Chapter 48: Quest closed (1)

“No. Let me do it like I did before,” I said, gently shaking my head at his offer because I felt more comfortable about my current role. Besides, I wanted to hunt more monsters by myself.

“Got it.”

Round 5 started. Obviously scorpions with the modifier “brave” appeared, but we all began hunting in a better atmosphere than before.

“Ice Field!”

I quickly laid the grids down first in harmony with the others. And I continued to fire Multiple Ice Arrows, Ice Balls, and Ice Bolts, starting with Pouring Hailstones. Then, I used the Ice Field for the 2nd party, whose cooldown was so quick that the others were very surprised. Obviously it would be of great help to the 2nd party because although the main effect of Ice Field was to reduce the moving speed of the opponents, my Ice Field’s damage was bigger than usual.

However, I could not necessarily conclude that it was because of my outstanding performance that we won Round 5. Either way, we stopped the brave scorpions without exposing any weakness or incurring any single casualties, and we scored much better than before to boot.

[Current defense scoreboard.

-1st place: 79th Defense Unit (1,367,552 points)

-2nd Prize: 24th Defense Unit (1,135,287 points)

-3rd place: 116th Defense Unit (997,426 points)

“Hahaha. I didn’t expect we would win the first place by participating in the quest for the third time, but we’ve made it!”

“You bet. Even though a giant guild has pre-configured a party to win first place, they can’t because the defense units are formed randomly. So, I really didn’t expect we would win either.”

“Well, I think we have to give the credit to user 30.”

“Excuse me, user 30. Can you take off your mask or tell us your ID?”

“Sorry.” I said no when they asked for my ID, let alone taking off my mask.

“Hahaha. I understand. I think you must have a reason for not disclosing your ID.”

The guy who asked for my ID scratched his head as if he felt a bit embarrassed.

Soon Round 6, the last one, began with the appearance of the scorpions whose modifier was changed from ‘brave’ to ‘violent.’

“Now, now, this is the last round! If you succeed in stopping these scorpions, the bonus boss monster Scorpion King will be ours. Let’s do our best to the end.”

“Way to go!”

There was already a big score gap between 1st place and the other two. So, the atmosphere was good. Then Sokyoung Chong approached me and said, “Do you have enough mana?”

Of course he might be curious because I used lots of mana in the previous rounds. By now, any wizard would have been left with little mana. That wasn’t the case for me though.

“Yes, I’ve got enough mana.”

“Got it.”

He smiled at me in satisfaction.

So Round 6 began with the appearance of the violent scorpions.

Ten minutes passed. A message announcing 1st place rang.

[Congratulations. The 79th Defense Unit has successfully stopped the Scorpion King with the highest score.]

“Wow, hooray!”

“We won!”

And the message did not end there.

[Boss Monster Scorpion King appears before the 79th Defense Unit with the highest score.]

The boss monster called Bonus was said to be very weak. It was weak enough for us, whose stamina was reduced by a lot due to our intense hunting in previous rounds, to catch it easily. Yet its bonus was huge. In a happy mood, we waited for the bonus.

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All the scorpions, including ordinary scorpions as well as the wounded or cursed ones, or those with the modifiers ‘brave’ or ‘violent,’ appeared, breaking through the sand. It was not awkward at all for the Scorpion King to emerge from the sand. However, it was so spectacular that unlike the other scorpions, the Scorpion King appeared and scattered sand more than ten meters everywhere amid a giant sandstorm. Everybody exclaimed, “Wow! That’s why it’s called the boss monster!” I flattered myself with the thought that these guys, who were almost exhausted by Round 6, would not have hunted the boss monster without me.

“Oh, they’re cute,” I murmured.

All the scorpions before the Scorpion King were at least as big as a bull. The scorpions that appeared with the modifier ‘brave’ and ‘violent’ in Round 5 and Round 6 were bigger than bulls. But their appearance was not as spectacular as that of the Scorpion King. In other words, the Scorpion King boasted of its massive body, dwarfing all other scorpions in the previous rounds.

As if he anticipated my reaction early on, Sokyoung Chung, who decided to disclose his private ID, came toward me.

“They’re small, right?”

Like a Level 400 guy who had experienced this quest a couple of times already, Sokyoung spoke very calmly.

And I replied, nodding to him quietly, “Yeah, they’re smaller than I thought.”

“It’s because it’s a reward for your efforts up to Round 6. And 1st place at that. Anyway, would you like to attack first? Just do what you want to do.”

He encouraged me to attack first. Soon, the others also followed suit.

“Yes, please. Go ahead, user 30!”

“Then you’ll know why we are not worried at all although it is the boss monster.”

When they said that, I turned my head towards the Scorpion King.

Dudududu.

The Scorpion King was running through the desert, quickly trotting with its small feet. Although it was small, the way it was charging fast seemed to show its anger as if it was ignored by us. But that was it.

It was so small that I didn’t feel overwhelmed at all.

Of course, I know that judging everything by appearance is very dangerous, but I felt like I could do so this time. Anyway, I shot one skill towards the Scorpion King charging toward us.

“Ice Field.”

A land of ice spread across the sand in an instant. Then I confronted the Scorpion King that was running hard on the Ice Field with its little legs.

Puk!

“Kiheck!”

The Scorpion King screamed as soon as the first right of its eight legs stepped on my Ice Field. And its scream became its last scream because it slipped and collapsed in the same position that it was running on the Ice Field.

“…”

As the boss monster, its death was in vain.

Of course, I heard repeatedly that the Scorpion King was weak, so much so that we could easily hunt it even though we lost lots of stamina while fighting up to six rounds. Nonetheless, it was simply too easy. However, a message rang immediately as if my reaction didn’t matter.

[Thanks to user No. 30 (Private ID)’s last attack, you have succeeded in the ‘Stop the Scorpion King’ quest.

-Additional points have been given to user No. 30 (Private ID) for their contribution.]

Now I knew why user No. 1 asked me to attack The Scorpion King through the message window that not only I but also other members of the 79th Defense Unit could see. It was because of the additional points I obtained for my decisive contribution.

And the messages continued to pop up.

[Your contribution to the ‘Stop the Scorpion King’ quest has been calculated.

-1st Prize: User 30 (Private ID)-854,382 points.

-2nd place: User BIG-287,441 points.

-3rd place: User 13 (Private ID)-284,330 points.

-4th: Sokyoung Chung -281,951 points.

I dominated the scoreboard. Except for 1st place, the score gap from 2nd to 30th was not so large. Of course, they could complain about my points, but nobody did because the 79th Defense Unit I belonged to was obviously aiming for first place from Round 3. In other words, the unit members didn’t compete with each other, and they were more enthusiastic when I showed my brilliant skills.

And then another message about the true bonus rang.

[Bonuses are given according to each user’s contribution.]

[This is the bonus for user No. 30 (Private ID).

-Considerable amount of EXP.

-17.5 million golden rings.

-500 coins.

-Obtain the Scorpion King’s ring.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

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:

[You have leveled up.]