SS-Rank Skill Books
One-star through five-star, F-rank through SS — every grading system in Haven Online shared a single truth. Pulling a five-star, or an SS, was obscenely hard.
So people said it outright.
That much had settled, more or less, into accepted doctrine.
A little over two years had passed since the game opened. Beside the old giants it was practically a newborn — and yet in that span more people had played it than any game in history. All those people. All that investment. Even so, the number of users who actually held a five-star or an SS rank had never climbed out of the single digits.
Unique abilities could still be wrung out by force at the lower star tiers. Climb high enough, and it became all but impossible. If five-stars showed their faces anywhere, it was in items: not something you saw often, but they did appear, to a point. Ask what the most vicious content in a vicious game was, though, and everyone named the same thing. Skills.
SS-rank skills are the real deal. For real.
The reason rankers pull a 4-Star Class. At level 60 you get one guaranteed SS-rank skill.
You might as well assume SS-rank never comes out of a skill draw.
Random skill draws include common skills and non-combat skills too, so pulling the specific SS you actually want is next to impossible.
It wasn't a system where you paid cash and pulled. You brought materials to the Magic Tower and altered a skill you had already learned.
And the difference?
So they said. No matter how much money I had, everyone had told me the skill system would not be easy.
And yet a chance had appeared to obtain an SS-rank skill for certain.
"Magic Tower Lord. What do you mean by that?"
Lim Sarang asked before I could, her face startled. The shock must have hit her hard.
"The Magic Tower holds several SS-rank skill books. Gifts left behind by dragons, the previous Magic Tower Lord among them. Heh heh. To us mages they are nothing but books of theory, of no use whatsoever — but I am told they are of help to adventurers."
"..."
"Do you just have to read them?"
The skill book system was the one narrow vent in an otherwise suffocating skill economy. Tradeable skill books. The ways to obtain them were plenty — hunting, dungeons, bosses. Kill enough of the monsters this game existed to throw at you, and chance might hand you one. How ugly those odds were, I didn't need explained. Lim Sarang's face said it plainly enough.
So SS-rank skill books actually exist.
Didn't an S-rank swordsmanship skill book sell at auction not long ago?
Yeah, pretty sure it went for 5.8 billion. I think it was a level 30 skill book.
Anyone could buy one and learn it. At that kind of money, I caught myself wondering whether rerolling skills until something came out might actually be the cheaper gamble — then I let the thought go. I'd feel the difference once I was in it.
"Then please hand it over."
Laid out plainly, it looked like a reward I had no choice but to take. It was not, however, free.
"We could hardly accept coin from the Successor of the Dragon. But the first Magic Tower Lord left a charge: confirm that he is worthy. Bring the materials required, and I shall present a spellbook the Successor may use."
Prove that you are a Dragon Words Mage who inherited the dragon's blood, and receive the skill book the dragon left behind.
Conditions: Dragon's Tear (1), Core of Darkness (1), Heart of Light (1), Supreme Holy Water (1)
Reward: One SS-rank skill book suited to your level (1)
The thought that struck me the moment I saw it was simple.
"That's nothing."
"...He's insane."
Lim Sarang, it seemed, did not share my view.
?
Dragon's Tear, Core of Darkness, Heart of Light? Is the Magic Tower Lord out of his mind?
lololol how much is he trying to squeeze out of one SS-rank skill book?
Forget the rest — Supreme Holy Water, fuck lol. Can you even get that?
"Then return to us once your preparations are complete."
We accepted the quest and were promptly shown the door. Outside, I asked, and Lim Sarang let out a sigh.
"Getting them isn't impossible. They're all materials sold on the auction house. The problem is that they're far too expensive."
A Dragon's Tear, apparently, dropped at a low rate if you killed a dragon that appeared at random inside a level 60, three-star dungeon — and in all of Haven, only four were listed. The Core of Darkness was the same breed of misery: kill the boss of a demon-realm dungeon, level 60 and three-star or higher, and it dropped at a brutally thin rate. The Heart of Light was the kinder of the three, which was not saying much — an ultra-brutal material that dropped at random from two-star dungeons of level 40 and above. Supreme Holy Water, last of all, was easier than the rest.
Go to the Temple and ask. They'll give it to you lol
Yeah, ask for Supreme Holy Water and they'll probably hand it over. Along with a fist to the face lol
The Temple's run by even crustier old bastards than the Magic Tower. No favorability, and you can't even talk to a priest. Money is favorability there.
Problem is, having the money doesn't mean everything just works.
Still, if it's actually Supreme Holy Water, the effect would be ridiculous.
"Hmm."
Lim Sarang's expression was troubled. What was I supposed to do with this? I'd left the call to her, but the moment clearly wanted a decision from me.
"Let's go to the auction house for now."
The auction house stood beside the bank. A window unfolded, dense with categories, and a search made the whole mess easy to sift.
2,800,000,000 (1)
2,810,000,000 (1)
2,820,000,000 (1)
Exactly three listings.
lol nobody's cornered those yet?
If it were me I'd buy all three and relist them higher.
How do you even corner that market lol. Each one's a billion won in real money.
That isn't even the market price. The guys holding them just listed whatever they felt like.
The chat plastered itself with comments telling me not to buy.
"Hmm."
I didn't especially enjoy being played for a sucker, so I searched the others first.
5,500,000,000 (1)
One Core of Darkness, listed at 5.5 billion.
"Haven's prices really are steep."
Materials like these, sold to the Magic Tower, fetched a decent sum — not this much, but decent. Decent, set beside the auction price, meant less than ten percent. People usually donated them while building favor with the Magic Tower and wrote the loss off as the cost of doing business.
200,000,000 (4)
201,000,000 (3)
...
210,000,000 (1)
Hearts of Light, at least, still numbered around ten. Once I'd confirmed every listing was actually there, I slammed the buy button.
Core of Darkness (1)
Dragon's Tear (1)
Heart of Light (1)
?
whoa
insane
8.5 billion vanished in an instant. I didn't stop there.
Dragon's Tear (2)
Heart of Light (10)
"????"
My balance came to rest at 9.7 billion. I didn't particularly mind. They were only numbers I could buy again.
"If anyone's selling a Core of Darkness, message me or list it on the auction house. If you expand your skill slots at level 1, you can learn two, right? Both of them ought to be SS-rank."
"Wow... you really are amazing, Siwoo."
Lim Sarang stepped in and took both my hands.
"Starting today, I want to be a true fan of yours."
"Huh?"
"I'm curious. How far you can climb."
?
ah...
No, Sarang... don't...
The hollow despair of a great many male fans reached me even from here. I eased my hands free and opened a little space between us. Attention from a beauty like that wasn't unwelcome, but more than eighty thousand people were watching, and stacking that kind of karma would be a nightmare to pay off later. Besides, it wasn't me she was interested in. It was the sight of my money leaving.
"Ah. And if anyone can sell Supreme Holy Water, please get in touch. I'd like to buy it."
I hate being made a sucker. But with 490 quadrillion won sitting in the account, I don't much care whether a one-won trinket costs one won or ten. Only one difference matters — whether I need it or I don't. A rich man's way of thinking, it seemed, had started to settle in.
"Supreme Holy Water probably won't be easy to find, though. The chat said as much. There are almost no people whose Temple contribution is high enough to buy it in the first place..."
"Should I just learn any skill for now and go hunt? I bought the materials because I already want to be hunting."
In truth, hunting was the root of this entire spending spree. I wanted to test the power of the three-star SS I'd rolled so quickly, and I wanted to do it clean, fully prepared. That patience was wearing thin. The broadcast I'd turned on in order to hunt had burned four hours on nothing but setup, and I was weighing whether to compromise and settle for a taste—
"Huh?"
A donation, right on cue. Honestly, I didn't believe it. The timing was too perfect. I've done plenty of attention-chasing myself, and I know a prime clout window when I see one — subtle enough not to look obvious, capped at a hundred thousand won.
"Really?"
I tossed the word out halfheartedly, ready to move on.
"If that's who I think it is, he might really be selling. He's the rank one paladin in the country."
"No way."
I asked point-blank.
"Hyung. Where should we meet?"