After the update of the Warrior’s Village.

The difficulty of entering Middle-Earth was much easier than the users’ expected.

To be precise, rather than all the Middle-Earth, the most well-known ones, the ‘Spirit Dimension’ and the ‘Underworld’. (How many of the Middle-Earth were there wasn’t known yet.)

And the reason wasn’t something else.

The portals to the Spirit Dimension and the Underworld were opened in the Ulphir Mountains and the Heinz plateau.

Of course, there was a significant level limit of 400, but it was clear that the barrier to the entrance was lowered greatly.

Originally, it was only accessible through the special hidden quests, so only a few top guilds were able to monopolize the Middle-Earth content.

And between the Spirit Dimension and the Underworld, the Spirit Dimension was the one with a lot of users.

Unlike the Underworld, where users had to pass the Acheron river to enter the village and become an Intermediate being, users could go to the village in the Spirit Dimension before entering the Spirit Mountain.

Anyway, for that reason, the Spirit Dimension had begun to get crowded with numerous users.

There was a village at the southern end of the mountain called ‘Pneuma’.

The village was crowded with top-class users of the world, and it looked similar to that of a crowded city in the human world.

“I am looking for a Knight class I can hunt with in the Windy Plains! There is just one spot left! Take the spot fast!”

“Ah, can I join it then?”

“Sir, can I please know what your transcendence level is?”

“I just entered the Middle-Earth, so of course it is level 1.”

“Sorry. We are only taking in transcendence level of 4 and above.”

“I’m at a Human level of 430. Can I not join?”

“No matter how much your human level is, transcendence level of 1 is a no-no. Sorry.”

“I don’t get it. I just entered Middle-Earth. I wanted to shoot to level 4 with a party. I guess I need to look for a new way.”

“Sir, you could do that with parties in the Reindeer Forest.”

“Uh, where is that?”

“It is a hunting ground that’s just a little further in the South. If you take a party of 2 to 3 to the Reindeer Forest and enter the Frost cave, you will be able to get up to 5 levels.”

“Ah, I didn’t know that there was such a hunting ground. Thanks.”

Although only the rankers of level 400 and above were the only ones gathered there, the Pneuma village square had been a bustling place with users from servers all over the world.

Traders who specialized in Transcendental equipment have established themselves as a group.

However, it was funny since there were many of those in the village square, but users were gathered in a different place.

[Spirit Dojo/ Admission Fee: 500]

The place where Ian had cleared the Hidden Quest.

From the time when Ian first challenged the Dojo with 500 asters, the Spirit Dojo, which was just a small hut, had grown ten times.

The number of teams that could challenge the Dojo at once increased too.

[The challenge team in Zone B has passed the first gate.]

[Waiting team entry is possible.]

“Nice! It’s our turn at last!”

“Ku keu, we can surely clear the fifth floor this time!”

“Let’s go, friends!”

A team waited in front of the long line at Zone B to fight.

The users behind them shook their heads and mumbled, “Tch, the 5th floor is so fucking hard. That team won’t even make it to the ‘Wailing Wall’.”

“Yeah, well, we can clear the 5th floor even with our eyes closed, but the 9th one is just impossible to beat.”

‘Hm?’

Lancom was waiting in line to challenge the Spirit Dojo and couldn’t help but feel intrigued after hearing their conversation.

‘9th floor? Wailing wall?’

Lancom was a well-known ranker in the UK server.

He was known as one of the Five Fingers of the Archery class in the UK server, and due to his strong fists that were well known, he was nicknamed the Fighter Chicken.

For that very reason, he became interested in the ‘Wailing Wall’.

Lancom approached the two people who were talking.

“I am a bit curious about the Wailing Wall; can you explain it to me?”

Upon hearing Lancom, the two looked at him at the same time and replied, “Ho, you don’t know the Wailing Wall? This must be your first time here.”

“Yes.”

“The Wailing Wall isn’t different. We call the 9th floor the Wailing Wall. That place earned that nickname after half a day.”

“Hmm, is that related to the 9th floor’s difficulty?”

“Not quite. It’s just as its name says; it literally is just a wall.”

“Ah, is that so?”

“Though there are world rankers here, no one had gone past the 9th floor.”

“…!”

“We were able to clear up to the 8th floor, and it is already our third time trying to challenge the 9th floor.”

After listening to the two, Lancom sensed something good.

Knowing that ‘nobody has cleared’ the 9th floor yet was enough to motivate him.

‘Huhu, no one has gone past it… then… is this my chance?’

Lancom looked at the two and decided to get more information from them regarding the 9th floor.

“Maybe you could tell me more about the 9th floor?”

However, the two people, without even being bothered, began giving him confusing information about the 9th floor.

“Well, it isn’t that difficult.”

“…!”

“First, the Gatekeeper of the 9th floor is a Summoner class. The weapon he uses is a bow and quite a few Archers stated that he is good enough to hold everyone down.”

“In addition, that Summoner’s unique abilities are so diverse that we haven’t been able to figure out his attack pattern even after trying for the third time.”

Lancom was now really eager to enter after being told that this Gatekeeper was much better than any archer.

‘What nonsense are these guys talking about!? These guys had probably never seen a decent Archer before.’

Apart from being angry, Lancom didn’t intend to show them that.

It was because they were very kind, and they told him about the details he needed.

After listening to their explanation, Lancom bowed to them to give his thanks.

“Thank you. You have given me a lot of valuable information.”

The two just shook their heads and said, “Ah, there is no need for that. If you try once or twice, you’ll end up knowing this information as well.”

“Right. But the information you gave me will be very helpful…”

Lancom was feeling the heat bubble up inside of him since the two didn’t seem to believe that he could clear the floor.

‘You guys really think that me—Lancolm—could not clear this floor!?’

But after thinking about it a little, he understood their position.

‘Well, these mates do not know that I am a top ranker who had already achieved the transcendence level of 9.’

However, there were two things Lancom didn’t know.

First, the people who gave him the information about the ‘Wailing Wall’ were levels 8 and 9.

Second, they were also top rankers of other servers.

* * *

Kailan’s message windows were very smart.

Depending on a user’s settings, the range of the messages displayed could vary.

Ian changed his settings so that he could only see information regarding the map he was currently in.

Therefore, Ian had to check the ‘last message box’ to see the messages that had accumulated from the other maps.

[Repelled the challenger of the Spirit Dojo.]

[Hero Score increased by 9.]

[Repelled the challenger of the Spirit Dojo.]

[Hero Score increased by 9.]

“Keu, this is something that I had never even thought of!”

On the 9th floor of the Spirit Dojo, Ian’s Alter Ego was killing it!

Of course, Ian knew that his Alter Ego could bring in some Hero Score.

Even though it was just his Alter Ego, he knew that he could win over some challengers.

But not to this extent.

Once the other top rankers started coming in, he thought that his Alter Ego would be defeated sooner or later.

Ian came to that conclusion not because he was underestimating himself or overestimating the rankers.

Ian just didn’t know that his Alter Ego would be able to raise its stats based on the number of challengers.

“Nice, my other self! If this continued for another week, I can accumulate more than 10,000 Hero Score!”

In half a day, Ian’s Alter Ego earned a tremendous amount of Hero Score.

As Ian said, it wouldn’t be so difficult to collect more than 10,000 points, which was the price of an equipment box.

Ian remembered the transcendental equipment box, which he had donated to Hoonie and Yu Shin with tears in his eyes.

‘Equipment boxes are equipment boxes, but maybe I should try enjoying shopping at the Warrior’s Village?’

Ian was now a recruit and had all the access to the shops of the Warrior Village.

And with 1000 Hero Scores with him, he could probably shop like a rich man.

Woong-!

[You have returned to the ‘Warrior’s Village’.]

With a small message, a white light shone on Ian as if he was being welcomed.

The moment Ian arrived at the village, he began to move.

Before entering the Dimensional Mirror, he wanted to enter a few shops that had caught his eyes.

And before leaving the village’s vacant land, he had no choice but to stop.

In front of him, an interesting sight had unfolded.

“My lads. Here, this is the Warrior’s Village. Welcome. I am the commander who will train you and turn you into a brave.”

In a corner of the vacant lot, approximately ten people were lined up.

It was the first time for Ian to witness such a thing.

In addition, the ones whom Ian was looking at were surely ‘users’.

‘Oh ho, these many users came into the village?’

Curious, Ian glanced at them.

He wanted to know what exactly were they doing.

‘The Dimensional Mirror Battlefield is a weekly item, so it would be impossible to go there now… What quests are these guys trying to get?’

Shopping was an important task for them, but what was more important was getting quests.

Only by receiving quests would they be able to get public points, and that was the fastest way to graduate from the Warrior’s Village.

After a while, Ian’s eyes went wide as he heard the conversation that was going on.

“Kids, the training process of a warrior will never be unsatisfactory. Make sure that your heart is firmly prepared!”

“Yes, understood!”

“Of course!”

Just as Ian had expected, the ones were gathered to do some quests.

‘Then, maybe I should join in too?’

He wasn’t sure what the ‘training’ was, but it was definitely a quest which would give him Public Value.

Ian stepped along and joined the group without hesitation.

No, he tried to join them.

“Hey, you, recruit!”

“Uh? Me?”

“Yeah, there is no one else who is a recruit other than you in here!”

The commander ‘Prime’, who was leading the users, prevented Ian from joining.

“Why is a recruit that was already trained trying to go to the training center again?”

“Huh?”

“You cannot join our company so go back.”

“…!”

Ian’s eyes began to waver as he heard the words of Prime.

He could feel that something wasn’t right.