Taming Master

“This is… Erebus…!”

Widely laid, dark grey land.

The landscape was magnificently spread.

The dark land of Erebus, first discovered from the boat of Karon’s differed greatly from what Ian had imagined.

‘I was thinking that it would resemble something like the dark land that the Lich King ruled…’

There was white snow on the ground, and the sky was sultry and cloudy.

There were numerous skeletons everywhere.

The land of darkness that the Lich King ruled was a land of death.

But what Ian was witnessing right now was completely different from that.

‘Is this a normal black and white picture of the forest landscape of the commonplace in Colonar?’

Black and white picture.

The landscape of Erebus was literally black and white.

The clouds floating above one’s head, and the trees that were growing above ground.

Even the color of the flowers that seemed to bloom was the same.

The brightness and contrast were the only things that differed in the black and white.

Therefore, the only color of the water, the yellow water river of grief, Acheron was the only outstanding scene in the eyes of Ian.

Kuk- Kuggk-!

Along with the sound of awkward rubbing, the ferry boat made it to the base of the river.

Ian stepped toward Erebus, as if he had accomplished something.

As he was waiting, new system messages began to appear in front of his eyes.

Tring-!

[The dark energy of the dead can be felt from the land.]

[You’ve arrived in the land of darkness, Erebus.]

[You have discovered Erebus, the land of darkness for the first time.]

[Increased fame by 200,00.]

[Since you’re in a state of being ‘dead’, you won’t get additional item drops or buff.]

[*Caution*]

[* Even in the state of ‘dead’, physical power can be used in the Underworld.]

[* Even in the state of ‘dead’, you can still be attacked in the Underworld.]

[* When all the vitality is lost in the state of ‘dead’, you’ll fall into a state of ‘soul rest’. (Soul Rest: Unable to access the game for a week, the level of transcendence will drop by 1, and the transcendence level 1 won’t further drop.)]

Ian started to tremble after seeing the system messages.

It was because of the ‘Soul Rest’ penalty, which he would receive when his vitality got exhausted in the state of being dead. It was just beyond his comprehension.

‘This… one mistake… would cause a big drop right?’

Honestly, ‘1 level down of transcendence’ was hard to experience now.

He hadn’t gained any transcendence level experience except for the ones that he had gained during the time he killed the Lich King.

The reason why Ian was scared was due to the cruel prohibition penalty called ‘week’.

‘The 24-hour penalty was huge enough, but a week?’

Right now, the rank of Ian in the Kailan server was 1st.

If he gets the Soul Rest penalty, the loss would be truly devastating.

And if he played to make money till his heart’s content, then the name value of Ian was so high that it could generate billions of dollars in a day.

But Ian had more fears than the financial loss he would have to face…

‘If I can’t do Kailan for a week, I might get bored and die.’

Not playing Kailan.

That was the huge penalty.

‘It may or may not happen, but to not be able to play Kailan for a whole week, if that happens, I should go on a trip with Harin.’

Ian was having a dark imagination for a while and soon came back to reality. He then shook his head.

Ian and Harin were the kind of couple that were happy on a vacation, and they were happy when inside Kailan too.

Ian came back to reality and looked back at Karon and waved.

“Thank you for lending me the boat. See you next time!”

Ian finished his farewell to Voyeur Karon. His expression didn’t go well with the rest of the Underworld.

Ian began to move forward.

No, he tried to move forward.

“What?!”

Some unknown power was making him unable to take a step forward.

[Voyeur Karon cast Dark Bondage.]

[You are in a state where you can’t move.]

“…!”

Two lines of system messages came into his sight, and he could feel the energy flow all through his body.

At the same time, his two legs were tied together.

Faced with the unforeseen situation, Ian was flustered.

‘What? What kind of situation is this?’

Cold sweat was running down Ian’s back.

For some reason, it wasn’t known, but if Karon had been hostile to Ian, then it was a huge crisis.

If he did one wrong move to Karon who had a transcendence level of 25, he might enter the state of Soul Rest.

After thinking of all sorts of things, the sharp voice of Karon entered the ears of Ian.

And the voice seemed to contain some kind of anger in it.

“Where are you going?”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you going to give me my boat pay?”

“Boat pay… huh?”

Though the current situation was confusing to him, Ian hastily opened up his inventory.

No matter how expensive Ian had to pay, that was better than getting killed by Karon.

However, in front of Ian’s eyes, another disaster had happened.

Tring-

[Can’t open the inventory in the state of ‘dead’.]

“…!”

With that, even if it was Ian, his mental strength started to drown.

‘Uh, what am I supposed to do…?’

Ian wasn’t in panic, but he wanted to cry.

Thankfully, a quest window appeared in front of Ian—almost like a light of salvation.

Tring-!

-Demand of Voyeur Karon-

After arriving in the Underworld as a dead man, the river of grief—Acheron—can be crossed in the boat of Voyeur Karon.

However, in order to ride the boat of Karon, the law of the Underworld requires a fixed payment for the boat.

If one got in the boat of Karon without paying, the payment will be taken after arriving in Erebus.

In five hours, save five Death Coins and return them to Karon.

If that can’t be done, Karon will surely find you.

Quest Difficulty: F+

Quest Condition:

A user who used the boat of Karon without paying.

Time Limit: 180 minutes.

Reward:

Active Connected quest.

Increased affinity with Voyeur Karon.

*If the quest is declined, Voyeur Karon will antagonize you.

*If the quest fails, Voyeur Karon will antagonize you.

Ian was both relieved and surprised at the same time.

‘F rank difficulty? I can’t even remember that there’s an F difficulty. Was this level of difficulty really there?’

He was shocked at the terrible penalty of Karon being hostile with him, but after checking the difficulty of the quest, he was able to feel at ease.

‘Yeah well, I need to get through this quest quickly without accepting any other quests.’

In fact, in the state of ‘dead’, Ian couldn’t even move for the quests.

And in that state, he wouldn’t be able to get any actual rewards such as the experience or items.

Ian’s plan was to gather as much information as possible on the high-level areas of the Underworld for the next three days.

As soon as he arrived at the Underworld, he sent away the Grim Reaper for that purpose.

However, the quest from Karon was an impossible one to refuse.

In fact, Ian was thankful that he wasn’t going to do a difficult quest.

After deciding it in his mind, Ian nodded and opened his mouth to speak,

“Surely, I need to pay you. I wouldn’t have thought of any other way.”

Ian uttered words that he never expected he would say.

‘If this is a quest, I need to at least get the reward.’

It was rather an abstract reward, the affinity with Karon. But it was Ian’s gaming philosophy to even take 1 point.

And Ian’s stance worked well, and Karon’s voice softened a little.

“Hmm, I don’t think that you would just runway without paying me, but I just told you since I thought that you might not know.”

“That is true.”

“The pay is five coins. The currency of Erebus, Death Coins.”

[The Dark bondage status has been removed.]

[Agility is back to normal.]

As soon as those system messages came, the dark energy around Ian faded away.

However, Ian couldn’t move into Erebus right away.

“By the way, Karon.”

“Yes.”

“How can I get those Death Coins?”

Being deceased for the first time, it was normal for Ian to ask that.

After listening to the question of Ian, Karon responded as if he was waiting to be asked,

“Walk for 15 minutes along the forest on the road to your right. You will then arrive at the city of dead ‘Tanatos’.”

“Ah.”

“There is a butcher in the southwest of Tanatos. Take a rabbit skin and sell it there. You’ll be able to get the coins easily. I’ll give you a piece of it. You can sell a total of five rabbit skins.”

“Rabbit… skin? Where can I get that?”

“That isn’t so hard to get. If you walk along the path of the forest, there are many rabbits.”

Listening to the story so far, Ian responded reluctantly,

“Uh, understood. I’ll get that soon.”

“Good, will 3 hours be enough?”

“Of course! I’ll come back right away.”

“Yeah. I will rest here till then.”

The quest content seemed so easy.

‘Yeah, well, it is an F level difficulty. You can catch the rabbit and just peel it off.’

Moving away from Karon, Ian hurriedly moved along the path.

It was obviously an easy quest, and the content was less too. However, it was a time-based quest, and the variables weren’t known either.

It wasn’t so long since Ian had moved along the forest road, but then he realized that all his thoughts were completely wrong.