Rune Stone (2)
Following Kar's guidance, Park Jihun, Shin Jiyeon, and Briana all stepped into the wooden cave. The sight that greeted them inside left the three of them speechless.
“Wow…”
“Holy shit.”
“Kiik?”
Everyone except Kar stood frozen, faces blank with pure astonishment. Floating in the air right before their eyes was a stone radiating a soft, ethereal glow. It wasn’t an ordinary rock, either. Roughly the size of a man’s fist, it didn’t just shine—it was covered in mysterious hieroglyphic symbols that no one could decipher.
“...A rune stone,” Shin Jiyeon murmured, still dazed.
Rune stones. They weren’t carved with actual ancient runes, but the similar-looking hieroglyphs earned them the name. Using one granted a skill—something nearly impossible to obtain except during a hunter’s initial awakening. It let the user directly absorb whatever skill was engraved on the stone.
Depending on the skill, its value far exceeded a simple stat boost of several dozen points. The best ones traded for hundreds of billions. Even a completely useless skill could still fetch tens of billions purely because of its rarity. It was the ultimate lottery ticket. No—more like winning first place several times in a row.
“What do we do, what do we do, Sunbae?! It’s a real rune stone! This is insane!”
Even if it had been the ‘Stone of Mystery’ that raised all stats by twenty or more at once as a hidden reward, it would have been unbelievable luck. The fact that an actual rune stone had appeared left Shin Jiyeon unable to hide her excitement.
“Hurry, hurry! Go check it! What skill is it?!”
Even though it wasn’t hers but Jihun’s, she was reacting as if she’d won the prize herself. No, she seemed even happier than if it had been her own.
“...R-right.”
Still somewhat stunned, Park Jihun slowly approached the floating stone at Shin Jiyeon’s urging and reached out his hand.
“Grr…”
Beside him, Kar—the guardian of the rune stone—bowed her head deeply. It was her way of acknowledging Jihun as its rightful owner. Of course, since he had already tamed her and become her master, it was only natural.
In any case, Park Jihun claimed the rune stone that had served as the gate’s core in place of a boss monster.
You have cleared the E-rank Gate ‘Silver Wolf’s Wetland.’
You cleared it by subduing the boss instead of killing it.
Great Achievement! All stats permanently increased by 2.
You have acquired a Rune Stone.
Great Achievement! All stats permanently increased by 1.
The notification windows finally announced that the gate had been cleared. His stats had risen from the achievements, but Jihun’s attention was fixed somewhere else entirely.
“......”
He stared at the rune stone in his palm and swallowed hard. Soon an information window detailing its effects appeared, and Jihun read through it with nervous focus.
What if it was a completely useless skill? What if it gave him something ridiculous like Alpha Male again? He’d seen on the news that a ‘Sword Saint’ skill rune stone had sold for two hundred and ten billion. Could this possibly…?
All sorts of thoughts raced through his head until the window finally came into focus.
Upon use, acquire the skill Martial Arts.
It was incredibly short and simple.
Martial Arts. A rune stone that would grant that exact skill.
‘So that’s why Kar became a beastwoman and switched to brawler.’
Only now did he understand the reason behind her evolution and class choice. It must have been because of this very rune stone.
That aside, since this was an E-rank dungeon, it made sense that it hadn’t contained any ridiculous top-tier skills like ‘Combat Master’ or ‘Fist Emperor.’ Still, Martial Arts was plenty useful. It made unarmed combat far more effective, toughened the body, smoothed out punches and kicks, and let the user move as if they had trained in martial arts even if they never had.
It was a skill that would definitely help in battle. In fact, it could skip over a massive portion of the combat techniques one would normally have to learn the hard way. Extremely practical.
And if it was that useful, it was also worth a fortune.
“Martial Arts? Whoa… Basic swordsmanship went for around twenty billion, so this should be in the same range…?”
This came from Shin Jiyeon, a veteran hunter who knew the market well. A rune stone worth roughly twenty billion won.
“...Wow.”
For a split second, the urge to ‘just sell it’ surged through him. With twenty billion, Jihun wouldn’t need to work another day in his life. He could buy a huge, luxurious house, spend every single day having mind-blowing sex with Shin Jiyeon, Briana, and Kar, and live a completely carefree life. A fancy mansion, expensive cars, designer clothes, luxury watches. A harem of beautiful women. Wasn’t that the dream every man fantasized about at least once?
Twenty billion could make that dream a reality.
But Park Jihun soon shook his head.
‘No. My dream doesn’t end here.’
He remembered his true goal. Even though he was only E-rank right now, he would keep growing—D-rank, C-rank, B-rank, A-rank, S-rank. He would enter higher, more dangerous gates, meet even more varieties of female monsters, and build a massive interspecies harem. He would fuck them senseless and drown in countless monster girls.
That was Park Jihun’s ambition.
‘Orcs, lizardmen, succubi, vampires, dragons!! So many beautiful monster girls I haven’t even met yet are waiting for me!’
So rather than being blinded by twenty billion and selling the stone, it was better to secure a combat skill for his future. He made his decision.
‘Yeah, I felt it when I fought Kar earlier. I’m seriously lacking in technique.’
He had even considered signing up for a martial arts dojo. But with the Martial Arts skill alone, he could bypass a huge chunk of that learning curve.
The conclusion was obvious.
“I’m using this on myself.”
“What? For real?”
Shin Jiyeon’s eyes widened at the bombshell. But she soon nodded in understanding.
“Well, considering your growth rate, Sunbae… it does make sense to learn a combat skill.”
Jihun wasn’t like Shin Jiyeon or most other hunters with fixed stats. His stats rose every time he defeated or tamed a female. He grew at an absurd speed. Hadn’t he shot from F-rank to E-rank stats in just two days?
At this pace, B-rank and A-rank were right around the corner. A combat skill would be incredibly helpful then—especially for someone like Jihun who had to grow rapidly without time to build proper experience and technique.
“You sure? You’re part of the party too.”
Jihun asked just to be sure. Twenty billion was an amount that would tempt even a successful B-rank hunter or a mid-sized guild master.
But Shin Jiyeon shook her head without the slightest hesitation.
“No. It’s yours, Sunbae.”
As expected, she was rock-solid when it counted. A good guild master, Jihun thought.
“...Plus, the stronger you get, the more high-rank gate girls I get to see! Ehehe, demon sisters! Dragon sisters!!”
...Good guild master, revoked. Just a pervert, Jihun decided.
Anyway, since they had decided to use it, he should activate it before he lost his nerve.
“...R-Rune Stone, activate!”
Thinking about spending something worth twenty billion made him wonder if he was making a mistake, but Jihun squeezed his eyes shut and shouted the command.
Rune Stone activated.
The used Rune Stone has been destroyed.
The rune stone shattered with a pathetic crunch, its light dying as it crumbled into dust. For a brief moment Jihun felt actual pain, as if his twenty-billion-won bank balance was crumbling along with it.
Martial Arts / Level 1
Comprehends the fundamentals of bare-handed martial arts.
The skill description was ridiculously short, but Jihun’s mood shot sky-high in an instant.
“O-ohhh!”
The moment he gained the skill, even though his stats hadn’t increased, his body suddenly felt lighter. He had a vague but clear sense of how he should move in a fight.
“This is actually amazing.”
He hadn’t fully understood how simply gaining a skill could let someone use martial arts, but experiencing it firsthand erased all his doubts.
‘It feels like I can just do it.’
Kar’s agile movements from their earlier fight. Her iron-like kicks. The rapid punches that had been so hard to dodge. He understood all of it—why she moved that way, how she moved that way, and exactly what he needed to do to move the same.
“Wow, congratulations, Sunbae. That makes three skills now, right?”
“Y-yeah…”
Now that she mentioned it, it was true. Most hunters only had one skill. Even Shin Jiyeon only had her Physical Enhancement skill; she had learned swordsmanship the normal way. But Jihun now possessed three—his two insane cheat skills Alpha Male and Female Hunter, plus Martial Arts from the rune stone.
Normally, three skills or more was a spec reserved for top-tier hunters rich enough to buy rune stones, or people like the corporate heir ‘Cheon Hyun-soo’ who had made headlines after awakening.
That alone was already incredible. Yet Jihun was also the world’s one and only Tamer with a taming skill, and an extremely rare growth-type hunter who could raise his rank by increasing his stats.
He had every single dream element a hunter could possibly want.
“...Sunbae, I’m so glad I chose to party with you.”
Every step he took would become history. His name would be on everyone’s lips. Being able to walk that path beside him was an incredible honor as a hunter. Not to mention the joy of being his partner with the same perverted tastes.
“I really want to stay with you forever, Sunbae!”
“Uh—huh?!”
When Shin Jiyeon said it with sparkling eyes, Jihun was so startled he stuttered. Shin Jiyeon quickly realized how her words sounded and turned bright red, lowering her head in embarrassment.