Chapter 6

Level Up IlDanSimPanGwan – Episode 6 (6/227)

Episode 6: Lu’s Believer

Pooook!

Ail’s sword plunged into the horned rabbit’s neck.

[You have leveled up!]

[You have obtained the title ‘One Who Chooses the Hard Path’!]

[When equipped, all basic stats +5.]

“Exactly twenty. Pretty accurate.”

The title ‘One Who Chooses the Hard Path’ was one that could be obtained by solo killing twenty horned rabbits before reaching level 5 in Duel. It was created for those who chose dangerous hunting grounds and defeated tough enemies.

For non-crafting classes, there weren’t many ways to get a useful early-game title. This one, which evenly boosted the four basic stats of strength, agility, vitality, and mana, was quite valuable.

It was one of the main reasons Ail had been a bit greedy when choosing his hunting ground.

Now that he’d leveled up twice, he opened his status window to allocate points.

<User Info>

Name: Ail

Title: One Who Chooses the Hard Path

Affiliation: Light Church

Level: 3

Class: IlDanSimPanGwan

Main Stats

Strength: 25(+5) Agility: 22(+5) Vitality: 23(+5) Mana: 20(+5) Faith: 0.2 Madness: 0

Passive Skills

N/A

Active Skills

N/A

‘One Who Chooses the Hard Path’ Title Effect – All Basic Stats +5

With two level ups, he received ten bonus points total, which he distributed evenly among strength, agility, and vitality.

While mana did increase both magic attack power and maximum mana, as a swordsman it wasn’t worth investing just for the mana pool at this stage.

Though he still looked rather pitiful with no active skills yet, part of the fun was building up piece by piece.

Warode skills had a huge impact on combat, but unlike some games they weren’t learned automatically. Instead players had to acquire skill books separately.

Because of this, even users of the same class could end up playing completely differently depending on their chosen skills and equipment.

“Hmm, leveling two times from just twenty monsters… not bad for an early game grind.”

The harder the challenge, the greater the reward. That was Warode’s system.

Players progressed at vastly different speeds depending on their playstyle. While top-tier Rankers listed on the official site were over level 200, regular players were considered skilled if they reached level 100.

“This is my kind of game.”

Whistling to himself, Ail approached the stretched-out horned rabbit to loot it.

– You have obtained an item!

[Mutated Horn (Common)]

[14 Kron]

“Not much this time.”

Luck hadn’t been on his side in this hunting ground. Even after killing twenty monsters, he hadn’t gotten any decent equipment or valuable materials, just common drops.

But the horned rabbit’s body still remained after looting.

Here, players could dissect monster corpses to potentially get more items.

Most players didn’t bother though. It was tedious, time-consuming, or just plain gross, so unless they were crafting specialists, most skipped the dissection process.

After all, the main way to get money and useful items was through the initial basic loot.

But Ail didn’t skip it.

He took out his basic dissection dagger and began cutting into the corpse.

He slit the skin, carved out the flesh, and removed the bones.

It was time-consuming work, but definitely worth it.

– You have obtained an item!

[Powerful Red Eye (Rare)]

[Low-Quality Bone Fragment (Low-Tier)]

[Low-Quality Rabbit Meat (Low-Tier)]

“Sometimes you actually get something useful.”

Ail grinned as he collected the items.

A rare-grade item appearing was uncommon at this level, and provided quite a windfall compared to what he’d been getting.

The ‘Powerful Red Eye’ could be used as a material for high-grade doping potions that temporarily boost player stats, but was also required for certain lucrative quests.

As it happened, Ail knew where in the city there was a quest requiring red eyes.

Once he finished hunting, he planned to find the NPC and complete the quest easily.

Gurrrl…

Just as his hunger hit bottom, Ail made a small campfire in a safe corner.

He roasted three pieces of horned rabbit meat he’d obtained from hunting.

Though he did have 30 breads and waters provided initially, it was good to develop the habit of self-sufficiency.

As the meat chunks on sticks nearly finished cooking, Ail closed his eyes and clasped his hands in prayer.

Though a thoroughgoing atheist in real life, prayer felt awkward to him, he kept doing it regularly while checking the time.

Of course, there was a reason for this.

[Continuous prayer deepens your faith!]

[Your Faith stat has increased! (Current 0.3)]

Every Warode class had one unique stat in addition to the four basic ones.

This fifth stat, called the dedicated stat, improved the overall efficiency of the class’s skills. The Heresy Judge class, followers of Lu, had ‘Faith’ as their unique stat.

There were several ways to increase Faith besides praying, like completing quests or doing church-related tasks.

“I wasn’t planning to be here in the church according to the original plan… but if that goddess really did save me, I should be thankful…”

Though treating real gods seriously would be difficult, he could offer prayers filled with gratitude.

The only problem was the sixth stat in his abilities – Madness, whose effects were completely unknown.

Ail had never even heard of a stat with this name before, couldn’t allocate points to it from leveling up, and it wouldn’t increase through normal activities like hunting or praying.

Even trying to examine the stat details just showed “Inactive Stat.”

For now, Ail had given up on figuring out the Madness stat, and instead took a big bite of the cooked meat once his prayer was done.

“I’ve always wondered what it would taste like… so this is it.”

The first food he’d eaten in Warode. The monster meat turned out to be surprisingly not bad.

Without any cooking skills, it wasn’t gourmet quality, but still tasty enough to savor.

“Should I head to the Langbroi Forest next… or maybe the Forbidden Ruins?”

Even while chewing, Ail kept thinking about his next move.

Unlike when he’d been able to play all day as a student, now with livelihood concerns he couldn’t invest as much time, so he planned to move much more efficiently.

Even as a hobby, his personality demanded he do things properly if he was going to do them.

“Probably better to go to the ruins where heretics might be…”

“Kraaaak!”

Just as he was about to take his last bite, a human scream came from the other side.

His ears perked up at the intriguing sound. Stuffing the meat in his mouth, he jumped to his feet.

Heading in the direction of the noise, he saw a snorting horned rabbit and the body of a man underneath it.

The player had already died and been forcibly logged out, so Ail drew his sword and approached the monster.

The aggroed horned rabbit charged savagely, but Ail, with his natural gaming sense, easily dispatched it having grown familiar with its patterns.

Pooook!

“Kiieek!”

As the horned rabbit fell limp on the ground bleeding, Ail first approached the dead man.

“Anyway, the pros waiting outside will probably take care of everything…”

Once dead, recovering dropped money and items was basically impossible.

Deciding to let well enough alone, Ail searched the man’s body.

– You have obtained an item!

[Baren Longsword (High-Tier)]

[Low-Tier Health Potion x 6]

[1 Shilling 54 Kron]

“Hmm, not bad?”

Examining the items with a whistle, Ail thought.

Judging from the weapon’s name, it must have come from the grass rabbits to the east of Duel. The man had probably been hunting there before boldly coming to try his hand at horned rabbits.

Having built confidence fighting easier prey and leveled up a bit, he likely came here aiming for the ‘One Who Chooses the Hard Path’ title.

But now he’d ended up dying and delivering his items to Ail like a golden goblin.

Not only did he drop a nice weapon, but also six health potions Ail had wanted anyway. Satisfied with the profitable haul, Ail took out the new weapon from his inventory to examine it.

[Baren Longsword]

– Grade: High-Tier

– Type: Longsword

– Requirement: Level 2+

– Physical Attack Power 3

– Strength +2

As expected, it was one of the better swords available at this stage.

Whereas normal-tier equipment in Warode typically only had basic attack or defense power, higher tiers started adding stat bonuses and effects.

High-tier was just above normal. With two strength stat boosts at this level, it was a pretty well-balanced weapon.

“But it looks quite different from what I’ve been using.”

While the beginner’s sword was standard-sized for easy handling, this new longsword lived up to its name with a longer blade.

Weapons of this type usually offered superior reach at the cost of being more difficult to wield.

“Should I give it a try…?”