Chapter 158: Chapter 158

James Marcus Appears in Idenharc!

As this news spread through World Com, countless users flocked to Idenharc.

Just to catch a glimpse of him.

“He’s going to the City of Warriors?”

“Let’s follow him!”

As befitting a global superstar, many users followed in his wake.

“Ah… I can’t go because of my level.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Damn it!”

“Still, I’m happy to see him from afar.”

Among them, a large number of users who didn’t meet the level requirement dropped out.

Those above level 201 continued to chase after James.

‘This is annoying.’

James Marcus frowned.

Ever since he became a successful pro gamer, there were always people following him wherever he went.

There were hardly any in high-level zones, but in low-level places like Idenharc or the City of Warriors, there were too many followers.

The biggest problem was that he couldn’t openly express his discomfort.

“Haha, please don’t crowd too much, it’s dangerous.”

“Oh my god! James is worried about us!”

“Amazing!”

He had spoken indirectly on purpose, but they didn’t seem to understand, overjoyed just by the fact that he had spoken to them.

‘They don’t get it.’

James Marcus decided to ignore them.

Finally arriving at the City of Warriors, he headed straight for the rocky mountain.

“The rocky mountain?”

“Why is he going there?”

“Is there something there?”

The users were curious but couldn’t follow James Marcus any further.

This was because he started climbing the cliff-like rocky mountain with his bare hands.

The users could only stare blankly at him as he climbed effortlessly.

Regardless, James Marcus picked up the pace and quickly ascended the rocky mountain.

‘If it’s the Heart of the Warrior, it must be somewhere here.’

His prediction was spot on.

After climbing for a while, he discovered a small hole.

‘That’s it.’

James Marcus’s eyes gleamed as he increased his speed.

Arriving at the cave,

He entered and took a few steps, only to find a worn-out mat and a broken pottery piece on it.

“A Rune.”

Just by looking at it, he immediately understood what the hint was referring to.

A wide smile spread across James Marcus’s face.

“It’s a hint given to the MVP, so it must be Legendary grade, right?”

He was currently equipped with three Runes.

This was because the equipment limit had increased to three after completing his 5th job advancement.

And all of them were Unique grade.

He wanted to upgrade his Runes, but due to lack of opportunities, he was still using only Unique ones.

If he obtained a Legendary Rune, his stats would skyrocket even further.

James Marcus reached out to touch the pottery.

But even after touching it, there was no reaction.

“What?”

James Marcus’s face was filled with confusion.

* * *

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: What are you doing now?]

Just as Jeong-hoon was leaving the Exchange, he received a whisper from Ha-jin.

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: I’m at the Exchange right now?]

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: The Exchange? Why are you there?]

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: To buy some Runes.]

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: Wow… you’re rich?]

This was the perception of VIP Coins.

The majority of users couldn’t understand why someone would spend over 100 million won when they could fully enhance A Rune with just a bit of time investment.

Jeong-hoon also belonged to that group before his regression, but now, with the mindset that time was more valuable than money, he didn’t feel it was a waste at all.

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: What’s up? Did you already hit level 201?]

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: No… not yet.]

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: Then what is it?]

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: I saw on World Com that James Marcus is heading to the City of Warriors. You know James Marcus, right?]

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: How could I not?]

A global superstar.

Who wouldn’t know the current world’s number one ranked warrior?

The fact that James Marcus had come to the City of Warriors meant he was there to find A Rune.

‘He’s faster than I thought…?’

Originally, he should have discovered it later than this.

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: Isn’t it awesome anyway? According to World Com, he stopped by Idenharc first before heading to the City of Warriors.]

World Com also had servers.

James Marcus was on the America server.

He was such a global superstar that even Korea was in an uproar.

‘Ah, I think I know why it got sped up.’

Jeong-hoon had passed through the Starting Village and Idenharc.

In the process, he met Jordan and was able to create Anima.

Thanks to that, Jordan became an NPC who discovered the ore vein where the Evolution Stone was buried, a celebrity in the city.

Surely someone must have recommended Jordan to him.

“If I were a bit late, things could have gone wrong.”

But what should he do about this?

He had already taken the Legendary Rune.

Jeong-hoon grinned.

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: If we were on the same server, we might have run into each other.]

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: Yeah. I’d like to see him up close too, but that’s not possible.]

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: Anyway, how’s your leveling going?]

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: I’m working hard.]

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: Okay, do your best.]

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: Okay.]

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: Then I’ll go ahead and do some content.]

[Whisper/zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12 -> Hoon: Ha… I need to hurry up and reach level 201 and move on too.]

[Whisper/Hoon -> zl-Zone-Ha-Jin12: I’ll be waiting, so hurry up.]

Jeong-hoon closed the whisper window after that.

‘He seems to be in a good mood?’

As Anima said, Jeong-hoon’s lips were curled up almost to his ears.

“Yeah.”

Unlike in his previous life, there was no Rune to boost James Marcus’s stats now.

On the contrary, Jeong-hoon was able to increase his stats even more than before his regression.

He needed to eliminate as many obstacles as possible to end this tiresome game.

===

[Immortal Bond: Oath of Combat]

– Type: Rune

– Grade: Legendary

– Special Ability (1): Configurable

– Special Ability (2): Configurable

– Remaining Enhancements: 10

===

Now it was time to enhance this Rune.

But before that.

Jeong-hoon decided to set the Rune’s abilities.

The abilities he needed to proceed with his next plan.

[Would you like to set Special Ability (1)?]

[Abilities are set randomly, and if you don’t like the option, you can reset it.]

[The cost for resetting is ’10 gold’.]

10 gold for one reset.

It meant he had to spend 100,000 won to reset an option.

‘So this is what a money-guzzler is like.’

Unlike Unique grade Runes, Legendary grade Runes required manual configuration of options.

Jeong-hoon immediately pressed the ‘Set’ button.

[‘Attack Power increased by 50’]

Black text appeared, displaying ‘Attack Power increased by 50’.

‘…I didn’t expect much at first, but.’

While an increase of 50 Attack Power wasn’t a bad option, it wasn’t what Jeong-hoon wanted.

He invested 10 gold to reset the option.

[‘Defense increased by 10%’]

This time, yellow text appeared, showing ‘Defense increased by 10%’.

The color of the text had changed due to the high value.

But this wasn’t it either.

Jeong-hoon invested another 10 gold.

[‘Berserker’]

And red text appeared, displaying the ‘Berserker’ option.

“Oh! Berserker?”

Berserker was an option that James Marcus frequently used.

Even when he changed other options, he always kept Berserker.

[Berserker]

– Type: Passive

– Grade: Legendary

– When taking/dealing a certain amount of damage, Attack Power increases by 1.2 times for 180 seconds.

– When taking/dealing a certain amount of damage, Defense increases by 1.2 times for 180 seconds.

– When taking/dealing a certain amount of damage, all skill damage increases by 5% for 180 seconds.

– Cooldown: 600 seconds.

A passive skill that activates automatically when taking or dealing a certain amount of damage.

‘There’s nothing more overpowered than attaching a skill to A Rune.’

Attaching skills to Runes was possible from Unique grade onwards.

However, it was impossible to have such a powerful option.

Legendary and Unique were worlds apart.

[Would you like to set Special Ability (2)?]

[Abilities are set randomly, and if you don’t like the option, you can reset it.]

[The cost for resetting is ’10 gold’.]

Similarly, he immediately set the second option.

[‘Attack Power increased by 7%’]

‘Alright. Let’s go with this.’

While the first special ability could acquire a skill, the second one couldn’t.

So, it was ideal to set the first one as a skill and rotate the second option depending on the situation.

The Attack Power increase applied to normal attacks even without using skills, so he decided to stick with it.

‘Is the configuration done?’

“Yes. Now I think all that’s left is enhancement.”

Enhancing the Rune was simple.

Even without an Enhancer, it was possible to enhance by selecting the Rune and using the enhancement icon at the bottom right.

[Please select the material to be used for enhancement.]

Jeong-hoon selected the Ancient Rune he had purchased from the Coin Shop.

[Would you like to attempt enhancement?]

[Estimated success rate: 100%]

Since he used A Rune of the same level, the estimated success rate was 100%.

Jeong-hoon immediately attempted the enhancement.

The Rune flashed brightly for a moment and then disappeared.

[Enhancement successful.]

Jeong-hoon proceeded to complete all the remaining 9 enhancements.

* * *

Whoosh-

The capsule door opened, and Jeong-hoon stepped out.

A smile lingered on his lips.

‘It’s done. Fully enhanced.’

He had successfully completed the first task he had planned in the Free City. Now all that was left was to wait for Mukho to be restored.

“Let’s move as soon as Mukho is restored.”

With New World gradually approaching reality, a long rest was a luxury.

‘The 3rd Cataclysm. That’s when the countdown begins.’

There was still quite a bit of time left before the 3rd Cataclysm started.

Until then, he had to finish as many of his planned tasks as possible.

‘But before that, I need to rest my body a bit.’

Jeong-hoon’s physical body was still no different from an ordinary adult male.

So he needed to rest in order to carry out his next plan.

He went out to the living room and saw his mother reading a book.

“Oh? Son, you’re out early today?”

His mother closed the book she was reading at Jeong-hoon’s appearance.

“Yes. I’m going to rest for a bit.”

“I see.”

“How are you doing, Mom? Have you been to the Gun Tower?”

The Gun Tower Master had appeared earlier than originally expected.

Impressed by his mother’s talent, he even invited her to become his disciple.

There must have been some favoritism from the Gun Tower Master.

“Yes, I’ve already reached level 150.”

“That quickly…?”

It seemed like they were giving her more than he had imagined.

“Yes. Every time I receive a quest, my level goes up quickly.”

At this rate, wouldn’t she catch up to Ha-jin and Kim Bong-Goo’s levels?

That wasn’t all.

As expected, the Gun Tower Master was teaching her his skills and even bestowing titles, fully supporting her growth.

‘At this rate, Mom will reach the 3rd advancement soon too.’

A smile formed on Jeong-hoon’s lips.

“So, you’re free today?”

“I came out on purpose. I’ve been playing all day, and my body feels stiff.”

Staying still in a capsule for a long time wasn’t easy either.

“Then, shall we go out for a meal for the first time in a while?”

“That sounds great!”

“I’ll make a reservation right away!”

Jeong-hoon made a reservation at a nearby sushi restaurant known for being expensive.

[Tl/N: There was some confusion in the past chapters.

The necklace is a “relic”, the gemstones on it are called “runes”.

Mark is a completed form of all the fragments combined.

Sa Jae-Hyeok is the Leader of the Myth Guild]

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