Chapter 23

[Bounty Quest]

[Hunter of the Swamp]

● Grade: Heroic (Hidden)

● You have fallen into the trap of hunters who prey on adventurers by using their deceased parents’ keepsake as bait. Either escape the hunters and the swamp safely, or hunt the hunters.

● Reward: 2 Gold

The moment I realized the hunters’ true intentions, the Sub Quest I had received disappeared and changed into a Bounty Quest.

“Wow.”

I had almost been completely fooled.

Han Youngwoong was no country bumpkin ignorant of the ways of the world.

Having worked since he was young and lived a life strapped for cash, he was confident he could spot most scams.

But he had never imagined that in a game, an NPC would give a Quest meant to deceive the user.

A high reward, a good item.

If I had been lured by that and only thought about selling it, I would have been attacked from behind.

At the same time, red names appeared above the heads of the NPCs who had just passed by.

[Kral Lv16]

[Sarot Lv17]

[Kingkang Lv20]

They were above the swamp’s recommended level.

Levels high enough to hunt Lizardmen themselves.

Anger surged at the thought that if I had gone to the Lizardman village, I could have died from an arrow in my back.

“2 Gold….”

Should I go after them?

But there was no guarantee I could win.

If I thought of each of them as a Lizardman, and considering I had just distributed my Stats, I felt like it might be manageable, but the fact that they were hunters who preyed on humans made me a little uneasy.

I was thinking it might be better to go to Hanimo Temple and at least report what had happened, when—

Fwoosh-

Hearing something cut through the air, I reflexively dodged, and an arrow grazed past me.

“What, he dodged it?”

“I told you to shoot more carefully.”

“It’s because the wind was blowing.”

I thought I had hidden well, but that apparently didn’t work on hunters who lived in the swamp.

Seeing the hunters smirking at me, I had to give up on the option of running away.

“Hey, adventurer. You heard that, right? If you had just gone straight to the Lizardman village, we would’ve ended it comfortably for you. How embarrassing for us.”

“Just die quietly. Huh?”

“You don’t look like you’re wearing much, but we’re the kind of people who even make use of the body.”

It felt real.

Compared to the jeers of PK users, the words of these NPCs were far more sarcastic and filled with killing intent.

They really intended to kill me.

To them, Fantasia was life.

And the same was true for Han Youngwoong.

He gripped the Boing Hammer.

“Oho. You’re trying to fight? We’re pretty seasoned hunters, you know?”

“You shouldn’t think you can take us just because you can hunt a few Lizardmen. This one here is a former apprentice knight.”

Kingkang, the Lv20 hunter, drew a fairly well-honed sword and stepped forward.

“Don’t interfere. I need to stretch my legs for the first time in a while.”

The fortunate thing was that they seemed to be underestimating Han Youngwoong, since the three of them weren’t rushing him all at once.

He calmed his breathing and closed his eyes.

He calmly composed himself.

He just had to think of it as the duel with Sword God he had refused earlier.

He had refused out of fear that his character would be deleted if he died, but if he thought of it as the game system forcing him to accept, wouldn’t that make it a little easier?

And the man in front of him was not Sword God.

He looked to be in his mid-forties, a man clinging to the faded honor of what he used to be.

Step, step.

He moved forward one step at a time.

He would have done the same even if it had been a duel with Sword God.

In Han Youngwoong’s own way.

“Haha! Yes, come on.”

From the perspective of a man who had at least once tasted knighthood, the countless openings looked absurd, so he sneered and thrust his sword.

Han Youngwoong twisted his body just enough to avoid the places that looked fatal and swung the Boing Hammer.

“Hmph, with that ridiculous hammer…!”

Kingkang didn’t dodge either.

It was less a battle of exchanged blows and more a dogfight.

Boing!

Stab-

The sword pierced his left shoulder.

The Boing Hammer struck Kingkang’s left shoulder.

Boing-boing-boing-boing-boing-boing-boing-!

“……!”

The result was dramatic.

“Crazy!”

The endless impact sounds of Lucky Attack rang out, and Kingkang’s left arm was torn off as if it had been ripped away.

“Kuaaaargh!”

He let out a pained scream, and then his breath cut off.

NPCs were no different from Monsters.

When their Health ran out, they died.

“Kingkang!”

At the same time, I saw one of the hunters fire an arrow.

I was already on guard for it, and since the distance wasn’t far, I ducked to avoid it and closed the gap.

Boing!

“Keuk!”

Luck didn’t trigger this time.

But even with only +1 Attack Power, his Strength Stat was already 41, so the hunter with the bow clutched his stomach from the heavy blow.

Wham!

“Kuk.”

At the same time, the hunter with the hammer struck Han Youngwoong in the back.

10% of his Health disappeared in an instant.

An attack that relied on a large frame and brute force.

For it to deal this much damage despite the Defense of his +12 Enhanced top, it was incredibly powerful.

“You bastard. Die!”

An iron hammer, insulting even to compare with the Boing Hammer, came crashing down once more, this time at his head.

The head of the Boing Hammer, which he reflexively swung up, collided with it.

Boing!

[Lucky Strike!]

[Lucky Chance!]

Kwwwaaaaang!

The sturdy iron hammer shattered and flew apart, and a fragment smashed into the hunter’s head, sending him collapsing to the ground.

“…S-save me.”

The last remaining hunter, the archer, trembled.

At his desperate look, I nodded.

“Th-thank….”

“I found it.”

“……?”

“Here, the keepsake.”

“……”

Saying that, he took out the shabby High-grade necklace he had gotten from the PK users and held it out to the hunter.

“This is it, right?”

“That….”

He said with a bright smile.

At the sudden change in atmosphere, the archer’s eyes darted around.

The necklace was shoved into his hand, and with the Boing Hammer resting on Han Youngwoong’s shoulder, an unspoken pressure bore down on him.

Realizing what it meant, his hands began to tremble.

“You have to give me the reward, right?”

“P-please spare me! I’m sorry! I only have 3 Gold.”

Realizing there was no way out, the hunter took out everything he had and prostrated himself, begging.

3 Gold and the bow he used.

When there was still no response, the hunter cautiously lifted his head to check Han Youngwoong’s reaction.

“……!”

What he saw was Han Youngwoong leaving the Gold and the bow there while rummaging through the corpses of the other two.

His back happened to be turned, and the sight of his leopard-print-covered butt as he squatted, along with his back visible through his nearly transparent top, was menacing.

A bright smile spread across Han Youngwoong’s face as he found something.

Then he turned around, walked over without hesitation with the Boing Hammer in hand, and said,

“It’s okay. I’ll make up the missing 2 Gold myself.”

“Uwaaack!”

Boing!

There was no mercy in the descending Boing Hammer.

===

Hanimo was a huge city.

A city twice the size of Moina.

As a place bordering the Land of the Dead, a lot had been invested in its outer walls, making them sturdy.

Scratches and signs of battle could be seen here and there.

If Moina was a castle that felt built to represent the medieval era…

Hanimo gave off the feeling of a city with a long history of fighting the undead, making my heart pound.

Would I be able to experience such a battle?

It was quiet after entering the castle.

The sight of NPCs walking around was no different from Moina, but with no users in the large city, it felt like a single-player game.

“So cool.”

Is this the benefit and romance of being a Pioneer?

It felt like being a lone traveler who had found a city in some remote part of Europe, with not a single other Korean tourist in sight.

I thought about looking around more, but I headed straight for the temple.

“Welcome, Hero. We have been waiting for you.”

“Hello.”

The city was large, but the temple was smaller than Moina’s.

Perhaps because it was a city built for war against the undead.

There were no splendid buildings or luxuries inside.

Unlike Moina, which had been covered in brilliant gold and pure white, Hanimo Temple was clad in neat, clean white.

“This way, please.”

Following the middle-aged priest NPC at the entrance, I arrived at a modest-sized hall, where a woman wearing a white veil sat at the end of a long pew.

She was beautiful.

Her face, faintly visible through the mesh-like white veil, was delicate, small, and youthful.

Below that, her pure white priestess robes looked luxurious, and despite being a single plain color without patterns or decoration, the emblem of golden wings drawn on her chest stood out as a focal point.

How pretty must she be if I thought she was beautiful even when I could only vaguely see her?

My eyes were naturally drawn to her.

‘Every temple has at least one pretty priestess.’

Since it was a game, and the temple was a place that sucked money out of users, I figured this was an element meant to fleece them more efficiently.

It wasn’t bad.

For the Lucky Hero, who was destined to stay close to the temple, it was almost like having a purpose for diligently completing Quests.

Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the woman.

The middle-aged priest bowed to the young woman.

‘Huh?’

I flinched at the unexpected development in an unexpected situation.

Nothing like this had happened at Moina Temple.

The priestess who had guided him there had been lower in rank than the older priests.

That was why she had been in charge of Hero Han Youngwoong, giving him Quests along with menial tasks.

In a temple where one accumulated Divine Power through prayer unless some special incident occurred, the common sense that age equaled a larger store of Divine Power should have been unshakable.

‘If that’s the case….’

Suddenly, the pretty woman seemed special.

The veiled woman stood up, approached, and took my hand.

“Hello, Hero. I am Aria, a faithful servant of the Goddess of Fortune.”

Next to her greeting, the middle-aged priest added,

“She is the Saintess of the Temple of Luck.”

“…Eh? The Saintess?”

I had thought she might be something like a high priestess who had received a divine revelation, but a Saintess.

I looked at Aria with a surprised expression.

At a glance, she looked to be in her early twenties.

She had a youthfulness that could even pass for her late teens.

It was only her mature way of speaking and the figure revealed beneath her neat robes that kept her from looking younger.

“I heard the news that you resolved the Magi in Moina Village. I cannot tell you how happy I was to hear of the Hero’s appearance.”

“…Me too.”

A smile spread across my face at her soft touch.

The purpose of the game was money, but if there was a pleasant process along the way, I had no reason to complain.

It was even better that the pretty priestesses of the temple warmly held my hands without hesitation.

“It is all for the Goddess of Fortune, after all.”

A silly smile appeared on my face.

The priestess at Moina Temple had been pretty, but Saintess Aria far surpassed that level.

“I heard you obtained a ring imbued with Magi.”

While I was just staring blankly at the face beyond the veil and smiling, the Saintess changed the subject with a slightly troubled expression.

“Ah!”

Only then did I come to my senses and take the old ring I had obtained from defeating the Cursed Ferocious Bear out of my inventory.

Pretty was pretty, but work was work.

A ring that was a clue to an important Main Quest.

“This is….”

The Saintess carefully placed the ring on her palm and purified the old ring with Divine Power.

The rust on the ring peeled away, its worn traces disappeared, and unknown characters engraved within were revealed.

“…This is the ring of Archmage Haiken.”

“Pardon?”

The revealed identity of the ring was pure chaos.

An Archmage wasn’t a demon, but a mage from the Mage Tower, right?

I wondered if that was really a word that should be appearing now that I had just entered Act 2 of the Main Quest.

“The Archmage who betrayed humanity. The one who dabbled in black magic for eternal life and was reborn as a Lich, one of the vanguards plunging the continent into danger. This ring is one of the ten rings that symbolized him.”

“Then does that mean the Lich named Haiken made it?”

“Probably. He would not have acted directly. He is likely hiding and recovering from a great, unhealable wound inflicted by the Lucky Hero 2,000 years ago.”

Although the official website had a rough outline of Fantasia’s setting, it didn’t contain that kind of detailed information.

That too was part of the fun users were meant to discover while adventuring through Fantasia.

Even Han Youngwoong, who had not the slightest interest in history, found the Saintess’s words easy to understand and nodded.

Whether it was because the Saintess was so pretty or because he was immersed in the situation.

“In my opinion, I believe it is also related to the sudden increase of undead in the Land of the Dead, Hero.”

“Ah.”

“At the end of the Land of the Dead, there will be a trace of Haiken. Could you please find it for me?”

[Main Quest]

[Trace of Archmage Haiken (1)]

● Grade: Heroic

● A trace of Haiken, the 9th-circle Archmage who abandoned his humanity and became a Lich for eternal life, has been discovered. That trace may be found by pursuing the secret behind the rampant undead at the end of the Land of the Dead.

● Reward: 10 Gold, 500 Temple Contribution Level, Stat Point (3), Equipment Item Lucky Slot (1), Fated Prayer 1st Trait Unlocked

“…I have to do it. I must. I am an apostle of the Goddess of Fortune.”

“As expected.”

If the priestess was skilled at slyly seducing and handling a man’s heart like a fox, Saintess Aria stirred a man’s heart with her pure eyes.

As if saying,

‘You can do it. Only you can.’

Looking at me with those eyes, a strong desire to succeed welled up inside me.

The reward fanned that small spark into a huge flame.

“Hero.”

“Yes.”

While I was organizing my complicated thoughts about how to handle the Quest, the Saintess suddenly slipped her hand inside the robes beneath her veil.

“Eh? All of a sudden?”

I wondered what kind of surprise event this was, but in the Saintess’s hand when it emerged was a necklace with a small jewel set into it.

“…Ah.”

It was a misunderstanding.

I coughed dryly in embarrassment as the Saintess held out the necklace.

“It will not be an easy fight. Since the Hero’s power is not yet complete, I hope this will be of some help.”

The necklace I received still held a lingering warmth.

‘It was inside the Saintess’s clothes….’

[Necklace of the Lucky Domain (Mythic)]

[A necklace created long ago when the Lucky Hero sealed part of his power into a jewel. It has been passed down through the temple. It reacts to the mana of a worthy individual, allowing them to use the Hero’s power.]

※ Usable once every 24 hours

● Deploys a Lucky Domain within a 30M radius

“Huk!”

The meaning alone was enough.

But upon seeing the Option, I couldn’t help but gasp.

“Is the Lucky Domain perhaps the Land of Golden Light?”

“You are already seeing the Lucky Domain? As expected of a Hero born with talent. That’s right. That necklace creates a Lucky Domain. I hope it will be of some help in the Hero’s trial….”

The Saintess folded her hands over mine, which held the necklace, and prayed for me.

Calming my trembling heart, I quickly equipped it and cautiously asked,

“…Are you giving this to me?”

The Saintess replied with a bright smile.

“It is a treasure of the temple. It is also a symbol passed down through generations of Saintesses.”

“I see.”

“Have you learned Fated Prayer?” (T/N: Changed from Prayer of Inevitability)

“Yes.”

“When this mission is over, the power of the Goddess’s statue will be restored, and the power contained in the Hero’s prayer will also grow stronger, which will be a great help in handling the Lucky Domain.”

The 1st Trait Unlocked listed as a Quest reward.

A hint that it was a way to make the Lucky Domain, the Land of Golden Light, easier to create.

My lingering attachment to the necklace completely vanished.

With renewed determination, I listened to the information about the Land of the Dead.

“The estimated number of undead in the Land of the Dead is about 100,000.”

“…Pardon?”

That was a pretty large number to deal with through determination alone.