The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 238

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 238
Chapter 238
Today.
The Kalbera Territory was flooded with more users than ever before.
And for good reason—today was the day the Heukryeom Guild would be recruiting new members.
The Territory was packed not only with those who had come for interviews, but also with curious onlookers eager to witness how the selection process would unfold.
Among the countless users, there was one in particular whose eyes were wide with wonder as he marveled at the Territory.
“This is it! Kalbera—the first ‘user-owned Territory’ in the history of Second!”
A user who had passed the document screening and come to the Kalbera Territory for his interview.
Bol Taeng-taeng.
His level was 308.
To be honest, his level was precariously low for joining a proper guild, so he hadn’t held high expectations.
Yet when he passed the Heukryeom Guild’s document screening, he arrived here with a light, buoyant spirit.
“Wow, there’s so much food here too! What’s this? Kalbera Kraken Rolls? Oh, this is delicious!”
Having arrived at the Territory well ahead of his interview time, he was happily exploring the area.
A coastal town nestled against the sea—or rather, a harbor city—and the vast ocean stretching before it was breathtakingly beautiful.
The streets were overflowing with food made from the Territory’s seafood, and items crafted by the Kalbera Territory’s blacksmiths for the Swampland and Coastal Cave were also popular.
Most of all, the Territory was brimming with vitality, filled with both users and NPCs alike.
As he was admiring the city.
Bol Taeng-taeng began to recognize familiar faces.
“Wow, I think I’ve seen that person on NewTube. Isn’t that person pretty famous too? Oh! A ranker! Someone I know!”
The hunting grounds surrounding the Kalbera Territory had relatively high baseline levels.
Even the Swampland alone required a minimum of level 300.
In the Coastal Cave, users typically hunted in the 400-level range.
So all the users gathered here were high-level, and many of them were people Bol Taeng-taeng recognized.
As he marveled at this, a sudden unease crept over him.
“Surely… these people didn’t come for interviews too, did they…?”
It was already remarkable that he’d passed the document screening.
But if they had all come to join the Heukryeom Guild as well?
Did he stand any chance?
Of course, he’d heard that the Heukryeom Guild didn’t look at previous guild memberships or raid experience—they judged purely on ability and potential.
Still, if his competition was these people, he couldn’t help but feel his confidence waver.
Hoping desperately that all of them had come merely to observe the interviews, he headed toward the interview hall.
“Ugh…”
His hopes were dashed.
The users famous enough for him to recognize.
The ones who clearly looked powerful, the soaring elite users—they were all entering the interview hall.
Still, well.
“What can I do? They said they judge purely on ability! Let’s do this!”
Now that I’ve come this far, what else can I do?
Whether it turns to gruel or rice, I’ll simply take the challenge.
With that resolve, I stepped into the examination hall.
“Wow….”
An expansive sea stretched before my eyes in a single glance.
Though they called it an examination hall, it hardly deserved the name.
It resembled a Colosseum—three sides enclosed by walls and seating, with only one side open to the sea.
The comparison to a Colosseum proved apt, as the seats were rapidly filling with those who had come to take the Heukryeom Guild entrance examination.
“What exactly are we supposed to do here?”
The atmosphere was completely different from a typical guild entrance exam.
I couldn’t even imagine what kind of test would be conducted in this place.
As I stood there pondering,
“May I have your name?”
“Bol Taeng-taeng!”
“Bol Taeng-taeng. Confirmed. Please take your seat using this number tag.”
“Yes!”
Someone approached and handed me a number tag.
The number written on it was 11.
I wondered what they meant by finding my seat, but then I noticed numbers written on the floor of the Test Chamber.
I walked to position 11, matching my assigned number.
“Were these numbers just assigned in order of entry?”
No, that couldn’t be it.
Looking around, I saw hundreds of people already positioned throughout the chamber.
As my curiosity led me to observe this arrangement, I quickly grasped the pattern.
“They’re arranged by level….”
The higher the number, the stronger the users appeared to be.
In other words, there were only ten users here with a lower level than me.
Even though I’d surpassed level 300, I was essentially the youngest here.
Tension naturally welled up inside me.
The users in positions 1 through 10 beside me felt the same way.
Especially the user in position 1, who was already despairing at being the weakest here.
Then,
– We will now begin the first examination.
– All test-takers, please remain in your positions.
A voice echoed throughout the Test Chamber.
And with it,
Whoooosh—
“Huh?”
“Ships!”
“Those must be vessels from the Kalbera Territory.”
“Wow, what’s that pitch-black ship in the middle? It looks absolutely incredible!”
“Didn’t you hear? That’s the Black Dragon Ship.”
“Oh, that magic warship?”
Vessels began to appear across the open expanse of sea ahead.
Or rather, to be precise—vessels, plural.
Nearly ten ships took their positions and dropped anchor.
And then.
“…Huh?”
They began training their cannons toward the Test Chamber.
It was from this moment.
That the players began to panic.
Followed by a voice that echoed across the arena.
– The first trial is to survive for 10 minutes within your designated zone.
– Then, I shall see you in 10 minutes.
“What did you say?”
“What does that even mean?”
“No way….”
Survive for ten minutes?
What in the world was this supposed to mean?
Then.
Boom.
Nine walls rose up within the Test Chamber.
This divided the Test Chamber into ten zones, apparently separated by level brackets.
The panic was brief.
What next caught Bol Taeng-taeng’s eye was.
Boom——!!
“Eek…?”
Cannonballs came screaming from the ships with a thunderous roar.
* * *
After hearing the number of examinees.
I contemplated the matter.
‘This is going to take far too long.’
How could I alone verify over a thousand candidates?
Even allocating one minute per person would exceed 1,000 minutes.
In hours, that’s 16.6 hours.
Accounting for breaks and unforeseen variables, it meant I’d need to concentrate on interviews for an entire day straight.
No matter how capable I am, maintaining focus through such a grueling process would be impossible.
Therefore.
‘I need to reduce their numbers further.’
I resolved to thin the ranks of examinees more drastically.
Ena shared the same sentiment.
Since we’re going to make a big spectacle of it anyway, why not prepare a proper stage for those coming to watch the examination?
That’s why I decided to change my original testing method.
First.
“I’ll entrust the production-class examinations to Lee Chul-geun.”
“Really? Are you sure that’s alright?”
“Lee Chul-geun, your skills are exceptional, and you’re already handling all production-related duties in the Kalbera Territory, aren’t you?”
“I’m only able to do so thanks to the guild master, but….”
“Most importantly, I trust your abilities. Just as I saw during your first interview, I believe you’ll evaluate their skills and potential fairly.”
“Th-thank you so much! I’ll do my absolute best!”
I entrusted all production-class users who came to Lee Chul-geun.
Han Seop would assist him as well.
While I was confident in my own production-class skills, it was better to have a specialist focused solely on production handle this.
Next was.
“We don’t have much time, but could you construct a test chamber for us?”
“Of course, guild master! Just tell me what you need, and I’ll build it in no time!”
I needed to construct a test chamber.
The craftsmen of the Kalbera Territory, including Lee Chul-geun, were incredibly busy, but the Emperor had extended their contract period in light of this situation, giving us some breathing room.
Though time was still desperately short, Lee Chul-geun’s construction prowess was already incomparable to any architect in Second.
Lee Chul-geun had even leveled up tremendously from the experience gained through construction work.
A single building was nothing to him.
Moreover, thanks to gathering craftsmen and laborers regardless of whether they were users or NPCs, the number of skilled workers in the Kalbera Territory was enormous.
When they all focused on a single building under Lee Chul-geun’s direction.
A structure was erected in what seemed like an instant.
The next task was.
“Would it be alright if we used some ships for the examination?”
“We have ships built for delivery to the Imperial Army, and we were needing to conduct sea trials anyway. Feel free to use them.”
“And I’d like to install a few new magical weapons on them….”
“Oh, this contract also includes a clause where the price increases based on the level of weapons installed on the ships, so if you install magical weapons, we can deliver them at an even higher price!”
It was about installing magical weapons on the ships.
It wasn’t particularly difficult work, actually.
The shipwrights handled the most time-consuming part—the magical rune carving—and all I had to do was activate those runes.
Of course, I designed the form and size of all necessary runes myself.
In any case, thanks to that, I was able to accomplish everything I wanted.
– The first examination is to survive for 10 minutes in a designated zone.
– Then, I’ll see you in 10 minutes.
Along with the announcer’s guidance.
Whoooosh—!!
The magical weapons on the ship activated.
Since the users taking the examination had different levels, the difficulty varied accordingly.
I divided the test chamber into nine zones and separated the examinees by level.
The ships were arranged to match that level as well.
The magical weapons being fired in the first zone were.
[ Fire Arrow ]
[ Ice Arrow ]
[ Wind Arrow ]
[ Rock Arrow ]
[ Lightning Arrow ]
Magical weapons imbued with first-circle arrow spells of the five elemental attributes.
One might think lightly of first-circle magic.
Whoosh—!!
The sheer number was the problem.
Because they were first-circle spells, vast quantities of magical weapons could be prepared.
And because they were first-circle spells, they were easy to modify, allowing the speed and size of the magic to be increased indefinitely.
The second zone also had first-circle arrow spells raining down, but in even greater numbers.
Five-colored magical arrows filled the sky as if fired from a gatling gun.
One might question whether this was truly a fair test.
‘Survival ability is the most fundamental skill after all.’
In playing Second, nothing is more important than survival ability.
What good is an incredibly powerful character if they die in a single hit from a boss monster’s unavoidable area attack?
Whether hunting monsters or exploring new territories.
Ultimately, you must survive to accomplish anything.
Of course, for fairness, those with particularly strong defensive or evasion abilities faced concentrated attacks from the archers to maintain balance.
Next, in zones 3 and 4 were.
[ Fire Ball ]
[ Ice Ball ]
….
Second-circle attack spells of the five elemental attributes.
In zones 5 and 6 were third-circle attack spells.
In zones 7 and 8 were fourth-circle attack spells.
And finally, in the grand zones 9 and 10.
[ Fire Cannon ]
[ Ice Cannon ]
[ Wind Cannon ]
[ Rock Cannon ]
[ Thunder Cannon ]
Fifth-circle attack spells of the five elemental attributes were being fired.
“Fifth-circle magic? That’s insane!”
“How am I supposed to dodge this?!”
“Survive this?”
“Wait, there’s a magical ship with that many fourth-circle magical weapons installed? Not even a regular Imperial warship has this. Does this even make sense?”
Whoosh!
“Arghhhh!”
“I give up, I’m giving up!”
“Are you trying to knock everyone off? What kind of Guild entrance exam is this?!”
I began mercilessly flinging the examinees away.
Watching that spectacle unfold.
“Hey, Mir. Is this right?”
“It’s exactly as I expected. I adjusted the difficulty by level, so they should be able to pass at this level.”
“Sigh… I wonder if we’ll only have ten passing this time around.”
I felt a sense of satisfaction, and a pleased smile naturally spread across my face.

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