WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Gate Summoner Hunters Obsess Over ◈
Chapter 31: Takes Care of Backlogged Work. Gains a New Skill.
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Right after discovering a groundbreaking, free way to awaken the roots.
Delighted and eager to share the news, Kang Yul crossed the Gate in a single step, found the Worm, and spoke.
"Worm! Look! I found a groundbreaking way to get blood..."
And then.
Squirm-!!!
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: It wants you to rest-!!!
: It hopes you go to sleep-!!!
"...Oh, okay. Sorry. I'll sleep. ...Good night."
Kang Yul got thoroughly scolded.
At that moment, the Worm's squirming reminded him of a mother scolding her child.
"What on earth are you doing up this late instead of sleeping? Go to bed before I smash your phone-!?!"
Kang Yul wondered internally, Why does that image keep coming to mind...? Even so, the Worm was frightening enough that he quietly returned to bed and went to sleep.
Anyway, the next day, after all that commotion.
"I guess I really was tired..."
Kang Yul fell asleep the instant he lay down, as if he had fainted, and did not wake until the afternoon, when the sun was high in the sky.
After scratching his belly on the way to the bathroom and taking a quick shower, he poured cereal, coal and iron, into milk and crunched away while deciding to finish the work he had not completed yesterday.
Kang Yul took out his phone and began contacting people.
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[Perv x Sis]
▶ [Noona]
▷ [Yeah, Yul.]
▶ [Ah, you startled me.]
[Don't you have work?]
[How did you reply to my KakaoTalk message in one second?]
▷ [Because I'm always waiting for our Yul to contact me?]
▶ [(A police officer staring with chillingly cold eyes emote)]
[Anyway, I can supply iron now too, not just coal.]
[Would you like to buy that as well?]
▷ [Did you mine it in the Gate where you got the coal?]
▶ [That's right.]
▷ [(Bring the Blacksmith here right now! emote)]
[(Not just the Blacksmith... bring me everything!!! emote)]
[I'll pay the highest price!]
[Don't sell it anywhere else! Bring me all of it!]
▶ [Ah, yes.]
[But when do you need it by?]
▷ [Right now, obviously.]
[You didn't get me this worked up and then plan to give it to me later, did you????]
[If you do, I'm going to turn red?????]
▶ [(Police car wee-woo emote)]
[I'll get there as soon as I can, so please calm down.]
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Kang Yul ended his conversation with Kim Chaeryeong after saying that he would contact her again before visiting.
He had needed to visit anyway because of the Worm's outing, and Kang Yul did not mind Kim Chaeryeong reacting so positively to iron, a new trade item.
Anyway.
Chaeryeong noona's side is taken care of.
Kang Yul selected another person from his contacts and continued messaging.
About a minute after he sent the first message, a quick reply came back, and the conversation continued.
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[Team Leader Myo]
▶ [Team Leader Myo.]
[I would like my next Bureau assignment to involve a blood-related supernatural phenomenon, like Midsummer Pool.]
▷ [Is there a reason?]
▶ [I need quite a lot of blood for personal reasons.]
▷ [Is it for a supernatural purpose?]
▶ [Yes.]
[Ah, it is absolutely not because I intend to harm anyone.]
▷ [Then the Bureau can purchase blood under its authority.]
[Please tell me how much you need, and I will prepare it.]
▶ [Then please prepare enough to fill an entire swimming pool.]
▷ [This message has been deleted.]
[That amount would be impossible even with the Bureau's authority.]
[So I will arrange for your next assignment to involve a blood-related supernatural phenomenon.]
▶ [Understood.]
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After finishing his conversation with Team Leader Myo as well, Kang Yul put away his phone.
The [This message has been deleted.] he had seen in the middle of their exchange had vanished so quickly that he could not make it out properly, but at a glance, it had seemed to say, [Are you insane?]
...No, Team Leader Myo would never say that.
She was someone who would not even blink if Management Bureau employees wet themselves right in front of her.
An emotionless psychopath like that would not show emotion over a mere message, so Kang Yul decided he must have misread [I am sorry.] and let the matter go.
Then the blood issue is more or less resolved. Now I just need to gather the iron to show Chaeryeong noona.
Kang Yul picked up the bundle on his desk and entered the Gate.
He emptied out the items from the previous exploration that he had not been able to use, then filled roughly half of the bundle with coal he had mined in advance.
He planned to fill the remaining half with iron as well, but...
I traded all my iron to Friendly Merchant last time, so I don't have any left.
In the end, Kang Yul picked up the iron pickaxe on the floor and headed deeper into the mine.
The Worm... still seems to be asleep, so I shouldn't wake it.
He only needed to mine iron, so there was no reason to wake the sleeping Worm and ask for help.
Kang Yul quietly entered the mine and continued walking deeper inside.
Soon, he reached a point where he could see the black soil containing coal. He turned slightly and walked into a connected tunnel, where an iron vein with a deep silver-gray color greeted him.
"Heh heh... You cute little things. Just looking at you makes me feel full."
Kang Yul muttered lecherously as he looked at the iron vein.
Anyone who saw him might say, "That guy's a pervert...."
But there was no one else inside the Gate, so he did not need to worry about that.
After gazing fondly at the iron vein with eyes dripping with sweetness for a while, Kang Yul had a thought.
Ah, I should use the book first.
He carefully set down the iron pickaxe he had brought and took out a book he had packed separately.
It was the low-grade mining skill book he had received through his trade with Friendly Merchant but had not yet used.
The timing hadn't felt right to use it then.
The day before his visit to the Hunter Management Bureau, it had been awkward to do more mining. Then, right afterward, he had acquired a magic wand (physical), and learning how to use it pushed the skill book down his list of priorities.
But now that he urgently needed to mine iron, he had brought it with him.
Anyway.
They said I just need to picture the skill I want and open the book.
Kang Yul recalled what he had read about using skill books in the gallery and opened the book.
The reason one had to picture the desired skill came from a researcher's paper on skills.
▪ When using the supernatural byproduct [Skill Book], even when users employ the same skill book, small differences have been confirmed in the performance and form of the acquired skill depending on the user and class.
▪ Continued research has confirmed that the "image" of the skill the user pictures while using the [Skill Book] affects the performance and form of the acquired skill.
Even the same skill book could produce slight differences.
That was because of the image of using the skill that came to mind at that moment.
So, the gallery tip post said that it was important to learn in advance the most efficient and effective image for using that skill, but...
...When the Worm swallowed the dirt yesterday, it was really incredible.
The moment Kang Yul opened the book, the amazing sight he had seen yesterday came to mind without him meaning it to.
By the time he realized, What did I just think of...? it was already too late.
Ding-!
[You have fulfilled the conditions and acquired the common skill '■■ Mining'.]
[…………]
[…………]
[…………]
[…ERROR…]
[A critical error has occurred.]
[Re-displaying notification window.]
Ding-!
[You have fulfilled the conditions and acquired the class skill 'Gate Mining'.]
[Skill] : Gate Mining
You can mine minerals and mineral veins within a Gate.
When you use a mining tool to mine a target, the mining process is skipped and you immediately obtain the result.
The mined mineral is processed into high-purity cubic blocks with its impurities removed.
Regardless of Kang Yul's will, notification windows repeatedly appeared and vanished.
The first notification window had startled him because it looked strange, as if something had chewed it up.
But the skill that appeared afterward was even more shocking once he read its description.
After all...
"...This is an insanely overpowered skill."
If that skill description was true, Kang Yul would be able to make enormous profits from mining.
It was not enough that he could mine with a click. It even removed impurities. He had never heard of a skill with that kind of convenience.
Still.
"...."
Clatter-
Kang Yul carefully picked up the pickaxe he had set on the floor to test the skill's effect.
As it fit pleasantly into his hand, he felt a strange sense of comfort as well. But Kang Yul forced himself to ignore it and swung the pickaxe toward the iron vein before him.
Then, at that moment.
Thwok-!
Instead of the usual Clang-! sound, he heard a Thwok-!
At the same time, the entire area around where the pickaxe struck vanished in an instant, just as it had with the Worm.
Then, right afterward.
Thud-!
A cubic block appeared in midair and fell heavily in front of Kang Yul.
Judging by its metallic sheen, it appeared to have had its impurities removed, just as the skill description said.
"This is an insanely overpowered skill."
The skill description had been true.
Kang Yul did not know exactly how the ability he had imagined from the Worm and an ordinary mining skill had mixed together.
But now that such an overwhelmingly convenient, overpowered skill had been born, he thought it might be more beneficial to live as a [Gate Miner] than a [Gate Summoner].
That was before he realized the skill's fatal flaw.
"Huff... Huff... Huff...? Wh-what...? Why... all of a sudden... can't I... breathe...?"
Right after using the skill, Kang Yul began gasping as an indescribable weakness overtook him.
For a while, he was terrified by the situation he could not understand. Then the series of events fell into place like puzzle pieces, and he realized what was happening.
"Ah... This... could it be...?"
...It seemed this skill consumed stamina as its cost in exchange for its overwhelming convenience.
For Kang Yul, a Mage, it was the least efficient cost imaginable.
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