The castle door creaked open as Jin made his way back inside. Meldor followed closely behind him. After instructing the others, Jin asked Meldor to escort him back, as he had something important to talk to him with.
The young demon king hastily made his way to the castle's armory. Before he was rudely interrupted by Lang's group, Jin was in the middle of a dilemma regarding the completion of the second quest. He had no idea where to begin with it, and had hoped that going into the armory would yield some answers.
Bringing Meldor with him, he had hoped that the wise Freyan leader could shed some light to him in this matter. Even if the quest, or the entire mainline for that matter, did not have a deadline for him to finish it in, Jin still felt like everything had to be done in urgency.
The armory door creaked open; the storage full of myriad types of equipment laid bare.
One could say that the armory was still quite full despite being 'emptied' during the raid.
"I could see that there is still a decent amount of weapons here… Albeit, they're really of bad quality." Meldor bluntly said. When Jin requested his audience regarding the matters of the armory, Meldor did not hesitate in responding. It was, after all, for the best of their interests; Meldor would obviously lend a helping hand.
Jin only nodded in agreement with what Meldor said.
Even though he was ashamed to admit, Jin knew his kingdom lacked a lot of things, including good weapons. Gradually, the reason why the main questline gave priority to improving the armory dawned upon him. Even Meldor, who was a terrifying existence on his own, still relied on using his trusted staffs— not just one, but a dozen of them to suit every situation— to win against his opponents.
Inspecting a random sword here and there, Jin spoke, "Do you know of a way for us to improve these weapons?"
"It is not for certain, because our people do not really rely on smithed weapons, but I have heard of a few things about crafting these things…" Meldor replied as he casually picked a longsword; with his size, the sword looked incredibly pathetic in his broad hands.
"You've heard of things? Such as?"
"Some master forger residing far north from here. But don't take my word easily, I've only heard of him from... Hmmm," Meldor paused briefly before adding. "Come to think of it… Although I am uncertain, I might have heard about this smithy from your grandfather or one of his subordinates."
'My grandfather?'
If it was something that was related to his grandfather, then…
Jin immediately drew the journal from his leather pocket without sparing any further thought. Scanning through its content, Jin found what he was looking for in no time,
'... Blacksmith Shinken, a legendary craftsman, and a friend of mine... had passed away. I hope that his legacy will continue to live on.' Jin read the content thoroughly just to be stumped at the very end of it. The smithy he hoped to look for was already long dead.
Meldor sneaked a peek at what Jin was reading. After seeing the young demon feeling dejected, Meldor immediately tried to brighten up the mood. "Surely, a man of that caliber had left his legacy to someone else, right? Should we try and find that out first? It would be a shame not knowing if there was someone out there who could help us, but we don't do a thing about it" He suggested.
After hearing Meldor's encouraging word, Jin calmly nodded. At the very least, he now knows that his grandfather's journal was a clue as to where he should start. What he needed to do now was to focus on the impending task at hand— The timer was slowly ticking down to zero.
---
With only a few hours left in the timer, Jin prepared himself for the worse.
Although he was far from completing the mainline quest, he was still able to do something to strengthen himself and his kingdom. With the help of the Freya race, their total strength would not pale in comparison to a high-level raid party.
…
STR: 35 (+30) --- INT: 0
AGI: 100 --- DEX: 30
VIT: 20 --- LUK: 10
Stat Points: 30 (Base) + 155 (Levels) + 10 (Bonus). 0/195 Total.
…
Even without relying too much on the Freya race, Jin himself was strong enough to deal with a good amount of players. After reaching LV 31, he was able to improve himself further. Deciding to continue the path of speed, Jin invested a hefty amount of his available stat points into AGI, sparing some for DEX, and a few more on VIT.
Having leveled his AGI stat to a hundred, Jin further unlocked Seyna's passive effects.
'Barrage Strike' LV 2 further increased the skill's attacks speed and haste while 'Blinding Hit' LV 2 furthered the threshold of opponents evasion chance against the skill. The enemy now needs to have at least a hundred on AGI in order to avoid Seyna's attacks.
Although it was a shame to not be able to use 'Soul Conjuration' that often, Jin was still satisfied with what he has. Even if he placed the entire pool of available stat points into INT, it would not really change things that much; the overpowered skill just eats up too much mana for Jin to be able to sustain. If only there was a way to cut its cost...
…
Jin solemnly stared at the timer, donning the King Bushwolf's hide and Seyna mystically floating overhead. The Freya race surrounded the gates, brandishing their clubs and various weapons of choice; Meldor took the lead, while Jin stayed at a good distance.
3 sec…
2 sec…
1 sec…
The restriction sphere evaporated in an instant as soon as the timer reached zero.
The Priyan Kingdom— the new S-rank area— now laid bare for the players' taking.
…
"...That doesn't feel right." Jin murmured. It had been an hour since the restriction sphere collapsed, yet— No one arrived. He and Meldor agreed to strategically stay inside the kingdom to easily defend it, however, it would seem that nothing was happening. "This should be for the best, right? I guess I was being too paranoid about the players?"
Instead of being complacent about the situation, Jin got even more agitated.
Meldor left his position and went towards Jin, a smile painted on his face.
Having the ability to smell others from a good distance away, Meldor concluded something; he immediately relayed it to Jin, "Do not worry too much, young king. Yes, there are people that entered the vicinity of the kingdom, but, none has reached here yet because…"
"They're fighting against themselves."