Chapter 545 – The Cursed Throne
Seong-il stares blankly at the book with an expression full of astonishment at the ability of the magic book that has been upgraded so that he can cast magic under class 9 five times without casting.
“Crazy… Immediate casting of 9 class magic!?”
“Chji… Jjik… Was that enough?!”
“…?”
Seeing that the Apostle of Knowledge doesn’t seem to know the magic book’s abilities properly, Seong-il looks at him with a slightly absurd expression.
Perhaps realizing the meaning of that gaze, the hamster raises its dainty hand and scratches his butt with a shy expression, trying to make an excuse.
“Jjiik… That… That… That ‘incident’ happened as soon as the knowledge gave me the bible…”
‘Ah, you mean the seal.’
Seeing the hamster’s slurring speech, Seong-il immediately realizes what he is trying to say.
“It’s a shame… It’s a shame… After the knowledge disappeared, I too was cursed and lost my mind for a while. In the meantime, the temple was attacked by an unknown force and the holy relic was stolen. “
“Did you lose the Bible in the process?”
“Jjiik… Yes…”
Seong-il quickly figured out how the situation turned out, even after hearing the rough explanation from the hamster.
‘Perhaps it was Argent’s trick…? He said he was destroyed, but since he came from the emperor of the ancient magic empire, he had hidden undead subordinates, and if he was a demigod-level rich, it wouldn’t have been too difficult to build a temple that had lost his divinity.’
‘If he had killed all the priests and blasphemed God while building the temple, the other gods would never have looked down on him, no matter how much knowledge was being punished… If it were, the gods would have no choice but to be silent.’
Seong-il found out why Argent was holding the magic book of wonder. When his curiosity is satisfied, he shrugs his shoulders and tells the hamster.
“As you can see, the performance of the magician of all things is quite excellent. If you fill it with good spells, it will be of great help when subjugating the red dragon.”
“Jjiik!! That’s right…”
The hamster looks at Seongil’s words sympathetically and glances at the magic book with a very sad expression.
“…So I have to go buy some orders. Until then, stay here instead of me.”
“Ah, yes. I see. Jjiik… Have a good trip.”
The appearance of a hamster looking at the magic book of all things with a sad expression, as if the lingering feelings do not disappear in the end.
Seong-il ignores him and moves to the shopping district.
***
‘Oh. It’s a new feeling to actually see this place.’
Every time Seong-il plays Cursed Throne, he thinks of it as he sweeps the store with a strange expression in front of the magic store he always visits.
‘It looks very ordinary.’
From the front, 『Rubal’s Everything Store』 Looks like an ordinary two-story building. However, Seong-il knows how useful and great this store is, so he opens the door and enters without paying attention to its shabby appearance.
“Hmm… Are you a vagabond?”
The appearance of a middle-aged man who seems bothered by everything he sees upon entering the interior. Impressive with his brown hair and well-shaven appearance, he mumbles in a slightly sarcastic tone as soon as he sees Seong-il.
‘I’m glad to see that line too.’
Seong-il wasn’t offended at Rubal’s sarcasm. Rather, he feels a strange sense of pleasure when the merchant of the game he usually enjoys speaks to him with lines that were intended for the main character.
“I’m here to buy something. Get this before then.”
“I don’t accept wanderers… Hm?”
The shop owner seems to think that Seong-il has no money because he looks young and wears ordinary equipment.
The time when he was about to issue a half-way banquet to Seong-il once again. Seong-il throws three heavy pouches prepared in advance at him.
“Hoo…”
Colorful jewels filling the pockets. Seeing that, the shop owner, Rubal, spits out a light bullet, quickly swallows the line he was about to say into his throat, then takes out a monocle enchanted from the drawer for appreciating jewels and starts examining the jewels.
“This too.”
While he frantically appraises the jewels, Seong-il places additional adventurer certificates on his desk from the Temple of Hammer and Anvil and the Temple of Justice.
“Hmm… You weren’t a kid, were you?”
“Of course.”
Seeing that the letter of introduction has the seals of the Master Paladin of the Temple of Justice and the High Priest of the Temple of Hammer and Anvil, Rubal examines the holy day with his bright eyes.
Without going crazy, he wouldn’t have forged a document with the guarantees of two gods in the middle of Solanium where the pantheon is located, so the warrior in front of him must be an excellent adventurer guaranteed by the temple.
In addition, the condition of all top-notch jewels makes Rubal naturally look gentle toward Seong-il.
“You’re obviously a rich and excellent warrior. So what’s your business today? Do you want to appraise jewels and exchange them for gold coins?”
“That’s the second purpose. The main purpose is, of course, to buy things!”
“Hoh… You’re a big hand? A good choice.”
At Seong-il’s words that he will spend a lot of money at the store, Rubal smiles, and he constantly appeals how great an adventurer he was when he was young and how many treasures this place has from those adventures.
‘It’s fun.’
In the game, it was just a line of text passing by, but when it is realized in reality, Rubal wraps the store with flamboyant words like the owner who runs the store.
And the appearance of Seong-il, who quietly listens to the story with a smile on his face.
“…Because!! You’ll find everything you need in this store!! The quality!! Needless to say!!”
As he finishes his speech, Rubal takes out a catalog from his desk drawer and hands it to Seong-il. And the eyes pouring from the surroundings.
“…Did you know that Rubal could speak so enthusiastically?”
‘Oh. I remember that person. It looked like an insignificant NPC, but after making it into a colleague using cheats, it was famous as an NPC with quasi-god level intelligence, right?’
‘Because of that, there was a lot of talk in the community. Starting with those NPCs being dragons or angels, they are just Easter eggs put in by the production team, etc.’
It’s time to be curious about passers-by. When the emotion informs him that he has nothing to do with him, Seong-il quells his customer’s curiosity and looks through the catalog.
“I’m appraising jewelry for now. I’m going to buy a catalog in the meantime.”
“Great choice, sir.”
At Seong-il’s words, Rubal smiles and starts appraising the jewel. In the meantime, Seongil leaned in front of the counter and calmly examined the appearance and abilities of the artifact. And look at the catalog with the price written on it.
‘Hmm… The things here are useful enough…’
Seong-il is making a mysterious expression while looking at a list of familiar items.
‘Now this is also useful enough… But still, the quality is definitely inferior to the products that require DLC to be installed… It’s a pity that there are no DLC vendors…’
Seong-il avoids Rubal, who is frantically examining the jewelry, and carefully looks behind her. However, DLC dealers still invisible.
‘Shit… Is it not coming out because I’m playing part 2 of the trilogy? Still, if you install the integrated series, the merchant appears in the original part 2… It’s a pity there isn’t.’
‘Still… High-level magic scrolls up to class 7 and one-time protection scrolls will be useful enough for this dragon hunt… So should I buy a lot of these?’
Seong-il used fire, electric shock, magic, shock, acid, etc. To battle with dragons and magic scrolls for 『The Magic Book of All Things』. They start buying all sorts of protection-related indiscriminately.
‘Oh, and wands too. If you hand this magic wand to her Yuna, it will be quite helpful to her.’
By the time I checked off the purchase list, such as purchasing consumables for Yuna and a defense ring for Senna, an ordinary human.
Rubal shows Seong-il the appraisal value for each gemstone with a satisfied expression, wondering if the jewel appraisal is over.
“Excellent. Warrior. All the gems are equally good quality. It’s amazing.”
“Hmm. But with so many customers, can I appraise the jewelry openly like this?”
“Yes. It works. If you try to steal it, I usually catch it within 5 minutes and tear it to death.”
“…”
Rubal said bloody words casually. Seong-il reminds Seong-il that he was a powerful magic warrior who wandered around the main material world to increase his reputation before he was a merchant with a friendly smile.
“Roughly… It must be worth about 25,000 gold coins.”
‘Gura-kun.’
Rubal’s psychological state felt through emotion. Seong-il feels that he is talking about 15-20% off the price.
“How about it. Do you want to trade? To be clear, it won’t be easy to find a merchant with gold coins like this in Solanium. Even more so if you have the proper appraisal qualifications.”
The appearance of Rubal trying to push and pull with Seongil with a relaxed expression on the outside. However, Seong-il does not blink an eye at his bluffing and responds with a blunt expression.
“Thirty thousand gold coins.”
“No!! What is that!!”
At Seong-il’s resolute remark, Rubal frowns and openly shows his displeasure. However, Seong-il tries to convince him by calmly reciting the lines he has thought of in advance before spitting them out.
“If a merchant tries to eat double leftovers, isn’t that a net thief?”
“…What does that mean?”
In the middle of the negotiations, Rubal frowns when Seong-il makes a noise. Seong-il repeats what he said a while ago to him.
“I must have said that I was going to ‘wipe out’ all the ‘items’ in this store based on these ‘jewels’?”
“…!!”
“Then, of course, there will be fees for trading goods, right? But in the meantime, you’re trying to collect the commission for jewelry brokerage? Who do you know as Hogu?”
“Hmm…”
Seong-il’s reasonable answer. For this reason, Rubal looks at Seongil with wide open eyes and asks questions.
“…Are you really going to spend all the proceeds from the sale of jewelry on buying things from our store?”
“If there’s something useful or something in my heart, I’m willing to buy it all. I’ve checked the things I need in the catalog right now, so take a look.”
“Um…”
At Sungil’s answer, Rubal looks at the catalog with a slightly flushed expression. An item in the catalog that is definitely marked with a lot of wish-to-buy marks.
“…You must have a good eye?”
Most of them were checked mainly for scroll-oriented consumables, but a few artifacts that were checked in between were valuable things that Rubal usually cherished.
“Umm… It would take about 10,000 coins to buy the items here. But are you planning to buy only these? Armor or something. Weapons?”
Rubal rubs Seongil’s body with his eyes with a slightly regretful expression. Seong-il answers with a smile at the meaningful look in his eyes, telling him to solve his clumsy armament at his shop.
“Honestly, I’d like to buy weapons and armor too, but honestly, there’s very little I like. Is there anything better? I like High Magic Scrolls, too.”
“Um…”
‘At least spit out a 9th class magic scroll. They sell stuff like that in the second half.’
Seong-il takes out a diamond from his pocket and throws it at Rubal.
“If you show me a really ‘good’ item, I’ll give you a tip.”
“Oh… You really have a big barrel!”
Rubal admires the exciting tip Seong-il gave him. He calls one of the staff members to take his place at the counter and approaches Seong-il and whispers quietly.
“…Actually, I don’t often show ‘real’ valuables to people who aren’t regulars or people who don’t have a high reputation. You seem to be a really proper customer, so let’s break that rule today. Follow me. Come on.”
‘Oh!’
Just in case, Seong-il gave the main character the lines and tips he did at Rubal’s shop in the second half.
Then, surprisingly, from Rubal’s mouth, lines that can be heard in the second half of the game flow. Because of this, Seong-il realizes that his gambling numbers have been worked out, and he is overjoyed inside.
“…Is this place?”
A study behind the shop that I have never seen in the game. In response to Seongil’s question, Rubal only smiles instead of answering.
Rattle. Dreuk.
“…?”
In the meantime, when Rubal repeatedly touches and removes a specific book from the bookshelf and pulls the torch, interestingly, the chest of drawers moves sideways and a staircase appears.
“Oh…”
“Follow me. And if possible, please keep what you saw today as a secret. The friends inside don’t like meeting small pikes.”
“Of course.”
As if Seongil’s firm answer was satisfactory, Rubal smiled and went up the stairs. Then another cozy and antique-looking store appeared.
‘The authors…!!’
And two unique figures to be seen. Seong-il is the first person to see them, but when he sees their clothes and ethnicity, he immediately realizes what kind of people they are.
‘You’re a DLC merchant!!!’
Seong-il senses that he has hit the lottery when merchants selling the finest items he has been looking for have appeared.
