Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 45

Humans really were creatures of habit.

Take Yunchang’s way of speaking.

At first, it had caught me completely off guard, but now I understood him the second the words left his mouth.

[Staff = The guandao he’s holding]

Come to think of it, the blade did look a little loose. Perfect timing, then. I’d been waiting for the right moment anyway.

“Let’s head over to the training ground together.”

“Understood.”

If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve stopped Rani earlier. She was probably deep in the zone right about now.

“Oof.”

Just as expected. The moment we stepped into the training ground, a familiar rhythm rang out.

Clang, bang, clang, bang.

“Hehe!”

She hammered away with a bright, cheerful grin. That definitely looked like her deep-focus mode, but just in case, I called out softly.

“Little Blessing?”

“Huh?”

Wait, what? How did she hear that? Usually she didn’t even bat an eye when someone was training right next to her.

“Did you call Rani?!”

“Sure did. Who else would our Little Blessing be?”

When I nodded, Rani — who absolutely loved being called that — came scampering over in pure delight.

“What is it?”

Allow me to introduce her. This is our Little Blessing. She’s ridiculously good at making weapons.

“Rani, Lord Yunchang says he needs a staff.”

“For Grandpa? Okay! Rani wants to make it! Actually, Bear-bear has something Grandpa needs! Bear-bear—!”

Todd? Ah, the inventory. Rani, did you forget? I can open the inventory too. So please stop poking Todd’s belly. You’re gonna pop the seams. Before she did any damage, I opened the inventory first.

[Green Dragon Crescent Blade Fragment]

I slid the fragment out.

“Rani, looking for this?”

“Yes! That’s it! A really good material Rani likes! It suits Grandpa!”

Right? Even to my eyes, it was a perfect fit.

“Mmm… but Grandpa, why do you need a staff?”

“Uh…”

Hm. Looks like Rani hasn’t quite mastered Yunchang-speak yet. That staff isn’t that kind of staff, kiddo. Lord Yunchang? Care to explain?

“Ahem. The staff this mage desires is this sort of staff.”

He had great sense. Right away, he thrust out his staff — no, his guandao.

“Huh? But that’s not a staff…”

Rani tilted her head again in utter confusion. Confusing, isn’t it? Well, whatever. That wasn’t what mattered right now.

“Anyway, we just need to make that. What do you think? Can you do it?”

“Yeah! Rani likes making this way more than a staff! It’s fun!”

Great. That was the exact answer I wanted to hear.

“Then give Rani the materials!”

Excited to craft a weapon for the first time in a while, Rani’s eyes sparkled. Look at her go. Now she was even poking my thigh. All right, all right, calm down.

“What materials should I give you?”

“I can’t name them all… but since this is such a good material, Rani needs lots of other stuff too!”

“Ah, that many?”

“Yes!”

“I suppose so…”

Neaty and Ttanttani had eaten up an absurd amount of materials when she made them, too. If we hadn’t completely raided that Chinese warehouse, I wouldn’t have dared to even think about it. Still, we had plenty to spare.

“Here, take whatever you need!”

“Hehe! Yay!”

The moment I opened the inventory, Rani began humming a tune, shopping mode fully activated. Wonder what materials she’ll grab this time?

“Hmmmm.”

She looked torn. After staring at the options for a long while, she spoke up.

“Grandpa, do you like burning hot or freezing cold better?”

“Haha, is fire magic not the very essence of magic, after all?”

“Yeah! Got it!”

Ooh. She made her choice. Without hesitation, she picked out the materials, and then:

“If you give Rani Grandpa’s staff, Rani will use that to make it too!”

She took the staff — no, the guandao — hugged it tight with both arms, and scurried off.

“A truly lively child.”

“Our Little Blessing is nothing if not energetic.”

“Little Blessing…”

Fits her, doesn’t it? Except we don’t call her that just because she’s bright and cheerful. The real reason? It’ll be revealed in a week. So look forward to it.

Clang, bang, clang, bang.

The training ground echoed with lively rhythm. Our Little Blessing, Rani, had already been hammering away for four days straight. As for the other laborers?

[Auto-Hunting in Progress]

[00:27:29]

– Tower of Chaos, 50th Floor

[Monitoring]

We all gathered around to watch the feed.

“Since it’s the 50th floor, even Robin’s taking quite some time.”

“True. Can’t clear it in an instant.”

“Arthur thinks! Robin? Fast!”

“Yeah. Nearly cleared it in just twenty-eight minutes.”

That place? Word was it usually took climbers over ten hours. Fight, rest in a safe zone, fight again, rest again. An endless loop of that.

“If it took even Robin twenty-eight whole minutes, that says everything.”

Robin, a highest-grade laborer. Specialty: bow. A monster capable of firing five arrows at once with a hundred-percent accuracy. Taking twenty-eight minutes even with that meant things were definitely getting tougher. Still, at least the 50th floor was cleared without a hitch.

[Tower of Chaos 50th Floor Conquered!]

[You have leveled up.]

[Clear Time – 00:30:58]

[New World Record Achieved!]

[Bonus Reward – Chaos Key Fragment]

The result, naturally, was a new world record. And having reached the 50th floor, all ten fragments were finally gathered—

[‘Chaos Key’ Completed.]

The Chaos Key was finished. It was probably B-grade now. We’d check out the labyrinth together tomorrow. First, I needed to greet Robin.

“…I’m back.”

“Good work. What do you think, want to do a little training today?”

“…Gonna rest.”

Robin usually trained for a bit before heading off, but today went straight for the balcony. Clearly exhausted. Then again, shooting a bow nonstop for thirty minutes would do that to anyone. My arms probably would’ve fallen off.

“Arthur, starting from the 51st floor, let’s have you and Robin go in together.”

“Arthur fine alone too?”

“No, it’s getting rough out there.”

Arthur and Robin could both handle up to the 60th floor. Even so, there was no rush. Why push it when we could climb one floor at a time, slow and steady?

“Director, this mage is also present.”

Ah, right. That’s true. The weapon would be finished in a few days, which meant we’d have even more options.

“Hmm… We hit the 50th floor, so how about we take a break from the tower for a few days and decide what to do after that?”

Not like we had to go right away anyway. For now, checking the missions took priority.

[Mission Complete!]

[Conquer the 50th Floor of the Tower of Chaos (50/50)]

[Rewards]

– Unique Skill EXP

– Temporary Disguise Voucher (24 Hours)

Sweet. One mission cleared with the 50th floor done! EXP went up, and a new mission popped up too.

[New Mission]

Complete 1 Laborer Summon, excluding Fixed Team Summon (0/1)

An easy mission, to boot? Score. That was more like it. Clear one tough mission, and they hand you easy ones right after.

“Laborer summon… other than the fixed team…”

A regular summon, huh? Maybe because I’d only been calling the fixed team lately, a mission like this showed up out of nowhere. Well, whatever.

“There’s an empty slot anyway, so it works out.”

Who knows? If luck was on my side, maybe I’d pull a highest-grade laborer. If they went into the tower in pairs… just imagining it tasted sweet. All right, decided. The mission was here, so let’s do a summon for the first time in a while.

“Summon Laborers.”

[Summoning Laborers!]

[Grade – Gold]

[Summon Range: All targets from Highest-Grade to Intermediate-Grade]

A random summon after all this time. Was it because it had been a while? My heart fluttered for no reason. Wonder who’ll pop out? I watched with bated breath.

Flash!

A brilliant light burst forth. Except…

“Wait, why is no one—”

I stopped mid-sentence. Was it just my imagination? This situation felt strangely familiar.

“No way…”

Chuckling, I glanced down at the floor.

Squeak.

Yep. It’s you guys.

Squeak, squeak.

“Yeah… good to see you too…”

Reunited with the slimes after all this time. My honest reaction? Half glad, half bummed. Were they the same ones from before, though? Let’s check.

Laborer Resume

Name: High Slime / Intermediate-Grade

Specialty: None

Daily Wage: 5 Low-Grade Magic Stones

Nice. It really was them. How fascinating. How did they get summoned right away? Almost as if they’d been waiting.

Squeak, squelch —

They must’ve been thrilled to be out again, squirming and wiggling as if dancing up a storm.

Squeak.

“Boss, Sparkle says! Said see again later?”

“Mmm…”

Did I say that? Ah. Right. Like an offhand ‘let’s grab a bite sometime’ sort of thing…

“Were you guys waiting because of that?”

Squeak, squeak—!

I didn’t even need Arthur’s translation to understand that. An enthusiastic yes. Man… what was I going to do with these pure-hearted little workers?

Squeak.

“Sparkle says! Fixed team? Put Sparkle in?”

“Fixed team?”

There was one slot left in the fixed team. I’d originally thought about saving it in case a highest-grade laborer popped up, but… a slime in that slot?

“Not a bad idea.”

Honestly, I’d thought about them every now and then. Their cleaning was absurdly good. No matter how hard a human scrubbed, they couldn’t even match half of that spotless shine. Having the slot filled was a bit of a shame, of course, but there’d probably be a way to expand it later. Besides, it wasn’t like I desperately needed another combat laborer right now.

All right. Decided. The last slot goes to the slimes.

[Manage Fixed Team]

[Register to Fixed Team – High Slime (Intermediate-Grade)]

Just as I was about to register them, I paused.

“Wait, do they need to be upgraded to high-grade too?”

One of the expansion conditions for Manage Fixed Team was that all laborers had to be high-grade or above. These guys were intermediate-grade. Would taking them drop the requirement?

“It is quite all right. Once a slot is expanded, it remains permanently fixed.”

“Aha.”

“Furthermore, domestic laborers have their grade adjusted to match the minimum summonable grade, so there is no need to worry.”

Oh, that’s convenient.

“So if I register them now and my unique skill grade goes up—”

“They will automatically become high-grade.”

Great. Then there was no reason to hesitate. Registering immediately.

[Registered to Fixed Team.]

[High Slime (Intermediate-Grade)]

Squeak.

Chime!

[Successfully negotiated a contract renewal with former laborers!]

[Reputation increases.]

Whoa. Didn’t expect that. Total bonus. Awesome.

Squeak, squeak.

Looking forward to working together? Sure thing. Let’s keep up the good work from now on.

“Truly, there are many wondrous beings by your side, Director.”

“Pardon?”

Coming from you, of all people… No, fair point. Anyone seeing slimes clean for the first time wouldn’t be able to take their eyes off them either.

Squeak, squelch.

They scattered in all directions, wiping the place spotless in the blink of an eye.

“It is like magic.”

Yep. Pure magic. What else could you call cleaning this fast?

Chime!

[A new function has been added.]

[Dispatch Laborers]

– Office (Eye of Truth, Beijing, China)

Huh? What’s this now? Do these folks use magic too?

“They already opened an office in China?!”

No way. It’s only been four days. Just how hard did they work?

“What is the matter, Director?”

“The Eye of Truth folks. Looks like they already set up an office in China. A new function was just added.”

“Oh, then…”

“Yeah. Looks like we can go to China.”

We’d have to test it out first, but the function was there. Should we check it out?

“Todd, want to head over? If there’s anything you need to say to them, you can handle it.”

“Yes, understood.”

All right. Let’s open the door, then.

“Director, if you do not mind, might this one go instead?”

“You, Lord Yunchang?”

Out of nowhere? Well, not that he couldn’t. But why?

“There is something I wish to confirm.”

“Mmm.”

Something to confirm, huh? I had a pretty good guess what it was, but I asked gently anyway.

“You don’t have a weapon right now. Are you sure you’ll be fine?”

“Haha… Well, it is not as if I am going there to cast spells. I shall be fine.”

True enough. He wasn’t going into a dungeon. Would a highest-grade laborer really be in danger just because he didn’t have a weapon? All right.

“If possible, I would appreciate that disguise from before as well. Would that be feasible?”

Of course. That was an absolute must. Walking around looking like that would cause utter chaos over there.

[Temporary Disguise Voucher]

Conveniently enough, I’d just received one from clearing the mission. I’ll use this and send you on your way. Travel safe, sir.

Beijing, China.

A rundown, secluded district far removed from the bustling city center.

A man walked past an old, decrepit building. Yunchang gave a faint nod.

“Here it is.”

Exactly where that bear had told him it would be. Following the directions brought him straight to it.

A ramshackle building, devoid of signs or markings. However, Yunchang could sense it: energies identical to those he had encountered before. And then…

“Haha…”

This dreadful stench of blood. Just how much bloodshed had they witnessed? How much slaughter had taken place within those walls? The stench of blood hung thick in the air, palpable even outside the building.

“So this is their stronghold.”

Now that he had memorized the location, it was time to turn back. He would leave for now. Should the day come when this mage returns to this place, however… every last one of you will die. My staff will see to it.

Today marked exactly one full week since Rani began crafting. Which meant?

“Today comes? Newbie, weapon!”

Bingo. The shape looked completely finished, like she was just applying the final touches.

“The more I watch, the more marvelous it is. Just what kind of person is Laborer Rani…?”

“Boss, look at that! Dragon? There is!”

“Yeah, I see it too.”

He meant that blue dragon, right? It looked like a living, breathing dragon. The Green Dragon Crescent Blade certainly lived up to its name. Still…

“That one goes wharuruk too?”

“Probably?”

“Director, what does that mean?”

“Um… you’ll find out soon enough.”

I could tell just by looking. It was entering the final stage. Wonder what kind of weapon will come out? Everyone watched the hammering with eager anticipation.

Clang, bang.

“Whew!”

Before long, Rani’s hammering ceased.

“Hehe… Done! Rani worked super-duper hard…!”

Before us lay the most dazzling masterpiece she had ever produced.

“Its name is Yongyongi, Boom…!”

“What in the…”

Accompanied by a name that delivered an absolute shock to one particular person.