Chapter 39 039

Seojin looked around as soon as he arrived at the headquarters.

'Considering the alchemist's reaction, the vigilance committee might not treat me normally either.'

The alchemist came to a conclusion that Seojin was a high-ranked mercenary all by himself the moment he heard about his results. However, the vigilance committee knew that Seojin was Rank F, the absolute lowest possible. They probably wouldn't pass over it with the minimum shock necessary.

'I can't draw too much attention.'

The Ironbloods must have been looking for Seojin by now and he was sure that they'd send their men if they heard rumors of an extraordinary player.

"Excuse me."

Seojin approached the window once he thought an aqueduate amount of people had filtered out of the building. The woman in charge offered him a kind smile.

"Welcome, adventurer. I'm Rachel, a Reward Officer here at the headquarters. Would you like to claim the reward for your request?"

"Yes, I want to, but…"

Seojin thought he was sounded like he'd won the lottery as he almost whispered to Rachel.

"Don't be surprised by the results."

"I won't."

"I mean, you can be surprised, but please don't make a sound, okay?"

"Don't worry, adventurer. It's not easy to startle a member of the vigilance committee."

"Okay then."

Seojin handed her the paper which held his results. Rachel took it with a curious look in her eyes and her jaw soon dropped.

"F-four hundred?"

"Shh, shh!"

"…Ah."

Rachel covered her mouth as Seojin glanced around the room. Luckily, nobody bat an eyelid at them.

"H-how…? Did you do that by yourself?"

"Yup. I'm a solo adventurer."

"But you're Rank F…"

Rachel kept glancing between Seojin's face and the request paper. Then she nodded, uncertain of what to do.

"I- I've never had a case like this before… please wait here for a minute."

"Sure, I'll wait."

Rachel headed off somewhere in panic and Seojin's lips twitched behind her back.

'She's an active NPC now.'

Rachel was passive when Seojin had first spoken to her, her only role was to repeat the same lines and give him his reward. However, her eyes came alive the moment Seojin showed her such an outstanding result, which meant she was now an active NPC who could think and decide for herself.

'Is there a specific condition that triggers this? Or…'

Seojin was yet to figure out how to change the state of an NPC. He could only assume that he had to do something extraordinary, just like with Neraid in Movelon or the situation in Berne.

'I wish I had a better idea of the conditions.'

Seojin always received amazing rewards once the passive NPCs became active, that meant if he couldn't change the state of NPCs, he wouldn't be able to get such special rewards. He was off to a good start this time too. However, what mattered the most was the next step. Seojin predicted how Rachel would react and made a flowchart of to-do lists in his mind. Then, a little while later…

"I'm sorry for taking so long!"

Rachel apologized as she came back in a hurry.

"Not at all, I wasn't waiting for too long."

"I reported it to our commander as the criteria for your rewards were not clear."

'So, can I meet their commander face to face?'

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

"Here you go, I have your reward and new mercenary tablet right here."

EXP Increases significantly

Level Up!

Acquired: Mercenary Tablet — Rank C

Acquired: 2G

Seojin's eyes widened once he saw the rewards.

'Rank C? This fast?'

All of the guides that he read stated that completing all five rank F requests meant getting rank E

"Has anything like this happened before?"

"Very rarely, and nothing of the sort these days."

Rachel shrugged and added.

"Commander said there's no need to waste time. He also said you're different from those with boring, bureaucratic mindsets."

"Huh?"

Seojin could see what was going on. The commander of the vigilance committee had evaluated Seojin's abilities and made his decision accordingly. There was no reason to bestow rank C upon Seojin if they played by the rules, but the commander must have thought that would be a waste of a valuable human resources.

"Thank you very much."

"He was quite amused, saying it's been a while since he's seen a man like you. Oh, also…" Rachel tried her best to emphasize. "It would be better to go with a group when taking on rank C requests. They're far more dangerous than The King's Tomb."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"See you soon!"

Seojin stood up and left the building. He did not miss that Rachel returned to a passive state as another player sat before her.

'Hmm… I think I've figured it out… or maybe not.'

There was still time to figure out the rules regarding NPCs. The most important thing right now was that he'd gotten an even better reward than he'd expected. Two gold and a Rank C mercenary tablet! It was a pretty decent achievement for six hours of work.

'It's really three gold considering the items that I sold. I've somehow become acquainted with an alchemist, too.'

It was very satisfying. However, now he had to…

'The queue is damn long.'

… line up for requests again.

He waited patiently for quite some time.

"There are currently three rank C quests available."

Another member of the vigilance committee splayed three request papers out in front of Seojin.

The Hidden Box

* Retrieve the "Mysterious Box" hidden in the underground labyrinth.

* Recommended Rank: C

1+1 Does Not Equal 2

* Kill the Twinhead Ogre at the Overreaching Rocky Mountain.

* Recommended Rank: C

It Was the Mushroom All Along.

* Acquire more than 12 mushrooms from Parastock in the Black Forest.

* Recommended Rank: C

These looked identical to the rank F requests, the only real difference Seojin noticed was the recommended rank. Seojin made a different choice this time.

"I'll take all three."

"Do you accept all three requests?"

"Yes."

Additional Quests Registered

Current Quests: 3

Seojin made the decision without a second thought as he'd already made up his mind beforehand.

'Rachel said that the difficulty skyrockets dramatically from Rank C requests.'

Seojin kept Rachel's warning in mind. He'd also seen similar opinions on the online communities, too. A spike in difficulty meant it would take way more time to finish each quest one by one, and he wouldn't have to worry about the 24-hour restriction in that case.

'What should I start with?'

Seojin came to a conclusion after staring at the quest screen, sweeping over his chin with his hand.

* * *

*Woo! Oh! Woo! Oh!*

*Rarrrgh!*

"Alright, way to go!"

The Overreaching Rocky Mountains was a dungeon for mercenaries rank C or above, yet Seojin didn't run into any issues there. His stat points were still overwhelming, so simply casting a single skill would make any ogre run in and pledge allegiance to him. Seojin found himself leading an army of ogres. The final boss was not that strong compared to the horde of ogres.

*Rarrrghhhh!*

The Twinhead Ogre was a giant monster around four meters tall, which was currently roaring with both of its heads. The pressure was no joke, living up to the title of a boss monster. It wielded two heavy steel clubs in each hand, which even tanks wouldn't want to take a direct hit from. Ogres, however, had no fear.

*Woo! Oh! Woah!*

*Woop! Woop!*

*Grrrrgh!*

They clashed like an ocean wave against a rock. Twenty ogres, once the minions of the Twinhead Ogre, charged at their former boss all at once. Blood and chunks of flesh splattered every time the angry twinhead ogre swung his club, but Seojin cried out every time an ogre lost their head.

"One head ogre never dies! Two head ogre is fake! A two head ogre cannot win against you!"

It was utter nonsense, but the ogres understood two things at least. One head, ally. Two heads, enemy & enemy no win against ally.

Effect is greatly increased due to overwhelming stat difference!

The target's ability increases significantly!

*I beat ya, I beat ya!*

*Beat ya hurt! Killed ya dead!*

Seojin was speechless and let out a wry laugh, the ogres even began to talk as their INT increased along with their STR.

'What a system… intelligence meant like *actual* intelligence?'

Surprisingly, the ogres began to beat the Twinhead Ogre a little more efficiently with their increased intelligence. As a result,

Defeated: Boss — Twinhead Ogre

EXP Up!

A wall of dust of rose up as the four-meter-tall giant collapsed with a thump.

"Oh."

Seojin felt like it was even easier than dealing with the skeletons. He had to lure the skeletons out one by one as they didn't gang up, but the ogres moved in herds.

'It was a stroke of luck that I could charm the entire group.'

However, Seojin was still planning for more. Seojin instructed the remaining ogres while walking over to their boss's crumbling dead body to collect a reward.

"Fight each other. The one who survives will become the head of this dungeon. Only the strongest can be the leader, right?"

*Me head!*

*Head fist hurt!*

The remaining ogres began punching and kicking each other. They were allies up until now but they'd rip Seojin apart once the battle was over, so, it would be better to tie up the loose ends.

"Let's take a look at the loot now…"

Seojin dug into the dust heap that was once a twinhead ogre's dead body while there was a clash right next to him,

Acquired: Blood Magic Stone (1).

"Oh."

It was a red, oval-shaped jewel. Seojin had no idea what its exact value was, but it was probably more expensive than a thousand bone fragments. It must have been a reward that was usually split between five different players, considering the recommended amount of party members.

That wasn't all.

Blood Magic Stone (76).

He also gathered each piece of loot from the deceased regular ogres.

'Was his name Jeriel? That dude will be satisfied, too.'

While they were materials from a mere rank C dungeon, they would only fuel the alchemist's misunderstanding. Seojin emptied the rank C dungeon by himself, the last two ogres took each other out and fell to the ground.

Dungeon Clear

Exiting Dungeon

Anyone else would watch on in awe as Seojin cleared the dungeon solo. However, Seojin wasn't impressed in the slightest as he checked the results.

'The Hidden Box… let's leave that one for next time. It'd be troublesome if it was just a maze without any monsters.'

Seojin was no better than a noob if there were no monsters for him to charm. He decided to carry out similar quests first instead of taking risks.

It Was Mushroom All Along

* Recommended Rank: C

'I need to acquire more than twelve parasite mushrooms from Parastock… this shouldn't be difficult either.'

It had already been twenty-three hours since he'd started the game up, but Seojin strode on without hesitation as soon as he moved toward the Ant Cave.

'I'll wrap things up by the end of the day.'

Seojin was the type to push forward relentlessly once he had a goal in mind.