Objection!

The moment he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crossed the boundary, the atmosphere of the forest changed.

No longer the clean air of before. This felt like the true beginning of a demon-infested hellscape.

Sunghyun smiled.

I'm back.

The last time he entered this forest, hunger had left him too dazed to notice much of anything. Now, after a measure of growth, he could see and hear it all.

Before, he had no way of gauging the enemy's strength. That was no longer the case. He could handle this.

Just to be safe, he had pushed every stat to 30.

His current specs looked like this:

Coin Market had reached level 2. New goods had flooded the shop as a result. Where only D-rank items had been available before, C-rank stock now lined the shelves. He couldn't help but browse the fresh listings.

The categories had expanded as well—Traits, Skills, and Tools, each subdivided more finely than before. Combat traits and non-combat traits. Skills split the same way. Under Tools, potions and elixirs had newly appeared.

"Oh? A stamina potion runs about ten coins."

A solid price.

Effective against serious injuries. That line snagged Sunghyun's attention.

"So if an arm gets cut off, I can slap a potion on it fast enough to reattach it?"

That opened the door to fighting more aggressively. There would be pain, sure—but pain he could endure. And at around ten coins a pop, the cost barely registered as a burden.

"Man, if I'd rolled any other trait, I'd be screwed. Investment really is the MVP. Absolute golden goose."

Still, why wasn't the trait itself gaining experience?

"It'll climb eventually. Whatever."

No point burning mental energy on something he couldn't solve. Sunghyun scanned his surroundings.

"Wow…"

The monsters here were on a completely different level. That rock bear he'd just fought would turn into plain old "rock" if it wandered into this place.

"How the hell did I even survive last time?"

Sunghyun thought back. Relying purely on instinct, he had managed to stick to the relatively safer paths and eventually reach the earlier stretch of forest. That had been equal parts sharp senses and pure dumb luck.

"Alright. Time to start experimenting with the nearest one."

He kicked off the ground and launched himself at the Evil Bat. The creature never noticed him until he was right on top of it.

Swaaaash—

A sound of air being sliced came from nowhere. To the Evil Bat, Sunghyun simply appeared out of thin air.

"Taiji performance is rock solid. First strike wins, after all."

His Taiji had a way of blending into nature itself. Creatures that relied on raw senses often failed to detect him at all.

"Kiiiiiik—"

By the time it finally registered his presence, its fate was already sealed.

Seok—

"Huh?"

Just like that, the Evil Bat became Evil / Bat.

Sunghyun clenched his fist and stared at it for a moment.

"Am I… stronger than I thought?"

His skill only told him an opponent's strength in coin value. It never said how that stacked up against him personally. He'd been a little tense going in, but—

"For my first fight after coming ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠back here, that was pretty underwhelming."

Underwhelming was the word. With Body and Mana both at 30, Sunghyun was putting on a fairly dominant show against the magical beasts of this place. Whenever things looked dicey, he simply spent the coins he was earning to push Body or Mana higher on the spot.

In short order, he wiped out every magical beast in sight.

The result:

His account had rocketed past a thousand coins in the blink of an eye. Barely three hours since entering the new forest. Growth this fast left even the heroes in the dust. At this same point, those heroes were still brawling with goblins. Sunghyun had already veered completely off the rails.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

And yet—

"Still a long way to go."

He wasn't satisfied. He stood before the place he had once fled from—before a giant that held an overwhelming number of coins.

A single fruit tree rooted in the earth. From a distance it looked like nothing more than a fruit tree. Hovering above it, however, were these characters:

More than every coin he had gathered so far combined. Far from despairing, Sunghyun laughed.

"Hahaha! Almost there."

The sensation was different now. What had once been pure "I have to run" had shifted into "Maybe I can take a shot at this." That change meant everything.

But not yet.

Sunghyun struck a pose as if declaring an objection in court.

"Hey, Giant! I said I'd see you again, didn't I? Soon."

Whether it heard him or not, the ground trembled faintly. All because of the presence Sunghyun was already radiating after a single day.

He turned and went back to hunting. With the coins he had earned, he bought the one item in the shop that made his senses scream.

The instant he laid eyes on it, a single conviction flooded his entire body: I have to buy this.

Pajijijijik—

Sunghyun swept his sword horizontally. Lightning trailed along the arc.

"Not bad at all."

Maintenance complete, he turned his eyes on a nearby magical beast.

"This is the grand opening of my new trait. Nice to meet you."

The smile he wore was pure nightmare fuel. The magical beast that locked eyes with him felt an instinctive wrongness.

I… felt fear?

The beasts of this forest lived by an iron rule: if you meet something stronger, run. If you don't run, bite first. If you do neither—you die.

A name appeared in Sunghyun's vision over a wolf-like magical beast.

His first opponent that paid out over a thousand coins.

"Awooooooo—!"

Wolves of this forest never howled. But this might be its last stand. It howled on purpose, trying to shake off the terror.

Sunghyun welcomed the sight.

"That's right. We fight. Don't we?"

Gazing at the wolf's gleaming silver fur, he let his sword hang loose at his side. Without either claiming the first move, man and wolf charged each other.

Sunghyun struck first. He swung the dangling blade as lightly as a spring breeze.

Chaaaaak—

Pajijijijik—

The result was anything but light. What felt like a breeze to him hit the wolf like a storm, and the trailing lightning only made the force more savage.

The wolf clenched its jaws. It had to dodge.

Hwirik—

It aborted its attack, spun its body, and slipped past the blade. Sunghyun spoke with a touch of genuine admiration.

"Oh. So a seventeen-hundred-coin specimen really is different?"

As if this was finally a real fight, he walked forward, lazily swinging his sword. Lightning clung to the seemingly weightless blade and gave it sudden mass.

Sunghyun drew up his mana and thought: If lightning attaches to every action… couldn't I just become the lightning itself?

The trait answered.

Possible.

His Taiji spun violently. Lightning wrapped his body. The boundary between flesh and thunder began to dissolve. Then Sunghyun's form shot forward.

Kwagagagagak—

Erasing every scrap of matter in his path.

The wolf never saw him—but it knew. He was coming. He was coming now.

It looked up. The moon hung there, perfect. The wolf drank in the moonlight. Its body swelled to twice its size, and crimson eyes locked onto Sunghyun.

"Awooooooo—!"

Still not enough. Even like this, it couldn't take what was coming. So it gambled on the future. The wolf poured every possibility it possessed into the present. Life force itself was burned as fuel, and brilliant silver mana began to flow through its frame.

Done. This should be enough.

Sunghyun swung his sword at the wolf—lightning-fast. The wolf met the blade with its claws. A shallow cut opened on the claws, but it held. It had blocked. Success.

Time was running out, though. It had to crush the human in front of it before the power faded. Sunghyun was in the same boat. Turning into pure lightning with a mere C-rank trait drained mana at a terrifying rate. Even with Mana at 40, it was no easy feat. The Taiji seated in his dantian worked overtime to keep the surging power under control.

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One slip and everything would detonate. Both Sunghyun and the Moonlit Wolf were bombs balanced on the edge of explosion. Whoever finished the other first—or whoever lost control first and blew themselves apart—would decide it. In the end, it was a race against the clock.

Sunghyun swept a hand through empty air. Fire and lightning fused in the space before him. He shoved the fire-lightning forward. It streaked toward the wolf's face at thunderbolt speed.

The wolf threw itself forward instead. A little scorching was fine if it meant it could set up the next move. Exactly what Sunghyun had wanted.

"That's it. Just like that."

The instant the wolf committed its body, Sunghyun was already swinging. Lift its head to dodge the sword and the fire-lightning hit. Take the fire-lightning and it was over either way. The wolf was forced into a choice.

But like Sunghyun once had, the wolf refused to choose from the options given. Its choice was this:

It charged straight through. It sank its fangs into Sunghyun's sword. Half its muzzle was shredded in the process—but it got what it needed.

Pagak—

The sword snapped.

Sunghyun froze for a beat.

"You crazy bastard?"

He dropped the broken blade at once. The time left on his lightning form was nearly gone. Sensing the opening, the wolf lunged.

Sunghyun stood still for a heartbeat.

Show me where I need to go.

His senses painted the path again.

—There.

He used the blind spot to perfection. The wolf's vision blurred, then Sunghyun simply vanished from it. Startled, the wolf slowed—and that was all the opening Sunghyun needed to vault onto its back.

Tup!

His hand clamped around the wolf's throat. The beast felt the weight on its body and immediately tried to thrash him off against the ground. Sunghyun was faster.

Gripping the neck, he dumped every remaining coin into Body.

More! More!

"Uwaaaaaaah!!!!!"

Ppeudeuk—

The neck in Sunghyun's grip snapped.

Victory.

He released the broken throat and collapsed onto his back, arms and legs splayed wide.

"Hwaaaaaah!"

He had won. Against an opponent he would have had no choice but to flee from before.

Sunghyun stared up at the moon hanging high in the sky. Only a few steps remained until he repaid the humiliation of that day.