Chapter 33 033

The source of life

* No results found

"No results?"

Seojin tilted his head in confusion. The tooltip said the item was tradable. Then at least a couple of fruits should be in the auction.

"Oh, there was a market price tab."

Seojin pressed another button. He could check the records of transactions over the past period on this page.

Seojin searched for The Source of Life again and saw several results.

"As expected… what the hell, Three zeros?"

The total transaction record was less than a ten but the money spent was tremendous.

The source of life: 12,000G. Transaction complete

"This thing's more than a billion won? Seriously?"

Seojin let out a wry laugh… while hiding the fruit in the deepest corner of his inventory. Just in case someone stole it.

"So… basically, I dug the ground in a game and obtained enough money to afford housing in Seoul, huh?"

Of course he did more than just dig the ground, but his mind couldn't think rationally right now.

"You could probably buy a whole apartment complex, you know?"

For a moment, Seojin felt as though he could hear Merhen's voice in his head

Back then, he laughed it off, but he could no longer do that.

"All hail Midgard. All hail Merhen. All hail to the devs for making such a great game."

Seojin praised those who got him into the game before shaking his feelings off. It wasn't that difficult to do so since this all didn't come off as real to him right now.

'First, I have to deal with Flappy…'

The moment he thought like that, suddenly, Flappy woke up and rubbed its head against Seojin's chest.

"…Oh, is it because of this?"

It must have felt the presence of the fruit in Seojin's inventory and acting cute.

'Come to think of it, the fruit could nurture spirits. So it's like good food to Flappy… wait, you want this?'

Seojin lost his words and Flappy was clearly appealing for the fruit that was worth a billion won.

* * *

Elementalists have the most unique damage dealing mechanism among hidden classes. They are almost useless by themselves but can summon all kinds of spirits and overwhelm with numbers…

Things aren't all sunshines and rainbows for every hidden classes, though. Spirits are powerful but they're horribly difficult to raise. There is also a risk of it stop growing after a certain point.

Midgard online community.

Seojin was locked in the corner of the bar and looking for information related to elemetalists. Most of them talked about the same thing: spirits are unique and strong among hidden classes, but the growth of spirits, the source of power, is very difficult.

Seojin, who was searching for information for a long time, was able to check the information she wanted.

…Luckily, there's something like that! According to an elementalist I'm acquainted with, there's a fruit that grows on a particular tree. If you take it, you can ignore all the restrictions and make the spirit grow! The problem is that I don't know what the fruit is, and neither do any of you. Hahaha

'…But I do.'

Seojin calmly checked the fruits in the inventory and moved her eyes from the side to the sleeping Flappy. The little one soon got fed up acting cute and started throwing a tantrum before falling asleep.

To compare it to a human being, it was practically a child throwing tantrums until they got what they wanted before tiring themself out to sleep.

'Does that mean this one will become strong too? Just how much though… Before that, is it actually true?'

Flappy, the spirit he brought out of the cave, had an appearance that made Seojin unable to tell its attribute.

It wasn't listed in any of the online encylopedias that users compiled, so he could estimate that it was no ordinary spirit, but the problem was that he had no clues to deduce anything from.

'If I consider it to be an ordinary spirit, it might come back to haunt me later. Like not growing up at all even after eating it, or growing in completely unexpected ways… These are all possible.'

The pet food(?) was worth 1.2 billion won, or close to a million dollars. Most players would treat it as a stroke of fortune and sell it off, but Seojin had a different mindset.

Sure, 1.2 billion won was a huge sum. It could practically change his life.

'But you see, I've already resolved my daily expenses.'

He had no intentions on living a luxury life in reality, nor did he want to move into a huge mansion or something.

What mattered to him was the cost-to-performance ratio.

If this fruit could display the 1.2 billion won worth, then he would invest it without hesitation.

'I should think about this for a while.'

The moment he came to that conclusion, suddenly…

Main objective achieved

Main Quest: The End of the Story

* Your Story has met its happy ending. The small seedling of hope has blossomed magnificently and has borne fruit. The residents of Berne will never forget the numerous feats you have achieved in the town.

* New Feature Unlocked: Journal

* Journal: "Berne" added

* Default Reward: 2100%

"…Oh."

It was finally over.

The results of his a-little-over-ten-days-worth of work had come to fruition in the form of that message.

He had almost finished the quest already, and had prepared for something like this to happen at any time, so he didn't feel uncontrollably emotional.

'It's true I was desperate seeing the remaining life numbers dropping at first, but still… I did it.'

All that was left now was to obtain his reward for his efforts.

This would involve 2100% of the default rewards, as well as the rewards promised to him by Morgan Feriah of the Three Crossroads.

'Hehe.'

Seojin laughed creepily without realizing it.

'I'm finally getting the reward.'

Acquired: 220G

"Wow."

The rewards started off with 220 gold.

Acquired: Valaran Baron's Medal (22)

Acquired: Special-grade Skill Box (22)

Acquired: Middle-grade EXP Box (22)

The gold was followed with rewards he didn't know the identities of, and then a series of achievements.

Achievement Unlocked: Last Hope

Achievement Unlocked: Villain Defeated

Achievement Unlocked: Challenger

"Geez, it's going to take a while to check all the rewards."

Seojin sat down on the spot. He was planning to open the contents of the deliveries he just received.

Before that, however,

'What's this journal thing about?'

He wanted to check the new feature first.

Seojin's Records

Compiled Stories: Berne

* Berne was a dying town. It was a small town located in the Bolton Barony. The faces of the residents were gloomy, and the only thing in the streets were fallen leaves. There, I…

"What the heck is this?"

It was literally a story about Seojin, a record seemingly written by an observer.

However, that was just about it.

'Maybe it's here for me to read when I'm bored?'

There didn't seem to be any special features or rewards associated with it. Though, even if there was, there was no need to go over them right now.

'Should I just get back to what I was doing?'

* * *

The town of Berne was lively late into the night.

In the corner of the pub, Seojin was grinning from ear to ear like a madman.

In front of him was a display of all the rewards that he had just obtained.

"I love lootboxes. They're the best, so thrilling."

Overjoyed to death—this seemed to be an apt description of him right now.

Although the "money" he had obtained only amounted to 220 gold, liquidizing some of his other rewards into cash would lightly surpass that amount.

Hint of a Strong Technique (22)

* Ten hints can be exchanged for an intact skill book.

Middle-grade EXP Pill (22)

* EXP increases appropriately upon usage.

Valaran Baron's Medal (22)

* A medal of a certain baron of Valaran. Can be used in a tough situation. Item consumed upon usage.

* Able to borrow a baron's "authority" for twenty minutes.

* Usage restrictions exist for this item.

* Once used, item cannot be used for 7 days.

* When used three times, item cannot be used for 365 days.

The skill boxes gave him "Technique Hints," while the EXP boxes gave him EXP pills. Having gotten a taste of what the EXP pill could bring him thanks to the World Quest last time, Seojin couldn't hide his grin.

EXP Pills can be synthesized.

Acquired: EXP Pill(10,000,000)

Acquired: EXP Pill(1,000,000)

When he combined the twenty-two middle-grade EXP pills, he was left with two ten-million EXP pills and two one-million EXP pills.

He sold one for 130 million won before, so he might be able to get even more this time.

The more important reward, however, were the Technique Hints

* Ten hints can be exchanged for an intact skill book.

An intact skill book, as its name implied, was an item with which a player could learn a new skill. In Midgard, where players could only learn skills under special circumstances like class quests, this was a very precious item.

This was especially so for the top rankers since most of them had used dozens of skill books to maintain their standing.

'Otherwise, this kind of insane pricing doesn't make any sense.'

Intact Skill Book: 1,500G

Hint of a Strong Technique: 170G

Seojin thought that the prices were crazy when he thought that he might have to buy them. Of course, he didn't need to since he just obtained some from the quest.

He was planning to create two skill books himself and sell the two remaining hints.

'If I keep seeking money, I won't last long. I need to think in the long-run.'

Item Registration | Sale

Hint of a Strong Technique (2): 340G

Valaran Baron's Medal (20): 200G

Item Registration | Auction

EXP Pill(10,000,000)

Starting Price: 130,000,000\\

EXP Pill(1,000,000)

Starting Price: 10,000,000\\

Seojin dealt with the items in a short time. He put up the hints and medal for sale, and put the EXP pills on auction for 48 hours.

Now, he had to check his achievements.

Last Hope, Villain Defeated, and Challenger. The three achievements all sounded extraordinary and increased Seojin's stats by a lot.

Seojin: Lv. 21

Title: Hero of a bygone era (+10 to all stats)

Class: Silver Tongue (Hidden)

CHR: 71 AGI: 66

INT: 102 LUK: 68

Remaining Points: 33

* All stats are penalized due to class adjustment.

Based on stats alone, he was around level 100.

'If not for the fake stats, I would've mopped the floor with everything around me, huh.'

At least around this region, he could probably kill any monsters with a finger.

That would be fun in its own right, but he didn't really yearn for that style of gameplay.

'If I went around doing that, I would've never brought Berne to this level of prosperity.'

He didn't think that it would be absolutely impossible. However, the way he went about it would have differed, and the results wouldn't be as perfect as what he got now.

'So I'm satisfied with just… hmm?'

Seojin flinched. He felt something like a cloth brushing his ankles.

When he looked down, he naturally saw Flappy.

"…"

Flappy was looking up at him, he could tell despite Flappy being a piece of cloth. Heck, he could feel the sparkly eyes staring right at him.

"You want that fruit?"

Brrr!

"…"

Seojin fell speechless at the strong desire he felt. What was he supposed to say to this innocent spirit? He could only strike a deal if he could have a proper conversation…

Seojin couldn't help but sigh at the stream of thoughts that entered his head.