The 31st Piece Turns the Tables

Chapter 65

- I knew that he was going to reach 1,000,000 Points soon but was he really the first one?

- Deduction) Normally you have to join a raid party or do Party Adventures to reach 1,000,000 Points but doing that would take a long, long time.

- FACTS.

- OMG… He must be the strongest person!!

- But you also have to consider that most people could get close to 1,000,000 Points after their long-term Adventure ends.

- Snowman has 1.3 mil points though.

- Who knows? Maybe they’ll surpass him?

- Why are you so pessimistic?

- I’m just trying to lower my expectations! Having too many expectations would lead to disappointment!

- Ah, okay.

Seol expected that he would surpass 1,000,000 Adventure Points after the Adventure was over.

And in truth, he was hoping for a reward for surpassing 1,000,000 Points like how lovers exchange gifts on their 100th day dating.

‘But still, I’m the first person to get it?’

Since Adventure Points was a newly introduced system, Seol didn’t know that there was an achievement like this. And as such, he also didn’t know about the title’s effects.

Seol lowered his expectations as much as he could and checked his new title.

[[Title: Affluent]

Related Achievement: A Step on First Snow (Adventure: N/A)

Bonus Effect: Gain additional skill points for your Adventure rewards.]

It was short but meaningful.

‘Oh my god…’

There were quite a few systems in place in Pandea to maintain the balance.

One such system was the level system.

If two people went on an equal number of Adventures, their levels would also be identical.

Seol, through eight Adventures, had reached level 11. And this was also the case for the other players as well.

But if you simply chose shorter Adventures to speedrun through them to gain levels faster, you would ruin the character.

Through leveling up, you would unlock a few important Adventures and increase your stats a bit, but that was all.

Eventually, players realized that going on Adventures with only leveling up in mind was incorrect.

Not only did your stats have to be high, but your equipment played a huge role too. Titles, conquests, achievements, etc. were also important.

But the most important thing, along with stats, were the skills you had and their proficiencies.

With his past knowledge, Seol quickly realized that this title, a title which he received for the first time, would be instrumental in snowballing his strength to greater heights.

‘If I get additional skill points with each Adventure, my skills’ proficiencies would increase exponentially.’

Since Seol could amass additional skill points in the early game, as long as he continuously built them up, the skill points he accumulated would create a massive gap between him and everyone else.

‘Still, this made it really worth it to be so busy early on.’

- This is super good, but… I can accept it.

- Reaching a million points at this stage = was super busy

- I wonder what kind of butterfly effect these additional points will bring…

- I doubt even ChatGPT would know.

‘It was just a relief that I was the one to get this title. It could have been dangerous if someone else got this first.’

If another player had received this title instead of Seol, they might have even been able to catch up to Seol someday.

He wasn’t working this hard simply because he wanted to be ahead of other people, but having someone catch up to him also meant that he wasn’t reaching the highest potential that he could be. Therefore, Seol didn’t plan on allowing anyone to catch up.

“Master’s… laughing?” said Karen.

“Leave him alone. He does that from time to time. Just act like you didn’t see anything,” said Jamad.

Now that someone chatty entered the Shadow Space, it was filled with noise.

Seol then gave them a request.

“Please just stay quiet once we’re in the city.”

“Of course.”

“I was always good at reading the room. Unlike that elf.”

“Woah, a troll who knows how to read the room?! That’s kind of romantic.”

“Urgh… Please get stronger faster so you can expand the Shadow Space. Get me away from that elf.”

“What’s wrong? I was just starting to like this cramped area. We’re neighbors after all, no?”

“We. Are. Not. Neighbors!”

Seol grimaced and checked the other messages.

[Adventurer Points Leaderboard

1. Private (1,312,300)

2. Firefly (500,020)

3. ILikeBeingAlone (472,160)

4. Daerim-DongHamFist (450,080)

5. AttackonDwarf (391,810)]

‘The rankings have changed.’

The rankings were still mostly filled with people who were on the leaderboards last time, and there was nothing really of interest other than the fact that the people who were ranked 2nd and 3rd last time had dropped down to 4th and 5th.

‘It seems like 4th place and 5th place are on a longer Adventure… but who’s ILikeBeingAlone?’

There was someone new on the rankings.

Rank 3, ILikeBeingAlone.

‘Is it Mira? Or someone else? Well, regardless…’

Since the points gap that Seol built up couldn’t be overcome with just an Adventure or two, he didn’t put them into memory.

- Overwhelming!

- Woah… He really does have a crazy amount of points.

- If he wants to walk around with a name tag that just says ‘Private’, I could respect it.

- I bet he’d get a lot of dates if he did that.

[You begin your Rest.]

[Your Key Location Rest is starting.]

[Break 4. Nobira, the Ruins City.]

[Break 4. ‘Nobira, the Ruins City’

In The World of Eternity, Nobira the Ruins City is located in South Pandea.

A city where many treasures and commodities excavated from ruins come and go because of its adjacency to the Great Forest. It also has one of the bigger black markets and large auction houses in the South.

Because something chaotic has happened recently near here, the residents of the city are anxious

Adventurers must take plenty of rest and training here, or at another rest location, before preparing for the next Adventure.

Objective: Rest and maintenance.

You will be tired upon failure.

Remaining Time: [About 30 days]]

‘Something chaotic?’

The contents of the Rest changed very slightly from before.

What was that chaotic thing? Why was it making the residents anxious?

Seol kept that in the back of his head as he entered the city.

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

“Buy me that.”

“Shh.”

“Woah… Are they all people?”

“Could you please be quiet?”

“Maybe I’ll think about it if you buy me clothes first?”

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Clothes. Clothes. Clothes. Clothes.”

- I think I’m going to lose it. I think I’m going to lose it.

- When is Karuna coming back…

- Just buy her clothes, Snowman…

Because Karen, who was in his Shadow Space, kept attracting the attention of other people, Seol decided to head to the smithy first.

“Where are you going?” asked Karen.

“I thought you wanted me to buy you clothes?”

“I wanted everyday clothes. Are you seriously going to make me wear some heavy armor around, everywhere I go?”

“Karuna did it fine though…”

“He probably was just holding his tongue! When Karuna comes back, I want you to buy him everyday clothes too!”

“Sometimes, when he came back here, Karuna would let out a sigh. Well, it was obvious why he was doing that though,” interjected Jamad.

“You heard that too, right? And now that you have me, you don’t need to worry about people finding out that we’re shadows.”

“Because of Haze?”

“Yeah, it’s a type of illusion magic but there’s no way ordinary people would find out.”

Seol also agreed with that.

‘It really was inconspicuous. Was it also because of the ‘Disguise’ Talent?’

A skill like that that could be used in the day-to-day was infinitely more useful than being passed on a skill that was awkward to use.

Though it wasn’t like she had any awkward skills in the first place.

‘I can just unseal her sealed skills next time, and… wait, why does she have a talent in disguising?’

Seol could hear an answer from the Shadow Space.

“You just thought of something weird, didn’t you?”

“No. I was just thinking about why you were passed on ‘Haze’.”

“It’s probably because I originally did a lot of those kinds of missions. Things like disguising myself, infiltrating, stuff like that. One time… never mind.”

The way she stopped herself at the end showed that she was recalling old memories.

“Anyway, let’s go there.”

Seol, at Karen’s request, went into a clothing store and grabbed the dress that Karen pointed out. It was a red dress that women from a renowned, noble house would wear.

“Don’t you think it’s too flashy?”

“I’m going to be the one wearing it so who cares? Don’t tell me… is it too expensive for you?”

“It’s not, I just don’t like standing out…”

“I stand out anyway. Do you see anyone around here who’s an elf?”

“…That’s true.”

- I mean, she’s not wrong LMFAO

- So she planned on standing out from the start!!!

- The summoner was persuaded.

- Snowman has now become her wallet.

After purchasing the clothes, Seol went to a place where there were not too many people and put the clothes into his Shadow Space.

[You have equipped Karen, the Twin Knight, with Red Silk Dress.]

“What a fuss.”

“Could you be quiet for a second, troll?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Jamad gave a half-hearted response, Seol could practically see the image of Jamad raising his hands in response in his head. After a few minutes, Karen spoke again.

“Oho… It’s not bad.”

“What do you think? It looks good, right? Does it look good to a troll too?”

“It’s just whatever in my eyes but humans could have a different opinion.”

“It’s my fault for asking a troll. Why did I think you’d have an eye for beauty?”

“Now that I take another look, it looks worse.”

“Hey!”

“Hmph!”

Seol ignored their childish conversation and looked at the sky.

It was calm.

Despite the ominous message in the interface, nothing seemed off.

But luckily for Seol, he now had a way to gain information without using his gold.

‘I should meet up with Kibo.’

Kibo, the leader of the ruin hunters in Nobira, was practically Seol’s helper now, after all.

“What are you looking at?”

As Seol was thinking to himself, Karen interrupted his thoughts from behind.

“Nothing mu—”

Seol turned around to look at Karen without a second thought but he was shocked by her appearance.

“How is it?”

“…It looks pretty good?”

“Well, I might be a shadow now but I still need to look a bit charming, you know?”

- NodNodNodNodNodNodNodNodNodNodNod

- I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-It looks nice, for sure…

- Wow………

- I think I blinded myself from her beauty.

- Karen was this pretty?

- Bring back Montra! Bring back Montra! Bring back Montra! Bring back Montra! Bring back Montra! Bring back Montra!

- I plan on killing whoever brought down the Empire. That was my goal from the start, my only goal.

Karen looked exactly like how she looked before her death. She had fair skin that was accentuated by her red dress.

She was reborn into a perfect elf.

‘Still, her hair color’s still the same.’

Despite having red hair in Karuna’s memories, her hair was gray.

Karen, noticing Seol’s eyes, shyly touched her hair.

“I couldn’t change this… Alright, let’s go. Where are we going?”

“There’s a place I planned to visit right away.”

“Alright.”

She was eye-catching, not only because she was about as tall as Seol with a model-like figure, her gorgeous gray hair caught the attention of every Nobira resident as they passed by.

“Who…Who is that?”

“Is it a troupe? I didn’t hear any news about it though.”

“You shouldn’t be so rude. It’s obvious that she’s a Lady of some noble house who’s out for a walk.”

“Ah, I see. It must be quite the incredible house then… look at her slave.”

“Yeah, definitely. Even her slave is dressed well.”

- Slave?

- …Is he talking about me?

- Fuck, it’s me.

- Beep… You have been demoted to slave. LOL

- It’s fine, Snowman! All you have to do is dress up too!

- Being ugly isn’t a crime!

- Honestly, he’s more on the handsome side… Based on how you were so quick to call him ugly means that… you must be ugly, aren’t you? LMFAO

- I plead the 5th.

Seol was a bit upset but didn’t say anything. It was because he noticed Karen enjoying and humming to herself.

“The world really has changed. The buildings all look strange now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, everything’s new to me.” And then she continued, “…Except for me. I’m the only one who’s the same.”

Seol didn’t pry any further and continued moving.

“There’s less and less people now. Why are we going somewhere so… creepy?”

“Because the person we’re trying to meet lives here.”

“Someone lives here? I don’t sense any… Ah! Are you talking about him over there?”

Point!

At the end of Karen’s finger was a man who had his hands behind his back.

It was Hamun.

“You’re back.”

“I apologize for coming to see you without notifying you, Hamun.”

“That’s alright. Good news always comes without warning. More importantly, the person you brought…”

“She’s my ally.”

Hamun instantly nodded at Seol’s response.

“You’ve made an incredible ally. I could feel her powerful presence akin to a strong sword.”

“Did you hear that? Did he just compliment me right now? You’re pretty good, human! I also get a good feeling from you!”

As Karen jumped around, Hamun gave a smile.

“Come in.”

Seol and Karen followed Hamun into his house.

Since Hamun knew that Seol didn’t drink tea, he quickly got straight to the point.

“So the reason you came here…”

Seol also was a person who didn’t have much time to waste.

Place.

He immediately showed Hamun why he came here.

By passing over an item.

“Hm… You’ve brought another tricky problem.”

“I apologize.”

“No, not at all. It’s just that this sword… it’s simply destroyed to the point that you should be thankful that it’s still breathing.”

The reason that Seol came here was because of Karen’s destroyed Red Lotus Sword.

“Then could I leave this sword to you?”

Hamun inspected the sword for a long while before finally uttering…