The Skill Maker
chapter-23

<A Favor #1>

After leaving the palace-like house, Hyun-Soo was finally able to breathe comfortably.

It was a short meeting, but it felt like he went through a lot during that short time.

‘He’s not some ordinary old man. But, why did he like me so much? Is it because of his relationship with my father?’

For an unknown reason, the old man showed his kindness to the person that came to pay their debt.

But it wasn’t a bad feeling.

After shrugging his shoulders, Hyun-Soo looked back at the house.

‘It’s a nice place.’

There was a yard and it was a spacious house with privacy.

It was a two-story house, so there were a lot of rooms, and it was enough to keep his family’s life private.

Hyun-Soo wanted this house.

But, it was impossible in his current situation.

He didn’t have much since he used the money he saved up to pay off the debt, but he just needed to save a bit more.

“I’ve worked hard, but I’ll have to work harder. I need to give it to my parents and Hyuna anyways.”

That day, Hyun-Soo bought a large portion of Pork Hocks.

And he ate it with family while drinking soju with his parents.

When they heard that Hyun-Soo paid off all the debt, they were extremely surprised.

They asked how he knew about it and where he got the money from, but all Hyun-Soo did was smile.

His mother cried quietly while his father stood up from his seat.

Knowing that their mother felt bad and was also proud of Hyun-Soo, Hyuna wiped away the tears.

His father came back with tears in his eyes as well.

Without saying a word, his father patted Hyun-Soo’s shoulder.

That action alone said a lot.

Hyun-Soo knew what that meant.

Because they were a family.

***

After paying off the debt, Hyun-Soo felt optimistic about the future.

‘Now I just have to rise to the top.’

He thought since he resolved all the issues, all he had to do was slowly rise to the top.

He made new skills, gained experience and was planning on making a lot of money.

Nothing could bring him down.

But, things don’t always work out the way they want.

After paying off the debt, Hyun-Soo started working hard to create another skill, but he received a call that would cause him issues.

“I purchased a scroll from you before. There’s an issue regarding the skill I obtained from the scroll. I would like to meet with you.”

‘Huh? How can that be?’

He confirmed that the skill was successfully transferred during the meeting.

Hyun-Soo felt weird about it, but replied with a time and place.

Things were starting to get complicated.

‘What do I do if there really is an issue?’

That meant that there’s a possibility that the skills he wants to sell from now on will have issues as well.

If it was just one skill that had an issue, then it wouldn’t matter, but he couldn’t be sure.

He knew that it was best not to meet the person he already sold a scroll to, but since they said there was an issue, he felt uneasy.

Anyways, he had to check for himself.

Hyun-Soo arrived at the spot where they promised to meet.

Since people tend to get greedier the more they have, Hyun-Soo decided to meet at a place where there were a lot of people.

Inside a café where it was filled with people, a middle aged man was sitting at a table.

Hyun-Soo suddenly stopped right when he was about to greet him.

It was because there was a woman sitting next to the man.

“Thank you for coming.”

“It’s fine, I should come if there’s an issue…but, what seems to be the problem?”

Hyun-Soo quickly used the Interface with the man as the target.

‘Interface!’

Name: Jung Ho-Sik (??)

Rank: B

Class: ??

??

??

??

Skill List

[????][??]

[????][??]

[Low Level Recovery][E]

The man looked like an ordinary person, but he was actually a B rank hunter.

Hyun-Soo was now leveling up from E rank, so he was way out of his league.

But, the man bowed his head towards Hyun-Soo.

“You see…….”

Jung Ho-Sik remained silent as if he didn’t know what to say.

“It works really well.”

“Excuse me?”

“It works so well that it’s an issue.”

“……I’m sorry?”

“I tried searching the database regarding the scroll that you sold, but there weren’t any passive skills that provide this kind of effect. I thought it was a fraud because it wasn’t registered in the data, but the effects are great.”

“……Okay?”

Hyun-Soo thought he would have to refund the man, so he thought about many different situations.

But he wasn’t expecting Jung Ho-Sik to say that the skill was working well.

‘What the hell is this guy saying?’

One thing he was sure of what was Jung Ho-Sik tricked him to bring him out.

As soon as he realized that, Hyun-Soo stood up.

He wasn’t sure what his intentions were.

Since it worked so well, he might threaten Hyun-Soo to give him information regarding the scroll.

Since Ho-Sik wouldn’t be able to cause a scene here, Hyun-Soo decided to quickly run out.

That’s why he picked such a crowded place.

But, before he could run out, someone grabbed his wrist.

It was the woman that was sitting next to Jung Ho-Sik.

“Wait.”

He wasn’t sure when it happened, but the woman was now right in front of him while still grabbing his wrist.

‘What is this? Why can’t I move?’

Hyun-Soo tried pulling his hand, but it wouldn’t budge.

‘This woman, who is she?’

Hyun-Soo activated Interface while looking at the woman.

‘Interface!’

Name: Kim Yoo-Na (??)

Rank: A

Class: ??

??

??

??

Skill List

[????][??]

[????][??]

[????][??]

[????][??]

‘Wow!’

Despite of not being able to see the other information, there was one he could see.

‘A rank?!’

He thought she was just tagging along, but it seemed like she was the main target here.

Jung Ho-Sik stood up and tried to calm her down, but with one look from her, he sat back down.

Hyun-Soo was surprised, but he couldn’t do anything because of her rank.

Truthfully, it’s also because he couldn’t move.

“I’ll explain. Please just listen.”

“And if I decline……?”

“Then, there’s nothing I can do. If you think I’m here to harm you, I want to tell you that I’m not.”

“But you lied to me so that I would come out and meet you.”

“I’m…sorry about that. I tried every possible means to get in contact with you, but no one would help me…”

The woman said his name so naturally.

Since he never told her his name, he was certain that Jung Ho-Sik told her.

‘I even told myself to be careful about whom I sell the skill to, but…’

He sold it to someone strange.

“Then, are you the one that sent me the weird message?”

“What kind of message are you talking about?”

“You know my name and it seems like you’re here regarding the scroll and you sent me a message, so I was wondering if you were the one that sent it.”

“I did send you a message with my contact information, but…I never sent you an offensive message.”

The woman quickly gave an excuse as if she was surprised.

But she didn’t let go of Hyun-Soo’s hand.

It looked as if the girl was holding onto the guy that was trying to break up with her.

And it just so happened to take place at a crowded café.

The woman was holding onto him to hard that he couldn’t pull away.

‘Jeez…how embarrassing. Is this fun to them? Why are they looking so intently?’

Embarrassed by the crowd that were looking at them, Hyun-Soo gave up.

He didn’t even have the strength to pull away.

It looked like she wasn’t going to let him go and even though she didn’t threaten him, he thought it would be best to hear her out.

It’s obvious that he would just be in the same situation as before if he didn’t.

“Whew…I guess I’ll hear what you have to say. But, if you think about doing something fishy or threaten me, then I’ll run out of here.”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t have a way to meet with you, so I do apologize for what I did even though this is our first time meeting each other.”

As soon as Hyun-Soo and the woman both sat down, Jung Ho-Sik brought coffee for them.

“I guess apologize first would be the best thing to do. I apologize for calling you out here by lying to you.”

“…Forget it. So, why did you want to meet me? If you want me to sell more scrolls, then forget it. I’ll also decline if you want information about the scroll.”

Hyun-Soo spoke in a cold tone.

But he was honestly very nervous.

It’s because she was an A rank.

Just from looking at her, she looked like she wouldn’t be able to hold a sword, but in reality, she was an A rank.

She was a hunter that could kill most monsters.

Since there were barely any S rank hunters in the world, it’s safe to say that A rank hunters were the best.

And sitting in front of one made Hyun-Soo’s heart race like crazy.

After hearing what Hyun-Soo said, an awkward expression appeared on her face.

‘It’s pretty obvious what she wants.’

There wasn’t much to discuss to someone that sold scrolls.

The woman just kept on biting her pretty lips.

Hyun-Soo planned on declining whatever she said.

‘There’s no end to it if I get involved deeper.’

Hyun-Soo was the one that made that skills and sold them, but these people didn’t know that.

They probably thought that he found a portal that had these scrolls and went hunting to obtain them.

There were a lot of people that were greedy for scrolls, but more people were probably more curious about where Hyun-Soo obtained the scrolls.

‘I guess I’ll listen since I agreed to. But, it won’t do much good.’

With that thought in mind, Hyun-Soo frowned and looked at the woman that seemed to be thinking about something. Whatever she was going to say, he was ready to let it go into one ear and out the other.

However, Hyun-Soo would soon realize that his assumptions were wrong.

“Please help…… my younger sister.”

“……Sister? Exactly how do you want me to help?”

“My sister…has a rare disease. she’s had Neuromuscular disease ever since she was young and always spent time at the hospital. Her dream was to become a singer, but she has a hard time breathing by herself, which made it impossible for her to fulfill her dream.”

“…….”

“I was told to prepare for the worst because she didn’t have much time to live. But, in order to let her live, she went through so many surgeries. Even a healer’s healing magic didn’t do anything. It just prevented her condition from getting worse.”

The woman’s eyes were filled with tears.

But the woman blinked, got rid of her tears and continued talking calmly.