CH 223

It was the dark elves’ quest anyway. The dark elf called Kaztor must also be an NPC, so he must have left a trace somewhere. For now, Leeha would rather follow users.

At least the little clue that he had won’t suddenly disappear.

“Jin Gonggong-nim! After that -oh ahhh? W-what are you doing? What are you doing?”

“Uuhh一 who—— Pwah! Who are you trying to find?”

“No! What are you doing right now!”

“I’m increasing my affinity. I still need some time to finish, please wait a while. Whoops!”

Jin Gonggong took another deep breath and shoved himself into the gaps of the man-eating plant.

“……Didn’t you say that if you go in there you’ll get eaten?”

After having me keep the monsters away, did he need to nourish the plant himself in order to raise his affinity?

Leeha thought it was a good thing he didn’t choose the druid class.

After about 10 minutes had passed, Jin Gonggong walked out of the man-eating plant.

“Are you done?”

“Yep! Normally, only druids that are level 170 and above are able to complete the quest. Thanks to Leeha-nim, I can complete it early.”

After Jin Gonggong removed the corrosive liquid of the man-eating plant, he started putting on the clothes that he had taken off.

He was no longer the same druid who was shy about dancing to summon a crow. Now there was only the druid who had fully adapted to Middle Earth.

Leeha smiled at the disparity.

“Do you get something good when you complete it early?”

“I do! It’s this. I’ll give you one as well.”

“What is this?”

“It’s an item. Hihi. It’s essential for the druid’s main quest later, and I have already secured the amount I need.” 

Jin Gonggong smiled and handed Leeha something like a small fruit.

[Rare Seed of the Contaminated World Tree]

Effect: You can control a monster for 6 hours when it is fed with this.

Description: The spores released by the contaminated World Tree all over the continent are said to eat away nutrients and deeply take root. Plants germinated from spores use hypnotic pollen to control the living things in its surrounding and move according to its will, and there is a rumor that grinding its seeds can be used as hypnotic powder.

“……Taming item?”

“That’s right. But it’s not just a taming item. It’s a rare one! It’s a pity that it’s only temporary, but even a high-level monster can be tamed with this.”

“Certainly. Then give me some more.”

“Huh?”

“You only gave me one. Can’t you give me three or four more.”

“I-I can’t give you that. I have to use the rest for when I’m completing my quests-”

“Kek, just kidding. Now that Jin Gonggong-nim has finished your quest, will you help me now?”

When Jin Gonggong started crying, Leeha went to the main point. Because there was someone he needed to find using Jin Gonggong’s eagle form. (ed: why are you like this (─︣ ㅅ ─᷅)  )

“Ah! Who did you say you were going to meet earlier? Who?”

“Fernand.”

“Fernand…… Who is that?”

“The Pioneering King.”

“The Pioneering King…… Pioneering King? You’re going to meet the Pioneering King?”

Jin Gonggong’s eyes widened.

Who was the Pioneering King? He wasn’t someone you could meet just because you wanted to. The Pioneering King insisted on solo playing so much that he could be considered a phantom rather than an actual user, who cares only about expanding the map, and doesn’t care about hunting or quests!

“I know what you’re thinking, but we don’t know each other. We  don’t have a prior agreement to meet up.”

“T-then what? Leeha-nim is great, but, if you’re not acquainted with the Pioneering King…. In other words, your gonna go around the entire continent looking for Fernand, right?”

Jin Gonggong’s words would have been correct in any other instance.

Meeting Fernand meant going around the whole continent at least once. Still, there were many cases where even then he couldn’t be found. However, it was a different story now.

“No, no. I got information from a reliable source, so don’t worry about it and transform.”

“Hmmm..”

“Ah. Also on the way there, I will do a few more aerial shots like before. Transform quickly.”

Jin Gonggong made a skeptical expression, but Leeha didn’t care about that. Right now, while on the way to find Fernand, he focused more on his ‘aerial shooting’.

***

-Do you think it will work?

-Don’t talk to me right now-!

Baaang!

The bullet hit the tree with a popping sound. The four-handed troll, who was resting on the wooden pole, looked around in surprise, but could not find Leeha and Jin Gonggong.

“Ah…… It’s getting harder now.”

It wasn’t just because Jin Gonggong talked and disturbed his concentration.

Leeha acknowledged that his skills were not yet up to snuff. If he shot one or two more shots at the four-handed troll, he would be able to kill it. However, that’s not what Leeha wanted right now.

‘I could get my achievement right now, but……. If I can’t one-shot it at this level when I need it, there’s a lot of achievement. I shouldn’t be aiming for something like that. I need to practice more.’

-Shall we do it one more time?

-No, it’s okay. I’ll practice a bit more and do it again later. Ah, will you help me when that time comes? I wasn’t able to hit because of Jin Gonggong-nim.

-What? Cough, okay. Then, let’s go first!

Piiiii-!

Jin Gonggong roared and flew away.

After finishing his quest on the man-eating plant, they flew to the place that Lee Jiwon told Leeha. He succeeded in two shots.

‘60m at 300m, and 70m at 350m.’

They were B+ and A- respectively, and no one had claimed them yet, so Leeha was the first to achieve the Hall of Fame.

He only got two achievements but his agility rose by 87 points from the hall of fame.

‘It means that every increase in height by 10m, and the distance increases by 50m, this-.’

In the case of the four-handed troll, Leeha tried to shoot from the distance of 400 at a whopping 80m in the air, it meant that he was lacking in practice.

‘It feels like the difficulty is increasing exponentially. That shot just now was much more difficult than shooting from a distance of 1000m from the ground. Even if I have the Black Bass, I shouldn’t be this anxious about aiming.’

The instability of aiming was natural, and the difference between wind direction and wind speed only increased.

How about calculating the trajectory according to speed?

The golden eagle wasn’t a helicopter. Since it was impossible to slowly maintain the altitude while flying slowly, as the distance increased, the calculation associated with the speed of the golden eagle became more complex.

Leeha was reminded once again that his special attribute was [Accuracy], not pierce or rapid-fire. In order to increase his accuracy, it was necessary to study the method of increasing aiming stability, which was more important than anything else for him.

-Leeha-nim, what you described earlier seems to be around here, but can you even see anything?

-Hmm, hold on a sec.

Unexplored areas have their own geographical features. There are jungles like the Amazon with cannibals, deserts, snowfields, rocky wasteland, etc. There were quite a few overlapping places among them, but they had arrived at a place where the information was roughly the same as what Leeha heard.

‘Lee Jiwon saw Fernand around 5 days ago.’

It meant about a day in the real world.

If he was simply hunting, he may have already moved spots. But who was he? It was none other than Fernand the King of Pioneering.

He was a user who wanted to record all the maps meticulously and would not move easily.

-Oh right. It’s over there. A huge structure made of black earth, goblin-like trees, and horns. But why were the horns so big?

-It’s called Dragon Bones.

-Whaat? Dragon Bones? Then what, will a dragon pop out?

-I don’t know about that. Anyway, I heard that Fernand was looking for something like that near the bone temple-

-Leeha-nim! If a dragon comes out, we will both die! We won’t even be able to run away!

-Yes, yes, so let’s find Fernand quickly so that won’t happen.

Jin Gonggong’s voice was thin and muffled with anxiety, but Leeha simply dismissed him. Lee Jiwon already came and went through here, and Fernand must also be nearby, so where would the dragon come from?

‘If there was one, they would have died too-’ 

No, will they really die? Leeha saw the sheer strength of the 2nd in the world ranking. His skill could really cut down a dragon. Then what about Fernand? He may not be good at fighting, but he should be second to none when it comes to running away. After all, he is the user that knows the most about the regions in Middle Earth.

‘Ah, maybe……’

Anxiety suddenly took over. And at that moment, something caught Leeha’s eyes.

‘Hmm?’

“Ohhh! T-this, this, this!”

-Why? Is it a dragon? Did a dragon come out?

Hearing Leeha making a fuss, Jin Gonggong’s flight faltered for a moment. However, contrary to his worries, Leeha’s voice was cheerful and bright.

“Crystal ball! The crystal ball! Uwaah, what is this?!”

Leeha smiled and held up the crystal ball. A faint light leaked from Kaztor’s crystal ball, which hadn’t responded before.

“Oh, it’s gone.”

When the distance from the bone structure increased a little, the light disappeared. In other words, it was clear where this crystal ball responding to.

-What do you mean crystal ball? Did Fernand give it to you? I don’t see anything nearby.

-No! This is for another quest, anyway. Let’s go around a little bit more first, and let’s get off at that huge bone.

-G-get off? What am I, a taxi?

-Driver-nim, let’s go!

-If you keep doing this, you’ll have to start paying me a premium fee!

There’s no high ground around.

Once the transformation is released, they will have to move quite a bit until Jin Gonggong can transform again into a golden eagle, and the reaction point of the crystal ball won’t move anyway, so Leeha decided to search for Fernand leisurely instead.

They flew to the border of the black ground, which looked like compost had been sprinkled on the ground, for a long time and looked around, but they did not see anyone.

The only thing that caught their eyes from time to time were monsters.

Of course, the golden eagle Jin Gonggong and Leeha were able to see clearly by using the ‘Eagle’s Eye’.

‘They are undead.’

If they were monsters that were missing flesh and discolored skin, it was obvious.

However, the only difference from other places was that the size of the undead they were bloody and there were skeleton knights that were riding skeleton horses. They looked much bigger than your average skeletons or zombies.

(To be continued…)