Chapter 36: Crupia Snow Mountain (2)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

“Herz, what do you think about stopping here for a bit before going again?”

At Fiolan’s words, Herz momentarily thought about it before nodding.

“Shall we? Everybody is tired and I think we’ll need some maintenance time.”

Herz, who was pus.h.i.+ng through the snow that was up to his waist, turned around and shouted.

“We’ll rest for one hour here! Whoever needs to heal, heal and take the time to re-gear individually!”

“We’ll rest here for one hour! Whoever needs to, should heal up and re-gear individually!”

Just like a guild that was in the top 5% in the Korean server, the Lotus guild gathered up an expedition as soon as the new update happened and was exploring the northern continent.

The level range of the expedition was around lv 90.

As the expedition started, they gained a lot of levels, so in Fiolan’s case, she was already lv 93.

“Who’s on guard duty this time?”

“I am.”

“You don’t know what will happen, so don’t loosen your guard!”

“Yes, Sub-Guild Master!”

Their levels weren’t low, but because after going over Crupia Snow Mountain, they were only going to face monsters that were over lv 90, so they needed to always be on guard and move accordingly.

In the Ice Ogre’s case, it was a monster that was close to lv 100 which appeared occasionally.

“Ha.”

After Fiolan checked on the guard on duty, she comfortably sat down.

The reason for periodically taking a break and having some maintenance time was also for a safe exploration.

Herz, who made enough room to sit down after pus.h.i.+ng the snow away, plopped down next to Fiolan.

“The northern continent, it’s definitely tough.”

At Fiolan’s words, Herz nodded.

“No kidding. Nonetheless, this level of difficulty was predictable, so… We gained a lot as well.”

“That’s right.”

At this expedition, everybody in the Lotus guild expedition overall leveled up 2-3 levels and gained quite a bit of good items.

However, the biggest profit was not that part.

At this expedition, the Lotus guild achieved a result that was incomparable to any item or level.

“It was a good thing we came on this expedition. Thanks to it, now our guild has a guild-owned base.”

At Fiolan’s words, Herz nodded and agreed.

“That’s right.”

In Kailran, once a guild is over lv 50, they receive the rights to claim a guild-owned territory.

There were two ways for a guild to obtain a territory, the first way being that they had to invade a territory that another guild or NPCs were controlling and take it from them, and the other way being that they had to go to an undeveloped land that hadn’t been stepped on by anybody else and occupy that base.

Before this update, there was no guild that owned a territory in Kailran. Even the guild famous for being the number 1 ranking guild, ‘Dark Luna’ guild, gained their first base after the northern continent opened this update.

The reason was simple.

There was no more remaining land in the southern continent.

Most of the land in the southern continent, where users had been active in since the game first opened, was already the empires’ territories, and the places that weren’t an empire’s territory were owned by small or medium-sized countries or n.o.ble NPCs.

But to take the territory of the NPCs, the users’ strengths were still too weak in comparison.

The Lotus guild was no different with the other top-ranking guilds.

Ever since they first planned the northern expedition, they were planning on occupying at least one base and they had succeeded.

As the bases of the users were still barren land in the north, there was no big merit yet.

However, if they grew it slowly, eventually it could become a large city, where they could collect taxes from the users and NPCs that resided there.

Herz mumbled.

“Now, whether we can defend the base safely is crucial…”

If a base was owned by a guild for the first time, for three months, they automatically sign a nonaggression pact.

If a base was owned by a guild for the first time, a nonaggression pact would be automatically signed for three months.

It was protection received from the game system.

Lotus guild needed to develop the base they gained this time as fast as possible and within 3 months, make it st.u.r.dy enough of a territory, so that it cannot be attacked so easily.

“We need to guard it. For the next 3 months, I think we’ll need to gather the strength of the guild members and focus on only developing the base.”

At Fiolan’s words, Herz nodded.

It wasn’t like the guild members’ growths would stop just because they only worked on the base development.

Rather, in the process of developing the undeveloped land and widening the area of influence, they could level up and had a good chance of obtaining good items.

“Seems like we were lucky, as we discovered quite a large-scale base, so I think we’ll be able to save on our expenses for the early stage.”

Bases were, simply put, towns without owners.

The bigger the discovered town was and the more people it had, it was obvious that the beginning expenses would be saved.

“I want to occupy one more place… but that’s just greed, right?”

At Fiolan’s words, Herz wore a bitter smile.

“I wish to do that as well, if it was for my heart, but while trying to focus on two bases at the same time, we wouldn’t be able to prepare enough in either location and could end up getting them both taken by another guild. Let’s just focus on one place.”

“Yes, they were just words I tried saying.”

Guilds that fought over ranks like the ‘Dark Luna’ guild or the ‘t.i.tan’ guild already had occupied over three to four bases in good locations.

However, this was only possible as they were guilds that truly had the best power, and to the Lotus guild, that was impossible.

Herz pulled out a cup of hot coffee from his inventory and sipped it.

“As soon as this expedition is over, let’s call over all our guild members to the base. Let’s also hunt around the base.”

There were a lot of monsters in the level range that were a bit much, but they had to take that risk.

In order to grow the base quickly, it was most important that they suppress the monsters nearby and widen the territory.

“Aside from one person, most likely everybody will be able to come.”

At Herz’s words, Fiolan had on a strange expression.

“One person? Who?”

Herz smirked.

“What do you mean who else, it’s Ian. Ian needs to hunt in the southern continent a little more and raise his level before coming up.”

However, Fiolan smirked and shook her head.

“Herz, did you know?”

“Yes?”

“Ian should probably be here in the northern continent about now? I’m guessing he’ll be at Crupia Snow Mountain.”

The voice of Herz, who was taken aback, grew louder.

“Huh?”

Fiolan laughed as she continued.

“A little while ago, I received a message and he asked me for some information on the northern continent.”

“What kind of information?”

“He said he was going to hunt on Crupia Snow Mountain, so he took all the information I had on that area.”

Herz asked again with a dumbfounded voice.

“What level is he at now?”

“That I don’t know for sure myself.”

“Ha… He’s my friend but he’s a guy that’s truly out-of-the-ordinary. It hasn’t been long since he started raising a Familiar, how is already able to crawl into a hunting ground that’s around lv 50-60?”

The Ian that Herz knew was not someone that was that reckless.

If he said he was going to hunt, it for sure meant that it was possible for him to hunt there.

“Well, if Ian grows quickly, doesn’t that mean it will be better for us?”

Herz could only laugh with a bitter expression.

“Well… that is true, I guess?”

While Herz and Fiolan were talking about Ian, he was doing some risky hunting, as if he was on a tightrope, on Crupia Snow Mountain.

“Ddukdae, Ice Wave!”

Thud- Thu-Thu-Thu-Thud-!

As Ddukdae stomped his foot down with all his might, a blue ice wave spread out around it.

“I’ll attack from the front, Ly, you attack from the back!”

While Bbookbbook watched the game(?), an intense battle centred around Ian was going on.

Grr Grr-!

As Ly jumped through the air and moved towards the back of the Ice Troll, Ian swiftly dug into the Troll’s side.

Along with the invoking of the Weak Point Capturing pa.s.sive, the Troll’s weak points were highlighted in red within Ian’s sight.

And Ian’s right fist that was equipped with the knuckle quickly rushed towards the weak point of the Troll.

Bam- Ba-Bam-!

Ian’s attacks went in one after another and there was no reason for Ly to miss the chance when the Ice Troll flinched.

Ly bit the back of the Troll’s neck, and the Troll’s Vitality dropped almost 2000 in an instant.

Ian frowned.

He had worked hard to beat it up and just dropped all its Vitality, but now it was trying to recover.

Rooaaar!

The Ice Troll let out a horrible shriek and swung around the gigantic club that it was holding.

The club that was swinging with power was rus.h.i.+ng towards Ian quickly.

At this rate, it was a situation where he would receive the hit directly…

Just then, Ian cast the skill that he was thinking about.

“s.p.a.ce Distortion!”

s.p.a.ce Distortion, the special Summoner skill that he learned along with Familiar Skill Grant when he reached lv 30, was invoked.

With this skill that allowed you to switch positions with the Familiar of your choice, Ian switched positions with Ddukdae.

Bang-!

And the Troll’s club was blocked by Ddukdae’s right arm.

Bang-!

Ddukdae was a defensive-type monster, but after receiving an attack from the Ice Troll that was over lv 60, he received an incredible amount of damage that went over 1000 in one go.

‘We need to catch him before he recovers no matter what!’

The moment Ddukdae blocked the Ice Troll’s attack, Ian, who moved to the back of the Ice Troll thanks to switching spots with Ddukdae, immediately dug into his back and shoved his knuckle into the Troll’s weak point.

And continuing, the system message that Ian had constantly been waiting for popped up.

Momentarily, a wave letting out red light began to spread out from around Ian’s body.

Ian felt power overflow in his body. However, along with that, the risk grew as well.

‘In this current situation, I could die even if I allow one hit from him.’

Ian was on edge.

Even without it, he experienced multiple times being on the verge of death if he was. .h.i.t one or two times.

With his defense currently reduced by 30%, if he was. .h.i.t right now, he could possibly die in a single strike.

Ian focused his mind even more and avoided the Troll’s attack that came after. And with monsters like the Troll, who had big movements when attacking, it was important to properly attack the opening that developed after they attack.

‘Right now…!’

Ian focused his mind as much as possible.

He thought that if he could lodge one more critical on its weak point, he could kill it.

There was also the effect where his Offensive Power additionally increased by 30% for 5 seconds if he could lodge a critical while in the Berserk state.

And Ian was able to experience a proper hand technique.

Pa-kak-!

Ian’s fists, which got even stronger, lodged into the Troll’s weak point one after another.

And Ly attacked the Troll, who was on the verge of death, from behind, finis.h.i.+ng it off.