Kkwi-kku, who had gone out on reconnaissance, returned after a full thirty minutes.
"Kkwi-oo."
Interpretation: No food.
"Really?"
"Kkwi."
Interpretation: Really.
...We were screwed.
The scouting report confirmed there was no food in the Moonlit Forest.
That left chopping wood and trying to feed it splinters or leaves.
Bears were tough creatures; it could probably digest somehow.
"Haa... But will these massive trees even chop properly?"
I stared at the trees in the Moonlit Forest.
Then looked back down at my Iron Spear.
"...Yeah, right."
I plopped down on the spot in resignation.
Trees and leaves weren't food to begin with.
Unggulatuseu was unconscious, so forcing branches down its throat might just injure it.
"Whew, I need to think of another way."
Woooong!
[...Try using magic...!]
As I wallowed in disappointment, a purple light flew in to offer advice.
"Magic?"
I opened my skill window.
[⚔ SKILLS ⚔ ]
▶ Focused Thrust Lv.2
Moonlit Path Lv.Master
Homing Instinct Lv.Master
Two skills had been quietly added without my noticing.
They must have been automatically acquired upon being summoned here.
[⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ ]
[Moonlit Path Lv.Master]
Instantly teleports to the designated Moonlit Forest (usable only in forest terrain).
- Cooldown: 1 minute
- Mana Cost: None
[⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ ]
[Homing Instinct Lv.Master]
Instantly returns to the location where Moonlit Path was used.
- Cooldown: 1 minute
- Mana Cost: None
"Phew... So I'm not trapped here."
I checked the skill details and let out a sigh of relief.
The pressure eased up.
Even if I failed the quest, I could return to Talia Village.
Honestly, feeding Unggulatuseu to recovery seemed like a long shot even to me.
I'd been half-resigned, but now with an escape route, my mind lightened.
"Kkwi-kku, come here."
"Kkwi!"
Kkwi-kku hopped into my arms.
As the skill description said, I could teleport to the Moonlit Forest anytime and return to my original world just as easily.
I could stockpile food in Talia Village and dump it into Unggulatuseu's mouth.
"Homing Instinct!"
I hugged Kkwi-kku tight and activated the skill.
Ziiiing—
"Urgh!"
Space-time twisted.
I vividly felt my body compressing, but miraculously, there was no pain.
Fwaaash—!
A brilliant light engulfed me.
Moments later, I opened my eyes.
"I'm really back."
Lush green earth.
Cool breeze.
Warm sunlight.
Rabbits everywhere.
The unmistakable scenery of Talia Village's back hill unfolded before me.
"This is totally amazing."
Somehow, at level 10, I'd learned a teleport skill.
It would vanish if I failed the job change quest, though.
"I'll clear it no matter what."
Now I had even more reason to job change to Druid.
The 'Moonlit Path' skill was a top-tier survival tool— as long as I was in forest terrain during a crisis, I could escape on the spot.
It perfectly matched my safety-first style.
"First... what's the cheapest food available?"
I opened the community function and went to the food board.
All known recipes and cooking methods in Silmaria were listed out.
"Gotta go cheap. Quantity is what matters."
I resorted by lowest price.
Raw vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes topped the list.
"...Not ideal."
But vegetables required the consumer to chew and swallow.
Dumping piles of carrots or broccoli into Unggulatuseu's unconscious mouth might not work.
"Soup would be better."
I narrowed the search to soup dishes.
Soup came up first.
"Perfect."
Ingredients: butter, flour, milk. That's it.
Melt butter in a pot, make a roux with flour, add milk while stirring constantly. Done.
Simple ingredients, easy method.
"If I succeed in this quest, my life really turns around."
My leveling speed was already quite fast.
What if I job changed to Druid on top of that?
"Ranker status wouldn't be a dream."
The best start in Silmaria was forming your own unique algorithm and job changing to a class optimized for it.
This game wasn't one where you could succeed by picking an easy-growth job and racing down someone else's paved path.
In that sense, this Druid job change quest was an opportunity I couldn't miss.
"I have to succeed. Feels too good."
Of course, assuming Druid was a powerhouse class optimized for me was just my hypothesis.
But it wasn't baseless.
The Moonlit Forest, a mysterious terrain unknown to the world.
Nature's Guardian Unggulatuseu, with its enormous bulk.
The unidentified entities swirling around me in purple and blue light.
Anyone seeing this eerie production would sense a jackpot.
"But I'm broke."
Butter, pot, flour, milk—cheap cooking staples, but my entire fortune was 4 silver.
Nowhere near enough to feed Unggulatuseu its fill.
"I'll ask Jin-gyu for help."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I asked Jin-gyu for help.
And easily scored 1 gold.
The equivalent of 100,000 won in real money.
"Wasn't planning on cash shopping, but oh well."
Cash shopping allowed fast early growth.
That's why many players loved it.
A chaebol heir who started Silmaria dumped 5 billion won right away, snagging high-end mounts, guardian deities, and unique items to blitz to ranker status—a famous industry tale.
"If I'd done that, I wouldn't have even gotten the job change quest."
But that wasn't my style.
I didn't have the money anyway.
Now, it felt like a blessing in disguise.
If I'd cash shopped, I wouldn't have fixated on the rabbit out of reward greed or rushed growth. No contact with Unggulatuseu from the start.
"Should be arriving about now."
Swish.
I pulled a white envelope from the mailbox.
The letter system was the go-to for trading gear or money between players.
The contents read:
—Take the money. Pay me back 3 gold with interest later.
"Heh heh, maybe I won't pay it back."
I pocketed the precious 1 gold enclosed in the letter.
Then roamed the market, buying bulk butter, flour, and milk.
No pot from NPC vendors suited my needs, so I splurged 10 silver at the auction house.
"Now, how do I carry all this?"
With everything bought, the weight exceeded what I could lug around.
I searched auction house for sub-space inventories—high-level player essentials—but the prices were insane.
"...Jeez, why's a magic pouch that expensive?"
Still, couldn't abandon the quest.
So I settled for a cart and loaded the ingredients.
"Aigoo, feel like a pack mule."
While others hunted.
I was playing house to save one big bear.
I just hoped my effort and sincerity wouldn't go to waste.
"...Hmm."
But this mindset didn't sit right.
"Still anxious. This won't cut it."
I stopped the cart midway to the Beast Forest, grunting as I pulled.
I'd been too complacent.
I'd bet my all on an uncertain job change quest, even borrowing from a friend.
If Unggulatuseu didn't budge after the soup, I'd lose time and money.
Right now, I was gambling a day's time and 1 gold—with low odds.
"Is this really my best shot?"
The 1 gold was borrowed from a friend.
None of the ingredients were hard to get.
Pulling the cart uphill wasn't backbreaking either.
Can't be this easy.
Maybe the core of the job change quest was the supercomputer overseeing Silmaria observing my process.
Testing if I was truly suited for the hidden Druid class.
Reviving Unggulatuseu with cheaply sourced soup showed no sincerity.
Druids in other games loved nature and beasts, harmonizing with them. Silmaria likely the same.
To truly clear the quest, I needed a true Druid's heart.
That might boost success odds a bit.
"Not enough. This is nowhere near enough."
Hoping cheap soup revives Unggulatuseu was wishful thinking. Never seen a lucky gambler win big.
I lacked conviction myself; no way the system valued my effort highly.
"..."
I gazed down at Kkwi-kku thoughtfully.
"Kkwi?"
Interpretation: What now?
"Kkwi-kku."
"Kkwi-oo!"
Interpretation: I can't hear you!
Kkwi-kku rolled its ears shut.
It was fed up with my hardcore errands.
Feeling guilty, I offered a carrot.
"Eat this for now."
"Kkwi-oo!"
Kkwi-kku shook its head, ears still plugged.
"No, really this time. Just wanna ask something."
"Kkwi-oo!"
Interpretation: No way!
But Kkwi-kku was already munching the carrot.
Crunch crunch.
Munch munch.
The little one rapidly worked its tiny mouth on the food.
Food trumped all.
"Can you raid corn by any chance?"
I asked as the carrot nearly vanished.
"Kkwi?"
"Can you steal corn."
"Kkwi-oo! Kkwi-ooo."
Interpretation: Of course! Raiding crops is our second specialty.
"Heh heh, I see."
I nodded with a satisfied smile.
No wonder Talia Village's first quest was rabbit hunting.
Rabbits could efficiently—and ruthlessly—wreck crops.
"Let's go meet your friends."
I grinned slyly and pulled the cart toward the back hill.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Aaa...! How does he even think of that?"
At Tempest's Korean branch, GM Lee Ji-yeon stomped her feet in dismay while watching Kwon Ha-yul's play screen.
He'd gotten a mere Druid job change quest, but its rank was 'Mythic'.
"No way he'll clear it anyway."
Nature's Guardian would fall into deep slumber after the final battle with Muspelheim's giant, Surtr. Simulations showed it waking years later.
Impossible for a single level 10 player to revive it.
Even as a hidden class, this difficulty was bug-level.
Recent Druid job changes were just purifying level 30 corrupted animal monsters.
"It's obvious food won't work... What a weird player."
Yet this guy was trying to feed it to recovery.
Foolish to the point of pity. Left alone, he'd waste time, despair, blame the world, and quit.
Lee Ji-yeon wanted to message him to abandon the quest, but that was overstepping.
"The Tree of Life too—why give a newbie such an absurd quest..."
The Tree of Life had saddled a beginner with an impossible task to save its fated ally, Nature's Guardian.
All Lee Ji-yeon could do was wait for him to give up.
"Hope he doesn't go to the press if he feels cheated."
Despair scaled with expectations; later, this Kwon Ha-yul might claim hope torture from an unwinnable quest and demand compensation for lost time.
That would complicate things.
Click.
"What? Ji-yeon, still not off work?"
HGM Kim Jin-seong entered the monitoring room.
Lee Ji-yeon couldn't hide her fluster.
"Ah, y-yeah..."
"What's up?"
Kim Jin-seong's eyes went to the screen streaming Kwon Ha-yul's play.
"What's this? Isn't that the guy you mentioned before?"
"Yes..."
"How's it going?"
Lee Ji-yeon bit her lower lip lightly at his question.
"He got a Druid job change quest from the Tree of Life. But the clear difficulty is nearly impossible..."
"Jeez."
Kim Jin-seong smirked and continued.
"Don't sweat players like that anymore. Analyzing core users takes all our time as is."
"...Yes."
Lee Ji-yeon was invested in the Nature's Guardian and Tree of Life storyline but held her tongue.
"Oh, and since you're here—there's a new user called Siegfried. Turns out he's the grandson of the Hyunyang Group chairman."
"H-Hyunyang Group?!"
Hyunyang was Korea's third-largest conglomerate.
Lee Ji-yeon reacted sharply at the name.
"Yeah. Growth speed suggests ranker talent. Keep an eye on him going forward. Ignore weirdos like that. Hard work's good, but don't burn out."
"Yes! Got it."
Lee Ji-yeon replied energetically.
Nothing beat observing talented players.
The name Kwon Ha-yul began fading from her mind.
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