-Kuooh?
-Uooooh!
Shortly after beginning his search, Soo Hyuk heard the roar of ogres in the distance, then began heading toward the source .
‘There’s two twins . ’
There were five ogres in front of him, and among them were two Twin-Headed Ogres .
‘Hmm, then I can’t kill them all in one shot . ’
Normal ogres would be instantly killed by the Poison Fog+Firebolt combo, but Twin-Headed Ogres were tough enough to survive the combo .
“Poison Fog . ”
Deciding to change his methods, Soo Hyuk first cast Poison Fog .
Shuaa…
As the fog descended on the area, the ogres began to stumble around in a panicked manner .
“Poison Chains”
After Poison Fog, Soo Hyuk cast Poison Chains at the ogres, who were desperately trying to escape the poison . A dark green chain flew towards the ogres and bound them together . When the chain wound itself around the ogres, their movement speed slowed down to almost a crawl .
Exactly 3 seconds after the spell was cast, the three normal ogres collapsed on the ground, dead . Then 3 seconds after that, the twin-headed ogres fell as well .
And so, Soo Hyuk defeated all the ogres and continued searching after collecting the drops .
-Uh! Uh!
“Poison Storm . ”
-Kuaaah!
“Flame Dance . ”
Soo Hyuk picked off all the ogres he encountered on the way .
[Level Up!]
Soo Hyuk smiled warmly as he looked at the occasional level-ups .
‘At this speed, I might reach 190 . ’
It was at that moment .
Bang!
“Hmm?”
The ground shook as he lost his balance and stumbled .
-Kuooooong!
A deafening roar incomparable to any other echoed throughout the mountain, and that wasn’t it . A notification appeared as well .
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[Warning!]
[The King of the Crimson Mountains, the Triple-Headed Ogre Orem has appeared!]
Soo Hyuk’s eyes widened to their limit as he stared at the notification .
‘Wow . ’
Orem, the King of the Mountain Range had appeared . Keeping his eyes on the notification, Soo Hyuk opened his quest window then checked the quest .
[King of the Mountain Range]
The reason ogres of the Crimson Mountains are moving in groups, is because a king has appeared on the mountain range . Find out who the king is and report to the agency!
[Triple-Headed Ogre Orem: 0 / 1 ]
[Quest Reward: B-Rank Promotion]
[The quest will be considered complete once Orem is found . ]
[The quest will be canceled on death . Note: if the cause of death is from Orem, the quest penalty will not apply . ]
‘Do I have to see it myself?’
Soo Hyuk, who initially expected that the mission had been completed because of the message, discarded the thought and looked towards the roar . It seemed like he had to see Orem with his own eyes .
Bang!
Soo Hyuk carefully advanced towards the source of the roar, watching out for the periodic earthquakes . Then when he finally arrived, he couldn’t help but sigh in admiration .
‘Whoa…’
There weren’t any big physical differences between Orem the Triple-Headed Ogre and Twin-Headed Ogres . Their sizes were similar so the only difference that stood out was that Orem had one more head and an extra pair of arms, as compared to a Twin-Headed Ogre, which had four arms .
But was it because of that one detail? Its aura was different from other monsters . The pressure Orem gave off completely overshadowed the Twin-Headed Ogres so far .
‘Should I try?’
Soo Hyuk pondered as he stared at Orem . His quest was already complete, but to go back like this, his previous 3 days felt like a waste .
‘It looks really strong…’
In the Crimson Mountains, the ogres were around level 200~250 . That meant Orem was a level 200~250 named boss monsters, whose race an ogre, renowned for their crushing strength .
‘I probably won’t die in one hit . ’
The current amount of health Soo Hyuk had was around 110,000 . No matter how weak his defense, or how strong Orem’s attack power was, he wouldn’t be able to reduce his HP to zero in one hit .
‘I also have the subspace . ’
Soo Hyuk also had the emergency escape skill ‘Archmage’s Subspace’ .
‘Let’s test the waters first and run away if it goes badly . ’
He just had to escape to his subspace if things went wrong . Resolving his worries, Soo Hyuk slowly approached the king .
However, Soo Hyuk had to stop in place before he could take his tenth step .
[You have been discovered by the Triple-Headed Ogre Orem . ]
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Soo Hyuk was startled at the sudden message . Returning to his senses, he quickly turned to look at Orem and locked eyes with one of its heads .
-Kuooooong!
The moment the head saw him, it roared powerfully and caused the other two heads to look at Soo Hyuk as well . Meanwhile, under the gaze of 6 eyes, Soo Hyuk muttered under his breath,
“Poison Storm . ”
Shuaa…
The Poison Storm erupted around him, engulfing Orem .
-Kuoooong!
However, before even 3 seconds could pass, Orem barreled out of the poison with a ferocious roar . It then turned towards Soo Hyuk and started charging wildly .
“Poison Chains, Pool of Poison . ”
Soo Hyuk continued to fire spell after spell at the approaching Orem . The first spells he fired were ones that restricted movement speed .
Bang! Bang!
But Orem’s speed didn’t slow at all as if the special effects didn’t trigger or it was just immune .
“Poison Frog, Poison Sphere . ”
Frowning, Soo Hyuk didn’t cease his stream of spells even as he started retreating with .
‘Not being able to see its health is really…’
Soo Hyuk thought as he stared at the shortening distance between him and Orem . It was regretful as a visible health bar for monsters would make it easier to make decisions in battle .
-Kuouong!
Soon, the distance narrowed enough for Orem to swing his giant trunk-like arms . Meanwhile, Soo Hyuk’s frown only deepened as he faced the fist rushing towards him like a bullet train .
‘Crazy . ’
The problem was that there wasn’t only one fist; there were three, and each of them was the size of a small car . There just wasn’t enough space to dodge them .
Bang!
Soon, Orem’s fist smashed into the spot where he was standing and he was flung backward from the force of a single fist . In the air, Soo Hyuk quickly checked his health .
‘80 thousand?’
Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but panic at his remaining health . He only had around 80, 000 HP left .
‘That means he did 30 thousand from a single fist?’
That was approximately a fourth from his 110 thousand health pool . All from a single fist .
‘F*ck . ’
Orem’s health could also be near the bottom, but after finding out his attack power, Soo Hyuk didn’t want to take the risk .
“Archmage’s Subspace . ”
[Warping to the Archmage’s Subspace . ]
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And so, after realizing Orem’s power, Soo Hyuk immediately teleported into his subspace .
“How does it deal 30,000 damage in one hit?”
Soo Hyuk muttered in irritation when he arrived at the chamber . He then opened his quest window before heading to the tunnel .
“Now I just have one rank left . ”
He would ascend to be a B-rank after completing his quest at the agency . The end of his quest to enter the Hadrac Library never seemed closer than now .
Arriving at the warp circle, Soo Hyuk teleported straight to Hadrac, and from there, headed to the Mercenary Agency . Then upon arriving at the agency, Soo Hyuk climbed the stairs to the 2nd floor and walked up to one of the operating empty counters .
But when the NPC received his token, he jumped in his seat .
“…”
Noticing the NPC’s little reaction, Soo Hyuk stared suspiciously at him . Then as if realizing his fault, the NPC hurriedly fixed his posture and asked,
“W-was there really a Triple-Headed Ogre?”
“Yes . ”
Were Triple-Headed Ogres that feared? Soo Hyuk wondered as he replied with a nod .
[You have completed the quest ‘King of the Mountain Range’ . ]
A notification appeared the moment he answered .
“Could you please wait a moment? Excuse me…”
The NPC stood up as his voice trailed away . He then entered the room behind him, presumably to change his token into a B-rank one .
After a few minutes, the NPC returned to Soo Hyuk .
“…?”
Soo Hyuk was confused when he noticed what the NPC was carrying .
‘What’s that box for?’
In the NPC’s hands was his new token, and a mysterious box .
‘I’m sure there was no reward for the quest though?’
He could distinctly remember feeling annoyed because the reward of the quest only said ‘B-Rank Promotion’ .
‘Then is it for someone else?’
That was a possibility, but there wasn’t anybody around him waiting for their reward either . But at that moment, an idea struck his head .
‘Is it for the previous quest?’
The original mission he picked for his promotion, ‘Unusual Ogres . ’ The reward for that quest was, he remembered, was [???] .
The NPC placed the box and the new token on the table then pushed them towards Soo Hyuk and said,
“These are the rewards for your mission . ”
The NPC’s words confirmed Soo Hyuk’s idea . This box was the reward for ‘Unusual Ogres’ .
“Thank you for your hard work . ”
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Soo Hyuk bid farewell as he stored his new token and the box in his inventory .
At that moment .
“S-Soo Hyuk-nim!”
“…?”
Soo Hyuk, who was about to climb down on the stairs, froze at the NPC’s shout then looked back .
“Umm, could you please follow me somewhere?”
“…Excuse me?”
Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but ask back in response . Follow him?
“There are some people that want to meet with Soo Hyuk-nim . ”
[A Sudden Meeting]
The executives of the Mercenary Agency want to meet with you . Follow Karlot and head to the executive room!
[Quest Reward: ??? ]
A sudden quest . Soo Hyuk, who was about to reject the quest, changed his mind upon reading its contents .
‘The executives…’
The executives of the Mercenary Agency . A wrong move here could come back to bite him tenfold .
“…I understand . ”
Making his decision, Soo Hyuk replied to NPC Karlot .
[You have accepted the quest ‘A Sudden Meeting’ . ]
“Then this way please…”
Karlot started to lead the way while Soo Hyukfollowed behind him . After a few minutes of walking, Karlot stopped in front of a certain door .
Tap . Tap .
“Soo Hyuk-nim is here . ”
After he knocked on the floor, Karlot stood aside and gestured to Soo Hyuk,
“You can go in now . ”
At Karlot’s words, Soo Hyuk opened the door and walked into a room .
[You have completed the quest ‘A Sudden Meeting’ . ]
A notification appeared the moment he set foot in the room . However, Soo Hyuk’s gaze was not on the notification .
‘Those two…’
There were two men inside the room . Considering the quest was completed, they seemed to be the executives of the agency . Meanwhile, the two men stood up when Soo Hyuk entered the room, and proceeded to introduce themselves .
“Hello, I’m Ian, the master of the Drak Guild . ”
“And I’m Alex, the master of Lime Guild . ”
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