Chapter 71 Infinite Arena (1)
After a long awkward silence, Kanna continued calmly.
“When I found out that my life was made into a trial, I was delighted. Even if I knew it was fake, I thought if I could ever see the ending, I hadn’t experienced it…but…it never happened.”
Kanna struggled to smile.
“Until now.”
Instead of the trials recreated by challengers, Yoon-seok was curious about what she’d experienced. It was very likely that the incident was real, including the attack by the heathens, meeting James, and encountering Disaster. Perhaps she survived until the end, so she could climb up the Tower and become an admin on the final floor.
However, Yoon-seok decided not to ask.
“Thank you. Once the Only difficulty is cleared, the mission will disappear from the Tower. Thanks to you, I don’t have to suffer anymore.”
“…I see. I’m glad it worked out.”
“Well, here’s the reward I promised.”
Kanna suddenly approached and kissed his forehead. While Yoon-seok was flustered at the gesture, a message appeared.
「Kanna Blitz is handing over 1,000,000 WP to you.」
Was that necessary? Although the question weighed in his mind, Yoon-seok didn’t bother to say it aloud. Instead, he decided to ask one last question he’d been dying to hear the answer to.
“What happened to Elle? Unlike the mission, I don’t think she treats you very kindly.”
Elle referred to Kanna as ‘the woman,’ and she hadn’t been happy about the idea of him accepting her mission.
“I later reunited with her at the Tower. And that’s what happened.”
“Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry. I think it’s right to hear it from her directly.”
Kanna cut off the conversation, so Yoon-seok didn’t ask any more questions.
“…I see. Then could you send me to the waiting room?”
“Yes, and one last thing I’d like to say is…you can trust that child. But if you ever have a question, go through the trial of the fourteenth-floor mission. Like this time.”
“…Okay.”
“Goodbye, then. I think I know why the child chose you.”
Receiving Kanna’s unexpected farewell, Yoon-seok returned to the waiting room.
「Success.」
「The clearance of Only difficulty level reward is 512,000MP.」
「As a reward for completing the additional challenge ‘Companion,’ ‘Hambledon
Seal’ will be awarded.」
「As a reward for completing the additional challenge ‘Friend,’ ‘Dragonian’s Pledge
Ring’ will be awarded.」
「Items can be purchased using MP in the store.」
It had been forty-five days since he’d come back to the waiting room. He was caught up in a mixture of emotions as he saw the regular appearance of the waiting room.
Setting those aside, Yoon-seok checked the store first.
‘So this is how it works.’
MP was also marked on the sales price along with AP. The values were 1:1, but it was impossible to buy a single item by combining AP and MP. Yoon-seok browsed through the store page and discovered another fact.
‘Something I can buy only through MP?’
There were items unable that could only be purchased by spending MP alongside ones only purchasable with AP.
‘Is it only available to those from the same background?’
He didn’t know the existing criteria, but it seemed to be divided evenly. Yoon-seok focused on the list of items that could only be purchased through MP. As a duel challenger, he planned to use them carefully as they were rare. But…
‘I’m not drawn to any of them.’
He didn’t find any skills or equipment he particularly liked. Should he say it was like backward compatibility? Although the prices were similar, the items that could only be purchased with AP could achieve the same effects but with higher efficiency.
‘Let’s check the others before making a decision.’
Yoon-seok spent 6,000AP to learn the appraisal skill. This was because, after the mission, the obtained items couldn’t be verified in the store.
*Hambledon Seal – James Hambledon’s seal only for his benefactor.
That was the end of the description. What was that, just a souvenir? Feeling like he was being scammed, Yoon-seok moved on to check on the next item.
*Dragonian’s Pledge Ring- Increases magic by one. Once equipped, it is impossible to take off.
Simplicity was the best. Even better, there was no condition to be below a certain rank for the increase to work. His magic rank would increase by one unconditionally. Although there was a penalty in that it would be irremovable…
It wasn’t a piece of armor, but a ring, so it was hard to call it a penalty.
‘So I earned something rare.’
Yoon-seok took off his gloves and put the ring on. Then, he opened the information page to check the newly acquired skills.
{Avatar}
Rank D – The nature of the avatar can be changed.
Rank E – The framework of the avatar can be changed.
Rank F – A transformable avatar has been acquired. The appearance of the avatar can be changed.
It was the skill that made that small goblin look like a giant mythical creature.
‘I guess the effects were reversible.’
Now that his concern was solved by the description, its use didn’t bother Yoon-seok.
“Avatar.”
Once the command was chanted, his body began to change. Enormous wings grew on his back, and he stretched out to be over three meters tall. A horn rose above his forehead. He now looked like the same creature the goblin had turned into.
‘I guess it came with the last owner’s look.’
Yoon-seok wasn’t perplexed. Since it was a daily routine for him to acquire skills through Predation, he had a rough idea of how the skills worked when he first acquired them.
‘Is this how you do it?’
Yoon-seok looked down at his palm and focused on an image that came to mind. His nails grew instantly.
‘That’s fascinating…’
After that, Yoon-seok experimented to find out where the limit of this skill lay. How far could his skeleton be modified, and what it meant to change nature…
Ironically, Yoon-seok had a lot of fun during the trial and error process.
‘I have a rough idea.’
Eventually, his experimentation session came to a close. Now, it was time to make his avatar.
‘It’s better to have longer arms and legs, right?’
His arms and legs stretched as far as the ability allowed. He also made his palms swell so he could keep a better grip on his sword. Once he’d started, there was no end.
‘Just in case there’s a moment when I can’t use a sword…’
The bones in his fist grew strangely. He thought it would be advantageous to have a shorter neck, so his shoulders and head were stuck together.
‘I wish I had wings…’
Thinking about his previous duel with the creature, he also grew wings from his back in a similar shape. Being able to fly was a great advantage.
‘If I have wings, I can use them as a defense in critical moments…’
As he remembered, he changed the nature of the wings, the feathers becoming sharp and firm. However, the essence of the wings was lost.
“As expected, it’s too heavy….”
Yoon-seok, flapping his wings as a test, lowered his head in despair. Was he too greedy? When he combined everything that would be advantageous for combat, a strange monster was born.
‘Let’s just be prepared for fighting in the air.’
First of all, Yoon-seok transformed his avatar and made it similar to his original self. Then, he only attached wings to his back. The wings themselves didn’t have to be firm since it was possible to strengthen them using Bloodseeker’s Energy.
‘As expected, simplicity is the best.’
As he moved his wings around, he realized there were other uses for them besides flying. To add a little bit of exaggeration, should he say that he seemed to have gained two more arms? Of course, that would take time to adjust to.
‘Oh, I’ll have to check that out, too.’
Yoon-seok took out Mrs. Langerson’s Corset he’d acquired as a reward from his duel with the goblin. It was decadently silky to the touch, and there were many holes throughout it. Yoon-seok kept his mouth shut.
“…”
He wanted to change it with Steel Stealth right away, but he decided to check the item description first.
*Mrs. Langerson’s Corset (Rank D+) – Weight will be reduced by 1/3 when fitted.
Yoon-seok let out a sigh of relief without realizing it. Fortunately, one question had been answered: the goblin wasn’t a pervert. This corset was a very efficient piece of equipment for the Goblin. If it weren’t for this, it would have been impossible to fly with that large body.
“…”
Yoon-seok suddenly had a thought. Wouldn’t wearing this make it possible to fly even after changing the nature of the wings? Of course, it was just an idle thought.
「Steel Stealth Remaining AP 42,000/96,000」
Yoon-seok exchanged the corset without hesitation. Since it wasn’t an expensive piece of equipment initially, his rank didn’t increase. Not that he regretted it.
「Rank of Magic (B-) has increased.」
「King of Armory (C-) has increased.」
Yoon-seok used a total of 480,000 MP to up-rank his magic stat and King of Armory, his mastery skill. As he contemplated what he could do with the remaining 32,000MP, he decided to try Skill Synthesis.
「Please select a skill to synthesize.」
He was a little out of budget to synthesize high-ranked skills, so he decided on Invisibility and Backstep. He only had to rank up Backstep once to meet the criteria.
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Acquired Counterattack.」
The Counterattack that came out was quite similar to Backstep. The only difference was that he was invisible for one second instead of counterattacking as soon as he stepped back. Well, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t very appealing either.
‘Let’s keep going.’
Since the F-ranked skills were cheap, Yoon-seok freely purchased similar skills and synthesized them. If the effect itself were something he liked, he would raise the rank. But…
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Skill has been synthesized.」
Was it because low-ranked skills were synthesized? None of the skills resulted in anything worthwhile.
‘It’s already the last one…’
Yoon-seok purchased two F-rank skills with the remaining 6,000 MP. The moment he pressed synthesize, suddenly, he remembered his friend from the military who spent millions of won on mobile games. He thought this was exactly how the game was charged…
「Skill has been synthesized.」
「Acquired Vajra Step.」
Did he feel this way when he boasted about picking an S-class hero?
*Vajra Step (Rank F) – Original skill by challenger Choi Yoon-seok. Step up to one meter backward. Ignore all damages while leaping. Wait 1,200 seconds to reuse.
Perhaps he might have hit the jackpot, but he gained a slightly unusual skill.
Vajra Step…he thought that it was hard to see as an F-ranked skill. Because he only invested 40,000 AP for the F-rank skill, it took twenty minutes of waiting time for re-use.
‘If all damage is ignored…that’s means invincibility?’
Even when they encountered Disaster in the mission trial, no skill or power, including b Bloodseeker’s Ultimatum}, had contributed much to preventing his one-strike. But with this skill, he might’ve been able to receive the blow without suffering any damage. But how could it be F-rank?
“Vajra Step.”
Yoon-seok tried the newly acquired skill.
He realized that it didn’t work as well as he’d expected. Was it because his agility level was too high? His feet were back on the ground in the blink of an eye. In terms of time, half a second?
No, maybe less than that.
‘I think there’s a way to use it wisely…but it’s still vague.’
Once every twenty minutes, half a second invincibility, unless the timing were quite right, it wouldn’t be easy to show much effect.
But Yoon-seok wasn’t disappointed. It was still rank F. Maybe he would find a way once it upgraded.
‘I’m curious about the selection of traits.’
Yoon-seok worked on the tablet to solve the problem. It wasn’t so he could buy a rank-up leap in the store; he didn’t even have the money to do so.
So there was only one way.
「Entering the Infinite Arena on the 8th floor.」
Through fighting and winning.
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