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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: bchen3
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“Thank you for your hard work today.”
“You too, Sir Gregory.”
“You seem to have become quite proficient. Looking at skill alone, you’re indistinguishable from the priests in the knight order. To grow this much in such a short time.”
As we finished the battle that had now become a morning routine, Gregory approached with a bright smile showing his perfect teeth.
His body could rival Mr. Olympia no matter when you looked at him.
I smiled back and took a swig from my water bottle to gargle before spitting it out.
A week ago, I could taste salt in my mouth, but now I couldn’t really feel anything particular.
My breathing was fairly stable too.
As experience accumulated and judgment criteria became more refined, unnecessary movements had greatly decreased.
Thanks to that, what had felt like intense battle practice was quite manageable now.
“Other users- heroes are starting to show up quite a bit, aren’t they?”
“Ah, yes, participation in practice has increased since the announcement of the heroes’ competition.”
Ah, so that’s why. This fellow seemed oddly in a good mood.
Gregory’s face, which had been full of worry until the first week, now looked considerably brighter.
‘…He really seems human.’
I thought this while watching Gregory show such multifaceted responses according to changing situations.
Plus the surrounding NPCs’ reactions, openly showing disappointment whenever heroes showed inadequacy.
‘And other aspects too…’
The perversely detailed implementation of not just bathrooms, but physiological phenomena like sweat after exercise or dry tongue.
Dynamic quests that seemed to consider not just the growth stats on users’ status windows, but also mental growth like killing goblins and sudden party competitions.
It felt like a living world.
‘These days, I can somewhat understand the people who say this is a real other world.’
I thought about the Doraemon trio who had been delighted from the start about coming to another world.
Despite the rather desperate situation, whether they truly felt happy about coming to another world or not, they were adapting surprisingly well even to the harsh training.
‘Another world…’
Sometimes it was realistic enough that you couldn’t tell if this was a game or reality.
‘That’s impossible though.’
Honestly, there had never been a game implemented with this level of quality before, and while it was generally implausible, you could imagine some genius mad scientist in Japan using technology several generations ahead…
‘But dimensional jumping or dimensional transfer goes beyond that into SF.’
Recently, some famous grandpa called Elon something in America had been seeking investors for terraforming projects on Mars.
While virtual reality games were advancing year by year, humanity had only reached as far as Mars when it came to space and distance.
‘I heard they’ve been steadily discovering planets that seem capable of supporting life.’
It felt similar to stories about developing a cure for baldness.
Just giving false hope.
It meant it wouldn’t be solved before I died, so it wasn’t relevant.
Looking at it, the units of distance were already different.
Wasn’t the closest planet several billion light years away?
It would be pretty funny if after arriving there, it happened to be a world similar to JRPGs.
At any rate, it surely wasn’t possible in the 21st century.
Then moving completely into the occult realm and believing in the existence of gods?
Even in an age where there were moon tourism packages, though expensive, and spacecraft flying to Mars, it seemed a bit much to believe gods really existed.
Jesus? Buddha? Mohammed? Ahura Mazda? Zeus? Odin?
Whichever god it was, they were definitely a hardcore Japanese person who loved J-RPGs.
‘Why am I thinking so seriously about this.’
It was a meaningless thought.
‘I should focus on surviving for now.’
“You seem deep in thought. Even for Hero Yoon Sihu, are you worried about the competition?”
Gregory’s words broke through my contemplation.
‘Don’t think too deeply.’
“Yes, well. I am a bit worried. Since we’re not choosing our own party members.”
“Though all heroes are excellent, some are growing a bit slower. When there are skill differences, practice doesn’t go well.”
“The party selection. Will instructors like you be doing it, Sir Gregory?”
“Hmm! For fairness, I can’t tell you that, even if it’s you, Hero Yoon Sihu.”
“Then give me some other hints.”
“Hmm… this much should be fine. They’re forming ten 6-person parties and six 8-person parties.”
“The number of parties is quite different?”
“Still, I heard they’re arranging it so the overall combat power will be similar whether it’s 6-person or 8-person parties.”
Sixteen parties in total.
Three S-ranks, and A-ranks were… around 13?
Though not exactly the same, it seemed about right.
“It would be just right to assign one S-rank or A-rank to each party.”
“Hmm.”
Gregory just smiled at my words without answering.
But probably to maintain balance, it would roughly work out that way.
‘I’ll be fighting Luna and the lunch kid too.’
If we make it up that far, that is.
“When will the party compositions be announced?”
“Probably in about three days.”
“That’s taking quite a while?”
“They’re watching the heroes’ training status and deliberating to create forces that are as similar as possible. Mm. Indeed so.”
Gregory nodded while making contemplative sounds.
Making the combat power as similar as possible, he said.
‘…Ironically, the higher you’re rated, the more painful it becomes.’
It meant the team would be filled with bugs, no, slightly lacking people.
‘Well, does it matter?’
The lower ranks would all be about the same anyway.
Still, I hoped for somewhat decent party members to be assigned.
I let out a light sigh and stood up with my towel and water bottle.
“Aren’t you training today?”
“I have something else to do.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
As I was about to leave the training ground just before other users’ regular training began, Gregory made a disappointed expression.
‘Training is just a waste of time now.’
While actual combat with knights was different, the 8-hour basic training that was done as general education wasn’t necessary anymore.
With all the basics adapted to, it was practically more like labor than training.
And highly inefficient at that.
‘Eight hours of training doesn’t even give as much Up as killing one goblin.’
The Up from goblins, whether due to individual differences or killing methods, was about 18-22 without the hero bonus.
A full day of 8-hour training gave around 10 Up without the hero bonus.
‘Actual growth only comes from hunting, that seems right.’
Though it was safe, training had terrible growth rates.
Even if I skipped all training during the remaining two weeks, I could make it up quickly with just one day of dedicated hunting.
‘But I can’t go outside alone.’
While I had already adapted, the other party members weren’t ready yet, either experientially or mentally.
Since there wouldn’t only be goblins outside, they needed to grow more.
Like it or not, we had to fill the month.
Still, with this special quest-like feeling for the remaining two weeks, it seemed there would be enough to do.
I just hoped the rewards for first place would be good.
Though being early tutorial rewards, they probably wouldn’t be that great anyway.
In any case, the instructors, including Gregory, didn’t particularly stop me when I said I’d skip.
Though I was a priest and had shown my abilities in morning mock battles so far, it was quite a flexible response to something that would deviate from the original system.
The degree of freedom is quite high.
“Huh? Big bro? Where are you going? Training’s about to start?”
“I’m not doing it.”
“!! Skipping? Then I-!”
“Where are you going, Hero Nogi?”
“Ah, well, I…”
“Training is about to begin. Follow me.”
One of the muscle gorillas, who looked relatively slim among them, grabbed Nogi’s nape and dragged him away.
“Ah! Wait! Why just me!”
“Not just Hero Nogi, other heroes are also participating diligently in training. Don’t be lazy.”
“Then what about Kid big bro over there!”
Nogi looked at me like a desperate drowning man.
The knight’s eyes met mine.
The knight gave me a silent bow and continued dragging Nogi away.
“Whyyyy-!”
Should have just been quiet while being dragged away.
But hey, Nogi, you were just trying to drag me down with you, weren’t you?
You’ve got one karma stack for that.
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“Hero Yoon Sihu, I see. Confirmed. Currently, Hero Yoon Sihu has permission to access up to D-rank areas. Please call if you need any assistance.”
I received what looked like a slightly large bookmark artifact from the elf librarian.
The place I came to after skipping training was the library.
There were things to look up. And also some skills to experiment with.
‘This is the first time I’ve seen a place with books like this.’
While I wasn’t sure about Japan, books as a medium had become quite obsolete in Korea.
Texts had moved to electronic devices long ago, and books were things you’d only see as interior decoration or in museums.
I walked through the E section, the library’s first area, examining the bookshelves.
「Magic Theory II」「History of Elysium Through Mythology」「Great Nadium」「Keltain, the Lost City of Gold」「7 Attitudes a Party-Protecting Defender Must Have」「Surviving in Dungeons」「Surviving in Towers」
Various labels were visible for theoretical works, historical works, and storybooks.
Babel’s language posed no problems in reading texts as well as conversation.
That was natural, if you thought about it.
‘「The Aesthetics of Cooking」? They have everything. 「Silvia, Daughter of the Spirits」 sounds a bit pretentious. 「Lustful Argonian Maid II」? What’s this now?’
One very suspicious-looking label.
Argonian? What’s that? Ein?
An unknown race.
Can’t be helped. For the sake of information.
I looked around to confirm no one was watching, then opened the book.
And closed it again not long after.
“…Fuck.”
The illustrations were a bit too shocking.
Argonian… Argonian…
No matter how much you respect diversity, this was a bit…
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What in the lustful argonian maid
What in the lustful argonian maid
Hmm i wonder what he saw…..
Lol