“Do you have a moment?”

“Of course captain.”

Kim Dokyun promptly answered, his eyes drifting to the axe Woohyuk was holding.

“Your movements have improved.”

“Yes, well these guys were a bit tough...”

Woohyuk was the sole adventurer among the camp that could solo a Minotaur. Although Lee Jaesung was strong, and with his large Kite shield  he could survive a one on one by staying defensive, that was all.

“Everyone has their own limits, and only by overcoming them can one survive in this place.”

Woohyuk’s past 40 years had been far from clear sailing. If ever he felt himself becoming complacent with his level, a new challenge would appear that drove him to the brink of despair. Every day had been like a nightmare. Still, he had a strong willpower which allowed him to overcome any obstacle 

“Raise your weapon, I’ll give you some pointers.”

“Sure.”

Kim Dokyun quickly accepted as he stood up and lifted his double-edged axe.

Testing him myself is the best way to know him.

Since he had spent so many years on the battlefield, he could quickly grasp his opponent’s character.

Woohyuk thought back to the words of a Lord he had dueled with in the past.

“I shall answer your questions with my sword.”

Thinking back to those words, he could only sigh in agreement. It meant that one couldn’t be bothered to explain with vague words. Still, his wisdom didn’t help since he had fallen to his sword.

‘Actions speak louder than words anyways.’

No matter how careful you are with how you speak, one’s true nature will eventually be revealed by one’s actions. The more dangerous the situation, the more likely this would be true.

Swooosh!

As Woohyuk swung the Minotaur Captain’s Illusory axe, Kim Dokyun’s eyes widened in surprise. Woohyuk had activated its Illusory effect, leaving behind an after-image.

Chaeng!

Dokyun did his best to defend against Woohyuk’s attack. He also could feel the killing intent oozing from the blade of the axe. 

‘... fear.’

His whole body had become frozen stiff, and involuntarily let out a few tears even if he knew others were watching.

‘This is true power.’

It was what he had been longing for so long. Woohyuk was doing things that appeared impossible. Even though he was aware that he had been here before, he was still on another level.

‘I want him to acknowledge me.’

He wasn’t thinking about anything else, just that he wanted to prove his worth to this man before him. Dokyun strained his eyes and pushed his focus to the maximum, as he managed to defend several of Woohyuk’s attacks.

As soon as he spotted an opening, he even tried a quick counterattack.

‘He has good fighting spirit.’

Woohyuk thought to himself as he examined the fighter before him. Although he appeared to be quite emotional, he wasn’t weak.

A primitive struggle, perhaps he was simply trying to live up to his own expectations.

‘He doesn’t seem like someone that would easily betray me.’

Although he would still need to keep an eye on him, he was rather confident with his assessment.

[Monarch’s Intuition]

It was rare for him to miss a threat.

“That’s enough.”

Hearing those words, Kim Dokyun dropped his axe down. Sweat was pouring down his forehead and his exhaustion was clear.

“In the future use this weapon instead, yours doesn’t look that good.”

“Thank you.”

Kim Dokyun grasped the axe that was given to him with a shocked expression. The adventurers nearby that had been watching the exchange couldn’t hide their jealousy.

“Ahem… attention everyone.”

As everyone quieted down, Ma Gwangpil  stepped out from the crowd. He held a red Megaphone card in his hand.

“I think we currently lack members in our camp, since we have already lost half of our original numbers. Why don’t we use this Megaphone to attract other adventurers?”

By using a Megaphone card, one was able to send text messages to any adventurers within a 100 meter radius. Of course this wasn’t all that impressive, but these cards could be infinitely stacked. By combining 10 of them the radius would then become 1 km. 

There were also no restrictions as to how many Megaphones one could purchase, so long as once had enough Ancient Coins.

That’s a good idea, but how do you tell people how to find us? There aren’t any clear landmarks or directions.”

“Why don’t we decide where to meet up? It could be the entrance to the Goblin Village or the giant rock near the Maned Wolf’s habitat. Both should work fine since they are easily accessible and the danger level is low.

Some adventurers were worried instead. Although it was better to have more people, if something went wrong, they might suffer from an invasion like had happened the other night. 

“What do you think, Chun Woohyuk? You’ve been here the longest so I’d love to hear your opinion.”

“I don’t care.”

Woohyuk turned around, clearly disinterested.

Ma Gwangpil however couldn’t contain his smirk, as it had been within his expectations.

“So let’s put this to a vote. We can consider Chun Woohyuk as abstaining and decide amongst the remaining leaders okay?”

“Sure.”

“Let’s do it like that.”

Although they had been forced into forming different groups, the majority of adventurers still followed Ma Gwangpil. The entire time Woohyuk was away from camp, it had been him that acted as the leader. 

As such, it was no surprise that the result of the vote was unanimous.

“Let’s pool together 10 Ancient Coins, otherwise we won’t be able to contact those that are too far away.”

“I have three over here, they dropped from a monster I killed recently.”

“We have two…”

The two leaders did their best to get in Ma Gwangpil’s good graces. They were afraid of Ma Gwangpil who could decide to off them at any time.

‘Nothing has changed.’

Woohyuk who he thought had died after being absent for so long, had suddenly returned. At first he thought it would throw a wrench in his plans, but it seemed he still held the initiative. After all, the public opinion was against Woohyuk as they felt he was an arrogant and selfish lone wolf.

‘Just give me some time and I’ll catch up to you soon enough.’

The Megaphones will be used to attract as many survivors as possible, and then he’ll be able to begin his expansion plan. The more underlings he had under him, the easier it would be to hunt monsters and his position would be secure.

Right now I can only look up to you, but soon we shall stand as equals.

During his meeting with the two other leaders, Ma Gwangpil was building his determination.

Meanwhile, Woohyuk was simply reading an adventurer’s journal inside his tent. 

Lee Jaesung came in and asked. 

“Are you going to allow him to do as he pleases? It might become quite noisy if he brings in many outsiders.”

“He is just bait.”

Hearing Woohyuk’s response, Lee Jaesung couldn’t help but smile.”

“You mean….”

“You’ll know soon enough.”

Woohyuk had always been one to keep his cards close to his chest. There was simply no advantage to revealing one’s plans so early.

‘I need to obtain a Silver Crown.’

Although he didn’t plan on building his forces this early, he could make use of the efforts of others.

All he had to do was kill 10 individuals. In his mind he was already thinking about who he should kill off.

* * *

The first seven days his focus had been on quickly improving his strength and finding key items. While all the other adventurers had been confused, he had monopolized the best hunting grounds. But, for these last few days, he no longer had to go down the same route. After all this was only a tutorial, so except for a few unique Hidden Pieces, there wasn’t much else that caught his eye.

Woohyuk was trying to decide what they should focus on, The ideal scenario would be to attract many talented players to his side, and then helping them grow quickly. 

Of course, that was only if it was possible. The Primordial Forest consisted of several sectors.  Generally people would be separated according to race or culture and it was almost impossible to meet players from a different sector.

The only place they might meet was near Trial cliff, where the Dragon eggs were hidden, since this was in fact the intersection between all sectors. Still, it would require incredible luck since apart from himself, others weren’t aware of this fact. 

Although it wasn’t currently an issue, later on there wouldn’t be any problem with regards to communication since there was a universal translator that operated in real time. Regardless of what foreign languages others would speak, you would always hear in your own native tongue.

For that reason, Woohyuk had decided on what he should focus on.

‘Finding Hidden Achievements.’

If you succeed in something the system judged as impossible, there would be significant rewards. Not to mention that it would help one qualify for a Divine Throne.

Only those that consistently exceeded their human limits had a chance of reaching the realm of the Gods..

Although it was a rather abstract goal, Woohyuk felt it was his best way forward. After all, he had 40 years of knowledge when it came to achievements.

‘ The Silver Crown should be my priority.’

In order not to get caught up in the upcoming chaos, it was best to prepare in advance.

Ma Gwangpil will rope in quite a few survivors, but it won’t be enough to reach ten leaders.

‘I’ll have to work hard to find them later.’ 

In a situation where leaders were constantly trying to kill each other, their numbers would drastically decrease. Not to mention that as of the 8th day, black whirlpools would appear randomly in the sky, dropping zombies into the forest.

[Abyssal Gates]

Originally they were the gates used by the Demon Legions’ invasion which were under the command of the 72 Demon kings. But, since it was the tutorial only low level undeads would appear.

Even so, Zombies were quite troublesome to deal with. If you were bitten by them, the infection would quickly spread throughout your body and unless you were injected with the vaccine in the first hour, you’d turn into one of them, just like in so many movies.

The vaccines came in the form of syringes and could only be obtained from the daily supplies, so those adventurers who didn’t have a base camp were at high risk. This only caused the battles for the remaining base camps to intensify.

As such, the day the Crown Game began, it was favorable to act quickly.

“Hello friend, did you come after seeing the message?”

A man who looked like a gangster appeared before Woohyuk. He wore a rather worn out leather armor and wielded a Kukri knife.

“That’s right.”

Ever since the General Goods Store had come online, adventurers were now receiving many messages. Others had also had the same idea as Ma Gwangpil and either wanted to form large groups or find enough members to elect a leader.

The message the man spoke about was concerning the latter.

“Are you all alone? That’s really unfortunate, but you’re not the only one. I’ve also seen several of my colleagues be eaten in front of me.”

Minotaurs loved to feast on human flesh, so upon conquering a Base camp, a sumptuous buffet would ensue. Sometimes if they were really starving they would even eat live humans that had suffered grievous wounds on the battlefield.

“How many are in your group?”

“Well… it’s difficult to talk about, why don’t you follow me first and I’ll guide you to our meeting place.”

He was acting very cautiously in front of a stranger, so Woohyuk simply nodded back and followed along.

“My name’s Oh Seokju by the way, what about you?”

“I’m Chun Woohyuk.”

Oh Seokjoo turned around to look at Woohyuk.

“My friend, there is no need to be so formal, try and be more friendly.  The atmosphere in the camp is too cold, it might lead to internal conflict. ”

To which Woohyuk didn’t even bother responding, causing Oh Seokjoo to sigh.

“You must have truly had a bad experience. I understand, you are probably also worried about your family or girlfriend. I’m sorry for being inconsiderate.”

“Actually neither, my family died in an airplane crash when I was in college and my girlfriend at the hands of some bad people.”

The atmosphere between then quickly became awkward. Trying to break the tension, Oh Seokjoo let out a few coughs.

“I'm sorry to have brought it up, I didn't know you had such a tough past.  Anyway our situation is that great, so we might be meeting them soon!”

“Is this meeting location still far?”

Hearing his question, Oh Seokjoo came to a stop. A faint glow was emitted from the sapphire ring on his right hand.

“Oh that’s…..”

Oh Seokjoo then did a hand signal to someone, and an arrow flew out from the bushes, headed straight for Woohyuk’s head.

Swissh!

However Woohyuk casually tilted his head to the side, avoiding it as if it had been expected all along.

‘What!?’

Oh Seokjoo’s eyes widened in surprise.

‘It didn’t feel like he was on to me…’

“Just what kind of monster are you?”

That kind of dodging was simply impossible unless one’s Agility was monstrously high. That was even taking into consideration that he was expecting the ambush.

“I didn’t put too much thought into it. I just figured at most you’d have a few weak adventurers hidden in the forest.”

“....”

Oh Seokjoo took a step back and raised his Kukri knife. At the same time countless arrows appeared from the bushes, headed towards Woohyuk.

“Honestly I didn’t expect you would survive the battle in the valley. We had you surrounded and outnumbered, with few places to hide. So when I saw you again on the Eeth continent, I was rather surprised.”

Woohyuk continued to speak without any hesitation as the arrows were all blocked by an invisible barrier he had summoned.

“Sergeant Kang and Jang Taeseok were small fries compared to your group. They at least committed crimes for the sake of money, not killing or torturing like you guys.”

“What are you talking about?”

Oh Seokjoo couldn’t help but blurt out, utterly confused by what was going on. It felt the like guy before him was talking about the future as if he were intimately aware of it.

Normally he would have quickly laughed off such words, but considering the situation he paid close attention.

“After her death, I greatly regretted not wiping you all out when I had the chance.”

“Stop Bullshitting, You, kill us? Take this!”

Oh Seokjoo shouted as he burst forth with his left hand, sending out a lightning bolt. A victor’s smile on his face.

‘He wouldn’t have thought that I could use magic.’

That shield of his only negates physical attacks. He had seen one which acted similarly before. Even if it were able to block magic, his Spirit Stat would have to be absurdly high to block this attack, because he had invested heavily into Intelligence.

Shaaaak

But that was only Oh Seokjoo’s fantasy.

The Queen Star Snake Ghost’s effect appeared, absorbing the lightning bolt and immediately charging it to Woohyuk’s left hand.

“Back then I had some difficulty dealing with your magic attacks, but things are different now, I’m completely prepared.”

Woohyuk spoke confidently as he stared Oh Seokjoo down.

A red marker and a crown appeared above his head.

‘This time around I won’t have any regrets.’

[Crimson Crow]

They were a bandit group that had become notorious across the continent. Although the large organizations had banded together to eradicate them, some of them had slipped through their fingers, which had always been a regret of his. 

Woohyuk then turned to look at the group of bowmen in the forest.