< Sometimes Getting Strong (2) >
Kim Woojae walked around restlessly.
‘Why isn’t there any contact from Seo Minsung, that bastard.’
They had agreed to signal that there wasn’t a problem every 20 minutes. But the signal that should have come five minutes ago, didn’t come.
Did he already get caught?
‘Shit, I have to get the owner’s token at least.’
Kim Woojae had purposely woken Han Yoojin and threatened him for no other than the baby Horned Flame Lion’s taming item, the owner’s token. If he got on the boat with the token still in Han Yoojin’s inventory, then he would no longer be able to lay a hand on him. But if he pocketed it ahead of time, he could definitely take away a share through the token as well.
It was as much as an S-Rank dungeon boss monster’s baby. He would be able to get additional money even if he passed them over together like this, but if he took the taming’s token, he would be able to sell it at an even more expensive price. The value was too much to turn away from, pretending he didn’t see.
‘If I threaten him saying that I would leave him with the curse for one more hour, hiding the fact that there isn’t time…’
Wouldn’t he hand it over obediently? Since he acted so spirited, Han Yoojin was the same as an ordinary person with barely any dungeon experience. It was obvious that he would be dazed from being caught in a curse for the first time.
Bam!
“Did you have a good time!”
Kim Woojae purposely shouted cheerfully and slammed the door open. He saw Han Yoojin, collapsed and huddled near the wall. He should have heard the noise but there was no movement.
It should be a curse where you couldn’t even faint, though. Did he lose even the energy to flinch?
Kim Woojae didn’t think much of it and went toward Han Yoojin. Then, he kicked the huddled back.
“I know you’re awak-.”
Just then,
Swish!
“Uck!”
Black tentacles shot out and wound around Kim Woojae’s ankle. At the poison melting and permeating through his socks, Kim Woojae was startled and pulled his leg back with all his strength.
Ddook!
The tentacles were cut off, and Kim Woojae stumbled. He hurriedly turned around and was met with the sight of a giant reptile shaking its tentacles.
“The leash distance definitely was-!”
-Kkooooeueu!
The Krecke heaved its body and ran toward Kim Woojae. He saw the chain that should be connected to the collar tumbling around.
At the feeling of the poison coming over, Kim Woojae hurriedly took a shield out of his inventory. It was just then.
Kwadeuk!
“Urgh!”
A knife sunk into Kim Woojae’s ankle. Specifically, it was the part that was weakened by the poison. At the same time, the Krecke crashed into the shield with its body.
“Argh!”
It was a surprise attack he couldn’t have predicted, but he was still a B-Rank Hunter with a lot of experience, so Kim Woojae didn’t helplessly collapse, and instead, quickly rolled to the side and increased the distance.
“These fucking things!”
Kim Woojae shouted, veins bulging out of his neck.
He had noticed Han Yoojin moving. But he hadn’t even dreamt of a stat F-Rank with a sealed inventory and no attack skills coming at him.
“Even so, a simple C-Rank dungeon monster is!”
He had been hurt considerably, but even so, it was a combination of a C-Rank and a stat F-Rank. Even if his leg had been cut off, he wouldn’t lose.
Kim Woojae took out a great sword. Then a skill was used and in a blink, the thick black skin was cut under the blade.
-Kkooooeu
Along with the listless moan, the black reptile’s body slumped over. Kim Woojae spat out a breath full of anger and turned to look at the blankly sitting Han Yoojin.
With his temper, he felt like he would slice up that bastard so he put his weapon into his inventory.
“Shit, this bastard! That you could only grow tamed baby monsters-.”
Even if he was a valuable good, he only needed to be alive. Just when Kim Woojae was growling about doing his best to break Han Yoojin’s limbs,
“Urgh!”
Along with a severe pain that beat into his entire body, Kim Woojae fell forward onto his face.
-Kkooooeu
Blackie was convulsing in its death throes.
There was an anticipation just in case, but as expected, it became like this.
And then soon.
[The effect of the title ‘Perfect Caregiver’ will be displayed.
Caregiver Supplementary Skill – Last Repayment
The skills and abilites of monster ‘Blackie’ will double in efficiency.
Duration time – 168:00]
The message window informing me of the skill’s application popped up. Continuing.
[Last Repayment(L) skill effect is doubled.]
The Lauchtas’ Natural Enemy skill application message window appeared as well. Before I could properly read those, Blackie’s memories were conveyed over.
Same as the Last Repayment I had before, they were memories related to me.
A very short memory, that didn’t even reach a mere 30 minutes.
Blackie was afraid of me, felt curiosity, and was happy with the C-Rank magic stone powder it ate for the first time.
That guy liked my voice that was telling it that I love it. It thought my hands were warm. It instinctively felt that it couldn’t win against Kim Woojae, but it wanted to protect me.
It worried about me to the end.
Really, this was a skill that was better off not being able to be used.
“…Sorry, Blackie.”
I mumbled a pointless apology, and opened the status window. The clearly increased stats as well as the newly appeared skills were visible.
“Shit, this bastard! That you could only grow tamed baby monsters-.”
I used Thorn Trap on Kim Woojae, whose face was extremely contorted.
“Urgh!”
Along with the strangled breath, the collapsed guy convulsed on the ground.
Thorn Trap(D). A curse skill that restrains and gives pain to the opponent. But, if the Mental stat rank was two levels higher than the skill rank, it wouldn’t work.
Originally, it was a skill that wouldn’t be any use against B-Rank Kim Woojae, but right now, it had a doubling and then doubling again buff, so it should be about the level of a B-Rank skill.
‘The amount of transferred memories were so few, so it seems like it’ll take a bit to adjust.’
The more memories the other person had about me, the faster the adjustment to the transferred stats and skills were. So in the case of Yoohyun, I was able to use them skillfully as if I was Yoohyun himself.
Still, the skill effect was doubled so it seemed like quite a lot of information came over even for thirty minutes.
I closed the status window and moved my gaze to the collapsed body.
“…I really do dislike this skill.”
I swallowed a sigh and went to Blackie. The skin that I placed my hand on felt even colder, maybe because of the mood.
Thanks to the Mental stat doubling buff, it was skill I was able to bear, but even after getting the doubling and then doubling again buff, the mood was really depressing.
‘Our Blackie… it seems like the Mental stat was pretty low.’
Still, Last Repayment thankfully lasted for 7 days; the effect ended with only 1 hour for Last Repayment[1]. Thanks to that, there was a time when I spent a few days heavily drinking.
I raised my body and went to Kim Woojae, who was convulsing with his body stiffly frozen. With his eyes darting around and glaring at me, it seemed like he was still fine[2].
“There probably isn’t any reason to let you live, right?”
More than anything, I had to block his mouth so that the Last Repayment skill wouldn’t be discovered. I could shut him up by writing up a contract, but did I need to do that much?
“Ah, my ankle hurts.”
Thanks to the stats rising, it wasn’t to the point of not being able to walk, but it did hurt. Grumbling, I opened the status window again and checked the skills I got from Blackie.
[Thorn Trap(D) – A curse that paralyzes and gives pain to the opponent
Duration time 1 hour]
[Sticky Poison❨C❩ – A powerful poison that seeps out of the skin]
[Lizard Stuck to the Wall(D) – Assimilate to the surrounding environment and hide appearance]
[Clawing(D) – Powerful claw attack]
[Stretching Tentacles❨C❩ – Stretching tentacles that carry poison
Maximum distance 1 meter]
[The Weak’s Premonition❨C❩ – Detect opponents stronger than oneself]
Skin poison, clawing, tentacles… Putting aside the first two, could I be able to use the tentacles? It was originally a skill that stretched out and swung around tentacles on your back.
It wasn’t that there wasn’t a part that stretched out from my body, but, hm. If the maximum distance was 1 meter, then since it was four times, it would be 4 meters, hm.
…I was curious.
‘…Should I try using it a little bit.’
Just slightly. Stretching tentacles.
“……Ugh.”
When I used the skill, tentacles sprouted from my wrist. Unlike my skin color, they were black and it seemed like a parasite was stuck on.
If they were poisonous tentacles that stretched to 4 meters, they were indeed useful, but I felt a physiological repulsion.
‘The strongest one out of the skills should definitely be Sticky Poision.’
It was C-Rank poison that had a quadrupling buff. Even a fairly good A-Rank would have a hard time blocking it. Wouldn’t it be able to poison even S-Ranks who didn’t have poison resistance related equipment? Though of course, even A-Ranks, not to mention S-Ranks, would probably have poison and curse resistance items by standard.
“Kim Woojae-ssi. I will go find my kid and come back, so please obediently stay here.”
I wondered if I should kill him right away, but to prepare just in case I couldn’t find Peace, I decided to let him live. According to him, a normal person would do anything after 30 minutes, so if it was four times that, even if it he was a B-Rank, he would probably become obedient.
I searched him and found the key to the inventory sealing bracelet. After taking off the bracelet on my wrist, I put it on his. Then, I took off his gloves and put them on. It would become bothersome if I left fingerprints.
“Then, have a good time.”
I tossed a goodbye and then went outside and locked the door.
I wondered how many people there were in this building. It was a little regretful that The Weak’s Premonition would only sense strong opponents. Normally, the radius wasn’t much, but right now it was pretty wide. It meant I wouldn’t suddenly meet an A-Rank or higher and be taken aback.
Though there wouldn’t be an A-Rank in this kind of place.
‘Even if there is an A-Rank, I think if I use Lizard Stuck to the Wall and take them by surprise with posion, I could probably deal with them.’
Right now my stats were at the level of being a level 50 between A-Rank and B-Rank. B-Ranks were easy[3] but A-Ranks were a little difficult. Still, the skills were quite good so…
Crack!
“Oops.”
While opening a closed door, I broke off the doorknob. I had to quickly get adapted; like this, it would be exposed that my stats increased.
‘To think I have to hide it for 7 days from now on.’
It was a relief there wasn’t a status window appraiser at Haeyeon. Should I shut myself in my room for a week with the excuse of the aftermath of being kidnapped? If I slightly used Lizard Stuck to the Wall and made my presence weak, it didn’t seem like a big issue would occur.
Why wasn’t it one day; the time period was too long, so even that was a problem.
‘How should I explain it if I get caught?’
If I was like ‘a passing Hunter saved me and gave me an amazing buff~’, not even a passing dog would believe me, probably. There wasn’t a good excuse. There was no choice but to just insist ‘it’s a mistake, you are misunderstanding, I’m weak!’.
‘Found it.’
I felt the presence of, not Peace, but of people gathered around. Seeing how The Weak’s Premonition skill was quiet, they were all B-Rank or lower.
‘Lizard Stuck on the Wall.’
Originally, it was skill that only had an effect of giving you protective coloring. But now with the quadrupling buff, I wouldn’t normally be discovered.
If I wasn’t going to kill people every time I met them, I couldn’t be discovered.
I quietly went toward the place where I felt the presence of people. Thankfully, the door was about halfway opened.
“We’ll probably really be able to escape safely, right?”
Across the door, a voice spilled out. It was a voice I remembered.
‘It’s the D-Rank who was kicked by me.’
When I peeked through the gap in the door, the four people I saw in the training room were all gathered together. I just didn’t see the one C-Rank.
Instead of dragging it out, I immediately used Thorn Trap.
“Ack!”
“What – argh!”
Those guys fell down like dominoes. Maybe because their stats were low, they went past trembling to their eyes bulging out.
‘It really is great having an attack skill.’
If only I could exchange just one of my L-Rank skills for an attack type or defense type.
Just in case they would see me, I stealthily turned over the bodies laid out on the ground and searched the room. The wall was clustered with monitors and they were showing images from security cameras.
It seemed like there weren’t any security cameras except at the entrance, stairs, and part of the hallway. After unplugging all of them, I took the cluster of keys hanging on the wall and went back outside again.
When I left the basement and went up to the 1st floor, I saw a cage where Peace was locked in.
‘Peace!’
In case someone would come in, I couldn’t shout, and I searched the surroundings as I went toward the cage. The body covered in red fur went up and down regularly. It seemed like he wasn’t hurt anywhere, and like he didn’t wake up yet.
‘There weren’t any side effects to the Watchman’s Fruit, right?’
That disgustingly expensive powder was usually used to capture monsters. That was because it only affected C-Ranks and lower, so using it in dungeon attacks didn’t pay off. Of course, it worked on people too, so there was a time when even I fell asleep while doing a job helping capture monsters.
‘It looks like the cage key isn’t here.’
Though it would be weird to put them together. The keys I brought with me also didn’t fit. It wasn’t like I couldn’t break the cage, but I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to adjust my strength well. And it was a little much to melt it by poison. The defenselessly sleeping Peace could get hurt, so it would probably be better to find the key.
“Just wait a little longer.”
I’ll come back soon.
I couldn’t rummage around all over the place to find one small key. I wondered if I should go back down to the basement and grab one of the collapsed guys to ask, but went to the upper floor first. It was better to completely get rid of the uneasiness from ‘just in case’.
Thankfully, the building was 2-storied, and in the 2nd floor, there was only one place where I felt the presence of a person. It was probably the remaining C-Rank.
‘Even for a giant guild’s associate, the number is small.’
It seemed like only a part of the people were participating in this matter. Well, in addition to the security problem, they would have to leave Korea, so probably only the minimum number of people who could be trusted were gathered.
‘The B-Rank should be the guild leader, and the C-Rank is probably the vice guild leader.’
If it was the vice guild leader, he would probably know where the key was.
I glared at the shut door and then,
Bam!
I kicked it, breaking it open.
“Wh-who are you!”
Who else?
“I am the victim whom you have kidnapped.”
[1] his prev skill. See ch 4 footnote [19] for the difference bw the two
[2] lit. sth like ‘he felt it was worthy enough to live’ but I think in this context, this is what it means
[3] lit. ‘gum’ as in chewing gum, and I couldn’t find anything about it in dict, but from example tls I found, I think saying sth is gum is slang for saying it’s easy/nothing