178 Part 1
One Man Army 178
- Hunters (1)
The Dark Jungle was amazing for hunting. Not only was the basic karma payout better than average for defeating monsters, but also, the dropped items were of high quality. Especially, since the drop rate of sunstones was quite high, it became easy to secure the stones Sang Hyuk needed to supply to the Dark Market.
Sang Hyuk used the “Using himself as Live Bait” method as he farmed sunstones, rotating through four areas. The cycle started by hunting awakened Giant Spiders, then awakened Dire Wolves, next awakened Dark Ogres, and ended after hunting the most dangerous of them all, the Black Trolls. Since the cycle took at least an hour, the spiders had respawned when Sang Hyuk returned to their colony. He would then naturally start the rotation again, and he did so three times. He focused completely on hunting for twelve hours, and as a result, earned nearly one hundred lowest-class sunstones, forty low-class sunstones, and about three mid-class sunstones.
A simple calculation told him that he could meet the Dark Market’s necessary quota without help from the lower lands after a few days. What’s more, the best part of this hunting was the accumulated karma. Since Sang Hyuk was Quadra Soul, it had always been difficult for him to level up, despite his titles. Therefore, he worried the most about leveling up at this point.
However, Sang Hyuk thought for the first time that he did not need to worry about it as he hunted in the Dark Jungle. It might become different after leveling up, but he thought he would be able to level up faster than Double Soul users through his Rabbit method.
‘This is sweet!’
While Sang Hyuk looked tired after the twelfth hunt, his eyes were shining bright. If it had not been for the limit on access time, he would continue without eating or sleeping.
‘Today, I’ll stop here and come back to do this again.’
Even Sang Hyuk could not do anything about the mandatory limit on access time, so he had to give up today’s hunt at this point. He returned to Goren City and entered to sell unnecessary items at the shop, taking care of his routine post-hunting chores.
The only thing left to do was to log out and access again after at least four hours. There was no problem for Sang Hyuk at this point, but trouble always came from outside and not inside.
There were eyes stealthily observing Sang Hyuk after he entered Goren City and watched his every move, reporting them to someone unknown. Sang Hyuk had not noticed this and therefore had become vulnerable to the observers, which resulted in his movements being tracked.
***
“I can’t even say how bad it is. They’re irritating as hell.”
Sang Hyuk had slept and woke up and was now chatting with Leah as they did light morning exercises.
“The Sun People are quite sensitive, aren’t they?”
Sang Hyuk remembered his past life before smiling bitterly.
“Sensitive? I can bear that. This…I get this murderous urge a few times every day.”
Leah was fully experiencing the hard life with Gyebaek in a small village of the Sun People. The Sun People NPC Leah was working to increase likeability was an annoying weapon merchant, and the quest he gave Leah every day was only mundane and repetitive labor.
If Leah had tried any shortcuts, or made mistakes, the NPC would nag at her. Leah could bear it if that was the only effect, but as the likeability level she had already earned, decreased whenever the NPC nagged, the stress Leah felt could not help but increase every day.
“Hold on a bit longer. If he approves you after the likeability level increases to a certain point, he will then start to give you some decent quests.”
Sang Hyuk could somewhat understand Leah as he had gone through the experience with clenched teeth in his past life. However, there was no other way. With the very special exception of Sang Hyuk’s case, everyone had to go through this annoying experience. Leah and Gyebaek actually had been better off because of their title’s benefits, as Sang Hyuk in his past life had slaved for weeks just to enter a small village.
“Are you really doing better? Where are you, we can’t even see you?”
“I’m working in another place.”
Sang Hyuk could not tell the toiling Leah that he had attained a citizen license of a not a little village, but one of the largest cities in the Sun Lands, so he just glossed over the issue.
“Don’t do it alone and come to where we are. Having another person would help.”
“I have a few quests there…so I’ll come later. Go ahead before me and wait.”
“My head hurts thinking that I’ll be wiping rusted weapons again. I’m beginning to regret working so hard at the Sky Ocean just to do this.”
Leah’s Korean fluency increased with each day, and now she seemed almost like a native speaker. While she could not write and read as much as she could speak and listen, the latter was more important.
“There’s a Korean idiom that those who endure shall be rewarded. Endure a bit more, and I’m sure that there will be good news.”