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new business
161 ? New Business #1
I speak in a voice that no one can hear.
Very quietly and secretly.
He spoke to the pieces of bird’s bones lying on the plate.
“… Get up… .”
Ugh, ugh-.
The bulging bones begin to twist their bodies in a bizarre way.
What was nothing more than the remains of leftover food soon transformed into a grotesque object with joints and bones moving clumsily together.
Click.
A skeleton bird moving without a head. As I looked at it, my heart sank.
What shouldn’t move is moving.
They even flap their bone wings, which do not even have feathers or a thin membrane, as if they are reproducing their behavior when they were alive.
Clink, click.
It would have been a truly grotesque sight if there had been any flesh left on that body, since the bones had been cleaned and eaten.
Click, click!
I covered my plate with both arms as I watched the bird circling around on the plate. If anyone saw this scene, there would be no telling what kind of uproar it would cause.
Nana, this guy won’t be in good shape.
“…Hey, don’t move and stay still.”
… … .
The new bone stopped moving on the plate as if it had heard me. A corpse that listens to me. It’s both strange and eerie.
It’s like being a child who is holding something that you’re not supposed to play with and fiddling with it. In reality, it’s no different.
This was clearly an evil sorcery that could be called necromancy or spiritism.
I don’t really know how to explain why I can do this, because there are some parts that are not very good.
The day after fighting the Thieves Guild in the Underground, I was resting at home when I suddenly realized something.
I’ve managed to wrest control of the super zombies. Maybe I can actually do some necromancy or something like Paranoy said?
To be honest, it was pure curiosity.
So I tried this on the bones of the rats that the spiders that built their nests in jars had eaten and thrown away. Oh, and it actually worked.
At the time, I was so shocked that I hurriedly broke it. But now that I’ve done it again, I know for sure.
I can do necromancy.
Why on earth?
What is the reason?
Is it because the necklace I’m wearing contains the magic of Pluto, the king of the underworld? I thought it was just a strangely shaped necklace. Who knew it had this kind of power?
As I stroke the pointed star-shaped necklace around my neck, letters appear before my eyes.
『Pluto’s Eyes』
『Protects the wearer from magic and grace of the mental contamination series.』
『You can spend the task value +100 to strengthen Pluto’s Eye to Pluto’s Eye +1.』
『Strengthening probability +80%』
These are letters that I once saw and passed over without thinking much about, but now I’m starting to read them with a little more importance.
You can use task points to strengthen it. If you strengthen it further, you will be able to revive and use not only small bones like rats and birds, but also slightly larger ones.
The necromancer Koma who handled this necklace was even able to summon a bone dragon made of bone.
Of course, this is just a guess.
But these days, my guesses are surprisingly accurate, which is scary.
Swish.
At that moment, I turned my eyes slightly at the coolness tickling the back of my neck, and I saw Hippolyte walking towards me from far away.
At that, I was so startled that I took out the club from my waist and slammed it down on the glass plate with some force.
Clang-. Pass.
A skeleton bird that shatters again into pieces of bone along with the broken bowl.
Necromancy was an evil sorcery that was even punished in this world, so if I was caught doing it, I would be killed without even having time to make excuses.
I guess we’ll have to keep this fact a little more secret.
“Sval… .”
“What’s going on? You’re breaking the bowl with a club.”
Hippolyte asked, looking back and forth between the broken plate and my club with a puzzled look on her face. Fortunately, it seemed like she didn’t get caught.
“No, because there’s a spider-.”
“Spiders? It’s a tavern, so maybe a spider will show up. But do you really need to swing a club around like that?”
“I, you know, I’m really scared of spiders.”
“Hmm, well, maybe. Everyone has a weakness, you know. Anyway, have you thought about it?”
“Huh? Are you thinking about it?”
“You are learning Auror from me.”
Oh, before Hippolyte left, we were talking about Auror.
If I learn Aura, I’ll be evaluated by adding about +10 to my level. Then my level will be 33 or something, which is more than enough to advance to Silver Tier.
There is no need to worry.
So, just as I was about to answer that I would, Hippolyta opened her mouth a little faster.
“But, I’ll tell you in advance that it’ll take quite a while. It even took me over three years to acquire it. If you don’t have talent, you might never be able to develop it.”
“3 years…?”
Three years? Doesn’t that mean more than a thousand days? When I think about it that way, it seems like a long time. If I don’t have the talent to manifest my aura, wouldn’t that just be a waste of three years?
While I was thinking about that, Hippolyta added something secretly.
“For your information, the tuition fee is 1 gold per month.”
“No, do I have to pay tuition too?”
I felt dizzy at the enormous sum of money, 1 gold. 1 gold per month.
Sval. All I have is about 2 gold. I often recall the hardships I went through to earn this.
“It’s too expensive.”
“It’s expensive. This is still relatively cheap. If you want to become an apprentice at a knighthood or a swordsmanship school and acquire Aura, you’ll need to pay a monthly tuition fee and make additional purchases here and there.”
“So, is it cheaper to learn from Lady Hippolyte than to learn from the market?”
“The price is cheap, and the skills are solid. Even if you don’t have the talent to learn Aura, I’ll teach you the basics so that you won’t be defeated by any of the bad guys.”
When I heard it like that, it didn’t seem like a bad story. Rather than enrolling in an academy where I didn’t know if I had the skills or not, I would gain something from learning under Hippolyte.
I still vividly picture Hippolyte in the underground market, treating the Silver Tier adventurers like commoners and defeating them. Sval, she was so damn strong.
Still, 1 gold a month is a huge expense for me.
If you ask me right now whether I can earn 1 gold a month, I can’t give you a definite answer. I’m a poor man who trembles with a few coppers right now. I don’t have any land or a house in my name.
“It’s an opportunity that other guys can’t get even if they pay money. Is there anything to worry about?”
“That’s because I don’t have that money.”
“Learn even if you have to go into debt. Once you master Aura, your income will increase enough to fill your pockets with gold coins.”
When I listened to Hippolyte, it sounded very plausible.
After opening my own promotional section on the bulletin board of the guild building that will be completed someday.
‘Hassan – Possesses Titanium Gauntlets and a powerful club. Auror user.’ If you write it like this, you’ll probably get a lot of expensive requests from all over the place.
Maybe the gold coins will really pile up.
Thinking about the many gold coins made me feel very happy. As I was smiling to myself, Hippolyta spoke secretly as if she was revealing her hidden feelings.
“You don’t have money… Then why don’t you buy some Mars Guild stocks? Right now, you only get 5 silver a week… If you do well, the guild stocks will go up as well.”
“I don’t.”
Come to think of it, Hippolyte is a poor Aura user. It seems that learning Aura doesn’t mean you’ll earn a lot of gold.
* * *
The Mars Guild building, which I visited after a long time, was almost finished.
I was stopping by the guild to do some sort of refresh, and while I was there, by chance, I saw a funny looking pink hair fluttering around.
Luna is carrying a large jar and moving it around inside the building.
“Luna, what are you doing there!”
“Hatsan-! You came at a good time! Help me with this!”
So I and Luna put all six of the large jars into the guild warehouse.
It was quite heavy, so I thought I knew why Luna was struggling. However, with my recently improved strength, I was able to lift it relatively easily.
“Oh, thanks to Hassan, I survived. I thought I was going to die because it was so heavy. The carriage man told me to carry it to the guild building myself.”
Luna wipes the beads of sweat running down her forehead.
I asked Luna about that.
“We were supposed to have lunch together. Why didn’t you come to the restaurant?”
“I’m so busy! I got an order for five jars of stamina elixir. Five jars for 50 silver! Even after deducting the cost of materials, I should still have about 30 silver left over. That’s amazing!”
Luna puffed out her chest as if it were truly something great.
But actually earning 30 silver was such a huge feat that Luna’s appearance appeared to be shining brightly.
Aren’t you earning more than me?
“I have to make seven more barrels. This is a request from the Alchemist’s Guild. Honestly, I didn’t expect business to be this good right after opening the workshop.”
Luna’s workshop, the sun and moon, officially opened yesterday.
Thanks to this, the first floor of the tiny cabin is noisy with materials being ground down and crushed, and the screaming voices of Paranoy.
“If I keep doing business like this, I think I’ll make 1 gold a month. Then, even after deducting taxes and other things, I might make about 10 gold a year. Wow…! I’m rich!”
“1 gold per month?”
“Amazing!”
Earning 10 gold a year.
In this world, earning 10 gold a year was considered a great achievement.
For example, if it resembles the figure of 100 million won per year on Earth, then it is similar.
It is truly a model of a successful life.
Luna is a successful businesswoman.
I wonder if this is the Luna who used to hunt goblins with me and do weird voodoo tricks with a stick. I’m glad I met Luna.
If Luna earns a lot of money, I’ll get some of the beans that fall to me.
Since things have come to this, I thought that Luna should go out and earn money while I stay at home and do housework. I’m much better at housework anyway.
Life as a housekeeper in the home of a wealthy woman.
Isn’t this the wonderful life that most men dream of?
“Luna, I’m so glad I met you.”
“… He, he, what are you saying all of a sudden, so embarrassing?”
Luna turned her head around as if she was very embarrassed by my thoughtless words. Thinking back, I was also very embarrassed about what I had said.
Still, I was glad that Luna seemed to like it.
Anyway, Luna and I sat in front of Daphne for the first time in a long time.
“The weather is so hot. I wish the guild building would be completed soon.”
A makeshift guild window was set up inside a tent. Inside was Daphne, the receptionist, who was constantly fanning herself with her hand.
Certainly, it is very humid in the middle of summer, being in a tent with poor ventilation.
“Mr. Hassan, Ms. Luna. I’m glad that you’ve been going up so much lately, and I feel like my shoulders are getting straighter as the receptionist in charge! I heard that the adventurers in Calcutta escaped from the underground?”
Daphne also seems to have heard the story about the Hydra subjugation. It seems that it has also spread that Elfriede and her companions gave up on the mission and fled.
“This will also spread the status of the Mars Guild more widely. Anyway, it’s been a month since the number update? Since we’ve done a lot of work, I think the overall number may have gone up by 2 or 3!”
First of all, it was Luna who updated the numbers.
Last time, he was joking for a while because he didn’t want to prick his finger with a needle, but today, without any such he pricked his finger with a sharp pen tip and drew blood.
I think it’s because Luna’s inner self grew during that short period of time.
Square, square-.
Actually, Luna has grown in many ways, not just internally. I don’t know if it’s because of my mood, but she seems to have grown a little bit taller.
“Wow, Luna-san. That’s amazing. Your karma level has increased again in an instant!”
Last time Luna’s level was measured, the number that came out was 7 or 8. However, Luna’s level has been updated now and is as follows.
『Name: Luna Noxdotty
Strength: 4
Agility: 10
Stamina: 3』
“Hassan, look at that! The numbers are just increasing! How much is it if you add them all up…?”
Luna also trembled as if she was frightened by the high number and didn’t know what to do. Luna kept counting on her fingers. However, Daphne’s calculations using the abacus were faster.
“Your total score is 17. That’s exactly 10 points less than last time.”
“Wow! My karma level is now 17! I’ve become so strong!”
Snap, snap.
Luna was hitting my forearm at a very fast pace. There are often girls who hit others’ arms when they are happy or surprised. Luna was just like that.
The problem is that it hurts quite a bit.
Indeed, the palm of a level 17 hand hurts.
“Hassan, if this keeps up, won’t I be the first to reach Gold Tier…? If I think about it, am I incredibly strong…? Am I also a daughter of God? Like this!”
“There are some people who grow in a short period of time like this. However, those people tend to stagnate early, so you have to be careful!”
Daphne seemed to be giving some sincere advice to the adventurers she was in charge of.
I heard that it’s easy to level up to level 20, but it seems like a lot of people start having trouble after that.
So, most adventurers will fall down without ever reaching the Silver Tier.
“Miss Luna, your agility stat is now in the double digits! I heard that double digits are considered superhuman. Do you have any special training methods? I would like you to share them with us so that we can train our juniors.”
“I don’t know! Why did the number go up like this!? Why have I been feeling so light lately! Is it because I ate a wildling?”
“I, I see… Wildling… .”
Anyway, Luna’s numerical update went smoothly. And now it was my turn. I pricked my thumb with the needle and became slightly nervous.
I’ve leveled up quite a bit since then, too. Thinking about how Daphne will react makes me both excited and worried.
There’s no way a new job title will be added and it’ll say something like Necromancer. Then I’ll be completely out of luck.
While I was feeling very nervous with those thoughts, Luna spoke next to me.
“Hassan, what if you are weaker than me? What if I become stronger than Hassan?”
But I don’t think that will happen. I already know what my level is. Of course, Luna has no way of knowing. That’s why I worry like that.
Square, square-.
『Name: Hassan Zigles
Strength: 12
Agility: 4
Stamina: 6
Grace: Shining Hands》』
Boom, roll.
Daphne, who was writing, dropped the fountain pen from her hand.
“Did I write it wrong…?”
[Work Review]
Dacheonjieunnicknem!!! i운수i대통i!!! Lumen1!!! Palangmi!!! GurigurioriNeoguri!!! Minicross!!! Ppahyung!!! The dog that barks when he has nothing to say!!! Crecsent!!! t25!!! Nadajihuni!!! HororoloveLawrence!!! Gabbbaetbbaet!!! azidahaka80!!! Potatoserver!!! And jb114122 and Cheonhamujeokdori who gave me the king sponsorship coupon!! Thank you for the sponsorship coupon…!!
They also sent me a lot of coupons for manuscript fees ㅠㅠ…
So, I think I’ll do another popularity vote with illustrations soon…!!
There’s already one illustration in progress and a rough draft…!!! You can look forward to it….
