Chapter 236
That went smoothly.
Even if it was a notch lower in rank, bringing down a named monster without suffering a single casualty was no easy feat.
Normally, the thing should have dragged this out a little longer.
No matter how we might have handled the second one, there would have been no way to avoid the first energy drain.
Without casting Float beforehand, the one who could have ended up in trouble here was us.
If I had to put it simply, the difference came down to whether you knew what was coming or not.
The skeleton, which had burned through mana while keeping the first drain in mind, had its skull caved in by Kim Hyunsung and retired on the spot.
Kim Hyunsung’s display in that process was enough to make anyone’s jaw drop, but the end of Skeleton Knight Vain was not worthy of a legendary monster.
In any case, the expedition had brought the thing down without sacrificing anything major, and now we’d earned a chance to challenge the second one.
What I was waiting for, of course, was the little event that would be held during this halftime break.
It went without saying that the Black Swan members, trapped inside the dungeon, were probably looking forward to this moment too.
-You are strong.
“……”
-Of course, that’s only natural when there’s someone of a higher rank among you, but I didn’t expect Vain to fall this easily. I’m sure the Guardians would be overjoyed if they could see you now.
Yeah, yeah. Just hand over the reward.
I imagine everyone was thinking something pretty close to what I was.
They just couldn’t say it out loud.
-As I mentioned earlier, there are rewards prepared at each stage of the expedition. One artifact from the museum’s collection will be granted at random. The method is the same as before. You may also choose to spin all three at once after the expedition is complete, if you prefer.
“We’ll start right away.”
Waiting around was stupid.
If one out of five hundred items turned out to be something that interfered with the expedition, like a cursed object or something difficult to control, then the story would be different. But the odds of that sort of thing appearing were lower than the odds of pulling a legendary or mythic item.
It had been a very smooth expedition so far, but that didn’t mean we shouldn’t try our luck.
To be blunt, even if we got stuck with a cursed item and took a penalty, we could still force our way through a legendary monster somehow.
But.
If a mythic item comes up, we’re wiped out either way.
If a mythic item appeared on the second or third spin, the expedition would be annihilated no matter what we did.
The only way we had any chance of competing with a mythic entity was...
Equipment.
We had to arm ourselves with mythic-grade items too.
Kim Hyunsung didn’t use a hammer, but if we could get him something like the Hammer of a God I’d seen earlier, maybe we’d be able to go toe-to-toe somehow.
Of course, one item wouldn’t suddenly transform the entire expedition, but if that pitiful equipment a regressor was carrying got upgraded...
General Kim Hyunsung will handle the rest.
He would find a way through.
We have to get something.
That was the only way to keep the team safe.
-As some of you may have noticed earlier, there are items that could interfere with your expedition.
“That’s fine.”
I didn’t know whether Max was saying that because he was worried about us or because he didn’t want to part with the museum’s exhibits, but he was nodding all the same.
-If you insist... then very well. As before, the representative may come forward and spin the wheel.
“All right.”
Aside from Park Yeonju, the people with the highest luck stats were me, Dialugia, and Jung Hayan.
Dialugia is out.
Her luck stat was actually so high that it might become a problem.
If she drew something like that childcare set from earlier, I wouldn’t even have the energy to laugh.
Which meant that I and Jung Hayan were just as dangerous.
If Jung Hayan spun it, she might pull out some impossible stalking item.
Kim Hyunsung isn’t bad either.
His luck wasn’t absurdly high, but it was respectable.
And above all, he was the one who wanted the artifact most desperately. If luck really did help in a situation like this, then maybe he’d get a little bonus from that.
“I think it would be best if Hyunsung tried this one. Unless anyone objects.”
“Yes. That would be fine.”
“Please go ahead, Hyunsung.”
“No, I think someone with a slightly higher luck stat than me should...”
“I’d like Hyunsung to do it.”
After I spoke in a firm voice, he nodded and stepped toward the wheel.
He let out a short breath, then immediately spun it. Everyone’s eyes naturally locked onto the wheel once again.
“Please...”
If we were lucky, it had to be a mythic weapon. Only then could we handle the remaining two spins with any real peace of mind.
Kim Hyunsung looked just as desperate.
He did have a weapon he had his eye on, but we had been moving too busily for him to get a chance to act on his own.
Ever since Yuliena was taken from him and given to me, he’d been stuck wearing nothing but heroic-grade equipment.
His face looked like it was carrying all those bitter days on it.
I’m sure he was hoping for at least a legendary item, but that wasn’t what he needed to pull.
Mythic! Hyunsung!
He had to pull a mythic item, no questions asked.
Even if it was only legendary, it had to be something top-tier, something on the verge of upgrading.
Like that frosted greatsword from earlier.
It should be something even my own eyes had trouble identifying clearly.
The wheel is spinning.
Please.
A rare item has been selected.
Effect:Archmage Isaac’s Magic Sword
Duration:Permanent
“What?”
-This is one of the items that came in through the rift. It is of a lower rank, but still a valuable object...
That’s not what I’m asking, you bastard.
In the face of such a hollow, absurd situation, I wasn’t the only one keeping quiet.
Everyone was staring at the sword that had suddenly appeared, looking equally stunned.
We had passed this test fairly easily, but the process itself had not been easy.
The Skeleton Knight had definitely been a legendary monster, and the expedition had spent more than enough time struggling to earn that victory.
The fact that our reward was that magic sword was enough to make me laugh bitterly.
Kim Hyunsung was staring blankly at what he had drawn. There were fewer than ten rare-grade items here.
In a way, that made the odds even lower than pulling a legendary item.
He had proven with his own hands that there was no such thing as a more cursed pair of hands.
Maybe something in him had flared up too, because he clenched his fist tightly, but he still didn’t throw the sword away or spit out an insult.
He just kept looking down at the rare-grade sword in silence.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. There’s nothing to be sorry for. There’s no guarantee someone else would have gotten a different result. The second one should go better.”
“Yes...”
“Don’t look so discouraged.”
“That’s right, Hyunsung. There’s no guarantee that having a high luck stat will let you win at this kind of draw, and... seeing how even I just pulled a legendary named monster, maybe luck doesn’t mean all that much in draws like this...”
It might not mean much, but better safe than sorry.
Besides, having a high luck stat didn’t mean you were blessed by fate.
Of course, once your stat went over 100, who knew what would happen, but even a quick look around the slums of Lindel showed that there were people with luck stats that made no sense at all.
Just think of Kasugano Yuno, whose luck stat was zero. It was obvious that this stat needed more study.
Still, if the odds rose even a little, it was better to bet on that.
In Kim Hyunsung’s case, he’d just been unlucky this time. What was actually bothering me more than that was...
Was it really random?
Whether every draw in this dungeon was truly random.
No, before even getting to that, Max’s attitude as the manager was also suspicious.
Without needing any explanation, it was easy enough to feel that he took pride in this museum.
I could also understand the intent behind what the rift Guardians had created here, and it was equally clear that he respected them.
Just from the way he enthusiastically explained the items on display, it was obvious how attached he was to the place.
He wanted to keep managing and maintaining the museum. Even if it was all for the Guardians’ sake, any sentient being would hate to see valuable exhibits taken away.
Max was not a perfect sentient being, but he was close enough.
The fact that he’d grown noticeably chatty the moment he called us distinguished guests was another sign.
Honestly, even now I had the feeling he was trying hard to look relieved.
Maybe he still seemed expressionless to everyone else, but to me, with my slightly different eyes, the emotion came through in a strange way.
He’s pretending to be mechanical, but...
He was another kind of sentient being.
For a moment I even wondered whether he might be the dungeon’s hidden named monster.
No, that’s not it.
This Rift Museum was being managed not by him, but by the system.
That system had been created by the rift Guardians, yes, but it was also maintained by the transcendent being overseeing this continent.
If there had been any way to wreak havoc, I would have snatched a mythic item on the spot and strolled out of the museum expedition without paying any attention to the rest of his show.
Just like the Tutorial Dungeon.
Complete the quest, and you can leave. This museum was the same in that respect.
What mattered was...
How much access does the manager have to the system?
Could Max manipulate probability or not?
I thought about it, but the answer didn’t come easily.
At minimum, his main job was probably to manage the displayed items.
Judging by the childcare set for dragons, maybe he could take items out and put them away, but perhaps that was all.
The more I thought, the more my head started to ache.
Unlike me, who was mulling over a dozen possibilities at once, Max kept rambling on about this and that.
Most of it concerned the item that had just been drawn. Even though it was only rare-grade, it was still something difficult to obtain, so he looked a little disappointed.
-It is a bit unfortunate to let a cherished item go. Even if its rank is lower, it was one of the objects that had been displayed in our museum for a long time... Still, it can’t be helped. This is not something I can change.
“I see.”
The manager couldn’t resist the system.
“There’s something I’d like to ask, Max.”
-Go ahead.
“Where does your authority over the museum begin and end?”
-I’m not sure what you mean... I’m simply a manager who maintains the system. I’m not in a position to do anything on my own.
I couldn’t say for certain whether that was true, but I thought it probably was.
If he were the boss of this dungeon rather than the manager, he wouldn’t have been treating us this way in the first place.
“I see.”
-Time has passed quickly while we’ve been talking, hasn’t it? Next turn, then. Once you complete the second, I’ll give you a little time to look around the museum more leisurely, so please bear with me just a little longer and keep going.
“Then next is...”
“I’ll spin it.”
“Ah, yes. Kiyoung, you had a high luck stat too.”
At this point, I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to spin it myself once.
Once the second was over, we’d have a little breathing room, so I wanted to be certain about it.
I didn’t know how much time he meant by “a little more leisurely,” but I thought I should use that time to gather more information about this museum.
We still don’t have enough.
It might be impossible to step outside the dungeon’s basic system, but who knew whether there was another way?
Heroic grade.
Park Yeonju had just drawn a legendary named monster, so this time it had to be heroic grade!
Since the cursed hand of Kim Hyunsung had cleanly stepped on a landmine, I somehow didn’t feel much pressure at all.
The wheel is spinning.
As I let go of the pressure and poured in mana, the wheel began to spin fiercely.
I could only hope for a purple heroic-grade slot or a purple rare-grade slot.
It’s fine.
Since coming here, I had never once thought of myself as unlucky.
Everything had gone smoothly, and although there had been a few dangerous moments... all things considered, the man named Lee Kiyoung had been born under a very lucky star.
And yet crushing that expectation was instantaneous.
That was because the wheel’s slowing position looked deeply ominous.
“W-wait, hold on.”
The wheel is spinning.
“W-wait!”
The wheel is spinning.
“Please stop. Damn it...”
The wheel is spinning.
“Ah.”
A mythic-grade monster has been selected: a fragment of an ancient god.
“……”
“……”
“……”
A heavy silence settled over the hall.
This was the kind of situation where something had to be done to turn it around. Before I knew it, a shout had burst out of me.
“I-it’s rigged!”