Junhyuk hadnt seen Ariel in a while, so he smiled at her.

The tournament finally begins. The enemy team isnt ranked as high as your team, so you might find things easy.

An easy enemy?

Ariel shook her head and added, Not necessarily. Their items arent great, but they have been fighting for a while. Dont underestimate them.

Are we still fighting on Nightmare Mountain?

Yes.

Thinking that the enemy team would be weaker than his team, he smiled.

OK. Ill go kick some butt.

You will do wonderful! Ariel shouted after him, and with her hands in a cone, she announced, Hero Junhyuk Lee deployed!

He walked out of the spawn room and looked around. As always, there were a thousand minions there talking with each other. He could see the heroes beyond them.

Junhyuk walked toward them. They were all gathered in one place and they all had an optimistic look to them, despite being a little tense.

He laughed and said, You all look so confident!

Elise smiled and replied, Ive upgraded Zaira, so I should be stronger now.

Gongon pulled out a core from his Spatial Bag and asked, This is what you asked for.

What is it? Junhyuk asked.

A refurbished core. We can now do it ourselves. The dragons have advanced into the core research.

You refurbished a core!?

Bebe can do it easily, but we need a massive machine, larger than our Lords lair. Also, we used a lot of mana stones to pull it off, but we did it.

What do you mean by a lot of mana stones?

Dont think of it in terms of human measurements. Gongon smiled and asked, What are you going to do?

Junhyuk answered quickly, I need to refurbish the cores. If we can do it for cheap, well rake in the money later.

I told the dragon researchers that we need to do more research on the core. They want me to bring them an amount of ten to one. For every ten refurbished cores, one should act as payment.

Yeah?

Refurbishing ten cores would cost 2,000,000G. Junhyuk could simply pay them in cores. Gongon had said that the dragons had spent a lot of mana stones to do it, so he would let them keep a core as payment.

Then, refurbish fifty cores, please.

Junhyuk pulled out fifty-five cores and gave them to Gongon. The hatchling smiled at that.

I cant tell you about the machine that we are using to refurbish the cores. Its secret draconic technology.

Of course.

If he could get fifty cores refurbished, the whole team would become more powerful, and they would earn a lot of gold from it. Sarang and Elise would become incredibly strong, and Junhyuk wouldnt have to be scared of anything else, ever.

How long will it take?

The machine refurbishes one core at a time, and the process takes an entire day. After one refurbishment, the machine has to cool down for a day, so the entire procedure for one core takes two days.

Junhyuk took a moment to think and said, If you are using mana stones to power it, wouldnt it be better to use a core?

Sure, that would be better, but to do that, wed need a refurbished core.

Then, use this one.

Junhyuk handed the refurbished core back to the dragon, and Gongon smiled.

Can I?

Gongon had nothing to lose.

Junhyuk turned to Eunseo and Helen and said, Eunseo, you stay inside the castle. Helen, you come with us.

Yes.

Eunseo wanted to protest, but she shook her head. She would be bored within the castle, sure, but it was better that way. Her power couldnt help much.

Eunseo had good items, but she couldnt kill a hero yet.

Junhyuk walked to the portal with the others. After entering the store, they all checked on the amount they had. Junhyuk had won two times straight.

The odds of his bet were three to one, and he had multiplied the amount twice. Ling Lings team had kept winning, so the returns would be lower next time, but this time, he had still won a lot. Junhyuk had six times the amount of gold he had when the tournament was announced.

Junhyuk had invested 300,000 and gotten back 1,620,000. He pulled out the items he had picked up from the last battlefield, raising his gold amount to 2,200,000. Then, he pulled out the four-piece dragon set. Each of the pieces awarded him 350,000G for a total of 1,400,000. By the end, he had a total of 3,600,000.

He decided to look for a new cloak since he was missing one. Cloaks usually carried evasion buffs, but Junhyuk was looking for something different, and he found one.

Fairy Dragons Leather Cloak

Defense +20

Magic Defense +20

Critical Hit Damage +10%

Fairies are rare in all dimensions. Made from Fairy Dragon leather, this cloak has both defense and magic defense buffs. It also increases damage to all critical hits. Its a cloak worth its price.

Junhyuk looked at the price tag and took a moment to think. The cloak had nice stats, but it cost 2,000,000G. Junhyuk could get a legendary item with that amount of gold.

The items from the Vampire Lord set cost that much. Though he could understand the cloaks price, it was part of a set. Normally, cloaks didnt have defense buffs, but the whole think still worried him.

Is there a discount?

Sure. Ill take 300,000G off, so youd pay 1,700,000G.

Give it to me.

Junhyuk put the cloak on. The leather was shone in rainbow colors, so it was easily noticeable. That worried him. Should he dye it or not?

Can I dye it?

The leather has magical properties, so youd need a special dye. Dying it would cost you 200,000G. I dont recommend it.

Junhyuk wasnt sure. The leather was too noticeable, but he had already spent a lot of gold on it. Looking at the cloak, he said, Its fine. Ill use it as is.

Sure. Do you need anything else?

Can I see some rings?

Junhyuk wanted rings for himself. He was wondering whether he should get one or two rings when his eyes suddenly beamed.

Two rings can make up a set?

Yes. Sets dont have to be made of many pieces.

Junhyuk looked at the ring set. Each ring was worth 1,000,000. He had 1,900,000G now, so with the discount, he would be able to get what he wanted.

He had decided. Item upgrades were nice, but he wanted the rings. The pair of rings would give him a nice bonus effect.

Give me these two rings.

You are smart. The two with the discount come to 1,700,000.

Junhyuk handed most of his gold to Bebe and took the two rings. After putting them on, he inspected them.

Ring of Hatred

Attack +30

Defense +20

Health +200

This ring belonged to the god of love, Eros. It boosts attack, defense and health.

Ring of Love

Attack +20

Defense +30

Health +250

This ring belonged to the god of love, Eros. It boosts attack, defense and health.

Two-Item Set Effect: Landing a strike against an enemy decreases that enemys attack by 4 percent. Stacks five times.

With a five-stack, Junhyuk would debuff an enemys attack by 20 percent. He could kill many heroes that way, and it would be even more effective against tanks.

Tanks had high defense, but their attacks were already low. If he could decrease their attacks by 20 percent, he would be able to kill a tank without having to worry about anything.

With the rings on, he looked at the amount of gold he had left: 200,000G. He didnt want to buy enhancement stones now. Instead, he would save his gold to bet on the Champions Battlefield.

The others were getting new items as well, and Bebe took care of the five customers by himself.

Elise spent the most out of the others. She sold a full Red Dragon set and was left with 2,700,000G. Instead of getting one expensive item, she got a bunch of mid-tier items.

She also bought enhancement stones and upgraded her gear. With the upgrades, she increased her defense and magic defense stats.

Elise was now a hero with real offensive and defensive stats.

Layla bought only enhancement stones, but she upgraded her katana as well. She bought five stones, but her upgrades failed twice. Even though she had succeeded only three times, she smiled and said, I got lucky!

With two failures and three successes, isnt it just one upgrade?

No. Not all failures mean a drop in stats. Theres is a floor. Essentially, I got two upgrades.

Two successes meant a 44 percent increase to her katanas stats. Layla was a damager.

Gongon also bought enhancement stones and did the basic upgrades to his items.

Sarang repurchased the item she had lost. The enemy hero had had no use for her item, and she was lucky for that.

Sarang also upgraded her gear.

Helen bought a new weapon. She had been wielding the weapon given to her by Guardians, but now she picked out a nice one for herself. She spent most of her gold, but she was a stronger champions for it now.

Junhyuk looked at the others and said, The enemy team is not as well ranked as ours, but dont let your guard down.