“Hmm?”
While preparing for the Level 4 Yeongdeungpo Dungeon and getting his gears inspected, Kang Hanul checked a text message he received amidst his busy schedule.
“Oh!”
It was the contact he had been eagerly waiting for.
“What is it, Team Leader?”
Han Somi, the youngest member of Team 2, asked, tilting her head curiously.
“I got a message from a friend. Haha!”
“A friend? Is that something to be happy about?”
“Of course! It’s something to be happy about!”
Just then, Kang Hanul saw a text from Kyu-seong, who had arranged to meet at a cafe near Obongsan, and he quickly got ready to leave.
“Team Leader? What about the operation briefing?”
“Cancel it for now! Let’s meet for dinner!”
“But we all have other plans this evening…”
“Then let’s do it tomorrow morning!”
“But, tomorrow morning we have a briefing with Team 1…”
Thunk!
As a team member continued to protest, the deputy team leader, Lee Haesol, subtly raised his arm and rested it on the member’s shoulder. The team member flinched and looked at Haesol.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry too much. You trust our team leader, right?”
“Ah, yes, of course I trust Team Leader Kang Hanul.”
“That settles it then.”
Haesol, with his gentle demeanor, smiled, and the team member nodded and backed down. Despite his soft and mild appearance, Haesol’s piercing eyes and subtle charisma dominated the atmosphere around him.
Deputy Team Leader of Team 2, Shadow Lee Haesol.
He was one of the hidden talents of Ara Hongryeon that was not widely known.
“Uhaha! Classic Haesong!”
“It’s Haesol.”
“Rookie?”
“Haesol.”
After filming a skit, Kang Hanul grinned and spoke to everyone.
“Since it’s come to this, Haesong will take over today’s briefing! No objections, right?”
“Wh-what? Suddenly?!”
As the youngest member exclaimed in surprise, Kang Hanul ruffled her hair and left without a word.
“Uh…”
“Since it’s come to this, I’ll handle this operation’s briefing. I don’t know much, but I’ll try my best since he left the documents.”
Haesol said with a gentle smile.
However, his mind was furiously working to grasp the hidden meaning behind this situation.
‘…Is he slowly trying to hand over Team 2?’
Kang Hanul was forty-three this year.
As a combat Awakener, his physical abilities hadn’t deteriorated due to aging, but it was understandable that he was thinking of his future, given the dangerous nature of his job.
And Haesol was the deputy team leader personally chosen by Kang Hanul. He was the one who had brought Haesol into the team, pulling him from small parties without guild affiliations.
When Haesol was immediately placed as the deputy leader of Team 2, the impact was significant.
‘I won’t disappoint you.’
Hidden determination flashed in Haesol’s narrowed eyes as he watched Kang Hanul’s back.
Of course, all this was merely Haesol’s own thoughts.
Kang Hanul, oblivious to all this, suddenly felt itchy ears and scratched them. Then, he cheerfully sang and exclaimed.
“Haesol taking on the bothersome tasks is great! Uhahaha!”
* * *
“My ability is ‘Liquid Synthesis.'”
I went straight to the point.
It wasn’t a particularly strange ability, nor was it something to hide out of embarrassment—it just wasn’t worth hiding.
Of course, I should keep the fact that I had dual awakenings a secret.
“Liquid Synthesis?”
“Yes. It’s simply combining liquids.”
But as an awakening ability, it wasn’t just about mixing liquids. Of course, since Young-seong had been buying and selling my potions, he probably had some idea.
“Last time, I synthesized juice from carrots and tomatoes. Honestly, that was itself a quest.”
“Ah, so…”
He realized why I was cultivating tomatoes.
“But the result of that…”
I took out the notes I had made last time and showed him the effects of the fruit juice.
[Magic-imbued Ambiguous Fruit Juice LV.1]
[Ingredients: Tomato, Carrot]
-Due to the lack of ingredients, the final product is ambiguous.
-When consumed, depending on the amount of mana held, you can partially see the information of monsters in your sight for 3 seconds.
-When consumed, depending on the amount of mana held, you can detoxify for 3 seconds.
Among them, Young-seong’s eyes widened when he saw the part about detoxification, and he stood up from his seat.
“Huh!”
“I’m not sure if it will be enough to treat your wife. But I think it’s worth trying
“….”
“No, I think it’s possible!”
With trembling eyes, Young-seong grabbed my hand after reviewing my notes.
“Can you make it for me?”
“Of course! I just told you, I’ll help.”
The problem was that I couldn’t make it right away because I still had a cooldown period left. So I asked if we could meet again tomorrow.
“Well, then let’s spend the night nearby and meet again tomorrow.”
“Yes, that would be best.”
“And this…”
Suddenly, Young-seong started tapping on his phone, and soon a notification popped up on my phone.
Ding!
[20 million won has been deposited.]
“Hey, what’s this all of a sudden?”
“It’s for the tomatoes, for now.”
“Of course I was going to take money, but this is too much. It’s only 2kg.”
“Let’s say it includes the cost for using the liquid synthesis.”
“Even so, this is… Thank you, I’ll gratefully accept it.”
I changed my attitude and accepted it gratefully. Especially since all the money I had saved was spent on buying magic-infused Hoshou, leaving me broke.
Although it felt like too much, if I think about it the other way, curing his wife, who hadn’t been treated for years, to Young-seong, 20 million won would just be a trivial amount.
“Kyu-seong, it absolutely must work, right?”
No matter what, I must cure her. If it fails with the crop? Then I’ll resort to continuously synthesizing slimes until I get a healing ability slime to treat her.
…Of course, this was nothing but a wild fantasy.
As the conversation ended and we were about to go our separate ways, a car approached quickly from a distance.
“…Kang Hanul?”
‘Oh, I had told Hanul earlier that we were here. I forgot about it because of the issue with his wife.’
“Tsk.”
Young-seong clicked his tongue lightly and waited for a moment. Then, Kang Hanul parked his car and came out.
“How happy I am to see you! Hahaha!”
“What do you mean? We just saw each other yesterday.”
Young-seong always turns cold when he meets Kang Hanul, which I somewhat understood after experiencing Kang Hanul firsthand.
“By the way, why are you outside? Ah! You were waiting for me?!”
“We were just finishing up and came out.”
“What? What about me?”
That’s when I cautiously interjected.
“Mr. Kang Hanul, could you possibly wait a little?”
“Wait? For what?”
“I don’t have anything to give you right now. But it should be possible by tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow? Tomorrow, then…”
Watching Kang Hanul ponder, Young-seong sighed deeply.
“Hey, Kang Hanul.”
“Hmm?”
“Kyu-seong gave me some tomatoes, and I thought we could split them. Technically, I reserved them first so I didn’t need to give you any, but I don’t want to make Kyu-seong uncomfortable, so I’m offering them to you.”
“Oh!”
Although Young-seong hadn’t actually reserved them first, between our friendship and his wife’s situation, he felt compelled to take care of it first.
“In exchange for ten million won.”
“What? Why is it so expensive? How much are we talking?”
“Split in half, so 1kg. I also paid 20 million.”
I watched Young-seong, who didn’t mention that the 20 million included other things, and found myself awkwardly unable to speak up.
“Really? Okay. I don’t have anything specific to spend money on anyway! But how can you resell it when the person involved is right here, Choi Young-seong?”
“Is it okay?”
“Yes, it’s fine.”
While I nodded, Young-seong split the cherry tomatoes in half and gave them to Kang Hanul. He immediately popped one into his mouth and his expression was worth seeing.
“This is it! This is exactly it! Hahahaha! Who cares about ten million won!”
His satisfaction made me feel proud too.
Then, his gaze turned to me.
“Do you have any carrots?”
“Carrots, maybe by tomorrow…”
“Hmm. I need carrots.”
Kang Hanul muttered, stroking his chin, and Young-seong asked,
“The tomatoes are delicious enough, why are you so greedy?”
“No, it’s not that. Actually, we’ve decided to tackle the Yeongdeungpo Level 4 Dungeon again in two days. Since carrots improve vision, I thought they might help.”
“Like improved vision is going to suddenly reveal unseen monster information… huh?”
Muttering his train of thoughts, Young-seong suddenly turned his head sharply to look at me.
“The fruit juice ability you showed earlier!”
“Oh, right. It only lasts for 3 seconds, but it lets you see monster information…”
“What!?”
Kang Hanul, with the force of a tiger, grabbed my shoulders.
“What are you talking about, brother?”
“Ah, that’s…”
How do I explain this? I ended up roughly explaining my ability. Again, it wasn’t a top-secret issue, it was just too embarrassing to reveal until now.
“Oh? Such a fascinating ability?”
“I’ve occasionally supplied potions to Ara Hongryeon, all made by Kyu-seong.”
“Hahaha! So that was it! I owe a lot to those potions!”
Wow. I hadn’t known that the potions I synthesized were being used by a major guild like Ara Hongryeon. If I had tried to sell them personally, I wouldn’t have even considered it, but it was possible because Young-seong sold them.
“Could you sell me that potion, or fruit juice, whatever it is that can identify monster information?”
“That’s…”
I looked at Young-seong.
Since there was already a prior arrangement with Young-seong, it was a bit awkward.
“The raid is in just two days?”
“Yes.”
“Kyu-seong, how much of the fruit juice can you make?”
The effective dose of the item was literally limited to one per use of my ability.
If I created 500ml of fruit juice in one use of my ability, you’d need to drink at least 450ml to experience the effects. The remaining 50ml, even if consumed separately, would have no effect.
‘It’ll taste good, though.’
Since such tricks wouldn’t work, the maximum I could produce was two per day. Even that was only if I gave up on synthesizing slimes…
‘It’s not like I run a daily business, missing one day of slime synthesis won’t hurt.’
So, I honestly said,
“I can make two per day. Not today, but starting from tomorrow, two.”
“Oh, then I’ll buy both!”
“What do you mean! I already made a reservation!”
“What? Choi Young-seong, why do you need a potion to see monster information?”
“It’s not just for that effect!”
Finally, I had to step in.
“Since there’s a raid in two days, I’ll sell one to Mr. Hanul. Young-seong, apart from that one, you can take whatever else is made.”
“Hmm, one might be a bit iffy.”
I also know that having just one is not enough. If I consider using it just for testing purposes, I would need at least two.
However, now that I know about his wife’s situation, I can’t compare it to merely clearing a Level 4 dungeon.
If the Ara Hongryeon guild isn’t foolish, they won’t fail a Level 4 dungeon twice, even if there are unidentified monsters involved.
In other words, they can succeed without my fruit juice.
“Use it carefully. Honestly, if Mr. Kang Hanul is taking the lead this time, you probably won’t need my fruit juice.”
“Well, what! As long as I step in, we will definitely succeed in the raid! Hahahaha!”
“Then let’s settle it like that and meet again tomorrow.”
“Right! Let’s meet again tomorrow, brother!”
Kang Hanul took another tomato and headed back to his car. Young-seong also waved at me before heading off to find a nearby place to stay.
“…We’re running low on crops.”
Besides what I needed to feed the slimes, just these two alone were depleting my supplies, and I wanted to feed it to my family as well.
I made up my mind to exploit, no, work the slimes harder and returned to the dungeon.
Pop!
“Listen up, everyone! Starting today, the crop factory is open! We need to harvest more crops!”
…No sooner had I spoken than Poooh came up from below. It then wiggled as if greeting me and gobbled up a tomato.
‘I can’t stop them from eating.’
At that moment, Rookie came up to me and nudged me.
“What is it, Rookie?”
Gumul!
“What? It’s time to harvest? You can’t be serious!”
If Rookie mentioned that it’s time to harvest, there could only be one thing here.
The time to harvest the Layla had come.
Cliche Novel 