by Elan Wang
In big lettering, there was written [How to use Combos].
On flipping to the first page, there was a drawing of 2 weapons and 3 ores.
“How to use combos? What’s that?”
“It looks like instructions on how to combine two weapons. What am I supposed to do with this?”
“According to the instructions, you would take two weapons and three monazites. Combine them to create a random named item.”
A named item was referring to an item that already had a known name to it – like the bloodysword. To give you another example, the longsword I got from Park Jungbeh is a no name; meaning, it didn’t have a known name attached to it – it was a generic no brand. Nothing really special.
But a named item is different. Just like the bloodysword, a named item usually had a special option attached to it.
Depending on the type of option attached to a named item, the value of it can change proportionately. So I think it would make sense that investing in more valuable ores for the combos would result in a better quality weapon.
“Do you think this really works?”
“I mean, why wouldn’t it?”
It wouldn’t come out of an irregular if it didn’t work. The level 0 skillbook and the escape scroll both…were items that never appeared in the regular system of raids.
I carefully went through the entire book. I needed to carefully estimate just how valuable this book was.
The calculator in my head started tallying.
The level 1 weapons were currently selling for 50,000 dollars. It used to cost about 100,000 but they were listing for half their original price these days. It’ll probably fall even more to about 20-30,000 dollars very soon. I was going to wait until it falls as far as it can so that I can buy two and run some experiments.
“Hmm…it’s weird.”
“What is?”
“Just because something is a named item doesn’t mean it holds the double the value of a regular weapon. Of course if you’re lucky, you might chance on a named item that is several times the value of a regular weapon. But that’s a big “if”. You’re usually lucky if the named item is double the value of a regular item because it’s usually less than that. Just because we can combine two weapons into a named item doesn’t mean scraping up the money to do it is going to be any easy task.”
Plus we needed to take into consideration the cost of the ores as well. Monazites usually ran for 1,000 each. Unfortunately, with the level 1 dungeons disappearing…the price for these had also gone up significantly. They could not easily sell for 1,500 each.
If I were to invest in 3 monazites and 2 weapons, that would cost me upwards of 60,000 dollars. Would a level 1 named item that results from the combo exceed the 60,000 dollars I invest?
“That is hard.”
“Right?”
I flipped to the next page. This time it was instructions on combining armor. It was the same thing as with the weapon but the type of ore was different. It was a bastnazite.
The next page instructed on how to change the option of a named item. The only requirements were 3 ores.
“Hm. This one might be useful.”
“Keep flipping. What if there’s something that will raise the level of a weapon?”
“Hold your horses. That’s what I’m lookinng for too.”
Flip.
They were all similar with just variations in ores and combinations until I flipped to the last chapter. Finally, I came to what I was looking for.
“2 Level 1 weapons and 3 blisolites…?”
“Ah. Isn’t that a pretty expensive ore? It’s also super radioactive…”
“And it’s rare. It’s probably selling for 3,000 dollars so if I have to buy three..that’s 9,000 dollars.”
“But if you think of it as raising the level of your equipment, it’s not too shabby.”
“The problem is, where in the world am I going to buy a blisolite.”
Rare ores were sold by the government. This was because high tech machines were used in extracting the useful elements of the ore. If we didn’t have such technology, mankind would probably collapse.
“I guess we have no choice but to get them from the dungeons ourselves.”
“It looks like we’ll be on a hunt for ores I didn’t even give half a thought to in my life.”
“All you need for items is money. But something rare…it’s easier to get it from the source if we can.”
If it meant a level up, buying 2 level 1 named items might not be a bad investment. Because if it was a named + named item…the item the results would most likely be a level 2 named item. That would definitely be worth it.
“It kind of sucks that there’s only one way to combo and upgrade to level 2.”
That was the last page with any writing on it. The rest of the pages were all blank. What I really needed right now was not a level 2 item but a level 3 item. I was able to realize this after my fight with the level 4 monster.
Of course I still felt confident I would win if I faced the same monster again. But the number one priority in any raid was safety. I couldn’t keep putting myself in unnecessary danger every time I went into a dungeon.
For that reason, it was always better to constantly try and acquire higher level equipment. No. It was important. But even if a level 3 item was a no named item, the cheapest one ran for over 500,000 dollars. If it was a named item, the starting price was 1,000,000 dollars.
In the case of Kim Youngchul who had the Athena’s bow, though it was a level 4 weapon…it ran for 2 million dollars. If you thought about an item’s price, purchasing it by saving up from dungeon raid earnings was almost impossible. It would take forever to go from one level to another without being from a rich family.
“But then again, there’s no reason to rush things. With your current skills, SunbehOppa, you could probably clear level 2 dungeons and profit with about 30,000 dollars in a month. In just one year, that would be about 400,000 dollars so buying level 3 equipment would only be a matter of 3 years. And 30,000 dollars in a month is honestly me being conservative. If you go on raids every three days, you could earn double that.
“You know that hunting in dungeons isn’t that simple.”
If you were injured or an irregular appeared, then that would complicate things. Especially recently.
“On top of that, I have a feeling we can’t stay complacent.”
“Why?”
“Who knows if and when the level 2 dungeons will disappear too.”
Nobody knew why the level 1 dungeons had disappeared. Sure, there were theories. But no hard facts. I felt like this was only the beginning of things.
I could almost say with certainty that it had something to do with the level 0 skillbooks. But I didn’t know for a fact if this was something only appearing for me or for a select few others too.
Either way, there was no guarantee that this was the end of it.
Now that things had come to this, there was nothing to do but keep climbing up.
***
As soon as we exited the dungeon, Eum Hyunjoon and everyone else was on standby waiting for us. I didn’t see helmet guy.
“What happened to that guy?”
“He received some treatment from the ward here, and I sent him home afterward. He didn’t have any big injuries other than to his neck. But it’s a relief that that was the extent of it.”
Hm. I thought I heard a weird sound.
“I’ll do the contribution split and send it to your account. I added in Jong Sawon’s share as well.”
“Jong Sawon?”
“The helmet man’s name is Jong Sawon.”
“DId he say anything else?”
“Not really. He just seemed terribly stricken. But he didn’t say anything outside of that. Why? Did something happen?”
“Not really.”
There was no point in telling him anything and make things weird. And if helmet guy had any conscience, he wouldn’t come to me for the
hospital bill either.
Han Joonseok, Cho Youngoo, and manager Kim came this way.
“You killed it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t just run in there not to try and kill the monster. My intuition is stellar.”
“Anyway. If you were that curious, you should have followed me in.”
“Well. About that. I had something I had to tend to. Like you asked, I had to take the party members safely outside. You know how much they want to always follow you. Especially that one…”
“Hmm…”
Glasses girl started tearing up after looking up at me.
What. This girl.
Han Joonseok said.
“Ms. Bae Yeongyoung was very worried. I kept telling her nothing bad was going to happen but she wouldn’t believe me.”
“Ha…”
“It’s a relief that you came back safely…sniff.”
I don’t know how to comfort a crying girl. Would she feel better if I hug her head?”
Hug.
“Ah…”
“Thanks for worrying about me.”
“…uh.”
“What?”
“Next time please take me too.”
“Hm?”
“And don’t just take unnie.”
After saying this, she bowed her head down. I could see that her face flushed a bright red color.
“You people! Am I invisible?!”
Jung Sooah yelled out annoyed.
“Ah. You came back too huh?”
“It’s great that you came back safely.”
“Clap clap clap. Congratulations.”
“Manager Kim. Youngoo ajushi. Are you guys really going to be like this? You should be a bit more like Joonseok oppa.”
“Why do you call him oppa and me ajushi?”
“Because Joonseok oppa’s good looking, that’s why.”
“Kya!”
Slam.
When Cho Youngoo ran toward Sooah, he was on the floor in seconds.
“I used to learn yudo.”
“Wasn’t it shotput?”
I asked.
“That too.”
“I’m asking you with the utmost seriousness right now. Do you want to take this chance to use real equipment and be a hunter?”
“Will you be coaching me?”
“I don’t think you’d need me to..”
“If you’re going to train me every day then I’ll do it.”
“Well…I guess I could.”
I was being really serious. In cases where we would need her buffer skill, it would be tricky if she had no way of defending herself.
“I’ll do it too.”
Glasses girl said. I nodded my head. I didn’t mind putting in the work if it means raising up the ability of my team members.
We decided to do our training at the usual park. Since it was the day after we had our normal after-hunt drinking, no one looked like they were in the best condition. But I didn’t care. Since this was our first day of training, I wanted to put 1000% into it.
“Do it right.”
“Do I really have to do this?”
“Well if you’re never going to fight then I guess not. You can just buy a level 1 armor and walk around with that on. With the right kind of armor, you can get hit a couple of times and still live – probably.”
I said casually towards Jung Sooah – who was chopping up and down repeatedly with her sword. She’s been doing this same motion for the last two hours. This was the basics. She needed to learn proper form. Whenever she made the slightest mistake in her form, I lightly hit her with the hilt of my sword at her arms or legs to have her correct it.
It shouldn’t have hurt her at all. It should’ve just made her feel kind of crappy. Like when someone slides their hand across your face slowly. It hurts much less than a slap…but it somehow makes you feel worse. But this was enough to have her correct her posture.
“This isn’t right…”
“…Oh well…”
“I mean. You know. If my posture is wrong like this, shouldn’t you help me into the right posture with your hands or something? Right? You know, go behind me, and you know. If you do it like that, isn’t it much better?”
Tap.
“Ow! Look at you hitting me again!”
“No gutter mind while training.”
I did say this but she was very quick at learning. Maybe it was because she was an athlete. But it was more important to fully engrain the basics once you’ve learned it. And she was really taking this tedious work like a champ.
She had the right mindset – for the most part.
Pluck!
Shwing!
“Ah. It veered off course again.”
On the opposite side, glasses girl was aiming her bow and arrow at a makeshift target I had put up for her. It was a practice arrow so it didn’t have a sharp end. Since it was a park, you couldn’t be too sure that she might accidentally hit an innocent person just strolling through.
Her skill was as crappy as ever. It wasn’t like my archery skills were the best, but if her skills were worse than mine – ones I acquired from just taking up archery as a hobby during my college years – that was really bad.
“You said you never took any formal lessons for archery right?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you decide to take up archery then?”
“I got this bow from my older brother.”
“Older brother?”
“Yes. He was a hunter, but he retired because of an injury. He just rests at home for the time being.”
“A retired hunter..seems like it must be a burden to you.”
“Yes. That’s why I’m so thankful to you.”
“How about your parents?”
“My father is also a retired hunter.”
“Hm..”
Was she saying that she’s the sole provider and support for her crumbling household?
Something sounded not right.
“If your father and your brother were once hunters, how come you never learned archery properly from them?”
“They were both put out of commission from being hunters due to injury, so I think they’re worried the same would happen to me. But because the only income is coming from me right now…”
It’s not as if I don’t completely understand her family’s worry. But just because they were worried didn’t mean they shouldn’t have given her lessons. In this type of situation, the best solution should have been to give her the tools necessary to reduce her risk of injury since she were going to be a hunter no matter what.
“It seems you have your own issues. I’m sorry about that. But that aside, it seems like you haven’t been able to focus for a while now.”
“Hm? That, that’s…”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking about but, at this level, you are almost no help to the team at all. It’s only because of Sooah’s buffer skill that you are able to hit your marks. Know that I can only help you so much. Now that we plan on going full force in climbing each level one by one, if you can’t keep up, I’ll have no choice but to drop you from the team.”
“Ok.”
Glasses girl nodded her head as she grasped her bow tight. Her heart was in the right place. No, I could see it in her eyes that she understood. But we’ll see if her will will reflect in her archery.
Pluck!
Whing!
As I continued standing by while the two resume their training, I looked through the How To Combo book again. Since I just browsed through it yesterday, I was planning on looking at it in more detail. I felt like I had overlooked something. But what bothered me the most was that almost half the book was blank.
Since only the first half the book had drawing and instructions in it, why was the rest of it blank.
This was a special item. There was no way that there wasn’t a reason behind it being blank.
Flip.
First, I
looked over the blank pages again. I did look at it yesterday, but you never knew if it changed overnight. Maybe there was something I didn’t catch before…
Tap.
I found it.
On the corner of one blank page, there was a very small drawing. That small drawing was of a sword that was an almost exact replica of the bloody sword. But it wasn’t just that. Under the bloodysword were drawings of two daggers and three blisolites. The meaning of this drawing was obvious.
You can make a bloodysword by combining two daggers.
I pretty much knew the specs of all the items offered up on the hunter market. Level, price, performance, options…you could say I memorized it all. Put bluntly, I’m sure there’s no one else who had as much knowledge of all the items on the market as me. This was due to memorizing and learning about all the items on the market during my years as a porter – when my only dream was to someday become a hunter.
The two daggers pictured under the bloodysword were both level 1 weapons: one was a vampiric dagger and the other was a speed enhancing dagger. Each used to be valued at about 150,000. But they were probably selling for 60,000 dollars now.
“Whew…”
My heart was beating fast.
This book not only told you how to combine items to get you a random item, but it also showed you how to get a specific item.
This meant that I would know if investments made in the separate items will be worth the resulting item.
More specifically, if I just had 3 blisolites (which would cost me 120,000 dollars), then I would be able to produce a 400,000 dollar bloodysword. That was 280,000 profit.
Wait.
I hurriedly flipped to the next page. And I found it.
“Athena’s bow…”
Somewhere in the middle of the Combo book, was a small drawing of Athena’s bow. This was a bow that had the option of not hurting humans.
I need to remain calm.
What was needed to create Athena’s bow were the following: a level 3 Valladolid bow and a level 2 white crow pendant. They were, respectively, 800,000 dollars and 500,000 dollars. To be able to create a 2 million dollar items at the cost of 1.3 million dollars. That was 700,000 in profit.
Of course there would also be ores involved in this combo too. The required ore to create this level 4 weapon was elnite. This was something that sold for over 10,000 dollars each…and it was as rare as it was expensive. But as you go up in dungeon levels, the ores that drop also increase in levels. This type of ore would drop occasionally in level 3 dungeons.
