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nFirst of all, I put the level 300 only arena quest on hold because I wanted to look around the arena that I had heard about with my own eyes.

nThe arena was large enough to occupy most of the north of the big castle and the city’s square.

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nAs such, there were a lot of people there.

nI noticed all sorts of information about fighters and the gambling odds displayed on the electronic scoreboards here and there. The noisy sound of the watching spectators also enveloped the area.

n“Who do you think will win in this No. 7 big match?”

n“Don’t you think that the butcher with 19 consecutive wins will win again?”

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n“Of course, that butcher is strong. He won 19 consecutive times easily. But this time, his opponent is a fighter from Daeyu.”

n“Daeyu?”

n“Yeah. He comes from the Daeyu Guild, which is on a par with the Mirae, Myongjin, Daesung and Kusan guilds.”

n“You must be kidding. Daeyu is not as strong as the other four groups.”

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n“Anyway, I don’t think that the butcher’s opponent can be treated lightly given that he represents Daeyu. If this member of the Daeyu Guild is crushed by the butcher, Daeyu won’t be able to maintain their prestige.”

n“I guess so. Man, this gives me a headache! I’m really agonizing over which guy I should bet on.”

n“Me, too.”

nI don’t like gambling myself. But I know to some extent that gambling itself is attractive.

nWhy? Gambling is supposed to draw anybody’s attention because if they’re really lucky, they can make a big fortune in one stroke without trying hard at all.

nGambling is all the more attractive when it’s about fighting, regardless of whether it’s good or bad. Anyway, I thought I now knew why the arena was so popular.

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nSince the arena involved third party betting and not just duels between rivals, it was crowded with people not interested in the fight, let alone those directly involved.

nAnd I found that the largest electronic scoreboard had something familiar written on it that I had checked yesterday.

nNamely, it was the information about the highest achievers of the level 300 only arena quest.

nThe highest achievers of the level 300 only arena quest.

n-Path A: Alexander Willy. (47th round)

n-Path B: Zhang Wei. (45th round)

n-Path C: Olga. (44th round)

nPerhaps one of them will certainly be changed to Asirante.

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nOne of them will have dropped out of the fight perhaps not in the 40th round, but the 50th or 60th or even the final round.

nAnyway, after looking around the arena for about 10 minutes, I opened up the window for the level 300 only arena quest and chose to proceed with it because I got a sense of what was going to happen.

nYou have chosen to proceed with the level 300 only arena quest.

n-This quest is carried out to celebrate your achievement of reaching level 300. You can do this quest only once. Your final score will be based on summing up the clear time for each round and the total number of rounds you clear, and you will be rewarded according to the grade you achieve.

n-Death within the arena does not affect your number of deaths.

n-You will be moved to the quest-only arena.

nIt was the same with the 100-level only enhancement quest.

nI was congratulated for reaching level 100, then I was asked to gamble on the item I wanted as a reward for it.

nI was instantly moved to the arena which gave me a totally new feeling. It was an amphitheater reminiscent of the Colosseum.

nThe arena was smaller than I thought.

nIt was empty, and there was no crowd.

nAt that moment, a big roulette appeared in the center with the letters A,B, and C written on it.

nSoon, the Roulette started spinning on its own and gradually began to slow down.

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nOf course, there was one path I wanted.

nIt was Path C because I possessed all-round capabilities in both attack and defense, just like this path where monsters with physical and magic attacks appear.

nThe fact that the highest round achieved for Path C was only 44th round, which was lower compared to Path A and Path B also affected my choice. That meant Path C was the most challenging among them.

nAnyway, I wanted the Roulette to stop spinning at Path C. The slowly slowing Roulette soon stopped at one point.

nAnd the message rang.

nPath C monsters will appear.

n“Huhhhhhhhhh.”

nOf course, it wouldn’t matter much even if Path A or Path B was chosen, but I smiled when the Path I wanted came out because good things were occurring from the start.

nThe 1st round starts in 10 seconds.

n-After clearing each round, you are given a 10-second break. The quest ends upon your death.

n-10, 9, 8 …

n“Ice Field. Multiple Thin Ice!”

nPasasasak!

nBefore the monsters appeared, I used Ice Field and Thin Ice in advance because I saw the description that the faster I hunted the monsters, the higher my score.

nThe arena was smaller than I thought, so my Ice Field turned the entire arena into an icy terrain.

nWas it because of that?

n“Kuuuuuuuuuuak!”

nYou have cleared the first round.

n-Clear time: 0.1 second.

n-Grade: SSS

nThe 2nd round begins in 10 seconds.

nBut I didn’t see what kind of monsters appeared because I cleared them instantly in 0.1 seconds.

nAnd it was the same during the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds. I could not see any monsters.

nHowever, the monsters that appeared in the 5th round endured my Ice Field reinforced.

nHowever, Ice Field was not a skill that inflicted one-time damage, but an AOE skill that caused sustained damage. So, unless the monsters could escape it, they could not help but suffer continuous damage.

n“Kuuuuuuuuuuak!”

nAs soon as the monsters took a step toward me, they died and fell down.

nThis scene reminded me of the dreadful snake nicknamed the Deadly Seven-Step Snake. This nickname meant that if one was bitten by the snake, they could not move even seven steps before dying.

nHowever, my Ice Field looked like a deadly one-step, not seven-step snake, for no monsters took more than two steps before dying.

nOf course, the time required to clear the round increased by a lot because they died after taking one or two steps compared to the previous rounds.

nIt increased by nine times from 0.1 seconds to 0.9 seconds.

nYou have cleared the 5th round.

n-Clear time: 0.9 seconds.

n-Grade: SSS

nThe 6th round begins in 10 seconds.

nOf course, the grade was still the same, SSS.

n“Is it easy like this in the beginning?”

nAs things stand now, I think I can reach the 40th round easily.

nI also thought I could quickly make it to the 50th round, 60th round, or even the final round that may or may not exist.

nBut I was alert, keeping a close watch on the monsters that instantly appeared and disappeared in front of me.

n“Ice Ball!”

n“Kuuuuuuuuuak!”

n“Ice Bolt.”

n“Kuuuuuuuuuak!”

nAfter the 8th round, the monsters could endure the Ice Field reinforced with thin ice for a few moments. Of course, even if they endured a little longer, they would die because of the continuous damage of Ice Field

nHowever, I took pains to fire the Ice Ball and the Ice Bolt, too, because if I killed them even one or 0.1 seconds faster, I would get a higher score.

nSo, I kept trying my best to clear the rounds.

nAt my house in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul.

n“Jooyoung is already taking the quest?”

n“Yeah. I got the message from him early in the morning.”

nSuyoung casually answered her father Chairman Hong’s question.

nAfter confirming her answer, Chairman Hong looked at Managing Director Sok and said, “Hmm. What do you think will happen?”

n“I think there will be a big fuss because Juyoung has already far exceeded the capabilities of a level 300 player.”

nIn fact, Chairman Hong had tipped him off about his youngest son Juyoung’s brilliant achievements during the Closed Betas because he was in a position to know it anyway.

nOf course, Director Sok already had an inkling about Juyoung’s incredulous capabilities as shown in the recent monster raid video with the Sungchang Guild.

nSok was also aware that Juyoung had fought and overwhelmingly won against as many as 300 and 700 members of the Gahwa Guild.

n“Hmm. Let’s try to scout Asiante. And treat Jooyoung the same as before.”

n“Yeah. I’ll do my best.”

nDirector Sok understood Chairman Hong’s hidden meaning, so he bowed and replied firmly, for any reckless mention of Asirante’s real identity would put him in big trouble.

nAt Perrero Castle’s arena.

nMonsters appearing in the 20th round.

n“Ice Storm.”

nI used the newly acquired level 4 Ice Storm freely without any hesitation.

nOf course, it was too inefficient for me to fire it at only one monster.

nNonetheless, I fired it without hesitation because I didn’t have to use this skill while taking into account its cooldown and power.

nEvery time I used it, I always uttered in admiration before I knew it.

nI thought I now knew why Ice Storm was reputed to be an ice-type wizard’s favorite skill even though there were many other attack skills.

nAside from its power, the spectacular scene of an ice storm attacking the monsters was a real pleasure.

nI sometimes used things like Pouring Hailstone, which had been upgraded to level 4, and cleared the rounds as quickly as possible while keeping the SSS grade through all the rounds.

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