Light Speed Rune (1)

The next day.

Baek Jinwoo had lined up back-to-back weekly dungeon runs from the early morning hours, then reported to the training ground to loosen up.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Hungyo and the other summons were already in position, hard at their training.

'Might as well check the rewards first.'

Let's tally up everything he'd earned from floors 2 through 9.

"Hoo."

Long story short, the haul had turned out remarkably well.

Setting aside the piece of 'trash' mixed into the middle of the list—ten Essences of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Light—everything else had come together nicely.

What's the Essence of Light, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you ask?

A rare material. No doubt one of the ingredients for some blueprint or another.

'Can't use it right now, though.'

There was no telling whether a blueprint that needed Essence of Light would drop anytime soon, and an item like this belonged on the market at a steep price.

And I do mean a veeery steep price!

Being rare, there was hardly any supply to begin with, and anyone in a hurry would buy it no matter the cost.

'And the real jackpot is...'

The floor 4 reward.

The top-grade Light Speed Rune!

Light Speed was the upgraded version of the Swiftness rune Ramba had equipped, and under the right conditions it pushed attack speed to the very limit.

That was the old Swiftness rune. And this?

The Light Speed rune's set effect was, in a word, insane.

Simply equipping it granted a 300% boost to attack speed, and in Ramba's case she could enjoy the full 500%.

Because she wielded a staff.

'And it's a Rare rune on top of that!'

Rare runes were runes that appeared only in the Tower of Ordeal.

The Rune Dwarf could craft them too, but let's save that explanation for later.

Rare runes always rolled excellent stats, and even when reinforced they always landed on their maximum values.

In other words, they were born fully qualified as graduation runes!

Baek Jinwoo checked the stats.

'Ohhh.'

A rune specialized for magic-type attack speed, just as advertised.

Stats worthy of being called Ramba's personal rune!

Intelligence to amplify the force of Ramba's skill, Wind Pressure, and Agility to push her attack speed up that much further!

'Perfect.'

For the record, a Rare rune's stats were fixed.

Meaning that no matter where or when you obtained a Light Speed rune, it would always come with these exact numbers.

And if he reinforced it all the way to the max level of 10?

Ramba's graduation rune would be born.

A rune that embodied the very meaning of the word 'graduation'!

'Might as well graduate Ramba first, then.'

Baek Jinwoo boldly used the top-grade rune selection tickets from floors 6 and 8, one after the other.

Among the countless runes spread out across his vision, the moment he thought of 'Light Speed' one locked dead center, and he pressed it to make his selection.

And then.

Every single rune carried the same stats.

'I need three more of these.'

That part would have to wait until he'd told his sister to scour the markets of the world and bought them up with Yubaek's capital.

Only then would the proper set effect come into play.

For reference, a summon could equip up to six runes.

'I'll hold onto the polishing agents for now.'

The ten Universal Polishing Agents each from floors 3 and 9 would be needed later, after the runes had been reinforced to Max (level 10).

Polishing agents raised the values of fully reinforced stats one step further, and the Universal Polishing Agent in particular guaranteed that the value would hit the maximum no matter the option.

The unwritten rule was to save polishing agents for graduation runes only.

These, too, could only be obtained in the Tower of Ordeal, so the price was whatever anyone would pay.

'Three top-grade summoning scrolls from floor 7.'

Those were also commanding a hefty price these days, weren't they?

But these he must neither use nor sell.

They were materials for the Guaranteed Summoning Scroll (B-grade) he intended to craft later on.

'I'll keep these too.'

And finally, what was left!

'The five Intermediate Skill Book Selection Tickets from floor 5.'

Honestly, these were 'trash' as well.

Baek Jinwoo had Hungyo, after all—he had no need for skill books.

But.

'Every one of these has its use too.'

If anything, Baek Jinwoo was pleased.

'First things first.'

Having sorted out what to sell and what to buy, Baek Jinwoo rose to his feet.

"Hungyo."

— "Yes, My Lord!"

"Keep at the training. I'll be back after a quick visit with my sister."

— "Your orders shall be honored!"

The time to see his sister had come around at last.

The loot from the intermediate weekly dungeons had piled up sky-high, and the Essence of Light from this run needed selling as well.

Player Zone.

In front of the offline market where Baek Ajin set up shop every single day.

"Huh?"

Baek Jinwoo did a double take.

Because in the spot where she normally did business stood one more woman, a mask over her face.

"Why is Yoo Jia here?"

Yoo Jia of Yubaek.

She even seemed to have grown remarkably close with Baek Ajin, chattering away with a smile.

"Oh, Jinwoo?"

"Oppa!"

The two women greeted him warmly the moment they spotted him.

"What's going on here?"

He asked what the situation was, and they gave him a tidy rundown.

"Ajin has agreed to join hands with our Yubaek."

"That's right. The amount of materials you bring in keeps growing, Oppa, and I want to try selling properly, professionally, at a real establishment. Marketing, customer management... you know, all that. I want to learn it properly from the experts."

At the same time, Baek Ajin stretched out her hand and summoned her summons.

"And I need to get our Welf some hunting time, too. Until now I've had my hands full with nothing but trading, but with Yubaek's help I'll actually have time to spare."

"...Welf?"

"Yep! Shadow Wolf and Shadow Elf! It's their nickname."

Ah, so that's what she meant.

Well, it wasn't bad.

It was actually good.

Even with a management organization in the picture, trading separately from his sister had quietly weighed on Baek Jinwoo as well.

But the important thing was—

"The ratio's still guaranteed at 20%, right?"

"That was actually something I meant to discuss with you, Baek Jinwoo. Since we'd be revising the existing contract."

"Me? I couldn't care less. Do whatever's convenient for you, Yoo Jia—just make sure Ajin's 20% stays fixed."

"Understood. For the record, we'll be promoting Ajin to Director as well, and hiring on plenty of staff."

That's Yoo Jia for you.

Clean and efficient. Gotta love it.

"Sounds good to me."

He broke into a smile, and—hah—Yoo Jia let out a soft breath.

She had been quietly worried he might take the arrangement badly.

"Anyway—Ajin."

The moment Baek Jinwoo held out the papers he'd organized, he passed her the goods he'd brought as well.

"What's this?"

"The things you're going to sell, and the things I need you to buy."

"Oh? There's stuff to buy, too?"

"Yep."

Ten high-grade summoning scrolls and ten World Tree leaves—the materials for the Guaranteed Summoning Scroll (B-grade).

And three top-grade Light Speed runes.

Reading down the list, Baek Ajin jolted in surprise.

"Top-grade Light Speed rune...? What is this? Don't tell me—a Rare rune?"

"That's right."

"...Those must cost a fortune? I've only heard rumors. They say every world ranker out there uses Rare runes."

"Don't worry about the cost. You just teamed up with Yubaek, after all."

When Baek Jinwoo turned to Yoo Jia, her eyes gleamed.

"You finally have a rune you need!"

"Yes. Whatever the price comes to... I'll be asking a great deal of you."

Rare runes were limited runes.

Which made them both hard to get hold of and very expensive.

And yet Yoo Jia was delighted.

'I can finally be of use to Jinugod?'

"Jinwoo!"

"Yes?"

"Just leave it to me. I will get them for you within a month—guaranteed!"

Yoo Jia clenched her fist, conviction written across her face.

And if she couldn't get them?

She'd move heaven and earth if she had to!

"Thank you."

Why was it, he wondered.

Those words of hers felt more trustworthy to him than anyone else's.

"Ah, and one more thing."

Baek Jinwoo held something out to each of the two women.

"What's this?"

"What is it?"

What else could it be.

"Intermediate Skill Book Selection Tickets. Each of you, bring out your main summon and have it learn a skill."

The good way to protect family that he'd mentioned before.

It lay in the intermediate skills.

"Which skill?"

"Desperate Call."

"Desperate Call...?"

"Yep."

The skill worked like this:

In Battle of Summoners, it had been so utterly useless it was dubbed the 'trash' of all 'trash' skills.

But reality was another matter.

With this one skill, he could come to the rescue if the people he cherished ever found themselves in a crisis.

"Learn it, and call for me when you're in danger."

One for Mom and Dad each, too.

Of the five Intermediate Skill Book Selection Tickets he'd obtained this time, he planned to spend four this way.

The last one he decided to hold onto for now.

"Learn it right this instant, and set the target player to me."

"Oh, so a skill like this actually existed...?"

Baek Ajin, having taught the skill to her Shadow Elf, was staring at the skill description in fascination.

'Jinwoo.'

Yoo Jia looked at Baek Jinwoo with an expression touched by emotion.

Didn't this mean that she, too, fell within the range of people he thought of as family—people to be protected?

All those hours ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she had ground through, devoting herself solely to caring for Baek Jinwoo—it felt, if only a little, like those times and choices were being rewarded.

Yes!

Now this was a job worth doing!

Naturally, he pressed Y on both.

One thing remained now.

'Getting stronger myself.'

If he grew strong enough that no player in the world could beat him—

From that point on, he could walk around proudly declaring, I am Baek Jinwoo's family!

'All right.'

Let's see how far this goes!

For starters, his challenge to floor 10 of the Tower of Ordeal was set for one month from now.

Just that morning, he had asked Hungyo how much longer it would take to bring down the Cyclops.

— "One month! One month will be more than enough, My Lord!"

Hungyo had answered with total confidence.

Coming from a man of such insight, he was bound to be right.

'Just about perfect, actually.'

Checking the calendar, the national team qualifiers Yoo Jia had mentioned fell right around then.

Until then, the goal was to clear floor 10.

"Well, I'll be off. I'm going to go reinforce some runes."

After parting ways with the two women, Baek Jinwoo headed for the Reinforcement Center.

What he had to do now was simple.

Rune reinforcement.

The work of driving the three Light Speed runes to their absolute limit, then finishing them off with the polishing agents.