Chapter 56: 55. Call Your Boss
1.
In conclusion, the Ether Circle’s latent abilities were:
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【Latent Abilities】
[Enhancement +5 ─ Choose a Path]
[Deep Current] Drives circulation faster.
[Sedimentation] Broadens and deepens the circulation pathways.
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Since I knew nothing about magic, I asked Dolores.
"Um... if I can only choose one between making circulation faster or expanding the circulation pathways, which would be better?"
"Each has its merits and drawbacks... but expanding them would probably be better. Raising the speed too much could cause an overload."
So I chose [Sedimentation].
But then...
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【Latent Abilities】
[Enhancement +5 ─ Sedimentation]
[The circulation pathways deepen. Excess mana does not disperse and remains within the ring.]
[Enhancement +10 ─ Sedimentation]
[The retained mana settles and accumulates. The longer it is worn, the greater the stored amount.]
[Enhancement +15 ─ Backflow]
[The instant the wearer runs low on mana, the stored mana is forced back in all at once.]
[Enhancement +20 ─ ?????]
[???????]
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I must have reread the description for the Enhancement +15 latent ability three times.
"...The instant the wearer runs low on mana, the stored mana gets forced back in all at once..."
"Yes?"
"Is that really bad?"
Dolores fell silent in thought for a moment before quietly speaking.
"In battle, there will always be times when your mana is depleted. Using a large spell causes that temporarily."
"Ah..."
Then that meant...
In the end...
Yep, I gave up.
It felt like things might change if I reached Enhancement +20, but...
I looked down at the 1-star hammer in my hand.
"..."
Reach it? Yeah, right.
I could work my way through a one-percent cap with no destruction chance.
But 0.1 percent was a little much.
I wasn’t in any condition to overdo it, damn it.
"Should I sell it...?"
"It’s an Enhancement +16 piece of equipment... won’t you regret it?"
"Then could you test it once for me?"
Dolores took the Ether Circle into the Tower to test it.
A little while later, she returned with an ambiguous expression.
"How was it?"
She glanced down at the ring around her wrist.
"It surpasses every accessory I’ve ever worn. It’s on an entirely different level. Both its circulation and mana efficiency are overwhelming."
"Ooh."
"For a moment, I wanted it for myself. I was going to ask whether you might reconsider selling it."
"Really?"
It was that good?
I’d felt it ever since the Enhancement +20 old tree last time, but... the numbers gained from enhancement were no joke.
Dolores must have worn more than one or two pieces of equipment herself, yet even she was tempted by it.
However...
"But... after I used a large spell, my body went limp."
Dolores clenched and unclenched her hand.
"It’s incredibly good... but it’s an accessory with a trap built into it. There must be situations where it could be used, but the risk is too great. It cannot be managed."
And so the Ether Circle was judged to be all flash and no substance.
If I could reach Enhancement +20 and awaken a new latent ability, it might be different.
I might be a little sick with regret then, though...
"Why not give it a shot?"
Enchanting unique equipment was something nobody but me could do.
So I decided to put it up...
At the auction house.
2.
Floor 88, residential district.
The Dwarf Company.
At its front gate.
The Enchant Room.
It was always packed to begin with. Looking at the scene alone... it resembled a casino.
Anyone who wanted to use an appraisal device went to the Forge Tower, but most people headed to the Company.
But today, there were far more people than usual.
Murmur, murmur...
The residential district on Floor 88 was divided between the inside of the Forge Tower and the general residential area outside.
The Company was outside it.
All the lava and molten metal flowing through the Forge Tower flowed into the Company.
Normally, that meant it should be unbearably hot outside too, but...
The Dwarf Company had solved that problem for the climbers’ convenience.
They had demolished a section of the dwarves’ residential district, paid compensation, and built an enormous Enchant Room.
And today, that vast space...
Was filled to the brim with people.
"..."
There was one other strange thing.
This was a residential district, not a climbing zone.
There was no reason to fight here, so everyone usually dressed comfortably.
"..."
Not today.
"Verdandi... that’s Gale."
"Look over there, it’s Edin..."
"It really is. Why is he here...?"
They were fully geared up.
Armor covering their entire bodies, bows across their backs, gauntlets on their hands.
Rankers dressed as though they could head straight out to climb the Tower stood lined up in the middle of the space before the Company.
The problem was that no one moved.
Every one of them had their heads tilted slightly upward, staring at the same point in midair.
"How long until it ends?"
"One minute, eleven seconds."
The auction house interface.
And naturally, the item floating above it was the same for all of them.
The piece of equipment that had turned the Tower upside down for the past few days.
The 4-star unique equipment, Ether Circle.
It was the first unique equipment ever revealed to the public, but the real issue was...
Its enhancement level: +16.
An enhancement level so high that it shattered the existing system.
‘Unique equipment cannot be enchanted.’
That premise had been overturned.
The moment the Ether Circle appeared, climbers bombarded the Dwarf Company with inquiries.
Enchanting low-level equipment... did not pose much of a threat to preserving the value of high-rankers’ equipment.
At most, it simply gave people more cost-effective alternatives.
But enchanting unique equipment was an entirely different matter.
‘Endgame gear will change.’
The advance parties would be put in the godawful situation of having to replace all the endgame equipment they had poured fortunes into crafting.
You called it endgame gear, and now you’re stabbing us in the back like this?
And there was only one place in the world that could perform enchantments.
‘Aren’t these bastards slowly testing the waters by releasing things one at a time?’
The Dwarf Company was pulling something right now.
There was more than enough reason for people to say so.
But then...
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[Notice] Regarding Inquiries About Enchanted Equipment
The equipment in question is unrelated to our company and is believed to be dummy data or an error in the Tower system.
As with the previous [Work Gloves] incident, we would like to reiterate that our company does not possess technology capable of enchanting unique equipment.
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And next to the notice posted on the community...
There was a post that had remained pinned at the top of the community since yesterday.
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[✪][Requesting Featured Post] Estimated Specs of the Ether Circle at Enhancement +16
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(Graph attached)
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[Couldn’t possibly summarize it in three lines, so here’s a six-line summary.]
1. First, my identity. I’m the one who analyzed the Enhancement +20 scrub brush last time. I belong to the Magic Tower Research Institute, and that’s all I can reveal.
2. It’s my first time seeing enchanted unique equipment. Those Company bastards, fuck... Anyway, as I said last time, enhancement values rise in something resembling an exponential function.
3. So, how strong is a 4-star item at Enhancement +16?
4. It is estimated to utterly crush and obliterate the unenchanted 5-star unique items worn by advance parties. I don’t know exactly, fuck, I told you it’s my first time seeing this too. It’s an estimate, an estimate.
5. Lastly, I have no idea where this was made. The Company says they don’t know either, right?
They’re claiming it’s dummy data... but they did that last time too, and the scrub brush didn’t sell. Is that why they’re insisting on it? Have any of you ever seen the Tower system make an error?
6. Will this one fail to sell too, or will it sell... If it sells, this’ll be really interesting, won’t it?
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[Likes 4,812] [Comments 2,207]
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The best gear currently worn by the Tower’s advance parties was, no matter how good it was, unenchanted 5-star unique equipment.
And this item was said to crush that equipment and perform far better.
"How much is it at now?"
"Eight..."
[8,015,150 Gold]
"Eight million gold."
The Genesis Sword, supposedly made by an Heir of Fire before their death, had sold for ten million gold. Of course, since that had been an offline auction, there might have been under-the-table dealings.
Either way, this was said to trample all over that equipment’s performance.
Perhaps it was only natural that the price would rise this high.
At the auction house, whenever someone placed a bid, the remaining time reset to thirty seconds.
"It keeps going up."
"Wow..."
Ding!
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[Company Bid]
[8,055,150 Gold]
[Time Remaining: 00:30]
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[Anonymous1161]: Raise it properly already, you cheap bastard lol
ㄴ[Anonymous175]: fr
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The price had been inching upward in a tedious trickle when...
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[Company Bid]
[18,055,150 Gold]
[Time Remaining: 00:30]
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"..."
"..."
"What?!"
The plaza before the Company went silent in an instant...
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[Anonymous1661]: Fuck...?
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At the price of one Genesis Sword, casually tossed into the auction house just moments ago...
For thirty seconds, the auction house could not even react.
And after the comments froze as well...
[Auction Complete]
The bidding ended.
[Preparing Transfer]
This was where things became very important.
If the seller truly intended to sell it...
Preparing Transfer would change into Processing Transfer.
The gloves had not changed last time, and the listing had simply gone down.
But this time...
[Processing Transfer...]
"What?!"
That meant the seller had handed over the equipment.
"...It sold."
Someone muttered.
Just as noise was about to erupt through the plaza again...
Clop, clop...
The sound of horse hooves came from far away.
Dwarves had legs too short to ride horses.
It was not a sound that should be heard in the middle of a residential district, much less in front of the Dwarf Company.
Yet paradoxically, there was not a single climber who did not recognize those hoofbeats.
Clop.
Hundreds of people turned their heads at once.
The crowd slowly parted.
Red swept through the gap.
Hair as though it held the sunset within it.
A bright red horse that resembled its owner.
She stopped her horse in the center of the plaza and pushed up the sunglasses perched on her forehead.
Blue eyes were revealed.
"Give me my money, dwarves~♩ Give me my money, Company~♫"
Singing that ridiculous tune, she arrived in the plaza.
"...Yeomhwa."
Someone muttered blankly.
The high-ranker, Yeomhwa.
A member of the Dawn Apostles, alongside Dolores, Isabella, Seren, and others...
There was no exaggeration in saying that nobody in the world failed to recognize her.
But she herself...
"Oh, what?!"
Her eyes widened.
"It really went through this time?"
With a surprised expression, she lightly tapped something floating in midair with a fingertip.
Light scattered from the air and settled down...
Plop.
A silver ring dropped into her gloved palm.
"..."
The Ether Circle.
The item everyone here had been watching until just moments ago.
The woman who had thrown down ten million gold at the very end was none other than Yeomhwa.
Then...
Someone walked out from among the crowd.
A man clad in green armor.
"Yeomhwa."
She turned her head.
"Gale?! Hey, hey... is that exploded Magitia of yours okay?"
"..."
The surroundings fell quiet for a moment.
"Were you the successful bidder, Yeomhwa?"
"Yep, that was me."
The two were regular customers of the Company.
More precisely, their names stood side by side at the top of the enchantment sales rankings.
But their methods were different.
Gale wanted to cover his own equipment in Enhancement +20 upgrades...
Whereas Yeomhwa was a high-ranker who already wore nothing but 5-star equipment.
She had no reason to enchant her own gear.
So where did she spend that money?
Neigh...!
The red horse scraped the ground with its hooves.
Its neck, legs, and saddle.
Every part was covered in 3-star equipment enhanced to +20.
She had covered her own horse in 3-star Enhancement +20 equipment.
"...Please use the Ether Circle and give us your evaluation."
Only one thing mattered now.
Whether that equipment truly outperformed 5-star unique equipment.
Gale lowered his head.
"I will."
Yeomhwa slipped the silver ring around her wrist.
Then she lifted her head and swept her gaze around the plaza.
"Could everyone move back?"
Rumble...
Hundreds of people retreated at once.
Beside the Company’s Enchant Room was an empty lot.
The Company had clearly left it vacant on purpose, knowing climbers who had finished enchanting would be too excited to contain themselves...
So rather than breaking something they shouldn’t, they could test the equipment’s power there.
Yeomhwa extended a hand toward it.
A gigantic revolver formed in midair.
"..."
Click...
The cylinder spun.
"Bang."
She fired.
KABOOOOOM!!
From the revolver over Yeomhwa’s head...
Red poured down.
It utterly devastated the surrounding area.
And erased the empty lot.
Whoooosh...
The dust settled belatedly.
Flames flickered.
Yeomhwa looked down at her wrist.
Her ever-smiling expression changed.
"..."
Instinctively covering the bracelet with her hand, she carefully removed it and put it into her subspace.
Having seen that, Gale slowly raised a hand.
"Let’s go inside."
This was enough to conclude the test.
‘5-star equipment, or beyond.’
That was Gale’s conclusion.
Thud, thud.
The other climbers following him...
Entered the Company’s Enchant Room.
Creak.
The Enchant Room opened.
A white room stretched out before them, doors arranged in a circle around it.
Normally, one had to disarm before entering the Enchant Room.
It was only natural.
It was a place where people watched their equipment get destroyed before their very eyes, and more than a few lost their minds on the spot.
But...
Thud, thud, thud.
No one removed their equipment.
With Gale at the lead, dozens of them walked straight in.
"Ah, haha..."
The employee standing by the door smiled as he approached Gale.
"Gale...! Even so, you need to disarm..."
He tried to stop him in the familiar, friendly way he always did.
Gale was a man who would laugh heartily even when his equipment broke.
He was the man who had waved with a booming laugh even after five consecutive failures.
But...
Tap.
Gale’s hand landed on the employee’s shoulder.
"...Unless you want an arrow through your palm."
"..."
Squeeze...
"Bring me Elliott."
Call your boss.
The employee finally looked up.
"...Y-yes!"
Only then did he realize that, from the moment Gale had entered through these doors...
He had not smiled even once.
3.
A sunny garden.
For some reason, there was a sunbed there.
And I happened to be lying on it.
"This is a fucking legendary event..."
[18,055,150 Gold]
The auction house’s bid result floated in the air.
No matter how many times I looked at it, I never got tired of it.
I had no idea what sucker had bought this at the price of 1.8 Genesis Swords.
Either way, thanks.
"Lionel is rich now..."
There was actually another sunbed beside mine.
Looking at Ruby, who was lying there and sipping lemonade, I said,
"Ruby, I’m rich, you know?"
"So?"
So prickly, seriously.
Sip, sip, sip.
"...Is there anything you want?"
Flinch.
Ruby flinched.
That’s what I thought.
"...I want exercise equipment."
At first, Dolores had been pleased to see Ruby exercising.
But gradually...
As the time Ruby spent exercising began to encroach on her time for magic, Dolores had subtly begun to be wary.
‘Building stamina is good too, Ruby, but a mage’s foundation is magic...’
Ruby must have felt awkward asking Dolores to buy her exercise equipment too.
"Call me big brother first, then."
"...Grr."
[..................]
Yuna, you don’t need to be on guard.
You’re my soulmate.
I soothed Yuna inwardly while...
"If you don’t want to, then keep jumping rope~"
Outwardly, I provoked Ruby.
Then I casually set the black ore sunglasses I had crafted myself over my eyes.
"...Grrrr..."
"Sounds like a kettle boiling."
"...Big brother."
"...Say that again?"
Blushing with embarrassment, Ruby said,
"Big brother... buy it for me..."
"Sure."
Smiling, I decided to buy exercise equipment for our adorable Ruby.
Lionel became a rich man.
So having money could duplicate little sisters.
This was the taste of money.
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