Chapter 39

There’s about a week left until the guild gathering.

Until then, what should I do? I guess I should prepare for the next season update.

Looking at Leore’s update direction so far, when a new season is updated, raids don’t come out immediately. Instead, the story and quests come first, and then the raid comes out in the next update.

Leore gives titles to only the top 1-10 players who clear the raid. I really like that and want to get it, but I think it might be tough in this season’s raid.

First of all, I don’t even have the final equipment for this season, so it’s even harder. In this situation, I feel bad trying to pull guild members who are aiming for Perclan to my side.

I’m not aiming for Perclan, but I should recruit guild members who are willing to try hard.

Before that, since raids come out at least two weeks after the story update, I should probably finish all the Leore stories that have been released so far.

That way, I can finish the story that will be updated next Thursday.

The current progress of Leore’s story is as follows.

From level 1 to 60, you become a rookie adventurer on the continent of Perde and work hard.

When you reach level 60, the max level, you go to Ardea, the largest country on the Perde continent, and work as an adventurer, finding a strange cave and discovering a new area through the Entrance to the Abyss.

From the Entrance to the Abyss, terrifying monsters start crawling out, and you move to stop them.

The current raids are all about defeating the bosses of the Abyss.

This season’s update is the last expansion season update, and the raid boss that comes out is said to be the final boss of the Abyss.

Looking back at the story so far, it wasn’t exactly heartwarming or thrilling, but when you’re actually playing it, it’s really fun.

Maybe it’s because it’s a virtual reality game, but when I watch the story, I feel a level of immersion that’s different from watching movies, dramas, comics, or anime, and my heart races.

The story I need to watch now is the part where I just defeated the Abyss boss at the Entrance to the Abyss and need to explore what kind of world the Abyss is.

The starting point of the quest was the Entrance to the Abyss.

At the Entrance to the Abyss, I was told to join up with the NPCs who had been progressing with me so far.

As soon as I moved to the Entrance to the Abyss, I looked around and walked while taking in the surroundings.

The scenery, similar to the Yuni Salt Desert that I had wanted to visit before, always makes me marvel.

The faint red color, like a sunset, runs across the sky, and countless stars are visible, reflecting off the calm water on the ground like a mirror.

It feels like I’m walking in the middle of space, and it’s even mesmerizing.

“Arang, are you here?”

A wizard companion greeted me with a smile.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Welcome, I was waiting.”

The tank companion said while hitting his shield with his sword.

Leore is interesting because the companions’ jobs change according to the story progression, so you can always have a tank-dps-dps-healer combo, which is very convenient.

Also, maybe because it’s the future, the AI is so advanced that it feels like talking to real people, with no awkwardness at all. That’s why they don’t feel like just NPCs, but like real companions.

[Exploring the Abyss Area]

Exploration rate 50% achieved 1/50%

With the healer companion’s buff, I slowly walked and explored the Abyss area.

The early part of the Abyss seems to be just a plain.

From the looks of it, there are ordinary plants spread out, but their colors are so dark that they don’t seem normal.

While exploring the surroundings and increasing the exploration rate, something crawled up from the ground.

It was clearly an Abyss area monster.

It looked like a maggot, but with tree roots like centipedes attached all around it, and I felt like vomiting just looking at it.

‘Isn’t this too gross…!?’

For the first time, I thought Leore might be for 15-year-olds because it was so hard to look at.

If I had just seen it on a monitor, I would have let it slide, but since it’s a virtual world, the disgust was doubled.

Moreover, it was so realistic that the tree root legs looked like there were about 20 of them, and when they moved with a rustling sound, I got goosebumps.

I didn’t want to get close, so I used a throwing skill that I only use in PVP and threw the Tashim Sword at the monster.

Thud!

“Kyaaak!”

I thought the maggot-centipede monster would die in one hit because of my equipment level, which is much higher than the current story quest, but it remained intact.

But when I looked at the maggot-centipede’s HP, it was 0. It was dead.

“What’s going on? Why isn’t the corpse disappearing?”

This is bad. I need to go pick up the Tashim Sword, but the corpse is still there. Plus, the blood is annoying because it’s green for some reason.

I groaned and approached the maggot-centipede.

Ugh… They made this too realistic. When I pulled out my beloved Tashim Sword, which was stuck in the maggot-centipede, green blood oozed out stickily.

“Ah…”

Even though it’s my favorite Tashim Sword, the moment I saw it, I wanted to throw it away immediately because its condition was so terrible.

But the reason this monster’s corpse isn’t disappearing like normal monsters might be…

Ding.

[Exploring the Abyss Area]

Exploration rate 50% achieved 25/50%

Check the suspicious monster corpse

Ah… Please…!

“It’s a monster I’ve never seen before. Let’s check it out.”

At the healer’s words, all the companions gathered around the maggot-centipede.

I wanted to go somewhere else immediately, but it was something I had to see for the story.

I covered my eyes with my hands and waited for the story to pass, and when I heard the alarm, I opened my eyes.

[Exploring the Abyss Area]

Exploration rate 50% achieved 50/50%

I nodded at the exploration percentage that shot up in an instant. It was a bit gross, but since it filled up half at once, it’s enough.

As soon as I achieved 50% exploration rate, the quest updated.

[Exploring the Abyss Area]

Find a suitable location for a temporary base.

I walked hard to the area where I needed to make a base, but the monsters that appeared each time were all disgusting.

Somehow, I managed to deal with the monsters here and there and found an empty area with no plants. I set up a temporary tent there and made it a base.

Then, after connecting the city and the portal, I cleared the Abyss area quest.

After clearing that quest, the rest of the quests were all dialogue quests, so they passed quickly.

After making a base in the Abyss area and continuing to explore the Abyss monsters, I confirmed that the Abyss monsters were nesting in specific areas, and those nests were the past raids.

Now, since the raids are from previous seasons, it doesn’t matter, and as I destroyed the nests one by one, I eventually figured out that the nests were all offering to one place, which is the season raid boss that will be updated next week.

From the story, I can tell that since all the nests in the Abyss area are gathering in one place, the raid boss is likely to be a king or queen, and since nests are usually insect-related, the queen is more likely.

So I’m curious about what she will look like.

So far, the bosses have all been a bit eyebrow-raising because of the Abyss concept, but if it’s a queen, it will either be even worse or really cool.

Honestly, since it’s the final raid boss of the expansion, I’m expecting it to be cool.

I’m also curious about what concept the next expansion will be after this Abyss expansion, and I wish time would pass quickly.

Ding.

I opened the chat window at the sound of the whisper alarm.

[Arang’s Foot Wiper]

ㄴArang, Arang. Do you have cold hands and feet?

Hmm… Since I have prosthetic arms and legs, they are very cold.

[Arang]

ㄴYes. They are quite cold.

[Arang’s Foot Wiper]

ㄴAh!? Understood!

What’s this? Why did they ask?

My hands and feet are cold.

Even if I think of them as prosthetic, they are cold, and if I say I don’t have them, there’s no temperature, so saying they are cold is accurate.

I don’t know what they’re planning to do, but it seems like Foot Wiper asked because they want to do something, but I feel like I don’t need it.

Thinking about the gathering, I wonder what I should do with Arang’s Foot Wiper.

Should I look for a board game that two people can play?

Even though times have changed a lot, maybe there’s some high-tech board game with holograms or something.

If there’s something like the chess from that old wizard movie, it would be really fun.

==

Kwon Mi-ae has already finished farming this season’s raid and prepared for the next season, so she has nothing to do now.

So instead of logging into Leore and doing something, she was preparing for the gathering with Arang next week.

While thinking about what to prepare for Arang, who is hospitalized, she decided to prepare pretty gloves and socks, even though it’s summer, in preparation for winter.

Pretty socks that match pretty shoes. And gloves to protect her small, delicate hands.

Kwon Mi-ae, fully prepared to meet Arang, wished next Thursday would come quickly.

“It will definitely suit her well!”