TNHAS 11

Chapter: 11

Absorption

Looking at my pay stub, it was clear.

My base salary was a little over five million won.

After adding various allowances, then subtracting taxes and other deductions, the amount I actually received was:

5,176,210 won.

It had already been two weeks since I transferred to the Hunter Management Agency, but perhaps because I had joined when the agency was newly established, the period I had worked at the district office had also been included in the calculation.

The salary issued under the name of a black agent consisted mainly of special activity expenses and reward money.

“The reward for an S-rank conquest is five times the base salary, and an SSS-rank conquest is twenty times.”

That was what the Director had told me yesterday.

The amount that came out to was roughly 150 million won.

At this rate, thirty months of this would be enough for an apartment overlooking the Han River.

Of course, I couldn’t achieve an SSS-rank conquest every time, but I would be going to the Tower frequently from now on, so averaged over a month, the amount would be about the same.

[What are we eating today? Are we having a party?]

[Let’s have that thing from before! The chicken with the powder sprinkled on it! And jokbal too.]

“Just tell me what you want.”

[Yaaaaay!]

[It’s a festival!]

Today, I was willing to buy them anything.

Ah, but before that.

“I’ll go to Gangwon Province first.”

[Yes!]

[That’s right! Let’s go!]

We left at six and arrived in Gangwon Province around 9:30.

Flash!

With a burst of light, my body was transported inside the Tower.

But Hwanseongul Tower Floor 2 had a completely different atmosphere from Floor 1.

For starters, we weren’t inside a cave.

“This is outside.”

“Ah! Landlord, this is the entrance to Hwanseongul.”

“The entrance?”

“Yeah, in a little while….”

“It came!”

[Monorail!]

Screeeech─!

A monorail that looked something like a futuristic car stopped in front of us.

Once everyone boarded, the monorail slowly began to move.

Rails that hadn’t been there a moment ago appeared in an instant as well.

[Wow! You can see outside!]

Chae Seonhwa pressed herself against the black glass and looked outside in fascination.

Cha Junhyuk hurriedly reached out his hand toward her.

“Whoa, hey! There…!”

Whoooosh!

[Kyaaaah!]

The expression “whoosh” really was the perfect description.

The moment we started moving, the entire black glass cover over the monorail flew away.

[I-I almost died!]

“That’s why you have to be careful!”

Fortunately, Chae Seonhwa clung tightly to the floor of the monorail and held on until the end.

But the ordeal was only beginning.

“Hold on tight!”

Whoooosh──!

The monorail did not maintain an appropriate speed.

It practically flew along the rails as if it were a jet.

[Kyaaaaaaaaaaah─!]

Chae Seonhwa’s terrified screams remained behind wherever the monorail passed.

And that wasn’t the end of it.

“Kieeeek!”

Somehow, goblins managed to catch up and began jumping into the monorail.

But Cha Junhyuk was already prepared.

He was holding his sword like a baseball bat, waiting.

On the monorail traveling at an incredible speed, he maintained his balance using only his two legs and knocked away the heads of the goblins that jumped aboard one by one as if they were baseballs.

“Striiiike!”

Clang─!

Smack!

Thud!

Crunch─!

Cha Junhyuk laughed heartily as he did it.

“Hahahahahaha!”

[Are you craaazy?]

“You bastards!”

Whack─!

“I’ve returned!”

Smack─!

“Die, all of you!! Did you really think I was going to die!!!”

Smack! Whack! Slash─!

“Hahahahahahahahaha!”

[…….]

He looked slightly deranged, but regardless, Cha Junhyuk was faithfully fulfilling his role.

In other words, he was fully committed to conquering the Tower.

<Rewards will be distributed.

Basic Rewards: 100 F-rank Magic Stones, 2 Essences of Heaven, 2 Random Box Fragments

First S-rank Reward: 1 Time Delay Ticket, 10 Inventory Expansion Slots, 1 Skill Selection Ticket Fragment>

<As a first-conqueror benefit for achieving S-rank, a buff will be applied to Gangwon Province Tower for one week.

Attack Power +5%, Defense Power +5%>

“Cancel.”

“Landlord, the way out is this way.”

Cha Junhyuk naturally pointed toward the monorail exit.

“Wait.”

But today, there was something I wanted to test.

“I’ll absorb a defeated spirit.”

“Cast it.”

Goblin
Goblin

Goblin

As expected, just like when using the skill, could I only absorb one target at a time?

All seven options were identical goblins.

In that case, naturally, I chose this number.

“Number 7.”

A spirit rose from the body of the dead goblin and approached me.

When I reached out my hand, the goblin slipped naturally into my palm.

Shwaaash─!

<Select an ability stat of Goblin No. 7.

You can absorb up to 30% of the target’s ability stats.

Health: 20

Mana: 2

Strength: 10

Agility: 30

Intelligence: 5>

I could only choose one stat as well.

The stat worth choosing here was obvious.

“Agility.”

“Status Window.”

<Name: Lee Jihoo Lv. 8

Class: Spirit Summoner

Rank: Unmeasured

Nation: Korea

Title: Sealed

Stats: Health [300] Mana [80] Spiritual Energy [380] Mental Strength [80] Attack Power [2,045] Defense Power [150] Strength [80] Agility [9] Intelligence [280]

Skills: Summon Spirits 1 (S), Exorcism 1 (A), Materialization 1 (A), Eye of Truth 1 (A), Subjugation 1 (B), Absorption 1 (B)

Skill Selection Ticket Fragments: 20>

So that’s how it was added.

A stat called Agility, which hadn’t been there before, had newly appeared on my status window.

My footsteps felt strangely lighter.

The spirits in my house immediately noticed the change and reacted.

“Landlord, you got faster somehow.”

[Oh, really!]

Just increasing Agility by 9 had this much of an effect.

Was this why Hunters climbed Towers?

“Am I going to end up becoming stronger than myself someday? Is that why people make guilds and stuff?”

[Huh? Then are you going to quit being a civil servant? And quit being a Spirit Summoner too?]

The ghosts were already worrying about the distant future, completely skipping over all the intermediate stages.

“That won’t happen.”

“As expected of government power! That’s right, once a civil servant, always a civil servant!”

[Landlord! Let’s live together forever!]

“…….”

For some reason, their reasons for being happy seemed slightly strange.

But what I said was true.

I had no intention of quitting the civil service unless Korea itself collapsed.

<You have discovered a hidden entrance to Gangwon Province Tower Floor 2.

Rewards will be recalculated according to causality.>

Tarararararak─!

<Reward recalculation complete.

110 F-rank Magic Stones, 3 Essences of Heaven, 2 Random Box Fragments, 1 Time Delay Ticket, 11 Inventory Expansion Slots, 2 Skill Selection Ticket Fragments>

“Let’s go home.”

The power of 9 Agility was more impressive than I had expected.

“Here you go.”

“Ah…. Thank you, really… thank you.”

I caught the coffee cup Sua was about to drop out of midair and handed it back to her.

“Whoa!”

“Are you all right?”

At a gukbap restaurant, I grabbed the shoulder of a customer who was falling toward the Director and helped him back up.

[O-oh?]

I intercepted the coin Cha Junhyuk was playing with in midair and put it into the piggy bank.

[You’re definitely faster!]

[This actually works?]

I was satisfied with my condition as well.

Above all, the speed at which I handled household chores had increased considerably.

Thanks to that, I gained a little free time and was able to invest it in learning a new hobby.

“When placing the chessboard, the white pattern should be positioned on the player’s right….”

[There are rules for setting up the chessboard too?]

[I didn’t know that!]

My newly acquired hobby was chess.

This was a hobby Sua had recommended.

Apparently, Sua had been skilled enough as a child to participate in the women’s division of the World Junior Chess Championship.

“The king moves one square in any direction, the queen can move freely vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, the knight only moves in an L-shape, the bishop moves diagonally, and pawns can only move forward one square, but when capturing an enemy piece, they move diagonally.”

[That’s complicated.]

I was learning the basics of chess by watching videos of chess champions on WiTube.

“The knight is special. It’s the joker of the chessboard, the only piece that can jump over other pieces. It moves in an L-shape.”

The rules were much more complicated than I had expected.

[…Is this really a game?]

[That person says chess is a sport.]

More precisely, they said it was a mind sport.

“The other pieces can only move if there isn’t a piece blocking their path, and the game ends when the king is checkmated.”

[So you just have to capture the king somehow?]

[It’s not capturing it! It’s checkmate!]

[Huh? What’s the difference?]

“…….”

They say that getting started is half the battle.

I had plenty of time, so I planned to learn it little by little whenever I had the opportunity.

[Landlord, are we going to the Course Dungeon today?]

[Ah! The VIP auction?]

“Yes. I’ll take care of some work at the company and go to the auction as well.”

Today was Friday.

The Magic Stone Expo was currently being held at the Course Dungeon.

[They hold expos inside dungeons too?]

Strangely enough, that was possible at the Course Dungeon.

Even though it had transformed into a dungeon, it had retained the functions of the convention center that had previously existed there.

[There’s even a shuttle to the convention center when you go there. Taking that is convenient.]

[A shuttle? Inside the dungeon?]

[It’s only like that there. In the old days, you had to kill all the monsters before you could enter the center, but these days, if you just take the shuttle, it goes straight to the area nearby.]

For the infiltration of the expo, I took out the items I had brought from the Hunter Management Agency.

A shuttle ticket, a disguise mask, sunglasses equipped with a spy camera, and a Magic Stone Expo admission ticket.

The disguise mask among these was an item that had come from the Tower.

A new item rental center had recently opened in the basement of the Hunter Management Agency, and I had borrowed it from there.

<A-rank. Interferes with facial recognition.

Causes the wearer to be recognized as another person.

The wearer’s appearance can be changed using magic stones.>

I took an F-rank magic stone out of my inventory.

Just as I had been told when I borrowed it, I made the mask absorb it, and a status window appeared.

“Random Transformation.”

It felt more comfortable than I had expected.

It was as if a thin film had attached itself snugly to my face.

[Huh? Landlord, your face is blurry.]

[That’s amazing!]

Pop!

A bright light enveloped me.

[Oh?]

[…Who are you?]

There was a reason the ghosts reacted like that.

A half-naked man who looked as though he had stepped straight out of Greek mythology was standing in the mirror.

“…Set it to East Asian. Random transformation again.”

Pop!

[Huh???]

[…Ah!]

“…….”

It was indeed East Asian, but this time, it was a woman.

Her flowing hair reached all the way down to her waist.

“Set it to an ordinary man. Transform again.”

Pop!

[Not bad.]

[This is it! This one!]

This time, it was right.

I looked like an ordinary Hunter in his late twenties.

Not too conspicuous, but not too plain either.

It was exactly the kind of appearance I wanted.

[No one would recognize you now.]

[It’s the kind of face you could run into several times a day.]

That was exactly what I wanted.

A completely ordinary appearance, perfect for infiltrating as a spy.

It was time to head to the Course Dungeon for work.

The Course Dungeon shuttle bus was relatively quiet.

[It’s definitely different because we’re in a dungeon. Somehow, I feel full of energy!]

[Me too!]

As the ghosts in my house expressed their satisfaction with the environment inside the dungeon, the shuttle bus began moving.

“Shuttle departing!”

The long shuttle bus began to move.

At the same time, more than a dozen motorcycles departed as well.

The Hunters riding the motorcycles circled the shuttle and escorted us.

Whenever a monster blocked the road ahead, they skillfully eliminated it. Thanks to that, the shuttle bus continued forward without stopping.

As I was looking out the window, someone spoke to me.

“Which guild are you with?”

It was the person standing in front of me.

The person standing beside him chuckled and tried to stop him.

“Hey, why are you asking something like that?”

“I’m curious. An expo in broad daylight? Are you perhaps a guild master or something?”

There were many people nearby wearing similar clothes. Judging by how they were all glancing over at me… were they all together? Were they all from the same guild?

[What’s with this guy?]

[Why is he curious about that?]

Despite the other person’s attempts to stop him, the man was unabashed.

“You need a certain amount of experience before you can freely attend the expo on weekdays, but I’ve never seen your face before.”

“I awakened recently.”

“Ah, I see. Then I suppose you don’t know much about this industry yet.”

[What? What nonsense is he talking about? Is he trying to bully you because you’re new?]

[How dare he bully our Landlord! Is this guy crazy???]

The spirits in my house became even more indignant.

“I’m only giving you this advice because I feel sorry for you. You need to have at least reached Floor 15 of the Tower to have this kind of leisure. Or you need to have reached Floor 20 like me. Looking at you, you’re probably busy clearing the lower floors right now, so a low-level Hunter shouldn’t be hanging around a place where high-level Hunters gather. It’ll slow down your growth.”

[Wow! This guy’s only reached Floor 20 and he’s already acting like some high-level big shot!]

[Landlord! Should I put a curse on him?!]

The ghosts in my house were furious.

But I was actually relieved.

“Thank you for the advice.”

Perhaps he hadn’t expected to receive thanks so readily, because the man looked momentarily flustered.

“Uh…, yeah. Right. Be careful from now on.”

Rather, I was grateful for this reaction.

It meant that my disguise as an ordinary Hunter had succeeded.