What the Blue Guild offered us was basically an investment in a scratch card that hadn’t been scratched yet. The conditions that they offered were excessive for the new recruits.
I was sure that they were surprised by the fact that a four-man party managed to complete the tutorial dungeon, but despite that, the leaders of the Blue Guild made this kind of offer, making me think that they weren’t that stupid after all.
‘They’re not stupid.’
Actually, they were competent.
When I glanced over, I saw Park Deok-Gu diligently reading something. I couldn’t help but speak. “Are you reading the catalog?”
“Well yeah, since we might live here, I thought it would be best to read it…it says here that the restaurant in the guild is pretty amazing,” he said.
“Huh?”
“You know, when I was on Earth, there was a star chef named Raymond Park or something and he managed a restaurant…just looking at the dishes in his restaurant made me drool,” Park Deok-Gu explained.
“Ohhhh.”
“I think the housing here is pretty good too…yeah. What if I became successful in a place like this? I wish my gramps could see me become successful here…” he said.
I wasn’t sure if he was being serious when he said that, but I was sure that Park Deok-Gu’s grandfather wouldn’t want him to live in a place like this.
“The guild seems pretty amazing…so exactly how big are the other guilds?” he asked.
“I’m sure there isn’t a huge difference. Even though they said that this guild wasn’t like before, I’m sure that they’re doing fine since this is still a well-off guild. If they had some savings when they were still at the peak, I’m sure that they can endure with what they have. But they could be trying to recruit us in order to get back the glory that they had a long time ago…” I explained.
“Wow, I feel special with this kind of treatment. I feel great, hyung-nim,” Park Deok-Gu said.
“We’ll get even better treatment from now on,” I told him.
“Really?”
“Of course,” I said.
It wasn’t going to take long and describing the situation as a scratch card that hadn’t been scratched yet was right. We were the scratch tickets that hadn’t been scratched yet, and they had a high chance of getting a prize by scratching us.
At our current state, we were already offered this much, but once they realized how valuable we were, our worth will increase beyond our imaginations.
“By the way, noonim didn’t look so good…I guess she really doesn’t want to be apart from you. Take good care of her,” Park Deok-Gu said.
“I’ve been doing more than enough without you having to tell me. This has to be done, so there’s nothing I can do,” I said.
“But still...”
‘You don’t have to tell me…’
Even if Park Deok-Gu hadn’t made plans like what he did back in the dungeon, I knew better than anyone else how important Jung Ha-Yan was. She was one of the reasons why Kim Hyun-Sung’s party was so valuable. It was all thanks to these two—Jung Ha-Yan, a future archmage that possessed legendary-ranked magic stats—and Kim Hyun-Sung, the talented regressor.
A player’s potential wasn’t defined solely on the growth limit of their stats. It was because a player with high potential stats would experience growth that was much faster than the opposite. My intelligence and luck were like this.
For Jung Ha-Yan, her magic stats increased at an incredible rate. In addition, she already changed her job twice.
‘Elemental mage.’
It was the second job she chose after Kim Hyun-Sung and I suggested it to her.
Unlike me who could only choose fire mage among the elements, it seemed like Jung Ha-Yan possessed an affinity to all elements.
I couldn’t find an alchemist in her list of jobs.
The attribute that she possessed from the start was ‘How to become a mage’ so it obviously encouraged her growth as a mage.
If we considered the quest completion reward, that I had forgotten about, which increased stats by two points. I already knew that she was growing well and that she only needed a small opportunity to make a breakthrough.
I wasn’t sure if what happened in the dungeon became a traumatic experience for her, but she had to be enthusiastic.
I also created an unspoken rule that could be placed between me and Jung Ha-Yan. Like a student that would get rewarded for listening well, every time Jung Ha-Yan achieved something, I planned to give her a reward.
‘...’
Of course, it was more effective than I imagined. I simply started out with a compliment and little by little, I increased the amount of physical contact between us. At first, all I did was pat her head or interlock our hands, but the more I increased the level of physical contact, she became obsessed with getting achievements. Her goal was to receive compliments and rewards from me rather than to make herself even stronger. When she didn’t achieve anything, I reacted coldly towards her, making her quite desperate.
I think what Park Deok-Gu was talking about was the incident earlier. It was all because I didn’t meet with her despite the fact that it was almost time for the trial performance.
Jung Ha-Yan was the type of person whose magic stat increased just by eating, so despite working hard to achieve results, if her stats didn’t increase, then that would be strange. Out of the four of us, Jung Ha-Yan spent the most time in personal training.
I nodded and continued our conversation from earlier. “If I stay with her, Ha-Yan won’t be able to concentrate, so I’m just staying away from her for the time being.”
“Ugh…that’s true, but…”
“It’s a trial performance where the leaders of the Blue Guild and recruiters from other large guilds gather…I don’t want to mess things up. But I was going to stay with her anyways once we successfully complete this,” I explained.
“I could hear her sobbing every night…” Park Deok-Gu said.
“She needs to learn to be apart from me since I can’t always be by her side. This just happens to be the right opportunity since it’s only for a week,” I said.
“Ugh…I don’t understand why they even have this…” Park Deok-Gu complained.
“If we think of ourselves as sports players, it’s normal since they have to know exactly how valuable we are in order to set an exact price. It’s a bit unfortunate, but…if we mess up because of me, then it won’t be good for Ha-Yan either,” I explained.
“You know, the more I think about it, the more noonim seems to like you, hyung-nim,” he said.
It would’ve been better if it ended with her just simply liking me, but it had been a while since she crossed that line, and it was all because of Park Deok-Gu’s design…
I was curious whether he was pretending not to know or if he really didn’t know.
After I stood up, I spoke to Park Deok-Gu. “Let’s go.”
“Hey, wait for me, hyung-nim,” he said.
“Hurry up.”
“Ugh…”
When I started walking, various sceneries passed me by and the feeling was totally different from the tutorial dungeon. I felt classy, safe, and well-treated.
When I looked out the window, I saw the survivors from the shelter gathering and doing something. They were probably getting basic training or training that was necessary in this place. I did think about Lee Ji-Hye for a brief moment, but I ignored it and when I started walking again, I saw the inside of the tourney hall.
There were a lot of people and of course, I looked around using Mind’s Eye.
Before I looked around to see if their stats were high or low, I noticed that the clothes they were wearing were pretty fancy. But it wasn’t just the leaders of the Blue Guild, the others raised different flags and like directors of a large company, the way they looked around the hall made them seem like they played an important role within a large guild.
‘Recruiters?’
Yeah, they were probably recruiters. I followed their gaze and saw that they were looking at Jung Ha-Yan, who looked really nervous. It felt like it had been a while since I saw her like that.
When the Blue Guild’s first negotiation finished, it was decided a week earlier that they were going to open the trial performance.
Excluding the times when I checked up on her, it had been three days since I saw Jung Ha-Yan. If someone asked me what was the big deal with not seeing her for three days, I wouldn’t have an answer, but to Jung Ha-Yan, it seemed like a painful time.
“Don’t you think that she lost some weight?” Park Deok-Gu asked.
“A little,” I said.
She looked more tired than thin. I guess what Park Deok-Gu said about her crying every night was true because her eyes were red. I told her that I would come to the trial performance to see her, so it seemed like she made herself look presentable, but her overall condition didn’t look so good. I guess she was looking for me because she kept looking around. Jung Ha-Yan looked anxious and the people watching started whispering.
“Hm…I had high expectations…”
“She doesn’t look so good, right?”
“It’s probably because she’s nervous. And…it hasn’t been that long since she came out from the dungeon, so putting that into consideration, she doesn’t look that bad.”
“I was looking forward to it since she completed the dungeon in record time…I think her mentality is…”
I didn’t know who the voice belonged to, but they were right about her.
‘This isn’t good…’
No matter how I looked at her, she looked anxious.
I thought that Jung Ha-Yan would be able to find us on the second floor, but she looked nervous as usual. In the end, when I slightly raised my hand, I saw her smiling brightly towards me.
‘Don’t mess it up.’
This event was that important.
“Ahem. If Miss Jung Ha-Yan is ready, please signal…”
Jung Ha-Yan nodded when she heard the voice.
The way she started reciting the spell slowly made her look a bit unstable because she looked as if she was praying to someone and was hoping that everything would go well. When I saw the people clicking their tongues again, I thought that maybe my plan would fail.
The moment I started having regrets and thought, ‘Did I push her too much,’ I felt a flow of magic that was beyond my imagination.
“Huh?”
“Huuh…?”
It was ridiculous, but I saw the dust around Jung Ha-Yan starting to fly around. It surprised me to see that she was able to do that just by moving the mana that was within her body.
I wasn’t sure what she was reciting, but the chant was pretty long.
The leaders of the large guilds that had clicked their tongues were watching Jung Ha-Yan with their mouths open. From time to time, I could hear their bewildered remarks.
“Report this immediately! Hurry!”
“Hey! Hurry up and bring me her profile!”
It was definitely surprising, no, my mouth opened wider than theirs from the start. I expected that there she would have some kind of achievement, but I never imagined that it would be this impactful.
The longer the chant was, the louder their murmurs became.
I saw Lee Sang-Hee of the Blue Guild sitting far away and she was watching Jung Ha-Yan as if she didn’t know what was going on because until a week ago, she wasn’t like this.
‘What is she…’
“E-Elemental Bomb.”
Booooooooom!
With a loud sound, a vibration emerged from Jung Ha-Yan’s hand. It sounded extremely grating to the ears that I had to cover my ears. I felt like my eardrums were about to rupture, so I quickly used magic to cover my ears.
The unknown magic flew towards the large target located at the center of the hall. It pierced through the target whilst vibrating and the trail that connected it from Jung Ha-Yan to the large target was left in a mess.
“What the…”
Boooooooooooom!
The large target vanished when the second explosion reverberated. The cheers had disappeared as well.
But the silence that filled the halls was louder than any cheers.
“What…is she…”
Park Deok-Gu quietly spoke.
“Hyung-nim.”
“...”
“Is this for real?” he asked.
He took the words out of my mouth. I had no idea what kind of reward I should give her for this.
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