Chapter 24: Top (1)

A little later,

For some reason, after Elena, with her flushed face, left the Lord's office making a lisping sound, 'Bye-!', Kim Hyunwoo looked at the blue bone she had left behind.

"The Necromancer of the Blue Forest..."

That title was quite a nostalgic one for Kim Hyunwoo.

After all, the Necromancer of the Blue Forest was a character who had died while conquering a Labyrinth when he was deeply enjoying Arteil.

Kim Hyunwoo briefly reminisced about that time.

At that time, according to the update, when he conquered the 28th and lowest floor of the Labyrinth, Kim Hyunwoo lost her, the hero he had raised with his blood and sweat, as the cost for defeating the Boss of the 28th floor.

"Just had to be killed off at that time..."

In Arteil, when a hero's HP is completely depleted, their fate is determined by chance.

The most common outcome was 'serious injury', which wasn't too problematic.

For injuries worse than 'serious injury,' one could always revive them if another companion managed to carry them out of the Labyrinth.

The next most likely outcome was 'comatose', which also wasn't much of an issue.

Similarly, in this case, they could be healed through the Blue Stones that could be collected in the game.

However, in Arteil, 'death', which had a 1% chance of occurring only if the enemy's attack was more than twice the hero's health, rumored to only happen to the incredibly unlucky, was irreversible.

"Still makes me dizzy thinking about it."

Even though it had been over ten years, Kim Hyunwoo could still feel a sense of darkness before his eyes whenever he thought about that time.

Back then, Kim Hyunwoo was pouring his life into Arteil, even working a night job despite being a student to equip his heroes and creating accessories for them through mini-game grinding instead of attending classes.

As a result, when a hero died, Kim Hyunwoo literally cried his eyes out at dawn, making his parents seriously wonder if their son was being bullied at school.

The death of her, whom he had raised from 1-star along with other heroes, had made Kim Hyunwoo, a gamer at the time, not turn on Arteil for an entire week.

Because the hero, filled with immense dedication and affection, had spectacularly vanished along with the money he had invested.

Even now, as Kim Hyunwoo thought about her existence, he felt slightly depressed, reminding himself once again how serious he had been about Arteil.

"If only there had been a way to revive her."

...In fact, contrary to what Kim Hyunwoo thought, there was indeed a resurrection system.

Even at the time when one of his beloved heroes, the Necromancer, died, there was a resurrection system, and Kim Hyunwoo was aware of its existence.

The problem was that the resurrection system was truly filled with the game company's malice.

"Who the hell spends millions to resurrect a hero..."

Kim Hyunwoo knew there were two ways to revive a hero.

One way was to revive the hero using cash currency.

The other was to collect items that dropped at extremely low probabilities in the game to revive the hero.

Reviving a hero with cash currency was easy, but it required an amount filled with sheer malice.

Kim Hyunwoo couldn't remember exactly, but he recalled it cost an amount that required doing a night job, which didn't even pay minimum wage, for more than half a year.

Thus, naturally, Kim Hyunwoo at that time couldn't afford such a large sum to revive the hero, so he chose the second method, and indeed, despite the terrible odds, he was collecting the materials.

The dedicated grinding of Kim Hyunwoo's teenage years made it possible.

However, the reason he ultimately failed to revive her was because he got fed up with the game company's overflowing bad manners (BM) before he could gather all the materials.

"......"

Anyway, Kim Hyunwoo pondered why this blue bone had popped out of the Labyrinth and looked at the blue bone for a while.

The day after the first floor of the Labyrinth was conquered.

The Droal Mercenary Group immediately received their promised compensation from Kim Hyunwoo and left.

Although it was visible that Alta was annoyed, possibly due to being humiliated yesterday, Kim Hyunwoo did not bother to confront her and simply paid the mercenaries to leave his territory.

Having returned to his office, Kim Hyunwoo checked the items obtained from this first-floor exploration.

"From this exploration, I got 220 low-grade Magic Stones and 1 lower-grade Magic Stone."

Unfortunately, no artifacts were obtained, but Kim Hyunwoo was not particularly disappointed about that.

He knew that the chances of finding artifacts on the first floor were significantly low anyway.

More importantly, Kim Hyunwoo undertook this Labyrinth exploration not so much to conquer the floors but to lay the foundation for the Labyrinth city.

For the Labyrinth city he envisioned, it was necessary to conquer at least up to the third floor.

"Should I just try it now?"

Such a thought crossed Kim Hyunwoo's mind, but he soon shook his head.

After all, to create the Labyrinth city and achieve the structure he wanted, the Labyrinth had to be opened up to at least the third floor.

"It's from the third floor onwards that lower-grade Magic Stones, rather than the lowest-grade, start to appear in some quantity."

Kim Hyunwoo thought that opening the Labyrinth city right now would still be premature, as many aspects were lacking.

Whether it was the system elements or aspects related to making money.

"Now that I've got the Magic Stones, I should at least start building."

Therefore, Kim Hyunwoo planned to start seriously working on what was needed for his territory while Elena began her thorough exploration of the Labyrinth, aiming to conquer the third floor.

After all, he already had the Magic Stones, the primary material needed to build the first-tier buildings, which are superior to basic buildings.

Thus, Kim Hyunwoo continued his thoughts.

A ★★★ Hero 'Golden Witch' has entered your territory.

[The 'Tienus' Merchant Group has arrived in your territory!]

"...?"

Kim Hyunwoo saw such notification windows.

Alta, who had almost fled from Lartania, was filled with anger and irritation, thanks to the Lord who had just said she was worse than Elena.

But now.

Crack-!

"Aaaaah-!"

She screamed as her right arm was twisted backward.

"It hurts! It hurts!!"

Even as she screamed, she couldn't properly comprehend what was happening to her.

That's because all she could really perceive was walking with the mercenary group, then someone grabbing her head and her vision spinning, indicating she was kidnapped.

Therefore, despite screaming from the sudden, terrible pain of her twisted right arm, Alta tried to shift her gaze to properly understand the situation.

Having worked as a mercenary for many years, she knew that understanding the situation was crucial for survival in any circumstance.

However.

"Ah-"

Alta felt even greater fear the moment she saw the person clutching her head.

What she saw, rolling her eyes as much as she could, was Red Eyes looking at her with indifference.

Of course, Alta had never seen Merilda directly, so she didn't know exactly who she was, but she realized one thing clearly.

The being in front of her was many times stronger than herself.

Therefore, she trembled instinctively from the overwhelming fear.

Merilda, watching her with endlessly indifferent eyes, said,

"If I had heard you curse even a little more by yourself, I would have killed you."

Suddenly, with those words, she let go of her hand.

Thud-!

As soon as Merilda released her, Alta fell to the ground and just trembled in place, unable to move due to the fear coursing through her body.

Alta's reason was paralyzed to the point where she couldn't even use her intuition properly.

"This time, since you were just insolent, I'll spare your life. Besides."

However, Merilda, looking at her with an indifferent expression, said,

"Like you said, I too agree that that woman is useless."

With a soft murmur, she disappeared just like that.

Alta, with her right arm twisted, couldn't properly grasp the situation but realized through instinct that she had survived and felt truly grateful for her survival.

Kim Hyunwoo knew that there was a merchant group system in Arteil.

Anyone who had played the game for any length of time could not be unaware of the merchant group system.

The merchant group system was one of the important elements for territories with concepts other than combat in Arteil.

But even so.

"The scale is incredibly large."

Kim Hyunwoo had never seen a merchant group of such massive scale.

He casually turned his gaze beyond the Lord's castle.

What he saw were rows of luxurious carriages, easily numbering in the dozens, each setting up stalls and selling goods to the territory's residents.

Kim Hyunwoo, who had been staring blankly, soon turned his gaze to the merchant group leader in front of him.

No, to the hero.

"Well-"

"I am the leader of the Tienus Merchant Group. My name is Adria."

With a confident smile, she introduced herself with a slight bow, her appearance looking incredibly luxurious.

From her clothes to the jewelry on her hands and ears, there was not a single spot without adornment.

Kim Hyunwoo marveled at this for a moment.

Normally, it was best to wear jewelry in moderation, as wearing too much can often look cheap.

However, Kim Hyunwoo did not think this way at all when looking at Adria.

The reason was that Adria's beauty, who sat in front of him, was enough to overshadow all the jewelry she wore.

Thus, Kim Hyunwoo, who had been discreetly observing Adria's beauty, soon listened to her story.

"I've come to Lartania Territory to greet you, among other things. But, should I introduce myself first? It seems you're not familiar with our Merchant Group."

Kim Hyunwoo responded with a nod to her words.

Of course, he knew nothing about the Tienus Merchant Group.

After all, the Tienus Merchant Group wasn't around when he played the game.

"Then, let me explain briefly."

Five minutes after hearing Adria's explanation about the Merchant Group.

Kim Hyunwoo, having heard all about the Merchant Group from her, summarized the information he had received.

"So, you travel around the entire Southern Vontinent trading? You buy all sorts of goods, but primarily deal in valuables and artifacts."

"That's right. We wander without a fixed base. Hence, we can procure any specialty from anywhere through our Tienus Merchant Group."

Kim Hyunwoo, feeling her confidence, nodded and then expressed a sudden curiosity.

"So, the Tienus Merchant Group isn't affiliated with any specific territory, I take it?"

This question was based on Kim Hyunwoo's understanding that merchant groups were typically affiliated with one territory.

"Well... To be precise, we are affiliated, but not with any territory."

To that question...

"Then...?"

"We are affiliated with our protector, the 'Red Dream Dragon.'"

Kim Hyunwoo received such an answer.