Tower Floor 18.
Stone Hawk Mining Zone.
Oh. Nice.
Cool air. A gentle breeze passing through, pleasantly drying the sweat on his skin.
Just moments ago he’d been on the verge of steaming to death in his un-air-conditioned apartment in the middle of summer. This place was paradise.
— Clang clang!!
He was briefly taking it all in when a sharp metallic ringing cut into his ears.
Coming from deeper in the mine.
He started walking.
Whether it was the Featherweight skill or not, his steps felt noticeably lighter and faster than before.
The inside was wider and more comfortable than he’d expected.
He followed the sound for a while. In the distance, huge sparks were arcing diagonally up into the air.
“Hm. Shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
The silhouette was unmistakably human. Had to be the floor’s player.
He moved quietly toward where Hwang Gyu-beom was.
Their eyes met — clunk!
He got ahead of it before he could be mistaken for a monster and attacked.
“Hey there. I’m NPC Bunny! Wandering merchant!”
Adding -nya at the end of that was still not something he was capable of.
His feelings on the matter hadn’t changed since yesterday and weren’t going to.
And more to the point — he was a rabbit. What would -nya have to do with anything.
“A wandering merchant!”
Hwang Gyu-beom — scruffy-faced, mid-swing with a greatsword — immediately dropped everything and came sprinting toward him.
“Wait — you need to finish those off first!!”
Woo-joo shouted and gestured at the Gwiams filing up in a single-file line behind him like ducklings.
He now knew that hitting a Gwiam produced a clang sound, and killing one produced a crunch.
Hwang Gyu-beom tidied up the area, panting and wiping sweat from his face, then fixed Woo-joo with an earnest look.
“A wandering merchant? Never seen one of those before. So what are you selling?”
“……This and that.”
“Anything to eat?”
Hwang Gyu-beom, who looked to be in his mid-forties, asked with eyes that were almost embarrassingly bright.
“Of course.”
He’d read the man’s post about being hungry before coming in, so naturally he’d filled his inventory with food.
“I knew it! I had a good feeling! Heh heh heh!”
He laughed heartily. Woo-joo smiled faintly in return and emptied his inventory of what he’d brought.
“Oh oh oh……! A Big Mac combo! Not quite as filling as rice soup, but still — more than enough to keep me going!”
He’d have bought something heartier like rice soup if he’d known it was an older man. He’d assumed from the name it was someone younger — shouldn’t have judged that way.
“Anyway — how much!”
His exchange rate: 7,000 won per 1 TC.
A Big Mac combo: around 20,000 won in cash.
Doing the exact math felt like effort, so he decided to round up.
“All together, a mere 10 TC.”
“That’s so expensive——!”
Hwang Gyu-beom’s eyes went immediately, tragically dewy.
……A middle-aged man on the verge of tears.
Of all the kinds of tears in the world, a father’s hit differently.
“Then just the burger without the sides, how much……?”
He asked in a small voice.
Giving up the fries and the drink.
But seeing someone get like this over food was just sad. He’d gone hungry himself as a kid. He understood.
“……You’ll choke without something to drink. Just take it all for 3 TC.”
“Are you sure that’s alright!”
He basically just charged him cost price.
Hwang Gyu-beom bounced back in an instant.
A man whose face showed everything he was feeling.
Which meant he was just that transparent, that genuine.
“But are you alright with that? A merchant shouldn’t be selling at a loss……!”
He’d gone from smiling to frowning again in a second.
This man — why was he so visibly, immediately honest about everything?
Woo-joo hid the smile that slipped out naturally behind his mask and kept talking.
“In exchange, you’ll keep hunting afterward, right?”
“Naturally!”
He looked around.
Blue glowing patches everywhere — perfect markers for every gatherable spot.
Ideal conditions for trying out the Tower pickaxe Ragcho had said would be useful for gathering.
Good opportunity too, to observe how an Awakened treated a wandering merchant NPC in a situation like this.
“Then can you keep an eye on me? I want to pick up a few things around here in exchange for the food — I just can’t have monsters getting in the way.”
Please say yes. This falls apart if you don’t.
He kept the inner tension contained and studied Hwang Gyu-beom’s expression from behind the mask.
“Hmm? Is this a quest from an NPC? But nothing’s showing up in my system window……”
He tilted his head and stared into the air — checking his system window, probably — then nodded.
“I’ve got to hunt anyway, so it’s no trouble at all! Better when we can help each other out!”
Perfect. He smiled to himself inwardly.
Now that he had a clear yes, he handed over all the food.
He needed some uninterrupted time to work through the Gather and Synthesize skills properly. Having the aggro taken care of was ideal.
Looking at it now, this man’s kill speed was slow.
Which, from Woo-joo’s perspective, meant more room to move around at leisure.
Whether he sensed any of this or not, the man started crying.
“Bwaaah! Today was especially rough — I kept going back and forth on whether to give up and leave the Tower because I was so hungry! I hit hard but slow, so even running the same floor again takes me way longer than most people!”
He ate his burger between sobs, like a man eating bread dampened with tears.
“Don’t you have any AoE skills?”
“If I did, it wouldn’t take this long. Hahaha.”
He gave an awkward laugh.
“But if you know it takes this long, why not bring food with you?”
Real-world items could be put in inventory and brought in.
An Awakened’s inventory was usually packed with Tower drops and necessary gear — space was always tight. But surely there was room for at least something?
“I did bring food. I just already ate it all.”
“So you brought less than you needed today?”
“I bring the same amount every time. Past that — I just go hungry!”
“Sorry?”
“But today I got lucky, didn’t I? You appeared right in front of me! Thanks to you I got to eat — I’m grateful!”
Hwang Gyu-beom smiled with his whole face.
Woo-joo smiled too, though of course with the mask on, the man couldn’t properly see it.
“Ah, since we’re resting a moment — would you like to see a family photo?”
“Sorry?”
He hadn’t even agreed yet.
The man produced a family photo and showed him.
It was a picture of him grinning brightly alongside a girl who looked about five or six.
“Is that you and your younger sister? She’s adorable!”
What he’d actually wanted to ask was where’s your wife?
But asking outright would’ve been rude.
“Hahahaha! With this much of an age gap and you say younger sister! A wandering merchant knows how to flatter, unlike a Tower Merchant!”
He laughed openly. Then——
“She’s my daughter. The ex-wife said I was too boring and plain for her and left for someone else.”
He dropped that heavy detail with a smile, completely without warning.
“Oh……”
“But life has its way of turning things around — I was at a loss for how to raise my daughter alone when suddenly I Awakened. Thanks to that, she’s growing up wanting for nothing! Things worked out!”
He laughed again, bold and easy.
A genuinely positive person. The kind of adult worth learning from.
“Truth be told, the Tower isn’t just about the money for me. I do it because I want the Korea my daughter grows up in to be safe. This is only Floor 18, but the TC I sell to the Association goes toward making equipment for the rankers. So me steadily grinding this floor over and over — it’s all part of keeping the country safe!”
The more they talked, the more he liked him.
He couldn’t let this continue. He was actually going to get attached at this rate.
An NPC shouldn’t play favorites.
So he changed the subject.
There was something that had been nagging at him anyway.
The family photo.
It hadn’t come out of a pocket — it had come out of his inventory.
“One thing — the photo isn’t very bulky. Couldn’t you just carry it on you, and use that inventory slot for food instead?”
“What if I lost it! Absolutely not!”
A kind, straightforward person. But with a stubborn streak in unexpected places, and logic that didn’t always follow.
That was his first impression of Hwang Gyu-beom, settled.
— Clang clang!
The noise of Gwiam and greatsword crashing against each other rang out noisily to one side.
[Weapon] Iron Pickaxe
[Skill] Swing the pickaxe at a gatherable spot 1–3 times to complete gathering!
He took the Tower pickaxe out of his inventory and held it, reading the status window that appeared.
Weapons have their own skills?
He’d learned today that some item effects only appeared when the item was held in hand. The description hadn’t shown up while it was sitting in inventory.
Still no combat skill materializing, though.
He decided to count his blessings — at least his fingertips would survive today.
More importantly……
His gaze kept drifting to a glimmer at the far end of the tunnel.
The moment he touched it, the Crafting Codex activated.
The Miscellaneous tab was lit up — he pressed it again.
[Equipment Upgrade]
[Recipe] : Iron Pickaxe × 2 = Silver Pickaxe
Ah. So that’s why the Association Enchanter wanted me to buy one and sell it to him — so he could combine two into a Silver Pickaxe.
Must be a significant upgrade.
He’d try it out for himself first, though.
He walked toward a cluster of glowing mineral deposits in the mining zone.
Lifted the pickaxe — and brought it down.
Clang clang! — chunks of ore started flying out.
Definitely smoother than before.
Being on Floor 18 instead of Floor 40 meant the success rate was drastically higher, too.
And with the weapon skill — two or three swings and gathering was complete.
The time it took had been cut dramatically.
Trusting Ragcho’s recommendations was the right call.
Some time passed.
— Ding!
[100 successful gathers completed!]
[Rank Up!]
[Rank F] → [Rank D]
Gathering speed and success rate increased!
“Oh.”
Gather ranked up.
And then——
“Ha.”
The thought that Synthesize probably also needed 100 successes to rank up produced an involuntary sigh.
Do I need to deliberately intrude on low floors specifically to rank up Synthesize?
That thought in the background, he opened the Crafting Codex to try synthesizing with what he had.
Two tabs were lit — one was the Miscellaneous ‘ㅇ’ section.
[Particularly Radiant Special Enhancement Stone]
The materials needed were 10 Special Enhancement Stone Fragments.
He’d only gotten one today — rare drop, apparently. So that one would have to wait.
The other was Miscellaneous ‘ㄱ’.
[Gwiam Gastric Acid Condensate, Extreme Corrosive]
Materials: 50 Gwiam Gastric Acid Condensate.
The item description read: This is the gastric acid of a Gwiam, a creature that chews and swallows stone. Extremely dangerous if consumed by others!
As if anyone would think to drink it.
Just imagining it made his stomach turn.
And beyond that — no further information.
No indication of what it was for, or how to use it.
He marveled once again at the system’s relentless unfriendliness, and placed 50 Gwiam gastric acid condensates onto the Codex page.
The synthesis produced——
[Gwiam Gastric Acid Condensate, Extreme Corrosive]
— Can be applied to a weapon once!
A surprisingly useful-looking item.
The gastric acid of a creature that ate stone.
Meaning: it corroded stone.
If I apply this to the bowgun and shoot — could it automatically gather for me?
He looked toward the far end of the narrow passage — where a massive cluster of light was glowing.
Not actually one massive patch, but so many gathered in one spot that they blurred into a single glow.
He’d noticed it almost from the moment he’d entered the mine. Probably half his attention had been on it the whole time.
It was just that bright.
What would have to be buried there for it to shine like that? Or how much of it was there?
What had started as a vague curiosity somewhere in the back of his mind had gradually wrapped itself around his ankles and refused to let go.
I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight if I leave without getting to that.
He wanted to sprint over and start digging right now — but it was deep in a corner, and the tunnel kept narrowing toward it.
There was no way to physically swing a pickaxe in there.
Why would something so promising be wedged somewhere so inaccessible?
What if he dissolved the rock with the condensate instead?
Honestly, that seemed like the only option.
“Wandering merchant! The boss should be coming soon!”
Hwang Gyu-beom called out to him, wiping sweat and grime from his face.
“You should probably stay back — rocks are going to be flying everywhere.”
He was actually glad to see that. Being treated like a real person, not just an NPC to brush past.
“There’s one thing I want to try before I go.”
He pulled the light bowgun out of his inventory.
And then——
[Skill Bloom!]
[Skill ‘Rapid Fire’ obtained!]
“What’s happening!”
“Just a moment!”
He moved his fingers quickly.
Unmistakably combat-type skill vibes.
He wanted to check it immediately.
[Rapid Fire] — F Rank
When using a ranged or thrown weapon, a phantom shot follows and fires one additional round!
The corners of his mouth lifted behind the mask.
Yes! Finally! A combat skill!
A brief question crossed his mind — did the combat skill only unlock when he physically held a weapon? — but this wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
He carefully coated the light bowgun with the Gwiam Gastric Acid Condensate, then waved Hwang Gyu-beom over.
“Sir! Come over here for a moment!”
“Hahaha! Of course! Can’t hurt to listen to a wandering merchant!”
He really did follow along easily.
Probably figured there was no downside to listening to an NPC.
“But what are you trying to do?”
He looked curious.
“Just going to melt a few things before I go.”