Reader - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Mid-ranker Yeon Jung

-Hall No.3

Soo Hyuk arrived at Hall No.3

“Well that’s just great.”

Out of all the warp destinations, this was the worst place to arrive at. This was because this hall was the farthest from the meeting place.

“Can I just about make it?”

Because it was so far from the meeting place, he didn’t know how much time it would take.

40 minutes left.

“I won’t be late.”

Soo Hyuk said to himself. Even if Hall No.3 was the farthest, he should be able to make it in 40 minutes. Soo Hyuk quickened his pace as he thought to himself.

“Let’s give up now.”

“But it’ll be a jackpot if we pass!”

“Hey, we died 3 times already. What about the penalty?”

“We don’t have to worry about the penalty as long we get the prize! And if we quit now, what about the penalties we’ve got so far?”

“Yeah, like he said, the prize makes up for the penalty. No pain no gain, right? I also don’t want to back out now with all the previous penalties. But I gotta admit that this challenge is almost impossible, you piece of crap.”

“But we’re so close. Only a little bit further and we get the reward!”

“O-okay. Two more times. If we fail at that point, I’m not going for triple or double rewards. Only the original, okay?”

“Of course!”

Hearing the users around him, Soo Hyuk though,

“Pass? Is it like a test?”

Although he was curious, he wasn’t curious enough to ask so he just kept heading to the southern entrance of Central Matab which was the meeting place.

“12:57!”

There was only 3 minutes left. Thankfully, he was nearly at the southern entrance so he would at most be a few minutes late.

“Huff…Huff…Why did we choose the southern entrance?”

When Soo Hyuk arrived at the southern entrance, he was almost overwhelmed by the crowds. How was he supposed to find Yeon Jung in this place?

However…

“Hey, Soo Hyuk!”

Soo Hyuk was standing in the crowd when he heard his name over the other conversations. He turned to the source, searching for the only person who could’ve called out his name.

“Soo Hyuk!”

He kept looking around but he couldn’t see Yeon Jung. Then he heard the yell again.

“Where are you! Soo Hyuk!”

Soo Hyuk pushed aside other people as he kept heading towards the source of the voice. As he was getting closer, the yells continued. Soo Hyuk was pushing and being pushed when he found the person yelling his name. The man was dressed as a War God, with black armour clad around his body.

“He’s probably Yeon Jung?”

A black helmet was on his head so he couldn’t see his face, but it was likely that it was him. No, Soo Hyuk was certain it was Yeon Jung as he was the one shouting his name, so Soo Hyuk approached him.

“Soo……”

When he approached the mass of armour, the shouts stopped.

“You’re finally here!”

Of course, the person clad in armour was Yeon Jung.

“Wait, first let’s add each other as friends.”

Yeon Jung said as he took off his helmet. A moment later, a tab appeared in front of Soo Hyuk. It was the friends tab. Soo Hyuk pressed the ‘accept’ button and the message appeared.

-User: [Yeon Jung] is now your friend.

“Here.”

After adding Soo Hyuk as a friend, Yeon Jung held out his hand. Soo Hyuk could see a small pouch in his hand.

“What is it?”

“Funds!”

Yeon Jung answered Soo Hyuk’s question with a smile. Inside the pouch was gold.

“Thanks.”

After he received the pouch, Soo Hyuk checked its information for the amount of gold.

“……!”

After he looked at the information, Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but be surprised.

“2-200 gold?! Can you give this much?”

Soo Hyuk looked at Yeon Jung with a surprised face. 200 gold? Isn’t this a massive amount?

“Hehe, it’s nothing. Look, I’m a mid-ranker, you blockhead.”

Yeon Jung was above the 2000th rank in Pangea. To him, 200 gold wasn’t that much.

“Just take it for now and buy defensive gear with it. And get decent ones. You know how important they are.”

In the beginning, weapons were important, but defensive gear even more so. This was because there were a lot of cases where you couldn’t find a suitable party so you had to act solo. Especially in Matab, where there were only Magicians crawling all over the place.

“Don’t buy any weapons. Maybe not for other people but it’ll definitely be a waste for you.”

Weapons were of course very important, though not as much as defensive gear. But for Soo Hyuk who just read books all day without hunting or doing quests, Yeon Jung thought it would definitely be a waste.

Another point was that Soo Hyuk was going to be a Magician. Magician were generally focused on offense and the wisdom stat, which affected the mana and magic attack stat.

Soo Hyuk’s wisdom didn’t make sense for a stranger. Especially for a level 8. His overwhelming wisdom would just make having ordinary weapons obsolete. If a weapon raised his wisdom by 10, the difference it would make wouldn’t be worth paying large amounts of gold for it. It was better to get a weapon that he could use for a long time after he levels up.

“No wait, don’t buy defensive gear either.”

While Yeon Jung was thinking, he suddenly put out a contradictory statement.

“Thinking about it, you don’t need to buy them. It’ll still be an instant kill.”

What he meant was that since the difference in having a weapon or not was negligent, it was the same with defensive gear. He would still one shot those around his level. As for those in higher levels, the low level gear available to Soo Hyuk wouldn’t make much of a difference to them.

“Mmm.”

Soo Hyuk nodded his head at Yeon Jung’s way of thinking. It was better if he didn’t waste gold on low level gear.

“I just have to reach level 10.”

If he reached level 10, more gear would be unlocked for him as well as the Magician job.

After that, Soo Hyuk and Yeon Jung walked around the city while talking about various topics. Of course, the conversation didn’t last long like always.

“…Okay then. I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, you too.”

“Just send a message through the friends chat if you want to ask me something!”

Yeon Jung then walked through a warp gate after saying goodbye. After Yeon Jung disappeared, Soo Hyuk also started to walk away. It was time to level up.

“Let’s go to the southern Hunting Grounds.”

Although it was called Central Matab, it wasn’t located exactly in the centre. It was actually slightly closer to the southern side.

Soo Hyuk was going to the southern Hunting Grounds, which was the closest to him.

“Buy some freshly baked bread!”

While he was walking to the southern Hunting Grounds, he looked towards where the voice was coming from. He could see a bakery filled with delicious looking bread. Soo Hyuk opened his inventory while looking at the bread displayed on the stands.

“Hmm, there are only 3 hard breads left. Should I buy some more?”

Thinking about his satiation, he had to buy bread anyway, so Soo Hyuk entered the bakery.

“If you read here, it will say what kind of bread it is!”

After entering, the worker gave a brief explanation about the bakery. Although he didn’t say anymore, as the bakery was crowded with many customers so he couldn’t spend time explaining where everything was.

“The stairs to the second floor are this way!”

“Thank you.”

After Soo Hyuk answered, the worker went away and started explaining to the other customers. Having received the short explanation, Soo Hyuk started to look around the lively bakery.

“There’s some hard bread here……”

The first thing that came to his line of sight was the hard bread. But Soo Hyuk didn’t have any thoughts about buying them this time.

“Let’s buy the soft bread.”

Of course, Soo Hyuk wasn’t going to buy the most expensive bread just because he had some money on him. He was thinking about the soft bread, which was above hard bread in the bread hierarchy. Soo Hyuk took some soft bread that was next to the hard bread and started to head towards the counter.

“……!”

The cashier at the counter made a surprised face at the amount Soo Hyuk was carrying towards her.

“10 gold please.”

“Here you go.”

Soo Hyuk gave 10 gold to the cashier, who received it with a nervous smile. After he put all his bread in his inventory, he exited the bakery.

“Now, what’s my current satiation?……”

Soo Hyuk checked his status after exiting the bakery.

“Hmm, I have to eat.”

Thankfully, his satiation was just near 50%. Soo Hyuk took out some soft bread from his inventory and started eating.

“……”

Soo Hyuk didn’t say anything as he ate the bread. Instead, there was a smile on his face. The soft bread tasted that good.

Of course, it wasn’t the first time tasting it. He also ate some back on Oren, but it wasn’t this tasty.

“Was it because I ate too much hard bread?”

You could say that soft bread was still a cheap bread. No, it definitely was a cheap bread. There was only hard bread below soft bread. So he couldn’t help but wonder whether the taste was from eating too much hard bread.

“Anyway, soft bread is really good.”,

Soo Hyuk thought as he stuffed the other half in his mouth. If soft bread was this good, what about the bread further up the ladder? The best of the best? Would they taste magical and heavenly?”(TL: bread cultivation🤣?)

“No, more expensive doesn’t mean tastier.”

The most expensive bread didn’t mean that the bread was the most delicious. The soft bread could actually be the tastiest, just not the most expensive. But Soo Hyuk still wondered about the bread at the top.

***

“Who wants to go hunt wolves with me!”

“Recruiting people to go fox hunting! I learned Ice Wheel just for this!”

“Who wants to go fox hunting with us! I’m a Tank and we’ll give generous shares! Preferably Magicians!”

Soo Hyuk reached the Hunting Grounds while fantasising about bread. The entrance was full of users recruiting for their parties. Of course, Soo Hyuk ignored them and proceeded to the beginner grounds.

“Catching rabbits probably won’t do anything.”

The first monster that Soo Hyuk encountered was a rabbit, however, like most users he ignored it because the EXP that rabbits gave was pitifully few.

“Is this already the wild dog area?”

The second monster he encountered was a wild dog, which were not quite wolves yet or average dogs. Soo Hyuk pulled out his sword from his inventory and approached the dog.

Although with Soo Hyuk’s level, he could hunt foxes, but he wanted to hunt wild dogs first as he had no combat experience.

“How many should I hunt?”,

Soo Hyuk thought as he waved his sword.