Episode 13: A Graduate Student? Me?

“By the way, everything’s just gold here.”

“Right? Our guild lives up to its name, doesn’t it?”

Eve Maitner grinned slyly.

‘Truly befitting the guild master of the [Golden] Guild.’

That gold isn’t just plating. It’s all 100% pure gold.

The 63-story building located in Yeouido—before I transmigrated into this world, it was just a building with slightly yellowish windows… but in this world, that building has been transformed into an insane, money-wasting structure where anything that even slightly glitters is made of pure gold.

‘Ah, of course, they’re not crazy enough to make the windows out of pure gold—some are just glass with gold film… but still, if you stripped off just the real gold, it’d easily be worth over 100 billion won, right?’

“By the way, what did you do to the domestic guilds? That brat from the Spiral Guild was complaining after raiding an A-rank Gate.”

‘…Spiral Guild? Ryu Seong-ho?’

That rude text message from last time—I ignored it completely without replying. Did he get upset over that?

“The United States. To be precise, the Vultures bought potions from us, and apparently, the other guilds are unhappy about it. They’re planning to protest, claiming it’s a ‘drain of national assets’ or something.”

Eve Maitner even subtly hinted at the Spiral Guild’s next move.

‘…Well, let them protest all they want.’

First of all, Yuseong Group isn’t a state-owned enterprise. They just hold a monopoly on patent rights, and if they block mid-grade potion production, they can only slightly influence the survival rates of heroes in Gates worldwide. They’re just a small-scale, home-based business with minimal authority.

“…Then I guess we’ll just move to the U.S. or something.”

When I seriously mentioned the next plan, Eve Maitner looked at me with slight surprise.

“…Hahaha, you’re definitely more hardline than the former chairman.”

“Tell them we absolutely won’t sell high-grade potions for less than 30 million and mid-grade for less than 16 million. Frankly, considering labor costs, even those prices are already as low as we can go.”

After all, that’s the price we gave the Vultures too. The domestic guilds got too used to Yun Seong-ho’s era of “free potions for everyone” and now think getting them at cost is their right…

‘The Korean guilds are way too spoiled.’

Thomas Andrea, the guild master of the Vultures, even knelt and cried tears of gratitude when we sold them potions at that price, calling it more than reasonable.

‘I was genuinely shocked back then.’

I knew Thomas Andrea, the guild master, would come in person because we’d exchanged emails beforehand. But after inspecting all the goods at Incheon Port, when I gave him a top-grade potion as a first-deal gift, I never expected him to burst into tears of gratitude.

The world’s strongest Defender, nicknamed ‘Goliath’—though his one eye had a massive scar that made him look intimidating at first glance. In front of reporters, he declared that the Vultures would always stand by Yuseong Group whenever they needed help—a woman of remarkable loyalty.

She even gave me her personal phone number, saying to call if I ever needed help—such a principled and kind person… It’s astounding how Yun Seong-ho’s sheer idiocy could turn someone like that into a money-crazed demon.

“Anyway, since we sold to the Vultures at that price, tell the heroes protecting South Korea to be satisfied with the discounts they’ve already gotten.”

“Haha, got it. I’ll pass that along at the next guild master meeting. Now, enough of that—show me that eye already!”

“…Uh, sure.”

Honestly, this was the main event.

I watched as Eve hurried over in her lab coat.

I’d only seen her once at the academy, and back then, her usual outfit was something like a high-leg suit—whether you’d call them hot pants or underwear… Anyway, extremely short pants with a robe draped over them, but the back was quite revealing too.

In-game lore, that outfit was supposed to enhance her lightning magic, but…

‘No matter how you look at it, that outfit was designed for fanservice.’

No wonder one of her fellow heroes, the Demon Sword, had a line saying, “This damn hussy!”

But right now, Eve was wearing black dress pants, a khaki knit sweater, and a stylish lab coat over it.

‘This look suits her much better.’

Honestly, even now, her clothes clung tightly to her body, making it a rather… risky outfit.

An average man might be tempted to pounce on her immediately… but Eve is older than even the white-haired elders like the Demon Sword and the Sword Saint. In fact, her age in the system window just shows as “??”.

Because of that, the community roasts her, calling her a “chicken coop” or whatever, but in-game lore, her physical age is said to be mid-20s.

Something about her overwhelming mana keeping her body in its prime… or so I’ve heard.

But seeing that enormous mana pool tremble in person is really…

‘Thank you.’

-Drip

“Huh? Se-ah, your nose is bleeding…!”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

Using psychokinesis to locate the burst blood vessel and stop the bleeding, the nosebleed ceased instantly. Eve even praised me for my efficient use of abilities.

Anyway, enough preamble. Eve seemed to realize time was running short and briskly began examining my eye.

I also explained the abilities of [Hypnotic Evil Eye] as truthfully as possible to maximize my growth.

‘Besides, she has <Insight (S)>, so lying would be pointless.’

After four grueling hours of examination, Eve finally reached a conclusion.

“Hmm… This is insane. How did you even endure this…?”

“Ah, if you’re talking about regeneration, Yun Seong-ho kept digging into my eye with a scalpel to suppress it—”

“S-stop!”

What became clear was that the value of this Evil Eye embedded in my eye was beyond imagination.

“First, I have a skill called <Well of Mana (S)> that continuously replenishes mana, right?”

“Yes.”

“Yours isn’t quite at that level yet… but your mana is constantly refilling at a similar rate. Your magic power must’ve skyrocketed right after the monster’s eye was implanted.”

‘So this Evil Eye… is like a secondary mana core?’

I explained all the additional abilities too. Eve probably already knew I’d killed Yun Seong-ho—she was one of the few who fully understood what a monster he was.

“Let’s stop the research here for now. There’s still too much to study about that hypnosis ability… We’ll bring in some test subjects next week for that.”

With that, Eve wrapped up the examination of my Evil Eye.

“So, to summarize—your eye has the power to hypnotize whatever you look at, and just having it has increased your base magic power and mana capacity.”

“That makes sense. I did feel my psychokinesis get stronger after that experiment.”

“Right? Then how about you put up a barrier real quick?”

“…Huh?”

“Hurry.”

-Zzzzzzt…!

“I’ve put up the barrier no—”

-Crackle!

“……!”

The moment I said that, a bolt of lightning shot straight at my face.

-BOOM!

Thankfully, the barrier held, but it was still startling.

“Good reflexes. The Golden Guild has a lot of openings. Wanna join?”

“Uh… Training starts right away?”

I scratched my head and looked at Eve.

‘Come on, surely she won’t make me train after exhausting me with research?’

But as if to crush my desperate hopes, Eve’s lips curled into a smirk.

‘……Oh no.’

Then, dozens of lightning bolts rained down on me.

“This hurts way more than those experiments.”

“Quit exaggerating. I only used 6th or 7th-circle magic.”

“You do know that’s the maximum output for A-rank heroes, right?”

Eventually, I woke up safely in the Golden Guild’s infirmary.

…

…

…

Meanwhile, in a certain ruin in England.

“…A disciple who had progressed quite far in demonization in Korea has died. Cause of death unknown—very suspicious.”

“Korea… Isn’t that where a fragment of the Demon King’s remains lies dormant? We couldn’t retrieve the inheritance because of those disgusting heroes…”

“Oh my, I quite liked the test subjects there.”

In the deserted ruins, ‘something’ gathered around a stone round table.

A black knight clad in massive steel armor, a demonic figure with an extremely voluptuous body, and a humanoid shape made of black smoke.

Among them, the black knight gave an order to the demonic figure.

“You go and investigate. You’re the least restricted by the ‘Restrictions.’ While you’re at it, see if you can locate the Gate where a fragment of the Demon King’s remains lies dormant… And if possible, find a way to awaken our dormant comrades.”

“Fine, fine~ If the First Seat says so, I’ll do it.”

As the demonic figure stood up, openly expressing her displeasure, the black knight growled as if issuing a final warning.

“My patience has limits, Shena. Don’t fail this time.”

“Yeah, yeah~”

The horned ‘something’ vanished in an instant…