Chapter 58

: (1). Strong Enemy and Level-up -2
 
YTBC’s planning team was in a panic.
It was because phones from the customer service center kept ringing.
Most of the calls were from angry viewers.

When are you going to broadcast the finals and semifinals of the Rookies’ League?
It’s been more than a day since the Rookies’ League ended. How can you not broadcast it yet?

Everyone was blaming the planning team now.

Mr. Lee! What is happening? The Rookies’ League has never been so popular!

The angry director Park Munseong asked while Lee Hansung, manager of the planning team, was
embarrassed.
He knew well why Munseong was angry at him.
‘I couldn’t have known that this Rookies’ League would be such a hot issue just like you!’
When the Arena opened, Lee Hansung made all the special effects team and video editing team work
on editing the main matches of the Major League, just as usual.
However, as soon at the Arena was closed, viewers started to protest about not broadcasting the
Rookies’ League.
Personal videos of players were uploaded to the community, but their quality was not as good as the
broadcasting station’s videos taken by crystal spheres and, most of all, many users wanted to hear
the commentary.
So, YTBC’s planning team hurried to start editing videos of the finals and semifinals of the Rookies’
League.
However, it took some time.

I-I think it is because of the new classes.

Videos of Major League were, of course, more splendid and more dynamic as users of the highest
levels fought in there.
However, players who participated in the Major League were mostly the popular ones who everybody
knew about.
Additionally, the Major League had ten times more participants than the Rookies’ League, so the
preliminaries were just over. As a result, YTBC had no video from important matches.
In this situation, it was natural that users were more interested in the finals of the Rookies’ League in
which users from the new classes did surprisingly well than in the Major League’s preliminaries in
which users did what was predictable.

Oh, you think I don’t know that!

Park Munseong was angry. So, he yelled at Lee Hansung.

Make everyone work on the Rookies’ League’s videos and get ready to broadcast them! Starting
from round 64!


Ev-everyone? Everyone including those who have been editing videos of the Major League?

The director yelled again,
Yes!

Lee Hansung replied in a sad voice,
Yes, Mr. Park…

Park Munseong spoke again,
You will get fired if those videos get broadcasted later than the other
stations!

Bam-!
Park Munsung slammed the door while Lee Hansung was left alone. He sighed,
Oh, this wretched
company! Why am I still here?

Hansung huffed, but he hurried to leave the meeting room and give instructions to the planning team.
…
After the Rookies’ League ended, Ian received his reward and quickly used a Return Magic Scroll to
leave the Arena.
He didn’t want to waste time on people who would bother him.
‘Many guilds would try to recruit me… and there must be many users who are curious about my
hidden class.’
Another reason was to reflect on himself for losing so easily.
‘Hu… I let him take control of the match.’
Limlong was certainly strong.
Even counting that the Summoner class was not good at fighting Assassins, Ian could not react
properly to skills of the hidden class which he knew nothing about. Limlong was still a powerful user.
His hidden class, which used skills based on shadows, must be a high class that was not worse than
Ian’s hidden class.
‘However, it was not like he was undefeatable. I didn’t know much about him… I should have dragged
the time to learn about his attacking pattern instead of countering…’
In a way, Ian had been defeated by the same swift attack that he had used against Himenes.
He couldn’t even have the time to get used to Limlong’s attack pattern and fighting style.
‘I have been relying on my pets too much…’
Ian’s way of fighting was natural for a Summoner.
Additionally, Ian’s class was the Taming Master that was even more specialized in taming than
ordinary Summoner, so of course he relied more on his pets.
It was a big advantage in PvE (Player vs Environment) battles, but it was also a critical disadvantage
in PvP (Player vs Player) battles.

Khmm…

Ian felt bad about not being the winner, but he got over it soon.
It wasn’t Ian’s style to keep a defeat in his heart.
‘I will win the next time.’
Ian was in high spirit.
He felt bad about the times where he had spent to prepare for the Rookies’ League, but there would
be more important new leagues as his level got higher.

Let’s check the items!

Ian got over his grief and opened his inventory to check his second-place reward.
Ian got two rewards, 80,000 Reputation and a box of Hero rank gears for Lv. 50 Summoner.
It was known that the second-place gearbox contained one random Hero rank accessory and one
random weapon.
Ian went to a desolate place and took out the box from his inventory.

I get excited the most when opening things like this.

The excitement of checking random rewards was a separate thing from the frustration of not winning.

What should I open first? The weapon box? Or the accessory box?

Ian decided to open the accessory box first.
Apart from the hair accessory he had gotten at the Dungeon of Chaos, the accessory was the gear he
most wanted to change, although it was time for him to change all gears.
Ian put his hand on the accessory box.

Open!

A blue light came out of the box as it opened.
System message came up.

You have obtained Summoner’s Shining Fighting Spirit item.

Information of the item appeared.
[Summoner’s Shining Fighting Spirit]
Category: Ring
Rank: Hero
Usage Limit: Lv. 50 or higher
Durability: 255/255
Option: Summoning Magic +100
Option: Spirit Magic +30
Option: Friendship +50
Option: Leadership +15%
Recovers additional 1 Spirit Magic per second while wearing.
All stats of pets that have maximum Friendship and Loyalty increased by 5%.
Item belongs to the user Ian.
It cannot be given or sold to other users. It is not dropped when the character dies.
Luxurious ring given to the Summoner who excelled at the Arena.
…

Oh, it’s good!

Ian checked the info and smiled while he nodded.
The options of increasing the stats were good enough, but the part Ian liked the most was its unique
option for recovering Spirit Magic.

I frequently run out of Spirit Magic when using Lightning Spheres, so it’s great!

It had a Lv. 50 use limit, so it’s options were about the special stats Ian got at Lv. 50.

But why does it belong to my character?

However, Ian didn’t like that the ring belonged to the character.
Unlike his hair accessory, it wasn’t good enough to be used permanently.
He needed to sell it when his level got higher and got a better ring, but he couldn’t do that.
He would have been able to get huge money as the item was really good.

Now, shall I open the weapon box?

The Ancient Summoner’s Steel Knuckles, which was Ian’s weapon now, was still very useful at Lv. 50.
Especially because it had the unique option Linking, so Ian wasn’t going to change his weapon unless
he got a really good one.

Open!

Just like before, the box opened with a blue light.

You have obtained Summoner’s Shining Longbow.


Oh! Bow! It’s a bow!

Ian was very excited at getting a bow. He started to read the information.
[Summoner’s Shining Longbow]
Category: Longbow.
Rank: Hero
Usage Limit: Lv. 50 or higher
Attack Force: 205~395
Durability: 600/600
Option: Speed +65
Option: Summoning Magic +30
Option: Fatal blow probability +15%
All summoned pets’ Speed increases by 20%, Attack Force increases by 30%.
Recover 3 Spirit Magic when inflicting critical damage to the enemy and leave a Shining Mark on the
enemy.
The Mark lasts for 5 seconds. Hitting the enemy again with the bow before the Mark disappears
decreases the cooldown time of all skills by 5 seconds.
The item belongs to the user Ian.
It cannot be given or sold to other users. It is not dropped when the character dies.
Luxurious longbow given to the Summoner who excelled at the Arena.
…

Ha…

Ian started to think hard.
The item was better than he had thought.
‘If I change my weapon, I would not be able to use Linking.’
Also, the knuckles’ options of increasing the critical damage of all pets and the Leadership would be
gone.
However, the bow also had good options, so Ian couldn’t decide quickly.
‘But recovering the Spirit Magic and decreasing the cooldown time are too appealing!’
The bow also had a stronger Attack Force, however, the weapon’s Attack Force wasn’t that important
to Ian.
Now, Ian’s Attack Force depended mainly on the Spirit Magic stat that directly affected the skills’
damage.
Ian made a decision after thinking for long.

I should use the bow and keep the knuckles for now until I get another weapon with the Linking
option.

Ian had a reason for making that decision.
He liked the bow’s options more for now, but if Ian’s pets got a powerful pet Unique Skill, he might
need a weapon with the Linking option.
Ian made up his mind. He then took off the knuckles and put them in his inventory. Next, he took the
bow.

Now, after hunting for a while, Training skill’s cooldown time should decrease by a few minutes!

That was why Ian had decided to use the bow.
What Ian valued the most was the Potential stats of his pets.
The bow had an option that could make the Training skill’s cooldown time end faster.
‘Now that I think about it, I should check Ly’s Potential.’
Ian had been using the Training skill on Ly ever since he bestowed the Enlarging Shell skill on
Bukbuk.
Thanks to that, the Training skill was Intermediate Lv. 8 now, and Ly’s Potential was over 50.

Good.

Ian smiled.
He could use the Training skill faster now, so Ly’s Potential would soon reach 100.

If I get a good new pet, I can raise it properly.

Actually, to use Potential stat with the maximum efficiency, he needed to make his pets gain levels
only when their Potential was 100.
The higher the Potential was, the more stats went up when gaining a level.
However, Ian got stronger by raising level quickly than by caring about all the stats of the pets, so he
let his pets gain levels regardless of their Potential.

My Friendship is over 300 now. I wish I could get a Hero rank monster with the Evolution Possible
option.

Thanks to his high Leadership, he could capture most Rare rank monsters quite easily now.
He hadn’t captured Unique rank monster except for Bukbuk, but he felt he could do more.
‘Hhhhh… Ly started as a Regular rank, and he had gotten so strong, so if I capture a Unique or Hero
rank monster and make it evolve, it would be great!’
Ian got happy just imagining it.
‘If I get a Hero rank Evolution Possible monster and raise it by filling 100 Potential starting from Lv.
1…’
If he could do that, he would be able to get a great pet.
Ian stretched his back and organized his items. Then, he started to move.

But I should gain levels until the vacation ends.

He had wasted more than a week because of the Rookies’ League.
Ian suddenly recalled the bet he had made with professor Lee Jinuk.
‘Oh, right… Lv. 93… I have to reach that before the vacation ends!’
Ian calculated the time he had left.
‘One month and ten days till the semester starts. I can miss the first week as that is the time to
change courses… and professor Lee Jinuk’s first class is on Thursday, so…’
Ian’s head started to work faster than ever.
He finished calculating. He had about 50 days left.

I’m screwed!!

The time was too short. It would be impossible!
Ian needed to gain at least one level every day to almost reach Lv. 93.
He would be able to gain 2~3 levels a day for now, but he knew well how hard it was to get EP after
Lv. 70.

Uh, there’s no time to waste! Hunting! I must go hunting!!

Ian hurried to move, Ian’s gaming life depended on the bet.
He couldn’t even imagine losing.