Chapter 189: A Sign of Downfall (2)
Ian, who went hunting every day for two months, had grown quickly to the point he was close to lv 170.
However, other users weren’t just fooling around during that time either.
The level of the users who were officially registered on the ranking were already over 170.
Ian’s information was still on private, so his name wasn’t up in the level rankings, but if he subst.i.tuted himself into the ranking chart with his current level, he could predict that he was around 10th-15th place.
If the other hidden rankers that had their information on private like Ian were calculated for as well, he would be around 15th-20th place.
‘Hmm… Still, I’ve caught up a lot now.’
Even if he was within the top 20, it was a situation where he didn’t even have a 5-level difference now with the rankers that were quarreling over 1st and 2ndplace.
Considering the fact that he made and started a new character during a situation when the top-ranking users were about lv 100-110, it was a truly splendid achievement.
On top of that, if just Ian was excluded, as the level of Loren, who was ranked 1st place in the official Summoner ranking, was at mid-140s, even within the same Summoner group, he could be considered truly unrivaled.
‘Now Karceus’s level is over 140… It’s slowly reaching the time for me to go and do cla.s.s quests.’
Because the level limit of the connected quest of the Selamus Warrior, which was a hidden quest, was 200, it was still remote, and Ian was planning on clearing it up all the cla.s.s quests that he had been pus.h.i.+ng back up until now at once.
‘Now that I think about it, it’s really interesting. It’s probably because the Taming Master is a hidden cla.s.s, but my leveling up process up until now is really different from the general development route.’
Generally, once over lv 50, the users received quests in the towers of their respective cla.s.ses.
And while solving those quests one by one, they slowly leveled up, but in Ian’s case, as he was swept up by all sorts of unusual quests and events, he ended up not having done any cla.s.s quests that could be obtained from the cla.s.s towers.
‘Once I do all of the cla.s.s quests, I should have some leniency in my Leaders.h.i.+p.’
Despite doing all that he possibly could in order to raise his Leaders.h.i.+p during that time, Ian was only able to summon one more Familiar after he summoned Karceus.
Whenever a cla.s.s quest was cleared, the related cla.s.s stats could be obtained as a reward, so to Ian, that was most important.
‘Alright, that’s that, but I am almost there now?’
Ian raised his head and looked at the flags that were flapping from afar.
And he grinned.
“Now it’s time for revenge.”
Ian’s gaze turned towards Karceus.
“Mojilee[1], you’re ready, right?”
At Ian’s words, Karceus frowned as he nodded his head.
“Well, if you’re asking if I’m ready to fight, I’m always ready.”
However, an unusual point was that the human form that Karceus had polymorphed into was not his regular form.
His original outer appearance of a black-haired swordsman with a sharp-looking face had turned into the form of an archer with a more thinner appearance.
And that outer appearance was none other than Samuel Jin’s form.
Karceus had polymorphed into Samuel Jin’s image.
Kaizar said something from the back.
“Yo, dragon. Do you even know how to use a bow?”
At those words, Karceus glared at Kaizar.
“Of course. There isn’t a weapon that I don’t know how to use.”
While looking at Karceus, who wore an expression full of confidence, Ian pulled out the weapon that he was carrying on his back.
That weapon was not a spear or a bow, but a greatsword.
That was in order to hide Ian’s ident.i.ty.
“Then… Shall we get started?”
Ian and Kaizar, along with Karceus.
The place that the three people were headed for was none other than Splendor Guild.
After making Karceus polymorph into the form of Samuel Jin, the Guild Master of the Oaklan Guild, Ian’s plan was to wreak havoc on the Splendor Guild’s camp and create division between the two guilds.
While wearing a mask over his face, Kaizar asked Ian.
“But, Lord guy. If those guys aren’t idiots, they’ll figure out that something is weird, so will they really fall for this so easily?”
Ian smirked as he replied.
“Well, truthfully, I don’t think that they’ll fall for this either.”
“Then?”
“I just want to let it out and wreak havoc. The momentary division is a bonus.”
While staring at the flag of the Splendor Guild, Ian continued his words.
“If they instead really fall for it and a proper division arose, that’s more difficult. Since then this front line of defense will shatter too easily.”
Ian was estimating it would take at least about 4 months to half a year in order for the Luspel Empire to collapse.
‘If Luspel collapses too quickly, we lack too much time to develop our strength.’
Because that was the case, Ian was planning on making them angry to an extent while squandering around before running away.
“Today, it’s Splendor, tomorrow, it will be Oaklan.”
Of course, when poking around the Oaklan Guild camp, the plan was to have Karceus play an active role with the outer appearance of Martin, the Master of the Splendor Guild.
* * *
Thud- Thud- Thud-!
The Lord’s castle of the Oaklan Guild.
And sitting at the Lord’s room, which was at the highest point in the castle, Samuel Jin narrowed his eyes at the sound that shook the ground as he stood up.
“What the h.e.l.l? Who’s the guy making such a fuss…!”
However, his words could not be continued any more.
Gulp-.
While opening the door of the Lord’s room wide open, Martin stepped inside.
And as soon as he walked in, he slammed down on the table of the Lord’s room.
Bang-!
“Samuel, what do you think you’re doing!”
While looking at Martin, who was fuming as he exploded in rage, Samuel Jin, who was taken aback, widened his eyes.
“No, Martin, what happened? What did I do…?”
Samuel Jin was incredibly fl.u.s.tered, but he responded calmly, and Martin soon settled down and continued his words.
“Yesterday evening, close to half of our domain’s advance barrack guards were ma.s.sacred.”
At that, Samuel Jin’s two eyes rounded as he asked back.
“Huh? But there definitely wasn’t any movement from the Kaimon camp yesterday evening…”
Martin nodded his head as he replied.
“That is true. Since the ones that killed our soldiers were not the Kaimon Empire.”
“Huh? Then who exactly would do such a thing…!”
Martin pointed his finger at Samuel Jin as he opened his mouth.
“Exactly, you. The soldiers and users that survived the site said they saw the face of you, Samuel Jin.”
* * *
When he first made this plan, in order to move as carefully as possible, Ian was just accompanied by Kaizar and Karceus and began to poke around the two camps back and forth.
However, as there were not many difficulties, he was accompanied by all of his retainers instead to pack up a small-scale raid and he systematically bothered them.
Ian had employed quite a lot of high-ranked retainers from the Human Resource Centre up until now, and thanks to that, even with just his retainers, he was able to create a twenty-people-sized raid.
After setting up a chatroom that just the retainers could be in, Ian systematically let out commands.
• Archers now fall back, and just like we’ve done up until now, just go around on the outside and cut them down!
Ian’s goal was not to break down the two guilds.
That was also obviously something that was impossible to do with Ian’s fighting power alone.
Ping- Ping-!
The arrows that flew out pierced through the necks of the guards and users that were guarding the outside of the guild barracks ruthlessly.
• Healers heal the injured ones, and ones that are fine, pierce through beforehand with bows so that there’s no case of being surrounded!
The goal of this attack was to bother the two guilds until they got tired, and it was incredibly successful.
It was already the fifth time.
The rear troops of the Splendor and Oaklan Guild just helplessly suffered without being able to even properly resist once.
However, this wasn’t because they were weak.
Most of their fighting power was invested in the front lines against the Allied Forces of the Kaimon Empire, and in the rear end, guild members and soldiers that were a lower level in comparison were just placed there.
But to pull main force troops to the back just because of Ian was also impossible.
If the fighting power of the two guilds, who were the strongest in the front lines of the Luspel Allied Forces, pulled out, the defensive front line of the Allied Forces of the Luspel Empire, who were already hopelessly outnumbered, would collapse immediately.
Either way, because of Ian’s bothering, Splendor and Oaklan fell into a dilemma, and Ian could truly take out all that was bothering him about the two guilds to his heart’s content.
* * *
“Huff, huff… Aoo-nim[2], this is the limit now. How about we rest for a little bit?”
“Understood, Hyung-nim[3]. Then let’s rest for a moment before we move again.”
After all of the siege warfares of the Pyro Domain were finished, Hoonie received half of his freedom from Kaizar.
Although, truthfully, rather than receive freedom, Kaizar had just lost interest in Hoonie.
‘Hmph, once I get the Power of the Immortal, I’ll go catch that Kaizar guy first!’
Cutting the shackles that tied him to Kaizar was the very first challenge that Hoonie needed to complete.
And Hoonie was confident.
This was because at the end of months of desperate effort, he was seeing the end of the Immortal Quest.
Of course, Hoonie still didn’t know about Kaizar’s outrageous level, which was now over 260.
Canoel, who was next to Hoonie, opened his mouth.
“Keu, still, thanks to you, Aoo-nim, I’m at lv 130 as well.”
“Huhu, I’m over lv 160 now, Hyung-nim.”
Ever since Canoel bought Hoonie the Pledge of the Monarch of Darkness item, the two became incredibly close.
Hoonie called Canoel, who was about three years older, Hyung-nim, while Canoel called Hoonie Aoo-nim as they became a brother-like relations.h.i.+p.
Including Death Knight Ballam, who was always right next to Hoonie, the three like this relied on each other while sharing the Immortal Quest as they overcame the rugged journey.
“That’s that, but I think that your control abilities have definitely gotten better compared to the past as well.”
“Wouldn’t it all be thanks to you, Aoo-nim?”
He had a little bit of bluffing, but Kanjihoonie was one of the few big shots of Kailan that Ian acknowledged.
Of course, the ability spoken of here was about pure control ability excluding stats and items.
And Canoel, who was a dude that seriously had no idea about games let alone play them, received teaching from Hoonie and was slowly gaining human-like abilities.
The two people, who finished repairing their items while resting about ten minutes, began to continue through the dungeon.
“Ballam, please kill the Sand Skull Archers that are gathered in the back!”
• Understood, Hoonie.
“Yongyong, Breath!”
Kyaaooh-!
The two people worked quite well together now. At first, rather than a party member, Canoel was the same existence as a serious ‘baggage’ to Hoonie.
However, now, he was at least not baggage.
And had about one hour pa.s.sed by like that?
The end of the long dungeon finally appeared.
“Whew, Aoo-nim. We probably found the right dungeon this time, right?”
Glancing at Canoel, who spoke with a trembling voice, Hoonie breathed deeply once before nodding his head.
“It should be. This time, there should be no mistake.”
Stomp- Stomp-.
Hoonie slowly walked and placed his hand on the slab that was placed at the end of the dungeon.
And he shut his eyes as he placed the crystal ball that had the Power of the Immortal sealed into it on top of the slab.
And the incantation to make the slab work rang out from Hoonie’s mouth.
“Power of the Darkness… Awaken!”
Whoong-!
The moment Hoonie’s words ended, a loud resonant sound rang out throughout the dungeon.
Within the black crystal ball, a light slowly began to leak out and the two people held their breaths as they watched that scene.
And shortly after, following the light that spread in streams, a black smoke appeared and that began to create some sort of giant shape.
• Do you truly have the right to become the Monarch of Darkness!
A voice that was loud and strange enough to ring throughout the whole dungeon was heard, and at the same time a quest window popped up in front of Hoonie.
Ring-.
• The Monarch of Darkness Immortal (Hidden, connected quest)
A thousand years ago. All requirements have been met in order to awaken the Power of the Monarch Immortal, the one who built the empire of the undead in the subterranean.
You have honorably carried out all of the missions received from the Spirit of Immortal, and you have received acknowledgement to challenge the Monarch of Darkness to become the next Immortal.
Now, awaken Immortal, who is asleep on the 100th floor of the subterranean dungeon, and control him to reform as the Monarch of Darkness.
Quest Difficulty Level: SSS
Quest Condition: A user that has received acknowledgement by the Spirit of Immortal.
Time Limit: None.
Reward: Cla.s.s-change to Black Magician (Monarch of Darkness)
(The reward may change depending on the cla.s.s of the user partic.i.p.ating in the quest.)
However, in front of the eyes of Hoonie, who was reading through the quest content chaotically, one system message sentence additionally popped up.
• The quest is automatically shared with ‘Ian’, the user that is established in the master and servant relations.h.i.+p.
“…?”
[1] Mojilee = Someone who is lacking just 1-2% from being perfect (ex. A guy who has the looks and money, but is a little lacking in the brain department)
[2] Aoo-nim = What an older male calls a close, younger male with a bit more respect
[3] Hyung-nim = What a younger male calls a close, older male with a bit more respect