Chapter 75
As soon as I left the Skeletal Battlefield where the Undead King was, I immediately summoned Lich Dice.
“Summon Lich Dice.”
[Lich Dice, answering your call, Apostle-nim.]
As soon as the command was finished, Lich Dice was summoned in mid-air, accompanied by black smoke!
Wearing a black robe and holding a skeletal staff, Lich Dice’s empty sockets were burning with an intense blue flame, though not as strong as the Undead King’s.
I opened the status window and saw that Dice’s class was Necromancer, and his race was Undead (Lich)!
After confirming that the list of skills he possessed was quite useful, I closed the status window and gave Dice his first order.
“Lead me to the Undead King’s treasure vault.”
[Yes, Apostle-nim.]
Dice immediately took the lead as soon as my order was given!
The Undead King’s treasure vault, which I reached under Dice’s guidance, was a place piled high with gold and silver treasures, enough to make my eyes widen in surprise.
It was literally a huge mountain of glittering gold and jewels, something you would only see in a cartoon, right before my eyes.
“Now that we’re in the treasure vault, let’s each pick an item and get out of here.”
I said to my party members while staring at the mountain of treasure, and as I watched them scatter throughout the vault, I too moved my feet.
It was time to claim the reward for the quest.
The items weren’t just piled up in a mountain.
Based on my gaming experience, the items piled up like that were likely to be insignificant items, even in the vault.
Then where are the ‘real’ ones?
They were in the display cases next to the mountain.
I gazed at the weapons and armor neatly arranged in the display cases.
Every single piece of equipment looked expensive!
At least Legendary grade equipment, shining with colorful lights, were tempting me.
‘I was told I could only choose one.’
But among them, I could only choose one item!
So I had to choose carefully.
‘First, let’s exclude swords and armor.’
Based on experience, it was best to eliminate the major categories first to make the optimal choice.
The first major category I eliminated was swords and armor.
With the Black Divine Armor and the Iron Blood Executor already in my possession, swords and armor weren’t very useful to me.
Naturally, only shoes, accessories, and cloaks remained.
I carefully examined the items, focusing on shoes, accessories, and cloaks, and finally found an item I liked.
[Death Shroud]
[Grade: Legendary]
[Category: Cloak]
[Durability: 50000/50000]
[A cloak that is said to have been worn by the G*d of Death.]
[An ominous aura of death constantly flows from the cloak.]
[An ordinary person might go mad if they wear this cloak.]
[Item Effects]
[Dark Attribute Resistance +70%]
[Dark Attribute Additional Damage +10%]
[Soul Absorption: Absorbs the souls of those killed by the wearer to restore the wearer’s magic power.]
[Life Absorption: Absorbs the life force of the living every time the wearer attacks.]
[Shadow Step: Allows the wearer to move from shadow to shadow. (Cooldown: 3 minutes)]
[Wearing Restrictions]
[Those with a Dark-type class, or those who have a contract with a Transcendent Being of the Demon Court.]
Death Shroud!
It was a Legendary grade item with a plethora of great options, perfect for me since I was thinking about getting a cloak anyway.
As I reached for the Death Shroud, a notification window popped up.
[Would you like to choose ‘Death Shroud’ as your quest completion reward?]
[Warning! You can only choose one item.]
A message asking if I was really sure about my choice!
“I choose it.”
[You have chosen the Death Shroud.]
[You have chosen all your rewards. You will now be leaving the Undead King’s treasure vault.]
I smiled as I read the final message.
The Undead quest was finally, truly over.
▄ ▄ ▄
War with Death!
A large-scale war event ambitiously prepared and executed by Changwang Rio and the Simseong Milky Way guild, which practically monopolized the buzz surrounding Ard Saga while it was underway.
However, it ended with a conclusion that no one, not even Changwang Rio, the host of the event, could have predicted.
It was Drakan!
He suddenly joined the war on the side of the Undead.
When Drakan appeared on the snowy fields of the north, leading the Undead army amidst a blizzard, the internet exploded.
Drakan blocking Changwang Rio’s path!
Who could have imagined it? It was a situation no one had foreseen.
But the surprises didn’t end there.
Rune of Regression!
Although a one-time use skill, the overwhelming power of Drakan, who temporarily summoned his prime self using that skill, was broadcast to the world through Ard Live and SBC Games.
From Iron Blood Avatar to Steel Rain!
The image of Drakan, overwhelming Over-Ranker Changwang Rio with his superior skills and physical abilities, grinding down his enemies, was immediately turned into countless GIFs and clips, heating up the internet.
On the Ard forums, posts about Drakan’s overwhelming performance continued to rise to the top of the trending topics every minute.
[Realizing this again, but Drakan was really OP back in the day]
[Just because he beat an Over-Ranker, people are saying Drakan is an Over-Ranker, what bullshit. It’s just because Second hasn’t been out for long, Rio is a monster based on the previous game lol]
[Even based on the previous game, Second has much better base item specs, so I don’t think that’s right]
[Yeah, the stats on the previous game’s end-game items are similar to the current mid-to-high tier items, right?]
[Lol, the previous game fanatics are here. It’s been a while since the developers officially stated that comparing specs one-to-one is meaningless because the calculation methods for stats are different between the previous game and Second lol]
[I thought they were on a similar level even with the prime transformation, but I guess Rio’s control is just exceptionally bad]
[Lol]
[Downvote Real Name System ON]
[Once both of them finish their Legacy Quests, Drakan and Eugene will have similar specs. Eugene might be a bit stronger since he has a higher level]
[The farming time difference between Eugene and Drakan is widening now, so we’ll have to see when they fight]
[I’m really looking forward to the dream match]
Drakan!
The overwhelming performance he displayed was revealed to be the effect of the ‘Rune of Regression’ in the explanation video uploaded by Drakan himself, but despite this, the users’ interest in Drakan’s performance didn’t d*e down much.
The new generation of users!
The new generation of users, who started playing Ard Saga from Second, were one of the two strong support bases that formed Drakan’s fandom, the ‘Heuk-oo’, along with the eastern users.
However, ironically, the new generation users who supported Drakan had only heard about his exploits in the previous game, but had never seen them firsthand, because they weren’t playing the game back then.
But in that situation, Drakan showed, albeit temporarily, his prime form.
So they couldn’t help but be excited.
Drakan!
The fact that his name as the Terror of the Battlefield, the Steel Monarch, and the Iron Blood Overlord wasn’t just given to him out of luck!
The fact that he had enough potential to grow much more explosively than the current Over-Rankers, and even threaten the position of top-ranked Eugene, was shown by Drakan that day through the Rune of Regression.
Eugene!
The ruler who has held the hegemony of the Ard World for over six years!
Drakan’s fandom, which had a fundamentally anti-Infinite Eugene Church sentiment, was thrilled by the fact that the big shot who had the qualifications to challenge Eugene’s seemingly ironclad rule was the very Drakan they supported.
On the other hand, the Infinite Eugene Church instinctively felt a sense of crisis.
Drakan!
They felt the nightmares of the past resurface from his prime form.
Therefore, the Infinite Eugene Church’s public opinion manipulation was more active than ever.
There was nothing wrong with the quest itself, but the problem was that winter had come to the north!
The Infinite Eugene Church relentlessly exploited that weakness in the early stages.
[Honestly, isn’t it a bit much that Drakan brought winter this time?]
[Really, it’s a bit much. What did the northern users do wrong? Suddenly it’s winter lol]
[Honestly, it’s a bit annoying that it suddenly got cold.]
It was Drakan who brought winter to the north.
Of course, it wasn’t that it became much colder than usual winter because winter arrived, but it was true that the weather had become colder as the season, which was originally summer, suddenly changed. Therefore, it seemed that public opinion was gradually turning negative as the Infinite Eugene Church intended, but a rebuttal soon followed.
[Isn’t that because of Rio? If Rio hadn’t bothered the Undead who were quietly living in their own territory, this wouldn’t have happened lol]
Changwang Rio!
Drakan’s Heuk-oo were the first to discover the fact that this incident was a war that started because he, out of ambition, preemptively attacked the Undead who were peacefully living in their territory.
[Honestly, Rio is a bit shameless. Drakan-nim held a fun event for general users, but Rio, that b*stard, tried to selfishly take it all for himself and ended up like this. It’s his own fault.]
[Really, why is it Drakan’s responsibility that Rio, the idiot, made a reckless move and failed miserably?]
[Is it true that some members of the Simseong Milky Way guild paid money and others used connections to participate in the event this time?]
[Yeah, it’s true. I heard a story from someone who paid to participate in the quest, and they said they were abandoned without protection at the end and had to delete their character.]
[That’s me lol I’m going to sue that b*stard son of a b*tch]
[Honestly, Drakan-nim is the best, right?]
Moreover, as Rio ran the event without user participation, users who were envious of not being able to participate in the War with Death began to join the public opinion battle.
Of course, it wasn’t wrong for Rio to not share the quest and proceed only with his own forces.
But the problem was that, right before that, Drakan had shared the quest with users twice without any conditions.
Drakan, who shared the quest without asking for anything in return, and Rio, who only shared the quest with his own forces!
The public opinion, which began to boil over the stark difference, was completely overturned when it was revealed through the exposure of some users that some members of the Simseong Milky Way guild had secretly allowed users to join the expeditionary force by receiving money or through connections built through friendships.
[Would we survive if we didn’t build connections? Even in the game, it’s all about school, blood, and regional ties. Really, the Ard World is completely hellish now lol]
They got into the expeditionary force through connections or money!
That was enough to incite the users who couldn’t participate in the quest, and as a result, the final flow of public opinion, contrary to the intentions of the Infinite Eugene Church, began to backflow from Drakan to Rio.
Just at that moment.
Big news that would overshadow all that public opinion swept the entire internet.
