Chapter 96: 80th Round (2)
In Moscow, Russia.
Sesprom, Russia’s largest group, which monopolized 45% of the natural gas and energy in Russia and also dominated the largest insurance, finance, and media companies had checked the information on “Revival Legend” and jumped straight into it.
They recruited those who had great gaming abilities. For example, Marina, a female user who used the ID Olga, was one of them.
Marina was the highest round winner of Path C in the global level 300 only arena quest.
Of course, Sesprom advertised its guild actively by promoting Marina.
In the meantime, Yosif, the general manager of the company’s external affairs, who led the promotion efforts, received a sudden phone call from his direct subordinate.
“Why did you call me? What’s up?”
“Well, the name of a highest round winner of the level 300 only arena has been just changed to somebody else.”
“Really? Which path? Hopefully, it is not Path C.”
Yosif earnestly wished the new winner did not go through Path C.
The fact that Olga was listed as the highest achiever of Path C was Russia’s pride and not just the company’s.
“It is Path C.”
“Damn it!”
Yosi spat out swear words immediately upon hearing his subordinate’s confirmation.
He shouted, “Did the winner break Olga’s record of reaching the 44th round? Man, let me say something to comfort Marina, or Olga. By the way, how are the preparations going with clearing the next round based on Olga’s information?”
Since Yosif already knew the information up to the 44th round in Path C, he guessed that the person whose name was added to the electronic board cleared the 45th round because there was a clear limit to how far the winner of the level 300 only arena quest could go.
But Yosif could not help but be embarrassed when he heard his subordinate’s answer, “It’s not the 45th round.”
“No way! The 46th round, then? Who is the winner? There aren’t many guilds that have players who can clear the 45th round and reach the 46th round. Is he American?”
Yosif could only think of American players and no one else.
So, he concluded the winner was American this time as well.
“It’s not even the 46th round.”
“Then is it the 47th round?”
Yosif asked with a frown because he had never thought that anybody could break the previous record of the 44th round by three whole rounds, not just one or two.
At this moment he was afraid of being scolded by the company president for not having done better while other players achieved such good results and surpassed their previous best records.
But Yosif felt relieved to know that the gap between Olga and the new winner was so large that it was more than three rounds. If it was just one or two rounds, he would be scolded harshly by the president..
“They cleared the last round. The 80th round!”
“What the heck are you talking about, idiot!”
Yosif thought he heard his subordinate wrong.
After spitting out some swear words, he tossed aside his phone and accessed ‘Revival Legend’, thinking he would fire the guy who called him today.
Yosif moved to a nearby arena and looked at the electronic scoreboard.
[The highest round achievers of the level 300 only arena quest.
-Path A: Alexander Willy. (47th round)
-Path B: Zhang Wei. (45th round)
-Path C: Asirante. (80th round, the last round.)]
Yosif confirmed the ridiculous record but he could not believe it at all.
Startled by the results shown, he just looked at the scoreboard blankly.
Of course, it wasn’t just Yosif who showed such a reaction.
Everybody in the auction house was whispering here and there.
At that moment someone quietly opened his mouth.
“Asirante? Who is Asirante?”
Inside the arena, I was the only one who was standing firmly with both legs on the Ice Field which was riddled with cracks and dents.
And then a message rang.
[You have cleared the 80th round.
-Clear time: 11 minutes 29 seconds.
-Grade: SSS]
There was nothing in this message that announced the start of a new round in 10 seconds.
Instead, another message followed.
[Congratulations.
You have successfully cleared the final round of the level 300 only arena quest.
-The statistics of the cleared rounds and grades are being calculated.
-When calculating is done, you will be given a reward.]
It was a message that asked me to wait for a minute before receiving the reward.
Of course, the wait was not boring at all for me.
Rather, I felt my heart beating more than ever.
At this moment, I recalled the reward I received from the level 100 only enhancement quest.
Back then, I received a 100% enhancement success right, for which I gave three cheers, as well as 200 stat points and the title ‘Have you enhanced as much as me?’
I also gained 12,000 coins.
But I stopped thinking there because I would know the reward pretty soon, so I didn’t want to count my chickens before they hatched.
And then a message showing the final results appeared.
[Congratulations on Lumen, Asirante, for clearing the 80th round.
-One of the following effects is given as a reward to you for clearing the last round that no one has ever cleared before.
-Effect #1.
: One of your skills will be selected at random and its cooldown will be removed. (This cooldown effect will remain the same even if the level of the skill changes due to upgrades etc.)
-Effect #2.
: One of strength, agility, stamina, willpower, intellect will be randomly allocated an extra 2000 stat points.
-Effect #3.
: A drastic increase in EXP. (When hunting monsters, you will acquire between 2-5 times as much additional EXP. The EXP multiplier is randomly generated for each monster.)]
[As the reward for being the first once clear the 80th round, one of the above three effects will be given to you.]
“…”
Three effects appeared before my eyes at the same time.
I had no choice but to look at them blankly because they were so good that it was very difficult for me to choose which one. If I could have my way, I wanted to have all three effects.
But the message clearly announced that only one of the effects would be given to the person who first cleared the final round.
In other words, I had to choose one of the three.
So, I examined the effects of Effect#1, Effect#2, and Effect#3 again, but I had no choice but to gaze at Effect#3 because it mentioned a ‘drastic increase in EXP’ that I thought I could never obtain.
An EXP boost trait was a trait offered to max level achievers in each round of the ‘Forgotten Legend’ Closed Betas.
I didn’t know I would run into the trait here.
Moreover, it wasn’t bad.
Acquiring 2 to 5 times more EXP meant that I would obtain 3.5 times more EXP than others on average.
With an EXP boost of 3.5 times, I am confident I could make up the gap of 3 years and catch up with the leading gamers much earlier than expected. Besides, there was no limit to the max level this time; I can use the 3.5 times EXP boost forever. So, I thought this 3rd option was not bad at all.
But when I confirmed the effect of Effect #2, my judgment got clouded a bit.
A whopping 2000 stat points.
Of course, it was a random addition to one of Strength, Agility, Stamina, Willpower and Intellect.
So, for example, if the 2000 stats were allocated to Strength or Agility, I would feel bitter because it would not give me any tangible benefits.
The worst would be its addition to my Stamina because my current Stamina was already high, and would continue to go up without any limit in the future.
I always invest my extra stat points in intellect, and my stamina would grow together at 100% proportion to the invested intellect stats due to Mutual Growth.
An increase in Willpower by 2000 stats would not be bad. But the best would be an increase in intellect by 2000 stats because of the Mutual Growth I possessed.
So, there is a 20% chance for Intellect to be increased by 2000 points, and due to Mutual Growth, my Stamina would increase by 2000 points and my Willpower would increase by 100 points. It would amount to a total increase of 5000 points.
“….”
It was a huge amount. At that point, the speed of leveling up would not be a problem. Moreover, my level-up speed is fast anyway because I’ve always been looking for places that were 100 to 200 levels above me. And I would continue to do so.
I needed to do this to get ahead of others decisively.
In any case, I needed something special to pull ahead of others, for example, the three traits I had. And 5000 stat points were enough to be included in that special category.
So, assuming that 2000 stat points are invested in Intellect with a 20% chance, I thought Effect #2 was better than Effect #3. So, I didn’t look back at Effect #3.
Moreover, as I continue to level up, I will feel frustrated by the sheer difficulty by the huge hurdle of leveling up further when I reach a high level in the future, I will be able to clear this hurdle with these 2000 stats.
With that in mind, I finally paid attention to Effect #1.
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