Chapter 87 – Magician’s Ivory Tower (8)

Highlander Franz nodded at Sungjin’s question.

“Yes... It most definitely said I could summon the chooser once a day...”

“So when the raid is over, go to the Black market. Once you activate the title, call for me. We can continue talking there. I’ll let you know about what’s going on.”

He tilted his head.

“But... Couldn’t you just tell me now? We have 50 minutes left...”

Sungjin shook his head.

“It is BECAUSE there are only 50 minutes left.”

“Excuse me?”

Sungjin frowned.

“Look, it will take a while for me to explain so let’s talk when we meet at the Black Market, okay?”

He still looked confused, but

“... Ok.”

He nodded for now. Sungjin took out the ‘Trollseeker Marble’ from his vest. This was the 10th floor where the Raid boss was. In other words, the perfect place to begin the search for Trolls. Sungjin immediately

‘Pursuit of Justice’

Wanted to use it, but he was interrupted by the ‘Green Magician’ and the ‘Mountain’.

“Excuse me... Adjudicator... Please choose me as well!”

“Me too... I need stats. Please baptise me!”

Sungjin looked at them. What a difficult situation. He only had one bottle left. He couldn’t use it on just anyone. Sungjin said to them

“I am sorry, but I can’t do this for everyone.”

They looked very disappointed.

“I am sorry.”

Sungjin was about to leave them, but once more

“Please reconsider.”

“I’ll... I’ll do anything.”

When they held on to him, he got an idea.

“Then... I’ll make a proposal. It is a difficult proposal...”

“What is it?”

Sungjin showed them the spiral pattern Ring on his left ring finger; the ‘Helix Ring’

“If you kiss this ring with a genuine and sincere submission towards me...”

Before he could even finish his sentence

“I’ll... I’ll do it.”

“Me too.”

They answered without hesitation. But the explanation was not over.

“I will baptise you when we meet again.”

This is what Sungjin thought. If the Holy water of Baptism cost 1 White coins each, there was no reason why he wouldn’t baptise them if they gave Sungjin the White Coin now.

‘They don’t seem to be bad people per se...’

But the ‘Green Magician’ felt suspicion.

“Next... time?”

“Yes, next time.”

The Mountain also tilted his head.

“When would that be...?”

Sungjin shrugged.

“I don’t know the answer to that. But, if you can continue to survive, we will eventually meet, don’t you think?”

Sungjin did not tell them about the ‘Power to go between dimensions’. They silently looked at each other.

“Then... We’ll go ahead and do it for now.”

“Me too.”

But there was one last hurdle to overcome.

“But if you kiss this ring, you’ll receive a permanent 10% reduction in coins received from Raid Rewards. Are you sure about this?”

“What?!”

“Excuse me?”

An expected reaction.

“No way...”

“He’s right! What are we supposed to do with 10% less coins? How are we supposed to survive the upcoming chapters?”

“That’s why I said it is a difficult proposition. But I can’t help it... This baptism is not something I can do without compensation.”

They fell silent. Sungjin said to them

“Then I’ll just take it that no one wanted to do it... I’ll excuse myself now.”

Sungjin prepared to leave. They wasted his time. But, Green Magician tried one more time.

“But... if so, why did you baptise the Highlander?”

‘I read his mind, and he was a good guy.’

He couldn’t say this. Sungjin gave a simpler answer.

“I liked his skill.”

At his words, the Green Magician closed his mouth. Using skill as an excuse, the Green Magician was unable to respond. Sungjin gazed at him as he said

“Pursuit of Justice”

And used the Trollseeker Marble.

[Dimensional Transfer Requested.]

A pillar of light came down upon Sungjin.

The Highlander and the others were shocked by what was happening. No surprise as this was probably their first time seeing it.

Usually, a message of ‘You must first receive your raid reward’ should have appeared, but this time he was already past the raid distribution.

[Request for Dimensional Transfer accepted.]

[Teleporting to the requested dimension in 10 seconds. 10, 9]

“What is this?”

The Green Magician, Mountain, and even the Highlander Franz came to touch the pillar of light which surrounded Sungjin.

But the light was like a thick glass which perfectly isolated the interior from the outside. They couldn’t reach inside.

[4, 3, 2]

Sungjin said to Franz in the last second.

“I’ll see you at the Black Market in a bit, friend.”

Franz nodded.

“Yes.”

Soon

[1, 0]

Sungjin was teleported; To the Dimension where trolls awaited him.

*

‘Woosh’

‘Shhew’

Two swords came at the same time. The ‘Overlord’ watched the path of the sword carefully and aimed to block both of them with his metallic shield.

But when he moved to defend, the red one of the two swords suddenly changed directions. An impossible movement. The Overlord opened his eyes wide.

‘How?!’

But it was already too late. The red sword cut deep into his undefended side.

“Ahh!”

The Overlord cried out in pain. He had never experienced such pain while fighting monsters, but the enemy before him, the ‘Adjudicator’ was too powerful.

With eyes filled with fear, he looked upon the ‘Adjudicator

“Please... Mercy! I’m sorry!”

He tried begging

“Just go take a rest in the purgatory.”

The ‘Adjudicator’ showed no mercy.

“Gragh!”

The Overlord’s head flew away while still inside of his favored helm as he was beheaded.

“Whew...”

The Adjudicator Sungjin immediately asked the Operator

“Operator, Time spent in this Dimension?”

[3 minutes and 12 seconds.]

Besgoro said

‘This was the fastest yet. A new record.”

It was his fourth dimensional jump after separating from the Highlander. He had beheaded four Trolls thus far.

“You’re right. It was because he was right next to where I was summoned...”

When Sungjin arrived, only the troll Overlord was left remaining. Despite having murdered a teammate, the Overlord was leisurely smoking a cigarette. So he was caught by Sungjin and lost his head.

Next to the corpse of the Overlord was the corpse of Lenin and the other Hunters. Sungjin glanced at them.

‘Two burnt to death, one frozen to death, one beaten to death... and the one I killed.’

Looking at their cause of death, it was easy to guess what had happened here. They just barely overcame the boss with two survivors when the Overlord decided to betray his comrade.

‘Blinded by greed of monopoly’

Their party had the worst of luck. But what could they do apart from blaming their fates? Then

‘Well that’s all good and all, but why are there only one each?’

Besgoro mumbled.

“Trolls you mean?”

‘Yes.’

“I know what you mean.”

Yes, in the previous raids, he had run into multiple trolls on several occasions. But this time there was only one Troll per jump.

“Well, it’s a good thing there aren’t many trolls though.”

‘But two trolls is double, and three trolls is triple the rewards.’

He was right. Sungjin walked over to pick up the items dropped by killing the Overlord. He thought as he placed the items into the cube.

‘Still, I can’t believe there was only one troll per raid... my estimated income... is lower than I thought.’

Not only Black Coins, but he also didn’t even have an opportunity to earn White Coins either. There were one or two hunters who were saved by Sungjin.

‘Thank you’

‘Thank you’

They had expressed their gratitude. But they didn’t do any more than that. Sungjin had tried his best to convince them

‘Hey did you guys manage to find the hidden piece?’

And even took them to the hidden location to give them 5000 stat points

‘But losing 10% in raid rewards is a bit...’

They refused to kiss the ring. The penalty was too large. Besgoro continued to complain.

‘How unfortunate that you can only receive raid reward once.’

Sungjin responded indifferently

“Yeah”

When he led the hunters to the hidden place after saving them, the magic hat said

‘Who are you’

‘Kei, Hunter. I just returned from killing Lenin.’

‘Lenin? You killed Lenin?’

He had acted as if he had never seen Sungjin before.

‘Then as a reward, I will give you my power.’

Although the event was the same, Sungjin did not receive anything in return.

It was just as the merchant in Darker than Black had said. ‘Reward distribution happens only once’. This also applied to hidden places.

“Well, I can’t help it. I guess I’ll just have to focus on beating up the trolls.”

‘Well yes... That’s certainly your specialization.’

Sungjin took a big stretch. There were no hunters left alive, so he had plenty of time.

‘Hmm, I guess I’ll check out my items now.’

The items he had received from troll hunting were no good, but the ones he had received from the reward distribution, the legendary class items, were good.

“Operator, give me the items I got from the distribution earlier. Not the Enhancement Stone though. There’s two.”

A ring and a smelly fruit came out of the Operator’s Cube. Sungjin picked up the Ring.

Chimerao – Ring of Fused Beasts

Legendary Ring

Active Skill

Magician’s Ice (IV) – Immune to Fire for 5 seconds.

Snake’s Serum (IV) – Immune to Poison for 5 seconds.

Lion’s Courage (IV) – Immune to Fear for 5 seconds.

Goat’s Fire (IV) – Immune to Ice for 5 seconds.

Shared Cooldown of 10 minutes.

Nature is designed by God. The ones who break the design

Will face suitable punishment.

It was good. The abilities were as expected of a legendary class item.

Sungjin had an immense physical advantage, but status effect spells often gave him a headache. With the spells he learned from the last round and with the title of ‘Iron Will’ he earned this time, he should be able to swing his sword without rest.

“Equip”

Sungjin put it on immediately. Now Sungjin’s fingers were getting full of rings. Only a few more fingers to go.

‘About time I need to start picking and choosing.’

Sungjin thought as he looked over to the smelly fruit lying next to him.

Merka – Pulp of Evolutionn/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Legendary Fruit

Passive

Rapid Growth (I)

Allows Spiritual Linked summons to undergo rapid growth.

If the creature reaches a ‘checkpoint’, it immediately evolves the creature.

A fruit that grows in a country to the south.

It speeds up bodily function and rapidly increases growth.

Sungjin stared at the information sheet.

‘Rapid growth... and evolution?’