The Miracle of C-Grade
“That bastard is a real piece of work.”
Lee Sia carved through a grimy grass fiend with a look of pure irritation.
“Did I ever tell you what he was like the first time I saw him? Completely insane, I swear.”
A nonstop stream of complaints. Petty revenge against Seong Yujin for dumping her down here to do the dirty work.
“I mean, how the hell did I even push through this godforsaken jungle the first time? And he’s sending me back?”
A snappish sword stroke butchered the grimy grass-root fiends swarming in from every side.
“Over there too.”
“Ah—yes!”
Sia shot toward the spot Vivian’s finger indicated.
Puhwaaaak—!
Brown blood sprayed. The same blood she had been doused in countless times before. This time she dodged it. The sheer will not to let a single drop touch her was palpable.
Even so, she still scooped 『Stained Grass Fiend’s Root [E]』 from the corpses of the things she had just cut down. At this point she was the living portrait of a perfect slave.
“How many have you got, Unnie?”
“Eighteen hundred.”
“I’ve got about two thousand, so… shall we head back soon?”
And that wasn’t all. 『Bone Golem’s Marrow [E]』, 『Green Sap Troll’s Juice [D]』, and 『Mantis Carapace [D]』 as well. Combined, each of them had harvested more than twenty thousand material items.
Forty thousand in total. Which meant the number of monsters the two of them had slain long since surpassed forty thousand—there had been plenty that dropped nothing at all. Their levels had climbed too. Of course, that was more likely thanks to the party system than any generous experience from these trash mobs.
“Good. That’s enough.”
Vivian agreed, stowing 『Vajra [C]』 with a nod. She didn’t show it, but she was exhausted as well—not in body, but in mind. Repeating the exact same motions forever, like a factory part, was never easy. If Sia hadn’t kept chattering beside her, she would have thrown everything aside and left ages ago. Even that was reaching its limit, and they had gathered everything they needed. Time to go.
“Then let’s take the stairs.”
This was the fourth floor—the place where the Flame Dragon stood as gatekeeper. Facing the creature that fluttered with living fire, Sia stretched out her hand. Moonlight poured from the edge of 『Black Wing [B]』, already drawn.
Moonlight Sword [D].
A skill she rarely used these days, yet as a D-grade it still packed more than enough power to deal with a Flame Dragon.
Swaaaaaak—!
Like a half-moon rising over the pond at Chwiwolru, the moonlight sank into the dragon’s neck before the beast even registered her presence. There was no scream. The Flame Dragon—closer to an oversized fire lizard than a true dragon—lost its head without ever knowing how it died.
Kuuuung—.
“It used to be so hard.”
In the end she hadn’t been able to finish it herself; Seong Yujin had stepped in and killed it with a single punch. Sia sheathed her sword, freshly reminded of just how strong she had become.
“I should tell Ji-hoo to come down here later.”
She hadn’t been the only one who struggled against the Flame Dragon. Park Ji-hoo had had an even worse time of it—his fists simply didn’t work well against those scales. Seeing how far his own fists had come since then would probably make him happy. And while he was at it, she could dump the material-farming on him too. Sia patted herself on the back for the excellent idea and climbed the stairs past the Flame Dragon’s corpse.
“Want to rest a bit at Pine Breeze before we head back?”
They had worked hard. She wanted to kick back somewhere free of Seong Yujin and enjoy a little freedom. But Vivian shook her head.
“Can’t.”
“Huh? Why not?”
Sia blinked, not understanding.
“What you did. Remember?”
Lightning struck inside her skull.
“Ah…”
She had killed people. Three of them. Two of those she had slit open right inside Pine Breeze. Every player who had witnessed it had either climbed higher or died to the Green Dragon, but the NPCs were still there. They wouldn’t refuse her or try to harm her…
“I’d feel awkward.”
Vivian was right. The problem was Sia herself. She had no confidence she could look the NPCs of Pine Breeze in the eye without flinching. Every time their gazes met, the faces of the ones she had killed would rise up. Not that she regretted it. If she had to do it again she would swing her sword without a moment’s hesitation. Even so…
“Guess we should just go.”
Sia clicked her tongue and agreed with Vivian.
It’s just… creepy.
That was all.
“Good thinking.”
Vivian gave Sia’s back a light pat. The two of them climbed the stairs toward the fifth floor.
He had never eaten a 『Golden Spirit Fruit [C]』 before. In the first timeline, Seong Yujin hadn’t laid eyes on a single elixir at this stage. The first one he ever tasted had been somewhere around the fiftieth floor—an A-grade, no less. It had jacked up his mana, level, and physical abilities like mad.
Everything he had obtained this time was C-grade. So he hadn’t expected much. At best a twenty-to-thirty-percent boost to mana; conservatively, maybe ten.
He had been wrong.
At absolute minimum it jumped thirty percent.
No secondary effects. But Yujin had hunted these elixirs for one reason only: mana. Judged by that standard, the result could not have been better.
“Holy shit, 『Golden Spirit Fruit [C]』.”
He marveled, still tasting the afterglow of the golden fruit. But it was too early for pure admiration. Yujin looked at the elixirs rolling casually across the floor.
『West Wind Distillate [C]』.
『Star Essence [C]』.
『Fresh Green Juice [C]』.
『Phantom Spirit Condensate [C]』.
『Flame Butterfly Mana Core [C]』.
『Azure Moon Herb Crystal Fluid [C]』.
Six elixirs in total. Two of them were substitutes for the 『Silken Sky Herb [C]』 and 『Frost Flower Root [C]』 he had originally planned for, but—
“With efficiency like this, it doesn’t matter.”
C-grade elixirs were performing far better than expected. If the remaining six hit anywhere near the same level as the Golden Spirit Fruit, the results would blow past every projection he had made.
“Now I’m looking forward to it.”
“Kkuwaaaaaang—!”
Chunbae roared in agreement.
“No stopping. Straight through.”
Yujin reached for the pure-white porcelain bottle at once.
『West Wind Distillate [C]』.
An elixir hidden deep inside a rock-spirit tribe village that claimed the Wind Gorge on the western edge of the Dream Garden as its territory. According to the description, it was liquor aged a hundred years while constantly bathed in the winds that blew through the gorge. The Akasha System’s description, so it was probably accurate.
“Not that I’m much of a drinker.”
Still—a hundred-year distilled spirit. And one that raised mana, no less. “I don’t like alcohol much” was no reason not to drink it.
Pop—!
The moment he pulled the stopper, a clear note rang out and a vicious blast of alcohol punched him in the nose.
“Keuhh—”
A groan slipped out before he even tasted it.
“What the hell is the proof on this thing?”
It made soju look like water. After a brief hesitation Yujin held his breath and guzzled it down.
His throat felt like it was burning away. People said drinking something this strong let you map your own esophagus; the saying was true. Roughly three hundred milliliters, yet he forced the entire bottle down in one go, enduring the pain.
“Khaaaaak!”
It felt like he had swallowed the breath of a scorching flame dragon. Yujin hurled the bottle aside and roared. Nothing like when he had eaten the Golden Spirit Fruit. All this agony from a single drink? Even so he kept his posture steady, calmly observing the fire raging inside him. Miss the timing and he could lose a huge portion of the energy the West Wind Distillate carried.
One level from killing the Flower Keeper. One more level from roaming around gathering elixirs. Amazingly, the West Wind Distillate was still strong enough to get a level-63 Yujin drunk. On top of the searing pain he now had to endure a spinning head as well.
Goddamn, I should’ve given this to that brat.
Even through the dizziness, Lee Sia’s face floated up. Force one bottle of this down her throat and the show would have been spectacular.
Dududududududuk—!
As if telling him to stop thinking useless thoughts, his entire body began to vibrate.
Here it comes.
Similar to the Golden Spirit Fruit. The difference: that had been road-clearing construction. This was a highway-widening project. The pathways of his mana were straining to force themselves broader. Yet the solid roads held firm against the pressure.
An ordinary player would never have felt this. They wouldn’t even have absorbed every scrap of the elixir’s energy. Yujin was different. With perfect mana control he seized every last drop of power inside the West Wind Distillate. The burden on his flesh exploded beyond imagination—and still he endured. 『God-Infused Body [S]』 was a trait so far above a mere C-grade elixir that the strain simply could not touch him.
Kwaaaaaang—!
Mana compressed to the absolute limit finally detonated outward, expanding the pathways.
Keuk!
The drunken haze evaporated in an instant; his mind turned crystal clear.
Holy shit.
Yujin swallowed dryly without realizing it. This was nothing like what he had imagined.
My mana…
It felt like it had at least doubled. The combination of Golden Spirit Fruit and West Wind Distillate was not 1 + 1. The efficiency was in a completely different league.
A man who rarely so much as blinked at anything now stared at the remaining elixirs with a stunned face. Five left.
“If I eat all of these…?”
He could not even guess what would happen. Of course there was no guarantee the same monstrous effect would repeat, but even accounting for that—
“This is insane.”
Apparently the true windfall he had found today was not the elixirs themselves.
“Let’s check what happens if I take one more.”
“Kkuwaaaaaang—!”
He spoke to Chunbae for no particular reason; the little beast nodded furiously and howled. Slightly tense, Yujin reached out. This time the choice was 『Fresh Green Juice [C]』—the elixir he had obtained after beating the Green-Blood Demon Lord to death. One look told him it would taste like absolute garbage. Originally he had expected nothing from it. Now it was different. The thought of how it would react when mixed with the previous two made his heart race past mere anticipation.
He opened the lid without hesitation. The stench of blood slammed into him. This wasn’t green juice; it felt like the Demon Lord’s blood had been condensed and bottled.
“Ugh.”
He nearly vomited, barely holding it down. The smell was so foul he finally clamped one hand over his nostrils and dumped the entire contents straight down his throat.
And then…
The change began again.