Chapter 32. Shadow Duke of Falcon City (1)

“We call this the ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’.”

Ilya continued to explain.

“You are required to pass through these five trials in order to become the master of the Shadowline.”

Sanghyuk quietly listened to her words.

“It does not matter which order you do it in, but you need to finish all five trials within ten days. Also, you only have one chance. Not only that, you will pay the fitting price if you fail your challenge.”

This was a warning. It also meant that the opportunity to challenge didn’t come at a low price.

“Understood.”

Since he knew this anyway, Sanghyuk obediently nodded his head.

“Oh! I forgot one thing. You need to undertake the trials by yourself. If you receive any form of help from others…… you will be disqualified.”

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind as well.”

Another user may have been disappointed, but Sanghyuk was not disappointed at all. He was a solo player anyway. In fact, he was rather grateful that Ilya told him that he had to undertake the trials by himself.

“Then I wish you the blessing of the Shadow, Sir Immortal. Oh, since you’re here, why don’t you play around a little? Should I call for the shop’s ace? Or…….”

Ilya stood up from her seat and made a smile that was fit to be called ‘enchanting’, and pulled up her already short skirt. Momentarily, her thighs were exposed…… Sanghyuk’s instinct to assault her twitched inside him.

If Sanghyuk did not listen to the words from his junior in his previous life, he might have assaulted her naturally.

However, he knew that he couldn’t be careless until the moment he left the shop. So, he suppressed his desires with his superhuman endurance.

“Let’s play next time then.”

You have cleared a hidden condition for the hidden quest ‘Proving Qualifications to become the Master of the Shadowline’. The quest was renewed into ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’.

Ilya’s heart-thumping attack just now was her last test. If he didn’t pass this, Sanghyuk would have been chased out with the quest failure penalty after struggling in pleasure.

“Ohoho, either you are of a very cautious mind, or you’re impotent. Well, whichever you are, I think you have the basic qualifications to become the master of the Shadowline.”

Spoke Ilya with a smile. For a moment, Sanghyuk didn’t understand why ‘impotency’ was a requirement for the master of the Shadowline, but he still left Rainbow with a light smile.

“Phew, that was insanely tiring…….”

Sanghyuk sighed and shook his head as soon as he left Rainbow.

‘I’d rather kill a named monster by myself…… that place must be a sorcerer’s cave, dammit…….’

Sanghyuk was a man, so there were some lewd demons in his heart as well. Since he was suppressing those lewd demons from going wild, he could only feel pain coursing through his body.

‘I’ll definitely undo the seal here once everything is over!’

Sanghyuk took in deep breaths to calm himself down. Then, he opened his quest window to check the details of the five trials he had just received.

[ Quest ] ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’

: Five trials have given by the Ilya, the Lord of the Footless Horse. These requirements are necessary to become the master of the Shadowline. Time limit of 10 days. Prove your qualifications to become the master of the Shadowline by clearing all five trials!

Progress

– (1) Strength of the Shadow : Leave behind an achievement by killing one or more named-tier monsters. [Complete]

– (2) Affinity of the Shadow : Form a ring of fate with one or more legendary-grade NPCs. [Complete]

– (3) Talent of the Shadow : Engrave two or more ‘Ancient Knowledge’ into the Soul Holes. [Complete]

– (4) Wealth of the Shadow : Possess one or more unique-grade items. [Complete]

– (5) Endurance of the Shadow : Kill 3,000 rats that can be found across all of Falcon City, [0/3,000]

Rank : Hidden(S)

“Whoa…….”

Sanghyuk was surprised after opening the quest window. A whopping four out of five was already complete.

‘This is like, the perfect quest for me!’

Of course, this should be a coincidence, but he did definitely feel great.

‘I just need to kill the rats then? Really, this is pretty easy.’

Killing rats definitely wasn’t a hard job. However, it was a very annoying process since it consumed a lot of time. However, he didn’t think that it was bothersome right now.

If he had to do the other four trials as well, then he might have received some stress due to the time constraints, but there was no need for such a thing.

“It’s like the heavens are helping me.”

Feeling good, he muttered while looking up to the sky. In the sky, an image of a newly-created idol group was floating on cloud advertising boards.

Of course, Sanghyuk was uninterested in the entertainment industry, so he didn’t even know their group name, but he still put a thumbs up towards them.

As he had expected, killing rats while walking around the vast Falcon City was a bothersome job.

Since Falcon City was a very clean city, there weren’t many rats to be seen in the first place. In the end, he found very few after searching around the darkest of places…… and this was suffering for him.

Sanghyuk killed exactly 279 rats in 10 hours. At this speed, he had to hunt for rats for six days straight without doing anything else. [E/N: I’m pretty sure author missed some crucial math lessons.]

‘If I had to do this quest with four other quests…… urgh, that’s horrifying.’

Only after killing some rats did Sanghyuk understand why that part of the quest was named the ‘Endurance’ of the Shadow.

Since Sanghyuk was very used to grinding, he could still endure. However, even if it was Sanghyuk, he would have despaired if he actually had to do five trials at the same time.

***

Luckily, his speed in exterminating the rats became faster as time went since he got used to it. In the end, he could fill the 3,000 in five days.

You have completed all five trials. Prove your qualifications to become the Master of the Shadow by going to Ilya.

“Fuu…… I don’t want to see rats for a while.”

Sanghyuk heaved a deep sigh and wrapped the Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip around his arm.

‘Is it the last barrier now?’

Honestly, even Sanghyuk didn’t know what would block his way from now on.

“Amazing. I didn’t know you would be so fast. Just five days…… never did I imagine that there was a person that could achieve the Five Trials of the Shadow that usually can’t be cleared in 10 days, with just five.”

Ilya looked at Sanghyuk with a truly impressed, no, loving expression.

Ilya, the Lord of the Footless Horse, has fallen in love with you at first sight.

Your familiarity with Ilya increases by a large margin.

Your familiarity with Ilya increases by a large margin.

Your familiarity with Ilya increases by a large margin.

Your familiarity with Ilya increases by a large margin.

For a moment, Sanghyuk thought that he bugged out. However, it was no bug. This was an explosion in Ilya’s familiarity with him as she fell for him. [E/N: EXPLOSION!]

Sanghyuk also knew that this was indeed possible, albeit extremely rare. However, this was the first time he experienced it.

Your familiarity with Ilya has reached the limit! A ‘ring of fate’ was generated between Ilya, the Lord of the Footless Horse, and the Dimensional Traveler Immortal!

You have acquired the rare-grade title ‘Ilya’s Man’ by generating a ring of fate with the legendary-grade NPC, Ilya the ‘Lord of the Footless Horse’.

‘Mm? Ilya was also legendary-grade?’

Sanghyuk was surprised to find out that Ilya was a legendary-grade NPC. Actually, legendary-grade NPCs were supposed to be rare existences.

You have fulfilled the final hidden condition of the hidden quest ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’ by generating a ring of fate with Ilya. Congratulations. Your test of qualification has ended, and you have become the ‘Master of the Shadowline’. You have acquired the special title ‘Shadow Duke of Falcon’.

[You have acquired Silvermoon Fragments as a bonus for clearing the hidden chain quest.]

‘Finally!’

When he heard the last system message, he subconsciously gripped his fist. The feeling of achieving something that was normally impossible was hard to be described in words.

“Ilya, in charge of Falcon City’s Shadowline, greets the master.”

Ilya politely greeted towards Sanghyuk.

Sanghyuk felt a strange sense of accomplishment while looking at her. He felt as though he had finally subdued a proud and arrogant woman and made her his.

Anyway, it wasn’t a bad feeling.

You have become the master of the Shadowline, and your affinity with all NPCs of the Shadowline increases to ‘colleague’ stage.

You have taken over the S-rank NPC organization [Shadowline of Falcon City], and it will appear in your organization management window. You may efficiently manage the organization through the organization management window.

Users taking over NPC ‘organizations’ and managing them was a very common thing in Sanghyuk’s previous life. However, that was 5 years after the game started.

At first, it wasn’t even known that NPC organizations could be taken over. And in fact, this was the first time Sanghyuk hard about an S-rank NPC organization. He had seen numerous users who have taken over NPC organizations in his previous life, but they were A-rank at maximum.

‘S-rank organization…… I did expect the rank to be high, but to think it’s actually S-ranked.’

Sanghyuk was surprised to find out that the Shadowline was S-ranked and not A-ranked like what he expected. Of course, this was a good thing for him.

‘Managing the organization sounds like a pain, so…….’

Sanghyuk looked at Ilya. Honestly, managing NPC organizations was a very tiresome process as he had a lot to consider as well as to be cautious about.

However, Sanghyuk knew a method that could solve this problem in one go.

‘If I have an exceptional and loyal NPC…… everything’s easy!’

The ‘proxy system’ existed for busy users like Sanghyuk. With that, he could solve this problem in one go.

Ilya could be considered the NPC optimized for the proxy system as well. Perhaps she might be better than Sanghyuk at it.

“Ilya, I’ll appoint you as my deputy. You’re qualified to become my proxy as you have led the Shadowline splendidly until now.”

“It’s an honor.”

Since his familiarity was high, there was no rejection or anything. She only accepted it as though it was natural.

You have appointed Ilya the Lord of the Footless Horse as the proxy of Shadowline.

Everything went smoothly. Ilya explained the hierarchy of the Shadowline to Sanghyuk. Of course, Sanghyuk would be able to find that out through the system window, but Sanghyuk gladly allotted some of his time for his proxy.

Of course…… the seal on the lewd demons in his heart had already been unsealed.

Sanghyuk was not impotent.

In fact, he was a youth with passionate, hot, overflowing blood.

The moment his seal was undone, he became a violent bull.

Translator’s note

Last chapter, it was mentioned that ‘prostitution service’ wasn’t allowed by law. Prostitution is the act of selling and buying sex. This doesn’t count… probably…. Also… nah, read the next chapter to see what happened.