LEVEL UP: ALONE

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Innocence Lost: Over time, Jin-woo gets colder and deadlier. He himself notices the changes in him, but he still can smile amongst his loved ones, or if someone genuinely treats him well.

Squishy Wizard: Mage-class hunters generally can't defend themselves very well, which is why they need to stay behind their tank. The mages Jin-woo encounters in the class advancement dungeons also do not pose much of a threat by themselves, it's the minions they summon that will overwhelm anyone in sheer numbers. There are more scenes with Song Chi-yeol shown right before he meets Jin-woo again, like him practicing swordsmanship at a dojo. Refusal of the Call: Jin-woo doesn't join the Korean-Japanese raid force of S-rank hunters who try to rid Jeju Island of the ants, because he wants to spend more time with his recently cured mother, and not immediately make her worry about her son. However, he feels compelled to intervene when things go awry and ends up saving every Korean but Min Byung-goo.Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Some students come across a Gate in a school supply room. One mentions that this particular room has particularly low traffic. After hearing that one of the students realize that they don't know how long this Gate has been there for. Cue the Gate Breaking. Adventure Guild: The Hunter Association serves as a modern organization for hunters. They measure both the dungeons and the hunters' strength and sell the rights of gates to private raid parties and guilds. They also take in lower-ranked hunters (like Jin-woo at the beginning of the story) and assign them to raids that higher-ranked hunters don't want to partake in before a dungeon break occurs. While larger guilds receive a lot of benefits from the Association, the Association also mandates them to take care of certain dungeons if an emergency occurs.

Healing Factor: Due to Kandiaru's Blessing, Jin-woo is given a healing factor. A nurse who witnesses Jin-woo healing a papercut in seconds asks whether that is normal for hunters, and later learns that only the rarest of hunters have a self-healing factor, and they usually belong to the highest ranks. Dispel Magic: Kandiaru's Blessing comes with a handy permanent protection spell, which dispels any kind of debuffs Jin-woo may receive. It even prevents him from getting drunk, much to his annoyance. After completing a secret workout quest, Jin-woo is offered a "Blessed Box" which contains something that he wants or a "Cursed Box", which contains something he needs. He takes the former, which gives him an instant dungeon key, which again leads to a place where Jin-woo can earn money, experience and items. And more importantly, he was given a potion recipe and the means to make it, to cure his mother from her illness. Parental Abandonment: Jin-woo and Jin-ah's hunter father is missing after failing to escape a dungeon before the gate closed. Their mother is hospitalized due to a supernatural illness. Leave Your Quest" Test: Association President Go Gun-hee's offer to make Jin-woo his successor can be seen as such. If Jin-woo had accepted, he could have become a very politically important person, but he would then have to give up effectively as a hunter, as he would no longer be able to participate in dungeon raids, which would mean that he could no longer level up.

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One day, however, things go awry for Jin-woo and his party when a low-level dungeon turns out to be far more dangerous than initially assumed. Alone, wounded and surrounded, Jin-woo faces his certain doom, until a voice suddenly appears that offers to make Jin-woo a "player". Having nothing to lose, Jin-woo accepts and loses consciousness. After waking up in the hospital, he notices a quest log that only he can see, which uses RPG-like terms. Soon after, he learns that unlike any other hunter, he can gain character levels and improve rapidly by hunting monsters and training every day. This is the story of Jin-woo changing from the weakest to the strongest hunter in the world. Knife Fight: The battle between Jin-woo and Kang Tae-shik is an intense fight, as both are assassin-like agility-based fighters. Furthermore, Goto's plan was to use this event to indicate to the world that he was a National-Rank Hunter, as the only requirement he hadn't completed was clearing an S-Rank Dungeon, and he would have "cleared" it on a technicality. Instead, it simply showed the world Sung's true power, and made many across the world speculate if HE could be considered a National-Rank. Yoo Jin-ho standing by Jin-woo's side (even before he learned how strong Jin-woo is) and keeping Jin-woo's secret earns him Jin-woo's trust. The two then genuinely become friends and treat each other as honorary brothers. The ice elves inside the red gate can use Stealth too. They follow Kim Cheol to Jin-woo's group's base, after finishing off the rest of Kim Cheol's group. However, Jin-woo immediately notices their presence.

Graceful Loser: Kang Tae-shik takes it well that he lost and died to Jin-woo. In the webcomic, he states that it is only the course of nature for the weak to fall to the strong. Glory Seeker: The other common reason awakened beings work as hunters besides money: fame, and with it the rise in society. Awesome, but Impractical: Jin-woo's first weapon, the Casaka's Poisoned Fang, has an effect that applies Paralysis and Bleed. Sounds amazing, until you realize that most enemies that the effect would be worth a damn against easily resist it. The chance of a successful proc rises significantly on a critical hit to a weak point, but such strikes are often enough to end a battle anyway. The Paralysis effect at least has use in making that first critical hit count against enemies who would otherwise be tough enough to survive it and retaliate, such as the spider boss and Igrit. But the bleed part is useless roughly 100% of the time, as once that paralysis hits, the battle ain't lasting past 5 seconds.

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Due to the danger that gates pose to mankind, and the fact that hunters are the only ones who can deal with these threats, being a hunter is a very lucrative job and is the reason most awakened beings work as hunters. Jin-woo was initially also motivated by money, but is later only interested in getting even stronger, after money becomes a non-issue. Hunter Association President, Go Gun-hee, also assumes that Jin-woo doesn't want to work for him because it doesn't pay well, but is extremely impressed when Jin-woo declares that he wishes to fight in the highest of dungeons, and working for the Association would prevent him from doing so. Purple Is Powerful: After Jin-Woo's shadow army ranks up to another tier, their blue light turns purple. When Jin-woo realizes that Hwang Dong-seok's raid force consists of "lizards", he expects to be left behind as The Bait for the boss in the dungeon. However, this is exactly what he wanted in the first place, as he could then get the experience and the loot for himself.

Later, after completing the job change quest, Jin-woo receives the title "The One Who Overcame Adversity", which boosts all of his stats by 1% for every 1% his HP is below maximum. It Runs in the Family: Sung Jin-woo's father, Sung Il-hwan, was one of the first hunters ten years ago, but mysteriously disappeared when a gate closed before he could get out of a dungeon. After Jin-woo reaches S-rank, his father emerges from a new gate on the other side of the world, also wielding S-rank power. Loophole Abuse: Jin-woo accidentally ends up discovering an "exploit" in the game that saves his life. In the Job Quest dungeon, healing and store usage is prohibited, making the whole area a grueling test of endurance, and leaving the dungeon by using a Hearthstone makes it (presumably) permanently missable. However, just as he's being completely obliterated by the final gauntlet, Jin-woo is suddenly transported to the Penalty area as he had failed to do his daily quest for that day. In that area, healing and shop use are not restricted, and Jin-woo is able to recover. Since he left the Job Quest dungeon without using a Hearthstone, the dungeon is not lost. Furthermore, the four hours he spends in the Penalty area are added to his score for the gauntlet, allowing him to absolutely ace the quest. Acrofatic: Vulcan, the 50th floor boss in the Demon Castle Dungeon is very large and fat, yet can easily Flash Step. Park Hee-jin and Han Song-yi seem to be smitten with Jin-woo after he got them out of the red gate safely.Playing with Fire: Most mage hunters and many monsters can use fire magic to some degree. This is also the reason why fire resistance equipment is the most common type. Grew a Spine: Part of Yoo Jin-ho's Character Development is him standing up to his intimidating father. Han Song-yi, a friend of Jin-woo's sister, Jin-ah, makes an Early-Bird Cameo in Chapter 11 of the webcomic. In the novel, she first appears as the sole female hunter of the group that tags along with Yoo Jin-ho, while Jin-ho and Jin-woo clear the dungeons. After killing Kang Tae-shik, Jin-woo sees that the boss room was full of hobgoblins and a powerful boss... for a D-rank dungeon that is. He notes that this likely would have caught hunters off-guard, because earlier they only had to fight against normal goblins, who didn't engage in large numbers.