212. Hidden Class: Moon Dancer - (3)
212. Hidden Class: Moon Dancer - (3)
***
Serin considered turning the stream back on, even if late, but soon shook her head.
"...I'll just explain everything tomorrow."
What had happened while the stream was off, and how it had all turned out.
She was too tired to explain all of that.
She was dazed enough that she might slip up if she streamed, and she was tired enough that a warning message might pop up at any moment.
From the moment she encountered the Grim Reaper, she had to summon twice her usual focus, and the Stage 4 trial's trap zone had forced her to move under pressure that grated on her nerves every second.
Then the final battle against Daji at the end had demanded more intense concentration than any duel she had ever fought.
It was, quite literally, a nonstop schedule with no room to breathe.
When she checked how much time had passed, it was already approaching 8 p.m.
She needed to eat, and even though she felt exhausted, Serin had no intention of logging out just yet.
She had just advanced to a hidden class, and she was going to close the game without checking her status window and skills?
That was absolutely not what a gamer would do.
Even through the extreme fatigue, excitement welled up inside her. And Serin's excitement was the stronger feeling.
If she had advanced to a hidden class, of course she had to check her updated status window and skills.
Ding!
Before long, the status window hologram filled Serin's vision.
*
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Nickname: Rin (rinhh)
Class: Moon Dancer (Hidden)
Title: Second Only to One, Above Ten Thousand (一人之下 萬人之上)
【All NPC Affinity +5, 3% discount on all item shop sales and service-type item enhancements, Alchemy Workshop, and all facility use, 2% discount on Central Auction House fees always applied】
Level: 65.
Guild: -
Total Equipped Attack Power: 1878.
Top 0.52% of all users
Total Equipped Defense: 1105.
Top 15.42% of all users
Max HP: 4552.
—Selected Traits.
Indomitable Will (?) Vital Strike (?) Madness (?) *Moon Dancer (?)
—Weapon Proficiency.
Crescent-Moon Weight 614. Greatsword 124. Crossbow 0. One-Handed Sword 0. Crossbow 0. Bow 0 — Expand proficiency for other weapons.
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*
Looking at the status window, Serin let out a laugh without realizing it.
"...Second Only to One, Above Ten Thousand."
The most striking thing was that her title had changed to Daji's title, Second Only to One, Above Ten Thousand. What's more, the title that originally had no effect at all now carried an incredible effect.
She couldn't tell whether this was because Daji had acknowledged her, or because she had advanced to Moon Dancer, but her eyes were drawn to the title's listed effect.
—Increased affinity with all NPCs, plus permanent discounts.
The fact that it affected all NPCs, not just those in a specific region or nation, was truly an incredible effect.
Considering how difficult it was to raise affinity with NPCs of opposing dispositions or factions, the affinity option alone was worth an amount that couldn't be converted into money.
On top of that, the discount on all shops and auction house fees was an incredibly good benefit even at a glance.
And the next thing that caught her eye was the noticeably increased attack power.
—Total Equipped Attack Power: 1878.
Top 0.52% of all users
"Equipping one mythic item raises it this much?"
Just by equipping one mythic item, her attack power ranking had climbed into the top 0.5% of all users.
The mythic item she had received from Daji upon advancing to Moon Dancer. It was probably because of Moonlight's options, but she felt strangely unfamiliar with it.
The image of Daji, who had called her own flesh and blood just moments ago, flickered through her mind.
'This is hard to think of as just a game.'
Could she really view her as a mere NPC, an easter egg left by the developers' intent?
In truth, ever since she had succeeded in calling out the Heavenly Demon Cheon Ryuhwa, she had harbored doubts about Another World.
A virtual reality game with a structure and system similar to Black Ark.
Another World.
Where did the game begin and end, and where did the illusion begin and end? And what parts were connected to reality?
Moreover, Daji, who had been given individuality through the Great Hero trait, was no different from facing a living, breathing being.
It was the same feeling she had felt when first encountering an NPC in Black Ark.
She quietly looked at the white Crescent-Moon Weight equipped on her right hand.
"Moonlight..."
From its appearance to the cord attached to it, everything about it was endlessly elegant and mysterious.
'Giving a mythic item as a gift is absurd, though.'
In Black Ark, mythic-grade items were like national treasures, and wars were fought over a single item, let alone giving one as a gift.
Mythic items might not be quite that extreme in this world, but their value was by no means small.
Items that commanded tens of millions of won in cash. I had effectively received such an item out of simple goodwill.
Looking back again, the absurd difficulty of the Cave of Trials, combined with several other circumstances, all seemed to have overlapped.
Click.
She immediately manipulated the hologram and checked the stats of Moonlight, which had become her exclusive armament.
*
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Moonlight
Grade: Mythic.
Base Effect: Attack Power +1354.
Unique Armament: Rin.
Additional Effect: Vital-Point Attack Damage +100%, Attack Power +100% bonus damage when moonlight is present. Attack Power +200% bonus damage in locations where a full moon is out. Attack Power +30% increase in all other spaces.
Special Skill 'Moonlit Night' can be used.
- Description: A mysterious weapon imbued with the power of the moon, said to have been crafted by modeling a Crescent-Moon Weight after the light of the full moon. Even the blacksmiths of the Imperial Palace could not discern the origin of this weapon.
A weapon traded at great expense by the Emperor of the Chaldea Empire to commend Daji's achievements, and one that later became a symbol of Daji.
*Daji has currently transferred full ownership of Moonlight to another person.
- Moonlit Night: Changes an open area where the sky is visible into a quiet night world where moonlight exists for 1 hour. (Cooldown 24 hours, cannot be used in Unique Domains or Absolute Domains.)
(Cannot be traded)
(Cannot be sold)
(Cannot be destroyed)
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*
"So this is why people go on about mythic items..."
After examining the stats, Serin let out an involuntary exclamation.
The attack power had certainly gone down compared to when she first saw it, but it was still very high, and the additional effects were absurd.
Under a moonlit night, it was a broken option that granted attack power adjustments, and under a full moon, it was fair to say there was no enemy she couldn't defeat.
Even in spaces without a moon, it had a 30% attack power increase effect, so the option couldn't be called bad even in moonless places.
"Daji gave me this weapon and then fought me..."
Serin could only let out a hollow laugh.
She couldn't even properly gauge how much of Daji's full power that had been, even now.
But one thing was certain: Daji had clearly not fought at full strength. That much was clear.
Because the moment she saw Moonlight's options, she couldn't help but feel it.
The sight of the grand banquet hall brilliantly illuminated by the full moon.
If Daji had used Moonlight from the start in that setting, how many exchanges could she have managed?
Daji had shown the difference in their strength early on by deflecting her attacks even without Moonlight.
Even if that was due to her traits and equipment, it was undeniable that the gap was enormous.
And if.
'If she had also had Moonlight's 200% bonus attack damage...'
In effect, Daji had faced her while carrying a penalty from the very beginning.
On top of that, she had erased Troll Blood and Resurrection of the Dead on her own. And she had even used the World Tree fragment for me midway through.
Thinking about it one by one, laughter just escaped her.
Heavenly Demon Cheon Ryuhwa.
Even if it had been her, could she have won against a Daji wielding Moonlight?
"If the stream being off was lucky, then I guess it was lucky."
She checked when the stream had cut off, and fortunately, it had been off from the moment she closed her eyes.
If the things Cheon Ryuhwa had said and done while acting through her body had gone out on stream, that alone would have caused enormous waves.
Moreover, no matter how she had won, she couldn't imagine that she had beaten Daji in an ordinary way.
Thinking about it one by one, the dangerous elements and careless points were more than just one or two.
Resolving to be more careful from now on, Serin checked the last unusual point in the status window.
—Selected Traits.
Indomitable Will (?) Vital Strike (?) Madness (?) *Moon Dancer (?)
Among them, she pressed the question mark on the newly added trait, Moon Dancer.
*
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*Moon Dancer.
Damage increases or decreases based on the number of techniques the dancer has mastered.
—Damage increases by the number of mastered techniques.
—Damage decreases by the number of unmastered techniques.
Current: 22% damage increase applied.
————
*
'...That's broken.'
As Daji's voice, saying she hadn't even spoken to ordinary dancers, suddenly came to mind, she wondered if there could be a more broken option than this for herself.
For someone like her, whose technique proficiency from Black Ark carried over into Another World, this was a perfectly tailored trait.
Seeing the 22% damage increase option, Serin felt it was a little strange.
'If it's 22%, is the calculation formula unusual...?'
Even at the lowest estimate, she thought she must have mastered at least 50 to 60 techniques, so the 22% figure was a bit unexpected.
Still, having over 20% damage increase applied from a simple passive effect alone was definitely a broken option.
Click.
Having finished checking the status window for the first time in a while, she immediately opened the skill window.
When Serin opened the skill window, the sight before her naturally curled the corners of her lips upward.
Her existing techniques displayed proficiency values so close to perfect they were beautiful.
And after those existing techniques, she saw the new techniques positioned on one side of the skill window.
Swish.
The sound of the hologram scroll moving down rang out as Serin looked at the new techniques and recalled the techniques Daji had used.
She had expected there to be around 10 new techniques.
But the scroll kept going down to an odd degree.
Swish.
At the end, after scrolling down until it would go no further, Serin blinked blankly.
"...27?"
The number of new techniques reached a whopping 27.
'Moon Dancer.'
Immediately, she couldn't help but think of the Moon Dancer trait.
Because of these 27 techniques she had not yet learned, an additional -27% was applied, and the current damage increase was 22%.
"With an option like this, no wonder no one could advance to the hidden class."
The words slipped out blankly.
Even pro players who are good at the game generally don't use more than 20 techniques. And that's only counting players who use a lot.
Usually, players only master around 10 efficient techniques.
In that sense, the Moon Dancer trait was no different from a trait that would make ordinary users say it was insane.
Normally, mastering a single technique took months, and depending on the user, it could take even longer.
If other dancers had advanced to Moon Dancer, they would be stuck with the atrocious option of damage reduction instead of damage increase.
And at minimum, they would have carried a brutal penalty of close to 40% or 50% damage reduction.
'So that's why I'm the first.'
Serin felt like she understood why Daji had been lonely all this time, and at the same time, it was absurd.
If even the trait alone was like this, wasn't there a technique-related condition for triggering that hidden class quest?
She suspected there was probably a condition of at least 20 mastered techniques, or maybe 30.
As Serin read through the new techniques as if entranced, a warning message appeared over her vision.
Ding!
—Accumulated user fatigue has been detected. Your Another World connection will end in 10 seconds.
"...Stop with the shutdown system."
Through her fatigue, Serin felt a great sense of regret.
She had awakened to a hidden class, and she couldn't even properly swing her Crescent-Moon Weight.