Chapter 26 — A United Front (1)
T-MINUS 7 DAYS
A week before the first day at Millaes Academy.
At the moment, JaeHyun was at a department store that sold specialized items for raiders with Park SungJae.
The reason the two were at such a place was simple. Yoo Sung-Eun had said that she wanted to buy JaeHyun a congratulatory gift for entering Millaes Academy.
As a result, the two of them were moving around the department store with a gift card worth 100 million won. [1]
‘Though, it’s too bad that Teacher couldn’t come herself. Well, it can’t be helped.’
Yoo Sung-Eun, the actual person giving the gift, couldn’t come along due to some guild-related work. So JaeHyun had to come to the department store with just Park SungJae.
‘This looks good too… I think that would be useful to have as well, though?’
Because he was buying things he needed in such a manner, they had already used up half of their 100-million-won budget.
Park SungJae exclaimed in surprise at his frugal spending habits.
“…You’re really something. I didn’t expect you to buy things this thriftily…”
“Can you still keep going? Then, shall we go to the equipment corner now?”
JaeHyun said placidly.
The area he’d been looking around with Park SungJae was where ingredients related to potions and elixirs were sold. If they went up a few floors, they would reach the area selling equipment items.
Of course, anything he could buy with 50 million won would only be just a little better than the basic equipment given by Millaes Academy, but it was not like window-shopping would cost him money.
He planned to see what ranks the items sold at a high price in the department store were and what kind of effects were attached to them.
Pointing at the wish list on his smartphone, JaeHyun spoke.
“Then, that way…”
“J-Just a moment!”
Park SungJae spoke in an urgent tone. His voice was so loud that some shoppers around them all turned to face him.
But he himself put his hand in his blazer as if it had nothing to do with him, then took out his smartphone and put it to his ear.
“Yes. H-Hello? Yes. I understand. Such an emergency! I’ll be there right away.”
Ending the call and putting his phone back in his pocket, Park SungJae spoke while scratching his head.
“Ack, I’m so sorry… Something urgent came up at the guild, so I have to leave right now. If it’s alright, I’ll leave the card with the rest of the money in it with you and you can buy what you want by yourself…”
“Yes, well, that’s alright, but…”
“Oh! Then, I-I’ll be leaving first. Please contact me if you need anything.”
After saying those words, Park SungJae quickly left the department store. JaeHyun sighed softly and looked down at the card clasped in his hand.
He crossed his arms as he mumbled.
“No matter how exhausting it is, to be acting with his phone upside down… If it was too tiring, he could have just said so.”
Park SungJae had left after acting over the top blaringly, but the truth was that he’d simply escaped because of how exhausting roaming around the department store with JaeHyun was.
The amount left in the card he had tossed to JaeHyun was around 50 million won. Although he could still use the amount, now that Park SungJae had left, he was a bit unwilling to use it carelessly.
“It would be thoughtless of me to use all of this up, wouldn’t it? Alright. I’ll stop here and give the card back tomo—”
He’d planned to stop shopping at this point, but JaeHyun abruptly fixed his hold on the card.
‘No. I should still look around upstairs. One never knows.’
Vrrrrr.
Getting on the escalator headed to the next floor, he took out his phone and checked his messages.
Kim YooJung
<<Hey hey hey. Buy some Cledor today [2]
<>Just eat whatever I get, ok?
After replying quickly and arriving at the next floor, JaeHyun examined all the equipment as he went window-shopping. From swords, arrows and other weapons holding mana to armor, there was nothing that was missing.
The problem was…
‘Wh-What?! 300 million won?’
Each piece was priced outrageously high.
JaeHyun couldn’t even try to buy anything with the amount of money he had.
“Even if I use all the money I have, I wouldn’t be able to buy a single A-rank item. Of course, 50 million won isn’t a small amount of money, but… if it’s like this, I won’t be able to get high-ranked equipment unless I obtain it myself.”
It couldn’t be helped.
Even so, the number of equipment and magical tools a raider could use could be counted on one hand.
From there, the probability of getting one’s hand on an item higher than C-rank was very low.
‘In particular, the ones above A-rank can only be obtained from boss-monster drops or appraising unassessed items with low prospects, so the price is that much higher. It’s not that I can’t understand why it’s so expensive.’
It was at the level that, at the moment, JaeHyun couldn’t think about buying a B-ranked item with the money in his hand, never mind an A-ranked one.
Decent B-rank items could easily go for several hundreds of million won, so an A-rank equipment going for several billions of won was normal.
But JaeHyun didn’t pay it much heed.
From the start, JaeHyun hadn’t planned on purchasing an expensive item.
He’d only come to take a look and decide which item he would purchase once he had the money for it.
In all respects, he looked more relaxed than worried.
‘I truly realized from clearing the dungeon this time. I can now take care of E-ranked and D-ranked dungeons by myself without too much trouble.’
JaeHyun nodded slightly.
Some time ago, he had defeated the C-rank boss Night Shade in the Helheim dungeon.
Even among C-rank bosses, the Night Shade ranked pretty high up. If he sold the drops, he would probably get more than 1 billion won. [3]
‘In the country, the fraction of raiders who can defeat bosses C-rank and above is around 5%.’
Even among Millaes graduates, it could be recorded in the middle and upper ranks.
Although it hadn’t been that long since his return to the past, JaeHyun had succeeded in becoming a part of that tier by defeating the Night Shade.
‘Of course, the system was of great help…’
The Nornir System had been giving JaeHyun quests to help him actively grow stronger.
For example, the first quest he got gave him a blank card for simply recovering his HP,
and in his encounter with Hel, he received a new skill for clearing her trial.
All of this was probably to make JaeHyun quickly grow into his role as the Adversary.
‘It’s fortunate that we are currently making use of each other, but…’
JaeHyun thought for a moment.
Right now, the gods against the Aesir were helping him grow stronger since they had something they wanted from him. But what if he lost his use?
What would happen then?
JaeHyun gulped and analyzed his situation objectively.
‘They can throw me away at any time. I have to get stronger quickly. Enough so that even the system can’t touch me.’
JaeHyun decided to grow powerful enough that even they would think twice before going against him. And defeating the Night Shade this time was the first step toward that goal.
“…Now that I think about it, I still haven’t checked the items I got from clearing the dungeon.”
Because the past two days had been so busy, JaeHyun hadn’t had the time for it.
Since it would take quite a bit of time until he was issued an ID to use at the black market either way, he didn’t pay much attention to the loot.
But now that he remembered, he became curious about the performance of the items. Expectant, his eyes navigated through the system’s window and opened his inventory.
“Let’s check the first one, shall we?”
[Equipment Item]
Name: Shadow Armor
Rating: B
The armor that protected the Night Shade.
When equipped, the User gains the skill 《Stealth》.
[Effects]
Physical & Magic Defense +100 Acquires the Active Skill 《Stealth》.
[Active Skill]
Name: Stealth
Rank: B
Stat: –
Completely hides the user from enemy senses for 5 minutes.
Cooldown: 30 minutes
*If the enemy uses the 《Detection》 skill, the use time shrinks to 1 minute.
Reading the skill’s information, JaeHyun smiled elatedly.
‘Nice! A B-rank armor goes for at least several billions of won. Plus, the Active Skill 《 Stealth 》…
It’s famous for its usefulness.’
The 《 Shadow Armor 》 which he got from the Night Shade had better options than JaeHyun initially expected.
The Active Skill it came with played a special role in that.
Normally, equipment above B-rank had a low probability of coming with a skill attached. The chance of finding such an item was only around 2%.
But his first boss item drop had a skill attached.
‘My start’s pretty good, huh? Now, the next is…’
What he checked after that was the《 Night Shade’s Core 》.
It didn’t have much information and merely stated that it contained a concentrated amount of mana.
‘Normally, Core Items are sent to research centers where Magic tools are researched to generate a Mana Field.’
Since he was going to sell it anyway, JaeHyun quickly skimmed through the information before checking the last item.
The one he was most curious about among the three—
was a title which did not appear in the Aesir System.
[Title]
Name: The One Who Overcame the First Trial
Rank: B
Title given to the Adversary who completes the first trial given by Hel.
All Stats +10
***
“Fuck.”
A few people passing by frowned and turned around at JaeHyun’s words.
But he couldn’t help it. It was an item that increased all stats.
It would be stranger if he wasn’t in awe.
‘This is probably another trick from the Nornir System. Mimir… I don’t know what he’s playing at, but I should receive it gratefully for now.’
The corners of JaeHyun’s lips went up.
When he first returned to the past, the EX-ranked passive skill 《 One Watched by the Gods 》, which increased all stats, helped him grow stronger at a much faster rate than other people.
But to think that he got another item that could increase all his stats on top of that.
Wasn’t that like adding wings to his growth rate?
JaeHyun thought about it.
Until recently, nothing ever went this smoothly. Originally, before regression, JaeHyun was extremely unlucky.
But he could really feel that he’d become insanely lucky recently.
Manifesting the 《 Detection 》 skill at the right time at the Magic Shopping District. Easily obtaining a difficult-to-get item just like now.
JaeHyun assumed that all of this was related to the Nornir System.
From when he gained 《 Odin’s Lost Eye 》 at the beginning all the way up to now.
The gods against the Aesir, including Mimir, were giving him items and skills to help him quickly grow stronger.
“Okay. That’s all good. Items and skills are all good. They’re all good, but…”
But he was seized by a single worrisome detail. He crossed his arms and sighed with an uneasy expression.
“None of the Weapon Items suit me is the thing.”
The other day, as Yoo Sung-Eun was teaching him, she told him that an ordinary Magician raider’s equipment did not suit him.
JaeHyun had also felt that punching with his fists was more familiar to him than waving a staff around.
‘I’ve managed until now with 《 Mana Weapon 》 since it’s a skill that assists physical attacks, but how should I move forward?’
He couldn’t just use items meant for Warriors. If both Magician and Warrior equipment did not fit him, he would just have to find another way.
“Ha, really… This is a bit of a conundrum. Even if it’s fine in low-ranking dungeons, it would be difficult to fight in a high-ranking one without a weapon. Even an item that would increase my Magic would be fine…”
As JaeHyun was thinking so—
Whoooo-oong…
“Huh? What’s this?”
He heard a mysterious vibrating noise.
It wasn’t coming from his smart phone. JaeHyun furrowed his brow.
‘Is this… a system alert?’
Together with the mysterious vibration, he heard a system notification.
一《Odin’s Lost Eye》 is resonating with an unappraised item.
JaeHyun narrowed his eyes. The system was leading him somewhere.
The destination was the shop window right in front of where he was standing.
Inside the shop, he could see an unappraised item hanging on the wall.
JaeHyun’s intuition was telling him that was the item resonating with 《 Odin’s Lost Eye 》.
He hurried into the shop.
Whoooo—oooong…!
As he got closer, the vibration from the system started to become more intense. Wanting to check the item, JaeHyun talked to the shop employee.
“Hello. I would like to take a look at that item.”
“Oh, yes. Just a moment, please.”
A robotic answer was given. The female employee didn’t seem very happy to see JaeHyun.
Oh well. He was a pretty young customer, and he wanted to take a look at an unappraised item that was hard to sell. It was truthfully difficult to avoid feeling annoyed in such a situation.
A moment later, she brought the item and put it down in front of JaeHyun.
“Here it is. But this item is unappraised… and there’s a problem with it, so I don’t really recommend buying it.”
“What kind of problem?”
“Although it’s an unappraised item, appraisal skills don’t work on it. That’s why it’s sold in such a state. You have to keep that in mind if you wish to buy it.”
An unappraised item that couldn’t be appraised.
It was honestly an antique that couldn’t be made sense of.
As he had experienced at Re-Enew, unappraised items were a very big gamble. If you did well, it would be great. If you failed, you would be throwing money away. It was a very addicting gamble.
But would there be a person who would buy a lottery ticket that didn’t have the possibility of winning?
It was also a bit strange that such an item was being sold in a shop at a department store.
“Plus, it’s being sold at quite a high price of 50 million won… I personally wouldn’t recommend it.”
The salesgirl seemed to think that JaeHyun wouldn’t buy this item.
On the other hand, JaeHyun fell into deep thought.
‘Just looking at it, it seems like a scammer brought the item in… but the system is reacting to it quite strongly. Ha… what the hell is this?’
Although he was worried, JaeHyun had already made up his mind.
Thinking about it, the system had not failed him even once.
The price of the unappraised item was exactly how much he had left.
‘Should I buy this… or should I not…’
As he was worrying over something that was already decided—
Whoooong…!
The vibration became fiercer, and an Item-Information window popped up together with the system alert.
一 The skill 《Detection》 has been invoked automatically.
一 Appraising the item…
一 Equipment Item 《Mistilteinn》 has been successfully appraised!
____
