Another four days had passed. In that time, nearly every guild that had entered Naldun learned about the “Rhine Chamber’s special money-making method.”
Every day, waves of members from different guilds camped the stall on schedule. They’d sell off all their guild’s glowstone lanterns, then buy them right back. They milked the membership system for every bit of that fat price gap.
If it weren’t for the buy and sell windows being staggered—mornings for one, afternoons for the other—these maniacs would’ve drained every asset I had stashed in the chamber in half a day.
Even now, it was close enough. The stall’s data showed a deficit that proved I’d lost over two hundred gold in those few days. And that was after factoring in the profits from the special items I’d sold.
Any player—or even a guild—facing a hole that deep would’ve bailed long ago. But the trickle of income from the Alwyn Empire side kept me from straight-up bankruptcy.
Still, even with the chamber bleeding that hard, I wasn’t too fussed. I had the plan locked in from the start. And honestly, the Trial of the Radiant Chapter was eating more of my headspace.
Mihri Ruins Outskirts, Mihri Arena.
The dim sky, crackling with occasional lightning, made the ruined buildings around it feel even more desolate. But this one structure—still mostly intact—hadn’t lost its ancient grandeur to the march of time.
The scars on those pillars told stories of clashing armies from centuries ago. It’d make a killer battle stage even in a movie.
Especially with a real fight playing out right now.
A towering skeleton, its frame rigid and imposing, swung its sword at Kai. The armor etched with special marks screamed “squad commander” from its living days.
The summoned undead guards clashing with Bemira, Satahia, and the others nearby only backed that up.
But despite its raw power and the swarm of summoned minions—enough to wreck most players—this undead commander was in a brutal slog. Or more like getting one-sidedly crushed.
The clearest sign was its HP bar, already below 40%. And the next hit dropped it even lower.
Boom—
Bilis’s chant wrapped up, and a blazing holy spear tore through the undead commander’s body. Its skeleton, once faintly metallic, dimmed on the spot.
Red light flared in the undead commander’s eye sockets. It poured extra force into its swing, shoving Kai back. Light pulsed across its form, and two summoned undead guards leaped in to block Kai’s advance.
“It’s trying to pop its aura—interrupt it now!”
Kai was closest and caught the move clear as day. She shouted back to her teammates.
The undead commander’s aura cranked its own stats and those of its summons. It had already given them plenty of headaches.
Bilis and Him jumped straight into control divine arts. But before they could finish, a petite figure appeared behind the undead commander and beat them to it.
Bang.
Stun and a kick landed together. A daze icon flashed over the undead commander’s head. It was brief, but it killed the aura skill dead.
The failed cast sent the undead commander into a rage. Even pinned by Kai up front, it directed three summoned undead guards straight at the little sneak who’d hit it from behind.
Perfect. Takes some heat off Kai and the others.
I didn’t panic. I just kited the guards aside, using the terrain to spread them out.
I slipped into stealth at a corner, vanishing from sight. The two faster ones closed in first but froze, clueless without a scent to follow. Little did they know their enemy had already looped around to the other side. I closed the gap on their isolated elite buddy with a thief’s agility.
Most players would’ve cleared the normals first, then tackled the elite. Not me. Call it confidence. Or maybe just spite.
Yeah, who told you to be the ADC?
The lone undead archer guard seemed to sense something. It slowed, scanning the area. But its caution came way too late. A cold blade ghosted up the back of its skull.
Stun—the strongest control—hit first, as always.
The moment the daze icon popped, my polished thief combo unleashed. Four hits in under two seconds, racking up massive damage.
Or 1.7 seconds, to be precise. 0.2 faster than before. Still a far cry from the sub-one-second records those freaks in my old life pulled off.
Why am I even comparing myself to those monsters? Thinking about how many asses they’d groped to master thief tech, I let it go. At least my thief skills were top-tier for the current stage.
Of course, my hands didn’t stop while I mulled it over. As the stun timer ticked down, I followed with an elbow strike and dumped every last attack I had left.
-103
The final damage number floated up as the undead archer guard snapped out of control. Red light locked onto the tiny figure who’d wrecked it. It drew its bow, arrow nocked.
But facing that drawn string and ready shot, I felt zero worry. I burned [Death’s Afterglow] from my Harbinger of Death set.
Now that I’d collected all the scattered pieces, the skill had upgraded. Beyond breaking control and adding damage to the next hit, it also let me drop out of combat.
I wasn’t using it to run, though. I wanted to show this thing—
Sometimes, assassins aren’t the only ones who can dive the ADC.
The instant I swapped to my Dark Word Mage template, I blinked smoothly past the incoming arrow. I leveled the black-gemmed staff straight at it.
The undead archer guard, already low on HP, crumbled under the magic barrage. It faded into black mist.
As a minion summoned by the undead commander, it was just elite tier—no demonized elite tricks to make it a pain.
With the archer down, the two normal undead warriors were a breeze.
By the time I looped back, the once-arrogant undead commander had already crumpled under the Radiant Monastery squad and Satahia.
“…Why does this feel like a high-difficulty plot where the max-level SSR carries the trash protagonist to clear the stage?”
The undead commander had boss-level power, no question. Demonized boss tier, at that. This was the third stage of the Trial of the Radiant Chapter, unlocked after I’d killed twenty demonized elites—
Kill demonized bosses (1/3)
I’d knocked out one of the goals easy enough. But I couldn’t muster any real joy. “Easy” here was anything but.
Like the demonized elites, the undead commander had come from piecing together black fragments from demonized elite drops into a contract summon.
The problem? After crafting the undead commander’s contract, I only had two fragments left.
That meant, to finish the third stage, I’d need to farm at least twenty more demonized elites—or more.
And that wasn’t even the worst part.
The worst was the bulging bone I spotted under the undead commander…
Oh, wait. Another black fragment.
“So the quest has a fourth stage too. Kill a demonized leader-level creature…” I’d half-expected it, but seeing it confirmed still made my teeth ache.
Kai and Satahia and the others looked even more pained.
“I’ve been dreaming about skeletons for days.”
“Same. Wanna team up tonight?”
“Feels like I’m pregnant. I see bones now and I wanna puke.”
What a weird comparison.
I glanced at Satahia behind me. “Relax. Idiots can’t get pregnant.”
…
Kai, who’d stayed quiet the whole fight, finally spoke up. “Your Highness, have you thought about what to do next? At this rate, your quest is impossible to finish.”
She was right. The first two stages had eaten five days. At the current drop rate for black fragments from demonized elites, the third stage would take at least that long to scrape together two more contracts.
If the third stage was the end, great. My deadline was ten days total.
But the fragment I’d just looted from the undead commander—and the still-sealed fourth mysterious text on the Radiant Chapter—proved that was wishful thinking.
At this escalating difficulty, I’d be sunk here for twenty days. Maybe a month.
“Truth is, I’m not sure either.” I sighed and shook my head.
It was like dumping cash into a gacha with no pity. Quitting meant all the sunk money was gone. And the allure of that limited SSR wasn’t easy to shake. In econ terms, the sunk cost was too high.
Seeing my conflicted face, Kai traded looks with Bemira and the others. “When we went back before, we looked up demonized creatures. Talked it over with Lady Claire too.”
“There are all kinds of ways demonized creatures come to be. Not just piecing fragments into contracts.”
“Mm-hmm. And really, it’s not even creating them—just trapping them in the contract. A workaround. Maybe there’s an easier way.” Satahia chimed in from the side.
“Though we don’t know the specifics…”
Kai’s honest words left everyone in awkward silence again.
But it sparked something in me.
“You guys just reminded me. There’s someone who might know a lot.”