Chapter 191

“Whаt is thе mеаning of this, barging in withоut knосking, Rоdiоn!”

“I’m sorry…! It’s just that thе mаtter is so urgеnt… I thought yоu shоuld knоw quiсklу…!”

“Whаt’s all this fuss abоut! Stop with thе nоnsensе аnd sреаk quicklу!”

“Well… Didn’t уou ordеr mе tо invеstigate аbout Sir Drаmos?”

“And?”

Rodiоn, whо had been in chаrgе of running the tournament, wаs оriginally Aldrik’s closеst сonfidant, sо he оftеn hаndlеd his errands even in nоrmal times.

Аs sооn as the tоurnаmеnt ended, hе had investigаted Dramos on Аldrik’s оrders.

Thеу neеded to knоw the reasоn why hе hаd come to Erindеl.

“Um, well… Ассording tо my investigаtiоn, it аppеars Sir Drаmоs hаs соmplеtеlу retirеd аfter stepping down from his position as Royal Palace Guard Captain. They say he is currently staying in a very small, remote village.”

“What…? Is that true?!”

“Yes…!”

“Damn it…! Then it didn’t matter from the start whether Dramos won or lost!”

Until just a moment ago, Aldrik had been pleased that Khan had won the Underground Arena Tournament.

But as soon as he heard Rodion’s words, anger seemed to surge to the top of his head.

‘Then if Sir Dramos had won the tournament in the first place, I could have at least made a proposal, right?’

Since Dramos was retired anyway, he might not have had major objections to forming a contract.

Moreover, winning the Ancient Magic Book as the prize for the contract would have been good for him too.

“Goddamn it……”

“Wh-what should we do?”

As Aldrik uttered a curse, Rodion cautiously asked, gauging his mood.

Rodion had also roughly heard the whole story from Aldrik and was aware of the situation.

“What do you mean, what should we do? Sigh, this time we just have to consider ourselves unlucky, what else can we do.”

“B-but still…”

“Do you plan to go and capture Khan yourself?”

“……My apologies.”

Aldrik and Rodion knew better than anyone just how powerful Khan was.

In fact, Aldrik had watched Khan from the VIP seats with the best view of the match, so he couldn’t possibly not know how strong he was.

‘Rather than making an enemy by provoking him unnecessarily, it’s better to let him go gracefully and maintain a not-bad relationship.’

Aldrik had already stationed people near the city entrance in preparation for Khan’s party’s departure.

“Sigh, still, I should at least leave a good final impression.”

Aldrik continued to watch from afar the carriage Khan was riding in.

* * *

Just before leaving Erindel by carriage, the carriage was stopped near the Erindel city entrance.

Khan asked the coachman.

“What’s the matter?”

“Ah, it seems to be some important people from the city. They’re asking if you could step down for a moment… What should we do?”

As soon as Khan heard the coachman’s words, he felt that something troublesome was about to happen.

‘It seems they don’t intend to let me go quietly. I wondered why they didn’t come for me yesterday… Are they trying to detain me now?’

Winning the Underground Arena Tournament in Erindel meant having to form a small contract with Aldrik.

Small or large, the contract terms involved assisting him under his command for one year.

The moment that proposal is accepted, the content of the Main Quest would completely change.

‘That’s not a bad route either, but… I don’t really need to change my Main Quest path to that one.’

Moreover, Khan had no intention whatsoever of wasting over a year working under Aldrik, especially since he had just acquired the new Hidden Skill ‘Infinite Growth’.

So, Khan didn’t even answer the coachman and got off the carriage.

Getting off the carriage, he saw three bearded men looking at him with very friendly smiles.

‘Who are they…?’

Furthermore, one of them was holding what looked like a Magic Tome.

‘Judging by the pattern, it doesn’t seem like a cheap Magic Tome… What is this?’

Khan slowly approached them first.

“Haha! Greetings, Sir Khan! I am Marco, sent on behalf of Viscount Aldrik to see you off.”

“Then you could have just seen me off, why did you stop the carriage?”

As Khan asked in a sharp tone, Marco spoke again.

“Ah, well, Viscount Aldrik said it would be a bit rude to just send you off, so he asked me to deliver a small gift on his behalf.”

“A gift?”

“Yes, this is a Magic Tome from Viscount Aldrik’s treasure vault. He said it might be of some help to you, Sir Khan.”

“……Thank you.”

There was no reason to refuse a gift of a Magic Tome.

Moreover, by looking at the pattern on the cover of the Magic Tome, one could roughly tell what rank of Skill was contained inside, and at a glance, it seemed to be at least Rank 5 or higher.

‘It must be quite an expensive and precious Magic Tome, yet he’s just giving it away…’

For anyone other than a genius like Sharin, learning magic from a Magic Tome is nearly impossible, but now Khan too would be able to learn magic by looking at a Magic Tome.

‘To learn magic by reading a Magic Tome, you need at least 30,000 Mana… Since my Mana Capacity has increased, I should be able to learn it.’

Now that Khan could also learn magic by reading Magic Tomes, accepting such a tome was definitely beneficial.

‘He’s not giving this while making some other proposal, is he? Well, it doesn’t matter anyway.’

He would refuse any proposal regardless.

“Where do you plan to go?”

“Just planning to wander around here and there.”

“Haha, I see. Then I wish you luck on your journey ahead, Sir Khan. Please travel safely.”

As Marco bowed his head in greeting, the people beside him also bowed together.

‘Is that it?’

Even after receiving Marco’s farewell, Khan doubted if it was right for them to just let him go like this, but he boarded the carriage again for now.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes!”

The coachman answered Khan and pulled the horse’s reins to depart.

Marco simply let Khan go.

Khan couldn’t let go of his suspicion until Erindel looked like a small dot.

‘They’re letting me go like this? Hmm, strange.’

He hadn’t even anticipated that the greedy NPC Aldrik would just let him go like this.

‘I thought something troublesome would happen and was even roughly prepared to fight. I never expected they’d prepare such a nice gift for me when leaving.’

As Khan was having such thoughts, Sharin, sitting beside him, opened her mouth.

“Master, by the way, that Magic Tome… May I also see what magic is in it?”

“It’s a magic I’m seeing for the first time too. You learn it first, Sharin.”

“Huh? What is this, it’s Supreme Flight Magic? I already know how to use it, so it’s fine! But Master, couldn’t you use Supreme Flight Magic?”

Hearing Sharin’s words, Khan couldn’t help but be startled for a moment.

‘To think this Magic Tome contained Supreme Flight Magic…’

So, he opened his mouth, pretending nothing was wrong, naturally.

“Ah, it seems I was mistaken. I thought it was a different magic.”

“Well… There’s no way Master couldn’t use Supreme Flight Magic! For Master to be mistaken… This is the first time I’m seeing this side of you. Hehe.”

As Sharin laughed and spoke as if it was amusing, Byutek, sitting across from them, chimed in.

“Sharin, even monkeys fall from trees sometimes. Hyungnim is also a human like us, so he must make mistakes and get confused occasionally. Haha! Isn’t that right, Hyungnim?!”

“……”

Khan felt his image was being slightly tarnished for no reason and said nothing.

“Then what should we do with this Magic Tome? Should I just keep it and sell it later when we go to a city?”

“……I’ll keep it for now.”

“Yes!”

Khan took the Magic Tome back from Sharin and opened the Supreme Flight Magic Tome.

[Item: Supreme Flight Magic Tome]

• Item Rank: Unique

• Level Restriction: 100

• Required Mana: 30000

• Item Description: A Magic Tome containing the teachings of Supreme Flight Magic. Reading the entire tome allows you to acquire Supreme Flight Magic.

In the original game, you could just double-click the Magic Tome and after a few hours, you would automatically learn it, but it seems now you have to read the entire tome yourself.

‘This became troublesome.’

Sharin thinks Khan can already use Supreme Flight Magic, so what excuse can he give to read the Magic Tome?

After pondering for a moment, Khan just naturally started reading the Magic Tome.

“Hmm…? Why are you reading that Magic Tome?”

“Originally, there is no end to learning magic. Since I have nothing else to do while traveling, it’s better to read this.”

“Ah! Then I should also re-read the Magic Tomes I read before!”

“Do as you wish.”

Having roughly made an excuse and moved on, Khan was only able to acquire the Skill after reading the entire Magic Tome for three hours.

[Acquired Skill ‘Supreme Flight Magic’.]

[Skill: Supreme Flight Magic]

• Skill Rank: Rank 5

• Skill Description: Allows you to fly in the sky using Mana. You can fly freely through the sky.

• Cooldown: 10 minutes

• Mana Consumption: 2000

Now he could fly freely even without Sharin.

‘Sigh… It’s really boring as hell. I don’t even understand what it’s saying.’

Khan knew nothing about magic theory, so he forced himself to read a boring book for three hours.

Whenever his concentration wavered in the middle, the Rank 10 Hidden Skill, Sage’s Heart, activated on its own, allowing him to barely finish reading the tome.

• [Acquire one Hidden Skill.]

• Will you accept the Main Quest?

• Refusing will make future quest progression impossible.

• Reward: A certain amount of Experience Points, progression to the next quest

Then, a quest message appeared before Khan’s eyes.

Seeing the quest, Khan thought it worked out well since he was on his way to find Hidden Skills anyway.

‘I know of over ten places where Hidden Skills I know are hidden… This quest is too easy.’

Thinking that, Khan accepted the quest.

[Main Quest accepted.]

It was time to officially begin search for Hidden Skills.