Translator: similarTIGER
Editor: Sotheno
‘But, I didn’t complete the quest.’
The quest reward was an S-Rank Promotion. Does it mean, even if the quest isn’t completed, he would be promoted?
‘That reminds me!’
Suddenly, he recalled what Ian said.
‘He said he could promote me if I accept the quest.’
So, basically, it was a matter of accepting not completing the quest. In other words, one needs to accept the quest, to be promoted to an S-Rank.
‘This made me all confused.’
He was just momentarily confused because for the first time in a quest the reward was an S-Rank promotion. Then, Soo Hyuk took a mercenary token out of his inventory and handed it to Ian.
“Please, wait a moment.”
Ian smiled, and with the mercenary token in his hand, he walked out of the room.
“Soo Hyuk”
Just as Ian walked out, Alex spoke wanting to ask something.
“Yes.”
“Can I ask you one thing that I am curious about?”
“Yes, please do.”
“I was wondering, why would you want to go to the library?”
The requests Soo Hyuk received were all so crazy, but the question was how they were solved and it was resolved by Soo Hyuk himself.
However, Listening to Soo Hyuk’s answer, Alex had a new question bothering him. He wanted to know Soo Hyuk’s reason for wanting to visit the library.
Why, the library? Is there something special in Hadrac’s library? He had several questions to ask.
“I love books.”
Soo Hyuk answered.
“Books?”
Alex, who was perplexed by the latter’s answer, asked.
He was surprised at Soo Hyuk’s nod.
And from that moment, a long silence dominated the air for a long time. Soo Hyuk had nothing more to say and Alex who was long lost in his own thoughts.
‘Just to read books?’
Even though it was embarrassing, all his questions were resolved. Alex couldn’t believe the man in front of him, accepted all those requests just to read books.
‘Well, mages are always quite peculiar.’
Though, Alex still couldn’t understand such reasoning.
A few hours later, the door opened, and Ian came inside with a golden token in his hand. Soo Hyuk’s token had been upgraded to the S-Rank mercenary token.
“Thank you for waiting.”
“No problem.”
“Here it is.”
Soo Hyuk rose from his seat and took the token that Ian was holding. Then, said his goodbye greetings to both Ian and Alex.
“Then I’ll see you next time.”
And reciprocating[1], both Alex and Ian bowed. After the formalities, Soo Hyuk walked out of the room.
“I’ll guide you.”
The NPC waiting outside, took the lead and guided Soo Hyuk down to the second floor of the Mercenary office.
“Good luck.”
Soo Hyuk thanked the NPC, who guided him, and came down the first floor. There he saw a user standing in line to receive a quest.
‘Now I don’t have to stand in the line.’
He wasn’t here to get his commission, rather it was to level up his ranking. Now that it was done, he had no reason to stay here.
He no longer had to carry out the missions. In other words, Ian and Alex’s request was his last calling.
Soo Hyuk headed out of the mercenary office. Then, he opened his inventory and looked at his mercenary token kept at the first row of the first column. For him, it was the most important item in his inventory.
‘Should I go and give it a look?’
[You now have access to the Library of Hadrac.]
‘Yeah, first I need to listen to Kamian.’
Soo Hyuk was in a dilemma, between the underground waterway and the library. Well, it wasn’t like he could enter there alone. To be exact, he could go, but first, he needed to have a look at Kamian’s answer.
With this, Soo Hyuk ended his agony and headed towards the Library. Entering Hadrac, he opened his friend’s list and checked if Kamian was online and found he was. Soo Hyuk, who was thinking about getting out of the library if he wasn’t online, sent Kamian a text with a slightly disappointed look on his face.
– Soo Hyuk: Kamian?
Kamian pinged not long after the message was sent.
– Kamian: Yes! Soo Hyuk.
“Wo-wow!”
Kamian sprang up from his seat.
“?”
“?”
Looking at Kamian, the Koma guild executives gave him a suspicious look.
“Enough! That’s enough!”
Kamin shouted with a wide grin at the executives’ puzzled eyes.
“Well, Mr. Gilm?” [1]
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about…”
“What is going on?” the executives asked, eyes full with curiosity. Did he hit a jackpot or something?”
“It’s fixed!”
When the executives asked again, Kamian yelled.
“Do you mean the ‘underground waterways’?”
One of the executives, Loa, asked at Kamian’s scream. This was the main topic of the meeting that all the executives gathered together for. Until just now, they were having heated discussions about the waterways. So, it was clear that it was about the waterways if it’s been resolved.
“Yes!”
At the words of Loa, Kamian nodded and said.
“Soo Hyuk will be helping us with the underground waterways!”
“!!!”
Hearing this, Loa was surprised.
“?”
“?”
Kamian and Loa were the only ones surprised because when they offered him to do this project, he clearly refused. They didn’t say anything to the other executives, so they were clearly still puzzled about the situation.
“Are you talking about the demon hunter, Soo Hyuk?”
Regheto, asked on the behalf of the executives.
Chatter!
“Shit, that demon hunter?”
“Ah, maybe not the demon hunter. It is not possible to duplicate a character’s name.”
“That’s true. But it’s not normal for Mr. Gilm to react like that.”
Regheto’s question sparked an argument among the executives.
Shit!
As the situation was getting out of control, Kamian rang the bell near him to maintain the order. Hearing the bell, all the executives quieted in a second. Then, Kamian opened his mouth.
“Yes, you are right. It is the Demon Hunter Soo Hyuk.”
CHATTER!
Soon, all the executives began to mumble among themselves creating a loud noise. Kamian, again, had to ring his bell to silence them.
“There will be four people entering the underground waterways with Soo Hyuk. Of course, including me…”
Making the deal with Soo Hyuk, they concluded that a team of five would enter. Soo Hyuk and Kamian including themselves.
“Please raise your hand to volunteer.”
Thuk! Thuk! Thuk! Thuk!
At the end of Kamian’s words, all the executives raised their hands one by one.
Kamian was stunned when all the executives raised their hands. He didn’t think all of them would want to join.
Even those who just before said they wanted to give up…
More than half of them were ready to abandon this quest, saying they wouldn’t be able to handle the Chimeras living in the underground waterways.
Of course, it wasn’t their fault. But, still, he can’t help but feel bitter that the situation did a full transformation with just one person.
“But when are we leaving?”
Loa asked. All eyes fell upon Kamian at the question, and she was right, the raid time was the most important.
“Tomorrow at 9 o’clock sharp.”
Kamian answered while looking at everyone, 9 o’clock was the time Soo Hyuk, and he agreed.
“Oh, man!”
Several executives heard the time, and let out a defeated sigh while pulling their hands down. They won’t be able to play as they have work or other appointments.
‘Six.’
But still, there were still six others who had their hands held up. Kamian spoke to those other six.
“Note that Soo Hyuk might help you against the poison. But if you can’t hold the poison, you’ll likely die. No, I’ll die…”
Listening to this statement, one hand was immediately pulled. They already knew how poisonous the Chimera’s venom was, and a few moments later two hands were down.
“Perfect!”
Now, only four hands were left.
“Then Roa, Ketoto, Garan, and K-Cross will go. Please do not be late at 9 o’clock tomorrow.”
***
Soo Hyuk with a positive face looked at the building in front of him.
‘Here we go…’
The building in front was the Hadrac Library. The main reason he had come to Hadrac.
‘I have time today.’
Originally, he was going to head to the underground waterways first. But decided to change his plans after talking to Kamian, and it was too late. In order to finish the quest, he had to wander through a lot of waterways, consuming a lot of time and staying up too late. Simply, Soo Hyuk had no such plan, so he pushed back the quest till tomorrow.
‘How many books are there?’
Of course, his desire to read books played an important role while making this decision. He then headed towards the entrance, took out his token and gave it to the NPC, who was guarding the entrance. The NPC looked at the token and was surprised and agape, began to look at the token and the at Soo Hyuk alternatively. Soo Hyuk opened his mouth and said,
“Can I take it when I get out?”
“Y-Yes!”
At Soo Hyuk’s words, the NPC was startled and nodded quickly. He left the token there and went inside the library.
As soon as he went inside, he could see numerous books left, right and in the middle. There were many books in the Library.
Looking at the books, Soo Hyuk had no choice but to smile.
‘What is this?’
There were tons of bookshelves filled with books. But, looking at them closely, Soo Hyuk could see they had lost their new glow and looked old, that could only mean one thing. That is, he had read them all.
‘This can’t be happening.’
Of course, it wasn’t like there were no new books, there were some.
And that was the problem.
‘I didn’t know there were this many duplicates.’
It was unexpected that there were so many duplicate copies.
‘No, there have to be new books at the back.’
And they were. The books at the back were twinkling with the shine of a new book.’
‘Let’s check them out.’’
Soo Hyuk began to move and with each step, he was checking out the new books at the back.
‘Huh?’
But as soon as he came across the second bookshelf, Soo Hyuk abruptly stopped himself. It was because he found an interesting book.
‘Orange?’
It was shining orange. Orange was a colour he had never seen in the library of Oren as well as in the library of Matab.
‘What kind of quest am I going to encounter?’
The Red book enhances stats, the Yellow book gives skills, and the Blue book is suspected to give an item. So then, what will this Orange book give as a reward?
Translator and Editor Notes:
1: The word means to respond with a corresponding gesture that the other person gave.
2: Mr. Gilm is Kamian.