Part 4. Sibori Musket Academy (4)
Creak—
A silver-decorated box slowly opened.
Inside was a single round bead the size of a fingernail.
‘A D-rank skill orb.’
Within the D-rank skill orb, a purple mass rotated every which way.
‘Huh? What kind of windfall is this? A unique skill orb… To think I’d obtain one like this.’
He hadn’t checked the options yet, but Ted’s expression turned serious.
And that was because it was a seriously good thing!
A unique skill orb.
Within Face Chronicle, 99% of skills had what was called a skill tree.
Like the Firewall that followed Fireball seen in the decisive battle with Shamushion, the majority of skills followed such a skill tree.
But there was a 1% exception.
Skills created solely on their own, without a skill tree.
That was precisely what a unique skill orb was.
‘If it’s this, couldn’t it create a variable for me?’
That was what Ted had wondered about.
The first clause of the Hexagonal Star Seat’s explanation:
When Ted had seen that, he had felt a hope deep inside—namely, the creation of a ‘variable.’
‘Since it’s a skill that doesn’t exist on the skill tree. It could even evolve.’
The evolution of a skill that didn’t follow a skill tree. He couldn’t even imagine what form it would take.
If Ted thought about what was needed to become an even more peerless rank one, it was a broad combat style and fatal variables.
Combat ability and leveled items were a given.
‘A unique skill orb could become the bullet I use as a fatal variable. This is a jackpot.’
Such unique skill orbs were incredibly rare.
Even Ted, who had scoured auction house sites, couldn’t buy one. It wasn’t because they were expensive—there simply weren’t any listings.
‘Skill orb status window! Hahahaha!’
Ted shouted in delight internally as he brought up the status window.
‘Ha ha ha! Ha ha… Ha…?’
Then he stared blankly at the status window for a moment.
Active (Mana cost: 50 / Cooldown: 1 hour)
Summons three normal goblins. Duration: 30 minutes
The unique skill orb contained the Goblin Summon skill.
‘Huh… huh…? Wasn’t this a unique skill orb? It was definitely a unique skill orb…’
Ted looked at the skill orb shining above his hand with pupils trembling like an earthquake.
A skill orb with a faint green glow. And inside it, purple grains—the proof of a unique skill orb—were floating around.
Just in case, he checked the status window again, and sure enough, it was
‘…Figures…’
His excitement dying down, Ted stared vacantly down at the box.
But there was a small note stuck in the box.
You brat. Were you fooled? Were you very excited? This is my petty revenge on you for abandoning our academy and leaving! Hahaha!
—Count Sibori.
P.S. If you’re angry, come to the ‘City of the Gray Sky.’
Ted’s face twisted after reading the note.
‘This old geezer…’
He had been had. Count Sibori had deliberately placed this skill orb inside.
‘City of the Gray Sky? I don’t know where that is, but do you think I’ll go find it? Damn. No wonder a freebie fell straight from the sky.’
He hadn’t actually forgotten. His own history.
Normal goblins were level 30.
What creation of a variable, what bullet to be used.
Although the fact that Ted could use an ability normally only possessed by summoner-class jobs was attractive.
But where was he supposed to use three level 30 goblins?
‘This is just my life…’
To think the unique skill orb he had finally obtained was something like Goblin Summon….
In despair, Ted shoved the skill orb into his inventory.
Once a skill orb is placed in a slot, it is destroyed when removed. So it would be more profitable to save it and sell it.
Who knows. The world is vast; there might be a crazy goblin fetishist somewhere.
Ted moved on his way.
‘What’s ruined is ruined. I just need to do what I have to do.’
Misfortune was familiar.
The time to finally begin quests and hunting had arrived.
* * *
“There is a place called the Sauron Plains far from here.”
Raiden began speaking about the quest with that.
“It is said there are particularly stationary clouds in the Sauron Plains.”
The Sauron Plains were a hunting ground for beginners to intermediate players, directly created by the game company.
Raiden had wanted to go out of curiosity but couldn’t. The Sauron Plains had a barrier that only allowed Otherworlders to enter.
“It is in the deepest area, so an unskilled Otherworlder might not be able to enter. Therefore, please investigate the stationary clouds. Anything at all about them.”
—Quest Occurred—
Quest Difficulty: E
Raiden has requested an investigation of the stationary clouds in Sector 4 of the Sauron Plains.
Do you accept?
‘Accept.’
As compensation for it, Ted mentioned,
“Please help me connect with the Thief Clan.”
Changing jobs to a thief wasn’t easy. They didn’t have a specific academy, and they didn’t grant class changes to just anyone.
“That much is not so difficult. I will contact the Thief Clan in advance, so make sure to find out about the clouds.”
And so Ted arrived at the wide plains beyond the forest.
‘I’ll level up and look around slowly.’
Wide plains located at Count Sauron’s estate.
This was the largest plain inside the Karon Kingdom and a place where countless users came to hunt.
So it was always at war. There were thousands of monsters and hundreds upon hundreds of users.
There were four plains in tiers from Plain 1 to Plain 4, and Plain 1 had monsters ranging from level 50 to the early 100s.
Ted headed to Plain 1.
Grrrr—! Grrk!
“Uaaaack! Orcs are coming! Heal. Heal! Healhealheal!”
“Stop screaming for heals, you heal-parrot!”
Screech—! Screech!
“Hey, what are you doing shooting arrows at me? Can’t you open your eyes properly?”
“You were standing right there, that’s why you got hit!”
Chaos.
Beginner users who hadn’t even been playing the game for two months were fighting monsters fiercely there. Because of that, no one paid attention to Ted.
‘I don’t want to set foot there at all.’
He hated crowded places.
But Ted had an absolutely incredible leveling plan.
It was
Damage and precision.
With both of these, sniping was the best choice for Ted.
Upon arriving at the plains, Ted headed to a secluded corner where there were no users.
And he climbed up a tree in the corner. One with enough branches to support his body.
‘It’s been a while since I sniped.’
Ted soon aimed at targets 50 to 100 meters away with Black and White.
He surveyed the plains where battle was unfolding through his scope. He saw an orc that looked like a tiny speck in the distance.
He held his breath, pressed his body close, and minimized his body’s vibration.
Bang—!
A single fired bullet left the tree Ted had climbed. It skimmed past the middle of the plains, wove between several users and monsters, and accurately pierced the orc warrior’s head.
A status window announcing the hit appeared.
‘Kuh… my hands still haven’t lost their touch.’
From then on, Ted began continuously aiming at targets and firing his gun.
Bang—
Bang—!
Since his level was still low, he gained a level with a single shot.
Ted only aimed at things he could definitely hit.
He avoided sniping when monsters and users were tangled up. He didn’t want to steal someone else’s kill for no reason.
Monsters from Plain 1—orc, goblins, eagles, strong wolves, and so on—became his targets.
‘Should I just shoot users too?’
He was tempted. There were quite a few users obstructing his line of fire, and attacking users gave experience too.
However, when he PK’d, his crime score accumulated, which was quite burdensome.
Because if he didn’t spend a lot of money at the temple to lower his crime score, the moment he was caught by the regular army, he’d be arrested and dragged off to spend a long time in a prison cell.
Bang—! Bang—!
Ted fired his gun continuously like that.
‘Whew. I’m leveling up way too fast with this.’
What used to take one or two months was happening in mere minutes.
It was truly perfect solo monopolization.
Bang—!
When ten hours had passed, he had already reached level 23.
Now he couldn’t level up with one monster. He had to catch dozens to level up. Enough that an ordinary user would take all day to raise one level.
The moment his level broke past 23, Ted’s attack power exceeded 1,638.
In numerical terms, it was attack power on the level of a level 450+ user wielding a rare weapon and buffed with all sorts of magic.
He had already surpassed that.
‘A +19 enhancement really is broken.’
By that point, even bullets that grazed monsters because of a bad shot would kill them.
There was even an orc that got its hair grazed and became bald. The powerful wind pressure of the bullet tore all its hair out.
‘Ah, but those guys are annoying.’
But there was something in the distant plains disturbing Ted’s mood.
There were a few guys in the wide plains who kept stealing other users’ prey.
‘What are these guys doing?’
Looking closely, there were gray shadows behind them.
In other words, they were BJs streaming on Paprika.
It seemed they had come from some organization, as they were determinedly stealing the last hits on monsters other users were hunting and running away.
Judging by the cameras filming them moving together, it seemed to be a group stream concept.
There were about seven or eight of them spread across the 300-meter-wide plains.
Up to that point, it didn’t matter.
Whether they stole last hits from other users’ prey or not!
But the problem was that their pathing as they hunted and ran away was so wide that they kept entering Ted’s sniping range.
Ted aimed his gun barrel at them for a moment, then hesitated.
‘Let’s endure it…’
Shooting them wouldn’t be hard.
But he didn’t want to bother building up a crime score.
Ted steeled his mind and accelerated his monster shooting.
Bang—!
It was still early so leveling was easy. But past the 20s, the number of monsters needed per level gradually increased.
And so, 15 hours later.
Ted was at level 29 with 98% experience.
One more shot and he would reach level 30.
‘Whew. I’ll sleep after just this one.’
He had been hunting without rest for 15 hours straight. His eyes were getting blurry and his body was tired.
The exhausted Ted aimed at the orc he had decided would be his last.
But one BJ blocked the orc precisely. And while Ted hesitated, that BJ killed the orc.
‘Huh, that punk.’
Ted frowned slightly and aimed at another target. But that BJ blocked Ted’s target again.
‘Huh, that bastard.’
An astounding coincidence.
At that moment, Ted suddenly felt his vision shaking up and down.
‘Calm down. Calm…’
He was annoyed and his breathing had grown rough. Ted forcibly exhaled hot breath, trying to calm his breathing.
But that resolution didn’t last 10 seconds.
One BJ had used the
A skill that eliminated attack power while enlarging you for 5 minutes! It was commonly used for entertainment purposes.
The BJ, grown to over 10 meters, picked up a monster another user was hunting and showed it to the camera.
Perhaps having received a moon balloon, he was laughing very excitedly with that huge mouth.
…Without realizing he was covering most of the plains in Ted’s scope.
‘Why are guys like that here today?’
Ted didn’t mind others taking the byproducts of monsters he killed. But he couldn’t stand having his leveling obstructed. There, one of Ted’s nerves snapped—snap.
It was still okay. Even if the guy was big, he wasn’t covering all the monsters in the plains.
But moments later, about seven or eight BJs seemed to have prepared in advance as they used
Soon, only the bodies and heads of giants were visible in the scope.
‘…….’
Ted’s remaining nerves snapped—snap.
‘Let’s think of this comfortably. Hmm, yeah. Just a few more monsters.’
Thinking that way made him feel comfortable.
No, they even looked beautiful. Because monsters brimming with experience had suddenly grown to a nice, easy-to-hit size.
There was no need to hold his breath or aim precisely through the scope.
Ted pulled the trigger lightly.