Chapter 61: Second Evolution (3)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

The bandits were far more superior in numbers, but as they were already in chaos, they weren't able to save that advantage.

"Euahh! Kill this pig-like golem first!"

At the word pig, Ddukdae flew into a rage.

Thud- Thud-!

"Aack-! Do something about this wolf!"

Ly, who received the Potential Explosion buff from Ian, was practically flying.

It was only for a moment, but Ly, who had was able to possess almost lv 100 stats, was able to send the bandits into a critical condition with one bite.

Ly was indeed boasting explosive Offensive Power.

While seeing that even the damage from Bleeding was a 4-digit number, Ian automatically wore a satisfied smile.

The bandits died in 4-5 seconds after getting bit by Ly once!

For the 1 minute 30 second duration of the Potential Explosion buff, Ly got rid of six bandits.

The EXP was lower compared to what he received when hunting with the very first discoverer buff in the northern continent's Dungeon of Chaos, but since his hunting speed was so fast, an enormous amount of EXP came in.

And while Ly played an active part, Ian was also pulling his bowstring without rest.

Along with the system message, a white mark formed above the bandit's head.

Ian immediately aimed at the bandit with the mark, and hit him.

Ian continued the battle using the most out of his skills and their additional effects.

He used all of his skills efficiently without wasting a single second.

Because he did so, the bandits, whose numbers were over 30, had reduced to less than half at some point.

However, Ian was suspicious.

'Was this all the bandits in Forcal Mountain? There has to be more…'

And as soon as Ian mumbled to himself, additional support forces appeared like a ghost.

"This brat, how dare you use violence here!"

Ian turned his attention to the bandits who were snarling at him.

And he could only be immediately taken aback.

'Wha, what the h.e.l.l! Why are they appearing here?'

The almost mid-lv 70 'Forcal Bandit Sorcerer' had caught Ian's eyes.

On top of that, there was a reinforcement of about twenty normal bandits.

Ian's expression contorted.

'No wonder, I was thinking that things were going too well.'

Four or five Sorcerers additionally appeared, but he thought it was nothing to run away from.

Ian fixed his stance.

One of the offices of SH Electronics' Gangnam[1] Branch.

Click-.

Within the desolate office, the sound of a mouse clicking away restlessly rang through the room.

"Hm… So, they judge a Familiar's grade like this."

A middle-aged man with glimpses of white hair.

His name was Kim Chulwoo.

"I wonder then what's the grade of the Lava Drake that young master purchased not long ago."

Kim Chulwoo's job in SH Electronics was being the personal a.s.sistant for the chairman's second son, Lee Dongwoo.

And because Lee Dongwoo, the young master he needed to serve, spent most of his time in Kailran, in order to a.s.sist(?) him, Chulwoo also always played Kailran.

On top of that, because he was a user that originally enjoyed Kailran, he thought that having Dongwoo obsessed with Kailran was a better environment for executing his duty.

No, he thought that was the case up until not long ago.

'I didn't know that young master would have absolutely no talent in gaming despite his young age.'

His Kailran ID was 'Ranma', and his young master, Dongwoo's ID was 'Canoel'.

On top of playing games poorly, as Dongwoo's pride and stubbornness was incredibly wild, it wasn't easy helping him openly, making him the worst person to have to deal with.

"Let's see here, The stats of young master's drake…"

Chulwoo, who barely managed to figure out the stats of Dongwoo's Lava Drake after a huge amount of effort, wrote them down in Excel.

Level - 32

Offensive Power - 395

Defensive Power - 175

Agility - 125

Intellect - 105

Vitality - 4950

Mana - 2470

"There."

Chulwoo, who wrote down all the stats, looked at his opened Internet browser, where the formula to calculate a Familiar's growth that was available through the community was.

"So, I have to add up all the stats and divide it by the level, right?"

Since a couple of days ago, many posts began being uploaded in the Summoner cla.s.s' bulletin board of Kailran's official community because of a new issue.

In order to judge the value of the Familiars they owned, the users decided to grade them, and because of that, users began to take screenshots of their Familiars' stats and post them.

And a couple of users, who called themselves a.n.a.lysts and researchers, made a formula to judge the value of Familiars using the stats of Familiars that users uploaded as data, and creating a base with them.

"395 to 175, 125… It's 800 all added up."

But, truthfully, it was only called a formula, it was actually just an incredibly simple calculation.

After adding up all the combat stats of the applicable Familiar, aside from it's Vitality, the value once it was divided by its level was the method to judge whether the Familiar was good or bad.

This method was incredibly simple, but it presented a clear answer to Summoner users.

Arguments over whose Familiar was better had greatly reduced.

The value derived from this formula was called the 'Growth Value' in the Summoners' bulletin board, and depending on the grade of this Growth Value, the Familiar's worth began to be decided.

Chulwoo, who finished calculating, scratched the back of his head.

"Hmm, the Lava Drake's Growth Value is 25. It's not that good for a Unique-rank… On top of that, its Vitality Growth Value at 154.6 means that its Vitality is at the worst."

Amongst the screenshots of the Familiars that were posted in the Summoner cla.s.s' bulletin board, there weren't that many Unique-rank monsters.

And amongst them, the monster with the highest Growth Value had a value of 28.

Although a difference of 3 for the Growth Value looked small, if this piled and piled, there would be a difference of over 300 for stats when they reached over lv 100.

On top of that, there were a lot of cases where, when looking at the Vitality Growth Value, Unique-rank Familiars' values were over 200.

In the case of a difference of 50 in Growth Value, even at a level difference of just 20, it meant that they would have a difference of over 1000 in Vitality.

Chulwoo's expression darkened.

"Ha… For young master to have spent 15 million gold on something like this."

Because a Unique-rank Familiar with an evolution possible option was yet to be found, he could overlook that part, but as its stats didn't even look that good, he couldn't help but sigh.

Chulwoo stood up from his spot and headed towards the capsule in the corner of the office.

"I should have a.s.sisted the young master more…"

Rather than being regretful of the amount of money that was used, he pitied the ignorance of Dongwoo, the young master he served.

Chulwoo took to heart his responsibilities and logged onto Kailran.

"Ha… Why do those sorcerers have to be fire-type?"

Ian let out a frustrated sigh as he saw the Forcal Bandit Sorcerers shoot bundles of fire at Ddukdae.

He had reduced a lot of the normal bandits despite the large number, and there were only two more sorcerers left.

However, the problem was that the type of offensive magic the sorcerers used was fire-type.

This was because Ddukdae, who was blocking the canyon and playing the tank role, received twice the damage when hit by fire-type attacks.

'Do I need to pull him back for now?'

Ian contemplated.

Ddukdae currently had less than 10 thousand Vitality left.

If it were up to his heart, he wanted to catch the remaining sorcerers before retreating even if it meant overdoing it, but to be safe, it would be best to Summon Release Ddukdae immediately.

'Hoo, it's a bit regretful, but is there no other choice? If I Summon Release, then it's just a 30-minute break, but if Ddukdae dies, I'll need to fight without him for almost a week…'

Ian made up his mind and diverted his attention as his plan was to Summon Release Ddukdae.

However, just then, something caught his eye.

'Huh…? Ddukdae's Potential is at 99.7%!'

Instantly, Ian thought of something good.

If he quickly caught the opponents with the least amount of Vitality left first and leveled Ddukdae up, his Vitality would be fully recovered.

Ian quickly executed his plan.

"Ddukdae, back up a little!"

Ian, who drew back Ddukdae a little in order to buy some time until he leveled up, quickly ran towards the inside of the canyon with Ly.

"Ly, Berserk! Kill the ones I hit first!"

Grr-!

Ian focused on the ones whose names were blinking because they didn't have much Vitality left and attacked them.

Ping- Pi-Ping-!

And at once, he used all his skills as their cooldown time was over, and was able to catch one of them shortly after as his Offensive Power was maximised.

He slightly glanced at Ddukdae as his EXP went up, but the level-up message that he awaited didn't pop up.

However, just then, the form of a sorcerer casting a spell in order to perform fire magic caught Ian's eye.

A bright red mark began to burn above the sorcerer's head.

'IF the casting time is that long, it means that it's an incredibly big skill…'

Ian urgently pulled his bowstring.

He felt that if that skill was invoked before Ddukdae leveled up, he wouldn't know if Ddukdae would survive or die.

"Ly, that one first!"

The arrow that left Ian's bowstring quickly flew and lodged into the sorcerer's shoulder.

However, the sorcerer's magic didn't get cancelled.

Hwa-reu-reu-reu-!

The flame that burned above the sorcerer's head scattered in every direction and disappeared, and a large flame pillar began to rise beneath Ddukdae's feet.

A volatile situation, Ddukdae had received too much damage due to his characteristic of receiving 2 times the damage of fire-type attacks despite the attack itself not being that strong.

At this rate, Ddukdae would die in about 5 seconds.

"No!"

Ian gave up trying to level up Ddukdae and spread his hand out in order to Summon Release.

However, just then, the sorcerer died from Ly's attack and a system message rang out.

And Ddukdae's body began to s.h.i.+ne in a white light.

'Alright!'

Ian let out a shout of delight.

Ddukdae had leveled up at an unbelievable timing.

Of course, his Vitality had fully recovered.

"Shall we clear the remaining ones left now?"

Ian invoked his Current Proliferation skill again and pulled his bowstring.

However, he felt something was odd.

'Why isn't the white light disappearing from Ddukdae's body?'

The white light that usually appeared when leveling up disappeared into the air after about 1-2 seconds.

However, Ddukdae's white light didn't disappear, but rather slowly grew brighter.

And Ian figured out what kind of situation it was shortly after.

'Evolution! Ddukdae's finally evolving! Does that mean Ddukdae will also become a Rare-rank?'

He hurriedly checked Ddukdae's condition window and the word evolving caught his eye.

As Ian watched Ddukdae evolving, the corners of his smile hung from his ears.

"Ly! Catch the ones that go after Ddukdae first!"

Ian frantically blocked off the bandits that charged towards Ddukdae with Ly.

However, he discovered that there was no need to do that.

"Keu-ack!"

The bandits that charged towards Ddukdae flew backwards at an unknown repelling power.

Ian, who saw that, was able to watch Ddukdae's evolution with a more relaxed heart.

'I wonder what he will become.'

Just like when Ly evolved, Ddukdae's size began to slowly grow.

For the first time in a while, Ian felt his heart pound.

Thinking about the strength Ly, who was Kailran's lowest level monster, the 'Wolf', before evolving, showed after evolving, it was obvious Ian antic.i.p.ated what kind of form Ddukdae's evolution would be as Ddukdae was quite a high-level monster.

Thu-Thu-Thu-Thud-!

Ddukdae's body, which was wrapped in a white light, had grown over 1.5x its size.

On top of that, a blue aura clearly spread from around his body.

And shortly after, the light slowly lifted and the message that Ian was waiting for popped up.

The time he spent waiting wasn't that long, but to Ian, it felt very long.

Ring-.