EoSP Chapter 39

 

 ­ Golden Skeleton (2)

Skeletons hunting skeletons .

In the middle of a battlefield of a one-sided slaughter, Hyrkan sat on a rock, watching a video . In the video, one of Hyrkan’s Skeleton Warrior was swinging a hammer like a baseball bat, making another skeleton’s head fly out to the distance . Watching the scene, Hyrkan simply shook his head .

‘It was fun filming it, but it’s pretty meh now that I look at it . ’

10 days had passed since Hyrkan uploaded Skull Clown to his YouTube page .

‘The fun atmosphere isn’t bad, but it’s too light… but releasing two of the same battle videos…’

Skull Clown had blown up just like Hyrkan had thought . It had surpassed 100,000 views in just 4 days, and it was currently at 310,000 views .

He had earned a lot as well . His ad revenue had increased, and he received more than double his usual donation amount . Although no one had contacted him yet for a sponsorship, with his YouTube page now at 30,000 subscribers, his chances of getting a sponsor were ever increasing .

It couldn’t have been any better!

However, Hyrkan was more worried than happy .

The cause of his worry was none other than the follow-up video for Skull Clown . Although he had been filming videos of himself hunting, he didn’t find any of them to his liking .

Hyrkan took off his hahoe mask for a moment as he massaged his face .

‘I can’t get a feel for it . ’

It’s not that he couldn’t fight well .

In fact, his battle strength was higher than the one shown in Skull Clown .

First, thanks to Skin Sewing, Hyrkan could be a bit more daring in his battles . It was easy to tell that he was showing his aggressive side .

On the other hand, although he was stronger than he was in Skull Clown, not much had changed . It was like looking at a same car design with the only difference being the horse power . Furthermore, because the opponent was still skeletons, anything Hyrkan would make seemed to similar to Skull Clown .

‘This isn’t good enough . ’

Hyrkan knew the tendencies of people who enjoyed watching Warlord videos . Subscribers knew when a YouTuber released videos just to get more views . If this were revealed, their deep affection and interest quickly turned to a frightful dagger .

Hyrkan needed something new .

No matter how he fought, he would only be able to make videos of hunting skeletons in the Dead Woods .

Furthermore, Hyrkan no longer had any troubles killing skeletons and Skeleton Warriors . If the fight was close, it might be worth showing, but the current Hyrkan simply slaughtered them one-sidedly . It was to the point that Hyrkan just made his Skeleton Warriors fight by themselves as he sat back . It was one of the reason why he made a light atmosphere video like the one just now .

‘It’s a problem to fight too well . ’

Hyrkan couldn’t help but be dumbfounded .

‘I can’t believe this is a problem . ’

It was boring because he fought too well! He couldn’t believe it .

‘This is the best place for leveling up though…’

In the end, the solution was to change his hunting ground . He had to change his opponent .

However, for the current Hyrkan, Dead Woods was the best place to level-up . Even if there was a better place, it was too far . It would take over a day to get there, and once he did, he would have to learn the area, look for hunting points, and build his Skeleton Warrior’s battle experience again . It wasn’t that he was lazy, it was that it was too inefficient .

‘If I kill a little more, I can get the Skeleton Destroyer title too . ’

There was a title on the line as well .

Once a player hunted certain number of skeletons, he received the ‘Skeleton Destroyer’ title . It raised magic power and stamina by 3 points each .

“Tsk . ”

Hyrkan clicked his tongue . Meanwhile, his Skeleton Warriors had mercilessly beaten up the nearby skeletons to the point that they couldn’t restore their body . It represented their death .

[You have leveled up . ]

It was the last bit of EXP he needed for a level up . Hearing the alert, Hyrkan smiled .

‘This is just too good . ’

As always, nothing was better than a level-up alert . Hyrkan liked the current situation even more . It was a happiness only necromancers could feel .

‘I see why Rich Lich spent all that money . ’

Hyrkan smiled, as he once again checked the view count and comments of Skull Clown .

‘Hm?’

What caught Hyrkan’s attention was a new comment made just now . As it was sent privately, only Hyrkan and the original commenter could see it . After reading the comment, Hyrkan’s expression changed .

‘What’s this?’

★★★

YouTube videos naturally came with comments, and among them were all sorts of weird ones . There were those that cursed incessantly, those that spammed, those that cried for no reason, those that said strange things, and even those that asked for money .

Hyrkan was immune to these things .

Even before he got his nickname as the Hero Slaughterer, he had prepared himself for such comments . His targets had always been Rankers, those with many fans . Even when they plotted against him and paid for it, Hyrkan still received a lot of hate . There was a time that he got hate for almost anything he did .

The hate came in all forms .

Someone would randomly pour water on him while he was walking down the street, or he would be cursed at or called names for no reason .

As such, Hyrkan wasn’t easily fazed by hate or cynicism .

Naturally, what made Hyrkan’s expression change wasn’t a hate comment or the like .

-Hello, I am a player called Bledge from England . I am writing to you as it seems you are currently hunting in the Dead Woods . I was recently PKed in the area, and I would like you to get revenge for me .

A revenge request .

It wasn’t anything special . With Warlord being such a lawless place, many players sought out skilled players to get revenge for themselves .

Even so, this content of this request made Hyrkan’s senses tingle .

‘A revenge request…’

In Warlord, it was quite rare to get PKed randomly . That said, Hyrkan had already been a target of PKs consecutively . It could be said that he was truly born under the stars of pushover-ness .

In any case, Hyrkan welcomed this request with arms wide open .

‘Should I go with hunting these fools?’

At a point where he needed fresh material for his next video, this request to kill PKers couldn’t be better . Not to mention, he would be able to get fully-crafted items from their watches!

There was no reason for him to refuse .

Of course, if the PKers were too strong, he could simply run away . It’s not like he was a hero of justice .

‘I’ll see how it is . ’

Hyrkan moved carefully .

★★★

When Hyrkan arrived at the spot the commenter told him about, he could luckily see the PK happening in action .

1 vs 2 .

The player left alone was wearing an expression full of despair, while the other two attacked him mercilessly . The situation resolved itself quickly . There was no unnecessary sound other than the curses spurted by the victim . The offenders acted swiftly and silently like robots .

‘Hm?’

Hyrkan couldn’t help but be suspicious .

‘What’s this?’

PKers didn’t simply kill their victims . They played with them until they died . That was why they PKed in the first place . It’s not that people didn’t PK simply to take items, but that it was just extremely rare .

Even so, the PKers in front of them were clean . They moved to kill their opponents in the shortest time possible . There was no unnecessary talk or hesitation .

‘These guys aren’t those psychos that are into PKs . ’

It meant that they didn’t enjoy PKs, just that it was a mean to an end .

With his body lowered, Hyrkan watched the PKers movements more closely .

After having killed their victim, they swiftly took his watch and took off . Hyrkan could tell that they were moving with intent, meaning that they had a destination . The chances were that they had allies nearby .

Hyrkan’s senses tingled again .

‘They discovered something and they’re killing people before they find out?’

They weren’t PKing for the fun of it, but to eliminate any variable or witness .

‘It must be a Golden Skeleton . ’

Hyrkan quickly arrived at a conclusion .

Golden Skeleton!

It was a boss monster that appeared in the Dead Woods, just like how Dragon Lizards spawned in the Lizard Swamp . Golden Skeletons, however, were several times more expensive than Dragon Lizards .

‘At the current market price, a Golden Skeleton’s Golden Bone should cost 5,000,000 won or more . ’

Golden Skeletons were hard to kill and took 10 days to respawn . Not only that, they disappeared if one didn’t catch them within a time limit . Once it got away, the hunter would have the wait another day .

Moreover, Golden Skeleton’s Golden Bone was a crafting item used to make a level 70 Rare item . Although it wasn’t a main component, considering the cost of level 70 Rare item at this point in time, its price was justified . It was obvious why players would go to the point to PK other players .

The current situation was likely that whoever found the Golden Skeletons missed their first chance to kill the Golden Skeleton and was now PKing others to hide the information .

‘There’s no problem with me getting some then . ’

It went without saying that there was no problem with Hyrkan dealing with them . Hunting them down would be considered just .

Hyrkan laughed out loud .

No matter how one put it, he was the Hero Slaughterer . Rather than hunting monsters, he enjoyed hunting players .

★★★

There were two types of guilds in Warlord .

One that played to earn money and one that played to spend money .

Blue Cat Guild .

Although they weren’t well-known, with a total of 100 members, they were a guild that played to earn money . Of course, they never dealt with large amount of money . Balancing out the money they spent and money they earned, they received no more than pocket change .

The Blue Cat Guild was run in a simple way . Its members mostly did as they liked and they gathered when they needed to . Most guilds were run in this way . Not all guilds could be like the Top 30 Guilds, working like gears in a machine for a single project .

It was seven members of the Blue Cat Guild that found a Golden Skeleton while hunting in the Dead Woods .

They, of course, came to a single conclusion .

“Let’s take it for ourselves . ”

Even if they reported it to the guild, they would get nothing more than chump change .

Of course, not reporting such a boss spawn to the guild was a violation of its rules . One that would get them expelled .

Even so, no one voiced any opposition at this suggestion . As with most small and medium sized guilds, players simply chose to leave guilds if they had to . Most did not think it was such a big problem .

The problem was that their first raid had failed . They spent a full day doing nothing before the Golden Skeleton appeared again . They failed on their second try as well . That’s when things began to go awry .

First and foremost, they were spiteful . They vowed that they would kill the Golden Skeleton at all cost!

At the same time, they got rid of variables that could hinder their Golden Skeleton raid . Although they were hesitant during their first PK, it was fine after that . They knew it was a bad mannered action, but they were blinded by the money .

And now it was their third time to try to hunt the Golden Skeleton .

“There’s a guy nearby hunting skeletons . What should we do?”

“Alone? Was he left behind?”

“Let’s just get rid of it . We’ve already gone this far . We might as well go all in . ”

When they were bored and irritated, a perfect prey had appeared in front of them .

“Joint, it’s enough with just the two of you right?”

“Of course . ”

“Hurry and come back . We’re going to have to go all in for the Golden Skeleton . We won’t get a fourth try . ”

“We’ll take care of it in 3 minutes . ”

Two people had begun to move to hunt down their prey .

They were the swordsman, Join, and magician, Int . Together, they were called Joint . As they were quite skilled, they were fairly well-known even before they joined the Blue Cat Guild . Now that they had gone out, the situation was most likely taken care of . Thinking this, the remaining five players solely focused on their strategy for killing the Golden Skeleton .

On the other hand, the Joint duo tilted their head as they watched the player fight a skeleton holding a hammer .

‘That’s a skeleton I’ve never seen before . ’

‘Is it a rare-type?’

Although the skeleton the player was fighting was one that they had never seen before, they didn’t think much about it . What was important to the two of them was killing the player without him even realizing what had happened .

They saw an opening, and the Joint duo rushed in .

First, the magician, Int, threw an ice grenade at the player . The ice grenade drew a parabola as it flew towards the player . When it hit the ground, countless ice shards exploded out in all directions .

“Aaak!”

The player barely dodged the ice shards as he screamed, and the swordsman, Join, closed his distance to finish him off . It was then that the player shouted out .

“What was that? What’s wrong with you!?”

The distance between Join and the player had shortened . The moment Join got in range, he swung his sword at the player without hesitation .

Whish!

The player narrowly dodged Join’s sword, causing Join to flinch .

‘This guy is no joke . ’

A skilled player .

Join immediately tensed up .

Meanwhile, the player shouted at Join with a surprised look on his face .

“Are you trying to PK me? Do you know who I am? You’ll pay for it if you kill me!”

At this warning, Join only smirked .

‘Funny . ’

A threat from someone who couldn’t even kill a skeleton was laughable .

“What if I am? What are you going to do about it?”

With that, Join threw his body towards the player once again . Although the player might be skilled, Join believed that he was still advantageous . If he just bought time, Int would throw another magic spell at him . Join might even kill him off before then . What he knew for sure was that the two of them had perfect coordination . They were strong . The number of players they PKed so far was a proof of that .

Just that…

‘What am I going to do? Be thankful, that’s what . ’

The player they were up against was Hyrkan who had finished his preparations .

The Joint duo was unlucky . Hyrkan had already made a trap for them .

Before Join could close the gap between himself and Hyrkan, the Skeleton Warrior threw its body at Join .

‘What!’

Join couldn’t help but to be surprised at the Skeleton Warrior suddenly helping Hyrkan . To him, the Skeleton Warrior seemed like a monster, not a summon .

At the same time Hyrkan snapped his fingers twice, another two Skeleton Warriors that had been in hiding came out . They charged towards the magician still in the middle of casting another spell . Knowing that the opponent moved as swordsman and magician duo, Hyrkan had already made his plans .

‘Thanks for the meal . ’

Hyrkan once again expressed his gratitude to Warlord for providing him with his dinner .