Seo Jun-Ho left the inn early the next morning to head to the Adventurer Guild. On the way, it became obvious why the guild was located in the commercial district where plenty of shops lined the road.
“Come and take a look! We have lots of great weapons!”
“Are you an Adventurer? Or a Player? Either way, you probably need potions, don’t you?”
“Come take a look at our accessories. You can buy them for your partner. There’s a discount if you buy two.”
The Frost Queen looked around the bustling market like an excited puppy from the top of his head. “Contractor, they are all attracting my attention.”
“Of course they are. They’re trying to get people to buy things. That way, they’ll be able to accept Quests from Adventurers and earn money at the same time.”
The Adventurer Guild’s building was 3 stories tall and massive. The entrance displayed their logo—a pair of shoes with wings attached to them. Even though it was still early in the morning, it was already jam-packed with people.
“…It’s Seo Jun-Ho.”
“I heard that he stayed locked up in an inn all week.”
“Seeing how he’s here, he’s probably running low on travel expenses…”
None of the Adventurers knew who he was, but the Players recognized him instantly. It would’ve been strange if they couldn’t recognize the star Player from the 1st floor. Seo Jun-Ho was already used to the attention and simply ignored them.
“There are a lot of Players here.”
“None of them are very powerful, I see.”
The weakest ones were around level 30, and the decent ones were only around level 60. This was probably the reason why Gilleon was called the Starting City.
“Contractor, that must be the bulletin board that the octopus mentioned.” She pointed toward a large board that was covered in post-it-sized advertisements. People were crowding around it.
‘That must be what the oct… What Moneybug was talking about.’
The advertisements listed the details of the Quest, along with the rewards. The people debated and deliberated in front of the bulletin for a long time.
“Hm… I don’t really want to hunt swamp slimes.”
“Yeah. It’s hot and humid over there.”
“Then how about the whip wolves? We can make good money off their leathers.”
“We have to hunt 50, though. It’s not worth the time and effort.”
“They’re strong, too. We might be the ones that’ll end up being hunted.”
Seo Jun-Ho skimmed the board and quickly snatched a piece of paper.
[Hunt Whip Wolves]
Grade: D
Description: Kill 50 whip wolves in the western fields of Gilleon.
Reward: 3 silver 27 copper, 50 fame.
‘Not bad.’
Seo Jun-Ho had two things that most people lacked—-money and overwhelming strength.
‘Most Players would take about two days to clear this Quest.’
Whip wolves were level 45 monsters and because they went around in packs, they were famous as difficult opponents.
‘But I can finish this within half a day.’
The reward didn’t give a lot of money proportional to the effort, but that didn’t matter to him. He had 1,000 gold in his inventory, after all.
‘Since Players with low fame are limited to one Quest at a time…’
Seo Jun-Ho didn’t bother looking at the other Quests and immediately went to the western gate.
“Contractor, you are shaking too much. Walk slower.” The Frost Queen called out from his shoulder.
Seo Jun-Ho shook his head. “I want to reach level 50 before the hunting competition in ten days. Fly if you don’t like the shaking.”
The Frost Queen considered this and opted to grab onto his hair. “…I will endure it.”
He wondered how on Earth she became a queen.
***
As soon as he passed through the walls, Seo Jun-Ho started to run. The landscape quickly fell behind him.
“Huff, huff.”
It was the first time in ten days that he had properly worked his body out. Of course, dealing with Ply and Haus didn’t count.
‘I can feel that all my stats had indeed risen by 30 points thanks to the Bringer of Spring’s effect.’
His body was overflowing with power. Percentage-wise, his stats had increased by 25% in a single day.
‘It’s…A little hard to control.’
There was a slight disparity between his body and his mind. When he thought that he would only be able to run a certain distance, he would already be much further ahead than his estimates. There was only one way he would be able to close this gap.
“Whatever, I’ll just train.”
It was to train and practice until he could control his strength as he liked. The hunting ground was about an hour away, but he reached it in ten minutes.
“Were you carried on the 1st floor? How did you miss that?”
“What did you say? Do you know which Guild I’m from?”
“Hey, why are you trying to steal our kills?”
Seo Jun-Ho saw a scene of pure chaos which made him unable to hold back his laughter.
‘This never happens on Earth.’
The only way to hunt was to go into a Gate and once they were inside, kill stealing wouldn’t be a problem since Players would either work alone or as a team. But it was different in Frontier.
‘Unless it’s a dungeon, monsters roam freely.’
In other words, if someone wanted to, they could land the killing blow on a monster that another person had been fighting against. But what exactly would they get?
“Shit, we did all the work but they took half the EXP.”
“Mind your manners next time. I won’t let you go if you do this again.”
It was the EXP that Players valued the most.
“I won’t see that kind of stuff if I go deeper into the forest.”
Besides, the whip wolfs weren’t in this area. Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes lingered on the Players before he left. Their voices started to fade behind him the deeper he went into the forest.
“Frost.”
“Yes?”
“Once I am done getting used to my new stats, let’s start having spars, shall we?”
It had already been a few months since they made the contract, but surprisingly, he had never fought with her just yet
‘I always fought alone.’
Of course, it wasn’t like he didn’t have a reason to do so. It was just more efficient for him to increase his level as fast as he could on the 1st floor so that he could reach the 2nd floor as soon as possible.
‘But it’s different now…’
Frontier was a dangerous place, where fiends and monsters roamed freely.
“We made a contract, remember? We should make use of it.”
“Hmm.?So in other words, you need my power.” She smirked. “Well, I suppose I can help you if you give me good tea every day.”
“You’ve got it backward. You’ll only get good tea if you listen to me every day.”
“I do not see it that way.”
“But I do. And if you don’t want to do it, get off my shoulder.” 𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗹．𝐨𝗿𝗴
“…Very well. A monarch must always keep an open mind.” She really didn’t want to get off.
At some point, they had gone so deep that sunlight no longer shone through the thick cover of the leaves around them.
“Hmm…?Whip wolves.” His heart started to beat faster. He had gone through many Gates back on Earth, but he had never heard of such a monster. “I hope they’re strong.”
Anticipation filled his chest as he heard them slinking around.
—Grrrr…
—Awoooooo!
20 wolves surrounded him in an instant. They each had two long tails.
“So it’s you guys.” He revealed a wide grin before raising Cruel Executioner into the air.
***
The sound of whips slapping the ground filled the clearing. A smile tugged at Seo Jun-Ho’s lips as he dodged the attacks.
“Isn’t this so cool? Their tails are like whips!”
“…I suppose that would be the meaning behind their namesakes,” the Frost Queen said, unimpressed.
Unlike her, Seo Jun-Ho was having the time of his life.
‘It has been such a long time since I’ve had this much fun with hunting.’
He never had this much fun since he fought with his comrades.
He quickly ducked as another tail flung toward him. It struck a tree with enough impact to snap it into two.
“I think I know why no one in the Adventurer’s Guild wanted to take this Quest.” Even though he was having fun, his situation would be nerve-wracking for most adventurers and Players.
“Contractor, why are you taking so long?”
“I was gonna fool around for a bit, but I changed my mind.”
The 20 wolves attacked simultaneously with their sharp claws and fangs. He might be able to consistently dodge both attacks, but they had another type of attack. The wolves would swing their tails with enough force to snap a small tree and there would be 20 of such attacks coming at him at the same time.
“They’re great opponents in helping me adjust with my new stats.” He couldn’t let go of such a great opportunity for training. The endless attacks forced him to adapt and were forcing his senses to recover to what they had been originally.
“Is it here?” He tilted his head and reached out with his hand, catching a whip wolf by its tail.
“…You’re already done adjusting?” The Frost Queen was impressed. All his stats had gone up by 25 percent, but it had only taken him 20 minutes to get used to his newfound strength.
“I’ve had plenty of practice.” He wrapped the tail around his hand and swung the wolf into a tree. It fainted with a whimper after hitting the large tree.
“Not bad.” He grinned and raised his halberd. The wolves started to back away; they weren’t used to humans attacking them, but it was too late.
“You should’ve run away earlier.” No longer feeling the need to train, Seo Jun-Ho swung his weapon in an arc, cutting off the tails of six wolves with a loud snapping sound.
They started to howl in unimaginable pain, but Seo Jun-Ho was already far too used to the sound of monsters wailing in pain. He even hummed as if he was listening to a classical piece. He was ready; he had successfully adjusted to this world.