Chapter 73: Rewards of Victory
The legs protruding from it were also noticeably sturdier than those of the other baby spiders, and its joints were covered with black sensory hairs that looked almost as hard and sharp as forged steel.
Joo Joowon remembered that the Spider Chimera he had killed earlier had only awarded six points of experience while dropping three cards.
Yet after killing this Level 3 Elite · Spider Leader, only a white beam of light appeared.
In other words, the highest possible quality of its drops was merely common grade.
Was it because he had already reached Level 4 and therefore suffered from level based drop penalties?
Or was it because the Spider Leader itself had suffered from developmental deficiencies?
After thinking about it carefully, Joo Joowon felt that both possibilities were likely true.
Previously, he had assumed that the Zombie Chimera he killed was an Elite monster because it had dropped rare quality equipment.
Looking back now, however, that rare equipment might simply have been a reward for killing an enemy above his level.
After all, the system had never actually identified that Zombie Chimera as an Elite monster in the first place.
As he shaking his head, Joo Joowon stopped thinking about those matters and began taking stock of his gains.
The thirteen Level 2 Baby Spider and one Level 3 Elite · Spider Leader had brought Joo Joowon a total of 34 experience points.
Unfortunately, that amount of experience only filled his Level 5 experience bar halfway, bringing it to (46/80).
In other words, he still needed another 34 experience points.
On top of that, not a single one of those spiders had dropped any copper coins for him.
Joo Joowon thought that perhaps this was simply the law of conservation of energy at work.
Only now did Joo Joowon finally understand why the Spider Chimera had been classified as a Lord Rank Boss.
Perhaps the title did not refer to the Spider Chimera’s personal strength at all, but rather to the type of Boss it was.
It was easy to imagine that once all of those spider eggs had hatched, the Spider Chimera would never leave its nest again.
Whether enemies invaded its territory or prey needed to be hunted, it would simply send its offspring to deal with the problem.
By the time players fought through endless hardships and finally cleared out all of its children, the Boss waiting for them would still be in perfect condition.
Just imagining such a scene was enough to make people feel despair.
Furthermore, if Bosses of the Lord type existed, then there were probably also Bosses that specialized in overwhelming individual combat strength and fought entirely on their own.
Bosses of that type would undoubtedly be even harder to deal with.
Whether they were Lord type Bosses or solitary combat Bosses, neither seemed like enemies that could be defeated through single combat alone.
This gave Joo Joowon, who naturally preferred the lifestyle of a lone wolf, quite a headache.
He hated dealing with other people more than anything else, yet when it came to Bosses, the best solution was obviously to gang up on them whenever possible rather than challenge them alone.
For him, that was a condition that was almost impossible to fulfill.
Perhaps he would find a solution after obtaining a class advancement.
Joo Joowon could only comfort himself with that thought as he picked up the only card dropped by the Level 3 Elite · Spider Leader and glanced at it.
To his surprise, it was not equipment at all, but an experience pill.
...
[ Life Essence ]
[ Grade ]: Common
[ Description ]: The unprocessed life essence that was extracted by the Lord Rank Boss Spider Chimera from its prey. After use, it increases the user’s Physique attribute and has a small chance of improving aptitude.
...
"Good stuff!"
Joo Joowon carefully put the card away, unable to put it down.
Although he did not know exactly how many points of Physique it could increase, even one extra point was still a gain.
Even if the origin of the Life Essence was something better left unexamined, he did not care in the slightest.
As long as I didn’t see it with my own eyes, then it doesn’t count!
There was simply no way Joo Joowon would give it up because of a little psychological burden.
Besides, he was not planning to use it on himself anyway.
His Physique was already at eight points.
If he used it himself, he might be able to unlock Physique type talents immediately, which seemed like the optimal choice and would directly eliminate one of his weaknesses.
However, Joo Joowon still planned to give it to Byeol instead.
He did not want Byeol to become a burden, nor did he want to face separation or death one day.
He had already experienced far too many farewells in his life.
Moreover, an increase in Physique would also allow Byeol to absorb Zombie Core more quickly.
By then, Byeol might very well become an important source of support.
Besides, if he were to use it on himself, Joo Joowon really did have a slight psychological barrier about doing so.
After dealing with the only drop, Joo Joowon picked up the Compound Repeating Crossbow and fired several bolts toward the spider eggs that had failed to hatch.
Although they looked like they had failed to hatch, who could say for certain that it was not merely a disguise?
As Joo Joowon continued firing, although no system notification appeared, the snow white silk surrounding the spider eggs gradually began to change color as liquid seeped into it.
That meant there truly was no living creature left inside.
Only then did he finally relax.
He searched through several more rooms on the floor and selected the cleanest and tidiest apartment as his temporary residence.
Although his own home had not turned into a refugee shelter, it had been almost completely ruined because of that accident, so moving somewhere else was only natural.
This place was the spider monster’s nest.
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