Chapter 53: Gnosis Information Guild, Part I

Translator: – – Editor: – –

Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

I yawned loudly as I finished off the two giant spiders in front of me. I sliced them in half from head to abdomen, and their halves fell to the sides.

“Still no items?” It had been over seven hours since I started hunting, but I was only getting two things from the spiders; golden rings and Spider Legs. When I collected a hundred Spider Legs in one inventory slot, I took out my two Shining Health Potions and placed them in my pocket to free up another inventory slot, but that slot was soon filled with Spider Legs too.

“Still, I suppose it’s good that I let off a lot of steam and gained quite a few levels.” The hunt was still fun. The 4,488 stat points definitely filled the void the four years left behind.

I could kill a giant spider in one attack and even get to the ones hiding on rooftops by wall-jumping to them. Thanks to my high stats, I practically leapt from spider to spider, killing them with great ease.

It was a completely different fighting style than when I was a fire mage for eight years. I definitely liked burning everything before me to a crisp with fire magic, but slicing down my foes in a single blow was a different and refreshing feeling.

“Not bad.” I tightly gripped the handle of my greatsword. I could feel power run through my forearms all the way to my hands as my muscles bulged. I still had plenty of strength left even after hunting for seven hours straight.

“It is strange that I haven’t encountered any elite or boss spiders in such a large colony of spiders.” The smart thing to do in fields was to avoid elite and boss monsters. Elite field monsters were only stronger than normal field monsters; they didn’t drop anything more, or yield more experience points, only more golden rings.

Boss field monsters were even stronger than elite field monsters, but in contrast to dungeon bosses, they didn’t drop random chests. Field bosses did have a higher chance to drop at least Rank 4 items than all other types of field monsters, but the chance was much lower than that of dungeon bosses.

“If I can cut down level 150-200 normal giant spiders in one hit, I could do the same to elites. Bosses, though…” It had taken me a lot of effort to defeat the level 150 Bukhan Mountain dungeon boss.

“But I’m much stronger now than I was back then.” I was only level 15 then, and while my level right now wasn’t that much higher, I still had a very good Rank 6 belt and the Orb of VIT that restored my health by 500 per tick.

“My STR and AGI are well above 2,000, as well!” I was sure I could easily take on a field spider boss.

“But what does my confidence matter when I can’t even find a single one…” Field bosses could be found amongst field elite; that was the rule when it came to field monsters. But no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find a single trace of field elites anywhere.

“I should just keep going. At my strength, the Bukhan Mountain dungeon is too weak and should be filled to the brim with other devas. I’m here anyway, so I might as well keep going until I find a field boss.” Field monsters didn’t yield as much experience, items, or golden rings as dungeon monsters of the same level, but there were so many beginner devas in the dungeon right now that it was better to hunt in fields where there weren’t as many people around.

I continued my hunt until around 10 PM, but I still couldn’t find a single field elite.

“I should be able to find one by now. Where the heck are they all hiding?” I muttered to myself as I wandered the streets of Paju.

“Open stats menu!” I had cut down every single spider in front of me as I roamed through Paju’s neighborhoods for ten hours without rest. My level rose by 28, to level 60. Thanks to my Unrivaled skill, instead of the normal 280 stat points, I had 560 unassigned!

“How satisfactory. If I keep this up until I reach level 200, how many more stat points is that?” If I grinded away for another 140 levels, I could get actually get another 2,800 stat points!

“My stats are going to rise without end.” Stats truly laid the foundation for anyone. No matter how good your items or how useful your skills were, if your stats were too low, you were basically a gilded pebble.

“How should I assign my points this time?” I happily thought to myself as I stared at my stats menu.

“I think I’ll set my AGI to 4,200 and put the rest on STR.” I really liked the fact that my insanely high AGI allowed me to quickly kill the spiders and deftly dodge their attacks. I could even wall-jump a small four-story building with ease and jump down from it without hurting myself.

I decided to put 313 points on to my AGI to make it an even 4,200, and I put my remaining 247 points into my STR, setting it to 3,734.

[Name: Lee Jiwon

Level: 60 Death Count: 0

Title: Earth’s First Deva

HP: 977,500/977,500 MP: 124,700/124,700

Strength: 3,734 Agility: 4,200 Vitality: 1,955

Willpower: 1,247 Intelligence: 1,247

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Fatigue: 8

Special Effects: Luck Boost (X+ 1), immune from all status effects, Dungeon Seeker 6 points

Physical Attack: 11,652 Physical Defense: 2055

Magical Attack: 3,741 Magical Defense: 1,376]

My stats had changed drastically in one day. It was going to be harder to level up as quickly as I had, but I wasn’t worried. I just had to kill even stronger monsters.

“What should I do tomorrow?” I could kill the giant spiders in Paju in one to two hits, making the hunt quick and easy. Even if they ran from me, there were so many of them that I didn’t have to chase after them. The best place to level up right now was still in the fields.

“Ah! I could go to the Seorak Mountain dungeon.” I remembered the Seorak Mountain dungeon. That place was ideal for leveling up past level 400. The monsters there were levels 200-350, much stronger than the spiders here, and would probably put up a better fight than the monsters here. The double experience from the dungeon monsters would be nice, too.

“I’ll go to Seorak Mountain. It’s got to be dungeons if I want to hunt. Besides, if it’s anything like the past, it’ll probably be abandoned aftter being overrun by monsters. If that’s the case, then there won’t be anyone else there hunting, as well. Why didn’t I think of it before?” I smacked myself on the forehead.

“I should also stop by Anton’s Store before heading to the dungeon. I’ve got a skill point to use now, and I should shop a little to prepare. I’ve got a million golden rings to spend, so I should see if anything is being sold in the auction house by now.”

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I left Paju, happily thinking about being able to power level at Seorak Mountain. I sped my way to Gangnam, as I planned to stop by Anton’s Store later, and headed straight to Gangam’s Kaltz hotel. Why? Because I was rich.

I asked for a room for the night and paid the receptionist the 3,000 golden rings the room cost without complaint.

“By any chance, do you know anything about the dungeon at Seorak Mountain?” I asked in case there was something different than the past. I secretly hoped the Seorak Mountain dungeon was still blocked off by monsters. I knew I could easily force my way through and enter the dungeon.

“The Seorak Mountain dungeon?”

“Yes.”

“That place is dangerous. All of Gangwon and Seorak Mountain are swarming with griffons and twin-horned griffons. It’s too dangerous. Don’t go there.”

“Ah… is that right?”

“Yes. If you think you can even set foot on the mountain with all those griffons swarming around, you might as well take a death penalty right here. The twin-horned griffon is a boss monster that not even the Sunbin Guild can hope to take on. That boss is also always surrounded by a swarm of lesser griffons; there’s no way to beat it.”

It was the same as back then. The only thing different was that it was griffons that took over that part of Gangwon, but I expected as much. The giant spiders that were supposed to be in China were here in Paju. Besides, if I could get that item from the auction house tomorrow, griffons weren’t going to be a problem for me.

I thanked the receptionist for her warning and went up to my room. It was a nice room, worth 3,000 golden rings a night. I took a hot shower and lay down on the comfy bed.

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Even though I only slept for four years in that weird place, I was constantly nervous and worried about what would happen to me, so I never had a proper night’s rest. When I lay down now, I felt so relaxed and at ease.

As I drifted into sleep, I suddenly remembered something. Four years had passed!

“Four years… shouldn’t it be around by now?” Back then, there were three entities that all of South Korea was proud of. One of them was the Sunbin Guild, and another was the Gnosis Information Guild. The Gnosis Guild was ranked third of all of the world’s information guilds.

“They really were one of the greatest.” The actual member count of the Gnosis Guild was unknown, but it was a small information guild. It was rumored that there were less than a hundred members.

It was called an information guild, but the guild’s specialty lay in background checks and tracking people… especially tracking people.

There was a problem when someone became a deva; they couldn’t fully die anymore. In other words, if a deva was kidnapped and kept prisoner somewhere, there was chance that deva would never be found again. As long as the kidnappers prevented the deva from committing suicide and kept the deva alive, they could hold on to the deva for an indefinite time.

It would soon become obvious that the deva was still alive and hadn’t resurrected yet. But the deva’s family would become stressed from being unable to ever meet that deva ever again. That was when people sought out the Gnosis Guild.

America’s Hermes Information Guild specialized in monsters and dungeons; Russia’s Mysteria Guild specialized in skills, items, devas, and deities; Korea’s Gnosis Guild specialized in people tracking and background checks. These three were the world’s greatest information guilds.

“That guild should be up and running by now, right? I should go there once. Maybe I can find something on Lee Kangchan. At the very least, I can find out about Korea’s state of affairs and what sorts of monsters have spawned around Seoul.” To this day, I had not forgotten about my desire for revenge on Lee Kangchan, not even during the four years I was imprisoned.

I was going to repay him for killing me 123 times in a row and forcing me to jump into the Sea of Reset. So what if I got to return to the past because of him? There was one thing that wasn’t going to change.

“I’m going to make sure you get your just desserts!” I was going to repay him a thousandfold!

That night I dreamt of how I would get my revenge on Lee Kangchan.

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I got up from bed and stretched out. I could feel a never-ending vigor from my body. Even though I spent all day yesterday hunting, my body had no signs of fatigue anywhere.

“Let’s start the day off at the Gnosis Guild.” I decided to go the guild before visiting Anton’s Store, as the guild was located on the other side of town.

After deciding on today’s itinerary, I washed up before making my way to the hotel’s restaurant. Breakfast was included in the 3,000 golden ring room, so why not take advantage of it? There was a lot of food prepared in the hotel’s restaurant, as many devas stopped by to rest here.

After emptying twenty plates, I got up to leave. I checked out of the hotel and headed out.

“If I recall correctly, the Gnosis Guild was over there, right?” Back then, the guild had headquartered itself at Yeouido. The guild used an entire eleven-story building located near the National Assembly Proceeding Hall, but the only entrance into the building was a bar located on the building’s first floor. All requests could only be made in that bar, as well.

“Let’s go. Let’s put in a request on Lee Kangchan for now. He’s my target for revenge, so I might as well find out who he is.” Yeouido was much closer to here than Paju, and I sprinted straight for it. I think I was getting addicted to the way my body could move now…

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