Chapter 63 – Tahrakhan Plateau (8)

The Operator began reward distribution .

[Monsters Slain . Harpy: 42 . Dire Mountain Goat: 13 . Dire Buffalo: 8 . Total 6140 points . ]
[Boss Monster Slain: ‘Harpy Queen’ Laliha: 900 points . ]
[Hidden Boss: Manticore: 900 points . ]
[Final Point count: 7940 . Distributing points . ]

[Your contribution is 71 . 2% . 5653 Stat points, 5653 Black Coins awarded . Raid Clear Bonus 2500 Stat points and 2500 Black Coins awarded . Item effect ‘Additional 10% gained’ activated . Distributing 8153 Stat points and 8968 Black Coins . ]

The number of Coins he had earned in the last chapter was 8050 . Taking into consideration of the inflation between rounds, he didn’t obtain all that much due to not reaching 100% completion . But it did not matter .

Because from this point onward, he would obtain much more from hunting trolls than from the Raid Rewards .

[And now we will distribute the items . ]
[Armantine – Spear of Paralysis]
[Diora – pants of compliance/obedience/accommodation*]
[Enhancement Stone]
[Recovery Potion – Medium X2]

‘Hmm?’

The Operator gave two rounds of congratulatory messages .

[Congratulations! You have obtained the Legendary Item ‘Armantine’!]
[Congratulations! You have obtained the Legendary Crafting material ‘Enhancement Stone’!]

Sungjin stared at the items before him for a moment . A spherical orb with small jagged deformities rolled around . Sungjin picked it up .

‘Did this item drop this early in the raids?’

He recalled seeing his first Enhancement Stone after at least ten chapters last time . But it didn’t matter; Since Sungjin was almost fully equipped, it was better to get this than a useless Heroic Tier Item .

Sungjin placed all the items into the cube as he thought to himself

‘Should I power up the Moon Specter first? Or go with Blood Vengeance like last time?’

The Cube continued with the reward distribution .

[Last but not the least, you will be awarded titles you’ve earned on this raid . ]

It was much faster to receive rewards alone than when receiving it as a group .

[Blue Magician – Increases Blue magic effects by 20%]

‘Ooh…’

Sungjin was honestly surprised . It was the first time for him to receive a title specific to mages . He must have qualified for Blue Magician title due to frequently casting Chain lightning and Frostbite .

Of course, he didn’t need it immediately, but from what he had heard from before, there were lots of extremely powerful mage specific titles .

‘Titles like Spell Master…’

Sungjin concluded his thoughts on the titles for now .

[Distribution has ended . Request for Dimensional transfer has been granted . ]
[You will be teleported in 10 seconds . 10, 9]

The Operator began her trademark countdowns, and Sungjin uneasily shifted his weight while waiting under the beam of light . The thought of fighting other Hunters made him anxious .

‘There shouldn’t be anyone more powerful than me but… Like how a Lion hunts a Rabbit*, I need to give my all . They are evil people . ”

[4, 3, 2, 1, 0]

The countdown finished, and the pillar of light grew even brighter . Sungjin closed his eyes . And then

[Dimensional Transfer Complete . ]

He opened his eyes when the Operator gave an announcement .

‘Hmm?’

Sungjin was standing exactly on the same spot .

‘What happened?’

Sungjin turned around . There should have been a corpse of a Mountain Goat behind him from refilling his Mana but

“Baa”

A live Mountain Goat was standing in its place . The Mountain Goat came charging at him . Sungjin effortlessly cut off its head and surveyed the area around him . He was certain that he was in a different place; he had successfully entered a different dimension .

‘So… there is a troll somewhere in this dimension…’

Sungjin pulled out his swords and began to roam the Plateau .

*

‘High-Level Guard’ ferociously swung his spear . Luckily, the tip of the spear caught the Harpy Queen’s talons . He shouted,

“Now!”

And in response,

‘Pew~’

Someone fired a shot and

“Incinerate everything in your path! Fire Ball!”

Someone fired a spell at the same time . Once hit by the arrow and the spell, Laliha

“Kyaa!”

Screamed in pain . And the one tasked with finishing her off was another man who appeared out of nowhere . He wore white turban over his head, and he jumped high up into the air and onto the Queen’s back .

Landing, he stabbed her in the heart . The Operator gave an announcement .

[‘Harpy Queen’ Laliha Cleared]

“Haa~”

“Whew”

Everyone let out a sigh of relief . And then they congratulated each other .

“Good work . ”

“Good job . ”

“Can’t believe we beat it”

“Mhmm . ”

Only four of the men were congratulating each other . One of the five was silent; he had been ripped apart to pieces by the Harpy Queen . The hunters briefly turned to look at him .

One or two of them gathered their hands and gave him a moment of silence . But no one spoke to him . And once the brief moment of silence ended, no one turned to look at him .

It was because they felt guilty about his death . As the raids progressed, countless teammates perished until now .

Too many died to mourn all of them . So the only thing remaining was the feeling of guilt .

‘It was my fault he died . ’

They couldn’t help but feel this way, and so the Hunters found a way to cope . After all, whether it was the tank, the dps, or the support, it was partially their fault that a team member had died . So the common evolution of thought was to then think

‘I’m glad it’s not me . ’

It was the same for the ‘Armored Soldier’ Max O’Brian . He was the tank for the team, but the Japanese man (he already forgot his name) had stood too far from him to avoid being hit by the sound waves .

So when Max was hit by the sound wave and fell asleep, he woke up to the Japanese man already torn to pieces . The other teammates understood this and would not blame him for the death of the Japanese man .

After shifting blame away from himself, he turned away from the corpse and drank his potion . Since the boss was slain, it was time to go hunting surviving mobs to collect additional contribution points .

If there was time after killing the boss and more than three members were left alive, then the surviving members of the team should continue hunting for additional contribution points; This had become common sense . Everyone valued each and every status points and coins they could obtain .

“Let’s go hunt the remaining mobs, shall we?”

At the Indian ‘Assassin’ Atman’s suggestion, the French Halbardier ‘Guard’ Adrian and the English ‘High-level Sniper’ Mason consented .

“Then, let’s go . We need every point we can get . ”

Max paused from drinking his potion to speak to his teammates .

“Wait… let’s take a quick break first . ”

“Sure, I am getting low on MP anyway . ”

The remaining hunters waited until their HP and MP were replenished and then reentered the hunting grounds . Although they were down by one person, they were confident in their ability .

It was because they were able to defeat the boss without much difficulty . (Although one died, but losing only a single member to the boss was considered to be a good outcome)

Pulling was ‘High-level Sniper’ Mason’s job . His precise arrows landed on Dire Mountain Goats, Dire Buffalos, or on Harpies from a considerable distance, and expertly brought single enemies at a time to the team .

Since the four hunters only faced one or two mobs at a time, hunting was quite easy .

‘Pew’

Mason’s arrow hit a Dire Mountain Goat and lured it in .

“Baa~”

Adrian shouted once the Goat got closer

“Binding Frost! Frostbite!”

Affected by the freezing cold crystallizing ice at its feet, the Mountain Goat gradually slowed down . Max watched the Goat advance even closer and then lifted his shield high and shouted

“Steel Body!”

Metallic material seeped through the shield and coated his entire body . Shortly after, the Mountain Goat reached and charged into him .

“Clang!”

The combination of Adrian’s spell and his own active skill nullified all damages . Once the Charge was halted, Atman and Adrian poured their attacks onto the stationary Goat .

Atman was proficient with short and sharp knives . He was so dexterous that he could counterattack harpies while dodging them .

Max had always fought in the front, and could easily tell how rewards would be distributed .

When he thought of the rankings in his head, the Operator often confirmed his guesses . In fact, he was good enough to even guess their general percentages .

‘Since the guy has good offensive power and spells… 1st place with about 35% contribution?’

He believed that Atman would easily receive 1st place with an extremely disproportionate rate of 35~40% of total contribution level . Atman was certainly skilled and strong enough to do so .

Adrian and Mason were both weak, far weaker in comparison to Atman .

‘Atman should be first, me second, Mason 3rd… Adrian on the 4th?’

He guessed the order of contribution levels . While the four of them were fighting the Mountain Goat,

‘Pew’

Mason’s arrow flew past the three hunters and missed its target . Missing in of itself was not too uncommon . By this chapter, most archers were skilled, but in the beginning, archers had missed more often than being able to land a hit .

The problem was that the arrow flew off into the distance and landed on a Dire Buffalo .

“Baa~”

The Mountain Goat was still alive and kicking . The Buffalo became enraged and

“Mooo~”

Began to charge towards the Hunters . The cooldown for Steel Body was not over yet . No one could block the Buffalo’s charge yet . Max shouted

“Get out of its way! Dodge it!”

At his words, the hunters scattered . Max faced off against the Goat alone as he stepped backwards . The Buffalo came charging towards him . He was in mortal danger .

“Veil of Darkness, cover their sight! Blind!”

Atman’s magic glowed brightly . The Buffalo became blind; it tripped and fell on its own .

“Good job Atman!”

Atman quickly ran to the Mountain Goat and shouted

“Quickly! The Spell won’t last long!”

But

‘Pew~”

Another shot was fired . Max had thought that Mason had aimed to hit the fallen Buffalo . But

“Kyaa!”

It hit a Harpy in the distance .

“What are you doing?”

He shouted to which Mason replied with an apology .

“Sorry!”

‘Do you think a sorry is going to suffice right now?’

Max was becoming angry, but he couldn’t help it . He had to face against the Dire Mountain Goat alone, and now a Harpy was on its way . The Buffalo regained its sight and stood back up .

The only good news was that Atman had taken off his Turban and managed to stab the Goat in the heart . Now only two enemies were remaining .

Max turned to face against the more threatening Buffalo when he heard an incantation being recited .

“Binding Frost! Frost Bite!”

Max had believed the spell was meant to try and reduce the Buffalo’s running speed . But

“Hmm?”

His feet were stuck to the ground . He was frozen in place .

“What?”

When Max was about to turn to look at Adrian,

“Ahhh!”

Atman was hit by the Buffalo and gored on its horns .