48. Omnipotent Rune (1)
Once a week.
The consulting wrapped up well.
“Wow, this is amazing! I had no idea you could think about it this way.”
“To effectively use psychological warfare the way Player Baek Jinwoo advised, I’ll need to raise a wider variety of summons. And stockpile runes by type too.”
“I’ve seen that before, it was in a basic textbook from back then… You’re a lot more solid on the fundamentals than you look, aren’t you? To be honest, I thought that summon called Training Instructor was just all flash and no substance.”
Even though he’d only explained things roughly again, all of the rankers were satisfied.
It was probably because they could feel that they had improved far more than before through the ten hours of instruction.
As mentioned last time, most of the theories established by modern humanity originated in the mind of middle-schooler Baek Jinwoo.
And countless applications that have yet to be formalized are still fully accumulated in his head.
Naturally, the rankers had no choice but to be impressed.
‘I’m glad they were satisfied.’
Nine rankers.
And the fact that even executives from major guilds were satisfied meant it had definitely been worth the money, didn’t it?
‘The problem is me.’
He had a mountain of things to do.
And the very first of them was climbing the Tower of Trials.
* * *
At the training grounds in Yoobaek City, Baek Jinwoo stretched his body.
Ahh.
No matter how many times he saw it, it was a place he truly loved.
Just from the beautifully arranged open space in front of the state-of-the-art building and the view that let you feel the living energy of the mountains as it was, anyone could tell how much care and effort the designer had put into it.
‘As expected, Yoo Jia.’
He had been feeling it even more these days.
Joining hands with her had really been a great decision.
He asked for a training ground, and she gave him a penthouse, a garden, even a bunker…
On top of that, she took perfect care of his family too, to the point that he felt truly grateful.
“Explosive Dragon Sorcerer.”
—Yes, Jinwoo!
As Baek Jinwoo muttered, Explosive Dragon Sorcerer, who had been training, came running over with quick little steps.
“How far along are you now?”
—I’ve completely mastered Explosive Dragon Arts up to Transformation.
“Really?”
After the previous incident, Explosive Dragon Sorcerer no longer deceived Baek Jinwoo.
Without tricks or deceit, she worked with all her might to learn her skills.
“Let me see.”
—Yes!
Dragon Arts, Transformation (Beginner).
Fwoooosh!
From her staff, flames of blazing fire spread beautifully.
The Explosive Dragon Wave, originally in the shape of a dragon, scattered into tiny fragments and formed a translucent red barrier.
—I can use it as a shield like this too.
Fwoooosh!
Another Explosive Dragon Wave, summoned through Link, broke apart and split into multiple arrows and spears.
—And I can make Fire Arrows and Spears like this too!
That was not all.
From Fire Wall, which raised a giant wall of flame, to Warm, which controlled firepower to make the surroundings pleasantly warm—
She was definitely natural at it, and very skilled.
“I can tell you’ve worked hard.”
—Hehe, yes.
“Good job.”
Baek Jinwoo ruffled Explosive Dragon Sorcerer’s hair.
It was a kind of reward.
If Lamba wanted cream bread, then Explosive Dragon Sorcerer wanted her player’s attention.
“Do you think you could manage Flame too? Or is that still too much?”
—Umm…
Explosive Dragon Sorcerer hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
—Even if Ruination is impossible, I still remember up to Flame, so if I just have time, I’ll definitely be able to do it. HunGyo teaches very well too. I’ll learn it as quickly as possible!
“Okay.”
There was no need to climb the Tower of Trials when she didn’t even have Flame yet.
‘If I just have Flame.’
He should be able to break straight through from the 11th floor to the 20th.
‘More importantly.’
How many Omnipotent Runes had they managed to get?
Just as important as Explosive Dragon Sorcerer’s Flame was the semi-endgame rune HunGyo would equip.
* * *
“Hoo!”
Clenching both fists tightly, Baek Ajin shook them violently.
“For now, we’ve secured twelve!”
Several employees dispatched overseas had each sent word.
Just now, they had completed the purchases.
Because they had to use government money, the procedures had been a bit complicated…
But when they worked like maniacs without a single break, it still somehow got done.
‘Big sis was right after all.’
Just as Yoo Jia advised, using the employees to push all at once had made acquiring the runes much easier.
Some players had even contacted them separately through the purchase posts they had put up on the marketplace.
They said they would sell urgently for 100 billion won, or 72 million dollars.
These were new items, not existing listings.
By catching those opportunities without missing them, they had firmly secured twelve runes.
Ten were purchased at an average of 150 billion each, and two were purchased at 100 billion each.
That meant the budget spent had already reached 1.7 trillion won.
‘The value of just twelve runes is this much…’
Baek Ajin clicked her tongue.
It was truly a story from another world.
Just how strong would a summon become while wearing such runes?
‘Especially my brother’s HunGyo…’
It was already strong even without those runes, so if it wore those too…
Wouldn’t he really overtake Rachel and become world rank number one by the end of this year?
Beeeep, beeeep!
Baek Ajin answered the phone.
- CEO.
- Yes, Director Baek. Go ahead.
- We’ve secured twelve for now, but we’re short on budget. There’s only 300 billion left now.
Even as she said it, she found it absurd.
To think the day would come when she’d describe 300 billion as “only”.
- Hmm, first—
As if Yoo Jia had been monitoring things too, she immediately issued an order.
- Spend all the remaining money and buy one more.
- Excuse me? Spend all the remaining money? All 300 billion?
When Baek Ajin asked—
- Word must’ve gotten out already. The listings are disappearing fast.
- R-really?
Tap tap, taptaptap!
With the phone wedged against her shoulder, Baek Ajin hammered at the keyboard.
She was searching through marketplace listings all over the world.
- It’s true?
Just as Yoo Jia said.
Posts saying they would sell for 200 billion, even absurd posts saying 250 billion, were disappearing one after another.
There were only two possibilities.
Either the sellers had taken their listings down, or someone else was rushing to buy them.
- Either way, it meant that we had already absorbed all the cheaper listings, and now the only remaining option was to buy expensive ones.
A sigh escaped Baek Ajin’s lips on its own.
- Then what do we do? Buying one more won’t solve it… We still need six more in total.
- Don’t worry about that for now. Just buy one more before it’s too late. Even if it costs 300 billion. There’s an Indian named Nemesis—I’ll give you the contact. That player is probably the most likely possibility.
- Yes, I’ll have them make contact immediately!
Baek Ajin’s hands moved even faster.
In the end, success!
Yoobaek bought one Top-grade Omnipotent Rune for 300 billion more.
In other words, they had used up the entire 2 trillion budget to buy 13 Omnipotent Runes!
After accurately collecting the runes from the employees who had returned from dispatch, Yoo Jia finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Haa…”
Now they only needed five more.
Since they had spent the entire budget, they would have to buy the rest with Yoobaek’s own money.
As for the money they lacked, banks were lining up to offer loans, so that part would be easy enough.
The problem was—
‘There are no listings.’
Even after searching every marketplace in the world, there were zero listings.
Not for 300 billion, either.
At this point, there was a good chance they might not be able to get one even if they had 1 trillion.
Yoobaek’s intervention had effectively caused the value of the Omnipotent Rune to jump to another level.
‘Honestly…’
She wanted to resell the thirteen they had found at a higher price.
With good enough marketing, it was entirely possible, and the profit from that alone would be enormous.
But she could not do that.
Because it was Baek Jinwoo’s request.
‘For now.’
There had been a reason she told Baek Ajin to urgently buy that last remaining listing.
Still, she felt this was something she needed to discuss directly with Baek Jinwoo.
And she had to deliver the runes too.
Yoo Jia headed to Baek Jinwoo’s training grounds.
* * *
“Oh, you already got thirteen?”
Baek Jinwoo’s face lit up as he received the runes through the transaction.
He had asked her to get them quickly, but she had brought them even faster than expected.
Finally!
Now our HunGyo can get stronger too!
Just thinking about enhancing it made him beam with a broad smile.
But Yoo Jia’s expression was not good.
“We still need to get the remaining five, but we used up the entire budget getting those. And now there are no listings left either.”
Yoo Jia sat down in a corner of the training grounds. In a calm voice, she briefed him on what had happened.
“Hmm, really?”
Baek Jinwoo nodded.
If it was an Omnipotent Rune, that was only natural.
Even among the rare runes he knew, it was one of the highest-tier ones.
“It can’t be helped. Five is fine. It’ll take some time, but I can just make them myself.”
“…Make them? That rune?”
Yoo Jia tilted her head with a baffled look.
‘What is he talking about?’
Make a limited-edition rune?
Is that even possible?
If that’s possible, then that’s insane, isn’t it? You could just keep making them and selling them!
“Hehe, there’s a trick to it.”
The broken thing about the Rune Dwarf was that as long as it had the materials, it could make any rune.
It did not matter whether it was limited or anything else.
However—
‘The materials are a bit brutal.’
Of course, for the Rune Dwarf to craft even limited runes, HunGyo had to unlock its latent ability first.
That was why, back during Battle of Summoners, the Rune Dwarf had been just another mediocre summon.
“For now, Mr. Jinwoo.”
“Yes.”
“There is one other way, though… Actually, rather than a method, it’s just that there happens to be someone who owns those exact five Omnipotent Runes.”
“Really?”
He’s one of those emotional rich people who’s called a stock investor or some kind of asset magnate, but apparently his daughter is very sick with an incurable disease of unknown cause. And these days it’s a summon world and all, so—
“Ah.”
So the idea was to somehow cure that man’s daughter and ask for the Omnipotent Runes?
But well—
‘I’m not a doctor.’
How was he supposed to cure an incurable disease?
And if the man was some rich Middle Eastern tycoon, then he had probably already tried every possible method to cure her.
“I got the contact information just in case, but that method would still be too difficult for you, right?”
“Yeah, nothing really comes to mind. Maybe if it were an S-grade summon that can heal illnesses… No, wait.”
At that moment, something flashed through Baek Jinwoo’s mind.
Omnipotent.
Wasn’t there a summon right beside him that suited that word better than anything?
“HunGyo!”
Baek Jinwoo threw back his head and called out to HunGyo, who was instructing others in the training yard.
—Yes, my lord! You called for me!
HunGyo, who had been checking the summons’ stances, came rushing over like an arrow.
“Can you heal illnesses too?”
HunGyo was omnipotent.
Dealer, healer, supporter, special class, and so on.
It was so knowledgeable that it could unlock latent abilities regardless of type.
It taught Explosive Dragon Sorcerer, and it was even the one teaching the Rune Dwarf how to hammer, which said it all.
—I cannot say with certainty that I can cure illnesses… However, thanks to my past experience teaching Aso, I believe I can at least easily determine what condition the patient is in.
“Oh, really?”
Aso was a martial artist.
Because of martial arts that allowed one to observe one’s own body and control one’s qi and blood vessels, the current HunGyo had also been able to handle the sword more smoothly!
“Wow, really?”
Yoo Jia, who had been listening from the side, was also surprised.
‘What on earth is that summon…’
According to rumors, it was E-grade, so why was it like this?
Based on everything it had done so far, it would not even be strange if someone called it S-grade.
“I think they’d be incredibly grateful even if all we could do was identify what kind of disease it is.”
“Try contacting him. You said his name was Jasim, right?”
“Yes, Jasim.”
“Ask if he’ll really give us the Omnipotent Runes if we cure the illness.”
“Yes! I’ll contact him right away and let you know!”
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