Chapter 12: 30. Assistance (1)
Jewels.
The crystallization of a monster, it is formed within the corpse of a monster as its essence and mana combine.
Not all monsters have them, but they are a common find for any hunter who has done some hunting.
These jewels also had a rank.
It didn't matter if it was a Class F monster or a Class S monster, but the higher the rank assigned by the World Hunter's Association, the more likely it was to contain a higher-grade jewel.
The lowest-ranked jewels raised stats by 0.001, Low-grade jewels raise stats between 0.002 and 0.005, and mid-rank jewels had a 0.006 to 0.010 stat increase.
However, instead of being used to raise the stats of hunters, these jewels are now being sold primarily as jewelry.
Why did this happen?
It's because there were restrictions on their use.
The restriction of not being able to use them on humans made them unattractive to the average Awakened or Hunter, and the effect of "monsterization" made them far less versatile.
Jewels are the essence of monsters.
As such, any minion or pet that ingests or accepts a Jewel will have its body transformed into a monster. Moreover, not only is their body changed, but their personality as well, unleashing their feral nature and causing them to become fiercely hostile and murderous.
Even if you could keep them from killing you, you would still lose control of them once they were monstrous, making them useless.
Jewels were thus relegated to being used once or twice per minion, just enough to keep monsterization from progressing.
On top of that, higher-grade jewels could turn summons into monsters after just one dose, so there was no demand for these jewels to increase stats.
Eventually, jewels became jewelry sought solely for their physical beauty.
'But not if you feed it to a clone.'
Damage from a clone does not transfer to the main body.
Even if the monsterization progresses, there is no problem at all, as unsummoning and re-summoning would duplicate Sangwoos body and create a clone.
This was confirmed when he fed it a lower-grade Regeneration Jewel.
In front of Sangwoo's eyes right now was clone No. 1.
However, this one didn't look like the original Sangwoo.
His skin color was strangely bruised and dull, similar to the color of a troll's skin.
Its current state was due to the fact that it had been fed one low-grade regeneration jewel.
'Even with just one, the side effects are considerable, no wonder no one wants to use it.'
However, Sangwoo was planning on feeding him more jewels.
He wanted to increase his stats.
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[Sangwoo]
[Stats]
-Strength: 0.759 → 0.809
-Reflex: 0.564 → 0.601
-Stamina: 0.701 → 0.765
-Endurance: 0.597 → 0.654
-Magic: 1.012 → 1.073
-Vitality: 0.319 → 0.327
-Regeneration: 0.410 → 0.416
[Skills].
-[Cloning/Casting (Lv.3)]
-[Clone Strengthening/Passive (Lv.4)]
-[Familiar/Casting (Lv.3)]
-[Meditation/Casting (Lv.4)]
-[Mana Breathing/Casting (Lv.15)]
-[Shooting/Passive (Lv.2)]
-[Running/Casting (Lv.1)]
-[Power Strike/Casting (Lv.3)]
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Regeneration has increased by 0.006 since last time.
However, the regeneration gained from the jewel was actually 0.002.
Less than half of the 0.005 Regeneration that the lower-grade jewel would have given him if he had eaten it himself.
The rest was the result of desperate fighting during the disaster.
'It's only going up due to my clone's mirroring rate.'
Currently, the mirroring rate is 52%.
'That's why I have gained half of his stats.'
Sangwoo thought.
Presumably, as the level of the Clone Strengthening skill increased, the stats gained from the jewels would gradually increase.
With that in mind, it would be best to use the jewels after he'd leveled up a lot.
'But I can't wait until then.'
Sangwoo needed strength now.
He couldn't stay an F-ranked Hunter forever and only catch low-level monsters.
As soon as possible, he needed to hunt in the high-level hunting grounds to earn money for his sister's treatment.
So Sangwoo asked Junmo Kang to help him collect as many jewels as possible.
The current price of jewels is as follows:
The lowest-grade jewels were priced around 100,000 won, low-grade jewels ranged in price from 500,000 to 1 million won, and mid-level jewels ranged in price from 2 to 10 million won.
High- and top-tier jewels were extremely valuable as jewelry due to their enormous size and brilliance, but they were also extremely expensive due to their rarity, as they could only be found in monsters of Class A or higher.
They couldn't be found in the general market.
Therefore, the jewels Sangwoo was looking for now were lowest- to low-tier jewels that offered a lot of power for their price.
He started looking for them in offline stores he knew and online markets like HunterWeb.
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<Buying Jewels>.
Buying an unlimited number of jewels at the lowest and low grade, regardless of the type.
We buy jewels at the lowest grade for 100,000 won and at the low grade for 500,000 won.
No negotiation allowed.
If you are not able to sell your jewels, please contact us immediately.
JM Agency Junmo Kang
010-XXXX-XXXX
───────────────
└I want to sell.
└└Contact me!
└└└Transaction completed. Thanks for the good deal.
└Are you sure about this?
└└Please contact me
He couldn't afford the completed jewelry which was often sold publicly, so he had to buy them in their unprocessed form.
Fortunately, the demand was so low that many people wanted to sell it even though it was listed at the lowest possible price.
Junmo Kang swept up the jewels and handed it to Sangwoo.
"Mr. Hunter, I'm still collecting jewels. Here. These are the jewels I've collected so far."
"Thank you."
The jewels he had collected so far were about 100 lowest-ranked jewels and 20 low-ranked jewels.
The total purchase amount was about 20 million won.
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<Lowest Grade Strength Jewel>
A crystal that contains the power of strength.
-Usage: Ingest or activate with mana to absorb.
-Effect: Permanently increases Strength by 0.001.
-Limitation 1: Cannot be used on humans.
-Limitation 2: Cumulative use will result in monsterization of the target.
<Low Grade Magic Jewel>
A crystal that contains the power of magic.
-Usage: Ingest or activate with mana to absorb.
-Effect: Permanently increases Magic by 0.004.
-Limitation 1: Cannot be used on humans.
-Limitation 2: Cumulative use will result in monsterization of the target.
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Sangwoo used all of the jewels on his clone.
No. 1 popped the jewels into his mouth and gulped them all down.
His arms grew huge with muscles, veins popped out, and his skin began to crack.
The monsterization was complete.
Grrrr-
No. 1 growled low, like an animal.
At the same time, Sangwoo's body began to change.
His muscles began to ache slightly, and he felt a bit more energized.
It was his body adjusting to the sudden change in his stats.
'It's working.'
At that moment, No. 1's eyes, which had changed to those of a reptile, flashed.
It looked at Sangwoo and tensed every muscle in his body.
It looked like it was about to pounce on its prey.
"Don't move."
And with that, No. 1's body froze.
Unable to decide between Sangwoo's command and his own wildness as a monster, No. 1 flinched.
Looking at him, Sangwoo realized one thing.
'My command over my clone must be really powerful if it's still working after all this feeding.'
That's pretty good, considering it usually takes no more than three or four lowest-tier jewels to monsterize a summon and lose control.
But the way it was flinching, Sangwoo realized that if he fed it more, he might lose control.
"--- Hunter,are you sure it isn't going to attack us because of this? You haven't unsummoned it yet!"
"It's okay, the link to my clone is still strong. If I think it's going to attack, I'll unsummon it."
"That's good to know, then. How did your stats change?"
"Wait. Status window."
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[Stats]
-Strength: 0.809 → 0.820
-Reflex: 0.601 → 0.643
-Stamina: 0.765 → 0.776
-Endurance: 0.654 → 0.670
-Magic: 1.073 → 1.084
-Vitality: 0.327
-Regeneration: 0.416
───────────────
His stats went through the roof in a matter of moments.
Especially since he had a lot of reflex jewels, the growth of his Reflex stat was noticeable.
"It's gone up a lot."
"Oh, congratulations. By the way, seeing your doppelganger monsterized like this, it must be very strong. Look at its biceps."
'Now that I think about it, No. 1's body is unusual.'
It looks like something most monsters would not be able to eat.
"That's right. Monsterization makes your physical abilities stronger."
"Really?"
Sangwoo wanted to give the impromptu monsterized No. 1 a hunt before he unsummoned it.
"Agent, I want to test No. 1 now, should we go to Bucheon?"
"Bucheon has a lot of monsters, but there's a big difference in class, so it might be dangerous. Instead, I'll look for a hunting ground with monsters of class E to D."
"Okay, and please prepare my equipment."
Sangwoo now decided to start hunting in earnest.
Sangwoo traveled to the hunting grounds with Junmo Kang in silence.
'I will become stronger.'
Sangwoo is determined.
However, there was someone he had forgotten about.
Wontae Park.
* * *
The conference room of the Cainus Guild.
The darkened conference room was packed with the high ranking members of the Cainus Guild.
A holographic screen floated in the front of the room.
The screen was playing a scene from the city-scale disaster in Bucheon.
The screen showed the rubble of an apartment building from the sky.
Triplets were seen around the entrance of the collapsed apartment building.
They were fighting monsters.
The men fought, but were soon shattered into light by the monsters.
"--- As you can see here, these two dead men don't leave any bodies behind, they are reduced to mana and disappear, meaning they appear to be mana organisms, not living beings."
The moderator, Yusiu, a smart-looking man with glasses, flipped the screen.
The holographic image of the disaster disappeared, and a man's face appeared on the screen.
It was Sangwoo.
Next to his picture was a long list of his biographical information.
"The men in the video are not triplets, only one man. His name is Sangwoo. He is currently 21 years old, and he is a rookie who has been awakened for a little over a month. According to the information of awakened people registered in the country, his ability has been determined to be 'Cloning'. In other words, the dead men in the video are his clones."
"---Clones---. Is that the point of this meeting?"
"Yes. Unlike the normal clones we know, this one is real, not an illusion."
The hologram ended and the lights in the conference room came on.
Silence fills the room.
Wontae Park, who was sitting at the head of the room, spoke up.
"As you may have heard, our Strike Team 1, which traveled to Odin's Tower, is currently missing. We don't know if they're alive or dead. It's possible that they're all alive and well, or maybe they're in trouble and only a few survived. And--- worst of all, they may have been wiped out."
"---."
"Odin's Tower is a dungeon of the highest difficulty, where you can only enter, but not exit. Only the Hunter Jumpers know its secrets, and no one else has ever made it through. It was practically impregnable."
"--- We thought we could break through like him, too."
"We were all crazy back then---."
The guild members looked somber.
Wontae Park also opened his mouth with a stern face.
"It's all my fault. I had too much faith in Yuna's abilities."
Yuna Park.
Wontae Park's younger sister.
She had subspace powers.
She could put things into it, or go into it and hide.
If you create a subspace to hide in, you're absolutely safe.
Believing in this ability, Wontae Park thought that the attack on Odin's Tower would never fail.
That's why they put plenty of food and supplies in Yuna's subspace and tried to conquer the Tower of Odin.
However, after more than a month, he hadn't heard from her at all.
Life and death is unclear.
"--- Team 1 may be safe in the subspace, but they may have run out of supplies. In particular, they may have run out of potions, rather than food. They could be desperate for help."
"--- But there's no way to help."
A despairing sigh followed.
No one wants to enter a dungeon of insane difficulty that they can't get out of until it's cleared.
There are no volunteers for the rescue team.
But then Wontae Park spoke up.
"What if we could help them?"
"What? Is there a way?"
The members of the Cainus Guild shouted.
Wontae's voice cut through the din.
"I have seen promise in Sangwoo, in his clones."
The guild members' eyes turned serious.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone