Chapter 235 (2/2)

It was Su-hyeun’s first time to see an item called the Celestial King’s Feather.

Appraisal.

[Celestial King’s Feather]

<ul>

A wing feather from the king of the angels, the Celestial King

It can transport you to a location in your memory, where you’ve previously been to.

One-time use item

</ul>

Its effect was pretty simple, but it still made Su-hyeun’s eyes sparkle brightly.

It can transport me to a location I’ve been to before, huh?

As implied, it was basically for teleportation. Moreover, as there was no restriction on the distance, the item would allow him to teleport anywhere he wanted to go and not just a short little hop to somewhere close by.

It, as a single-use item only, was a bit unfortunate, but even then, it was an excellent item that could definitely come in handy in an emergency situation.

If I can use this even in the middle of a fight, then it can be the greatest evacuation and counterattack item in existence, or I can substantially lower the risk in case dungeons open up in two locations that are on the opposite sides of the world.

Depending on how it would be used, the possibilities were endless. He didn’t expect much as it was merely the 51st floor’s reward, but this one option alone already made it an excellent item.

Well, my Death Aura stat has risen up, too…

Perhaps because the stat was low but the floor was high, Death Aura increased rather easily at the moment.

The most important thing to note was the fact that the Death Aura stat continued to climb higher whenever he hunted down a monster. It seemed that the effects of dying life forms influenced the stat greatly.

Two months should be more than enough.

Su-hyeun started walking away. Although he dearly wanted to challenge the next floor right away, there was something else he needed to do first.

[Achievement points: 21,904,455]

It was now time to purchase the elixirs for stamina, as well as those related to agility.

It looks like I’ll be in hell for a couple of days.

Just thinking about drinking all those disgusting elixirs at once was already making him groan helplessly.

Su-hyeun headed to the shopping district.

Act 8

After taking all sorts of elixirs, potions, and medicinal herbs meant to fortify his stamina and lighten his body, Su-hyeun fell unconscious for several days.

That was how terrible those things were. Some medicines mixed in among the batch even contained deadly toxins.

That goddam medicine peddler.

He wasn’t the type to do so, yet the first thing he did after waking up was to gnash his teeth and curse the owner of the store that sold him the elixirs.

“This is a slightly dangerous item, and it might hurt you a little bit. However, its effect is truly outstanding.”

The store owner had a somewhat vaguely sinister expression as he said that and packed all the medicines in a big bundle.

Even then, Su-hyeun didn’t think that the store owner would really defraud him, plus he had pretty high resistance toward most poisons, so he wasn’t overly concerned. Which came back to bite him in the butt in the end.

Did he say that this elixir was created by boiling the horn of a Wind Unicorn? I heard that a person will die by ingesting the blood of a unicorn, but hell, the horn is even worse.

Whatever the case might have been, the effects were definitely noticeable.

[Strength: 99] [Agility: 97]

[Stamina: 97] [Reflex: 96]

Both his “agility” and “stamina” had increased significantly. The former rose by four points, while the latter, five.

This was all thanks to him consuming all sorts of elixirs related to those two stats.

In other words…

This is as high as I can raise my stats through elixirs.

His “reflex” stat was different from the others and couldn’t be raised through elixirs because it was related to his senses, not his physical body.

I guess there’s no reason to rein in my strength anymore.

Su-hyeun’s strength stat stayed at 99, but his stamina, which used to be only 92, rose as well.

The difference might have been only seven points, but what he could actually feel was far greater than that. This was because once a stat goes past 90, the relative importance of each point would rise exponentially.

Because of this, he could feel his body experiencing a strain of some sort whenever he unleashed a significant amount of his strength. The amount of unnecessary magical energy spent to support his body had been rather considerable so far.

But from this point onward, that burden should decrease substantially.

Let’s aim to get to the 56th floor.

The main matches of the Ranking Wars were about one and a half months away. And he was aiming to climb past five floors during that time.

Although he might pass one or all the floors as quickly as the previous one, that could also not happen depending on the types of trials he would face.

Still, let’s go forward as fast as we can.

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Out of all the currently existing events, the Ranking Wars boasted the biggest scale.

This tournament had already surpassed the World Cup and the Olympics in terms of the world’s attention drawn to it. As such, it was only obvious that a great deal of manpower would be invested in the Ranking Wars to get everything prepared ahead of time.

“What about the dungeon that appeared in Florida this time? Which guild is scheduled to take it on?”

“The Zinger Guild has been chosen to take it on, sir. They are scheduled to start the raid later today, so it should be wrapped up either tomorrow or the day after.”

“And what about Boston?”

“That one, it’s being…”

They were currently inside the Dungeon Management Agency.

This agency, which was a part of the American Awakener Authority, was currently trying to get through arguably the busiest period in its history.

Some of the world’s greatest awakeners would gather for the Ranking Wars.

And as such, it was unavoidable that there would be a gap in the awakener manpower while the tournament was underway, and inevitably, there would be a shortage of people capable of raiding dungeons.

Because of this, not only the Dungeon Management Agency but also the awakeners throughout the world were working hard to raid the dungeons ahead of time before the Ranking Wars could even start.

Normally, a dungeon needed 15 days to a month before it reached a full-on outbreak.

That time frame had been brought forward as much as possible, and the dungeons were getting raided within three days of their appearance.

This story wasn’t unique to the American agency.

The whole world was doing the same.

That was why the months of November and December that led up to the Ranking Wars, which would be held sometime in December, proved to be the busiest period for the awakeners.

“Ugh! I’m already up to my neck in work after more dungeons have shown up lately, so what is up with this damn Ranking Wars and stuff…?”

“But we’re getting pretty good overtime pay, so it’s all good, right?”

“Well, I guess so, sir. The Gordon Company isn’t a bunch of thugs, at least. We’re getting a lot of extra pay from their donations, after all.”

“If it weren’t for that, we should be going on a strike or something. Man, we seriously have been swarmed with work for the past month, haven’t we? Hey, man. Wanna get some coffee in our systems first?”

James, the administrator working for the agency, stood up while saying that. The current time had already breached past the wee hours, and his eyelids were growing heavier by the second.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“…”

There was no reply.

The junior assistant, the one he had been chatting idly with only a second ago, was already sitting down, with his head tilted to the side.

“What the… You’re already asle—”

Whoosh—

Just before he could shake the junior’s shoulder, James’s head spun to the side. Someone’s face suddenly appeared before his eyes.

“From now on, your job will be…”