Settlement

[Fallen High Priest Bardo] settlement begins.

[Top contributor among survivors: Kang Minjun]

[All players who contributed are awarded 10 bonus stats.]

"Whoa! We got bonus stats!"

"Holy crap. Ten of them?"

Everyone cheered.

Even Lee Sera, who had been hiding, was grinning from ear to ear, so it seemed she had received them too.

There was no way they'd simply hand them out, so apparently she'd attacked or killed a few skeletons while hiding.

[A special reward will be given to top contributor 'Kang Minjun'.]

And since no one else reacted, it seemed the final notification could only be heard by me.

[You have obtained <Alchemy Supervisory Bureau Certificate>.]

Alchemy Supervisory Bureau Certificate.

An official certificate issued by the department overseeing alchemy; carrying it into certain areas triggers a [Challenge].

The [Challenge] I had completed at the Ether and Fist restaurant the other day was one such challenge.

'I enjoyed its benefits through Resident privileges, but normally, you have to defeat a raid boss to obtain them.'

In theory, it was a route through which one could even obtain Transcendent-grade items. Of course, you had to get an excellent score, but since it was that valuable, I could make a decent amount of money by selling it later.

'Let's see. I'll put all ten bonus stats into strength.'

As I was assigning the stats, a hurried presence approached.

"Mr. Minjun!"

When I closed the status window, the Saintess appeared in my field of vision. She came sprinting at full speed like a pet dog running toward its owner, then leaped into my arms and shouted.

"Mr. Minjun! You were amazing! You took down all those undead by yourself!"

The Saintess pressed her soft breasts against me while bombarding me with sparkling eyes. Ah, that pure smile of hers was truly healing.

Especially her ass—why was it so big and pleasant to the touch?

It was full and plump yet sexy, and the silk of the [Vestment of Lumina], a sexy priestess's robe, made it smooth as well. Thanks to that, simply fondling her ass made me feel as though all the hardships I'd just endured were being washed away.

"Mr. Minjun, you really were amazing!"

Of course, our innocent Saintess was too busy praising me to realize that I was enthusiastically fondling her ass.

Thud.

Sensing another presence approaching, I set the Saintess down.

Over the Saintess's shoulder, as she clung tightly to me and refused to let go, a figure was striding toward us.

"Black Dick."

The Crimson Flame Witch, an existence who could unequivocally be called the greatest among S-rank mages, stood before me, glaring intensely.

"That thing you used earlier was my ability, wasn't it? How did you use it?"

Suspicious eyes.

So she wasn't going to let it slide after all.

Since I knew this question was coming, I calmly nodded.

"That's right. In exchange for raising your stats, I can use your ability once a day for a short time."

As I opened my left hand and produced flames, Shin Seoyeon and the Saintess's eyes widened.

The red flames blazed fiercely, then soon vanished with a soft whoosh.

[The copied <Primordial Flame> disappears as the time limit expires.]

It had disappeared because the time was up.

Shin Seoyeon folded her arms and stared at me intently.

"Really? Is that all?"

But judging from the atmosphere, it seemed my explanation was not yet sufficient.

"You really don't have anything else to tell me? Come on. How can you use my ability better than I can when you've only used it for the first time?"

Ah, so that was it.

Apparently, Shin Seoyeon was wary because she thought I used her ability far better than she did.

'How do I use the ability better, huh.'

…Because I'd spent a lot of time watching Shin Seoyeon practice in my previous life.

After the Crimson Flame Witch ran into someone she knew during the Selection Process, she always took me along whenever she practiced magic at the shelter.

She probably needed someone to guard her various weaknesses and secrets, but thanks to that, whenever she practiced magic, I had to stick by her side all day like a servant, running miscellaneous errands.

-Water.

-Come here and massage my feet.

My body suffered, and my brain never got a break either.

-There must be a more efficient way to use it than simply hurling fireballs…. Black Dick, do you have any good ideas? Think. Come on, wrack that stupid brain of yours.

Eighty percent of the techniques she created and used had been developed with our heads together. So applying those techniques was not particularly difficult for me.

Of course, methods requiring complex calculations and practice were beyond me.

I shrugged.

"Honestly, what would I know about that ability? I just saw it used that way in games or movies, so I imitated it to see if it would work."

"……."

"But apparently some things work as I imagine, while others don't."

Only then did Shin Seoyeon's expression relax when I said there were things that did not work. Seeing her so obviously relieved despite it being unlike her made me smile a little.

Of course, she still had one thing to say.

"Black Dick, make some time for me later."

"?"

"You're going to help me develop techniques too."

So it came down to this in the end. The future in which I developed magic techniques with her did not seem to have changed much. There was, however, one difference from back then.

"For free?"

This time, I was the one in charge.

"Ugh. I-if you make time for me, I'll make time for you too…."

Though it seemed both the technique development and satisfying her sexual urges were things she was doing for her own sake.

"All right."

I accepted. It was best to overwrite bad memories with good ones. Unlike in my first run, this time we could enjoy our magic practice sessions.

When I reached out, tucked Shin Seoyeon under my arm, and shoved my hand inside her panties to finger her pussy, Shin Seoyeon merely trembled with a blush on her face.

The Crimson Flame Witch had recently stopped resisting and simply let me finger her.

"Anyway, good work, both of you."

"Good work to you too, Mr. Minjun."

"Good work."

'You did good work too, Lee Sera.'

I also nodded to Lee Sera, who had dispelled her stealth and was sitting at the boss-room entrance resting, to tell her she had done well. Lee Sera waved and nodded back.

'But where is one person?'

Just then, I spotted Han Sohee. I stopped fingering Shin Seoyeon and approached her.

In the corner of the boss room, she was gently closing Manager Go's dead eyes. Suddenly, the mutter she let out reached me with a familiar resonance.

"Manager Go, I will survive. And I will prove that your sacrifice was never in vain."

"……."

"Thank you. You were the first and last protector of my life."

Then the chaebol heiress calmly covered the face with a priestly robe she had apparently set aside at some point.

When she rose and gave us a plain smile, I felt that she had grown tremendously compared to when we first met.

I held out my hand and said,

"Good work on the raid. I look forward to working with you."

"I look forward to it as well."

She shook my hand, then shook hands with Shin Seoyeon and the Saintess in turn.

I had thought Shin Seoyeon would chew her out for pulling that troll stunt in an emergency, but perhaps they had developed the camaraderie of comrades who had risked their lives together; Shin Seoyeon merely said,

"You protected Unni and me diligently at the end, so consider yourself forgiven."

"Right. Thank you for waiting for me."

Thus, unlike when we first met, we built trust in one another and safely brought our first trial to a close.

Personally, I thought that was the greatest result of all.

"Now that we've killed the raid boss, shall we loot it and settle up?"

The atmosphere brightened at my words.

"Yay! Let's do it!"

"Black Dick! Let's go!"

Leading the group, I first went to the raid boss.

When I reset the corpse, it vanished with a soft whoosh, and a small spellbook dropped with a clunk.

"Huh. It's a boss mob, and this is all we get?"

"You got ten bonus stats. Why are you leaving those out?"

"Hey, that's that and this is this. For a priest, this bastard sure is broke. Judging by his backstory, you'd think he'd embezzled a fortune, so why is he such a pauper?"

That was true. Still, the item wasn't bad.

<Item>

Name: Necromancer's Book

Grade: Epic

Description: A book imbued with the power of necromancy. Consumes mana to raise skeletons from corpses. Increases Intelligence by 5, and up to 2 skeletons can be maintained at once.

"This is pretty good."

"Oh, really?"

Shin Seoyeon snatched the book away and opened her eyes wide.

"Epic-grade? How good is Epic?"

"One grade above Advanced. The order is Common-Advanced-Epic-Mythic-Transcendent."

"Oh, then it's one grade above my staff? It's really not bad."

Yeah, it wasn't bad. Still, the reward was awfully stingy considering all the trouble we'd gone through.

Even a field boss dropped Epic-grade items. In that respect, this was not much to write home about.

"Anyway, this should suit Hana since it's for summoning."

"Eh? I-is that so? Wouldn't someone else be more effective at hunting with it than me?"

"Wouldn't you need an escort to protect you?"

Everyone nodded as if they agreed. After a raid, they had realized all too clearly that healers were just as important as damage dealers.

"Try summoning one."

The Saintess held the Necromancer's Book and tried summoning.

Ssssss.

When she poured magic power into the spellbook, the magic power turned pitch-black and rose like heat haze.

It soon shot off somewhere. It flew toward the nearest player's corpse around us and slipped inside its body, vanishing without a trace.

Crack. Crack.

The corpse immediately began to writhe, and a skeleton rose from within it.

Perhaps because it had just shed its skin? The sight of flesh clinging to its bones as blood dripped from it was….

"Eek!"

The Saintess screamed as if she were about to faint and clung tightly to my side. Clatter, clatter. Whether or not it understood its master's feelings, the skeleton followed the Saintess.

"P-please save me!"

The Saintess circled around me, playing tag with the skeleton, with me between them.

It seemed difficult to give it to the Saintess.

As expected, after dismissing the skeleton, the Saintess said without a moment's hesitation,

"I-I'll pass!"

So in the end, the Necromancer's Book went to Shin Seoyeon.

"Oh, it raises Intelligence too? Sweet."

"So is this the end of the settlement?"

After all that hardship, it seemed that even the simple-hearted Saintess was somewhat disappointed that the settlement ended with just a single item.

"Of course not. Let's go collect the next reward."

"Huh? This isn't the end?"

Of course not. There was no reason to risk our lives in a raid just to get one measly drop. The Selection Process was fairly equitable when it came to rewards.

"First, go outside the door and bring our luggage."

Once I mentioned there might be more rewards, the group excitedly ran outside and brought in the luggage.

In the meantime, I looked around the enormous stone chamber and approached one spot.

'This seems to be the place.'

I looked everywhere, but this was the only place where the wall had a crack. If so, then….

"Seoyeon, fire a few fireballs at this wall."

"Okay."

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The wall trembled, and the crack widened. It stretched farther and farther, growing larger, and finally began to collapse.

Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble.

A hidden space was revealed.

"Oh my god."

"W-what is all this?"

"Th-this is incredible."

Waves of gold and all sorts of valuables.

The stone chamber, roughly 300 pyeong in size, was filled with treasure.

Every dungeon raid boss dropped loot, but many also came with a treasure vault like this.

"But what's that orb in the center? Is it the most expensive thing? Or is it a trap?"

Shin Seoyeon, who possessed both greed and a practical streak, pointed to the center of the treasure vault and tapped my shoulder as if asking me to analyze it. I snorted when I saw it.

'So this is where the lich's core was.'

"You know the thing we killed earlier? It recovered every time it was wounded, right? That's its energy source."

"Aha. Then it must be expensive?"

"…It depends, but probably?"

Shin Seoyeon hurried over and picked it up. Then she began roaming around, collecting anything that looked expensive.

Not to be outdone, the Saintess and Han Sohee lined up(?) and walked along like they were at a buffet, picking up one item after another.

I followed behind them, looking for anything useful.

Most of it was luxury goods made of gold and jewels. They would make money if sold, but they were merely heavy and inefficient.

There were also many elegant ceremonial robes. They were the same [Advanced] grade as the priestly robes dropped by ordinary mobs outside, but their attached stats were much better.

'They'd fetch money if I sold them to other players.'

Of course, they were no better than the Mythic-grade [Vestment of Lumina], so the Saintess had no need to change clothes.

As I continued browsing, the movement ahead slowed. I looked up and saw the Saintess and Han Sohee glancing at me, gauging my reaction. I roughly understood why and waved my hand dismissively.

"Don't worry about me. Just grab everything that looks good. I'm not interested in anything besides weapons anyway."

"But still…."

"It's really all right. I'm not just saying that."

Only then did the two women start collecting items along with Shin Seoyeon. I nodded as I watched what they picked up.

[Mana Pendant]

[Holy Leather Gloves]

[Bracelet of Protection]

.

.

'There are several Epic-grade items. So this treasure vault was the real reward. No wonder I thought the rewards were so stingy.'

Still, when I checked the information with [Third Eye], they were merely low-level items for Epic grade.

Still, a gain was a gain. Epic-grade items at least sold for good money.

Since there was still quite a lot left behind by the Saintess and Han Sohee, I began seriously gathering items as well.

Swish. Swish-swish.

I put them into or hung them from my backpack one by one, and when there was no room left, I put the rest in the duffel bags we'd brought.

"Black Dick, that looks valuable. Do you have any to spare? Lend me one."

Perhaps the sight of the duffel bags had made her greedy, because Shin Seoyeon clung to me and whined. Of course, I was perfectly willing to lend her one.

"Fifty percent of the profits."

"Huh? Isn't that too much? We're not exactly strangers! Huh? After all the times we did this and that together!"

Since Han Sohee was nearby, the Crimson Flame Witch couldn't say it outright; instead, she argued while swaying her hips back and forth. I shrugged.

"Then forget it."

"……."

I began stuffing the duffel bag with items, and when what I had packed far exceeded her haul, Shin Seoyeon raised two fingers with a solemn expression.

"Twenty percent."

"Fifty percent."

"Thirty."

"Fifty. But I'll lend you two."

"Damn cheapskate. Fine, hand them over."

Good, one porter hired.

"Would you two like to borrow some as well?"

"Really?"

"Then I won't refuse."

Two more porters added.

Heave! Heave! The women walked around with the duffel bags stuffed full, as if greed had taken hold of them.

Even so, there were so many items in the vault that it was difficult to decide what to take.

'…Should I empty my inventory and take everything here? No. Since I'll sell most of it to shops anyway, selling ninety-nine mediocre items may be better than selling one good weapon.'

In the end, like the others, I had to drag two duffel bags around and sort items into them. Like Shin Seoyeon, I chose and packed whatever looked as expensive as possible.

'This looks expensive too, and this one isn't bad.'

It was while I had been packing things away for quite some time.

Something caught my eye in one corner.

I approached the object, which was buried under a heap of gold coins with only part of its body sticking out, and brushed the coins aside.

'What's this?'

In the treasure vault, a shabby old lantern lay incongruously mixed in among a pile of gold coins.

But its value was by no means low.