Sub Quest (2)
Sub Quest Discovered!
Moon Junil had somehow stumbled into a sub quest.
‘This…'
He'd gone through seven lifetimes as a hero, but he'd never really played many games.
‘Still, this seems pretty good, right?’
The Constellations' reactions suggested this was something fairly important.
It looked like this was the secret behind the Free Chapter.
‘The Free Chapter wasn't for resting. It was for doing sub quests.'
The Free Chapter was actually the time to widen the gap.
The difference between passive Awakened who did nothing because no monsters appeared, and active Awakened who tried to do something anyway.
This sub quest was a gift given to those who actively participated.
‘But why me?’
Junil couldn't understand it.
He was certainly an active participant, but...
‘My luck has been absolute garbage.'
Hadn't his luck been terrible this whole time?
Nothing had ever been solved by luck.
Just look at how his entire fortune—his apartment—had been destroyed by a plane crashing straight into it.
This world hated him.
Yet this had suddenly fallen into his lap like a stroke of good fortune.
“So? Will you accept the request?”
The elf asked again.
Junil thought for a moment.
After suffering through thirty years of hero work, he couldn't help but be suspicious when good luck came his way.
‘What's the probability this is a trap...’
Elves weren't exactly known for being con artists.
If anything, they were so bad at lying that having one as a teammate was a massive headache.
Then a phrase flashed through his mind.
That was what the elf had said when she approached him.
He'd been a bit flustered at the time and hadn't thought much of it, but...
‘Could this be...’
His gaze drifted to a system window.
Transcendent 'Hero - Julian' Legacy
Progress: 8.09%
The legacy of Hero Julian.
It had progressed by about eight percent.
Considering how he'd barely been able to use Mana Punch when it was at one percent, this was incredible progress.
‘So that's it.’
Junil finally understood.
The one receiving all this bad luck was the human Moon Junil.
The one this world hated was also the human Moon Junil.
But what about Julian?
He was the exception.
The eight percent of Julian inside him.
That was what had moved the elf.
‘She senses Julian.’
The elf had called it a "familiar, longing feeling."
Could she be someone from the dimension where Julian had been?
If so...
‘Does she know Meyrin?’
Was she from the first round?
Meyrin had interacted with elves quite a bit.
It was possible she might know her.
‘But with the Constellations watching, I can't ask.’
Junil had a lot on his mind, but he pushed it aside for now.
‘Let's complete the request first.’
He was in the middle of carrying out another request anyway.
“Alright. What exactly is the favor?”
He accepted the quest and moved the conversation forward.
“It's nothing too difficult. I need you to find something for me.”
Find something...
Sometimes requests like this were harder than simply being asked to kill someone.
“What is it?”
“There's thick magi flowing through this place. Find the source. I want to purify it.”
Magi? If an elf was calling it magi, it probably wasn't just some ordinary monster.
“...If you can sense magi that well, why don't you find it yourself?”
“There are too many sharp, annoying things around here. It's hard for me to move around.”
“Understood. I'll look into it.”
Ding.
Sub Quest #1
Objective: Powerful magi is flowing from somewhere. Find out the cause.
Reward: Unknown
The reward wasn't visible.
But for Junil, there was already one guaranteed reward.
“If I solve this, we'll make a deal, right?”
A deal with the elf.
“Of course. I keep my promises.”
The elf nodded and snapped her fingers.
Snap.
“Take this child with you. It'll let you know where the magi is.”
It was a tiny spirit.
It couldn't exactly talk, but it would probably throw a fit if it got near the magi.
Piiyuuung~!
“Yes. I'll be going now.”
“You're not going to ask how to use it?”
“Use what?”
“The spirit.”
“Ah, it's fine. I'll figure it out just by looking.”
Despite Junil's absurd confidence, the elf simply nodded.
“...Mm. I see.”
She could tell he was being sincere.
‘He's strange.’
In her eyes, Junil was completely different from the other humans here.
‘He knows.’
The way he'd reacted when he saw the spirit.
How naturally he'd raised his hand and let it settle on his shoulder.
Those were the movements of someone familiar with spirits.
‘I was definitely drawn here by the World Tree's call.’
In the end, she could only come to one conclusion.
‘Is the person the World Tree showed me... him?’
“Man, they could've just pinned it on Naver Maps.”
As soon as he was far enough from the elf, Junil grumbled and pulled out his phone.
There was a village near this graveyard.
Junil checked how long it would take to circle the entire area following the paths.
But then the spirit the elf had given him suddenly started making strange noises.
“Kiiing! Kiing!”
“...You hate this too?”
The round spirit nodded.
It didn't like the phone.
“Ha. Just bear with it a little longer.”
Junil examined the map on his phone as quickly as possible, memorizing the terrain.
It was a level of geographic memorization that would shock any modern person, but...
‘It's basic in the medieval era.’
For Junil, who'd lived as an adventurer for thirty years in the Middle Ages, this was second nature.
Whoosh.
He put his phone away and held out his hand to the spirit.
“Let's go. I've got it memorized.”
“Piiing~!”
Even though he'd memorized the map, the search process was still a bit tedious.
‘I knew it.’
When he checked the number of Constellations watching, many were starting to leave now that the dopamine from the sub quest had worn off.
Current Viewers: 789
The number had dropped from 850 to 789.
It made sense. Who would want to watch such a boring search process?
Junil understood, but...
‘I can't just let them leave like that.’
The Constellations' interest was Junil's power.
The percentage of Julian's legacy progressed based on how many were watching.
Since his legacy was still so low, even one percent mattered right now.
‘Shop.’
So Junil opened the shop.
Jingle!
Eerie BGM
Now Playing
Horror movie-style music began to play.
The so-called "Something Big Is Coming" strategy.
If this kind of BGM was playing, they'd think something was about to start and wouldn't be able to leave.
Junil walked a full lap around the village's perimeter path with the music still playing.
“Ahem... Feels like something might pop out any second.”
He muttered to himself for good measure.
How long had he been walking?
Just as the Constellations were starting to realize they'd been scammed...
“Buuuu!”
The spirit suddenly started darting around in every direction.
It meant there was magi flowing nearby.
Spirits had their own unique way of communicating.
The Constellations had assumed he wouldn't be able to understand it properly, but...
“This way?”
“Piing!”
He quickly figured out the direction.
In his second round, one of his party members had been an elf mage.
She'd used this kind of spirit when entering dungeons, so Junil had learned how to read them.
“Hm. Seems like it's around here.”
He muttered as if it were pure coincidence, then headed in the direction the spirit indicated.
The eerie BGM continued to build the creepy atmosphere.
“This place... is a mountain again?”
He'd thought it would be near the village.
Surprisingly, it was in the mountains.
“If that's the case, the elf should've just come herself. There aren't even any electromagnetic waves here.”
The mountain as the sun was setting wasn't exactly a pleasant atmosphere.
“Feels like something dangerous is going to come out.”
Coincidentally, the eerie music reached its climax at that exact moment.
Baaam~ Ba-bam!
The Constellations were getting anxious.
‘Yeah. It's just a coincidence.’
Junil laughed to himself, thoroughly enjoying their reaction.
But then—
Rustle.
The bushes shook.
‘There it is.’
Whoosh.
Junil pulled the goblin knife from his inventory.
‘What could it be? If it's magi that the elf wants to purify...’
A shape emerged from the bushes.
“W-what the?!”
It was just a slightly haggard-looking man.
“W-why are you pointing a knife at me?!”
Junil had unconsciously thrust the knife forward.
He quickly put it away.
“Ah... I must have mistaken you for... I thought you were a goblin.”
“Are you an Awakened?”
“Yes... well...”
Since he was F-rank, calling himself an Awakened felt a bit much.
“Ahaha. I see. I'm an Awakened too.”
“...Are you?”
“Yes. I'm a mage, haha. Pretty lucky, right?”
Ding~!
The mage proudly displayed his B-rank.
“Oh... B-rank... That's insanely lucky.”
Junil felt a bit annoyed for some reason.
The Constellations were suspicious of the man because of the BGM, but that was just because Junil had forgotten to turn it off.
Amid the suspicious music, the man's voice rang out.
“What's your rank?”
Doong!
Was it a coincidence?
The music began to take on a more ominous tone.
“You don't seem to be from around here. Let's see your rank.”
The man's attitude suddenly changed.
What the hell? This guy?
“I'm from far away. Seoul.”
“Exactly. You didn't come here to do something weird, did you? Show me your rank.”
The man was now giving off a downright threatening aura.
“No, what kind of weird stuff would I be doing?”
“There are rumors going around the village about strange men gathering in the mountains and plotting something... They say ghosts are wandering around too!”
“That's the elf. I just met her.”
“What? Ha?”
The man scoffed.
“So what the hell is your rank?”
Ding.
Junil eventually showed his rank.
“...!?”
The man looked shocked.
His expression was strange.
Like he wanted to laugh but couldn't.
“Ah, e-eh... F... W-well, that's a relief. You can't do anything weird then.”
He seemed relieved.
Junil asked, “By the way, those men you mentioned earlier... the ones plotting something? Where were they spotted?”
For some reason, they sounded like the ones the elf had mentioned.
“Around this mountain, near the graveyard... That's about all I know...”
“Are you looking for those people?”
Junil glanced at the spirit as he asked.
“Hm? Those people? No. What I'm looking for is...”
The man grinned.
Whoosh!
He thrust a strangely curved dagger into Junil's abdomen.
“A corpse.”
He was sure he'd stabbed him.
“Ah. But that wasn't a corpse. It was just my afterimage?”
“!?”
A voice came from behind.
It was Junil.
“You... aren't you F-rank?”
“I am? You saw it, didn't you?”
“But how...”
The man couldn't understand.
No matter how you looked at that movement, it wasn't something an F-rank could do.
Even E-rank was basically just a production class with no relation to combat.
“Well, that's because...”
Crack.
Junil struck a pose like Kang Hae-il and said,
“Ranks are just numbers.”
And with that, he activated an item.
Spring Flower Shalara Effect
10 Feeling (FL)
Bright lighting flashed as flower petals scattered through the air.
The man raised a skull-topped staff and shouted,
“Bullshit! Who the hell would believe an F-rank saying something like that!?”
Crack.
Junil loosened his wrists.
“Yeah. Yeah. No one ever believes it.”
The moment the man's skull staff emitted an eerie green light, Junil's figure shot forward in an instant.
“Until they get punched in the face!!!”
Along with the scattering flower petals, the man's jaw spun around.
Thud!