Back at the Han Dong building in Yeouido, the five Gnosis Guild members that were tasked to investigate were gathered once more at their small conference room. Alpha was leading the meeting once more.
“What is Duck Duck supposed to be?” Jay asked.
“It… can’t be the Duck Duck I know, right? You know that cute Duck Duck character? I still have a plushy of it,” Lim Gina replied apprehensively.
“Unfortunately, it seems we missed our timing.” Jay’s Clairvoyance didn’t make her omniscient. Currently, her Clairvoyance skill was only at level 1, and could only be used for up to two hours a day. She could increase the time limit by an hour after raising its level by one, but that was all the guild had to work with.
Her Clairvoyance also didn’t show her everything. She couldn’t observe what happened in dungeons or shielded places. The Gnosis Guild was very guarded with their information, in case their subjects got suspicious.
“That’s why I told you to return to the guild earlier, but you didn’t listen to me, Jay,” Han Yongsuk said to Jay, after being quiet the whole time.
“I was half a percent away from leveling up. How could I return early? I just needed another hour.”
“You still should have returned and kept watching the Yung Gong Guild.” Clairvoyance didn’t reveal past events or the future; only the present. If Jay missed it, she missed it.
“Tsk!” Jay pouted.
“That’s enough. What’s done is done,” Alpha broke in to bring the meeting back on topic.
“What we know now is that the Yung Gong Guild failed to defeat the Seorak Mountain dungeon boss.” Jay’s Clairvoyance only revealed the later part of the Yung Gong Guild’s meeting, but they saw enough. They were able to see Shin Chang Il, Shin Hyuk, and Lee Dukgyu discuss the failed raid with gloomy expressions.
Jay’s Clairvoyance only showed what was happening with no sound. They had to read the atmosphere and the speakers’ lips. It was extremely difficult, as they had to do so for several people. There was a high chance that they could miss something important, but fortunately for the Gnosis Guild, they had the analyst, Lim Gina.
She could see what no one else could. She could deduce even the slightest lip movements.
“They talked about Duck Duck the most. It also seems that Shin Hyuk came close to defeating the boss, but someone got in the way. They want to find Duck Duck and take their revenge on him. They seem very angry. I think this is the most angry I’ve ever seen Shin Chang Il.” She continued to report the final minutes of the meeting to her comrades.
The Yung Gong Guild’s meeting was concluded and Jay spent thirty more minutes watching other parts of the guild to find anything else, but everyone seemed to talk about Duck Duck the most.
“OK. Let’s wrap it up. Here’s what we know so far. First, Shin Hyuk came close to defeating the dungeon boss. Second, someone unexpectedly interfered and killed the entire party, causing the guild to fail the raid. Third, that someone is called Duck Duck,” said Alpha to the other four members.
“Then…”
“Why beat around the bush? It’s obvious Duck Duck is Lee Jiwon,” Lim Gina cut in.
“See? I told you there was something about him,” said Jay, shrugging her shoulders. She was the first to suggest they investigate Lee Jiwon, even before Han Yongsuk, who had encountered him first.
“By my calculations, Shin Hyuk’s party should have made it to the safe room on the fourth floor or have already started the raid by the time Lee Jiwon entered the dungeon.”
“Obviously.”
“Lee Jiwon probably guessed for himself that there was someone else in the dungeon from all the signs of battle on the way to the mountain. However, there’s a big difference in whether or not he decides to confirm that. He passed by the first three floors because he was confident in his prediction. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to confirm it.” Lim Gina pieced together everything they knew and explained the chain of events, as if she were there to witness it all firsthand.
“I bet he saw them in the boss room. He probably made the inference that the party was from the Yung Gong Guild and that the party was there, raiding. Once he confirmed that he was right, he butted in and completely screwed them over. How many are out there are strong enough to fuck with the Yung Gong Guild? How many of them have big enough balls to do that?”
“…”
“…”
Her comrades silent listened to her judgement.
“Let’s get back on the main subject. Lee Jiwon really did sleep for four years. That…much is true. Hell, I’m not even sure myself. I really can’t make sense of that part. Everything we have on him points to that. Everyone at the Sunbin Guild swears to that. His designated nurse, the janitors, they all say the same thing. X even attested to the fact that they weren’t lying.” X, who was silent the whole time, nodded to what Lim Gina said. He didn’t need to say anything else.
Lim Gina quietly looked around at her comrades before scowling.
“Does that make sense to any of you? How does a deva get that strong from sleeping?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
No one replied. They couldn’t believe it either, but that unbelievable reality was right there in front of them.
“We’re making Lee Jiwon our priority. Jay, spend ten minutes a day on Lee Jiwon. Keep note of what he’s doing and where and do not lose him.”
“Don’t worry. I’m pretty curious about this Lee Jiwon guy myself. He’s gets more interesting the more I get to know him. Men are so alluring when they have so many secrets.”
“Crazy bitch, there she goes again.”
———
I got up at seven in the morning. I went down to the restaurant for some breakfast, then went back up to my room to wash up before I set out.
The streets of Pocheon were still lively this early in the morning. I saw at least three hundred other devas getting ready to go hunting.
“I’m looking to put together a party! Rangers, healers, buffer, I don’t discriminate! Let’s go hunting together!”
“I need a healer for my party!”
“Buying Gorgon Eyes! I’ll buy all you have. I’ll pay ten more than Store prices! I’m also buying Gorgon Hair Strands! I’ll buy all you have. I’ll pay fifty more than Store prices!”
“Selling a Mirror Shield here! It can block Gorgons’ Petrification for up to fifty times!”
“Selling Cure Petrification Scrolls here! You’ll need them if you’re going to go out and hunt Gorgons. Selling them cheap!”
“Repair your equipment here!”
There were devas looking to party up, and others looking to sell and buy items. I guessed there were a lot of Gorgons around here. I kept hearing about Gorgons as I wove through the crowd, heading towards the border barricade on the other side of town. When I got there, I walked up to a Sunbin Guild guard posted at the gate.
“Could you tell me about the monsters in this area?” The gate guards knew the most about the monster life in the surrounding areas of Pocheon.
“Is this your first time here?”
“Yes.”
“It’s dangerous to go out alone in these parts. The whole area surrounding Pocheon, Dongducheon, and all the way to Cheorwon is infested with Gorgons. There have been many cases of people dying without being to fight back because of the Petrification effect. I recommend you go out with a party. There are a lot of people around that know how to deal with Petrification.”
“Are there any other monsters besides Gorgons?”
“Griffons have taken over most of east Gangwon Province. To the north of Cheorwon, past the border into North Korea, there are lizardmen. There are mostly Medusas in the surrounding areas here. A few years ago, the lizardmen and Gorgons used to fight over territory from here to Cheorwon, but the Gorgons managed to chase the lizardmen all the way to the north. I believe their territory stretches all the way to the outskirts of Paju, where the giant spiders have nested,” the guard explained patiently.
“I see. Thank you very much!”
“I still advise against going out alone…”
“Heh, it’s alright. I made all the necessary preparations. I’m also not accustomed to with hunting in a party.”
“Then good hunting. I pray that you get back alive.”
“Thank you.” I shook the guard’s hand in thanks and walked out the gate.
Gorgons, Part I
I saw several parties out hunting around me. There was not a single other deva that was out hunting alone like I was.
It was dangerous to come out here alone because of the Petrification Curse of the Gorgons, as the guard had said. If there was no one else around to remove the curse, the only choice left was death. But when I heard that there were Gorgons around, I was secretly ecstatic. I had the Unrivaled skill to protect me. I was immune to all status effects, including Petrification.
In the past, I had the chance to face Gorgons. Gorgons liked to Petrify their opponents, but that wasn’t their only method of attack.
The best way to counter their Petrify attacks was to just avoid their eyes, or to use a Mirror Shield. Looking into their eyes would get you cursed with Petrification, but the time the curse took to completely consume you depended on your WIL and MDEF. The lower they were, the faster you were Petrified.
You needed to use Cure Petrification Scrolls, or have a healer/buffer use the Remove Curse spell on you before you completely turned to stone to free yourself from the curse!
“If I recall correctly, Gorgons use Lightning magic and magic snakes to attack, as well…” The primary method of attacking of Meduasae was to unleash a swarm of magic snakes to distract their foe, then close the distance between them and their enemies in order to rain down a torrent of Lightning spells.
There was another type of Gorgons that attacked with Magic Arrows. These were higher leveled than normal Medusas, but back then, there weren’t many of them. It was safe to say that Petrify, magic snakes, and Lightning were the primary attacks of Gorgons.
“Either way, I’ll be able to farm a lot of experience points from them thanks to my status immunity and their low HP.” Gorgons were high level monsters. There were bound to be stronger Gorgons out there, since they were field monsters, but I wasn’t worried.
“I suppose I’ll start somewhere nearby.” I left Pocheon and headed north.
—
I saw a few parties here and there fighting Gorgons. One party had an archer and a mystic aggro about four to five Gorgons at once, and a shield mage, a class of magic tanks, countered their spells. The shield mage used Iron Shield and Solid Earth Wall to protect the archer and mystic while they pummeled the Gorgons with arrows and spells. The shield mage occasionally retreated back when cursed by Petrify so that a mage could use Remove Curse on him.
It was a pretty common method of fighting Gorgons, which I had also used in the past.
