Ian thought of infiltrating Rataphel, and he was planning to do it alone.

Since he was with Elcarix and Lugarix, he wouldn’t have been in any kind of danger.

Ian thought that infiltrating Rataphel could at least make him explore the catacombs.

However, after talking with Remir, his thoughts changed.

– So, noona, are there quests in the Devildom related to the Lich King?

– Yeah, I was in a quest with Shakran when we were confronted by the users of Devildom.

– Then, you couldn’t break the dimensional door?

– Right. Sooner or later those users in Devildom will enter our continent.

– It has something to do with Daedmon.

– Yep. Acting like you weren’t sure. How do you know that?

– Ah, that…

A while back, Ian heard from Hoonie about the relationship between the Devil God and the God of Darkness.

Therefore, he could immediately notice a connection between the dimensional doors and the Lich King.

‘If those ones from the Devildom get involved, it’ll turn a little dangerous.’

He didn’t know if the magic-resistance setting could be placed, as the episode of the Richie King was under progress, all of the equipment of Ian was set to dark resistance.

Which was why, if he was going to face-off against rankers like Irahan from the Devildom, Ian couldn’t guarantee a victory if he was going to do it alone.

Which was why Ian decided to use those Dimensional Beads.

He opened the magic portal and brought in his other colleagues.

Hoonie, Remir, and Levya.

And Yu Shin too.

Having companions with such high power and skill, Ian was sure to overcome any unforeseen danger.

“I think this will be…”

Ian brought with him the members of his party which he had scouted and sent Kaka to find the entrance of the catacomb crypt.

After a while, he got back the information through Kaka’s vision.

“There are three guards at the entrance. Their level is around 400.”

Hoonie relayed to them the situation he was seeing through Kaka’s vision. Ian then said,

“That’s it, right?”

“Huh?”

“This catacomb is similar to the catacomb that we opened at the beginning of the episode.”

Remir then asked,

“Yah, how can you know that after just seeing the entrance of the dungeon? It can just be a normal underground cave for all you know.”

Ian bowed his head and pointed to the crystal ball.

“There, can’t you see the guards’ attribute there?”

“Attribute?”

“The floating icon beside the guards’ level. The guards have dark attributes.”

“Uh, that?”

Levya interrupted their conversation.

“But you can’t say for sure by just that one thing, right? The attribute of the NPC isn’t the only thing that should be considered here… for example, the guards of the Lotus will have general attributes, and the guards of the Pyro Domain will have a mix of flame and general attributes.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Ian upon hearing Levya’s detailed question.

However, Ian’s answer was simple.

“That is related to the area.”

“The area…?”

“Normally, the humanoid NPCs have general attributes. However, depending on their surroundings, there are cases where the attributes change. NPCs in the deserts are mostly composed of flame attributes, and the ones in the northern continent have ice attributes.”

“Oh ho, then according to Ian here, the guard out there must be having either general or ice attributes, right?”

“On point. All the humanoid NPCs that I’ve seen so far had dark attributes, Undeads. Well, though these guards are the first case of such which I’m seeing… I’m sure that the odds of me being wrong are low.”

“I see. That’s so interesting.”

All the people out there admired how intelligent Ian was.

All of the ones in the party were very good with their overall knowledge of Kailan, but Ian was on a whole different level from them.

It was absolutely necessary for users to have abundant knowledge of Kailan if they would like to succeed in it. However, it wasn’t like these were that essential either.

Specifically, in the case of the players who have a high level of control like Remir. They weren’t aware of these things even after being rankers.

While the party was having a thorough discussion, the relay of Kaka’s vision ended.

The fact that Kaka wasn’t caught even after entering the enemy’s borders meant that they were on the right track.

“Good work, Kaka.”

“It was nothing, master.”

Kaka shrugged with a haughty expression.

Ian riffled his hair and got up from the place where he was seated. He then took out his equipment.

“Should we try moving in now?”

* * *

Remains of the eastern side of the continent.

There was a scruffy looking user who was level 90 in a place of hunting for level 70 users.

“Who is that person?”

“Yeah. Although his equipment seems all rough, it is a minimum level 90 equipment… why is he here?”

“I’m thinking the same. Maybe to get some material items?”

“If he is already over level 90, then he is probably here because he lacks the skill to hunt in a level 90 or above hunting grounds.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Passing by the man, were some normal group of users.

The users who were passing by looked like they were elementary kids. There was a lot of beginners out there, the man heard what they were saying about him. The man turned and spoke,

“Level 90? Moreover, skill-less!? I’m a top-class user! A top ranker!”

However, after the outburst of the man, the beginner kids just teased him more.

“Uncle, you’re a top-class?”

“And a top ranker too!?”

“Hahaha. If you’re a top ranker uncle then I am Ian.”

“I’m Hoonie.”

“Then, I’ll be Irahan!”

“Aeh, Irahan is in the Devildom. Change it to Shakran.”

“Okay, I’m Shakran!”

The man who was being ridiculed by the kids responded with a grim look,

“Come see, my level is over 300, you kids!”

Silence filled the air when the kids heard what the man said.

A blank-faced kid was the first to respond.

“Huhu. I guess this uncle wasn’t joking. It’s crazy for him to say that he is above level 300.”

“Yeah. Maybe he isn’t feeling well?”

“Yeah maybe. Have a little conscience, Sam. Was it level 30 again?”

“Euk, if this was the PK zone, I would’ve taken him down. Such a waste.”

The conversation of those beginner kids made the man mad.

However, the man tried his best to control his emotions from exploding.

He thought that he could shut the mouths of those kids right away if he opened his level information and showed it to them, but his current quest would then fail.

‘Endure, just a little more…’

The man endured the verbal attacks from the kids with the highest level of dedication.

The man’s name was Lilson.

The dungeon where Lilson was currently at was a dungeon which had a level limit.

Users of level 100 or higher couldn’t enter it.

So the misunderstanding of the kids wasn’t that unreasonable.

In normal circumstances, Lilson wouldn’t have been able to come here.

However, the explorer class Lilson had a special skill called ‘Camouflage’.

The ability to temporarily change a user’s level whenever a user wanted to.

However, if the level information was disclosed, the skill would be deactivated right away.

That would immediately push Lilson out of the dungeon.

‘Uh uh, I’ll make you pay for this. I will never forget these kids faces, you cool-acting-jerks! I’m invincible!’

Even if users changed their level their stats would stay the same.

However, users would only be able to wear equipment that was appropriate to their current level.

So, users couldn’t disguise themselves as high ranking rankers and go around.

Lilson’s case was the complete opposite though.

“Eh, this uncle looks like he is sleep-deprived.”

“Right. Since he has nothing to say, he’s digging the ground.”

“Huhu, no fun. Let’s go and hunt guys.”

“Yeah! We need to reach level 75 by the end of the day!”

“Let’s go, friends!”

After seeing Lilson not responding to their provocation, those kids decided to move into the hunting grounds.

Lilson, stoop up for the last time and encouraged himself.

‘Hu, this was the biggest crisis in the game life of Lilson. Good job, Lilson!’

Once those kids left, Lilson continued to shovel.

As kids said earlier, Lilson digging in the ground made no sense.

Lilson was looking for an ancient ruin or ark.

Lilson, who was in a Quadra S quest, couldn’t abandon the quest just because some know-it-all users bothered him.

‘The quest did have a high-level of difficulty … I guess it had a reason.’

He was thinking of doing something nonsensical, Lilson’s shoveling didn’t stop.

It was truly a terrific one.

Lilson’s desire was tremendous. As a ranker of the Explorer class, he could be considered as a crystal in that career.

“I’m sure that the Records of Muran are somewhere in here…”

Lilson once again checked the coordinates on the mini-map and grunted while shoveling.

He heard and felt the shovel hit something when he dug into the ground.

Ting-!

The sound came from beneath the ground.

“Found it!”

Lilson was sure that he found what he was looking for. He put the shovel back into his inventory and took out a Houmi.

[You have released the item of ‘Pyro’s administrative supply (Legendary)’]

[You have equipped the item ‘Houmi (Hero) of the Dwarf edition’.]

Lilson grabbed onto the Houmi firmly and began to work it around the source of the sound.

Lilson’s expression as of the moment was the most serious of all the excavation that he performed in the past.

“Hup…!”

He stood up and took a deep breath at the same time. He then got back to work with the Houmi.

Despite his efforts, however, fussy system messages kept coming up.

[During the excavation, the quality of the remains has been damaged by 1.25%.]

[The quality of remains has been damaged by 0.97% during the excavation.]

Lilson sighed deeply at the warning messages that came up because he dug as precisely as he could.

If the quality of the ruins were lowered before the excavation was even completed, then restoring the ruin would be a complete fail.

“A little more…!”

Lilson’s heart started pounding.

If another warning message came about the level dropping, then it was likely that he would fail to find the artifacts in his needed level.

It had been about 15 minutes since Lilson started to dig in the ground.

Tring-!

[You have succeeded in discovering the ruins of the ancient Luspel Empire, ‘Muran’s Records (Legendary)’!]

[The excavation experience increased by 729,380.]

[Fame increased by 15,000!]

Lilson felt proud after enduring all of those insults and finding the item he was looking for.

“Kay, should I open it now?”

He slowly opened the lid very carefully.

However, at that moment, Lilson suddenly heard someone’s voice.

[On the day when the darkness descends on the land, my descendants will awaken and come to save the world.]