< Sometimes Getting Strong (1) >

Deureureureuk

The sound of wheels rolling was heavy. Large luggage bags that were big enough to have room even with one person inside, were sitting on top of carts. Two people were pulling along one each.

The sounds of wheels hitting the floor stopped in front of a Haeyeon Guild security guard.

“It seems like there is a lot of just cargo today.”

At the security guard’s words, the vice guild leader of Haeyeon’s associate guild Bricks[1] smiled sheepishly.

“This time, quite a lot of bulky ones came out. Though the ranks were all low.”

Saying so, he opened the bag. It was full of trifling items like all sorts of weapons and armor, shoes, etc.

“They are these kinds of low rank products that are not much after you take out all of the commission fees and appraisal fees and such, so even if it is annoying, there is no choice but to check them.”

People would film directly wearing low rank items and testing them, instead of using an appraisal statement. Direct dealings that didn’t go through deals or the market were frequent.

So, they had packed up in this way in order to come use the training rooms where they could try using the items.

“You have worked hard. It would be good if there were a few more Hunters with item appraisal skills, but there are only two in the country.”

“Even if there were more appraisers, it would be better to put in some work, even if to save mana potions.”

The security guard checked the luggage and the Hunter licenses, and then handed out inventory sealing bracelets for each person.

“One C-Rank, two D-Ranks, one E-Rank. Since you are all C-Rank and lower, there are no other particular sanctions. Do you remember all the precautions?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You may go in.”

“Thank you.”

The Bricks vice guild leader nodded his head in farewell.

Deureureureuk

The sounds of the wheels that had momentarily stopped, scraped the floor again.

“If they’re a security guard, they should be an Unawakened Person or at most around an E-Rank, but they’re pretty stuck up.”

One of the group that was going toward the elevator that went down to basement level, complained in a soft voice.

“At any rate, we won’t be coming back again. Stop paying attention to pointless things and focus.”

The vice guild leader wrinkled his forehead as he pressed the elevator button. Soon, along with a short alert, the elevator stopped, and the Bricks Guilds members walked forward, a little tense.

“Then, I will be waiting outside.”

The MKC guard said. I was a little sorry to make him stand outside, but even if your stats were C, your legs wouldn’t hurt. Though it would probably be boring.

“Okay, Peace. What should we start with today?”

-Kkiang!

Peace turned in circles, excited. Seeing him so pleased with just coming to the training room, my heart hurt. I wanted to let him run and play in a larger environment. Not indoors, but outdoors.

“It’d be good if the law changes quickly.”

Make it so you could take monsters outside. He was tamed and still just a C-Rank, so there shouldn’t be anything dangerous with a B-Rank guardian.

-Kkyang! Kkeureung!

Peace held a knotted cord for a tugging game in his mouth and came toward me. Biting a cord I was holding and pulling and shaking it was Peace’s favorite game. Though it was really tiring for me.

Still, once the other monsters came, this hardship would lessen a little. Except for when the skill was applied and I was training them, they could play together.

“Wait a bit. Let me put on equipment.”

To play the tough tugging game, Strength stat was a must. I pulled out an A-Rank Black Pearl Spidersilk[2] fingerless gloves that increased Strength as much as 60, out of my inventory, and put them on. Just yesterday, I was provided with several types of integer increase equipment for training use.

The gloves gave enough strength to deal with Peace, so I put on just a Stamina increase bracelet and grabbed the loop at one end of the knotted cord.

-Keureung! Keureureu!

As soon as I grabbed the loop, Peace bit the opposite loop and excitedly started to leap around. The fluffy tail wagged about. The strength was so that it would have broken immediately if it wasn’t a specially made cord.

Seeing things like this, he really was a monster.

‘Should I try taking him into a dungeon?’

If it was about F~E-Rank, it wouldn’t be dangerous. Did Haeyeon have a low rank grassland or lake environment dungeon?

The problem was that the person who made the system was worrying, if I took him. They could make a mistake again.

Should I wheedle Yoohyun into it, telling him to try working with the familiar, as an excuse? Would he have time? I could look at his skills too.

-Keuheung!

When I thought he was fired up enough, I let go of the loop. Holding the knotted cord in his mouth, Peace triumphantly ran one loop around the training room and then placed the cord at my feet.

“Having fun? Having fun?”

-Kkiang!

I embraced him who jumped into my arms, and roughly tousled his nape. That’s right, if you like it, so what if it’s a little tiring.

“Still, this time, let’s play with a ball.”

We should take breaks now and then. I went to the basket full of balls of different colors, materials, and shapes. It was just then.

Slam

The closed door opened and the MKC Hunter came inside. What was it?

“Did something happen?”

Instead of answering, he[3] closed the door.

“…Seo Minsung-ssi?”

While I was thinking ‘I don’t have a good feeling about this’.

Paat!

A red powder was sprayed. A sweet odor and light sparkling, spreading through the air. Immediate effect sleeping powder that fetches five hundred[4] per gram.

“Peace- uhk!”

I was grabbed from the back and gagged. A little bit away, I saw Peace, who had fallen asleep, collapsed down. I struggled in order to shake off the hand that was blocking my mouth and the arm around my hips, but they didn’t move one inch.

…The opponent was B-Rank, so no wonder. Even if I took out and wore all the equipment in my inventory, the result would be the same. Who knew if he was a level 1 who had just Awakened, but if he was good enough to be sent as a guard, his level should be high too.

‘Fuck, is MKC trying to betray us?’

That would be too risky, though. Just then, the closed door opened again and men came in pulling carts that had large bags on them.

One C-Rank, two D-Ranks, one E-Rank.

Seeing how they were calm even after seeing me caught, they weren’t Haeyeon Guild members. Since there were inventory sealing bracelets on their wrists, it was clear. Still, their ranks were too low to say that they were MKC people.

“Why is he fine?”

The C-Rank asked, suspicious.

“It didn’t work. It seems like Haeyeon gave him something like a detoxifying item.”

The MKC B-Rank said. The voice from above my head made me feel bad.

“If the Watchman’s Fruit doesn’t work, then it should be B-Rank at minimum. It seems like his brother got something good for him.”

That guy smirked. I suppressed the irritation welling up and tried to get a handle on things.

First, those guys and the MKC B-Rank were working together. If they were mid to low rank Hunters who had come into the training room carrying luggage and wearing inventory sealing bracelets, then it was highly likely that they were Haeyeon associate medium to small guild members.

In other words, MKC might not have anything to do with this situation, but they did something insane[5].

As a giant guild, fuck, they really were insane. They were told to send a guard, but they did shit like sending a spy.

‘For Seo Minsung, this bastard, it should be gambling or a bribe.’

There were only a few reasons an amazing giant guild affiliated B-Rank would do something like this. The crazy MKC bastards couldn’t even manage their guild members? You failed first because you were like this!

“Take the monster and check the item.”

At the C-Rank’s order, one of the D-Ranks came toward me. Seeing how he had absolutely no wariness, a sigh was about to escape my mouth. Someone who was even D-Rank was really, an idiot…

“Where’s the detoxifying ite-.”

Bam!

“Uhk!”

Watching the idiot who was kicked in the solar plexus roll on the floor, I lowered the foot that I had raised. The other D-Rank and the E-Rank, who were examining Peace, had alarmed faces.

“Wasn’t he stat F?!”

As expected, those guys were idiots too. Did you think I wouldn’t have a lot of items with as much as five giant guilds at my back?

Still, maybe the C-Rank had a different amount of experience because he wasn’t surprised.

“You stupid bastards, be quiet. It’s been rumored that the Haeyeon Guild Leader cherishes his hyung, so would he just give one detoxifying item?”

I mean, to say it was to the extent of cherishing. As expected, rumors did get exaggerated. I was embarrassed.

“Fuck, this bastard!”

The idiot who was kicked by me, swore at me and then was told off for being noisy again. It would be okay if they were noisy some more. It was a training room so it was uselessly well soundproofed, damn.

The idiot carefully took off my gloves. Then my bracelet was taken away too.

In the meantime, a different idiot opened a bag they brought and dumped the things that were inside. Then, he put the sleeping Peace into a box inside the bag, closed the lid, and covered it with the items that he had taken out.

‘Shit, that would definitely not be caught and would pass through.’

It already would’ve been inspected before coming in, and simply one C-Rank with three D, E-Ranks were an insignificant number of people. There was barely any possibility of them being searched thoroughly until they left. It would probably be done with opening the bag once and looking it over with eyes only.

A way to make them get thoroughly searched…

“Is this the detoxifying item?”

Just then, the idiot stretched his hand toward my earlobe. Ack, wait. How many times did I use the Seed-Lead skill, again? The five guys here and one on my way to the training room by habit…

It was six times.

My Mana stat was still 2, unraised. The amount of time for my mana to recover hadn’t passed and half would get used up if I used the bait[6] skill just three times, oh crap. If the earrings were taken off, less than 10%…

‘I’m done for.’

The guy took off the Black Fairy’s Earring, and with a killer headache, my vision grew blurred.

Splash!

“Pfft, what is that!”

Why was water-. Coughing, I tried to clean my face but my wrists were tied together to one place. They were cable ties. Though they were thick, it wasn’t like they were zip-cuffs and they weren’t unbreakable – they were looking down on me too much, even as a stat F-Rank.

Still, they had reliably put an inventory sealing bracelet on me.

“So you’ve finally awakened.”

An unfamiliar face said, while looking down at me. I did have a lingering headache, but even if I passed out again, it would be better to figure out my situation first.

I raised my upper body, and used the Seed-Leaf skill towards the guy perched on a chair. Thankfully, a status window popped up without me losing consciousness.

Stat B-Rank, attack-type intial skills, Kim Woojae. It wasn’t a name I remembered. If he was affiliated to the guild that kidnapped me, he should be the vice guild leader or guild leader.

I sat, leaning my back against the wall, and searched my surroundings. It was a normal office that wasn’t that large. But it didn’t have any windows. Was it the basement?

“Why didn’t you use a stimulant instead of throwing water on me? It’s not like it’s the Middle Ages[7].”

There were a lot of good drugs made with dungeon byproducts. Though, of course, even if he had used a stimulant, it wouldn’t have worked. Where was Peace? Did they confine him separately?

“Seeing how you’re relaxed, it seems you trust someone will come save you, but it’ll be good to give up.”

That guy said, sneering.

“Aren’t you the one who’s too confident? Five guilds and even the Association will definitely interfere, but it seems like you can afford that.”

There, hurry up and explain[8]. Traditionally, shouldn’t desirable villains detailedly confess their plans from 1 to 10 in front of their incapacitated opponents?

“It’s a problem of time.”

Thankfully, that guy was a reliable villain.

“Seo Minsung, your guard, is still keeping guard in front of the training room. The fact that you’ve been kidnapped isn’t even known yet, so would anyone come to save you? By the time the disappearance of the magic beast trainer is found out, I would already be on a boat to Japan.”

“Japan? Are they the instigators?”

“They aren’t the instigators, but the auction venue. I put in a condition that I would get half the successful bid amount, as well as the guaranteed safety and support of course until I secure my place, from the guild or possibly the country that wins the auction, as long as I just safely pass you over.”

Ah, is that so. That was indeed quite good for you.

Japan, he said. Then again, you obviously couldn’t think of selling me off within the country, and the neighboring countries that you could get to by boat were Japan, China, or Russia. But, it would be precarious in various ways for the last two countries to open an auction, so the remaining choice was only Japan.

Could I be rescued before I was nicely packaged and placed in the auction house?

It would be easy to guess that he was going to escape to Japan, and thinking of my value, the coastal guards at least should be mobilized. So there was a possibility of being rescued as long as we didn’t pass our waters, even if we got on a boat.

In other words, what I could do now was to stretch out the time as much as possible.

“Why did you wake me up? It’d be easier for you if I’m passed out.”

“There’s no difference whether a stat F is passed out or not.”

It was even more irritating because it wasn’t wrong. With my current stats, there was no possibility of me winning against a B-Rank even if I were born again. Even if I put on the equipment in my inventory, I wouldn’t be a match against even a C-Rank.

“Then what, did you want to suddenly waste some water?”

Instead of answering, that guy quietly stared at me. What, huh, what?

“I wonder if you’ve given up, or if you’re being brazen.”

It was a face that said my being too calm was unpleasant. I had Fear Resistance(L), so it was indeed legendary rank nerves. But what were you going to do after threatening a poor kidnapped stat F-Rank?

“Your face and mind seem pretty similar.”

“…What?”

“I can’t bear to look at either.”

Bam!

That guy kicked the desk. As the iron legs dented, the junk on top of the tilting desk slid and fell to the floor.

“Anyways, ignorant people really do brag about their strength.”

“So it’s that you’re brazen.”

That guy kicked his chair and stood up. Are you angry? Mad? I don’t think you’re pissed off enough.

I smiled as if I heard a joke that wasn’t funny.

“If the round thing sitting between your shoulders isn’t just decoration, then shouldn’t you know at least that there’s no need for me to be intimidated? If it is decoration, then sorry. Actually, it’s too dirty to put up as decoration. Even so, saying that the function is good is-.”

Puuk!

…My stomach was kicked hard. Ah, fuck. It hurts. I couldn’t even make a sound.

“Messing around without understanding your position.”

“I know, cough, my position pretty well. The special skill holder that any guild in, of course the country, but also the world, all want to take in. Even if there was a truckload of, fuck, dime-a-dozen B-Rank combat Hunters[9], the comparison, ack!”

That guy stomped on my ankle like he was going to crush it. Shit, don’t crush it, just cut it off. You couldn’t drag the time on by crushing it.

For small guilds, there wouldn’t be high rank potions, which had difficult supply and demand, much less a decent healer, and if I acted like I would die from excessive bleeding, they would have no choice but to take me to a hospital.

Of course, there would be the choice of letting me die, but then that bastard would die too. Whether finding a boat to go all the way to Japan or handling the auction, a small guild wouldn’t have done all of it, and there should be people providing support. Like, the auction house that would take the remaining half of the successful bid, or the foreign giant guilds waiting anxiously for the goods to appear.

If something went wrong with me, of course this bastard, but even the other people involved would all be unable to set foot anywhere, whether home or abroad. Exactly how many S-Ranks enraged at losing the chance to get high rank familiars would there be?

In that case, it would be better for him to push one of his henchmen forward and put the blame on them and get them to turn themselves in.

‘Should I try faking an internal injury from getting hit in the stomach?’

He would notice me biting my tongue and spitting out blood. I was wondering if there was a way to fake illness enough to trick a B-Rank, or if I had to make him even more furious, when a rough hand grabbed me by the hair.

“Ugh…”

“That’s right, Han Yoojin. You’re a piece of treasure that a common B-Rank combat Hunter can’t compare to. Who would dare to harm that precious body? You should be self-confident.”

…His voice was pissed off, but the tone was calm. I was confused whether I could provoke him more or not.

“So I’ll introduce you to a good friend. You’ll have a fun time.”

Crash!

“…Ughh.”

He was just carelessly throwing people.

The place that guy dragged me to was a tightly closed space that was similar to a dark warehouse. A hazy light was spilling down from a light on the ceiling. And I saw a steel-barred opening[10] on the wall opposite to the door.

Um… It felt like there would be something inside of there.

“The Krecke[11] has a habit of storing away food when it’s full.”

Krecke? Was it a monster? It was a name I hadn’t heard of before. That guy’s mug became arrogant as he continued explaining.

“That storage method is a curse that makes your entire body stiff and makes you feel pain. No matter how strong of a guy you are, after 30 minutes, you’ll beg that you’ll do anything to be let out.”

That guy laughed insidiously. A curse? If it was a curse, then it was welcome.

“30 minutes? Would it work with just that much? Why don’t you use more?”

It was good for me the longer time was dragged on. But that asshole just smirked, went outside, and locked the door.

Then, the steel bars rose up, and something black crawled out.

A giant reptile that was slightly longer than a person’s height, and had gloopy skin that was like it was covered in mud. It looked similar to a salamander, but it had six legs and on its back, there were things like sea anemone tentacles wavering like smoke.

‘For the curse, I have the resistance skill so it’s not a problem, but……’

It looked really disgusting. Ack, don’t come, go away. Just then, the reptile that was slowly crawling towards me suddenly stopped a couple steps away. The chain connected to its collar was stretched taut.

And,

[While against the Krecke, all skill effects are increased by 2 times!]

A message window popped up. Hm?

‘…Is it the Lauchtas’ Natural Enemy skill?’

So that black and disgusting reptile was a curse and poison dragon type. But even if my skill effects were twice as much, I didn’t… have a single combat skill. Even if the Agility and Mental Up were twice as much, there wouldn’t be much of a change. Other than that……

Ah.

‘Would the keyword application be received twice, too?’

First of all, since it was related to a skill, if it was two times faster and easier to be applied, I could use that reptile. Trying wouldn’t hurt, so let’s make an attempt.

‘Ack!’

When I tried to stand up, a sharp pain came from my ankle that was stepped on. It seemed like it wasn’t broken, but would it be fractured? It wasn’t to the point of being unable to move, so I grabbed the wall and stumbled up. Then.

Sasasasak!

The black reptile backed away, startled. Huh? Why was it doing that?

The thing with its eyes opened wide and gasping from its bulging neck… no matter how you looked at it, it seemed like it was frightened. But I was stat F-Rank.

‘……Is it because of the Dragon Slayer title?’

It was a title that was received after getting rid of, not any other monster, but the king of curse and poison dragons, by myself. There was no effect in the last dungeon, but it seemed like it influenced similar curse and poison dragon types.

At any rate, there wasn’t anything bad about frightening it a little. It would be easier to approach and there was such a thing as a suspension bridge effect.

I took out a bottle with magic stone powder from my inventory, and gave a warm smile to the reptile hunched over.

“Here, Blackie. You’re a good boy, right? Do you want to eat something tasty?”

They’re C-Rank magic stones grinded finely so they’re even easy to swallow. Come here.

[1] it’s a transliterated word so I suppose it could also be something like ‘briggs’ or ‘brix’

[2] idk if it’s a name but it seems like it’s a name so I capitalized just in case

[3] i’ve been using ‘they’ whenever eng required pronouns but it’s not specified in krn, but in this case, it says ‘he’, so I went back and changed ‘them’ to ‘he’ for this particular person. anyways just letting you guys know that I’m defaulting to ‘they’ unless otherwise specified

[4] as 500 won is roughly 50 cents (usd), I’m assuming he means 5 mil won, which is roughly 5000 usd

[5] this and the ‘crazy’ or ‘insane’ used several times afterwards is that ableist word from ch. 21 (footnote [1]), in this case, meaning something wild/crazy/fucked up, so the best eng equiv would be r*tarded, but I didn’t want to put that in, so it’s here in a footnote.

[6] so seed-leaf is 떡잎 (dduk-eep) and this word (a type of fishing bait, rice used to make rice cakes, or metaphorically used to mean ‘(media) spoilers’ or ‘(movie, etc.) teasers’ or ‘foreshadowing’) is 떡밥 (dduk-bap). I don’t really get this part and why the author is saying 떡밥, but here are the definitions so y’all can try to figure it out urselves.

[7] lit. ‘1955 Namsan Mountain’. Idk why the Namsan is there but my dad says maybe it’s to represent Seoul (like how the Eiffel Tower represents Paris), but the word used for 1955 is lit. ‘double 8 year period’ and it’s referring to 단기 4288 (which is 1955 a.d.) where 단기 is a way of counting years like a.d./b.c. but 단기 starts from when kr is said to have begun in legends (2333 b.c.). Thus, the year is also used to represent an old style time period, so basically yj is saying ‘it’s not a long time ago’, which can be analogously expressed w ‘the Middle Ages’ in eng.

[8] lit. ‘become an explaining-bug’ where ‘-bug’ is used to mean, in a negative way, ‘sb who does sth (whatever was in front of ‘bug’) excessively’.

[9] lit. sth like ‘…B-Rank Hunters were presented/brought in/through truck’ which is a common way of expression there is a lot of sth

[10] the word is actually ‘steel-barred window’ but in this case, it seems to be more like a door/entrance so I tweaked it a little

[11] keu-reh-keh