Chapter 241: Fortress of the Devil and Ricardo (1)

While looking at the message that came from Hoonie for the first time in a while, Ian smirked.

‘What’s up with this squirt now?’

Ian immediately sent a response message.

• Ian: Why, what’s wrong now? And what the hell is ‘hyuuung’? So unlike you.

Hoonie’s message returned sharply.

• Kanjihoonie: Hyung, did you not see the quest sharing message that I sent?

“Hmm…?”

Before Ian responded to the message, Ian opened his quest window once.

And he was able to discover the quest sharing message that came from Hoonie shoved in the bottom corner of his quest window.

‘Would you look at this squirt?’

Reading the quest content, he found out on top of it being a whopping hidden quest, it was even a guild quest that hadn’t ever appeared once before in the Devildom.

There was no way that quick-witted Ian didn’t realize what kind of situation this was.

With an expression full of playfulness, Ian sent a response message.

• Ian: A sharing message that you sent?

• Kanjihoonie: Yeah, I shared a quest with you, hyung! On top of it being a whopping hidden quest, it’s a guild quest!

• Ian: It’s not that you sent it, but that ‘it was sent’.

• Kanjihoonie: Huh…?

• Ian: This punk, if you got a quest like that and it was shared, and on top of that, if it seems like I wasn’t able to see it, then you should have promptly sent me a message and let me know. Were you hiding it, acting like you didn’t realize, so that you could do the quest alone? How cheap!

Momentary silence.

And shortly after, Hoonie’s reply returned.

• Kanjihoonie: Ah, hyung… It’s not like that…

An uncontrollable laughter poured out of Ian’s mouth.

• Ian: Anyways, why are you looking for me now after hiding it like that?

• Kanjihoonie: Hey now, I told you that I wasn’t hiding it, but you’re still like this. It just took a bit of time getting a party together.

Hoonie gave a plausible excuse, however, there was no way that Ian would believe in that.

• Ian: Why? Are you sure you haven’t already failed the quest about four or five times because it’s so hard?

• Kanjihoonie: …

And at Ian’s insight, which was beyond just sharp as it dug a hole into his chest, Hoonie had completely lost all his words.

• Kanjihoonie: Whew… Yeah, hyung, help us out a little. I’m telling you, if we just have you right now, hyung, then we can clear this quest right away. You would have figured it out if you read the quest information, but even from your position, it’s a quest that could only be incredibly good.

At Hoonie’s persuasion, Ian continued to show the grudge he held.

• Ian: Of course that’s probably the case. That’s also probably why you hid it like that, punk.

• Kanjihoonie: Ah, hyuuung, I admit that I made a mistake. So, let’s go do the quest, hmm? Are you doing something right now? Are you busy?

Even while he was sending and receiving messages with Hoonie, Ian was thoroughly reading through the information of the quest that was shared with him.

‘It certainly is a good quest. Especially the fact that I can register the Lotus Guild as a guild in the City of Rage is for sure an incredible merit.’

And Ian’s decision on the quest was finished.

Ian firmly(?) replied.

• Ian: Ye.

• Kanjihoonie: Huh…?

• Ian: What do you mean ‘huh’? I’m telling you that this hyung is busy, dude.

• Kanjihoonie: Ah, why?! What are you even doing?! We all already know that you’re just hunting in the Devildom all day anyways!

• Ian: As I am in the middle of doing a quest that is about 3.5 times more important than the one that you gave me, I am busy. Good luck finding someone else. If you need a Summoner, you have Noel, no? Take him instead.

• Kanjihoonie: … You’re too harsh, hyung.

• Ian: You’re harsher.

Ian, who had coldly rejected Hoonie’s request, hummed as he thought to himself.

‘Possibly, if this Hoonie punk had even sent me a message yesterday, I may have accepted it, that is.’

The reason why Ian didn’t accept Hoonie’s proposal was simple.

‘It said that the moment the Devildom monster wave opened up, we wouldn’t be able to enter the Devildom for a while anyways, so what use would that quest be if I was to clear it right now?’

The information that he found out after watching the view of the world of the ancient dimensional war just a moment ago was a big help to Ian’s decision.

‘When there’s no way of knowing when we’ll be able to return to the Devildom again once the monster wave opens up… It was a truly useless quest.’

The biggest merit of being registered as a formal guild in the City of Rage was the fact that the guild members could use the portal that was in the City of Rage.

This would be a great help when it came to hunting inside the Devildom, and it would definitely be an amazing foothold in allowing the guild to settle down in the Devildom.

However, on top of it being the beginning when the Devildom first opened up, it was only a big merit as it was a time where even decent high-ranking users couldn’t conceive the thought of hunting in the Devildom right now, so later, once the Devildom monster wave was also over, it was obvious that it would become a truly useless reward.

It seemed his body felt stiff, as Ian stretched.

“Aah! Alright, then, shall I go to the Fortress of the Devil now?”

At Ian’s words, Kaka, who was floating silently next to him, asked with a puzzled expression.

“Owner, weren’t you going to go look for an Explorer that could appraise this record for you?”

Ian shook his head as he answered.

“That’s for a little later. Since going to the Fortress of the Devil within three days is first for now.”

“Then are we going to look after that?”

“Hmm…”

Ian, who thought about it for a moment, slowly responded.

“No, for now, before the Devildom monster wave starts, I’m not going to even take one step outside of the Devildom. Since I need to dig through the content here as deeply as I can and benefit from this as much as possible.”

Kaka whined.

“Hiing, owner. I want to see the Abyss Dragon quickly. I’m curious as to how cool of a dragon Bbookbbook will become.”

Bbookbbook, who was eating a meatball nearby, seemed to have heard that a conversation about him was coming out, as he crawled over.

“Bbook! That’s right bbook. I’m going to become a cool dragon bbook!”

Ian stared back and forth at Bbookbbook and Kaka as he smirked.

“Even if we have a cintamani immediately right now, anyways, we can’t evolve him. He needs to become a Turtle Dragon or whatever with his own efforts first in order for a need for a cintamani next.”

Kaka nodded his head with a bitter expression.

“That, that is true, owner.”

Ian asked once more towards Bbookbbook.

“Isn’t that so, Bbookbbook?”

“Bboo-bbook, I think so bbook!”

Either way, Ian, who had roughly sketched out his future plans, began to move his feet quickly.

“Let’s move quickly, there’s no time. If we are trying to go into the Fortress of the Devil within three days, we’re tight on time.”

As soon as Ian’s words ended, Yankoun, who was resting in the corner, suddenly stood up and followed right behind him, and the other party members also followed behind the two.

And after two days.

With a day remaining until the quest’s time limit was over, Ian’s party was finally able to enter the Fortress of the Devil that was in Zone 80 of the Devildom.

* * *

“Huh? You’re saying that he rejected the offer?”

Ceilron wore an incredibly flustered expression.

And Shyakran, who was behind him, was also just as taken aback.

“Oh-ho, if a quest share had flown over to him, then he definitely would have even been able to check all of the reward content as well, yet he rejected it…?”

Hoonie let out a deep sigh as he responded.

“Yes, he rejected it without even a smidge of hesitancy.”

Ceilron asked Hoonie.

“Why exactly did he say he was rejecting it?”

“He said he was busy…”

“Busy doing what?”

“According to Ian hyung’s words, he said that he was in the middle of proceeding with a quest that was about three and a half times more important than this quest, so he said to not bother him.”

Next to being flustered, Shyakran was at a loss for words.

“…”

Ceilron mumbled with an expression that seemed like he was dumbfounded.

“No, how important of a quest could it be? And what the hell is three and a half? It’s not even two times or even three times.”

One party member, who was proceeding with the quest with them, carefully opened their mouth.

“By any chance, could it be that he presumed that the difficulty level of this quest was incredibly hard and so he’s trying not to even give it a go?”

Ceilron rubbed his chin as he mumbled.

“Hmm… Now that I hear it, that could be the case. Since although the rewards is big, it is a quest where the risk is also no joke.”

However, Hoonie could never agree to the two people’s conversation.

‘No. He’s definitely not a hyung to pass a hidden quest like this just because the difficulty level looked too hard.’

From what Hoonie saw up until now, that didn’t suit Ian at all.

Since Ian fired his will up even more and did quests the harder they looked instead.

‘Then exactly what could it be? Is it possible he’s actually proceeding through an incredible quest?’

If even one of the members of the party had watched the video, they would have been able to understand Ian’s choice.

However, unfortunately, there was no way that they checked the video when all of their interest was on clearing the quest.

‘Hmm… What exactly could be a quest that’s three times more important than this quest? Could it be possible that there is some sort of meaning behind the number 3.5 as well? Since he is a hyung that usually likes to put a value to anything and classify it.’

Hoonie felt himself being sucked into a mental labyrinth more and more.

‘Damn it, well, I’m sure something will work out.’

* * *

• You are the first to have entered Zone 80 of the Devildom.

• You have obtained 100 thousand Fame.

• For the next week from now, all of the Devildom-related stats that you obtain will increase by one and a half times.

• For the next week from now, you will receive double the amount of EXP, and the drop rate will double as well.

While looking at the messages that popped up as soon as Ian entered Zone 80, Ian grumbled to himself.

‘Euh, what a waste, what a waste, what a waste!’

Ian was currently the user deepest into the Devildom amongst everybody in the Korean Kailan Server.

As that was the case, due to the characteristic of the Devildom map structure, he couldn’t help but obtain all of the first discoverer titles in all of the maps.

The central continent, for example, was one open map where the map itself was wide and vast.

As that was the case, even if he was the first person to had arrived at the central continent, he couldn’t be the first discoverer of all of the areas.

This was because the direction one could proceed with and the number of cases were endless.

However, in the case of the Devildom, as the structure of the map was a vertical structure, the route was limited.

As that was the case, Ian had obtained all of the first discoverer titles of all of the zones in the Devildom.

‘Euh, seriously, even if it wasn’t for the time limit on this quest, I would have sucked each of the maps dry until the first discoverer buffs were all over.’

Ian grumbled as he followed behind Yankoun.

Yankoun, who belonged to the upper rank even amongst the High-ranking Devils, naturally had come to the Fortress of the Devil many times.

“Yankoun, how much further do we have to go now?”

At Ian’s question, Yankoun responded with a heavy voice.

“There’s not much left to go now. I think we’ll just need to keep going for about 10 more minutes.”

Still, Ian didn’t disregard the monsters that appeared on the path they were going.

This was because as they reached about Zone 80, most of the magical beasts that appeared on the field were intermediate-rank magical beasts, and they gave incredible amounts of EXP.

‘At first, it seemed like they were a little too burdensome to face… But we’ve completely adapted to it now for sure.’

Ian swung his Judgment of the Spirit King this way and that way as he killed the magical beasts calmly.

And just like Yankoun said, as they had moved for about 10 minutes, a magnificent fortress that was built near the top of a giant boulder mountain caught their eyes.

“Is that it, Yankoun?”

As Ian, who discovered the castle, asked, Yankoun nodded his head as he answered.

“That’s right, master.”

Ian’s face brightened up a notch.

“Nice! Then let’s go in immediately!”

Ian, who finished speaking, was about to take a step, but Yankoun’s hand stopped him from the front.

“Wait.”

“What is it, Yankoun?”

At Ian’s question, Yankoun lifted one hand as he pointed towards one side of the fortress.

“Something is weird, master. By the looks of it, it seems that something has happened in the Fortress of the Devil.”

“Huh…?”

And in front of the eyes of Ian, who was wearing a puzzled expression, system messages suddenly popped up one after another.

Ring-.

• With the invoking of a specific condition, the hidden piece of the ‘Beginnings of the Devils III (Hidden)(Connected)’ quest.

• The ‘Fortress of the Devil’ is being attacked by the destructive devils.

• In order to meet Devil King ‘Ricardo’, you must defeat the destructive devils that are attacking the Fortress of the Devil.

• The more destructive devils you defeat, the drastically higher your Affinity with Devil King ‘Ricardo’ increases.

• Fortress of the Devil, Present Battle Condition

Obtained Points: 0 Points

Obtained EXP: 0 (x250%)

* The current amount of destructive devils defeated.

Low-rank Devils: 0/Low-rank Magical Beasts: 0

Common Devils: 0/Intermediate-rank Magical Beasts: 0

High-rank Devils: 0/High rank Magical Beasts: 0

Noblesse: 0/Highest-rank Magical Beasts: 0