Chapter 33: Pony Warhorse

If a raid ends, the auction must begin.

I immediately checked the dropped items.

[Chronos’ Eye]

• Necklace (Bind on Equip)
• All stats +20
• Strength +10%
• Level Requirement: 25
• Rarity: Unique

A necklace crafted by refining the eye of Chronos, the giant imprisoned in the Underground Labyrinth.

When entering the Underground Labyrinth, grants the wearer the [Black Mist] buff.

• [Black Mist]: Makes the user’s appearance blurry and increases movement speed by 10%.

This item was designed specifically for the Underground Labyrinth.

If I recall correctly, collecting the full Chronos set granted a special buff, though I couldn’t remember the exact options. It must have been an item naturally forgotten as the next expansion pack was released due to its low drop rate.

[Ring of the Underground Labyrinth]
[Necklace of the Underground Labyrinth]

I also obtained two accessories from the Underground Labyrinth series.

The options were similar to other level 25 unique equipment but had additional PVP-exclusive attributes.

Lastly, there was the [Hellfire Warhorse Summon Scroll].

To be honest, I really wanted to ride this mount. Before the expansion pack, the Warhorse Summon Scroll series was considered the pinnacle of mounts.

“Starting the auction. The gold from sales will be distributed among all participants of the Underground Labyrinth.”

Thus, the auction began.

The accessories from the Underground Labyrinth series sold for a fairly high price of 700 gold each, and Chronos’ Eye sold for 1,000 gold.

Finally, the bidding for the Hellfire Warhorse Summon Scroll began.

“500!”

“700!”

“1,000!”

The bid amounts were rising in real-time.

I glanced at the bidders and checked my inventory.

Having recently swept the auction house for Holy Reduction (Holly Buff) items, I had already spent a significant amount of gold.

In other words, I was running low on funds.

“2,000!”

A bid of 2,000 gold for a single horse.

I bit my lip. I didn’t have enough gold to keep up.

It seemed I would have to give up.

But just then, a red notification lit up in my mailbox.

Curious, I opened it slightly to check, and it turned out Helena had sent me a message.

[Sender: Helena]
Subject: None
Content: None
Attachment: 5,000 Gold

I stared blankly at the gold I had just received, my mouth agape.

Why in the world would she send me this gold?

Helena avoided my gaze and quietly slipped away.

Just a little, just a tiny bit of this… wouldn’t hurt, right?

It would be fine.
I also had a relatively fast rate of earning gold, so I could borrow some from the auction now and return it later.

“2,500!”

I had the gold.
My slumped shoulders straightened up, and a light smile appeared on my face.

The man who had bid 2,000 gold glanced at me after seeing that I was the one outbidding him and nodded slightly.

It seemed he was willing to yield.

Thus, the auction came to an end.

A total of 4,900 gold was collected.

Dividing this among the 102 participants meant that each person would receive 48 gold.

“Great work, everyone.
I’ll send your shares via the mailbox.
Let’s disband.”

After confirming that everyone had dispersed, I pulled out the flaming scroll from my inventory.

This was an item that summoned the best mount of the current season.

“Come forth!”

With a resounding shout, I activated the scroll in my hand.

A magic circle formed in midair, releasing fierce flames.

“Neighhhh!”

Emerging from the magic circle was a pitch-black horse.

Its mane and tail burned with bright red hellfire, and its hooves emitted the same fiery glow.

“Wait… what?”

Its appearance was exactly as I remembered.

A mask partially covered its face, hiding its glowing red eyes.

The saddle strapped to its back was adorned with dull gray skulls.

Snort!

The magnificent Hellfire Warhorse let out a rough snort as it stared at me.

But the size was the problem.

The summoned creature was about the size of a donkey.

At that moment, I recalled one of Deron’s hidden systems:

Summoned mounts adjusted their size to match the user.

The guild members watching the summoning tried to stifle their laughter, turning their heads away.

“Uh…”

“Did you buy a pony?”

Just then, Helena, who had wandered off earlier, approached and asked.

Her gaze was fixed on the Hellfire Warhorse I had summoned.

“This is the horse?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“It’s… small.”

I couldn’t argue.

It really was small.

The perfect size for me to ride, unfortunately.

“Try riding it.”

“Okay.”

I nodded at Helena’s words and climbed onto the horse.

As I jumped onto the sturdy saddle, the little colt started trotting and making clicking sounds with its hooves.

“How does it feel?”

“Well… it doesn’t feel special.”

I looked around while sitting.

Aside from the slightly higher view, there wasn’t much of an exciting sensation.

I took the reins of the colt and lightly kicked my legs.

The colt started moving.

Clip-clop, clip-clop.

The sound of its hooves was lively.

The movement was awkward and uncomfortable.

It seemed I would need to practice riding to be able to run with this colt.

Helena followed alongside me and spoke.

“It looks cool.”

“Looks cool?”

“Yeah.”

Helena nodded, crossing her arms.

I must have looked really cool right now.

Riding a magnificent hellfire-infused warhorse through the capital city.

While practicing to get used to riding, I could also show off my cool appearance to others.

Special mounts attract the admiration of others.

For RPG players, a unique mount was a kind of fantasy.

The clash between the Malang Jjondeuk and Sing Sing factions was drawing attention from many people.

The events in the Underground Maze were starting to become a hot topic on the Deron Online gallery.

In fact, the name of the Malang Jjondeuk faction hadn’t been decided yet, but that didn’t matter to the gallery users.

They just called it whatever was convenient or catchy for them.

[Deron Online Gallery]
[Did anyone see the Malang Jjondeuk faction fighting the Sing Sing faction today?] [7]
(Empty black image)
Did anyone stream it? How did it go?

[Comments]
[Where is the Malang Jjondeuk faction?]
[Sounds like they’re talking about middle school girls’ line.]
[Do middle school girls make up the Malang Jjondeuk faction?]
[No, it’s the middle school girl guild leader’s faction that’s called Malang Jjondeuk.]
[Wow… Malang Jjondeuk.]
[It seems like no one streamed it.]
[The gallery owner is in the same faction.] [22]
(Images of looted items from each guild)

13 bosses came out in the Underground Maze, and our faction took down 7 of them, including the final boss.

[Comments]

[Why are the item stats so bad?]

[PVP-specific stats, so it’s fine.]

[I don’t do PVP.]

[You won’t even get it anyway.]

[Looks like a mount is coming out.]

[Hellfire Warhorse, it’s gonna be so cool, right?]

[I want to buy it, lol.]

[Aren’t those items from hidden quests, like the Sun God’s Holy Sword?]

[It seems like they are.]

[There was no mention in the announcement, though.]

[I’m in the Sing Sing faction, we took 3 bosses.]

[Sing Sing?]

[No, not the Sing Sing guild. Just a member of the faction guild.]

[How did the fight go?]

[We just got stomped. Honestly, I don’t know why we allied with Sing Sing. I’ll probably have to leave the faction later, lol.]

[Didn’t Ram Sun go there too?]

[Yeah, Ram Sun went too.]

[How many bosses did you take down?]

[The middle school girls’ guild gave up their spot, so we took 2.]

[Ram Sun took 2 solo, lol.]

[Lol, Sing Sing got wrecked again today, lol, lol, lol.] [3]

(Sing Sing guild information image)

Guild members are quitting in real-time, lol, from 300 to 230, lol, lol, lol.

[Comments]

[Sing Sing love dog, lol.]

[The guy who loves Sing Sing more than anyone.]

[Wow, but almost 70 people left in a week, lol.]

While posts about the Sing Sing and Malang Jjondeuk factions were ongoing, a post with a powerful impact that would change the topic of the gallery appeared.

[Gallery owner is riding a pony, lol, lol, lol, lol.] [52]

(Pictures of Yeo riding the colt with a proud expression.)

(Pictures of Yeo riding the colt passing by a large warhorse.)

(Pictures of Yeo drawing the holy sword while riding the colt.)

(Pictures of Yeo starting to run with the colt.)

(Pictures of Yeo receiving applause from guild members while riding the colt.)

At first, I thought it was some kind of toy, but upon

[The big ones are too heavy to steal, lol, lol, lol.]

[Isn’t the Soul Hellfire Warhorse supposed to be impressive? Shouldn’t it look majestic?]

[It’s so small, though.]

[It’s just because the rider of the mount is small.]

[What do you mean?]

[The mount summoned by the character changes according to the character’s size.]

[It would look awesome if a huge, muscular character summoned it.]

[Right now, it’s just a pony, lol.]

[Look at the expression, lol, it’s so cute, lol.]

[Today, this is it.]

[Honestly, this is the gallery owner’s fault.]

[It’s lucky that the horse is small.]

[Why?]

[If it were big, it’d be a disaster.]

[???]

[I want to be that horse…]

[Me too…]

[These disgusting bastards are starting again.]

[Can’t these assholes just leave the gallery?]

[Is there no information on the Hellfire Warhorse? What’s its speed?]

[Seems like there’s no official release yet.]

[Was that the only drop this week?]

[No pics of panties?]

[Couldn’t get close enough.]

As I was spending time farming as usual, the guild chat suddenly started blowing up.

I glanced down to check the contents of the chat, and words like “global service,” “overseas users,” and “announcement” stood out.

I furrowed my brow. As far as I remembered, Deron never had overseas servers.

It was really strange.

I stopped hunting for a moment to check Deron’s announcement for a break.

[Expansion Pack Update Pre-Notice]

Hello, adventurer.

The new expansion pack for Deron Online, [Solar of the Sun God], will be updated on Wednesday, September 28th.

Update contents:

• New episodes added.
• New raids added.
• New areas added.
• Max level expanded.
• New items added.
• New class added.
• Automatic translation system added.

A global server launch event will be held.

For more details, you can check the website on September 1st.

The moment I read it, I frowned.

A global server launch? I didn’t remember Deron ever launching globally.

Well, I guess in this world, since Deron became popular, it might be launching an overseas server. But the real issue was the newly added automatic translation system.

This meant one thing.

They were planning to merge the global servers with the Korean server.

A future I didn’t remember, a distorted future, was unfolding.