The Great Sculpture

After much time, I have managed to interpret another chapter of the novel. This chapter had an absurdly large amount of text. The amount of time I have to do this has decreased quite significantly. University life has been quite inconvenient, fun in its own ways but inconvenient. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter and post your comments in the section below. As always, never know if I’m getting the names of the Geomchis right.

Vampires patrolled the area at regular intervals. That was a little bit unfortunate.

Weed was resting near a statue.

Bird of the main nut.

He ate the dish made from the Joinjok Sioux eggs and Celestial Fruit.

Weed could take on a vampire by himself, and the Death Knight could fight one solo as well.

“Kyaah!”

“Van Hawk, you traitor!”

“I only follow the commands of the Master.”

The fierce battle was resolved after he parried a few times and Weed killed the two vampires.

Weed sat back down without having to say anything.

“Dispel Curse.”

Alveron’s mission was to wait at the statue for the vampires and use the spells in order.

“Divine Light, please dispel the restraints on their freedom from the power that is distorting their form.”

Light came down from the sky and covered the statue. The blackened surface of the statue melted away, like was.h.i.+ng off ink. Inside the statues were paladins wearing the pattern of the Freya church.

“Die, Vampires!”

The paladins saw him wielding the sword of light as well as the presence of Alveron.

“I do not feel the slightest evil spirit coming from you. Are you from the church?”

“Oh, brother paladin! We have come to rescue everyone. Come with us and soon the suffering will be over.”

Alveron and the paladins broke out into a melodramatic scene.

The paladins returned to the cave and ate as if they were possessed. They began to beg Weed for food.

Weed put the food in a small bowl. After they ate, the paladins had an apologetic face as they held out the bowl.

“Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome. There is still some left, so eat some more.”

The paladins handed their bowl to Weed.

Their share of food was placed in the bowl. Then he gave it to the paladins.

The paladins gulped to swallow their saliva. Hunger was the best seasoning of all.

They had never had food that tasted better than Weed’s.

Intermediate handicraft and intermediate cooking skills!

They created a subtle taste and enticing smell.

“How can we eat while Weed starves? I cannot.”

“This food is given to us by the G.o.ddess. There is no way that I could eat it all by myself.”

Weed did not lie at all. In fact, eating just a little bit of high level cooking was enough to fill the satiety level.

He deliberately gave their share of food in small bowls. The paladins could not even begin to imagine the lethal and sophisticated meaning of such an act and continued to accept the bowl with grat.i.tude. They would accept the bowl and words of grat.i.tude would be spoken while they ate.

Alveron was using Meditation and Weed took out a carving knife.

Crunch.

The sound of sculpting.

As the paladins ate, they watched Weed work with his hands to create a beautiful sculpture.

It was the shape of a paladin fighting evil.

“You are very talented. It’s very beautiful.”

“It’s my hobby.”

The Order of the G.o.ddess Freya was about beauty and abundance. For that reason, Weed’s intimacy level with the church’s paladins was very high to begin with.

Sculptors! A profession about loving art and beauty.

Chef! Delicious food was a symbol of abundance.

Weed was not acknowledged by other people, but the paladins from the church would respect him.

“Everybody let us pray.”

After hunting and eating food, Weed bowed his head forwards and prayed to the G.o.ddess Freya.

“Thank you for the abundance of food and for giving us your blessing. Please continue to protect the peace of the continent from evil…”

Alveron was raised with the habit of praying.

Praying increased the intimacy of priests and paladins.

Like the soldiers of the Rosenheim Kingdom, the paladins were everywhere.

A total of 159 paladins and 38 priests were turned to stone. But wherever there was a stone paladin, there were certainly vampire guards.

“First of all, there is a need to increase our united strength.”

Weed persuaded the paladins with such logic.

Morata Province was overflowing with many wolves or evil monsters. They could hunt thousands of monsters in Morata.

But sometimes they rescued rebellious paladins.

“Now is not the time to do this! We should be searching for our brothers who are suffering instead of doing this!”

Occasionally the paladins would take their swords and tried to a.s.sault the village. Such a fearless att.i.tude towards evil was becoming of a knight.

True Blood Vampire Clan!

To the paladins, they were most certainly the enemy.

Weed desperately blocked them. If he let them back into the village now, what were the chances that they would become victim to the vampires again?

“They should still be alive and we must remain hopeful. But if any of us should be defeated, then we shall forever suffer the ridicule of the vampire and what do you expect will happen to your brothers as a result?”

Weed persuaded the paladins while hunting.

It was frustrating, but the paladins had to agree with Weed.

He needed money.

In Royal Road, he could trade in-game currency for real life cash.

You can obtain good equipment to sell, since there was no one else in Morata.

To trade items that anyone could bid on.

It was not easy to come to this region, so who would find the items?

He did not know if he could complete the quest on his own.

So, the conclusion was to increase their power. Yet he did not forget about the effects of sculptures.

“Don’t use wood. Stone is a good material to increase the proficiency of the skill.”

Weed was trying to find a suitably sized stone. However, in the snow-covered mountains, it was not easy to find the right stones. Moreover, since he had to remain still in order to sculpt and the harsh cold wind could make him sick. A lot of time was needed in order to make a sculpture.

“A bunch of rocks. Would it be possible to make a sculpture using that?”

Weed was deeply immersed with what to do about the sculpture.

“It doesn’t have to be rock. Any other hard object would be nice…”

Weed looked across the village and the mountains.

A snow covered world.

The ground was covered in blocks of ice.

“Ice! A sculpture made of ice!”

A sculpture made of ice could be the best material to use. It could be simply cut and readily available. It was perfect in the cold north since it wouldn’t melt.

Since then, Weed and the paladins took a break in order to cut ice. With his carving knife, he made large chunks of ice.

Soon he started cutting into it to make a sculpture.

Weed and the brave paladins fought against the vampires.

Their presence was carved into the Morata Province.

Weed began to think of ideas for the theme of the statue. Of course, the model was still Seoyoon. Weed had no other choice since he had never seen anyone prettier.

He had learned that art stats and the engraving skill increased depending on the meaning behind the sculptures.

Typically, in a town or a castle, a sculpture of a large object was more beneficial than a sculpture of a woman.

In the world, there existed countless masterpieces of woman and the most difficult sculpture to make was a beautiful woman.

The statue in Baran Village was able to make subtle smiles on people’s faces but such a thing would create a strange atmosphere in Morata Province and thus required something else.

A cold appearance.

It was made with an ice cold exterior. The face was the same as when Weed had saw Seoyoon.

He tried to replicate the first sculpture he had made.

It was almost complete, but it felt strange.

‘Is it because of the materials?’

Because it was made of ice, it felt vulnerable and weak.

‘If it doesn’t work and a failed product emerges…’

Weed strongly opposed the idea of failure.

Failure!

Failure was a painful aspect for a sculptor. A renowned sculptor would receive a large drop in fame.

Because a sculptor had to have pa.s.sion to create a work made it even more difficult.

‘Should I give up?’

If he gave up now, he would slightly damage his fame.

It would become an unforgettable abandoned piece.

Weed used all his powers of observation in order to depict Seoyoon in the sculpture.

‘A strong, cold feeling…Murderer! Yes, lively eyes filled with hate and distrust of other people.’

As he remembered he continued to carve.

Weed began to change the clothing of Seoyoon’s sculpture to armor.

Full plate armor!

On the sculpture was a steel plate that covered the whole body, giving it an intense look. The model for the armor was based on the ones that the paladins were wearing.

One would worry that it would look awkward, but the armor suited Seoyoon too well.

Finally, Weed tried to calmly carve the eyes in order to complete the piece.

‘Do not pay attention to what the window says. I will complete the eyes and it will not become a failure.’

An unbelievable coldness.

The allure of a brutal murderer.

Weed could feel the emotions of the sculpture in her eyes.

However, the eyes in the statue seemed to be their own. It’s clear and innocent eyes.

‘The materials. This happened because of the materials. Stupid Weed! Had to make it out of ice instead of disposing it.’

Weed sighed.

When the statue was completed, it was some time past noon. The sun reflected and shone brightly.

The sun’s rays systematically fell onto the beauty.

The beauty was s.h.i.+ning in numerous brilliant colors. It seemed as if the light would wrapped around the nearby people.

The light changed the statue.

Trembling.

The paladins had caught a cold.

As did Weed!

After having stood around in the desolate land, they did not return to the cave until night. The temperature dropped. The level of the ice and snow in the Morata Province increased and the winds picked up in intensity.

The polar climates have lower temperatures and strong winds.

Snow and pieces of ice fell from the dark blizzards and ice storms.

The numerous pieces of ice that fell created a beautiful landscape when paired up next to the sky.

The occurrence was one of the 4 finest mysterious wonders of the northern continent.

Royal Road had created a fantastic environment and many people that visit it were amazed more than any movie that was ever made.

The snow covered ground in the north stretches endlessly.

Snow and ice would sweep over the ground in snowstorms.

However, only a small number of people have visited it!

Many usually taste death in the middle of the snow during a blizzard. Their hands and feet would stiffen and the cold would permeate into their bodies until they were frozen.

Weed enjoyed the pain since it increased his endurance stat, even if it’s not what people usually would want to do.

The body would freeze immediately and be left out like a frozen sh.e.l.l and left to die miserably.

Every year, the northern lands were subject to over 30 snowstorms and blizzards.

Weed wanted to call it a curse of G.o.d.

The frigid cold cut deep into his skin!

At night, the temperature fell and it became even colder. Outside the cave was a giant snowstorm. Ice fell dangerously in the middle of the night and they were forced to stop their hunting. Most of the paladins suffered from a cold.

“Ohh, if I knew that this would have happened then I would have learned the sewing skill…”

Weed was trembling from the cold inside the cave but he had no regrets.

They had built up a lot of loot. From hunting in the surrounding area, they managed to collect a lot. Among them was wolf leather, which could be made into thick clothing to overcome the cold if one had sewing skills.

But Weed did not have such skills and was ultimately forced to fight the cold on his own.

Crackle.

The bonfire was burning.

They had looted wood from the mountains during the day so that at night they could have a fire going. However, the cold air from the entrance of the cave let in a disastrous amount of air. They weren’t going to die, but they were freezing.

“Ah-choo!”

Even with a cold, Weed managed to survive.

The cooking skill was useful. Eating hot stew managed to raise the resistance against cold and warmed the body.

When the ice and wind died down Weed and the paladins went outside of the cave once more.

The sculpture of the beauty was still standing even after the storm.

The sculpture had fought a tough battle against nature.

It was damaged but not completely broken.

Thanks to it, they were able to resist the cold better. But it was weakened to only a 20% cold resistance.

Weed took the carving knife and walked over to the Ice Beauty.

“Will this work? Repair!”

He removed the extra pieces of ice on the sculpture and packed ice into other minor spots. Wherever it was broken, he attached new pieces of ice. Soon, it came back to its original appearance.

“So it can also repair statues.”

Weed had learned another piece of information. Info about cla.s.ses was not made public and most professions had to make their own decisions to figure out more definite information.

Weed scratched his head as he thought.

“Perhaps… maybe it might be possible here!”

Weed logged out.

Lee Hyun browsed through the websites. He was mainly looking for legends of the Arctic or monsters that live in cold climates.

He was looking for information.

Making sculptures raised the skill up well.

Copying the shape of a monster was not difficult. But that was not much of an achievement.

‘I can’t keep making sculptures of monsters. Now they don’t even give me 2% skill mastery.’

Sculpting and Handicraft skills required an additional 20% proficiency requirement each level.

Therefore it was very difficult to increase the level of the skills.

Intermediate skills were not that different from the beginner level, but now it required a certain level of inspiration. The skill would not increase from simply making sculptures of the things around him.

The advanced stage required 50% more training than the intermediate stage for production skills.

Looking beyond their capabilities, production cla.s.ses were far more difficult than a combat based cla.s.s.

‘I should make something big to get more artistic value. It will probably raise the skill up a lot too…’

Then Lee Hyun accessed a site that was a.s.sociated with the Continent of Magic.

Dragons were cla.s.sified as the ultimate monster of a fantasy continent. Lee Hyun had hunted quite a few dragons in the Continent of Magic.

Powerful, vibrant magical attacks.

Incredible breath attack and colossal defense.

He had reached the highest level in the Continent of Magic, he needed to use a few tricks or he would never have dared to go up against a dragon.

Of those dragons there was the Ice Dragon!

A dragon with a size of over 150 meters and it was capable of a powerful ice breath.

He remembered the time he had hunted one.

“The tail…yea and then attach the head later. So I have to start from the feet and move up the body.”

Weed reconnected and started to collect chunks of ice.

Because it was immediately after a snowstorm, there was plenty of ice around. The ice piled around was larger than the average house. Walking around in the snow, people would have ice piled up to their chest.

“I would have died if there was nowhere to hide from the snowstorm!”

Frozen by the cold or struck dead by a chunk of ice! In the storm, death would come from one of the two. The only city in the north was in the vicinity of a large mountain. If it was unable to prevent snow in the mountains, then the village would not exist. But the northern town was frightening.

“In the past, the strongest military power of the northern kingdom was forced to be stronger or else they would not have been able to live in such an environment.”

Weed picked up chunks of ice from the surrounding area. He made a rough outline and then piled ice on top. The blocks of ice began to be stacked in layers on top of each other.

“A little bit at a time…”

Weed and the paladins had come back from hunting the wolves.

The blocks of ice that were stacked in a pile were now firmly solidified. There was no need for individual blocks but to connect all of them.

Weed had the paladins create a huge mountain of ice. A chunk of ice large enough to be a mountain!

The pile of ice was several stories tall and kept rising higher.

Hwiyiiiing – kureureureung!

The snowstorm came again.

Ice stacked on top of the giant pile of ice.

Weed kept piling up the snow for two more ice storms and soon there was a mountain made of ice.

The will of humans and the power of Nature!

The two had worked together to achieve the impossible.

“From here on out, it’s my turn.”

Weed pulled out the Zahab carving knife.

Ice sculpting.

He had created the Ice Beauty with his hands and suffered through the process.

It was a piece that required fine detail. If he put as much detail into a sculpture of this size, then it would take a year to finish and he did not have that kind of time.

Weed cut drastically and added ice sometimes.

The sculpture gradually began to unfold.

It was now possible to sculpt.

A bonus of the Intermediate Sculpting skills was the supposed special effects to carving.

Weed had to pay attention as to not fall from the mountain of ice. He connected a piece of rope to the top. Very much like rock climbing.

Tak tak tak!

Pieces and chunks of ice were being cut off by the knife and fell down. They would fall to the ground and shatter. Weed looked down from above to see the bottom of the sculpture.

“Ohhh…”

To fall to his death.

This fear was suppressed while he worked on the sculpting. However, hanging from a high place in the freezing cold was not a joke. Strong winds would blow and the rope that he was hanging on would s.h.i.+ft and he could not move.

Weed finished his first goal for the sculpture which was the torso. The central part of it was the giant torso that was the size of a mountain. The circ.u.mference of the torso was more than an extraordinary 100 meters long.

Now it was time for the tail and the legs.

The legs were deformed to be very small. However they were thick enough to hold up a mountain of ice.

Small, thick legs.

A long tail lay hanging from the torso. The length of the tail itself was tens of meters.

The last part was the head. It protruded boldly from the body with a long neck, with its mouth spread wide, and its face glancing over from the side.

Its mouth resembled that of a crocodile.

Long whiskers extended from its face.

Its eyes were fierce and full of power.

The moment Weed finished the sculpture, it was engulfed in light.

He did not imagine that he would be able to use chunks of ice to make a monster.

Ice Dragon Statues.

In comparison to the actual thing, Ice Dragon looked perfectly the same.

Using ice as the material for the Ice Dragon was the best answer.

Daring to use materials that other structures would never dream of. That made it a work of art.

Health and mana regeneration increased by 30%.

That meant that the rate of hunting would last 30% longer.

The increased resistance to the cold reduced the biggest obstacle in the north.

Resistance to magic and increase in maximum health.

The increase in stats.

This, along with his combat abilities made their chances of survival increase greatly.

If Alveron or the paladins die, then the quest would be over so Weed had to support them.

While Weed went around hunting and rescuing paladins. As did Death Knight Van Hawk.

“I will never approve of someone such as you!”

The paladins explicit complaints towards the Death Knight was revealed. It was too much for the followers of the faith to accept Van Hawk, who had been a servant of Balkan.

Weed went to the Death Knight side to sort out the problem.

“You mean the Death Knight? This is the reason for his purpose.”

Weed beat up the Death Knight. After dying pathetically in front of the paladins, he was reverse summoned. A while after the Death Knight died, the Red Necklace of Life would turn crimson again and could be summoned once more.

“Bloodhounds.”

“We can do this.”

The paladins went upon the task of taking down the monsters.

‘Really strong’

Weed nodded.

When he hunted in the Rosenheim Kingdom, he lead the recruits using his bow and sword against the goblins as well as using traps.

But to the paladins, they could neglect those things. Their attacks were based on divine power and crushed the bones of the monsters.

Weed brandished his sword against the undead to collect experience. 20% of the experience was given to the Death Knight, but compared to hunting in Lavias he was able to collect much better experience.

Hunting was much safer and sustainable with Alveron’s a.s.sistance. In a few months, Weed managed to get the paladins to around level 220 and others became equal to the True Blood Vampires with levels over 270. It was a performance worth tears. If it had not been for the Ice Dragon Statue, then it would have taken more time. One or two paladins may have ended up dead.

“Now let us begin to save the rest of our brothers.”

* * *

The 500 dojo pract.i.tioners Geomchis.

The pract.i.tioners all chose similar type cla.s.ses. Training their bodies, the sword was the first thing they learned in the game. They were noobs at everything else.

“It’s strange that eating bread fills the satiety level.”

“Drinking water also relieves thirst.”

“When I say status window, an impossible floating window appears!”

Such were the pract.i.tioners!

Several Geomchis had entered the game and ate the starting bread and were now going hungry.

Geomdulchi masked his face as he watched them.

“How is it that none of you have any bread left!”

“Do we hope for a miracle?”

“…”

They could no longer receive barley bread and the Geomchis were now suffering from hunger. The Geomchis were starving and waiting to die, but they could only hit the scarecrow. And then Pale came.

“Please buy me some bread.”

“Thank you.”

The Geomchis closed their eyes as they begged.

“We are not the type of people to be begging others for help. However since Weed is my disciple, isn’t it only natural that I should accept his help?”

The job was not what they had expected, but Pale and Surka accepted it nonetheless.

500 powerful men.

They instantly lost all backbone as they rushed Pale to go buy bread looking with their scary hungry eyes, so he went and bought 50 thousand barley bread.

For the 50 thousand barley bread, the price of single barley bread was 3 copper so with 1 silver he could buy 33 pieces and 1 gold could buy 3,300 pieces of bread.

Romuna, Surka, and Irene had grown up with so much money that they had never witnessed such pitiful people such as the 500 Geomchis.

Anyways, through a trial and error, the Geomchis finished beating the scarecrows in the training center.

4 weeks!

They really did not sleep for 4 weeks, and finished hitting the scarecrow.

505 people that were like Weed.

‘Ohh, I’m so tired.’

Honestly, if they had done it alone they would not have completed it.

Along with Geomdulchi, many of the trainees and instructors were tired and wanted to hurry and stop the training.

But Geomchi declared that they would not leave until they pa.s.sed the beginner’s training center.

If a single person did not pa.s.s, then the remaining 504 would have to wait for that one person.

“Such horror…”

If they remained behind then their conscience could not bear it! They were too afraid to take a rest. The pract.i.tioners were hitting the scarecrow like madmen.

“1697239!”

“1697240!”

“1697241!”

After Geomchi finished the beginner’s training center, Geomdulchi reported the number. Aside from Geomchi, the instructors and one trainee had finished their training and were waiting for the remaining 499.

Finally, the last part of the training center was finished.

“Master, the training is finished.”

“Good effort.”

“It was very difficult.”

All of the Geomchis got together in a group. They had waited together to pa.s.s the beginner training center. The instructor approached with a heart-warming smile. Then he took out some swords one by one.

“This is given to those that have completed the beginner training center. It is yours to take.”

“I know. Thank you.”

Geomchi thanked the instructor as he inspected his sword.

Their usernames were based on a single pattern.

Their names were in the initial order of the dojo!

His name followed the order as well.

The instructor smiled warmly.

“Do you have any questions? By the way, at this beginner training center, you are the 522^nd person to…”

“I do not. I do not need any help. Thank you.”

He had heard the 504 other pract.i.tioners approached by the instructor to say the same thing. It was like they were unable to get the instructor’s voice out of their ears.

The Geomchis had been waiting for the rest of them to finish up.

However, now the instructor said something a little different.

“Since such a large number of you have pa.s.sed this training center, it could only mean that good things will happen to this kingdom. I look forward to the day that you become valiant knights.”

“Yea, whatever. I don’t care. See you later.”

The Geomchis left the training center.

The game was finally beginning, but they were still noobs.

“Well, we need to get a job so let’s go to the guild.”

“Master, can we all come?”

“I don’t see any reason to not come! Is there?”

“As befitting of the Master.”

“Master, it is exciting that we will get inspected for a cla.s.s.”

All of the 505 Geomchis strode around the streets.

They were all dressed the same and moved in unison.

“Who the h.e.l.l are these people?”

“Are they holding a performance?”

“Look at that. They’re all holding the same sword.”

“Hey, they’re the guys from the training center!”

“Are they?”

“You mean those strange people…”

The Geomchis had already become a little famous but they did not care. They stood there, engulfed in the joy of the game for the very first time, the excitement, as they went to the guild.

After a while, one by one, the Geomchis came out of the guild smiling.

“Catch a fox?”

“Collect 300 fox leathers…”

“So it isn’t to catch a fox, but to collect fox leathers.”

“For a formal student of a dojo for more than two years? That is too easy.”

“Ha, ha, ha, foxes!”

The pract.i.tioners laughed loudly.

More Geomchis laughed.

“Kkeolkkeolkkeol! They are thinking too little of us.”

“Master, I do not think we have to do this alone. We can work together to collect the leather.”

“No Geomohchi. When you hunt you can earn experience for your level. Also, this is our first quest. Don’t you want to see what you are able to do?”

“Yes, indeed. Let us go catch some foxes.”

“Ha, I did not expect that I would first use my sword against a fox!”

“It is an honor for the fox.”

The people that were listening to the Geomchis conversation thought they were ridiculous. They seemed to be coming from a completely different world.

“Do you have any idea how strong a fox is?”

“They look like beginners without a job…”

“I couldn’t even catch a racc.o.o.n.”

The low levels ignored the Geomchis even more. They were unable to even think of hunting foxes. At their levels it was difficult to even hunt racc.o.o.ns or rabbits.

“Once they die, they should come to their senses.”

“I don’t think that there were any guild quests in progress to hunt fox pelts. Once the sun rises, they’ll be in town trying to buy the pelts.”

“I bet that there’s going to be a stack of corpses in front of the castle.”

In the midst of the commotion, Pale and Surka could be seen at a distance.

“It’s so pitiful.”

“Yea, it’s too sad.”

“Poor foxes…”

“…”

They knew about Weed and the pract.i.tioners that others did not know so Pale and the girls had a feeling about what was going to happen.

They had built up their base stats. However, to the other users it seemed that they were going to die…

“Oh! We should get going.”

“Let’s see how this goes.”

Geomchi and the pract.i.tioners went out the east gate.

The basic monsters such as foxes, rabbits, racc.o.o.n, and porcupines were outside playing around.

They were excellent at jumping and hunting noobs.

The fox was one of the monsters that stood out the most.

“Whoa, ah!”

“Let’s go!”

The Geomchis stampeded out into the field.

The fox was lying down with its tail in front sleeping. Unfortunately it was run down by a sword. This was the fox’s first fight against a sword and it just had to be a large number of swords wielding Geomchis!

With a fluid motion to avoid the attacks, he gently stabbed the sword towards the fox’s empty abdomen.

The fox turned gray and died.

“What, why was it so easy?”

Geomchi muttered aloud. The rest of them that had watched the monster’s chest saw that it was true.

“Who killed a fox?”

“The fox must have been hurt. So it must have died right on the spot.”

“It doesn’t make sense that it would die so fast, look for traps. It doesn’t look right.”

“I don’t think so! I think we are mistaken.”

“Is that right?”

However, then another fox came.

The pract.i.tioners dodge its silly attacks and attacked in response with their sword.

Peobeobeok!

Only one or two hits!

With their stats and skills, the 50% sword mastery boost, the damage they were doing was high.

“Oh, this is fun!”

“Yea, but why is the fox so weak?”

The Geomchis brutally killed any of the foxes they caught.

From squirrels to foxes, rabbits and racc.o.o.ns; they killed them all. In the end, by nightfall, the higher level wolves came out!

The wolves were tough as they revealed their sharp protruding teeth.

The pract.i.tioners had secured the castle of Serabourg and wiped out all the mobs. The crowd could only open their mouths in shock at the sight of them.

“Unbelievable!”

“How do they do that…!”

Pale could only nod as a result.

“Well…”

“Yea, really.”

“I think I’m scared.”

“Irene, why is it?”

“It’s like seeing more than 500 people like Weed…”

“…”

For the mobs of rabbits and wolves, that was without a doubt an era of suffering.

The pract.i.tioners were carried away from the feeling of freely wielding a sword and using it to directly hit a monster.

Then a certain wolf that seldom shows itself appeared.

Awoooo!

The Silver Wolf’s roar.

Its silver fur was gently flowing in the wind.

It legs were elegantly outstretched and it boasted st.u.r.dy thighs.

Then Geomdulchi spoke up.

“It looks like we catch something nice.”

“Master, this one has better stuff.”

“Is that so? It gives better items?”

“That’s right!”

Geomchi charged.

Kaeaeaeng!

The wolves left the world with one scream at a time.

The Geomchis led a frenzy of slaughter in front the Citadel of Serabourg.

Sword mastery and rewards!

Experience!

Items!

Even the pract.i.tioners that had only been using the sword for a couple years became devoted.

Their soul no longer felt stifled.

They could unleash their sword skills here.

Kill monsters, get experience and level, eat better food.

For the pract.i.tioners it was good to be strong.

The reason was simple.

‘The spirit is the body!’

They did not want to be weak.

They wanted to fight strong monsters.

Get good items. Get more money.

The fact that the rabbits and wolves dropped copper was fantastic since it mean that they could buy barley bread and they would not starve.

They could not stop since it was not enough!

“Keuhahahaha!”

“I will kill you!”

The crowd that had been watching them were excited at first, but as it dragged on they began to tremble.

* * *

Thanks to Alveron and the higher level paladins, they were able to deal with 4 to 5 vampires at once.

The vampires guarded the statues.

The paladin forces only attacked a few times during the day.

That way, they were able to rescue over 30 paladins. He was able to enhance the cooking skill by feeding the large number of paladins, but the problem wasn’t the cooking but the ingredients!

So they had to start hunting for food. Dozens of paladins went to look for a good hunting ground for food ingredients, after which they needed to repair their armor. But during all of this hunting, he neglected to raise his sculptor skills.

Other than his outstanding combat skills, he needed more time than other people to get stronger because he needed to improve Handicraft.

So he needed to raise his sculpting and various other skills as much as possible. Even if he had good combat capability, Weed had the hidden advantage of being a support cla.s.s.

The best thing he could do was to support the paladins in the upcoming battles.

‘It’s fortunate. Other than one factor, there is no time limit…’

The quest to recover Fargo’s crown and rescue the petrified paladins had no particular time limit. Perhaps because the person that received the quest would have no time to hunt.

Because of food.

There were over dozens of paladins that you had to feed. You had to watch over the amount of food left after each fight until the quest was complete; however Weed was always travelling with his seasonings and cooking skills.

To him, all the things in the forest and mountains were suitable for the cooking skill.

A wide variety of materials.

Meat from monsters could be good materials for soup, along with nuts and herbs.

He was familiar with how his geography played a part in his life.

A full-time job!

This was the place to exercise the power of the skills he had learned.

The number of paladins continued to increase, as did the number of people crowding the cave.

The effectiveness of the Ice Dragon Statue was becoming more apparent.

The larger the number of paladins, the more evident the effect the statue was having on the group.

It was always better to have more people.

Weed led as many paladins as possible to defeat the monsters.

Leading the paladins had increased his leaders.h.i.+p and charisma by a fearsome amount.

His stats were increasing faster than his level, but he didn’t complain in the slightest. He thought of it as a sort of investment in raising his stats.

The cooking skill was growing very quickly.

Using the miscellaneous things from the mountain, he struggled with experimentation to develop new dishes while conserving ingredients.

He was able to create a new recipe of porridge using gra.s.s and bark. It tasted fine because of Weed’s cooking skills.

‘It has come to a good fruition.’

He had used leftover ingredients to make the dish. In the midst of mixing it together, a shocking thing happened.

A secret of the cooking skill!

Weed managed to solve one of them.

In fact, the secret was very simple and wasn’t very secret, but it worked.

Praying together to the G.o.ddess Freya increased the intimacy to the church…

In return for the praise and devotion to G.o.d, special abilities will be granted by G.o.d.

Weed created a stat that was usually exclusive to priests and paladins.

Faith was known to influence the magical powers of the G.o.ds. However since Weed could not use divine magic, it was a totally useless stat.

“Stat window.”

Weed’s stats were abnormal.

While hunting, he intentionally gave up experience in order to increase his stats. He had a larger diversity of stats and more stat points for a character of the same level. It did not take a genius to figure out that he had increased his fighting spirit and sustenance stat to over 300 by spilling his own blood.

However, that was not all.

He had reached intermediate in several skills, gaining bonus stats as well as the various different types of equipment that changed various stats. Because of that, his strength, dexterity, and endurance stats were higher than normal. Faith stat had also been created. His job was that of the moonlight sculptor; he had intermediate sword mastery, intermediate cooking, and intermediate sculpting mastery that added to his stats!

He was wearing the Rose Engraved Gloves, Agatha’s Holy Sword, and the Ring of the High Priest as well as the addition of status effects. Therefore his Faith stat was one of his highest cla.s.ses with over 400 points.

In terms of stat points it was enough to overwhelm an ordinary paladin. Of course, most of his items had effects on them.

If a stat did not exist, then it would not affect the character at all. However now that the Faith stat had been created, Weed was now being granted effects from the stat.

‘No matter how I look at it, the stat is useless. However one day…there might some use for it in the future.’

Unexpectedly, after the Faith stat had been created, the look in the paladins and priests eyes towards Weed changed.

They followed his command immediately and even expressed admiration sometimes.

“Leader, we initially had doubts about your leaders.h.i.+p, but from now on we shall follow your command.”

“You are a companion of the church!”

“The power of our faith shall guide us.”

Because of Weed’s high Faith, the paladins now acted differently.

NPC paladins were usually given the stat at level five and increased depending on their level.

Because they were a skilled swords cla.s.s they needed to evenly distribute stats into endurance, strength, and dexterity. Since they were a cla.s.s related to magic, they had to put points into wisdom and knowledge. Since they were followed the faith of G.o.d, their faith stat was around 200 to 300.

But Weed’s faith stat in respect to the paladins was nearly 400.

Needless to say, the priest over time usually had more. But after hunting with the paladins he cooked food and repairing equipment for them during the break otherwise they would be able to hunt.

They were extremely addicted.

As time pa.s.sed, soon Weed and the paladins were standing near the village with the giant black castle in front of them.

Alveron removed the curse from the last of the paladins.

“Divine light please free the power of restraints that are twisted here.”

The light came down and dispelled the curse on the statue.

“Under the command of the High Priest we have come to rescue you.”

At this point, the paladins kneeled in front of Weed to get informed of the situation.

“The church is here to recover Fargo’s crown and rid of the True Blood Vampire Clan that threatens the peace of the village.”

“From here on, I would like to follow the n.o.ble commander’s commands.”

The paladins were keen to follow Weed’s commands thanks to the increase in his leaders.h.i.+p and faith stats.

By then, he had completely secured the village.

A total of 159 paladins. A total of 38 priests.

A grand total of 199 people including Weed and Alveron.

The tremendous black giant felt overwhelming.

Bards would sing tales of its horror.

Ravens ominously circled the building and the paladins trembled.

“A total of 5 floors”

Weed looked up the at the castle.

The makes.h.i.+ft windows had curtains covering them and were barricaded with wood on the outsides.

“Okay. I’ll take that challenge.”

Weed led the priests and paladins into the castle.

Kureureureung!

He simultaneously pushed both of the doors open at once.

“…”

Weed took a step back quietly.

“Let us advance! In the name of the G.o.ddess we will take out the True Blood Vampires and liberate the Province of Morata!”

“Woowaah!”

Weed and the paladins entered inside the building and then the door slammed shut by itself. As if nothing had ever happened.