Chapter 49: First Death (3)
TL: Haku
Editor: Hungry Panda
As the ants that were in the beginning of the Ant Tunnel dungeon were similar to the Goblins that were in the Goblin Camping Ground or were instead weaker, Ian, who had grown much more since then, found them to be perfect opponents to practice his skill.
You have killed the Giant Ant. You have obtained 315 EXP.
Compared to the EXP from hunting in the northern snow mountains, it was an incredibly small amount.
This was because, as they were monsters that were a similar level to Ian or lower, the base EXP was low, and he couldn’t use the effect of the ‘Master of Hunting’ title.
However, because of the large number he was annihilating while hunting, the EXP was piling and piling, to the point where a decent amount came pouring in.
“Hoho, this is quite fun.”
Ian was in the middle of discovering the method of application for the skill Current Proliferation more and more. At first, he used it ignorantly like a close-combat skill, but as he developed a trick for it, he discovered that he could use it in a method where he predicted the route of the monster’s movements and hit them accordingly.
Of course, the difficulty level of the predicted shots wasn’t incredibly high.
However, he felt he needed to get into the habit of using the skill from a long range in order to use the Current Proliferation skill more effectively even when he fought against stronger enemies.
Ian was thinking of purposely making it difficult for him until his body got used to the skill completely.
‘If I spend about two whole days grinding here like this, I could probably get to 99% EXP.’
On top of that, if he used the Current Proliferation skill while even predicting where the balls would fly out to, he could hit some more monsters. It felt similar to playing billiards.
If he was lucky, there were situations where one sphere bounced off multiple enemies and hit five or six of them.
Just like the self-proclaimed game expert he was, Ian’s skill understanding rate towards the Current Proliferation skill went up swiftly.
And an hour later, he had gotten completely used to hunting, and even used quick-moving Ly, to gather the Giant Ants from one area to him.
“Ddukdae, Ice Wave!”
After Ddukdae used Ice Wave, Ian’s Current Proliferation was fired on top of that, and with the slowing effects of the two skills overlapping, the Giant Ants became complete slowpokes.
Za-Zap- Za-Za-Zap-!
If the effect attached to Ian’s weapon activated and Ice Wave was overlapped, it was to the point where the Giant Ants’ feet were practically stuck to the ground.
Once the Giant Ants’ were generally weakened through the AoE attacks, Ly went around, killing the ants one by one, starting with the ones with the lowest Health left.
After firing off the Current Proliferation skill as much as he could until his Spirit Magic was completely used up, his Spirit Magic was fully recovered once the hunting of one group was done.
“Muahaha!”
Ian let out an evil laugh out of excitement.
“As expected, the best kind of hunting is battue!”
It was fun going up to the northern continent for the first time and leveling up while facing units that were stronger than him, but wiping such weak monsters in a wide area was a perfect stress-reliever.
‘Since I’ve leveled up a lot, the effectiveness of title Master of Hunting will slowly drop once I’m over lv 60, too.’
He had already greatly used the virtues of the Master of Hunting title, which gave him more EXP the more enemies he faced that were a higher level than him.
However, because it become impossible to rapidly hunt high-level monsters the higher his level became, he needed to slowly change his fighting method.
“Keu, if only I had an destructive power-based AoE attack, that would be perfect…”
Even now, his hunting speed was fast enough, but it lacked slightly to Ian.
This was because the destructive power alone of his Current Proliferation skill was truthfully not that good.
The power of skills like the one that Magicians at around lv 50 used, ‘Flame Zone’, depended on the equipment, but it boasted a powerful damage that was close to 2-3 thousand.
Compared to that, even if Current Proliferation was considered a follow-up damage, it only dealt about half the damage of the other skill.
The Current Proliferation skill felt more like a skill used to tie down the monster’s feet along with Ddukdae’s Ice Wave.
‘If a couple of AoE magic skills were dropped on the monsters while they crawled around from the overlapped slowing effect…Keu.’
However, he had no intentions of hunting with a Magician.
‘I can’t do things that are good for others.’
If that was the case, he just needed to tame monsters that had destructive power-based AoE skills.
‘Hoho, what should I tame? It would be really nice if I could use something like a Phoenix from the Flame Highlands as a Familiar.’
However, that was just wishful thinking.
The Phoenix was an unbelievable monster that’s average level was known to be around 160-170.
‘I must catch it sooner or later.’
While Ian thought of this and that while working hard at hunting, the Giant Ants on the first floor disappeared without a trace.
“Ly, let’s go to the second floor.”
Grr- Grr-.
Ian petted Ly’s mane as he moved towards the entrance that went down to the second basement floor.
‘The second floor is a little more dangerous because Striped Ants come out, but…’
The Striped Ants were slightly smaller and slightly weaker than Giant Ants.
However, they had an AoE skill that let them shoot out venom, they were a more annoying monster to hunt.
However, Ian didn’t worry too much.
This was because it was a monster that he had a lot of experience hunting before resetting his character.
‘Will I even die from them?’
Ian walked down the stairs with confident footsteps.
At the end of hunting all day, Ian was able to raise his EXP to 99% at lv 50.
He already caught the boss of the Ant Tunnel, the Queen Ant, on the first day, and this was the result after wiping the ants for two days.
“Hue, now my EXP is at 99.9% now. I really leveled up tightly.”
Ian was satisfied.
While hunting, Ddukdae leveled up, and Ly was at lv 51 as well.
And he was in an even better mood because the amount of EXP he perfectly calculated came in with the last wave.
“Kids, let’s go back now.”
Ian began to clean up the hunting grounds in order to leave the dungeon.
He began to pick up the items from the corpses of the Giant Ants, which were collapsed onto the ground, and he organized his inventory.
He let down Bbookbbook, whom he had on his back, and Jjaekee, whose summoning duration was also over, was recalled.
Ian, who properly achieved his goal, began to move with light footsteps.
However, it was then.
Bbook- Bbookbbook-.
Bbookbbook began to crawl around towards somewhere without Ian knowing.
He had discovered an incredibly delicious-looking object. The place that Bbookbbook was headed towards was a pile of Giant Ants’ eggs that were piled in the corner of the dungeon.
And shortly after, a mysterious system message began to pop up in Ian’s view.
You have destroyed a ‘Giant Ant’s Egg’. Your EXP has increased by 36.
You have destroyed a ‘Giant Ant’s Egg’. Your EXP has increased by 32.
“Wha, what is this?”
Ian was taken aback.
This was because he was in a situation where his EXP was already tightly at 99.9%.
“Ah… No!”
And this was a situation where he absolutely couldn’t level up.
“Th, there’s no way I’ll level up now, right? No, it won’t, it can’t be.”
However, despite Ian’s desperate mumbles, the system messages helplessly continued to pop up.
“Wh, where is this coming from? Why exactly is my EXP going up?”
Ian, who desperately looked around, soon discovered Bbookbbook, who was eating the ants’ eggs.
“Ah, No! Bbookbbook, come back!”
Ian let out a cry. And he desperately opened his mouth.
“Bbookbbook, Summon Release!”
However…
Chomp-!
While Bbookbbook shone a white light, he gulped down the last ant egg he was holding.
You have destroyed a ‘Giant Ant’s Egg’. Your EXP has increased by 45.
And a bright light shone from Ian’s centre.
You have leveled up. You have reached lv 51.
Plop-.
Ian plopped down on the spot, drained, and Ly stared blankly at that image of Ian.
And shortly after, Ian, who looked squarely into reality, cried out.
“Euaaaak…! There’s no way!”
Ian cried out.
‘Ah, I was too greedy… I should have stopped hunting at around 98%.’
However, it was the same as trying to put back water that he had already spilt.
‘Ah, Bbookbbook…’
He wanted to summon Bbookbbook again and hit him, but he needed to wait 30 minutes in order to re-summon Bbookbbook, who was Summon Released.
“Euh, Euhh…”
And truthfully, it was awkward to say it was Bbookbbook’s fault. In the end, it was Ian’s own fault for not being more attentive.
Now, there was only one thing that Ian could choose.
“Ly.”
Grr-?
Ly tilted his head as he saw Ian’s sad eyes.
Even though it was Ly, who understood Ian’s words well, it was a behaviour that showed that he couldn’t understand Ian’s current feelings.
“Rest a bit.”
Ian let out a deep sigh and Summon Released all his Familiars.
“Whew.”
And excluding the head ornament that belonged to his account, he took off all the items he was using as equipment and put them into his inventory one by one.
In the end, the drastic choice that Ian had to make in order to de-level was ‘suicide’.
Jinsung, who finished showering in the bathroom, mumbled with a weak voice.
“Heu, so I end up leaving the house this way. It’s dangerous outside the capsule, though…”
It wasn’t time to pay for his rented room’s maintenance cost, and there was enough food in the house.
However, as he ended up leaving the house this way, Jinsung was somehow sad.
“Ha, for my first death after resetting to be suicide…”
It was a development that he didn’t even think of.
He was a little resentful towards Bbookbbook, but he didn’t have the justifications to blame Bbookbbook either. Bbookbbook just wanted to eat the delicious-looking Giant Ants’ eggs.
It wasn’t like Jinsung told him he couldn’t eat them either.
“Speaking of which, I am going to see a female human, so should I put something in my hair at least?”
Jinsung rummaged through his drawer and pulled out his wax.
It was the wax that he used once for his university’s interview and shoved into a corner.
Because it had been a long time since he went to a salon, Ian’s hair had grown into a bush, so he needed to clean up his hair even roughly.
You could call it the minimum etiquette towards a female human he was seeing for the first time.
Jinsung’s good feelings towards Harin was one reason why he thought this way.
‘I need to look good in order to receive more dishes from Harin in the future.’
They were words that showed his focus was out of line.
Ian roughly finished getting ready to go out.
As he was originally not that ugly, his aura of being a game freak slightly disappeared now that he had shaved and roughly dressed up.
“When should I go out?”
Ian lifted his smartphone.
A message from Harin had arrived.
Harin: Ian, I’m heading out now. I’ll see you at the convenience store in front of the back gates!
It was currently 1:30 pm.
“Will enough time have passed when I’ve finished eating lunch with Harin and chat at a café?”
Less than 3 hours had passed since Ian had committed suicide(?).
“Hoo…”
A sigh automatically came.
As he still needed to wait over 21 hours until he could log on again, sadness flooded over him.
“I need to overcome this hardship.”
Ian, who mumbled with a serious expression, sent Harin a message as he went out the door.
Jinsung: Alright, I’m also heading out now. I think it will take me about 10 minutes.
As Jinsung headed towards the promised location, he thought about what he would talk about with Harin once he met her.