GBAS 17

[Guild] NoRegretKeepGoing : Why didn’t I think of that?

[Guild] BlackKitty2 : Wow that’s crazy

[Guild] WaterIsSelfServe : *ㅇuㅇv

Having stopped what he was doing, Hyunwoo, now focused on the chat window, nodded his head.

From what he could gather, the difficulty of the Becca Dungeon seemed quite high. If it was impossible to bring completed potions in, taking three or more healers in an 8-person dungeon would lead to an absolute lack of damage output. In high-difficulty dungeons where each member’s responsibility was crucial, the absence of a skilled tank or damage dealer would be very noticeable.

It was already known that the dungeon was a place where medicinal herbs grew in abundance, so it might be possible to make and use them inside. He had a feeling this guess was close to the correct answer.

Just as Hyunwoo was raising the corners of his mouth in a pleased smile at the strike his fool-trio colleague, who always swung and missed, had finally landed,

[Guild] Jooin : That

Baek Jooin, who had been maintaining a silent, almost non-existent presence, spoke up. The moment he saw the nickname, his breath caught in his throat. Baek Jooin sent another chat message without giving him a pause.

[Guild] Jooin : Didn’t someone master Herbalism

Ah.

At the sudden, sprouting premonition, goosebumps rose on Hyunwoo’s arm.

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : Yes yes wow you’re right

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : Jeon Hyunwoo

[Guild] Jinyoung-kun : Huh?

Ah, ahh. Baek Jooin!

If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have mastered it. Hyunwoo looked up at the icon floating in the top-left corner of the screen and let out a deep sigh. It was a green cross icon, the mark of a Herbalism Master.

[Guild] Jinyoung-kun : You’re telling me Noja-nim maxed that out?

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : Yep yep there anyone else besides him who would learn such a psychopath skillㅠ

‘A psychopath skill.’

Herbalism was one of the various life skills that the game <The Frontier> prided itself on. It involved steaming, drying, grinding, and juicing materials obtained from monsters or nature to create potions that could be either medicine or poison.

While this was true for the byproducts of most life skills, food and potions had a particularly large number of factors that affected their item characteristics or effects, besides the creator’s skill level. A very well-made elixir, incomparable to mass-produced potions, was sometimes treated here like a 30-year-old wild ginseng wine.

Herbalism was a skill that all users starting the game had as a passive, but raising its proficiency required a lot of effort. Once the skill level surpassed A, the materials and time required to advance to the next level increased exponentially.

One might think that materials could be covered by buying game money, but Herbalism proficiency had many parts that required points to be earned by gathering the materials directly.

Let’s take an example from the training process. Suppose you receive a mission to get a thread orchid. First of all, thread orchids did not grow in ordinary areas. They could be found with a very low probability on the extremely rugged terrain of rocky peaks.

Let’s say, by some stroke of luck, you find a thread orchid. You might think you can simply climb the mountain and dig it up, but that was not the case.

Rare-grade herbs used for high-level training each had specific seasons and times when they could be gathered, and in some tricky cases, they even specified the state of the gatherer. Therefore, if someone who did not meet the conditions tried to gather the herb, it would often wither on the spot and turn into white ash.

In the case of rare herbs, not only would they not grow back in the same spot, but even if one was destroyed and another was generated somewhere else, it took a very long time to grow it enough to be used in medicine.

Furthermore, to advance to the Master level, one had to go so far as to drink the potion they had painstakingly made.

The fact that one had to uselessly consume a potion made with a great deal of money or effort, or both, without being able to sell it, was so off-putting that a culture of treating Herbalism as a “psychopath skill” had taken root among most users.

[Guild] Jinyoung-kun : Wow I had a Bong-God right next to me;

[Guild] Jinyoung-kun : Without a word! This is awesome

Because Herbalism had a reputation as the best skill for making you quit the game while training, people called those who somehow overcame the bullshit and reached Master “Bong-God.” The meaning is exactly what you think it is.

‘It wasn’t that hard for me, though.’

Completely oblivious to the fact that he was able to endure it because his stress threshold was higher than others, Hyunwoo was scratching his chin with an indifferent expression when,

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : Ah this won’t do, you guys wait a sec

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : I’ll call him and be back

[Guild] Jinyoung-kun : Oh nice

This is bad.

It was an unexpected situation. Hyunwoo, who was standing with his hand on his forehead, first unsummoned Frost, who was still licking his chops even after finishing his snack, and quickly gathered the things spread on the drying rack, stuffing them into his inventory. It was because it was a shared space.

Fortunately, it seemed JuJuGeneralAssembly had things to sort out on his end as well, as he left a few more chat messages and then disappeared.

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : Aqua, if you have nothing to do, join us

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : We’ll be switching with the office workers who have to work tomorrow

[Guild] NoRegretKeepGoing : Hah… what time is it now

[Guild] BlueSticker : I’ll do better next timeㅠㅠ

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : No no, you did well today too, good good

[Guild] NoRegretKeepGoing : With two spots open, it’d be perfect to have Hyunwoo join

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : That’s what I’m saying

[Guild] JuJuGeneralAssembly : Anyway I’ll go get him~

Seeing that the login indicator had disappeared from his friends list, it seemed JuJuGeneralAssembly had logged out as soon as he finished speaking. Hyunwoo took a wide look around the space he was in and logged off.

👾🎮

As if on cue, his phone rang the moment he stepped out of the capsule. Hyunwoo snatched his phone and ran to the veranda of his studio apartment.

Below the large window, an 8-lane road was visible. When he opened the door wide, the sound of passing cars and the noise of people enjoying the late night flooded in.

After clearing his throat one last time, Hyunwoo brought the phone to his ear.

“What.”

[What’s this. You picked up right away?]

JuJuGeneralAssembly, Han Jiwoo, raised the end of his voice as if surprised.

Relieved by the unsuspecting tone, Hyunwoo slightly stuck his hand holding the phone and his head out the window to make the outside noise more audible and asked, feigning ignorance.

“I asked why you called.”

[Are you done with your plans? We’re getting destroyed in the dungeon and we need you, so why don’t you get in the game?]

“Ah, forget it. And I’m still out…”

[Hyunwoo-ya.]

Just as he was about to make a rough excuse, Jiwoo called Hyunwoo in a low voice.

…Fuck.

Hyunwoo, his face crumpled mercilessly, mouthed words without a sound.

[I told you just a few days ago to stop that bullshit. At best, you probably just opened the window on your veranda. You think I don’t know the decibel level of your place?]

He was unnecessarily sharp.

“Ha.”

[Seeing you act like this again, I can see what’s going on. Stop playing hard to get and cooperate for once. Is Baek Jooin going to eat you or something?]

Han Jiwoo’s words made him feel a pang of guilt.

Switching the hand holding the phone, Hyunwoo tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear and closed the veranda window as he spoke.

“Ah, it’s not like that.”

[Then what is it.]

Unable to easily answer the direct question, Hyunwoo remained silent. A small sigh was heard from over the phone. The sound of someone thumping their chest followed, and Jiwoo spoke again.

[This is the thirty-thousand-and-forty-fifth time I’m telling you to refrain from selective feedback. And if you don’t want to tell me what happened, can’t you just not make it obvious in the first place? Looking at you, it’s like you’re advertising ‘we had a fight’ all over the neighborhood. Think about it. You think the people watching won’t be curious?]

Everything he said was right, so he couldn’t bring himself to argue. While Jiwoo’s words continued, Hyunwoo, who had closed the veranda door and come inside, leaned against the dining table.

[Anyway, it’s strange. You get along just fine with other people, so why on earth does your social awareness break down only in front of Baek Jooin? I really don’t get it.]

That’s right. It was a question he himself was curious about. He had lived his whole school life without any trouble, and he was managing his image just fine in university where all sorts of human characters gathered, but he had no idea why he acted strangely only in front of Baek Jooin.

Sigh.

A sigh escaped him, and a brief silence fell between the two.

The one who broke the silence first was Hyunwoo.

“So what do you want me to do.”

[To be honest, the taste of watching you suffer isn’t all that bad, you know? It’s more like, serves you right, that kind of feeling?]

“What do you mean by that…”

[Tsk, just listen.]

Although they were university classmates, Han Jiwoo, who had entered after three attempts, was still two years older than him. Hyunwoo obediently shut his mouth and readjusted the phone.

Jiwoo, interpreting Hyunwoo’s silence as she pleased, sped up and continued.

[So if you’re not online in ten minutes, I’m going to spread rumors all over the guild and film a ‘Best Friends Note’ episode with Baek Jooin and Jeon Hyunwoo, so you know. You know I can do it somehow even if you run away, right? Before it comes to that, you’d better crawl back on your own when I’m asking nicely, okay? Hanging up!]