Chapter 85: Chapter 85

The exclamation mark above the head of the NPC who had taken refuge outside the building was blinking.

It meant that the quest had been completed.

“Thank you!@#”

[Quest %#$ has been completed.]

[You have acquired the $!@! Elixir.]

Done.

This elixir was the ‘Growth Elixir’ he had drank before.

It was an item that greatly increased experience points, and although there was only one bottle, it contained a whole liter.

With this, he could level up further even without hunting.

[The underground city is disappearing.]

And with the boss gone, the bug city slowly began to disappear.

There was no reason for it to exist anymore.

“$!@$#!@#.”

The man’s voice was so broken that it was completely incomprehensible, but judging by the relieved smile on his face, he seemed to understand what he was saying.

‘He must be thanking me for freeing him.’

A life where he couldn’t leave even if he wanted to because of a bug.

He must have been relieved to be able to end such a tiresome life.

After he disappeared into white ashes, Jeong-Hoon sent Michael back.

“Let’s go back too.”

“Yes.”

Kim Bong-Goo’s face brightened.

And as soon as they came out of the portal, Kim Bong-Goo got permission from Jeong-Hoon and hurriedly logged out and disappeared.

[Kekeke, it’s nice to see him running away.]

Mukho giggled.

“Mukho, I’ve been thinking, and I want to upgrade your abilities.”

[My abilities? You said it wasn’t possible right now, didn’t you?]

“I did. But I got this.”

Jeong-Hoon took out the unidentified magic stone he had obtained after defeating the Aberrant Being.

* * *

Italian server.

“Maximus! I found a bug!”

“A bug?”

“Yes! Why do you think New World doesn’t fix bugs? They deliberately hid an opportunity there!”

Maximus rested his chin on his hand and fell into thought.

The person in front of him was his childhood friend, Federico.

He was a friend who had been called a genius since childhood because he was so smart.

His genius extended to computers, and he had even won various programming competitions.

Of course, he had completely abandoned programming since New World came out.

So Federico’s words couldn’t be false.

But no matter how much he thought about it, it was strange.

“That doesn’t make sense. How many opportunities have been discovered so far?”

Maximus was lucky enough to discover an opportunity at level 36.

Thanks to that, he was able to obtain a Unique class after his second job advancement.

But he had never heard of any bugs in New World.

“No, I’m telling you, this is something New World hid in a different form!”

Federico placed a note on the table.

[Western Edge]

-!@#!@#%

Except for the phrase “Western Edge”, all the letters on the note were garbled.

Federico, upon seeing this note, immediately recognized it as a bug.

This was because it was similar to how existing things would become distorted when a bug occurred.

“A different form?”

It was rare for Federico to be this proactive.

“Yes! It’s New World. Does it make sense that New World would just leave a bug like this?”

The fact that he, who had been sweeping competitions as a programmer, suddenly threw everything away was largely due to the influence of New World.

‘This is unbelievable! Such technology exists in the world!’

The feeling of helplessness that he couldn’t keep up with the developers of New World no matter how hard he tried…

And at the same time, he was captivated by the charm of New World.

It was a collection of technologies that far surpassed the modern era they had implemented.

“…Okay. So where is it?”

“It’s very close! It’s Autobahn!”

“Autobahn is here, isn’t it?”

This was the plaza of Autobahn.

As befitting the Italian server, all the users in Autobahn were Italians.

And the place Federico guided him to was the cliff located at the western end of Autobahn.

“It’s the place beyond there!”

“…This is the edge of the territory. Isn’t it blocked off by New World?”

New World wasn’t just one world.

It was a semi-open world game that connected numerous worlds.

So the developers had blocked off certain areas of the territory to prevent users from going beyond them.

“It’s okay here!”

Federico said, jumping off the cliff.

As a mage, he slowly descended using flying magic, but the height was dizzying.

“Hey! What am I supposed to do if you go down alone?”

Unlike him, Maximus was a martial artist.

But soon, a portal appeared in front of him.

It was a movement portal that could take him down the cliff instantly.

“What is this? Was there something down there that activated the portal?”

Maximus was puzzled but took the portal and went down.

But there was nothing there.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Huh? It’s gone? Where did it go?”

“…Maybe it’s not Autobahn?”

“No way! Look down there!”

Federico pointed to the note again.

– Western Edge of Au%@tobahn

There were letters he could make out.

“Au… to…bahn…?”

“Yes, Autobahn. You saw the portal appear when we came down here, right? This is definitely the place!”

“…But there’s nothing here?”

They searched all over the bottom of the cliff, but they couldn’t find the opportunity.

* * *

[You think I can strengthen my abilities in this smelly place? I don’t think so…]

Mukho muttered in a doubtful voice.

The place Jeong-Hoon arrived at was a small cabin located a little distance from the cliff.

It was an abandoned house where it seemed like no one could live.

The reason for visiting such an abandoned house was simple.

‘Because he’s here.’

The person who could strengthen Mukho’s abilities.

Looking closely, the cabin was quite clean, unlike an abandoned house, as if it had been well maintained.

And he could sense someone inside.

Jeong-Hoon knocked on the cabin door.

“Who is it?”

A deep voice came from inside.

“I’m here on business.”

“Don’t talk nonsense and get lost.”

A cold voice replied.

“I brought a magic stone.”

“…So what?”

Just as he thought.

A sly smile crept onto Jeong-Hoon’s lips.

It was because he had hesitated for a moment.

“I’m trying to enchant something, but there’s no one around with the ability to do so.”

Enchant.

Unlike evolution, refining, and enhancement, it refers to the process of forcibly granting new abilities and attributes by applying external power.

It could be considered similar in nature to soul stones, but just as only those with Ego-related skills could handle them, the same was true for enchanting.

And the person Jeong-Hoon had come to see was a man who could be called a master of enchanting.

“I don’t do that. Stop talking nonsense and go.”

But the cabin door showed no signs of opening.

And if he forced it open and went in, he wouldn’t be able to make a request.

Jeong-Hoon knocked again and spoke.

“It’s Legendary armor. And the magic stone is something that hasn’t been released to the world yet, so it’s unverified.”

As far as Jeong-Hoon remembered, this master was extremely curious.

Legendary equipment rarely appeared, and an unverified magic stone on top of that.

It was more than enough to stimulate his curiosity.

[What? You want to put something unverified on me?! Are you trying to kill someone?!]

‘Be quiet.’

[Damn owner! You want me to calmly let someone put a knife to my throat? Would you do that?!]

‘I’m going to enhance you.’

[Enhance my ass. This is a live experiment!]

Ignoring the noisy Mukho, he waited for an answer from inside.

“…Come in.”

With those words, the tightly closed cabin door slowly opened.

An old man in his 70s was standing there.

===

[NPC Information]

– Nickname: Irno

– Level: 150

– Class: Forgotten Craftsman

===

Jeong-Hoon sat on the old chair across from him.

Irno brought a cup of green tea and placed it on the table.

“Thank you.”

“…Is the robe you’re wearing Legendary?”

As expected of a craftsman, Irno recognized Mukho at a glance.

“You recognized it?”

“It would be strange not to recognize something with such a powerful aura.”

In fact, only Irno could recognize it.

Originally, when you started New World, your items were automatically set to private.

Unless you manually changed it to public, others couldn’t see it.

Naturally, Jeong-Hoon hadn’t set it to public, so other users couldn’t recognize it.

“I see.”

“But it’s only half complete?”

Oh, can he even see that?

[Half? You want your mouth to be split in two?]

Mukho reacted irritably, but Jeong-Hoon simply ignored it.

“That’s why I want to enhance it using this.”

Jeong-Hoon took out the magic stone from his inventory and placed it on the table.

Irno’s pupils started to tremble madly when he saw the magic stone.

“H-How did you get this?!”

“Do you know about this magic stone?”

“Huh… Of course. How could I not recognize this?”

A magic stone designated as Unique grade, but its performance was comparable to Legendary.

It was a Special grade magic stone.

Irno had only ever encountered up to Superior grade magic stones in his 60 years as an enchanter.

Special grade magic stones were magic stones that were only passed down in legends, and no one could handle them.

And that Special grade magic stone was right in front of him.

“That’s good. So you’re saying you can handle this?”

“Handling it isn’t the problem… Where the hell did you get this?”

“I was lucky.”

“You can’t get this by luck! It’s a legendary magic stone!”

Irno raised his voice.

Unlike when he knocked on the cabin door, he was full of excitement.

‘It’s no wonder.’

Jeong-Hoon knew that this Special grade magic stone hardly existed in New World.

It wasn’t a magic stone that enchanters could easily access.

“So what are you going to do?”

“…Are you really going to entrust this to me?”

Irno’s gaze couldn’t leave the magic stone.

“Yes. That’s why I came all the way here.”

“…Then entrust it to me. I’ll make sure to succeed.”

A question mark appeared above Irno’s head.

[Hidden Quest: Craftsman Irno]

– Restriction: Irno’s motivation Max

– Reward: Enchant success

– Description: Request an enchant from Irno.

Thanks to the Special grade magic stone, the quest appeared quickly.

‘Done.’

If it wasn’t for the Special grade magic stone, he wouldn’t have been able to change Irno’s mind.

Jeong-Hoon accepted the quest.

“I’ll leave it to you.”

[Hey! I don’t want to go to that guy!]

Mukho threw a fit as Jeong-Hoon tried to take it off.

‘It’s to make your abilities stronger.’

[What if he fails? What if he fails?!]

‘He won’t fail. He’s a real craftsman.’

[!@#$]

When Mukho started cursing, Jeong-Hoon quickly threw it off.

Mukho’s voice stopped abruptly.

“Trust me. He may look like this, but he’s an enchanter with a 99.14% success rate.”

“How long will it take?”

“…Hmm, about 8 hours should be enough.”

It took longer than he thought.

“Okay.”

“Then will you come back in 8 hours?”

Irno came out of the cabin and went into the workshop behind it.

The workshop was only about a third the size of the cabin.

He hadn’t expected that to be the workshop.

“I’ll watch.”

“Alright.”

8 hours.

There was plenty of time.

Jeong-Hoon returned to the cabin and sat on the floor.

It was time to consume the elixir he received from the quest.