Chapter 15: Matab

-Conqueror of Oren’s library (Wisdom +10)

“……”

Soo Hyuk was left speechless after he checked the title, ‘Conqueror of Oren’s library’. He could only think:

‘Isn’t this kind of underwhelming after reading all those books.’

The condition to acquire the title was to read all the books. But only 10 extra wisdom? He was left with an empty feeling after comparing the acquisition condition and the effect of the title.

Soo Hyuk then closed the title screen and checked his character.

Level: 8

Experience: 51%

Vitality: 2540

Mana: 26420

Satiation: 40%

Strength: 14

Agility: 15

Stamina: 48

“So 1321 wisdom……”

Looking at the overwhelming amount of wisdom compared to the pitiful main stats, Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but have a slight smile.

Soo Hyuk then closed his character screen and opened the inventory after. It was to recharge his satiation, which was below 50%.

“I didn’t know there were some left.”

He murmured as he took out two pieces of hard bread from his inventory. There were still three left after he took out two.

“I should’ve bought a couple more then?”

This was not the bread he bought before entering the library. He ate all of them in a month before buying some more. Soo Hyuk ate his remaining bread as he looked around the library. It was full of sparkles when he first came here, but after he read all the books, there wasn’t even a sliver of a sparkle to be seen.

“Huu-”

Soo Hyuk let out a satisfied sigh after comparing the current library and when he first came here. And so he ate all his bread while comparing the past and present, then checked the time.

“Looks like I have to log out. It’s getting late. Let’s go to Matab tomorrow.”

It wasn’t compulsory to log out at this time but, he didn’t want to break his promise with himself if there wasn’t something urgent. And Oren was a place you couldn’t return to after you leave. It was only possible after erasing your save file, so he was planning to look around Oren slowly then go to Matab.

***

Soo Hyuk left the capsule as he logged out. Feeling a wave of stiffness, he began to stretch. After he finished stretching, he turned on the computer and checked his phone. There were messages from his parents and Yeon Jeong.

“So they can’t come home today.”

The time was different but the content was the same. Soo Hyuk then checked his friend’s message.

Yeon Jeong

-Did you finish them?

The message was simple. After seeing the message, Soo Hyuk called Yeon Jeong on the phone.

“Is he gaming?”

Yeon Jeong did not answer his phone, so he was probably gaming. Soo Hyuk left a message for him and went on the Pangea homepage on his computer. It was to check whether there was any interesting news.

“……Nothing really happened. What about the notice board…… Nope. ”

As expected nothing came up. After double checking the homepage, Soo Hyuk got up from his seat and went to the 3rd floor. It was time to exercise.

***

Beep! Beep!

Soo Hyuk woke up to the sound of the alarm. He quickly got up from his bed and started stretching to get rid of his sleepiness. When he checked his phone, there were messages from his parents and Yeon Jeong again. But he quickly froze as he read his parent’s message.

“……?”

He couldn’t help but feel doubt after he checked the message.

“Vacation?”

It was a message about going on a vacation. Of course, that was not strange in itself. The strange thing was the destination.

Father

Let’s go to Pangea soon!
Mother

I don’t know if your father told you. There will be a capsule technician coming at 10am! The installation place is the living room!
“Pangea?”

The vacation destination was Pangea.

“Were my parents into Pangea?”

It was my first time hearing it.

“Wait, since the capsules’ coming now, they’re going to be just starting?”

Soo Hyuk replied to the message and opened Yeon Jeong’s message.

Yeon Jeong

So you finally finished! So when will we go to Matab? You can leave me a message. I’m going to be logged on at around 1 pm.
“So the technician is going to come at 10 am.”

Soo Hyuk’s mother’s text said that the technician’s going to come at 10 am, and Yeon Jeong will be logged on at 1 pm.

It seemed like he could finally talk with Yeon Jeong again. Soo Hyuk put his phone down after replying to his message.

“The time is……8 am.”

The current time was 8 am with 2 hours left until the installation and 5 hours to the meeting with Yeon Jeong. Soo Hyuk thought about what he could do in that time.

“Let’s not log on. There could be a call from Yeon Jeong or the technician. How about exercise?”

***

“The installation is finished. Sorry for taking so long.”

The technician said to Soo Hyuk after the installation.

“No, it’s nothing.”

“If there are any problems, please contact me! I’ll come right away!”

The technician handed Soo Hyuk his contact details while smiling at his comment.

“Have a good day, sir!”

The technician left while saying goodbye after Soo Hyuk received his contacts. And so, Soo Hyuk went back to his room.

“We promised to meet at 1pm, so 2 hours should be enough.”

The promised time was 1pm and the current time was 11am, with 2 hours left until 1pm. Soo Hyuk could easily reach the meeting place within 2 hours.

So Soo Hyuk went into his capsule and logged on to Pangea.

Whirr!

The dark capsule changed to a scene of a library where he previously logged out. Soo Hyuk looked around the library again. It was a very familiar scene.

He was very fond of this familiar scene. While looking around with eyes containing a mix of regret, longing and pride, Soo Hyuk turned towards the exit.

“Here is your pass.”

As soon as Soo Hyuk left passed the exit, Kejan the librarian gave Soo Hyuk’s pass back to him. While receiving his pass, he thought,

“Now this pass as well……”

He didn’t need it anymore. But it was an item filled with memories. Soo Hyuk opened his inventory and stored his library pass.

“Goodbye.”

He closed his inventory left the library. Soo Hyuk slowly trudged along after he left the library.

“Aiahh……”

Soo Hyuk let out a sound as he admired the architecture around him as he walked. It was 2 months since he started Pangea. However, he spent almost all his time in the library and paid no attention to almost everything else.

He hadn’t thought about the buildings in the town then, but the buildings were surprisingly interesting even for a beginner town. It was as if he was in a novel called Pangea.

“Let’s go.”

After spending 1 hour exploring Oren, he set out towards the town square. Not to mention the meeting time, it was time to go to Matab.

“Are you going to be a Brawler?”

“No, it’s not even a good job and you can’t change from one special job to another as well.”

“So what are you going to be?”

“I’ll just be a warrior and stick with the Berserker tree.”

“Yeah, Berserkers are kind of similar to Brawler.”

“I think Berserkers are kind of better if you think about the amount of work you have to put in. I can’t grind 24/7 on a game so how can I raise the experience?”

“Yeah, I agree.”

“What about you? Are you going to be a Brawler?”

“No, I’m thinking about being a Berserker as well.”

Soo Hyuk could hear the different users’ conversations as he stood in front of the town square.

“Is the Brawler job that bad?”

Special job ‘Brawler’. Soo Hyuk also knew about it as well. However, he didn’t think that the users’ opinion of it would be so low.

“Yeah, I suppose raising Brawlers are difficult and being difficult to raise doesn’t mean that it’s more powerful.

When Soo Hyuk thought about it, it made sense that people didn’t like the Brawler job as special jobs are harder to raise compared to normal jobs. And it also didn’t mean that they were in a different power level than normal ones. Heavy investment with little return meant that of course the opinion of the Brawler job was going to be bad.

And so, Soo Hyuk reached his destination while eavesdropping on other conversations.

His destination was where an NPC called Kodra warped other people to the place that they wanted.

“I gotta wait a little more……”

Soo Hyuk thought as he approached Kodra. There were already many people lining up for their turn. Soo Hyuk went to the back of the line and started to wait.

“He won’t be late, right?”

The promised time was 1pm. He wandered around Oren until 12pm and took 10 minutes reaching the town square which meant that there were 50 minutes left. Looking at the lengthening line, he felt a bit nervous.

“Next! Next! Next!”

But when he saw the fast speed of the line, he felt reassured.

“Looks like Yeon Jeong won’t be late.”

“Next!”

It was finally Soo Hyuk’s turn so he said to Kodra,

“Please send me to Matab.”

“Sure thing!”

In response to his request, Kodra waved his staff at the portal.

[Warping to ‘Alliance of Magicians, Matab’]

At Soo Hyuk’s feet a small magic circle appeared with the message. Then the space around him began to distort. The distortion did not last as it the space around him stabilised and a scene appeared in front of him.

“Which one is this?”

The warp destinations were not set in place as there were eight portals in Matab. Warping to Matab could take you to any one of the eight.

“I hope it’s Hall No.2.”

Soo Hyuk wanted to go to Hall No.2 as it was the closest to the meeting place. It wouldn’t even take 20 minutes by walking.

“Selling mana potions! They can significantly increase your wisdom stat! Come and take a look!”

“I’m looking for a party to do a quest!”

“This robe can increase your wisdom by 5 points! We have a red, blue and green robe each!”

“Selling skill-books! There are ice ball, slow and fire ball books!”

The distorted space was finally completely stabilised. Soo Hyuk could hear people around him yelling to one another.

“Where is this?”

Soo Hyuk looked around to determine which hall this was. As he looked around, he found a sign which had the location.

“……”

Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but scrunch his face after reading the sign.