Chapter 9

As time passed, users discovered the Main Quest.

– Investigating the Corrupted Forest, this has to be the main one, right?

– Since it’s tied to Magi, this has to be it.

– I got a Quest to obtain a Corrupted Mana Stone. It’s the Main Quest.

– Oh, judging from what the NPC said, it looks like it connects to a Quest to kill a Field Boss?

===

Collective intelligence really was a wonderful thing.

Bits and pieces of information.

Stories heard from various NPCs, when gathered one by one, added up to quite a lot and helped people piece together the Main Quest.

Users who had leveled up and upgraded their Equipment headed for Moina Forest.

– The level in the Corrupted Forest is brutal;;

– The Corrupted Monsters are insanely strong. I died fighting a Goblin 1v1 lol

– Field Boss? Forget it. If you’re not geared up, you can’t even kill the trash mobs.

– They say the drop rate is so awful you can kill Corrupted Monsters and still not get Mana Stones.

==

But it wasn’t easy.

The grassland hunting grounds were full of non-aggressive Monsters.

The entrance to Moina Forest had aggressive Monsters, but they were still just beasts.

Inside the Corrupted Forest, the level suddenly spiked, and the Monsters started fighting intelligently. Most users couldn’t adapt to the huge gap and were getting wiped out in droves.

Even users accustomed to combat found hunting difficult because of the level and item gap.

– Meanwhile, Sword God is off shooting a movie by himself again.
└ Where can I watch it?
└ (SwordGod_CorruptedForest_Battle.gif)
└ …Wow. His Equipment is basically cash-shop-tier. Is that even possible?
└ It takes him a while, but watching him kill them so easily is depressing.

– EasyLife’s gear got better too. I heard he already bought a Corrupted Mana Stone and is pushing the next Quest?
└ Ah, you can buy those?
└ Yep. Check the Exchange. They’re 10 Silver each lol

===

A rumor spread like wildfire that even though Corrupted Monsters were difficult to kill, if one dropped a Corrupted Mana Stone, you could earn 10 Silver.

So everyone started throwing themselves into the Corrupted Forest, risking their lives.

If they could somehow just manage to hunt.

If they could somehow just get a Corrupted Mana Stone from a top-tier hunting ground and sell it, no matter how hard it was.

Around that time, a post appeared on Fantasia Life.

– [Tricolor Slime King’s Slime (Heroic)] Isn’t this item insane? I was browsing the Exchange, found it, and took a screenshot.
└ ??
└ What the hell is this item? Crazy. It gives +7 Attack Power?
└ Where did they even get this?
└ A weapon enchantment item? That’s basically an enhancement item.

===

The desire of the users, who were in the middle of upgrading their Equipment to hunt in the Contaminated Moina Forest, flared up at the sight of a Heroic Grade item being put up for sale.

Many users drooled over it.

But they couldn’t approach it easily.

Minimum bid is 5 Gold.

– Omg. Who’s going to spend 8 million won on that?

– It’s too expensive.

– It’s just an early-game item we’ll outgrow anyway.

===

At that point in time, it was an impossible amount to gather without microtransactions.

Everyone predicted the same thing.

It would fail to sell.

Tomorrow, it would be listed again at a lower price.

Maybe it would be worth buying for around 1 to 2 Gold, and so on.

In fact, there had been no bids for a full three days.

The fuse was lit at the very end.

A bid came in at the minimum price, and then, with one hour left in the auction, the bid price, which rose in 50 Silver increments, began climbing higher.

And with 10 minutes remaining, fierce competition ignited, soon surpassing 10 Gold.

– (Breaking) Heroic Grade slime sold for 14 Gold.
└ Excuse me?
└ You mean 1.4 Gold, right?
└ Is it really worth that much?

It sold for a price worthy of making the news, over 20 million won in cash.

===

[Event Quest]

[First Subjugation of the Master of the Corrupted Forest, the Cursed Ferocious Bear!]

[● Honor will be bestowed upon the Party of the Hero who first defeats the boss Monster of Main Quest Act 1, the Cursed Ferocious Bear, and their name will be recorded in history. Become the first Hero to challenge it and make your name known!]

[● Reward: 10 Gold, Title [Savior of Moina Forest (Legendary)], Class-Exclusive Weapon Box (Heroic)]

Around the time the auction ended, an event Quest was announced to all users.

It was at a point when users who had adapted to Fantasia and grown to some extent were beginning to see the end of the Main Quest, not to mention Fantasia Life.

As if proving how much they loved events that stirred their competitive spirit, users began swarming into the Corrupted Forest.

– I can’t resist 10 Gold.

– A Legendary Title? This is making my eyes spin.

– A Heroic weapon box, omg.

Just one Party.

The fact that a Party was clearly defined as a four-person unit sparked hope in quite a few users.

– It doesn’t seem like anyone’s progressed that far yet.

– Should I try it too…….

– If you get lucky and kill it just once, that’s at least 15 million won.

Of course, this was also because not much information about the Main Quest had been released yet, leaving plenty of room for hope.

Either way, for Han Youngwoong, this wasn’t entirely good news.

“There are too many people.”

He had planned to farm Corrupted Mana Stones until the auction ended, but in a hunting ground where there were more people than Monsters, he had no choice but to return empty-handed.

“Ah, why did they have to announce an event like this?”

He had barely managed to kill a few Corrupted Goblins, and not a single Corrupted Mana Stone had dropped.

The arrow of his resentment naturally turned toward the event.

But before long, that resentment became praise.

[The Tricolor Slime King’s Slime registered on the Exchange has been sold for 14 Gold.]

“…Huh?”

When he first logged in, and even when he had come back to town to check periodically during the hunt, there hadn’t been a single bidder.

He had even gone so far as to upload a screenshot of the item to the forums while pretending to be a third party.

‘Did I list it too high?’

‘Is there still no one who can afford an item like this?’

But only a few minutes after the event announcement, bidding began, and it sold for 14 Gold.

“Am I dreaming?”

Even after the commission fee was taken out, 11 Gold and 20 Silver came in.

Combined with the Gold he already had, that brought him to 15 Gold.

That was over 25 million won.

“Thank you, Fantasia. For promoting it for me too…”

No matter how he looked at it, it could only be seen as the big spenders going on a shopping spree because of the First Subjugation event.

Of course, the Tricolor Slime King’s Slime would be incredibly useful in the early game, since it raised Attack Power by a whopping 7 with a single enchantment, but it still wasn’t easy to spend that kind of money.

It wasn’t as if you could detach the slime later and move it to a different weapon.

To spend more than 20 million won applying it to an early-game weapon?

That was beyond his comprehension.

Were the Title and rewards really valuable enough to justify that kind of investment?

“They are. It’s a one-of-a-kind Title in Fantasia.”

He tried to understand.

Thinking about the Title for the fastest record in the Tutorial Tower, it did seem possible.

He had seen stories saying the previous number one user, EasyLife, had spent around that much money.

If it came with Options that affected character growth, like all the Stat-related Options in the reward, then money would naturally become secondary.

“For now, I’ll hold onto the Gold instead of selling it.”

The number of Fantasia users was increasing by the day, and the price of Gold was either holding steady or slowly rising with it.

He had already cashed out some money, so he planned to hold the rest of the Gold like stocks and withdraw it when he needed it.

“Hehe.”

He couldn’t stop smiling.

The only profit he had made that day was the money from selling the Slime King’s Slime, but that was enough.

No, it was more than enough.

“I’m clocking out early today.”

Feeling so good that he made a choice he normally never would, he logged out of Fantasia a full 30 minutes early.

21:30.

===

The next day, the promised day with Cain arrived, so he went to Cain’s shop.

“Oh! Hero, you came.”

Cain greeted him brightly.

Cain’s shop was a potion shop located near the center of Moina Village, large enough to have a separate sales NPC.

He led Han Youngwoong past the area where all kinds of potions were displayed and into the research lab in the back.

“Thanks to you, I was able to study Magi in great detail.”

“Did anything useful come out of it?”

“Yes, I finally found a way to make use of it.”

“Ooh.”

Even though he wouldn’t understand the details, he responded enthusiastically.

There was bound to be Gold involved in the follow-up Quest.

The man practically reeked of money from the way he looked, and wasn’t a potion shop basically the game’s equivalent of a hospital, rolling in cash?

“Potions mixed with Magi are more effective, and I found that when used as doping agents, their effects become especially dramatic. I believe I can make them if I commission another Hero to obtain Corrupted Mana Stones for me. Thank you, Hero.”

“I only did what I had to do.”

“That’s why…”

After that preamble, Cain cautiously checked Han Youngwoong’s reaction and finally got to the point.

“…this is something other Heroes cannot do, so I would like to ask you, mighty Hero.”

“Just say the word.”

The harder the request, the longer the hesitation, and the higher the price.

“Deep within the Corrupted Forest, there is a place so thick with Magi that approaching it is dangerous in itself. I need the liver of the master of the forest that lives there, the Cursed Ferocious Bear.”

“Its liver?”

“Yes. I intend to create an elixir using the highly concentrated Magi contained in that liver.”

[Sub Quest]

[Liver of the Cursed Ferocious Bear]

[● Grade: Heroic]

[● After researching the Corrupted Mana Stone, the alchemist Cain has found a way to utilize Magi. Grant his request so he can create a new elixir using the liver of the Cursed Ferocious Bear, which contains highly concentrated Magi.]

[※ This Quest is linked to the Main Quest.]

[● Reward: 3 Gold, Cain’s favorability increases to [Friendly]]

The difficulty was rising.

A tear welled up at Cain’s desperate plea.

A secret Quest he wouldn’t entrust to other users.

“I’ll definitely get it for you.”

For 3 Gold, he would have fed the bear Corrupted Mana Stones himself to fatten up the Magi in its liver if he had to.

“Since you have ties to the temple, try asking a priest of second rank or higher. They should give you some information.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Who would have thought this chubby man could be this likable.

Fully sympathizing with Cain’s situation, Han Youngwoong headed to the temple with a vow to bring back that liver.

He went straight to the priestess, who was once again hard at work being beautiful today.

When he approached her as she prayed in front of the Goddess statue, she gave him a gentle smile, and he grinned back foolishly, already forgetting why he had come.

“Hello.”

“You’ve come, Hero? You’re as passionate as ever today. Your devotion to the continent is truly wonderful.”

“I-Is that so?”

How were lines like this even programmed?

Spoken with a completely straight face and full of sincerity, they were enough to melt anyone who wasn’t cold-hearted to the core.

After barely calming his pounding heart, he asked about the Quest.

“Is there anything I can learn about the Cursed Ferocious Bear of the Corrupted Forest?”

“As expected of you, Hero. So you already knew? Did you receive an Oracle?”

“Pardon?”

“Your next mission is to defeat the Cursed Ferocious Bear.”

“…Pardon?”

The First Subjugation event.

Cain’s request.

The temple’s mission.

To think all three were connected.

[Main Quest]

[The Curse of the Contaminated Moina Forest]

[● Grade: Legendary]

[● Defeat the Cursed Ferocious Bear, the source of the Magi blanketing Moina Forest, erase the curse, and lay the groundwork for purifying the forest’s Magi.]

[● Reward: 1 Gold, Stat Points (3), Lucky Box (1)]

When he saw that Cain’s Quest was linked to the Main Quest, he had roughly expected something like this, but he had never imagined he would receive a Quest with the exact same objective.

Feeling both delighted and wary, he asked,

“…I don’t know why the Gold reward is fixed like this, but…”

“Hero.”

“Of course, Gold isn’t what matters.”

“Of course.”

Even though he grumbled, he had no real complaints because the non-Gold rewards looked extremely good.

“But what is a Lucky Box?”

“A Lucky Box is a box from which you can draw a customized reward meant specifically for you, Hero. Think of it as a ticket that lets you draw from the Lucky Box once.”

“…You mean like that thing in a gambling den?”

“Please do not compare it to such a lowly object.”

(T/N : Okayyyy, Gatcha then lol )

“Yes…”

Even the priestess’s slightly stern expression had a certain charm of its own.

With another gentle smile, the priestess warned him about the Main Quest.

“The Cursed Ferocious Bear is an extremely dangerous Monster, as it was personally cursed by a high-ranking demon. Its natural weight class is high, its close-combat power is tremendous, and it possesses high Health and recovery, so the longer the battle drags on, the more difficult it becomes.”

“Is it tough enough to endure my hammer?”

Since it was the boss Monster of Act 1 of the Main Quest, he didn’t think it would be easy.

But it wasn’t a demon. At best, it was still just a bear, wasn’t it?

A real bear was a horrifying beast that could tear a person apart, but this was still a game.

“Of course, a mere Monster cannot withstand an attack imbued with the Goddess of Fortune’s authority through the power of a mere curse alone. However, you must be careful, as before your still-inadequate Luck as a Hero can manifest, you may be struck by a powerful attack and placed in danger.”

“That’s true.”

This wasn’t about underestimating it or letting his guard down. It was about gathering information.

Main Quest: 1 Gold.

Cain’s Quest: 3 Gold.

Event Quest: 10 Gold.

Together, they were worth the same as the Slime King’s Slime. He had to absorb every bit of this information with his whole heart.

So he thought about it seriously.

“Should I upgrade my Armor?”

He had Mythical Grade pants, but they weren’t a cure-all.

His other Equipment pieces were just Common to High Grade gear he had picked up here and there.

That was enough when hunting ordinary Monsters in the forest, but since this was a boss Monster, wouldn’t it be better to prepare as much as possible?

As he was thinking it over, the priestess asked with a smile,

“There is an item sold at the temple that would suit you, Hero. Shall I show it to you?”

“…Pardon?”

It was a gentle suggestion that almost made him pull out all the Gold he had been saving.