Ch.3939. Mana = Damage

For hunters, mana equals damage.

Regardless of what abilities they possess, skills require mana to use. While most skills don’t have cooldowns, they’re limited by mana consumption—meaning you can use skills whenever you want, but once you’ve depleted your mana, you can’t deal any more damage.

That’s why items that increase mana are expensive.

Options that directly increase damage can be considered an upgrade from mana-boosting items.

After all, increasing raw damage means all your skills deal more damage, rather than just being able to use skills one more time by having more mana.

However, damage options rarely appear on items, and when they do, they’re prohibitively expensive. That’s why people opt for increasing mana as a substitute to boost their damage output.

Strictly speaking, it’s not actually increasing damage.

It just improves your DPS.

Either way, it serves the same purpose.

Items with mana bonuses are particularly efficient options for hunters with moderate budgets, which is why they’re quite expensive.

As a result, these items are often hard to find on the market, and sometimes you need to visit department stores just to see what’s available.

That’s why I came straight to the department store.

“Mana items are on the third floor. I’ll guide you there.”

Despite my appearance, the employee maintained a friendly smile as she guided me and Kim Sujeong.

The spacious department store, filled with hunter items, looked extremely luxurious, and the people walking around wore expensive-looking gear.

In contrast, I was wearing clothes that looked hastily thrown together.

Perhaps it was because I mentioned having 300 million won to spend.

Before introducing some displayed items, the employee asked me:

“Would you prefer accessories, sir?”

“Accessories are fine, but armor works too.”

As you can tell from the price of the glass stone, accessories that affect damage, directly or indirectly, typically cost at least ten times more than other equipment slots.

On the other hand, armor is usually cheaper because hunters prioritize defense first, followed by stats or special defensive options.

That’s not to say armor is cheap, though.

Mages like Kim Sujeong often find that even with decent defense, they still get one-shot in many situations, so they sometimes just meet the minimum defense requirements and focus on mana or damage options instead.

Still, armor is definitely cheaper than accessories.

The employee first introduced a bracelet.

“This is an item called [Blue Wave] that arrived three days ago. Would you like to check its options yourself?”

“Yes.”

The bracelet, adorned with a small blue gem that harmonized with its overall color scheme, was visually striking.

[Blue Wave]

– Grade: C+

– A bracelet made from sea stone formed by concentrated mana in the deep ocean. Dense mana fills its rippling waves.

– Magic Power +1 grade (up to C)

– Mana recovery +5% per minute

“Oh.”

This is good.

It gets bonus points for being an accessory that’s easy to equip, and the Magic Power +1 grade is quite decent for what I can currently wear.

Plus, with the heroic grade option limiting it to C grade, it should last me a while considering my current D grade magic power.

And it’s not just increasing magic power—it also boosts mana recovery by 5% per minute, making it a double special option accessory.

“The selling price is 270 million won.”

One good thing about luxury hunter department stores is that they don’t charge additional taxes.

This isn’t just for hunter department stores—worldwide, hunter items aren’t taxed for the buyer.

This is both a reward for hunters’ hard work and a way to encourage hunters to take on challenges by avoiding double taxation.

Anyway, the employee presented an item that perfectly matched my requirements.

“I’ll show you some armor options as well.”

I liked it.

It was exactly what I wanted.

I was about to buy it immediately, but decided to ask just in case.

“Can I get +2 grades of magic power from two armor pieces? If so, I’d like to see them; otherwise, I’ll take this.”

“The armor has Magic Power +1 grade and Mana +15.”

“I’ll take this one.”

“Please follow me.”

[Blue Wave] became mine after payment.

“No need for packaging.”

As soon as I put it on my wrist, my Magic Power increased from D grade to D+ grade, and my mana rose to 80 as a result.

Thirty points per grade.

The weighting seems a bit different from when I played Farming World.

Even though I’d like to shop more, with only 20 million left, I’d be lucky to get a cup of coffee at this luxury hunter department store.

“Oppa. You didn’t regress or get possessed by someone else, did you? I’d be fine even if you were possessed. You seem like a completely different person.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“You just seem so different. Is this what you’re really like? Well, I guess I wouldn’t know since you were always just playing games when we were young.”

“…”

“I’m jealous.”

Kim Sujeong, who had been watching me shop, licked her lips with genuine envy but quickly got over it.

She probably remembered that she had the glass stone accessory.

After giving her the glass stone, it would be pretty tactless to complain about me buying a 300 million won item.

After finishing preparations, I put the PP box on my belt and went to sleep.

Even though the login cooldown was long enough that I could go anytime, day or night, it was better to sleep in a comfortable bed for one night and leave refreshed in the morning rather than sleeping on a shabby bed.

“Mom! I might not be back for a few weeks this time. Don’t worry, I’m going with oppa. Yes. I’m eating well.”

Kim Sujeong was preparing to say goodbye to her mother.

Minimum six days. I had no intention of staying longer than that if possible.

As I said, I was just showing her around for a test run and to live comfortably. If I kept her at my farm, I might have to look at her face for the rest of my life, whether on Earth or at the farm.

[Day 15]

“What do we need to do? Where should we go? Do we need keys?”

“What do we need to do? Login!”

[Logging in with 1 target!]

I returned to the Rift Dimension with Kim Sujeong.

————————-

“Phew.”

Fresh air enters my nostrils.

The first thing I notice is how different it feels from the stuffy air on Earth.

“Master!”

And then I hear Lulu’s voice after a long time.

Her voice, full of joy but also tinged with fear, pours out a stream of pent-up stories as if she’d been waiting for this moment.

“Did you have a good trip? Are you hurt… Oh! Who is this person?”

“Uh… what? Is this a dungeon?”

Kim Sujeong looks around with a bewildered expression and soon makes eye contact with Lulu.

Meanwhile, I breathe a sigh of relief.

“It works even without touching.”

When logging in, I was worried there might be conditions like having to hold hands or maintain physical contact to travel together.

Fortunately, just intending to log in together was enough, which was a relief.

I briefly introduced Lulu and Kim Sujeong to each other.

“This is my sister.”

“Gasp! Master’s… blood relative?”

“W-what? Is she a fairy?”

“This is Lulu. Yeah, she’s a fairy. According to her.”

“Kyaa! She’s so cute!”

“H-hello, Master’s sister!”

“What’s with the ‘Master’? Oppa, do you have that kind of taste?”

“Shut up.”

Kim Sujeong’s behavior showed she was clearly excited, and as expected, she adapted quickly rather than being tense in the unfamiliar environment.

She wasn’t even surprised to see Lulu and instead quickly became friends with her, calling her cute.

She also showed interest in my farm.

“What is this place, oppa?”

“My farm. Just think of it as a dungeon only I can enter.”

“Wow. Amazing. Is this where you got the healing herbs and items? Do you have glass stones too?”

“I planted the healing herbs. There’s also a dungeon inside, so I just got them from there.”

“Damn… So what Jihyun unnie said was true.”

Kim Sujeong showed even more interest.

“Wow. What’s that field in front? Did you plant healing herbs there? There’s nothing now?”

“Ah! I harvested everything. Master! I didn’t plant any seeds because you didn’t give me orders.”

“You probably just made excuses because you were too lazy to plant them.”

“…”

It was never quiet in the cabin with one chatty fairy, and now with another noisy addition, there wasn’t a moment of silence.

“Amazing. Amazing. Oppa, your ability is seriously insane!”

I had originally planned to show her the farming window to shut her up, but seeing her make such a fuss over just a simple explanation, I decided to hold off on showing her the farming window.

“I’ve really decided on my career path, oppa. Hire me as your manager. Or caretaker. I really love this kind of thing. Can’t I be the co-manager of your farm?”

Her volunteering to be a slave made me curious.

“Do you really want to do this? Can you give up everything else for it? If so, I have a position that’s perfect for you.”

I extended my hand to Kim Sujeong.

She reached out with both hands, her face bright with excitement, and grasped my hand.

“I look forward to working with you, boss!”

I frowned, pulled my hand away, and extended it again.

This time, I was holding a wooden watering can.