🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 9
The moment I woke up the next morning, I logged into the Hunter Community.
I was curious how people were reacting to yesterday’s incident at the Hunter Management Bureau.
But aside from that, the community was already exploding with all kinds of discussions.
[Is it true the tower records got broken again?]
[Every floor up to the 10th floor got a new fastest clear time.]
[Who the hell is it?]
[That’s not even the biggest issue. Did you guys see that an E-Rank hunter became B-Rank in only a week?]
[How does that even make sense?]
[There was a huge incident at the Hunter Management Bureau yesterday. Some people still don’t know?]
[Everyone’s probably going crazy trying to recruit him.]
[Apparently he politely refused. He’s already working for some guild called Gaya.]
[Gaya? What kind of place is that?]
I never imagined I’d become this famous while only being a B-Rank hunter.
No.
Technically, I was still only a C-Rank hunter.
“Looks like my little performance in front of the Bureau made a huge impact.”
And since I openly revealed that I was a growth-type hunter, the community would probably stay chaotic for a while.
A hunter who summoned dragons.
Whose rank could also grow.
And on top of that, someone breaking tower records.
Even I had to admit it sounded impressive.
“I wonder how long it’ll take to return to my original rank.”
The higher a dragon’s rank became, the slower its growth.
It required increasingly larger amounts of artifacts.
That was why it took me three years before my return.
But things were different now.
Through Gaya, I had started receiving massive amounts of artifacts.
At the very least, I would probably cut more than a year off that timeline.
“In the meantime, I should learn more about the Gold Dragon’s abilities.”
The Tower of Trials.
I already knew perfectly well how to clear it.
First, summon the Red Dragon.
Second, order it to wipe everything out.
Third, clear the floor with another fastest record.
But clearing the tower was not the only important thing.
The real catastrophe that would begin after the 100th floor.
At that point, the Gold Dragon’s healing and buff abilities would become even more important than the Red Dragon’s destructive power.
But honestly, there was still far too much I did not know about the Gold Dragon.
How many hunters could it buff simultaneously?
How strong could its weapon enhancement buff become?
Before reaching the point of the real disaster, I needed to fully understand every ability the Gold Dragon possessed.
And naturally, the best place to test those abilities was the Tower of Trials.
For now, I would climb the tower using only the Gold Dragon.
No Red Dragon.
***
[You have entered Floor 11.]
I summoned the Gold Dragon.
As my summoning skill evolved, this dragon had also grown significantly larger.
The Red Dragon was the one that directly evolved.
But because the summoning skill itself leveled up together with it, the Gold Dragon naturally became a C-Rank summon too.
A C-Rank Gold Dragon.
How much stronger had it become?
“Buff.”
The Gold Dragon’s aura intensified dramatically.
[The power of the Holy Gold Dragon flows through you.]
[Strong Body: C-Rank]
[Strength and agility permanently increase to a considerable degree.]
[Strong Mind: C-Rank]
[Mana within the body permanently increases to a considerable degree.]
The wording of the system message changed slightly.
Now it said my body improved to a “considerable” degree.
And just as the message suggested, I could already physically feel the difference even while standing still.
[The power of the Holy Gold Dragon flows into the Orc Sword.]
[Heavenly Light: C-Rank]
[Light-element attack power is added to the weapon for 10 minutes.]
Now the dragon acted automatically even without me saying anything.
The Orc Sword in my hand was instantly buffed again.
“Human… die.”
“Why do all of you keep repeating the same lines?”
Who exactly was killing who here?
Behind the orcs, dozens of wolves also appeared.
Of course, they were not ordinary wolves.
Just wolf-shaped monsters.
And starting from this point, the tower’s difficulty gradually increased.
Though honestly, that did not matter much.
“Come at me all at once.”
I casually swung my sword.
Since the weapon enhancement buff was active, every hit triggered a critical strike.
The orcs collapsed like dominoes from even the slightest touch.
Once the orcs were wiped out, the wolves behind them slowly closed in while growling deeply.
A pack of wolves.
They looked like predators slowly surrounding prey.
“If you’re going to attack, hurry up already.”
The next moment, five wolves charged at me simultaneously.
I quickly twisted my body and swung my sword at the nearest one.
[Blade of Light]
[Holy light performs an area attack.]
“What?”
That was when it happened.
A massive sword-shaped beam of light suddenly appeared in midair and slammed down vertically.
The wolf struck directly by it practically disintegrated into dust.
But that was not all.
BOOOOM!
A huge explosion erupted from the point where the light struck.
The blast happened incredibly close to me, but I was completely unharmed.
Only the wolves were caught in it.
The surrounding wolves were blown away in every direction.
And not only that, their bodies were ripped apart so badly that they became unrecognizable.
“Blade of Light…”
It seemed to be a new buff ability gained after the Gold Dragon evolved to C-Rank.
“How exactly did the weapon’s options change?”
I quickly checked the sword information.
[When attacking, there is a 10% chance that a Blade of Light appears and performs an area attack.]
A brand-new option had appeared at the bottom.
And now it even had area damage.
Blade of Light.
Though the activation chance was low, whenever it triggered, a sword-shaped beam descended from the sky.
And upon impact, it exploded.
At this point, it was basically like summoning lightning.
“This really is incredible. Good job.”
I almost felt guilty for relying only on the Red Dragon before my return.
Even someone like me, who had zero combat abilities, became this strong.
Which made me wonder just how terrifying these buffs would become if applied to a hunter specialized in combat.
***
[You have successfully cleared Floor 15 of the Tower of Trials.]
[Clear Time: 2 minutes 32 seconds.]
But I finally started hitting limits.
I broke fastest records on every floor until now.
But that streak ended on the 14th floor.
Two minutes and thirty-two seconds.
My clear time for Floor 15.
I thought it would still count as a new record.
But the “Fastest Clear” message no longer appeared.
Meaning someone already had a faster record.
“What kind of insane record exists here?”
I briefly exited the tower and checked the Hunter Community.
Fastest clear times for each floor were listed there.
The best record for Floor 15.
1 minute 10 seconds.
“What the hell? One minute and ten seconds?”
That was more than twice as fast as my own time.
Even though I was climbing using buffs alone, I never expected such a huge gap.
And this was with buffs personally granted by a dragon.
Whoever set that record was incredible.
A one-minute clear time…
Of course, if I summoned the Red Dragon, I could probably beat that too.
No.
I could likely clear it in under a minute.
But climbing the tower using my own combat ability made me greedy.
“Isn’t there any way to shorten the time without using the Red Dragon?”
Right then, the buff on my weapon expired and the sword returned to normal.
A rusty, worn-out Orc Sword.
“Come to think of it, this thing was lowest-grade trash.”
No matter how strong the enhancement buff was, the sword itself was still just an orc weapon.
“A true master doesn’t blame his tools?”
Nonsense.
Real masters used expensive tools.
Hunters were no different.
Changing just one weapon could completely alter how high someone could climb the tower.
Yeah.
It was finally time to get a proper weapon.
***
“Item crafting, huh…”
After returning home, I searched for information about crafting equipment.
I knew absolutely nothing about it.
I was originally a summoner-type hunter.
I rarely needed to swing weapons personally.
Naturally, crafting never interested me either.
“You need way too many materials.”
Various ingredients.
Enhancement stones.
And countless other crafting materials.
Crafting equipment required absurd amounts of resources.
“Do I just gather everything I can?”
Most crafting materials came from clearing gates.
The problem was that they only dropped in tiny amounts.
And the chances of getting top-tier materials were ridiculously low.
People even said crafting a single high-grade weapon could take several months.
Of course, there was one method that drastically shortened the process.
Raid rewards.
More specifically, World Boss Raids.
A national-scale raid held once every month.
If hunters defeated the boss monster inside, enormous amounts of magic stones and crafting materials were distributed.
It was the most efficient way to gather crafting resources quickly.
So the participation conditions were…
“Damn it.”
Each hunter guild could only send one representative.
And the difficulty itself was S-Rank.
It was even classified as a super-large gate.
This was not a place just anyone could enter because they wanted to.
Unless I planned to become a villain, I first needed permission from my guild.
***
“You want to participate in the raid?”
I went to find Lee Sunjin.
Even though Gaya was small, it was still an official hunter guild.
Naturally, it also had the right to send one participant to the raid.
Until now, Lee Sunjin himself always participated.
If I joined instead, he would lose that opportunity.
Yet surprisingly, he nodded immediately.
“I don’t mind if you participate in my place.”
“You don’t mind?”
“I wouldn’t get any rewards anyway.”
So that was why he gave it up so easily.
He could not get rewards anyway?
That was a problem.
“Why not?”
“The reward system is basically monopolized by the top-tier hunters.”
Apparently there were rules regarding reward distribution.
And those rules heavily favored the strongest hunters.
Since he had almost no chance of receiving rewards anyway, he simply handed the opportunity to me.
But honestly, this worked out perfectly.
“That’s not bad at all.”
“Not bad? I just told you the top hunters take everything.”
Of course, I was not a top hunter.
My dragons were simply strong enough to rival them.
“So when does the raid begin?”
