Taming Master

At a small vacant lot at the center of the Warrior’s Village.

Ian and three other users stood in the vacant lot. In front of them was the NPC Commander ‘Parker’.

“Kay, everyone has arrived here in time.”

Parker nodded his head and checked the faces of the three men.

“All ready?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Of course.”

“I am always prepared.”

Parker just nodded at their response.

Each of them was curious about the quests that the other had than the ones they were given.

It was already obvious that the users weren’t new since the only ones who could enter the Warrior’s Village were top rankers of other servers.

Ian stared at them and started to guess their identity.

‘The one on the left brought a staff and a robe, looks like a typical wizard class… oh ho, the guy there didn’t even have an armor on and equipped double swords? However, with 30 Hero Score, it is tough to buy more than one item for a trainee.’

The Warrior’s Village didn’t ban PK since there was no reason for one to be hostile, yet Ian looked at the users carefully.

He might not have to go against the swords, but even then, it was a fierce competition.

While Ian was in his thoughts, Parker continued, “From now on you will move to the battlefield of the ‘Dimensional Mirror’.”

The user that seemed like a wizard class asked Parker, “Where is this Dimensional Mirror battlefield?”

Parker smiled and responded, “That’s a good question. There is a need to know about the battlefield.”

He waited for a while and spoke, “If you have been through the Brave Path, you already know that you are in the ‘Warrior’s Village’, which is a training institution to select the army.”

Ian and the other three users waited for the response of Parker, and the words which followed were much more serious.

“You need to get enough training here and have your abilities be recognized, and only then will you be able to be a true ‘Intermediate-being’.”

After explaining about the Warrior’s Village, the words of Parker continued for quite a long time.

First, there are three ‘Battle Day’ in the Warrior’s Village.

The battlefield was open on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and one could earn Hero Scores and ‘Public Points’ there.

Second, ‘Hero scores’ were needed to get an equipment and ‘Public Points’ were needed to promote one’s rank.

*In order for a trainee to become a ‘Recruit’ a user needed 100 Public Points.

Third, in the Dimensional Mirror battlefield, if a user’s vitality had fallen below 10%, that user would be taken out from the field automatically and be returned to the village.

Fourth, the ones who could survive until the end of the battle would be promoted, and no matter how the participant did, a special rank would be given.

Parker, who talked for about 3 minutes, stopped talking.

“I want to talk to you about how you are supposed to fight, but there isn’t enough time to explain it. I’ll explain it here and move to the battlefield.”

Parker’s explanation got interrupted in the most important part, so Ian couldn’t help but feel fooled.

“No, isn’t that part the most important one?”

Parker smiled and responded, “No need to worry about that. It isn’t that complicated. Once you experience it, you will understand…”

Parker lifted his spear to the sky and opened his mouth.

“I wish you all good luck.”

The moment the words from Parker were done, Ian and the other three people got engulfed in white light and disappeared.

In the place where the three people had vanished, a faint afterimage lingered.

* * *

Tring-!

[You have entered the battlefield of ‘Dimensional Mirror’.]

[You have been assigned as a platoon member of the ‘7th Platoon’.]

[The battle will start after 5 minutes.]

The darkened vision of Ian began to turn bright.

He then heard a stranger’s voice.

“Nice to meet you, beginners. I’m Hexar, the leader of the 7th platoon. I don’t understand why a trainee is on our platoon, but… well, it isn’t my concern. Surviving is based on how you do.”

Hexar, who introduced himself as a Platoon leader, was an NPC with a different image from Parker.

If Parker was the typical image of a knight, then Hexar looked a bit sloppy compared to Parker.

“In here, you can just fight to the death. In the end, if you fight harder than the Devildom ones, you win.”

After the greetings, Hexar continuously talked. Instead of listening to him, Ian turned over to look at the structure of the battlefield.

The words of the Platoon Leader weren’t so intriguing.

In addition, the unkind NPC didn’t seem to give any details about the battlefield, so he needed to find the information on his own.

“It doesn’t look like the map is wide…”

The place looked like a small snowy field that seemed a bit wider than the Warrior’s Village.

The map gave two things that Ian had to note.

First, it was a sealed map surrounded by rocky cliffs with high directions, and second, there was a tower of white light shining at the back of the battlefield.

The interesting thing was that there was a huge ‘Mirror’ hanging on top of the tower.

‘Why is the name of the battlefield Dimensional Mirror?’

Things were never what they seemed to be. However, one thing was certain; the battlefield was by no means an ordinary one.

‘A platoon had around 10 members in them… and there could be around 100 in one too, but the opponent can’t be seen. The map is blocked on all sides and hence there is no way for the enemy to come in…’

There was no portal or gate where the enemy could appear from. The battlefield was empty.

Ian didn’t understand how to fight the soldiers of the current place.

‘If a monster is summoned, it will almost be a battle with the Asmodians…’

Ian’s eyes slightly narrowed.

Ian, who had a lot of gaming experience, wasn’t the kind of person who tended to worry too much.

While Ian was in his own world of concern, someone suddenly talked to him.

A wizard user began to talk.

“By the way, we… we haven’t even introduced ourselves?”

Ian’s eyes reflexively moved to the direction of the wizard and so did the eyes of the others.

The words of the wizard continued, “I’m Mark Oliver from the US server. May I know your names?”

The man who just introduced himself, Mark Oliver, seemed to be a very polite guy.

The atmosphere seemed to have turned bothersome.

With a sulky expression, Ian answered, “Ah… I am ‘Ian’.”

Somehow, the rest of the guys were far more unique than Mark Oliver.

“Nice to meet you miniatures, I am Lichao—the romantic swordsman. I really want to see my bros in action.”

As he twisted his double swords along with his unique manner of speaking, cold sweat flowed from Ian.

‘What… what is this? This guy is like Hoonie…’

Unlike Ralph, whom he had met before, the two of them seemed a bit innocent, but Ian wasn’t ready to take down his guard.

The party of Ralph was easy to control because they had no idea where they were heading to.

‘But Mark Oliver… I heard this name quite a lot…’

Ian had never been interested in overseas server users.

However, that didn’t mean that he was underestimating the other server users.

He knew that there were users that he would have trouble fighting with.

But the problem was that there were too many rankers to even look at.

Since there were too many rankers, Ian wasn’t even sure of whom he was supposed to analyze.

Of course, he could have checked the topmost rankers on every server, but Ian had been very busy lately.

Nevertheless, the name ‘Mark Oliver’ struck something in him right away.

‘The Wizard ranker in the US server, Mark Oilver… Noel has said something like that.’

Canoel, the English-speaking member of the Lotus Guild, was constantly monitoring the overseas server.

Around two months ago, he had a conversation with Canoel.

– Hyung, the wizard class user in the US server called Mark Oliver is really something.

– Oh, yeah? What’s his level?

– I can’t say much as it was in a video, but he isn’t lacking even a little bit when compared to Remir Noona.

– Oho? Then how about Hoonie?

– Hmm, to compare with Hoonie… well, I feel sorry for Mark Oliver to compare him with my friend…

– Owww! Why are you talking about KanjiHoonie like this…! He might not give you a buff next time?

– Ahh, why are you saying that? It was a joke, a joke!

– Tch.

– But I mean it, he really has the talent.

Ian remembered the conversation he had with Canoel.

‘This is gonna be fun.’

Canoel, who was a game contender, still lacked control compared with other Lotus Rankers.

But apart from that, his ‘eyes’ were incredible.

If Canoel said so, then this Oliver was probably different compared to other rankers from other servers that he had met so far.

‘But he is one of the three who managed to enter the Warrior’s Village.’

After Mark Oliver, Ian looked at Lichao.

Somehow, he wasn’t a good impressionable looking person, but it was obvious that he had potential.

While Ian was thinking about that, Mark Oliver seemed to be thinking about the same thing.

“Oh ho, you are the famous Korean server user, Ian?”

At the words from Mark Oliver, Ian’s eyes went wide.

“You know me?”

“Of course. I have a lot of interest in the Korean Server. Since Korea is the ‘singular country’ of Kailan. And you are the top ranker in the Korean Server.”

Whether it was interesting to meet Ian or not, Mark Oliver scanned Ian from head to toe.

On the other hand, the swordsman Lichao had no idea what was happening.

“Well, nice to meet you, Mark Oliver. I too have heard your name.”

“Oh oh! Really? It is such an honor!”

Mark Oliver became as energetic as a kid when he found out that Ian knew him.

And while they were talking…

[The battle will begin in 30 seconds.]

The first battle in the ‘Warrior’s Village’ was about to start.