Volume 1 Chapter 8 (1/2)
The Fated Profession
As was his routine, Rodriguez was taking an afternoon walk He enjoyed checking on his neighbors and deepening their misery
“How are you, Hans?”
“Fine, Counselor”
“What is the best fruit today?”
“This one Please have some Fresh strawberry, sire”
“Thank you”
Rodriguez’s steps were light For one thing, he wasn’t pestering others who fell under his gaze that afternoon He was elated by the recent publication of the latest book he had penned
When he returned ho at the entrance to greet him He spoke without reservation to the manservant whose dedication to his family lasted for decades
“Hoas your walk, milord?”
“Excellent Very excellent These days are free of worries and trifles”
“I’lad to hear that, milord By the way, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“What is it, Willia lord who carved statues on the other side of the street, milord”
“Oh, that kid!”
“Did he find what he was seeking?”
Rodriguez laughed
“It’d never be that easy”
“Then…”
“No chance! He can’t find the place, and even if he finds it, against all odds…”
“…”
“Serves hiuez burst into insane laughter
The first thing that Weed did when he was alone was double-check his arold and thirty silvers…”
Instead of receiving his share of the spoils that his oblins, which were mostly crude weapons, equipment and pieces of metal, Weed had asked for hard money
“The revenue’s not too bad, and…”
For the lastmastery hit level six, the repair skill four The repair skill is so useful that so skill is almost extinct, except for professional cooks
Weed’s bandage skill, now level four, eauze twice But thehis stats was his level
He felt like laughing
Sniff
To Weed’s dismay, however, arse whinnied unpleasantly He had no choice but to take care of the colt by courtesy of Sir Midvale The colt was good for nothing for now, but Weed was obliged to return it safely to the Royal Stable
‘The Lair of Litvart No other lair of the same name has been discovered so far This is the place’
The Counselor’s trick
assured that there was so behind it, Weed did his best to analyze the quest’s objective froles
‘It must be hidden somewhere in the lair, somewhere no one has found yet – a secret chah from the first floor up to the fifth one
For the adventuring classes, such as rangers and explorers, which are endoith a multitude of observation-related stats and skills, it is easier to discover a concealed entrance
But Weed could only stick to ele every suspicious area with his hands in order to look for the ‘secret chamber’
There were at least twenty users on each floor in the Lair of Litvart Huntingweird
“What’s that guy doing?”
“See for some entrance Why else would he caress the stone wall so dearly?”
“Puhaha, what an idiot The lair doesn’t have any secret passage”
“This is the first lair found when Rosenheio Thousands of adventurers storahed at Weed, because they had been jealous of hi on an easy wave in the lair with thirty NPC troops, it was no surprise that he was the center of jealousy and envy
“Just in case…”
“Watch out Don’t let him notice we’re behind hi that he ht have overheard valuable infor theout a special quest In that case, they even considered forcing Weed to share the quest
To their eyes, this lone freak was a low-level archer, lacking in melee combat skills; worked on household chores for the troops and sponged off them like a parasite
After a week had passed without event, however, the trouble Weed in vain; he was obsessed with exploring the lair, so they left
“Nutcase”
“da mad I just wasted days”
Even after they left hi’
Many explorers had already finished ion, and concluded that there was nothing left This was exactly what Weed was told, too In fact, he had done occasional research while hunting down the kobolds and goblins, but failed to ful discovery Still, Weed was convinced that he would stu someday
‘Famous adventurers from all over the Continent searched this place So what? You are wrong; I aht’
The Lair of Litvart was a vast place Wandering casually in the forlorn hope of uncovering a hidden place was a hope as far as the distance between the Earth and Androh the adventurers were better in observation skills, attitude could make difference
Weed patiently touched the wall, looking for a clue
Sniff
arse watched Weed in conteht the horse in the lair because there was no one else who could look after it, but he was stressed by the disobedient beast
‘I need to teach him a lesson first’
Weed led arse to a shelter of goblins on purpose—a goblin warrior and three goblin raiders As soon as they saw Weed, they charged at him
He stepped forward as if to protect the colt in front, and fought against the goblins, screa
“My God! I don’t want to die!”
The goblin warrior’s spear sailed toward Weed but only grazed hi little blood from the flesh
“If… if I am killed noill ever happen toon Weed
“No! I shall stand here to protect arse! Bring it on, you abominable monsters! You must pass over ers on hi his weak people at risk of death
When he glanced back, however, he saw the colt yawning and playing with a pebble on the ground Also, this beast was ready to bolt in the direction of the Lair’s exit the moment the master fell dead
“damn you!”
Weed was embarrassed by the turn of events Why make a fool of himself to win over a mere colt?
oblins with a single brandish of his sword
He was te Sir Midvale’s trust was too big a risk
ave Weed a contemptuous look as if to ask why he had bled needlessly when he could finish them so easily
‘Wheas a fool to act like that Patience, patience’
Weed went back to the exploration of the lair
Three days later, on the tenth day of his private exploration to be precise, he found a cavity in a dark corner on the fourth floor where goblin raiders were regenerated It was located ten yards deeper than the regenerating point Even the e rock projecting outward, the cavity was shadowed, away from hu around, Weedup on hione, but excessive caution never hurt
If this cavity turned out to be what Weed had been looking for, he would be the first man to discover it, and he didn’t want to share the credit with anyone else
For the first explorer who discovers an unknown area, the rewards are iher rate of item provision for a whole week after the discovery Weed crept into the cavity carefully The gap was narrow enough to be mistaken for a crevasse between rocks, and the interior widened little by little on each step He soon reached a passage where he could move comfortably A huot ready for a battle He didn’t have any clue as to as coht hand, and herb and bandages in the left one
‘Bring it on’
Weed walked slowly deeper into the cave
Along the cave were several forks He picked the left one and entered it, only to find a gigantic worm at a dead end
“What the heck… what monster is this? I’ve never seen this sort of worm—”
Before Weed could finish his words, the surroundings underwent a sudden change
What he thought to be the blackish ground was, in truth, a floor of little bugs the size of pinkies
apart the Red Sea, the bugs scattered and then caly
“What the!— How dare you!” Weed swung the iron sword like a windly creaky shells, the little bugs were almost harmless in low attack power, but the queen-like wor them He really missed his men in the punitive force
“I’d end this mess way earlier if I only had thereen smoke fumes Like a drop of black ink dispersed in transparent water, the fu where Weed was standing, too
The moment he inhaled them—
<tbody>
You have been poisoned!
Life is decreasing continuously
</tbody>
Startled, Weed checked his life gauge
by one point per second
“da…”
In desperation, Weed ignored the little bugs, ran to the queen and struck it with the iron sword The queen worm’s hard shell cracked, and yellow fluid oozed out
“If I’lected the bugs that were crawling up and biting hi anyway
Torn between two choices, it was better to kill the queen and get the heck out of there As if they sensed that their ressively, but his iron sas persistent The shell of the queen as so hard that, though the outer shell was partly cracked, she was alive and well Meanwhile, Weed’s head ionna die here If only I had a combat skill…—…skill? Why didn’t I think of that!’
The skill that Weed had never been given a chance to use! He had a combat skill that sucked so er than a second Whether it worked or not, the situation was hopeless enough
“Engraving Knife Technique!” Weed’s iron sword blazed white It temporarily overpowered the enemy’s defense
antic worm’s shell shattered into pieces
<tbody>
You have leveled up
</tbody>
Weed skipped the eand yelled,
“Quest Information Window!”
<tbody>
Search and Destroy Operation in the Lair of the Litvart
[II]
There are a hundredthe Lair of Litvart Kill each and every one of them at least once, and prove yourself worthy of the honorable class The coht path for your destiny
Difficulty Level: Unknown
Quest Requirement: None
Nuh he was poisoned and dying, Weed smirked
“I did it!”
Weed finally found the answer for the class change It was these worms in the cave He had to kill the queens, not those little bugs
“I need to cure myself of the poison first…”
Chased by the little bugs, Weed left the cave in a hurry When he saw they could not cross over the boundary of the cave, he began to walk slowly toward the ground level with the colt
When a user is poisoned, his face darkens
Weed avoided contact with other users to conceal that he was poisoned, and recharged his life a little by rubbing herbs on his body and stuffing himself with pre-cooked meals
If he tried, he would surely find a party that had a priest But he would rather die than ask for help Was Weed too proud to bargain for his life?
Nonsense!
There were no poisoning oblins had any knowledge of poisonous substances, let alone used them
A savior would want to knohere Weed was poisoned, and by ith suspicious eyes He would rather die once than share with others the whereabouts of the secret cha tiround, he got on the colt
“Village To the nearest village Quick, or I’ll pass out”
As if taking joy in the misfortune of others, arse pretended to be deaf and scratched the soil It gnawed on grass in protest
“If you’re going to be like that, then…”
The last grain of Weed’s patience finally ran out
“You’re leaving raving knife
arse looked terrified at the sight of a sharp object, but cal
Instead of slashi+ng at arse, Weed cut his own forearet self-destructive when his life was already in jeopardy because of the poison gas?
“Hoho”
Weed grinned treacherously, though his vision was already blurry as a result of anemia Then, he clutched the colt’s jaws open and forced it to drink his blood
“Look, now that you sipped e, or we are both dead I will resurrect soon, but you’ll never coalloped to the village, though its speed wasn’t any faster than before Upon arriving at the village, Weed was cast a cure spell on the brink of death He purchased herbs and antidotes worth twenty gold Though his pockets were empty, he had no remorse
Weed quickly returned to the Lair of Litvart, and only after he was certain that nobody atching him from the perimeter, entered the cave where the worht arse in there He feared that other users et rid of it by so, he didn’t want to knoould happen if he failed to return the colt to the Royal Stable as his priority
“Always stay behind nedly
Weed began to slay only queen worave EXPs their size, and the way that they crawled out at him from everywhere made it costly to attack each of the fros that covered the entire floor in aKnife Technique!”
The mysterious sword technique from Zahab
It crushed the enerated the nature of an object, regardless of resistance and defense Soer queen worms and needed two or three strikes, bethich he rested to refill ency by the little bugs With life decreasing, Weed always barely escaped; death had never been so close
The more he slew queens in the cave, the more blankly dismayed he felt Who would believe this was a quest for class change? Most users choose their pri before they hit level ten
On the other hand, Weed was level sixty-two, and this cave was still a life-and-death challenge to him He only wondered what kind of class required so much hassle
<tbody>
The Number of Monsters Left: 1
</tbody>
At the end of seven days of vicious battle, Weed had only one er than the other queen worms
When Weed entered her throne room without precaution, he was accorded a cordial reception with thick, green fuas that the queen had retained for him
He would have let it hit hiue hunch
s that were touched by the fumes rotted in seconds and melted
“Awful poison” Weed’s heart skipped two beats
The only way to stay away fro the bow from a distance But his arrows could not penetrate the hardy shell of the queen woras
The queen woras, waited for hiet close so she could shower it on hi coiled for a chance, the queen worm and Weed faced each other, motionless
‘She can shoot thick fue the first one, the second one will be hter The initial shot is decisive’
Weed’s eyes glittered when he saw a treasure has stashed behind the queen worive up here If only I had soht, I think I’ve found the answer’
His eyes narrowed to slits At the end of his gaze lay dumb-eyed arse
ht away arse plunged forward instinctively, and the queen woras toward it
‘Sorry, arse Destiny’s got you Life isn’t fair, and this is the end of our relationshi+p’
Weed could not afford the luxury of watching the fate of the poor beast
As soon as he as stocked in the queen worraving Knife Technique! Double dance!”
Weed swung the sildly until his ht hand, and the engraving knife in the left, he tore the shell off the queen worm
Left without any hile combat skills, this was the best option for Weed The queen worot in the way as he was too close to her
Moan
She finally closed her eyes shut Then, a key dropped from her body
“This is it”
Weed picked up the key, inserted it in the keyhole of the treasure box and turned it clockwise