Level Up Machine

Chapter 16 The Crisis Returns (2)

-Slash!

“Kieeeek!”

With a chilling sound, the Lizardman’s piercing scream echoed through the swamp.

Yeong-sik, who had just decapitated the Lizardman, retracted his sword back into his arm, taking a moment to catch his slightly heavy breath.

-Ding.

[Your level has increased to 7.]

Along with the clear sound of a bell, a message window indicating the level-up appeared.

A bright light permeated Yeong-sik’s body, and he felt a sensation of his entire being growing stronger.

‘Certainly, reaching level 7 feels different.’

Yeong-sik thought this as he looked down at his hand.

The difference between level 1 and level 2 wasn’t that significant, but the difference between level 1 and level 7 was substantial enough to be clearly felt.

“Ugh.”

At the front of the party, Gil-soo, who had been drawing the aggro of three Lizardmen, let out a groan and collapsed to the ground.

Blood flowed from the sword wounds inflicted by the Lizardmen on his shoulder and side.

“These quick-moving creatures are not easy to handle.”

Orcs were actually slower in movement than humans, so once one got used to dealing with them, it wasn’t difficult to dodge their attacks.

However, despite leveling up to 6, the Lizardmen were so agile that Gil-soo found it hard to keep up, and they pressured him.

Moreover, since the area where the Lizardmen resided was a swamp, it was difficult to move his body easily.

“Here’s a potion.”

Ara, who had been providing magical support from the rear, approached and handed a potion to Gil-soo.

Gil-soo thanked her and gently applied the lowest-grade potion to his wounds.

“Hmm… Gil-soo ahjussi, don’t you have any shield-related skills?”

Yeong-sik asked, recalling Gil-soo’s combat style up to now.

Currently, he was hunting monsters using a two-handed axe, but he often showed a lack of safety.

“Not at the moment.”

“Hmm… I think you should try using a shield, at least against the Orcs, as a test.”

“Haha, sorry, I’m not good at blocking attacks.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. Since your position is leaning more towards a tanker, I think it’s better to enhance your safety with a shield, even if it means attacking a bit less.”

Yeong-sik spoke in a calm voice.

Hearing his words, Gil-soo nodded and replied.

“Got it. I’ll try to get a shield when we return to the city.”

“Yes. We have some money, so let’s get a good one.”

Yeong-sik replied with a light smile.

### Episode 16

The Crisis Returns (2)

—

Over the past two weeks of hunting, Yeong-sik and his party managed to accumulate a fair amount of money.

Even after purchasing essential consumables like potions, bandages, and food, they still had about 5 gold left as profit.

This was because they started to hunt Orcs more efficiently, gradually increasing their speed.

‘Lizardmen yield 10 silver each, so once we get used to them, we should be able to earn even faster.’

Although they were much harder to hunt compared to Orcs, the rewards from Lizardmen weren’t bad either.

The swords used by the Lizardmen were of better quality than those used by the Orcs, which meant they could gather more materials needed for engineering.

At this rate, Yeong-sik thought it would be possible to earn over 10 gold a month.

“Still, Lizardmen give much more experience points than Orcs.”

Ara murmured this as she noticed she had leveled up once within a few hours of hunting Lizardmen.

As their levels increased, the experience points gained from Orcs gradually decreased.

When she advanced from level 5 to level 6, it took three whole days of hunting Orcs without gaining a level.

“They say you can level up to 15 here, so we plan to keep hunting here for a while.”

Yeong-sik’s words made Ara and Gil-soo nod.

Although Lizardmen were much harder to deal with compared to Orcs, the current strength of their party made hunting them not overly dangerous.

Yeong-sik and Gil-soo had excellent combat skills, but the main reason for their success was Ara’s magic, which was highly effective against the cold-sensitive Lizardmen.

“Ugh, but it’s so hot and sticky here.”

Ara frowned as she looked down at her clothes clinging to her body due to the high humidity.

She was fanning her clothes to cool herself when she suddenly got an idea and turned to Yeong-sik.

“Yeong-sik, could you use that?”

Yeong-sik closed his mouth firmly at her words. He looked at her with a reluctant expression.

“By that, you mean…?”

“You know what I mean, right?”

Ara smiled lightly, giving him a meaningful look.

Yeong-sik’s expression twisted at her words.

He knew what she meant from the beginning.

‘Isn’t this treatment of me a bit too much?’

Thinking this, Yeong-sik took an item out of his inventory.

It was a mini fan, about the size of a human face.

Yeong-sik brought the mini fan’s cord to his right arm.

His right arm opened up, revealing a 220-volt outlet.

“Pfft, it’s always funny to see that.”

Ara chuckled lightly, covering her mouth with her hand.

Yeong-sik groaned inwardly at her seemingly mocking tone and directed the mini fan towards her.

A cool breeze from the fan fluttered her hair.

‘This isn’t what I envisioned my mechanical engineer skills being used for.’

Yeong-sik sighed, thinking that his job seemed quite useless.

In the future, if his level increased and he could create more advanced items, things might change. But for now, being a mechanical engineer was nothing more than being a walking utility tool.

Moreover, he could serve as this walking utility tool only because his body was made of machinery instead of flesh and blood.

If an ordinary person acquired mechanical engineering skills, they would just end up making useless scraps.

“Ha ha. Don’t make that face. After all, your manufacturing skills aren’t the most important thing for you, right? And eventually, you’ll be able to create much more helpful items.”

Gil-soo, who understood Yeong-sik’s situation, said this.

Yeong-sik nodded in agreement.

“Well, for now, I need to keep leveling up steadily.”

He was focusing more on hunting than on leveling up his manufacturing or structural analysis skills, so his level didn’t rise quickly.

However, once he had accumulated enough money and started to manufacture mechanical products in earnest, raising his skill levels wouldn’t be difficult.

‘Although I’d like to level up my skills quickly…’

Yeong-sik could use his structural analysis skill to uncover the secrets hidden within his body.

For him, leveling up his structural analysis skill was more important than anything else.

But solely focusing on leveling up his manufacturing skill right now wasn’t a wise choice.

Their current income wasn’t substantial, and it wasn’t enough to buy the ores needed for extraction, especially given the unpredictable nature of their circumstances.

‘Anyway, we’ll earn much more money as we level up.’

Even now, the difference in earnings between hunting Orcs and Lizardmen was significant.

As with most monster-hunting professions, the cost of necessary equipment and consumables would skyrocket as his level increased, but it would still be incomparable to their current earnings.

And leveling up wasn’t just about earning more money.

In this world, level was the most explicit indicator of power.

Although he had an unknown power, Yeong-sik guessed that a high-level summoner could easily suppress his strength.

In this world, being strong, having power, wasn’t an option—it was a necessity for survival.

Without strength, he would just end up repeating the same experiences he had with Nam Gi-tae.

-Ding.

At that moment, the clear sound of a bell rang, and Ara’s expression stiffened slightly.

She turned to Yeong-sik and spoke.

“Someone is approaching.”

The bell sound was from a skill called ‘Frozen Bell’ that she had acquired after surpassing level 5.

This skill, used for perimeter defense, detected heat and sent out danger signals, making it more effective than regular alert magic.

“Is it a monster?”

Yeong-sik narrowed his eyes and asked her.

Ara shook her head with a tense expression.

“No, it’s… a person.”

She said this with a slightly pale face.

Her words made the atmosphere around them turn chilly.

Yeong-sik stood up, speaking urgently.

“Let’s run.”

Though they had leveled up quite rapidly over the past two weeks, they were still only at level 7.

Level 7 was lower than the average limit for the natives living here.

They were far too weak to face an unknown enemy head-on.

-Splash, splash!

Yeong-sik and his party ran swiftly through the swamp.

The mud, which sank up to their ankles, was slowing them down.

“Hah, hah!”

Ara’s breathing became labored. Although she had come prepared with long boots for the swamp, it was impossible to move easily in it.

Already having low stamina due to being a mage, she staggered as if she might collapse any moment from sprinting through the swamp.

“Damn it!”

Yeong-sik, who had the best stamina among the party, picked her up.

Ara wanted to tell him not to worry about her, but she was too exhausted to speak.

-Ding, ding.

“They’re getting closer!”

Ara shouted with a stiff expression, using the information from her Frozen Bell skill to track the suspicious enemy’s location.

Yeong-sik bit his lip and moved his legs as fast as he could.

With his mechanical body, Yeong-sik naturally had very good stamina.

In terms of the stamina stat displayed in his status window, he was below Gil-soo, but in reality, his endurance was far superior.

However, no matter how good his stamina was, carrying someone while running at full speed in a swamp was extremely exhausting.

“Hah, hah.”

Yeong-sik’s breathing grew heavy.

Ara, who was on his back, spoke to him in a cautious voice.

“Yeong-sik, you should run ahead alone…”

“Shut up.”

Yeong-sik answered firmly, continuing to move without hesitation.

Ara couldn’t respond and kept silent at his resolute words.

-Splash, splash.

“Stop right there.”

Despite Yeong-sik’s desperate efforts, a man blocked his path.

The man had fox-like eyes and a kind expression.

Seeing him, Yeong-sik’s face twisted in anger.

It was a man he remembered.

“Jung Chan-hyuk…”

“Hah, just thinking about how much trouble I went through to find you guys pisses me off.”

Jung Chan-hyuk shed his initial friendly demeanor and revealed his true nature.

Yeong-sik wasn’t surprised by his appearance.

He had suspected that Jung Chan-hyuk’s approach wasn’t with good intentions ever since he discarded the card he received from him.

“Kikik. But it was worth the trouble.”

Jung Chan-hyuk’s eyes glinted with desire as he looked at Ara, who was on Yeong-sik’s back.

Despite the mud on her face and her sweat-soaked appearance, her beauty was dazzling.

Jung Chan-hyuk licked his lips and drew his sword from his belt.

“If you surrender now, I won’t hurt you.”

Jung Chan-hyuk said, staring at Ara with a lecherous gaze.

His words made Ara’s expression contort with anger.

Yeong-sik set her down on the ground and sighed deeply.

“Damn, everyone’s really in heat, aren’t they?”

“What did you say?”

Jung Chan-hyuk’s face twisted in response to Yeong-sik’s harsh words.

Yeong-sik continued speaking.

“Stop waving your junk around, you disgusting bastard.”

Jung Chan-hyuk’s expression hardened at Yeong-sik’s words.