Chapter 40

by lion

Once the countdown concluded, the players returned to their original locations, and Jun-sang was no exception.

“Phew…”

Emerging from behind a rock by the hiking trail, Jun-sang sat down on the fallen leaves and took a deep breath, inhaling the mountain air. After resting his eyes for the time it would take to drink a hot cup of tea, leaning against a cool rock, he finally took out his phone and began to check the accumulated messages one by one.

Defend the Village.

A cursed army, moved by the overflowing dark power, is invading the village. Protect the village until reinforcements arrive from the city. [Time Remaining: 48 hours 08 minutes]
[Multiple individuals are participating in this quest simultaneously.]
Status: Complete!

(Hidden) Uncover the hidden secret in the Valley of Death. (Cooperation) -> Complete!

(Hidden) Subdue the master of the Valley of Death. (Solo) -> Complete!

(Hidden) Subdue the minions protecting the master of the Valley of Death. (Solo) -> Complete!

(Hidden) Annihilate all undead near the Valley of Death. (Solo) -> Complete!

(Hidden) Minimize villager casualties (10 or fewer) (Cooperation) -> Complete!

(Hidden) Annihilate all undead within the time limit (Cooperation) -> Complete!

Calculating your actions and performance in this quest. This process will take a moment. Please wait.

“…”

Although it ended up this way from practicing Counter, Jun-sang had achieved a total of six hidden quests this time.

Congratulations!

Your rank is SSS.
You have completed the objective of this quest with unimaginable perfection.
Additional rewards will be granted in addition to the basic rewards.
Rewards: Lots of experience, additional reward box (Cooperation) x3, additional reward box (Solo) x3, additional reward box (SSS Rank).
Would you like to claim your rewards now? (Y/n) _(Warning) Unclaimed rewards will be automatically deleted after 7 days.

“Ohh…”

So S-rank wasn’t the highest. Jun-sang’s evaluation for this quest was a remarkable Triple S rank. He calmly began to open the additional reward boxes.

Item Information

Name: Regeneration Seed
Level Restriction: 10
Type: Seed
Grade: Uncommon
Effect: Regeneration rate increased by 7%
Description: A seed that increases regeneration rate. Can be equipped to items or cards with Seed slots to enhance abilities. Requires the special function ‘Separate’ to detach an equipped seed.
[Click here to equip this seed to an item or card.]

“Oh!”

He opened the box without much thought, and it was a jackpot right from the start. A regeneration rate increase seed, which had never appeared before, had emerged. And at an impressive 7%, no less! While the fire resistance ring he obtained in the cave had a regeneration enhancement seed embedded, its value was only 5%. This instantly raised Jun-sang’s total regeneration rate to 23%.

With anticipation, Jun-sang opened the second Cooperation box.

Card Information

Name: Bloodbath
Level: 1Lv
Experience: 0
Grade: Uncommon
Category: Skill
Growth: Late Bloomer (Medium)
Attribute: None
Effect: 5% chance to cause fear in enemy on successful attack
Cost: 15
Seed: 2 slots

“…”

Of course… He wondered why this hadn’t appeared for a while. Although the difference was that this one was an Uncommon grade, which hadn’t appeared before, it was meaningless given he already had a Rare grade Bloodbath. He briefly waited, wondering if collecting Bloodbath cards by grade might unlock another combo or title, but unfortunately, no message arrived on his phone.

“Tsk.”

Jun-sang clicked his tongue and opened the next box.

Congratulations!

You have acquired the special card ‘Level Up’.
Acquiring special cards allows you to unlock sealed special functions.
The special function ‘Level Up’ is activated.
This function unconditionally increases the level of any chosen card by 1.
Do you have a card you wish to level up? (Y/n) _ (Current remaining uses: 1 time)

“Ohh…”

A function that unconditionally increases a card’s level by 1… Jun-sang chose ‘n’ for now. Since it was still early and leveling cards wasn’t particularly difficult, he decided to save it for later, when leveling up became harder or when he reached a level cap. Of course, he didn’t know if a level cap truly existed, but if it did, this card could be a more valuable reward than any other.

Jun-sang then began to open the solo quest reward boxes.

Item Information

Name: Mad Dog’s Claw
Level Restriction: 10
Type: Weapon
Grade: Uncommon+
Attack Power: 9-20
Effect: 15% increased chance of bleeding on hit, 20% increased critical damage
Seed: 3 slots
Description: A mad dog doesn’t just bite. Equipping this weapon additionally doubles the effects of Mad Dog-related titles.

“…”

Jun-sang quietly stared at the knuckle-duster integrated with a glove that had popped out of his phone. The rounded, iron-reinforced fist part had three large rhomboid spikes, making it seem much more powerful than the studded leather gloves Jun-sang was currently using, even at a glance. Moreover, it provided an additional bleeding effect, had no restriction of being usable only with the Mad Dog Combo, and being a glove, it caused little inconvenience when using other weapons. Furthermore, it doubled the effects of Mad Dog-related titles… Aside from the name and description, it was practically a perfect weapon for Jun-sang.

Jun-sang first put the knuckle-duster into his inventory, then opened the next box. However, the card that appeared this time was the ‘Crushing Blow’ card, which Jun-sang already possessed.

“Tsk…”

Jun-sang clicked his tongue and opened the last box. Another Healing Potion card popped out. The more emergency potions, the better. Hadn’t he just benefited greatly from it this time? Even though it was a card he already had, it wasn’t a bad reward.

“Phew…”

Now, only the SSS-rank reward box remained. Jun-sang felt a slight tremor as he opened the box. Suddenly, something poured out.

Congratulations!

You have acquired the special card ‘Minimap’.
Acquiring special cards allows you to unlock sealed special functions.
The special function ‘Minimap’ is unlocked.
The Minimap automatically records terrain you have already passed on a map.

The first thing that appeared was the Minimap. While it lacked the function of a radar to detect distant enemies, the ability to automatically record explored terrain was incredibly useful in itself.

Congratulations!

You have achieved SSS-rank for the first time!
In praise of your feat, you are granted the title ‘Very, Very Special’.
[Click here to check detailed title information.]

Even this granted a title? Jun-sang tilted his head and checked the title’s information.

[Very, Very Special]

A title granted to the first person to achieve SSS-rank.
Effect: You can now see the list of all currently achievable hidden quests.
Titles are automatically applied upon acquisition.

“Gah!”

Jun-sang gasped when he saw the effect. And for good reason… to be able to know all hidden quests in advance! Jun-sang’s rapid growth so far was partly due to his intense training using his regeneration ability, but primarily because he had completed more hidden quests than others, thus receiving more rewards. But now, he could simply check hidden quests directly without having to search for them individually! In a sense, this was a more valuable reward than any he had received so far.

“Awesome.”

But it wasn’t over yet.

Congratulations!

You have acquired the special card ‘Random Seed’.
Acquiring special cards allows you to unlock sealed special functions.
The special function ‘Random Seed’ is unlocked.
Random Seed is a function that synthesizes two unused Seeds to obtain one Seed of a new attribute.

“Oh…”

Normally, such a gamble-heavy function wouldn’t be very useful, but for Jun-sang, who had a significantly increased Seed acquisition rate after earning the Unique Acquirer title, it was quite a valuable feature. Indeed, while clearing out the Valley of Death and the undead that poured from it, Jun-sang had acquired a whopping 12 Seeds, accumulating over twenty Seeds throughout this quest. Among them were essential ones for Jun-sang, like the Vampiric Seed with its life-draining ability and the Regeneration Seed for increased regeneration. However, 1-2% elemental resistance Seeds were frankly quite useless to equip. If he could use these useless Seeds to obtain more powerful ones, it would be a much more profitable venture for Jun-sang.

“Good.”

Jun-sang then checked his newly leveled skill cards. Two cards had leveled up while he was dealing with the Valley of Death and the undead that emerged from it: Shoulder Charge and Counter. Shoulder Charge was a skill he had been using for a while, so it was about time it leveled up. However, considering that Counter was a newly acquired skill, it showed how much effort Jun-sang had put into mastering it this time.

Congratulations!

Skill Card ‘Shoulder Charge’ has leveled up.
Leveling up a card adds various effects.
Additional attack power increases by 2% when ‘Shoulder Charge’ is activated.
Stun chance increases by 2% when ‘Shoulder Charge’ hits.

While Shoulder Charge mostly resulted in instant pulverization upon hit so far, considering stronger enemies in the future, the stun chance was also a valuable function.

Congratulations!

Skill Card ‘Counter’ has leveled up.
Leveling up a card adds various effects.
Additional attack power increases by 2% when ‘Counter’ is activated.
Critical hit chance increases by 2% when ‘Counter’ is activated.

Although the values were low, the critical hit chance directly correlated with damage increase, so this also couldn’t be overlooked. After organizing all the gains from this quest, Jun-sang finally got up, brushed the dust off his body, disbanded the party, and began heading home.

Author’s Note

Do you see the “Work Settings” menu next to this?

It appears as if nothing is registered there…

Only the overall settings appear in the initial screen list.

Per-episode settings are not designed to appear in the list.

If you click on “Work Settings,” you can easily see what was obtained and what messages appeared in each episode, making it easier to know when the protagonist gained something.