Emperor of Solo Play

Chapter 114 -  The Foe that Gives Generously (1)

1.

“Do you want to go with me to the Tehkee tribe?”

Hyrkan had stripped the Barks off the Black Tree, and he severed the tree branches.  Hyrkan was taking apart the Black Tree to gain the Ingredient Coins.  

As he was doing this, Whistling just dropped an offer to Hyrkan.

Whistling's suggestion was unexpected.  It was unexpected for him and Hyrkan.

Moreover, it was a big deal to be able to go to an Eleven tribe's village. Under normal circumstances, one had to have the qualification to be able to go there.  One needed a Quest or a Title. However, Hyrkan would be able to visit the Tehkee tribe through Whistling. It was an incredible opportunity.

“It's all right.”

However, Hyrkan turned down the offer.

Whistling didn't ask the reason behind the refusal.

“I guess it is time for us to part.”

“As promised, we won’t balance the account for the Coins. If you have something you have to do soon, you can go.  Don't worry about me.”

“When I receive the Circlet of Purification from Chieftain Drah, I'll send it to you.”

“Since you are already sending it my way, it would be ok if you send another Item with it by mistake.”

They ended the conversation on a very light note.  A smile was seen on both their lips, and that was how the conversation had ended.

The two didn't make any promises to meet again as they parted from each other.

2.

‘Wow.’

Hyrkan looked at the Ingredient Coins that was filling the bag used for storing his Ingredient Coins. It looked as if it was about to burst.  He put on a big grin.  His Ingredient Gem bag was also getting close to bursting.

‘Everything's better when all the benefit goes to one person.’

After organizing his Ingredient Coins, he scouted out a location where he could immediately log out.  He had one more hour of play time left, but Hyrkan decided to logout a bit early.

‘I'll log out first, then I have to sent the original footage and money to the Romani Films.’

He had a lot of things to do.

When one finishes a great task, a lot of loose ends had to be tied up.

The first thing he had to do was to commission the Romani Films to produce his video.  He had  decided to go all out for the purpose of creating a footage he could sell. Of course, he would leave the production of the footage to the Romani Films.

He had also done a calculation.  It was impossible to do an in depth calculation, but at the very least, he could get a rough estimate on how much surplus fund he will gain from this.

He also had to make changes to something that was the very important to him.  He had to change some aspects of his long term plan.

Hyrkan had gained a lot from this Black Tree hunt.

He also had to worry about what he should do with the Circlet of Purification.

‘Should I sell the Circlet of Purification or not?  That is the real question.’

When the Circlet of Purification was put on the market, it wouldn't just be single Users trying to purchase the Item.  The Item was valuable enough for the 30 greats guilds to get involved in the bid.

What was it worth?

‘How much can I get…… It'll be hard to trade it for gold.’

There was no way he could trade it for gold.  The amount was too large to trade.  In a situation like this, one usually traded an Item for an Item. If it was the Circlet of Purification, he would easily be able to get a level 150 Unique Set.

‘Should I aim for the Greenstone Imoogi set?’

It wouldn't be hard to pry away the coveted Greenstone Imoogi set. However, if Hyrkan asked for a trade with the guild, V&V might think Hyrkan was trying to cheat them. That might be a reason why the request might be ignored.

‘It wouldn't be too bad for me to use it. I could sell this anytime I want’

It wasn’t a bad idea for Hyrkan to use the Item for himself.

He would be immune from every negative effect. The beast called Hyrkan might become a much more scarier beast.

First, there would be no better Item to have when fighting a Boss Monsters.  The Boss Monsters were tough to face in the first place, because Fear and other debuff skills reduced the User's Stats.

This Item would also be quite useful when fighting other Users.  This was especially true for him, since Hyrkan was able to use powerful Curse skills.  However, what if Curses and debuff skills didn't work on him?  Hyrkan's opponents would automatically swear if their skills wouldn't take hold.  

The cherry on top was the fact that he could sell it after using it.  He could get a reasonable price for it no matter when he sold it.

Of course, one's watch could be stolen after a PK, and there was a chance that he could lose it.  Hyrkan would lose his everloving mind.

For the time being it was important for him to gain the Black Tree set.  He wasn't sure about this, but he currently had enough Gem ingredients to make 30 parts to the Rare Item set.  The 30 parts meant he could make 6 sets.

The Black Tree set was good enough for him to use, and it could also be sold.  If he sold it after using it for a while, he wouldn't lose too much money.  Of course, the Ingredient Coins and Gems could be sold  at a higher price compared to pre-made Items. However, the difference wasn't that big.

Anyways, Hyrkan's personal strength had increased by a significant margin.  This meant he had to significantly alter his plans.

However, one thing was for sure.  This was bad news for the groups, who would have to fight against Hyrkan. What happened this day was an unfavorable development for them.

3.

Whistling discreetly touched his forehead.  Whistling had a very bizarre expression on his face. He felt happy, yet even his happy face looked rugged and ill-tempered.  It was terrifying.  As an outside observer, he had a face that was hard to read...  It was a form of a poker face.

‘This isn't bad.’

Whistling had this expression on his face, because he had just finished the Quest related to the Tehkee tribe.

The tribe had been saved from the Black Tree's Curse, so everyone had expressed their thanks to him.

First, he got three substantial Titles.  One of the Titles gave a percentage increase to his Stats.

On top of that, he had gained two Items that were considered to be the treasures of the Tehkee tribe.  He earned a level 150 Unique Rank sword, and gloves.  The Options on these Items were very good.  Amongst the Level 150 Unique Items, these were in the top bracket.

Also, these were Bound Items, so it was impossible to trade them.  However, Whistling didn't care about that.

Something else had put Whistling in a good mood.  A young elven girl had given a flower she picked from a tree she had grown to Whistling.  She also planted an adorable kiss on his forehead.

‘This isn't bad at all.’

He replayed that moment again. He had a happy expression from the memory, and Whistling walked towards the Puree Village.

He didn't have a significant reason behind his visit to the Puree village.  It was a place where one could hear information regarding the Pure forest.  One was also able to check the market rates, and the consumable items he needed could be purchased there.   The consumable items that could be traded for at the Puree Forest was more expensive than the market value, but it didn't matter to Whistling. He had a lot of money.

Moreover, he had visited the Puree Village several times, and he never run across trouble before.

However, it was different this time around.

When he crossed the gate into the Puree Village, the Big Smiles guild member looked at him with a different expression on his face than usual.  His changed expression and his continuously moving lips meant that he was having an emergency call with some unknown person.  At the very least, it was very unlikely that this User was mumbling to himself.

‘Something is going on.’

Whistling recognized the change in the atmosphere. He guessed something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

As if to answer his prediction, ten Users appeared.  They didn't just appear.  They were situated in positions that made it look like they were surrounding him.

“Whistling Pitbull.”

There were 10 of them. The 10 Users were wearing mismatched armors, so one couldn't see a unified theme between them.  However, the Big Smiles emblem on their chests identified them clearly.

The Users from the Big Smiles guild surrounded Whistling.

Whistling didn't check the faces of the Users surrounding him.  A fighting dog didn't care about his surrounding.

His attention was focused on one person.

‘Who is that?’

He only glared at his prey and victim.

Whistling glared at the person, who had called out his nickname. This User looked completely different from Whistling.

He had a corpulent body that made one feel sorry for the armors he was wearing.  Whistling was reticent to think this, but the User in front of him was uglier than him. However, this fat User had a presence about him that one wouldn't be able to forget after seeing him once.

“What does Big Smiles guild want with me?”

Whistling took up the banter.  

“Want? That's what I want to ask you.  How dare a guild member of the Fighters guild operate out of our territory so boldly? I want to ask you the same question.  What business brings you here?”

The thoughts within Whistling's head became complicated. He had been visiting this place without any trouble until now, so why were they suddenly behaving like this?

Instead of worrying over it, he immediately replied with a question.

“What is your name?”

He was a regular guild member, but Whistling was still a member of a big guild called the Fighters guild.

The User trying to pick a fight with him was a member of the Big Smiles guild.  Moreover, there was a high probability that he was an officer.

Of course, if the two of them fought, this wouldn't be a personal matter any more.  It would be an incident between two guilds. One had to check each other's rank to avoid unnecessary trouble.  It would be best to prevent accidents from happening.  Of course, if one was purposefully causing an incident, it was a whole different story.

“Apollo.”

As if his opponent understood this, he revealed his name.

“I am an officer of the Big Smiles guild.”

He revealed his rank.

At that point, Whistling became a bit suspicious.

‘Apollo? There was someone like him amongst the officers in Big Smile?’

He had been disinterested in guild politics, so of course, Whistling hadn’t memorized the names of all the officers in the 30 great guilds.

Still, he had never even heard a single rumor about an officer with such a corpulent body.  Moreover, Apollo's appearance was memorable. If he had a brief encounter with Apollo, he would have remembered it.

‘No one would dare to impersonate an officer of the Big Smiles guild here.  That's the truth.’

He determined it wasn't possible for someone to impersonate oneself as an officer of the Big Smiles guild inside the Puree village.  This village was under their jurisdiction, and this User was wearing the Big Smiles guild emblem.

Then....

“I'm moving by myself through the Puree Forest.  Why would that be a problem?  I'm not even in a party.”

“It wouldn't have been a problem if you had asked for permission.”

“Permission?”

“You should have asked with sincerity. I would have believed in your sincerity if you had come bowing your head.”

His opponent was openly provoking Whistling.  That was obvious.

‘Hoohng.’

At that point, Whistling didn't have any complicated thoughts.  In the first place, he wasn't the type to use his head in such a situation.

“Come at me.”

Choo-roong!

Whistling immediately unsheathed the sword hanging from his waist.

4.

After a break, Hyrkan connected to the game. When Hyrkan gained access to the game, he quickly moved with his full bags containing the Ingredient Coins. His foot speed was much lighter than it had ever been.

‘Did he already send it?’

Hyrkan was running, and the thought of the Circlet of Purification made his feet feel much lighter.

‘Ah. I hope the Circlet of Purification is there when I arrive at the Item Storage facility.’

The Circlet of Purification was working better than a Haste skill in increasing Hyrkan’s speed.

However, Hyrkan came to a stop when he realized a group was quickly coming towards him.

‘Huh?’

Hyrkan stopped as a matter of course, and he hid himself.

‘What's this?’

He had stopped as a matter of course, but in truth, this wasn't a normal procedure for regular Users.  Normally, when one comes across other Users, one either ignored or greeted them.  Only the shady Users hid themselves.   

However, Hyrkan was unique. He had already gone through unspeakable hardships and suffering. The entire world of Warlord had been his enemy once.  He had a habit of hiding himself when a large group approached his direction.  It was a very sad habit.

After Hyrkan hid himself, three Users quickly rushed by Hyrkan's location.  They were checking every direction, but they didn’t catch sight of Hyrkan.  The three Users shared a brief conversation.

“Shit.  Where did that guy run to?”

“We can't catch him. How are we suppose to catch a single User in such a vast land?  When we lost him at the village that was the end.”

After the brief conversation, they immediately moved into the distance. However, Hyrkan kept himself hidden even after they disappeared.  He closed his eyes, and he thought about what he had just witnessed.

‘There were three of them with the Big Smiles guild emblem....’

The three Users that just passed by were affiliated with the Big Smiles guild.

‘If I consider their running speed and Item Setting, they are Striker Type Users.’

On top of that, they were Swordsman Class Users, who had increased their Strength Stat. They all seemed to be chasing after someone.

Something was afoot.

‘Who are they chasing after that they felt the need to form a pursuit party?’

A normal hunting party never consisted of three Strikers unless they were running away.  Even then it was more common to see Strikers disperse when running away.

In the end, it meant the three members of the Big Smiles guild was a part of a pursuit party. A pursuit party had been formed to hunt down a normal User.  It meant they were hellbent at hunting down this User.

At that moment, Hyrkan thought for a brief moment.

‘Hmmm.’

He didn't have any good feelings towards the Big Smiles guild. Moreover, he didn't know what their intentions were.

However, Hyrkan didn't feel the need to dip his toe into something annoying.  He had been planning on bypassing the Puree village in the off chance that a problem might occur.

In truth, he didn't even need to think about it.  It didn't matter, who the Big Smiles guild was chasing down.  It had nothing to do with Hyrkan.

He would ignore it.  That was the wisest course.

It happened when he was about to choose the wise course of action.

“He's over there. There!”

The three Users had doubled back towards Hyrkan's location.

‘Are they perhaps aiming for me?’

Hyrkan discreetly put his hand into his pocket to grasp the Skeleton Fragments.

However, they just rushed past Hyrkan.  Hyrkan extracted the hand that had been touching his Skeleton Fragments.

As the group was getting farther away, one User let out a shout.

“Let's hunt down that fighting dog!”

Hyrkan had a reason to move now.