A MONSTER WHO LEVELS UP

Chapter 35

(This extra chapter is brought to you by these heroic defenders of humanity: Jan B, Keneth P, Tevin T, Jona D, Valentino W, and Arvin S. Thank you for your donations!!)

Sae-Jin was worried about hunting solo in the low Mid Tier Hunting ground, but it turned out to be a baseless concern, after all.

With his entire body taking on the characteristics of weapons via the Spiritualisation, as well as using the equipment crafted with an Orc Jaguar's Smithing Skill, the hunt went down a storm. Well, currently, Sae-Jin was a walking mass of special attributes, as evidenced below.

[Reflect, Level E.]

[Material Destruction, Level E]

[Haste, Level E-]

[Flame Damage, Level E]

[Additional Stat buffs: Physical Strength +30, Durability + 25, Agility +10]

The added Stat buffs resulting from the Spiritualisation, equipped with armours made from the ultratough corundum all over his body, and carrying an evil-looking corundum mace that let out a dangerous aura without the need for Mana's input…

All these things were making him feel real good right about now.

Most of the low Mid Tier Monsters could not overcome the hardness of corundum that had gone through the refinement process. (TL: Now, I'm sure there are mineral experts out there reading this and thinking, "Really? Corundum?" But well, I'm just TLing it as it is in the raw.)

On top of that, the mace also had another added attribute, [Growth by Absorption, Level F.]

Every time he killed a Monster with this mace, its performance would increase little by little. The more blood it drank, and the longer the Monster flesh remained stuck on it, the more the weapon grows dangerous. Regular Monsters found in the low Mid Tier hunting ground could barely withstand a single hit from this mace.

And after plus minus an hour of concentrated hunting….

*SFX for a pig squealing*

The moment he killed a wild boar-like Monster called Wisrachan, an alert window floated up to his view. (TL: "위스라첸" No idea where this one's from.)

[Condition cleared: kill 100 Monsters using self-made weapons.]

►Acquired the active skill, 'Weapon User, Beginner'. [Current Level: F]

- The host can now view information of weapons.

- From now on, the Proficiency for weapon usage will be unlocked. When the host achieves 100% Proficiency, the next stage will become available. (Beginner → Intermediate → Expert → Professional → Master → True Master.) (TL: this bracketed bit was very troublesome to TL, as the author decided to simply rehash exact same thing over and over again - such as "숙련자" and "전문가" which I translated as "Expert" and "Professional" respectively, but actually means the same thing, just in different Hanja. It's the same for "Master" and "True Master". Hell, the word he used for Master, "달인" can also be translated as "Expert" as well. Oh, lordy…)

- The Proficiency is not limited by the weapons used.

- While in the Orc Form, the skill level will be increased by two.

"…Ohhh."

He just earned a pretty good skill. Sae-Jin continued on with the hunting while feeling deeply grateful for this unexpected present.

****

Early next morning.

Kim Sae-Jin headed to the Yoseon Alchemy House carrying potions and a stack of business cards.

These business cards were for the Soc

iety, The Monster.

Sae-Jin refused to use the cards issued by the government employees, instead relying on the Orc's Smithing Technique to make new cards that looked more expensive. How more expensive? He used pure silver as the material when bestowing the attribute 'Coating'.

As to why he suddenly felt the urge to act like a leader of a Society, well, even he couldn't say for sure. Was it because this was his first time ever being appointed as a leader of anything? Or did he subconsciously want to compensate for his lonely past?

Whatever the case may have been, he wanted to do his best for his Society. And after reading the history of the Trilogy online, his fervour began to burn even more fiercely. He also felt confident that, as long as he had the ability, he'd be able to make his Society surpass Trilogy in the future.

He was a person who, as a child, had lost his parents early on and never really felt the sense of belonging with anyone but now, he was thinking like this.

'…What the hell?'

Kim Sae-Jin was trudging towards the Alchemy House, but when he confirmed with his own two eyes the cordon of people crowding in front of the building's entrance, he hastily hid himself in a corner.

"Yawn~"

"Damn, there's still an hour left to go."

"Hey, just when will the new potions become available?"

"If we knew that, why would we be wasting time waiting around like this?"

Sae-Jin wasn't too sure of the identities of these people who seemingly had set up a camp there. But he could understand why Hazeline told him to "Use the back entrance, not the front".

Lowering his posture as much as possible, Sae-Jin hurried towards the back entrance. When he arrived there like an infiltrating spy, he found a door with a simple fingerprint scanner there. He pressed his thumb on it and the door opened without any trouble.

"Hello there~"

As soon as the door opened, he was warmly greeted by the waiting and smiling Hazeline once more.

"Were you surprised?"

She pointed towards the front with her finger.

"Yes, I was. Is it, by any chance, because of my potions?"

"Yes. Thanks to the Goblin series of potions, our Alchemy House is currently being swarmed by the prospective customers like there's no tomorrow. Those people waiting out in front are all dispatched by either Knights Orders or employees from private institutions. Since we started selling on the 'first come, first served' basis, the number of people waiting outside increased so much."

Hazeline happily yammered on as she led Sae-Jin to the Manager's office.

"Aren't you going to hold an auction? I remember 'A Goblin's Kindness' was sold through auctions."

"Ah, that. We just sold the potions of low Mid to Mid grades at their ceiling prices. As you can see, our Alchemy House's premise isn't so wide enough to hold auctions every day. But well, no matter what, they just keep on selling - so if things go well, we can probably buy the building next door too!! It's all thanks to Mister Sae-Jin's hard work!"

Hazeline proudly replied as they quickly arrived at the manager's office on the second floor.

She opened the doors personally to let him in first.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?"

This was the first line she would always say when having a meeting with Sae-Jin.

"No, thank you. I'm fine."

Even though he refused her every time, she didn't give up on the coffee thing. She held a slightly regretful face as she poured herself a cup, and lightly hopped on her feet like a happy rabbit to her seat opposite Sae-Jin.

"By the way, what brings you here today?"

Hazeline asked him while stealing glances at his bag. Her gaze was like that of a cat carefully eyeing a juicy fish.

"Firstly, some potions. This time… I tried to make a new type of potion."

"A new type?"

"Yes."

He fished out a small glass bottle containing white liquid from the bag. This was the potion he invented based on the sensations he felt as well as the effects he perceived from the memories of the purification spell engraved in his head.

"This is the new potion."

As expected, the brain of a medicinal Goblin was seriously amazing.

After experiencing the magic, and if that spell could be recreated with potions, the ways to get the effects of the potion as close as possible naturally popped up in his mind. And this potion was the end result.

One could say it was because of Hazeline, since it was her magic that had left such a strong impression in his mind, which led to him making this potion.

In all honesty, he couldn't even remember the face of that blue-robe wearing Wizard all that well.

"What kind of potion is this?"

"It's 'purification'. But I fear it won't be that effective. It's… what was his name? Kim Yo-Sep? The potion's effects should be worse than that Wizard guy. There's still a lot of room to improve."

Hazeline was thoroughly shocked after hearing his words. There never had been a potion with purification effects until now.

In other words, Sae-Jin had invented a new potion. He had just helped the alchemic world to progress forward with this invention. The degree of difficulty would be like a scenario of a veteran alchemist needing to devote countless years of single-minded bloody focus just to come up with one formula.

"A potion for purification?"

"Yes."

Of course, there was a reason why such a potion hadn't been invented as of yet; as Wizards could already use the purification spell, there wasn't any need to come up with a potion with similar effects.

In short, it was a waste of time. And to put it not so nicely, rather than spending the valuable time trying to create a purification potion, it'd be smarter to brew potions from the recipes already available to the public.

"…It's nice."

However, Hazeline couldn't inform him that what he did was a waste of time.

Since the alchemist in front of her was a certifiable genius, she was sure that he didn't spend years solely trying to invent this potion. And it also didn't really matter that there was a magic spell with the same effect as the potion he invented, since it'd just add to his growing achievements anyways; plus, it wasn't like no one would buy this potion, either.

Nowadays, a fixed customer base had formed for the Goblin series - meaning, Kim Sae-Jin had become a Named potion maker - and there were people who would just sweep up everything that had the name Goblin slapped on the bottle.

"I will do my best with this one as well."

Hazeline gratefully hugged the potions he brought along with a happy expression on her face.

"Ah, there is one more thing I still need to give you. Also, I had a question as well."

"Oh? What will it be?"

After rousing her curiosity, Sae-Jin searched his inner pockets for a bit, before handing over five business cards to Hazeline.

Coated in pure silver, they were probably some of the most luxurious business cards out there.

"It's our business card."

"…Huh?"

Hazeline received the straight-cut cards dazedly, and her face soon became pretty adorable as she studied it this way and that.

On the card, the black-coloured words…

[The Founding Member of the Group ⸢The Monster⸥, Shenarine] (TL: I thought her Wizard name was Shena? Hmm.)

…were engraved on it.

"Wah, it's really pretty. This, doesn't this feel like too nice to give away?"

Sae-Jin chuckled slightly at her words. When he searched for more information online, he learned that most "D-" Class Societies couldn't even show their business cards in other places. It was because D- was the minimum Class for the Societies that were officially recognised to be truly active.

That was also why he deliberately didn't mention the Class on the card.

"This makes me feel truly like a part of the Society, you know? I'm really tempted to work harder from now on, too."

Hazeline spoke while looking at him, her eyes arching like a fox's. It was still one of the most dazzling smiles out there.

"Haha…"

"Oh, and what was the thing you wanted to ask me about?"

"Ah, right."

At her prompt, Sae-Jin pulled out the Society's member directory.

"I want to add the Goblin Alchemist to the Society as well… Well, is it possible? Like, Hazeline and Shenarine."

"Aaaah~"

Hazeline nodded her head.

"Yes, it's possible. After writing the name down on the directory, submit it to the authorities via either internet or by physically going there. When you do that, they give you a week to reaffirm the identity of the applicant. During that time period, send in a letter written by the Goblin Alchemist along with another form of evidence, then it's all done. Since it's not uncommon to ask for anonymity when joining Societies, it's not going to be a problem."

"Can potions serve as evidence?"

"Allow me take care of that bit. When putting this purification potion out for sale, we'll just label it with 'Goblin Alchemist - The Monster Group affiliate'. And if there are any more procedures needed after that for some reason, then please, let me resolve them too."

Sae-Jin stared at the trustworthy and very knowledgeable Hazeline with a pair of sparkling eyes. As if such gazes were making her feel a bit bashful, she twisted her body a little and began showing a bit of aegyo. (TL: Aegyo "애교" means a cute display of affection often expressed through a cute/baby voice, facial expressions and gestures. Thanks, Wikipedia!!)

"Thank you so much. I'll be on my way now."

"Okay."

Kim Sae-Jin stood up. He shook her hand for the last time and prepared to leave the Manager's office.

"Uh, by the way, Mister Sae-Jin, did your height grow a bit again?"

However, her sudden words stopped him from moving.

"My height?"

"Yes. Not just your height, but your overall physical size is also… And even your face seems a tiny bit different, too. Is the effect of that potion still continuing until now?"

"…But it shouldn't be?"

"It isn't? But that can't be. My eyes…. should not be wrong, though?"

Both of them tilted their heads and stared at each other.

Panicking slightly at her strange words, Sae-Jin quickly accessed his own information window.

[Name: Kim Sae-Jin]

[Age: roughly 22 years old]

[Height: 181 cm/ Weight: 86 kg]

►Status *Human Form

[Physical Strength 83]

[Endurance 82]

[Agility 96]

[Energy Manipulation 34]