Awakened as a Money-Spending Genius Enhancer - Chapter 54

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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 54

Chapter 54. [Poison Purification Necklace]

He’s not the same Park Kang-hoon from the past.

Compared to the early days of his awakening, the situation has changed dramatically.

“I’ve been promoted to S-rank, my level has increased a lot, and things are definitely better than before.”

He’s definitely moved beyond the beginner stage now.

As much as Kang Hoon’s position has changed, the conditions for ‘Magic Item Enhancement’ might have changed as well.

He just doesn’t know since he’s never experimented with it.

In fact, [Park Kang-hoon’s House +5] is overflowing with ‘magic items’.

However, they’re all items that Kang Hoon crafted himself from start to finish.

They can’t serve as test subjects.

“It feels a bit much to buy magic items with my own money just to experiment once.”

There are countless items that Kang Hoon has sold on Corn Market.com.

But the number of items he’s purchased is zero.

Fireball Staff?

─Can’t I just enhance a torch? What a waste of money.

Vibranium Shield?

─Can’t I just enhance a pot lid? What a waste of money.

Potion?

─Bacchus.

Antidote?

─Yamyeong 909.

Awakening Potion?

─Let’s Be.

Everything can be solved at the convenience store level.

In other words, it’s a waste of money to buy magic items.

No Hunter understands Kang Hoon’s ‘frugal spirit’.

Because there are no penny-pinching Hunters like Kang Hoon.

Usually, Hunters spend as much as they earn.

‘What’s the point of saving? You never know when you might die.’

That’s exactly their mindset.

There’s even a saying that goes:

‘Every time a Hunter returns from a dungeon, a Porsche gets sold.’

But here’s a nouveau riche who’s not like any other rich person.

The famous shop owner Park Kang-hoon evaluates even basic million-won items as ‘expensive’.

No wonder his colleagues look at him like he’s crazy.

Also.

Because he’s that kind of person, Kang Hoon readily agreed to Cheong Jeong-kwon’s request.

‘It’s a chance to enhance someone else’s ‘magic item’ without spending a penny of my own money, isn’t it?’

So he quickly washed his hair and left the house.

Together with Lucky, who followed alongside him.

The problem was ‘Lucky’, who had been comfortably lounging around at home.

His actual body was very large.

“Lucky. Can you shrink your size again? All the passersby are going to faint.”

– Kyung.

Then Lucky took a pooping pose.

He squinted his eyes and tensed his body,

Then shrank just a little, to the size of a wild wolf.

“Try getting a bit smaller. I think we’ll get complaints about not muzzling a dangerous dog.”

– Kyuung.

He shrank a little more, becoming about the size of a husky.

“Can you go a bit smaller?”

– Kyaang!

“You don’t want to? Why?”

– Kyauuung. Uung.

“You don’t want to look weak. I understand.”

Having this conversation that wasn’t quite a conversation, Kang Hoon headed toward the ‘Cheong Jeong’ guild building.

* * *

Guild Master Cheong Jeong-kwon’s words were as follows:

“Please enhance some equipment-type detoxification items for me.”

Dungeons come in many types and are treacherous.

Among them, unusual dungeons are called ‘special dungeons’.

“You know the Defense Dungeon that Hunter Park Kang-hoon went to last time? If that kind of special dungeon is a competition system between individual Hunters, then some special dungeons are competition systems between guild groups.”

A special dungeon that appeared like a sinkhole above Apgujeong Boulevard.

Unusually, this special dungeon was one dungeon and multiple dungeons at the same time.

There are a total of five gate entrances.

There are also five types of gates.

“This kind of special dungeon doesn’t disappear until all gate missions are completed.”

Therefore.

Five teams dispatched from five guilds proceed with missions simultaneously.

A situation where people from the entire city, no, the entire country are paying attention.

Busy, busy, competitive society.

In such a society, which guild achieves what first, what kind of achievement they get, and how excellently they complete their missions is worth watching.

“Somehow, this has become a guild war.”

And today, ‘Cheong Jeong’ came to participate in that guild war.

Did they volunteer willingly? Not exactly.

“Usually the government puts out a list of guilds, and it’s law to choose from within the top 10. Our ‘Cheong Jeong’, being outside the top 10, wasn’t in the candidate pool until now. But you see, this time our guild ranking rose exceptionally.”

At that, Kang Hoon tilted his head and said awkwardly,

“Uh…, congratulations.”

“Don’t mention it. S-rank big shot Hunter Park Kang-hoon.”

The gaze of everyone sitting in the conference room fixed on Kang Hoon.

However, the cause of the exceptional ranking surge.

Kang Hoon himself could only blink his eyes.

“Anyway, so what’s the issue?”

“Ahem. Yes. So the problem is the type of gate.”

Next to Cheong Jeong-kwon, who had his arms firmly crossed, Dungeon Manager Park Do-jin continued speaking.

“Five guilds were fairly assigned five gate entrances by lottery. But unfortunately… we ended up with the most vicious dungeon.”

As he pushed up his glasses with his index finger, deep wrinkles formed between his brows.

The other Hunters were equally full of worry.

They were the guild members who would be dispatched to that dungeon.

“When you say vicious dungeon?”

“What do you mean by a vicious dungeon?”

At Kang Hoon’s question,

“That’s right. It’s a very ‘terrible’ dungeon.”

One of the team members answered.

“Whenever a ‘guild war’ is held like today, you can consider the types of the five gates to be fixed. Goblin’s Golden Mine, Minotaur’s Labyrinth, Skeleton’s Underground Tomb, Kraken’s Sinking Ship, and Slime’s Poison Swamp.”

At that, Kang Hoon scratched his chin.

While monsters like skeletons and krakens felt terrifyingly intimidating,

‘Some of these seem manageable though?’

There were also names mixed in that seemed approachable.

Kang Hoon asked.

“Aren’t slimes beginner-level monsters? That’s how they appear in games.”

“….”

“Which is the most difficult dungeon among them?”

“…’Slime’s Poison Swamp’.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s also the dungeon our team members have to go to.”

“Huuuh!?”

Park Do-jin’s explanation went like this.

Unlike the other four dungeons, ‘Slime’s Poison Swamp’ has no living monsters appearing.

‘Slime’s Poison Swamp’ was created by the accumulation of hundreds of thousands of slime corpses,

─It’s essentially a giant tomb.

“As Hunter Park Kang-hoon said, novice hunters hunt slimes, right? Since they’re easy level and weak monsters, they kill hundreds at a time. So where do all those slime corpses go?”

“Hmm….”

In 【Maple Story】, they would automatically disappear.

But reality wouldn’t work that way.

“Well, they’d just remain in that gate, right?”

“Correct.”

“Hmm. So what then?”

“While ordinary monster corpses emit toxic gases during the decomposition process, slime corpses completely liquefy.”

Well, since they have no bones or organs, it’s natural when you think about it.

Moreover, slime dungeons are classified as the lowest difficulty.

Since they’re outside the danger zone classification, there’s rarely any need to destroy the gates.

Unless they’re continuously used as practice grounds for novice hunters.

This is the result.

“When dead slimes accumulate like that… the entire gate becomes covered with slime corpses. It becomes a swamp made of slimes.”

“I see.”

“When such a slime swamp is left unattended for a long time… serious toxic substances are generated.”

This was completely new information.

‘Right. Games don’t delete corpses for no reason.’

At this point, the guild members sitting around the table looked pitiful.

Last time, right after returning from the Defense Dungeon.

He had experienced firsthand just how terrible the zombie stench was.

But these hunters were about to dive right into a ‘swamp’ made of slime corpses.

What would that stench be like when they returned?

It was even questionable whether they could return alive in the first place.

“So Hunter Park Kang-hoon. To complete this mission, please help us with equipment enhancement.”

A hunter with a determined expression stood up and spoke.

“Of course, we’ll provide proper compensation. Not only the basic enhancement fee, but we’ll pay the maximum success bonus as well.”

Seeing them mention compensation,

it seemed the guild had decided on Kang Hoon’s role.

─To demonstrate his abilities as an Enhancement Specialist.

‘I’d be fine doing it for free. Well, if they want to pay, I’ll gladly accept it though…?’

Kang Hoon felt both embarrassed and pleased.

He could feel that ‘Cheongjeong’ regarded his role quite seriously and importantly.

It was like becoming the protagonist of this conference room.

The white box that had been placed in the center of the table slid smoothly toward Kang Hoon.

“This is the item.”

“Mm. Let me take a look first.”

Opening the box, he saw a necklace placed on a handkerchief.

Its appearance was an utterly ordinary, common necklace.

Except for being quite long, it had no special features whatsoever.

Reaching out his hand, Kang Hoon checked the ‘information value’.

[Poison Purification Necklace] : A magic item supplied from a Gold Grade Box, possessing detoxification abilities. * [When worn, Detoxification Status +15] * [When worn, damage from poison reduced by 30%]

The options seemed quite decent.

Since no grade was separately assigned, it was presumably ‘Normal’, the basic and lowest tier.

‘For one person to wear, well, it doesn’t look bad but….’

However, the total number of hunters sitting around the table was four.

There was only one magic item.

If even this was obtained with difficulty through a ‘Gold Grade Box’.

It was obvious.

‘I get it now. Cheongjeong doesn’t have detoxification items.’

Even thinking back to his first meeting with the Park siblings.

Even they, who were called the guild’s signboard and ace.

Didn’t possess any detoxification items.

That’s why Seri was crying while holding the poison-afflicted Ji-seong, wasn’t she?

Back then too, he definitely heard ‘we unexpectedly encountered a poison dungeon’.

It meant they had been avoiding poison dungeon missions until now.

‘Well, magic items aren’t exactly cheap.’

Unless you’re a world-class ranking guild.

It’s more rational to give up on conquering one or two dungeon types,

and collect items for other types instead.

‘But this time, they happened to draw poison in the random selection?’

Isn’t this just bad luck?

The situation is quite coincidental.

“I’d like to help… but I’m not sure if it’ll work out well. I’ve never enhanced existing magic items before.”

As if reading Kang Hoon’s thoughts, Cheong Jeong-kwon said.

“Feel free to experiment with this as much as you want. If it gets destroyed due to enhancement failure, well… then it can’t be helped.”

“?”

What’s this about now?

“…You’re saying it’s okay to destroy it?”

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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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