Taming Master

Chapter 196: The Beginnings of the Devils (2)

Meanwhile, Ian, who had entered the dimensional door that Iriel had made, was having an incredibly unusual experience.

A kind of system message that he had never seen before had popped up.

• You have entered Zone 127 of the Devildom, a temporarily open zone.

• For an easy new area test run, you have temporarily received 99 points for your ‘Resistance Magic’ abilities.

• From now on, 99% of the damage received from all enemies of the Devildom will be absorbed.

Ian narrowed both of his eyes.

‘What… Is this?”

Ian’s mind began to spin quickly.

‘A temporarily open zone, huh… On top of that, a test run? Something about this smells like honey.’

Up until now, Kailan was a unique VR game where a bug or a hole in the system was never discovered despite the large amount of users using it.

However, the discovery of bugs or system errors in other VR games excluding Kailan was frequent, and Ian was a user who had played a lot of those games as well.

‘Were the opening preparations of this area not fully completed yet?’

Ian began to reason out things one by one.

‘I think that the fact that I’ve received a stat called Resistance Magic for a test run means that they’ve drastically reduced the difficulty level of the map for the QA of the game…’

(QA, the abbreviation for Quality Assurance, stood for the task of various tests as well as inspection operations before the releasing of the product in order for the game to have a certain level of quality.)

While checking the stat called Resistance Magic that newly appeared in his character information window, Ian grinned.

He wasn’t sure if it would be the same in other places, but he was sure that this stat was an incredible cheat stat at least in this Devildom.

Ian checked the stats of his retainers, including Kaizar, as well as his Familiars.

And after seeing that the phrase ‘Resistance Magic +99’ was written in all of the information windows, the corners of his mouth slightly rolled up.

‘If this is the case, will I be able to reign over the Devildom for at least a quarter of a day?’

This current situation was definitely not one where it was possible to play normally.

Ian definitely recognized that.

‘Keukeu, I truly thought Kailan was a perfectly monster-like game, but for it to show a hole like this.’

However, Ian had no intentions of leaving this place obediently.

He was instead planning on squandering to the limit.

‘With a buff that reduces the amount of damage received by 99%, shouldn’t we be able to even catch Satan?’

If someone saw him, they could criticize him saying he was cheating, but he didn’t care about such things.

Since no matter how unjust this was, if they became the beneficiary, anybody would be happy.

Ian hummed as he began to move his feet.

The map, which was colourful and strange, fostered an incredibly terrifying atmosphere, but such things didn’t even catch his eyes.

‘I really hope that this Resistance Magic stat properly works…’

And shortly after, Ian was able to discoverer his first monster within the Devildom.

• Lakoum – Lv 205/Low-class Magical Beast

The Lakoum, which was a whopping level 205, was a magical beast that took on the shape of a giant, dark-red rat.

After checking his surroundings, Ian carefully initiated a battle with the monster.

‘Since in case the Resistance Magic doesn’t activate, it’s an opponent that I’ll only be able to catch if I use all of my fighting power.’

As Ian’s party approached it, the Lakoum glared at them as it charged towards Ian, and Ian purposely exposed one of his arms to the Lakoum’s attack.

Kwa-kwak-!

The Lakoum bit Ian’s arm as if it had been waiting to do that…

• You have received the attack of the Low-class magical beast ‘Lakoum’.

• Through strong Resistance Magic, 9405 damage has been absorbed.

• Your Vitality has been reduced by 95.

Ian, who checked the system messages that popped up one after another, clenched his fist tightly.

“Alright!”

And Kaizar, who was fighting with the Lakoum, tilted his head as he called Ian.

“Lord guy.”

“What, retainer.”

Ian grinned as he replied.

Kaizar wore an expression showing that he didn’t understand the reason as he continued his words.

“Are you sure this place is the Devildom? The magical beasts that I know are not this weak.”

At that, Ian grinned as he replied.

“Retainer, by any chance, do you happen to know about Resistance Magic?”

Kaizar slowly nodded his head.

“Yes. I do know about Resistance Magic. From what I know, whenever you receive over a fixed amount of damage from a devil, the tolerance that you build up against it is called Resistance Magic.”

Ian quickly swung around his spear and after killing the Lakoum, he slowly opened his mouth.

“We have 99 points of that right now.”

Kaizar wore a surprised expression as he asked again.

“… How come?”

Ian let out a loud noise.

“Keuhahahat, how would I know that? For now, let’s think about that after we wipe this place up completely!”

* * *

In the basement of LB Corp.’s head office, there was a giant monitoring room that took up an incredibly large amount of floor space.

As Kailan was such a massive game, the number of people required just for monitoring was over 500, and because that was the case, hundreds of computers were laid out in the monitoring room.

However, despite it being filled with over hundreds of people, because the characteristics of the job didn’t require words to go back and forth, the monitoring room was always quiet.

However, for some odd reason, the atmosphere was incredibly unsettling today.

And the source of the noise was the testing zone monitoring section that was in the corner of the monitoring room.

“Wow, I never even imagined that there would really be a lunatic who even got through the Devildom Entry Quest at this timing.”

The section leader wore a dumbfounded expression as he bore holes into the large screen that was attached to the wall with his eyes while he had a hand placed on his forehead.

And the ten or so people nearby were staring at the screen together with uneasy expressions.

“Section leader, what do we do? Shouldn’t we contact the server team right now and forcibly shut it down at the least? Or even just forcibly kick out that user…”

At the words of one of the junior staff members, the section leader glared at them as they responded irritated.

“Ha, Manager Park, if that was possible, do you think I would be in this state? Kailan is a VR game, a VR game I tell you! If we forcibly kick out users in this situation, it’s possible that the body of the player may be damaged. Of course, it’s not to the point where it’s greatly dangerous, but if the player was to get hurt even the slightest bit through a small slip-up from this event, have you ever thought about how much of a blow it would be on the company?”

While looking at the section leader, who poured out his words like rapid-fire, the woman called Manager Park bowed her head forward.

She had been working for over a year underneath him, but this was the first time she was seeing him this irritated when he was always mild.

The section leader stared at the person in the screen without a word as he continued to break out in a cold sweat.

‘How exactly did that user already get a quest related to the Devildom?’

The fact that the user had no idea that he was this close to new content meant, in some ways, that the biggest fault fell on the monitoring team out of all of the departments.

And because he was the one in a position where he needed to take all of that responsibility, he was extremely nervous.

He pulled out the smartphone that was in his pocket and called someone.

“Ah, Team Leader Lee! By any chance, is it okay for me to call you right now?”

And a rough, male voice was heard through the phone.

• Is this the section leader of the monitoring team?

“Yes, that’s right.”

• You’ve called because of the incident where the Devildom was broken through, right?

At those words, the section leader momentarily flinched.

This was because he had no idea that this had spread throughout the whole company already.

And shortly after letting out a deep sigh, he replied.

“Hoo, yes. It looks like the word has already spread even to the administration team. That’s right. You are correct that I called because of that incident.”

The reason why the section leader called the content administration team was simple.

It was because he wanted to know what profit that damn nuisance of a user would obtain while he went around wiping the Devildom as he wished.

He felt like he needed to know that in order to consult the planning team and take countermeasures.

The section leader continued to keep his eyes on the screen as he thoroughly explained the course that the user was taking as well as the situations that were occurring in the Devildom into his smartphone, and shortly after, a response from the leader of the administration team came through.

• Hmm, for now, the part that is the biggest relief is that the monsters that appear in the Devildom right now do not give EXP. No matter how much the user ‘Ian’ hunts, he will not gain any EXP.

At those words, the expression of the section leader brightened.

“Ah, is that so?”

However, at the same time, a question popped up.

“Then why exactly is that user fighting the monsters as he sees them?”

There was a moment of silence that passed by before through the smartphone, a serious voice was heard.

• That… Is most likely because of the Magic Stone.

* * *

• You have killed the Low-class magical beast ‘Lakoum’.

• You have obtained 0 EXP.

• You have obtained 0 Fame.

• You have obtained the ‘Lowest-grade Magic Stone’ Item.

Ian, who read down the system messages, clenched his fist as he shouted.

“Alright, it came out again!”

Ian, who checked the Magic Stone that was in his inventory, wore a satisfied smile.

This ‘Magic Stone’ was a charming item that made it worth the endless grinding where there wasn’t even one EXP given.

• Lowest-grade Magic Stone

Classification – Miscellaneous Goods

Rank – None

Durability – 50/50

A rare and precious item filled with highly pure energy from the Devildom. If the Magic Stone is used, equipment can be made even stronger.

*The Lowest-grade Magic Stone can only be used on equipment that is below +5 fortification.

*The chance of succeeding at fortifying equipment is incredibly low, but the equipment will not be damaged even if the fortification failed.

This was the fortification content of Kailan that first appeared.

Despite not being able to obtain any EXP or Fame, the reason that Ian was wiping the magical beasts with fire in his eyes lied here.

While lifting the Magic Stone, Ian used it on the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ as he kept mumbling to himself.

‘Please… Work, please! I’ve already used fifteen of them, it will work this time!’

As he used the Magic Stone, Ian’s spear, the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ floated in the air.

Ian covered his eyes with both hands while he constantly glanced at the fortification scene through the gaps between his fingers.

And shortly after, the message that Ian wanted rang out.

Whoong-!

• You have succeeded in fortifying the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item!

• The ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ has been fortified from +2 fortification to +3 fortification.

• Fortification Result

Offensive Power: 2190-2406 -> 2372-2606

All combat abilities +180 -> All combat abilities +195

• Leadership +240 -> Leadership +260

• Affinity +180 -> Affinity +195