Awakened as a Money-Spending Genius Enhancer - Chapter 24
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 24
Chapter 24. [Hammer of Success and Failure] (2)
Ji-seong shouted with an excited face.
“Kang Hoon hyung! You can enhance ordinary objects that aren’t items and turn them into items, right? Like that Yamyeong 909 that saved me! That’s what they call Normal Grade Items!”
“Yeah. That’s right?”
Seri, who had her arms crossed, followed up with a question.
“Then, what grade would a 5-Enhancement item that Kang Hoon enhanced turn out to be? Would it be the grade after Normal? Or would it go up to the grade after that?”
“Good question?”
Just as the discussion seemed like it would drag on,
Clap!
Guild master Cheong Jeong-kwon clapped with his pot lid-sized hands.
“Alright!”
And he shouted like a roar.
“Is that what’s important right now? What’s important is that our Hunter Park Kang-hoon broke the 1st place record in the Tutorial Dungeon!”
“Oh, ohh! That’s right!”
“Everyone loosen your belt buckles! Today is a celebration party!”
“Wooo!”
The atmosphere heated up with excitement.
In the middle of it all, Kang Hoon smiled awkwardly.
And he walked along, mixed in with the group heading noisily to the company dinner venue.
Gripping the hammer handle that stuck to his palm like holding a friend’s hand.
* * *
Kang Hoon’s first company dinner in his life was both unfamiliar and enjoyable.
He got drunk on alcohol he wasn’t even good at drinking, and got completely absorbed in the atmosphere.
Hahaha, wahaha, pour it! Drink it!
Among the excited guild members.
Kang Hoon was now their comrade too.
After downing the beer-soju mix that Cheong Jeong-kwon made for him, he became more talkative than usual.
Kang Hoon, who had just been watching and smiling.
What opened his mouth was Ji-seong’s question.
“But hyung. How did you clear the Tutorial Dungeon so fast?”
With that question opening the floodgates, he excitedly told his story starting from enhancing the [Beginner’s Bow +2] and its options.
Everyone was amazed when he said he enhanced the basic provided item.
Not just the Hunters Ji-seong and Seri.
Even guild master Cheong Jeong-kwon held his stomach in envy.
‘Ah, this feels good.’
When the company dinner was in full swing.
Seri approached the seat next to Kang Hoon.
More precisely, the seat next to that.
“How long are you going to keep that hammer in the seat next to you?”
Seri asked, her face flushed red, perhaps from the alcohol.
Where she was pointing.
In the chair next to Kang Hoon sat a crude hammer all by itself.
“Uh… There’s nowhere else to put it.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Seri smiled as she set down the glass she brought on the table.
As if she found the novice Kang Hoon cute.
“Exclusive Items can be ‘summoned’. They appear when their owner calls them out.”
“Huh? That means…”
“Conversely, ‘reverse summoning’ is also possible. You can make it disappear when you don’t need it, then take it out when you want it.”
“Ahh.”
At Seri’s words, Kang Hoon’s gaze fixed on the hammer.
The large hammer sitting on the chair as if it were a person.
“But could this be used as a weapon too? Like the Avengers Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir…”
Kang Hoon asked and Seri laughed.
Even though it wasn’t a particularly funny question.
Her giggling was loud enough to show her upper teeth.
“What, you want to throw it and then summon it back?”
“Hmm… Maybe it won’t work since it doesn’t have an attack power option.”
“Let’s try lifting it, shall we.”
Then Seri grabbed the handle of the [Hammer of Success and Failure].
With an A-rank Hunter’s strength and grip, it seemed like she could easily lift it and throw it dozens of meters.
But unexpectedly,
“…”
The hammer didn’t budge at all.
It was completely different from when its owner Kang Hoon lifted it.
“It’s really like Myomiru.”
“It’s not Myomiru, it’s Mjolnir…”
“Anyway.”
Kang Hoon had only ever exercised by wielding a tablet pen his whole life.
Yet he could easily lift and swing this hammer.
But it wouldn’t budge even with an A-rank Hunter’s strength.
‘Somehow that feels good?’
Then suddenly another thought flashed through his mind.
“Come to think of it, could I enhance this hammer too?”
Strike while the iron is hot, as they say.
Kang Hoon placed both hands on the hammer.
‘I just got 10 more enhancement attempts added. If this works, I could make it up to 2-Enhancement, right?’
Dreaming big dreams, he immediately cast his skill.
“Enhancement.”
However.
What came back was a familiar warning message.
【 You cannot enhance items of higher grade than yourself. 】
“Ahh. I guess that’s how it is…”
It only looked secondhand on the outside.
This was a magic item that came out of a Diamond Box, no less.
That it couldn’t be enhanced with Kang Hoon’s current abilities was, in a way, only natural.
“Not yet, huh.”
Muttering to himself.
Kang Hoon reached out with his right hand for the beer-soju mix that Cheong Jeong-kwon had made.
His left hand was placed firmly on top of the hammer.
“I’ll enhance it for you later when your ‘status’ gets a bit higher.”
An appearance that clearly showed signs of being used.
Even that looked pretty now that he knew its options.
The grip felt good, and it had a very friendly feeling too.
Instead of using the ‘Reverse Summoning’ he had just learned, Kang Hoon was tightly gripping the hammer’s handle.
After staring at Kang Hoon’s hand for a few seconds,
“Sigh.”
Seri shook her head.
Then she picked up her beer glass and shouted.
“…Ahem. Well, shall we all toast together?”
A spirited toast echoed through the noisy bar.
“To Hunter Park Kang-hoon!”
“Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
Clink!
Hearing the sound of glasses clinking, Kang Hoon laughed heartily.
* * *
‘I should have saved just one can of Yamyeong 909 for hangovers….’
It was a morning that started with regret.
His first time at a company dinner from an offline meeting.
His first time drinking beer and soju mixed by someone else.
Last night was also the first time he felt alcohol was ‘sweet’.
The enjoyable time had returned as a hangover.
“Ugh, uugh….”
Stumble, stumble.
With disheveled hair, he got up from bed and headed to the refrigerator.
And when he opened the beverage compartment, it was full of [Yamyeong 909 +2].
The problem was that the [Yamyeong 909 +2] Kang Hoon possessed wasn’t an ordinary hangover remedy.
‘It probably has hangover relief functions too.’
But it was too precious to drink just for that purpose.
A potion that was worth whatever price was asked.
Because it was a healing type item.
“Yaaawn.”
After settling his stomach with cold water.
Kang Hoon hurriedly took a shower.
Kang Hoon had changed a lot recently.
Not just the weight of his bank account and sense of money, but especially his lifestyle pattern had changed.
‘Let me see. The appointment time was… eleven-thirty, right?’
The homebody freelancer, voluntary outsider Park Kang-hoon no longer existed.
He had met too many people in the past month.
It was about to exceed the number of people he had met in the past 3 years.
Especially Seri and Ji-seong.
He saw the Park siblings more often than his own family.
The people he was meeting today were, without fail, them again.
* * *
When he arrived at the now-familiar ‘Cheongjeong’ guild building,
“You’re here? Hyung!”
Ji-seong welcomed him.
Ji-seong waved his hands enthusiastically while smiling.
In contrast, Seri with her arms crossed looked demure.
“You came out early? I thought you wouldn’t be able to get up.”
“Huh?”
“You were really drunk yesterday.”
“Ah….”
At those words, Kang Hoon felt embarrassed.
‘What were my drinking habits like?’
While he was thinking.
Ji-seong giggled and said.
“Hyung. When you got drunk, you kept talking to objects. ‘If I enhance this, it’ll be like this’, ‘If I enhance you, this option will appear’, ‘I’ll definitely enhance you later’. You kept saying stuff like that!”
“…I did that?”
“Yes! Especially to that [Hammer of Success and Failure].”
“….”
He was probably lying as a joke, right?
That’s what he wanted to dismiss it as.
But Kang Hoon knew himself well.
‘Definitely, that sounds like something I would say….’
A crazy guy who talks to objects.
He learned about his embarrassing drunk behavior.
As he casually pulled up the hood of his gray hoodie, Seri grumbled.
“All crafting hunters are a bit like that. Kang Hoon is especially peculiar though. As expected of an enhancement specialist. It’s an occupational hazard! That’s what it is.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Ignoring people and only talking to items.”
“Huh?”
“…That, that’s just how it is. Anyway. Let’s go up!”
Just like that, stomp stomp stomp!
Seri headed for the stairs, leaving the perfectly fine elevator behind.
She climbed up quickly as if she was going on a raid.
Looking at her retreating figure, Kang Hoon tilted his head.
“Did I make some mistake yesterday?”
When he asked that, Ji-seong just shrugged his shoulders.
“Who knows? Maybe not making any mistakes was the mistake?”
“Huh?”
“Maybe not causing any trouble was the trouble~?”
“…Huh?”
Kang Hoon could only be bewildered.
‘What? I have no idea what he’s talking about.’
It seemed like he should finish the urgent business first, then check again later.
“Let’s go for now.”
Setting aside the cryptic words.
Kang Hoon got on the elevator.
Ding-!
And so they arrived at Conference Room 3.
The three people sat facing each other and looked through the prepared pamphlets.
Booklets prepared by the ‘Cheongjeong’ staff members.
Each and every volume was a precious asset.
Because it contained a summary of the Gates that could be accessed as a ‘Cheongjeong’ affiliated Hunter.
“From here to here are the booklets for levels 1 through 10.”
Still, the pamphlets didn’t hold much significance.
They were only for reference regarding what variables might exist.
They were just for mental preparation.
Unlike the ‘Tutorial’ stage, actual Gate Dungeons were generally random.
The appearance of the map, weather and humidity.
Even down to the types of monsters.
“You’re still going to try it though, right?”
─Of course, I’m still going to try it.
Tutorial Dungeons don’t give Hunters any experience points.
In other words, they’re no help at all for raising a Hunter’s level.
On the other hand, dungeons level 1 and above do provide experience points.
That is.
Kang Hoon’s current level was literally zero.
It converged on 0.
Just going to the easiest stage Beginner Dungeon would be worth expecting a level up.
“If you’re lucky, you might be able to raise it to level 3 or 4 all at once.”
Level up.
Was he trying to do this because he wanted to improve his hunting or fighting abilities as a Hunter?
Of course not.
“When your level goes up, you’ll be able to enhance items that aren’t ordinary objects.”
Kang Hoon’s goal was to enhance magic items of higher ‘grade’.
“Then I’ll be able to enhance the [Hammer of Success and Failure] too, and maybe….”
…even dungeon reward boxes might be possible.
He kept that thought to himself and hid it.
‘Let’s not get ahead of myself for no reason.’
Since he didn’t know how things would turn out later.
For all he knew, the words ‘Enhancement Impossible’ might be embedded in the ‘Options’.
It might be a condition that Kang Hoon couldn’t meet with his abilities.
“Alright. Hyung, then let’s go to this place, just as the Dungeon Manager selected.”
With that, Ji-seong smoothly held out the pamphlet.
“…What’s this?”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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