Chapter 187.

Fresh carrots, beef, rice, and water .

Using the best ingredients, I made a porridge . Seeing the boiling pot, I checked its item description .

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[Lv . 3 Porridge Filled with Kim Hajin’s Care]

○Lv . 1 Recovery

○Lv . 2 Satiety

○Lv . 3 Taste

===

‘This should be enough . ’

I put the completed porridge in a bowl, put it on a tray, and brought it to Boss’ bed .

Boss was lying down and busily moving her eyes . She was probably reading a webnovel or looking through the Community .

“Your food is here . ”

Boss raised her body as I brought the tray to her bed . Her eyes were blinking repeatedly as she stared at me .

“… . ”

I never even fed Evandel before…

I silently scooped up a spoonful of porridge, then brought it up to her mouth .

Boss seemed to be embarrassed as well as she only opened her mouth slightly . I put the spoon into her mouth .

“…Nom . ”

Boss swallowed after chewing only a couple of times .

I picked up another spoonful of porridge . Boss opened her mouth and sucked the porridge off the spoon .

After repeating this ‘nutrient consumption for survival’ a few times, Boss suddenly muttered .

“…This doesn’t happen normally . ”

“What do you mean?”

“…Losing my temper . ”

She seemed to be embarrassed about what happened today .

I spoke nonchalantly .

“Is that so?”

“I just didn’t expect to encounter him . It was because I wasn’t prepared at all that I… uup . ”

I pushed another spoonful of porridge into her mouth, cutting off her sentence .

“…Don’t feed me when I’m talking . ”

“I don’t have much time . You should eat quickly . ”

There was a mountainload of things to do today .

I had to open the ‘treasure box’, decide how to use ‘Kedrick’s Ghost Sword’ and the ‘Mysterious Pocket’, and introduce Kedrick to Henry and Kiri .

“… . ”

Boss furrowed her brows and expressed her displeasure, then went back to eating the porridge .

“I will be calmer the next time I see him . I only snapped this time because… uup . ”

Seeing that she was making another excuse, I stuffed her mouth with another spoonful of porridge . She must not have expected it, as some of the porridge got on her mouth .

Boss glared at me with narrowed eyes .

“… . ”

“So, who is he?”

I asked about ‘Bell’, pretending not to know .

Boss flinched slightly, then looked away from me .

“Weren’t you sulking last time because I kept secrets from you?”

“…When did I sulk?”

Boss pouted . Her mouth wriggled as she seemingly pondered . Then, she sighed . I strained my ears as it was a good sign .

Boss looked back at me and whispered softly .

“He is… the previous black seat . ”

“…Eh?”

I was genuinely surprised .

I stared at Boss in a daze .

My consciousness froze for about five seconds before recovering .

Technically speaking, this was indeed an empty hole in the plot . The black seat I currently possessed originally belonged to Shin Jonghak, but I had never written about its past owner .

“He is also a traitor who betrayed the previous boss and murdered him . ”

Boss continued to explain a setting I didn’t know .

Chameleon Troupe’s ex-boss . I had not written anything about that either . But since Chameleon Troupe had a long history, it made sense for there to be a boss or two besides the current boss .

I scooped up another spoonful of porridge as I listened to Boss’ explanation carefully .

Boss glanced at my hand .

“It’s already been 10 years, but I haven’t forgotten his face for a single day… nyam . ”

When I held the spoon up, she bit down on it .

After chewing on the porridge, she announced with determination .

“…I’m going to kill him . I will eliminate the traitor . ”

“I understand what you’re saying… but you can’t do what you did today . ”

Boss nodded .

“…So what will happen to him next?”

“He died, so he should revive on the 3rd floor in 48 hours . ”

I didn’t know exactly how many lives he lost, but he should have lost at least two .

“I see… . ”

Boss stared at me with a smile .

“Thank you for killing him . ”

I smiled back .

Without Boss, I wouldn’t have been able to kill him either . If Boss wasn’t acting as both the frontline tank and damage dealer, Bell would have easily closed the distance . I didn’t know how much of his abilities he recovered, but there was a chance that I could have been killed .

“You too, Boss… . ”

At that moment, the door opened .

—I’m back~

Jain’s voice rang out .

Perfect timing .

I put the bowl of porridge back on the tray and left Boss’ room .

Jain was taking off her shoes while beaming with a smile .

“Ah, that was so fun~ Oh, Hajin, when did you come back~?”

“It’s been a while . Rather than that, can you feed Boss?”

“…Eh?”

Jain tilted her head at the unexpected request .

“Feed her? Me?”

“Yes, she’s in her bedroom . ”

“…Why?”

“You’ll see once you go in . Boss went wild and fell into magic power exhaustion . ”

—Kuhum!

A displeased harrumph rang out from the slightly opened door to Boss’ room . When I glanced back at her, she was glaring at me with a clear ‘don’t leave it to Jain’—kind of look .

Of course, I ignored it .

“…Hnn, I see . ”

Jain’s confused expression quickly changed to that of mischief .

“Okay~ I’ll do it . Ehehe~”

After making a lewd and wicked smile, she hopped into Boss’ room . When Boss saw Jain’s face, she flinched .

“Boss~ I heard you couldn’t move~ Ah, let’s close the door first~”

Kiik—

As the door slowly closed, I could see Boss’ pitiful eyes requesting a rescue .

Unfortunately, I had other things to do .

—Jain, I’m already full .

—Are you sure? Ah, can you not move your tongue because of magic power exhaustion? Should I feed you mouth-to-mouth?

—N-No! I can move well! See!?

Ignoring the fierce shouting reverberating in Boss’ bedroom, I returned to my room .

Then, I took out the treasure chest Kedrick gifted .

===

[Lv . 6 Treasure Chest]

—Krakoon’s treasure chest . It seems to contain various items, but a key is needed to open it .

===

The treasure chest Kedrick hid out of defiance to Krakoon .

Since it was a Lv . 6 treasure chest, it was sure to contain good items . Unfortunately, I couldn’t open it with my ‘Mystic Key’ . I already tried it, but the key’s [Unlocking] level was too low .

“Is the key too low-level?”

It was a problem easily solved with SP . I could probably take any piece of paper and use ‘Setting Intervention’ to rewrite the paper’s description as [Item Experience Coupon] . Then, I could use the paper to level up any item I wanted .

But this was too wasteful . I only needed 700 more SP until I could make my desired Gift .

“Auction house . ”

To see if there was an alternative, I went into the auction house and typed the keyword [Item] and [Experience] .

[Searching listings with the keywords ‘item’ and ‘experience’ . ]

[…13 items were detected . ]

[Item Experience +23 Coupon x3]

[Item Experience +17 Coupon x2]

[Item Experience +11 Coupon x7]

“Eh?”

They were there . The highest bid was 50TP, which was very cheap . Even the instant purchase price was 300~400TP .

I was confused at first but soon understood . These coupons could only be used on ‘evolving items’ . Without them, they were no different than a piece of paper .

It was yet another benefit of having more information about the Tower .

I immediately clicked the ‘instant purchase’ button .

[You purchased Item Experience +23 Coupon x3]

[You purchased Item Experience +17 Coupon x2]

[You purchased Item Experience +11 Coupon x7]

The coupons were sent to my inventory . I immediately used them on the [Mystic Key] and the [Orb of Regeneration] .

===

[Orb of Regeneration] [Magic Artifact]

—An orb with the power of regeneration .

○Evolving Item – EXP 「11/200」

○Lv . 2 ???

===

===

[Mystic key] [Magic Artifact]

—A mystical key .

○Evolving Item – EXP 「9/200」

○Lv . 3 Unlocking

===

The items’ effects leveled up .

“Is Lv . 3 Unlocking good enough?”

I held the Mystic Key and muttered softly .

“Scan . ”

The number engraved was 27% .

Jackpot .

I put the key into the treasure chest’s keyhole . Unlike before when the key wouldn’t even fit, it practically slid in this time .

Click—

A clicking noise rang out . Was it working? I turned the key to the right .

Kiik—

A heavy metallic sound rang out and the treasure chest became unlocked .

I opened the lid with high expectations . Brilliant light burst out of the chest .

“Oho . ”

I muttered in astonishment . As expected of an administrator, he was hoarding many shiny items .

===

[Lv . 4 Blue Diamond]

[Lv . 5 Pure Dark Ore Ingot x3]

[Lv . 3 Skill Consolidation Ticket]

[Lv . 3 Item Consolidation Ticket]

[Lv . 1 Basic Skill Acquisition Book – Tempering and Smelting]

[Lv . 4 Red Sapphire]

===

The most eye-catching item was undoubtedly the [Lv . 5 Pure Dark Ingot] .

It was the first time I saw a Lv . 5 ore .

“…Should I use it to make arrows?”

That was the first thought I had . Of course, making arrows with such a valuable ore could only be thought of as insane . After all, arrows could only be used once .

But that changed depending on the person involved . Like the saying went, time was more valuable to a rich person than money .

I was exactly such a person .

By making proper arrows with these ores, I would have a powerful weapon other than my gun .

That was the important thing, since I couldn’t use my gun when I was working as a member of the Chameleon Troupe .

“…Hm?”

Then suddenly, a lightbulb went on in my head .

I thought of a method to make arrows reusable .

I looked at my smartwatch .

Then, I looked back at the dark ore ingots .

If this worked, I didn’t even need many arrows . In fact, I could use ‘Synthesis’ to compress and strengthen them together . With this method, the arrow only needed to be powerful and durable .

“… . ”

I fiddled with the smartwatch with one hand as I gathered Stigma’s magic power with the other .

**

Next day .

I returned to the 5th floor’s [Valley of Darkness] . Although I was alone, I wasn’t worried since I was thoroughly loaded with all sorts of items . This time, I walked up to the highest point possible, which was the mountain peak that protruded up on both sides of the valley .

—So two of them escaped?

—Yeah, Boss went wild because of it .

—Haa… .

I looked down at the dark valley below and saw demons talking about yesterday’s incident . Human NPCs were doing hard labor under their watch .

The security was tighter due to yesterday’s incident, but it didn’t matter .

I nocked five arrows on my bow . Both the arrow tip and the arrow shaft were black . Black had unintentionally become my symbolic color .

I aimed the arrows downward and fired .

Chwaaak—

The arrows flew out, moving independently from one another . The first arrow curved to the left, the second arrow flew straight, the third curved to the right…

And all five pierced the necks of demons .

The valley immediately fell silent .

Seeing their bodies scattering into dust, I muttered a certain keyword .

“Return . ”

Then, the five [Lv . 7 Dark Ore Arrows] I shot suddenly flew up .

Sssss—

They retraced the path they took and returned to my hand .

“Perfect . ”

Reusable arrows .

It was easy once I thought about it .

I added a setting to the five [Lv . 7 Dark Ore Arrows] I created .

‘Lv . 0 Remote Control’ .

Because I made it Lv . 0 to save SP, for now I could only use it to ‘retrieve’ the arrows . But once I leveled up the effects, I should be able to control them with my will .

“Now…”

There were 11 prison camps left .

Now that I confirmed the arrows’ effectiveness, I moved swiftly and lightly like a ninja .

The dark ore arrows didn’t leave behind any evidence . They flew silently like an owl hunting in the night and delivered eternal darkness to their targets . This wasn’t an exaggeration in the slightest . The moment I fired the arrows, they transformed into invisible darkness to kill their targets .

Using this method, I killed all the demons guarding the 11 prison camps .

Now, Krakoon was the only one left .

I began to make my way to his office .

“…?”

Then suddenly, I felt a fierce gaze fall on me . Two piercing eyes glared at me with killing intent .

I turned towards the direction of the gaze .

There, I saw a man wearing glasses . His skin was blue, and he had a horn protruding from his head .

I immediately knew who he was .

[Lv . 8 Administrator of the Valley of Darkness, Krakoon]

“Krakoon . ”

—…Who are you?

Krakoon asked .

I couldn’t hear him well because he was too far away, but I answered anyways .

“That’s none of your business . ”

—Pft .

Krakoon snickered . He was clearly looking down on the human race .

—…You must be the one who attacked us yesterday . Regardless, you won’t be able to escape . Do you think I didn’t make any preparations?

In an instant, a huge tremor of magic power erupted .

—Hundreds of soldiers will gather here soon .

A purple magic power appeared on the ground .

It was a large-scale spell requiring the usage of a magic circle, ‘Mass Teleport’ .

—Your punishment shall be death by dismemberment… no, I will make it so that you wished you were dead .

Krakoon’s confident laughter rang out through the valley .

However, I remained silent and took out the Mystic Key .

It was still strengthened by 27% . To temporarily boost its strength even further, I infused Stigma’s magic power into it .

Then, I stabbed the key into the ground .

“Hey, Kraken . ”

—It’s Krakoon, not Kraken . If you want to surrender, tell me where Kedrick and Lirko are . If you do, I will generously allow you to die .

“No, um…”

I turned the key and spoke calmly .

“Have a nice day . ”

Magic power flashed from the key and seeped into the dirt .

Immediately, the mountain began to rumble .

Using this mysterious key, I had just ‘unlocked’ something that was holding the mountain together . What resulted was a landslide . As the valley was right underneath the mountain, it was obvious what would happen to it .

Since I focused the landslide in Krakoon’s direction, the human NPCs should be able to live .

—W-What is…

Like a third-rate villain, Krakoon muttered a boring line .

Trrrrr—!

Dirt began to slide down, and the Mass Teleport spell disappeared without ever activating .

“Ehew… . ”

I sighed and turned to the side .

As though I was a movie star, my eyes met someone else’s .

Well, to say that our eyes met, we were too far away .

Without the Thousand-Mile Eyes, she would have looked like a tiny speck of dust .

Did our eyes really meet? Or was it a coincidence?

I narrowed my eyes with such a thought… then pulled my hood down a bit more .

Standing over yonder was one of the strongest characters I created .

Jin Seyeon, the Divine Archer .

For some reason, she was with Chae Nayun .

However, that wasn’t important at the moment .

Jin Seyeon was staring at the me with her Divine Archer eyes .

There was no shaking in her look nor a hint of doubt . She was staring at me fixedly .

**

“…Haha . ”

Jin Seyeon was staring at a faraway distance . Without the supernatural eyesight provided by her Gift, ‘Divine Archer’, it would have been too far to see even for her .

For ten minutes, she had been staring at that person’s actions .

Finally, she smiled at the man who just met her eyes .

“Um, Senior, did you feel that tremor?”

Jin Seyeon was distracted for a split second by the innocent voice beside her . It was Chae Nayun who was curious about the sound of the landslide .

“A landslide just happened . ”

Jin Seyeon answered her then looked back .

The man who was standing at the mountain peak was already gone .

“A landslide?”

Chae Nayun asked . Jin Seyeon nodded but hid one truth . That the landslide was purposely caused by one person .

Even if she told the truth, there was a chance that no one would believe her . Unless a mountain was extremely unstable, an ‘artificial landslide’ could only be caused by 5-star magicians who were specialized in that field .

An archer was able to cause a landslide? In the Tower of Wish where everyone’s abilities were restricted?

If Jin Seyeon didn’t witness the strange flow of the man’s magic power, she wouldn’t have believed it either .

“Yes, a landslide far away from here buried an entire valley . ”

“…Um, Senior, you don’t have to talk so politely . Feel free to use casual speech . ”

Chae Nayun spoke uncomfortably .

“How could I to Chairman’s granddaughter? I am more comfortable speaking like this . ”

However, Jin Seyeon firmly refused Chae Nayun’s request . Although Jin Seyeon’s polite speech made Chae Nayun uncomfortable, Chae Nayun was still a little happy inside .

“…Do you know Grandpa?”

“Mm… you could say that . ”

‘Though it’s not a good relationship . ’

Jin Seyeon swallowed her next sentence and smiled .

“In any case, that’s why I met up with Nayun-ssi . ”

“Ha, haha, I see . ”

“K-Kuhum . In that case… what do you think about my grandfather, Hero Shin Myungchul?”

Shin Jonghak, who was walking on eggshells around Jin Seyeon, finally worked up the courage to ask .

Even Shin Jonghak couldn’t act arrogantly in front of a Master-rank Hero . As if to prove her status, Jin Seyeon had even caught up to their strength in just four days .

“He is an amazing person . I’ve heard many good things about him . ”

“Ha, haha, hahahaha . Kuhum . ”

Shin Jonghak’s expression brightened . He then let out a dry cough, and tightened the grip on his spear .

Jin Seyeon spoke .

“Rather than that…”

She had already heard everything from her comrades Seo Youngji and Oh Junhyuk . That many people were pitting her against ‘Black Lotus’ for the title of the strongest archer .

As Jin Seyeon had been losing her motivation, this new opponent was a welcomed one .

As such, she had never slept since she entered the 3rd floor . In other words, she had remained awake for 72 hours . It was all to focus on regaining her abilities and acquiring skills .

The effort she put into improving herself made her feel like she had returned to her younger days .

“Let’s move . I see a demon camp nearby . ”

Jin Seyeon looked back at the direction where the mysterious archer stood . It was extremely likely that he was ‘Black Lotus’ .

The landslide had ended, and there was no one on the silent mountainpeak .

…Where was he all this time?

After staring at the empty mountain peak for a long time, Jin Seyeon finally looked away with a happy smile on her face .

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