And Now I Am E-Class! (3)
I handed one of the bags to them.
“This is compensation for the mental damages and the moving costs. If the Imperial Guild ever finds out, they might try to exact revenge, so head to an inconspicuous place, hide your identity, and live there.”
“... Thank you. I was already being offered a good spot at the Singapore branch by Representative Ji Yosin.”
“Really? Congratulations.”
“... But my worries don’t stop there. Learning a foreign language at my age is already too much of a burden... and with my mother suffering from dementia, I have to take care of her...”
I turned and left the rehab ward, leaving the couple behind.
At that moment, Ha Insu came running over, checking the amount inside the bag.
“H-Hwang Geumpa-nim! T-this money... It’s an enormous sum!”
“No. You suffered because of me, so you should receive at least that much. Besides, I somehow skimmed money from the Imperial Guild, so there’s no need for you to feel sorry for me.”
The couple bowed so low their heads nearly touched the ground, tears streaming down their faces.
I bowed politely in return.
===
[Charisma has increased by 3.]
[Charisma is now 32.]
[You can recruit an additional 21 Rotter soldiers.]
[You can recruit an additional Ougre.]
I turned away, thinking to myself...
Those two owed me thanks, but I had benefited far more from them.
Without them, I would never have dared to sell a decaying item worth 25 billion won to Jang Pomi in the next two or three months.
In the end, after selling the item and covering Ha Insu’s surgery costs, I had earned a staggering 20 billion won.
Thanks to that, I had officially promoted to E-Class!
===
[Physical Resistance has been unlocked.]
[Fire Resistance has been unlocked.]
[Ice Resistance has been unlocked.]
[Electric Resistance has been unlocked.]
[Disease Resistance has been unlocked.]
... ... ...
And now, since I no longer needed my hands, I gulped down the Royal Jelly from the belt in one go...
===
[Vitality has reached 200.]
[You can invest 100 Vitality points in lending.]
[Would you like to invest the 100 Vitality points in lending right now?]
===
With 100 points secured...
Human greed has no limits.
A few days ago I had already eaten 100 points inside the honeycomb, yet I still craved every last drop of the Royal Jelly in the belt. I had been so restless I could have gone mad.
Admittedly, if I had just earned 100 billion from the sale, seeing 100 billion right in front of me would have been tempting. Of course I could have been disappointed if I hadn’t... but that was the reality.
Of course, I could have used the Insect Queen’s stinger to name a new queen or emperor and revive the bee colony. But even if I did, the colony that had already been shattered by the battle would take months to recover no matter how quickly I moved.
By selling the item and earning 250 billion, I had skipped that entire process and could now push Vitality straight to 200.
I would be a bit short on strength for the next two or three months, but luckily the route from the 3rd basement floor to the 4th was already cleared, so I wouldn’t need to dig or swing a pickaxe.
In the end, this had turned out to be one of the most successful days yet.
* * *
The next morning at 4 a.m.
I loaded Han Yejin into the tower car and headed toward the Tower.
We slipped into the partition at the Uijeongbu excavation site using the pre-dawn darkness, then entered the entrance of the Centipede Cave hidden beneath a large boulder.
“Whenever you visit the Centipede Cave from now on, always use this passage at dawn to avoid being seen by others. Got it?”
“Yes, I understand!”
Since she had joined the guild, Han Yejin had worked only inside the Yongin Imperial Medifarm research lab. She had been so busy transferring and practicing the production of the antidote’s base material that time had flown by.
She was incredibly diligent, a meticulous researcher who never forgot what she learned, even if it took her time.
But she clearly preferred the real field work.
After nearly two weeks trapped in the lab staring through a microscope, being let out into the field made her heart race so loudly I could hear it.
A short while later we arrived at the cave.
Han Yejin tossed half of the 150 live chickens she had packed into the backpack onto the ground.
We turned off our headlamps and put on UV goggles. Instantly, centipedes swarmed out of every hole and began devouring the chickens.
In the chaos, some centipedes even crashed into each other in rage.
“All right, time for the turkey.”
Han Yejin tossed a few turkeys onto the ground.
A ghost-like figure appeared from a hole. The Queen Centipede.
Psssst—
The moment Han Yejin saw it, she froze solid.
If anyone other than the first person to lay eyes on the Queen Centipede hadn’t been overwhelmed by its size, I would have called them a liar.
Psssst—
The Queen Centipede looked at Han Yejin once, then immediately latched onto the turkey meat and began gnawing.
“It really is huge, isn’t it?”
“Even after hearing the explanation... my breath is still caught.”
“Don’t worry. As long as we keep providing fresh chicken and turkey meat, these guys won’t attack us.”
“Yes, I’ll do my best to get used to it quickly!”
“So, what do we do after this?”
“We ride the elevator up and around, dropping off fresh chickens. We check for dead centipedes along the way and put them in the backpack. Live ones, we catch flexibly by calculating how many we need for the antidote and for Red Tower supply.”
“Okay! The real problem is regularly capturing these centipedes while gently increasing their population so they get fat. That’s the most important part you need to keep an eye on!”
“I understand!”
“Great! Then let’s get started! The first few days are just about getting used to the route, so the work hours will be full.”
“Yes!”
Han Yejin began the elevator ride with a slightly tense expression.
Today she had finally met the Queen Centipede.
After being fed, the centipedes had almost completely lost their aggressive nature.
Plus, I had given her the new protective suits and the cigarette extract, flash, and antidote injections for emergencies, so I thought she would be fine.
* * *
After a long time, I descended from the Centipede Cave straight to the 1st basement floor.
Handing over all the centipede management work, the Rot Virus antidote production, and the Red Tower supply tasks to Han Yejin left me feeling incredibly light.
When I reached the bottom of the 1st basement floor, I saw two isolated areas.
One was the living space for my 161 Rotter army.
The other was where the free Rotters not in my army were kept.
In my army area, Beodori led as the vanguard while the Rotters enthusiastically dug holes all over the ground.
Next to the central waypoint where I had descended, various underground resources were sorted and piled like mountains.
Rotters dug far faster than normal Tower Scavengers—less than one-tenth the speed—because they were slow and had to work by hand without shovels or picks.
But 161 Rotters digging 24 hours a day without sleeping was productivity no one could ignore.
The problem was that all the resources they dug had to undergo strict sterilization before sale.
As a result, work in the 1st basement floor had already backed up tremendously. I had been too busy with other matters to pay attention to every little detail.
I wished there was someone I could assign to manage the 1st basement floor...
But Han Yejin was already too busy with her current duties...
And I couldn’t just pick anyone.
If that person betrayed me and leaked the secrets of the basement to the outside world, this sweet monopoly would be shattered.
I needed someone I could absolutely trust not to betray me...
* * *
After taking the waypoint down to the 2nd basement floor, I saw a new species had appeared.
King Da Bin had given birth to a starving male Ougre.
I immediately transferred the creature into my Ougre unit and warned the twin-pal monkey not to bully its half-sibling.
This new twin-son was unlike the wild twin-pal; its temperament was gentle and it seemed to obey its mother.
The Ougresses had also given me a bag made of skulls, inside which sloshed with a foul-smelling yellow liquid.
Through interpretation, I learned it was King Da Bin’s first milk.
===
-[distance] meters What...?