Episode 3. You Can Eat This Too?
“Is that really all you need?”
Having heard Sindae’s proposal, I Yeongjin looked at Sindae with a bewildered expression.
“Yes, if you give me two of those, I’ll come out every day I’m off from school.”
At Sindae’s proposal, Yeongjin stroked his chin.
‘If it’s just that much….’
The very first proposal Sindae had made to Yeongjin was that he wanted to face new monsters every time he went to work.
Since his stats didn’t rise even when he ate the same monster meat, Sindae wanted to consume meat by facing as many different monsters as possible.
“First, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about the first proposal.”
Collection Team 1 entered important dungeons owned by the guild, but Collection Team 2 traveled across the country and faced different monsters every day.
“And was your second proposal that you wanted to obtain even a little monster meat?”
“It doesn’t even have to be much; I think one geun should do.”
Watching Sindae request 600 grams, Yeongjin stroked his chin.
‘Just where would he use those useless things….’
Even in the case of the Melon Cows they were currently collecting, after separating the magic stones and hides, the meat was scheduled to be incinerated.
“I can allow it, but is that really all you need?”
“That’s enough.”
Watching Sindae smirk, Yeongjin nodded.
“For my part… I’m glad to have a skilled technician like Mr. Sindae, but… then I’ll triple your daily wage. I should at least do this much for you.”
“Triple?”
The daily wage Sindae was set to receive today was 100,000 won.
When Sindae spoke in slight surprise at Yeongjin’s words that he would give him 300,000 won, Yeongjin smiled as if it was no big deal.
“All technicians get paid about that much.”
The two technicians currently under him received 250,000 won, but giving a capable technician like Sindae 50,000 more was not regrettable at all.
“Then understood, Foreman.”
“Shall we get back to work, then?”
***
“Doesn’t it feel like work finished really quickly today?”
“Right…. We always worked overtime after dinner; what happened?”
“Hmph… and there was more than usual today, too.”
‘J… jackpot….’
5:44 PM.
Yeongjin looked at his watch and opened his eyes wide.
“I’ve discovered a jackpot talent.”
Yeongjin looked at Sindae, who was wiping the blood off his knife beside him.
Putting aside the fact that the work speed had doubled since Sindae’s appearance, he had achieved the feat of collecting 200 top-grade Melon Cow hides.
‘E… even Team 1 can’t do this much….’
Since even Collection Team 1 couldn’t harvest this much at this speed, he looked at Sindae with even more surprised eyes.
“I want to eat this quickly….”
Putting Yeongjin, who was looking at him with surprised eyes, behind him, Sindae could think of nothing but tasting the Melon Cow meat.
‘I wonder which stats it’ll raise….’
Since it was a 3-star dungeon, Sindae was happily imagining which of the three stats would rise.
***
[Skill: Gluttony has reacted. Agility has increased by 3.]
“I’m full….”
Sindae looked at the message that appeared before him with satisfaction and rubbed his full belly.
He looked at the salad bowl before him and smirked.
‘I didn’t know this was possible.’
To make a salad, Sindae had tried mixing lettuce with Melon Cow meat grilled using [Dwarves’ Exciting and Cheerful Meat-Grilling Skill] and eating it.
The meat and vegetables were so full of melon fragrance that no salad dressing was necessary, and he smirked at the thought.
“It was delicious.”
Sindae, who had been thinking about the Melon Cow salad, glanced over when his cell phone rang.
‘A call on my phone, which I use as an expensive watch?’
Since not even loan solicitation calls came in, when Sindae checked who was calling and saw the name, he smirked.
“What did Hyeonu call for?”
Bak Hyeonu had lived in the same neighborhood since they were young.
They had enlisted together and been judged as Awakened together, but Bak Hyeonu, who had been judged an A-rank Awakened, was now affiliated with the large guild ‘Changcheon.’
[Hey, what’s up?]
When Sindae answered the phone, his old friend’s voice came through the receiver.
[Yo, I heard you joined the Osiris Guild?]
[Huh? I didn’t join.]
[What do you mean you didn’t join? The guild intelligence agents already reported that you entered the collection team there.]
As expected of a large guild—the information that Sindae had merely entered Osiris as day labor had spread to Changcheon. Sindae made a slightly surprised expression.
‘So this is what a large guild is like?’
[Why’d you go there? If you need money, you should’ve told me. I can hook you up with a few sweet gigs.]
[That’s what I’m saying. I should’ve contacted you from the start.]
Since he had been a promising member even in Changcheon, he would definitely have been able to find an easy spot on a collection team for Sindae.
‘That would be meaningless.’
In a situation where he needed to obtain meat from dungeons with the highest possible rank to quickly raise his stats, easy 1-star or 2-star dungeons lacked efficiency.
[Then break the contract there and come over here. I’ll make sure you get 500,000 a day, too.]
[A man has his pride; how could I break a promise and go there? And the work here is easy, so I’m fine.]
[If you say so… but didn’t you quit being a Hunter?]
[I just…..]
Hyeonu sighed at his friend’s evasive answer.
[Anyway, got it. And from now on, if something like this happens, tell me first, okay?]
Sindae smirked at his friend’s final words before hanging up.
***
Sindae, who had worked as a day laborer in various dungeons with Collection Team 2 whenever he had time for a month.
He looked at his stats and smiled contentedly.
Strength: 76
Agility: 73
Stamina: 50
Mana: 30
Over the past month, Sindae had done collection work in ten 5-star dungeons and even five 6-star dungeons.
Since 5-star and 6-star dungeons featured several types of monsters rather than just one, he was able to raise his stats quickly.
‘Just a little more.’
The goal he had aimed for: all stats at 100.
Since he had excluded Mana from the start, Sindae thought he would be able to meet the goal soon.
“Hmph… I guess Mr. Sindae is a man who brings in work… Only on days when Mr. Sindae comes do we enter high-rank dungeons.”
At Yeongjin’s words, Sindae smirked.
In this 6-star dungeon, the guild’s top brass, who had been surprised by Collection Team 2’s harvest performance, assigned them the task of collecting a boss monster’s corpse.
“A boss monster, huh….”
[6-Star Dungeon: Emerald Elephant Dungeon.]
Since the Emerald Elephant meat collected from here yesterday had raised his Stamina by 6, Sindae was walking toward the boss room without a thought.
‘There’s nothing different just because it’s a boss monster, right?’
Arriving at the boss room, Sindae and Collection Team 2 discovered a golden elephant the size of a small shopping mall lying dead.
“Whoa… this thing won’t suddenly come back to life and attack us, will it?”
“But how on earth did they kill such a huge monster?”
Though it was dead, the collection team members appeared intimidated by its gigantic size.
He shook his head at the sight of the intimidated team and looked at the golden elephant.
‘How are we supposed to move this….’
As he was worrying about how to collect it, he discovered Sindae beside him worrying about the same thing and smirked.
“Mr. Sindae, how do you think we should move this?”
“I think we’ll have to dismantle it to move it? Or maybe it would be better to separately collect just the magic stones and hides here and butcher it on the spot?”
“I guess we should, right?”
Since the raid party ahead had already collected the important rune stones and equipment items, all they had to do was collect the hides and magic stones and take the bones.
“Then please take care of that again this time too, Mr. Sindae.”
“It’s a bit big, so I think it’ll take some time.”
Sindae shrugged his shoulders at Yeongjin’s words, then stuck his butcher knife into the golden elephant and began butchering.
As he butchered, he opened his eyes wide at the fact that saliva was gradually pooling in his mouth.
‘Wait, saliva is pooling?’
Pooling saliva meant the Gluttony skill could be used.
A shocking message appeared before the surprised Sindae, who hadn’t known whether the skill would even work on a boss monster.
[You may use the Gluttony skill on the butchering target.]
‘Good heavens… so it works on boss monsters too?’
When he glanced to the side, he discovered Collection Team 2 preparing to get some sleep until he finished skinning the hide.
He cut off a bit of meat from the elephant’s rib section and tried eating it, then opened his eyes wide at the message that appeared before him.
[You have consumed the meat of a high-grade monster.]
[Stamina has increased by 15.]
“F… fifteen?”
Startled by the situation where his stat had increased by as much as 15 points, Sindae nearly dropped his knife for a moment.
He looked again at the message saying his Stamina had risen by 15 points.
‘Giving 15 points is more than I’d get from gaining a level….’
Despite the fishy taste of the meat in his mouth because he hadn’t used a cooking skill, Sindae found the corners of his mouth rising before he knew it.
Whereas normal 6-star monsters gave 6 stats, the boss monster was giving 15.
“Mr. Sindae, is there a problem?”
“The hide is a bit tough.”
When Sindae stopped working, Yeongjin looked at him quizzically, and Sindae simply smirked.
‘So boss monsters raise stats even more….’
If he ate just ten 6-star boss monsters, he would obtain stats amounting to 150.
In terms of levels, it was an astounding amount equivalent to raising 15 levels.
‘From now on, I should focus on eating boss monsters rather than regular ones.’
Having decided what to do from now on, Sindae felt the corners of his mouth rise unconsciously.
“Um, Foreman, when did you say the next boss monster collection job would come in?”
Watching the scene where the hides were being stripped and the other collection teams were starting to butcher, Sindae subtly asked Yeongjin. Yeongjin frowned.
“Well… it’s our team’s first time with a boss monster too… I don’t know how that will go….”
“Is that so?”
Sindae had been planning to take a leave of absence from school if he went to collect boss monsters again next time.
At the words that he didn’t know when he would enter to collect a boss monster again, he let out a sigh.
“Don’t worry anyway. How often could something like this happen?”
Thinking Sindae had sighed because the work was difficult, Yeongjin smiled, and Sindae could only nod.
‘I don’t really want to enter a dungeon yet, though….’
Since he had not yet reached his target stats, Sindae was reluctant to enter dungeons.
“What should I do about this….”