The 31st Piece Turns the Tables

Chapter 44

Seol stared holes into the Shades’ Grace.

[[Shades’ Grace]

Quality: Treasure

Required Class: Shadow Summoner

Recommended Level: 15-25

Damage: 50

Durability: 75/75

Weight: 0.3kg

A crystal ball made to imitate the ability of Shades, the Shadow Black Spirit. The ability to control shadows was maximized through extensive research but because of it, there were unavoidable side effects.

Basic Effect: +5 Intelligence, +15 Wisdom, +2 Spirit

Bonus Effect: Shadow Hand increases by 1 rank. Shadow Space expands by 30%. Your Shadow Summons’ stats are decreased by 20%.]

“Ah…”

Seol couldn’t help but sigh.

There were really good effects but he just couldn’t let go of one thing…

- Is this good or nah?

- Ah… he’s fucked LOL

- WhyWhyWhyWhyWhy?

- It’s an item for someone else.

- For someone else? It’s a Shadow Summoner exclusive item though?

- There isn't just one kind of Shadow Summoner.

Like Seol’s viewers suggested, the direction Seol was heading as a Shadow Summoner was completely different from the type of Shadow Summoner this item was suited for.

‘This weapon is specifically useful for the Shadow Summoners who use many low-rank summons…’

A Shadow Summoner’s Shadow Summon could be split into two main categories.

The first was the Shadow Summoners like Seol who had a small number of extremely powerful summons.

For those cases, effects that give an increase or bonus to the summon’s stats were the most important.

‘But this weapon decreases the summon’s stats…’

The other category of Shadow Summoners were those that had an endless amount of low-level, weak summons.

For those cases, having more Shadow Space was more important than the individual summon’s stats. Since they were low-level summons anyway, the decrease didn’t even affect them too much.

- Ah… Blaine LMFAO

- I trusted you Blaine hahaha I guess he’s a bit of a ditz.

- Can he just take it back? LOL Ask him to give you something else!

- Blaine: I prepared this for you because I thought you might need it ^^ (proud)

The weapon Seol was currently using was this.

[[Full Moon Staff]

Quality: Rare

Recommended Level: 1-8

Damage: 22

Durability: 32/32

Weight: 0.8kg

A staff that absorbed energy from the holy moon. It is quite heavy.

Basic Effect: +10 Wisdom

Bonus Effect: All of your stats increase by 5% at night.]

The key stat, Wisdom, was not too different from Shades’ Grace and the bonus effect was usable.

‘That’s why I’m having a hard time…’

Seol thought for a moment then ended up putting the Shades’ Grace back into his inventory.

‘I guess I have no choice. I just have to go there.’

Seol finished organizing his equipment and entered Nobira.

And because of the issue with Shades’ Grace, Seol immediately headed to a place where he could solve his problem.

“You over there! Don’t cut in line!”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“Hmph!”

It was a place that didn’t have just rough-looking muscular men, it also had refined women and greedy child merchants.

“There’s a lot of stuff that’s been released into the market from the recent ruin expedition.”

“Did you see that? I’m talking about the treasure.”

“Oh, that? I saw it the moment they put it up.”

“But I wonder why they put that on auction…”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because it hasn’t found the right owner yet.”

“I mean it makes sense. Even if the item’s rare, who would pay that much money to buy it at that price?”

“From what I heard they’re not trying to sell it at that price but trying to trade it for another item.”

“That’s crazy… What about the auction house fees?”

“I mean all you have to pay if it doesn’t sell is the registration fee so I guess it’s none of their worries.”

“Ah, that’s true. Anyway, it’s nice to see something like that.”

Nobira’s auction house was one of the bigger auction houses in South Pandea.

Since Nobira was practically the origin of countless treasures, it was quite an enticing place for wholesalers and middlemen to visit.

There was also a place to search for items similar to how the Adventurer Association had a community function in their building.

That was how they were able to accommodate the sheer number of visitors. If it wasn’t for that, Nobira’s auction house would’ve ended up an uncontrollable mess.

Seol posted the unnecessary consumables and miscellaneous items he received from his Adventures on auction.

Since Seol didn’t have the Negotiation talent, it would’ve been hard for him to receive a fair price for the items he posted if he went to an ordinary shop.

The consumables he put on auction were practically sold the moment he posted them.

It might have been because the continuous Adventures made consumables a scarce resource for other people.

However, since that was unrelated to Seol, the only thing he did was check the items listed to see if there was anything he could use.

‘Summoners can’t equip gaiters so… I should probably look for pants, weapons, or accessories, right?’

Seol had suitable equipment for his other slots but his weapon was low quality, his pants had no bonus effects, and his accessory slot was empty.

Seol’s fingers quickly scrolled through the list.

He set the category to the items he wanted and read through everything as he scrolled down. And as he was doing so, his fingers stopped on one item.

“Hm? What’s… this?”

There were many items, especially equipment, listed on the auction with unusual effects.

The majority of them were ‘Special’ quality items with some ‘Rare’ quality items, the quality right above Special.

However, even if they were rare items, oftentimes the effects were duds so they only went for a proper amount if a decent effect was attached to the item as well.

But the quality of the item that Seol’s finger stopped on right now was…

‘A Treasure quality item?’

Furthermore, it was a Treasure quality weapon.

Equipment for more important slots often went for double or even triple the price of items in different slots.

Seol checked the item’s effects.

[[Gallotta’s Tongue]

Quality: Treasure

Required Class: Shadow Summoner

Recommended Level: 14-23

Damage: 42

Durability: 68/68

Weight: 0.2kg

A treasure completed with the tongue of Gallotta, the pitch-black snake. The powers of the snake that emits shadows is imbued into this item. However, because Gallotta’s shadow venom has seeped into this item, there is a danger of the weapon poisoning its user.

Basic Effect: +22 Wisdom

Bonus Effect: Your Shadow Summons’ stats are increased by 15%. The chance Shadow Summon passes on a skill when used is increased by 20%. Every 6 hours, there is a certain chance the user becomes poisoned by shadow venom.]

‘Gallotta’s Tongue!’

Gallotta, the pitch-black snake, was a notorious monster.

Not only was Gallotta’s shadow venom dangerous, but its ability to take many hits drove many players to their deaths.

Gallotta also wasn’t the name of a specific snake but a general term used for the massive black snakes that would appear from time to time in the ruins near the Great Forest.

‘And that’s why I didn’t aim for it.’

You could find a Gallotta anywhere in the Great Forest but that was also just another way of saying that you might not be able to find it no matter how hard you searched.

And because of that, it wasn’t a monster that was worth taking the time to hunt.

‘No, before that… Gallotta’s Tongue actually dropped?’

Gallotta had a low chance of dropping Treasure quality equipment.

The majority of them had amazing effects but a few of them had critical defects.

For example, like Gallotta’s Tongue that Seol was looking at right now.

Becoming poisoned by shadow venom might look like a trivial defect at first but it was in fact a serious danger to the user.

‘Shadow venom might not be a lethal poison but the antidote for it isn’t known.’

It was a poison that slowly made you lose your senses.

The antidote wasn’t widely known to the world and the ingredients for the antidote were also difficult to acquire near the Great Forest.

‘So that’s why they registered it on the auction house.’

It was also a possibility that the original owner was poisoned by the shadow venom.

An item this great could be sold directly to the black market and even if it was a huge price to pay, any Shadow Summoner would be tempted to buy it.

However, considering that this item was registered on the auction house and hasn’t been sold… it could only be for that reason.

‘Well that’s that, but… who could it be?’

Gallota’s Tongue was not an easy item to acquire. The person or group who acquired this had to be someone who is widely known for their skill around Nobira.

‘The most likely group is probably someone from the ruin hunter faction.’

The others rarely, if ever, enter ruins and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to defeat a Gallotta.

Therefore, the item most likely came from them.

‘I should gather more information. If I could just come into contact with the person who owns the item…’

Seol didn’t want to meet the owner of Gallotta’s Tongue for some other special reason.

‘It’s just too expensive as it is right now.’

Even if Seol combined all of the currency he had on hand right now, it wouldn’t even come close to meeting the minimum price set for Gallotta’s Tongue.

‘I guess there’s no choice…’

Seol waited in line for a while and before eventually getting his turn with one of the auction house’s managers.

“Hello, I am Rita, one of the auction house’s managers. Are you here to register an item at the auction house?”

“Yes.”

“Then please place your item here.”

With a hint of regret, Seol placed the Shades’ Grace in a spot where other people couldn’t see.

Place.

The manager’s face grew stiff the moment she saw the item.

“Th-this is…”

“Why? Is something wrong?”1 to

“No, not at all. It’s just quite the item… hm… What would you like the minimum bid amount to be?”

Seol remembered Gallotta’s Tongue’s minimum bid amount and said the same number.

“Please make it 200 platinum coins.”

“A-Are you sure you’d like to set the price that high when a buyer might not appear?”

“It’s fine.”

Seol had plenty of time and he wasn’t in a rush to change his weapon.

There was also a chance that the owner of Gallota’s Tongue realized his intentions and requested a 1-to-1 trade as well.

‘The odds of that are low though.’

Regardless of whichever of the two happens, Seol was happy with it.

Someone could buy Shades’ Grace and Seol could use the money from that to buy Gallotta’s Tongue or the person who owned Gallotta’s Tongue could request a 1-to-1 trade with the Shades’ Grace.

Rita, the manager, then asked another question.

“Would you like us to proceed as a proxy sale?”

“Yes, could you please do that?”

“Understood. However, we would like to request that you visit the auction house every day considering the item you are selling is something like that.”

“Okay.”

Seol sold a few more items then left the auction house.

And a few moments later, Rita left the auction house through a back door and handed a note to a rough-looking man.

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

Seol then headed to the Adventurer Association to see if anything had changed in Nobira while he was gone. And as expected, the best way to learn about recent news was the community.

[ (NEW) [<We’reFucked>’s Post]

[Post Date: Just now]

[Title: You guys said Nobira would be peaceful now that Borgo was gone.]

Whoever said that Nobira would be peaceful should go and repent 😑 Nobira is fucking crazy right now…

Is this a new cold war?

- Seriously, I’m worried I’ll get stabbed while I’m walking down the street…

- That fucking Heka, the Lion of the Ruins? Or whatever his name is, is fucking annoying.

- Can you say that to Heka’s face?

‘Heka?’

Seol had also heard quite a few things about Heka while looking into Chao.

Before Borgo died, Nobira’s big-shot ruin hunters were split into five factions.

And after one of the factions disappeared due to Seol, the other four factions started competing more closely with each other.

‘Did something happen during that tense time?’

[ (NEW) [<DieHeka>’s Post]

[Post Date: A week ago]

[Title: How did things become like this? The people who know, know.]

You all know that Heka sided with Doju and Kibo sided with Shur, right? Everyone knows this much at least, right? Apparently, the two factions thing was going well for a while until something happened to Kibo’s faction. Heka and Doju noticed that Kibo was getting weak so they started getting aggressive to take over all of Nobira. You all know it too, right? Even though this place is a gathering of low-lives, there’s a lot of money being moved around so whoever ends up taking over everything will become massive.

- What happened to Kibo and Shur’s faction?

- I know for a fact that it’s something that happened to Kibo’s side. There’s nothing wrong with Shur’s faction.

- Kibo sensei our lone wolf 😭

- Please protect Nobira, Kibo-chan!

- I think I’m going to go crazy… Kibo’s faction is the moderates so they’re nice to transferees but Heka’s side uses transferees like fucking meat shields so it’s obvious what’s going to happen if they take over Nobira.

- I just barely found my footing in Nobira too, sigh… Should we leave Nobira now?

- Would it be better if we go to Kongory? I heard it’s livable there now with Han Yeo-myeong and the guild alliance there…

- I’m just being careful because I’m worried I won’t be able to find a party after going there…

Seol had a general idea of what was happening after reading this post.

‘So the balance is messed up. I guess they’re all tense now?’

Since Seol wasn’t tied down to hunting ruins like the others, it was entirely someone else’s worry to him. He was also no longer somebody who had to worry about getting swept up in conflicts like this either.

Seol kept looking through posts to see if there was any other news.

‘Hm?’

And as he was, he found a post related to him.

[ (NEW) [<BreakingNews>’s Post]

[Post Date: Just now]

[Title: ‘Private’ showed up in Nobira.]

Posts about ‘Private’ started to appear on the community.