One Man Army

Chapter 171 [Episode 88] Goren City 1

@ Goren City.

The monster that you had to be careful of the most was the ‘Awakened Giant Ice Devil’. It hides itself deep under the thick ice and when the prey passess over the ice sheet, it breaks through the ice sheet at a tremendous speed and swallows its prey whole.

It was classified as a regular field monster, but in reality it was as powerful as a Raid Monster, not a normal monster.

Later on, when the players came up to the Continent of the Sun, they used to build raid teams for catching Awakened Giant Ice Devils here in the Ice Lake.

However, Sang Hyuk didn’t have the leisure to do monster hunting right now, so he was breaking through the Ice Lake at full speed to avoid the Awakened Giant Ice Devils as much as possible.

Sang Hyuk’s way of dealing with this Awakened Giant Ice Devil was simple…. but the effect was obvious.

Dudududuk, Kwagwagwagwang! Khuooooong!

Another Awakened Giant Ice Devil broke through the ice sheet and popped up behind Sang Hyuk.

Again, Sang Hyuk used blink at exactly the right moment to escape the lunge attack of the Awakened Giant Ice Devil.

The Awakened Giant Ice Devil not only knew the location of the prey by its eyes, but it also identified it through the microscopic tremors of the ice sheet, so Concealment did not work.

In the end, it meant that it was an unavoidable opponent.

Therefore, Sang Hyuk did not avoid it. Of course, he had no intention of fighting it.

After breaking past the first attack, Sang Hyuk ran away.

This was the tactic that Sang Hyuk chose against the Awakened Giant Ice Devil.

He simply just sprinted with all his might. In the middle, he still met the monsters that lived on top of the ice sheet but because most of them were weaker, so with a judicious use of Divine Thunderbolt for several encounters, almost everything was sorted out.

Sang Hyuk sprinted at full speed on the ice sheet like this, nope, he was Flying across the Ice Lake. Because Sang Hyuk escaped like a loach, the Awakened Giant Ice Devils, who all got very irritated, chased Sang Hyuk en masse, but their Artificial Intelligences couldn’t catch the slippery and cunning Sang Hyuk. (EN: Loach is a generic term for slippery river fishes in Asia)

Sang Hyuk was able to shed the stampeding Awakened Giant Ice Devils, because all ‘agro’ was reset when he sprinted out of range.

Sang Hyuk ran for almost seven hours without a break. As a result, he was able to cross the Ice Lake.

It was a challenge that was hardly thinkable for a normal person, but Sang Hyuk challenged himself and did it.

“Gasp…gasp….”

Running at full speed for seven hours without a break was crazier than he thought.

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Thanks to this, though Sang Hyuk hadn’t fought properly, his stamina was only about 5%.

“This is not going to work.”

Sang Hyuk, who breathed deeply shook his head and murmured. This crazy run was only possible because it was the Ice Lake.

Because the monsters of the Ice Lake that appear on the surface are relatively weak and the monsters that live below the ice are powerful so this kind of forced breakthrough could work.

If the monster that appeared on the ice sheet was at the level that Sang Hyuk couldn’t have ignored, then it was clear that such a breakthrough could not have been attempted.

‘The problem is here…..’

Sang Hyuk, who had to look up just to see the tops of the magnificent titans in front of him, had no choice but to frown.

In front of him was an immense forest of unbelievably huge trees rising to the sky.

If you mention the Five Taboos in the Continent of the Sun, the fifth of them is this forbidden area……

It is the area where you can barely hunt with a full party of 7 people with a minimum level 130…

The Dark Jungle unfolded in front of Sang Hyuk.

‘I want to break through this place like what I did on Ice Lake, but it’s impossible…. then I have no choice but to break through it with my strength.’

Even a full party of users above level 130 were not always able to break through the Dark Jungle.

That was just the minimum qualification to walk into the Dark Jungle.

In order to hunt smoothly in the Dark Jungle, even the users at level 140-150 with equipment and titles above a certain level had to have a full party.

In that sense, it might be crazy for Sang Hyuk, whose level was not even 100,  to jump into the Dark Jungle alone.

But Sang Hyuk’s EL play has always been a series of crazy things that defy common sense.

In fact, at some point, for Sang Hyuk using common sense has become the aberration. So, even this time, Sang hyuk was able to choose to break through the Dark Jungle without hesitation.

Honestly, the reason why Sang Hyuk worried was that he had never been to the ‘Dark Jungle’ in his previous life.

There was no reason to come to this place. There were many good hunting grounds and he didn’t have to go and struggle in this place, which had a bad reputation and was not considered very efficient for leveling.

‘If I enter, I can get a rough estimation of the difficulty, right?’

After that Sang Hyuk decided to clear his mind. Overcoming challenges was his style.

Sang Hyuk stood and drank a stamina recovery potion, then he slowly stepped toward the Dark Jungle as his stamina recovered by more than 80%.

* * * *

The Dark Jungle was completely dark. The giant trees which soared up endlessly, blocked the sunlight completely….. Actually this could happen because it was a game.

For that reason, the Dark Jungle was treated almost like a dungeon.

Sang Hyuk realized as soon as he entered the Dark Jungle that this place unexpectedly fit him very well.

Perfect darkness.

This opened up some special abilities that Sang Hyuk had.

Sang Hyuk was the king of shadows, so he grew stronger in the darkness. He had a lot of powers and skills that required the shadows that he had forgotten, so he was reminded when he entered the Dark Jungle.

Srrrrr.

If it was a normal user, he would have used the ‘Light Spell’ or a torch to illuminate the darkness, but Sang Hyuk was perfectly assimilated into the darkness, he even took the time to cover up shiny surfaces on his equipment.

Anyway, Sang Hyuk had an ability to see in darkness, so there was not even a little discomfort for him.

Rather, darkness boosted his powers.

Just like now!

Zing! Chwark, Kwaduduk!

The red wire that flew in the dark pierced the head of Awakened Dark Orc, one of the most common monsters of the Dark Jungle.

The Dark Orc was a common creature or trash mob here, but if it was released on Hagye then it would be upgraded to be an elite boss monster that would be hunted by several parties working in unison.

But even so, Sang Hyuk downgraded it to a trash mob when he caught it and blew its head away in a single strike.

Dark Orcs were not the only ones. Even the Awakened Dark Trolls’ and the ‘Awakened Dark Ogre’, which were rather powerful in the Dark Jungle, were finished in a strike when they were caught by Sang Hyuk.

The power of one hit one kill, enhanced by stacked multiple critical hit enhancement skills, was hard to bear, even for the ‘awakened’ monsters.

However, even under these circumstances, Sang Hyuk was vigilant.

Dark Orc, Trolls, and Ogres were only normal monsters anyway, no matter how strong they were.

There were elite and boss monsters in the Dark Jungle. They couldn’t be done in a single strike, even for Sang Hyuk.

Sang Hyuk was breaking through the Dark Jungle as carefully as possible, because no one knew when they would come out.

Leaving out the other monsters, he had to be careful of the Awakened Dark Ghost Knight.

Sang Hyuk had never met one in person, but in his previous life, it was known as a ‘party destroyer’ and was rumored to be a powerful elite monster.

‘By the way this …the karma reward is really good, right?’

Sang Hyuk, who blew the Dark Orc’s head and reaped the rewards it left behind, felt like he had found ‘honey’ in an unexpected place. (TL Note: honey refers to sweet things or great things)

‘It’s…no way…Isn’t it like some guilds, using information manipulation and control, monopolized this place?’

The Dark Jungle that Sang Hyuk knew was one of the worst hunting areas with little rewards and a very high difficulty level.

But the Dark Jungle he experienced in person was completely different from the rumors.

Then Sang Hyuk had no choice but to doubt the rumors.

‘Well if I think about it, PK happened frequently near the prohibited areas. I thought so because it was just the malefactors that tried to use the ban as a way to escape…. Maybe it was all part of a big conspiracy.’

Of course, all of this was just a suspicion, but the more Sang Hyuk thought about it, he became convinced of his speculation.

‘Anyway, if the reward was this much then I don’t think I should break through the Dark Jungle quickly.’

He could get a very lot of things from the Dark Jungle’s monsters especially ‘karma’. Moreover Sang Hyuk with quadra soul has been struggling to level up recently…… He could earn a lot of karma in the  Dark Jungle.

The amount of karma given was plentiful because of the various bonus karma effects that Sang Hyuk’s titles have.

As his thoughts and circumstances changed, the nuisance became rather enjoyable.

Sang Hyuk enjoyed hunting in the Dark Jungle leisurely while looking at the karma gauge that rose quickly.

The original plan was to quickly break through the Dark Jungle in a week to go to the Goren City as soon as possible but the plan was completely changed in the middle.

Sang Hyuk farmed the Dark Jungle and began to explore the Dark Jungle.

The reason why this Dark Jungle tasted like honey especially for Sang Hyuk was that ‘karma’ was much more urgently needed than the ‘drops’ for Sang Hyuk right now.

Honestly, his equipment has already been set to such a ridiculous level so it was practically impossible to find better equipment.

So, Sang Hyuk thought that he would continue to use the Dark Jungle as his primary hunting ground in the future.

So, he was not only creating ‘marking points’ but he was also carefully observing and recording the topography of the Dark Jungle and the distribution of the monsters.

He didn’t have to worry about exclusivity because it was still a long way to go for other players to get here anyway.

Time quickly passed and half a month passed by.

A half month has passed, but Sang Hyuk is still in the Dark Jungle.

Sang Hyuk was able to raise a single level after half a month.

Actually, if he was outside of the Dark Jungle, don’t even say half a month, even two months wouldn’t give him a level up.

The Dark Jungle was the best hunting ground.

During this half month, Sang Hyuk has succeeded in ‘marking’ all five important points of the Dark Jungle.

Not to mention the excellent hunting ground, where all three types of elite monsters, including the ‘Dark Ghost Knight’, known as party destroyers, could be found. And as the last thing, he found and marked an unidentifiable ‘crack’.

Sang Hyuk thought this crack was likely to be the entrance to a dungeon. However, even if it was Sang Hyuk, it was still too early to go to the dungeon so he just marked the location and didn’t go any further.

There was nothing urgent.

Anyway for the time being the Dark Jungle would be a hunting ground only for Sang Hyuk.

‘Now… should I go out?’

Sang Hyuk even thought about hunting the  Dark Ghost Knight as the finale, but now he decided that it was the priority to get safely to Goren City, rather than take that challenge.

It was not too late to challenge the Dark Ghost Knight hunt next time anyway.

Eventually, Sang Hyuk decided to escape the Dark Jungle after only half a month. Of course, he knew exactly which way to go to reach Goren City from the very beginning.

Chapter 171 [Episode 88] Goren City 1 – End

Edited by Userunfriendly