Inside an E-Rank Gate covered in dense forest—
An enormous meteor came crashing down.
[Fire(EX)'s possessed skill, 'Meteor(EX),' activates.]
KABOOOOOOOOOM!!
Nothing survived the impact of that overwhelming mass.
All that remained was an enormous crater gouged deep into the ground and the System messages floating above it.
[You have defeated 5,000 Blood Wolves!]
[Blood Wolf: 5,000/5,000]
[Blood Wolf Fang × 219 has been awarded!]
[Blood Wolf Hide × 235 has been awarded!]
[Blood Wolf Eyeball × 81 has been awarded!]
[Lowest-Rank Mana Stone(F) × 169 acquired!]
[Low-Rank Mana Stone(E) × 95 acquired!]
[Lower-Intermediate-Rank Mana Stone(D) × 11 acquired!]
[The Gate will disappear in 4 hours!]
[If you do not leave before it disappears, you will disappear along with it!]
Meteor was great in every way except for one thing.
Every time I used it, I ended up showered in an enormous cloud of dust and dirt.
Sometimes it even got into my eyes, which was incredibly irritating.
Carrying an umbrella did not help much either.
There was nothing I could do about it for now.
I could not stop clearing Gates just because it was inconvenient.
If I got the chance, I would have to find a proper solution.
I brushed the dust from my body and stepped out of the Gate.
"Is that the benefactor from the F-Rank Gates that Assistant Manager Kim was talking about?"
"I heard he even caught the Black Mask Killer, so he's pretty famous. You saw it yourself. He hasn't even been a Hunter for long, and he's already entering E-Rank Gates."
"But the difficulty jumps sharply starting at E-Rank, so clearing one should— Huh? Hunter?"
One of the Association employees chatting nearby noticed me and froze.
I had been inside for less than a minute.
For a moment, they assumed I had simply come back out without clearing it.
Then they noticed the Gate beginning to disappear.
"It's cleared? What the hell!"
"Whoa! At this point, doesn't this basically confirm he's the person setting all those new Tower records—"
"Have a good day."
I was used to reactions like this now.
Before the people around me started paying attention too, I quickly left.
'Are they going to figure it out?'
At this point, it would be stranger if they did not.
I had cleared F-Rank and E-Rank Gates one after another in absurdly short periods of time.
And if anyone dug a little deeper into my activities, they would find that I had cleared higher-ranked Gates and harvested materials from Gwanaksan as well.
It would not take long to realize that I was the same person setting all those new records in the Trial Tower.
'I should start preparing for that.'
It made me a little nervous, but it was actually a good thing.
If I negotiated properly—
I could obtain mountains of Mana Stones.
'And make a lot of money too!'
-Waaah! Waaah?! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) asks why you keep grinning like a pervert!]
[Fire(EX) tells you to stop smiling like that and hurry home!]
[Fire(EX) says he's exhausted because he used his skills too many times today!]
He was sprawled halfway inside the Spirit Shelter.
Even with the Spirit Shelter's recovery effect and complete recovery, he was still in that state.
Apparently, clearing twenty E-Rank Gates was exhausting even for the normally energetic Fire.
Still, thanks to him, I had finished by five in the afternoon, before dinner.
[E-Rank Gate: (20/20)]
[You have successfully fulfilled the condition!]
[Research has been unlocked!]
I would check it once I got home.
Both Fire and I were exhausted.
There were not that many E-Rank Gates to begin with.
Untouched E-Rank Gates were even rarer.
Even with Meld into Darkness as a movement skill, I still had to travel around constantly.
-Waaah! Waaah!
[Fire(EX) asks whether you can buy a tteokbokki, fried snacks, and blood sausage set from the market before going home!]
"You want to eat again? You must've really liked it."
Fire had eaten all the energy bars and snacks I had brought, so we had stopped by a market.
I had ordered a tteokbokki, fried snacks, and blood sausage set to serve as a quick meal, and apparently he had loved it.
If he wanted more, I might as well buy some.
It was not even expensive.
"But first! Namdaemun!"
-Waaah? Waaah!
[Fire(EX) complains that he's starving!]
[Fire(EX) asks how he's supposed to have any strength if he doesn't eat!]
"They sell food there too, so don't worry."
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says to hurry, then!]
Once I retired someday, I absolutely had to go on a food tour.
What kind of Spirit liked human food even more than Mana Stones?
I had already used all my charges of Meld into Darkness, so we traveled by bus.
"Young man, you're here again?"
"Haha, yes. Good to see you."
"What's the best thing here—"
"Hold on a moment."
"Come on, we got here first. Isn't that a little much?"
"Regular customers come first. If you don't like it, go somewhere else."
After visiting for nearly a week, I had somehow become a regular.
I sold all the monster byproducts I had obtained, including those from the Trial Tower, and used the money to buy Spirit Stones.
Since I had made quite a lot of money, I bought one higher-ranked Spirit Stone as well.
"A Low-Rank one is thirty million won."
"...That's three times the price."
"I'm giving you a one-million-won discount because you're a regular. Go somewhere else and check. They'll tack on at least another ten million."
I looked at the other shops.
She was telling the truth.
Some were charging fifty million won.
Money really did melt away.
More than half of what I had earned vanished in an instant.
That left me with a total of 95.08 million won.
I had thought I would finally break one hundred million today.
'Still, I should be able to move out of this studio apartment and into a villa soon.'
Fire would also grow faster.
And as expensive as it was, the effect certainly lived up to the price.
[Low-Rank Fire Spirit Stone(B) consumed!]
[Hunger fills 2.1 times faster than usual!]
[Hunger depletion is reduced by 2.5 times compared to normal!]
[Duration: 72 hours!]
'Three full days, and more than double the effect!'
It also filled 100,000 Hunger on its own.
-Waaah!!
[Fire(EX) says this is insanely delicious!]
Fire was completely satisfied.
He was even more impressed than when he ate an S-Rank Mana Stone.
Fine.
As long as you like it.
-Waaah!
[Fire(EX) says it's time to go buy the tteokbokki, fried snacks, and blood sausage set!]
Even after Namdaemun changed so much, it still had plenty of food.
I bought 300,000 won worth of tteokbokki, fried snacks, and blood sausage from the most famous place and headed home.
I quickly washed up, then took a bite of tteokbokki while it was still hot.
"Ahhh! That chewy, intensely seasoned carb goodness!"
The real star was the sauce.
It was thick, rich, and just spicy enough to make me keep eating without end.
Dip the fried snacks and blood sausage into it, and there was no better combination.
-Waaah……
[Fire(EX) gives you a thumbs-up and says the combination of tteokbokki, fried snacks, and blood sausage is pure bliss.]
I ate enough to fill my stomach, then gave the rest to Fire.
He immediately inhaled it like a vacuum cleaner.
It had become a familiar sight by now.
While he ate, I checked the newly unlocked Research.
There was no separate Status Window like the Spirit Shelter had.
Instead, a Research section had appeared directly beneath Possessed Furniture.
Looking only at the Research section—
❰Research: Stage 1❱
……Permanently reduces Hunger depletion by 1.1 times after acquiring Burning Stonewood (0/200), Blazing Cotton (0/50), and Lowest-Rank Mana Stone(F) (0/1,000) (Two other Research options available)
Apparently, only two Research options were currently available, and this was Stage 1.
Completing the Research in one stage would unlock the next stage.
Looking more closely, I could roughly tell just how many things could eventually be researched for Fire.
At minimum, there were thousands.
Possibly tens of thousands.
Among them, one thing caught my eye.
"You can craft Spirit Stones?!"
This must have been what Clone had mentioned before.
It was not even that far away.
Within a few years, I might be able to produce Spirit Stones myself.
For now, though, Research had only just been unlocked, so I had access to only two options.
One reduced Hunger depletion.
The other increased the amount of Hunger restored when consuming Mana Stones.
"I can start one right awa— Huh?"
The moment I checked the required materials, I froze.
I had thought materials were only used for furniture.
And Mana Stones were only for filling Hunger.
But something strange was sitting right in front of me.
Research consumed both materials and Mana Stones.
And an absurd amount of them at that.
"Is this some kind of joke? Why the hell do I have to gather so many things?!"
-I do not joke, Human. Please calm down.
"No, Clone, think about it. I'm already killing myself trying to fill Hunger, and gathering materials for furniture is already a nightmare. And Research combines both of those?"
-Such is life, Human.
"Damn it."
There was a reason he was the King of Fire Spirits.
Why did he need so many things?
Still, he gave me just as much in return.
If I did not do it, who would?
'If raising just one is this difficult, how hard is the next Spirit King going to be?'
Ah, whatever.
I would think about that when the time came.
The next one had not even appeared yet.
I needed to focus on what was in front of me.
With the materials and Mana Stones I currently possessed, I could complete one Research project.
I immediately started it.
[Burning Stonewood: (200/200)]
[Blazing Cotton: (50/50)]
[Lowest-Rank Mana Stone(F): (1,000/1,000)]
[You have successfully fulfilled the condition!]
[Research on permanently reducing Hunger depletion by 1.1 times begins!]
[00 : 59 : 59]
I needed to gather more Burning Stonewood too.
I had collected nearly seven hundred pieces, but after using them here and there, only around three hundred remained.
Why did so many things require the same materials?
"Research takes time too."
While I waited for it to finish, I decided to look up information about the Space Expansion Stone.
"Can't you just tell me?"
-I already informed you that I only provide basic information concerning the System, Human.
"Sigh. Fine."
In other words, I had to figure everything out myself.
Fortunately, I had the vast ocean of information known as the Awakened Community.
It was not difficult.
Just annoying.
Three materials were required in total.
Strong Stone, Microscopic Subspace, and one hundred D-Rank or higher Mana Stones.
It was simpler than I had expected.
Strong Stones and Mana Stones were easy enough to obtain.
"The problem is Microscopic Subspace."
That was the biggest obstacle.
It was the core material used in a Space Expansion Stone.
There were places where it could be obtained naturally, just like Gwanaksan.
No corporation had claimed exclusive ownership of the area either.
The government merely managed it, and entry itself was free.
So technically, I could obtain it myself.
The problem was that doing so was brutally difficult.
The location was a mountain near Gangnam Station.
It was not an ordinary mountain.
Like Gwanaksan, it had undergone a peculiar transformation.
Spirit-form monsters appeared there.
Anyone who entered without proper mental-strength skills or Items would often return half-insane.
People occasionally died as well.
And yet people still entered.
Because Microscopic Subspace appeared there frequently.
There were other places where it could be found, but nowhere had a drop rate as high.
That was why most people considered thirty million won expensive but still preferred buying one for safety.
"But once I add the forge commission, that's another five million. Why would I buy it?"
I was definitely going to find one myself.
I had Heart of Steel and Spirit-Blessed Body.
I would manage somehow.
I looked into other methods too.
Apparently, Microscopic Subspace could also be found inside Gates.
But—
"A-Rank?"
And only inside specific Gates at that.
Impossible.
No matter how powerful the King of Fire Spirits was, that was still a little much.
There were not many such Gates either.
The other methods were equally unrealistic.
Most were impossible for me at my current level.
That left only one answer.
I had no choice but to visit the place commonly known as the Haunted House.
There was nothing more to research, so I cleaned up after Fire and rested.
Then—
[00 : 00 : 00]
[Research on permanently reducing Hunger depletion by 1.1 times has been completed!]
[Hunger depletion is permanently reduced by 1.1 times!]
"Done. Let's see."
It seemed to have applied properly.
Combined with the Circulating Air Purifier, his Hunger depletion should now be reduced by a much greater amount.
Two more Research options had also appeared.
'Can't do them anyway.'
I lacked the materials.
I immediately gave up on them.
That was enough for today.
My eyelids were already beginning to droop.
After running around all day, it was only natural to be tired.
Being full made me even sleepier.
I entered the Spirit Shelter and fell asleep immediately.