I Raided the Demon’s Treasury

Chapter 81

“‘The ‘Eternal Flower Garden’… do you know its location?”

“Would I be making this offer if I didn’t?”

“But how… The existence of the ‘Eternal Flower Garden’ is a location passed down only to the guardians of the World Tree!”

“Believe it or not. I’m not forcing you to trust me.”

From the start, there was no proof. If she believed, then so be it; if she didn’t, that would be the end of it.

Just mentioning this would be enough to make her come back to Se-woon eventually.

No matter how much she ran around the Tower, she wouldn’t be able to find information about the location of the ‘Eternal Flower Garden.’

‘Even I barely managed to find it, thanks to the Guidepost of the Journey.’

In his previous life, Se-woon lacked combat skills, but his exploration using the Guidepost of the Journey was unmatched among players.

Thanks to that, he was able to discover various hidden pieces, use them to build up his fighting power, and survive to the very end.

“…I believe you.”

“Huh?”

Riel nodded seriously with a determined expression.

Honestly, he hadn’t expected her to believe him.

“Because you defeated me. And… you don’t seem like someone who would lie.”

– The Constellation, ‘The Fifth Day,’ gazed at the two with a gentle smile as they grew closer.

“But…”

The nod was brief. Riel’s expression hardened once again as she spoke.

“For now, I’ll try finding the Eternal Flower Garden on my own. After doing everything I can, if I decide it’s beyond my power, then I’ll come to you.”

“Well, do as you like.”

“I won’t impose. When I come to find you, I’ll make sure to bring something of equivalent value.”

It didn’t seem to be a matter of simple pride.

She probably didn’t want to burden anyone further with the heavy responsibility already weighing on her shoulders.

He was a bit worried that she might disappear while searching for the Garden, just like the rumors from before his regression had suggested. But in any case, that would only happen once she passed the Tower’s middle floors.

Unless the future changed drastically, it wasn’t something to worry about right now.

“Then, I’ll take my leave.”

“See you next time.”

“Next time, I won’t lose.”

Se-woon looked a bit sheepish at Riel’s last words, filled with resolve.

Somehow, he had unintentionally become her rival.

“Goodbye!”

“See you again!”

“Let’s play again!”

“You’re a good person!”

“Goodbye.”

After exchanging goodbyes with the four spirits following closely behind her, Riel stepped into the entrance of the Tower, her form slowly vanishing.

Se-woon also intended to enter the Tower, but he still had something left to collect.

“The reward for ranking first.”

The reward he had received before his regression had been nothing impressive.

It was a pair of shoes whose name he couldn’t even remember. They had the power of the wind, increasing his movement speed.

While they had been somewhat useful in the lower floors of the tower, they were the sort of equipment you could find anywhere if you went looking for it.

Well, it made sense. Before his regression, the points he’d accumulated barely surpassed a hundred thousand.

His ranking had been so low that he couldn’t even remember what place he had held.

“Even if I’d heard, it’s not like I’d know what reward I’d get anyway.”

The reward for first place isn’t the same every year. Each time, it varies depending on the player’s disposition and the amount of merit points they’ve earned.

In other words, it’s a customized reward for each player.

He didn’t know what reward he would receive, but one thing was certain: every first-place player in history had used this reward to leave behind great achievements in the Tower.

With that thought, Se-woon moved toward the entrance of the Tower.

A towering structure so massive that its presence alone was overwhelming. At its base, there was an entrance so dark inside that nothing could be seen.

– As he approached the entrance, the expected messages appeared before him.

– You have passed all the trials of the Tutorial.

– You have perfectly cleared all Tutorial trials. You are awarded an additional 100,000 points.

– Congratulations! You have earned the right to challenge the trials of the Great Tower.

– You may enter the first floor of the Tower through the entrance.

An additional point bonus.

He had thought that was it for merit points, having completed all the tutorial trials… but, well, it didn’t matter to Se-woon.

Even with these extra points, his rank wouldn’t change.

And finally, the message he’d been waiting for appeared.

– Calculating individual merit ranking…

– Player ‘Jung Se-woon’: 1,520,080 points

– Congratulations! You have achieved first place in the individual merit ranking for the tutorial.

– Developing the most suitable reward options for the player…

– Your individual merit has exceeded 1,000,000 points. The reward tier has been raised.

– Your individual merit has exceeded 1,500,000 points. The reward tier has been raised further.

– You have achieved the highest individual merit score in history. The reward tier has been raised to an unprecedented level.

…

Messages flooded the screen endlessly.

‘Last time, there wasn’t even a wait time like this.’

As the reward tier kept rising and the message about “calculating” continued, he felt a strange excitement.

After all, in his previous life, when he received that single pair of shoes, the reward had appeared in less than a second.

Se-woon watched the messages with a sense of anticipation, but the calculation time was dragging on longer than expected.

Just as he was wondering if something had gone wrong—

The loading message suddenly stopped, and a new message appeared.

– The reward level has exceeded any prior case, resulting in a failure to determine an appropriate reward.

– Summoning the Tutorial Administrator.

“…The Tutorial Administrator?”

Se-woon knew of the Administrator’s existence.

Most players had no idea the Administrator even existed, but as they began advancing beyond the Tower’s middle floors, they would gradually become aware of it.

However, almost no one had actually seen the Administrator in person.

Of course, Se-woon himself had never encountered the Administrator either.

But here he was, being summoned.

‘Well, I did rack up a lot of points.’

Currently, Se-woon’s merit points had surpassed 1.5 million.

It was an absurd figure for any player to amass in the tutorial—a merit score so high that even the system seemed baffled.

Not long after the system called for the Administrator, the message expanded like a door, and a human shape began to emerge from within.

“Sigh… so I finally had to step in. Out of all possible messes, what kind of situation is this?”

Before he could get a good look at the Administrator, a weary-sounding voice drifted out.

Se-woon hadn’t meant for anyone to hear his thoughts, but the Administrator’s faint muttering was picked up loud and clear by the “Kobold’s Keen Ear,” a passive skill that had been active like second nature to Se-woon.

“Ahem, hmm-hmm.”

The Administrator cleared his throat and straightened his voice before finally stepping out fully.

He wore a somewhat shabby suit with a slightly loose tie and disheveled hair, looking like a weary office worker on his way home after an all-nighter.

With heavy dark circles under his eyes, he flashed a big smile, though it was clear that the smile was forced, almost like a business smile.

“Nice to meet you! Player Jung Se-woon.”

It was Se-woon’s first time seeing an Administrator, and he seemed far more ordinary than expected.

In response, Se-woon gave him a light nod.

For a moment, the man’s eyes twitched as if he were holding back something, but he continued speaking as if nothing had happened.

“You’re truly remarkable! To achieve 1.5 million points in the tutorial—that’s a historic first in the long, long history of the Tower!”

“Is that so.”

“…Haha! You seem unfazed! Anyway, as a token of congratulations, I, Tuning, the tutorial Administrator, have come here to personally give you a reward!”

Though he continued his energetic spiels, Se-woon didn’t react much.

While he didn’t know everything about Administrators, he did know one thing from past experiences and various rumors he had encountered before his regression.

‘Administrators are not to be trusted.’

They might look like they’re devoted to players, but they only exist to manage the “Tower,” not to look after the “players.”

In fact, it was said that they cared more about the Constellations than about the players.

So there was no need to pay attention to his sweet-sounding words.

“I’ve prepared the ultimate reward just for a player like you!”

Snap!

With a snap of his fingers, the Administrator summoned a display of items that emerged from the portal he had come through. They floated around Se-woon in a slow, rotating circle, as if presenting themselves at a grand showcase.

There were swords, shields, armors, and all manner of jewelry and gems—around twenty items in total, each radiating a unique quality. Even at a glance, it was clear that these were exceptional items, likely more valuable than the staff Riel had wielded and surpassing anything commonly found in the Tower.

The Administrator eagerly introduced the first item.

“Let me start by recommending this! The ‘Shell of the Black Tortoise’! A shield rivaling the legendary Aegis, capable of withstanding any attack—an absolute masterpiece!”

It was a shield attributed to the Black Tortoise, a guardian deity of the north. This relic possessed both water and ice energies, making it formidable for both offense and defense.

However, Se-woon’s expression remained unimpressed.

Noticing Se-woon’s indifference, the Administrator hurriedly moved to the next item.

“Then, how about this? The ‘Dragon Scale Armor’! Crafted purely from dragon scales, this is the strongest armor you can find! Not only does it offer immense defense, but it’s also infused with the inherent magic of dragons…”

The Administrator went on, displaying more enticing items.

There was the Dragon Heart, which could grant the power of mana far beyond human limits with a single consumption. There was also a martial arts manual authored by a past Tower-ranked elite, now hidden in obscurity. Even a divine relic that had once belonged to a lesser god’s constellation was among the items.

To any player unaware of the true value of such items, these would be overwhelmingly tempting treasures.

But to Se-woon, these were nothing special.

‘Those things… can be adequately substituted with the Power of Greed.’

For Se-woon, these items held little appeal.

Despite their impressive qualities, they paled in comparison to the treasures within Mammon’s Treasury, even if those treasures were intangible. If he selected one of these, he could indeed boost his combat capabilities significantly. However, he didn’t want to use his tutorial reward for something his Power of Greed’s could easily replicate.

Besides…

‘These are probably just the usual rewards for the top rank.’

Thanks to his memories from before his regression, Se-woon had a rough idea of the rewards typically given to the tutorial’s top ranker. And what lay before him now was about that level.

While impressive, these items didn’t match the “enhanced reward tier” that the system had mentioned three times in its messages. The Administrator’s frantic explanations, akin to a home shopping host’s pitch, further confirmed this. It wasn’t out of kindness; he was desperately trying to pass these items off as a suitable top-tier reward.

“Are you interested in any of these? Selecting even one will help you quickly reach a high rank within the Tower!”

The Administrator finished his pitch, heaping praises on Se-woon, but Se-woon noticed the subtle signs of discomfort: the Administrator’s twitching mouth, and a bead of cold sweat trailing down his cheek at Se-woon’s stoic expression.

“Is nothing to your liking? Just let me know, and I’ll choose the perfect reward for you!”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

“…Pardon?”

It was clear that taking more recommendations would lead to the same unsatisfactory result.

“So, I’ll choose for myself. Show me all the reward options available.”

“There are over a hundred possible rewards! And it would be much better for a player unfamiliar with the Tower’s intricacies to let—”

“No, I’ll choose ‘personally.’”

“But…”

A little hassle was worth it to directly select the reward that matched the three-tier enhancement.