Chapter 33
Busan, in the Hwayeon Guildmaster's office.
Blinding blonde hair. And, in contrast, a hideous burn scar around one eye.
The skin-tight black suit left her ample bust fully on display.
Jung Taeyeon rested her chin on her hand and stared at the monitor on her desk.
The gallery was once again peacefully spiraling out of control today.
[Title: I just got a drop— is this good?]
Author: ㅇㅇ(V33.332)
(Photo.jpg of the Magic-Whittling Old Man's robe)
A weird IP.
It was a post by the newbie who had recently caught Jung Taeyeon's eye the most.
The robe in the photo was clearly no ordinary item at first glance.
“This is... the Maggakno drop item. How did he get something that drops on the 30s floors?”
Jung Taeyeon had, in fact, seen this item before.
A unique-grade robe that drops at a low rate from the Magic-Whittling Old Man, the hidden boss on the 30s floors.
But the robe in the newbie's photo was somehow different.
It was emitting a far darker aura than the one she knew.
“Could it be a higher grade?”
No way. Jung Taeyeon shook her head.
There was no way.
The Maggakno raid had already been run several times worldwide.
If there had been a higher-grade item, people would have heard about it long ago.
Jung Taeyeon pulled down the comments.
Sure enough, everyone else also thought it was a unique-grade item.
“Well, that's not the important part.”
What mattered was the fact that the newbie had once again achieved tremendous growth.
Jung Taeyeon couldn't help feeling proud of that.
Yes, Korea needed a superhuman.
A superhuman who would help her clear every Tower in Korea....
Jung Taeyeon's gaze moved to the box sitting on one side of her desk.
It was the box containing the 'Robe of the Silent Sage,' which she'd recently won at auction for a fortune.
An item specially prepared as a gift for the mage newbie.
“…Ha.”
Her mood suddenly sank.
The gift she had prepared was only rare-grade.
It was an ordinary item whose only effect was to slightly increase mana recovery speed.
But the newbie, for reasons unknown, had gotten his hands on a unique item.
In a situation like this, if she gave a rare-grade item as a gift?
“Damn it.”
Jung Taeyeon realized that she had made a mistake.
She had underestimated the newbie's rate of growth.
She had underestimated his talent.
If she was going to give a gift, she should have prepared something better instead of this kind of trash.
To think she had been about to give him a rare-grade item as a gift. It was absurd.
“…It turned into trash. So annoying.”
Jung Taeyeon flicked her finger toward the box.
Fwoosh-
A small flame sprang up inside the box and, in an instant, reduced the robe to a handful of ash.
After watching the flames for a moment, Taeyeon immediately called over a subordinate.
“Guildmaster, you called for me.”
The deputy guild master who opened the door and came in swallowed hard at Taeyeon's icy expression.
“Right now, check every mage item currently listed on the market. Unique grade. Ah, exclude robes.”
“Pardon? Right now?”
“Yes, right now.”
The deputy guild master gave a short answer and operated his phone.
For several minutes, silence hung in the air. Taeyeon merely tapped her fingers on the desk.
A moment later, the deputy guild master turned back to her with a troubled expression.
“Um... Guildmaster. There happens to be one unique-grade staff on the market right now, but....”
“Oh? Great. Buy it.”
“The price is beyond imagination. It'd be a burden even on guild funds....”
“No, I'll buy it with my personal funds. How much is it?”
In a trembling voice, the deputy guild master gave the price.
Indeed, it was a huge sum that even Taeyeon herself couldn't ignore.
But she didn't hesitate.
“Buy it.”
A short, resolute order.
The deputy guild master could say nothing more and lowered his head.
“Understood.”
Taeyeon turned her gaze back to the gallery screen.
The newbie was happily chatting with people in the comments.
“Heh heh....”
Seeing that, a smile came to her face on its own.
She couldn't help wondering how happy the newbie would be when he received this staff. Just imagining it was fun.
As the deputy guild master went outside, he tried to quietly close the door.
Just then, through the narrowing gap of the closing door, he caught sight of something.
The faint smile on Taeyeon's lips.
He froze without meaning to, his hand pausing on the door.
Had he seen it wrong?
But she was definitely smiling, looking at the computer screen as if she were truly enjoying herself.
‘So the guildmaster can make that kind of expression too...?’
The deputy guild master hurriedly and silently closed the door all the way.
Even as he walked down the hallway, his mind was in turmoil.
***
After finishing my bragging in the Hunter Gallery, I went back to the Mage Gallery.
This time, I was planning to share more private information that could only be shared here.
“What photo would have the biggest impact...?”
I carefully chose a photo.
The photo of me putting an arm around Maggakno... no, Maggakcheong, and flashing a V sign would probably get the best reaction.
But I left it out because my face and body were both fully visible.
A shame, but there was no helping it.
For the same reason, I discarded the photos of me making finger hearts and thumbs-up signs.
“This one is the safest.”
In the end, I chose the first photo I'd taken.
[Title: Proof of Maggakno's double peace.]
Author: ㅇㅇ(D55.555)
(Photo.jpg of Maggakcheong awkwardly smiling while making V signs with both hands)
The moment I posted it, comments began pouring in as if they'd been waiting.
ㄴ p깟쮸 : What kind of gross pic is this, seriously....
ㄴ Refrigerator : I've never seen this NPC before. What floor is he on?
Everyone reacted with confusion at the unfamiliar face.
I grinned and revealed the answer.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(D55.555): The young version of the Magic-Whittling Old Man. Maggakcheong.
ㄴ MagiciansAreFire : That's Maggakno???
ㄴ Dung Beetle: I don't get it. What on earth is that pose?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(D55.555): I made him do it.
ㄴ Refrigerator : You're making Maggakno do double peace....
ㄴ p깟쮸: Don't you have any other photos? Given the newbie's personality, there's no way he only took one.
“That's surprisingly perceptive.”
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(D55.555): I do have more, but my face shows up in them too.
ㄴ p깟쮸: Isn't it about time you showed your face? In the first place, the newbie already knows all our personal info, so that's unfair.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(D55.555): Hey, I'm not even A-class.
“Come to think of it, maybe there wasn't anything I couldn't do after all...?”
Now that I'd learned Maggakno's VPN was practically invincible.
Sometimes I even thought about posting a verification shot and stirring things up.
A shot showing my face or my whole body was naturally out of the question, but hands should be fine....
“Anyway, the gallery was full of guys who lost their minds the moment someone even seemed like a woman....”
The aggro effect would be guaranteed.
As expected, the internet was full of hopeless idiots.
I was about to get to the main point.
[Title: But does anyone know this robe?]
Author: ㅇㅇ(D55.555)
(Photo.jpg of the Magic-Whittling Young Man's robe)
Sure enough, the veterans of the Mage Gallery knew this item well.
ㄴ Refrigerator: That's the Maggakno raid reward item. But why is this dropping on floor 15?
ㄴㅇㅇ(D55.555) : I fought Maggakno head-on and took the robe he was wearing.
ㄴ Dung Beetle : ?????
ㄴ p깟쮸 : (flabbergasted emote)
ㄴ MagiciansAreFire : What kind of fight do you have to have to strip the clothes off the person wearing them?
ㄴ Refrigerator : You're not planning to sell it, are you? I'd like to study it. Renting it would be fine too.
ㄴㅇㅇ(D55.555) : Of course I'm wearing it.
ㄴ Refrigerator : Tch.
“No, I'm asking you people to explain the item's options.”
Soon, Dung Beetle, the Mage Gallery's only S-rank, spilled the info.
ㄴ Dung Beetle : But I don't know whether it'll be useful to you. The stat bonuses are huge, but the special option ends with summoning one meat golem.
ㄴ Refrigerator : You already make golems out of sand. Why not just sell it?
“Nah, it's my first mage item. There's no way I'd sell it. Besides, it's Legendary, right?”
Dung Beetle's explanation matched the information I'd seen in the Hunter Gallery.
Quite a hefty stat bonus.
And it summons one meat golem for meat-shield duty.
But there was still something strange.
I opened my item description again.
[???'s Robe]
[Grade: Legendary]
[Effect: Manufacture of artificial mana cores.]
An item with no stat bonuses and no golem summoning.
And yet, it was one grade higher: Legendary.
It looked worse than a Unique item at a glance.
“There's no way.”
Which meant there was definitely something to this option.
Something significant enough that it didn't need stat bonuses.
“As for why it's Legendary rather than Unique, it must be because of the Extreme part.”
I still didn't know the effect in detail, but it had to be good.
It's Legendary, so it had to have something.
“If nothing else, I should try it on right now.”
I put on the newly acquired robe.
But there was a problem.
“Why is this thing so huge...?”
The robe didn't fit my body at all.
A robe far too large for a child's body.
The sleeves covered my hands completely, and the hem dragged on the floor.
When I pulled the hood up, it completely covered my face.
I couldn't see a thing in front of me.
I tried taking a few steps as a test.
Thud-!
“Ack!”
I barely got a few steps before I tripped over my own hem and fell.
I muttered, still sitting on the floor.
“Wasn't it just standard for stuff like this to have an auto-size adjustment option...?”
I thought about it for a moment, but in the end I gave up and decided to wear it as-is.
Instead of walking with my feet, I could just move by shifting the sand on the floor.
I hated the hem dragging on the floor, but it couldn't be helped.
A mage wears a robe and a staff.
I couldn't give up on my dream.
I rolled the sleeves up three or four times before I finally got my hands free.
I stood in front of the mirror and looked at my mage self.
“…Ah, this looks way too lame.”
No matter how I looked at it, it was like a kid who'd stolen their dad's clothes.
I got sulky.
I'd imagined myself casting magic while a cloak billowed dramatically.
But reality had me looking like an elementary school kid in a Halloween costume.
Still, I didn't give up.
“Right, what matters isn't the appearance—it's the item effect!”
I read the item description again.
Manufacture of artificial mana cores.
What exactly was this?
How do you use it?
“Manufacture artificial mana cores, activate!”
But nothing happened.
Even concentrating as if I were casting a spell, nothing changed.
Weird. The Unique-grade description had clearly said it was a summoning skill.
This damned Tower never explained things properly.
I tried one thing after another several times, but everything failed.
Then I suddenly focused again on the word 'summoning' attached to the Unique option.
“I have a summoning skill too, don't I?”
I made a tiny sand clone in the palm of my hand.
A cute little clone shrunk down to palm size, identical to me.
It was the first time I'd ever made a clone this small.
It standing there blankly was so cute that I found myself staring at it for a long while.
“Hah, this isn't the time.”
I snapped out of it and tried applying the newly acquired robe's skill to my clone.
The result went beyond my expectations.