Leveling Frenzy and the Swarm at Pain Swamp
Level up! Level up! Level up! Level up!!!
"This is seriously... insane, sis!"
Im Ha-rin wasn't just making a fuss—she was genuinely thrilled, beaming ear-to-ear and even clapping her hands.
"How do you even know this stuff, sis? Leveling up this cleanly! It's like, other people really need to learn about it!"
"Whoa, everyone, check this out. Just like GutRipper said earlier, only two quests left, right? And one is my class quest, so that's obvious, but the other is heading to the next village—perfect routing!"
Hearing the surround sound of praise made her face burn hot. Seriously.
From my perspective, though? This wasn't anything special.
Back in the original days, Lost of Fantasy had quest routes that showed zero consideration for players—inhumanly inefficient...
Until a certain patch, you had to grind through this section for any alt characters.
"Eh, just... after playing a bunch of online games, you kinda pick it up."
"No way. This is legit impressive, sis. The quests here are just densely packed, but the order to clear them is totally random, right?"
"Nah, it's not that bad."
I mean, worst case, you loop back to town two or three times pointlessly?
Im Ha-rin stared at me intently, then suddenly jabbed her elbow into the side of my chest and spoke up.
"Sis, you know that ex-pro gamer, right? Rice! The legendary midlaner from back in the day."
"Yeah. The guy's grinding Inbang content hard these days."
"Yep, and I've watched all his guide videos. But even a former pro like him doesn't route quests this cleanly like you do."
Of course not. That's obvious.
People in Jeong Hana's world have no history of ever hitting max level.
I've leveled every class there is, so naturally I know this section's routes inside out?
"...Yeah, you're right! I just noticed looking at the chat. Remember when we looped back to town earlier and I was like, why not complete everything at once? That's what it was! Some quests complete on the spot, others are chains, so it was deliberate to swing by once!"
"No, come on..."
"See? Everyone's saying it's amazing."
Someone please stop praising this obvious leveling route!!!
"Max level? No way..."
"Huh, really? You know something, sis?"
We naturally shifted toward 12 o'clock as I shrugged.
Couldn't exactly say I'd done it myself.
"Ha-rin-ah. Imagine you're the game dev."
"Uh... okay."
"You worked hard making all these quests. How many red zones did we see earlier?"
Im Ha-rin started to answer but blanked, pulling up her map.
"Power Plains, Halpas Hill, Pain Swamp? Three of 'em."
"Right. So they'd put quests in all three spots, expecting players to clear every last one."
"Ah... shit, so we gotta hit all of 'em to reach 55?"
"Eh, probably something like that. If I were dev, I'd design it to drag you through all of them."
In reality, that's exactly how it felt.
Mix in some dailies or run a few extra dungeons, and original-era players had to clear every red zone quest to push to 55-level areas.
"Still, kinda lucky though, sis."
"Why? What's lucky all of a sudden?"
"Game doesn't tell you where to level. Without you, I'd have been flailing around forever."
This praise was at least somewhat deserved, so I shrugged smugly.
"Yeah? If it's such a relief, buy your sis a strawberry smoothie or something."
"Whoa... sis, you squeezing cash out of a fresh high schooler right now?"
"Hey, didn't you just say everyone needs to know this guide? I shared it just with you—least you can do."
"Whoa!! For real! This sis is extortion! Extortion!"
Im Ha-rin yelled playfully, giggling as she clicked my character and hit 'Follow'.
This was another tip I'd given her earlier when she was whining about needing the bathroom.
"Whoa, hold up."
Didn't expect her to actually pull up the order menu.
"What's up, sis? What should I get ya? I'll go big!"
"No, wait! I was kidding! You don't have to buy anything!"
I couldn't take a high schooler's money, no matter what!
I could afford my own damn strawberry smoothie!
Kang Min-seo was in the best mood she'd been since starting Lost of Fantasy—happy enough to call it the peak of her streaming days.
Kang Min-seo kept glancing proudly at her character while talking.
Man, today's super high-speed leveling for real? Last time Sky and Thunder teased me, I was like... well, I'm a tank, what can ya do? But now I'm the highest level?!
Of course, she was friends with the other streamers, so she fiddled with her friends list open and closed, reveling in being the top-leveled among them.
"Anyway, looks like you can't hit 55 in this area. Kinda stalling vibe now that I'm 53."
Ending here would suck.
Thinking that, Kang Min-seo waited for Jeong Hana's next order.
Jeong Hana always just called Kang Min-seo "Warrior."
These little habits—unintentional as they were—made her seem unbiased, no cliquey favoritism, which viewers loved.
If she'd been blatantly buddy-buddy to the point of "clique accusations," Kang Min-seo would've ditched her too.
"Yup yup, just class quest~"
"Oh, what? This map has an underground cave...? Huh, NPCs?"
It wasn't marked on the map at all, so Kang Min-seo trailed behind Jeong Hana before spotting the NPCs with exclamation marks overhead.
"Oh, what... guess it completes right away..."
Grinning as she picked up the quests, Kang Min-seo's eyebrows twitched.
Bloodnium Handover 23/40
"Ah... ah... a-ah..."
Kang Min-seo let out a pained groan, covering her face with both hands.
"Aigoo, seriouslyyy! Guys! You could totally forget this! It doesn't show in the quest log separately! I had to gather 40 raw!"
Jeong Hana had told her to gather extras ahead for this quest...
But Kang Min-seo forgot.
"Shiiit... even dropped the herbs midway..."
Kang Min-seo pictured herself trekking back to that remote hill at 6 o'clock in Power Plains to mine rocks, then heading to 12 for herbs.
"Um... Knight-nim..."
"Huh? H-how'd you know?!"
Jeong Hana casually requested a trade, dropping the exact number of mats needed.
"Whoa... what even is this knight?"
Stunned but refusing freebies, Kang Min-seo tossed 100 gold into the trade window.
"For all the help so far, take all my gold!"
100 gold.
Jeong Hana's items would've fetched only 20 gold at auction house—huge profit.
But only Jeong Hana knew that.
Pain Swamp
"Sis, clearing all the quests here today gets us to 55, right?"
Even after a long day—Power Plains, Halpas Hill, now here—Im Ha-rin's voice was still bubbly.
"Probably, yeah. We're both freshly 54."
If levels fell short, just grab two more DPS with this crew and run dungeons.
Not full purple gear anyway, so farm while at it.
"Ah... now I get why the knight saved this place for last."
At Kang Min-seo's voice piping in, Im Ha-rin blinked and glanced at me.
"Sis, what's the reason?"
"Well—"
"This place is a total PVP slaughterhouse. Tons of Alliance players swarming."
In a way, that's what I'd planned to say.
"Not wrong. Pain Swamp is neutral—Alliance and Demon King both get quests here. Gets ganked, leveling crawls."
"Whoa... sis, how'd you know that?"
"Foreign players make good wikis. Saw it there."
Fibbing casually, but a weird unease crept in.
Lots of Alliance players.
Makes sense, sure.
But not for 48s or 49s.
Alliance quest routes were clean AF unlike Demon King's trash— no need for 10+ in a party lurking our village.
"...Sis, what're these guys? Snipers?"
To Im Ha-rin's question, I could only shrug.