The Skill Maker
Chapter 45

<Blue Portal #3>

Edited By: Sebas Tian

He targeted its weakness.

And he used a skill that maximized his attack.

So he did think that it was definitely possible, but.

‘I didn’t think it would actually happen. I killed a blue portal monster all on my own…?’

Hyun-Soo was at a loss for words.

But he came back to his senses and looked over at Kim Yoo-Na and Katrina.

“Ha!”

Slurp!

“Grrrrrrr!”

Boom!

When he turned his attention towards them, that’s when he realized the noise was coming from their side.

‘I must’ve been really concentrating. Is that why everything moved so slowly?’

Brad and Eugene and also Kim Yoo-Na’s side were finishing up.

“Whew…….”

After the monsters released a bizarre scream, the room was filled with the sound of the members catching their breaths.

The stomach of the Gruppa that Kim Yoo-Na killed had blown up as well.

Because of that, green fluids were all over her face and hair.

That’s when Kim Yoo-Na and Hyun-Soo’s eyes met.

‘Huh?’

Kim Yoo-Na had a small smile on her face.

However, that smile disappeared seconds later.

“Wow, Yoo-Na, you really killed that Gruppa. Huh? That Gruppa looks even worse.”

The legs of the Gruppa that Eugene mentioned were twisted in odd directions and its neck was twisted as well.

Since its stomach was cut open, the cause of death was obvious.

Kim Yoo-Na’s Gruppa was killed in a more neat and efficient manner than Hyun-Soo’s. Hyun-Soo’s Gruppa was ripped to shreds, which made it difficult to identify the body.

“***** D ***? *** A? **** lie ****!”

Katrina suddenly started yelling.

Her finger was pointing at Hyun-Soo.

‘What is she saying?’

There were some portions that he understood.

‘She mentioned alphabets. Is she talking about ranks?’

She mentioned the word, ‘lie,’ so he assumed that she was saying he lied about his rank.

Hyun-Soo thought it was unfair.

A lie?

What would he gain by lying?

‘I didn’t lie.’

He never imagined that the offensive skill that he had and Interface, which pointed out the monster’s weakness, would work so well.

‘If I attacked its stomach, then I probably wouldn’t have been able to kill it like this. I was only able to kill it quickly because I attacked its weakness.’

Luck was on his side as well.

‘Well, luck is considered a skill as well.’

Hyun-Soo decided that was the case.

It’s true that his attack worked because he used it at the right time.

If he didn’t use the skill in time, then it wouldn’t have been as effective because of the Energy Field.

“Katrina, calm down.”

A short woman was jumping up and down while expressing her anger.

Even though Hyun-Soo couldn’t understand, the other two understood what she was saying and displayed mixed emotions when they looked towards Hyun-Soo.

‘I have no idea what they’re talking about.’

He decided to study English with Hyuna.

He knew basic English, like “Hi” and “Hello,” but if a sentence contained more than three words, it was difficult for him to understand.

‘The education system is faulty for making students cram information…’

What’s the point of teaching just grammar?

It was useless in real life.

That alone can’t improve one’s listening and speaking skills.

“Kim Hyun-Soo, did you really kill it by yourself?”

Eugene approached him and asked.

Eugene saw the ripped body parts all over the floor and had a slightly sick face.

“Honestly, I don’t know what happened because I wasn’t able to focus on this side.”

“I did kill it.”

“Oh, I see.”

“……?”

He thought Eugene would say more, but he just nodded and went back to the Gruppa that he killed.

‘That’s it?’

Hyun-Soo got nervous when Eugene approached him.

He meddled again.

If Eugene said something about that, things could’ve gotten worse for Hyun-Soo.

Even if Kim Yoo-Na intercepted, getting on an A rank hunter’s bad side was bad.

However, Eugene nodded once and didn’t say anything else.

Hyun-Soo was actually confused.

“Let’s gather the Energy Stones and get out. Before our noses rot.”

With that, Eugene placed his sword into the Gruppa’s open stomach and started looking for the Energy Stone.

Kim Yoo-Na also started looking at the Gruppa’s corpse and Hyun-Soo wondered around the large room.

‘This is the problem. Where did all the Energy Stones go? And why is she following me around?’

Hyun-Soo avoided the stretched out spiderwebs and searched in spots that might have the Energy Stone.

And Katrina was following behind him.

“*******?”

“What?”

“******! *****?”

“I have no idea what you’re saying.”

“*******!”

Katrina must’ve noticed his unenthusiastic answer because she started yelling and then walked back to Kim Yoo-Na.

‘She’s a weird woman.’

She didn’t like him before, but now, she was trying to talk to him.

Hyun-Soo briefly thought about Katrina and then turned his attention to the Energy Stones.

‘Energy Stones are more important. Where did they go? There should be a lot since we’re in a blue portal.’

After searching for a bit, he saw a lump of spiderwebs hanging from the ceiling and noticed that the Energy Stones were there.

“There isn’t as much as I thought. It must’ve been split between the three.”

After exiting the portal, Eugene calculated the amount of energy within the stones, but was disappointed by the result.

“I’ll calculate the money and deposit into each account. Is that okay for you, Hyun-Soo?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

It was dangerous to carry around cash.

‘Safest thing to do is to have them deposit it into my account.’

When he had part-time jobs, he got paid by doing direct deposit.

While Eugene was taking care of the administrative task, the staff that managed the portal stepped into the office and stepped back out moments later.

“Let’s go eat now.”

Then, Eugene added something in English.

‘I understood the word, hungry. Hungry. He must’ve suggested on going out to eat.’

The person that intercepted was Kim Yoo-Na.

“What are you thinking, Eugene? Eating together?”

“Why can’t we? Our crew can’t even eat with you?”

“As I said before, I’m not longer part of the clan…!”

Kim Yoo-Na always maintained a calm face, but she was getting angry.

He was surprised by that, by Eugene just waved his hand and interrupted her. He turned to Hyun-Soo and asked.

“Hey, Kim Hyun-Soo. Since you killed the monster, how about eating together? Aren’t you hungry? I’ve used up a lot of my energy, so I’m really hungry.”

“I am pretty hungry…”

“Great! Then let’s go eat.”

“Eugene!”

He somehow got involved in this.

Hyun-Soo answered Eugene and somehow, the situation turned for the worse and he was put in a bad situation.

‘Eating out costs a lot of money.’

A rank hunters probably won’t eat at fast food places.

Because of that, he’s never eaten with Kim Yoo-Na.

‘We’re not close and we’re just meeting because of a contract, so there’s no reason to eat with her.’

He only spent time with her within the portal.

She did give him rides, but other than that, they didn’t meet.

‘Oh, there was that one time. When we went to the weapon shop.’

Other than that, they only meet when necessary.

‘It’s better if I eat at home though.’

It’s not that he couldn’t afford to eat a meal with them.

‘If I want to buy a shop for my mom, I have to save as much as I can.’

But, there was a reason why he needed to save money as fast as could.

Even though he obtained Energy Stones from the blue portal today, he wasn’t sure how much he would get paid.

He calculated by the average cost of an Energy Stone from a blue portal.

After excluding the fees and splitting among the members, it’s quite a large amount, but the problem was.

‘I’ll need a lot more since I have to think about the location, the facility, furniture and designing the interior.’

No one would open a store where there were barely any people.

‘I have to go all out!’

After buying the shop, all that was left was a house.

He was in a hurry, so spending money on food felt like a waste to him.

However, his issue was quickly resolved.

“Don’t worry. I’ll buy the food today. Since we saw Yoo-Na and met Hyun-Soo, I’ll buy it. Okay?”

Eugene noticed Hyun-Soo thinking, so he acted on it.

Hyun-Soo stopped calculating.

“Great!”.

Eugene gave him a thumbs up after hearing his answer.

Kim Yoo-Na just shook her head.

But, she was pretty hungry because she moved a lot during the battle.

It was obvious that she was going to tag along.

Hyun-Soo knew that Eugene used him so that Kim Yoo-Na would come along, but Hyun-Soo turned a blind eye.

“Yoo-Na, I know why you’re worried.”

“Don’t say unnecessary things.”

Kim Yoo-Na warned Eugene.

‘He did help out, so it’s the least I could do. It doesn’t look like they dislike each other, but more like something happened between them.’

If he turned down the offer, Kim Yoo-Na would’ve used him as an excuse to leave.

While looking at Kim Yoo-Na’s upset and hesitant face, Hyun-Soo decided to play the middleman.

‘I wonder what they’ll eat?’

It definitely wasn’t because he was getting free food.

That definitely wasn’t it.

***

The restaurant was located in the suburbs and they served Korean table d’hote.

Inside a large, tile-roofed house that was separate from the main building, the members sat around a large table.

“I’m hungry. Let’s eat.”

‘Half of the members are foreigners, so why are we eating Korean food?’

Hyun-Soo did like it.

He enjoyed hamburgers, steaks and other western style dishes, but it was difficult for him to eat expensive Korean table d’hote.

However, Katrina, Brad and even Eugene, who was basically a foreigner.

Out of the five members, three of them were foreigners

‘Wouldn’t restaurants be better? No. Korean food is part of the hallyu wave, so…oh, whatever.’

As expected, Katrina had a hard time using chopsticks.

She had a hard time grabbing the stir-fried glass noodles.

Her chopsticks kept crisscrossing each other and instead of grabbing the food, she was busy picking up her chopsticks.

“Do you need a fork? Fork?”

Hyun-Soo stepped in and asked if she needed a fork.

“What?”

“Fork. The thing that looks like this. Not chopsticks, but a fork.”

Hyun-Soo tried his best to pronounce the fork, but Katrina couldn’t understand him and tilted her head.

Hyun-Soo formed a fork with his fingers and pretended to stab the food.

Katrina understood and after saying fork, she shook her head.

“No. *******.”

“You don’t need it? No fork?”

“Yeah.”

It seemed like she really wanted to try using the chopsticks.

‘This takes me back. Hyuna had a hard time using chopsticks when she was younger too.’

Even though she was a smart girl, it took her quite a while to get used to them.

When he thought about Hyuna, he couldn’t just sit by and watch.

Hyun-Soo grabbed the noodles she tried to eat and placed it on the plate that was sitting in front of her.

‘She should stop wasting her energy and just eat. I’m pretty sure she’s hungry.’

He knew she wouldn’t understand, so he just placed it on her plate.

It was up to Katrina whether she was going to eat it or not.

It didn’t matter if she didn’t eat it.

He just did it because it reminded him of Hyuna.

“Th…… Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

He expected her to ignore her, but surprisingly, she thanked him.

While eating, Hyun-Soo would look over at Katrina and help her whenever she was having trouble grabbing the food.

He would hear her quietly say thank you each time.

A variety of dishes came out and they managed to eat it all.

Brad ate the most and really quickly as well.

It was quite interesting to see a colored man with dreads eat raw crabs marinated in soy sauce and using his hands to eat braised short ribs.

“Now that we’re all full, shall we start talking?”

<Blue Portal #3> End.