Reader - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Hunting Start!

“Do you perhaps have an appointment with master……”

The man, who was eyeing the woman with a suspicious glare, swung his head around and scrutinized Soo Hyuk with a surprised expression after hearing her words.

“Yes.”

In response to the woman’s words, Soo Hyuk opened his inventory and showed them the token that Pavian had given him.

Surprise once again appeared on their faces as they inspected the token in Soo Hyuk’s hands.

“I’ll guide you to master.”

The woman said to Soo Hyuk. She started walking further into the floor and Soo Hyuk hurriedly followed her.

* * *

“Team leader!”

Yang Joo Hyuk, who was concentrating on his work, jumped at Jang Yool’s sudden shout.

Yang Joo Hyuk then raised his head to look at Jang Yool with a frown.

“What?”

“This……this……this is too strange!”

Jang Yool stammered. Yang Joo Hyuk began to feel anxious from his tone of voice.

‘……What happened this time?’

This wasn’t the first time Jang Yool had erupted like this. He had previously erupted two times before. The previous incident’s impact had almost crashed the official Pangea forums. Just what had happened this time?

“I think there’s a bug.”

Yang Joo Hyuk, who was wondering what had happened, jumped up from his seat at Jang Yool’s words.

“Bug? There’s a bug?”

Bugs? Yang Joo Hyuk wondered what the big deal was this time. But this was too out of the blue for him.

“Really?”

No, the suddenness wasn’t a problem for now. The problem was the severity of Jang Yool’s reaction. Yang Joo Hyuk hastily went over to Jang Yool’s desk.

“Look at this!”

Jang Yool exclaimed when Yang Joo Hyuk arrived next to him. He was pointing at the fourth monitor. Yang Joo Hyuk tilted his head when he looked at it.

“……What’s the problem?”

“This is the Poison Master’s Blessing, right?”

“Yep, it is.”

“The Archmage’s Descendant just got it.”

“……What?”

Yang Joo Hyuk said with a small voice. Some special jobs received special perks the moment they changed into them. The Poison Master was one of them.

“The Archmage’s Descendant got the Poison Master’s Blessing?”

“Yes!”

When Yang Joo Hyuk heard the tone of his voice, it really seemed to be true.

“Wait.”

Yang Joo Hyuk hastily returned to his seat. Yang Joo Hyuk started typing furiously on his keyboard before his butt hit his chair. Then he stopped abruptly.

He was frowning heavily.

“It’s not a bug.”

He confirmed to Jang Yool.

“What? It’s not a bug?”

Jang Yool panicked at Yang Joo Hyuk’s words. The Archmage’s Descendant had somehow gotten his hands on the Poison Master’s unique perk. And yet, it wasn’t a bug?

“If you consider it, it’s not an exclusive perk that Poison Masters get. It’s something the Poison Spire Lord gives. It’s just that Poison Masters are guaranteed to get it when they’re promoted. So, you don’t have to be a Poison Master to get the blessing……”

Yang Joo Hyuk trailed off.

“Then……”

Jang Yool’s voice also trailed off.

“What if……”

Jang Yool continued.

“The other blessings……?”

The Poison Magician exclusive job, ‘Poison Master’. Other than the Poison Master, there were also exclusive jobs for the other nine elements, and correspondingly, nine other blessings.

“Hmm.”

Yang Joo Hyuk nodded slowly. Then Jang Yool replied with a surprised tone.

“What the heck.”

* * *

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Tell me if there’s anything you need!”

“Yes. I’ll get going now.”

Soo Hyuk said goodbye to Pavian and left his room. After leaving the room, he opened his quest tab.

[The 30-Day Endeavor]

[You, who lacks poison resistance! Pavian will boost your immunity. Take Pavian’s poison once a day!]

[Take Pavian’s Special Poison: 0 / 30 ]

[Quest Reward: Title – Poison Maestro ]

The tests Pavian mentioned. It was taking poison. It’s aim was to increase Soo Hyuk’s poison resistance.

Why he had to increase his resistance he didn’t know, but he had no reason to refuse if it was safe.

“I guess ill have to come back tomorrow as well……”’

The one thing he didn’t like was the time. He had to take poison once a day for 30 days, so he had to visit the Tower of Poison every day, for 30 days.

‘Well, at least taking poison doesn’t take that long.’

The good thing was that he only had to stay over at the Tower of Poison for a short period of time each visit.

‘The time is……’

Soo Hyuk checked the time as he left the Tower of Poison.

‘Should I read? Or hunt?’

Soo Hyuk had decided to read in the morning, hunt in the afternoon, and read again in the evening. But the current schedule was too tight with the addition of the new quest.

‘Let’s just go hunting.’

In the end, Soo Hyuk decided to go hunting. It was because reading now conflicted too much with the time allocations of his new schedule. Soo Hyuk opened his character tab after deciding to hunt.

User: Soo Hyuk

Occupation: Archmage’s Descendant

Level: 10

Experience: 0%

Health: 3040

Mana: 36620

Satiation: 72%

Strength: 14

Agility: 15

Stamina: 58

Wisdom: 1831

After he became a Magician he hadn’t hunted even once. Because of this, he was still level 10.

‘The wild dogs are too weak for me to level quickly.’

In the Southern Beginner Hunting Grounds, there were rabbits and wild dogs to hunt. Although the dogs were suitable to hunt until level 12, Soo Hyuk didn’t think so. The reason the suitable hunting level was level 12 was because it was relatively safe, but it didn’t really matter for him.

‘It’s either the Western or the Eastern Hunting Grounds.’

The Western and Eastern Hunting Grounds. They weren’t for beginners anymore. It was a place where users around level 20 to 30 hunted.

‘The Eastern one is closer, so I’ll go there.’

The Tower of Poison was situated in the Eastern part of the city. That meant that the Eastern Hunting Ground was closer to Soo Hyuk. After he decided on his destination, Soo Hyuk started walking towards the Eastern Hunting Ground.

“I’m looking for a party! I’m a level 20 Healing Magician! I’ve already learnt 3 spells!”

“Looking for a Water Magician who can cast Ice Fog! I’m a Lightning Magician!”

Soo Hyuk arrived at the Eastern Hunting Ground not long after heading out. He could see numerous users searching for party members at the entrance. Of course, Soo Hyuk passed by them without a thought as he had no intention of joining a party.

As he entered the hunting ground, Soo Hyuk could see users hunting foxes. While he watched the various users hunting, he thought.

‘Hunting 5 in 30 seconds is going to be hard.’

Was it because there were a lot of users? Or was it originally like this? There were fewer foxes then Soo Hyuk had initially thought. He thought that he could easily hunt 5 in 30 seconds but realised that it wasn’t realistic.

It wasn’t a matter of cooldown, Soo Hyuk realised as he began to search for foxes.

“Wah, isn’t that the Poison Tower robe?”

“Is he a Poison Magician?”

“Huh, is he actually going to use poison?”

“Hey, at least he can catch the foxes. But anything beyond wolves……”

“Kekeke.”

Soo Hyuk heard the nearby users whispers while he was resting after hunting. Soo Hyuk knew that they were laughing at him, because he was wearing the poison tower robe. The robe that Spire Lord Pavian had given him.

“Magic missile.”

Soo Hyuk fired a missile at a nearby fox he had found.

The magic missile flew at a high speed and struck the fox. The fox was killed in one hit. Soo Hyuk saw the rare drop window after the fox was killed.

[You have acquired: ]

– 1 fox pelt

Soo Hyuk had gotten a piece of fox skin. When he turned around, he could see the users murmuring amongst each other.

Was it because he had killed the fox in one hit? None of them were laughing now.

They just stared at the dead fox and then turned to stare at Soo Hyuk with wide eyes. Smiling at their reactions, Soo Hyuk just turned around and started searching for more foxes.

‘How much has it risen.’

Soo Hyuk thought as he opened his character tab. He wanted to check how much experience he had gained, but when he saw his character profile, he stopped dead in his tracks.

‘1%?!’

His 0% experience had risen to 1%. In disbelief he closed his character tab and opened it again. But he hadn’t seen wrong.

‘……5 times more?’

The reason he closed and opened his character tab was because his experience had only risen by 1%.

If a level 10 player with a normal job hunted a fox, his experience would rise by 5%. That meant he would be level 11 after hunting 20 foxes.

‘Even if it’s a special job, 5 times is too much!’

Special jobs did require more experience to level up, but Soo Hyuk believed that 5 times more completely blew the scale out of proportion.

Normal jobs only had to hunt 20 foxes, but he had to hunt 100.

“This is bullshit.”

Soo Hyuk cursed. 100 foxes?

‘No, it just means that my job is that much better.’

Soo Hyuk tried to convinced himself. The amount of experience required to level up differed from job to job, but the better jobs usually required more experience. The Archmage’s Descendant required five times more experience to level up. That just meant that it was that good.

‘And I can kill them in one hit anyway.’

One hit with his magic was enough to kill them. That meant it wouldn’t necessarily take a long time to hunt 100 foxes. In fact, it could be faster than some normal jobs. Soo Hyuk closed his character tab and stared off into the distance.

‘Should I go further in and hunt wolves?’

If a user ventured a little further, wolves would start to appear. Wolves were stronger than foxes but they also gave more experience. That meant Soo Hyuk didn’t have to hunt 100 of them to level up.

‘There’s less competition as well.’

Hunting for wolves also had less competition. They did give more experience, but not many players hunted wolves, not out of choice, but because wolves were too difficult. Wolves moved in packs and had the ability to call for other allies, so players generally hunted bears who were usually solitary instead.

‘Wolves will still die in one hit anyway.’

Soo Hyuk’s wisdom stat was staggering, so wolves would also die in one hit like the foxes. After all, there wasn’t any competition, so Soo Hyuk decided to hunt wolves.

“Wait.”

As he began to walk, he suddenly stopped.

‘Should I just hunt bears?’

With his wisdom, bears were also going to die in one hit. Bears gave more experience and had a better item drop rate than wolves. So Soo Hyuk considered hunting bears.

‘No, there’s more competition so it could get annoying.’

Soo Hyuk shook his head after thinking a little. The competition for hunting bears would be even greater than foxes, as they were bigger and slower than wolves. So, all the higher level players would be hunting bears.

If Soo Hyuk charged in one-shotting bears, it was likely that the players would either kill him or try to party with him, and either option was bothersome for him.

He would just hunt more wolves if this was the case. After he finished thinking, Soo Hyuk continued heading deeper.