Chapter 20: Chapter 19

Translator: – –  Editor: – –

Right when he swallowed the pill, he heard a noise, and the minions showed up. Vera and Sarang were the last ones to appear.

He could understand what they were saying. It was interesting because even if they spoke English he heard Korean. Vera looked at Junhyuk, smiled and said:

“Did they force you to buy anything?”

Junhyuk shrugged.

“I had no choice,” he answered.

Vera turned and looked at Artlan.

“Does he have anything good?” she asked.

“No, I have to earn more to buy what I want.”

“You might get hurt if you don’t buy anything. Aren’t you always saving to buy something expensive?”

“What do you see me as?” Artlan asked and glanced at Junhyuk. “Also, because of him, it’s like I have an additional power.”

“You’re right.”

Junhyuk paid no attention to their conversation and searched the book endlessly. The pages were filled with things that cost less than 1000G, and there must’ve been hundreds of them.

The book worked liked a smartphone, and the product descriptions extended in front of him. He read, and flipped with his finger to the next item There were a lot of things he could only use once, but he wanted something more permanent. He turned the pages quickly and stopped at the jewels’ listings.

There were strange inscriptions inside the beautiful jewels. He could understand the word runestone, but didn’t understand how a runestone could be different by how it was made, and there was no explanation even though he swallowed the pill.

Junhyuk only understood the description.

Runestone with lowest power.

[A person carrying it doubles his power. Limited to carrying ten runestones. If exchanging for a higher-level runestone, one needs three stones.]

He read the instructions, but still did not understand what they meant.

“What does it mean by ‘doubles his power’?” Junhyuk asked.

Bebe pointed to the minions and said:

“Do you see the minions over there? Their power average is one.”

“What?”

The yeti meant to say that if he carried a runestone, he would be able to have two times the strength of a minion! Surprised, Junhyuk listened, and Bebe continued with his explanation:

“The lowest runestone’s increment is two. The low runestone’s increment is five. The middle runestone’s increment is twelve. The high runestone’s increment is twenty-five, and the highest runestone’s increment is sixty. Of course, the price increases by three times as the quality of the rune increases.”

“Can you carry ten of the highest runestones?”

“Of course.”

If he carried a highest level runestone, it would increase his power by 600 times. Of course, it would cost more. The highest runestone cost 81000G.

It required an enormous amount of money.

Bebe looked at him and said:

“Heroes can only carry the highest level jewels. There is a limit of ten according to each color, and a hero can carry up to thirty jewels.”

Junhyuk suddenly felt a surge of respect for Artlan and Vera. At the very least, they had to have 2,430,000G to be fully stocked, and they both were.

Junhyuk appraised the condition of the runestone. Red stones had attacking boosts, yellow stones had defensive boosts. Blue stones had to do with magic, so they had no meaning to him.

As he made his appraisals of the runestones, he asked Artlan:

“Artlan, what kind of runestones do you carry?”

“The highest level red runestones. I enjoy killing by crushing.”

It had to fit one’s character. Junhyuk thought about his fight with the minions. He carried a two-handed sword, but he lacked power, so he could only attack the weak spots on their necks. That way, he wouldn’t be get hurt, and it had been easy to take them down. He was thinking about it when Artlan went over and said:

“A man needs power.”

“Is that right?”

Vera looked at Junhyuk.

“If you want to stay alive, concentrate on defense. That’s not a bad idea, right? If your defense doubles, you won’t die from a minion’s attack.”

He was interested in what Vera had just said.

“If you are just defending your skin, you already have the force field,” Artlan said, and Junhyuk looked back at him.

In any case, he had put the force field around Artlan, and he was the one to deal with the minions. Junhyuk’ worried for a moment.

“If I double my power, can I slice through a minion’s armor?”

Artlan nodded.

“Of course, but if that minion has a defensive rune, you can’t.”

Junhyuk thought for a moment. He would be more offensive if he could crush the enemies’ armor. He was not too worried about defense since he could easily sense the enemies’ movements.

Also, Artlan’s speech lingered in his ear.

“A man needs strength. I will get this.”

Junhyuk pointed to a runestone for strength, and Vera lost interest and shrugged as she returned to Sarang. Sarang could not understand what was happening in that place and was busy looking around.

Junhyuk picked out what he would buy, and Bebe pushed the plate forward.

“Here.”

Junhyuk placed his hand on the plate, and the 1130G decreases to 130G. The 1000G meant that 1000 minions had died. He thought that the stone would only double his strength and he was not feeling so good about the price, but that was the only marketplace.

Bebe smiled and gave him a red runestone. He felt a strange energy coming from the stone and stared at it. Bebe asked him:

“You bought it, so do you want me to put it on? Installation is free, but taking it off costs money.”

“Costs money?”

“It takes a lot of energy to take a stone off. To take one off costs 50G.”

Junhyuk couldn’t keep his mouth closed at that price. Bebe smiled and looked at him.

“Installation is free. Where is your socketed item for attaching runestones?”

An item? It was the first time he heard about it. Junhyuk looked at Artlan, and Artlan told Bebe:

“It’s his first time making a purchase, so he doesn’t have it.”

“What? You didn’t tell him? You can’t wear a runestone on without a socketed item to attach it to.”

Junhyuk frowned. He felt like he had been completely duped and sighed.

“How much does a socketed item cost?”

Bebe closed the endless book at once.

“First, I will tell you more about runestones,” Bebe explained gently as he rested his elbows on the book. “Regardless of the level, there are three kinds of runestones with different installation procedures. You need to install the first one correctly to carry a second one.”

“They have to be installed differently according to their colors?”

“Correct. You learn fast,” Bebe continued calmly. “I’ve already told you about the stone levels, so I should tell you about socketed items.”

Bebe opened the book slowly. The pages spread and images appeared above them. Bebe continued: “As you can see, the socketed items come with space for wearing at least three colors with at least a three-time increase. At most, you can have thirty runestones, and the socketed item could enhance your runestone’s strength.”

“Enhance the runestone’s strength?”

“Of course! The lowest level socketed item has no enhancing capabilities, but the highest level socketed item increases the runestone’s strength by fifty percent.”

Fifty percent was a very high number. It would be very expensive.

In any case, he only had 130G and 29G in the bag in his chest. Junhyuk placed all the gold coins on the table.

“What can I buy with this?”

Bebe laughed hard.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha! With 159G you can’t even buy the lowest level socketed item. The cheapest item is 200G.”

If he hadn’t taken the language pill, he would’ve been able to purchase a socketed item. He felt that Bebe was being spiteful. Junhyuk was looking at Bebe when someone dropped 41G on the table. He looked at the dropped coins and turned to see Artlan. Artlan did not look back at him, but said:

“It’s my fault. I did not explain it all to you, so I will lend you that sum. Pay me back later.”

“Thank you.”

Junhyuk sighed, relieved, and looked at Bebe. Bebe pushed a pendant forward. The pendant had three sockets where one could place jewels. Junhyuk placed his runestone in a socket.

It wasn’t as complicated as he had expected. All he had to do was drop the runestone in the hole.

Bebe pulled out a leather string, laced the pendant and gave it to Junhyuk.

“I will say it again, you cannot remove the runestone out there. If you force it and try to remove it, you will break the stone, so come back here to do it.”

“I understand.”

Junhyuk put the pendant around his neck. As he put it on, the stone glowed. Then, the glow disappeared. He could feel his strength increase after he put it on.

Junhyuk made a fist with his hand. He could feel the energy on his fist. When he became a novice, he became stronger than the minions, but it could not be compared to what he was feeling at that moment. He could use his two-handed sword to slice minions.

Artlan looked at Vera.

“Do you need to buy anything?”

“No, but I will sell this.”

Vera was holding a jeweled necklace. Warren had left it behind when he died. She gave it to Bebe and asked.

“How much will you give me for it?”

“Let me see. Warren bought this just a short while ago. He won’t be too happy about this.”

“It’s like that. How much?”

“He bought it for 73000G. I will give you 36500G.”

“Fine. Deal.”

Bebe pushed the plate forward. Vera placed her hand on it, and Bebe spoke while operating the plate:

“Don’t you need new equipment? It’s about time.”

“I need to save some more. If I get it, I will rampage and devastate everything.”

“If you are lucky, just one. If you are unlucky, you’ll need to catch two heroes.”

“Yes.”

Vera stopped talking and looked at Artlan.

“What is your situation?”

“I need to kill just one more hero.”

“You have something from Grangsha. Didn’t you sell it?”

“I will just use it myself.”

“If you can, you should.”

Vera turned and looked at the minions.

“Does anyone have another 50G?”

The minions did not speak one word. They did not even know about the gold coins, and the surviving minions did not have that kind of large sum of money.

“You can’t even afford the lowest level potion, so you have no business here. Let’s go out.”

Junhyuk asked carefully:

“Can’t we rest here a little longer?”

“No. This place has a different flow of time from outside, but the difference is not large. We shouldn’t waste time here when we can hunt outside,” Artlan said coldly.

“If you want to pay me back, you should work hard.”

“I will work hard.”

He did not expect that Artlan would lend him the gold coins. In any case, he needed to pay Artlan back. Junhyuk thought about how to pay him back.

Artlan and Vera prepared to go outside when Junhyuk asked:

“What is our next plan?”

Vera answered him with a smile:

“If we were successful with our ganking, we were supposed to meet with Numara.”

“Numara came this time?”

“Of course. Right about now, Numara should be fighting hard at the watchtower.”

“Who is the opposing enemy?”

“Ellic, probably?”

After hearing Ellic’s name, Junhyuk got angry.

“The same Ellic who is angry at me?”

“Ha-ha-ha, correct. That Ellic who tried to kill you and got himself killed.”

He had survived because of his ten-second force field, but he still remembered Ellic’s furious eyes.

When Ellic targeted an enemy, he was crazy enough not to care about his own death in order to kill that enemy.

When the heroes were fighting in the frontline, Junhyuk stepped forward, and Ellic chased him for ten seconds and got killed. Junhyuk thought about him.