The Automatic Rooting Range Is Too Wide - Chapter 106

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Auto Looting Range Too Wide Episode 106

 

Episode 106: Mercenary Layer (1)

 

After parting with Haein, Mincheol returned to his apartment.

 

“Ugh, this hurts like hell.”

 

He hadn’t noticed during the sparring match, but now that it was over, the places he’d been hit were throbbing.

 

Since these weren’t injuries from the Tower, he had no choice but to endure until they healed naturally.

 

The fortunate thing was that Awakened had fast recovery abilities.

 

From Mincheol’s experience, they would be completely healed in just one day.

 

Flicker.

 

Just then, Whitey, who had been placed on the desk, burst into flames.

 

This was the reaction it showed when it had something to say.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

Flutter flutter.

 

“Do you want me to pet you?”

 

Despite having no physical form, Whitey liked being petted by Mincheol.

 

So Mincheol casually placed his hand over Whitey.

 

Then Whitey transferred onto Mincheol’s body. White flames enveloped Mincheol.

 

“Ahhh!”

 

Even though he knew touching Whitey wouldn’t burn him, he couldn’t help but be startled.

 

Whitey only covered Mincheol for a brief moment before returning to the plate.

 

Mincheol felt around his body. Soon he realized something amazing.

 

“Huh? My body doesn’t hurt anymore?”

 

The pain he’d felt from the areas where Haein had hit him had completely disappeared.

 

Not only that, but even the slight fatigue was completely gone.

 

“Wow, Whitey. You’re amazing.”

 

Mincheol looked around his body with joy.

 

Flutter.

 

Whitey also trembled slightly as if pleased.

 

But its size had shrunk compared to just before.

 

It seemed tired from what it had just done.

 

“Thank you, Whitey.”

 

Mincheol petted Whitey with a grateful heart.

 

Whitey trembled slightly as if pleased.

 

* * *

 

Lunchtime.

 

After finishing his meal, Mincheol sat in front of his laptop and opened the Hunter Community.

 

Usually, when he had nothing to do, he would frequently browse the Hunter Community.

 

Even when he had no particular business, he found it interesting to listen to the stories of other Awakened.

 

But now he hadn’t accessed the Hunter Community to kill time.

 

“Let’s see, there should be information about the 21st Floor.”

 

It was to learn about the 21st Floor, which he was about to climb.

 

“I can’t trust this one, and this one’s no good either…”

 

Mincheol didn’t carelessly choose information posts.

 

Since this site was an anonymous community, anyone could post anything.

 

Thanks to this, it boasted a vast amount of information, but it was hard to trust.

 

“Oh, there’s a post written by King Burger.”

 

Then he found a trustworthy information post.

 

It was written by King Burger, a veteran of the Hunter Community who boasted extensive knowledge in various fields.

 

【Title: Information Post About Floors 21-25 That Newbies Must Know】

 

-Author: King Burger.

 

-First, let me offer my congratulations.

 

-If you’ve reached the 20th Floor, you can say you’ve shed your newbie status. Good job surviving this far.

 

-Now you can proudly go around calling yourself an Awakened who pulls their weight.

 

Swish-

 

At King Burger’s praise, Mincheol rubbed under his nose with his finger.

 

“I really did work hard.”

 

Like nearly dying after encountering the Phantom Knight in the Hidden Stage.

 

Or nearly dying when the Successful Golem entered its second phase on the 10th Floor.

 

Or nearly dying to the Goblin Knight and Count on the 12th and 14th Floors.

 

Or nearly dying when the Guardians suddenly activated on the 20th Floor.

 

Mincheol’s climb had truly been filled with powerful enemies and life-threatening crises.

 

‘…Now that I think about it, isn’t the frequency a bit strange?’

 

No matter how dangerous the Tower was, was it normal to encounter strong enemies this frequently?

 

Of course, he had gained rewards and become stronger accordingly.

 

‘…Let me just read more of the information post.’

 

Mincheol focused on the post again.

 

-But you absolutely must not let your guard down. As I’ve said many times, you never know what dangers might strike in the Tower.

 

-In that sense, I’m really grateful you came to read this information post.

 

-Around this point, more Awakened start getting arrogant and enter the Tower after only doing cursory research.

 

Mincheol clicked his tongue. How could they do such foolish things?

 

He would never fall into such arrogance.

 

Because he felt just how dangerous the Tower was every single time!

 

-Starting from the 21st Floor, the concept is quite unique. First, floors 21-25 are grouped together as one stage.

 

-Awakened will work as mercenaries here. That’s why floors 21-25 are nicknamed the ‘Mercenary Layer.’

 

-You can take on requests as a mercenary. Each time you complete a request, it’s treated the same as climbing one floor.

 

-In other words, if you clear five requests, you can advance to the 26th Floor.

 

-There’s a lot to explain about this part. I’ll go into detail later.

 

The general outline became clear.

 

So it meant he needed to take on five jobs from something like a temp agency, right?

 

-You can freely enter and exit the Mercenary Layer, so you don’t have to complete all requests at once.

 

-That doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous though. You can die while carrying out requests.

 

-You also can’t fail requests. You can only return to the Mercenary Layer if you succeed in your request.

 

-So you really need to choose your requests carefully.

 

It meant that once you took on a request, you absolutely had to succeed.

 

Whether you died during the process or failed, it was game over.

 

-And the Mercenary Layer isn’t solo play, it’s multiplayer.

 

-That doesn’t mean party play is forced. You can take requests alone or proceed with others.

 

-It’s just multiple Awakened connecting to one location.

 

-To use an analogy, I guess you could say it’s like an online game.

 

This was the first format he’d seen while climbing the Tower.

 

Just as King Burger explained, it was very similar to quests in online games.

 

-Naturally, the more difficult requests you complete, the greater rewards you can obtain.

 

-Each request is divided into grades 1-8 according to danger level. The lower the number, the more dangerous it is.

 

-Mercenaries also have grades. According to the material of the mercenary badge, they’re divided into wood, bronze, silver, and gold ranks.

 

-The requests you can take are limited based on your mercenary badge grade. Please refer to the table below for details.

 

Gold badge: Grades 1-2.

 

Silver badge: Grades 3-4.

 

Bronze badge: Grades 5-6.

 

Wood badge: Grades 7-8.

 

-Earlier I said you can advance to the 26th Floor by completing five requests, right?

 

-You can advance to the 26th Floor even by completing five grade 8 quests available to wood badges.

 

-But then you wouldn’t receive much in rewards, right? So it’s better to raise your mercenary badge grade as much as possible to take on difficult requests.

 

Mincheol’s expression grew serious as he read the continuing explanation.

 

“This means I won’t be able to clear with EX grade.”

 

The reason Mincheol had been able to clear previous floors with EX grade was because he could obtain quest items through Auto Looting.

 

But if it was a request format, the clearing methods would all be different.

 

It seemed like this time the Zero-second Swordsman’s legend would finally be broken.

 

“Tsk, that’s disappointing. The rewards were quite lucrative.”

 

The reason Mincheol, an unaffiliated Awakened, had been able to grow to a level rivaling large guilds was precisely because he had monopolized EX grade rewards.

 

But now that he thought he couldn’t do that anymore, disappointment washed over him.

 

“Can’t be helped. Let’s cleanly forget about what’s impossible.”

 

Mincheol turned his attention back to the information post.

 

If he couldn’t receive EX grade, he had to clear with the highest grade possible.

 

That way he could receive more rewards.

 

-The requests available on the Mercenary Layer are extremely diverse.

 

-Monster subjugation, territorial wars, noble escort, even sword tutoring. You can consider that all work mercenaries might do is available.

 

-So does that mean combat-type Awakened have an advantage? Not at all. The requests are so diverse that there are tons of requests for crafting and gathering-type Awakened too.

 

-For crafting types: helping at smithies, mineral refining, alchemy assistance, potion delivery.

 

-For gathering types: requests like rare material delivery are available.

 

But his thoughts changed with the following words.

 

“…There are separate gathering-type requests?”

 

Though he was using it effectively in combat, Auto Looting was originally a skill that showed its true value when gathering.

 

After all, the reason Mincheol had been able to freely purchase various items was thanks to gathering and selling material items through Auto Looting.

 

“If I do this well, couldn’t I receive EX grade again?”

 

Of course it would depend on the request content, but there was a possibility.

 

Moreover, there was another good point about taking gathering requests.

 

“I want to stop fighting now!”

 

That’s right.

 

Recently, Mincheol had fought too much.

 

Goblin Knights, Goblin Count, Spider Guardian, Floating Guardian, Humanoid Guardian, Giant Guardian.

 

He had even fought Awakened from the terrifying organization called Hope Society.

 

What was even more infuriating was that all these battles had occurred regardless of Mincheol’s will.

 

“I want to climb the Tower comfortably and safely!”

 

Mincheol’s motto was safety first.

 

His goal was to safely climb the Tower and then join a large guild to make his mother happy.

 

But from the moment he entered the Tower until now, he had never been safe.

 

“This time for sure! Comfortably! Safely! I’m going to have it easy!”

 

Mincheol let out a cry filled with resentment.

 

Then he turned his gaze back to the laptop.

 

He hadn’t finished reading the information post yet.

 

-Ah, but that doesn’t mean crafting and gathering requests are easy. Otherwise, why would anyone pay money to commission them?

 

-Some places have high difficulty simply because they’re hard to find, but some are dangerous enough to risk your life.

 

-Like having to create something using explosives, or having to pick rare fruits from areas where monsters inhabit.

 

-So taking requests that match your level is most important.

 

Mincheol engraved King Burger’s advice in his mind.

 

No matter how good EX grade rewards were, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.

 

If it was too dangerous, he planned not to even consider it.

 

“There should be information about gathering requests too.”

 

Mincheol entered the relevant content into the Hunter Community.

 

As expected, there were quite a few information posts.

 

“Huh, what? Gold badges aren’t the end? There’s something called a platinum badge?”

 

“Platinum badges can take special-grade requests. Then what kind of compensation do you receive?”

 

“What, no one has cleared them yet?”

 

“What exactly are special-grade requests that no one has been able to clear them?”

 

“Let’s see, it’s because they’re hard to find or in areas that are too dangerous?”

 

“The most famous special-grade request is… Lava Heart gathering? It’s a fruit that grows in magma inside volcanoes, so no one has been able to obtain it?”

 

Mincheol looked away from the laptop.

 

Then he quietly clenched his fist. It was a tremor of joy.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Mincheol prepared to challenge the Mercenary Layer.

 

Unlike usual, he wore ‘Special’ grade armor.

 

Not only that, he put all the longswords he usually used into his inventory.

 

Instead, he took out a single dagger and hung it at his waist.

 

The reason Mincheol deliberately wore different equipment was to hide his identity as the ‘Butcher’.

 

‘If the Butcher challenges the Mercenary Layer, it would draw more attention than necessary.’

 

So Mincheol planned to challenge the Mercenary Layer as a new character, not the Butcher.

 

Next, Mincheol changed his mask.

 

Because he had acted while wearing a mask during the Field Boss Event, there might be people who would recognize Mincheol.

 

【Would you like to change the appearance of the ‘Concealment Mask’?】

 

Fortunately, the Concealment Mask also had a function to change its appearance.

 

Mincheol fiddled with the Concealment Mask this way and that.

 

At first, he couldn’t get the hang of it and only produced strange shapes.

 

After manipulating it for a while, he was able to create a mask of the desired shape.

 

After a long time of working on it, I was able to create a mask in the shape I wanted.

 

“Now this is more to my liking.”

 

Mincheol looked at the white rabbit mask with a satisfied expression.

 

“Well then, shall we get going.”

 

“Kkwak!”

 

Kkwaekkwi landed on his head as if it had been waiting, but Mincheol quietly set Kkwaekkwi down.

 

“I have no choice since I need to hide my identity.”

 

“Kkwaak….”

 

Kkwaekkwi nodded weakly.

 

Feeling sorry, Mincheol filled the food bowl with magic stones.

 

“I will challenge the 21st Floor.”

 

【The 21st-25th Floors are grouped together as one Stage.】

 

【Complete five requests and you can proceed to the 26th Floor.</p】

【Moving to the ‘Mercenary Request Office’.】

 

Mincheol’s figure disappeared along with the light.

 

It was the beginning of a new honey Stage.

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