The Return of the Genius Ranker of All Times

Chapter 30

Thud-.

Kiieek! Kiiie!

Its identity was a giant centipede.

A massive centipede, lurking behind a rock, had been waiting for a chance to stab its venomous fangs into Do-hyeon’s neck.

Do-hyeon grabbed the creature’s head and frowned.

“No matter where you go, insect bastards are always so sneaky.”

The way they acted didn’t change whether it was in DemRock or God of Savior.

In DemRock, there wasn’t a single insect-type monster that didn’t fight with cowardly, dirty tactics.

Their disgusting appearance was only matched by how much he despised their behavior.

And since this hunting ground was filled with such insect creatures, Do-hyeon had expected ambush patterns from the very beginning.

These things always waited for players to let their guard down.

Pacak-.

Even after Do-hyeon crushed its head with his strength, the creature still squirmed and tried to flee.

True to its insect nature, it had an annoying amount of vitality.

Pook, pook-.

Only after stabbing it twice more with his greatsword did a pleasant notification sound ring out.

[You have killed a Giant Centipede of the Forest.]

[Swordsmanship proficiency has increased to LV10.]

[You have leveled up.]

The battle was finally over.

After gathering all the dropped items, Do-hyeon checked his status.

‘I didn’t expect to level up my proficiency too.’

Earlier, his axe proficiency had increased as well.

The Weapon Master class was definitely proving to be exceptional, with proficiencies rising at an astonishing rate.

Now, his sword damage had increased by a full 10%.

If things continued like this, he’d become an overpowered character. But unfortunately, God of Savior wasn’t such a simple game.

‘Damage doesn’t increase much past level 10.’

Weapon proficiency only granted a 1% damage increase per level up until level 10.

After that, the damage only increased by 1% every two levels, and the amount of proficiency required to level up also skyrocketed.

In fact, the amount of experience needed for each level was absurd.

Most players set their goal to reach at least level 20 in proficiency, which showed just how difficult it was.

‘Still a long way to go.’

Since the experience required for proficiency would keep increasing, it was going to be a long grind.

But that was something to worry about later…

Do-hyeon shook his sword clean and opened his status window.

—

[Player: Kaiser]

[Level: 19]

[HP: 2,110 / 2,450]

[MP: 320 / 600]

[Stamina: 170 / 350]

[Class: Final Adventurer ]

[Titles (3)]

– Maximum Affection from the Start?
– The First Slayer
– King of Time Attack

[Stats]

–
–
–
–
–

Unused points: 49

—

“I’ve already gone up two levels.”

He had heard that leveling up in the Western Forest was supposed to be difficult, yet he had already gained two levels in less than an hour.

If other players heard this, they wouldn’t believe it.

From level 17 onward, the experience needed increased significantly, and since most players used party play at the Western Gate, gaining even one level in an hour was considered impressive.

And that was for experienced parties.

If the party coordination was off, leveling up could take up to two hours.

Yet Do-hyeon had gone up two levels in just one hour—an insane growth rate.

“It’s a bit tedious, but this place is a goldmine. Even though they’re affected by Intimidation, they still attack.”

Maybe it was because they trusted the terrain, but the monsters attacked on their own without Do-hyeon needing to search for them. It was incredibly efficient.

This was a thought only someone like Do-hyeon, who could kill a monster in one hit, could have.

For regular players, they’d likely be traumatized by the frequent ambushes.

And their attempts to flee?

That wasn’t an issue for Do-hyeon, who had both Backstab and Charge Slash. As long as they entered his line of sight, they were as good as caught.

‘Backstab really is a broken skill.’

It was a combination of a damage skill, a movement skill, and had high utility. And it was a heroic-tier skill? Even better, its cooldown was only 50 seconds.

With some cooldown reduction items, it could go down to 40 seconds.

At that point, no one would be able to escape him.

It was a balanced skill only because assassins had it. If the skill itself was analyzed, it was completely overpowered.

‘And if I can get my hands on the mage’s “that” or the swordsman’s “that”…’

Each class had at least one skill that made you think, “If another class had this, it would be completely broken.”

While Backstab was borderline overpowered, there were some skills that, depending on how you used them, could be even better.

Just thinking about mixing Backstab with a few other overpowered skills painted a picture.

‘Yeah, I can see it now. A game-breaking, unbalanced character.’

Of course, you had to actually obtain those skills for this to be possible, but with the Eye of Truth, for Do-hyeon, it was only a matter of time.

And now that second opportunity was just around the corner.

‘Just one more level and it’s time for another draw.’

He was just one level away from reaching level 20, which granted a second random skill draw.

In the past, he hadn’t looked forward to this moment. After all, what was the point of getting excited when the chances were high that he’d end up with something useless?

Instead, he had focused on guaranteed-grade draws.

That was why Do-hyeon had never obtained a legendary-tier skill.

‘Legendary-tier skills only come from random draws.’

In other words, despite making countless random draws—up to ten by level 100, plus quests and hidden piece rewards—Do-hyeon had never obtained a legendary skill.

His luck was so bad, it was almost legendary on its own!

‘But this time, I’m incredibly excited.’

However, this time was different!

In this new life in God of Savior, Do-hyeon had the most powerful unique trait, the Eye of Truth!

Just imagining what grade of skill he’d pull had him feeling not just hopeful, but thrilled.

The one thing that past Kaiser had never achieved in DemRock… no, in God of Savior! The one moment that was allowed to him now!

As he imagined that moment while walking…

Ding-.

[You have completed the exploration of the Western Forest.]

[Go to Linda and report the situation in the Western Forest.]

“Huh?”

When the sudden notification popped up, he checked the quest and realized that the conditions had been fulfilled.

He had already killed the twenty giant insects, so only one quest remained.

—

[Lost Pendant]

– Grade: Common+
– Description: A request from the girl Camilla, whose precious pendant was stolen by a cat. Find the pendant located outside the Western Gate and return it to the girl.
– Lost Pendant (0 / 1)

Reward for Completion:
– 1 gold
– Some experience points
– A small gift from Camilla

Failure Penalty:
– Emily’s affection may decrease.

Time Limit:
– 28 hours

—

It was the only quest among the Western Gate quests with a Common+ grade.

That didn’t mean it was difficult, though.

In fact, it was the opposite.

‘I already know where it is.’

All he had to do was go to the location written in the guide and pick up the pendant. He’d prioritized other quests because he could pick it up at any time.

Step, step.

Clearing his thoughts, Do-hyeon moved according to the guide.

After about 10 minutes of walking, he saw a group of people gathered in the distance.

As he got closer, he could hear their murmurs.

“Okay, everyone line up.”

“We’re all taking time out of our busy day, so no cutting in line.”

It was a line.

Players were queuing up to grab the pendant hanging from a tree branch.

Since it was such an easy quest with a single item, this had become the norm.

‘The pendant respawns 10 seconds after someone takes it, right?’

It might seem like only 10 seconds, but with more people, even that wasn’t trivial.

If ten people were waiting, that would be 100 seconds.

That’s why if you got stuck in the line during a busy time, it was a waste of valuable playtime.

That was why Do-hyeon hadn’t rushed to grab the pendant earlier.

The line had been ridiculously long before.

‘This time, it’s manageable.’

Fortunately, this time the line wasn’t long.

Only about six people.

Waiting for one minute wasn’t too much of a hassle, so he could spare that time.

While standing absentmindedly in line, he overheard the people in front of him chatting.

And then, familiar words reached his ears.

“Hey, did you hear about those griefers getting a kill order placed on them?”

“You mean that bastard AssassinBoy? Yeah, serves him right.”

“They say it’s a full guild effort, and he’s getting destroyed out there.”

“Tch, he should’ve lived a cleaner life. I couldn’t stand those guys.”

AssassinBoy. Griefers.

Names Do-hyeon was all too familiar with.

‘Those PKers? So, they got a kill order put on them?’

Considering that Do-hyeon was the one who’d given them a harsh lesson, he couldn’t help but know about it.

But it was somewhat surprising that a kill order had been placed on them.

‘A guild wouldn’t go to the trouble unless they messed with the wrong people.’

Even though Do-hyeon had only played DemRock, from what he’d heard from other players of different RPGs, it was all the same.

A guild would only issue a kill order if they stood to gain something, or for revenge.

Of course.

A kill order meant following the target everywhere and killing them repeatedly.

How many people, resources, and how much time would that take?

‘That all costs money.’

There was no reason to invest so much unless it benefited the guild or it was payback for being insulted.

Sure enough, Do-hyeon’s thoughts were correct.

“Honestly, I hate how people keep worshipping the Hero Guild. They’ve done some pretty scummy stuff.”

“Yeah, like monopolizing dungeons and quests… If they don’t like something, they just crush it. They call themselves heroes, but their actions are more like villains.”

“I don’t get why they’re so popular.”

“It’s all because of their fanbase. The guild leader’s fans are like celebrity-level. Apparently, two-thirds of them are women…”

“They can’t say a word in front of the Execution Guild, though. Tch, like foxes pretending to be lions.”

“Shh. Keep your voice down.”

As the two players glanced around cautiously, Do-hyeon pretended not to hear, feigning indifference.

Fortunately, his act seemed to work, and while their voices quieted down, they didn’t stop talking.

‘The Hero Guild… They remind me of a similar group from DemRock.’

Was it the Heroic Guild?

They started out as a group of people who claimed they wanted to help the weak and stand tall against the strong. At first, they were righteous people with ideals.

‘Yeah, at first.’

But as time went on and they tasted wealth, those heroes changed.

They pretended to be good on the outside but had become rotten to the core behind the scenes.

They were the ones who had sent countless assassins after Do-hyeon.

Even though he’d never directly clashed with them, it seemed they found his steadfast presence irritating.

He had once thought of crushing them properly, but in the end, there was no need.

‘When the game shut down, they left without looking back.’

Heroic Guild and Hero Guild.

It couldn’t just be his imagination that these two guilds seemed so similar.

“They’ve done this before, haven’t they? Fixing their image by hunting PKers… It’s basically trash taking out the trash, but people still praise them…”

“People are just sick of PKers.”

“Yeah, judging by the posts from that AssassinBoy, he’s completely nuts. Acting like the victim when they were the ones harassing everyone.”

“Heh, exactly. Apparently, he was ranting about some guy named Kaiser?”

Do-hyeon, who had been quietly listening, flinched without realizing it.

Why was his name coming up here?