I Possess Too Many Characteristics

Chapter 38

“Huuuh……”

Jeonghyeon, who trudged back home, let out a deep sigh.

Why does this damn world never end, even when you keep climbing?

Jeonghyeon was the type of person who felt most like a Hunter when he saw the amount deposited in his bank account, rather than when he was hunting or looking at the system.

And in that sense, seeing Yerin directly purchase equipment made him realize most effectively that she was an A-Rank Hunter.

“That much money, all at once? In a lump sum? I almost fainted again.”

It was an amount that was almost sacrilegious to even speak of.

Yerin had actually spent that money,

“Hmm, that’s not bad. I’ll pay in a lump sum.”

with those words, she swiped her card without hesitation.

Of course, the equipment she bought was truly luxurious, a treasure that wouldn’t be out of place as a family heirloom in most homes.

And in front of such a Yerin, he had whined about 15 million won, so how was he supposed to face her from now on?

“I mean, if she has that much money, couldn’t she buy her junior Hunter a mace or something?”

Jeonghyeon grumbled to himself.

Even if Yerin had offered to buy it for him, he probably would have refused.

“Sigh…… I’m losing my energy. I should roll the shop at times like this.”

The most important thing in luck-based elements like the shop was expectation management.

As it goes, luck betrays you when your expectations are highest and gives you unexpected gifts when you least expect them.

He currently had 3 coins left.

Wasn’t it the perfect amount to test his luck just once?

『Would you like to refresh the list?』

“Do whatever you want.”

With a feeling that was calm to the point of wanting to dig into the ground, Jeonghyeon nodded.

And among the list, which wasn’t particularly special, there was one trait that caught Jeonghyeon’s eye.

“Oh?”

『「Stealth that can deceive even a goblin’s eyes」E, Lv.1）, 2C』

It was a Stealth trait.

To be honest, Stealth traits were close to being unpopular.

First of all, people’s perception of them wasn’t that good.

A trait that lets you sneak away from right in front of someone and then hit them from behind?

Of course, it was close to prejudice, but no one could guarantee that the back of the head wouldn’t be their own.

Thanks to this, a private group called the ‘National Stealth Trait Association’, or ‘Jeonamhyeop’ for short, was actively operating on Hunternet.

He wondered how many Hunters in that group actually had Stealth traits.

Most of their activities were,

━Ah, I met a Stealth trait Hunter today. Seriously creepy.

━Hunter who’s making baseless accusations against Stealth traits, Jeonamhyeop is with you too.

━Lol, seems like you need to watch your back.

Since it was mostly spamming and trolling, the improvement of Stealth traits’ image was going in a rather strange direction.

However, the reason Jeonghyeon was keeping an eye on this trait was a little different from others.

“Will this create synergy with Throwing Technique?”

It was because he had the Throwing Technique trait.

Didn’t Throwing Technique and Stealth feel like they would go well together?

But there was nowhere he could go to confirm such speculation.

In the first place, the only way to acquire multiple traits was through Re-Awakening.

Re-Awakening itself was an extremely rare case, and it was even harder for the second trait obtained to be one that fit the synergy.

‘Besides, there’s no guarantee that Re-Awakened Hunters will have synergy applied like me.’

Even getting traits that fit the synergy was a situation where the odds of winning the lottery were stacked multiple times, so would Re-Awakened Hunters, unless they were crazy, reveal such information on a place like Hunternet?

The only way was for Jeonghyeon to experiment himself.

『Insufficient coins.』

However, Jeonghyeon currently only had one coin left.

Even if he wanted to experiment, he had to postpone it.

Furthermore, his equippable slots were also full.

Although he could switch back to his original traits after a week, he was hesitant to take such a risk.

“I guess I’ll have to hunt one more time. Is there a novel where an expansion ticket magically appears?”

Then, in the end, he had no choice but to earn coins through hunting and keep refreshing until an expansion ticket appeared.

Jeonghyeon chuckled, knowing how absurd it sounded even as he said it himself.

Anyway, he had to find a place to hunt again.

Thinking about how his balance, which was close to 30 million won, had dwindled down to only 500,000 won made his stomach churn.

Even that was scheduled to be withdrawn soon as a repayment.

It was incredibly frustrating that he was earning a lot of money, but he had to spend just as much.

“Tsk, is this the life of a daily wage Hunter…… Should I contact Sunhyeong-ssi?”

However, Jeonghyeon felt that it would be difficult to find a spot on Hunternet with only the information he had revealed so far.

He was an unregistered Hunter with no level specified, so it was only natural.

Besides, Jeonghyeon had also personally experienced something, so he was hesitant about joining suspicious parties.

Although the atmosphere of the Gates that Sunhyeong’s party usually hunted in was a bit concerning, he felt comfortable with them.

There’s a saying that even if your body is tired at work, it’s all good if the people are nice.

As he thought that and picked up his phone,

━R r r

The phone rang.

The caller was none other than Sangsu.

“These guys are no different. Hello?”

As Jeonghyeon answered the phone, a cheerful voice came from the other side.

━Oh, hyung-nim! You picked up right away. Shall we go hunting one more time?

He had told him several times to stop calling him”hyung-nim”between people of the same age, but the title remained the same.

‘Why are all the people around me so stubborn?’

He was too tired to even bother correcting him anymore.

Jeonghyeon asked, rubbing his forehead.

“I’m always up for it. Where are we going this time?”

━’Distorted Forest of the Lowest-Grade Spirits’! Is that okay?

“Huh? There?”

Jeonghyeon was surprised because the place Sangsu suddenly mentioned was quite unexpected.

‘Distorted Forest of the Lowest-Grade Spirits’, commonly known as the Spirit Forest.

It was a Level 3 Gate and was famous for being a place where it was difficult to find a spot because it was so popular.

‘The earnings are ridiculously good though.’

The reason Jeonghyeon had earned more than expected so far was because he had the knowledge to separately process valuable parts from monster carcasses.

It was a task that everyone avoided, but considering the reward, it was worth it.

However, in the case of Spirits, there was no need for such knowledge.

‘You just have to pick up the Spirit Stones.’

Elemental Spirit Stones that are randomly dropped when you kill a Spirit.

All he had to do was pick up the Spirit Stones, which were about the size of a thumb joint, so there was nothing unpleasant or laborious about it.

Moreover, Spirit Stones were popular among magic-type Hunters and in the industrial sector, so their price was also high.

In short, it meant that it wasn’t a place that the lazy Sunhyeong could reserve.

“Is this really something Sunhyeong-ssi reserved?”

━Huh? Of course, I reserved it through the guild! They accepted it right away because I said you were coming too.

As expected.

And it was the Jeongjin Guild again.

Jeonghyeon felt a headache coming on as he felt like he was getting entangled with them again and again.

‘If this keeps happening, I’ll feel like I have to join the Jeongjin Guild later.’

Of course, the Jeongjin Guild would probably feel like it was good enough just to build a relationship, and even better if he joined, but he couldn’t easily ignore the feeling of indebtedness.

But what made him feel even worse was that it was help that he couldn’t easily refuse.

‘How can I resist Spirit hunting?’

Just the fact that they were offering him a Spirit Gate, famous for its high earnings, right when he was short on money showed that.

However, there was one thing he had to confirm before that.

“But Sangsu-ssi. Can you hunt Spirits?”

As if he had noticed what Jeonghyeon was worried about, Sangsu quickly replied.

━Huh? Ah, don’t worry about that. We’ve made preparations in our own way.

“Hmm…… Well, I’m always grateful. When are we leaving?”

━Three days from now!

That was the end of the conversation.

He was worried because Spirits had completely different characteristics from ordinary monsters, but it seemed like they had prepared countermeasures.

It was strange for Jeonghyeon to ask them detailed questions over the phone since they were also professional Hunters.

“My appointment luck is always good.”

The problem was after entering the Gate, but it was better to have at least one good thing.

Now that he had a place to hunt, all that was left was preparation.

Normally, he would have looked into detailed information about the Gate, but this time, there was something more important.

Jeonghyeon looked at the mace he had leaned against the wall.

It was to familiarize himself with the distance and feel of his newly purchased weapon.

It seemed like he would have to rely on the Association’s training facility for the remaining three days.

“Sigh…… I hope I don’t run into the Section Chief.”

If it was Cha Yerin, she might say that the best practice was actual combat and assault him under the guise of sparring.

No, he was sure she would.

◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈

“Jeonghyeon-ssi, it’s been a while!”

“How have you all been?”

Three days later.

The members of Sunhyeong’s party, whom he met again, were still lively, but there were some changes.

“Look at this, I got new arrows this time.”

“Oh, is that Marium?”

First, Jeongah’s arrows.

They were crafted using Marium, a mineral from the mine-type Gate ‘Mari Mine’, just like Jeonghyeon’s dagger and mace.

Moreover, judging by the faint blue tint of Sunhyeong’s armor and shield, it seemed like they were made of metal with a similar quality to Marium.

It was also a mineral that could hold mana.

With such low purity, the effect wouldn’t be that great, but it would have cost an absurd amount of money to make an entire shield or plate armor out of such metal, so it couldn’t be helped.

Anyway, in short, all the members who used physical attacks, including Jeonghyeon, had switched to equipment that could be imbued with magic.

They said they had prepared to deal with Spirits, and it certainly seemed like they had.

Spirits weren’t physical beings like other ordinary monsters.

Ordinary physical attacks were almost ineffective, and they could only be hunted with magic attacks.

Furthermore, even if you imbued magic, you had to accurately destroy the small Spirit’s core to kill them, making them tricky monsters.

In terms of defense, armor that didn’t conduct mana was also significantly less effective.

‘They must have spent quite a bit of money. Well, they would have had to switch eventually to climb higher, but……’

It might seem like a large expenditure just to switch for Spirit hunting.

However, the difference in effectiveness was undeniable even at Level 4 Gates, so it was an investment at the right time.

Meanwhile, Jeongah’s eyes sparkled when she saw the mace Jeonghyeon was carrying on his back.

“Wow, Jeonghyeon-ssi, you changed your mace too?”

“Yes. My previous one broke. Since I was changing it anyway, I got a good…… one.”

“Ooh! No wonder it looks so good.”

And Sunhyeong chimed in.

Perhaps it was because he had already seen Yerin’s level of equipment firsthand.

It felt incredibly awkward to call it good, but he couldn’t resist showing off his equipment as a Hunter.

It was like showing off a well-raised child, praising each other and boasting, strengthening their relationships.

Hunters were that sensitive about equipment.

After chatting for a while, looking at each other’s equipment, Jeonghyeon turned to Sangsu and asked.

“But Sangsu-ssi. Wouldn’t it be too much for you to imbue all of our share of magic?”

It was good that they had switched to equipment that could be imbued with magic.

But without magic imbuement, wouldn’t it be like red bean paste buns without red bean paste?

No matter how much of a D-Rank Level 2 Sangsu was, it would be too much for him to constantly imbue magic for three people.

Unless he had a specialized Magic Imprinting trait, the mana consumption would be excessive with just a normal magic type.

Sangsu nodded with a bright smile, as if he had expected the question.

“Yes. It would be difficult for me alone.”

“……?”

Was that it?

Jeonghyeon was a bit dumbfounded, but the party’s atmosphere was strange.

They were just smiling silently, as if they had prepared a surprise for Jeonghyeon without him knowing.

“What is it, tell me quickly.”

“Actually, there’s one more person coming. Ah, here she comes.”

At that moment, a small imported car, popular among women, entered the parking lot.

Jeonghyeon, who had a bad memory of a Hunter who drove a nice car, decided to wait and see for now.

A female Hunter with a petite build and long hair that reached her waist got out of the car.

“Hello, I’m Park Suyeon from the Jeongjin Guild’s HR team.”

“Everyone, give her a big round of applause!”

“Woooah!”

Led by Sangsu, the party members all clapped and cheered.

And Suyeon blushed and acted shy.

In the midst of the cheerful atmosphere of welcoming their hidden card for hunting Spirits,

“Sigh……”

Jeonghyeon sighed quietly.