The first basement level of the dungeon was different from the ground level.

There were countless small grounds linked to each other with iron gates, it was like a prison.

The gate to the next ground was opened after killing all the monsters in the ground Ian was in, so Ian

had fewer variables to consider now.

Monsters here have 1~2 higher levels than ground level monsters, but Ian could hunt more easily.

“Good, good, the First Finder effect is the best!”

Ian couldn’t keep his face straight when seeing the EP rising.

He hadn’t gotten a single decent item, despite the double probability of getting items, but he didn’t

really feel bad about it because he was receiving a huge amount of EP.

Ian fought and fought while he went deeper into the dungeon.

Next, he found a huge iron gate that looked different from the rest.

“Bukbuk, it looks like there’s something special in there, right?”

Buk-?

Ian was about to open the door, but he stopped.

He felt that a boss monster was inside.

‘I must get ready first.’

Ian trusted his instincts.

‘Ly’s Frenzy skill’s cooldown time is about to end…’

Ian checked on his pets. Then he found that Bukbuk’s Potential had reached 20.

‘Huh? Why is his Potential already 20?’

Next, he soon remembered the reason, ‘Right, he ate a mandragora yesterday…’

He still felt sad about the mandragora he had lost, but soon he got over it.

Ian decided to bestow a skill on Bukbuk before he went through the door.

“Bukbuk, come here.”

Buk-?

Bukbuk crawled to Ian.

Because of Ian’s repeated compliment and meatballs, it had become quite obedient.

‘It would be great if he could get a distraction skill.’

Distraction skill was a skill that forced all enemies nearby to focus on the user of the skill for a while.

It was necessary for tankers.

‘Bukbuk’s weird sound is also a good distraction, but…’

Bukbuk’s sound didn’t force enemies to be distracted, so sometimes monsters just ignored it no

matter how hard it crawled around.

Therefore, Ian used the Pet Bestowing Skill, hoping for a distraction skill.

“Pet Bestowing Skill!”

The usual white light was sucked into Bukbuk.

Next, system messages came up.

Ian hadn’t expected much, but he felt anxious at the seemingly useless skill.

[Enlarging Shell]

Category: Active skill

Rank: Regular

Usage Limit: can be activated only in the shell

Cooldown Time: 0

Health and Defense Force increases by 100%. Unable to move.

Recognized as ‘lifeless matter’ during the effect.

Use the skill again to disable Enlarged mode. Its size will then return to normal.

…

“…”

Ian read the skill’s information and got disappointed.

He had hoped for a distraction skill, but he thought other kinds of normal skill wouldn’t be bad, either.

The probability of getting a distraction skill wasn’t high, as there were so many skills.

Plus, he thought that if Bukbuk got a decent skill, he would be able to use the skill himself with the

knuckle’s power, so it would raise his own battling power.

But this Enlarging skill couldn’t be used by Ian because of physical limits. And, if it was ever activated

on Ian, it would be even a bigger problem.

Ian preferred to fight using speed, avoiding enemies’ attacks instead of getting blows and moving fast

to attack weak spots. However, the skill would only diminish Ian’s speed.

“Haa…” Ian sighed, “What is this recognized as lifeless matter… is it something like pretending to be

dead?”

With that skill, Bukbuk wouldn’t die anywhere.

‘Can’t I delete the skill?’

Of course, it was impossible.

The only way to delete the Enlarging skill was to raise Bukbuk’s Potential again and bestow another

skill on it.

Ian pondered about it.

‘Can’t I make use of this Enlarging Shell skill?’

Ian stared at Bukbuk with eager eyes.

Buk-?

Bukbuk seemed it didn’t know what had happened. It had drained Ian’s will, but he didn’t give up.

He wanted to find a way to use Bukbuk in battles.

“Bukbuk, use the skill you just learned.”

Bukbuk nodded and used the skill.

Buk-

Bukbuk obeyed him well which made him feel a little better.

“Hmm…”

Bukbuk’s head went into its shell first.

Next, it started to get bigger. Now, it was the size of a huge shield.

Ian sighed again and again.

‘It’s exactly the size of a round shield.’

But then, a brilliant idea went through his mind, ‘Wait a second… a shield?!’

Ian’s head started to spin.

‘Bukbuk will get almost no damage with the Enlarging skill and his Unique Abilities put together… He

would make a perfect shield!’

Ian finally found a way to use Bukbuk, therefore, he smiled, ‘The problem is that… the enlarged

Bukbuk is too heavy to carry with one hand… and my weapon is a two-handed knuckle…’

Those problems were quickly solved.

Ian smiled slyly and went to Bukbuk.

“Bukbuk.”

Buk-?

“What about… a piggyback ride?”

…

“Hu, we killed it finally.”

Herss sat down on the dead body of a huge Ice Ogre and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“You’ve done well, Herss. We have met the qualifications to upgrade our base into ‘Hamlet’, right?”

Herss nodded at Clovan’s question, “Yes, our land’s value is 1000 now.”

Herss opened the status information of Lotus Base to check.

[Lotus Base]

Category: Territory

Rank: Base (upgrade conditions met)

Square Meter: 3582

Population: 175

Base of Lotus Guild.

Not safe from monsters. Isolated economically and culturally.

Land Value: 1007

Public Order: 12

Economy: 7

Technology: 4

Culture: (not opened yet.)

Diplomacy: (not opened yet.)

…

When a guild got a base in Kailan, the land’s rank is the guild’s ‘Base’.

When Public Order and the size of the land, which were the most basic factors of a village, reached a

certain amount, the base could be upgraded into ‘Hamlet’ and it could be upgraded every time the

guild qualified for higher conditions.

No land of players had been upgraded beyond Hamlet, so the highest rank of land known so far was

‘Manor’, which was the next rank coming after Hamlet.

“Shall we upgrade it now?’

Lotus Guild mobilized all of its members to kill monsters nearby and widen their area of influence. As

a result, it met all the conditions to upgrade their base into the ‘Hamlet’ rank.

“Base upgrade!”

Herss upgraded the base immediately and every guild member at the base saw a system message.

They were all happy to see it. Then, another message came up.

Clovan burst into laughter when seeing that.

“Hahaha, Herss, you are the village chief of our Hamlet!”

Kawin also looked at Herss, laughing.

“The leader of the Hamlet is a village chief. Don’t laugh about it. Anyway, it fits Herss.”

Piolan agreed, “Our guild master looks a little too mature, haha.”

Herss shook his head.

He had heard that he looked older than his age, but…

“Hey, Piolan, this leader of Hamlet is too much. I know I look a little older, but it’s not like I’m an old

man with wrinkles and a beard…”

Herss was about to get sulky, so Kawin and Piolan hurried to soothe him.

“Anyway, chief, what should we do to meet the condition for the Manor now?” Clovan spoke with a

smile.

Kawin shook his hands, “Hey, stop, or he will be mad!”

Herss glared at Kawin once and sighed. He gave up.

“Upgrading into Manor won’t be possible for a while.”

Piolan asked, “Why?”

“First, there must be at least one user who qualifies to become the lord of the Manor, but you need the

title of ‘baronet’ in order to become a lord.”

Kawin muttered with surprise, “Haa… you have to do the Empire quest to become baronet… but at

least 400,000 Reputation is needed to receive that quest!”

Herss nodded.

“Yes. 400,000 Reputation and a level higher than 90 is required to get the Empire quest. There can’t

be too many people who can complete that quest. 20, 30 users, at most? And those who already are

baronet… there can’t be more than 10.”

Piolan asked, “400,000 Reputation isn’t easy to get… but to have so little people? Shouldn’t there be

more?”

“Of course, there are more users with 400,000 Reputation. But the Empire quest is very difficult, you

have to be at least Lv.95 to try it… and I think there are almost no players who have 400,000

Reputation and are at a level higher than 95.

Not all high-ranked users had big Reputation.

Rather, users of the highest levels did not have such a high Reputation.

There were many ways to raise Reputation, but the main way was to do a lot of quests.

But hunting was more efficient in gaining levels than doing quests, so the players with the highest

levels didn’t have the highest Reputation.

Clovan, who had been listening, spoke, “Hey, haven’t users like Sailon, the Knight of Brilliance, and

Remir, the Mage of Red Flame, been doing the Empire quest for a long time? Their levels are really

high as well.”

Herrs smiled bitterly, “Let’s think of them as an exception.”

The users Clovan mentioned were famous users, all in top 5 of each class’s ranking.

In each class, there were a few crazy users who had both high levels and high Reputations.

Piolan nodded, “Well… there are always some exceptions.”