Translator: Min, Editor: Spade.
Proofreaders: Roki, Sapphire.
Yisun took three days off after that day. Although his penalty period had ended on the second day, he was still nervous, so he intentionally took an extra day off. He couldn’t go outside after the car incident a few days ago, so he rested at home and drank his potions.
However, there seemed to be something wrong with the meals served by his caregiver. He was told he needed to eat more to recover, which was why the meals were quite large, but she would cut the meat into smaller pieces and divide it into several bowls. When Yisun stared fixedly at the bowl, she explained that she was only following Sa Hyeon’s orders and didn’t know the reason either. After glaring at the table for a while, he still picked up one bowl at a time and ate with his chopsticks.
On the evening of the eighth day, he tried cutting an apple by himself. After confirming that the apple slices did not regenerate, Yisun was finally able to get back to work.
With only a week left until the third dungeon, everyone at Chord was on a tight schedule to prepare for it. The next dungeon was the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, and the boss monster was likely to use Zeus’ powers, so they had to be prepared. Taking on monsters that wielded the power of the gods in an S-level dungeon would be no easy task.
Furthermore, since it was a temple-themed dungeon, it was likely that even the lower-class monsters would be tricky to deal with. Currently, the most likely forms of monsters were either priests or angels, the latter being the worst, especially the flying kind.
That’s why it was important to bring a lot of items for this dungeon. Items were objects that could only be found inside dungeons and were mainly used by Hunters. While low-grade items were commonly traded through private markets, high-grade items were distributed through official auctions.
These auctions were handled by an auction department under the Awakener Management Headquarters, and Yisun had never been to one. He wasn’t interested before because he wasn’t a Hunter, and even during the current raid with Chord he wasn’t a combat type, so he didn’t pay much attention to the brief news about the Chord Hunters heading to the auction. However, his own schedule was unexpectedly set.
“We’re going to the auction house together today, Yisun-ssi.”
“For what reason…?”
“In the second dungeon, you were affected by the boss monster’s roar. Since Yisun-ssi isn’t a combat type Hunter, you don’t seem to have any resistance to these kinds of attacks, so we need to buy you some items just in case,” Sa Hyeon leisurely explained.
Although he was in charge of protecting him, he couldn’t defend against all the indirect, wide-range attacks, and thus needed items. So, he asked Yisun to accompany him, Na Gunwoo, and Shin Jian to the auction house today.
Yisun, who had been studying the temple restoration plans in the office next to Sa Hyeon’s, found himself inadvertently joining the auction team. He was baffled by Sa Hyeon’s behavior, but even more than that, he was surprised that the other man had noticed when he was hit by the boss monster’s roar attack.
The auction was held in the main hall of a spacious hotel. The entire hotel was the property of the Awakeners’ Management Headquarters, and on auction days, it was used exclusively for that purpose. The auctions were held monthly by the headquarters, and they only featured remarkably expensive items.
The hotel was teeming with people who came for the auction. Yisun thought it would be very jammed inside judging by the crowded sight he saw from the parking lot, but as Sa Hyeon led the way down the street, it was as if they were re-enacting the miracle of Moses.
As soon as the Hunters in the lobby saw him, they quickly moved aside to make way, puzzling Yisun, who was walking behind him. Even though Sa Hyeon was an S-class Hunter, it was still strange to see that the other Hunters were avoiding him.
As if reading the question written all over his face, Na Gunwoo, who was next to him, chuckled softly.
“Restorer Yisun doesn’t seem to know about the incident involving the leader at the Auction House.”
“…What’s that?”
“Four years ago, when Chord had just been created, Sa Yoonkang, the Vice Guild leader, only gave the leader a team and offered zero support. He didn’t assign any Hunters from the HN Guild, didn’t give him any items, and didn’t give him access to dungeons.”
Na Gunwoo shook his head in disbelief at how childish this was. Yisun listened, feeling like he could understand a little bit why Sa Hyeon would go so far, setting up a plan to defeat Sa Yoonkang.
“So the leader had to do it all himself. First he scouted me and Hunter Jian, then he also bought the items himself… At that time, there was this atmosphere, right? The Chord leader who’d suddenly lost his executive position in the HN Guild, received no support, and was the leader of a team that was ‘elite’ in name only. It was also around that time that the Guild Leader collapsed and everyone was expecting Sa Yoonkang to take over the HN Guild.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Although Sa Hyeon was an S-class Hunter, if Sa Yoonkang were to take over the HN Guild, that meant he would have total control over the number one guild in Korea and one of the top five guilds in the world. The larger guilds were more like corporations, so the influence of a Guild Leader was extremely powerful.
“So during the bidding, some people started causing trouble and joking around, but with his character, no, his personality, would our leader put up with that? The auction hall became his shadow domain, the lights were shattered in an instant, his field was all set up, and the Hunters were trapped inside… If anyone opened their mouths or even picked up the board to try to bid, they would be thrown against the wall. The employee who was conducting the auction was trembling. Leader sat at the center, leisurely buying items, and the employee hastily ended the auction, saying, ‘There won’t be anyone else, right?’
“Is it okay to do that at an auction organized by the Headquarters?”
“Oh, an S-class would get a sanction, but our leader already got all the items he wanted so it didn’t matter. At the time, people were thrown against the wall and disappearing into the shadows… As I watched it from the side, I could only think I joined the right side.”
Na Gunwoo chuckled. He was amused to hear that, after Sa Hyeon’s rampage, the auction house had started putting up notices asking people to refrain from using their Hunter abilities, and while there had been a few incidents at the auction house before that, it was definitely the leader who had caused the notices.
After listening to the story with a slightly concerned expression on his face, Yisun suddenly raised a question.
“But Hunter Sa Hyeon never uses any special items, does he?”
“Oh, most of the items we bought back then were ours. It’s the high-grade rod that I usually use.”
Na Gunwoo laughed, adding that Shin Jian’s knuckles and Ki Joohyuk’s rod had also been bid on by Sa Hyeon himself. He said that because of their notoriety, Chord’s Hunters had an easier time getting items at the auction house. Yisun suddenly understood why the Chord members were so harmonious. Although there were a few– no, many ways in which their methods were far from the best…
Na Gunwoo said that it had already been two years since Sa Hyeon had been to the auction house, and yet the incident was still famous among the Hunters.
As Yisun listened, they soon reached the main hall. The four of them sat in a row at the front, with Sa Hyeon naturally sitting next to him.
Na Gunwoo and Shin Jian previewed the catalog for the items that would be auctioned off that day and informed Sa Hyeon of any items they thought were good. Since the items they were buying today were for Yisun’s protection, Sa Hyeon listened to the opinions of the team’s Tank and Healer.
As soon as the auction began and the items they mentioned came up, Sa Hyeon started bidding.
“The bidding for the ‘Tears in the Sky’ item will start at “6,000,000”
“60,000,000””.”
The employee, the Hunters sitting in the auction room, and Jung Yisun were all shocked. The item was a B-class protective item that increased wind damage resistance, and Sa Hyeon was buying it for the price of an A-class item. However, apart from the shell-shocked Yisun, Shin Jian and Na Gunwoo were still looking at the pamphlet, as if they were already familiar with this.
Sa Hyeon’s smiled softly at Yisun’s flustered expression.
“I’m not a fan of waiting, why waste time when you can use the simplest way to get it.”
“Is that… so…”
“Yes. Scouting Yisun-ssi was the one thing I spent the most time on.”
Sa Hyeon spoke calmly, stating that he had work to do after this, so he planned to end it quickly. With the third dungeon approaching fast, they didn’t have time to waste in the auction.
After that, Sa Hyeon made three more bids. Whenever an item came up that Na Gunwoo and Shin Jian had mentioned, he would bid ten times the starting price, and no Hunter dared to challenge him. As the value and grades of the items rose, so did the prices. Everyone’s eyes glowed at the items, but they could only stay silent once Sa Hyeon made his bid.
But once they reached the fifth item, and Sa Hyeon once again bid for ten times the price, the staff looked on in disbelief as someone else called else raised their hand.
““77,000,000”.”
Yisun’s gaze snapped to the voice behind him. The face of the man who had bid 10% over Sa Hyeon’s initial bid looked quite familiar. Yisun, who had only now noticed his presence, was still staring when he heard a sigh from Na Gunwoo next to him.
“Oh, he’s causing trouble again…”
It was Cheon Hyeongwon, the next Guild Leader of Paradise Guild, the third largest guild in Korea. Recently, Paradise Guild was in the process of a Guild Leader succession, and it was likely that he would become the guild leader with the approval of all the executives within a month or two.
The S-class Hunter had also attended today’s auction and was glaring at Sa Hyeon from his seat behind them with a very nasty expression on his face. Judging from this and Na Gunwoo’s reaction, his friction with Sa Hyeon must be quite frequent.
“Is this area your own monopoly? Don’t you know that not everyone is as rich as you are? We’re all here to buy items, not to watch your money shitshow.”
The aggressive tone of his words instantly chilled the atmosphere in the auction room. Sa Hyeon stared at him, and then sighed.
“Ah……. I hate to use such low-level words, but I’m afraid I can’t help but stoop down to your own level to make you understand.”
“What?”
“Maybe you’re eager to see some other shit rather than my money shit show?” Sa Hyeon asked icily, and Cheon Hyeongwon’s face instantly turned red and contorted in anger, as a crimson aura crackled around him. The Hunters looked around nervously at the tense atmosphere, and Na Gunwoo whispered quietly, “Leader, we don’t really need to buy that item. The four we already got are enough.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Besides, it has fire damage resistance, so we don’t need it for this third dungeon. Also, I forgot to mention this, but the fire damage resistance item dropped by the boss monster in the second dungeon was a higher grade than this one.”
Sa Hyeon stared at Na Gunwoo, who scratched the back of his head with a frown and commented that his memory was deteriorating recently. Sa Hyeon glanced back and forth between the item and Cheon Hyeongwon for a moment to make sure he wasn’t about to book him.
“If it’s fire damage resistance, then that guy probably doesn’t need it either…”
Cheon Hyeongwon was a Fire Mage Hunter. As an S-class, he had excellent resistance to this element, and so the fact that he dared to bid on this item was purely to spite Sa Hyeon. Sa Hyeon tilted his head and said, “Didn’t Cheon Hyeongwon buy a building recently?”
“Ah, yes. He bought a commercial building worth 3.5 billion won in Nam-daemun and everyone made a fuss about it. Most Guild Leaders make a fortune during the succession season…”
Hearing that, Sa Hyeon raised his eyebrows and smiled, the kind of smile that made Yisun feel uneasy every time he saw it.
“100 million.”
Cheon Hyeongwon, who had been glaring at Sa Hyeon, ready to pounce on him from behind, suddenly burst out laughing when he resumed the bidding. He raised his board and called out for 200 million. The Hunters around him were so shocked that they could no longer breathe.
And so the battle went on. The item that started at 700 thousand won quickly surpassed 1 billion, and as it reached 2 billion, Cheon Hyeongwon’s hesitation started to last longer and longer, and every time he did, Sa Hyeon would raise the price just a tad bit more, as if hesitant. If Hyeongwon hesitated at 2.5 billion, he would raise the price to 2.52 billion. Then, as if he had won, Cheon Hyeongwon would immediately call 2.55 billion, and then, little by little, it eventually rose to…
“……3.5 billion.”
Hyeongwon raised the board and called 3.5 billion, and Sa Hyeon applauded. “Alright, it’s yours.”
“What, what……?”
“I give up, so Hunter Cheon Hyeongwon can take the item. You’re not going to take back your bid now with all these Hunters watching, are you? It’s not like you don’t have this much money.”
As Sa Hyeon laughed, Cheon Hyeongwon finally realized that he had fallen into his trap. It was all an act, how he hesitated every time he raised the bid, and how he consulted his assistant, calculating the available funds, all to lead him on.
However, with so many Hunters watching, Cheon Hyeongwon could only step forward, trembling, and pay the amount to receive the item. As the next Guild Leader of the third-ranked guild, this amount of money didn’t incur much losses, but the item had been sold for 500 times the starting bid. Moreover, for him as an S-class fire attribute Hunter, it was nothing more than a low-grade useless item.
The sequence of events left Yisun frozen. It was strangely disconcerting to think that nearly half of the debt he’d been saddled with for four years had been traded here in an instant. Meanwhile, Na Gunwoo and Shin Jian stood up to leave now that the auction was over, and Sa Hyeon smiled and approached Cheon Hyeongwon at the podium.
“I know you’re still worried about your performance as the next Guild Leader, but this is a great contribution to the Awakeners’ Management Headquarters… and to our society.”
The Awakeners’ Management Headquarters, which had organized the auction, took a certain percentage of the transaction amount as a commission, and since this item was made by the Headquarters, all the money would go to them. Hyeongwon glared at Sa Hyeon so hard his eyes looked as if they would pop out of his head, but Sa Hyeon only responded with his usual smirk.
“Just wait… Once you… fail at a raid, I’ll knock you off your high horse and flatten you so hard you’ll never….”
“Oh dear, the would-be Guild Leader of the Paradise Guild shouldn’t speak so lightly when the lives of people are on the line. Also…”
A cloud of dust rose around the enraged Cheon Hyeongwon, and his fluttering collar was kindly smoothed out by Sa Hyeon.
“…You’re not “second, you’re third.”
Sa Hyeon smiled and led Yisun out of the auction house. Yisun walked in silence, suddenly remembering what Na Gunwoo had said when they entered the hall.
* * *
The day of the third dungeon had come all too soon.
Dark clouds had been gathering in the sky since that morning, and around noon, rain started pouring down. As they decided to only move to the site at the first sign of a dungeon break, Yisun watched the rain fall from inside the guild building.
Raindrops pattered against the front window, leaving a trail of water. While he watched the rain trickle down quietly, the Chord Hunters were having an emergency meeting. Yisun stood, dazed, in front of the window, until he was pulled by Ki Joohyuk to sit down at the conference table.
Ki Joohyuk sighed heavily, and Na Gunwoo also expressed concern, asking what to do. Yisun was puzzled by their expressions, so Joohyuk explained the situation.
“Sometimes the weather outside and the weather inside the dungeon are synchronized. The rain that’s falling now won’t stop until two days later, so it might be raining when we enter the dungeon as well.”
“What’s wrong with that… ah–”
Yisun was about to finish his question when he realized something and sighed. The boss monster in this third dungeon had been confirmed as Zeus. The lightning-wielding god, would be even more powerful in the rain.
“Based on the times of the first and second dungeon breaks so far, it’s going to be before evening, which means it’s still going to be raining…If we delay our entry, that would be a waste of clearance time, and the third dungeon probably has a 60-hour limit.”
If it rained, then the sky would be overcast, so it might be more advantageous for Sa Hyeon to use his shadow ability; on the other hand, the power of Zeus’ lightning would also increase, and the surroundings would become bright the moment the lightning struck, making it difficult for him to move through his shadows. Ki Joohyuk shook his head.
Han Arin, who had been so relaxed when they’d entered the second dungeon, was also tapping her fingers deep in thought, so Yisun began to worry.
“My water attribute will become stronger, but I’ll have to deal with lightning… It’s the worst match.”
“If you’re just going to worry, shut up. Don’t make Restorer Yisun unnecessarily anxious.” Arin responded to Ki Joohyuk’s complaints. Ki Joohyuk was silent for a moment as he seemed to realize his mistake and apologized. Then, as if to lighten the mood, he asked Yisun in a light tone, “Restorer-nim, are you having any problems?”
“What problems?”
“I was just wondering if it was more difficult for you to use your ability on a rainy day. Hmm… is the rubble too heavy for you to lift? Or is it because you feel more tired on a rainy day? Or do you have some bad memories—”
“Hunter Ki Joohyuk. You’re noisy.” Sa Hyeon interrupted Ki Joohyuk with a chilling voice. His voice was even colder than usual, leaving Ki Joohyuk stunned and promptly closing his mouth.
In the midst of it all, Yisun blinked slowly as he felt the stares directed at him, and locked eyes with Sa Hyeon. His black eyes had a sharp focus to them, not bleary… They were the eyes of a living person. He stared at him for a long time, and Yisun didn’t say anything.
He had no expression on his face. With his back to the rainy window, his face was a little pale, and his pale eyes could only blink slowly, more akin to a state of being crushed beyond recognition by a jumble of emotions than a state of being alive.
Sa Hyeon raised his hand as if to call Yisun closer, but he quickly checked the notification on his phone and stood up. It was a text saying that a dungeon break had occurred.
“Let’s go.”
At Sa Hyeon’s command, all the Hunters on standby stood up. Yisun was preparing to leave as well, but when Sa Hyeon approached him and called his name once, he vaguely assumed the reason why he’d interrupted Ki Joohyuk and said:
“I’ll make sure to restore it properly.”
It was also such a rainy day when Yisun lost all of his friends.
Min: Don’t ask me about the bid sums srsly i’m just a poor uni student i’ve never seen so many zeroes in my life SPAREE MEEE, ah, a thank you to Spade, Roki, and Sapphie for making my chapters readable <3
Rain, rain, go away… Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️⚡️⛈️⚡️👀
The bids… so many zeros… but haha, love how he threw the childishness right back in his face in such a (-n evil) ‘community benefiting’ way
He’s so petty( I don’t hate it), tyy for reading~~ 🌸
Thanks for the chapter ❤️❤️
tyy for reading~~ 🌸
Poof university student….so relatable.
Thank you for your translation 💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗
University is hell on earth… and tyy for reading~~ 🌸💞
Thanks.for.the chapter
tyy for reading~~ 🌸
😢
This TL is so good thank you translator-nim! You are doing gods work lololol.