The Return Of The Genius Ranker Of All Times [EN]: Chapter 8

Episode 8

Tick!

A pathetic sound that seemed to drain all energy from anyone who heard it.

Listening to that familiar tick, a sound he’d heard countless times, Do-hyun slowly raised his head.

Kuaaaaa!

The Magic Wyvern, roaring with all its might, came into view.

However, the imposing aura of a predator that it had displayed at the beginning was gone, replaced by a blood-soaked creature.

Like a terrified beast howling more than roaring, its cry was utterly desperate.

The bold gesture, once like swatting a mosquito, had turned into a plea to not come any closer.

-HP [80 : ???]

A mere 80 health points remained.

[Basic skill ‘Strike’ is available.]

And just in time, the cooldown on Strike had ended.

After a grueling battle lasting over five hours, the end of this unseen struggle was finally approaching.

Did the Wyvern know it too?

Bang! Kwang!

Even though it should have accepted its fate, it continued to swing its fists at the approaching Do-hyun.

Nevertheless, as Do-hyun closed the distance, the Wyvern’s struggle only intensified.

Being bitten by a mosquito once is just annoying and itchy, but if a mosquito that doesn’t die sucks your blood tens of thousands of times, that’s pure terror.

Rattle. Clatter!

Unable to retreat any further, the restraints on the Wyvern made a loud noise as it backpedaled.

Do-hyun watched it with a cold expression.

“You’ve held out long enough. Now, just give in.”

Kwang!

Tick!

The moment his sword pierced its foot, after he calmly dodged its desperate blow.

Kuh-uh…

With a pathetic death cry, its massive body finally collapsed.

Numerous messages appeared above the creature, which had made a noisy exit, kicking up a cloud of dust until the very end.

[You have defeated the restrained Iron-Blooded Magic Wyvern.]

[You are the first to defeat a Legendary Named Boss in the tutorial.]

[You have defeated a Legendary Named Boss single-handedly.]

[You have achieved an unbelievable feat.]

[It will be recorded in the Book of Adventures.]

[As a reward……]

……

After confirming all the messages, Do-hyun collapsed to the ground.

He just wanted to lie down, rewards or whatever could wait.

It had been fun at first, but later he had no time to think because he was so focused on surviving.

“What a damn nuisance.”

Five hours and thirty minutes. That’s how long it took to hunt it.

He expected it to take a long time, but it took even longer than he thought.

It was more difficult than he had anticipated.

‘Tens of thousands of times, my ass……’

The moment its HP dropped below 30%, the pattern of the creature, which had simply been swinging its arms wildly, changed drastically.

Annoyed that Do-hyun was hiding under its feet and attacking, it started stomping its feet, and later it just plopped down on its butt.

Fortunately, its arms were relatively free despite the restraints, but they were still tightly bound.

If that hadn’t been the case, even Do-hyun wouldn’t have been able to defeat it.

With that, Do-hyun was certain.

‘No one else could have caught this.’

Even if it were his old colleagues, they wouldn’t have been able to defeat this thing.

He wouldn’t have been able to catch it himself if he hadn’t been in such good condition today.

And that prediction was spot on.

[You are the first to defeat a Legendary Named Boss in the tutorial.]

The system was proving that fact.

It meant that all of his colleagues had encountered it and been frustrated.

‘They must have cursed up a blue streak.’

He smiled as he thought of the colorful language his colleagues would have used after meeting it.

Perhaps the Sword Emperor would have frowned and tried to act taciturn, while Gugu Dakgugu would have spewed out a barrage of vulgar curses.

Uncle Bora might have laughed it off, saying, ‘Heh heh… that’s right, this is what a shitty game sequel should be like.’

‘No, could it be that they couldn’t even get this far in the first place?’

Basically, that uncle is the epitome of effort and capital [referring to a player who invests heavily in the game].

The system, which required them to achieve results on the stage of the tutorial they were encountering for the first time, was disadvantageous to Uncle Bora.

In any case, he had done it.

What kind of reaction would they show if he revealed this later?

‘They’ll be rolling around in agony for days.’

Just like he had done whenever they drew good items or skill cards, they would show a similar reaction.

‘I don’t know where they are or what they’re doing, though.’

They should have been in the rankings, but even when he looked for the high rankers, he couldn’t see anyone who seemed to be them.

Considering that they could set their profiles to private, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that they were deliberately hiding, but it was still strange.

Frankly speaking, he didn’t think they, who were such attention seekers, would have bothered to set it to private.

Or are they not playing God of Creation Online?

The thought crossed his mind for a moment, but he quickly shook his head.

They were the kind of people who would play a shitty game like Demroq to the death.

Unless something special had happened to them, like his military service, there was no way those guys wouldn’t have started playing God of Creation Online.

‘They’re such unique people… they’re probably up to some weird concept somewhere.’

Like hiding in the mountains and playing the role of hidden masters.

Do-hyun chuckled and opened the rewards he had closed.

After recovering some of his fatigue, he was curious to see what kind of rewards he would get.

‘Judging from how flashy it was, it won’t be a brick [referring to a useless item].’

He wouldn’t be surprised if he got some pretty good rewards.

He would have obtained at least a Hero-grade reward or higher. The moment he checked the rewards with high expectations.

[You have acquired the title ‘First Slayer’.]

[You have completed the tutorial with an unbelievable achievement. Traits suitable for your play and achievements will be manifested.]

[Trait ‘Weapon Master’ has been manifested.]

[Trait ‘Hidden Dragon’ has been manifested.]

[Trait ‘Slayer’ has been manifested.]

[Trait ‘Hero’ has been manifested.]

[Trait ‘Overcome’ has been manifested.]

[Condition satisfied.]

[Unique Trait ‘Eye of Truth’ is manifested.]

“……?”

As if reality had disappeared, Do-hyun blinked blankly.

* * *

Unlike Demroq, God of Creation Online had ‘several’ special systems besides skills.

One of them was traits.

Abilities given separately from the 13 skill slots.

Unlike active skills, they were passive and helped with play and combat.

Contrary to concerns that they had added some strange system, the people who started playing the game praised it, saying that it had increased diversity.

As the game became more established, there was bound to be a national skill tree for each job [a widely accepted and optimal build].

The most efficient and best skill tree.

Of course, due to the nature of God of Creation Online, it wasn’t easy to perfectly match that skill tree if you wanted to, but if you were a ranker, it was bound to be very similar.

That’s when traits gave you something special.

Even if you had the same job, your skill tree would change depending on which traits you had, and even if you had the same skill tree, there would be variables.

There were more elements to play mind games with, and they found the diversity of the game refreshing.

But not everyone could have the traits they wanted.

Because there was only one known way to get traits so far.

To be manifested according to the achievements in the tutorial.

“Crazy……”

This was also the case for Do-hyun.

Traits that anyone who finished the tutorial would receive.

Nevertheless, the reason why Do-hyun was so surprised was simple.

“……Why are there so many traits?”

Because only one trait was manifested in the tutorial.

There were no exceptions.

Whether you filled Charlie’s affinity to the max or even lowered it, only one trait would be manifested.

However, there was a difference in quality and type depending on the achievement.

From exploration traits like Pathfinder to combat traits like Sword Master.

The appropriate trait was manifested according to the performance shown in the tutorial, and a higher-level trait was granted depending on the degree of achievement.

This was why large guilds tried to scout users who had raised Charlie’s affinity a lot.

Because it objectively proved that they had more potential.

It was only natural that users with high-level traits would be relatively advantageous when they reached the same level cap in the future.

In that respect, Do-hyun’s situation could only be described as exceptional.

[Weapon Master]

-Grade: Trait

-Effect: Ignores weapon type restrictions.

You can increase the proficiency of all weapon types and grow quickly.

[Hidden Dragon]

-Grade: Trait

-Effect: Increases the stat points gained upon leveling up by 2.

[Slayer]

-Grade: Trait

-Effect: You can check the location and hidden information of monsters of the type for which you have obtained the Slayer title.

[Hero]

-Grade: Trait

-Effect: The spirit of a hero prevents mental contamination.

[Overcome]

-Grade: Trait

-Effect: Overcome limitations with an indomitable spirit.

“……Each trait is high-grade.”

Unlike skills, traits don’t have separate grades, but there were characteristics that could be inferred.

First of all, this Weapon Master.

Generally, just obtaining Sword Master is enough to be scouted by a guild.

If you are a swordsman with Sword Master, your proficiency will increase faster than other swordsman jobs, and your power will also increase.

It means you can become a master of one type of weapon.

What about Weapon Master?

‘You can get the Sword Master effect with all weapons.’

A trait that allows you to handle all weapons and respond to any compatibility.

Even if you can’t do anything about job-related skills, it will be excellent for creating unconventional situations.

What about Hidden Dragon?

‘The potential is insane.’

A cheat trait that can produce the effect of level 140 when reaching the level cap of 100.

It just produces the effect of a few items with raw stats alone.

Considering that people risk their lives for one stat as they go higher, it was an amazing trait.

If you only look at this, you could call it a cheat trait, but in fact, it was a bit ambiguous to say that it was superior to others.

‘It’s a bit disappointing in terms of utilization.’

Others use good traits, but the owner of Hidden Dragon only gets the benefit of stats.

In a way, it’s simple and crude.

It guarantees reliable performance as much as it is simple, but there were some disappointing aspects in the late game, which is run based on traits.

The difference becomes more pronounced after reaching the level cap.

That’s why Hidden Dragon’s evaluation is not that high……

‘But not for me.’

It was just a meaningless disadvantage for Do-hyun, who had not manifested only one trait.

Because he had manifested as many as six traits.

And all of them with powerful abilities.

What about Hero or Slayer, which directly help in combat right now?

‘Status abnormality immunity.’

Considering that the black magician’s curse was a headache in Demroq, ‘Hero’ was a trait he liked.

Because there was no one as troublesome as a black magician when doing things like guild wars.

‘Slayer’ also had the condition that you had to obtain the Slayer title of the same type as the boss you wanted, but once you obtained it, the effect was certain.

‘You can start with an advantage in information.’

Considering that the importance of information increases as you go to higher bosses, it was worth going to the end.

Traits that you can be treated well anywhere just by possessing one.

The effect of that trait ‘Overcome’ is a bit vague, but the other traits were so good that he didn’t feel particularly disappointed.

Finally, the trait that stood out the most among all these traits.

‘Eye of Truth……’

Do-hyun swallowed hard and slowly read the explanation.