Emperor of Solo Play Chapter 66:
Skill ‘Armament’ (2)
“I’ve always been curious . Do you mind?”
“Go ahead . ”
“What’s on your mind when you’re fighting monsters? You always charge at them so thoughtlessly . ”
It was about the time when he was at level 100 . Along with Kim Dongsoo and other members of the Hahoe Mask Guild, Hyrkan had gained experience, levels, fame, and achievements . During this time when they were able to earn enough to make a living, Hyrkan, the Hahoe Mask Guild’s ace player, had been killed during battle .
It was the result of a reckless battle . The Hahoe Mask Guild had to rest for 48 hours as a result, and Kim Dongsoo took the time to have a drink with An Jaehyun .
When Kim Dongsoo asked An Jaehyun the above question, An Jaehyun answered .
“Mm… if I don’t kill this guy, I won’t get to eat tomorrow . Something like that . ”
“Haha…”
When he heard An Jaehyun’s answer, Kim Dongsoo let out a dry laugh as he poured more drink into An Jaehyun’s glass . The reason Kim Dongsoo didn’t pry further was that he took An Jaehyun’s answer as a signal that he didn’t want to talk more about it . However, that wasn’t the case .
It was the cold hard truth .
An Jaehyun, or rather Hyrkan, did not put much thought into his fights . He wasn’t able to either . By nature, there were too many ways a fight could go wrong . He couldn’t fight with every possibility in mind .
In the end, all he could do was remind himself of his resolve .
The answer Hyrkan gave was his resolve .
There would be no dinner if he didn’t kill the monster in front of him!
As much as it was foolish, simple, and ridiculous, it had a good effect . Although this resolve sometimes sent him to forced 48-hour vacations, it mostly helped him achieve his goals .
One of these results was his title, Hero Slaughterer .
‘Skeletons are just assistants . I’ve been taking things easy for too long . ’
At this moment, Hyrkan reminded himself of this resolve once again . Then, he held up his Orc Hero’s Sword .
‘Someone who just sits back isn’t Hyrkan . ’
Hyrkan then charged towards the Spirit Knight who had turned his Golem into a ragged doll .
The Spirit Knight immediately reacted to Hyrkan’s appearance . He faced Hyrkan and swung down with his sword diagonally .
Up until now, Hyrkan had faced the Spirit Knight’s attacks head on . If he did, his Skeleton Warriors would attack in his stead . Rather than dodging the Spirit Knight’s attack, he performed the role of controlling him .
This time, however, Hyrkan dodged the attack .
Narrowly .
He tilted his body to the side slightly, and he could clearly feel the Spirit Knight’s sword brush past him .
This was Hyrkan’s original battle style . It was just that he had forgotten about it due to the convenience provided by his Skeleton Warriors . It was the Spirit Knight that had let him remember what he had forgotten for so long .
The Spirit Knight had awoken the Hero Slaughterer Hyrkan that was sleeping within Hahoe Mask Hyrkan .
After dodging the Spirit Knight’s attack, Hyrkan struck its side with his sword .
Clang!
A metallic noise rang out as a clear sword cut appeared on its armor . However, the armor wasn’t cut apart completely, showing the Spirit Knight’s formidable defense .
As such, after successfully cutting the Spirit Knight once, he brushed past it and turned around .
Whish .
The Spirit Knight also turned to face Hyrkan .
“Hu!”
With a short breath of air, he once again ran towards the Spirit Knight . The Spirit Knight swung its sword, and Hyrkan once again narrowly dodged its attack as he made another sword cut on its armor .
Exchanging one attack for another .
Hyrkan’s plan was to exchange tens or even hundreds of such attacks .
Of these, if he got hit three or four times, it would be game over . One mistake could potentially be fatal . Any hidden cards the Spirit Knight was holding would be detrimental to Hyrkan, and it was entirely possible that this battle would end up as a disaster for Hyrkan .
However, Hyrkan did not worry about what could be .
‘If I don’t kill him, I won’t have dinner tomorrow!’
Such thoughts weren’t suited for the Hero Slaughterer .
★★★
[You have obtained the title, ‘Knighthood . ’]
The moment he heard the alert, Hyrkan took out his recovery clay and began to heal his left arm that was about to fall off . After applying the recovery clay onto the severed area, he could feel his left arm moving again .
It was truly a game-like scene .
Hyrkan then turned his head towards pieces of armor that lied fallen on the ground . The traces of a fierce battle were scattered about on the ground .
Watching the parts of the broken armor, Hyrkan grinned .
“Kya!”
Hyrkan let out a scream of joy .
‘I really am the best . ’
This was it .
The sight of himself fighting against the odds and coming out victorious . That was the Hyrkan he enjoyed seeing .
Of course, there was one thing he wasn’t quite satisfied with .
‘As I thought, there is a slight delay with the V-Gear I have now . ’
Now that he had fought with his all, he had felt something he quite haven’t felt before .
His V-Gear’s Level .
‘Level 6 would be too much . Would a Level 3 do for now?’
Hyrkan’s currently V-Gear was the standard Level 1 Model . Currently, the Level 6 V-Gear was about to be released . The difference between Level 1 and Level 6 wasn’t so big, but there was a noticeable difference if a skilled player was using them .
Of course, the difference in their performance could only be felt when a player was performing to the limit of his capabilities .
‘But since I’m able to feel the difference now, it looks like my sense of battle is nearing what it was at my prime . ’
This meant that Hyrkan’s senses had come back to what it was during his prime . The feeling he couldn’t quite remember even with the continued Climbing Tests had come back thanks to the Spirit Knight .
Watching the remnant of the Spirit Knight, Hyrkan couldn’t help but smile .
‘This guy sells for quite a lot too . ’
What he was happy about were the items the Spirit Knight would drop .
Spirit Knights’ dropped crafting coins called the Spirit Knight Armor Piece, and because they could hold the power of spirits, they were used to create high-tier attribute-resistant armor .
Considering the Spirit Knight was also level 90, the items it would drop would at least be at the level 70 range . Hyrkan’s gain would be well over his expenditure .
Hyrkan immediately turned the armor into crafting coins, pocketed them, and turned towards the exit .
‘It’s time to finish this . ’
The Spirit Knight was the guardian of the dungeon, and now that it was gone, it meant he was free to loot the place as he desired .
Hyrkan gazed at the new, unexplored part as he smiled .
★★★
Soon, Hyrkan found himself in a shabby room filled with two wooden desks and three bookshelves . Although there were dozens of books in the bookshelves, most were completely useless novels based on Warlord’s world setting . Although there were players who enjoyed reading about such things, Hyrkan wasn’t one of them .
In the first place, Hyrkan knew about the Warlord world better than anyone else .
He knew who the Immoral Prince was, and also the identity of the Ruined Kingdom that would be revealed when the Immoral Prince was captured .
‘Is this it?’
Hyrkan quickly skimmed through the books .
“Whoa!”
Then, when Hyrkan finally found what he was looking for, his eyes sparkled . It was a book with a palm print but no words .
‘A skillbook!’
It was a skillbook .
Furthermore, what Hyrkan had obtained was a No-name Skillbook . Once he placed his left hand on the palm print, a random skill would be materialized based on the player’s class .
The skill could then be learned by the player, or he could sell it to others as a skillbook . Most of the skillbooks on the market were created in this way . This was also the reason why necromancer skillbooks were rare . A necromancer skillbook neither was guaranteed to sell well, nor were there enough necromancers to flood the market with them .
Of course, it was possible to sell the No-name Skillbook, but most did not do so . Even Normal-rank skillbooks sold for a good amount, and skillbooks from No-name Skillbooks had the potential to be Rare-rank or even Unique-rank . No person would hesitate to open a treasure chest that guaranteed riches . There were people who just sold No-name Skillbooks for a high price, but doing so was like buying lottery tickets .
Without hesitation, Hyrkan placed his hand on the palm print . He wasn’t so worried about money anymore, so there was no reason for him to agonize over what to do .
[The skillbook reveals its identity . ]
Hyrkan immediately received an alert, then another in quick succession .
[Would you like to learn the skill, ‘Armament’?]
‘Mm?’
At that instant, Hyrkan couldn’t help but take his hand off the skillbook in surprise . Staring at the skillbook in his hand, Hyrkan asked .
‘Don’t tell me…’
Then, he placed his hand on the palm print once again . The same alert popped up and Hyrkan once again took his hand off the skillbook .
“Armament…”
‘Is it that skill?’
Hyrkan wasn’t entirely knowledgeable on the necromancer skill tree . There was limited information on how many skills necromancers had, what the conditions were for obtaining them, or what the skills exactly did . Although he bought information from Helgen early in the game, Hyrkan was now far more knowledgeable than Helgen .
As a result, Hyrkan could only think about Rich Lich’s raid videos to infer what the skills he used were . What Hyrkan was most curious about were the armed states of Rich Lich’s skeletons .
At first, Hyrkan thought they were wearing something like the Bone Armor . However, he quickly found out after using Bone Armor himself that this wasn’t the case . Hyrkan then wondered if it was because Rich Lich used a different monster as material, but that theory was also quickly debunked as Hyrkan tried out different monsters to craft Skeleton Fragments .
In the end, he could only conclude that Rich Lich had another skill .
Most important was the fact that Rich Lich’s skeletons were holding excellent weapons .
But from what Hyrkan tried, Skeleton Warriors couldn’t use the weapons their master used . They couldn’t use the weapons taken from other monsters either . This could only mean that there was a skill that allowed them to use players’ weapons .
Gulp!
Hyrkan swallowed his breath .
‘Is it really possible?’
Hyrkan imagined his Skeleton Warriors holding the Orc Hero’s Sword .
Hyrkan let out another breath of air . Then, he pulled up the skill details onto a hologram window .
★★★
The Red Bulls Guild held absolute control over the Sura Canyon Village . Being targeted by the Red Bulls Guild meant one shouldn’t even consider stepping one foot into the Sura Canyon Village .
The merchants that traded there had to pay a fee to the Red Bulls Guild, and had to submit a proof of identity to them . Although it wasn’t so serious like having to show one’s social security number, players known for being bad mannered had no chance of being accepted .
It was the same for a player named Koten .
The moment he saw the Red Bulls Guild’s announcement asking for information on a player who purchased a large number of items by himself, Koten gave them all the information he had .
“You said he purchased 4,000 golds-worth at once?”
“Yes, sir . ”
“Do you remember exactly how he looked like?”
“Well you see… I’m not too good at remembering faces… but he was definitely Asian . ”
“Anything else?”
“Mm… I don’t know if this is the right way to put it, but he seemed like a pushover . ”
“A pushover?”
“You know what I mean, right? It’s like if you see them, you immediately think ‘I can trick that guy even if I’m not a con-artist . ’ That’s the kind of guy I’m talking about . Of course, he wasn’t a real pushover . He knew what he was doing when we were trading . Not that I would have tricked him anyways, but you know what I mean . ”
‘We already knew that Hahoe Mask Hyrkan was Asian, and likely Korean… but he looks like a pushover?’
“Damn, how do I report this?”
In the end, the Red Bulls ended up without much lead on Hahoe Mask Hyrkan .