Ranker's Return

Chapter 624

Translator: rainbowturtle

After Hyeonu finished the brief conversation and moved to Phinis, he found that Kalui had already arranged the descendants of the Luos Empire to one side of the square. Moreover, he witnessed the sight of black armor surrounding them in layers.

“Withdraw. I brought them over,” Hyeonu said as he approached the soldiers.

All the soldiers who confirmed Hyeonu’s presence knelt on the ground and bowed their heads. “My lord!”

Hyeonu raised the kneeling soldiers. He didn’t want to attract the attention of other players.

“Get up. Focus on what you’ve all been doing.”

The moment Hyeonu’s words were over, the soldiers stood up and faithfully moved back to their original roles. Among them were those who were acting as guards, those who were doing their patrol rounds, and those who were training. They all left to perform their respective duties without any questions, moving as they were told.

“Let’s go to the lord’s castle together. First of all, if you want to live in this territory, you’ll need houses. I will support you with everything you need to stay here,” Hyeonu said. He didn’t feel it was a pity to use gold coins on them—not at all.

‘I have to determine how much to use.’

He had a lot of gold coins. The potion-hoarding caused by the demon world left Hyeonu with a tremendous amount of gold.

‘There is a lot of available land.’

It was land that would stay in Phinis anyway. A lot of the land hadn’t been reclaimed, and there were many empty houses.

‘If it doesn’t work, we can just build new ones.’

The biggest reason was… the unidentified ring Hyeonu obtained. He hadn’t checked the ring yet, but after getting it, he didn’t feel sorry to spend money on them.

‘If it is an item that can implement that type of space… It should be at least an epic rating?’

Epic items currently had a value that couldn’t be converted into gold coins. It was because no one sold them. Who would sell epic items when they didn’t have any to use themselves?

“Thank you, Guardian. I don’t know how to repay this grace…”

“What grace? I’m just helping because you have a strange fate with me. You don’t have to worry too much.” Hyeonu waved his hand at Kalui, who was trying to bow down again.

Upon arriving at the lord’s castle, Hyeonu sought out an administrator. Most of the NPC administrators were in Etono, so the current administrators in Phinis were almost all players. There were many staff members of Nike Management among them.

“Richard!” Hyeonu called out the name of a man passing by. His name was Richard. He was an employee of Nike Management, a big fan of Hyeonu, and one of the highly skilled executives of Phinis.

“Oh, Mister Gang. You’ve already logged in? I think it’s been a few days since Arena Week ended…” Richard was very happy to see Hyeonu.

“This is a break. There is nothing special. It isn’t fun to hang around at home,” Hyeonu received Richard’s words naturally. Then he brought up what he really wanted to say: “I've brought in some NPCs. Help them make ends meet. Don’t worry about the money.”

Richard said, “That isn’t a difficult thing to do. However, I can’t keep using gold for them, right? We need to give them the means to stand on their own…”

Hyeonu thought about it for a moment. Where could he use the descendants of the Luos Empire, including Kalui?

‘It is too wasteful to use them in the demon world war.’

They couldn’t be resurrected like players. Their lives would be over if they died. They were resources that were too wasteful to be used for war.

‘Soldiers? That is good enough.’

“Please treat them as my immediate knights’ division. Once they are actually trained… won’t they earn back some of the money that’s spent on them?”

He didn’t know how much money would be spent on the descendants of the Luos Empire, but considering the amount that could be supplemented by hunting, it was unlikely there would be much of a loss.

If NPCs killed monsters, they could obtain the bodies. They could extract materials for potions, weapons, and armor from the corpse.

‘If Edchan and Tresha could produce more items… There would definitely be benefits.’

The moment Hyeonu's thoughts reached this point, he started to feel that any money spent on the descendants of the Luos Empire would be an investment.

“I understand. You the master of this city after all. Anyway, will this be enough?”

“Please prepare places in advance for twice the number of people I've brought today. The day will come soon when they will be used.”

“I understand. I’ll prepare them.”

After ending the conversation with Richard, Hyeonu turned around to talk to Kalui: “Just follow that man now, Kalui.”

“Thank you very much, Guardian.”

“You might’ve heard that you have been placed in my knights’ division. Your living standard will be maintained accordingly. I’ll stop by from time to time. Presently, it is hard to make time because there will be a war in the demon world soon.”

“We will wait for you. In addition… we will look for the remnants in the middle world. This way, your time won't be wasted.”

Hyeonu smiled at Kalui’s words. He couldn’t be more thankful if Kalui did his job for him.

“Then I hope you will protect Phinis well in the meantime.” Hyeonu reached out to Kalui for a handshake.

Kalui held Hyeonu’s hand with both hands and bowed. “I understand, Guardian. I will repay the Guardian’s grace.”

***

Hyeonu passed over the descendants of the Luos Empire to Richard and immediately moved to the inner side of the lord’s castle to observe the surroundings.

‘There's no one here?’

Upon confirming there was no one around him, Hyeonu carefully took the ring out of his inventory. There was now a ring emitting bright green light on his palm.

“Now, let’s go!”

Hyeonu checked the information of the ring without hesitation.

‘Item Information.’

[Disconnected Space]

[A ring made by one of the clans of the Luos Empire. A powerful artifact that can be isolated from the outside and create a space where time has stopped. Currently, the function has been exhausted, and there is no effect left.

Rating: Epic

Restrictions: None.

Effect: You can use the ‘Curse of Eternity’ once a year.

Curse of Eternity: Create an independent space where time has stopped permanently. Only certain qualified people can eliminate the space.]

“Tch!”

Hyeonu read the item description and spat on the ground. It was a useless ring. Like disposable wooden chopsticks, the ring was similar to an item that could only be used once. Hyeonu put the ring in his inventory and accelerated his movements again.

‘I will go to the vacant land.’

There was something very important at the vacant land next to the lord’s castle. It was the head of the dragon.

‘How would they have changed it?’

Edchan and Suped were making something with the dragon’s head.

The last time Hyeonu saw it, they had left it alone under the notion of letting it ripen. Thus, he didn’t know to what extent it would’ve changed by now.

‘I want it to be an item I can wear…’

Hyeonu didn’t want anything else. He would be satisfied as long as it was something he could wear. It shouldn’t be as useless as the ring.

“I think it was here… Is there anyone?” Hyeonu stopped at a vacant place where nothing could be seen.

He could only feel a very faint magic power from the open space. It was slightly stronger than the flow of magic power that he usually felt. Hyeonu moved toward the source of the magic power. The moment he crossed a section, a huge thing appeared in the open space where nothing could be seen. It was Fuca’s head, which repeatedly released purple magic power before absorbing it again.

“Is this complete?”

Hyeonu approached Fuca’s head.

Right then, a white light appeared in front of Hyeonu. The light soon took shape.

“Suped! Edchan!” Hyeonu shouted toward the light.

It was Suped and Edchan. They appeared here through Suped’s space movement.

“You are here at last.”

“I can finally show you this.”

Suped and Edchan spoke to Hyeonu. In particular, Edchan welcomed Hyeonu enthusiastically. He wanted to show Hyeonu the masterpiece of his life that he had created.

“Go and check it out. This is what I made.” Edchan pointed to Fuca’s head.

Hyeonu examined Fuca’s head closely. ‘The appearance hasn’t changed much.’

There were no big changes.

…Well, almost. There were no changes at all where the head had been cut off from the neck. However, the closed mouth was now wide open, making it feel like a dynamic change had occurred.

‘There seems to be something there?’

Just then, Hyeonu noticed something strange in the open mouth. Moreover, there was nothing in a spot where something should have been originally.

‘Where did the tongue go?’

Fuca’s tongue was gone, and in its place was a floating chair. However, it wasn’t exactly floating in the air. Rather, the bones on the skull were cut into the shape of a chair.

“What is that, Edchan?” Hyeonu questioned it with a confused expression.

“You will know if you check it for yourself. Why bother asking? Go and see it with your own eyes and feel it with your body,” Edchan gave a very unfriendly answer unlike in the past. It was an act that came from his desire for Hyeonu to personally experience his masterpiece.

“Okay, I will check it out for myself.” Hyeonu walked quickly toward Fuca’s head.

Hyeonu was curious too. What on earth had Edchan made that could cause him to look so proud?

‘He must’ve made a great item.’

Hyeonu walked into Fuca’s mouth and flew toward the chair.

‘It is hard to sit down.’

The chair seemed to be floating in the air, but there were no stairs to climb up to it. Hyeonu stopped in the chair and observed the chair in detail. Rather than sitting in the chair, he chose to observe it carefully.

‘It is very cool. It is overwhelming.’

The chair had a very ornate pattern of a few giant dragons engraved on it. They looked so vivid that it was as if they would pop out and come to life right away.

‘It is clearly made of metal.’

He didn’t know how it was made, but this chair obviously wasn’t made from Fuca’s skull. The material was different. The unique appearance of metal could be seen distinctly.

‘Shall I sit down now?’

Hyeonu carefully walked toward the chair and sat down on the chair. At this moment, intense magic power emerged from the chair and covered Hyeonu’s body. He instinctively released his own magic power toward the magic power that was encompassing him.

The purple magic powers started to fight as if they were eating each other. The fight was short as Hyeonu’s magic power instantly swallowed the magic power the chair released. At the same time, message windows appeared in front of Hyeonu’s eyes.

[You have passed the test of the throne.]

[You are recognized as the master of the throne.]

[The title ‘Master of the Throne’ has been created.]

[Master of the Throne]

[A title given to the adventurer who is recognized as the master of the throne.

Effect: All stats will increase by 15% until the throne is broken.]

‘Eh?’ Hyeonu read the messages with a bewildered expression. Then the confusion disappeared and was replaced with happy feelings. The unexpected acquisition of a title made Hyeonu happy.

‘How good is the item effect?’

Hyeonu’s expectations rose. There was already one failure with the ring, so he was looking forward to this even more.

“Item Information.”

The information of the throne appeared in front of Hyeonu’s eyes.