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30. My Way (2)
The last night of August.
It was the last day of attending school.
The next 3 months! I could focus completely on hunting.
Starting with a month of summer break, and 2 months of hunting in between schooling was what it took to achieve growth like this.
Looking at the full moon of the night sky, it felt like it was foreshadowing that my growth would raise leaps and beyond.
After quitting the guild, different from the usual, I continued to hunt.
I informed Jong Ho about the situation.
At this moment, all my doubts about him vanished, as if all the worrying was a waste of time.
For many days, we met and shared many conversations.
Jong Ho focused mostly on the topic of ‘taking care of oneself’.
His argument was this.
Since it has only been a few days since you left the guild, if they attacked me now, the blame would natural shift to the Noblesse guild. So for now, they were lying in wait.
It could be that we’re suspecting them without any solid evidence. 1
But better safe than sorry. I obtained the habit of keep my shields up by rotating through cooldowns after leaving the guild.
‘For joining the wrong guild once, I might develop a phobia.’
In front of the relator building Jong Ho decided to meet at, I gave a call.
It was to find out about the contract involving the safe house.
I was going to reveal the surprise present to mother in 5 days.
“Hyung. Where are you?”
“I’m waiting for the left turn signal. Wait a bit.”
“Okay.”
It didn’t take long for Jong Ho to arrive, sporting a fashion that made me astonished once more.
“Wow….. Even today hyung, that’s something.”
“Since I was coming back from an important meeting, I took the extra effort.”
“Perhaps you do cosplay? You went to a meeting with these clothes? I know I say this constantly, but please stop wearing tight white shirts that stick to your body! Hyung, you look like a raisin… Ha….. Let’s just go.”
“What are you saying kid. White shirts and blue jeans are the symbol of manliness.”
‘If it’s only the white shirt, I’d leave it alone, but what are you going to do about the skull ring on your finger and the chain shackles on your jeans. Sigh.’ I tightly kept a hold of these words and resisted the urge to blurt it out.
Inside the relator building, I checked at the office if there are any listed for sale.
Thankfully there was one that was at an affordable price, near the current location we lived at.
For now, I left after informing them that I will be contacting them within a week.
“Hyung. Did you know I’ve been hunting with a rose knife for almost a week?”
“Right. You said that as you left there, you returned the sword?”
“Yes. Now I’m left with one jewel that was embedded before. Hyung, since we’re here together already, can you come along and help me select a good weapon?”
“Weapon? If that’s the case… allow me the white shirt!”
‘Are you trying to repeat the disaster once more!’ With a straight face, I turned around and waved at him.
“Be careful on the way back hyung. See you later!”
“That’s cruel! How much are you willing to spend?”
“Since I’m buying a new house, the leftover money I have is 200,000 or so. Ah! With the Manticore’s Soulstone, it should be 300,000.”
“Oho, hey. With that much, it won’t be as good as your previous sword, but you should be able to get something usable? 100 strength stat ones should be possible.”
“Is there any weapons or armor that gives me cooldown reduction?”
“Are you playing an online game? Is being an Awakened a joke to you! Argh!?”
Who can stop this energetic man.
As if he saw it from a movie, or perhaps from a trend, he yelled at me with an ugly and awkward expression.
“That expression!”
“Let’s just go for now.”
“But it’s seems really wasteful to buy a sword when I was using one for free. Feels like I’m wasting money.”
“If it seems that wasteful, you can make it all up with hunting.”
“Is there a sword that can match up to Heugdo?”
“Plenty! Swords that cannot even be compared to man stat wise, as well as the shapes that are just killer. But the prices are just too much. They do drop from higher level dungeons though.”
“How much does the decent strength increasing weapons cost? If you say it’s 10 or 20 million, I will punch you in the gut.”
Hearing my words, Jong Ho tried to contain his smile and spoke.
“Million? … You know that the limit of mankind for crafting is an S rank? A sword of that stat can be bought with money. But weapons and items dropped form monsters have an M in front of the rank. An abbreviation for monster. Thus a monster drop M/S weapon cannot be bought even with millions. Even I wouldn’t sell it.”
Previously, I went to the store in front of the manticore dungeon and purchased SA ranking goods.
One of them was the ‘Lich King’s Staff’. The staff that I was holding onto despite being at death’s door.
If the mana stat was replaced with strength, it was a weapon similar to Heugdo.
It was only an M/B ranking weapon, but the prices were from millions to tens of millions.
The Heugdo that I returned as I left the guild probably had the same price.
‘Damn it… Why did I listen to Jong Ho hyung. Even if a widow bought land, it wouldn’t give me this much of a stomache.’ (TL: Expression for complaint of waste of money.)
Throwing away my regrets with resolve, I asked Jong Ho.
“Where does M/B and M/A rank weapons drop?”
“Level 18 dungeons, but not from ordinary mobs. If you defeat the hidden boss, there is a small drop rate.”
‘What?’
Lv18 dungeons can be easily conquered by someone like me.
But hidden bosses similar to the ‘kelvacore’, and the drop rate is low?
Picking up the regret I’ve tossed away, I wanted to shout ‘Judge….. Please return my Dark Sword. I’m without blame.’
It was almost to the point where I even had stupid thoughts like ‘Park Hyun was really a good person…..’
Picking up my broken mental resolve, I asked more seriously.
“Lv 18 dungeons, the required entry level is 150, right?”
“Of course. Above level 150, and 5 to 6 people. What? Why are you so serious. Are you planning to go there now or something. Hurry up and let’s go buy C or M/D ranking weapons with that 300k.”
“For now, let’s hold off on that. I’ll go first. Hyun! Let’s go have dinner with my mother sometime at a nice restaurant sometime. My treat.”
“Hey. Min-Cheol. I’m saying this just in case, but don’t think about going there recklessly. Do take care.”
“Yes, hyung.”
Level 18 dungeon.
Level 13 to 15 dungeons are immune to magic attacks. Level 16 to 18 dungeons are immune to physical attacks.
Thus, what I need to do now is…
The money that I was going to spend on weapons must be invested in skill books.
With infinite mana, I could cast spells without limit, so my skill levels would probably rise insanely?
My main offensive spells ‘Gravity Laser’ and the ‘Fire Shock’ I ordered from the midget a couple days ago, I planned to Awaken both skills and destroy the level 18 dungeon.
That was the gist of it.
It was fortunate that I did not use the Awakened Essence on Piercing Sword.
A skill that I had #1 priority to Awaken, but to go to the level 18 dungeon where physical attacks do not work, Gravity Laser rose past the ranks of importance.
Maybe I’ll be lucky and get the M/B weapon Jong Ho was talking about.
The rose knife that I thought I would be holding on for the last time, I tightened my grip around it.
‘At least for a week….. I don’t think you’ll be cutting carrots. Sorry.’
The goal is the level 18 dungeon. And to Awaken two magic skills!
“It won’t take long. Let’s go!”
* * *
From the small fry, I obtained Bind and Fire Shock spell books.
The three couldn’t look at me in the eyes till the end, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
In the future, if I had more uses for using the underground channels, I’m sure I’ll see them again.
[Will you obtain the Fire Shock skill?]
The sound of narration always excited me.
Without hesitation, I used all the skill books in my hand.
“Hm…. Bind and Hold, I’ll raise later. For now, it’s Fire Shock!”
Fire Shock send out massive amounts of flames around me.
It wasn’t a skill that continuously used up mana. Thus, it had a cooldown.
A whole 3 minutes.
It could be considered exaggerating to call 3 minutes that.
However, the skill’s duration was only 10 seconds. Waiting 3 min for 10 seconds, it was a skill far less efficient than Eye of the Storm.
And even if the skill level rises, the duration did not. Only the damage did.
Of course, you really can’t compare a main offensive skill and a support skill.
Range was 15 meters from the caster. Both range and duration was pathetic for the price.
So why did I purchase such a trash-like skill, paying with all that money?
The answer to that is the massive increase of damage as it gets closer to lv 100.
There is almost nobody who would spend the time and effort to raise a skill like this.
After casting, Fire Shock spewed out enough flames to melt all opponents nearby within 10 seconds.
There was no shape to the flames.
As if from ‘Love and Soul’, the dead’s soul piercing through a person.
The flames would flow deep into the target’s bodies, causing severe lethal harm internally.
Unfortunately, it didn’t reach a satisfying amount of damage until it reaches near lv 100, so most didn’t attempt to raise it. And the skill book didn’t drop easily either. It was a ghost like skill. (TL: Pipe dream. Raise the unraisable, do the impossible, row row fight the power!)
I was planning to Awaken this ghost like skill as well!
“Seems I’ll need a lot of Awakened Essences….. Guess I’ll be seeing the midget and two goons often?”
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