Chapter: 31
āAh, that feels refreshing.ā
Waking up to the morning sunlight, Yujin stretched, savoring a feeling of freshness he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
How long had it been?
Since he’d had such a pleasant morning.
Definitely not during his first run.
Back then, every single day had been a desperate struggle to survive.
He barely slept, and even when he did, it was only light naps while constantly keeping his guard up.
The same had been true at the beginning of his second run.
His body had been wrecked from hunting the Lightfeather Crows, and the unexpected enhancement of the Akasha System had kept him from getting any real rest.
But today was different.
There were no distracting thoughts.
No worries.
No need to stay alert for danger.
Thanks to that, he woke up feeling completely refreshed.
Of course, the fact that Isia had practically become half a corpse yesterday also played a significant role.
She had thoroughly paid the price for daring to mouth off to him.
Maybe that was why he’d slept so soundly.
“Let’s see.”
He casually summoned his status window.
ā Enhancement in Progress
ā Target: Akasha System
ā Estimated Time Remaining: 12 minutes
“Oh?”
It was almost finished.
If he quickly washed up, it would probably be done by the time he came back.
Filled with equal parts anticipation and excitement, Yujin hurried to clean himself up before stepping outside.
The moment he did, a notification window appeared.
ā Enhancement Complete
ā Akasha System has been upgraded to Akasha System 2.0
ā Additional functions unlocked.
ā New Features
ā Create Party: Share experience points with party members.
ā Daily Quest: Once per day, a random quest will be assigned. Complete it to earn experience based on its difficulty.
ā Coin Shop: Spend Coins to purchase items, skills, and traits.
“…Holy shit.”
The curse slipped out on its own.
Three new features had been added through the enhancement.
And every single one of them was absolutely insane.
“A party…”
It functioned just like parties in ordinary games.
Form a party, hunt together, and everyone would receive a percentage of the experience even when fighting the same monster.
Which meant…
He could essentially power-level other people.
Sure, there would probably be limits preventing completely broken abuse, but even so, it was undeniably useful.
Not just for raising Isia and Park Jihoo, but for his own growth as well.
“It’s an incredible feature…”
But compared to the next two, the party function was almost nothing.
“Daily Quest.”
Normally, quests came from NPCs or Administrators.
But getting them wasn’t easy.
There simply weren’t many quests available.
There were countless players but only a limited number of quests, making competition fierce.
On top of that, many questsālike those in Citadelārequired meeting specific conditions before they became available.
Yujin had the advantage of knowing things from his first run, but even then, obtaining quests wasn’t easy.
“But Daily Quest…”
Without having to butter up NPCs.
Without having to suck up to Administrators.
He would receive one every single day.
He had no idea how generous the rewards would be, but if they were anything like ordinary quests, they certainly wouldn’t be disappointing.
This will help.
He had already been progressing faster than everyone else.
With Daily Quests, he’d be able to widen that gap to an entirely different level.
And finally…
The biggest jackpot.
With eyes full of anticipation, Yujin spoke.
“The Coin Shop.”
Flash!
A small burst of light spread before him, revealing an entirely new world.
ā Welcome to the Coin Shop
ā Currently Available Products
ā Items
- Material Items
- Weapon Items
- Armor Items
- Consumable Items
ā Skills
- Offensive Skills
- Defensive Skills
- Buff Skills
ā Traits
Just as described, he could purchase items, skills, and even traits.
Without thinking, Yujin selected the Weapon Items tab.
Immediately, a massive list of weapons scrolled into view.
“…What the hell.”
There were too many to even count.
A quick glance alone suggested there were hundreds.
Then…
“They even sell something like this?”
Flame Emperor [S]: A spear forged from the Flame Emperor’s fire. A weapon possessing overwhelming power.
Even Yujin, who had conquered the Tower alone, had never seen such an absurd item before.
The Akasha System, which was notoriously stingy with its evaluations, actually described it as overwhelmingly powerful.
Compared to this…
Even Black Wing [A] looked like a child’s toy.
“If I had just one of these…”
Clearing the Tower would practically be effortless.
Swallowing hard, Yujin checked its price.
“…Ah, damn it. Of course.”
1,000,000 Coins.
A million.
He currently had exactly five Coins.
Even if he combined every Coin he’d earned during his first run, would he even have reached one hundred thousand?
This cost ten times that amount.
“I don’t think they actually expect anyone to buy this.”
Considering its performance, perhaps the price was justified.
But it was still absurdly expensive.
Even using every bit of knowledge he possessed, buying it would be nearly impossible.
And the shop contained countless items equal toāor even stronger thanāthe Flame Emperor.
Though every one of them came with equally ridiculous prices.
The same was true for the skills.
“They even have Moment [S].”
It was the completed version of the Moment [E] skill he’d obtained during the Tutorial Floor.
Unlike the beginner version, it had no usage limit.
No distance limit either.
How absurd was it?
It supposedly allowed the user to instantly travel anywhere between Floor 1 and Floor 100.
“That’s completely broken.”
There was no other way to describe it.
And naturally…
Its price was just as broken.
“Two million.”
Twice the price of the Flame Emperor.
The shop was filled with skills like that.
But the real highlight…
Was the Traits section.
Things Yujin had never even heard of before.
Heavenly Martial Body [S].
Master of Mana [S].
Sword God [S].
Supercomputational Intelligence [S].
And many more.
Just from their names alone, he could guess what they did.
Buying even one of them would probably make someone strong enough to slap the apocalypse across the face.
Naturally, their prices were beyond imagination.
“It’s like the luxury section of a department store.”
A place where ordinary people could only step inside, look around for a moment, then leave empty-handed.
The Akasha System 2.0 probably hadn’t displayed these items because it expected anyone to buy them.
Realistically, what Yujin needed was near the bottom of the list.
After furiously scrolling downward, reasonably priced items finally appeared.
“Now these are affordable.”
Even Black Wing [C] was listed.
Price: about 150 Coins.
That was reasonable.
No…
Considering its potential, it was actually cheap.
If Citadel had sold Black Wing [C] for that price during his first run, there would have been a line of buyers stretching for hundreds of meters.
“Nothing I can buy right now.”
Yujin only possessed five Coins.
Considering only three days had passed since everyone had been summoned into the Tower, it was already an incredible achievement.
But the absolute amount was simply too low.
He couldn’t even afford Earth Dragon’s Blood [D].
“I’ll just save up and buy something later.”
Fortunately, there were countless ways to earn Coins.
For now, leveling up remained his priority.
Once he was firmly established, he’d start accumulating Coins as well.
“Guess the shop will have to wait.”
He had finished checking Akasha System 2.0.
Though it had felt like only a short while, the morning had already passed.
It was now well into the afternoon.
“Huh? It’s already this late?”
The sun was high overhead, yet neither Isia nor Park Jihoo seemed to be awake.
Yesterday had been far too exhausting.
Especially for Isia.
She had quite literally come back from the brink of death.
So perhaps he should let them rest a little longerā
Yeah, right.
“These lazy bastards.”
Closing the status window, Yujin stood up.
Today was their last day on the First Floor.
He’d have to return eventually, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
Which meant there wasn’t a second to waste.
Since it was the last day…
They needed to train even harder.
That’ll make things easier on the Second Floor.
Wearing a cruel smile, Yujin left his room.
His destination was the rooms of the other two.
It was time for another shower of Red Goblin blood.
The next day.
Yujin left Terra with Isia and Park Jihoo, both of them sporting enormous dark circles beneath their eyes.
“S-So… we’re finally going up now?”
“Yeah.”
Though Yujin’s answer was completely half-hearted, Isia looked as though she’d just been granted a new lease on life.
“So… that means we’re saying goodbye to the Red Goblins, right?”
“That’s right.”
Over the past two days, Isia and Park Jihoo had killed well over a thousand Red Goblins.
Maybe even two thousand.
Neither of them had bothered counting.
As a result, both of them had reached Level 20.
While the other players were only beginning to gather themselves and think about hunting…
These two had already reached Level 20.
They were operating on an entirely different level.
Yujin himself had reached Level 22.
Even though he’d left almost all of the hunting to Isia and Park Jihoo.
It was all thanks to the Party System.
All he had done was provide the bare minimum of support to keep them alive.
Yet experience points flowed steadily into him.
In other words…
He’d leveled almost for free.
Once again, Yujin couldn’t help but marvel at the absurdity of Akasha System 2.0.
Should I recruit a few more slaves and start running an actual factory?
If he had around ten more workers, experience would practically duplicate itself automatically.
The thought honestly crossed his mind.
But he quickly abandoned the idea.
Finding people like Isia and Park Jihoo wasn’t easy.
If he dragged along just anyone, he’d spend more time babysitting them than gaining anything.
He’d rather stick with his original plan.
A small team of skilled workers was much more efficient.
Looking at Isia and Park Jihoo with satisfaction, Yujin smiled.
“B-But what about the Earth Dragon?”
Park Jihoo asked after noticing his gaze.
“We’re killing it before we leave.”
Yujin had already defeated the First Floor’s Gatekeeper, opening the path to the Second Floor.
But several days had passed, so it had undoubtedly respawned by now.
Its habitat was near the staircase leading upward anyway.
It made sense to kill it one more time before leaving.
If they were lucky, it could drop some pretty valuable items.
“Can we actually beat it?”
Isia asked.
Both of them were now Level 20.
The Earth Dragon, on the other hand, was only Level 10.
Even considering the advantages unique to boss monsters, there was no reason two Level 20 players couldn’t defeat it.
“Yeah. Which is why the two of you are handling it this time.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be easy.
The Earth Dragon was on an entirely different level from the Red Goblins they’d been hunting until now, both in size and strength.
“It’ll be good experience.”
The upper floors were filled with monsters as massive as the Earth Dragon.
Getting used to fighting creatures like that in advance would only benefit them.
“Alright, let’s move.”
For the time being…
This was goodbye to the First Floor.
Together with Isia and Park Jihoo, Yujin departed from Terra.
