d fallen into this world. I’d called for a status window dozens of times and gotten nothing. No skill screen. No tutorial fairy. All I’d received was a worn broom and a menial-work pass.

Yet the moment I killed one magical beast with a rock throw, a number went up.

“Shit…….”

Honestly, I was happy. In the real world nothing I did ever raised a number. Here, after nearly dying, bleeding a little, and killing a beast, the number actually rose.

“With the horned rabbit it only said combat-incapable.”

This time it said subjugation confirmed. I didn’t know the difference. Whatever. It was still good. My body hurt, but the corners of my mouth kept climbing.

“This is addictive.”

That was when growls layered over one another in the corridor.

Grrrrr.

Not one. More yellow eyes rose out of the dark. Two. Three. Four…

I backed away slowly. A moment ago I’d been terrified. Honestly I still was. The teeth were still huge. The claws were still sharp. I was still bare-handed.

But who was I?

“Level-upped Han Seok-beom.”

I picked up a fresh stone.

“Throw-Strike.”

Golden lines wrapped the stone. I carefully laid a word on top of them.

“Fire.”

“What? Why is the output like this?”

A red stroke flared across the stone’s surface. It didn’t blaze. The output wasn’t high enough for that. Instead the stone heated up like a scrap of iron in a bed of coals.

“Still, it stuck.”

The first Fang Wolf lunged. Red mana gathered in its teeth. I threw the glowing stone straight into its open mouth.

BOOM!

Impact, and a tiny spark leapt. The Fang Wolf rolled across the floor, thrashing.

It didn’t die. Output 1. Nowhere near fireball power. But its mouth was scorched, and the mana that had been gathering in its teeth scattered.

“So verbal commands have weak output, huh?”

Disappointing. Still not a failure. I grabbed a second stone at once. The character I’d seen earlier was still sitting in my head.

Slash.

I’d never written it before. But I knew the meaning. Cut. Sever. Slice.

The second Fang Wolf circled to the side. Mana gathered on its claws.

I wrote the characters on the stone first.

Throw-Strike.

The Fang Wolf’s mana poured toward me.

I laid the word on top.

“Cut.”

In that instant the golden lines wrapping the stone flattened sideways into a thin plane. A single white stroke appeared on top of them. An edge. A blade-like line. Output-1 Slash attribute. But the moment it rode on top of Output-3 Throw-Strike, the shape changed.

My eyes went wide.

“It works like this?”

The stone no longer flew like a stone. It spun like a thin blade and sliced the air. The Fang Wolf’s foreleg stopped. The next instant—

SHHRAK!

Red blood sprayed. The creature’s entire claw was sheared clean off. Its body lost balance and crashed to the floor, shrieking.

I watched, breath held. A rock throw. Had just. Cut.

“…….”

I looked from the blood-spattered floor to the half-split stone fragment. Then laughter burst out of me.

“That was it.”

Verbal commands had weak output. But if you laid them on top of a formula you’d written yourself, you could change the function entirely. Fire had heated the stone. Slash had turned a rock throw into a blade.

“This is seriously addictive.”

That was when four Fang Wolves dropped their stances at once. No—that wasn’t all. One more emerged from the dark. Five. Five pairs of yellow eyes locked on me.

“Is that one the leader?”

The leader stayed farthest back, body low. My heart hammered like mad and my fingertips shook. Even so—I wanted to try it.

“Fine.”

I let out a low breath.

“Even better.”

Mana was leaking from the Fang Wolves all at once. Red lines crawled across the corridor floor. That mana poured into the stone in my hand. This time it wasn’t one stream. Multiple channels connected simultaneously.

I set my fingertip on the stone.

Throw-Strike.

The output climbed.

“Output ten!”

“What?! Output ten doesn’t work?”

The stone in my hand screamed, vibrating. Golden lines sparked between my fingers and cracks spidered across its surface. The flesh of my palm felt ready to split. I laid the word on top.

“Cut.”

This time it didn’t stop at turning the stone into a blade. The golden lines flattened, then spread to both sides of the corridor. A thin line that cut the entire narrow hallway. So thin it almost seemed invisible.

Shhk.

Shushushushushushuk.

A golden slash cut straight across the middle of the corridor. The fangs of the Fang Wolf charging from the front were severed. The foreleg of the one leaping from the left split open. A line scored across the throat of the one roaring from behind. Last of all, even the bone spines of the one crouched low.

All at once.

SHHRAAAAK!

Blood painted the corridor walls. Four bodies collapsed together.

Thud.

Thud-thud.

Thud.

I stayed frozen in the throwing stance. Blood ran from my fingertips. The stone fragment was gone. In its place a single thin golden line was embedded deep in the wall, as if someone had drawn a blade straight through the corridor itself.

I swallowed hard. Five of them. The first one I’d killed, plus the four I’d just dropped. That ought to be enough for Rank 3.

I stared a hole through the empty air. Nothing appeared. I waited a moment. Blinked again. Still nothing.

“……I killed five of them?”

Hadn’t that just been pretty cool? Shouldn’t the system give me a little credit for once?

I looked down at my blood-smeared hand. The fingertips were torn open. My shoulder and shin throbbed, and something inside my skull was ringing.

“No level-up, just the side effects, huh.”

I was annoyed. But the sensation of having just cut the entire corridor still lingered in my fingertips. I’d only layered one character, and the shape of the formula had changed. Output was low, yet the result shifted depending on how you used it. One wrong move and a finger might fly off.

Even so—it worked. I could combine them. I could layer attributes. When the output rose, the trajectory itself changed. Which meant next time—

I clenched and unclenched my bleeding hand. It hurt. Still, I was smiling.

“This…… is getting me really excited.”