Ch.8181. The Second SSS+ Rank Ability

A Refreshing Morning.

[12:04 PM]

It’s been a while since I slept until daytime.

I fell asleep late yesterday morning, so it’s natural, but I still slept for over 8 hours.

“Yaaawn. Slept well.”

I stretch as I come downstairs and eat lunch that feels like breakfast.

Having a refrigerator has definitely improved the quality of our meals.

Fresh vegetables on the table and hearty stew filled with ingredients.

“Are you learning how to cook these days?”

I ask because the side dishes seem to change every day, and Kim Sujeong proudly shrugs her shoulders.

“I’m learning from cooking videos I downloaded. How is it? Pretty good, right?”

Despite looking like someone who couldn’t even boil ramen and would order delivery for life, she’s enjoying learning to cook and doing it herself.

“At first, I just started to earn my keep, you know. But cooking is surprisingly fun! Maybe it’s because the ingredients here are so fresh. It’s fascinating how the taste changes depending on what you add. The effects are good too.”

“Right. The ingredients here make cooking worthwhile. Keep it up.”

“…”

After enjoying the meal, I call Kim Sujeong to the front of the cabin.

“Watch this.”

I take out a box from my belt and place it next to the cabin door.

The medium-sized box I got from the sewer has been demoted to second place.

“Wow.”

“Gasp! Master, is that a large box…?”

“Cool, right?”

“Did you get it from there yesterday?”

“Yeah. From now on, you can put crops or whatever in here, and it’ll automatically sort them into different boxes. Just put the corresponding resources in the sorting boxes.”

“Amazing. Can I try it now?”

I grab her by the hair as she tries to rush over.

“Ouch!”

“Where do you think you’re going before an adult can even lift their spoon? We need to have an opening ceremony first.”

I wonder what items will be in the 50 slots of this box that’s radiating a brilliant yellow glow.

The opened box’s 50 slots were densely packed with items.

“Here we go.”

Of course, as always, most are junk items.

Many slots were filled with various items that were just there for show.

But this is a legendary grade.

Even the junk items in this S-grade legendary box had higher base grades and were quite useful.

And the most important expensive rewards.

Unfortunately, there were no weapons.

No armor either.

The rewards in the box were one ring and several gems.

[Corrupted Ring]

– Grade: S

– A ring made of “Chaos Stone,” the condensed essence of chaos energy. It becomes more corrupted and powerful as it absorbs chaos energy.

– Grade and effects increase with each “Main Quest 2” completion.

– Can only be worn by those qualified to handle chaos energy.

– All stats +1 grade

I looked at the ring first, and its brilliance captivated me even before checking the item information.

Not the murky, dark reddish-black darkness mixed with red energy that I saw in the Corrupted Forest.

Something I thought was beautiful is now contained within the ring, moving like living smoke.

Even if the options were poor, I’d want to wear it just because it’s pretty, but the options are perfect too.

“Wait, it’s a dedicated item?”

Dedicated items are usually given by NPCs with special abilities.

For example, a blacksmith.

When you complete a blacksmith’s quest, they might acknowledge you as their apprentice and pass down their precious item. Such dedicated items typically have options closely related to enhancing that ability.

Like improving blacksmith skill effects, raising levels, or increasing grades.

Anyway, it’s that kind of item, and it appeared here.

Well, considering this main quest is quite long and seems important, it’s not strange that it would appear.

But I was a bit surprised because I hadn’t expected it at all.

“A growth-type dedicated item…”

And initially S-grade, no less.

The option is so good it makes me laugh in disbelief.

For an S-grade growth-type item, you might expect the initial options to be underwhelming compared to its grade, making you think “I’ll see about it later,” but this single option “All stats +1 grade” is arrogant and haughty, yet carries a substantial weight that belies the item’s grade.

I immediately removed the [Ring of Brute Strength].

“I’ll put this in storage.”

The [Corrupted Ring] from the S-grade legendary box pleased me so much that I would have blindly removed any accessory if I didn’t have a slot available.

“Wow. Insane. What’s with ‘All stats +1 grade’? That’s crazy good.”

The reason this ring’s efficiency is insane is because it doesn’t just say Strength/Agility/Vitality/Mana +1 grade, but specifically “All stats +1 grade.”

Of course, for ordinary hunters, this might not seem like a big difference.

Most hunters only have four stats: strength, agility, vitality, and mana.

But among a tiny minority of hunters with special abilities, some develop new stats corresponding to those abilities.

This [All stats] effect increases even those newly developed stats by +1 grade.

And this effect applies to me, who can learn multiple abilities.

In other words, if I learn new abilities and develop new stats in the future, this ring’s performance will increase each time without me doing anything.

And its effects will also improve as I grow.

As soon as I put it on my finger, the radiant ring sparkles in the sunlight.

Simultaneously, my basic stats rose to S+, with agility reaching SS- grade.

Even my mana power became C- grade.

I was so satisfied with just this that I didn’t even glance at the few gems beside it.

Honestly, I was a bit anxious when first opening the box.

In my 10 years of farming world life,

I’ve opened legendary grade boxes a few times, but perhaps due to excessive expectations,

I don’t remember many instances of rewards exceeding my expectations.

The reason might be that I never got legendary grade boxes while developing maps, and only got a few through grinding near the end, so items valuable enough to bring me such pure joy rarely existed for me.

As a result, I only remembered legendary boxes as containers that “auto-sort,” and didn’t have high expectations for their contents.

If I had really been expecting something, I wouldn’t have carried it from the Corrupted Forest to home and waited until the next morning to open it because I was tired.

Anyway, having lower expectations probably allowed me to be happier about this jackpot-level luck.

As I showed little interest in the remaining items, Kim Sujeong glanced at me and checked the remaining gems.

Then she fell back in surprise and shouted.

“Oppa! Mana stones! S-grade mana stones!”

Though not as valuable as the [Corrupted Ring],

The gems beside it were proudly displaying themselves as if to show that not just one item in the S- box was valuable.

——————

I put the other rewards in storage and set aside what I would take out.

I’ll also auction the three items from the Corrupted Ogre.

They were all good items, but after putting on the [Corrupted Ring], all I could think about was the next reward.

The long-awaited main quest reward.

Actually, wasn’t this what I was preparing for when I decided to hunt the Corrupted Ogre?

SSS+ grade ability selection.

Thinking back to when I first came here and received it with just a “do your best,” I’ve learned through experience that I need to choose very carefully.

It’s as if they give you the freedom to choose what you want, but in reality, the ability is just meant to help you handle the corresponding difficulty, not to make things easier for you.

This is the same.

It’s a main quest reward.

There will be another main quest, and who knows what kind of perverted monster like the Corrupted Ogre will appear there.

That’s why I was put to the test again.

“Magic is the right choice, but…”

Actually, when the SSS+ grade ability selection appeared as the main quest reward, I had already decided what to choose next.

Magic SSS+ grade ability.

Comparing melee weapons and summons like I did at first, I thought choosing summons might be better, but I judged that magic, which I could use right away, was better than a late-game oriented ability like summons.

I completely excluded other abilities like melee weapons.

The only reason I considered magic and summons was one thing:

I judged that when I selected the ability, it would raise my lacking mana power to S grade from my current stats.

Even if I don’t use magic as my main, if my mana power increases, my mana will increase, which means my melee weapon combat ability will also improve.

But after clearing the Corrupted Tree and Corrupted Forest, my thinking changed.

If this chaos energy is the same kind as the “demon realm” biome I know,

If holy power has a terrible compatibility with it,

There was no need to hesitate.

[Raising Holy Magic to SSS+ grade.]