Chapter 66

­ Skill ‘Armament’ (2)

“I’ve always been curious . Do you mind?”

“Go ahead . ”

“What’s on your mind when you’re fighting monsters? You always charge at them so thoughtlessly . ”

It was about the time when he was at level 100 . Along with Kim Dongsoo and other members of the Hahoe Mask Guild, Hyrkan had gained experience, levels, fame, and achievements . During this time when they were able to earn enough to make a living, Hyrkan, the Hahoe Mask Guild’s ace player, had been killed during battle .

It was the result of a reckless battle . The Hahoe Mask Guild had to rest for 48 hours as a result, and Kim Dongsoo took the time to have a drink with An Jaehyun .

When Kim Dongsoo asked An Jaehyun the above question, An Jaehyun answered .

“Mm… if I don’t kill this guy, I won’t get to eat tomorrow . Something like that . ”

“Haha…”

When he heard An Jaehyun’s answer, Kim Dongsoo let out a dry laugh as he poured more drink into An Jaehyun’s glass . The reason Kim Dongsoo didn’t pry further was that he took An Jaehyun’s answer as a signal that he didn’t want to talk more about it . However, that wasn’t the case .

It was the cold hard truth .

An Jaehyun, or rather Hyrkan, did not put much thought into his fights . He wasn’t able to either . By nature, there were too many ways a fight could go wrong . He couldn’t fight with every possibility in mind .

In the end, all he could do was remind himself of his resolve .

The answer Hyrkan gave was his resolve .

There would be no dinner if he didn’t kill the monster in front of him!

As much as it was foolish, simple, and ridiculous, it had a good effect . Although this resolve sometimes sent him to forced 48-hour vacations, it mostly helped him achieve his goals .

One of these results was his title, Hero Slaughterer .

‘Skeletons are just assistants . I’ve been taking things easy for too long . ’

At this moment, Hyrkan reminded himself of this resolve once again . Then, he held up his Orc Hero’s Sword .

‘Someone who just sits back isn’t Hyrkan . ’

Hyrkan then charged towards the Spirit Knight who had turned his Golem into a ragged doll .

The Spirit Knight immediately reacted to Hyrkan’s appearance . He faced Hyrkan and swung down with his sword diagonally .

Up until now, Hyrkan had faced the Spirit Knight’s attacks head on . If he did, his Skeleton Warriors would attack in his stead . Rather than dodging the Spirit Knight’s attack, he performed the role of controlling him .

This time, however, Hyrkan dodged the attack .

Narrowly .

He tilted his body to the side slightly, and he could clearly feel the Spirit Knight’s sword brush past him .

This was Hyrkan’s original battle style . It was just that he had forgotten about it due to the convenience provided by his Skeleton Warriors . It was the Spirit Knight that had let him remember what he had forgotten for so long .

The Spirit Knight had awoken the Hero Slaughterer Hyrkan that was sleeping within Hahoe Mask Hyrkan .

After dodging the Spirit Knight’s attack, Hyrkan struck its side with his sword .

Clang!

A metallic noise rang out as a clear sword cut appeared on its armor . However, the armor wasn’t cut apart completely, showing the Spirit Knight’s formidable defense .

As such, after successfully cutting the Spirit Knight once, he brushed past it and turned around .

Whish .

The Spirit Knight also turned to face Hyrkan .

“Hu!”

With a short breath of air, he once again ran towards the Spirit Knight . The Spirit Knight swung its sword, and Hyrkan once again narrowly dodged its attack as he made another sword cut on its armor .

Exchanging one attack for another .

Hyrkan’s plan was to exchange tens or even hundreds of such attacks .

Of these, if he got hit three or four times, it would be game over . One mistake could potentially be fatal . Any hidden cards the Spirit Knight was holding would be detrimental to Hyrkan, and it was entirely possible that this battle would end up as a disaster for Hyrkan .

However, Hyrkan did not worry about what could be .

‘If I don’t kill him, I won’t have dinner tomorrow!’

Such thoughts weren’t suited for the Hero Slaughterer .

★★★

[You have obtained the title, ‘Knighthood . ’]

The moment he heard the alert, Hyrkan took out his recovery clay and began to heal his left arm that was about to fall off . After applying the recovery clay onto the severed area, he could feel his left arm moving again .

It was truly a game-like scene .

Hyrkan then turned his head towards pieces of armor that lied fallen on the ground . The traces of a fierce battle were scattered about on the ground .

Watching the parts of the broken armor, Hyrkan grinned .

“Kya!”

Hyrkan let out a scream of joy .

‘I really am the best . ’

This was it .

The sight of himself fighting against the odds and coming out victorious . That was the Hyrkan he enjoyed seeing .

Of course, there was one thing he wasn’t quite satisfied with .

‘As I thought, there is a slight delay with the V-Gear I have now . ’

Now that he had fought with his all, he had felt something he quite haven’t felt before .

His V-Gear’s Level .

‘Level 6 would be too much . Would a Level 3 do for now?’

Hyrkan’s currently V-Gear was the standard Level 1 Model . Currently, the Level 6 V-Gear was about to be released . The difference between Level 1 and Level 6 wasn’t so big, but there was a noticeable difference if a skilled player was using them .

Of course, the difference in their performance could only be felt when a player was performing to the limit of his capabilities .

‘But since I’m able to feel the difference now, it looks like my sense of battle is nearing what it was at my prime . ’

This meant that Hyrkan’s senses had come back to what it was during his prime . The feeling he couldn’t quite remember even with the continued Climbing Tests had come back thanks to the Spirit Knight .

Watching the remnant of the Spirit Knight, Hyrkan couldn’t help but smile .

‘This guy sells for quite a lot too . ’

What he was happy about were the items the Spirit Knight would drop .

Spirit Knights’ dropped crafting coins called the Spirit Knight Armor Piece, and because they could hold the power of spirits, they were used to create high-tier attribute-resistant armor .

Considering the Spirit Knight was also level 90, the items it would drop would at least be at the level 70 range . Hyrkan’s gain would be well over his expenditure .

Hyrkan immediately turned the armor into crafting coins, pocketed them, and turned towards the exit .

‘It’s time to finish this . ’

The Spirit Knight was the guardian of the dungeon, and now that it was gone, it meant he was free to loot the place as he desired .

Hyrkan gazed at the new, unexplored part as he smiled .

★★★

Soon, Hyrkan found himself in a shabby room filled with two wooden desks and three bookshelves . Although there were dozens of books in the bookshelves, most were completely useless novels based on Warlord’s world setting . Although there were players who enjoyed reading about such things, Hyrkan wasn’t one of them .

In the first place, Hyrkan knew about the Warlord world better than anyone else .

He knew who the Immoral Prince was, and also the identity of the Ruined Kingdom that would be revealed when the Immoral Prince was captured .

‘Is this it?’

Hyrkan quickly skimmed through the books .

“Whoa!”

Then, when Hyrkan finally found what he was looking for, his eyes sparkled . It was a book with a palm print but no words .

‘A skillbook!’

It was a skillbook .

Furthermore, what Hyrkan had obtained was a No-name Skillbook . Once he placed his left hand on the palm print, a random skill would be materialized based on the player’s class .

The skill could then be learned by the player, or he could sell it to others as a skillbook . Most of the skillbooks on the market were created in this way . This was also the reason why necromancer skillbooks were rare . A necromancer skillbook neither was guaranteed to sell well, nor were there enough necromancers to flood the market with them .

Of course, it was possible to sell the No-name Skillbook, but most did not do so . Even Normal-rank skillbooks sold for a good amount, and skillbooks from No-name Skillbooks had the potential to be Rare-rank or even Unique-rank . No person would hesitate to open a treasure chest that guaranteed riches . There were people who just sold No-name Skillbooks for a high price, but doing so was like buying lottery tickets .

Without hesitation, Hyrkan placed his hand on the palm print . He wasn’t so worried about money anymore, so there was no reason for him to agonize over what to do .

[The skillbook reveals its identity . ]

Hyrkan immediately received an alert, then another in quick succession .

[Would you like to learn the skill, ‘Armament’?]

‘Mm?’

At that instant, Hyrkan couldn’t help but take his hand off the skillbook in surprise . Staring at the skillbook in his hand, Hyrkan asked .

‘Don’t tell me…’

Then, he placed his hand on the palm print once again . The same alert popped up and Hyrkan once again took his hand off the skillbook .

“Armament…”

‘Is it that skill?’

Hyrkan wasn’t entirely knowledgeable on the necromancer skill tree . There was limited information on how many skills necromancers had, what the conditions were for obtaining them, or what the skills exactly did . Although he bought information from Helgen early in the game, Hyrkan was now far more knowledgeable than Helgen .

As a result, Hyrkan could only think about Rich Lich’s raid videos to infer what the skills he used were . What Hyrkan was most curious about were the armed states of Rich Lich’s skeletons .

At first, Hyrkan thought they were wearing something like the Bone Armor . However, he quickly found out after using Bone Armor himself that this wasn’t the case . Hyrkan then wondered if it was because Rich Lich used a different monster as material, but that theory was also quickly debunked as Hyrkan tried out different monsters to craft Skeleton Fragments .

In the end, he could only conclude that Rich Lich had another skill .

Most important was the fact that Rich Lich’s skeletons were holding excellent weapons .

But from what Hyrkan tried, Skeleton Warriors couldn’t use the weapons their master used . They couldn’t use the weapons taken from other monsters either . This could only mean that there was a skill that allowed them to use players’ weapons .

Gulp!

Hyrkan swallowed his breath .

‘Is it really possible?’

Hyrkan imagined his Skeleton Warriors holding the Orc Hero’s Sword .

Hyrkan let out another breath of air . Then, he pulled up the skill details onto a hologram window .

★★★

The Red Bulls Guild held absolute control over the Sura Canyon Village . Being targeted by the Red Bulls Guild meant one shouldn’t even consider stepping one foot into the Sura Canyon Village .

The merchants that traded there had to pay a fee to the Red Bulls Guild, and had to submit a proof of identity to them . Although it wasn’t so serious like having to show one’s social security number, players known for being bad mannered had no chance of being accepted .

It was the same for a player named Koten .

The moment he saw the Red Bulls Guild’s announcement asking for information on a player who purchased a large number of items by himself, Koten gave them all the information he had .

“You said he purchased 4,000 golds-worth at once?”

“Yes, sir . ”

“Do you remember exactly how he looked like?”

“Well you see… I’m not too good at remembering faces… but he was definitely Asian . ”

“Anything else?”

“Mm… I don’t know if this is the right way to put it, but he seemed like a pushover . ”

“A pushover?”

“You know what I mean, right? It’s like if you see them, you immediately think ‘I can trick that guy even if I’m not a con-artist . ’ That’s the kind of guy I’m talking about . Of course, he wasn’t a real pushover . He knew what he was doing when we were trading . Not that I would have tricked him anyways, but you know what I mean . ”

‘We already knew that Hahoe Mask Hyrkan was Asian, and likely Korean… but he looks like a pushover?’

“Damn, how do I report this?”

In the end, the Red Bulls ended up without much lead on Hahoe Mask Hyrkan .