SSS-Grade Cafe in Front of The Dungeon

“……Where am I?”

Snake vines in the front and sticky spatula that large enough to swallow people in the back.

I’m lost.

A few dozen minutes of wandering around trying to find a way out….

“I failed again….”

A melancholy murmur was heard from nearby.
It was the voice of a young man.

Where is that sound coming from? I walked towards the side where the sound was heard.

Thank Goodness.
I thought I was stuck in a greenhouse like this, but I can find someone and ask for a way out.

A voice of lamentation continued to be heard.

“Haa ….
I failed again….”

The crying voice sounded like a gloomy ghost.

“What the hell should I do? In my power … it is not enough…….”

I was able to find the owner of the voice when I turned around in the direction of a large sticky spatula.

“I … why is it always like this.….”

A man was crouching on the floor, looking into a small pot.
The flower in the pot was withered.
The leaves are yellow and the stems are bent, and the petals are likely to fall off if touched incorrectly.

I don’t know what’s going on, but it looks like he’s difficult to talk to.
I tried to back off a little bit.

Rustling.

“……!”

The man, surprised by the sound of my footsteps, raised his head.

As his white cheeks grew redder, he spoke in a voice that couldn’t hide his embarrassment.

“Yo-you, how did you get in here? Haven’t you heard that no one is allowed to come in?”

“I didn’t know about it?”

He looks about the same age as me, but why is he talking informally from the beginning? Naturally, I became short-spoken.

“……! There, it says don’t come in.”

“But there is not?”

“What? Do you have a problem with your eyes? It clearly said no entry here! Eh?”

There was only a piece of white paper attached to the place the man pointed to.
A white paper with nothing written on it.

The man took the paper and checked it.
On the back, it says ‘No Entry‘.

… You put it upside down.
So, obviously I can’t see it.

The bewildered man spoke again in a sulky voice.

“Ehem! Anyway, I’m busy right now, so go away.”

“I have a question … Ah.”

Pretending to be a grown-up, he flipped his hair over to reveal his forehead.
However, the cheeks that were still young, the eyes without double eyelids, and the slightly raised eyes were familiar.
It looked like a face I had seen somewhere, and I immediately remembered who this man was.

The No.
2 in ranking, Hunter Choi Cedric.

An S-class swordsman who is the representative Hunter of C&L Corporation, one of the Big Three guilds.
It was natural that he looked familiar because he appeared in so many media outlets, contrary to the No.
1 ranker, which is almost underwater.

The last thing I remember is…….

“It’s too late for the Healer to heal now.
While the swordsman catches the monster himself, what if the Hunter who only heals in the back can’t heal properly?”
“Oh, tell me again.
The healing can’t be done? What? I’m out of the healing range? Aren’t healers supposed to chase after me on their own? After all, you all get money thanks to our guild.”

It was a personality controversy….

It was noisy for a while because the large bomb was detonated on a live broadcast that could not be edited.
The Healer professional guild ‘Garden of Blessing‘ stood up with a promise to boycott Choi Cedric.

In the end, it ended with Choi Cedric apologizing publicly, but it became controversial again, saying that the apology was not sincere.

In other words, a ranker who is known for his personality controversy as well as his skills and fame.

To see such a famous hunter here … it’s really a small world.

In the meantime, I’m stuck in the memories for a while.

“Ah, yes, yes, I see.”

“What?”

Choi Cedric suddenly ripped open the ‘No Entry‘ paper, scribbled something on the back, and held it out.

“Here! My autograph! I signed it, so go now.”

“No, I don’t need it.”

I’m not really a fan, so what’s the use of a Hunter’s autograph to me? It was also signed on the back side with tape marks.

But he seemed to interpret my words in a different way.

“What? Do you want to take a picture with me? Well … yeah, I originally can’t, but I’m in a mood today.
Take this and go quickly.
I am someone with a private life too.”

Click.

Without giving me a moment to say anything, he snatched my phone, took a selfie, corrected it meticulously, and returned it.

“No … not this, I was going to ask you how to get out of here.”

“……!”

Choi Cedric’s cheeks slowly flushed.

“Hey! Yo-you should’ve said that in the first place! I, I thought you were a fan who came all the way here again!”

I tried to tell him.
It’s him who made a fuss.

“But what’s that flower?”

I pointed to the withered flower in the pot.

“….it’s just flowers.
Now go.
The exit is over there.”

For ‘just a flower’, you looked at it with a depressed expression earlier…..

“You said, my power is not enough, so what should I do?”

Choi Cedric must be a type of person who turns red quickly.

“You, you, you! You secretly listen to people talking to themselves!”

“I didn’t hear it secretly, since you were talking to yourself in front of the road I was passing through.”

“……!”

“Anyway, what’s this flower?”

In a greenhouse full of flowers that look like a human head, vines with snakes, and sticky spatulas big enough to eat humans, this flower just withers and looks quite ordinary.

However, the delicate soft blue petals somehow bothered me.

“Don’t be interested! It’s a very precious flower.
It’s not something anyone can get.”

That very precious flower is dying….

It was a moment when I wanted to ask more about the flower.

“Customer-nim! Where are you in now? The sapling is ready.
You didn’t come close to the dungeon spatula, did you? Customer-nim! The Dungeon Sticky Spatula is very cute, but you can be eaten if you touch it!”

“This way!”

Lee Chorok found me and approached me at a fast pace, but she was surprised to see Choi Cedric.

“Huuu, haa, Customer-nim, you are here! Here, the sapling of the Purifying Tree you purchased … Huuk, why is Hunter Choi Cedric here? … Don’t tell me you’ve done something to Customer-nim?!”

“What? How do you see me?”

“You said you’d kill me like this before.”

“…….”

Perhaps he noticed the silent contempt in my gaze, Choi Cedric hastily added.

“That’s …! It’s because you say it’s hard to save this flower……!”

“Anyway, you can’t do that.
She’s my first customer in months.”

Is this place okay.….

Ringing.

Then, Choi Cedric’s phone vibrated long.

“……! I’m going.”

Choi Cedric, who was going to say something to Lee Chorok, went out of the greenhouse as soon as he checked the name on the phone screen.
It seems to be an urgent call.

“Why is he here?”

“No way, gosh, Customer-nim, what happened? That Hunter is a bit nasty, has a bad temper, and has a very poor attitude, but he’s not a bad person … at least I don’t think so, and it’s not like I can’t say no … that’s it.”

Lee Chorok, who said so, looked pale as if she had recalled even a bad memory.

“It doesn’t matter what happened … what is this flower?”

“Oh, you were watching this.
It’s a flower called the Blue Celaeno flower.”

As soon as I heard the name, a status window appeared in front of me.

[Item: Blue Celaeno Flower (★★★★★)
A legendary flower that is said to contain the starlight of Celaeno.
Note: Withered.]

5 stars…..?

I was surprised to see that the grade of an ordinary-looking flower was 5 stars.

“This flowerpot was entrusted to me by Hunter Choi Cedric.”

According to Lee Chorok, this was the case.

Blue Celaeno Flowers are not only very rare but they are also very difficult to bloom.

One day, Hunter Choi Cedric brought the seeds of this flower and asked her to make the flowers bloom at any cost.
Lee Chorok accepted the job on the pride of a botanist.
… Rather than that, it seemed that the money offered by Choi Cedric was too large to refuse.

“But … the ether content of the soil needs to be controlled very delicately.
I’ve been trying it for months now, and it’s not working.”

“It’s such a rare flower, can it be a high-quality item material?”

“It’s not like that…….”

Lee Chorok clouded the end of the sentence.
She seemed hesitant to say this.
Then, she carefully added the backstory.

“Hunter Choi Cedric’s younger sister has a rare disease.
It’s a disease where the flow of ether in the body gets tangled, so it’s very painful … there is currently no cure.
But only this flower, the Blue Celaeno Flower, is said to the relieve pain.”

“Ah….”

That’s what happened.
I felt a little sorry.

I searched the name of the flower on the Ether-Wiki to see if there was any information.

[Checking your eligibilities … Completed.]
[The Eligible: Checking your rights…..]

‘Skip.’

[No results were found for your search.]

…………..

That’s right.
It’s not helpful when I really need it.

If that’s the case, I wish I could find a way.

***

Choi Cedric, who left the farm, headed straight to the headquarters of C&L Corporation, his guild.

“Hunter-nim, I will help you to verify your identity.”

“Get lost!”

Choi Cedric ignored the security guard’s restraint and went straight through the entrance.
The beep beep sounds were heard, but he didn’t care.

The security guard was perplexed, but didn’t catch him.This is because there was no one here who didn’t know who he was just by looking at his face.
However, with an angry expression, he simply dismissed the security warning notification.

There is no room for hasty steps.
He immediately got on the private elevator and got off on the top floor.

The top floor, which was accessible to only a few people, had a bleak atmosphere.

A secret door appears when you touch a specific location on a white wall with no decorations.
After confirming the Hunter license, the door opens, and you must repeat the same process after passing the connecting hallway to enter the hidden area.

As soon as he walked through the door, he could smell the medicine.
The smell of disinfectant … and the smell of pain and death.

Choi Cedric approached at a quick pace and opened the innermost door.

“….Rona-ya!”

Beyond the door was a room decorated like a hospital room.
On the bed was a skinny little girl asleep.

No, you can call it sleep.

The girl’s sleep is full of pain and fear, not rest and comfort.
She screams in fever and pain, but her mind is trapped and she cannot wake up.

She is the only younger sister of Choi Cedric, who suffered from a rare disease three years ago and was unable to open her eyes.

And now the girl is having a seizure.

“Uh … ugh, hugh…….
uh, aaaaagh! agh! ugh, hugh!”

Screams filled the room.
Choi Cedric quickly ran to the bedside.

“Rona-ya! Oppa is here.
It must be really hard.
Rona-ya….”

But no answer is returned.
The girl could only continue to let out a moan of pain.

Choi Cedric turned to the healers who were waiting next to him.

“Why don’t you treat her?”

“Well … that…….”

The healer blurted out the end of their words at the sudden question.

“As you know, even if we use healing skills, it’s ….
there is no improvement.”

It was true.

The two healers in the hospital room are the best healers in Korea, with the exception of Kwon Jiwoon of the White Silver Guild.
He took the blame for monopolizing the top healers and paid a huge amount to hire them.

However, it was impossible to relieve Choi Rona’s pain no matter how many healing skills they poured.
This is because the rare disease rejects all skills and potions.

[Next]

Translator’s Corner:

New characters unlocked : D

Celaeno is a real blue star in the constellation of Taurus.