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Soon, the space above the fire pit split vertically and began to spread apart from both sides. The scene revealed to them was none other than the universe. Like seeing a Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, they saw a small fraction of a dark space with countless glittering stars. Soon after, the edge of the open space shone brightly as if it was a channel to a different universe an immeasurable distance away.

A deep, resonating sound came from this infinite space, like someone sobbing but paradoxically resembling the sound of someone dancing in happiness as well. It was also quickly getting close. The hall, which had grown noisy after the rediscovery of the fire pit, suddenly became as quiet as death. The rescue members all felt it implicitly that something strange and sinister was gradually approaching them. Not a single person could open their mouths properly. As it approached, indescribable pressure seemed to tie them down.

—St…sto…

Philip was barely able to regain his senses as a spirit and shouted.

—Stop it! No! Flip it over!

When Chi-Woo heard Philip’s frantic screams, his body moved of its own accord. He instinctively ran and kicked the fire pit hard, and the fire pit overturned and spilled the solution inside. Then the mysterious red light that the magic circle had been emitting suddenly went out.

—Ah…

At the same time, they heard a regretful sigh from across the split space. Then the space closed as if it was being zipped up, and the air became normal again. Only then did the mysterious pressure weighing down the room disappeared, and everyone exhaled the breath they had been holding.

—Just…just now…

Philip was so stunned that he couldn’t even speak properly. Then he turned to Chi-Woo and asked in a trembling voice.

—Is that what I think it is?

Chi-Woo struggled to nod; his body kept shaking. He felt like he had just met a giant that a mortal could not even dare to measure or comprehend. He hadn’t even felt like that when La Bella was standing right in front of him. He had only experienced this once—when he participated in a proxy war for a deal with Evelyn. At that time, he had borrowed the power of Indra to fight Sernitas’ modified god, and he had just experienced the same feeling he had gotten then. In short, the being that just appeared was a foreign god in the ninth celestial rank.

“You…what did you do?” Abis asked as she looked at Jin-Cheon, who was stricken pale.

Chi-Woo was also curious. What on earth did he wish for that he almost called forth a foreign god? Things could’ve gone horribly wrong and brought about an unprecedented situation that couldn’t be resolved even if the Sernitas, Abyss, Demon Empire, Cassiubia League, and humanity all joined hands.

“What, what?” After Abis interrogated Jin-Cheon, she stammered in shock. “You wished for a powerful ability that could beat whatever opponent you faced with one blow?”

Jin-Cheon nodded silently.

“With the trash you offered?” Jin-Cheon’s offering consisted of pieces of stone debris, dandruff-filled hair, and his thick saliva.

—He’s one crazy bastard.

Philip murmured matter-of-factly.

“Are you out of your mind?” Abis screamed with her face flushed.

“You **ing bastard.” Dulia also growled at him. She spat out harsh criticism, accusing him of trying to get everyone killed.

“Wow…” Even Yunael, who was known for being reckless, was at a loss for words. “Whoa, **, wow…”

At Yunael’s amazement, Jin-Cheon lowered his head as if he wanted to hide in a mouse hole. “No…it was an experiment, an experiment…I thought it would just give me trash even if it didn’t work…of course, I didn’t expect this to happen… “ He murmured in a wimpy voice.

Although his wish hadn’t come true, it did show them a possibility. If the god had descended, everything, including the Sernitas, would have met their demise in one fell swoop.

“I’m sorry, captain. I’m sorry, everyone. He’s a nice kid, but a bit stupid…” While Abis groveled and apologized to everyone, Aric returned the fire pit to its original position and place. When he put it back into the center, the red light from the magic circle reappeared.

Abis asked, “What? What are you doing?”

Aric answered, “I’m going to try it too.”

When Abis looked at him nervously, Aric smiled wryly and said, “Please don’t worry too much. I’m not going to make a ridiculous wish like Jin-Cheon.” Then he cleared his throat and asked carefully for everyone to turn around until his turn was over, or at least the women if they felt uncomfortable. When people asked why, Aric pointed at his underwear; he was only dressed in underwear like Jin-Cheon.

Abis asked, “You’re going to offer your underwear… Can I really trust you?”

“Ah, please. Trust me.”

Considering that they had just gone through a ridiculous event, Abis warned him again and finally turned around. Chi-Woo also looked away out of courtesy. Soon, he heard the fire burn up in the fire pit. When he turned around, Aric was no longer in underwear. He was wearing shoddy clothes made out of rags.

“I can’t return to the city in my underwear, so…” Although no one asked, Aric explained with a sigh.

“Yeah, at least you’re better than that moron.” Dulia still hadn’t shaken off the fright from Jin-Cheon’s turn and glared at him. Thanks to Aric, the chaotic atmosphere subsided a bit. The next to come forward was the male hero who was in Yunael’s expedition. Like Abis, he stuffed all kinds of equipment into the fire pit, but the fire pit vomited a monster—to be exact, they vomited out a dwarf with a giant hammer.

“Huh? Huhhh?” As he had given away all his weapons, the male hero wasn’t able to even retaliate properly when the dwarf monster began to beat him up. Shocked, the rescue team went after the dwarf monster to no avail because all their attacks passed straight through the dwarf monster.

“Help me—!” At the now bloody male hero’s desperate plea, Yunael quickly kicked the fire pit as Chi-Woo previously did. When the fire pit left the center of the magic circle, the dwarf wielding the hammer instantly disappeared. The male hero struggled to recover his senses after the beating. It was only after they fed him two bottles of healing potion that he managed to move his mouth.

Dulia asked, “What the? What did you wish for?”

“I just…wished for a magic weapon…” he answered with great difficulty. He was saved, but he had almost died.

“It’s tricky…” Abis muttered to herself with a grim look. It was hard to describe it, but the results were inconsistent. It sometimes spat out equipment, but also spat out monsters instead. Moreover, unlike the monster that Samigina summoned, no attacks worked against the dwarf monster that appeared just now. Even though the number of samples was small, the results were unpredictable. It would have been great if there were set rules.

Then Dulia’s eyes shone, and she suddenly broke her silence, “I want to try now.” She moved towards the fire pit without hesitation and took off her leather jacket, putting it in the fire pit and praying. Soon after, fire burned up, and the fire pit spat out a new jacket. Dulia carefully put it on and smiled as she scanned her body.

Everyone’s eyes widened because Dulia’s body disappeared every time she moved. Rather than becoming invisible, it seemed as if she was camouflaging like a chameleon that changed color depending on the surrounding environment. The most notable part was that her new jacket was a piece of magical equipment; she had somehow earned it after offering only her leather jacket.

“What did you do? How…” Abis asked in shock, but flinched when she took a good look at Dulia’s beaming face. Her once youthful face had changed. She lost her baby fat and had become more mature; it felt like she got older all of the sudden.

“…No way,” Abis said blankly as if she had been hit by a hammer.

“Hehe. You sure catch on quick.” Dulia snorted and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, right? Whatever I offer.”

“But even then…your life span…”

“Well, that’s not the only thing I offered.”

“What?” Abis asked again, but Dulia did not answer any more questions. She kept moving her body and seemed very satisfied with her new equipment. Due to Dulia’s success, the atmosphere became energetic again.

“Abis. What were you talking about?”

“Wait. Wait a minute. Let me think.”

While Jin-Cheon’s group were talking, Chi-Woo, who was standing at a distance, suddenly felt someone tap his back. When he looked back , he saw Dulia with only her head floating in the air.

“Shh.” Dulia glanced sideways at Jin-Cheon’s group as they fiercely debated among themselves and put an index finger to her lips, beckoning Chi-Woo over. “I roughly got how it works.” Once they were close enough, she whispered to Chi-Woo as he tilted his head with curiosity, “First of all, it’s clear that the fire pit receives a fixed price in exchange for fulfilling the user’s wish.”

“A fixed price?”

“Yeah. For example, if an individual enters a wish worth 10 points, the fire pit will input 10 as it is.” The output for this input required an equal cost of 10. If the wish and price were equal to each other, or the price they paid was greater than their wishes, the fire pit produced results corresponding to the individual’s wish. Problems arose when the price they paid was less than their wish. For example, what if someone entered a wish worth 10 points, but paid a price only worth 5 points? Then what did the fire pit do? It tried to forcefully take the remaining 5 points from the user.

“In the form of giving an ordeal to that individual.”

Chi-Woo softly exclaimed at Dulia’s whisper.

Dulia continued, “That quick-witted archer probably prayed for a bow that was equal to the sum of the price she offered.” As a result, Abis did not have to go through an ordeal since she put a limit so that the worth of what she obtained would not surpass the price she offered.

“But that stupid top-knot hero and that male hero made a wish greater than the price they offered.” Thus, the fire pit gave them an ordeal to make up for the cost they lacked. In the case of the male hero, his wish would have been fulfilled if he had beaten the dwarf monster.

“Since it was an ordeal limited to the person who made the wish, our attacks didn’t work. The fire pit probably judged that he had to win alone for it to count.”

Chi-Woo nodded and suddenly stared at Dulia. “Then Ms. Dulia, you…”

“It’s not only physical things you can offer.” Dulia smirked and revealed her teeth. “You can also offer intangible assets. For your information, I gave three years of my life span and all the merits I had. I actually thought about going down a tier, but that was a bit too much.”

“Ah!”

That didn’t come from Chi-Woo. The same person continued, “Yeah, that’s right! We can also offer merits! Why didn’t I think of that?”

“What the?” Looking back reflexively, Dulia frowned because Abis, Jin-Cheon, and all the others were secretly eavesdropping on their conversation. Dulia continued, “Are you kidding me? Hey, who told you that you can eavesdrop?”

“Come on, let’s all share useful information,” Jin-Cheon said with a friendly tone.

Abis also added, “Why are you leaving us out? It’s information that we all gained by trial and error.”

“Did anyone force you to step forward first? You guys all eagerly volunteered to go first and use the fire pit to get items.” Dulia turned away with a hmph and continued to talk while looking at Chi-Woo, “Anyway, since the rules have been specified to some extent, you should try using it, captain. You must have a lot of merits.”

Chi-Woo fell into thought at Dulia’s suggestion.

—Is there anything you want?

Philip also asked.

‘Well, there is something.’

—What is it?

‘Blessed Luck.’

Chi-Woo’s Blessed Luck was currently 57. It used to be 63, but to awaken Aida’s power, he had used 6 points. Anyway, although the amount he had wasn’t extremely low, it was clear that he would run out before he could collect all Seven Stars, especially considering that both the Power to Rule the World and the World’s Milestone used Blessed Luck.

Increasing his Blessed Luck was his top priority, but he had just been biting on his fingers, not knowing what to do. It would be perfect if he could restore some using the fire pit.

—Yeah, that's a good idea too.

Philip seemed to agree. However, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Blessed Luck was a tremendous power that could even twist the flow of the world. Chi-Woo called forth his fostering information.

User Choi Chi-Woo’s Merit Count: 80,025,371

He currently had about 80 million merits. Since his Zepar expedition, Chi-Woo had been earnestly saving merits and barely used any. Moreover, he hit the jackpot by successfully subjugating the Hala Forest and seemed to have gotten a favorable evaluation from the rescue mission just now. Although he had quite a lot, Chi-Woo wasn’t sure if he could possibly replace Blessed Luck with only merits.

—Why don’t you try? You can always get more.

‘That’s not the issue.’ There was a high possibility that a huge problem might arise if the price was insufficient.

—If you’re so worried, you can also set a limit and test it out. You’ll be wasting some merits, but if something goes wrong, you can just kick the fire pit again.

‘Hmm…’ Chi-Woo suddenly wondered why Phlip kept urging him, but Philip wasn’t wrong. If he returned the fire pit to the Kobalos, there was no guarantee if he could ever use it again. It would be too great a shame to not take advantage of this opportunity. Chi-Woo decided that it was worth a shot and stood in front of the fire pit.

‘I wish to add 1 point to one of my user information’s abilities, Blessed Luck. In exchange, I offer as many merits as needed.’

When the fire burned up, Chi-Woo had gotten ready to kick the fire pit over. Fortunately, what he feared did not happen. When nothing unusual arose, Chi-Woo checked his user information and saw that Blessed Luck had increased to 58, and his merits were reduced to 75,025,371.

–That means 1 Blessed Luck is worth 5 million merits.

Although it was definitely expensive, Chi-Woo’s expression became noticeably brighter. Considering how difficult it was to replenish Blessed luck, the price was nothing to worry about. Without hesitation, Chi-Woo gave 75 million merits in return for 15 points of Blessed Luck. With this, he succeeded in recovering his Blessed Luck to 73. Although he was left with only about 25 thousand merits, Chi-Woo decided to be satisfied with this. It was a great harvest already that he found a way to recover Blessed Luck to the 70s.

—Hmm, it’s a bit regretful.

However, Philip seemed to think differently.

—Hey, don’t you need a weapon?

‘What? A weapon?’

—Even if it’s not necessarily a weapon. Shouldn’t you have one good piece of equipment for combat?

Equipment. It would be great if he had one. ‘I already used up most of my merits, and I don’t think I’ll get anything good from using the rest.’ Chi-Woo shrugged. ‘I have nothing more to offer.’

— Of course you do. It’s right in front of you.

‘?’

—Look. Right there.

Chi-Woo lowered his gaze to where Philip was pointing at.