Chapter 16: Ly’s Growth (2)

TL: Haku

Edited: Stealth

Sponsor: Kuro

‘Alright!’

The ‘Jet-Black Half-Moon Bear’ was not just a Rare-ranking, but a Unique-ranking monster that was hard to find. Different from other Unique-ranking monsters, it didn’t look much different from the other normal Half-Moon Bears nearby, which is why it was a monster that wasn’t discovered very often.

Firstly, Ian checked if he was able to capture it. This was because if his Leaders.h.i.+p was high enough, the Capture skill would be invoked without subtracting its Health and before raising its Affinity.

“Capture!”

Right away, a disappointing message popped up.

Just to be sure, he checked his list of Familiars, but the Half-Moon Bear he caught the other day was already released long ago. The reason why it couldn’t be captured was simply because the Jet-Black Half-Moon Bear’s rank and level were higher than a normal Half-Moon Bear’s.

Ian licked his lips at the lost opportunity.

‘Ha, this time when I go to the town, I’m going to pack an ample amount of Sealing Grimoires no matter what.’

Ian raised the bow that he had dropped and aimed at the Jet-Black Half-Moon Bear.

Piiing-!

Ly, who made out the signal of Ian’s attack, charged after the bear shortly after.

Roar-!

The Jet-Black Half-Moon Bear was a whopping lv 38 and a Unique-ranking monster but Ian had no thoughts that this would be difficult.

‘Since Ly fights well, almost at the same level as me, a lv 38 is no problem…’

Just as Ian thought, the Jet-Black Half-Moon bear was not as difficult of an opponent.

Thud-.

At the end of an intense battle that lasted 10 minutes, the Half-Moon Bear hung his big body without strength and turned into a grey light.

At the same time, Ly’s body shone a white light.

Ian wanted to give a shoulder dance as Ly leveled up at the same time when the Half-Moon Bear was killed.

Ly’s level-up message was just as happy news as Ian’s own level-up message.

On top of that, lv 20 was quite meaningful in Kailran.

The moment a user’s character turns to lv 20, there was a lot of content that opened up such as applying to a guild, entering instant dungeons, empire quests, etc. You could also call it the level where the label ‘Beginner’ was removed.

To Ian, lv 20 was a joke, but in the circ.u.mstance that you had no talent in games and you weren’t that good, there were people like these that took two months to get to lv 20.

‘Shall we check the items?’

This was the first Unique-ranking monster since after resetting. As Unique-ranking monsters dropped quite decent items, Ian felt a bit of antic.i.p.ation.

‘Ooh…’

The Bear Hunter’s Combat Hammer was an item that Ian knew about and it wasn’t that good of an item. The ‘Necklace of Pitch Darkness’ was what caught Ian’s attention.

Immediately, he used his Identification Scroll.

“Identify!”

Necklace of Pitch Darkness

Cla.s.sification: Necklace

Rank: Unique

Equip Limit: Intellect over 35

Durability: 124/124

Option: Vitality +15%

Decrease of all skill’s cooldown time: 20%

A necklace with an unknown origin. A necklace crafted from obsidian filled with the darkness of the abyss and looks incredibly rare.

Ian’s face glowed.

The necklace that he was wearing right now was a good item that he got from the auction but this Necklace of Pitch Darkness looked better.

‘If I can profit from giving up about 10 stat points for vitality and decreased cooldown time… this choice seems better.’

The only skill from Ian’s skills currently that had a cooldown time was Beginner-level Training.

Truthfully, just being able to use Beginner-level Training more frequently seemed like a charming enough option.

‘You could call it the first beneficial item since after resetting.’

Ian wore a happy smile.

“An item like this is pleasing… Well then, shall we see how much Ly’s stats have gone up?”

Ian pulled out a notebook from his chest. In that notebook was a bunch of numbers that he could only understand crammed onto the paper.

“Offensive Power has gone up by 4, Defensive Power by 2, Reflexes by…”

What Ian was writing in the notebook was nothing other than Ly’s stats.

Commonly acknowledged ‘Game Researcher’ Ian had been meticulously writing down Ly’s stats every time he leveled up and compared them.

‘Now then, since you’re lv 20, shall we do an a.n.a.lysis work that’s been pushed back.’

It was a sight that would have made a normal user shake their head and be astonished. However, this time of research and a.n.a.lysis was an area that Ian enjoyed most.

“Ly, sit down and rest for a bit. Eat this for now,”

Ian tossed Ly the meat from catching the Half-Moon Bear from his inventory.

Grr-. Grr-.

Whether it was because Ly was in a good mood, he wagged his tail like a puppy and began to eat the meat the Ian tossed to him.

Meanwhile, Ian focused on his notebook.

When around 5 minutes had pa.s.sed since Ian started a.n.a.lyzing, his two eyes suddenly widened.

‘What the h.e.l.l is this? Did the stat growth range grow for monsters per level originally as you went on?’

Surprisingly, as Ly’s level got higher, the range of the stats he received from leveling up got bigger little by little. If Ian style of gameplay was rough, it was an element he would have never found out.

As he was incredibly curious as to why Ly’s stat’s growth range continuously increased, he continuously compared and a.n.a.lyzed the figures written down in his notebook.

He discovered from looking at the records that it doesn’t always increase, but there were sections that didn’t increase as well.

Ian was in confusion.

‘Ergh… What exactly is official? Why are this one’s stats unevenly rising? It’s definite that they wouldn’t have totally groundlessly placed the figures randomly…’

The truth was already revealed but for a user’s character’s case, their stats rose a fixed 5-6 points whenever they leveled up. The distribution of those stats was different per cla.s.s and user’s play style but the average of the increased figures was around 5.5 points.

Once cla.s.s-changed, there were extra stats that you received per level up depending on the cla.s.s’s distinct skill, excluding that part it was always 5.5.

That’s why Ian a.s.sumed monsters were like that as well and began to record because he was curious as to what Ly’s stat’s growth range was. However, different from his a.s.sumption, Ly’s stat’s growth rate was uneven.

‘I need to find this out no matter what.’

At first, he only compared the basic, primary stats, such as Offensive Power, Defensive Power, Agility, etc., but he could not find anything just based on those. That’s why Ian began to compare how the detailed stats increased.

“Hmm…”

Around 30 minutes had already pa.s.sed since Ian sat and began to peer into his notebook and Ly, who finished eating the meat, started to doze off lying next to Ian.

However, just then, Ian, who discovered something, suddenly stood up.

‘Potential! Potential was the secret!’