Chapter 71 (1/2)
Splaaaash—
Slice, slice, sliiiice—
Su-hyeun’s sword started cutting up the huge body of the Work Gigant into several pieces. The creature’s sturdy hide was penetrated through, its bones were sliced up, and its body was chopped into chunks.
Kiiiiieeehk—!
Parasitic insects living within the Worm Gigant’s body all crawled outside. These hundreds of creatures spewed out toxins and pounced on Su-hyeun next.
It was then.
Ruuuumble—!
Boom, ka-boooom—!
With Su-hyeun as the center, a chain of explosions went off all around him. The blue-colored divine Flame burned the toxins away and killed off the insects.
Soon afterward, the Worm Gigant stopped breathing, and just as every single insect was burned to crisp…
[1000 achievement points have been acquired.]
[Warmth has been added to the Divine Beast’s Egg.]
[The Divine Beast within the egg is satisfied.]
[The Divine Beast’s Egg is beginning to hatch.]
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Su-hyeun inwardly cried out in elation.
The past ten days of dungeon crawling was all for the sake of hatching this egg. The percentage of hatching rate went up a little every time he killed a monster and snatched away their “warmth.”
The current trial also ended up playing a crucial role in hastening the hatching of the egg.
Monsters flooded out nonstop for almost two hours straight, so from Su-hyeun’s perspective, he should raise both of his hands and praise the sun.
And just as he suspected, the boss appearing at the end, the Worm Gigant, played a key role in hatching of this egg.
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He could sense the Divine Beast’s Egg currently stored in his Inventory shake around a little bit.
It seemed that the egg would hatch little by little, indicating that perhaps it wasn’t supposed to break out of the shell immediately. However, it didn’t feel like the process would take a long time. On top of that, celebrating the successful conclusion to this trial came first.
“Is it all over?” Aile asked.
“Most likely. Although it hasn’t been two hours yet….”
Since it was brought up, Su-hyeun decided to check the remaining time.
[Elapsed time: 01:57:54.]
About two minutes still remained.
But, the boss was defeated already, so in reality, the trial was as good as over.
Su-hyeun looked back at Aile. “You worked hard.”
“Thank you. You too. I managed to survive thanks to you.”
Aile believed that, if Su-hyeun wasn’t around, she’d not have lived through this dungeon, so she was thanking him earnestly.
After hearing her words of gratitude, he shifted his gaze over to the bundle of Ether stones put away to the side, plus the mid- and high-grade Ether stones still stuck in the round tower. “All of those should fetch a pretty good price, yes?”
“Pardon? Ah, of course. For both the mid- and high-grade Ether stones, you can supposedly demand any price you desire, so…”
As expected, the Ether stones seemed to be a rare resource in this world, as well. But then again, that’d be pretty obvious considering that the awakeners, already invaluable assets in themselves, had to risk their lives to acquire those stones.
“That’s a relief.”
“Relief? What do you mean?” Aile formed a puzzled expression after hearing his unexpected words. But she soon thought of something and nodded her head. “Ah, I see. Warrick, I presume you haven’t had a chance to personally sell the Ether stones yet? Please be rest assured. If we take all of them out of here and sell them off, we’ll have more than enough to pay off my family debt and still have considerable sum remaining.”
It was not just a bundle filled with low-ranked Ether stones, but also several mid- and high-grade ones, too. This amount was easily more than enough to completely wipe off the debt accrued by the fallen noble family.
It was unknown how much would be left after the debt had been settled, but still, it should be enough to open up a small shop somewhere.
Su-hyeun smiled after hearing Aile’s reply. Fortunately for him, he got the answer he wanted to hear. “Sounds good.”
[The trial has been cleared.]
[The exit is opening.]
The time elapsed and Su-hyeun confirmed the exit opening at the foot of the round tower. He then continued on. “That’s why I’m relieved.”
“….Pardon?”
That’s why he was relieved?
What did he mean?
Aile formed a truly confused expression this time. But then, it quickly morphed into one of pure shock as she turned around.
“W-Warrick??”
Su-hyeun, standing right before her eyes only a second ago, was now gone without a trace.
Aile hurriedly searched the underground cavity filled with monster corpses. In the end, though, she failed to find the man who disappeared without saying goodbye, and stood there in a sheer daze.
But then, the bundle of Ether stones resting on the floor caught her eyes.
“It can’t be….”
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Aile’s eyes grew larger and larger.
Only then did she finally realize what Su-hyeun meant earlier.
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Plop—
She plopped down right on the spot.
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Someone else.
Su-hyeun meant himself when he said those words.
“Ah, ah….”
Drip, drip—
Her tears that didn’t flow when her family was ruined, all of her emotions piling up endlessly ever since then, began flooding out all at once.
“Thank… you….”
Not one person offered her a helping hand, but when someone did, it was not her friend nor family, but a near-stranger.
She wanted to say something, anything, to express her gratitude but Su-hyeun was long gone by then.
“Thank you, thank you….”
Aile remained sitting on the ground, staring at the exit and muttering to herself for a long, long time.
Act 3
As expected, the reward for the 21st floor’s trial was a fair amount of achievement points but not much else.
Bringing out the Ether stones with him was too difficult. In order to bring those found within the trials, one would need the “Property of Dimension” order form.
Of course, if he really wanted to, he could have brought them out. He could’ve used the order form to bring out that one particular Ether stone. Indeed, he wouldn’t have felt shortchanged if he decided to use the form inside his pocket to bring out the high-grade Ether stone.
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However, he didn’t really need one, and Aile’s situation also weighed on his mind, too.
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Su-hyeun roughly scratched his head.
His thoughts were complicated, but he never regretted his actions after making up his mind. Not only was he not the type to be hung up over money, but he figured that it’d also be a good idea to horde some achievement points for a rainy day. Also, there was something else even more important than that to worry about.