5. The Black Market
Because great war had been walled off, Floor 1 <El Land> was always peaceful.
But where the light is bright, the darkness grows deep.
Precisely because there was no war at all, the Black Market, which sold every kind of item, was able to thrive and survive all the more.
"The Black Market? There's no way such a thing exists."
"That's just an idle rumor. Nonsense spread by people trying to slander Floor 1, or by suckers who got hit with some strange illusion magic."
"If anything like that existed, huge guilds like <Light Bringers> or the <Martial Alliance> would have wiped it out ages ago."
Most players treated it as a tall tale, but the underground auction house definitely existed.
'Because I used it plenty.'
The biggest commodity the Black Market handled was, in the first place, 'information.'
Before the regression, Lee Jin-hyeok had made steady use of a good many of the information guilds there.
Not only during the five years he lived on Floor 1, but while climbing the Tower as well, using them consistently whenever he needed information.
So he knew their workings and their unspoken laws too.
'Right now I have neither reason nor points to use an information guild.'
Fiddling with the <Burning Frost>, Lee Jin-hyeok muttered to himself.
'I'll grow this one quickly and leave.'
As for the little gaps to slip into the Black Market through, he knew dozens.
'Here it is.'
Arriving at a back alley where few people passed, he stamped on the ground in the set pattern, and a door opened.
RATTLE.
Following the stairs that were revealed, he came out onto a street full of nightlife.
Artificial neon signs and glowing substances, in contrast with the warm sunlight.
A sweetish scent mixed with smoke of unknown origin drifted from every side, and those who met his eyes looked him over with eyes gleaming with greed rather than caution.
The shadow of Floor 1.
The Black Market.
"Hey, pal! Come over here and have a drink. We've got plenty of powder that's good for you, too. Heh heh heh heh."
"Brother! Is a woman like me not to your taste?"
"You there. Are you interested in a ticket that will pass you through the Floor 2 trial on the spot?"
All kinds of people latched on to him.
The best way to get past them was simply to ignore them.
Acknowledge them even slightly, or pretend to be interested, and they clung on tenaciously.
'Unchanged. This place.'
Walking on through the Black Market like that, the place he wanted came into view.
<We buy, we sell, we repair. We do it all for you.>
"Heh heh heh. Young man. Keep just this one thing in mind."
Just as he was about to walk in without hesitation, an old man caught hold of Lee Jin-hyeok and spoke.
"There are no fixed prices here, no fixed goods, no fixed possibilities. If you have points, you can buy and sell anything."
"......."
"The only law of this place is that whoever gets fooled is the one at fault."
'He knows it well.'
With the old man's words as the last of it, Lee Jin-hyeok looked over the weapons.
"Come in! Come on in!"
Just like the clothes being sold in the Dongdaemun Market he used to go to long ago, equipment items of every kind were laid out.
"Hey! Stop right there!"
"Don't you know you have to pay points to check an equipment item's information?"
"This is Epic grade, Epic grade!"
Bastards passing off items anyone could see were Common grade as Epic grade.
And bastards who demanded points just for wanting to check an item's information.
'And even if you check it that way, there's no chance the effects listed are accurate.'
Most of the items here had the <False Oracle> skill applied to them.
<False Oracle> was a skill that faked an item's effects for a set period of time.
In a place where fleecing someone was more common than eating a meal, it was only natural.
'In the Black Market this is everyday business.'
CRACKLE......
A place with equipment items lined up in rows.
Looking this way and that, Lee Jin-hyeok fixed his eyes on one spot.
"You've come? The goods here are excellent."
Sure enough, a merchant came over at once to fleece him.
"It's a Rare grade item. It's cracked a little, but it does its job just fine on its own."
"......."
"Still, since it has a flaw, I'm selling it cheap, real cheap. Here! Only 100 points!"
"May I take a look at them for a moment?"
"Ah, of course. You look like a beginner, so I'll let you check them for free, as a special favor."
'To think checking an item's information counts as special treatment.'
With a bitter smile, Lee Jin-hyeok examined a few items.
'Well, false information doesn't matter. It only has to be related to chill.'
[You check the item <Frost Giant Hide>.]
[You check the item <Glorious Ice Knight's Gauntlets>.]
[You check the item <Undine Pendant>.]
Just as the man said, they were all Rare grade items, but Lee Jin-hyeok knew perfectly well that this was false information.
So why was Lee Jin-hyeok checking them and putting them back down, knowing they were lies?
There was a reason for all of it.
[The item <Burning Frost> absorbs chill.]
[The item <Burning Frost> absorbs chill.]
[The item <Burning Frost> absorbs chill.]
That was right.
Lee Jin-hyeok was using <Burning Frost> to absorb the chill settled over this place.
When he brought an item close to his armor under the pretense of inspecting it, the <Burning Frost> hidden in the armor absorbed the chill and stored it.
[The item <Burning Frost> absorbs chill.]
[The item <Burning Frost> absorbs chill.]
'Since changes don't show up in the text.'
The exact effect of <False Oracle> was 'to display altered text for a set period of time.'
In other words, even if an item's actual effects changed in the meantime, no one could notice.
"Thank you. I'll come again."
Lee Jin-hyeok was thorough.
First, he targeted only the shops at the entrance rather than deep inside the Black Market.
The closer to the entrance, the greener the merchants who had only recently arrived.
So even when an item's effects changed, they rarely noticed.
And he deliberately made himself look like a beginner.
More than 95% of Black Market merchants secretly install an item called a <Floor Detector>.
The <Floor Detector> is an item that shows what floor a player has cleared up to.
It has the drawback of not working on Rankers, High Rankers, or those using other items.
It is, in effect, an item strictly for identifying low-floor players.
'The lower the floor, the greener the player, and the easier to fleece.'
To their eyes, Lee Jin-hyeok was a greenhorn who had cleared only the Floor 1 trial and crawled in here by luck.
So whatever items he looked at, they simply guided him along with their guard down.
[The item <Burning Frost> absorbs chill.]
Thanks to that, Lee Jin-hyeok was able to pack a considerable amount of chill into the <Burning Frost>.
<Burning Frost>
Grade: Epic
Category: Material Item
[Fire Attribute: 1] [Water Attribute: 20]
▶Absorbs and stores heat or chill.
'This is as far as it goes.'
After looking at the item's effects, Lee Jin-hyeok mixed in with the crowd and left the Black Market.
The chill <Burning Frost> could absorb naturally reached exactly 20.
To absorb more than that, he would have to seek out a player with a special ability.
'This can be used later as a material for synthesizing an item.'
Grin.
'Status window.'
{Status Window}
Name: Lee Jin-hyeok
Race: Human
Level: 16
[Strength: 46] [Vitality: 47] [Agility: 49]
[Mana: 35] [Divine Power: 0]
'Mana stat at 35 in an instant.'
Thanks to the <Burning Frost> and <Eternal Frost> working together, he had raised his Mana by a full 20 in no time at all.
'I really must look like a beginner, they let their guard down more than I expected.'
After lightly making off with some frost, he came back up to the surface.
However low-level a player he had become, Lee Jin-hyeok had gone in and out of the Black Market as though it were his own house.
For a man like him, this much was far too easy.
'Of course, this is only a stopgap.'
Mana, the transcendent power the Tower permits to players alone.
To properly accumulate and handle it, one originally needed a special skill.
The representative ones were the martial world's 'internal energy mind methods,' the mages' 'Circles,' the knights' 'mana cultivation methods,' and so on.
Among them, the <Sun and Moon Mind Method> that Cheon Hyang-un had mastered was especially memorable.
Swish.
'I have no ties to a guild, no contract with a Constellation, and not even points to spare. I can't obtain one right now.'
Lee Jin-hyeok gave a bitter smile.
'They say revenge takes a lot of money, too.'
Then he started walking again.
'Still, I have my own methods.'
Lee Jin-hyeok possessed two things that could not be bought with all the points in the Tower.
A Constellation's body.
And the chance to climb the Tower again.
"So that gives me a goal for the next trial."
Swish.
"I need to secure a stable means of raising Mana."
***
The next day.
After checking out of the inn, Lee Jin-hyeok spoke at once.
"I'm challenging the Floor 2 trial."
[Would you like to challenge the Floor 2 trial?]
[If you wish to challenge it, you will be moved to the trial waiting room immediately.]
When Lee Jin-hyeok indicated his consent, a pillar of white light wrapped around him at once.
[Moving to the Floor 2 trial waiting room.]
The Floor 2 trial waiting room.
Black earth, and walls ringed with skulls set here and there among it, came into view.
They were walls likely to make one feel considerable revulsion.
[A number of Constellations hear the rumors about you and come calling.]
[Constellation <Fire That Killed the Mother God> is watching you.]
[Constellation <King of Muspell> warns it not to set its sights on you.]
Constellations can watch players in the trial waiting room and during the trial itself.
It seemed a fair number of Constellations had gathered after hearing the rumors about Lee Jin-hyeok, wanting to see him in person.
Judging by how the constellations shining in the waiting room's sky had multiplied, their number was considerable.
"A pleasure to meet you."
[Constellation <Eternal Flame> offers you a shy greeting.]
[Constellation <Dawn King of Zhonghua> wants to see your swordsmanship soon.]
[Constellation <Blood-Red Hair> wants to see you fight soon.]
"The trial hasn't started yet."
[The Floor 2 trial will begin shortly!]
[Time remaining: 1 hour 22 minutes]
"Looking for players to break through with!"
"Everyone, we have to join forces! Before we compete, we have to survive! You all know roughly what the Floor 2 trial is like, don't you?"
"Gather round! Gather!"
Several players who had come with prior information were gathering in threes and fours to form teams.
The name of the Floor 2 trial was <Undead Race>.
As the name <Race> made clear, the main purpose was to cross a finish line within a time limit.
The reason <Undead> was attached to it was that tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of undead monsters blocked the way.
In that trial, the size of the reward varied by the order in which one arrived.
'Break the record and I'd get an even bigger reward.'
The Tower had a law.
The more one achieved what seemed impossible, the greater the reward it gave.
Even in the tutorial it had handed over a Heroic grade skill, no less.
And after clearing the Floor 1 trial it had given two Epic grade items.
On top of that, one of them, <Burning Frost>, held potential beyond Epic grade.
'The time it takes an ordinary player to pass the trial is two days. Avoid the fighting and don't kill the undead, and it takes five days or more, which means elimination.'
Swish.
'Considering the trial period is three days, that makes it extremely tight.'
That was right.
This trial was an individual event, but breaking through as a team, as a group event, was far more efficient.
Of course, the unspoken rule(?) was that the moment the finish line came into view, everyone betrayed each other to raise their placing even slightly.
'Anyone who doesn't get inside the finish line within three days dies.'
After the three days of the trial, the Floor 2 trial grounds go through seven days of 'cleaning' and kill off every player still remaining.
For survival's sake alone, cooperation among all the players taking the trial was not a bad thing.
[Constellation <Fire That Killed the Mother God> is curious about your thoughts.]
"Curious? If you're curious, that'll be 500 won."
[Constellation <Fire That Killed the Mother God> sponsors you with 500 points.]
'It doesn't get the joke. Well, most Constellations wouldn't know a thing about a country called Korea.'
After a short snort of laughter, Lee Jin-hyeok looked at the other people.
"For now I intend to go along mixed in with the others. I do have to clear the trial, don't I?"
[Constellation <Dawn King of Zhonghua> insists that it dislikes sweet potatoes.]
[Constellation <King of Muspell> reminds you that if you kill the remaining participants, you are first place by default.]
[Constellation <Eternal Flame> is moved by your spirit of sacrifice.]
'Spirit of sacrifice? Ah.'
Lee Jin-hyeok snorted.
It seemed to have misunderstood after seeing him on Floor 1.
But Lee Jin-hyeok had made the choice that maximized his own gain. He had not done anything particularly good.
'Does it think I'm going to protect the other players this time too?'
He had no such intention.
Lee Jin-hyeok had another goal.
'Well, if it wants to misunderstand me as a good person on its own, there's no need to stop it.'
While he was muttering to himself like that.
"All right! Gather over here!"
"There are plenty of clerics here too, so we should manage!"
"Come on. Come!"
Lee Jin-hyeok naturally joined the other humans.
"Anyone who can use Divine Power, please come to the front."
"Ranged classes to the rear......!"
And then.
[Time remaining: 0 seconds]
[The <Floor 2 Trial> begins!]
[You have acquired the Main Quest <Undead Race>.]
The Floor 2 trial had begun.