Player who Returned 10,000 years Later

Ting-

- The time of 'Kraken's Rage' has ended.

- You can use it again in 24 hours.

'Amazing.'

KangWoo looked at the Black Pearl Coat with his eyes shining.

As expected, the 'Kraken's Rage' power was incredible.

Although it had a time limit of a minute, it had pushed his demonic energy stat to 93, and thanks to that, he’d been able to overcome Chae YeonJoo.

'The higher my stats become, the better its effects will probably get.'

If his stats became higher, the effect of increasing his stats by an absolute value would probably become even better.

Now he understood why people went crazy for legendary-rank equipment.

Increasing your stats by an absolute value was a buff that was difficult to come by for a high-level player.

'Chae YeonJoo is amazing.'

If it had been before obtaining the Black Pearl Coat, he wouldn't have been able to overcome her that easily.

After fighting against her, he got an idea of how strong she was.

'She also seems to be hiding something.'

He wasn't so sure of that.

But when he’d used 'Sky Break,' it’d seemed like she had thought about using something that she had decided not to.

It was probably because she’d noticed that he'd used his technique so that it would miss her.

KangWoo extended his hand to Chae YeonJoo.

She grabbed his hand and stood up.

"You monster…" Chae YeonJoo said in disbelief.

KangWoo shrugged.

"It was thanks to the legendary-rank equipment."

"I also have legendary-rank equipment."

Chae YeonJoo showed him her bracelet.

"You… Are you really human?"

"Why? Did you not imagine I'd overtake you in two months?"

"Isn't that obvious? Oof. My head hurts…"

Chae YeonJoo grabbed her forehead.

"But it isn't bad news, right? At least I'm not your enemy."

"Although I can't say you're a trustworthy partner…"

She sighed and turned around.

KangWoo also turned around.

Their eyes landed on Baek HwaYeon, whose face had turned pale and who was trembling.

It seemed like she was shocked from more than just the battle.

Baek HwaYeon was looking at the giant hole in the wall of the sparring room.

"D-do…"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know how expensive this sparring room was?! It cost us millions of dollars! How could you destroy it?!"

"…"

KangWoo looked at the wall against which he had used 'Sky Break.'

It was destroyed in such a way that it was embarrassing to even call it a wall anymore.

He looked over the destroyed sparring room.

"Oh… Uhm, that…"

KangWoo was lost for words.

To be honest, he could've avoided using Sky Break against the wall.

Because Chae YeonJoo was a high-level player, she probably could've guessed how strong the energy that was gathered in his punch was.

The reason why he’d done that anyway was because he wanted to check out how strong the power of the legendary item was.

Because of that lapse in judgment, he'd crushed a sparring room that cost millions of dollars, so he was feeling guilty.

"I'm innocent."

Chae YeonJoo was the first one to speak—she insisted on her innocence.

"What do you mean? You also damaged the sparring room."

"Are you talking about scratching the floor with the chains…?"

"Yes. That was also damage."

"Hmph. Then I'll also pay a little bit."

Chae YeonJoo nodded while trying to act cool.

"We're both responsible, so let's each pay half."

"Don't talk about taking responsibility, you piece of trash."

It was harsh criticism.

KangWoo flinched after hearing some heavy facts, but he wasn't going to back off.

"The reason why I did such a big attack was because you’re such a strong opponent."

"Hey, but still…"

"If you were someone I could win against with a couple of light attacks, I wouldn't have done an attack like that."

Sophistry disguised as logic.

"Then are you saying that it's my fault?"

KangWoo nodded without hesitating.

"Your attack defense was too strong, so I was forced to do such a move."

"No, even if you hadn't done that last attack…"

She was right. It would've been okay even if he hadn't done that last attack.

"You never know. You know how much control it requires to gather energy and launch it like that, right?"

"…"

* * *

A firm voice…

He looked so confident that you wouldn't think that he was lying.

"As you know, it's been only two months since I became a player. Thanks to being lucky and having talent, I was able to obtain a lot of strength, but I can't fully control my strength yet."

He was lying.

He used to control the Ten Thousand Demon Core, so there was no way he wouldn't be able to control that amount of strength.

"Ugh!"

Chae YeonJoo trembled.

She felt that KangWoo was lying…

But she didn't have proof with which to counter his arguments.

After all, it was obvious that a player who had awakened two months before wouldn't be able to fully control his abilities.

"You bastard…!"

KangWoo smiled.

"Good. Let's do our best to pay back the cost of repairs since it's our fault."

"What a liar…"

Chae YeonJoo glared at KangWoo.

"Oof."

She sighed. A sparring room created with special materials…

Repairing it was probably going to cost them at least 10 million dollars. If she used the guild's money, she could probably solve the issue easily, but there was no way she could do that.

'I can't use the guild's money to solve this.'

Even if she was the leader of a big guild, she couldn't use tens of millions from the guild for personal reasons.

"I have a good idea."

KangWoo opened his mouth.

While sparring, he’d thought of something good. Of course, he wasn't expecting something like that to happen.

"Good idea?"

"How about we hunt it?"

"What?"

Chae YeonJoo tilted her head. KangWoo kept talking.

"El Quero."

"…"

El Quero…

It was a boss monster that appeared in Suwon's S-rank gate that looked like a giant stingray.

El Quero was very famous among players.

When Suwon's S-rank gate had opened for the first time, it’d annihilated the team that had gone inside to investigate.

After that, most players didn't get close to the lake while hunting there.

"You know what kind of monster El Quero is, right…?"

El Quero was strong.

—But that wasn't the only reason why players struggled with it.

Firstly, El Quero was a monster that lived inside the water.

It came to land sometimes, but it mostly attacked from inside the water using poisonous needles.

Close-range players couldn't even get close to it.

Just the fact that it was a water monster made it hard to hunt, but it also had a very high magic resistance, so it could block most long-range attacks.

It had been five years since Suwon's S-rank gate had opened. For almost five years, nobody had dared to hunt El Quero.

Of course, El Quero wasn't a monster that was uncatchable. If they created a huge group of high-level players, they’d probably be able to catch it.

But in the case of El Quero, they’d never assembled a group of high-level players. To be more precise, there wasn't a need to assemble one.

Usually, a big group of players was formed to hunt a monster because there was a risk of it crossing the gate and attacking civilians.

Because El Quero was a water monster, there was no chance it would get out of the water and attack civilians.

Not only was it hard to hunt, but there wasn't a need to hunt it, which was why no one had hunted it in almost five years.

"I know that it's hard to hunt."

"It isn't just hard… If you're after the money, is there a need to hunt El Quero?"

Although they could earn tens of millions by hunting it, for players like Chae YeonJoo and KangWoo, it wasn't that high of an amount of money.

They could earn that much just by hunting a giant ogre inside the S-rank gate.

"It isn't only because of money."

"Then?"

"You said that an S-rank boss monster can drop ingredients required for a legendary-rank item, although the chances are low, right?"

"That's true, but even if you have the ingredients, it shouldn't be easy to create one… Are you trying to do that for a legendary item?"

"That's one of the reasons, but I thought it could be the key to unlocking the level limit."

"Oh, yeah. You were still at the sixth Awakening. Right?"

Chae YeonJoo looked at him in disbelief.

She had forgotten that he still hadn't gone through the first trial.

He was too strong compared to his level, so she'd forgotten that he was still around level 50.

'Did I just lose against someone at around level 50?'

Thinking about it made her realize how terrible of a loss it was.

Chae YeonJoo sighed while making a sad expression.

"You know that the way to unlock the level limit varies from player to player, right?"

"I heard that killing a boss monster is the most common way to unlock the level limit."

"Oh, yeah. That's true."

The most common ways to overcome the level 59 wall were to kill a boss monster, experience illumination, or for your life to be in danger.

Of course, there were other ways to overcome it, but most people had overcome it through one of those three ways.

The thing with the highest chance and the thing that most people tried was, of course, killing a boss monster.

Not many people were willing to meditate to gain knowledge or put themselves in a near-death situation.

"We can solve the level limit and the repair cost all at once. How about that?"

"It seems like you're the only one that can profit from it."

"No way. Isn't it all to make our alliance stronger?"

"You speak well, huh?"

Chae YeonJoo smirked.

Killing El Quero was also good for her.

She was at the second trial that every player had to go through—the 'Ultimate Talent.'

"Okay. Let's hunt El Quero."

She nodded and looked at KangWoo.

She was afraid and expectant.

'If KangWoo overcomes the Ultimate Effort and his level becomes higher…'

She wanted to see how strong that monster could get.