86. 2 Billion Coins (Part 2)
“W-what…?”
The reason Kim Do-chul stammered was simple. The levels of the elixirs before his eyes had blown past every scrap of common sense he possessed.
◈ Lunadria — Lv.98
◈ Baekyang Herb — Lv.99
◈ Blazing Yang Fruit — Lv.95
◈ Frozen Ice Fruit — Lv.97
◈ Ten-Thousand-Year Stone Fungus — Lv.98
◈ Mandragora — Lv.100
“Insane…!”
The curse slipped out of him unbidden. Kim Do-chul was that worked up.
“You’re seriously planning to keep circulating elixirs like these on a continuous basis?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Good God!”
Lee Jeong-won watched Kim Do-chul’s excitement with quiet satisfaction. His own reaction hadn’t been any different the first time Madoje had handed him those samples.
Level 100…
He hadn’t even known the concept of Level 100 actually existed until that moment. When Madoje first announced he would distribute elixirs, Lee Jeong-won had assumed they would simply be a little higher-level than what was already on the market. He’d even wondered if they might be those mysterious ???-level elixirs that had become Madoje’s trademark—but he’d never imagined anything like that could be mass-distributed. With expectations that low, of course his eyes had gone round as saucers.
Unlike his usual self, he had no choice but to message Madoje a second time. Even holding the samples in his own hands, he simply couldn’t believe it. For a moment he’d even wondered whether Madoje had sent the wrong batch by mistake.
Reading that reply, Lee Jeong-won had thought, Ah—so Madoje really did send the wrong samples after all.
……?
For a second, Lee Jeong-won couldn’t even parse what Madoje had said.
Insane!
In that instant, Section Chief Lee Jeong-won understood with absolute clarity.
Madoje. This man was not someone he could dare measure by his own yardstick. He was a being who lived alone in another world. From now on, Lee Jeong-won must never presume to judge him by ordinary standards.
I’ll have to tell him about this later.
Director Kim Do-chul was still gaping like a goldfish in pure shock. If he learned right this second that even these samples weren’t the top-tier product—and that only Level 100+ elixirs would be supplied from now on—he might actually faint on the spot.
“With quality like this, would it be acceptable for us to support Madoje’s elixir deliveries going forward?”
At those words, Kim Do-chul snapped back to himself.
“O-of course it is!! Report to the higher-ups immediately—no. I’ll handle the report myself. Section Chief Lee, you go start the massive publicity campaign!”
“Then about the two billion coins…?”
At Lee Jeong-won’s question, Kim Do-chul slammed his desk.
“With a hand like this, if I can’t squeeze the budget out of them I might as well resign! Even if I have to throw myself on the floor in front of the Minister of Economy and Finance, I’ll get it—so don’t you worry about a thing!!”
Kim Do-chul shouted with fierce resolve. Watching him, Lee Jeong-won nodded inwardly. His superior was usually unreliable, but every once in a while he showed a truly dependable side. This was exactly one of those moments.
If he also mentioned that Level 100+ elixirs would be supplied going forward before heading to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, securing the budget really wouldn’t be much of a problem.
I should start with the publicity first.
Lee Jeong-won’s eyes sparkled as he looked at the samples laid out before him.
Mado Corporation office.
Ten employees were stationed there.
“Man… after what we just went through, I keep thinking I really need to raise my level somehow.”
“You too, Dae-hun? I was thinking the exact same thing.”
“Same here. Guess we’re all on the same page.”
The “incident” they were talking about was the near-takeover of the office by the superhumans sent by the Mithril Distribution Alliance. The fear and terror they’d felt in those brief moments were not emotions that faded easily.
“To raise your level you pretty much have to run dungeons, right?”
“Not necessarily. These days people say if you just take the right elixirs you can push your level up to a certain point.”
“Exactly. Superhuman Hong Seolhwa—the one who wrecked those guys—said she broke through Level 80 thanks to the elixirs Madoje gave her. That completely shattered the old common sense that elixirs had a hard limit on how far they could raise your level.”
“Ah, so that’s where that saying came from. ‘If an elixir didn’t raise your level, maybe the elixir’s level was just too low.’”
“Right. But the problem is… we can’t actually buy elixirs like that.”
“Ahhhh, I wonder if Madoje-nim would ever circulate high-level elixirs like those…”
“Dream on. Even if it’s Madoje, how could he possibly obtain enough of those to distribute?”
“Exactly. Unless he’s farming an entire elixir field, it’s impossible.”
Everything they said was perfectly reasonable by ordinary standards. Not just Madoje—everyone believed that circulating high-level elixirs was simply impossible.
“Still, someday someone will succeed at cultivating elixirs, right? And if they flood the market… everyone’s average level would skyrocket.”
“Whoever manages that will become one of the richest people in the world overnight.”
Everyone chuckled. Just imagining it was fun.
And then—
Ding!
Someone’s phone chimed with a notification.
“Huh? Director Lee Jeong-won just posted something.”
It was an alert that a new article had gone up on the Mado Corporation homepage.
Click.
The moment he opened the post—
“……!!”
His eyes went as wide as saucers.
Of course they did.
What he was looking at was—
“Uh… Madoje-nim is about to become a world-class tycoon…”
—because the post announced that Madoje would be circulating Level 100 elixirs from now on.
Right after Mado Corporation announced that it would be circulating Level 100 elixirs going forward, Superhuman Net naturally exploded.
Posts like these poured out one after another. “Unbelievable,” “Does this even make sense,” “It’s fake”—the structure of the system made fabrication impossible, but the situation was so hard to believe that the comments flooded in anyway.
In the end, Superhuman Net spent the entire day plastered with posts about Madoje—an unprecedented record. Thanks to that, even people who still barely knew who Madoje was finally learned his name.
At first people wondered what this talk about gear Taesan had received even meant. But soon enough, many of them understood.
Madoje crafting the Silver Whisper Staff had never been a fluke. The equipment Taesan had commissioned from Madoje was every bit as good—no, even better. Which meant Madoje’s blacksmithing had also reached an entirely different level.
The frozen wastes.
Another monster wave came rolling in. Same as always.
“Hoo.”
The man called Taesan—or the Guardian of the Northern Hemisphere—Alexei Volkov stood to meet it.
Replica Vestiger. Replica Kardas. Replica Zartan. Replica Markel…
Insectoid humans mixed into the surging wave.
“Hornets this time.”
Alexei frowned as he spoke. At a glance they looked more troublesome than the mantises, spiders, and centipedes he’d faced before.
“Shall I assist?”
A figure in a brown robe spoke up abruptly.
“No need.”
Alexei answered and stepped forward. If—just maybe—he hadn’t received the gear from Madoje this time, he might have needed the help. The giant hornet insectoids looked, at a glance, like the most difficult of all the Replica series he’d faced so far.
But—
Clang!!
The silver equipment on both of his hands clashed together.
Frozen Judgment Gauntlet.
With this, everything changed. He was certain of it.
“Huuup.”
He drew in a breath. Pure white energy rippled across Alexei’s body.
Heart of the Arctic (SSS) has been activated.
Grrrrrrrrrr!!
His trait that made him nearly invincible in extreme cold. Until now, no equipment had ever fully withstood that power. He had always fought with half his combat strength sealed.
This time felt different.
“Bwaaaaaang—!”
“Bwaaaaaaaang!!”
The massive wingbeats of the giant hornet insectoids tore through the blizzard. The tallest female hornet at the front produced the most oppressive sound of all.
Replica Vestiger, huh…
Where had this being drifted in from? He wanted to ask, but experience had taught him they never responded to questions.
“Let’s see just how strong you are.”
Taesan stepped forward. The colossal power of the frozen north gathered in both fists. He drove that force straight ahead—
BOOOOM—————————!!
KWA-GA-GA-GA-GA-GA——!!!
Centered on the punch, an enormous wave of cold exploded outward in a fan shape. And it froze every single existence in its path solid.
One kill.
Amazingly, even the ominous-looking Replica Vestiger had been finished in a single blow.
“Whoa. That really is something.”
The robed man whistled and stepped up beside him. When he threw back his hood, golden hair streamed into the air.
“I’m jealous.”
“Arthur, I’ve never seen you show this much greed before.”
“Haha. I’m only human, you know.”
The robed man’s true identity was Arthur Bennett—one of the very top ranks even among the original Twelve Heavens, the archmage known as the Master of Unquenchable Mana.
“You have every right to covet it.”
Taesan’s eyes gleamed as he checked the information on the Frozen Judgment Gauntlet.
Type: Gauntlet
Grade:SSS
Equip Restriction: Lv.80+
Options
1) Physical Attack Power +30%
2) Additional Ice Attribute Damage +25%
3) All attacks deal additional ice attribute damage
4) Attack Speed +15%
5) Critical Hit Rate +10%
6) Ice Resistance Ignore +20%
Special Ability: Frozen Judgment
On attack, a chance to trigger “Frozen Judgment.”
Creates an ice-attribute explosion against all enemies within 5 meters, dealing 200% of base attack power as ice damage.
Enemies caught in the blast suffer Movement Speed −30% and Attack Speed −20% for 3 seconds.
When Judgment triggers, all ice attribute damage is further increased by +15% for 10 seconds.
Absurd specs for a gauntlet. The first time he received this equipment from Madoje, he had doubted his own eyes. He’d thought he was seeing things.
Something this precious…
A surge of emotion rose in his chest. He could practically see how hard Madoje must have worked to forge this—sleepless nights, refining and refining again over a long stretch of time. And then to send such a piece without asking for anything in return…
The true hero is not me. It is you.
He gazed down at the Frozen Judgment Gauntlet with burning eyes.
“Please introduce me to this Madoje fellow someday. I’d like to ask him about my staff as well.”
Beside him, Arthur Bennett smiled slyly and gave his own staff a little shake. It had once been counted among the finest pieces of equipment in the world. Next to the Frozen Judgment Gauntlet, it looked like a child’s toy.
Even from Arthur Bennett’s perspective, Madoje was less a curiosity and more a genuine mystery. A fierce desire to speak with him soon was already boiling up in his chest like fire.
But that was a matter for later.
The reason he had come here today was—
“I’ll go examine those things.”
—the Replicas. He had come to dig into their origin.
Archmage Arthur Bennett. He began moving in earnest to uncover the secret of the Replicas.
At that same moment—
“Huh?”
I had been enjoying myself thoroughly in Elatrium when—
“What?”
—Lee Jeong-won’s message arrived far sooner than expected, and my eyes flew wide open.