< Welcome to the world of Lost Sky. >
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Joo Seungho. Male.
Character name Jooho. Level 12.
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Name: Jooho
Level: 12 ▲2
【STR 2】 【AGI 4 ▲1】 【VIT 3】
【INT 0】 【MANA 1】
+3 Wolf Helmet / DEF 3+3 ◀ NEW
+0 Forest Armor (Top) / DEF 4
+0 Forest Armor (Bottoms) / DEF 3
+3 Trine’s Shoes / DEF 2+3 / Movement Speed +1
+3 Wolf Arm Guards / DEF 3+3 ◀ NEW
+3 Wolf Leg Guards / DEF 3+3 ◀ NEW
+4 Wolf Longsword / ATK 7 (3+4)–9 (5+4) ◀ NEW
+0 Forest Longsword / ATK 2–4
***
Level 12. I put the new stat point into AGI. Damage aside, the low AGI meant my body wasn’t moving the way I wanted—frustrating.
Baseline movement now felt about 1.3×. I still had no trouble controlling my body. Can’t say about other people.
My AGI would have to get much higher to draw the picture I wanted. At this AGI, I wasn’t close.
When I logged in, Charming, PrettyGirl, and Shield Warrior were already hunting in the pit beyond the earthen wall.
“Ah, you’re here.”
Charming, in the rear, spotted me the moment I entered and greeted me.
“You’ve been camped here the whole time?”
“Yeah, we went back to town once to sell—bags were overflowing—and came right back.”
When the weight climbs too high, you can’t function. Armor, shields, weapons—those are heavy. The inventory behaves like a backpack and scales with STR and VIT, so carry weight changes, too. In our party, Shield Warrior has the highest carry limit.
“Welcome.”
PrettyGirl yanked her glaive out of a War Wolf’s skull, turned, and greeted me with a shy smile. That’s a gap in vibes. Shield Warrior followed with his own greeting.
Shield Warrior ran me through the updates; nothing we needed to memorialize. Servers 1 and 2 kept exploding under the load, took a beating for back-to-back maintenances, and some bug triggered a string of emergency patches.
So someone besides us had pulled a stunt somewhere? Official service or not, the maintenance train rolled on—if anything, it felt worse.
“And Assault says they got the Orc Chieftain’s glaive.”
“Sorry? How’d they manage that?”
I glanced at PrettyGirl—she still had our glittering glaive in hand. Only one thing made sense.
“Did they buy it from the neighboring village?”
They’d been singing odes to that glaive forever; guess they finally paid up. How much did Assault shell out? If it was enhanced at +something, the enhancement stone costs would stack on top of the rumored 3 million won.
But would a player who’d downed the Orc Chieftain in the neighboring village really part with it? If the party leader was capable of pioneering that raid, dumping it casually seemed odd. Thinking of someone like Jaejung, it felt almost impossible.
Maybe Assault offered a mind-blowing sum. Otherwise, it didn’t add up.
“Not that. Uh… it’s a cheese strat, but they farmed the Orc Chieftain at the end of every maintenance. I’ve still got a buddy over there; heard it over his shoulder.”
That didn’t match what I’d heard. I’d heard most groups gave up because the respawn timer was too long…
“When maintenance ends, all monster respawn timers reset. Bosses and named mobs too. So Assault went every time maintenance ended and farmed, and the glaive finally dropped.”
“Impressive.”
In the last few days, they had gone nuts with maintenances. The notices page was pages of maintenance posts.
Even if the roar stagger duration got halved, the potion burn for one kill had to be brutal. Doing that repeatedly must’ve cost a fortune. Cash, obviously.
Even with some enhancement stones dropping on the side, that wouldn’t cover it… In the end, they got the glaive, so it worked out.
“Doggedness alchemized into cheese, huh. Never even thought about ‘reset after maintenance, rekill the boss.’”
“Yeah, there were games like that—resets on maintenance. Not that we could’ve exploited it ourselves.”
Koreans really are world-class at gaming the system.
***
“And take this.”
Shield Warrior handed over some ar from his inventory and a Wolf Longsword. Before I logged off, I’d asked him to liquidate some items (he skimmed a fair fee, as he should), and he’d also tracked down the blade I was missing.
Finally!
The longsword that refused to drop yesterday was right in front of me. I could dual-wield again.
“Thank you—really.”
I’d only hinted before logging out that I’d love a second Wolf Longsword, and he still went and got it. Much obliged.
“I deducted the cost from the sales. While I was sorting in town, I noticed people were selling longswords pretty often. Easier to find than you’d think.”
“I keep dumping errands on you.”
“I was already sorting; did it together.”
“If I can help with anything next time, say the word.”
Grateful he spent time for me when I’m the one short on hours.
Flash!
《 Enhancement succeeded!! 》
『 +4 Wolf Longsword / ATK 3+4–5+4 』
I gripped a +4 Wolf Longsword in each hand and gave them a swing. Now it felt right.
The AGI from leveling up made the swings feel different, too. Just +1, but my movement had more reach and freedom.
“There’s a spot with three spawns nearby. Want to try it?”
He must’ve scouted it earlier. The two-spawn camp was easy enough now even without me.
Then we should take on three.
“Let’s go. You two?”
“I’m in.”
“Me too.”
Charming and PrettyGirl nodded. We followed Shield Warrior down the earthen corridor, cutting down a stray War Wolf or two along the way, and reached a slightly wider chamber than before.
“This camp’s as good as the last one—if we can clear three.”
The opener mattered. If we killed them once, they’d respawn in kill order. As long as we handled the first triple pull, holding the camp would be fine.
“Let’s do it. Jooho and I each hold one; Charming and PrettyGirl take the third and then help out.”
Everyone nodded.
Shield Warrior still led the charge. I dove in behind him. Charming Bound one War Wolf’s legs, and PrettyGirl rushed that target.
With AGI up, I had much more breathing room in the duel. Where before I’d been skimming danger, now I could pre-empt, slip back early, or drive in. The longswords danced faster, carving the War Wolf’s neck again and again.
The stagger came soon after.
Dual-wield versus single makes a raw difference in hit count; the stagger popped much faster. No way I’m giving up twin blades—if you can control them, it’s the best combo.
While I shredded my staggered target, Charming and PrettyGirl downed theirs and moved to help Shield Warrior.
At this rate, I’d finish first.
Right as Shield Warrior’s War Wolf fell, mine went down to my blades alone.
“Huh? You soloed yours?”
Shield Warrior blinked.
“Yeah, it just… went down. The extra longsword you got me makes staggering easy.”
Shield Warrior shook his head.
“As if anyone could do that just by adding a blade. You’re full of surprises.”
Charming and PrettyGirl nodded along. They’d seen me fight the Orc Chieftain, so they weren’t shocked—just unsurprised.
“Three is totally manageable.”
Shield Warrior grinned. Camp secured. Now we just had to melt the War Wolves as they came one by one. With three, downtime would shrink—but that’s exactly what we wanted.
***
The two-spawn and three-spawn camps filled bags at very different speeds. With almost no breaks, we farmed endlessly until our inventories were stuffed. We handed stacks to Shield Warrior to compress space and finally climbed out of the pit.
“I’m beat.”
“Same.”
PrettyGirl nodded at me and Charming’s groans. Shield Warrior seemed different—if anything, energized. Guy’s secretly hardcore.
“Let’s head to town. Feels like my body won’t move under the weight.”
Everyone hit their Return Stones.
The return point was near the massive blue crystal pillar in the village center. As our inverted fog-of-war view snapped back, we were greeted by a sea of merchants.
Most had stalls open with banners floating over their heads. At least the cobbled roads were no-stall zones, so you could still walk.
“It’s crowded every time.”
Charming looked around and came over to me. PrettyGirl and Shield Warrior had returned a bit away and regrouped with us.
“Easy to get lost at this point.”
So many people. Each village hosted roughly 100,000 assigned players, and ours hadn’t bled many to other villages. Jaejung’s side must be what, two to three hundred thousand? They siphoned a whole neighboring village over.
We slipped along the road toward the outskirts and started sorting.
Weapon enhancement stones, armor enhancement stones, Wolf’s Souls, wolf-series weapons and armor, Return Stones, potions, lanterns, wolf fangs, claws—misc crafting mats of all kinds.
“Let’s stockpile enhancement stones and Wolf’s Souls. Sell everything else.”
When the first Wolf’s Soul dropped, I’d thought they might be common—but they really weren’t. Even after several kills, you were lucky to see one. We’d just have to hoard.
“I saw a lot of things we need on the way here. Should we buy?”
Charming had spotted some things en route. We couldn’t possibly farm everything ourselves—if we needed it, we should buy.
“Too bad there’s no bank.”
Shield Warrior grumbled. With a bank, we wouldn’t suffer like this. With no bag space left, we had to sell a chunk before heading back out.
“Let’s sell while we pick up what we need. Time’s precious—list a little under market.”
Shield Warrior was itching to get back to grinding.
We sat four abreast, popped open stalls, and the goods flew. Some people haggled; others bought silently and vanished.
“I sold everything!”
PrettyGirl shot her hand up first. Attagirl. Then please sell ours too. Charming and I and Shield Warrior passed our goods to her in turn.
PrettyGirl’s face crumpled immediately. Sorry. Do the hard part for us, please.
Charming and PrettyGirl sold out again, and suspicion crept in. Are they just not buying ours? I met Shield Warrior’s eyes; he shook his head. His weren’t selling either. Only Charming’s and PrettyGirl’s stock moved. We waited a bit longer and vendored the last of the unsold junk.
“Hey, a staff!”
Charming pointed. Shield Warrior and I practically flew over to check the price. A Wolf Staff. Expensive. Several times pricier than other weapons. Why are mages swinging sticks, anyway?
Shield Warrior checked the tag, traded a few words with the seller, haggled, and the deal closed at the number he wanted.
“Here.”
Charming happily took the Wolf Staff. She’d been holding off on enhancing because she didn’t have a new staff—finally, one in hand.
“They say mages don’t even show up until Floor 3 in the Wolf Den—so where did that staff come from?”
“Mm. In the field, you can brute-force higher zones with enough bodies. Or packs of archers and mages can kite and pick things off. Looks like they occupy and farm pretty far up.”
At that, I scanned around—there were spellbooks for sale, rarer in number, but present. And very expensive.
“Charming, see any spellbooks you need?”
“Not right now. If I spot one, I’ll tell you.”
“Enhancement stones have really flooded the market, too.”
“Yeah, sheer numbers.”
With upward of two hundred thousand people hunting, enhancement stones were bound to drop. Prices were still steep; most sellers preferred cash.
“Gonna take 20,000 ar just to start a negotiation.”
“Mm… that’s close to 180,000 won cash.”
Shield Warrior and I did the math—prices had come down from the peak. Supply was loosening. Cheaper or not, even with our toll-fee windfall, we couldn’t just binge-buy.
“Then the gear I’ve got on me is worth…”
I trailed off, factoring in enhancement tiers. I was basically walking around in luxury couture.
“Our bodies are worth a pretty penny.”
Shield Warrior just smiled at that—as if to say, you can’t do this without investing anyway. In our case it wasn’t investment so much as tricks, but even without those, he might have spent the money.
If we keep partying together, are we going to snap our backs funding this? Better grind hard.