"Whew... I'm alive, for now."

Ark got up and checked his Health.

He had lost about 400 Health.

The Cat Knight special skill reduced the damage from the fall by 50%. His forward roll, which had utilized the Flexibility stat, further reduced the damage by an extra 30%. Even so, he took 400 damage, meaning the amount he should have taken was 2000 damage. Users without resistance for falling would have perished the instant they hit the ground.

As expected, he saw quite a few bodies lying around.

'Ah, this is bad. It's an absolute LARA zone.'

[T/N: LARA is Licensed Agency for Relief of Asia, meaning that Ark's surroundings look like a disaster zone.]

A classic Tomb Raider Adventure Game he'd played a bit in the past came to mind. It was a game where a young, perfectly normal-looking girl named Lara dashed around finding treasure. When she fell from a high place every once in a while, it was a game over with the gruesome sight of twisted limbs.

The users scattered on the ground were exactly like that. Their bodies had to stay lying like that until the 3 days were up and they could login again.

'I knew it wasn't going to be an easy quest, but....'

After completing many unusual quests, Ark's ability to judge a situation had become quick. There was nothing the players could've done about the airship crash. In other words, this was a scenario where users had no power to change the situation. It was clear that this fact was an inferable conclusion.

Receiving the quest was only possible at level 60. But receiving the quest and having the qualifications to participate in it were completely different. It meant the minimum qualifications to truly start the quest were the ability to quickly judge the situation and one or two special skills to survive the airship crash.

'What to do now...' Ark took a moment to check his surroundings.

His surroundings were heavily clouded in darkness. The ground also had a rotten, mushy feel to it. This was probably also an effect of the Dark Fog.

Of course, something of this sort was no problem Ark. Once he cast Eyes of the Cat, his surroundings turned green and his vision brightened.

The night vision was an extra benefit of Eyes of the Cat.

'Now, should I look for survivors, or...'

"Those who are alive, please gather here!"

Just then, he heard someone's voice from one side. The dazed people hesitantly gathered around. There were more survivors than expected. But Warriors with high Health and defense were nowhere to be seen.

That was because the weight of the plate armor worn by Warriors caused them to take extra falling damage. The people with leather or cloth armor, such as Archers and Mages, took no extra damage, and their survival rate was increased with high Agility or lightweight magic spells.

There were about 40 survivors. 60 people hit the ground and were forcefully logged out.

The one who gathered the survivors was, of course, an Archer in leather armor and a feathered cap. He must've had a lot of experience as a leader, as he quickly took control of the situation and took the lead.

"You all are probably aware of the situation, the fall of the airship was a planned event. Getting to Jackson Castle was our first given task. Luckily, the Spear of Thor took out most of the monsters in the area. But there are going to be some monsters that survived, and more monsters are going to come. Since we still have the numbers, let's make an attack unit and move to Jackson."

"Yeah, let's do that."

"Since there are currently many vacancies in parties, please remake your parties. Others, please use food to recover your Health and Mana."

The people who survived were definitely quick at reading the situation.

They recovered Health while eating food, and checked each others classes as they remade parties. And with the Archer as the leader, the parties united into an attack unit.

However, Ark thought they were actually strange. 'What? Are these people in their right minds?'

After confirming the number of survivors, the first thing that came to Ark's mind was not Jackson Castle. Wasn't it obvious?

There were 40 users who survived. Which meant there were 60 corpses lying around the vicinity. So to say, there could be around 60 items dropped in this area.

Granted, since their alignments were neutral, or they were rookie users, the drop rate was not that high. But there were 60 of them. Even if there was only a 10% drop rate, it was 6 items... Plus, were they your average users? They were at least level 60 users. The chance the items inside their bags were worth a lot was very high. At the very least, the recovery potion in the supply box distributed by The Magic Institute was worth 20 gold if sold in a store.

'If I get lucky and even pick up an equipment item...'

An undisputable jackpot!

That wasn't all. There were still countless numbers of dead monsters from the Spear of Thor and naval gun barrage. Well, it was hard to expect much since most were completely destroyed by the guns, but there could be an item dropped by a monster. Shouldn't the very first thing a survivor should do be picking up such a lovely item? That was the duty and right of a survivor!

... At the very least, Ark thought as such.

However, it seemed like the other users hadn't thought that far yet. Of course, after going through such a traumatic event, there wouldn't be many users who would think of items first.

Maybe there were a few with the same idea, but it was dark, and one wouldn't know when the monsters would return... They would've thought there was no time to pick up items. But Ark was quite different, he was willing to risk his life even for one more copper.

'None of them are in their right minds. If they only cared about being alive, then why did they join the quest? Wasn't it because of the profit that they joined in on this quest? To ignore the items in front of their noses despite that and go running to Jackson because they're scared of monsters that may or may not come... For me, I'd rather take the items and die!'

Of course, this wasn't something to be said aloud.

'Hehehe, this is better for me. Yeah, all of you should leave. This guy will take all the lovely items for you.'

As soon as Ark made the decision, he quickly used 'Stealth'. Ark's body instantly became one with the darkness and disappeared. Thanks to that, the other users didn't notice Ark. They only thought of getting out of the place as quickly as possible. As such, they glanced around roughly, formed the attack unit, and headed towards Jackson Castle.

After checking to make sure the others were gone, Ark released 'Stealth' and summoned his Familiars.

"Dedric, Skull. Comb the vicinity. Search the areas where there are bodies of strangers particularly carefully. If you find any item at all, let me know immediately."

"Master, are you now going so far as to rob corpses?"

With an appearance of a little kid, Dedric looked at Ark with pity.

Dedric had started to talk back a while ago. It was because Ark wasn't used to hearing honorifics, and also because using honorifics in battle was inconvenient. But while allowing him to speak however he wanted, Dedric had started to crawl back to his bad habits.

"Do you want to eat some cooking, or do you want to search the corpses?"

"Hah, I get to try all sorts of things while living."

Dedric made his discomfort clear as he changed into a bat and flew off.

However, the loyal Skull rolled around searching the surroundings without a second word.

'It would been better if Skull had the ability to talk instead...'

It was such a pity.

As such, the one human and two Familiars worked hard at searching the corpses. But because the corpses were scattered in a wide area range, it took a lot of time.

How much time must have passed like that? While diligently searching the area, they finally reached the place where the debris of the airship was.

'Ara? What is this?'

Suddenly, a black object next to the body of a Mage caught his eye.

At a casual glance, the shape wasn't very different from a stone on the ground, but there was no chance that Ark, who had his eyes wide open so as to not miss a single japtem, would miss it.

As soon as he hurriedly picked it up, an information window popped up.

Fruit of Basium

The Fruit of Basium, also known as the plant of dreams. Basium is a very rare, ancient plant found only in a part of the northern continent.

It is known to possess a violent nature and will move on its own to hunt animals and devour them when it grows. After it gets enough nutrients from hunting, the Basium will bear fruit once in tens, or hundreds of years.

If the Fruit of Basium is prepared in a special way, it will multiply the abilities of various reagents and magics. As a result, it was hunted indiscriminately by magicians of old, and now almost none are left. That is the reason why it is called the plant of dreams.

'So this is a magic ingredient?'

Ark glanced at the Fruit of Basium with curious eyes.

A Warrior learned new skills through training and repetition. But a Magician had a different method of learning new spells.

The easiest method was to go to the Magic Institute and pay to learn a new spell. But the disadvantages to this were that it cost money and you could only learn common spells. In addition, they didn't sell very many spells.

Because of this, in order to learn stronger magics, Magicians of a certain level spent day and night searching for ancient ruins. It was to find magic books left by ancient magicians. These magic books were stronger than the spells sold by the Magic Institute, and there were many unique ones.

In other words, just as a Merchant risked his life to trade in order to raise his market share, for Magicians, the ultimate goal was to find magic books holding stronger spells. But the problem was that special magic ingredients were sometimes needed to learn the spells of such magic books.

Of course, magic ingredients necessary to learn powerful magic spells were traded at high prices.

'If I'm lucky, I can get a pretty high price for this item. Isn't this a good start?'

"Snake, pack this away," Ark ordered without much thought.

However, Snake, who normally swallowed items without any problems, suddenly showed a strange reaction. It suddenly went into convulsions and collapsed.

"Huh? Snake, what's wrong?"

Ss, sssss...

Snake, with great effort, lifted its head. As if it was trying to shed its skin, the scales of the area around its gaping mouth lost their elasticity and became wrinkled.

As Ark was panicking because of this bewildering situation, a new information window popped up before his eyes.

- Due to the Fruit of Basium, Alamone Larvae has started metamorphosis.

'Eh? What's this? Then, Snake really ate the Fruit of Basium? More importantly, metamorphosis? Then Snake can also grow up by eating food? Growth is growth, so what is metamorphosis? And metamorphosis has started?'

He totally could not understand what was going on. Then, a new message appeared again.

A new skill registration window for Alamone Larvae has been formed.

New Skill +?????

Alamone Larvae can learn a new skill through the process of metamorphosis. However, the summoner must find out what kind of skill it is and how to learn it. You have a time limit of 20 days. If you cannot complete metamorphosis by that time, it will end in failure.

During the transformation process all of Alamone Larvae's skills are sealed; as such, it will lose its item storage ability.

Ark stared at the window blankly.

Snake is learning a skill? He hadn't even imagined this.

'To think Snake can also grow through such a method. Is this an opportunity to be able to expect a greater role than a bag from Snake?'

To be sure, if a Familiar gained a helpful skill, using up one or two items wasn't a big deal. But he wasn't sure if he should call this good fortune or not.

'Well, I will be near Jackson Castle during the event quest, so not being able to use Snake as a bag shouldn't pose much of a problem...'

The problem was that Snake had to learn the new skill for the metamorphosis to succeed. Seeing as the transformation would fail if the skill wasn't learned within 20 days, it didn't seem like the it wouldn't be learned on its own.

"How in the world-?"

If it was Skull or Dedric, he could try training their fighting techniques. However, Snake didn't even have any stats, let alone fighting ability. So what method was he supposed to use to learn what skill?

The situation was too sudden, so he couldn't come up with any ideas. In addition, he didn't have time to think of such things.

"Eek, g-go away! Aaack!"

"Kekeke, I will kill all humans."

He suddenly heard the sounds of someone being attacked from the rear of the wreckage.

Setting aside his thinking for now, he quieted his footsteps and went back to see a wounded NPC crew member. He was surrounded by three black monsters that Ark had seen from within the ship.

'There were surviving crew members?' Ark examined the monsters by using Eyes of the Cat.

They were naked black humanoid monsters, with a faces as smooth as that of egg demons, white pupils, and pierced lips. They were monsters that would come out of a horror movie promo poster; level 80 monsters named Shadow.

On the other hand, Ark's level was currently 68. But thanks to the Dark Fog's influence, the land was covered in darkness.

Within the darkness was the Dark Walker's battlefield!

His dark attribute bonus and the Gift of Darkness, gave him a 30% stat increase. Converted to levels, that was a whopping 20, so one could say Ark's current level was equivalent to 88.

This was the real power of the dark attribute.

When he was a beginner, it was hard to notice any great changes. However, attribute bonuses like this showed a greater effect the higher one's level was. At level 3, it was only a difference of 1 level, but at level 300, it was a difference of 100 levels!

"With this much, it's definitely worth a try!"

Ark immediately used 'Stealth,' approached a Shadow monster from behind, and then attacked at the nape of its neck.

- You have dealt a Critical Hit! As a bonus effect, Backstab will deal an additional 200% damage. Shadow will be stunned for 10 seconds.

"Skull, Dedric, Formation C!"

"Okay, looks like I get to stretch a bit!"

Clack, clack, clack!

Formation C, Skull attacked one Shadow together with Ark, while Dedric kept the others busy. It was the most effective plan to use when they were surrounded by enemies, and also the one his Familiars had the greatest success rate with by training through countless battles.

While Ark was locked in the blind auction house, they hadn't been able to fight. They were itching for action, so Skull and Dedric moved more actively than ever before. To be honest, Ark, who was thirsty for battle, was the same.

"Take 'em!"

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

A series of explosions ran along the Shadow's body at the spark-light sword attacks. It was Ark's specialty, dealing continuous critical hits.

The Shadow wobbled greatly as it stepped back.

After swinging his sword refreshingly for the first time in a while, vigor surged up anew. Stimulated by the rising thrill he felt, Ark pressed forward another step and thrust his sword.

At that moment- was that thing reaching out of the Shadow's chest a hand?

'Wha-what? What's that?'

Ark reflexively raised his sword. With a sharp metallic sound, the arm bounced off.

Luckily, thanks to his instinctive defensive movement, he avoided a critical hit, but he still lost about 80 health. One couldn't block an attack with a sword but rather can only reduce the damage. However, the problem wasn't the damage.

'What, these bastards? Arms popping out freely?'

It was an attack method he'd never even imagined. It wasn't just the chest. Arms extended from the back, butt, and even the head of the Shadow, wherever needed, stretching several meters like rubber. Moreover, though it wasn't like Ark's 30%, it seemed that they too were receiving the darkness attribute bonus. Well, they were probably using the Dark Fog because it was beneficial for them...

'And the dirt floor is rotten, so it's slippery.'

Because of this, evasive actions were inevitably restricted.

"Wah! Master, this is crazy!"

Though he had flown off with great vigor, Dedric was also unable to deal with the stretching arms.

"Skull, go and help Dedric, we're going with Formation B!"

Ark sent Skull to help Dedric and adjusted his grip on the sword.

The enemy was trickier than expected, and the terrain was also poor. Although it couldn't be called the worst possible scenario, it also couldn't be counted as the best. However, Ark's eyes shone more brightly than before.

'So I'll have to fight guys like these from now on, right? Alright, I'll be sure to warm up properly for you.'

After shaking his body and stretching his joints, Ark leapt in while swinging his sword. At the same time Ark's taekwondo trained body started to show its true potential.

Ark, after making up his mind, was said to be determined!

All this time, Ark had never once neglected to exercise even while playing 18 hours a day.

That was how exercise worked. If you missed a day with an excuse, one day became two, three, four days of rest. Once you make up your mind and start, there can be no excuses, even if you can't sleep or have to skip a meal. Only by steadily adding up the sweat can you obtain the desired result.

"Come at me, you rotten egg!"

Ark's sword pierced the Shadow's vital point. As the Shadow twisted its body, another arm sprouted from its shoulder. An unexpected attack, but if you are expecting an attack from all directions, it can no longer be considered unexpected.

Not even being able to rapidly perform evasive movement because the ground was slippery wasn't a problem either.

'Without teeth, they're just gums!'

POW!

Ark knocked away the arm and let loose a sweeping low kick. Struck in the knee, the Shadow lost its balance and wobbled.

It was off-balance for only 1 or 2 seconds, but one who is trained in Taekwondo can kick at least 4 times in that span of time. He performed a low kick followed by a roundhouse kick.

The chance of a medium monster getting a bad status effect by a kick was 3%! The Shadow took a roundhouse to the jaw, fell into a confused state, and extended arms all over the place. It was actually harder to block such a haphazard attack.

He took considerable damage from the arms attacking from all directions. However, Ark wasn't one to stand still and take hits. The instant an arm was about to strike his shoulder, with a twist of his body, he back-kicked the Shadow monster for a Counterattack and killed it.

'Nice, not bad! The Shadow's darkness attribute bonus is only about 10~20%!'

If the enemy's level was the same or slightly higher, the odds were more than enough. Ark immediately ran at the remaining 2 Shadows.