Chapter 9

Level Up IlDanSimPanGwan – Chapter 9 (9/227)

Chapter 9: Blasphemer

“Excuse me.”

“Yes, yes. Feel free to look around. I’ll be back after putting some stuff in the warehouse.”

As Ail raised his hand while looking at the floating messages, the female owner smiled and replied.

Immediately after, perhaps due to completing the quest, she was treating Ail even more warmly.

When she descended into the basement, Ail carefully examined the system message that had appeared before him.

In Warode, every time a user levels up by 10 levels, the limit on the number of skills they can hold increases by one, allowing users to acquire new skills using skill books.

However, each class has three basic skills that activate at levels 5, 10, and 15 respectively, giving players the option to choose among them.

Given the vast array of skills available in Warode depending on the class, these three basic skills essentially define the characteristics of each class and serve as common ground among users of the same class.

And now, it was Ail’s turn to make his first choice.

“Hmm…”

[Sacred Flame (Basic)]

– A sacred flame usable only by heresy judges who follow the will of the Goddess. This flame, representing their identity, will not extinguish until all demons and heretics are burned away.

– Grants holy and fire attributes to weapons and significantly boosts attack power.

[Blade of Hatred (Basic)]

– The driving force that allows judges to keep moving forward amidst blood and foul odors is their hatred for evil-doers. They won’t hesitate to use any means necessary to eliminate the wicked.

– Increases damage against heretics by 25%.

[Fanatical Martyr (Basic)]

– While evil spreads fear, followers of the Goddess eagerly await the chance to sacrifice themselves for their beliefs. Judges who have forgotten the fear of death become fearsome to all evildoers.

– Nullifies all psychological status effects. Conversely, doubles fear and intimidation effects inflicted on enemies.

“More or less knew what to expect, but still…”

After reading through the explanations one by one, Ail looked at the screen with a grimace.

The basic skill descriptions were all pretty intense, giving off a vibe of being part of a seriously crazy group.

“But the effects are definitely good. The question is which one to choose…”

For most people choosing the Heresy Judge class, the first choice usually came down to two options.

Most went for ‘Sacred Flame’, which grants attribute bonuses and increased attack power, reinforcing the identity of the Heresy Judge.

Some, especially those planning to hunt areas populated by heretics, chose ‘Blade of Hatred’ instead.

But without hesitation, Ail selected an entirely different skill.

[‘Fanatical Martyr’ skill acquired.]

<User Info>

Name: Ail

Title: One Who Chooses the Hard Path

Affiliation: Light Church

Level: 5

Class: Heresy Judge

Main Stats

Strength: 31(+7) Agility: 24(+5) Vitality: 25(+5) Magic: 20(+5) Faith: 1.1 Madness: 0

Passive:

[Fanatical Martyr (Basic)]

Active: None

“Alright.”

Satisfied with his first skill acquisition, Ail continued.

‘Fanatical Martyr’, a passive skill that nullifies all psychological status effects, would prove incredibly valuable in PVP situations or when facing high-level monsters and bosses.

While many skills provided resistance to status effects, complete immunity or nullification was extremely rare.

That said, outside of specific hunting grounds where such abilities were relevant, this skill would essentially be useless, making it an unconventional first choice.

However, Ail was confident that his next hunting spot would require precisely this skill.

[Current Funds – 4 Shillings 94 Crons]

“Not abundant, but enough to buy what I need.”

Checking his remaining funds, Ail thought.

At this early stage of the game, earning money through hunting alone was nearly impossible due to the costs of food and potions.

In Warode, where hunting could be quite challenging, using potions was essential for most players, leading many to take side jobs from NPCs to make ends meet.

Some players naturally gravitated toward lifestyle content like alchemy, blacksmithing, fishing, farming, and trading after assisting with various tasks, finding these non-combat activities rewarding in their own right.

Despite this, Ail had managed to avoid using potions altogether, even while hunting in one of the toughest areas, obtaining food directly from defeated monsters instead.

Additionally, having slain high-difficulty monsters that provided good rewards and acquiring potions from the body of a well-equipped player he had encountered, Ail had accumulated a decent amount of funds.

When the innkeeper returned from the warehouse, Ail used all his remaining funds to purchase several items he had planned for and left the shop.

“Well, I should go… Ah, it’s already this late.”

Checking the clock, Ail sighed deeply, feeling regretful.

Since he had to work the next day, he couldn’t continue playing any longer.

Just as things were getting interesting, his spirits were dampened.

“There’s nothing I can do… I don’t have the luxury of spare time anymore like I used to.”

Activating the menu, Ail pressed the logout button and successfully disconnected after a brief waiting period.

* * *

PVE(Player Versus Environment).

Used in most MMORPGs to describe all content where players hunt monsters, from regular field areas to rare elite spawns, hidden dungeons, scenario-based dungeons, and instance dungeons that create personalized spaces for each player upon entry.

Warode contained countless types of PVE content.

Among all this variety, the consensus was that the true flower of PVE lay in large-scale field boss raids requiring dozens to hundreds of players, with few dissenting opinions.

Powerful bosses located across various fields posed challenges too great for hastily assembled parties to even approach, offering rewards and prestige commensurate with their difficulty upon successful conquest.

Since most top-tier items couldn’t be obtained through normal means and instead dropped from these bosses, even the strongest guilds competed fiercely to develop strategies for defeating them.

This applied equally to the Red Moon Guild, one of the top 12 guilds known in Warode, where Guildmaster Haman scratched his head while examining the map laid out on the table.

“Current status?”

“As planned, all 110 raid participants have gathered. We’re conducting final checks on equipment, buffs, and enhancements.”

“Since we’ve combined our usual Raid Teams 1 and 2, make sure everyone coordinates smoothly.”

“No issues there. We’ve been practicing intensively for the past two days.”

“Practice is practice. Mistakes can always happen in situations like this.”

“Guildmaster, we have a report.”

A guild member rushed into the tent and spoke.

Haman nodded briefly in response.

“We’ve spotted Scourge’s reconnaissance team near Kaiya Hill, close to our raid location. There were six members, and their identities seem confirmed. Additionally, Binghai and Naidus Guilds appear to be gathering nearby in suspicious movements… It seems a large-scale interference attempt is incoming.”

“Hmph, those guys wouldn’t just sit idly while others succeed. This was expected. We’ve already called in our allies, so we can handle their interference.”

Though the size of the opposing coalition seemed substantial, Haman responded nonchalantly.

We’d recognized this level of risk from the planning stages.

‘This opportunity is valuable despite the larger share we offered. If this raid succeeds, we’ll gain an edge over other top 12 guilds.’

Top 12.

While far from the Six Major Guilds, these 12 guilds occupied the highest positions below them, maintaining independent power bases even outside the top six.

However, Haman, leader of the Red Moon Guild, was filled with ambition to rise above this classification.

It might as well be considered a gamble.

There was no guarantee of success, and since this attempt involved gathering the guild’s main forces including both the raid team and defense units, failure would deal a significant blow.

Still, as guildmaster, he needed to take this risk.

In Warode, taking risks brought greater rewards, while staying safe meant falling behind.

“…Also, Black Wolf reports they’ve arrived. All promised defense teams are present.”

“Good, let’s proceed.”

* * *

“Hyah, kills.”

Seated at the convenience store register, Woojin was resting his chin while watching videos on his phone.

Whenever he had free time during work, he enjoyed watching Warode-related content, always finding himself impressed.

A video showing Red Moon Guild’s attempt to defeat the level 190 field boss, Explosive King Angios.

Though the official raid team consisted of only 110 members from Red Moon Guild, the video showed thousands of high-level players engaged in fierce battle.

Clearly labeled as a “raid,” the scene depicted far more people fighting each other than participating in the actual boss challenge.

This was known as “interference” in gaming terminology.

Since successful high-difficulty large-scale raids rewarded players greatly, it was natural for rival factions to attempt interference, a common occurrence in Warode given the complex web of guild relationships.

Though ultimately unsuccessful due to overwhelming numbers from the top 12 guild Scourge, Red Moon Guild appeared to have switched to counterattacking halfway through, dealing considerable damage to their opponents.

“I should be right there in the action if I were playing.”

Woojin sighed deeply.

Back in the days of PC online games he regularly participated in, he was always involved in such large-scale events.

Being a passionate gamer, he still harbored dreams of becoming a professional player.

However, the simple reason he hadn’t quit his part-time job to fully commit to Warode was clear:

He had started too late.

Starting late and acting alone without guild affiliation made him an easy target for PKers, and worse, if noticed by malicious groups, he’d likely be wiped out completely.

To compete professionally, he’d eventually need to venture into highly competitive hunting grounds, inevitably causing conflicts. Without proper protection, he’d likely get crushed by established networks or guilds.

Only reaching Ranker status would allow him to ignore these factors and play freely, but achieving that goal starting a year after launch was practically impossible.

The official ranking on Warode’s website, selecting only the top 1,000 players from hundreds of millions of accounts, represented the Rankers.

Those whose names appeared there were the Rankers.

Even with confidence in his skills, breaking through the hardest early-game hunting grounds, something today’s Rankers had easily accomplished, would be difficult.

Many of these players already had extensive experience from previous VR games, plus a full year of Warode gameplay.

At his current state, he’d fall short in skill, capital, and level.

Even reaching Ranker status seemed daunting, let alone the top 100 High Rankers.

Still, joining someone else’s guild and working under them wasn’t an option given his playstyle.

The only way to seriously compete would be to wait for the next major game release, but no successor to Warode was coming anytime soon, let alone from the same developer.

With Warode dominating the market, there was no reason to release a sequel that would split their audience.

So, to become a professional gamer, he’d somehow need to find an advantage within Warode itself.

Some kind of “surefire trick” would be required to catch up to players who’d already progressed so far.

“Really, isn’t there some way…”