Chapter 406
Chapter 406
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 406
>Chapter Title: The 31st Horse Overturns the Game Board
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Thud-!
“Eh….”
“Ah….”
The woman and the man collided.
It was a common occurrence in a bustling city.
And what a person of means had to do in such situations was obvious.
The woman fumbled with her clothes, checking if the person she bumped into might be a pickpocket.
This rude gesture was enough to stoke the man’s anger, but he just grinned instead.
At his nonchalant demeanor, her guard stepped forward.
“You bastard… Do you know who this lady is….”
“Enough.”
A sharp voice cut in once more. This time, directed at the man.
“…A Transmigrator?”
When the woman asked upon seeing the man’s attire, he nodded.
“Ugh….”
She scowled and said,
“Watch where you’re going next time. I’ll let it slide this once.”
“…Sure thing.”
The woman and her guard departed.
They were clearly from the Federation, judging by their attire.
The man stared at the spot they left for a moment before turning away.
“She bumped into me, so why does Daddy have to apologize?”
Tancia, cloaked in a robe, looked up and asked.
“Because otherwise, we’d waste time on something trivial. Just endure it.”
“Endure it? Why endure? We’re strong, aren’t we?”
The man who had bumped into the woman was Kang Seol.
And right now, his party—everyone except Jamad—was moving about wrapped in robes.
Karen ruffled Tancia’s hair.
“Weaklings don’t have the luxury for that. Humans are like that. They bare their teeth as long as their lives aren’t at risk. That’s why the Master avoids getting tangled up in such things.”
“Can’t we just beat them?”
“No. If you did, the whole city would hear the crunching sounds.”
“Hng….”
“Even the strong have to follow the rules. Otherwise… it gets annoying.”
“I see….”
Tancia was born a dragon.
Her body was still that of a child, but its toughness far surpassed any ordinary human.
This had already been confirmed.
‘I need to teach her one thing at a time.’
Letting this dangerous power loose on the world without any training would spell disaster.
‘That said… Tancia’s fitting in pretty well now.’
She called Karen, Karuna, and Ur by name. Only Kang Seol and Jamad got special titles.
She called Jamad “Uncle.”
She must have sensed something familiar in his aura.
When Tancia first called him “Uncle,” Karen had doubled over laughing at Jamad’s flustered reaction.
“The train leaves tomorrow?”
Ur asked, his face hidden behind a mask. The mask was a makeshift solution because Ur shared Kang Seol’s exact features, making him too conspicuous otherwise.
He seemed to have adapted to life with the mask, more or less.
“Yeah. Starting tomorrow, we’ll travel by train.”
“Good timing. I was getting bored of the same scenery.”
Their current location was the city of Maliara, through which Castreng—the vein of the North—passed.
Castreng, the vein of the North.
A steam-powered train.
It was the North’s primary mode of transport. Most cities of decent size were connected by these lines, including those in Federation nations.
The North had been utterly divided into before Castreng and after Castreng.
‘It wasn’t until Milan’s time that it was fully connected.’
Since Great Sage Milan’s final words marked that era, the network wasn’t long established.
It was Kang Seol’s first time actually riding one. The rest of the party felt the same.
Unlike Kang Seol, who at least had memories of riding trains before transmigrating, the others were overly excited.
“There was something similar in Kagon….”
“A hunk of metal racing along… I can’t even imagine it….”
For now, they headed back to their inn.
They planned to stay just one night, so they didn’t need anything grand, but with money to spare, they booked the most expensive place available.
“…Hm?”
“…Huh?”
They ran into the same woman from earlier here.
She frowned briefly before retreating to her room.
Kang Seol shrugged and headed to the annex.
With so many people, they’d reserved the whole thing.
“Then I’m off to bathe with Sia!”
“Waaah, no way!”
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Tancia put up quite a fierce resistance, but she still couldn’t escape Karen’s grasp.
Snap-!
Swooooosh….
Kang Seol snapped his fingers, and the surroundings blurred into the Void.
[This is the Void.]
[The Void is Snowman’s independent space.]
Thud…
Thud…
“Tch… Stuck in here alone again.”
“…You’re too eye-catching.”
Jamad grumbled. It couldn’t be helped.
‘Jamad’s just too conspicuous.’
As Karen had said before, no amount of robes could hide his hill-sized bulk.
The whole city would erupt in chaos.
While everyone else lounged and rested in the summoned Void, Kang Seol alone sank into thought.
The source of his worries: two boxes silently gleaming in the Void.
One was the treasure from conquering—no, destroying—the Ebony Labyrinth.
The other was the final reward of the Great Expedition, left by the ancient dragon.
He had no sense yet of the value of what slumbered inside.
Kang Seol opened the Ebony Treasure first.
Creeeak….
[You are extremely wise.]
[High Wisdom instantly comprehends the lock’s mechanism.]
[Inject mana to unlock it.]
[Inspecting the Ebony Treasure.]
[Level up.]
[Level up.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
[The Millionaire’s special ability activates.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
[The Sly Blood Snake activates.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
[The Persistent One’s special ability activates.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
[Acquired additional stat points.]
……
Bursts of light followed one after another.
[Acquired Ebony.]
[Acquired Rattle Snake.]
[Acquired Self-Collapsing Seal.]
[Acquired Tightly Locked Dark Coffer.]
[Acquired 82 platinum coins.]
[Acquired 3 keys of unknown use.]
……
Flowing robes, a ring embedded with black gems, a black coffer not much different from ordinary ones.
Finally, a mass of inky energy.
Every item looked extraordinary.
“Haa….”
Anyone else would have cheered, but Kang Seol sighed instead.
‘Of course… no leather.’
Upon reaching the supreme realm, Kang Seol had become the Raven, a composite class of Shadow Summoner and Shadow Swordsman.
To fully wield the Raven’s power, he needed to swap his current cloth gear for leather.
That way, the stats and abilities tied to gear weight would perform at maximum.
‘The problem is….’
His current cloth gear was too good. Some pieces were old acquisitions, but they’d been upgraded once and were still top-tier.
Finding leather gear to surpass them was like chasing stars.
None were on the market, and Eyesores were exceedingly rare.
Adventuring rewards were the only reliable path to a proper upgrade.
‘…No leather at all.’
He’d hoped for a perk from the Void. One ability gained when the Void was recognized as a veil domain.
‘Rewards stockpiled in the Void have a high chance of yielding items usable by veil members.’
In other words, no more useless giant axes or weird daggers like before.
So why cloth items overflowing with intelligence stats?
The answer was simple.
Swoosh…
Kang Seol turned his head to find Ur standing there, mask off.
“Hoh, some fine gear.”
Kang Seol squeezed his eyes shut.
‘It’s this guy’s fault.’
The viewers, who knew the rough situation, piled on the mockery.
- LMAO look at those greedy eyes!
- The enemy was always within.
To be precise, it stemmed from changes when Ur ascended to the supreme realm, gaining a body through Kang Seol’s duplicate.
[Shedding! Escape the limits of shadow.]
[You may now define your own substance.]
[Frost Storm Ur is born!]
[Frost Storm Ur reaches the perfect supreme realm.]
[Frost Storm Ur possesses a special body.]
[You may invent Phantasmal Secret Arts.]
[Phantasmal Secret Arts cannot be inherited.]
[Phantasmal Secret Arts outperform existing Secret Arts.]
[Subordinates cannot use Phantasmal Secret Arts.]
[Unable to invent Phantasmal Secret Arts: Greatly increased uses and effects of sorceries.]
[Unable to invent Phantasmal Secret Arts: All magic realms greatly elevated.]
[Unable to invent Phantasmal Secret Arts: Under specific conditions, wield truths rivaling them.]
[All magic from this body infuses frost aura.]
[Simple frost magic usable without preparation.]
[Specific frost magics cost no mana.]
[Frost magic physical damage greatly increased.]
[During spellcasting, chance for all magic types to deal fixed damage.]
[Constantly protected by living frost.]
[You have already comprehended much. Gain more abilities with each stat increase.]
[All resistances +20%.]
[Sorcerers draw slightly closer to all things.]
[All resistances +10% more.]
[Lonely General ability removed.]
[You may now equip gear.]
……
That was it.
The greatest transformation upon reaching the supreme realm belonged to Ur.
He had fully transformed into a frost sorcerer.
His two biggest changes were those final two lines.
Lonely General had summoned Ur alone while absorbing stats from unsummoned others, but as Kang Seol escaped shadow space limits, its overwhelming performance was assured.
Yet, like a cursed balance patch, Lonely General was stripped from Ur.
‘Well… now he can be used with other summons… pros and cons, I guess.’
The first line was tolerable. But the second was utterly unacceptable.
The ability to equip gear.
It was like a bolt from the blue. Where was he supposed to find full-body supreme-grade gear for a top mage on the spot?
‘No, handing over what I’m wearing could substitute somewhat….’
Cloth gear, even Eyesore-grade, could be forced onto Ur… efficiency would suck, of course… but that wasn’t the point.
‘Armoring Ur leaves me naked.’
The best was acquiring full leather and full cloth sets immediately.
‘Haha! Hahaha!’
Yeah, impossible.
For the foreseeable future, he’d operate at dizzyingly suboptimal efficiency.
What could he do? The changes came with strength.
‘Right… fresh start mindset….’
Swoosh…
“Hoh… how’s this?”
Ur spun around in the robe patterned with the Rattle Snake.
Infuriating, but handing it to Ur was currently optimal.
‘First things first, time to inspect them.’