The Return of the Genius Ranker of All Times - Chapter 53

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 53

Chapter 53.

Looking at the mirror, Dohyun stroked his chin and grinned widely.

“Looking good.”

He wasn’t just saying that.

The vaguely red top with blue pants, and black and green mixed in here and there from before was the very image of a hiker or newbie fashion.

But now?

“It’s two-toned, but this actually feels better. Don’t you think?”

-Well… it doesn’t look bad, Master.

Though he nodded reluctantly, even Jihad thought it wasn’t too bad.

The quality of the leather itself was good, and the overall red color with painted blue blotches made it look much more threatening.

It felt like a primitive tribe had deliberately painted themselves to look fierce.

It was a sharp impression that went well with the training sword he held instead of a greatsword.

‘I’ll sell the rest.’

Besides these, there were also miscellaneous items and rewards from hunting warriors, but those were just items to stuff in his inventory or put up on the auction house.

So Dohyun actually put them up on the auction house.

[Auction registered with default settings.]

[Minimum auction price set according to average market price.]

[Auction items have been registered.]

…

[Auction will end in 12 hours.]

The registered items were warrior sets obtained from hunting warriors.

‘They’re the least necessary for me.’

While they might be Raven pre-graduation gear for someone, for the current Dohyun they were less necessary than even miscellaneous items.

Because they overlapped exactly with the parts of the Great Warrior Set.

He had kept equipment like weapons he obtained before thinking he might use them later, but the warrior sets weren’t like that, so he coolly decided to sell them at the auction house.

‘About 2-3 million won per set, right?’

It was a bit disappointing since they were just tops, bottoms, and belt parts so not extremely expensive, but since Dohyun had put up about six sets, this was more than enough.

That meant he was making roughly 15 million won.

‘This is the first money I’m earning in Godseeker.’

Not 1.5 million won, but 15 million won.

The money he had to achieve rank 1 in Demroc to earn, he was now earning just in the first city of the main continent.

The feeling was strange, but this emotion tickling his chest was definitely pride.

Dohyun, filled with pride and regret, anticipation and an unknown sense of overwhelming emotion, let out a big breath.

‘Let’s keep going like this.’

Rank 1? He could just achieve it again.

Right now, the fact that he could properly earn money from gaming again was too welcome. He was even feeling elated.

“Kuhh…”

With his chest feeling hot, Dohyun rubbed his hands and tried to shake off his emotions.

It wouldn’t be too late to feel this emotion when the money actually came in.

That would be when it was real.

‘This comes first now.’

When is the happiest moment after getting skills or equipment items?

Most players would all answer that question the same way.

Right when they’re filled with anticipation and excitement just before going to test the performance.

Even when buying a car, you wait during the delivery period, and isn’t the day you first drive that car you received the happiest?

This was the same principle.

“Let’s go.”

-Where are we going this time, Master? Aren’t you moving around too busily?

“I need to live busily. Now’s not the time to play around.”

Therefore, Dohyun turned his steps without a moment’s hesitation.

“There happens to be a suitable opponent.”

-Where could there be a suitable opponent for someone who even devoured the Great Warrior… Ah?

Jihad, who was following and expressing doubt, opened his mouth wide as if he realized something.

Come to think of it, though he had never seen it directly, he seemed to have heard rumors. That after he disappeared, a new ruler appeared in the forest.

Dohyun turned his head and cast his gaze into the air.

More precisely, at the Quest window floating in the air.

[To go to the next city, you must pass the continent’s trial.]

[Field Boss Hunt]

-Grade: First Trial

-Description: Those who wish to graduate from Raven, the first city of the main continent, must pass the continent’s trial.

Achievement points are updated proportional to field boss hunting performance to determine reward rank, and you must defeat Raven’s official ruler ‘Eliza the Spider Queen’ to clear.

-Clear Condition: Reach level 24, defeat Eliza the Spider Queen (0 / 1)

-Clear Reward: Differential payment by rank (D~S rank).

-Time Limit: None.

Eliza the Spider Queen, the field boss of the Western Forest and core boss of the graduation quest.

It was finally time to hunt her.

* * *

Eliza the Spider Queen.

At first glance she might feel like a Named Boss, but actually she wasn’t.

Unlike Named Bosses whose data disappears forever once they die, Eliza consistently respawned and showed herself in the forest.

But why was she given the name Eliza?

-Eliza, Eliza, Eliza, Eliza, Eliza…

“Ugh, I’m really sick of hearing that.”

“Someone stuff a fireball in that spider’s mouth to shut it up!”

“That thing’s toxic, even its screams go ‘Eliza.’ Disgusting creature.”

“Toxic, so toxic!”

Because she put all her strength into only saying the word Eliza.

A monster with such an incredibly massive size that giant spiders would look cute in comparison speaks human words?

And only uttering the word ‘Eliza’ at that?

It was creepy enough to give you goosebumps on your arms, and most players said enduring that was harder than actually hunting her.

But Godseeker was a game enjoyed by 1 billion people.

There were also people who didn’t simply dismiss this as just creepy and thought about the source.

“Why does she keep saying Eliza anyway?”

“Is there an NPC named Eliza? Maybe there’s some hidden piece? You know, like those hidden quests.”

“That’s possible, right?”

A boss that wasn’t even Named specifically repeating the word ‘Eliza’?

It was a rare case even in the vast continent of Godseeker, and at least for players following normal routes, it was a sight they couldn’t see anywhere but Raven.

Something was definitely hidden. Sharp-witted players came to that conclusion.

But…

“Hidden my ass.”

“Damn, just wasted money for nothing. How much did we spend on explorers?”

“We searched everywhere from Raven to Pratel but found nothing. Does that make sense?”

“Hey hey, Adventure King investigated the entire main continent and gave up because nothing showed up. Seems like he ruled there’s nothing there.”

“If Adventure King went that far… it’s over.”

The hidden piece about Eliza could never be found.

“Huh? I saw Eliza though?”

“? No trolling.”

“I’m serious. There’s a general store owner named Eliza in the fourth city…”

“Is she pretty?”

“Oh, she was pretty though. Pure innocence itself.”

Even when he went to that general goods merchant with a desperate hope, she seemed to know nothing about the Spider Queen.

So the players came to a conclusion.

That Godose, who just likes creating unique bosses, put in that setting as a new way to torment players.

It was truly a shitty setting, but what could they do? To graduate from Raven, they had to kill that monster.

Still, there was one good thing about it.

“At least they made it killable.”

“Thank god they didn’t put in some weird trait like with the Mutant Goblin Warrior.”

“If they had added that here too, all the players would have quit. Breaking mutant traits while listening to noise pollution? Ugh, gives me chills.”

“I’ll give you that.”

Compared to the bosses that had appeared so far, it had relatively tame characteristics.

And its respawn speed was fairly fast.

Since it was a graduation quest that all players sought, the respawn was made fast for convenience.

“Wait, doesn’t it respawn quickly?”

Of course, it was fast compared to other field bosses, but it didn’t respawn every few minutes.

It didn’t even always respawn in the same location.

Roughly once an hour, it would respawn in one of the four spider nests placed in the north, south, east, and west directions, and whoever found it first claimed it.

This didn’t mean people kindly formed a line.

“The spider nest is so fucking annoying, for real.”

“Isn’t it overkill that webs get spun after one party enters? What kind of field boss is this?”

“It’s fine. The web effect wears off after 90 minutes.”

“If you can’t kill it within an hour and 30 minutes, that’s what’s weird. It’s basically telling us to just wait.”

The moment she spotted prey, Eliza the Spider Queen would spin webs to block the entrance.

From the boss’s perspective, she didn’t want to lose her prey so she prevented them from escaping, but since the entrance was connected, outsiders couldn’t enter either.

You could lure her out of the spider nest before she spun the webs, but…

“Why bother?”

“She’s letting us kill her safely, so why go through unnecessary trouble?”

“Anti-steal protection is awesome!”

Normally that would be the case, but Raven’s field boss was a bit different.

It was because the graduation quest reward varied depending on the field boss hunting performance.

Unless multiple parties were working together while somewhat giving up on the graduation quest reward, there was no reason to voluntarily increase the risk of getting stolen from.

That’s why whoever found it first claimed it, and that was why Dohyun was wandering through the forest.

“Just asking in case, but you don’t know the field boss location either?”

-No. I was buried for 150 years, Master. She’s the next generation ruler after me, so I don’t know well…

“And here I thought you knew everything about the forest.”

-Ahem.

Jihad awkwardly averted his gaze.

Dohyun shook his head at Jihad’s evasive behavior, but actually, it wasn’t something to blame Jihad for.

He had fulfilled his role sufficiently until now.

Hadn’t he helped him obtain a full Hero-grade equipment set and two intermediate skill draw tickets!

‘Right, expecting this too was asking for too much.’

This time, it was something Dohyun had to accomplish with his own power.

[Time remaining until field boss respawn 00 : 04 : 49]

[The field boss will respawn shortly.]

‘About 5 minutes, huh.’

The system message would have appeared for all players in the Western Forest.

Perhaps because of that, he could see many people gathered throughout the forest.

There were particularly many people where Dohyun was, because you had to stand in the center to check all four spider nests placed in the north, south, east, and west directions.

“Hurry up and spawn, field boss.”

“I’m fast on my feet, so I’ll go grab aggro first.”

“You didn’t forget to spread people around everywhere, right? We absolutely have to secure it first.”

From players trying to quickly secure and monopolize it,

“Excuse me, we’re just aiming to graduate anyway, so want to join forces together?”

“Honestly, we’re not exactly gear-heavy players, and even if we monopolize it, we’d get C-rank at best, so wouldn’t it be better to save time?”

To players choosing to join forces with multiple parties for graduation purposes.

They were truly distributed in various ways.

The former looked obviously well-equipped and confident they could definitely kill it, while the latter were mostly wearing warrior sets obtained from Warriors or not even wearing those.

Whatever the case, it would be fierce competition.

The moment the boss respawned, they would rush out like lightning, making the current relatively quiet waiting situation seem meaningless.

“If we’re a step late and they find it first, just spam skills from long range.”

“If we somehow drag it out of the spider nest, they’ll have no choice. They’ll just have to kill it together.”

“Won’t we get marked then?”

“We attacked first, so what’s the problem? By first strike standards, we started the attempt first, right?”

There were plenty who would use somewhat underhanded methods to claim it.

This was just what he could hear from near Dohyun; the players outside were probably no different.

‘It was like this in Demroc too.’

Back then, there were countless people who couldn’t hold back and got into fights.

It was such a violent game with many battle maniacs.

As Dohyun who achieved rank 1 in that chaos, he had no intention of going easy.

The moment the boss appeared, he planned to use Backstep faster than anyone to secure it first.

He was confident in his reflexes.

Of course, compared to people standing in front of spider nest entrances, he would likely be late… but Dohyun had no choice.

‘I’m not confident in my gacha luck, so what can I do.’

In the random respawn location guessing called a gamble, Dohyun had never guessed correctly even once.

Expecting luck to follow him this time would be foolish.

Rather, aiming for a counter-attack would have higher chances.

‘It would be really nice if Eye of Truth could show me this kind of thing too.’

He was having such wishful thoughts when.

“Phew…”

“I’m nervous.”

The voices he could faintly hear gradually died down.

[Time remaining until field boss respawn 00 : 01 : 01]

Everyone had confirmed that the respawn time was approaching.

Like the silence before a starting gun fires in a race, when only breathing sounds could be heard and nothing else.

Ding-.

A cheerful notification rang out like a whistle sound, and a message appeared.

[Conditions are met.]

[Trait ‘Slayer’ is activated.]

[The presence of the corresponding boss nearby is confirmed.]

[The location where field boss ‘Eliza the Spider Queen’ is hiding is revealed.]

‘Huh?’

A message that only Dohyun could see.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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