The Blessings of the Yellow God and the Red God (2)

First Hunter and One-Strike Kill had been achievements he had meant to claim from the start. Bare-Handed Hunter was another matter. He had only tried for it on a whim after seeing Bare-Handed Killer, and it had worked.

The problem was that every title he had won had been wiped out of existence.

Jin-soo checked his status window. Nothing's changed. Every stat sat locked at 22. The loss is brutal. Those achievements should have raised his stats by fifty at the very least. Not a single point had moved.

Are they going to keep devouring my titles? If so, his growth was in serious trouble. Titles raised stats permanently. Even at the same level, how many titles a person held could open a gap in combat power as wide as heaven and earth. With titles, more was always better.

So as long as these blessings are on me, earning titles is meaningless? If this was how it was going to be, there was no point in acquiring them at all.

Keep going anyway.

His first objective was to sweep up every title and hidden dungeon Floor 1 had to offer. He had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no intention of giving them up just because they vanished.

"Kieeeek!"

"Kyaruk! Kyaruk!"

Jin-soo pressed forward and hunted. He cut through the monsters of Floor 1 at speed, clearing achievements and taking titles as he went.

The moment he acquired a title, it ceased to exist.

His level rose in the midst of the hunt. Achievements had been his first priority, but he had killed plenty of monsters along the way. It was only natural.

And then, without warning, another system message surfaced.

No way.

What the hell?

He was dumbfounded. The blessings would not even permit him to level up.

Why are they doing this to me? Jin-soo knit his brow. Sealing off titles was not enough—they were blocking level-ups too? It meant his growth as a Player had been shut down completely.

The blessings grew?

He opened his status window and pulled up their information.

This time Magic Power and Mental Strength each went up by 2.2 percent. They didn't nullify the titles and the level. They absorbed them.

But one thing did not sit right. If the blessings grew by taking titles and levels as prey, then why had they grown twice in a row at the very beginning? Back then he had not earned a single title, and he had not leveled up either.

I don't know nearly enough about these blessings. And if this continued? The efficiency is terrible.

A 2.2 percent increase to every stat. Percentage buffs were the highest class of enhancement—the higher the base stats, the harder they scaled. The problem is the return.

The blessings had already devoured more than ten titles, and on top of that they had swallowed the experience of an entire level-up. Add up every stat point he should have gained from those titles and that level, and the total came to at least eighty. And after all of that, he had not even received a 22 percent increase across the board. Just 2.2. They had eaten enough to raise his stats by more than eighty and paid him back in decimals.

Four of the six stats were raised before they started feeding on titles and level-ups. Which meant that, in real terms, absorbing twelve titles and the experience of one level-up had bought him nothing but 0.484 points each in Magic Power and Mental Strength.

From where Jin-soo stood, it was a staggering loss. The cost-effectiveness was not merely bad. It was abysmal. Keep this up and he would not conquer the Tower past Floor 2,222. He would die on the lower floors.

Move.

He set himself in motion, in silence, and did what had to be done. If a poor result had been enough to break him into despair—if he had been the sort to whine that the efficiency was garbage and the return was trash, then simply give up—he never would have climbed as far as Floor 2,222 of this Tower.

But Jin-soo did not let go of hope, no matter how hopeless the situation. He worked without rest, refused to quit when things turned bleak, and somehow always found a new way forward. That was the road the man called Jin-soo had walked. It was the road he would keep walking.

He threw himself into the hunt.

The title he had fought to earn disappeared. His level dropped almost as soon as it rose. Jin-soo did not stop. He kept moving, hunting without pause.

Once again, a system message announced that the blessings had grown. Jin-soo opened his status window and checked.

The buffs to Strength and Vitality jumped from 2.2 percent to 12.2. The scale of that growth had increased by a full 454 percent. The efficiency's still awful. Set against every title and level they had already swallowed, a 454 percent bump in buff efficiency still left the mileage complete garbage.

Even so, I can see a thread of hope. The numbers were still feeble. But a jump of 454 percent in a single step meant the blessings' capacity ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for growth was enormous. If they kept growing like this, the stat increases might reach thousands of percent. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands.

Not that it'll matter, with base stats this low. The efficiency will still be abysmal. No matter how large the multiplier, a foundation that small meant little. Raise a bean a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold, and in the end a bean was still a bean.

I'll have to find a way to raise my base stats. There was no answer yet, but he had no intention of giving up. He would find one, somehow. By any means necessary.

I think this is the area I heard about.

Still hunting monsters and collecting titles as he traveled, Jin-soo arrived near his destination. Here. What awaited him was a small cave. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The Hobgoblin Dungeon.

It sat on Floor 1 of the Tower: a one-time hidden dungeon where a Player could receive a mission to exterminate the goblin band led by a hobgoblin. The difficulty's on the high side.

Players who had only just arrived in the Tower were no different from ordinary people, in body or in mind. For them, the Hobgoblin Dungeon was little better than a trap. They could barely handle one or two goblins, and yet dozens appeared—and on top of that, a hobgoblin that might as well have been a boss.

The rewards are good, though. The mission payout was one thing. The side income was better, because the hobgoblin carried a treasure pouch that could be taken.

The pouch was a spatial artifact with room for roughly a handcart's worth of goods. Food stored inside did not spoil, and it was handy for keeping items as well. It had limits. Only twenty objects would fit, and the weight could not exceed two hundred kilograms. Maybe not later. Early on, it's worth a great deal.

And crucially, the hobgoblin's treasure pouch was more often full than empty. With luck, a person could walk away with a large store of food, weapons, or even another artifact.

All right. Let's go in.

Jin-soo stepped into the dungeon. Every reward from achievements and level-ups had vanished, so all of his stats were still 22. On Floor 1, that's more than enough. Along the way the blessings had grown once more, lifting the increases to Agility and Endurance to 12.2 percent. Not that it amounts to much. Twelve-point-two percent of a stat of 22 came to only 24.684. Still better than nothing.

At least the stats that mattered early—Strength, Agility, Vitality, and Endurance—were the ones that had risen. He entered the dungeon.

The moment he crossed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the threshold, a mission was forced upon him.

"Kieeeek!"

At the same time, the goblins rushed him. That's a fat reward. The Sinew-Transforming Pill was an elixir that raised Strength. Ten of them. They must have built this reward around a ten-person party clear.

Jin-soo swung both swords.

Shhk. Slash.

"Kiik!"

"Kyak!"

The goblins that flung themselves at him were cut down as helplessly as straw.

"Kuuuaaargh!"

Furious at his underlings' deaths, the hobgoblin charged. An ordinary goblin stood about as tall as a child. This one was nearly two meters, and it moved fast enough that its level looked considerable. Its stats are higher than mine. Obviously. But a higher level and higher stats did not automatically mean stronger.

Whoosh!

The hobgoblin swung its club. The windup's too big. The strength behind the blow looked formidable. Jin-soo twisted aside.

KWAANG!

The instant the club hammered the blameless floor—

Thuk.

The sword in his right hand punched through the hobgoblin's throat, fast and exact.

"Kergh—!"

The hobgoblin that had come on with such force died an empty death, and its body hit the ground with a heavy thud.

Yeah. I knew it would be like this. It did not even surprise him anymore. Rewards first.

Smiling, Jin-soo slipped one Sinew-Transforming Pill into his mouth.

It was only two points of Strength, but dust gathered into mountains. Then a problem appeared.

What?

Jin-soo could not believe it. He had never imagined the blessings would nullify not only the stats gained from titles, but the stats gained from elixirs as well.

"Fuck! Why are you doing this to me?! You said I did well! You said you were satisfied! So why?!"

The frustration crammed in his chest tore out of him in a shout.

"This isn't some offering I'm making to you!"

The mileage was already miserable. If they were going to gorge themselves, couldn't they at least gorge in moderation?

"Haa..."

After spitting curses for a long while, Jin-soo let out a long breath, forced his heart still, and bent to claim the treasure pouch hanging at the hobgoblin's waist.

Let's see what's inside. He reached into the pouch, and information on its contents surfaced in his mind. Most of it's useless. Food made up the bulk, but none of it was anything a person could eat. A goblin, maybe.

There's an item? He had thought it was a bust. There was something after all.

A Ring of Recovery and a Ring of Aggravation. A set, formed as a matched pair of silver rings. The level's fairly high, and the options aren't bad.

The Ring of Recovery carried Recovery, a skill that treated injuries. The Ring of Aggravation carried Aggravation, a skill that forced wounds to split wider. The set effect raised the power of both Recovery and Aggravation. Lucky.

Recovery-type items were extremely rare on the lower floors. Climb past Floor 50 and there were healers. Climb past Floor 200 and there were potions brewed by alchemists, so injuries could be treated. Down here, once you were hurt, there was almost no way to recover a wound except by reaching the next floor.

A passive skill book with a self-recovery option would be more efficient, but an item like this isn't bad. Aggravation could help in a fight as well, to a point. Jin-soo slipped the paired rings onto his fingers.

In that instant, system messages announcing the blessings' growth appeared twice in a row.