Chapter 219. Exodus (3)

Hansoo looked around as he headed towards the east in the middle of the city.

There was the flaming lands in the south and the frozen tundra to the north.

Countless players were heading in four directions of north, east, west and south from the center of the fortress.

This location, a location between the kingdoms in the east and west, had become an extremely popular place for those who were above level 200 after the 5th patch.

Since all four locations had good things.

Especially the south and the north locations were the reason why this Bellum War Fortress was a popular place.

<Spirit Land>

The alpha and omega of this Bellum War Fortress.

The final location of the hundreds of thousands of players coming to this place through the warp gate in the city square.

‘But… Not yet.’

Hansoo glanced at the players going to the north and south noisily as he ignored them and continued his way.

Towards the east.

There was an extremely important dungeon outside the War Fortress in the east.

The dungeon that would become the starting point for the road towards the Spirit Land.

‘The Great Maze of the Ains.’

Hansoo mumbled towards the strange looking mountain that had hundreds of entrances holed into it.

<Ain>

A race that had a slightly different form from the humans.

Actually the players couldn’t even meet this race before the 5th patch.

They could only read about them, they had no idea where these things were.

But once the racial quest, <forgotten race, Ain’s traces>, was completed they had been able to interact with them after the Great Maze where they were hiding opened up.

At first everybody scoffed.

For just a single Great Maze to have opened despite the size of the quest.

Of course nobody thought this way anymore.

The amount of people gathered around it proved it.

In the vast field in front of him, countless amount of people set up camp there.

These were people who had gathered in order to enter into the giant mountain, <the Great Maze of the Ains>.

As Hansoo approached them, he could hear their loud shouts.

“Gathering one more person for the maze attack squad! We’re planning to share the protection elixirs that come out of the Ains equally!”

“Searching for a party in order to gather protection elixirs! People who have high mana resistances! We welcome any master-tier players!”

Protection elixir.

The item that these guys were shouting about was the core item from this Great Maze.

The item which allowed people to enter the <Spirit Land> where they could not before.

Before the 5th patch.

The Spirit Land was a place that nobody could enter.

It wasn’t because the map wasn’t built or the game company locked it up.

Such a thing wouldn’t happen in this game, <Exodus>, where freedom and game completion was well known.

There was a simple reason.

They died the moment they stepped in.

It wasn’t because there were tremendously powerful beasts inside.

It was worse.

The huge amount of DoT damage they received the moment they stepped inside it.

As soon as they stepped into the blazing and frozen land, their health which could even tank against boss-level monsters got shredded apart.

Even level 250 master level players would lose all their health and die after only a few moments.

They would die even before seeing anything.

But the story changed as the Great Maze opened up.

As the <Great Maze of the Ains> opened up and the special liquid that could be obtained inside, the <Protection Elixir>, came to be known, it was learned that it provided a high amount of resistance to the two zones and so the players were able to step into the Spirit Land where nobody could before.

Of course the price of the Protection Elixir which could be obtained from inside the maze rose to the heavens as well.

Everybody who was gathered here had gathered for the Protection Elixir.

One of the players who was passing by Hansoo chewed the Atollen gum, which was sold around here, and mumbled.

“Fuck. Nobody’s coming around. Only weaklings are walking around.

The player looked at the party members approaching him as he frowned.

It had been over 20 years since the game Exodus had opened up.

Though leveling was hard, due to how long the game had been out there were plenty of level 200 players.

Of course there should be countless people who could enter the maze which had the level limit of 200 but it was hard to find useful party members.

This was because in this game, Exodus, differences between individual were very prominent.

Every level 200 weren’t the same from each other.

Depending on their skills, artifact and control the differences of battle power would be huge.

To the point of a seasoned level 250 master player being able to beat numerous tens of beginner master players.

The difficulty of the newly opened Great Maze was extremely high and there were locations where there was a limit to how many people could enter.

And even more so in places where one can get precious items.

He had started to curse as he only saw weaklings when filling his party with only elites wouldn’t be enough.

Hansoo nodded as he heard the player’s complaint.

‘I need to create a party.’

In a normal game, every beast was below the level of a player.

But it was different for this place.

You would get destroyed if you fought alone due to the power of the beasts.

With the unfriendly game system, solo playing would be countless times slower than party playing.

So the game Exodus was better the more you bunched up.

Even more so if the average strength of the party members were high.

The number of people in each party here was around 30 to 50.

This is where most of the new players of Exodus make their mistakes.

Instead of party playing, staying in a group with just the adventurers who had come with them.

It was better to fill up your party as much as possible despite not being able to trust somebody who wasn’t serious about their work.

Of course the chances of their betrayal once a precious artifact or a reward came along existed but this place wasn’t a place where you were done for once you got killed.

Since one needed to be wary of being revenged by those they had betrayed after they revived so not many people acted like that.

So people grouped around in 40 or 50 players groups but of course they would get caught in the eye if they roamed around the maze or hunting grounds in groups of 10 or 15.

Even more so if they ran around solo because they were confident.

This was how the bug killers filtered bug players out.

‘Exodus isn’t such an easy game.’

Hansoo mumbled.

Those who can survive and continue at a decent pace alone or in small groups were the best of the best out of the master players.

And because these players had played the game for so long and were famous, they could be found with a simple search.

If no information came up despite them moving around in small groups and if they were also weak, they would become targets of the bug killers and these bug killers would likely kill them on the spot.

The chances were half and half but if they found them then it was amazing.

Illegal PK’s penalties were high but even if they compensate the dead players after receiving the penalties, it was still a profit in the end.

‘This is why… I need to go into the maze in a party.’

He wasn’t going into the Great Maze for the Protection Elixir but there was no need to get caught in the eyes of others by acting alone before he got to a certain point.

He would eventually get caught if he acted out properly but there wouldn’t be a case where he would get held down until then.

Hansoo found a decent party as he looked around.

People who were well off in the standards of Exodus and had nice Artifacts as well.

He could tell with just a single glance since he had spent quite a time within this place in the past.

Hansoo thought of the adventurers who had come here previously as he was about to join them.

Friends who had come to the Bellum War Fortress.

‘It’d be nice if they were with me.’

Hansoo clicked his tongue.

If he was going to party play, it was better to be with adventurers than players.

The chances of being caught would be much lower and their attitudes and habits were different from the players since they could die.

And since they were of the elite squad that Ekidu had hand picked herself, they would have quite nice personalities as well.

Hansoo shook his head as he looked at the countless people around him.

‘Mmm… Finding them here is too much.’

There were at least a few hundred thousand people in this War Fortress.

And he didn’t even know their faces, he could not find them and hide the fact he was an adventurer at the same time.

‘I’ll move out first.’

Hansoo finished his thoughts and headed towards the party members he had chosen previously.

***

“Maze 5th-level hunting ground. One person please.”

Hansoo spoke towards the male, the party leader, in his mid 30s in front of him.

With a respectful tone since his settings were in mid 20s.

The party leader [Hikikomaria] pondered as he looked at Hansoo.

‘What a common name. For him to choose such a name.’

In his opinion, [Hansoo] was the second most common name after [Chulsoo].

‘Anyways… What we need is two.’

Along with the male who had just come, the total amount of people who wanted to join were 3.

The man who had come first mumbled unhappily as he looked at Hikikomaria who was pondering while looking at the 2 males and 1 female in front of him.

“Isn’t it first come first serve? I came first.”

Hikikomaria scoffed.

“No, it is by personal strength. The 5th level isn’t an easy place.”

The Great Maze of the Ains.

Nobody had seen the end of this place.

The difficulty was indeed high but most of the people who had gathered here came for the Protection Elixir.

Whether they used it for themselves or sold them during when the prices rose to the heavens, the Protection Elixir was one of the highest priced items one could get from the maze.

Which meant that there was no reason to go into the depths of the maze and face the dangers.

Somebody might ask.

Why would one go into the 5th floor when the Protection Elixir came out on the 1st floor?

There was a reason for everything.

The 1st level gave out level 1 Protection Elixirs and the 5th level gave out level 5 Protection Elixirs.

The Protection Elixirs that came out became better the deeper one went in.

Protection Elixirs that decreased more DoT damages and lasted longer.

Fighting the powerful beasts was stressful enough, keeping check on the DoT damage would get one pissed.

This was why the players who were closer to 250 or were at that level look for the higher level Protection Elixirs in the depths.

Of course the Protection Elixir that would get them the most profit as of now from the player’s calculations was the level 5 Protection Elixir.

Which meant that although it would be better to go in deeper, there was no need to since it was too dangerous.

‘Well, the 5th level isn’t easy as well. That damned guy, why does he have to have overnight shift toda?.’

Hikikomaria made an annoyed expression as he mumbled.

Since there was a limit of 50 people, the ones who he could let in had to be the stronger ones.

He couldn’t allow weaklings to enter.

So the female of the three suddenly spoke.

“Let’s just have a quick test. Circle Formation. It doesn’t seem like you’re looking for a healer or a support… This should be enough right?”

This was the best test for determining those who would be in the attack position.

The man made a slightly annoyed expression at the female’s words and then looked at Hansoo.

There wouldn’t even be a need to get tested if that guy hadn’t come but things had gotten annoying.

The man spoke.

“Isn’t experience the most important thing? I don’t know about others but I have been to the 5th floor before.”

The man then fumbled around his pockets to lift up his wrist.

A clear symbol.

A few people whislted as they looked at that symbol.

Stamp.

The curse of the Ains who live from the 5th floor and upwards.

Once one collided with the Ains in order to gather the Protection Elixir and kill them, they leave behind a line of curse as they fell.

Once this happened a small symbol will appear on their wrist.

A symbol saying that they had gotten the curse of the Ains.

This couldn’t be erased and nobody erased it anyway.

It had no effect and it was more like a symbol.

That they had been to the 5th level of the maze.

The fact that they killed an Ain and gotten the curse meant that they had been to the 5th level at least once.

The man touched the symbol and looked at the people around him as he spoke.

“I went with those bug-killer friends before. They are probably near here right now. If they hadn’t found some trash bug players then we would’ve long been in there.”

The man showed them the symbol and spoke with a smile.