Chapter 111

As Kim Jong-kyung collapsed from seeing his empty safe and was being rushed to the hospital, Jun-sang and Henes were elegantly enjoying brunch in a hotel suite. Next to the table, a squirrel, its belly bulging like a ball, rolled around amidst chocolate bars and walnuts.

Henes, her hair wrapped in a towel and wearing a gown, sipped milk and then poked Mong-mong’s bulging belly, saying, “If you keep overeating like that, you’ll end up a fat-bellied old squirrel, and pretty squirrels will make fun of you!”

Of course, Mong-mong didn’t stop rolling between the walnuts and chocolate bars, regardless of what Henes said. Instead, it proudly patted its swollen belly with its front paws, showing off its fullness. Henes couldn’t help but burst into laughter at how naturally Mong-mong rubbed its front paws over its belly, which was protruding like it had swallowed a ping-pong ball.

“Pfft!”

Jun-sang skimmed through a few documents Mong-mong had brought, then quickly lost interest and put them in a cabinet. When Henes handed him a scone slathered with clotted cream, he opened his mouth to receive it without even looking.

“Is it delicious?”

“Yes.”

Although all she had done was spread clotted cream on a scone and hand it over, Henes wore a satisfied expression, as if she had woken up at dawn to meticulously prepare breakfast, and picked up another scone.

“Can we relax today?”

“Perhaps.”

At Jun-sang’s unenthusiastic reply, Henes hesitated, then subtly made a suggestion. “Then, after we finish eating, let’s go out.”

It was a roundabout way of asking him on a date, but this insensitive man showed no sign of deliberation and simply replied, “Now is not a good time.”

Henes frowned and asked back, “Why not?”

Jun-sang replied as if it were nothing. “Someone’s coming over in a bit.”

“Mmm…” Henes puffed out her cheeks in annoyance when someone knocked on the door. Jun-sang, without even turning his head, used his Supersenses to identify the people standing outside the door and immediately replied, “Come in.”

Henes, who had been engrossed in diligently spreading clotted cream on her scone, was caught off guard by Jun-sang’s overly casual demeanor. When the door opened and a group of people entered, she shrieked.

“Kyaa!”

As Henes screamed and scurried into the bedroom, the people looked awkward. “Ahem… I apologize. It seems we arrived too early.”

Im Seo-yoon said with a knowing expression, and Jin Se-ah, standing next to him, poked his side with her elbow. It was 10 AM. It was a bit hard to call that “too early.” But that was only for typical situations; for lovers or newlyweds in the prime of their relationship, it might indeed be a bit early for visitors.

“Stop with the nonsense and come sit down.”

“Yes.”

At his words, the five people hesitated, then approached and perched on the sofa. Jun-sang took a sip of the black tea on the table and looked around at the five faces.

“Who are those two?”

Im Seo-yoon, Jin Se-ah, and Seo Yoo-mi were familiar from shared quest experiences, but the two men and women sitting next to them were not. At Jun-sang’s question, the strongly built man sitting at the very end introduced himself first.

“My name is Yoon Seong-ryeol. I apologize for my rudeness last night.”

“Ah… so that was him.” Jun-sang then realized that this robust man was the one who had thrown a punch at him yesterday. Yesterday, perhaps due to his unshaven beard, he had looked decidedly middle-aged, but today, neatly dressed, he looked quite young. Though it was still only at the level of polishing a pumpkin.

After Yoon Seong-ryeol finished his introduction, the young woman sitting next to him nervously introduced herself. “Jung Da-bin… is my name. Please take care of me.”

“…” Jun-sang nodded silently.

Then Se-ah, who had been watching from the side, provided additional explanation. “Yoon Seong-ryeol uses a combo called the Heskard Boxer, and Da-bin uses a combo called Ziras’s Crashing Roar.”

“Crashing Roar?” A phrase whose effect, like “Boxer,” was hard to grasp simply from its name. Jin Se-ah, as if she had expected that, added a detailed explanation. “We wondered what it was too, but it’s a metaphorical expression for lightning. Its main power is lightning magic, with air-elemental spirits added.”

“I see.” Both Jin Se-ah, who used fire magic, and Jung Da-bin, who used lightning magic. Two of the three magic users Jun-sang had seen so far belonged to this guild, so Im Seo-yoon seemed to have a knack for attracting talent.

“You’ve gathered them quite well.”

“Haha… somehow.”

But in truth, Im Seo-yoon also had many complaints. There’s an old saying: if a woman sits in a place swarming with men, she becomes a queen. Then, if you drop a single man into a place swarming with women, does he become a king or a prince? Not at all. He becomes a servant. Im Seo-yoon’s situation was exactly that. So he recruited someone. Yoon Seong-ryeol, who radiated masculinity and a striking physique at first glance! But what happened? As soon as Yoon Seong-ryeol joined the guild, he volunteered to be the caretaker, serving Jin Se-ah as a queen and Jung Da-bin as a princess. Seo Yoo-mi, well… she was an anomaly, possessing a unique personality that was difficult to accept with normal sensibilities, so she was exempted for now. Thankfully, neither Jin Se-ah nor Jung Da-bin were the types to boss men around; if there had been even one woman with a difficult personality mixed in, it would probably have been chaos by now. In any case, the conclusion was that as the leader of a female-dominated guild, which others envied, Seo-yoon surprisingly had a lot of mental distress.

After the introductions, Henes, now fully dressed, hesitantly emerged from the bedroom. The people looked at Henes, who felt somehow two percent, no, ten percent, less than what an adult should be, and then looked at Jun-sang with knowing gazes again. But was Jun-sang the kind of person to flinch at such looks?

“What’s the meaning of that look?” When he asked back, his eyes gleaming, the five people on the sofa could only lower their heads like scolded dogs.

Though the atmosphere was a bit strange, Henes quickly pulled a small chair and sat down next to Jun-sang. And she secretly glanced at the three women on the sofa with a wary look.

Seo-yoon, feeling the atmosphere turn odd, quickly laid out the things he had brought on the table. “Ahem… First, please check the Seeds we acquired yesterday and the list.”

“…” Jun-sang casually scanned the list. As expected, there weren’t many Seeds with exceptional performance. Most were around 3 to 4 percent, with some 1 to 2 percent Seeds mixed in. The total quantity was about a hundred. Since there were about fifty people in the Alliance yesterday, it meant each person had sold an average of two Seeds.

“Good work.”

“Not at all.”

As Jun-sang examined the Seeds, carefully placed in zip-lock bags along with papers detailing their types and effects, Jin Se-ah, who had been watching, cautiously asked a question.

“I have one question.”

“What is it?”

“Where… are you going to use them?”

“…” Im Seo-yoon quickly nudged Jin Se-ah’s arm to stop her, but she ignored Im Seo-yoon’s action, looked at Jun-sang, and waited for an answer.

“Do you want to know?” And when Jun-sang uttered those words, Jin Se-ah quickly replied as if she had been waiting.

“Yes, I want to know.”

“…” Jun-sang nodded and was about to take out an item but then remembered that most of his unused items were stored in the container house.

“Hmm…” Jun-sang briefly looked at his companions, then at the slightly rustic-looking earring on Jin Se-ah’s ear, and said, “Let me see that earring for a moment.”

“Th-this?” Jin Se-ah was startled when Jun-sang abruptly pointed to her most cherished item, but as people’s gazes focused on her, she hesitated and unfastened the earring, handing it to Jun-sang. Jun-sang performed an item identification to check the earring’s options.

Item Information Name: Erin Dell's Earring Level Limit: 5 Type: Earring Grade: Uncommon Effect: Casting Time 5% decrease Seed: 1 slot (Life Force Increase 6%) Description: A memento of the wandering mage Erin Dell.

“It’s a good item.” Jun-sang nodded and took out three low-grade Seeds, 1 to 2 percent, from the zip-lock bags.

“W-what are you going to… do?” Jin Se-ah asked with an anxious expression, but Jun-sang silently performed Special Function Item Enhancement.

Beginning Enhancement. -Three Seeds will be consumed for enhancement. -Higher grade Seeds increase the chance of successful enhancement. :If enhancement succeeds, one of the following three effects may be granted: 1. One new option added 2. Attack power or defense power increased 3. Item durability increased (Caution) If enhancement fails, various negative consequences will befall your item.

It was a message that always amplified anxiety, but there was no need to inform Jin Se-ah of its contents. Jun-sang silently proceeded with the item enhancement.

Then, the earring suddenly flashed with light, and the three Seeds laid out around it disappeared.

“W-what was that just now?”

“…” Jin Se-ah cried out in surprise, but Jun-sang performed item identification again to check the earring’s information.

Item Information Name: Erin Dell's Earring +1 Level Limit: 5 Type: Earring Grade: Uncommon Effect: 1. Casting Time 5% decrease 2. Regeneration Rate 1% increase Seed: 1 slot (Life Force Increase 6%) Description: A memento of the wandering mage Erin Dell.

Perhaps because he used low-quality Seeds, the value of the newly added option was quite low. It was fortunate that it didn’t fail, but it was a bit disappointing. Jun-sang silently returned the enhanced earring to Jin Se-ah.

Jin Se-ah quickly took the earring and examined it, then gasped in surprise, her mouth wide open. “W-what in the world… is this?”

“It’s item enhancement. One of the special functions.”

“E-enhancement?” Seo-yoon snatched the earring from Jin Se-ah with a startled expression, examined it, and his mouth fell open. “Hoo… So that’s why you were collecting Seeds?”

Jun-sang nodded at Seo-yoon’s words and spoke again, “Besides that, there’s also a function to combine Seeds to create new Seeds.”

“You can combine Seeds with each other?” Seo-yoon’s jaw dropped. The biggest problem for him in conceiving a business using Seeds was that Seeds were not consumed. Just as the value of money decreases when too much is accumulated, it’s natural for the value of Seeds to decrease if they are only accumulated and not consumed. But what if they were consumed through item enhancement or Seed combination? Only then did Seo-yoon understand Jun-sang’s intention to motivate the returnees.

“Th-that’s amazing.” Seo Yoo-mi, Jung Da-bin, and Yoon Seong-ryeol looked bewildered, not knowing what the conversation was about, but Im Seo-yoon and Jin Se-ah were too astonished to close their mouths.

“I hope you’ll continue to put effort into acquiring them.”

“Ah, yes, understood.”

Roughly finished with their business, Seo-yoon drank the tea Henes poured for him and subtly made a suggestion to Jun-sang. “Um… if you don’t mind, how about joining our guild?”

“Join the guild?”

“Well, for now… I think it would be fine just to have your name listed. It might give people selling Seeds more confidence too.”

But Jun-sang shook his head. “It’s better if I don’t join.”

“Huh? Why…”

“Because then I can make excuses.”

“…” It was a short answer, but Seo-yoon could easily guess its meaning. While the conflict with Kim Jong-kyung had been easily resolved, as the business grew, they had to consider the possibility of unreasonable troublemakers appearing. It was especially clear that as the power of the returnees grew, interference from government agencies would also increase. In such a scenario, Jun-sang, who was emerging as an idol for the returnees, would likely become a target. Given Jun-sang’s personality, he would undoubtedly choose to smash rather than compromise, so to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, it was right to maintain an official distance. Seo-yoon could only nod.

“It’s a shame, but it can’t be helped.”

Jun-sang took a sip of tea and then said again, “Did you bring the catalog?”

“Ah, I completely forgot.” Seo-yoon quickly handed the car catalog to Jun-sang. Jun-sang took it and then said to the women who were still looking blankly, “If it’s okay, could I ask for a favor?”

“What kind of…” Jun-sang pointed to Henes and said, “Since I’m a man, I don’t know much about what women need. I try to be considerate in my own way, but there might be things she finds hard to tell a man like me.”

“Ah, I understand.” They had already met Henes during a sub-quest in Ibellua. While her presence here was surprising, for them, who knew Jun-sang’s abilities best, it was no longer astonishing.

Jin Se-ah sprang to her feet, rolled up her sleeves, and stepped forward. “Seo-yoon.”

“Yes?”

“Give me your corporate card.”

“Why the card…”

When Seo-yoon asked back with an anxious expression, Jin Se-ah immediately explained, “It’s hard for Jun-sang to use a card. And carrying around wads of cash is also inconvenient.”

“Ah…” Seo-yoon, understanding, took out his card from his wallet and gave it to her. Jun-sang saw it and said, “I apologize for the trouble.”

“Not at all.”

Jin Se-ah approached the bewildered Henes, took her arm, and said, “Hehehe… Shall we go, young lady?”

“W-wait a minute. Jun-sang!” Henes, feeling uneasy at Jin Se-ah’s ominous laughter, quickly called out to Jun-sang, but he cruelly just raised his hand without taking his eyes off the catalog and said, “Go on.”

In the end, Henes was dragged away, one arm held by Jin Se-ah and the other by Jung Da-bin. Seo Yoo-mi silently looked around, then quietly rose from her seat and followed the women who had gone ahead, as Jun-sang, Seo-yoon, and Yoon Seong-ryeol plunged into the world of men, gazing at the catalog.