Chapter 8 – Part 1 Hunter – Maria, the Widow of a Small Inn (1)

“Are you okay? It’s very noisy.”

When I came down to the first floor feeling drained of energy, the landlady of the inn started talking to me.

“Ah~ yes. Sorry. I have a little business. I’m fine now.”
“If it’s okay, please restrain yourself. I’m protesting in the next room.”
“I’ll be careful from now on.”

It is a wise word. To be honest, I think I talked too much.
It wouldn’t have mattered if it was an expensive hotel with thorough soundproofing, but this is a cheap inn on the corner of the city. Honna has nothing to say.

“Can I order food?”
“Yes, what would you like?”

In my words, the mistress quickly went into merchant mode.
Her honey-colored curly hair was roughly tied back, and her face was without makeup, but her features were clear and healthy. Are you in your mid to late 20’s? Wasn’t it quite popular when you were young?

“Why? Don’t you order?”

I ask as I stare blankly.

“No. Sister is so beautiful, I thought it would be a shame to be stuck in a place like this.”
“Hoho. Thank you, but this older sister is busy, so could you make an order soon?”

Unfortunately, it was an iron wall.

My sister showed me only two items on the menu. It was 500 gold for regular meals and 5,000 gold for special menus.
…How special is it that there is a difference of 10 times?

If it had been me until yesterday, of course I would have chosen the regular meal for 500 gold. No, he might have gone outside and chewed a piece of hard bread worth 100 gold in water.

But now it’s different.
Because I am a man who spends hundreds of millions of gold overnight. There is no need to worry about 500 gold or 5,000 gold!

“…With that special menu.”

I ordered the special menu, feeling proud of being a commoner.

“Today’s special menu! 5,000 gold!”
“Give me a beer, too. Two in a large cup.”

Basically, I don’t like alcohol very much. But today, I really don’t think I can fall asleep unless I’m drunk.

“It’s 500 gold per cup! It’s an advance payment, so please do the calculation first.”

[The other party has proposed a deal.]
[-6,000 gold]
[Confirm]
[The transaction has been completed.]

While paying the money, the inventory balance exceeded 4 million gold.
It was 2,000 gold jingling when I entered the inn. How could a person’s position change so much in just a few hours?
Suddenly life felt futile. How much work does a simple worker have to work to earn this much money?

“Thank you~ Please wait a little bit~.”

While the food I ordered came out, I decided to check things out.
First of all, it looks like you’ve achieved a new achievement, so let’s check that first.

[Achievement: Obtain 10 SSR Equipment]
[You have acquired 1,000,000 gold.]

[Achievement: Disassemble 10 SSR Equipment]
[You have acquired 300 Fairy Powder.]

[Achievement: Summon Familiar 10 times]
[You have acquired 300 Fairy Powder.]

[Achievement: Collect 10 R-rank familiars]
[You have acquired 3,000 Rune Stones.]

[Achievement: Collecting 1 SSR grade familiar]
[You have acquired 500 Fairy Powder.]

Ministry 13/14

SSR Succubus
SR Thunder Spirit Jin
R Red Minotaur x2
R Blue Minotaur x2
R Black Minotaur
R Red Butterflies
R Yellow Butterflies
R Blue Slime
R Green Slime
R Red Penguinman
R Yellow Penguinman

Looking at the list of familiars, it seems that there are 4 types of R-rank familiars: Minotaur, Butterfly, Slime, and Penguinman. And each has five patterns: red, blue, yellow, green, and black.
In total, there are 20 R-ranks.
Maybe there is a pattern that I haven’t pulled out yet, but I think it’s probably certain in my intuition. At most, there must be 25 or 30 species.

By the way, do SRs and SSRs have similar friends with only different colors?
It’s a little creepy to think that there are 5 types of succubus, each with a different color.

Familiar summoning, like equipment summoning, is 80% R grade, SR grade 19%, and SSR grade 1%.
It must have been very lucky that the SSR, Succubus, broke through this probability. I was wondering if it would come out even if I pulled out close to 100 in terms of probability.

…Come to think of it, the help said it was possible to synthesize SSR familiars.
Since it is said that there is a 10% chance of producing a familiar with a higher grade when synthesized, maybe there is a familiar with a higher grade than the SSR? It is only within the range of prediction, but if there is no higher grade, it makes no sense that the synthesis cost is so high.

Um…But it’s not normal to combine two SSR familiars. Just having a familiar increases your stats, so using a non-duplicate familiar as a material is absurd. Synthesizing should be done only with duplicate familiars.

Thinking about the cost of selecting one SSR familiar is mind-boggling. It might be better not to have that higher level.

“…Let’s pull it out first.”

With the achievement, I got another fairy powder, so I decided to pull it out.

The first draw was an R-grade egg. And the result is Red Butterflies. Again, this is a duplicate.
Probably more than half of the types I didn’t pick. Why does it feel like there are so many duplicates? Is it an illusion of the brain that only remembers losses?

Since the ministry has become 14/14, consume 400 rune stones to expand it once more.

The remaining 2 summons. One was Blue Penguinman (NEW!) Of R rank, and the other was Healing Fairy (NEW!) Of SR rank.

[SR Healing Fairy]

HP recovery +60 per 10 seconds

Restore target.

I clenched my fist under the table.
Hehe. Even fruits taste better when they are frosted in someone else’s field. Summoning an SR with the fairy dust you got for free is sweet.
As I grinned at that thought, the waiter’s sister put beer and steamed peas on the table.

“Are you a Hunter?”
“Yes. For now.”

Your interface is not visible to anyone other than yourself.
So, when you see Hunter manipulating something on the interface, he looks like an incompetent person beckoning to the air from the outside.
If there is such a strange person, it means that most of them are hunters.

“You don’t look like a Hunter at all, do you?”

There is a point in what this sister said.
Usually, even in the village, hunters go around armed heavily and intimidate those around them. On the other hand, I am completely dressed in casual clothes.

“I have some circumstances.”
“Huh. Really?”
“I haven’t had a great hunt yet, but I mean.”

Sorry. In fact, he is a fake archer who has never pulled a bow, let alone great hunting.

However, I sipped my beer while setting the atmosphere that seemed to have a story behind it. The lukewarm liquid enters through the esophagus.
I wish it was a little colder. I hope there is no such thing as ice.

Come to think of it, it was said that the familiar penguinman uses attribute magic for each color. Blue Penguinman has water attribute, so can’t he make ice?

[R Blue Penguinman]

Intelligence +100

Performs a water attribute magic attack.

As expected, the blue penguin man is a water attribute.
I summoned the blue penguinman outside by pressing the blue penguinman on the mission field screen.

“Kyaa! Monster!”

The proprietress next to the penguin man suddenly appeared and was startled.
Penguinman is not big and has a cute appearance, but it may be a natural reaction since the danger of monsters has nothing to do with appearance.

“Sorry. I startled you. But this isn’t a monster, it’s my familiar.”
“Familiar?”

I ordered the blue penguin man without answering her question.

“Blue Penguinman. Can you put some ice in this cup? Just enough so it doesn’t overflow.”
“Quack.”

When Blue Penguinman swung the stick, ice floated in the glass with a rattling sound. It was just the right amount of beer, not overflowing.
But this guy is a penguin, so why is he making a duck cry? And if you look at how they communicate, isn’t it better than the SSR Succubus?

“Wow! Awesome!”
“Quack.”
“Cute! Awesome!”
“Cackle.”

The hostess sister, who was about to scream like a monster, completely changed her posture and petted the penguin man while petting him. She quacked as soon as he was stroked, as if Penguinman was also in a good mood.
After that, she seems to trick Penguinman into filling an empty bucket with ice, but she decides not to mind. It doesn’t wear out anyway.

Drink beer chilled with ice. I forcibly swallowed the bitter taste of the unfamiliar alcohol. My throat is hot.

“Sigh…”

If it was as planned, they would have been sitting here together.
The mouth is bitter. It was a bitterness that could not be erased by peas.

The anger I felt when I was abandoned by them has faded. It happened only a few hours ago, but so great things happened in a short time that it feels like it happened in the distant past.

Gulp.

“Phew…”

But what is this feeling? Sadness? Pity? Loneliness? Anything is good. Damn. It’s like throwing people away because they’re a little unlucky. Those children. Especially Kun, the next time we meet, I’ll beat you up to your heart’s content. Jin is a big ass. Raydo… Ray…

Damn it.
Gulp gulp gulp.

“Puha! Sister! Add beer here!”
“Yes~!”

As soon as I ordered, my sister brought me a beer. This time, the ice was in it properly.
As I gulped down my fresh beer again, I looked towards the kitchen and saw the penguin man, somehow slim, sprawled on the floor. What is this guy doing…

While drinking beer, before I knew it, a roast duck was set on the table. Be appetizing
Rip off a duck leg and stuff it into your mouth.
Well. It’s good. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve had such fine meat.
However, there is no one to share the impression while eating this delicious food. It’s a waste. Damn it. Are the children eating?

The inn was quiet. There were no guests other than me.
It is understandable that there are no guests. In the first place, I chose a cheap inn in the far corner to avoid running into them. Is there another poor hunter besides me who purposely visits such a remote lodging?

“Sister. Would you like to come and eat with us?”
“Hehe. Seducing now? I’m sorry, but it won’t be until after I’m a bit older~”

I laughed bitterly at the hostess sister’s treatment of me as a child. I might be her child compared to her, if only for her age.

I manipulated the inventory and materialized 100,000 gold. Then, he flicked the thick gold coin that appeared to his sister with his thumb.
My sister, who hesitantly received the gold coin I threw, widened her eyes.

“100,000 gold coin?”

Even if you’re a veteran hunter, it’s not an amount that a kid like this can throw at you.
In fact, I have rarely seen Daegeumhwa in person. I just thought that when I become rich later, I would like to play this kind of rich man game at least once.
And today, in commemoration of becoming rich, he immediately put it into action.

“It’s not because I have a different ulterior motive. It’s just… A lot of things happened today.”

I continued, stroking the beer mug with melancholy eyes.

“Because I am a pitiful body abandoned by my trusted colleagues, sister, please be kind to me. Even though I look fine, the inside is full of scars.”

I said with a slightly hurt face to my sister who was spinning the gold coins around to see if they were real or not.

“Huh… I can’t help it if it’s like that. This older sister will drink with you today!”

Sister’s smiling face was attractive enough to fall in love with.