Chapter 35

[Your Stamina has increased by 1 point for an unknown reason!]

The battle ended quickly, as the goblins had thrown their forces forward recklessly to cast wide-area magic spells.

“What’s the damage?”

“We lost ten shield bearers, fifteen swordsmen, and twenty-one infantrymen. Twice that number were injured but managed to get back on their feet with the help of healers.”

“That’s quite high…”

“My apologies, sir.”

“No need. It caught me off guard as well, so there’s no one to blame.”

In recent battles, jae-yeon’s elite soldiers had been able to defeat twice as many enemies without sustaining any casualties thanks to their sturdy armor and tight formations. No matter how fiercely the goblins attacked, they couldn’t breach or break through the ranks, allowing the humans to easily handle larger numbers.

However, what if area-of-effect magic exploded amidst such densely packed forces? The damage would be even greater than usual.

‘I should’ve anticipated this scenario.’

In Ardenia, even a 1st-class mage was formidable, while a 2nd-class mage was proficient, and a 3rd-class mage was considered advanced. It’s natural for them not to consider the possibility of area-of-effect magic during battles, but as someone from Earth, I should have thought differently. Seems like my excitement over chakra training clouded my judgment.

“Swordsman, investigate the family relations of the deceased to provide compensation and look into parties with vacancies. If any party lost fewer than two members, we’ll fill those spots with elite reserves. For parties with more casualties, they need to discuss merging or accepting new elite soldiers. Tonight, we camp here, and tomorrow, we secure the dragon vein.”

“Yes, Lordship.”

“Stonestone, Hundred, Smile, and Flower—these four should rest well after taking care of their personal matters. We enter the dungeon tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir!”

After issuing orders to his key subordinates, he observed the busy movements of his soldiers.

This isn’t easy.

Just thinking about what could have happened if they hadn’t dealt with the goblin today gave him chills. A single strike had caused nearly fifty points of damage. If jae-yeon had let it escape and endured another attack like that, hundreds of elite soldiers would’ve lost their lives.

“Log out.”

He climbed inside the carriage for some much-needed rest before returning to Earth. He wanted to learn more about the new chakra from Sohyang using the access device.

‘There is no use deepening my knowledge of the body. Anyway, I am fixed on the first floor.’

Then it would be more advantageous to increase the number of elements I could control and improve my response capabilities.

[Iyap! Rabbit Rabbit appears!]

[A level 10 rabbit has appeared in Bube Plains!]

“Huh?”

At this unexpected sound, I looked at the monitor and saw a girl with rabbit ears appearing near my character who was diligently hunting, accompanied by sparkling effects.

[Have a happy Chuseok!]

Level 10 Rabbit (Advanced)

“An event monster!”

I hastily controlled my character, which had been auto-hunting, to attack the level 10 rabbit.

“Good. It can be caught!”

Perhaps because it was an event monster rated as advanced, it wasn’t particularly strong.

The problem was that despite its high rank, it had slightly more health than expected. However, by continuously using MP potions and activating buff skills, I steadily chipped away at its HP.

Pop! Pop!

At that moment, other players appeared on various parts of my screen. It seemed they teleported via teleportation scrolls, and without saying a word in chat, they rushed towards me.

“These bastards are trying to steal!”

But it was too late! The level 10 rabbit’s HP had already been reduced by nearly half. Since I initiated combat first, even if these newcomers killed the rabbit with one hit, the item drop rights would still belong to me due to my significant contribution to the battle.

“Too slow!” As soon as I shouted, an elf character approached and fired an arrow, instantly killing…my character.

[You have died. Would you like to respawn?]

[Yes] or [No].

”…?!”

For a moment, I couldn’t accept reality and stared at the monitor.

Puck!

The continuous arrows killed the level 10 rabbit, and items fell.

Tank Body (Rare)

”…”

I hastily typed in the chat window:

Killians2: What are you doing now? Why did you kill me?

Hot Body: Sorry.

“What? Sorry? S-sorry?” While I was bewildered, the elf character stood on top of the skill book lying on the ground. However, they couldn’t take it.

“Ah! That item is mine!”

In a hurry, I used Village Resurrection and summoned my ride to rush back to the hunting grounds. I had the highest contribution for killing the level 10 rabbit.

“If I quickly go again and pick it up…!”

Puck!

[You have died. Do you want to复活resurrect?]

[Yes] or [No]

”…”

I saw my character killed and the elf character standing over the skill book. Then I realized:

”…Ah. After one minute, anyone can pick it up.”

It was the same as how I could collect the wild boar’s hind leg that others didn’t bother with.

Killianstu: Excuse me… I killed it…

I spoke pitifully but Hot Body didn’t respond. Well, perhaps it was inevitable. The Tank body cost 1,100 dia, which equated to around 110,000 won in cash. It made sense to claim it if possible; giving it away would be unusual.

As time passed,

Ping.

Hot Body acquired the Tank Body (Rare).

[A world message appeared.]

[HotBody has obtained the Tank Body (Rare) from Bube Plains!]

The world message flashed on the screen. Having completed their task, Hot Body addressed me.

Hot Body: Excuse me…

Killian Stu: Yes?

Hot Body: Don’t attack event monsters if you are weak.

Killian Stu:…

And so, Hot Body left.

“No… Hahaha. This is ridiculous… Haha!” I laughed bitterly for a moment before realizing something.

“I wondered why they spent so much money on just a game. Is this the reason?”

I became angry and wanted to make a purchase. I couldn’t stand seeing myself being so weak! Moreover, there was another annoying thing:

The item has been lost. Do you want to recover it? >

Payment amount: 10 diamonds >

[Yes] or [No]

I pressed ‘no’. Killian Stu’s equipped items were either ordinary or high-grade, making it impossible to use diamonds for recovery. Thankfully, experience point loss could be recovered up to five times a day for free.

“I’m annoyed… but I have to endure it.”

Having strengthened my real body through microtransactions, I couldn’t afford to invest more resources on just a game character. After all, dozens of elite soldiers had already been lost, hadn’t they? If I had money for enhancing the game character, it was obvious that I should strengthen my soldiers instead.

“My soldiers… their power will greatly increase with gatekeepers and pets.”

Suppressing my anger, I entered the access device.

The lesson began.

“The most suitable elements for combat are weapons: swords, spears, bows, shields, etc.”

“But aren’t attributes more useful?”

Chakra users predominantly focused on attributes—fire, water, wind, light, darkness, lightning… These natural phenomena were powerful parts of the world, offering considerable might along with infinite possibilities for utilization.

“That’s true but it applies when you have attributes. As I can see, all your attributes converge to zero. Rather than having one attribute as negative, all of them are zero… This is the first time I’ve seen such a case.” Sohyang looked at me with confusion before shaking her head. “Choose a weapon. Pick something you handle well. If you choose ‘Weapons’ broadly like this, there will be difficulties in leveling up so it is better to select a specific weapon.”

Chakrakrak!

At these words, a wall filled with various weapons was revealed. That wasn’t all.

Kung!

On the right side, dozens of books fell from a bookshelf.

“What are these books?”

“Your body’s chakra opened the heavy gates. If you wish to unlock the wise gates of your body, you must acquire medical knowledge from now on. There is a limit to what can be achieved by merely controlling one’s physical self.”

Surprised by his words, I ask, “Medical studies… How much do I need to learn?”

“You should aim for the level required to enter medical school. You don’t need to cover all areas; focus primarily on anatomy. With a good aptitude for learning, it could take about three years, but if not, expect up to ten years.”

“…”

“I see you’re concerned about studying medicine, but don’t neglect weaponry either. You must train with various weapons until you reach mastery and eventually even craft them yourself. Many chakra practitioners often develop psychic abilities concurrently. Once you master a weapon, regardless of initial interest, you’ll inevitably delve into martial arts.”

“It’s very different from what I saw in the media about chakra trainees…”

“Mostly, those with attribute or special concepts appear in the media. When it comes to physical body and weapons, they inevitably look simple on the outside. Ah! For employment, ‘Machinery’ is good. Naturally… you have to learn mechanical engineering.”

In movies, chakra practitioners looked full of life while gazing at campfires for several days, sleeping under Arctic glaciers, or conversing with their inner darkness in pitch-black solitary confinement…

There was always a mysterious aura around them, but reality turned out vastly different.

Studying…?

“First… let’s memorize as much as possible.”

“That’s a good attitude.”

On the first day of Chuseok, I spent almost all my time inside the access device. I opened the ‘Sword’ element and started reading Anatomy Physiology.

”…”.

The content was so overwhelming that it made me feel sick. It was a different difficulty compared to memorizing chakras or circling.

‘No, why are there so many names for muscles and bones?’

It wasn’t easy to memorize them. This might be because I had no interest in this field at all. Meanwhile, regarding the game character…

“Songpyeon! Let’s collect Songpyeon.”

I chose a path without monsters and ran towards the centre of the continent. The reason was due to a post on the homepage.

[Suggestion] greenyongyong: Oh! Please stop with the Songpyeon!

How did they adjust the drop rate…? (Sigh) Why do I get three servings of Songpyeon every time I kill a monster?

It seems like the drop rate increases for higher level monsters… Ha… We don’t eat food classified as common, high-grade or rare. Additionally, the buff duration is too long at four hours…

The rare Songpyeon takes up excessive inventory space, so please adjust the drop rates. Alternatively, make it possible to exchange 100 lower tier Songpyeon for one higher tier.

The content of this post was just a suggestion. There wasn’t any information that could benefit anyone.

However, it was completely different for me.

“We’ve arrived.”

[Cyclops Trainee’s Hill]

The center of the chessboard—located next to Center Point on the grid, this was the hunting ground with the highest rank in Revenge, excluding ‘Dungeon’ and ‘Tower of Wrath’.

I saw monsters sitting cross-legged all over the hillside.

Cyclops Samurai (Legendary)

“Wow. A legendary monster.”

There was no name because it was a legendary but ordinary monster, not elite or boss-ranked. This was the irrationality of level-based hunting grounds.

‘If just one of these low-level mobs went to the beginner zones, it would be a disaster.’

However, what was important wasn’t the legendary monsters but the items scattered on the ground below them.

In other words, they were trash monsters:

[Chestnut Songpyeon (General)], [Chestnut Songpyeon (General)], [Chestnut Songpyeon (General)], [Mugwort Songpyeon (Advanced)], [Chestnut Songpyeon (General)], [Five-Colored Songpyeon (Rare)], [Chestnut Songpyeon (General)], [Chestnut Songpyeon (General)]…

”…Indeed! As I thought!”

The Cyclops Hill was the only top-rated hunting field where the monsters didn’t initiate attacks first. It was also a popular hunting ground because Hero-grade skill books dropped frequently, making it always crowded with players. This place was most suitable for night owls.

“Good!” Immediately, I started moving around the hunting grounds and picking up the rolling songpyeons everywhere.

In just 10 minutes of collecting, I had over 200 Songpyeons in my inventory. And that wasn’t all!

[Multi-colored Songpyeon (Rare)]

“Wow, crazy! It doesn’t even bother to pick up rare Songpyeon.”

It seemed true that higher level monsters had a higher drop rate. With my character, it took several hours of automated hunting and I didn’t even see a single rare Songpyeon, yet here they were being ignored.

“Amazing.” A smile couldn’t help but spread across my face. There was no way not to feel thrilled. After all, as event items, these Songpyeons weighed only 0g each and had an incredibly long expiration date—specifically, more than ten months until October 2089.