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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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It was a strange sight. The shadow of a dead being was writhing and rising.
Karuna’s shadow looked at its original body. It was already a pale figure, but now, with its head crushed, it looked tragically so. Karuna’s shadow then looked at Kang Seol and knelt.
“I am yours.”
His comforting voice adorned the night sky. Kang Seol erased the memory of the arrogant Karuna who had relentlessly pursued him. Now, Karuna was his loyal subordinate. The onlookers were bewildered.
‘Ah, I get it now’ donated 100 madness!
“The sexy smell was coming from my armpits…”
– Not sexy at all… Why doesn’t he seem like a newbie…
– So this is what a perfect clear looks like, huh? The first and the best;
– He didn’t make a single mistake on the panels;; The other rooms were all about doing a fucking tap dance on the panels and then getting your head lopped off;
– What’s that! Does Shadow Summon have no penalty?
– I checked the setting book, and it seems the stat and ability penalties are severe. I was worried for nothing, lol. The description also says so.
– Phew… I thought it was going to be a balance breaker, lol
As Kang Seol achieved the feat, countless beings flocked to watch him.
– Is this the room where your summon was awesome?
– Yes, it is! I saw it!
– What’s with Karuna; why is he so black?
– They say he was taken. Please take down the post.
– NTR is the worst ㅡㅡ
– In this industry, it’s actually a reward.
Kang Seol moved to the safe zone and checked Karuna’s status.
“Not bad.”
Actually, it wasn’t just “not bad,” it was unbelievable. He remembered that summon grades were divided into 10 tiers, from the common monsters of the Normal grade to the boss monsters of the Rare grade. Most summoners used Rare grade summons.
‘And Karuna is a Hero grade.’
Why? He knew Karuna was a Hero grade, but he didn’t know why. Karuna was a powerful early-game boss with diverse abilities. Perhaps that was why. Above the Hero grade were Legendary, Transcendent, Mystic, and Mysterious grades. They seemed far away for now.
‘But this alone guarantees my survival!’
A summon far stronger than its master. It was a summoner’s dream.
‘Shadow Summon is one of the few summoning arts with lenient conditions…’
The corpse of a monster with a shadow, which he had defeated himself. That was the only condition. So, he could obtain summons he otherwise couldn’t. Like now. But what job was perfect from the start? There were, of course, problems.
‘Summoning is easy, but it’s also very situational…’
First, the summon’s abilities were determined by the abilities of the original monster. If you resurrected a goblin, you’d get a shadow summon weaker than a normal goblin. That could be compensated for to some extent if the Shadow Summon’s level was similar to the monster’s, but…
‘But in a situation like this, it worked in my favor.’
Since Karuna’s original abilities were immense, the shadow summon that replicated him was also immense. As long as you could defeat the opponent, you could make it your summon. ‘Fortunately, I didn’t make any mistakes.’
Perhaps it was lucky that the first adventure was Moonlit Dance. Other tutorial adventures usually involved at least a simple battle.
In that case, he would have had to fight with only Shadow Hand, his only ability besides Shadow Summon at level 1. And he would have struggled with just Shadow Hand, which was slightly inferior to other casters’ abilities.
‘The rewards wouldn’t have been great either. And the summon would have been crappy.’
Anyway, there was no need to worry about what hadn’t happened. He had obtained a powerful summon and finally had the true makings of a summoner. He approached the shining moon box in the safe zone.
Thud.
He stopped and suddenly realized he was smiling. His 17 years of enjoying the game couldn’t be changed in an instant. He was enjoying this moment. He was a madman of the Eternal World.
‘…Well, whatever.’
Clank.
Rumble—.
A brilliant light emanated from the box.
Flash—!
At the level-up message, he checked his status.
Two level-ups. In the Eternal World, leveling up gave you 4 flexible attribute points and 4 fixed attribute points. Fixed attribute points were automatically allocated to stats determined by the job, and flexible attribute points could be allocated as the player wished.
‘A shadow summoner has to put everything into Wisdom.’
He invested all 8 points into Wisdom. Most summoners’ summons leveled up with them. He checked, and Karuna had also become level 3.
He distributed Karuna’s flexible attribute points in a balanced way, unlike his own. Next, the rewards. He had also obtained some minor materials, but they were insignificant.
“As expected…”
He focused on the three most important items from the moon box.
‘This is a fixed drop.’
The Moonlight Sword was a guaranteed drop from defeating Karuna. The equipment grades were Junk, Normal, Uncommon, Rare, Treasure, and above.
A Rare grade was an excellent reward for a tutorial adventure. He looked at the bluish sword for a moment and then gave it to Karuna, who was now his summon.
Another unique feature of the Shadow Summoner. Summons could grow individually and equip items.
While most summoners’ summons grew through a trickle-down effect from the summoner’s growth, only the Shadow Summoner’s summons grew individually. It required a lot of investment and effort, but the rewards were worth it.
It’s a bit heavy.
– Ugh lol, I read about this, and Wisdom is a really low-priority stat?
– Wasted a drop. If he’d gotten something else instead of a staff, he could have at least sold it lol.
– Uh… can I choose again?
– Hey newbie… watch and learn. Time to reroll.
Despite the negative reactions from the onlookers, he smiled and equipped the staff.
‘This is the most suitable item for my current situation.’
The Wisdom option was often considered a ‘double-edged sword’ by players of the Eternal World. It increased the maximum MP and had other minor effects, but it was less efficient than other stats.
‘But that’s for other jobs.’
A summoner. No, unlike other ordinary summoners, Wisdom was very important for a Shadow Summoner. It wasn’t just about the maximum MP.
Most of the Shadow Summoner’s abilities improved with Wisdom. Shadow Summoners were broadly divided into three types. One was the all-rounder, who used both magic and summons.
But they were a jack of all trades and master of none, the worst type. Another type was the swarm summoner. They summoned as many small shadows as possible. They were strong in the early game, but their power dropped off sharply after that.
By then, boss monsters had a different level of presence. They could probably ignore minor scratches. And the last type was the elite summoner. This type didn’t have many summons, but they were all high-grade.
If they grew well, they were the most powerful type. The disadvantage was that it was very difficult to manage such summons, making the early game a living hell.
The summoner type he intended to raise was the last one. And for this type, Wisdom was even more important.
The things that increased with Wisdom were summon loyalty, charisma, overall ability efficiency, the transmission rate when a summon was resurrected as a shadow, and the probability of a summon gaining enlightenment.
This was most closely related to the last type. The higher the grade of the summon, the more difficult it was to maintain its loyalty, and if the summoner’s charisma was low, the summon might even rebel.
This was why Wisdom was so important for the last type. So it was only natural for him to be happy about getting the Full Moon Staff with its high Wisdom bonus.
‘Things are going well.’
– What’s this?
– Uh… it’s on the drop list. But it doesn’t say what the effect is.
– Is it a dud?
– Don’t eat it! It’s gross, gross!
‘…I can’t believe this dropped.’
In his 17 years of playing, he had only seen others get it. He had never gotten it himself.
‘The early-game lottery item, the Moon Seed.’
It was always a benefit to eat it. And it was an even bigger benefit if you got good stats or a related ability. And he also knew how to maximize the performance of this item.
‘Consuming it right now is impossible… Is the equipment check done?’
He checked the newly acquired title one last time.
He stroked his chin.
‘It’ll also apply to Karuna.
’ It would have been a mediocre special ability for others, but for him, it was another spec upgrade.
‘So far, so good. On to the next.’
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Zzzzing—
After finishing the checkup, his body was transported to the next adventure.
The Rock Tusk Tribe. They elect their leader in a peculiar way and maintain their tribe in an even more peculiar way.
Their current leader is ‘Tyrant Jamad.’
Weaken the Rock Tusk Tribe by any means necessary.
‘Is it… around noon now?’
If he completed the mission by tomorrow morning, he would be transported to a safe zone. Adventure 2, rest 1. In the Eternal World, adventures usually proceeded in this way, except for special cases, so that part should be the same.
‘By the way, 5 brothers… this is a pretty difficult adventure.’
With 5 targets, there were many variables, and it was a fairly difficult adventure.
‘Breaking News’ donated 100 madness!
“I checked the setting book. It says Wisdom is the key stat for a Shadow Summoner.”
– Please take that information back. I don’t want it.
– Then was the staff a great find?
– Were we just laughing at ourselves?
– I didn’t laugh
– I didn’t laugh either
– I knew it was a good find, so I kept quiet ㅇㅇ
Whoooooosh—
The adventure began on the side of a jagged mountain, with the sun still up. It wasn’t a very high mountain, but the terrain was rough, and there were guards everywhere, so it seemed like it would take a while to climb.
‘It’s strange to see what I saw on the board in person. But… why isn’t it here?’
In fact, as soon as he checked what the new adventure was, he was filled with doubt.
‘Strange. The 5 brothers is a party-exclusive adventure because of the difficulty…’
Since there were 5 opponents, there should have been 5 on this side too. The 5 brothers he had played in his dreams were always played with 5 people.
“Wait… the remaining time is 20 hours and 47 minutes?”
Could there be such an ambiguous time limit? In the Moonlit Dance, he had been given exactly 6 hours, but suddenly, the next adventure had a messy time limit.
‘This… doesn’t feel right.’
He hurriedly manipulated the adventure interface on one side of his vision to confirm the truth. And he found out why the time limit was messy and why his party members were not at the starting point.
“…Oh no.”
– Huh? They’re all dead?
– Crazy;; how are you supposed to clear this??
– Is this how the dark horse dies because of his party members?
The 5-person adventure had suddenly become a solo adventure. His party members were already corpses.
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