Chapter 233

After arriving in the capital city of Nexus via warp scroll from the city of Lagus, Ming Hu walked straight to the imperial palace to complete the quest.
smart
“Your Majesty, it’s Minghu.”
Soon afterward, entering the imperial palace and reaching the emperor’s office, Ming Hu knocked on the door and exclaimed, “I’m sorry.
“Come in.”
Hearing Alkan’s voice from inside, Ming Hu opened the door and stepped into his office.
Sigh
“What’s going on?”
Alkan stood up as Ming Hu entered and walked over to the couch in front of his desk and sat down. Ming Hu walked over to the other side of Alkan, sat down, opened his inventory, and began pulling out the Record Crystal and placing it on the desk.
“…!”
Alkan’s puzzled expression began to harden as Ming Hu pulled out the crystal ball.
“Here… These are the things you said.”
Ming Hu placed the five record crystals on the desk and looked at Alkan.
“…Hmmm.”
Alkan looked at the archival crystals on his desk and grunted. After swearing and staring at the crystals for a moment, Alkan reached out, picked up the leftmost one, and activated it.
Siaak
A bright light emanated from the crystal ball and the recorded video began to play.
“…huh?
After watching the video, Ming Hu couldn’t help but panic.
“What’s that?
The history crystal was playing a video he had never seen before. He couldn’t understand what was going on, since the current recording was clearly Viscount Torren’s, judging by the face of Viscount Gennas.
“Oh, so… There’s a difference between what I got all at once and what I got as a percentage…
With the exception of Baron Magnus, the other five families earned the Record Crystal by increasing their percentages. Baron Magnus, however, got the record crystal immediately. Perhaps that was why the other video was playing, Myung Hu thought, turning his attention to the rest of the record crystals on his desk.
“So the other crystals must be recording different footage…
If Myung-Hoo’s guess was correct, the rest of the crystalline spheres must have other videos recorded.
“…”
Sigh
Soon, Viscount Toren’s video ended, and Alkan set the crystal aside. He picked up the next crystal and activated it. The crystal glowed brightly and the recorded video began to play.
‘I guess…’
After watching the video, Ming Hu could confirm that his suspicions were correct. Once again, the video was playing something he hadn’t seen.
“I knew it was coming, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”
A moment later, after viewing all of the footage from the record crystal that Ming Hu had brought, Alkan muttered with a bitter smile, then raised his head to look at Ming Hu and continued, “I’m sorry.
“Thank you.”
[You have completed the quest].
[Helioca’s notoriety increased by 5 million].
[Earn additional rewards].
[Helioca’s public profile has increased by 20 million].
As Alkan finished speaking, a message began to appear.
“25 million.
The quest reward was a whopping 25 million merit points. However, unlike in the past, I didn’t feel much excitement. Perhaps it was because there was no place to spend it. Ming Hu looked away from the message and looked at Alkan, thinking.
“Do you want to give me a province now?
Shortly before he was knighted, Alkan said that he could not remain an earl forever, and that his estates would continue to increase. Based on what he said then and the location of the estates of the noble families he had surveyed now, it was likely that he would be granted the estates of the noble families he had surveyed. “No,” Ming Hu was almost certain, “I will keep this crystal ball.”
“Yes.”
Ming Hu nodded in response to Alkan’s words.
Sigh
Ming Hu nodded in response, and Alkan stood up from his seat, walking back to his desk, and said, “I’m sorry.
“I’ll call you sooner or later. But first… I need to get organized.”
At Alkan’s words, Ming Hu smiled and rose from his seat.
“Well, bye.”
Then he turned and walked out of the office. As Ming Hu walked out of the office, he thought to himself as he walked down the hallway.
‘Well. It’s ridiculous to give it to you right now.’
In hindsight, it made no sense to take on a fief right now.
“How long will it take…
Ming Hu pondered how long it would take to receive the estates. If he remembered the speed with which he had organized Viscount Appen and Baron Magnus, he should be able to receive the estates within two days at the latest. Of course, there was no guarantee, and with two counts in the way, it might take longer.
“You call it something.
He said he’d call me soon, so I’d just have to wait.
“Now that I’ve beaten the quest…
Ming Hu opened his inventory and pulled out the recipe for the Alcandeum Golem he had received from Nerfai.
“It’s time to build this.
After opening the recipe and checking the ingredients, Ming Hu put the recipe back into his inventory and checked the information on the two items that were key to making the golem.

A legendary metal, harder than any other in Middle-earth, it is both physically and magically resistant. It is said to be untouchable by human power.

Restrictions: Strong Smith
Physical Attack Damage: 50
When crafting an item, has a 100% chance to bring the crafted item to life. (Hammer is destroyed when crafting an item.)
Hammer of Life. When crafting an item, the hammer’s life is transferred to the item you craft.
Alcandeum, a Legendary-tier material item, and Hammer of Life, a Relic-tier consumable equipment item.
‘If there wasn’t one… I wouldn’t have thought to make one.’
Without either of them, Ming Hu would not have created the Alcandeum Golem.
“I’ll stop by the auction house and buy some materials first.
Ming Hu closed his inventory and walked over to the auction house to purchase the ingredients for the Alcandeum Golem.
“Buy an emergency item!”
“I buy rare armor that a defensive warrior would wear. Even if it’s magic, I’ll pay more if it has good options.”
“Magic-grade weapons for sale!”
Many users were still gathered in front of the auction house, shouting for their own purposes. Ming Hu pushed past them and entered the auction house.
“1 gold for 6500 won! Min 100 gold! Max 300 gold!”
“Buy infinite for 1 gold!”
“I sell up to 2000 gold at $7 per gold.”
But the auction house was no different than outside. Countless players were chanting incessantly as they tried to buy and sell gold. Ming Hu thought as he walked past them and approached the auction house NPC.
‘Six thousand per gold, that’s a big drop.
Gold’s price had been falling rapidly of late.
‘Well. It’s very expensive.’
Of course, the price of gold was unusually high. It’s very easy to earn 1 gold, just kill an ogre outside and you’ll get 1 gold. Considering that, the current gold price of 6,000 gold was also very expensive.
“If I unlock all the gold I have… will it crash?
Ming Hu thought about his current gold holdings. If he sold all his gold, the price of gold would surely plummet.
“The material item is…”
Soon arriving in front of the Auction House NPC, Ming Hu opened his inventory to once again check the materials for the Alcandeum Golem.
“That’s a lot…
To create the Alcandeum Golem, 120 different items were needed. Ming Hu began searching and buying them one by one.
“This is a lot more than I thought…
There was a lot of variety, but each ingredient was also quite expensive, so it cost a lot of gold. Of course, it wasn’t a burden. Price was never an issue.
“…some things are missing.
The real problem was when they were out of stock.
“…Hmm.
Ming Hu pondered what to do.
“It looks like it’s a little hard to get…
The ones that weren’t in stock were all special items that were either dropped by boss monsters or in special locations that were very hard to find.
“Wait…special?
Then a thought occurred to Ming Hu, and he tilted his head slightly before continuing.
‘It could be in the exchange… It could be in the treasury…
The Exchange and Treasury also had material items. In addition, most of the material items on display are unique.
“Let’s go.
Ming Hu walked out of the auction house and made his way to the Exchange, thinking that the material items he hadn’t gotten might be in the Exchange or Treasure House.
“Earn merit! Lots of gold!”
“Twenty thousand merit points. I drilled three stories.”
Soon arriving at the exchange, Ming Hu looked at the entrance to the exchange and thought to himself.
“How much has changed.
Since the exchange update, Myung-Hoo hasn’t stopped by the exchange once, though he’s heard about what items Min-Hyung has and how they’ve changed.
‘Oh my God. There’s a real corpse.’
Entering the first floor, Ming Hu smirked at the corpses that occupied half of the first floor.
“Not much.
After checking the other half, I went up to the second floor, thinking it was the first floor after all. I didn’t see any message because I bought the pass before the update.
“The second floor… again.
As expected, the second floor was no different than the first. Ming Hu scanned the interior of the second floor once, and then went straight to the third floor. Upon reaching the third floor, Ming Hu turned his gaze to the right.
‘Kya. I was here.’
Where the elixirs used to be, there were no more elixirs. Axes, swords, and other equipment were on display. Ming Hu recalled his memories of the old exchange and began walking in the opposite direction to ascend to the fourth floor.
That was the moment.
“Excuse me, are you Myung-hoo?”
Hearing a voice, Ming Hu stopped walking and looked toward the source of the voice.
“…?”
The voice belonged to a woman in her mid-20s, but when Ming Hu saw her, he could only shake his head. Ming Hu shook his head and opened his mouth to speak.
“Who are you?”
“Oh my God, it’s real! It’s awesome!”
The woman’s overwhelmingly pleased reaction left Ming Hu bewildered. The woman extended her hand to Ming Hu and continued, “I’m sorry.
“Hi, I’m Choco, the official Legendary reporter, and I was wondering if I could interview you for a moment?”