Chapter 244: The Secret of the Balrog (1)

The warp gate that was at the starting point of Zone 89 of the Devildom.

Remir, who had arrived at that spot, wiped the sweat that was dripping from her forehead as she mumbled.

“Whew, I just barely made it through.”

And Cassandra, who was next to her, spoke with a slightly surprised expression.

• Good work, Remir. Although the gateway of Zone 90 is a gateway that is favourable to Magicians, even considering that, there’s no way that I can’t acknowledge that your abilities are outstanding.

However, Remir was not even the least bit satisfied.

She slightly frowned as she responded.

“Forget it. I will decline such flattery.”

At her reaction, Cassandra snickered.

• Ho-hot, as expected, it looks like the fact that you weren’t the first to clear it is weighing on your mind.

Remir nodded her head without a word.

‘For the first discoverer’s reward to not pop up even in Zone 89… Ian, exactly how far has this dude gone?’

The most fundamental reason as to why she needed to go to the Fortress of the Devil that was in Zone 80 was in order to proceed with her hidden main quest, ‘The Power of the Sun God’.

However, if it was not for that reason, she would have used all her fighting power in order to quickly get through the gateways of the Devildom.

Since whenever new content came out, being the first to break through it until she reached a limit on the difficulty level was something she had always done.

However, this time, in the Devildom content, a user that was ahead of her had basically appeared for the first time.

‘Even up to the central continent, I had thought that I had gotten through most of the areas, but for the Devildom content, I’ve completely lost.’

Remir internally gritted her teeth.

On top of that, when she thought about how the opponent that beat her was a new class, let alone the Summoner class, which the growth difficulty level was atrocious, she became even more frustrated.

“Whew, either way, since I’ve gotten through it, I should probably get to Zone 80 quickly now, right?”

Cassandra nodded her head as she replied.

• Of course. Even if we are to go to the Fortress of the Devil, there’s no guarantee that we will be able to find ‘that item’ right away, and there’s not a lot of time until the Devildom closes, that is.

Remir nodded her head as she lifted the staff that she was holding.

“Alright, then for now, I should ignore everything else, and make entering Zone 80 my first priority.”

And as she swung around her staff once, several strengthening buffs wrapped around Remir’s body in an instant as her body floated up in the air.

Whiiing-.

• Skill ‘Haste’ has been used. Your movement speed has increased by 77.45%.

• Skill ‘Glacial Barrier’ has been used. For the time duration of (00:5:49), a shield that absorbs as much as 300 thousand damage has been formed.

• Skill ‘Explosive Spell Field’ has been used. For the time duration of (00:29:59), the range of all normal attacks will increase by 2.5 metres, and opponents that are hit by an attack will be forced back 3 metres in the opposite direction from the direction of the shot (Opponents that have been forced back will have a 17% chance to fall into a black out state).

The body of Remir, who casted the magic incredibly proficiently, flew forward quickly.

Her destination was the ‘Fortress of the Devil’, which was in Zone 80 of the Devildom.

* * *

The attack of the destructive devils, which they thought would end quickly, continued on for a longer time than expected.

Thanks to that, a broad smile hung across Ian’s face the whole day.

‘Kya! It’s a gift from the gods! I’ve already gone up 2 levels.’

Even considering the fact that he was lv 199 and his EXP was filled up to 96% when he first began to kill the destructive devils, as he had purely gone up over 1 level, this was an incredible outcome.

‘As of lately, this is the first time my EXP gauge filled up this quickly. It’s similar to the leveling up speed of when I was almost a two-digit level.’

The reason this was possible was because several situations were overlapping each other.

Fundamentally, on top of having a double EXP buff due to being the first to discover the map, there was an additional buff worth x2.5 that had formed due to the activation of the hidden piece.

Lastly, while in a state like this where he had such an enormous buff, as the active roles of Devil King Ricardo and Balrog, as well as the devil warriors, who were handpicked soldiers that directly belonged to him, were also added on, a simply outrageous hunting speed was possible.

‘Roughly calculating the EXP that is coming in, it doesn’t seem that the overlapping of the buffs is a multiplication of the two. Tsk, how disappointing.’

As this was also the first time that Ian had two EXP buffs overlap like this, he was curious as to how it was applied.

What he thought it was at first was 2×2.5. He thought that five times the EXP was coming in, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

It was being calculated as 2+2.5, so a total of four and a half times the EXP was coming in.

‘Well, since 450 percent is an incredible EXP buff as well… I will be satisfied with this much.’

Either way, like that, the battle that lasted over a quarter of a day continued, and for the first time in a while, Ian was able to ride a bus[1] with maximum comfort.

And during the whole time he fought, Ian stayed near the Balrog and carefully observed his battles.

‘Speaking of which, what exactly could it be? Why exactly is that thing’s damage dealing that tremendously powerful compared to its level?’

The Balrog was at lv 325.

No matter how much of a Legendary-rank it was, the fact that it was overwhelmingly more powerful than Yankoun, who was at lv 360, didn’t make sense.

‘Is it a creature that has all of its stats gathered on its Offensive Power? But to say that, it looks like its tanking abilities and reflexes aren’t that bad either…’

As Ian had a personality where he couldn’t hold back when he found something he was curious about, he constantly watched the Balrog.

‘Later, when the quest proceeds, I should ask Ricardo.’

Ian, a Summoner full of curiosity, was meticulously organizing his list of questions that he wanted to ask Ricardo inside of his head.

* * *

Due to Ian’s decline, the hidden guild quest of the Devildom that Hoonie was proceeding through was temporarily suspended.

On top of that, because of the words of Ian, who stated that he was in the middle of proceeding through a quest that was a whopping three and a half times more important, Hoonie was incredibly jealous.

“Tsk, tsk-tsk! Such a dirty hyung!”

At his complaining, Canoel smirked as he said something.

“Hyung must just have something that’s keeping him busy, Hoonie. There’s nothing to be so upset about.”

At Canoel’s words, Hoonie frowned deeply.

“Grr, let’s see if I go and help that dirty hyung next time.”

“What did you even help Ian hyung with?”

“Do you have any idea how much I helped Ian hyung out with quests, while following him around ever since the time we were in the central continent? I even shared my hidden quests continuously with him!”

However, Canoel shook his head.

“Hoonie, let’s be honest.”

“…!”

“To be honest, rather than Ian hyung, there are a lot more things that you obtained while following around Ian hyung. If you hadn’t continuously stuck by his side, do you think you could have become this dominant of a Black Magician that’s 1st place with levels right now?”

Currently, Hoonie was at about lv 195.

When considering the fact that the Black Magician that was registered in the ranking list as 1st place was at about lv 190, it was an incredibly overwhelming level difference.

This was because, for there to be a 5-level difference in the level 190-range, there was a tremendous EXP difference.

Hoonie, who was at a loss for words, sputtered.

“St, still~!”

Canoel’s logical(?) words continued.

“On top of that, you’re sharing quests because you don’t have any other choice. Pretending like you’re being generous when it’s automatically shared, huh?”

“Hmph…”

Hoonie, who was sorrowful either way, trudged along with his shoulders drooping down as he lost his energy.

While watching him do that, Canoel gave him words of encouragement.

“To be honest, once the monster wave opens up, the rewards of that quest didn’t even really have a meaning anyways. Don’t be so disappointed. Thanks to that, we were able to save time and even do the Pure Blood of the Devil Quest!”

Hoonie nodded his head as he replied.

“Hmm, that is true.”

This was because, as soon as the two gave up on the quest and entered the City of Rage, they began by obtaining the Pure Blood of the Devil, and had succeeded in becoming Half-Devils.

Hoonie, who barely won over his gloominess, opened his mouth towards Canoel again.

“Then, hyung. For now, let’s both class-change to a dual class on our own and then meet up again afterwards. We both have quests that we’ve received.”

At those words, Canoel nodded his head as he replied.

“Yeah, that’s probably best. Since we don’t have much time left by the looks of it, if we continue going around together and help each other out with our quests, I feel like it might even be difficult to obtain a dual class before the Devildom closes.”

In any case, the two people, who decided their future course, headed towards their own respective class guild buildings.

Hoonie, who parted ways with Canoel, headed towards the eastern area of the City of Rage in order to obtain the ‘Devil Spirit Magician of Death’, a dual class that Black Magician class users could obtain.

“I will obtain a dual class before the Devildom closes with whatever means it takes no matter what!”

And as he parted ways with Canoel, it felt like his rage towards Ian, which had settled, was shooting up again.

“Damn it, that mean and nasty hyung probably already obtained a dual class and is flying around somewhere in the Devildom, right? Since he’s an insane hyung, who entered the Devildom within 3 minutes of it opening, it’s possible that he’s in Zone 80 right about now.”

Hoonie’s intuition was so sharp to the point it was scary.

However, just then, a dark shadow approached the side of Hoonie, who walked while fuming.

* * *

Ring-.

• You have successfully completed the hidden assignment of the ‘Beginnings of the Devil III (Hidden) (Connected)’ Quest.

• Clear Rank: SS

• You have obtained 200 thousand Fame.

• Fortress of the Devil, Present Battle Condition

Obtained Points: 19,784K Points

Obtained EXP: 15,3751K (x250%)

*The current amount of destructive devils defeated.

Low-rank Devils: 358/Low-rank Magical Beasts: 399

Common Devils: 132/Intermediate-rank Magical Beasts: 107

High-rank Devils: 12/High-rank Magical Beasts: 25

Noblesse: 0/Highest-rank Magical Beasts: 0

• You have leveled up. You have reached level 202.

Ian, who magnificently digested the hidden piece, wore a satisfied smile while looking at the reward window that was in front of his eyes.

“Kya, this is my first time seeing such an outrageous EXP value.”

Ian’s gaze lingered on the obtained EXP part that was in the result window.

“Are we finally going to see values change to K in this game as well?”

Commonly, the ‘K’ was a number of units that was used in order to conveniently mark numbers by the thousands.

It was read as ‘kilo’, and this unit, which defined 10 cubed, was a notation that was normally used in order to reduce the unit when a value in a game was too high, so, as the EXP that Ian had obtained was too enormous, the unit ‘K’ had appeared.

“Let’s see here… If it’s 153,751K, then I’ve obtained about 150 million EXP. Keu-heu-heu!”

His math grade was so bad to the point he failed, but when it came to aspects like this, the speed that Ian’s mind raced at was perfect.

However, just when Ian was rejoicing while looking at the rewards he obtained, unexpected system messages additionally popped up in front of his eyes.

Ring-!

• The total amount of quest points that ‘Ian’ has obtained from fulfilling the hidden assignment of the ‘Beginnings of the Devil III (Hidden) (Connected)’ Quest is 19,784K.

• Points can be exchanged for ‘Special Abilities’, or even ‘Items’.

• Points can be exchanged for stats such as ‘Devil Energy’, ‘Devil Energy Activation Rate’, ‘Resistance Magic’, and more, the exchange rate applying differently depending on the stat.

• Points can be exchanged for boxes such as ‘Magic Stone Box’, ‘Devildom Weapon Box’, ‘Devildom Armour Box’, ‘Devildom Accessory Box’, and more, the amount of points consumed per item applying differently.

Ian wore a dumbfounded expression as he began to calmly read through the messages.

[1] ride a bus = to get carried