I made some porridge using the best ingredients: fresh carrots, beef, rice, and water. Then I checked the boiling pot’s description.

[Lv.3 Porridge Filled with Kim Hajin’s Care] Lv.1 Recovery, Lv.2 Satisfaction, Lv.3 Taste

This should be enough. I transferred the porridge into a bowl, placed it on a tray, and brought it to Boss.

She lay still in bed and busily moved her eyes, probably reading a webnovel or looking through the community.

“Your food is here.”

Boss raised her body and repeatedly blinked at me.

“…”

I never even fed Evandel before. I scooped a spoonful of porridge and brought it to Boss’ mouth. She seemed embarrassed.

“… Nom.”

Boss swallowed after chewing for a bit. Then I brought another spoonful as she slurped the porridge off the spoon. After repeating this a few times, Boss suddenly muttered.

“This doesn’t normally happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“Losing my temper.”

She still felt embarrassed about what happened today.

I spoke nonchalantly, “Is that so?”

“I didn’t expect to encounter him. I wasn’t prepared… uup.”

I pushed another spoonful into her mouth, cutting off her sentence.

“Don’t feed me when I’m talking.”

“I don’t have much time. You should eat quickly.”

I had a mountain of things take care of: the treasure chest, how to use Kedrick’s ghost sword, the mysterious pocket, and introducing Henry and Kiri to the couple.

“…”

Boss frowned and went back to eating.

“I will be calmer the next time I see him. I only snapped because… uup.”

I stuffed her mouth as she tried to make another excuse. She must not have expected it as some got on her mouth. Boss glared at me.

“…”

“So, who is he?”

I asked about Bell, pretending not to know. Boss slightly flinched before looking away.

“Weren’t you sulking last time because I kept secrets from you?”

“When did I sulk?”

Boss pouted. Her mouth wriggled as she pondered. Then she sighed. I strained my ears as she whispered.

“He is… the previous black seat.”

“Eh?”

That genuinely surprised me. I stared at Boss in a daze. My consciousness froze for about 5 seconds before recovering. Technically speaking, it had been a plot hole. The black seat I currently possessed originally belonged to Shin Jonghak, but I never wrote about the previous owner.

“He’s also a traitor who betrayed and murdered the previous boss.”

I didn’t know about such a setting and the Chameleon Troupe’s previous boss. I hadn’t written anything about it either. It made sense since the Chameleon Troupe had a long history. I scooped another spoonful as I listened to Boss.

“It’s already been 10 years, but I haven’t forgotten his face for a single day… nyam.”

She bit down on the spoon and announced with determination.

“I’m going to kill him. I will eliminate that traitor.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but you can’t do what you did today.”

Boss nodded. “So what will happen to him next?”

“He died, so he should revive on the 3rd floor in 48 hours.”

I didn’t know exactly how many, but he should’ve lost at least 2 lives.

“I see.”

Boss stared at me with a smile.

“Thank you for killing him.”

I smiled back. Without Boss, I wouldn’t have been able to kill him either. Bell would’ve easily closed the distance if Boss hadn’t acted as the frontline tank and damage dealer. I didn’t know how much abilities he had recovered and couldn’t risk dying.

“You too, Boss.”

The door suddenly opened.

— I’m back!

Jain’s voice rang out. Perfect timing. I placed the bowl on the tray and left Boss’ room. Jain took off her shoes while beaming with a smile.

“Ah, that was so fun. Oh, Hajin, when did you come back?”

“It’s been a while. Rather than that, can you feed Boss?”

“Eh?” Jain tilted her head at the unexpected request.

“Feed her? Me?”

“Yes, she’s in her bedroom.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see once you go in. Boss went wild and fell into magic power exhaustion.”

— Cough!

A displeased sound came from Boss’ room. When I glanced back, Boss glared at me as if to say, Don’t leave it to Jain. Of course, I ignored her.

“Hmm, I see.”

Jain’s confused expression quickly turned into mischief.

“Okay, I’ll do it. Ehehe.”

She hopped into Boss’ room after making a lewd face. Boss flinched when she saw Jain.

“Boss, I heard you couldn’t move. Ah, let’s close the door first.”

Kiik— I could see Boss’ pitiful eyes begging me to rescue her as the door slowly closed. Unfortunately, I had other things to do.

— Jain, I’m already full.

— Are you sure? Ah, can you not move your tongue because of magic power exhaustion? Should I feed you mouth-to-mouth?

— N-No! I can move well! See!

I ignored the fierce shouting from Boss’ room and returned to mine. Then I took out the treasure chest from Kedrick.

[Lv.6 Treasure Chest] Krakoon’s treasure chest. It contains various items, but requires a key to open.

The treasure chest Kedrick hid from Krakoon out of defiance. Surely a Lv.6 treasure chest would contain good items. Unfortunately, I couldn’t open it with the mystic key.

“Is the key’s level too low?”

I could easily solve that with SP and could probably use setting intervention to rewrite any piece of paper into an item experience coupon. Then I could level up any item I wanted, but that would be a waste. I only needed 700 more SP to make another gift.

“Auction house.”

I went into the auction house for any alternatives and typed in the keywords, [Item] and [Experience].

[Searching listings with the keywords, item and experience.] [… 13 items have been detected.] [Item Experience +23 Coupon x 3] [Item Experience +17 Coupon x 2] [Item Experience +11 Coupon x 7]

“Eh?”

The highest bid cost 50 TP, which was quite cheap. The instant purchase at 300-400 TP confused me, but I soon understood. These coupons could only be used on evolving items.

I immediately clicked the instant purchase button.

[You have purchased Item Experience +23 Coupon x 3] [You have purchased Item Experience +17 Coupon x 2][You have purchased Item Experience +11 Coupon x 7]

The coupons appeared in my inventory and I immediately used them on the [Mystic Key] and the [Orb of Regeneration].

[Orb of Regeneration] [Magic Artifact] An orb with the power of regeneration. Evolving Item – EXP [11/200] Lv.2 ???

[Mystic key] [Magic Artifact] A mystical key. Evolving Item – EXP [9/200] Lv.3 Unlocking

Their effects leveled up.

“Is Lv.3 unlocking good enough?”

I held the mystic key and muttered.

“Scan.”

The number 27% appeared. Jackpot. I inserted the key into the treasure chest. It practically slid in this time when it didn’t fit before. Click— A noise rang out. Did it work? I turned the key to the right. Kiik—  And opened the lid with high expectations as a brilliant light burst out.

“Oh.”

I muttered in astonishment. As expected of an administrator, he hoarded many precious shiny items.

[Lv.4 Blue Diamond] [Lv.5 Pure Dark Ore Ingot x 3] [Lv.3 Skill Consolidation Ticket] [Lv.3 Item Consolidation Ticket] [Lv.1 Basic Skill Acquisition Book – Tempering and Smelting] [Lv.4 Red Sapphire]

The [Lv.5 Pure Dark Ingot] undoubtedly caught my eye the most. I hadn’t seen a Lv.5 ore until now.

“Should I use it to make arrows?”

Making arrows with such a valuable ore sounded insane. After all, arrows could only be used once.

However, that depended on the person. A rich person valued time more than money. I would gain a powerful weapon other than my gun if I made arrows out of these ores. I couldn’t use my gun when I worked as a Chameleon Troupe member.

“Hmm?”

A lightbulb suddenly went off in my head. I thought of a method to make arrows reusable and looked at my smartwatch. Then I turned back to the dark ore ingots. I wouldn’t even need that many arrows if this worked. I could even use synthesis to compress and strengthen them together. The arrow only needed to be durable and powerful.

“…”

I fiddled with my smartwatch as I gathered stigma’s magic power.

***

I returned to the 5th floor’s [Valley of Darkness] the next day. I went alone, but didn’t worry since I thoroughly prepared all sorts of items. Then I climbed to the highest point at the mountain peak protruding on both sides of the valley.

— So two of them escaped?

— Yeah, the boss went wild because of it.

— Haa…

I looked down at the dark valley and spotted some demons talking about yesterday’s incident. Human NPCs continued working under their watch. Their security seemed tighter, but that didn’t matter.

I nocked 5 arrows onto my bow. Both the arrow tips and the shafts shone black. That color had unintentionally become symbolic of me.

I aimed and fired down.

Chwaaak—

The arrows moved independently from one another. The first curved to the left, the second flew straight, the third curved to the right… All 5 pierced the necks of demons. The valley immediately fell silent. I muttered as their bodies scattered into dust.

“Return.”

The five [Lv.7 Dark Ore Arrows] suddenly flew up. Sssss— They followed their previous paths into my hand.

“Perfect.”

Reusable arrows seemed possible once I thought about it. I simply added Lv.0 Remote Control to the five [Lv.7 Dark Ore Arrows]. Making it Lv.0 saved me SP, but I could only use it to retrieve the arrows for now. I should be able to control them according to my will once it leveled up.

“Now…”

Only 11 prison camps left. I moved swiftly like a ninja after confirming the arrows’ effectiveness.

The dark ore arrows didn’t leave any evidence. They flew silently like an owl hunting in the night and delivered eternal darkness upon their targets. I wasn’t exaggerating. They turned invisible in the dark whenever I fired.

I ended up killing all the demons guarding the 11 prison camps.

Now, only Krakoon remained. I made my way to his office.

“…?”

I felt a fierce gaze on me. Two piercing eyes with killing intent. I turned and spotted a man wearing glasses. His skin looked blue and a horn protruded from his head.

[Lv.8 Administrator of the Valley of Darkness, Krakoon]

“Krakoon.”

— Who are you?

Krakoon asked. I couldn’t hear him too well over the distance, but I answered anyways.

“That’s none of your business.”

— Pft.

Krakoon snickered, clearly looking down on humans.

— You must be the one who attacked us yesterday. Regardless, you won’t escape. You think I didn’t make any preparations?

A huge tremor of magic power erupted.

— Hundreds of soldiers will gather here soon.

Purple magic power appeared on the ground. This large-scale spell, mass teleport, required a magic circle.

— Your punishment shall be death by dismemberment. No, I will make it so you wish to be dead.

Krakoon’s confident laughter rang out through the valley.

However, I remained silent and took out the mystic key. It still had the 27% enhancement. I infused stigma’s magic power to temporarily boost its strength even further. Then I stabbed the key into the ground.

“Hey, Kraken.”

— It’s Krakoon, not Kraken. Tell me where Kedrick and Lirko are if you want to surrender. I will generously allow you to die if you do so.

“No, um…”

I turned the key and calmly spoke.

“Have a nice day.”

Magic power flashed from the key and seeped into the dirt. Immediately, the mountain began to rumble. I just unlocked something holding this mountain together, which would result in a landslide and the valley resided right underneath the mountain. I focused it in Krakoon’s direction, so the human NPCs should survive.

— W-What is…

Krakoon muttered a boring line like a third-rate villain. Trrrrr—! Dirt slid down and the mass teleport spell disappeared.

“Sigh…”

I turned to the side like a movie star and made eye contact with someone else. Well, we might’ve been too far away to meet eyes. She would’ve looked like a speck of dust without the thousand-mile eyes. Was it just a coincidence? I narrowed my eyes and pulled my hood down.

One of the strongest characters stood in the distance, Jin Seyeon the Divine Archer. She was with Chae Nayun for some reason. However, that wasn’t important at the moment. Jin Seyeon stared at me with her Divine Archer eyes and her gaze remained steady. Without a doubt, she was staring at me.

***

“Haha.”

Jin Seyeon stared from a long distance away. It would’ve been too far without the supernatural eyesight from her gift, Divine Archer. For 10 minutes, she observed that person’s actions. Finally, she smiled at the man who made eye contact with her.

“Um, senior, did you feel that tremor?”

The innocent voice distracted her for a split second. Chae Nayun grew curious about the sound of the landslide.

“A landslide just occurred.”

Jin Seyeon answered before looking back, but the man at the mountain peak had already disappeared.

“A landslide?”

Chae Nayun asked. Jin Seyeon nodded, but hid the truth that one person had purposely caused it. No one would believe her even if she told the truth. An artificial landslide could only be caused by 5 star magicians who specialized in that field unless a mountain became extremely unstable. An archer had caused a landslide? In the Tower of Wish where everyone’s abilities had been restricted? Jin Seyeon wouldn’t have believed it either if she hadn’t witnessed that man’s strange flow of magic power.

“Yes, a landslide far away from here buried an entire valley.”

“Um, senior, you don’t have to talk so politely. Feel free to speak casually.”

Chae Nayun sounded uncomfortable.

“How could I to the chairman’s granddaughter? I feel more comfortable speaking like this.”

Jin Seyeon refused, but Chae Nayun still felt a little happy inside.

“Do you know grandpa?”

“Mmm… You could say that.”

Although it’s not a good relationship. Jin Seyeon swallowed her next sentence and smiled.

“In any case, that’s why I met up with you.”

“Ha, haha, I see.”

“Cough. In that case, what do you think about my grandfather, hero Shin Myungchul?”

Shin Jonghak walked on eggshells around Jin Seyeon, but finally worked up the courage to ask. Even Shin Jonghak didn’t dare to act arrogantly in front of a master rank hero. As if to prove her status, Jin Seyeon caught up to their strength in just 4 days.

“He’s an amazing person. I’ve heard many great things about him.”

“Ha, haha, hahahaha. Cough.”

Shin Jonghak’s expression brightened. Then he dryly coughed and tightened his grip on his spear.

“Rather than that…” Jin Seyeon spoke.

She had already heard everything from her comrades, Seo Youngji and Oh Junhyuk. Many pitted her against Black Lotus for the title of the strongest archer. Jin Seyeon had recently been losing her motivation, so she welcomed this new opponent.

She hadn’t slept since she entered the 3rd floor. In other words, she had remained awake for 72 hours to regain her abilities and acquire new skills. She felt like she had returned to her younger days.

“Let’s move. I see a demon camp nearby.”

Jin Seyeon looked back at where the mysterious archer stood. That was most likely Black Lotus. The landslide had ended and no one remained on the silent mountain peak.

Where was he all this time?

Jin Seyeon finally looked away with a happy smile after staring at the empty mountain peak for a long time.