Chapter 104 – Nibble

“Doesn’t the skill look a little brutal-ish?”

“Why? I think it looks pretty cool.”

“This is? Really…..?”

“Hohoho. The skill’s effect isn’t that important. All it needs to have is to carry a powerful destructive force. Isn’t that right?”

“I guess so. Right?”

The skill that was shown on the screen of Jong Ho’s phone was called “Chained Explosions”.

It was the only AoE attack skill that a tank class had, which consisted of the user charging around while causing explosions around their body.

However, the explosions would damage the user as well, so unless you had a high stamina stat like that of a tank, you wouldn’t be able to use it.

Of course, the mana cost would be tenfold if it was used by other classes.

Also, as the skill level rose, if one did not have the stamina stat to match the damage it inflicts on the user, it would destroy the user’s body.

The destructive power of the skills was insane, but because of that, one couldn’t just level it as they pleased.

It really was a double edged sword.

The good thing about this skill was that as long as one had the mana for it, they could continue casting it nonstop.

Also, just because the skill caused explosions didn’t mean that it would only do fire damage.

The skill’s damage would be random with each explosion in a variety excluding physical damage, including damage types such as frost, fire, lightning, holy, and more.

I didn’t have a finite mana pool.

On top of that, if I charged at the enemy with my Mana Shield, I would become an unstoppable explosive locomotive.

“I think it’ll be pretty good if I use it in conjunction with a physical damage skill?”

“Oho. True. You don’t have limits to your mana and no one could stop you no matter what resistances they may carry.”

“With Mr. Min-Cheol’s strength stat alone, it would be already be devastating for him to just point a sword at his enemies. Most monsters would turn to dust as if a bulldozer went through them.”

“This skills great! The effect is cool too! I didn’t pick it just because I’m easily swayed by compliments!”

“Hoho! Of course. It’s a decent skill for sure.”

“Okay. I’ll pick this one for now. Hyung-nim, pick me one more skill.”

“Since there are many S to S+ ranking offensive skill books in the association, I’ll provide the rest.”

“Thank you. Still, just one more….”

“We’ll see. We’ll see.”

Muttering to himself, Jong Ho fumbled with his phone for awhile.

It seemed that he was earnestly and carefully deciding on a skill.

It was to be expected, since the skills I’ll be obtaining would be stored in Balrock’s ring as well for him to use.

He probably couldn’t use Chain Explosion because he didn’t have enough stamina stat points though.

Sitting next to him, I was looking up Chain Explosion on my phone.

Mr. Midget would probably get it for me no problem, but I felt like I should at least know the estimated cost since I didn’t have many on hand right now.

“Woah….. 12 essences? Are there any tank class rankers who even use this skill?”

“Not really? At the most, less than ten.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a skill that deals damage to oneself and wouldn’t be used as one’s main bread and butter skill either. The average person can’t cast it indefinitely either, so of course there would be too much to use it constantly. On top of that, the skill would be discarded once the level of the skill becomes too high.”

“But why is the cost so high?”

“Dunno. Isn’t it too much to expect me know that as well?”

That’s when Ho Jin spoke up.

“There’s a reason for that.”

“What’s that? People pay such an exorbitant amount to buy a skill they can’t use?”

“Most of them are beginner Awakeneds. As you know, warrior and tanker class attack skills use up a certain % of the user’s mana.”

“That’s right. Most of them do.”

“Yes. Chain Explosion also uses up 5% of one’s mana per cast.”

“…..”

“That means that even a level 1 tanker class can cast it 20 times, meaning that they can keep it up for 20 seconds.”

“Yes. That’s the reason for it being expensive? Their bodies wouldn’t last even 20 seconds.”

“Hohoho. Simply put, the skill is for rich.”

“…….”

“By wearing defensive gear that’s enough to absorb the recoil from the spell and lasting through it with the massive amount of stamina attached to the gear, they can do it.”

“Ah…… So to level up quickly in the early stages, they would wear the defensive gear with high amounts of stamina stats and use the skill as much as the gear could cover for them. Is that right?”

“Yes, that’s correct. That’s why the cost is so high.”

“I didn’t even think of that. These guys are too smart….”

Jong Ho, who had been deep in thought for awhile, finally spoke.

“Ha…. I’m not sure what’s the best between these two.”

“What are they?”

“Give them a look. It’s called In Storm and Blizzard, I think? An AoE lightning and AoE frost spell.”

“What are their rankings?”

“Both are S+. It’s such a hard decision to make, like picking between Jajangmyeon or Champon.”

“Hyung-nim.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t hesitate.”

“What?”

“I’ll be taking them both.”

“Jjamjjamyeon cool?” 1

“Cool. But is the skill Blizzard a S+ ranking skill in terms of crowd control similar to Glacial Field?”

“No. Both are S+ ranking only in terms of damage.”

“Then let us go with Jjamjjamyeon.”

“Hohoho. A decisive choice. The books might be already with the association, so please wait instead of trying to buy them right away.”

“Yes. Please contact us when you do, Mister.”

“Yes, will do.”

“That’s enough, right? Whew…. Just go back home and lay down to rest. You’re not a dead person yet you got the eyes of one.”

“Yeah, I’m about to already.”

“Let us meet again often like this, Mr. Min-Cheol.”

“Yes Mister. Thank you for your time. See you later hyung-nim.”

“Yep.”

“Yes. See you then.”

****

Two days later, Ho Jin called me.

It was to let me know that one of the three skills I planned to obtain, Blizzard, was with the association.

It was the most expensive skill book out of the three.

The president of the association “passed away” and now commander Yoon Jong-sun, who was the acting president, gave permission for this to happen.

It was probably the reward for taking care of the radical faction.

I did also give a huge donation of Awakened essences too, after all.

After obtaining Blizzard, I began to farm the essences needed to purchase the other skill books.

I went to the level 34 dungeon to do so along with raising my skill level.

It had been awhile since I hunted for monetary goods rather than to grow stronger.

I guess you could say that this is for growth, since I’m using the material goods from this to purchase skill books.

Since I already asked the midget and his subordinates to obtain the books for me, I couldn’t stand by idly.

I had no idea when they would contact me.

S+ ranking skill books are rare in the market, so there was no way I’m going to miss my chance due to a lack of Awakened essences.

The Blizzard’s skill effect cause quite a ruckus yet was beautiful.

To explain it simply, it was same as the Iceberg spell but the icebergs would rained down from above.

Each of the icebergs weren’t as big as the Iceberg skill, but by no means did it fall behind in destructive force.

Like sapphire, the ice that rained down from Blizzard was of a deep blue.

They flew towards the ground and whatever they came to contact with, whether it be monster or the terrain, exploded and sprayed out all over the place.

The shattered shards of ice were small, but they embedded into their targets like that of a frag grenade, doing serious damage.

The explosions caused auroras, which would look beautiful to the onlookers, but to those that were being hit by them, it would look like the glow of hellfire.

It was enough to destroy the level 34 dungeon’s monsters that reflected attacks back in one go.

Perhaps it was possible due to my 20% increase in magic power stat bonus I gained.

As a bonus, I got see something interesting while I was hunting.

Since I dealt over 70% of the enemy’s health in one attack, the Drain Monarch ring’s special effect “Monarch’s Authority” proc’d.

The effect was said to summon a mysterious servant.

When I fought with Dark Lady and Zekill before, it had activated then, but I didn’t have the time to look at the effect closely.

Black silhouettes the size of a child’s hand rose from the ground, charging at the monsters that were left and attaching themselves to them.

Surprisingly, the monsters didn’t appear to recognize them as enemies and didn’t react in the slightest.

After a certain amount of time, the black silhouettes that attached themselves to the monsters came back to me.

Their sizes grew to roughly a size of a head.

The health they drained from the monsters were given to me as they came back.

Not only did the ring’s special effect return 1% of the damage my enemies take into health for me, but it also stole health from them.

The recovery rate was quite high, almost to the point of making the healing skills I learned obsolete.

****

Like that, I hunted on 2 or 3 hours of restless sleep.

The nightmares continued to disturb my daily life.

No matter how tired I was from hunting, it was difficult to fall asleep.

Ending the hunting, I fiddled with the Awakened essences in my pocket as I headed home.

I was going through a deserted alleyway near the market.

As I was crossing an area without light…

I heard a sound that resembled something being ripped apart by brute force.

However, no matter how much I searched my surroundings with Eye of Insight, I could not sense anything.

“Am I being hypersensitive because I haven’t slept?”

It was then that the source of the sound appeared before my eyes.

“Kerururururu.”

“…….”

The body was shriveled up as if it had too long of a soak in water.

Only 50 cm high, a ragged cloth was all that covered the body.

The Eye of Insight revealed to me that this creature was called Puppet Goblin.

Pushing through the ripple in space, the creature dusted off the ragged cloth it wore.

It even put its hands behind its back and stood up straight.

“……”

Looking at it, I had no words.

This wasn’t a dungeon.

It didn’t seem strong enough to rip open tears in space and summon monsters like Zekill did.

It was a goblin that was present in level 3 dungeons.

The name was different, but it looked exactly the same.

Looking at me, it opened its mouth.

“Ahem. Ahem.”

“……”

“Foolish human!”

“You…. You can talk?”

It’s voice was shrill enough to make me never want to hear it again.

Thin and raspy, the voice was mixed in what sounded like wheezing.

Ignoring my surprise, he continued.

“Ahem! Are you the one who took down Purian Zekill?!”

“…….”

“Hey! Despite being a pathetic human, you dare ignore the words of a goblin!”

“The monster can speak…..”

“Tsk tsk. Aren’t you slow! I looked for you multiple times!”

“You visited me? Ah…. In my dreams perhaps? You little shit! It was you?”

“Heh heh. This goblin is here to tell you in person, pathetic human! I’ve come to deliver the message from him!”

“Whew…. Go ahead and rant your message. I’ll rip you apart after.”

“Keruru……”