CHAPTER 17

Quest Reward (3)

Busan (釜山).

It was a region with so many mountains that even its name contained the Chinese character for "mountain" (山).

During the Korean War, countless refugees flooded into Busan, leading to a unique sight—entire communities forming on the mountainsides.

What started as makeshift shantytowns gradually settled and developed into full-fledged hillside neighborhoods.

Because houses were densely packed across the entire mountain, the area became known for its maze-like network of alleys.

***

"Run!"

Hadong-geon's party was moving swiftly through the narrow alleyways, with dozens of goblins chasing after them in a frenzy.

Despite their small stature, the goblins were incredibly fast, steadily closing the distance between them and the party.

At that moment, the one running at the rear, Kang Deok-su, turned around and shouted.

"You sons of bitches!"

Wooong!

A flash of white light burst forth as Kang Deok-su emerged, clad in radiant full-body armor and wielding a halberd.

"Haaah!"

He thrust his halberd at a goblin lunging toward him.

Thwack!

"Keaaak!"

The goblin, impaled on the halberd's tip, coughed up blood as it was sent flying through the air.

But taking down just one goblin wasn't enough.

What made goblins truly terrifying was their ability to exploit the advantage of numbers.

"Kieeek—!"

"Kyahhh!"

Two goblins attacked Kang Deok-su simultaneously from both sides.

One of them wielded a sharp kitchen knife, making it particularly dangerous.

However—

Clang!

"Kiek?"

"Keuk!"

The goblin's claws and knife were utterly useless against Kang Deok-su's full-body armor.

"Die!"

Swoosh!

Each time he swung his halberd, a goblin's life was mercilessly cut short.

Blood splattered in every direction.

Slash!

Only after losing several of their comrades did the goblins realize that attacking Kang Deok-su was pointless.

These cunning creatures quickly changed their strategy.

Instead of confronting him, they began to ignore him and ran past.

"You little bastards!"

Kang Deok-su tried his best to block the narrow alley, but he alone wasn't enough to stop them all.

Thud!

For every goblin he struck down, three or four managed to slip past him and continue chasing the rest of the party.

"Kikik!"

The goblins that escaped from Kang Deok-su mocked him with sneers—though their laughter didn't last long.

Thwack!

An arrow fired by Kim Ga-young pierced cleanly through one of their heads.

"Ignore the ones slipping past!"

"Got it!"

Even if some goblins managed to get by, they were swiftly eliminated by the rain of arrows from the others.

Thanks to that, Kang Deok-su could fight freely without holding back.

"Come at me, all of you!"

Swish!

Under the protection of solid armor, he swung his weapon mercilessly, and the goblins gradually began to change their minds.

It was only natural—after all, their numbers had dwindled to just over a dozen.

More than half of them had already fallen to Hadonggeon's party.

"Screech! Squeak!"

"Kiiieeeek—!"

Sensing the tide turning against them, the goblins started to flee.

However, their escape was blocked from the very beginning.

A black beast emerged from the opposite alley, cutting off their path.

"Grrroooargh!"

O Wonjoo, who had briefly left to deal with another goblin horde, had rejoined the battle.

The goblin pack suddenly found themselves surrounded on both sides, and from that moment, a one-sided massacre began.

"Kyahhh!"

"Kiiiiiik!"

From the front, a human clad in silver armor swung his spear, while from behind, a black beast tore their comrades apart.

It was a narrow alleyway.

The goblins had nowhere to run or hide.

And whenever they did attempt to flee, ghost-like arrows would cut them down.

"Kiieeek!"

It took only a few dozen seconds to completely wipe out the remaining goblins.

***

[Citizen O Wonjoo has completed the quest.]

'Nice. This time, it's a success.'

After several experiments, he had pinpointed the exact point where goblin hunting didn't incur any costs.

'So I have to kill 100 goblins just to break even? That's rougher than I expected.'

He was testing when the base quest pay of 30,000 won would disappear if no reward was set.

The first attempt, which required hunting 10 goblins, resulted in a cost of about 23,000 won.

For 30 goblins, the cost dropped to around 15,000 won.

By precise calculation, somewhere between 30 and 100 goblins was the break-even point where no additional cost was incurred.

[Citizen O Wonjoo has used up all available quest attempts for today.]

[Evaluating quests completed by Citizen O Wonjoo.]

[······ Evaluating ······]

Even as he checked the notifications, he continued maintaining his skill, Eyes of the Absolute.

By now, he was so used to this state that he could even eat while keeping the skill active.

Slurp—

He calmly watched Hadonggeon's party while eating ramen.

They occasionally encountered goblin groups in the alleyways, but there were no issues.

O Wonjoo's overwhelming performance ensured that.

Although Kang Deoksoo and Moon Byeongho performed well compared to the others, they still couldn't match O Wonjoo.

After all, she had singlehandedly taken down more than 140 goblins.

'That's insane.'

O Wonjoo, in her beastified form, tearing apart goblins, was nothing short of a wild animal.

No wonder Hadonggeon's group mistook her for a monster when they first saw her.

It looked like they would reach Moon Byeongho's grandmother's location without much trouble.

And then—

[Citizen Kim Gayoung has completed the quest.]

[Quest cost deducted: 2,142 won.]

"Two thousand won?"

Of course, Owen wasn't the only one who had assigned the quest.

The entire Ha Dong-geon party had been given a common quest to hunt ten goblins.

The content, time, reward, and penalty were all exactly the same.

However, the cost difference between when Owen completed the quest and when Kim Ga-young completed it was massive.

I had expected some disparity, but the difference was even greater than I thought.

'This confirms it. The efficiency of a quest varies greatly depending on the skill level of the person completing it.'

Owen, at level 33, had to hunt dozens of goblins just to reduce the base cost by 30,000 won. Meanwhile, Kim Ga-young could achieve the same reduction by hunting just a dozen or so goblins.

'Assigning a quest to Kim Ga-young: Hunt 13 goblins.'

I slightly increased the number of goblins and reassigned the quest.

[Evaluation complete.]

Owen's daily quest evaluation was finished.

[132,966 won has been deposited into the Absolute Ruler of the House's wallet.]

'Huh?'

The unexpected reward made me tilt my head in confusion.

For Kang Deok-soo, whose three quests were all strength-related, the reward had been a "small amount of strength."

Since all of Owen's quests involved goblin hunting, I expected the reward to be a "small amount of experience points."

But when I checked, instead of experience points, I received a monetary reward.

'And it seems like a strangely high amount. Is the additional reward randomized?'

Thinking about it, this actually made sense.

Unlike Kang Deok-soo's quest, which only involved push-ups and squats, Owen's quest required him to hunt a total of 140 goblins.

'The reward must have increased accordingly.'

I was about to move on without giving it much thought when something happened.

The Ha Dong-geon party finally arrived near the house where Moon Byung-ho's grandmother lived, and Moon Byung-ho teleported into the house.

At that very moment—

[Citizen Moon Byung-ho has completed a quest.]

[40,930 won has been deducted as quest cost.]

A quest completion notification appeared.

Unlike the others, Moon Byung-ho had been given a quest requiring him to use teleportation ten times.

The reward was, of course, an increase in his teleportation proficiency.

The goal was to develop Moon Byung-ho's teleportation ability as quickly as possible.

[Citizen Moon Byung-ho has used up all available quest attempts for today.]

[Evaluating the quests performed by Citizen Moon Byung-ho.]

[······ Evaluation in progress ······]

'I wonder what the reward will be this time?'

Honestly, I was a little excited.

All of Moon Byung-ho's quests had been related to skills, and the rewards had been improvements in his teleportation proficiency.

Given that additional rewards seemed to be related to the quest's content, his teleportation skill proficiency would likely increase.

'The shop and storage don't really have proficiency levels, so maybe it will boost the proficiency of the Dignity Maintenance or Absolute Ruler's Eye skills?'

Dignity Maintenance was surprisingly dependent on proficiency.

I had realized its importance while hunting goblins.

When I discharged electricity to hunt goblins, I discovered another potential of the Dignity Maintenance skill.

'I definitely had some level of control over my power.'

When I released electricity toward the goblins, my intent to unleash a strong current was realized exactly as I envisioned.

Since I was actively regulating the electricity output using the Dignity Maintenance skill, it wasn't just my imagination.

If its proficiency increased, I was certain I could do even more.

'Increasing the proficiency of Absolute Ruler's Eye would also be useful.'

At first, using Absolute Ruler's Eye made it difficult to do anything else.

Now, I could use it while eating.

If the proficiency increased further, I might be able to maintain it as naturally as breathing.

'Or maybe it'll improve that new skill I just got?'

When Housebound Proclamation reached level 7, I unlocked a new skill.

Housebound Absolute Ruler's Health (Passive) Lv. 1

Greatly increases immunity.

At the moment, it didn't seem like a particularly amazing skill.

The only benefits were being less susceptible to illness and reducing the risk of secondary infections from wounds.

'But it has a lot of potential.'

Among all the skills I had obtained so far, this one excited me the most.

And for a simple reason—

'If I level this up, won't I eventually gain immortality or something?'

At level 1, it only increased immunity, but as the skill evolved, who knew what it could become?

'This is all great, but in the end, skill points are the real problem.'

Skill points.

Of course, in order to upgrade the performance of skills, leveling up was necessary.

Even though the "Home Proclamation" level had risen to 7 through mob hunting, no new skill points were awarded.

'It seems like they only give 3 skill points every 5 levels…'

That meant I had to raise the "Home Proclamation" level to 10 in order to receive skill points.

'They'll probably only give 3 points then too, huh?'

Honestly, that was way too stingy.

With the shop's item registration slots almost full, I absolutely had to invest at least one point into the shop.

There were so many items that needed to be listed.

'That would leave me with just 2 points.'

The remaining points were few, but there were too many skills I wanted to invest in.

The skill that intrigued me the most was the "Dignity Maintenance" skill.

Having the power to control basic utilities like electricity, water, and gas was already impressive.

But at level 2, a new skill had appeared—the "Vassal" skill.

'A skill that literally mass-produces superhumans.'

Although conditions like trust and loyalty were attached, being able to grant supernatural abilities in this kind of world was an enormous advantage.

Just looking at Kang Deok-soo's performance against the goblins made it clear that having supernatural abilities made a world of difference.

'Honestly, even just increasing the limit on vassal registrations would be beneficial.'

Currently, the maximum number of registered vassals was 10.

Even if no other features were added, simply increasing this limit would make investing skill points worthwhile.

'Hah… What's the point of agonizing over this? I still have a long way to go before I reach level 10 anyway.'

Just as a wave of existential doubt hit me, the evaluation of Moon Byung-ho's daily quest was finally completed.

[Evaluation complete.]

'Alright, which skill proficiency will increase?'

I waited excitedly for the reward.

[Jackpot!]

[Congratulations.]

[You have obtained a skill point.]

'What? Jackpot?'

A notification I never even imagined appeared.

'You can get skill points from this?'

I was so shocked that I even forgot to maintain my "Eye of the Absolute" skill.

Staring blankly at the message in front of me, I quickly opened the skill window to check.

[Available Skill Points: 1]

Seeing that, the corners of my mouth curled up into a ten-and-ten position.

"…This is amazing."