Chapter 15: Different from Before (2)

Price estimation of 1.2 billion gold.

Instead of using regular currency, the world uses ‘gold’ processed from monsters’ nuclei when buying and selling dungeon items.

If you converted 1.2B gold to won, it would be about 1.2B won1

Even though that was a high price, Jiho was confused.

The average price of a stone from an S-rank dungeon is 1B. 

But that’s usually when the stone only has one attribute; if the stone has three attributes, the estimate should be much higher. It seems like the estimate is low because he doesn’t have the ability to evaluate it properly.

Either way, even if the stone was only worth 1B, it wasn’t something that someone would give away for free.

Even if it had been mistaken as an S-rank stone, it was too big of a present to give someone.

“He said he’s giving this to me? This whole thing?”

“Yes. He said it is the price of his life and to just take it.”

Is there a need to return the price of one’s life? After all, in the end, Jiho came out alive thanks to Seon Tae Woong as well. Holding onto the stone, Jiho tilted his head.

“He’s giving something else on top of this?”

Sori jumped on Jiho’s confusion.

“Isn’t it really suspicious? He’s not the type of guy to do this did he eat something wrong? Even so, you shouldn’t turn him down.”

“I wasn’t thinking of doing so.”

Jiho smiled as he packed the box. There’s no reason to refuse something he’s offering. Thinking back, Jiho had suffered quite a bit under that guy too, so accepting this much should be fine.

Jiho had been thinking about what to do from now on, but Seon Tae Woong’s present made everything a lot simpler.

“What are you going to do after being discharged today?”

At Sori’s question, Jiho went over his plans.

“Today… I think I’m going to take care of a personal matter. I have to test something related to my skill too. I’m sorry I ended up resting so long while you were so busy.”

“Ah, no, it’s fine. You should rest since you went through a big event. Plus, Chungram is taking care of the public opinion.”

“Mm… that’s right.”

Although they’re relying on Chungram’s right now, it will probably be best to set up a PR team in No Name later if the guild grows.

Though that only sounds like a dream right now.

Thinking he was getting ahead of himself,2 Jiho thought about the curses aimed at him.

As he remembered curses like ‘A dumb golden spoon that has his entire life going the way he wants it to,’ ‘Die, Shin Jiho, the enemy of the hunter community,’ his thoughts quickly quieted down.3

Jiho asked with a much calmer mind.

“Is there nothing else besides that?”

“Um, the Hunter Association called earlier… They asked if you were thinking about getting reassessed.”

“Ah… the reassessment.”

“Yes. I postponed the answer for now, you can decline if you want to. Since they can’t force you to do it…”

Jiho had received many reassessments, to the point where he was sick of them.

Knowing how much Shin Jiho had suffered from them, Heo Sori looked worried.

Jiho hesitated.

The Hunter Association’s rank assessment is subjective.

There are awakened ones of all ranks with the skill, [Evaluate]. These hunters, aka Evaluators, can see a rough outline of a person’s stats.

Since stats aren’t everything for a hunter, the evaluation can only be subjective.

After checking the stats during the first round, the association carries out self-tests to check the strength of the skills. After sufficient tests, the association reviews the results before deciding on the hunter’s final rank.

Shin Jiho’s current MP is 1402. He gained a lot of useful skills as well. If it’s possible to assess everything, his rank will definitely be higher than before. 

But he was worried that it would appear as B like last time.

Because the hunter ranks are based off of “Can they hunt monsters,” the limit for support hunters was usually A.

But there’s no point in rising up to just an A-rank.

In order to change the public opinion right now, there is only one goal.

S-rank.

And not him reaching S-rank under extensive discussions, but reaching S-rank with results that are impossible to bring to question.

“I will take the re-assessment, but not right now. Please tell them to wait a bit.”

“Yes. That side asked to do it as quickly as possible. But it’s really okay to just reject them…”

“Okay. I wasn’t thinking of dragging it out too long either.”

From the association’s side, since they had been attacked for manipulating assessments before, they probably wanted to get the reassessment over with before the rumors start up again.

“Will you be okay?”

“I’m really fine.”

Jiho smiled at the worried Sori.

Even Sori, who believes in Seon Tae Woong’s interview, seems a bit skeptical; imagine how others must feel. Jiho definitely needs to prepare himself.

He’ll have to move quickly. 

Jiho went downstairs after separating from Sori, who said she had to go back to the guild.

Outside of the hospital, there were a couple of reporters waiting to catch something. However, thanks to Chungram Hospital’s help, Jiho was able to escape without being caught.

The place Jiho drove to was Chungram Department Store’s hunter-exclusive building located in Gangnam. 

Before getting out of the car, Jiho put on a mask and black cap. Although it was a suspicious-looking attire, when thinking about his bad rep, it was better to cover himself up like this.

There are quite a lot of people who recognize Jiho. In particular, in places with a lot of hunters, he can feel hostile gazes on himself. Jiho doesn’t get hurt by strangers’ gazes. But because he doesn’t want to get caught up in annoying situations, he goes around covered up.

Since there were a lot of people at Chungram Department Store, Jiho was easily able to slip in with the crowd.

Thanks to the great influence of Chungram Guild after the fissures broke out, Chungram, which had been expanding its business, acquired a department store that was on its way to ruin. They reorganized the goods that were already there and created a second building for hunters that only sells hunter items next to the main building.

The first to fourth floor of the hunter building were open to the public.

Anyone with money can buy potions made by an alchemist or items that are allowed by the Hunter Association.

From the fifth floor on, however, they sell dungeon items, so only hunters can enter those levels.

“Hunter Shin Jiho-nim, your identification has been verified.”

The guard at the entrance recognized Jiho and greeted him respectfully. Jiho waved his hand to tell him to stop before going in.

Since Jiho usually visited the department store after it was closed, this was the first time he’s come when there’s a lot of people. Instead of exploring the store, Jiho went straight up to the highest floor.

On the highest floor of the hunter building, an auction for dungeon items takes place regularly.

Chungram Department Store’s hunter auction is the largest exchange of high-rank dungeon items in the world. 

That’s because the world’s only SS-rank hunter, Joo Yiwon, and Chungram Guild trade items exclusively with this auction.

Every half-month, a special auction specifically for high-rank items opens up.

Coincidentally, today was that day of the special auction.

Jiho walked towards the place where they exhibit and appraise magic stones.

The auction hall gave Jiho a spot on the VIP table in the corner. 

They freed up the spots next to Jiho for him. Jiho didn’t want to raise a commotion, so instead of refusing, he quietly sat down on the spot.

The hunters that filled the seats near him were all high-rank hunters. Just from a glance, you could tell they were draped in valuable items.

The auction started amidst a quiet atmosphere.

The first item to be brought out was a C-rank equipment item. Even though this was a special auction, that didn’t mean all the items were high-rank items.

The hunters here were all either guildmasters or hunters that lead their own teams. They busily bid for items for their guild or team members. 

Unlike them, Jiho was quiet for a long time.

A long time passed.

When a short, ivory-colored piece of armor made of cloth appeared, Jiho’s eyes sparkled. Jiho sat up straight.

“This is a C-rank piece of armor dropped by a flying monster from Sokcho’s second void-attribute dungeon. Because the size of the item cannot be adjusted, this item will fit well on hunters under 170cm in height.”

“2.5M gold for this C-rank agility-increasing armor, any other offers?”

As the price slowly increased, Jiho read through the item’s window.

Information

Boluless’s4 Greatest DesireRankAExplanationA light piece of outer armor made from Boluless’s plumage. Makes the wearer’s body light. Increases agility by 10. With wear, it reduces fatigue by 50% every two hours.

The increase of agility by 10 mentioned by the auction hall is not a large amount. But reducing fatigue every two hours was a good option. On long dungeon raids, you can heal injuries with potions or skills, but it’s hard to take care of the small amounts of fatigue that build up.

Unlike how it had been evaluated by the auction, the item’s rank shown on its window was A-rank.

That is not an item that should be sold for a mere 2.5M gold. 

There have been several occasions where good items were sold for less than their worth. There is a limit to evaluating items.

Because of this, there are frequent examples of when items bought at a cheap price have unexpected powers or when items bought at a high price are worse than expected.

Today, the items that Jiho was going for were items like this. Items that have not been properly evaluated and are priced lower than their actual worth.

Truthfully, the amount of gold that Jiho has is not that much. It is impossible to convert normal currency to the hunter currency of gold. Of course, it seems like it’s possible in shady places, but Jiho had no thought of going to those kinds of places.

Because he saved all of the gold he earned until now, equipment was always put on the back burner, but today, he planned to use as much as possible. To prepare for what is to come.

Jiho bid for the item. 

“10M, 10M has come out.”

As the item that was about to be sold for 2.5M was suddenly bought by some fool who raised the price by four times the original amount, the auction hall went into a frenzy. Unlike the confused atmosphere around him, Jiho smiled.

Although he bought it for a high price, it was still a positive. If the item had been appraised properly, it would have been worth several tens of millions of gold.

Like this, Jiho bought all of the items that had not been evaluated properly and received a low rank. He also bid for a few items that had been appraised properly because he wanted them.

Once he started buying, Jiho bought like a person who had never been able to buy before.

Although Jiho wasn’t the type of person to waste money, he had never not gotten what he wanted since he was young. But as he started to run a guild, every piece of gold had to be carefully calculated so… he felt cathartic from buying this way.

Footnotes

1. About $841,000.

2. The expression here is 김칫국부터 마신다 which literally means that he’s drinking kimchi soup before something happens. The expression means that you should be humble and not get excited expecting something from someone before getting your hopes up. Nowadays, it’s used more casually, like getting ahead of yourself.

3. This is so sad ㅠㅠ. Don’t think about these things Jiho ㅠㅠ.

4. From what I know, there’s no proper translation for this so I’m trying to get the pronunciation as close as I can to the original.