Chapter 37 - A Mirror?

Chapter 37. A Mirror?

“Take care, goodbye.”

“Ah, yes… … .”

After that, Baek Hwi-soo tried to persuade him by giving out the conditions he had prepared. But Do-jun was immovable.

Even if he pushed with more conditions than he had prepared, Do-join still wouldn’t budge.

Eventually, his shoulders, which had to return without any success, drooped. He looked too shabby for an A-class hunter and a team leader of a highly popular  guild.

How much would his colleagues laugh at him when he came out and said that he couldn’t attract a new recruit? A sigh automatically released.

“Let’s stop, uncle.”

Hwang Hyun-woo nodded and brought him out.

“Oh, wait.”

“Yes?”

At that time, Do-joon caught Hwang Hyun-woo.

“If it’s okay, how about having a drink later?”

“Drink? I’m welcome!”

Hwang Hyun-woo still wanted to continue his relationship with Do-joon. There was no way to reject the offer.

“See you later then“.

“Yeah! Let’s look for a good place.”

* * *

That evening.

Do-joon and Hwang Hyun-woo met again, while headed to a gopchang restaurant.

They sat down at a round table outside the store and ordered on the menu.

Chug― Chug―

The two people drank a glass of wine while grilling the soon-to-be grilled tripe over the charcoal.

The cold soju ran down his throat. He felt like he was awakened by the alcohol he hadn’t drank in so long.

“It’s surprising.”

“What?”

“I can’t believe you’re offering me a drink first.”

It’s Hwang Hyun-woo, who talks a lot. As soon as a drink went in, more words came out.

Do-joon ate a piece of gopchang and said,

“I’m thinking about asking you one more time about what you said before.”

“Good.”

“Huh?”

Do-joon was rather stunned by the immediate response without any worries.

“Do you remember what we were talking about?”

“Hang on. At that time…….”

Hwang Hyun-woo took a drink heavily as if it were a supplement to find his memories.

Puawwhh!

He put the glass down and spoke.

“What was it.. Oh! You were telling me to sell the failed ones, right?”

“Yes I did.”

“I’ll sell it. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t listen to a single thing between us!”

Hwang Hyun-woo gave a strange look at Do-joon while saying that it was between them. Anyway, it seemed that the grass would die quite a bit if he said, ‘What’s between us?’

However, Do-joon did not say much. He didn’t have the personality to be strict with words.

“But can I ask you to do one more thing for me then?”

“What is it?”

“I want you to hide that I’m the one who bought them.”

It was not something too difficult. He was not going to leak it elsewhere anyway. Do-joon was going to make use of them using his copy skill.

“I promise.”

“But I’ll have nothing to do with them anymore. Those things would have probably been melted and used as miscellaneous iron later, so can’t I just give it to you for free?”

Hwang Hyun-woo spoke as if he was screaming, but Do-joon shook his head at those words. He was old enough to know that there was nothing free in society.

“You don’t have to do that. I will pay for it.”

“Well, it’s good if I sell it for money.”

It would be nice to receive it for free right now, but it would definitely creak soon.

Fair trade was the key to maintaining a healthy relationship.

“There wasn’t there a lot of armor?”’

Do-joon smirked. A large number of items with a negative defense option.

Now, if there is money, a route to airlift them has been pioneered.

It may not be as much as non-regenerable, but lowering the defense will also be of considerable help when killing a boss.

“Brother, have a drink.”

“Thanks.“

Giving and sharing with the table in between, and the drinking party ended happily for both of them.

* * *

Next day.

Do-joon freed up a little money and bought a few pieces of Hwang Hyun-woo’s failed works that looked worthwhile.

And each option was copied according to the weapon’s option.

[Knife]

[Additional option]

– Defense -127

[Knife]

[Additional option]

– Agility -12Lv

Etc. Etc.

The result was this. Knives that cut defense or slow down.

On the surface, it was just an ordinary knife, but it looked really ridiculously awful to Do-joon’s eyes.

Each one of these could possibly be the card that could reverse a battle.

‘There’s no other shaman.’

What he meant was that he was not a black wizard and he was just fully equipped with debuff skills… Well, unlike skills, they were consumables, so he should use them sparingly.

‘Unregenerable…… Do I have seven of them left?’

It was a pity that the number was decreasing, although it was still plenty enough.

He sometimes checked the market and searched for non-regenerable items, but there were no such items for sale.

Perhaps most of them were broken while using them themselves, so he thought they didn’t have them.

‘I’ll put it on the bulletin board saying I’m looking for one, maybe someday I’ll hear about it.’

He had another post that he wrote, so let’s trust it and wait.

While organizing the curse daggers he had, Do-joon checked his condition.

First of all, his fit rate reached 40%. Considering that B-class usually starts at 45%, it was still a bit ambiguous. He needed to work a little harder.

Second, various additional options including ice core. There are additional attack power and defense, as well as several additional stats, and buff skills copied from the potions.

Third, the equipment he has. There is a thunderbolt, which he had been using a lot lately, and the holy axe, which has been pushed back for quite a bit now.

There were transparent gloves made from the hide of a glass snake and other common equipment. With even the cursed daggers made from penalty items.

‘There are so many things.’

It’s kind of funny to talk about it as if it’s someone else’s business, but there were a lot of this and that.

That was a good sign. This meant there were many cards that could be used soon.

And lastly, the skill that he got yesterday.

[Additional option]

– Skill: Shear Shader’s Thorn

That was a skill which was copied from Skill Rune and said to be the original copy of the shadow binding.

The skill that he was looking forward to the most.

‘How long is the cooldown of the Orc Labyrinth?’

Like a child who received a new toy as a gift, Do-joon wanted to test it right away.

* * *

After a few days passed.

While the cooldown of the Orc Labyrinth completed, Do-joon devoted himself to store work. He was particularly eager to teach Siewellin.

Perhaps it was worth it, as now Siewellin can do shop work alone to some extent.

“Will you be okay alone?”

Tap tap.

Siewellin pounded her chest as if she were saying to leave it to her. She seemed motivated, but his anxiety did not go away.

But is it true that he can’t be by her side forever… … .

“Then I ask you to do it. I’ll go to the labyrinth.”

「”Have a safe trip.”」

Holding the now-familiar Welcome Card, she saw Do-joon off.

[You have entered the “Middle Orc Kingdom”.]

As always, the scenery changed with a flash in front of his eyes.

His body in the store was instantly thrown into a wide meadow.

Do-joon looked around once more. This time, he decided to go to Dolsan Mountain, which could be seen far away.

After walking for some time, Do-joon soon encountered a group of orcs.

There was nothing unusual because the orcs were scattered all over the place without having to find them separately.

‘I have collected and sold poison bags, and copied the weapons that the Named ones were holding into my body.’

Do-joon calmly thought about what to do.

He was thinking mostly about the rewards even before killing them.

“Kooooooooh!”

A horde of orcs running toward him. Pointing the spear at them, Do-joon used the long-awaited skill, Shear Shader’s thorn.

Munchle.

A black bubble rose from Do-joon’s shadow. Coming up to the shoulder area, it soon turned into the shape of a small thorn.

‘This… … .’

As a small black thorn appeared, Do-joon could feel it. The fact that nearby shadows came under his control.

The range was still narrow. Only those in the front line among the groups of orcs who were approaching from away were within range.

Soon, Do-joon’s volition raised.

Whoooosh!

From the shadows of the orcs in the front line, long and thin skewers protruded, each piercing their masters.

There were no wounds. It wasn’t a physical phenomenon.

“Kue?”

However, the orcs stabbed by their shadows instantly stiffened. As they were running hard, their body hardened, and they had no way to hold out. All the orcs in the line fell to the ground.

“Kku-uh!”

The second and third rows also tumbled from the chain reaction, and it soon became a mess.

When they were so tangled up, Do-joon threw the thunderbolt.

Zhiiinng!

The spear that flew wildly struck the group of orcs directly.

Originally, he had to retreat back and blow one shot at a time, but using the thorns, he didn’t have to.

Do-joon was able to subdue the whole group of Orcs just by throwing the spear on the spot.

Unlike when hunting while running away, Do-joon was stunned to see the bodies laying pretty and neatly.

‘Isn’t it completely different from the skill I was subjected to?’

The shadow binding he had suffered was just a brief ankle grab.

However, this can cause not only to stop the body of one completely, but it can also stop multiple enemies at a time.

Far from being the same skill, it was not even that similar. It was safe to say that this was a completely different skill.

‘It said it was the original… … .’

Original and copy.

Perhaps what was mass-produced based on this Shear Shader’s thorn skill was the shadow binding skill.

It’s understandable that the original was stronger, but he didn’t know it would be this different.….

It was a pleasant miscalculation for Do-joon, who only expected it to be an enhanced version of Shadow Bind.

Do-joon tried this and that while dealing with all the orcs he encountered.

‘The more I widen the range, the faster my mana use increases exponentially. It’s possible to bind only once…….’

The maximum range of this skill available right now was by no means wide. However, quite a lot of mana was consumed just to bind the not-so-wide range.

The most efficient way was to pinpoint and knock down only the few in the front.

Since, they were so clustered and lumped together that just doing so made the formation messed up.

After doing that, he treated them with the thunderbolt, and Do-joon moved towards Dolsan Mountain without difficulty.

‘The Orc Labyrinth would still be in the lower B-class.’

Judging by the fit rate, it was about the level of difficulty.

He felt that he was becoming stronger again. He couldn’t believe that in a B-class dungeon was this easy, even if it was an F-class dungeon.

Of course, the thunderbolt’s performance accounts for a huge portion, but what about it? It’s his own equipment, so isn’t it his own strength, right.

‘By the way, why is this place so big?’

Do-joon, sitting on the top of Dolsan Mountain, looked around the nearby surroundings.

Wherever he looked, he could not see anything other than a wide meadow and rocks. And also a bunch of Orcs.

‘There is no unusual terrain for a boss to exist.’

Until now, there has been a special place for each labyrinth.

Catacomb’s boss room had a large door and the elemental island had a snowy mountain in the center of the island. There was an underground chapel in the temple that brought Siewellin.

However, the terrain that could be said to be special here did not stand out at all.

‘It may take a while to find the boss.’

He didn’t want to spend too much time exploring just because of a fairly useful place for collecting items. He still got a whole lot of experience out of it.

However, it seemed that it would take some time to clear.

* * *

Do-joon wandered around the meadow for a while but couldn’t find the boss. Having almost finished hunting, he returned home.

Two days later.

While looking at the store with Siewellin, Do-joon’s cell phone rang.

<Jeong Da-Jeong, Wonsan Hospital>

‘Miss Da-jeong?’

Do-joon’s heart sank in an instant when he checked the screen.

A phone call from a place where a sick child was hospitalized has always been a subject of fear.

Do-joon answered the phone quickly.

“Hello?”

– Oh, So-eun’s father!

Jeong Da-jeong’s voice seems urgent at first glance. Do-joon quickly asked what was wrong.

Then the answer came.

– I think So-eun has awakened!!

“… … What?”

It was totally unexpected.

Do-joon’s eyes widened to the size of a candle. His heart started beating in a different way than before.

“Is that really true?”

– Real, it’s real! At first, I thought I saw it wrong, but she just pulled out a white mirror from the empty air! Isn’t this inventory or something?

“… … A mirror?”

The word “white mirror” instantly drew the situation. That was probably Siewellin’s mirror. She didn’t really get awoken.

– So-eun was bragging about her magic trick.… Until she did it like a real magic prodigy, this has to be an awakening!

“Hold on! Did So-eun get sick or get involved in a bad accident?”

– An accident? No, nothing happened.

“Whew-”

Do-joon sweeps down his chest.

Siewellin told him that the mirror appears on its own when it is in a bad situation and helps So-eun.

But fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“I’ll come to you right away.”

– Yeah, please hurry up!

Do-joon, who had calmed down, spoke in a calm tone. Jeong Da-jeong, who does not know the truth, was still fussy.

– Oh right. And recently, the doctor started talking about discharge. I think it would be good to ask that, too.

“Okay. Then see you later.”

– Yes. Hurry up, and come quickly!

Drrrpp.

The phone hung up like that. Do-joon shoved his cell phone into his pocket and told Siwellin.

“Let’s close the store for a while and go to the hospital.”