Foreword
HunterW here. I just want to start off with saying thank you for following this webnovel so far. It's my first time doing this and it's been quite the challenge. I understand many of you want more chapters a day and I'll feel you. I want to upload more a day so I can get paid more XD. Unfortunately, I'm still in college. It's my last year and the workload is definitely piling on. Another thing is that the author uses a very archaic tone and word choice. If you've ever seen medieval Korean dramas, that's basically what I'm dealing with. He uses a lot of old, Korean idioms and I'm a Korean American; I don't see or hear them very often. So, please bear with me; I'm doing the best I can.
To those of you who are unhappy with the MC and how he acts; we're less than 30 chapters in. The story is yet to fully unfold, so please consider sticking around a little longer :). Jiwon's true power is yet to be revealed:
Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
Ding ding! Another message alert rang as I left the boss room.
[You have received a blessing for defeating the 47th low-grade dungeon's boss.
Blessing effect:
Granted skill 'Create Safety Crystal' for 30 days. (After 30 days, this skill will be removed.)
The 'Create Safety Crystal' skill does not consume skill points.
Hunt field monsters for 30 days and a Safety Crystal will amass experience points. On the 1st, 10th, and 30th day, the crystal will take form and you will be able to receive the Safety Crystal.
You will be restricted from entering another dungeon for 30 days.]
"Oh! That's right."
I had forgotten about the dungeon blessing.
The dungeon blessing was bestowed on all raid participants that successfully defeated the dungeon boss.
As the message stated, the blessing placed a thirty-day restriction on entering other dungeons, but gave out a crystal that created a safe zone for safer field monster hunting.
This perfect safe zone made it impossible to attack each other while in the zone.
The zone had an area of 327 square meters, which increased the more people used it.
One might think that there was no point to it since devas no longer feared death, but there were other uses to the safety crystal.
The safety crystals were usable in dungeons, as well. It took on average more than a few days of fighting and killing monsters to reach the boss room.
In these dungeons, a large party moved together and rotated the fighting among themselves so others could rest, but sooner or later, everyone would tire out.
The comfort of not having to worry about monsters' attacks provided by a safe zone was absolutely irreplaceable.
Africa's pioneer group and the Amazon Expedition Team counted on safety crystals to get them out of hairy situations where they were surrounded by monsters.
Of course, it took about an hour after use for a safe zone to be set up. Using a crystal in the middle of a fight was just wasteful.
Even non-devas were able to receive the effects of the safe zone created by safety crystals, and many of them sought them out when they could.
"Well, the main reason these crystals are so popular is the Store."
Stores bought all sorts of items that monsters dropped.
It didn't matter if the items were cheap or were just loot materials that monsters dropped; Stores bought them all.
The price of each individual item wasn't much, but Stores still bought them and it became the norm to pick up everything monsters dropped.
The one thing Store employees went absolutely crazy over was safety crystals.
These employees treated normal item sales with nonchalance and aloofness, but when someone came in to sell a safety crystal, they all fill to the brim with smiles and hospitality.
They would even buy safety crystals at a premium price, buying for way more than the normal asking price.
The Store's manager would even come out to shake hands and personally thank the person selling the crystal.
If someone sold a few safety crystals to a Store, the manager would sometimes invite them to auctions, let them use storage for free, or give discounts at shops, and took special care of them.
"These things were pretty expensive."
Safety crystals sold at extremely high prices. No other items sold as high as crystals.
Besides hunting and farming for rare Rank 6 items, the fastest way to earn golden rings was to make as many safety crystals as possible and sell them.
Stores weren't the only buyers of crystals. There were other buyers that would buy crystals at even higher prices than the Stores. Those buyers were large guilds, and the wealthy.
"There were so many parents with children that became devas."
There were countless parents whose children were still minors.
How much would they spend on a safety crystal to keep their children safe? Those parents would spend every penny they had on them!
Reputable guilds whose members had children or family members that hadn't become devas yet set up safe zones to keep them safe. The guilds wanted nothing to happen to them.
One could also say that safety crystals were created for the few devas that set out to hunt the usually avoided field monsters, but didn't possess the blessing.
The biggest difference between field monsters and dungeon monsters is that hunting dungeon monsters yielded twice as much experience, items, and golden rings.
Furthermore, field monsters would fight among each other and whenever a field monster killed another monster or a deva, that monster would gain experience and level up to become even stronger.
A monster that leveled up has its stats go up as well, and attempting to fight that monster while mistaking it for just a normal monster could mean death!
Hunting dungeon monsters rather than field monsters saved time and energy.
Those that have grown stronger from defeating monsters should continue training with field monsters. and beginners should use dungeons to quickly grow. Should you hunt avoided monsters normally avoided, you will be compensated with useful items.' That was what most people said, right?
This was the most plausible theory. But the problem was that it was only theory.
Large guilds that had dungeons in their grasps did almost everything in their power to not lose their dungeons.
Since large guilds and those with influence had monopolies over dungeons, they were the only ones able to receive blessings, and normal people never had the chance to obtain a safety crystal.
The same went for me. That was why the dungeon blessing completely slipped my mind.
"By the way…I may have a dungeon blessing, but how and where am I going to use it?"
There were seven more months left until field monsters were supposed to spawn. That meant that I had no way of proper way to use the blessing, and I wouldn't be able to enter a dungeon for another thirty days.
There wouldn't be field monsters for the time being, so I needed to hunt dungeon monsters to level up, but it looks like I wouldn't be able to do anything for a month!
I sighed. "I hadn't thought about this. I won't be able to enter the dungeons at Seorak Mountain and Jeju Island."
Finding more dungeons took priority over leveling up.
I wanted to take advantage of all the bonuses I could get from the dungeons, and utilize as many of the dungeons as I could!
"Looks like all I can do for a month is nothing else, but find the dungeons."
I found a flat spot on the floor of the safe room and sat down.
The stones in the middle of the room were glowing with a blue light now. The number 177 was written in the middle of the gemstones.
The counter counted down from 180 minutes, after that everyone in the safe room was going to be teleported to the dungeon's entrance.
"OK. Let's rest for three hours for now..."