Lee Tae-sung was strong.
After no fewer than twenty missions, he had obtained Dimensional Barrier Fragments as a reward and rose to the position of a Ranker.
He was distinctly different from ordinary Hunters, who were called veterans only after performing around fifty missions, at which point Dimensional Barrier Fragments would finally start to appear and grant them Ranker status.
However, that did not mean he took the missions lightly.
‘This isn’t inside a game.’
In the Dream World, one could be revived even after death.
Although there was a massive penalty where a skill would be deleted, meaning one couldn’t afford to die recklessly, it wasn’t a true death.
But in the real world, a single misstep meant the end.
Even looking back at history, there were many cases where Hunters who were considered top-tier disappeared one day after failing to return from a mission.
Since Lee Tae-sung had wasted nearly six months after his awakening because he thought he had no talent, he never let his guard down.
“Go deal with that guy.”
Lee Tae-sung flicked his finger.
At his gesture, three of the Guardian Knights standing behind him drew their weapons and began to move.
Since Lee Tae-sung had handled all the Death Soldiers himself, the Guardian Knights had preserved their full strength without a single loss.
There were twenty of them in total.
‘With three of them, I should be able to see its range.’
The Guardian Knights slowly approached the Death Knight, which was radiating a gloomy aura.
The mission tips had even warned to run away if one encountered a Death Knight, so it was bound to be incredibly strong.
*Screeeech*
The Death Knight drew a massive greatsword from its back.
Simultaneously, it took a heavy step and lunged with its blade.
That enormous sword instantly pierced the Guardian Knight leading the charge.
*Thud!*
*Crunch!*
Immediately after, the sword swung like a lightning bolt at the other knights on the left and right, severing their necks.
“!”
Lee Tae-sung was shocked.
‘It’s incredibly strong.’
He had taken it a bit lightly because the Death Soldiers were easy to handle, but the Death Knight was entirely different.
Now he understood why that tip existed.
Even with twenty Guardian Knights and no losses, he immediately realized these guys alone wouldn’t be enough to take it down.
You only see as much as you know.
As he had been steadily practicing his swordsmanship, his eye for observing others’ blades had improved significantly.
The Death Knight was displaying swordsmanship truly worthy of a “knight.”
It moved that large greatsword fluidly, dominating the space and seizing the opponent’s flow to execute them.
It was an exceptional level of swordsmanship that only a master of the blade could show.
He wondered if he could even win if he were to fight it in close quarters with a sword right now.
Of course, that was considering a pure sword fight without using skills.
“Ashaka.”
Ashaka was summoned and hopped onto his shoulder.
He couldn’t summon her recklessly due to the mana cost, but now there was only one enemy left.
Lee Tae-sung raised his index finger and pointed at the Death Knight.
*Whirrrr!*
*Whirrrrrrr!*
Ashaka’s magic manifested at his fingertip.
Arrows of light were fired like laser beams toward the enemy.
Surprisingly, the Death Knight swung its sword and deflected them.
Being able to time a strike to parry arrows flying as fast as rays of light proved just how high its swordsmanship level was.
Lee Tae-sung did not panic and gave orders to the Guardian Knights.
This was exactly what they were for.
The remaining seventeen Guardian Knights moved in perfect order to surround the Death Knight, and Lee Tae-sung fired arrows of light through the gaps that appeared between them.
*Crack!*
The Death Knight staggered for the first time after being hit in the torso and forearm by the arrows of light.
Even in that state, it showed fearsome prowess by swinging its greatsword to eliminate three more Guardian Knights, but wounds began to appear all over its body from Lee Tae-sung’s arrows.
*Crack!*
*Thud!*
Eventually, the creature managed to eliminate all the Guardian Knights, but it became riddled with holes in exchange.
Its legs were wobbling, and its arms were no longer moving properly.
Nevertheless, it slowly walked toward Lee Tae-sung.
Lee Tae-sung stopped firing magic from a distance and drew his sword.
As Ashaka intuitively dived into the blade, a lightsaber merged with the flames of the Heavenly Net Flame Hand was formed.
Stepping forward with his footwork technique, Lee Tae-sung swung his sword.
*Boom!*
The Death Knight managed to raise its greatsword to block despite its condition, but it was already far from normal.
Furthermore, while its pure swordsmanship might have been great, Lee Tae-sung overwhelmed it in terms of firepower delivered through skills.
Moreover, the combination of the Heavenly Net Flame Hand’s fire and Ashaka’s light attribute boosted the power even further, and the Death Knight was split in half along with its greatsword.
*Ding!*
**[You have defeated the Death Knight]**
**[You have obtained 28,000 SC]**
A monster worth a staggering 28,000 Score.
It was a higher amount of points than any monster Lee Tae-sung had seen in a mission so far.
‘It probably wasn’t a monster intended to be defeated in the first place.’
The success condition for the mission wasn’t to defeat the enemy, but to ring the bell of the bell tower.
There was no need to take down the Death Knight.
The standard strategy would have been to have the Guardian Knights hold the Death Knight back while quickly climbing the tower to ring the bell.
Lee Tae-sung climbed the bell tower with a relaxed stride.
Upon reaching the top, he saw an old bell wrapped in chains.
He swung his sword to break the lock and unravel the chains.
He then struck the bell with all his might.
*Dong— Dong—!*
A clear sound and a bright wave spread out, unbelievable for a bell of that appearance.
The desolate fortress began to transform, starting from where the sound of the bell reached.
The red light in the sky vanished, the crows left, grass began to grow on the wasteland-like ground, and flora and fauna appeared from somewhere to start chirping.
The fortress, which had been ruled by the Death Spirit, returned to its past state.
*Ding!*
**[Mission Success!]**
**[You have obtained 17,500 SC]**
**[You have obtained ‘Dimensional Barrier Fragment’ as a special reward]**
Following the last time, he had obtained a Dimensional Barrier Fragment as a special reward again.
Once might be a coincidence, but twice in a row changed the story.
He had a rough idea of how it worked.
‘I think they give it if you clear the mission with an overwhelming performance.’
The exact criteria might differ, but this seemed to be the right direction.
If not, he wouldn’t have been able to get them consecutively in his twentieth and twenty-first missions.
*Ding!*
**[You have perfectly completed a mission for the first time overseas]**
**[A special reward will be granted]**
**[The skill ‘Dream’ has been activated]**
**[Please purchase the items you want from the Dream Special Shop, which will be open for a limited time]**
“???”
Lee Tae-sung’s eyes widened.
He had planned to earn a lot of Score by proceeding to the next mission after finishing one, but an unexpected notification had appeared.
“Special Shop? Open!”
He became urgent.
According to the notification, it said “open for a limited time.”
Didn’t that mean there was a time limit?
***
**[Dream Special Shop Available List]**
– Skill ‘Swordsmanship Passive’ (Current Stock: 1)
– Skill ‘Archery Passive’ (Current Stock: 1)
– Skill ‘Spearmanship Passive’ (Current Stock: 1)
– Skill ‘Axmanship Passive’ (Current Stock: 1)
– Skill ‘Horsemanship Passive’ (Current Stock: 1)
**[Dream Special Shop Duration: 4 minutes 59 seconds]**
***
The first thing that caught his eye was the duration at the very end.
The time was continuously ticking down.
The available purchase time was five minutes at most.
‘What kind of time limit is only five minutes…! No, complaining won’t help.’
Nothing would change anyway.
Lee Tae-sung quickly used his brain.
Uniquely, the things in this shop weren’t items like Realization Runes or Copy Runes that were normally sold.
They were skills!
There were exactly two things Hunters yearned for that were not sold in the Score Shop: elixirs that increased mana and new, powerful skills.
It was selling skills, which was one of those two.
However, as the names suggested, they weren’t incredibly powerful active skills but passive ones.
Still, this was huge.
The price was…
‘100,000 SC each…’
It was expensive.
The amount he had earned from clearing the previous mission was just over 120,000 SC.
Since he had been broke and had nothing previously, this was his entire fortune, and he could only buy one.
‘Actually, there aren’t many worth buying…’
Almost all of them were weapon passives, and the only one Lee Tae-sung used was swordsmanship.
Even if he had more Score, he probably would have only bought one.
*Ding!*
**[You have obtained a new skill]**
**[Skill: Swordsmanship Passive]**
**[This skill is a passive skill and will grow with consistent use and research]**
He first purchased the Swordsmanship Passive.
Then, he browsed the Special Shop until the time limit disappeared.
It said it appeared because he was the first to succeed in a mission overseas, but since it appeared once, couldn’t it appear again next time?
He didn’t know if the same shop would appear then, but he prioritized what to buy just in case.
‘Archery might not be bad either.’
He wondered if the mana consumption would decrease a bit if he attached Ashaka’s magic to an arrow and fired it.
***
After purchasing the new skill, he returned to Earth.
Following that, Lee Tae-sung went through a few more missions.
The one where he defeated the Death Knight was the twenty-first mission, but he ran straight through to finish the twenty-fourth mission.
Now, finishing four or five missions in one go had become a daily routine.
As a result, the total Score he earned was a whopping 520,000 points!
However, since he used 100,000 points to buy the Swordsmanship Passive, 420,000 points remained.
Still, he had no regrets.
‘I would have been in big trouble if I hadn’t bought this.’
The difference between having the Swordsmanship Passive and not having it was immediately felt from the very next mission.
It was definitely different.
Each movement while holding the sword felt organic, as if it were breathing.
If it felt like swinging a sword underwater before, now it felt like he had finally come up onto land.
It was natural that the Red Cloud Seven Forms, his existing swordsmanship skill, became much more powerful as well.
Lee Tae-sung finished the missions feeling good.
His mana had almost run out, so he couldn’t go any further.
‘40,000 points should handle the urgent matters.’
He needed to accept new Hunters into the guild and hire people to help with logistics as quickly as possible.
Because he was trying to handle all the orders alone, he had no time for the Dream World.
The other guild members were also tied up all day with only packaging and shipping elixirs.
That wasn’t why he had recruited them.
– Thank you, Guild Leader!
But even with this, we won’t last more than a few days!
Please work harder!
“……”
A sigh almost escaped him at Kang Woo-joo’s reply, but he held it back.
He had started this business, so he had to endure it.
Still, it wasn’t all hard work.
The business was sailing smoothly.
– Regarding the elixirs, other guilds are constantly contacting us, begging for supply.
For a while, it seems we won’t be able to sell them because we don’t have enough.
Rumors about the Lowest Grade Elixirs were spreading sequentially, starting from large guilds and moving down to small and medium-sized ones.
Word of mouth was a scary thing.
The affiliated Hunters saw the effects and introduced them to their Hunter acquaintances, and that rumor would spread to the guilds those acquaintances belonged to…
With that, the Taesung Guild became even more heated.
However, Lee Tae-sung remained level-headed.
‘I should start thinking about manufacturing the next grade of elixir soon.’
The tide was coming in now, but there was one thing he shouldn’t forget.
What they were selling now was the Lowest Grade Elixir.
Once someone took it, they couldn’t see the effect again.
This meant they couldn’t keep selling it forever.
Right now, after selling everything in the Republic of Korea, he could break into the Chinese and United States markets and then sell to Hunters all over the world, but what after that?
Although the number of Hunters was large, it was a speck compared to the total human population.
If they all took it once, it meant they wouldn’t be able to sell it eventually, and the guild’s sales would plummet.
He had to think about future food sources in advance.
The answer was the elixir of the next stage.
‘Should I go find the Golden Altar of Alchemy and loot a furnace for the next stage?’