Your Commander-in-Chief – Chapter 33

Once the raid was over, it was time to start the auction.

I quickly checked the dropped items.

[Eye of Chronos]

Necklace – Bound upon equipping

All Stats +20

Strength increase 10%

Level requirement 25

Unique

A necklace made by refining the Eye of Chronos, imprisoned in the Underground Maze.

Upon entering the Underground Maze, the wearer receives the [Black Fog] buff.

[Black Fog]

Makes the user’s figure hazy and increases movement speed by 10%.

This was an item made exclusively for the Underground Maze.

As I recalled, collecting the entire Chronos set granted some special buffs, but I couldn’t remember the specifics.

It seemed to be an item that had been naturally forgotten as it was dropped at a low rate and the next expansion arrived.

[Ring of the Underground Maze]

[Necklace of the Underground Maze]

I also grabbed two accessories from the Underground Maze series.

The options were all roughly on par with level 25 unique gear, but they came with additional PVP-exclusive options.

Finally, there was the [Soul Hellfire Horse Summoning Scroll].

Honestly, I really wanted to ride that horse.

Before the expansion, the horse summoning scroll series was considered the best mount.

“Starting the auction. The gold earned will be distributed among participants of the Underground Maze.”

Thus, the auction began.

The accessories from the Underground Maze series sold for quite a high price of 700 gold, and the Eye of Chronos went for 1,000 gold as well.

Finally, the auction for the Hellfire Horse Summoning Scroll began.

“500.”

“700.”

“1,000.”

The auction prices were rising in real time.

I looked around while checking my inventory.

I had recently spent a lot of gold gathering Divine Blessing items from the auction house.

I was running low on gold.

“2,000!”

The price for a single foal skyrocketed to 2,000 gold.

I bit my lip. There was no gold left to follow that. It seemed I would have to give up.

But at that moment, a red light lit up in my mailbox.

Curious, I pressed it and saw a message from Helena.

[Sender: Helena]

Subject: None

Content: None

Attached Gold: 5,000

I opened my mouth in astonishment at the sudden gold transfer.

What could be the reason behind this generosity?

Upon noticing my gaze, Helena subtly made her exit.

Just a little… Just a tiny bit more borrowing would be fine, right?

It should be okay. My gold income was relatively fast-paced, so I could borrow a little in this auction and pay it back later.

“2,500.”

Gold appeared. My sagging shoulders shot up into the sky, and a light smile crept onto my face.

The man who had offered 2,000 confirmed that I was the one bidding and nodded.

It seemed he was willing to concede to me.

Thus, the auction came to an end.

A total of 4,900 gold was collected.

If divided among the 102 participants, that means everyone gets about 48 gold.

“Great job, everyone. I’ll send it to your mailboxes. Let’s disperse.”

As I watched the crowd disperse, I took out the blazing summoning scroll from my inventory.

It was an item that summoned the best mount of the season.

“Come forth!”

I shouted energetically as I used the summoning scroll in my hand, creating a magical formation in the air from which fierce flames burst forth.

“Neigh!”

What emerged from the magical formation was a horse, dark as night.

Its mane and tail were ablaze with bright red hellfire, and its hooves were spewing vivid flames.

“What the…?”

It definitely looked just like I remembered.

The mask that partially covered its face shielded its glowing red eyes, and the saddle on its back was decorated with a grim gray skull.

“Aha!”

The magnificent Hellfire Horse stared at me, releasing rough snorts.

But the size was a problem. The summoned creature was almost the size of a donkey.

In that moment, I recalled one hidden system in Deron.

The summoned mounts take on sizes that match the user’s stature.

The guild members who were watching the summoning of the Hellfire Horse were turning their heads, trying to stifle their laughter.

“Did you… get a horse?”

At that moment, Helena, who had been a distance away, approached and asked.

Her gaze was fixed on the Hellfire Horse I had summoned.

“Is that the horse?”

“Um, yeah.”

“It’s small.”

I had no rebuttal.

This horse was indeed small. Just the perfect size for me to ride.

“Try riding it.”

“Okay.”

Nodding at Helena’s suggestion, I mounted the horse.

As I hopped onto the sturdy saddle, the little foal neighed and clopped its hooves.

“What do you think?”

“Umm… doesn’t feel special.”

I glanced around from my seating position.

There wasn’t much difference aside from my line of sight being slightly higher.

I tugged on the foal’s reins and gave my legs a gentle kick.

The foal began to move, clip-clopping merrily.

The movement felt awkward and uncomfortable. It seemed I’d need some horse-riding practice to gallop on this little foal.

Helena trotted beside me and said, “Looks cool.”

“Cool?”

“Yeah.”

Nodding with my arms crossed in response to Helena’s compliment, I felt like I really did look impressive.

Riding a magnificent horse engulfed in hellfire, I roamed around the Capital City.

Practicing to get used to riding while showing off my splendid self to others.

A special mount attracts admiration from others.

For RPG players, a special mount is a sort of fantasy.

*

The clash between Yeo’s Soft & Chewy Alliance and the Swift Alliance was drawing a lot of attention.

The events that unfolded in the Underground Maze were starting to trend on the Deron Online gallery.

In fact, Yeo’s alliance name hadn’t been finalized yet, but that didn’t matter to the gallery users.

They simply called it whatever was easy to say, whatever stuck to their mouths.

[Deron Online Gallery]

[Did anyone see the Soft & Chewy Alliance fighting with the Swift Alliance today?] [7]

(An empty black image)

No one streamed it? What happened?

[Comments]

[Where is the Soft & Chewy Alliance?]


ㄴ[Sounds like middle school girls]


ㄴ[Are middle school girls soft and chewy?]


ㄴ[No, the alliance with the middle school girl party leader is called Soft & Chewy]


ㄴ[Whoa… Soft & Chewy]

[Looks like there’s no stream]


[Is there any loot from the bosses in the Underground Maze?]

Thirteen bosses come out in the Underground Maze, and our alliance snagged seven of them.

Including the last boss, lol

[Comments]

[Why are the item options so mediocre?]


ㄴ[Considering the PVP-exclusive stats, it’s decent.]


ㄴ[I don’t do PVP though.]


ㄴ[You aren’t gonna get any items anyway.]

[Mounts are also dropping]


ㄴ[The Hellfire Horse must be super cool?]


ㄴ[For real, I wanna buy one lol]

[Could those items have hidden quests too? Like the Holy Sword of the Sun God.]


ㄴ[Seems likely]


ㄴ[There’s been nothing said in the announcements though.]

[I’m in the Swift alliance, and we got three bosses.]


ㄴ[Swift?]


ㄴ[No, I’m not part of the Swift Guild. Just a member of the alliance.]


ㄴ[How was the fight?]


ㄴ[We got completely wrecked. Honestly, I don’t know why we allied with Swift. I might quit the guild later lol]

[Didn’t Ramson go over there too?]


ㄴ[Yeah, Ramson went too]


ㄴ[How many bosses did you get?]


ㄴ[The middle school girl guild let us have two.]


ㄴ[Ramson is so lucky;; Two just for him lol]

[Hahaha we got wrecked today again lol] [3]

(Guild info image for the Swift Guild)

Members are leaving in real-time lol From 300 it’s down to 230 lol

[Comments]

[Swift is totally cursed]


[Someone who loves Swift more than anyone]


[Wow but almost 70 members have left in just a week lol]

Amidst the posts about the Swift and Soft & Chewy Alliances, a striking post appeared that would change the topic of the gallery.

[Gallery Lord is riding a pony lol] [52]

(Yeo, looking dignified while riding a little foal)

(Yeo, passing by a large horse while riding the foal)

(Yeo, brandishing a holy sword while riding a foal)

(Yeo, beginning to gallop on a foal)

(Yeo, receiving applause from guild members while riding a foal)

At first, I thought it was a toy horse, but upon closer inspection, it was the newly added mount lol

So tiny lol Did they really ride that around? lol

[Comments]

[So cute lol]


ㄴ[For real lol]


ㄴ[Lmao]


[Looks like she thinks she’s so cool lol]


ㄴ[Is she really cool?]


ㄴ[You think that’s cool? It’s hilarious lol Look at the pony next to that NPC, it’s double the size lol]

[Whoa… Middle school girl is riding a pony…]


ㄴ[Did she steal a horse this time? lol]


ㄴ[The big ones are too heavy to steal lol]

[Isn’t the Soul Hellfire Horse supposed to look majestic?]


ㄴ[For real, it’s so small?]


ㄴ[It’s just small because its owner is small.]


ㄴ[What do you mean?]


ㄴ[The size of a mount summoned by a character depends on the character’s size.]

[If a huge character summons it, it must look cool.]


ㄴ[For real, currently it’s just a foal lol]


[Look at her expression lol How adorable lol]


ㄭ[Today’s topic is this.]


ㄭ[Pei]


ㄭ[Honestly, this is all the gallery lord’s fault.]

[Lucky that the horse is small.]


ㄴ[Why?]


ㄴ[If it were big, it would be a disaster.]


ㄴ[???]

[I wish I could become that horse…]


ㄴ[Me too…]

[These disgusting bastards are at it again.]


ㄴ[For real, can’t they just leave the gallery alone?]

[Is there any info on the Hellfire Horse? How fast does it go?]


ㄴ[I guess they haven’t released it yet. Nothing has been made public.]


ㄴ[Was that the only drop this week?]


ㄴ[Yep.]

[Does it not show your underwear?]


ㄴ[I couldn’t get close.]

*

As I was farming and passing the time as usual, the guild chat began to ignite.

I glanced down at the messages and noticed the terms global service, overseas users, and announcements.

I frowned. As far as I remembered, Deron hadn’t launched overseas servers before.

This was quite strange.

Taking a sigh to catch my breath, I stopped hunting and checked the Deron announcement.

[Pre-Update Notice for Expansion Pack]

Greetings Adventurer.

The new expansion pack for Deron Online, titled [Sun God Sola], is set to be updated on September 28 (Wednesday).

Update contents:

– New episodes added.


– New raids added.


– New areas added.

– Maximum level expansion.


– New items added.


– New classes added.


– Automatic translation system added.

A global server launch event will take place as well.

Detailed information will be available on the website on September 1.

Upon reading the announcement, I furrowed my brow.

A global server? As far as I remembered, Deron had never launched a global version.

Well, of course, since it was Deron from another world, I could understand launching an overseas server if it became popular.

However, the problem was the automatic translation system among the newly announced contents.

The automatic translation system.

This meant only one thing.

There were plans to eventually merge the global server and the Korean server into one.

A future that was different from the one I remembered was approaching.