His intimacy with Beseutyu had soared after rescuing Bona. And he grinned and nodded at Ark’s words.
“That won’t be difficult. Understood, 2 days later did you say? I will do it.”
“And there is something else I want you to check.
Ark briefly explained about the Red Man who appeared after he defeated Tamura.
“A man with red hair wearing a white mask. He also crossed into the Netherworld from middle earth. There is a high possibility that he had entered the Netherworld before. Please see if you can find any data on it.”
He was behind the events that happened in the Underground World. So he had been in middle earth until then. If he entered the Netherworld immediately then it would’ve been a couple of months ago. Ark was convinced that the Red Man held the key to passing the entrance examination. And he might have some ulterior motive if he ran away. He would continue to look for information while completing Magaro’s quest.
“I see. Don’t worry and just rest comfortably.”
Beseutyu raised his arms and headed to the stacks of scrolls. After summarizing the situation, Ark headed outside.
“Ark-nim, will you wait here until you receive the information? I’m going to log out for a little bit. Because of the earlier flight……”
Lariette said with an unsteady face.
“Yes, you can enter at this time tomorrow.”
“Me too……I’ve been playing the game for 15 hours so I’m sleepy…..”
Buksil had stayed up all night following Ark so he also quit the game.
“So what will I do now……?”
Ark murmured after being left alone on the street. He had stayed up all night so it was dawn in reality. Normally at this point it was time to go to the gym. But yesterday, Ark had received an unexpected phone call from Lee Myung-ryong.
“Hyun-woo, I won’t be able to go to the gym for a while due to various circumstances. So don’t come back to the gym until I contact you. Don’t just play around and make sure to exercise properly. I’ll get back to you after a couple of months. Don’t ever go near the gym. Okay?”
The police agency had spread rumours of Lee Myung-ryong’s demotion to the Special Crimes Countermeasures squad. Lee Myung-ryong wanted to prevent Ark from hearing those rumours at the gym. Thanks to that, Ark didn’t have a set time to sleep or exercise.
‘I can’t just wait around town…..should I get some sleep or hunt in the area? Oh, before that…..”
Ark took out Rarukan’s ring from his bag. He couldn’t wear it while Lariette was still present. Ark contemplated for a moment before removing ‘Mind’s Eye.’
‘Mind’s Eye’ was a rare ring but it only had a skill and no other options. On the other hand, ‘Resurrecting Spirit’ boosted his strength and mana recovery. So using the magic ring would be better.
‘I don’t use Mind’s Eye that frequently so I should only wear it when necessary.’
With an excited expression, Ark moved Rarukan’s ring towards his finger. And just as he was about to put it on….!
“Ark-nim!”
Ark suddenly heard a voice from behind him and dropped the ring.
“Huk, my ring! My ring! Ah, here it is. My ring!”
Ark scrambled for the ring on the ground and grasped it tightly. He looked like a hungry beggar picking up a three day old piece of bread. He had acted instinctively. When he raised his head and blinked, he realised that it was Bona who had sneaked up on him.
“Hum hum hum, the soil here is pretty good.”
“Do you like pretty rings?”
Bona asked while Ark smiled awkwardly. Ark’s face turned red at the sight of Bona’s friendly face.
“Ah…..as the number 2 I am so ashamed.”
Dedric sighed.
Ark awkwardly grinned and nodded.
“Well, that, that is…..”
“Ark-nim, please follow me. I’ll show you around the village.”
“Visit the village?”
Ark said with an uncomfortable look. Ark was a human. What person would be able to play the game for 20 hours without getting tired? But now he had to go around the village instead of hunting? But Bona just grabbed Ark’s arm and dragged him along. Ark didn’t dare reject Bona so he was inevitably dragged along. However, it wasn’t a bad choice to follow.
‘Eh? There was something like this in the village?’
Ark hadn’t even explored 50% of the village.
“This is a sap refinery. There are a lot of trees with special characteristics in the forests near here. We extract the sap, refine it and then barter with other villages related to us. In addition, we have a variety of plants in our fields.”
Bona guided him to a workshop he hadn’t seen before. Since it was concerned with the village’s production, outsiders were forbidden from entering there. However, he was able to access most areas if Bona accompanied him. After touring, Ark’s opinion of the Myutal changed a little bit. The Myutal…..no, the Baran tribe was not as uncivilized as Ark thought. The Umma’s Sap and Nadingka’s Fruit that Ark bought were items produced by the village. Since most of the products were used to trade with other tribes, they only had a few of them.
‘Is money not used because of the limited trading?’
If someone was trading multiple items from many places then it was recommended to use money. However, if the exchange was limited to the tribe and 1-on-1 then there was no reason to use money.
‘They have no problem with production, but they are unable to sustain a large production system so the economy couldn’t develop. If they were able to move freely between middle earth then they could develop a large profit…..’
Ark connected everything to making money. And there were definitely a lot of ingredients scattered around that would make money. The Baran tribe was not limited to just this village in the valley. There were a large number of them spread out over a wide area. If he was the intermediary for the villages which produced items, or create a currency exchange between the Myutal then the fees he could collect for doing it would be 3~4 times what he would earn from a castle. But that was only if he could freely move between middle earth and the Netherworld. Since he was stuck in the Netherworld at the moment, he decided to contemplate the idea later.
‘Well, it’s not possible at the moment. I’m just fortunate to be able to monopolize the dungeons and quests.’