D.I.O

As Merlin continued to fawn over the magic stones, Ellen spoke up.

“Based on user demand, I heard an English magic stone is currently being produced. There’s probably little to no need for English in DIO, so I don’t understand why players want it.”

Though Ellen audibly tsked after saying this, she could still understand where Merlin was coming from. Also, the magic stone only cost two silver or 10,000 Won. With just 10,000 Won, someone could master English! Was this a dream? And while Merlin knew that he’d be limited to speaking English in-game, the mere idea of speaking fluent English at all made him salivate.

“So sad; what a pity.”

After he let out a sigh, Ellen led Merlin to another display stand. Here, rows of rings were being showcased.

Merlin remembered that he’d heard others talk about Gate Rings before, so he stopped a passerby to ask their opinion.

“Excuse me, is a Gate Ring worth purchasing?”

“It’s beneficial to have two of them. Since they take less than a tenth of a second to operate, they’re useful in emergency situations. They’re a bit expensive, but your life is worth more.”

After hearing this explanation, Merlin retrieved his money pocket and purchased two Gate Rings, wearing them on his index and pinky finger. Although he felt like he’d bought them without much contemplation, it didn’t matter too much because Merlin had a considerable amount of gold after the time he spent in the dungeon.

‘Wait, I have 250 gold.’

He had taken it for granted until now, but when he remembered the conversion rate, Merlin realized that he had 12.5 million Won on him. In fact, this was also after he had a significant portion of his gold taken away, so the original amount would’ve been around a thousand gold.

‘That Seadragon Temple was definitely a high-level dungeon. Well, the guard at the entrance and the mobs in the rooms were no joke.’

Merlin now understood why that administrator had seized his money. However, that guy took 50 million Won worth of gold! Merlin had trouble just wrapping his head around such an immense sum of money. Furthermore, when he thought about how DIO was still in closed beta and that most of the users were relatively poor, Merlin couldn’t fathom what would happen to the economy once the game opened to the public and users started circulating more gold. The whole economy might collapse. Of course, in Merlin’s case, since he had most of his gold taken away, he wasn’t going to harm the economy anytime soon.

After purchasing the Gate Rings, Merlin considered buying the translator as well, but he decided not to since he didn’t need it at the moment. Though he could probably sell it for over tens of millions of Won in real life, in-game, Merlin currently had no use for it.

“Let’s see, next is… huh? What’s this cross?”

“I don’t want to explain. Just read the description.”

Since Ellen had a point when she said this, Merlin used his appraisal function.

“Oho, something that can revive you? It seems like it’s quite useful.”

“It’s expensive, though, so no one has purchased one in a while….”

“I should buy two just in case.”

“…?!”

Ellen was shocked at how effortlessly Merlin took gold from his money pocket and purchased the Revival Crosses. He wore a beginner-level robe and hat, but he was actually filthy rich? Additionally, until a moment ago, Merlin didn’t even know about currency conversion. It was clear that he hadn’t purchased his gold.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing. You seem rich.”

“Hahaha. I just happen to be a little fortunate.”

After amiably laughing, Merlin moved on to the next display, where he saw over a hundred cards being shown.

“These are…”

“Housing Cards. They’re personal residences that can be called upon at any moment. They’re basically a mobile home.”

“A mobile home….”

Merlin nodded and appraised one of the cards.

“Oh, they’re expensive.”

“In any case, they’re a convenient item. Most users dream of having one of these.”

“Really?”

Seeing that Merlin didn’t understand, Ellen nodded and explained, “It’ll be easier just to show you. John!”

“Yes, miss?”

“This card, can we borrow it for a moment?”

“As long as you return it, I see no issue.”

With that confirmation, Ellen picked out a card and showed it to Merlin. The front of the card had an image of a small cottage home, and the back showed a wooden door.

“Watch carefully.”

Ellen then threw the card up in the air.

Whoosh.

The card started spinning around rapidly like a spinning top, growing larger. Eventually, it reached the size of a full-fledged door before it stopped expanding. The door stood on the ground without any other support. As this occurred, Merlin squinted his eyes at the scene.

“Wait…”

“Right. Once you open the door….”

Ellen grasped the handle and opened the door. It was a normal door, a very normal door. It didn’t open through some elaborate magical spell or other hidden contraption; it was just a normal door.

“The house is within.”

From the outside, there was nothing behind the door, but once it was opened, Merlin could see a home laid out through the doorway. There were no windows, so it was a tad dark, but it was also completely hidden.

“Ah, so it’s not a real home. It’s… a space like my inventory.”

“Since it can accept live organisms, it’s closer to one of the bank’s personal storage units. However, this can be conjured anywhere and allow the user to rest, no matter the location. Furthermore…”

Ellen stepped through the door and closed it behind her. As she did so, the door started disintegrating until there was no sign of it left.

‘Did it disappear? The description stated that it couldn’t be located unless a high-level tracking spell was used. Since it can be found in the first place, it shouldn’t have completely vanished.’

“It becomes invisible to the naked eye. Of course, it would be better if everything just fully disappeared, but since there’s a living being inside, it can’t completely disappear.”

“An invisible door… wait, miss. Can you close the door behind you again?”

“Huh? Sure.”

Click. As soon as the door closed, it vanished. Then, Merlin extended his hand to where the door had been moments ago.

‘… I can feel it. It’s just invisible to the naked eye.’

Having thought this far, Merlin imbued his eyes with internal energy and utilized Enhanced Eyesight.

‘Then…’

Pat!

Anything that was weaker than him would be revealed with his Enhanced Eyesight.

‘I can see it.’

/Your Enhanced Eyesight skill has increased to rank 1!/

/You have acquired the title, ‘Far-Seeing Being!’/

/You have acquired the special skill, ‘Insightful Eyes!’/

“It’s great, right? This is a housing card- huh? What’s up with your eyes? They changed color.”

“Nothing. Anyway, even if the house isn’t visible, it’s not too useful if it can be touched, no?”

“That’s something the user needs to take care of.”

“I guess.”

If the door could be felt, the user could place it where no one would come across it. If it were set against a flat door or wall, it probably wouldn’t be discovered.

“There are many different types of houses.”

The Housing Cards were differentiated into types: D type, C type, B type, A type, and S type. The corresponding price was 20 gold, 40 gold, 80 gold, 160 gold, and 320 gold, respectively.

“Wait a second, 320 gold is 16 million Won? Why does an S type cost so much?”

“It’s the same type of housing. The only difference is the house’s size and durability.”

“Still, for the cost to be this much higher….”

This price went beyond a simple cash Item, something that could be purchased directly using outside money. While it was true that users would sometimes spend millions of Won to obtain in-game items from other players, Merlin had never heard of an in-game cash Item that cost this much. Since the Housing Card could be purchased with gold, it wasn’t exactly a cash Item, but because money could be converted to in-game currency, the concept was essentially the same.

‘Well, it doesn’t concern me.’

Merlin shook his head to clear his thoughts and picked up a Housing Card. In the end, having a Housing Card was helpful, and since he had such an extensive stash of gold, he felt that he needed to use some. An average person would have probably saved the gold and converted it into cash to deposit into their real-life bank account, but Merlin had grown up in a relatively affluent household, so he didn’t have such thoughts.

“Since D type is the cheapest, I should at least consider a C type… 40 gold….”

“Yes, 40 gold.”

Instead of using his money pocket, Merlin took out 40 gold from his inventory and handed it to John before he received his Housing Card.

‘Is gold really that hard to come by? Why is everyone staring whenever I purchase something? Two million Won isn’t exactly a small sum of money, but I’m sure there are many rich users, so I’m not spending that much, right?’

Merlin was thinking incorrectly. Although two million Won or about 1,600 USD wasn’t a small or large sum of money, 40 gold was considered a high amount. This line of thought was because in-game money was typically worth less than real-life money. If an in-game currency was worth more, who would spend money on that game? They’d probably play the game to make money and withdraw it.

Hence, in DIO, gold was something that many users didn’t come across until they advanced to the higher levels. Forty gold was already a decent amount in real life, so didn’t it make sense that it would be a large sum in-game? Again, since DIO users hadn’t played the game for a long time, the average user was poor.

Of course, there were probably users who were filthy rich in real-life, so they wouldn’t hesitate to exchange extensive amounts of real-life money for in-game currency. Yet, there were probably few of these people during the beta test. The game could be reset and rolled back to an earlier version at any time, so it was foolish to invest so much money at once. It was probable that there were more people mining gold and exchanging it for real-life money than the opposite. Anyway, since money could be converted to gold at any time, it was beneficial to hold off on any exchanges for now.

“Since we’ve gone through the second floor, shall we go up to the third?”

“What’s on the third floor?”

“A store that requires experience points rather than gold.”

“A store that requires experience points?”

As they made their way up, Merlin could see a large crowd busily moving about on the third floor. The number of users here was over twice the amount on the first and second floors combined. However, there were no displays or shelves like on the second floor.

“Ah, but my time is almost up.”

“Huh?”

“Uhm, let me briefly explain before I go. You can buy inventory and housing, special effects, gate organization and maintenance, and anything else related to maintenance on this floor. If you go up to any of the guides, they can explain in more detail.”

Feeling that there was a sense of finality in her words, Merlin spoke up.

“Are you leaving?”

“As I said, my time is up. Oh, it just ended. If you have any additional questions, visit me on the first floor.”

Poof.

And with that, she vanished. Merlin looked around, but he couldn’t sense her. It was only then that Merlin realized that the Ellen he had been talking to was a clone.