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Chapter 58

Proof-reader: TheMonitor

Shuaak!

The white glow faded away as Soo Hyuk closed the book . His wisdom didn’t rise this time . Soo Hyuk put aside the now dull book and checked the time .

‘It’s 2 pm . They should be ready by now . ’

He was thinking about the materials Pavian had promised, as a day had already passed since he had requested for the materials .

‘Then should I get going?’

Soo Hyuk stood up from his seat and came out of the library after returning the books . He then headed towards the Tower of Poison while checking his skill quests .

[Skill Quest – Poison Blast]

Meet the following conditions!

[Gold : 15900 / 30 ]

[Quest Reward: Skill – Poison Blast]

[Skill Quest – Poison Fog]

Meet the following conditions!

[Gold : 15900 / 100 ]

[Paralysis Extract : 0 / 10 ]

[Quest Reward: Skill – Poison Fog]

All the skill quests from the Door of Poison were separated into a separate category like the fire skill quests . As he stared at the skill quests, he determined .

‘The ones I can’t complete right now are…’

Not all quests needed various materials and gold to complete . Instead, they required specific achievements like hunting a particular monster .

‘These three . ’

[Skill Quest – Poison Dragon]

Meet the following conditions!

[Black Dragon : 0 / 1 ]

[Black Dragon’s Heart : 0 / 1 ]

[Poison Essence : 0 / 10 ]

Quest Reward: Skill – Poison Dragon

[Skill Quest – Encroach]

Meet the following conditions!

[Zombie : 0 / 5000 ]

[Dullahan : 0 / 200 ]

[Lich : 0 / 200 ]

Quest Reward: Skill – Encroach

[Skill Quest – Miasma Release]

Meet the following conditions!

[Hydra : 0 / 1 ]

[Hydra’s Saliva Gland : 0 / 1 ]

[Gold : 15900 / 10000 ]

Quest Reward: Skill – Miasma Blast

Soo Hyuk shook his head after he checked the three quests . The conditions were almost impossible!

‘How much do I have to level up to complete them?’

The conditions for the skill ‘Encroach’, required him to hunt numerous zombies, dullahan and liches . Although it would take a long time, it was barely doable, since he was someone who had hunted 10,000 trolls . But the story was different if it was the Black Dragon or the Hydra . It was almost impossible to raid black dragons and hydras alone, even if his level was over 200 or perhaps even more .

Soo Hyuk moved all the quests that he could complete now into the first section on his skill window . It was to clean it so that he could navigate more easily . And so, Soo Hyuk left the three hardest skill quests in the third section and eventually arrived at the Tower of Poison .

Tap . Tap .

“Soo Hyuk-nim is here . ”

As usual, the women guarding the fourth floor announced his arrival and waited for Pavian’s reply . However, Pavian’s reply was different from what they expected .

“Oh? Wait a minute, I’ll go out . ”

After a few seconds, the door was opened and Pavian strode out of his room .

“Now, shall we go?”

Pavian said to Soo Hyuk .

“…?”

Soo Hyuk couldn’t understand his words . Go where exactly? Then, Pavian, who had read his thoughts, continued .

“We can’t test magic in my room, especially with all the materials .

“Ah, yes . ”

Soo Hyuk replied to Pavian’s words . Then Pavian took the lead and started walking while Soo Hyuk hurriedly followed after him . And so, Soo Hyuk and Pavian kept climbing down stairs until Pavian stopped at the 3rd underground floor .

‘Hmm? Where is it?’

The 3rd underground floor was shaped similarly to a massive hall, and it was completely empty . Soo Hyuk couldn’t find the materials anywhere despite looking around everywhere around the hall .

“Here . ”

At that moment .

‘’This has everything you need . ”

Pavian said while holding out a pouch .

“In here?”

“Hmm . ”

Soo Hyuk received the pouch from Pavian .

[You have obtained Pavian’s Pouch . ]

A message then appeared and Soo Hyuk immediately checked the item information .

[<Hero>Pavian’s Pouch]

You will receive various items when the pouch is used .

‘It’s a consumable . ’

He had thought that it would be a special item, but it was just a consumable . However, it wasn’t anything major, so he immediately decided to use it . As a result, numerous system messages started appearing in his vision .

[You have obtained 200 Grade 5 Mana Stones . ]

[You have obtained 350 Grade 4 Mana Stones . ]

[…]

Soo Hyuk stared blankly at the suuden messages, before recovering and opened his quest window . All the skill quests in the first section had their ‘COMPLETE’ buttons glowing . Staring at them with satisfaction, Soo Hyuk started completing the skills quests .

[You have completed Skill Quest – Acid Spray . ]

[You have learned Skill – Acid Spray . ]

[You have completed Skill Quest – Poison Fog . ]

[You have obtained Skill – Poison Fog . ]

[…]

“Now, try casting a poison spell . ”

Pavian said while Soo Hyuk completing the quests .

“Ah, yes . ”

Soo Hyuk nodded in response to his words and hurriedly completed his quest . He then spoke to Pavian,

“Um, how should I show you the magic…”

The underground hall was completely empty, so Soo Hyuk didn’t have something he could fire his spells at . How could he randomly cast poison magic in this empty space?

“Ah, wait a moment . ”

In response to Soo Hyuk’s question, Pavian pulled out another pouch from his robe . He then pulled something out of the pouch and set it in dront of him .

‘…Iron Scarecrows?’

He had wondered what Pavian had taken out . It was an Iron Scarecorw . A scarecrow with ridiculously high physical defence as well as magic resistance .

‘Oh well, I needed to destroy some anyway . ’

One of the conditions for the stat quest ‘Vigorous Body’, was destroying Iron Scarecrows .

‘But how many is he taking out?’

Pavian didn’t show any signs of stopping . He was still setting up Iron Scarecrows at a set distance from each other . Then after 20 scarecrows were installed, Pavian came back to Soo Hyuk and said .

“You don’t need to worry about them breaking . They’re my specially-made Iron Scarecrows . Since their magic resistance is higher than the normal ones in the market, you can go all out with the magic . ”

Soo Hyuk nodded at Pavian’s reminder, and focused on the scarecrows, while Pavian moved out of the way .

“Poison Fog . ”

As soon as Pavian was out of range, Soo Hyuk cast Poison Fog . It’s original casting time was 15 seconds, but it was cast instantly because of the Archmage passive .

Shuaak!

The poison fog was cast around a scarecrow and then rapidly expanded towards the other scarecrows . At that moment, Pavian’s expression stiffened .

‘…What?’

Pavian stared incredulously at the expanding poison fog .

‘How did he cast it so fast?’

Soo Hyuk had instantly cast the Poison Fog spell, while seasoned magicians could only do it in around 2-3 seconds . Pavian was greatly surprised at this situation .

‘It’s m-melting?’

The scarecrow at the very centre had started melting from the poison . His specially-requested Iron Scarecrows were being destroyed by a beginner magician! It had greatly increased magic resistance, so how was it melting?

At that moment .

“Poison Sphere . ”

Soo Hyuk cast his second spell, ‘Poison Sphere’ . His target was the scarecrow on the far left, which was unaffected by the fog . A green sphere the size of a small soccer ball instantly appeared in his hand and flew towards the scarecrow .

Bang!

The Poison Sphere crashed into the scarecrow and scattered poison in the explosion . Pavian could then see it . His Iron Scarecrow which had half of its body dissolved .

“…Stop . ”

Soo Hyuk was about to cast another spell but stopped at Pavian’s instructions .

“Then I’ll see you next time . ”

“Yes! Make sure to visit once every three months! Don’t forget!”

“Of course . ”

Soo Hyuk left Pavian with a goodbye and climbed up the stairs to the 1st floor .

Pavian stared at Soo Hyuk starting to climb the stairs then looked back at his scarecrows . They were in perfect condition before but now, they were unrecognisable .

‘I was planning to give him advise…’

Unfortunately, Soo Hyuk had completely demolished the scarecrows with his magic .

‘It was perfect, no it was even beyond that . ’

Unlike his expectations, Soo Hyuk’s magic turned out to be flawless, not flawed .

‘It was strong . Especially his casting speed . ’

Instant casting . In that scene, Soo Hyuk had looked like an experienced magician, rather than an inexperienced one .

‘Is it an ability of the immeasurable talent?’

That was a plausible theory, although he had no evidence .

‘Well, I was worried for nothing in the end . ’

He had been worried about Soo Hyuk’s affinity with poison magic . Even if he was the immeasurable talent, there was no guarantee that he would be talented in every field . But now, it seemed as though he had been worried for nothing .

‘Hee…’

Pavian smiled widely . He then faintly waved his hand and the destroyed scarecrows were returned to his pouch . After retrieving the scarecrows, Pavian climbed up the stairs to head back to his room .

* * *

Outside the Tower of Poison, Soo Hyuk started walking back to the library .

‘Which library should I go to next?’

It was worrisome .

‘I’ll have read all the books in the library by next month . ’

His family trip was just 2 days away . Judging from his speed and the books left, he would be able to finish the books in Matab Library in a month . The problem was, where would he go next?

‘Also, why are their conditions so difficult?’

The conditions for Matab were easy to fulfil . You just had to be a magician to enter . But the other libraries were different, as they all had difficult conditions . Be a noble, be an official etc . They were quite diverse .

‘Let’s worry about it when the time comes . ’

Soo Hyuk decided as he sighed . It wasn’t urgent so he had no need to worry about it now . Soo Hyuk shook his head to clear his thoughts and continued walking with a more relaxed expression .

* * *

“This is all I can do for you . Sorry . ”

“Haha, no problem . This is enough for me . If you do any more, the others will start complaining and make a mess . ”

Kefan replied to Commander as they walked down the beach . They had just met with Hedlin’s mayor and Raman Kingdom’s marquis, Cavell .

“What about the plan? Do you even have one? As you might’ve seen, Cavell won’t easily give us the representative guild position . ”

“Of course . ”

Commander replied to Kefan’s question .

“Tourist City Hedlin!”

Hedlin was regarded as a tourist city for its beautiful beaches . People even considered Hedlin as a vacation spot even though it was in a virtual reality . It was that beautiful . Every street in Hedlin was bustling with users and NPCs, busily going about their lives .

“What would happen if the merry atmosphere was ruined by an unfortunate incident?”

If an unfortunate incident such as murders happened, from Hedlin’s perspective, it would be a very big hit . It would damage their reputation as one of the best tourist sites .

“They would search for people who can restore the public’s sense of safety . Hehe . ”

Kefan burst into a wide smile as he concluded .

“…As expected . ”

After listening to Kefan’s conjecture, Commander smiled faintly and replied .

“You have great foresight . You’re a very promising person . ”

“Is that a compliment?”

“I wonder . ”

Commander smiled and cocked his head at Kefan’s words .

“Anyway, try your best . Contact me if a problem suddenly pops up . I will try my best to help you then . ”

“Yes!”

“Then I’ll be on my way . See you next time . ”

“I’ll report soon!”