Chapter 66

[Translator - Kiteretsu][Proofreader - Kyros]

Chapter 66

Although one was Epic, he was satisfied with just obtaining a Legendary.

Jeong-Hoon immediately checked the magic he had learned.

[Lightning Bolt]

-Type: Active

-Level: 1

-Grade: Epic

-Consumes 25 mana to generate and fire a lightning bolt with 240% attack power.

-Can damage up to 7 targets.

-Cooldown: 10 seconds

Epic grade Lightning Bolt.

Attack power referred to the combined value of stats and equipment attack power.

240% was considered a considerably high skill value.

With a cooldown of only 10 seconds, it was an active skill that could be used anytime as long as there was enough mana.

Next was the Legendary magic skill he had been longing for.

However, 'Block' was a somewhat unfamiliar magic.

'Even Alessandro had never seen it used.'

So he was curious about its effects.

[Block]

-Type: Active

-Level: 1

-Grade: Legendary

-Consumes 50% mana to absolutely block any attack (1 time)

-Cooldown: 24 hours

Absolute defense?!

Jeong-Hoon's eyes widened as he checked the skill.

There was no skill that boasted absolute defense, even among Legendaries.

The best one could do was to reduce damage with damage reduction skills, but this skill was different.

It was a broken skill that blocked any attack once when used.

Although it had a whopping 24-hour cooldown after one use.

'This is not an ordinary skill. It's like having an extra life.'

He was currently growing rapidly using his memories from his previous regression, but as he leveled up, his progress would inevitably slow down.

At the same time, the moments where he had to risk his life would inevitably increase.

In such situations, Block would act as a spare life for Jeong-Hoon.

When it seemed impossible to avoid an attack, Block would protect him.

'I'm already looking forward to it.'

Since the hidden theme had been discovered in Autobahn, New World would soon respond.

It would surely reach Alessandro's ears.

He could clearly picture the man's indignant face.

* * *

Not long after Jeong-Hoon left the hidden theme, a new announcement appeared in New World.

===

[A hidden theme of New World has been discovered!]

-Hello! This is the New World development team.

First of all, we're making this announcement to share some exciting news!

The second hidden theme, carefully hidden in New World, has been discovered by a user!

The hidden theme is a device created to help users grow, and it's set up so that the first person to discover it, on a first-come, first-served basis, gets to take it.

[South Korea - 000]

The server will be revealed, but the nickname will not.

Now, to all users enjoying New World!

New World has hidden many more hidden themes related to growth besides this one!

We hope all New World users have a pleasant day today.

-New World Development Team

===

The news that the second hidden theme had been discovered for the first time.

The number of views of the notice soared, reaching 5 million in less than an hour and heading towards 10 million.

This was because the second hidden theme had appeared not long after the first one was discovered, doubling the excitement.

[Wow, another hidden theme]

-How could the second one appear so soon after the first one?

└I know, right? And it's a Korean again.

└This is 100% someone who knows something about hidden themes.

└There's no way they could find hidden themes consecutively without knowing something lol.

[The person who found the hidden themes is the same person, okay?]

-The first one was Korean, and the second one is also Korean. But the second one was discovered not long after the first one. The answer is clear lol.

└Damn, I'm feeling patriotic...

└A Korean found the themes consecutively, even though it's a first-come, first-served system for the whole world lol.

└Awesome, as expected of the determined Koreans!

World Com was also on fire.

The first and second hidden themes were both obtained by Koreans...

They felt a surge of national pride just from the fact that Korea was ahead of the world, even though they hadn't found the themes themselves.

[Is the Korean era coming now?]

-Is this the first time Korea has beaten the whole world consecutively?

└That's true, but that's going too far lol.

└Hahaha, we're still far from that. Even if we gathered all the Korean rankers, they wouldn't be able to stand a chance against other countries' rankers.

└Why is it that we dominate in other games but get crushed in New World?

└The power level difference is huge...

└If that Earth Korea guy had just done things right, we wouldn't be behind in power level.

└That's true. They started almost 3 months late... 3 months is a big deal in an RPG.

Korea entered New World three months later than other countries.

This was because the upper management of Earth Korea had intentionally leaked the data received from the headquarters.

As a result, the headquarters imposed a three-month suspension on Korea, and Koreans started three months behind other countries.

Perhaps that's why the top Korean players always hovered at the bottom of the rankings in international competitions.

Korea, which had always been behind, had now taken first place twice in a row.

This was why World Com was even more active than usual.

The discovery of the hidden theme was not just about the growth of a user, but it could also be seen as a matter of national pride.

[Take the next hidden theme too!]

-You are our hope!

└Hahaha, calm down, how can we catch up with just this?

└Who knows? Maybe this will be the stepping stone to crushing the world's top rankers?

└King Korea

* * *

At the same time.

Alessandro was staring at the New World announcement with a hardened face.

No matter how many times he refreshed the page in disbelief, the announcement remained the same.

"Fuck!"

Alessandro slammed his fist on the table.

He was angry that the hidden theme had been taken away, but what was even more infuriating was that he hadn't even fully deciphered the clues yet.

The humiliation of having it taken away before he could even try was beyond words.

The clue he had received as a reward for completing the secret quest contained a code about the hidden theme.

'I deciphered it.'

Two weeks ago, he had barely managed to decode the first line.

Alessandro immediately headed to the location, which turned out to be a village a little distance away from the starting village.

It was an old, abandoned house that he could only find after completing the entry quest given by the NPC guard.

However, the hidden theme was no longer in the abandoned house.

Alessandro was furious after realizing this fact after days of searching.

'What?! The hidden theme was first discovered here?'

What bad luck.

Of all places, it had to be here that he found by chance.

That's what he had initially thought.

But it was okay. The codes for the first and second lines were quite similar, so deciphering them wasn't too difficult.

When he had deciphered about half of it, the second hidden theme was discovered.

"How the hell did they find it?"

The first time could be considered a coincidence.

But the second time couldn't be a coincidence.

The fact that the same Korean user found it consecutively meant they had information about the hidden theme.

Then how did they get that information?

The secret quest related to the hidden theme was something he could only do after reaching level 500.

"This is dangerous..."

Alessandro muttered with a serious face.

Whatever it was, missing the second one meant that the guy also had information about the hidden theme.

Moreover, he was faster at deciphering than Alessandro.

That meant the guy was likely to take the rest of the hidden themes written in the document as well.

"That absolutely cannot happen!"

[Reach the pinnacle of magic.]

The phrase written on the first page.

Surely, the hidden theme would have a device for achieving magical or Circle-related accomplishments.

He couldn't miss it.

* * *

Jeong-Hoon immediately left the dungeon.

In front of him, Isaac and a few other knights were surrounding the dungeon entrance.

"Hoon! Are you alright?!"

Isaac, who had been guarding the dungeon, hurriedly approached.

"Yes, I'm fine. But who are these people?"

Jeong-Hoon's eyes turned to the other knights.

"Ah... I tried my best to prevent anyone from approaching, but it seems the handover wasn't done properly, and the information didn't reach the next shift." Sᴇaʀᴄh the NʘvᴇlFirᴇ.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"It's okay."

Alessandro wouldn't be coming.

Since he was from a different server, he had no choice but to go to the NPCs on that server, and at this point in time, he wouldn't be coming to Autobahn to find the hidden theme.

'Still, I should hurry up a bit from now on.'

He had snatched two hidden themes.

Alessandro must be gripped by a sense of crisis by now.

He would start spending even more time deciphering the code than usual.

That would naturally bring forward the time when he would discover the hidden themes.

So Jeong-Hoon had no choice but to move faster.

"That's a relief... But is that dungeon completely closed?"

Isaac asked, pointing at the dungeon.

"Yes."

As soon as Jeong-Hoon finished speaking, the portal he had come out of began to slowly disappear.

The knights' eyes widened as they watched the portal disappear.

"Is that really disappearing...?"

"I can't believe it... That dreadful thing?"

The news of the abandoned dungeon's disappearance quickly spread to the lord's castle.

"Is it true that the abandoned dungeon is closed?!"

Lord Blaine came running in a hurry as soon as Jeong-Hoon returned to the lord's castle.

"Yes. I confirmed its disappearance, so you can go check it out later."

At Jeong-Hoon's words, Blaine was overcome with emotion and shed tears.

He had helped Isaac return, subjugated the Ogre King that had recently plagued Autobahn, and even eliminated the dreadful abandoned dungeon.

He didn't know how Jeong-Hoon had eliminated it, which was only a trace filled with contaminated mana, but the fact that it was gone was what mattered.

Blaine recognized that Jeong-Hoon was not an ordinary stranger, but a big shot.

That's why he had unhesitatingly given him the Honorary Knight badge.

To build a connection with him, even if it was just a small one.

"Thank you so much. How can I repay this favor?"

"It's okay. I didn't do it with any expectations."

It was true.

He hadn't acted with any expectations from them.

And he had definitely gotten what he needed to get.

"No. As the lord of Autobahn, I can't just let this go."

"Yes?"

"I'll open the treasure vault!"

Isaac's face turned pale at the bombshell announcement.

"Th-The treasure vault...?"

"Yes. The Ogre King and the abandoned dungeon... I want to open the treasure vault for our benefactor."

Autobahn's finances were similar to Idenharc's, not particularly abundant.

Nevertheless, Autobahn had one thing to boast about, unlike Idenharc.

It was the treasure vault.

[Has anyone opened the Autobahn treasure vault?]

-There seems to be a treasure vault... but it won't open no matter what I do ㅡㅡ

└Hahaha, just think of the treasure vault as non-existent.

└There are crazy people who try to open it lol.

└It's just useless lol. Trying to get rewards in a leveling town is wrong from the start lol.

However, no user had ever seen the inside of Autobahn's treasure vault.

This was because Blaine didn't really like strangers visiting Autobahn.

'Is it because of the overlap?'

Even Alessandro, who had closed the abandoned dungeon and visited the hidden theme, had never heard of anyone visiting the treasure vault.

It seemed that Blaine's trust had reached Max due to the combination of rescuing Isaac, subjugating the Ogre King, and eliminating the abandoned dungeon.

'This is an unexpected gain.'

Anyway, there must be at least one useful item in the treasure vault.

"I'll gratefully accept it if you give it to me."

"Let's go right away!"

'A vault?'

What Blaine introduced as the treasure vault was actually a vault.

The vault was big enough to fill a 10-pyeong room.

[TL/N: Pyeong is a korean unit of area measurement similar to square feet]

"Haha, it's rather modest, isn't it? But I assure you it's more precious than anything else."

Blaine smiled awkwardly and gently stroked the vault.

"...It's quite large for a treasure vault, as I know it."

The treasure vault he was referring to was a vault.

He had never seen a vault up close, but he was sure there wouldn't be a bigger one than this.

"Is that so? Then I'll open the treasure vault."

Blaine placed his hand on the vault's handle and channeled magic power into it.

The vault's handle glowed blue, and he could hear the sound of the internal locking mechanisms being released one by one.

Soon, he removed his hand, and a circular pattern was engraved on the vault door, glowing brightly.

Blaine pressed the handle and slowly pulled, and the vault door opened with a creaking sound.

'This is the treasure vault?'

The vault consisted of a total of 15 floors.

Floors 1-5 were filled with Epic grade equipment.

Floors 6-10 were neatly lined with Unique and Rare grade enhancement stones.

Floors 11-15 were empty except for a single gray box on the 13th floor.

Naturally, his gaze was drawn there.

"What's that box?"

Jeong-Hoon's question directed Blaine's gaze to the box as well.

[Unknown Box]

Why was that here?

An Unknown Box.

A box that could only be obtained after reaching level 200 was right in front of him.

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]