The Skill Maker

Hyun-Soo’s eyes widened.

‘Only in the blue portal.’

He was able to obtain a really good item with one try.

‘Katrina and Eugene’s stamina was definitely about 190. And Brad’s was a bit higher than that.’

On average, A ranked hunters’ stamina was about 200 and with that, it was about 20%.

After calculating that, it actually didn’t seem that much.

But.

‘It’s good for Kim Hye-Na.’

Before coming here, she survived on the rice cakes that he made out of the horns.

If there weren’t a lot, it would’ve caused a big issue.

But thankfully, he had a lot and it was delicious, so Hye-Na ate it on a daily basis since she didn’t feel disgusted by them.

‘I’ve been thinking about what I should do after that runs out, but I happened to get a good item.’

And the ingredient was two times better.

However, the duration was only 30 minutes.

‘It would be nice if I’m able to extend the duration somehow.’

The reason why he mixed it with other ingredients was not only to hide the original ingredient, but it was mainly to bring out the effects of each ingredient as much as possible.

He would mix them several times, boil them, grind them, and steam them to find the best ratio and method.

He would sometimes find interesting ways to mix them and find interesting effects that he wasn’t expecting.

By doing that, he’s able to create an item like the rice cake where it increases the effects of the original ingredient.

‘I need to find an ingredient that extends the duration.’

First, Hyun-Soo decided to take the flowers.

It’s best to take a lot especially when it’s a good ingredient.

He needed some anyways in order to come up with a recipe and test them out, so taking as much as he could was the best thing to do.

There were infinite possibilities.

Hyun-Soo made a simple decision in his head and started plucking the flowers.

Pluck, pluck, pluck!

He plucked without thinking.

“Hyon-Ssoo, what are you doing?”

Hyun-Soo told himself that he would take all of them with him and while plucking them without thinking, his head quickly turned when he heard a voice.

“Hyon-Ssoo, do you like flowers?”

Katrina approached him and asked him with a curious expression while pointing to the flowers.

“Oh….yeah.”

Hyun-Soo answered vaguely since he couldn’t tell her that this flower increased the stamina by 40 points.

“It’s pretty. The petals are silver. So something like this exists inside a portal. Interesting.”

It seemed like Katrina wasn’t interested before this and exclaimed as if she was seeing this for the first time.

She probably hunted in blue portals a lot more than Hyun-Soo though.

“Are you going to plant it on a flowerbed? It’ll be pretty if you plant them at the entrance.”

“…..!”

Katrina crouched down next to Hyun-Soo and mumbled as she looked at them.

After hearing that, Hyun-Soo felt like the thunder he saw a moment ago appeared inside his head.

‘Planting this?’

He only thought about taking them and didn’t think about actually planting them.

A change in his idea.

‘If I can plant them and raise them…then I won’t have to worry about the flower running out when making the potion.’

If that was possible, then it meant that he’ll be able to obtain the ingredients without any issues.

Hyun-Soo naturally became more careful when plucking the roots.

Because of that, he became slower.

There was still a lot he needed to pluck.

However, he was just tagging along, so he couldn’t make the other hunters wait.

He completely forgot about it when he was plucking the flowers, but he was just tagging along with the other hunters.

“Do we have to leave now?”

There was still a lot he had to pluck.

“Nope. It’s an official hunt anyways.”

And then, she looked as if she wanted to help and started digging the ground.

“I asked you to see what Hyun-Soo was doing. What are you doing?”

“Hyon-Ssoo said he wants to plant these flowers. So I’m helping.”

His plan had changed to him wanting to decorate the base by planting the flowers.

But he didn’t bother correcting it.

If they were misunderstanding, then it was better to leave it that way.

Even though he had a different reason, there was no reason to step forward and tell them the truth.

“That’s weird. Yoo-Na would sometimes take things she finds in portals too.”

Eugene mumbled as he watched Hyun-Soo plucking the flowers.

He knew what Eugene meant even without him describing it.

It’s because Kim Yoo-Na was the one that introduced him to this new world.

“I was wondering what you were working hard on out here. Take your time. We’re pretty used to it.”

After hearing that, Hyun-Soo looked towards where the hunters were.

They were kind of far from him, but they were comfortably sitting around.

A few of them tilted their heads out of curiosity, but didn’t bother approaching him.

“Everyone is really curious, but they refuse to approach you because of their pride. Some of them are saying that you’re doing the same thing as Yoo-Na and are whispering amongst themselves.”

Even though Hyun-Soo didn’t ask, Eugene crouched next to Katrina and started plucking the flowers while explaining.

Hyun-Soo was suspicious.

‘…..Why are they doing this?’

He said they were used to it because of Kim Yoo-Na and it didn’t seem like he was lying.

Since they naturally approached him and helped, it didn’t take him that long to finish.

Crack!

When he straightened his stiff back, he heard his bones cracking.

Hyun-Soo felt proud when he looked at the flowers.

‘But, how am I going to take all of them?’

It was great that he was able to pluck them, but when he plucked out all of them, a realistic issue appeared.

Even if they were just flowers, the amount that he plucked was so much that one man alone wouldn’t be able to hold all of them.

He was sure that it was going to be heavy.

“That’s quite a lot of flowers. It’s used to put in a monster’s byproduct, but do you need the plastic bag?”

Was he going to have to take off his shirt and carry the flowers on there?

But that wasn’t going to be enough, so maybe his pants too…no. Taking his pants off would be too much.

Hyun-Soo was thinking of ways to resolve this when Eugene offered a solution.

Eugene brought plastic bags as well as a cart.

He must’ve really experienced something similar because he knew what he was doing.

“We should be careful when packing them. The petals will go bad.”

Eugene sounded more worried about the flowers than Hyun-Soo.

Hyun-Soo was thinking that it didn’t really matter because he was going to use them when mixing with other ingredients.

Regardless, Eugene was serious.

Very serious.

“It would be perfect if we had paper…”

After mumbling that, Eugene and Katrina started packing them into the plastic bags.

Then, he said they needed to be careful when moving the flowers, so after placing them in the cart, he carefully started pushing it.

‘Huh…?’

They took the flowers from Hyun-Soo and he followed behind them.

At the front, Katrina and Eugene were discussing where it would be best to plant the flowers at.

‘I have to test it to see if I’m able to grow them after planting it, so it would be best to give them some. I’m sure it’ll be okay to give them some since I have a lot.’

“Eugene, what is that?”

“What were you digging for?”

They didn’t really look over at Hyun-Soo when he was plucking them, but when Eugene neared them, they gathered and started asking one by one.

‘I guess they were curious.’

Marcus was watching the hunters as they approached Eugene and asked him questions instead of asking Hyun-Soo.

“Oh. Flower.”

“There are flowers in portals?”

“Is it like a weed?”

“Go take a look for yourself, you idiots.”

After vaguely answering their questions, Eugene waved his hand in annoyance.

The hunters became embarrassed and awkwardly looked around the plastic bags since their questions weren’t answered.

“Let’s finish up and leave.”

Once Kim Yoo-Na spoke up, their chatting stopped.

Everyone was holding a plastic bag that contained a part of the monster.

Some were pushing carts and others were holding them with their hands.

Hyun-Soo somehow ended up pulling a cart himself.

Clap, clap!

“Good job everyone. I heard you guys haven’t been on an official hunt, but you guys are still the same.”

Kim Yoo-Na clapped her hands and caught everyone’s attention.

She concluded it as the official hunt being done.

The hunters showed their respect for a moment and after hearing that, they acted freely.

“Well, there’s no way someone would get hurt from a hunt like this. We’re still skillful hunters even if you’re not here, Yoo-Na.”

“Yeah, that’s right. So, we’re partying today, right? We always did.”

“It’s been awhile since we’ve had a party!”

Chatter.

After a pep rally, there’s usually an after party.

A couple of the hunters started shouting, “party!”

‘They’re pretty cheerful.’

He didn’t have that many memories where he had fun with people his age.

When he was in school, he would hang out with the delinquents at school, but he couldn’t really say that he had fun.

“Hyun-Soo, you have to come. Okay?”

“Excuse me?”

“You weren’t thinking about not attending, were you?”

“Hyon-Ssoo, you have to come. All the hunters that went into the portal together are considered fellow soldiers!”

With a serious expression, Katrina said that all soldiers had to eat delicious food together.

He didn’t know there was going to be an after party, so he was being indecisive about whether to attend or not, but he nodded.

“Great! Now I’ll be able to eat some authentic Korean food!”

“…Huh?”

“We usually cook the food on days like this. Yoo-Na cooked before, but honestly…hm…I feel bad for saying this, but…it wasn’t good. I’m not confident when it comes to Korean food too.”

Eugene added that the Bibimbap he ate at a Korean restaurant was really good.

That meant.

‘Is he asking me to make the Bibimbap?’

He was suddenly given the responsibility to cook.

‘I acquired items from the portal and now I have to cook? I feel like everything is so random.’

Before he could refuse, Hyun-Soo was given the task to cook and since he couldn’t refuse, he just smiled awkwardly.

‘Bibimbap is pretty easy to make as long as I have the ingredients, but…wait. Ingredients?’

Hyun-Soo looked at the car that Eugene was pulling.

To be exact, he was looking at the flowers.

‘I might get a nice item if I do it right…’

Something popped up in his head.

‘It’s perfect since there’s a lot.’

There was a need to bring in those hunters that were testing the waters to see whether they should approach him or not.

‘Delicious food is the best way to bring people together.’

There probably aren’t a lot of people that would refuse delicious food.

‘This is a good idea.’

He would’ve refused if it was a difficult dish.

The dish that Eugene ordered was a basic dish.

He wasn’t sure how Kim Yoo-Na messed this up to make Eugene talk like that.

But, Bibimbap was a dish that anyone could make.

There were times when him and Hyuna would throw in ingredients into a bowl and mix them up, so he didn’t really think it was difficult.

There was a need to leave a good impression.

He didn’t expect a chance to suddenly appear in front of him.

‘I didn’t think about it, but maybe I got lucky?’

It was an opportunity that came from an unexpected place.

But, it was hard to see how this situation would turn out.

Hyun-Soo didn’t miss this chance.