Chapter 18
[Translator – Prøks]
[Proofreader – Prøks]
Chapter 18: Shopping Spree
Choi Yuna, an alchemist from the Alchemist Guild.
She was incredibly lucky.
Even though the company that placed a massive order went bankrupt, she found a buyer willing to take the potions off her hands.
And she was proactive.
After selling all the lowest-grade potions, even though there were no special orders, she started producing the next level, lower-grade potions in bulk.
It was all thanks to the information left by Kim Minwoo.
He had bought a lot of the lowest-grade potions.
So, it was likely he would buy a lot of the lower-grade potions as well.
Driven by performance, she focused solely on that.
“It was worth the perseverance!”
A bold judgment based on a glimpse of the future.
The reward came much faster than expected.
“I’m Kim Minwoo. I’ll buy all the lower-grade potions.”
A simple text message.
As soon as she saw it, she shouted.
Eureka!
–I have a total of eight hundred…”
–I’ll take them all.”
A nonchalant reply.
Indeed, he was a man of insane wealth.
By this point, the collapse of Golden star seemed more like a blessing.
Thanks to that, she had a lot of lower-grade potions in stock, which allowed her to capture super-premium customers!
She went to a cafe for a direct transaction.
Soon, Kim Minwoo appeared.
“Oh, you’re here!”
With a husky voice, Choi Yuna shook hands.
“Where are the goods?”
“Here.”
She transferred all the lower-grade potions from her inventory.
They were potions boasting an average price of 300 million each.
“I’ve received them and deposited 240 billion into the guild.”
“T-Thank you.”
Choi Yuna replied, swallowing her saliva. Even a decent company wouldn’t easily throw around this much money in one go. He was indeed Kim Minwoo.
After a moment, a text message arrived.
[Dad]
“You’ve worked hard, my daughter. ^^”
She smiled and tapped on her phone.
[Yuna]
“Hehe. With this much, I’ll need to talk to the customers now…”
[Dad]
“Yeah, customers come first. Stay strong, my bunny. (Emoji of a rabbit cheering)”
Her usually taciturn father sending such an emoji meant a lot.
Today, she had truly achieved something.
Two cups of coffee were placed in front of them.
After taking a sip, Kim Minwoo spoke.
“You’re proactive. Did you prepare these in advance?”
“Yes, I thought you might place an order.”
“I like that attitude.”
“Hehe… By any chance, would you be interested in intermediate potions…?”
Choi Yuna asked cautiously.
Just like equipment or skill books, the price of potions skyrocketed as the grade increased.
Intermediate potions cost 1 billion each.
Would he buy around 800 of them, like this time?
Then it’s 800 billion.
Even for her, preparing this in advance was a daunting task. If she didn’t place the order, her life would really be ruined.
Even as the guild master’s daughter, it was a difficult amount to handle easily.
“Of course I need them.”
She gulped at his words and looked at him with pleading eyes.
Please.
That.
‘Place an order with me.’
Please, please….
After a moment of silence, Minwoo spoke.
“I plan to place bulk orders as needed like now, but there’s one issue.”
“If it’s an issue…”
“Since I spend money as needed, it’s a bit difficult to provide an advance payment. And I’m not sure exactly when I’ll make the purchase. I have to raise my level a lot.”
“Ah… I see.”
“Yes.”
Silence followed.
Choi Yuna realized.
This was a turning point.
It was clear that there were many issues with signing a bulk contract.
No advance payment? None.
Timing of purchase? Uncertain.
Still, would you trust me and stock up on the inventory first?
That’s what Kim Minwoo was asking right now.
“…Call.”
“Call?”
“Call!”
Choi Yuna shouted with her eyes tightly closed. She could somehow find the budget for making potions.
This was a contract that had to be secured.
And wasn’t she the one who broke the world record?
Leveling up shouldn’t be a problem.
As for money…
She would somehow earn it by working hard on advertising. Choi Yuna decided to trust in the power of Ilsung.
“Then let’s prepare this much for intermediate potions from now on.”
“…Yes.”
“Don’t worry too much. Instead, I’ll pay the full price without any discounts when I buy them.”
“Got it!”
The contract was sealed.
* * *
“I’ve taken my turn with this.”
No matter how much Kim Minwoo was, it wasn’t easy to find a place that would produce 800 billion worth of potions without collateral.
That’s why he made a connection with Choi Yuna.
Otherwise, he would have to wait a long time for the intermediate potions to be made when he had to drink them in the 101-level, D-rank area.
Acting blindly due to her performance, she shouted “Call” in one breath. Her father was the guild master, so he would somehow manage to produce them.
“But the problem starts with the advanced potions.”
From here on, it’s really tricky.
The unit price starts to skyrocket, making it difficult to produce in advance.
Strictly speaking, Kim Minwoo was somewhat special.
Untalented.
Thanks to his insane physical talent, he consumes an enormous amount of potions compared to others.
‘Normally, about two hundred would be enough.’
Achieving an S-rank accomplishment means one has good talent.
Such talents often saw their stats increase by 2 for each potion instead of just 1.
“But even those guys start to hit a wall with the advanced potions.”
The average super rookie uses potions up to the lower level.
Up to this point, it was reasonable to try it out with the support of a national or large organization.
Two hundred each of the lowest and lower grade potions.
It’s not an amount that can’t be invested.
It wasn’t beyond investment.
And from the intermediate level onwards.
‘The real separation of the wheat from the chaff begins.’
If you want to do potion training, you’ll need to spend about 200 billion won.
At this point, it’s starting to get burdensome.
Only super rookies who have made a big splash are able to receive investment up to this point.
‘And from the upper level onwards….’
If a country or a large organization invested up to this point?
That would mean they were truly mega rookies.
The price range for advanced potions is around 30 billion each.
Roughly speaking, if you have about two hundred, that means you’ve poured out about 6 to 7 trillion.
It means the total investment in pure potion-making approaches the trillion-won mark.
Isabella was a representative awakening individual of this kind.
‘But even she was defeated by me.’
Still, it’s pretty good for a human.
Anyway. he decided to think about the advanced level when the time comes.
There’s still plenty of time to reach that level.
While thinking, he arrived at the auction house.
[Access to the Skill Book Sales Office.]
[Search Level: 51~60. Occupation: Necromancer.]
[Searching with the given information.]
[Summon Skeleton Mage (E)]
[Restriction: Necromancer, Level 51 or above]
[Price: 6 million won.]
“Wow.”
The price has tripled compared to summoning a skeleton.
“Well, it’s reasonable.”
For items, the next level typically has a similar jump in price.
In fact, it was fortunate that the price had only tripled because it was a non-mainstream occupation.
One fortunate thing was that items put up for auction couldn’t be resold as a fundamental structure.
If that happened?
Then the value of Necromancer-related skill books would have skyrocketed much more than they are now.
Because people who hoarded them would have appeared.
How could he stand by while someone swept away the relevant skill books while fussing over money?
‘Well, if that happened, I would have just gone to another country instead of Korea.’
Items put up for auction were integrated only by each country, not on a global scale.
Then those who hoarded non-mainstream skill books would have been properly destroyed.
Since it was blocked from the beginning, it could be considered a win-win situation.
He bought up all the items that came up right away.
[53 skillbooks purchased…]
[There are duplicate skillbooks in your inventory…]
He dismissed the message in front of him.
With just this tiny amount, there was nothing he could do.
After finishing shopping, he headed back in one go.
He checked the market price of the skill books.
‘The average price didn’t jump that much.’
Even without hoarding, the average price of skill books could still rise.
That’s because it wasn’t known that there was a mega buyer like Kim Minwoo waiting unlike before.
They might come once and buy up all the skill books. If there’s such a thought, it naturally leads to gradually raising the prices.
‘About 5%?’
There was a slight foam.
But, well, this level was acceptable.
If it had been more than 10%, even he might have gone on an overseas expedition.
It’s not that it’s expensive, it’s just that it feels dirty.
So it’s a kind of spiteful crime.
That’s why there was a trace of a game of wits.
‘Well, this is a cute level.’
He snickered.
“E-rank skillbooks below level 50 with a price below 2 billion. And one more condition. Only items with a price fluctuation range of 5% or less in recent times.”
He decided to start giving the suppliers some guidelines.
He would only pay a premium of up to 5%.
‘If you raise it any more, I’ll just cancel the bid.’
By the way, even if a bid is cancelled, a 10% commission is charged.
You have to pay the price if you fail the game of wits.
In order to prevent skillbook price inflation, he needed to send a signal at least once. Otherwise, he would have to go on an overseas tour from D-rank onwards.
[8,424 items purchased.]
[Purchase complete!]
[126.36 billion won withdrawn… .]
[10% withdrawn as commission… .]
It’s really not easy.
From the E-rank onwards, the unit was in the tens of billions.
By the time it reached the C-rank, it would probably be in the units of trillions.
It was a difficult path.
But this was the only way to become a truly powerful Awakener.
‘I’m lucky that there’s enough.’
Even if it became just one A-rank, all the inventory would dry up.
This is because the number of Awakeners decreases exponentially as you go up.
At that point, even if he toured auction houses around the world, attempting level 9 would be uncertain.
There was a feeling that if something went wrong in the middle, the game would be over due to the lack of inventory.
With skill book synthesis running, she purchased equipment to fit the mages.
When summoned, mages start at level 1 baby mage status.
It didn’t cost much for low-level equipment.
Setting up one black heart set for each mage cost around 200 million won each. He bought about 250 sets generously.
There were no more items to buy.
Lastly, he set up luxury equipment for Cedric and himself for the next level range. It cost about 15 billion won combined.
With that, Kim Minwoo finished his shopping and started grinding skill books.
* * *
Ulupalu Forest.
Strategy difficulty: 90 points.
Although boasting a notorious difficulty, unlike Osiris’s Tomb, aspiring awakeners here were bustling.
Unlike the Corpse wheels, the main monsters here, the gorillas, had nothing to throw away.
Their tough hides were used for crafting armor, while their bones were utilized in weapon forging.
In particular, the Thunder Staff, an item dropped by the boss Ulphar, was a luxury item worth 3 billion won.
Even if a 5-member party found it, that’s 600 million each.
Truly a jackpot.
Despite the low drop rate, what mattered to the awakeners was the possibility itself.
Today, soldiers at the entrance were diligently issuing entry permits.
“Yes. Your identity is confirmed. Here’s your entry permit. Enjoy your journey. Next?”
A soldier with a reasonably wrinkled face and sparse beard looked at the awakener before him. Somehow, this awakener exuded a strong sense of experience from his appearance.
“Are you alone?”
A nod.
The soldier also nodded in response. It wasn’t strange for someone to come alone.
The gates with the potential for a jackpot occasionally attracted high-level awakeners to come solo.
After all, with the right loot, solo strategies often yielded better rewards than group efforts of the same level.
“Please show your ID. Yes, D-rank awakener Mr. Park Cheol-\woong. Confirmed. Here’s your entry permit. Enjoy your journey.”
“And you too, soldier.”
The voice sounded strangely familiar.
The soldier, who was slightly chuckling, received the next party.
So Park Cheol-woong, or rather Kim Min-woo, approached the gate.
[Ulupalu Forest]
[Rank: E]
Right in front of the gate.
Here stood soldiers and a single awakener.
“Five of you, go in now.”
One party entered the gate. The gate, which briefly emitted light, darkened again.
“Now, sir, it’s your turn to enter.”
Kim Minwoo nodded and dashed towards the gate.
Then.
Silently.
A transparent figure shimmered into the gate.
Although there was one awakener on guard duty, their movements were discreet enough that even with a D-rank, they went unnoticed.
And so, the gate darkened.
[Translator – Prøks]
[Proofreader – Prøks]
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