Chapter 44. War Merchant (1)

Rainbow light flashed intensely again.

This was the important part. If the light dissipated then the enhancement would fail, and if the light seeped into the item, then the enhancement would succeed.

‘Go!’

Sanghyuk shouted in his heart and watched the rainbow light. Perhaps his deepest wishes had reached the light.

*Paaah, tssss!*

Surprisingly, the rainbow light seeped into the Ten Millennia Goldbone whip.

“Oooooh, this is…….”

At that moment, even the enhancement NPC was surprised and looked down at the Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip.

Rainbow light, this meant double upgrade effect. In other words, the fact that the enhancement succeeded this time meant that the enhancement went up by two and not one.

“There’s one high grade enhancement stone left. Do you wish to continue?”

“No, I’ll stop here.”

Sanghyuk shook his head and received the +7 and the remaining high grade enhancement stone.

He immediately opened the item window and checked how stronger the +7 Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip had become.

+7 Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip [Unique ++]

-A special weapon made by the greatest smith using the greatest materials. It looks even more special thanks to the fact that the smith’s abilities were used to the maximum. Also, the value can also increase more since it’s the first of its kind.

It was upgraded 7 times and acquired a mysterious force.

[Basic stats] Attack power 150(+30)(+135), Critical hit rate +20(+4)(+18)%

[Special stats] Critical hit damage + 50(+10)(+45)%, all stats +10(+2)(+9)

[Special effects] 〉It doesn’t snap(A): Durability increases by 20 times.〈, 〉It’s better than spider strings(A): Can latch onto an opponent stronger.〈, 〉Hit me more(B): Can present the greatest bliss towards a being with peculiar preferences.〈

[Enhancement effect] 〉+5 effect : Critical damage +70%〈

〉+7 effect : Agility +70〈

[Bonus effect] (1) Movement speed +5%, (2) Agility +12.

Thanks to the enhancement, the basic stats increased and there were two special enhancement effects as well. From +2 to +5, each enhancement resulted in a +10% in overall stats, +6 20%, +7 30%, +8 40%, +9 50%, while +10 increased the overall stats by 100%.

‘The enhancement effect is exactly what I wanted too.’

Critical damage and agility were both stats that Sanghyuk preferred the most.

Sanghyuk had set his items focused on critical hits. He had also raised the agility stat a lot since it was related to critical hit rate and damage.

The next thing he focused on was the strength.

Strength was directly related to attack power, so no matter how much he focused on critical hits, if his base attack was low, there was no way his damage would be high.

Also, he invested almost no stats into defense. With agility, dodge rates would increase so he only invested in dodge-related stats in regards to defense.

The rest…… he just relied on ‘Giant Blood’.

Endurance of Giants. With this, he felt that it would fill his lacking defense.

‘I don’t think I’ll switch my main weapon anytime soon…… so I guess I should gather up some more enhancement stones and enhance Silvermoon fragments and then the armor? Oh, and it looks like I should get a proper armor soon.’

Until now, he invested his time more into titles than items, but it was about time he started setting up his items as well.

Actually, the entirety of the Hellfire Desert was like a huge dungeon that tested users for the final time.

Once Hellfire Desert was conquered and users started advancing into Heroic Lands or the Solar Continent, numerous contents would start appearing, so he had to set up his items before then.

‘I have too many things to do. I also need to get that live channel…… and it’s about time I started finding the ones that betrayed me.’

Sanghyuk came up with endless streams of things he had to do. He felt like even ten of him wasn’t enough. However, he had to calm down precisely at times like these.

“Phew, let’s not become hasty and solve them one by one.”

Sanghyuk took a deep breath and shook his head.

Being hasty would result in failures in even the things he should succeed in.

Sanghyuk wrapped the Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip around his right arm and went to the auction of Tune. He went to the merchant NPC of the Golden Mountain merchant guild and collected all the items the NPC had bought.

The merchant item had bought all the items that fit in Sanghyuk’s requirements so the spatial expansion bag was filled with items.

Having collected the items, Sanghyuk immediately went to Falcon City and collected the items there as well.

He put up the items he was going to sell at the auction and before he logged out he went to Ilya, who was managing the Hiddenline in his place.

***

The results of Observe Information can be checked through Ilya.

The results of Collect Information can be checked through Ilya.

The results of Manipulate Information can be checked through Ilya.

Sanghyuk received the results of the organization skills he had used yesterday as soon as he met up with Ilya. The organization skills for the Hiddenline could be used once every 24 hours so it was better to use it whenever possible.

“Regarding the information about the monster you have spoken about, I have put up a report so you can just read that one. Also, we kept looking for the people you told us to look for, but it was hard to discern the correct person with just the traits you have told us. Even so, I have gathered as much information as possible and have made a report.”

Report made by Ilya could be seen through the management window so he just had to check it at his convenience.

“Finally, we keep leaking rumors about the under-evaluated items.”

Observing, collecting and manipulating information was something Sanghyuk was doing all the time. However, there was one thing that he felt a little pity about. It was that…… the range of influence of the Hiddenline he had conquered was only limited to the Land of Dusk.

“Okay then. You’ve done well.”

Sanghyuk lightly patted Ilya’s shoulders.

“But Ilya. Is it really impossible to go to Hellfire Desert as I told you before?”

This was the third time he was asking that. That showed how much Sanghyuk wanted to expand his Hiddenline NPCs to the Hellfire Desert.

“As I told you before, we have our own domains. Like how they never expand here to the Land of dusk, we also do not invade their domain. You can consider it a mutual non-intervention pact.”

“You can’t break it?”

“Breaking it would mean a frontal war…… but this mutual non-intervention pact was something created by the ‘Shadow King’ himself a long time ago, so even you, the master of the Hiddenline, cannot break it.”

“The Shadow King again, huh…… that’s a pity.”

Sanghyuk said words of pity after hearing her words.

“If you wish to use the Hiddenline in other areas, there is one method.”

“Huh? There is?”

All conditions have been fulfilled and the hidden main quest ‘Path of the Shadow King’ begins. This quest is one of the few very important stories that flow in a different path from the main quest. This quest cannot be declined and is made up of numerous chain quests.

The darkness created behind the light. And the ones that walk that darkness…… May your challenge be successful.

You have received the hidden main quest ‘Shadow King’.

‘Whoa? Hidden m, main quest?’

Sanghyuk was surprised at the sudden system message. A quest he completely didn’t expect had been generated, and a main quest at that.

Hidden main quest was something he hadn’t heard of before, but main quest was still a main quest.

‘There was something like this? I thought the only main quest was the revival of the Sun God……. So there are many things that I don’t know about.’

The first chain quest of the hidden main quest ‘Shadow King’, ‘Hiddenline of Hellfire Desert’ has been generated.

Since it was a main quest, chain quests related to it started being generated. He didn’t know the specifics, but according to rumors, the most well-known main quest in his previous life, ‘Revival of the Sun God’ had over 30 types of chain quests.

‘I don’t even get how big the picture is now.’

Main quests were too big and complex so it would be hard to clear even with several months.

So, Sanghyuk thought that nothing would change immediately just because he got this quest.

‘Let’s just consider it as more foundation for the big picture I am drawing.’

Sanghyuk calmed his mind and spoke to Ilya again.

“So, it’s up to me again?”

“Yes, we cannot help you in any way due to the non-intervention pact.”

Sanghyuk nodded after hearing Ilya’s words.

“Okay, then I’ll look into that.”

After listening to Ilya’s report, he had finished everything he needed to do so he stood up. Normally, he would enjoy his time with Ilya before going away, but today, he had some things to do after logging out so he immediately left Rainbow.

Quest – Path of the Shadow King [Divine, Hidden, Main]

– If there is light, there is darkness. If you can walk the darkness and reach the throne, then it will become a legend and myth. O seeker of the path darker than the abyss…… let the blessing of the darkness be with you…….

[Chain quest]

– First chain quest ‘Hiddenline of Hellfire Desert’

– ????

– ????

– ????

– ????

……

……

‘I don’t even know how big this became now.’

Having left Rainbow, Sanghyuk checked the details of the quest and thought that it was indeed like the main quest.

Having checked that as well, Sanghyuk immediately logged out.

Soon, his limit for access time would come and he was honestly tired as well.

He immediately went to sleep after logging out. He hadn’t slept for 22 hours, so he fell asleep as soon as he went to bed.

***

After 5 hours of deep sleep, Sanghyuk first exercised since he wasn’t able to do that recently. He took a wooden sword and went to the nearby park without many people in it to swing his sword for one hour before he ran around the district again.

After exercising, he came back home and took a shower. Then, he opened up the internet while eating high-nutrition cereal again with milk.

It was nearing 7 months since the launch of EL. The number of users was still explosively increasing, so news about how simultaneous accesses to the Dream Network was breaking records each day was being broadcasted.

Someone even coined the term ‘EL syndrome’. Not to mention youths in their 20s and 30s, even some of the older generation in their 40s and 50s who had nostalgia about previous generation MMORPGs even became fans of the game.

It was even popular among women who were normally distant from games. Of course, many people were saying that this was overhyped and it was a temporary thing, but Sanghyuk knew well that those people would all disappear later.

The simultaneous log-ins to EL would keep increasing until the 3 year mark and then would repeatedly rise and fall for another 5 years.

Although the number of Koreans may not rise, the number of foreigners logging into the game would keep increasing, and some people would even immigrate to Korea to enjoy the game in comfort.

In any way, online forums and communities were increasing in scale as well as EL’s popularity rose, and InGamez, the site Sanghyuk was looking at now, would also change into an EL-specific website later.

Actually, it was already showing signs of that right now.

Sanghyuk was reading down InGamez with his cereal as he always did. However, InGamez was slightly different from usual today.

‘Huh? Did something happen?’

A single issue was pervading all of InGamez’s forums. Considering how big InGamez was, this was incredibly rare.

Becoming curious, Sanghyuk moved to the hot topics category and checked what was happening.

Even though he had read a single article that summed up this incident, he knew exactly what was going on.

‘The Red Pyramid War!’

Of course, right now, the word ‘war’ couldn’t be attached to it. To name it right now, it would rather be ‘The Red Pyramid Skirmish’ instead. However, Sanghyuk knew precisely what this skirmish would turn into later down the line.

That was because…… the workshop guild he belonged to in his previous life was at the center of all this.