The conversation with chaebol chairman Lee Young-sik was simple.
To summarize, there were three points.
First, Joo Do-gyeom had to bring back an item capable of saving his daughter within one week.
Second, the faster he brought it, the greater his reward would be.
And third.
If a week passed without any contact, or if he brought some bizarre object and tried to make a fool of Lee Young-sik, he would be made to pay the price.
One might wonder whether the chairman of one of South Korea’s ten largest conglomerates should be making such terrifying threats so openly.
‘Well, that’s the kind of era this is.’
Joo Do-gyeom did not think much of it.
It was an open secret throughout South Korea that those who tried to play games with Chairman Lee Young-sik disappeared without anyone knowing.
And the government knew it too, yet looked the other way.
As he had said repeatedly, that was simply the kind of era this was.
If anything, Joo Do-gyeom considered him gentlemanly.
Had he not even warned him in advance?
If he was planning to make some half-baked attempt, he should get out quickly.
At any rate.
The deal had been struck, and he had been given one week.
Joo Do-gyeom had no intention of dragging this out for an entire week.
‘I’m going today.’
Before that, however, there was somewhere he needed to stop by.
Yongsan.
***
Yongsan Luxury Market.
Like Yongdun, it was a market exclusively for Hunters, but that was where the similarities ended.
For one thing, Yongdun was underground, while the Luxury Market occupied a proper building aboveground.
The caliber of the goods sold there differed even more.
It dealt only in special items whose performance had been thoroughly verified.
Potions that instantly healed all but the worst wounds.
Potions that bestowed blessings for a set period.
Even items that had fully entered the realm of magic tools.
Naturally, their prices were different as well.
At this place, 100 million won was practically the basic unit of currency.
And today, there was one item Joo Do-gyeom intended to buy here.
‘A Lowest-Grade Blessing Potion.’
What was a Blessing Potion?
The name said it all.
Drinking one surrounded the body in a blessing for a set period.
At the lowest grade, it lasted three hours.
Its effect was to raise one random stat by one Grade step.
That was the basic effect.
The real value came after that.
‘A Bonus Option.’
Every Blessing Potion came with one different Bonus Option.
The types varied widely.
They ranged from bonus damage against Corrupted Monsters to underwater breathing and night vision.
That was why most Hunters chose their potion based on its option rather than the stat increase.
Different options were useful in different dungeons.
In the Garden of Eden, the dungeon Joo Do-gyeom was heading to today, bonus damage against Corrupted Monsters was fairly useful.
But it meant nothing to him.
‘I have the Sure-Kill Eye.’
For the owner of the Heavenly Killer, bonus damage was a meaningless option.
However.
There was one option he absolutely needed.
‘Heavenly Wings.’
Just as the name suggested, drinking it caused wings of light to sprout from the user’s back.
Wings might make one think it allowed flight.
It did not.
Sadly, the Heavenly Wings attached to a Lowest-Grade Blessing Potion allowed only gliding.
Anyone who wanted true flight had to drink one of at least mid-grade quality.
But that did not matter.
‘Gliding is enough.’
For Joo Do-gyeom’s planned strategy for the Garden of Eden, that was all he needed.
Incidentally, the Luxury Market was the only place where one could purchase a potion with a specified option.
Buying a Blessing Potion at Yongdun?
There was no telling which option it had until it was opened. It was a complete gamble.
Every potion here, however, had already been appraised and sorted.
The minimum price was one billion won per bottle.
Expensive.
Yet cheap.
Items like these could not even be obtained outside a luxury Hunter market.
That was why the Luxury Market existed.
***
After obtaining the Blessing Potion he wanted, Joo Do-gyeom headed farther into the store instead of going straight to the dungeon.
He wanted to see whether there was anything else he could use immediately.
Normally, he should have restrained himself to save enough money to purchase Formless Armament, Myriad Forms.
But he no longer thought that was necessary.
After all, he was going to save the man’s beloved daughter.
Would a chaebol chairman really begrudge buying him a single weapon worth 50 billion won?
Joo Do-gyeom was certain he would not.
All the more so because he would not even use the entire week he had been given.
Having reached that conclusion, Joo Do-gyeom rapidly scanned the Luxury Market’s various wares.
“Hmm......”
Most of them had long surpassed the level of magic items and entered the realm of magic tools.
Their price tags casually displayed figures ranging from several billion to tens of billions of won, but they were worth that much.
Ah, of course, that was by the standards of the present era.
In the future, when inflation erupted alongside the collapse of the boundary between Earth and the dungeons, most of these items would lose much of their significance.
Was that why?
He had begun shopping with the thought that he might buy at least one thing, yet nothing caught his eye.
‘Maybe it’d be better to save the money and spend it elsewhere.’
With that thought, Joo Do-gyeom inwardly shook his head as he walked between the display cases.
Then, at some point, his feet stopped as though they had been nailed to the floor.
‘What?’
His gaze snapped to the side.
He wondered whether he had seen it wrong.
But he had not.
‘Why is that here?’
His gaze had landed on the farthest corner of the store.
[Unappraised Consignment Item - No Returns]
The sign stood over a shabby display that did not suit the Luxury Market’s pride at all.
Even the Luxury Market was not omnipotent.
Some items in the world could not be appraised at all.
Such items were placed in corners like this and disposed of cheaply under no-claims conditions.
Of course, they were cheap only by the Luxury Market’s standards.
Atop the shabby display lay a tightly rolled black scroll.
Its price was three billion won.
The description card read as follows.
[Identity Unknown. Appraisal Impossible. Judging by the caliber of mana emanating from it, it is presumed to be a magic tool.]
Wrong.
That was not a magic tool.
‘It’s a one-use scroll.’
And he even knew its official name.
‘Eve’s Gift.’
Its effect was simple.
Slot Expansion.
Was it something like an Inventory expansion ticket?
Yes.
But that was not all.
‘It doesn’t apply only to the Inventory.’
Whether it was a summoned creature’s slot or Manifestation Stock.
It applied to every ‘slot’ the user possessed.
Simply put.
For an ordinary Hunter, it was merely an Inventory expansion ticket.
But for a summoner-type Hunter, whose number of slots directly determined their combat power, it was a priceless treasure.
‘Kim Han-yul’s eyes would practically roll back if she found out.’
It would be useful even if he used it himself.
But what if he gave it to a Manifestationist?
The team’s combat power as a whole would rise by an entire level.
In fact, Eve’s Gift was considered immensely valuable even in the future.
If cash could have been used to purchase it, tens of billions—no, even hundreds of billions of won would have seemed like nothing.
And now Eve’s Gift was lying in a corner of a Hunter market for three billion won.
It was practically free.
Of course, there was a condition.
Eve’s Gift was currently sealed.
If its effect could not be awakened, it was nothing more than a scrap of black paper worth three billion won.
That was likely why the Luxury Market’s appraisers had thrown up their hands and shoved it into a corner.
But it was no problem for Joo Do-gyeom.
‘A single dose of Adam’s Apple juice will do it.’
Its name was Eve’s Gift, after all.
And by coincidence, today’s destination was the Garden of Eden.
The timing could not have been better.
It was enough to make him certain this was what people meant when they said someone was lucky.
There was no reason to hesitate.
Except for one thing.
‘I need two Adam’s Apples now.’
A dungeon began operating for the first time immediately after someone entered it.
Before that, it was a world that did not exist.
And once the first fruit on the apple tree in the Garden of Eden was picked, it took quite a long time for the second to appear.
As far as Joo Do-gyeom knew, it took at least several months.
Of course, after that, the number of apples increased on its own and the tree gradually grew more abundant.
But in any case, there would initially be only one.
One for the chairman’s daughter.
One for Eve’s Gift.
‘The numbers don’t add up.’
The gap was far too long for him to make two trips.
Most regressors were impatient.
They had too much to do.
As his actions so far had shown, Joo Do-gyeom was no different.
As he looked around in thought, a Blessing Potion on a nearby display caught his eye at exactly the right moment.
[Blessing Potion - Grace of Abundance]
[For the next single acquisition after consumption, the quantity of Ungraded Items obtained is doubled.]
Its price was five billion won.
A full five billion won.
All that merely to double the quantity of an Ungraded Item?
One might think so, but there was one important fact.
‘Adam’s Apple is an Ungraded Item.’
It was neither a magic item nor a magic tool.
It had no effect other than awakening someone, so it had not even been assigned a Grade.
That was Adam’s Apple.
One apple would become two.
One for the chairman.
One for Eve’s Gift.
‘Perfect.’
Without hesitation, Joo Do-gyeom picked up the scroll and the potion.
His bank account would effectively be scraped clean, but he did not begrudge the expense.
He knew it would return to him multiplied several times over, perhaps dozens of times over.
‘All right, now for real.’
Shall I head to the Garden of Eden?
As Joo Do-gyeom thought that and headed toward the counter, his eyes suddenly caught sight of a massive axe hanging on the wall.
***
BEEP—!
“An excellent choice, sir.”
At the sound confirming his payment, the employee smiled and bowed.
Only then did Joo Do-gyeom come to his senses.
A receipt lay on the counter.
It listed four items.
Two Blessing Potions.
One unappraised scroll.
And.
‘......A Great Axe?’
The massive axe that had been hanging on the wall moments earlier was now sitting prominently in his Inventory.
He remembered seeing it.
He did not remember choosing it.
Yet he had bought it.
He had even haggled over the price.
It was bewildering.
‘Madness.’
So this was how it was manifesting this time.
He could overlook swinging fish around and having his words come out backward.
But now it had escalated to a blackout.
His memory had been severed completely while he made a purchase worth billions of won.
It was fortunate that the Trait had not erupted as murderous impulses, but this was dangerous in an entirely different way.
‘Tsk.’
Clicking his tongue inwardly, Joo Do-gyeom was about to request a refund.
Then he stopped.
At the bottom of the receipt.
[Used Item Purchase: 1 Dungeon-Made Sledgehammer]
He had noticed the transaction record showing that he had paid only the difference after the trade-in value was deducted.
‘I sold the sledgehammer?’
In that brief moment?
Who had?
Him, obviously.
More precisely, the version of himself consumed by Madness.
Even so, he could not believe he had sold off a weapon that had been through so much with him.
Dumbfounded, Joo Do-gyeom glared at the Great Axe inside his Inventory.
Then a strange feeling came over him.
He should have been displeased.
And yet.
‘......It’s not bad.’
A long haft.
A massive, heavily forged axehead.
It was satisfying enough to stir something deep in his heart simply by looking at it.
Come to think of it, his main martial art, the Heavenly Strength Axe Art, had originally been an axe art.
With this much heft, he could swing it like a sledgehammer.
And since it had a sharpened edge, it was even more versatile.
He considered it for a moment.
Then he checked the price tag.
For an item sold at the Luxury Market, the Great Axe was surprisingly inexpensive.
Five hundred million won.
Its enormous design was unpopular with most Hunters, it had no special effects, and its only distinction was that a renowned master craftsman had made it.
In that sense, its circumstances resembled those of the sledgehammer.
Joo Do-gyeom looked at the Great Axe for a moment before deciding.
‘Fine. I’ll just use it.’
He would not be able to purchase Formless Armament for another three months anyway.
There was no telling whether a sledgehammer made from low-grade dungeon metal would last until then.
But this newly purchased Great Axe looked more than capable of giving him his money’s worth.
More importantly, he liked it.
Having reached his decision, Joo Do-gyeom left the Luxury Market completely.
His already empty bank account had grown a little thinner, but he felt no great regret.
After all, he had earned the money to spend it on things like this in the first place.
‘If I finish this quickly, there shouldn’t be any problem asking him to add a little extra on top of Myriad Forms.’
He also had a dependable backer to rely on.
His preparations were complete.
Joo Do-gyeom recited,
“Dungeon entry. Designate destination: Garden of Eden.”
Immediately afterward.
His body vanished from Earth.
***
His vision changed.
The first thing he felt was the wind.
The unobstructed wind unique to high places.
When Joo Do-gyeom opened his eyes, he was standing atop a precipitous hill.
And below it.
The entire world was green.
‘Is that the Garden of Eden?’
Grasslands stretched to the end of the horizon.
At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a vast plain.
But it was not.
Looking closely, the entire land rose in a gentle slope.
True to its name, the world itself was one enormous hill.
And at its summit.
In the far-off center, a single tree stood.
‘Adam’s Apple.’
That was his destination today.
The problem was the distance.
If he walked down the hill and crossed the grasslands?
It would easily take days.
A dungeon that required several days of walking.
An ordinary Hunter would have sighed from this point onward, but that did not apply to Joo Do-gyeom.
He took a Blessing Potion out of his Inventory.
He opened the cap and drained it in one gulp.
The liquid slid down his throat and spread warmth throughout his body.
It was a blessing.
『A blessing is bestowed.』
『Duration: 3 hours. Temporary Mana Grade increased: D- => D.』
‘Mana, huh......’
Of all the random stat increases, he had drawn the most useful one.
‘Lucky.’
He was off to a good start.
And the real effect came next.
FWOOSH—!
Light burst from behind him.
Feathers of light extended from around his shoulder blades and took shape in an instant.
Heavenly Wings.
They might have been the lowest-grade wings, capable only of gliding, but they looked holy enough to belong to an angel.
Joo Do-gyeom lightly flapped the wings once, finding them utterly unfamiliar on a human body.
Then.
Without hesitation, he threw himself off the hill.
WHOOSH—!
The wind wrapped around his entire body.
The wings on his back caught the wind and spread wide, turning his fall into a glide.
It felt as though something were pushing him from behind.
The green grasslands flowed swiftly beneath his feet.
‘......Not bad at all.’
To be honest.
It was quite good.
Even counting his previous life, he had few memories of flying through the sky this leisurely.
It was not because he had never had reason to fly.
It was because he had always been fighting something, even in the sky.
He felt free.