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 . "
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"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 . "
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"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 . "
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"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?"