Chapter 40: Dungeon Farming Preparation

As soon as I arrived in the capital city, I immediately ranked up my Berserker class.

[Rampage] [Enhancement]

As health decreases, damage, movement speed, and attack speed increase.

When in low health, the skill’s maximum effect is triggered.

Maximum damage increase rate 50% → 75%

Maximum movement speed increase rate 30% → 40%

Maximum attack speed increase rate 30% → 40%

[Step Toward Death] [Enhancement]

All incoming damage increases by 10% → 5%.

When in low health, 20% → 30% of damage is converted into ignore-defence damage.

[Battle Continuation] [Enhancement]

When taking lethal damage, becomes [Immortal] for up to 2 → 3 seconds, with health fixed at 1.

When the [Immortal] state disappears, the character dies instantly.

[Frenzy] [Enhancement]

50% → 80% chance to apply the [Bleed] debuff to the target when attacking.

Attacking an enemy with the [Bleed] status increases damage by 10% → 20%.

The most important skills, Rampage and other passives, have been greatly enhanced, and the word [Enhancement] is now attached to the end of all skill names.

Active skills have also been significantly enhanced.

Damage has increased, and activation speed and cooldowns have been slightly improved.

Since all skills are always activated, I could feel the character growing stronger in real time.

The red aura emanating from my body had become even more intense.

Although I had reached the maximum level, I couldn’t head to dungeons for farming just yet.

At this point, I was the only one who had reached level 45.

I opened the guild window to check the number of active players.

Among them, I paid close attention to the members of my raid group.

They were all steadily levelling up.

Most were in the late 30s, but a few had just surpassed level 40.

“What the hell is this…?”

I couldn’t help but voice my disbelief upon witnessing the ridiculous scene.

It was unavoidable. The lowest level in my raid group was Harang, at level 37.

What on earth was he doing without levelling up?

Yeon-[Hey]

Harang’s reply came after a long pause.

Harang-[ooo?]

Yeon-[What are you doing?]

Yeon-[Aren’t you levelling up?]

Harang-[Levelling up is hard ;]

I frowned at Harang’s words.

In this world, finding a long-range dealer who dealt as well as Harang wasn’t easy.

Of course, the same applied to finding a tank or melee dealer, but still.

Yeon-[Come to the coordinates I give you right now. At level 37, you’ve finished the main quest, right?]

Harang-[I still have a little left. Should I finish it and come?]

Yeon-[This is the last part of the main quest, and the map unlocks after completing it.]

I sighed and started gathering the items needed for the hunt.

Harang’s levelling speed was way too slow. If I left him like this, he wouldn’t make the level in time for our raid.

After preparing everything, I headed to the promised location.

The elite Drake area at level 45.

It was the place I had just been hunting, so it was a deserted area.

I waited for about 10 minutes.

From a distance, Harang, wearing black leather armor, quickly ran toward us.

On his back, instead of a large longbow, there was a slender musket.

It seemed he had chosen a Musketeer class.

“Does it have many skills that are compatible with Rangers?”

“Huh? I can’t use one of the AoE skills, but single-target damage has become stronger, so it’s fine.”

The AoE skill being referred to was probably the arrow rain skill that shoots arrows high into the sky and drops them down.

I sighed and suggested to Harang that he join the party.

“Are you going to carry me?”

“Didn’t you expect this?”

I wondered why I called him to an elite area that was higher level than his.

Of course, it was to carry him through.

I formed a party with Harang and raised my sword.

“Enemies from opposing alliances come here often, so be careful.”

“Should I help with the hunting?”

“As long as you don’t interfere.”

I said this while checking the time.

There were 2 hours left until the shutdown time.

With this much time, Harang could reach level 40.

“Are archers always this slow?”

“I’m pretty high in the archer rankings.”

I frowned at Harang’s words and opened the level rankings to check the archers’ levels.

I found the highest-ranked user.

Level 39.

The number one archer hadn’t even reached level 40 yet.

I could even find Harang’s nickname on the first page.

“That’s a mess.”

“Can’t be helped… you know why, right?”

I slowly nodded at Harang’s words.

I had seen how terrible some archers were in battle.

With the lowest recognition and a character heavily reliant on the pilot’s skills, he probably couldn’t find a party.

The most efficient party setup was a 3-man tank-damage-heal combo.

Usually, mages with strong AoE skills filled the damage dealer spot.

“Can’t you join a guild party?”

Harang was the top damage dealer in the raid.

In a normal situation, there was no way he wouldn’t be included in a party.

But Harang shook his head.

“I don’t like syncing with others, it’s better to solo through the elite zones even if it’s slower.”

I blankly nodded at his words.

I understood what he meant.

It was just that, compared to the old me, he felt so different, and I was a bit taken aback.

“How much can you level up today?”

“About 40.”

“That fast?”

I didn’t respond to Harang’s answer, swinging my sword and charging forward.

Thanks to the enhanced skills, my speed was faster than before.

It was close to the speed of riding a horse.

“Don’t come too close until we’ve completely gathered the mobs!”

If we got too far apart, the aggro that was previously on me would shift to Harang.

Harang nodded and climbed up a high rock, hiding his body.

He began to gradually adapt to the faster movements.

As I completed a loop around the hunting ground and turned to look behind me, over 20 Drakes were charging toward us.

I immediately leapt into the air.

[Leap Strike]

Boom!

The speed of my descent was faster than before.

Immediately after, I activated the next skill.

A red whirlwind burst from my body and spread widely, starting to shred the Drakes.

Harang’s bullets were fired above, but they didn’t help much.

This was because the damage didn’t land properly due to the large level difference.

After repeating the mob hunting, just before the shutdown time, Harang reached level 40.

Harang’s nickname surged to the top of the Archer level rankings.

Just before the game was about to end, I said to Harang:

“I’m going to study alone today, so level up properly.”

“Uh, uh…”

Harang, surprised by the fast  levelling speed, slowly nodded with a dazed look on his face.

Aside from Harang, there wasn’t anyone else I had to look after.

Helena, the wealthy mage, was already levelling up at a fast pace.

Her level was currently 43.

Other raid members were also steadily levelling up in their parties.

The next morning, I, as usual, headed to school in my uniform.

The feeling of stockings wrapped around my legs had become so familiar to me that it felt strange when I wasn’t wearing them.

I patted my thigh, amazed at how well I had adapted.

The soft skin on my thighs was hidden under the black stockings.

Arriving at school and heading to the classroom, as always, Sohee was already there.

She was sitting at her desk, looking at her phone, so I sneaked up behind her and reached out my hand.

At that moment, Sohee’s body slightly turned, and she reached out her hand to me.

Our eyes briefly met in the air.

“Uh…”

Instead of startling her as I had intended, I ended up holding hands with Sohee.

I had noticed it while playing the game, but Sohee’s reaction speed was on a completely different level than that of an average person.

“Hi.”

“Oh, hi.”

I fidgeted with her hand, trying to pull away, but Sohee didn’t seem to want to let go.

In fact, she gripped my hand even tighter.

“I’ll join too.”

“Join…? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Harang said yesterday that you did party hunting together.”

“Oh, that… I helped him because his levelling was too slow.”

“I’ll join too.”

I tilted my head at Sohee’s words.

Was there really a need for that?

Also, what I did yesterday wasn’t really party hunting but more like a one-sided carry

“Sohee, you level up quickly.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the smile on Sohee’s face slowly began to fade.

I shook my head.

If Sohee joined the party, the experience points would be too scattered.

That meant her leveling speed would slow down.

“It’s better to reach max level and then run dungeons together.”

That would be more efficient.

But it seemed Sohee didn’t like that idea.

She lightly pulled my hand and made me sit on her lap.

“I want to party too.”

“No, it won’t be efficient.”

“Aren’t you too focused on efficiency?”

“That’s my playstyle.”

The sensation of the black stockings rubbing against each other beneath my thighs felt strange.

I quickly stood up and said, “Reach max level first. Then let’s run dungeons together.”

“That’s cheap.”

Sohee chuckled lightly at my words and nodded.

It seemed she had finally given up.

Just as I was about to return to my seat, Sohee handed me a chewy cow.

The soft, sticky sensation was noticeable, and when I moved my hand, I realized there were two today.

After school, I immediately took Harang out hunting.

Now that he was over level 40, his sniping pierced the Drakes’ heads, making them drop to the ground one by one.

In party hunting, players gain more experience when they kill monsters themselves rather than having the party members do it.

This meant Harang’s leveling speed had increased.

Today, Harang would reach max level.

I opened the guild window and checked the rest of the members.

I noticed a considerable number of users had reached levels between 44 and 45.

Since there was still plenty of time left, I thought we could enter a new dungeon and farm equipment before the day ended.

As I swung my sword and decapitated the last Drake, I noticed Harang, who was spacing out.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, my friend sent me a message.”

“What did they say?”

“They’re mad because the gold price dropped.”

“Ah…”

I recalled the friends Harang had mentioned.

It seemed like one of them was the person who would gather herbs in the mountains and buy chicken with the gold they earned.

“It had to drop. The loot prices in the expansion are expensive, and there’s a lot more money dropping now.”

“They told me to level up, but they don’t want to because it’s too hard.”

“What level are they?”

“Level 15.”

“Level 15, and they were gathering herbs?”

“I guess so. But now higher-level herbs are dropping, so they’re complaining that the lower-level herbs aren’t selling.”

On a whim, I decided to check the gold price.

The gold price, which had been set at 15,000 won per 10 gold at the beginning of the game, was now plummeting.

The recent trading price had dropped to about 10,000 won per 10 gold.

It still felt somewhat expensive.

There were now many ways to earn gold.

The price of gold would continue to fall steadily for about a month.