The day before, unable to endure my exhaustion, I had fallen asleep as if I’d passed out.
When I got out of bed, something had changed.
I was in peak condition.
“Why does my body feel so refreshed?”
My body felt as light as if I’d slept deeply and well.
“Huh?”
A moment later, I realized something incredible had happened to me.
“F-finally…!”
Something unbelievably incredible.
“I got a status window!!”
I ran all over the room, expressing my joy with my entire body.
Even though I had awakened, I’d never had a status window.
Without a status window, I couldn’t learn skills.
Naturally, even if I killed monsters, gaining experience points was something I couldn’t even dream of.
People called me a half-baked Hunter.
An unfortunate Hunter who had awakened but had no possibility of growth.
I was only very slightly stronger than an ordinary unawakened person.
That was all.
How resentful I’d felt all this time.
Whenever I saw people who had awakened later than me grow quickly, a sense of emptiness washed over me.
Why couldn’t I do that?
It felt unfair.
Even after graduating from the Hunter Academy, I worked not as a Hunter, but as a porter.
And even among porters, I received the lowest treatment.
It was the same even after I went to the Eldorad Continent in another world. In the end, hadn’t I returned without gaining anything?
Even after coming back to Earth, there wasn’t a single person to welcome me, let alone contact me.
Well, I guess that was where I stood now.
In any case, those little things weren’t what mattered.
The status window.
The fact that I had gained it carried huge implications.
It meant that the possibility of growth had opened up for me as well.
Of course, getting a status window didn’t mean everything would immediately work out.
If it did, the other porters would have gone into dungeons long ago and started working as Hunters who beat monsters down.
[Traits]
- None
[Basic Information]
Vitality: F-
Attack Power: F-
Defense: F-
Magic Power: F-
[Skills]
- None
It went without saying, but my stats displayed on the status window were rock bottom.
Traits and skills were listed as none, and every category was marked F. There was even a minus sign attached next to each F.
Even so, I was happy.
After all, it was obvious who was better off between a Hunter whose growth had stopped no matter how hard he struggled and a Hunter who now had even the slightest possibility of growth.
For me, this was only the beginning.
‘Now that I have a status window, I should get a proper magic power test.’
A magic power test notification had come from the government while I couldn’t be reached during my time on the Eldorad Continent.
I had gained a status window, but for now, I planned to hide the fact that I had been to the Eldorad Continent.
I didn’t know how I’d ended up with a status window, but at the very least, it had nothing to do with the Eldorad Continent.
In any case, even with the status window, my current abilities were the lowest of the low.
They probably wouldn’t suspect anything during the magic power test.
“And after that, I should look for porter work again.”
Now that I had a status window, it would be much easier than before.
Since the topic had come up, I looked into the inventory skill.
I accessed the Hunter Market site, which sold all kinds of Hunter goods and skills.
But as expected, the price was the problem.
- Inventory 1 Slot: 10,000,000 won (Sold Out)
“Ten million won for a one-slot inventory…”
A mere one-slot inventory, one that could only hold a single type of item, cost ten million won.
And even that was sold out.
‘Tsk.’
Of course, it was better than not having one.
A porter who could endlessly store even one type of item in a one-slot inventory was worth more than a porter who simply carried a backpack and picked up items one by one.
Even if it hadn’t been sold out, I couldn’t buy it right now anyway, and it wasn’t as if I urgently needed an inventory.
It would certainly help with porter work, but my final goal wasn’t to be a porter.
I had absolutely no intention of ending my life as a porter in the future either.
Porter work was only a means to earn money and experience points. My goal was to become a Hunter who hunted monsters with my own hands.
Since there was nothing to buy right away, I closed the Hunter Market site window.
My eyes naturally turned toward the game.
‘Come to think of it, I think an alarm came in yesterday…’
I remembered something about an offering or sacrifice.
“Ah! The bug!”
I remembered.
The alarm had said my lieutenant had offered me a sacrifice.
The altar system had appeared anew yesterday when I expanded the dungeon’s size.
At the moment, I considered the altar system useless.
Because of the concealment placed on the dungeon, no intruders could come in, and above all, Celia, the dungeon’s only monster, couldn’t go outside.
These penalties would gradually be lifted, but not now.
And my expectation that no intruders would be able to come was beautifully proven wrong.
“What kind of bug lets something break through a cash item?”
I logged into the game and checked the alarm list.
- Yuel’s ability has been absorbed.
The alarms ended there.
“An ability was absorbed?”
I clicked through several tabs, but nothing seemed to have changed. Celia, whom I had set as my lieutenant, hadn’t had her stats increase either.
“Hmm.”
Apparently, the sacrifice named Yuel must have been a trash mob. Since it was a trash mob, the stat increase was probably so tiny that I couldn’t see any noticeable change.
Well, there was no way some powerful guy would invade right from the beginning.
The problem was that even with concealment active, guys like that could invade the dungeon at any time.
Since the game hadn’t been released long ago, maybe it still had a lot of minor bugs.
If so, there was only one thing for me to do.
Proceed with placing the traps and monsters I’d put off before.
“As expected, the flower of a dungeon is its monsters.”
What guarded a dungeon was, fundamentally, monster soldiers.
That was true for the dungeons that appeared on Earth, and it was true for the dungeons on the Eldorad Continent.
This game was also modeled after the Eldorad Continent, so it shouldn’t be any different.
I immediately went into the shop and tapped the draw tab.
- Dungeon-Affiliated Monster Draw! (1 Draw: 550 Gems)
- Dungeon-Affiliated Monster Draw! (10 Draws: 5,000 Gems)
It required 550 gems to draw one monster. I’d seen gold before, but gems were a currency I was seeing for the first time.
“How do you get gems? Can you buy them with real money too?”
Since I didn’t know the price of gems, I couldn’t tell whether the draw was expensive or cheap.
I browsed the shop to see if gems could be purchased with real money too.
- 100 Gems: 1,100 won
- 500 Gems: 5,500 won
- 1,000 Gems: 11,000 won
- 2,000 Gems: 22,000 won
- 5,000 Gems: 55,000 won
- Bonus: Double gems on your first gem purchase!
“Wow, why is it so expensive?”
One monster draw took 550 gems, while ten draws required 5,000 gems.
And 5,000 gems were worth 55,000 won, apparently.
What’s more, there weren’t even any extra benefits for drawing.
Nothing like guaranteeing a high-grade monster after a certain number of draws.
It was just that the ten-draw option was slightly more cost-effective than doing single draws…?
“Prices are insane.”
Or the game developer was insane for money.
Either way, I was in a good mood right now.
Since there happened to be a double-gem bonus, I unhesitatingly bought 5,000 gems.
‘Now that I have a status window, this much spending is nothing.’
It wasn’t much of a burden.
- Payment successful.
- 5,000 gems will be delivered to your mailbox.
- First gem purchase bonus! An additional 5,000 gems will be delivered to your mailbox.
There were a total of 10,000 gems in the mailbox.
“Let’s go for twenty gacha pulls!”
As soon as I received the 10,000 gems, I immediately started drawing.
- You drew Skeleton Soldier (★).
- You drew Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★).
- You drew Skeleton Soldier (★).
- You drew Skeleton Magic Trainee (★).
- You drew Skeleton Soldier (★).
By the time I’d drawn monsters five times, my expression had twisted.
“Seriously, why are only skeletons coming out?”
They were even all one-star monsters.
Their appearances were hopeless from the start.
The skeleton soldier was holding an old sword that looked like it would snap at any moment.
The archer had an ordinary wooden bow, and anyone could tell it wasn’t good equipment.
“This mage bastard is just holding a single wooden stick.”
Could it even use magic with that?
The only hopeful thing was that I had only drawn five times.
I tapped the screen and continued drawing.
- You drew Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★).
- You drew Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★).
- You drew Skeleton Soldier (★).
- You drew Skeleton Magic Trainee (★).
- You drew Skeleton Soldier (★).
Ah, fuck.
Don’t tell me the only monsters here are skeletons.
And if it’s an archer, it’s an archer. If it’s a mage, it’s a mage.
What the hell is with apprentice and trainee?
They’re really trying to raise the difficulty by making me synthesize them.
Originally, I’d planned to do ten draws, then immediately add another ten.
But seeing this nonsense made me feel like I shouldn’t do them back-to-back.
I immediately tapped the monster window and looked at the monster list.
[Owned Monster List]
- Skeleton Soldier (★) ×5
- Skeleton Archer Apprentice (★) ×3
- Skeleton Magic Trainee (★) ×2
- Grade: ★
[Traits]
- None
[Basic Information]
Vitality: F
Attack Power: F
Defense: F-
Magic Power: F-
[Skills]
- None
It was an incredibly simple composition.
- Grade: ★
[Traits]
- None
[Basic Information]
Vitality: F-
Attack Power: F
Defense: F-
Magic Power: F-
[Skills]
- None
This one was the same.
- Grade: ★
[Traits]
- None
[Basic Information]
Vitality: F-
Attack Power: F+
Defense: F-
Magic Power: F-
[Skills]
- None
Oh, Lord. Is this truly a game?
It was miserable.
The three types of skeletons differed slightly in stats, but the misery remained unchanged.
Of course, their abilities were higher than what was on my status window, but wasn’t this a game?
I’d spent 55,000 won and only got guys like this?
My mood was dropping in real time.
The only fortunate thing amid the misfortune was that the monsters also had a synthesis system like the lieutenant.
- To synthesize Skeleton Soldier (★), Skeleton Soldier (★) ×2 is required.
It was a system that allowed synthesis by consuming two of the same monster.
As it happened, I had five skeleton soldiers and three archers.
I synthesized each of those two.
- Synthesizing Skeleton Soldier (★).
- Consuming Skeleton Soldier (★) ×2.
- Synthesis successful! Skeleton Soldier (★) has evolved into Skeleton Swordsman (★★).
- Grade: ★★
[Traits]
- None
[Basic Information]
Vitality: E
Attack Power: E
Defense: E-
Magic Power: E-
[Skills]
- None
Oh…
After synthesizing, there was a slight change.
Next, when I synthesized the one-star archer apprentices as well, they changed into a two-star skeleton archer.
[Owned Monster List]
- Skeleton Soldier (★) ×2
- Skeleton Swordsman (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Archer (★★) ×1
- Skeleton Magic Trainee (★) ×2
Judging from the lieutenant and now this monster draw, it seemed the basic mechanism of this game was growth through synthesis.
“Still, only getting skeletons is crossing the line.”
I had just used 5,000 gems on ten draws.
I had 5,000 gems remaining.
Normally, I would have immediately gone for another round of draws.
But after seeing only skeletons come out just now, I lost all desire to do so.
“Don’t tell me there’s a bug in the draw too?”
I wondered if perhaps the type of monster that appeared differed by day of the week, so I clicked the notices, but there were no notices at all.
It seemed better to do any additional draws later.
If only guys like this came out again for no reason, I’d just be throwing away gems.
“Then I need to place these guys…”
The important thing was placing these bastards in the dungeon.
Even with the same monster composition, efficiency would increase if they were placed appropriately according to the terrain.
However, my dungeon was a long, stretched-out cave. On top of that, it was narrow.
There was nowhere to provide cover either.
In that case, placing monsters wouldn’t do much good, would it?
“Can’t I change the internal structure?”
It would be nice if I could at least make wide plazas at intervals along the path…
I went into the dungeon management tab and looked for an internal structure category.
However.
- This function has not opened yet.
Seriously, why are there so many things you can’t do in this game?
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue and tapped the screen.
[Entrust entirely to the lieutenant]
Surely the lieutenant who managed the dungeon would do a better job than if I placed them myself.
I intended to leave how to utilize the monsters I’d drawn entirely to the lieutenant.
In addition, I went into the settings window and set all dungeon-related tasks to be handled autonomously by the lieutenant, then exited the game.
I probably wouldn’t be able to access the game much for a while.
Now that I had a status window, I had to take a magic power test and look for porter work, so busy days would continue for the time being.
At least if I set it up like this, it would grow on its own like an idle game.