Chapter 176: Betting on Zero and One Part I

Translator: HunterW

Editor: RED

“Thank you so much, captain. If it weren’t for you, we would never have been able to defeat the Dark Caster,” Samuel said, bowing to me. He was still calling me his captain, even after the raid had ended.

“Don’t worry about it. It was the least I could do for the reward you’ve given me.”

“No, man. If it wasn’t for your quick thinking, we would have all just stood there dumbly, wasting time. We never would have thought about looking for the Dark Crystal. Ugh. If we hadn’t, I don’t know how many more times we would be raiding this damn place! You’re the bomb, Jiwon!”

“Jacob’s right. Thank you for everything.”

The other Shire Guild members gathered around me, thanking me and giving me thumbs up and everything. At that moment, a message appeared in front of all of us.

==[You will now be rewarded for clearing the 27th high-grade dungeon boss.

Twenty random chests will be rewarded.

These random chests have a chance to contain golden rings, rare items, or nothing at all.]==

The random chests, the reason many guilds aimed to control as many dungeons as possible, finally appeared. Before we set out to open them, we all turned to the items that the Dark Caster had dropped. Samuel walked out in our stead to check each single item for all of us to see. There was a Rank 7 pair of gloves for mages, a Rank 6 ring for mages, eleven death penalty gems, 27,500,000 golden rings, and some materials.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t drop a Rank 8 item. Then again, expecting a Rank 8 on the first clear is being too greedy.” We were all expecting something at least Rank 8, after all the work we put in. “Sorry, captain. I should have let you check the items instead. I hope you don’t feel too bad, since there wasn’t much that came out of it.”

“It’s fine. It’s not a big deal.” I knew about the universal party rules as I had hunted in parties in the past. One of the rules about items was that only the party leader could ever check the items and distribute them among the other party members.

“Then Devram should receive the Rank 7 gloves and the Rank 6 ring.” Many devas in this world were Mages. As such, there was always a high demand for Mage equips, and those two items would definitely sell at high prices quickly.

“Oh, you don’t have to…” Devram tried to turn Samuel down. That was easily a 100,000,000 golden ring value.

“Please, we want you to have them.” Samuel practically threw the items on Devram. “The Shire Guild will take the death penalty gems, the golden rings and the materials. As a guild with many members, gems and golden rings are always in short supply.” Samuel picked up the remaining items and put them in his inventory while smiling.

He then turned to me. “As for the captain…” He pointed to the random chests that were still in the middle of the room. “I think those twenty random chests should be enough. You don’t need a random chest since you have those two items, right, Devram?”

“Hahaha! I see now…that’s perfectly fine with me. These two items are definitely enough to pay me for my services today.”

“I’m down!”

“Yup, that’s totally fair,” Jacob and a few other Shire members, said while smiling.

“I…but…” To be honest, I wasn’t really happy. Those were some poor items to drop from the Dark Caster after all I’d done to defeat it. I was a little put off when Samuel was checking the items all on his own, but now, I felt a little embarrassed when I finally realized why he did all that.

“Let’s all leave. Those random chests aren’t ours. We don’t need to know what’s inside them.”

“You got it!”

“Hey, let’s party it up! We can’t just let this day end like that, right?”

“Yeah! Let’s party til we drop!”

The other party members followed Samuel out of the boss room without as so much as turning to look at the random chests. Jacob and Devram left me a few parting words, however.

“Hey, Jiwon. I’ve opened my fair share of random chests but…damn. I’ve never gotten anything better than Rank 7. But I know you’ll get something way better.”

“I know it might seem what I got is worth more at first, but I believe this is a better deal for you. I’ll be praying that you get a great item.”

Soon, I was left alone in the boss room with the twenty random chests. “Hah. Geez. It’s a good thing I stayed quiet.” I quickly regained my composure. I was about to complain to everyone in the room that I hadn’t gotten my share of the loot yet. “Patience is a virtue. I really need to remember that.”

I stared at the random chests in front of me. Before we came here, we had decided that everyone one would get one random chest but now, they were all for me.

“There are twenty of them…I should be able to hit the jackpot at least once, right?” If I really was unlucky, Devram would actually have gotten the best items out of this entire raid. Still, if there was at least a small chance that a Rank 10 item would come out, I would still choose the random chests over anything else.

“All I need is a Rank 8. I won’t even expect anything higher.” I opened the leftmost chest without hesitation.

“…” There was nothing in there. “It’s okay. I still have nineteen more to go.” I opened one chest right after the other but stopped after I opened the nineteenth one.

“This is bullshit! How is this even possible? They’re all duds!” Well, they weren’t all duds. There were a few that had 100,000-210,000 golden rings, and others with death penalty gems. But I hadn’t come here to get chump change.

“Nineteen in a row, are you serious!?” I yelled and kicked at the last chest I opened. I turned to the last chest. “I swear, if this is a dud as well, I’m quitting boss raids for good!” I angrily opened the last chest. Inside was an item, shining with a red light.

“Wait, this is…” It looked exactly like the item I had held earlier. The item before didn’t have a rank, though. “Item Check.”

==[Dark Crystal (Rank 8)

This Crystal holds the entire essence of the Dark Caster.

Crush this Crystal over any other item and the dust from the Crystal will grant one of the following effects to that item.

Effect 1: 1% chance to upgrade one of the chosen item’s effects by one tier.

Effect 2: 1% chance to grant the Darkness effect to the chosen item, which will increase the potency of all Dark Magic spells and skills.

Dark Crystal can only be used on one other item.

Once Dark Crystal has been used and one of the two effects has been granted on the chosen item, Dark Crystal can no longer be used.]==

“What is this, the lottery?” I had never seen this item in the past, nor had I heard about it. But I’d been noticing lately that there really were a lot of items and skills out there.

“Will it work? It should, right? Yeah, it should.” Both effects had a 1% chance of working and I really liked that first effect more than the other one. A whole rank up. I took out the King-Emperor’s Commitment. It was the best piece of equipment I had.

“Actually, hold on. Should I wait and use it when I open the Random Skill Chest?” I was ten levels away from getting another skill point. I was saving my Random Skill Chest until I had five skill points to use. “Yeah, that would be better. It’s superstitious, but I might get some good stuff consecutively if I save both for later.”

I stowed the Dark Crystal and left the boss room. As I had expected, the party in the safe room outside was already in full swing.

—

“Was it that difficult?”

“Dude, it was nuts!”

“Yeah, man. That damn Dark Caster thought he was a Lich King or something. He hid some weird shit and when his HP hit 0, it started to go back up…ugh. If it weren’t for the captain, we would have been royally screwed.”

“The captain? You mean Sam?”

“No, I mean Jiwon Lee,” Pavel, one of the three tanks, looked as if he had just woken up from a really nice dream and spoke Lee Jiwon’s name respectfully.

“Since when have you respected anyone outside of our guild?”

“Heh. You don’t need to know. Only those who have walked the same ground and breathed the same air as him can know what I’m feeling.”

“The hell is wrong with you?”

Pavel didn’t lose his smile despite his comrade’s scoffing. All he cared about was that he was an Unrivaled deva like Lee Jiwon. He imagined that one day, he wouldn’t have to fill the tank role and could be as strong as Lee Jiwon, regardless of how difficult it would be.

“Hey! He’s coming out!”

“Yeeeah! Jiwon! Jiwon! Jiwon!”

—

I had no idea what my party members had told the other guild members, but I was completely taken aback by the huzzahs of two thousand people. Daniel Miller and his officers surrounded me for another wave of thanks.

“We’re partying it up tonight! Remember to keep everything that happened today a secret for the next few months! We’re going to wait until the Spencer bastards fail!”

“Yes, sir!”

This high-grade dungeon wasn’t the Shire Guild’s yet. The Spencer Guild still had another shot at it first.

We all spent the next three hours taking a well-deserved rest before all two thousand of us were teleported to the dungeon’s entrance. We spent the next week feasting and partying. The high-grade dungeon had just opened up a new profit window for the Shire Guild, and Daniel Miller spent lavishly on us.

And the Spencer Guild and their upcoming raid? The officers of the Shire Guild had gone over our raid video and judged that there was absolutely no way for the Spencer Guild to succeed, unless they had a clone of me or something.

“Yo, Jiwon! Where you going? Have another drink with me.”

“Mr. Lee, I know that you came here under contract, but I wish for us to maintain a good relationship in the future. Is that alright?”

“If there is anything you ever need, come knocking on our door. We will always help you, no questions asked.”

I had no choice but to stay for the entire week. Since I couldn’t enter another dungeon for the next month, I decided to take it easy and pamper myself. After partying, I occasionally went with the Shire Guild in field hunting, but I really wasn’t into it. There just wasn’t enough EXP for me. Still, I hunted with them to train the Safety Crystal I had received.

—

One month later, The Faroe Islands…

“Ugh. I still feel like crap.” After the weeklong party, I drank with Samuel and Jacob almost every day for a month.

“Anyway, should ten days be enough?” I had five levels left before I reached level 650. I had only gained five levels in twenty days in the fields, even if I had taken it easy.

“Meh. I’ll take my time. I’m ahead of everyone else, anyway.” I had used the Werewolf’s Clan Badge to quickly come back to the Faroe Islands, and headed straight for the Troll Dungeon. This was the best place I knew of, yielding the most EXP. I saw many of the members of the Werewolf Clan I had met before as I walked through a village in the middle of the Faroe Islands.

“Hey! It’s Jiwon!”

The kids were the first to run up to me. I was almost as popular as Lod to them. They all gave me the best treatment, as I was the only one to ever receive their clan’s badge.

I greeted all those who came to say hi and headed for the Troll Dungeon, entering it straight away.

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