Ranker's Return

Chapter 738

Three hours had passed since Hyeonu sent a whisper to Teika. Hyeonu waved to an empty space and greeted, “Hello to Teika’s viewers, I am Alley Leader.”

He couldn’t see anything, but it didn’t matter. Teika standing next to him was taking care of the chat window.

“The reason why Alley Leader is here…” Teika looked at Hyeonu, and his words trailed off. He wanted Hyeonu to answer instead. It made for a better scene if Hyeonu revealed the reason.

Hyeonu read Teika’s intentions accurately and acted accordingly. “I want to hunt near here… I came because I wanted to get permission.”

It was an action that showed Hyeonu’s streaming career was never in vain.

“Is it okay for me to wander around here, Teika?” Hyeonu looked at Teika and laughed playfully.

“Of course, it is fine. There is nothing you can’t do. Cinerimo isn’t mine.” Teika nodded without thinking about it. Teika might currently be in a party, but he was originally a player who enjoyed playing alone. Naturally, he knew how hard it was to hunt alone and how small an influence one person had.

“The opinions of the people next to you…” Hyeonu smiled at Teika’s straightforward actions, but he spoke carefully while looking at the five people in the rear.

“You can ignore them. They are all inserting straws in my back anyway. I got the Cinerimo pioneering quests and started it off with the NPCs. They just inserted a spoon in later. In addition… if people who travel alone don’t help each other, who will?” Teika answered without even looking at the PSG players, his party members.

In fact, he criticized the PSG players. However, PSG couldn’t say anything because Teika’s words were true.

“Then I’m glad. I’ll be going now. Teika, work hard at hunting. Let’s have a joint stream later.” Hyeonu casually gave lip service toward Teika before leaving.

“You just have to call me, and I can do it anytime!” Teika yelled at Hyeonu’s back as he left.

‘He has changed a lot,’ Hyeonu thought as he heard Teika’s voice echoing behind him. There were many differences between the Teika who didn’t stream and the Teika who streamed.

‘Well, I’m not in a position to say anything.’

Since Hyeonu started streaming, he had changed even more than Teika. It was enough to be called dramatic. Fortunately, they were positive changes for Teika and Hyeonu. It was definitely different for others.

***

Cinerimo was a pioneered city that had just started to build walls. The development was obviously going to be very slow.

‘It will be like this for a few months.’

The development couldn’t be accelerated unless huge amounts of gold were poured in. Furthermore, there were no high-level players in Cinerimo because there was a very appetizing hunting ground called the demon world.

‘Let’s cleanly rob a few instance dungeons.’

In a pioneering city where even NPCs were hard to find, it was easier to find instance dungeons than acquire quests. He couldn’t pay money to buy information about instance dungeons because there were no active players near Cinerimo. However, Hyeonu’s chances of discovering an instance dungeon for the first time had increased.

‘I can get good items.’

If he cleared an instance dungeon first, there was a high probability of getting what was called a confirmed item. This was why many people sought to find instance dungeons.

“Master dude, why did you come here?” Tang-E asked while knocking on Hyeonu’s head. Tang-E was curious because Hyeonu caused an accident every time he came to an unfamiliar place.

“I’m just here to hunt monsters. I’m also looking for a dungeon,” Hyeonu told Tang-E the truth. He had no particular purpose this time. His only goal was to level up.

“Is that so? Then you must’ve brought a lot of meat with you?” Tang-E’s eyes shone as he nodded at Hyeonu’s answer. The most important thing to Tang-E was food. To be precise, it was the meat that Hyeonu would provide. It was impossible to procure meat after entering the instance dungeon. So, of course, he had to prepare it in advance.

“There is enough to eat for a month. Don’t worry about that.” Tang-E’s worries were useless. Hyeonu was already prepared. Tang-E was always shouting about meat. How could Hyeonu not care about it?

‘I might need to do an eating show on the live stream.’

Furthermore, it was to prepare for a possible live stream. If the streaming time was unexpectedly short, he could do an emergency eating show.

“I understand. Tang-E will hunt hard.” Tang-E appeared satisfied with Hyeonu’s words and started to look seriously around him.

‘I need to know what type of monsters come out first,’ Hyeonu thought.

The field beyond Cinerimo was an uncharted land where no one had hunted yet. Naturally, Hyeonu didn’t have any information about it.

‘They said there that trolls came out when they were pioneering Cinerimo…’

It was said that trolls with all types of classes appeared, not just ordinary trolls. They ranged from hunters with powerful spears to warriors wielding large hammers and shamans using magic. He heard it was why Teika and PSG’s players struggled tremendously.

‘I don’t think there is a monster like Raccoon here.’

In fact, it was possible as all the trolls in Arena were set up to live tribal lives. So, there would naturally be a chieftain.

‘But there is a possibility that the chief will be a powerful NPC like Raccoon.’

Nevertheless, Hyeonu soon erased such assumptions from his mind. It was a useless worry. First of all, it was a matter of whether the trolls would appear in this clear forest that Hyeonu arrived at.

“Kuaaaaah!”

Hyeonu heard an intense cry at this moment. The voice was filled with dark killing intent and desires.

‘It is coming this way.’

The thumping sound was getting louder. Hyeonu stopped moving and summoned his magic spirit. Rather than moving for nothing, he chose to wait for the owner of the voice to appear. After a while, the owner of the voice appeared. It was five meters tall with a magnificent skeletal frame and an ugly appearance.

‘Troll!’

A troll, the biggest enemy when pioneering Cinerimo, had appeared.

‘I understand why it has been so hard for them.’

The troll looked strong. It seemed to have quite a bit of intelligence and was just the right build to wield a giant wooden club.

‘Since these guys come out in groups…’

Teika was an individual and PSG was a professional team. PSG might be large, but they were inferior in comparison to other large guilds. Their number of rankers might be higher, but the number of those supporting them was lower. However, there were no guilds here for them to form a strategic alliance with. Almost all the guilds were in the demon world due to the main scenario.

‘Not me.’

Hyeonu was different from them. Teika and PSG might be facing a group of trolls, but there was only one troll in front of Hyeonu. In addition… the crucial point was that Hyeonu was much stronger than them.

“Tang-E, I’ll ask you to take care of the magic.” Hyeonu asked Tang-E for assistance before rushing toward the troll.

“Kuoooooh!” The troll yelled and swung the wooden club in its hand when it saw Hyeonu rushing at it. It planned to swing the club and turn the human into porridge the moment the human stumbled.

[You have heard the Fear of the troll scout of the Mapa Tribe.]

[The influence of fighting energy and killing has allowed you to ignore the Fear of the troll scout of the Mapa Tribe.]

For Hyeonu, the troll scout’s Fear was just pitiful. He lightly ignored the Fear, pulled out the Mysterious Sky Sword, and swung it. Purple pure energy flew toward the troll scout’s wooden club.

The troll scout was flustered when it saw Hyeonu moving normally. Even so, it was already moving. It was toward the pure energy approaching right in front of it. The troll scout’s wooden club collided with Hyeonu’s pure energy. The next moment, the troll scout was unable to overcome the power of the pure energy, and it was bent back.

“Kuooooh?” It was incomprehensible to the troll scout. Based on the momentum coming from the pure energy, it judged that it could block it. Yet in reality, it only barely blocked it.

‘It is really good to have Fighting Energy Emission and Guardian’s Breath.’

These two skills were the reason why there was a gap between the troll scout’s expectations and reality. They were skills with a debuff effect that gnawed at the opponent’s stats.

Hyeonu aimed the Mysterious Sky Sword at the troll scout’s chest. A wound crossed diagonally across the upper body of the troll scout, and blood soared like a fountain from the wound. The wound caught on fire. The fire was initially only attached to the wound, but it soon spread and started burning the entire body of the troll scout.

“Uwah! Tang-E, you should’ve used fire magic when I was a bit further away.” Hyeonu quickly stepped back while frowning at the smell of burned leather that attacked his nose.

“I’m sorry, Master dude. It wasn’t on purpose.” Tang-E laughed and waved his front paws. However, no sincerity could be seen in his expression.

‘He did it on purpose.’

While Hyeonu was glaring at Tang-E, the troll scout moved.

“Kuaaaaah!” It yelled and swung the wooden club. A troll’s unique regeneration ability provided the scroll scout the power to move again. The huge wooden club swung, and there was the sound of the air bursting. There was also a sharp sound ringing out over it as a purple line cut the space. In this space was the troll scout wielding the wooden club.

The body of the troll scout was cut vertically into two, and it collapsed to the ground.

‘I should also raise my skill proficiency when there is time.’

Cutting the Moonlight, which Hyeonu originally would’ve learned after his fifth class advancement, split apart the body of the troll scout in an overwhelming manner.

“Tang-E, we will eat in four hours,” Hyeonu declared war on Tang-E for the first time in a while.

“Understood, Master dude. Instead, it is a meat party in four hours!” Tang-E shouted with determination. He knew that the schedule wouldn’t change even if he rebelled. So he would accept what was given and take everything he could.

This was the lesson Tang-E had learned during his time with Hyeonu.