Chapter 11

: Chapter 10: Store 72 Visit, Part Five
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Resetting all the skills you learned up until level 500 just to get back your 20 skill points so you could learn the Unrivaled skill was a waste. You wouldn’t have any other skills to use and would still have to fight others in that condition.
Since the skill’s effects weren’t retroactive, learning the ‘Unrivaled’ skill at level 500 wouldn’t net you the additional stat points until level 501.
That barely made a difference compared to levels 0-500.

Learning ‘Unrivaled’ at level 500 means I would have level up to 1000 to have just 10 skill points to use. I mean, I would still get 1000 points each towards my stats. That means 5000 points total at just level 500. Phew…now that I think about it, that’s a lot. But it still burns a lot of skill points.

Still, it was good. There was no doubt about it.
Not only would I get 1000 extra points, I also got status immunity, which would make hunting monsters easier, and not getting debuffs against fighting other devas.
This was the best part. To me, who spent eight years as a deva, these buffs made me happier than the extra 1000 stat points.
Being able to trap my enemies in a Slow hell, constantly burning them with fire magic, and all the while lowering their accuracy made me immune to them anyway.

But the main attraction is… what I can do to deities, isn’t it?

Deities were different than devas. There was a chance of becoming a deity instead of a deva, even though one would use a normal Don Gate. Only 114 people could become deities.
A mere deva like me could never get within arm’s distance of a deity.
They knew they were in a different class than devas, and carried themselves as such.
They weren’t enemies, however. Monsters were enemies, because they yielded experience and items when you killed them. Deities and devas would gain neither when they tried to kill one another.
Deities and devas had the same experience of being human once. But deities knew they were a level above devas, and didn’t interact with them.
It was like devas were the common folk, and deities were nobility.

Well…it’s not like I’ve ever met a deity.

I had also never heard anything good about a deity.
I heard rumors that deities would think of devas as toe jam, or that they would kill devas for no reason, or that they would kill steal monsters a deva was hunting.

Does ‘Unrivaled’ mean that I would be unrivaled against deities?

That’s the thought I had reading the skill’s description.
I’ve never met a deity before, but I didn’t have a good opinion of them after all the stuff I’d heard about them.

Ok, let’s learn it.

After thinking about it more and more, I knew I had to learn it. It was better than all the rumors I heard about it.
I had the chance to learn the ‘Unrivaled’ skill at level 0. Furthermore, I would gain 20 stat points every time I leveled up.
Different from other devas, I would be gaining 10 more stat points per level than them, meaning that at level 500, I’d have 5000 stat points. I had no reason to not learn it!
It would mean that I won’t have any usable skill points to learn other skills for a while. Still, learning ‘Unrivaled’ at level 0 was a steal!

It’s… like I was destined to learn the ‘Unrivaled’ skill.

I wondered what would happened if someone else became the first deva and got the extra 10 skill points. I wondered if that person was the first to visit a Store. Could they discover the ‘Unrivaled’ skill as I had? No, would they choose to buy a skill, rather than buying an item?
I was sure that the Black Clawed Panther hadn’t done that.
The Panther didn’t learn the Unrivaled skill. Someone had to have the past knowledge that I had to make this happen.

OK. This is it. Select Unrivaled.

[You have obtained the skill Unrivaled.]

Stat check! Skill check!

I opened my stat and skill menus right away!
[Name: Lee Jiwon
Level: 0 Death count: 0
Title: Earth’s First Deva
HP: 610000/610000 MP: 122000/122000
Strength: 1220 Agility: 1220 Vitality: 1220
Willpower: 1220 Intelligence: 1220
Residual stat points: 0
Fatigue: 0
Special Effects: Luck Boost (X+ 1), immune from all status effects
Physical attack: 3660 Physical Defense: 1220
Magical attack: 3660 Magical Defense: 1220]
[Skill menu
Residual skill points: 0
Passive skills: 1 skill in effect
Unrivaled (1/1) – MAX
Active skills: None.]
As I looked over my stats and skills in awe, Anton cried out in surprise,
Ack! Just what in the world are you? How did you know about Unrivaled…?

Anton grabbed the collar of the employee standing next to me and yelled at him,
Sleng! Did you tell him about it? That we have that skill?


No, Mr. Manager! I would never! I didn’t even say anything to him. He looked through the general skills and researched the Unrivaled skill himself!


What? How does that make sense? How could he know about the skill and look it up?


It’s the truth. If you don’t believe me, you can scan my memories and see for yourself.


Ugh…

As soon as he heard memories, he unclenched his fists from the employee’s collar.
Everything in Store 72 was recorded, so if Sleng was lying, he would be found out in an instant. But to mention that himself…

Lee Jiwon. How do you know about the ‘Unrivaled’ skill?


Do I have to tell you that much?


Tsk! Fine! Grr! I just gave away that expensive skill for free!…

I ignored the sulking Anton and looked back at the general skill tab.
[General skill tree (not applicable).]
Not a single skill showed up on the menu. I didn’t have any skill points or any golden rings to spend, so that much was obvious.

I could have used a scanning skill.

I already gained a lot in this single visit. One scanning skill didn’t compare to all this.
It was a very good thing that I didn’t turn back around after I realized that I didn’t have a single golden ring to spend inside the Store.

I wonder…this was all luck, too…

My eyes kept looking over at the luck effect on my stat menu…
Dungeon Seeking: Part 1

Tsk. I’m grateful you came to my store first instead of the other 107 but that skill is such as loss. It was worth so much.


Thank you very much. We hope you come back to our Store 72.

I turned around and left the store, leaving the grumbling Anton and the brightly bowing maid behind.
I came this morning thinking I was only going to buy a scan skill but leaving with the amazing ‘Unrivaled’ put a huge grin on my face.

It’s 10 in the morning. Looks like my next stop is looking for the Bukhansan dungeon.

Now that I had the ‘Unrivaled’ skill at level 0, I had become unexpectedly powerful.
To be honest, I was strong enough to not have to find a dungeon.
I already had 1220 points on all of my stats at a measly level 0.
Altogether, that meant I had 6100 stat points. I was practically level 600.
I mean, sure, the points weren’t focused on a few and instead, were spread out evenly. The best part, though, was that all these points were bonuses. These points weren’t given equally to anyone else; just me.

Anyway…in which direction should I choose to go with?

In my previous life, I was a fire mage. That and ice mages were the most common jobs around.
Fire magic was the safest choice and had decent damage, making it a popular choice for devas with no special backgrounds.
Up until this morning, I was thinking about being a fire mage again since I already knew enough about it.
I spent 8 years as a fire mage and leveled up to 576 and stumbled all the way, but I know I didn’t screw up it up too much.
I made up my body and configured my skills to be optimized for fire magic.
It as a popular job, but there were still famous fire mages out there. Rather, if you were good enough, you were sufficiently famous.