As I continued training steadily with Dang Gyu-ri throughout the remaining days of the strategy battle, I managed to make some modest progress.
[The rank of ‘Movement Command’ has increased. (C→B)]
▷Ignores 2 ranks of Forced Movement Resistance
▷Every minute, ignores an additional 2→3 ranks
Add [Amplification] on top of this and it’s S-rank.
At this point, at least when it came to forced movement, it should work even on the principal or the Sword Queen.
Meanwhile, I coaxed and persuaded Seo Ye-in, whose motivation had hit rock bottom, as we worked through her trait quest.
There were plenty of twists and turns, but she ultimately cleared it. Not only did she learn [Time Oblivion], she even earned the challenge bonus.
Normally, it started at F-rank, but hers had jumped straight to C.
I decided to hold off on registering it with [Bond] until I raised it a little more and had a free slot.
Monday.
As usual, I had breakfast with Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeon-hwa, then headed to the classroom with them.
But just as we were almost there, Shin Byeong-cheol popped out of nowhere and blocked our path.
Rubbing his hands together eagerly, he said,
“Well, well~! If it isn’t my dear customers!”
“Who says we’re your customers?”
Hong Yeon-hwa shot back curtly.
Seo Ye-in didn’t seem particularly interested either.
Then again, they barely had any connection with the Thieves’ Club, and they didn’t use the Errand Center either.
Even so, Shin Byeong-cheol kept up his salesman’s smile.
“The possibility isn’t zero, is it? If you look at the big picture, everyone’s a customer~.”
“What do you want?”
“Oh, you’re willing to hear me out. Then if you’d just follow me over here for a moment.”
“……”
Hong Yeon-hwa glanced at me, and I jerked my chin, signaling that we might as well follow him.
From the looks of it, he hadn’t run into us by chance. He seemed to have been waiting for us, and anything that needed to be discussed away from prying ears was usually important.
Shin Byeong-cheol then led us toward a secluded alley.
This should be far enough away that no one could see or hear us. Shin Byeong-cheol leaned in close and lowered his voice as much as possible.
“I’ve got a very tempting offer for you.”
“And what might that be?”
“Ever heard of early access? We’ve got a new product.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“…Ahem! Me and, well… you know. My business partners.”
Shin Byeong-cheol gave a deliberately vague answer.
Apparently, those business partners weren’t from the Thieves’ Club.
If he meant senior Chae Da-bin or the twins, there would be no reason to hide it.
“This is already sounding suspicious.”
“There are all sorts of circumstances involved. Cut me some slack.”
“Fine. Let’s see this new product of yours first.”
“Why, of course.”
He rummaged around inside his clothes, then pulled out a tiny vial about the size of a finger.
A magical liquid inside gave off a faint glow.
“It’s a potion.”
“Not just any potion. Take a good look.”
With complete confidence, Shin Byeong-cheol shared the item description with us.
[D.E.B – 001]
▷High chance of increasing the rank of a random skill/trait by one level.
▷Consuming multiple doses does not grant additional effects.
▷Caution: Temporary minor side effects may occur.
“What the hell? That’s broken.”
Not only had I never seen anything like it before, its effects far exceeded anything I had expected.
Since rank directly translated into power, it was one of the most important factors in this game world.
There was a reason [Rank Up] was so rare.
And this raises one just by drinking a potion?
Sure, there was the condition that the target would be random, but even then, there was practically no downside.
From my perspective, for example, if my C-rank [Diamond Freeze] went up by just one rank, that alone would save me the trouble of finding a Rank Up.
And if it happened to land on an A-rank skill or trait, I’d hit the jackpot.
And the success rate is even high.
[Random Rank Up] had a similar effect, but it came with the drawback that its success rate dropped sharply the higher the rank of the skill or trait.
Once you got to A or B-rank, it wasn’t uncommon to burn through dozens of them without a single success.
By contrast, [D.E.B – 001] outright stated that it had a “high chance”.
That meant it was worth using even on A and B-ranks, making it dozens, if not hundreds, of times better than a Random Rank Up.
Too bad you can’t take more than one.
Since it said the effect couldn’t be applied more than once, one per person was the limit.
Even if the Rank Up failed, there was no second try.
Still, that doesn’t mean this is the end of it.
The fact that this one was numbered 001 meant they planned to keep making more, like 002 and 003.
So I placed a hand on Shin Byeong-cheol’s shoulder with a warm smile.
“Byeong-cheol.”
“Yeah?”
“Sorry, but I think I’m going to need to know who your business partner is.”
“Come on, no way. You think I can just give away the most important secret?”
At his firm refusal, I glanced to either side.
Seo Ye-in and Hong Yeon-hwa instantly caught my meaning and formed a three-way encirclement around him.
“……”
Seo Ye-in raised her pot, ready to swing it at full force at a moment’s notice, while Hong Yeon-hwa conjured a flame at her fingertips.
Fwoosh.
Alarm flashed in Shin Byeong-cheol’s eyes.
He looked back and forth between us with an awkward smile.
“Haha, why’d things suddenly get so hostile? Come on, guys. Let’s not do this.”
I added an even more threatening warning.
“It would be in your best interest to tell us the truth. That is, if you wish to preserve what little hair you have left.”
“You’re taking my hair hostage? Do you have no heart? No mercy?”
“It’s already getting pretty sparse. Might as well shave it all off while you’re at it.”
“There are some things you simply do not say to a man!”
Shin Byeong-cheol snapped indignantly.
But only for a moment. He waved his hands and said,
“Anyway, I’m never telling you who my business partner is, even if it means going bald.”
“Can’t be helped, then. I was just messing with you.”
“Ah, I know. I’ll definitely tell you later.”
“Good. Now, there’s one more important thing. The side effects.”
It said they were temporary and minor, but side effects were still side effects.
We needed to know what exactly would happen.
Shin Byeong-cheol scratched the back of his head.
“Honestly, I don’t know exactly either.”
“You tried one, didn’t you?”
“I did. Experienced the side effects too.”
“So what were they?”
“Well, there was this thing where… my face turned red.”
In other words, he’d added another embarrassing episode to his personal history.
And naturally, he couldn’t exactly tell us what had happened.
Hong Yeon-hwa let out an incredulous laugh.
“And you expect us to drink that?”
“Honestly, isn’t it worth it? A little embarrassment in exchange for a Rank Up.”
“Looks like there’s a chance it won’t even work.”
“That would be terribly unfortunate, but you’ve got to accept a little risk, don’t you?”
“……”
He certainly had a point.
Considering how much effort it took to raise something by a single rank, a small chance of failure and a little embarrassment were hardly much of a price.
As far as I was concerned, if it brought me one step closer to world peace, I was more than willing to put up with that much.
So I took the potion bottle and asked Shin Byeong-cheol,
“It goes without saying, but this isn’t free, is it?”
“If it were up to me, I’d hand these things out left and right. But there are material costs, labor costs, and apparently there’s a limit to how many we can make.”
“All right. Tell me what you want.”
“Nothing much. I just want you to help promote it.”
The serial number 001 alone made it obvious that this venture was only just getting started.
Once word of mouth began spreading, things would probably take off quickly. The problem was getting to that point.
Especially with those suspicious side effects, they needed reviews from people with a certain amount of credibility.
“Then it’d be better for Hong Yeon-hwa to drink it than me.”
“Definitely.”
I might have shed my reputation as a coward and built up a fair amount of recognition by now, but I still couldn’t compare to one of last year’s promising students.
On top of that, Hong Yeon-hwa had the mid-tier Ruby Magic Tower behind her, so a word from her would carry considerable weight.
I handed her the D.E.B – 001 and asked,
“Want to try it?”
“Well…”
Hong Yeon-hwa’s eyes darted around as she hesitated to take it.
I had a pretty good idea what was going through her mind, so I asked another question.
“Worried about the side effects?”
“Mhmm… A little…?”
More precisely, she was probably less worried about embarrassing herself and more worried about how it might affect things between us afterward.
So I spoke in a calm tone.
“You don’t have to worry that much. It’s not like we’re going to hold anything against you. We’ll know it was obviously because of the potion.”
“R-Really…?”
“Of course.”
Only then did Hong Yeon-hwa seem somewhat reassured and take the potion bottle.
She uncorked it, took a deep breath, and downed the contents in one go.
“……”
“How does it taste?”
“It’s kind of… sweet.”
“Feel anything unusual?”
“Not really… yet?”
But the next moment, Hong Yeon-hwa’s eyes suddenly widened as she stared into empty space.
Then she said, sounding bewildered,
“…It went up. The rank.”
She shared the notification message with us.
[The rank of ‘Pyrofusion’ increased. (C→B)]
“It really works.”
“I told you it was real.”
Then again, the system didn’t lie.
I shamelessly held out my hand to Shin Byeong-cheol.
“We’ll give you some proper promotion, so how about a few more? Say, four, so there’s enough for everyone?”
“Come on, I don’t have that many. And we’ve got to make a living too.”
“Then let’s compromise at two.”
“You’re a damn highway robber. You get one more.”
“Thank you.”
Holding the second D.E.B – 001, I looked at Seo Ye-in and silently asked, “Want to drink it?”
She shook her head.
Then she even started slowly backing away.
For whatever reason, either her good-luck radar had detected a failure, or she sensed that the side effects would manifest in some bizarre way.
Of course, there were plenty of other people who could drink it besides Seo Ye-in.
“Then I’ll try it.”
The moment I uncorked the bottle, I downed the potion in one shot without the slightest hesitation.
Then I stared into empty space with my anticipation mounting but—
“…What the heck? Why isn’t anything showing up?”
Even after quite some time passed, no notification message appeared.
Meaning the Rank Up had failed.
I’d been prepared for that possibility to some extent, but I took my frustration out on Shin Byeong-cheol anyway.
“Byeong-cheol, do you want to start reflecting light off the top of your head?”
“H-Hey, how is that my fault? You begged me for one, so I gave it to you.”
“Give me one more.”
“You might as well squeeze blood from a stone. Not even if you beat me to death.”
Then again, he did need to save some to sell.
They needed seed money if they were going to make 002, 003, and whatever came after.
I nodded, then asked him,
“How long does it take for the side effects to kick in?”
“Mine started pretty quickly.”
“How long did they last?”
“About half a day, I think? Seems like it varies from person to person.”
So I waited a little longer but still didn’t feel anything in particular.
It was probably being blocked by [Monarch]’s mental barrier.
Hong Yeon-hwa, on the other hand, probably didn’t have any traits or items that could block the side effects, so I casually asked her,
“How do you feel?”
“I’m… not sure.”
Hong Yeon-hwa answered with a slight furrow in her brow.
Since the effects varied from person to person, maybe they also took different amounts of time to kick in.
Just as I was thinking that, Hong Yeon-hwa stepped right up close to me, much closer than usual.
Then she looked up at me and said,
“But, you know…”
“What?”
“Isn’t it about time I got a kiss too?”
Then she gasped and clapped a hand over her own mouth.
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