Chapter 108
“You’re early.”
Jeong-Hoon hadn’t told him to come right away.
He had just told him not to be late.
“Haha, I feel more comfortable coming early!”
Kim Bong-Goo replied, standing at attention.
And soon after, Ha-Jin also arrived.
“I’m here~”
“Welcome.”
Jeong-Hoon checked their levels.
His own level was 164.
Ha-Jin’s level was 179.
Kim Bong-Goo’s level was 166.
They had long surpassed the level required to do the party quest.
“So we’re going right now?”
“Yes. We’re going to repeat the party quest from now on.”
Usually, you would enter a dedicated map through the NPC who gave you the party quest.
“Repeat…?”
“Yes.”
He hadn’t heard the exact time the guy would enter.
So he would repeat it until they encountered him.
‘You know the party quest in Märchen Kingdom, right? If you win 10 times in a row, you can move on to the royal palace quest, right?’
Entering the Märchen Kingdom royal palace.
That was Jeong-Hoon’s next goal.
The royal palace didn’t have a separate entrance quest like the temple.
To enter the Märchen Kingdom royal palace, you had to achieve a very special condition.
It was to win the party quest 10 times in a row without losing.
‘You said it was a stage he had to go through, right?’
The hidden class that the guy had obtained.
The first step to that hidden class was to enter the Märchen royal palace.
* * *
===
[NPC Information]
– Nickname: Pochil
– Level: 175
– Class: Party Quest Manager
===
Pochil, the Märchen Kingdom party quest manager.
Pochil was an NPC who lived in a circus troupe a little distance from the capital and managed the users’ party quests.
However, the circus troupe was deserted, with only dust flying around.
“…Wow, there’s not a single person here.”
Ha-Jin exclaimed softly.
“The Märchen Kingdom party quest isn’t very efficient… There are plenty of efficient places in the neighboring areas, so why would anyone bother doing it here…?”
Kim Bong-Goo explained.
“Okay, be quiet.”
Jeong-Hoon approached Pochil, who was dozing off in a chair.
A question mark was blinking above his head.
[Party Quest: Märchen]
– Restriction: Can be entered by a party of 3 users level 155 or higher
– Reward: Experience points
– Description: Complete the party quest in 3 rounds!
The Märchen party quest consisted of a total of 3 rounds.
When Jeong-Hoon applied to enter the party, Pochil woke up with a start.
“Oh?! We have guests!”
He wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and began explaining the party quest.
[Party Quest]
1. Obstacle Course
2. Random Mission
3. Battle Royale
The obstacle course was literally about crossing from the starting point to the finish line of a map filled with obstacles.
And then the random mission.
The types of missions were very diverse.
From hunting monsters to drinking an unknown potion and enduring it, it was completely random, from easy missions to extremely difficult ones.
And finally, Battle Royale.
This Battle Royale was what Jeong-Hoon was aiming for.
It literally tracked down and randomly matched them with others who were doing the Märchen party quest.
And then all those matched people were thrown into the colosseum at once.
The party to which the user who won the final battle belonged would win and gain experience points.
It was the final round that was essentially the beginning and end of this party quest.
‘Kaneda Shun.’
He had heard that Kaneda Shun loved Korea so much that he had come to Korea as an exchange student with Iwase.
But Jeong-Hoon didn’t like him very much.
He was somehow gloomy, and his true intentions were unclear.
It was hard to mix with him, even though he was a colleague.
And after the final betrayal, Kaneda Shun had mocked Jeong-Hoon during their confrontation.
‘You idiot, I never once thought of you as a colleague. What betrayal? That’s why you’re failing.’
He had backstabbed Jeong-Hoon and continued to mock him relentlessly.
Those damn eyes and that upturned smirk.
Just imagining it made him want to vomit.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Ha-Jin put his hand on Jeong-Hoon’s shoulder.
It seemed his expression had shown on his face.
[What were you thinking that made you make such a grim face?]
‘It seems like there’s something going on.’
Both Anima and Mukho asked cautiously, sensing something.
Jeong-Hoon laughed inwardly.
Just like in front of his mother earlier, it seemed he needed to pay more attention to managing his expressions.
“It’s nothing.”
“Are we going in right away?”
“I’m thinking so, is that okay?”
Jeong-Hoon’s eyes turned to Kim Bong-Goo behind him.
“Yes! You can go anytime!”
Kim Bong-Goo nodded his head rapidly without hesitation.
‘His expression is so scary… If I complain, I’ll die.’
Complaining was only possible when Jeong-Hoon was in a good mood.
“Okay. Then let’s go in.”
* * *
There were a total of five obstacle courses.
They got the third obstacle course.
“Ugh… What is this? We have to cross this?”
Ha-Jin looked down at the cliff with a horrified expression.
Countless spear blades were pointing upwards at the bottom of the cliff.
If he fell here, the spear blades would pierce his entire body, and he would be eliminated immediately.
And in front of them, rocks big enough for one person to stand on were floating in the air.
“Looks like it. We have to use those rocks to get to the finish line.”
“This is supposed to be easy…?”
The Märchen party quest was relatively easier than the party quests in other empires and kingdoms.
Jeong-Hoon nodded.
“Yes, it’s easy. We just have to cross these rocks.”
There were no tricks set on the rocks.
It meant that they just had to adjust their jump distance and jump.
Of course, if they failed to adjust the distance, they would fall straight to the ground.
Jeong-Hoon used his movement technique and crossed the rocks without hesitation.
“How is he so fast…?”
“Wow…”
Ha-Jin and Kim Bong-Goo stared blankly at the sight, then quickly came to their senses.
They had to follow quickly.
They also hurriedly started jumping from rock to rock.
Their legs trembled, and there wasn’t a single place on their bodies, from their heads to their hands and feet, that wasn’t sweating.
‘I can’t stop.’
‘If I stop, I can’t go…!’
They jumped without rest and soon reached the finish line.
After passing the first obstacle, the second was a mission.
[Kill the monster with a magic attack.]
The random mission was very evil.
If a user who chose a warrior or thief class got this mission, the party quest would end right there.
Because they couldn’t use magic attacks.
But Jeong-Hoon was different.
Crackle-
Jeong-Hoon, who could use both physical and magic attacks, unleashed Lightning Bolt from his hand, striking the monster.
“Kweeeeeeeeek.”
The monster trembled, foamed at the mouth, and died on the spot.
[Mission Clear!]
[Experience points are accumulating!]
Jeong-Hoon cleared the mission, leaving only Ha-Jin and Kim Bong-Goo.
[Please select the user to perform the next mission.]
The second round could be done one by one.
Since Jeong-Hoon went first, it was time to decide who would go next.
“Shall I go?”
Ha-Jin asked Kim Bong-Goo.
Kim Bong-Goo thought for a moment and nodded.
“Yes. I’ll go last.”
Jeong-Hoon had cleared the second round mission and moved to the clear room.
If Kim Bong-Goo went second and cleared it, Ha-Jin would have to be alone with Jeong-Hoon while doing the mission.
‘I definitely don’t want that.’
Honestly, he felt comfortable when he was with Ha-Jin.
This was because the probability of Jeong-Hoon messing with him decreased a little.
“What? A quiz?”
The mission Ha-Jin drew was a quiz.
And it was a quiz related to New World.
‘Ha, thank goodness.’
Kim Bong-Goo breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
He hated studying more than anything in the world.
Naturally, he also extremely disliked solving problems like quizzes.
If he had gone second instead of Ha-Jin, the quiz would have been his.
“Ah, this is easy. White Fang.”
Ha-Jin solved the quiz instantly.
It was already his turn.
‘Monster hunting. Please let it be monster hunting.’
Monster hunting without any strange conditions!
But no monster appeared, and a black table and a black cup appeared in front of Kim Bong-Goo.
The cup was filled with a green liquid.
[Drink it all and endure for 5 minutes.]
The worst mission had appeared.
Kim Bong-Goo’s face turned pale.
[If you get a mission to eat something during a party quest, just give up and try again.]
– That stuff is really undrinkable… Is there anything good about drinking it? Nothing at all. It’s just painful.
└ This is so true lol
└ At first, I thought it would increase experience or stats, so I endured it, but it didn’t give me anything. I ended up fainting there.
└ Wow… Can’t they get rid of this kind of mission? Why would they make us drink this?
└ It’s okay, the probability of getting this mission is less than 0.5% lol
└ Then what are we, the 0.5% who got it?
└ Go buy a lottery ticket lol
A mission to drink an extremely disgusting liquid.
A mission he wished wouldn’t appear even more than a quiz had appeared.
And he had even broken through the less than 0.5% probability.
Kim Bong-Goo slowly brought his face closer to the liquid in the cup and smelled it.
A foul stench pierced his nose, and his head throbbed.
“Ugh!”
As expected, he couldn’t drink this.
It wasn’t a drink meant to be consumed.
But if he gave up here, Jeong-Hoon wouldn’t let him off easy.
He would probably make him do even worse things several times before letting it go.
‘Let’s drink it…’
It was just a drink.
Kim Bong-Goo picked up the cup and chugged it down.
“Ugh!”
As the drink went down his throat, he felt nauseous and wanted to throw up.
But if he vomited here, the mission would fail.
Even if he vomited, he had to endure for 5 minutes before doing so.
‘I can endure this, damn it!’
In the end, Kim Bong-Goo endured for 5 minutes.
He was automatically transported to the clear room.
“Blegh!”
And as if on cue, Kim Bong-Goo threw up on the floor, creating a pizza.
Ha-Jin patted his back.
“No… Why did you force yourself to drink that? You could have just given up.”
“…Good job.”
Jeong-Hoon knew how terrible that drink was.
That’s why he thought Kim Bong-Goo might give up, but he never expected him to drink it and endure for 5 minutes.
[I acknowledge this one…]
‘It must have tasted awful, it’s impressive that he endured it.’
Okay. This time, I acknowledge you.
[The 3rd round begins.]
[Searching for suitable opponents…]
The 3rd round didn’t start right away.
This was because there were hardly any people doing the Märchen Kingdom party quest.
However, New World was a game enjoyed by countless people.
Even in an unpopular quest area, waiting for 30 seconds was enough.
[Matching successful.]
[Moving to the Colosseum.]
With the successful match, Jeong-Hoon and the other two were transported to the Colosseum map.
* * *
[Hidden Class: The Road to the Dark Lord]
– Restriction: Reach Lv. 151 or higher, possess the Dark Lord’s Memoir
– Reward: Dark Lord [Hidden]
– Description: Go to Karyan, an NPC in the Märchen royal palace.
Kaneda Shun was a Unique grade paladin, a Royal Guard.
Unlike his friend Iwase Haruto, he had a normal Unique grade class.
He pretended to be fine on the outside, but inwardly, he was very envious of Iwase Haruto.
Why wasn’t he granted a hidden class?
Then, an opportunity came.
An old book he found by chance.
It was a memoir written by the Dark Lord himself.
‘Finally… I can also advance to a hidden class.’
But to walk that path, he had to enter the Märchen Kingdom royal palace.
Entering the royal palace wasn’t something that could be done just by entering.
He had to achieve 10 consecutive victories in the party quest.
If he lost even once, entering the royal palace was out of the question.
It was practically a setting that made it impossible to enter, but Kaneda Shun had to break through it.
But there was hope.
‘I’m so glad I’m in Korea.’
The most inferior country when it came to New World.
If it was Korea, 10 consecutive wins would be a very simple task.
Kaneda Shun had selected two helpers currently in Korea and formed a party, and they were about to start the party quest.
“Keuheok!”
[You have won.]
An instant first victory.
Kaneda Shun immediately started the party quest again.
[Matching successful.]
[Moving to the Colosseum.]
He was ready to hunt his next victims.
And he saw a martial artist grinning at him.
———-