Chapter 68: Someone you must nefur make your Enemy (1)
It is a single-use item. It disappears if you use it once.
But the effects of that single-time use is amazing. No matter how dangerous of a situation you are in, if you have enough time to blow the Flute, you will be able to escape the danger 100% of the time.
It is pretty much the same as having an extra life.
In the game, it wasn’t that amazing since if you died in the game, nothing severe happened. You just lost some experience points and had a chance to drop one of your items. That was it. And you were back to normal once you revived.
But it was different in this Royal Roader. It is not a system where you can die and resurrect. I have not seen anybody come back to life in here yet.
Even if it is a single-use item, would there be any item that is more valuable than this one?
But it should also mean that the quest is dangerous and very important.
“Just how amazing is this priest that they need to do all of this?”
Either way, I need to do it. No matter what.
But if there is a chance to eat some extra things in the process, I need to suck it out as much as I can.
“I understand. I will rescue the priest-nim and prove my qualification. I do have a question. Is it possible to bet guard points for this quest?”
In the game, betting was possible.
You bet guard points and if successfully completed the quest, they return your points with extra based on the ratio.
The thing that determines the ratio is the difficulty of the quest.
And this quest is an S-grade difficulty.
If it brought the same betting system over from Royal Roader the game, I should be able to increase my guard points by 50% with this one quest.
The bishop nodded his head.
“Now that you mention it, you have quite a bit of guard points. Of course betting is allowed. Since it is a S-grade quest, the ratio is 50%. How many guard points would you like to bet?”
There is no reason to save them. If I fail this quest, I’d be dead anyways.
“What is the maximum I can bet?”
“50.”
“Then I will bet 50 points.”
The bishop put his hand on my head and lightly prayed.
That was the end to the betting process.
“I have confirmed your bet of 50 points. Now go and resolve the quest.”
When I checked my stat window, my guard points had decreased by 50 points. It meant that the Ares Temple took my guard points. I bowed to the bishop and headed back to the main gate.
Kaicher accompanied me as if he was walking me out.
“It’s disappointing that I cannot go into the Demon Cave with you!”
Does that mean if the Demon Cave’s level was high enough he would have come along?
He really has no fear.
Divine power does not reach inside Demon Caves. Which means, he will not be able to use Ares’ Blessing in there. He would not be able to use any of the benefits he has a as Warrior of Light.
A Warrior of Light without the blessing of their deity is just an average swordsman.
That was why the temples are extremely strict and do not allow priests to enter dungeons. They don’t want to end up losing a precious individual.
Kaicher probably has to abide by the same restriction.
But for him to think about going in. I’m glad the level did not match.
“Then I’m heading out now. See you again soon.”
“I wish you luck.”
I left the Ares Temple and headed to the Magician’s Tower. There was something I needed to do before heading to Golan Park.
‘By now I should have a pile of money right?’
I headed to the administrative offices instead of the portal as soon as I entered the Magician’s Tower.
“How may I help you?”
“I came to verify the money the was deposited into my account.”
“Please put your hand here to verify your identity.”
I put my palm on the magic crystal. The magic crystal started to shine before finishing verifying my identity.
“This is the amount left in your account. Please verify.”
[Balance: 140,745,602,940 won]
‘Wow! How much is this?’
There were so many digits that I needed to count up from ones, to tens, to hundreds, to thousands, etc to accurately get the amount.
‘140 billion won.’
Of that, Donstar should have deposited about 85 billion won. The rest would be the tax I earned as the owner of the Northern Mines.
Gildeon seems to be depositing it properly.
There should be some that came from the taxes for the Batoom Mines, but that probably isn’t much.
I also had close to 21 billion won in my bag.
I earned the majority from the Chaos Battle.
Of the 3 million won registration fee, 1 million is for the cost of your life. The person who kills you ends up taking that money.
On the other hand, if you kill a thousand people, you get to take that money from all thousand of them.
The Kill count I managed to get in the Chaos Battle was 18,455. I had killed 18,455 people on my own.
Thanks to that, I earned over 1.84 billion won from the Chaos Battle.
I also have 250 million won from the money I took from the Criminal Ruan and his crew as well as the money I got from selling their stuff.
I managed to wash 2 billion won in the real world with the help of some experts, but I had managed to make even more money than that again.
Once I meet the Dwarf Chief and head to the Magman continent, I will be able to earn a ton of money there as well.
Lots of money coming in, not many places to spend it. I feel like I’m overflowing with money.
On the other hand, I was lacking money in the real world. I was quickly increasing my profits from stocks, but I need over a hundred times the money I have now to achieve the things I want to do.
Putting that aside, I need to prepare for the what-ifs.
Clearing a Demon Cave is a dangerous challenge. I will also run into other dangerous challenges as I keep going on. That is the only way to get the opportunities I know about, as well as grow significantly faster than other people.
I wouldn’t have cared as much about these dangerous challenges in the games, but life in Royal Roader was one where you never knew when you would die.
That was why I always had thoughts like this.
What would happen if I died here?
Would I die in the real world as well? Or would I just not be able to enter Royal Roader anymore?
It is not something I can know without experiencing it. I can only guess.
In my opinion, it would be the latter. Wouldn’t I just not be able to enter Royal Roader anymore and my life in the real world would just continue?
I need to prepare for those potentials. Wouldn’t I feel like it is such a waste if I had this much money in Royal Roader and could not take it because I was dead?
It will be better to take things as I go instead of saving it all here. Things like money.
‘I guess I need to use the experts once more.’
“Please withdraw 140,000,000,000 won.”
“Here you go.”
I received a 140 billion won coin from the worker and put it in my bag.
The remaining balance instantly fell to around 700 million.
But it will fill up again. I will be receiving over 60 billion won a month.
Now I was done with everything I needed from the Magician’s Tower.
Originally, I was planning on stopping by Titan Valley for a bit now. Since I had plenty of money, it made sense to start slowly developing High Village.
But my plans have changed.
I need to finish this Demon Cave Clearing quest first. I need to raise up as many levels as I can before entering the Demon Cave.
It won’t be too late to start developing High Village after that.
Thinking about High Village made me suddenly think about someone.
‘I wonder if Humbley has made up his mind.’
I’m sure he has his people delivering news about me at all hours. He should already know that I have received the rights to High Village as well as how I won the Chaos Battle.
Then he should start moving soon as well.
Has he still not made up his mind and just sitting there rolling his head?
Well, one of the colossus of the continent can’t just casually make a move. Especially for something that might end up making the entire continent his enemy.
But in the end, he will need to line up behind me. I have already shown enough of my abilities.
Of course he will shrewdly scheme a safety measure for himself. I would have done the same.
I just hope that scheme is not what I am thinking about. I will be disappointed if the person I picked is lacking that much creativity.
‘Please make the right decision.’
I arrived at the portal.
“Where to?”
The Dwarf village is connected via portal as well.
But the dwarves do not like humans and do not allow anyone to use the portal.
In order to use that portal to the dwarf village, you need to receive their permission first. In order to do that, I need to walk there with my two feet at least once.
Which means, I need to cross Golan Park.
“Huksen.”
Even without the fact that that was where the Demon Cave clearing will happen, it is the city closest to Golan Park. It is known as the gathering place for users under level 300.
“I will now transport you to Huksen.”
I closed my eyes.
***
“I’m sorry but I disagree with you.”
This roundtable discussion had already continued for four hours. Humbley looked toward the Western leader with a slightly tired expression.
“The reason?”
“I agree that that man is special, but not enough to bet the fate of our merchant guild. Rather, I think we need to be even more careful because of his special nature.”
“Stop beating around the bush and get to the point.”
“He could have luckily come across the information about the Jeppi race and is using that as bait to use our merchant guild.”
Could he be a scammer?
It held some merit. But his abilities were too great to be a scammer.
This time, he looked toward his granddaughter Kaldera. This was the person Humbley personally selected to be his successor, looking past all of his ten plus sons.
It was not because of her beauty that even tempted the Royal family of the Ameri Kingdom.
Kaldera’s eyes were very sharp for her young age. Her decision making abilities were spectacular. With enough experience, she will become an even greater merchant than Humbley.
“What is your thoughts on this?”
“I’m sorry, but can I ask you a question first?”
She really is different. Every time Kaldera’s voice is heard, it feels like the entire atmosphere of the conference room changes.
“Go ahead.”
“What is your dream? Is it money? Or is it the honor of the merchant guild?”
Humbley was more curious about her question than to answer Kaldera’s question. Why would she ask this?
There should be only one answer. She is trying to see which decision falls in line with Humbley’s dream.
“My dream is to be the best.”
He had been in second place for a very long time. The desire to move into first place has been almost driving him crazy.
“Then you must work with Kang Hwi Ram-nim.”
“Why?”
‘I feel like one day, he will even reach the position of king. I feel like we will be able to become the greatest merchant guild if we work with him.’
Kaldera did not say what was on her mind. Even she had no way to explain why she felt that way.
But she felt that way the moment she met him. To the point that she regretted not using a Chaos Jewel toward him at that time.
I will definitely use it when we meet again.
That was how strong of a presence Kang Hwi Ram had on Kaldera.
Looking past that, the reason was simple.
“If there is a war, all of Batoru Kingdom will end up in ruins. We will lose everything. That is how strong the Jeppi have gotten.”
Once they met with Kang Hwi Ram, they spent more resources to pay attention to the Jeppi’s movement.
It was as Kaldera mentioned. No, it should really be said that it was as Kang Hwi Ram mentioned.
The strength of the Jeppi was stronger than Humbley had expected. They were so strong that it felt like, if they are not able to let out some of that strength, they will blow up because they will not be able to handle their own strength.
If they use all of that strength at once and invade the continent, the Batoru Kingdom did not have the strength to resist them.
“But if we prepare, everyone else will die while we will live. Which would mean that we will move up to the top.”
“The war might not happen.”
“Then we will suffer a great loss. But not enough for the merchant guild to be crushed. We can always rebuild. With that type of possibility, isn’t there no reason to debate about this?”
Humbley’s eyes became deeper.
In the end, it is about the alternative option.
Will he always remain in second place, or accept that he might fall down to around the fifth level and challenge to become the very best.
Kaldera continued to speak.
“He completed a Slave Quest while he was only level 1, and he also managed to clear two danger locations that all miners believed would be impossible to clear. He also became the first human blacksmith, and even won the Chaos Battle not too long ago.”
They had spent all their resources looking up information on Kang Hwi Ra. His progression was special enough to be called phenomenal.
Plus, a simple miner was able to perfectly determine the Jeppi race’s movement, and prepared everything for the future.
He really was amazing to the point it was hard to believe.
But Kaldera was considering an alternative.
“Isn’t it weird? Everything is so well played that it feels like he is taking care of things he has planned for in advance. Almost as if he was living a second life.”
If you put it that way, it really did sound like that. There were no issues in Kang Hwi Ram’s progression, and he showed great results each time. Someone like him, who had no money, ended up becoming the owner of a mine that is worth trillions of won.
Furthermore, he used his certainty for the future to sell that mine for a low price.
Even the deal he made was really weird. Nobody would have expected in their wildest dreams for him to acquire 200 pickaxes made with Titanium and mithril.
It was as if it was the progression of a god who could see the future.
Once his thoughts reached that point, it made him think of a certain race.
‘Is he perhaps …… a Dragon who has polymorphed?’
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Translator : Miraclerifle
Proofreader : Borderline Masochist
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