Fireball (SSS)

"I'll be sure to catch every stream! I'm rooting for you!"

"Yeah. Take care."

I waved him off as GoldenHolyKnight headed straight for the Temple.

The moment I unlocked chat, the viewers who'd been unable to type for a good ten minutes went even more feral. Hardly any of the brawling from earlier was left.

The mood in chat had shifted into something I liked, so I decided to give them a present.

"Shall we take a look at the Supreme Holy Water?"

"Whoa. This is stupid good, right?"

Even looking at it myself, I had to admit it was good.

"No way..."

Right beside me, Lim Sarang's unfiltered reaction burst out of her.

The viewers lost ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their minds too. It was Supreme Holy Water, and the options being shown for the very first time were absurd.

"No, I've seen high-grade holy water before, you know? It wasn't anywhere near this..."

Lim Sarang launched into an eager explanation, practically buzzing.

"High-grade holy water has similar effects, I think, but there's no resurrection, the buffs don't climb nearly as high, and there were no permanent options at all, as far as I remember..."

Even that much was as good as a spare life inside a dungeon, so the moment one hit the market it was slapped onto the auction house. In Haven Online a player could die and come back, but the penalty was brutal.

"From level 30 on, if you die you have to pay a resurrection fee matched to your level and class before you can come back."

"Huh? Seriously?"

"Yes. At my level right now—four-star, mid-sixties—the resurrection fee alone comes out to a little over two hundred million won."

"Whoa."

You could come back from death, but you had to pay for it. I'd heard that much. I just hadn't known it would cost this much.

"And the more times you've been resurrected, the higher that price climbs."

So that was why the Temple was swimming in money in the world of Haven.

"Anyway, it makes sense that just crafting Supreme Holy Water would run about four billion won."

If anything, it struck me as cheap.

"If you can buy +10 to all stats and +10% EXP for four billion, isn't that way too cheap?"

"...Not everyone is like you, Siwoo."

Of course, I hadn't paid four billion. I'd paid twenty billion. If he'd told ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me the money wasn't enough, I would've been willing to give more—and even then, it felt like a bargain. Even though it was more than everything I'd spent until now.

"Still a steal, though."

Anyway, I gave the people who were curious a straight answer.

"I'm trading this for an SS-rank skill."

Plenty of them were against it.

"Siwoo. With options like these on Supreme Holy Water, drinking it might actually be better than an SS-rank skill."

Lim Sarang offered the advice from beside me. But I shook my head.

"Supreme Holy Water doesn't only come out of Korea, does it? Someone in another country has to be able to get it."

The auction house was shared across every server.

"If one shows up, I'll just buy it. I can only drink it once anyway. And I have to learn the SS-rank skill now if I want to pick up the next quest, right?"

I had no regrets. If Supreme Holy Water hadn't been written as once per character, I would have drunk it—bought every one I could get my hands on and kept drinking. But that wasn't what it said. So I headed for the Magic Tower.

"Ooh. To return with them so quickly. As expected of the Dragon's Descendant."

The Magic Tower Lord welcomed me in. The moment I produced the materials one by one, his eyes went perfectly round and he swept them up at once.

"Such precious things... They swore they would never part with Supreme Holy Water, so I wondered however you might obtain it..."

"...You told me to fetch something even the Magic Tower Lord couldn't get?"

"..."

The Magic Tower Lord said nothing.

"Ahem."

Clearing his throat, he drew a booklet from the same place he had taken out the Dragon's Staff.

"These are the magics the Dragon's Descendant may learn at present. There are two."

"I can't take both? I was going to expand my skill slots and use them."

"Ho ho. As I told you, you must first pass the trial..."

"I'll throw these in as well, plus a donation to the Magic Tower. Seventeen billion."

"...Seventeen billion... did you say?"

Honestly, I'd just thrown the number out. What could the Magic Tower possibly be so hard up for that they'd be out of money? Even if he demanded the same materials again, I had no way to get a Dark Core right now, and I couldn't get another Supreme Holy Water either. I laid out the leftover materials I'd double-bought off the auction house and named the biggest sum I could swing. If he said no, then he said no.

Except the Magic Tower Lord's face was anything but ordinary. I could hear the gears turning in his head all the way from where I stood.

"Ho ho. As expected of the Dragon's Descendant. However did you know the Magic Tower was in such want..."

"Huh? The Magic Tower has no money?"

It was so far from anything I'd expected that I asked again, and he only stroked his beard and gazed out the window. Lim Sarang explained from beside me.

"The Magic Tower doesn't make much money. The Temple earns a great deal, starting with offerings and going all the way to player resurrection fees, but the Tower has almost no real income besides donations from mages... Of course, the mages affiliated with the Tower earn plenty from hunting, but this is a place that studies monster corpses, so..."

"Ah."

Well, yeah. Weren't mages exactly the sort who burned materials worth billions on experiments? The prejudice clung to them regardless: however much they earned, they wouldn't think of putting the money to work. They'd spend it chasing better spell materials and better gear.

"So I can take both?"

"Ho ho. They were prepared for the Dragon's Descendant in any case."

"Jackpot."

I snatched up both skill books. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I was just about to open them when the Magic Tower Lord's throat-clearing reached me.

"Ahem-hem."

"Oh. The money."

How to put it. Revered Magic Tower Lord or not, he seemed like nothing more than a money-hungry eccentric old man. Only after I handed the money over did his expression brighten.

"The next SS-rank spellbook you may learn awaits at level 30."

"Huh? What about level 10 and level 20?"

"There are no spellbooks prepared."

"Ah."

I'd thought, from a glance, that there weren't many booklet skill books to begin with. A shame. For a second I'd wondered whether pulling a single five-star meant I could plaster every slot with SS-rank skills.

"Where do I expand the skill slots?"

"Come. I shall guide you."

Expanding the skill slots wasn't difficult. Perhaps because I'd accepted the Descendant of the Tower Master quest, my contribution was high enough that they widened them for free.

"Ooh."

I opened the first skill book.

"Whoa. Fireball!"

"Wow."

It was a plainer spell than I'd imagined. But maybe that was exactly why the impact felt even bigger.

It was the most familiar spell there was. It showed up in every fantasy novel, and no game's idea of magic was complete without a fireball. And that was the spell I'd gotten. I was glad too. I didn't know many spells, but I knew Fireball.

"This is the one where a ball of fire goes flying, right?"

"Yes! I have one too. Fireball. Only A-rank, though..."

Hearing that from Lim Sarang, it actually seemed to have worked out perfectly.

"Want to compare them?"

"Ah... I have a feeling I'm going to look pathetic."

Viewers laughed at her awkward little smile. Lim Sarang, who had kept her place beside me all this time, was as pretty as ever—so much so that chat never once stopped saying it. Plenty of them even thanked me just for turning the stream on so they could look at her.

I turned the page. The skill book vanished, and Fireball appeared in the skill window.

"Whoa."

SS-rank Fireball. What would it even be like?

"All right."

Right as the anticipation hit its peak, the showman in me kicked in.

"Huh?"

People bristled at the way I dragged it out. Lim Sarang started nagging from beside me too.

"Siwoo. Hurry. Hurry."

She caught my arm and bounced in place, cute enough to kill me, but I held on. Wrestling down the twitch at the corner of my mouth, I pulled out the next skill book.

"Let's look at them both at once?"

Another SS-rank skill book. It was a basic spell, kin to Fireball. Being a level 1 skill from the start, the magic on offer was limited.

"Huh? Why is it SSS?"

I opened the skill window, and the letters waiting there were wrong.