A week passed.
Every night, while the city slept, I trained.
While my parents thought I was sleeping, I completed quests.
While other kids played video games or napped in class, I secretly opened portals to low-level dungeons I marked on a map copied from memory.
[Level: 5 → 9]
[Strength: 12 → 22]
[Agility: 12 → 26]
[Vitality: 12 → 21]
[Skill Mastered: Shadow Step Lv. 3]
[New Passive Acquired: Hunter's Instinct (Lv. 1)]
Improves reaction speed to danger and enhances perception.
I was growing.
But I was careful.
I never used flashy skills in public. I avoided known guild zones and monitored Hunter Association news through my father's radio.
Still, my absence and strange habits didn't go unnoticed forever.
At Home
"Joon-Hyuk, are you feeling alright?" my mother asked, gently placing a hand on my forehead. "You've been eating more, sleeping less."
"I'm okay, Mom," I replied with a soft smile. "Just trying to stay fit. I want to be strong… like Dad."
That always made her eyes soften.
She thought I meant emotionally strong. I didn't correct her.
Meanwhile, my father noticed something different too — in my stance, the way I moved.
"You taking boxing classes on the side, kid?" he asked one night, half-joking.
I laughed. "Just YouTube videos and jogging."
He chuckled, but his eyes lingered.
A Week Later — Unregistered Gate Near a Construction Site
By now, I could feel mana in the air — a low vibration in my bones.
An unstable Gate shimmered behind stacks of steel girders. Another one of the "missed" ones that hadn't been reported yet.
I stepped inside quietly.
The dungeon was… different.
Foggy.
I advanced cautiously.
Then the ground beneath me cracked — too late to react.
CRASH!
I fell — five meters into a deep pit.
"Shit—!"
Pain shot through my leg. I bit my lip hard, holding back a cry.
[Warning: HP -27]
[Status: Minor Fracture Detected]
[Activating Accelerated Recovery…]
My vision blurred. For the first time since my reincarnation, fear gripped me.
The sound of something scraping echoed in the darkness.
[Enemy Detected: Ghoul (E-Rank)]
[HP: 230]
Much stronger than anything I'd faced.
It appeared slowly — hunched, pale-skinned, with elongated claws and glowing red eyes.
My heart thudded like a war drum.
One mistake and I die here.
I clenched my jaw and stood, leaning on my sword.
[Shadow Step — Activated!]
I vanished from sight for a split second — reappearing behind the ghoul.
SLASH!
Blood sprayed, but it didn't go down.
It roared, spinning and slashing at me.
[Hunter's Instinct — Activated!]
My reflexes fired like lightning — I ducked, rolled, countered.
The fight dragged for minutes that felt like hours. I was bleeding. My vision dimmed.
But finally — I landed the killing blow.
[Enemy Defeated.]
[You have gained +95 EXP.]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Skill Evolved: Shadow Step → Phantom Blink (Lv. 1)]
I collapsed to the floor, barely breathing.
But I was alive.
[Skill: Phantom Blink (Lv. 1)]
Instant movement up to 5 meters. Leaves afterimage that confuses enemies for 2 seconds.
By the time I crawled out of the dungeon with a limp and a grin, the sun was rising.
Meanwhile, at the Hunter Association HQ
"Another dungeon cleared without a registered team?" one investigator muttered, reviewing a list.
"That's the fourth one in two weeks. Solo clears… no casualties, no traces. No mana residue either. Just corpses."
"Think it's a rogue C-rank?"
"No," said the supervisor, narrowing his eyes. "Something's off."
They circled the area on the map.
"Keep an eye on these zones. If this 'phantom' keeps it up, he'll get himself caught… or recruited."
And far from their eyes, I trained harder than ever.
In two months, I wanted to awaken officially. But by then… I'd already be stronger than most B-ranks.
And when Jin-Woo finally awakened…
I would stand tall beside him.
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