Chapter 27: Stronger than Expected (1)

"Ugh! Was today the day when the boss monster spawned?"

"What should we do? Should we try to hunt it?"

"Are you crazy? There's no way we'll be able to hunt the Troll Chief."

Players in front of the gate were mumbling as the soldiers stopped them.

After hearing that a boss monster had appeared, they were talking about whether they should enter or not.

'The quality of the players is totally different from the C-rank gate onward.'

KangWoo nodded while looking around at the people gathered.

The biggest difference was the equipment they were wearing.

Even at first glance, there was a big difference between the players that were there compared to the ones who were at the D and E-rank gates.

'Should I also get some equipment?'

Although he hadn't faced a monster strong enough, he would need equipment, hunting solo without any items was inefficient.

"Hmm... I'll have to think about it."

KangWoo looked around, thinking that if he was to buy some equipment, he should also buy some for TaeSoo and Seol-ah.

"Let's go!!"

"Let's hunt the troll chief!!"

"Let's get the extra rewards!"

One party entered the gate while shouting excitedly.

KangWoo looked at the party entering the gate.

'The control here is definitely tighter.'

It seemed they weren't lying when they said the control got tighter from the C-rank gate—they were checking the player IDs one by one.

They took out a strange device and checked the mana stone inside the IDs.

'From checking out the IDs on a bar, they went to the passport control in an airport.'

KangWoo understood why the Andras guild members searched for players to use for the ceremony in the D-rank gate.

From the C-rank gate onward, the control became tighter, so they couldn't hunt for prey comfortably.

'Let's see...'

KangWoo looked at the soldiers checking out the player's IDs.

Was it because a boss monster had appeared?

They were checking out the IDs of every player one by one.

'This is a good opportunity.'

KangWoo looked at the player's parties that were gathered around the entrance.

All the attention was centered on a player who was shouting about the extra reward that hunting the boss gave you.

'Did he say that the mana stone of the boss monster can be sold for $100K USD?'

Not only that, but you could sell lots of other by-products for a very high price.

Basically, by killing one troll chief, you could easily get a few hundred thousand dollars.

"Ah... Should I try it?"

"But I'm not really confident..."

Players looked at each other, but they had doubts.

Hunting a troll chief was harder than hunting the boss monster of the E-rank gate, the hobgoblin, which was a C-rank boss monster.

The difference from C to B was higher than the one from E to C.

'Good.'

KangWoo's eyes shone after seeing that doubt was spreading through the players.

KangWoo walked up to the players who were muttering and yelled.

"Let's take this opportunity and hunt the boss monster! He won't be a match for us if we go together in a group!"

"Yes! Rather than trembling because of fear, let's join together!"

After KangWoo shouted, the player who had insisted on going to attack the boss monster got excited and shouted.

His shout stirred up the greed of the players.

But there was one decisive problem...

"Ugh, but isn't the reward too little?"

"Yeah, that's true."

The more players there were, the fewer rewards each would get.

Even if they could get a few hundred thousand dollars after hunting the boss monster, if they divided it among so many members, each would get only a tiny amount of money.

KangWoo shouted again.

"Think about the experience that killing a boss monster gives you! Even if we hunt as a big party, there isn't a big difference in the experience gained!"

The eyes of the players shone after hearing KangWoo's words.

What you could obtain from killing the boss monster wasn't just money...

You could also gain a massive amount of experience.

This was a very tempting proposal for players who were desperate to level up.

'Everyone probably knows that, even if you kill a boss monster as a group, the experience you gain isn't that different from doing it alone.'

It was the same when you hunted an elite monster.

When you hunt a boss monster with a party, you don't lose that much experience.

Of course, the more party members you had, the less experience you would get, but even then, the experience you gained was on another level compared to when you hunted a normal monster.

"Nice!"

"Let's take this opportunity and check out the boss monster!"

Once the fire was lit, there wasn't a way to stop it.

The crowd interacted with each other and burned their desire even further.

'Now I only have to wait.'

Although it was KangWoo who had ignited the fire, he moved away from the crowd and looked at the players from a distance.

He had no intentions of hunting the boss with them as a party.

* * *

'It decreases the reward.'

Leaving the experience aside, the main issue was the distribution of the mana stones and the corpse.

Because of his Authority of Predation, the corpse and the mana stones were important elements for his growth.

He had no intention of dividing those with other people.

'The rewards are all mine.'

They weren't players like TaeSoo or Seol-ah, whom he was planning to help them grow, so he had no reason to share the rewards with them.

"If we also kill the monsters next to the boss, we're probably going to be able to get more than ten thousand dollars each!"

The first player who was trying to get players began gathering people on its own.

The number of players gathered ended up being 20. There were so many people that it looked as if a guild had come to the gate to hunt.

"Let's go!"

"Let's get to the fourth awakening!"

A huge party was formed to hunt the boss.

After checking out their position, they approach the gate control center.

'Now.'

As the party reached the gate's entrance, KangWoo started to move.

Because they had to control each player individually, all the soldiers guarding the entrance came to help check the player IDs.

"Everyone, please form a line."

"Wait for a little bit!"

As the soldiers tried to make people form a line and control them, KangWoo used the Authority of Sky and crossed the fence surrounding the gate.

'Authority of Blind.'

KangWoo used the Authority of Blind on a few soldiers and then quickly moved to the entrance of the C-rank gate.

Whish-

"Good."

Satisfied, KangWoo smiled after entering the gate and checked out the environment.

'The atmosphere here seems similar to the goblin's gate.'

The inside of the forest resembled the one he'd seen after arriving on Earth.

KangWoo walked deep into the forest.

'Now, the problem is, where is the boss?'

The underbrush was too thick to be able to check the surroundings from the sky.

While immersed in his thoughts, KangWoo remembered a certain Authority.

'I should be able to use it, right?'

It was the Authority of a demon called Astaroth, the 'Authority of Observation.'

He couldn't use it before since it required a lot of demonic energy, but he thought that now, he could try to use it.

"Let's see..."

KangWoo checked out his demonic energy stat. Thanks to Jo DeokHyun's 'ceremony,' his demonic energy stat had reached 50.

'Although, in reality, it's higher than 50.'

The more he awakened, the weaker the 'Ten Thousand Demon Core' seal became.

His demonic energy stat was probably a lot higher than 50.

"I think that I can pull it off."

KangWoo walked deeper into the forest while nodding.

He placed his hand on the floor and used the 'Authority of Observation.'

Whir-!

The demonic energy that came out of his hand began spreading like spider webs.

"Ugh."

KangWoo frowned at the amount of information he was receiving.

The Authority of Observation had one flaw...

'It works too well.'

Because it absorbed all the information from its surroundings, an amount of information that one could not deal with overwhelmed the user.

While in Hell, he'd used an Authority that accelerated the speed at which your mind calculated things, but he didn't have enough demonic energy to use both simultaneously right yet.

"Ah, ugh."

He felt a headache.

The amount of information flowing in made him feel pain.

While feeling nauseous, he was starting to think he wouldn't be able to keep using the Authority of Observation, but the information of a very strong entity suddenly came to his mind.

'I've found you.'

KangWoo's eyes shone.

Its energy was completely different from the other monsters surrounding it.

'Is it because it's the chief? Why are there so many monsters?'

There were tens of other trolls and orcs around the chief.

Unlike the hobgoblin, it didn't seem to have the intention of going elsewhere.

"Hmm."

While narrowing his eyes, KangWoo heard the mumble of players from a distance.

It was the big party that had formed because of him.

'I should use those guys.'

While thinking they should be able to deal with the other monsters, KangWoo approached the troll chief.

'First, I should troll the chief.'

Then he had to hide, and the party would naturally end up fighting the other monsters.

While they were fighting, he just had to move to the back and eliminate the chief.

"Then, should I try to grab his attention?"

KangWoo extended his hands in the direction of the chief, who was receiving the protection of other trolls.

'Authority of Dark Spear.'

It was the Authority of a demon called Raum.

A spear of demonic energy that was around two meters long appeared in his hand.

KangWoo threw the spear made of demonic energy at the troll chief.

Stab-!

"AARRGG!!"

The demonic energy spear pierced the chest of the troll chief.

'Good. Now, if I drag the attention of the other monsters toward where the other players are...'

KangWoo turned his body around toward where the other players were.

It was at that moment...

Ting-

[You've successfully killed a B-rank boss monster, the Troll Chief!]

[Because you've eliminated the boss monster, you've gained bonus experience.]

[You're the one that has contributed the most, so the bonus experience has increased by 3 times.]

[Your level has gone up by 4.]

"Huh?"

KangWoo looked at where the troll chief was, confused.

The troll chief was convulsing on the ground with his chest pierced by the demonic energy spear.

"Huh? You died in just one hit?"