The legendary Moonlight Sculptor

Volume 3 Chapter 8

I've started college now and its been quite hectic. Opening week is coming to an end and classes start soon. Despite all the various things I've had to do around campus, I managed to interpret yet another chapter. I hope that you all enjoy.

Weed logged back on and quietly sat down next the Alveron. Even NPC's had to act in a certain way to improve their level and skills.

'It obviously was not a big deal'

In fact, teleport gate had many special options and, because the cave was the starting point, it was an area that was safe and completely protected from monsters.

Alveron woke up and followed Weed as he tried to sneak out of the cave.

"Where are you going?"

"Recon. Wait here for me."

"Yes, I will wait for you here."

Alveron sat back down in the cave.

Weed went out of the cave alone.

Knowing that Alveron was safe, Weed began walking his way out of the cave. Walking around in this place was like walking on very thin ice.

'Monster…'

He was sufficiently far away from the cave.

The giant black castle and the village had disappeared from sight.

There was something he had overlooked during the day.

The snow-capped mountains and the villages were safe, there were no monsters.

'There are very few groups of monsters. But monsters should appear near the river.'

Weed carefully went down the mountain. Far in the middle of a field was a pack of black wolves.

'It's not time to fight them yet.'

He got down on all four limbs and began to sneak around, sometimes hiding behind rocks for a while, and finally returned to the village.

The village where there were once shops with heart-warming store owners were now rundown houses. The village was abandon and broken.

'It appears impossible to resupply.'

That was the fundamental difference in coming to the province of Morata. Food ingredients and herbs should be bought as much as possible and left at the starting point. It was a big advantage to have a surplus of supplies rather than not having enough.

But Weed could not afford the danger of searching through the town.

The cold has penetrated deeper into your skin.

Physical ability has decreased by 14%.

Wearing the armor had no additional effect. A fire could be used to defeat the cold, but with fire there was smoke. It was no different from suicide to start a fire.

Weed decided to only take a little bit more time to carefully scout around because of the cold.

A couple of vampires passed by.

The True Blood Vampire Clan.

After a while, the group of vampires left and one of them wandered off alone.

A vampire had appeared.

Pale face and a black cloak hung to their bodies.

They wore jewelry and had rings on their hands.

"Blessing."

Weed quietly used the Ring of the High Priest that he was wearing to bless himself, a light covered and emitted from his body.

-The Blessing of the High Priest has been used. For 20 minutes, physical abilities are enhanced.

He checked his info window and the result was surprising. Strength, agility, stamina, endurance, and vitality stats were increased to an amazing 150%. Maximum health and mana were increased by 30% so he had a tremendous 7002 health and 6002 mana.

Weed invested most of the stats he got from upgrading into agility or strength. He barely increased in intelligence or stamina.

He was able to increase spirit stat through battle instead of stamina whichacted as a complement.

'This is great.'

However, this fantastic item could only be used for 20 minutes.

"Cold Bandages!"

The increase in maximum health and mana was nothing.

Accompanied by the bandage skill, the vitality stat could be effectively increased.

His cold bandage skill had already advanced to the intermediate level.

The quality of the bandages along with the high level skill was able to recover health as a tremendous speed.

His mana regeneration rate was increased by 10% due the effect of the seven rings on his hand.

However, it was still a little lacking for him to be ready.

'Time to eat it.'

Weed closed his eyes and ate the food.

Royal Bird of the Day Dish!

Food that was created from the eggs of the Joinjok Sioux Bird Clan.

An additional 500 health and mana increased.

But he still was not ready to battle. Weed held the sword and activated the innate skill.

"Sacred Blessing"

A buff that holy priests used.

It was a skill one tier higher!

Weed's body was covered in a gentle light.

Thanks to the superior grade of skill, his defense increased by 40%.

At this time, the vampire was already gone. Then coming towards Weed was the vampire that was hidden behind the wall of the house.

"So this was where the unpleasant feeling I felt was coming from…"

It seemed from the vampire's words that it was attracted to the sacred blessings.

"Sculpting Blade!"

Weed was surprised by the vampire suddenly approaching him.

He ran out of the house and rushed to use the skill.

"The enemy is a human!"

The vampire blocked Weed's sword with his strong forearm. However, Sculpting Blade's horrendous damage ripped through the enemy's defense!

It did not matter what the enemy's level was. Whether it was rabbit or anything else, it made little difference to the Sculpting Blade. The damage was almost the same to monsters with powerful defense like vampires.

"Kyahaah!"

The vampire's health declined as it was attacked.

However, as one would expect, it did not budge from such a high level attack. He withstood it as if it was a mosquito bite.

"I'll suck your blood human!"

The vampire extended his hands straight towards him. He had been caught by such a simple and ignorant attack and two holes were bored into the side of the neck.

It must have been an unpleasant experience.

Weed grabbed and held onto the vampire's chest as he dropped and rolled sideways. He stuck the snow covered ground with the vampire.

'Alright. The damage was higher than I expected. But from now on, it'll be considerably less.'

Just like how the fight with the Death Knight was different from others. The purpose right now was to improve combat experience that skills and stats could not.

Weed closed the stat window that displayed his health and mana. He examined his enemy with his eyes and felt the condition his body was in.

He focused on his enemy.

He was a lot simpler now then compared to back in the Continent of Magic. He did not know much about the game. He did not even have a map to memorize it. When he found a strong monster, he fought it simply to relieve stress.

It was of pleasure of finding a slightly stronger enemy.

He didn't need the advice of other people but rather directly experience and solve it himself.

Suffering a frustrating trial and error process.

Dying much more frequently than others.

Nevertheless, Weed was the best there could be! It was a constant challenge to be the person that constant made their own path.

He walked the path the others usually did not take and hunted.

Enjoying the battle was far simpler than before. Instead of the battle being a click of the mouse and the keyboard, he enjoyed a real fight.

He could not deny the pressure from his class.

As more skill builds up, then there are a lot more things to lose. Whenever death came, there was always the fear of how many levels and skill proficiency would drop.

When you fight monsters, having thoughts like these increase the tension. They do not get much out of the battle itself.

Fighting strong enemies, clearing a quest, the fun of the game was a job the he sincerely enjoyed doing.

"Kuwawaak!"

The vampire's face suddenly distorted.

Since then, it began to attack stronger and faster.

"Septuple Strike!"

Weed demonstrated his skills at the right time.

He naturally thought of which skills to use at the right time.

"The odds are against you running away."

Weed used Sculpting Blade around the vampire.

"Summon Bats!"

The vampire did not avoid the attack and opened his hands wide.

A group of black vampire bats were summoned.

"Kill him!"

The summoned vampire bats flapped their wings and flew into the air. They then landed on Weed and sucked his blood.

The noble monster, Vampire!

They were capable of using magic.

"Shield. Strength. Heal."

The injured vampire strengthened its regenerative abilities to recover its health.

To attack the vampire after it recovered its health would be in vain. The damage done to its forearm was healed.

"Damn it."

Weed used his sword to attack the bats.

The blood sucking vampire bats stuck to him during the fight.

Swish! The vampire rushed at Weed with overwhelming speed.

Since it was a skill that consumed a lot of mana, he could no longer continue using it to fight.

Without mana to empower his sword, he was unable to give the fatal blow to the vampire.

Luckily its healing magic did not recover everything.

The vampire no longer had enough mana to heal.

'It worked! It's out of mana now.'

The vampire finally began to bleed out.

Its pale face had become even white from extreme fatigue as it slowly moved forward.

However, a message popped up to Weed.

- The effect of the blessing has disappeared.

His strength was rapidly draining.

The sword grew heavy and his movements became sluggish.

- The effect of the Sacred Blessing has disappeared.

- You are cold.

20% reduction in physical ability.

30% reduction in skill effects.

The cold can lead to other complications.

Maximum health and mana has been reduced.

His defense was reduced because of the vampire bats constantly draining his vitality. As the bleeding worsened, his health plummeted and his movement speed dropped.

"Human!"

The vampire finally caught Weed. The vampire's current health was less than 10%.

The vampire tried to suck his blood with a vigorous head butt but Weed said.

"This isn't over yet!"

The vampire could not stop laughing when he looked at Weed.

The vampire was barely alive. Its mana was completely depleted.

But Weed was in a far more serious condition. He could not stop his wounds from haemorrhaging.

He closed his eyes.

Death!

He was logged out.

Lee Hyun stepped out of his capsule and clenched his fist.

He had experienced fighting a vampire. How were level 270 monsters? Strong. Very strong.

He was using the sword as well as the blessings and sacred blessings. The equipment was vastly different from the cheap weapons he got from the Death Knight.

That demonstrated the prominence of fully fledged high level monsters.

But he had an absolute feeling that it was not a monster that couldn't be beaten.

Lee Hyun took his fist and shouted.

"The True Blood Vampires. Kill them all!"

* * *

Pale, Irene, Romuna, and Surka had to teach their parents about the game in the Citadel of Serabourg. Their parents left to complete a dungeon quest.

Then they decided to contact Weed.

"Hey Weed, you know the people you said that connected to the game recently. I should drop in and say hello."

"Why not? I can't really help them right now so it would be nice if you could give them a hand."

"Certainly, since they are Weed's friends and acquaintances."

"Yes, it's impressive that they're already in their second week of swinging the wooden sword at the training center."

Pale and Surka smiled fondly as they recalled a freakishly strong Weed fighting thousands of monsters.

Even though he was a sculptor, there wasn't anyone whose swordsmanship was as strong. They were surprised and could hardly believe that he fought monsters using such ingenious sword fighting skills.

That was their expectations of Weed's acquaintances.

"Not too long ago we were beginners, but now we have excellent understanding of the game."

"That's because Weed is the best."

When they went to the training center, there was a large crowd.

"What is it? Is there something going on here?"

"Look over there. Now be surprised."

Pale and co. looked over to where they were pointing and they saw a large circle. Over 500 people were swinging a wooden sword towards a scarecrow.

"One, two, three!"

They were yelling and counting.

500 people were using wooden swords and simultaneously striking down scarecrows with precise timing. Each of their bodies moved at the same rate with the same movements.

But it was the look in their eye that surprised Pale the most.

'What a heavy atmosphere.'

He could sense something in their eyes.

It put considerable pressure onto his heart.

The terrifying atmosphere seemed about 1~2 times stronger since it was coming from 500 people simultaneously from all around the room.

'I think I know why there are a lot of people gathered here.'

It was as if something like this had become natural around the training center.

"Huh, what is it?"

He was already close to tears from the unease. It looked like Weed's acquaintances had a bunch of scary people mixed in.

"This is fine. The level is not high enough yet but we still can't leave so we have to keep it up."

Pale finally got enough courage and asked.

"Does anyone here know Weed?"

When he said that, 500 guys looked over at him.

Bump!

Pale's chest began to beat faster in fear. But soon they went back to using their wooden swords to hit the scarecrow.

"I don't know what's going on here but I'll do what I can to help. We're here to help you so don't worry about it and come over."

Shyying.

The wooden swords stopped short of the scarecrow. At nearly the same time, 500 people came running over to them. They fell down to their knees and cried to Pale.

"Ple, please barley bread…"

"Please feed us rice."

* * *

After one day in real life had passed, Weed reconnected in front of the teleport gate.

'Proficiency…it dropped a little bit.'

Various skills had dropped by 5 to 7%.

Sculpting mastery had dropped by 7%. Cooking had dropped by 6%.

Other skills such as Handicraft, Sword Mastery, and Repair dropped by 5%.

Fortunately the only items that dropped when he died were only a couple of the one gold weapons.

'I wasn't ready for the True Blood Vampires.'

Weed started repairing broken equipment again.

"Repair!"

After he broke all the items in his inventory, he was able to reach the goal he had wanted.

-Repair skill has reached level 10 and has changed to Intermediate Repair skill.

The ability to repair has improved based on the skill level.

It is now possible to restore the maximum durability of equipment with a complete repair.

Blacksmith skill can now be learned.

"Finally."

Weed repaired his equipment.

His current equipment had extremely low durability and he could not afford for new equipment.

The distorted cape became shiny; the dented body armor was evened out. The cracked and rusted parts were restored to a black iron.

"Alright. Time to start."

When Weed tried to leave the cave, Alveron came up to him.

"I'll help with fighting the vampires."

"Not yet. There is still one more step of preparation."

"Okay."

Weed went to look around the Morata Province alone. Checking around certain areas he looked for where the monsters were hiding

There were a lot of results from his search.

There were quite a large number of monsters in the Morata Province.

On the other side of the village and the giant black castle were a large number of black wolves. They were level 170 monsters but many of the wolves tended to wander alone instead of in groups. In the worst case, there were more than 100 wolves at once.

Though it was dangerous, Weed was able to recover the lost experience by sweeping up the wolves by using the sword's blessing and the high priest's blessings to reach level 182.

"This was a decent hunting ground."

Hunting was usually done in the surrounding area of a town or neighboring villages. The reason was because the monsters were evenly spread out and it was easy to save party members.

However, Weed wandered around hunting in places with a large number of monsters alone.

After he analyzed the surrounding area and monsters, Weed went to get Alveron.

"Give me healing."

"Yes."

Weed was bathed in divine power, healing his wounds.

There was no need for bandages.

As expected of Alveron, the next pope candidate with an enormous level of 320. However, NPCs like this were not allowed to die. Alveron dying meant that was the end. If the candidate for the next pope died in the middle of the quest, then he would fail the quest and the friendship with the Church of Freya would drop greatly. Think of it like something that can't be taken anywhere easily. But…

"Use protection magic."

"Yes."

"Weaken the power of the malicious forces that seek to injure him. Holy Blessing."

"Increase my strength."

"Please raise him power to fight against the evil and the wicked. Bless!"

Alveron was by far the best NPC that Weed had met so far. It wasn't just his higher level but he had a good personality too.

Why is it useful for a user to talk to an NPC to get a quest? This in itself was problematic because the sage would trick users!

But Alveron took care of his work and wasn't rebellious. It was the best thing around.

An innocent and naive NPC.

Weed dragged Alveron back and forth around Morata in order to hunt. That was the original purpose for bringing him.

-You have levelled up.

A large number of monsters were killed.

With the help of Alveron, Weed was quickly able to reach level 200.

'Finally!'

In Royal Road, level 200 was one of the check points in the game. The server had been opened for more than 1 year and 4 months. The average level was around level 100. Trading and production classes were around the average level, but those under level 100 were usually considered noobs.

But in Royal Road, there were an overwhelming number of low level accounts. It was thanks to the new influx of people worldwide.

Each village was filled with noob adventurers who dream of trying to seeing the world.

Being over level 130 was acknowledged to some extent. At that point, many join a guild and start visiting other cities and villages.

Bards and other similar class begin wandering around level 50 but most classes stayed within hunting areas for their level.

A character over level 150 was quite famous.

And those over level 200 were even a rank higher.

Second job advancement!

Classes such as knights and archers were able to change their class according to their preferences.

It was possible for certain kinds of wizards, clerics, warriors, thieves, and merchants to change class as well.

New skills became available!

The range of skills they can learn significantly widen and the other skills are automatically improved.

Because of this, level 200 was called the check point.

In Royal Road, less than 20% of the total users were over the average level.

With Weed's deceptive strength and his production class, it made it difficult to determine a comparison to other characters.

Weed was doubtful of whether or not there was a 2nd job advancement for him.

When Weed leveled up, his entire equipment set changed. On his head was Van Hawk's Anti Magic Helm and he also wore on his hands the Rose Engraved Gloves. With the armor, Weed was dressed up as a Dark Death Knight now! However he wore white gloves with his black knight set.

It was not a good combination for an outfit, but stats were more important to him than what other people thought.

"Alveron, follow me slowly."

"Yes."

Weed and Alveron headed to the village in front of the giant black castle. Vampires were lurking around there.

It was not difficult to find them.

Within the village, over 300 vampires roamed around for blood and they could easily find them.

Weed waited for a vampire to wander away from the group. Then at that moment he would appear and begin his attack.

"Sculpting Blade!"

Surprisingly, the vampire easily blocked the blurred sword of light with its forearm.

Then it revealed its fangs towards Weed and said.

"You again?"

Incidentally it was the vampire that Weed had been killed by last time.

It was the same guy in the same place and Weed had been waiting for an ambush.

"That's great."

Weed began to attack with his Sculpting Blade. He swung the dazzling sword around the vampire's body.

"I guess that his spirit didn't die and he came back. Kyaahat!"

The vampire began to attack while healing itself.

Weed continued the long battle. It was unavoidable that he had to deal enough damage to kill a few times over.

The vampire's skill consumed a lot of mana, but it was over level 270!

The characteristic of the vampire tribe were dark magic, transformation, and the fascination with woman as well the class with the best vitality. Other similar leveled monsters paled in comparison.

The special True Blood Vampires were much stronger than the common vampire.

Soon the sacred and holy blessings were disappearing and his mana was running out. He laughed knowing that the vampire was in a similar situation.

"Once again I will be killing you! Stupid!"

Weed ran along the wall and shouted.

"Heal, protection magic, buff!"

"Okay, I will."

Alveron came out from his hiding restoring Weed's health and giving him various buffs.

Now the situation was reversed.

Weed smiled as the vampire's face was puzzled in front of him.

He did not forget that the monster had killed him once before.

"I'll get you next time! Fog of Mist!"

The vampire used his skill when he realized he was at a disadvantage.

Turning into fog in order to flee!

It was a vampire's unique skill to pass through walls or objects without being caught.

The vampire's body turned hazy with smoke. The smoke was dispersed everywhere rather than in one place!

The smoke began squirming to escape.

But Weed had not failed to finish him.

"Sculpting Blade!"

With the Sculpting Blade skill, it was possible to deal a direct blow to the monster's soul.

"Kueahaaah!"

The vampire that turned into mist was greeted with a Sculpting Blade.

With Alveron's help, Weed was able to have the pleasure of taking revenge.

Ever since that day, Weed began hunting in the mountain and regional plains during the night and returned to the village during the day.

At night, thanks to the Moonlight Sculptor's passive, his stats increased by 30%. All combat based skills as well as engraving skills and art stats were improved.

To others, hunting was hard work but what else could it mean!

Weed became stronger, but at night monsters became stronger too. Often, more than 50% stronger. However, item drop rate and experience was increased.

Many monsters lurked in groups, such as wolves, but some monsters were often alone. So he was able to hunt even stronger monsters.

But now he could leisurely level up, thanks to Alveron, by killing vampires during the night despite the extra burden.

Weed was especially careful because safety was not guaranteed.

"Call Death Knight, Van Hawk!"

Death Knight Van Hawk.

He was summoned to join the fight.

Weed had killed the Death Knight hundreds of time without any difficulty and was now it under his command.

This increased his familiarity with him.

A fair one-on-one victory.

He didn't like it.

Weed fought with vampires and evil wolves while Van Hawk raised his level by leeching.

While he was guarding Alveron, he said.

"Master, my level has risen…"

Occasionally Van Hawk would politely tell him the news.

Weed's subordinate Van Hawk was becoming stronger.

He was growing through hunting.

"Yeah."

Weed looked over at Van Hawk with a disgruntled face.

Whenever the Death Knight killed, it gained its own experience. But whenever Weed hunted alone, 20% of the total experience went towards Van Hawk. It was the summoning agreement and it would continue until the contract was terminated.

'What a leecher.'

But he could not deny that he was a big help in battle.

Thanks to Van Hawk, hunting the vampires was much easier. Having another person made a big difference in actual battle.

Twice as much damage and armor.

Weed became safer since he didn't need to take risks when he had a Death Knight as a tank. It took half as long to hunt vampires and he took only a fourth of the damage.

The vampires roaming around the town were about 300.

The True Blood Vampire Clan had 1000. The rest were inside the black giant castle.

Weed took care of vampires individually.

Exactly numbering 49.

Then everything started to get into motion.

A general level of a newly generated True Blood Vampire that died once already was 250.

-Sword Mastery has reached level 10 and has changed to Intermediate Sword Mastery.

Damage with the sword has increased 50%.

Intermediate Sword Mastery increased damage by 7% every time the skill goes up.

Mana cost of attack skill are reduced by half.

Stat points have increased by 2.

The sorrow of a sculptor!