0 Orc Chieftain’s Glaive / ATK 5–9
STR +1
***
It really was a good item. According to Jaejung hyung, even in the next map you can’t immediately get something at this level.
Wolf’s Spear (3–5) and Wolf’s Pike (3–7) were drops you could get after pushing in and hunting a bit, but even compared to those, this was two tiers higher.
Because of that, some teams went back to the orc hamlet east of the village and tried killing the Orc Chieftain again, but they griped that he didn’t drop the Orc Chieftain’s Glaive.
Only about one spellbook, a few Reinforcement Stones—not even enough to cover potion costs… They were going to keep trying just in case, but the respawn timer was so long they got tired of waiting and gave up.
In short, if you didn’t kill him back when orcs still held the village, going back later after beefing up your specs wouldn’t mean much. You’d just get a few stones. If you killed him many times, sure, maybe he’d drop the glaive—but for now, who knew.
If you could use it, you should use it. It meant you could hunt overgeared for quite a while.
“Then I’ll try it.”
PrettyGirl pressed those tight lips open and gave her answer. She kept glancing at the greatsword, so she still had lingering attachment—but since she said she’d try it, we told her to go ahead.
Come to think of it, PrettyGirl had changed weapons the most among us. Dagger, longsword, greatsword, even a bow—and now a glaive in the polearm category.
Even with all those switches in a short time, she handled each weapon pretty smoothly. She definitely had talent for this. With whatever she used, she put out steady damage above a certain threshold.
At first her swings really were all over the place—hit anywhere, do whatever her hands wanted—but day by day she was landing damage almost exactly where she intended.
As if she’d been zeroing in the sights all along.
Her damage bursts were as fiery as ever, but now they were more precise.
I turned my head; PrettyGirl had her hands spread wide on the glaive shaft, cutting it through the air this way and that.
After a few practice swings, she stopped and looked to me.
“I—I think I can use this.”
***
For now, the glaive and the spellbooks found their owners in turn.
“Jooho-nim did the lion’s share, so this is more than enough for us.”
“Me too…”
Since the glaive and spellbooks were so valuable, Charming and PrettyGirl bowed out of the stone split entirely. Same for the general item split.
For reference, Reinforcement Stones were insanely expensive right now. You name a price and that’s the price. No market rate had settled yet, so it was a headache for buyers and sellers alike. Only certainty: expensive.
With no supply on the market, 200–300k won in cash per stone was the easy going rate. If you talked well, you could get more. Later, when more flooded in, prices would plunge—but for the time being, they’d likely hold.
“I won’t get greedy either. Ninety out of a hundred was you, Jooho-nim. And we couldn’t have cleared without you. Who can tank the Orc Chieftain solo for over thirty minutes? Even knowing the trick, not anyone can do that.”
Saying so, Shield Warrior quietly took only five Armor Reinforcement Stones. He’d taken nothing else, so he seemed to be settling his share in stones.
Since his style started with defense, he’d need those to reinforce his shield. He didn’t even glance at the other items.
“This leaves me with way too much.”
“You should take that much. Don’t worry about it. The toll commission alone is huge. Also, we already agreed among ourselves—when the commission comes in, we’ll skim half off and give it to you, Jooho-nim. Don’t say no. We’ve already got consensus.”
At that, Charming and PrettyGirl nodded. So they’d finished that talk already.
That meant they’d hand me ar worth roughly 11 million won per person—about 33 million total.
On top of that, 65 Reinforcement Stones had landed in my lap. In cash, that was 16 to over 20 million won. Out of 70 stones, 65 to me…
Since I came up with the Orc Chieftain strat and suffered alone down below, once everything was tallied, my share did come out overwhelmingly large.
The toll commission over the next week would be about 22.5 million won; 65 stones were nearly 20 million; selling miscellaneous drops would bring something too, though not meaningful.
If the three each handed me about 11 million won worth of ar, that was another 33 million in.
All told, from one boss kill, we’d earned nearly 75 million won cash-equivalent. Considering stones and ar would depreciate, it wouldn’t stay that high—but still a lot.
This was a bit much. What kind of game was this? Four people eating what forty were supposed to—whole different scale.
The rest of the general items didn’t even catch my eye. Their value didn’t even come close to a few stones, so I couldn’t care. Shield Warrior would liquidate them per his usual and split proceeds; I didn’t have time.
“Having this many items makes handling them a job.”
Shield Warrior grinned. He’d secured his take for sure, so the smile came easy. Honestly, items were secondary—compared to the toll commission. For him, that would be almost 11 million won going forward. Only about one-seventh of mine, but that alone made him satisfied.
“Mm, but this is a problem. I can’t use all these stones by myself anyway. Let’s do this: when the toll commission starts coming in, you can settle with me in ar, and I’ll front you some stones.”
He looked particularly at PrettyGirl’s glaive. With a weapon like that, if we ran around unreinforced for lack of stones, people would laugh.
Hoarding 65 stones to myself would be dumb—unless I was going to sell now. And like Jaejung hyung said, selling stones now would be about the dumbest thing.
Unless I wasn’t planning to keep partying with them— but I liked this party. They were the ones who reached out to me first when I had nothing. Whatever the reason, that was a fact.
“For starters, let’s give everyone 5 Weapon Stones and 5 Armor Stones each. If you’re short later, we’ll trade more.”
“Really? Works for me. The commission’s plenty.”
Shield Warrior brightened. As a front-liner, he especially needed stones. Being able to buy stones now, when they were unobtainable, was a gift.
“Then I’ll ask a favor too,” Charming said. If she got a new staff or armor, she’d need stones. Maybe not right this second, but soon.
“Me too…”
Seriously—of course they all needed them; they just hadn’t said. Too nice for their own good. Maybe Shield Warrior would’ve brought it up later. If I hadn’t, then what?
I pulled stones from my inventory and handed them out; that left me with 35 stones.
We calculated with a mid-market 250k won per stone, and agreed I’d receive about 2.5 million won worth of ar from each of them later.
It would’ve been silly for party members to charge each other the absolute peak rate, so we compromised like this.
Charming and PrettyGirl tried to give more and nearly wore me out arguing. These people worried me, in a good way.
Now, all eyes were on PrettyGirl.
“Okay, I’ll reinforce.”
The way she was looking at the glaive, her eager eyes could have drilled a hole through it.
You didn’t need any special NPC to reinforce. Just present the weapon and ask for reinforcement. Of course, it did ask a little “Yes/No” first.
Come to think of it—could you reinforce from an external PC…? The boss would need a soju shot to do this right.
We moved to a quieter corner. PrettyGirl held the glaive’s grip in one hand and set a Weapon Reinforcement Stone with the other.
A bright white effect flashed around us. Party members only could see it.
《 You have successfully reinforced!! 》
With the system chime of success, the light faded and left:
『 +1 Orc Chieftain’s Glaive / ATK 5+1 – 9+1 』
“Whoa! So that’s how it looks.”
Shield Warrior admired it, while Charming and I examined the glaive closely. +1 to both min and max ATK.
“So it’s like the weapon went up one whole grade?”
“Yeah. No wonder stones are so expensive. And hard to get right now.”
As expected, but seeing the numbers, it felt great.
PrettyGirl was slightly breathless, excited.
“Keep going!”
I’d told the party that on Server 1, Jaejung hyung had confirmed up to +4 was somewhat safe. Maybe that’s why she was raring to push. Should I stop her? The boss bricked at +1→+2… She couldn’t be that unlucky, right?
Flash!
『 +2 Orc Chieftain’s Glaive / ATK 5+2 – 9+2 』
She did it before I could say anything.
Flash!
『 +3 Orc Chieftain’s Glaive / ATK 5+3 – 9+3 』
Flash!
『 +4 Orc Chieftain’s Glaive / ATK 5+4 – 9+4 』
Even at +4, PrettyGirl lifted another stone.
Stop!!
I threw up a hand, and Charming and Shield Warrior, startled, tried to stop her too.
“Stop!”
Charming grabbed her hand.
Turns out they could touch each other. If the person consented, you could touch—guess they’d gotten close enough.
PrettyGirl paused, then lifted her eyes, brimming with excitement, to Charming. Girl, you’ve gone too far.
“Why?”
“Your eyes are glazed. Stop. +4 is the safe line.”
“…I want more.”
Look at her. Absolutely should never gamble. The quiet one, and then she picks the worst possible spot to go wild.
“Are you going to push?”
“Mm.” She nodded.
What do we do with this?
After watching the boss’s hands tremble over a single upgrade, seeing this girl made my brain short-circuit.
From the boss and Jaejung hyung’s party stories, failure didn’t reduce levels—it shattered the item outright. The break chance spiked from +4 upward. We had to stop her.
Flash!
『 +5 Orc Chieftain’s Glaive / ATK 5+5 – 9+5 』
Too late. I’d been thinking of stopping her.
Charming jumped, Shield Warrior just stared.
“Seriously, stop now.”
This time I put my foot down. Left alone, she’d 100% break it. Guaranteed.
With me speaking up too, PrettyGirl finally pulled her hand away. I exhaled a long sigh. Charming wore the same face.
PrettyGirl gazed proudly at her +5 glaive. I’d have to confiscate all the stones later, or she’d make trouble sooner or later.
***
Shield Warrior opened his inventory and handed me a few items.
“What’s this?”
***
0 Wolf’s Longsword / ATK 3–5
0 Wolf’s Arm Guards / DEF 3
0 Wolf’s Leg Guards / DEF 3
0 Wolf’s Helmet / DEF 3
***
“Came in early and prepped a fair bit.”
He’d farmed well in a short time. Here, the Wolf series were the basic drops. An upper replacement for the Forest set.
The Wolf series was mostly gray-brown leather, and it felt much sturdier than the Forest set. If the Forest set had a more natural vibe, the Wolf series felt wild overall. The designs shifted from streamlined to more angular, and when you touched them they felt solid.
“You’re giving these to me?”
In answer, he pulled out more duplicates from his inventory. He’d farmed a lot—then no need to be shy.
“Empty hunting grounds are really great, you know? I cherry-picked.”
So empty grounds were king after all…
Honestly, I’d been reluctant to spend stones on the Forest set—but this solved that.
Stones were precious now, so I stopped at basic reinforcement.
『 +4 Wolf’s Longsword / ATK 3+4 – 5+4 』
『 +3 Wolf’s Arm Guards / DEF 3+3 』
『 +3 Wolf’s Leg Guards / DEF 3+3 』
『 +3 Wolf’s Helmet / DEF 3+3 』
I wanted to go higher, but we only had one new weapon, and we’d need stones for other slots as we got them, so I stopped here.
***
With the Orc Village turned into a refugee town, the biggest change was that there were things to enjoy besides hunting. You could eat, drink, browse clothes.
They said they’d soon roll out a system for players to craft and sell handmade clothes. The current clothes on sale were basic medieval styles—not that popular. Fun to try on, but mismatched for modern tastes. Also pricey.
As for handmade food, complicated flavors were hard to implement, so we’d have to wait.
These features were getting good reviews. Just hunting under 4th-Gen VRS felt like a waste—though the hunting alone was amazing, players always wanted more.
“Hunting is fun, but it felt a bit lacking. This is nice,” Charming said with a smile, sipping orange juice. PrettyGirl and Shield Warrior nodded over their juices. On the way to the hunting grounds, we bought food and drinks like a picnic, eating as we walked.
If only the sky weren’t so gloomy with clouds, it would really feel like a picnic. That was Lycanthrope Territory for you—the weather was like the pre-refugee Orc zone.
South of the refugee village, the black clouds were gone—clear sky, blazing sun. If we went that way, we could have that picnic for real. Just needed kimbap?
Cloudy weather aside, the tang of juice in my mouth blew away any tension about a new hunting ground long ago. Well, everyone but me had already been out hunting here; it felt awkward to be the only one nervous.
“All I see here is rock.”
“Right? So barren. The forest was so nice,” Charming pouted lightly at my comment.
Lycanthrope Territory was mostly high stone hills. Here and there, where forest had been, all that remained were trees with parched branches, sparsely scattered.
From the refugee NPCs’ stories, this was the outer region of the Kingdom of Rogash, once ruled by some nameless baron.
According to the forums, five baronial forgotten castles had knelt beneath the lycanthropes and were ruined. Each of the two starter towns connected to one forgotten castle, and probably we’d have to do something there to bring down the light from the sky again.
“The final named boss is probably there. No one’s found a castle yet, so it’s quiet—but once it’s discovered, it’ll get noisy again.”
“Not sure we’ll get a chance this time.”
We’d taken the Orc Chieftain down ridiculously. Hard to think that kind of chance would come again.
***
“Is that it?”
“Yeah. I figured once we hit the trail it’d be a long walk, but it was easier to find than I thought.”
An unnamed dungeon. As we got close, the map pinged, and its name switched to Western Wolf Den.
If there was a west, then there must be east, north, and south too, right?
The dungeon entrance lay far northwest beyond the nearest hunting grounds, past several more.
On the way, it was people here, people there, people even farther—people everywhere. Over every hill, more. Each hunting spot was packed; could you even hunt? Each party nailed itself to a single respawn spot and farmed it, which even looked suffocating.
Jaejung hyung’s favorite line popped up: the best hunting ground is the one you farm alone. Turn that around, and the current field hunting grounds were the worst.
“The dungeon will be better for us. There are too many people in the field now.”
That was Shield Warrior’s conclusion, given our gear—go straight into the dungeon.
“Aren’t the levels here a bit high?”
“I heard B1 is around Level 18.”
“Higher than I expected.”
I was Level 11; Charming, PrettyGirl, and Shield Warrior were 13. That was a big gap. Could we even kill anything?
“In dungeons, if your gear isn’t there yet, you basically can’t hunt. That’s true in most games, and spawn rates are faster than the field. At this stage, there are almost no parties that can hunt in dungeons.”
“But we can?” Charming asked, following his explanation.
“That’s right. For one… PrettyGirl’s weapon is strong… and we have Jooho-nim.”
“This is… ten times the pressure.”
“Same,” PrettyGirl said. Shield Warrior just laughed.
“If it doesn’t work, we walk back out. Don’t stress it.”
Somehow that made it more stressful.
Still, if Shield Warrior was right and we could hunt at all, the dungeon would be the best spot for us.
We headed for the large cave-mouth entrance. Bottomless darkness waited within.