Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 14

Sssssizzle—!

“Whoa! What is that smell?”

“That’s samgyeopsal, right there.”

“Samkyeopsal?”

No.

Samgyeopsal.

“When you bust your back working, you gotta treat yourself to good food.”

Pork belly after a hard day’s labor.

Once you get a taste of this, you never forget it.

Take a nice whiff of the pork belly sizzling to a golden crisp.

And pop it in your mouth?

Slurp.

Look at Robin drooling again.

Hold your horses.

It’s almost done.

“Smells good!”

Arthur and Robin can wait in line.

You guys have had this before.

Instead, the first piece went straight to Rani, who was sitting next to me with sparkling, starry eyes.

“Thank you! Rani will eat well!”

I think that was the first time I’d ever heard her use polite speech…

Anyway.

She bowed politely, took the piece, blew on it because it was hot, and took a big bite.

“Whoa—! What is this?!”

Guess she loved it.

Her eyes went wide, and she was practically stomping her feet in delight.

“How is it? Good?”

“Yeah!!!”

Just listen to that excitement in her voice.

When someone eats with a face full of bliss like that, it makes the cook proud.

“Eat more! Ahtur ate lots!”

“……Take this too.”

What’s gotten into you two?

You love meat so much, yet you’re giving it up?

Robin especially.

Even now, you’re practically drooling a river…

“Delicious! It’s so delicious!”

Never mind.

Watching that, it made total sense.

She was hopping around with joy, so of course they felt like giving theirs up.

Yeah…

Still, though.

“Arthur, Robin, you eat too. I bought tons of meat, so there’ll be plenty left even if you stuff yourselves silly.”

“True?”

“Of course. Look here, I got all kinds of meat. Booze, soft drinks, snacks, huh? Look how much I bought.”

I even bought beef, you know?

A whole bunch of tasty cuts.

Let’s throw a proper party today.

“Good!”

“…Yeah.”

Only then did they pick up their chopsticks.

That’s right.

We ought to eat together.

Me?

For now, I’d just keep grilling until they’d had their fill…

Sssssizzle—!

I piled another full batch onto the grill.

Ding!

[A commission has arrived.]

Wondering what it was, I checked.

It was a notification from AwakenedNet.

“Ah?”

“What is?”

“……”

Because I paused mid-grill, their heads snapped toward me in unison.

What are they, meerkats?

“It’s nothing, just eat.”

You guys eat your meat.

Let me check this and then I’ll finish grilling for you.

[New Commission]

The client was the Awakening Management Bureau.

Kyah.

Our regular customer placed another commission.

Wonder what kind it is.

I opened it.

[A-Grade Dungeon: Queen Poison Spider’s Labyrinth]

[A-Grade Dungeon: Giant Golem’s Fortress]

Two A-grades?

That’s huge.

If I clear both of those, I’ll have gathered a total of 8,600 Commission Points.

[Manpower Office Relocation Voucher]

– 10,000P (Cost increases with each purchase)

Then I’d be just 1,400P away from my goal.

I might actually be able to move soon.

Ah, of course, there was one condition.

“Can Arthur clear an A-grade dungeon alone?”

Robin could only be summoned once a week.

What about the intermediate and low-grade laborers?

Hmm.

They probably wouldn’t be much help.

Essentially, Arthur would have to tackle it alone…

“Mmm… I try!”

I try?

That wasn’t his usual tone, was it?

Sensing something off, I glanced at Robin.

Robin shook their head.

Aha.

It’s way too tough, then.

Understood.

In that case, rejected.

Let’s just finish our team dinner.

*

Even after eating meat and drinking alcohol, going to work wasn’t optional.

I was the one who drank, not the construction site.

Yoon Hajun, twenty-three years old.

A hunter-cum-laborer living easy thanks to auto-hunting.

Naturally, I showed up to work.

I put in a full, hard day of labor.

And finally, clock-out time.

“Kim-ssi, good work today. See you tomorrow.”

“Yes, hyeong-nim. Get home safe.”

“You too.”

Back at home?

I immediately transformed into the Manpower Office Director.

Time to check what I should start with today.

——-

Name: Yoon Hajun (Lv. 10) / Republic of Korea

Class: Manpower Office Director

Unique Skill: Summon Laborers (Grade – Bronze) / Summon Fixed Team

——-

First, glancing at the Status Window…

Unique Skill Grade: Bronze.

That caught my eye before anything else.

“I need to raise that quickly…”

Level?

Doesn’t matter.

It’s not like I’m the one running around anyway.

The laborers are what matter.

Still…

It wasn’t easy.

A long time had passed since reaching Bronze, but it was still stuck there.

“Even so, I’m almost there now.”

[(7/10)]

Three EXP.

Clearing just three missions would take me to the next stage.

Can I make it today?

I’d know once I looked at the missions.

[Mission List]

1. Use potions on laborers (0/1)

2. Cumulative commissions completed: 20 times (17/20)

Oh.

Both looked totally doable.

Okay, decided.

Today, let’s sprint toward ranking up that grade.

First, a shower…

*

“Ah, so refreshing.”

With the shower out of the way?

I was truly ready.

Time to work.

First, summoning Arthur.

[Summon Fixed Team]

– Arthur (High-Grade)

“Boss! Good to see!”

A routine that had become second nature.

Summon Arthur first, and then summon the other laborers?

Arthur trains them and sends them off.

This was the routine repeated every single day up till now.

Shall we get to it today, too?

“Boss, call Rani?”

“Huh?”

Rani?

Why?

“Boss told Ahtur. Said tell again tomorrow.”

Ah, right.

I made a promise yesterday.

Director! You have to call Rani tomorrow too! Promise!

I could say it was promised while drunk, so it didn’t count…

No, I couldn’t do that.

Okay.

Look how much Rani earned for me!

May as well call her.

[Summon Fixed Team]

– Rani (High-Grade)

“Ta-da! Rani has arrived!”

Summoning both Arthur and Rani like that instantly transformed the quiet semi-basement atmosphere.

“Ahtur came first.”

“Hmph! Rani got here fast too!”

It was awfully noisy, but not bad at all.

First off…

“We’re all tired, so let’s have some coffee before we start.”

“Oh! Thank you, Boss!”

Look at that.

Using polite honorifics only at times like this.

She really picked up Korean properly.

Regardless.

A cup of coffee for Arthur, too.

And for Rani, who was watching with envious eyes?

Sliding over an unwrapped candy I’d prepared was perfection.

“No coffee for Rani. Have this instead.”

“Whoa! This is super sweet too!”

Now, time to see which dungeon we should hit today.

I opened AwakenedNet, and the list of accepted commissions appeared.

[Commission List]

1. A-Grade Dungeon: Queen Poison Spider’s Labyrinth

2. A-Grade Dungeon: Giant Golem’s Fortress

Looking at them gave me a moment of hesitation…

Should I try sending Arthur?

Who knows, right?

Just as that thought crossed my mind…

“Boss? Ahtur drink more coffee?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Good!”

Watching him look so happy over a single cup of coffee gave me a pang of guilt.

“Whew…“

Right.

As if I didn’t know Arthur’s personality.

If it were manageable, he would have confidently said it was easy.

Robin too…

I try?

That practically meant he wasn’t confident.

Pushing to force an A-grade dungeon at all costs?

No need.

If the deadline were tight, maybe, but that wasn’t the case either.

Lingering attachment to it, though…

Hmm.

Pure, unadulterated greed, surely.

“Tsk, Yoon Hajun. You greedy jerk.”

Yoon Hajun: fickle as a reed, yet remarkably self-aware.

Realized it was just greed?

Then let go of the lingering attachment.

Before my resolve could waver any further — click-clack!

Today, I was charging straight through the missions, no question.

*

Currently, two missions were posted on the list.

[Mission List]

1. Use potions on laborers (0/1)

2. Cumulative commissions completed: 20 times (17/20)

Which one to do first?

The correct answer:

“Simultaneously.”

First, accept a commission on AwakenedNet.

“Summon Laborers.”

Call them forth.

Dispatch to the commissioned dungeon.

[F-Grade Dungeon Conquered!]

[Clear Time – 00:07:21]

When they returned?

“Whoa, you’re hurt. Let’s get some medicine on that.”

“Kyek!“

Our goblins.

They panicked when I suddenly started spraying something on them, but their expressions quickly brightened.

See?

Told you it was medicine.

[Mission Complete!]

[Use potions on laborers (1/1)]

[Reward]

– Unique Skill EXP

– Low-Grade Healing Potion x10

Used one and got ten back.

Total profit.

EXP went up, too.

Now, give me the next mission!

——-

[New Mission]

Upgrade Laborer Grade 1 time (0/1)

——-

“Huh?”

What on earth is this…

Upgrade Laborer Grade?

In other words, it seemed to be telling me to turn low-grade laborers into intermediate-grade…

Is that even possible?

How?

“Whew…“

It’s always like this.

There was a reason I was still stuck at Bronze.

The moment I made a little progress, a difficult mission popped right up.

Just like now.

“Still, if I keep at it, a path will open up somehow.”

Well, that would probably be the case this time too.

I’d think about how to upgrade laborer grades later.

For now, let’s clear the other mission.

[Mission List]

1. Upgrade Laborer Grade (0/1)

2. Cumulative commissions completed: 20 times (18/20)

Cumulative commissions completed: twenty times.

Cleared one today, so two remained.

As luck would have it, summon counts?

Plenty left.

Sigh.

I’ll call it a day after clearing just this much.

*

Once with the orc registered to the fixed team.

Once with Arthur.

I swiftly knocked out two commissions.

That exhausted my summon count.

Even so, the mission was cleared.

[Mission Complete!]

[Cumulative commissions completed: 20 times (20/20)]

[Reward]

– Unique Skill EXP

– 2x Commission Point Scroll

“Feels a bit lackluster.”

Out of all things, giving me a 2x scroll?

Rani could keep crafting those as long as I provided low-grade magic stones…

No, I should look at it as saving fifty magic stones.

Besides, a new mission was coming up.

Please, an easy one!

Ding!

——-

[New Mission]

Complete 1 Crafting-Related Commission (0/1)

——-

“I’m screwed.”

“Rani can make it!”

Sure.

I know you can make things.

The problem is there are no crafting-related commissions…

C-grade: 200P.

D-grade: 100P.

F-grade: 30P.

All the way until I scraped together 2,300P, I checked the Commission Board constantly…

Crafting commissions?

I hadn’t seen a single one.

What did they call it?

Most crafting-related classes belonged to an organization anyway, so supposedly no one took individual commissions…

Still, checking just in case, I took a quick look.

“Sigh… None, obviously.”

Nothing I could do.

If there weren’t any, what then?

I had to find one myself.

If I put up a post on the Free Board saying I’d take any crafting-related commission, regardless of type…

Huh?

Why are there so many new posts?

*

——-

Breaking) Ranking 1st Lee Bojun was in a slump, source leaked.

You all know Lee Bojun hasn’t been climbing the tower or running dungeons lately, right?

It came up here a while back, too.

An article just dropped: turns out their weapon shattered while climbing the tower, lololol.

Said they’ve been in a slump ever since, lol.

Told the Bureau they’d resume tower raids once they get a new weapon, lololol.

At this point, isn’t the weapon the true ranking 1st? Genuinely asking, lololol.

– Lolololololol

– Was ranking 1st carried by their weapon?

– That weapon was crazy good though, lolololol

——-

Ranking 1st…

That meant the person who had climbed the highest in the tower.

And a slump happened because their weapon shattered?

“What kind of weapon were they using before?”

I looked it up.

[Meteor Sword (流星劍)]

– The final masterpiece of a legendary artisan.

– Imbued with the power of a meteor.

– Partially ignores enemy defense.

– Special skill ‘Meteor Fall’ available.

– Increases Light and Wind attribute resistance.

“Whoa… It really is something.”

And that was just the summarized core info.

Ranking 1st certainly had a weapon cut from a different cloth.

Ah, said it’s gone now, though…

“If Arthur used something like that, he’d be unstoppable.”

“Fly around? What thing? Weapon?”

“Yeah, so what this is…”

Midway through explaining to a puzzled Rani, I froze.

Rani definitely said before…

She could make a sword fit for Arthur to use.

Then, what about that?

Should I ask?

“Rani, can you craft a sword like this, too?”

She trotted over with light pattering steps and took a look.

“Hoooom…“

She’s pondering it?

No, surely not.

They say that sword is worth tens of billions of won.

“Yeah! If you give materials, Rani can make it!”