You Have Been Invited to the Auction House of the Gods - Chapter 29

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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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29

 

 

Each time Lee Seo-rin lightly swung the butcher knife, the blade extended and cut through the monster corpses like a dancing snake.

 

Lee Seo-rin, who was initially flustered, adapted to some degree and began leaping around the pile of corpses as if flying.

 

The pile of dozens of monster corpses was processed to perfection in just 20 minutes.

 

Meat, hide, and even magic stones.

It was clearly flesh, yet it seemed to pulse with a lifelike vitality.

The hide was also of the finest quality, with fur so lustrous it gleamed, except for the areas where there were wounds.

And needless to say, the most important magic stone.

The claim of a 0% loss rate was absolutely true.

“This should be enough.”

After briefly checking the situation, I looked toward Lee Seorin.

She was still holding the sacred ritual slaughter knife, staring blankly at the pile of offal heaped before her.

“How about it? This kitchen knife is good enough to change our attack strategy, don’t you think?”

At my question, Seorin looked down at the butcher knife and chuckled.

It was a hollow laugh born from sheer disbelief.

“Honestly… this is seriously an insanely overpowered item.”

And so the field test of the porter system, which had only existed in theory, came to an end.

We documented several systems and then returned to the guild building.

Now that the preparations for opening are complete, it’s time to receive the new recruits.

***

Since I was the only one who could procure the necessary supplies, I went in and out of the dungeon while preparing for the interview and practical evaluation.

All other necessary supplies were procured through Cheongram Trading Company.

Team Leader Lee Woo-ram said he could provide that much as a service and sent over the goods.

 

Having completed all preparations, the day of interviews finally arrived.

 

“There are more people than I expected.”

 

The corridor was packed with applicants.

 

Even after filtering through documents in the first round and physical tests in the second round, this many remained.

 

Jin-woo stuck close to my side and whispered quietly.

 

“Boss, thanks to the Association President’s media interview, the number of applicants doubled. Not just Porters, but Doctors and Hunters all applied too.”

 

“Asin’s Porter conditions are better than those of low-ranking Hunters with empty titles.”

 

I observed the applicants through the waiting room window.

 

There weren’t any particularly notable individuals yet.

 

“The basic physical evaluations are all finished. Today we just need to conduct the practical tests and interviews.”

 

Jin-woo said while flipping through the documents he had prepared.

 

Unusually, the interviews were conducted not in the office but in the training ground in the basement of the guild building.

 

What would a practical test for Porters be?

What would practical skills matter to a porter?

How quickly and accurately you can recover resources from monsters.

It was preparation to make that judgment.

A plastic sheet was laid out in the center of the practice area, and various types of butcher knives were placed on the table.

If you didn’t know this was a porter recruitment center, it would have looked like a menacing place straight out of a noir film.

“We have plenty of monster corpses prepared, right?”

“Not everyone gets to take the practical exam. But we’ve prepared enough for the number of people we have.”

“You did prepare with Poison Progy, right?”

“I’ve prepared everything just as you instructed, sir.”

Kim Jinwoo wore a confident expression.

Poison Froggy.

It’s an E-rank monster in the form of a giant purple frog.

You might think that higher-level monsters would be better for testing abilities, but the difficulty of dungeons and slaughter don’t correlate.

Poison Froggy had a difficulty level that rivaled A-grade among butchering tasks.

Moreover, there was also the risk of becoming addicted if something went wrong.

It’s not for nothing that Lee Seo-rin is waiting in front of the injection capsule containing the antidote.

 

The interview was conducted first before the practical test.

 

Five applicants entered the training ground.

 

The process was simple.

 

The five interviewees would form one team.

 

And they would proceed with a simulated emergency supply situation.

 

When I threw them a situation in the middle, they had to come up with appropriate solutions.

 

Several questions and answers went back and forth like that.

 

“While moving, you discovered a cluster of red flowers. If you cross through the cluster, you can reach the raid team’s location within 5 minutes. What would you do?”

 

As I spoke, I displayed a photo of the flower on the monitor.

 

From a distance, it looked like a pretty, round cluster,

but up close, the withered flower shapes were reminiscent of skulls.

 

“Since these are flowers inside a dungeon, we need to be especially careful.”

 

A young man among the interviewees spoke up boldly.

 

“However, since there are only 10 minutes left in the golden time, our team will take the risk and cross through the cluster.”

 

There are situations where you have to take risks to maintain the golden time.

 

But that flower field wasn’t one of them.

 

“Those red flowers are petals called Explosive Skull Grass. Even touching one will cause a chain explosion, so you must take a detour.”

 

How could porters possibly cross a flower field that even B-rank Hunters detour around?

 

“Since the supply team has been wiped out, we’ll end the interview here and move straight to the practical test.”

 

At that moment, one of the older-looking interviewees showed irritation.

 

“Do porters really need to know such things?”

 

Looking at his resume alone, he was quite an experienced porter.

 

“I’ve worked as a porter for 10 years, and I’ve never even heard of explosive skulls or whatever.”

 

“If you’re going to continue working as a regular porter, it’s not necessary. But…”

 

If you’re just going to follow behind raid parties and rummage through monster corpses, you don’t need to know such common knowledge.

 

“If you want to work as a porter at Asin, you need to know this.”

 

But the porter I want to recruit for Asin isn’t that kind of porter.

 

“With that choice just now, the entire supply team was wiped out, and the raid team waiting for emergency supplies will soon be wiped out too.”

 

Because it’s such a crucial role that brings life to raids.

 

At my words, the interviewee who had answered boldly earlier hung his head.

 

“Still, don’t worry too much. Besides the supply team, there’s also the resource recovery team.”

 

I forced a smile.

 

In the meantime, the Poison Frog for the practical test was prepared.

 

 

***

 

I conducted interviews with over 200 applicants, but there were few applicants I liked.

 

Most seemed to have applied without even reading the recruitment requirements.

Most were people who came because they were tempted by the promise of more money than hunters, despite being porters.

 

Porters weren’t any different.

 

Rather, applicants with porter experience were worse.

 

With their characteristic stubbornness, they showed strong resistance to the new system.

 

The middle-aged man who questioned why he needed to know such things in the first interview was a gentleman.

 

There was the Sichuan Tang Family Detox Uncle who insisted this method was correct and started by bursting the poison sac to remove it,

and the Half-and-Half Master who said that even though half the materials became unusable, they couldn’t bring even half back from the scene anyway.

 

In the first place, the poison sac is as valuable a by-product as magic stones in Poison Frogs, so I don’t know what they’re thinking by bursting it first.

 

Moreover, we separated the supply team and recovery team to increase resources that were previously only half-recovered, but is that kind of butchering even proper?

 

Even though I had met all kinds of human nature while struggling at the bottom during my porter days…

I was getting fed up with the new troublemakers I encountered from the hiring position.

 

“Haah…”

 

A sigh escaped naturally.

 

‘Besides the doctor-turned-applicant and that elderly gentleman… there’s no one worth salvaging.’

 

Out of over 200 applicants, less than 10% are worth salvaging.

 

“How many antidotes do we have left?”

 

“… About half.”

 

Lee Seo-rin’s face was also full of fatigue.

 

Neither I nor she had expected people who didn’t know how to butcher monsters to show up to a Porter hiring interview.

 

“Jin-woo. How many teams are left now?”

 

“We just need to see one more team.”

 

It felt like we’d been interviewing for 3 hours straight, but finally the end was in sight.

 

‘Should I laugh about this, or cry…’

 

Well, this actually worked out better.

 

With the Universal Cart and Laser Butcher Knife, we don’t really need that many people anyway.

 

Twenty people with sufficient situational judgment and experience would be enough.

 

“… Right, not much left. Tell the next team to come in.”

 

Shortly after, the last team entered.

 

But at that moment, a familiar face came into my view.

 

A handsome build that seemed to be just over 180cm tall.

A tired face with dark circles under his eyes.

 

As if noticing that my gaze had stopped on him, he lightly bowed his head.

 

Just turning on the TV or going to any subway station, you’d see this person’s advertisements playing.

 

A Hunter who was top-class in both skill and recognition.

 

Seonbong Guild’s A-rank Hunter Park Ju-yong.

 

That’s why the question in my head only grew bigger.

 

‘Why would an A-rank Hunter apply to be a Porter?’

 

***

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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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