29
The next morning.
"Haaaa."
Baek Woo-jin, who had just woken up, checked the time on the smartphone he had placed at his bedside. He was sure he had set an alarm, but the smartphone's screen showed it was almost time for lunch.
"I really can't do this a second time."
Even though it had taken from last evening until this morning, he patted his still-stuffed stomach lightly and left his room for the living room.
"I made kimchi stew. Serve yourself some rice and eat."
"Stew."
At Mrs. Jang's words as she sat on the sofa watching TV, Baek Woo-jin went to the kitchen and slightly lifted the pot lid.
The mouth-watering smell stimulated his salivary glands, making his mouth water.
"Mom."
"Yeah?"
"Did you not put meat in?"
He had clearly sent plenty of pork home through Baek A-yeon yesterday. Yet all he could see inside the pot were well-fermented kimchi and tofu.
"I did. I put it in, but it seems our little pig ate it all."
"……."
His appetite hadn't been great due to the magic potions he'd drunk—more bottles than he could remember—but he had still intended to eat at least one ladleful for Mrs. Jang's sake. That intention completely vanished.
"I'm heading out in a bit."
"Again?"
"I'm a public servant."
"What kind of public servant goes to work past noon?"
"I'm fine with it."
After washing up quickly, Baek Woo-jin immediately threw open the door to his one and only younger sister's room.
"W-what?!"
Baek A-yeon, who had been lying on her bed doing something on her laptop, hastily closed the laptop and sprang up.
"Were you watching porn?"
"Are!! You crazy?!"
"Well, you're at that age too."
"I was not!!"
-Kids, I can't hear the TV.
At Mrs. Jang's gentle warning, both Baek Woo-jin and Baek A-yeon killed their voices and glared at each other.
"You'd better take responsibility and eat all the stew."
"What are you talking about? I never leave food anyway."
"Then how come you only picked out the meat?"
"Maybe someone shouldn't have slept in."
It was hard to blame anyone else since it was an action I chose to take, but I couldn't stop the urge to give her a knuckle sandwich.
Of course, it remained just a thought and wasn't put into action.
"Keep things this clean from now on too."
-Mom cleaned it~
"……."
"What, why, what."
It was the moment the intention to buy her macarons—I couldn't buy them yesterday—on the way back completely disappeared.
"Finish what you were doing."
"I was not!!"
"What were you doing."
"T-there's just... stuff like that!"
"Anyway, I'm leaving."
"Wait!"
Baek Woo-jin, who was about to close the door, poked only his head through the gap and looked at his sister.
"What."
"...Are you okay?"
"About what?"
"Ugh, yesterday... If it's because of me─"
"You still think that after seeing what happened yesterday?"
"No, I heard they said those people are in a guild too."
A small guild with a total of 27 members that registered as a guild 5 years ago.
And it wasn't like they had an A-rank hunter or awakener either.
Most were C-rank, and the guild master had supposedly succeeded in promoting to B-rank in June of last year.
"Oppa is a civil servant at the Association."
"But the Association just cleans up after guilds, right."
"Hey. Would you say that when your oppa works there?"
"But it's a fact, right?"
He was about to punch her but then shook his head and let out a small laugh.
Seeing her regain her spirit, it seemed there was no need to worry too much.
"I looked into it and the guild is nothing special."
"Really?"
"Yeah. And they'll probably kick those guys from the guild too, so tell your friends from yesterday."
"Get out."
"I was trying to leave, who's the one stopping m─"
"Getoutgetoutgetoutgetout!!"
He caught the pillow that came flying at him, threw it back at Baek A-yeon, and closed the door as he left.
"Did something happen yesterday?"
"She takes after our Mrs. Jang, so her beauty is no joke."
"This kid."
Mrs. Jang laughed happily and lightly hit his forearm.
"Some weird guys were hanging around her, so I warned them off properly."
"Good job. These days if kids get harassed and stuff, it's a big deal."
"They're all grown up, though?"
"Kid. Then instead of words, you should've beaten some sense into them with your fists."
"Ouch."
Baek Woo-jin sat on the sofa for a while, taking Mrs. Jang's pattering punches, then moved to his room to slowly get ready to head out.
"Skill testing was mostly finished last night."
He had tried all the weapons the Association lent out, so today he planned to visit several workshops of the Blacksmith Guild to look at a wider variety of weapons.
The Artisan Guild in Yongsan gathered artisans with various non-combat skills, but among those diverse artisans, the only ones missing were those with blacksmith-related skills.
It wasn't because of bad relationships or anything like that.
It was simply that the minimum workshop size required by the blacksmith profession was at least 5 times larger compared to alchemy or tailoring, so they themselves must have felt a bit guilty and voluntarily stepped out.
Bzzz.
Just as he was about to leave, putting on his coat, the smartphone in his pocket vibrated timidly.
[Heo Sang-min: Hunter-nim?]
They didn't communicate that frequently, but Heo Sang-min's conversation patterns were very standardized, as expected of a civil servant, so it wasn't difficult to figure out.
[Me: This is him.]
[Heo Sang-min: I haven't said anything yet?]
[Me: Aren't you contacting me because of Park Do-yoon?]
[Heo Sang-min: Telepathy?]
Telepathy or whatever—he had immediately requested information about Park Do-yoon and his gang yesterday, and last night something very bad had happened in the life of a man named Park Do-yoon, so being named as the prime suspect was only natural.
Of course, he hadn't left any evidence, and Heo Sang-min would have kept the transfer of information about Park Do-yoon's gang a secret, so there was no way he'd get caught.
[Me: I cut off their ability to retaliate against my sister and her friends, while also testing the skill I obtained from the rune stone.]
[Heo Sang-min: I see. Thank you for being honest.]
[Me: I'm the one who's sorry for acting without consulting you first.]
[Heo Sang-min: Not at all. I fully understand since it concerned your sister. I didn't hear the details, but I heard nothing was caught on CCTV and no clues about the culprit have emerged.]
[Me: It was impulsive, but I'm well aware I'm in a position receiving investment.]
If he hadn't obtained the 'Night Walk' skill in the first place, he wouldn't have even thought about solving it personally.
[Heo Sang-min: I heard he was found in a corner of his apartment's underground parking lot with both knees shattered. It seems you've acquired a stealth-related skill. Congratulations.]
[Me: I was going to share information about the skill anyway, even without you probing. My value needs to increase for me to receive larger investments.]
[Heo Sang-min: How embarrassing.]
As long as the other side didn't break trust first, he intended to share as much information as possible. The thoughts of the higher-ups could change at any time, so he wasn't really expecting much. Just.
[Heo Sang-min: High magic consumption, but complete stealth at night. Depending on how it's utilized, it's truly amazing. That's why I'm saying this—it would be better if I report that it blocks sound during both day and night.]
[Me: I'll leave that to your judgment, Deputy.]
[Heo Sang-min: I'll have to work hard to repay Hunter-nim's trust. Then I'll contact you again when there's good news.]
He just trusted the individual named Heo Sang-min, whom he had judged to be a decent person after seeing and dealing with him directly.
"Ah."
Baek Woo-jin, who was about to put his smartphone away, took it out again and contacted Heo Sang-min.
[Me: Please deposit 500 for the emotional damages.]
[Heo Sang-min: I'll send it within 10 minutes.]
High trust, after all, comes from clean financial transactions.
**
"Damn."
Baek Woo-jin, crouching on the ground like a city youth on a weekend farming experience, drove the dagger he was holding into the grassy field and swept up his sweat-soaked bangs.
A month had passed since he obtained the skill called Night Walk.
He had visited several Blacksmith Guild locations, but the results were more disappointing than expected.
It wasn't that their skills were disappointing.
The places with decent prices and name value only accepted custom orders, so the variety of weapons he could immediately get his hands on was very limited.
And he had already tried all of those limited weapons at the Association.
In the end, he placed a custom order for the sword he had used the longest and was most comfortable with, and the one now tied at his waist was the one that had cleanly drained the bank balance Heo Sang-min had filled up.
Of course, with a better sword, his hunting efficiency also increased, and his earnings grew significantly, so the bank account that had gotten thin was now restored to a slightly plump level.
However, the reason Baek Woo-jin sighed wasn't because he couldn't find the weapon he wanted, and it definitely wasn't because he lacked money.
"It won't give me even one. Just one."
The reason Baek Woo-jin sighed was because of the red portion of the gem, which had only a sliver remaining.
The period it had maintained this state was a full two weeks.
That's right. For two weeks, without missing a single day, he had roamed E-rank dungeons, killing every monster in sight and gutting them all, yet the mana stones that had occasionally appeared had suddenly dried up like a drought, not showing themselves even once in those two weeks.
"Screw this."
The number of monsters he had killed in two weeks was in the four digits.
At this point, he had done enough.
In the past, he had lacked the ability and was pushed out in the competition for spots, forcing him to grind time, but now the situation had changed.
'I should have just bought one earlier.'
It was so painful that his stomach ached over the time he had poured in for two weeks just to get one mana stone.
Calming his aching stomach, Baek Woo-jin left the dungeon with his heavy bag, dropped off the settlement at the management office, and took out his smartphone to contact Heo Sang-min about purchasing mana stones while catching his breath for a moment.
"Jang Hye-na?"
A message had come from the quite excellent tanker he had connected with when he first went down to Busan.
-Hello?
"You said to contact you."
-Ah, yes! Baek Woo-jin hunter?
"It's been a while."
-It has. You're doing well, right?
"For now. More importantly, why the contact?"
His head was already full of mana stones, so Baek Woo-jin was planning to end the call quickly unless it was something really important.
-By any chance, are you planning to challenge the Tower that's opening this time?
But the words that came out of Jang Hye-na's mouth were a topic too interesting to just pass over.
"I am, but."
-If you're okay with it, would you like to enter together?
"I don't mind. But does it have much significance?"
The entrance to the Tower is one. And the ranks of the awakeners entering the Tower are all different. However, it's not called a special dungeon for nothing.
The Tower surprisingly accurately distinguishes the ranks of the entering awakeners and sends them to floors with difficulty appropriate for each.
-The floors are divided by rank, but when there are many people, those floors are further divided into zones, right? But I heard that if you enter holding hands, the probability of being dropped in the same zone increases significantly.
"From whom?"
-Our guild master.
"Then you could go with your guild members... Ah, you don't have any."
-Yes. I'm the only one entering the Tower this year.
"Then go ahead."
-Really? Really? Really?
"Yes."
It was sorry for Jang Hye-na, but since their ranks were different, even if they entered holding hands, it was impossible to meet her according to the Tower's system.
'If I can gain favor with something like this, it's a gain.'
It might seem close to fraud, but that was Jang Hye-na's fault for contacting first without asking what rank he was, so he had no intention of going out of his way to tell her.
-Oh, and I heard from my sister that Baek Woo-jin hunter needs mana stones to use skills. Is that true?
"It's nice to have them."
-That's a relief. Actually, my brother seems to have gained some sense after that incident. He kept muttering about wanting to repay Baek Woo-jin hunter somehow, and a few days ago he brought a mana stone he got while hunting.
The words to meet right now almost came up to his throat, but Baek Woo-jin barely swallowed them.
-I'll give it to you when we meet.
"Then let's have a simple meal tomorrow."
-Tomorrow? But you live in Seoul, Baek Woo-jin hunter.
"I got a job in Busan."
-Really? Where? No, never mind. Are you busy today? Tomorrow I don't have time because of guild work.
Baek Woo-jin quietly took the smartphone away from his ear and checked the train tickets.
"Then let's meet this evening."
Whether it was fortunate or not, he succeeded in booking a train ticket departing in 30 minutes.