Absolute Dweller

Chapter 17: Quest Reward (3)

[Episode 04] Quest Reward (3)

Busan¹부산(釜山)..

It was an area with many mountains, so much so that the character for ‘mountain’ (山) was included in its name.

During the Korean War²6.25 전쟁 or the Korean War (1950-1953) was a conflict between North Korea, backed by the Soviet Union and China, and South Korea, supported by the United Nations and primarily the United States. The war erupted when North Korean forces invaded the South, aiming to reunify the divided peninsula. The conflict ended in an armistice in 1953, leaving Korea divided along the 38th parallel, with no formal peace treaty signed. The war had significant geopolitical implications, shaping the Cold War dynamics and maintaining the division between North and South Korea that persists to this day., numerous refugees flocked to Busan³To be accurate, the raws say that the refugees fleeing to Busan formed a distinctive feature but I’m not sure how to fit that in.. Generations of families settled in the mountainous region.

This shantytown initially formed by refugees eventually developed into a mountain village.

Due to the closely packed houses spread across the entire mountain, the area was filled with numerous narrow alleys.

“Run!”

Ha Dong-geon’s party was swiftly moving through a narrow alley, with dozens of goblins glowing behind them, chasing closely.

Despite their smaller size, the goblins were agilely closing in the distance between Ha Dong-geon’s party.

At that moment, at the rear of the group, Kang Deok-su turned around and shouted.

“Bastards!”

Woong!

Kang Deok-su emerged from the white light wearing brilliant full-body armor and wielding a halberd.

“Hmph!”

He thrust the halberd towards one of the goblins charging at him.

Splurt!

“Kwaak!”

The impaled goblin spurted blood and flew into the air.

However, dealing with just one goblin was not enough. The real terror of goblins lay in their ability to exploit the advantage of numbers.

“Kiaack―!”

“Kyaaah!”

Two goblins simultaneously lunged at Kang Deok-su from both sides.

One of them held a sharpened knife, making it quite dangerous.

However.

Thunk!

“Kiiik?”

“Keuk!”

The goblin’s claws and makeshift knives were ineffective against Kang Deok-su’s full-body armor.

“Die!”

Swish!

In contrast, each swing of the halberd Kang Deok-su wielded was taking a goblin’s life with certainty.

Goblin blood splattered in all directions.

Squelch!

After losing several comrades, the goblins realized it was futile to attack Kang Deok-su. The cunning goblins immediately changed their tactics.

They ignored Kang Deok-su and ran by him.

“These bastards!”

Kang Deok-su tried to block the narrow alley as much as possible, but he was outnumbered.

Thud!

While he managed to take down one goblin, three more slipped past him and followed the rest of the group.

“Kikik!”

The goblins that escaped Kang Deok-su taunted him, but their laughter didn’t last long.

Thud!

A neatly aimed arrow from Kim Ga-young pierced through one of their heads.

“Don’t worry about the ones that got away!”

“Okay!”

Even if they managed to slip past Kang Deok-su, the goblins were killed by a barrage of arrows.

Thanks to this, Kang Deok-su was able to go wild with peace of mind.

“Come at me!”

Squelch!

Under the protection of his sturdy armor, Kang Deok-su swung his weapon mercilessly, and the goblins gradually reconsidered their approach.

Because their numbers had already dwindled down to fifteen.

More than half of them had been lost to Ha Dong-geon’s party.

“Kkiik! Kkigik!”

“Kkiiiiik―!”

Sensing that the situation was unfavorable, the goblins began to retreat.

However, their retreat was foiled from the start as a black beast appeared from the opposite alley, blocking their escape route.

“Krrrrraaaagh!”

After briefly leaving to handle another goblin group, Oh Eon-ju belatedly joined the fray.

The goblin horde found themselves surrounded on both sides, and from that point onward, it was a one-sided massacre.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Kki―euk!”

In the front, a human clad in silver armor swung a spear, while in the back, a black beast tore through their comrades.

This was a narrow alley.

There was nowhere for the goblins to run or hide.

Even when they tried to flee, arrows came flying at them like specters, claiming their lives.

“Kkiieeek!”

Just a few tens of seconds later, the remaining fifteen goblins were annihilated.

***

[Citizen Oh Eon-ju has completed the quest.]

‘Great. This time it’s a success.’

After several experiments, a point where goblin hunting incurred no cost was finally found.

‘You have to hunt 100 goblins to bring it down to 0 won. It’s a bit tougher than I thought.’

I was experimenting when the basic payment of 30,000 won without quest rewards would reduce.

The initial quest for hunting 10 goblins cost about 23,000 won. When hunting 30 goblins, it fell down to roughly 15,000 won.

So, to be precise, somewhere between hunting 30 and 100 goblins might be the point where the quest cost doesn’t occur.

[Citizen Oh Eon-ju has used all available quest attempts for today.]

[Citizen Oh Eon-ju’s completed quests are being evaluated.]

[······ Evaluation in progress ······]

Even while checking the notifications, the Absolute Dweller’s Eye was still active.

Now that I was somewhat accustomed to this state, it was possible to eat while maintaining the skill.

Slurppp-

Whilst eating ramen, I calmly observed the situation of Ha Dong-geon’s party.

Though they occasionally encountered goblin groups while passing through the alleys, there were no issues thanks to Oh Eon-ju’s overwhelming performance.

While Kang Duksoo and Moon Byeong-ho also made significant contributions compared to others, they couldn’t quite match Oh Eon-ju.

She single-handedly defeated over 140 goblins, a statement in itself⁴말 다 했지 – conveys it all, need more be said?.

‘Incredible.’

The figure of Oh Eon-ju tearing through goblins was like a fierce beast.

No wonder when Ha Dong-geon’s party saw her, they mistook her for a monster.

It seemed they would reach the location of Moon Byeong-ho’s grandmother without much trouble.

That’s when it happened.

[Citizen Kim Ga-young has completed the quest.]

[Quest cost: 2,142 won.]

“2,000 won?”

Of course, Oh Eon-ju wasn’t the only one who received the quest.

Ha Dong-geon’s party collectively received the quest to hunt 10 goblins.

The quest was perfectly identical in terms of content, time, reward, and penalty.

However, the cost when Oh Eon-ju cleared the quest and when Kim Gayoung cleared the quest was drastically different.

Although I had expected it to some extent, it was a bigger difference than I thought.

‘It’s confirmed now. Efficiency varies greatly depending on the level of the person performing the quest.’

At level 33, Oh Eon-ju needed to hunt dozens of goblins to reduce the cost from 30,000. On the other hand, Kim Gayoung could completely eliminate the basic cost by hunting just ten goblins.

‘Assign a quest to Kim Gayoung, hunt 13 goblins.’

I increased the number of goblins appropriately and assigned the quest again.

[Evaluation complete.]

Oh Eon-ju’s daily quest evaluation was finished.

[132,966 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet.]

‘Huh?’

The unexpected reward made me tilt my head for a moment.

Kang Deok-su, who had three quests all related to strength, received a ‘small amount of strength’ as a reward.

Since the quests assigned to Oh Eon-ju were all related to goblin hunting, I thought the reward would be ‘a small amount of experience points’.

However, upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a settlement payment rather than experience points.

‘And it’s a lot. Could the additional rewards be random?’

Upon reflection, this might actually make sense.

Unlike Kang Deok-su’s quest, which had him do push-ups and squats, Oh Eon-ju’s quest was to hunt a total of 140 goblins.

‘It might be natural that the reward increased accordingly.’

Just as I was about to move on.

Ha Dong-geon’s party finally arrived near Moon Byeong-ho’s grandmother’s house, and Moon Byeong-ho used teleportation to enter the house.

At the same time.

[Citizen Moon Byeong-ho has completed the quest.]

[Quest cost: 40,930 won.]

The quest completion notification appeared.

Unlike others, I had assigned a quest to Moon Byeong-ho with the condition of using teleportation 10 times.

The reward was, of course, an increase in teleportation proficiency⁵You can also think of proficiency as skill level. It’s not completely the same though as you’ll see later in the chapter..

I did this to boost Moon Byeong-ho’s teleportation ability as quickly as possible.

[Citizen Moon Byeong-ho has used all available quest attempts for today.]

[Citizen Moon Byeong-ho’s completed quests are being evaluated.]

[······ Evaluation in progress ······]

‘I wonder what reward will come out this time?’

Honestly, I was a bit excited.

I had given Moon Byeong-ho skill-related quests. The reward was an increase in teleportation proficiency.

Considering the additional rewards were related to the quest content, it should be a further enhancement of skills.

‘Should I expect an increase for the store or warehouse? Or maybe for Dignity Maintenance or the Absolute Dweller’s Eye?’

Surprisingly, dignity maintenance turned out to be a skill where proficiency played a crucial role.

I realized its importance when I was hunting goblins.

During the moment when I released electricity to hunt goblins, I realized another potential of this skill.

‘I definitely felt like I could control the electricity to some extent.’

When the current was discharged towards the goblins, it felt like the will to emit electricity strongly was being directly realized.

Since I was actually controlling the supply of electricity with the dignity maintenance skill, it may not just be an illusion.

I was confident that if my skill level increased, I would be able to do more.

‘Increasing the level of the Eye would also be useful.’

At first, using the Absolute Eye made it difficult to take other actions.

Now, I can even eat while maintaining the Absolute Dweller’s Eye.

In the future, as skill level increases, maintaining the Absolute Eye will become as natural as breathing.

‘Or maybe it’s a new skill?’

With the Absolute Dweller’s Declaration at level 7, a new skill had been added.

Absolute Dweller’s Health (Passive) Lv. 1

– Immunity is significantly increased.

It still didn’t seem like a particularly outstanding skill.

The effect of increased immunity only meant being less prone to illness, and the reduced risk of secondary infection from bacteria in case of wounds.

‘However, it seems to have great potential.’

Among the skills acquired so far, this one might be the most exciting.

The reason was simple.

‘If I level this up, something like immortality might come out.’

At level 1, it was just an increase in immunity, but as the skill level grew, nobody knew how it would change.

‘Everything is good, but in the end, it’s the damn skill points that are the issue.’

Skill points.

Naturally, to upgrade the performance of skills, the level had to be increased.

Despite leveling up the Absolute Dweller’s Declaration through goblin hunting, there were no new skill points.

‘It seems like 3 skill points are given for every 5 levels or something…’

That meant, to receive skill points, the Absolute Dweller’s Declaration level had to be raised to 10.

‘Will it only give 3 at that point too?’

Honestly, it felt too stingy.

With the store’s item registration slots almost full, it was imperative to invest in it now.

Considering the number of items that needed to be registered in the future…

‘If that’s the case, only 2 points are left.’

Although there were only a few points left, there were too many skills I wanted to invest in.

The skill that piqued the most curiosity was the Dignity Maintenance skill.

Just being able to control fundamental facilities like electricity, water, and gas was impressive enough.

However, at level 2, the vassal skill came out.

‘It’s a skill that can produce individuals with abilities.’

While conditions such as trust and loyalty were attached, the ability to grant abilities in a world like this had tremendous merit.

Just witnessing Kang Deok-su in action against the goblins today, the difference between having abilities and not was clear as day.

‘Honestly, just increasing the number that can be registered as vassals would be good.’

Currently, the number of vassal registrations allowed was 10.

Even if only the number of vassal slots increased without additional functionality, it was well worth investing skill points.

‘Haah. What’s the use of worrying like this? There’s a long way to go to level 10 anyways.’

Suddenly confronted with reality, he felt a sense of disappointment. At that moment, the daily quest evaluation for Moon Byeong-ho was finally completed.

[Evaluation complete.]

‘Alright, which skill’s proficiency are we going to raise?’

Full of anticipation while waiting for the reward, at that moment.

[Jackpot winner!]

[Congratulations.]

[Acquire Skill Points.]

‘What? Jackpot?’

It was an alert I never imagined.

‘Skill points come from here?’

Surprised beyond belief, I almost forgot to maintain the Absolute Dweller’s Eye.

In a daze, I read the message in front of me and then opened the skill window to confirm.

[Current Skill Points: 1]

Seeing that, the corners of my mouth lifted up to 10/10.

“…This is amazing.”