Chapter 33. Shadow Duke of Falcon City (2)

***

Although he couldn’t achieve true ‘union’ with Ilya, Sanghyuk was still satisfied with the time he spent with her. Her body figure was more perfect than any other models that existed in real life. Her face was also something that would make elves cry in shame, so Sanghyuk could momentarily visit paradise.

Having spent a pleasant time like that, Sanghyuk left Rainbow and organized the things he had earned in his quest this time.

Title – ‘Ilya’s Man’

Grade – Rare

Description – Ilya has fallen for you. As a half-elf that succeeds the blood of elves……(locked: Many things are restricted due to unknown reasons.) Do you wish to know more of her secrets? Then steal her heart some more.

Effects – [Prefix: N/A] [Suffix: N/A] [Constant effect: Ah! My Ilya(A) : Can completely order Ilya for two hours across two days. You may use her as a mercenary in a party and may order her to do special missions. However, her identity is still ‘locked’, and her abilities are restricted.]

‘Ilya…… so she’s a half-elf. No wonder she’s pretty.’

Elves were a race at the extreme of beauty. Half-elves, born between humans and elves, were rumored to be superior to elves in beauty.

‘However, an NPC with her abilities restricted…… there’s such a thing.’

In his previous life, Sanghyuk wasn’t close to NPCs. Most of the things he knew about NPCs were heard from other people.

Silvermoon Fragments [Set – rare +++]

– A pair of daggers passed down to the masters of the Shadowline. The Silvermoon Fragments are comprised of the Silversword and the Moonblade, and it symbolizes the power of the master of the Shadowline, so it could be considered a very special set of items.

[Basic stats] Attack power 70(+21), Agility +30(+9)

[Set effects] (2) Agility +20(+6)

[Special stats] Movement speed + 30%

[Special effects] >Concealment(A) : Able to hide into the darkness more easily.Moonlight blessing(A) : All stats increase by 5% when fighting under moonlight.>

[Bonus effects] (1) Agility+10 (2) Agility+15 (3) Agility+20

‘Whoa…… how is this rare grade? Is it because it’s a triple plus on top of being a set item? No, the options are better than most unique-grade items. Not only that, the bonus effects… it’s a triple agility crit. Awesome!’

Sanghyuk’s jaws opened when he checked the Silvermoon Fragments. Even though the item grade was written as rare, it was superseded most unique-grade items.

Especially the basic stats and the set effects of pure agility was as though it was tailor-made for him.

Not only that, even the randomized bonus effects were triple agility criticals.

This was an extremely rare scenario.

‘So it doesn’t symbolize the master of the Shadowline for nothing?’

Sanghyuk nodded his head in satisfaction while putting away the Silvermoon Fragments.

There was only one left now. The title he was most expectant and curious about, Shadow Duke of Falcon City.

Once he checked this, he would have checked all of the rewards he gained in this quest.

Title – ‘Shadow Duke of Falcon City’

Grade – Special

Description – A special title given to the master of the Shadowline that has taken over the Falcon Shadowline. This title belongs to the master of the Shadowline, so it will naturally disappear once you lose the seat of the master.

Effects – [Prefix : Your presences becomes extremely faint as the shadow effect covers your body. Unless it’s an extremely exceptional NPC, it’s highly likely that they won’t notice you.]

[Suffix : You can apply illusion effects to your body and change to a figure you want. There are a total of 7 types of illusion effects, and they can be set beforehand through figure customization. The seven figures cannot be customized again once it’s set. However, if you maintain the illusion effect during battle, a penalty of -30% will be applied to all of your stats.]

[Constant effect: Your familiarity with all NPCs increase to ‘familiar’. However, some NPCs are exempt from this effect.]

“Wow…….”

He was quite expectant from the moment he knew that it was a ‘special’-grade title. Special-grade was very different from the usual ‘rare’, ‘unique’, ‘legendary’ and the like.

They possessed abilities that couldn’t be evaluated with common methods, and to compare with usual graded rankings of titles, they were treated as equivalents to legendary-grade titles.

In some aspects, they were valued as of greater value than legendary-grade as well.

‘It’s not a title that increases basic stats or anything, but the value of this title is priceless.’

Sanghyuk realized the value of the title at a glance. Not to mention hiding his presence, his familiarity increasing to ‘familiar’ with all NPCs was absolutely priceless.

‘With this, the earns from this quest…… is the greatest! The best! It can’t be better than this.’

Sanghyuk kept nodding his head with a very satisfied expression. He had set many objectives after he had returned in time, and many of those objectives were related to NPCs, so he very liked this option.

‘Oh! The Shadowline…… how do I go about using this?’

Sanghyuk didn’t completely understand about the Shadowline, so he opened the organization management window quickly.

[Management Window]

– Shadowline of Falcon City [S-rank]

– Master: Immortal [Command rate : 50/250]

– Proxy : Ilya [Credibility 150/250]

– Description : The information guild that is in charge of the dark side of Falcon City. Numerous NPCs are acting as secret agents across the Land of Dusk. Their fighting power isn’t considerable, but their information power is more powerful than any other guild in the Land of Dusk.

– Current state : Appointing proxy [Details]

– Management : Appointing proxy [Details]

– Skills

1. Recall to Falcon City [Cooldown time 1 hour (free)]

2. Observe information [Cooldown time 12 hours]

3. Collect information [Cooldown time 24 hours]

4. Manipulate information [Cooldown time 48 hours]

After looking at the management window, Sanghyuk felt like he knew what kind of an organization the Shadowline was.

‘So I can’t utilize the organization as I wish just because I’m the master? Oh, the skills will be upgraded as my command rate goes up so it will get better I guess.’

The recall skill was something that almost all sizable organizations had, so he didn’t need to look into that, and the important skills were Observe, Collect, and Manipulate information.

‘That’s that done…….’

Sanghyuk closed the management window and set the ‘Shadow Duke of Falcon City’ title to his suffix.

Then, an avatar customization window appeared in front of him.

If he set his avatar here, then he would be able to call that figure out and use it anytime.

Of course, the figure could only be manipulated to ±1.3 times his size so he couldn’t change it too drastically.

Currently, Sanghyuk’s in-game avatar looked almost exactly like him in real life. Although the default character was based on the real-life figure of the user, it was customizable to an extent, so there were many cases where ugly people became handsome.

However, Sanghyuk wasn’t someone that cared a lot about aesthetics, so he just set it as default.

So, his height became 183cm, and his weight was 77kg. So, he could increase his height to 230cm or decrease it down to 130cm. His weight also could be increased to 100kg or down to 55kg. Other than that, he was able to customize the length of his hair, beard, as well as their color. Not only that, even the skin color could be changed as well.

That much transformation would literally make him into another person altogether.

‘I was planning to learn disguise as a basic skill if I had the time…… but I think this is a hundred times better than that.’

Sanghyuk tried setting an avatar with a satisfied expression. He decreased his height slightly to 165cm and kept his weight.

Then, he lengthened his hair a little and grew some beard as well. He also made his skin a little brighter.

When he finished, he really created another user that looked very ordinary.

‘Let’s set this as the first one (ordinary-looking guy)…… and do the rest later.’

He titled the first one……’ordinary-looking guy’.

‘It would be great if there was a function to change names as well…… though, it won’t that matter that much since no one would know my name unless I reveal it to them.’

***

Having transformed into ‘ordinary-looking guy’, Sanghyuk strolled around Falcon City and did his business. There were some users that were left in the dust when Sanghyuk changed his appearance…… and they were the users of Demon Army.

They were looking for Sanghyuk since a month ago. At first, they couldn’t find any traces of him at all since Sanghyuk didn’t exit from Wyvern’s Nest.

When Sanghyuk walked around Falcon City for the ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’ quest for five days, a user finally found Sanghyuk and contacted Killing Machine.

However, when Killing Machine came here, Sanghyuk had already turned into ‘ordinary-looking guy’.

No matter how they searched in Falcon City, they couldn’t find Sanghyuk. Sanghyuk was planning to walk around in this form for awhile other than when he was hunting.

‘Disguise is nothing compared to this. Disguise skill also dissipates in battle, but…… this won’t get dispelled, even though there’s a penalty. Great!’

Sanghyuk liked the suffix title effect of the Shadow Duke of Falcon City title the more he used it.

Thinking about various things with a cool drink in the Dusk Pavilion, Sanghyuk closed the internet window and stood up.

‘With that, I’ve practically achieved everything I need to do in the Land of Dusk, so I guess I’ll focus on conquering the Cave of Giants’.

He organized his plans. However, his judgment changed mere seconds later.

“Run towards the inner castle!”

A group of users suddenly appeared in front of the Dusk Pavilion. They were rushing towards the inner castle of Falcon City in hundreds.

“Wh, what is that?”

“Huh? Aren’t they from the Lightning guild?”

“I think there’s Pentakill guild too? Huh, Ping guild as well?”

The users sitting in the Dusk Pavilion commented while looking at the hundreds of users rushing towards the inner castle.

‘What are they up to? Why are they suddenly…… oh, yeah! Today’s Bloody Monday, isn’t it?’

Sanghyuk remembered something he had forgotten about until now.

Today was Monday. However, it was no ordinary Monday, it would be known as the Bloody Monday later.

There was no special meaning behind it.

It’s just that on this day, blood overflowed in Falcon City, which leads to the day being called Bloody Monday. Of course, it wasn’t actual ‘blood’, but instead light particles.

The ones rushing towards the inner castle right now should be an alliance of around 6 guilds according to Sanghyuk’s knowledge. All 6 guilds were relatively large and surprisingly, well, ‘recklessly’, they were trying to conquer Falcon City.

The inner castle of Falcon City couldn’t be accessed by users. Although some users with special quests could enter, they would leave almost immediately after they were done.

With that being the case, the inner castle was a place of admiration for the users. There was even a rumor that there were all sorts of treasures in the inner castle, so the number of users wanting to enter the inner castle increased.

Rumors became more exaggerated through each iteration and more detailed. No one confirmed its validity, so the rumors became ‘true’ with time.

The reason the six guilds combined their power was also that they thought that the rumors were true.

They believed that they would be able to take the ‘treasures’ in the inner castle for themselves if they seized it with force, thanks to the unlimited freedom in EL.

The reason they could be so reckless was also that the security NPCs of Falcon City were very weak.

When the game first began, the security guards were beings that the users couldn’t hope to surpass. However, with the users going beyond level 40, they started looking down on the security guards.

Although 1 on 1 was unsure, two users at level 40 or above would be able to fight one guard on an even footing.

There was actually a precedent where some high-level malefactors killed the guards and ran away.

After that happened, the users started looking down on the Falcon City security guards, and this was the result.

450 people, belonging to 6 guilds, all charged towards the inner castle.

They believed that they would easily be able to seize the inner castle and take the treasures within it.

‘However, they would realize that it was all their delusion the moment they set foot into the inner castle. The master knight, and the Knight Commander of Falcon City, the ‘Storm’ Parayan, will appear and wipe the floor with them by himself. Oh yeah! Now that I think about it!’

Sanghyuk remembered something important after imagining 450 users being shredded by the human shredder.

‘Today, there will be a true item party in the inner castle!’

The moment he thought that Sanghyuk started running towards the inner castle. It was too much of a waste to miss this opportunity.