[Ah, hmm...]
Shar seemed to have anticipated this question as she floated her round body. The sight of an ostrich egg half the size of a human flying around was a strange but familiar sight.
[I don't think it's too far off... It's gotten a bit faster because we caught that goblin last time. Maybe about two weeks left?]
"Oh?"
He had never heard that catching a goblin would speed things up.
[I absorbed the magic power that leaked out of the monster's corpse. Dad can do it too, but it wouldn't make much difference right now.]
"Why not?"
Yeon-woo was already short on magic power, so if he could increase it just by hunting monsters, he would want to catch a hundred or even a thousand of them. But why wouldn't it make a difference?
[The magic power of monsters is incredibly low quality. The quantity might increase a little, but the quality will drop. It doesn't matter for me since I just convert the magic power into nutrients...]
Hmm, that made sense. The most useful thing he currently possessed was the high quality of his magic power. Even though his swordsmanship stat had increased to 2, it was still below average. It wouldn't be worth it to sacrifice quality for a slight increase in quantity.
"Alright, I understand. But next time, let me know when you do something like that. Don't you think Dad would worry?"
[Ugh... Okay. I'll tell Dad before I do it next time.]
"Please do that. Neither I nor any of the hunters know anything about dragons. You're my only source of information, Shar..."
A rookie dad with sole responsibility and no information – it couldn't get any more challenging. It was fortunate that Shar was a low-maintenance child...
Or rather, she was taking care of things herself.
Then, he needed to organize things in chronological order. What should be his top priority?
That would be saving Baek In-hwa. Fortunately, he had at least two months of leeway. It was a high priority but with some flexibility. He needed to take care of some minor things in the meantime.
Next was Shar's hatching. She said about two weeks were left. And hunting monsters would naturally accelerate the process. He wasn't sure if it was okay to accelerate hatching, though.
Third was the giant magic stone...
This one was a bit ambiguous. Of course, the academy tuition was enormous, and considering the cost of equipment, it would be wise to acquire it.
If he could get it, it would solve all his financial problems. It would be like an emergency fund.
The problem was that while he could guess which mine it was in, he didn't know its exact location within the mine.
Maybe it would be better for his mental health to use it as a one-time gate attempt and give up if it didn't appear.
The fourth was something he remembered clearly from his past life.
The artifact he had used effectively in his previous life, [Relin's Warehouse].
Although he had entered as a porter back then, he could now enter alone as a hunter.
Since it hadn't been discovered yet, it would be best to retrieve it as soon as possible.
"Still, that gate is a D-rank..."
He wanted Relin's Warehouse...
He had it for his entire life, but he wanted it even more...
[Is a D-rank gate difficult?]
"Gates are kind of... individual? There's a lot of variation."
To be honest, the monsters in that gate, [Relin's Library], were incredibly weak. Even Yeon-woo now could easily slice through ten of them at once.
[Then?]
"There are just so many of them."
As the name suggested, Relin's Library was shaped like a massive library. A gigantic library created by the great archmage Relin. And the monsters that appeared there were, without exception, in the form of books.
[...No way, right?]
"...Right."
Every book on the shelves was a monster. Each individual was weak, but they were all grimoires that relentlessly fired magic spells. It was a hellscape filled with magical books.
* * *
"Ugh!!"
"Good, good, you're doing well. Let's stop morning training here."
Yuri said, looking down at Yeon-woo sprawled on the ground. His smile was unsettling.
"Why, why are you looking at me like that?"
"You're the ninth disciple of this old man, including yourself, and you're the first one to complete this entire thing."
"...?"
"I was planning to switch to the original menu if you complained it was too hard and gave up, but you managed to do it, so I let it be."
Yuri chuckled, saying, "But you actually did it." Despite his youthful appearance, his grandfatherly laughter suited him surprisingly well.
"Original... menu?"
Yeon-woo's voice trembled at the statement that made him feel like he had been scammed. Yuri grinned at his reaction.
"What can you do? You have to do it. I wouldn't want to reduce your training load when you can handle it, right?"
Yeon-woo simply stared blankly at Yuri as he turned around and walked away.
"Oh right, you said you were going on a request. When you go into actual combat, at least bring a real sword. A wooden sword is pathetic."
As if suddenly remembering something, Yuri turned back, pulled out a real sword from thin air, and tossed it to Yeon-woo. Yeon-woo muttered a dazed, "Thank you..." as he caught it.
That bastard, he really is bad-tempered... Who said he was okay...
It was him.
"...Sigh."
What could he do? He had some time before the appointed time, but his schedule afterward was packed with Baek In-hwa and the mine visit.
He didn't have time to lie around, so he needed to shower, get ready, and eat. Yeon-woo, who had even prepared a belt for his sword, fastened it around his waist and stood up.
