Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
I had been hunting for three days straight now. But with my VIT currently over 28k, I wasn’t tired at all. It also helped that I could kill all of these monsters in no more than three strikes.
==[You have gained a level.]==
It was taking me more than three days now to level up.
==[You have received Bortega’s Blessing.
You will gain 0-3 extra levels.]==
==[You have gained 3 extra levels from Bortega’s Blessing.]==
“Open Stats Menu.”
==[Name: Lee Jiwon
Level: 901 Death Count: 0
Title: Earth’s First Deva
HP: 16,090,700/16,090,700 MP:602,800/602,800
Strength: 34,104 + 5,487 Agility: 15,901 Vitality: 28,001
Willpower: 5,968 Intelligence: 5,228
Unassigned Stat Points: 7,457 + 264
Fatigue: 57
Special Effects: Luck Boost (X+1), immune to all Status effects, Dungeon Seeker 14 points
Physical Attack: 136,978 Physical Defense: 62,597
Magical Attack: 15,954 Magical Defense: 41,534]==
I started at level 821. It took me a little less than three months to gain eighty levels. Twenty of them were from straight-up hunting, and the other sixty were from the extra levels I got from Bortega’s Blessing. It really was overpowered…
“Perfect.” I was more than satisfied with the ground I made, but I was also exhausted, as my 57 Fatigue evidenced. I hadn’t taken a single proper break in the past month.
I invested all of my unassigned Stat points and closed my Stats Menu. “Let’s go home for now.” I had done enough to deserve a two to three-day straight break. I quickly headed for the dungeon exit so that I could take my break and get back to hunting as soon as possible. Level 900 wasn’t enough for me; I wanted to get my AGI up to 20k and hit level 1,000!
——
I headed straight for the Teleporter in New York City and warped, for free, to Seoul. Now that the Messenger Guild was a part of the Empire, each member of the Empire was allowed to warp for free once a day. It might not sound like much, but that was a very generous favor on Victor’s part, since our numbers were now well into the tens of thousands.
When I stepped off Seoul’s Teleporter, I noticed right away that the city was completely jam-packed with devas. Sure, Seoul was always packed with devas, since it had its own Teleporter and Store, but there was so many more today that I barely had enough room to step off the Teleporter. New York City was in a similar situation, actually, but there weren’t this many people. And just about everyone was talking about one thing… the Stores!
—
“I’ve filled my inventory to the brim with Bread and Beverages but I’m still anxious. Should I just upgrade my inventory while I’m at it, too? And then buy some more…”
“Dude, that’s enough. You have enough to last you years.”
“Who said it was for me? I might be able to sell them on the Judge’s Continent for whatever price I want.”
“Hah! Do you think you’re the only one with that idea?”
“Yeah, man. Everyone knows that the Stores are disappearing, and everyone knows the Judge’s Continent is coming. Everyone here is trying to fill their inventory. Bread and Beverages are probably the most basic items everyone bought.”
“Then what did you guys get?”
“I got potions.”
“I got weapons and armor. There’s a chance equips might be rare on the Continent. I can sell them for at least twice their original price if that’s the case.”
“I’m buying materials of every single category. I’m positive one of those will sell.”
“Hmm… should I buy something else then?”
—
No one knew what would be on the Judge’s Continent, which was why everyone was busy trying to fill their inventory with what they believed would be helpful or would sell the most. I, on the other hand, knew that there was going to be a Store or Stores on the Continent. Anton himself told me, but I didn’t know how different the Store or Stores were going to be from the ones on Earth, Anton wouldn’t say anything about it.
It was why I didn’t let Dorofei, Sunbin, Myth, or even Ravi know about it. I didn’t want to tell them something I wasn’t that sure about, and have them blame me if anything went wrong or differently.
Bread and Beverages were the most basic items people were stocking up on. I did the same in my past life, before I got my second chance. Doing so at least provided some sense of security that I would be somewhat prepared for whatever. I never got to experience the advent of the Judge’s Continent, however, and I sort of wished I had. If I knew what to expect on the Continent, I could either live up to my title as the First Emperor and secure victory for Earth, or just give up from the beginning.
I Blinked away from the crowd and headed home as fast as I could.
——
Once I got home, I hopped in the shower before wolfing down the meal my mother set out for me, then headed up to my room to throw myself on my bed. There was no better rest than sleep, after all. After a couple of days of just eating and sleeping, I found myself lounging on the sofa on the garden terrace, with the Dungeon Mole in hand. I sipped on my tea as I fed the Mole a piece of candy.
——
That night, I participated in the meeting my grandfather and three of his officers held nightly for the first time.
My grandfather was the first to speak. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard while you were out hunting, but the world is on the brink of chaos with the Stores pulling out.”
“That’s right, young master. With Stores closing all over the world, many foreigners have been coming to Seoul to visit our Store. That’s why, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, that the city is packed with devas.”
“Yes. I had the chance to see for myself.”
“Good. Then I’m sure you know as much as we do. They are here to visit Seoul’s Store. They could be here to just learn skills, or to buy items to sell for later. The biggest problem we’re facing right now is the hoarders.”
That was what I had gathered was going on when I arrived at Seoul a few days ago.
“They’re buying items they’re afraid Stores won’t be selling for much longer, or items they believe they can flip for a much higher profit later on.”
I nodded in agreement.
“So, the reason I bring this up is that I want to know if there is anything you need. I’m not saying you have to buy anything, but if there is, this might be the best and only time we have.”
“Hmm…” I stroked my chin. I had spent the last few days thinking about this as well, but I had decided to not buy anything. Part of me was the trust I had towards Anton and his advice, but another part of me relied on the experience I had gained from starting from rock bottom and crawling my way to the very top.
What I had learned from that experience was that this world system wasn’t half-assed. Whoever was behind this all knew that this would happen and wouldn’t take away important items when the Judge’s Continent was this close. I also doubted they would make Stores that much different from what we were used to. It would defeat the whole purpose of deciding which world was worthy of surviving if the battle boiled down to whoever had the most items or something.
“I believe it’d be best if we save our golden rings for now.”
“You don’t want to buy anything?”
“No, I don’t.”
My grandfather and the three officers all looked at me wide-eyed in surprise.
“This world isn’t as simple or as easy as we think it is.”
“…” They didn’t say anything back. They seemed to understand what I was getting at.
——
The Sunbin Guild’s headquarters…
“Are you sure this is enough, Father?”
“He’s right, master. Other large guilds are stocking up on Bread, Beverages, and even crafting materials. The remaining Stores are actually running low on stock.”
“We don’t know what to expect from the Judge’s Continent. There’s a chance there won’t be anything there that can help us at all. We need to at least properly prepare, don’t we?”
The Sunbin Guild officers had held a meeting once every week once the Stores began to leave, trying to figure out how they should prepare for when all the Stores were gone. Before today’s meeting, the guild had been buying whatever supplies it could until today, when Song Daechul put the brakes on.
Song Daechul chuckled as his officers voiced their concerns. “You’re all correct. We should prepare since we don’t know what will happen. But isn’t it pretty obvious?”
“Sir?”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone else in the world is pouring their golden rings into the Stores right now. No one’s questioning that at all, even though no one knows for sure what’s on the Judge’s Continent.”
Song Daechul’s officers sat up straight, eyes widened in surprise. It was true. None of them had thought about tha,t and were too busy preparing for something they did not know about.
“Who knows? Everything we need might actually be all there for us.”
And so, as per Song Daechul’s orders, the Sunbin Guild changed its tactic to save its golden rings instead. It couldn’t completely change directions, however, since it still had to look out for those under its influence.
There were other large guilds that had the same idea, but there were only a few of them.
——
I put on my hat and sunglasses and headed for Store 72. There was a skill I wanted to learn and I had 5 skill points right now, plenty to learn whatever I needed.
“What skill should I learn, though?” I thought about this a lot during my break. An active skill that could deal a great amount of damage at once sounded good, but so did a passive skill that could increase my normal attack damage. Well, anything sounded good to learn, so I decided to check out what skills I could learn before making my decision. There was a skill I was leaning towards, though…
——
Store 72…
There were considerably less people inside than outside. There were still a lot, but there was enough room to move. I wove through the crowd and went up to the skill shop. There were a lot of customers here, as well. I stood off to the side and looked at Sleng.
==[Physical tree, Magic tree, General tree, Random skill (not applicable)]==
I opened up the Physical tree for now and looked through the skills, in case there was a skill I didn’t know about. Most skills were open to me now that I had five skill points and four billion golden rings to spare.
==[Boost Equipped Item Effects (3/3), (Active)
Select one equipped item to temporarily boost its effects. You must wait a cooldown of one month before selecting another item to boost.
Level 1: Select 1 item to increase its effects by 5%.
Level 2: Select 2 items to increase their effects by 7%.
Level 3: Select 3 items to increase their effects by 10%.
Skill points required: 1
Golden rings required: 1,940,000,000 golden rings]==
-Hmm…this is a good skill.-
At level 3, this skill could increase three of my equipped items’ effects by 10%. 10% might not seem like much, but with my King-Emperor’s Commitment, I could get a lot more out of the skill and the item.
There was also Mana Conversion to worry about. A 10% boost meant it would raise Mana Conversion by 6.6 levels but as I had explained earlier, there was no such thing as partial levels. Level 6.6 was the same as level 6.
-I’ll save it for now.-
I mentally bookmarked the skill and browsed through the other skills, until I came to the Summon skills. I could not learn any of them thanks to Shaman Ko killing them all each time I tried to. I quickly scrolled past the Summons until I came to the last skill in the section. It was a pretty famous skill.
==[Summon Chest (1/1), (Active)
Inside the Summon Chest resides an unknown Summoned Creature. Open this chest to learn to Summon one of the many Summoned Creatures out there. There is a chance that the Summoned Creature could be extremely rare or legendary.
Skill points required: 5
Golden rings required: 1,000,000 golden rings.
300,000,000 golden rings required to delete this skill.]==
This was a complete gamble of a skill, especially for Summoner classes. It was the only way to be able to Summon Phoenixes, Heaven Knights, or Land Turtles. Sure, there were other rare and legendary Summons to be found, but so were Ants, Moths or Caterpillars. There was a chance to waste five whole skill points just to learn a useless Summon skill. It also cost 300 million golden rings just to unlearn the skill, and would cost another million just to try to gamble again.
This was a necessary gamble for Summoner classes because of the rare Summon creatures, and I was about to laugh it off and scroll past it when I realized something. All of the Summons I had previously tried to learn were automatically deleted by Shaman Ko and I was refunded the skill points. In other words, I would get the five skill points back and wouldn’t need to spend three hundred million golden rings to delete the skill if I ended up with a dud.
I was getting curious. If for some reason, I managed to get a legendary Summon out of this and Shaman Ko didn’t kill it off… Shaman Ko would no doubt do something to it; it’s what he did every time I tried to add some foreign ability. But either way, I was sure I had nothing to lose. It was worth a shot.
“Learn Summon Chest!”
