Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 15

The weapon once wielded by the number one ranked hunter, the Meteor Sword.

(Estimated Value) An estimated value in the billions of won, at least.

Rumor had it the hunter fell into a slump because even money couldn’t buy a comparable replacement….

“You can make one?”

“Yup!”

She claimed she could.

“Rani can make anything as long as she has the materials!”

Aah.

That was reassuring.

“Arthur, sword!”

Okay.

Arthur’s sword first.

“Still, that’s for later. We don’t have the materials right now.”

“True…. Can’t make anything without materials….”

Rank one hunter, Lee Bojun-ssi.

Over here, we can’t craft a single thing because we’re out of materials….

Care to drop a commission our way?

After indulging in that silly thought, a chuckle escaped.

“The materials alone would run tens of millions, hundreds of millions at least. There’s no way someone would post a commission like that on AwakenedNet.”

I wouldn’t either if I were in those shoes.

Even so, well.

Wouldn’t smaller commissions trickle in?

Time to slip an advertisement onto the Free Board first.

[Accepting all crafting-related commissions, no matter the type.]

Whew.

Fresh posts were still flooding in by the second.

This was going to take a while….

“Nothing I can do about that.”

At least it was posted now.

If it got buried, I could put up another one tomorrow morning.

So please.

Read it far and wide, my dear prospective clients.

Put in an order, and you won’t regret it.

*

The next morning, 7:00 AM.

“Ugh, what’s so great about commissions that I’m up early on a weekend morning….”

Weekends were meant for rest.

Normally, I would have slept straight through.

I had specifically set an alarm just to wake up.

“Still gotta put up that promo post….”

The one from yesterday?

Buried, one hundred percent.

It had dropped down the page the second it went live.

My plan was to throw up a new post quickly and crawl back into bed….

Huh?

Isn’t there kind of a lot here?

Ding!

[A commission has arrived.]

[A commission has arrived.]

……

…

One, two, three….

Just how many were there?

Every single one was a crafting commission, too?

“What in the world?”

It hadn’t gotten buried?

Curiosity piqued, I clicked into the Free Board.

Where was my post…?

Ah, there it is.

– Any chance you can craft gloves like the ones you auctioned last time?

– Came from the Best posts and it really is the Manpower Office Director lol aren’t you a combat class?

– Can you make weapons too?

– Curious what tier of materials you can handle. I’d like to submit a commission with materials from the 32nd floor of the tower.

……

…

“Whoa… why are there so many comments?”

A quick skim showed mostly questions.

Given the stack of incoming commissions, people had clearly gone ahead and placed orders on their own.

By the way….

“Someone mentioned something about a Best post earlier…? What’s that about?”

A quick search turned it up.

[Best]

5. [Chaos Breaking News) Manpower Office Director posted on Free Board saying they’re taking crafting commissions lololol]

A Best post propelled upward by upvotes.

It was already sitting at number five?

Just how many people had seen it?

Whoever made the post, thank you kindly.

“At this rate, ranking up will be a breeze.”

Time to accept a commission first.

There were far too many choices, though….

Okay.

The person doing the crafting should be the one to choose.

[Summon Fixed Team]

– Rani (High-Grade)

“Director! Hi!”

“Hey there.”

After a warm greeting, I pulled up the commission list immediately.

“Pick one from these, whichever you want to make the most.”

“Rani gets to make it?! With the materials shown right here?”

Her eyes sparkled with brilliant light.

“Of course.”

“Kyaa!“

Now she was stamping her feet with glee.

That reaction was almost identical to when she ate pork belly.

Could she really be that thrilled…?

“Huuuuum.”

Rani, dear.

Are you window shopping…?

You’re staring holes straight through that commission window.

“Take your time picking. It’s not like anyone’s rushing you.”

“Yup!”

Meanwhile, looking into how crafting commissions operated revealed…

nothing particularly complicated.

Hand over the materials when submitting the commission.

Deliver the finished piece, and the commission concluded.

AwakenedNet certainly made things convenient.

“Rani wants this one!”

Oh.

She picked one.

The list had been quite long… What did she end up choosing?

Taking a peek:

[Crafting Commission]

[Requested Item: Sword]

[Primary Material: 10 Lava Drake’s Fangs]

[Secondary Material: 3 Flamebird’s Hearts, 10 Mithril Ingots, 5 High-Grade Magic Stones]

[Client: Baek Hwarang]

Holy smokes.

What kind of scale was this…?

Who in the world submitted this order?

“Baek Hwarang?”

Isn’t this person the guild master of the Hwarang Guild?

That should be one of the Five Great Guilds….

Didn’t the guild have any crafting classes?

“Rani likes this one!”

I bet.

Every single material looked wildly expensive at a glance.

Well….

Whatever the motive behind the commission was,

“All right, let’s go with that.”

“Yup! Yay!”

An order came in, so that was that.

All we had to do was fulfill it.

First, accept the commission.

And once the materials were handed over to Rani?

“Ooh! Pretty materials! Rani will make something wonderful!”

Giddy with excitement, she trotted off.

Scooping up the ingredients, she headed toward a corner.

And then.

Clang, clink, clang, clink.

“Hehe!”

She couldn’t stop giggling, overflowing with pure delight.

Still, Rani.

Those really are absurdly expensive materials….

“What kind of person just tosses over 51st-floor materials without batting an eye like Baek Hwarang?”

The primary material came straight from a 51st-floor monster.

And the secondary materials?

Just as formidable.

Even the Mithril Ingots and high-grade magic stones alone were staggering.

Still….

Materials of that caliber only heightened anticipation.

What sort of item would emerge at the end?

*

“Ta-da!”

Aah, finished.

It took quite a while this time.

Understandable, given the high grade of the materials.

“This too!”

“Huh? Materials?”

“Left over!”

Leftovers?

The client should have sent the exact amount needed….

Puzzled, I looked closer.

“Almost half of everything is left?”

“Yup!”

Rani, don’t tell me.

Did you skim materials…?

“Mmm…. If someone’s bad at it, they need a lot of materials, but Rani’s good at making things, so no waste!”

Ah, not that.

In other words, our Rani was so skilled that half the stock was plenty?

Damn….

Then what about its performance?

Let’s have a look.

Lifting the sword—.

[Crafting will be finalized once a name is given.]

Huh.

“Rani, it says we have to name the weapon.”

“A name? Huuuuum….”

After a moment’s thought:

“Fwoosh!”

“Huh? Fwoosh? That’s the weapon’s name?”

Are you sure about that…?

Looking into her eyes, they sparkled with earnest pride.

She was dead serious.

Well, fine.

What did a name matter anyway?

Performance was all that counted.

Fwoosh it was.

Now let’s check out the stats.

[Fwoosh]

– The work of an exceptionally skilled artisan.

– Adds continuous fire-attribute damage.

– The power of flames automatically counterattacks whenever blocking an enemy strike.

– Enables the use of special skill ‘Incinerate’.

– Increases fire-attribute resistance.

“Whoa, insane.”

See?

Who cared about the name!

It was an armory’s worth of stacked options on a single blade!

Judging by the description alone….

“This really feels on par with the Meteor Sword from yesterday.”

“Yup! Rani told you she could make it!”

“Fair enough….”

Man.

With this, the client had to be thrilled, right?

“Good work, Rani.”

After popping a sweet candy into Rani’s mouth,

Fwoosh was promptly sent off.

And the leftover materials?

There was no way to send them back.

Gratefully tucked into the inventory.

<Commission Complete!>

With that, all done.

And the reward?

Thirty high-grade magic stones?

“Weren’t high-grade magic stones ten million won apiece…?”

Wait.

Sending three hundred million won?

Was it really okay to accept this much?

“No, wait. The Meteor Sword was said to be worth billions.”

“The sword Rani made! It’s better!”

“True. For crafting a blade like that, this much makes sense.”

Still….

The scale really was on another level.

“Handing over those kinds of materials without even being sure, not to mention the payout for the commission….”

Was this the standard for the master of one of the Five Great Guilds?

Baek Hwarang.

I had better remember that name.

For now, back to the manpower office!

[Commission Complete!]

[Crafting Commission Cleared!]

[Additional Allowance]

– 2,000 Commission Points

What? Two thousand?

“Ah! I should have used the 2x scroll!”

If I had, the goal would have been practically reached….

What a bummer.

Even so, the rank could be upgraded now….

Yes.

[Mission Complete!]

[Complete 1 Crafting-Related Commission (1/1)]

[Reward]

– Unique Skill EXP

– 5,000 Commission Points

Jackpot.

This meant moving to a new office was well within reach.

And the grade was going up too!

[Unique Skill grade has increased.]

[Summon Laborers (Grade – Bronze) → Summon Laborers (Grade – Silver)]

Silver at last!

The summon limit increased,

and the skill transformed.

Furthermore?

[New Function Unlocked: Laborer Training Ground Available]

A brand-new feature, the Laborer Training Ground.

What could this be?

*

Hunters climbing the tower.

To ordinary citizens, it was ultimately someone else’s business.

Did that mean they lacked interest?

No.

Far from it.

New records didn’t become hot topics for nothing.

Especially the top-echelon hunters?

Their every move drew intense scrutiny.

Amidst all that, news broke.

The slump of the number one ranked hunter, Lee Bojun.

Naturally, it spread in an instant.

[Anyone heard the news about Lee Bojun? lol]

[Did the rank one hunter really turn into a useless freeloader just because their weapon broke?]

Beginning in internet communities,

[Rank One Lee Bojun in a Slump: Is It True?]

[The Reason There’s Been No News of Highest Floor Climbs in the Tower Recently]

Internet articles picked it up.

And eventually,

even terrestrial television news broadcasts held panel discussions.

“Moving on to our next topic. There is widespread discussion regarding Lee Bojun-ssi, who has been climbing the highest floors of the Tower of Chaos.”

“Ah, I heard as well. Word is the weapon was damaged.”

“A truly unfortunate development.”

……

…

And when the number one stumbled?

The spotlight naturally shifted to number two.

– What’s Baek Hwarang doing? Isn’t Baek Hwarang second in tower progression?

└ Scratching their belly at home right now

– If Lee Bojun’s in a slump, Baek Hwarang ought to move up lololol

└ Put me down for zero chance.

└ Seconded. That person cleared the 52nd floor and has been flailing on the 53rd for six months, how are they gonna climb lololol

└ What, turns out rank one and rank two are both nothing special lol

Would Baek Hwarang be able to ascend?

This debate blazed hot across South Korea.

Naturally, word soon reached Baek Hwarang directly.

*

“What the hell do those bastards know?”

“That’s reporters and internet trolls for you, Guild Master.”

Guild Master of Hwarang, Baek Hwarang.

Currently second in South Korea in tower conquest floors.

Right now?

Subject to a sudden public roasting across the web.

“Haa….”

The fury was real….

Having nothing tangible to fire back with only stoked the anger further.

The stagnation on the 53rd floor for six months after clearing the 52nd was an undeniable fact.

“Haa, if only I had a weapon like that Meteor Sword….”

Ding!

[The commissioned item has arrived.]

“Oh?”

“What is it, Guild Master?”

“Says the commissioned item arrived.”

“Ah, that…. The one you ordered from the Manpower Office Director?”

“Yeah.”

Tossing out a brief reply, Baek Hwarang logged into AwakenedNet.

The weapon was retrieved, but….

The name was Fwoosh?

“Is this punk messing around with someone’s weap—”

The sheer absurdity flared up, but the stats….

Insane.

What in the world was….

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh? What’s wrong? Look at this. The sword’s name is Fwoosh.”

“Pardon? Who gives a sword a name li… Whoa….”

A matching reaction.

Right?

Jaw dropped wide open, didn’t it?

Mine did too.

“Wait, they forged something like this right after taking the commission?”

“Yeah…. See? Didn’t I tell you I wanted to commission it?”

The guild members below?

Every single one had objected.

What basis was there to trust someone with materials that costly?

What basis?

The gut instinct that had carried me to rank two.

A gamble?

So what.

It paid off, didn’t it?

– Baek Hwarang’s never clearing the 53rd floor lol I’ll boil my hands in soy sauce if that happens

Just when the mood was riding high….

That comment had to catch the eye.

The internet post read just moments ago.

Never clearing the 53rd floor?

I’ll show them.

“Call the reporters. I’m heading out to clear the 53rd floor of the tower right now.”