Chapter 32

One Man Army Chapter 32 . Shadow Duke of Falcon City (1)

“We call this the ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’ . ”
Ilya continued to explain .
“You are required to pass through these five trials in order to become the master of the Shadowline . ”
Sanghyuk quietly listened to her words .
“It does not matter which order you do it in, but you need to finish all five trials within ten days . Also, you only have one chance . Not only that, you will pay the fitting price if you fail your challenge . ”
This was a warning . It also meant that the opportunity to challenge didn’t come at a low price .
“Understood . ”
Since he knew this anyway, Sanghyuk obediently nodded his head .
“Oh! I forgot one thing . You need to undertake the trials by yourself . If you receive any form of help from others…… you will be disqualified . ”
“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind as well . ”
Another user may have been disappointed, but Sanghyuk was not disappointed at all . He was a solo player anyway . In fact, he was rather grateful that Ilya told him that he had to undertake the trials by himself .
“Then I wish you the blessing of the Shadow, Sir Immortal . Oh, since you’re here, why don’t you play around a little? Should I call for the shop’s ace? Or…… . ”
Ilya stood up from her seat and made a smile that was fit to be called ‘enchanting’, and pulled up her already short skirt . Momentarily, her thighs were exposed…… Sanghyuk’s instinct to assault her twitched inside him .
If Sanghyuk did not listen to the words from his junior in his previous life, he might have assaulted her naturally .
However, he knew that he couldn’t be careless until the moment he left the shop . So, he suppressed his desires with his superhuman endurance .
“Let’s play next time then . ”

You have cleared a hidden condition for the hidden quest ‘Proving Qualifications to become the Master of the Shadowline’ . The quest was renewed into ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’ .

Ilya’s heart-thumping attack just now was her last test . If he didn’t pass this, Sanghyuk would have been chased out with the quest failure penalty after struggling in pleasure .
“Ohoho, either you are of a very cautious mind, or you’re impotent . Well, whichever you are, I think you have the basic qualifications to become the master of the Shadowline . ”
Spoke Ilya with a smile . For a moment, Sanghyuk didn’t understand why ‘impotency’ was a requirement for the master of the Shadowline, but he still left Rainbow with a light smile .
“Phew, that was insanely tiring…… . ”
Sanghyuk sighed and shook his head as soon as he left Rainbow .
‘I’d rather kill a named monster by myself…… that place must be a sorcerer’s cave, dammit…… . ’
Sanghyuk was a man, so there were some lewd demons in his heart as well . Since he was suppressing those lewd demons from going wild, he could only feel pain coursing through his body .
‘I’ll definitely undo the seal here once everything is over!’
Sanghyuk took in deep breaths to calm himself down . Then, he opened his quest window to check the details of the five trials he had just received .

[ Quest ] ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’
: Five trials have given by the Ilya, the Lord of the Footless Horse . These requirements are necessary to become the master of the Shadowline . Time limit of 10 days . Prove your qualifications to become the master of the Shadowline by clearing all five trials!
Progress
– (1) Strength of the Shadow : Leave behind an achievement by killing one or more named-tier monsters . [Complete]
– (2) Affinity of the Shadow : Form a ring of fate with one or more legendary-grade NPCs . [Complete]
– (3) Talent of the Shadow : Engrave two or more ‘Ancient Knowledge’ into the Soul Holes . [Complete]
– (4) Wealth of the Shadow : Possess one or more unique-grade items . [Complete]
– (5) Endurance of the Shadow : Kill 3,000 rats that can be found across all of Falcon City, [0/3,000]
Rank : Hidden(S)

“Whoa…… . ”
Sanghyuk was surprised after opening the quest window . A whopping four out of five was already complete .
‘This is like, the perfect quest for me!’
Of course, this should be a coincidence, but he did definitely feel great .
‘I just need to kill the rats then? Really, this is pretty easy . ’
Killing rats definitely wasn’t a hard job . However, it was a very annoying process since it consumed a lot of time . However, he didn’t think that it was bothersome right now .
If he had to do the other four trials as well, then he might have received some stress due to the time constraints, but there was no need for such a thing .


“It’s like the heavens are helping me . ”
Feeling good, he muttered while looking up to the sky . In the sky, an image of a newly-created idol group was floating on cloud advertising boards .
Of course, Sanghyuk was uninterested in the entertainment industry, so he didn’t even know their group name, but he still put a thumbs up towards them .

As he had expected, killing rats while walking around the vast Falcon City was a bothersome job .
Since Falcon City was a very clean city, there weren’t many rats to be seen in the first place . In the end, he found very few after searching around the darkest of places…… and this was suffering for him .
Sanghyuk killed exactly 279 rats in 10 hours . At this speed, he had to hunt for rats for six days straight without doing anything else . [E/N: I’m pretty sure author missed some crucial math lessons . ]
‘If I had to do this quest with four other quests…… urgh, that’s horrifying . ’
Only after killing some rats did Sanghyuk understand why that part of the quest was named the ‘Endurance’ of the Shadow .
Since Sanghyuk was very used to grinding, he could still endure . However, even if it was Sanghyuk, he would have despaired if he actually had to do five trials at the same time .

***

Luckily, his speed in exterminating the rats became faster as time went since he got used to it . In the end, he could fill the 3,000 in five days .

You have completed all five trials . Prove your qualifications to become the Master of the Shadow by going to Ilya .

“Fuu…… I don’t want to see rats for a while . ”
Sanghyuk heaved a deep sigh and wrapped the Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip around his arm .
‘Is it the last barrier now?’
Honestly, even Sanghyuk didn’t know what would block his way from now on .

“Amazing . I didn’t know you would be so fast . Just five days…… never did I imagine that there was a person that could achieve the Five Trials of the Shadow that usually can’t be cleared in 10 days, with just five . ”
Ilya looked at Sanghyuk with a truly impressed, no, loving expression .

Ilya, the Lord of the Footless Horse, has fallen in love with you at first sight .
Your familiarity with Ilya increases by a large margin .
Your familiarity with Ilya increases by a large margin .
Your familiarity with Ilya increases by a large margin .
Your familiarity with Ilya increases by a large margin .

For a moment, Sanghyuk thought that he bugged out . However, it was no bug . This was an explosion in Ilya’s familiarity with him as she fell for him . [E/N: EXPLOSION!]
Sanghyuk also knew that this was indeed possible, albeit extremely rare . However, this was the first time he experienced it .

Your familiarity with Ilya has reached the limit! A ‘ring of fate’ was generated between Ilya, the Lord of the Footless Horse, and the Dimensional Traveler Immortal!
You have acquired the rare-grade title ‘Ilya’s Man’ by generating a ring of fate with the legendary-grade NPC, Ilya the ‘Lord of the Footless Horse’ .

‘Mm? Ilya was also legendary-grade?’
Sanghyuk was surprised to find out that Ilya was a legendary-grade NPC . Actually, legendary-grade NPCs were supposed to be rare existences .

You have fulfilled the final hidden condition of the hidden quest ‘Five Trials of the Shadow’ by generating a ring of fate with Ilya . Congratulations . Your test of qualification has ended, and you have become the ‘Master of the Shadowline’ . You have acquired the special title ‘Shadow Duke of Falcon’ .
[You have acquired Silvermoon Fragments as a bonus for clearing the hidden chain quest . ]

‘Finally!’
When he heard the last system message, he subconsciously gripped his fist . The feeling of achieving something that was normally impossible was hard to be described in words .
“Ilya, in charge of Falcon City’s Shadowline, greets the master . ”
Ilya politely greeted towards Sanghyuk .
Sanghyuk felt a strange sense of accomplishment while looking at her . He felt as though he had finally subdued a proud and arrogant woman and made her his .
Anyway, it wasn’t a bad feeling .

You have become the master of the Shadowline, and your affinity with all NPCs of the Shadowline increases to ‘colleague’ stage .
You have taken over the S-rank NPC organization [Shadowline of Falcon City], and it will appear in your organization management window . You may efficiently manage the organization through the organization management window .

Users taking over NPC ‘organizations’ and managing them was a very common thing in Sanghyuk’s previous life . However, that was 5 years after the game started .
At first, it wasn’t even known that NPC organizations could be taken over . And in fact, this was the first time Sanghyuk hard about an S-rank NPC organization . He had seen numerous users who have taken over NPC organizations in his previous life, but they were A-rank at maximum .
‘S-rank organization…… I did expect the rank to be high, but to think it’s actually S-ranked . ’
Sanghyuk was surprised to find out that the Shadowline was S-ranked and not A-ranked like what he expected . Of course, this was a good thing for him .
‘Managing the organization sounds like a pain, so…… . ’
Sanghyuk looked at Ilya . Honestly, managing NPC organizations was a very tiresome process as he had a lot to consider as well as to be cautious about .
However, Sanghyuk knew a method that could solve this problem in one go .
‘If I have an exceptional and loyal NPC…… everything’s easy!’
The ‘proxy system’ existed for busy users like Sanghyuk . With that, he could solve this problem in one go .
Ilya could be considered the NPC optimized for the proxy system as well . Perhaps she might be better than Sanghyuk at it .
“Ilya, I’ll appoint you as my deputy . You’re qualified to become my proxy as you have led the Shadowline splendidly until now . ”
“It’s an honor . ”
Since his familiarity was high, there was no rejection or anything . She only accepted it as though it was natural .

You have appointed Ilya the Lord of the Footless Horse as the proxy of Shadowline .

Everything went smoothly . Ilya explained the hierarchy of the Shadowline to Sanghyuk . Of course, Sanghyuk would be able to find that out through the system window, but Sanghyuk gladly allotted some of his time for his proxy .
Of course…… the seal on the lewd demons in his heart had already been unsealed .
Sanghyuk was not impotent .
In fact, he was a youth with passionate, hot, overflowing blood .
The moment his seal was undone, he became a violent bull .