Chapter 15

“Yes, I received the Magic Stones.” “I look forward to working with you.”

Lee Woo-jae and I are currently at a Magic Stone exchange to convert Tower points into cash. We’re disguised as ordinary A-rank Hunters. Of course, even for A-rank Hunters, this isn’t a typical Magic Stone exchange; it’s a VIP-only Magic Stone exchange. This is thanks to the Association giving us disguised VIP A-rank Hunter identities.

“Midas. Was the service satisfactory?” “Of course. Thanks to the Association President, I was able to sell them comfortably.”

The Association President’s call came immediately after the transaction. As expected, one truly needs money and ability in this world. The Association President, who holds tight control over all power related to Hunters and Awakeners, is being so respectful. People would be shocked if they saw this.

“As expected, there have been an enormous number of contract requests for Midas and V. Many guilds demanded information sharing, but of course, I didn’t give it to them.” “Thank you for always working so hard.” “No, I should be thanking you for contracting with us.” “Hahahahaha!” “Hehehehe!”

The atmosphere is very harmonious. From the Association President’s perspective, he now has a justification to stand tall in front of the government and guilds, so he must be in a good mood. This is indeed a win-win deal.

“So, which guilds have sent contract requests? I don’t plan to use V right away, though.”

I had a lot to do right now, and I also needed to earn money in the Tower, so I planned to postpone conquering Gates. Gates don’t even make much money, and using Blackened Mode makes me dizzy. Earning money by selling food in the Tower was more my style than struggling to earn money like that.

“Actually, not only the domestic top four guilds, but also famous overseas guilds have contacted us.” “The rumors spread that fast?” “Famous overseas guilds are also linked to their respective governments, and they have branches all over the world to begin with. The fact that it spread this quickly means Midas’s ability is truly remarkable.” “I see.”

Still, I hadn’t expected it to spread this fast. I haven’t really revealed my identity to the public, and the Association hasn’t officially announced it on news platforms yet.

“Black Hawk, the world’s top guild in the United States, has also contacted us, but a contract with them won’t be easy. They have a lot of capital and talent, so they’ll likely aim for an exclusive contract.” “That’s true. I’ve already contracted with the Association, and an exclusive contract would suppress my freedom and make it difficult to hide my identity.” “So, I thought it might be best to negotiate with our country’s guilds first. Besides the benefit of being in the same country, since this happened in Korea, the information spread fastest here, and similarly, contract proposals came quickly.”

As expected, he’s an older man, so his patriotism, or perhaps his belief in “Shin-to-buri” (local products are best), seems strong. I don’t particularly have such sentiments, but if they were the first to offer a proposal, there’s no reason not to listen.

“Do you have any guilds to recommend?” “All four major guilds are recommendable. In order of influence, it’s Hoyeon, Hwaryong, Heukpyo, and Seolhwa.” “Hmm, Hoyeon…”

Hoyeon was the guild of Kim Yoo-yeon, who had just borrowed the Gandiva. I had intended to speak with the guild that came first, on a first-come, first-served basis, but it seemed difficult to talk to them right now. I had already made an advance contract with Kim Yoo-yeon.

The contract terms would probably be similar to the Association’s, but they would probably flip out if they found out I’d made a nearly lifelong contract with a promising guild member at an exorbitant 10% commission. Having a mythological-grade item was more for personal gain than the guild’s profit, so from the guild’s perspective, it would be infuriating.

However, if they asked if it was truly a lifelong contract, it wasn’t, so they couldn’t sue. I wasn’t always summoning her, and I had contracted not to summon her if she was in a dungeon. Still, from Joo Hoyeon’s perspective, it’s true that he might feel betrayed, and I’m also feeling a bit nervous, so let’s postpone it for later.

“Hmm, for now, talking right away seems a bit rushed. Let’s keep the Hoyeon Guild Master on hold, but postpone it until I have time.” “Yes, I’ll convey that.”

I wasn’t in any hurry right now. Five hundred million won would soon be deposited into my account, and I could just relax and upload items to the shop to earn hundreds of millions. I also had a prime penthouse, so there were no problems there.

More importantly, I had a lot of accumulated tasks, so I should do those first. I needed to clear the Tower, open random boxes, and Lee Woo-jae said he had something he wanted to talk about. As the call ended, Lee Woo-jae opened his mouth.

“Call finished? What did he say?” “He asked me to talk to the Hoyeon Guild, so I said I’d do it later. I plan to do it when Kim Yoo-yeon comes out.” “Good job. Are we going into the Tower soon?” “Sure.”

With a whoosh sound, we teleported to the Tower.

The Dragon’s Egg

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

Does he want something? Chicken? We had that yesterday. Samgyeopsal? A bit tired of it. Pizza? Had that with chicken yesterday too. I felt bad for thinking of Lee Woo-jae so simply, but he really was simple. He’s always agonizing over what he wants to eat.

He’s the kind of person who agonizes like Hamlet, debating whether to eat something delicious from yesterday or try something new and trendy. In the end, yesterday we had chicken and pizza for dinner, and then went out for Tanghulu as dessert…

“That can wait. How about we do our tasks first?”

Oh? He’s a bit serious this time. I also nodded with a slightly serious expression.

“You mean the random box and the Dragon’s Egg, right?” “Exactly.”

I was so busy that I momentarily forgot about them. I briefly hesitated about which to do first, but decided to go with the Dragon’s Egg. I truly don’t know what’s inside a random box, but I know there’s a baby dragon inside the Dragon’s Egg.

“But how do you hatch a Dragon’s Egg?” “It’s simple. The traditional method is to put it in an incubator and infuse it with mana.” “Mana?” “Right. It has to be your mana, boss. That way, it’ll recognize you as its parent.” “But I don’t have much mana, do I?”

A Dragon’s Egg would surely require an enormous amount of mana, wouldn’t it? When I voiced my thoughts, Lee Woo-jae nodded and said,

“That’s true. Dragons themselves have mana flowing instead of blood, so you need to pour in an enormous amount of mana. But it’s wrong to say you don’t have mana.” “What do you mean by that?” “Just what I said. You have mana. Not an incredibly large amount, of course.” “Ah, is it because I cleared the Tower with S+?” “Correct.”

Now that I think about it, Lee Woo-jae carried me, so I cleared all five floors with S+. The highest difficulty, as its name suggests, is incomparably harder than the Upper Tower, so the mana I possess must be quite a lot. But it was still insufficient to fill a Dragon’s Egg.

“So, Woo-jae, you only want enough mana for me to be recognized as a parent?” “Precisely.” “And there’s another way to hatch the dragon.” “Right. Even if you give it a lot of mana, it would take 100 years. That’s the minimum condition for a hatchling.” “Then what’s the non-traditional way?”

Lee Woo-jae nodded and said,

“Perform a C-section.”

Huh? What did he say? That thing where you cut open the mother’s belly? Does this person lack basic common sense? That only applies to humans and mammals.

Wouldn’t performing a C-section on an egg essentially be just breaking the egg? And a Dragon’s Egg at that?

I stared at Lee Woo-jae with a shocked expression, my mouth agape, and he scratched his cheek with an awkward expression.

“Don’t look at me like that. I know it sounds ridiculous.” “Uh… I’m glad you know.” “It sounds a bit like that… but it’s a fusion of artificial incubation and C-section, I guess?” “No, how do you even do that? Do you break the egg? Don’t dragons need time to grow inside the egg? Birds grow by consuming the nutrients in the egg, after all.” “That’s exactly it. You rapidly absorb the nutrients from the egg to thin the eggshell quickly, then make a small cut at the end of the egg to take the dragon out.”

Ah? That actually makes some sense. After all, it’s not an animal that lives on Earth, but a creature from some unknown alien world. Thinking it’s exactly the same as Earth’s ecology might be a prejudice. Though Lee Woo-jae might just be overly reckless.

“It sounds plausible, but is this actually a method dragon parents use?” “I don’t know that. Who would meet a dragon and ask them about this? It’s not like I’m Jane Goodall.”

Uh… Jane Goodall studies primates, doesn’t she? Still, I decided to let it slide. Lee Woo-jae wasn’t an animal researcher anyway.

“And even if you met a dragon, they wouldn’t answer you if you asked them during a life-or-death battle.”

Haha. I see. That’s why he gave me the Dragon’s Egg. I did think it was unusual that he had an egg in the first place.

“But if you could hatch it this quickly, why haven’t you done it until now? You wouldn’t have expected someone with my abilities to appear, and even if you had, you could have given me other items.” “That’s… because I wasn’t in a condition to do it. I got this Dragon’s Egg when I cleared the 90th floor.” “Ah, so you were injured in your soul then, and weren’t in a state to infuse mana, or perform a C-section… so you gave it to me.” “Right.” “But even so, my mana or strength isn’t as strong as yours, Woo-jae. I can’t even hold a candle to a magic engineering doll’s foot.” “That’s not what’s needed. Whether it works or not, I’m going to check now.”

What is he going to check? If mana and strength aren’t needed, then what is? Lee Woo-jae answered that question immediately.

“Excuse me, but can I ask what your exact ability is, boss? I’m under a subordinate contract anyway, so I can’t betray you.” “It’s not that special an ability, so I could tell you even without a subordinate contract.”

I said that and showed Lee Woo-jae my ability.

[Outsider of the Tower (塔外者)] – You can enter and exit all Towers without restriction.

“Hahahaha…” “Why, why? Is there something bad about it?” “No, it’s so good it’s a problem. I knew you had overflowing talent when you cleared the Gate.” “Huh? What does that mean?” “You can’t just go back and forth to the Towers you’ve cleared like other people.” “…?”

If not that, then what? I thought it was just the ability to go back and forth between Towers, but is there some other ability?

“The awakening names of the Towers are very intuitive. If your body gets stronger, it’s Physical Enhancement, if you can use magic, it’s Mage, and so on. But if such a strangely ambiguous awakening ability appears… it means your base stats are higher compared to other awakening abilities, and you’ve awakened a very peculiar ability.” “Wh-What is it?”

I already thought it was an overpowered ability just to be able to go back and forth and earn money, but there’s another ability? Lee Woo-jae grinned and said,

“The phrase ‘<all> Towers <without restriction>’ means you can enter and exit Lower, Intermediate, Upper, and Highest-grade Towers, without any floor restrictions. That means, if there’s a hidden piece in any Tower, you can obtain it without clearing it from the 1st floor.” “Gasp…!”

He was right. Furthermore, from the Lower to Upper Towers, there were unwritten “storm growth floors” passed down. There were guides that told you how to get strong instantly if you cleared them in a certain way. And Lee Woo-jae here would clear all the Highest-grade ones for me.

Is that all? Each Tower has special training-only floors on certain levels. Floors where mana overflows so much that it flows like a spring. Awakeners collect mana water from those floors before leaving the Tower, and its healing effect is better than any potion, often used as emergency first aid. I could take that infinitely.

‘Why didn’t I know this until now?’

No, it wasn’t that I didn’t know; I wasn’t interested. I never even thought about climbing the Tower in the first place. Someone without mana would struggle to breathe under the pressure of mana if they went there, and I never thought about going into the Tower to kill monsters to increase my mana.

But now it’s possible. Thanks to Lee Woo-jae, I’ve cleared five floors of the Highest-grade Tower with S+, so I have enough mana, and in case of emergency, Lee Woo-jae will save me. Lee Woo-jae smirked, seeing me amazed by his words.

“We’re going to the mana spring in the Highest-grade Tower for the C-section. No need to clear the lower floors.”

Hmm, his motives for smiling seem a bit impure, though.