Chapter 39: Reaching Max Level

“Kyahhh!”

The ear-splitting roar of the Drake echoed, and it began charging toward me.

Behind it, a large group of Drakes followed in line, rushing toward me.

These creatures, introduced as a subspecies of dragons, were elite monsters at level 45, possessing stats far stronger than regular monsters.

To hunt them efficiently, a party of tankers, healers, and area damage dealers was required, but for a Berserker with all skills activated, such conditions were irrelevant.

There were clearly more than 20 of them.

As they charged toward me, it was certain that I would be torn apart by their sharp teeth and claws.

But I still charged in.

I jumped high into the air and dropped right into the middle of the group.

Boom!

The weapon, enveloped in a red aura, slammed into the ground, causing a wide area effect to spread out, stunning all nearby Drakes.

The Whirlwind skill activated immediately afterward.

Crash!

As the red vortex expanded, the Drakes’ scales were quickly shredded, and they began falling one by one.

It was an absurdly anticlimactic end for such fierce monsters.

Without using all buffs and potions, the damage would barely suffice, so I didn’t hesitate to use my potions.

My plan was to reach max level and farm new dungeons to upgrade my weapon.

Despite [Sun God Solara’s Holy Sword] being a world item, its performance was still worse than a 45-level unique weapon.

I checked the items that had dropped to the ground.

Elite monsters had a higher drop rate than regular field monsters.

After killing about 100 of them, I would usually have one or two rare items in my inventory.

With the max level recently expanded, even field drop rare items were being sold at a high price.

I opened the auction house and listed the rare gear I had acquired.

Rare armor between levels 40 and 45 typically sold for around 50 to 100 gold, while weapons went for a higher price, around 400 gold.

Since I was one of the few people supplying items, everything I posted sold almost immediately.

The gold I earned quickly disappeared on more potions and buffs, but it kept steadily accumulating.

At this rate, by the time the next raid started, I would surely have a massive amount of gold saved up.

The main page of the auction house showed the most expensive items recently sold in real-time.

The most expensive item was the [Red Orc Warrior’s Ring].

It had recently been sold for 17,000 gold.

Compared to before, that price had skyrocketed.

The ring used to trade for only 1 to 3 gold.

How much of an increase was that?

Various community sites were speculating about nerfs or claiming that the price was inflated for the performance.

But as someone who knew the future, I couldn’t agree with those claims.

It wasn’t overpriced.

The value of the item was preserved.

It wasn’t a bubble.

Limited supply wouldn’t be restocked, and if you didn’t get it now, you wouldn’t be able to buy it for a reasonable price later.

Of course, that was assuming the future I knew was accurate.

The global service was already being prepared.

There was a possibility that a patch might happen in an unexpected direction, so nothing could be taken for certain.

For now, I would just observe the situation and take advantage of any profit I could make.

It was almost time.

I drew my sword and stood up.

The elite zone monsters were strong, but they had a drawback: their respawn time was a little long.

If you gathered them in a wide hunting ground, you’d have to sit and rest for about five minutes before the next batch would respawn.

The duration of the doping potions being wasted was a bit regrettable, but there was no hunting ground more efficient than this one.

At level 44, I was at 97% of the experience.

If I hunted a couple more times, I was certain to reach max level.

Once I reached level 45, I would unlock the 4th rank of my class.

I could choose a higher-tier class, but my choice was already decided.

I would further enhance the [Berserker] class.

Of course, there was the option to select the Barbarian class.

However, the [Warrior’s Heart] skill from the Barbarian class and the [Rampage] skill from the Berserker class couldn’t be stacked.

This was an issue that arose because the developers copied and pasted the code for both skills when they were creating the two classes.

I began running again.

The strength in my legs as I kicked the ground was overflowing, and my movements were incredibly swift.

I used up the remaining buff and doping potions, gathering the scattered Drakes around me.

“Hiyaaahhh!”

I let out a loud, wild shout.

If anyone had been nearby, they might have mocked me, but right now, there was no one else in this hunting ground.

The exhilaration of the shout helped me shake off the remaining embarrassment.

While I was slaughtering countless Drakes, a pillar of light shot up from my body.

It was the level-up effect.

Reaching level 45, my character’s base stats increased.

I drove my sword into the last Drake’s neck and began equipping the 45-level rare items I had prepared earlier.

With every stat increase, I could feel my character growing more powerful in real-time.

Now that I was level 45, it was time to upgrade my Berserker class rank.

Just as I was about to use a return stone and head back to the capital city, a sharp sound rang out.

Bang!

A powerful hit effect exploded on my shoulder.

My health quickly began to drop, and my body staggered.

It was a sniper shot from the [Musketeer], a higher-tier class unlocked at rank 3 for archers.

The enemy faction had interfered.

They had come to disrupt me, as they often did whenever I tried to gather a party for hunting.

I was familiar with this situation from previous encounters.

I drank a potion and slowly began to run.

I couldn’t locate the enemy’s position or count how many there were.

Rather than carelessly searching the area, it was wiser to retreat.

By now, most users had obtained the rank 3 higher-tier class.

The 50v1 scenario I had experienced before was no longer possible.

Even a strong Berserker or Barbarian would have trouble if they were hit by long-range sniper shots.

Using my quick mobility, I began to leave the hunting ground, and the red usernames of the enemy faction started to appear from a distance.

I immediately changed direction and began running again. Now that their positions were revealed, there was no reason to back down.

“They’re coming!”

A white flash of light passed over my running body.

A delayed firing sound from the Musketeer’s rifle rang out.

Tatadadang!

There were many snipers.

All the archer users who had been oppressed until now had picked up guns.

But their accuracy was still terrible.

None of the attacks hit my rapidly moving body.

I lowered my posture and pulled my sword back.

At that moment, blue mana burst out from my body, and I began to dash at high speed.

When the musketeer attacked, a typical smoky mist emanated from the gun.

As my gaze quickly swept through the air, I noticed faint smoke rising from the bushes below.

“Block it!”

It was impossible to block.

The berserker in full doping state was like a tank.

Using the movement speed from my charge, I crossed through the bushes.

I spotted a musketeer user lying prone beneath them.

Kwajik!

I swung my sword and severed their neck.

This was an attack using my increased strength stats.

Although it wasn’t a precise strike with the edge of the blade, their head flew off as if it had been torn apart.

At that moment, an explosion occurred under my feet.

It was a magical engineering mine trap.

Bang!

As the fight with the enemy faction prolonged, their strategies were evolving rapidly.

They often gathered items to try to kill me.

I immediately turned my body and began dealing with the other snipers.

Suga-suga-suga!

The holy sword, wrapped in red bloodlust, was an attack no archer, with low health and defense, could withstand.

At that moment, a blue ice spear flew rapidly toward my back.

This time, the enemy consisted of 10 members.

Among them, 4 were musketeers.

My gaze moved quickly, analyzing the remaining members’ classes.

One was a mage who had learned frost magic, and another was a priest.

The rest were tanks in full plate and three-handed sword warriors with red eyes.

All three were berserkers, but there was no sign of red bloodlust on them.

They didn’t have rings.

“Kill!”

The most threatening and troublesome was the mage.

I immediately used Leap Slam to jump over the formation and slammed down onto the mage user.

Bang!

With a powerful explosion, the mage user was crushed in an instant.

The slam to the head caused an immense shock.

Immediately after, I turned my body and activated my next skill.

Bang!

The holy sword, swung with great force, struck the ground.

A large shockwave erupted, and the remaining enemies around me were lifted into the air.

[Chaos] was activated.

With system adjustments in place, I quickly swung my sword.

As the red blood-red sword strikes swept through the air, the priest user was instantly cut in half.

Suga-suga-suga!

The ones still holding out were the tank user with a large shield and the berserker users who started to emanate red bloodlust.

I immediately activated [Enrage] and spun my body for the next move.

The combo continued with the activation of [Whirlwind].

A red blood-red vortex unfolded, and the tank user, whose body had hardened like steel, was engulfed in an instant.

Although they had used buffs to increase defense and survival skills to reduce damage, the berserker’s attacks bypassed the defense.

The added [Bleeding] debuff had an excellent effect on the high-defense tank.

Kwagagagagak!

It didn’t matter where I hit.

At that moment, the other berserker users, except for me, began to spin their bodies.

Although they had already taken strong damage and were close to death, the passive skill [Combat Continuation] had activated, making them immortal for 2 seconds.

As red tornadoes surrounded them from all sides, their health quickly started to drop.

But it didn’t matter.

I, too, had the [Combat Continuation] passive.

My rapidly decreasing health stabilized at 1.

Then, all the skills attacking me disappeared.

The berserker users’ immortality period ended, and they died first.

Since the duration of Whirlwind also ended, I stopped in place.

The tank user, who had been holding a shield and resisting, had already died faster than the berserker users.

I killed all the remaining enemies.

I won again.

With my eyes closed, I waited for death.

At that moment, the immortality duration ended, and my small body collapsed.