Riding the Curse Devil Gentleman Centaurides to the Second Squad

Riding the Curse Devil Gentleman Centaurides, I arrived at the location of the second squad.

[Pii! Piii!]

[Duumba! We're here yot! Hurry up yot!]

The Jellyfish and Hedgehog Summoner God welcomed us. Behind them gleamed a magnificent vending machine that caught my eye. I gave the second squad a brief word of praise before hurriedly checking the vending machine's remaining time and the items for sale.

Time left was plenty, for now.

A Return Ticket? Who's this bastard mocking right now?

Ignoring the Return Ticket, anyway.

"The Evolution Ticket price is insanely inflated..."

Overall, ticket prices had risen across the board.

"And there's a Wandering Merchant Tracking Ticket too."

New tickets I'd never seen before caught my eye.

"And there's this Luminous Evolution Ticket too."

Luminous Evolution Ticket. I had no idea how it differed from the regular Evolution Ticket. Did it evolve faster? Or maybe it bumped the risk level up two stages? All sorts of guesses swirled in my head.

Rise tossed out a speculative chat. It was a pretty plausible guess.

"I've never tried on an SS-grade, so no clue. I've only gotten one Evolution Ticket so far, and I used it to evolve the Fire Slime into the Black Magma Slime."

Back then, I didn't have any SS-grade tamed monsters. So naturally, I picked one of the S-grades and used it.

"If regular Evolution Tickets don't work on SS-grades, then yeah, Rise's guess might be spot on—the Luminous one could be SS-grade exclusive."

I could check this soon enough. Buy a regular one today and test it on an SS-grade later.

"Sadly, can't afford the Luminous one."

"Price is insane. No way I can buy it."

1 coin = 10,000 KRW. Luminous Evolution Ticket at 3,759,900 coins? That's nearly 37.6 billion won.

"Rise has been sending steady full support with coins, so I thought vending machines wouldn't be a coin worry anymore... Never imagined a 3.76 million coin ticket."

"Rise. 3.7 million coins... you can't cover that, right...?"

I knew he couldn't, but still asked just in case.

As expected. Using the treasury would be a burden. The new government hadn't been established long.

All the energy sent so far had been from Rise's personal reserves.

"Nah. No need to apologize. I'm sorry for asking something unreasonable."

Asking Ppururu's chaebol heiress friend Hwang Mi-reu would be a stretch too. Even a third-gen chaebol couldn't casually drop 3.7 billion.

Plus, she barely knew me.

Too bad, but nothing for it. Had to pass on the Luminous Evolution Ticket. No way to scrape together 3.7 million coins right now.

Shaking off the regret, I bought every ticket I could afford.

Evolution Tickets x2: 15,000 coins.

Designated Dispatch Tickets x10: 5,000 coins.

Transferable Return Tickets x10: 500 coins.

Reverse Support Tickets x20: 600 coins.

Wandering Merchant Tracking Ticket x1: 4,000 coins.

Total: 25,100 coins spent.

"How much were Evolution Tickets last time again?"

"Ah, right, 1,500 coins."

Ppururu's chat jogged my memory.

"That's a fivefold increase then."

"Yeah. This vending machine's prices are overall jacked up. Evolution Tickets especially."

True that. Without Rise, even regular Evolution Tickets would've been out of reach.

I resolved to always feel grateful to Rise.

I don't take help for granted just because I've helped them too, and even if I get used to receiving, I'll make sure my gratitude doesn't dull.

Not as much as Rise, but I felt equally grateful to all my helpers supporting me.

Back at the shelter, I tried using an Evolution Ticket on Arachne. The result was as expected.

Regular Evolution Tickets couldn't be used on SS-grade monsters.

As Rise guessed, regular ones were S-grade only, and SS-grades needed the Luminous version.

Obviously wouldn't work on SSS-grade either. Still, if the chance came, I'd test a Luminous one on SSS someday. Gotta confirm personally.

Though who knows when that'd happen.

Now to pick monsters to evolve...

Two Evolution Tickets on hand. Targets: S-grades.

Not everyone's back yet, so I'll ponder while doing pokedex work.

Waiting for the survey team to return fully, I flipped open my notebook, pen in hand, peering at the first squad's feed via Iris.

Psycho ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Clown and Medical Mushroom were in a fierce battle with a monster they'd run into by chance on the way back.

—[Yo ho ho! To deflect my signature curse—you're no ordinary foe!]

—[Pii?]

—[Kirik. Mushroom, you just bounced that curse. Thanks.]

—[Pii?]

—[Then let's see you block this curse! Yo ho ho!]

Actual risk: S-grade. Nerfed risk: B-grade. A curse-wielding devil-type monster.