Class Advancement
《Calculating rewards.》
Ooh!
Yes. This was exactly what I had wanted!
What would it give me as a reward?
《Dungeon clear rewards will be provided.》
The first reward was runes.
《You have obtained Common Dark Rune x300.》
《You have obtained Advanced Dark Rune x100.》
《You have obtained Rare Dark Rune x50.》
Oh, good. Good.
I had obtained a considerable number of runes.
With this much, I could enhance the abilities of several summons and still have some left over.
But these were merely the dungeon clear rewards, and the main reward started now.
《Clear grade rewards will be provided.》
《You have obtained Common Summon Ticket x100.》
《You have obtained Advanced Summon Ticket x50.》
《You have obtained Rare Summon Ticket x20.》
A smile formed on my face by itself.
A generous amount of common, advanced, and rare summon tickets had also fallen into my hands.
If I sold these, would they not be more than enough for my spending money?
However, even though runes and summon tickets had plenty of uses, they were not the ‘main’ thing I wanted.
《Clear-time record reward will be provided.》
‘Yes. Finally!’
《You have obtained a Special Skill Unlock Scroll.》
‘A Special Skill Unlock Scro...! Oh... oh?’
...?
What was this?
This was an item even I had never seen before.
Was it an item added when the game became reality?
Just like the ‘Apocalypse’ grade that had been granted to Hertia.
I immediately checked the item description.
【Special Skill Unlock Scroll】
Description: A scroll containing a powerful force that forcibly unlocks one unique skill belonging to a summon.
‘Huh? W-Wait...?’
When I saw this reward, my mind went blank for a moment.
It forcibly unlocked one unique skill?
In other words, it meant I could unlock one of Hertia’s unique skills right now!
I could not even guess how valuable this was.
‘Unique skill unlocking is a function that opens at level 10. But raising the level is not enough on its own.’
Unique skill unlocking was a function that consumed all kinds of resources.
Runes were the basics, and it also required an endless number of materials, such as various monster horns, fangs, and ancient books.
In particular, the higher a summon’s grade was, the more absurdly valuable the required materials became.
By the time one reached Mythic grade, the cost was enough to make a person groan out loud.
On top of that, judging from Hertia’s performance, the ‘Apocalypse’ grade was absolutely not below the ‘Mythic’ grade.
In other words, even if I calculated it as cheaply as possible, it would have been a distant process that required burning through hundreds of millions, yet this meant I would not have to go through that hardship.
I looked up at the sky and clenched my fist.
‘Good!’
An item of this level should be more than enough as a reward to give Hertia.
I called Hertia, who was staring intently at me from beside me.
“Hert.”
“Did you call for me?”
“Your contributions were great. I shall bestow a reward upon you.”
“A r-reward... you say?”
At that moment, Hertia’s expression changed strangely.
It was not that I felt hostility from her.
But why was she staring at me so intently?
No way.
Was this girl thinking of ‘evaluating’ me?
If the item I gave her as a reward was pathetic, she might change her attitude at once and strangle me again.
To be honest, I was intimidated, but I did have some confidence in this reward.
“Wait. Sit here.”
“Yes, Master.”
Hertia knelt on both knees and sat down.
Then I took out the scroll I had received as a reward.
《Would you like to use the Special Skill Unlock Scroll on Hertia?》
Definitely yes!
《YES》
《Hertia’s unique skill ‘Reverse Side of Darkness’ has been unlocked.》
“Haaah—”
Hertia’s body trembled from the aftermath of awakening the skill.
After examining her once, I quickly checked the skill description.
[Unique Skill]
2nd Skill
Description: Releases the essence of darkness and breaks down the enemy’s defense by 50%.
When attacking, triggers an additional attack, ‘Vortex of Death’.
*Vortex of Death: Concentrates the power of darkness like a vortex to destroy the enemy and takes 20% of the enemy’s attack power. Damage increases in proportion to maximum vitality.
The sheer number of words made me sigh automatically.
As if to prove it was a trash game, the skill description continued like a nonfiction reading passage.
However, with the instincts I had honed through years of play, I sorted out only the information I needed.
Defense reduction on the target! Attack-power absorption! An additional attack that dealt vitality-scaling damage on attack!
Linked with her 1st skill, Hertia’s development method began to appear clearly in my mind.
Abandon speed! Invest everything into vitality! Just raising vitality made her damage stronger! Secure the first strike too!
In other words, from the victim’s perspective, she was the kind of bruiser that made curses come out.
“Hert. Can you feel it?”
“Yes... I can feel Master’s grace filling my body.”
“That is enough. Nine more times. We will subjugate this place nine more times.”
“I shall accompany you wherever you go.”
Of course, I had no intention of ending with just one clear.
I intended to circle this dungeon over and over and squeeze it dry.
It seemed I would be the one to break my own record.
***
At the same time.
Team Leader Lee Jeongyul, who had been checking the records of the Growth Forest with her eyes blazing, felt as though her neck was stiff and her back was about to snap.
However, no matter how long she waited, there was no sign that the record would be broken.
‘...Does he not plan to clear it today?’
The chances of that were low.
Statistically, 90% of adventurers who cleared the tutorial challenged the Growth Forest immediately, or at the latest, the next day.
Honestly, after facing the chance of a lifetime through awakening, who would not want to quickly receive rewards and open their next summon?
‘Could it have been a one-hit wonder...? No, surely not.’
Of course, showing a good performance in the tutorial did not guarantee that one would do well next time, but there were degrees even to being good.
It did not make sense for someone who had set the absurd record of 0 minutes and 34 seconds to suddenly become ordinary from the next dungeon onward.
‘Or... could he be clearing a different dungeon?’
The Growth Forest was the representative beginner dungeon.
Its rewards were good compared to its difficulty, and if one recorded a high score, the ranking would be made public, which could also lead to scouting offers from famous guilds.
As such, it was a dungeon beginners obsessed over, but—
‘If this rookie does not want his information to be revealed... he might start by clearing dungeons that are not counted in the rankings. For example, a “Rune Dungeon” or something...’
Team Leader Lee Jeongyul briefly reviewed her own thoughts.
Then she let out a deep sigh.
SLAP!
“Whoa, damn it, that startled me.”
Park Taegyun flinched involuntarily at the sudden sound of a slap.
When he turned around, he saw his superior, Team Leader Lee Jeongyul, pressing a hand against her own cheek.
“...Were you sleepy?”
“Yes, I suppose I was.”
Team Leader Lee Jeongyul said she had accidentally hit herself too hard, cooled the heat in her cheek, and calmly thought again.
‘Get a hold of yourself, Lee Jeongyul. No matter how much of a super rookie he is, how could a freshly awakened adventurer clear a Rune Dungeon?’
Her judgment must have grown clouded because she was exhausted from hard work.
Thinking that she had to pull herself together, she stretched and looked at the assistant seated behind her.
“Taegyun. Would you like some coffee?”
“I will pass. This is already my fifth cup today.”
Damn it, she had been trying to send him on an errand.
Team Leader Lee Jeongyul blamed her own lack of popularity and slowly rose from her seat.
Then—
‘Yikes.’
She quickly returned to her place.
That was because the person of interest, ‘Association President Jeon Myeongil’, was approaching from afar.
‘Ah, that old geezer. His timing is really...!’
Jeon Myeongil. The current president of the Republic of Korea Adventurer Management Association.
He was the undisputed top figure of this organization, which exclusively managed the top rankers of the Republic of Korea.
And he was also the person she found most difficult to deal with at work.
Perhaps Lee Jeongyul’s suspicious movements bothered him, because Jeon Myeongil strode toward her seat.
“Team Leader Lee Jeongyul.”
“Yes! President!”
“Do not pretend to be disciplined. If you have time right now, talk with me for a bit.”
“Ah, I am a little busy with work right now...”
“You can go buy coffee after we talk.”
“...Shall I reserve a conference room?”
Jeon Myeongil said there was no need and pulled over a chair from the next seat before sitting down.
Wondering what in the world this old man was doing, she listened closely.
“Has anything come up lately?”
“Pardon?”
“Rookie scouting. I am asking whether you have found anything at all.”
Lee Jeongyul thought for a moment.
‘What is this? Did he come knowing everything already?’
That was because there was something she had not yet reported to the higher-ups.
The fact that the tutorial ranking had been updated in Korea, and that there was a possibility the person who had set that great record was Korean.
“Well...”
However, she was not sure whether it was right to mention that now.
Jeon Myeongil was a man obsessed with performance evaluations.
If she spilled every detail and something came of it, would he not abruptly release information about the rookie overseas, as if a vending machine were spitting out drinks?
If that happened, the birth of a ‘super ranker from the Republic of Korea’ would become as good as impossible.
“You are hesitating. It seems there is something.”
“That is... not exactly—”
Team Leader Lee Jeongyul met Jeon Myeongil’s gaze head-on while her eyes rolled around restlessly.
At that moment, an unexpected voice cut in.
“Uh... it is not certain yet, but we believe there is a possibility that a super rookie has appeared in our country.”
‘Taegyun!’
However, rendering her worries pointless, Park Taegyun blurted it out first.
She honestly wanted to smack him on the head, but she could not do that in front of Jeon Myeongil.
However, something was strange.
Contrary to what she had expected, Jeon Myeongil’s expression hardened.
After looking around once, Jeon Myeongil moved close to Lee Jeongyul and whispered quietly.
“What does that mean? A super rookie?”
“...Some time ago, a new best record was set in the tutorial dungeon.”
“I never received such a report.”
“Ah, I was in the middle of preparing the report.”
That was a lie.
“Ah... then why do you think there is a possibility that the person is Korean?”
Now that things had come to this, she could not hide it.
It would be better to share the information and convince Jeon Myeongil by impressing upon him the seriousness of the situation.
Lee Jeongyul conveyed her thoughts exactly as they were.
Adventurers generally entered the tutorial dungeon in the country where they awakened.
That information had already been proven through the data from the Record Tower.
Statistically, 93.8% of adventurers proceeded with the tutorial in their own country.
However, she explained that they were approaching it cautiously due to the special nature of Korea, where adventurers tended to gather, and the fact that adventurers from the Republic of Korea traditionally had low records.
“...Understood. Let us keep an eye on it for now.”
“How should we handle it publicly...?”
At Lee Jeongyul’s question, Jeon Myeongil grimaced heavily.
“What else? We maintain that we do not know.”
“Pardon?”
“We are only making assumptions, and it is true that we do not know the nationality.”
“Yes.”
“We are simply speaking according to the facts. There is no reason to add unnecessary personal opinions.”
“Yes!”
Jeon Myeongil was, at any rate, a citizen of the Republic of Korea.
He had felt firsthand just how weak the Republic of Korea’s power had become in the changed world.
Especially when talking with adventurer powerhouse nations, there had been more than one or two times when he had gritted his teeth.
They kept using dungeon break prevention as a hostage to extort interests from Korea.
“So write up the report and send it.”
“Yes! Understood!”
It was around the time the two of them finished their conversation.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
A beeping sound began to ring from the Record Tower viewing terminal.
At the sound they had not heard in quite some time, the employees grew tense.
“It is an update!”
“What, what will come this time?”
“Vampires...? Or maybe yokai?”
“I just hope it is not something with a title like Great War.”
“Exactly...”
The beeping of the viewing terminal.
It was a signal that a large-scale patch was scheduled.
The patch details were unilaterally notified to the Record Tower.
Naturally, it was impossible for association members to arbitrarily change the patch details.
They merely checked the patch details and relayed exactly what they saw to adventurers around the world.
The interior of the Record Tower emitted a bright light.
The inner wall flashed, and the title of the next patch was engraved upon it.
「Legend Seven Episode 8: Return of the Elf Legion」
The employees were flustered.
“Episode... 8?”
“Episode, meaning a main story update, is happening for the first time, is it not?”
“Then does this mean a new story will progress from now on?”
When Legend Seven was still a game, it consisted of seven episodes in total.
In the midst of that, a new episode had appeared.
This also meant that the entire state of future adventures would change completely.
Jeon Myeongil immediately asked an employee.
“The update date! What is the date?”
“It is one month from now.”
“One month? Are there no details?”
“It says the details will be written on the detailed page later. There is no information other than the title.”
While the three of them were gathered and whispering among themselves, murmurs from the employees could be heard across the office space.
“Elves? Were those guys not all wiped out?”
“The setting says a small number survived. It is rare, but there are cases where they can be encountered in events. More importantly... does this mean that is coming too? The Witch of the Apocalypse?”
“The W-Witch of the Apocalypse?! We are screwed. We are seriously screwed!”
At the name of the Witch of the Apocalypse, several people nearly had fits.
However, Park Taegyun did not understand why everyone was so troubled.
What is the Witch of the Apocalypse, you nerds?
“Team Leader. Why is everyone so serious?”
“Taegyun, you do not know? The elf episode?”
“Ah. I heard something about the boss of Episode 1 being a witch or whatever.”
“...The elves are the main race of Legend Seven’s first episode. If they are returning...”
“If they are returning?”
“Would that not mean the elves’ archenemy... the Witch of the Apocalypse, Hertia, is also returning?”
“...? Ah, yes. I see.”
It seemed Park Taegyun did not understand the seriousness of the situation.
He did not know how terrible of a villain that ‘Hertia’ had been.
Though it had been a defeat event, countless newbies had been ground down before her overwhelming power.
Even Association President Jeon Myeongil sighed when he heard Hertia’s name.
“Haaah... Good news and bad news are coming together. Life really is damned unpleasant. I will go first. The higher-ups will start making a fuss soon.”
Jeon Myeongil left first, and the employees dropped into their chairs as if throwing their bodies down.
Park Taegyun also sat in his chair and immediately searched for Hertia.
Then he was shocked.
“Not a single person has defeated Hertia? What in the world...”
***
《Level up! Your adventurer level becomes ‘9’.》
Easy leveling, easy life!
Now I only needed to raise it by one more, and adventurer level 10 would arrive!
Reaching adventurer level 10 meant that I now had to decide my path in earnest as an adventurer.
In Legend Seven, growing only one’s summons was not everything.
The adventurer had to grow as well.
Through class advancement and growth, adventurers could separately learn skills for summoners, and these skills could be used in PVE or PVP.
That was why adventurer skills were also an extremely important part of the game.
I could drop lightning on an enemy summon’s head and roast it, or heal an allied summon’s injuries.
In other words, it meant that I could intervene directly at decisive moments.
However, the problem was that even those abilities were obtained through damned ‘gacha’.
An adventurer who reached level 10 was granted a class according to his playstyle up to that point, but this was also random.
That was why, back when this was a game, it had been notorious as the ‘Devil’s Reroll’.
After all, simply pulling summons was not enough. Only after revealing the summoner skills could one determine whether an account was usable or not.
However, in this case, my mind was actually a little lighter.
No matter what skill came out, I was confident that I could make use of it in my own way.
Besides, even if the class I drew now was not that good, I could simply draw a new one later.
“Now. This is the last one!”
“Yes!”
At Hert’s blow, another golem collapsed.
Attribute Rune Dungeons basically had a limit of 10 entries per day, but that was only a limit on the ‘reward bonus’.
Even if I cleared it 11 times or more, the rewards would drop sharply, but I could still gain a fair amount of experience.
《Level up! Your adventurer level becomes ‘10’.》
《You have reached adventurer level 10 and have been given the opportunity for class advancement.》
《Among the 10 cards that have appeared before your eyes, turn over and select the card you want!》
《Would you like to proceed with class advancement?》
‘Yes!’
There was no need to even think.
I proceeded immediately.
A pile of pure white cards fell before my eyes.
The pile of cards scattered and arranged itself in an instant, and a total of ten cards floated before me.
Since drawing a class was still a type of gacha, it had its own presentation gimmick.
For instance, when I placed my finger near a card, it would emit a faint light and hint at that card’s grade.
I began checking the grade of each card that way.
‘Most of them are gray. Common. Since that one is green... two are advanced. There is no blue, so there are no rares. Oh, there is one purple.’
The colors that could earn their keep no matter what I drew were yellow and orange.
Yellow was Legendary, and orange was Mythic grade.
However, after checking the backs of nine cards, the colors were not good at all.
The highest was Hero grade. In other words, purple.
‘Tsk, I did not expect anything anyway. What was relatively good among the Hero-grade ones?’
Just as I let go of everything and recalled the Hero-grade adventurer classes, I checked the color of the final card.
Whoooosh—
An ominously flickering dark purple energy.
I had definitely seen this eerie atmosphere before.
‘This... is exactly the same as when I summoned Hertia, is it not...?’