The Only Enhancer - 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
Episode 35 – Emperor Raid Training (1)
0.
Oi Country.
It was the name of a secondhand trading site for Hunters.
Connected to Hunter Net and known to be managed by the Hunter Association.
Yet even under the Association’s management, catching various scammers was no easy task.
After all, there were those whose actions existed in a gray area of fraud.
An Min-sung was precisely that type of person.
He made a habit of targeting only low-level trading users, finding fault with them, and extracting money even in fair exchanges.
His eloquence was so subtle and his improvisational skills so sharp that he’d never been caught red-handed.
‘These people are really stupid.’
It had been ages since he’d stopped going to raids, finding it easier to make money through reselling.
As a result, despite having awakened over three years ago, here he was doing this.
‘Besides, even if I went to raids, they wouldn’t let me join anyway, and making a thousand a month here is laughably easy.’
While certainly less than raiding, it was perfect for living large among ordinary people.
Most importantly.
‘I don’t pay taxes!’
Extracting cash through reselling made it hard to get caught.
Tax evasion was the beauty of cash business, wasn’t it?
An Min-sung was one of those types.
Only Healers received tax exemptions, so as a Dealer, he had to look out for himself this way.
He genuinely believed this and never doubted it.
Today’s transaction came for the same purpose.
A person loitering nearby, glancing at his phone and looking around.
Definitely the trading partner.
‘Heh, prey just rolling right into my lap.’
With that thought, An Min-sung approached the young man who was naively looking around.
The way he loitered about, hesitating left and right, suggested he hadn’t done many secondhand trades.
He approached the handsome youth of considerable height and asked.
“Are you from Oi?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
“Ah, you’re here to trade the wand and spear, right? My, you must have had quite the journey.”
This was where he needed to lay subtle bait.
The item An Min-sung had agreed to trade was a wand.
And what the other party was supposed to exchange was a sword.
But by deliberately mentioning a spear instead, he knocked the wind right out of them.
Yet what was this?
“Ah. It didn’t take long to get here, so it wasn’t much trouble.”
He answered with ease.
Wasn’t he supposed to be a beginner?
If that were the case, he should have corrected me and said it was a sword, not a spear, but he showed no such sign.
Then, while glancing at his phone, he pulled a sword from a large bag.
So he simply hadn’t heard me.
‘Okay.’
An Min-sung smiled wryly and cleared his throat.
Now it was time to bewitch him with quick talk and acting.
“Huh? Why are you taking out a sword?”
Resell Skill, Item Swap.
Normally, when questioned here, people would panic immediately and check their phone.
However.
“Huh? Wasn’t it a sword?”
He asked back without showing any sign of panic.
Something seemed off, but well, it could happen.
“No! We agreed to trade a wand and a spear! If you bring a sword, what are you trying to do? Among Tier 2 items, the wand is popular with magic-type dealers, but healers search for it more, don’t you know? Trading this for a sword would be quite a loss for me, so I was saying spear!?”
I’ll cloud his mind with words pouring out like machine-gun fire!
An Min-sung said that, but the young man spoke as if it were nothing.
“Ah, I apologize.”
He took the bait.
An Min-sung smiled with conviction and continued.
“Then I have no choice but to ask for an additional fee….”
Just as he was naturally about to demand the additional payment.
The young man put the sword back in the bag and pulled out a spear again.
“…?”
Why is a spear coming out from there?
And even if the bag is that large, can a spear even fit in it structurally?
It felt like a strange illusion, as if a long tool were emerging from Doraemon’s pocket.
“Oh, I didn’t know it was a spear. I got confused.”
“…?”
A spear coming out was already strange, but the young man pulled it out as if it were nothing and said he got confused.
He looked quite young too—did someone his age carry Tier 2 items so casually?
He looked barely twenty, or perhaps even like a high school student if you were generous.
At most, early twenties.
It was unusual for him to carry two Tier 2 items, each worth at least fifty million won, so casually.
‘Uh, what do I do?’
But even if it’s unusual, his eloquent tongue should handle it.
Don’t panic just because a spear appeared.
He could definitely squeeze more out of this.
An Min-sung thought that and used another technique from Resell.
Namely, Wear and Tear Negotiation!
“Hmm, it’s a spear, but the wear and tear on it….”
There was none.
There was virtually no sign of use at all.
It was as if I’d just purchased the item fresh from a store.
“Wear and tear? That can’t be right?”
“…Y-yes, you’re right.”
An Min-sung nodded reluctantly.
There was truly nothing to nitpick about.
It was a flawless S-rank secondhand item—the kind you’d need a microscope pressed to your eye to spot any defects.
“No matter how valuable the wand is, it does have some wear compared to a spear of this caliber, doesn’t it?”
The young man spoke with a sly grin.
Checkmate.
“W-well then….”
“Let’s just make the trade, shall we? I think a straight exchange makes more sense than haggling over additional payments. Honestly, I feel like I’m the one getting the better end of the deal here.”
“…Ah, th-thank you.”
And so An Min-sung, utterly defeated, trudged away with drooping shoulders after exchanging the wand for the spear.
The young man—Min-jun—watched him disappear with a quiet chuckle.
‘Where did he think he was going to squeeze money out of me?’
As if anyone would fall for that.
He couldn’t find fault with a freshly purchased item, and with so many goods in his inventory, he was completely immune to anyone claiming he hadn’t originally been trading those items.
Because he had an inventory.
Min-jun grinned, delighted that he’d finally obtained a 2-star wand.
Though he’d already acquired a native 3-star item with Blink attached, he’d still need the essence of reinforcement to enhance it, wouldn’t he?
Plus, he might even get a decent exclusive option along the way.
He’d already gone to the mart beforehand and bought a bunch of other wands and unenhanced items to reinforce them.
My level still hadn’t budged.
Well, wasn’t Level 4 said to be the wall of despair for ordinary hunters compared to other levels?
From Level 5 onward, you couldn’t advance without talent, and Level 3 was achievable with enough effort.
Level 4 was also achievable with effort, but on average it took as long as the time spent reaching Level 3.
But what did that matter when I had the reinforcement experience from the past week?
‘It doesn’t seem like it’ll take much longer.’
It really feels like it could happen any day now.
Since I’d already brought the materials, I thought about going home and doing some reinforcement, but I was still short on the essence of reinforcement.
‘Making a 5-star is a bit burdensome anyway.’
It would be better to make several 4-star items instead, wouldn’t it?
And if a decent exclusive option attached to one of them, that would be the best.
‘So, shall I head home?’
1.
Upon arriving home, I cast reinforcement on the unenhanced items I’d bought in abundance.
By now, I could produce quite a lot up to 3-star enhancement with just mana reinforcement.
It didn’t consume much mana either.
So I had prepared twenty 3-star items as non-enhanced gear.
The attached skills were decent, but since they were non-enhanced, they didn’t develop exclusive options.
These were items I was reluctant to keep using.
They were all essence of reinforcement.
“Essence of Reinforcement.”
As I used the Essence of Reinforcement, all twenty 3-star items that had been glowing with a brilliant blue light lost their radiance.
Their appearance also reverted to that of non-enhanced gear.
All of them had returned to non-enhanced status.
Instead, I was left with twenty Essences of Reinforcement.
[3-Star Essence of Reinforcement]
-When reinforcing from 3-star to 4-star, if the item being reinforced is destroyed, the Essence of Reinforcement is destroyed instead.
I’d prepared them generously, so the 15% destruction probability when attempting 4-star reinforcement didn’t frighten me.
I’d made plenty for future use as well.
“Phew, then should I try reinforcing the naturally born 2-star items?”
I’d mainly purchased items I could equip myself.
Once exclusive options appeared, they’d practically become near-perfect gear, wouldn’t they?
If a naturally born 4-star item gained exclusive options, that would be true perfect gear.
Anyway, let me create items covered in exclusive options.
I’d prepared thirty naturally born 2-star items.
Unfortunately, there were no naturally born 3-star transactions available, so naturally born 2-star was the limit of what I could obtain.
I could create 3-star or higher items and sell them to buy from the market.
But I was worried about getting caught red-handed.
‘Then shall I begin?’
Right now, the success rate for upgrading from 2-star to 3-star was a full 50%.
With mana reinforcement added, it became 57.5%.
When reinforcing non-enhanced gear, I’d stopped there, but this time there was no reason to.
‘Enchanter’s Blessing.’
I was going to challenge directly up to 4-star.
I proceeded to attempt reinforcements one after another.
Mana was abundant.
It was filling up rapidly from the reinforcement light even now.
And even if I used it all, it was fine.
Didn’t the 5-star item Cycle of Reincarnation have a skill that restored all mana?
Using that would refill my mana to 100%.
A skill perfectly suited for me.
With this, I could gain experience faster.
But things don’t always go according to expectations, do they?
That was the case for me now as well.
‘Phew, decent options aren’t attaching, and neither are exclusive options.’
They were all options I could equip, but quite a few skills appeared that Min-jun couldn’t use.
Above all, not a single exclusive option appeared.
The probability should have been 67.5%.
I succeeded five times in a row with +2 items, yet none of them came with an exclusive option.
This was quite shocking.
But I didn’t waver and continued strengthening.
Was it when I stubbornly pushed forward with the enhancement?
When I picked up the wand I received from trading with An Min-sung and began the enhancement, something felt slightly different from usual.
Yet it felt familiar.
Two luminous spheres of light escaped from my hands.
One was a radiant azure sphere like a +3 item, while the other was a blindingly pure white sphere of light.
I didn’t need to remember when I’d seen this before.
Wasn’t this exactly how it looked the first time an exclusive option appeared?
‘Yes, it worked!’
But then.
Normally I would have played around and paid attention to Min-jun while flying about, but instead I immediately lunged at the item.
What was this?
Then the two luminous spheres crumbled into powder and vanished.
Was it destroyed?
No, if that were the case, essence would have been consumed, but it wasn’t.
And it wasn’t a failure effect either.
What on earth was happening?
Then suddenly, the thought came—hadn’t this happened before?—and the powder that turned to dust before my eyes scattered across the item, spreading light in all directions.
The room filled with radiant azure and pure white light weaving patterns, like a galaxy unfurling.
Mesmerized by that sight where stars seemed about to pour down, I stared in wonder.
The scattered powder like a galaxy began gathering in one place, forming a single massive star.
No—a sphere of light.
The two white and azure spheres that had been separate now blended together in a mysteriously ambiguous hue.
Then suddenly, with a brilliant flash, the radiant azure sphere began turning red.
As the color fully transformed, the pale crimson light harmonized with the pure white light, forming into a single sphere.
The sphere of light rotated as if smiling at me.
Then it flew toward the item.
A message window appeared.
[Critical Success!]
[Enhancement from +2 to +4 in a single attempt.]
[Exclusive option generated from base +2 enhancement.]
“Gasp.”
My breath caught sharply as if I were hyperventilating, and I stared at the message, then looked at the item.
Unlike the +2 item, the white staff and the wand’s head now had a skull-like carving attached to it, and with it now being +4, the faint crimson glow gave it an eerie appearance.
[Wand of Demoros] +4
-A wand carved from the bones of Demoros, a Disaster Level 4 monster.
-Demoros is an undead creature brimming with death energy, a beast that exemplifies such power.
-As a result, the wand appears to contain Demoros’s death energy, but it causes no harm to the wearer.
-If you possess concealment-type skills, you can use the skill ‘Dark Sphere’.
-If a buff-type skill is active on you, you can use the skill ‘Veil of Darkness’.
-When using skills through the wand, those skills ignore the defensive barriers of Disaster Level 4 monsters.
└When used against Disaster Level 3 or lower monsters, it ignores their barriers and deals additional damage.
*Enchanter-exclusive option*
-The skill ‘Equipment Enhancement’ applies.
It was truly a wand designed for dealers.
While wands were popular among healers, it wasn’t uncommon to find ones with only offensive skills attached, and this was one of those cases.
And it even came with a critical success enhancement.
‘This is seriously no joke.’
As I grasped the wand, I could comprehend all the skills embedded within it.
Dark Sphere generated a sphere of darkness to attack, just as its name suggested, while Veil of Darkness was a debuff skill.
A skill that darkened a monster’s vision and threw it into a state of confusion.
These two alone exceeded my expectations, but the Enchanter-exclusive option was absolutely broken.
‘A passive skill.’
True to its name, it was a passive skill that appeared incredibly rarely.
But its effect was even more remarkable.
‘A skill that counts up to three items in your belt or pouch as if they were equipped.’
Absolutely broken.
A skill that didn’t exist before.
When I had equipment stored in the Ring of Reincarnation, they weren’t counted as equipped, so to use certain skills, I had to wield a dagger in one hand.
But now this prevented that limitation.
In other words, I could equip a wand with healing and blink attached, sheathe Demoros’s wand at my belt, and still use the skills.
‘Isn’t this making me a dealer instead of a healer?’
It was becoming confusing at this point.
Of course, item abilities only reached 50% of original skill power, but with my inexhaustible mana, that hardly mattered.
I could simply attack more.
With this, I could genuinely participate as a dealer and pull my weight—or even more.
As I thought this, my body tingled with anticipation.
‘How can I not go on a raid after pulling gear like this!’
Though I understood the principles of experience and didn’t strictly need raids, my supply of Innate Grade 3 was still insufficient.
If Innate Grade 2 produced such excellent exclusive options, how much better would Innate Grade 3 or Grade 4 options be?
My heart racing, I called Lee Hee-bin.
After the dial tone sounded, not long passed.
Lee Hee-bin answered the phone.
-Yes, Min-jun. I’ve answered.
“Ah, I was wondering if we could go on a raid tomorrow.”
I wanted to leave immediately, but it was already past evening.
So I postponed it to tomorrow.
That works.
-Yes, of course it’s possible. Since they’re people from the Hunter Association, we can summon them anytime. Actually, they mentioned being bored earlier, so this works out well.
Her voice carried a slight smile as she spoke.
Good that I asked.
Tomorrow was possible right away.
“Ah, that’s a relief. Then, if I may ask—how far is it possible to go?”
In other words, what level could they handle.
At that question, Lee Hee-bin seemed a bit flustered before asking.
-Well… Do you perhaps….
As Min-jun tilted his head, seemingly unable to predict what she was about to say given how she was drawing out her words, Lee Hee-bin continued.
-Have you ever heard of an Emperor-tier Raid?
What was this now?
What else was she trying to give me.

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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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