Chapter 84
“What on earth is this...?”
The elves on the screen were moving without pause, tiny SD figures scurrying this way and that as if they’d been brought to life straight out of a game.
They were so small and cute it was almost ridiculous.
Little droplets kept flying off the heads of the elves as they moved, and those droplets seemed to represent sweat.
“Huh?”
One by one, the elves lined up and stepped forward toward Saessak. They knelt, stretched out both hands, and tapped the ground twice, then used the screen to plant something of unknown origin before covering it back over with soil. They repeated the process in order, each taking their turn.
“Ah.”
I understood what they were doing almost immediately, because after patting the soil down, the elves cast a spell.
Altera-Shonem.
It was the skill they had learned in exchange for being allowed to cultivate the World Tree in Reditus Forest.
In other words, the elves were diligently feeding Saessak fertilizer.
That mysterious thing they were planting was probably trash.
The elves of Reditus Forest are tending the World Tree with the utmost care.
The World Tree sapling is receiving nutrients.
As a result, one leaf grows.
Then a leaf sprouted from Saessak’s branch.
Like the others, the new leaf gave off a soft blue glow.
“Oh...?”
A new leaf had grown. The moment I saw it, I opened my character window and checked my mana.
MP - 2,102,600
My maximum mana, which had been 2.05 million, had risen to 2.1 million.
And I hadn’t even done anything on-screen. My mana had gone up anyway.
From here on out, it was obvious this would keep happening.
The elves wanted the World Tree to grow so they could become stronger themselves, and that growth would come right back to me.
My maximum mana was now going to keep increasing all on its own, just from the elves doing their work.
It was the kind of thing every hunter dreamed of.
“Maybe I should bring them some jokbal next time?”
I muttered under my breath as I tapped the screen with my thumb.
Warm gratitude bloomed in my chest.
What food should I buy for these carnivorous elves? What meat would make it clear I’d treated them well?
Seeing how much they liked chicken, maybe they’d enjoy spicy fried chicken, too.
While I was thinking about that, I headed to Jae-i's Blacksmith.
＊＊＊
After stopping by the forge to pick everyone up, I headed for Sinnonhyeon Station. It took a little over an hour to reach the building Woo Yeon-hoo had mentioned. The distance itself wasn’t that great, so I’d thought we’d get there early, but traffic clogged up the moment we got near Gangnam Station, and it took far longer than expected.
Yu Jae-i, sitting in the passenger seat, murmured, “Coincidence Who... Ah, there it is. Huh, that’s a nice building. Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one... floors?”
Because the cars were moving so slowly, she had plenty of time to scan the building.
Hearing her mutter, Sim Yun-jin in the back seat smiled with a hint of pride and said, “That’s right. Twenty-one floors above ground, seven below. The basement floors are all parking.”
“You seem to know a lot.”
“I heard the explanation because Yeon-hoo oppa built the building himself.”
“He was talking about it with such enthusiasm... honestly, it was something else.”
“Built it himself?”
As we pulled into the parking garage, I repeated what Sim Yun-jin had said to myself.
Built it himself.
That meant he’d put serious thought into this building. Not literally with a hammer and nails, obviously—he wasn’t a construction worker.
“Yes. It’s one of the buildings he had built with the idea of gathering the guild headquarters and related companies all in one place.”
“One of the buildings...?”
“Haha. Yeon-hoo oppa was torn between here and another place.”
“...”
Another place, huh?
So Woo Yeon-hoo had another place like this building somewhere else?
No wonder the son of a conglomerate chairman had a different class when it came to spending money.
“If he called you here, I guess he decided on this place.”
“Looks that way.”
Woo Yeon-hoo seemed to be deciding what should go where. He’d probably asked me to come here because he didn’t have the bandwidth to focus on everything else.
I nodded and parked wherever there was room in the empty garage.
Only three cars that looked like they belonged to Woo Yeon-hoo’s group were parked there.
Including mine, that made four cars in all.
They all looked more or less the same.
That made sense. The car I was driving had been a gift from Woo Chae-yeon.
“The elevator’s this way.”
Once we got out, Sim Yun-jin led us onward.
As I followed her with my feet, my mind drifted elsewhere.
According to her, Woo Yeon-hoo had built this place to bring together the guild headquarters and the companies related to the guild.
Owning a building really did seem to change the way a person thought.
I’d found myself thinking the same thing after getting 150 billion won: I’d gather all the people connected to me under one roof.
At first, I’d just wanted a place where Yu Jae-i could be safe, but once you had 150 billion won, the story changed.
There were a lot more things you could do.
Ding.
Before anyone had even pressed a button, the elevator came down and the doors slid open.
“Oh?”
A face I knew well enough, if not intimately, stood inside.
Oh Ju-han.
Woo Yeon-hoo’s right hand and the vice guild master of Ildae Guild was waiting in the elevator.
He must have been messaging with Kim Ji-yeon or Sim Yun-jin, because no one had even told him we were on our way.
He gave Kim Ji-yeon and Sim Yun-jin a brief nod, then extended his hand to me.
“It’s been a while, Do-woon.”
“Yeah. I think the last time we saw each other was in front of the Tower of Trials.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
After a quick handshake, we stepped into the elevator.
Once Kim Ji-yeon, who’d been standing in the back, also got on, Oh Ju-han pressed the button for the 21st floor and then the close button.
At the same time, he greeted Yu Jae-i as well.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Oh Ju-han.”
Yu Jae-i answered only with a small nod.
Then she looked away and stared up at the ceiling of the elevator.
The floors changed quickly.
Five, six, seven...
Because of that, Oh Ju-han, who’d been about to continue speaking, shut his mouth.
He took his eyes off Yu Jae-i and looked at the others in the elevator.
The three of us, myself included, gave him faint smiles, then closed our eyes once and opened them again.
It was our way of saying, with a glance, that this was just how she was and he should understand.
Luckily, the elevator in Coincidence Who was a high-speed one.
Ding!
We arrived at the 21st floor in no time, and the doors opened.
We stepped out of the elevator with Oh Ju-han, who was still looking a little awkward, leading the way.
Up ahead, in front of a huge glass window, Woo Yeon-hoo’s group was waiting.
Beside them stood Woo Chae-yeon and two men I’d never seen before.
The two men looked like appraisers from Ildae Group.
They were probably the people he’d brought to properly appraise the pinecone.
There was a quality certificate Hong Su-jeong had drawn up, but he must have wanted to have his own people verify it again.
As we walked over, they bowed their heads in greeting.
“Hello, Do-woon.”
“You look even better outside the hospital, oppa.”
“...”
What was this strange current between Woo Chae-yeon and Yu Jae-i?
Woo Yeon-hoo seemed to feel it too.
“...I’m sorry for making you come all this way.”
“It’s fine. Yun-jin explained things to me.”
“Hm? Explained what?”
“That this place is going to house the companies related to Ildae Guild. I heard you’ve had a lot on your mind lately.”
“Ah, ah, yes. That’s the explanation you got.”
“...?”
Something felt a little off.
The conversation had a subtle tendency to veer off course.
As I was starting to notice that, Woo Yeon-hoo smiled and said, “Shall we get right to the point?”
He meant for me to take out the pinecone and show them.
But before I did that, there was something everyone there, including Woo Yeon-hoo, needed to do.
“Before that, I have one request.”
“A request?”
“Yes. I’d like everyone here to sign a nondisclosure agreement.”
“A nondisclosure agreement...?”
What we were about to trade wasn’t an ordinary pinecone.
It was a pinecone from the previous World Tree.
That was why even Yu Jae-i had signed a confidentiality agreement when she first started working with me.
Hong Su-jeong hadn’t needed to sign one separately, since she wasn’t the type to go blabbing about things elsewhere, as Yu Jae-i herself had said.
Still, she understood perfectly well that if she ever let it slip, she’d no longer be able to touch anything related to the World Tree.
The fact that the quality certificates for the pinecone and the potion never once used the word World Tree was proof enough of that.
“Hmm...”
Woo Yeon-hoo let out a heavier breath.
I didn’t think he or his people were the type to go around gossiping about me either. I’d seen enough by now to know that much.
Woo Yeon-hoo had run nonstop to the Skeleton Lord’s castle to save me, and he’d even gambled his own life trying to save Yu Jae-i.
I couldn’t picture them carelessly spreading information about me.
But the two appraisers I was seeing for the first time today were different.
It was easy to imagine them talking to their coworkers about the pinecone.
Even if they weren’t actually that kind of people.
“...Understood.”
Maybe he noticed my expression?
Woo Yeon-hoo glanced at the appraisers, then nodded and agreed to my condition.
“I was expecting something like this anyway. You all agree, right?”
As he spoke, he looked around at the others.
Woo Chae-yeon and the rest of them nodded immediately.
Once everyone had agreed, one of the appraisers standing behind them opened a briefcase and took out crisp sheets of paper.
Then he handed out two copies to each person.
At the top of the pages, the words Confidentiality Agreement were printed.
So he had expected this and prepared for it.
The two copies with everyone’s names written in were then divided between me and Woo Yeon-hoo.
After checking the contracts, I immediately extended my arm.
“The pinecone.”
A pinecone over two meters tall appeared between Woo Yeon-hoo and me.
Everyone’s attention snapped to it at once.
The two appraisers stepped forward and looked at me, so I moved back to give them room to work.
They were appraisers from PTH, the forge under Ildae Group.
Their suits had name tags on them, with the word PTAH and each man’s name printed beside it.
One was Do Gang-won; the other, Jong Woo-seok.
“...!”
One of the appraisers inspecting it widened his eyes.
He looked back and forth between me and the pinecone.
Then the other appraiser, too, let out a sharp gasp and took a step back.
It was obvious they’d realized it was a pinecone from the previous World Tree.
Do Gang-won, the one who had been startled first, spoke up.
“T-this! It’s the World Tree...!”
“What? What did you just say?”
“This, this pinecone! It’s a pinecone from the World Tree!”
“...!!”
World Tree.
The moment that word was spoken, the mood changed as if someone had triggered a skill.
Everyone except Yu Jae-i was staring at me.
They were wondering why I possessed such a rare object.
I could feel their curiosity in their eyes.
And only Yu Jae-i, smiling faintly, was nodding along as if she were the one with the answer.
What was she so smug about?
“I thought it couldn’t be an ordinary pinecone because of the size, but...”
“The World Tree? You mean that World Tree?”
“I figured you weren’t normal from the moment you started sprinkling soil over a skeleton, but...”
“Just what are you, Do-woon?”
Starting with Woo Yeon-hoo, the Ildae Guild members chimed in one by one.
Finally, Sim Yun-jin asked the question that hung in the air.
Once she asked it, the Ildae Guild members all fell quiet and looked at me.
What was I?
Well... the caretaker of the World Tree.
The one who made a World Tree grow inside a smartphone.
A B-class hunter.
Of course, I didn’t tell them the truth.
No matter how many confidentiality agreements they signed, I had no intention of laying out my entire identity for them.
What I could tell them was this: the pinecone was a pinecone from the World Tree.
That was as far as I was willing to go.
“A perfectly ordinary B-class hunter.”