Chapter 73 Secret Society (3) .
Chapter 73 – Secret Society (3)
7.
– This is to be expected from the Hahoe Mask.
– Are you putting up the Hahoe Mask part too? I'll be waiting.
– Isn't he better at Armor Break than most rankers? I don't know why he is a Necromancer.
– If we look at the Helm Ogre's eyes, can we tell if it is a Corrupt monster?
– I looked at it closely after I read the post above. There is a black marbling in his eyes, so it's 100% Corrupt.
– So the Corrupt Monster was at the Parung Forest. It is a main quest monster. I guess I'll have to go there once.
The video garnered over 100,000 comments. Choi-sulyeon angrily scrolled down with her smartphone to read the comments left below the video. She scrolled up endlessly and, as if she didn't want to see it anymore, turned off the smartphone's screen. Her reflection could be seen after the screen turned black, her face filled with irritation and discontent. However, she still looked beautiful.
‘Which guild is in the possession of the Hahoe Mask?’
Hahoe Mask Hyrkan.
He couldn't be called a super rookie any more. Now the 30 great guild had their eyes out for him. He was a topic of conversation, and he was talked about as much as any of the rankers. Moreover, his skills were already acknowledged by the rankers. Even with the same level, class, and items, no one could easily guarantee that they will win against the Hahoe Mask in a 1on1 matchup.
On top of that, he had chosen the class of Necromancer, and it meant he had intimate understanding of this game, which allowed him to become as strong as he was now. All the guilds coveted him. The 30 great guilds and the influential guilds were focusing on growing Necromancers now. However, the final product paled in comparison to Hyrkan.
Currently, the 30 great guild thought Hyrkan was attached to a guild. They determined there must be a guild sponsoring him. If that wasn't the case, they couldn't come up with an explanation regarding the Hahoe Mask's play. It was impossible to accept his success if that wasn't the case.
That was the reason why Choi-sulyeon was angry.
She was irritated he wasn't within her grasp. Moreover, it made her much more irritated when that person was within another person's grasp.
‘How the hell are they in front of us?’
The guild with the Hahoe Mask in their grasps was farther along in the Main Scenario Quest than the Stormhunter guild. She wasn't annoyed by it. She was seriously worried about this problem.
Choi-sulyeon gritted her teeth.
She wanted to look for a decisive method where they would be able flip the situation. However, she felt frustrated since she couldn't come up with any ideas.
At that moment, her smartphone suddenly rang. She saw a familiar number on the screen.
‘A call?’
Usually, he contacted her through the chatting app. There must really be an urgent business if he was calling her directly.
Choi-sulyeon answered her phone.
“What is it?”
– It's a breaking news.
“Do you really need to deliver this news by calling me?”
Choi-sulyeon's voice was sharp. The officer of the Stormhunters who had contacted her realized Choi-sulyeoun was in a fould mood. He immediately told her the news without any preamble.
– Triple Wing and Big Smile just declared war.
“How bad is it?”
The light in Choi-sulyeon's eyes changed. Of course, she knew those guilds. Those two guilds were part of the the 30 great guilds.
– It's almost an all-out-war.
“That is a breaking news.”
When the call ended, Choi-sulyeon moved quickly.
‘Is the Corrupt being finally coming out?’
For a brief moment, she stopped worrying about the Hahoe Mask.
8.
[Your Level has risen.]
When he successfully achieved level up, the Black Troll skewered by Hyrkan fell forward. Hyrkan extracted his sword from the Black Troll's body. Hyrkan looked around his surrounding, then he lowered his guard. The Skeleton Warriors who had been in their fighting stance relaxed as they took cue from their master. Hyrkan gathered them around him.
Hyrkan checked his Stats, while he was in the midst of the Skeleton Warriors.
[Hyrkan]
– Level : 80
– Class : Magician
– Title : 40
– Stats : Strength(762)/Stamina(321)/Intelligence(491)/Magic Power(605)
‘The effect of the ring is killer.’
He invested his Level Up bonus points to Intelligence, and he couldn't believe his Stats even though he was looking right at it. There wasn't any indication here, but the effect of the Stamina and Magic Power recovery increase option was quite devastating. Currently, Hyrkan barely felt the lack of Magic Power.
That wasn't all.
‘This 5s Model was really well made. It feels completely different from the Level 4 Model.’
The Level 5S Model was worth its cost. He didn't regret cutting his daily spending money for food and basic necessities.
This two factors allowed Hyrkan to basically slaughter the monsters inside the Parung Forest.
‘It's time for me to graduate from here.’
In other words, he had outgrown the Parung Forest.
Of course, he would be able to become level 100 by staying at the Parung Forest. In fact, most of the users hunting in the Parung Forest right now were at least level 90. However, Hyrkan was able to take down stronger monsters than the ones here. He wanted something with better exp.
‘Also, there are more people here now.’
Above all else, when the footage of the Helm Ogre was released, the users over level 100 flocked towards the Parung Forest. These users were the ones who picked up the scent of the Main Scenario Quest. Now, the 30 great guilds would do anything to send their guild members this way. His competitors will increase. Moreover, those who were jealous of Hyrkan's fame would try to start a fight with him for no reason.
At this point, Hyrkan thought hard about his decision.
‘It would really be hard for me to go to the great Urugal mountain range right now.’
If he was currently level 90, Hyrkan would have headed towards the great Urugal mountain range. The difference of 10 levels was quite significant.
“Hoo-ooh.”
Hyrkan let out a troubled sigh.
‘Let's take care of this first.’
Hyrkan momentarily halted his worrying thoughts and started dismantling the Troll's corpse. He peeled off the leather with a deft touch, waiting for the Troll to melt away. In that brief amount of time, he found an article on the Internet.
‘The Triple Wing and Big Smile is going at it for real.’
The current hot news in Warlord was the fight between the members of the 30 great guilds.
It was Big Smile vs Triple Wing.
Big Smile was a guild consisting of mainly Chinese users. They were top 3 within the 30 great guilds in terms of membership. Triple Wing had users from all over the place, so it was meaningless to associate any country with the guild. Like Big Smile, they were also one of the top 3 guilds in terms of haivng the most members.
These two guilds had diversified their businesses. Since they had a lot of users, they had their hands in a lot of things. Whether it was the Main Scenario Quest, PVP, Raid, or regular hunting, they created a lot of contents regarding Warlord.
On the other hand, they didn't have a sure-fire content they could fall back on. Since both guilds operated in a similar way, the two guilds clashed quite often. They considered each other to be competitors.
‘Wow. They intruded on a Raid? They were always on bad terms, but this seems to be more serious.’
This conflict didn't look ordinary even in Hyrkan's eyes.
Moreover, it was a very big deal that the Big Smile had intruded on a Triple Wing's Raid.
The guild members always bumped heads with each other on the road, and they had frequent skirmishes. However, it was something that could be overlooked. Although if one interrupted a raid, it was a statement saying one didn't care if they died or the other side died. It basically meant the fight was on and they weren’t going to put any time limit to it! The act perpetrated was egregious enough to elicit this response.
Before Hyrkan returned to the past, the two guilds had a bad relationship with each other, but it wasn't enough to elicit such a desperate struggle.
‘Is it because of me?’
There was a high probability that Hyrkan was the main cause of this event.
This was commonly called the butterfly effect.
Hyrkan had returned to the past, and this was the result of him changing the history. He had already massively fucked over the Hydra guild. If such factors starts to mount, there was a high probability that it culminated to a war between these two guilds.
Of course, he didn't feel a single inkling of guilt at the sight of the two guilds colliding with each other.
No, he was thankful instead.
‘Yes. I hated seeing both these guilds. It would be great if they both go under from the fighting.’
He didn't have any good feelings towards these two guilds. When the Stormhunter guild decided to chase Hyrkan out of Warlord, they had sought the cooperation of the 30 great guild. A ragtag group from the Triple Wing and Big Smile had attacked Hyrkan to gain notoriety. They didn't even fight him one on one. They gave some bullshit excuse saying it was his judgement day. About half a dozen of them attacked Hyrkan.
Those mother fuckers.
Except….
‘Just by looking at this, you never know what will happen in this world.’
This thought acted as a catalyst.
‘Wait a moment.’
This was a catalyst that changed Hyrkan's train of thought.
‘Was Ahimbree also a member of the Society?’
Hyrkan glanced at his left hand.
‘What would happen if I meet Ahimbree while wearing this ring?’
9.
The list of his worries was long.
‘If I go to the Bagntz castle to meet Ahimbree and come back to the Parung forest, the round trip would take a whole day. Will I be wasting my time?’
It would take him at least a day to go meet Ahimbree. From Hyrkan's perspective, the one day's time made him hesitate. If he couldn't earn anything from Ahimbree, he would basically wasting his precious time.
‘Ahimbree is a NPC that gives a Skill Book later at level 200. Let's go meet him at least once.’
Ahimbree was a mainstay NPC in Warlord. Hyrkan would see this NPC several times in the future. He had a cause to contact Ahibree, but should he leave him alone? Hyrkan thought hard on it and came up with an answer.
‘Anyways, I can't immediately approach the great Urugal mountain range right now. If I die on the way there, I'll receive a 48 hour penalty. That would hurt more.’
After making his decision, he sought out the Bangtz castle after a long absence to meet Ahimbree.
It wasn't too hard to meet Ahimbree.
“You are his student.”
Normally, if one didn't have a quest, it was impossible to meet Ahimbree. In Hyrkan's case, he had earned the title of Ahimbree's Disciple. This was another power of that title.
This was how he was able to meet Ahimbree.
“I've heard about you from the Maeung. You are now a member of the Society.”
When Ahimbree saw Hyrkan, he immediately brought up the story about the Society. Hyrkan was filled with anticipation.
“Yes. I am proud of becoming a member of the Society.”
“I also feel happiness at seeing you pick the right path.”
“No. You are the reason why I was able to earn such an opportunity.”
“Let's end the pleasantries here. The Society's role is very important, and at the same time, it has to be kept as an utmost secret. Our enemies are everywhere. They are men with influence. You have to be careful. Moreover, you have to get stronger. Our enemies are strong as they could be.”
Hyrkan sounded out his feelings at that moment.
“That part worries me greatly.”
“Worry?”
“I've received a mission from the Maeung. However, it is a mission I cannot carry out with my current ability. I'm not afraid to die, but I am afraid of failing the mission.”
Those words made Ahimbree stare intently at Hyrkan. Maybe the programming and the AI was assessing Hyrkan's situation, and it was calculating to come up with an answer. However, it really felt as if this other being was giving careful consideration instead of a calculation.
Basically, it didn't feel like a game.
‘Sometime, this kind of stuff scares me a little bit.’
Hyrkan held his breath when Ahimbree opened his mouth.
“Do you want to become stronger?”
“I think that would allow me to defend the world from this Corrupt group.”
“You need power so you can save the world from the monsters?”
“Yes.”
“Then this is the only preparation I can give you.”
After Ahimbree spoke, he took out a piece of paper. He placed the paper on top of the desk while tapping a fallen pen with his finger. The pen got up by itself and started to busily dance on top of the paper. The pen started dancing from the top and came to a stop at the bottom. The pen fell over as if it was exhausted. Ahimbree placed the pen aside and folded the paper. Then, he lifted it towards Hyrkan.
Hyrkan approached closer to Ahimbree and took the paper.
Ahimbree gave a stern warning to Hyrkan.
“If you want power to fight then you have no choice but to grow it through fighting.”
[Quest ‘Ferocious Battlefield’ as begun.]
Ahimbree gave him an admission ticket into the Battlefield.
10.
Heh-bibin, one of the officers in Big Smile, covered his face with both hands. He did this even while a breathless battle was happening in front of him. He had on a very worried look. Until a moment ago, he had been busy throwing magic in the hunting ground. However, the number of viewers for the most recent broadcast made him act this way.
‘The number of viewers are plummeting.’
The recent war between Triple Wing and Big Smile didn't bring smiles to anyone. Instead, it made everyone sad.
The all out war with the Triple Wing wasn't ending easily. Instead, it had ballooned into something they couldn’t control. During all of this, the viewership didn't expand. Instead, the number of viewers watching Big Smile's broadcast was greatly reduced. With the all-out-war with a member of the 30 great guild looming, this drop in viewership was a very serious issue for Big Smile.
“Fuck. That Brook bastard. He's an officer yet he made such a mess like this!”
In the end, Heh-bibin exploded.
Big Smile's officer Brook was the main culprit who had started this all-out-war. He wanted to cut Brook into pieces.
A small incident with the Triple Wing was the root cause of this all-out-war.
Brook had reached out on Triple Wing's SNS and criticized them. Of course, the Triple Wing demanded an apology. They wanted Brook to put up an apology post on the SNS. Instead of an apology, Brook had put up insults.
‘Crazy bastard. He should have nipped it in the bud. If I was the Guild Master, I would have cut this bastard from the roster!’
In the first place, Brook lived by feeding off of his own pride. He was a selfish guy, who only thought about himself rather than the others around him. Still, Heh-bibin never expected this guy to be this crazy.
In the end, the Raid had detonated the beginning of this war.
Brook led his personal troops to conduct a Boss Monster Raid and someone had interrupted it. The interloper was a member of the Triple Wing guild. However, the initial fault was with the Triple Wing, so they had given an apology. The apology was basically consisted of an 'I'm sorry.' Brook couldn't hold himself back.
Brook didn't send a report to his guild. He took his personal troops to the nearest Triple Wing's Raid and interfered with them.
This was the end result.
‘We need a turnaround.’
They had focused their forces towards the war with the Triple Wing, so the content of their usual broadcasts were becoming poor. It was affecting their viewership numbers. If their viewership numbers decreased, it would affect the money they earn from sponsorship.
It would finally lead to the live channel being given to a different guild.
The situation was keep getting worse.
This was why Heh-bibin was looking for an opportunity to turn this situation around. There needed to be some kind of change.
However, such an opportunity was hard to come by.
‘Isn't there anything suitable?’
At that moment, Heh-bibin received a text. When he heard the notification for an incoming text, Heh-bibin frowned.
‘Apollo. Why is this guy sending me a text?’
The ID indicated it was from Apollo.
He was Heh-bibin's personal patron. Apollo was wealthy, and he had given considerable monetary support to several officers in the Big Smile Guild which mainly consisted of Chinese users.
Of course, Heh-bibin had kept a respectful distance from him. He knew Apollo wanted to make a guild in his own namesake, so it wasn't proper to be in contact with him. However, he had already taken Apollo’s money. At the very least, he could give Apollo his attention.
Heh-bibin opened the text.
