Chapter 13: Crushing Hudson

“St-Stop! I surrender!”  

The Staff of Power struck Hudson repeatedly.  

Unable to bear the peculiar burning sensation of the club, Hudson raised a white flag in less than a few seconds.  

Thanks to that, the duel ended so easily it was almost anticlimactic.  

No matter how much their balance was adjusted, Hudson’s base was a mage.  

Innately weak in physical strength and defense, and having little experience taking hits, there was no way Levant’s club could be withstood.  

[You have won the duel.]  

[You have successfully won your first duel without taking any damage.]  

[Achievement unlocked: ‘Overwhelming Debut’.]  

[Quest complete: ‘Returned Champion’.]  

[Quest rewards are being distributed.]  

[Experience points gained.]  

[Level up.]  

The system notifications poured in before Levant’s eyes.  

Satisfying.  

Levant delayed confirming the rewards he received and instead stared at the God of Duels, who was wearing an expression of disbelief.  

The god spoke, “Hah, that was too easy, too boring. What kind of confidence did that guy have to accept a duel when he was just going to get wiped like that?”  

“Is that so?”  

Levant retorted calmly, playing along with the god’s mockery.  

After all, since he had decided to live as a War Mage, there was no way he could ever get along with the mages no matter what he did.  

In that case, he might as well confidently take the victory as the winner and simply enjoy it.  

Hudson, lying on the floor, gripped his fist tightly, trembling with frustration.  

“Grr, this is so frustrating…”  

“Frustrating? What’s there to be frustrated about?”  

“You...!”  

“Oh? Don’t tell me you forgot? You promised to sincerely apologize to me if you lost the duel. You’re not going to break your word right in front of a god, are you?”  

*Krrrk!*  

This is why the god’s guarantee is so satisfying.  

At Levant’s words, the God of Duels folded his arms and nodded approvingly.  

[Rubix is satisfied.]  

Rubix, who had been watching from somewhere, also showed great satisfaction.  

“Well then, shall we settle this?”  

Levant presented the two rewards he had wagered as conditions for victory:  

One was a free taxi ticket to Herum, and the other was a sincere apology.  

Levant approached the still sulking Hudson, knelt down to meet his gaze, and said,  

“Come on, try giving a sincere apology.”  

“Grrr! Damn it!”  

Is he really that against apologizing?  

But the more he reacted like that, the more Levant felt like teasing him.  

Hudson gritted his teeth and trembled, and Levant mockingly said,  

“Quit whining and hurry up.”  

“...What did you say?”  

“I said, ‘Sorry!’”  

“You don’t even sound sincere at all!”  

This was sincerity.  

What Levant wanted was a genuine apology.  

But no matter how he looked, Hudson didn’t seem like he was going to apologize with any real sincerity, so Levant decided to just tease him to the fullest.  

He teased Hudson for a while longer.  

The God of Duels watching the scene thought,  

“That guy is annoyingly stubborn.”  

Just watching was enough to make anyone’s blood boil, so imagine how miserable Hudson must have felt.  

But there was a reason Levant teased Hudson this much.  

[Rubix is greatly satisfied with your mockery of the loser.]  

[Rubix gifts you 2 Skill Cube fragments.]  

“Ha! That’s the reason.”  

The reason was none other than to receive a gift from Rubix.  

Levant finally understood why streamers always try to show provocative content to their viewers.  

“Ah, thank you, Rubix, for the 2 Skill Cube fragments.”  

Levant expressed his gratitude toward the invisible Rubix and then stood up.  

“You should know that you’re alive thanks to Rubix. The apology is enough now, so hurry up and drive the taxi. The destination is Herum.”  

“Grrr.”  

Levant crushed Hudson’s pride to the very end.  

~  

[Moving to Herum.]  

Hudson muttered magic, and a bright light enveloped him. In an instant, Levant arrived at Herum.  

Upon arriving, Levant said to Hudson,  

“Nice meeting you. Let’s never meet again.”  

“Shut up!”  

Hudson, who had taken Levant to Herum, was stunned by Levant’s farewell and turned back to his starting village.  

After Hudson left, Levant looked around at the scenery of the warrior’s village, Herum, which he had visited after a long time, and muttered to himself.  

“It’s been a while here too.”  

Herum was a warrior’s village.  

Of course, it wasn’t the only warrior village, but most beginners who wished to become warriors were trained here.  

Because of that, Herum was a place full of memories for every warrior user.  

For Levant as well, Herum held a certain significance.  

“Oh right, I should check the rewards first.”  

Lost in thought, he had almost forgotten the important task.  

Levant checked the rewards he obtained right after the duel in order.  

[Overwhelming Debut]  

[Condition: Must win the first duel without taking any damage to unlock.]  

[Option: All stats +3.]  

“Grrr! That’s no joke!”  

The achievement Levant earned from the duel with Hudson was truly overwhelming.  

He wasn’t expecting an excessive reward either. After all, ‘Overwhelming Debut’ could only be earned in the character’s very first duel.  

“I never expected an achievement like this.”  

As a blunt warrior user, Levant was used to taking hits while fighting, so this was a rare and valuable achievement.  

Suddenly, a thought struck Levant’s mind.  

“Oh, no way, could it be...?”  

That this achievement might be considered quite rare and valuable enough to be traded at a high price.  

Levant, on a whim, opened the auction house.  

[Welcome to the auction house.]  

In some games, it was possible to access the internet within the game, but unfortunately, War Lord did not allow that.  

The reason was simple: in-game internet access would ruin the fun of the game.  

“If you could just search on a portal site within the game, everyone would only search for guides anyway.”  

Of course, daily playtime was limited to eight hours, so players could search as much as they wanted offline.  

If necessary, they could also log out temporarily, search as much as needed, then log back in.  

Though the rules seemed to have many loopholes, Mega Company created the auction house’s information trading function to counteract that.  

Information trading.  

Just as it sounded.  

Any War Lord user could sell information they knew or buy information from others through the auction house.  

By enabling information to be traded inside the game instead of secretively outside on websites, Mega Company could inject far more vitality into War Lord.  

*Let’s check it out.*  

Levant searched under ‘Achievement Information’ among dozens, even hundreds, of subdivided info trading categories for ‘Overwhelming Debut’.  

And there it was.  

[Achievement-related info / Method to obtain ‘Overwhelming Debut’ for sale.]  

[Achievement-related info / ‘Overwhelming Debut’ info h.]  

[Achievement-related info / ‘Overwhelming Debut’ acquisition method for sale~~.]  

[Achievement-related info / ‘Overwhelming Debut’ acquisition method cheapest price n.]  

Levant saw many active listings trading information on how to acquire the ‘Overwhelming Debut’ achievement.  

*Hmm, I guess it’s not that rare after all.*  

Information prices tend to drop as time passes.  

War Lord had been running for over 18 months now and dominated the global market, so this trend would only accelerate.  

“Well, I’ll sell it anyway. Every bit counts.”  

Browsing through the listings, the average price for information on ‘Overwhelming Debut’ was about 11 gold.  

Levant listed it slightly below that and then searched for other achievements he had earned.  

“Only a few go over 10 gold… Like ‘That’s Just My Impression’, or something.”  

Levant listed those as well.  

After all, if he was going to take advantage of every penny, he might as well sell all the junk too.  

After finishing with the auction house, Levant checked the rewards for the epic quest.  

[Rubix's Epic Cube (1)] 

[Rubix’s Skill Cube Fragments (4)]  

[Rubix’s Treasure Cube Fragments (3)]  

*Smaller than I expected?*  

For epic quest rewards, they felt somewhat meager.  

But you can’t expect to be satisfied at the first bite.  

Levant wasn’t disappointed with the epic quest rewards; instead, he shifted his focus to the skill cube fragments he had been collecting for a long time.  

He currently possessed a whopping 30 skill cube fragments.  

Enough to fill and still have leftover fragments beyond a single empty cube frame of 33 slots.  

“That’s right. This is the real deal.”  

Thinking he could finally obtain a new skill cube, Levant hurriedly filled the cube frame with skill cube fragments.  

Click! Snap! Click!  

Each time a fragment was slotted in, it sounded like breaking chocolate.  

And then—  

[You have filled all skill cube fragments in the empty cube frame.]  

[You have obtained Rubix’s Skill Cube.]  

Levant finally held the long-awaited skill cube in his hands.  

*Confirmation 2*  

[Rubix’s Skill Cube]  

[Grade: Epic, Unique, Bound.]  

[Option: Upon completing the cube, you can acquire one skill from those contained within.]  

“It was then.”  

Levant’s expression turned surprised when he checked the grade of the skill cube.  

“Epic grade?”  

He had expected it to be Rare this time.  

Honestly, he would have been very satisfied just with Rare.  

But surprisingly, the skill cube he obtained was Epic grade.  

“What? Why?”  

Could it be because it was made from fragments obtained from the epic quest?  

But there had been no explanation about this beforehand.  

Still, what did it matter?  

The important thing was that he got an epic-grade skill cube.  

Levant, with a gleeful expression, quickly checked the tags.  

[Skill]  

# Revenge Attack  

“Hmm? Only one?”  

Levant felt a little disappointed seeing the list of skills tagged.  

After all, every other reward cube he had seen before always showed multiple skills.  

But this skill cube contained only one skill.  

Levant chuckled and hurriedly matched the skill cube.  

[You have successfully matched Rubix’s Skill Cube.]  

[You have acquired ‘Revenge Attack’.]  

Levant checked the information on the newly acquired ‘Revenge Attack’.  

[Revenge Attack]  

[Grade: Epic.]  

[Rank: 5] 

[Effect: Upon fulfilling the conditions, allows acquisition of skills from other classes.]  

“So that’s what ‘Revenge Attack’ means.”  

After confirming the option of ‘Revenge Attack’, Levant muttered to himself, amazed at the naming sense he hadn’t expected.  

And after thinking about why Rubix had given him such a skill, recalling the characteristics of the War Mage, he roughly grasped Rubix’s intention.  

“It obviously means to learn a lot and become much stronger.”  

After all, the War Mage was a class designed to increase power not only through magic but also in various other ways.  

And since Rubix chose the path of no weapon and gave Levant ‘Revenge Attack’, his intention was clear enough.  

After checking the options, Levant closed the skill window and muttered,  

“There must be a reason why they sent me here.”  

Nothing happens without reason.  

Sending a mage like him to Herum without arms must also be related to ‘Revenge Attack’.  

Levant smiled at Rubix’s cute intention and took his steps toward Ho-Um’s location.