Yoo Jeong-tae immediately summoned a professional Appraiser stationed at the Hunter Administration.
The Appraiser examined the black armor from every angle before reacting in astonishment.
“Th-This is truly an incredible item. Of all the items I have appraised, I would say this suit of armor ranks among the top three.”
The Appraiser proceeded to give Commissioner Yoo Jeong-tae and the other employees a detailed explanation, and they appeared equally shocked by what they heard.
According to the appraisal, the armor was worth at least one trillion won.
Even Jeon Jae-woo nearly fell backward when he heard the price.
‘Whoa. I thought I heard that wrong. This thing is worth that much?’
Afterward, Jeon Jae-woo decided to sell the armor through the Hunter Administration.
Whether through an auction or a private transaction, the Hunter Administration would sell it to a South Korean Hunter who needed the armor and pass the proceeds on to the person who had provided the Magic Tool.
The buyer might be affiliated with the Hunter Administration or perhaps a Hunter belonging to a major Company.
Either way, the armor would end up in the hands of a Korean Hunter.
The price was an astonishing one trillion won, but that did not make it completely unaffordable for the highest-ranking Rankers, whose personal fortunes were measured in the trillions.
Tank-Type Hunters in particular would probably be willing to spend their entire fortunes to get their hands on it.
After finishing the paperwork and signing the documents, Jeon Jae-woo shook hands with Yoo Jeong-tae.
“Hunter, thank you sincerely for beginning a business relationship with the Hunter Administration.”
“Not at all.”
“If you ever require the Hunter Administration’s assistance in the future, please contact us at any time. I will do everything within my power to help you.”
There was really no need to go that far.
Yoo Jeong-tae seemed considerably relieved after Jeon Jae-woo said he intended to sell the armor.
Naturally, the most important part of clearing a Ruin was not the record of the clear itself, but the rewards, resources, and items obtained from within.
And the fact that Jeon Jae-woo was willing to trade an item from a Legendary-grade Ruin through the Hunter Administration suggested that he viewed his relationship with the organization positively.
It was unfortunate that he refused to join any organization, but as long as he was willing to trade the resources and items from his Ruins through the Hunter Administration, that would be enough.
“Ah, actually, I acquired another Common-grade Ruin the day before yesterday.”
Yoo Jeong-tae’s eyes widened.
“You cleared a Common-grade Ruin as well?”
“Yes. But with my abilities, it is difficult for me to remove the resources from the Ruin, so I would like to commission the Hunter Administration to handle that.”
Yoo Jeong-tae broke into a broad smile and vigorously shook the hand he was still holding.
“Why, of course. Just call us whenever you need anything. I will send people over immediately.”
A Ruin that yielded only one or two Magic Tools as rewards was one thing, but a Ruin containing resources on a massive scale could not be harvested by one person alone.
He could hardly bring the entire golden palace into the real world.
Jeon Jae-woo had already tried asking Myeolgeop to break apart a reasonable portion of the golden palace and bring it back.
-BOOM! CRASH!
[Creator. I apologize.]
Most of Myeolgeop’s attack methods either melted the gold outright or reduced it to powder.
‘…This is not going to work.’
It would be better to give the Hunter Administration or another company a share of the profits in exchange for handling the extraction and sale of the gold.
And so, Jeon Jae-woo also signed a contract with the Hunter Administration transferring the mining rights to the Old Golden Palace Ruin before returning home.
***
After completing his registration and returning home.
Jeon Jae-woo received his newly issued Hunter Registration Card.
Under the grade section, the word ‘Transcendent’ was written in bold terms.
‘I am officially the highest-graded Hunter in the country now.’
Fortunately, no major commotion had broken out at the Hunter Administration.
Commissioner Yoo Jeong-tae understood that Jeon Jae-woo disliked attention and promised to take measures to keep the matter from becoming public knowledge.
There was little benefit in exposing the identity and whereabouts of an unaffiliated Transcendent-grade Hunter anyway.
However, even though Heaven’s Box was his own Trait, there was still a great deal that Jeon Jae-woo himself did not understand about it.
There was, however, one thing he had become certain of.
Something as powerful as Myeolgeop was not going to appear easily.
Thinking back on it, the fact that merely dumping a pile of soil into the box had produced a Golem like Myeolgeop was the result of odds far lower than the miracle(?) of being struck by lightning thousands of times at once.
There was something Jeon Jae-woo had been thinking about even more than the fact that he had awakened and obtained a Transcendent-grade Trait.
He needed something capable of protecting him.
If he continued working as a Hunter, attracting attention in one way or another was inevitable.
He might encounter all kinds of dangerous situations, and he needed a reliable way to ensure his own safety when that happened.
Of course, Myeolgeop alone possessed tremendous combat power and displayed absolute loyalty toward him, calling him Creator.
Even so, relying exclusively on a single Golem made him somewhat uneasy.
After returning home, Jeon Jae-woo experimented by placing several more objects into Heaven’s Box.
They were nothing remarkable—just a sheet of plain white paper from his apartment, some clothes lying around on the floor, tap water, and the like.
Deep down, he had probably hoped that something on Myeolgeop’s level would appear again.
When he placed those materials inside and closed the box, their properties were indeed enhanced.
The tap water was transformed from ordinary water into water packed with nutrients.
The paper turned into gold-leaf paper.
And the clothes he had bought for ten thousand won at a neighborhood market were transformed into garments made from extremely expensive fabric.
But none of them could be called particularly special from a Hunter’s perspective.
‘I just wasted opportunities to use the box.’
Apparently, he could not simply press a button and effortlessly reap enormous benefits. It seemed he would have to put real effort into obtaining valuable materials.
Of course, from the perspective of ordinary Hunters, even this much would probably still qualify as effortless.
As an aside, when he placed the same kind of flowerpot soil inside again, it produced fertile soil instead of a Golem.
Apparently, enhancing the properties of a material did not mean that something like Myeolgeop would emerge every time.
Unless he intended to do nothing but gamble against impossibly low odds, he would have to prepare properly from now on.
‘But where am I supposed to get good materials? What even counts as a good material to put inside the box?’
Seeing his Creator pondering the matter, Myeolgeop quietly offered some advice from beside him.
[If you wish to create something useful, you should prepare materials imbued with Mana, regardless of what they are.]
Right.
If the materials contained no Mana to begin with, it would be difficult to produce something useful to a Hunter.
Myeolgeop also added that it would be better to place several different types of materials inside together rather than using only one.
Depending on the combination, the resulting product could vary drastically.
‘I will figure that part out gradually as I keep using the Trait.’
Still, for some reason, he had a bad feeling that he would never produce another item as extraordinary as Myeolgeop.
It felt as though he had used up all his luck when Myeolgeop appeared.
So what should he do now?
Should he go to a Dungeon like an ordinary Hunter and obtain some monster corpses?
At that moment, Myeolgeop stepped forward with another suggestion.
[If you are seeking materials to place inside the box, I believe it would be better to select another Ruin.]
“Another Ruin?”
Entering another Ruin certainly would be the best method.
Ruins overflowed with resources vastly superior to monster corpses.
Monster corpses were also important resources in the modern Hunter industry, but they could not compare to the natural resources found exclusively within Ruins.
There was certainly the tantalizing possibility that he might create something extraordinary.
However, one concern remained.
Jeon Jae-woo glanced at his Golem and asked.
“Are you going to be all right? You have fought twice in only a few days. You do not have any defects or anything, do you?”
Other Golems required lengthy periods of recharging after being used several times, much as humans needed rest to recover their stamina.
Myeolgeop, however, responded as though the matter were completely inconsequential.
[At present, I have no defects that would interfere with combat operations. You may rest assured.]
Perhaps because it was the ultimate combat weapon, it really was different from ordinary Golems.
It had fought so much, yet it did not even get tired. Almost like some kind of machine.
‘Ah. Right. It actually is a machine.’
Jeon Jae-woo cleared his throat and opened the Ruin System window.
“All right. Let us do that. Which Ruin would be good to clear this time?”
[Ruins Currently Available for Entry]
Legendary Grade – Wings of Freedom, Castle in the Sky, Room of Love, Grave of Swords…
It was not that Jeon Jae-woo doubted Myeolgeop’s abilities, but sending a single individual to clear an Ancient-grade or higher Ruin still seemed a bit much, did it not?
He also wanted to avoid drawing everyone’s attention again, so it would probably be better to avoid Legendary-grade Ruins as well.
On the other hand, clearing another Common-grade Ruin seemed beneath them(?) at this point, so perhaps they should find something suitable among the Rare-grade Ruins.
Just then, Myeolgeop stared at the list with him and pointed to one entry.
[Creator. What do you think of this Ruin?]
“?”
Jeon Jae-woo checked the name of the Ruin Myeolgeop had indicated, then immediately grimaced.
The Ruin was called ‘Grave of Swords.’
And just like before, it was a Legendary-grade Ruin.
From the name alone, it sounded like something related to death, which probably meant Undead monsters would appear there.
‘I hate Undead.’
Jeon Jae-woo found other monsters frightening as well, but he especially hated Undead.
Was it not deeply terrifying simply to see something that was no longer alive moving around with a will of its own?
First the Altar of the Apostle of Death, and now another Ruin associated with death.
‘Does this thing have some particular fondness for Undead monsters?’
Jeon Jae-woo cautiously asked Myeolgeop.
“Is there a reason you chose this Ruin?”
[You appeared to show considerable interest in the Skeleton Knight last time, so I thought an Undead corpse might serve as useful material.]
No.
He had only reacted so strongly because he was shocked that Myeolgeop apparently fought a Skeleton Knight and won.
Still, Jeon Jae-woo accepted Myeolgeop’s recommendation.
It must have had its own reasoning for recommending the Ruin to its master.
His only concern was that clearing another Legendary-grade Ruin would attract everyone’s attention again.
‘Whatever. I should stop worrying about it. By now, other countries will be starting their full-scale Ruin clears anyway, so it probably will not stand out that much.’
Drawing attention was certainly uncomfortable, but his own interests should still come first.
If he combined monster corpses and resources from the Ruin and placed them inside the box, perhaps he might even be able to create an Undead Knight King like the one Myeolgeop had mentioned.
“Then shall we go?”
[Will the Creator accompany me as well? We do not know what dangers may arise within a Legendary-grade Ruin. Would it not be preferable for you to remain comfortably at the base and leave the fighting to me?]
Jeon Jae-woo firmly shook his head at Myeolgeop’s concern.
“I think being beside you is probably the safest place I could be anywhere. Besides, I need to get used to Ruin environments myself. If I keep trembling in fear every time, I will never grow.”
[…I will obey your command.]
And so, the moment Jeon Jae-woo entered his second Legendary-grade Ruin in search of new materials—
-DING
A notification window from the Ruin System appeared before his eyes.
[‘Grave of Swords’ Exploration Requirement: Lay to rest all guardian spirits that wander even in death, unable to leave the swords they once protected. (0/138)]
…It seemed this Exploration Requirement was not going to be easy either.