I Became an Almighty All-Master with EX-Rank Spirits - Chapter 35

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 35
35
—Wail! Wail!
Crack!
[Fire is eagerly swinging whips of flame at the orc!]
[Fire shouts for you to speed up production!]
“Kee, kee-eek.”
The undead had gone absolutely wild once it tasted the Reinforced Mana Stone.
I’d set one corpse to do nothing but Enhancement work.
From now on, it won’t touch anything that isn’t reinforced.
‘Enhancement Level 1 is fine enough, I suppose.’
Even with S-Grade Mana Stones, reaching Enhancement 1 wasn’t difficult.
Nine out of every ten succeeded without issue.
It was a shame to lose one, but against what we’d gained, a single loss hardly mattered.
The remaining undead were still mining steadily.
The only minor problem was that I hadn’t thought to prepare space to store the mined materials.
The undead had no inventory, after all.
‘I should get them something like a small bag.’
I’d finished checking out the Mana Stone Reinforcement table.
The undead and Fire would do fine together at the Spirit Sanctuary.
I was thinking about mining for more materials when the doorbell rang.
Ding-dong.
“Hmm? Who could that be at this hour? I wasn’t expecting anyone.”
It wasn’t family.
I hadn’t even told them I’d moved yet.
I was planning to tell them once I went down soon.
I meant to come clean about my Awakening too.
You could call it a surprise.
The mystery didn’t last long.
“Right, the potions.”
I opened the door and found exactly what I’d expected.
Several boxes were stacked outside.
Opening them carefully revealed potions packed neatly inside.
Glass vials filled with brilliant crimson liquid.
These were the Lowest-Grade Health Potions I’d requested.
Water, who’d somehow wrapped herself around my neck, set down the cheap soju bottle she’d been drinking from with a wistful sigh.
The moment she saw the Lowest-Grade Health Potions, she burst into tears and threw her arms around me.
—Wail! Wail! Sob!
[Water says only her contractor matters!]
[Water weeps, saying she finally receives a proper potion!]
“I’m glad you’re happy, but please don’t cry. Actually, never mind. If you’re happy, that’s what matters.”
My entire body was instantly soaked through.
Before the floor could get flooded, I headed to the bathroom.
Once I confirmed Water was gradually calming down, I picked up one of the Lowest-Grade Health Potions.
I’d expected it to smell like herbal medicine, given that it was called a potion.
“Oh, it’s not? It smells sweet—almost like juice?”
I’d heard that if an Alchemist is skilled, the taste improves as well.
Judging by how good this one was, the alchemist the Jinhui Trading Company President recommended must be quite skilled.
I was about to taste it myself when I realized it was completely useless for me.
So I gave it straight to Water.
—Wail!
[Water says she will drink it gratefully!]
And then she just chugged the entire bottle straight.
It wasn’t even a gulp.
She simply poured it down her throat.
It looked less like drinking and more like filling up a car’s tank.
As the potion vanished in one breath, I quickly checked Water’s Hunger and Thirst stats.
If my prediction was right, it would be 10.
I really hoped it wasn’t.
That would be incredibly difficult to produce!
Indeed?
❰Thirst : (10/1,000)❱
“Ugh!”
The prediction rang true.
The reading was identical to an F-rank Mana Stone.
But the similarities didn’t end there.
❰Thirst : (9/1,000)❱
“It’s decreasing too?!”
I’m going to lose my mind.
Even the bad traits copied over perfectly.
What struck me hardest was that Fire, whenever he ate, would satisfy his Hunger even on minuscule portions.
Sweet and sour pork? Two points. Spicy seafood soup? One point.
But Water had no such mechanism.
No matter how much soju he drank, it was always zero.
Maybe it wouldn’t matter if the drinks were expensive, but I doubted it.
Fire was practically nothing to maintain.
The real money sink was Water.
Maybe I should’ve kept living in that one-room apartment.
What if one more of these creatures showed up?
‘I won’t be able to handle it.’
But that was just the beginning of what I couldn’t handle.
And mentally, I’d be stretched thin too.
One glutton, one crybaby, and a third who was probably anything but normal.
Damn it.
Calm down.
I’m already a Contractor.
I have to manage.
Every bottle I drained, Thirst climbed higher.
Accounting for the decrease, a hundred bottles wouldn’t cut it.
And I couldn’t reinforce potions anyway.
So I had no choice but to head to Namdaemun and buy two more Lowest-Grade Health Potions.
When it came to potions, even Fire had to bow out.
One hundred and two Lowest-Grade Health Potions vanished in the blink of an eye.
Then the system message appeared.
[Thirst has reached 1,000!]
[Water (EX) has leveled up by 1!]
❰Water Lv. 2❱
❰Possessed Skill : God’s Baptism (EX)❱
❰Thirst : (0/3,000)❱
……New Skill unlocks at Level 5
……Lee Chan-yeong gains a Hidden Stat at 3,000 Thirst
If I remembered correctly, when Fire first leveled up, his Hunger doubled.
This time, it tripled altogether.
The scaling factor was terrifying.
I couldn’t imagine what would happen next.
I needed to get that Alchemy skill sooner rather than later.
But what exactly did I gain from the level-up?
“Come to think of it, it’s not a skill, is it?”
I’d been too busy to check properly.
When Fire leveled up, I received a skill.
But Water gave me a Hidden Stat instead?
I tilted my head, puzzled.
I had no idea what a Hidden Stat even was.
Clone explained it to me with remarkable patience.
-It’s a statistic that common Awakeners can’t see, but it raises your Base Stats.
“Ah, right. There’s something like that. But?”
-Normally, stats increase based on your individual Trait and effort. Higher-grade Traits improve them more readily.
I had a general idea about that much.
I’d seen plenty of Awakeners who honed their Base Stats carefully.
-And the Base Stat categories are almost always fixed once you Awaken: Vitality, Strength, Agility, and Mana. Those are the four basic ones. Any stat outside these foundations is classified as a Hidden Stat.
“How much better would it be if it were a Hidden Stat?”
There are no grades among Hidden Stats. Any stat outside the four I mentioned falls into this category. What I can tell you is that all Hidden Stats are valuable.
All valuable.
The skill Fire granted when leveling up was already bordering on absurd.
What spirit granted a skill upon leveling up?
It made no sense from the start.
But something even more senseless had just emerged.
So what was this Hidden Stat I’d just obtained?
[You have successfully achieved Hunger 1,000.]
[You have acquired the Hidden Stat, ‘Perception’!]
[The Hidden Stat ‘Perception’ has been added to your Base Stats!]
<Perception>
Description: Your senses sharpen and develop.
“Perception?”
For a Hidden Stat, it seemed remarkably ordinary.
I found myself wondering if it was even necessary.
My perception was already more than sufficient.
I had Spirit’s Eye and Spirit’s Blessing bestowed upon my body.
The thought that I already possessed skills beyond mere perception faded quickly.
On pure instinct, I clapped toward empty air.
It wasn’t as though I’d lost my mind.
“Caught it.”
I’d caught a tiny flying insect.
It was a strange feeling.
With the two skills I’d mentioned earlier, catching an insect was hardly difficult.
Whether it was small or flying made no difference.
But the sensation was entirely different.
With those skills, I caught it physically.
I saw where it was and swung my hand to grab it. Perception worked in the opposite way.
I knew it was there without seeing it.
‘So it really is a Hidden Stat.’
The difference between having it and not was stark.
It wasn’t just the insect.
The air, magical energy, scent, the tactile sensation at my fingertips—everything had changed.
Everything was transformed.
And this was merely the initial stage of Perception.
If I honed and refined it further, what absurd effects might it reveal?
Things were working out well regardless.
Now I could enter the dungeon I’d obtained before.
[The Disposable Trap Dungeon has been opened!]
[You may now enter the Disposable Trap Dungeon!]
A trap dungeon.
Exactly as the name suggested.
By overcoming the traps, you could claim rewards.
When I first acquired it, I hadn’t entered because of a special condition.
You were told that only Base Stats could be used, human.
“That’s why I couldn’t enter. I’m strong because of the spirits and skills—my Base Stats weren’t anything special on their own.”
With the Hidden Stat Perception, it shouldn’t be difficult to manage.
I stepped in immediately.
My vision darkened for a moment, then returned to normal.
The first thing I saw was an underground space lit only by torches.
Before me stretched a long corridor in a straight line.
The torchlight wasn’t particularly bright, so visibility was poor—but that was expected.
[You have entered the Disposable Trap Dungeon.]
[All skills and spirits are disabled!]
[You must pass through the trap dungeon using only your stats!]
[Reach your destination by overcoming the traps!]
[Destination: 0/1]
Skills and spirits—all of them were disabled.
I had to do this on my own strength alone.
Even without a heart of steel, there was no room for nervousness.
It wasn’t overconfidence.
‘I can see it all.’
Thanks to the Hidden Stat and Perception, he could read every trap in this space like an open book.
Where it would come from, how it would strike, where it would go, what kind of trap it was—everything.
With everything visible, hesitation dissolved.
He pressed forward.
The moment his foot stepped ahead, his head dipped down.
Not a degree more, not a degree less—exactly ninety.
In that instant, an arrow streaked past overhead.
No need to worry about it.
This time, a single step to the left.
Then a boulder tumbled from the ceiling.
Perception hadn’t steered him wrong.
A few more paces made no difference.
Narrow calls, yes—but with almost flawless precision, he evaded every trap.
Anyone watching might have mistaken him for someone who could see the future.
For roughly an hour, he moved forward like this.
Without skills or spirits to rely on, pushing through with nothing but his own body was undeniably taxing.
Especially since the traps weren’t limited to arrows and falling rocks.
It was somewhere around the halfway point.
Thump!
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump!
A massive sphere of stone, filling the entire corridor, rolled toward him with tremendous force.
Surrounded on all sides.
Turning back seemed like the only option—but only because he hadn’t examined his surroundings carefully enough.
He pressed a specific section of the left wall, and it recessed inward, creating just enough space for a person to squeeze through.
He slipped inside and tucked himself away as the boulder rumbled cleanly past.
After advancing for roughly two more hours.
[You have cleared the Disposable Trap Dungeon!]
[Destination: 1/1]
[You have overwhelmingly cleared the Disposable Trap Dungeon!]
[Hidden rewards are granted!]
[You obtain High-Grade Mana Stone (A) × 106!]
[You obtain Top-Grade Mana Stone (S) × 31!]
“Oh! That’s insane!”
The ordeal had been grueling, but the reward more than made up for it.
With A-rank and S-rank Mana Stones in hand, his heart felt lighter.
He’d have his 100 million Hunger satisfied before long.
The only disappointment was not obtaining anything related to Alchemy.
When would the system grant him Alchemy-related materials?
He wished it would come as soon as possible.
For now, that was enough for the day.
As he went to gather more materials, he noticed the world outside had grown dark.
Clearing the Trap Dungeon had eaten up considerable time.
He recalled all the Undead gathering materials and checked what they’d collected so far.
At the sight of the results, he scratched his head in bewilderment.
“You did work hard, right? You weren’t slacking off in the middle?”
“Squeak! Squeak!”
The Undead shook their heads vigorously.
They’d done exactly as he’d asked, they insisted.
No slacking at all!
Yet for all their effort, the quantity seemed disappointingly small.
Burning Stone Wood × 12
Blazing Cotton × 9
Strong Stone × 5
Purification Stone × 1
Twenty-seven items total.
From four Undead working the whole day, he’d scraped together what he could normally gather from a few materials—this was underwhelming.
For loot dropped from an A+ grade item, it fell short of expectations.
I’d assumed we’d bring back at least fifty pieces even if things went poorly.
“Still, if we’re getting materials delivered automatically, there’s no harm in that.”
And it works around the clock.
If we just leave it running, it’ll bring back plenty on its own.
This time I sent one of the bags I’d bought at Namdaemun along with them.
Once it was full, I’d set it to return home automatically.
All the work was done. Only one thing remained.
—Waa!
[Fire is asking you to please order some cold braised pork feet right away!]
—……Waa!
[Water is shyly asking if you could also order some soju!]
After all that work, we needed to unwind.
A small celebration broke out in the 15 pyeong villa.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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