SWNOVELXO Chapter 5
Episode 5: Misunderstanding
The first woman I saw was startled by my voice and fell on her bottom.
Then she hurriedly ran away with her bundle.
“Thief…?”
At first, I thought she was a thief, but what kind of thief would come to steal from an underground hideout?
The association doesn’t even know the hideout is underground.
She doesn’t seem to be an ordinary thief.
Could it be that she found out the location of the hideout?
I returned to the hideout to inform Eunbyul of this fact.
**********
I returned to the hideout, but upon thinking about it, Eunbyul seemed to be sleeping.
In that case, I had no choice but to go to Seoyoon.
I needed to inform her as quickly as possible that there was a thief in the hideout.
As I was about to open Seoyoon’s room door, I stopped when I saw the “No Entry” sign in front of it.
I knocked on the door without opening it.
*Knock. Knock. Knock.*
“It’s me, Han Shiwoo. Can I come in for a moment?”
*Creeeak…*
The old hinges on the door screamed.
“Come in.”
Seoyoon opened the door for me to enter and stepped aside for a moment.
I walked into the room.
*Creeeak.. Thud.*
“So, what brings you here at this late hour…?”
Seoyoon asked, allowing the door to close behind her and trailing off at the end.
“Well… it’s not anything special, but I think there was a thief in this hideout, so I came to tell you.”
“W-what…? A thief…?”
Her eyes started to dart around at the mention of a thief.
“W-what do you mean…?”
“Actually, I was curious about where this place is, and I went out for some fresh air. On my way back, I saw a woman crawling out from that manhole over there with a bundle on her back.”
“Uh… a bundle?”
“Yeah, a bundle. When I approached, she tripped and I heard something break…”
“…..Could it be… T-that person might not be a thief…”
“Do you know her?”
“Umm… It’s a long story…”
**********
To summarize Seoyoon’s words, this is it.
Her name is Choe Ye-rim.
She is a non-combat member of the Golden Rule.
She appears to be very timid, and it seems she ran away the moment I approached to avoid revealing the hideout’s location.
I’m not sure if she ran away out of fear or to keep the hideout safe.
And her job is as a drug expert.
She appears to be an alchemist who primarily makes potions and creates various brews.
So, the sound of something breaking when she tripped earlier was likely the sound of a glass vial in her bundle shattering.
She lives as an ordinary alchemist in society.
Of course, she also lives as a member of the Golden Rule organization behind the scenes.
She doesn’t go out often.
If she goes out, it’s almost always for one reason.
To sell the potions she has made and earn money.
Her manufacturing skills are said to be excellent.
She leaves early in the morning to go to her trading partners.
She has been interested in alchemy since her school days.
So she secretly learned alchemy and started walking the path of an alchemist as soon as she became an adult.
**********
“I see… So she’s not a thief… If I see her again, I should apologize for surprising her.”
“Yeah… If there’s nothing else you need, can I go back to sleep now?”
Seoyoon said softly, rubbing her eyes with her hands that were curled into fists as if she was sleepy.
It seemed she woke up hastily from my knocking rather than being awake.
I felt a bit sorry for that.
“Wait a minute, Seoyoon. Can I ask you one last thing?”
“What is it…?”
“Umm… Do you…?”
I had wanted to ask this ever since I first saw Seoyoon.
I wanted to ask why she stammers and speaks so passively.
I was curious if there was a reason behind her stuttering and cautious manner of speaking.
It might be overstepping, but since we are destined to be members of the Golden Rule together, I wanted to be careful not to touch on any painful areas for her.
I hesitated for a long time.
I pondered whether this question might trigger her trauma.
“Is there a reason you… stammer when you talk…?”
“Ah… That’s just because my, my personality is shy…”
So it was just overstepping.
I got distracted for no reason, and the atmosphere became awkward.
**********
I hurriedly left Seoyoon’s room before the atmosphere became even more awkward and went to my own room.
I lay down on my bed, resting my arms over my forehead, and called out to the system.
‘System.’
*Ding!*
‘My Information.’
[Checking your information.]
[Information]
Name: Han Shiwoo (21)
Level: 17
Position: Dealer
Stats: 0
– Current Stats –
Strength: 6
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 2
Luck: 6
– Skills –
Damping – Nerf (EX) LV.1 (Max)
[Description available.]
P. System’s Blessing (EX) LV.1 (Max)
[Description available.]
Inheritance of Abilities (S) LV.1 (Max)
King’s Insight (S) LV.1
Transparency (A) LV.1
P. Basic Swordsmanship (D) LV.3
Triple Attack (D) LV.3
P. Drug Dealer’s Grace (D) LV.2
==========
Something felt off.
There was a change in the system’s interface.
What happened?
I tried to adapt to the change.
But I was feeling very tired right now.
Because I had just come from a fierce battle at the gate.
So I was too lazy to check each description one by one.
‘View Descriptions All at Once.’
[Checking the descriptions of the skills all at once.]
[Information]
Name: Han Shiwoo (21)
Level: 17
Position: Dealer
Stats: 0
– Current Stats –
Strength: 6
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 2
Luck: 6
– Skills –
Damping – Nerf (EX) LV.1 (Max)
[When in physical contact with a <u>being of the same race</u> and using a command, the target’s <u>abilities decrease by two levels</u>.]
P. System’s Blessing (EX) LV.1 (Max)
[Helps holder Han Shiwoo to grow. You can receive <u>various rewards upon leveling up.</u>]
Inheritance of Abilities (S) LV.1 (Max)
[You can <u>inherit abilities from the corpses of beings you have defeated</u> (choose one).]
King’s Insight (S) LV.1
[Acquire more information (The amount of information you can obtain increases as your level rises).]
Transparency (A) LV.1
[Makes your body transparent during <u>non-combat situations</u>. Duration is proportional to Intelligence (Intelligence stat x 5 minutes).]
P. Basic Swordsmanship (D) LV.3
[Allows you to handle swords more sharply.]
Triple Attack (D) LV.3
[Attacks quickly three times.]
P. Drug Dealer’s Grace (D) LV.2
[Increases the duration of <u>beneficial effects</u> of drugs by ten times.]
==========
This is unbelievable…
I realized the impact of King’s Insight is tremendous.
‘I should thank that goblin for this…’
I suddenly discovered that King’s Insight is not a passive skill.
If that’s the case, then if I use this skill on a person…
Can I check that person’s information?
I wanted to see just how far I could utilize this skill called King’s Insight.
I hope tomorrow comes quickly.
I don’t think I can sleep well tonight.
**********
In the end, I couldn’t sleep at all.
I kicked off the blanket, got up immediately, opened the door, and went outside.
Then I locked eyes with a woman with a ponytail.
“Uh? You’re… that crazy person from yesterday?!”
Why is this crazy glasses-wearing woman acting like this right from our first encounter?
“Do you have any idea how pissed I was because most of my potions broke because of you yesterday, and I couldn’t earn much money?”
“Who are you…?”
Wait. I thought it would be a good idea to use my insight in this situation, so I activated the skill immediately.
‘Activating King’s Insight.’
*Ding!*
[Checking the opponent’s information.]
[Information]
Name: Choe Ye-rim (20)
Position: Non-combat
– Skills –
[Cannot be checked.]
– Current Status –
Your feelings toward me are negative.
=================
“Hey. Are you ignoring me?”
“Ah, so you’re the pickpocket I saw crawling out of that manhole yesterday?”
“Who’s a pickpocket! Why are you here?”
She didn’t know I had joined the Golden Rule.
So I explained the whole situation to her.
Her appearance looked like a model student.
But her tone didn’t match that.
“Your name is Ye-rim, right? Choe Ye-rim. I’m Han Shiwoo.”
“H-how do you know my name?”
She seemed surprised and didn’t even acknowledge my name, demanding to know where I got her name.
“Seoyoon told me yesterday.”
“Is that so? Then fine.”
“Hey, you’re 20, right? Why does someone older than you talk like that?”
“Why do you care about how I speak?! Mind your own business!”
*Bang!*
She shot back at me loudly and entered her room.
The sound was so fierce that I felt the door slightly bend when she slammed it.
I sighed.
Oh no. That’s not what’s urgent now.
I had something I needed to do as an official member of the Golden Rule starting today.
To ask about that, I headed to Eunbyul’s room.
That was the problem.
By mistake, I opened the door without knocking, and inside, I saw the figure of Eunbyul coming out of the shower.