Chapter 114 – Black Market Tenth Shopping (4)

Sungjin walked with Serin together towards the ‘Last Edge’. Serin continued to ask Sungjin about various things along the way.

“He fired spells on his own teammates in the past?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You might already know from experience... but people don’t tend to make rational decisions here. Many aren’t able to prioritize the good of the group, and instead, covet momentary and immediate benefits for themselves. Or worse put their pride above logic or reason and kill out of spite, even if they know it might lead to their own death.”

“Mmm... So Oppa was swept up in his betrayal and died?”

“Mmhmm”

“Hmm...”

Serin pursed her lips and fell into deep thought.

‘I didn’t think I’d ever be able to tell this to someone.’

Sungjin thought as he continued to walk down the road. Meanwhile, Serin asked again.

“What is this Ed person like? How was he?”

“He was a good man.”

Serin was surprised to hear Sungjin’s answer.

“Excuse me?”

Sungjin repeated himself.

“He was a really great guy. Seriously. Gentle, smart, thorough... there was nothing bad to be said about him. That is, before that raid began.”

“Really?”

“Yes”

“But why did that kind of person do such a thing?”

“I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

“I don’t understand... at all...”

Sungjin felt the same. He wanted to ask Ed why he chose to do what he did, but Ed was killed by the mobs after casting his spell.

Even if they met, he would not remember what he had done; Sungjin would never know why Ed decided to troll at that moment.

“How were the rest of the final 10 members?”

“They were really strong. I was the best with the sword among them... but that doesn’t mean I was special in any way. Everyone was good at their own respective specializations.”

“Really?”

“Yes, the fact that I was the final one to die was simply due to luck. When Spellmaster Ed fired his magic, I was slightly away from the group. So Ed was caught by monsters and died... and I was the final hunter to put up resistance before I was also killed.”

“Hmm...”

The two had arrived at the Last Edge meanwhile. Kenneth greeted the two hunters.”

“Welcome, huntersss”

Sungjin turned to look at the far end of the shop. The spot that was empty in his own dimension was taken up by a Blood Vengeance here.

‘As I thought... it’s there.’

Sungjin told Kenneth

“Could you please get me the Blood Vengeance over there?”

Kenneth obeyed and brought him the sword.

“This is the legendary item Blood Vengeance. Price is 9800 Black Coins.”

But then Kenneth added

“But... A guest hunter is unable to purchase anything from this shop.”

“Ah, I know.”

Sungjin turned to Serin to say

“Serina*, can you buy it for me? And then sell it to me for 9800 coins.”

“Ok, Oppa.”

Serin did as Sungjin asked and stepped forward.

“Please complete the transaction.”

She bought the sword with her own coins. Sungjin said to her

“Ah, but please don’t equip it even as a joke. If you equip it, it becomes bound to you.”

“Okay~”

Serin immediately initiated a trade with Sungjin. Blood Vengeance for 9800 Black Coins. Sungjin took the sword after the trade was complete and placed it into his cube.

‘This makes it the 3rd...’

Since he had promised to meet with Franz later, he could just obtain his fourth from him and combine the sword then. Sungjin said to Serin.

“Thanks. With this, I can increase the tier of the weapon one more time.”

“You’re gathering three more Legendary tier items, right? Like the Enhancement stones?”

“Yes. Did you manage to gather any Enhancement stones?”

“I got some from the last raid, so I already requested upgrades. Bow and mantle.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Ohh really?”

Meanwhile

[A Chosen One has requested your teleportation. Will you accept the request?]

The Operator asked him again. Serin and Sungjin both turned to look at Sungjin’s cube at the same time. On the cube was Franz’s face.

“Mr Kei. It’s me, Franz.”

Sungjin told Serin

“Ah, this is another one of the Chosen Ones. Just like you.”

“I see... I guess you have to go then?”

“Yeah. Then... let’s meet again tomorrow since tomorrow is a holiday.”

“What time should I call you?”

Sungjin thought for a moment. He had promised to meet Nada at seven tomorrow.

‘If I meet her then... we could eat a meal together.’

He wouldn’t be able to eat two dinners back to back. Sungjin told Serin

“Tomorrow... one o clock. One would be the best.”

“Okay got it, Oppa. Then see you at one.”

“Alright.”

Sungjin then teleported to another dimension. Franz was standing in front of a restaurant in the Black Market. He asked Sungjin

“May I ask who was that? That lady?”

He must have meant Serin. Sungjin replied

“Ahh, she’s another one of the Chosen Ones.”

“He~ really? She was a real beauty.”

“Mmm... well, I guess so. So did you decide yet? What to have for dinner?”

“I found a place with good beer and food, so I wanted to head there.”

“Oh? Sounds good, let’s go then.”

Sungjin and Franz arrived together at the pub.

[This is Mono’s ‘Cool and petty’]

The owner was a bulky looking gorilla. He brought them a dish full of large sausages in one hand and two bubbling mugs of beer in the other.

Sungjin and Franz had sausages as a relish with beer. It has been a long time since Sungjin shared a drink over a meal with somebody else.

“So how was it? This raid?”

“Ah not too bad. Thanks to your title we were able to defeat the boss without much trouble and get to the hidden piece. Of course... We couldn’t attempt the hidden boss....”

When they were done eating, they walked over to ‘Last Edge’ together where Franz, like Serin, bought Blood Vengeance on Sungjin’s behalf. Sungjin prepared to return to his own dimension after the trade was complete.

“Let’s meet tomorrow too since we don’t have anything else to do anyway.”

“When would be a good time to call?”

“Hmm... about three o clock?”

“Eh? But if we meet in time for lunch or dinner...”

“Ah, sorry those time slots are already reserved so I don’t think I can make it. Let’s just have tea after lunch or something.”

“Okay. Then see you again at three, Mr Kei.”

“Yeah. It was a good drink.”

Sungjin left Franz.

“Return.”

When he was teleported, he was sent back to his bedroom at Ninety Nine Nights. Sungjin came downstairs. Dalupin and his summons were waiting for him. Dalupin spoke first.

“Esteemed Hunter, about dinner...?”

“Ah, I already ate. Please feed everyone else.”

“I have already served them at the proper time.”

“I see. Thank you. Also... have any receipts come today?”

“Not yet, sir. It is almost time though...”

Sungjin checked outside. The sun was setting. According to Dalupin, a pigeon demihuman should be arriving wearing a backpack containing the receipts from today’s auction sales. Sungjin asked the Operator

“Operator, how many Black coins do I have right now?”

[You have 6965]

“Hmm...”

Sungjin searched his memories. The cost of combining Heroic Tier Yanhurat was 3000 coins. But Blood Vengeance was a Legendary tier weapon.

‘I am just a bit short of 7000 coins currently, do I have enough?’

It was possible that he didn’t have enough money to combine the items. Instead of making two trips, he decided to stay and wait. There were two things he had to do first anyway.

First was who to give the newly obtained Pulp of Evolution. Second was to find out more about ‘Aio – Ring of the Sage’. Sungjin first called over Soldamyr.

“Soldamyr, come here.”

“Yes, Master.”

Soldamyr floated towards Sungjin’s table. Sungjin removed Aio from his finger and showed it to him.

“This is... great wizard’s...”

When Sungjin was having trouble to find the words, Soldamyr who was always quick witted finished his thoughts for him.

“Anatol.” **

“Yes, Anatol. It contains his power. When I used it... the effects were really amazing.”

“What does it do exactly?”

“It allows me to use every blue magic... and temporarily raise the magic power by 5 times.”

“Really?”

“Yes. With the level of Mana I had, I could only use a 2nd class magic just once... but the spell was able to freeze up the Red Dragon completely.”

“The Red Dragon?”

“Yes. And that was done while being inside the volcano. It was such an unbelievable power. The numerical value was 5 times... the actual effects seemed to be even more than that.”

Soldamyr replied to Sungjin’s observation.

“By nature, magic gains additional effects the more potent it becomes.”

Then suddenly

‘Ring Ring’

The deliveryman had arrived on a bike. Before Sungjin could say anything, Dalupin went up to the deliveryman and retrieved the receipts to hand it over to Sungjin.

“Thank you.”

Sungjin quickly flipped through the receipts. There were enough that it would take a bit of time to look through them. Sungjin handed over the ring to Soldamyr and said

“Anyway, it unlocks all blue magic spells and increases magic power by 5 times; please think of different ways we could use this.”

“Yes, Master.”

Sungjin handed the ring over and checked each receipt before inserting it into the cube. Since most of the items were heroic tier, Sungjin’s income was better than ever.

‘I should be able to afford the elixir tomorrow with this much...’

While Sungjin was thinking that, Soldamyr muttered,

“5 times... with a bit of effort, it sounds like that will be possible...”

Sungjin overheard his muttering and asked

“What do you mean by ‘That’?”

“Ah... master”

Soldamyr snapped awake from his deep thoughts.

“Did we not go to the Magic shop together?”

“We did.”

“Didn’t we speak about it? Reversing time?”

“Ah...”

He was right. If the Ring truly unlocked every spell, it meant it also had unlocked the 9th class blue magic spell that could turn back time.

‘Reversing time... how much was the book again?’

He didn’t remember the exact value, but it should have exceeded 150,000 Black Coins alone. Sungjin became even more thankful to Ariane.

Even ignoring the fact that the item could temporarily boost his Magic power by five, the item she had given him was far more valuable than even the spell book worth 150,000 Coins. Taking into consideration all of the 7th and 8th class spells, it was easily worth well over 200,000 coins.

‘I hope that my presents will help you escape your tragic fate’

Sungjin recalled her words. And looking into the darkening sky outside the window, he muttered

“Thank you so much, Ariane.”

* You attach ‘a’ or ‘ya’ after the name to indicate you’re referring to them in a friendly way, usually to someone your junior. It indicates a close relationship. There is no gender restriction (guys to guys, guys to girls, girls to guys, girl to girls). Used for people of equal or lesser social standing.

** The name Anatol means sunrise in Greek.