Clan (4)
A while ago.
"Kyaaah!!"
Lee Yeon-hee screamed in joy when she received the acceptance text. Tears welled up in her eyes. Ever since her mother collapsed, every day had been a nightmare. She couldn't handle the rapidly declining household finances.
'Five... Five hundred thousand a month...?'
She had never known hospital bills were so expensive. Having become the head of the family without warning, she felt crushed by the weight on her shoulders. She took an immediate leave of absence from school. She jumped from part-time job to part-time job, but couldn't even cover half the hospital costs. She couldn't find work in her field of study either—no company would hire an undergraduate who hadn't even graduated. Debts kept piling up.
Then, like a miracle, she awakened. It felt like finding a hole in the collapsing sky. But that hole was far too narrow.
'Summoning pebbles...'
It was completely useless in combat. And she had never even exercised, let alone learned martial arts—there was no way she could fight monsters with her bare body. As she grew desperate from repeated party rejections, someone reached out. They said she could join their party if she was willing to be a porter.
'Ugh... I g-get goosebumps.'
But when she went, it was way too suspicious. The eyes of the party members were strange. They were licking their lips as they looked at her. Lee Yeon-hee felt like she finally understood what a mouse felt like in front of a cat.
"Are you crazy? You want to quit now?"
"I-I'm sorry."
In the end, she fled from that place. Later, she heard rumors about them on a hunter community site and felt a cold chill run down her spine. Word was that half the porters who entered rifts with those guys never came back alive. After that, she couldn't bring herself to work as a porter anymore.
'What do I do...'
There were many posts online from hunters in similar situations. Hunters unsuited for combat—especially those who had quit their old jobs and jumped into hunting right after awakening—had all tasted bitter defeat. But there were hopeful posts too. They said that even as a porter, if you joined a decent clan, at least you wouldn't be treated badly. That as you learned about rifts and your rank rose, you would eventually make a living. Reading that, she steeled her resolve.
That was when she found the Guwon Clan.
'Room and board provided, base salary of 500, plus separate rift profits... Whoa.'
The conditions were so good they seemed suspicious. She hesitated, but then saw the clan leader had even been on the news. That settled her mind.
'SH Smith... that's a company I know. They wouldn't use just anyone as a model.'
When it came time to apply, she felt far too insignificant, but she closed her eyes tight and submitted her application anyway. She had nothing left to lose.
Lee Yeon-hee's eyes wavered the moment she saw the high school girl secretary. She wondered if this place was even a normal clan. But she couldn't run away again.
'I'll... I'll trust them.'
She took a deep breath and clenched her fists. Thankfully, the terrifying situation she had feared was starting to feel further and further away.
"This is the cafeteria. You can come down and eat whenever you like."
A buffet-style spread of food lined the counters. Faint preservation magic circles glowed on every dish. The other new recruits, who didn't know much about magic circles, were just happy about it. But Lee Yeon-hee was shocked. Her major was magical engineering—she knew how expensive those magic circles were.
'H-how much did all this cost...'
"Has everyone eaten?"
"Ah... not yet."
"I've eaten."
Chief Secretary Lee Da-som nodded and said, "There are desserts too, so I'll give you some time to get to know each other. I'll be back in an hour."
The new recruits huddled together. At first it was awkward, but conversation soon started flowing.
"The cafeteria's better than I thought, huh?"
"Yeah, right? Oh! This is delicious."
Lee Yeon-hee held back the urge to pile her plate with a mountain of food. She chose the dishes that looked most delicious and filled her plate. Every single item was heavenly. Having grown up in relative poverty, there were many foods she was seeing for the first time. It was her first time realizing just how delicious meat juices could be.
'It... it melts in my mouth. And it's free...'
There were people who looked like office workers in the cafeteria too. They were eating the food as if it were nothing special. This was their everyday life. The same recruit who had scared her earlier with talk of chicken-coop lodgings cleared his throat and said, "Uhm, the food's not bad. Maybe the lodgings will be better than I thought."
"What was your last clan like?"
"To begin with... there was no clan house like this. We just entered rifts and ate nearby on our own."
"Ah..."
"Looking back now, it felt more like a party brokerage firm."
Lee Yeon-hee nodded and turned her head. The healer girl named Seo Ga-yoon was elegantly picking at the desserts as if appraising them.
"Hmm... Not bad."
She ate a dumpling dusted with white powder and nodded slightly. She seemed to like it. Curious, Lee Yeon-hee tried the same dessert.
"Hup...!"
It tasted so divine she almost cried. It felt like a hug for all she had been through. A taste that gave sweet happiness.
'Haah... s-so delicious...'
Lee Yeon-hee kept swallowing her exclamations of awe. Now all she felt was that she had made the right choice applying to this clan. Private rooms were allocated to each person in the dormitory. Her room was larger than the home she had shared with her mother. Giving away officetels worth hundreds of millions for free...
"A-are you sure I'm using this alone?"
"Yes. There are plenty of empty rooms."
The building was brand-new, so all the facilities were top-notch. The talk of chicken-coop lodgings had already left her mind entirely.
"This is the training room."
"Wow...!"
"There are group training rooms and individual training rooms."
Lee Yeon-hee's eyes sparkled. But one training room in particular stood out with particularly impressive facilities. State-of-the-art magic circles were installed throughout the walls and floor. Her major allowed her to identify them.
'A bit different, but... soundproofing magic circles... and clean? Wow, I've heard those are expensive.'
Magic circles aren't just installed once and done. They require continuous mana supply, so maintenance costs money too. Even Seo Ga-yoon, who had shown little reaction so far, had her eyes sparkling.
"Wow! This room is especially nice, huh? Oh? There's even a bed and a shower here?"
At her sudden question, the high school girl secretary's face turned slightly red.
"Ahem... This is the special training room. It's used when the clan leader teaches mana cultivation techniques."
"Mana cultivation techniques?!"
The mana cultivation techniques that major guilds secretly taught only to their core members. They were saying they would teach that.
"Once you become a regular guild member, the guild leader will personally explain everything."
The pink bed sheet on the bed in the training room looked particularly fluffy.
It had already been a month since he returned from the Academy Earth. As the clan grew in scale, various problems arose both big and small. There were people who were dissatisfied that Han So-young, who had awakened not long ago, was the vice guild leader. But that dissatisfaction vanished after a few sparring matches.
"Kyaaah!"
Because she beat them up with her barrier-enclosed fists during sparring. In the hunter industry, skill was everything. That was only natural, considering they had to trust each other with their lives when entering rifts.
Maybe because he was the landlord, even though he was throwing money at his clan members like crazy, he still had plenty left over. Now, without doing anything, he was getting tens of millions of won every month.
'Keur... This feels too good.'
Right now he was only embracing Han So-young and Lee Da-hye, but he planned to embrace them one by one as time passed and the clan members developed a sense of belonging. There were only a few problems left for him to solve.
One of them was Lee Yeon-hee. Her physical talent was hopeless. She had absolutely no stamina. Rifts weren't easy enough for someone who had never exercised to handle. Just pushing through a forest without paths was incredibly hard labor. It wasn't for nothing that hunters received basic training at academies.
'Should I call this fortunate.'
Since it had come to this, he planned to gradually bring up the topic of alchemy.
In the hunter industry, it was natural for superiors to speak informally. Partly for quick commands in emergencies, and partly to make command authority clear during rifts.
"I heard from the vice guild leader that you have very low stamina, Yeon-hee."
"Ah...! Th-that... I'm sorry!"
"No. It's actually a good thing."
Lee Yeon-hee's face turned white, uncertain how to take that. He didn't know what misunderstanding she was having, but he continued before she could get more startled.
"Your major was magical engineering, right? What about a non-combat role instead? I'm thinking of supporting you if you'd be interested in becoming an alchemist."
She stared into space with a pale face, not listening at all.
"Huk..."
Then she started crying with a look of grievance.
"Hey, why are you crying? Do you hate becoming an alchemist that much?"
"Sniff... Y-yeah...? Alchem...ist?"
Lee Yeon-hee's mouth, mid-sob, slowly fell open.
"If you really don't want to, you can just keep being a combatant—"
"I'll do it!!"
It seemed she finally understood what he was saying. She spoke desperately.
"Please let me do it. Please!"
"Are you sure you really want to?"
"Yes!! I absolutely want to. Just let me do it!"
Just in case, he used Lie Detection. He was going to teach her knowledge from another world—he couldn't give it to someone who didn't even want it.
'Hmm... It's the truth.'
First, he used a Mana Contract he had bought from the Karma Store to firmly secure her confidentiality.
"Everything I'm about to tell you and everything that happens from now on is a secret. You can't tell anyone."
"Yes! I'll keep it in mind."
Introduction to Basic Alchemy—a basic alchemy book he had bought on a day off in the Academy Earth. It was the best-selling steady seller. Since it was in the same Korean language, it was a book Lee Yeon-hee could read too.
'Come to think of it, it's strange how the words are the same.'
He pondered for a moment but couldn't find an answer. He traced the magic circle on the very first page with an alchemy pen. An alchemy aptitude detection magic circle. It supposedly tested the flexibility of mana—he didn't know the details. It was enough just to know that it could reveal one's talent for alchemy.
"Just drop a drop of blood here."
"Ah... Okay."
Lee Yeon-hee's eyes were trembling wildly just from the alchemy pen. Even this simple pen that could draw magic circles was an object that didn't exist in this world.
'Oh... Top grade? Her innate mana is low, but I can help with that. Nice.'
He turned a page and examined the next content. He was planning to help her up to this point.
"Can you do the basic mana cultivation technique written here?"
"J-just a moment."
Lee Yeon-hee closed her eyes and strained for a long time, but as expected, nothing changed. It was nearly impossible for an F-rank hunter to control the mana inside their body at will.
"I'll help you."
It was time to use the special training room.