Chapter 151: Black Slime Material Delivery (1)

Eunyoung Noona’s next class was scheduled for three weeks later, so the things I had to do until then weren’t particularly different from what I’d been doing.

Carrying out B-rank quests to get promoted to B-rank Hunter, and gathering Awakening Points by having as much sex as possible.

For the time being, I decided to focus solely on these two activities.

Anyway, joining a company was a necessary process to move up to higher ranks, so carrying out B-rank quests was something I had to keep doing.

Plus, there was the special request I received from Hwayoung Sunbae, which was likely something I’d continue to do regardless of joining a company.

In this world, connections with Alchemists who dealt with Awakened individuals were just as important as connections with weapon crafters.

Gathering Awakening Points through sex was, after all, heavily influenced by the sense of crisis from the Kraken subjugation battle, and in the first place, gathering points itself was a factor that made me stronger, so it was something I naturally had to do.

『Remaining Awakening Points: 360』

Still, thanks to the sex I shared with Do Sihee on the yacht, and the sex I had with Eunyoung Noona and Hye-eun over two days, I was able to recover the Awakening Points that had been depleted to the bottom to this extent.

From now on, let’s aim to leave at least around 500 points extra.

With just that many points, I’d have the means to somehow escape or resolve crisis situations.

Of course, during the Kraken attack, I was on the verge of death even though I had gathered over 1200 points, so if I had to say, it was just bad luck.

Anyway, the Mithril Greatsword was necessary to kill that thing, and pouring almost all the remaining points into it turned out to be the right choice in the end.

I lost the points, but the weapon remained. A semi-permanent weapon that I could continue to use.

Of course, just because it’s Mithril doesn’t mean it doesn’t need maintenance at all, so sometimes I would have to ask for help from a weapon crafter knowledgeable in this area.

This matter would somehow be resolved by getting introduced to that person Eunyoung Noona knows.

Not right now, but I’ll get the introduction around that time when I need it.

As I walked while thinking that, before I knew it, my body had arrived at the Hunters’ Autonomous Union Guild, Gangdong District Branch.

The last time I visited seemed to be about 5 days ago, but the perceived duration felt like more than a month had flown by.

Well, since quite a lot of things happened, it couldn’t be helped.

After entering the Hunter Guild, when I headed towards the quest management counter to accept the quest Esila picked out for me like last time, I encountered an unexpected situation.

“Ah, it’s been a while since you came, Kim Sungchul-ssi.”

Of all things, the receptionist remembered my face.

…Even though I hadn’t shown them my Hunter ID yet.

Of course, I had handled many quests within the Guild, so one could say it wouldn’t be strange if they didn’t recognize me, but that excluded the performance of this artifact I was using.

Clearly, I had understood it to work by using the ‘Mask of Unknown Identity’ function to blur my features if they didn’t know my face.

Just in case, I brought my hand to my face, but as expected, the mask was still properly worn.

Sensing something was strange, I instantly asked Esila about the situation.

‘What’s going on, Esila? Wasn’t it supposed to prevent recognition when I wore the Mask of Unknown Identity?’

‘In brief encounters, features are blurred, making them unmemorable. However, even while wearing the mask, if one encounters the same person multiple times, there are cases where the impression is remembered.’

‘…Then doesn’t the meaning of hiding my identity disappear?’

‘For people who don’t know the face behind the mask, the artifact creates a completely new impression, so it cannot recognize your original face.’

‘…Aha.’

So, the act of wearing the mask itself functions similarly to transforming into someone else, not the human male Sung Taekyung.

Ambiguous as to whether male or female, difficult to estimate age, and as someone vague who isn’t easily remembered.

However, even if not easily remembered, it’s natural to remember someone after encountering them multiple times, so in the end, it meant the quest counter receptionist, whom I encountered often lately, remembered my impression.

‘It doesn’t look like I’m male, right?’

‘Due to the artifact’s effect, I appear androgynous, but it’s unlikely that someone who has completed many B-rank quests would be expected to be male.’

‘Yeah, that’s enough.’

Rather, this level of functionality was exactly what I had been hoping for.

Including the Hunter Guild receptionists, there were quite a few people I needed to meet while completely hiding my identity, so if possible, interacting while maintaining this impression would be beneficial to me in many ways.

As far as I was concerned, it was equipped with the most efficient function in its own way.

“…Kim Sungchul-ssi?”

“Ah, I apologize. I was lost in thought for a moment.”

As soon as they greeted me, I offered a simple apology to the receptionist who looked awkward, and immediately showed my Hunter ID to accept one quest that Esila searched for.

The reason I accepted only one instead of three was that today was finally the day I had to deliver the Black Slime materials to Hwayoung Sunbae.

With one quest already accepted, if I accepted two more, there was a possibility I wouldn’t meet the delivery date.

I had already conveyed my intention to visit her via text message this morning. It was a transaction based on trust, so there was no need to make a bad first impression.

As someone who had already postponed the schedule once, I was feeling a bit anxious.

Simply put, even if I didn’t think of Hwayoung Sunbae specifically as a target for gathering Awakening Points, building a relationship with a technician capable of potion crafting, as I mentioned earlier, was important in itself.

If necessary, I could give it to them to use, not me – girls like Hye-eun, Cha Yuri, Sihee, or Min-ah.

The chance to gain Awakening Points was purely a ‘bonus’ in significance.

“Quest accepted, Kim Sungchul-ssi.”

“Thank you.”

As I was about to head towards the dungeon entrance counter holding the returned Hunter ID, the receptionist called me back once more.

“Just a moment, Kim Sungchul-ssi.”

“Yes?”

“Actually, besides that, there’s a message from the Guild.”

A message from the Guild? Usually, is that handled by the quest counter receptionist?

When I asked briefly about it, the explanation came back from the employee immediately.

“Kim Sungchul-ssi doesn’t have mobile phone information registered with the Guild, so there was no way to contact you. Instead, since you seem to visit the quest counter every time, I took on the role of messenger.”

“…Ah, I see. Sorry for the trouble.”

…It was all my karma.

“No, rather, I wanted to tell you regarding the message.”

“Yes.”

“Soon, your B-rank promotion test is scheduled to take place, but if you wish not to take it, please tell me now.”

Finally.

Perhaps doing only the lowest-rank quests for days finally paid off, as the Guild seemed to have set a schedule to promote me to B-rank.

The Guild side must have thought it was a bit of a waste to leave me at C-rank indefinitely. It was a moment where I benefited from the Guild’s fast promotion system.

Of course, as soon as I get promoted to B-rank, I’m planning to change my main stage to a company, which is a bit of a sorry thing to say….

I couldn’t let my plan to become the world’s greatest Hunter be ruined because of such sentimentality.

“I will take the promotion test.”

“Yes, then I will convey to the higher-ups that Kim Sungchul-ssi has the intention to be promoted…”

“When is the test date? I can take it tomorrow… no, even today. If you could make it as soon as possible…”

“Ah, no! We need to adjust the test date again! We don’t proceed that urgently!”

“…I apologize.”

Perhaps due to excitement at the thought of being able to rise to B-rank Hunter, I showed myself in an embarrassing way for a moment, so I offered an apology to the receptionist.

“First, now that Kim Sungchul-ssi’s intention to be promoted has been confirmed, the Guild will arrange for a Hunter who will oversee Kim Sungchul-ssi’s promotion test. Perhaps one of the A-rank Hunters is highly likely to become the supervisor, but if there are no volunteers, a B-rank Hunter might become the supervisor.”

“Is that so?”

“The test date needs to be coordinated again with the person who will be the supervisor, so I’ll tell you then. We will make plans to conduct the promotion test as soon as possible according to Kim Sungchul-ssi’s wishes, so please wait.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

After that, after hearing a few guidelines regarding the promotion test, I moved towards the dungeon entrance counter again.

And from the dungeon entrance receptionist as well, a greeting came back as if it were natural.

“Ah, Kim Sungchul-ssi. Which B-rank dungeon are you heading to today?”

If even this person remembered my face, I realized in a way how frequently I had visited.

“…I will go to the Tar Pit.”

“Yes, understood. I will activate the warp gate now, so please step onto the gate platform.”

As the white light transported my body to the Tar Pit, I quietly thought.

…It would be better to transfer jobs somehow quickly, before I get unnecessarily attached.