When I first heard as a kid that Ludibrium and Aqua Road were connected, I told my friend to stop lying.

Because I had been to the far right end of Aqua Road myself, and I saw that there was nothing there.

However, on December 21, 2005, with client patch 1.2.13, the town connecting Ludibrium and Aquarium,

"Korean Folk Town," actually appeared. Due to the time distortion in Ludibrium, the left side of Ludus Lake experienced time acceleration,

and the right side experienced time reversal, connecting to Korean Folk Town with this concept, giving the developers a chance to release a unique map exclusive to Korea.

When Ludibrium was first released, Helios Tower was just hinted at and not fully implemented,

Unlike Eos Tower, Helios Tower had only three floors: 100, 99, and 2, indicating...

how much effort the developers put into making Eos Tower, and how roughly Helios Tower was constructed.

Yet, in overseas servers, because all references in Korean Folk Town were Korean, translation was difficult,

so for a while, they only implemented up to Helios Tower and left Korean Folk Town as dummy data for a long time.

People would even break into this data and invite friends to see the untranslated map, untranslated monsters, and untranslated items just for fun.

Anyway, we should visit the original Korean Folk Town, regardless of the translation. Taking the elevator from the 99th floor, past the 2nd floor, to the 1st floor of Helios Tower,

you reach the library managed by Wiz the Librarian. Wiz the Librarian explains that the books in the library are in disarray due to a dimensional rift,

and asks the player to go down to Korean Folk Town to intervene in the tangled stories and "normalize" them.

There are several stories we can 'normalize,' starting with the level 35 quest, "Retrieving the Storybook: Mr. Shim Chung."

And excluding the newly added Arabian Nights quest with the arrival of Ariant, the others are at least level 37 quests.

But, as I will mention later, the Shim Chung quest is actually unnecessary to complete, so coming here at level 37 to complete the quests makes it a stable leveling area.

Except for the Shim Chung quest, the quests are very interconnected, so I recommend completing all of them.

I'll briefly introduce each quest, starting with the Shim Chung quest. It's a quest related to 300 sacks of rice for an offering.

You just have to hunt Retz and collect the offering rice; 300 sacks of state-held rice.

How shameless! Mr. Shim, from my experience in MapleLand, without any EXP coupons or party quests...

it takes 3 days to reach level 35 by hunting alone, so get it yourself. It's not worth completing. I'll pass.

This is the Kong Ji and Pat Ji quest. (Retrieving the Storybook: Kong Ji and Pat Ji)

Pat Ji and her mother keep bullying Kong Ji, and you need to help her.

First, you need a pot. Apparently, Kong Ji has no money, so she asks you to buy a pot from Grandma Yeon.

However, to buy a pot from Grandma Yeon, you first need to win her favor. There is a boat above the "Mushroom Coral Hill" in Aquarium,

and if you go up, you'll see Tae Gong, who came by boat from Korean Folk Town.

He is Grandma Yeon's husband, and you need to get shrimp meat for him to give to his wife.

You can buy a new pot by clearing this quest. Next, you need to collect 12 artemisia from Black Mountain.

Just move one map over and hit the artemisia on the ground to collect 12 items.

The drop rate is... not great, they say. Oh dear... why so many requests! This time, you need to hunt a monster called "Blin" and get a Steel Hoe.

Blin appears in the "Top of Black Mountain", and Blin has two phases: Blin and Morphed Blin.

This monster has an avoidability of 38, so you need an accuracy of 140 to defeat it.

A level 37 Warrior or Bandit can't defeat it alone. So you have no choice but to ask a passerby for help.

Once you get the Steel Hoe, you'll receive the storybook and clear the Kong Ji and Pat Ji quest.

Take the storybook to Wiz the Librarian, and you'll receive an additional 8000 EXP and 30 Melting Cheese.

You can earn about 60-70k experience points from the Kong Ji and Pat Ji quest line alone. That's pretty good.

After completing the Kong Ji and Pat Ji quest, you can make 5 Rice Wine per day through Kong Ji.

This is used in subsequent quests. Next is The Brotherly Love quest. Well... everyone probably knows this, but to explain,

it looks like a brother's rice... something like this? The player carries rice back and forth instead of each brother,

and it ends with ‘Oh my! Chil Nam (Chil Sung) brought the rice! Haha!’

It's done after two or three trips between town, earning 1k experience points each round trip,

and you get quite a bit of experience points by obtaining and returning the storybook. After the quest, you can make 1 Roasted Pork per day through Chil Sung,

and you can make 2 Buckwheat Pastes through Chil Nam. These are also used in subsequent quests.

Next is The Swallow’s Lost Magic Seed. (Hongbu and Nolbu quest) The Swallow asks you to find the lost Magic Seed.

Just go one portal to the right to complete the quest. The Swallow asks you to catch the "Moon Bunny" and retrieve the Magic Seed.

Although the level requirement of the quest is 37, the Moon Bunny is level 45, has 2600 HP, and gives 110 EXP, making it quite strong,

and it will chase you until it dies, which is quite annoying. The Magic Seed drops quickly, so just bring one back,

and the Swallow will give you the seed, saying "I was supposed to give this to either Hongbu or Nolbu, but I forgot, so you decide."

It's an interesting twist, letting the player decide the story's outcome. Skipping the sentiment, here's the reward:

a level 50 pair of shoes. Hongbu's are for Warriors and Rogues; Nolbu's are for Magicians, Archers, and Pirates.

After choosing either Hongbu or Nolbu, plant the seed on the roof, and a gourd appears. It looks cute.

When you break it open, Hongbu's gourd contains a Box of Jewelry, while Nolbu's gourd contains a Warrant of Attachment, and the quest ends.

Next is The Kids That Became the Sun and the Moon. (Haenim and Dalnim quest)

You know this story, right? You need to grease the rope to drop the tiger, but you need to gather the ingredients: 20 Tough Ropes and 1 Slippery Oil.

You can get the Slippery Oil by hunting Cico in Aqua Road, but the problem is the Tough Rope.

You need to hunt Hodori to get the rope... but there's a problem. Hodori is level 50, has 3800 HP, and gives 140 EXP.

And it has an avoidability of 40. That's the problem. This is the same as Horntail's avoidability, so regular classes can't even hit it.

Even Bandits, with a base passive of 20 accuracy, often miss. As you see, Hogul casts slow on players, which is annoying,

but you'll see players running away because Hodori appears while fighting Hogul. This shows how difficult it is to defeat,

And there's no special reward for completing this, so you can skip this quest if it's too challenging.

That's all for the storybook quests up to level 37. From now on, the level requirements increase.

When you reach level 45, you can do the "The Story of Axes" quest (Golden Axe, Silver Axe quest).

When you go deep into the map called "A Small Well," there's a God of Mountains who has a bump from being hit by an axe thrown by a Tree Cutter. LOL

It is cute to imagine that the bump was from being hit by an axe thrown by a Tree Cutter.

The God of Mountains says if you hunt "Dark Axe Stump" and bring the rare "Axe" that drops,

he will examine it to see if it's the "Tree Cutter's Steel Axe." But the probability of getting the Tree Cutter's Steel Axe is very low.

You shouldn't just take an Axe from a nearby Dark Axe Stump and carry it. It's better for your mental health to gather about 30 Axes at once before going.

These are the types of axes that appear, and among them, the highlight is... The Tree Cutter's Steel Axe.

When you see this, you'll feel like your jaw is dropping to the ground. You'll want to find the person who designed this. LOL

When I was a kid, I got so annoyed with this Tree Cutter's Steel Axe that I just gathered Axes in Perion with an alt, dropped them in the Free Market, and then picked them up with my main.

Anyway, the result is the "Tree Cutter's Steel Axe," which you give to the Tree Cutter in Tiger Forest 2 to complete the quest.

Whether the Tree Cutter's Iron Axe is obtained quickly or you gather many "Axe" items determines if the rewards are great or terrible for this quest.

And now, the much-anticipated "Goblin at Black Mountain" quest available at level 60.

Chumji in the town gives you this quest, asking you to defeat the King Goblin that appeared in the mountain behind the town.

Each King Goblin likes roasted pork, buckwheat paste, and rice wine, and these can be used as bait.

These are items we could get earlier by helping Chil Sung, Chil Nam, and Kong Ji.

After giving them 5 pounders, 4 tiger stamps, and 3 three-tailed foxtails (with 1,000 mesos),

you return to Chumji, who then tells you to defeat each King Goblin and bring back items.

You need to use the materials you prepared to summon each King Goblin: buckwheat paste inside a tree hole,

rice wine in front of a stone lantern, and roasted pork in front of a stack of rocks to spawn each goblin.

Each King Goblin is level 70, has 25,000 HP, and gives 400 EXP.

I don’t know their drop rates, but since they’re bosses, they seem to drop some rare scrolls,

so it might be worth coming back occasionally for the items. I think it might be surprisingly good.

So, after defeating each King Goblin and collecting the quest items, you can return and choose one of the items the King Goblins dropped as a reward.

Wow, getting a reward from the boss you defeated feels truly RPG-like. Here are the options for each item:

The Goblin Cap was completely excluded because of the Zakum Helmet. The Goblin Bat is a blunt weapon, so it’s not useful, but popular for its look,

and these things... they have no magic power but have +5 INT, probably for HP washing.

Very sneaky. Some people did get them for that purpose. The Goblin Cape has +5 STR by default,

so Warriors and Archers went crazy for it. With five 60% scrolls, it can reach +15 STR! Amazing.

You can also receive a storybook and get additional rewards by returning it to Wiz. That's the quest related to storybooks in Korean Folk Town.

Since Wiz doesn't give extra rewards for collecting all the storybooks, just choose the ones you like and complete those.

In Korean Folk Town, besides these "main quests," there are also quests connected to other areas,

and several quests involving interactions with the Korean Folk Town NPCs. One of those is the Area Boss quest called "Legends of Hometown".

"Chil Sung" says that "Chil Nam" seems to be possessed by a fox and asks you to check on him.

Chil Nam just says "The fox..." without saying anything else. Chil Sung suggests that if it's a fox, you might find clues through the Samiho in Black Mountain.

He asks you to hunt the Samiho and find clues. The Samiho is level 56, has 4500 HP, and 185 EXP, but

the problem is it casts a "Curse" debuff. If you get hit by this debuff, your EXP is halved, making the monster's stats and spawn rate attractive, but

if you can't kill it with a single attack, it's not worth hunting. After hunting the Samiho and getting the Small Clue, ask the God of Mountains,

who confirms it's the work of the Nine-Tailed Fox and says to ask the King Goblins you defeated earlier.

전래동화를 담은 메이플, 『아랫마을』

전래동화를 담은 메이플, 『아랫마을』