Chapter 529: Makers (3)
After obtaining the information about Mandara’s location from Alrod, Hyunsoo was able to find him without much difficulty.
The Kingdom of Ruad.
Because all three of them lived within this kingdom.
Esven Territory, a short distance from the capital.
They say countless herbalists live here, don’t they?
Mandara was there.
The reason Esven Territory had so many herbalists was said to be that countless medicinal herbs could be obtained nearby.
Andallo would love it if I brought him here, wouldn’t he?
Andallo, the Legendary Herbalist recruited into the nation of Hyun.
With his ability to dig up and track down anything, perhaps he would shine even here.
“Do you know where Starlight Shop is?”
“Ah, go this way.”
Perhaps because this was the Japanese server, a good 80% of the people were Japanese.
No matter how much the servers had been integrated.
It was proof that people were more comfortable staying on their own country’s server.
Of course, there were also rankers like Hyunsoo, who moved around chasing greater rewards, goals, quests, and the like because their own country’s server had limits.
Hyunsoo asked around until he arrived in front of Starlight Shop.
It was a “general goods shop” that was neither special nor odd.
General goods shops bought or sold Return Scrolls, potions, medicinal herbs, and all kinds of miscellaneous items.
JINGLE~
When he opened the door and went inside, a warm-looking middle-aged man welcomed him.
“Welcome.”
He looked to be around Alrod’s age, and through the information “Mandara” floating above his head, Hyunsoo could tell he was the person he had come to find.
“Our Starlight Shop mainly sells things I made myself. Please take your time looking around.”
Hyunsoo could tell that Mandara was someone who made and sold such things.
What exactly is Mandara’s profession?
Of course, Hyunsoo did not know exactly what Alrod’s profession was either.
Alrod had said they were thoroughly angry, so Hyunsoo carefully broached the subject.
“I came because Alrod sent me. Alrod said I should hear about your worries, Mandara, and resolve them for you.”
Hyunsoo thought Mandara’s expression would change drastically.
But it did not.
“So Alrod asked you to solve my worries?”
Mandara still did not lose his smile.
What is this?
Hyunsoo thought he had it.
Perhaps Alrod believed he had left an unhealable wound, but Mandara himself did not feel that way.
Yes, it had been a misunderstanding, and for Hyunsoo, that was great.
This is going smoothly, isn’t it?
The smiling Mandara said,
“Since you say Alrod sent you, I will tell you my request without hesitation.”
Hyunsoo listened closely.
“My profession is alchemist. I manufacture truly all sorts of things, including potions. Naturally, the source of my manufacturing comes from ‘materials.’ Therefore, I would like to request that you obtain high-quality, excellent materials for me.”
“When you say materials, what precisely do you mean?”
When Hyunsoo asked, Mandara placed a hand on his chin and said,
“I would like materials from monsters or animals. Every part of them can become material. Let us use an orc as an example. There are tusks, fur, toenails, fingernails, hair, and so on.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Yes. I will grant you a Gathering Rate. You need only gather such materials and reach a Gathering Rate of 30%, and if you exceed 50%, I will give you a potion I made.”
DING!
[Chain Quest: Gathering Mandara’s Materials.]
Grade: S
Reward: Affinity with Mandara increases and Mandara’s potion.
Failure Penalty: Failure of Alrod’s quest.
Description: Mandara is an alchemist. Gather everything from animals, monsters, and the like for him.
It was what was commonly called a gathering-type quest.
In Ares, where one gathered what NPCs wanted and received rewards, it was the most basic kind of quest that every level range could undertake.
Also, Mandara’s potion was included in the reward, and through this, it linked to Alrod’s blessing quest as well.
“I will be back.”
“Yes.”
And Mandara still smiled with his good-natured expression.
This turned out really easy, didn’t it?
Hyunsoo inwardly cheered, realizing that the two of them had simply misunderstood each other, and considered his options.
What would be good among the nearby hunting grounds? The Owlbear Nest? Okay, I’ll finish it in an hour and come back.
Hyunsoo had a fair amount of confidence in hunting.
Also, a normal gathering-type quest felt far too easy to Hyunsoo now that he was running at the top of the world.
Hyunsoo set out for the Owlbear Nest.
*****
Meanwhile.
After he left.
Mandara, who had been smiling brightly, had his expression turn so cold that one might wonder if he truly had once been a priest.
Is he trying to convey an apology or something? Crazy bastard.
Thinking of Alrod, Mandara shook his head.
To begin with, priests were people whose outsides and insides were different.
They had been educated that way since childhood.
What came to mind when one thought of priests?
“Brother.”
“Amen......”
“May your path be filled only with sunlight, brother......”
They were people who wore benevolent, warm smiles that seemed as if they would embrace everything.
But even they were no more than ordinary people when they were among themselves.
Mandara had worn a fake smile.
Unfortunately, he had no intention of taking the hand Alrod had extended.
Then why doesn’t he come himself, kneel, and beg? Then maybe I’d consider it.
That man had always been cowardly beyond belief, both then and now.
And that was also why.
Gathering Rate? He won’t even fill 5%!
He had deliberately set that so-called Gathering Rate to an atrocious difficulty that could never be cleared.
He will probably.......
Realize his true intention and never return here again.
Mandara was certain of it.
*****
Owlbear.
It was a monster that mixed a bear and an owl.
Its face was like an owl’s, its body was like a bear’s, and the sparse hair growing over it resembled an owl’s feathers.
Its weakness was that owlbears could not fly like owls.
The average level of an owlbear was about the 350 range.
However, the ones in the Owlbear Nest located on the Japanese server were different.
Level 480.
The owlbears in the Owlbear Nest were the highest-tier enhanced version of ordinary owlbears.
When an ordinary owlbear was about 2.5 meters tall, these individuals reached 3 meters.
Also, compared to ordinary owlbears, their total HP was about 70% higher, their defense was about 100% higher, and, of course, their attack power was stronger too.
However, the core feature of the owlbears in this nest lay elsewhere.
It was the fact that they formed “packs.”
Within the “nest,” these monsters had broken the rule that their species did not form groups.
That was why.
It was amazing.......
Warrior, the guild that pursued the kingdom newly created by Musashi.
Not long ago, Nema, a guild member of “Warrior” who had been at the Griffon’s Nest, had become captivated after seeing Musashi’s hunt.
The Griffon’s Nest was a place where party hunting was necessary because the monsters formed groups.
Guild master Musashi had shattered that prejudice with a single uploaded video.
That video had achieved several million views within Japan, and because of it, Nema had joined the Warrior guild as well.
That video.
It was a video of Musashi amid owlbears twice his size, grouped in packs of six to seven.
Like the “warriors” who had existed in Japan long ago.
And like his own name.
Musashi drew a single katana from behind his back while standing amid twenty or so such owlbears.
And.
SHIIING—!
In barely two minutes, he hunted the owlbears like a warrior with that katana.
The Japanese archipelago was turned upside down, and it gave birth to the massive fan named Nema.
Musashi is my idol!
Nema.
He too was a fairly high-level user, exceeding Level 450.
Within the guild, he was a fan of Musashi and a reliable ally who said, “I want to become like Musashi!”
Today, he had come to this Owlbear Nest.
The reason?
It was simple.
SHING—
“I too shall become a legend like Musashi......”
Surrounded by six owlbears, Nema drew the katana from behind his back just like Musashi had that day.
His bright eyes shone with intelligence.
With his breathing steady and unwavering, Nema thought that, amid the roaring owlbears, he would become a legend like Musashi, but......
CRAAACK—
“Gwegh! Ah, ugh, egh, urgh, cough!”
After getting ganged up on by the owlbears, he revised his thought.
“N-next time......”
Nema fled with all his might.
The owlbears he had experienced were not merely beyond his common sense. They were twice as strong as ordinary owlbears.
That was why.
Amazing, Musashi!
He could understand just how great and incredible his guild master, Musashi, truly was.
Just as he felt like running to him right away today as well and shouting, “Musashi, you’re amazing!”—
THUD, THUD-THUD, THUD—
THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD—
A tremendous tremor was felt throughout the Owlbear Nest.
What is this? Did a Mount Tai Owlbear appear or something?
He wondered if it was the rare boss monster called the Mount Tai Owlbear, but then he shook his head.
That was not the sound made by a single individual, but by several.
How many are there for the tremor to be felt all the way here?
Feeling puzzled, Nema walked toward the source of the sound.
And soon, he could see one man.
......?
Owlbears were preemptive monsters.
Preemptive monsters referred to monsters that attacked when a target appeared, even if the target had not attacked first.
And the scene unfolding before his eyes now.
A man armed in black-and-white armor and helm was leading around a dense swarm of about seventy owlbears in a “mob train.”
What was a mob train?
It referred to a hunting method where one drew monsters’ aggro, gathers them all together, and sweeps them away at once.
However, Nema was suspicious.
Is that not a mob train, but him being chased? Yes, that must be it.
He had no choice but to doubt it that way.
He had never even heard of someone mob-training in the Owlbear Nest.
That was how high the owlbears’ HP pools were.
Would Musashi have become such a hot topic for hunting twenty or so of them in two minutes for no reason?
And sure enough.
It seemed he had indeed been chased, not mob-training.
The man who had been fleeing(?) failed to find an escape route and was trapped among them.
Then he began being attacked collectively by around seventy owlbears.
Ugh.......
Nema found it difficult to watch the site of that horrific tragedy.
They were monsters that tore their prey apart with their teeth and jaw strength.
Also, their fists were so destructive that a body was not merely broken, but ripped apart.
Even now, something was being ripped apart.
BAAAAANG—
Not the man.
The owlbear was!
“What!?”
Nema was flustered.
The hand of the owlbear that had attacked the man was instead torn apart, and the monster screamed.
Also, the man stood steady and unshaken amid the seventy or so owlbears.
Rather, the ones screaming were the owlbear swarms near him.
They injure themselves every time they attack? Is it a skill? Or that armor?
Was it because of the cool-looking black full plate armor?
However, the truly astonishing part began next.
The man, who had been running barehanded, drew a single sword.
A greatsword far larger than other people’s swords.
Holding it, he murmured one thing after another.
“Awaken.”
BAAAAANG—!
“Chain, Gathering, Even If It Breaks. And......”
The man put strength into his hind leg and mustered eighty or so owlbears into one place.
That appearance was the Overlord of a battlefield.
A sovereign.
Like the sky itself.
To the screaming swarm of owlbears gathered in one place, he passed judgment.
“Cut Them in Two.”
SLAAAAAASH—!
Along with that, the owlbears collapsed from a “one-kill.”
KUUUUUUUNG—!
The entire nest shook from the owlbear swarm collapsing at the same time.
The dead owlbears were not disappearing.
Nema knew the reason.
A gathering-type quest?
The rule that corpses did not scatter while a gathering-type quest was in progress.
Nema was curious.
Who was he?
As Nema ran over in a rush, he heard the man muttering.
“Mandara...... This guy did something amusing, didn’t he?”
Mandara?
In any case, once Nema arrived in front of him, he flinched at the expression visible through the man’s helmet.
But soon, Nema said,
“That was incredible. Who are you? You were truly amazing.”
As he said that, Nema thought he might not receive an answer.
Most rankers.
They were not kind enough to satisfy some random user’s curiosity, nor did they have good personalities.
Wouldn’t this man probably curse at him?
But the man erased that frightening expression from before and answered with a bright smile.
“Hyunsoo.”
BAAAAANG—!
Finally, the man disappeared from in front of Nema.
Hyunsoo.
The king of the nation of Hyun.
He’s different from Musashi......
Musashi had never once smiled at him and had never answered his questions either.
Moreover, right now.
On Japan’s own server, Japan’s sovereign was being shaken.
The one shaking him was Korea’s sovereign, Hyunsoo.
That day.
Nema’s idol changed, and he left for the Asgan Continent, where the nation of Hyun was located.
*****
Meanwhile.
[Guild member Nema has left the Warrior guild.]
“......?”
Unlike Hyunsoo, who was revered just for breathing, Musashi, from whom people drifted away just because he breathed, felt puzzled.
Why did he leave?
It was an inexplicable loss.