Volume 2 Chapter 5 (2/2)

Royal Road would become money, he was certain of that However, he needed to consider the alternate possibilities If Hye Yeon needed e, Hyun was prepared to sell his body parts

Royal Road, a game to be enjoyed

But Hyun could not afford the luxury of being so carefree He had to force himself to work harder to earn more money and become Royal Road’s richest man

‘Lee Hye Yeon, you must succeed my unfulfilled dreams I will make sure you won’t have to make the sacrifices that I have had toworn-out clothes, ca like a possessedone eye would not affect his lifemoney

He wanted to row up cheerfully away froh too much hardshi+p, a shadoould appear across the face It is inevitable since they would be different froood environ way to fear which in turn erodes self-confidence Out of greed, Hyun had tried hard even at a young age to attain the confidence and intellect attributed to rich kids

Even if he himself could not eat or be clothed properly, he would make sure his little sister would never need to be jealous of others There aren’t er sister Maybe not all older brothers are like this, but Hyun’s feelings for his little sister were unrivaled She wasn’t just his little sister

Hye Yeon had lost her parents at a young age Since then, the one who cared for her and raised her was not the busy grandmother, but Hyun himself

Now, there was no Irene’s holy ic, nor Romuna’s AOE spells or alarms Surka’s relentless punches were nowhere to be found, nor were Pale’s lightning-fast range attacks Nevertheless, Weed still had hi in a party was fine, but withtiin

In co solo had the benefit of sireat for raising skill points It was better to fight solo to improve Sword Mastery and other combat techniques

“Grr, hu battle aura, swung its sword The arht’s with its quick , but Weed’s ed the Skeleton Knight’s attacks as he slohittled away his opponent’s health As a result, the Skeleton Knight’sBlade!”

Finally, Weed’s sword shattered the Skeleton Knight’s ribcage The light faded frohts in Royal Road were very realistic The special effects for things getting broken or sreat opportunities to boost the Strength stat This particular stat determined the power behind attacks, just like in the real world A player used that pohen fighting e was not dealt if attacks did not e away had much lower destructive power as opposed to a punch thrown at a close range Therefore, dae was determined by how much one could control his oer Posture, muscle use, proximity, and explosion of power

Royal Road was a virtual reality game that allowed players to exploit an enemy’s weakness Players of Royal Road, like veteran warriors, were keenly aware of their own strength Not just via nu their own destructive power There was such joy in destruction! Of course, Weed was no exception

He dedicated hi swords and the basics of battle Through his many practice matches, he becahts against strong opponents

The sword became his way and his tool The sas the best tool to use to understand the basics ofOf course, a person who startedRoyal Road without learning swordsmanshi+p orskills Actually, that was howof it as just another part of the gaet used to But their perspective was different

The tree whose roots run deep will grow taller A player who fought monsters without a foundation in swordsrow up deformed Weed had practiced swords a er monsters, his skills ier than his stats suggested

“Hmm… With this, I have all the items I need to complete the quest”

“Whew… I should just replenish the mana” Weed’s mana was half depleted, so he decided to take a brief break

Since Weed was doing the work of many people on his own, he was always on the alert, never truly relaxing While he waited for his mana to replenish, he sat and sculpted with enthusias was in the shape of a crow

Making a sculpture for the first tinificantly raises both the Art stat and Sculpture Mastery Since Weed had decided to make each new sculpture unique, his Art stat and Sculpture Mastery were rising quickly His goal was to make sculptures for each Avian tribe in Lavias

Weed returned to Lavias and distributed the sculptures he had made to the Avians

“This sculpture is the only one of its kind in the entire world I sculpted all your appearances with my own hands!”

“Thanks”

Each Avian received a sculpture that resembles them As they took them, they said, “I can’t take this for free”

“How ive you?”

Each tiave the saetting money involved But I’ about this city?”

“Mmm… Then I’ll tell you about the Northern Nest…”

“I’ll tell you about the habits of the undead in the underground”

The Avians’ stories becah they were ossip, sorounds

Weed went to the Croho stood in front of the armor shop

“What is this?”

“I made this sculpture for Crow-nis in appreciation Then he spoke up, as if a thought had just occurred to hione to the Dead Warrior’s Cave?”

“The Dead Warrior’s Cave?”

“Yes, if you come out of Memphis Hall and walk north for thirty h, there are Ghouls, Skeleton Mercenaries and Dullahan there You won’t survive if you go in without proper preparations”

In Royal Road, levels rose faster when fighting es were no longer a hts that only wandered around alone

Weed prepared his bag with an abundance of medicinal herbs, food and fresh water On the Continent, Weed would only need things like condiments and spices, since he could find edible plants or catch and cook ani Skills But since Memphis Hall had only the Undead, he had to pack food

On his way to the grocery store hea parrot“Oh, a human traveler Come, coh

‘What a bird-brain’

Weed had o, and of course given him a sculpture as a token of friendshi+p He had liked it very ain and he had forgotten all about Weed

When Weed tried to rerily told Weed not to talk nonsense He then called Weed a thief and threw hireeted war about the Avians

‘They have terrible oldfish can’t re beyond three seconds?

These Avians were better than goldfish, but the fact remained that they possessed the undersized brains of birds They forgot Weed’s existence even after he had introduced hiy to

He ended up having to get everything he could out of the friendly“I came to buy beans, sesame seeds, corn, walnuts, fish, leeks, pork, peanuts and spinach”

“Oh, is that so?”

The parrot-looking avian took out foods one by one as Weed ordered the, “That’ll be 19 gold”

“Here it is Ah, but I only have 18 gold and 50 silver Can I give you the rest the next ti look at Weed

“You are not a ive you a discount because you’re not experienced in bartering You are a somewhat famous adventurer, but not that famous But you have artistic talent I can’t deny someone who may be the next famous artist I’ll trust you and take that 50 silver next ti paid 50 silver less

The foods he bought could raise hNow the question hether or not the parrot-like Avian would reotten the 40 silvers weed had promised him last time, it seemed unlikely

With that, the first step of his preparations ended Next he had to hone his fighting skills

“Stat !”

<tbody>Status WindowAvatar: WeedType: NeutralLevel: 109Job: Legendary Moonlight Sculptortitle: NoneFath: 335+20Agility: 305+20Vitality: 89+20Wisdo Spirit: 143+20Stamina: 174+20Endurance: 55+20Art: 84+100Leadershi+p: 74+20Luck: 5+20Offence: 231Defense: 76Magic Resistance: None+ 20 points added to All Stats+ 80 points added Art+ 30 increase to Stats on Moonlit Nights+ Gained ability to equip class specific itee of askills are optional Advanced skills available+ Decrease in Mana Consu Blade technique based on level of Sculpting Mastery+ Gained ability to learn secret skills based on your level in Sculpture Mastery+ Fame increase upon creation of unique sculptures of artistic value</tbody>

Weed’s Level was over 100 When Weed and his party discovered Memphis Hall and received double experience points, they had concentrated on hunting the whole time

They decreased their sleep time by two hours, and even stayed connected while they slept This way, Weed had gotten to level 95 Hunting solo, he had raised it to 109

His stats had been greatly boosted thanks to the level gains His Mana was now high enough to allow him to use the 4th Ih only once

The only unsatisfying part was that there had been no increase in Leadershi+p This skill rose not only when giving orders to NPCs, but also when one was a party leader However, since he had been hunting alone, there had been no way to improve his Leadershi+p skillsCertain other skills had also increased by very little

<tbody>

Cooking: Level 8 — 45

Sculpting: Level 9 — 99

Repair: Level 7 — 25

Intermediate Handcraft: Level 2 — 6

Swordsmanshi+p: Level 8 — 88

Archery: Level 5 — 98

Sculpting Blade: Level 7 — 49

Imperial Formless Sword: Comprehension — 5

First Aid: Level 7 — 11

Item Identification: Level 5 — 14

</tbody>

Sculpting was about to rise to nificantly decreased after reaching level 7

He had used Sword Kaiser a few ti solo, it wasBlade, due to its ability to cut through the unseen This was critical when fighting the Undead as it effectively severed the soul This sword technique was, therefore, akin to holy ic in its ability to destroy the Undead

“Not bad”

Weed smiled as he headed toward the es

His eyes grew sad at the thought of spending ht items before He made his own food, and sometimes even sold it

Sculptures carved froold or two Naturally, this was not a small sum

When he ith Pale and the others, he always told the his portion of the loot But his profit froold! He had accu quest rewards

But to be in position to spendpenniless Weed’s shoulders drooped and his face looked like one facing death whenever he went into a store

Especially when paying, he see a near death experience Therefore, no one could comprehend why his heart ached so, or why he was always short a few silvers