Chapter 9 – A Heart-to-Heart Talk

With meat bowls piled high in the sky next to them, Hee-na and Woo Min-ah belatedly started talking.

They say that when you eat something together, a trusting relationship called ‘rapport’ is formed. In that sense, the two had built up tremendous trust by tearing, chewing, and tasting the meat together.

Thanks to this, Hee-na was able to be honest in front of Woo Min-ah.

“How much will it cost to do all of this? It must be expensive, right?”

Woo Min-ah rested her chin on the table at Hee-na’s worried expression.

“Why? You buy it?”

“That’s what I wanted to do. Since you rescued me, I wanted to treat you to a meal as a thank you.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t call you here to get something from you. Besides, I didn’t know that you were this good at grilling meat… Honestly, shouldn’t I have to pay you more for this?”

Minah Woo praised Hee-na’s meat grilling skills.

“If they hadn’t grilled it right in front of me, I might have thought the meat had been drugged. It was that delicious.”

Hee-na awkwardly scratched her cheek in response to the comment, ‘I thought she had put some medicine on it.’ It wasn’t a drug, but it did something.

“Hey, Hunter Woomin.”

Woo Min-ah waved her hand calmly.

“What are you, Woomin, Hunter? I’m 27, but you’re younger than me, right? You look younger just by looking at me. Call me unnie, unnie.”

“Well, then, Mina.”

“Hey, tell me.”

Woo Min-ah sat back like a languid lioness and looked at Hee-na’s lips. His attitude was that he would listen to whatever was said.

Hee-na cautiously opened her mouth.

“……Actually, this is also my skill.”

“What? I thought you only had the skill to pick vegetables, but you also have the skill to grill meat? That’s awesome.”

Woo Min-ah’s eyes sparkled like when she saw something interesting. she asked lowering her voice.

“Just because you’re a ‘housekeeper’, do you really have all the skills related to housekeeping?”

Hee-na thought about her skills carefully and nodded.

He had all kinds of strange abilities. From the skill that allows you to grill meat well, to the skill that increases your stats every time you clean, to the skill that gives you a house… … .

“There are still more things I don’t know, but they are all life-related skills.”

“I didn’t think my skills would be inferior, but I really wanted the skill of grilling meat just now….”

Woo Min-ah seemed to remember the taste of meat from earlier and suggested it while tasting her mouth.

“Would you like to order one serving of meat and two more servings of skin? This time, let’s eat really slowly while talking. Okay, shall we have some drinks while we eat?”

“If you can eat more, you can order more. It’s not difficult to grill meat. And as for alcohol… um, I’d like to drink too.”

Even so, after eating a lot of greasy food, I was just thinking about the clear dew.

Minah Woo placed her seventh additional order.

And the two began their masterpiece in earnest, with the sizzling meat and shell cooking in front of the grill.

“Have a refreshing first drink!”

Woo Min-ah gulped down her first drink in one go.

Hee-na was also thirsty, so she gulped down her drink. A bittersweet scent rose up my throat. It felt like my oiled stomach was being disinfected.

“It’s delicious.”

Hee-na quenched her appetite and filled Woo Min-ah’s and her own glasses. Woo Min-ah’s smile grew brighter as the clear alcohol filled her.

“Would you like a drink?”

In fact, Hee-na drank better than most men. Some people say it’s a horse drinker, but it was an unwelcome title for Hee-na, who doesn’t enjoy drinking much.

In addition, Hee-na knew how annoying and harmful the image of being good at drinking was in social life, so she quit playing it cool.

“No, just as much as others. It’s not like I can’t drink completely….”

“Really? The snap of the wrist being extended is not normal….”

As if she were a high-rank hunter, Woo Min-ah had a keen eye for attention.

As the ritualistic drinking talk passed, I felt like my heavy mouth had opened up a bit. Hee-na asked what she had always been curious about.

“By the way, Mina, I wonder if I can ask you this… Your explanation of the system is usually insincere, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, all of my skill descriptions are vague and difficult to read. For example, the skill I just used while grilling meat is called ‘This taste is the taste of your home.’ In the description window, it says, ‘It makes you taste the best MSG. That is the taste of your home. Active skill.’ That’s it.”

Hee-na recited the explanation in the system window.

Then Woo Min-ah, who was emptying her second glass of wine, made a whooshing sound and squirted out the drink.

Hee-na hurriedly gave her some tissues.

Woo Min-ah answered with a cough.

“…The system explanation is vague. So depending on how much you accept and understand the explanation, the range of skill use is completely different.”

“Is that so? But I don’t know how to show understanding beyond the text in the phrase, ‘It gives you the best MSG. It’s the taste of home cooking. Active skill.’”

“I see. That’s unusual. What about the others?”

In response to Woo Min-ah’s question, Hee-na suddenly remembered what happened in the dungeon.

I saw the expression ‘safety’ and made a bed out of leaves, and it was really effective for hiding.

When I brought up that story, Woo Min-ah nodded.

“That’s great. In your case, it’s not an attack skill, so it may be a bit difficult for me to help you, but you can improve your understanding of the skill that way.”

As we chatted a lot, the bottle of alcohol was completely empty.

“Hey, give me another bottle of this!”

Hee-na ordered another bottle of Iseul.

The store owner smiled at the amount of sales the two women made. He gave me a bottle of cider and said it was a service.

Whether service came or not, Woo Min-ah rested her chin with a sour expression on her face and then asked Hee-na.

“So what are you going to do with this ‘housekeeper’ awakened ability? Do you have any thoughts?”

“yes?”

It was an unexpected question. I was speechless.

Seeing Hee-na like that, Woo Min-ah chewed the crispy roasted pork skin as if she was dumbfounded.

“There are a lot of guys who give up everything they said and come into the dungeon so they can make a lot of money even if they just awaken as F-class hunters. Are you saying you haven’t even thought about that?”

“uh…….”

As I stuttered, unable to continue speaking, Woo Min-ah asked again.

“No, the Awakened Academy that turns ordinary people into Awakened people is doing well! Have you ever thought about what you would do if you really awakened? Your future is at stake.”

In response to Woo Min-ah’s serious question, Hee-na fiddled with her small glass without saying a word.

Several thoughts suddenly occurred to me.

Although I woke up, I unexpectedly lost my job and home at the same time. So I was out of my mind. This was a good excuse.

But Hee-na knew. The fact that he had deliberately avoided thinking about how to use his abilities specifically.

“…Actually, even if I awaken, I don’t really want to do anything like hunter activities.”

Hee-na confessed honestly.

Thanks to her brother, who was awakened to D-class status, Hee-na knew well how dangerous and arduous the job of a hunter was.

I lost my parents in the chaos, and I was the only blood relative left. When her brother stopped contacting her for weeks or months, saying he would make money, Hee-na’s heart boiled with worry.

“…I have an older brother. He works as a D-class hunter.”

Hee-na poured alcohol into her glass and opened her mouth.

“My parents passed away 10 years ago, so the only people I can rely on in this world are each other. My brother and I go through a lot of dangerous things because of his work as a hunter, and I don’t want to do anything dangerous either. I would like to ask my brother to quit his job too, but realistically, that’s impossible… Instead, I want to remain as a family that waits for me so that I can come back whenever I want.”

Hee-na, who lost her parents at a young age and grew up suffering all kinds of humiliation, had only one wish.

Living a normal life with my brother like everyone else. Without worrying that your family might one day get hurt or die.

Hee-na ate a piece of grilled meat while taking a sip of the liquor she poured. Even though the meat that Hee-na touched was a little cold, it was very firm and plump.

“I want to work full-time for a long time at a stable company with a decent salary. Adventurous jobs like being an awakener or a hunter are not for me.”

Woo Min-ah groaned at the sincere answer.

“I think I heard something so deep that I wondered if I could hear it.”

“No. Talking about this is no big deal.”

Hee-na responded indifferently.

In fact, no matter where you go, there are a lot of people who lost family or friends to monsters due to an incident about 10 years ago. Hee-na wasn’t the only one who had a particularly hard time.

People in this era were all having a hard time and feeling sad.

“Still, your abilities are too precious.”

Woo Min-ah couldn’t let go of her regrets until the end and was obsessed with Hee-na’s abilities. Hee-na waved her hand towards Woo Min-ah.

“To make money, I have to work as a hunter, but what can I do with my ability to cook meat? It would be better to get a job at a meat restaurant… Wow, should I really get a job at that restaurant and cook meat? No. I don’t think I can do that because it’s a bit difficult to do for a long time.”

Hee-na came to various conclusions on her own and declared that being an ordinary office worker was a perfect fit for her.

Woo Min-ah narrowed her eyes at Hee-na’s appearance like that.

“Hee-na, aren’t you thinking too narrowly about the scope of awakened people? Hunter is just one of the jobs that awakened people can choose. Since most people work as hunters, they just think that awakened people are hunters.”

Hee-na became puzzled by her words and asked.

“Then what do you do?”

Then Woo Min-ah slammed the table and said.

“First, let’s listen to your skills. It’s not polite to look into other people’s skills in detail, but you don’t seem to have any intention of using your abilities properly.”

Housekeeper in the dungeon