The Taming Master

Chapter 45: Ian’s Achievement (4)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

Sponsors: VT and MR

Herz: Jinsung, is the Summoner that hit lv 50 you by any chance?

It was precisely his best friend, Herz’s message .

Ian felt the momentary unknown(?) sadness that he experienced from the Summoners’ bulletin board being washed away in one go .

‘As expected, Yoohyun is the only one that knows me!’

However, the blinking message mark still didn’t disappear .

‘Huh? Is there another one?’

And as he checked his messages again, there was a message from Harin right below .

Harin: Ian, what are you doing? When exactly did you hit lv 50?! Ian jjang[1]!

It was a Harin’s message full of confidence that, compared to Herz’s message that was a question, had much higher credibility .

Truthfully, the reason why Harin said with confidence that the lv 50 Summoner was Ian was because she already thought that while he did the Goblin Camping Ground Quest with her, she thought he was a higher level than her .

Either way, Ian was touched .

He even felt tears form in his eyes as well .

‘Ah… Harin was a good person . ’

The image of a scary girl that liked PK, Harin’s image changed positively once through cooking and another time with this message .

‘I should help her sincerely with her vacation assignment next time!’

The time felt less wasteful as well .

Ian sent a response to Harin shortly after .

Ian: I just hit lv 50 and had passed out until now . I just logged in!

However, it seemed Harin wasn’t logged on, as a response didn’t come back immediately, and Ian, who wanted to brag about his own achievements, became slightly sullen .

‘Will Yoohyun be logged on?’

Ian sent Herz a message .

Ian: Yeah, it’s me . I hit lv 50 yesterday and slept . I just woke up .

And it seemed Herz was logged on, as a response came shortly after .

Herz: Wow… You monster-like dude .

The conversation continued .

Ian: Did you send me a message to ask that?

Herz: Yeah… There was that as well, but I also wanted to say something .

Ian: Say something? What is it?

Herz: Not long ago, our guild occupied a base in the northern continent .

As soon as Ian heard the word base, Ian rejoiced .

This was because he also knew how important of a part a base was to the guild .

Ian: Oh, really? Where is it?

Herz: If you go a little more northeast from Crupia Snow Mountain for about a quarter of a day, there’s a place called Lokor Snowfield, it’s there .

Ian: How’s the size of the base? Did you get a good place?

Herz: Yeah, the size is pretty big and the location is good .

Ian’s mood got better .

His mood was as if he had scratched a 500 Won[2] lottery ticket without much anticipation, but won 50,000 Won[3] .

Ian truthfully wasn’t even anticipating for the Lotus guild to take over a decent base through this expedition .

This was because, firstly, he knew how fierce the guilds participating in the northern expedition were and secondly, it was true that the Lotus guild was a strong guild that was in the top 5%, but compared to the gigantic guilds that were in the top 10, their strength was nothing .

Ian: That’s good . I did hear that you guys were going on the northern expedition, but I didn’t even expect you to get a good base . Thanks for your hard work .

Herz: We were just lucky, I guess .

And Ian was able to discover the biggest reason why Herz sent a message .

Ian: Ah, then, did you contact me to ask for help with the base clearing operation?

Herz: As expected, you’re quick-witted . That’s right . But not right this instant, as the level of the monsters over here are quite high . They’re at least over lv 70 . If you go a little farther out, there are also monsters that are close to lv 100 .

Ian: Then I could probably help out once I hit close to lv 70 .

Herz: Yeah . I think so .

Ian: Okay, you don’t have anything else to say, right?

Ian stood up and brushed himself off in order to finish up the messages and to go hunt, but shortly after, another unexpected message arrived .

Herz: Ah, right, I almost forgot .

Ian: Huh? What?

Herz: Can you stop leveling up for about a week and wait?

Ian: …? Why?

To prevent Ian from leveling for a week, it was something that wouldn’t happen with him .

However, with the continued words from Herz, Ian couldn’t help but be flustered .

Herz: There’s only a week left until the Empire Arena opens . What do you think about maintaining lv 50 and going out qualified as a rookie?

Ian’s eyes slightly grew .

‘Ah, why wasn’t I thinking about that? Even Herz, who didn’t even reset his character, was thinking about it…’

Truthfully, Herz only thought about it from Kroban’s story not long ago about him participating in the rookie league and earning 50,000 Fame, there wasn’t another reason .

And because the first person Herz thought about when he heard that story was Ian, so he mentioned it to him .

Kaimon Empire and Luspel Empire’s Empire Arena opened on the first of every month alternatively .

And as last month Kaimon Empire’s arena opened, it was the Luspel Empire’s turn to open their arena this month .

When the arena opened, any user could apply to enter, and the strongest thirty-two that passed the preliminaries would be put in battle to decide the winner .

After everything progressed to the finals, winners would earn a huge amount of Fame and strong items proportional to their rank, so many users who thought they were strong challenged the arena every month .

And two leagues always opened at the same time for the Empire Arena .

One of them was a combined league, where any user could participate in, and the other was the rookie league, where only users below lv 50 could participate in .

Herz was suggesting Ian to maintain lv 50 for just a week and participate in the rookie league .

Ian: Ah, right, arena1Urgh, why was a forgetting about the Empire Arena?

Ian had on a tearful face, to tell him to hold off leveling up for a week was a big torture .

Ian blamed himself .

‘If it was going to be like this, why did I even sleep only one or two hours a day and hit lv 50?’

Overlooking his depression, it was to the point he was sorry to the past him for not thinking further .

Herz: Why else, it was because it was close to impossible to hit lv 50 before August 1st . Even I didn’t think you could hit lv 50 this fast .

Herz’s words were extremely right .

The point when Jinsung class-changed to Summoner was Kailran’s update day, June 20th .

And how could he have thought that Ian would hit over lv 50 in the short time of only one month and about ten days until the day that the Empire Arena opened on August 1st?

Truthfully, it wasn’t eve like Ian wasn’t bearing in mind the Empire Arena while resetting .

‘I was only thinking that I needed to level up as much as I could before the arena opened . ’

He didn’t even think that he would hit lv 50 and have one week left free .

Ian: Ergh… One week is a little wasteful, but to not participate when I hit lv 50 at such a good timing would be idiotic, right?

Herz: Don’t ask when you already know the answer . Even if you go out and get in the top 8, you’re getting 10,000 Fame and a Heroic-rank necklace related to your class . You know how many quests you need to do in order to raise your Fame 10,000, right? It’s impossible with just one week .

It was the truth that Ian also knew very well .

He was just merely depressed .

Ian: Ha, alright . One week is a little wasteful, but I’ll rest from leveling up and do something else, I guess .

Herz: Alright, wishing you good luck .

Ian, who finished his conversation with Herz, felt his strength drain from him .

Ian gazed vacantly at Bbookbbook, who had climbed onto his knees after eating his meatball without Ian even realizing, and let out a sigh .

“Bbookbbook . ”

Bbook-?

“What are we going to do for the next week?”

Bbookbbook-?

However, it was Bbookbbook, who wouldn’t give an answer to Ian .

“Firstly, let’s go do the prophet quest I was originally planning to do anyways . ”

Ian, who stood up and brushed himself off, slowly moved .

His footsteps somehow seemed like he had no energy .

@

Ian moved to Myuran shortly after .

In order to progress with the prophet quest he needed to go to the imperial palace, but he wanted to see the Tower of Summoners before that .

‘Keu, there’s no way that I can’t go and check my achievements . ’

Ian, who arrived in Myuran, headed towards the Flinor Square .

And as he arrived at the square, he was able to find the Tower of Summoners easily .

“Hoho, seeing it like this is more satisfying . ”

The Tower of Summoners stood high alone a slight distance away from the already existing class’ towers .

Now, when the users of the other new classes reached lv 50, two other towers would develop next to it, but as it was showing off its splendor on its own at the moment, it looked even cooler .

The bronze dragon statues that stood guarding either side of the tower’s entrance was perfectly Ian’s style .

‘Hue, I like it . Since I have a lot of time to spare, I’ll go in while I’m already here . ’

He was always engrossed in leveling up, but while he was forced to rest from hunting now, Ian was more relaxed than ever since he had reset his character .

Lala- .

It was a situation where he automatically hummed to himself .

At the entrance of the Tower of Summoners, there were quite a lot of Summoners coming in and out in order to receive class-related quests .

‘For sure, if you’re going to quest anyways, it’s better in various ways to get quests from your class’ tower . ’

Because Ian had two quests, the quest from Oakley in the dungeon and the prophet quest, filling his quest window, he had no intention of getting a Tower of Summoners’ quest on top of that .

However, when he had completed both those quests, he was planning on getting quests from his class’ tower as well .

‘The structure of the Tower of Summoners is also similar . ’

While thinking of the Tower of Archers that he went in and out of countless times before resetting, Ian mumbled to himself .

‘Then they probably have an artifact clearing house on the fifth floor here, right?’

There were a lot of things to do in the class’ towers aside from getting quests .

And the place that Ian was currently looking for was the Artifact Clearing House, where you could exchange contributions that you made towards the Tower of Summoners for items or skill books .

Because the tower was first made thanks to Ian, it was a situation where he had received quite a lot of contributions .

‘Since I’ve received about 5 thousand contributions, I should be able to trade it for something decent…’

Before resetting, if he thought about the almost 10 thousand accumulated contributions he gathered at the Tower of Archers, the 5 thousand was an incredible amount .

‘It would be better to save it and use it when I’m a bit of a higher level… But if there’s a good skill book, I’ll trade it immediately . ’

In the case of items, he could obtain higher-ranking artifacts the higher the level he was, but to exchange right now when he was only lv 50 was not a good choice .

However, skill books were different .

This was because if there were good skill books, he needed to buy it as soon as possible in order to raise its proficiency sooner .

‘Found it . As expected, it’s in the same spot . ’

Ian, who found the contributions clearing house, moved with a fluttering heart .

Ian’s current expression was similar to the expression of a child who was walking into a toy store holding a 10,000 Won[4] bill for the very first time .

As Ian approached the front of the clearing house, the NPC that was there smiled brightly and spoke .

“This is the contributions clearing house . How can I help you?”

[1] jjang = Korean slang word meaning “the best”, “top of the top”, etc .

[2] 500 Won = 0 . 43 USD

[3] 50,000 Won = 42 . 69 USD

[4] 10,000 Won = 8 . 54 USD