Junhyuk thought Ariel seemed rather scared looking at him.
âWhatâs the matter?â
[I heard you fought against a manager.]
âWhere did you hear that?â
[In your words, we work for the same corporation.]
âIs he your superior?â
[We donât work for the same team, but heâs ranked higher than me.]
Junhyuk looked over her and asked, âWhy are you staring at me?â
Ariel gave him a cute smile and said, [We do exist.]
âOf course,â he nodded, caressing her head. He wanted to have a close relationship with Ariel.
Standing in front of the exit, he said, âOpen it.â
[Hero Junhyuk Lee deployed!]
With Arielâs might shout, Junhyuk walked outside. The rest of his team was already there. When Gongon saw him, he grabbed his chin and said, âFor a human, you are too strong.â
âWhat do you mean?â
âNothing. I just mean you are strong.â
Layla was even more surprised than Gongon. She stared at him blankly before asking, âHow do you train to become so strong?â
âIâm nothing compared to Artlan.â
âSure, but Artlan is the strongest one in my dimension.â
âDo you know a lot about him?â
âHe didnât really have a teacher. Artlan was born strong, and he became stronger on his own. Artlan is so strong, nobody can keep up with him.â
âWhat about Halo?â
âHalo and Nudra both had great teachers who opened up their potential, but Artlan had nobody. Artlan is probably the one with the most natural talent.â
Junhyuk felt proud. Layla had said that nobody could keep up with Artlan, but Junhyuk was his student. Artlan had sent him a living spirit and taught him how to tune his muscles. He had learned everything from Artlan and he knew that his current strength was fruit of what he had been taught.
âLetâs focus on todayâs battle.â Junhyuk turned to the group and said, âWeâll meet stronger enemies as we progress, so donât let your guard down.â
âSure.â
He turned to Elise and Eunseo and said, âElise, Eunseo and I will head middle.â
Gongon scratched his chin and said, âWe need to make Elise our tank, so we should send her left and let her practice.â
âTrue, but we should also consider her buff. She needs to move with other people.â
âIâm focusing on attack and defense, so should I just go left like always?â Gongon asked.
âSure.â
Turning to Helen, Junhyuk said, âYou go left this time as well.â
âIâll do my best.â
Looking at Layla and Sarang, Junhyuk said, âYou two take the right.â
Layla balled her hands into fists and said, âThis time, I wonât be killed so easily.â
âThatâs right, Layla. Weâll become legends, so letâs not die and move on to the final round.â
âYes!â
Junhyuk smirked, turned to the group and asked, âShall we do some shopping?â
They all went to see Bebe, and Junhyuk handed the yeti the expensive items he had picked up. Bebe inspected them, astonished.
âThis is a real pleasure! You brought me some great items. Iâll give you 300,000G for each.â
âGive me more than that.â
Bebe chuckled and replied, âSure. Iâll give you a bit more.â After looking at the items again, he said, âIâll give you 1,900,000G for the six of them.â
Junhyuk put his hand forward, and Bebe transferred the gold. With the winnings from the Championsâ Battlefield, Junhyuk now had 4,000,000G on him. Since the tournament began, Junhyuk had been earning a lot of gold.
He browsed Bebeâs items. He could purchase legendary items with about 2,000,000G, but he decided to upgrade the items he owned instead.
âGive me forty enhancement stones.â
âYou should be careful with that. Enhancement stones can fail.â
âIâll try to reach my target.â
âWhat is your target?â
âI want all my items to be +12â
Forty enhancement stones might not be enough for that.
Junhyuk applied the first stone. Meanwhile, Gongon was also upgrading his items. Gongon was competing with Junhyuk, who failed and succeeded a few times before reaching the twelfth upgrade. Junhyuk used all forty enhancement stones, but only five of his items were at +12.
Upgrades had lower success rates as they progressed.
Junhyuk thought it over. He had more gold, so he was debating whether he should continue to push for upgrades or if he should wait until the next battle. He decided to fight first and make any other decisions later.
Gongon seemed very proud of himself.
âHa-ha-ha! Iâm definitely a dragon!â
âWhatâs up?â
âCheck out my weapon!â
Gongonâs weapon was shining like a rainbow, so Junhyuk asked, âWhat did you do?â
âHa-ha-ha! It started shining like this once I reached the twentieth upgrade.â
âTwentieth?!â
Gongon had won many enhancement stones in the Championsâ Battlefield. Now, Gongon had succeeded in reaching twenty upgrades. It seemed like his weapon had enormous damaging power. Gongonâs weapon was much better than Junhyukâs.
âYou are our special damage dealer now. How many enhancement stones did you use?â
âI used twenty stones. It took that much to increase it by ten upgrades.â
âAre you saying that it only took you twenty stones to upgrade it from +10 to +20?â
The normal success rate decreased by half with each upgrade, and whenever an upgrade failed after a certain level, the weapon became weaker. Gongon certainly had a dragonâs luck.
âJust call me damager. Iâll show you what a legendary damager can do.â
âWhy donât you boost your piercing stat?â
âIâm doing that already.â
It was probably expensive, but Gongon was managing to get the items he needed one by one. His damage was really high now, so with a high piercing stat, Gongon would have enormous damage potential.
Junhyuk decided to try for more upgrades.
âGive me another twenty stones.â
âSure.â
Junhyuk applied all the stones to his weapons, and both reached +13, three more upgrades than when he started.
Junhyuk had used all of his twenty stones for a total of six upgrades, whereas Gongon had managed ten upgrades. Junhyuk was envious of Gongonâs luck, but with three extra upgrades, both of his weapons had become stronger.
âI guess I was lucky. Now, I can kill our enemies more easily.â His ability to deal damage had increased. Everyone smiled, and he added, âLetâs go.â
âYouâll do fine,â Bebe said, cheering him on, and Junhyuk smiled at the yeti.
Once out of the store, the group divided up, and each team moved with two hundred minions. Junhyuk headed up the middle path. With the help of Eliseâs buff, he would kill any enemies that came up against him. His weapons were outstanding now.
Eunseo seemed nervous, so he told her âDonât worry. Weâll win.â
âWhat happens if we win the tournament?â
âThen, weâll fight against legends.â
Fighting the legendary team again meant that he would have his rematch. Back then, he had only been a champion, but his team had still been easily defeated by the legends. It was time for payback.
âWhew! I should become a champion.â
âWhen you do, youâll have to leave my team.â
âRightâ¦â
Junhyuk turned to her. He hadnât been able to help her with her training for a while now. He wanted to help her out whenever he had the time.
Junhyuk now had his Triple Yin Yang, a style of his own, so he would be able to teach her other martial arts as well. He wanted to spar with her.
When they reached the top of the mountain, they saw the enemy team coming up from the other side. The minions showed up first. They were hunched over and had tiny wings on their backs.
âCan they fly?â
They were walking, so it didnât seem like they were able to fly. It was possible they had long claws because they werenât carrying any weapons.
âThey may not fly, but they can hover in the air for a while.â
That was Eliseâs appraisal of the enemy minions, and Junhyuk nodded in agreement. THen, he saw the heroes coming up behind them. They were familiar faces.
âAdolphe! Kilraden!â
Aldolphe was carrying his saw-bladed sword, and Kilraden was dressed in his usual white attire. Junhyuk had come up against Kilraden in the Championsâ Battlefield, and Adolphe had been the champion in Baterâs team. The two werenât easy opponents.
They had become heroes around the same time as him. At that moment, Junhyuk remembered being told that another rookie team had been winning and realized that the enemy team he was facing was composed entirely of rookies.
He couldnât disregard their items, and it was almost certain that they all had great powers.
Victory would depend on how everyoneâs powers were used.
Adolphe smiled at him and said, âWe meet again.â
Junhyuk aimed his sword at Adolphe and replied, âI killed Bater in the quarter finals, so I didnât expect to see you in the semis.â
âI heard about that from Bater. My goal was to avenge him, but I didnât expect it would be so soon.â
âYou wonât have that chance.â
Elise buffed him. Her buffs were absurd.
âIâll kill you all within five minutes.â
Adolpheâs and Kilradenâs eyes beamed. The two motioned with their hands, and the winged monsters beat their wings. The enemy minions were incredibly fast, 50 percent faster than ordinary minions.
Adolphe and Kilraden ran forward behind the minion army