Chasing the #1 Ranking
At two in the morning, I finally passed out, and the moment morning came, I ordered delivery and sat back down in front of the computer.
Honestly, I’d wanted to keep going with the story, but our Lady Kwon Seah’s body just couldn’t take it anymore.
Still, because I’d slept, I’d also gotten a ton of free Trailblaze Power.
I checked my messages in case my cousin, Kwon Siyoung, had said anything interesting, but it was still nothing but talk about bags and clothes—things I couldn’t tell were supposed to be pretty or impressive.
Since there was no mention of Grandpa, I answered her the way I would any ordinary complainant who came to file a grievance.
“Anyway... today I’m going to keep leveling Sere!”
By now I was fairly used to Kwon Seah’s body, so I sat in front of the computer in just a tank top and panties.
Sere
Reached Level 30!
Combat Power Rank: 92↑
“Using about 120 Trailblaze Power gets her exactly to level 30.”
It took 10 Trailblaze Power to run one round of the Furnace of Embers.
So a normal player would need 12 hours just to save up 120 Trailblaze Power, right?
Even if I slept like a log, I still couldn’t fill 120. Thinking about it like that made the amount sound enormous.
“Hmm... this game feels like it really clamps down on player growth more than I expected. Isn’t the max level 90? Half a day goes into a single character? For level 30?”
I still had some EXP books left over because I’d left the auto-run going while I went to the bathroom, but...
Leaving mobile games aside, in most RPGs the EXP requirement rises as you level up, doesn’t it?
Sere can no longer level up.
Please Ascend the character!
Apparently, no matter how many EXP books I had right now, I still couldn’t level up anymore.
“So to go past level 30, I need an... not breakthrough, but in this game they call it Ascension? Right, I have to ascend her first.”
In every game, isn’t the power race basically decided by who hits max level first?
That’s just common sense, like wearing clothes before you go outside.
I quickly hit the Ascend button.
The following materials are required for Ascension!
Memory of Thorns, Soft First Light - 5
I’d been wondering where on earth I was supposed to get those, but surprisingly, this game was pretty friendly about it.
“Ooh! If I tap the item, it tells me exactly where it drops? It says Memory of Thorns, Soft First Light comes from defeating Novice Thorn Remnants.”
The Thorn Remnants were just trash mobs scattered around the field.
“I already have 20 Memory of Thorns, Soft First Light, so I can just hit the Ascend button right away!”
Character Ascension Complete!
Available Growth Level: 30 → 40
“If I just feed in those EXP books I got a little while ago...!”
Reached Level 40!
Combat Power Rank: 87↑
From here on out, the combat power rank definitely wasn’t climbing as fast.
Still, knowing that my Sere was the 87th strongest character on the global server was something.
The following materials are required for Ascension!
Memory of Thorns, Soft First Light - 10
The second Ascension wasn’t a big deal either! Since I happened to have the materials, I could just do it right away.
But was this “Ascension” only raising the level cap?
Sure, I could see various stats go up whenever I leveled, but honestly, it was easier to watch the combat power number climb...
Anyway, keep going! Let’s raise it fast!
Character Ascension Complete!
Available Growth Level: 40 → 50
I shoved in all the EXP books I had left.
Reached Level 50!
Combat Power Rank: 69↑
“Nice, nice. Then let’s take her to 60!”
The following materials are required for Ascension!
Giant's Horn - 3
Memory of Thorns, Common First Light - 6
“Huh? Giant’s Horn? What’s that? ... It says I can get it by defeating the Calamity of Ragnarok?”
Okay, got it. Good thing I’d pushed the story a little yesterday.
That so-called Calamity of Ragnarok was a mini-boss standing out in the field.
I’d been wondering why I had to spend 30 Trailblaze Power just to go in and kill it, but so it was a sacrifice for character Ascension?
There were things like this in the mobile games I used to play too.
And sometimes they were obnoxiously locked behind daily dungeons, so if you missed the day, you had to wait until the weekend came around again!
“All right, then let’s see how fast our six-duplicate Sere can take it down.”
Unfortunately, the Calamity of Ragnarok exploded the moment our six-duplicate Sere hurled out a crisp combat skill on her turn.
Well, of course! Did you know how expensive this character was?
“Anyway, using 30 Trailblaze Power for one run only gave me a single horn.”
And I needed three of them to ascend Sere.
Right now I only had 5 Trailblaze Power, so if that was the case, I’d have to do a paid recharge.
Would you like to recharge 60 Trailblaze Power?
Today’s second recharge: 75 Flashing Dream consumed
Sixty Trailblaze Power was 6 hours of time.
One Flashing Dream was worth about 15 won.
In other words, I was basically buying 6 hours of time for around 1,200 won!
“Hahaha! I can buy time with money! Kwon Seah can buy time with money!”
With 4 billion won sitting in my bank account, a thousand won was basically pocket change!
I managed to gather the materials needed to ascend Sere in no time at all.
The following materials are required for Ascension!
Giant's Horn - 7
Memory of Thorns, Common First Light - 9
“Huh? I need seven of them? That’s 210 Trailblaze Power?”
So I’d have to recharge the 60-point gauge four times, right?
...And what’s with Memory of Thorns, Common First Light? I hadn’t worried about it earlier because I had enough of the other material.
“Ah, I see... I need to gather the Memory of Thorns, Soft First Light and synthesize it into the Common First Light?”
So if it says I need 9 Common First Lights, does that actually mean I need even more than that?
No, whatever. Trash mobs don’t matter, honestly. I can just run around the field and grind them.
Our six-duplicate Sere was insanely good at killing trash mobs anyway!
“But wait... if I think about it, 210 Trailblaze Power is 21 hours, isn’t it?”
And she wasn’t even max level yet? Did the fourth Ascension basically demand a whole day per character?
“No... I mean, I’m obviously going to bulldoze my way through with money, so it doesn’t matter, but is this really right?”
Was I maybe playing the game inefficiently?
Does this game normally take a ton of time to build up characters?
No matter how I thought about it, something felt off.
By the time I hit the fourth Ascension, just farming horns was already eating a whole day’s worth of Trailblaze Power.
Was this really how it worked? And below that there was something called Arcana—wasn’t that equipment?
There were probably skills too. This character growth was taking way too long.
“Ah... so this is the kind of horribly inefficient thing I’ve been doing?”
There was something called player level, and as that went up, the tier went up too.
When the tier went up, defeating the Calamity of Ragnarok wouldn’t give just one horn like it did now; it could give as many as five.
But hold on...
“...What? So to raise player level, I have to spend Trailblaze Power anyway?”
Then doesn’t it work out like this?
Recharge Trailblaze Power.
↓
Farm with the recharged Trailblaze Power.
↓
Become stronger than other people.
↓
Because I used Trailblaze Power, my player level goes up.
↓
Because my level goes up, my world tier rises and farming becomes more efficient.
↓
If I recharge Trailblaze Power again, I can get even stronger than everyone else with that improved efficiency!
“Heh... hehehe! This is absolutely a huge profit from spending money! You’re buying time with money! You’re buying efficiency too!”
Wasn’t anyone who didn’t pay for recharges just a fool?!
I mashed the paid recharge button like a madwoman.
Would you like to recharge 60 Trailblaze Power?
Today’s third recharge: 75 Flashing Dream consumed
Today’s fourth recharge: 100 Flashing Dream consumed
Today’s fifth recharge: 100 Flashing Dream consumed
Today’s sixth recharge: 150 Flashing Dream consumed
Today’s seventh recharge: 150 Flashing Dream consumed
Today’s eighth recharge: 200 Flashing Dream consumed
Today’s ninth recharge: 200 Flashing Dream consumed
Today’s tenth recharge: 200 Flashing Dream consumed
Each recharge demanded more Flashing Dream than the last, but I didn’t care.
From the eighth recharge onward, each one used 200 Flashing Dream at a time, but in actual cash it was only about 3,000 won.
“Hahaha... to think I can buy time for just 3,000 won!”
Money really was king.
If I’d tried to do this free-to-play, I’d probably have had to sit there sucking on my fingers for a whole week just to hit max level!
With my ability to make a mountain of Trailblaze Power with one little click, getting Sere to max level was nothing.
I happily set the auto-run going and stood up from my seat in just my panties to receive the delivery food.
“Wow... come to think of it, the brunch set or whatever I just ordered is way more expensive than that.”
To think I could buy time for just 3,000 won.
Mobile games really are the best!
* * *
“Aha! This is exactly it~~! I didn’t even spend all 120,000 won and I still hit max level with just a few clicks~!”
Player Level - 24 Reached!
Sere
Reached Level 90!
Combat Power Rank: 9↑
“That’s it... that’s the one! Just from hitting max level, the combat power rank jumped all the way to 9th place!”
Honestly, I hadn’t even leveled the Light Cone, I hadn’t farmed Arcana, and I hadn’t farmed skills either, and she was already 9th?
Then if I just did a little more, wouldn’t number one be within reach in no time?
“Heh heh heh... if I get number one, should I try doing some internet broadcasting or something? Brag about being South Korea’s top ranker?”
I’d stopped counting how much Trailblaze Power I’d used somewhere along the way.
I ended up defeating the Calamity of Ragnarok, which gave one horn per run, a total of 35 times.
Even after running 10 battles with EXP books, I still couldn’t even squeeze out one more level, and by the end my chest felt a little tight, like I was getting fed up.
“But... that’s weird. When I started, the character level was definitely 6, but now it’s 24, right? Then why did it keep only dropping one horn all the way through?”
If it had given two each time, I wouldn’t have needed to run it 35 times...!
That’s honestly such a waste!
I don’t even feel like my chest is about to burst from the 120,000 won anymore, but when I think about the loss, it’s irritating!
What the hell
Didn’t they clearly say you’d get more horns when your player level went up?!
“Ah... so you have to clear the world tier ascension quest before the tier goes up.”
...But it’s hard?
Newbies are guaranteed to get stomped?
“But this Lady Kwon Seah has a level-90, six-duplicate Sere, though?”
A quest everyone had unanimously called difficult.
Just thinking about clearing it with a single auto-click made my heart pound dangerously.