The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 65
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 65
Chapter 65
After the preliminary round ended.
Those who passed the preliminary round were given a private space.
I had originally intended to rest quietly alone, but Kang Ju-hyuk sent so many whispers that I eventually relented and allowed him entry.
“Miiiiiir!”
“Why are you being so creepy about it?”
“Because I’m proud of my friend! Wow, you actually took first place? I’m telling you, that guy’s just built different!”
First place in the Beginner League preliminary round.
It was certainly an impressive achievement, but there was something I needed to check first.
‘Status window.’
[ Status Window ]
Name: Mir
Level: 150
Class: All Master
Strength: 408 Agility: 415
Vitality: 400 Intelligence: 401
Wisdom: 404
To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure.
How many stat points exactly had increased.
But one thing was certain.
‘All my stats had surpassed 400.’
Additional nourishment through the Black Insect God.
Additional nourishment through the hive.
Thanks to that, all my stats, which had previously been in the three hundreds, had now broken through 400.
Before absorbing the nourishment.
Each individual stat had increased by at least 20 points compared to when I had just reached level 150 and checked.
“Thank you, Luke.”
– I apologize that I was unable to absorb all the nourishment.
“It’s fine. I’ll ask for your help often in the future.”
According to Luke’s account, if he had been capable of absorbing stats, he could have absorbed far more stat points than this.
But as the nourishment was transferred, the loss increased, so my stats only rose by this much.
However.
‘Only this much? This is quite a substantial increase.’
This was absolutely not a “mere” amount.
Even decent elixirs wouldn’t grant this many stat points.
I felt the desire to reward Luke for his effort.
“You bought it, right?”
“I did buy it, but you’re really going to feed it to a familiar? Does that even raise stats?”
“No, it’s just the thought that counts.”
“Ugh, what a waste.”
“Just hand it over already. I’ll refund your gold.”
“Here you go.”
I’d instructed Kang Ju-hyuk to bring plenty of snacks when he came to pick things up.
As Kang Ju-hyuk scattered the snacks he’d brought, Luke expressed his gratitude and began eating with evident delight.
“By the way, what’s the first-place prize?”
Kang Ju-hyuk immediately couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked.
I answered in a tone suggesting it was nothing special.
“There doesn’t seem to be a proper first-place prize. They did give one Achievement though.”
“An Achievement? What kind of Achievement?”
Too lazy to read out the Achievement details, I synced with the system and showed it to Kang Ju-hyuk.
[ Achievement Unlocked: Mythic Monster Hunter ]
Condition: Achieve 1st place in the Second Crown preliminary round
Reward: 10% increase in attack power against monsters
“Kiiiiiieeeeek!”
“Ugh, shut up.”
Kang Ju-hyuk suddenly let out a shriek.
“Dude, this is insane! Not just a specific type of monster—10% attack increase against all monsters?!”
“It’s pretty good, I’ll admit.”
“Pretty good?! This is absolutely insane! Wow, how good must the other rewards be to make this seem ordinary?!”
Fair point—even I had to acknowledge it was an excellent reward.
The Achievement I’d obtained not long ago, “Bone Breaker,” only increased attack power by 5% against undead monsters.
The “Pest Exterminator” Achievement similarly only increased attack power by 5% against insectoid monsters.
‘And the real reward is something else entirely.’
I retrieved an item I’d obtained from the preliminary round through Luke.
Fundamentally, hunting monsters in the Wild Jungle only yielded Jungle Magic Stones.
But there was one exception.
Defeating the Queen Bee—the master and boss monster of the Jungle—granted a reward befitting that accomplishment.
And I was able to recover that reward through Luke.
“What’s that?”
“Queen Bee drop item.”
“Queen Bee? …Don’t tell me you actually burned that hive?”
“I did. There wasn’t enough time to hunt it properly.”
“You set fire to the hive? Wow, you really are something else. Truly remarkable.”
Regardless of Kang Ju-hyuk’s reaction.
Examining this item’s information:
[ Wild Jungle Royal Jelly ]
Type: Elixir
Grade: Legendary
Restriction: –
Description: Royal Jelly crafted by the Queen Bee, who once reigned over the Wild Jungle, extracting the essence from all the prey she had gathered in the Jungle—a legendary elixir.
A true elixir of legend.
As for its effects.
“What? It raises all stats by ten?”
“Apparently so. Legendary items really are different.”
“And there’s no level restriction either! Insane, absolutely insane. Even when Yul-ha defeated the Mountain’s master last year, the reward wasn’t this good!”
“What did she get back then?”
“Something called an Elixir of Brute Force? I’m not entirely sure, but it supposedly boosted strength tremendously.”
As befitted a legendary elixir, this one possessed formidable effects.
Elixirs of such high grade are difficult to enhance further through alchemy.
Still, it seemed wasteful to consume it as-is, so I mixed in a simple catalyst to maximize absorption efficiency before drinking.
Gulp.
[ You have consumed ‘Royal Jelly of the Wild Jungle’. ]
[ Strength increases by 10. ]
[ Agility increases by 10. ]
….
All my stats rose by ten.
Beyond that, various resistances and immunities visible only in the detailed status window surged dramatically.
In truth, this was the royal jelly’s greatest virtue.
The ability to elevate not just stats, but resistances and immunities as well.
Such a magnitude of increase from a single elixir.
Truly befitting a legendary elixir.
It was a moment that vindicated the effort—even the strain—of hunting the Jungle’s master.
“Delicious.”
“Ugh, I’m jealous.”
“There are boss monsters in the Master League too, right? You could hunt one and get your own.”
“As if! Even Yul-ha couldn’t have beaten that thing alone!”
“Yeah, the difficulty was pretty absurd. One Queen Bee would be manageable, but there were just too many bees.”
“Exactly! That’s why you’re impressive for taking it down!”
Certainly, at Kang Ju-hyuk’s current level, defeating that Queen Bee seemed impossible.
However.
“If the Master League preliminaries also take place in the Jungle, get to the hive as quickly as you can.”
“Why would I go there? I told you I can’t beat that monster!”
“That’s not the point. The hive is an optimal hunting ground for you regardless.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The hive’s corridors are narrow. You can set traps effectively, deploy combat consumables like incendiary bottles freely… In any case, it’s a hunting ground perfectly suited to where you are now.”
“Really?”
“Incendiary bottles won’t let you completely incinerate the hive like I can, but you should be able to rack up a respectable score.”
The combat style I had refined for Kang Ju-hyuk.
For a street fighter who wielded diverse items in battle, the hive seemed like a genuinely excellent hunting ground.
Perhaps.
“If I do well, I might even crack the rankings.”
“Really? I’m counting on you!”
“But I think I’ll need quite a lot of flame-attribute combat consumables.”
“Should I go out and buy them right now?”
“While you’re at it, grab some materials too. I’ll craft them into combat consumables whenever I have spare time.”
“Hahahaha! That’s why friends are the best, right? Thanks!”
Kang Ju-hyuk might just pull off a decent result in the preliminaries.
* * *
The Second Crown—Second’s grandest event, held once a year.
Because of that, every department in Second works in perfect harmony to drive the event forward.
Well, even so, the fundamental roles remain similar.
The Game Planning Team designs the match content for the Second Crown.
The Game Programming Team implements it.
They coordinate as much as possible with the supercomputer that governs Second to host the Second Crown.
And.
“Kang Team Leader.”
The Crisis Management Team of Second had the same duties as always.
Monitor unexpected situations during matches and respond to them.
But now.
“…I’m watching too.”
Whoosh!
An unforeseen incident had occurred.
The Wild Jungle, the field prepared for the preliminaries.
The Queen Bee’s hive, which could be called the master of that jungle, had begun to burn.
“Is it even possible to burn that hive in such a manner?”
“It shouldn’t be.”
“Then what’s happening?”
“It’s just that those flames are unusual.”
“Those flames, you mean….”
“Primordial Flame. Even fireproofed beeswax cannot withstand Primordial Flame.”
That’s right.
So that users like the Unmemory Spirit—fire-wielding users among the preliminary participants—wouldn’t set it ablaze with their attacks.
Precautions had been taken to prevent the hive from catching fire easily.
But who could have anticipated Primordial Flame suddenly erupting?
And in the Beginner League at that—where only users below level 200 participated, not the Challenger League.
“Sigh….”
Kang Team Leader stared at the screen.
Standing at the center of the burning hive.
Mir.
It’s that user again.
Not only did he take down the Black Insect God before the scheduled time and destroy the hive that was supposed to be impossible for users to defeat, but now he’s burned down the very nest itself.
A clear Irregular.
Mir had already become an SSS-rank priority target for the Crisis Management Team.
“Shouldn’t we take additional measures? Couldn’t the same problem occur in the Master League or Challenger League?”
“No need. Even if other departments contact us for that reason, ignore them.”
“Are you certain?”
“That was only possible because it was the Primordial Flame. Even if the strongest fire mage among all users spewed flames all day long, something like that wouldn’t happen again.”
“Understood.”
The hive burning down this time was only possible because it was Mir.
It was an anomaly that no other user could cause, no matter how hard they tried.
So there was no need to take measures against that problem—we just had to handle any inquiries from other departments well.
“Team Leader, in the next match… there shouldn’t be any problems, right?”
“Let’s hope so.”
Second’s greatest Irregular.
Watching Mir sharpen his weapons to advance to the main tournament, Kang Team Leader let out another sigh.
* * *
[ Shortly after, the second match of the Second Crown. ]
[ The Master League preliminary round is about to begin. ]
The Second Crown matches proceed in order: Beginner League, Master League, and Challenger League.
Since the first match was the Beginner League preliminary, naturally the second match was the Master League preliminary.
“Hey, I’m really counting on you!”
“Why are you counting on me? You should believe in your own skills.”
“I believe in both myself and you!”
“Just make good use of the items I made for you. If you use them well, you might actually achieve great results.”
In addition to the existing combat consumables, I crafted a variety of combat consumables that seemed useful in the Jungle based on my experience there.
Alchemy and crafting skills.
Combined with the materials Kang Ju-hyuk had scraped together with his entire fortune.
Thanks to that, his subspace pouch was completely full, so at minimum, passing the preliminary round shouldn’t be a problem.
“I’m going!”
“Do your best.”
After seeing him off as he departed for the preliminary match.
I headed toward the massive Stadium to watch the match.
Since it was my first time entering the Stadium, I was looking forward to it.
“Wow…”
The scale was far beyond imagination.
A Stadium so enormous it couldn’t be compared to any real-world structure.
Unlike what it appeared, it was divided into magical spaces, allowing it to accommodate any number of people.
The moment I took my seat with anticipation.
“Thank you for waiting! Now beginning the second match of the Second Crown! The preliminary round of the Master League, which has the most participants among all leagues, is starting~!!”
Kang Ju-hyuk’s preliminary match had begun.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————