Chapter 314 (1/2)

Act 3

Hercules?

Su-hyeun’s brows rose when a familiar name was brought up. If it was Hercules, then he had to be the human who inherited a god’s blood that appeared in the Greek myths.

But more than that…

“What do you mean by he ‘might’ be a problem?”

The administrator didn’t sound sure.

Su-hyeun could more or less accept that Hercules would appear. After all, he had already run into the Great Sage Heaven’s Equal, the one and only Sun Wukong, in a trial, and Hercules was also among all the heroes he met back on the 43rd floor.

However, the issue this time was with how Phaethon had said the hint.

“Are you not sure about the hint itself?” Su-hyeun asked.

“The hint? Ah, well. I guess it’s difficult to call this a hint, isn’t it?”

“Then what is it?”

“Should I say it’s a piece of advice? Honestly, even we don’t know for sure. We’re simply giving you advice based on several pieces of information, and just like you said, we’re not perfectly sure about it.”

“…Is it always a hit or miss with you guys?”

“There are way too many variables at play, you see. That’s why I didn’t ask you for any points, you know.”

Su-hyeun could only groan at Phaethon’s reply and did a facepalm.

However, the administrator wasn’t wrong. A piece of advice was simply that—advice and not an actual hint—and since no points had been spent here, Su-hyeun couldn’t even complain anymore.

“But then again, the administrators aren’t gods, so…” Su-hyeun thought.

Most of the trials took place in not some made-up worlds but ones that actually existed somewhere. Moreover, the “trial” of each floor was basically a mission handed out by an administrator, or maybe the system itself, that you needed to complete in those worlds.

All you needed to do was to reach a favorable end, but no one had any way of knowing how the future would unfold, which meant that the hints of the administrators were not “hints” per se related to the events that had already taken place. They were more like information necessary to reach the end goal instead.

“Whatever the case may be, Hercules is the problem. Is that what you’re saying?”

“No, not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“Our reply will be the same as always. You’ll see when you get there.”

Su-hyeun nodded at Phaethon’s reply.

Things had been broadly similar until now.

Hints that made only some vague sense and sounded like a challenge to catch floating clouds would become far clearer once he entered the trial and saw what was going on. Meaning, he wouldn’t be able to tell until he experienced it himself.

“Where can I access the store? No matter how much I look, I can tell that you’re the only person in this village.”

Su-hyeun scanned the world that was seemingly made up of desert and nothing else.

A bluish aura swirled in his eyes as he activated the “Sage’s Eye” to look into the distance, but even then, he could only see more of the same desert that seemingly stretched forever.

It was rather likely that nothing remained in this world other than this dust-covered little village.

“The store, you say? You want to use it right away?”

“I’ve managed to amass a lot of points, actually. I can’t think of anything I need right now, but who knows? I might spot something useful.”

[Current stored achievement points: 47,544,500]

Not only did he acquire quite a lot of achievement points on the 100th and 101st floors but even the points he obtained from the 60th and 99th remained untouched as well.

In reality, there wasn’t anything he particularly wanted in the store, and he ended up saving the points, but now that a new store became accessible, he simply had to check out its contents.

“Sure, you do have some points on you. Maybe you can purchase a few knick-knacks, then.”

“A few knick-knacks?”

“Why don’t you take a look? Here,” said Phaethon as he extended his palm forward.

This was the same method employed by the street merchants found inside the tower when they wanted to show off their wares.

Su-hyeun pressed his palm against Phaethon’s. When he did, the list of goods available in the store appeared before his eyes.

[The Golden Goblin’s Master Key]

[Balrog’s Lost Magic Staff]

[Gabriel’s Golden Spear]

[The World Tree’s…]

Su-hyeun’s eyes darted around faster and faster as he read down the list.

Each item was more than enough to make him go agog. Items that far outstripped those found in the stores below the 100th floor in grade utterly filled up the list.

“The starting price is 10 million points?” he thought to himself.

Even if the item in question was the cheapest and should be treated like junk in terms of this store’s line-up, its base price still went past 10 million points.

In the cases of the equipment-type items, some of them even exceeded 30 or 40 million.

Of course, most of the types of equipment on offer were pointless for Su-hyeun.

In terms of armor, most of them boasted performance that was either similar or only slightly better than his Armor of Hades, while it was obvious that he wouldn’t find any weapon that matched up to the Palm Leaf Sword.

A handful of consumable items did catch his eyes, but until he could confirm their details properly, he couldn’t buy them on a whim.

“That’s useful, and that one’s also not bad, but I don’t really need them right now,” he told himself.

It was at that moment that Su-hyeun’s eyes that were rapidly scanning the item list spotted a certain name.

[A God’s Tear]

That name alone instantly grabbed his attention. Su-hyeun had become especially more mindful of the term “god” lately, hence, his sudden interest.

“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thou—Wait, hundred million?!”

Su-hyeun’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“One hundred million points?!”

Now that was an absurdly expensive item, that’s for sure.

However, how amazing was it to warrant such a price? Su-hyeun checked the item’s details right away.

[A God’s Tear]

* A single teardrop shed by an unknown god. Although it is small in quantity, the power of a god permeates within it.

* Increases any stat by +1 (Only usable on a stat with less than 100 points).

“…?”

Su-hyeun was dumbfounded after checking out its effect. “What was so special about it that it would cost 100 million points?” he thought.

But after a brief moment of contemplation, he realized that he was very wrong.

“It can increase any stat without any restrictions whatsoever?”

This consumable item might have come across as nothing special in the eyes of the other regular awakeners, but Su-hyeun’s thoughts were different from theirs. After all, he was the first awakener to push his “Strength” stat to the 100-point mark and acquired the qualification of godhood called “Strength” in the process.

“This is it.”

Su-hyeun was aware of it. No matter how incredible an item was, none of them could compare to the power of godhood.