The Final Boss Has Returned
Chapter 138
Striking the Hive Mind!
Having made his plans, Drakan descended to the surface together with the expedition members who wished to go to the ground.
Contrary to Drakan's expectations, surprisingly many users remained in the Floating Castle.
There was the fact that large-scale construction was underway in the Floating Castle, but more than anything, it was because many high-level monsters still remained on the field.
Thus, construction continued steadily in the Floating Castle that Drakan had left, and finally, facilities began to be completed one by one.
[A new class, 'Magic Engineer,' has been unlocked.]
-The Magic Engineer is a production-type class that utilizes 'Magic Engineering,' a discipline combining engineering and magic.
Unlike other production classes such as Blacksmiths or Enchanters, the Magic Engineer can craft various items using mechanical devices, or create intricate mechanical devices themselves.
[The class-change quest for the Magic Engineer can be undertaken at the 'Sky Shipyard' in Floating Castle Boltaha.]
[A new class, 'Steel Knight,' has been unlocked.]
-The Steel Knights were the direct elite knights of Drakan, the Steel Sovereign, who had been a ruthless tyrant long ago. Under Drakan's orders, they once roamed the entire world to punish its people, serving as a symbol of terror to the masses.
But on the day when Boltaha Castle, the final stronghold of the Iron-Blood Alliance, fell to the revolutionary army's assault, the line of the Steel Knight Order was severed when their commander, Riberi, perished in battle.
However, after a thousand years, the Steel Sovereign Drakan arrived at Boltaha, which had become the Floating Castle, and laid the specters of Riberi and the Steel Knight Order to rest, finally allowing the Steel Knights to reappear in the Arde World.
[The Steel Knight is a special class that possesses aggressive and powerful offensive skills, unlike an ordinary Knight.]
[This is a faction-exclusive class. Only users belonging to the 'Dark Alliance' can change to this class.]
[The class-change quest for the Steel Knight can be undertaken at the 'Steel Knight Order Headquarters' in Floating Castle Boltaha.]
[A new possibility has opened in the Arde World. Take part in the new history.]
Magic Engineers and Steel Knights!
Thanks to the new classes that had been unlocked after so long, people's attention focused on Floating Castle Boltaha.
While the majority of high-level users were in Broken World, there were still users remaining in the Arde World who had yet to reach the level required to go to Broken World, and thanks to the nature of Arde Saga Second, where countless newbies poured in by the day, new classes were bound to draw attention at any given moment.
"Magic Engineer?"
"OMG, they unlocked the Magic Engineer?"
"Is this for real?"
Magic Engineer.
A class that deals with 'Magic Engineering,' a discipline combining magic and engineering commonly seen in fantasy novels.
Core users who had played Arde Saga were more or less aware of its existence.
There had indeed been cases where Magic Engineering was applied in artifact crafting, but it was the first time a class for which Magic Engineering itself was the main skill had been unlocked.
Magic Engineering.
The fact that the key to shifting from medieval fantasy to steampunk had finally dropped, and the fact that the possibility of transitioning from handicrafts to machine industry had opened for production classes like Blacksmiths, Enchanters, and Tailors—was naturally drawing people's attention.
That wasn't all.
Steel Knights!
The users of the Dark Alliance went wild over another newly emerged faction-exclusive class.
It was because a new faction-exclusive class had appeared, following the Black Mage, Necromancer, Dark Knight, and Dark Priest.
Moreover, the fact that the newly unlocked class was related to Drakan, the representative user of the faction, was the very reason the Dark Alliance users' attention was drawn even more.
It was the first time a class deeply tied to Drakan—or rather, to a specific user—had been unlocked as a 'class.'
Warrior Eugene.
Even he, who currently reigned as the top ranker, had failed to achieve this feat, yet Drakan had accomplished it.
At any rate, thanks to the unlocking of the new classes, demand from users wishing to go to Floating Castle Boltaha increased exponentially.
Until then, the demand to go to Floating Castle Boltaha had been a sort of fantasy tourism demand, based on the scenery of a floating castle impossible to see in reality; this time, however, actual demand for the new classes had emerged.
"How do you get to the Floating Castle?"
"Do you fly there on a wyvern?"
"I saw on a stream that it's at an altitude unreachable by wyvern?"
And the increased demand naturally led the users to seek out a way to reach the Floating Castle on their own.
Floating Castle!
There was only one way to reach Boltaha, floating at such a high altitude that even wyverns could not reach it.
And that was to take an airship.
And because Drakan had already predicted this situation, he had constructed a new facility on the outskirts of Snow Castle.
It was an airport operating flights to Boltaha Castle.
The so-called Snow Castle Airport!
It was the first airport to appear in the Arde World.
[Snow Castle Airport construction has been completed.]
[A new flight route to Floating Castle Boltaha has been established.]
Seeing the notification window that appeared the moment airport construction was finished, countless people flocked to Snow Castle, the center of the north.
Soon after, passenger airships built at the Sky Shipyard descended and took aboard users heading to Floating Castle Boltaha.
The sight that greeted the users who arrived at Floating Castle Boltaha by airship was a massive castle floating in the sky.
It was the very moment that Boltaha, the Floating Castle which had been in ruins, was reborn as a true city.
* * *
While Floating Castle Boltaha was becoming a hot topic among mid-to-low-level users,
the majority of high-level users and above were in Broken World.
Broken World!
The stronghold of the Hive Mind!
And the stage of the first-ever myth-grade quest opened to all users in the Arde World, where large-scale battles broke out practically every day.
Of course, there were battlefields led by the eight great guilds, but there were also many cases where small-to-medium guilds, individuals, or parties took on quests and roamed about.
Drakan.
While he had been carrying out quests in the Floating Castle, a considerable number of Broken World quests had progressed as well.
It was only natural, for starting from top ranker Eugene, all the Over Rankers except Drakan, not to mention countless high-level users, were in Broken World.
The so-called endgame content.
The content enjoyed by max-level users was precisely Broken World.
Broken World.
The Dark Alliance's base camp, built under Ignis's leadership, had long since become a metropolis as countless users crossed over.
And Drakan, having arrived there, was listening to Ignis's briefing at the expeditionary force headquarters in the base camp.
"We estimate that the current phase progress in Broken World has surpassed 50%. The Hive Mind's location has also already been revealed."
Having heard Ignis's briefing, Drakan opened the contribution ranking.
And there, he saw Eugene's name proudly listed in first place.
Beneath that, he saw Ignis's name listed in third place.
"Third place in contribution? You must have worked hard."
"That much is nothing."
Ignis gave a faint smile at Drakan's perfunctory remark.
Third place!
Indeed.
Regardless of Drakan's absence, Ignis had efficiently commanded the Dark Alliance's users and NPCs to achieve these results.
Thanks to his performance in this Broken World, Ignis—separated from Drakan for the first time in a while—was able to be highly regarded as an independent user.
That wasn't all.
Broken World was not only home to the Hive Mind's monstrous subordinates.
The original inhabitants of Broken World!
The ruins left behind by those who possessed an advanced magical civilization great enough to tear open dimensional gates were scattered all over Broken World.
And thanks to such diverse and abundant content, including powerful alien artifact items emerging from these ruins, the previously rigid ranker hierarchy was undergoing a seismic shift.
The combat information archive was being actively rewritten, and users approaching the now-vacant Over Ranker seats—left empty due to the deaths of the Black King and the Spear King—had begun to appear.
"We're seeing more cases of new-class max-level users rising to become Rankers and High Rankers."
That wasn't all.
The new classes Drakan had unlocked!
From Black Mages to Necromancers, Rankers and High Rankers were finally being born among the classes that had garnered so much attention.
The Necromancer in particular had attracted interest even before the class appeared, and now that its population rivaled other popular classes, it was frequently producing not only Rankers but High Rankers as well.
Moreover, the Necromancer was the only class capable of turning the tables by using the corpses of the Hive Mind's subordinates—who specialized in swarm tactics—to wage a reverse war of numbers.
Because of this, combined with the environment of Broken World, Necromancer users began to grow exponentially.
Thus, to high-level users, Broken World was truly the land of opportunity, which was also the reason countless high-level users headed there.
"I've already given orders to recruit Rankers with a high chance of rising to become new Over Rankers, so you don't need to worry."
Sin Ha-yeon whispered into Drakan's ear with a sweet voice.
She had already grasped this information on her own, and she also knew well that securing a third Over Ranker was of the utmost importance.
Because increasing the number of Over Rankers was precisely the first step toward hegemony in the Arde World, the path that would raise the probability of making the rebellion successful.
Thanks to this, Sin Ha-yeon had been keeping an eye on promising candidates mentioned as potential Over Rankers and continuously attempting to recruit them.
Of course, other management companies were also desperate to recruit these rankers, but there was no management company that could stop Jeil E&M, which boasted the industry's best intelligence and capital.
Drakan nodded at Sin Ha-yeon's words.
It was because such corporate matters were outside his purview anyway, and also because he trusted Sin Ha-yeon completely.
"Where is the Hive Mind?"
"It is in the Primordial Plateau."
Ignis answered Drakan's question immediately.
Primordial Plateau!
It was where the Conquering Lord Hive Mind was situated, the base of the monstrous race currently invading all dimensions including the Arde World, and the sacred land that the original inhabitants of Broken World had held most holy.
Drakan fell silent briefly at Ignis's words before answering.
"We've identified the final boss, yet we're not attacking. Why?"
Hive Mind!
The reason they still hadn't attacked despite already pinpointing the Phase 2 final boss's location!
To Drakan's question asking something that should be obvious, Ignis slowly answered.