[Notice]
***
The notice popped up immediately.
With the Orc Village converted into a town players can use, the path to the next hunting grounds had opened.
Will players from other starting points come here?
The distance between Orc Villages is wider than I thought. If people from other starting points want to come, they’ll have to walk a long way. Still, you have to pass through to reach the next zone, so they’ll probably put up with it.
Or they could clear the Orc Village connected to their own starting point.
And at last, they drew the sword on grimoires. Since drops weren’t cutting it, they just decided to sell them in town. I’d wondered about buying grimoires and reselling them in other villages—but they blocked that at the root by making them bind-on-purchase.
Bows had also been in painfully short supply, but if NPCs sell them, that’ll ease up a lot.
Once a place becomes a Refugee Village, there should be no more “can’t play archer/mage because there are no bows/grimoires.” Guess the devs took the flak and thought better of it. Honestly, grimoire prices were way too high.
As soon as he logged out of VRS, Jaejung, saying he was exhausted, face-planted and passed out cold. Is he really not going home? He lives alone, sure, but you'd think he’d at least go back out of curiosity.
These last few days he’s been living out of a cubbyhole. No wonder Sujeong-noona showed up to slap him awake. When he fixates on something, he has zero front or back.
Maybe that’s how he racked up all those wins—by going that hard. Me, I couldn’t live that full-on shut-in life. As a pro he must have kept some structure, right? Who knows. It’s a miracle he keeps his condition together like that.
Anyway—what did they get as rewards? And what did the chieftain drop?
I’m dying to know…
***
The homepage forum was nothing but talk of Server 1’s Orc Chieftain raid. The change to a Refugee Village was big news, and the new region was big news.
As for the chieftain’s drops, nothing had been revealed yet. For whatever reason, they were keeping it under wraps for now. Just a flood of rumors. I figured I could ask Jaejung when he woke, so I shelved it.
The new region had “opened” in the notice, but people still couldn’t pass through. Apparently the town’s returned Militia NPCs won’t start work until tomorrow, one day later. So nobody could go to the new area yet.
A lot of other NPCs had returned to the village as well. Most of them were patching themselves up and also starting work “tomorrow,” so everything was still under wraps.
Late in the afternoon, Jaejung finally woke.
“Ugh, my head.”
“Didn’t you push it a bit too hard?”
I popped the fridge and handed him a cold drink. He took it, drank, and shot me a thumbs-up.
“Still, it was worth all that insane thrashing.”
My ears perked. Rewards talk?
“First, let’s eat. I’m starving.”
“We’ve got ramen, burgers, hot bars. Pick one.”
“What’s to pick? Let’s have all three.”
At that, I set water to boil, nuked things, and clattered around. While the ramen cooked, I chewed on a hot bar and mumbled around it.
“We nearly blew it. We went in with inventories packed full of potions, and we drained the lot. Who would’ve thought it’d go that long? Boss died early; we had maybe three left? We barely got it.”
“Must’ve had a huge HP pool.”
“Yeah. To the point you wonder if it was even meant to be killed. We prepped for forty—the max that can enter the altar at once. Once you go in, the door shuts.”
“Still, you managed it. What dropped?”
“Heh… brace yourself. All the rare stuff.”
Just imagining it had his eyes going glazed—like he was high. A little scary.
“First, the glaive the chieftain was holding.”
“I saw the rumors on the forum. So it really dropped.”
“Yup. We were shocked too. It’s classified as a pike, and the base damage is nuts. Orc Chieftain’s Glaive—hits hard, long reach. And it even has Strength +1. Only thing left is distribution, and we’ll sort that soon.”
“How do you split a one-of-a-kind item?”
“Someone buys it, and we split the proceeds among the rest. We’ll auction it. I kinda want it, but the price might be too steep. I’d have to give up a lot. The chieftain dropped a ton of other stuff, so there’s plenty to put on the block.”
“What else dropped?”
“A bit late for it, but Enhancement Stones—named boss, so it rained goodies. Weapon Stones ×30 and Armor Stones ×40. Made the split way easier—lots to go around. Plus ar, armor, grimoires—pretty profitable haul.”
“Incredible. From a single boss…”
“Right? Worth every bit of that struggle. Stones will fetch whatever price you ask right now. Folks will use them themselves, but if they sell, big money. And there’s an even bigger jackpot.”
“There’s more?”
“Mm—ramen’s swelling. Eat first.”
“Your cut-tech is unmatched.”
The noodles were about to turn into udon, so we slurped them fast. After polishing off a burger too, Jaejung continued.
“To reach the next area, you have to cross a canyon bridge—there’s a gate there. With the NPCs back, they issue a pass; it costs 1,000 ar. Here’s the kicker: for the next one week, 10% of the pass revenue goes to us. All forty.”
So the math… if there are 100,000 people in a village, and they all buy passes, that’s 100,000,000 ar; 10% is 10,000,000 ar. Split forty ways, 250,000 ar per person. How much is ar in cash again? I hadn’t paid attention.
“About 10,000 won per 1,000 ar. Roughly ₩2.5 million per person.”
“Two and a half million won to each of forty people for one boss. That’s hefty.”
“Right? But everyone’s treating it as pocket money. You’ll end up spending it in-game anyway, so it might not even be enough.”
So around ₩2.5 million each, plus a few enhancement stones? There’s also the weapon auction payout, so probably more.
“If you could eat it all yourself, that’d be a windfall—like a hundred million won in cash.”
“Soloing is impossible. Absolutely.”
I knew. Just entertaining the thought.
“Also, only our forty raid members got their bridge passes issued immediately. The forum says everyone else starts tomorrow, right? Checking the time, we got about a 20-hour head start. They treated us special, maybe because we toppled it. All town NPCs are available to us already.”
“Massive. Even twenty hours is big.”
“Yeah, tomorrow’s going to be real chaos. We’ll milk it while we can. Town NPCs aren’t that big a deal—lots of quests, but I don’t have time to grind those. They sell basic gear, but we already have it. It’ll be great for late starters, though. You can buy everything in town.”
“True.”
“Oh—right. They sell food in town. Gaming superpower indeed. Buy and taste it—mind-blowing. I never thought I’d taste food in a game. They’ve got drinks too. Not many kinds yet. There’s even a Tailor NPC—clothing designs and such; I didn’t care, so I skimmed. Blacksmith’s there, lots of stuff. Not much directly combat-related.”
“Town aside, the new area… I want to see it.”
“Your server will crack it soon enough. Give it a minute.”
I hope so. Maybe someone will open it up.
***
< Welcome to the world of Lost Sky. >
Brainwaves confirmed.
Joo Seungho. Male.
Character name Jooho. Level 9.
Loading…
As soon as I logged in, messages came in from Charming, PrettyGirl, and Shield Warrior. At this point it would’ve been weird if they hadn’t. Luckily we were all nearby and agreed to meet.
After a short wait, everyone arrived. We traded quick greetings, and naturally the talk turned to the Orc Chieftain.
“Did you see the notice? They say Server 1 took the Orc Chieftain.”
Shield Warrior spoke in a hush, like it was a secret. I wanted to tell him the chieftain-slayer was in our very own PC bang.
“Yeah, that’s the word. Are we going to push it on our server? Heard any rumors?”
Shield Warrior shrugged.
“I heard from a higher-level acquaintance I’ve partied with—they’ve got a raid team prepped, but they’re clashing hard over distribution. The Server 1 drops leaked in full.”
“At that point, greed’s understandable.”
I glanced over; Charming was hugging her staff like a treasure.
“How’s the staff?”
“Great. I did some hunting and… hmm… about double? It feels like roughly twice the damage.”
In this game you don’t get damage numbers when you hit, so you have to judge purely by feel.
“Double. That’s huge…”
“Yes, it surprised me too. Thank you—for letting me have it.”
“Stronger party members are good for all of us. At this rate you’ll out-damage me.”
“It’s not that much…”
PrettyGirl sat nearby, staring dreamily at the sky.
“How’s the greatsword, PrettyGirl? I’ve never used one.”
“I like it. After I swing it around, it feels… refreshing.”
Figures. Stress relief.
“Show me later, please. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Okay. I’ll show you in a bit.”
I was curious about greatsword combat too—how you could use it. The blade’s long and broad, so there should be lots of ways to apply it. Maybe you can blend offense and defense.
It is big, which worried me, but PrettyGirl’s got good sword sense; I trust she’ll handle it.
After checking our gear, we took a moment to settle yesterday’s proceeds.
“Here’s your share, Jooho.”
Shield Warrior skimmed a modest handling fee off the sale prices and handed me ar. With my limited playtime, this kind of help matters. Charming and PrettyGirl squared theirs on their own.
Thanks to the Refugee Village patch, even though our server didn’t have a single Refugee Village yet, grimoire prices cratered in one day.
From nearly 20,000 ar (about ₩200,000) they’d dropped to roughly ₩10,000 equivalent. A total crash.
“Thankfully, we sold before the patch hit. We got lucky. If we’d been an hour late… ugh. Would’ve been a nightmare.”
Shield Warrior exhaled in deep relief. A little later and it really would’ve become tissue paper.
“At least now nobody will fight over mages.”
Everyone just nodded, remembering yesterday’s brawl. Grimoires had crashed so hard that people probably wouldn’t even bother fighting over them now.
***
Hunting in the orc fields had become easy. We could wipe groups of five fast enough to catch our breath afterward. Today, though, we were unlucky—no mage spawns nearby at all.
Not that killing mages was a huge moneymaker anymore, but it was still better than nothing. Yesterday we were just too lucky. So we kept mowing down the orcs in the area.
Especially thanks to Charming and PrettyGirl.
Both of their damage outputs had skyrocketed compared to yesterday. Charming, with her staff, was placing precise, high-impact casts exactly where needed; PrettyGirl, as if to demonstrate how a greatsword should be used, kept unleashing gorgeous, crushing blows that melted orcs.
Both of them had long since outgrown the orc fields.
Shield Warrior now handled his shield with true craftsmanship. He’d clearly brought over some know-how from other 3rd-gen VR games, which made adapting easier. He was honing finer control here, and he wasn’t just turtling—his damage contribution was solid.
Right now his offense/defense split looked about 40:60. Compared to PrettyGirl’s near 10:90 offense/defense, he was fairly defensive, but that let him hold multiple enemies for a long time—tactically excellent.
On a short break, Shield Warrior spoke up out of the blue.
“Would you be interested in joining an Orc Chieftain raid? A friend of mine is forming a separate raid team—they’re short a few parties. I was thinking our team could join.”
A proposal I hadn’t seen coming.