Episode 11. Predator Goblin (1)
The capital of the
The grand conference hall of the guild
In this conference hall, where meetings were held in secret… rankers began to open the door and enter, one by one.
“Aha haha! It’s been a while, everyone!”
“Hello. I am Shaman Sage Ruri. It has been a long time.”
Including rankers belonging to the
“It is a pleasure. I am Miyamoto Musashi.”
“Oh? Lord Musashi, you have come as well?”
“Heeh, I am a fan. I never imagined you would come here.”
Twenty-five rankers, including the former official Japan ranking number two user,
They were the strongest members of
“Then. Let us begin the meeting regarding the
Their gazes turned to
Seated at the head seat, he was a middle-aged man with round glasses and a sharp countenance.
The reason the twenty-five strongest rankers, from different guilds and fields of activity, had gathered here.
Was precisely the project they were planning—the
Japanese users who had been enjoying Face Chronicle for several years had naturally gathered in the
It was a phenomenon similar to Korean users gathering in the
“I believe the five great Japanese guilds gracing this place with their presence share the same concern as I. Why have we been unable to reach the World’s Seven Great Guilds! It is about this.”
In the prosperous and pristine Pixie Kingdom, they had competed with one another and strived to become higher-ranked guilds.
The goal of
The
They were seven guilds, including America’s great guild
However, not a single guild in Japan had yet joined the World’s Seven Great Guilds. No, there wasn’t even one close to it. Only
“We of the Five must unite our strength.”
That was the first topic of this meeting.
“And. To do so, we need an external enemy.”
This was the second topic of the meeting.
Already, the Five had begun forming close cooperative relationships a few years ago. And slowly, they had occupied the
The current Pixie King was merely their puppet.
If they wished, starting a war was no longer a difficult matter.
However, that was strictly an agreement between the guild masters.
Today’s meeting had been planned to officially inform all the leadership of the five great guilds about that agreement.
“Let me share a piece of good news before continuing the meeting. Recently, there have been positive results. One is that we have obtained shares in nine territories on the outskirts of the Caron Kingdom.”
Indeed.
When Chalsu was about to wage total war against Count Ssauron’s territory, the
As they had with Chalsu, the Great Japanese Empire had intervened in several siege wars to help secure victory and obtained shares. Unfortunately, they had been unable to obtain shares in the Ssauron territory.
In this manner, the five great guilds had acquired a total of nine territories within the
That amounted to one-tenth of all territories in the Caron Kingdom.
Those nine territories would open the door for
“The next meeting is in ten days.”
The meeting continued several times in that manner.
According to the ever-changing situation in real time, they meticulously and sharply devised strategies. And they prepared various plans for the fall of the Caron Kingdom.
And so… today.
“Now. The time has come.”
Tenno opened his mouth.
Recently, there had been very good news.
Somehow, ten percent of the ranker-class users in the Caron Kingdom had died.
Upon hearing the circumstances, it seemed an event monster that had infected a certain user had run quite rampant.
Because that issue was so hot, talk of the surrounding siege wars disrupted by the Great Japanese Empire’s support had been buried.
‘The Caron Kingdom’s leadership probably grasped our movements and conserved their strength for the
To them, who had been biding their time, it was truly a monster of fortune.
‘Our Great Japanese Empire, having devoured the Caron Kingdom and unified the Five, shall rise to become one of the World’s Seven Great Guilds—no, the Eighth Great Guild.’
Tenno.
The
* * *
‘Whew, it’s really dark.’
A deep cave tunnel dug underground.
Tedeu began to carefully make his way down.
In the
The creature possessed the ability to absorb light, and perhaps because of this, the
To be precise, the dungeon walls devoured light. Even if one cast Light magic, the walls swallowed the light so it did not brighten at all.
‘That’s why I trained my Hearing.’
Tedeu closed his eyes and began imaging the world through his ears.
An action impossible for a real human.
However, Tedeu’s ears, with a Hearing stat of three hundred, could hear sound three-dimensionally to a certain degree.
“
When he unleashed the
Yaaaah—
Yaaah—
Yaah—
Soon, the sound of striking the cave walls echoed back to Tedeu’s ears.
With that, he could roughly sense the path ahead.
Thwack—
“Ow!”
Of course… since he could only know the approximate structure, he occasionally bumped his forehead against stalactites. When unlucky, he even fell into traps.
‘Well, this is better than expected. Besides, Lion’s Roar will be useful going forward too, huh?’
A few seconds after Tedeu had just unleashed his Lion’s Roar, a rustling sound of something disappearing was heard.
Its name was
They didn’t give much reward… but because they had barely been hunted for several months, their population had reached the regeneration limit.
Therefore, trying to pass through the dungeon in the ordinary way would consume an enormous amount of time.
The reason Tedeu had prepared Lion’s Roar. It was precisely to drive out the countless
‘Good. No major problems so far.’
Up to here was originally Tedeu’s plan.
If he could hunt the monsters, it would be killing two birds with one stone.
However, it was difficult for Tedeu to attack directly.
This place was strictly the Black Dragon’s domain.
Therefore, the only thing Tedeu, at level three hundred ninety-nine, could do was
Of course, he had no intention of simply twiddling his thumbs.
“
Kiiik!
“From now on, run with me and just shoot wildly at what’s in front. Got it?”
Kiiik!
Tedeu had to run through this deep and gloomy place for almost a week.
That was how deep and wide the joint dungeon was. Moreover, since he didn’t know the path properly, he would end up wasting effort several times.
However, Tedeu, who was obsessed with efficiency, had no intention of wasting that time.
Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang—!!
The goblins’ excited shooting began.
Tedeu’s command this time was very exciting for the goblins. There was nothing complicated—they were simply told to shoot.
Thus, when the blind bullets happened to beat a Worm that had fallen into a
Even a small amount of experience rose.
Since Tedeu was at level three hundred ninety-nine, which required
‘Good. Let’s keep going like this!’
Thus, one pattern was completed.
“
Whenever they entered a new space, Tedeu would unleash
Kiiiiik! Bang-bang-bang!
Then the goblins would run alongside him, firing.
Tedeu wandered the joint dungeon like that for several days, steadily walking forward.
‘Ugh… if I only knew the way, it would take a day or two.’
…In truth, though it was only a few days, wandering through pitch-black darkness relying only on sound for several days was an incredibly arduous task.
Occasionally, when Worms fell from the ceiling and landed on the back of his neck, even Tedeu, bold though he was, couldn’t help but let out a scream-like Lion’s Roar.
That was why, for the few days after that, Cheon Gyeongu hesitated every time he logged into the game.
‘I’ll have to do that again today too…’
It couldn’t be helped. At any rate, he had to get to the Pixie Kingdom, didn’t he?
Still, Tedeu took this opportunity to map out every place he had passed through.
Map-making was a basic game system, and if he ever needed to come back, he would be able to do so in one go.
‘Hmm, still, my items are quite good.’
There was at least one thing making Tedeu comfortable. It was the ring shining on his hand.
Not long ago, while slaughtering countless users as a demonkin, Tedeu had gathered Rare items up to his inventory limit.
The number was several dozen. He couldn’t sell them immediately, but their value was a whopping forty thousand gold! That was four hundred million in cash.
Unfortunately, there were no Unique items. Usually, Unique items were embedded with expensive
Fortunately, however, there were two Epic-grade items, one step lower. One of them was a staff Tedeu couldn’t use.
The other was an item Tedeu could use.
Minimum Level Requirement: 350
Durability: 112 / 135
—Bonus Effects—
Strength: +35
Enchant: Threat Magic [B]
It was a ring passively enchanted with B-grade Threat Magic.
A magic that induced the psychological state of
Threat Magic displayed far greater power intertwined with Tedeu’s
Grooooh!!
Of course, boss monsters occasionally popped out, but,
Kiiiiik! Bang-bang-bang—!
Grrrngh….
Now, boss monsters in the two-to-three-hundred range could be taken care of with a few goblin bullets.
For several days like that, Tedeu diligently explored the dungeon and crawled toward the opposite entrance.
Then, a question arose for him.
Tedeu had occasionally wandered into a dead-end cave.
“Huh? There are boxes again? What the, since earlier…”
At the ends of dead-end caves, numerous strange boxes were stacked.
They were shabby wooden boxes, so he had ignored them the first couple of times, not wanting to waste time.
But after witnessing the same things in the same situation three, four times, Tedeu approached them with suspicion.
“What is this. What are these.”
Approaching and fumbling to gauge the scale, the number of boxes was several hundred.
Tedeu fumbled and grasped the lid. But the box was firmly locked.
‘
Though it was late to realize, Tedeu’s dual class was
Opening locked boxes wasn’t difficult.
Holding a thin rod and using his skill, he fiddled with the lock a few times, and soon the box opened.
‘Hm? Dried provisions?’
Inside were well-dried grains and other foodstuffs that felt military in nature.
Bringing it to his nose, a fragrant food smell wafted up.
‘How is this preserved inside a dungeon?’
The Worms here were always hungry. If they had found such food, they would have devoured it.
Feeling puzzled, when Tedeu moved the boxes aside, he found a
A shamanic ward that denied entry to monsters or humans!
That was evidence that someone had intentionally placed these boxes.
‘…Who would have put these here… At any rate, these are definitely military. This…’
Well, probably some bold person had embezzled military supplies.
Tedeu had also lived as a soldier in Face Chronicle early in his gameplay. Therefore, he could recognize military rations by their unique scent.
‘Hmm, this would fetch quite a bit of money.’
Preserved rations were extremely valuable.
Because they often ground low-grade magic stones to use as seasonings to restore mana, HP, stamina, and so on.
In other words, each box before his eyes was worth quite a lot. If taken out, a single box would fetch several to several dozen gold.
‘Too bad.’
If he could take all of them, it would be a fortune.
However, Tedeu’s inventory was currently full of Rare items.
So he couldn’t take them.
‘Pie in the sky, huh.’
Tedeu had little interest in money anyway.
Without hesitation, Tedeu stacked the boxes back as they were and went out.
And he resumed his journey.
* * *
Two more days passed like that. Now he could tell by feeling. That Tedeu had reached the opposite entrance of the Kar-Pix Joint Dungeon.
‘Light! Whew. Finally… the end of that hell.’
The joy of seeing something with his eyes after so long was short-lived. Looking at the map he had made, deep sighs escaped him.
‘I suffered for over a week to cross such a short distance?’
The shortest distance could be crossed on foot in a day.
It had only taken long because the structure was like a maze.
The only consolation was that the goblins’ level had now reached two hundred forty-nine, with ninety-nine percent experience.
If he only let them evolve before leaving, it would feel like less of a loss.
So Tedeu went back into the cave to find Worms.
“Initiate attack!”
Krik! Krik!
And for a short time, he diligently hunted Worms with his goblins.
Soon, the last one percent of the goblins’ experience bar was filled.
Kiiiiik…!
Then, light began bursting from the goblins’ bodies.
The goblins tightly grasped each other’s hands in response, as if preparing for their transformation with tense expressions.
‘Good! Finally, evolution to B-grade. What will come out?’
With a pounding heart, Tedeu also clasped his hands together.