Chapter 24: Top (1)

Chapter 24: Top (1)

A little later,

For some reason, after Elena, with her flushed face, left the Lords office making a lisping sound, Bye-!, Kim Hyunwoo looked at the blue bone she had left behind.

The Necromancer of the Blue Forest

That title was quite a nostalgic one for Kim Hyunwoo.

After all, the Necromancer of the Blue Forest was a character who had died while conquering a Labyrinth when he was deeply enjoying Arteil.

Kim Hyunwoo briefly reminisced about that time.

At that time, according to the update, when he conquered the 28th and lowest floor of the Labyrinth, Kim Hyunwoo lost her, the hero he had raised with his blood and sweat, as the cost for defeating the Boss of the 28th floor.

Just had to be killed off at that time

In Arteil, when a heros HP is completely depleted, their fate is determined by chance.

The most common outcome was serious injury, which wasnt too problematic.

For injuries worse than serious injury, one could always revive them if another companion managed to carry them out of the Labyrinth.

The next most likely outcome was comatose, which also wasnt much of an issue.

Similarly, in this case, they could be healed through the Blue Stones that could be collected in the game.

However, in Arteil, death, which had a 1% chance of occurring only if the enemys attack was more than twice the heros health, rumored to only happen to the incredibly unlucky, was irreversible.

Still makes me dizzy thinking about it.

Even though it had been over ten years, Kim Hyunwoo could still feel a sense of darkness before his eyes whenever he thought about that time.

Back then, Kim Hyunwoo was pouring his life into Arteil, even working a night job despite being a student to equip his heroes and creating accessories for them through mini-game grinding instead of attending classes.

As a result, when a hero died, Kim Hyunwoo literally cried his eyes out at dawn, making his parents seriously wonder if their son was being bullied at school.

The death of her, whom he had raised from 1-star along with other heroes, had made Kim Hyunwoo, a gamer at the time, not turn on Arteil for an entire week.

Because the hero, filled with immense dedication and affection, had spectacularly vanished along with the money he had invested.

Even now, as Kim Hyunwoo thought about her existence, he felt slightly depressed, reminding himself once again how serious he had been about Arteil.

If only there had been a way to revive her.

In fact, contrary to what Kim Hyunwoo thought, there was indeed a resurrection system.

Even at the time when one of his beloved heroes, the Necromancer, died, there was a resurrection system, and Kim Hyunwoo was aware of its existence.

The problem was that the resurrection system was truly filled with the game companys malice.

Who the hell spends millions to resurrect a hero

Kim Hyunwoo knew there were two ways to revive a hero.

One way was to revive the hero using cash currency.

The other was to collect items that dropped at extremely low probabilities in the game to revive the hero.

Reviving a hero with cash currency was easy, but it required an amount filled with sheer malice.

Kim Hyunwoo couldnt remember exactly, but he recalled it cost an amount that required doing a night job, which didnt even pay minimum wage, for more than half a year.

Thus, naturally, Kim Hyunwoo at that time couldnt afford such a large sum to revive the hero, so he chose the second method, and indeed, despite the terrible odds, he was collecting the materials.

The dedicated grinding of Kim Hyunwoos teenage years made it possible.

However, the reason he ultimately failed to revive her was because he got fed up with the game companys overflowing bad manners (BM) before he could gather all the materials.

Anyway, Kim Hyunwoo pondered why this blue bone had popped out of the Labyrinth and looked at the blue bone for a while.

The day after the first floor of the Labyrinth was conquered.

The Droal Mercenary Group immediately received their promised compensation from Kim Hyunwoo and left.

Although it was visible that Alta was annoyed, possibly due to being humiliated yesterday, Kim Hyunwoo did not bother to confront her and simply paid the mercenaries to leave his territory.

Having returned to his office, Kim Hyunwoo checked the items obtained from this first-floor exploration.

From this exploration, I got 220 low-grade Magic Stones and 1 lower-grade Magic Stone.

This time, since you were just insolent, Ill spare your life. Besides.

However, Merilda, looking at her with an indifferent expression, said,

Like you said, I too agree that that woman is useless.

With a soft murmur, she disappeared just like that.

Alta, with her right arm twisted, couldnt properly grasp the situation but realized through instinct that she had survived and felt truly grateful for her survival.

Kim Hyunwoo knew that there was a merchant group system in Arteil.

Anyone who had played the game for any length of time could not be unaware of the merchant group system.

The merchant group system was one of the important elements for territories with concepts other than combat in Arteil.

But even so.

The scale is incredibly large.

Kim Hyunwoo had never seen a merchant group of such massive scale.

He casually turned his gaze beyond the Lords castle.

What he saw were rows of luxurious carriages, easily numbering in the dozens, each setting up stalls and selling goods to the territorys residents.

Kim Hyunwoo, who had been staring blankly, soon turned his gaze to the merchant group leader in front of him.

No, to the hero.

Well-

I am the leader of the Tienus Merchant Group. My name is Adria.

With a confident smile, she introduced herself with a slight bow, her appearance looking incredibly luxurious.

From her clothes to the jewelry on her hands and ears, there was not a single spot without adornment.

Kim Hyunwoo marveled at this for a moment.

Normally, it was best to wear jewelry in moderation, as wearing too much can often look cheap.

However, Kim Hyunwoo did not think this way at all when looking at Adria.

The reason was that Adrias beauty, who sat in front of him, was enough to overshadow all the jewelry she wore.

Thus, Kim Hyunwoo, who had been discreetly observing Adrias beauty, soon listened to her story.

Ive come to Lartania Territory to greet you, among other things. But, should I introduce myself first? It seems youre not familiar with our Merchant Group.

Kim Hyunwoo responded with a nod to her words.

Of course, he knew nothing about the Tienus Merchant Group.

After all, the Tienus Merchant Group wasnt around when he played the game.

Then, let me explain briefly.

Five minutes after hearing Adrias explanation about the Merchant Group.

Kim Hyunwoo, having heard all about the Merchant Group from her, summarized the information he had received.

So, you travel around the entire Southern Vontinent trading? You buy all sorts of goods, but primarily deal in valuables and artifacts.

Thats right. We wander without a fixed base. Hence, we can procure any specialty from anywhere through our Tienus Merchant Group.

Kim Hyunwoo, feeling her confidence, nodded and then expressed a sudden curiosity.

So, the Tienus Merchant Group isnt affiliated with any specific territory, I take it?

This question was based on Kim Hyunwoos understanding that merchant groups were typically affiliated with one territory.

Well To be precise, we are affiliated, but not with any territory.

To that question

Then?

We are affiliated with our protector, the Red Dream Dragon.

Kim Hyunwoo received such an answer.