Chapter 13

Broth Management

1:40 PM.

A little after lunchtime, I headed toward the open-air market located in the northern part of Hyeondeok City.

Tap-!

Of course, not on foot, but through spatial movement.

A few people looked at me when I suddenly appeared in midair, but quickly turned their gazes away.

Short-distance spatial movement wasn't particularly strange even by Hyeondeok City's standards.

"...Nice."

However, I couldn't help but look strangely at the ring on my hand.

The distance from the lodging to this open-air market was quite far, and with my own power, I couldn't cross this much space.

Therefore, all of this was thanks to this little guy's effect.

It was an item that allowed spatial-related authority to manifest according to the user's ability even if that authority itself had not reached a high level.

In other words, I had effectively reached the pinnacle of spatial magic achievable at Five-Star right now.

Even for me at the moment, the efficiency difference between the 'Glass Star' school's magic and other system magic could reach as much as eightfold.

In short, it was simply a broken item.

...The slightly uncomfortable part was that I'd received this broken item through a romance scam from an old bachelor transcendent.

"No, fuck that. It's not like I asked for it."

The one who suddenly threw it at me to curry favor was at fault.

Of course, in reaching that conclusion, I deleted the part where I could have revealed the truth or refused it.

It was their fault for stimulating human greed...

Anyway.

I stepped deeper into the open-air market.

Perhaps because they'd seen what I'd done earlier, most of the merchants didn't bother speaking to me.

If anything, they seemed to avoid me.

Naturally.

There was no reason for a mage capable of spatial movement to have business in an open-air market filled with nothing but junk.

Therefore, I was able to reach deep inside the market without any interference.

An alley where anything resembling an ordinary open-air market had long since disappeared.

"Open it quickly. I'm a little busy."

And I shouted from the middle of that alley.

To anyone watching, it would've looked like the actions of a lunatic, but before long, an answer came.

───Please verify your identity.

"Affiliated with the Winter Tree Magic Tower. You should already know that."

───Please wait, just a moment.

Crackle-

With that sound, silence briefly descended.

Grrrrrrk-!

Then, before long, the sound of friction came from one corner of the alley.

...If they were going to do this, couldn't they have just opened it quickly?

Grumbling quietly to myself, I entered.

"What brings you here?"

Inside darkness so thick I couldn't see even an inch ahead.

A clear voice rang out.

"To sell."

"Proceed straight inside and enter the room with the blue sign."

"...Thanks for the guidance."

Without hesitation, I stepped into the darkness.

The interior was completely invisible to the naked eye, but any decent ability user could sense the shape of the interior with their perception.

If you couldn't even manage this much, it meant you should simply turn around and leave.

"Hmm."

There were several rooms inside.

Blue signs and red signs.

Blue signs were for sellers, red signs were for buyers.

There were three rooms on each side.

For reference, the reason there were exactly three rooms each was simple.

It was the second screening process.

They divided visitors by grade in that order.

If I had come here before raising my realm, I might have barely noticed the second room.

Those at lower realms couldn't see all three rooms.

Knock knock knock─

Therefore, when I knocked on the door of the third room.

It wasn't particularly unreasonable for the beastkin attendant in charge of guidance to widen her eyes.

Her fluffy rabbit ears perked straight up.

Then she immediately sent a communication somewhere.

Naturally, it was probably about me, but there was no need to care.

The true owner of this suspicious place was aloof, and as long as I didn't cause trouble, they wouldn't try to harm me.

When I entered the room, unlike outside, excessively bright lighting greeted me.

Naturally, I didn't need to adjust to the darkness or anything, but it was a ridiculously silly design.

"Welcome. It's been quite a while since we've had a first-time guest."

"Maybe that's why you've made things quite troublesome in various ways."

"It's procedure. Of course, by the time people get this far, they're usually irritated. I'm the one who suffers for it."

The man who laughed hoho- and invited me to sit was half machine.

Two sofas faced each other across a table.

When I sat down first, he took the seat opposite me.

"Now then, what item have you come to sell?"

Rather than rambling about anything else, he went straight to the point.

I liked that.

I took a glass bottle out of my spatial pouch.

Showing him would be faster than explaining.

"An elixir? It doesn't appear to be a natural product."

"It's been processed quite a bit. Of course, I don't know the details. I didn't make it."

Seeing myself lie without even changing expression, it seemed I'd truly become a mage.

"Oh-ho... Would you mind waiting a moment?"

With an interested expression, he extended his metallic hand.

Soon, blue light radiated from it.

"Oh-ho, hmmm... Ha."

As time passed, surprise gradually entered his face.

His brow moved in an extremely animated manner.

"...This is remarkable. This may be an impertinent question, but do you perhaps have any more of these?"

"Three bottles in total. I'm willing to sell up to two. There's almost no difference in purity between them."

"Up to two bottles. Would you wait a moment?"

When I nodded, his movements stopped for a while.

He looked as though he were blankly doing nothing, but he was probably contacting a superior.

...After roughly two minutes had passed, he opened his mouth.

"Thank you for waiting. We can purchase two bottles. How would you like to receive payment?"

"I'll take medium-grade demonic mana stones. And five billion hwan per bottle."

"Thirty medium-grade demonic mana stones and five billion hwan per bottle. Would that be acceptable?"

"Yes. Can I receive it immediately?"

"Of course."

His eyes gleamed as he nodded.

Thirty demonic mana stones and five billion hwan.

It was slightly below the fair market price, but there were few places in Hyeondeok City where I could receive this much money under secure conditions anyway.

"I've transferred the ten billion hwan first. Please confirm it."

"...Confirmed."

[ 10,000,385,420 ]

Looking at the balance with its absurd number of digits, I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh internally.

That Team Leader Lee, Lee Yeonghyeon, had made around one million hwan a month by sucking people dry.

Naturally, it wasn't easy to adjust to such an enormous gap in wealth.

______________

There is something called a code of conduct for when you win first prize in the lottery.

It's divided into various points, but to summarize it, it basically amounts to 'don't show off to others and don't spend money recklessly.'

"Oh my, it suits you so wellll-!"

"Does it."

But those rules only exist because it's merely first prize in the lottery.

"Black Quail confit and Heavenly Thunder Ox liver. The garnish is moonlight mushroom purée, and the sauce was made by reducing red wine from Mount Garein."

"Hm."

It didn't even put a dent in the enormous sum of ten billion hwan.

After leaving 'Undervale,' the black market hidden inside that open-air market, I briefly enjoyed playing the nouveau riche.

"...It's not that fun."

For someone saying that, I probably looked like I was enjoying it quite well.

Designer brands from head to toe, and between my lips was a high-end cigarette costing seventy thousand hwan a pack.

I looked completely drenched in luxury.

Still, I genuinely meant it when I said it wasn't that fun.

After all, there was no value to be found in doing this sort of thing.

Let's just call it venting.

I'd wanted to look like some nouveau riche bastard at least once someday.

"Well, that's enough of this."

I crushed the cigarette butt beneath my foot and let out a sigh.

It was time to deal with the reason I'd come to Hyeondeok City before anywhere else.

Broadly speaking, there were two reasons.

One was related to the Winter Tree in the Magic Tower, and the other was related to the original protagonist.

'...He probably hasn't hatched yet.'

The protagonist becomes active considerably later than this point in time.

But he definitely exists somewhere within this 'Haedong Nation.'

This is a secret revealed quite late in the original story, but I already know it.

The protagonist isn't merely some ordinary orphan child.

...For reference, when that was revealed, I got a little annoyed.

One of the reasons I'd especially immersed myself in the protagonist was undoubtedly our shared trait of being 'poor nobodies without parents.'

Anyway.

"I can raise my realm quickly enough."

Of course, I'd developed some resistance to the elixir made from Jade Dew Fruit, so unless I drastically increased its purity, it wouldn't help raise my realm anymore.

And if I increased the purity, my body still wouldn't be able to endure it.

Still, there was no reason to cling specifically to Jade Dew Fruit.

After all, I could quickly obtain elixirs or other methods to raise my realm.

I had the gallery's countless─

[ So, did you handle your business well? Please don't blame me for contacting you too often. This will truly be the only time... ]

Me>[ It went well ]

[ That is good to hear. Oz, until the day our hearts reach one another, I shall preserve my pure devotion. I will contact you only when I truly cannot endure it any longer... ]

Hopeless romantics.

No... transcendents.

"Urgh..."

I couldn't help but cover my mouth as I looked at the vivid karma before my eyes.

Naturally, the sender of that sudden message was the transcendent who had gifted me this ring.

I ignored all the other DMs.

But since I'd accepted something from this one, I had to at least reply to the occasional messages they sent.

You could call it broth management.

...That was the manifestation of what little conscience I had left.

"Next time, I'll earn it honestly."

Whenever possible, I should obtain what I needed with points honestly earned by stirring up attention through tier lists.

That was one thing I'd learned from this tragedy.