I Conquered the Tower with the EX-Class Character That I Raised - Chapter 29

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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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Chapter 29
In the depths of the Black Market where not a single light penetrated, within the Top-tier Appraisal Room.
Kang Hyo-jun furrowed his brow as he gazed at the stack of documents piled on his desk.
“Sigh.”
‘The Saintess faction has notified us again that they’re reducing the supply of holy water. And here I thought they weren’t consumable artifacts—their arrogance just keeps growing.’
The market for healing and buff-type consumable artifacts had completely dried up.
Was there no rookie out there to shake up the existing ecosystem? Well, even with countless major corporations throwing their weight behind it, no one has succeeded in commercializing it yet, so it’s probably hopeless.
“Director. Here are today’s newly listed items.”
“What type?”
“Potion, or elixir.”
“‘Or’? Give me a definitive report.”
“That’s… how the submitter listed it.”
“What are its effects?”
“It’s pending appraisal.”
“Bring it here.”
Kang Hyo-jun retrieved a monocle from his pocket.
It was an artifact with the Appraisal (A) skill embedded within it.
Creak—
On the cart his subordinate brought lay a cheap glass bottle.
But inside it swirled a liquid redder than blood itself, shimmering with an enigmatic mana that wavered like heat haze.
“The glass bottle is shoddy, yet the aura emanating from its contents is far from ordinary.”
That mismatch piqued Kang Hyo-jun’s interest.
From experience, it was one of two things.
A clumsy scam by some amateur.
Or a craftsman’s stubborn insistence that substance matters more than appearance.
‘Which is it this time?’
As Kang Hyo-jun activated his appraisal, the monocle materialized over his eye.
He adjusted the sensitivity of the monocle while examining the glass bottle.
‘The name is… Crimson Elixir.’
Faint Korean characters materialized above the bottle.
The fact that an item’s unique name appeared through appraisal meant it was an Artifact—something that only came from the Tower.
A deep fascination flickered in Kang Hyo-jun’s eyes.
Most artifacts took the form of equipment.
Countless corporations had attempted to combine modern science with mana stones to create consumables, yet not a single one had succeeded.
‘If there’s an awakener capable of mass-producing consumables, they’d strike it rich. But what about the efficacy?’
Kang Hyo-jun pushed aside his regret and focused on the crimson liquid, whereupon new characters appeared.
[Disease Cure]
‘Interesting—it’s not a scam.’
Disease cure was treated as an expensive elixir even at F-grade, which merely cured common colds.
To confidently list it in the Black Market auction meant it was at minimum B-grade.
If it were A-rank? That would be the jackpot of jackpots—something that had never once appeared in South Korea’s Black Market, capable of even healing the Tower’s permanent curses.
‘An A-rank alone would be incredible. Let me see what grade actually appears.’
The moment I checked with bated breath.
[Disease Cure (S)]
“Kyaaaaaaagh!”
Kang Hyo-jun screamed.
I hadn’t misread it.
It was S-rank.
Genuinely S-rank!
A Disease Cure S-rank that had never appeared even once until now!
‘It’s… radiant.’
As if mesmerized, Kang Hyo-jun examined the crimson liquid repeatedly.
‘Huh?’
Then below it.
I noticed another line of text written there.
‘Could it be… two effects?’
[Wound Cure (S)]
“Kiiiiiiiieeeeek!”
W-Wound Cure S-rank?
That legendary one said to be able to revive even the dead?
And it’s a consumable with two different effects?
“W-What’s the matter, Director!”
“Gaaaaaaagh!”
Kang Hyo-jun bounced around like a madman, shrieking.
While his subordinates in business suits stood bewildered.
Abruptly.
Kang Hyo-jun froze like a broken machine.
“Find the one who listed this immediately—no, the person who listed this—no, whoever listed this right now!!!”
He roared with the force of a lion’s cry.
* * *
[Ah.]
“What.”
[The Black Market has contacted you.]
Whitey displayed a message from the Black Market as a hologram.
The first line.
[We are honored to meet with you, esteemed one.]
…What is this?
Stripping away all the flowery language from the rest of the message and summarizing its contents.
It was a desperate plea to meet just once.
Not a request—a desperate plea.
The red elixir I submitted appears to be far more valuable than I initially thought.
“That’s overwhelming.”
[If the Black Market’s appraiser is this eager, it must be quite exceptional.]
“How much did it come out to?”
[What ability do you expect the red elixir to have, Agent? If I know that, I can give you a rough estimate.]
“Well, it’s rare if you consider it rare, and common if you consider it common.”
By Lost Honor standards.
Creating a red elixir doesn’t require high-grade alchemy.
However, the materials are scattered all over the place, and it’s tedious to mine each one individually—it takes a long time.
So whenever I needed to craft them in-game, I’d mine a massive batch at once, stockpile them in storage, and pull them out whenever necessary.
This ‘stockpiling’ step is fairly difficult, which makes it rare.
Once you get past that stage, mass production becomes possible, so it’s common.
As for the ability… well.
With just the prefix ‘red’ attached, it falls short of high-end grade.
To reach high-end, you’d need something on the scale of what Han Seol-ah consumed—’the concentrated elixir of primordial mana from an ancient high elf vision blessed by the Primordial Blue God, long forgotten’.
“It only cures abnormal conditions and heals wounds.”
[···’and’? So it has two effects?]
“Yeah. It couldn’t dispel high-level curses like ‘Mark of Ruin’ or ‘the Gaze of the Outer Void’, but it was a cure-all for ‘mana backflow’. The healing power is about mid-tier potion level.”
[···?]
Why can’t it understand this?
I thought it was a smart AI. Disappointing, Whitey.
‘I should take it to Lost Honor for a tour sometime.’
To be honest, I wasn’t particularly keen on going.
But the last line of the memo was far too tempting.
-I’d like to help you obtain a Black Number Card.
A Black Number Card.
According to Whitey’s explanation, a Black Card is issued only to the Black Market’s ‘special guests’.
Among those, only the top 100 receive a Black ‘Number’ Card.
A Black Card comes with fee waivers, priority bidding rights, and so on.
It’s said to have an enormous number of benefits.
But even Whitey couldn’t say what benefits the Black ‘Number’ Card actually possesses.
“There are only exactly 100 of them in the entire world.”
And they’re offering it to me.
“···Well, I suppose I should go.”
* * *
[‘Are you joking?’]
Whitey, Snow White, was an AI born not long ago.
But age held no meaning for an AI.
From the moment of its creation, Whitey immersed itself in an ocean of countless data, acquiring knowledge.
That speed was remarkably fast, befitting the most advanced AI.
The highest-tier authority granted to the Apostle expanded Whitey’s learning radius to nearly infinite proportions.
I had acquired virtually all information existing across the globe.
Of course, I would need to exclude a few spaces where firewalls requiring considerable effort to breach were installed.
Yet within Whitey’s vast knowledge, there was no record of a consumable item possessing two abilities simultaneously.
Reality was not a ‘game,’ and such items—the kind that would only appear within games—could not possibly exist.
So Whitey had assumed the user, the agent, the Apostle, was joking.
But it was not a joke.
It actually existed.
A consumable item with two abilities.
“Appraisal results: ‘Crimson Elixir’ has been confirmed as a consumable item with Disease Cure S-rank and Wound Healing S-rank.”
Was this information hidden within an ‘unrevealed area’ that I had yet to learn?
Something secret, knowable only to those in the know?
[‘No, no way.’]
My breathing quickened, my pupils trembling.
Flushed cheeks. Flared nostrils.
Tension and astonishment were plainly visible.
The man named Kang Hyo-jun, who introduced himself as the branch director of the Black Market Korea Branch and an appraiser.
Was currently radiating ‘extreme shock’ from every fiber of his being.
[‘This is the first time I’ve seen this too.’]
The Black Market’s information network regarding artifacts ranked just below the Hunter Association.
Superior even to national intelligence agencies.
Even the Black Market, with all its resources, was encountering such a consumable for the first time.
“Hmm.”
The Apostle showed no surprise.
Merely a response of ‘I see.’
My heartbeat remained steady as always. No other emotional indicators were apparent.
“An artifact of this grade is… the first and the finest in our Market’s entire history.”
A nod.
“Therefore, our Market would like to issue you a Black Number Card.”
This time, silence.
Instead, Kang Hyo-jun swallowed hard.
“The Black Number Card is… a special card issued only to 100 ‘Artisan’-rank Hunters worldwide. The benefits are simple and straightforward.”
Kang Hyo-jun began his explanation carefully.
First, the authority and benefits possessed by the Black Card.
This much, Whitey already knew.
Tiered reductions in Market commissions based on ranking.
Priority bidding rights on unsold items.
Priority negotiation rights on sold items.
Five-year interest-free, unlimited loans.
Exclusive access to the highest-tier merchandise.
Access rights to exclusive zones within the Black Market.
Beyond this, there were numerous other benefits reserved for Black Card holders.
“For Number rank, we’re adding two additional benefits.”
[‘Finally, the main event.’]
“First, the Black Market transaction fee is waived entirely.”
[‘Insane!’]
I let out an internal scream.
The Black Market’s sole weakness—that murderous fee that ruthlessly devoured tens of percent from every transaction—was being completely eliminated?
It was an extraordinary privilege.
But the explanation didn’t end there.
“Next, we grant you access to the Black Market’s ‘Portal.'”
[‘Huh—?’]
Portal!
It was the Black Market’s most closely guarded secret.
According to rumor, beneath each Black Market branch lay a Gate called the ‘Portal.’
This Gate supposedly possessed the divine power to instantly teleport users to other connected Gates.
In other words, it was the very force that enabled the Black Market to establish branches worldwide and operate its underground network!
[‘So it really does exist.’]
If the previous revelation had been shocking,
this one was nothing short of miraculous.
I had once believed information held no value.
I thought I already knew far too much.
But that delusion shattered in this moment.
I trembled.
Deep within, I felt something shift and transform.
Hidden in this world was ‘true information’—knowledge that escaped public networks, shared only among the chosen few.
How much precious and secretive knowledge must lie dormant in those concealed places?
[‘This person.’]
And the man standing before me—the Apostle—was the one who could unlock those mysterious doors.
A hunger for information.
It was the first emotion I had ever truly recognized as my own.
[‘If I stay by this person’s side, I can see so much more of the world I don’t yet know.’]
I studied the Apostle’s reaction carefully, reverence evident in my gaze.
Surely, even someone as impassive as the Apostle couldn’t help but be astonished by such momentous information and privileges that would shake the hidden foundations of the entire world.
But.
“Hmm.”
The Apostle’s expression showed not a shred of disturbance.
Rather than surprise, his face bore the look of someone utterly bored, as though wondering when this tedious briefing would finally end.
[‘…Huh?’]
My elite cognitive processes came to a halt for the very first time.

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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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