Chapter 31: Ian’s Plan (4)

TL: Haku

Editor: Stealth

“Hines, by the way, why is that Summoner user going to Abysmal Lake? Is there a Summoner quest on Abysmal Lake?”

“I don’t know, either. It’s not like I’ve tried being a Summoner…”

“No, you could have seen it in the community, though. I just asked since it seemed like you were interested in Summoners lately.”

“Well… I don’t know. To be honest, there are probably no Summoners who are at the level to go to the Abysmal lake, so there’s no way information about it would have been released.”

Ian, who was momentarily curious as to what they were talking about, lost interest and tried to sleep.

‘What the h.e.l.l, they aren’t talking about much anyways.’

However, when Ian tried to turn his head, a conversation that caught his attention for the first time began.

“But Hines, you know my friend Loren, right? The friend that reset his lv 20 Warrior that he was raising and began to raise a Summoner again this time.”

“Yeah, I know Loren. You were bragging about a Summoner friend of yours that was raising their level incredibly fast. Why?”

“Ah, it’s nothing else but Loren, was it yesterday? They were bragging that they discovered something called a Familiar’s Egg.”

“Familiar’s Egg?”

As soon as he heard the word Familiar’s Egg, Ian’s gaze changed. This was because this was information he was encountering for the first time.

Additionally, he developed a slight interest towards the Summoner called Loren, who supposedly was leveling fast.

While Ian had both his eyes closed, he listened more carefully to the two peoples’ conversation. The conversation continued.

“Yeah, a Familiar’s Egg. He said it was probably the Egg of a Golden Serpent.”

“How do you know that?”

“He said he got it from the Golden Serpent Nest, so obviously…”

Ian listened in on their conversation, in hopes of gleaning any more information about the Familiar’s egg. However, no matter how hard he listened, there wasn’t anything noteworthy so he became slightly upset.

He lost interest, realizing that the user named Loren was probably not even at lv 30, no matter how fast they leveled. This was because the hunting ground where the Golden Serpent came out was a hunting ground suitable for someone in the mid-20 level range.

‘But how did they found out something like that existed? I need to find out properly next time.’

Aside from Ian’s thoughts becoming more complicated, the two people continued to talk.

“But it seems like they haven’t figured out how to hatch the egg.”

“Well, wouldn’t it just hatch on its own over time?”

“Idiot, when you left an egg on its own, did you see it hatch?”

Ian, who continued to listen to the conversation of the two quarrel with each other, mumbled to himself.

‘Is it simply just a monster’s egg? What is it exactly? If I find a habitat of a monster, I’ll have to look through it carefully.’

As expected, as it hasn’t been long since the new cla.s.ses had been released, Ian felt that not only himself but others were finding out new information one after another.

‘Wouldn’t they have made it possible to use a boss-rank monster that you normally can’t tame as a Familiar if you gain something like an egg…?’

Ian’s experimental instinct was once again invoked.

‘I must be on guard.’

Ian resolved his heart once again.

Leveling up was important as well but he thought that he couldn’t just neglect to gather information.

They continued their conversation about this and that again but Ian, who decided that there wasn’t much to gain from it, turned his attention away now and turned his head.

“Ly, if you see an island over there, wake me up.”

Grr- Grr-.

Ian, who was tired after hunting for a long time, fell asleep immediately and the boat that he was riding on slowly approached Abysmal Island.

When about 1 hour pa.s.sed, a giant island of blue glacial ice slowly began to reveal itself from within the thick fog. Ly, who was looking around while fascinated by the sight he had never seen before in his life, slightly pushed Ian’s shoulder when he clearly saw the large island.

Grr-. Grrr-.

“Hmm… Are we here now?”

After Ian stretched, he stood up from his spot.

‘Even though I’ve already been here once, it’s still fascinating.’

Creaak- Creak-.

The bow of the ghost s.h.i.+p slowly reached the island accompanied by an unpleasant creaking sounds.

b.u.mp-.

Along with the light sound, the boat stopped and the users that boarded the boat, including Ian, got off the boat and observed their surroundings.

“Wow, this is my first timing coming to Abysmal Island but something about it is creepy. Since it’s ice all around, it’s also incredibly cold.”

“No kidding. I’m freezing to death.”

As the users that got off with him were cold, they began to s.h.i.+ver and were not much different.

‘Er, should I have dressed more warmly?’

As the other users went to go do the Magician quest, they hurried and headed towards the middle of the island. This was because the location for the Magician quest, Matab, was right in the centre of the island.

Ian momentarily looked around before moving his feet.

Unlike the other users, he began to move along the coastline instead of towards the middle of the Island.

Ice Golems were monsters that existed anywhere on Abysmal Island. However, rather than the middle of the island, Ian knew that there were more towards the western coast.

“Shall we slowly start grinding?”

Ian, who found a reasonable area to catch Ice Golems, momentarily sat on a rock. Before earnestly starting, he was planning on eating the food he received from Harin.

“Ly, eat this.”

Ian threw Ly a meatball that Harin gave him. The meatball was very small in comparison to Ly’s large build but he ate it deliciously.

And shortly after, a system message popped up in Ian’s view.

Ian was in awe at the message that popped up.

“Whoa, this time even Agility increased by 20?”

As he was only expecting Health increase, he was even happier at the extra 20 Agility. On top of that, the duration doubled.

“Should I try one, too?”

Ian lifted a meatball but since a lot of raw meat was mixed in, it had a slightly fishy smell, so Ian gave up.

‘There was a reason why she said to give it to Ly.’

Ian abandoned all of his desire towards the meatb.a.l.l.s and began to eat the steak that Harin gave to him.

‘Wow… It’s delicious.’

Ian was firstly in awe at the taste. And once he ate all the steak, another message formed.

Another message that was more surprising popped up in the view of Ian, who was in awe of the effect that was higher than the meatb.a.l.l.s.

Ian had a dazed expression.

‘My stats are permanently increased?’

Ian checked his information window.

Ian

Lv 35: 179,540/700,000 (25.64%)

Race: Human

Cla.s.s: Summoner (Taming Master)

Nickname: Master of Hunting

Fame: 7536 (if your fame drops below 0, it changes into Infamy)

Power: 67 (+15)

Agility: 102 (+12)

Intellect: 52 (+25)

Health: 70 (+40)

Affinity: 67

Taming Ability: 108

Leaders.h.i.+p: 105

Vitality: 2955

Mana: 1750

After checking the information window, Ian’s face glowed.

‘All my stats really increased by 3 each! Affinity, Taming Ability and Leaders.h.i.+p increased by 3 each as well…!’

Since seven different stats increased by 3 each, he had obtained a total of 21 stats. Simply based on the stats only, he had seen the same results as rising almost 4 levels!

Ian suddenly missed Harin.

‘I think I’m going to have to grill Harin and get some food off of her…’

Of course, it seemed as though his stats increased permanently because of the t.i.tle of first but there was no way of knowing how Harin’s dishes would help him.

The taste that slowly melted into your mouth was a bonus.

Ian, who was feeling much better, abruptly stood up from his spot.

“Let’s go, Ly, to catch those blocks of ice!”

Grr- Grr-!

Ly, who was feeling better after eating a meatball as well, seemed to have felt the excitement along with him, as he began to wag his tail.

Wiiing-.

Trombone, one of Luspel Empire’s major cities.

Three users, who were in rags(?), appeared in Trombone’s central square from thin air.

The users nearby who saw them began to talk in whispers.

“Oppa[1], who are they? Why do they have nothing on? They must be perverts!”

At the screams of a beginner female user, a male user next to her looked at them with a pitiful gaze and responded.

“Those people aren’t perverts but unfortunate people… they’re probably people that died and logged on in 24 hours. You lose all your equipment and items if you die.”

The female user who heard those words realized the mistake she made with her words and her expression turned apologetic.

“Ah… I see… I didn’t know that was the case…”

The users in rags that appeared in the square were none other than Rukin, Falcon, and Millun.

They logged on, having lost all the items they had equipped after suffering from the Goblin Chief Priest, who received Ian and Harin’s full support(?).

Whether or not the users around them spoke in whispers, Falcon and Millun, who checked their inventories, cried.

“Waah….! My Lizard Leather Armor! Do you know how expensive that was…!”

“Falcon, are you acting like that over just your Lizard Leather Armor? I lost my Halio’s Necklace!”

At the words that Millun had lost his Halio’s Necklace, Falcon’s two eyes widened.

“What? Halio’s Necklace? You should have unequipped that first before you died!”

The moment a user died, items that were equipped dropped at a 100% rate. However, items that were put into the inventory rarely disappeared unless you had really bad luck. Because of that, most users who thought they were going to die, took off their items and put it into their inventory, starting from their most expensive ones.

However, at Falcon’s words, Millun mumbled a response with an even weaker voice.

“No… Of course I did that. I definitely put it into my inventory… But I have rotten luck, how could it have dropped…”

Halio’s Necklace didn’t particularly had good stats, but it had a distinct option known as range increase that was especially rare, making it expensive.

That’s why it was an even more precious item to Millun, who was an Archer.

Just then, Rukin, who was just listening to the two peoples’ conversation with a dazed expression, mumbled with a face as if he lived his whole life. He hadn’t even been checking his inventory.

“Ha, at least you guys have items that you were able to save… I was the Chief Priest’s first target, so I died. I dropped all my items, unable to save even one, as I died without even a chance to use my hands…”

The reason why he didn’t look through his inventory was because, even if he checked, he had dropped all of his most expensive items.

The three men who were surrounded by anger because of the lost items just barely pulled their emotions together and roughly wore any item. This was because they couldn’t continue to walk down the street in their underwear, as even the beginners who had just made their character wore the clothes that were given to beginners.

Eu-deu-deuk-!

Rukin ground his teeth. And he balled his hands into tight fists, to the point his blood formed in the palm of his hand.

He opened his mouth with a shaking voice.

“Falcon…”

“What’s wrong?”

“The a.s.sholes that PK-ed us…!”

Falcon’s face shook as he responded.

“Yeah, those PK-ers.”

Already not caring that they were truthfully trying to PK them first, Ian had become an attacker to Rukin and them before they knew it.

“That guy, his name was Ian… It was Ian, right…?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“And that female Priest’s name was Harin… right?”

Millun responded next to Falcon in place of him.

“That’s right, the pretty girl with the nice body, she said she was Harin.”

At Millun’s words, Rukin fumed.

“No, Millun, you shallow guy. Does it matter if the PK-er had a pretty face and a nice body in this situation?”

This time, Falcon responded.

“Yeah but I think that is a little important.”

Millun also nodded.

“That’s right, it is important.”

Seeing the two smile broadly at what seemed to be the recollection of Harin’s pretty face, Rukin’s fist trembled with rage.

‘Ha… I can’t even beat these ones to death either…’

Rukin settled down his bubbling rage again and thought cool-headedly(?).

‘That dude was for sure lousy. If only we didn’t get caught up in his scheme then he would have suffered, not us…!’

As his anger subsided, the emotion that bubbled up in place again was greed.

‘I must find that guy no matter what and take revenge…!’

Rukin remembered his guild that belonged in the top 30%.

Even if he picked out only the users in his guild that were over lv 70, there were well over twenty of them.  If he got their help and placed a death order on Ian, even his bones would be indiscoverable!

‘I’ll make it so that he won’t even be able to step foot into Kailran starting today!’

Rukin mumbled to himself as he ground his teeth.

However, whether his resolution would become a reality was something that needed to be seen in the future.

[1] Oppa = a term that a younger female uses to call an close, older male; “older brother”