Chapter 5
Chapter 5:
‘N-no way!’
Choi Taesik’s eyes widened in shock.
To hunt a Sewage Slime with just two slashes.
It was utterly unbelievable.
‘He wasn’t even properly taught!’
For instance, no one had explained that touching a slime would drain your strength.
Or that you had to precisely pierce its core to kill it.
Not a single piece of essential information about hunting slimes had been given.
That made it all the more astonishing.
‘…Did I see it wrong?’
Choi Taesik, mouth agape, didn’t even have time to close it as he glanced around.
His eyes fell on the other newbies who, like Jincheol, had been dragged into this hunting training.
“Urgh! What is this?!”
“M-my strength is draining!”
“Why won’t it die?! Argh!”
The others were screaming in terror, their faces filled with fear.
The unpleasant sensation, the strength being sapped away, and the situation where no matter how much they slashed, the slime wouldn’t die.
‘That’s what’s normal!’
But Jincheol?
With a nonchalant expression, he brushed off the slime fragments from his blade.
As if that weren’t enough, he grinned at Choi Taesik and asked?
“Is this for training?”
His tone suggested it was no big deal, and Choi Taesik stammered as he replied.
“N-no way that’s it! Your quota is three… no, five slimes!”
Normally, a newbie’s quota was about three.
Even that was the maximum, and in reality, most couldn’t even kill one.
The shrieking newbies around them were proof of that.
Yet, in a fit of Hastag anger, Choi Taesik blurted it out.
But.
“…Hoh.”
The junior only let out a soft exclamation and stared at Choi Taesik.
He showed no particular reaction.
Choi Taesik realized he might have messed up, but since he’d already gone this far, he doubled down shamelessly.
“If you don’t meet the quota of five, you’re done for!”
The junior seemed to half-listen to his orders before turning away.
His consistently cocky attitude fueled Choi Taesik’s anger, but the next scene silenced him.
Slash! Slash!
As expected, with just two swings of his blade, Jincheol destroyed the slime’s core.
It was as if he could see right through to its exact location.
As Choi Taesik’s eyes filled with shock, the junior grinned and said.
“Oh, did I not mention?”
“W-what?!”
To the startled question, the junior slowly raised his index finger to point at his eyes.
“My eyes are pretty good, you see.”
Choi Taesik’s gaze naturally followed to the tip of his finger.
Golden eyes, faintly glowing.
The moment he saw that mystical gaze, a single keyword flashed through his mind.
‘A sensory trait…?’
Even as he thought it, he was skeptical.
He had never heard of such a sensory trait before.
While he stood there dumbfounded, the junior’s hunt continued.
Three, four, five slimes.
Choi Taesik, who had been watching in a daze, suddenly realized something.
‘…The trait isn’t what’s important right now, is it?’
There was something far more significant.
The junior in front of him—Jincheol.
‘This guy’s the real deal!’
He was starting to understand why Josh and Johnson, the two brothers who led the crew, had taken a liking to him.
This junior was extraordinary.
‘This isn’t the time. I need to report this… wait.’
Choi Taesik, about to rush off to report the junior’s value, paused.
A brilliant idea had struck him.
‘If I use this guy well, I could make a fortune, couldn’t I?’
Compared to the other newbies, Jincheol’s skill was on a completely different level.
Fulfilling the quota was nothing to him.
At this rate, additional hunts were entirely possible.
If he hid Jincheol’s skill from the crew leaders and pocketed the extra profits from those additional hunts?
‘I could rake in points!’
Of course, monopolizing it was impossible.
If Jincheol rebelled and word reached the crew leaders, it wouldn’t end well for him.
‘So we split it 50-50.’
If his skill was exposed, it would be a loss for Jincheol too.
His quota and tribute would only increase.
It was better for him to hide his skill, pay only the set amount, and split the extra profits with Choi Taesik.
‘Taking advantage of a junior is tacitly allowed, so it won’t seem suspicious!’
It was perfect.
As he let his imagination run wild, his irritation toward the junior quietly faded.
In its place, a new emotion took hold—anticipation.
Suddenly, the junior, who had seemed insufferably smug, looked like the most adorable thing in the world.
‘It’s like a pumpkin rolled in on the vine!’
His cocky attitude?
Now it came off as confidence.
His personality didn’t matter much anyway.
Why?
Because he had the skill!
‘Better a cocky newbie who gets the job done than a kind-hearted idiot who can’t!’
Choi Taesik grinned, nodding repeatedly.
He began mentally preparing what to report to the crew leaders.
‘He’s definitely the real deal? No, better to say he’s just barely capable of hunting. They won’t bother checking every detail anyway.’
And so, Choi Taesik’s happiness circuit went into overdrive.
Perhaps because he was so engrossed in his thoughts, he didn’t notice.
The peculiar look in Jincheol’s eyes as he stared at him.
* * *
A short while later.
“Phew, good work! It’s your first day, so let’s call it here! Go rest, I’ll report to the crew leaders!”
Gone was his earlier glare; Choi Taesik spoke with an almost overly friendly tone.
And that wasn’t all.
“Sounds good.”
“Haha! That confidence looks good on you! That’s how a Korean should be! You must be tired, so rest well today, and we’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”
Even at Jincheol’s curt reply, he didn’t scowl—on the contrary, he was all smiles.
Waving as he walked away, Jincheol couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
‘Choi Taesik, huh… what a funny guy. The one giving out the rice cakes isn’t even thinking about it.’
In truth, Jincheol saw right through Choi Taesik’s scheme.
He was planning to use Jincheol’s hunting skills to skim profits behind the crew leaders’ backs.
Having spent five years in the Sewers, from a lowly crew member to the head of a crew, Jincheol knew the ways of the Sewers like the back of his hand.
‘Well, the idea of using me is laughable, but it’s not a bad deal.’
Choi Taesik was perceptive and knew how to use his head.
Since Jincheol had chosen the JJ Crew solely for Josh and Johnson, this was an unexpected bonus.
‘Anchovy’s crew was full of idiots, after all.’
They lacked perception and were steeped in petty pride.
Perhaps that’s why, in his past life, they disappeared after the Sewers.
They must have met a gruesome end somewhere in the lower floors.
‘In this life, crushing them thoroughly wouldn’t be a bad idea, heh.’
It would be a small amusement.
Jincheol shook off his thoughts and brushed the blade of his dagger.
‘Maybe I’ll hunt three more.’
Beyond the quota, he aimed to hunt additional Sewage Slimes.
After a quick scan of his surroundings, he stealthily targeted a slime.
His Golden Eye gleamed.
His vision subtly shifted.
In that state, Jincheol skillfully sliced through the slime.
Slash! Slash!
Two swings.
But this time, he didn’t stop there—he swung three more times.
It was as if he were trying to carve the slime into a precise shape.
When he had cut it down to about the size of his palm, he suddenly thrust his left hand inside.
As soon as he pulled it out, the slime turned into a handful of filth.
In Jincheol’s hand was a dark, coin-sized orb.
The Sewage Slime’s core.
He had extracted it intact without destroying it.
If anyone had witnessed this, they would have gasped in shock.
Simply finding and destroying the core was hard enough, yet he had extracted it.
But for Jincheol, it wasn’t particularly difficult.
Five years as a Sewer Rat.
And thanks to his sensory trait, ‘Insightful Eye.’
[Trait]
Insightful Eye (★)
Sensory Type Trait
Perceives the balance of objects.
A vision that sees through the balance of things—humans or monsters.
It was why he could disrupt Anchovy’s stance during the inspection.
And why he could easily extract the core from the dark slime’s body.
All thanks to the effect of Insightful Eye, which allowed him to perceive balance and centers of gravity.
It might seem overpowered at first glance, but in reality, it wasn’t.
Unlike the more intuitive physical or supernatural traits, it was fundamentally different.
‘The reason it took over ten years to reach the middle floors of the Tower was because of this trait.’
At first, he couldn’t use it in combat at all.
Not only did he not know how to utilize it, but no one taught him either.
Thus, Insightful Eye was a trait he both loved and hated.
Because of it, he rotted at the bottom longer than the other Sovereigns.
But thanks to it, he ultimately gained the power to surpass even them.
‘Well, that’s all in the past.’
His trait had already proven its worth by reaching its peak.
Though he had lost the mastery of his previous life, that didn’t matter.
The method to grow it remained clear in his mind.
With no need for trial and error, regaining his former prowess was only a matter of time.
‘No, maybe even more. I could aim for Stage 5, heh.’
So the issue wasn’t the future but the present, and that was already resolved.
He had fully mastered Stage 1 utilization.
The proof was destroying a Sewage Slime’s core in just two slashes.
‘Three should be enough, right?’
Jincheol quietly pocketed the core and targeted the next one.
A single slash, splitting the slime vertically.
He peered through it with his Insightful Eye.
‘It’s slightly tilted to the left. Then…’
The center of gravity was in the left half of the split body.
Given the slime’s nature, the side with the core was heavier.
In other words, the core was on the left.
Immediately, Jincheol sliced it horizontally once more.
Using the same method, he located the core’s side, pinpointing its exact position with seasoned experience and instinct.
And when he carved it out…
-20 Points acquired!
That was it.
Jincheol deftly extracted the second core, grinning.
At this level, he didn’t even need to focus.
So he began refining his future plans in his head.
‘Let’s see, the time needed to build the minimum strength…’
About two months.
That seemed sufficient.
If other Sewer Rats heard this, they’d scoff, thinking it absurd.
‘No wonder the rats linger here for three years.’
The reason they stayed in the Sewers so long was simple.
To conquer the Tower, which couldn’t be breached by traits alone, they needed strength.
That strength was ‘skills.’
Of course, skills could be obtained in the Sewers.
More accurately, they could be bought.
‘But they’re expensive.’
Extremely so.
It took years to save up for a skill.
Thus, Jincheol ruled out this method.
‘I’m not wasting precious time in a place like this.’
In this life, his goal was Young & Rich.
To conquer the Tower quickly, seize wealth and glory while young, and retire.
He had no intention of wasting time at the bottom.
‘Good thing there’s a suitable method.’
Ultimately, the key was the strength needed to climb the Tower.
Jincheol planned to solve this with a method only he knew.
That was why he had been hunting extra slimes.
-20 Points acquired!
Jincheol carefully tucked the third core into his pocket.
‘For the first day, three should be enough.’
More than that would be too much to handle for now.
Without lingering, Jincheol left the waterway for his quarters.
…That night.
Trickle, trickle, trickle
Amid the sound of water flowing through the waterway.
Jincheol sat up, leaning against the wall.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slime core.
A coin-sized dark orb.
An item that could be sold to an NPC for 100 Points.
Jincheol took it.
‘One for now.’
Without hesitation, he popped it into his mouth.