Chapter 50 – Count Dimitri’s Castle Ruins (6)

‘Ding!’

Along with the sound of the bell, the five hunters arrived on the 2nd floor. The room still smelled of burning flesh. Sungjin took the lead and surveyed the room.

“Everyone, please search for a cocoon. There should be one hidden away somewhere around here.”

The four hunters began searching the surroundings. This was their first time looking carefully around the castle.

They weren’t able to earlier due to the time limit.

‘Cocoon... where could it be?’

Sungjin used the Blood Vengeance and the Moon Specter as a prod to check areas covered by spider webs. But there weren’t very many spots left. Spider webs were very flammable, and the entire room had been lit at some point.

‘Eternal Flames of Hell! Inferno!’

The spell Soldamyr had cast a few minutes ago was mighty to behold. It had caused collateral damage far exceeding what is possible with Fire Ball; It had turned the entire room into a scene from hell. Sungjin was worried.

‘Did... we accidentally kill him?’

Sungjin combed the whole floor, praying that he was wrong. Finally, Giovani called out to the others.

“Hey guys, look here!’

Everyone rushed to his side to see what he had found. He had found a small waterway. A small gap was put in between the stone to allow the water to flow freely.

The waterway flowed across the room and was designed to drain out of the room through a dark opening blocked by vertical metal bars.

“Operator, Lantern”

Peng Long took out the lantern from the cube and checked inside the opening. Sungjin recalled the small sewer he saw while chasing the Count’s bats.

“Sewer...”

“Please move aside.”

Sungjin pushed the others aside and used his two swords to slice open the metal bars of the waterway.

‘Cling clang’

Once the bars were removed, Sungjin made his way through the opening. The others followed suit.

The interior of the sewer was larger than expected. There was not a single drop of water on the walls or ceiling, only sticky webs. There were more webs the further they went in. It was an uncomfortable place, where invisible sticky webs would adhere to the face. But this gave Sungjin a sense of certainty.

‘This is it. We found it.’

The webs continued to get thicker and thicker. Sungjin had to use his swords to cut open a path and continued inwards. And deep within the webs was a gigantic cocoon.

It was a little smaller than a human being, but it matched the mental image of the Merchant he had in mind.

‘It’s most definitely that guy from before.’

Sungjin grinned as he cut open the Cocoon. Inside was an unconscious Ratman. The operator gave an announcement.

[Congratulations.]

[You have discovered the Hidden Merchant ‘Ruff Han’.]

‘A rat found in a sewer... How fitting.’

While Sungjin was thinking so in his mind, the other four hunters were surprised.

“Hidden Merchant?”

“Is it talking about the Ratman over there?”

Sungjin slapped Ruff Han across his cheeks twice. Not enough to hurt, but enough to snap the ratman awake. Ruff Han blinked twice as he woke up.

“Ugh... No. Nooo!”

Ruff Han began to scream as if having a nightmare. He then turned towards Sungjin and stammered.

“What? How did you... where... What about the spiders?”

Sungjin ignored him and said

“This is the second time I have saved your life. There are no more spiders. Now hand over the ‘good stuff’ you promised me last time.”

Ruff Han blinked a few more times. He looked at Sungjin, and also at the other hunters present.

“Ah... So that’s how it is. Well, Thank you, since you did save me...”

And then he turned around. There was a smaller Cocoon behind him. He ran up to the little Cocoon and gnawed away at the spider web there. Within the Cocoon was a cube that was a little different from the ones that followed the Hunters.

He lifted that up and said

“Well then... As a reward for saving my life, I will sell an item to each of you. Of course, it will be much cheaper than the prices you’d get in the Black Market. But, since this is a special discount, you can only buy one item each. Got it?”

Once he was done explaining, he began to take out items from the cube one by one. The hunters concentrated on the merchant’s hands. He took out a large variety of goods.

Gloves, shoulder pads, shoes, helm, necklaces, staves, axes, swords...the hunters picked them up one by one to check the specs. Peng Long was the first to find an item he liked.

Kaodum -Shooting Gloves of the ‘Hunter of the Dark’

Heroic Gloves Defense 10%

Passive Skill

Focus Fire(III) – Each third hit against the same target deals 300% of the normal damage.

Legendary Hunter of the Dark ‘Vyen’s’ Shooting Gloves.*

It is said that her hands never wavered while aiming an arrow towards her enemies.

“How much is this?”

“Ah, that’s worth 4400 coins in the Black Market. But I will sell it for 1600 coins, which is less than half that price.”

Everyone turned to stare at their conversation.

“Please let me get this. Operator, check out please.”

Ruff Han and Peng Long put their cubes together.

“Alright, Transaction complete.”

Ruff Han handed over the Archery Shooting Gloves. Peng Long received it and said

“Equip”

Once the gloves appeared on his hands, Peng Long smiled. He must have liked the gloves a lot. After all, he did just buy a heroic tier item for the low price of 1600 coins.

“Then we’re done with the archer... Anyone else?”

Giovani and Mahadas began looking earnestly through the items in front of them. The only ones who didn’t get into the shopping mood were Sungjin and Dominic. Sungjin had a good reason. In order to buy the item from ‘Darker than Black’, he had to save his coins.

Dominic just waited slightly off to the side. He just wanted the shopping to be over quickly. It was understandable.

Each moment the others spent shopping was cutting away at his remaining life. Sungjin glanced at Dominic before asking Ruff Han.

“Hey, do you have any item that can remove Curses?”

Ruff Han responded

“Ah... if you need curse removal...”

He rummaged through his rucksack. From within, he pulled out a luxurious necklace with a white diamond centerpiece.

Innocence – Angel’s Blessings

Heroic Necklace

Passive Skill

Magic Defense(II) – Receive 20% reduced damage from all sources of magic.

Active Skill

Purify(V) – Curses, fears, petrification and all forms of status effects and debuffs are removed. Cooldown 10 minutes.

Snakes avoid those with Angelic innocence

“But this is a little expensive. It’s almost Legendary tier item among the Heroic Tier. I assure you that this is a very good item.”

Sungjin nodded. 5th tier active, and an excellent passive. If anyone had no choice other than to buy it, it was Dominic Spencer.

“So how much is it?”

“2600. This is worth 6300 coins at the Black market.”

The item was being offered at nearly a third of the original price. Sungjin had thought that Dominic would buy it without hesitation. 2600 coins were a cheap price to pay for one’s life. But Dominic hesitated.

“...2600...”

Sungjin asked

“What’s wrong?”

Dominic answered.

“To tell you the truth... I don’t have enough money. 2600 coins...”

Everyone turned to look at him. Dominic lifted up his spear as he continued.

“This spear... I had been saving up for it and bought it as soon as I could afford it. It took almost everything I had earned so far to buy it. So... I am now left with only 1800 coins...”

Everyone froze. Sungjin quickly thought about it in his head.

‘2600... I have that right now but...’

Sungjin couldn’t afford to spare his coins right now. The Item he needed to buy from ‘Darker than Black would likely need all the coins he had currently plus most of what he would receive from the end of this Raid.

The Item was not a bad one by any means, but Sungjin already had the ‘Basilisk’s Eye’. ‘Innocence’ was not good enough to justify swapping Basilisk’s eye for it. Sungjin glanced at the others.

It was then that Mahadas spoke up.

“I will buy the item then.”

Everyone turned to look at him.

“This ‘Purify’ Skill, can it be used on others?”

Ruff Han nodded and answered his question.

“Of course.”

“Then please allow me to purchase it. I will pay 2600 Coins.”

The transaction was over quickly. Once Mahadas equipped the necklace, he placed his hands on Dominic’s forehead and said

“Purify.”

The Diamond necklace glowed for a moment and the hand touching Dominic’s forehead began to glow as well.

It was an extremely fitting image; a monk with his hands basked in purifying white light, healing another.

“Ooh”

Peng Long and Giovani couldn’t help but exclaim at the sight and watched with their mouths open.

But instead of Dominic or the hand, Sungjin was staring at Mahadas.

‘... Skilled...does not hesitate to sacrifice self to help others.’

Color returned to Dominic’s face. The ‘Vampire’s Blood Curse’ had been lifted. Dominic faced Mahadas and Sungjin and knelt on his feet; he put his hands on the ground and bowed deeply in the eastern style.

“Mahadas and Kei, both of you have saved my life. I vow to repay this debt someday.”

Sungjin indifferently received the thanks.

“Sure.”

To be honest, he didn’t think it was possible for Dominic to ever repay him in any form. Mahadas gathered his hands respectfully, befitting that of his status as a monk, and replied magnanimously.

“It was no big thing. If you truly wish to repay me, then please, do an act of kindness for others. I would be satisfied with just that.”

Dominic was now no longer under a time constraint, so the group no longer needed to rush. 1 hour was plenty of time to search for and kill the hidden boss. The shopping continued.

Giovani was torn between buying a pair of steel greaves versus a silver axe and finally decided on the former. It was the type of greaves that fired rockets to allow long distance jumps.

‘It can be used to escape when surrounded by enemies, or rush to an ally’s aid when they’re in danger.’

Ruff Han’s sales pitch won him over immediately. Dominic asked for and bought a ring worth exactly 1800 coins.

Although the ring didn’t provide nearly as much protection from spells as Mahadas’s ‘Innocence’, it was better than nothing.

In the end, the only person who did not buy anything was Sungjin. Before he closed up shop, Ruff Han offered him an item.

“Although you think poorly of me, I do have to repay my debts... so here you go.”

He muttered as he pulled out an item from his bag. What he handed over was not an item per se, but a ‘Mystery Pouch’.

“Someone completed ‘Ancient Stories from the East’, so the net worth has gone down a bit, but... I guess if you get one of the ‘East’ components, you can consider it to be a ‘bust’.

Ruff Han returned all the display items back into his sack and then stood on all fours.

“Then until next time! If there is another!”

He disappeared into the sewers.

TL Note

*Most likely a reference to Vayne, the League of Legends Champion.

Update on Main Character Hides His Strength. Hey all, as you know that the new novel is being translated by our new team, which is why we are going through the translation as well as a final check. 10 chapters have been translated and they will be released all together and we have gone through 5 till now. So we will need a bit more time and will try to release it asap(aiming for thurs-fri). Sorry about the delay, but we want to deliver our best so that you may have another pleasant read. Thank you