The Taming Master

Chapter 50: First Death (4)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

‘Hmm… I feel like it will be really awkward.’

Nothing came to mind.

They were both students of the same school, but it was the first time he was meeting an acquaintance he found through gaming outside.

On top of that, Jinsung had never done something with a female human that was around his age.

Jinsung slowly began to worry about his meeting with Harin.

‘What should I talk about with her when we meet? Should I ask for information or something about her cooking skills since we’re meeting anyways?’

It was Jinsung, the forever-alone gamer that concluded everything to Kailran.

They were thoughts that would make someone else shake their head, but his expression was turning into a satisfied one.

‘That’s right, Harin will probably like it if I ask her about her favourite cooking skills when I meet her, and there will be more information for me to gain. It could be fun experimenting cooking skills together.’

The promised location was incredibly close to his rented room, and Jinsung was able to arrive quickly.

‘Hmm… Did Harin not arrive yet?’

However, Harin was nowhere to be seen at the promised location, and instead, an unfamiliar female university student wearing a pretty dress caught Jinsung’s eyes.

Jinsung was inwardly in awe as he saw the beautiful, flawless appearance and body of the female university student with white skin, deep collarbones and both shoulders slightly showing from the sleeveless, beige dress.

‘Wow… Did we have such a pretty girl at our school as well?’

Despite Jinsung normally having no interest in girls, the female university student who stood in front of the convenience store was beautiful enough to rob looks.

She had a pleasantly simple face that looked like she wasn’t wearing much make-up, but her appearance was still to the point where it was too unrealistic.

Jinsung mumbled to himself.

‘How can someone be this pretty? Is she a celebrity?’

An appearance that looked like it was s.h.i.+ning more the closer he approached her, a good-natured impression could be felt even through her eyes that slightly drooped at the ends.

Jinsung wanted to blatantly look at her face, but as he couldn’t do that, he cleared his throat and turned his view.

And he stood next to her without much thought.

In order to wait for Harin.

However, just then.

“Ian, it’s you, right?!”

Jinsung was flabbergasted.

This was because the G.o.ddess(?) next to Jinsung spoke to him.

Jinsung’s eyes rounded. And he was speechless.

Aside from his mom and the middle-aged mart lady, he had never spoken more than two words to a female person, but to speak with such a pretty girl when they had just met… You could say that it felt like the universe stopped.

Momentarily, Jinsung barely opened his mouth.

“Eu-ugh…! By chance, Ha… Harin…?”

G.o.ddess(?) Harin smiled brightly as she greeted him.

“Wow, you look exactly the same in real life as you do in game! You must have not done any customizing when you made your character.”

Jinsung was incredibly fl.u.s.tered.

This was because Harin’s real life appearance was very different from her character in Kailran.

‘Her Kailran character was also really pretty… But it was never to this point…’

However, after thinking about Harin and looking closely, he felt he saw some of that face.

Jinsung stammered as he just barely opened his mouth.

“Yes, I, I’m not someone who really pays a lot of attention to the outer appearance… so I didn’t touch the customizing.”

And inwardly, he wanted to ask Harin.

Why exactly did she ruin(?) her face like that?

And Harin gave the answer to Jinsung’s question although he didn’t ask.

“Hoho, I wanted to look a little prettier, so I touched a lot of the customizing here and there, so that’s why you didn’t recognize me, right?”

“…”

To have customized to look prettier.

Jinsung momentarily forgot his words.

“By chance, you’re not disappointed, are you? I’m nothing much compared to when you see me in game… right?”

“…”

‘By chance, is Harin’s eyesight very poor?’

Jinsung had absolutely no idea on how to respond, so he changed the topic.

“Ha, Harin. Shall we go eat lunch first? I had a light breakfast, so I’m very hungry.”

At those words, Harin smiled brightly and grabbed Jinsung’s hand.

“Sounds good! There’s a small restaurant over there that I know and it’s really good. Let’s go there!”

And before he could react, Jinsung let his hand out for Harin.

‘Aaack, what kind of offense(?) does Harin have against me to be like this!’

Jinsung felt deeply ashamed of himself.

This was because this was the first time he had ever touched the hand of a female human that was around his age.

On top of that, it was Harin’s hand that had a beautiful appearance incomparable to most actresses.

Jinsung was imagining system messages pop up in his mind.

‘Euuh…’

Jinsung moved his feet as if he was almost getting dragged around by Harin.

And the pedestrians who saw the two couldn’t take their eyes off them.

The sudden overflowing interest from others nearby!

‘That guy has to have saved a universe in his past life.’ 

‘Wow… I wonder what it feels like holding the hand of a pretty girl like that.’

The majority of the gazes belonged to all sorts of men who were jealous of Jinsung.

‘I can’t believe that guy that looks like a dried piece of jerky is holding the hand of such a G.o.ddess…!’

And Jinsung’s face, which had a handsome appearance that was above average, received an effect that made him look like a squid thanks to Harin.

Even awkward Jinsung was aware of that after looking into a mirror that was along the street, and felt depressed without purpose.

‘To put a de-buff on my face and use an AoE aggro onto pa.s.sing pedestrians…. d.a.m.n, as expected, this is a tanker-like healer.’

And as expected, gamer-like off-the-wall thoughts began inside of him.

The heat from Harin’s hand constantly caught Ian’s attention, and he couldn’t stay still.

On the other hand, Harin, who saw stiff Jinsung, had on a quizzical expression as she asked.

“Ian, you don’t happen to dislike boons.h.i.+k[1], do you?”

Jinsung reflexively responded while waving his hands.

“Ah, no! I love ddeokbokki[2]. Fried foods… or Korean Sausage… I like all of them.”

“As expected! There’s nothing as delicious as ddeokbokki! You know a thing or two, Ian.”

Whenever Harin laughed, Jinsung flinched.

‘Ha… This is a drag as well.’

Like that, Jinsung went towards the little restaurant that was in front of the school, led by Harin’s hand.

“Euh, Euuh…”

Jinsung, who had returned to his house after his date(?) with Harin, plopped down into a chair drained.

His health, which didn’t wear out even if he gamed for a week without rest, was drained within barely a couple hours.

‘Euh… Female humans are truly scary beings.’

Harin wasn’t really a female that had a lot to say.

However, because Jinsung, who had something similar to a fear of women(?), flinched every time Harin spoke, his energy usage was quite severe.

As expected, Jinsung thought that his calling was gaming.

“Still, if it wasn’t for Harin, when would I have gotten the chance to eat with a female human… Even my female peers at school avoid me.”

Truthfully, rather than Jinsung’s female peers avoiding him, Jinsung was avoiding everybody else.

Looking properly at the situation, Jinsung was a person capable(?) of making everybody else outsiders aside from himself.

‘Euh, I feel like I’ve said all the words I needed to in a month today…’

Jinsung, who had nothing to talk about with Harin while eating ddeokbokki, talked about his story where he had to commit suicide thanks(?) to Bbookbbook from beginning to end.

And Harin, who heard that story, laughed with an incredibly happy expression.

‘I thought she was watching some comedy show if I didn’t know better.’

Still, the end was incredibly warm.

Smart Harin mentioned a part to Jinsung that he hadn’t thought of.

‘As expected, I’m still lacking. To have not thought about the part that Harin thought of…’

If the content of what Harin spoke of was summed up, it would be this.

Jinsung de-leveled because of the death penalty, but his Familiars’ levels were still the same.

That’s why if got up to 99% again after re-logging on 24 hours later, wouldn’t his skill’s Proficiency and his Familiars’ levels be even higher…

Jinsung blamed himself.

‘There’s a need to be more meticulous. I need to be grateful towards Bbookbbook instead this time. If it wasn’t for Bbookbbook, I would have just fooled around until the arena opened after I hit 99% EXP.’

After logging on once the death penalty was over, if he hunted the rest of the time, he could make his EXP come close to 99% again.

It was instead a situation that was a blessing in disguise.

Jinsung, who momentarily sat in his chair and rested, tottered towards the inside of the capsule.

And…

“Ah, right, I can’t login yet.”

Jinsung, who realized the truth that he still needed to wait over 15 hours until he could login, was devastated.

“Heu, still, sitting here calms my heart!”

Despite not being able to login because there was still the death penalty, Jinsung didn’t come out.

‘Ha… There’s nothing to do. Shall I sleep instead?’

Ian leaned back against the inside of the cus.h.i.+ony capsule.

And shortly after, he fell asleep.

Ian, who logged in on the dot as soon as 24 hours had pa.s.sed, went straight to the hunting grounds.

This was because he needed to pull up his lv 50 0% EXP to as close as 99% as possible.

Because it was a situation where he was well-rested compared to any other day, his condition was extremely good.

‘Alright, since it’s already like this, I’m going to raise the Current Proliferation skill’s Proficiency as much as I can.’

The Current Proliferation skill’s current level was Beginner-level lv 2, and its Proficiency was up 15% until the next level.

If he spent the two days left just hunting, he felt he could raise it at least to lv 3.

‘Speaking of which, since the Training skill reached Intermediate-level, its Proficiency seriously isn’t going up.’

Right now, most of the skills that he got in the beginning after resetting his character had their Proficiency raised up to Intermediate-level.

Ian had worried that his Proficiency would be low compared to his level because he had leveled up too fast from several conditions, but rather, his Proficiency belonged in the higher rank right now.

This was the result of Ian’s almost obsessive use of his skills continuously like a knife as soon as his skills cooldown time were over.

Ian, who arrived at the Ant Tunnel, began to hunt shortly after.

Because his body was used to the skill and he perfectly figured out the Giant Ants’ attack patterns and the format of the map, his hunting was more effective and quick compared to before he had received the 24-hour death penalty.

Another day pa.s.sed like that.

Ian smirked as he checked the system messages that made him feel good just by looking at them.

“Alright! It was worth just using Current Proliferation to death.”

As Current Proliferation had a much shorter cooldown time compared to the other skills that Ian had, he was able to raise the Proficiency of it much faster in comparison.

‘I wonder how much EXP I have now.’

No matter what percent his EXP was at, it was time to move now.

It was time for the arena to open.

“Wow, I’m at 92%. Still, I’m satisfied enough for recovering this much.”

He couldn’t make it to 99%, but 92% was enough to make him content.

Ian, who achieved his intended goal, cleaned up his hunting and headed towards Myuran with a content heart.

As Ly’s level was almost at 52, Bbookbbook at lv 50, and Ddukdae was at a whopping lv 54, he couldn’t help but be content.

On top of that, it was a situation where Jjaekee’s Spirit Capacity, which allowed it to evolve once it reached 1000, was over 300.

It was a part that showed how much Ian used the Current Proliferation skill.

“This much preparation is satisfying… Shall we go register now?”

The location of the arena was in the Central Square of Myuran.

Normally, it was a large vacant lot that was used by users as a resting spot, but for the duration of the arena, this place turned into a stage.

Ian, who arrived at the arena early in the morning, registered to partic.i.p.ate and grabbed a spot in the most ideal location.

He didn’t just come to the arena early for the sake of it.

‘I need to know my opponents in order to prepare for them.’

Ian was planning on watching starting from all of the preliminary rounds.

To figure out the opponents he would be going against was the biggest reason why, but it was also because there would be a lot that he would gain aside from that.

‘It’s a good opportunity to gain a lot of information on how other Summoners nurture their Famliars and what method they use to fight, as well as see the pros and cons of the other new cla.s.ses.’

Ian, who claimed his seat by even marking the territory of his ideal spot, finished fully preparing to watch the battles.

‘Ha, speaking of which, I have nothing to do for the next two hours.’

Slowly, people began to take up spots next to him.

As he realized there was nothing for him to do, exhaustion started to overcome him.

“Hoo…”

And Ian began to doze off.

[1] boons.h.i.+k = Korean street food/fast food

[2] ddeokbokki = spicy Korean rice cakes