BJ Archmage Chapter 44

Episode 44: Level Up (3)

Level Up (3)

8.

[ Strength ]
– Grade: Unique
– Effect: It increases an object's strength and increases the range of all the skills that are affected by strength.

When Midas saw the one unique skill, Strength, among the 100 cards, he came up with an idea.

'It's going to be good for Lucky to use.'

It wouldn't be bad.

Considering Lucky's skill, Strength's buff would be a big help to Lucky.

'However…'

Midas couldn't ignore the other 99 skills and just choose Strength because of that.

Even though it was a unique skill card, Midas didn't have any reason to have buff skills since he was a ranged damage dealer.

Of course, magicians who could buff others had a high income.

First, a buff type magician and a buff type priest were different.

A priest who had a healing skill mostly followed the tanker or the melee fighter, however, a magician with buff skills moved with the ranged fighter.

Because a magician could be a ranged attacker and also a buffer, they received extra pay.

However, it wasn't attractive for Midas.

'I would rather have an attack skill…..'

Additional attack magic would be more helpful.

'Wait.'

At that moment, Strength's other effect pa.s.sed through his mind.

'It also affects a magician's range.'

One of the Strength's effects was increasing the range of skills that were affected by strength.

Ranged fighters who used a bow or a throwing weapon liked the Strength skill for that reason.

An interesting thing was that magicians were also ranged fighters.

'The affected range is bigger for magicians.'

Most of the magician's skills, for example, Fireball, Ice Arrow, and Fire Spear were thrown.

They were also affected by strength.

Midas didn't put too much importance on it since he didn't have to rely on strength once it rose to a certain amount. Also, throwing hard didn't increase the damage.

In addition, the range didn't mean that much unless a magician had Long Toss.

However, there weren't many magicians who had Long Toss. Also, 60 meters was enough for them even if they had it.

They didn't need to try to throw that far since the accuracy decreased geometrically.

If there is a shooter in basketball, whose success rate for a three-pointer is 80%, and he throws a ball from the centerline, the accuracy rapidly decreases.

Midas was the same.

He already showed enough accuracy within 60 meters that made Long Toss effective.

'….How far will the range be?'

What if the range becomes 70 meters or 80 meters?

It was useless if he played with a party.

What if he solo plays?

What if he could hit one more time with another spell within the few seconds that he earns from the extra 10 meters.

Also, what if he could raise the accuracy and range of his weak attacks, which are arrow and bolt types?

[ You have chosen a skill card. ]

When Midas thought about that, his hand was already moving.

9.

Players mostly looked around to see if there were other hunters around when they hunted.

It was one of the reasons why the Cursed Forest was abandoned because they couldn't find players around the monster they found.

Owl and his comrades were in the same situation.

“Hey, it's alone. Right?”

A party of three who were at level 26 shared their opinions while looking at a zombie orc standing alone in the Cursed Forest.

“I think so.”

“I don't see anyone.”

“You sure?”

Their voices sounded worried.

They couldn't do anything about it.

“Look closely. I don't want to die like last time when we touched something we weren't supposed to.”

The tanker, Owl, had already experienced the bitterness of the Cursed Forest.

So, he had to be sure about their situation.

Of course, they couldn't keep looking at the situation forever.

“I'm sure. I used the Eagle Eye skill. I checked 50 meters around us and there are two more zombies other than that one. No players and even no dogs around.”

After the ranged fighter, Sauru, explained, Owl nodded and adjusted his helmet.

“Ha!”

Owl adjusted his breath shortly and mumbled quietly while putting his s.h.i.+eld forward.

“s.h.i.+eld Up!”

At the moment he shouted his skill, a translucent barrier started to appear around Owl's s.h.i.+eld.

The barrier became as big as half of Owl's body.

Only then, Owl shouted towards the zombie orc.

“Let's get it!”

At the moment he shouted,

Bam!

A huge explosion woke up the normally quiet forest.

Krr!

The zombie orc screamed and fell to the ground right away.

“Argh!”

Owl saw the scene the closest and shouted.

Soon, he looked back and yelled.

“Hey! You told me there was no one!”

His comrade, an archer, turned his head around and then answered with a shaky voice.

“There's no one. Seriously, there's no one within 50 meters.”

“Then? Where did it come from?”

“Obviously….. from further than 50 meters.”

At that moment, everyone turned their heads towards the direction where the fireball flew from.

10.

Bam!

When the explosion sound echoed far away from him, Midas stared at his right hand.

And he turned his head towards where the sound came from.

'Wow, I hit it.'

80 meters was about the same length as a soccer field.

The distance was ridiculously far when trying to hit an object by throwing a ball. Midas looked at his hand with his surprised eyes.

'I didn't know Strength's effect was this good.'

It was a miracle that Strength made.

Properly speaking, it was a result made from many factors.

First, Midas's strength stat was very high and it increased Strength's effect.

However, his accuracy wasn't related to that.

The secret of his accuracy was Midas's eyes.

He could clearly see an enemy's HP from far away and also the object's weakness using Dragon's Eye's effect.

It was very important for him when throwing.

Hitting the middle of a wall without a target mark and doing it with a target mark are on an entirely different level.

Besides, the most surprising thing was that he tried to do it.

'Well, I don't normally do this.'

Hitting from further than 80 meters wasn't a necessary talent in G.o.d Wars.

There wasn't much benefit when succeeding because 60 meters was a limit even with Long Toss.

There were some advantages when a monster was far away, however, most magicians used their magic under a tanker's support.

They would rather have a tanker and attack a monster within a distance that they could certainly hit than get far away from a monster for their safety.

There was even more benefit for Midas.

'The accuracy of Ice Arrow and Lightning Bolt also became higher.'

His weakness, the arrow type magic skills, now had a longer range.

'This is cool.'

It was a big deal.

Midas's previous range of 60 meters now became 100 meters.

He didn't even need Dragon's Eye.

Just hitting a target itself would make the damage overwhelmingly higher.

Strength was that impressive.

Krr!

Lucky gained the most benefit from the effect.

Woof!

A zombie orc was just like a toy in front of Lucky whose strength was now much higher.

Whenever Lucky threw his body towards the zombie orc, its body was torn like ice cream that was scooped by a spoon.

Plop!

Not only Lucky's mouth but also his nails left a deep wound on the zombie orc's body.

Lucky actively used the benefit of the skill.

He continuously bit and clawed the monster.

It wasn't a weird scene.

Lucky was a holy beast under the G.o.d, Fenrir, the best amongst the fighting G.o.ds.

His software was at a different level.

[ Lucky has killed a zombie orc. ]

Hoowl!

Lucky hunted a zombie orc all alone and howled to celebrate his victory.

'Then I'll have to calculate again.'

Midas heard Lucky's howl and started to recalculate.

'Let see, the range has increased. Also, if I add Lucky's attack stats….'

He calculated and then tilted his head.

'……Wait.'

Then he recalculated.

'It's weird…..'

He repeatedly doubted his calculation.

'Solo killing can't be this easy.'

He was playing above his level.

11.

The ragged magician.

It wasn't that popular to players as a boss monster in the Cursed Forest.

The difficulty was high, but the items from the ragged magician weren't that valuable compared to the slayer orc.

Above all things, a party of five was a requirement, but players mostly hunted in a party of seven to ten.

They divided the earnings according to the number of players. So, they felt like the hunt wasn't worth it.

Of course, it didn't mean that players didn't care about the boss monster at all just because it wasn't popular.

“How much time is left until the resp.a.w.n for the ragged magician?”

“Not much left.”

Several parties were waiting for their turns to come.

“Can't they show us the resp.a.w.n time in seconds? I wish they had an item for that!”

“I don't care about that. I wouldn't care if they just let us know which area it'll appear at. The forest is too big to guess where the boss monster will come out!”

“This game is all about luck.”

They waited endlessly.

Then someone brought up news.

“Hunting the ragged magician has started!”

Some players yelled at the news.

“s.h.i.+t, I've wasted my time again!”

“I told you we should wait here first!”

We missed it again!

The atmosphere was messy with complaints, and someone threw a question.

“So which party is it?”

“It's not a party.”

“What? What bulls.h.i.+t is that?”

“It's a solo kill!”

His answer instantly made the atmosphere frosty.

12.

Two heads on a big body that looked like various bodies were attached to each other.

Krgh!

Ergh!

The two heads, a goblin and an orc's head, emitted a bizarre sound and four arms moved limply.

The ragged magician.

It showed why its name was ragged by its appearance.

It looked really horrifying.

At the same time, 5 zombie orcs and 5 zombie goblins appeared.

Err!

Erhh!

They surrounded the ragged magician like a fence and didn't allow players to challenge the boss monster.

What made the challenge more difficult was that the monsters were hard to see due to the black fog.

How can I approach?

How can I hunt?

The scene didn't give the answers easily.

“Okay.”

Of course, the black fog didn't bother Midas at all.

Instead, within the darkness, he could clearly see the numbers, the data, and the golden target that only he could see.

It was like someone turned off the room light and turned on a spotlight on his target in an indoor shooting range.

He couldn't help but be confident.

'I've already hunted the monsters around here.'

One of his reasons why he was so confident was that he had already hunted the zombies in the area and made his stage perfectly.

'Hunting isn't a problem.'

His confidence gave him the conviction on this hunt.

Therefore, Midas was able to go one step forward.

'The hunting method is what matters.'

When the result is outstanding, people focus on the process that produced the result.

'I gotta push strongly here.'

Midas experienced that when he was a pro baseball player.

When baseball pitchers got a number of outs, the spectators' reaction was entirely different for a player who just threw ground b.a.l.l.s and a player who threw a 150km/h fastball at the end of a strikeout.

Their salaries were also different.

'I need to prove my value here.'

So, Midas didn't hesitate.

“h.e.l.lo, everyone? This is BJ Archmage. I'm here to solo kill the ragged magician today. I didn't think about hunting it, but the Rising Star Channel requested that I do.”

Woof?

Midas started talking and then looked at Lucky.

“Of course, their offer was only as much as I spent on my dogs' food. However, they tried their best to offer me that much. So, I thought I could grant their request since they asked me politely.”

Woof!

Lucky barked as he agreed and Midas continued.

“So, I decided to buy a new car next time and instead bought some items. I wanted to buy all the legendaries, but there was nothing for sale. Also, it's bothersome to sell and buy another one again since I'll level up soon.”

He tried to fool everyone into thinking that he was someone who couldn't control his spending.

It was literally just acting.

A f.u.c.king a.s.shole was more popular than a polite guy in this world.

Being provocative was the most important.

“Now, I'm going to start solo killing the ragged magician.”

Midas didn't want to stop there.

“I'll try not to get hit even once while hunting it.”

Woof!

“Excuse me? What am I going to do if I get hit?”

Woof!

“As soon as I get hit, I will do a drawing and give away a Mercedes for free. Of course, with full options. I don't treat cars without options.”

Midas gave an empty promise and shouted to start the war.

“Fireball and Fire Spear!”

Howwl!

The show has started.

–