𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟗𝟏
26th Apostle down, and it’s been two days since we crossed over to the main scenario area.
Surprisingly, there has been no progress whatsoever.
All we’ve seen while wandering around is a barren land, cracked like a dried-up rice paddy.
‘What kind of place is this?’
Especially since yesterday, I had to return to town to register items on the Real-Time Auction House, so I had to start exploring the main scenario area all over again from the beginning.
Moreover, I’m not alone this time.
“This is a fascinating place.”
“Wow, is this the new area?”
Yua and Sina are here too.
After meeting them in Twilight after a long time, they complained that I was having all the fun by myself and suggested we go to the main scenario area together. After hearing that, I even got Aizen’s permission before bringing them here.
‘Honestly, I didn’t want to come.’
It felt like a waste of time since there wasn’t anything to be found no matter how much we searched.
I even used the Gem-Eating Snake just in case, but after realizing there was still nothing, I lost interest in this area.
‘I just wasted precious gems.’
Well, they weren’t my gems anyway.
“Ah, and I saw your broadcast.”
Then Yua brought up the broadcast from the other day.
“Broadcast?”
“Yes, I was so surprised. I thought you really died.”
“If you die, you die.”
To be honest, I challenged it because I thought I had a decent chance of winning.
If that wasn’t the case, wouldn’t I have refused Aizen’s offer to try the Apostle again?
By the way, the broadcast was a huge success.
Whether it was because I defeated the Apostle or because the new main scenario area opened, all the entrance tickets were sold out.
In other words, I made 1 billion won.
‘How much is 1 billion won divided by 20 people?’
The result was 50 million won without even needing to calculate, but I denied the result because I couldn’t believe the amount.
“Yua, why are you asking such things? You should ask something like this instead.”
Suddenly, Sina intervened and asked a truly unique question.
“How much did you earn?”
“……Are you talking about the broadcast revenue?”
“Yes, you sold 100,000 entrance tickets at 10,000 won each. I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t be curious.”
Even so, Sina’s question was quite blunt.
Seeing her enthusiasm, I wanted to give her a proper answer, but since I was excluded from the profit distribution, I didn’t know how much was actually earned.
“If you calculate it simply, wouldn’t it be around 1 billion won?”
“What are you talking about? Everyone knows that preparing the entrance tickets also costs money.”
“Actually…… I received something else instead of money, so I don’t really know.”
I had no choice but to answer honestly, and Sina nodded as if she finally understood.
“That’s a shame. It seems like it would have been a considerable amount of money.”
“It’s okay. There will be other broadcasts.”
In addition, I haven’t streamed today or yesterday.
The reason was that there was nothing to show. Frankly, I couldn’t stream just to show an empty field.
Perhaps I’ll start streaming again when I find something?
“Speaking of which, the only guild that has entered the main scenario now is the Emperor Guild, right? The revenue will be huge if you stream again.”
As Sina said, the only guild that had reached the main scenario area was the Emperor Guild.
The path discovered in the Harpe Empire was being strictly controlled.
Perhaps the only other possibility was the Crow Guild in the Ronda Kingdom?
Anyway, I thought the Crow Guild would be the next to reach the main scenario area since they also found the path, but they were still struggling against the Apostle.
‘If I were them, I would have formed an alliance to get rid of it.’
Well, even if I had such thoughts, it was ultimately someone else’s business, so I didn’t pay much attention to it.
“But how did you come back to life when you were fighting the Apostle?”
“Oh, right. Was that a resurrection skill?”
During a brief pause in the conversation, Yua asked about the skill that revived me back then, and Sina agreed, looking at me.
However, it wasn’t a difficult question to answer, so I replied simply.
“It’s a skill I obtained after defeating the Demon King. It’s a skill that revives you as a demon when you die.”
“A Demon King skill? That must be incredibly expensive.”
“……”
Hearing Sina’s words, I remembered what happened at the Real-Time Auction House yesterday.
Originally, I was going to register items and also purchase the Demon’s Power that people had listed.
But perhaps due to the aftermath of the broadcast, the price of Demon’s Power had skyrocketed.
A B-rank Demon’s Power was being sold for a whopping 20 million won.
‘That was a crazy price.’
Well, to cut to the chase, I managed to get just one.
There were three Demon’s Power listed on the Real-Time Auction House, but I had no desire to purchase the other two since they were useless skills like summoning evil spirits or singing songs.
Fortunately, the remaining one seemed like a useful skill, so I bought it for a hefty 24 million won, but it still stung.
Even though I earned more than that by selling the entire Unquenchable Flame Set.
“Sina, are demon skills expensive?”
“Huh? You didn’t know? Rudin-nim overwhelmingly defeated the Apostle with a demon skill. Moreover, since demons are hard to find now, the price has gone up tremendously. Wouldn’t you make a lot of money if you had just one Demon Skillbook?”
‘Certainly.’
Indeed, the current Demon’s Power would be more expensive than the rare potions Sina painstakingly crafted, so her words about making a lot of money weren’t wrong.
“Of course, demon skills have penalties…… but it might not matter to Rudin-nim.”
“The penalty of not being able to learn Faith skills?”
“Yes, but Rudin-nim doesn’t have any skills like that.”
Actually, it wasn’t a penalty for Demon’s Power, but a penalty for the Corruption stat.
In addition, since the Corrupted Body increased Magic Power, I was relatively free from penalties.
“Anyway, there’s really nothing here.”
As Sina said, there wasn’t even a single blade of grass in this main scenario area.
‘It’s not still under construction, is it?’
No, if that were the case, the main scenario wouldn’t have started.
Then it was right to assume it was hidden, and to find what was hidden, we needed a Search skill.
And it seemed I wasn’t the only one thinking this.
“I think we need a Search skill.”
“I can use a Search skill.”
With about 10 gems left, it shouldn’t be a problem.
If we ran out of gems, we could just use a Return Scroll to go back to town and buy more.
“What? You learned a Search skill too?”
“I have an item that uses the Search skill.”
I said that and showed them the Gem-Eating Snake.
Seeing the item, Sina nodded in admiration and said as if it was perfect timing.
“That’s a good item. Although needing gems is a drawback, it’s worth it for an A-rank Search skill.”
“We should be able to find any suspicious locations with this.”
“Finding such a place will be a task in itself.”
“It’s better than wandering around aimlessly.”
Still, thanks to the Gem-Eating Snake, their steps seemed lighter than before.
* * *
“Thunder Strike!”
Kwaang!- Bang!-
[Skill Damage! 2,415.]
━Krrrrooooar!
‘Damn it, it’s ridiculously tough!’
I had concluded that there would be nothing in the main scenario area, but I soon had to retract that thought.
While walking for a while, we discovered a certain rock.
And as soon as we approached it, a giant monster, like the one now, sprang out from the ground and started attacking relentlessly.
[Ancient Rock Giant]
A stone golem, almost 7-8 meters tall.
Its defense was so high that it didn’t take much damage even after being hit with Thunder Strike.
Fortunately, only one appeared.
‘Come on, it doesn’t make sense to struggle against something that’s not even a boss.’
Moreover, Yua was throwing javelins from behind, and Sina had summoned Purom’s 7th Experimental Subject to shoot crossbows.
It wasn’t a 1:1 fight, but a 3:1 situation, so there was no reason to lose.
━Krrrrooooar……
As expected, it took about 10 Thunder Strikes before we could kill the Rock Giant.
Adding up the damage I dealt and the damage from Yua and Sina attacking from behind, the Rock Giant’s health seemed to be around 100,000.
‘A mob with 100,000 HP……’
Would it be dangerous if five or more appeared?
The Ancient Rock Giant had excellent HP and defense, but its agility was low, so we were able to handle it without much difficulty.
However, I felt like we would have a hard time if five or so of them appeared.
[Combat experience 21,665 acquired!]
‘Well, the experience is good.’
I was thinking that it would be easy to level up if we encountered Rock Giants frequently, when Yua and Sina approached.
“Good work.”
“No problem. By the way, I didn’t expect a mob to appear.”
“It would be strange if it didn’t.”
‘Now that I think about it, that’s true.’
It was a strangely convincing statement.
“But Yua, what are you looking at?”
“Isn’t the ground over there strange?”
At her words, I turned my head to look where Yua was pointing.
I could roughly tell which spot she meant, but to me, it was just ordinary ground, nothing special.
“There? Why?”
“Well, the color of the ground is strange, you know? It seems subtly different.”
“……Rudin-nim, what do you want to do?”
It felt like she was asking me to make a decision.
“It can’t hurt.”
There was no reason to ignore Yua’s suggestion, especially since we didn’t have zero gems.
So, I decided to use the Search skill on the spot Yua mentioned. I took out the Gem-Eating Snake and activated the skill.
[Gem consumed.]
[A-rank Skill: Wave of Exploration (LV8) activated.]
Kiaaaak!
‘Huh?’
As the Gem-Eating Snake roared, a light emerged from the ground where Yua pointed.
Did we actually find it?
As someone who didn’t have high expectations, it was quite unexpected.
Anyway, the light created a passage leading underground and disappeared, and Sina and I stared at the passage in silence.
“Wow! We found it!”
“Ah, well done.”
“Amazing. How did you find it?”
“The soil seemed a little different.”
I looked again after hearing Yua’s answer, but the passage was already open, so there was no way to confirm.
‘More importantly, is this a dungeon?’
If it wasn’t a dungeon, it might be a path leading to a location related to the main scenario.
What should we do?
It was good that we found it, but thinking about Aizen, who had been struggling for two days, I felt like I should at least inform him.
“Rudin-nim? Aren’t you going in?”
“I’m thinking for a moment.”
“Is there something to think about here?”
“It’s the main scenario.”
“Main scenario? Are you trying to contact your guild members?”
As expected, Sina was quick-witted.
“Let’s go in ourselves instead. We can check what’s inside and tell them later.”
Indeed, as Sina said, there was no problem with going in first, checking what kind of place it was, and then contacting them.
However, it was just unexpected that Sina would say that.
‘She’s refusing a chance to make a lot of money.’
What would happen if I contacted Aizen?
Since we found something, there was a high chance he would start streaming again.
And he would likely share the broadcast revenue with Yua and Sina, who found the passage, but they were refusing that and suggesting we go in ourselves, so I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Then let’s do that.”
So I agreed with Sina and was about to move towards the passage when we heard someone shout from inside.
━Who opened the entrance?!
‘What?’
Surprised by the sudden shout, we took a few steps back and watched the passage.
As we watched, we saw a mole-like creature walking out on two legs.
“What? Did you guys open this passage?”
“Wow, it’s cute.”
The mole, half my height, glared at us with a disgruntled expression.
Then, it suddenly tilted its head and said in a puzzled tone.
“But are you humans? There shouldn’t be any humans left here.”
“Excuse me, but who are you?”
“I’m Mous of the Molmol Tribe. More importantly, how are you humans here?”
“We are……”
I was about to answer the mole who introduced himself as Mous, but I couldn’t remember why we were here.
Since I hadn’t received the main scenario quest, I didn’t actually know what was going on.
However, remembering the message that popped up when the main scenario appeared and its title, I managed to open my mouth.
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