Chapter 452: Chapter 451 - New Opponents 3

Junhyuk stared at the boots in wonder. He didn’t know how powerful they were since he was on Earth, but they had been made from red dragon scales, so they were sure to have high defense.

“Have you tried them?”

“They increase my movement speed, but I don’t know about any other buffs.”

Junhyuk stared at the pair of red boots and muttered, “By the way, you made this out of red dragon scales, so they probably have some type of fire attribute to them.”

“Well, I’ll keep hoping. We’ll be summoned tomorrow.”

“It’ll be your first battle as a champion!”

“Yes.”

“You’ll have five lives, but you don’t have to place yourself in danger all the time.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Elise pointed up with her finger, and Moon Core appeared. “I have given it a stealth ability.”

Then, she started unbuttoning her blouse one button at a time.

“What are you doing!?”

She smirked and said, “I want to show you this.” Elise quickly pulled off her blouse. She had a red dragon mail underneath her clothes.

Junhyuk smiled bitterly, and she asked, “Did you want to see something else?”

He didn’t want to joke with her anymore. If he kept it going, Elise might end up taking the red dragon armor off.

“Do you always wear it?”

She nodded.

“It has an attack buff, so even without fire attacks, it works just fine. My boots might have a similar buff.”

“You aren’t going to sell those?”

“Superior items shouldn’t be sold. Selling them would be a loss.”

Junhyuk was selling his items, but Elise wanted to keep hers.

“That’s well thought.”

“Also, I made this with the remaining ingredients.”

Elise pulled out another pair of long boots, and he smiled at her.

“You made two pairs!”

“I’ll need more than one.”

“Sure. Anything you say.”

Junhyuk took the other pair and inspected it.

“It’ll be nice if these sell for a good price.”

“Maybe. They’re not much, but a lot of materials went into them.”

The boots were about half the size of the red dragon mail armor, so Junhyuk was wondering how many resources she had used on them.

Smiling, Elise said, “Different items require different amounts of ingredients.”

She was crafting equipment quickly, so Junhyuk thought they could both make a lot of gold. Now that he had Aksha’s Longsword, he wanted another piece of the Vampire Lord set. While he thought about that, Elise smiled.

“OK. I won’t be making any more of the boots. With the extra time I’ll have, I’ll focus on making more Red Dragon Mail.”

“By the way, you should talk to Sarang about Vera’s orb crafting recipe. It should help you.”

“She’s crafted something from the dragon’s heart already?”

“Yes.”

Elise got up and put on her lab coat, saying, “I won’t be able to focus on the Red Dragon Mail if I look at other recipes.”

“That’s fine.”

Junhyuk didn’t need more gold immediately. It was better to plan for the future. Elise walked up to him and hugged him tightly.

“Thanks,” she said.

“I should be the one thanking you.”

Junhyuk caressed her back, and she distanced herself and said, “Then, next time, even if I’m here, pretend that I’m not.”

She waved to him and left.

With a bitter smile, Junhyuk muttered, “The dark circles under your eyes make you look like a panda. You aren’t that alluring.”

—

Friday morning.

Junhyuk heard a knock on his door. When he opened it, he was surprised by the people on the other side.

“What are you doing here?”

“We want to go with you.”

Elise and Sarang were the ones who had knocked.

“Why did you come to my room?”

“I heard Elise went with you last time!”

He smiled bitterly and asked again, “Why are you both here now?”

“We’ve already told you.”

Junhyuk sighed and relented, “Nothing we can do now. Come in.”

He stepped aside, and Sarang rushed into the room. Elise took her time and walked in elegantly.

Junhyuk shook his head and said, “We still have time. How about some tea?”

“Sure.”

He brewed the tea and served it with snacks. By 8 a.m., they were ready to be summoned. But, nothing happened.

They stared at each other and, at 8:02 a.m., they sat down, and Junhyuk called Ariel.

“Ariel?”

[Yes. Why are you contacting me?”]

“Why haven’t I been summoned?”

[Your team has advanced, so your new summoning time is at 10 a.m. your time.]

Junhyuk clutched his head with both hands and remembered Artlan having explained that to him in the past.

“Wait. Isn’t our team supposed to skip a round after advancing?”

[There are more teams now, so there is no need for that.]

“We’ll be summoned at 10 a.m.?”

[Correct.]

“OK. See you in a bit.” Junhyuk shook his head after the call and turned to the two women, saying, “We’ll be summoned at 10 a.m. now. What do we do until then?”

“Yeah?! We have extra time!” Elise smiled and stretched her hand out to Sarang. “I have the recipe, but I haven’t seen it yet. Can you show me your orb?”

“Here,” Sarang said.

Elise inspected Sarang’s orb in detail, and Junhyuk listened to them talk about magitek. The two of them could talk for hours, so time passed quickly. Because he didn’t understand what they were talking about, Junhyuk didn’t butt in.

He closed his eyes and thought about Aksha’s Longsword. That way, he spent the extra couple of hours entertained.

The blinding light disappeared, and he saw the room he was used to. Looking around, he smiled bitterly this time and said, “This place needs some decorations.”

He was always summoned there, and it was always blank.

[You’ll find decorations at Bebe’s store.]

“It’s fine,” Junhyuk answered before summoning all of his items. “Can you tell me about our new opponents?”

[I don’t have a lot of information, but I’ve heard that they won their previous round with ease before advancing to this tier.]

“Yeah?”

Without pushing for more information, he walked out in a hurry. Once he stood at the exit, Ariel gathered her hands around her mouth and shouted, [Hero Junhyuk Lee deployed!]

The doors opened for him, and he walked outside. The minions were in a group, and far from them, were the allied heroes talking to each other. Junhyuk headed toward them, and the heroes continued their conversation.

They had heard Elise was a champion now, so they were all genuinely happy for her. When Junhyuk joined the group, Gongon turned to him and said, “Elise is a disciple of mine, and she’s activating her powers at tremendous speed!”

He laughed and replied, “Right! It’s all thanks to you, Gon.”

Magic had nothing to do with Elise being a champion now, but she was learning about it. Smirking, Gongon turned to Elise and asked, “Are you coming with me?”

“No,” Junhyuk said while shaking his head. Elise would go with him that time.

Everyone looked at him, and he said, “She’ll be able to use her full potential with me.”

“Yeah?” Gongon stared at him for a moment, but finally nodded. “Your powers are more suited for support.”

Junhyuk agreed with the hatchling—his powers were more geared toward support—and he said, “Can I take the middle today?”

Whoever took the middle couldn’t go alone. The allies would clear the buff tower and take down the buff monster at the nearby forest.

Junhyuk turned to Sarang, who now had a new weapon, and said, “Sarang, you should come with me as well.”

“Sure.”

“Just like last time, Layla and Rodrey, you head right. Gongon, you go left.”

“I’m going alone?”

“You should be enough even by yourself.”

“I know,” Gongon said, stretching his claws. “Then, let’s head out. I want to take two hundred minions with me.”

Junhyuk thought about it and said, “We don’t know anything about our enemies, so taking that many minions could be dangerous at first.”

The hatchling shrugged and replied, “Then, I’ll take a hundred. I’m leaving first.”

Gongon took the hundred minions with him and left. Layla and Rodrey headed out as well. Junhyuk lined up a hundred minions and moved out with Sarang and Elise. They took the main road toward the mountaintop.

Junhyuk turned to Elise and said, “I’ll tell you when to use your nullification field.”

“Sure.”

“What are the stats on your new orb?” he asked Sarang.

In the Dimensional Battlefield, they could find out the real stats of the items they were carrying, so Sarang lifted her orb and said, “It has a basic magic attack of five hundred with a 5 percent buff to fire damage.”

Junhyuk though Bebe would pay around 100,000G for it.

“We’ll ask Bebe to price it. You might want to upgrade it.”

“Sure. Basic upgrades don’t fail, and Vera said she’d reimburse me for them.”

“OK. Elise, what about your weapon’s damage?”

Elise stared at Moon Core and said, “Magic and physical attacks are set at 550, and it has an ability.”

“An ability?”

“It’s an area-of-effect attack.”

“What does it do?”

Elise smirked and said, “I’ve checked it already. It can fire a blast at double the damage.”

Stunned, Junhyuk asked, “Double the damage?”

“Yes.”

Junhyuk stuck his tongue out. He didn’t know whether weapon abilities would count as powers, but Moon Core’s ability certainly fell into that category. He hoped Moon Core wouldn’t suffer from that.

“We need to upgrade both weapons.”

Elise’s orb’s attack stat was just about the same as Sarang’s. On top of that, she had her nullification field. Her weapon felt very much like a legendary weapon. It was weak in comparison to his, but that was because she hadn’t upgraded it yet.

After the upgrades, Elise’s weapon would deal absurd damage. It might even turn into a legendary item in the future. Junhyuk knew that Elise’s powers could very well turn her into a legend later.

“Let’s ask Bebe about its price as well.”

They had the cores, so they could make new weapons. The next weapon they made, they would sell.

Junhyuk had already heard stories of weapons made with artificial cores that sold for hundreds of thousands of gold. Were those weapons legendary items now? He wanted to know more about them.

They talked about many things as they walked. When they reached the zenith of the mountain, they saw their enemies climbing it from their side.

There were three heroes and two hundred minions. They outnumbered the allies, but Junhyuk still wanted to fight them now.