Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 8
“Oppa!”
The moment he opened the door, his younger sister, Hyeona, her nose red from the cold, threw herself straight into Hyeonjun’s arms.
“Has it really been half a year?”
“Yeah! How have you been?”
“Doing well. Don’t I look different from before, just at a glance?”
Hyeona leaned back and studied him. The last time she’d seen him, he’d looked utterly worn down, but now he was a completely different person.
“Did you find some good work or something? You look so healthy now. And you seem bigger, too.”
“Heh. I’ll explain all that later. For now, come on in.”
Hyeona kicked off her shoes carelessly and slipped right into the apartment.
Hyeonjun gathered up his sister’s luggage and shut the door behind them.
“Wow! Whoa!”
Hyeona let out a cry of delight.
Well, she had every reason to.
In the five years since he’d moved out on his own, this was the first time he’d had a place that felt like a real home, clean and tidy and furnished.
“Wait, there’s another room?!”
Two rooms separated by a sliding door.
Hyeona peeked into the second one and kept on gasping in admiration.
“Well? This is your room. Like it?”
“Of course I do!”
She bounced onto the bed and rolled around on it, over and over.
Hyeonjun watched her with quiet satisfaction.
‘It’s been ages since I’ve seen her this happy.’
He’d spent a fair amount of money finding the place and buying the furniture, but he didn’t regret a single won of it.
“Rest for a bit. We’ll go out for dinner later.”
“Okay. But, Oppa.”
“What?”
Hyeona sat up and stared straight at him.
Her eyes looked strangely moist.
“What’s wrong? Did something bad happen?”
“No… it’s not that… it’s just…”
Just when it seemed she might break down, she swiped at her eyes.
Hyeonjun was thoroughly flustered.
As he stood there, unsure what to do, his sister finally spoke.
“All I ever do is study in comfort, while you work yourself to the bone. It makes me feel bad…”
Hearing that, Hyeonjun quietly let out a breath of relief. He’d wondered if something had happened at school, but thankfully, that wasn’t it.
“What a thing to worry about. I’m not overworked, you know.”
“Liar. You pushed yourself just to come home, didn’t you? That’s why I kept saying the semi-basement was fine…”
Seeing his sister so worried, he couldn’t bring himself to smile easily.
He had hoped the weight of being the head of the household wouldn’t crush her.
So he had worked harder and clung to life with everything he had.
But it seemed her shoulders had been carrying their own burden all along.
‘I need to clear this up.’
That he hadn’t pushed himself too far.
And that from now on, she didn’t need to worry so much.
It was time to make that clear, once and for all.
“Shall we go out for dinner?”
“No, it’s fine. I’m full.”
Gurgle-growl.
Hyeona rubbed her stomach, looking sheepish.
“If you don’t feel like going out, we can order in. On a day like this, it’s fine to splurge a little.”
“Then… chicken?”
“Chicken’s fine? Order whatever you want.”
By then, Hyeona had sensed that something was off.
‘Special day or not, Oppa would never say something like that.’
He was the type who’d always tried to save every won he could.
Thinking about it, the way he looked so much healthier than before was strange, too.
His complexion was far from that of someone pushing himself past his limits.
She was relieved, but at the same time, she couldn’t help wanting to ask what had changed.
“Oppa, do you have some other job these days?”
Hyeonjun nodded.
Before he could say anything, Hyeona grabbed his hand.
“Hey, you didn’t join some kind of organization, did you?”
“Do I look like the type?”
“Not really, but with everything going on…”
Hyeonjun couldn’t really argue with that.
His sudden change in fortunes must look strange to her.
“I’ve started hunting again.”
“…What?”
Hyeona’s expression stiffened at once.
She had opposed his hunting before. With a Trait like that, she’d said, he would only get hurt.
Hyeonjun quickly added,
“Shall we order first? It’ll take a while.”
“…Don’t dodge the question. Explain it properly, okay?”
“You’re not going to let it go anyway, are you?”
“Of course not!”
Hyeonjun placed an order for a few dishes through a delivery app.
Hyeona had been staring at him the whole time, and the moment the order was done, she asked again.
“You said you weren’t doing Hunter work anymore. That it wasn’t efficient. So why is the money coming in now?”
“I gained a new ability. It feels like I’ve been Awakened again…”
Hyeonjun told his sister everything.
There was no other way to truly put her mind at ease.
“Is that even possible?”
“At least, no such case has been reported so far. So I’m the first.”
“Hmm…”
Hyeona narrowed her eyes.
She was so suspicious.
“Believe it or not, it doesn’t matter. I don’t lie to you.”
“So what exactly is this new ability?”
“Well…”
Rather than explaining the Copy ability, it seemed quicker and easier to simply show her how much stronger he had become.
Hyeonjun glanced around, then pulled open a drawer.
What he took out was a handful of long nails from a toolbox.
“Look at this.”
Hyeonjun gripped several nails in one hand and simply applied pressure.
When he opened his hand again, the crumpled nails had been fused into a single lump of iron.
“!”
Hyeona’s eyes went wide, like a startled rabbit’s.
A smile tugged at the corner of Hyeonjun’s lips.
“So? You know I can’t do something like this with just a Rune of Strength, right?”
“R-really? You really gained a new ability?”
“That’s what I’m saying. That’s why hunting has been bringing in good money lately.”
Hyeonjun took out his phone and showed her the purchase texts he’d received from the Exchange.
Hyeona scrolled through them one by one with trembling fingers.
“This… you’re really the one earning all this money?”
“Yeah. It’s piling up even though I don’t really have to work that hard.”
“How is it not hard? You must be going to dangerous places to get this kind of money.”
“Come on. Don’t you know your brother by now? Safety first, always.”
“…Only if you’re just talking.”
Hyeona didn’t believe him, but she couldn’t bring herself to oppose his hunting, either.
‘He must have already steeled his own resolve.’
She had no right to stand in his way.
There was only one thing she could do.
Just cheer him on.
“If you get tired, rest, and never push yourself too hard. Promise me that much.”
“Hunter work actually leaves me with plenty of time to rest.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
After a while, the delivery food arrived.
They set the food out on the table and started eating.
Hyeona ate with gusto, as if she’d never been worried at all.
It was almost as if the idea of ordering chicken had been forgotten altogether.
Hyeonjun watched the scene with a contented smile.
‘This is why I earn money.’
From now on, I want to buy them so many more delicious meals.
I want to dress them in nicer clothes, too.
I want to build a life where they don’t have to worry even if they blow an exam.
***
[Sufficient power has accumulated in the Primordial Soul Circuit.]
[The rank of the Primordial Soul Circuit is changing. ▶ ]
“Yes!”
A full month had passed since his re-awakening.
Several days into the new year, today he had finally reached E-Rank in his Soul Circuit.
There were no dazzling effects or flashy visuals.
Still, he could clearly feel that the quality of the power flowing through his body had changed.
“Status Window.”
[Name: Ko Hyeonjun]
[Trait: Primordial Eye]
[Primordial Soul Circuit ]
Stats ▽
-Strength: 1/100
-Agility: 1/100
-Stamina: 1/100
-Mana: 1/100
-Willpower: 1/100
Skills ▽

-Copy

His stats had dropped back to 1.
The numbers themselves had fallen, yet the power coursing through his whole body felt far heavier.
“So this is the power of E-Rank.”
The weight of a single point of stat was clearly different from before.
What if he filled this state back up to 100?
Would he then be worthy of being called a monster who had surpassed humanity?
“…Maybe that’s a bit much.”
Hyeonjun checked his skill.
[Copy]
-Can copy a designated object. The copied item is automatically removed after 24 hours, and can be removed earlier as needed.
-Copyable rank: E-Rank and below
-Daily copy count: 11/11
“Phew. Thank goodness. I was worried for nothing.”
He’d been afraid the rank limit would stay stuck at F, but luckily the skill had changed along with the growth of his trait.
The copyable rank had risen to E-Rank. On top of that, one more copy had been added to his daily count.
“Time to put it to use right away.”
Hyeonjun left the house and dashed toward the Exchange.
He planned to buy an E-Rank Rune of Agility.
The current market price was 2 million won apiece.
He’d bought an F-Rank Agility Rune for 270,000 won, and the E-Rank one cost nearly eight times that.
‘Damn, this is ridiculously expensive.’
The other runes were much the same.
Going from E-Rank to D-Rank would take close to a billion won, even by rough calculation.
‘No wonder the number of Hunters drops off so sharply from D-Grade on.’
It was a bit late to think about it, but I’m lucky the ability I got from re-awakening is Copy.
Now that I’ve reached E-Rank, that realization hit home even harder.
‘Well, that’s that. It’s a shame I didn’t get a new skill, though.’
When a Soul Circuit’s rank goes up, a new Trait Skill usually appears as well.
So I’d secretly been hoping for one, but the skill list in the Status Window was exactly the same as before.
‘Is it greedy to expect more when I already have Copy?’
Sitting in the waiting area, he didn’t have to wait long before his number came up.
Hyeonjun moved to the counter, bought his E-Rank Rune of Agility, and walked back outside.
Remaining copy count: 2.
I’d absorbed the Rune of Magic Power down to its original form and kept one copy count in reserve.
Plus the new ones I’d just gained.
Gulp.
Hyeonjun ducked somewhere out of sight and immediately copied the rune and absorbed it.
His Agility rose to 3.
“Good. Let’s go right now.”
Hyeonjun went home, packed his things, and headed straight for his next destination.
The place he reached was the Mountain Area, a field classified as the highest tier of F-Rank hunting grounds.
He’d wandered through plenty of fields by now, but he’d never once set foot in the Mountain Area.
He intended to test what E-Rank strength felt like here.
“First time here, huh?”
The staff member at the Gate management booth asked.
“Yeah. Is there a problem?”
Normally they just waved people through. Being asked like this was a first.
“Watch out for the Field Boss. The one here is especially vicious.”
“Ah, yes. Understood.”
The strongest creature in a hunting ground, known as a Field Boss or Named Monster.
It was harder than the other monsters, but the rewards were generous, so Hunters of comparable rank tended to go after it.
“I’m not just saying that for the sake of it. You really need to be careful. Lately, more people have been failing to come back out after three days or more.”
“Huh…”
“It could just be a simple disappearance, but I think they were taken down by the Field Boss.”
Once someone vanishes inside a Gate, the nation doesn’t go looking for them.
It’s written in the Hunter Pledge that every Hunter signs.
So even the staff had no idea whether those people were alive or what had become of them.
“If you happen to find a body, just bring back the ID Card. Be careful.”
Hyeonjun left the staff member behind and stepped through the Gate.
The scenery shifted in an instant.
He’d left a city of cars lined up on the roads and buildings standing shoulder to shoulder, and now he was surrounded by lush, thoroughly green nature.
“It’s warm here.”
Hyeonjun looked around.
The Gate sat right in the middle of the forest.
Maybe for the sake of traffic, the trees near the Gate had been cleared away completely.
Cushions had been laid over the remaining stumps. They seemed to be used as a kind of bench.
“Looks peaceful.”
The day was bright, and it was warm.
If not for the monsters scattered about, it would’ve been a fine place for a forest bath.
The atmosphere was a far cry from the staff member’s grim warning.
“A Field Boss, huh.”
The Field Boss of the Mountain Area.
A bear monster called the Green Mane Tyrant.
The loot it dropped would fetch roughly 700,000 to 800,000 won.
That was far more than what ordinary monsters brought in.
“Should I go looking for it?”
Hyeonjun thought it over carefully, then put the decision on hold for now.
“Let me take down a few monsters first and think it over.”
Just because his Soul Circuit had reached E-Rank didn’t mean he should go straight for a Field Boss. That would be arrogance.
He needed to deal with the monsters of the Mountain Area first, the strongest in all of the F-Rank hunting grounds, and gauge where he stood.
“I hope I can fill my bag again today and head home.”
Hyeonjun pulled his weapons from the bag and set them at his waist.
One kitchen knife and one iron hammer.
Those were his favorite weapons.
“Let’s see now.”
The first thing to catch his eye was a boar monster with hard stone wrapping its head and body like armor.
Its proper name was Stone Wild Boar.
It was commonly shortened to Stone Boar.
“Pffrrk.”
The beast spotted Hyeonjun, snorted, and began to advance toward him.
Hyeonjun drew the kitchen knife from his waist.
The finely sharpened blade glinted in the sunlight slanting through the trees.
“Purr-rrh!”
The Stone Wild Boar stamped the ground and charged.
Hyeonjun’s eyes widened a little.
The Stone Wild Boar’s movements felt painfully slow.
Whoosh!
Hyeonjun twisted his body slightly and dodged the charge with ease.
‘I could have dodged this attack even as F-Rank. But it feels different now.’
As an F-Rank, he would have had to throw his whole body aside just to survive that charge.
But now he was certain he could dodge it with nothing more than a slight shift of his body.
The result of that difference was clear.
“Purr-rrh!”
The second charge.
Hyeonjun dodged it the same way, with a slight twist of his body.
At the same moment, he thrust out his Kitchen Knife.
Shing!
Between the stones.
The Kitchen Knife pierced cleanly through a gap in the armor and came out the other side.
An attack he wouldn’t have even dared to attempt without the difference in rank had succeeded.
“Kheee-ak.”
Blood gushed in a thick stream from the area around the Stone Wild Boar’s neck.
The beast staggered, then collapsed right where it stood.
“Huh.”
Hyeonjun was left speechless.
Just by moving up one rank, the hunt had become this easy.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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