บท 37: Chapter 37

The Intervention Hotel was a very special accommodation facility created to purposely segregate the Adventurers from the Nürburgians.

Numerous fights and misunderstandings broke out between the players and NPCs when the Nürgburg Continent first appeared—when the BNW server first opened—because of the cultural differences, and most of these fights broke out in public places like inns or pubs. As such, the kingdoms on the continent established a special accommodation facility exclusive to Adventurers, and that was none other than the Intervention Hotel.

Of course, there was no law that Adventurers were supposed to only use the Intervention Hotel. It was up to them to decide whether they wanted to stay in a normal inn or in the Intervention Hotel.

However, despite all of this, the reason Siegfried purposely came to this place was because of the benefits it provided. The Intervention Hotel's quality was guaranteed since it was operated by the kingdom, and these hotels were usually located in close proximity to hunting grounds.

Their services were impeccable as well. The guests only had to pay a small fee to use the equipment repair service, personal training grounds, discounted potions and elixirs, and various other services provided for cheap. The Intervention Hotel provided convenience the average inn did not offer.

Last but not least, the Adventurer's privacy was fully protected while they were staying in the Intervention Hotel, and their safety was guaranteed as well since any quarrel or arguments within the premises of the hotel were considered criminal offenses.

What would happen if one committed those criminal offenses?

'They may have to quit the game altogether,' Siegfried thought while thinking of a Ranker who had to quit BNW after causing a fuss at the hotel.

The particular Ranker was in the top 100 list, but they stopped playing the game exactly one month after they tried to attack a rival Guild's master in the Intervention Hotel.

To cause a scene at this hotel was scary…

Why?

It was all because the kingdoms of the Nürgburg Continent would not spare any effort to punish those who broke the rules of the Intervention Hotel. In addition to deploying their knights, they would even pay large sums to other Adventurers to ensure that the criminal would have to quit the game.

[Signed, Adventurer: "Siegfried".]

Siegfried did not hesitate to sign the check-in form of the Intervention Hotel. After all, he wasn't planning on causing any trouble, and the reason he checked in here in the first place was for the safety and security it provided.

***

After checking in, Siegfried went up to his room and retrieved the pouch containing the Lowest Grade Shard of Lightning he had collected from the party hunt.

"Is this how I should do it…?" he muttered as he extended his right hand toward a Shard of Lightning.

Ssss…!

Then, the shard let out a yellowish light that was absorbed into his right hand.

[Alert: You have absorbed 0.01 Lightning Attribute from the 'Lowest Grade Shard of Lightning'!]

[Alert: Your Lightning Attribute Resistance has increased by 0.01!]

Perhaps it was because of the 'lowest grade' suffix, but he only managed to obtain 0.01 attribute energy from it. How much difference would raising his lightning resistance by 0.01 even make?

"Let's absorb all of them first and see," Siegfried mumbled. He calmed down and decided not to get disappointed by the meager increase since the increase could differ from each shard.

After about fifteen minutes…

"The increase is too meager… Maybe because they're of the lowest grade?" Siegfried grumbled while looking at a shard that looked no different from a normal rock after its energy was absorbed.

The total number of shards he possessed was 141, and his lightning resistance only increased by 1.41. On top of that, there was no information provided on how much lightning energy he had to accumulate before he could use it to enhance his skills.

"I feel like I got the short end of the stick here…" Siegfried grumbled under his breath.

It was inevitable for him to grumble since each shard was worth 0.01 gold or five hundred won in real-life cash, and 141 of these shards would amount to 1.41 gold. A single gold was worth around fifty thousand won, so he just ended up absorbing, or rather, wasting nearly seventy thousand won!

He could not help but feel that he suffered a loss since he spent seventy thousand won to raise his lightning resistance by a mere 1.41. It was a big amount for him since he was someone who lived off of pre-packaged food and cup noodles from convenience stores.

'Should I keep doing this…?' Siegfried wondered. He felt that it was a waste to throw away his hard-earned income for the day to gain a bit of attribute resistance.

"No…" Siegfried shook his head. He had to satisfy his curiosity about what kind of enhancement his skills would receive after accumulating enough attribute energy to enhance them.

"There's no way that a skill my master has created is flawed. Let's trust in him and grind it out," Siegfried steeled his resolve by thinking that his wasteful actions would be an investment that would pay him off in the future.

***

The next morning, Tae-Sung ate the pre-packaged meals and some cup noodles he had bought from a nearby convenience store before logging back in BNW as the Adventurer, Siegfried.

'I'm going to continue hunting here, so I guess I should increase my resistance to the lightning attribute,' he thought.

It would be a grind on par with manual labor, but he did not mind it at all since his main goal of coming to Sohoca Ruins in the first place was to focus solely on grinding. He just decided to convince himself that he wouldn't pick up any Shard of Lightning while grinding since absorbing them for the tiny increment they provided to his attribute resistance would be less painful for him this way.

'Hunting solo is inefficient here, so I should look for a party today as well…' Siegfried thought while leaving the Intervention Hotel lobby.

It was then when a familiar voice suddenly called out to him, "Siegfried-nim!"

'Who's that?' Siegfried wondered as he looked around for the person who shouted his name.

"Over here! Here!"

Siegfried turned around and found Gosran waving her hand at him.

"Huh?" he muttered in surprise.

"You're up early!" she enthusiastically said.

"Ah, yes…"

"You are going to hunt, right?"

"Yes… I guess so…?" Siegfried replied in an awkward voice while thinking, 'Had she been waiting for me? No way…'

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed Gosran had been waiting for him outside the hotel.

"Let's hunt together!" she exclaimed while extending her hand toward him.

"Again…?"

"Yes! I have actually been waiting for you for quite a while now because I want to hunt with you again," she replied.

"…?"

Then, Gosran turned around and asked, "I think it has been an hour… right, everyone?"

"Hehe…"

"Hyung, let's go hunt together!"

"We weren't stalking you… We just waited for a little bit in case you came out!"

The same members from yesterday came out from a dark alley with awkward yet desperate smiles.

'They had really been waiting for me…' Siegfried thought, dumbfounded.

He had never imagined that they would wait for him first thing in the morning, and it seemed that they had already planned things out among themselves the moment he left the party yesterday.

"S-Siegfried-nim… You will hunt with us… right…?" Gosran asked with pleading eyes.

"Hmm…"

"You don't have to if you don't want to… We will be fine… we just have to look for another Buffer. Maybe it will just take us three hours? Ah, we might find one in an hour if we get lucky…" Gosran muttered.

"You can just look for another Buffer?" Siegfried asked with a smirk.

"What?!"

"You said that you can just look for another Buffer if I don't want to join," Siegfried sneered.

"T-That's…!" Gosran exclaimed, seemingly taken aback by his response. Then, she suddenly shouted, "No! Siegfried-nim is mine!"

"What…?" Siegfried muttered in disbelief, doubting his ears.

"So! Ummm… That's… ah… How should I say this…" Gosran muttered with a flushed face.

'What the hell? What's wrong with her?' Siegfried thought. He had no idea why she was acting strange, but he decided to ignore it.

"Alright, let's hunt together," he then coolly said.

"Really?!" Gosran exclaimed in delight.

"Yes, since we've met again, we might as well hunt together. Let's work hard again today," Siegfried said to the rest of the party members.

"Alright!"

"Oh! Thank you! Thank you, God of Debuffs!"

"We can power level again today! Thank you for gracing us with your presence!"

The party members reacted with so much zeal they were about to get on the ground and start worshiping Siegfried. This showed how desperately they wanted to hunt with him since his presence made everything quick, convenient, and safe.

Their reaction made it seem like the Buffers they once treated as royalty became peasants overnight.

***

The hunt continued for nine hours, and Siegfried gained two levels over the hunt.

[You are now Level 36!]

[You are now Level 37!]

"Here."

"Please, take these."

"Please take all of it!"

"Thank you very much for today as well; please take these!"

The party members automatically offered their shards to Siegfried, even though he hadn't asked for them. After all, the benefit of having Siegfried with them far outweighed the value of the shards.

"There's more compared to yesterday…" Siegfried muttered while counting the shards he had obtained after returning to his hotel room.

"249… Alright, let's absorb them all." He decided before extending his right hand toward the pile of shards and absorbing their energy.

[Alert: Your Lightning Attribute Resistance has increased by 2.49!]

A message informing him of his resistance increasing by 2.49 popped up, but other than that, there wasn't anything else—especially a message informing him that he could now enhance his skills.

"I'm sure it will come soon…" Siegfried muttered. He was certain that he would get to enhance his skills one day so long as he continued to absorb these shards.

He convinced himself of that once again before he logged out of the game.

***

Siegfried focused on leveling up and absorbing the shards of the Lowest Grade Shard of Lightning he would obtain while hunting with Gosran and the others. This continued for two consecutive days.

[You are now Level 39!]

[You are now Level 40!]

He finally reached Level 40.

'Hmm… There's no new skill at Level 40? I wonder if there's one when I hit Level 45?' Siegfried thought.

All classes would have new skills for players to learn whenever their level increased by five, but it seemed that the Debuff Master had no skills in store for Siegfried at Level 40.

"Yeah, there has to be one at Level 45," Siegfried convinced himself before logging out of the game.

***

The next morning, Siegfried left the Intervention Hotel just like any other day.

'What's going on?' he wondered the moment he stepped out of the hotel lobby.

Murmur… murmur… murmur…

He couldn't help but wonder because there were nearly a hundred Adventurers lining up outside of the hotel.

'Had there been a skirmish between parties or something…?' he wondered.

Skirmishes between parties or Guilds were common in BNW, and the entrance to the hotel would surely turn into a warzone the moment a skirmish broke out. It was a common occurrence for the party or Guild members to camp outside of an Intervention Hotel branch before ambushing their enemy who had just left the hotel.

However, Siegfried's expectation was off the mark.

"Hey! He's coming!"

"The Debuff Master is over there!"

"The Debuff Master has appeared!"

"Scram! He's mine!"

"Shut up! I put dibs on him!"

The dozens of Adventurers rushed at Siegfried like a horde of zombies.

"W-What the hell! What's going on?!" Siegfried shouted while taking a few steps back.

While he was still confused about what was going on, Gosran suddenly appeared and grabbed his wrist.

"Siegfried-nim! This way!" she exclaimed before dragging him away.

"Huh?"

"Hurry up!"

"Ah, yes!"

Siegfried decided to follow Gosran since his instincts were telling him to run away for now.

"Somebody stop them!"

"Catch him!"

"The Debuff Master is running away!"

"Excuuuuse meeee! Can we please talk for a minute?!"

"Get lost! The Debuff Master is mine!"

"Where do you think you are going?!"

The Adventurers started chasing after Siegfried and Gosran.

'What the hell is going on?!' Siegfried thought while running away.

"I'll use Teleport!" Gosran suddenly exclaimed.

"What? Teleport? How will you draw a magic circle in this situation?! Instant casting? That's a high-level skill isn't it?!" Siegfried shouted in response.

There were two ways to use Teleport in BNW. The first one was to learn spatial magic at Level 200, and the second way was to slowly and precisely draw a magic circle before activating it with a spell.

Doing either was currently impossible, considering their situation.

"I have a scroll with me! It will take us far enough from here!"

"Ah, a scroll! Then, use it! Hurry up!"

A teleport scroll was an expensive item, but their current priority was to get away from the horde of Adventurers chasing after them.

Riiip!

Gosran ripped the teleport scroll, and the two were engulfed in a white light.

Flash!

Siegfried and Gosran disappeared in the blink of an eye.