As Agares wished, La opened his sales system panel and displayed all the gem items he had in stock.
In total, La had 50 types of gems across various qualities—the highest being High. There were no supre-quality gems.
Agares stood and carefully checked the gems and crystals. Alongside the nas and affinities, each item’s effects were clearly listed.
So granted attribute boosts, cooldown reduction, and even more specific effects like enhancing dropped item quality or buffing trap/hidden enemy detection.
Not only were the quality and effects shown, but also the prices. Agares swallowed hard, not expecting even a low-grade gem for Augnt Core to cost between 10 to 15 monster cores.
It was much pricier than HP or Mana potions—and even more expensive than monster fragnts.
"How is it?"
Even so, mid-grade gems were priced around 30–35 cores, and high-grade ones at 50–75. That was for single gems, not even fused ones.
"Nyx."
[Do you need sothing, Master?]
"What’s the requirent to perform gem fusion?" asked Agares.
[Gem fusion becos available once the host reaches Stage 3]
[Requirents:]
[1. Maximum of 3 items]
[2. Items must have the sa quality]
[3. Unlock the Fusion nu in the Augnt Core tab]
[4. Each fusion attempt requires 10x Fusion Dust]
[Optional Conditions:]
[1. Success rate depends on gem quality—the higher the quality, the higher the failure rate]
[2. Similar affinity increases success rate]
[3. Fused gems cannot be fused again]
Agares went silent, then returned his attention to the items La was selling. It was unfortunate he couldn’t perform fusion yet, but unlocking the Augnt Core feature alone was a big advantage.
"My affinity is darkness. Do gems for Augnt Core need to match my affinity?"
[Not always, Master. However, matching affinities will give a significantly better results]
"Do you have a darkness affinity gem?" Agares asked La.
La scanned his database and checked the listed items. Out of all the gems he had, there was only one with a darkness affinity.
He took it and displayed it clearly before Agares—a black gem with red fibers swirling inside it floated above La’s palm.
[Item:]
[Na: Black Spiral]
[Type: Gem]
[Affinity: Darkness]
[Quality: High]
[Price: 65 Monster Cores]
[Desc: Attacks gain 10% chance to delay enemy buffs for 15s]
"Delay buffs?"
"That’s right. If you strike a buffed monster, you’ll have a chance to delay—or freeze—their buff for 15 seconds."
’The higher the floor I challenge, the more monsters have their own buffs.’
’I’ve already experienced how annoying those buffs are.’
"I’ll buy this one!"
[Paynt Successful]
[Item: Black Spiral]
[Affinity: Darkness]
[Type: Gem]
[Quality: High]
[Price: 65 Monster Cores]
Agares paid 65 monster cores and secured the gem. But he wasn’t done yet—there was still one slot left in his Augnt Core, and no more darkness-affinity gems available.
His best option was to pick another affinity. Among common affinities, the strongest was light.
But light-affinity gems wouldn’t work well with him, since their affinities would clash.
Agares needed to choose sothing else.
Out of all the options, his attention fell on a gem with a unique buff. When he selected it from La’s display panel, the red gem imdiately appeared before him.
[Item:]
[Na: Crimson Pulse]
[Type: Gem]
[Affinity: Fire]
[Quality: Mid]
[Price: 28 Monster Cores]
[Desc: When taking damage, 5% chance to inflict burn]
"I’ll take this one."
"Very well."
[Paynt Successful]
[Na: Crimson Pulse]
[Affinity: Fire]
[Type: Gem]
[Quality: Mid]
[Price: 28 Monster Cores]
Agares obtained two gems he deed useful—ones that could help him in real combat. He instructed Nyx to open the Augnt Core nu, and the panel appeared shortly after.
An avatar of Agares appeared within the system panel, surrounded by multiple infographics.
Small rings representing item slots hovered around him—though only two of the eight were currently unlocked.
To input the gems, Agares simply had to press and hold on each one and drag it to the slot on the system panel. A pop-up window appeared:
[Augnt Core]
[Items Installed:]
[Black Spiral || High || 10% chance to delay enemy buffs for 15s]
[Crimson Pulse || Mid || 5% burn effect on attackers]
No stat boosts were provided by these gems; they would only activate during combat.
Agares understood he couldn’t remove them freely without a disengage tool. That made it crucial to select only gems that would truly help him in battle.
[Item:]
[195x Monster Core] [-93]
"Would you like to buy enhancent items for—"
"Don’t say another word. I’ve bought enough for one day."
"Very well. Let know if you need anything else."
Slowly, La turned and returned to his shop. Agares stood still, refocusing on his system panel.
He had leveled up and advanced a stage. He had also leveled up a few tis before. That ant he had many unallocated attributes and skill points.
If he waited too long, Agares feared it would affect his combat performance. That was why he chose to allocate them now.
[Attribute Status]
[OVR: 96.7] [ 8.9]
[STR: 69] [ 25]
[DEF: 41] [ 14]
[AGI: 28] [ 14]
[INT: 0]
[DEX: 43] [ 14]
[VIT: 39] [ 13]
[Attribute Points: 0] [-80]
Not just attribute status—Agares also configured his skill points. That way, his combat ability could grow steadily, even if not dramatically.
[Skills]
[Na] [Level] [Points]
[Skill 1: Shadow Cleave] [Lv.2] [130] [ 30]
[Skill 2: Abyssal Ward] [Lv.1] [45] [ 20]
[Skill 3: Eclipse Execution] [Lv.1] [45] [ 30]
[Skill 4: Nihil Severance] [Lv.1] [0]
[Skill Points: 0]
Agares still lacked points to raise his skills. To level a skill from 1 to 2 required about 100 points. Currently, only his first skill has reached level 2.
’Maybe I’ll have to take it slow.’
La had been observing Agares. He’d seen thousands of adventurers like him setting their personal system.
Even though La was a manifestation of the dungeon itself, he knew nothing about the adventurer’s system.
That was because the dungeon and adventurer systems were different.
"Well? Are you done?" asked La.
Agares closed his system panel, lifted his head, and looked straight ahead.
"Then I guess you won’t be staying here any longer."
"Yeah. I need to return into the dungeon and hunt more monsters," Agares replied.
"Very well. Goodbye—and see you on the next floor."
"Tell . Where can I find the next dungeon rchant after this?"
"There’s no rchant between floors 11 and 15. But you can find one around floor 17 or 18."
"Got it."
Having fully prepared himself, Agares say goodbye and proceeded down the corridor connected to the rchant’s room.
The farther he walked, the quieter the place beca. La’s chatter could no longer reach him.
Agares expected to et low-tier monsters right away—but instead, he ca to a sudden stop upon seeing a massive door, three ters high, standing before him.
A black iron gate adorned with erald patterns lood overhead, with the na "Timberdeep" engraved above.
"Timberdeep?"
"What does that even an?"
With his courage, Agares stepped closer and gently pushed the door open. Surprisingly, it felt light in his hands—revealing sothing completely different from what he’d imagined a dungeon should look like.
"A garden?!"
"Why is there a garden? This is suspicious."
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