Chapter 68 068

Warlock was one of the advanced classes that a mage could advance to. According to lore, they could borrow the power of demons to cast destructive and vicious spells, but in return, would consume their life force instead of mana. To the players, however, the grand lore only meant that they used HP instead of MP to cast their spells.

The devs of Midgard wouldn't allow people to gain power for such a simple price, though.

"The power of darkness will consume you… I'm so freaking embarrassed now… Don't resist, servant of the darkness! Your body is mine… ah, gosh this is driving me nuts!"

Seojin looked at Haydall incredulously

"He's a warlock, right?"

"Yes, he's not always like… that."

"A demon is trying to possess him. Fortunately, so he seems to be holding out since it's not a strong one… his gear has a little role in it too."

"His gear is the biggest reason! Do you know how much I spent on it?"

Seojin gracefully ignored Odie's remark.

"In any case, he'll be fully possessed at this rate. Warlocks cannot refuse demons in the first place."

"…Demons?"

"Demon-type monsters."

"What should we do then?!"

Seojin did not ignore her this time.

"They can't fend the demons off by themselves, but if others help… let's wait and see."

Seojin approached Roth as the two focused on him.

"Roth."

"Feeble human, kneel before me if you want to… I'm sorry."

"Cast some spells over there until you run out of resources."

Roth carried the order out immediately, aimed his rod toward the empty space, and used the most powerful spells to burn his HP out. Dark, black magic covered the ground with blackness.

"Now surrender to the demon without resisting."

"Okay."

A white fog siphoned into the air from Roth's head. That was a typical sign of the demon having gained full control. Roth burst out into laughter.

"Smart human! Finally realized that resistance is futile?"

"I'll give you two options. It's up to you to choose one."

"I see that fear has eaten your sanity up! How…? Ugh!"

Roth, or the demon possessing him to be precise, grabbed his neck as a white light glowed from Seojin's chest. The pure power of God didn't belong to a specific deity, it was more like the energy of heaven itself.

Necklace of Divine Power.

* The necklace contains pure divine power. Users can handle huge amounts of energy.

* The use of energy depends on player's proficiency.

* Remaining energy is displayed in the status screen, and recovers naturally with time.

* Remaining Divine Power: 99%

* Silver Tongue exclusive.

* Untradable(Bound upon acquisition).

It was exclusive gear that he had obtained in Dunkehr, and the power within it pinned the lesser demon down with pain.

"Urgh… that shouldn't be something permitted for humans to have!"

"You can either leave him alone and keep your being intact or stay there and fully embrace my love and care until you're forced out. Which would you prefer?"

Roth's veins started to bulge under his skin and his trembling body reflected how much pain the demon was feeling. Seojin reduced the strength of the necklace.

"You… you're not human…"

"Answer my question. Is it that hard to choose between the two?"

"I'll leave! Right now!"

"Where are your manners?"

"Urgh… let me leave, please!"

Roth wriggled his body around. Drops of blood leaked out from the scratches as he twisted in agony. Seojin reduced the power slightly and Roth fell to his knees.

"Deliver my words to the one who leads you."

"Yes, I will."

The demon made Roth bow without hesitation. It already had no will left to resist, as it sensed the man was much more than his appearance indicated. Nothing, be it the blinding power of gods he was wielding, or the knowledge he had could belong to a mere human.

His following words further reinforced the demon's thoughts.

"If you haven't forgotten about the Hellfire Peninsula, you better to piss right back to where you belong."

"I will relay—"

"Well, now that I see it, you were the Children of Lokan. How sad you must have been upon seeing such a good master get betrayed."

The possessed Roth opened his eyes wide, exposing a mark of the god, Lokan, on its pupil.

"Go back now."

The black energy violently escaped from Roth as soon as Seojin retracted the light. Roth finally regained control, his eyes looking as calm as ever. However, Seojin did not miss the hint of embarrassment that he failed to hide.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"Jin… Roth!"

"Yes, Big sis."

Odie came running over, shouting worriedly.

"I bet that you won't sleep sound tonight! What did it say, join me as my faithful follower?"

"Give me a break."

"HAHAHA! Faithful follower, my ass!"

"Can I log out right now?"

"Of course not! I should have my fun first!"

Haydall approached with a serious look in his eyes as Odie made a fuss.

"Thank you. I guess that's what normally happens to warlocks, right?"

"The lore says that they borrow the power from the demons."

"Should we have him log out? If this happens again… ugh. By the way, did you also use divine power? I guess you used it to tame those monsters before, right?"

"It's similar, I guess. Let's just say I can counter demons easily. And you don't have to have him log out, it doesn't matter."

"You're really amazing. What was that Lokan stuff and Hellfire Peninsula? I remember that map being in Asgard."

"Well, I like to dig lores. You can find everything on the official website. Both games are related to the gods."

Of course, that was a lie. Everything Seojin had just mentioned was based on what he had experienced in Asgard. The mark that appeared in Roth's eyes belonged to Lokan, and Hellfire Peninsula was related to a quest that Seojin had cleared.

"Wow, you even good at preparation!"

"We'll have to be quick since they'll know who I am by now. I'll give you a briefing and you make your choice… well, can you make choices?"

Haydall turned around gladly.

"Odie! He wants to make an offer!"

"Offer? What offer?"

"I think we need to move quickly if we want to complete the quest in time. I don't have time to teach you the ABCs right now."

"Why are you treating me like a child?"

"What, are you triggered by age talk?"

"Not at…"

"This should be a World Quest."

"…A World Quest? You mean the one that comes out every month?"

Odie tilted her head while Roth and Haydall looked quite surprised, almost as if they had sensed it was real.

"I'll carry you all for a hundred gold each. If I happen to fail, I'll give you a full refund. Either way, the quest reward is mine. You can take the achievements as they're shared."

"One hundred gold each? Do you think that's pocket money…?"

Seojin acted immediately.

You left the party.

"Hope you have a scroll to return. It'll be hard to get out of here otherwise."

"W-wait a minute!"

Seojin ignored them and turned away. Of course, that wasn't because he was upset.

"Hold on a second! I never said that I wouldn't!"

"Hundred and fifty per player."

"Hey, why are you suddenly…?"

"Two hundred."

"Deal! I can't give you it all at once though, just in case!"

Seojin took out a contract. The conditions were that Seojin would issue a full refund in the case that he failed, but he would receive six hundred gold if he succeeded.

"This will do, right?"

* * *

'Very good.'

Seojin was satisfied. He could take the reward from the World Quest for himself, plus six-hundred gold. It was difficult to stop his shoulders from jiggling around out of joy. Of course, he had to complete the quest first, but that had to be done either way.

World Quest: Preventing Invasion.

* Evil demons are about to take root in Midgard, right before your eyes. They must be stopped by any means possible!]

* Basic Reward: Immense wealth, goodwill of anti-demon forces

* A party of 25 is recommended.

After he expelled the demon from Roth's body, Seojin's prediction turned out to be true. Perhaps the conditions of the quest were to deal with the very first demon.

'It'll be a walk in the park if the quest is related to demons.'

Their current settlement was around Level 50 at most, and Seojin had a necklace that contained the divine power of Adamantine.

'This is too easy.'

Of course, Seojin loved taking things for free.

"Let me show you this first."

Seojin shared the quest with the trio.

"So, it was…"

"True."

"He wasn't lying, at least."

The trio expressed their surprise in different ways, they had never encountered a world quest before, even in their pay-to-win gaming life. In fact, very few players had actually received a World Quest before.

"Isn't this first come, first served"?

"That's why we have to hurry. Did you check the contract? I can terminate it at any time as long as I give you the money back."

"Are you threatening us?"

"I'm notifying you. I'll cancel it the moment that you don't follow my instructions or slow me down. Sixty hundred gold is nothing but a bonus compared to this quest."

"…"

Odie looked annoyed but didn't talk back upon realizing that he was telling the truth.

"Okay, so what should we do now?"

Haydall tried to clear the air. Seojin felt most sorry for the man.

"Open the mini-map, everyone. I'll mark the first waypoint. Our first priority is reconnaissance."

Seojin explained quickly. They needed to check on the five structures that Flappy had told him about earlier.

"What are you going to do after checking?"

"One of the five towers should have a boss monster inside it. It's probably replenishing its strength right now."

First, they had to find the right tower, and during that process, he would give the others "contribution points". After all, they would only be able to receive rewards for the quest that way.

"I'll take care of the boss and complete the quest, all you have to do is get carried."

Odie looked as if she was about to burst.

"Aren't you looking down on us too much?"

"It would have been easier if I was alone. Simply put, I could just complete the quest by myself if I wanted to. It's better for me if you don't need any rewards."

Odie closed her mouth, blatantly showing that she was upset. However, Seojin knew the weight of a promise. Seojin was the type who would help people gladly as long as they didn't hinder him.

"Wait a minute…"

Seojin had to check something. He opened the community tab and called BunnyRabbit.

-Yes, Seojin!

"I'm going to do this month's World Quest. Can you tell me the progress of the other players? You don't have to tell me everything."

-World Quest… I'll check it out right away!

Bunny was quick. In any group, there were always people who leaked internal information and got paid. Such information was sold at very high prices on a site run by the Strategic Planning Department.

-It's possible! I'll give you the information!

There won't be any information of the group on the site if everyone in the group stayed loyal to each other.

'Which means it's impossible.'

Who would give up the opportunity to receive such a large sum of money without getting caught?

-I just transferred the file. Can you check?

The file that arrived contained exactly the information Seojin wanted.

'Ironblood just cleared the tutorial… and they were the fastest. I've gotta say, they're quite the big fish.'

They were in a high-level area, the difficulty level itself must have been leagues ahead of Seojin's quest. Seojin paused and the corners of his mouth raised as if he had seen a familiar name.

[Immortal Guild - Lexar, Merhen, Tino…]

There was Park Minhyuk's character name.

'You lovely son of a…'

It seemed he was finally becoming the Minhyuk he once knew, but…

'I can't yield.'

From the moment it already started, the quest was Seojin's.