Ares was taken aback with that user. He was thoroughly and utterly confused.
A user with a frying pan on his back?
However, he soon forgot about this matter since he finally found a loophole from the Secret Guild's information. He quickly flipped through the pages to find the information that he needed.
[Rovan, who was a ranker in Versal, has created an account in Athenae and is leveling up at a rapid pace. He has a legendary class and is presumed to be a part of the Legend Guild.]
Ares shook his head when he read the information again. It was something that was entirely possible. As he continued to look at Rovan's information, he thought…
'We can try to lure Rovan away from them and turn him into a spy... If that's impossible then it's also worthwhile to just hunt and kill him.'
That would start a full-pledged guild war with Legend Guild but he did not care about it. No matter how elite the members of their guild were, Ares Guild was a large guild that could not be easily touched by the Legend Guild.
[Guild Master Ares: Where are you?]
[Guild Chatting Ruby: I'm at the Shrieking Hills.]
Perfect.
Ares' mouth widened in a ruthless grin.
I just created an attack team not too long ago and their level is still low.
Of course, this did not mean that he was looking down or underestimating Rovan.
Then, he saw Ruby saying something more in the guild chat.
[Guild Chatting Ruby: Rovan was a very famous player in Versal so I have been watching his movements ever since he received the quest from Kemil, the Kingdom's representative. He even took the chef that no one wanted in his party.]
Ares shook his head in disagreement. It might have been true that he picked up a useless user but he acted the same way in Versal. He always took someone that would not hinder him before continuing to hunt in places with limitations in the number of people that could enter.
'We don't have to bother about that chef user.'
After all, he looked like he was just some weird user.
[Guild Master Ares: Is the 9th Attack Team online?]
[Guild Chatting Hilton: Yes, GM-nim. I'm online.]
[Guild Master Ares: Go to the Shrieking Hills right now and offer Rovan the best possible treatment we could offer him.]
[Guild Chatting Hilton: The best possible treatment we could offer...?]
[Guild Master Ares: Gold, Ares' hunting grounds and artifacts that could support a player in the game. The best of the best. In addition, offer him 1 billion as a salary per year.]
[Guild Chatting Hilton: Keok... 1 billion gold?]
Hilton did not seem to be aware about the value of the user named Rovan.
[Guild Master Ares: 1 billion in cash.]
[Guild Chatting Hilton: ...]
These were the times when rankers were treated much better compared to celebrities. In fact, Ares alone had hundreds of millions as his monthly profit. And right now, Rovan was just a budding user in Athenae.
[Guild Chatting Hilton: What if he refuses?]
[Guild Master Ares: Slaughter him. ^^]
Ares sent a smiling emoticon but anyone who read it would definitely feel a chill coming down their spines.
Hilton along with 25 other members of the guild made up the 9th Attack Team. They were low-leveled users but they have been receiving unlimited support from Ares Guild. They might be low-leveled right now but once they developed, they would definitely be among the top 1,000 players in the country in the future.
[Guild Chatting Hilton: I have seven people on the line right now. Should I go with this number for now?]
[Guild Master Ares: Yeah. Seven should be enough for now. But just in case, tell the others to log in and proceed to the Shrieking Hills. Rovan is a user who should never be underestimated.]
[Guild Chatting Hilton: Yes, I understand.]
After he finished giving out orders in the guild chat, Ares leaned back on his chair in a leisurely manner.
"Quaaaaaack!"
"Run...! It's extremely strong!"
"Crazy...!"
The users who entered the Shrieking Hills were all running away like crazy. The moment that they heard the notification about the appearance of the boss monster they quickly moved to find where it was.
In fact, countless users that were in the vicinity of the boss mob tried to raid it. In the center of all these users was a giant monster. It was none other than a giant magic duck with a golden chin.
Flap, flap, flap!
The moment the duck flapped its wings…
[Fire Rain.]
[A direct hit will cause damage.]
Crackle, fwoosh!
Huge fireballs fell on top of the users who were fleeing wildly.
Fwoosh!
Fwoosh!
"Kwaaaa!"
"Aaaaack!"
"Keok!"
Fire rain was a 3rd class magic and 3rd class magic was something that users who had just entered the 100th level would not be able to handle.
"This is a mXthXrfXckXng balance breaker!"
"But it's an epic monster, you know. And I heard that epic mobs are really hard to kill."
Another wave of magic attacks followed and attacked the fleeing users.
"Quaaaaack!"
[Fire Breath.]
[A direct hit will cause severe damage.]
Puhaaaaaaaaaa!
A raging, hot flame suddenly came out from the mouth of the golden magic duck. The users that were standing in the line of fire and were directly hit by the Fire Breath were instantly grayed out and forced to log out from the game.
"What epic items, run away!"
"Wow... It's really strong..."
Ero, who was running away from the magic duck. saw turned his head and saw two men running. However, contrary to the other users that were fleeing away from the monster, these two men were rushing straight ahead towards where the monster was.
'Earlier… Those guys...!'
The user with a frying pan on his back and the user with the sword on his back.
"Frying pan Killer!"
"Frying pan Killer!"
They have become famous within the Shrieking Hills due to their crazy mob hunting style. He saw the Frying Pan Killer suddenly stop after he found where the golden duck was.
"Wooooooow... It's an extremely big duck... It looks yummy."
"Mi, Minhyuk-nim. Th, this is not the time for you to drool..."
The user with the sword beside him looked like he was a brave warrior. On the other hand, Minhyuk was drooling over how big and delicious the golden duck was. Then, he took the frying pan off of his back.
I need to get those delicious ingredients from this giant magic duck!
He was certain, ever since he ate the sweet potato warrior and the minotaurus, that the monsters that he ate with his Eccentric Meal skill were all ingredients that were much more delicious than their normal and regular counterparts.
Minhyuk quickly dashed to where the duck was.
"This crazy ba..."
The man with the sword that was standing beside him looked at him helplessly. Rovan supported his forehead as if it was something that couldn't be helped at all.
'That guy is using 3rd class magic freely...'
He should not take that monster as something similar to the magic ducks or the mini trolls. The golden duck had a completely different magical power compared to the normal magic ducks.
The golden duck, who saw Minhyuk running towards where it was, once again used its fire breath to attack him.
"Quaaaaaack!"
[Fire Breath.]
[A direct hit will cause severe damage.]
Puhaaaaaaa!
The golden duck spewed out a raging, spinning, hot flame out of its mouth.
[Battlefield's Ruler.]
[There is a +10 increase in all of your 5 basic stats and a 10% increase in your critical hit rate.]
This title effect had been useful whenever he fought against monsters that were stronger than him.
At the same time…
[Frying Pan Gigantification.]
[You can adjust the size of your frying pan depending on the mana that you will input.]
Minhyuk turned his frying pan big enough to cover his entire body.
The moment the Fire Breath met with the frying pan…
Fwoooooosh!
The Fire Breath was easily dispersed and scattered in all directions. It was unable to overcome the huge magical defense of the frying pan. Minhyuk slowly took one step, two steps forward.
Puhaaaaaaa!
Minhyuk slowly inched forward with his frying pan blocking the raging flames from the golden duck's Fire Breath.
"Am, amazing..."
"I also want to have that frying pan."
The fleeing users suddenly stopped to watch this scene.
In that pause, Rovan quickly narrowed the distance between him and the golden magical duck.
"Quaack!"
As soon as the golden duck realized that its fire breath was not working, it quickly switched to a different magic and used fire field.
[Fire Field.]
[The ground will be covered in fire, it will cause severe damage.]
Crackle! Vwooooom!
The ground suddenly heated up in a specific area. Minhyuk was in the middle of this area.
"That user is going to be grayed out now."
Contrary to what that one user predicted, Minhyuk was not really receiving much damage. With his magical defense at 380, he could even ignore 4th class magic and strut wherever he wanted.
Rovan, who just arrived in the vicinity where the golden duck and the fire field was, saw that his HP was quickly plummeting at a speed visible to the naked eye. He quickly attacked before stepping back.
[Rampage.]
[Your HP has dropped by 20% while your attack power has increased by 30%.]
He also thought of using all of his MP in this one attack. He wanted to show them this attack that was the culmination of the Berserker class!
[Greatsword's Lethal Strike.]
[You will be able to swing your greatsword at an extremely high speed for eight times.]
He swung his sword eight times in a row. He looked like he was swinging a rapier instead of a greatsword with how fast he swung it.
Slaaaash!
Clang!
Clang!
Slash!
Clang!
Slash!
Clang!
Slash!
Whenever he attacked, a black barrier was quickly created and shielded the body of the golden duck. The shield easily blocked Rovan's greatsword and out of all eight of his attacks only two were able to reach the body of the golden duck. Even though there were only two strikes that successfully struck its body, those two strikes were strong enough to cut through a solid barrier.
"Quaaaaaack!"
Baaaang!
The duck quickly flapped its wings and kicked the ground with its foot. Rovan immediately pulled back when he saw the duck move.
'How can this duck bastard be so fraudulent?! Why are its attack and defense so high?!'
Rovan could see that his HP had already fallen down to less than 30%. Before he could even register what's happening, he saw Minhyuk arrive right in front of the golden duck.
Minhyuk knew that epic monsters that had appeared in the country's server could be counted in one man's hands. And most of these types of monsters were clearly difficult to hunt for the current user base in the country. To hunt these monsters, plenty of high-leveled users needed to team up.
Hwaaaack!
Once the golden duck saw that Minhyuk had narrowed the distance between them, it quickly fired a fireball towards Minhyuk. Several fireballs flew at him at a furious speed. Just before the fireball reached him…
[Step.]
[Quickly move to a distance of 1m.]
Minhyuk, who dodged in the nick of time, saw the ground explode as the fireball hit it.
Baang!
Some of the debris flew towards him but Minhyuk did not receive much damage from it.
[Ellie's Swordsmanship]
[All stats will have a 15% increase for 5 minutes.]
[Evasion rate has increased by 30%.]
[Fatal Strikes rate has increased by 30%.]
Minhyuk thought that he needed to finish this all at once. He placed the frying pan behind his back and drew Ellie's sword out of his waist.
This was the first time Rovan had seen him pull the sword out of his waist. And he could see that there was vast difference when he used the frying pan compared to when he was using Ellie's Sword. He could tell that the rampant sword was working much better compared to when he used the skill with his frying pan.
[Rampant Sword.]
[A flurry of rampant swords with additional 30% attack power will be created for 5 seconds.]
Shwaaa!
Shwaaaaa!
Shwaaaaaa!
The flurry of swords harshly attacked the golden duck.
Rustle!
The duck tried to create a shield to block the attacks. However, the moment the rampant swords hit the shield…
Slash!
Crack━
The shield was destroyed in a single hit and his attacks directly hit all over the body of the golden duck.
Spurt!
Slash!
Slaaaaash!
After the direct attack of his sword, there were afterimages that continued to attack the body of the golden duck. The afterimages attacked the golden duck for 5 seconds at a speed that was much faster compared to his normal attack.
"Quaaaack!"
In the end, the golden duck fell down with a shriek. A series of notifications suddenly rang in Minhyuk and Rovan's heads.
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
[...leveled up.]
Minhyuk heard eight leveling up notifications while he used ingredient acquisition to gather the ingredients and materials that he could use. The meat of the golden magical duck was immediately sucked and pulled in his inventory. This was acquired by his own skill so it was not shared with Rovan.
As he was acquiring the ingredients and looking at the materials that dropped, Minhyuk found an old-looking 'radish'. An idea flashed through Minhyuk's mind and he immediately picked the material up.
[Party: Rovan-nim has acquired a Thousand-Year-Old Hasuo(1).]
Footnotes
[Hasuo] – A species of plant under the family of Polygonaceae. It is scientifically known as Fallopia multiflora and is more commonly known as tuber fleeceflower or Chinese knotweed. It is a known ingredient for Chinese traditional medicine and there are more than 100 compounds that have been extracted including flavonoids and quinones.