## Chapter 34 – 34. Blind Date (2)
#34. Blind Date (2)
A secluded café near the Magic Tower.
Because the café was located in an area with many companies, there were hardly any customers besides me now that lunchtime had passed.
‘What kind of menu name is Dirty Matcha Truffle Chocolate Shake?’
Confusing, so confusing.
Still, the taste itself wasn’t bad.
“But I didn’t expect to be rejected so firmly.”
It had already been an hour since I left the Magic Tower, but Choi Young-ok’s answer, which I hadn’t anticipated at all, kept replaying in my head.
-…I’m sorry, but a professor at the Magic Tower can’t personally teach a student who doesn’t belong to their laboratory. Especially during vacation.
Honestly, I thought she would readily help.
Compared to the time with Jeon Hye-sung, I thought it was a request that could be easily granted.
“It can’t be helped.”
I couldn’t throw a tantrum there, and I was already indebted enough for the help I received from Jeon Hye-sung last time.
Besides, if you asked if I got nothing at all, that wasn’t true either.
-Oh, right. I almost forgot. Are you free in two days?
-In two days? Yes, well… I don’t have any special plans.
-That’s great. Then, would you like to meet my granddaughter that day?
The first meeting with my arranged date, which was finally set, was approaching in two days.
Honestly, I’m freaking nervous.
The photo I received from Choi Young-ok showed a beautiful female mage who wouldn’t pale in comparison even if Iris and Chun Yeo-hwa were used as comparisons.
“Suddenly, I’m overflowing with luck with women.”
I don’t know if it’s luck or trouble, but as someone who’s never been on a blind date in my life, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. In a good way or a bad way.
I was nervous and excited.
Ding-
As I was sipping on the strangely named drink, a text message came to my phone.
[S Bank]
[Withdrawal ₩200,000]
[Balance ₩22,171,280]
“Ah, rent.”
It’s already rent day.
Thanks to selling the magic stones, I no longer had to struggle with rent, but my heart ached every time I saw the remaining balance of only 20 million won, which was left after buying various survival supplies before meeting Chun Yeo-hwa.
“…Should I go to a gate?”
Thanks to my mage registration card, I could enter gates even without a hunter license.
Moreover, if I was a mage, even parties stronger than me would be eager to take me, so it would be good to get a free ride.
‘In the underground dungeon, I wasn’t a rear support class but more like a warrior.’
Thinking about it now, I felt a bit wronged.
I’m a mage, a noble, not an untouchable warrior!
But why was I dodging the swords wielded by monsters and becoming a hedgehog from arrows?
It was time to return to being a mage, one of the two pillars of nobility along with healers.
“Or maybe learning swordsmanship would be good.”
To properly use the ‘Imperial Army’s Magic Sword’ I bought last time, it was right to learn swordsmanship.
Not only that, but learning swordsmanship would also involve exercise, so it would be a good opportunity to improve my stamina and strength.
In fact, I realized that my stamina was lacking during the last underground dungeon and the mountain trip with Chun Yeo-hwa.
Fortunately, thanks to the magic assistance, I never collapsed from exhaustion, but I couldn’t always rely on magic.
I realized that the more solid the foundation, the higher the efficiency you could get with the same amount of magic.
“I wonder if there’s a place near my house that teaches swordsmanship or something that uses the body.”
Actually, learning proper swordsmanship costs a lot of money.
Some expensive places have annual fees in the billions of won.
Of course, I had no intention of going to such places. I didn’t have the money, and I just needed a place that could properly teach me the basic movements of cutting, stabbing, and swinging.
“…Oh? There’s one near my house?”
I used the map app to see if there was a swordsmanship dojo near my house, and there really was one.
[Full Moon Swordsmanship Dojo]
I didn’t expect there to be a dojo around that shantytown.
“Hmm… Should I go there first? If it’s a good place, I’ll register, and if not, I’ll have to look for another one.”
After that, I was thinking of going to a gate or something to earn some money.
What’s the point of resting?
I should earn some money.
I had to work diligently to pay off the lease deposit loan and buy a foreign car to drive around.
***
A 10-minute walk from home.
There really was a swordsmanship dojo there. However, due to the nature of the shantytown, most of the buildings looked severely dilapidated, so it looked really run-down.
I was surprised that there was even a store operating in a place like this. Even convenience stores were closing down in this neighborhood because there were no people.
“I wonder if anyone even registers?”
I felt like if I signed up for a year, it would close down in two months.
Still, it was a waste of time to go back like this. I should at least look inside before deciding.
I carefully entered the building.
Ting-a-ling-
When I opened the door to the dojo on the second floor, a fairly spacious and clean interior welcomed me.
Of course, it was accompanied by a desolate landscape with not a single person.
“…Are they even open?”
“Then would they have the lights on if they were closed?”
“?!”
I was startled and turned around at the presence I felt behind me.
There stood a woman who looked two heads shorter than me.
‘Since when…?’
Until this woman answered, I hadn’t even thought or noticed that someone was behind me.
Having fought monsters in the underground dungeon and even killed bandits, the first thought that came to my mind was that if this were a real battle, my neck would have been cut off without a struggle.
“Scared?”
Moreover, upon closer inspection, she wasn’t human.
With wolf ears on her head and a wolf tail attached to her tailbone, she was a beastkin, boasting the second largest population after humans.
“So, human, what brings you here?”
“Isn’t this a swordsmanship dojo? Of course, I came to look around and consider whether to register or not.”
The beastkin woman looked at me with strange eyes.
By the way, silver hair and golden eyes, even though the appearances of other races are more unique compared to humans, this was almost the first time I had seen something so extravagant.
“Are you a hunter?”
“No.”
It was a bit annoying that she had been speaking informally since earlier, but most wolf beastkin have that kind of personality.
They don’t care at all about whether you’re older than them or if it’s your first time meeting them.
The only time they respect you is if you’re stronger than them, but that’s a tendency that most carnivorous beastkin have.
Anyway, they’re famous for often starting fights on the streets because of their bad temper, and they end up beating the crap out of their opponents because their physical abilities are outstanding.
It wasn’t for nothing that people said to walk past the police station if you wanted to hear a wolf howl.
“1 million won per month.”
“…Excuse me?”
“If you sign up for a year, I’ll give it to you for 11 million won.”
Is this woman crazy?
Even if it’s a swordsmanship dojo, how can she charge 1 million won per month in this old dojo that doesn’t seem to have any students??
“Do you not want to do business?”
Before I knew it, what I was only thinking inside came out of my mouth.
“You have money anyway, right? If you go somewhere else to learn, it’s basically 10 million won per month.”
“Even so, paying 1 million won every month for membership is…”
To be honest, I was leaning towards registering, but 1 million won per month was too expensive.
“Does that sound like that after seeing this?”
Whoo-oong-
What shattered my worries was none other than the clear blue energy emanating from the fingertips of the wolf beastkin woman.
It wasn’t sword energy, which was known to be usable only by skilled individuals of at least B-rank hunters, but sword ki, which was known to be used only by a very small number of monsters called A-rank hunters.
“How is it?”
That day, I paid 11 million won in a lump sum and greeted my teacher.
***
Unlike returning home after successfully registering at the dojo, my head was complicated with unresolved questions.
“Why is someone like that in a swordsmanship dojo in this shantytown?”
I thought about asking her the reason, but I held back because it didn’t seem like it was something I should interfere with.
What if our teacher gets upset and offers a refund?
Learning from an A-rank hunter for only 10 million won a year?
It was obvious that even paying 10 million won for a daily fee would be far from enough.
Isn’t this just a talent donation?
“Full Moon Swordsmanship Dojo… No matter how much I search, it doesn’t come up.”
It was really only marked on the map, and there wasn’t a single post on blogs or cafes.
Of course, there was no information about the wolf beastkin woman who was the master.
If she was that skilled, she would have become famous whether she liked it or not.
I couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy, but I decided to just think about the fact that an A-rank hunter was teaching me directly.
There was no way I could find an answer by worrying about things I didn’t know.
It wouldn’t be too late to think about it later if a problem arose. I had the Otherworld Dating App and the Seongbuk Choi Clan as connections.
“Should I look for a suitable gate now? It’s still daytime, so there might be posts looking for a party.”
After obtaining my mage registration card, I was able to use the hunter-exclusive app operated by the World Hunter Association.
With this, I could find a suitable party without worrying about fake posts, and I could also see the list of gates that were currently available for entry.
“D-rank party…”
Unfortunately, the only party that seemed suitable for me to join right now was a D-rank party.
To be honest, I wanted to get a free ride as a mage, but a D-rank party was a bit…
If I were to compare my current skills to hunter ranks, I would be around D+ rank. The guys I dealt with in the underground dungeon were either D-rank or D+ rank.
But if I joined a D-rank party, it wouldn’t be a free ride, but rather me becoming the bus driver.
“Well, there’s no suitable place…”
Beep-beep-beep-
As I was looking through the party recruitment posts, a call came from an unknown number.
Is it a voice phishing scam?
“Hello?”
-Hello.
I heard a strange woman’s voice over the phone. It was also a slightly low-toned, sexy voice.
-Are you Kang Hyun-woo?
“Yes, but who is this?”
Among the women I knew, there was no one who could get 5 million subscribers just by doing ASMR.
No, I didn’t even know any women in the first place.
-This is Choi Hye-na. Did you hear about me from my grandmother?
“Ah.”
I wondered who it was, but it was my arranged date.
-I suddenly have something to do in two days, so would it be possible to meet tonight instead?
