Spoils
"Huh? Guild Master!"
The moment Jin-soo stepped into the guild house, one of the Chavel Guild members—face drawn tight with worry—broke into a bright smile and welcomed him.
"What kept you so long? We thought something had gone wrong. And where are the others? You came back alone?"
Jin-soo smiled softly, closed the distance, and swung. The blade bit home with a wet crunch, and the guild member died with the smile still on his face. Jin-soo swept the drops into his inventory and climbed the stairs.
Here.
The top floor held only two rooms: the quarters of Lucas, Guild Master of the Chavel Guild, and his office. Jin-soo tried the handle. Locked, of course.
Steel hissed free as he drew the sword Lucas had carried. He triggered a skill and poured mana into the blade without holding back.
The sword drowned in a blood-red heat haze.
He swung with everything he had.
A deafening boom tore through the floor, then another. Jin-soo paid them no mind and kept swinging.
"What was that?"
"What the hell is that noise?"
The guild members still in the house came rushing in a pack. Seven of them. That was all.
"Guild Master?"
"What are you doing?"
"The office door—why?"
They were more than a little rattled, but none of them dared step in and stop him. Lucas was a self-righteous, authoritarian man, and he never forgave anyone who opposed him.
He hammered at the door until it finally gave with a splintering crack. Jin-soo stepped inside and tore through the office.
They didn't even bother hiding anything properly. Only people with his permission could enter this space, so it was only natural. They stockpiled quite a lot, though.
Class-change tomes, skill books, and heaps of other items filled the room. Jin-soo stuffed every last one into his inventory and treasure pouch, then smashed the door to the quarters and went in.
The real prizes were in here. There were fewer items, but the quality was far higher. A private room is safer than an office, after all. Guild members could enter the office on business. The personal quarters were another matter entirely.
He cleaned out everything in Lucas's room as well.
"Has the guild leader lost his mind? Do you have any idea what the repairs are going to cost?"
"Right? The landlord's going to raise hell."
The Chavel Guild house wasn't a building they owned. They leased it from an NPC landlord.
Once he had everything, Jin-soo walked out of the quarters.
"Guild Master, you owe us an explanation now."
"What happened to the members who went with you? Did something terrible happen?"
They asked with worried faces. Jin-soo crooked a finger, beckoning them closer.
"There's nobody here but us, though."
"Did something really go down?"
Puzzled as they were, they crowded in around him. The moment every last one of them was within reach, his sword flashed like lightning and took all seven heads.
"Ghk!"
"Why?"
Not one of them had imagined their Guild Master, Lucas, would turn on them. All seven died for nothing.
Having wiped out every player of the Chavel Guild, Jin-soo collected the items and walked out of the guild house.
"What?"
"What's going on?"
"It's Lucas!"
NPCs and players from other guilds had gathered thick outside the building.
"Hey, Lucas! What happened? Did someone attack you?"
"As if anyone would be crazy enough to hit the Chavel Guild."
"Did the guild members start fighting among themselves?"
Questions rained down from the players of the other guilds. Jin-soo twisted his face into a deep scowl, ignored them, and kept walking.
"Hey, Lucas! Where are you going?"
"You kick up a racket in the middle of the night, the least you can do is apologize!"
"That rude bastard!"
"I thought he had some manners. Guess not."
"Well. Something bad must have happened."
The crowd scattered quickly. None of them followed Jin-soo in Lucas's skin. They seemed to assume the guild members had simply gotten into a fight among themselves.
Good thing I have False Mask. If he had gone in looking like himself, a fight would have broken out the moment he entered the guild house. And the players from the other guilds, drawn by the noise, would never have let him leave in peace.
Time to head back.
He moved somewhere deserted, swapped his gear, released False Mask, and returned to his lodgings.
Back in his room, Jin-soo sank into a deep sleep before he could finish sorting the items. The battle had been fierce, and the physical and mental fatigue was no joke. He needed rest, and he needed it now.
"Haaahm."
He woke from a solid night's sleep, met Shin Sua, ate breakfast, and went out to hunt. The thought of taking a full day off crossed his mind, but in the end he stuck to the original schedule.
One day becomes two. Two becomes three. Three becomes four.
He would finish the hunt earlier than usual instead.
"You're not summoning Leo?"
At Shin Sua's words, he realized he had completely forgotten Leo, forcibly unsummoned the day before.
"Ah. Right."
He summoned Leo.
"Nyaaaang!"
The little shadow beast yowled in rough protest, then bit down hard on Jin-soo's foot.
"Sorry for unsummoning you out of nowhere."
Jin-soo lifted him, still gnawing diligently at the leather shoe.
"Meow!"
Leo turned his head and refused to look at him.
"I'm counting on you again today."
"Keh!"
This time he scoffed.
"Hungry?"
Jin-soo pulled a hefty chunk of meat from his inventory—ogre meat that had been up at the auction house.
"Eat up."
He set Leo down beside it.
"Mraaow!"
Leo hesitated a moment, let out a loud cry as if warning him to watch himself, then seized the meat and started chewing.
Jin-soo summoned his Shadow Summons as well. Now that they had reached level 222, their cooldown had dropped to six hours.
"Nyaaaaang!"
Once Leo had devoured every last scrap, he unleashed an adorable roar, and monsters swarmed in like bees. Jin-soo and Shin Sua hunted at an easy pace.
Smooth.
A smile touched his lips. They never even ran into a party of player killers—not so much as an ordinary player party. The hunt went cleanly, and then it was over.
"Let's head back."
"Already?"
Shin Sua looked surprised. It was far earlier than usual.
"Don't want to?"
"No. I do."
She answered with a bright smile, and the two of them entered the city.
I'll finish sorting the items today.
With that thought, Jin-soo stepped into the Daehan Guild building. He and Shin Sua ate an early dinner.
"I heard the two of you have been hunting alone, and you're still alive and well. Lucky, I guess?"
Just as they finished and were heading up to their rooms, a woman called out to Jin-soo with a sneer. It was the puppy-faced woman from the party that had tried to recruit him in the restaurant before.
"You're still alive and well yourself. Looks like your luck's even better than mine."
He said it with a smile, and her face flushed with anger.
"You'd better hope we don't run into each other on the hunting grounds, you mouthy little brat."
"That's what I was about to tell you."
With that, Jin-soo headed up to his room.
"That little bastard, I swear!"
He heard her fuming behind him and ignored it without a second thought.
"Go in and rest."
"You said you were sorting items. I'll help."
"Yeah? Then I'd like that."
Two people would finish faster than one. They went into the room and got to work.
"Meow..."
Leo watched them for a while, then simply fell asleep.
Nothing especially good. What Jin-soo wanted were pieces on the level of the Blood-Sucking Sword or the Ring of Revival, so it was only natural. Even so, there were plenty of items that would serve well enough for the time being.
"You use this."
He handed Shin Sua the skill books and items that would help her.
"I didn't even help. I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry for."
Shin Sua was someone who would become the greatest healer in the Tower. And even now, she was already a considerable help.
"You said that synthesis skill thing could get you healer skills too, right?"
Holding what he had given her, she asked carefully.
"Yeah."
"I see."
Her expression darkened. If Jin-soo gained healer skills, there would be even less for her to do, and the worry came first.
"The healer skills I'm going to learn are dark-attribute anyway. I'll still need your help."
Even among healers, holy and dark were different in nature. They overlapped in only one thing: recovery. Blessing, protection, cleanse, and purification were weapons only the holy attribute possessed. The dark attribute carried curse, decay, deterioration, and absorption.
"And your holy recovery will be far more effective than mine."
More to the point, even if he changed class to healer, his class level would be a mere 2.
I'd only be able to pick up the basic class skills. Common healer skills, at least, he could acquire freely. But those had a drawback of their own. Once they become synthesized skills, the level locks at 222.
There would be no room to raise them further. Compatibility mattered too. No matter how good a skill was, without a similar skill that offered a high chance of successful synthesis, turning it into a synthesized skill was impossible.
And even if a blessing grows enough to let me lock synthesized-skill levels, they'll still end up lower than my main skills. As a blessing grew, he could lock a skill at 222—but only after clearing the walls at level 22 and level 122. I don't know when the next one will show up. Even if it comes early, there'll still be a gap of several hundred levels.
If it came late, the gap between ordinary skill levels and synthesized-skill levels might approach a thousand.
There was another problem. The number of skills he could currently lock at level 222 was only 122.
At first I thought that was more than enough. Once he started making synthesized skills, the bottom showed itself fast. The point cost is a problem too.
He had spent a great many points creating them, but because every one was locked at 222, their usefulness could only decline as time passed.
And if a blessing that locks class level shows up, I'll have to do the whole thing over again.
If the blessing that locked synthesized-skill levels arrived extremely late, and only the blessings he already had—the ones that locked class skills and common skills—kept growing, he would have to get by on basic class skills and common skills alone. And if, in the middle of that, a blessing that locked class level appeared first?
I'd have to burn an absurd number of points and repeat the whole process just to forge new synthesized skills.
Even if he swallowed that enormous loss, the level gap between his class and common skills and his synthesized skills would keep opening.
Synthesized skills are support. Nothing more. I'll keep them at a reasonable level and leave it at that.
The ceiling of a locked level. The limited number of locks. Points. The limit of class level 2. Those four drawbacks alone were reason enough not to overinvest.
Still, I should at least secure the basics. In the fight against the Chavel Guild, warrior skills, mage skills, and summoner skills had all been a great help. Warrior and mage skills let him fight at both close range and long range, and the summoner skills let him strengthen his Shadow Summons with buffs exclusive to summoners. The basic class skills are worth having, even locked at 222. Healer first.
Recovery. Curse. Decay. Deterioration. Absorption.
Curse, decay, deterioration, and absorption each add another offensive weapon. And recovery is a good skill no matter what.
Healers, though, were generally treated better in the holy attribute than the dark. Their recovery was more efficient, and they had the powerful weapons of blessing, protection, cleanse, and purification.
Hone curse, decay, deterioration, and absorption properly, and they can be incredibly effective. Shin Sua's younger sister, Shin Sujeong, was proof. The curse, decay, deterioration, and absorption of the woman they called the Dark Saintess had visited horrific disaster on her enemies. She even warped her curse skills into something that worked like a blessing.
She would cast on her allies a skill that was a curse in name only—one that shaved off just enough health for a single recovery skill to restore, while overwhelmingly raising attack power and attack speed.