Chapter 92 - Bait the Baiters, Part I

Chapter 92: Chapter 91: Bait the Baiters, Part I
Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED

Toh and Wanhu?
Naika asked.

Yes.


Aren’t they the rulers of Macao?


Yes, they are. Do you have any information on them?


We do, but it’s not a lot. One second.
Thankfully, the Myth Guild had something on them.
We really don’t have much, especially since we were too busy with the Blood Prince…


No, this is perfect. Thank you.
I returned to my quarters with the report in hand.

Swap, eh…?
Most of the intel was on Toh and focused on his random skill that pretty much gave him control of Macao.
That’s right, now I remember. He had that skill, but I do remember that Wanhu had a random skill as well…

I began to recall all the rumors I had heard about them in the past as I read through the report. I slapped my knee. I suddenly remembered Wanhu’s random skill.

Buddy!
Wanhu’s random skill was discovered much later, as Toh was the more active one.
They made anyone with lower Stats than them their buddy. It was one hell of a cheat skill.

While random chests were the Hive’s signature product, the highlight of the auction was Toh’s Stat point swaps.

It was basically a modern-day slave market.
Toh would gather the highest leveled devas, learn about their Stat points and begin auctioning them to the highest bidder.
It definitely wasn’t normal for outside powers to not put an end to this, but it never happened.

That was thanks to Wanhu.
No one ever stepped in to even so much as tell them it was bad. The reason being… most of those outside powers were clients!
I noticed an intelligence officer had added an advisory comment at the end of the report.
[Do not trust these two. If an interaction is required, only trust contracts pertaining to money and items.]

Yup, definitely can’t trust those two.
Anyone who stepped foot onto Macao would end up getting robbed blind of their golden rings and items. It was normal there. Sometimes, there were a few who struck gold, and so people still gathered like moths to the flame, dreaming of making it big.

They invited me, did they?
The envelope held an invitation in gold lettering, inviting me to the 21st Hive auction as a VVIP.

I wonder what’s in the box.
I opened the chest the messenger gave me.
Ha…
The chest was full of items.
Item check.

[Hive Gold Coin (No Rank)
Gold Coins usable only at the Hive auction house.
One Coin is worth 10,000 golden rings.
Crafted item.]
There were 10,000 of the coins in the chest.
That’s…100,000,000 golden rings…
The Coins were obviously worthless outside of the auction house, but right now, the auction house had to have some nice stuff. People hadn’t figured out that the whole random chests business was a scam, yet. In other words, I could buy some nice stuff at the auction house!

They spent 100,000,000 golden rings just to invite me?
I knew exactly who these people were and what they did. This was obviously a trap, and they used Gold Coins worth 100,000,000 golden rings as bait.

So it’s a question of ignoring the trap or springing it.
From what I could tell from the invitation, they were confident that they could turn me into a host. But I was pretty confident too; that I could probably resist Wanhu’s Buddy skill.

I’ve got fifteen days to decide. I’ll make my decision after reaching 350.

I didn’t head straight to the dungeon, however. I had just gotten out. I decided to have a nice Korean dinner with Shin and Ebonene before turning for the night. I purposely left out the part about the invitation during the dinner.
I had originally planned to take a few more days off, but I headed straight for the dungeon the next morning.
For the next thirteen days, I relentlessly slaughtered all monsters that were in my path until I finally reached my goal.

Open Stats Menu!

=
[Name: Lee Jiwon
Level: 350 Death Count: 0
Title: Earth’s First Deva
HP: 5,494,700/5,494,700 MP: 182,700/182,700
Strength: 8100+159 Agility: 5,100 Vitality: 7,409
Willpower: 1,767 Intelligence: 1,697
Unassigned Stat Points: 1000+156
Fatigue: 11
Special Effects: Luck Boost (X+ 1), immune to all Status effects, Dungeon Seeker 6 points
Physical Attack: 32,544 Physical Defense: 11,054
Magical Attack: 6,641 Magical Defense: 5,782]
=
Shaman Ko’s Roulette Wheel still did not fail to give me 3 stat points a day.

I’ve got 1,156 unassigned points now…
Now that my HP were over 5 million, I didn’t know where to assign all of my points.

I’ll keep adding Shaman Ko’s points to STR. The rest…I’ll put into STR as well.
My VIT and AGI were high enough, and I decided to get my STR closer to 10,000.
=[Level: 350 Death Count: 0
Title: Earth’s First Deva
HP: 5,494,700/5,494,700 MP: 182,700/182,700
Strength: 8100+159 Agility: 5,100 Vitality: 7,409
Willpower: 1,767 Intelligence: 1,697]=

…
My Stats were looking way overpowered for level 350. If I actually showed anyone my Stats, I probably would never hear the end of it. I giggled to myself.

I’ve got 25,388 Stat points altogether…
It should be enough to not fall to Wanhu’s Buddy skill. I was a little worried, sure, but I did have Shaman Ko’s Stats to rely on.
Shaman Ko’s Stats got me out of hot water when I first faced off against the Blood Prince, and while I wasn’t absolutely sure they helped whenever I was in danger, they still provided a small sense of security.

Well, since they cast their line…I suppose it’s only fair to bite.
I definitely was not going for the Gold Coins. I was going to teach them a lesson for foolishly trying to trap me. I definitely had enough money to…ignore…100,000,000…

I should still spend it all at Hive!
I happily left the dungeon and returned to base.

Huh?
As I headed for the base, I noticed a building next to Cairo’s Store that was not there thirteen days ago.
-That’s the Messenger Guild!-
The building clearly had the emblem of the Messenger Guild and was standing there, fully built.
-Was there one in Cairo?-
I didn’t remember there being one. I continued past the building and entered the base.
That night, I met with Shin and Ebonene for dinner and told them that I would be leaving. They wanted me stay a while longer, but I told them that I had to take care of some personal issues, and that I would return if I had the chance.

Then I would you to take this with you.
Ebonene took something out from his inventory.
They are Warp Scrolls with our base location recorded.


You will always have a room with us. We’ll even keep your personal chef on duty here.


Thank you.
I placed the five scrolls into my inventory.
By the way, I noticed that the Messenger Guild has constructed a Teleport building.


Yes. They requested permission to build one in Cairo not long after you left for the dungeon. We graciously allowed them, as it would be a benefit for us all.


Ah, I see.
We stayed up a little longer that night, talking and drinking.
The next morning, I went over to the Teleport building. I had to head to the Hive tomorrow. I needed to complete all of my errands today before heading to Macao.
-They should have Seoul, right?-
I checked the locations the Messenger Guild had, and saw Seoul on the list. It was right next to Anton’s Store.
Each trip cost 100,000 golden rings, but I now had more than enough money to spend. I paid the fee and stepped onto the platform.
I was teleported to Seoul in an instant, and heard the hubbub of a large crowd. The sight of a huge crowd of busy mortals and devas filled my vision.

There’re way more people here than in Cairo.
Cairo used to be a rural town, compared to Seoul. But now that it was safer, more and more mortals were beginning to gather in Cairo. It’ would soon become as busy as Seoul.
I headed straight for Anton’s Store. I was a celebrity in Cairo, but no one here gave me a second glance.
I went up to the skill shop and walked over to Sleng.

Oh! Master Lee, it’s been a while!


It has. Show me your skills.


Right away.

[Physical tree, Magic tree, General tree, Random skill (not applicable)]
I selected the Physical tree and searched up Mana Conversion.
[Mana Conversion (1/1), (Active)
Converts Caster’s Mana into one of five Attributes. (Skills can still be used after conversion.)
Caster must wait 24 hours before converting Mana into another Attribute.
Fire Attribute (Activation consumes 3 MP per second)
Increase ATT by 15%
Successful attacks have 10% of inflicting additional damage
Increase damage of all Fire-based attacks by 1000-5000
Ice Attribute (Activation consumes 3 MP per second)
Increase ATT by 15%
Successful attacks have 10% of inflicting additional damage
Increase damage of all Ice-based attacks by 1000-5000
Lightning Attribute (Activation consumes 3 MP per second)
Increase ATT by 15%
Successful attacks have 10% of inflicting additional damage
Increase damage of all Lightning-based attacks by 1000-5000
Wind Attribute (Activation consumes 3 MP per second)
Increase ATT by 15%
Successful attacks have 10% of inflicting additional damage
Increase damage of all Wind-based attacks by 1000-5000
Earth Attribute (Activation consumes 3 MP per second)
Increase ATT by 15%
Successful attacks have 10% of inflicting additional damage
Increase damage of all Earth-based attacks by 1000-5000
Required skill points: 3
Required golden rings: 35,000,000]
-This is one good skill,- I mused.
At first glance, this skill didn’t seem to compare to Warrior’s Brave Spirit. It only raised ATT by 15% and consumed MP, but Warrior’s Brave Spirit had an 8 hour cooldown even at level 3, and could only be used for three hours. I did have the Myth Guild’s crafted item that increases the usage time, but still.
-I could use Mana Conversion for as long as I have MP. The attribute damage buff is always a plus, too. Hmm…I guess Earth is best out of all of them.-
While Ice magic decreased attack and movement speed, it was nothing compared to the Slow that Earth magic inflicted. But it would make my Heel Kick useless.
-Eh, I’ll take it just in case. If both skills do end up overlapping too much, I’ll get rid of one of them and learn something else.-
I selected Mana Conversion to buy.

The skill costs 35,000,000 golden rings. With your 20% VIP discount, your total comes out to 28,000,000 golden rings.

After buying the skill, I left the Store and headed for Incheon Airport. I had noticed in Cairo that Macao wasn’t on their teleporting list.
As I got on the plane, I recalled back to when the Hitman Guild tried to kidnap me. I was much stronger now.
-Maybe I’ll take care of the Hitman Guild after dealing with this Macao business…-