‘Will these guys grow as their level goes up? It seems that since they’re young, they’re really small.’

Anyways, the part that Ian was most curious about was the Griffins’ stats.

Ian opened the information of one of the two Griffins.

• Griffin

Level: 1

Classification: Mystical Creature

Rank: Legendary

Personality: Tenacious

Evolution impossible

Offensive Power: 23

Defensive Power: 10

Agility: 28

Intellect: 8

Vitality: 475

/475

Mana: 265

/265

Inherent Ability

• Guardian of the Wind

If a wind-type attack is received, Offensive Power will increase by 30% for 3 minutes.

• Roar of the King

The roar of the Griffin has incredible strength.

If the Griffin roars, the Agility of all allies within a 50-metre radius will increase by 30%, while the movement of all opponents will be slowed by 30%.

The effect lasts for 10 minutes.

(Cooldown time 30 minutes)

• Crush

With strong flaps of its wings, a giant whirlwind is created to slash through its opponents.

It lasts for 10 seconds, and every 0.5 seconds, 125% of its Offensive Power will be dealt as damage to its opponents.

(15 metres ahead, it’s shot out in a fan-like shape.)

(Cooldown time 10 minutes)

A legendary mystical creature as well as ruler of the sky.

As it rides the energy of the wind, it is incredibly agile and strong.

As soon as Ian checked the stats of the Griffin, he naturally wanted to compare it with his Hallikan.

‘What were the stats of a Hallikan at lv 1 again… I wrote it down somewhere.’

Ian, who had found the notebook where he had written it down shortly after, compared the stats of the Hallikan and Griffin.

‘Aside from Defensive Power, the Griffin is higher in everything.’

Especially in the case of Agility, the Griffin’s was almost twice the Hallikan’s.

Ian gulped loudly.

‘Ah… Why am I being tested like this…’

If it was just one instead of two, he would have returned it to the king without regret.

No, it would be more correct to say that he had no choice but to return it.

However, for twins to be born.

The temptation of the mystical creature Griffin was too strong to return both just as is.

‘Let’s check the stats of the other one as well.’

Ian began to compare the stats of the two Griffins.

It seemed that since they were both Griffins, their Inherent Abilities matched with each other.

If a difference was really being looked for, there was about a 2% difference in the value of their Crush skill.

However, for their combat stats, the Griffin that was checked second was lacking about 2-3 points in every part.

‘Just because you’re twins doesn’t mean your stats will be the same.’

And it seemed they were fraternal twins, as their genders were also different.

Ian completely liked each and every Inherent Ability.

Especially, the ‘Roar of the King’ skill was an excellent AoE skill that buffed allies and de-buffed opponents at the same time, while the ‘Crush’ skill was an offensive AoE skill that boasted an exceptional attack value higher than Lake’s Breath.

Ian calculated the value of the Crush skill.

‘If it’s a 125% value every 0.5 seconds for 10 seconds…’

Ian’s jaw dropped.

‘This crazy…! That means its attack value is 2500%!’

Simply put, it was an AoE skill that could deal a frightening amount of damage that came close to 25 times its Offensive Power.

Considering the value of Breath, Lake’s skill, was about 500%, Crush was an AoE skill that could only be described as tremendous.

Of course, because Lake’s Breath was a skill that devoured his opponents in an instant, while the Griffin’s Crush skill was a channeling skill that required it to last 10 seconds, the comparison standards were a little uncertain, but it was definitely a powerful skill anyways.

‘It’s cooldown time is shorter than Breath as well…’

Ian closed his eyes tightly.

His heart had already leaned to one side.

Right now, there was no one else on this altar besides Ian.

As long as Ian just kept his mouth locked shut, no one would know of his secret except for the game system.

This could possibly be a chance given by the gods.

‘That’s right, there’s no way I’ll get caught.’

Ian slightly placed his hand on top of the head of the first Griffin that had higher stats.

Although he didn’t really like that the one with higher stats had to be male of all things.

‘Still, since stats are more important than gender.’

As Ian’s hand touched the top of his head, the Griffin wore a happy expression while flapping his wings.

Kkuruk- Kkuruk-!

As he was a Griffin hatched from the egg that depended on Ian, his Affinity with Ian was simply at the maximum.

Once Ian just made up his mind, the Griffin would become his Familiar right away.

Ian recited with a low voice.

“Capture!”

Hoong-.

At the same time that Ian casted the skill, the Griffin’s body turned into a white light and was sucked into his hand.

‘Now I can’t go back.’

Ian held the remaining Griffin in his arms and quickly left the altar.

It was now time to return to the Capital.

* * *

Ian’s Griffin Egg Hatching Quest successfully finished like that. Of course, there was a secret that Ian only had…

‘Euh, I’m itching to quickly raise the Griffin, but why isn’t the king coming?’

Ian was currently sitting in the reception room of the king waiting for Celias to come.

As he was with the imperial family’s knights up until now, Ian, who hadn’t been able to summon his newly obtained Griffin even once, wanted to complete the quest as quickly as possible and run away to the northern continent.

This was because he wanted to quickly raise the Griffin, but there was also another reason.

‘If I get caught, then I won’t even have a bone remaining.’

Even just standing in the imperial house made Ian very nervous.

There was no way that the king would know of the truth that Ian had taken one of the two Griffins, but there was nothing he could do about his nervousness.

‘I wish I could finish everything quickly and leave this place…’

Deu-reu-reuk-

And as if Celias had read Ian’s mind, he opened the doors of the reception room and entered.

“Oh, Ian. Good work. You did well.”

As soon as the king discovered Ian, he approached him and held out his hand for a handshake.

And it seemed that because Ian had committed a sin, he took his hand with even more respect than he usually did.

“No, Your Majesty. As Your Majesty’s knights were so strong, I’ve benefitted from them.”

As his words weren’t wrong, Ian was able to suck up to the king without hesitation.

“Good, good. The Griffin you have brought back will be well looked after by the imperial palace’s Summoners from now on. Thanks to you, it looks like we’ll be able to boast our Luspel Empire’s mystical guardian creature in front of the entire nation on the commemoration anniversary.”

Celias wore an incredibly pleased expression.

And Ian, who saw his bright expression, was quite relieved.

‘Hoo, what a relief.’

“If the nation finds out the truth that a living Griffin is protecting the imperial family, they will truly be happy.”

Ian’s flattery continued.

When he usually flattered NPCs, it was to get a better reward, but his flattery right now was from his instinct to survive.

Celias nodded his head with a satisfied expression.

“Hmm, indeed. Great work.”

And as he was done speaking, a pleasing message that notified Ian that he had completed the quest popped up.

• You have completed the ‘Griffin Hatching’ Luspel Empire Quest. Clear Rank: S

• You have obtained 19,912,000 EXP.

• You have leveled up. You have reached lv 103.

• You have obtained 100,000 Fame.

Ian was moved by the enormous reward appropriate for an Empire Quest.

And he barely held back the laughter that slipped past his lips.

‘Kya, to have gone up 3 levels in just two days. On top of that, they give 100 thousand Fame as well? No wonder the top-ranking players all have over 1 million Fame.’

The Fame level of the top-ranking players that didn’t make sense to him at all before resetting now made sense.

Since they monopolized the best rewards as well as the Empire Quests for each class like this, their Fame was so high.

On the other hand, he once again felt that one of the hardest things to raise when playing normally was Fame.

As a value of 100 thousand Fame from doing normal quests was impossible unless a player slaved themselves away.

Lastly, Ian didn’t forget to lay down the bait for the next quest.

“If there’s anything that I could help with again, please feel free to contact me.”

If it was a quest with a reward like this, he felt he could do ten more of them.

“Sure, alright. If it’s you, I’ll be able to trust you with a job in the future as well.”

“Thank you.”

The king slowly stood up from his spot.

Ian also lifted his butt.

‘It’s finally over.’

However, different from Ian’s expectation, there was still something left to do.

“And for raising the status of the Luspel imperial family, there is a present I want to give to you.”

At the word present, Ian was delighted.

It was to the point that his desire to quickly leave the imperial palace subsided for a moment.

‘What is it? Is he planning on giving me a Legendary-rank item? If it’s a present from the king, it will probably be something like that, right?’

Ian was inflated with anticipation.

However, Celias’ gift was completely different from Ian’s expectation.

Whoong-

Along with a low resonance, Celias’ right hand began to shine brightly.

‘What? What is this?’

Ian was slightly nervous at the situation that he was encountering for the first time.

And Celias spread his hand towards the stiffened Ian. As he did so, a fancy symbol in a gold light began to be engraved in the air.

It was none other than the Luspel Empire’s symbol, a figure of the Griffin.

And the Griffin of light that came from Celias’ hand was slowly sucked into Ian.

Ring-

• As you have completed the Empire Quest with an S-rank, you have been presented with the ‘Baron’ title. (If a fixed quantity of Fame is consumed, you can promote your title to a higher rank.)

• From now on, you can make up to 20 NPCs your subordinates. (If an NPC that has already been made your subordinate is eliminated, your Fame will drop by at least 100 thousand, so you must decide carefully.)

• You have become an aristocrat of the Luspel Empire. Unless you gain ‘Sovereign’ status or stripped of your title, you cannot change your citizenship.

• From now on, you will have a hostile relationship with Kaimon Empire.

At the system messages that popped up without rest, Ian was about to go into a state of confusion.

‘This, this is supposed to be a good thing, right?’

There was not much that Ian knew about when it came to information related to the aristocrat title.

The content from just roughly reading looked incredibly good, but Ian wanted to check each one thoroughly.

The part that got to him was that he would have a hostile relationship with the Kaimon Empire.

‘Once I leave the Capital, I should firstly log off and do some research on this.’

Celias slowly approached Ian, who was in chaos mentally from trying to meticulously memorize the system messages.

He opened his mouth while laughing.

“Huhu… How is it, Ian, no, Sir Ian? Do you like my present?”

And separate from Ian’s will, his body moved on its own and began to adopt the manners of an aristocrat in front of King Celias.

Chuck-.

Ian was flustered.

‘What, what is this? Why is my body moving on its own?’

Ian struggled to try and move his body with all his might, but far from moving his own body, now his mouth began to move on its own.

“I am honoured, Your Majesty. I will be loyal.”

‘What the hell? Is the game system just making me move on its own?’

Certainly, for Ian, who didn’t know about manners towards the imperial family, etc., he even thought that this was more comfortable instead.

‘Whatever. As long as it ends well.’

Like that, Ian’s first eventful Empire quest safely finished.