Ranker’s Return

‘Noon the day after tomorrow?’

Back at the hotel, Hyeonu reflected on the time that Reina had told him and felt it was a bit strange. They were having the party during the day? There was no need to have it during the day. Tomorrow was the last day of Arena Week, which meant there had to be an after-party. It was normal for people to be in a lousy state after an after-party.

So would they go to a party held at noon? It would already be great if they didn’t show up with eye boogers and greasy hair.

‘Of course, I won’t be able to get out of bed.’

Hyeonu cocked his head but didn’t think much about it. A party didn’t have to be about drinking.

‘It can be a light lunch party.’

He would ask for more details tomorrow.

Ttiring!

Just then, a clear and light sound rang through Hyeonu’s room. It was the doorbell. Hyeonu opened the door and checked the face of the person who rang it.

“What is it?” he asked. Mason was the one standing at the door. He was dressed in a comfortable training suit.

“Hyung, let’s go eat.”

“Eat? Is it a buffet today?”

“I don’t think so? I think I heard it is Korean food... Let’s go and see. Regardless of whether you’re playing Arena or sleeping, you have to eat first.” Mason pulled Hyeonu’s arm and took him to the floor where the restaurant was located.

Upon entering the restaurant, Hyeonu marveled at the scene before him and uttered, “Wow...”

Plates of his favorite foods were laid out all over the restaurant.

“Did you rent the restaurant for today? What is all this?” he asked.

In the dining room, there were portable gas stoves placed on each table, with a grill and pots on top of them. Beside the portable gas stoves were platters of pork belly and other meat. Meanwhile, the army stew, filled with ham and sausages, was boiling in the pot.

“I prepared it to celebrate us winning first place in the siege today. Come and sit down, Hyung,” Lee Hoon told Hyeonu while placing meat on the heated grill.

“Yes, let’s eat first.” Hyeonu sat down. Rather than holding chopsticks, he grabbed the tongs from Lee Hoon’s hands.

“Don’t cook it half-heartedly. Give me the tongs.” Hyeonu had a strange obsession that only occurred in front of the fire.

That’s right.

‘Why do I feel so frustrated when I see meat cooked in a clumsy way?’

Thanks to this obsession, Hyeonu had a very devoted image among his friends. It was natural since every time they went to a meat restaurant, he never put down the tongs.

“Ah, that’s right. Hyung can’t watch me grill meat...” Lee Hoon smiled and picked up chopsticks instead. It was late in the evening, but the players of Crescent Moon talked like they didn’t care about that. They mostly talked about their performance in today’s match—who they killed, who they saved, and how they contributed to the victory. In other words, they were busy bragging. Nevertheless, Hyeonu just grilled the meat and watched them happily.

“What will happen tomorrow?”

“The boss monster that comes out is important.”

The topic of the players’ conversation then shifted to the raid time attack that would take place tomorrow.

“Even so, Hyung will kill it alone anyway. We can only help a bit when it is a large monster.”

“I guess so. Probably? However, we don’t know the rules yet. We need to hear the rules for tomorrow.”

For some reason, the rules for the raid time attack hadn’t been disclosed. It was still a secret as to how it worked and what type of boss monster it was. What level was the boss monster? Nothing was known.

“We just have to trust Hyung.”

“We will do our best in our own way. The things we are lacking will be filled in.”

Lee Hoon and Dwayne said as they grabbed some meat. The two of them weren’t worried much about the raid time attack. There were two main reasons for that. One was that the ranking was already set. Crescent Moon had already secured their victory in Arena Week. They were first in two out of three events; it was an overwhelming score.

The New York Warriors led by Reina had come in second in both PvP and the siege, but it was still impossible for them to overtake Crescent Moon. Even if they finished first in the raid time attack, they would be second place on the overall rankings. The players of Crescent Moon couldn’t help thinking so when they were already number one.

The second reason was their extreme faith in Hyeonu. The Crescent Moon players knew better than anyone else precisely how good Hyeonu was, having witnessed the occasional times when he showed his full power. Additionally, they had seen him kill many boss monsters at terrifying speeds in the Winter League, so they weren’t worried.

“Yes, don’t worry and just relax today,” Hyeonu also responded with similar words to his teammates. He wasn’t too worried about tomorrow’s raid time attack either. In recent times, the level of his combat ability was too different for him to worry about raid time attacks. Who amongst the other players would dare to fight a demon king or who could endure the emperor’s intense momentum like Hyeonu had done?

‘The boss monster that eventually comes out must be capable of being killed by other players.’

That meant the boss monster would be unconditionally weaker than a demon king. Hyeonu had fought a demon king without receiving Yuri’s buff. Even if a demon king came out as a boss monster for the raid, he was likely to have better results against the demon king this time.

‘Of course, that won’t happen.’

Hyeonu shoved a large piece of meat into his mouth and drank from his glass.

“Groan... Delicious, delicious.”

Now that his Arena Week win was confirmed, the only thing left was to enjoy it.

***

“Yes, I’m going first.” Hyeonu left the other players in the restaurant and returned to the hotel first. There was only one reason for that.

‘I have to connect to Arena.’

It was to play Arena. Things in reality had been resolved smoothly. It was safe to say the worries of Arena Week might be over, but Hyeonu still had a lot of work to do left in Arena.

‘There shouldn’t be a long gap in information.’

During the competition, Hyeonu had gone around the community and A-World to learn about what was happening out of concern that something might’ve happened while he was gone. Fortunately, there were no reports of any changes in the demon world—just occasional posts saying there was a war of nerves between some large guilds.

“Um... There is no big change today,” Hyeonu muttered as he climbed onto the wall of Etono and looked around.

It was fortunate nothing much had changed this time.

‘I’m glad none of it has collapsed.’

Hyeonu sighed and used his lord’s power to move from Etono to Phinis.

‘It should roughly be done, right?’

There was only one reason why Hyeonu was heading to Phinis—his request to Edchan. The pending list of items he requested of Edchan would probably be reduced over time, so he went to Phinis for a look.

‘It was around here...’ Hyeonu headed straight to the vacant lot in the lord’s castle. The moment he arrived, he raised his magic power and sharpened his senses.

‘Over here.’

Hyeonu sensed a very faint magic power and moved toward its source. When he walked past a certain point, a dragon’s head emitting a subtle energy appeared in a place that looked like an ordinary vacant lot.

“It’s the same?” Hyeonu muttered as he looked at the unchanged dragon’s head.

Right then, the voice of an old man rang out from behind Hyeonu: “Of course. It is because I haven’t done anything yet.”

Suped was standing behind Hyeonu. He gazed at Fuca’s head with a loving look on his face.

“Edchan must be busy. Seeing that he didn’t do anything...” Hyeonu spoke in a calm tone. He wasn’t in a rush at all. Edchan had given an adequate completion date to Hyeonu beforehand. As Hyeonu was already aware of it, there was no need for him to feel a sense of regret here.

“Busy with what? The things you are waiting for are finished. Tresha begged to join the moment he heard it was dragon skin... In any case, he finished the work very quickly. Now I’m just killing time every day by watching this guy,” Suped said.

Hyeonu’s eyes widened upon hearing that.

‘He’s done already?’

Edchan had finished making the items much sooner than he said he’d take in the beginning.

‘By the way... why is he staring at Fuca’s head?’ Hyeonu wondered inwardly.

At this point, Edchan and Suped should be making something out of Fuca’s head rather than simply watching like this.

‘What type of cheapskate is this? Getting full just by looking at it.’

“By the way, why is Edchan leaving this alone? I remember he acted like he was going to do something right away,” Hyeonu questioned Suped.

“Of course, it’s because it is maturing right now. Time is needed for the magic circles I carved to set... Maybe Edchan will have to have completed another job before we can start working.”

The reason why Edchan was sucking on his fingers and delaying things was that he was waiting for the right time to get into the job. Edchan and Suped were maturing Fuca’s head like they were maturing meat.

“Is that so?” Hyeonu moved closer to Fuca’s head.

He placed his hand on Fuca’s head and focused his senses.

‘It’s true.’

The magic power he sensed from Fuca’s head was more active than ever before. No, it was right to think that the amount had increased. The magic power around them was slowly rushing to Fuca’s head.

“Then I’ll go to Edchan. I am very curious about what kind of equipment he has made,” Hyeonu said. Hearing that, Suped waved his hand, expressing for Hyeonu to leave quickly and not hang around the dragon’s head.

***

“Edchan!” Hyeonu opened the door of the workshop and entered. The workshop was very organized. Judging by the residual heat, the fire in the furnace must’ve just been extinguished.

“Come this way,” Edchan’s voice came from far inside the workshop.

Hyeonu headed toward Edchan’s voice while saying, “I came after hearing that the items I asked for are completed.”

“Your timing is good. I just finished them yesterday.” Edchan placed two boxes in front of Hyeonu—one large and one small.

“The big one contains the same things as last time, while the small one contains the earrings. Go ahead and open it,” Edchan informed him with a confident expression.

‘If so, my expectations are high...’ Hyeonu thought.

He first opened the small box to reveal two purple earrings that emitted a brilliant glow.

‘Item Information.’