Chapter 195: The Beginnings of the Devils (1)

Iriel, who met Ian, smiled brightly as she welcomed him.

“Welcome, Ian. It’s truly been a while.”

“Long time, no see, Iriel.”

Ian tried to force himself to maintain a calm expression while the corners of his mouth curled upwards, but that was not easy.

‘Wow, to actually be this pretty on the topic of VR graphics. Although, of course, Harin is prettier!’

Ian, who thought of Harin as he pulled himself together, opened his mouth again to continue on with the quest.

“I already roughly explained to you even through the crystal ball, but I came after receiving a request from Immortal.”

At Ian’s words, Iriel deliberately wore an angry expression as she answered jokingly.

“You move in order to fulfill Immortal’s request quickly like this, but why haven’t I heard anything about my request yet?”

At Iriel’s anger(?) that Ian couldn’t tell at all whether she was joking or being serious, he broke out into a cold sweat as he replied with a faint voice.

“Th, that… I haven’t hit Master Level 3 yet.”

The quest requirement to progress in the ‘Shadow of the Evil Dragon Khalifa’ Quest that Iriel gave Ian was Summoning Master Level 3.

Ian’s current ‘Summoning’ entered into the Master stage, but it was still only at Master Level 2.

He was lacking one level.

‘I never thought that I wouldn’t even be able to hit Master Level 3 when I’m past lv 170.’

When he first received this quest, he had thought that it would be a quest that he could proceed with when he was about lv 150.

At Ian’s excuse, Iriel laughed as she replied.

“I know. That your abilities are still a little lacking. I was just joking.”

However, Ian was more afraid of the words that it was just a joke.

‘What the hell… Even NPCs know how to play jokes?’

And after the two people shared a couple more words, Iriel started the conversation that was related to the main quest.

“Speaking of which, Ian. You said that you wanted to know information about the devils, right?”

Ian immediately nodded his head.

“Yes, based on the words of Immortal, he said that he had been sensing the energy of the devils that invaded the continent a thousand years ago ever since some time. He said that I needed information in order to face them, and that I would be able to obtain that information if I came to you.”

Even after he said it, Ian became a little doubtful.

‘But exactly what kind of information is she supposed to be giving me? Well, is she going to be telling me the weaknesses of the devils at least? Like a method on how to easily hunt them… If that was the case, that would be great. And if I obtain that information, then I’ll be completing the quest just like that.’

However, the ‘Beginnings of the Devils’ Quest that he received from Immortal was also a quest that undoubtedly had an S- rank difficulty level.

Of course, there was no way he would obtain that so easily.

Iriel smiled as she opened her mouth.

“One moment, I’m going to go look for a couple items inside. As it is content that has been recorded a long time ago, it might take me some time to find it.”

“Huh? Sure, well…”

Ian scratched the back of his head as he sat down on a boulder that was next to him, and Iriel went inside her house.

And shortly after, she came out carrying an unknown item in either hand.

The item that she was carrying in her left hand was an item that had the shape of a worn scroll, and the thing she had in her right hand was shaped like a gourd with a cork stopping the spout.

“Alright, take these from me.”

Ian took those items with a very confused expression and after looking at each of the items once, he asked Iriel.

“What are these items used for?”

With a calm voice, she continued her explanation.

“Firstly, within that parchment, there’s information on the devils that was collected during the war with them in the past.”

At Iriel’s words, Ian immediately tried to open up the rolled-up parchment.

“Hmm… Do you just open it up like this?”

However, Iriel instantly stopped him.

“No, don’t open it up now.”

“Why not?”

“Because there’s no point even if you open it up now. The content written inside it is sealed right now.”

“Ah-ha!”

And Ian had a hunch for how this quest would proceed now.

‘It looks like she’ll ask me to go and collect something into this gourd again. Based on the fact that it’s an awkward single S difficulty level, I don’t think she’ll give me something that difficult. The size of this quest is exactly a gathering quest.’

Ian’s prediction hit the mark.

However, there was a bit of a difference from other regular quests.

“That gourd is an artifact that is produced with ancient magic. If you hunt magical beasts while holding that bottle, you can store the hunted magical beasts into that bottle.”

“Ooh…”

The word ‘magical beast’ immediately triggered Ian’s curiosity.

‘What’s that? Will I be the first person to be able to go into the Devildom?’

The two people’s conversation continued.

“Ian, do you know that this Forest of Love some sort of different field?”

“Yes, I’ve heard about it from Gripper before.”

“Then this will be easier to explain.”

Iriel, who paused for a moment, continued her words.

“You can say the Devildom is also a different field like this Forest of Love. And I can open the dimensional door that leads to the outskirts of the Devildom with my current abilities.”

Ian’s eyes slightly grew.

“Ooh!”

“Of course, with my lacking abilities, I cannot maintain the dimensional door for a long time. At the longest, it will probably about a quarter of a day.”

“I see.”

Iriel nodded her head as she finished her explanation.

“Go into the dimensional door that I have created and hunt a low-class magical beast called ‘Lakoum’. If you collect 200 Lakoum spirits into this gourd, you’ll be able to release the seal that’s on the parchment using that.”

And the notification of the quest in question popped up.

Ring-.

– The Beginnings of the Devils I (Hidden) (Connected)

Iriel, the administrator of the Forest of Love as well as an exceptional Elf Summoner, has the ability to open a dimensional door that leads to the Devildom.

She has handed over the magic gourd that has been passed down from a thousand years ago as well as the ancient parchment that the information related to the devils is contained in.

However, as the parchment has a seal on it, the content inside of it cannot be checked, and in order to release the seal, the ‘Lakoum’ spirits are required.

Collect 200 ‘Lakoum’ spirits into the gourd and return to Iriel.

Quest Difficulty Level: S

Quest Requirement: Summoner with the God Dragon Karceus

Summoning Master Level 1.

Time Limit: None

Reward: ?

*This quest cannot be rejected.

* * *

Amongst the game developers that existed in Korea, the company that boasted the biggest size was the developers of Kailan, LB Corp., by far.

And different from other game developers, LB Corp. was incredibly unique.

This was because normally for the business aspect of Korean games, it was serviced with a method where large publishers published the games of small and large developers and took care of the marketing and launching as well, but with LB Corp., they just developed one game called Kailan, and even while managing it, they were bigger than any company that was in the Korean game business.

And the answer to that lied in the game share of ‘Kailan’.

Of course, even when Kailan first appeared, it received an amazing amount of interest, but right now, when it was way past even a year, Kailan had taken over 95% of the VR game shares.

On top of that, the most encouraging part was that it made even people who didn’t enjoy games play and so the general pie of the VR game share itself was growing.

The head office of LB corp. that stood firmly on the outskirts of Seoul.

In the conference room that was at the top of the building, a presentation was progressing in the middle of silence.

And the content of that was related to the new update that would be released this time.

“Above all, the presentation of the development team that was involved in the 3rd update is complete.”

The man that stood in front of the large screen bowed as he finished his presentation, and neat and proper clapping noises rang out.

Clap-clap-clap-.

And one old-aged man that sat at the highest seat of the conference room.

Go Woonchan, the CEO of LB Corp. as well as the godfather of the VR game business world, slowly opened his mouth.

“I enjoyed your announcement content, Department Head Kim.”

“Thank you, CEO.”

Go Woonchan slightly pushed up his glasses that slipped down past the bridge of his nose as he continued his words again.

“So, based on your thoughts Department Head Kim, what do you think is the most distinguishing aspect from this update in comparison to the past two updates?”

At Go Woonchan’s words, the man called Department Head Kim began to cautiously open his mouth.

Go Woonchan was someone who made his name famous as a part of the planning team more than ten years ago, and because of that, he was sensitive to planning to the point he personally took part in each content every update.

“The most prominent part is that different from now, it is content that changes depending on the users.”

“Changes… You say.”

“That’s right. Although the degree of freedom for the pre-existing content was also high, eventually the board itself that was laid out made them move in a fixed range, and no matter how someone played the game, the only difference was that the time and the result was different, but the direction itself was the same. However, the content this time is not like that. Depending on the capability of the user, the board itself changes.”

Go Woonchan nodded his head, as he opened his mouth briefly.

“Good, continue.”

Department Head Kim continued his words.

“For instance, in the case of the Devildom content that will be the first to open, depending on how the users solved the preliminary quests that are spread across the continent, where the war with the devils will start will be decided.”

It seemed he was parched with thirst as he paused a moment before opening his mouth again.

“There is an infinite number of cases that could occur to the point that our Planning team and Development team can’t state an exact number, but in the case that the users succeeded with the quests in an ideal direction, the first war will begin as the users’ ‘invasion of the Devildom’.

Go Woonchan received his words.

“If they aren’t able to do that, then inversely the war will start with a situation where they must defend the invasion of the Devildom, right?”

Department Head Kim nodded his head.

“That’s right, President. And depending on how that start proceeds, the properties of the content itself will completely change.”

“I see. This part is definitely fresh.”

Go Woonchan, who rubbed his beard for a moment, threw a new question.

“Then, when can the users start encountering those preliminary quests?”

Department Head Kim immediately responded.

“We’ve already spread related quests across the continent, and from what I know, there are even a couple users that have already proceeded with them in accordance with that. However, I believe that it will take a week at the least in order for quests related to the Devildom to be officially created…”

However, at that exact moment, when Department Head Kim was diligently briefing, the doors of the conference room suddenly opened as someone came in.

Bang-.

All of the gazes of the people sitting inside turned in that direction, and the man that sat at the entrance shouted at the one that entered.

“Who are you? How dare you burst in like this during a meeting!”

However, the man that entered as he panted didn’t even respond to that as he shouted towards Department Head Kim, who was in the middle of briefing, while gasping.

“There’s a huge problem, Department Head Kim!”

“What is it, Manager Yoo, what happened?”

Despite it being a game company, where the internal atmosphere was freer on average than other businesses, as this was the first time this happened, everybody was flustered.

However, Go Woonchan watched the two people’s conversation with an interested expression.

And shortly after, Manager Yoo, who took a deep breath, urgently opened his mouth.

“The doors of the Devildom have been opened!!”