Emperor of Solo Play

 ­ A Mess of a Character to Others (2)

[Hyrkan]

-Level: 10

-Class: Magician

-Title: 2

-Stats: Strength (48) / Stamina (3) / Intelligence (14) / Magic Power (14)

Seeing the numbers on his watch’s hologram window, Hyrkan grit his teeth.

‘Is this really the right choice?’

Hyrkan had put all the stat points he gained from leveling into strength, a whole 45 points.

Intelligence and magic power stat rose because of class-specific bonus. For magicians, they gained 1 point of intelligence and magic power for every level. Swordsmen gained a point of strength and stamina. On top of this, thanks to the two titles he had, Hyrkan gained a point into intelligence and magic power.

As a result, the current Hyrkan had enough magic power to summon a Skeleton Warrior 3 times.

This, of course, was just to summon. Maintaining the summoned Skeleton Warrior or repairing damages it received would take additional magic power. Taking these into account, two Skeleton Warriors were his limit.

‘If I don’t invest into magic power, it’s only going to get worse.’

It was fine now because Skeleton Fragment’s skill rank was low. As it went up, the amount of magic power needed to maintain and repair Skeleton Warriors would increase naturally.

Furthermore, real necromancers could easily control 9 Skeleton Warriors, 3 Skeleton Magicians, and a Golem. Someone like Rich Lich controlled close to a hundred summons. Plus, necromancers usually obtained a few attack magic or curse magic. They wouldn’t be high-rank skills, but it was easy to obtain low-rank skills.

Because of this, almost all necromancers put their stat points into magic power. The magic power stat raised the magic power pool and magic power recovery amount.

‘If I continue putting all my stats into strength, I’m going to reach a limit before level 50. I’m certain.’

Hyrkan was sure.

If he continued with his current plans, by the time he was level 50, his character would be a complete mess.

This problem had to be solved with items or titles. He needed items that lowered magic power consumption and increased magic power recovery amount. He also needed large amounts of titles that raised his magic power stat.

Of course, neither were easy.

‘If I had something like Anugas’s Necklace, I wouldn’t have to worry about this…’

Anugas’s Necklace.

It was an Epic item made from the eye of the level 200 boss monster Anugas. It reduced magic power consumption by 35%, and there was a huge uproar when its stat was first released. Furthermore, Anugas’s Necklace didn’t have a limit. A level 300 or 400 player could use it with no penalty.

‘Come to think of it, Anugas’s Necklace didn’t even have a set price. The last who possessed it was… Meteor Walker, I think?’

Because it was so expensive, its price was never released. There was never an official trade. There were only rumors of its owner; no one knew for certain. You would be targeted by all players on the server just for owning it. It was obvious its owner would pretend not to have it.

Of course, making a character with items like this in mind was crazy. It wouldn’t even make sense for Hyrkan, who would face his limit at level 50, to raise his character with an ultra-expensive, level 200 item in mind. Hyrkan didn’t even consider such a thing.

The core of Hyrkan’s plan was not items, but titles.

‘Well, I’m going to have to cover all this with titles.’

Titles!

It was the source of Hyrkan’s confidence.

Titles were very important in Warlord. In all RPG games, it became harder to level up as one went on. It was the same for Warlord. In Warlord, however, as one went on, there were more opportunities to raise one’s stats through titles.

A good title could raise a specific stat by 20 points. This was equivalent to gaining 4 levels. Most titles like this came from boss raids. It was also why guilds were so hell-bent on boos raids.

Even so, no one planned their characters with title hunting in mind. If anyone did, he would be called crazy. To put it bluntly, it was possible to buy items with money, but not titles. It was something players could gain only through game play.

‘I’m crazy, alright. Who in the right mind would do something like this?’

Hyrkan turned off the hologram window.

He was often called crazy before returning to the past. It wasn’t something he would fear.

Plus, it was too late for regrets.

‘I just have to face forward.’

If it was impossible, he just had to make it possible!

That was what Hyrkan had to do.

★★★

Warlord had a rather simple background story.

Fierce monsters began appearing in once a peaceful world, and a war broke out against them. What began was the Warring Era, and the ultimate goal was to become the Emperor of War, the one to put an end to this era!

This was why the game was called Warlord.

Of course, there were various stories the more one researched. The relationship between different kingdoms, heroic tales of minor tribes, ancient ruins, etc. There were many things to invoke the heroic spirit of players.

In such a world, the Subjugation Association was the first thing players came into contact with. As such, the Subjugation Association played a sizable role in the affairs of Warlord.

Monster subjugation was the main objective of the Warlord world. Everything in the game was focused around hunting monsters. There was no way the Subjugation Association, leading monster subjugations, would have little influence. All kingdoms and tribes had a close relationship with the Subjugation Association. Players, who treated the Subjugation Association as just a place to obtain monster hunting quests, would never show outstanding results.

The Subjugation Association gave out stars according to players’ results. The more stars one had, the more important information and quests one received. Some players did business with these quests, the so-called trains*. There were countless players who would pay to get into quests like these. As for quests with good titles as rewards… the money involved was huge. Ordinary people wouldn’t understand why anyone would spend so much money on games.

For the Top 30 Guilds, there was something called the Star Hunter team that solely focused on collecting stars rather than doing raids.

Valuable quests like these were usually given out by NPCs. Usually, players could receive Subjugation Association related quests by going to a Subjugation Association branch located in each castle, then looking through the available quests through their watch. It was like getting Wi-Fi at a coffee shop.

As a result, when players visited the Subjugation Association, they could see a mob of people fiddling around with their watches.

They were looking for easier, more rewarding, and less time-consuming quests.

‘Incompetent people sure have it hard.’

Hyrkan didn’t intend on being a part of such mob.

Picking quests? If you were confident in your abilities, there was no need to carefully consider each option. You could just pick one at random and do it.

Plus, Hyrkan understood the Subjugation Association’s quest system better than anyone else. He had once studied everything related to the Subjugation Association. People even told him that he would have made it to a prestigious college if he studied like that during his senior year of high school. Hyrkan even paid money for valuable information. It was the one and only time he had unhesitatingly spent money for the pursuit of knowledge.

‘The quests at this level range is more or less the same. If anything, older quests are better.’

Hyrkan sorted the available quest list according to date. Quests that were old signified no one had done it, or several had failed to complete it. They were essentially thrown away.

For Subjugation Association quests, the reward went up as more people failed to complete them. This was something not many people knew. In Warlord, information like this didn’t spread as well as one might think. As Warlord dealt with more and more money, information like this acted almost like a corporate secret. It could go for several million or tens of million won. No one in the right mind would post it online just to get some likes.

Furthermore, there were people posting false information just to get some attention. Because of this, there were many false rumors about Warlord.

This wasn’t all. There wasn’t much competition for old quests. Most players sought out newly generated quests. They assumed the good ones would have already been completed. It was more likely for new quests to have better rewards.

And when new quests were generated, they would all be focused around a specific area. Warlord’s maintenance system utilized the quest system to control user distribution. It often created quests in the same area to lead players to unpopulated areas. This was why conflicts often arose between players, parties, and guilds.

Of course, level 10 players, who were feeling confident after getting out of the Training Dungeon, wouldn’t have any way of knowing this.

Whenever the time came for quests to be generated…

“I just pulled a rare-rank quest. I’m looking for two swordsmen to party with.”

“I’m a level 15 fire-attribute wizard. I’m looking for a rare-rank quest. I can vouch for my skills.”

It was like a raucous marketplace, as everyone screamed here and there.

Looking at this chaos, Hyrkan sneered. They were serious in their own right, but to Hyrkan, they seemed like kids playing around.

‘How cute.’

At that time, he ran across a certain quest.

‘Hm? Mt. Bima?’

A keyword caught his attention.

The word ‘Mt. Bima.’

He wasn’t too familiar with it, but he had definitely heard of it before.

Hyrkan searched his memories.

‘Ah!’

Surprisingly, Hyrkan managed to remember.

‘The list of quests where you could obtain the Rising Star title! That’s where I saw that word.’

Hyrkan immediately checked the content of the quest.

[A Cave in Mt. Bima]

-Quest Rank: Rare

-Quest Level Range: 10~25

-Quest Content: Mt. Bima is located east of Figur’s Castle. Monsters in Mt. Bima has become ferocious lately. Find out the cause and fix it.

-Quest Reward: 10 gold and an additional reward.

Additional reward.

It was an ambiguous expression, but Hyrkan knew it was the Rising Star title.

‘My god, I can’t believe I have the chance to get the Rising Star title.’

Rising Star title. It was a title only players under level 15 could receive. It raised the class-specific stats by 3 percent. For magicians, that would be intelligence and magic power.

This effect even applied to stats from items.

The problem was that players had to be below level 15, and that quests where one could receive it was extremely limited.

As a result, someone had taken the effort to compile all the quests that gave out the Rising Star title. It was an open-for-all information just in case a similar quest appeared in the future.

Of course, new players memorized the list as if their lives depended on it. Because it was impossible to memorize all the quest titles, most just memorized key terms. It was thanks to this that Hyrkan could remember Mt. Bima.

‘I remember memorizing this just in case… who would have thought it would come in handy here…’

Hyrkan, someone who hadn’t memorized a single English word for the SATs, had painstakingly memorized the quest list. He would never have thought studying would pay off. Life was full of surprises.

In any case, there was no way Hyrkan would miss this opportunity.

[You have begun the quest, ‘A Cave in Mt. Bima]

Hyrkan confirmed the quest.

‘The Rising Star title…’

A smile spread across his face. A title that gave a percentage increase was one of the best in the game.

‘On top of the Rising Star title, if I can get my hands on the Supernova, Dragon Slayer, and Hero of the Great Battle titles…’

There was a term for characters that acquired several percentage increasing titles.

‘Rather than a mess of a character, I’d be a cheat.’

A cheat.

It was the dream of all gamers.