Chapter 87 – Magician’s Ivory Tower (8)

Highlander Franz nodded at Sungjin’s question.

“Yes… It most definitely said I could summon the chooser once a day…”

“So when the raid is over, go to the Black market. Once you activate the title, call for me. We can continue talking there. I’ll let you know about what’s going on.”

He tilted his head.

“But… Couldn’t you just tell me now? We have 50 minutes left…”

Sungjin shook his head.

“It is BECAUSE there are only 50 minutes left.”

“Excuse me?”

Sungjin frowned.

“Look, it will take a while for me to explain so let’s talk when we meet at the Black Market, okay?”

He still looked confused, but

“… Ok.”

He nodded for now. Sungjin took out the ‘Trollseeker Marble’ from his vest. This was the 10th floor where the Raid boss was. In other words, the perfect place to begin the search for Trolls. Sungjin immediately

‘Pursuit of Justice’

Wanted to use it, but he was interrupted by the ‘Green Magician’ and the ‘Mountain’.

“Excuse me… Adjudicator… Please choose me as well!”

“Me too… I need stats. Please baptise me!”

Sungjin looked at them. What a difficult situation. He only had one bottle left. He couldn’t use it on just anyone. Sungjin said to them

“I am sorry, but I can’t do this for everyone.”

They looked very disappointed.

“I am sorry.”

Sungjin was about to leave them, but once more

“Please reconsider.”

“I’ll… I’ll do anything.”

When they held on to him, he got an idea.

“Then… I’ll make a proposal. It is a difficult proposal…”

“What is it?”

Sungjin showed them the spiral pattern Ring on his left ring finger; the ‘Helix Ring’

“If you kiss this ring with a genuine and sincere submission towards me…”

Before he could even finish his sentence

“I’ll… I’ll do it.”

“Me too.”

They answered without hesitation. But the explanation was not over.

“I will baptise you when we meet again.”

This is what Sungjin thought. If the Holy water of Baptism cost 1 White coins each, there was no reason why he wouldn’t baptise them if they gave Sungjin the White Coin now.

‘They don’t seem to be bad people per se…’

But the ‘Green Magician’ felt suspicion.

“Next… time?”

“Yes, next time.”

The Mountain also tilted his head.

“When would that be…?”

Sungjin shrugged.

“I don’t know the answer to that. But, if you can continue to survive, we will eventually meet, don’t you think?”

Sungjin did not tell them about the ‘Power to go between dimensions’. They silently looked at each other.

“Then… We’ll go ahead and do it for now.”

“Me too.”

But there was one last hurdle to overcome.

“But if you kiss this ring, you’ll receive a permanent 10% reduction in coins received from Raid Rewards. Are you sure about this?”

“What?!”

“Excuse me?”

An expected reaction.

“No way…”

“He’s right! What are we supposed to do with 10% less coins? How are we supposed to survive the upcoming chapters?”

“That’s why I said it is a difficult proposition. But I can’t help it… This baptism is not something I can do without compensation.”

They fell silent. Sungjin said to them

“Then I’ll just take it that no one wanted to do it… I’ll excuse myself now.”

Sungjin prepared to leave. They wasted his time. But, Green Magician tried one more time.

“But… if so, why did you baptise the Highlander?”

‘I read his mind, and he was a good guy.’

He couldn’t say this. Sungjin gave a simpler answer.

“I liked his skill.”

At his words, the Green Magician closed his mouth. Using skill as an excuse, the Green Magician was unable to respond. Sungjin gazed at him as he said

“Pursuit of Justice”

And used the Trollseeker Marble.

[Dimensional Transfer Requested.]

A pillar of light came down upon Sungjin.

The Highlander and the others were shocked by what was happening. No surprise as this was probably their first time seeing it.

Usually, a message of ‘You must first receive your raid reward’ should have appeared, but this time he was already past the raid distribution.

[Request for Dimensional Transfer accepted.]
[Teleporting to the requested dimension in 10 seconds. 10, 9]

“What is this?”

The Green Magician, Mountain, and even the Highlander Franz came to touch the pillar of light which surrounded Sungjin.

But the light was like a thick glass which perfectly isolated the interior from the outside. They couldn’t reach inside.

[4, 3, 2]

Sungjin said to Franz in the last second.

“I’ll see you at the Black Market in a bit, friend.”

Franz nodded.

“Yes.”

Soon

[1, 0]

Sungjin was teleported; To the Dimension where trolls awaited him.

*

‘Woosh’

‘Shhew’

Two swords came at the same time. The ‘Overlord’ watched the path of the sword carefully and aimed to block both of them with his metallic shield.

But when he moved to defend, the red one of the two swords suddenly changed directions. An impossible movement. The Overlord opened his eyes wide.

‘How?!’

But it was already too late. The red sword cut deep into his undefended side.

“Ahh!”

The Overlord cried out in pain. He had never experienced such pain while fighting monsters, but the enemy before him, the ‘Adjudicator’ was too powerful.

With eyes filled with fear, he looked upon the ‘Adjudicator

“Please… Mercy! I’m sorry!”

He tried begging

“Just go take a rest in the purgatory.”

The ‘Adjudicator’ showed no mercy.

“Gragh!”

The Overlord’s head flew away while still inside of his favored helm as he was beheaded.

“Whew…”

The Adjudicator Sungjin immediately asked the Operator

“Operator, Time spent in this Dimension?”

[3 minutes and 12 seconds.]

Besgoro said

‘This was the fastest yet. A new record.”

It was his fourth dimensional jump after separating from the Highlander. He had beheaded four Trolls thus far.

“You’re right. It was because he was right next to where I was summoned…”

When Sungjin arrived, only the troll Overlord was left remaining. Despite having murdered a teammate, the Overlord was leisurely smoking a cigarette. So he was caught by Sungjin and lost his head.

Next to the corpse of the Overlord was the corpse of Lenin and the other Hunters. Sungjin glanced at them.

‘Two burnt to death, one frozen to death, one beaten to death… and the one I killed.’

Looking at their cause of death, it was easy to guess what had happened here. They just barely overcame the boss with two survivors when the Overlord decided to betray his comrade.

‘Blinded by greed of monopoly’

Their party had the worst of luck. But what could they do apart from blaming their fates? Then

‘Well that’s all good and all, but why are there only one each?’

Besgoro mumbled.

“Trolls you mean?”

‘Yes.’

“I know what you mean.”

Yes, in the previous raids, he had run into multiple trolls on several occasions. But this time there was only one Troll per jump.

“Well, it’s a good thing there aren’t many trolls though.”

‘But two trolls is double, and three trolls is triple the rewards.’

He was right. Sungjin walked over to pick up the items dropped by killing the Overlord. He thought as he placed the items into the cube.

‘Still, I can’t believe there was only one troll per raid… my estimated income… is lower than I thought.’

Not only Black Coins, but he also didn’t even have an opportunity to earn White Coins either. There were one or two hunters who were saved by Sungjin.

‘Thank you’

‘Thank you’

They had expressed their gratitude. But they didn’t do any more than that. Sungjin had tried his best to convince them

‘Hey did you guys manage to find the hidden piece?’

And even took them to the hidden location to give them 5000 stat points

‘But losing 10% in raid rewards is a bit…’

They refused to kiss the ring. The penalty was too large. Besgoro continued to complain.

‘How unfortunate that you can only receive raid reward once.’

Sungjin responded indifferently

“Yeah”

When he led the hunters to the hidden place after saving them, the magic hat said

‘Who are you’

‘Kei, Hunter. I just returned from killing Lenin.’

‘Lenin? You killed Lenin?’

He had acted as if he had never seen Sungjin before.

‘Then as a reward, I will give you my power.’

Although the event was the same, Sungjin did not receive anything in return.

It was just as the merchant in Darker than Black had said. ‘Reward distribution happens only once’. This also applied to hidden places.

“Well, I can’t help it. I guess I’ll just have to focus on beating up the trolls.”

‘Well yes… That’s certainly your specialization.’

Sungjin took a big stretch. There were no hunters left alive, so he had plenty of time.

‘Hmm, I guess I’ll check out my items now.’

The items he had received from troll hunting were no good, but the ones he had received from the reward distribution, the legendary class items, were good.

“Operator, give me the items I got from the distribution earlier. Not the Enhancement Stone though. There’s two.”

A ring and a smelly fruit came out of the Operator’s Cube. Sungjin picked up the Ring.


Chimerao – Ring of Fused Beasts
Legendary Ring

Active Skill
Magician’s Ice (IV) – Immune to Fire for 5 seconds.
Snake’s Serum (IV) – Immune to Poison for 5 seconds.
Lion’s Courage (IV) – Immune to Fear for 5 seconds.
Goat’s Fire (IV) – Immune to Ice for 5 seconds.
Shared Cooldown of 10 minutes.

Nature is designed by God. The ones who break the design
Will face suitable punishment.


It was good. The abilities were as expected of a legendary class item.

Sungjin had an immense physical advantage, but status effect spells often gave him a headache. With the spells he learned from the last round and with the title of ‘Iron Will’ he earned this time, he should be able to swing his sword without rest.

“Equip”

Sungjin put it on immediately. Now Sungjin’s fingers were getting full of rings. Only a few more fingers to go.

‘About time I need to start picking and choosing.’

Sungjin thought as he looked over to the smelly fruit lying next to him.


Merka – Pulp of Evolution
Legendary Fruit

Passive
Rapid Growth (I)
Allows Spiritual Linked summons to undergo rapid growth.
If the creature reaches a ‘checkpoint’, it immediately evolves the creature.

A fruit that grows in a country to the south.
It speeds up bodily function and rapidly increases growth.


 

Sungjin stared at the information sheet.

‘Rapid growth… and evolution?’


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34 thoughts on “Chapter 87 – Magician’s Ivory Tower (8)”

    1. What if…it boosts all his summons when He eats it.
      The translation said summons in multiple while also saying spiritually linked to the one who eats it.

      1. And it says “Passive”, so as little sense as that makes for a fruit, it seems like it should work on all his summons just by being in his inventory.

  1. typo:
    ‘How unfortunate that you can only raid receive reward once.’
    only receive raid reward once

  2. “But if you kiss this ring, you’ll receive a permanent 10% reduction in coins received from Raid Rewards. Are you sure about this?”

    WTF

    Serious, it’s so easy, just tell them about the Heart of Gold (ch 7), 500 Black Coins ONLY, super cheap now.
    “Upon receiving Black Coin as Raid reward, gain an additional 10% more.”
    [Item effect ‘Additional 10% gained’ activated.]

    Problem solved, and every one gain huge stats bonus, heck even if them do not get baptised him should still them this to everyone him think a good person, at this time just one raid and the item will already have paid it self back, should be doing this already since a long time ago to help more hunters….

    1. yeah its kinda werid that literately no one else has that thing. mabey it was only avablible for the first two chapters or something? or only one person can obtain it like other legendary items. otherwise everyone would have it. besides that 500 coins is way to cheap for a plus 10% bonus. so clearly the author either messed up or didnt bother explaining.

      1. It’s just a “Rare Ring”, not even a Legendary Item, does not seem to be unique like the books that the Operator did say to every hunter that no one else could the that same book again.

        Heck maybe you can even have more that one of it and fill you hands (10 rings !?!?) like you can have more that one ‘Trollseeker Marble’.

        1. even so the fact that NO ONE we saw has it is concerning. its a rare item but mabey thats just because its cheap. its either horrible writing or limited to 1.

          1. I think most likely an oversight by the author. He should have given the item as a hidden piece or something instead of being a common item you can find at the shop. Even with the excuse that not everyone is going to look for it. If I remember correctly he used the excuse that spendind 500 coins at the beggining of the raids was equal to suicide to the average person and that made sense back then. But considering the rewards right now, it’s pretty much free Coins if anyone picks it up and clears a Raid. And 500 is an amount almost all hunters should have to spend like that.

      2. i don´t think it is too weird since not many people though about, think about it the shopkeepers don´t really reveal anything unless you ask for something so it is understandable to some extent. Its not like people will go to every shop to ask for every item

  3. Yes. Even if you can have only one equiped, as that seems to be the case since no repeated items equiped so far in the same Hunter, is weird that he has not told anyone about it.

    Can you say plothole?

    Hey translators can you ask the LN author about this?

    1. Nope, in the previous raid he encountered a troll with the same basilisk eye necklace as he, as for the ring I think most people simply didn’t want to look at every single item from the black market (and in games it’s common sense that dropped itens are better than the ones bought from NPCs so few people bother to look) plus the MC didn’t check if other people are wearing rings so a lot of people could be wearing the ring and he simply didn’t bother to check

      1. ops sorry, the troll with basilisk eye was in harpy plato and in the previous raid there was a hunter who also had the katana bloody vengeance

      2. You might be right. Like K never looked at the top magic spells even though he visited ever shop to sell spells from quest rewards. There are probably dozens of shops with dozens of items on sell. Though a woman would be more likely yo visit a accessory shop.

      3. still we got alots of final contribution distributions in earlier chapters and no one had it. and sujin didnt tell the Japanese katana guy about it either. and like said above he could have just told people about the item and there would have esentially been no loss.

  4. The -10 is after the rewards the +10 is before the discount. So 10% of 100 = 10 and 10% of 110 = 11
    See the problem now? No plothole Just not worth It.

  5. That’s a very small loss to say “Not worth it”. This is also after a raid where they gain high contributions as the sole survivor. If they get the item the loss is only 1% according to your math.

    Whether you make 500 or 5 million, the plus 10% and minus 10%, the loss will be 1%. 1% of 5 million is 50,000 points, but at such a stage of enhancements Hunters like K and the rest won’t bat an eye at the loss.

  6. Using the troll seeker marble has a ten minute cool down, and having 50 minutes left after fully clearing a level out the boss, hidden boss and hidden mistery is gonna get harder and harder, so having more than five would be stupid.

    Is he gonna ask in Darker than Black about yet another way to become stronger or what?

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