Leveling Up Through Eating

PR: MattForgenti

Brony, who has now logged back in to Athenae, still has not calmed his wildly beating heart. After all, what he had heard was something extremely astonishing.

‘Hyaa…… I didn’t even know. My god. Kang Minhyuk. That unlucky bastard’s father is Chairman Kang Minhoo.’

Then he thought of something…

‘I provoked his child, now?’

Then his father added some food for thought.

‘You both are alumnus of the same school so you might not know if you’ll ever meet each other, but if it happens, try to avoid creating friction. Although, it is widely believed that the Ilhwa Group is a company that does not use their prestige and power to step down on others. At least, try to avoid any and all sorts of friction, just to be safe.’

Just like what his father said, there weren’t really any bad rumors or gossip going around about Ilhwa Group. That was one of the reasons why they have gained the trust of the masses.

‘When I clashed with Minhyuk and my friends, he did try to solve his problems on his own and he never used the power of their company. I have to keep this in mind. This tiger cub has also grown up. This tiger is old enough now.’

He nodded his head in thought and was finally able to arrive in front of the inn where they agreed to meet with Card. Brony did not bring along any of his guild members to this meeting.

He opened the door to Room 201, the room that they decided earlier to meet with. Card was the one who arranged the meeting place. Right inside that room, he could really see Card. The Card that he could only see on TV.

“Hello. I’m Horden Guild’s Brony.”

“I’m Card.”

His answer was cool.

This is the 2nd in the blacksmith’s rankings! The person who created an epic artifact!

He even heard that the epic artifact sold for 400 million won on the auction site. In addition, he was also one of the executives of Ares Guild.

“Can I hear about your request right now?”

“Yes.”

Then, Card started to explain his request calmly.

“As you know, this request also needs the secrecy and cooperation of the guild members of your Horden Guild. I think it’s better that they move without knowing who their client is.”

“Ah, yes.”

Brony has already asked the guild members to keep mum about this through Ilen.

“You need to move quietly. All you have to do is take over a mine called Brethni.”

“You mean, the whole mine?”

“Yes. You know about the Brethni Mines, right?”

“Yes, it was also known as the chocolate mine.”

Card shook his head.

“In 3 days time. You have to take over the Brethni Mines in that amount of time.”

“So we only need to take over……”

Card nodded his head at him.

The mines have miners but there were also administrators and troops from the kingdom who managed the mines. Fortunately, Brethni Mines was a mine for novice blacksmiths and miners so the troop’s level was not that high.

Taking over a field, a dungeon or an area would work like this…

“So you want me to kill off all of the soldiers of the kingdom’s troops and monopolize the place. And in that time that we’re fighting, you will go into the mine and find the item that you need?”

“That’s right.”

“May I ask what you’re looking for?”

“No.”

“......”

Card was quite stubborn about hiding most of the details of the request. But he soon opened his mouth.

“There are two things that your Horden Guild can do. First, is to take over the mines and cut off all of the connections and communications with the kingdom. And the next one is getting rid of the sudden influx of stronger monsters that will come out from the Brethni Mines.”

“Stronger monsters?”

Brethni Mines originally have monsters that could come out from the mines. Most people knew that the monsters were only at around LV70~100. The usual setting was for the kingdom’s troops to take care of the monsters while the miners would go forward and mine for the ores and minerals.

“Yes, then I’ll start out at that point. I will hide as much as I can and the Horden Guild will take out the monsters that will come out before I go inside.”

“And in the process……”

Brony had a hunch…

“All the miners inside will die.”

***

Brony left Card alone in the inn after their conversation.

Once he confirmed that he was well and truly alone, he took out a black key from his bosom. He received this key unexpectedly.

‘The chocolate mines. A rare artifact material exists inside those mines.’

This was the key that would lead to the secret place inside the chocolate mines! In that secret place, he would be able to find a material that was a step higher than the material used for the Dragon Sword. The material was placed inside a cave in the mines.

However, there was only one simple reason why Card would need to use the hands of the Horden Guild.

‘If that damn bastard who’s in the Kingdom of Barras knew of its existence then he will definitely not let me have it!’

He believed that the bastard would definitely guard and control the mines once he knew of this fact. Then, once he controlled the mines he would definitely have no room to enter and explore it.

However, his plan right now was truly too sloppy. He wanted to immediately capture and kill off the Kingdom of Barras’ troops and take over the mine for himself. But if he did that then he would be chased off by the Kingdom of Barras so he asked for the help of the Horden Guild. After all, that was what their guild was best at.

To do the dirty work for others and get chased for it!

‘There are only three people who can make an artifact out of the material inside that mines.’

Card thought about these people.

One was Casias, he was the number 1 in the blacksmith’s ranking. A person who ranked above himself and the other one was the veiled manufacturer of the Dragon Sword.

The number 1 Casias was located in the Dwarf’s territory right now while the veiled manufacturer of the Dragon Sword has been missing for months. So this was the perfect time for him to act.

Right this instant!

‘I can make an artifact that will go beyond that of the Dragon Sword with that material and even increase my reputation in one fell swoop. Keuhahahahaha!’

My ranking in the blacksmith’s ranking will rise to number 1 and I would be known as the person to make an artifact that has surpassed the Dragon Sword!

Card smiled coldly as he thought of the things that he would achieve once he got his hands on that rare material.

***

Ruan, a blacksmith in the 5th mining team, was looking down at the ground as he faced the sighing captain of the mining teams, Leton.

“Sigh. The blacksmith friend who came yesterday is not coming again today.”

“He must have ran away.”

“Most likely. Each and everyday goes by and the foreigners continue to run away as soon as they come here.”

When he heard his words, Ruan thought to himself…

‘If I haven’t received my hidden class job change quest, I would have run away too……’

Working at the mines was much more intense and the amount of work was enormous compared to manual labor in real life. What was worse was that the inside of the mines was hot and there was dust flying around. You wouldn’t even have any room for breathing and because the dust was too acrid, your eyes and nose would hurt a lot.

Even if they said that mining and working in the mines would increase his blacksmithing proficiency, he would still run away!

However, he was trying to hold out for a week because of his quest.

“What will those lazy bastards do in the future?!”

Before, he thought that maybe he could increase his favorability with Leton and maybe possibly receive some rice cakes as a reward but of course, the chances of this idea getting executed was getting smaller and smaller these days.

‘I can’t believe that this whole mining team is on the brink of disbanding…… Sigh, how did I even think of coming here, I’m so unlucky!’

The fifth mining team that was headed by Leton had the lowest yield of minerals and ores. In addition to that, Leton also had conflict with the troops from the Kingdom of Barras. Even if they pretended not to notice it, it was as clear as day that they were receiving fewer support compared to the other mining teams.

To cite a few examples… their pickaxes were rusty and their personnel were riddled with wounds however they would still be deployed since they were sincerely out of working hands. And even the materials that they dug out were also poor in quality.

But even so, I have to hold out! This is my only chance to change from my warrior class to the hidden class ‘Indomitable Blacksmith’!

He still did not have any blacksmithing skills since he hadn\'t finished changing his job class but this Lv100 warrior was still loved by his colleagues due to his high stamina and power and his high patience for holding out and working as a miner.

The only thing he needed to do was to dig out a special mineral called Mithril then he could finally high-tail it out of this damned place!

“Yooo, Leton. I heard that the personnel will be assigning a foreigner to your 5th mining team!”

“Oh, is that true?”

Leton’s mood brightened when he heard that he would be welcoming a new recruit in his team.

A new recruit in the 5th mining team! They haven’t been assigning any new recruit to the 5th mining team these days, what a surprise!

Ruan quickly moved his feet.

“I’ll go and get him!”

“Oh, is that so? It’s good that you’re friendly, boy!”

“It’s nothing.”

Ruan quickly rushed over to fetch the new recruit.

He might be friendly but after he received his hidden class then Leton would definitely fry him like the rice cakes if he did not see him after that!

As he thought of that, he finally arrived in front of the personnel and saw a stranger eating something. When he looked closely, he saw that he was munching on chocolate.

“This mine’s chocolate is really really delicious…… Wow. I’m so jealous of the miners. They could eat this everyday……!”

Ruan clicked his tongue at him.

‘That chocolate will be your wage!’

Other quests would give out gold as a reward but this mine would give out chocolates as their pay. Whether you sell it or eat, it was totally up to you.

When he looked up after contemplating his disdain for the mine’s wage system, Ruan suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“......Are, are you crying?”

“It’s because it’s really really delicious.”

The stranger’s face was filled with tears as he ate the chocolates in his hands.

‘What the hell, is this person dumb?’

Even though this was what Ruan thought, he still led him over to the 5th mining team. Then he started to probe into his details.

“What’s your level and your job class?”

“I’m at Lv90 and my main class is a chef. Ah, I can do bandaging, farming and even use swords. Oh, I can do that too!”

“What?”

He looked extremely confident so Ruan gazed at him with a bit of caution.

“Eating 100 boxes of chocopie in one sitting!”

Grin.

Ruan chuckled at his antics.

He’s a moron.

As he listened to him, he thought…

‘Who does this fXcker think he is? How can a user learn bandaging, farming, blacksmithing and even cooking?’

His story was completely unreasonable and was already beyond common sense. After all, the number of production skills that a user could learn was limited and his level was only at 90.

Ruan thought that this user was bluffing.

Even eating 100 boxes of chocopie in one sitting was also nonsense.

“So when did you learn your blacksmithing skills?”

This was the most important question. He asked this to determine his talent and capabilities.

“Yesterday!”

‘I’m just glad that his spirit is blazing, I finally found my replacement.’

He grinned at him.

Then, he led him to where the miners were located. Once they arrived in front of the miners, the user Minhyuk suddenly bowed towards them.

“Hello. I’m Minhyuk. Please take care of me!”

“Oho. Such a nice friend. I see.”

Leton smiled widely at him as Ruan tilted his head in confusion.

“Huh? Leton-nim. Why are your cover-alls torn? Are your knees bleeding?”

“Ah, this? I just fell down when I was dragging the cart over.”

“No, you’re the captain so why are you pulling the cart? My heart hurts for you!”

Of course, it was just a pretentious remark on his part.

Just then, the user Minhyuk suddenly stepped forward.

“Will you let me see the wound?”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

Leton and Ruan looked at him with confusion plastered on their faces.

***

When he heard that he was Leton, Minhyuk sensed that he was the person related to the ‘chocolate tree’ so he stepped forward to look at him.

There’s blood flowing from his knees! It’s a chance for me to increase my Bandaging skills and at the same time treat people with injuries!

Leton looked at him with doubts on his face.

“B, boy. Are you a healer? No. Why would a healer come here?”

“Ah. I learned the bandaging skill.”

“Bandaging skill?”

“Yes.”

Minhyuk talked to him as he wiped his bleeding knees with some tissue while bringing out some bandages.

Ruan, on the other hand, pondered deeply as he watched him working.

‘How much recovery would a Lv90 user with a bandaging skill even have? Tch!’

He was well aware of how much recovery a bandaging skill had. It was like wearing bandages in real life!

Minhyuk, then, started wrapping the bandage on the wound.

“Bandaging skill!”

His hands moved gently and smoothly, it was as if he had wrapped hundreds and thousands of bandages already. Ruan’s eyes widened in disbelief when he saw him working on Leton’s wound.

‘Eok? Why can he wrap it so well?’

[You have achieved the best bandage wrap.]

[The bleeding will immediately stop.]

[The wound recovery has an additional 2% increase.]

[The recovery time has increased and became faster.]

“Bl, the bleeding…… it stopped right away……!”

Different to when he was practicing his bandaging skill on the mannequin, Minhyuk knew that it was essential that he stopped the bleeding when he was bandaging an injured person. If his bandage was wrapped well then he would be able to mostly stop the bleeding wound. And once the bleeding has stopped, then the injured would feel a lot better. In addition, since he wrapped the bandage well then he would be able to get the additional wound recovery and increase in recovery time.

The bandaging skill was not a skill for immediate recovery, it was a skill that would promote recovery on a step-by-step basis.

Right now, Leton could see that the bleeding on his knees had stopped and the numbing pain was reduced after he was bandaged. He could also feel that his knees could move a lot better now that he was treated so he tried to move his legs around to check his knees.

“Kghk! Thank you! I was worried that it would be a hassle for my work today.”

[Leton’s favorability has increased.]

“Hehe. It was nothing much.”

And it didn’t even end there…

Minhyuk’s eyes scanned him like a hawk and zeroed in on Leton’s mining equipment.

“No! Why are you mining with something like this? It looks like it’s about to break!”

“Sigh…… What can I do if those damn bastards from the Kingdom of Barras don\'t support me?”

The tools and equipment for every class was extremely important but he was telling him that they were mining with pickaxes like that?! It would already be a relief if that did not break on them while they were working.

“Please give it to me. I’ll fix it for you.”

“Oho, is that so? When did you learn the art of blacksmithing, boy?”

“Yesterday!”

“.......”

Leton now had the expression similar to what Ruan had when he first heard him say that.

***

TL’s corner!!!

Ayyy. Just hand it over. He would def fix it. Kek.

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