Chapter 272: Ian and the Mauryan Empire (3)

You have acquired the item 'quality wool'.]

[Obtained the item needed for the quest 'Acquire the Citizenship for the Mauryan Empire.']

[You have met all the conditions required for completing the quest.]

[Present the wool at the 'King's altar' and earn the citizenship of the Mauryan Empire.]

Watching the system messages that were coming, Ian felt a huge burden lifted off his chest.

"Phew, did I collect it at last...?"

Ian had spent nearly 3 hours collecting over 20 fleece.

The cause probably was that the probability of the right fleece being dropped was very rare.

Moreover, he was in a crisis because of the very fragile situation that he was in.

Being a herbivore it had stats that were much lower when compared to its level, but if it was dealt with wrongly, due to the high level it had, any damage caused by it would lead to more than 100,000 damage.

Ian immediately pulled out the map from his inventory when he suddenly remembered about the second leg of the quest that he had to do.

"Where are we going now?"

Ian opened his eyes wide and looked at the map.

Since the purpose of the map was to go to Cintamani, the position marked with the blue light was the location.

Behind Ian, was Kaka who slightly caught a glimpse of the map.

"Here it is, Master."

Ian realized something when he looked at the location Kaka had pointed out.

"Oh, oh...."

The place where Kaka pointed at was 'The altar of the King' which was written in small letters, and it wasn't much farther from the location of Ian.

However, Ian still thought that the quest was related to humans.

'It's not like I lack any conscience to follow the map to the altar.'

Ian started to move quickly.

As it was indicated on the map, the destination could be reached by crossing the ridge on the east.

* * *

The place where Ian and his party had arrived to was a large city that was soaring with stone high buildings.

'This neighborhood, it smells dangerous...? '

It was terrifying from the start, probably because of the level of the guards who were standing in front of the city gates where Ian was supposed to enter.... They were of level 370.

'What is this, why is this... I'm scared.'

Ian slowly closed the distance between the guards without losing his calm.

If the guards chose to attack, then Ian would quickly go back towards Halli.

There were two level 370 guards, and in case Ian had to deal with them, he would probably die before reinforcements came to help him.

As Ian was approaching, the guards looked at Ian like they wanted to kill him.

And one of the guard came from the middle—the most outrageously strong looking one—approached Ian.

He was a 'security chief' with a level that was over 400.

"Who are you? You don't seem like a citizen of the empire."

Ian took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak when the head of security was done speaking.

"Sir, the sword that you hold seems like a very old one... Can I give you a sword that I have?"

The eyes of the guards twitched a little with what they heard

"Hm...? A sword that you possess...?"

Ian nodded quickly and picked one of the weapons from his inventory.

It was a hero-class weapon with a tremendously high level which he had obtained during the mage hunting event.

'Such an item should be used for such situations.'

When Ian was hunting around zone 50 to 70, a level 350 limited equipment was dropped.

Such an item was useless to Ian.

And this wasn't an item that could be worn—out of embarrassment due to his level—nor could it be sold.

The highest level of a Kailan user was 205, and that was Ian's level. And there was no other user who could buy equipment that would exceed the level-limit of 300.

And it felt too cheap to sell it at a village shop, so he left the hero class equipment in his inventory.

Ian was using it now.

"Oh... this is brilliant...! This is definitely a special grade sword...!"

The guard who looked at the sword in Ian's hand started to laugh. His smile had crept its way to his ear.

And a system message that Ian had been waiting for came up.

Tring!

[Kapila's Chief of Security, 'Sikh' is very happy.]

[The affinity with Kapila's Chief of Security 'Sikh' increased by 50.]

Ian made a silly face.

'What, with just one object the affinity reached up to 50, what kind of message is this? Is this a low-grade NPC?'

Ian was a bit flustered, but he thought that it was a good thing since the guard was laughing.

"How is it, sir? Does it please you...?"

The Chief 'Sikh' nodded his head with a glad expression.

"With no doubt, it very much pleases me. By the way, you would really give me such a precious thing?"

Ian nodded his head and answered.

"Yes, surely sir. Please accept this as a form of a gift."

"Thank... Thank you...! Oh my, Look at my manners. Come inside. Why am I making such a person stand outside?."

Ian smiled widely after seeing what had just happened.

'It seems good...? I should take this opportunity and gather some information about the castle.'

The Chief guided Ian inside of the castle, and Ian continued to follow him slowly.

* * *

"I mean... did you come all the way to our Mauryan Empire to get the citizenship through finding the Altar of the King?"

Ian nodded his head in response to Sikh's question.

"That is right. I have come to this great Mauryan Empire to get the citizenship."

Once Ian's tongue felt comfortable, he naturally played along with the situation. And beside him were Kaka and Yanikun who were eagerly looking at him.

Both of them were talking in a low voice so that the other guards couldn't hear them.

"Kun, our master is really good at speaking."

"I feel the same Kaka."

"Kun, it feels great that the master that I've stayed with for so long isn't some kind of a dumbo."

"By the way, Kaka."

"What?"

"Don't call me Kun."

"Why? Kun sounds so cute."

Yankun wore a dark expression.

"I don't want to be cute."

"Even then, I like Kun. Don't you dare reject the nickname I gave you."

"I refuse..."

"I refuse, that you refuse."

"..."

On the other hand, Ian succeeded in gathering all the information from the Chief of Security while his two familiars were talking.

'All the weapons and miscellaneous goods were all gathered to the front side, while the altar is on the northern plaza?'

Ian had gathered some information from the Chief, like the location of various shops and the major buildings around the castle premises.

However, the most important information he had obtained was about the "Wheel-Turning King/ King of Rings."

According to what the Chief of Security 'Sikh' had said, to meet the king, one must pass through various tests.

'King of Iron, King of East, King of Treasure, King of Silver, King of Gold... They are all very strong names. Can I really pass all of their tests?'

To be specific, according to the explanation given by the security chief, a person must go through these tests in order for that person to enter the gates. In all honesty, that person should be worried about these things.

It was an unofficial place where the guards had a level of over 370.

'Let's get the citizenship first, I'll think about the other things later.'

Ian stepped towards the King's altar, after getting permission from Sikh, who was still smiling from the sword he had received.

The Altar of the King was on the second tallest stone building in the city.

* * *

"Wow, there isn't much fuss now huh?"

Fiolan nodded and agreed to what Herz had said.

"Yes. Since the opening of the magic tower, many users have gone there to get their personal quests."

"How many from our guild?

"There isn't a single person from our guild who has gone there yet."

Herz made a sigh of relief from Fiolan's answer.

"Phew, at this time with the lack of combat power, if the members would have gone to get quests, it would have been a major blow... I'm really glad."

Fiolan nodded.

"Yes, It is really great. This is a system that disconnects the user from the guild at the moment of conversion... there seem to be users from the top guilds who are going for the conversion."

"I see."

However, Fiolan's expression wasn't that bright.

"That could be true, but we aren't doing that great in the rankings of the guilds. And most of the members could opt for a change into the Asmodian class."

Herz wore a wary smile.

"Well, yeah. The bonus for the Asmodians is very attractive."

"It can't be true. But it feels like the wave of monsters has gotten harder for a purpose...."

Fiolan shook her head and Herz smiled.

"Well, this would probably be the intention of the developer, what can we do."

"What?"

"I just felt that, after the previous wave, it seems like the difficulty to clear waves has gotten stronger... I think the developers don't want the humans to win this dimensional war."

"Ha...?"

"It's just what I feel."

Fiolan nodded after thinking about it.

"That could be the case. From the developers point of view, a new character needs to have enough merit."

"That's right. A newly created character, it is going to be a problem if they aren't strong."

Herz and Fiolan were the gamers who were quite wary of the games, hence they could read the flow of the game.

And the rough guesses of those two were exactly correct.

Herz, who had been in deep thought for a while opened his mouth.

"Now, in the next situation... the big picture will be about the users who will change to the Asmodian class during the monster wave."

"Ugh... just thinking about it is terrifying already."

Herz glanced at Fiolan and looked up after hearing what she said.

"Why? I think that the users will be easy to deal with, rather than their ranked human players version."

"Does that seem right...?"

"Yes, all the rankers are in the guild... users who convert should not be able to keep the ranking of level 170."

"That is also right."

And Herz continued to speak.

"And I've read through the quests that were posted to the online community. The quest for transformation are the ones that could be done quickly."

"Really?"

Herz nodded.

"Yeah. So, I think that there won't be any fights against these users for the coming week or so."

"Yes... If it is like that, then I'm glad. It would have been a huge variable if the users who have turned into Asmodians would take the side of the monsters."

"I agree on that part."

But there were a few other variables that neither of them predicted.

First of all, many high ranking players have already proceeded with the race conversion quests.

Secondly, there were a lot of users who had already become Asmodians long ago.

The dimensional war seemed to have stabilized as a whole. It was probably because of the users who participated in the Toboldae, and also the users that converted into Asmodians.

But on the 10th day, the dimensional war began to fall into chaos once again.