Chapter 78
Chapter 78
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: +5%
-----------------------------------------------------------------
D/Z SAGA Fan Cafe.
A game cafe isn't really some massive community, to be honest.
In truth, Korea's game strategy sites are divided into a few factions, and it varies wildly which community dominates for each game.
Galleries, web forums, live streams, channels, and then cafes or open chats—there were countless strategy sites out there. But I can say this with confidence: for D/Z SAGA, the cafe I ran was the biggest.
Being the first-generation lifetime operator came with a ton of work.
I had to weed out trolls, note down the likable folks, and handle countless other tasks.
Especially when the novel board manager and the fanart board manager started flirting, forming their own clique that split the cafe in two—I seriously thought I was done for.
They split so cleanly, cheering on the couple and carving out their friendship faction nicely. The members' verdict? "Time to start the Super Young-jin praise train from now on." Dodged a bullet there. Glad it wrapped up well.
Anyway, this is a story from back when I was living as the likable cafe master 'Super Young-jin.'
From then on, my famous quote became "Cuz I wanna." Nostalgic times, anyway.
So why did I end up living like this?
Why did I obsess so hard over this damn game?
'...I wanted to laugh with Kelters just a little longer...'
That was the first heroine I killed.
She drove a thorn into my heart and vanished.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at is this: even while grinding Eve as a physical DPS to see the true ending, I stuck to one ironclad rule of mine.
If a character who joined my party seemed like they might die, I'd quit the game and start over from the beginning.
That was hardcore gamer Yi Young-jin's playstyle—the end result of fully immersing myself in the characters, to the point of digging into their lore.
There were a few other rules too, but whatever.
And when Jefrin Academy and D/Z SAGA unfolded before my eyes as reality, I thought about shelving that mindset for a bit.
Reality had always been harsh to me, so even if the game became real, I figured I should live for myself.
But with Aila joining my party like this, the Yi Young-jin inside me spoke up. 'What if danger comes for Aila? What'll you do then?'
The 29-year-old nobody who died crushed by a convenience store delivery truck... that no one would remember.
I'd accepted myself as Wolfram now, trying to live as him, but I couldn't shake my head at little Super Young-jin's question lingering inside.
"Hm."
Not some grand oath, but now that things had come to this...
I just couldn't stand by and watch Aila exit in Act 3.
"Guess I'll do what I can."
The next day.
Oddly enough, Aila and Rudika showed up together.
Not exactly on purpose—more like they ran into each other on the way.
"Wolfram. I'm here."
"Wolfram! Rudika's here!"
Rudika and Aila had warmed up to each other since the field trip last time.
"It's getting hot out. End of May already like this? June's gonna be rough."
"Hm? It's warming up season, huh. Rudika doesn't know much about that."
"Really? You don't mind the heat much?"
"...Hm. Well, I don't feel cold or hot much."
Aila fanned herself with her hand, while Rudika tilted her head. Aila aside, Rudika not minding heat was probably from special training.
I whipped up some drinks for them. Since Rudika didn't feel hot or cold, I tried something new.
"Wolfram, what's this?"
"A drink with ground cinnamon beans."
"What does it do?"
"...Sweet at first, then spicy hits."
"...! Wolfram is Rudika's top comrade after all!"
Rudika chugged it down after that, muttering things like, 'The sharpness is nice. Hm. This deserves full marks.''One day, I must bring Wolfram to the Shadow family. Our chefs need to learn from him!'
After finishing, Rudika nodded with a big smile.
"Thanks! Wolfram! Rudika is satisfied!"
"...Hm."
If she can say things like sharpness or chefs, how do I even fix that subtle speech pattern?
What should I say now? Fix your speech a bit...
"By the way, Rudika came to the Magic Division to counter magic, right? Learn anything?"
"Hm. Now even as a mage, up to 6th tier's doable. Wasn't before."
"I see. You took down the dummy with 6th-tier barriers, huh?"
"...Hm. Well, yeah. Like a dummy... yeah. No good feel."
...
Rudika just has lopsided vocab knowledge.
Wolfram's a good boy with only one life.
"Ah, senpai! I'm here! It's kinda hot! Got anything cool?"
"Ah, hello, Wolfram-senpai..."
Then Nefti and Milmyu dropped by, and the four regulars now claimed a table, chattering away.
Like always, they ordered one drink and one meal each, stayed a solid four hours at the convenience store, then prepped to head home.
As they left one by one, right before Aila went, something clicked for me.
"Aila."
"Yes, Wolfram."
"How's your gear situation right now?"
"...Huh? Gear?"
"Ah, slip of the tongue. For combat. Weapons, armor, accessories—how are they? Can you tell me?"
"Hm...? No idea why you're curious, but I don't use weapons when casting."
"Isn't using them more efficient?"
"Ah... Staffs or magic bangles—good ones are rare. Lots of fakes... I just fight with my own power."
"...I see."
"And my casuals... you know? White blouse, black skirt. They have some enchantment—purification effect."
"...And accessories?"
"No enchanted ones. But why?"
"No, nothing. Weird question."
"Hehe. See you tomorrow, Wolfram."
"Hm. Take care going back. Last regular flight of Partrasu today, so ask them to drop you at Glasstheim dorm."
"...Oh, thanks kindly."
Aila smiled brightly, said that, and left the store.
After confirming no one around, I let out a deep sigh.
"Is her gear for real?"
The shock was so huge, I nearly spilled something that'd barely skirt Imperial Bloodline's Tier 1 limits.
If someone handed her that gear and told her to push through Act 3, I'd yank out their keyboard and smash their head with it, no question.
A few days later.
Delivery guys from Maestro and Trista arrived.
"Total comes to 8 million lin."
"Ours is 13 million lin."
"Hm. Let me check the amount."
A whopping over 20 million lin purchase.
Considering the cash I had on hand, it was a big spend.
But timing-wise, it was essential.
Plus, factoring in this world's prices, this was a steal, really.
I nodded at the piles of roughly cut junk gems and mass-produced metal frames.
In-game, even lowest-grade gems weren't this pricey, but with monsters possibly popping out of mines, the cost made sense.
And unlike game's uniform factory items, these were handcrafted one by one, so labor costs made the frames reasonably priced.
Anyway, staring at the mountain of gems and frames, what I planned was dead simple.
Pure manual labor. In game terms, grinding—extraction runs.
Wearable type.
I.e., accessories enchanted for gear slots.
In-game, these are called imbue-accs for short, unlike regular ones.
Imbue-accs are for decoration or character fashion...
...worlds apart from junk like that fake graduation ring Zolf used back then.
For magic imbuing, two materials are mandatory.
One: a mineral classifiable as a 'gem.' The other: 'the metal frame surrounding it.'
So for a ring, even trash gem in the center, surrounded by metal—no exceptions.
Thus, speccing Accessory Crafting into wearable imbue-accs turns it into a money-devouring monster on skill-ups. Insane skill.
But gotta do it.
Activated the skill, placed a gem before me, clicked it into a frame.
Did that thrice quick, and messages popped up.
"[Item Appraisal]"
...Hm.
Subtle performance, but hey, imbue-acc success is encouraging.
Made three, kept the imbued one.
Then touched the other two and pop—extracted the center gems.
Gems popped out, brooch split back to frame and gem.
"Hm. Extraction works, as expected."
Yeah. This is the extraction run grind: craft, extract non-imbues, recraft.
Keep looping, right? Well...
Crunch, metal frame tears, gem shatters.
Not my strength. Error correction auto-destroys it.
Such bullshit.
"Hoo."
Head's spinning. Accessory Crafting eats 0.5 MP per use, Appraisal same. Even with mana potion Aila gave me back then, down 3 MP—now just the freshly recovered 1 left.
As a proper magic skill, Accessory Crafting burdens sustained use.
"Still gotta do it."
Corner sack overflowing with frames and gems.
Turn 'em all to brooches, something usable'll come out.
"Doing it for Aila's fine, but... feels endless."
Muttered that, started crafting again—and fanfare blared in my head.
[Congratulations! An unbelievable item for your level!]
[Brooch with subtle power crafted successfully!]
...Huh?
Why'd this pop?
"Skill level 1 great success rate's like 0.00075%, right?"
Beat that?
Nah, some extra bonus must've kicked in.
No way it'd trigger that easily.
"Ah. Aah. Got it. Party with Aila...!"
That's it.
Aila and I are in a party.
And the party bonus is...
[Party member's talent is superb: +5% to all magical actions!]
[Party member's talent is superb: +5% great success chance on all magical actions!]
So this great success happened because we're partied—Aila boosted my Accessory Crafting crit.
'Ahem! I won't hold Wolfram back. We're partners in rebellion, right?'
In my head, Aila balled her fists on her hips, snorted proudly, flashing a dashing smile.
"...Yeah. Could be."
Muttered to empty air, stared at the brooch, then appraised it.
"Wonder what it'll be. 'Subtle' means at least 7T message...
Hope it's a good fit for its future owner."