Chapter 204: Entry into the Devildom (2)
The tremendous buff, which was the first discoverer’s reward for a dimension, made Ian blaze up even more.
“Celia, you just separately collect items that are Heroic-rank and higher, while following me. Got it?”
“Yes, Lord.”
“Paulean! From now on, you concentrate on gathering over magical beasts. Since it seems you don’t lack in the amount of damage you deal.”
“Your command has been received.”
Ian a.s.signed the most efficient positions to each and every retainer and Familiar as they madly wiped out the low-rank magical beasts.
Kaizar, one of the main force dealers of Ian’s party, asked Ian with an expression as if he was bored.
“Lord guy, but why exactly aren’t we not moving onto the next map? It’s so boring here.”
Fortunately, Kaizar loved to hunt as much as Ly.
Because that was the case, there has never been a time when he expressed any discontent at Ian’s infinite hunting.
However, it seemed he was displeased with having to fight opponents that were too weak compared to his standards, as he complained to Ian.
“Look, look, Kaizar, we did fight a couple of intermediate-rank magical beasts earlier as well, right?”
Kaizar nodded his head as he replied.
“We did. That was thrilling and fun. Low-rank magical beasts are too weak now.”
At Kaizar’s words, Ian calmly began to explain.
“Of course, I also find it more fun fighting intermediate-rank magical beasts. Since their level range is in the second half of the 200s, it was thrilling whenever I was able to dodge each attack. However.”
Kaizar still stared at Ian with a dissatisfied expression, and Ian’s words continued.
“I’ve calculated, and it seems that the supply and demand of EXP we get per minute from hunting low-rank magical beasts is 1.3 times more. Of course, if we move onto the next map and get a little used to hunting intermediate-rank magical beasts, we could get faster…”
“Ahem…”
At the words of Ian, who explained everything one by one, Kaizar nodded his head slowly.
“If you have even calculated like that, I have nothing to say.”
Recently, Kaizar’s greed to level up had increased to the point that it was no less than Ian’s greed, and there was a reason for that.
“Retainer, you’re going to level up again soon. You need to level up as soon as possible and hit 280.”
Kaizar nodded his head as he rubbed the handle of the greatsword that he had on his back.
“That’s right, I need to raise my level up quickly.”
The reason for that was none other than the level limit on an item.
The Legendary-rank greatsword with a level limit of 280 that Ian bought after finding by chance in the auction house was completely to Kaizar’s liking.
Because that was the case, Kaizar had no choice but to follow Ian, who had leveling up effectively down to a science.
“I feel like if you swing around that greatsword, you’ll be overflowing with swagger.”
At Ian’s words, Kaizar tilted his head.
“What is swagger, Lord guy?”
At that, Bbakbbak, who was next to him, abruptly cut in and replied.
• ‘Swagger’ is the similar to like a halo, Kaizar. I know it as a word that is usually used a lot to humans that are overflowing with coolness.
At Bbakbbak’s explanation, Kaizar wore a satisfied expression.
“Ooh! For there to be such a beautiful word! Swagger… It can’t not be a word that suits me well.”
Ian, who looked back and forth between the two, stared at Bbakbbak with a dumbfounded expression.
“Bbakbbak, where did you hear that from now? Is this also from Harin?”
Bbakbbak shook his head as he replied.
• No, owner. Fiolan taught me what the word ‘swagger’ means.
Ian shook his head as he replied.
“Whew, in the time that you have to learn such useless things, just hunt, Bbakbbak.”
Bbakbbak wore a depressed expression.
• Us, kin of the turtle dragon, are turtles overflowing with intelligence that always craves for new knowledge, owner. Rather than a macho turtle that only ignorantly hunts, I want to become an intellectual turtle with a s.e.xy brain.
“…”
Ian, who was at a loss for words, let out a deep sigh as he grasped his spear.
“Starting now, we’re going to take down one monster per minute. If we can’t finish off 60 of them within 1 hour, you better believe that there will be no lunch for you today.”
At Ian’s cruel declaration, Bbakbbak and Karceus both wore an expression that they were dying.
• That’s overdoing it, owner!
• Ha…
However, there was no way that their plea would have gone through to Ian.
Like that, Ian’s party hunted without rest as if they were wiping out all of the low-rank magical beasts that were in the outskirts of the Devildom for a week.
* * *
Whoong-!
A vacant lot in the outskirts of the Devildom.
As a dark red energy that was a characteristic of the Devildom ripped apart, a portal burning red slowly began to open up.
Whoong-.
At the same time that the portal opened up, a whirlwind raged intensely.
And from the inside of the opened portal, one woman slowly walked out of it.
“Hmm, so is this the place called the Devildom?”
Exactly one week after the large-scale update ended, the second user entered the Devildom.
“The atmosphere is my style.”
The woman, who slowly looked around her surroundings, grinned with a pleased expression.
With long, loose, red hair, she was wearing a robe and cloak plastered entirely in red.
She was none other than Remir, who was famous as the Red Flame Magician.
No longer the Red Flame Magician, but the Monarch of the Red Flame now, she was the greatest fire-type Magician in the Korean Kailan server.
“I should probably collect information first, right?”
Remir whisked her right hand, which was holding her wand, in the air, and along with a low resonant sound, her body floated up.
Whoong-.
“Where could the dude named Ian, who was the first to come in, be?”
She couldn’t forget the system message that popped up 3 minutes after the content was opened up on the first day that the server was opened.
‘I don’t know with exactly what means he was able to enter the Devildom that quickly, but…’
While floating in the air, Remir’s body flew forward quickly.
“There cannot be a situation where this Remir is falling behind someone.”
* * *
Meanwhile, Ian, who had finished all of his hunting schedule for a week, was checking his information window with a pleased expression.
“In the end, I wasn’t able to hit lv 180, but this much is still a decent result.”
Ian’s level that was printed on the information window was 179. Within a week, he had leveled up a whopping 4 levels.
If any other user that was in the rankings heard that, it was a leveling up speed that would have startled them.
While he was thinking about it anyways, Ian opened up the overall rankings as well and checked them.
“Hmm… I’ve caught up to the official 1st place ranking spot now. I just need to level up 1 more level.”
The level of the current user that was officially up on the rankings as 1st place was 180.
He was a famous warrior user of the DarkRuna Guild, but Ian, who had checked the ID of the 1st place user, wore a slightly puzzled expression.
“Huh? But on the 1st place spot of the official rankings, Remir was always there… Where could Remir have gone?”
Even though he flipped through a couple pages of the ranking list just to be sure, he didn’t see Remir’s ID.
If that was the case, then the answer was that she had changed her information settings to private.
‘Why would she have suddenly changed her settings to private?’
Ian shrugged his shoulders as he closed the ranking list that he had opened up.
“Remir’s probably at least one or two more levels higher than lv 180, right?”
Ian had now actually succeeded in catching up his level to the standard of the top-ranking players, but overtaking them was not an easy task as expected.
Even in Kailan, where there were hundreds of thousands users in just the Korean server enjoying the game, it was obvious that the users holding down the highest positions wouldn’t be good-for-nothings.
It was just that the higher your level went up to the top levels, the EXP received exponentially increased, and it was because of that it was possible for him to reduce the level difference so quickly like this.
As he believed that he would be a higher level than the official 1st place in the rankings, Ian wore a slightly disappointed expression.
“Did I think of them too easily? I should work even harder.”
Ian, who lastly checked on the stats that he newly obtained once more, closed all of his information windows.
“Resistance Magic is now at 7.08%, Devil Energy is at 1549, and Devil Energy Activation Rate is at 5.22%…”
Ian had no idea in the beginning, but it wasn’t just Resistance Magic, but any stats related to the Devildom were going up little by little whenever he hunted magical beasts.
“Resistance Magic is certainly a hard stat to bring up. I hunted that much over a week, but for it to have only gone up by 0.08%.”
Either way, as it was a stat that would acc.u.mulate the more he grinded, Ian felt as satisfied as when he felt gathering EXP.
“Kaizar, should we head deeper into the Devildom now?”
At Ian’s words, Kaizar was delighted as he nodded his head.
“Sounds good, Lord guy. I was just getting sick and tired of even seeing Lakoum’s face.”
Ian brought up the two quests that he was proceeding with right now.
‘One of them is the quest that Yankoun gave me, and the other is the quest that Iriel gave me…’
For Yankoun’s quest, he needed to face the contaminated magical beasts in the outskirts, and for Iriel’s quest, he needed to go to the central area and to the City of Rage.
Whether it was the position or the difficulty level, it was obvious that he needed to proceed with Yankoun’s quest.
“Alright, shall we go to Zone 120?”
“Alright, Lord guy.”
Ian walked slowly.
However, different from his footsteps overflowing with confidence, there was one thing that Ian was worried about.
‘I’m a little scared to meet Yankoun…’
Yankoun was a high-rank devil that was a whopping lv 350, as well as the Chief Gatekeeper of the Devildom.
When he had 99% Resistance Magic, there was nothing for him to be afraid of, but right now, if he used all of his fighting power, it was an opponent he couldn’t even predict the outcome.
‘Thanks to his low Agility and strong Offensive Power fighting style, if I just remember his attack pattern properly, I feel like I should be able to beat him, but…’
Even if he just allowed one proper hit from him, it was definite that he would have to experience his vision darkening just like that.
‘As they said that the quest would be maintained, his Affinity towards me will also probably be completely maintained as well, I guess.’
After he prepared his heart enough, Ian began to move.
His goal was the outskirt zone numbered 110, which he wasn’t able to go in until now because of the intermediate-rank magical beasts.
* * *
Rustle- Rustle.
Zone 121 of the Devildom that Ian disappeared from.
From within a yellow gra.s.s thicket that was completely dry, a constant rustling noise rank out.
And shortly after.
An organism pierced through the gra.s.s thicket and appeared.
• Bbook, why is the air in the Devildom so thick bbook.
A round sh.e.l.l that was a dark navy colour, a head so big to the point it was suspicious how it was maintaining its balance, and four legs so plump that it looked like its fat would fold whether it moved back or forth.
Surprisingly, that organism was none other than Bbookbbook.
• There’s no mistake that the owner dude has gone to another map bbook!
On top of that, Bbookbbook wasn’t just letting out bbookbbook noises, but was actually saying words.
• I can sense a mouth-watering energy coming from there bbook.
Bbookbbook dug through the gra.s.s thicket in a toddling manner when he began to dig through the ground.
Pook- Pook- Pook-!
With his short legs, he dug the ground skillfully to the point it was hard to believe.
Bbookbbook, who had dug the ground deep enough that almost all of his body could go in, pulled out a dark red gra.s.sroot from within and began to munch on it.
• Bbook- Bbook- Bboo-bbook-!
• You have consumed the ‘Gra.s.s of the Devil Spirit that has put up 30 years’.
• All of your stats have increased by 20.
• Your Spiritual Rate has increased by 150 points.
At the same time that the messages popped up, a red light was sucked into Bbookbbook’s body.
• Bbook! I’m gaining energy bbook!
Bbookbbook, who cleanly ate every root hair of the Gra.s.s of the Devil Spirit without leaving a single piece behind, started to move his feet again.
There were several magical beasts with frightful appearances wandering the field here and there, but Bbookbbook paid them no attention.
• This strong turtle Bbookbbook is not afraid of magical beasts or anything of the sort bbook!
On the other hand, the magical beasts didn’t even cast Bbookbbook a look for some reason as well.
• Grr- Grrr- It’s an ugly turtle.
• Grr! This is my first time seeing a turtle with such a big head like that!
Either way, thanks to that, Bbookbbook wandered here and there on the field as he began to consume medicinal herbs to his heart’s content.
• I wish the owner dude will continue to not summon me bbook!
With a happy expression, Bbookbbook was enjoying his freedom. However, there was one person that he was missing himself.
• I want to see Harin bbook! The food in the Devildom is not comparable to the drug meatb.a.l.l.s bbook!
However, as it was obvious that Harin would tell on him to Ian if he went looking for her, intelligent Bbookbbook couldn’t go meet Harin.
• I will find something that is more delicious than the meatb.a.l.l.s no matter what bbook!
Bbookbbook swayed his sh.e.l.l as he began to crawl towards some other place once again.