Chain Quest (3)

After Hong Yeon-hwa's magic annihilated the colossal Black Sludge, Iris and I free-fell straight down under the pull of gravity, crash-landing somewhere deep in the forest.

"WaaAAAAAH──"

KWAAAAAAM!!

"Owowow... my head..."

It felt like the hangover from downing five bottles of soju the night before. Groaning, I prodded my aching tailbone and wobbled to my feet.

Clank!

After a few unsteady steps, I stubbed my toe on a lump of aluminum lying near the crash site — a plate of it, half-scorched and crushed beyond recognition.

It was the shield I'd thrown together by dumping every last scrap of aluminum I carried, seconds before the blast wave hit.

"Al... you okay...?"

......

"Oof. That must've hurt."

With that, I stuffed the crumpled 'Al' into my Inventory, sank onto a nearby rock, and gulped down the recovery potion Hong Yeon-hwa had given me.

"Ugh... tastes like iron..."

"......"

Meanwhile, Iris — who'd been sprawled face-down with her rear in the air for ages — had apparently woken up at some point and was now glaring at me with a face full of grievances.

"...Don't tell me this is why you brought me along?"

"Brought you for what?"

"Don't play innocent! You used me as a total wreck during that landing...!!"

"Ahh... that?"

To be fair, without Iris's wind magic, landing would've been a real problem.

Why else did I drag her along in the first place? If I flew up there alone, I'd have no way to land — so I brought her to use as a parachute.

'Hey, HEY HEY HEY!! You crazy woman, get up, NOW!!'

'Huh... hweh...? Eh...?'

'If you don't get up this second, we BOTH fall to our deaths...!!!!'

'......??? Wh, 『Wind Cushion』!!'

As I fondly recalled slapping her cheek at the last possible moment before touchdown, Iris, eyes brimming with tears, shouted at me like she'd been utterly wronged.

"Do NOT treat an elf!! As a portable!! PARACHUTE!!"

Unfortunately for her, though, there was something far more important to me right now than Iris's feelings.

Heart pounding, I pulled up the Awakener community.

'Did it record...?'

It recorded, right? Tell me it captured everything properly?

It was a one-take, so I was a little worried about how it turned out...

Despite there being no explanation whatsoever, the comments came flooding in instantly.

Every refresh brought another avalanche of upvotes, and before long my post was registered in the hall of fame.

[ ☆ Lunatic Floor 5 Demolished (58) ]

"Nice."

That was enough for the moment.

Part of me wanted to bask in the flood of attention right then and there, but wrapping up the Tower came first.

And besides...

'Gallery owners are famously bad at communication.'

It was a time-honored tradition on the gallery for posters with hot threads to act high and mighty.

If I wanted even more attention down the line, I needed to keep up the air of mystery.

Ding-a-ling!

"Oh, the clear notification popped."

"...I'm sorry, the what?"

"It's a thing."

Right on cue, the quest clear alert rang out.

I brushed Iris off with a vague reply and checked the system window floating before my eyes.

"Claim."

Fwoooosh─!

Along with a dazzling burst of light, the items rained down out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of thin air.

One was a ticket of luxurious black paper engraved in gold. The other was an unidentified potion sealed in a vial the size of a finger.

Seeing it, Iris tilted her head and asked me.

"What's that? A potion?"

"...No idea."

Slosh!

When I gave the vial a light shake, the liquid inside swirled, reflecting a kaleidoscope of colors.

Huh. That looks an awful lot like an opal.

You know, the rainbow-colored gemstone? Except a bit more translucent, and in liquid form.

"....."

Something about the skill description was off, too.

The name was a question mark. The grade was a question mark.

Even the details section just said it was of unknown identity.

'...Should I drink it?'

For a moment I felt the urge to try the potion, but I quickly shook my head and stored it away in my Inventory.

I'd already nearly killed myself not long ago by carelessly eating a World Tree Leaf.

If an S-rank World Tree Leaf nearly did me in, then this potion — grade: question mark — was another beast entirely. A familiar instinct from back then was sending a warning my way: 'Eat that now and you die, buddy.'

It wasn't like my addiction rate was running low, so there was no need to gamble.

"Ahhh... screaming the second I woke up did a number on my head..."

"Then maybe learn some moderation."

"...YOU'RE one to talk?? This whole mess happened because of your idiotic plan in the first place!!"

So there I was, sorting through my Floor 5 clear rewards while weathering the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠second round of Iris's nagging, when before long a silver-haired elf came riding the wind into view.

"To think you truly slew that enormous creature... and by such a brutish method, no less..."

"Oh, Mom?"

Sure enough, it was the Queen.

I asked her right away.

"We got it for real, right?"

"We did. The creature is unmistakably dead. Though I should mention that the surrounding forest is now a sea of flames because of it..."

"...Uh oh."

The oddly pointed emphasis on 'sea of flames' made me feel a pang of guilt, and I discreetly averted my eyes. But Sylvia merely shrugged as if it were nothing.

"A forest is a forest. It will grow back someday."

"Th, that's a relief..."

And here I'd been bracing for imprisonment in an underground dungeon for burning down a forest.

Why would I be treated like a criminal after going out of my way to slay a monster? Think about the average KAMPrat — it's entirely plausible. This was Sylvia being generous.

Truly the magnanimity befitting a queen of elves with a heart as vast as the forest itself.

Sylvia continued.

"Now then. Your task is complete, so you must receive your due reward, yes?"

"Words of impeccable wisdom."

With that, she handed me a tree branch of convenient length.

"Take it. The World Tree Branch, as promised."

Complete the mission, collect the reward — common sense, really.

And that reward was an S-rank item.

"Ooooh...!"

Granted, since it was a branch from a goddamn massive drug tree, something about it felt a little off...

Still, this item seemed closer to a crafting material than a narcotic.

"Thank you."

"Mm."

With a polite bow, I received the World Tree Branch and stored it in my Inventory.

Watching me do so, Iris beside me carefully ventured a question.

"Are you leaving again?"

"Looks like it."

"Sniff... and this time I didn't even get candy..."

Come to think of it, with everything that happened this time around, I never did give Iris any candy.

On top of that, I'd flown her several hundred meters through the sky and used her as a parachute.

...Now I felt kind of bad about it.

Should I at least toss her a Caffeine Candy?

But before I could even fish one out of my Inventory, Sylvia was already yanking Iris by the ear.

"Cease this nonsense, Iris. What do you imagine becomes of the princess ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the elves, spending every day in a drug-addled haze?"

"Owowow...! I, I'm sorry...!"

"You are in dire need of some self-restraint."

Having finished that round of parental discipline, Sylvia offered me a faint smile and a brief farewell.

"We shall await your return. Our elves do not forget their debts of gratitude."

"...Yes, ma'am."

And with those parting words, the long, long ordeal of Floor 5 drew its curtain.

Back home again.

The second I finished my shower, I dove right back into the gallery browsing I'd been putting off.

[ ☆ Lunatic Floor 5 Demolished (492) ]

"The comments really piled up."

In the short time it took to return from the Tower to my apartment, nearly five hundred comments had accumulated.

Forgetting entirely to dry my wet hair, I began working through them one by one.

The first wave of comments was all about the voice.

This video was the first time my voice had been made public, so the reactions made sense, more or less.

"Come on, though. A brat? Really?"

What does he mean, a brat, talking to a fully grown adult?

My voice is just on the higher side, so it sounds young, that's all.

Archmage... I'm remembering that fixed nick.

Next time I see him, I'm downvoting on sight.

"They finally figured it out."

Not that realizing it now changed anything.

And besides, my specialty wasn't magic — it was alchemy.

Though, watching me sling metal missiles around, I suppose the line between the two does get blurry.

Right on cue, a comment from a familiar nick appeared, leaving everyone collectively baffled by her cryptic words — until one user replied.

"...Whoa?"

How. HOW did you manage that.

You analyzed it from a scene that was on screen for a grand total of 0.1 seconds...?

"The Vegan ham next door can't even get a guy's class right."

Of course, comparing that sham to the gallery's GOAT, the great SaveTheNewbie, was an insult in itself.

Though I wasn't sure "newbie" was really the right word for him anymore.

And so, closing on yet another image of our thread-weary head mod shedding tears over trolls who refuse to read the rules, I finished my deep dive through the comments and wandered off to check the hot posts in other galleries.

The hot posts were still split between the roaring fiesta of Baekhwa Guild gossip and the fresh bait of the Association's recruitment notice.

Granted, ever since my post went up, my Floor 5 clear video had been steamrolling both of those topics.

"Huh. Just a normal gallery, then."

So what was the deal with this Association recruitment bait?

Skimming through it, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it seemed like the Association was temporarily recruiting C-rank and above Awakeners...

"...Boring."

Nothing about it hit the dopamine button.

I don't do dull, pedantic drama like that, thanks.

I'd have to get Hong Yeon-hwa to summarize it for me later.

"Oh, right. The clear rewards."

After a good long stretch of gallery browsing, the Floor 4 and Floor 5 clear rewards — which had slipped my mind completely — suddenly resurfaced, and I immediately opened my Inventory and laid everything out on the floor.

"Now I've gotta do my bragging post with these..."

Not bragging was never an option.

The entire reason I climb the Tower is to flex on the gallery, after all.

Aside from the Skill Enhancement Ticket, though, none of them had an obvious use at the moment.

And the High-grade Magic Stones in particular were, for now, about as useful as a chopstick at a soup-eating contest.

My Transmutation skill was still too low-leveled to handle anything but metal, so I couldn't use them in crafting. They weren't exactly rare materials either, and I wasn't short on mana at the moment, so draining them for mana was pointless too.

"...Should I sell them?"

Which meant my thoughts naturally drifted toward selling.

It made sense — magic stones were the primary income source for most Awakeners. You sold stones and a few monster byproducts, and that was your livelihood.

Of course, yours truly had been saddled with Floor 5's spiteful item pool and stuck fighting unlockable slime corridors and narcotic flowers, so I'd gotten my hands on neither.

Magic stones only dropped from beast-type monsters, and there was no market for selling toxic sludge or narcotics as byproducts.

[High-grade Magic Stone ×10]

"But now I've got stones of my own, don't I."

And not just any stones — high-grade magic stones.

The kind that dropped from ordinary monsters at an extremely low rate, and dropped guaranteed only from clearing something like a mid-boss.

And I'd gotten ten of them as nothing more than the Floor 4 clear reward.

For reference, an ordinary low-grade magic stone sold for around 100,000 won. Mid-grades fluctuated between 500,000 and a million won depending on the market, and high-grades had no known price point at all.

"So that means... ten million won, minimum...?"

High risk, high return.

Definitely a reward worthy of Lunatic difficulty.

"Hehehehe."

Suddenly giddy at the thought of making money, I posted to the Awakener community to ask where to sell the stones.

As expected, worthless comments came flooding in the instant I posted.

The ones about market prices were the only marginally useful information.

Endlessly refreshing and waiting for a helpful reply worked for a while, too.

Then a comment from a familiar nick appeared, and I tilted my head and muttered to myself.

"The black market...?"

It was a comment I could never, ever just let slide.