Ranker's Return

Chapter 754

[The wisdom stat has been created.]

[Wisdom: A stat that indirectly affects magic power. The amount of magic power used for magic will decrease and the strength of magic power will increase. Stat points can’t be added to it.]

The wisdom stat was created by wearing Wisdom of the Sky. It was a huge benefit. A new stat was always welcome. However, it wasn’t the message window that Hyeonu expected. Something more had to appear after this.

‘There isn’t a set effect message?’

He was flustered. There were definitely three giant relics. Yet it wasn’t treated as a set even when he wore all three.

‘What is the problem?’

Hyeonu touched his chin and pondered on it. What was the problem?

‘Why is it like this?’

Hyeonu was troubled. An answer didn’t come out. This was even more so because the problem wasn’t clearly presented.

‘Should I take them off one by one?’

A thought suddenly popped up in Hyeonu’s mind as he was worrying over this.

If three wasn’t possible, what about two? ‘I will leave Hidden Symbol.’

Based on common sense, Infinite Valor was a relic given to the best warrior of the giants. On the other hand, Wisdom of the Sky was given to the best shaman of the giants. It was irrational for the two of them to be given to one person.

Hyeonu put his hypothesis into practice immediately. He removed the white ring that he had just placed on his finger. Then a message window similar to what he wanted to see finally appeared in front of him.

[The Best Shaman of the Giants (2/2) has been equipped.]

[The two-part set effect is applied.]

[All stats +500.]

[‘Mental Pillar of the Giants’ can be used.]

[Mental Pillar of the Giants: Your magic power stat is increased by 150%.]

It was a notification that a set effect had been created. Even so, Hyeonu’s expression wasn’t very bright. A set effect came out, but it seemed useless.

‘It might be different if it was a three-in-one set…’

This set effect made no sense. Wisdom of the Sky belonged to Tang-E. There weren’t enough benefits for Hyeonu to take it away from Tang-E. It was a hundred times better for Tang-E to use it.

“Tang-E, here.” Hyeonu removed Wisdom of the Sky and placed it back on Tang-E’s paw.

“Huh? What? It is already over?” Tang-E shook his head at Hyeonu’s actions. It was too fast. Based on what Tang-E saw, Hyeonu placed the bracelet on his arm before giving it back right away.

“It is over. Let’s go now.” Hyeonu put the ring back on his finger and placed Tang-E on his shoulder. It was time to start hunting again.

***

Hyeonu didn’t return to the troll village. He wanted to find another hunting ground. So he wandered around looking for unique monsters.

‘Is there a good hunting ground?’

Hyeonu wanted new prey, not the ones he had always seen. He just couldn’t think of such a monster. Nothing came to mind. He just thought it was okay as long as it wasn’t a monster he had killed recently.

“Hey, what are you thinking about at the table? You don’t have an appetite? Don’t you want to eat?” A voice woke up Hyeonu, who was in deep thought.

Yeongchan finished his share of jajangmyeon in an instant and was about to stretch out his chopsticks toward Hyeonu’s jajangmyeon.

“Are you crazy? Just eat the sweet and sour pork.” Hyeonu stretched out his chopsticks and hit Yeongchan’s chopsticks like lightning.

“Then what are you thinking about? What are you concerned about these days?” Yeongchan asked while transferring his chopsticks to the sweet and sour pork with a disappointed expression. From Yeongchan’s perspective, Hyeonu was a person who shouldn’t have any worries.

‘His father has recovered his health. He makes good money. His popularity is increasing. There is a girl who likes him…’

Hyeonu pulled along the flirting woman continuously as if he didn’t know he was playing hard to get. The reason Yeongchan referred to the two of them as flirting, rather than a couple, was due to the idiot in front of him, not because of her. She was openly appealing to Hyeonu.

“This jerk can’t do this,” Yeongchan expressed his heart according to the flow of consciousness. Then he picked up three pieces of sweet and sour pork at once and put them in his mouth.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Hyeonu couldn’t hear Yeongchan’s words spoken to himself and cocked his head at Yeongchan suddenly inhaling the sweet and sour pork.

“What worries? I was just thinking about where to hunt,” Hyeonu answered Yeongchan’s previous question while moving his chopsticks.

“A hunting ground? There’s no hunting ground available?” Yeongchan asked while mumbling with his mouth full of sweet and sour pork.

This was the most incomprehensible answer. As far as Yeongchan knew, Hyeonu’s hunting grounds were all over Arena. Every place that Hyeonu used as a hunting ground became Hyeonu’s hunting ground; there was no place he couldn’t go.

“What about the demon world? Isn’t leveling up the fastest there?” Yeongchan suggested.

For leveling up, there was the demon world, which was still full of demons and demonic creatures. In the main scenario, the demon kings and nobles were pretty much wiped out, but that was only for a while. Apart from the demon kings, the rest would be regenerated again. Then as time passed, more demon kings would naturally appear.

“It’s boring if I am there every day. This is a game. I have to enjoy it. In addition, if I want to show off what I’m hunting on the live streams… In any case, the demon world won’t work.” Hyeonu shook his head and picked up the sweet and sour pork.

There were many reasons why Hyeonu continued to move hunting grounds. The biggest reason was to have fun, followed by his job as a streamer. The name of Alley Leader was too pioneering to show a hunt in the same demon world as others.

“Is that so? So you have many troubles, hey. Many troubles.” Yeongchan smiled mockingly like he found it ridiculous.

It was luxurious…

This was a luxurious problem that streamers and guilds aside from Hyeonu would never have.

“Some people can’t even hunt because they don’t have hunting grounds…”

Due to territorial disputes, it wasn’t easy for guilds to move once they set a hunting ground. They had to pour in many things to get a new hunting ground.

Money, time and effort—all of them needed to be given to carve out a single hunting ground for the guild. Therefore, they couldn’t have the same worries as Hyeonu. It was because the risk of making a single decision was too great.

“Well… that is the situation. So do you know any places? Not the demon world. Is there anything new?” Hyeonu asked while picking up his jajangmyeon loudly.

“Let’s see… if it is something new… I don’t think the East Continent is bad. A lot of people have gone to the demon world.” Yeongchan’s recommendation was the East Continent.

Originally, there were no large guilds there, unlike in the West Continent. Then many people moved to the demon world instead of the East Continent, so the number of those currently streaming with the East Continent as the backdrop was small.

“There are no hunting grounds, hunting grounds.” Hyeonu frowned. The reason why the large guilds turned their backs on the East Continent without looking back was the lack of proper hunting grounds. Of course, there were many good hunting grounds in the Eastern Continent.

The problem was that they were all unexplored. A considerable amount of resources was required to acquire a proper hunting ground. Therefore, they moved in a way that just secured them the minimum of one hunting ground. Then the main scenario unfolded in the demon world, and the big guilds focused their main resources there.

They participated in the main scenario and hunted; it was killing two birds with one stone. Of course, most of them had plans to raise their level there before returning to their bases and easily pioneering out hunting grounds.

“Why not? It must be somewhere.” Yeongchan dipped the dumplings in the remaining jajangmyeon sauce and raised them to his mouth.

“I’m an idiot for asking you. Sigh…” Hyeonu didn’t talk to Yeongchan any longer. He was just diligently moving his chopsticks.

“Hey, why are you only eating the sweet and sour pork?” Yeongchan said.

Hyeonu’s chopsticks were viciously only picking up the sweet and sour pork.

***

Hyeonu had shaken his head when he heard Yeongchan’s words, but he actually thought the option of the East Continent was attractive. The biggest advantage was that it would be new content for the viewers and even for Hyeonu.

‘It was such a long time ago.’

Hyeonu was now very different from the time when he was hunting in the East Continent. A lot of time had passed since then; it already felt like a distant story.

‘Was it called Karakino?’

It was a very famous city on the East Continent, but it wasn’t well known in a good way. Four of the 10 worst hunting grounds in the East Continent, as surveyed by a community, were near Karakino. There were several reasons why they were considered the worst hunting grounds. The environment of the hunting grounds wasn’t very good, and hunting was difficult compared to the value of the rewards.

‘This is a place that falls under both of them…’

There was a hunting ground that met these two conditions among those around Karakino. It had the worst environment for hunting, and the difficulty of hunting the monsters was high. A gust of wind blew from all directions.

Hyeonu frowned at the fluttering dirt.

‘It is a stormy gorge…’

The name of the place where Hyeonu was standing was Avon Gorge. It was a gorge with the worst winds. The strong wind didn’t stop for a moment, so it wasn’t wrong to call it a raging wind. However, the rankers wouldn’t be so reluctant if that was the only problem. The real issue was the monsters that came out in combination with such an environment.

Strong winds were inevitably accompanied by a great amount of noise. The monsters in Avon Gorge hid any noise and swooped on the players.

‘I can understand why they didn’t come.’

Hyeonu was fully able to understand the rankers’ reluctance to go to the storm gorge a.k.a. Avon Gorge. The battles could be tough, and the inability to rest properly was an obvious problem. For rankers who needed efficiency, the absence of rest was a great penalty.

‘Still, I’m going to hunt here.’

Despite knowing all of this, Hyeonu still chose the Avon Gorge. He was confident enough in himself to go hunting there.

‘How much are my stats?’

Hyeonu wasn’t someone who would be deafened by the sound of the wind or have eyes covered by this dirt.

“Master dude, how many days will we spend here? Can we go back after a week?” Tang-E frowned at the dirt that covered everywhere. It seemed impossible to eat anything here, let alone cook meat.

“Who knows? Perhaps a week?” Hyeonu planned to leave this level after reaching level 400 by raising one level a day for a total of one week.

Of course, the live stream was also booked in for a day during this period of time. Tang-E hated Hyeonu’s answer and asked again, “Aren’t you supposed to provide me with three meals a day in a decent place?”

“Ah, don’t worry about that. I will take care of you, Tang-E. What about the meat that went into you already, huh? Don’t you know I care about you?” Hyeonu replied by shaking his head at Tang-E’s worries.

Then a silver flash flew toward Hyeonu’s shaking head with sharp energy. Of course, Hyeonu avoided the flash, quickly pulled out the Mysterious Sky Sword, and swung it. The sword was drawn at the speed of light!

Hyeonu avoided the surprise attack, but his opponent failed to escape Hyeonu’s counter. The attacker who ambushed Hyeonu ended up with its body split in two.

Hyeonu discovered the monster’s identity when he saw the body collapse.

“The dark elves have a very warm greeting.”

The identity of the ambusher was a dark elf.