GM Ch66

Minjun, instead of saying they weren’t dating yet, quietly answered that he would do so. Shin Youngjae and Kim Nayeon’s misunderstanding was amusing. But more than that, he felt warm inside knowing that the two were concerned about him as their seniors.

Shin Youngjae, who was about to give some advice on the difficulties of dating, pouted after getting smacked on the back by Kim Nayeon.

After finishing their dessert, the two quickly left. Not long after, Park Hanyoung showed up with boxes of cookies and rice cakes. The cookies were made by his older sister, Park Heeseon, who had a hobby of baking.

To entertain him, who seemed more interested in other things than the visit itself, Minjun summoned a fire spirit. Park Hanyoung, holding the lizard-shaped fire spirit in his hand, grinned widely.

“This is amazing. It’s sleek, the flame color is fantastic, and it’s so soft. Incredible. Beautiful.”

At Park Hanyoung’s praise, the fire spirit spun around in place. It seemed to love being called cute, pretty, cool, and beautiful.

The spirit, though shy and wanting to hide immediately, was encouraged by Minjun to hold on a bit longer for Park Hanyoung’s sake.

Park Hanyoung’s touch was gentle as he petted the lizard’s head. Even in the other world, it wasn’t hard to find humans who were fascinated by spirits. There were even scholars who, despite lacking spirit affinity, had mastered spirit studies through sheer determination.

Spirits had a charm that could captivate people.

Especially my little ones, they are indeed adorable.

As Minjun’s rank dropped, the spirits weakened as well. But their cuteness remained unchanged.

Summoned spirits were closely connected to the elementalist. When Minjun thought the fire spirit was cute, it quickly turned its head and flew straight to his face, sticking to his cheek.

“Min- Minjun?”

Park Hanyoung was startled when the fire spirit in his hand disappeared in an instant. Minjun removed the fire spirit from his cheek but couldn’t send it back to Park Hanyoung. The fire spirit wanted to stay with Minjun. So, he summoned an earth spirit.

“A cat?”

“This is an earth spirit. It’s your first time seeing one, right? This is Tangerine.”

“So this is Tangerine.”

Park Hanyoung, holding the small kitten-shaped earth spirit, was overjoyed. The spirit, not actually a cat, didn’t purr even when its head was petted. However, the kitten, with its haughty raised head, was so cute that Park Hanyoung’s eyes practically turned into hearts.

“But you know, I have a question. The other day, the spirit went to the guild leader. Is that normal? Do they prefer stronger people?”

After petting the earth spirit for a while, Park Hanyoung cautiously asked.

“No. They’re quite sensitive, so they avoid exposure to great power.”

“Really? Then does the guild leader have the talent of an elementalist?”

“No. That’s for sure.”

“Then why did it happen?”

An elementalist could recognize another elementalist. In common terms, they could sense the spirit’s presence. But just like others, Soohyuk had no spirit affinity at all.

In that sense, it was surprising that the fire spirit, instead of fleeing from Soohyuk’s overwhelming presence, actually moved towards him. Minjun had asked the fire spirit if it wasn’t scared. The fire spirit’s response of “I like it” had left Minjun puzzled.

Lower-ranking spirits communicated in simple terms: good, bad, dislike, scared, difficult. Perhaps there was something about Soohyuk that the spirit liked.

Does he have some item that spirits are attracted to?

As an S-rank hunter, Soohyuk was equipped with all sorts of items. It was possible that one of the items he possessed had an option that attracted spirits. Minjun decided to check on this later, but Park Hanyoung cautiously spoke up.

“Minjun, do you have time on the 26th?”

“I don’t have any particular plans. Why?”

Minjun considered the date. Team 1 had an A-class dungeon raid at the end of March, known as the Half and Half Dungeon. It wasn’t yet decided if he would participate. He would be assigned to a dungeon in the meantime, but there were no official schedules yet.

“Then, would you like to go to the auction with me? There’s an official auction at the market on the 25th and 26th. Do you know about it?”

“Oh, I know.”

“Have you seen the auction catalog?”

“No.”

“The catalog introduces the auction items. There’s a spirit stone up for auction on the 26th. I want to buy it. Can you check it out for me? I’m curious about how to use it. A spirit stone might increase spirit affinity, you never know.”

“Sure, I’ll go with you.”

Minjun held back from explaining about the spirit stone. He had to pretend he had never seen one before.

“Thanks. I’ll treat you to something delicious. How about some meat?”

“Okay.”

Park Hanyoung, who was a good person for offering to buy meat, petted the earth spirit for a long time before bringing up a difficult topic. It was similar advice to what Shin Youngjae and Kim Nayeon had given.

He said that losing one’s memory must be tough, and that Minjun should ask for help whenever he needed it. Park Hanyoung joked that he could help with almost anything except co-signing a loan, making Minjun laugh.

Minjun knew he had an aloof personality when it came to relationships. Even eight years ago, he didn’t have many close friends. So, living his second life as a twenty-year-old, he didn’t try to form new relationships. Aside from his goal of recovering his rank and lifting the curse, he let everything else flow naturally.

Except for Soohyuk, the guild leader, he didn’t have any personal contact with other hunters. He was invited to Team 1’s group chat, but he only read the messages filled with all sorts of chatter without posting anything personal. He knew he was shy and awkward around people. Despite this, everyone cared for the youngest member of the team in their own ways.

Choi Jaehoon, for instance, didn’t visit him in the hospital but sent a gift coupon for Korean beef, saying he needed to eat meat while recovering. Meanwhile, Ryu Kyungoh sent ten fried chicken coupons.

To Minjun, who was actually thirty-four and not twenty, it was clear how good-hearted these people were. So, acting like a twenty-year-old rookie was the best option. Even if he couldn’t be the cute youngest member, he could at least be obedient and well-behaved.

***

After spending a long time playing with the spirits, Park Hanyoung left, and Soohyuk appeared with a large paper bag just before dinner time.

Due to health checkups, Minjun had to fast last night and this morning. For lunch, he had a burger party with Kim Nayeon and Shin Youngjae. When Soohyuk called to ask what he wanted for dinner, Minjun ordered kimbap and jjolmyeon without a second thought.

Hospital food was tasty and nutritious, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy the appetite of a hunter who had big appetites. So, Minjun praised Soohyuk for bringing delicious food.

Kimbap, jjolmyeon, udon, tteokbokki, and assorted fried snacks. Instead of plastic containers, the food came in various sizes of lunch boxes and trays, not the average restaurant quality. The kimbap was as big as a fist, and the fish cakes in the tteokbokki were premium.

When Minjun asked where he got the food, Soohyuk said he had asked a chef he knew. Minjun nodded in understanding, realizing why the food looked so different, and picked up the metal chopsticks. The kimbap and snacks quickly disappeared into the two hunters’ stomachs.

As Minjun slurped the udon broth, he noticed Soohyuk staring at him.

“Why?”

“Should I have bought more?”

“No, it’s perfect. We still have cake too.”

Soohyuk had brought a large whole cream cake for dessert. Thinking about the delicious cake, Minjun cleared the dishes. It didn’t take long for them to devour the cake with forks. After cleaning up the cake box, Minjun called Soohyuk to resolve a question that had arisen while talking with Park Hanyoung.

“Guild leader, I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor?”

“I’m going to conduct an experiment. Can you help me? It won’t hurt at all. You just need to hold my spirits.”

“I thought you were going to ask me to beat up the Ace Guild Leader. I’m pretty confident I can do that well.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Easy enough. Summon the spirits.”

Minjun summoned all his spirits from where he was sitting. The fire spirit, a red lizard, perched on his cheek. The earth spirit, a yellow kitten, sat on his lap. The wind spirit, a small green bird, rested on his right shoulder. The water spirit, a blue snake, coiled around his left wrist.

Seeing the spirits each taking their spots on Minjun’s body, Soohyuk laughed.

“Is that their usual place?”

“Yes. Guild leader, can you pressure them with your aura like you did with Apple, the fire spirit, in the Grassland Dungeon?”

“Huh? All of a sudden? Alright.”

Minjun sensitively felt Soohyuk exerting pressure on the spirits, just like before. Normally, lower-ranking spirits would be terrified by the presence of an S-rank hunter. Only mid-ranking spirits could somewhat withstand it. But now, all four spirits seemed perfectly calm.

Aren’t you guys scared?

The spirits’ reactions were puzzling, so Minjun asked them, and they all responded that they were fine. This made it even stranger.

“Should I continue?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll hand them over to you, guild leader. Once you have them, you can stop.”

Minjun commanded the spirits to go to Soohyuk.

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