The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 30

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

Chapter 30
Chapter 30
[ Luke has consumed the Kobold Lord. ]
[ Luke’s stats have increased by 30. ]
Crunch.
Crack.
Crackle.
As always, the finale belonged to Luke’s consumption.
The boss monster’s body was engulfed in black flames as a chilling devouring sound echoed through the chamber.
Perhaps because it was a proper boss monster, the stat increase was tremendous.
If Luke continued to grow steadily alongside me like this, I found myself eagerly anticipating just how high his ceiling would become.
At minimum, he would easily surpass the level he’d reached during First.
– I have eaten well, Master.
“Oh, a finished product?”
Usually only raw materials dropped from monsters.
A finished product—meaning an equipment item had appeared.
Shoulder armor from the Kobold Lord, and it looked quite impressive in quality.
Since I already had far superior items in abundance, I’d need to list this at the auction house once I returned to the city.
With that thought, I reached for the Return Scroll I’d purchased from the marketplace earlier to head back.
“Hm?”
Something caught my eye.
The wall where the Kobold Lord had been mining with its pickaxe.
And the wall where I’d induced it to charge and crash its head.
I hadn’t noticed at first, but now that Luke had swallowed the Kobold Lord, the wall was visibly carved deeper from the impact.
No matter how open-world Second claimed to be, a Boss Room shouldn’t be damaged this easily.
As I observed this carefully, the Kobold Lord’s dialogue flashed through my mind.
‘Human, how dare you obstruct my path toward becoming the true king of beasts by discovering the moon hidden in the depths of the earth!’
“A moon hidden in the depths of the earth… Is there actually something there?”
I had resolved numerous hidden pieces during First.
A cracked wall and the Kobold Lord’s dialogue.
Even with just these two elements, a meaningful possibility emerged.
How could I ignore a suspected hidden piece right before my eyes?
Because I’d defeated the Kobold Lord faster than expected, I still had plenty of time before the quest would end.
So.
“Why not try?”
I decided to attempt it.
Unfortunately, the pickaxe the Kobold Lord had been holding was completely swallowed by Luke, so I retrieved a new one instead.
Besides, the pickaxe the Kobold Lord used was far too large for me to wield anyway.
[ Lava Pickaxe ]
I swung the pickaxe I’d received from Luke with all my strength.
All Mastery is a skill that applies to pickaxes as well, and during my time in First, I learned even production-type skills, so mining is second nature to me.
Every time I swung the pickaxe like that.
Crack!
The wall caved inward.
Each time, I felt certain.
‘There’s something here.’
I was sure of it.
This was a hidden piece.
With anticipation coursing through me, I continued swinging the pickaxe.
Clang!
A sharp vibration shot through my hands.
I had excavated all the walls that could be broken with a pickaxe, and now I had encountered a wall that even my pickaxe couldn’t shatter.
I examined it briefly, and no matter how I looked at it, I had to destroy this wall to get anything out of it.
“Luke, bring out the best one.”
– Yes, Master.
I drew out a Mythic-grade pickaxe.
[ Hephaestus’s Pickaxe ]
( Non-tradeable )
Form: Pickaxe
Grade: Mythic
Restrictions: Level 1,000 or higher, Seal of Hephaestus, Strength 3,000 or higher
Description: The pickaxe used by Hephaestus, one of the twelve Olympian deities, when he ventured out to mine on Mount Olympus.
No matter how hard the wall was, could it withstand the power of a Mythic-grade pickaxe?
With that thought, I activated an enhancement skill and swung the pickaxe with all my might.
Crack!
The pickaxe head buried itself completely into that solid wall.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
It collapsed entirely.
And inside it was—
“Excellent!”
Just as I had anticipated, a hidden space existed.
There really was a hidden piece.
[ Achievement Unlocked: Secret Explorer ]
Unlock Condition: Discover a ‘hidden piece’ concealed within the game.
Reward: Increased item drop rate
Thanks to that, I was able to obtain an Achievement as well.
Achievement, Secret Explorer.
Since it increased item drop rate, the sooner I obtained it, the better the Achievement was.
I thought it would be difficult to unlock this Achievement because the terrain of Second had changed so drastically.
I never expected to unlock this Achievement so quickly.
“Let’s see what we have here.”
I stepped into the hidden space with anticipation.
The chamber ran deep enough that torchlight couldn’t penetrate its depths, yet it didn’t feel particularly dark.
That was only natural—the walls glittered with countless star-like objects embedded throughout.
Most importantly, the reward for the hidden piece.
At the center of the space lay the “Hidden Moon” that the Kobold Lord had mentioned.
A round gem that shimmered with silver light.
The identity of that jewel, which evoked a full moon rising among the stars, was something I already knew.
“It’s moonstone, isn’t it?”
Moonstone.
One of the rare ores, also called a stone that harbors the power of the moon.
It was certainly a difficult ore to obtain, but…
“It’s underwhelming.”
To my eyes, accustomed to handling materials like adamantium, orichalcum, and dragon bone from my First days, this didn’t register at all.
Well, there was nothing to be done about it.
Even for a hidden piece, there were limits to the items obtainable from hunting grounds around level 50.
Still, since I’d obtained it anyway, I decided to list it at the auction house along with other items as soon as I returned to Labelt.
Crackle—!
I tore the Labelt return scroll.
I would return to the Hunter Guild and report the completion of all five commissions.
It was time to settle my wager with the Tower Guide.
* * *
The moment I tore the return scroll, the landscape of Labelt materialized before my eyes.
It was a system that existed during my First days as well, but it was certainly convenient.
Then again, how vast was the continent of Second.
There were some restrictions, but without return scrolls, I’d waste all my time just traveling to and from hunting grounds.
“I’ve finished registering at the auction house.”
The items I’d obtained from defeating the Murderer.
And the items I’d gathered while hunting in Sterling Mine.
No matter how good the items were, they were all cheap compared to what I had in my warehouse, so I registered them all without hesitation.
Though I wasn’t yet familiar with market prices, listing them through auction would ensure I wouldn’t take a significant loss.
The elixir I’d put up last time sold that way too.
“Might as well finish the quest.”
I walked toward the Hunter Guild with confident strides.
As the Hunter Guild of Labelt, the largest city on the continent, it remained crowded with people.
Then again, it wasn’t a place you only visited at the beginning—you could continuously receive commissions suited to your rank.
It was only natural that it would be busy.
As I opened the Hunter Guild’s doors and stepped inside,
“There she is.”
I spotted the Tower Guide I’d made the wager with as I glanced around.
Her original duty was to manage the F-rank bulletin board, and even now she was helping users around it.
When she found a moment of respite, she glanced around and spotted me.
Then, with a sly grin, she approached.
“You’re back already? It doesn’t look like you were rescued after getting mauled by monsters—you gave up, didn’t you?”
She clearly believed I had abandoned the commission and returned.
“Looks like you got scared the moment you saw the actual target and ran away. Well, that’s fine. It’s better for a hunter to live long by recognizing their limits than to charge in blindly without understanding the gap in power!”
And she seemed quite pleased by the thought that I had abandoned the commission.
The way her shoulders shrugged and her chin lifted spoke volumes.
“Still, since you came back without making excuses, I’ll be nice and not touch your Guild credit. But you know the gold is a separate matter, right?”
She extended her hand with a smug expression.
It was her way of demanding I hand over the gold I had wagered.
But instead of a gold pouch, what I presented to her was—
“Huh?”
—a commission slip I had taken from the F-rank bulletin board.
When I unfolded the commission slip in front of her face, she froze.
[ Kobold Lord Subjugation – Completed ]
The commission slip bore a clear, unmistakable seal indicating successful completion.
As this was a game, the commission slip automatically received this success seal once the objective was fulfilled.
The NPCs of the Hunter Guild likewise judged a user’s commission success based on this very seal.
“That… that can’t be!”
She denied it, but I ignored her protests and unfolded the remaining four commission slips for her to see.
Naturally, all of them bore the success seal.
“This… this shouldn’t be possible! You must have called someone! You definitely used some trick! Or this just can’t be possible!”
“You should know this better than anyone—if I had broken our agreement, the commission completion wouldn’t have registered in the first place.”
“That’s—”
She could offer no further rebuttal.
As the Tower Guide of the Hunter Guild, she knew this better than anyone.
When we made our wager, she had reset the five commission slips I received according to the terms of our bet.
Had I broken the agreement and used underhanded methods to complete the commissions, they would never have been registered as successful.
For her to deny my success now would be to deny the very system of the Hunter Guild itself.
“Ugh…”
Though she couldn’t help her frustration, she trembled and lowered her head.
“Sigh…”
Not long after, she released the tension from her body and let out a long, heavy sigh.
“Fine. I lost. How on earth did you manage it…?”
“The prize money?”
“This way, please. I can’t pay the wager from Guild funds, so I’ll have to use my own savings…”
Three times the original reward.
Since I had completed only the most difficult commissions among the F-rank offerings, the original reward was already substantial.
Receiving three times that amount brought a sense of security that filled me with satisfaction.
However, my wager with the Tower Guide was far from over.
“What about my promotion?”
“Ugh, just a moment…. You understand, but this isn’t a typical situation.”
“Surely you’re not backing out now?”
“No, it’s possible. In special cases, I do have the authority to grant an F-rank adventurer a special promotion. It is possible, but….”
She took a seat and began filling out some paperwork.
Though her expression wasn’t pleasant from losing the bet, her document-writing skills were nothing short of professional.
In moments, she completed several forms and submitted them somewhere.
“Is it done?”
“Yes…. It is done, but could you wait a moment? This isn’t the standard procedure, you see.”
“How long?”
“It shouldn’t take long. Go check out the E-rank bulletin board. Regardless of what happens, your promotion will definitely go through.”
“Understood.”
Done.
Since it was listed as a Quest reward, the promotion would certainly proceed without issue.
Following her advice, I examined the E-rank bulletin board in advance.
‘Which commission should I take first? Would it be too ambitious to grab the highest-tier commissions right away?’
According to my original plan, I would need to reach level 50 through orthodox means and complete at least ten F-rank commissions to pass the E-rank promotion test.
But thanks to this early promotion, that necessity had vanished.
I could now peruse E-rank commissions with pleasant deliberation.
Ideally, I’d like to take five top-tier commissions again, but then the level difference between myself and the targets would be nearly triple.
Even using Black Flame and hurling a Mythic-rank weapon, it could prove troublesome.
That said, I had no intention of taking bottom-tier commissions either.
I was calculating my commission route, thinking I should start with moderately high-tier commissions and gradually work my way up to the highest-tier ones, when——
“Um….”
“Is my promotion complete?”
The Tower Guide approached me.
However, looking at her eyes, it seemed the promotion wasn’t entirely finished.
“Well, um. Your promotion will go through. But the headquarters director wishes to see you….”
“The headquarters director? You mean the Hunter Guild headquarters director?”
“Yes…. Calder Belmont, the supreme director of the Hunter Guild, has summoned you.”
Calder Belmont, the supreme director of the Hunter Guild.
He was someone known to be difficult to encounter even after years of grinding through the Hunter Guild—and yet he had summoned me.

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