𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟓𝟏
[Would you like to open the skill book? The skill will be acquired automatically when opened.]
“It’s really hard to get.”
After the talk about Enhancement yesterday, the executives agreed that production-type players could also become executives, and they seemed to be working accordingly.
To be honest, it was a decision made with the future in mind. If we diligently raise production-type players, wouldn’t they repay us in some way later? Of course, it didn’t matter to me since I could do Enhancement, Weapon Crafting, and Armor Crafting myself.
Anyway, after the meeting, as soon as we announced through the guild notice that we agreed to allow production-type players to become executives, we could see a swarm of guild members, including executives, rushing to get Enhancements.
Seeing their reaction, it seemed like they hadn’t told anyone until now, or they had just joined the guild.
In addition, I witnessed a surprising sight while doing Enhancements. They paid a small amount of money when requesting an Enhancement.
Paying for Enhancement? Seriously?
I don’t know for sure, but I guess that guild member must have made quite a lot of money. I even considered raising my Gem Dice to +11 and doing Enhancements myself.
Well, but that was yesterday. Now, all I wanted was to get a skill from a Random Skillbook.
[Would you like to open the skill book? The skill will be acquired automatically when opened.]
“……Oh!”
Finally! Finally, it appeared! An S-rank skill!
Realizing this with Intuition, I opened the book without hesitation.
‘Ranged skill! Please be a ranged skill!’
[You have acquired the S-rank skill ‘Volcus’ Thunder Strike’.]
[Your stats will increase as you acquire the skill.]
[Strength increases by 7.]
[Agility increases by 5.]
[Stamina increases by 7.]
“……”
Thunder Strike? Somehow it didn’t seem like the ranged skill I wanted. Still, just in case, I decided to check the Detailed Information.
[S-rank Volcus’ Thunder Strike Effect] (LV1+2)
━Strength increased by 120→140.
━Attack Speed increased by 120→140.
━Applies Strength and Defense as damage.
━On the second hit, damage increases by 11→12%.
━On the third hit, damage increases by 22→24%.
━On the third hit, knocks back enemies with lower Strength than yours.
━Successfully landing all hits stuns for 1 second.
━Can only be used when equipped with a shield.
*Uses 300→600 Magic Power.
*Uses 10% Stamina.
“Sigh.”
As expected, it wasn’t a ranged skill. Rather, it was the final upgraded version of the Shield Bash skill. Still, for me, shield skills are useful, so I should be happy, but strangely enough, a sigh escaped my lips.
‘In the end, I learned all 20 skills.’
What should I delete?
Opening the Skill Information Window and scanning through the skills I had acquired, I soon decided to delete two skills that I hadn’t used and left alone.
[You have deleted the F-rank skill ‘Ore Mining’.]
[Strength and Stamina decrease by 5 each.]
[Acquired 500 Skill Deletion Experience.]
[You have deleted the F-rank skill ‘Iron Ingot Smelting’.]
[Skill stat decreases by 5.]
[Acquired Skill Deletion Experience……]
‘Now what should I do?’
I had no motivation because I had been opening Random Skillbooks for days, hoping for a ranged skill. But thinking about it the other way around, I now had an S-rank attack skill.
Since I didn’t have an S-rank skill focused on attack until now, this Thunder Strike skill might be exactly what I needed.
“Hmm, should I try using it once?”
With that thought, I looked at the Detailed Information again and realized it was a continuous attack skill. Moreover, since it was a shield skill, it meant it could be linked with Jayer’s Guardian Shield.
“Now that I look at it again, it’s pretty good.”
What if I used Jayer’s Guardian Shield and then used this Thunder Strike? I would be able to take down most monsters in one hit. And thinking about it that way, I wanted to go somewhere decent and test it out.
‘The easiest place would be a quest, but……’
Unfortunately, I had already taken on a quest as soon as I logged in today. If I took on a B-rank quest, I could do a proper test, but that wasn’t possible in this situation. So, excluding quests, I thought for a moment and soon remembered the dungeon owned by the Emperor Guild.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t even looked at a dungeon lately.’
Strictly speaking, there was Arnela’s Ice Palace. Of course, since I only went around looking for the boss, it didn’t feel like a dungeon. Also, since I had completed the quest, I couldn’t enter the Ice Palace again.
‘Alright, let’s go to the dungeon since I thought of it.’
Unfortunately, I had never been to the dungeons owned by the Emperor Guild, so I didn’t know their locations, but I knew one place. It was the dungeon I went to briefly to help Hwaryeon during the guild war. Remembering that location, I headed there without hesitation.
* * *
“Thunder Strike!”
Kwaaaang!-
“Kieeee!”
[Skill Damage! 7,085.]
[Acquired 380 Combat Experience!]
I swung my shield at the Giant Ant running towards me and let out a small sigh. It was too weak. It died in one hit, so I couldn’t land the remaining hits and couldn’t even do a proper test.
“Do I have to go all the way to the boss?”
No, judging by the level of the monsters here, even if I fought the boss, it might be impossible to land all the hits. And meanwhile, the guild members who were watching me hunt started whispering amongst themselves.
“Is that person the Vice Guild Master?”
“I heard he doesn’t go to dungeons……”
“How can he be so strong if he doesn’t go to dungeons?”
“I don’t know. Even the executives don’t know, how would I?”
“Do you think he would hunt with us if we asked?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Why would the Vice Guild Master need to hunt with us?”
“……”
Looking back, all the guild members who met my gaze started looking away and pretending to be busy with something else. Am I going to eat them or something? But apart from those guild members, there was also a guild member who approached me with a bright smile.
“Oh my~ Vice Guild Master. What brings you here?”
Naturally, the guild member who approached me was someone I didn’t know. A guild member in his early 20s with decent looks and a nice smile. It was somewhat burdensome to have such an unfamiliar guild member approach me with a smile, but I didn’t show it and answered.
“I wanted to raise my skill Proficiency.”
“In a dungeon like this?”
“I don’t know the location of any other dungeons besides this one.”
At my answer, the guild member replied as if it was a good thing.
“Aha! If that’s the case, leave it to me. I know the location of every dungeon owned by this guild. Why don’t you go to a much more difficult dungeon than this one?”
‘A dungeon stronger than this one……’
There was no reason to refuse. After all, the reason I came to the dungeon was to test the performance of my skill. And since it was difficult to test its performance in a dungeon like this, I nodded and inwardly figured out the guild member’s intentions.
‘He probably wants to go to the dungeon with me, right?’
A way for a regular guild member to go to a dungeon without any restrictions. One of them is to party with a player who is an executive or higher. Remembering what Heron had said before, I realized that the guild member guiding me now wanted to use me to go to the dungeon, but I didn’t mind.
“Then let’s go that way.”
“Yes! I’ll guide you!”
At the same time, I could hear the other guild members watching from nearby murmuring with regret or envy.
“If I had known, I would have talked to him first!”
“I’m so envious.”
“Whoever he is, he’s really lucky.”
Anyway, I didn’t know which dungeon we were going to, but as I followed the guild member, I could hear his chattering voice.
“But I was surprised. I never imagined that the Vice Guild Master would enter a dungeon like this.”
“It’s not like I don’t go to dungeons.”
I had actually been to dungeons several times. It’s just that they weren’t the Emperor Guild’s dungeons.
“Ah, is that so? Come to think of it, I heard you use a blunt weapon that people don’t use.”
“I couldn’t find a weapon I liked.”
Actually, I used it because it was a Unique weapon. If a Unique axe had dropped back then, I think I would have used that axe.
“Indeed, blunt weapons are a bit special. It seems like the Vice Guild Master likes special weapons. Haha.”
‘By the way, can I take this guy hunting with me?’
I looked at the guild member walking ahead of me. Taking him to the dungeon was fine, but I wondered if he could hunt in that dungeon. On the other hand, there was no problem even if we hunted together, so I decided to ask him what he thought first.
“What are you going to do when we get to the dungeon?”
“Yes? Ah, I would like to help the Vice Guild Master, but…… It would be difficult, right?”
“No, you can do that.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
The guild member bowed so happily that I could see it. Seeing his reaction, I realized that even in the Emperor Guild, not everything was good.
‘No, now that it’s come to this, should I ask?’
I thought it wouldn’t be bad to find out the answers to a few questions I had when I heard Heron’s words before, through this guild member.
“By the way, it seems like guild members can’t enter dungeons freely?”
“Well, to explain, each dungeon has a difficulty level. The monsters determine the difficulty based on experience, items, and so on. The higher the difficulty of the dungeon, the more Contribution Points you need to accumulate.”
“Contribution Points?”
“Yes. Simply put, the dungeon I’m guiding you to now requires a Contribution Point of 5,000 or more to enter.”
It seemed like the guild also had a Contribution Point system.
“How do you raise Contribution Points?”
“There are a few ways, but…… the simplest way is to donate money to the guild. If you pay 1 gold, your Contribution Points increase by 100. Also, guild members who have raised their Contribution Points to 100 can enter the lowest level dungeon.”
In other words, the dungeon we were heading to was a dungeon that required exchanging 50 gold for Contribution Points to enter. Until just before catching Deronak yesterday, it was an amount I couldn’t afford.
“Then, to enter the dungeon we’re going to now, we need to exchange 50 gold for Contribution Points?”
“That’s right. However, the Vice Guild Master and executives can enter dungeons regardless of Contribution Points. If Contribution Points were applied to executives as well, the number of people who could enter dungeons would be limited.”
Nodding at the explanation, I thought about Contribution Points for a moment. It seemed like a system where new members started from the lowest level dungeon, gathered money there, and gradually moved up to higher level dungeons.
“What are the other ways?”
“Well, typically, if you find a dungeon, your Contribution Points increase by 1,000. Also, the Guild Master can give you Contribution Points whenever you do something beneficial for the guild. But the Vice Guild Master wouldn’t fall under any of the things I’m talking about right now.”
And perhaps because I brought up the topic of dungeons, the guild member continued talking.
“Also, this is just me complaining, but I can’t save any money because of Contribution Points. But I heard that you can earn some money if you go to higher level dungeons, so I’m hunting diligently.”
“How many Contribution Points have you saved?”
“Exactly 450. But if I hunt with the Vice Guild Master today, I might be able to earn a huge amount of money. It’s even called a lottery among us.”
“……Lottery?”
Hunting with me is a lottery? No matter how actively I help, it doesn’t seem like it would be that much.
“Isn’t the Vice Guild Master the strongest person in Twilight? And you’re someone we don’t see often in the guild. You’d be surprised if you knew how many guild members want to hunt with the Vice Guild Master later.”
‘Hunting with me……’
I thought about it. What would happen if I went like this and caught the boss of that dungeon? I would get at least a few gold. And considering the items dropped by the boss, it was clear that I would get much more profit than from regular hunting.
I could then exchange that gold and items for Contribution Points.
‘And you said regular guild members can’t catch the boss, right?’
Guild members who weren’t interested in hunting or Contribution Points might not care, but I thought there would be people who would take advantage of it if there were guild members who wanted to become stronger more than anything else.
Leave a Reply