“Pardon? I didn’t give you a business card?”
When Woo-joo pointed out that Park Si-woo had given him a Bronze Hammer instead of a card, Park Si-woo responded by widening his eyes and asking back.
“If you had given me a card, I would have called you when the staff at the door turned me away.”
“Hmm~.”
For the record — Woo-joo had no memory of receiving a business card from him.
A business card was someone’s name tag, their identity.
However briefly the Bronze Hammer had dazzled him — he wasn’t the kind of person who would lose a business card someone had handed him.
“Haha. Well, better late than never.”
He paused as if searching his memory, hand on his chin, then produced a card from his pocket and held it out with a smile.
That was how he was going to slide past that?
Well. He supposed it wasn’t bad.
“Anyway — I assume the reason you’ve come to see me today is weapons?”
Obviously.
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think you’d be looking to extend the rental.”
“No. A new weapon — oh, right, Enchanter-nim.”
“Yes?”
“How much can I get for a Particularly Radiant Special Enhancement Stone?”
This.
He’d briefly touched on it with Seo I-an outside too.
Seo I-an had declared she absolutely had to have it.
He’d told her he’d think about it.
Big-ticket items, like medical procedures — you didn’t check with just one place.
“A special enhancement stone?”
“Yes.”
Park Si-woo’s eyes went briefly wide, then the corners crinkled again.
“So you got that as the top-place reward from this Special Floor.”
“Yeah. More or less.”
Claiming he was just curious was already a lost cause — he’d put up a community post about it. No taking that back.
Park Si-woo would have known that too, which was why he’d left a comment asking Woo-joo to come by the Association shop.
But then he’d turned him away at the door?
Even thinking about it again, the treatment made no sense.
What if he’d gone and sold it to a different Enchanter on the spot?
Not hypothetically — Seo I-an had been standing right there, begging him to sell it to her.
“The average market price is around 300,000 TC……”
A staggering number for what was essentially a fist-sized rock.
“If you’re actually thinking of selling — I’ll buy it from you at 400,000 TC.”
“Awakened Seo I-an was offering 500,000 TC.”
A bald-faced lie, delivered without blinking.
“600,000 TC.”
The negotiation unfolded exactly as intended.
Yes! That was the move!
“Then let me see the weapons.”
At his words, Park Si-woo beckoned him to follow, as if he’d been waiting for exactly this.
“Are you staying with the light bowgun form?”
“Yes.”
“How about the 3-Star Misty Light Bowgun?”
“What’s that?”
“A special weapon with a built-in exclusive skill. In this case, attacks have a certain chance to generate mist that deals additional damage-over-time.”
“How much?”
“With the options attached, it comes to exactly 600,000 TC.”
“Oh? The number lines up remarkably well, doesn’t it.”
Having been through the Ragcho experience, he deliberately held Park Si-woo’s gaze as he asked.
Was this person also quoting prices calibrated to match exactly what he had on hand?
It wasn’t an unreasonable suspicion.
“Without the options, a plain 3-Star Light Bowgun is available at 300,000 TC.”
And with that he produced the plainly named 3-Star Light Bowgun.
He didn’t want to say this out loud, but — it looked genuinely underwhelming.
That thing was 300,000 TC?
“……Could I get a higher-grade weapon if I added more TC or cash on top?”
If he was going to invest in a weapon, might as well aim for the top end.
As far as he knew, 5-Star was only available in America and China — the highest grade available domestically was 4-Star.
He fell into thought, and Park Si-woo, with an instinct sharper than his face suggested for someone calling themselves Korea’s top Enchanter, spoke up.
“Awakened-nim. What level are you at, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Out of nowhere.
“Why do you ask?”
Park Si-woo answered with a smile.
A habit among Association people, apparently — replacing answers with smiles.
Though he seemed to be the only one who physically twitched his lip corners.
Either way, Woo-joo answered the question honestly.
“24.”
He’d rested the day after the Special Floor, so his level hadn’t moved.
“From the look of things you’re hoping for a 4-Star weapon, but 4-Star and above have a minimum equip level of 80.”
Oh.
An absolute brick wall.
It didn’t matter how much TC he had. He couldn’t use it.
Well — he could technically acquire it.
“Would it be that I can’t equip it?”
“You can equip it — but zero stats apply. Everything gets capped at 1, and you could end up weaker than fighting bare-handed.”
So he could buy it, but couldn’t use it. Verdict reached.
“Do 4-Star light bowguns exist?”
“If you need one, I can go into the workshop today and make one for you.”
Park Si-woo said it like it was nothing remarkable.
Was this the dignity of Korea’s current top Enchanter.
He seemed slightly different from how he’d looked before.
“But one special enhancement stone wouldn’t be enough for that.”
He looked at Woo-joo with the expression of someone saying not even close, and smiled.
God, what even was the price?
“How much is a 4-Star light bowgun?”
“2,000,000 TC base for the unmodified version, plus additional depending on the options attached.”
These people were out of their minds.
Not even close was right.
2,000,000 TC — how much was that in cash.
At his own exchange rate, that was already 14 billion won.
Plus additional options on top of that?
“Do many people use 4-Star weapons?”
At that price range, even rankers would feel the pinch, wouldn’t they?
If even they weren’t using them, was there any reason for him to bother?
His interest started quietly redirecting.
“Not many — but all top-five rankers carry 4-Star. And for an Enchanter like me, all the materials come from inside Towers — for safety and efficient gathering, I’m fully kitted out in 4-Star as well.”
Just what exactly did Enchanters do?
It was starting to look like they were raking in more than the combat Awakened.
“You’ll be stuck on 3-Star weapons until Level 80 anyway. And the sooner you have a good 3-Star in hand, the smoother your growth will be — that goes without saying.”
Well.
Hearing it laid out like that — it made sense.
“Are there other 3-Star light bowguns besides the Misty one?”
Why specifically the Misty?
“There are versions with Flame, Lightning, and Frost in the name — but those are trait-specific. Otherwise, tell me your actual trait and I’ll match something to it. Even if I don’t have the inventory right now, I can go into the workshop and make it for you today.”
He thought about it.
A Intrude Light Bowgun almost certainly didn’t exist.
And even if it did, he had the distinct feeling it would be completely useless.
Something like Intrusion speed increased as a supposed “option” — that alone would cause his morale to collapse like a breached dam.
“……The Misty one seems best.”
“My thoughts exactly. ……But are you genuinely thinking of selling the special enhancement stone?”
“Are you reconsidering now?”
Look at this person.
Their conversation had been going perfectly smoothly a moment ago.
“Haha. Not at all. What I put in the comment was sincere. If you’re selling, sell to me — I’ll give you the best price. That said, as a word of advance notice to a pure and unsuspecting new Awakened: that item is difficult to obtain even with TC. It doesn’t drop from easy-to-find materials.”
Come to think of it — he did have one special enhancement stone fragment.
Ten fragments could be combined through the Crafting Codex to make one. He’d been running both his own Tower and multiple intrusions, and had found exactly one in all that time.
Even so.
“Would keeping it actually be useful?”
“If you plan to continue climbing Towers, holding onto it is the right call. If not, you can go ahead and sell. Special enhancement stones are used for upgrading 4-Star or higher items from level 5 to level 6.”
Far more informative and genuinely helpful than the system’s Drag to the item you wish to specially enhance to initiate special enhancement! nonsense.
And it made the decision easier.
If you plan to continue climbing Towers, holding onto it is the right call.
He was a growth-specialist Awakened. If he wasn’t going to climb Towers, who was?
Obviously there was a face that crossed his mind the moment that thought arose, but setting that aside——
At some point, the Tower had started giving him something he could only describe as a sense of purpose.
Which was why he wanted to keep going as long as he had the capacity.
Which meant.
“I’ll sell.”
Strong weapon acquired = faster growth.
If you plan to continue climbing Towers, holding onto it is the right call.
But that didn’t mean right now.
And the special enhancement stone was only usable when he had a 4-Star or higher item upgraded to level 5 — which he was nowhere near.
Better to put it into circulation and let it grow than to hold it and let it sit.
“Hmm.”
Park Si-woo raised an eyebrow briefly as if puzzled, then produced the 3-Star Misty Light Bowgun.
And so they settled the remaining rental fee for the borrowed light bowgun, then completed the exchange.
“Oh — and this is a gift to mark the renewed transaction. I hope it proves useful.”
Smile.
He’d thought the business was concluded, but Park Si-woo reached into his inventory and produced a stack of something, handing it over.
Another Bronze Hammer?
No, it wasn’t.
How many was this — one, two…… exactly 10 bottles.
Transparent bottles shaped like recovery potion vials, each about half-full of a milky white liquid with a slightly watery appearance.
“You really didn’t need to give me this many — or, wait, is this because the purchase amount was so high?”
“There’s admittedly some truth to that.”
“Thank you, Enchanter-nim!”
No reason to refuse free items.
Express gratitude first.
“But what are these?”
Get the answer second.
Park Si-woo explained, calmly, as though he’d expected the question.
“A debuff-cleanse potion, given in anticipation of our next meeting. You’ll want to carry these starting from Floor 20.”
“Floor 20 is where debuffs start showing up?”
“Speed reductions, minor stat decreases, slight damage penalties — that kind of thing. More annoying than devastating, but in a boss timed-attack situation, that small difference between numbers can be the thing that costs you the clear. It happens.”
But Woo-joo’s customers never asked for these.
Oh — were they just that essential that everyone already had them?
Items that were universally necessary — like recovery potions — tended not to be the things people asked for. The Seo I-an low-grade recovery potion situation was the first and last time he’d seen that happen.
Either way — useful from Floor 20 onward. Free. Ten of them.
“I’ll put these to good use!”
“Don’t use them carelessly — the approach should be saving them for when things are really difficult, one at a time. Unlike recovery potions, these have a cooldown.”
He checked the inventory entry and sure enough — 1-hour cooldown was printed in tiny text at the bottom. The kind of fine print you’d find on an insurance policy.
Use one to clear a debuff, get hit by the same debuff again, and you’d be stuck waiting a full hour.
……Were these actually useful?
A brief moment of internal doubt.
And then, something at the far end of his inventory caught his eye.
“Oh — Enchanter-nim!”
“Yes?”
“Would you happen to buy special enhancement stone fragments?”
Ten Special Enhancement Stone Fragments could be combined through the Crafting Codex into one Particularly Radiant Special Enhancement Stone.
Eventually there’d come a day he’d gather the materials and use one himself — but given that he’d just sold the completed stone, there was no point holding onto the raw materials.
Better to put what he had into circulation now, and gather again later.
But that expression — why was it doing that?
“……You have one of those? May I ask where you found it?”
The composed expression Park Si-woo had maintained throughout their entire conversation had, for the first time, developed a hairline crack.
Very small. But visible.
“Yes. Inside a Tower.”
……What was that reaction about. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked.