LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 13
Episode 13
Eunkyung Shin, the operator, and Lenny, the player.
All are the same person.
“…….”
I couldn’t help but stare at Lenny. When a party is formed, the other party’s information appears as a translucent window on the left. When I saw it, I couldn’t help but open my mouth in surprise.
“Character: Reine
Class: Cleric, Necromancer Two-Master
Level: 243”
In addition to that, an HP window and a mana window appeared. My level is 100, her level is 243. By the way, her items are also very shiny(?). I didn’t recognize her at first sight, probably because of her beauty, but now I feel intimidated by her items.
She gave me a look that said she couldn’t understand why I was having this reaction.
“…Your level is 243.”
“Ah…….”
She smirks as if she understands now.
“For some reason, I wonder what this feeling of meeting a powerful enemy is.
“…And?”
She… really doesn’t know, but?
I’m stunned.
I collapsed to the ground. She spoke as if she didn’t care. It was ridiculous. A level 243 Two-Master and a Sword Master who just turned 100. They’re a hunting party…….
‘Well, I’m the beneficiary, but… what was she thinking…….’
“…Are you sure it’s okay to hunt with me? The level gap is too big…….”
When playing at a party, you can’t expect efficient party play if you’re more than 30 levels apart from your party members. Lenny is level 243, presumably a ranked player, and she’s not weak enough for party play, and there are only a handful of people who can party with her.
In Middle-earth, there are about 10,000 Masters. There are only 500 Two-Masters, and that’s on the entire server.
There are 100 million players, and only 0.01% of them are masters of a single class.
Of course, some of them may be close to Two-Masters, and some of them, like me, may have just become one.
Two-masters are even fewer in number. 0.0005% of 100 million people are Two-Masters.
She’s a ranked player who fits into this tiny percentage. She shouldn’t have had to ask me to a party, but she did.
I’m a man who makes a living off of common sense, but in the face of such an unconventional occurrence, my brain went into overload and I began to feverishly think.
“Ho-ho… I’m sure Karen would rather have a good time, and I’m not in the way, am I?”
“Of course not?
She’s a cleric, but she’s also a necromancer… She’s probably both a male and female cleric.
She can call upon angels, she can call upon demons, and she’s probably mastered all the blessings and curses.
The combination of cleric and necromancer would be very interesting and useful. Even I would be in a room with her if she was an angel.
I had a chance to read about angels on the website, and they are magical swordsmen who can wield holy swords, move freely on their wings, and use holy magic.
You can only summon one angel, and they are said to level up as you progress. Of course, if they are forcibly killed by others, they are leveled down. However, you can summon them again.
Angels are no different from Guardians. In fact, they’re better than Guardians.
You can summon an angel even if it’s not there, whereas a guardian will follow you constantly. Also, once a Guardian dies, it’s over, whereas an angel is not. Demons will be the same, and her level is no joke, so what if an angel and a demon show up at the same time? The only monsters she won’t be able to kill are probably higher tiers…….
“Phew. Okay, Ren will be more experienced, so pick a hunting ground.”
“Ren, you’re shortening it to one character because you can’t be bothered to pronounce Lenny, ho ho.”
Her iron-skinned deity was too great. Couple that with her face, and there was no way I could win.
Originally, I was going to fold this game. It’s fun in its own way, but it still doesn’t have the same thrill as Sudden Death.
Of course, the more monsters I killed, the more thrilling it was, but monsters are a different kind of concept than humans. Sudden Death is about killing humans, but monsters are monsters. It’s too unrealistic.
I want to revel in the thrill and pleasure of killing humans, which is probably a late-stage symptom of my addiction to Sudden Death…….
I’d like to think I’m never a pervert, but… look at me. Where’s the perversion…….
I’d like to spend a little more time with beautiful women. I’m a manners player (oops, scam!) who can’t refuse a request from a user (only female users).
“Hmmm… let’s go to the Teleport Association first.”
The Teleportation Society is an NPC-run organization, the largest of its kind, and if you took it over, you could probably get rich in 10 seconds.
Middle-earth has about 30 million concurrent players across all servers combined. A third of the people who sign up are still playing the game. Of course, as many new players join as log out, so this number can be maintained.
Teleportation is a bit expensive, costing at least a thousand gold per trip. This is more expensive than the best form of transportation in the real world, the levitation bus (10 gold equals 1 cent, which is the average price in the real world). The levitation bus can take you to any stop you want, but this association is completely ridiculous: the farther the distance, the more times you have to teleport.
Teleportation is similar to waypoints.
Teleportation requires you to draw a magic circle, while waypoints are permanent magic circles carved into the ground at the time the game was created. Teleportation magic circles are drawn by NPCs, while waypoints can be saved by walking through Middle-earth with your own feet.
“Where would you like to go?”
The teleporting NPC asked, looking at the two of us.
“To the Ancient Isles, two people.”
“An ancient island……?
It’s a place I don’t recognize from my knowledge. I’ve memorized most of the famous hunting grounds. The ones that are useful to me, of course. But the place Ren is talking about is not one of those famous hunting grounds. It must have been a map created together in the last patch.
“Then it must be a hunting ground for Goreb, right?
Middle-earth adds maps as players progress through the levels. One level higher, of course.
For one thing, the best monster currently available, the Gold Dragon, or Dragonlord, has never been captured. Rumor has it that it takes a group of 100 Two-Masters to capture it. It’s probably a monster that was created just for the sake of it, for the sake of setting perfection.
“Is this a volcanic island?”
Black smoke against a blue sky. A volcano that looks like it could spew red heat at any moment. It is a volcanic island. I had never seen a volcanic island before. It was both beautiful and intimidating.
“Yeah. It was created in secret, along with the latest vampire patch.”
“In secret?
“Then how did you know about Ren?”
“Ren. Sounds like a guy’s name, but I don’t care, it’s cool…….”
“…….”
She turned the horse away. The Teleportation Society is an NPC organization, so they should be able to figure out the teleportation coordinates right off the bat, even if it’s a new map. They’re connected to the operators.
Even if it’s a secret island, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting there if you can name the exact location to a teleporting NPC.
However, very few people know about it, and many players don’t even know about other hunting spots unless they’re famous.
So finding your own hunting spots can be useful in its own way.
I shouldn’t have to keep asking if she’s hiding it.
* * *
“Chief Park!”
“Yes. You wanted to see me?”
“Yes. Why did Ms. Shin go to the Ancient Island, which is still undiscovered?”
The Ancient Island is one of the many undiscovered areas. It can only be discovered by sailing, and the chances of finding it are low, but the monsters there give 1.2 times the experience and drop items at a slightly higher rate than monsters in other areas.
“…I don’t know, maybe it’s because it’s a map that doesn’t have any dungeons or mystery quests?”
Ancient Isle is still only two days old, and there are no special quests or dungeons.
It’s just a bunch of nicely placed ancient ruins, and the monsters have been carefully crafted to look ancient.
No one had discovered the Ancient Island, and the chances of finding it were low, but Xin Eun Kyung might know about it since she was a Rank 2 Operator.
“Hmph. Is that so?”
The president has been focusing on that user, Karen, for the past few days. Perhaps she’s the one who can ensure the success of ‘that’ event. That’s what you originally thought, but now you’re afraid she’s going to upset the balance.
He’s not the best user now, but in a month’s time, Half-Dragon’s event will have the effect of overpowering his skills like a ghost.
It’s all their fault. From balancers to quest tweaks…….
“But isn’t that the whole point of the game?
Middle-earth.
Unlike other games, it’s not a pure grind-it-out game.
You don’t level up solely through hard work, but through a series of small and large quests that, if you’re lucky, will reward you with good rewards and high experience, and sometimes will give you little for your efforts. That’s the real world. It’s like a game version of the real world.
Life is an unknown, and so is Middle-earth. There are tons of quests, and many people have gotten high-level quests by accident.
However, while many of them have hit a wall of difficulty and gotten bitter, a few have gotten a thrill and a thrill out of it.
Middle-earth is a new kind of RPG that’s done away with a lot of the clichés.
Since players don’t level up at higher levels, they prefer to go on quests rather than just run around killing monsters.
This is because there’s a lot of variety, and the experience points don’t make much of a difference compared to grinding. And if you get a quest with a good clue, you can even expect to be rewarded with an item.
The balance of Middle-earth is very similar to the real world.
It’s not just about hard work, but also about luck.
However in this case, it was a bit too much.