Emperor of Solo Play Chapter 66: Skill 'Armament' (2)

 ­ Skill ‘Armament’ (2)

 
“I’ve always been curious. Do you mind?”

“Go ahead.”

“What’s on your mind when you’re fighting monsters? You always charge at them so thoughtlessly.”

It was about the time when he was at level 100. Along with Kim Dongsoo and other members of the Hahoe Mask Guild, Hyrkan had gained experience, levels, fame, and achievements. During this time when they were able to earn enough to make a living, Hyrkan, the Hahoe Mask Guild’s ace player, had been killed during battle.

It was the result of a reckless battle. The Hahoe Mask Guild had to rest for 48 hours as a result, and Kim Dongsoo took the time to have a drink with An Jaehyun.

When Kim Dongsoo asked An Jaehyun the above question, An Jaehyun answered.

“Mm… if I don’t kill this guy, I won’t get to eat tomorrow. Something like that.”

“Haha…”

When he heard An Jaehyun’s answer, Kim Dongsoo let out a dry laugh as he poured more drink into An Jaehyun’s glass. The reason Kim Dongsoo didn’t pry further was that he took An Jaehyun’s answer as a signal that he didn’t want to talk more about it. However, that wasn’t the case.

It was the cold hard truth.

An Jaehyun, or rather Hyrkan, did not put much thought into his fights. He wasn’t able to either. By nature, there were too many ways a fight could go wrong. He couldn’t fight with every possibility in mind.

In the end, all he could do was remind himself of his resolve.

The answer Hyrkan gave was his resolve.

There would be no dinner if he didn’t kill the monster in front of him!

As much as it was foolish, simple, and ridiculous, it had a good effect. Although this resolve sometimes sent him to forced 48-hour vacations, it mostly helped him achieve his goals.

One of these results was his title, Hero Slaughterer.

‘Skeletons are just assistants. I’ve been taking things easy for too long.’

At this moment, Hyrkan reminded himself of this resolve once again. Then, he held up his Orc Hero’s Sword.

‘Someone who just sits back isn’t Hyrkan.’

Hyrkan then charged towards the Spirit Knight who had turned his Golem into a ragged doll.

The Spirit Knight immediately reacted to Hyrkan’s appearance. He faced Hyrkan and swung down with his sword diagonally.

Up until now, Hyrkan had faced the Spirit Knight’s attacks head on. If he did, his Skeleton Warriors would attack in his stead. Rather than dodging the Spirit Knight’s attack, he performed the role of controlling him.

This time, however, Hyrkan dodged the attack.

Narrowly.

He tilted his body to the side slightly, and he could clearly feel the Spirit Knight’s sword brush past him.

This was Hyrkan’s original battle style. It was just that he had forgotten about it due to the convenience provided by his Skeleton Warriors. It was the Spirit Knight that had let him remember what he had forgotten for so long.

The Spirit Knight had awoken the Hero Slaughterer Hyrkan that was sleeping within Hahoe Mask Hyrkan.

After dodging the Spirit Knight’s attack, Hyrkan struck its side with his sword.

Clang!

A metallic noise rang out as a clear sword cut appeared on its armor. However, the armor wasn’t cut apart completely, showing the Spirit Knight’s formidable defense.

As such, after successfully cutting the Spirit Knight once, he brushed past it and turned around.

Whish.

The Spirit Knight also turned to face Hyrkan.

“Hu!”

With a short breath of air, he once again ran towards the Spirit Knight. The Spirit Knight swung its sword, and Hyrkan once again narrowly dodged its attack as he made another sword cut on its armor.

Exchanging one attack for another.

Hyrkan’s plan was to exchange tens or even hundreds of such attacks.

Of these, if he got hit three or four times, it would be game over. One mistake could potentially be fatal. Any hidden cards the Spirit Knight was holding would be detrimental to Hyrkan, and it was entirely possible that this battle would end up as a disaster for Hyrkan.

However, Hyrkan did not worry about what could be.

‘If I don’t kill him, I won’t have dinner tomorrow!’

Such thoughts weren’t suited for the Hero Slaughterer.

[You have obtained the title, ‘Knighthood.’]

The moment he heard the alert, Hyrkan took out his recovery clay and began to heal his left arm that was about to fall off. After applying the recovery clay onto the severed area, he could feel his left arm moving again.

It was truly a game-like scene.

Hyrkan then turned his head towards pieces of armor that lied fallen on the ground. The traces of a fierce battle were scattered about on the ground.

Watching the parts of the broken armor, Hyrkan grinned.

“Kya!”

Hyrkan let out a scream of joy.

‘I really am the best.’

This was it.

The sight of himself fighting against the odds and coming out victorious. That was the Hyrkan he enjoyed seeing.

Of course, there was one thing he wasn’t quite satisfied with.

‘As I thought, there is a slight delay with the V-Gear I have now.’

Now that he had fought with his all, he had felt something he quite haven’t felt before.

His V-Gear’s Level.

‘Level 6 would be too much. Would a Level 3 do for now?’

Hyrkan’s currently V-Gear was the standard Level 1 Model. Currently, the Level 6 V-Gear was about to be released. The difference between Level 1 and Level 6 wasn’t so big, but there was a noticeable difference if a skilled player was using them.

Of course, the difference in their performance could only be felt when a player was performing to the limit of his capabilities.

‘But since I’m able to feel the difference now, it looks like my sense of battle is nearing what it was at my prime.’

This meant that Hyrkan’s senses had come back to what it was during his prime. The feeling he couldn’t quite remember even with the continued Climbing Tests had come back thanks to the Spirit Knight.

Watching the remnant of the Spirit Knight, Hyrkan couldn’t help but smile.

‘This guy sells for quite a lot too.’

What he was happy about were the items the Spirit Knight would drop.

Spirit Knights’ dropped crafting coins called the Spirit Knight Armor Piece, and because they could hold the power of spirits, they were used to create high-tier attribute-resistant armor.

Considering the Spirit Knight was also level 90, the items it would drop would at least be at the level 70 range. Hyrkan’s gain would be well over his expenditure.

Hyrkan immediately turned the armor into crafting coins, pocketed them, and turned towards the exit.

‘It’s time to finish this.’

The Spirit Knight was the guardian of the dungeon, and now that it was gone, it meant he was free to loot the place as he desired.

Hyrkan gazed at the new, unexplored part as he smiled.

Soon, Hyrkan found himself in a shabby room filled with two wooden desks and three bookshelves. Although there were dozens of books in the bookshelves, most were completely useless novels based on Warlord’s world setting. Although there were players who enjoyed reading about such things, Hyrkan wasn’t one of them.

In the first place, Hyrkan knew about the Warlord world better than anyone else.

He knew who the Immoral Prince was, and also the identity of the Ruined Kingdom that would be revealed when the Immoral Prince was captured.

‘Is this it?’

Hyrkan quickly skimmed through the books.

“Whoa!”

Then, when Hyrkan finally found what he was looking for, his eyes sparkled. It was a book with a palm print but no words.

‘A skillbook!’

It was a skillbook.

Furthermore, what Hyrkan had obtained was a No-name Skillbook. Once he placed his left hand on the palm print, a random skill would be materialized based on the player’s class.

The skill could then be learned by the player, or he could sell it to others as a skillbook. Most of the skillbooks on the market were created in this way. This was also the reason why necromancer skillbooks were rare. A necromancer skillbook neither was guaranteed to sell well, nor were there enough necromancers to flood the market with them.

Of course, it was possible to sell the No-name Skillbook, but most did not do so. Even Normal-rank skillbooks sold for a good amount, and skillbooks from No-name Skillbooks had the potential to be Rare-rank or even Unique-rank. No person would hesitate to open a treasure chest that guaranteed riches. There were people who just sold No-name Skillbooks for a high price, but doing so was like buying lottery tickets.

Without hesitation, Hyrkan placed his hand on the palm print. He wasn’t so worried about money anymore, so there was no reason for him to agonize over what to do.

[The skillbook reveals its identity.]

Hyrkan immediately received an alert, then another in quick succession.

[Would you like to learn the skill, ‘Armament’?]

‘Mm?’

At that instant, Hyrkan couldn’t help but take his hand off the skillbook in surprise. Staring at the skillbook in his hand, Hyrkan asked.

‘Don’t tell me…’

Then, he placed his hand on the palm print once again. The same alert popped up and Hyrkan once again took his hand off the skillbook.

“Armament…”

‘Is it that skill?’

Hyrkan wasn’t entirely knowledgeable on the necromancer skill tree. There was limited information on how many skills necromancers had, what the conditions were for obtaining them, or what the skills exactly did. Although he bought information from Helgen early in the game, Hyrkan was now far more knowledgeable than Helgen.

As a result, Hyrkan could only think about Rich Lich’s raid videos to infer what the skills he used were. What Hyrkan was most curious about were the armed states of Rich Lich’s skeletons.

At first, Hyrkan thought they were wearing something like the Bone Armor. However, he quickly found out after using Bone Armor himself that this wasn’t the case. Hyrkan then wondered if it was because Rich Lich used a different monster as material, but that theory was also quickly debunked as Hyrkan tried out different monsters to craft Skeleton Fragments.

In the end, he could only conclude that Rich Lich had another skill.

Most important was the fact that Rich Lich’s skeletons were holding excellent weapons.

But from what Hyrkan tried, Skeleton Warriors couldn’t use the weapons their master used. They couldn’t use the weapons taken from other monsters either. This could only mean that there was a skill that allowed them to use players’ weapons.

Gulp!

Hyrkan swallowed his breath.

‘Is it really possible?’

Hyrkan imagined his Skeleton Warriors holding the Orc Hero’s Sword.

Hyrkan let out another breath of air. Then, he pulled up the skill details onto a hologram window.

The Red Bulls Guild held absolute control over the Sura Canyon Village. Being targeted by the Red Bulls Guild meant one shouldn’t even consider stepping one foot into the Sura Canyon Village.

The merchants that traded there had to pay a fee to the Red Bulls Guild, and had to submit a proof of identity to them. Although it wasn’t so serious like having to show one’s social security number, players known for being bad mannered had no chance of being accepted.

It was the same for a player named Koten.

The moment he saw the Red Bulls Guild’s announcement asking for information on a player who purchased a large number of items by himself, Koten gave them all the information he had.

“You said he purchased 4,000 golds-worth at once?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you remember exactly how he looked like?”

“Well you see… I’m not too good at remembering faces… but he was definitely Asian.”

“Anything else?”

“Mm… I don’t know if this is the right way to put it, but he seemed like a pushover.”

“A pushover?”

“You know what I mean, right? It’s like if you see them, you immediately think ‘I can trick that guy even if I’m not a con-artist.’ That’s the kind of guy I’m talking about. Of course, he wasn’t a real pushover. He knew what he was doing when we were trading. Not that I would have tricked him anyways, but you know what I mean.”

‘We already knew that Hahoe Mask Hyrkan was Asian, and likely Korean… but he looks like a pushover?’

“Damn, how do I report this?”

In the end, the Red Bulls ended up without much lead on Hahoe Mask Hyrkan.

Chapter end