Part 4. Sibori Musketeer Academy (1)
A hammer had fallen from nowhere at Ted’s feet as he logged in.
It was Braman’s Hammer.
‘What is this?’
Minimum Level Requirement: 100
Durability: 372 / 750
Magic Inscription: Though I achieved the rank of Master through a miraculous experience, my knowledge is still far too lacking; thus, I shall go to the city of
‘So the day’s come when I hear a Master-grade NPC call me his benefactor. Well, I did raise him entirely myself… This NPC will definitely become a good connection. He’ll surely be of great help to me someday.’
Ted stowed the hammer in his inventory.
Now, it was time to begin.
He had to think things through step by step.
First, his nickname.
In the game, nicknames could be duplicated, and there were at least hundreds, if not thousands, of Teds worldwide.
In the case of the nickname
Next was his appearance.
Ted invested one million won to acquire a bear doll mask.
Minimum Level Requirement: 0
Durability: 425 / 425
—Additional Options—
Enchant: Reinforcement Magic [C]
A bear doll mask enchanted with C-grade reinforcement magic, no less.
‘As expected, Ted is a bear doll. With this, it won’t tear easily under normal circumstances.’
He didn’t care about much else, but it would be troublesome if his face became known. After all, officially, he was a nonexistent person to the large guilds in China.
Fortunately, his attire wouldn’t look too odd. There were quite a few people who went around wearing masks or suits in the game.
‘Now there won’t be anyone who recognizes me. Let’s go full solo play this time too.’
Solo playing.
He had lived that way because he needed to, yet it had always been something that wore him down.
Doing everything alone was never easy.
As it happened, the class
Excellent attack power. Mobility. Even trap skills to disperse monster aggro.
‘Even if only for the weapon, it’s got to be Musketeer again this playthrough.’
But he had to become a Musketeer different from his previous playthrough.
Dual class.
Any user could possess two classes.
In his previous playthrough, he had been a Musketeer and
The core had been enchanting bullets with elemental magic to create maximized damage for every situation.
‘Now there’s no need for that.’
Ted opened the weapon’s status window to inspect it meticulously.
Base Enhancement: SS-grade / Hole Over: Grade 3 / O-Scope: None
Minimum Level Requirement: 0 (Six-Star Constellation Connection Rate: 0.1%)
Durability: 32,000 / 32,000
‘I could club something to death with this gun and it still wouldn’t break.’
Its durability rivaled that of an average fortified castle wall.
‘But Six-Star Constellation connection rate?’
The question was answered when he looked at the weapon’s attack power and title status window.
Attack Power: (47 / 47,243)
Range: (46 / 45,585)
Accuracy: 100%
Piercing Power: SSS
You become one with an item engraved with Shamshion.
Items engraved with Shamshion grow alongside the user when their level increases.
‘I see.’
Only 0.1% of the weapon’s performance was available.
Ted’s level was 1. Compared to the level cap of 1,000, that was 0.1%.
In other words, this gun’s attack power and range would increase by leaps and bounds as Ted leveled up.
‘Even if I reach exactly level 100, will the attack power be 4,500?’
The attack power of the original Black & White at +6 enhancement had been around 4,300.
In other words, even if Ted was a mere level 100, he could dish out damage on par with fairly high-ranking rankers.
—Additional Options—
Soul Imprint: Sun Liberator Shamshion
Bullet Skill Nullification: (0.09% / 90%)
Bullet Defense Ignore: (0.09% / 90%)
—Additional Slots (6 Slots, Six-Star Constellation)—
Generally, all weapons had something called a
Having one meant it was quite good; two was a jackpot. Rarely, there were even three.
Slots were things whose value skyrocketed with each additional one. Because as the number of slots increased, so did the number of skills.
Yet this one had a whopping six of those slots.
‘Six-Star Constellation. This must be the true power of the Sun Liberator Shamshion.’
A detailed status window popped up at Ted’s thought.
—All D-grade skill orbs can be equipped.
—When fighting with a weapon that has skill orbs equipped, the skill orbs gain experience. A total of 4 evolutions are possible.
—When slots are changed, all accumulated skill orb experience is lost.
Ted licked his lips as he looked at the status window.
Basically, skills had no concept of evolution. They merely had proficiency from 1% to 100%.
But with the effect of the Six-Star Constellation, the skills of equipped skill orbs would continue to evolve.
‘Shamshion raised Fire Ball all the way to Hellfire. These six slots will definitely become my finishing moves.’
A whopping four evolutions.
In the game, S-grade was the highest for skills.
So a skill that started at D-grade would go D, C, B, A, S, ultimately becoming S-grade.
In other words, this could evolve even the most trash skill orb into the strongest skill.
Of course, that didn’t mean he could just equip any random D-grade skill.
He had to select carefully from among them. Ones that were necessary, powerful, and efficient.
‘That settles it.’
Equip a grenade skill and it would become an atomic bomb.
So from now on, he barely needed anything related to attack power. His normal attacks were many times stronger than other people’s finishing moves.
As for skills, unless they were skill orbs to be placed in the Six-Star Constellation, he didn’t need attack skills either.
Skills existed to make up for what you lacked.
Making something already overflowing even more excessive was inefficient.
‘So for my dual class, it won’t be an attack-focused Combat Mage. My attack power is more than enough. I need a class that raises my survivability and enables diverse play. What’s there?’
When he thought about it, one came to mind immediately.
Thief.
A class in the criminal line that was well-versed in stealth, theft, infiltration, lockpicking, mobility, evasion, traps, aggro, and more.
However, it was an unpopular class because it was a non-combat job.
‘Having attack power alone won’t cut it. I die if I get hit. In that regard, Thief is the best… Hmm, and I additionally need some insurance to save me… Right,
A user’s personal status window had three rather unusual categories:
Unlike these, there was a constitution unique to each character that one could possess only one of; this was called
The innate ability Ted thought of,
For the current Ted, it was an ability that could allow him to avoid death once a week.
For a short duration, his attack power would be converted directly into defense—the ultimate innate ability.
‘I need that to power-level stably.’
A picture was drawn.
First and foremost, he needed to change classes to a Musketeer.
But not all class changes were the same.
The additional skills one received varied depending on which academy they changed classes at.
So Ted immediately left the current kingdom where many Chinese users were, heading for the
That was where the
‘First, I gotta hit level 10 to change classes. Finally gonna get my hands on a musket, huh?’
His heart pounded with excitement.
Fortunately, in the game, there were no weapon restrictions by class. You merely received additional effects upon obtaining a class.
Just before setting out to hunt, Ted needed to purchase bullets. The
‘I bought six hundred magazines… I’ll use them later.’
Finally, Ted purchased
“Hey! Tank! Block properly! The mobs are all pouring out!”
“Priest! What are you doing? Aren’t you healing?”
He saw beginner users forming parties and hunting diligently.
‘That was me ten years ago.’
Emotions washed over him anew. Because back then, Ted had often hunted in parties too.
But now, he didn’t even want a party—drawing unnecessary attention was a burden in itself.
So Ted went deeper into the forest. To a place with flying monsters that ordinary users disliked.
Soon, a familiar sound came from the forest sky.
Kiyaaaak—!
Eagles flying through the sky.
They were quite tricky for beginners who had just started.
Not only were their levels high, but they were aggressive and capable of flight.
But Ted had been looking for their habitat.
‘Found it.’
Ted hid between the bushes and trees, aiming his gun at the flying creature.
Aiming at a flying target was something a beginner could never do.
Bang—!
The fired bullet accurately struck the creature’s body in mid-flight.
The creature staggered briefly before fleeing far away.
‘It didn’t die?’
He had expected it to die instantly because it was a +19 weapon, so he felt slightly deflated.
But it was only natural. For a level 1 Ted, the weapon’s attack power was still a mere 47.
But Ted’s irritation ended a minute later.
He fired three consecutive shots at one eagle, killing it and reaching level 2.
‘Alright, next one.’
At level 2, his attack power had become 94.
Another eagle happened to fly in just then.
Ted aimed precisely for the creature’s head, scoring a critical hit.
And he pumped more bullets into the fallen creature.
Since he was hunting level 10 monsters, his experience shot up rapidly.
After reaching level 3, he didn’t even need two shots per creature.
Bang!
Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
A single shot was all it took to send any eagle in the forest to its death.
When he reached level 7, Black & White’s attack power had risen to 329.
‘…This weapon is truly insane. Now I’m really feeling it.’
329!
That was the attack power of a level 300 rare musket. Yet just by sitting and firing a few shots, Ted had created a weapon with 329 attack power.
‘I need to change classes quickly and power-level.’
Ted wandered the forest looking for other targets.
Kkiiiiiyak—!
A somewhat rougher cry than the Hungry Eagles from before could be heard.
‘This sound.’
It was a cry Ted remembered as well.
An opponent that had tormented Ted greatly during his beginner days!
A creature that would follow you to the end unless its stomach was full, attacking users and NPCs indiscriminately.
It was none other than the
‘I got pecked and eaten a couple of times too.’
Thinking back, it had truly been an unpleasant memory. After that, Cheon Gyeongu would kick pigeons whenever he saw them on the street.
Before long, Ted discovered a creature much larger than the other eagles. Its sharp beak was like a spear blade.
The level gap was so large that its level wouldn’t even display.
Soon, the creature unfurled its massive wings spanning 3 meters and appeared above Ted. Then, as if threatening its prey, it began circling in the air above Ted’s head.
Ted aimed his gun at the creature but hesitated for a moment.
Was it because he was afraid due to trauma?
It wasn’t.
‘I want to kill it as slowly as possible. How can I avoid killing it in one hit? Maybe if I hit its talons, it’ll survive a little longer…’
A petty man who remembered and sought revenge for even the smallest grudge throughout his life.
Because that was exactly who Ted was.