The all-knowing Player (Solo Leveling)

The mining team (1)

A/N: Warning! Long chapter.

Jin-Woo closes the door to his room with a relieved sigh. He came back home later than expected. It was partially Go Gun-Hee's fault, but he also stayed in the hospital room with Hee-Jin more than he thought he would. After all, there isn't much to speak of to a stranger fallen into eternal slumber. Despite knowing that, he insisted on bringing her with him when he'd visit his mother. Since she promised to help him get his hands on the cure, he figured that he could at least show her the one she intends to save. But never did he think that he would share his fears there with her.

He shakes his head and sits down at his table, searching for the button and activating his computer. His eyes narrow as the screen turns on, splashing its bright light over the room. What happened in the hospital can't be his first preoccupation. Not when he still has his mother to save.

In order to resume his ascension of the Demon Tower, he will need to come better equipped. The first 50 floors lacked so much challenge that, had Hee-Jin not been there, he would have been bored out of his mind. Then came the battle against Vulcan, where he learned that she has grown powerful enough to not need his help anymore. He has too—she proved it by letting him fight against Metus alone. But knowing that they don't need each other anymore, that the only support they can provide to the other is emotional, felt like a brutal blow in the guts.

If Hee-Jin heard him, she would surely tell him that he never really needed her from the start. And maybe she is right. But now he does. Not because he can't overcome dungeons by himself, but because her presence has become essential to him. Her cool fingers wrapped around his whenever they step into a gate, her back against his as they fight off waves of monsters, the smile that tugs on her lips as she goes through the rewards of their hunt—he couldn't be able to move forward without any of these.

He shoves these thoughts aside to focus on his screen. He opens the hunter's market and scrolls through the equipment sold on the web page. All pieces of equipment are incredibly costly, since even the smallest one is imbued with mana. He grumbles to himself. He thought that he saved enough, but the prices are still too high. But he needs to buy equipment to adapt to the fiery environment of the Demon Tower. 

The fights in the lower floors were pretty easy, but there's no guarantee that Hee-Jin and him can win against the boss of the dungeon. The Demon Tower is an S-rank instance dungeon, after all. The battles in the upper floors will become increasingly difficult, and, without the female player's Fire Resistance skill, he has to come prepared to protect himself from the heat. He envied her the whole week in the Tower for it. She could venture wherever she wanted in the city while he was stuck on the road, away from the burning buildings.

Despite now being insensible to all extreme temperatures, she always seems to enjoy warmth more than coldness. He saw her balter in the flames once, early in the morning, when she believed that he was still sleeping. Her graceful figure on the blazing rooftop contrasted against the red rising sun behind her, the shadows accentuating each of her movements like a veil. That morning, he could have stayed there watching her forever, mesmerized by her figure dancing among the flames that rose up in the sky as if to match her movements.

He opens the system's store, trying to focus on the matter at hand. The equipment of the hunter's market is too costly, while the store doesn't even have suitable items. That leaves him with only one option: selling an item he obtained thanks to the system.

"I guess I'll have no choice but to sell 'Orb of Avarice' to purchase the artifacts that I need," he murmurs to himself as the item materializes in his hand, its polished blood red surface reflecting the screen's light. "At least I am able to sell it."

He searches in the hunter's market for items with the same effect. None of them are as good as the Orb, so the latter should be sold at a steep price. It's exactly what Jin-Woo requires, but his finger on the mouse hesitates, reluctant about selling that item. He surely wouldn't have laid his hands on the Orb, had Hee-Jin not been there to kill Vulcan when the player got hit by the demon's club. Selling something he didn't obtain by his own means feels as if he were selling a gift. A gift from none other than Hee-Jin, at that.