‘What the hell is this now? Ancient Shop?’

The hologram told him to use crystals to buy supplies now that the Ancient Shop was open. Byeonggap stared at it like a cow watching a chicken—then realized something in his body had shifted.

Something new had taken root inside him. The same sensation as when he’d received the door to Asvillam.

With no small measure of bewilderment, he opened the Ancient Shop.

The space before him warped, then abruptly expanded, forming a single window. A screen mixing images and text lit up before him.

[Ancient Shop]

-Construction

-Technology

-Miscellaneous

-Other

[Crystals Held: 0]

The shop was divided into four categories.

It was written in a language he’d never seen before, yet he read it without trouble.

Not only Byeonggap, but the ten hob goblins beside him gaped in astonishment.

‘This is seriously ridiculous.’

His annoyance only lasted a moment. Byeonggap steadied his racing heart and started tapping the window at random.

[Construction]

-Crystal Intake (0 Crystals)

-Shabby Dugout Hut (120 Crystals)

-Shabby Log Cabin (500 Crystals)

-Shabby Brick House (650 Crystals)

…

…

…

-Top-Grade Temple (68,000 Crystals)

-Top-Grade Palace (71,000 Crystals)

-Top-Grade Arched Bridge (180,000 Crystals)

-Top-Grade Wall (210,000 Crystals)

“Hah… Unbelievable.”

Tapping the Construction category revealed at least a dozen ‘buildings.’ Simple dwellings to complex facilities—nothing was missing.

The numbers beside the names looked like price tags.

‘Top-Grade Wall?’

Curious, Byeonggap tapped the most expensive structure. The shop window flushed red, displaying a new hologram.

[Insufficient crystals to purchase ‘Top-Grade Wall’.]

[Currently charged crystals: 0]

[Insert crystals into the Crystal Intake to charge.]

‘Crystal Intake?’

He scrolled the window up. At the very top, he found the Crystal Intake, selling for 0 crystals.

He tapped it immediately. Then something incredible happened.

“Whoa. What the hell is this?”

A cylinder, five meters in diameter and one meter deep, floated up into the air. It appeared out of nowhere, like a rolling pin in the dead of night.

«Ee-hik!»

«Huk!»

The goblins ducked, clutching their heads for fear of bumping into it. Thankfully, the cylinder had no substance. It passed straight through their bodies and the walls.

Go Byeonggap could adjust the cylinder’s position as easily as moving his own limbs—like a psychic wielding telekinesis.

As the cylinder flew freely through the cave, the goblins let out low, awed murmurs.

[Cannot be installed here.]

[Please secure a sufficiently open space.]

The hologram told him to find a wider area. Go Byeonggap followed its instruction and moved outside the cave.

The goblins waiting out there nearly fainted in shock when they saw him emerge carrying a giant cylinder.

«Move. Everyone move.»

The goblins scrambled back.

Go Byeonggap installed the cylinder in the cleared space.

[Install the ‘Crystal Intake’ at this location?]

[Installation begins.]

[Estimated time: approximately 10 minutes.]

The Crystal Intake, which had been an illusion, began to gain substance. Its bluish exterior gradually bled into a gray hue.

Go Byeonggap and the thirty-three goblins watched the spectacle with wide, glistening eyes.

«M-My Lord. What… is this?»

«Hell if I know, man. Just wait.»

«Ah! Y-yes, sir.»

They waited patiently until the Crystal Intake fully materialized.

[Installation of ‘Crystal Intake’ complete.]

Ten minutes later, it was finally finished. It looked like a large, flat concrete pipe. Despite its ordinary appearance, a pitch-black vortex churned inside the hole at its center.

«Whoa… What the hell is this?»

Watching the vortex swirl as if it would suck everything in, Go Byeonggap let out a sigh. Even at a glance, this thing didn’t belong to anything within his understanding.

‘So I’m supposed to put it in here, huh?’

He tossed the crystal in without hesitation. The fist-sized crystal was promptly sucked in. Gasps of admiration rose from all around.

‘Is it charged now?’

With a swell of anticipation, Go Byeonggap opened the Ancient Shop again.

Everything else was exactly the same. He zeroed in on the ‘Crystals Held’ field.

[Crystals Held: 1]

“One? Did you say one?”

A groan that was almost a scream tore from his throat.

One. Just one?!.

He rubbed his eyes, thinking he’d misread, but it was still just one.

“No way, I must’ve swung that pickaxe how many times digging that stuff up…”

Even the cheapest item—the Shabby Dugout Hut—cost 120 crystals. Looking at it again, the price was ridiculously high. He’d rather just snap some branches and build it himself.

‘Guess nothing in this world comes for free.’

How many swings of the pickaxe would it take to build a Top-Grade Wall? Go Byeonggap mused idly, then curiosity got the better of him and he started flipping through the other categories.

«My Lord. Do you want us to keep going?»

A hob goblin clutching a pickaxe shuffled up and asked.

Byeonggap answered without lifting his eyes from the shop window.

«Yeah. Go on, keep mining crystals. I’ll join you in a bit.»

«Understood!»

«Take it easy.»

«Yessir!»

Byeonggap pored over the Ancient Shop at leisure. It held a vast trove of data, so skimming through it took a considerable amount of time.

His expression grew steadily more complicated.

About thirty minutes in, Go Byeonggap couldn’t calm the pounding in his chest.

‘What the hell is this thing?’

The Ancient Shop displayed items whose names alone reeked of the extraordinary.

Under Techniques sat every conceivable skill.

‘Ancient Swordsmanship Manual,’ ‘Ancient Martial Arts Manual,’ and so on.

Then there were ones like ‘Ancient Breathing Circulation Manual’ whose purpose you couldn’t even guess from the name alone.

The Sundries category held weapons, potions, and various tools. Every single one of them was out of the ordinary.

Take, for instance, the ‘fire-breathing sword,’ the ‘mirror of truth,’ the ‘Berserker’s Potion,’ or ‘gold dragon meat.’

But those were light fare.

When it came to bizarre, the ‘Other’ category took the crown.

[Other]

– Female Goblin (500,000 crystals)

– Explorer’s Flag (500,000 crystals)

– Soul of Trobatin (700,000 crystals)

– Soul of Hashumblant (700,000 crystals)

……

……

……

– Seed of Enlightenment (10,000,000 crystals)

‘Explorer’s Flag? Soul of Hashumblant? What are they used for that they’re this expensive?’

He had no idea what their purpose was, let alone what they even looked like.

‘Seed of Enlightenment… ten million crystals?’

Byeonggap swore at the staggering price. Even a Top-Grade Wall was 210,000 crystals — how was a single seed ten million?

‘What the hell is a Female Goblin?’

He furrowed his brow and glanced around at the goblins. A moment later, he froze.

Twenty-three goblins here. Ten more mining crystals in the cave. Not a single one of them was ‘female.’ They were all male.

Not that Byeonggap had the ability to tell a goblin’s sex just by looking at its face. Still, you could always see what was dangling between their legs well enough.

Thinking back, in all three years of subjugation raids, he’d never once seen anything you could call a ‘female goblin.’

“How did I not know?”

He’d simply never paid any attention.

…Well, what hunter looked at a goblin pack and thought,

‘‘Hmm. A colony achieving proper gender ratio. Commendable.’’

“You’d think that? A hunter sees a goblin and just kills it.”

«Hey, you lot. Where are the women?»

Go Byeonggap asked. The goblins’ mouths gaped like dying carp.

«Women? What?»

«You. Know?»

«Don’t know.»

The normal goblins seemed clueless. But Gobungi looked like he knew something.

«Why are you hemming and hawing? I asked where the women are.»

«Women… There are none.»

«None? Spit it out.»

«Oddick. Said there are no women. I don’t know much either.»

«Oddick? Who the hell is that?»

«The dead. Shaman…»

«Ah!»

Oddick was the name of the goblin shaman Go Byeonggap had killed. At the mention of his name, the atmosphere turned solemn.

The goblin shaman had been easy to talk to and knew a lot. For some reason, Go Byeonggap found himself missing him.

«Then how do you fuckers… I mean, how do you bastards reproduce?»

«We can’t. Reproduce.»

«What? Then won’t your line die out? How have you been surviving all this time? No, more than that—where the hell did you come from?»

Gobungi’s face twisted with difficulty as he agonized for a long moment, then hung his head.

«Sorry. I don’t know.»

«…Sigh. Alright, forget it.»

Curiosity had pricked him, but it wasn’t a burning need to know.

Hell, even if he found out why there were no female goblins, what would he do with the info? Better to spend that time figuring out how to make money.

And with this Ancient Shop, it seemed possible to rake in some serious cash.

Whether by reselling or whatever.

Go Byeonggap closed the Ancient Shop and walked into the cave.

Ten hob goblins were swinging pickaxes with grim faces. A neat pile of crystals sat in one corner.

About five or six fist-sized chunks.

«Hey. Take a break. Everyone out.»

«Ah, yes sir!»

Go Byeonggap led the hob goblins outside. Naturally, he brought the crystals along.

He tucked one crystal chunk into his pocket and said,

«I’ll be gone for a bit. Keep mining crystals and resting. Eat something too.»

«Yessir!»

He opened the exit door and stepped right through.

He figured he’d grab a bite and head to a jeweler’s to get the crystal appraised while he was out.

But…

His plan went sideways from the very start.

The crystal in his hand was pulled by some unknown external force and slipped back into Asvillam.

“What the hell!?”

He stared hollowly at the hole in his chest. No matter how long he peered in, the crystal that had gone through showed no sign of coming back.

Then, as if mocking him, a hologram flickered to life.

[‘Crystal’ is an item that cannot be taken outside of ‘Asvillam’.]

* * *

Go Byeonggap walked to the soup house near his place and ate a late breakfast that doubled as lunch. The place was a value champion — hearty and tasty — but even with a steaming bowl of gukbap in front of him, his expression stayed sour.

It was because his plan to sell crystals for cash had fallen through.

Last night, drifting off in bed, he’d already pictured himself a filthy-rich man… but reality never flowed the way you wanted it to.

Don’t lose heart, he told himself.

He tried to self-soothe. The disappointment only matched the size of the expectation. Nothing harmful had happened to him.

And plenty of other ways to make money were still on the table.

The Ancient Shop.

A power still full of unknowns he hadn’t explored — and precisely because of that, it held infinite potential.

‘First, I need to mine crystals fast and in quantity. For that, I need more workers.’

Right now Asvillam had thirty-three goblins. Even if he put a pickaxe in every hand and had them digging crystals all day, they’d pull maybe a hundred to two hundred chunks at best.

So first, he needed to expand the workforce.

‘No problem. Goblins are a dime-a-dozen monster.’

Goblins were a monster you could spot without much trouble in E-rank rifts. He’d just tour through rifts and recruit every one he laid eyes on — it would work out somehow.

Strike while the thought’s hot, he decided.

There was a saying: pull the horn off the ox while it’s still hot from the forge. Go Byeonggap shoveled down the rest of his soup, then pushed out of the restaurant.

Outside, he pulled out his phone and scanned the E-rank rifts that had appeared across the country.