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Chapter 115
[Isabel’s seal has been partially lifted.]
The item window popped up.
[Isabel - Growth-Type - Partially Sealed]
An artifact found in the tomb of Isabel, Queen of the Sword Forest. It is imbued with a special spirit ki that chooses its master.
Grade: Transcendent
Attack power: 72-84 (currently sealed)
Effects:
Disabled
Disabled
Disabled
Disabled
Disabled
Disabled
Ego activated
30% offensive innate ability damage amplification
Special note:
In a partially sealed state. Most of its strength is sealed.
The ego has selected its ‘bride’. The ‘sword’s bride’ selection is valid for 300 years.
A lamentation rang in my ear.
(This is a scam. A scam! You goddamn scammer!)
I was speechless. I was already dazed by the fact that I obtained a transcendent item, but it was even one that talked. With an attack power of 72-84, the attack alone was on par with top-class items in the mid-game.
‘And that’s while it's mostly sealed.’
Just how strong would it be if it wasn’t sealed?
(You son of a magician! Are you listening to me?!)
To my fascination, I could feel Isabel’s feelings. Isabel’s ‘son of a magician’ was her version of ‘son of a bitch’. I could automatically feel that she loathed ‘magicians’ and disliked ‘magic’.
(Say something, you scammer!)
I didn’t really have anything to say, but more importantly, how should I respond? With my voice? While I was thinking, Isabel started talking again, as if she had read my thoughts.
(Hah
 To think an idiot who doesn’t even know how to converse with me is my bride. He’s married to me
)
Bride? That was in the item description, but the definition seemed a little different from the one I knew. The dictionary definition of bride was ‘woman about to be married’.
(Shut up. If I say bride, it’s bride.)
The pieces clicked together. Isabel was asleep for thousands of years, and because she had slept for so long, her judgment making ability was warped. Upon smelling the intense smell of a ‘very strong male’ from me, she inadvertently selected me as her ‘bride’.
‘So basically, I’m your bride?’
(Yeah. You scammer. Take your hands off me.)
She was wailing breathlessly, but I was really stumped on what the hell I was supposed to do.
(What else can you do? You just have to accept that you’re my brid—)
And then, she cut off mid-sentence. I was supposed to be the ‘sword’s bride’, and even Isabel called me ‘bride’. I really didn’t get it.
[The ego has gone into a dormant state.]
Isabel’s ego fell asleep again. Apparently, I was too weak to activate Isabel properly.
‘So the ego activation time is about 2-3 minutes per day?’
That was my best guess. I found myself smiling.
‘Nice.’
The diverse spread of disabled special abilities aside, the sword’s basic function was even better than ‘Asura’.
Senia used a Pause authority. That thing was supposed to be super expensive, but she sure used it often.
“You’re doing well, it seems?”
“There are various Guardians willing to sponsor me.”
“And so? What do you want?”
“I must give you an explanation of how you obtained Isabel.”
When I heard the explanation, I was floored.
“Isabel’s presence was so powerful when she woke up that the other notices didn’t reach me?”
“Yes.”
Basically, Senia’s explanation was that the first condition I satisfied was achieving a [Perfect Bloodless Entry] from the 1st floor to the 4th. The second was surviving Noah’s attack.
“Theoretically, it should have been completely impossible.”
“And I pulled that off?”
“I believe you were lucky.”
I acknowledged that as well. I was lucky. No matter how good my timing was, this would have been impossible without good luck.
“You needed the title First Pioneer, and it was a special privilege given to the first clearer of the U-Plex Dungeon.”
And as a result of all that—
“That is the process of how you acquired Isabel.”
There was really no other way to explain this than to say I was lucky. Like a proper Intermediate Administrator, Senia gave me a relatively detailed explanation of the process before deactivating the Pause.
I looked at the U-Plex Dungeon behind me. In the future, it wouldn’t just be the ‘U-Plex’, but a constantly active dungeon.
‘Guess that leaves two quests, then.’
There was a lot I had to do, but two things stood out in particular. One was related to the ‘Predator Tree Colony’, and the other was ‘Find Charles’ Owner!’
‘Okay.’
In any case, I succeeded in pioneering the U-Plex Dungeon today and acquired Noah’s Helm in addition to the transcendent sword Isabel.
Cheon Sooji came up to me.
“I knew you were amazing
 but you really are more amazing than I thought.”
“...”
“See you next time. I will think about how I can seduce you.”
I turned and walked away, her sultry gaze hot on my back.
On the way back home, Yoohyun said, “Hyungnim. I’m against that woman.”
“What?”
“She’s not a good match. Her eyes just ooze sex.”
“...”
Sung-gu nodded. “Ya. She’s a man-eater.”
I wasn’t sure if it was okay for them to say such things in this day and age, but it was empirically true that not much good came of getting close to Cheon Sooji, so it was hard to say whether I should disregard their words or not.
“But dayam, she’s fuckin’ pretty. I’m jealous, man.”
Yeonseo smiled brightly. “Still, I’m more charming. Right?”
“...”
She clung to me and urged, “Right? I’m more charming, right?”
“...”
Well
 it was hard to contradict her, but unfortunately for Yeonseo, she wasn’t my type either.
“Hurry and say I’m charming.”
She started pulling out her sword, so I just said, “Yeah, you’re charming.”
Everyone parted ways, and Sunhwa and I got back home. Mom, Noona, my new little sister, Sunhwa, and I gathered in the living room to eat fried chicken. The topic was, of course, the corpses found in the central park.
“Goodness gracious
” Mom said, holding a piece of chicken. “How utterly chilling.”
The way she shuddered showed that my mom was very frightened by the incident, too.
‘It’s a little strange.’
Why did a gate that should have been on Plum Blossom Island show up here, in the central park in front of our home? And it was even the ‘same’ gate.
‘What could it be?’
Did something change from the past?
‘No idea.’
How I survived the changed reality was more important than finding out what had changed. Noona, who was polishing off her favorite soy sauce chicken like usual, gave me a cool look. “Don’t fool around and stay safe.”
“What’s this all of a sudden?”
“You said you were a Player or whatever too, right? Who’ll pay your hospital fee if you mess around and get hurt?”
“...”
That’s what she said, but her summary was very cute.
Summary: Deeply Worried Tsundere
Sunhwa chirped without a care, “As expected, one chicken per person’s the best!”
Sunhwa wasn’t the only one happy. So was Darongi. [â™Șâ™Șâ™Ș] marks—they were even red—were floating above his head as he held and nommed away at a chicken leg bigger than himself.
‘Squirrels eat meat?’
It was already weird that a squirrel was a genius thief, but in any case, Darongi was sucked into the magical world of fried chicken. As Sunhwa hummed a happy ‘one chicken per person~’, Darongi nodded in agreement and flashed a thumbs up at Sunhwa, [â™Șâ™Șâ™Ș] marks dancing over his head the entire time. I was so dumbfounded I had to laugh.
‘What’s with this squirrel, really?’
What kind of squirrel could suddenly materialize fingers he didn’t have before and make music notes float above his head? The rascal was full of surprises.
After some sweet family time, I went to my room.
Like always, I needed to check my notebook and think about how I should progress. After all, I decided that I would be the one to draw out my own future. I intended to do everything I failed to do in the past.
‘For now, I think I can definitely cure Mom.’
I had $300k in my bank account at the moment. I got $100k from President Song Kiyoung and $100k from Taeguk Shield. The other $100k was Sunhwa’s share, but I was holding onto it for her. She entrusted it to me, saying, “I think that’s too much money for me. You take care of it for me, Oppa!” In any case, I had money.
‘Though I lost the mana crystal.’
The mana crystal was traded away for Isabel. No matter how you cut it, that was a huge profit.
‘Hm, guess Gwanghwamun Dungeon is next.’
While I was thinking about the future, I discovered something under my desk. It was a yellow piece of paper hidden so you couldn’t see it from the outside.
“What’s this?”
I unfolded the neatly folded paper. Someone had written a ‘Safe Prayer’ on it, and it seemed by all accounts to be a charm.
“A charm?”
It was obviously Noona’s handwriting. I let out a wry chuckle.
“She wrote me a charm?”
She wrote me a charm, but she hid it very carefully, not wanting to be found out. Unfortunately, my class was ‘Observer’, and I could pick up on much more than the average person.
“Writing charms like a child,” I said, shaking my head with a smile. I carefully folded it again and returned it to its original spot. A quick search on the Internet showed that this sort of thing was trending, or something like that. It was a lucky charm you could buy on the Internet. I vaguely remembered them existing in the past, too.
The sales pitch on the Internet said, “Luck will only be imparted if the charm is renewed once per day, at least thirty times.”
Each charm was a whopping ten bucks, but quite a lot of them had been sold. From the sales pitch, the charm would bring luck only if at least thirty of them were used.
‘Then Noona’s planning to spend $300 on this.’
Should I call this cute, or stupid? It wasn’t unpleasant. Ultimately, it meant that my sister cared about me that much.
One day passed. I went on an easy round through the Seoul Station Dungeon partly to get more Mandra items and partly to take a break, and when I came back, no one was home. I went into my room.
‘Huh?’
Something was a little strange.
‘Why is that thing
?’
It was hard to put it in words, but it felt like the ‘flow of strength’ was strangely distorted . I activated Eye of Perception and Observer’s Eye simultaneously.
[Observing with Observer’s Eye.]
Observer’s Eye, which had the power to discern the true nature of things, examined the ‘yellow charm’.
‘This strange feeling
’
I couldn’t pinpoint what exactly was weird, but it was definitely off somehow.
‘I can almost
 see something.’
I stared at it for what was probably quite a long time. Sweat beaded down my forehead. An immense sense of exhaustion washed over me, and I collapsed onto my bed, the ‘yellow charm’ in my hand.
To my surprise, an item description could be activated from it. It was just a regular object yesterday, but today, it was an item.
I clicked the yellow charm with my eyes, and the description popped up. It was no ordinary charm.
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