Chapter 20

Chapter 20 . Danger and Chance (1)

[You leveled up . ]

Along with the sound of his level up alert, Hyrkan raised his hands in the air .

“Yes!”

He let out a cheerful scream, which lightly shook the silent forest .

It wasn’t a particularly fine spectacle . A man wearing a hahoe mask and celebrating with his hands up . It wasn’t something a normal human being would do .

But Hyrkan didn’t stop here . He began to hum and dance . As the only spectator to this scene, Hyrkan’s Skeleton Warrior watched silently . It had the same expression it always had, but it seemed as if it was watching something ridiculous . A normal person would stop here due to embarrassment, but Hyrkan didn’t have such a thing in his mind .

“Hm, hmm~~ level 15~!”

Although all players loved the level up alert, Hyrkan’s actions were truly overbearing . If Hyrkan wasn’t crazy, he must have a reason .

‘At least for a little while, I’m free from magic power shortage!’

The items he got from the Ralph Family . He finally met the requirements to equip them . He had already used the precious Black Goblin’s Eyeball to make an item .

Furthermore, these items took care of the worries Hyrkan had . His happiness was justified .

‘Alright, time to equip them!’

Hyrkan placed the sword in his hand into the sword sheath on his waist . Then, he turned his watch dial and selected the 2nd slot .

“Slot On . ”

With Hyrkan’s command, his pants, shoes, and sword sheath began to melt . Underneath, new pants, shoes, and sword sheath appeared .

His black leather pants and black leather boots tightly squeezed his skin, while a long sword appeared in place of his old sword .

This was Warlord’s Slot Change System . Warlord players could store up to 3 item sets in their 3 slots and change among them as they wished .

Furthermore, the Slot Change System came with various styles . One could transform like the Marvel hero Ironman, or transform like magical girls in anime . Of course, players had to pay for these special styles . The most popular Ironman Style cost 100 dollars per month . Even so, not only did people buy this style, but there were also people who bought Ironman-like suit and slot changed all day .

However, as Hyrkan was desperately short on money, he had just the standard style .

“Mmm . ”

In any case, after changing his equipment for the first time, Hyrkan inspected his leather pants and boots . His previously happy expression quickly stiffened . Hyrkan lightly touched his butt . His Black Goblin Leather Pants shined lustrously and felt extremely smooth . Even oiled pants would not be so smooth .

The tight leather pants openly displayed his undesirable lower half . Though it fit his leather boots, it was no way matching with his average, grey-colored top .

A fashion terrorist .

Hyrkan instinctively touched the hahoe mask on his face . Confirming that it was there, Hyrkan clicked his tongue .

“Fuck . ”

‘Black Goblin Leather Pants . This definitely belonged to a woman . ’

Players could design their items during the crafting phase . Crafted items automatically changed to fit the body size of the wearer . Most people did not go too crazy with their designs . If they went too avant garde, the items values would get lowered .

In this sense, tight fitting leather pants usually belonged to women . There were no gender limitations on items, and since items changed to fit the size of the wearer, it was completely fine for either gender to wear an item . Even so, few would recommend wearing the other gender’s clothes .

“… god damn it . ”

Of course, Hyrkan didn’t have the slightest mind to wear items for women .

But what choice did he have?

“At least it’s easy to move around . ”

Hyrkan didn’t have the liberty to freely change his items .

Plus, the leather pants was good enough to disregard its unsightly appearance .

To calm himself down, Hyrkan opened his stat window .

[Hyrkan]

-Level: 15

-Class: Magician

-Number of Titles: 2

-Stats: Strength (72) / Stamina (7) / Intelligence (43) / Magic Power (43)

Looking at his rich stat window, Hyrkan calmed his uneasy mind .

‘Black Goblin set isn’t bad at all . ’

First, it raised all stat points by 4 . This was the set effect for wearing 2 Black Goblin-related items . Then, Black Goblin Leather Pants and Black Goblin Leather Boots each gave 10 points to intelligence and magic power . Finally, the Deadwood Essence Sword gave another 10 points to magic power .

With that, his magic power more than doubled .

‘Looks like skeleton summoning won’t give me any stress . ’

With the magic power he had, he could summon 2 skeleton without worry . It was perfect since he could summon another skeleton once he ranked up his Skeleton Fragment skill .

‘There are people running around naked, so this isn’t too bad . ’

Hyrkan lightly stroked his thigh . He was truly unhappy with its smoothness .

‘…it’s not too bad . ’

Hyrkan told himself once again . His complaining and grumbling ended here . What was most important was what to do now .

Before, he task was simply to level up, but now he had to avoid leveling up at all costs . One had to be below level 15 to receive the Rising Star title . If he leveled up, he would forever lose the chance to gain the Rising Star title .

Plus, he had to complete the [A Cave in Mt . Bima] quest as soon as possible . The longer it took, the more level-up time he would waste .

‘I’ll finish it within 2 days . ’

Hyrkan returned to his Hero Slaughterer form .

★★★

Hyrkan stepped into a cave in front of him . Then, he immediately checked his quest through his watch .

[You arrived at the Mt . Bima Cave . ]

He received a new quest alert .

‘I finally found it . ’

Hyrkan stepped back out . Without entering the cave, he stared at its entrance .

To find this cave, he searched through Mt . Bima all day . This was the seventh cave he found . It wasn’t difficult as he did not fight with any monsters to avoid leveling up . However, he became increasingly irritated as time went on .

Climbing a mountain to find a cave . It sounded easy but it was enough to drive people crazy .

Even now, Hyrkan was more annoyed than happy . He wanted to quickly clear the quest and move on .

However .

‘Relax . ’

Hyrkan didn’t force himself . Although it would be his personality to march right in, his long gaming experience wasn’t for show . He knew more than anyone else what he had to do .

Hyrkan looked around . He found and stood at an appropriate spot .

His Skeleton Warrior followed him, and Hyrkan changed it back to its fragment form . Hyrkan placed the Skeleton Warrior fragment in his pocket, and entered non-combat mode .

His next choice…

‘Log Out . ’

Was logging out . ’

★★★

After brushing his teeth, An Jaehyun drank a cup of dietary supplements .

“Burp . ”

The dietary supplement he bought to save money truly tasted horrible . It would not be wrong to compare its taste to a nightmare .

‘I miss the days of beef proteins and French baguettes carbs…’

An Jaehyun reminisced the old days . Though not too luxurious, he had enough to buy himself whatever he wanted to eat . He gamed with a full stomach .

After finishing his reminiscing, An Jaehyun lied back down on his bed . Around his head was not the V-Gear helmet, but his pillows .

An Jaehyun placed his head down on one pillow and placed the other between his legs .

‘My top condition . ’

He had finally found the Mt . Bima Cave he was looking for . An average player would have marched right in to complete the quest . Such a player could only remain average his whole life .

‘I have to be in my top condition . ’

Monsters inside mountain range caves were usually higher leveled than the monsters outside . In addition, unlike in open fields where it was easy to get behind a monster, it was hard to do so in caves . Players usually faced monsters directly .

Furthermore, it was important to pace oneself in Warlord . It was impossible to play a VR game all day . The player’s health was the most important part . Players could always be forcefully logged out depending on their body’s condition .

If the player were to be killed during a forced logged out state, that would truly be the worst . He would have to start again from the beginning . In Hyrkan’s case, he would revive in Figur’s Castle and have to go through the process of climbing Mt . Bima again . The time it would take would be in no way shorter than the time it takes to just sleep .

‘Alright, time to sleep . ’

It was of utmost importance to be in one’s top condition before an important raid, expedition, or battle, and sleep was indeed the best tool to bring out a player’s top form .

‘Zzz… . ’

Some say that the secret to becoming a Ranker is being able to fall asleep whenever one wanted .

“Snore…”

In this sense, An Jaehyun truly had a God-given talent for Warlord .

“Mmm… no, not the leather pants…”

An Jaehyun had the ability to fall asleep the moment his head touched his pillow .