Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Minseo looked up at Hyunseok with a face full of awe.
“Wow… just one decision from you, and everything changes like this.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you actually expect all this to happen?”
“Hmm… to some extent?”
He had expected some of it.
“Then all these changes are basically in your favor, right?”
“You could say that.”
“But who are those ten people who said they wouldn’t hand theirs over? Ugh, what jerks!”
“Everyone has their reasons.”
Hyunseok chuckled lightly. It wasn’t as if that money was a big deal to him anyway, and he didn’t want to get hung up on every little thing. Sure, some mocked him for not even claiming his own share, but every time he saw such comments, Hyunseok just smiled faintly.
They said it was worth at least 15 billion won, but to him, that wasn’t much. For that amount, he had gained the people’s trust and admiration. Even top-tier Slayers were astonished and voiced their support for his decision. If he’d managed to earn that level of goodwill with money he hadn’t even expected to get, it was a bargain.
Minseo, meanwhile, had been secretly scouring the internet for negative comments about him, leaving replies like “You awful people who don’t know anything! I’ll hate you forever!” though, of course, she did that without Hyunseok knowing.
But Hyunseok didn’t mind any of it. It wasn’t as though he was wasting money recklessly. He planned to use it to support other Slayers and young students in training. He wasn’t a saint, nor endlessly kind, but hearing all the praise around him…
This feeling… not bad at all.
At least, it wasn’t unpleasant. Maybe this was what people meant when they talked about “honor.”
Then the doorbell rang. Minseo scampered over to check, it was Kim Yeonsu. Hyunseok stood up to greet him.
“Ah… Mr. Kim Yeonsu.”
The first thing Yeonsu did when he came in was apologize. He said the situation should have been fixed much earlier and that he was sorry it took so long to set things right, and he said it with surprising firmness.
After some conversation, Hyunseok asked,
“Was it your wife who told you to do this again?”
Yeonsu’s face turned pale, almost ashen with fear.
“I nearly got divorced over this.”
His voice fell immediately. The big, rough-looking man slumped his shoulders so much that Minseo looked at him with pity. He even looked like he might cry, though he didn’t quite.
“She said I just threw away two hundred million won…”
“Ah… I see how that could happen.”
Yeonsu muttered under his breath, barely audible.
“…It was terrifying…”
Apparently, Kim Yeonsu might be an exceptional defense-type Slayer, but at home, he was completely under his wife’s thumb. From her perspective, it made sense; he had basically thrown away two hundred million won that could’ve been theirs without lifting a finger.
Hyunseok said,
“Well, I can understand her. She’s the one managing the household finances, after all…”
Yeonsu lowered his head.
“Yes… thank you for saying that. And I’m sorry. Honestly, you’re like my benefactor, Hyunseok.”
Just then, Hyunseok’s phone rang, it was Myunghoon. Apologizing, he took the call. Myunghoon said he had discovered a new dungeon. Apparently, even after getting trapped in the last one, he’d already gone out searching again. A real eccentric, through and through.
Hyunseok said,
“Well… it’s not really a reward, but… would you like to join this slaying?”
This wasn’t like the Cyclops hunt. Dungeons Myunghoon could find with his search skill weren’t much of a threat to Hyunseok. For massive monsters like the Cyclops, it was better to go solo and protect others, but for normal-mode dungeons, teamwork was more efficient.
And Yeonsu was a top-tier defense-type Slayer, perfect for protecting Minseo and Pyeonghwa.
“Really?”
Yeonsu lifted his head, eyes wide, then suddenly looked solemn.
“I’ll forfeit all rewards, no questions asked. Contribution points don’t matter either. I just want to see how a Platinum Slayer fights and clears a dungeon firsthand.”
He looked completely sincere, his jaw clenched. He didn’t seem to care about rewards at all, clearly, he had a firm conviction about things like this.
No wonder his wife nags him so much.
Hyunseok smirked. Yeonsu went on passionately about how he’d never freeload off others or live by taking advantage of people. The shy, sheepish man from earlier was gone, replaced by an idealistic firebrand.
A few days passed. As promised, Kim Yeonsu joined Hyunseok’s guild as a defense-type Slayer.
Then, twelve days later, breaking news filled every channel in Korea.
[Breaking News Headlines]
❋ ❋ ❋
Hyunseok soon learned something new.
I expected new types of dungeons to start appearing… but this? Another new type already, and we’re not even in Hard Mode yet.
Thanks to Hyunseok, Myunghoon’s exploration skills had leveled up fast. He had discovered another hidden dungeon, one completely different from any before. The cycle continued: powerful Slayers grew stronger faster, while weaker ones fell further behind.
Even though low-level Slayers could make a living by hunting lesser monsters, Hyunseok’s early worry, the widening gap between the strong and the weak, was becoming reality.
Of course, Hyunseok and his Inha Guild were part of the “upper rich” side, the very top tier.
[Would you like to enter the Training Dungeon? Y/N]
When that notification appeared, Hyunseok wondered what a Training Dungeon even was. He knew of Apprentice Dungeons and Normal Dungeons, and even the Hidden Dungeon variants. But this new one sounded simple enough. The name reminded him of “Tutorial” or “Easy Mode,” and as it turned out, that wasn’t far off: it was a dungeon optimized for practice and growth.
Every area was a recovery zone, both HP and MP regenerated rapidly. There were no monsters. That meant one could use and refine skills freely without risk.
“Another one spawned… seriously, when do these things disappear?”
Jongwon muttered, staring at the floating stone tablet before him, the target used for training. Myunghoon grinned.
“Stop whining. Where else could you level your skills this fast?”
“Still, it’s already been ten days. No, more like two weeks. I’ve lost track of time.”
Hong Seyoung corrected him.
“Twelve days, exactly.”
Minseo wiped the sweat from her forehead and added brightly,
“The condition to clear this dungeon is to raise our skill levels by twenty in total, right? Let’s do our best!”
Jongwon grimaced, while Pyeonghwa silently focused on her training. She was simultaneously casting Advanced Ratio Heal and Advanced Heal. With Hyunseok’s guidance, she was close to upgrading to the next tier, though it wasn’t certain yet.
Right now, her main focus was mastering Ratio Heal.
Regular healing won’t help Oppa anyway.
That was her reason. As explained before, Ratio Heal was a very inefficient skill, most of the time, no Slayer’s HP ever dropped below 30%, except during extreme battles like the Cyclops fight.
Eventually, she succeeded in mastering Top-tier Ratio Heal, which restored HP from 0% to 45%, rather than 40%.
My goal is to reach the Green-grade Ratio Heal.
According to Hyunseok, Advanced Heals belonged to the Easy Mode category. By that logic, Advanced Ratio Heals probably did too. If she could obtain a Green-grade Ratio Heal, it would finally be useful to him.
Hyunseok’s HP almost never dropped, and if it did, that meant the situation was dire, one where no one else could intervene. That’s why Pyeonghwa existed, not for everyday fights, but for emergencies. In such life-or-death moments, Ratio Heal would be invaluable.
The stone tablet’s HP dropped rapidly as Pyeonghwa poured out her healing spells.
Minseo, meanwhile, was a support-type Slayer. Ever since entering Normal Mode, she had focused entirely on buff skills, ignoring combat or recovery fields.
Oppa can handle all the fighting and healing fields himself. It’s better if I help with the rest.
The skill she was now aiming for also had “Ratio” in its name, just like Pyeonghwa’s. Any skill with “Ratio” adjusted attributes based on percentages.
For now, her current version only increased stats by 0.5%. That’s why most buffers ignored it, boosting a Slayer with 1,000 power by 0.5% only raised it by 5. A 5,000 attack stat? A 0.1% buff added just 25 points. Practically useless.
It was a skill nobody invested in, at least for now. Everyone said it might be important in the far future… but for the moment, it was too costly and inefficient to bother with.
(End of Chapter 44)
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— Translated by Prime Works —