Planning the Route

[Dear Ethan,

When we were in a desperate situation, I drank the potion you gave us.

And my goodness, suddenly my tier skyrocketed. What on earth kind of potion is this?

When I stopped by the guild to check, I found that my total mana and mana sensitivity, which had been like shackles binding me my whole life, had roughly doubled.

Thanks to that, since I had sufficient theory and experience, I was able to reach the 10th tier immediately.

Even Slan, who had never properly learned swordsmanship, reached the upper expert level, and Osten’s archery skills rose to the level of most elves.

Thank you. Really, thank you.

Words alone may not be enough, but I wanted to say thank you again.

I’ll visit Serdin soon with a small gift.

From Dusty of the Douglan Expedition.]

On the day the Douglan Expedition left,

Ethan gave them 3 bottles of ‘Special Growth Potion’.

He admired them for wandering the labyrinth without compensation to find Ponya’s parents, and they had also taken Ponya along to gain labyrinth exploration experience.

It was a token of gratitude for that.

But,

‘I didn’t think it would improve this much.’

Especially Dusty.

He never imagined that he, who had stopped growing at the 6th tier, would reach the 10th tier.

‘I thought he’d reach 7th or 8th tier at best.’

The tiers of magicians require exponentially higher abilities as they go up.

Not only total mana and mana sensitivity, but also magical knowledge and experience that aren’t represented by stats, circuit durability, and so on are comprehensively judged.

It seems Dusty, who had abundant practical experience in the labyrinth, was far superior in that aspect.

He had low innate mana and mana sensitivity, but

The ‘Special Growth Potion’ seemed to have solved that part.

‘It’s still a bit too much to give to the kids.’

He gave it to the Douglan Expedition as a test since they had reached their growth limit.

But it’s different for children.

Since they’re still growing rapidly, it would be a loss to feed them the ‘Special Growth Potion’ now.

As he was rummaging through his spatial backpack to check the remaining potions,

He felt an unfamiliar texture and pulled it out.

‘Ah right, let’s check the special rewards I received last time first.’

First, he took out and checked the item that dropped in front of David last time.

He had roughly put it in his spatial pocket without checking due to the urgency of the situation.

[Item Name: Teleport Portal Generator]

[Description: Can create a teleport portal at a location the user has visited before.

The portal is maintained permanently until the user deactivates it.

*Cooldown: 96 hours.]

‘A late-game item? Nice.’

In the case of <Isilium Legend Maker>, the early game is designed for clearing quests in each region,

But as it progresses to the late game, the route becomes more complex, requiring long-distance travel.

Therefore, around the mid to late game, a ‘Teleport Portal Generator’ is essential.

‘Playthroughs without this were hell.’

If you’re a magician, you can just learn the long-distance teleport skill and be done with it.

But most other professions are either on foot or at best riding horses.

Setting high maintenance costs for horses in the name of ‘historical accuracy’ was also stressful for users.

‘With just this, I can freely travel to the republic or the Holy Spirit Realm.’

If I want to go to the republic, I can have Julius use it,

And if I want to go to the Holy Spirit Realm, I can have David use it.

The cooldown is 4 days, but it’s not so long that I can’t wait.

After pushing it aside for now,

He opened the notification window.

[You currently have 2 unclaimed special rewards.]

The special reward received for the early elimination of Silver Wings, and

The special reward received as the sponsor of the Douglan Expedition.

[You can receive a higher grade reward by combining the two rewards.]

[Receive Separately] [Upgrade to Better Reward]

“Is this asking whether to receive them separately or double up?”

In terms of efficiency, receiving them separately would be better.

After all, special rewards are random,

And even if combined, the probability of getting a good reward only increases slightly.

But,

The soul of the gamer sleeping inside him kept urging,

‘Can you resist this?’

[No, I don’t think you understood, but it says a better one will appear, even if it’s a slight difference?]

Somehow, the right button seemed to glow more brilliantly.

“Alright, let’s see what comes up.”

He pressed the [Upgrade to Better Reward] button.

Then,

[Congratulations! You’ve won ‘1 Random Skill Enhancement’.]

[A roulette wheel will spin to choose the skill to enhance.]

-Ding ding ding ding.

“Ah, a roulette wheel again?”

Recalling that day, something like PTSD rose up.

Still, he was secretly happy inside.

‘If only I could enhance the skills I received from absorbing the World Tree’s roots…’

It would be perfect if Maintenance’s control ability or Destruction’s debuff were enhanced.

The roulette wheel slowly came to a stop.

“Ah.”

[Congratulations! The skill ‘Brilliant Shield’ has been enhanced!]

●Blocks all attacks for 2 times, needs recharging after shield depletion, current recharge time is about 18 hours.

“Aw man, this is messed up.”

Ethan’s criteria for evaluating skills is strictly from a player’s perspective.

Therefore, for <Brilliant Shield>, the long cooldown was more of a deduction than the phrase “blocks all attacks.”

Even in the game, it was close to a useless skill with a 36-hour cooldown.

It might be useful in the early stages,

But even then, it was just a single immunity.

Moreover, the fact that “I can’t use it when I want” was also a deduction factor.

<Brilliant Shield> is closer to a passive skill that can’t be turned on or off.

Since I can’t activate it when I want,

If I fail to avoid a hit from a random mob encountered on the road, it’s forcibly sealed for 36 hours.

Such a skill was designated as the enhancement target,

And the fact that the cooldown was halved and the shield increased to 2 layers

Didn’t give much comfort to the veteran Ethan.

[The World Tree’s root advises to think positively.]

[‘Maintenance’ says you can enhance the other skills next time by drawing again.]

‘Yeah, thanks.’

If ‘Maintenance’s <Constant Mind> had been enhanced, it might have increased the number of targets that could be controlled for both magic and holy power at once.

If ‘Destruction’s <Slowly Crumbling> had been enhanced, the range and effect of the debuff might have greatly increased.

Ethan activated his composure stat to calm his mind.

‘Well, it’s spilled milk anyway. Can’t put it back.’

Now that he’s checked everything he needed to check,

It’s time to move.

“I’ll be out for a while.”

“Where are you going?”

Levi, whom he encountered in the corridor, asked as she followed.

“To the Regin Merchant Group. I’m going to meet Albert after a long time.”

“It’s in the Free Market street. Can I come along?”

“Sure.”

Remembering that he had been neglecting Levi recently, Ethan readily agreed.

On a bright sunny day,

The two set out for an outing to the Free Market.

Regin Merchant Group Headquarters.

The employees were whispering.

The leader’s office has been tightly locked since earlier.

“Is he doing that again?”

“I guess it’s prime time.”

“Well, thanks to that, the city hall looks favorably on us, right? They’ve been processing our supply contracts on time.”

“That’s fortunate, but, how should I put it, um…”

They whispered quietly while looking at the leader’s office instead of working.

Meanwhile,

Ethan, the undisputed ‘boss’ who owns 100% of the group’s shares, came munching on a skewer.

“Ah, welcome, boss.”

“Hm? Why are you speaking so quietly?”

“Ah, well, you see…”

Wondering why they were acting like that, he put down the groceries he bought in a corner,

And went to the leader’s office to turn the doorknob.

“!”

The employees all looked surprised, but

Ethan didn’t mind.

But the doorknob gets stuck.

“Albert, are you in there?”

“B-Boss?!”

A startled sound.

There was a clattering noise, and soon the door opened.

“W-What brings you here?”

“I have something to discuss… Senior Eili?”

“Ahem, hem. I’ll be taking my leave now. We’ll revisit that agenda at the city hall next week.”

“Y-Yes. Take care on your way back.”

‘Were those two in that kind of relationship?’

Even Ethan, who wasn’t very perceptive, could tell that Albert’s clothes were disheveled, and there were several red marks on his neck area.

‘With employees working outside, this is a bit…’

When he didn’t hide his expression of dismay,

Albert, feeling uncomfortable, waved his hands and made excuses.

“Nothing strange like what you’re imagining happened!”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.”

“R-Really, it’s true!”

“Have you calmed down a bit?”

Albert nodded.

Ethan, who entered the office with Levi, brought up the agenda to discuss.

It was ‘which market to pioneer first between the Holy Spirit Realm and Heikel’.

For Heikel, to obtain the root of ‘Creation’ and for Julius’ revenge.

For the Holy Spirit Realm, to rescue Ciel’s sealed body.

Anyway, he needs to visit both, but this was preliminary work to plan the route efficiently.

‘That’s why I created the Regin Merchant Group.’

Gathering information through merchants raises less suspicion.

After all, the nominal purpose is a visit for trade.

Create a branch of the Regin Merchant Group.

And use that place as a base to gather information.

“Pardon? You’re asking which is more suitable as a trading partner between the Holy Spirit Realm and Heikel?”

“Yes. I want to know which has higher priority from a merchant’s perspective.”

“Of course it’s Heikel.”

“Hm?”

To go from Etrion to the Heikel Republic, you must pass through the Holy Spirit Realm.

So Ethan thought it would be right to pioneer the Holy Spirit Realm market first.

But Albert was different.

“In the case of the Holy Spirit Realm, there’s a huge difference in tax rates between the Papal Office’s direct territories in Revolt and the bishops’ territories in the provinces. Especially the provincial bishops extort enormous bribes.”

Indeed, Ethan remembered that merchants tended to avoid the Holy Spirit Realm.

Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit Realm with its mild climate has the advantage of obtaining large quantities of quality wine.

“Isn’t there wine? Although Heikel is also a producing region, there should be a big difference in quality and quantity.”

“No matter how big the quality difference, when you calculate all the costs, it comes out to 2-3 times the price of Heikel wine. But thanks to you, boss, we don’t have to worry about transportation costs, so it’s more profitable to import from Heikel.”

He pointed to the spatial pocket and backpack.

Thanks to that, instead of large-scale transport equipment and manpower,

They could bring in large quantities of goods with just a small number of people.

Right away, they could significantly reduce the cost of mana stones with that,

And the Regin Merchant Group grew with those funds.

“Then please set up the foreign branch in Heikel first.”

“Yes, I was just feeling the need to expand our business externally. If you need it, boss, we’ll take care of it right away.”

“Then, is there perhaps an employee who has been to Heikel?”

“Probably… Tablek! You’re from the republic, right?”

He brought over a man named Tablek who was organizing the warehouse.

“Where are you from?”

“I’m from the capital, Heines.”

‘Should I try an experiment while I’m at it?’

Ethan pointed to the semicircular magic tool placed on the table.

“Put your hand on it, and imagine a sparsely populated place on the outskirts of Heines.”

Tablek, though puzzled, soon placed his hand and concentrated.

And,

-Woong.

A portal was created in one corner of the leader’s office.