CH 23

[The constellation, ‘Cupid’ makes a bewildered expression]

[The constellation, ‘Cupid’ says that he definitely doesn’t have a girlfriend, and that it’s just an excuse]

“I don’t want to hear it.” 

Hara sighed. After Seheon left like that, she wallowed for a full 10 minutes due to the shame.

The embarrassment of making a slip of the tongue, and not knowing how would Seheon think of her now. Additionally, the gentle yet soulless way he said that he had a girlfriend. She achieved a triple crown in black history.

“Aargh!”

She kicked the air again. Just then, the door opened, and the bodyguard attached to her by the Mapo branch office poked his head in.

“Is something wrong?”

“Ah. No…”

“I see.”

The bodyguard closed the door with a puzzled face.

She rolled around again while screaming silently. You unscrupulous constellation. I’ll make you an S-class if you go out with him, but the man in question actually had a girlfriend. Was this love? Isn’t this flirting around with someone else’s man?

“Make it a quest to date anyone, why don’t you!”

[The constellation, ‘Cupid’ expresses his regret]

[The designated user cannot be replaced arbitrarily]

“Ah!”

Hara flailed on the bed again.

[The constellation, ‘Cupid’ is dumbfounded]

[The constellation, ‘Cupid’ cites the birth rates and the fact that people aren’t dating, and asks why had you changed your mind]

Oh, now the devil’s rebuking the sinner. Hara’s eyes burned with fury.

This also happened in the dungeon. ‘You d*mned constellation, just wait and see if I’ll ever enter a relationship.’ It felt like it was yesterday when she made this decision.

But when she came out and was slapped on the back by her mom while being asked if she was an S-class. Oh, you really didn’t awaken? You stupid thing, you useless thing. I heard that someone in that family awakened and earned big bucks, but you’re still an E-class? Hara changed her mind in those few days. 

Isn’t it natural that she would just shut her eyes and date or whatnot and just try everything possible to become an S-class? 

‘Honestly, I thought that no matter how the process goes, all I had to do was go out with him, so I wanted to ask him to date me for three days.’

Hara sighed. The constellation snorted. Was love that easy?

Hara frowned and ignored the system’s message. In any case, Yoon Seheon has a girlfriend. To be honest, she’d wondered about whether it was the truth or not due to his soulless tone, but in any case, if it was the truth, she’ll bid goodbye to the shining days in Hara’s life forever. 

But Hara’s frustration didn’t last for long. Rather than frustration, it was because something else appeared before Hara’s eyes. 

“Inventory.”

When she opened her inventory, the system window opened immediately. Inventory was something that hunters usually had. It was a warehouse where dungeon by-products or hunter-only items could be stored in a virtual space.

Of course, aside from manufactured items, other things in this world couldn’t be placed within it. As such, even if they had space, the inventory of E-class hunters like Hara was always empty. 

But now it’s different.

“Huu.”

Hara sighed for a long time and looked through the inventory. The space that had always been empty was half full. The list was also spectacular. Thanks to the by-products from the dungeons. There were many other things besides the skin and meat of the carnivorous rabbit.

There were some that stood out—

[B-grade monster core]

[B-grade dungeon core]

[A giant eagle’s feather] x10

[A giant eagle’s claw] x2

[A giant eagle’s beak]

[A giant eagle’s egg]

[A lucky rabbit’s feet]

This was what Hara obtained after beating the field boss. During the remaining five minutes after the dungeon raid was completed, Hara dragged her about-to-faint body and steadily rummaged through the Boss’s body and nest.

It was but a matter of course. She barely managed to finish off the boss, so she couldn’t return empty-handed now, could she? Hara collected everything she could take aside from the mana stone. Although she didn’t have enough time, she gained quite a lot of things. 

Two B-grade mana stones in particular.

Hara stared at her inventory for a long time and clenched her fists silently.

‘Now, I’m rich…’

Ever since the appearance of ‘gates’, mana stones have now become an essential commodity. This was because mana stones were necessary to prevent the formation of gates.

According to South Korea’s fire department regulations, it was required for new buildings to be inlaid with a mana stone that met the standards.

E-grade mana stone was fine for small buildings and houses, but for large buildings and shopping malls, several B-grade or C-grade mana stones were required. In the case of Yeouido 63 Building, an A-grade mana stone was required. She heard that there were some large shopping malls overseas that inlaid S-grade mana stones in them. 

If she sold the B-grade mana stone slowly, she would gain around 200 million won. However.

‘The problem is secretly being rich…’

Hara’s face darkened.

Of course, mana stones were a daily necessity and must be traded fairly through an open market, and it was required to register with the government for those that obtained mana stones. 

However, as the chief of the Mapo branch office was keeping news of Hara’s rise in ranking to S-class a secret, Hara couldn’t sell those items right now. It was also impossible for her to register.

In the meantime, Chief Jung still mentioned that dungeon by-products could be disposed of at will.

“I don’t care if you swallow that much.”

Although she was thankful…

Hara rubbed her face. In the end, she had no choice but to put it on the black market secretly. But she, who has lived as an average citizen, didn’t even know how to approach the black market.

The Hunter Market, which could be accessed through her mobile phone, required user registration in order to open the menu. User registration? She needed to verify her phone…

‘If I put the mana stone up for sale right now, the police will call me right away…’

Is this what you buy? Hara sighed and organised the mana stones into a corner of her inventory.

There were two stones worth 200 million won that couldn’t be used, and the rest of the items were under the same situation.

Of course, there were quite a number of places where dungeon by-products were used, so a certain degree of low-level by-products could be individually sold by civil servants. They obviously had to pay taxes as well.

However, all of the by-products Hara collected are B-grade. That omits her from the aforementioned scenario. In any case, she would be tracked down. 

“There’s nothing I can do.” 

She made up my mind. 

“Sell it at the health centre!”

Some of the dungeon by-products were sold at particularly expensive prices.

An eagle’s beak or a bear’s gall… Yes, yes. Oh, yes. This is the Republic of Korea, and so if there were any energy-related benefits, all she had to do was look for people that consume Nutria, which was rather widespread. Of course, there were health centres that secretly purchased dungeon by-products. 

[The constellation, ‘Cupid’ asks if you’ve gone crazy]

The balance of her bank account was endlessly converging towards zero, so it’s better for her to be a madwoman. Hara selected things that she could sell to the health center with murky eyes.

No matter how you look at it, the eagle claws and beak was it. She should be able to sell the claws and powdered beak…

[A giant eagle’s egg]

Hara’s gaze remained at the egg. Hara took the egg out of her inventory and examined it from all angles.

[Effect: Stamina +7 (Permanent)]

The eggs in Georg’s nest were as large as Hara, and she thought that all of them shattered during the battle. However, after successfully raiding the dungeon, Hara discovered a small egg in their midst while collecting the dungeon’s core. It was the size of Hara’s fist.

“This seems a little too expensive to sell.”

It was kind of weird to sell it to a health center. It’s an egg that looked like it was about to end up being eaten as fried eggs. But it would boost her stamina by 7. For hunters, who were limited to 99, 7 was a tremendous number. 

Hara scratched her cheek. I guess I’ll just eat it…

She glanced at her stats. 

[User: Kang Hara (Characteristic: Idol fan)]

Stamina: 7

Agility: 3

Strength: 4

Skill: 2

Mana: 9

Luck: 1 

Upon second glance, it was an amazing ability. 99 was the generally recognised limit. It was originally said to be at 100, but a hunter that went over 99 has never appeared, so the limit of mankind was 99. 

In the meantime, Hara’s ability didn’t exceed 10. Of course, it was squared when she used the skill Multiplication, but usage of the multiplication skill was limited to once a day and its duration only lasted for 30 minutes.

Suddenly, Hara’s train of thought stopped at another location.

“……but wouldn’t this be squared?”

If her stamina became 14 after eating the eggs, would it reach 100? She suddenly became curious.

But the constellation didn’t respond. It was only at times like this that he remained as silent as a ghost.

Oh, goodness. She obviously had to hope for something. Hara changed her mind while rolling the egg in her hand.

Forget it. She’ll sell this to someone else in the future.

For Hara, who couldn’t become an S-class immediately and couldn’t make any money, the looming fine of 8 million won was much more urgent.

[The constellation, ‘Cupid’ coaxes you to sweep an A-class dungeon]

This constellation truly has absolutely zero conscience. How could she sweep through A-class dungeons with just Flight and Multiplication? Of course, Hara’s lethal move also existed. What about Candlelight? The skill had a super long name, so Hara called it Candlelight. 

But in any case, dungeons were a place that Hara couldn’t enter at will. When dungeons opened, the government would usually block the entrance first in order to scrap it to the bone as much as possible, and only allowed entry to permitted hunters. 

Hara, sneaking in and sweeping dungeons clean? Something like that can’t happen in this country.

She sighed again. At that moment. Ding. Hara received a text message. It was Jung Yoojin, the chief of the Mapo branch office.

Come to work from tomorrow onwards. Go through the discharge procedures today. Come straight to the chief’s office as soon as you get to work.

Come to work… Hara’s eyes became clouded. It seemed like in the end, she had to go to work at the Mapo branch office. 

“It was nice not going to work for a week…”

For someone that had just gone through life and death situations in a dungeon, it was a simple joy.