Ian, who had completed Cervian’s quest, logged back into Kailan again after coming out of the capsule and resting.

“Am I finally going to the City of Rage now?”

Before Ian headed to the City of Rage, he thought that he needed time for some self-maintenance.

‘There’s a lot of random items, and I also need to check the new skills I obtained…’

Because he had hunted a ton of magical beasts during this time, it was a situation where he had gathered over hundreds of Magic Stones alone.

He had gathered over three hundred or so Lowest-grade Magic Stones, and especially after seeing that he had 36 Low-grade Magic Stones and even 3 Intermediate-grade Magic Stones, Ian wore an incredibly satisfied expression.

Lowest-grade Magic Stones and Low-grade Magic Stones were items that had clearly different rankings.

“Whew, I feel like I’ve caught hundreds of intermediate-ranking magical beasts as well, though. It looks like the higher the rank of the Magic Stone, the more atrocious the drop rate is for them.”

Ian opened up the information of the Low-grade Magic Stone first.

• Low-grade Magic Stone

Classification: Miscellaneous goods

Rank: None

Durability: 50/50

A rare and precious treasure that contains highly-purified energy of the Devildom. Equipment can be made stronger if the Magic Stone is used.

*Low-grade Magic Stones can only be used on equipment that are below +10 fortification.

*The chance of succeeding in fortifying equipment is incredibly low, and in the case that fortification fails, the fortification rank will drop by 0-2 levels.

‘It looks like the 10th fortification is the limit with Low-grade Magic Stones, and differently from Lowest-grade Magic Stones, the level even drops if in case fortification fails. Then, is the Intermediate-grade Magic Stone an item that can be used up to the 15th fortification?’

Ian, who finished figuring things out, opened the information of the Intermediate-grade Magic Stone.

• Intermediate-grade Magic Stone

Classification: Miscellaneous goods

Rank: None

Durability: 50/50

A gemstone containing highly-enriched magic that only devils who are Intermediate-rank or higher carry around.

Equipment can be made stronger if the Intermediate-grade Magic Stone is used.

*Intermediate-grade Magic Stones can only be used on equipment that are below +15 fortification.

*The chance of succeeding in fortifying equipment is incredibly low, and in the case that fortification fails, the fortification rank will drop by 1-3 levels.

‘Hmm? If I fail in fortifying Intermediate-grade Magic Stones, then the fortification level could even drop by 3 levels.’

In other words, this meant that even if he worked hard to reach the 14thfortification, if a critical failure popped up, he would slide down to the 11thfortification again.

‘I can’t even imagine how many Intermediate-grade Magic Stones I would need in order to raise it up to the 15th fortification.’

Ian decided to try fortifying the Judgment of the Spirit King more for now.

“Since it’s not like my items are going to be destroyed anyways. As I have enough Lowest-grade Magic Stones, even if the fortification level drops a little, I should be able to bring it back up to the 5th fortification again.”

After taking a deep breath, Ian pulled out the Low-grade Magic Stones and used it on the Judgment of the Spirit King.

“Hmph!”

• You have succeeded in fortifying the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item!

• The ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item has been fortified from +5 fortification to +6 fortification.

• Fortification result

Offensive Power: 2730-3008 → 2912-3208

All Combat Stats +225 → All Combat Stats +240

Leadership +300 → Leadership +320

Affinity +225 → Affinity +240

Ian, who had succeeded in raising it to the 6th fortification with just one try, checked the fortification result with a pleased expression.

“Keu, the maximum Offensive Power has gone over 3 thousand! I wonder what the stats of the Judgment of the Spirit King were before I fortified it.”

Ian pulled out his notebook and checked the stats that he had jotted down.

“The maximum Offensive Power, which was 2005 at first, has gone up to 3208. I’m now certain that even if the fortification level increases, it continuously goes up by 10% of the beginning stats.”

Ian checked all of the other stats, as he was so excited, and he discovered the fact that it was applied in the same manner to all stats.

“Good, good. Then shall I keep going until the 10th fortification?”

Ian took a deep breath again, and activated the Low-grade Magic Stone.

“Please!”

However, Ian’s luck didn’t continue to follow through.

• You have failed in fortifying the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item!

• The fortification level of the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item has dropped from +6 fortification to +4 fortification.

“…”

Contrary from the successful fortification, where it was engulfed in a golden light and shone brightly, when it failed, a somber grey light radiated from it.

Somehow, Ian felt like he was going to cry.

“Ha, how could it drop 2 levels, and in one go, too…”

However, because he had hundreds of Lowest-grade Magic Stones anyways, getting back up to the 5th fortification was not hard.

“Let’s see who wins this!”

Ian began to smear on the fortification stones.

• You have succeeded in fortifying the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item!

• The ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item has fortified from +4 fortification to +5 fortification.

• You have failed in fortifying the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item!

• The fortification level of the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item has been maintained at +5 fortification.

• You have succeeded in fortifying the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item!

• The ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item has fortified from +5 fortification to +6 fortification.

Like that, when he had only 2 of the 36 Low-grade Magic Stones left, he was able to make his Judgment of the Spirit King item reach +9 fortification, fortunately with constant successful fortifications.

‘Ha, ha, why is the mental power consumption greater for this than it is for when I hunt?’

The number of Low-grade Magic Stones he had left were 2.

Ian began to feel conflicted.

‘Should I just go for it like a man?’

Much like a patient with hand tremors, Ian’s hand, which was holding the Magic Stone, began to tremble.

‘No. If I was to drop by even 2 levels here… I seriously might want to cry.’

Ian normally was far from being someone who was indecisive, but this current situation brought forth an incredible conflict, even to Ian.

And Kaizar, who stood next to him watching him, spoke with a dry voice.

“Lord guy. Why are you agonizing over something like this, it’s so unlike you.”

At that, Ian immediately flew off the handle.

“Retainer guy, think about it. If the item that I was fortifying was your weapon, do you think you could be that comfortable?”

“Ahem…”

It was a situation where the Offensive Power of the weapon went back and forth between an extra 200-300 or not from just one fortification. Kaizar’s pupil, who thought about that, trembled slightly.

“I’m sorry, Lord guy. I didn’t think of that thoroughly.”

“Whew… Inner peace.”

Ian, who calmed down his heart, eventually opened his mouth again.

“Alright, let’s just go for it! That’s just life, right? If I fail, I fail!”

Ian, who had finally succeeded in emptying his heart, lifted the Low-grade Magic Stone and covered his eyes with his left hand.

“Lord guy, why are you covering your eyes when you said you’ve emptied your heart?”

“Shut up!”

Ian shut his eyes tightly and he used the remaining 2 Magic Stones, one after another.

Since if he was to succeed in fortifying with the first Magic Stone, because he would reach the 10th fortification, the remaining one Magic Stone wouldn’t be used either way.

However, unfortunately, all 2 of Ian’s Low-grade Magic Stones let out a white light as they disappeared.

• You have failed in fortifying the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item!

• The fortification level of the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item has dropped from +9 fortification to +8 fortification.

• You have failed in fortifying the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item!

• The fortification level of the ‘Judgment of the Spirit King’ item has been maintained at +8 fortification.

The result of both tries were all failures.

However, Ian let out a sigh of relief.

“Whew, still, it hasn’t dropped past the 8th fortification. What a relief…”

Ian, who almost collapsed the moment that grey light oozed out, was relieved after seeing that it was still maintained at the 8th fortification.

Kaizar, who watched him, comforted Ian.

“Still, at least you’ve raised it up to the 8th fortification, Lord guy. Now fortify my weapon.”

At Kaizar’s words, Ian nodded his head weakly.

“Sure. Since I have a lot of Lowest-grade Magic Stones, I’ll fortify everything to at least the 5th fortification.”

Ian smeared the Lowest-grade Magic Stones onto Kaizar’s equipment as he mumbled internally.

‘Now, until I have a pile of at least 50 Low-grade Magic Stones, I shouldn’t even glance at it… As expected, fortifying items is not good for your mental health.’

* * *

“Alright, we’ve also finally entered the Devildom!”

A boy jumped down from the portal as he clenched his fist tightly.

Kanjihoonie smiled brightly as he looked at Canoel, who followed behind him.

“Hyung, we’ve also finally entered the Devildom. Although, it did take a little longer than I expected.”

At that, Canoel smiled bashfully as he replied.

“Well, that’s because I’m a burden. If you proceeded with the quest on your own, you would have already entered two weeks ago, so I’m sorry about that, yo.”

It had almost been a month since the Devildom had opened.

And just as Canoel said, if Hoonie had moved on his own, he probably would have stepped foot into the Devildom about two weeks ago.

“Huhu, it’s alright, hyung. The greatest Black Magician of Kailan can’t go around hearing from others that he has no loyalty, right?”

“Keu, as expected, Hoonie, I have no one but you to turn to.”

“Huhuhut, even from now on, you just need to believe in this Hoonie.”

Hoonie slowly looked around at his surroundings.

And he was able to discover his first group, which was fighting Low-rank magical beasts from afar.

“Hyung, shall we slowly get moving now as well?”

At Hoonie’s words, Canoel asked back with a devious expression.

“We should… But what are you planning we do first?”

“Hmm… We should probably get past Zone 120 for now, right?”

The current place the two people were located was Zone 129 of the Devildom.

As it was quite a long and rough path up to Zone 120, Canoel wore a slightly surprised expression.

“Eh? Are you planning on proceeding through the quest first? Don’t you think it would be best that we spend a little time getting used to here for now?”

Canoel’s words were words that had enough of a point, but Hoonie shook his head as he wagged his finger.

From the beginning, he had not been saying that they should get through Zone 120 for the quest.

“No, hyung, before we proceed through the quest, there’s something else we must do.”

“What’s that?”

Hoonie wore a significant smile as he replied with a low voice.

“We need to go look for Ian hyung. We need to stick right next to him in order for a large amount of crumbs to fall.”

“Ian hyungnim[1]?”

Hoonie nodded his head vigorously.

“I have no idea what that hyung did, but he’s a monster that entered the Devildom within 3 minutes from when it opened. It could even be possible that he made a devil his retainer by now and is commanding them around.”

“…”

When thought about rationally, Hoonie’s words didn’t even make sense.

Since based on the information that was revealed onto the community by LB Corp., they wouldn’t be able to even take a look at the toes of the devil until they entered through Zone 100.

However, for some reason, Canoel was strongly flooded with the feeling that Hoonie’s joke may be the reality.

‘Seriously, that hyung seemed like someone that was born to game.’

Either way, Canoel also wanted to see Ian, who had made him into a human-like Familiar user.

“Sure, let’s go, Hoon. Since my fighting power has gotten quite strong as well, I should also be enough help. If we combine our strength, we should be able to get through Zone 120.”

After Canoel finished talking, her turned his head slightly and looked to his left.

“That’s right, no, Orden?”

And in that spot, a young black dragon that hadn’t fully grown yet let out a breath through its nose towards Canoel.

“Grr-.”

[1] Hyungnim = used when someone is trying to show even higher respect to someone older that they are quite close to.