Chapter 45: Chapter45-Trying to Set Me Up?
[Quest 2: Form a team with an awakener whose level is lower than your own, and lead them to level up by at least 1 level.]
Compared to Quest 1, Caelan felt Quest 2 was even harder to complete.
Ever since he came to this world, he’d basically been a lone wolf.
So finding a teammate wasn’t exactly easy for him.
Should I just grab someone at random?
Caelan scratched his head. Quest 2 felt like a hassle, so he shifted all his attention back to Quest 1.
Right now, the most urgent thing was still clearing the Endless Abyss and killing the Cataclysm Beast.
After settling on a plan, Caelan began sorting through what he’d gained from the front-line camp.
[Sacred Armor] was undoubtedly his biggest haul this time.
But aside from the Sacred Armor, he’d actually gained quite a lot too.
From common gear all the way to epic-grade equipment—he’d gotten a bit of everything. He’d even had several pieces of legendary-grade gear drop.
Through the portal, Caelan returned to Mylanne City’s Instance Control Center.
Then he handed all the useless equipment over to Marov for a one-click resale.
Only this sword that dropped from Orn—[Boneforge Bloodsword]—gave Caelan a tiny bit of hesitation.
[Legendary · Boneforge Bloodsword]
[Weapon Type: Longsword]
[Required Level: 130]
[Effect: Each of your attacks inflicts bleeding damage. Bleeding stacks, and once it reaches a certain number of layers, it can be detonated.]
[Description: A weapon nurtured by Orn with his own soul over countless years. Only a powerful awakener can wield it.]
The longsword in Caelan’s hands was a weapon he’d painstakingly crafted over several years.
Its meaning—and its value—were both extremely important to him.
Still, this [Legendary · Boneforge Bloodsword] had some special effects.
Against bosses with absurdly thick health bars, it might produce miracles.
In the end, Caelan decided to keep [Legendary · Boneforge Bloodsword] in his storage space for now.
Besides that, he’d also obtained the [Bone Set].
It was only epic-grade gear, but set bonuses gave a pretty solid boost to overall attribute points.
However, Caelan only kept the pieces for the other slots—his chest piece was, without question, replaced with [Sacred Armor].
After swapping into his new gear, Caelan’s strength had increased by at least dozens of times!
Of course, that surge was mainly thanks to [Sacred Armor].
Honestly, Dark Titan had been a real bro—leaving him such an excellent piece of equipment.
Just as Caelan was thinking about his next move...
Marov appeared in front of him again.
This time, he held a golden card in his hand.
"Honored Mr. Caelan, it has been a privilege to serve you."
"This is the revenue you earned from consigning your items. The total is 1.6832 billion..."
Caelan raised an eyebrow.
The final sale price was noticeably higher than he’d expected—about twenty percent higher.
"Marov, why does it seem like there’s more gold coins this time?"
Marov’s face split into the kind of smile that only a profiteering merchant could wear. His mung-bean-sized eyes gleamed with crafty light.
"Honored Mr. Caelan, the extra amount—just over 300 million—is mainly because we did not charge you the usual 20% handling fee this time."
"Our Instance Control Center would like to hire you as a Special Exploration Member. Consider this... a show of sincerity."
Hearing that, Caelan’s face turned thoughtful.
He understood perfectly: in this world, there was no such thing as a free lunch.
Marov was giving up more than 300 million gold coins with a single sentence—so this "Special Exploration Member" position probably wasn’t something you could accept casually.
Seeing that Caelan didn’t respond right away, Marov remained unhurried. Still smiling, he continued.
"Mr. Caelan, there’s no need to worry too much. Being a Special Exploration Member at our Instance Control Center isn’t that dangerous."
"When new instances appear, you simply explore them according to the Center’s requirements. Of course, you’ll need to provide the Center with half of the instance’s gains. But you have considerable autonomy—you may refuse any task assignment from the Center."
Caelan paused, then looked at Marov deeply.
"What if I refuse all of the Instance Control Center’s missions? Would I still keep the preferential treatment of a Special Exploration Member?"
Marov seemed to have expected this question. He immediately nodded.
"Please rest assured, Mr. Caelan. You have full autonomy. You may refuse everything, and your privileges will not be affected."
If anything, Caelan fell into even deeper thought.
On the surface, the Instance Control Center sounded incredibly sincere—almost like they were straight-up handing him benefits.
But Caelan knew: there were no "benefits" in this world.
Rather than giving him free rewards, the Instance Control Center was exploiting human nature.
New instances might be extremely dangerous, but the profits were also enormous.
For someone strong like Caelan, it was hard not to be tempted.
So even if there was risk, genius adventurers would still rush in one after another, exploring brand-new instances on behalf of the Instance Control Center.
However...
For Caelan, there wasn’t really a downside.
With [Sacred Armor] in hand, he could afford to go wild.
"Fine. I’ll accept."
Caelan agreed to Marov’s proposal and quickly signed a contract.
After confirming there were no issues with the terms, Caelan finally took the card Marov had handed him earlier.
Unlike the bank cards he knew, this card wasn’t proof of deposits or withdrawals.
It was simply a small storage space.
After putting the card away, Caelan casually enjoyed a delicious staff meal at the Instance Control Center—he even invited the front desk receptionist to eat with him.
To be honest, the receptionist was nervous about his invitation.
She’d been wondering the whole time if Caelan would seize the chance to make some improper request.
After all, he was so handsome... if he really wanted to, it wasn’t like it would be impossible!
Yet all the way until the meal ended, Caelan didn’t say a single suggestive word.
That left the receptionist deeply wounded.
So...
Mr. Caelan... did he really just want to treat me to a meal???
At that moment, the receptionist felt her heart shatter without warning.
Meanwhile, Caelan was thinking about how to use those 1.6 billion gold coins.
Should he upgrade new skills right now—
Or should he wait until he finished the [Class Mutation Quest] first?