Chapter 12
"Will it really remain as a series of potions? It kind of looked like our honoured genius alchemist is working alone without a workshop…. Ah, but how could he meticulously craft this kind of potion all by himself? Looking at things like this, you can really feel that geniuses do exist in this world for real."
Right now, they were taking a short break from answering the endless deluge of phone calls. When the employee spoke in admiration, Hazeline let out a sigh and leered at him.
"…Uh-whew. What will I do, when even you start referring him as a genius? That’s just an empty shell of a praise tacked on the guy to make the mass media and the Knights Orders sweat extra hard for a bit. So, what d’ya mean, he’s a genius?! Just give it a rest, already. A genius, a greatest, a maestro, a virtuoso - none of those words should mix up with our profession, and neither should we try to use them."
"Eiii… But it’s all ing from the munity chat room sites first. Right now, even the Alchemy Cafe is in an upheaval. They are asking if they could meet him…" (TL: a Cafe is not a physical coffee shop but an internet forum a la Discord or Reddit. Just your everyday Korean slang term…)
Feeling good in the knowledge that this great sales result would lead to fat bonuses for everyone, the male employee was chatting away in a high-enough spirit, but he calmed right down the moment he came in contact with inexplicably icy gazes. He had stepped onto a potential land mine without realising it. Seeing the sight of Hazeline lightly biting her lower lip with the corner of his eyes, the employee’s forehead broke out in drops of sweat.
"Hey, you. Are you still looking at those? Didn’t I repeatedly tell you not to waste your time in those damn gossip sites? Because that’s where the f*cked up bastards hiding behind the veil of anonymity spread around vile, baseless rumours!"
"I’m truly sorry."
The employee apologised in earnest as he knew the Manager deeply hated excuses and hasty explanations.
"Fuu… No need to apologise, instead, just go and do your job. I’ll make sure to ask what our genius alchemist’s deepest thoughts are or what the plans of his future happen to be."
"Yes!"
The employee left her side and as soon as all signs of people around her were gone for good, Hazeline grabbed her mobile phone. She was acting plete opposite to how she’d been coldly treating her subordinate just now, her demeanor currently full of respect.
– Ring, ring.
She waited for a while, but in the end, all she got was "The person you dialled is busy…"
"He said he’s got only a home number so why isn’t he picking it up?"
Hazeline cocked an eyebrow in dissatisfaction. She’s been calling the number 10 times already, but for some reason she couldn’t even get a single answer.
– Ppiiii…. Please leave a message after the tone.
"Hello…. Sir Alchemist? This is Hazeline speaking. I’m the only person who knows this number so please relax. The reason for me calling you this time, is… I was wondering if you’d like to have a work-related dinner with me some time…"
***
Thanks to Alchemy, his worries over money had been solved. The reserve price for his potion per bottle was $450K US. On top of that, he had already sold 2 through the sales missions, one for over $620K, and the other for over $530K.
Even after deducting the sales tax and the Alchemy House’
;s cut, he would still end up pocketing well over $1.3 million US. This was an amount he’d never even dreamt of having in his life. However, he also couldn’t have imagined seeing this amount leave him in one go, either.
The minimum cost of a single, unattached house located the closest to Gangwon Province’s Monster field easily exceeded $1.3 million.
At first, when he heard the amount he just couldn’t believe it but after hearing the explanations, he understood the reasoning, just a little.
The house he looked at had a garden the size of 60 pyung, (nearly 200 square metres) an underground bunker equipped with a generator, and had been "insured" with a Knights Order for a "prioritised protection" in case of Monsters’ appearance - and to top that all off, the whole building was reinforced with magic engineering to withstand assaults from Monsters of Mid Tier or lower. Hearing about all these points, even Sae-Jin ended up thinking that 1.3 million was on the cheaper side.
He returned to the cave, thinking that spending all that money at once seemed wasteful but he couldn’t chance it in an apartment plex with his condition as was, and also the issue with the time reared its ugly head while considering locations further than this, so he decided to settle in that house as soon as the money came in from the pleted sale of the potions.
‘Well, that’s that, but I wonder when I’ll evolve again.’
The worries and fears he had certainly lessened with the promised ine but couldn’t pletely be assuaged. The core issue he had, "Can I live on as a Human?" was still there.
Now, he could maintain his Human Form for 100 minutes but really, that didn’t exactly qualify as being a human, after all…..
‘The condition needed for the evolution of the Brown Wolf to the Grey was the Minimum Reputation.’
He evolved together with the message that said about 100 people became aware of his existence. If the rest of the evolution was tied to this concept than that meant he had to deliberately expose his Grey Wolf Form to as many people as possible.
"Fuu…"
However, that was easier said than done; most would try to hunt him down the moment he showed up. Sae-Jin could only sigh out grandly.
But there wouldn’t be any changes if he stayed put like this. He’d be able to find even a sliver of hope only when he started moving his body and hit the wall head on.
‘Well, let’s avoid the Knights for now, and show up only in front of the Hunters.’
*****
"Can we do it?"
"No problem, no problem~ No need to worry so much. It’s just a Low Tier creature with a slightly bigger body. Other Hunters are just exaggerating the truth."
One was a Mid Tier, another a low Mid Tier, and lastly, another low Mid Tier. This temporary party of three Hunters consisted of one woman and two men. The woman was full of high spirits and took the lead but the following two men had their shoulders slumped. It was as if they were being dragged along by the woman in front.
"When three Hunters gather, we can bring down any Monster! Isn’t that what you guys have said? That’s why we became panions, right?" (TL: the last line said something about being step siblings, and it didn’t make much sense to me, so panions it is until someone can suggest a better alternative. OG: ?????? ????????)
"Hey, that story is already 15 years old. And back then, we were Knights, not Hunters." (TL: this line also greatly confused me. Not sure if this guy was saying they were Knights 15 years ago, which seem quite unlikely as you will see in the next chapter, or the woman’s saying about three Hunters the previous paragraph was actually supposed to be three Knights instead and he was pointing that out.)
"Whatever, dude!! Why are you guys acting so down, anyways? If it’s a Wolf the size of a tiger, then the remains would fetch quite a nice price and if we find a mid rank Mana Stone in its heart…. you know what that means, right?"
She spoke loudly and happily while making the round coin gesture with her fingers but the dark shadows on the men’s faces showed no signs of alleviating.
There was a rumour floating around the Low Tier hunting ground of late. The insidious rumour spoke of a unique Monster prowling the area, the "Unique Grey Wolf."
The number of Hunters witnessing this tiger-sized Grey Wolf had already surpassed high tens, and after earning its nickname "Unique Grey Wolf
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