Chapter 154: Black Slime Material Delivery (4)

The herbalism book I received from Hwayoung Sunbae contained information about quite a lot of medicinal herbs and the finished products that could be made from them.

Perhaps because it was an herbalism book meticulously detailing even the manufacturing process, usually only one or two pills or potions were depicted per page or two, but…

Since there must have been at least hundreds of such pages, it meant that the types of medicine she could make were also that numerous.

Of course, there were some things that were hard to understand at a glance, so I needed to ask Hwayoung Sunbae for explanations regarding some unfamiliar medicinal herbs.

“What is this round pill here?”

“That? Just a cold medicine. The method of intake is a bit tricky, but the effect is the bomb.”

“And this golden pill?”

“It’s a Monster Incense Burner. It’s not for eating, it’s used for burning, but you can think of it as summoning all monsters within a 20-meter radius. Regardless of rank.”

“What is this thing that looks like a black leaf?”

“Black Slime cigarette. The one I’m smoking right now.”

“Ah, so this is that.”

“…Just in case, if you want one, bring the materials yourself. I won’t make it for you with mine.”

“I don’t particularly need it. Cigarettes aren’t my thing.”

Why would anyone smoke something that’s bad for you? If my lung capacity drops unnecessarily, I’ll only lose muscle.

Besides, if I had to be strict, what I wanted in the first place wasn’t potions or medicines, but something else entirely.

I pondered about what kind of atmosphere or situation would allow me to bring up the topic to earn that 80-point value floating next to her face.

“Take it easy, take it easy. …Puhwaaa~.”

Watching Hwayoung Sunbae light her third cigarette consecutively in front of a customer brought many thoughts to mind.

Especially regarding what to do with her, who was taking such an unguarded posture in front of a man she had only recently met, two selves, one good and one bad, were clashing inside my head.

‘Hey, Sung Taekyung. What are you doing right now? She’s spreading her legs like that in her underwear and wriggling around, why aren’t you jumping her right now? Anyone can see she’s begging you to take her.’

‘Jumping on her abruptly might hurt her feelings, so how about politely asking to establish relations? After all, if she’s a woman, she wouldn’t refuse a man’s seduction, would she?’

It was less about whether to fuck her or not, and more about fighting over how to create the situation.

The problem was that I had too little information and too little closeness with Choi Hwayoung to do anything towards her.

Hye-eun was someone I was tied to by the deep bond of a childhood friend, so I could try things a bit boldly; Min-ah was easily conquered by using her ‘heat’ trait; and Eunyoung Noona followed a plan spanning almost a week to change the feelings she had towards me.

It was different for opponents like Cha Yuri or Do Sihee who had a strong desire to regain their awakened abilities, but the person before me didn’t seem to particularly wish for anything like that.

Indeed, an ordinary human would probably prefer making a comfortable living as an apothecary rather than bracing themselves for the daily danger of hunter life.

Naturally, no ‘Urgent Quest’ appeared for her, who seemed to be living so serenely without any particular complaints about her current life.

Proposing something to someone who wants nothing was no ordinary difficult task.

“Still haven’t chosen?”

“Well, looking at the book, nothing really strikes me.”

“Really? Then I’ll just give you cash, so take that and go…”

“When I came up earlier, I saw quite a lot of things displayed on the first floor that you’d made, could I receive one of those?”

“You want to? Then I’m happy because it’s convenient for me.”

“Just briefly tell me which medicine is which on the first floor. I don’t think I can tell them apart with my eyes.”

“…Aagh, troublesome.”

Even while saying that, having just finished her third cigarette, she immediately got down from the chair.

She wrapped the slipping gown back over her shoulders, but since she hadn’t fastened the buttons properly, it still wasn’t covering her properly.

In the first place, it was meaningless since the covered parts clearly revealed the silhouette of black underwear.

After walking down to the first floor of the building, which served as the shop, together with Hwayoung Sunbae.

I walked through the shop with her and asked again about the uses of various items.

“Is this a magic power potion?”

“Yeah. And the one next to it is a stamina potion.”

“Are the two different?”

“Of course they’re different. Just because you eat doesn’t mean you don’t get thirsty, right?”

“Then what about this one?”

“It’s a muscle relaxant. It loosens muscles just enough to allow movement when they’re suddenly strained. Since it’s for emergencies, it’s best to see a doctor after using it.”

“Then what about this one?”

“This one… uh, what was it again….”

I had thought she might be bothered by me asking about this and that, perhaps because I had just seen the messy state of the room, but…

Seeing that she didn’t show that kind of reaction was surprising; she didn’t seem like a lazy person by nature.

After retiring from hunter life and living a relatively less intense life, the tension that was once taut must have naturally loosened.

I still needed a bit more information about her.

‘Just drag her to the bed, undress her, and fuck her already! She doesn’t seem like a close-combat type, so she won’t be able to put up any decent resistance anyway.’

Every time Hwayoung Sunbae’s underwear appearance caught my eye, the bad self was egging me on, but fortunately, I wasn’t so desperate or starving that I had to force sex even on someone who disliked me.

For now, creating a pretext to sleep with Hwayoung Sunbae, even if it took a bit longer, was the priority.

Moreover, her appearing dressed only in underwear from the first meeting seemed to me, no matter how I thought about it, to have some other intention.

Even if she didn’t have such an intention, the fact that she gave me such a justification was clear.

Using this to create an atmosphere as if sex was inevitable did not seem entirely impossible.

“…What is that thing on the topmost shelf of the display?”

“Where?”

“Over there. You know, something contained in a box.”

“…I made it quite a while ago, so I don’t remember.”

“Really?”

“…Wait a moment, I’ll bring a ladder.”

Perhaps because the item was in a place too high for Hwayoung Sunbae, who was barely around 150cm tall, to reach, she walked away as expected, saying she’d bring a stand.

I grabbed Hwayoung Sunbae’s shoulders to stop her.

“Never mind, why bother going back and forth? We can just do it like this.”

“Huh? …Uh, Ugh?”

As I grabbed Hwayoung Sunbae’s waist from behind and lifted her up into the air, she uttered a few confused words, but.

I simply took Hwayoung Sunbae, lifted with both hands, to the front of that particular display shelf.

As expected, her body was light as a feather, fitting her small frame.

“This way, there’s no need to bother going back and forth.”

“…That’s true. But still, give me a heads-up next time.”

“Understood.”

…Compared to what I expected, her resistance wasn’t that fierce.

Naturally, unlike my expectation that she would resist fiercely, get angry about me suddenly doing this, or at least show a slightly more flustered reaction, Hwayoung Sunbae reacted as if being lifted in my hands was nothing.

If I had done something similar to Cha Yuri, she would have gotten furiously angry, saying, ‘Are you treating me like an idiot?’

“Ah, this is that.”

Hwayoung Sunbae, lifted by me, opened the box she took out from the upper compartment and said.

“What is that?”

“A male potency enhancer. I remembered displaying it in a hidden spot because it doesn’t sell, but it was here.”

“Oh.”

Actually, I had only asked as an excuse to lift Hwayoung Sunbae once; I wasn’t particularly curious about the contents of the box.

The answer I received from her was quite interesting, unexpectedly so, and an exclamation of admiration inadvertently burst from my lips.

Because this was an item that I thought would surely be useful someday if I stocked it up.

Considering my awakened ability where one ejaculation leads to one point gain, it was practically the same as a means to recover awakened points in a crisis situation.

I remembered how difficult it was to get it up for the last ejaculation when I had sex with Hye-eun five times consecutively last time.

In other words, no matter how good my condition is, the number of times I can ejaculate consecutively is at most five.

Of course, it’s not a small number, but perhaps there might be times when more is needed.

In that sense, I thought it was perhaps the most meaningful item among the medicines I’d heard of so far.

“You seem interested. Shall I give you this one?”

“It’s not bad.”

“…Alright, then put me down for now.”

I put Hwayoung Sunbae down on the floor after she came down carrying one box from the upper shelf.

“Then, for now, one box of the six-pack potency enhancer… and look around for other things too.”

“I can choose more?”

“I have a conscience, you know. Do you think I’d exchange 20 pieces of Black Slime material for just one box of unsellable inventory? That’s enough, just look around more.”

For me, who had expected words like ‘If you’ve chosen everything, take it and scram,’ it felt like I had received more generous treatment than expected.

A moderate attitude, an easygoing personality. And even the way she didn’t seem to care at all about a little bit of rudeness.

Isn’t it possible to proceed a bit more boldly with this kind of person?

It was the moment I thought that if I failed, it couldn’t be helped, but even if I failed, the risk wouldn’t be that significant.

“Excuse me, Hwayoung Sunbae.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m just asking for now, but if it’s anything inside the shop, is anything okay?”

“Oh, found something you like again? Let me see.”

“Yes, just a moment.”

After saying that, I took Hwayoung Sunbae to the counter of the lakeside apothecary shop.

“I’ll lift you for a moment.”

“…Ugh, huh?”

Just like that, I gently lifted her body and placed her on top of the shop counter.

This time too, lifted in my hands without particular resistance, she inadvertently ended up straddling the counter with her legs.

“What are you doing suddenly again….”

“You said anything inside the shop was okay, right? Then I’ll receive the remaining payment from you this way.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Did you find something somewhere?”

“I placed it here on the counter.”

“What you placed on the counter isn’t medicine, it’s me, isn’t it…”

Hwayoung Sunbae’s expression changed subtly immediately after saying that.

Soon after, she carefully pointed a finger at herself and asked me again.

“…Me?”

I nodded my head and answered her.

“I’ll receive the remaining payment as the right to spend one night with you, Sunbae-nim. I don’t particularly need anything else.”

It was the moment when I needed to become even more brazen if I wanted to get closer to Hwayoung Sunbae.