Episode 171

1.

Once he was back, Kim Buja fell into a brief contemplation.

"Hm, it should be fine, right?"

No matter how he looked at it, the saintess was a walking bomb compared to the princess—a liability he was choosing to keep close.

A bomb that could go off at any time.

She seemed to have accepted reality, shocked into tolerating behavior that went against her beliefs, but it wouldn't be surprising if she suddenly turned on him in God's name.

It was hard to say there was anything fundamentally wrong with her character. If she had truly been rotten to the core, she never would have been chosen as a saintess in the first place.

It just meant she would always have a justification to betray them.

Upon close examination, the Black Magic Cult's ideology was the antithesis of God's will; it didn't contain a single speck of divine intent. It was a group created purely for profit and purpose.

Even so, he hadn't cast her out.

He had respected her will and given his permission.

It wasn't simply because she was the saintess, nor was it just because having a saintess around made for a more interesting picture.

While that was part of it, Kim Buja was the type to discard anything that didn't help him. It was a habit, a reflex, born from playing countless games purely for profit.

He couldn't care less about affection points or the progress of his relationships with the heroines the game laid out for him. With the time and money that would cost, it was much faster and easier to create a better situation and dominate it.

That was why he trusted the imperial princess.

And that was why, despite his lingering unease, he had been able to leave the saintess behind.

"She'll handle it."

In his presence, the princess often seemed like a woman he felt compelled to protect, but he knew better. He knew exactly who she was.

She had been the imperial princess of an empire, so strong that the emperor who ruled the continent had considered passing the Empire to her instead of having a son.

She had pulled herself together after her parents' deaths for the sake of the future and had kept her wits about her even when captured by slave traders.

After that, she had carried out her role unflinchingly through countless dangers. During the months Buja was away, she not only evaded capture by the Allied Forces but also executed every possible maneuver with her small contingent.

She could handle the saintess.

He didn't know what remained of the friendship she had once called her only one.

'If push comes to shove, she'll drag her into line.'

He decided to stop worrying about it for now.

[You have acquired 50,000 Gold.]

[Your Level has increased by 3.]

[You have acquired 5 Special Stat Points.]

More important moments were waiting for him.

* * *

▶ Gold on Hand: 142,112G

Lately, Kim Buja had been feeling something keenly. Even if he didn't want to, he couldn't help but notice.

"Too much of my gold is getting sunk into the Gold Shop."

He had no intention of denying that the Gold Shop was one of his core features. Since spending gold there built up mileage, it had become a necessary part of his progression.

However, looking at the big picture, far too much gold was simply evaporating in the Gold Shop.

For someone like him, who needed visible growth right now, this was a problem that needed fixing.

"I still have too many other things to spend on."

If he were around level 90, with all his items upgraded to Legendary, and had pushed all his content to the point where it would take years to advance further, then maybe it would be different.

Right now, though, there were plenty of ways to use the gold going into the Gold Shop much more efficiently and massively accelerate his growth.

So he made up his mind.

"Before I blow it all in the Gold Shop, I'll spend it elsewhere first."

Originally, he liked to keep a certain amount of gold in reserve for the Gold Shop—somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000.

But as he found more success with the Gold Shop, that number began to creep up. He kept saving for things like Gold Missions, and before he knew it, his reserve had surpassed 100,000 gold.

The fact that it had piled up to 140,000 was largely thanks to the 50,000 gold he had just received as a mission reward, but either way, his current stockpile was far too large.

Acquiring 'Gnawing Soul' at a time like this had also been a major factor.

He might as well spend it now and cut down his dependence on it. The Gold Shop was useful, yes, but it wasn't like he would die without it.

"What should I upgrade first?"

There were plenty of places to spend it. All he had to do was choose.

A sum of 140,000 gold was enough to make him reconsider Gold Enhancement, which had gotten so expensive that he hadn't even thought about touching it for a while. Even if he didn't enhance his weapon, he could at least bring his other gear up to a reasonable level.

"Stats and attack power can wait."

He skipped over the obvious choices. For now, it made more sense to invest in other areas than to raise his raw stats.

"I'll cover stats with items."

Stats like attack power and defense, which could be raised through enhancements, were certainly powerful and attractive when they stacked. But now that his VIP level had risen, they were no longer the most efficient choice.

Or rather, that was what he had believed until very recently.

Until he experienced the effects of refinement firsthand.

"I need to max out my refinement effects first."

Freeze Level 1, an effect he'd pulled after pouring in tens of thousands of gold, had more than proven its worth.

What if that effect kept stacking?

If a mere Level 1 Freeze could have such a visible impact on combat, what would happen at Level 2 or 3? Even if the effect itself didn't change and only the activation chance went up, its value would be immense.

Since Buja couldn't gain stats from leveling up, he had to constantly update his minimum stats and attack power just to be able to kill enemies. However, once he reached a certain baseline, he judged that investing in gear refinement—which was more effective at creating destructive variables—would produce better results.

"Hmm."

Once he had made his decision, his fingers moved quickly. He already had a plan for allocating his gold.

There was only one reason he hesitated.

'Is this the right call?'

He was worried about what would happen if he ran short on gold.

Even if too much gold was going into the Gold Shop, it had become one of his main features, and it wouldn't be right to reject it entirely. Of course, he didn't plan to blow every last coin there, but if he ended up short while spending, he had to think about which side to prioritize.

"It'll work out somehow."

A faint chuckle escaped him.

The fact that he could even afford such luxurious worries was proof of how far he had come.

In the beginning, he had scraped together every single gold coin, investing and rolling it over, just to get a little stronger and earn more.

He couldn't afford to forget that.

If he ran out of gold, he would just earn more. If a lack of gold slowed his progress, he would simply put it off until he had some breathing room.

Time was money, but you couldn't buy a life with gold.

[You have spent 30,000 gold.]

[Thanks to your Gold Power (37), your level-up cost has been discounted by 11,100 gold (37%).]

[Your VIP Level has increased. 5 → 6]

[VIP 6 Skill has been activated.]

This was the VIP level he had once wondered if he would ever reach.

He had scraped together points one by one, only for the next wall to loom even higher each time. But now, those walls were finally crumbling, and he had reached Level 6.

Where was the end? 9? 10? Or did levels exist even beyond that?

At last, he had climbed high enough that he could at least imagine the summit.

Granted, the cost to reach Level 7 was over 100,000 gold, a jump from 30,000. Once again, he was facing a wall so high he couldn't see the top.

"Not bad."

He didn't despair as he had in the beginning.

It was doable.

He felt like he could raise his VIP level anytime he really wanted to. In fact, with the gold he had left and the 37% discount from his Gold Maker passive, he could easily push to Level 7 right now.

"Good."

Of course, thinking 'I could do that' and deciding 'I will do that' were worlds apart.

The VIP level was the pillar of a massive house. It was important to stack those thick, massive pillars one by one. But he also had to apply cement and pack dirt around them so they wouldn't end up as hollow shells.

[Gear Refinement]

▶ Grade: Legendary

▶ Category: VIP 4 Skill

▶ Level: 2

He felt a swell of satisfaction as he looked at the upgraded cement and dirt he had prepared, then he slapped it on.

And he couldn't help but admire it.

"Oh!"

→ Freeze Lv1: On attack, has a chance to freeze the opponent's gear. ↑ (Can be leveled up)

His Gear Refinement level had risen along with his VIP level.

He immediately checked the level-up indicator that appeared.

▶ Lv1 → Lv2 Required Gold: 20,000G

"Twenty thousand…"

It was a number that made him want to just walk away.

Gear Refinement was a feature so effective that even he had to acknowledge its utility, but it also demanded a lot of gold.

Which was why he understood.

Taking 20,000 gold to upgrade 'Freeze Lv1' to Level 2 with no penalty wasn't an unreasonable price.

[Would you like to attempt 'Weapon Refinement'?]

▶ Current Weapon Refinement Options

1. Freeze Lv1

2. None

▶ Required Gold

1. Lv1: 3,000

2. Lv2: 10,000

▶ Refinement Options

…….

"What a reasonable, thoughtful, and considerate price."

The description said that the 3,000-gold level 1 refinement had a very high chance of granting a Level 1 option and a very low chance of a Level 2 option. The 10,000-gold Level 2 refinement shifted those numbers up a tier, effectively eliminating Level 1 options from the pool.

In other words, unless he pulled 'Freeze Lv2' in one shot with a level 2 refinement, it was more cost-effective—or at least break-even—to upgrade the option he already had.

That was just the theory, of course. In practice, it was a guarantee. With dozens of possible options, and the better ones weighted to be rarer, it would be easier to buy ten lottery tickets every week and hope for a jackpot than to pull the exact option he wanted in one go.

[You have spent 20,000G.]

[Thanks to your Gold Power (37), your level-up cost has been discounted by 7,400 Gold (37%).]

More importantly, the discount applied here, too, letting him upgrade it more cheaply. It costs about as much as a single pull.

It was a choice he absolutely had to make.

What Kim Buja was agonizing over wasn't whether to upgrade his existing 'Freeze' with gold.

"The real question is whether I go for a Level 2 refinement or a Level 1 refinement. That's the issue."

He still had one empty refinement slot.

His dilemma was which level of refinement to use to fill it.

In terms of efficiency, Level 1 was better. Since he needed to roll many times to increase his odds, it would be cheaper to pull Level 1 options and then upgrade them.

There was no need to overthink it.

When it came to probability, a larger sample size was always the best way to get the desired result.

However, the hologram wouldn't have designed such a lopsided choice. There had to be a reason to choose the 10,000-gold refinement, even when you could pull a Level 1 option and guarantee an upgrade to Level 2.

[You have spent 10,000 Gold.]

He decided to see for himself.

* * *

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