◈ Episode 7. Class Quest (2)
[Name: Grandfel Claudi Arpheus Romeo]
[Class: Demon Hunter]
[Level: 67]
[Stats]
Strength: 23 / Agility: 28 / Magic Power: 18 / Luck: 2
[Available Points: 0]
Fortunately, Grandfel’s brilliant mind remembered the previous numbers with perfect accuracy.
Thanks to that, the change in my stats was obvious at a glance.
[Stats]
Strength: 25 / Agility: 30 / Magic Power: 18 / Luck: 2
[Available Points: 0]
Strength and Agility had risen by a whopping 2 points each.
……
Was it really okay for me to receive this much?
That was how significant this was.
A 4-point increase in stats.
It was no different from having gained four whole levels.
But this wasn’t something I could simply calculate that way and move on.
‘My actual level stayed the same, after all.’
Compared to players of the same level, I had advanced a full four steps ahead.
No, even more than that.
Think about the price of items that raised stats.
‘Even something that raised a stat by just 1 point cost several million won. Beyond that, the price per point jumped all over the place.’
Maybe this was a reward so valuable that even my old annual salary from my office-worker days wouldn’t have been enough to buy it.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
I was staring at the quest window when I flinched.
─Train your weakened body. (Repeatable)
The quest that had raised my stats was apparently a repeatable quest.
Of course, there was no guarantee that the reward would be the same as this time.
But if I could raise my stats through training, even by a single point……!
This was a quest I had to repeat whenever I could.
At that point, I understood.
Why articles poured out just because someone had started a class quest, and why people said it might even be possible to aim for the very top of the rankings.
I looked at the quest window.
─Slay a demon. (Complete)
─Train your weakened body. (Repeatable)
‘If the very first quest reward is already this much…….’
What kind of reward would be waiting for me from the linked quests?
As a person, it was only natural to look forward to it.
‘No.’
But I did not get my hopes up.
At least in this regard, it wasn’t Grandfel’s influence. It was entirely my own will.
The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
Yes, I must not forget to know my place.
……
Still, couldn’t I be purely happy just for this moment? Just how much had I suffered! The aftereffects of the grueling training from the past week were still lingering in my body.
However, I did not show even the slightest emotion.
A shirt and slacks soaked through with sweat.
Two legs that looked ready to give out at any moment.
And yet, without the slightest delay, I rose from my seat.
My current appearance most accurately expressed Grandfel—no, the dark history of me, Lee Hoyeol.
What on earth was pride? Why couldn’t I express even one thing honestly?
I thought about it, then decided even thinking about it was a problem and gave up.
Puberty is just like that. Well....
My stats had gone up.
There was no convenient side effect like my physical fatigue disappearing completely.
So……
After returning home, I had no choice but to prepare my meal with hands that trembled as if I had a tremor.
There was nothing to criticize about the menu.
Chicken breast and fresh vegetables.
Even rye bread on the side, making it a high-quality meal.
The problem was the knife work.
Thud, thud—
I stared at the vegetables that had been cut all crooked.
Then I said shamelessly,
“Sometimes, preparing ingredients in an unconventional manner is not bad.”
Holding up a particularly crooked piece of carrot, I continued.
“This seems to embody a star in the night sky.”
Of course it does.
It felt like I was becoming more and more brazen.
But this, too, was something I had to adapt to.
As I said, what else would it be but spitting in my own face?
……
Still, let’s come up with at least one excuse.
In the past, this was a menu I would have finished off within five minutes.
Split the rye bread in half and put the chicken breast salad inside.
I could have gotten a simple meal out of it as a sandwich.
However, I held a fork and knife in both hands and had an exceedingly elegant meal.
Though, because my forearms were trembling, I ended up spilling the chicken breast salad onto the table.
“……
Poisoning.”
My pride did not permit even the smallest mistake.
“It seems pesticide remained on this portion.”
I had no choice but to seriously consider it.
‘……
How about the excuse that I injured my head?’
What was this, some kind of stand-up comedy act?!
Still, wouldn’t pitying gazes be better than looks that saw me as a madman?
After finishing a meal where I was incredibly fortunate that no one had been watching,
I immediately picked up the bundle of papers on the table.
Written on them were the concepts of magic that I had jotted down while watching Nettube videos.
I wrote it myself, but every time I looked at it, I couldn’t help finding it ridiculous.
‘More than anything, the fact that I understand this is even more ridiculous.’
──────
Magic is not the creation of something from nothing.
It is to 『Search』 the target.
To 『Interfere』 with the target.
And to 『Manifest』.
The majority of magic begins with searching for and interfering with mana. Magic power has a significant influence on searching for and interfering with that mana…….
──────
It was plausible in its own way.
So much so that I began to wonder whether magic wasn’t simply classified as a “skill,” but whether the concept of 『magic』 truly existed.
‘Well, I don’t know if I understood it correctly.’
Just by watching the video, I had already understood the processes of 『Search』 and 『Interference』.
However, I had not yet managed to 『Manifest』 magic.
Even though I had invested stats into Magic Power, it was still insufficient to manifest the magic shown in the Nettube video.
‘That mage was close to level 300.’
Naturally, his Magic Power would be around that level as well.
Of course, whether it was simply because I lacked Magic Power,
or whether this, too, was a defense mechanism to protect my pride,
there was no way for me to know at the moment.
That said, wishing for my Magic Power to rise to the level of that mage would be shameless.
In the end, it meant I had no choice but to dig into easier magic until I reached the level of 『Search』 and 『Interference』.
‘Studying, when it was never in my fate…….’
The time it took to analyze one spell from the video: three days.
Just thinking about analyzing another spell already made my head throb.
But separate from those feelings, there was no hesitation in my actions.
Once again, I played a video on Nettube.
Then I immediately began writing on a blank sheet of paper.
“Once I become accustomed to it, the time required will also shorten.”
Please let this confidence not be mere bluff.
I prayed earnestly that I would be able to live up to the words I had spoken.
*
8 p.m.
The lights were still on in the office of the international organization, Anti Arcana United.
The AAU Korean branch office.
“……
Damn it, Thursday.”
That overtime continued every Thursday.
Seong Hyeonjun lay flat over his desk.
Every Thursday, he found himself missing the past.
The days when Arcana had still been nothing more than a game.
“Where did it go? My work-life balance!!”
Arcana Continent Chronicles, the world’s greatest virtual reality game.
When he had gotten a job at Cosmo, the company that developed Arcana,
it had truly felt as though he had obtained the whole world.
What kind of company was Cosmo?
From the CEO, Raymond Sean, down, it was a company of work-life balance worshippers.
And yet, it also paid the highest salaries in the industry.
To every developer, it had been a dream workplace.
But everything changed when that CEO went missing.
Arcana was no longer a game, but reality.
It was only a matter of time before Cosmo shut its doors.
From executives to the lowest employees, even the janitors.
All of Cosmo’s employees, excluding the missing CEO, went in and out of courts around the world as if they were their own homes.
At the end of that long trial, the verdict was insufficient evidence.
And now, this.
“……
Seriously, Raymond. If I ever get my hands on you, you’re dead.”
Seong Hyeonjun had been forcibly employed by the AAU Korean branch.
Yes, he was grateful.
In an era of employment struggles like this, they had secured him a position at a public organization.
It was even a job where he could make use of his experience to contribute to international peace.
But gratitude and resentment were separate emotions.
Seong Hyeonjun asked the senior seated beside him,
“Sunbae, there won’t be any new updates until this week is over, right?”
“I really hope not.”
“If there hasn’t been an announcement by eight, that means there won’t be one, right?”
New updates.
That was another way of referring to Arcana’s erosion of reality.
The aspects of Arcana being overlaid onto reality.
There probably wasn’t a more fitting expression than “new update.”
Naturally, there was no way someone in the same position as Seong Hyeonjun could know whether such an update would occur.
“How would I know? His whims are way too severe.”
The only one who knew was probably Raymond.
That was all they could guess.
Because Raymond most likely wasn’t dead.
The proof was Arcana’s official website, which had continued to operate normally until now.
Thanks to Arcana’s website, the world could learn players’ levels and rankings.
It was also possible to see which player had cleared which rift, and through that, reward money could be paid to players.
Because that website existed, the world could function.
What on earth was he thinking?
Seong Hyeonjun scratched his head roughly.
“That Raymond bastard……. No, wait, is he even human? Anyway. Why the hell is he doing this? It’s a sick hobby, I’m telling you. Overtime every Thursday. It still feels like we’re servicing Arcana.”
But even that grumbling did not last long.
It didn’t come from any one place in particular.
Sighs erupted from all over the office.
“Shit. The update’s up!”
“Ah, seriously. I put in for annual leave tomorrow.”
“This won’t do. I’m writing my resignation and going to catch that bastard Raymond.”
Yes, there had been no updates for nearly a month.
They had expected it to some extent.
Seong Hyeonjun slowly rose and accessed Arcana’s official website.
Just as his colleagues had said, the update details had truly been uploaded to the site.
The author was, of course, probably Raymond.
“……
This is insane.”
“I-Is this for real?”
“No, is that bastard Raymond out of his mind?!”
Those reading through the update details could not conceal their shock.
This was an update that simply made no sense.
『A new demon comes to your side.
A new rift, “The Count’s Fortress,” has been added.
New named monster, “Count Ascurra”: Lv.430
A new rift, “The Count’s Estate,” has been added.
New monsters have been added.
“Count Ascurra’s Retainer”: Lv.390
“Count Ascurra’s Knight”: Lv.350
“Count Ascurra’s Soldier”: Lv.300
A new rift, “The Outskirts of the Estate,” has been added.
New monsters have been added.
“Bloodstained Beasts”: Lv.220~Lv.250
“Bloodstained Bandits”: Lv.230』
“They’ve already brought out Count Ascurra?”
A named monster of a staggering level 430.
The current number one player in the rankings, Skal, was only level 401.
A gap of nearly 30 levels.
On top of that, Count Ascurra was a demon-type monster.
A growth-type monster.
Absurdly powerful status abnormalities.
And considering even the traits of demons released into reality……
“……
Sunbae, this isn’t an update meant to be cleared, is it?”
The new rift would absolutely be impossible to clear.
“That’s right. This is basically telling us to sit around sucking our thumbs and watch.”
If these were update details from back when this was still a game, it wouldn’t have mattered.
Players would complain a little, asking what kind of balance patch this was,
and sure, they would get cursed at.
But in the end, players would die dozens or hundreds of times and discover the strategy.
But this was reality.
If you died, that was the end.
And beyond that, if they failed to conquer the rift, that horrifying demon would be released into reality.
A terrible reality, in other words.
Ring, ring—
Phones rang incessantly everywhere.
But not a single person answered.
Because everyone had realized the gravity of the situation.
“……
Would it still be difficult if the rankers joined forces?”
“We won’t know until they try, but it won’t be easy. As you know, the demon race isn’t an opponent you can bring down just by throwing numbers at them.”
“What if they received help from the NPCs of the Magic Tower……?”
“As if those NPCs would move. According to the setting I know, the mages of the Magic Tower only move when the Magic Tower itself is in danger. Whether Earth is destroyed or not, as long as the Magic Tower is fine, those things won’t move.”
Seong Hyeonjun said,
“Then let’s set the count aside for now. What about the other mobs?”
“A guild—no, a guild alliance—would have to move together for them to even attempt it.”
“That means there isn’t absolutely no solution. They can hunt the small mobs in the outskirts or estate rifts and level up, then challenge the fortress rift where the count is!”
“Well, will there be enough time? I feel like the rifts will collapse first.”
“…….”
Seong Hyeonjun was at a loss for words.
Was there truly no way?
If so, what would become of them?
Ring, ring—
“First, let’s answer the phones.”
At his senior’s words, Seong Hyeonjun picked up the phone with a blank expression.
The excited voice of a reporter came through the receiver.
But he couldn’t concentrate.
“……
I’m sorry. At this time, we have nothing to say.”
*
Early dawn.
“?”
As I sat at the table filling up the paper, my vision flickered.
“!”
[Class Quest: The Prelude to Counterattack]
Last demon hunter.
Let the demons know that the time for counterattack has come.
─Slay a demon. (Complete)
─Train your weakened body. (Repeatable)
─Hunt a vampire. (In Progress) ▼
A vampire, is it.
I set down my pen.
“An inferior race dares interfere with my precious time.”
I murmured quietly.
“I shall hold them accountable for this and punish them severely.”