Soo Hyuk arrived at the Tower of Poison and climbed the stairs to the 4th floor. The 4th floor was still guarded by the man and the woman he saw previously. Soo Hyuk pulled out Pavian's token as he approached them.
"You don't need to show the token anymore."
The woman said when he showed them the token. Then, like yesterday the woman walked further inside the floor while motioning for Soo Hyuk to follow. Soo Hyuk hurriedly put away his token and followed the woman.
Tap. Tap.
"Lord Pavian."
The woman arrived in front of a large room and knocked on the door.
"Come in."
Pavian's voice sounded from within. The woman opened the door then retreated to the side. Soo Hyuk passed the woman and entered the room.
"Welcome!"
Pavian welcomed Soo Hyuk with a wide smile. Soo Hyuk could see Pavian holding a vial with purple liquid inside.
'What kind of poison will it be today?'
[You have been poisoned by Pavian's Special Poison.]
[You are paralysed for 30 minutes.]
The moment the message window appeared, Soo Hyuk froze and dropped to the ground. More precisely, he lost all feeling and control over his body except for his eyeballs.
'30 minutes? This is crazy.'
Soo Hyuk cursed internally as he moved his eyes to check the message. He was going to be paralysd for 30 minutes.
'Then he can't help me like yesterday.'
Yesterday, when he took Pavian's poison for the first time, he had been inflicted with bleeding. The duration was 10 minutes. Of course, because of his low level there was no way Soo Hyuk could have survived alone. But he had the Poison Spire Lord next to him. With his assistance, the bleed damage was reduced to 1 damage per second, and Soo Hyuk ended up surviving the ordeal.
However, paralysis had a completely different effect. Paralysis was not life threatening, and would go away once the duration of the poison ended. In other words, Soo Hyuk could only lie there, paralysed for 30 minutes.
'Such a waste of time.'
Even if it was for a quest, Soo Hyuk was annoyed at the fact that he could do nothing except stare at a wall for 30 minutes.
[You have been infused with Pavian's mana.]
[You are now paralysed for 27 minutes.]
'Hmm?'
A message window suddenly appeared again without any warning. Soo Hyuk couldn't understand the message at first.
'The time was reduced?'
His original 30 minutes of paralysation had decreased to 27 minutes.
[You have been infused with Pavian's mana.]
[You are now paralysed for 22 minutes.]
[You have been infused with Pavian's mana.]
[You are now paralysed for 18 minutes.]
The messages didn't end with the first one. Pavian's mana was infused into his body every 15 seconds, and the paralysis duration would reduce everytime it did so.
'At this rate, it won't even take 10 minutes.'
Everytime Pavian's mana was infused, the paralysis duration would shorten by 3-5 minutes. It seemed like this session was going to end sooner than yesterday's session.
[You have been infused with Pavian's mana.]
[You have been paralysed for 1 minute.]
In less than 2 minutes, the original 30 minutes was reduced to 1 minute. And after that 1 minute had passed, Soo Hyuk regained control of his body, he could feel his fingers and toes again.
"Hmm, maybe it's because of his large mana pool. The paralysis finished much sooner than I thought it would."
Pavian mumbled as Soo Hyuk stood up slowly.
"Are we finished for today?"
Soo Hyuk asked.
"Yes, we are."
Pavian answered with a smile.
"Then I'll be back tomorrow."
Soo Hyuk bade farewell to Pavian and exited the room. He then made his way outside the tower and opened the quest tab.
[The 30-Day Endeavour]
You, who lacks poison resistance! Pavian will boost your immunity. Take Pavian's poison once a day!
[Take Pavian's Special Poison: 2 / 30 ]
[Quest Reward: Title – Poison Maestro]
'28 more days to go.'
After 28 days his quest would end, meaning that he wouldn't have to visit the Tower of Poison after that. Soo Hyuk scrolled down further to look at Karu's Heirloom quest.
[Special Quest – Karu's Heirloom]
The wolf hunter Karu's family's heirloom has been stolen by a wolf. Retrive the necklace from the wolf!
[King of Wolves : 0 / 1 ]
[Wolves : 0 / 100 ]
[Karu's Necklace : 0 / 1 ]
[Quest Reward: ??? ]
'Time to go back to wolf territory.'
Soo Hyuk thought as he looked at the quest.
'Can I complete it today?'
Soo Hyuk had assigned himself 6 hours for hunting. Then he would head back to the library after 6 hours had passed.
'I can probably do it.'
Today was different from yesterday. He could already breeze through the wolves, and the additions of the skills Fire Wall and Dancing Flames would only enhance his speed. For him, 6 hours would be more than enough to complete the quest.
After closing the quest tab, he passed through the gates of Matab city and headed towards the Eastern Hunting Ground. When he arrived it was deserted, he couldn't spot a single player in the wolf territory. Was it because it was unpopular?
"Firebolt."
Bang!
The firebolt landed next to a wolf and the wolf was blasted away by the explosion, its life gone before it hit the ground. A nearby wolf started howling after seeing its corpse blasted away by an explosion.
– Awoooo!
A normal player would've killed it before it could alert more wolves, but Soo Hyuk just watched the wolf howl with amusement in his eyes.
'They're here.'
Soo Hyuk muttered when he spotted the silhouettes of more wolves in the trees.
"Magic Missile."
Bang!
The howling wolf was killed instantly by his spell. Soo Hyuk looked around at the approaching silhouettes and prepared to face them.
'There are five coming.'
Soo Hyuk counted five wolves around him.
'Let's try Dancing Flames.'
The wolves also weren't approaching close together, they were coming from different directions, so Soo Hyuk decided to use Dancing Flames. It felt a bit wasteful to use Fire Wall straight away.
When the first wolf entered the range of his spells, Soo Hyuk muttered.
"Dancing Flames."
When the skill activated, a ball of fire half as big as Fireball appeared in midair and flew towards the wolf. The ball of fire exploded with a bang when it hit the wolf.
Bang!
A drop window appeared as soon as it exploded, but Soo Hyuk couldn't afford to care about it now.
Growl!
It was because a wolf leapt towards him from behind when the fireball exploded. The fireball instantly reappeared and exploded on the leaping wolf, killing it in one hit. After that, the small fireball flew towards any wolves that got within 5 metres and only disappeared after all five of the wolves were slaughtered.
"Wow...'
Soo Hyuk couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
"Dancing Flames is amazing."
Dancing Flames wasn't a skill that someone at his current level could learn. If he was just a normal Magician, he would have to wait until he was level 50 to learn the skill. His ridiculously high wisdom coupled with a high level skill, used on small fry like wolves only resulted with the total annihilation of the enemy.
Soo Hyuk collected all the dropped items and cautiously looked around at his surroundings.
'Three behind and two in front.'
There were still wolves coming. The previous five wolves were only the first wave. There would be at least two more waves after the first.
"Magic Missile."
Soo Hyuk began his hunt.
[Special Quest – Karu's Heirloom]
The wolf hunter Karu's family's heirloom has been stolen by a wolf. Retrive the necklace from the wolf!
[King of Wolves : 0 / 1 ]
[Wolves : 100 / 100 ]
[Karu's Necklace : 0 / 1 ]
[Quest Reward: ??? ]
Soo Hyuk frowned while he checked the quest.
"Just where is the Wolf King?"
After killing 100 wolves he had immediately started searching for the Wolf King, but even after an hour of hard searching, he couldn't find neither hair nor hide of it.
– Awoo!
"Magic Missile."
Soo Hyuk had first hunted only 100 wolves for the quest, but the number now probably exceeded 200 after he began searching for the Wolf King. However, no matter how many wolves he hunted, he still couldn't find any signs of the Wolf King.
As Soo Hyuk was starting to get irritated, he felt a familiar sensation.
Boom!
The ground shook slightly.
Boom!
The sound of approaching footsteps.
Soo Hyuk stopped walking when he heard the booming footsteps, then he turned towards the direction it came from.
Boom!
Although Soo Hyuk couldn't see what it was yet, he already knew what was causing the earth to tremble.
'The Wolf King!'
It was definitely the Wolf King. He couldn't see its shape yet, but he knew that the Wolf King was the only thing in the forest capable of making the earth tremble like that.
'Finally!'
Soo Hyuk started walking towards where the shaking was coming from. A message window appeared not long after.
[Warning!]
[The King of Wolves has appeared!]
'It'd better drop the necklace.'
Soo Hyuk thought as he looked at the message window. There was another quest condition apart from killing the Wolf King. He also needed Karu's Necklace.
'If it doesn't drop...'
What if the Wolf King didn't drop the necklace? He would have to wait until it respawned and hunt it all over again. Of course, he couldn't just wait there for it to respawn. After all, who knew when it would respawn again?
'I would have to go to the Western side.'
There was another wolf territory on the Western Hunting Grounds. If Karu's Necklace didn't drop, then he would have to go to the west and hunt another Wolf King there.
Soo Hyuk passed a tree and finally caught sight of the Wolf King.
Growl!
With a low growl, the Wolf King started running towards him.
"Magic Missile."
Soo Hyuk fired a magic missile towards the running Wolf King. He prayed while watching the magic missile fly towards the Wolf King.
'Please stun it!'
There was a 10% chance of a stun with magic missile. Soo Hyuk prayed for the wolf to get stunned as he wanted to experiment something.
Bang! The magic missile exploded on the Wolf King.
Soo Hyuk smiled when he saw the Wolf King crash to the ground. He had succeeded. He then hurriedly shouted before the stun lost effect.
"Fire Wall!"
The thing Soo Hyuk wanted to test was the power of Fire Wall. He wanted to know exactly how much damage it dealt.
He couldn't do it on normal wolves, as they died instantly to Magic Missile. They were just too weak.
A magic circle appeared beneath the stunned Wolf King. Then, a massive column of fire rose up from the magic circle.
– Roaarrr!
The Wolf King roared in pain as it was engulfed in flames.
– Roaarrr!
1 second passed like that.
Crash!
[The King of Wolves has been defeated.]
[All wolves will fall into a 'fear' state for 5 minutes.]
The King of Wolves fell down, never to move again.
'I thought it would be quite weak because it was an AOE skill...'
Fire Wall was an AOE skill, so he had thought that the damage wouldn't be as strong. But after seeing its effects first hand, he was forced to change his mind. Looking away from the message window, Soo Hyuk excitedly checked the drop window.