Chapter 5: Mysterious Old Man

When you receive a quest from an NPC, it's usually distinguished by color.

A regular quest has a white question mark. 

An epic quest has a purple question mark. A red question mark signifies a "hidden" quest. 

Hidden quests appear and can be undertaken when a player meets specific hidden conditions. The rewards for hidden quests vary greatly; sometimes they offer incredible rewards, while other times the rewards are worse than regular quests.

The NPC in front of Jung-hoon belonged to the former category.

Jung-hoon approached the old man and examined the quest.

[Hidden Quest: Mysterious Old Man]

Restriction: Chosen by the old man.

Reward: [Skill] Hades Fist Technique

Description: The mysterious old man is looking to appoint a successor to inherit his dojo. Earn his approval and become the successor.

Yes! That's it!

Jung-hoon cheered inwardly. He had been cleaning the dojo using his own money to buy cleaning supplies just to get this reward.

‘I really cleaned thoroughly. If there’s even a speck of dust, the old man won’t appear.’

But something was strange. He was sure that thorough cleaning was the condition for the old man to appear, so why did the old man show up now? Also, the content of the quest seemed a bit different. Normally, this hidden quest involved resolving the old man’s regrets.

‘Did I misunderstand?’

Anyway, the quest reward was exactly what Hwarang had mentioned.

[Where did you learn the moves you just showed?]

The old man showed interest in the PVP between Jung-hoon and the lower-tier warrior. 

Now Jung-hoon understood why the old man had appeared. There was no unnecessary movement in Jung-hoon’s combat. After all, it would be strange to find any flaws in the movements of Jung-hoon, who possessed the experiences of an All Master.

“Self-taught.”

[Self-taught? Heh, that’s an amusing thing to say.]

The old man stroked his white beard with his hand. He was smiling. For many years, he had not been able to find a suitable successor to inherit his dojo, and it had become his regret. Thus, he had stayed in the dojo, waiting for someone with the right qualities to appear for hundreds of years. But at some point, no one visited anymore.

Watching his cherished dojo fall into ruins was heartbreaking.

Just when he had almost forgotten the passage of time, Jung-hoon had appeared. Initially, he had been curious seeing Jung-hoon clean, but not enough to reveal himself. However, he was startled into revealing himself when he saw Jung-hoon fighting the lousy warrior.

‘I’ve found him!’

A child with the qualities of a successor, who hadn’t appeared until now. If this child trained properly, he would surely reach the pinnacle. The old man was convinced. That was why he had shown himself.

“So, what do you want from me?”

[...I want to make you my successor.]

“Successor?”

[Yes, but there is a condition.]

“A condition? Let’s hear it.”

Jung-hoon's eyes shone with enthusiasm. He had to get that hidden skill no matter what. According to Hwarang, the hidden quest was to promote the dojo.

[Oh! My eyes were right!]

The old man was overjoyed to see the fervor in Jung-hoon’s eyes.

‘He wants to inherit my position so much! I’m glad I stayed.’

Ding-

[Performing Hidden Quest.]

[Clean the dojo thoroughly.]

...Cleaning?

It seemed that even though the old man had revealed himself early, cleaning the dojo was still a necessary step. Jung-hoon nodded in understanding and started cleaning with the mop.

***

The time in New World flows the same as on Earth. Therefore, Jung-hoon spent an entire day cleaning the wooden floor.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

Ha-jin logged out at the same time as Jung-hoon. It was already 11 PM. Although he had notified his mother that he would be home late, the thought of her waiting made him hurry his steps.

“Hey, did you level up?”

“Yeah. I’m at 11.”

“Oh, that’s higher than I expected.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It usually takes about two days to reach level 10.”

There are various ways to level up in New World, but the leveling speed is relatively slow. It's so slow that some players take almost three months to reach level 30. Normally, it takes one to two months to reach level 30 and perform the job advancement quest.

“I was just lucky.”

Jung-hoon hadn’t specifically invested time in leveling up. He reached level 11 purely thanks to the tutorial rewards.

“Got it. Oh, I almost forgot to ask. What job did you choose?”

“You’re asking now?”

“I just remembered.”

“Martial Artist.”

“...Huh? Why did you choose such a trash job?”

“It’s manageable.”

Ha-jin couldn’t understand Jung-hoon’s choice. He knew Jung-hoon had always been one to have unconventional thoughts, but he didn’t expect him to choose a job everyone advised against. However, he didn’t want to argue about it. Those unconventional thoughts always had reasons behind them.

“By the way, I saw Hwarang today.”

“Hwarang?”

Jung-hoon’s eyes widened. Ha-jin, who was about to explain about Hwarang, tilted his head.

“What? Do you know Hwarang?”

“...Just heard about him.”

In fact, it was impossible not to know. Divine Archer Lee Hwarang. He used the nickname Hwarang, and with his looks rivaling celebrities, he was widely known among New World players. He was the pinnacle of archers and the only one who perfectly covered the melee combat weaknesses of the archer class.

How did Jung-hoon know about him?

It was Hwarang who had told Jung-hoon about the dojo. And he was the one who shot an arrow into Jung-hoon’s back in the final battle. Just thinking about him still made Jung-hoon grind his teeth.

“Then I don’t need to explain! Anyway, he came to the Kalox area? I was so surprised to see a level 300 in a village with level 100 players.”

“Really? Do you know why he came?”

“He seemed to be looking for something.”

It was around this time that Hwarang had obtained his skill. If Jung-hoon had been even a little late, he might have missed the hidden quest from the old man. He had to advance his schedule. He needed to leave the dojo before Hwarang arrived.

“Ha-jin, I think I’ll need to stay up all night.”

“Stay up all night?”

“Yeah.”

Jung-hoon called his mother to inform her that he would be staying out.

[Okay. Have fun and come back safely.]

Getting permission was easy. Since he became an adult, his mother respected his decisions.

“Wow... damn, my parents freak out if I’m not home by midnight.”

Ha-jin sighed deeply. Even though he had completed his military service, his parents still worried a lot. Seeing other people’s parents, they wouldn’t bother if their kids stayed out with just a call or text, but why were his parents like this?

“Anyway, I’m heading back to the capsule room.”

“You lucky bastard... Okay, see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

Back at the capsule room, Jung-hoon logged in immediately.

***

After an all-nighter, he finished cleaning the entire dojo.

‘Phew, this is really tough.’

Restoring a dojo that hadn’t been cleaned for a long time was no easy task.

[Oh! The dojo is clean… sniff.]

The mysterious old man looked around the now spotless dojo and teared up. The dojo was a place he had devoted his life to. Dying without a successor to carry on the dojo had left him with deep regret. Just cleaning the dojo was enough to capture his heart.

“Do you like it?”

[Of course. Even with your outstanding talent, seeing you clean this filthy dojo without hesitation moved me deeply. You are worthy of being my successor.]

With the old man’s words, the question mark changed to an exclamation mark.

‘Oh, really?’

Cleaning was the condition for the old man to appear, and it was supposed to be followed by the quest to revive the dojo to obtain the Hades Fist Technique. The sequence seemed a bit off, but as long as he got the reward, it didn’t matter.

[You have completed the hidden quest.]

[You have acquired the 'Hades Fist Technique.']

He finally got the Hades Fist Technique. This skill had compensated for Divine Archer Lee Hwarang’s weakness. At the same time, the name ‘Mysterious Old Man’ disappeared, replaced by ‘Hades Dokgo-joon.’ That’s right. The creator of the Hades Fist Technique was none other than Hades Dokgo-joon, the master of martial arts.

[Hades Fist Technique Lv.1]

Type: Active

Grade: Unique

Description: Executes the Hades Fist Technique created by Hades Dokgo-joon.

Note: Can be upgraded up to 8-star.

An active skill of unique grade! Usually, even an epic-grade active skill had excellent performance, but this unique grade was even higher! One day after starting New World, a level 11 user had acquired a unique skill. Jung-hoon clenched his fist with satisfaction.

“Great!”

[Can I ask you for one last favor?]

As the old man spoke, a red question mark appeared above him. Jung-hoon’s eyes widened at the sight.

‘A hidden quest consecutively?’

[Hidden Quest: Successor of Hades Dokgo-joon]

Restriction: Approved by Hades Dokgo-joon.

Reward: [Skill] Enhanced Hades Fist Technique

Description: You have become the successor of Hades Dokgo-joon. Revive the dojo with him.

‘Strange… that guy had it at unique grade.’

The unique-grade Hades Fist Technique could compete with other legendary skills. Enhancing this technique meant upgrading it to legendary grade. Jung-hoon felt his heart race as he clenched his fist. Not only had he acquired the skill that Hwarang was supposed to get, but he was also going to upgrade it to legendary? Getting a legendary skill in the initial village would make everything much easier afterward.

[Now that a successor has been chosen, you know what comes next, right?]

“Yes.”

Hwarang had always been a named character. He kept the Hades Fist Technique secret and revealed only a few skills learned at the dojo, attracting users to the abandoned dojo. This led to the dojo being named ‘Hwarang Dojo.’

[If you want to be a Martial Artist, you must go to Hwarang.]

Note: There’s a ghostly old man at Hwarang. You can get skills from him. Newcomers should stop by to complete the quests and learn skills! Depending on the success rate of the quests, you can get anything from common to epic skills, but getting epic skills is really tough, so just aim for common skills.

Thanks to Hwarang’s promotion, Dokgo-joon’s dojo flourished, and over 90% of users acquired skills from the old man. Before the regression, Jung-hoon had visited this dojo to obtain skills.

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T/L: If you like it then please rate it on novel updates.

There's probably a lot of mistakes, so please comment any mistakes you see as it is really late for me rn.

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