Chapter 7
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Random Box
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“My goodness, you’ve returned safely, Hunter!”
Upon returning to the village, Mr. Park and the other villagers welcomed me, their eyes sparkling.
I replied with a confident look.
“You can all rest easy now.”
“Ooh...!”
“My, what a dependable young man.”
“Hmph, a young man? What are you talking about! He’s a Hunter, a Hunter!”
The small village buzzed with excitement.
“It’s getting late, so why don’t you stay the night here, Hunter. We’ve prepared meat and makgeolli.”
The village chief, who had been welcoming me among the crowd, approached and spoke.
It was the typical way of speaking for an NPC in a fantasy game.
“Hmm, should I?”
I had no intention of being treated like a hero, but there was no need to be hasty either.
The elders, at least old enough to be my uncles, had prepared food and a place to sleep; it wouldn't be polite to just refuse.
“Alright. Then, if you don’t mind, I’ll be in your care for the night.”
“My goodness, in our care? We should be the ones apologizing for not being able to offer you a hefty reward. Please, come to the village hall!”
“Ah, before that, there’s something I’d like to ask, Chief.”
The chief, who had been walking excitedly, stared at me with a puzzled expression.
“By any chance, is there a place in this village where one can receive good energy?”
In a rural village like this, there’s always bound to be a place rumored to have ‘good energy flowing through it.’
A propitious site, as they call it.
“A place where you can receive good energy... you say?”
“Yes, a place where, if you make a wish, your luck becomes incredibly good afterward. Something like that.”
Despite my vague words, the chief quickly grinned and said.
“Ah! You must be talking about the Suryeonbi. How did you know about it... hahaha.”
“Yes, the Suryeonbi! That’s the one. That’s it.”
I didn’t know what a Suryeonbi was, but I answered immediately.
With things like this, it’s best to answer before any questions can arise.
“I heard it’s a famous spot in this village. Since I’m staying the night, I really wanted to visit it.”
“Indeed! To think you looked into our humble little village before even handling the request!”
The chief nodded with a touched expression.
“Then I shall guide you there. It seems you have something big planned, Hunter.”
My eyes shining, I replied.
“A great undertaking? You could say that.”
* * *
The Suryeonbi was in the mountains, not far from the village.
It was a stone monument about two meters tall, densely covered in Chinese characters, but even the chief didn't know exactly when it had been erected.
I stared at the Suryeonbi standing before me.
“I’m counting on you.”
Then, with the monument as a backdrop, I opened my status window.
[You have an unused free draw ticket!]
A notification window popped up immediately.
You don't have to make such a fuss. I was about to use it anyway.
When I pressed my earlobe, a familiar screen appeared.
A screen where a mystery random box spun endlessly.
“Hah, I hope I get something good.”
In ‘MonMonMak,’ the paid item gacha boxes were notoriously infamous.
It was so bad that 90 percent of the users quit the game because of these boxes.
Part of it was because the items had a broken balance, letting you raise a monster's star-rating to astronomical levels.
But the biggest reason was the abysmal draw rates these boxes boasted.
- I just spent 3 million won and got a single B-rank Goblin Glove. Taking questions.
- lol I spent 5 million won and got one S-rank Orc Axe. Deleted this crappy game immediately. cya
- Do legendary items even drop from this? Anyone who got one, show proof pls.
- Legendary items? lolzzz Getting even an S-rank item is like plucking a star from the sky.
- It's the academic consensus that SS-rank items and above are just dummy data, you know? lolol
The ranks themselves ranged from D-rank to SSS-rank.
On top of that, there was ‘Legendary’ above SSS-rank, but they were all ranks in name only.
Because if you spent a million won and got even one A-rank item, it was considered a good pull.
The MonMonMak developers did announce the probabilities, but no sucker believed them.
“Still, I was on the luckier side.”
Of course, I never even saw a Legendary item, and I'd only pulled enough S-rank items to count on one hand.
But even so, for the amount I invested, that was considered highly efficient.
Thanks to that, I was able to become the only ‘veteran’ streamer for ‘MonMonMak.’
“The problem is whether I can pull with that same level of luck here.”
It was a free draw ticket I got for nothing, anyway.
Whatever I pulled, it was a gain.
After taking a deep breath, I pressed my earlobe.
[Consuming 1 Premium Draw Ticket.]
Along with the message, the box began to glow.
I glared at the rapidly spinning random box as if I could devour it.
Fwaaa!
The frantically spinning random box finally stopped, opened, and light poured out.
Alright, what color is it?
Please be gold.
Because the light that shines when you get an A-rank or higher item is golden.
“Huh?”
But I soon doubted my eyes.
The light pouring from the random box wasn't gold.
Nor was it the silver or bronze light that signified a low-rank item.
It was red.
An intense, ruby-like red.
A color I had never seen before.
And as soon as a new message appeared, I understood.
[Congratulations. You have obtained a Unique-grade item from a Premium Draw!]
Of course I'd never seen it.
It was an item of a grade I had never once pulled in the last seven years.
“Unique...?”
With a trembling hand, I checked the notification message that appeared in front of the box.
Woooong.
The answer to my words was the low hum of a resonating gate behind me.
A fist-sized gate had opened behind my head.
And just as it had spat out the orb before, the gate tossed an item at me and disappeared.
The only difference was that this time, the item was enveloped in a red light.
“Hoo.”
Holding the light-wreathed item, I swallowed hard.
A Unique-grade item.
In MonMonMak, an item's grade was determined by its additional stats, but also...
...by how effective its set effects were.
Often, a single A-rank item couldn't measure up to a C-rank item set.
However, there were items that, on their own, displayed efficiency greater than that of renowned sets—those were the S-grade items and above.
‘And Unique is a bit different from these other grades.’
A special item of which only ‘one’ exists in the MonMonMak data.
The grade given to such an item is Unique.
It is an item that only one person in this world can obtain.
I stared at the special item that appeared before me.
“Glasses?”
They were round glasses with silver frames.
Neither particularly tacky nor flashy.
If anything, they looked classy, but they didn't seem all that amazing.
But my disappointment melted away the moment I checked the information window.
[Beholder's Glasses - Unique Grade]
[Glasses developed by a certain Beholder sage who suffered from both astigmatism and myopia. Put them on your Beholder immediately. It will be the best gift for this many-eyed child!]
[All Stats +5, allows use of the ‘Sage’s Eye’ skill twice per day.]
[When worn by a Beholder, a new special skill is created.]
“Sage’s Eye?”
The stats were one thing, but the important part was that it granted a new skill, something usually only found in set effects.
Furthermore, what surprised me was the performance of the ‘Sage’s Eye’ skill.
[Sage’s Eye - Allows you to check a target's stats and owned skills. If the target is identified as C-rank or lower, the count is not consumed.]
Simple.
Simple, yet an incredibly significant ability.
The answer becomes clear when you consider how important reconnaissance and espionage are on the battlefield.
Information that you would normally have to learn through direct confrontation could now be obtained easily with a single skill.
And the most important thing was...
“It’s not there.”
Nowhere did it say that the ‘target’ was limited to monsters.
In other words, it meant I could check the stats and skills of Awakened Beings as well.
Even better, if the target was identified as C-rank or lower, the twice-a-day count wouldn't even be used.
This would definitely serve as a huge advantage.
After all, controlling an opponent's information is a universally applicable tactic, not just on the battlefield.
But it was too early to celebrate.
“Let’s check the most important thing.”
I carefully put on the glasses.
Since I hadn't activated the skill, it was no different from wearing a normal pair of glasses.
But I soon felt a new vitality coursing through my body.
“Status Window.”
I didn't rely on the feeling alone and opened my status window.
Name: Kim Hanul
Age: 28
Gender: Male
- Stats -
Strength: 15 (10+5)
Agility: 11 (6+5)
Stamina: 18 (13+5)
Spirit: 10 (5+5)
- Skills -
Regeneration Lv.1
Sage’s Eye Lv.1
-Linked Skills-
Conversation with the Lord Lv.1
Deal with the Lord Lv.1
- Currently Equipped Items -
Beholder’s Glasses (U)
- Contracted Divine Seat -
None
Only then did I nod.
An item meant for a monster was working perfectly on me.
“Haha.”
A laugh escaped me.
I muttered, the corners of my mouth curling up.
“This luck-based crappy game is the best.”
* * *
The next day.
After returning to Seoul, I visited the Gate Management Bureau to report the completion of my request.
“You’re back sooner than I expected?”
The employee who had registered my request two days ago said, her eyes wide.
She must have thought it would take me a week to kill three goblins.
Or that I'd come back as a corpse.
“It was easy. Oh, here’s the proof of subjugation.”
Thwump.
I placed three goblin hearts, wrapped in a plastic bag, on the counter.
The unique stench of monsters mixed with the smell of blood, creating a foul odor.
The employee stared at it, her face contorted in disgust.
“There are special vacuum packs for monster carcasses, you know...”
“Oh, is that so? As an E-rank Hunter on my very first request, I wasn't aware.”
I scratched my head with an embarrassed smile.
Of course, that was a lie.
It was a small gift for her having seen me as a pitiful E-rank Hunter and a target for her insurance sales pitch.
At my smooth reply, the female employee couldn't say much and just tapped at her keyboard.
“...From now on, please bring them in vacuum packs. Or, if you hire a guild or a private carcass disposal service, they’ll handle the payment application for you, so please keep that in mind.”
“Will do.”
“Yes. We will deposit 270,000 won, which is 300,000 won minus the 10 percent commission, into your registered account.”
“Ah, and there’s one more thing I’d like to know.”
The employee, who was clearing away the goblin hearts with a disgusted look on her face, looked up.
“How many E-rank requests do I need to complete to move up to the next rank?”
There was no need to think twice.
I'd seen with my own eyes that an Ogre was a one-shot kill for my Gono.
Experiencing this kind of rookie-level request once was enough.
And to move on to the next stage, I first needed to raise my Hunter rank.
You had to be at least D-rank to be treated as a proper Hunter.
“First, you need to accumulate 100 points. An E-rank request is worth about 20 points, so you’ll have to complete at least four more.”
Four more times.
I was worried they might only give one point per request, but my fears were unfounded.
Since E-rank requests only require the bare minimum of a Hunter's abilities...
...it seemed they judged that four times was enough for a proof of skill.
“Ah, besides accumulating points, there is one other way.”
As I nodded, the employee began to speak.
When I just looked at her without a word, she cleared her throat and continued.
“If, by some chance, you get caught up in a high-rank gate request due to a gate overflow or some other unforeseen circumstance, and you manage to kill a high-level monster summoned from that gate, a low-rank Hunter can be promoted two ranks at once.”
“...”
“Of course, that’s only if it was done entirely on your own, or if a high-rank Hunter you hunted with doesn’t claim ownership.”
The employee said with a triumphant expression.
A face that said, ‘Something like that would never happen anyway.’
It seems my dumbfounded, open-mouthed expression made me look like an idiot.
“Is that really possible?”
“Yes, but only if you meet the conditions.”
“Then I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Understood. Good luck, just four more requests until your D-rank promotion.”
The employee made a fist in a ‘fighting!’ pose.
Instead of answering, I just gave a slight smile.