Chapter 4: Growth Cube Challenge

“Can you catch me 50 rabbits and hand them over?”

“The rabbits keep messing with my crops, so I want you to catch 70 of them.”

“Did you know rabbit droppings actually make excellent medicine…?”

“Pass.”

Levan, who bought the mace from Mo Hu, immediately logged into the Warlord’s official homepage to gather information on the now unfamiliar starting village.

He organized every quest available in the village.

“There aren’t that many quests related to rabbits.”

Since hunting was necessary for leveling anyway, Levan wanted to maximize experience gain as efficiently as possible, especially since he had to catch 100 rabbits using the Hold skill from the Rubik’s Growth Cube.

Collecting all the quests scattered throughout the village was the first step to efficient leveling.

Based on the quest information uploaded by other users on the official homepage, Levan accepted all the rabbit-related quests found across the village.

Of course, he abandoned a few.

The last quest asking for 50 rabbit droppings was dropped because the reward was meager compared to the effort, and the smell was unbearably foul.

After completing the quest collection, Levan opened the Auction House and listed the items he’d used during his warrior days at 5% below market price.

Then—

Ding!

[Herringbone Breastplate has been sold.]

Ding!

[Steel Knee Guard has been sold.]

Ding!

[Giant’s Gauntlets have been sold.]

The items sold out at a terrifying speed.

“As expected of a Warlord. Just a 5% discount and they sell this quickly.”

Of course, the good quality of Levan’s gear helped speed up sales.

But since Warlords dominate over half of the global virtual game market, demand for gear is always high.

That’s why even slightly discounted items sell in no time.

“I’ve sold off all the junk, and with the money in my bank, I’m good for at least half a year.”

Levan sold all his hard-earned equipment.

Combining that with money saved from not eating or buying clothes, he really could focus solely on leveling this new character for half a year.

Prepared, Levan stepped out into the field.

~

The area around the entrance to the starting village was always bustling with people.

Even though the game had been open for almost two years, new users kept flowing in.

So Levan moved to a spot far from the entrance.

*It’s hard to catch even one rabbit in this situation. How can newbies hope to catch a hundred?*

He was confident.

Levan was a blunt warrior in his thirties and a veteran user, so his combat sense was guaranteed.

*Besides, it’s probably for the best I ended up doing early hunts with a blunt warrior; I guess that worked out.*

Finally settling in an appropriate spot, Levan targeted a rabbit freely grazing nearby.

Then, he activated his new skill from the Skill Cube, Hold.

“Hold, Begin!”

Levan shouted the skill name.

Suddenly, a cube appeared in the air and floated right in front of him.

*So the casting method is cube matching, huh? So this is how the skill works.*

Indeed, a hidden class.

If this counts as a personality, then it’s a peculiar one.

Levan smirked and grabbed the floating cube.

The blacked-out cube started to fill with color the moment it touched his hand.

Then—

“Wait…”

As soon as the cube filled with color, Levan witnessed something amusing.

“This isn’t a 33 Cube, it’s a 22 Cube?”

The 22 Cube was named for its two-by-two layout, and the cube granted to use Hold was none other than the 22 Cube.

Levan burst out laughing at the unexpectedly low difficulty as he matched the cube in an instant.

“33 Cubes are doable in under seven seconds, and 22 Cubes are even easier.”

The current official world record for the 22 Cube is under one second.

Considering that, for Levan—who can solve a 33 Cube in about seven seconds—the 22 Cube was a complete joke.

Like second nature, Levan instantly completed the cube.

[Hold has been completed.]

[Please select a target to use the skill on.]

He obtained one use of the Hold skill.

*There you go.*

With a nod, Levan indicated the closest rabbit.

The rabbit, completely unaware, continued munching on grass.

[Hold activated.]

Kzz!

Crack!

The moment Hold was activated, maybe sensing something ominous, the rabbit suddenly stopped chewing and looked around, preparing to flee.

But it was already too late.

The rabbit’s body froze rigid instantly.

Above its head appeared the Hold debuff icon and a countdown timer.

The effect looks bleak.

Tick!

The duration was five seconds.

Enough time to finish off the rabbit.

[Rabbit hunted.]

[Experience points gained.]

Levan’s mace struck the rabbit’s head, instantly killing it with a precise blow to a vital spot.

The rabbit didn’t even get to scream.

Of course, it didn’t show any gruesome scene of exploding heads.

Levan had turned off all gore modes from the start.

He placed his hand on the rabbit’s now stiffened body.

[Item looting.]

[Rabbit hide obtained x1.]

Some monsters don’t drop loot, but most do.

If you don’t pick up loot through item looting, the corpse won’t disappear.

Ah—

After obtaining the loot, the rabbit’s body finally turned to ashes and vanished.

Using Hold for physical hunting wasn’t bad at all.

“Good, next.”

Levan immediately pulled out the next cube.

~

[Rabbit hunted.]

[Experience points gained.]

Though he was skilled from the start, he got even faster with practice.

As a result, Levan slaughtered rabbits at an alarming speed and quickly completed all sorts of quests.

Finally, to catch the 100th rabbit, he pulled out the 100th cube and solved it.

[Hold has been completed.]

[Please select a target to use the skill on.]

*There you go.*

[Hold activated.]

Kzin!

Same pattern.

But it never got old.

Because it was a massacre after all.

Also, while hunting the 100 rabbits, Levan realized the Hold skill had no cooldown.

Meaning, as long as you could solve the cube, you could hunt endlessly.

“This is a total broken skill.”

Of course, only for those who know how to solve cubes.

Levan had been solving cubes for seven years and was a master.

And when he finally hunted the 100th rabbit—

[Rabbit hunted.]

[Experience points gained.]

[Quest ‘Utilizing Hold’ completed.]

The quest from the Growth Cube was fully completed.

Levan immediately claimed the reward.

[Quest reward granted.]

[Level increased.]

Snap.

Catching 100 rabbits earned him two level-ups.

And another level gained through the Growth Cube quest.

His level-up speed was terrifyingly fast.

Yet, Levan couldn’t stop the grin spreading across his face.

“Heh, this is why I game.”

Rabbits look easy, but they aren’t.

Since Warlord was based on reality, rabbits were quick and had a temperament not unlike real ones, making them tricky to chase.

Moreover, most people hunting rabbits in the starting village were newbies who just started Warlord.

Many felt guilty killing rabbits that looked like real animals.

So even though the rabbits were weak, hunting them took time.

“I don’t care about that kind of thing.”

Why waste sympathy on data made of ones and zeros?

That was just emotional waste.

Levan checked the newly added quest rewards in his inventory.

“One empty cube slot and some cube fragments—let’s see, one, two, three, four, five fragments!”

He got five cube fragments from a single skill cube—like buying an Americano and getting five coupons.

Levan felt a small yet thrilling joy and returned to the village.

The quests he completed weren’t only those given by the Growth Cube.

[Quest reward granted.]

[Level increased.]

“Oh, yeah.”

Levan rapidly collected rewards from the 400 quests he’d completed.

Every little bit counted.

Though the rewards were trivial individually, together they let Levan level up again just from village quests.

“Did I just grow too big? Back in the day, just getting the village rewards made me happy all day, but now, it’s just… normal.”

Village-level 40 quests gave decent rewards.

But those only seemed plentiful to newbies with little Warlord experience.

To Levan, a veteran, they were cheap junk.

So he just sold or handed them out to anyone nearby.

These rewards were fine to treat that way.

“Alright, shall I open the next cube now?”

In truth, Levan had been worried since restarting as a War Mage.

Back when he was a blunt warrior, the class was so common that he only completed story quests tied to towns or hunting grounds without special quests.

So he feared leveling by story quests again might get boring.

But as long as the Growth Cube existed, those worries seemed unfounded.

After finishing all rabbit-related quests, Levan grabbed the next Growth Cube reward.

He gripped it tightly and tried to activate it.

[Insufficient power.]

Levan was once again faced with an unwelcome message.

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