Chapter 206: Magical Beast Transmuter (1)

"Err... It looks like I'll have to be satisfied with just this for now and proceed with the quest, as there's no other choice."

Ian appointed two more Priests and after filling the maximum number of retainers he could possess besides one spot, he left the Human Resource Centre.

The current maximum number of retainers that Ian could appoint was 40.

As Ian's aristocrat title was 'Marquis', he was given slots that was equivalent to that.

'Ugh, I do see a couple of ones that I want to cut out...'

Ian checked the list of his retainers as he wore a leery expression.

It was the fault that the stats of a couple of retainers that he appointed in urgent situations in the beginning when he first became an aristocrat weren't to his liking.

However, because there was quite a deadly disadvantage if he was to eliminate a retainer, it wasn't an issue that he could decide on so easily.

'If we're really lacking fighting power, I'll just go up to the Duke title, I guess.'

If he became a Duke, he could appoint an additional 10 more retainers.

The Fame that he needed in order to be promoted from the Marquis title to the Duke title was 3 million, and if it was with the Fame that Ian possessed, even after he promoted his title, he would still have a ton of Fame remaining.

The current amount of Fame that Ian possessed was close to ten million.

'For now, I'll get at least through the quest that Yankoun gave me with this fighting power no matter what.'

Despite having enough Fame, the reason why Ian was not promoting his title was simple.

This was because the more Fame he possessed, the more game play benefits there were.

The role of the 'Fame' stat in Kailan was endless.

If that content was simply organized, it would be as followed.

The higher the fame, the higher the basic Affinity of NPCs. If his Affinity was high, the chance of quests to occur increasing was a definite, but also the price of items that he could buy at shops would go down. The basic rank of the NPCs that he could meet in the Human Resource Centre went up. For example, during the days that his Fame wasn't even at a million, Ian, who first went to the Human Resource Centre, could basically only meet individuals that were Common-rank or Rare-rank, but right now, when his Fame was close to 10 million, he was able to meet individuals that were at least higher than Unique-rank.

Of course, the ranks of the individuals that appeared in the Human Resource Centre was also affected by the facility level of the centre, but despite that, it was a fact that the influence of Fame was unconditional

Even Ian himself hasn't found one yet, but there were special areas that one could only enter if they possessed a high amount of Fame.

That area could be a hunting ground or an area that one needed to pass through in order to proceed on with a quest, or it could even be an area like a treasure storage space where one could obtain a hidden artifact.

After a user was first granted an aristocrat title, they could self-raise the rank of the title by using up their Fame.

An aristocrat title was one of the vital requirements necessary in order to raise the rank of the domains possessed, and a high Fame was also required in order to maintain the Loyalty of retainers and the people of the of the domain.

In Ian's case, he was currently maintaining a ' Marquis' title, and the Duke title that was one step higher than that as well as the Archduke title were the only titles that he could be promoted to with just Fame, and in the case of the King title or the Emperor title, which were even higher levels, he needed to meet other requirements as well.

Outside of that, there was a variety of contents where there were Familiars that one could only capture if they had high Fame or retainers where one needed to use up a fixed amount of Fame in order to appoint them, and there was also a lot more content scheduled with the updates. LB Corps. had declared that there would even be content like a Fame shop where items could be purchased with Fame.

Because that was the case, Fame was a stat more valuable than any other in Kailan.

And as Ian was certainly feeling the power of Fame the more he gathered, he didn't quite feel inclined to do the title promotion where he needed to consume a tremendous amount of 3 million Fame.

Ian, who moved quickly and entered the Devildom again, headed towards Zone 115 immediately.

Because a minority of not even one thousand users that had succeeded in entering the Devildom, the users could rarely meet in the large Devildom field.

Ian, who finally arrived at Zone 115 after moving across fields for several hours, slowly looked around at his surroundings.

"If it's as Yankoun said, a lot of contaminated magical beasts will appear starting here."

At Ian's words, Kaizar, who was next to him, nodded his head.

"That's right. It looks like it will be quite a thrilling battle."

Kaizar stroked his greatsword as he grinned, and Paulean approached Ian as he asked.

"Lord, how should we position the newly appointed Priests?"

Ian replied without delay.

"From now on, Paulean, you need to take on the role of the sub-tanker. I'm going to make the newly recruited Priests take full charge of recovering your Vitality. All holy magic will be focused on you."

Paulean nodded his head.

"Understood, Lord. Then it looks like I'll have to move in the front a little more."

"That's right. Please move without going outside of the range that the Priests' holy magic can be invoked in."

"Yes, Lord."

Ian's party, who changed their formation to be a little more defensive, began to explore Zone 115 a little more carefully, which was different from their approach up until now.

And before long, they were able to meet a contaminated magical beast.

'The level range and the number of magical beasts are overwhelmingly higher than before for sure.'

It looked like there were almost 20-30 contaminated magical beasts.

Because even the one with the highest level was over 290, Ian began to approach them cautiously.

"We just need to move calmly as I said before. If we scatter even a little bit, it's possible that the side that is annihilated is our side, so be on the ball."

"Yes, Lord."

"Understood!"

• Understood, owner.

Even Karceus, who had been fighting in his human polymorphed state to prevent drawing attention, had turned back into the body of a giant dragon.

• Owner, as it's been a while since I've returned to my main body, my mouth is itching. Would it be alright for me to start with one hit of Breath?

At Karceus's question, Ian nodded his head willingly.

"Okay, let's start with a refreshing fume!"

• All of the Vitality of the Contaminated Intermediate-rank Magical Beast 'Traccus' has been exhausted.

• You have successfully killed the 'Traccus'.

• You have obtained 3,879,809 EXP.

• You have obtained a 'Contaminated Intermediate-grade Magic Stone'.

• You have obtained the 'Contaminated Tooth of the Traccus'.

The expression of Ian, who checked the system message, wrinkled.

'No, what the hell is a Contaminated Intermediate-grade Magic Stone now? This is just my third time seeing an Intermediate-grade Magic Stone now, but for a contaminated Magic Stone to come out.'

He had no idea how to purify a contaminated Magic Stone, but until it was purified, it was just a useless stone.

Ian grumbled as he whipped through Zone 115.

'Whew, in the meantime, where exactly am I supposed to find a lead on the quest?'

The cause for the development of contaminated evil spirits.

As there was no progress in the quest even after over a quarter of a day, Ian, who simply thought that he needed to find that and destroy it, was starting to get irritated.

"Bbakbbak."

• Why do you call me, owner.

"What could be the reason why the magical beasts are contaminated?"

At Ian's question that came out of the blue, Bbakbbak came back with an apathetic expression.

• I think they are less contaminated than you, who is filled with a greed for EXP, owner.

"... I shouldn't have opened my mouth."

However, just then, Pin, who was flying through the air to scout the area, flew over to Ian and flapped his wings towards the front.

Kku-ruk- Kku-ru-ru-ruk-!

And as soon as he heard that, Ian had a hunch that Pin had discovered something.

'Finally...!'

Following Pin's guidance, Ian's party moved quickly, and shortly after, they were able to discover a giant crystal that was shining a bright red.

With a quizzical expression, Ian approached the crystal as he began to look at it here and there.

"What exactly is this?"

Just from looking at it on the outside, there was absolutely no way of figuring out what the structure did.

Just then, Kaizar, who was next to him, abruptly stepped forward.

"Lord guy, this colour that gives off a bad feeling... Can you not tell just from looking at it? I think this is the source of the contamination."

And without delay, he swung the greatsword towards the crystal ball.

Ian, who felt somewhat doubtful, was about to stop him, but that was after Kaizar's greatsword already flew towards the side of the crystal mercilessly.

"Wait!"

Bang-!

Kaizar looked back at Ian with a blank expression.

"What's wrong, Ian? Should I not break this?"

Meanwhile, Ian was reading the system messages that had popped up all of a sudden.

• Retainer 'Kaizar' has attacked the Sealed Crystal of the Devildom.

• The durability of the Sealed Crystal has been reduced by 68,749 (2%).

• 3,368,701 (98%) of the total durability of the Sealed Crystal remains.

• The Vitality of 'Cervian', the NPC that is sealed within the Sealed Crystal, has been reduced by 27,948.

• 'Cervian' has 14,382 Vitality left.

Ian hurriedly grabbed Kaizar's shoulder as he spoke with an urgent voice.

"Wait, it seems like there's something inside of here. I don't think we should be just hitting like that to break it."

Ian felt like he had heard the name 'Cervian' from somewhere.

'Cervian... It's definitely a name that I'm familiar with. It's for sure a name that I heard not long ago, so why can't I think of it?'

And shortly after, Ian was able to remember it.

"Oh, right! It was the name that Iriel mentioned!"

Ian immediately opened up his inventory and opened the Illustrated Book of Magical Beasts that he obtained from Iriel.

And he was able to discover the name 'Cervian' from within it.

Cervian was the Half-Devil Summoner that Iriel had mentioned.

Ian turned his gaze towards Kaizar again.

"Kaizar, it seems that there's a person inside of that."

"A person?"

"That's right. There's for sure someone stuck inside."

This time, Bbakbbak asked.

• How do you know that, owner?

Ian replied bluntly.

"There's nothing I do not know, you turtle dude."

• Woow... Don't lie, owner.

With a sharp gaze, Ian looked up and down at Bbakbbak.

"I also know that you had thoughts of wanting to go inside of your shell right now and just sleep for one hour."

• Cough...!

Ignoring Bbakbbak, who wore a flustered expression, Ian diligently began to cut through the outside of the crystal.

• You have attacked the Sealed Crystal of the Devildom.

• The durability of the Sealed Crystal has been reduced by 7984 (0.23%).

• 3,360,717 (97.77%) of the total durability of the Sealed Crystal remains.

• The Vitality of 'Cervian', the NPC that is sealed within the Sealed Crystal has been reduced by 155.

• 'Cervian' has 14,227 Vitality left.

Ian wore an expression showing he was sick and tired of this already as he mumbled to himself.

'Ugh, how can this thing ignorantly have durability that's over 3 million? How am I going to cut this all down at this rate?'

And the Vitality of Cervian, who he was sure was stuck inside, going down little by little bothered him quite a bit as well.

"Lord guy, will we be able to find the source of the contamination if we save the person inside of here?"

At Kaizar's question, Ian shook his head.

"No, I don't know about that, but firstly, we need to save the person that's stuck in here no matter what."

"Why?"

Ian, who was suddenly at a loss for words at that, frowned as he responded.

"Just, if I say that's the case, just accept it as is, retainer guy."

Half-Devil Summoner Cervian would definitely have the core information related to Summoner dual-classes or even be the hidden key itself.

Rescuing Cervian from within the crystal right now was more important to Ian than finding the source of the contamination.

Kaizar grumbled as he began to help Ian cut down the crystal, and Paulean and Ly started to help out as well.

Had about 30 minutes passed like that?

Cra-cra-crack-!

A general crack formed on the red crystal as the durability that was over 3 million finally reached 0.

Thud-!

At the same time as that, one system message sentence popped up in front of Ian's eyes.

And within that message, content that made Ian widen both of his eyes was written inside of it.

• The Devildom's Dual-Class Open Quest has been invoked.

• Class name: Devil Summoner - Magical Beast Transmuter

• Class rank: Hidden