The Count’s Youngest Son Is A Player - Chapter 268
Episode 268
‘Anyway, it was and is.’
Bae Do-hyeon frowned at the various signs he caught.
And it wasn’t just one or two people.
There were at least ten people who were secretly hiding their presence and following him.
“Raul, what are you going to do?”
“Well. “I’m thinking of leaving it alone for now.”
It wasn’t a big threat anyway, so I was curious about how they were going to move.
It was obvious even without looking at it.
‘Anyway, the little things will fall off on their own.’
Bae Do-hyun slowly began to speed up.
Elemental Jungle.
There was no particular reason why this place was designated as Geumyeok and given the nickname ‘Wonso’.
Hot.
A bit of hot air caught Bae Do-hyeon’s face as he ran away.
Pababat.
He took a side step and quickly turned.
and.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Part of the space where Bae Do-hyun was heading just moments ago was engulfed in bright red flames.
A pillar of fire rose from the floor, burning as high as a tree, and he let out a harsh breath.
‘Hwiyu~.’
Bae Do-hyeon whistled without realizing it as he felt the warm heat he had experienced for the first time in a long time.
The flame disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
And the spot where the pillar of fire passed by.
Surprisingly, everything was the same as before.
The bushes and trees that should have burned away were swaying peacefully in the wind as if something had happened.
Even the hot air cooled down, so if you hadn’t witnessed it yourself, you wouldn’t have even been able to tell that a pillar of flame had formed.
The purifying flame, which burned only external objects while preserving the jungle itself, was nothing more than a welcome greeting from the elemental jungle.
A water bomb suddenly pouring down like a waterfall.
A whirlpool that instantly blows even heavily armored knights into the sky.
Sudden ground breaking and earthquake.
Even carnivores that move as if they are alive and eat living creatures.
The Elemental Jungle was literally a mass of traps in which various elements that make up nature were embodied in various forms to harass outsiders.
‘Of course, it’s not like there are no signs at all.’
Like hot air, various phenomena had foreshadowings.
Bae Do-hyun already knew about such omens better than anyone else.
Even if that were not the case, these basic elemental traps did not pose much of a threat to him who had already reached the level of a superhuman.
And the same goes for players.
Maybe it’s the early days of entering the gold industry.
By now, the analysis would have been roughly completed, and methods for dealing with sudden elemental traps would have been well known.
‘I guess that’s one of the reasons why we look for wizards and elementalists.’
However, the Elemental Jungle was not such an easy place.
At the beginning, there are only simple phenomena that can be easily destroyed, but the deeper you go, the more you will encounter natural phenomena that are close to natural disasters.
And the most annoying thing of all.
‘It’s that I can’t rest properly.’
About two hours have already passed since entering the elemental jungle.
However, Bae Do-hyun has encountered abnormalities more than 20 times in the meantime.
This meant that we encountered strange phenomena at least once every five minutes.
Proceeding with exploration without knowing when and which element would appear and pose a threat was not as easy as expected.
And even more so if not only strange phenomena but also monsters appear.
Whoa!
A translucent wolf shape rushed towards Bae Do-hyeon.
The number is a whopping five.
The small whirlpool hovering around them was also annoying.
Wind Wolf.
It was an annoying spirit-type monster with half of its body filled with the energy of wind.
It was almost immune to physical blows, and even if it did borrow the power of mana, it absorbed a lot of it.
Because of this, they were not very compatible with knights who used pure mana, and this was why wizards and elementalists were needed.
but.
Bub bub bub!
There was no need for Bae Do-hyun to use his own hands.
This is because about twenty daggers that he controlled with telekinesis destroyed the wolves at once.
‘Anyway, that’s only when the level is similar.’
In the face of overwhelming power, attributes and compatibility were all unnecessary.
In this way, Bae Do-hyeon broke through the Elemental Jungle without hesitation, and the number of those chasing him had already decreased to a number that could be counted with one finger.
‘hmm. It’s around here…’
Bae Do-hyeon stopped walking and expanded the energy he had suppressed for a while.
His sense of energy, which sensed about 50 meters in all directions, gradually expanded its area.
100m, 200m, 300m….
When he finally reached 500m, his senses caught something subtle.
Pabababat.
As Raoul ran through the space as if he was moving in an instant, a large tree suddenly stood before his eyes.
‘Town Tree. It’s been a while. Is it about C grade?’
It was a large tree about 30 meters tall.
As Cho Min-chan of the New Star Guild discovered earlier, the tree was hollow, and a wooden sculpture was placed at the top…
“Who is it?” This is a place occupied by the Crown Guild. “If you don’t turn it off immediately, we will consider it illegal trespassing and execute you!”
Rumble.
No matter where they were resting, more than a dozen players appeared and took out their weapons.
“Is the welcome too rough? “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
Bae Do-hyeon took a step forward without hesitation.
Then, they actually looked embarrassed.
“uh? “Are you really going to just leave?”
“Hey, didn’t you say you’re a ranker?”
“Isn’t this a different story?”
No matter what they say, Raoul has really left the pioneering site.
‘There’s no need to waste time on a C-grade frontier.’
He didn’t like them, but they weren’t worth his time.
I wandered around the elemental jungle like that for a while.
Bae Do-hyeon scratched his head and sighed.
‘What’s wrong?’
“Didn’t you say that there are many high-grade settlements at the beginning of the elemental jungle?”
Ravel also wondered if this situation was strange.
“I know. No matter how much the exploration area of the Elemental Jungle moves around, it’s impossible for it to not come out like this.” We’ve
already found more than a dozen places, but there are only 9 grade C and one grade B.
There was no sign of anything higher than the A grade that Bae Do-hyun was aiming for.
The frontier of the elemental jungle was a little different from the monster forest.
If the Monster Forest’s settlement was a trace of a city or village pioneered by ancient humans, the Elemental Jungle was the settlement of a subspecies of World Tree called ‘Town Tree’.
The problem is that this town tree is not fixed in one place, but moves from place to place.
If the development is not completed, there is no way to know where it will appear.
“It couldn’t have been like this unless all the high-level town trees had moved… Could it be these crazy people?”
There are two cases where the town tree moves.
There may be no attack for a certain period of time.
‘If you fail or give up on the Guardian Statue quest.’
The current situation was probably closer to the latter.
“Are you saying the guilds are now intentionally resetting the high-level frontier quests?”
Ravel asked with surprised eyes after hearing Bae Do-hyeon’s explanation.
“Yes, it can’t be explained otherwise.”
‘These idiots…’
If you think about it simply, it was a good strategy.
By using the town tree’s moving habit, high-grade settlements are pushed inwards and easy-to-use settlements are created at the beginning.
However, from the perspective of Bae Do-hyeon, who had experienced a past life, it was a strategy that could not be welcomed at all.
‘If the Town Tree quest is reset more than a certain number of times, a wave will explode!’
A similar strategy was adopted in a previous life, but the eastern territories of Marcus Kingdom were swept away by the wave that broke out and was devastated.
For the players, once they die and are resurrected, it’s over, but for the kingdom, it was like a lightning strike.
Not only that, not only would many of the pioneering camps and infrastructure formed in front of Geumyeok be blown away, but a huge penalty would also occur in future linking scenarios.
The bigger problem was whether this was really a systematic strategy for exploiting gold.
‘That can’t be possible.’
In order to come up with such a large-scale pioneering strategy, the guild union had to be organized to some extent or the association had to be able to coordinate, but this was not the case at all.
“So, if it’s a frontier that I can’t have anyway, you’re saying you won’t let others have it either?”
“Yes. In the current situation, if any guild successfully secures a colony of Grade A or higher, the leadership in the development of the gold zone will be completely lost.”
“In some ways, isn’t this an assassination of our Purple Guild? Anyway, in the current situation, the only one with the ability to secure A-grade or higher frontiers is the Purple Guild.”
“That might be true.”
There was a high possibility that Ravel’s guess was true.
Right now, the Purple Guild is preoccupied with pioneering the western goldfields, but you never know when they will covet this area.
In fact, Bae Do-hyeon went on an expedition to the elemental jungle like this.
‘Anyway, I don’t like these guys.’
It was visible that these guys, who could not even properly secure a C-class frontier, were full of greed.
In that case, Bae Do-hyeon also had nothing to qualm with.
The reason he came to the Elemental Jungle in the first place was for the convenience of players trying to pioneer this place.
The plan was to secure a level A or higher frontier that could at least serve as a beachhead and open it to everyone.
In that case, the players would have a forward base where they could rest and resupply, which would speed up the development process.
But now that things are like this, we have no choice but to prepare a settlement a little deeper.
‘It’s coming, so take care of it.’
Bae Do-hyeon began walking deeper into the elemental jungle.
* * *
「He’s heading inside!」
「It looks like he’s figured out that we’re in control of the entrance.」
「Looking at the direction, it looks like he’s likely heading towards the A-07 frontier.」
Following in Bae Do-hyeon’s footsteps . The scout players who were coming were frantically sending out guild communications.
At first, I thought he was just a regular ranker specializing in solo play.
However, the speed at which he covered the elemental jungle was beyond imagination.
‘He’s at least a three-digit, maybe even double-digit ranker.’
In place of the guards who had already left due to exhaustion, people who could be considered rankers were now following Bae Do-hyeon.
‘What on earth is the purpose? Are you just touring the frontier?’
If it took any unusual action, it would understand its purpose, but after finding the colony and checking the players, it just retreated.
There were times when he deliberately tried to start a fight, but there was no one who could keep up with his speed as he just smiled and ran away…
‘Is he just Gwanjong X-Ray?’
The pursuers did not think that Bae Do-hyeon was really traveling around Geumyeok to attack the frontier.
In the first place, even if dozens of people were mobilized, it was impossible to properly complete the C-rank quest (thanks to the difficulty correction), so no matter how ranker he was, he could not even imagine that he would try to conquer it alone.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the large guild leading the attack on the eastern Geumyeok area also had a lot of headaches.
“Where on earth did it come from?”
“Where do you belong?”
“Is it really the Purple Guild?”
In fact, it was difficult to determine Bae Do-hyeon’s identity just by looking at his clothes.
Now, it is the first attack/defense item that rankers always look for.
A colorless mask covering the face.
Moreover, the hunting speed was so fast that the trackers could not properly see the fight.
“For now, tell them to keep up! How dare you try to put a spoon on our rice bowl. “I don’t know who it is, but I will make you regret it.”
“Assemble the guild members. “If anything goes wrong, we will suppress it by force!”
Each guild master began to move quickly, causing the entire elemental jungle to be engulfed in tension.
And finally, Bae Do-hyun entered the A-grade town tree.
“Stop! This is the frontier that our [Super King] guild is targeting! “If you don’t back down, I will attack!”
The Supreme King Guild.
It is one of China’s representative guilds and was one of the pillars of a large guild alliance in its past life.
He also had a history of participating in the anti-First Guild Alliance that was formed not long ago.
Jang Dong, the 2nd team leader of the Super Defeat King Guild, who had already received information about Bae Do-hyeon, thought that he would step down.
As was the case in several pioneering candidate sites previously.
But this time was different.
“what the. “You’re not a jerk, you’re exclusive to quests. If you don’t want to die, get out of the way!”
Wow.
Dozens of weapons rose into the air behind Bae Do-hyeon’s back.
(Continued in the next part)