[Boar Thigh] [Boar Neck] [Boar Belly] [Boar…]

“Great, great!”

Aileen smiled in satisfaction as she stared at her inventory. The boar that filled up her inventory had now turned into food that could be cooked. It would last her 2 weeks even if she ate 3 meals a day until she was full.

[Yongha, I got the boar dismantled.]

First, she messaged Yi Yongha since he always complained about being hungry. Aileen could now act like a reliable older sister.

FlameWizard: What? Why? -.-

“…?”

However, his reaction caught her off guard. Aileen tilted her head, wondering if he went crazy from hunger.

Me: Why not? Didn’t you say you were hungry?

FlameWizard: If Aileen dismantles it, a lot of edible parts will become wasted. Dismantling a wild animal isn’t easy, you know -.-

“Ah.”

So that’s what worried him. Heh, what a fool. Aileen snickered as she proudly typed.

Me: I didn’t do it. I asked a passerby for help.

FlameWizard: Oh? You finally got Spirit Speech to work on a person?

Me: No, my magic power hasn’t recovered enough to command someone, but I can induce a positive response.

The man probably didn’t notice that Aileen had used Spirit Speech when she asked him to dismantle her boar, but it most likely induced him to agree.

FlameWizard: Great! What level was his dismantling technique?

Me: Lv.3. My inventory is filled with meat now, hehe.

FlameWizard: He had a Lv.3 technique? Wow, that’s amazing. Anyways, let’s meet up now.

Me: See if you can buy some lettuce on your way so we can eat some wraps.

Their conversation ended as Aileen proudly walked back to the city. Not long afterward, 5 zombies rose from the ground. They carried a strange curse aura and blocked her path.

“Hmph.”

Aileen snorted and unleashed her magic power. At first, she planned to simply destroy them, but decided to test how much her power had recovered since she felt great today. She condensed her magic power into a blunt weapon.

“Listen up.”

Lv.1 zombies had no intelligence and only acted based on instincts. However, speaking was only a means to her power. A true Spirit Speech master wasn’t restricted to just speech.

“This hammer.”

She pointed to her blunt weapon formed from magic power. Suddenly, the strange power of words surrounded the weapon. This was Spirit Speech, a tangible power that transcended simple hypnosis.

“Is going to crush your heads.”

Immediately, the blunt weapon moved, or perhaps it didn’t. One could only guess from the faint afterimage in the air and the 5 zombies’ crushed heads.

“Huhu.”

Aileen smiled proudly. Wielding magic power felt just as natural as blood flowing through her veins despite the stat restrictions.

[Your magic power has increased by 0.02 points.]

A system alert popped up, boosting her morale even higher.

“Oh right.”

She rummaged through the zombie corpses for anything useful. However, all five Lv.1 zombies died without dropping any items.

“Absolutely trash.”

Aileen returned to Prestige with no zombies bothering her again perhaps because of her earlier display. She passed by several starving players and returned to her hideout in the city.

[Lv.0 Temple of Justice Hideout]

Aileen and Yi Yongha quickly purchased this hideout for a monthly rent of 150 TP after reading in the community that hideouts could boost rest and stat increases. Thankfully, land prices weren’t as astronomical as food. She took out her frying pan and burner as soon as she entered. Tak, tak. As she put meat on the frying pan…

“Aileen!”

Yi Yongha ran into the hideout with a touched expression.

“Oh, you made it back just in time. Come grill this for me.”

“Before that, let me see your inventory.”

“Fine, go ahead.”

It seemed Yi Yongha couldn’t believe her until he saw it with his own eyes. Aileen proudly flipped her hair back and shared her inventory.

“Wow, all that might last a month if we’re frugal. Thank god we brought a boar from the 2nd floor.

“Yeah.”

Only complete idiots would forget to bring food after suffering in the highest difficulty Tutorial Town. For this reason, Aileen felt sorry for the players who came from a lower difficulty. In her eyes, they suffered because they initially chose the easy way.

“This is all thanks to me, right? I’m the one who caught that Lv.3 boar on the 2nd floor.”

“Yeah, yeah, ssp. Sure, ssp…”

Aileen half-heartedly replied while staring at the meat. She had many questions to ask, but her mind turned blank after seeing the meat. Five minutes later…

“I think they’re done, Aileen.”

“Yeah, let’s eat.”

The meat that took 5 minutes to cook disappeared in 1 minute.

“How about some neck meat this time?”

“Sounds good.”

Aileen took out more meat as Yi Yongha glanced at the community while grilling.

“Ah!”

“Hiik! Ah, geez, what!”

“Aileen, look at this.”

Yi Yongha showed her a public forum post.

[The Brother and Sister Shop has new items.] Posted by: Prementium

The Brother and Sister Shop has a Lv.3 Magic Amplification Staff and three Lv.2 equipment. Oh, they have potions too, the standard mana potions and health potions. They also have other potions, which all average around 150 TP. These potions are leagues above the trash potions sold in the Tutorial Town…

“Magic amplification staff?”

Aileen’s eyes shone.

“Let’s go after we finish. If anything, we can buy some mana potions.”

“Good idea. How much money do you have?”

“I have about 1500 TP.”

“That much?”

“As you know, my gift specializes in hunting monsters.”

Yi Yongha flipped the meat as he laughed. Meanwhile, Aileen fell into thought. We have about 2500 TP in total since I have around 1000 TP. We should be able to buy something nice. Exactly how much do I have again? Aileen opened her inventory to check her balance. Then…

“Eh?”

She blanked out. Then closed her inventory and opened it again thinking something went wrong with the system. However, nothing changed. Aileen rubbed her eyes and looked again, confused and flustered. She blinked and rummaged through her pockets.

“What’s wrong?”

Sssk, sssk. Yi Yongha asked as Aileen searched her pockets like a crazy woman.

“Ah, um, you see…”

Her TP had disappeared without a single one left. The TP she worked her ass off to gather. Where, just where did it…

Aileen spoke with a trembling voice.

“M-My money, it… it disappeared…”

Tears flowed from her eyes as she softly muttered those words.

***

[Lv.5 Grahamson’s Cave]

I stood in front of a cave where the demon Grahamson lived. I wanted to find an item here. It wasn’t quite good enough to be called a hidden secret, but could still be considered too good as an ordinary item.

“Hmm…”

Click. I checked the Desert Eagle before entering just to see if the trigger had jammed or dulled.

[Warning! You may lose up to 3 lives if killed by a demon!]

A system alert popped up as I checked my equipment. Having 7 lives could also be disadvantageous since it made players careless in battle. Honestly, unless a death resulted from very clean PvP (Player versus Player), each death shaved off at least 2 lives. Furthermore, being killed by one of the tower’s 4 hostile races (demons, celestials, giants, and hell wraiths) also shaved off at least 3-4 lives. As a result, each player could only revive 2-3 times.

“Thank you for the advice. I’ll be careful.”

As always, I politely replied to the system. Then I checked the Book of Truth once again.

[Lv.6 Grahamson] Lives in the Lv.5 Grahamson’s Cave. He is a monster trainer who commands an army of undead monsters against Prestige. Strength: Necromancy. Weakness: Physical resilience.

The Lv. 6 Grahamson’s highest stat should be 5-6 points. I should be able to beat him due to his low physical resilience. One bullet from a shotgun should do it. Still, I fully prepared beforehand. First, I took out the dwarven supercar from my inventory.

“Oh.”

It looked just as beautiful and elegant the first time I saw it. I hopped on and blessed it with [Lv.3 Yggdrasil’s leaf].

[The dwarven supercar has been granted a blessing!] [Lv.3 Yggdrasil’s leaf whispers its ability to you.] [TIP! Lv.3 Yggdrasil’s leaf can grant permanent blessings to 5 pieces of equipment.] [Would you like to permanently bless the dwarven supercar?]

Was the system helping me? I nodded.

[The dwarven supercar has been granted a permanent blessing!] [All effects have permanently increased by 1 level.] [A dormant magic effect has awakened.] Lv.2 Like the Wind: You can increase or decrease the amount of friction. For a short period, you may glide through the air at a low altitude.

“Oh?”

It could also fly on top of being amphibious?

“Amazing.”

I drove the dwarven supercar inside after checking my items. Ssss— The car quietly entered the cave. The pitch-black surroundings lit up as I turned on the car lights. After about 15 minutes of driving…

“Hm?”

The cave began to rumble. Dudududu— To be more precise, something seemed to be digging up from the ground. I stopped the car and carefully observed my surroundings.

“Oh, undead monsters.”

From the ground, undead monsters sprouted like rice in a field. At least 100, 200, or 300… However, the army didn’t particularly make me nervous since they were all Lv.1 or Lv.2 with a few Lv.3.

“Pft.”

I inadvertently snickered. Unfortunately for them, the dwarven supercar also had offensive capabilities. I just had to drive fast enough to run them over. As always, weaklings didn’t pose a problem.

Guoooo— 

Kegelgelgel—

Hundreds of zombies, skeletons, ghouls, and will-o-wisps advanced from all sides. I simply stepped on the accelerator. Sss… The magic engine roared and the Young Dwarf’s Dexterity also applied to my offensive driving. Bzzzzz—! A thunderous explosion rang out. The dwarven supercar shot forward with a golden light and crushed everything it touched, unaffected by terrain, height, or walls. Zombies, skeletons, and ghouls all scattered in the air.

[Your driving technique has improved to Lv.4] Your perception of roads has reached the creative level of a genius.

It only took 10 minutes for the above alert to pop up. The army of monsters had been decimated by the time I finished my crazy joyride inside the huge cave.

“Auu, I feel dizzy now.”

The smell of blood and the dizziness from driving almost made me retch, so I got off the car to collect my breath. Magic power suddenly ignited in front of me as I blocked my nose and frowned.

“…!”

A beam of magic power filled with killing intent hurled towards me. It came from a [Lv.3 Skeleton Mage] with blue light flickering in its hollow eyes. I couldn’t dodge in time, but I didn’t need to.

[You have activated the skill, Extraction and Permanent Materialization.]

I stood still and activated my skill. The beam of light stopped in front of my face and condensed into a solid substance. Tk— The cube-shaped lump of magic power dropped to the ground.

“Whew, thought I would die there. That surprised me.”

Shouldn’t it shout out a skill or something before attacking? I sighed in relief and picked up the cube.

[Lv.3 Skeleton Mage’s Curse Crystal]

I stored it in my inventory since it could surely be used for something. Then I raised my Desert Eagle and immediately fired. The bullet pierced the mage’s head and the light in its eyes died.

“Wait, come to think of it…”

Taking all the items on the ground would be complicated. I looked around the huge cave littered with corpses and bones and loot scattered among them.

“I’ll deal with Grahamson first and pick them up later.”

I hopped back on the dwarven supercar and drove deeper into the cave. Soon, I arrived at a dead end with a throne in a large space. Grahamson sat on the throne imposingly as I got off the car.

“A human?”

Grahamson muttered. I didn’t say anything and simply walked forward with my gun. Tap, tap. My eerie footsteps rang out in the empty cave.

“This is the problem with humans.”

Grahamson continued as I transformed the Desert Eagle into a shotgun. I needed to enter into shooting range and he should’ve tried to stop each of my footsteps.

“They are incapable of understanding who is in front of them and how to properly act.”

However, Grahamson remained arrogant and only muttered the lines of a third rate villain. I continued forward and ignored his useless ramblings. Soon, I reached the appropriate distance and checked my shotgun’s chamber. It contained 2 shells.

“Foolish human…”

“You’re the fool, idiot.”

“You dare!”

I aimed at the demon from 20 meters away. However, Grahamson didn’t even seem to recognize my weapon.

“What’s that?”

“You don’t have to know. You won’t need to anyway.”

KWANG! I pulled the trigger as I replied. A shotgun shell shot forward, scattering a trail of magic power behind it.

“Kuhuk!”

The bullet struck the demon’s chest.

“Y-You trash…!”

To my surprise, Grahamson withstood the first bullet. It seemed he wore quite a high level armor despite it being made of leather.

“Rise, my crea—”

However, a third rate villain deserved a cliché death. KWANG! I fired once again at his chest. The demon race’s weakness wasn’t its head, but the heart.

“…”

Grahamson died without being able to finish his sentence or summon his creations. He slumped and landed head first onto his throne. Ssss— Then his corpse turned into dust and scattered. Only a single book remained in his wake. I approached the throne and grabbed what I came for.

[Lv.6 Special Magic Record Book – Demon’s Cunning Speech] [Unique] Recorded Page: The owner of this book may cast the spells recorded inside using their magic power.

This book contained several skills and would serve me well. Using this as a medium, I could use the following effect skills:

Deceitful Quest — You may arbitrarily grant quests to players. The difficulty, rank, and reward of the quest can be set by the user. The reward does not have to be paid.

This skill would be perfect for pretending to be an NPC and ordering players around. After all, players were crazy when it came to quests.

Suggestive Voice — You may cast a hypnotic suggestion on yourself or others. However, you cannot make unrealistic or detailed commands. The effect of the hypnotic suggestion will increase with the amount of magic power used (more effective when cast on yourself or targets with low intelligence). When used, you may change your voice for 30 minutes (the hypnotic suggestion’s effect may increase or decrease depending on how trustworthy your voice sounds).

Casting hypnotic suggestions on others wasn’t particularly useful since it wouldn’t work on anyone stronger than me. However, self-hypnosis would be incredibly useful for training.

Cowardly Lie: You may infuse magic power into your lies towards players or NPCs. Overly unrealistic or nonsensical lies will not work, but believable lies will become more trustworthy.

This… Tiring— My messenger rang as I looked through the book.

CaptainBritain: Hajin, have you visited the shop?.

It came from Rachel.

Me: Shop?

CaptainBritain: The Brother and Sister Shop. That’s the only well-known shop in Prestige. Ah, have you not checked the community lately?

Me: No, I didn’t have time.

CaptainBritain: You can’t do that!! (#｀皿´)

A smile emerged on my face. Rachel never said much in person, but her texts always seemed incredibly expressive. Was it because of emoticons? She sounded especially cute.

CaptainBritain: Anyways, this Brother and Sister Shop is currently the most important named shop in the outer city. They’re selling potions now and its cheaper and higher quality than the ones in the inner city. I’m standing in line, so you should hurry over as well…

As I wondered how to reply to her long message…

— What is this place?

Someone’s voice echoed out from the other side of the cave.