TRHSOS 09

Chapter 09

A Mysterious Green Monster Appears

“Eh, the hot spring might be EX-rank, but the owner doesn’t necessarily have to be, right?”

“Nothing’s been officially confirmed, but according to hunter experts, since an EX-rank hot spring was opened and the job is ‘hot spring owner,’ it’s apparently impossible for the awakened person to be anything below EX-rank.”

‘Everyone, the impossible has happened.’

Despite saying nothing was certain, Park Si-woo seemed firmly convinced that the unidentified hot spring owner was an EX-rank awakened individual.

He looks really hopeful. That’s a shame.

Seems like he’ll never find the talent he wants.

“If the job is hot spring owner, isn’t all they do fry pork cutlets and brew tea? Doesn’t sound very helpful for clearing the Tower.”

“Who knows? Maybe they have some skill where they just pour out hot spring water and wash everything away.”

I said it hoping he’d give up on the idea sooner rather than later, but Park Si-woo only let his imagination run even wilder.

‘Yeah, I did find a hot spring that washes everything away. The problem was that I almost got swept away and died with it.’

[The Constellation ‘Immortal Killing Fiend’ secretly listens in on the conversation and fails to hold back laughter.]

‘Don’t laugh.’

As long as I make good money, I’m perfectly satisfied with my current rank, but Sharenian’s laughter rubbed me the wrong way.

[The Constellation ‘Immortal Killing Fiend’ says, “If you want, I can make you someone whose skills exceed mere rumors.”]

[The Constellation ‘Immortal Killing Fiend’ swings a sword on the Battlefield of Immortality and says, “Come here first and learn some basic swordplay.”]

Trying to drag a complete beginner who’s never even held a sword onto a battlefield—there was no way that was sane.

‘No thanks. More importantly, isn’t that a war zone right now? Is it really okay to fool around like that while fighting? Usually you’d get stabbed for that, wouldn’t you?’

The moment that thought crossed my mind, a notification appeared.

[An enemy’s sword is embedded in the back of the Constellation ‘Immortal Killing Fiend’.]

‘Knew it.’

I had a bad feeling about this.

[The Constellation ‘Do You Believe in Fate?’ asks if I’d like to become their disciple, saying I already have enough skill to lay out a mat and start teaching immediately.]

‘Not interested.’

[The Constellation ‘Do You Believe in Fate?’ smacks their lips in disappointment.]

Come to think of it, what happens when a constellation gets stabbed?
I’d never heard anything about that either.

If he were alive, there should’ve been some kind of reaction, but Sharenian stayed quiet.

‘Did he… die?’

[After being struck by a sword, the Constellation ‘Immortal Killing Fiend’ gains ???? Strength and ???? Stamina.]

[The Constellation ‘Immortal Killing Fiend’ pulls the sword out of his back and decapitates the enemy.]

‘He’s alive?’

It was surprising enough that he was alive, but his stats even went up.

[The Constellation ‘Immortal Killing Fiend’ licks his blood-reddened lips and says, “There’s a reason I’m called ‘Immortal.’”]

If there was a reason Sharenian carried the title ‘Immortal,’ then there was just as much reason he was called a ‘Killing Fiend.’

At that moment, my instincts spoke.

‘King of the Underworld,’ ‘Do You Believe in Fate?,’ ‘Lord of Hot Springs,’ and ‘Immortal Killing Fiend.’

Constellations were originally known as beings that existed in the realm of gods—inhuman entities that were cold and treated awakened individuals as playthings. But the constellations I’d contracted with might be especially insane even among them.

A chill ran down my spine.

I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling as though my own throat had been slit.

The clause stating that constellations cannot kill their contractors suddenly felt like a blessing.

Well, as long as I’m safe, that’s what matters.

Judging by the mood, they also seemed tired of running around looking for a hot spring owner, so it didn’t seem like anything dangerous would happen.

“If I make that EX-rank hot spring owner my person, do you think we might actually have a shot at clearing the 46th floor?”

While I was lost in thought with milk halfway poured into a cup, Park Si-woo was still full of empty dreams.

I told you, you won’t find them.

Needless to say, there was absolutely no chance I’d become Park Si-woo’s person.

The fact that he was so excited without knowing that I was that hot spring owner…

Watching Park Si-woo act all giddy like a seven-year-old was pathetic, but at the same time, a little pitiful.

“I heard Han Chang-hee is also looking for the hot spring owner and sent his guild members all over the dungeons. You remember him too, right, noona? The jerk who got rejected by you in high school, then wrote some novel about how he was just a fish in your pond and got slapped for it.”

“Oh. I remember now.”

Han Chang-hee.

It’d been a while so my memory was hazy, but just thinking about him made me frown. He was easily one of the all-time worst jerks of my life.

Back then, Han Chang-hee was one of the few S-rank hunters and used his status as the nation’s 7th-ranked hunter to throw his weight around. Apparently, he saw me by chance and took a liking to me.

From that day on, he bombarded me with love letters and gifts. My locker and desk were always stuffed with that kind of junk, so I didn’t even realize he was the one behind it.

Then he made a public confession, got firmly rejected, and for a while went around spreading nonsense about how I’d been stringing him along and enjoying all the benefits. After that, he suddenly went quiet.

I don’t know the details, but according to a few close associates who knew we were siblings, Park Si-woo and Ji-ho seemed to have done something about it.

Apparently, that incident was what earned them the nicknames ‘Park Si-tt’ and ‘Park Si-nu-tt.’

After that, Han Chang-hee ended up on Park Si-woo’s blacklist, and despite being a top-ranked hunter, he couldn’t even set foot in the number one guild, Jipil.

I heard he later gathered hunters who couldn’t join Jipil and formed a new guild.

That became the nation’s third-ranked guild, ‘Yeolmang’ (Desire), and apparently, he still held a grudge and constantly tried to interfere with Jipil’s affairs.

He’d been caught and beaten badly several times, but it seemed his nasty, clingy habits hadn’t changed.

Anyway, the point was that Han Chang-hee was now looking for me.

Just thinking about it soured my mood.

—Breaking news. Today, lines of top-ranked hunters have been spotted across the country searching for an unidentified EX-rank hot spring owner. Let’s connect to the scene.

“Oh, it’s even on the news,” Ji-ho said.

On the screen he turned toward us, hunters were swarming through dungeons like an army of ants.

All those people, in this freezing weather, were doing that just to find me?

Unable to face reality, I turned off the TV with the remote.

“Let’s stop talking about work and have some mugwort lattes.”

Resolving to live only at home and the hot spring for a while, I brought two cups of mugwort latte over to Park Si-woo and Ji-ho.

“Huh? I’ve seen this before,” Park Si-woo said, acting like he knew it.

“Where?”

“There’s a slime on the 15th floor of the Tower that looks like this.”

I knew it.

Park Si-woo, who claimed cafés were a waste of money, had no way of knowing what a mugwort latte was.

But now that he mentioned it, it really did look like a mashed-up slime in a cup…

Staring at the thick, viscous mugwort latte, I almost found myself persuaded.

“Forget it. If you don’t want it, don’t drink it. I’ll have it.”

“No, I’ll drink it! This one’s mine!”

Just moments ago he’d been calling it a slime, yet Park Si-woo pulled the cup to his chest and gulped it down before I could take it.

“Then I’ll try some too,” Ji-ho said, blowing on the steaming mugwort latte before sipping it.

“Hey, Park Don-don.”

Park Si-woo’s face turned serious after tasting it.

“What?”

“Did you awaken?”

Caught completely off guard, I was left speechless.

…How did he know?

Did he sense something?

Belatedly, I thought of the system window.

Maybe he’d guessed after seeing a notification pop up when he drank it, like it did for me.

“It seriously tastes like juice squeezed from one of those 15th-floor slimes.”

My tense body relaxed at Park Si-woo’s nonsense.

So that was why he’d looked so serious?

Seeing how earnestly he went out of his way to mess with me, I thought the nickname Park Si-tt suited him perfectly.

“…So you’ve actually eaten a 15th-floor slime?”

If not, I could let him try one.

Sensing the ominous aura radiating from me, Ji-ho hurried to smooth things over.

“Still, drinking something warm makes my body feel lighter. Thanks, noona.”

How could our angel Ji-ho say everything so sweetly?

That he shared the same blood as Park Si-woo was a mystery I’d never be able to solve.

“Ah!”

While I was basking in Ji-ho’s kindness, Park Si-woo suddenly groaned and clutched his stomach.

Ji-ho and I both looked at him at the same time.

“I’ve got explosive diarrhea!”

“Ugh, seriously… How can you talk about poop while we’re eating?”

Ji-ho set his cup down, clearly displeased.

Park Si-woo grabbed his backside and dashed straight for the bathroom.

To think that thing was my registered family member. I never wanted to believe it, but today especially so.

“Maybe I ate too much at dinner. Noona, I need to use the bathroom too.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

Ji-ho quietly followed him to the bathroom.

Huh? But why didn’t it say the mission was completed?

Feeling something was off, I opened the mission window.

[Make a Hot Spring–Style Mugwort Latte]

[Hot Spring–Style Mugwort Latte (0/1)]

[Reward: 1,000,000 Gold / Bonus Reward: ???]

I’d made three cups of mugwort latte, yet not a single one had been counted.

Why did it say zero?

If what I made wasn’t a mugwort latte, then what was it?

To check, I opened the information window for the extra mugwort latte I’d kept to taste myself.

[Green Monster Mugwort Latte (E)]

[A mysterious mugwort latte whose ingredients are unknown. By drinking it to the very end with indomitable will, Stamina increases by 10.]

[※Warning: 99.9% chance of causing diarrhea]