《A journey for a class advancement》
It was the middle of the night when Haroon logged into Beyond. It was a long day, and there was too much thing he had to take in, both in the real world and Beyond. He was very tired so he could sleep just as if he passed out. Seeing the surroundings, he realized he wasn’t in the Academy anymore. He was sleeping at the inn.
He could see the sun rising, driving the darkness out.
‘Seems I still got some time.’
Haroon and the Quad Wankers appointed to meet after the morning meal. For last three month, Haroon got used to waking up early so even though he had nothing else to do, he woke up at this hour. After lying on the bed for some time doing nothing, Haroon realized he had things to do.
“I shouldn’t just spend time like this. I still haven’t checked the armor set I received.”
Of course, Haroon didn’t expect much from it as it was the reward of a basic course, but he still hoped for good ones as it was given to the ‘Top Trainee’. Haroon took out the armor set and checked its stats.
Mixed Hard Leather
Class: Rare+
Armor: 30/30
Durability: 200/200
Requirement: –
A hard leather crafted by Half Dwarves. It is Crafted with 5 different types of leather compressed together. When it indeed has admirable hardness, the durability is on the another level. Stain-free, and capable of long journies.
+3 Strength
Mixed Leather Shoes
Class: Rare+
Durability: 200/200
Requirement: –
Crafted with mixed leather and Gryphon’s flight muscle. The dream of Gryphon that still wants to fly, is on the shoes. Half Dwarves made it half-boots style. Stain-free.
+5 Agility
Mixed Leather Arm Sleeves
Class: Rare+
Armor:120/120
Attack Damage:15~20
Durability: 300/300
Requirement: –
Crafted with Ogre’s skull and covered with mixed leather. Ordinary swords won’t damage the leather nor the bones. It has slots to put daggers or throwing knives.
+ 10 fire resistance.
Mixed Leather Gloves
Class: Rare+
Armor: 120/120
Attack Damage: 30~40
Durability: 300/300
Crafted with several layers of mixed leather and hardened with Ogre’s bones. It is hard enough to break ordinary iron swords. Strong against various poisons.
+ 5 Strength
Haroon couldn’t hide his laughter. He never imagined that this kind of item could be rewarded passing the Basic course.
‘I thought it wouldn’t be normal class items, but I didn’t even expect rare items.’
Getting those items, he wasn’t worried about not knowing gears anymore. With a large smile, Haroon equipped those.
-You have equipped set armor: Mixed leather armor set.
-You have earned set bonus.
Mixed Leather Armor Set Bonus
Apart from the effects of individual gears, equipping the complete set of gears gives you extra stat bonus
+ 10 Strength
+ 100 Armor
+ 50 Durability
+ 10 Agility
+ 10% Fire Resistance
+ 10% Magic Resistance
Haroon dropped his jaws. He got fire and magic resistance, not to mention he got additional stats. +10% M.R. meant he would get 10% less damage from Magic, so it is quite an effect.
‘Should I just sell it?’
It isn’t binding item anyway, does he actually need to get this good gears? He concerned for a while and then decided not to sell it as it was the proof of his skills.
‘Let it be. I’ll equip these for now.’
Haroon’s appearance with a gray armor was a symbol of a typical warrior. Though he might not be that much muscular, tall height with a massive chest and thin waist was something that people would expect from a swordsman, even though he wasn’t wearing a sword yet.
Haroon equipped throwing knives and daggers that he got during training in arm sleeves and holders made on the belt. While he was at it, he checked the steel sword that Elser gifted him.
Steel Sword
Class:Uncommon++
Attack Damage: 50~70
Durability: 220/250
Requirement: –
A steel sword crafted with the unique way of Half Dwarves. The blade will not get damaged easily. Very durable. Suitable for Swordsmen or Mercenaries who goes under frequent combat.
+ 5 Strength
Steel Sword, also, had spec beyond his expectation. Moreover, it was very precious as it was the gift from his first friend. It was the perfect gift to him, who is going out of the city for his first time.
Haroon ate a breakfast at the restaurant right next to the inn and headed to a Guild Office near the west gate. That was the meeting point with the Quad Wankers. When he got near the office, he could see them with enormous sized bags. Haroon wasn’t sure what and how they packed stuff, but he couldn’t understand why they brought so many things. Well, it wasn’t his bag so he didn’t really care.
“Boss!”
“Why are you so late, Boss?”
Gitan and Ritrina welcomed him. They seemed excited about the journey, whereas Philip and Serinn seemed discontented for living journey like that.
“Hey, Haroo…Boss.”
“Oh, you are here.”
Haroon didn’t like their attitude but decided to greet back anyway. He just didn’t want to mess up the mood when they didn’t even begin the journey. The title ‘Boss’ however was quite awkward to use and hear, but it felt good anyway.
“So, where are we heading?” Gitan asked
“We are heading Viscounty of Paros,”
which was the closest point city from the Metropolis that offers job advancement.
“Huhu, that’s where my guild headquarters is.”
Gitan agreed with joyful cheer, but the other three seemed unsatisfied. Since they couldn’t avoid taking a journey if was natural for them to prefer somewhere close to their hometown.
“At least we ARE traveling. After all, I wasn’t sure where to stay until my guild arrives the Metropolis.”
That made other people relax their face. After all, they couldn’t go to their hometown on their own, and it wasn’t like they could mooch off to other guilds. So their only hope was on their guild members’ arrival on the Metropolis.
Of course, those five seemed not enough for a long journey. A way to the Viscounty of Paros was quite a dangerous path even for an ordinary guilds squads. They were counting on that Haroon is an Elementalist, and that their skill is good enough for the journey. Even if their skill isn’t good enough, if he wants to go to the Hell, they had to follow him anyway because of the unknown illness they’ve got.
“Well, you know what comes first.”
Haroon evilly smiled and put his hand out. The Quad Wankers, except Ritrina, shut their eyes and took a bag of money from their pocket. They had to use pester power to ‘receive’ money from their guild branches. Thinking how the branches have minimum budget possible, they shall think of it as money of tears. Not their tears, though.
-“First, you took every stuff in this branch, and now you want every supply the branch has? Why are you doing this?!”
It felt as if they could still hear the branch manager they’ve just robbed requested money from. It would be a big problem when their parents find out what they did.
‘I’m sorry, Manager, but I want to live too,’ they thought.
Their hands handing over the money were shaking. They tried their best to calm it down. Haroon counted the money to make sure they paid properly. Haroon felt proud he just earned as many as 390 Golds, and that didn’t include Ritrina.
“Well, Let’s go to register a new guild.”
They were able to register a new mercenary guild without any problem as they fulfilled minimum requirement which is having 5 members. It is just that Haroon felt stingy about paying 10 gold. After wearing a bracelet with guild leader symbol on it, he gave an evil smile at the Quad Wankers, who were watching him with jealousy. He was thinking about getting registration fee from them later on.
As Philip suggested, Haroon decided to name the guild the Gusts of Wind. As the members of the guild are 5 and they had no experience, the guild was rated at the lowest rank: D. When the procedures were done, they have checked the bulletin board, just in case if they could get any quest, only to get disappointed.
“Let’s depart then. If there is anything we forgot to bring, we always can buy one in the next village. We need to arrive the Earrock by today so we need to hurry.”
Earrock is ear shaped giant rock. It was about a day long journey to there.
“It would be faster if we ride horses.”
“Shut up! Do you think horses are as cheap as the apples? You have no idea how I spend even my last bronze to buy the herb plants to cure you guys.
That really wasn’t the reason. Haroon doesn’t know how to ride the horse, so he was planning to walk there in the first place. But it was true that horses are expensive, according to Bell. Even the working horses are over 20 gold each. Rideable horses are over 40 gold. Although it was the reasonable price as the Horses are the main, and only the mean of transformation, it simply wasn’t affordable, especially for the users who just started getting their first class advancement.
Even it was quite early in the morning, the gate was quite crowded. There were so many people coming in and going out with lots of goods being transported. Well, it sure is a natural thing for a metropolis where millions live in.
“Ah, dang. Why’s the checking so tight today?”
“Damn. Look at there. There are even the Knights today.”
Merchants chat reached Haroons ear. He could see the Knights who were wearing shiny full-plate armor.
“Did something happen today?”
“No, it has been like this for a couple of weeks. Not sure what’s the reason is, but they check every bags and baggage going out from the metropolis.”
Just as he said, the Knights were directing the gate guards to check every corner of the bags and baggage.
“Did a god damned criminal escaped or something? What a nerve they got.”
“Eh, who knows.”
Hearing them chatting, Haroon and party members could pass the check quite fast. It was because of the symbol of mercenaries and there weren’t too many bags to be checked.
After a while, they looked back with mixed feelings. In their sight, there was the Metropolis receding into the distance as they walk away. Unlike how they’ve seen it inside, it was overwhelmingly large. The walls that shelter the giant castle were at least 5 meters tall, and it was so long that he couldn’t track the end with his bare eyes.
‘Now I feel bad that I didn’t look around properly.’
But that thought only lasted for a minute, then his mind was filled with the excitement of going out to the wild of the Beyond as a mercenary.
Haroon paused and opened his status window.
Name: Haroon
Race: Human
Class: –
Level: 10
Title: Mercenary guild leader(and other 3)¹
H.P: 480
M.P: 490
E.F.P: 200
Strength: 47(+15) Stamina: 38
Intellect: 21 Wisdom: 39
Luck:26 Agility: 32 (+12)
Sustenance: 12 E.S.P: 6
Focus: 14 Leadership: 100
S.P.: 30 Fame: 300
Fire Resistance: +10%
Magic Resistance: +10%
He got a new title: Mercenary guild leader, and he got a new stat named ‘leadership’, and it is probably the reason he got 10 more S.P. and 200 fame. According to Necomwall’s announcement, there will be benefits dealing with merchants or nobles when the user has over 500 fame.
Also, there was a line written [Guild Status Window] blinking with red color.
‘Ah, it seems I can check my member’s status as a leader.’
“Guild status window!”
Name: The Gusts of Wind
Rank: Small, Class D Mercenary Guild.
Specialization: Unknown
Members: Philip, Gitan, Serinn, Ritrina
He touched Members tab, and there, he could browse every member’s status.
Name: Philip
Race: Human NPC
Class: Swordsman
Level: 35
Title: Class D Mercenary
H.P.: 1,140
M.P.: 735
Strength: 43 Stamina: 47
Intellect: 25 Wisdom: 20
Luck: 5 Agility: 15
Focus: 5
‘Huh? Why are his stats so low?’
Since Philip already had a class and reached level 35, he had way more hit point and mana, but stats were not that high. All he had was an extra stat, which still remained at 5. Wondering, Haroon checked Gitan’s status which was right next to Philips.
Name: Gitan
Race: Human NPC
Class: Swordsman
Level: 25
Title: Class E Mercenary
H.P.: 1,220
M.P.: 475
Strength: 57 Stamina:55
Intellect: 5 Wisdom: 5
Luck: 5 Agility: 5
And Gitan is worse than Philip. Strength and Stamina is high, but his wisdom and intellect are too low. He could easily what character Gitan is.
‘Obviously, he is a Tank.’
Name: Serinn
Race: Human NPC
Class: Swordsman
Level: 21
Title: Class E Mercenary
H.P.: 765
M.P.: 735
Strength: 25 Stamina:27
Intellect: 18 Wisdom: 25
Luck: 7 Agility: 11
Coquetry: 6
Serinn’s stat is quite normal. There is no characteristic other than she is quite balanced. On the other word, she doesn’t have any good side which meant she is a useless character. Though, it is interesting how she has stat ‘coquetry’.
Name: Ritrina
Race: Human NPC
Class: Swordsman
Level: 24
Title: Class E Mercenary
H.P.: 800
M.P.: 575
Strength: 32 Stamina: 31
Intellect: 14 Wisdom: 16
Luck: 8 Agility: 22
Ritrina is a strong and agile character. Although she might be hot tempered, she must be more useful than Serinn.
Haroon fell in thoughts seeing the Quad Wanker’s status window. To travel as a group, the leader needs to divide the role and make flexible orders to avoid dangers. When he knew by his brain, he didn’t have any experience so he was worried about it.
‘I guess we will find out when we face weak monsters.’
So Haroon closed the window. But there was one thing he couldn’t understand. In Philip’s case, his level was over 30 but his stats were lower than Haroon whose level is just 10 and didn’t even get a class advancement.
As he analyzes the Quad Wanker’s status, he found out that; they started with 50 total stats, with the level bonus that would be about 110, and gained additional stats by training with an average of 1. It is so different from his stats. Compared to them, he is a monster.
‘I suppose it is because of Bell’s performance and Herbal Medicines’ effect.’
Haroon realized how helpful Bell and the herbs are.
If Bell didn’t supply him needed nutrition and didn’t relieve his fatigue at the right hour, he wouldn’t haven’t been able to train that much ignorantly. In other words, he wouldn’t be able to improve that much without Bell’s help.
Anyway, he felt good that he gained additional stats by equipping Mixed Leather Armor set and a steel sword.
“Alright, let’s go!”
Like that, Haroon and the Quad Wankers mightly started their journey to Viscounty of Paros.
The area around the Metropolis is a literally endless green field. It seemed perfect for pasturing animals, but for some reason, they only could see dense grasses. Probably because of the Monsters.
He could see figures near the horizon, and he thought they might be people farming food. But near them, there was just a giant, well-beaten road in the middle of 4 the grass field.
At first, he was moved by the ridiculously wide green field. But the emotion soon went away as the scenery hasn’t changed at all for a while. The grasses were mostly tall, about to their knees. He wasn’t sure what kinds of they are, but they were quite sharp and hard.
As the sun gets high noon, it started gushing out the hot breath and started poking them with stingy sunlights. At that time, as if the glasses were being cooked, Haroon could smell the grasses. It was something he never had smelled before, but soon, it faded away.
They went silent for a while. Both Haroon, who was enjoying the scenery and smells that he can never experience in the Union covered by the Barrier, and the Quad Wankers, who were in mixed feelings of excitement and worries of their journey. When it was the time that the sun tries its best to heat the earth, they decided to stop under a tree with a large, dense leaves.
“Boss, it is typical to rest in the middle of the day. Grab a lunch, maybe take a nap, and when the air gets cooler, that’s when you know you have to depart. It is one of the ways to make the body less tired.”
They stopped to rest as Philip suggested. Unlike the others, Philip had experiences of long journies.
“Hey, you, prepared the food, quickly!”
“Well about that…… Alright, Boss.”
Serinn and Ritrina didn’t really think they would be one preparing the food, so they looked at each other and shrugged. But it was a promise. Though they may not be the nobles, they are daughters of leaders of powerful guilds. They’ve been living in a luxury, so of course, they didn’t know how to cook.
“What should we do?” Troubled, Serinn asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? Boil the soup, and make sandwiches with bread and smoked meats we bought.”
Ritrina said it easily. She continued.
“Then how about you build the fire, and me taking the care of the rest?”
Like that, Ritrina took the lead. Serinn felt uncomfortable, but she had to get along with it as she lost the lead. She took her lips out and started collecting dried branches. And then, she called Ritrina with perplexed voice.
“But I’ve never built a fire.”
“Huh? But I’ve never done it too.”
Two girls looked at where Haroon was making awkward faces. Haroon, Philip, and Gitan were coming to check the bags.
“What’s the matter?”
“Well…… We don’t know how to build a fire.”
Their helpless voice made Philip and Gitan move, but they soon stopped and covered their mouth with their hands. Come to think of it, they have never done it too. This was same to Philip.
“Flints, you can always use your flints. So, who got the flints?”
Philip barely remembered they could use flints.
But they didn’t know how to use flints. Of course, they’ve never seen it happen. Ritrina only packed her clothes and a weapon, and the other two didn’t pack their bags so they didn’t know where their flints were.
“You’re so pathetic. Are you really the sons and daughters of the mercenary guild leaders? And you thought you could go on the journey like that?” said Haroon, clicking his tongue.
Haroon’s word cut their heart like a dagger, but they had nothing to say. They’ve been learning swordsmanship, management, accounting and all sort of thing since their young age, but they realized they didn’t have any practical skills for surviving.
“Why are you still standing there? Move away!”
Haroon angrily shouted and it made them angry, they couldn’t think of words to counteract, so two girls hesitantly moved away.
Of course, Haroon didn’t know how to use flints. But he had an Essential Spirit named Brat. Making a fire was a child’s play. The problem was on that he will get poisoned summoning it. That was why he was annoyed.
Haroon turned his back at the Quad Wankers and summoned Brat.
“Brat, Come out.”
“What. Is. It? Why did you have to bother me when I was getting a good rest?”
Brat was frowning.
“Oh, you are getting sassy again. I can take that as a giant yes to a question may I punch your face?”
“Alright, Alright! God, if you don’t have skills, be kind at least. Gees, violence doesn’t solve everything. mumble mumble…“
Complaining, Brat accepted his summon and as soon as he came out,
– You are Poisoned.
[Receiving 10 damage per second]
“Quickly, make a fire.”
“Oh god, and that was miles away from a big deal. Did you really summon the mighty Brat for that pathetic job? You know what this is? This is like cutting a beef for a breakfast with an ancient magic sword.”
“Shut up!”
Critical Hit!
"Aw! Fire!"
Only after getting a hit at the back of its head, he stopped complaining and lit the fire on the branch. It didn’t take long to be a big fire.
“It’s the Spirits!”
“So it is true!”
Serinn and Ritrina were surprised to see some mysterious power to work. And all they saw was Haroon punching in the air and no spirits.
“Damn it! NOW you know, huh, Serinn? Just remember that it was all you.”
Ritrina let out her harbored feelings to Serinn.
“Ha! Who could have known that he is an Elementalist? Didn’t you hear that he even swore an oath of Mana? After all, I said he MIGHT not be a magician, and I never said I’m certain that he is not a magician. and it was YOU who provoke the magicians to scan him, and concluded that he is not a magician.”
“Anyway! It was you who made us slaves.”
“Huh, look who is saying.”
“Shut up! All of you!” Haroon interrupted.
Haroon frowned. He couldn’t believe that he had to waste an antidote just to make a fire. As he shouts once again, everyone gave a start. They never saw him that much angry.
Under the pressure of Haroon, two girls prepared the lunch without saying a word. They took out a pot and put the water and soup powder at the same time. She panicked, and her eyes were shaking unstably, desperately looking for a help but the other three tried their best to avoid her eyes. It was best to save the words and not to help than being scolded by Haroon.
“The lunch is… ready.”
Haroon, Philip, and Gitan stopped checking their bags and head to the fireplace. As they got used to the regular meal time, they were hungry enough as the lunch time got dragged with some dramas.
“Here.”
Serinn served the soup and bread, Haroon took it and went under the tree. He ate a spoonful of the soup.
“Yuck!”
“Gahh!”
“Ugh!”
As soon as he screamed, Philip and Gitan screamed too, frowning their faces. They turned their faces at Serinn at the same time.
“Well…… That was the first soup I’ve ever cooked.”
Serinn tried to get over the situation acting cute, but they all spit the soup out.
“You tried to kill us!”
“You must be a spy, right?”
Philip and Gitan gave her a hostile stare.
“I told you that I can’t cook. I can’t do this so don’t let me do it.”
Serinn was covering her face with both hands. Her voice was almost crying.
“Boss, just don’t let her cook.”
“I might starve to death if I keep eating these.”
They complained, drinking gallons of water. Serinn was standing next to them with her face covered and head bowed. But Haroon noticed that her shoulder shook just for a brief moment hearing those complaints.
‘So that was your plan? She is impossible,’ he thought.
As Haroon didn’t have any good impression of her, it was easier for him not to be fooled by her. Serinn was smart. But in other words, she was sly and was fast at making petty tricks.
“Alright, I’ll make you a real person. Serinn will be making every meal until she can make something edible. I’ll definitely charge you for wasting foods, so deal with it. Don’t worry, she will get good. Everyone needs to start from somewhere.”
Philip and Gitan went pale. Ritrina too. They weren’t sure if they could survive.
“Well, we saw how Gitan brought emergency foods. There are breads and beef jerkies so we can eat those if what she makes are not edible. But she will have to eat her foods.
That relieved them. But they could see Serinn’s face was getting pale, even she was covering her face with her hands.
“Until she gets good. Well, if she doesn’t get good until the end, we can always delay the cure and teach her until she gets good. If you are bad at something, then try harder. I can help you with that while I’m with you.”
That made all four pale.
‘You bitter snake!’
It’s what their faces were saying.
“Well, then, have a nice meal.”
Haroon tasted the soup once again and drank it with water. And took some portion of bread, and started chewing it with the soup. It wasn’t that bad when he tried that. Thinking how he has been eating bitter antidotes quite frequently, and how he endured Elser’s extremely tasty foods, it wasn’t that bad.
Seeing Haroon well eating the soup, Philip and Gitan tasted the soup another time, only to leave unforgivable pain on their tongue, and it became another reason to admire Haroon. They couldn’t even bear to put that in their mouth.
They, except Haroon, had to dump the soup. They filled their stomach with bread and water. Of course, Serinn had to starve.
But they didn’t know how impactful that would be. As their body was used to eat a large amount of food to support their training, the stomach started appealing how empty it feels, and that made their bags to feel even heavier. So when the sun was setting and reached the top of the hill, they were feeling starve to death.
“Here, we have a flint so lit a light with it. Since you are gonna be in charge of foods, you should be the one making the fire.”
Haroon handed a flint and a lump of cotton found in Philip’s bag. Philip didn’t know it was there, though. The one who packed his bag was a mercenary that he didn’t know the name of, so he didn’t know what was in his bags.
“Philip, Ritrina, set up the tents. And Gitan, Let’s go set up the traps, just in case to defend ourselves from the wild monsters.”
Everyone sought for a rest so they moved swiftly as Haroon ordered. They had to get their tasks done. But Serinn couldn’t begin and stamped her feet as she panicked, going about to cry at how unkind the other members were. But no one was kind enough to help her. Not even close, as they were angry because they didn’t get enough food earlier in the lunch time.
Setting some traps around the camp site, Gitan and Haroon returned to the fireplace and saw an actual fire. It seemed Serinn has found a way to make a fire.
“Hahaha!”
Gitan checked her face and started laughing. It was quite an entertainment to see her face messed with soots. Philip and Ritrina, who were done with the tent, seemed they were bearly not laughing.
“Good work.”
Haroon patted Serinn’s shoulder, who was busy blowing the wind into the fire, hoping it to get bigger. As she was bowing her head, nobody saw two streams of tears and the smile of joy. It was a small thing, but she felt so proud of herself.
When the new soup was finally made, nobody dared to taste it. Haroon, too, hesitated to taste it and his hands were shaking when he was bringing a spoonful of soup to his mouth. Bravely, he tasted it.
“Hmm, It’s quite nice. It is amazing that you got this good just in a day. Alright pals, get your spoons and try it out. It’s quite edible, unlike the last time.”
Seeing how Haroon liked, the other three bravely taste the soup. Their face went bright. They actually could taste warm, delicious soup. Of course, the powder wasn’t properly mixed to the water so they could feel the chunks of it but it was better than the last time.
“This is so emotional.”
Like Gitan said, it was an emotional moment, that how they had to worry about foods, on their first day after the graduation. The soup in the lunch was absolutely terrible. Gitan was so concerned about eating after he tasted that. Compared to that, he could consider it happy.
“I didn’t know you could experience the hell and heaven by foods,” said Philip.
Gitan strongly nodded and ate the soup.
Seeing how they were satisfied by her food, Serinn felt shy and smiled. It was a pure smile, not her habitual, seducing smile.
As they travel like that, the Quad Wankers could naturally call Haroon the ‘Boss’, and Haroon, Philip, and Gitan could get along as close friends.
Footnotes:
¹ 3 titles
You might ask; Haroon gained another title and he previously had 3 titles, so it should be 4 titles, right? I thought the same, but as it seems the raw text says ‘and other 2’, I think he lost the title of ‘Mercenary Trainee’, as he is not a trainee anymore. That’s my guess.
² Gusts of Wind
The raw text was ‘돌풍(突風)’. When the direct translation is ‘Squall’, I don’t think it fits the context. 돌풍 means a sudden violent wind, it is my belief that the word ‘Squall’ is used when the storm has rain/snow.
TLer’s Notes:
Anyone interested in proofreading? I always want to deliver the best experience of this novel, and I just face lots of difficulties.
I wish I read more in English.