Chapter 37: Crupia Snow Mountain (3)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

Ian, who obtained the miscellaneous items by placing his hand on the corpse of the Troll, grumbled to himself as he wiped the sweat that dripped from his forehead.

“Ugh, my EXP seriously isn’t going up.”

The EXP he gained when he hunted the Goblin Warriors were around low 900s. However, despite hunting Ice Trolls that were over 10 levels higher than Goblin Warriors, he was only gaining 1060 EXP, which wasn’t a big difference.

It made sense for Ian to grumble about it.

‘After only sharing with Ly, it’s definitely harder to level up now that there’s four of us sharing.’

As soon as they reached the Snow Mountain, despite having hunted for the whole day, he was only able to level up 1 lv.

It was the same growth rate as other normal users that were in their late lv 30s but in Ian’s case, who ma.s.s-leveled like crazy, it was stifling for him.

“Let’s rest for a bit before we move again!”

He wanted to move and find another prey immediately, but he needed to replenish Ddukdae’s Vitality and Ian himself also needed time to catch his breath.

Ian sat down on a boulder and glanced around while resting.

And he discovered a lucky Bbookbbook, who was sleeping.

Glare-.

Ian glared at Bbookbbook.

‘It must be a blessing to live as a turtle. To comfortably doze off and get EXP without much effort…’

Ian shook his head.

‘Still, if I put in effort in raising him, he’ll probably at least make enough for a meal somehow later.’

Ian forcibly rea.s.sured himself and turned away from reality.

Whether Bbookbbook could make enough for a meal or not, he needed to wait for the future.

And Ian’s rigorous hunting schedule continued.

Aside from thoroughly spending 30 minutes for eating, and 5 hours for sleeping, he didn’t leave the capsule.

He felt it had already been almost a week since he had left his house.

However, he received that much of an outcome. With Bbookbbook as the last, he was able to get all of his Familiars within the lv 40 range.

Ian and Ly were lv 42, Ddukdae was lv 43 and Bbookbbook was lv 40.

‘Let’s see… It’s about time for Ddukdae’s Potential to have reached 100.’

Ian opened Ddukdae’s information window to also check the results hunting up until now.

And shortly after, Ian had on a fl.u.s.tered expression.

‘What the h.e.l.l? Why is it like this?’

Ddukdae’s Potential had already reached 100.

‘Why isn’t he evolving? Weren’t they supposed to evolve once their Potential reached 100?’

Ian was baffled.

‘I’m certain one of the requirements to evolving was 100 Potential… Could it be that there was another requirement aside from Potential in order to evolve?’

But aside from that, there was nothing else that came to mind.

‘Does he need to level up more? But in that case, I remember Ly being only lv 20 when he evolved.’

For now, the only a.s.sumption he could make was that it was the level.

As the level required to evolve could be different for every monster, he couldn’t think that just because Ly evolved at lv 20, Ddukdae would be the same.

‘Well, since this is something that I can’t do much about right now…’

Since this was something Ian could not find out about by thinking deeply right now anyways, he moved his thoughts on Ddukdae’s Potential off to the side.

‘Do I need to use the Training skill on Bbookbbook now?’

Since he found out that they didn’t just evolve once their Potential reached 100, he thought training Bbookbbook and using Skill Grant on him was top priority now.

If Bbookbbook gained a decent skill, it meant that there would be one more skill that Ian could pull over with his knuckle’s inherent ability, which would be a big help.

Then next, he thought it would be most beneficial if he raised Ly’s Potential again.

Ian turned his head towards Bbookbbook.

“Bbookbbook.”

Bbook-?

“Come over here.”

Bbookbbook-.

Bbookbbook turned his head away in a snap.

It was clear rebellion that he would not listen to his instructions.

Ian let out a deep sigh and approached Bbookbbook, casting the Training skill.

Even though he didn’t train him, it seemed from constantly taking him around and hunting, his Potential rose a little.

Ian threatened Bbookbbook, who was rebelling.

“If you’re constantly like this, I won’t give you anymore meatb.a.l.l.s.”

Bbook…?

At Ian’s sneaky attack, Bbookbbook was taken aback.

Bbook- Bbookbbook-!

Bbookbbook, who very clearly understood Ian’s words because of the Training skill, became sullen.

“Bbookbbook, come here.”

Kka-ddak-.

At Ian’s hand gesture, Bbookbbook quickly moved.

His fast movements were similar to a recruit who had just been admitted to the beginner military training centre.

“If you had listened this well from the beginning, how good would that have been?”

Bbook-.

Ian, who instantly controlled Bbookbbook with meatb.a.l.l.s, began to move his feet.

As he had rested a bit, it was time to start hunting again.

“Ddukdae, you can see those Ice Trolls down there, right?”

As Ddukdae slightly nodded his head, Ian continued.

“Go first and grab their attention, and then Ly and I will attack. Ly, you understood that as well, right?”

Grr-.

“Ly, let’s use Berserk this time. Since there are four more Trolls nearby, if we don’t catch them fast, we could end up suffering instead.”

Instructions of a detailed plan were laid out.

When Ian let out a complex command, Ddukdae could not carry it out exactly as he wanted yet, but Ly understood Ian’s words practically perfectly.

Ian was planning to catch all the 5 Trolls that were nearby within the 15 minutes that Ly’s Berserk would be kept.

Thud- Thud-.

As Ddukdae approached the Trolls with thuds, the trolls obviously charged towards Ddukdae and the battle began smoothly.

Ian, who cleanly caught the five Trolls within 15 minutes as planned, got ready to move again.

The Ice Trolls had died down in this instant.

For them to regen again, he needed to wait at least 3 hours.

“Guys, let’s go.”

At Ian’s calling, Ly and Ddukdae immediately came to where Ian was.

However, one of them was nowhere to be found.

“Ah, did this Bbookbbook disappear off to somewhere within that short time?”

Ian looked around for Bbookbbook.

However, even though he ran around and wandered, the Bbookbbook that was always nearby did not appear in his sight.

‘If he was attacked or attacked, a system message would have let me know…’

“Bbookbbook, where are you? I’ll give you a meatball, so come over here.”

It didn’t seem like he was harmed in any way, but he couldn’t help but worry.

Since he didn’t even appear at the temptation of the meatb.a.l.l.s he liked so much, his worrying made sense.

‘Do I need to Summon Release and then Summon him again? Where did he go?’

It was impossible to Summon the same Familiar for 30 minutes once it was Summon Released.

Because of that, Ian didn’t Summon Release a Familiar unless needed.

However, just then, a familiar-looking backside of a turtle appeared in Ian’s sight.

“Bbookbbook, what are you doing there?”

Ian called him, but Bbookbbook didn’t even act like he heard him, as he continued to wriggle around and do something.

‘What the h.e.l.l is he doing?’

After getting closer and taking a look, Bbookbbook was eating some sort of weird gra.s.s root.

Ian shook his head and approached Bbookbbook.

“Bbookbbook, I told you that you can’t just go around eating anything!”

When Ian tried to lift up Bbookbbook, a system message that he had never even thought about appeared in his sight.

“Cough!”

Ian, who checked the system message, freaked out.

“A Mandragora!”

Ian and Bbookbbook’s eyes met.

“And for you to have eaten it…!”

Ian’s stomach ached.

The Mandragora was an incredibly famous elixir item.

The elixir that was well-known to be a plant with roots in the shape of a human was a treasure that increased all stats by 5 points each when consumed, so it was a rare item that didn’t even appear in the auction.

If Ian had eaten that, it would have been the same as him gaining almost 5-6 levels of stats.

He couldn’t help but feel sad.

‘Ah… I should have been the one to eat that…’

Even so, he couldn’t say anything to Bbookbbook.

As he didn’t eat Ian’s, and had eaten something that he had found.

From another perspective, it was beneficial that Bbookbbook had found the Mandragora and at least his stats and Potential went up.

Ian bent down and pet Bbookbbook’s head.

“You did a good job, Bbookbbook. But next time, if you find something like that, bring it to me.”

Bbook-?

Bbookbbook shook his head.

It wouldn’t have been like Bbookbbook if he shared food.

“If you bring it to me from now on, I’ll trade you for five meatb.a.l.l.s.”

However, if it was for five meatb.a.l.l.s, it was a different story.

Bbook- Bbookbbook-!

Bbookbbook nodded his head vigorously.

‘By chance, could it be that Bbookbbook’s true ability is something like collecting medicinal herbs? Or some sort of searching ability?’

Ian seriously thought about it. It seemed plausible.

However, just then, Bbookbbook headed towards somewhere with confident footsteps.

“Bbookbbook, where are you going?”

Ian followed a crawling Bbookbbook.

He felt quite a bit of antic.i.p.ation.

‘Could he possibly have found place where there’s another Mandragora?’

Had it been about 5 minutes since he had followed Bbookbbook?

Bbookbbook’s footsteps stopped, and Ian’s two eyes widened.

‘This… This is…!’

The place he had so desperately wanted to find, but hadn’t appeared, finally appeared in front of Ian.

‘An undiscovered dungeon!’

And a system message popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.

Was the exact reason he pushed himself and came up to the northern continent not to discover new dungeons.

As he had discovered a hidden dungeon thanks to Bbookbbook, Ian’s smile hung from his ears. And another system message popped up as a continuation.

“No! Why would I register.”

500 Fame was not a low value but he had absolutely no intention of sharing his doubled EXP and items right now.

As soon as he registered this dungeon, the users that were hunting in the area would immediately swarm here.

‘That can’t happen.’

Ian lifted Bbookbbook up and placed him on top of Ly’s back, petting him a ton.

“Hahaha. Bbookbbook, good job! You finally did something that was praiseworthy!”

Bbookbbook had on an expression showing his high spirits as he held his chin up high.

Bbook-!

“Now, shall we go in?”

Ian moved his feet towards the dungeon with excitement.

He was in a good mood, as he felt that he could cover all the EXP he had to sacrifice(?) by having Bbookbbook summoned through this dungeon by double the amount.