𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕𝟔
[Ding!~ The level of S-rank skill ‘Volcus’ Thunder Strike’ has increased.]
[Stats Strength 7, Agility 5, Stamina 7 will increase.]
“Phew, it’s really hard to level up.”
Originally, I was going to work on Random Skillbooks. However, I decided that even if I got an S-rank skill from a Random Skillbook, it wouldn’t be an immediate power-up, so I changed my direction to skill training, and ended up focusing solely on skill training for two days.
“Thunder Strike level is…… level 12, huh?”
Skills don’t level up easily after level 10, so I had to stop at level 12, but overall, I was satisfied.
Moreover, Thunder Strike isn’t the only skill I leveled up.
I tried to use most of the skills I acquired while focusing on training, and as a result, I was able to raise the level of most of my main skills by at least 1 level.
Anyway, shall we check the results of the training?
“Status Information Window.”
[Name: Rudin]
[Title: Hero of the Present World]
[Level: 94]
[Fame: 6054]
[Guild: Emperor]
[Health: 24674/24732]
[Magic Power: 457/15756]
[Stamina: 97.8%]
[Attack Power: 4589] [Magic Attack Power: 864]
[Defense: 4418] [Magic Defense: 2980]
[Stats] (All +20%)
Strength: 2228 Intelligence: 475 Agility: 1138
Stamina: 1914 Magic: 1222 Skill: 396
Fighting Spirit: 264 Summoning: 312 Command: 240
Luck: 277
[Elemental Attack Power: All Attributes (11%), Water (5%), Lightning (12%)]
[Elemental Resistance: All Attributes (3%), Water (49%), Lightning (2%)]
[Acquired Skills: 19 (+1)/20]
‘Well, it was worth the effort.’
Overall, all my stats have increased. With my current stats, I probably wouldn’t lose even if I went up against a High-ranking Demon. And since the average level of my skills has also increased, I might actually be even stronger.
[‘Aizen’ of the Emperor Guild has invited you to the guild chat.]
[Will you accept?]
“……Is it time already?”
If he’s contacting me now, it can only be about the Demon King. Fortunately, I was almost done with my skill training, so I casually accepted the guild chat invitation and immediately heard what I expected.
━Rudin-nim. It’s time to depart.
“As expected…… Where are we meeting?”
━On the 1st floor of the Guild Castle.
“Alright.”
At his words, I replied that I understood and used a Return Scroll to teleport. Then, I trudged down to the 1st floor, where I saw about 30 guild members waiting.
‘But only 30?’
Judging by the number, you might think that all the members present were executives, but if you looked closely, that wasn’t the case. There were about 10 people mixed in who weren’t executives.
“You arrived earlier than expected.”
“It’s quick if you use a Return Scroll.”
It wasn’t wrong. Besides, since he told us to gather on the 1st floor of the Guild Castle, it was highly likely that he considered this as well. Anyway, as I looked around at the members gathered on the 1st floor, I saw a few familiar faces, but it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I didn’t know most of them.
‘Are Heron and Dayne not participating?’
I realized that two of the few people I knew in the guild were absent, but since the chances of actually defeating the Demon King were slim, not participating could also be a strategy.
‘Yeah, it might be better not to participate.’
If I die to the Demon King, the loss wouldn’t end with just the 10 gold for the teleportation cost.
In addition, according to what I briefly saw before logging in today, Demon King Agreenes had captured the second village. Since the attack on the village happened at dawn, it was said that they lost the village without much resistance. Naturally, all the NPCs in those two villages disappeared, and even the facilities became unusable.
As a result, the players in the Karzen Kingdom were said to be coming up with countermeasures, but honestly, I wasn’t expecting much.
“Now that everyone seems to be here, let’s depart.”
‘Is 30 people all there is?’
From the beginning, he said we were going with a small elite group, and I was expecting around 20 people, so the number actually increased. As I followed the guild members, I suddenly spotted Hwaryeon among them.
‘Hwaryeon is participating too, huh?’
Actually, two days ago, I had given a lot of thought to Hwaryeon’s request to borrow the Deronak equipment. Since I needed as many strong people as possible to defeat the Demon King, I needed at least one more truly powerful person.
Of course, at that time, I refused, saying that I hadn’t caught Deronak yet, but thinking about it now, I felt strangely regretful. Nevertheless, there was a reason why I had to refuse. Simply put, it was the difference between suspicion and confirmation.
If I lent her the Deronak equipment, it would confirm that I had caught him. There was no need to add fuel to the fire while people were still arguing online about whether or not I had caught the raid boss.
Lastly, I was worried about the aftermath.
Actually, this was the biggest reason.
“Come to think of it, the Yonggammusang Guild Master sent a small amount of gold and items as a token of apology.”
“What did he send?”
“To be precise, 1,000 gold and various crafting materials. Also, materials that can only be obtained from dungeons owned by the Yonggammusang Guild.”
“……”
It felt like he sent a lot of miscellaneous items. By the way, was 1,000 gold a small amount to this guy? Even for me, it wouldn’t be easy to gather 1,000 gold, but Aizen was talking as if it were truly a small amount.
‘Just how much wealth does he have?’
Compared to the guy who spent billions of won as soon as he started playing Twilight, the money I’ve earned so far felt insignificant.
“I’ve put the sent items in the Guild Castle vault, so you don’t have to worry.”
“There’s a vault in the Guild Castle?”
“We made one separately because we received a lot of items.”
Aizen told me to check it out when I had time, and as we continued walking, we arrived at the building with the Teleportation Device before I knew it.
‘Now all that’s left is to go over.’
Since we were going to another country, the teleportation cost was expensive, but it didn’t apply to me now.
‘But it’s surprisingly quiet.’
I thought it would be bustling with members of the allied guilds once we got here. But far from being bustling, it was as quiet as usual.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, it’s just that I don’t see anyone else.”
Aizen simply answered my question.
“The allied guilds aren’t active here. They’re active in other regions, so they’ll use the Teleportation Devices there.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, being active here would be foolish. Most of the dungeons were occupied by the Emperor Guild.
This was also due to the fact that the guild’s power came from the dungeons.
Anyway, convinced by Aizen’s answer, I used the Teleportation Device to head to the Karzen Kingdom.
Whoosh!-
“10 gold is still a burden.”
“It’s not a cheap price.”
Suddenly, I heard the words of a guild member who came over with me from behind. Certainly, 10 gold wasn’t cheap, but considering that my friend Jaehoon would be coming over later, I thought it would be good to just set it to 100 gold.
If the teleportation cost was 100 gold, Jaehoon, a low-ranking member of the guild, would never come over, right?
‘Honestly, that’s ridiculous.’
I muttered to myself and stepped out of the building.
Murmur~ Murmur~
‘Oh, did everyone gather here?’
As I stepped outside, I saw more players than I expected. Even though it was evening, there were too many people. I looked at the crowd gathered in the imperial capital with satisfaction, but I couldn’t just stand there and watch forever.
“Yes, I understand.”
Just then, I heard Aizen talking to himself as if he had received a call. I looked back at him, and he told me what he had just talked about.
“They said they’re all waiting outside the village.”
“Well, that’s much better than gathering here.”
It would be much more convenient to gather outside the village than inside the crowded village. As I was heading out of the village with Aizen, I overheard a conversation nearby.
“The Demon King came near here, right?”
“He’ll probably arrive here by tomorrow?”
“Wow, then this village will also fall tomorrow?”
‘Tomorrow?’
If the Demon King arrives in this village tomorrow, it will be the third village to fall. I predict that if we fail the Demon King raid today, all the villages in the Karzen Kingdom will fall one after another.
‘It’ll be quite a sight if that happens.’
What will happen to the players in the Karzen Kingdom if all the villages fall?
I was curious, but I didn’t need to wait a day or two to see that, so I ignored it and went outside the village. Outside the village, there were as many players as inside the village.
However, the only unusual thing was the blue sword and shield mark above their heads. I could easily understand what the mark meant.
‘It’s easy to find them since they have the alliance mark.’
Until now, the Emperor Guild hadn’t formed an alliance with other guilds, so I didn’t know, but I was able to see the mark when we formed an alliance with the Bulgeun Taeyang Guild before.
At the same time, I realized that the players currently wearing the alliance mark were members of the allied guilds.
“You’ve arrived.”
“You’re not late.”
Just then, the masters of each allied guild spotted Aizen and approached him to talk. Thanks to that, I had nothing to do for a while, so I looked around and focused on a conversation I heard nearby.
“Wow~ Just how many people are gathered here?”
“At least 5,000? It seems like that many have gathered.”
“It seems like people have come from other countries too.”
“I heard that the Church of Light is giving out subjugation quests. That’s why people are coming from other countries and it’s become a big deal.”
Listening to their conversation, they seemed to be players originally belonging to the Karzen Kingdom.
“Can’t we just take care of it ourselves? What kind of a mess is it if we let other countries steal the subjugation quest?”
“Think about the guilds that have failed so far. We can’t do it on our own.”
“No, it’s still just a rumor, but I heard that the Yonggammusang Guild is participating today as well.”
The Yonggammusang Guild is?
‘What is he thinking, participating without a weapon?’
Did he get another weapon? But considering the weapon Heuksin dropped, it wouldn’t be easy to find a replacement. This is because Rare-grade weapons enhanced to +7 were still rare.
Perhaps if Heuksin’s staff was put up for auction in the Real-Time Auction House, it would rank within the top 10. I couldn’t say for sure that it would be in the top 5 because its durability was low, but it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it was a possibility.
Meanwhile, Aizen, who had finished talking with the guild masters, approached me and brought up the topic of the Demon King.
“I heard that the Demon King is not far from here.”
“He keeps moving. If we don’t catch him today, the next village will probably fall.”
“The village doesn’t matter, but let’s move for now.”
“Before that, how many people have gathered? It seems like more than I expected.”
“About 1,200.”
‘The number of people is decent.’
1,200 elites from each guild, not just any random players. It’s amazing that we were able to gather this many people. Considering the cost of coming all the way here, it wouldn’t be easy, but since we joined forces with other guilds, it seemed to be resolved easily.
“Ah, right. Did you come up with a strategy?”
Most of the skills the Demon King has shown so far were area-of-effect skills. If we just charged in recklessly, regardless of whether the gathered members were elites or not, we could be wiped out in an instant. So, I asked about the strategy, and Aizen, strangely, showed a slightly troubled expression.
“Originally, I was going to do that, but all I heard was that everyone would do their own thing. They probably don’t want to follow my command.”
“……Then there’s no point in forming an alliance.”
“It won’t be that bad. Everyone must have researched the Demon King, so it will be helpful.”
Regardless of whether it would be helpful or not, I didn’t like it. It was doubtful whether we could win even if we were united, but they wanted to act separately? I thought I might have to come up with a separate plan, and I couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
“Tell each guild master to depart.”
“Yes, we’ll depart now!”
Just then, Aizen gave instructions to a nearby guild member, and the guild member shouted in a loud voice. At the same time, the allied guild members who heard the shout prepared to move, and Aizen headed towards the Demon King’s location with them.
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