Chapter 263: The Colleague Sunbae Who Hates Me (1)

After the two kisses we shared in the middle of the street, Hye-eun and I, for some reason feeling a little embarrassed, awkwardly waved goodbye in front of our respective house gates.

“Oh, good job today, Taekyung-ah…”

“Yeah… see you on the next workday.”

“Mm-hmm…”

Perhaps due to the aftermath of revealing our embarrassing past, I naturally felt my cheeks getting hot on both sides.

It seemed the same for my childhood friend on the opposite side, as she was waving goodbye to me with a flushed face.

In the end, having finished our goodbyes in a state where we were both embarrassed, we quietly returned to our respective homes.

Because it felt like things would get really awkward if we were to get intimate like this.

In addition to that, I also had thoughts of wanting to sort things out on my own in my own way.

Upon returning home, I immediately sat down at my desk without even showering to contemplate for a moment about what happened today.

More precisely, a serious contemplation regarding the future of the A-rank party called the Sky Blue Shield.

“Hmm…”

First of all, as soon as I experienced the expedition on my first day of work, one decision was made in my mind.

That the current attitude should not be maintained, even for the sake of the party called Sky Blue Shield becoming stronger.

A significant increase in combat power, equivalent to adding one Greatsword user.

If you consider gains or losses for the party as a whole, it’s obviously a gain, but compared to the abilities I possess, such a meager increase in combat power was extremely disappointing.

Moreover, the role I played today in the party called Sky Blue Shield was merely assisting the existing roles within the party, so there was a slightly subtle aspect to calling it a true increase in combat power.

For now, I reflected once more on whether there was anything more I could have done in the battle that took place today.

If I could have borrowed spare shields with Hye-eun’s ability, the role of drawing attention when dealing with the Yellow Crystal Spiders could have been carried out much more easily.

Starting after wiping out the baby spiders once with area-of-effect magic in the Amethyst Spider nest could also have been attempted with a similar method using my cold magic. Since it was a confined space, fire magic would have been a bit dangerous, though.

Besides that, there were ranged attacks linking spear techniques and cold magic, or casting area-wide blessings right before the battle to boost condition, etc.

If I had used the abilities I didn’t use today, it undoubtedly would have led to a much smoother battle.

Of course, according to Min-ah, the collection amount increased by more than 30% compared to usual thanks to the performance I put on today.

Rather, having seen that much achievement with just greatsword techniques alone, the desire for improvement arising even more so is also unavoidable.

In addition, seeing the utilization of her diverse awakened abilities, Hye-eun, the party leader, will likely create higher-level strategies, and as that happens, the party’s rank would naturally rise by one level.

To achieve that, first, there existed a wall that absolutely must be overcome within Sky Blue Shield.

The eldest sister of Sky Blue Shield, Cheon Jihee Sunbae.

Explaining the awakened abilities I possess to her would inevitably become the top priority task.

“That won’t be easy…”

For the next task, which seemed like a long way off, a shallow sigh involuntarily burst from my mouth.

Cheon Jihee Sunbae, who had a bad impression of me from the beginning.

I was already certain that she didn’t just have a bad feeling about me based on intuition; she actually hated me greatly.

That’s because from the moment I first met Cheon Jihee Sunbae, I had read the Expected Acquisition Points that appeared next to her face.

「0」

At first, I thought I had misread the unit entirely.

I had seen many signs indicating points couldn’t be obtained, like heart symbols being locked, but she was the very first person with the number 0 displayed despite the lock being open.

For reference, the record for the lowest score among the people I’ve met so far was Eunbyul’s 15 points. Even that had risen to 120 by the time of the first sex, meeting various conditions.

Even Eunbyul, who was completely indifferent to my existence, had an Expected Acquisition Points of 15, so a score of 0 effectively means her favorability is below indifference.

So-called negative favorability.

Of course, practically speaking, there was no way to check Cheon Jihee Sunbae’s favorability right now.

To check favorability, her information must be displayed in the Hunter Lust Management System, and the minimum requirement to do that was ‘simulated sexual acts’.

Han Min-ah was like that, having her back and buttocks stroked by me while naked (even though she was 100% in cat form then).

Eunbyul was like that, having performed cleansing fellatio on my semen-slicked dick.

But if I were to attempt such a simulated sexual act on Cheon Jihee Sunbae just to check her favorability…

‘If things go wrong, won’t my dick get cut off?’

“Judging by the attitude Hunter Cheon Jihee has shown towards Master, the possibility of that is sufficient.”

‘…’

Hearing Esila’s additional remark, a chill naturally ran down my spine, realizing it wasn’t an act that should be attempted recklessly.

It would be better to contemplate the next plan after confirming that it’s negative favorability for now, instead of trying weird things for no reason.

Besides, even if the exact favorability score were checked, it wouldn’t particularly help in solving the problem.

There were largely two ways to change her favorability towards me into a positive number.

One is finding the reason she developed negative favorability towards me somehow, fixing that part, and changing it back to normal favorability.

The other is overwriting the already lowered favorability with another dramatic event to reverse it in a positive direction.

Either way, it was not an easy method, but for the current situation, these two were the only solutions.

First, finding the reason she developed negative favorability towards me and the method of fixing that part.

This approach offered absolutely no clue whatsoever.

To me, Cheon Jihee Sunbae’s cold attitude was like a natural disaster that had suddenly struck.

At first, I thought she was showing that attitude because I was a male Hunter and had shown untrustworthy behavior.

Just because she’s Hye-eun’s childhood friend, Min-ah’s friend, and someone who knows Cha Yuri.

A guy like a rattlesnake who pulls strings behind the scenes, sneaks into an A-rank party, and rides the bus.

I couldn’t really argue even if I received such an evaluation from her.

In fact, it was also true that I had entered Sky Blue Shield easily, partly thanks to the ‘rice cake bond’.

Therefore, I had thought that if I just showed a decent performance on today’s first expedition, Cheon Jihee Sunbae’s attitude would soon soften, but…

‘Not at all. I even felt like she became colder.’

Using the greatsword, I caught quite a lot of crystal spiders, I took on Min-ah’s or Yuri’s roles too, reducing their burden, and despite showing many reasonably good performances, Cheon Jihee Sunbae’s Expected Acquisition Points didn’t even budge from 0.

It arose to the point where I naturally wondered if perhaps the reason she dislikes me wasn’t something else entirely.

Or maybe the initial prejudice formed had hardened and couldn’t be resolved by a single party hunt.

If it’s the latter, it would naturally resolve if I went on several more expeditions with her and consistently showed good performance, but if she disliked me for a different reason from the start, it would be like digging in frozen ground for nothing.

Therefore, in many ways, the first method was a bit troublesome to implement right away, and the relatively stable attempt to reverse the evaluation would be the second method.

Showing a cool side to Cheon Jihee Sunbae amidst a dramatic event and changing even her negative attention towards me into favorability all at once.

After much deliberation, the conclusion reached was ultimately this one.

Somehow causing a dramatic event to the extent that Cheon Jihee Sunbae changes her perception of me.

The problem is, what kind of dramatic event would be enough to make her change her perception, given her negative feelings towards me?

‘If I showed her a spectacular fireworks display with fire magic, would she be moved and like it?’

“Only children aged 9 or younger would be swayed by such a method.”

‘…You don’t have to put it quite like that.’

Esila’s scathing criticism echoing in my head made the foolish thought that had briefly surfaced instantly fly away into the depths of my memory.

If the method of using fire magic is somewhat ambiguous, perhaps with cold magic…

‘With cold magic, freeze…’

“Please, I hope Master hasn’t thought of things like ice sculpting or snow festivals. Even if you have, I earnestly ask that you don’t even consider putting them into practice.”

‘…’

…Right, the ideas coming from my pathetic mind are all mediocre.

More than that, I feel like Esila’s tone has become a bit sharper while I wasn’t paying attention.

Could it be she’s angry because I haven’t called her, as there was no need to use her for a while?

“That is not the case.”

…Well, since she says it’s not, it probably isn’t.

Indeed, I haven’t fully understood fire magic itself, so using high-level magic like fireworks or ice sculpting was absurd in the first place.

At least, finding a solution from what I can do was the right thing to do.

In the first place, the situation is such that it’s difficult to say I fully understand even 3rd-circle fire magic right now…

“…Ah.”

As soon as I recalled the word fire magic, my second teacher’s face came to mind.

Along with the special assignment she had given me before we parted.

‘Create and bring me one 3rd-circle magic, something not yet formalized, by the week after next.’

Only three days remained until the assignment deadline.