Of course, Holdridge also wanted to reach out to the Daesung & Kusan alliance, the Mirae and the Myongjin Guilds. At first they tried to do so. But they met strong rivals, namely the Shaipe Group and the US Government.

So, they judged that if they reached out to all the other three business groups except Daeyu, they might not join hands with any of them, so they finally decided to focus on only one of them, just like the Shaipe Group and the US Government.

"Then the only group left now is the Myongjin..."

Obviously, Myongjin was also not a bad choice.

If they look at Myongjin's position in the top five groups, it's rated at 20 out of 100.

However, from Holdridge's perspective, they felt like they drew the short stick and were left with the weakest of the pack. Aside from Daeyu, Myongjin was the weakest among the three groups of the Daesung and Kusan Alliance, Mirae, and Myongjin.

Anyway, the meeting continued for some time, and finally, the Holdridge executive concluded that they would also reach out to the Daesung & Kusan alliance. They could not afford to wait any longer when the Shaipe Group and the US Government had already begun to move.

The top executives of the Holdridge Group thought that Shaipe was very clever because they watched the situation from a distance and finally reached out to Mirae, whose power was rated 30 out of 100.

Anyway, the three US organizations began to reach out invitingly to Korea .

***

"Pouring Hail! Ice Rain!"

Pitter-patter! Pitter-patter!

Puck! Puck! Puck!

For the past several days, I continued hunting the giant monsters in the Giant's Grave.

Of course, I took regular breaks and naps in between.

Honestly, I could keep hunting relentlessly, but the herding teams were pretty much exhausted.

Although the initial three herding teams increased to four, they needed to herd the giant monsters endlessly to keep up either my hunting speed.

At first, there was no issue, but the problem started to show as I continued hunting.

I had no problem hunting at the current speed, but the four herding teams seemed to have great difficulties in keeping up with me, so they were easily exhausted.

So, I signaled to Director Sungyop that he needed to add one more herding team, but unfortunately, he couldn't.

Of course, I understood his position.

As a matter of fact, the Mirae Guild was suffering a big loss at the moment because as many as 50 top members, who were within the top 5% of the Mirae Guild, could not do anything because they were herding monsters for me.

Anyway, thanks to my continued hunting, my EXP and level went up rapidly.

It was only recently that I achieved exactly level 799.

So, I was a little worried because although I would learn a new level 7 skill when I reached level 800, it was also going to be my last opportunity to participate in the level 800 regular quest.

'Hmm. If I hadn't been to Region 0, I would have challenged the level 800 regular quest at least once...'

I had no choice but to spend 30 days in Region 0 since I was exiled there by Pablo with his trait, 'Penetrating Wall.' But I didn't hate the 30 day stay in that area because I received pretty satisfactory rewards.

Unfortunately, however, the level 800 regular quest took place during my 30-day absence, so I had to wait another month in order to participate in the new 800 level regular quest.

But it made no sense for me to stop leveling up for one month just for the level 800 regular quest.

Of course, I had some regrets because I was certain of taking first place if I took part in it.

Anyway, I endlessly hunted the giant monsters herded by the four teams on that day, as usual.

A few hours later a message rang.

[You have leveled up.]

It was a message about my new level, namely level 800.

And another message rang right after that.

[You have acquired 3 skill points by achieving level 800.

-You can now acquire level 7 skills.]

At the moment, I wanted to stop hunting right here because I wanted to learn one skill I had in mind by all means. Moreover, there were quite a few skills that I could upgrade.

But I decided to keep hunting.

Puck! Puck! Puck!

I stabbed a giant monster's thigh with the 4+ Enhancement Ice Emperor's guardian sword in one hand, and fired Multiple Ice Arrow and Ice Spear with the other hand as if I didn't care about my level-up.

I immersed myself in hunting for nearly two more hours.

I finished hunting at exactly 10 o'clock at night after killing all the giant monsters herded by the four teams.

"Thanks for your hard work today."

I expressed gratitude to the four teams.

At first, we agreed that I would keep hunting until 1 am, but since it was difficult for the herding teams to keep up with my hunting speed, I agreed to their request that I end hunting at 10 pm.

Normally, I would have hunted by myself until 1 am even after they logged out, but I didn't today.

As a matter of fact, I was anxious to do something else.

"Move to Kotum Castle."

[You have moved to Kotum Castle.]

It was not necessary for me to come to Kotoum Castle through Olbini Castle and Rodon Castle because I could acquire skills in the central square of any city. In other words, I could acquire skills even in Olbini Castle.

However, since Kotum Castle was my base in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Closed Betas, not to mention 'Revival Legend', I naturally felt attracted to it.

Anyway, I entered Kotum Castle and approached the central square.

Then a message rang.

[There are currently ice-type skills available that you can acquire.]

[There are currently ice-type skills that you can upgrade.]

"Search for the Blizzard skill."

This was the most iconic ice-type skill.

Of course, similar skills existed, but with lower power,, such as Ice Storm.

But obviously, Blizzard was far more powerful and covered more area than Ice Storm.

Moreover, Blizzard could be upgraded from level 7 to the final level 9, compared to Ice Storm which could only upgrade up to level 8 after going through level 4 and level 7.

[Level 7 Blizzard. (Active, 3 skill points required, 9,700,000 golden rings required.)

: Creates a powerful blizzard in a certain area.

: Level 7 and level 9 Blizzard exists.]

Currently, I have a total of 19 skills, including the limited skill 'Savant'.

I can say confidently that I have more skills than anybody else because I alone earned three skill points after achieving the max level of the 3rd Closed Beta, and I also acquired two skill points and the limited skill 'Savant' thanks to my terrific activities in Region 0.

However, I had not a single skill that could be upgraded to level 9 among them.

The skills I currently had could only be upgraded to level 8 at the maximum.

In addition, it was not known at what level the level 9 skill would be made available.

So far, it was possible for me to acquire level 7 skills at level 800 and level 8 skills at level 1000, so following on, it should be possible to get level 9 skills at level 1200, but it was not.

However, there was no guarantee that it would be available at level 1300 because there are no reports of someone reaching level 1300 until now.

That's why the legendary grade functional skill ring's effect was closer to myth grade because it could upgrade level 7 Blizzard to level 9.

"Acquire the Blizzard skill."

[You have acquired level 7 Blizzard.]

Of course, I didn't have any regrets about acquiring it, but I felt a little sad because I had to use up all three skill points I earned by achieving level 800 in order to acquire one skill.

There were also many skills I could upgrade to level 7.

[Level 5 Ice Shield. (Level 1, 3, 5, 7)

Level 5 Ice Field. (Level 2, 5, 7)

Level 5 Ice Prison. (Level 3, 5, 7)

Level 4 Ice Storm. (Level 4, 7, 8)]

Level 7 was the final level that Ice Shield, Ice Field, and Ice Prison could be upgraded to. But since it was the final level, I needed skill points to upgrade them.. Of course, I rarely used Ice Shield, but I decided to retain it because it was really effective when I really needed it.

So, while checking the skills that could be upgraded to level 7, I thought about Ice Storm.

'Hmm. In general, when people acquire Blizzard, they often delete Ice Storm or keep it at level 4 instead of upgrading it to level 7 to manage skill cooldown.'

As a matter of fact, they often deleted Ice Storm because it was an inferior version of Blizzard and there was no point keeping it in a situation where they were lacking in skill points.

Even I felt the skill points that I had earned until now were insufficient, so others would feel the lack of skill points all the more. Even if they decided to keep it, they would most likely keep it at level 4 to manage their skill cooldowns.

But I wanted to keep Ice Storm all the time.

Of course, I wanted to raise it to level 8 instead of keeping it at level 4.

Why? Because I can do it.