I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 217: Episode 3-1_Maintenance (3)
Episode 217
Chapter 3-1. Maintenance (3)
3.
Getting Lerbel into the castle wasn’t difficult.
People who wanted to join the Black Magic Cult had been trickling in anyway, and the claim that a former high priestess of the Temple was converting after recognizing the saintess was not something anyone would question.
On top of that, Lerbel was a Red Dragon.
When they engaged in their play, dragons were a race that usually polished their appearance to the utmost.
You could call it a matter of draconic taste, but they generally took on forms that transcended mere beauty or handsomeness to flaunt their superiority.
“Welcome!”
“Priestess, the wound I got fighting a dragon in the Forbidden Mountain Range last time is acting up again.”
“I hurt my back while repairing the castle walls...”
“I think the wounds I got after taking down 250 Allied soldiers are flaring up again after a year.”
Naturally, in Teheran Castle, where the male population was overwhelmingly high thanks to the knight order, her arrival was met not with rejection, but with cheers and a giddy atmosphere.
“Heave-ho! Heave-ho!”
They were already putting their all into building the cult’s base because of the saintess and the imperial princess. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
“And it’s so cold, yet everyone is working shirtless?”
For men like them, the arrival of a new beauty was a gift they had no reason to refuse.
Unlike the saintess, who only had eyes for God, and the imperial princess, who only had eyes for Kim Buja, Lerbel had plenty of interest in humans. As someone who had lived for tens of thousands of years, she knew them better than anyone.
Knowing full well why they were working shirtless in the dead of winter, she still flashed them a seductive smile and struck even more tempting poses. Now that he knew she was a Red Dragon, her behavior made him click his tongue in amusement.
’Dragons really have no concept of normal.’
Of course, he had no intention of stopping her.
He had no way to stop her, either.
In her pure white priestess robes, Lerbel looked every inch the devout high priestess who served only God, and her flirtations flowed naturally from everyday gestures.
How was he supposed to warn anyone about the seasoned skill with which she fanned the flames of their desire?
Besides, Kim Buja didn’t care about other people’s aching hearts.
What mattered to him was securing this new draconic asset for himself.
“Kyuu!”
“Oh my, you’re adorable.”
Just as Lerbel was wrapping the men around her finger, Hwangdo was working hard to act cute at her side.
“Say Auntie. Come on, say Auntie.”
“Kyuu!”
He might be a Gold Dragon, and he had poured on the charm for Cassius too, but this was above and beyond even for Hwangdo.
“Kyuu!”
“What’s this? Gold coins? Should Auntie give you a few? Auntie has lots at home.”
“Kyuu-kyuu!”
Naturally, a secret deal with Kim Buja was behind it all.
He hadn’t even had to invest that much.
He had known Lerbel would shower Hwangdo with love and attention on her own.
He just slipped Hwangdo a few gold coins and reminded him of the gold he’d given him a few days ago, and Hwangdo immediately began pouring on the charm to win Lerbel’s favor.
That was why he hadn’t gone back yet, even though he had already cleared this Chapter.
’Earth is peaceful. A few days’ delay won’t hurt.’
He did want to see Jeong Seora, but once she started hunting, she wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon. Unless Kim Buja headed to the North Pole himself, he would have to wait either way.
Might as well get some work done.
Peaceful days went by.
* * *
Seven days.
Seven days after he met Lerbel, she finally approached Kim Buja.
“Could I go for a walk with Hwangdo, just the two of us?”
Her bright smile and pure white priestess robes suited her perfectly. Even when they were alone, she remained faithful to her ’play.’
This wasn’t out of fear of being overheard; her consistent demeanor since their first meeting suggested this was part of the dragons’ rules for their ’play’.
It helped her stay immersed, preventing her from consciously identifying as a dragon.
Right now, though, her head was probably full of nothing but dragons because of Hwangdo.
Since this was exactly what he had wanted, he nodded.
“Sure. Be careful out there.”
“Who would dare mess with someone walking around with a dragon? Hoho. I’ll be back.”
He saw her off as she happily left the castle, and then he started getting ready himself.
’I’m finally ranking up to SVIP.’
It felt like it had gone by quickly, but a lot of time had passed since he had received the SVIP rank-up quest.
Gold grinding, the third floor of the Tower of Trials, Fly’s auction, and the gold missions.
It felt like he had spent nearly three months on this quest.
He could feel the time and gold requirements increasing with every level and every new piece of content.
In the early days, once he decided to do something, he would knock it out in a day and set his next goal, clearing things in one go.
These days, a month was the baseline.
It wasn’t that time was flying by in a good way; it was just becoming more and more irritating.
’Some people get to farm points while I’m stuck chasing after them.’
But what could he do?
That was the difference between the first wave and the latecomers.
The difference was that in a game, you could choose to start early or use prior knowledge to secure a spot in the first wave. Here, you couldn’t get into the first wave unless you were chosen early.
Instead of wasting time complaining, he needed to run harder.
Still, after investing this much time, something good had better come out of it.
He held on to that hope and prayed.
A day later, Hwangdo came back with his back loaded down with goods, and Kim Buja said his goodbyes to the imperial princess.
[You have cleared Chapter 3-1.]
[You have obtained ‘Stone of SVIP Rank-Up (2).’]
[You have obtained 200,000 gold.]
Now it was really time to wrap things up.
4.
He returned, his heart pounding, and immediately organized his to-do list.
It looked like a lot, but it was simple.
The source and goal of all this.
Rank up to SVIP.
After that, he could take his time, enjoy a bath, and then tear into his new rewards, savoring every detail.
How would the system reward his efforts?
How would his evolved skills change?
So, the moment the familiar scenery came into view, he swept away the holograms and went to complete the SVIP rank-up quest first.
But he couldn’t.
Because in the middle of his spacious living room, there was an unexpected guest.
“Huh?”
It wasn’t the Gold Mimic, which always occupied its usual spot in the dead center.
It was the woman sitting on the sofa next to it, her head buried in her hands.
Even without seeing her face, he knew.
“Seora?”
Why was Jeong Seora here?
He had spent more than a week on the continent, but there was no way she could have come back in that time.
Not that coming back was strange.
If she wanted to return, she could. That was the freedom given to players, and it was one of the advantages of the Ice Castle as an open dungeon.
However, players had what you might call a hunting cycle.
It varied from person to person and from guild to guild, but generally, they hunted until they hit their physical and mental limits.
Setting aside all other factors, it was something they had to do to at least break even on the travel costs to the North Pole and the consumables they used while hunting in the Ice Castle.
Her returning before that cycle was up meant one of two things.
Either the party had fallen apart due to internal conflict, or the hunt had been cut short by something that made it impossible to continue.
“What happened?”
The odds of the former were very low.
The odds of the latter were also low, but significantly higher than the first.
Kim Buja hurried over and asked her.
When she lifted her head, her face was streaked with dried tears.
“My dad, and the guild members...”
The sorrow in her voice confirmed it was the latter.
* * *
It didn’t take long to grasp the situation.
There was no need to check other sources of information.
The living witness right in front of him could testify to what had happened more vividly than any news report.
“Just as we were about to head back after finishing our hunt, a blizzard hit, and the Ice Castle Lord appeared.”
Even now, Seora forced herself to focus, closing her eyes to recall the events.
“He was up in the sky... I don’t know who he was looking at, but the Ice Castle Lord said that too many unqualified people had entered his domain.”
The raw fear in her voice conveyed the terror of that moment so vividly that Buja could feel it himself.
“No way...”
“Yes,” Seora began, her voice trembling. “A blizzard suddenly whipped up, and our vision was completely blocked in an instant. We didn’t even have a chance to react. It was much faster and denser than the blizzard we faced before entering the Ice Castle. When it finally stopped, there was no one left in sight.”
Buja fell silent, processing her words.
’The scenario I only half-jokingly imagined actually happened.’
Before leaving for the continent, Buja had tossed out the possibility as a joke. He’d thought that in a one-in-a-million situation, something like that might occur, but he had never seriously expected it to become reality. Even if he had, he wouldn’t have considered it a real possibility. He had simply thought of it as one of the dungeon’s “gimmicks” to justify the high entry requirements.
His conviction had only strengthened when he heard that once you met the entry conditions, you could leave and come back as you pleased. He’d concluded that the requirements had to be that strict to ensure there would be plenty of challengers worthy of the attempt.
But he had been wrong.
The Ice Castle was not such a lenient place. It wasn’t some easy farming spot created to hand out points to players; it was a bona fide special dungeon. When players let their guard down, those who had entered by illegitimate means—methods the Ice Castle Lord did not acknowledge—were forced to face another trial.
That was surely why Seora was here now.
“I only survived because I was wearing the Glacier’s Tear,” she continued. “I heard that in the other parties, only the players who could resist the freeze effect made it out alive. And it wasn’t just us—apparently, every player within range got hit.”
Her firsthand account ended there. Everything that followed was a compilation of information she had gathered from others—from those who had gone through the same thing she had, and from those who had experienced things she had not.
“The Fly Guild endured it with a similar immunity. Fortunately, they say the players who disappeared aren’t actually dead.”
The Ice Castle Lord had supposedly spoken to the survivors.
“If you wish to find your comrades, then come and challenge me, you weak, cowardly humans. I will gladly provide as many of my subordinates as you desire. Grow, and grow again. When you believe you have earned the right, challenge me whenever you wish. Until then, I will keep your comrades with me.”
It was the one small mercy in the middle of a disaster.
“They’re not dead, but they’re not really alive either...”
It was hard to see that as good news. There was no way to verify it. All they could do was cling to the Ice Castle Lord’s words and vaguely assume their comrades were alive somewhere.
Seora lowered her head. She knew that asking for help at this point was meaningless. What could anyone possibly do? Even the Fly Guild wasn’t attempting a raid on the Ice Castle Lord.
The truly despairing part was that her family and the guildmates she had shared a roof and meals with had all vanished in an instant, and she had no idea whether they were dead or alive. The only reason she was holding it together at all was because she was a player.
Buja pulled her into his arms, comforting her.
“If they’re not dead, then I will bring them back. I promise.”
It wasn’t just something he said to calm her down. He meant it with all his heart.
* * *
