I Start with 13 Hidden Traits- Chapter 3

CH-3    (Amazing Results)

 

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I looked around coolly and sorted out the situation.

I raised my gaze and looked at the level floating above the slave traders’ heads.

【Lv3.】

Most of them are level 3.

Level 3 is the level of a regular soldier. If

they weren’t desert warriors, there would be a way to survive.

“Ugh!”

“Heh, there are too many Hydragons!”

The problem is those guys.

There are three level 5 monsters that are considered boss raid monsters.

‘My level is 1.’

On the other hand, I am alone. In fact, it’s safe to say that there are no levels lower than mine.

‘What should I do?’

No matter how much I think about it, this quest was unconscionable.

Surviving at level 1 in the middle of a battlefield like this?

On top of that, boss monsters have additional effects in addition to their level.

‘Hydragons have poor eyesight. They can’t move their body and head at the same time.’

However, in this world, if you just learn the strategy, even a level 1 can kill a level 5 boss monster.

The Hydragon was originally designed to be defeated by 12 level one people.

The real difference in level, the difference in class, starts at level 7.

That means that the levels before that are somehow surmountable.

‘I can do it.’

It’s too early to be discouraged even at level 1.

The most important thing is that I’m a veteran of veterans in this game.

If I can do work of 12 people by myself, that’s it.

Bang!

The sword and the scimitar collided.

A soldier suddenly approached me.

‘This is a real situation.’

This isn’t a game.

Swinging the sword and using the body aren’t all resolved with a single click.

This is a battlefield where flesh collides, cuts, and tears. You have to move your body yourself to survive.

It seemed hopeless, but there was hope.

‘I can see the path of the sword.’

Could it be the influence of [Weapon Master]?

I can see the path of the sword. I could read exactly where I had to swing.

Also, as soon as I held the weapon, I learned it naturally. It felt familiar to me as if I had swung it tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times.

The actions I had to take were drawn in my head.

And before it could be pictured in my head, my body reacted first.

Kwak!

I slashed the sword diagonally, and smashed the soldier’s jaw with my fist.

I cut off the neck of the soldier who lost his balance and staggered.

There was no hesitation. There was no fear.

The sword, and all the fighting paths were already projected in my eyes!

***

The snake princess looked at the center of the battlefield with a strange look.

It was her mission to erase this place. It was the desert queen’s absolute order.

It wasn’t that difficult.

She was the strongest after the queen. Moreover, they had far more numbers.

But one of the slaves suddenly stood up and started slaughtering his own soldiers.

What was even more surprising was that he had killed even one hydragon.

He was stirring up the battlefield all by himself.

“······ What is that guy?”

***

“Gasp! Gasp! Haaaak!”

My heart felt like it was going to burst.

Every time I let out my hot breath, it felt like the roof of my throat was being scraped with a knife.

It was now hard to tell whether the drops of blood or sweat were falling from my head.

But one thing was certain: I was still alive.

Chaeng!

The blade of the sword broke after being struck hundreds of times.

Then the net surrounding me began to close in tighter.

Among them, the spearmen holding spears were particularly tricky.

“The sword broke! Kill him!”

“Now!”

Fortunately, they were not regular soldiers. They lined up in a military manner and did not move as one.

Just then, a spearman, drunk on the desire for victory, broke the line and approached me.

“Ugh!”

I rolled over to the spearman and swept the floor. The spearman tripped and fell, dropping his spear.

I caught the spear before it touched the floor, and the soldiers swung their swords at that moment’s gap.

I turned the spear blade and hooked it at the tip of the flying sword and used the recoil to strike it away. Then the soldier’s upper body lost its balance.

“Crack!”

I pierced the soldier’s neck with the spear blade. Instant death. With a slap, I pulled out the bars and turned the spear to block the approaching movements. The surrounding soldiers were mesmerized by the acrobatics of a master of spearmanship who had trained only with a spear all his life.

If you can coolly observe your surroundings and not get tired easily because of 【Heart of the Iron Monarch】, another hidden trait, 【Weapon Master】, allows you to handle all weapons like a pro without proficiency. It even has a synergistic effect with
【Dexterity】.

<Sword proficiency has been raised to Lv. 6!>

<Spear proficiency has been raised to Lv. 6!>

The hidden trait 【Dexterity】 is related to skill proficiency. If Weapon Master allows you to handle all weapons and starts with proficiency of Lv. 5, Dexterity helps you to advance to higher proficiency ‘easily’.

Skill proficiency also ends at level 10. Proficiency level 6 meant the proficiency that a famous knight would have honed his entire life.

I achieved it as soon as I held a weapon.

There are also hidden traits that are linked and have synergy effects like this. Of course, this is information that only a very small number of people know. Hidden traits are not well known even among players.

Swords, spears, swords, bows, scimitars, and maces. I can use weapons without hesitation.

“You monster!”

“That monster is tired!”

“Kill him!”

With all the praise, the net was closing in.

There were 500 attackers. Even though I killed one Hydragon, it was too much for me.

Now, I, a mere level 1, had done everything I could to kill a Hydragon with thirty soldiers. I did it by distributing my stamina as little as possible and utilizing all my weapons.

If other players had seen this, they would have been terrified. Even veterans would have stuck out their tongues, wondering if that was possible.

Still, I was reaching my limit.

My limit, though.

<Your level has increased!>

<Your stamina and magic power are restored.>

<Your fatigue is restored.>

A smile formed on my lips.

I had been waiting for this.

‘Round 2 begins.’

I relaxed my shoulders. My rapid breathing regained stability. I could feel the approaching soldiers’ movements becoming slower. If I were to awaken, this would be how it would feel.

“Stop.”

Wooooong-

That was it.

The voice of a woman riding on the battlefield struck my eardrums.

The soldiers froze in place at that voice.

‘You’re finally here.’

The soldiers scattered like a miracle.

The woman who had been leisurely watching the front while riding on top of Hydragon.

Unlike the warriors of this desert, her skin was unusually white. I drooled as I watched her approach with a cat-like graceful gait.

I had expected her appearance.

“T-Till the princess steps forward······.”

Snake princess. When the white chief spoke to her with courage, the snake princess laughed.

“He wasn’t tired. He was just pretending to be tired.”

“······ That can’t be. His breathing and sweat······.”

“Look carefully. Does he look out of breath?”

“······.”

The white chief’s eyes turned to me at that moment.

He frowned as he watched me catch my breath. His expression and gaze said, ‘What kind of monster is that?’

“Are you saying that he pretended to be tired······ and let his guard down?”

“Yes.”

Although it was not my intention, it seems that the Snake Princess read my recovery of stamina through leveling up that way.

I greeted Snake Princess with an unchanging expression.

“As expected. It’s rare for someone to remain unchanged when facing me.”

I sensed a momentary murderous intent, but I was neither surprised nor shocked by the ‘Heart of the Iron-Blooded Monarch’.

A being who can judge an opponent with just her energy. I looked above her head.

【Lv 8】

Level 8. A person with a level that would be called the ‘strongest’ no matter where you put her!

The standard for distinguishing strong people in Pangenia is level 7. The real difference starts from level 7, and the level gap becomes difficult to reverse.

And level 8 was a level that only the leaders of famous groups could reach. It was a level that one or two people would be able to reach in a large city with a population of one million.

‘Is there a strong person like this in Faisalmer?’

There is one. The Queen of Faisalmer. However, as far as I know, there were no named people who reached level 8 as NPCs other than her.

This was the city of beginnings. It was just a starting point.

But, for some reason, the woman in front of me seemed strangely familiar.

I don’t know if I should say I felt familiar or not. I felt like we had a pretty deep connection in the past.

Eventually, she came closer and said,

“What’s your name?”

What’s my name?

‘I didn’t even give myself a nickname.’

Come to think of it, I hadn’t even made a nickname yet. Could this be the turning point for making nicknames?

‘And the quest isn’t over.’

There’s no indication that the main quest has ended. Survival. This means that the task for survival is still ongoing.

Perhaps because of the Snake Princess. Even if we put all of the people gathered here together, they’re less than the Snake Princess. There’s a threat right in front of me that could definitely kill me, so there’s no way the survival quest will end.

‘Then.’

This ‘name’ is also important.

“Randolph.”

“… Great Wolf? Are you from the desert?”

Randolph is the name of the ‘Great Wolf.’

When I uttered a word that would be unfamiliar to anyone who wasn’t from the desert, the Snake Princess widened her eyes in surprise.

But that was all.

“Why is someone from the desert with the expedition rags from the Central Continent?”

Blatant disgust.

The people of the desert describe the humans of the Central Continent as demons.

If they’re captured, they’ll just use them as slaves and then kill them.

I was also in the same situation. When they lost interest, they would kill me.

But I was puzzled.

‘They knew it was an expedition. They knew that and still annihilated them.’

There was no case of annihilating them like this before they could even be used as slaves.

Even the people from the same desert tribe that they captured were all killed.

‘Destruction of evidence. They are trying to hide the fact that the expedition reached the desert.’

The eight warriors and the expedition… It probably meant the great expedition to the Demon World that I started while wearing eight pieces of ‘unique equipment. ‘

But I failed the expedition. Even though I finished all the preparations, I could not cross the threshold of the Demon King. There were many reasons besides the fact that the Demon King was too strong.

‘It’s because they’re afraid of the Central Continent.’

I concluded.

The Queen of the Desert is afraid of the expedition and the desert being linked.

She knows that if they were linked when discussing the failure of the expedition, there would be bloodshed. She had drafted soldiers from almost every major city on the continent, but the desert city of Faisalmer was out of the question.

This was the place where she would be most likely to be witch-hunted.

So she’s removing everything that could be connected even by 0.1%.

After roughly reading the situation, I opened my mouth.

“I was observing the Central Continent’s activities.”

“······ A spy from the Central Continent? Who sent you?”

“I went on my own.”

“On your own? Make sense. Above all, this is the first time I’ve seen a warrior like you in this desert. Your skin color is different, and you don’t even have any tribal markings. If you’re planning to swindle me with something you’ve picked up somewhere······.”

“The star spoke to me.”

Stop!

The snake princess’s entire body stopped as if it were a lie.

Then she asked me with her strange eyes.

“······ Star?”

Confusion. Surprise. And earnestness.

‘I guess it’s true.’

Her reaction confirmed why the snake princess was familiar.

The snake princess was someone I knew.

And the reason she reacted this way was simple.

The star was her ‘gap’.

At the same time, it was the only way for me to survive.

With that conviction, I started ‘acting.’

“Star Awakener. I am not bound to any tribe. I have never said with my own mouth that I am from the desert, but I don’t know why you are mistaken.”

“······!!!”

Star Awakener. Those who read the stars and guide them to the stars.

They are visionaries and the few true wanderers in the world. Those who follow the stars, chase the stars, move and pray for the stars.

And it was a name that the Snake Princess absolutely needed.

“Snake Princess Isabella. Isabella von Dersian.”

“My······ How do you know my full name?”

“The Star Awakener can hear the voices of the stars.”

The stars told me.

Of course, that didn’t happen.

The Star Awakener was a class that players could not obtain.

Only selected NPCs could have it, and players had to find them when they had to pass level 10 to obtain a star.

And Isabella von Dersian was in a similar situation.

She wanted to escape this desert more than anyone else.

She was the one who was bound by the queen’s curse. She was also not from a desert tribe. But to escape, she needed a star, a blessing from the stars.

How do I know all this?

‘Why on earth did the character I created become a snake princess?’

I thought it was impossible, but it’s right here

The worst starting point.

I don’t know why the character I made casually, just to try it out, is right in front of me now.

It had clear limitations and there was no way to grow in this desert, so I gave up.

To be more precise, because of the Queen’s curse, there was no way to proceed without the ‘Blessing of the Stars’. However, finding a saint in the desert was impossible, so I gave up.

Now that the character I gave up on was the Snake Princess in front of me, how could I not be confused?

That was the moment.

<‘Main Quest 1: Survival’ has been completed.>

······ A notification that I survived.

I had killed dozens of soldiers and taken Hydragon’s head, but the quest that had not been completed was finally notified that it was over.

That wasn’t all.

<Calculating the contents.>

<The best ever! Beyond perfection, this is an amazing result.>

<Total score 220 points. Main Quest – Updated in ‘Hall of Fame’>

<Beginner’s luck! The ‘Lucky Constellation’ smiles. The rewards have been upgraded. >

<‘Constellation of Battle’ is quite something, he scratches his nose. The rewards have been upgraded. >

<‘A Piece of the Broken Golden Rule’ has been acquired. >

<‘Soul of Hydragon’ has been acquired. >

<‘Sword of Michela’ has been acquired.>
······.
I couldn’t help but be astonished after checking the details.

“······ That’s crazy.”

Because it was a reward that made the word “crazy” come out naturally.

 

 

 

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