[Frost Wolf’s Sword]
- Grade: A
- Effect
- Attack Power +35
- Agility +10
- Grants the ‘Freezing’ effect by consuming Magic Power when an attack lands.
- Description: A sword imbued with the power of the Frost Wolf that rules the extreme snowfield.
“Holy shit!”
The sword shown to him by the adventurer Lee Woo-jin was A Grade.
A weapon of a Grade that could not be obtained from the Auction House, no matter how much extra one paid!
It was also the item Kang Min-woo currently needed most as he prepared to challenge Hard difficulty.
Since Kang Min-woo mainly used swordsmanship-type skills, he desperately needed an A-Grade sword. The moment he saw the ‘Frost Wolf’s Sword,’ his heart hammered as if it were surging in his chest.
- Lee Woo-jin: Hey?
Kang Min-woo quickly replied.
- Me: Yes!
- Lee Woo-jin: Are you going to use this or not?
- Me: I want to use it!
- Lee Woo-jin: OK.
How much should he pay for this?
Generally, B-Grade weapons were worth around 3,000 to 4,000 coins.
As for A-Grade weapons, it was difficult to estimate their value because none had entered circulation.
In the first place, A-Grade items were monopolized by adventurers climbing the Tower on Hard difficulty in the United States, China, and Japan.
Of course, in the future, the structure was such that the number of adventurers climbing Hard difficulty could only increase, so supply would eventually enter the market. But looking only at the present, it was an extremely precious item.
Such an item.
[The trade has been completed.]
“……!!”
Lee Woo-jin had given it to him ‘for free.’
Was this a mistake? Kang Min-woo sucked in a sharp breath.
- Me: The trade... went through?
- Me: How many coins should I give you…….
- Lee Woo-jin: It’s fine!
- Lee Woo-jin: I don’t need that.
- Me: …….
Kang Min-woo had suddenly hit the super lottery.
With this, challenging the Tower on Hard difficulty had become far easier.
This was entirely thanks to Woo-jin.
- Lee Woo-jin: Instead, just one favor.
- Me: Please tell me anything!
Kang Min-woo resolved to devote his loyalty to Lee Woo-jin.
How he had obtained an A-Grade weapon, none of that mattered.
What mattered was that Woo-jin had supported him.
In effect, he had played the role of an ‘Observer.’
Observer.
A ‘great being’ who watched adventurers in the Tower.
Their ‘rank’ was divided into lower, middle, and upper, and the higher the rank, the more powerful they were.
When an Observer watched an adventurer, the adventurer might obtain items.
Or obtain skills, or else obtain ‘hints’ and the like.
Various benefits were granted, and the rankers from the United States, China, and Japan currently running through Hard difficulty were receiving help from Observers.
‘I have a chance too!’
Kang Min-woo was prepared to fulfill any request Lee Woo-jin made. He was the guild master of The Sky, South Korea’s greatest guild, and Korea’s No. 1 ranked adventurer.
Naturally, he possessed both honor and wealth.
However.
Woo-jin’s request was incredibly modest.
- Lee Woo-jin: Please go to my family home and ask my mom for a box of kimjang kimchi and aged kimchi. Ah, and please get 10 kg of pork belly and one tub of ssamjang too.
“…….”
An apartment somewhere in Seoul.
[Korea Apartments Building 101, Unit 1001]
Standing in front of the entrance, Kang Min-woo pressed the doorbell.
Along with a plain ringing sound, a voice came through the intercom.
- Who is it?
A young woman’s voice.
Kang Min-woo identified himself.
“Hello. This is Kang Min-woo. I came to speak with you about Mr. Lee Woo-jin. Would it be possible to talk for a moment?”
- …Huuuuuuh! It’s really Kang Min-woo!
- What are you making such a fuss about?
- M-Mom! Kang Min-woo! Kang Min-woo came to our house!
- What?
It would be fair to say that almost no one in South Korea did not know Kang Min-woo. That was only natural, since in modern twenty-first-century society, the unprecedented object of interest called the ‘Tower’ had appeared, and the most famous Awakened in South Korea was Kang Min-woo.
Click.
The door opened.
Woo-jin’s mother, Kim Mi-sook, and his younger sister, Lee Yoon-a, came out.
Kang Min-woo greeted them politely.
“Hello.”
“Aaaah! It really is Kang Min-woo!”
“Oh my. Oh my. What brings you here, Kang Min-woo?”
.
.
.
From an old-looking kimchi refrigerator, two large containers of kimchi were taken out.
Kim Mi-sook opened the lids and checked their condition.
Kimjang kimchi packed full of crunchy, fresh kimchi that looked as if it would be incredible with boiled pork slices.
Neatly arranged aged kimchi with visuals like something one might see in a clan’s head house.
“Honestly, our Woo-jin really does love kimchi. Hohoho.”
“He must miss his mother’s cooking.”
“I don’t know why he asked a busy man like you to do this when he could just come himself. No, but how did you come to know Woo-jin?”
It was an expected question.
“We are in contact for work.”
A safe, ordinary answer.
Fortunately, Kim Mi-sook did not pry any further.
Lee Yoon-a spoke as if she understood.
“Since Oppa works as a Tower Management civil servant, there must be some work he does with The Sky guild, right?!”
Information he had not known.
Kang Min-woo caught it without missing a beat and nodded.
“That is correct.”
In truth, if they wanted to question him further, they could have done so as much as they liked.
Thinking about it by common sense, contacting a guild master was something usually done only by people at the head-of-agency level.
A working-level civil servant and the guild master of The Sky exchanging work-related messages was almost impossible.
And a guild master running a kimchi errand for a civil servant?
It was nonsense.
However, Kim Mi-sook and Lee Yoon-a did not ask any more questions as if they found it suspicious.
They were probably planning to call Woo-jin later and ask him about every last detail from beginning to end.
“Here they are. They’re heavy. Can you carry them?”
“Yes. Easily.”
He lifted the kimchi containers up.
Kang Min-woo bowed politely to Woo-jin’s family, then left the house.
[The trade has been completed.]
Kimjang kimchi.
Aged kimchi.
Pork belly, 10 kg.
Ssamjang, 1 tub.
“It’s here!!!”
The two large kimchi containers that arrived before his eyes.
They were familiar containers he had seen since he was young.
He opened one lid with a pop.
“Mmmm~ that smell~”
Madam Kim Mi-sook, South Korea’s top kimchi-making instructor, and her kimjang kimchi and aged kimchi!
Woo-jin tore one strip of kimjang kimchi in half lengthwise with his fingers, put it into his mouth, and chewed.
“Khhh.”
Mom should have sold kimchi.
If she had, she probably would have made enough money for three generations to live without lifting a finger.
“Hehehe. Tomorrow will be a pork belly party.”
The lettuce and perilla leaves had not fully grown yet.
They would probably grow to the perfect size for eating by tomorrow.
[‘Kimjang Kimchi’ is being stored in the Subspace Backpack.]
[‘Aged Kimchi’ is being stored in the Subspace Backpack.]
[‘Pork Belly’ is being stored in the Subspace Backpack.]
[‘Ssamjang’ is being stored in the Subspace Backpack.]
Now that’s reassuring!
To think this many things all slipped inside at once.
Comfortably, without needing much effort when putting them in or taking them out.
- Me: Thanks, thanks!
- Anonymous 3861: Not at all. Please tell me anytime if you need anything!
- Me: But you’re suddenly using polite speech??
- Anonymous 3861: Yes... It’s more comfortable this way!
- Me: Then I’ll use polite speech from now on too.
- Anonymous 3861: Please speak comfortably!!!
- Me: Polite speech has become more comfortable for me.
- Anonymous 3861: ……!!!!
- Me: Let’s go with polite speech!
- Anonymous 3861: …Yes!
It seemed he was acting like this because Woo-jin had tossed him an A-Grade weapon.
‘Honestly, I’d treat him like my honored big brother too.’
Anonymous 3861’s reaction was perfectly normal.
- Anonymous 3861: Um... Actually, I have something to tell you.
- Me: What is it?
- Kang Min-woo: I am actually Kang Min-woo. The guild master of The Sky. I apologize for not telling you sooner.
- Me: ???
- Me: Huh?
Kang Min-woo, South Korea’s No. 1 ranker?
Woo-jin blinked as if he could not believe it.
‘Have I been talking to Kang Min-woo this whole time?’
Kang Min-woo showed him an item to prove his identity.
- Adventurer’s Proof (Normal Difficulty Conqueror)
“Whoa. It’s real.”
A proof given to the one who cleared the 100th Floor of the Tower on Normal difficulty.
With this, it was proven that Kang Min-woo was not simply someone with the same name.
- Me: I’m a fan!
- Kang Min-woo: ...Thank you. In any case, thanks to the A-Grade weapon you gave me, Mr. Lee Woo-jin, I think I will be able to challenge Hard difficulty more easily. Thank you very much.
- Me: Ah, of course I had to give it to you! You’re South Korea’s representative ranker!
This would not do.
Woo-jin decided to give him the S-Grade weapon, the ‘Paladin Commander’s Sword,’ too.
When equipped, it greatly raised Strength and Stamina, and its Attack Power was high. More than anything, it was an S-Grade weapon, something that had never once entered circulation before, so Woo-jin had naturally planned to keep it for himself.
‘It’s much better for Kang Min-woo to use it than me.’
He was not going to use it to beat monsters to death anyway.
And Woo-jin preferred ranged combat.
Before entering the Tower, when he had been drawing simulations in his head of climbing from Normal’s 1st Floor to the 20th Floor, he had naturally assumed he would use a ‘bow.’
If it had been an S-Grade bow, he would have used it himself, but a sword was like a chicken rib—too wasteful to throw away, yet not useful enough to keep.
- Me: Guild Master. Use this too!
[Registering Paladin Commander’s Sword.]
- Kang Min-woo: ?!?!?!
- Kang Min-woo: Excuse me???
- Kang Min-woo: S Grade... Where on earth did you get something like this……??
- Me: I picked it up while taking a walk.
- Kang Min-woo: Excuse me????
- Kang Min-woo: Can you really give this to me? No, Mr. Lee Woo-jin, you should use it…….
- Me: Nope, I don’t need it.
[The trade has been completed.]
- Kang Min-woo: Thank you! Thank you very much!
- Me: Fighting! I’ll be rooting for you too!
- Kang Min-woo: Yes! I will definitely show you results!!
Woo-jin smiled in satisfaction.