Taming Master

Ian raised both of his hands as he cheered.

“Alright!”

The ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ shone brilliantly while it floated in the air.

Ian thought that he was going to start crying because he was so happy.

“Keu, for it to have taken two hours just to fortify it by 3!”

Even during this time, Ian was jotting down all of the stats whenever he fortified.

And the result of that, he was able to roughly understand the fortification rate.

“It increases by 10% of the initial stats whenever it is fortified. So, then if we fortify it by 10, then that means the original stats of the weapon will be doubled…”

It was possible that the amount increased whenever it was raised up one fortification phase grew, but as there was no chance that it would decrease, it meant that a weapon fortified by 10 was at least twice as strong as it normally would be.

Ian grinned as he moved his feet again.

He had no intentions of wasting even one hour.

The thing that he needed to do right now was just hunt and hunt again.

Before this bug(?) was released, he needed to take in as much profit as possible.

“Ly, Karceus! Attack boldly towards the front! Since you should have memorized all of the attack pattern of those guys by now, try to avoid their attacks as much as possible.”

At Ian’s command, Karceus replied with a confused expression.

• Hmm… I’m dodging the attacks because you’re telling me to, but I don’t exactly understand why we have to dodge. It’s just ticklish even when I’m hit.

At Karceus’s question, Ian replied kindly.

“Right now, because of the Resistance Magic, proper damage isn’t being dealt on us, but when we come next time, we’ll need to fight against those monsters without any Resistance Magic. If we identify their attack pattern beforehand, it will be more comfortable then, don’t you think, Mojilah[1]?”

Ly, who was next to him, nodded his head.

• As expected, our owner is smart.

Karceus shook his head instead.

• … I think he’s worse than death, not smart.

Either way, with Kaizar, who ran amok, as the lead, Ian’s party continued to catch Lakoums as they advanced forward.

Thanks to the cheat-like Resistance Magic stat that made it so that they received almost no damage even when they were hit, Ian was able to play even more boldly.

‘It looks like the Lakoum’s weak point is their left eye. And I was wondering why just one of their eyes shone bright red…’

Ian avoided the Lakoum’s attack like flowing water as he twisted his spear and stabbed it into the left eye of the Lakoum.

And the Judgment of the Spirit King, which exerted 130% of its original stat, truly boasted incredible stats.

Bleeegh-!

The horrible shriek of the magical beast, which was unsettling to hear, rang out.

From Ian’s single attack, close to 40% of the Lakoum’s Vitality was reduced.

As he even found out the weak point of the Lakoum, his hunting speed increased even more.

“If the weak point is attacked, over 20 times the damage goes through. No wonder, I was thinking that their Defensive Power was insanely high.”

Continued after Ian’s attack, the combined attack of Kaizar and Karceus, as well as Ly went through, and the body of the Lakoum collapsed just like that.

Thud-.

• You have killed the Low-class magical beast ‘Lakoum’.

• You have obtained 0 EXP.

• You have obtained 0 Fame.

• You have obtained the ‘Lakoum’s Tooth’ item.

Ian packed the Lakoum’s Tooth carefully into his inventory.

The Lakoum’s Teeth were a whopping Unique-rank Production Material. If he sold it to Blacksmiths, he was certain that he would be able to receive a high price for them, so he was saving each one of them up.

“Good, good. It would be even better if my EXP went up as well, but that’s probably too greedy of me.”

However, Ly, who was listening to Ian’s mumbling while standing next to him, suddenly turned to look at him as he opened his mouth.

• Owner, but have we not gathered 200 Lakoum spirits yet? I feel like we’ve already caught hundreds of them… It’s probably just what it feels like, right?

At Ly’s question, the corners of Ian’s mouth rolled upwards as he replied.

“No, we’ve already filled up the gourd about two hours ago.”

This time, Karceus approached them as he whined.

• This is so boring, Owner. If we’ve reached our goal, what do you think about going back now?

However, of course, Ian had absolutely no intentions of returning.

“I don’t want to. Until I naturally close my eyes and am logged out, I’m not going to leave this place.”

With an expression showing how sick of this he was, Karceus let out a deep sigh.

• Ha…

Meanwhile, Ly showed his sharp teeth as he wore a pleased smile.

• Sounds good, Owner. I like this place.

And these comments of Ian were incredibly damaging to someone outside of this virtual reality.

* * *

“Section Leader, you heard what I just said now, right?”

“I heard you, ha…” The New Zone Monitoring Team, who had just been monitoring Ian for 10 hours already, were about to collapse on the spot.

It was a situation where they were already way past their clock-out times by 2 hours.

As they had no idea what that dude named Ian, who was worse than death, would do, the monitoring team needed to stay in their spots until he logged out.

If it was going to be exactly like how Ian jabbered on about within the screen just now, the clock-out time of the monitoring team had become distant.

“Ha, how can a person be that robot-like?”

“I agree, Section Leader. He’s been continuously hunting in the same pattern without proper rest for 5 hours now. I think his total hunting time is even over 10 hours as well.”

“At this rate, are you sure it’s not like we won’t be able to clock out today? This is a big problem, at least today’s dinner plans fell through, but tomorrow’s the weekend…”

At the words of one of the employees, everybody’s expression suddenly darkened.

The thought that they could lose their weekend completely because of that one dude named Ian had popped up.

The section leader wrapped one hand around his pounding head while he mumbled.

“Still, since the portal closes in 1-2 hours, let’s just wait until then.”

“Oh, really? But if the portal closes in an hour, doesn’t he have to come out then no matter what?”

The section leader sighed lowly as he replied.

“For any normal person, that would be the case. Since if the portal closes, there’s no way to get out of the Devildom unless one dies. However, I somewhat feel like that dude won’t even be bothered whether the portal closes or not.”

“…”

The atmosphere of the monitoring room, which almost brightened a little immediately darkened again.

They turned their gazes towards the screen again.

* * *

Kku-ruk- Kku-ru-ruk-!

Ian, who rummaged through the map as if he was combing through it while hunting diligently, waved his hand welcomingly as he saw Pin fly in from afar.

“Pin, over here.”

And Pin, who flew towards Ian, flapped his wings in the direction that he flew in from as he shook his beak.

Kku-ruk- Kku-kkuk-!

“Have you found the gate that leads to the next map?”

At Ian’s words, Pin nodded his head.

Kkuk- Kku-kkuk-!

At that, Ian smiled brightly as he got on Pin’s back.

And he turned his gaze towards Karceus.

“Mojilah, let the others get on your back.”

At Ian’s words, Karceus frowned.

• Ahem, there’s too many…

“What do you mean there’s too many? Do you know how wide your back is? You can’t even let Ly and Kaizar get on?”

Kaizar got on Karceus’s back without a word, and Ly also followed on.

And as Pin, who had Ian on his back, flew up, Karceus’s large build followed behind him.

However, just then, a system message popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.

Ring-.

• The dimensional door that leads to the ‘Forest of Love’ will close in 5 minutes.

• If the dimensional door disappears, you cannot return to the Forest of Love, and in order to return, you must die in the Devildom.

• Remaining Time – 00:04:58

Ian, who checked the message, flinched for a moment.

‘Oh, right. Iriel said that she could maintain it for a quarter of a day, right?’

As he had been hunting frantically, he had forgotten about Iriel’s details of caution.

However, as expected, Ian was incredibly calm even despite seeing the warning message.

‘If I leave this place now, it’s possible that a chance like this will never come back again. I could never let that happen.’

The words that he could only leave the Devildom if he died didn’t exactly mean that there would soon be no way out.

Because their Resistance Magic absorbed 99% of their damage, it wouldn’t be easy trying to die either, but aside from that, there was a option that Ian was relying on.

‘As soon as I log out, the development team will probably pull my character out on their own.’

Ian already had the development team wrapped around his finger.

As long as his body lasted, Ian had no intentions of logging out at all.

‘I’ve now fortified one weapon, two rings and my head ornament up to their 3rd fortification…’

It was written that it was possible to fortify up to the 5th fortification with the Lowest-grade Magic Stone, but the chance was too low.

As that was the case, Ian was in the middle of fortifying all of his items which were at least Legendary-rank up to their 3rd fortification for now.

‘Fortifying is important, but I also need to collect as much information on the Devildom as I can. Until my eyes close, that is.’

Ian almost incubated a tragedy that was on par with Admiral Yi Sun-shin, who was at the front for the Battle of Myeongnyang.

And Pin, who had him on his back, quickly flew towards the outskirts of Zone 127 of the Devildom.

Different from Zone 127, which was incredibly wide, the width of the map itself shrunk more and more the deeper they went in.

And Ian, who hunted everything that he ran into at first, prioritized reaching the deepest place of the Devildom over hunting more now and moved accordingly.

‘So, the smaller the number that’s attached to the zone is, more higher-rank maps appear.’

At the end of having moved while hunting for almost 10 hours, the zone that Ian had arrived at was Zone 121 of the Devildom.

Different kinds of magical beasts appeared for each of the areas, but thanks to the cheat-like stat called Resistance Magic, Ian continuously hunted smoothly.

The magical beasts that appeared in Zone 121, where he was currently in the middle of hunting in, were fussy monsters that flew around in the air with a pterodactyl-like appearance, but with Pin and Karceus’s active role, they were able to immediately wipe them.

“Let’s see here, if we go over there, I feel like Zone 120 will come up.”

Ian discovered a red light that was glowing from afar, and he began to move quickly towards that direction.

A couple of Low-class Magic Spirits blocked his way, but since discovering the gate, he just completely ignored them.

‘I also feel like I’m slowly getting sleepy…’

That made sense, as it was a situation where Ian had already been logged onto Kailan for over 20 hours.

Gaming continuously for 20 hours was a hardcore play-time that wouldn’t have been strange at all if a normal person already crashed, but Ian couldn’t care even the least bit.

‘Should I try renewing my best record for continuous gaming at this chance? Was my record 50 hours from when I made a bet with the professor before?’

He opened his eyes even wider instead as he strengthened his resolution.

And shortly after, the transportation gate that shone red appeared in front of the eyes of Ian’s party.

Ian, who discovered that, tilted his head as he mumbled.

“Huh, shape of the gate is slightly different from the ones up until now.”

The gates that Ian had entered in order to go to the next zone were mostly small gates shaped like an oval that floated in the air.

However, the gate that was in front of the party right now had an odd shape where it was spread widely across the ground.

Kaizar, who approached Ian’s side, opened his mouth.

“It’s as if it’s a Summoning Magic Square as well…”

And Karceus, who had transformed into his human form before anybody realized, agreed with Kaizar’s words.

“Kaizar’s words are right. This is a Summoning Magic Square.”

In the world of Kailan as well, the dragon race was a race that was proficient in magic, and so, Ian turned his gaze towards Karceus.

“Is that so? Then is this not a gate that leads to the next map?”

Karceus replied.

“I’m not sure about that. Since there are so many odd Summoning Magic Squares in the Devildom.”

However, just then, the gate that was spread across the ground with an odd shape, let out a loud resonant sound as it began to shine an even brighter red.

Kuoooh-.

Ian and his party reflexively stepped back slightly from the gate, and they began to watch the process of the gate being operated.

“Will the portal open up there now?”

Ian mumbled.

However, the thing that was summoned was different from Ian’s expectation of a portal.

• Keu-rwah-rwah-rwah-. How dare a life form of the human world step foot into this place! You have lost your sense of fear!

[1] Mojilee/Mojilah = Someone who is lacking just 1-2% from being perfect (ex. A guy who has the looks and money, but is a little lacking in the brain department)

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