"Shop."
🪙 SHOP 🪙 Welcome to the Gamer Shop. You can buy and sell items here. Transactions are in gold only. [Purchase] [Sell] Your Gold: 10
"Sell."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
No sellable magical cores in your inventory.
Even holding the magical core in his hand didn't let him sell it.
It made sense when he thought about it.
He could pretend to touch someone else's core and sell it otherwise.
Jae-jun opened his inventory window and placed the magical core inside.
An emoji of the magical core appeared in one of the divided slots.
"Sell."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Mid-low grade magical core sold for 3000 gold.
Grade: C-rank
Shop Gold: 3010
Was 3000 gold a lot?
For reference, magical cores were divided by size from S-rank to E-rank, and by mana density from lowest to highest grade.
A C-rank core like the one Jae-jun had checked was worth around 30 million won, so the numbers matched the gamer shop pretty closely.
But he'd never seen the shop's items, so it was hard to gauge gold's value.
Jae-jun searched for the skills he wanted most first.
'No way nothing shows up again this time.'
Jae-jun's worry was unfounded.
A decent number of skills scrolled into view.
Many were strange ones he'd never seen before.
🗡 Clone Technique 🗡
Grade: F-rank
Summons a motionless clone.
Duration: 1 minute
Price: 50 gold
🗡 Navigation 🗡
Grade: E-rank
Reveals the location of lost items.
However, it doesn't identify what the item is.
Price: 100 gold
Who the hell would buy stuff like this?
But there were some decent skills too.
Jae-jun sorted the ones he liked.
Excluding those that didn't fit his combat style, he ended up with two attack skills and two support skills.
For attacks, only sword skills were usable for him.
He'd hoped for fire magic stronger than Fire, but no luck.
🗡 Strike 🗡
Grade: E-rank
Gathers all your strength into a single blow.
Price: 250 gold
🗡 Counter 🗡
Grade: E-rank
Slips past an enemy's attack for a counterstrike.
Low success rate, but high damage on hit.
Price: 600 gold
Nothing compared to top hunters' skills, but beggars couldn't be choosers for Jae-jun, who had none.
He hit purchase on both.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Would you like to purchase Strike and Counter?
'Yeah. Buy them.'
⚡ SKILL ACQUIRED ⚡
Strike learned.
Counter learned.
⚔ SKILLS ⚔
Passive Skills: None
Active Skills:
Fire F-rank / Strike E-rank / Counter E-rank
A window said he'd learned the skills, but he felt nothing special.
His body hadn't changed; just a few more lines in his status window.
'Let's test it out.'
Counter needed an enemy attack, so pass.
Jae-jun drew his Frost Blade and stood before a tree.
He swung at the tree while chanting the skill name inwardly.
'Strike!'
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Strike
Some mana drained from his body into the sword, and its tip flashed.
Whiiing—
The blade felt weighted, like a flail at the end.
Kud thud!
The blade sank a bit deeper than a normal swing.
'Not bad.'
Just that much.
Next, support skills.
🗡 Dash 🗡
Grade: E-rank
Circulates mana through the body to boost movement speed.
Only affects running speed, not attack speed.
Speed varies with mana consumption.
Price: 300 gold
🛡 Barrier 🛡
Grade: D-rank
Emits mana to envelop the caster's body.
Strength varies with mana consumption.
Price: 900 gold
Both scaled with mana cost.
Perfect for Jae-jun with infinite mana.
Barrier especially—he could keep it up forever except while sleeping.
He bought both right away.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Would you like to purchase Dash and Barrier?
'Yeah. Buy them.'
⚡ SKILL ACQUIRED ⚡
Dash learned.
Barrier learned.
⚔ SKILLS ⚔
Passive Skills: None
Active Skills:
Fire F-rank / Strike E-rank / Counter E-rank / Barrier D-rank / Dash E-rank
His skills list felt fuller, easing his mind.
Too bad the shop only went up to D-rank.
Seemed like his level limited him to D-rank buys.
Items restricted by level cap.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Shop Gold: 960
Four skills bought, still 960 gold left.
But he skipped weapons and other tabs.
He had A-rank Frost Blade, and the hobgremelin's poison stinger was useful too.
'Whew. Time to head out?'
Jae-jun stood and slowly ran toward the distant giant tree.
Then activated his new Dash.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Dash
100 mana per second consumed.
Movement speed +10%.
Mana drained, flowing through his body.
His body shot forward like someone pushed from behind.
'Faster!'
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
1000 mana per second consumed.
Movement speed +50%.
'Not yet. More!'
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
3000 mana per second consumed.
Movement speed +100%.
Mana cost skyrocketed compared to speed gains.
Max seemed +100%; more mana did nothing.
Still, nearly 90 km/h.
Pabababat—
Each step cratered the ground.
Trees whipped past his vision.
Pssht.
Too fast—leaves and branches scratched his face and arms.
'Barrier!'
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Barrier
5000 mana per second consumed.
He maxed mana output from the start.
A visible blue membrane formed, wrapping his body.
Swoosh—
No more scratches from leaves or branches.
By the time he got used to his new skills, he reached the giant tree.
No monsters since the first orc—disappointing for levels, but orc rewards were huge anyway.
The closer he got, the more immense the tree felt.
So tall he craned his neck; trunk like a building wall.
Even it blackened from tips, dying.
Not just it—surrounding trees leafless or withered like sucked dry.
Some tree-specific plague.
Anyway.
'How to find the leech in this monster tree?'
Climb it? Not F-rank difficulty.
Unlike his worry, he spotted it immediately.
At apartment second-floor height, snout buried sucking sap.
Fitting for a tree parasite—huge, like a giant boa.
Plump, jiggling body with countless tiny suckers on belly.
Belly swelled with each suck.
Full, it unlatched and moved slowly.
Wriggled without limbs along the bark.
Thick acidic slime trailed.
Ssszz.
Burned black marks where it passed.
'As gross-looking as it acts.'
No teeth—just needle tongue for piercing bark and sucking sap.
No combat vibe.
Wouldn't suddenly transform if attacked, right?
Jae-jun extended his hand toward it.
No need to climb; he had a great ranged skill.
'Fire!'
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Fire
1000 mana per second consumed.
Flames arced through air, igniting the leech.
Fwoosh.
Kieeeek!
Leech writhed to escape flames.
But fire pursued like a living predator.
Shiny moisture evaporated; skin crisped from outside.
Sizzle sizzle.
Kiiiiiiik!
It flailed long before falling from the tree, mostly charred.
Motion stopped; system popped up.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Male leech defeated.
Protect the Giant Tree quest completed!
Reward: Random box granted.
Leech exterminated; random box grade upgraded.
Random box added to inventory.
Dungeon exit opens.
Exit appeared right before the giant tree.
Jae-jun wanted to check the random box before leaving.
'Inventory.'
Vrrr—
As he reached for the random box, faint vibration rumbled from the ground.
'Earthquake?'
It stopped quickly.
"What the—."
As he reached again.
Rumble rumble!
Ground shook violently; trees swayed.
Too strong to stand still.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Female leech appears.
📜 EMERGENCY QUEST 📜
Escape the Dungeon!
The female leech learned of the male's death.
Enraged, she's surfacing.
Escape quickly!
🎁 Reward: Leech poison
💀 Failure: Death
'Failure means... death?'
Jae-jun bolted for the exit without a second glance.
—Afterword—
Thank you.