Chapter 10
The moment Oh Dal-su's soul departed for the afterlife, and the slightly drunk Seokhyeoi-ham began talking to him—
[Notification]
The soul of B-rank Hunter Oh Dal-su has been sent on its way.
By resolving the Hunter's lingering regret, you will absorb his ability and item.
A blue status window appeared before Hong Man-gi's eyes.
[Ability Acquired: Drunken Combat (醉中戰鬪)]
[Effect]
Normally, the drunker a person becomes, the slower their body gets.
However, when Drunken Combat is activated, your physical abilities will rapidly increase as you sober up.
The longer the battle continues, the faster and stronger you become.
Drink the generated 'Final Glass' to recover fatigue and temporarily increase your reaction speed.
(Passive) Hangover Resistance: You will not suffer from hangovers after drinking alcohol.
[Additional Message]
You can now fight even after drinking, no matter how drunk you become.
You have developed a combat style that becomes strongest the moment your enemy lets their guard down.
Hong Man-gi stared at the status window with a strange expression.
"Huh? I think I got some kind of weird ability."
But that wasn't the end.
[Item Acquired: Wine Cup Ring (醉盃戒指)]
[Effect]
A small amount of alcohol can be stored inside the ring.
During battle, you may drink the 'Final Glass' at any time to immediately restore stamina and increase your physical abilities.
However, keep in mind that excessive use may put a strain on your liver.
Hong Man-gi slipped the ring onto his finger.
When he rubbed it with his fingertip, he felt a faint warmth coming from it.
This might actually be useful in more ways than I thought....
At that moment—
Pop!
Poming jumped up beside him.
"Chef~! Chef! The status window appeared, right?!"
"Yeah."
"What did you get? Money? Some transcendent cooking skill? Or maybe—?"
Hong Man-gi thought for a moment before answering.
"It's related to alcohol. An ability that makes me stronger while drinking, I guess?"
Poming blinked in confusion.
"...What?"
"And a ring."
Hong Man-gi held up his hand.
Poming silently stared at the ring for a few moments.
"...Chef, could this be some kind of error? It looks pretty useless. Why don't I, the great Poming, check it for—"
"No, there's no need. It's not like I'm doing this just because I expect amazing rewards every time."
"Ehh?! As expected, our Summoner is truly broad-minded! Respect!"
Poming raised both thumbs adorably.
Leaving Poming behind, Seokhyeoi-ham began speaking in his heavily slurred dialect.
He staggered from side to side.
Just how much had he drunk?
He could barely walk straight, and even his pronunciation was completely twisted.
"What's goin' on? Who're ya talkin' to, grinnin' and mumblin' all by yerself like that?"
"It's nothing important. Don't worry about it."
"Is that so? Aigoo... Hyung-nim, I really owe ya big time today."
At some point, even the tattooed, pig-like Seokhyeoi-ham had started calling Hong Man-gi Hyung-nim.
Hong Man-gi looked puzzled.
"Owe me for what?"
"Ya know my little brothers over there, right? Those punks got ridiculously picky tastes. Kids these days are damn hard to please, aren't they? I begged 'em, told 'em this place was amazing, said the food was incredible, and dragged 'em all the way here."
He waved drunkenly toward his companions.
"And ya know what they said to me? They asked if my tongue was some kinda sommelier's tongue. Kept askin' how the hell I found a place this good. They were givin' me thumbs-up and makin' a huge fuss about it!"
Hong Man-gi awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed the food. But we're about ready to close for the day... Are you planning to stay much longer?"
"Eh? Ah, then we'll get goin' too. The payment's right here...."
Seokhyeoi-ham pulled a small envelope from inside his clothes.
Normally, when someone said they were paying, they'd take out their wallet.
Seeing him pull out an envelope as if he'd prepared it in advance, Hong Man-gi looked at him strangely.
"Huh? What's this...?"
"Please take it, Hyung-nim."
Inside the envelope was roughly two million won in crisp cash.
Hong Man-gi's eyes widened.
"What is this? You didn't eat anywhere near this much!"
"Come on, just take it, Hyung-nim. It's nothin' like that."
Seokhyeoi-ham waved his hand.
"Thanks to that meal yesterday, I turned over a new leaf, didn't I? I spent the whole day thinkin' about myself—why the hell am I livin' like this? Why've I been actin' this way?"
His drunken face became strangely serious.
"I'm startin' fresh now. Think of this as the fee for my new beginning and take it!"
Only then did Hong Man-gi accept the envelope.
"All right. Then I'll put it to good use. I hope today's food suited your tastes too."
Immediately—
"Of course it did, Hunter Hyung-nim!!!"
All of the customers bowed to him at a perfect ninety-degree angle.
The next day.
Morning sunlight fell across the tent of the street stall.
Hong Man-gi cleaned up the empty glasses and the remaining traces of the previous night's gathering, then let out a sigh.
I can't just focus on the restaurant anymore. Once I'm done cleaning today, I'll go into a dungeon.
If he wanted to make money, he needed to enter dungeons.
And now that he had absorbed Oh Dal-su's ability yesterday, he needed to personally find out just how strong he had become.
He needed to grow stronger too.
After quickly finishing the cleanup, Hong Man-gi stood in front of the dungeon gate.
The dungeon near his street stall was a BX-rank dungeon.
It wasn't somewhere an F-rank Hunter like Hong Man-gi normally had any business entering.
"Hey, what's with that guy? Is he trying to enter the dungeon too?"
"Is he insane? What's an F-rank going to do inside a BX-rank dungeon?"
"Wait, seriously? An F-rank wants to enter a BX-rank dungeon?"
"Hyung, we're looking for another raid member, not extra baggage."
"Could we at least use an F-rank as emergency food?"
"Does he even have protective gear? Actually, forget that. Can he even survive inside the dungeon?"
"We're not babysitters. This isn't some kindergarten field trip. F-ranks these days seriously have no common sense."
"One hit and he'll probably die on the spot. Someone tell him to at least buy life insurance first."
"If he's just going to run away the moment we enter, he should leave now...."
"Even if we can't find another raid member, wouldn't it be better than taking an F-rank? Let's just go by ourselves."
Mocking voices came from the Hunters around him without pause.
Then—
"Ah, fuck! We're short one raid member!"
"It's almost time to enter! We can't go in if we don't have enough people!"
"We need to grab anyone we can find!"
As luck would have it, one party preparing to enter the BX-rank dungeon had just lost one of its members.
They were desperately searching for a replacement.
And then they noticed Hong Man-gi standing nearby, staring at them as if silently asking to join.
"Hey! You! What are you doing?"
