You Have Been Invited to the Auction House of the Gods - Chapter 21

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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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21

 

 

Porters are essential personnel for dungeon raids.

 

They handle not only resource recovery during raids, but also overall supply management including medical supplies and food supplies.

 

Isn’t there a strategy that always appears in military history?

Cut off the enemy’s supply lines.

It’s the same.

The porter is a very important figure for stable and sustained attacks.

The role of porters becomes even more important, especially in higher-risk dungeons.

But such cases are extremely few.

But such cases are extremely rare.

About 10 people nationwide. Realistically, that’s exactly how many there are.

In an era of ten million hunters, there are plenty of porters who can replace you.

But that doesn’t mean such discriminatory treatment can be justified.

In particular, violence has crossed the line in this day and age.

“That’s enough.”

The hunter, who had been clenching his fist, flinched at the sudden intervention.

“What, what’s with you?”

He stared at me with shocked eyes and spat out curses.

“Ah, shit… let go, let go of me!”

I silently gripped his wrist even tighter.

He struggled to escape from my grasp, but there was no way he could break free from an S-rank’s power.

When he didn’t move a muscle, she was clearly flustered.

Only then did he seem to realize that something was wrong.

Perhaps thinking that he was at least a higher-ranked hunter than himself, the man’s complexion turned drastically pale.

He looked like he realized he had messed with the wrong person, and at the same time seemed to hope that he wouldn’t push any further and that the current situation would just quietly come to an end.

“Tsk…”

If you can’t bite, you shouldn’t bark either.

 

I stared at him for a moment, then let go of his hand.

 

The man staggered backward.

 

A Fellow Hunter barely caught him as he was about to fall.

 

He bowed his head to me and quickly disappeared with his companions.

 

‘What’s the point of bowing to me…’

 

It wasn’t a sincere apology anyway.

 

He only bowed his head due to the logic of power.

 

Even after this, he’ll still treat porters carelessly and look down on them.

 

“Thank you…”

 

As the commotion settled, the Porter approached and carefully bowed her head.

 

Small frame with worn bulletproof vest and work clothes.

 

I still couldn’t believe that with that frame, she could carry porter bags weighing several tons.

 

Her personality hadn’t changed either.

That personality caused quite a bit of trouble with raid parties, but at the same time, she received quite a lot of help too.

 

“… Still the same. Lee Seo-rin.”

 

Only then did she lift her head.

 

“Han Sang-in…?”

 

A colleague I worked with during my days as a porter.

 

It was Lee Seo-rin.

 

***

 

We moved to a cafe.

***

I looked at her torn porter bag that she had roughly folded up and spoke.

 

“Why did you tear your bag? It’ll cost quite a bit to buy a new one.”

 

It’s not just any bag, but a porter’s bag for dungeon raids.

“Why did you tear the bag? It’s going to cost quite a bit to buy a new one.”

It’s not just any bag—it’s the pack of a porter who conquers dungeons.

 

Not only was it large, but contrary to its appearance, it was an expensive item engraved with complex Magic Engravings.

 

At my question, Lee Seo-rin slowly opened her mouth while gently poking at the lemon slice in her ice-filled glass.

 

“Hah… It’s cheaper than the cost of a life, isn’t it.”

 

At her answer, I let out a soft laugh.

 

Then and now, that straightforward personality of hers hadn’t changed.

 

The ability she Awakened was ‘Danger Detection.’

 

An ability to detect dangers that would befall her.

 

It’s a skill that’s a lower-tier version of my Sixth Sense stat.

 

As the name suggests, it’s a skill that detects dangers that will come.

 

It sounds like a pretty decent skill when you hear about it.

 

The kind of skill that could get you fairly good treatment even if you switched to being a support-type Hunter.

 

But the reality isn’t like that.

 

In Lower-tier Raid Teams, Danger Detection doesn’t have much merit.

 

How much probability is there for a raid party to be completely wiped out in a Lower-tier Dungeon?

 

At most, it would be injuries or traps.

 

Taking her along by paying a Hunter’s wage is inefficient.

 

Occasionally, exceptional situations like Double Dungeons do occur.

But no raid party would willingly pay the cost of one Hunter for that extremely low probability.

 

That’s why Lee Seo-rin as a Hunter isn’t welcomed by Lower-tier Raid Teams.

 

Then what about Upper-tier Raid Teams?

 

This is a place where a moment’s carelessness can lead to major accidents that cost lives.

In such a place, the true value of Danger Detection would have been properly revealed, but…

 

The problem here was Lee Seo-rin herself.

 

She didn’t have the physical capabilities to enter Upper-tier Dungeons.

 

Rather than assigning an upper-tier Hunter to protect her alone, it was much more efficient to deploy them on the front lines.

 

While the skill called Danger Detection was indeed attractive, it wasn’t efficient either way.

 

In the end, because of that ability that was like a white elephant, she had no choice but to become a Porter.

 

Well, I had quite a few occasions where I saved my life thanks to her ability too.

 

But there were few, no, there were no raid parties at all that would listen to a Porter’s words.

 

So in this incident too, she probably had no choice but to tear her Porter Bag to make further raid progress meaningless.

 

“What was it this time? A trap? A mutant monster?”

 

“An explosive-type magic trap.”

 

She spoke calmly as if it was nothing special.

 

“If we had gone as planned, the entire raid party including the Raid Leader would have been wiped out.”

 

Seo-rin spoke calmly, but there was fatigue and resignation seeping through her words.

 

Even if she gained justification to return by tearing her Porter Bag, the process afterward wouldn’t have been smooth.

 

“Well, I’m used to it now…”

 

She laughed self-deprecatingly.

 

That bitter smile contained so many emotions.

 

Soon, as if shaking off the heavy atmosphere, she threw out a new question.

 

“By the way, I haven’t seen you around much lately. Did you have a Re-Awakening?”

 

“Yeah, I had a Re-Awakening. I became a Hunter and joined a guild too.”

 

Since it’s nominally Jin-woo’s guild.

 

“Are you planning to continue being a Porter?”

 

“Why are you asking about such things all of a sudden?”

 

She poked at the remaining ice in her cup once more.

 

“What else can I do besides being a Porter?”

 

I looked at her silently, then casually threw out some words.

 

“My guild is Asin. We have a Porter position open.”

 

It wasn’t a proposal made out of sympathy.

 

With the Sixth Sense stat, I could understand the world she sees a little better.

 

And even before I gained the Sixth Sense stat, I had overcome several major crises thanks to her skill.

 

Even setting all that aside, she’s quite a skilled veteran Porter.

 

This means she has a good grasp of supply flow to some extent.

 

Most importantly, I had a strong feeling that I should bring her to Asin.

 

I couldn’t tell if this was intuition or because of the Sixth Sense stat, but I strongly felt that I could help her abilities bloom through Golden Fragrance.

 

To put it in terms of an analogy, Lee Seo-rin is an undervalued stock.

 

She’s undervalued in the Hunter market, but with just a little work, she would have more than enough room to grow.

 

Well, even if all these assumptions of mine turn out to be complete failures, Asin needed at least one Porter.

 

I could manage with the Golden Fragrance Temporary Storage, but Jin-woo couldn’t.

 

‘I can’t always travel together with Jin-woo forever.’

 

Looking at it from various angles, bringing her in would be beneficial to me.

 

Seo-rin blinked and looked at me.

 

“What is it? A recruitment offer?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Seo-rin quietly closed her mouth.

 

“I have enough power to secure a position for you.”

 

Not just a position. I could match everything from rank to desired salary.

 

Now that I was actually saying it, I wondered if our guild was really that good…

 

But what does it matter.

 

That’s what I created the guild for.

 

If we lack funds, I’ll raid Golden Township, and if we lack achievements, I’ll run dungeons myself.

 

I’m at least the 10th strongest S-rank Hunter in the world.

 

“I’m not asking you to decide right now. Think it over and get back to me.”

 

I started to get up from my seat, then looked at her again.

 

“Next time, I’ll make it so you don’t have to tear your Cargo Bag.”

 

These words I spoke carried many meanings.

 

A place where she wouldn’t have to be insulted for being a Porter, where guild members would listen to her words with proper attention.

 

She seemed to understand that meaning too, as she didn’t open her mouth any further.

 

Having finished speaking, I quietly stood up.

The cafe door opened and quietly closed again.

 

Perhaps thinking I couldn’t hear her since I was outside, she opened her mouth in a whisper.

 

“…He’s really changed a lot. Han Sang-in. Just a few months ago he was a kid full of venom…”

 

Seo-rin remained in that spot until my Ki Sense could no longer detect her.

 

***

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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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