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Descending Down the Mountain
4th sponsored chapter by Peter Yang.
After 3 years of penalties, he felt awkward but glad. Sungmin blinked a few times and looked down at himself. He looked terrible. He lived a year without washing or changing. But he was used to the smell. He lived with it for a while. It just didn’t look good.
Sungmin slowly lifted his foot. His foot… felt light. Not just his foot. His entire body felt light. Sungmin walked a few steps, and laughed quietly.
“And it’s fascinating.”
And muttered. He still heard the cries of cicada. It was from the real ones.
“What should I give  you.”
Mush muttered. To that, Sungmin turned around. Mush was standing there in a twisted position. Sungmin tilted his head after looking at Mush’s thinking face.
“Give what?”
“You survived the hardships from this mountain. 3 years. Recently, there wasn’t anyone like you who had survived for this long. There was no one who took as many penalties as  you either.”
Mush muttered and slightly laughed. A small smoke arose from beside her. A small child rose up from the smoke. It was Plam.
“As a reward for surpassing your despair, I gave you a meeting with the time god. That’s up to you what you get out of the journey though.”
The time god Denis. He had gotten the memories from her. He didn't’ know what he would get, but he was going to go there when he had time.
“That’s the reward for that. For the reward for surviving 3 years… yes. I’ll recommend you to be a member for ‘Ereburisa.’”
Mush nodded after while and muttered. Ereburisa. Sungmin didn’t understand what she meant.
“What is Ereburisa.”
“It’s a mediator guild,”
Mush answered.
“A guild that you can summon from anywhere in the world.”
Mush said that and lifted her hand. It was that moment.
“It’s been a while. The goddess of hardships and penance.’
A man appeared with a calm voice. Sungmin didn’t know where he came from. At this point of view, the man just rose from the shadows of Mush. He was tall and wore a suit. He didn’t look at Sungmin once and bowed to Mush.
“What help do you want”
“I didn’t call you today for that. I want to recommend a new member.”
Mush answered. To that, the man turned around to Sungmin. He made a slightly surprised face.
“Ah… this is… an interesting figure. The soul that defied the principle. You aren’t going to sell the soul, but you’re going to recommend him to be a member?”
“Yes.”
“I feel he’s slightly lacking…”
The man muttered.
“The soul. It’s expensive, but he isn’t qualified enough. Let’s see… martial arts. Skills… it’s not bad. Did he pass the apex yet? How long has he trained here?”
“3 years.”
“3 years of training here and just an apex master. He has diligences and perverservance but not enough talent. Goddess. You know that not everyone can be a member of the guild.”
“That’s why I’m using my recommendation pass.”
Mush answered.
“I believe a member of my quality is able to make an unqualified person a member. I don’t think there wil be any problem?”
“...Hm.”
The man lifted his hands and tapped empty air, and then nodded.
“If you want. Since we have had many transactions with you… we will allow it. We will note him as a new member of the guild.”
The man said and turned around to Sungmin. He bowed down to Sungmin in a polite manner.
“A small contract will be needed. If you could… give you some of your blood.”
“...Blood.”
“Yes. Ah, this contract is only for you to be marked as a new member of the guild. I promise you on my existence that it won’t cause you any harm. Mush will be my witness for this.”
Sungmin looked at Mush. Mush slightly nodded he rhead. After getting the sign, Sungmin bit his finger slightly. Blood came out from the small wound.
“Thank you, Lee Sungmin.”
The blood dropped towards the ground but didn’t touch the dirt. It disappeared in mid air, and the man nodded.
“Your soul has been marked as a new member of Ereburisa. Whenever you want, visit us from your mind. Then the person responsible for you will come to you.”
The man said that and looked at Mush. You can go back. After that, the man disappeared. Sungmin didn’t understand what happened and only stared at Mush. Mush shook her shoulders receiving Sungmin’s glance.
“You call them directly. It’ll be easier than hearing my explanation.”
“...Hmm…”
Sungmin thought of Ereburisa in his mind. That moment. Hwk! Someone came up from his shadows.
“Nice to meet you, Lee Sungmin. I’m called Neville. I will be responsible for you.”
It was a different man than before. The man called Neville had short hair and wore a clean suit. He bowed down to Sungmin, and Sungmin awkwardly bowed back.
“Ah… yes.”
“Is this your first time visiting here?”
Neville asked. Like Mush’s manager didn’t care about Sungmin, Neville didn’t care about Mush. Sungmin only nodded blankly at Neville.
“Then I will give a quick explanation of Ereburisa. Ereburisa is a mediator guild that acts as a mediator for everything that the customer wants. Also, Ereburisa has relationships with other guild like merchant guilds.”
Neville breathed slightly afterwards.
“If you want to buy something, we will buy the object for you. If you want to auction something, we will start the auction. Of course, it’s not for free. We will take a honest commision of 5 percent.”
To that, Sungmin couldn’t help but be surprised. The mediator guild Ereburisa. He didn’t know what a mediator guild was, but that 5 percent commision rate was extremely surprising. Most merchant and mercenary guilds had 15 percent commission, but Ereburisa only had 5.
“If you want a trade, we have connections. If you want a blacksmith, we will contact a skilled blacksmith. If you want information, we will get you information from our partner information guilds. We promise that there is no false information in any information that we sell. Ah, of course. There is an extra 5 percent commission for this as well.”
Now Sungmin started to understand what help Ereburisa gave. It would give anything that Sungmin wanted. To meet a good blacksmith, he had to go to a blacksmith guild. To get information, he needed to go to an information guild. It was easy to say, but the process was hard. Blacksmiths were stubborn and hard to convince.
It was the same for information guilds. It was hard to know if the information was true or false, but in Ereburisa, there was no false information. Of course, he couldn’t completely trust that yet, but there was so much merit in the fact that he didn’t have to run around the place trying to get things.
“If you want emergency money, you can pawn things to us for some money. There are other things, but instead of listening to my explanation of things, it would better if you find them out yourself.”
“...Transactions… do you sell energy potions and martial arts techniques as well? Or magic books…”
Sungmin wondered and asked. Neville smiled and nodded.
“Of course.”
Neville tapped the air a few times. Then, a small screen came up in front of Sungmin. It was similar to the status screen that otherworlders could see.
“You have a search option so try that.”
Neville said. The screen was direct. It was easy to categorize objects by type and by price. Sungmin breathed softly at the objects that they were selling.
The Big Energy Potion.