Chapter 8: War Mage Awakens

“This is ridiculous, seriously.”

Returning to the village, Levan wandered around searching for the forty scattered quest targets related to Burbat.

Yet, even as he carried out the quests, he couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling nagging at him.

Levan muttered in frustration.

“If I’ve been using Hold, then why the heck…?”

He knew the reason himself.

But still, it was impossible not to feel angry.

After all, he was the only one in the Warlord class to have reached the Legendary Hidden Class—War Mage.

“Maybe I should just buy a robe and wear it.”

If he put on a robe and a pointed hat like the mages did, at least no one would mistake him for a warrior.

Still, he hesitated about buying a robe and that high-crowned hat.

“Sigh… Forget it. I’m not in the mood to worry about looks right now.”

At a time when every penny counted, he couldn’t let vanity sway him.

He figured that once he learned proper magic skills, people would naturally recognize him.

“Do you happen to know about that rumor? Near the starting village, there’s a Burbat called...!”

“Skim, skim. And here.”

[Quest: About Burbat' completed]

[Quest rewards have been issued]

[Experience points gained]

“That Burbat is the strongest rabbit I know, and its ear…”

“Skim, skim. Here.”

['Quest: Rabbit King’s Ear' completed]

[Quest rewards have been issued]

[Experience points gained]

[Level Up]

Soon, Levan managed to complete most of the quests related to Burbat.

Of course, aside from experience points, the rewards were mostly useless.

At best, some health recovery potions.

Still, with his level ticking up, it wasn’t a complete loss.

Checking his status window, Levan thought,

The growth rate is definitely fast. I’ve already hit level 8 today alone. Back then, this would’ve taken at least three days.

He had been too busy with quests to notice, but the leveling speed of a War Mage was beyond imagination.

Of course, he knew that even if he had chosen another class, he would have been fine.

Levan was a seasoned veteran Warlord.

The max level allowed in the starting village is 20. I need to make the most out of it before then.

In other words, even leveling up had to be done strategically.

But since he hadn’t even hit level 10 yet, the only content he could handle was hunting rabbits and completing related quests.

It wasn’t that Levan didn’t know better.

Warlords were usually stuck making veterans hunt rabbits like feeding dumplings until they hit level 10.

First, get to level 10. Plans come after that. Thank goodness I have the Growth Cube.

Without the Growth Cube, he’d probably be stuck hunting Burbats, which gave decent experience.

After finishing his business in the village, Levan took out the Growth Cube he had been postponing using.

Then, cautiously turning one side of the cube—

Snap!

Fortunately, the cube moved.

“As expected, increasing power was the answer.”

War Mage was the only unique class that existed within the Warlord.

Because of this, the growth method for War Mages didn’t exist anywhere—not even on official sites or the internet.

Levan had to discover everything himself through trial and error.

Soon, he fully completed the Growth Cube.

[Successfully matched Rubix’s Growth Cube]

[The deity you serve proposes a small trial for your growth. Do you accept?]

*Hmm.*

[You have accepted the trial]

[Quest has begun]

Bam!

[Catch 100 rabbits barehanded]

[Rank: Special.]

[Condition: Catch 100 rabbits using no weapons or skills—only physical ability.]

[Reward: Rubix’s Golden Cube.]

Levan froze in place after checking the quest.

~

“Manager.”

“Manager?”

“Coooh...”

“Manager!”

“Uh, um, um...”

Oh Jae-hyun, the department head of the development team responsible for creating Warlord at Megacompany—the country’s top game developer—was woken up again in his office by Lee Seong-mi, a section chief.

Rubbing his heavy eyelids, Oh Jae-hyun asked,

“What is it? It’s you, Chief. Didn’t you hear I stayed up all night?”

Fatigue was etched all over Oh Jae-hyun’s face.

As one of the original members of the Warlord development team, he was now recognized for his efforts and had become the young head of the development team.

But even as head, he never slacked off and worked night shifts with the dedication of a regular employee to develop new Warlord content.

Everyone knew how diligent Oh Jae-hyun was, so no one minded his blatant naps during work hours.

However, when there was an important report, they woke him up anytime.

That was why Lee Seong-mi woke him up now.

In response to Oh Jae-hyun’s question, she said,

“A new user has acquired the Legendary Class.”

“Legendary? What’s the class name?”

"War Mage."

The words “War Mage” instantly brought life back to the drowsy Oh Jae-hyun.

He quickly grabbed a wet wipe from his desk and wiped his face.

“Really? Who is it? Someone who changed classes to War Mage?”

“A Korean user named Levan, with the nickname Han Sung-woo.”

“Oh? Another Korean this time?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I wanted at least the War Mage class to be taken by a Korean rather than other classes. So, what specs does this Levan have? Does he come from a rich family?”

“I checked the account info; nothing special. His previous class was an ordinary brute-force warrior.”

“Hmm? Well, War Mage doesn’t demand high stats… Still, since Rubix chose this user, there must be some latent potential.”

To run a single realistic game, at least five supercomputers were required.

But unlike other games, Warlord was run on dozens of supercomputers.

The reason was simple.

It was due to the ‘Divine Seat’ system unique to Warlord.

The Divine Seat was literally god-like within Warlord.

Therefore, it had much higher autonomy and artificial intelligence than other servers.

Megacompany even deployed dedicated supercomputers solely for the Divine Seat.

“Isn’t it ironic? The War Mage who should’ve been discovered first was actually found last after the game launched.”

“That just shows how cautious Rubix was.”

“True. Honestly, I thought the Legendary Classes would be revealed much faster once the supercomputers got user data access. But since it’s this late, AI must be doing its job well.”

“Well, we’ll see. What if Levan struggles to develop War Mage and resets his character...”

“That won’t happen. He’s a talent handpicked by supercomputers. Besides, now that War Mage has appeared, can we start the main scenario?”

“Since the minimum conditions are met, the main scenario can be updated. But instead of rushing, maybe we should observe a bit longer?”

“Yeah, let’s run internal capability tests first.”

Lee Seong-mi nodded at Oh Jae-hyun’s suggestion.

Indeed, Lee Seong-mi was a capable section chief.

At moments like this, Oh Jae-hyun was glad to have chosen her as his right-hand.

“If Chief says so, then that’s what we’ll do. From now on, start monitoring the War Mage user separately. Once things stabilize, deploy the update immediately.”

“Yes, sir.”

After reporting, Lee Seong-mi left the office.

As she exited, Oh Jae-hyun sank back into his chair, pulled on his sleeping mask, and chuckled to himself.

The name’s Han Sung-woo. I can already picture how happy he must be thinking he’s a magic-user who doesn’t need magic power. But the truth is, a War Mage is basically no different from a warrior.

Chuckling quietly to himself, Oh Jae-hyun soon fell back asleep.

~

Meanwhile.

Just as Oh Jae-hyun relaxed in his chair, someone else rose.

The person getting up was none other than Han Sung-woo.

*Ugh.*

As soon as his eight-hour playtime ended, Sung-woo was forced out of the game.

But the reason he was angry wasn’t because of the forced logout.

His frustration came from the last quest he received.

“Come on, they need to cut me some slack. If that’s the case, why’d they even give me weapons?”

After completing all the quests related to Burbat, Sung-woo secured about three hours of free time.

He thought he could clear at least one more quest, but the next quest was to catch 100 rabbits barehanded.

At first, he doubted his own eyes.

He was supposed to be a magic user, yet the quest required catching 100 rabbits with no weapons or skills.

But no matter how many times he looked again, the Growth Cube boldly demanded bare hands.

Are all Legendary Classes like this?

Since this was his first time as a Legendary Class, Sung-woo had nowhere to vent his frustration.

So, he set off to hunt rabbits.

After all, the Growth Cube was a class-exclusive item.

But still—

“I’ll make sure to get back at the Megacompany guys someday.”

Catching rabbits barehanded was harder than expected.

Besides being fast, the rabbits had to be killed by punches and kicks.

Having used tools before, hitting rabbits directly with his fists made him feel filthy.

Did all martial arts and fighting users feel like psychos when hunting rabbits?

Nevertheless, as soon as the next day’s playtime reset, Levan succeeded in hunting all 100 rabbits, cursing loudly.

“Aiya! Damn it! Done! It’s done! Rubix, you bastard!”

['Quest: Catch 100 rabbits barehanded' completed]

[Quest rewards have been issued]

[Experience points gained]

[Level Up]

With the quest complete, Levan’s level rose to 10.

But more than reaching level 10—

“If the reward’s trash, Rubix won’t get away with it.”

Grinding his teeth, Levan picked up the Rubix’s Golden Cube listed as the reward to check its details.

And then—

[Rubix’s Golden Cube]

[Rank: Legendary, Unique.]

[Option: Teleports you to the Rubix Tower when the cube is completed.]

“Oh.”

Levan couldn’t even be angry.