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Chapter 86

 

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Translator: Charlotte　Editor: Weasalopes

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The Assassin’s body disappeared.
But my Summon Monsters were still on alert.
Well, that was to be expected.
Lambda’s marker was still grey.
My【Discern】skill was acting strange.
Although since it was still showing a grey marker, it must’ve been functioning to some extent.

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《【Discern】Level Up!》
《You may now learn the following Support Skill:【Torture】》

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Torture?
The letters danced before my eyes.
It wasn’t a skill I could see myself using very often…

「I’m sorry, but…」

Lambda looked quite serious.
Well, he was surrounded by all four of my Summon Monsters.
All of them were on high alert.

「Can you do something about this?」

「I will, after I’ve heard your story.」

「You sure? You’re making it pretty difficult for me.」

I called Obsidian over from behind his skull to my left arm.
I calmed down Volff.

「How about this? Can we reach a compromise?」

「Alright.」

「Just a guess, but you’re one of those PKK guys right?」

「Yes.」

「You look like a Fighter to me though.」

「Really? Do I not have a grey marker?」

Woah.
He knew.
Although, he was right in that I had【Discern】.

「Before that, watching you take out those Player Killers really was an amazing sight.」

「Thank you for the compliment. Could I get your name?」

「There wouldn’t be any other players here besides us, right?」

I got my Summon Monster to go on alert.
Didn’t look like there was anyone else.

「Doesn’t look like it.」

「Great. Thanks for checking for me, my【Sense Danger】isn’t as sharp as it could be right now.」

The grey marker in front of mine changed to a white colour.
What the heck…
I focused on the marker and used【Identify】.

Omega　Lv.7
Fighter　On Standby

「Oh, I’m sorry, I made a mistake.」

「Huh?」

「Sorry, could you use【Identify】on me one more time?」

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Omega　Lv.7
Avenger　On Standby

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「That’s my real name and profession.」

「Avenger…」

「Yes.」

「You were using a fake name and job?」

「That’s the【Camouflage】skill. It’s relative to the level of the skill, but it’s possible to make it so you wouldn’t be able to tell using【Discern】.」

「Is that so…」

「It’s a skill that all PK and PKK players can get.」

「Nice…」

He sat down in front of me.
He stuck his fingers into his mouth and pulled out some sort of cotton-like material.
A disguise, too.

「Serious talk, I have a favour to ask of you.」

「What is it?」

「Please train me.」

「Huh?」

「Please. It’s really important to me.」

I got a glimpse of his fighting style earlier.
His movements looked a little frivolous at times, but he could cut a throat without any hesitation.
What was clear was that he had an intense anger or hatred for Player Killers, no doubt.

「It’s a long story, but will you please hear me out?」

「Ah, before that, why me?」

「Oh, I saw you at the tournament. “Ah, it has to be this guy,” is what I immediately thought.」

Huh???
That’s it?

「You might not be convinced even after everything I’m about to do, but there’s nothing else I can give you.」

「Huh?」

「I’ll tell you everything. My skill composition, my stats, even the story of how I became an Avenger.」

It looked like it was going to be a long story.
Hmm…
But I was still definitely interested.
I decided to at least hear him out.

The story was definitely a long one.
And it was mostly about his tragic past.

In short, this is what his story was all about:

He was betrayed and murdered by a party that he’d been with since the game launched.
The five other members of his party that betrayed him apparently did it to reach Corruption. He was unfortunately the sacrifice to reach that.
After he was murdered, the five of them all removed him from their friends lists, and contact from them stopped.
Not just that, before they killed him, he was apparently held down and all his money and belongings were stolen from him.
When he returned, he was essentially a fresh player.

And that was how he fell to the darkness too.

His former occupation was Treasure Hunter. A knife wielder too.
But in the chaos that ensued after his death, he managed to change his job to Avenger.
Avenger…
From his description, it was a “cursed” job.
I didn’t know what he meant by that, but it sounded scary.

He wanted to show me his skills and stats too, so we formed a temporary union.
This is what he showed me:

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Player Name　Omega
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv7
Job　Avenger Lv2
Bonus Points Remaining: 18

Skill Sets:
Dagger Lv6　Sword Lv4　Buckler Lv6　Evade Lv7　Block Lv6
Light Magic Lv5　Dark Magic Lv1　Water Magic Lv5
Synergy Lv4　Appraise Lv6　Identify Lv6　Discern Lv5
Trap Lv3　Safeguard Lv3
Camouflage Lv3　Disguise Lv3　Hide Lv3　Track Lv2
Silent Casting Lv3　Alert Senses Lv3
[Skills gained from Sworn Avenger]
Identify Karma Lv3　Settings Control　Lv3　Stats Control Lv1
Skill Seal Lv2　Curse Lv1

Equipment:
Cast Iron Knife x2　Traveller’s clothes　Leather Boots
Rucksack　Item Box

Items:
Survival Knife

Titles:
Guardian of the forest
Man of Order
Sworn Avenger

Stats:
DEX　20（+6）
AGI　22（+7）
INT　15（+5）
STR　16（+5）
VIT　16（+5）
SPI　15（+5）
Karma 950　Lower Limit 350　Upper Limit 3500

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What are you some kind of monster?!

「I don’t think you need any more training with these stats…」

「What I’m missing is Player’s Skill.」

「You could beat anyone with these stats though, honestly.」

「Yes, in fact, that’s the issue. I win too easily.」

「Huh?」

「I have five revenge targets. I killed one of them too quickly. It was unsatisfactory.」

「Unsatisfactory?」

「Looked like a quick death wasn’t enough to clear the curse. And personally, it didn’t feel enough either.」

「Even then…」

What a situation…
I spent a lot of time online, but I wanted to enjoy as much of that time by myself.
I could hang out with the guy, but I didn’t want another Adele or Irina.
Well, I suppose I could just hear him out.

「Player’s Skill? What do you mean?」

「Your own decision making matters a lot in fights, you know.」

「Ah, in that case, I doubt I could be of much help…」

「I saw you at the tournament. I think you’re perfect.」

Just that?
I didn’t know how to reply.

「You’re telling me to train you, but I don’t have a good idea of what that would entail…」

「Fight me. Teach me close-range combat.」

「Fight…?」

「I thought I could beat the Assassin from earlier, but I just couldn’t do it.」

「Huh?」

「I’m going to have my revenge, no matter what… And to that end, I need the proper Player’s Skills.」

Woah, woah, woah…
Scary.

「Sorry to change the topic, but do you know anything about that group earlier?」

「A PK party targeting you, I suppose.」

「Targeting?」

「Yes. As far as I know, there are about five PK parties around here.」

「Five?」

「A lot of them tend to gather around the Area Portal, taking out players on their way home.」

「And then there’s PKK players too…」

「Exactly. Although since there aren’t that many PKK parties, you would have some trouble running into them.」

「Hmm…」

That made sense.
It felt a little like a food web.
Normal players “eating” monsters.
PK players “eating” normal players.
And then PKK players at the very top.

Although not really, since the lower levels actually have a chance to defend themselves.

「I was inspired by how you took out that Assassin. Please, teach me!」

He knelt deeply before me.
You could almost say he was prostrating himself.

「But…」

「I will definitely repay you.」

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《You have received a private quest. Do you wish to accept it?》

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Huh?
Private quest?
That was new.

The info screen alone piqued my interest.
I was interested in what would happen if I were to say yes.
I might get some form of compensation, just like with the guild quests.
Well, I didn’t really care about the money.
I was just looking for the experience.

「I have to warn you though, just because I’m teaching you, doesn’t mean you’ll get to do what I do straight away.」

「I don’t mind.」

Huh…
I was lost on what to do for a while…
But then I decided.

「Sure, I don’t mind doing it.」

「Thank you so much!」

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《You have accepted a private quest!》

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As I expected, the info screen didn’t give me any more details.
Oh well.
It was too late to turn back.

「Well then, should we start with a quick check-up?」

「Check-up?」

「Yeah. Do you have the time?」

「I’m fine.」

「Alright. Let’s start from your equipment.」

He had enough Portable Food for three days.
He had a tent and blanket too.
And some proper leather armour too…

「For the next part… Should we move somewhere more private?」

「Huh?」

「Oh, or should I just call you『Lambda』instead?」

「Yes, please.」

「Got it. Might be a bit late, but my name’s Keith. I’m a summoner.」

「Alright, although honestly speaking, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were a Grappler.」

「That kind of job exists?」

「One of the upgrades of the Fighter job. It’s been on the forums for quite a while.」

「Is that so…」

So, it exists, huh…
And it’s an advanced job too.
Master’s job was still just Summoner.
Looked like that kind of job upgrade system didn’t exist in my case.

I waited for Lambda to finish putting on his leather armour and disguise.
In just a moment, he looked like a completely different person.
Wow…

「Are you alright past the forest maze?」

「Yes. I’ve cleared it. In fact, I was betrayed right after we defeated the boss.」

Oh.
They threw him away after he had served his purpose.
It was definitely cruel.

「Well then, let’s get going.」

「Alright.」

We already had a destination in mind.
S1W1.
The place was probably still relatively empty.

Oh.
I almost forgot to check the items the PK players dropped.
Their corpses were already gone.
All that was left was a small sum of money.
It felt a little off.

I thought for a while about whether I should form a party or stay in a union.
I decided to go the safe route and stay in a union.
I didn’t want to upset the balance in experience points.
It would become a little more difficult for us to support each other, but there was nothing I could do about that.
He was strong enough to handle things on his own.
But just in case, I added him to my friend’s list.

While we were moving, I took the opportunity to check something important.
His fighting style.

Lambda had no issues against mushrooms.
Although the damage he could dish out looked a little bit on the small side, considering his stats.
Well, all he had was a knife.
He was making up for his weapon limitation with his incredible speed.

The issue became more apparent when I saw him fight Branch Golems.
He managed to defeat them without taking any damage, but the time it took was too long.
That just wouldn’t do…
But since he was an Avenger, it would still be fine.
Although I’d expect him to have issues farming experience.

I swapped Summon Monsters when we reached the front of the goblin cave.
I recalled Zangetsu and summoned Senki.
I made some small talk as we moved inwards.
Mostly about the strange skills he had.
Well, some of them had names that were pretty self-explanatory.

First was【Silent Casting】.
A skill that was available to both PK and PKK players.
Like the name implied, it was a skill that let the user do the spell casting process silently.
It had the downside of doubling the time taken though.
The time penalty would go down as the skill leveled up.
Although apparently, having the penalty reach 0% would probably be impossible.

【Identify Karma】.
A strange skill.
For an Avenger, breaking the lower limit would mean a penalty.
Breaking the upper limit would result in a penalty too.
That was the curse of the avenger.
And without periodically killing PK players, the safe zone would only get smaller.

It wasn’t something you could ignore.
In his case, his lower boundary was 350 and his upper boundary was 3500.
At first, the lower boundary was 100 and the upper boundary was 1000.
Looked like the safe zone could grow too.

Interestingly, normal players had a karma limit too, but only an upper limit.
What would happen if someone were to cross that limit?
Corruption.
It made sense.

I had him use the skill on me and send me the results.

Karma 275　Allowable Upper Limit 4500

According to Lambda, karma tends to have a very high upper limit.
Why exactly that is the case was still unknown.
Although he did mention that the limit tended to be higher for players that actively complete quests.
And for those in production jobs, it tended to be higher for players that took on more commissions.

He told me he once saw a merchant have an upper limit of 8500.
Of course, the same system existed for NPCs.
It was rare, but it was possible for an NPC to fall to Corruption too.

【Settings Control】.
Another strange skill.
It was a skill that could be used to temporarily change a player’s settings.
He used it earlier to set the Assassins pain setting to 100%.
As expected, the higher the level, the longer the duration.
Scary…

【Status Control】.
The name gave some hint as to how it would work, but how one would use the spell was a bit of a mystery.
It was a skill that let him set his own stats anywhere from 1 to the upper limit.
The point of doing so was apparently to increase the karma safe zone, but he hadn’t gotten an opportunity to try it.

【Skill Seal】.
Another cruel skill.
Apparently, it could be used to block a PK player’s skill after killing them.
At level two, it was possible to seal two skills for two days, rendering them completely unusable.
What a scary skill.
It was a skill made purely to trouble players going on adventures.

And last was【Curse】.
It was a skill that could only be used on an Avenger’s revenge target.
In his case, that was his five friends.
The effects of the skill would grow every time he killed one of his five targets. Since he only killed one of them so far, he didn’t know what else was in store.
At Lvl.1, the skill gave him a bonus to【Camouflage】, 【Disguise】, and 【Discern】.
But still, what a scary skill name.
I couldn’t help but wonder what else the skill would do in the future.

On the bright side, skills like【Settings Control】and【Skill Seal】were reserved for PK players.
And【Curse】was reserved for only his five revenge targets.
Even without those special skills, his stats were already about 1.3 times better than mine.

The one word that came to mind was “cheat”.

But I suppose there were some downsides.
The Avenger’s pain setting is locked at 100%, to mention one.
And there were the karma limits too. I thought about what would happen if he broke them without getting his revenge.
Worst case scenario, it would make the game totally unplayable, just because the penalties would be too limiting.

「That’s just what the Avenger job is all about, the job, the skills and the stats are all cruel.」

Lambda just called himself cruel.
Well, he had a point.
Lambda had no issues slaughtering the goblins.
He took out a group of 10 goblins like they were nothing.
It was really strange… Why did he need training again?

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Protagonist　Keith
Race　Human　Male　Racial Lv10
Job　Summoner Lv9
Bonus Points Remaining: 8

Skill Sets:
Staff Lv8　Punch Lv5　Kick Lv5　Joint Lock Lv5　Throw Lv4　Evade Lv5　Block Lv4 Summon Magic Lv10　Spacetime Magic Lv2
Light Magic Lv5　Wind Magic Lv5　Earth Magic Lv5　Water Magic Lv5　Fire Magic Lv4　Dark Magic Lv5　Ice Magic Lv3　Lightning Magic Lv3　Tree Magic Lv3　Dust Magic Lv2　Lava Magic Lv2　Steam Magic Lv2
Alchemy Lv5　Pharmacy Lv4　Glassmaking Lv3　Woodworking Lv4
Synergy Lv7　Appraise Lv6　Identify Lv7　Discern Lv3（↑1）　Cold Resistance Lv3　Grab Lv6　Horsemanship Lv6　Precise Manipulation Lv7　Jump Lv3　Heat Resistance Lv4　Climb Lv3　Dual Wield Lv4　Disassembly Lv2
Physical Reinforcement Lv2　Mental Reinforcement Lv4　Speedcasting Lv4

Equipment:
Kaya Wood Rod x1　Kaya Wood Tonfa x2　Snow Leopard Push Dagger x3　 Kaya Wood Rod (Broken) x1　Silver Necklace+
Wild Horse Leather Armour+　Snow Ape Armguard　Wild Horse Boots+　Snow Ape Leather Helmet　Rabid Horse Belt+　Rucksack　Item Box x2

Items:
Survival Knife　Woodworking Set

Titles:
Old Summoner’s Pupil
Guardian of the Forest
Man of the Middle Path
Spell Archive

Monster Summons:
Volff　Wolf Lv7
Zangetsu　Horse Lv5
Helix　Hawk Lv5
Obsidian　Owl Lv5
Jean　Bat Lv5
Jericho　Wood Golem Lv3
Goki　Demon Lv4
Senki　Beast Ape Lv4
Rig　Slime Lv3
Bunraku　Wood Puppet Lv2

Companion:
Lambda (real name Omega)

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