Chapter 65

<Chapter 65: The God of Martial Arts Regressed to Level 2>

* * *

‘I have 200,000 achievement points.’

The fact that the seat ‘Wandering God of Martial Arts’ had reclaimed the gift was proving beneficial at this moment.

Currently, Seong Jihan’s achievement points amounted to an astounding 201,200.

‘Perhaps I should upgrade the shop first.’

The achievement shop was at level 5.

Since there was nothing he needed to buy immediately, Seong Jihan decided to start with the 100,000-point upgrade.

However.

[To upgrade the achievement shop, the status window expansion and inventory expansion must be at level 2.]

The two items he hadn’t found much use for and hadn’t upgraded until now.

Frowning at the message indicating that he needed to upgrade these two items to upgrade the shop, Seong Jihan thought:

The status window was already full after receiving the Shadow Blade stats, so upgrading it would be fine, but the inventory expansion seemed a bit wasteful...

‘There’s no choice.’

Considering these were items he would eventually need to upgrade, he decided to do it now.

Seong Jihan first upgraded the two items and then proceeded to upgrade the shop.

In an instant, 120,000 points were deducted.

[The achievement shop has been upgraded to level 6.]

[The ‘Additional Gift Slot’ item has been added.]

[The ‘Monthly Random Box’ item has been added.]

“...Random Box?”

He had thought the ‘Additional Gift Slot’ might appear.

But the ‘Monthly Random Box’ item was unexpected.

Seong Jihan opened the upgraded achievement shop.

[Achievement Shop Level 6]

- Achievement Shop Upgrade: 250,000P

- Status Window Expansion Level 2: 50,000P

- Class Slot Addition Level 2: 50,000P

- Inventory Expansion Level 2: 50,000P

- Title Slot Addition Level 2: 50,000P

- Emergency Recovery (Item): 10,000P

- Seat Slot Addition Level 1: 50,000P

- Gift Slot Addition Level 1: 50,000P

- Monthly Random Box (Increased Gift Appearance Rate): 30,000P

The list was much longer than when he first opened the achievement shop.

‘Upgrading the shop will be difficult for a while.’

The cost to upgrade the shop was 250,000 points, which he couldn’t afford for now.

‘The seat or gift slots... I don’t really need them right now.’

There was no need to expand them when they weren’t even filled.

Looking at the shop, there wasn’t much that seemed worth buying.

However, Seong Jihan focused on the class slot addition and the random box.

‘Now that I’ve reached Silver, I should start working on my original class, Warrior.’

Of course, it wasn’t because he lacked power to break the Warrior class.

From the Silver League onwards, basic classes could evolve to a higher level, so he was thinking about the evolution of the Warrior class.

‘I might not be able to obtain the Wu Sheng (武聖) class from before.’

Wu Sheng, the special class of the Warrior’s third evolution.

It was a special class he could obtain thanks to the care of the seat ‘Wandering God of Martial Arts’. Since the Wandering God of Martial Arts had left this time, obtaining Wu Sheng would be difficult.

‘Well, I can get something better.’

Given how much had changed from the past, there was no need to linger over the Wu Sheng class.

[Class Slot Addition Level 2 has been purchased.]

[Achievement points have been deducted by 50,000P.]

Seong Jihan clicked on the newly added third class slot.

[You can change to a basic class.]

[The classes you can change to are as follows.]

- Warrior

- Archer

[Do you want to select a class?]

He immediately chose Warrior, and the class slots increased to three.

Warrior, Mage, and Supporter. He now possessed all three classes.

‘If I add Archer, I’ll have all the classes...’

What would happen if he obtained all the classes?

Would the four classes just occupy the slots?

Or would something change?

‘I’d like to experiment, but it costs too many achievement points.’

Class Slot Addition Level 3.

This required 250,000 achievement points, the same as upgrading the shop.

It was too much to use for an experiment, so he quickly gave up on the idea.

Seong Jihan looked at the newly added ‘Monthly Random Box’ item.

‘A random box with increased gift appearance rate...’

The gift slot was empty after being taken by the God of Martial Arts.

While he could clear special achievements and earn points, he couldn’t leave it empty indefinitely.

‘Can’t stand it.’

With 31,200 achievement points left, Seong Jihan decided to try the random box.

[The Monthly Random Box has been purchased.]

[The special feature for August is ‘Increased Gift Appearance Rate’.]

A golden gift box appeared on Seong Jihan’s hand.

[The random box is being opened...]

Rumble—

The box lid opened, and an intense light burst out.

A dazzling display of light filled the room.

The opening effect was truly spectacular.

What could be so good that it’s causing this?

As he watched, he thought:

‘Hmm... What is it?’

The light coming from the box gradually turned black.

Just as he was about to frown, thinking it might be a dud, a system message appeared.

[The power of a seat has been imbued in the random box.]

At the same time.

Swoosh—

Suddenly, Ariel popped out from Seong Jihan’s left arm.

“...The main body?”

The only entity she could call the main body was the seat ‘Queen of Shadows’.

Indeed, the dark aura emanating from the random box had changed to resemble the power of shadows.

[The seat ‘Queen of Shadows’ has paid a significant price to replace the contents of the random box.]

[The gift ‘Agility A’ has been replaced with ‘Shadow of the Moon’.]

“Shadow of the Moon?”

“What? Main body... Are you crazy?”

Ariel responded in disbelief.

What kind of gift could elicit such a reaction?

Seong Jihan pressed the gift to see more.

[Gift - Shadow of the Moon (SS Rank)

- The power of the seat ‘Queen of Shadows’.

- Greatly expands the shadow control area and steals and absorbs the shadows of enemies.

- The absorbed shadows are used to complete the shadow sword, Eclipse.

- If the Queen of Shadows is set as the background seat, the gift’s rank increases by one level.

“Expanding the shadow area and absorbing shadows... Is this a good thing?”

Seong Jihan asked indifferently, and Ariel, who had not shown much emotion until now, glared.

“Of course! The Shadow of the Moon is the fundamental ability that made the Queen of Shadows a seat!”

“Hmm. Was the Queen of Shadows not born as a seat but ascended to one? What happened?”

“That’s obviously... ---------.”

Excited, Ariel started to speak, but her words were muffled to Seong Jihan.

It seemed she also realized this, as her expression quickly calmed.

“Oh. This is a tutorial.”

“Can’t hear in tutorial mode?”

“Yes. Probably... You won’t be able to hear even after the tutorial ends.”

Ariel closed the topic and instead spoke about the gift’s advantages.

“If you accept the Shadow of the Moon, you can suppress enemies and gain Shadow Blade stats.”

“So, that’s the shadow absorption ability?”

“Yes. And with the expanded shadow area, my range of activity will increase.”

Seong Jihan fell into thought.

If he didn’t accept this gift, he could still clear special achievements without a gift.

But the growth of the new stat, Shadow Blade, would slow down.

‘I can’t invest stat points in Shadow Blade when I need them for other stats.’

Although it was a pity to spend achievement points, accepting it was necessary to grow the shadow sword, Eclipse.

“Shadow of the Moon... Why are you giving me something so powerful?”

“Probably, she wants to become your seat by any means. Why would the main body go to such lengths for a low-level race like this...”

If he accepted the Shadow of the Moon, he would have to choose the Queen of Shadows as his seat to upgrade it.

Whatever the Queen of Shadows paid to the system, she was willing to do so to secure Seong Jihan as a player.

‘If there was no achievement shop, I would have hesitated.’

If he only had one slot, he would have thought more about accepting the Queen of Shadows’ gift.

But since he could add more slots for seats and gifts, it didn’t matter.

[Do you want to accept the gift?]

“Sure.”

Seong Jihan decided to accept the Queen of Shadows’ offer.

* * *

“...You want me to rent myself to that guild?”

123rd floor, American First Guild Building, Robert Gates’ office in New York.

The middle-aged man with white hair, adjusting his glasses, showed Baron a video.

It was the promotional video of the waiting guild from a while ago.

“Yes. We plan to pay 5 million GP per month.”

Robert, who had failed to buy the waiting guild’s secret technique for 100 million GP, now intended to rent his guild’s top prospect, Baron, to the other side.

The price they asked for was 5 million GP.

It was not a small amount, but Robert readily paid the GP.

“No, 5 million GP? Are you crazy? Do you have too much money?”

“Yes. We have plenty.”

“Ha. I don’t want to go.”

Despite Robert Gates’ recommendation, Baron bluntly expressed his dissatisfaction.

This was an unusual situation, but Robert Gates didn’t seem to mind Baron’s rudeness.

In the battle net industry, what mattered was ability.

Even though Baron had lost his title as the world’s top prospect, he still deserved respect from the owner.

“I don’t want to move my league to Korea.”

“There’s no need to move. The waiting guild is not tied to a specific country, so you can participate in the league from anywhere after joining.”

“...I don’t even know if my stats will improve. Are you telling me to give up the all-stats buff and join that guild?”

“The all-stats buff in Silver is +5. Isn’t that enough even without it?”

“That’s true... But why do I have to go to that country? Can’t American First create a similar training guild?”

“We’ve already tried several experimental ones.”

Opening a guild costs 10 million GP, but for the Gates family, it was a minor expense.

“We’ve tested up to the second, third, and fourth teams, but we couldn’t achieve those numbers with any combination of methods.”

“Hmph... No matter what you say, I won’t go. I can’t trust that guild until I see their growth results with my own eyes.”

Baron firmly refused to join the waiting guild.

Robert saw irrational stubbornness in him.

‘Is it because he was so badly beaten by Seong Jihan?’

After boasting about being the world’s top prospect, he now showed such inferiority.

Robert skillfully hid his contempt