Overgeared

by Park Saenal

  “Magic Detection.”

  The East Continent was a suitable environment for raising the level of Magic Detection. Originally, Magic Detection consumed 2,000 mana with every use, making it difficult to use often. However, the environment of the East Continent increased mana regeneration. The Ring of Absurdity reduced the mana consumption by half, and then the East Continent increased the amount of mana regeneration. He predicted that it would be possible to use Magic Detection repeatedly during hunting.

  “This ring is really too good.”

  The Ring of Absurdity obtained from Black. It was much more valuable than a bunch of equipment item. By default, an accessory with a special option attached had low basic abilities. The Ring of Absurdity was an accessory at the peak of all accessories.

  ‘It would be nice if I could also make accessories…’

  Of course, Grid could create simple ‘wearable’ accessories. But what was the reason for the existence of accessories? It was to satisfy the sense of aesthetics and to give special options that couldn’t be implemented on equipment items. The accessories that Grid made weren’t worthy because their completeness was poor, they had no options, and they weren’t pretty. It was a waste of time, materials, and manpower to make them. Just like Idan’s cooking.

  “Ugh… I still feel sick. It’s amazing that the poor chef’s restaurant is still surviving.”

  He was sincerely curious about why it wasn’t ruined.

  ‘It must not be bankrupt for a reason. Is there a special secret apart from the taste of the dishes?’

  The road in the north hadn’t been maintained, since it was occupied with monsters. Grid’s expression was serious as he moved along the dangerous road filled with weeds and cracks. It was an unknown land where he didn’t have the basic information. Grid realized once again that it was an area where he wouldn’t receive any help.

  ‘I am ahead of them.’

  Grid always felt like he was lagging behind because he compared himself to Kraugel. It felt like he was following the path that Kraugel pioneered. But looking at it objectively, Grid was a leader comparable to Kraugel.

  ‘Soon, I will be able to go ahead of Kraugel.’

  The present Grid was much stronger and more versatile than the Kraugel who visited the East Continent. Grid was confident that he could get ahead of Kraugel, giving him a high pride.

  ‘The rankers that I spend a year looking at from a distance…’

  Now he was heading for the top. Those who he felt envy and longing towards were now mostly under him.

  ‘This game is truly rewarding!’

  Every human had the natural desire to accomplish something, and the culture that now dominated the world was Satisfy. Being the best here meant being the best in the world. Grid trembled with excitement. Come on! Grid felt like shouting in a loud voice.

  The East Continent. Grid felt a sense of liberation as he saw the place where there were only NPCs and no players. It felt like falling onto a rich desert island! The game was much more enjoyable when Grid didn’t have to worry about his dignity as leader of Overgeared. He ran towards the pine forest in the distance with a loud laugh. Hahaha! His laugh was like the crazy person who was present in every city.

  ‘But it’s amazing.’

  Grid was abruptly running around like a dog in heat. Braham was amazed as he watched the pathetic Grid. Despite Grid acting like a fool, he still maintained the appropriate tension.

  ‘Being cautious even when his heart is excited?’

  In other words, there was no gap.

  ‘There are many things that are lacking because he is still growing, but he already has the minimum requirements to be a legend.’

  Looking at the current Grid, someone might see a gap and try an attack.

  ‘They would die.’

  The moment Braham thought this.

  Step.

  The moment Grid entered the pine forest full of pine needles.

  Kyaooooh!

  A giant beast appeared and roared at Grid. Yes, it was a beast. Not a monster. It was a tiger that ran away from the monster community and hid in the forest.

  “Die tiger, and leave behind your skin!”

  Grid had picked up the tiger’s presence with Magic Detection (Enhanced) and had been waiting for it. He cut down the tiger without any hesitation and obtained its leather.

  “It’s very quiet. Why isn’t there a single monster despite the monster community being beyond this forest?”

  ‘It isn’t accessible. Don’t use your demonic power here.’

  “Ah, is it because of this?”

  Grid looked at the notification window that popped up the moment he entered the forest.

  [This is a forest filled with a refreshing energy. Health and mana regeneration rate will increase by 20%.]

  “If I ever experience a dangerous situation when hunting in the monster community, I can escape here.”

  ‘It is a big step that you are capable of thinking similar to dogs or cats. It will be fine if you continue to develop steadily in the future.’

  Grid wasn’t offended by the rough words that Braham spoke. He could feel the emotions from Braham’s soul and they weren’t negative emotions. Rather, they were full of liking. But Grid also had a nasty personality. He didn’t let it pass nicely.

  “Tsk tsk, look at the way you are speaking. There’s a reason you were betrayed by your only friend.”

  ‘…’

  Braham was shocked. He was betrayed and killed by his only friend, and now his current friend was teasing him, it was really very sad. However, the legendary great magician wasn’t easily shaken by words. He tried to remain calm.

  ‘H-He, friend… He…wasn’t.’

  “…”

  Grid heard the quivering in Braham’s voice and belatedly felt sorry. He coughed with shame and quickly left the forest. The pine forest was small so he could escape quickly. Beyond the forest, the large community of monsters entered his eyes. There were arched tents installed everywhere in the community. There was approximately 500 of them. Assuming that there were two monsters per tent, that was at least 1,000 monsters.

  “There are tents and living tools. Doesn’t it seem like the monsters living in this habitat are quite intelligent? Are they lizardmen type monsters?”

  Grid consulted Braham’s opinion, but Braham was silent. He was still in a numb, shocked state. As a legendary great magician, he was originally very strong in spirit and his basic tendencies were cruel. But ironically, he was weak towards those he liked.

  Grid clicked his tongue at Braham. “How long will you stay like this? You’re not a kid. Aren’t you hundreds of years old?”

  In fact, Grid didn’t have any friends except the Overgeared members. His personality wasn’t good enough to make friends and he didn’t notice. In other words, Grid and Braham were in a similar category. He stopped trying to make fun of Braham and quickly understood the characteristics of the monster community.

  ‘Is it a monster housing complex?’

  The 500 tents in the community were separated by 50 meters each and each area was separated by each other by a low fence. Personal space seemed to be important to these monsters.

  ‘Looking at the tools, they are humanoid monsters, not lizardmen. They like living together.’

  A humanoid monster with high standards of living and strong independence. What was it? Grid remained confused no matter how much he thought about it, and then he realized.

  ‘Yes, this is the East Continent.’

  It was futile to analyze this based on common sense and information from the West Continent.

  ‘I have to directly see and experience it myself.’

  Sururuk.

  Grid’s figure disappeared. It was due to the Hooded Zip Up. He secretly moved towards the monster community and approached the nearest tent.

  ‘There are no signs?’

  Was this really a monster community? Did he come to the wrong place? The community was t
oo quiet. Every tent showed no signs of life.

  ‘Did they all leave?’

  However, there would be traces if 1,000 monsters moved somewhere.

  ‘Don’t tell me…’

  Was it nap time? It was nonsense that 1,000 monsters would be napping at the same time. Grid suppressed this ridiculous thought and looked inside the tent. Then he was startled. A rat. No, it was similar to a hamster. A big hamster couple was sleeping inside the tent.

  ‘The monster is cute?’

  No, the cuteness was secondary. It seemed like a monster with the basic ‘hide’ passive. It was difficult to read the information even when looking at it.

  ‘Isn’t this a scam?’

  The moment Grid was confused.

  “Muong?”

  Kung kung. The hamster couple’s noses twitched and they got up. Then they looked around and pinpointed Grid’s exact location.

  “Kyaak!”

  The hamsters opened their mouths widely! The cute couple transformed into monsters in an instant.

  “Kuk!”

  Grid was stunned as he saw the hundreds of sharp teeth in the hamsters’ large mouths. Hundreds of sawtooth-like teeth were deeply embedded in their mouths. It was so gruesome and unhygienic that it was creepy.

  “Wow! Braham, do you see this? There is rotten food sandwiched between the teeth… Ugh!”

  Grid frowned and blocked his nose.

  Hamster. To be precise, the monster called the ‘big poisonous rat’ gave off a horrible stench when it opened its mouth. The stench was terrible enough to cause confusion and poisoning. He resisted thanks to the legendary status resistance passive, but the discomfort was significant.

  “Human! Muong! Kill! Muong!”

  The big poisonous rats became agitated by the intruder and started to wield their tridents. Their cute appearance was nowhere to be seen. The black eyes had turned red and the front protruding teeth dripped black poisonous liquid that threatened Grid.

  ‘Fast!’

  The attack speed of the big poisonous rats was equivalent to the true blood vampires. Sometimes their tails would accurately strike at Grid’s weak points.

  Peeng!

  The moment he was caught by the hamsters, Grid had switched from the Hooded Zip Up to Lantier’s Cloak. The ground where he had just been standing was hit by the big poisonous rat’s trident and exploded. The big poisonous rats caused players to become confused and poisoned just by opening their mouths, then used their quick and strong attacks to kill the player. They were similar to the ‘senior monsters’ on the West Continent.

  Then Grid? He felt excited instead of panicked. He already expected the monsters of the East Continent to be strong. The stronger they were, the more experience they would give.

  “Pagma’s Swordsmanship, Kill!”

  This was a somewhat large tent for a human. Grid used the footwork of his sword dance to evade and then linked the attack.

  Chaaeng!

  Kill accurately struck the hamster couple at the same time. A stunning notification window popped up in front of Grid as he killed them instantly.

  [You have defeated a big poisonous rat.]

  [35,970,411 experience has been acquired.]

  “Kek.”

  It was huge. It was far beyond his expectations.

  Chapter 518

  Chapter 518

  [You have defeated a big poisonous rat.]

  [35,970,411 experience has been acquired.]

  [A big poisonous rat’s gallbladder has been acquired.]

  [The big poisonous rat’s leather has been acquired.]

  [You have defeated a male big poisonous rat.]

  [21,899,050 experience has been acquired.]

  The hamsters were monsters present near the ‘starter’ village. They were likely to be located on the lowest level of the East Continent food chain. Nevertheless, they gave excellent experience. The female hamster gave seven times more experience than junior vampires, five times more experience than intermediate vampires and three times more experience than the senior vampires.

  ‘Only the males clearly have a gender label and give less experience. Does this meant it is a matriarchal monster community?’

  In fact, it was funny to say that the males gave less experience. The males alone gave two times more experience than the senior vampires.

  ‘By the way, it’s really great..’.

  Grid roughly guessed that Kraugel came to the East Continent before his third advancement. He could hunt monsters like this, even if it was slowly? If the hamster didn’t have the poisoning and confusion ability, Grid would simply admire it as being Kraugel. No matter how strong the hamsters, Kraugel would be able to overcome their physical abilities.

  ‘But how did he cope with the abnormal states?’

  The cooldown time of the detoxification potion was 10 seconds and there were no potions to recover from confusion. On the other hand, the hamsters constantly caused poisoning and confusion by opening their mouths throughout the battle.

  ‘It would be possible if Kraugel had accessories to resist poison and confusion…’

  However, it was questionable if he would have status resistance accessories at the time.

  ‘No way, did he just block his nose?’

  Satisfy’s system considered realism, so Grid directly blocked his nose. But it was impossible to block out the stench.

  “Oof.”

  Grid felt nauseous and left the tent. Braham watched the pathetic Grid and finally opened his mouth.

  ‘Did you forget what the chef of Pangea said? The monster community formed here after Pangea was invaded.’

  The hamsters were likely to be one of the monsters defeated in the Pangea invasion and settled here afterwards.

  ‘They weren’t born near the village, so they might be a powerful monster species. Don’t assume that the big poisonous rats are the weakest monster on the East Continent.’

  “Well… Indeed.”

  The East Continent was very difficult. Since Satisfy’s opening, 31 people had visited the East Continent in three years. The East Continent was sure to have overwhelmingly higher content than the West Continent. But Satisfy was a game that considered balance. Since there was the possibility of exchanges between the two continents in the future, the gap between the continents couldn’t be too large.

  ‘That’s right. No matter how difficult the content of the East Continent, the hamsters can’t be the weakest monster here.’

  Assuming that the hamsters were the weakest monsters, it meant that the soldiers of the East Continent had at least the strength of a hamster, which didn’t make sense.

  “Well, whatever. I just have to beat them. That’s why I came here.”

  There was no need to complicate it unnecessarily. Grid checked the information of the loot he picked up.

  [Big Poisonous Rat’s Gallbladder]

  A gallbladder filled with poison.

  Upon taking it, you will become poisoned for 10 minutes and receive all types of conditions.

  However, poisoning and confusion tolerance will permanently increase by 0.03% afterwards.

  Weight: 1

  [Big Poisonous Rat’s Leather]

  Smelly and tough leather.

  It is difficult to use in real life because the odor doesn’t disappear.

  Weight: 30

  “Wow.”

  Grid’s eyes widened. This was the first time he saw an item that increased the resistance to an abnormal state.

  ‘A lot of rich people will invest money to buy things like this gallbladder.’

  Grid had the status conditions resistance passive, so items that increased resistance to abnormal statuses were useless to him. But there were those who weren’t legends. For two billion users, status conditions were a challenge that must always be overcome. Everyone thought it was important to increase their resistance.

  ‘This would be pretty expensive!’

  The value would be at least one million won. But G
rid didn’t have any thoughts about registering the gallbladder in the auction house. It was because it would hurt him if others increased their resistance to status conditions.

  ‘Don’t put it on the auction house. Gather more and sell them to the guild members.’

  Grid didn’t intend to give it for free. He closed his inventory and approached another tent. He looked inside and saw a pair of sleeping hamsters.

  “Another couple?”

  Grid felt complex and subtle emotions.

  ‘Do I have to hunt a couple every time?’

  Wasn’t he destroying a family? Grid hesitated before shaking his head. Setting aside NPCs, there would be no limit if he started feeling empathy for monsters. Grid controlled his mind and separated the +7 Sword Ghost into the long sword and short sword form. He used Pagma’s Swordsmanship, Transcend, and swung his weapons continuously.

  Peng!

  Pepepepeong!

  The energy blades fired from the long sword were powerful and destructive, while the short sword was small and relatively stealthy. Grid bombarded the hamsters in the tent without causing much disturbance, and the sleeping hamsters in the surrounding tents didn’t wake up.

  “Muoong! It hurts!”

  “Human! Kill! Muong!”

  The hamsters were furious about being beaten in the middle of their sweet nap. It worsened as they watched their nest being torn apart. They grabbed their tridents and rushed towards Grid. But they couldn’t reach him. The God Hands wielded Mjolnir and defended Grid.

  Peok!

  Peok peok peok!

  “Muong! Muong! Muong!”

  There was nothing strange with the Mjolnirs. The hamster couple fell into an infinite stiffness. As the golden hammers moved from left to right and alternated attacks, the hamsters lost a lot of health. Grid finished them off, receiving a lot of experience and another gallbladder.

  “Isn’t the drop rate surprisingly high?”

  No, it was nonsense that an item that permanently increased resistance to abnormal statues would have a high drop rate. Grid interpreted it differently.

  “That’s right, the drop rate isn’t high. It is purely because of my good luck stat!”

  He had 16 points in his good luck stat! Grid put a big significance on it. However, 16 points in a stat actually had no meaning. Looking at it, didn’t Jude have 20 intelligence? It was just 16 points in good luck. But Grid felt infinitely positive. It was the good luck stat that he got after living unhappily most of his life.