The 31st Piece Turns the Tables

Chapter 42

Seol’s viewers went wild when they saw Seol receive an item with a quality they hadn’t seen before.

[‘Us right now’ has donated 200 Madness!]

[*rubs eyes*... What? *rubs eyes even harder*]

- You’re rubbing your eyes right now? OMG me too.

- Damn I thought someone was spying on me…

- Peerless? What’s a Peerless?

[‘That’s insane’ has donated 300 Madness!]

[He got a Peerless item this fast?]

- I bet if you wear that belt in front of a girl, she’ll immediately try to introduce you to her parents lol

- Is this the first time a Peerless item popped up?

- I don’t know, I only watch this stream…

- You too? Me too…

- Peerless! Peerless!

- Woah… so this is how you get one of those…

- Weren’t you only able to get a Peerless item through excavating relics?

- So Lucifer appeared in Satan’s items…

- I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about but that scared me…

A Peerless item was born after the nine spirits were absorbed into the belt.

Peerless items were all one-of-a-kind items in Pandea and saying that they were difficult to find would be an understatement.

This was much more the case right now in the early parts of someone’s journey.

‘I can’t believe I got a Peerless item this early…’

Even Seol didn't predict this.

He thought Rainbow’s effect would increase slightly at best, he didn’t expect a piece of equipment that would surpass a Treasure quality item to come out.

‘What kind of effects does it have?’

Seol checked the effects of the first Peerless item he got.

[[Peerless: Space]

Quality: Peerless

Recommended Level: 10-30

Defense: 40

Durability: 150/150

Weight: 0.1kg

A belt with the power of nine spirits. It was designed by Griz and completed by Snowman. This belt is filled with immense energy and is perfect just by its existence. A price cannot be given for this item.

Basic Effect: +15 to All Stats

Bonus Effect: All-rounder (Unique), Spirit’s Barrier (Unique). Enhance a spirit skill of your choosing. The damage you take from elemental attacks is reduced by 10%.]

- …Is he graduating from the early game?

- Uh… I mean with an item like that, you could consider it?

- The above equipment shall sincerely rest on your waist at all times and for your services, we will graduate you…

- This is my first time seeing a Peerless item… Anyone else like me?

- It’s my first time seeing one too…

- It’s a bit of a shame that it’s a belt item but if you think of it like having a fixed item for one of your equipment slots, it’s not bad?

- The rest of his equipment looks like shit now because his belt is so good.

- I feel like he could beat everyone else with just his belt LOL.

- Wearing only a belt would just make him scarier LMFAO.

‘There’s another unique effect now?’

Only special treasures had unique effects.

Because each unique effect was powerful and had its own characteristics, Seol would’ve been satisfied if he even got one unique effect.

Seol then read the description for ‘All-rounder’.

‘There is a certain percentage of this effect triggering while you are active in combat. Temporarily increases a random stat by 5. This effect can stack up to 5 times and the same stat can be increased multiple times… hm…’

It was definitely a good ability. Simply, it increased your overall stats by 25.

However, Seol didn’t have the best expression.

‘What does ‘active’ include?’

Seol was worried about that.

In general, summoners weren’t too active in combat.

No to mention the fact that Seol invested all of his skill points into skills related to his summons so the most active he got in combat was when he dodged the incoming flying debris. Oftentimes, he mostly just stood still.

Seol pressed the ‘active’ part of the description, hoping his worries were wrong.

‘Summons… Summons… It applies to your summons as well. It’s written here!’

Thankfully, his worry ended up just being a worry.

Since it specified that a summon being active in combat triggered All-rounder as well, Seol was relieved.

‘I almost had an effect I couldn’t use.’

Seol was confident that if there was a useless effect on a good item that he had, he would likely lose sleep due to the stress.

And like that, the issue with the first effect was settled.

‘So then the next effect is ‘enhance a spirit skill of your choosing’, huh…’

When Seol pressed the ‘Enhance a spirit skill of your choosing.’ part of the description, something happened.

Pong! Pong! Pong!

Nine marbles appeared before him.

‘Is this… the element of each spirit?’

Despite the fact there were nine of them, one of the spirit elements kept drawing his eyes. Seol stared at it.

It was a pitch black spirit’s marble.

Seol didn’t think long before choosing that marble.

Just like how you don’t consider certain clothes when there’s a dress code to a party, Seol, as a Shadow Summoner, always sought the Black option.

Crumble…

When Seol selected the black marble, the other marbles disappeared and the black marble crumbled away before surrounding Seol.

[The shadow energy becomes stronger.]

[The black energy interacts with the Shadow Summoner’s skills.]

[Your maximum Shadow Space is increased by 15%.]

‘...Oh my god.’

It was a percentage increase to his maximum Shadow Space.

This was much more meaningful than simply increasing his base Wisdom stat.

When Seol thought about how much more Shadow Space he’d have in the Adventures ahead of him, the percentage increase was going to be extremely efficient for him in the long term.

‘No, even now it can be used to acquire a new summon.’

Having excess Shadow Space meant that he had the option to acquire a new summon after all.

- Is that good?

- This one’s kinda trash - me.

- Isn’t this really good for Shadow Summoners? I don’t really know it too well so I can’t judge though.

- Of course, it’s fucking good. All he does is increase his Wisdom stat, right? It practically has the same effect as it.

With that, Seol finished checking his new item’s second effect.

Seol could tell that the other effects were good with a simple glance too.

Spirit’s Barrier’s efficiency probably increased too and taking 10% less damage from elemental attacks was essentially the same as increasing your magic resistance by 10%.

- If this belt gives 10% magic resistance as well, where the hell did the game balancer’s conscience go?

- To space like the item’s name lol…

- You could pretty much use that belt as a weapon and it would still be super strong lmfao. I bet even the person getting hit by it would like it.

- Hit me more! Is this what an item that gives roughly 140 bonus stats feels like?!

- Choke me daddy! I-I’m so happy! I’m so happy, but… why is this belt so nice… no?

- What the fuck is wrong with you.

‘Is the only thing left the title?’

It was Seol’s first time receiving a special title.

And obviously, his expectations toward its effect were increasing by the second.

Seol read the title’s description.

[[Special Title: Peerless Item Owner]

Related Achievement: One of a Kind (Adventure: Ember)

Bonus Effect: You now have the right to challenge ‘Owner’.]

‘Ah, it was that.’

Owner.

It was a title you could challenge once you gathered a certain number of Peerless items.

‘Owner is definitely a good title, but… when will I be able to gather all of those Peerless items?’

Seol just now got his hands on his first Peerless item so he wondered when he’d be able to get his hands on more. This title felt like putting money into a frozen account you can only open 10 years later.

‘Well… I’ll just have to be faster than before.’

If it was going to take him too long to get more Peerless items, he just had to go faster.

Seol finished his self-inspection.

Color Study was an Adventure that was relatively longer than the other ones he had gone through before. It was also an Adventure that no one would have cleared other than Seol.

As such, he received rewards appropriate to that level of difficulty.

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

At dawn, Seol returned to where his ‘Color Study’ Adventure started.

“Snore… Snore…”

“Snore… Snore…”

The magicians snored as they slept. It was clear that they were exhausted from having to stay in one place for a long time.

“Aaaargh! Huh?”

“Hrgh… Huh?”

One of them must’ve had a nightmare since they woke up screaming. The two then blankly looked at Seol.

They then barely remembered what they were doing and forced themselves wide awake.

“W-Welcome! We were worried because you didn’t come back to get your containers inspected.”

“We were waiting for you, Snowman. Why don’t you sit here for a moment and comfortably talk about what happened? A-Also, could you not tell our master that we were dozing off…”

“I came to get them inspected.”

When Seol straightforwardly explained why he was there, the female magician in pigtails nodded before asking him a question.

“Did you capture them or kill them?”

“I captured them but you can essentially consider them dead.”

“...What?”

“I don’t know how to reopen them.”

Raise.

Seol showed them his belt. Because he couldn’t trust them, he still had the belt equipped on his body when he showed it to them.

“Uh… Hm… So… Huh?”

“Fryn, what is this?”

“I don’t know either…”

The two talked to each other for a moment before turning toward Seol and asking him a question again.

“Could you perhaps wait here for a moment?”

“Is there a problem?”

“We’re still apprentice magicians so we don’t know that much about spirit containers. But it just so happens that our master is visiting here. Would it be alright to show it to him?”

“How long will it take?”

“He’s right by. It will be just a moment.”

“I understand.”

As Seol was waiting, he remembered that the magicians had a relationship to one of his previous pieces, the Grand Duke of Frost.

‘If they’re a member of Zodiac… maybe I might know them?’

Because the Archmage who created Zodiac was himself, it wouldn’t be weird if Seol ran into someone who he knew from his previous piece.

Seol asked the magicians a question.

“What is that person’s name by the way?”

“Blaine. He is a pioneer of hail magic. Have you perhaps heard of our master?”

“Ah… I am not well educated so I haven’t heard of him. I will make sure to not forget him though.”

“You don’t need to go that far… it’s normal to not know him if you’re not a magician. However, he is quite famous amongst magicians.”

“How so?”

Seol rubbed his chin as he tried to recall the name ‘Blaine’. However, there was no one he could remember.

‘I mean it’s not like I know every magician…’

In fact, it would be stranger if Seol did know every magician in Zodiac, the Magic Tower Organization.

However, the man then said something which left Seol with a strange feeling.

“Do you know who the Grand Duke of Frost is?”

“The Grand Duke of Frost?”

“Yes, the legendary Archmage who also founded Zodiac.”

“...I have heard his name before, yes.”

It felt embarrassing to hear about his piece from someone else.

“A long time ago, when Blaine was held back by the Wall of Awakening, he received help from the Grand Duke of Frost to break through that wall. And after that, he became widely known as a pioneer of hail magic.”

“Ah, so it was that kid.”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing, I understand now. He is quite an incredible man.”

“I’m not just saying this because he’s our master too. He really is an incredible person who saw the legendary Grand Duke of Frost in person!”

The disciple clearly was proud of their master.

‘Blaine, I remember him now. So he’s that kid from back then.’

Seol, as the Grand Duke of Frost, went on countless journeys while doing countless good and countless inevitable bad.

Helping Blaine overcome the Wall of Awakening was something that was definitely categorized as one of the ‘good’.

- Sir… I can… I can feel my emotions running away from me. I feel neither anguish… nor sadness. I-Is this really okay?

Hail magic was a category of frost magic that had the same characteristics and side effects as it.

‘Once you pass a certain level, there is a danger of losing your emotions.’

It was a type of awakening called ‘Vanishment’.

However, if you had someone who could lead you through the awakening, you could reach the next level without experiencing the ‘Vanishment’ side effect.

To Blaine, that certain someone was the Grand Duke of Frost, and Seol, who was the Grand Duke of Frost, became his savior.

There were officially twelve Magic Towers in Pandea. Each Magic Tower was given the name of a constellation and were collectively called Zodiac.

‘Blaine… if it’s him there probably won’t be any issues.’

And even if there were issues, it wasn't hard to slip away from the situation.

A few moments later, the apprentice magicians made a small bird which flew toward something. A few moments after that, a clean-looking man came to them.

His face looked like someone who was in his early 30’s but his hair was completely white. His serious demeanor exerted a bit of pressure.

Fwooooosh… Step…

A cool breeze passed each time he took a step.

Seol watched him with a strange expression, the kind an uncle gives when they see their nephew or niece all grown up.

“...You lack training, Fryn.”

“Your standards are just too high, master… Did you expect me to summon a phoenix with just a basic spell like this?”

“The path of magic is quite far from contentment. You knew what you were getting into…”

“Ahem, ahem… Over there! Snowman’s waiting for you.”

“Regardless, why don’t we go back together in a bit and have a talk.”

“Tch… You’re so strict…”

Blaine quickly turned his head with a flick and looked at Seol. He then reached his hand out toward him.

“My name is Blaine and I’m responsible for managing the dispatched magicians from Aquarius. I was also dispatched here to be in charge of the damaged barrier stone situation.”

“Snowman.”

“Ah, you’re the person from the Pointy Mountains incident. We heard about you even far away from Kongory. I apologize for not being able to welcome you when you first arrived, I was away. I personally thought it was a shame as well.”

- S-So sweet…

- Blaine’s a hottie in this world too sheeesh

- This guy has everything… but he doesn’t have Snowman’s Peerless item!

Seol shook hands with him.

Most magicians preferred to not shake hands with other people.

Shaking hands with someone else meant admitting that they were equal to you. As such magicians, who were often filled with a sense of superiority from their intelligence, avoided handshakes.

Of course, magicians like that existed but Blaine was the opposite.

Seol felt comfortable talking with him.

“Thank you for the warm welcome, Blaine.”

“I heard that you brought your own spirit containers? Would it be alright if I check them?”

“Yes, please.”

“I ask for your understanding that I will be using magic. It’s just the procedures.”

Glow…

Blaine caused Seol’s belt to let out a soft glow.

Blaine, who closed his eyes to read the reactions from the belt, grimaced.

“N-No… No way.”

“Why, what’s wrong?”

“H-How… How did you get your hands on this belt?”

“I received it from someone I know.”

- You stole it though.

- Are stealing and receiving the same thing nowadays?

- It’s always these guys who are strong.

- Yeah, always those guys.

“Hm… Oho… Mrm…”

Blaine continued to inspect Seol’s belt with great interest. And then suddenly, he flicked his finger.

Flick!

[Blaine used Brain Freeze.]

“Master…”

“Why…”

The magicians who were watching behind Seol also froze up in an instant. Judging by how there were faint traces of frost on their faces, they were frozen.

Brain Freeze was likely a mind disorder spell.

Seol quickly backed up.

“Why did you…” asked Seol.

“This item is dangerous,” answered Blaine.