Obtained End-Game Gear for a Bowl of Ramen - Chapter 3

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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 3. Elixir
Trial Tower.
A mysterious structure that had risen suddenly one day, where countless Hunters had perished, yet for reasons none could abandon.
[Trial Tower Floor 1 cleared!]
[Clear time — 00:00:03 seconds.]
[Clear Grade: EX]
[EX Grade Reward: Acquire 19 Mana Stones.]
This reward was precisely why.
Mana Stones were essential materials for Hunter item crafting, and as commodities themselves, they surpassed petroleum as a revolutionary resource.
Oil trading was finished. Since the towers appeared, Mana Stones had become the commodity.
At fifty thousand won per Mana Stone, he’d made nine hundred fifty thousand won in three seconds.
Yet that wasn’t all.
[EX Grade Special Reward: Acquire 1 Proof of Hero.]
[Ranking 1st Position Reclaimed! Record Updated!]
A reward exclusive to Jeong-ho for clearing at EX Grade.
Proof of Hero. This didn’t appear anywhere on the internet.
Could it be a Hidden Piece, the thing he’d only heard whispers about?
‘That’s possible.’
Hidden Pieces were treasures that couldn’t be obtained through conventional means. They reportedly carried effects on par with Unique Grade items at minimum.
When he opened his Inventory, he saw a bronze badge slightly larger than a five-hundred-won coin.
-Proof of Hero (Bound) x1.
-Ancient Proof of Hero. Cannot use. Cannot sell. Cannot transfer. Cannot discard.
‘Cannot use? What’s it for then?’
Even when he held it, there was no response. Even pinning it to his clothes yielded nothing.
For now, he’d keep it. It had to be useful somewhere.
Since Hunters had to discover item applications themselves, there were cases from two years ago where something thought to be trash turned out to be an Epic Grade item.
‘Putting that aside — is Trial Tower worth climbing?’
All his Ability Stats were F, so honestly, he’d been worried.
The thought had crossed his mind: would he step on a trap on Floor 1 and die? Would that unprecedented incident make the news?
The Original Fire Bolt was far more powerful than the F-Grade Hunter Ability Stats, which explained why Dae-yeong had told him to climb the tower.
‘Why not just push straight to Floor 2 tomorrow?’
Jeong-ho logged into the Hunter community site HunterOn.
The lower floors of Trial Tower should have walkthroughs.
<Breaking News! Unprecedented EX Grade Clear!>
<Floor 1 in 3 Seconds! Record Smashed! Unparalleled Achievement!>
<Not a Rookie of Ronald, Ranked 1st Worldwide>
<European Union Places 10 Billion Euro Bounty on EX Grade Hunter>
<Only Clue: Korean Affiliation. Who Is This EX Grade Hunter?>
The banners that greeted him upon login were abuzz with breaking news.
‘EX Grade? That’s… me, isn’t it?’
He’d definitely seen it on his Status Window back on Tower Floor 1.
[Ranking 1st Position Reclaimed! Record Updated!]
Ranking 1st reclaimed. Record updated. It had to be me.
Curious, Jeong-ho scrolled through the comments on the news articles.
└What’s EX Grade? Is there another rank above S?
└Floor 1 in 3 seconds, for real? Is that even possible?
└System error. I’ll bet my entire fortune on it.
└I posted the PDF above. Have fun.
└No way. Remember Ronald in America? He said Floor 1 was harder when he cleared it in 13 minutes than Floor 2 was when he cleared it in 30 seconds.
HunterOn banned profanity to maintain Hunter dignity, but though they’d avoided curses, the excitement was palpable even through the screen.
Floor 2 harder than Floor 1? What was that supposed to mean?
└Floor 2 spawns lots of weak monsters. With an area skill, you can sweep them all in one hit, one minute flat. But Floor 1 doesn’t work like that.
‘Ah. I see what they mean.’
Trial Tower Floor 2 was the floor that overwhelmed you with sheer numbers.
If you had an area attack skill, it would be easier than Floor 1, but achieving S Grade with only a single-target Fire Bolt would be tough.
‘But with the Original Fire Bolt…?’
The next day. Jeong-ho climbed the tower the moment he woke.
Floor 2 was identical to Floor 1, except that instead of Trial Dummies, Goblins appeared.
“Hiss-hiss! Hisssss!”
“Kyahahaha!”
Goblins with sickly green skin, skeletal limbs, and grotesque hooked noses—hideous monsters armed with axes, clubs, and spears—surrounded the safe zone.
The moment he stepped out, they meant to beat him to death.
“Fire Bolt.”
A sun rose above Jeong-ho’s head, and the goblins’ faces flushed crimson in horror.
Boom-crash!!
[Trial Tower Floor 2 cleared!]
[Clear time — 00:00:02 seconds.]
[Clear Grade: EX]
[EX Grade Reward: You obtain 19 Mana Stones.]
[EX Grade Special Reward: You obtain 1 Proof of Hero.]
[Reclaimed 1st Place in Rankings! Record updated!]
It was over in two seconds.
Normally Fire Bolt is a single-target skill, but Jeong-ho’s Original Fire Bolt unleashed a rain of flame.
Or rather—this was the original version all along, wasn’t it?
“No way, that was actually faster than Floor 1. So HunterOn’s info is legit after all. Heh.”
[Warning! Mana Pollution 99%!]
[Warning! Mana Pollution 99%!]
[Warning! Mana Pollution 99%!]
The pain was agonizing enough to kill him—yet somehow he remained alive.
Jeong-ho wiped the blood from his lips with the back of his hand.
“Ugh. I need to deal with this Mana Pollution before I climb any higher.”
* * *
Director Oh Seung-woo of the Korean Hunter Management Bureau was frantic.
Because things weren’t going smoothly?
<Floor 2 Record — 00:00:02 seconds. EX Grade. Korea. ???>
Because things were going far too smoothly.
The EX Grade record on Floor 1 had been shocking.
Even Ronald, the world’s 1st-ranked Hunter, had cleared it in 13 minutes—and the 2nd-place record was a staggering 37 minutes.
A 3-second clear was deemed impossible—an error, by international consensus among every intelligence agency.
“Again, again? Another EX Grade, and this time it’s 2 seconds!”
“Of course, Director. Floor 2 is naturally faster than Floor 1, and besides, this EX Grade Hunter is Korean! I even bought a new Taegukgi flag yesterday!”
“Kim! That’s not the point!”
Administrative Officer Kim Min-jae lowered his wide eyes sheepishly.
Director Oh Seung-woo, still agitated, gulped down cold water.
‘This isn’t a time for unalloyed celebration.’
Hunters are strategic resources—roughly equivalent to nuclear weapons.
Honestly, Trial Tower records weren’t the bureau’s real concern; what mattered was Gates.
If a Gate isn’t cleared in time?
The Gate ruptures, expelling the monsters inside in an enhanced state.
Civilian casualties are catastrophic. Entire districts are reduced to cinders as if a nuclear bomb had detonated, and Mana Pollution clings thickly to everything.
There were already several regions worldwide that had been destroyed by Gate ruptures.
In a world where Hunters are national strength itself, would other countries leave an EX Grade Hunter alone?
Would the Hunter himself stay put? With such power? A-Grade and above Hunters sometimes turned to crime.
Moreover, Gates yield items and Elixirs—higher Difficulty means greater rewards.
A powerful Hunter conquers higher-Difficulty Gates with ease, and through the items and Elixirs obtained there, an entire nation grows prosperous.
Conversely, if he controlled the Gates, disaster would follow.
A being capable of determining a nation’s fate single-handedly—that is what an EX Grade Hunter truly is.
‘I have to find him. Who could it be?’
If he’d cleared EX Grade, he’d normally brag about it.
The internet was silent, the media was silent, eerily silent.
An unusually humble person, perhaps?
‘Please, don’t be humble at a time like this! I’ll give him anything—money, land, power, whatever……!’
Director Oh merely crumpled an innocent paper cup.
* * *
After the EX Grade clear, Jeong-ho fell into thought.
A single Fire Bolt. Two consecutive EX Grade clears on Trial Tower Floor 2.
It was easy—far too easy—yet he couldn’t afford to be careless. Every time he cast a skill, Mana Pollution spiked to 99%, and he coughed blood.
If he lost consciousness mid-fight from hemorrhagic shock? Instant death. The monsters would beat him senseless, and his life would end.
‘Solving the Mana Pollution is the priority.’
Jeong-ho opened his Status Window.
Pop!
[Name: Son Jeong-ho]
[Unique Skill: Hero’s Tower Entry]
[Ability Stats] [Level: 3]
-Strength: F -Agility: F
-Protection: F -Sense: F
-Mana: F -Luck: F
[Common Skills: Trial Tower Entry, Original Fire Bolt]
After climbing the tower, his level had risen by two, but his ability stats showed no change otherwise.
If his stats were going to improve, he’d have a way to either prevent or endure Mana Pollution.
That’s why Jeong-ho had already searched HunterOn for how to raise his ability stats.
-Baek Mi-na (A Rank): Don’t get discouraged seeing F-rank ability stats. If you keep climbing the tower and leveling up, your stats will improve. You don’t absolutely need to drink an Elixir.
Following the advice of this A-Rank Hunter named Baek Mi-na, even Hunters who started with F-rank could raise their ability stats.
-Baek Mi-na: Once you clear about twenty floors, you can bump one ability stat from F to E.
Twenty floors. And that’s only a single stat, just one rank up.
Since he could only enter the tower once a day, that meant at minimum twenty days just to raise one stat by one level—and that assumed he could climb one floor every single day.
‘Impossible.’
It just didn’t make sense. Was it because it was difficult? No. There was no reason for it to be.
‘I can just buy Elixirs.’
Drinking Elixirs carelessly could kill a Hunter.
Mana Pollution accumulated from items, Elixirs, and skills.
But wait—what had Dae-yeong said earlier?
-His Mana is so weak that he’s actually immune to Pollution.
That’s right. Jeong-ho could drink Elixirs freely.
The real problem was finding Elixirs—harder than plucking stars from the sky.
Items traded hands constantly. Every Hunter had different main skills, so they’d sell items they couldn’t use to make a profit.
Skill Books were the same. If it wasn’t their main skill, they’d auction it off. What would a warrior do with a magic Skill Book?
But Elixirs? Everyone drank them without question. The more you consumed, the more you benefited—period.
Who would pass up permanent stat increases?
Even with deep pockets, Elixirs were impossible to find because no one was selling.
-Kufufu. Welcome to the Interdimensional Shop [Pansold]. We sell whatever you want at a fair price. Whatever it is. If you wish to buy, bring Mana Stones.
From clearing floors one and two of the Hero’s Tower, Jeong-ho had received nineteen Mana Stones each time.
Thirty-eight Mana Stones total. At fifty thousand won per stone, that was roughly two million won in purchasing power—about what a ten-year-old Ho Shou Wu root had gone for the last time it sold at the Hunter auction house.
‘I should be able to buy at least one basic Elixir.’
The answer was the Hero’s Tower.
While he was at it, he should grab a different ramen brand to bring with him this time.
It seemed Dae-yeong had taken a liking to ramen.
* * *
[Skill Used: Hero’s Tower Entry]
[You enter the Hero’s Tower.]
<Kufufu. Welcome to the Interdimensional Shop [Pansold].>
“Yeah, I know. This isn’t my first time.”
<I know, but I have to. Service industry protocol. Wait—you brought it today, didn’t you?>
Jeong-ho grinned and held out a Cup Ramen.
The moment Dae-yeong saw it, his luminous eyes narrowed.
<What’s this? That’s not ramen. How dare you break a promise to the Great Shadow?!>
“It is ramen. Cup Ramen. Just wait a moment.”
Jeong-ho peeled back the lid of the Cup Ramen with a sharp tug.
The faint aroma of noodles and the dried seasonings wafted up, tickling his nose.
“See? When I pour hot water into it like this—”
He poured from the electric kettle he’d brought along, covered it again with the lid, wedged a wooden chopstick through, and waited three minutes.
“Your Cup Ramen is ready.”
The Cup Ramen floated gently through the air and drifted toward Dae-yeong.
Dae-yeong’s crimson gaze remained decidedly unimpressed, narrowed in suspicion.
<The taste is different from last time’s ramen? No matter how I look at it, they’re identical. The smell, the components—almost exactly the same.>
“You can tell the components?”
<At my level of existence, I can tell at a glance. So this is why you can’t trust human taste buds.>
Visibly disappointed, Dae-yeong picked up the Cup Ramen with a wooden chopstick and took a slurp—
Slurrrp—
<?!>
Jeong-ho saw it without question.
That bastard’s eyes just went wide.
“See? The flavor’s different, isn’t it?”

Dae-yeong, flustered, took another long pull from the Cup Ramen.

Dae-yeong drained the cup in seconds.
I’d noticed it before—he really loves his ramen.
Jeong-ho chuckled and answered.
“That’s a secret. But if I give you a hint: ramen and Cup Ramen are different foods.”

“Ever seen a magician teach you his tricks?”
Dae-yeong leaned forward sharply, his crimson gaze flashing inches from Jeong-ho’s face.

Jeong-ho’s hand still wouldn’t move.
Besides, there was something I’d found while searching about Elixirs earlier.
-Baek Mi-na (A): Taking an Elixir doesn’t guarantee your Ability Stats will rise. Everyone’s constitution is different, and low-grade Elixirs can actually lower your stats if you’re careless. Even in the best case, you’re looking at a one-rank increase, max.
Take it wrong and it’s poison. But this? I’m already F-rank—how much lower could I go? Jeong-ho shut his eyes tight and bit down on the root.
Gag!
He reflexively gagged, nearly vomiting, but bit it back and forced himself to swallow.
The earlier experience of ninety-nine percent Mana Pollution and almost coughing blood to death came in handy.
[Warning! Mana Pollution 99%!]
[Warning! Mana Pollution 99%!]
[Warning! Mana Pollution 99%!]
Bitter blood rose in my throat, and the world swam before my eyes. Dizziness bloomed like smoke.
<Kuhaha. Tough, isn’t it? Hang in there. That’s how you become a hero—stacking small growths, one upon another.>
Even Dae-yeong seemed to be sneering.
[You have consumed an Elixir.]
[Your Ability Stats have improved!]
[Constitution: F → D]
Two whole grades from a single Elixir? That’s hardly a small growth.
To be continued in the next episode ▶
The final item from a bowl of ramen
Author
White Dried Persimmon
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
August 24, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260423069
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and distribution are prohibited. Violation of these terms may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram eagerly awaits your precious manuscript.

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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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