The Ultimate Metal - Adamantium (3)
Liquid Adamantium…
The strongest material among all newly discovered substances after the Tower rose. That’s what I knew about it.
Its sky-high price spike wasn’t just because it was expensive. Its weird properties did half the work. Once it solidified, it could never be melted again.
“How did those bastards find out that my father-in-law’s belt has it?”
“…He went crazy and started blabbing in the isolation ward. After that, whenever he got drunk he kept pressuring me to tell him exactly where the belt is. I kept saying I didn’t know.”
I gently soothed Han Yejin and sent her home, then dragged my tired body back to our apartment.
* * *
The next day.
When I returned to the Second Basement Level, piles of gold coins towered like a mountain.
I had sent the Rotter army down here before leaving yesterday to handle the coin recovery.
That no accident happened was a relief.
Ogres have an unusually strong appetite. They especially love slightly rotten meat, and human meat above all.
So Rotters were a feast for them too.
That’s why there was a real chance my soldiers would have been attacked and eaten while I was gone.
Thankfully the Ogres had stayed under control.
No trace of harm on my soldiers except the free Rotters sent through the Absolute Principle.
Katanka’s order to kill the two-headed palbi must have carried real authority.
The Ogres had also piled up a mound of gold coins. They had stripped the body and tanned it, harvesting the gold from the intestines.
I released the thousands of Rotters that were groaning helplessly in the Ogre waste with my holy shovel’s power, and more gold coins fell out of them.
In total I now had three mounds of gold right in front of me.
The money I made over the last ten years selling heirlooms from every hunter who died on floors 1 through 9.
I stuffed it all into my belt as fast as I could. It took dozens of minutes just to shove it in.
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⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[3694905 gold coins acquired.]
Our money…
Fifty-two billion six hundred fifty-four million won. Insane.
I was now a billionaire.
* * *
I held a victory party on the Second Basement Level. I opened the remaining wine and decided to roast the two-headed palbi Ogre and feast everyone on meat and booze.
Ogres have a natural craving for their own kind’s meat. I felt zero guilt eating the palbi. In fact I was hyped up at the thought of feasting on the tyrant’s meat.
The Ogres all sang weird songs and danced Ganggangsullae while tearing into the meat and chugging the wine.
The only problem was that the Potion of Nox dissolved in the wine knocked everyone out right when the party was at its peak.
The Rotter soldiers just watched the dancing Ogres with envy and silence.
Rotters don’t age, don’t die, and don’t eat or sleep. Zombies at least get the thrill of eating. Rotters only know pain, so death is their only desire.
It was time to reward them properly.
* * *
To claim the Nobel Prize in Rot Virus I first needed to raise my intelligence from 7 to 10. The only potion I could find was the Elixir of Intellect. One bottle cost 320 million won. Ten billion won total.
Damn it. After earning fifty billion I was already spending ten.
But I bought three bottles anyway, grinning like an idiot. I knew bigger things were coming, so I couldn’t stop.
And then…
Gulp~
I drank one at home. It tasted a bit bitter but I didn’t feel any change. Except on the status window.
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⚔ STATUS ⚔
LT__span style="color:#ff6b6b">⚡ Strength: 45LT__/div>
LT__span style="color:#4d9fff">💨 Agility: 48LT__/div>
LT__span style="color:#fbbf24">🧠 Intellect: 10LT__/div>
[Intelligence +1.]
[Intelligence 8.]
I downed the other two in one go.
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⚔ STATUS ⚔
LT__span style="color:#ff6b6b">⚡ Strength: 45LT__/div>
LT__span style="color:#4d9fff">💨 Agility: 48LT__/div>
LT__span style="color:#fbbf24">🧠 Intellect: 10LT__/div>
[Intelligence +1.]
[Intelligence 9.]
LT__p>[Intelligence +1.]
[Intelligence 10.]
Finally! My head spun reciting the multiplication tables, but it felt exactly the same.
I couldn’t think of any other way to prove I was smarter. But honestly, I didn’t have much to begin with.
42% intelligence boost from 7 to 10.
I calculated it in 0.1 seconds, skipping the formula entirely.
Haha, it really worked!
I immediately claimed the prize.
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★ Achievement Unlocked ★
Nobel Prize: Rot Virus
[Basic knowledge of the Rot Virus has been acquired.]
I felt a sudden clarity. My brain felt completely refreshed.
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★ Achievement Unlocked ★
Nobel Prize: Rot Virus
[Basic knowledge of the Rot Virus has been acquired.]
I was a bit disappointed. I thought the prize would make me know everything. It turned out I still had to keep raising my intelligence.
Each point cost 320 million won. Ten points: 3.2 billion.
I’m never going to have enough.
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⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
[You can now manufacture the Rot Virus Mitigator using the acquired knowledge.]
What?
I actually thought I could make it right now. I was remembering all kinds of weird knowledge and terms I had never even heard before.
My insight into the Rot Virus had grown far beyond simple hunter wiki entries, even rivaling the latest academic papers Jang Hancheol had shared.
I even had knowledge of medicine, biology, pharmacology, and pharmaceutical engineering.
My heart pounded. If I could make the mitigator properly, I could ask my father-in-law where the belt is.
Yes!
I immediately called CEO Jang Hancheol at Jeguk Medipharm.
“Ah, it’s me, Jang Hancheol.
“Yes, Hwang Geumpa. Actually… could you lend me your lab right now?”
* * *
For the next several days I locked myself in the lab and worked on the experiment.
Watching me expertly handle equipment I had never seen in my life made me feel both proud and stunned.
At the same time I had the Ogre soldiers dig downward from the Second Basement Level all the way to the Master Keyhole entrance.
Ogres have higher intelligence and tool use than Rotters and are incredibly strong. It took longer, but they slowly carved through the rock and reached the keyhole location.
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✨ LEVEL UP! ✨
★ Title Obtained! ★
★ TITLE ★
Second Basement Master
★ SKILL POINT ★
Skill Point +1
From now on the Second Basement Level will be directly managed by the owner of the Master Key.
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★ SPECIAL PRIVILEGE OF SECOND BASEMENT MASTER ★
Designate Waypoints on the Second Basement Level.
I inserted and turned the key. The privileges were almost the same as on the First Basement Level.
But one item was missing.
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★ Achievement Unlocked ★
True Master of the Second Basement
Challenge: Dig a passage to the Third Basement Level alone within 8 hours.
★ Reward ★: Banner “Ogre Division”
Would you like to start now?
Yes / No
8 hours to carve through solid rock…?
The Ogre Division banner is needed long-term to manage the Second Basement Level.
Liquid Adamantium would come in handy after all.
* * *
A few days later… it was finally complete.
Rot Virus Mitigator.
But I couldn’t just inject it into random patients. Even though the formalities had vanished, clinical trials still required basic procedures.
But I wasn’t worried. I had the First Basement Level.
I chose a free Rotter that looked the most symptomatic and injected it. The reaction came in three minutes.
“Aah~ W-where… ugh~ Am I… dead?”
Still a bit dumb, but he was starting to realize his situation.
“Yes, unfortunately. What is your name?”
“M-my… n-name… is… Baak… Joong… Min…”
“Guild and position?”
“I’m… a… hunter… private… in… the… guild…”
“Resident number?”
“79… 1… 9… 4… 3… 8… 5… 6… 4…”
It looked plausible. I had no way to check, but he looked around 1979 and the last digit started with 1.
Rotters do remember intense things like names or family. Resident numbers are not recorded.
“Do you have family in the outside world?”
“Y-yes… I have… a wife… and a son… ugh…”
He could still talk and express emotion.
I also noticed another effect of the mitigator. It made him overly honest, almost like talking to someone under anesthesia.
“If you committed any crimes in the outside world, tell me everything.”
“I… stole… items… from the guild… a bunch of them…”
Bingo.
The mitigator acts like a painkiller. It makes people tell the truth.
“Where did you hide the stolen items?”
“Hunter… storage… shed… warehouse… 4… 2… 4… 3…”
“Password?”
“5… 2… 0… 1… asterisk…”
But the effect didn’t last long. Three hours later he started talking dumb again, and four hours later he was back to being a normal Rotter.
Anyway, I tested the mitigator on a few smart Rotter soldiers, then gave them extra doses every three hours for the interpreters.
* * *
I immediately left the Second Basement and headed to the hunter private storage alley.
I found warehouse number 4243 and entered the password.
Sssssshhh~
The shutter rose. Perfect.
If my father-in-law really hid a belt with liquid Adamantium somewhere… then I could ask where the exact spot was.
The warehouse was stuffed with all kinds of items the patient had secretly taken from the guild. It was a decent collection for a thief.
Since I was a Tower Scavenger, the first thing my hand went to was a pickaxe.
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🎁 ITEM ACQUIRED 🎁
Pick of Misor Glass
Unique
◈ Work speed +200%
◈ Attack power 32~34
◈ Skills: Carve Stone, Cut Stone, Smash
“Unique?”
I suddenly felt something unreal. Why was such a good item left behind?
Then I noticed the warning.
⚠️ Warning: This pickaxe head is Misor Glass. Anyone with Strength under 40 will break it. ⚠️
Damn it. Makes sense. Tower Scavengers usually pump points into Strength.
Mages and shamans with low Strength don’t use pickaxes. So this was just a joke item.
A waste of space. A pity.
It was my first “unique” item. If I started a new partner I could use it for leveling.
But it was still trash for anyone under level 10. Still, that unique aura was hard to ignore.
I turned it over in my hands. The green metal bag…
And the skills. Carve Stone, Cut Stone, Smash… even without knowing the characters I could guess they would smash rocks.
If only I could carry it.
Then I remembered 1 kg of liquid Adamantium.
Wait. What if I coated the pickaxe head with Adamantium?
Would it become a legendary item?
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