Chapter 8: Gangnam Station 4

"There's an adventurer who has gotten over 50 first? Wow."

The fairy came out of thin air and clapped with its tiny hands.

The three who were standing behind Hansoo just watched this scene in a daze.

Taesoon, who was in a daze, asked the fairy.

"What do you mean 50?"

At those words the fairy smiled and answered.

"It means that the basic strength and stamina combined have gone over 50."

And then the fairy flew onto Hansoo's shoulder.

"We always like a person who is active and outgoing. And for that we prepare a small reward to the most active and outgoing person."

"Wait. Isn't it a little unfair then?"

Mihee opened her mouth.

Mihee was a female.

Because she exercised and kept her body in shape her strength and stamina were 8, it wasn't a bad start for a female but against males it would get pushed away.

Mihee was dissatisfied but asked quietly and tried to show the least amount of disrespect.

Since she had seen that cute fairy rip out the heart of a person.

"You don't need to be that careful. We don't kill once we start. We don't kill on a whim."

"..."

"And to answer the question. It is supposed to be unfair. Life is."

"Uh..."

While Mihee was flustered the fairy kept talking.

"This isn't some sort of game. Why do you find fairness? Do you think you can just go out because there isn't a balance patch?

"..."

"You were probably also a part of the unfair faces in your world. But then you didn't change your face to lower yourself to the average right?"

At the fairy's bitter words Mihee clenched her teeth and backed off.

The fairy ignored Mihee and opened her mouth while looking at Hansoo.

"Since you were the first one to go over the combination stat I will reward you."

Hansoo knew what the reward was.

'3 of any rune.'

It was a reward to the first person who had gone over the combination score of 50 out of the 100 in the tutorial stage.

But to be honest Hansoo didn't really have high expectations for this mission.

<Mission>

If you satisfy a special requirement then a reward is given.

From a point of view it is similar to a game but the damnable part is that this mission thing isn't really set already.

It was like there was a bank full of problems and the fairy would pick a few then started the tutorial.

He brought the mission list with 119 missions created through people's experiences but he didn't know which mission would've came out.

And this mission was vastly in favor for the person who had a different starting point.

The muscular man he had seen probably had at least around 33-4 of strength and vitality combined at the start.

But on the other hand he started at 20.

He didn't expect much but maybe due to his fast progress or something he luckily received it.

And among the 119 missions this mission had quite a nice reward.

"Tell me 3 of any rune that you want"

'As I expected'

3 of a stat rune is a large reward if it's a large and is a small reward if it's small.

3 strength runes could be gathered with a little bit of effort but 3 agility runes are hard to acquire as well as giving much more assistance.

But what he wanted was a different rune.

"Is it agility or perception as I expected? Ah. What about regeneration rune? It's a consumable but if you take this then you can even heal a hole in your belly. A normal poison will disappear. Having limbs being cut is a bit far fetched but isn't it amazing?"

At those words the ones who reacted were the three.

If you receive the three regeneration runes then wouldn't it be getting 3 more lives?

And Hansoo might even give it to them.

'He won't leave us to die, right?'

But Hansoo betrayed everyone's expectations and spoke of a different rune from his mouth.

"Do you perhaps have a rune to resist magic?"

At those words the fairy made a slightly shocked face then smiled as it spoke.

"Of course it exists."

And the fairy pushed its hand into the void without words then pulled out three peculiar looking runes.

'As I thought it doesn't really care much. It worked.'

Basically all these fairies wanted was things to go in an amusing way so they didn't really ask much no matter how much you planned things.

And Hansoo, who had gotten much more comfortable, laughed inwardly.

Magic Resistance Rune.

Regeneration rune is indeed good but one could obtain it pretty soon.

But on the other hand physical resistance runes and magical resistance runes are not something you can acquire in the tutorial stage.

No, Kangtae said it came out of a random mob but then he is an exception since he is a seriously special case.

'It's really some crazy luck'

Magic resistance runes are very important.

There is no such thing as a health point in this world so one fatal strike meant you were gone.

It wasn't like a game where if you got hit for 100 damage ten times you would lose 1000 and die.

Increasing vitality meant your recovery speed and activeness rose and not tankiness like in the games.

And for that physical resistance and magic resistance were more important than anything else.

Just because you use these two runes didn't mean your skin got tougher or get covered with scales or anything.

It had a more essential solution.

The two runes, after controlling their numbers, reduced the incoming attack itself.

'This is similar to a game's defense or resistance'

As Hansoo ate the runes, his stats were altered.

[Kang Hansoo] Strength: 25.3

Vitality: 24.8

Agility: 14.1

Perception: 15.2

Magic Resistance: 13

Magic resistance, which was fixed at 10 from the start and had no reason to be displayed, showed up as it increased by 3.

Hoo-oong

As his surroundings lashed about he could feel the laws which were applied to his body getting twisted a little.

'Good. With this I gain resistance to skills.'

He pondered between Physical and Magic resistance but in the end magic resistance is the best.

To be honest, in the tutorial area most attacks were physical if you take into account for the attacks you would receive.

But physical defense can be filled in to an extent with his experience and battle skills but on the other hand magic attacks with a wide range of attack and a few vicious skills couldn't be dodged once they were cast.

There isn't a beast or human who would use magic with the normal tutorial difficulty but the place he was challenging were the dungeons with hidden pieces.

Of course it wasn't something that lets you get hit 3 times and survive instead of getting hit once and being gone.

Just reducing the damage to an extent.

But there is a huge difference between getting killed on the first strike and surviving to land another slash of a sword.

Since regeneration runes are only able to be utilized if you were alive.

This will be of great help to his progress.

The fairy looked at that Hansoo and then smiled widely.

"I have high expectations. Please continue to do well."

The fairy, who had finished talking, disappeared into the void.

Hansoo turned around and talked as he walked.

"Let's go. But why are your expressions like that? It seems like you miss something."

"... It's nothing."

It felt like three regeneration runes had disappeared right in front of their eyes but no matter how shameless someone was they couldn't say it so they just made pitiful faces as they walked behind Hansoo.

.....................

Kudududuk

'It's now the third floor.'

Hansoo, who had gotten rid of all the Land mermaids, mumbled as he looked at the creepy entrance in the distance.

But Taesoon, who had been looking at him, spoke out.

"But it seems your movements have remained the same since back then..."

Hansoo nodded at Taesoon's words.

'He has some keen perception.'

Hansoo showed him his right wrist.

All the runes Hansoo took were gathered just like that on there.

"This can also be gathered like this."

"Really?"

'Well if consumable runes existed a mechanism like this should exist. But how do you do it?'

But then he realized that it wasn't that hard.

He thought 'I should gather them...' and the moment he moved his hands the runes that had been getting absorbed into his body turned into a small dot-like symbol on his wrist.

Hansoo looked at Taesoon and spoke.

"It's not something that's very good."

"Why?"

Hansoo answered as Taesoon asked.

"First it reduces your hunting speed."

If your stats are high then hunting would naturally be faster.

Since you could get the gathered runes and raise your stats instantly in case where you feel like you would get pushed back but there are holes in the strategy.

"The second reason is the important one... if you die from a sneak attack while doing this then all these runes get puked out."

"The runes?"

"Yeah."

Usually when one died the rune that came out was only a tiny part of what they had acquired and the dropped rune was also random.

You could block a sneak attack but dying at the hands of somebody with similar hands was not a hard task.

And especially during the beginning where one doesn't have physical and magic resistances.

If you aren't focused then you are gone just like that and even if it wasn't a sneak attack something like <Erebong's Poison Sting>, which is an attack skill you can acquire at the tutorial area, would send you off.

Walking around with a lot of runes on your wrist was basically walking between bandits with the body to buy weapons and armor on your back.

"Then why do you gather them?"

Hansoo gave a short reply to Sangjin's question.

"Because we can trade with each other."

After the tutorial there exists currency which the adventurers had created.

The nine strongest clans created by the existing people.The common currency created through the agreements from two neutral clans of the <The Nine Pillars>, <Golden Star> and <Manoros>.

The runes were of too high value so using them wasn't suitable as currency.

But in the tutorial area where adventurers couldn't get into runes could be used as currency to some extent.

Two of the people who cleared this hidden piece told him.

<I did clear it but... there was a requirement. It was that you had to have over 20 of perception and agility,>

<I was like that too except my strength had to be over 45>

As far he knew that mission was the only mission of a first-come type mission in the first tutorial area so there was no need to keep raising his stats vigilantly.

If he was in a perilous situation while fighting he could just simply use the runes and there shouldn't exist anybody who could kill him anyway.

In this case he could just gather the runes and trade if he was lacking then just simply wear the artifacts.

At those words Taesoon and the others started to gather tunes.

Hansoo who had seen them gather runes on their wrist shook his head.

"You guys can't. Just use them as you get them."

"...Are you looking down on us right now?"

As Taesoon suddenly asked Hansoo, Hansoo clicked his tongue.

'As I see it he wants to get those runes and trade them to raise perception or agility...'

If your perception or agility rises then you become better at evading so you receive less injuries.

Probably from their situation they want to go towards the path where they receive less injuries.

But how you get rid of the enemies is dependent upon how hard, and how many times you swing the sword.

If you lack stamina or strength then you will fall before you can get rid of the enemy.

He had no reason to suffer a sneak attack. He had a lot of experience and intelligence.

He was confident physically as well. The techniques were fundamentally different so he could save runes and fight at ease with the remaining strength and vitality.

Taesoon, Sangjin and Mihee were not at that level yet.

And they were in front of the third floor. They didn't know which monsters were protecting the train but it was definitely going to be dangerous.

But Hansoo just shrugged.

'Well if they go down and get wrecked they will wake up.'

There was no need for a hundred words.

If you get hit by a monster once and scream out you will automatically touch your wrist.

He who had been fighting against the crazy monarch's slaves or the demons of the abyss but came back to the past, to him this much was almost cute.

'Just maintain around that pace.'

"Well do whatever you want. Let's go down then. Are all three of you going again?"

The three who had been watching Hansoo pondered at Hansoo's words.

'The second floor was definitely hard... but we got stronger. And it was only hard at the start and we got used to it after.'

The three made their decisions and nodded.

And if they kept fighting wouldn't they get something like a mission as well.

They aren't really much in comparison to Hansoo but they are still better off than the people above.

'And... We've come this far, we cannot let him go alone.'

If there's something good, they should share it.

The three who had decided followed Hansoo just like that to the third floor.