141. Eternal Jewel Master

As soon as I finished talking, I walked towards where the skill books were.

The skill books" ranking were low for a Lich King"s drop.

However, there was a skill book in that pile that we desperately needed right now.

It was a skill that we"ve never seen or heard of back on Earth.

Jong Ho stared at me, unable to hold back his curiosity.

"Did any good skill books drop?"

"Yes."

"Oh? Offensive spells? Shields? Perhaps a skill beyond ranking?"

"No, it"s not that good. It"s recovery. However, it"s not something specifically for us."

"Huh? Who"s going to use it?"

"Over there, on the ones guarding the place outside."

"Hm? That doesn"t make sense? You can"t use recovery spells on monsters. It doesn"t affect them."

"Not on monsters, summoned creatures. It looks like a healing spell for summoned creatures dropped."

"Is it a summoner cla.s.s skill? As I said before, I don"t know that much about the summoner cla.s.s."

"Yes. Thankfully it"s not cla.s.s restricted. It looks like as long as you have the mana, any cla.s.s can use it."

"Do you think that it would be effective?"

"….."

"Think about it. The Devil Avatars and King Suwoo have grown to their limits already. This includes both their health and their offensive abilities."

"Of course, they"ve reached level 200."

"Right. However, the skill that they"re learning is only level 1. I guess what I"m trying to say is that it will help a little. But we shouldn"t expect much. I guess it"s like trying to fill a ma.s.sive pool using a bucket."

"As expected from you, but what if the skill recovers as much as the amount of mana I have?"

"What?"

"That"s why I was smirking before."

"….."

Without any hesitation, I put the skill book on my chest.

The skill book made a sound as if it was burning away before being absorbed into my chest.

The skill was obtained and the skill window had a new skill called Full Heal.

This was a skill that only healed summoned creatures, not Awakened, and its ability was healing as much as the amount of mana the caster had.

This meant that if someone like me who has infinite mana casts it, the summoned creatures would never run out of health.

The one thing that disappointed me was that it needed to be channeled.

Thanks to the dual casting pa.s.sive, I can cast up to 3 spells at once. This meant that I had to invest one of the three slots.

Similar to my mana shield, that is.

However, this wasn"t an issue for us.

While we left the Gate for 6 hours at a time, if I healed them once in between that time, the summoned creatures would have no problem defending this place.

After absorbing the skill book, I spoke to Jong Ho.

"Hyung-nim, grab one of the two swords left."

"Yup."

"And then enhance it."

"Enhance?"

"Yes. Just grab it to bind it to you. And all you have to do is put it next to the sword you"re going to use."

"….."

"Attributes of weapons will naturally be absorbed into the Pijan"s Lightning Sword."

"But what if the Lightning Sword"s attribute gets transferred to another sword?"

"That won"t happen. Attributes only move from weaker weapons to stronger weapons. All the swords that I"ve seen had lower attributes than the Lightning Sword."

"Is that so…..? What about the other sword?"

"I"ll just pick up random equipment and we"ll be applying jewels on them. So hyung-nim should focus on enhancing them."

"Okay, I got it."

"Karin, what do you want to do now?"

"Hm….. Just watch, goblins can"t use jewels. Kel….. I"m going to make a meal for my family!"

"Oh. That"s great."

"Kerurururu."

"Man, I"ve burned through the night oil….."

"Min-Cheol, how did you succeed twice before?"

"I"m wondering the same thing. I didn"t know it was that bad….."

"In the middle of it, I felt like killing something."

"Me too….."

"Keruk? Are you guys done? Hurry up and eat the steak."

"It"ll be a gloomy dinner."

There were countless jewels that dropped from the Lich King.

We spent two hours applying them on various artifacts.

However, the results were pathetic at best.

We did not gain anything of worth.

A lot of jewels that boosted magic energy dropped, but none of them succeeded in enhancing the gear.

Instead, it destroyed the gears.

Perhaps it has to do with how the demonic realm has a lower drop rate than Earth?

Also, the success rate of using the jewels were incredibly low.

The Eye of Insight showed that it had a 10% chance of succeeding, just like the jewels we obtained on Earth.

However, it felt like the success rate was 0.0001%.

The only thing we gained from taking down the Lich King was the Lightning Sword and one skill book.

It felt like we should collect the jewels from now on and use it when we return to Earth.

I asked Karin who was viciously tearing into the steak.

"Karin."

"Keruru?"

"This is something that just occurred to me….."

"What is it?"

"Can"t we just go through the Gate back to Earth? Kind of like how we"d go back home after a long day"s work?"

"Kel….."

"Now that I think about it, that"s right. This Gate is connected to Yangpyeong."

"I know, right? Why are we two dudes and a monster eating shabby food like this?"

"You can"t do that!"

"Why? The monsters seem to go through just fine?"

"Look at the number of monsters, aren"t there a lot?"

"Of course, this is the demonic realm after all….."

"Not all of them are heading for Earth."

"….."

"There is a low chance that you can fall off the path."

"What do you mean "fall off"? Are you saying that we can fall into another dimension?"

"You can get trapped in the cracks in the dimensions. It"s not the overworld, afterworld, Earth, or demonic realm. You can get isolated in another dimension."

"….."

"Why are you only telling us this now? What if we entered it without a thought?"

"Kel….."

"So you"re telling me that the only way we can return is to kill the demon king?"

"That"s right. If it was any other human, I would have told them to go through it….. However, I can"t let the two of you do that."

"I understand."

"I was hoping for something good to drop. Now I"m frustrated."

"Oh well, we can"t help it. I guess we"ll have to stake our hopes on Belkoseu."

"You said that you"ll visit him in a few days?"

"Yes. Karin remembers his magical signature, so it should not be that difficult to meet up with him."

"That"s right. I remember! Belkoseu"s magical signature!"

"Min-Cheol, are you sure about this?"

"Yes….. I"m as positive as when hyung-nim charged Berdan. We won"t be able to defeat him with magical energy, but I"m sure that we can bring him to his knees using Awakened attacks."

"….."

"You don"t have to worry about a thing. If something goes wrong, you can run away."

"Even so….."

"For now, let us rest near the Gate. We"ll leave tomorrow."

"Got it."

"Ah. And since we need guidance from Karin, follow me partway."

"What. Are you planning to go alone?"

"Yes. I think that would be for the best."

"……."

"It"s easier for a single person to escape rather than two or three. And we can only use Status Denial once every 24 hours."

"Hm….."

"Chances. I"m betting on better chances like you always talked about. You understand, right?"

"Yeah, do as you see fit. So I just need to stay near here with Karin, right?"

"Yes, that"s right."

"Keruu…. Human, he is not your average monsters. If it gets dangerous, escape immediately."

"Got it."

I had hoped that we would speed up on growing stronger after defeating the Lich King, but the results were less than satisfactory.

With the Gate as the anchor, we continued to hunt.

The area covered wasn"t large, but there were plenty of monsters about.

The effect of Full Heal that I"ve obtained was far greater than what I had expected.

An aura appeared around the creatures I"ve summoned, rapidly healing them.

As expected, it did not heal the monsters.

It only worked on the creatures that I"ve summoned.

If I get used to using this spell, I should be able to lessen my worries about holding the Gate.

And if it becomes so, I should be able to hunt further away from the Gate.

Instead of just staying tethered near the Gate, I should be able to visit all the good locations in the demonic realm for farming monsters with the guidance of Karin.

With the Devil Avatars and King Suwoo confidently holding their ground, it should be possible.

"What about the Warp cooldown?"

"Haven"t used it in the last two days. It"s good to go."

"Haven"t forgotten anything?"

"Telling me that you love me?"

"Get bent. And don"t get hurt. Take the Warp right away if you sense anything that"s off."

"Love you too."

"Get outta here. Go."

"Human….. I"ll be waiting with Jong Ho. Please come back safe. Lov….."

"Stop! Go ahead and ration the steak. I"ll be back before the watch on Jong Ho"s wrist points 12, okay?"

"Kerut. I got it."

I ran towards the direction that Karin pointed me towards.

At the end should be Belkoseu.

Thankfully, both Ladin and Jamon were far away from here.

However, despite the ma.s.sive distance, with their speeds it shouldn"t take that long for them to get here.

That"s why it was important for my fight with Belkoseu to be as short as possible and equally decisive in victory.

In the plains where not a single rock could be found stood Belkoseu.

As if he had been waiting for me, he turned to face me, holding his ground.

I walked towards where he was.

"Kuhu. Humans are amusing creatures. To think that you"d come on your own volition to your own death."

"You saw, right? Karin. He keeps his promises, even if it kills him. It seems I"m becoming like him."

"What is the reason behind your confidence to be able to come? Do you think that your different types of attacks can take me down?"

"Yep. It seemed to me that the chances were high."

"You"re a reckless fool."

"I hear that a lot. Shall we start then? Don"t worry about the demon king. He"s quite far away."

"Hm…."

Belkoseu hesitated for a bit.

It seemed that he was thinking about something.

I was a bit taken back by what he said next.

"What is it that you want?"

"……"

"For what reason is it that you take down monsters such as I is what I ask."

"That"s simple. If we don"t kill you, our homeworld gets destroyed."

"You"re not trying to become the demon king that rules the demonic realm? You do not wish to rule over all the monsters?"

"Not really interested. I"m just tired of seeing you monsters invading Earth."

"….."

"Now, enough pointless chatter. Let"s begin."

"Wait. Let me make an offer."

"Oh? Trying to trade when you"re nothing but a monster? Let me hear you out."

"You definitely said that you have no interest in being the demon king, right?"

"Yep."

"You just want monsters to stop invading the human realm."

"Yep. You"re a lot smarter than I thought."

"If that"s the case……"

Belkoseu began to make an offer that I didn"t even consider.

To think that a deal between a monster and a human would form.

It was a shocking development, but it felt as though I could use him.

Since I did not have a 100% guarantee that I could defeat him, this offer had me intrigued as well.

Is this how I would get another friend in the demonic realm?

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140. His Loot Drops

The sound of jewels spilling out was music to my ears.

It brought me joy far beyond that of obtaining bloodstones.

Within the pile were jewels, accessories and skill books as well as weapons and armors.

Now, if those artifacts were equal or greater in stats than the equipment I was wearing, I would be able to taste the bitterness of the incredibly low success rate the jewels have for enhancement.

What was important right now was to decide which of us got what equipment.

Jong Ho and I had the same expression as we looked at the pile of loot.

It was the equivalent of children looking at their own cotton candies being made in front of them.

Hoping for my expectations to become a reality, I used Eye of Insight.

The information on the artifacts were revealed to me, but the thing that I was completely enthralled by were the jewels.

It was important to use them up first.

I urgently called Karin.

"Karin."

"Kel?"

"Jong Ho hyung and I cannot touch these items yet, you know?"

"Keru."

"So can you organize them?"

"Keru. I"m doing this only because we"re family."

"But why is this goblin constantly going on about family all of a sudden?"

"Dunno. Aren"t we family though? We share meals together."

"I mean, that"s true….. Still, it bothers me. I"m aware, but calling us his family? I don"t think he needs to keep saying that."

"Just let him be. It"s cute."

"Well…. Okay."

"Kerurururu. As I had hoped for, family understands one another. Right, family?"

"Okay. I understand, so could you hurry. You can see it in Jong Ho hyung-nim"s eyes. See how impatient he is?"

"Keheh. I get it. I"ll be done quick."

Karin moved quickly, as if he was very excited.

His small hands easily hefted up the giant artifacts.

The Awakened cannot lift weapons or armor if they lack the stats to equip them in the first place.

Forget equipping them, as this meant they couldn"t even pick up the loot.

However, it seemed that for a monster like Karin, that rule did not apply.

This meant that he could lift equipments regardless of what stat requirements they carried with ease.

I began to carefully look through the equipment that Karin was sorting out.

As I did, I made sure to note those that would be particularly useful on Jong Ho.

There were a few items in view that made me grin with antic.i.p.ation.

Jong Ho merely watched my expression.

He must be predicting what the results were from my expressions.

From how pleased I was, he probably guessed that at least a few useful items did drop.

Karin, who wiped his sweat away after finishing the sorting process, spoke.

"Kehel. All done. Is this what you wanted?"

"Yep. Good work, Karin. I"ll get the fire started so that you can have your steak."

"Kerut. No, family eats together. That"s what I saw at Min-Cheol"s house."

"….."

"See, I told you? Despite being annoying at times, he"s really hard to dislike."

"I see now. Please wait for just a bit, Karin."

"Kel. Don"t worry about me and check the drops. I noticed that Jong Ho was drooling at them before."

"Ahem… Did anything good drop, Min-Cheol?"

"Yes, though it seems you already expected it so?"

"I got it all from staring at your expressions."

"Firstly, I"ll identify the items that I think would be useful to you."

"This identifying procedure always makes me tense…."

"You weren"t like this back on Earth though."

"Back then…. The situation wasn"t this dire back then."

"True. First, the ring over there."

"This?"

"Yes."

Jong Ho only picked up the items I pointed out with the utmost caution.

After all, if he accidentally picked up the wrong items, it would bind to him and become useless to me.

Jong Ho"s weapons and armor were sufficient enough already, but it was true that I neglected on getting him decent accessories.

It was because of a lack of time to prepare due to the deadline that required us to go into the demonic realm.

"Hyung-nim, what are the attributes on the accessories you have equipped at the moment?"

"Balrock"s ring…… The ring of revival that mother gave me is gone…… Other than that, nothing much of note, really."

"I should"ve also taken better care of you in that department as well."

"I really didn"t think much of it too, so don"t worry. But what are the attributes on this new ring?"

"It doesn"t have special effects like the Balrock"s ring, but it does raise your stats up, so try it on first."

"Ok."

Jong Ho took off the ring that he was wearing and replaced it with the new ring that I had pointed out.

To check out his status window, he stared into thin air.

I wished that I could see his status window as well, but this was something that you couldn"t show to others.

Only the Awakened could see their own status windows.

Jong Ho"s expression changed to that of a small smirk.

The ring that I had given him was one that raised the mana stat.

"It"s a mana ring?"

"Yes. There"s nothing as important as defense. And to keep your defenses up, you need to keep casting defensive spells. You know firsthand from fighting against the Demon King and Ladin."

"Wew. Thanks for calling it a fight. It was more of a one-sided defeat though."

"Well, it won"t be like that anymore. For now, I think you should be equipping that."

"Hm… Right. It"s true that I do need mana."

"You don"t seem that happy with it though? Did you want something specifically? Seems I"m on right on the money. Tell me what you want."

"No. It"s true that you need mana to use shields and defensive skills."

"Hey, why are you acting like that? Both of us can"t lie to save our hides. I can tell right now that you aren"t being honest, so go ahead and tell me what"s up."

I could tell from just looking at his expression that he wanted something else.

Was it because the ring had no special effect attached to it?

Or perhaps he wanted a different stat on his ring?

My query didn"t last long, as Jong Ho stuttered before speaking up.

"No. I really like this ring. However….."

"I knew it. There really was something."

"I want to… change my weapon."

"Your weapon?"

"Yeah. It is a weapon that gives me the most amount of mana stats, but….."

"You"re saying that you lack physical attack skills, and the staff or wand have a short reach and isn"t suited for melee combat, right?"

"Yep…. That"s right."

"I think I understand what you mean. For now though, we have to get your accessories sorted out. I think those bracelets in front of Karin will suit you as well."

"Does this also raise my mana?"

"Yes. If you want to change your weapon, you"ll have to find a way to make up for all the mana stats you"ll be losing out due to the change, right?"

"That"s right."

"If you wear these two and the necklace over there, you should be able to obtain more magic stat points than what you were getting from your wand."

"Oho…. Okay. I"m hoping for a warrior cla.s.s type weapon with the stats of a magic weapon……"

"Should I summon the blacksmith? It"s the demonic realm here, hyung-nim."

"No, I"m just saying."

Just like that, Jong Ho put on the accessories on his hands and neck.

Due to the equipment being merely of decent quality, he didn"t get that much of a stat gain.

The mana stat he gained from the accessories were better than the wand, but it wasn"t as good as the staff.

After equipping the accessory, his eyes lit up with life.

His expression seemed to ask for his new weapon.

"Since the accessories don"t have special abilities attached to them, it doesn"t seem like something that you should keep. But you should still use it until something better drops."

"Yep, yep. So about the weapon? The sword?"

"It"s not a sword you"d like….."

"Don"t play it down and hurry up!"

"It"s over there. Pijan"s Lightning Sword."

There were 3 swords at the location where Karin had gathered the weapons together.

Each varied in size and shape, and their attributes matched their variety.

Since they were all weapons that bound on touch, the attributes on the swords were far beyond what the average Awakened could even dream of.

Jong Ho headed to the sky blue sword that I pointed out.

"Is this it?"

"Yes. That thin sword is the one."

Jong Ho picked up Pijan"s Lightning Sword as soon as I told him.

It was a sky blue sword with the cutting edge of the sword being only 5cm.

The shape was simple, but because it had a special effect attached to it, it seemed quite useful.

Checking the attributes of the weapon, he became lively once more.

-Pijan"s Lightning Sword-

*Strength +1000

*7% of total strength increased.

*One-handed.

*Deals electric based damage.

*After absorbing a certain amount of magical energy, deals an empowered double damage attack. (30 second duration.)

"I can deal electric based attacks……"

"Yes. Looks like a type of enchantment?"

"Enchant? Can I use it, even if I"m a warrior cla.s.s?"

"Why not try giving it a swing? It seems that the electric enchant is inherently built into the weapon."

"Hm……"

"Oho?"

Swinging his sword at thin air, an effect that seemed as if an electric spell was casted followed.

Enchants were a way to add in magical attacks onto a physical damage based weapons.

It wasn"t used in high level dungeons where the mobs had high resistance against magical attacks, but it was used commonly in low level dungeons.

However, this was the demonic realm.

Almost all the monsters here have resistances.

That"s why the effect wasn"t that useful.

"Looks pretty. Not very practical though."

"I really like the attributes on it though? I can think of it as worth half your Butcher"s Sword."

"Yes. I was somewhat surprised as well. Must be quite the high ranking weapon."

"Yeah. However, what about the special effect on it.…."

"I know it well, since I"ve used that special effect lots before."

"Hm? You"ve used this sword before?"

"No. However….."

I quietly touched the Louver"s Bracelet on my wrist.

It was one of the three items that completed a set, and could only be obtained by defeating reaper Louver.

No attributes were attached to it, but the one special effect on it was identical to Jong Ho"s sword.

It was a special effect that changed absorbed magical energy into an offensive capability.

However, that sword"s special ability was far superior to that of my bracelet.

Unlike the bracelet, which empowered one magical spell cast, the special ability on the sword lasted for 30 seconds and empowered any attack that was made with the sword.

It was a weapon that served well in filling the lack of strength stats that Jong Ho had.

And this was the demonic realm.

The magical energy that the sword wanted was found everywhere in the demonic realm, and the monsters that were found commonplace around this realm were saturated with the magical energies.

There wasn"t a better place than here for the conditions requiring the item to activate its special ability.

Jong Ho, who had been staring at the sword intensely, spoke.

"An enhanced attack…."

"It won"t affect the skills from the Balrock"s ring, but it will work on the skills and attacks you use."

"Okay. I"ll confirm the effects in a bit. Is there anything you get from this?"

"Yes. There really isn"t an artifact that I could use."

"What…. It doesn"t match the expression you had when you looked at the loot though? I thought something amazing had dropped and had my hopes up."

"There isn"t any artifacts for me…… but there is something else."

"Oh! Really? What is it?"

"You"ll know when you see it."

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