SSS-Grade Cafe in Front of The Dungeon

Translated by cabinfourtranslations.

“Huaaaaaaaaaah, please save me!”

Reporter Choi Sera hid behind my back. Then, as if she had witnessed something dreadful, she tightly closed her eyes and trembled in fear.

Ki Yoohyun was the first to stand up and assume a defensive stance. Other Hunters who had been enjoying the beach nearby also watched us, preparing to respond to the unexpected situation.

What could be behind us that makes her so frightened? I felt my heart racing with tension as I looked behind Choi Sera.

Behind her was … huh?

“An octopus……?”

“……It’s an octopus.”

A small octopus, about the size of a human palm, was attached to her. Its body was an unusual pale yellow, making it quite cute. I removed the octopus from Choi Sera’s back.

The octopus laid calmly in the palm of my hand. It didn’t look particularly dangerous, but Choi Sera was very distressed.

At that moment, the man who followed Choi Sera bowed his head to us. He looked very tired, and his name was Lee Jikyung.

“I’m sorry about this. You must have been really surprised. Sera-noonim is afraid of cephalopods. Noonim, it’s gone now. Please pull yourself together.”

Choi Sera, who had regained a bit of composure, lifted her body. However, she still turned her head away from the octopus and muttered as if it was something dreadful.

“Ugh … why does it keep following me? I really hate it…..”

“I think it’s because of this.”

Lee Jikyung took something out of Choi Sera’s pocket. It was a small, half-eaten bag of almonds. The octopus seemed to like the smell of almonds, as it shuddered and tried to approach Choi Sera again.

“WAAAAAAAAAH!”

Choi Sera screamed, threw the bag of almonds away, and ran as far away as she could.

It’s a relief that it’s nothing serious, but what should we do with this octopus? Should we return it to the sea? Its short legs and round body make it look unusually different for an octopus.

Tiling tiling!

Just then, I heard the system’s loud notification.

[The reward for ‘Sub Quest: For a Perfect Summer Vacation’ has arrived.

Ancient Creature: Great Kraken (A) has been summoned.

Please take good care of this ancient creature so that it can live happily.]

This octopus’s name was Great Kraken. Despite the great name, its appearance was far from great.

Oh dear, the name is such a mismatch. As I thought that, I was about to turn off the system notification when I was suddenly startled by the presented fact.

What……? Wait, this octopus is a reward?

What does that suddenly mean? What am I supposed to do if they give me a live octopus as a reward?

I stared at the octopus again, dumbfounded. The octopus just stuck to the palm of my hand as if it knew nothing about this situation.

“Rieul-ssi, what’s wrong…..?”

“This octopus is my quest reward. What should I do with it?”

It was then.

Splash! Suddenly, the octopus sprayed water at me. The amount was so much that it was hard to believe it came from such a small body, and I got completely soaked from head to toe.

“Cough, cough!”

I could taste the saltiness of seawater in my mouth, and the wet clothes clung to my body, making me feel uncomfortable. I hadn’t even gotten to enjoy the beach yet, but here I was, covered in seawater.

“Ugh, salty… … .”

“Rieul-ssi, are you okay?”

“No, it’s too salty…….”

Was this the reason Choi Lona told me to prepare a change of clothes? Her tone was so meaningful that I packed extra clothes, but I never expected to get splashed with water by an octopus.

“By the way, where did you find this octopus?”

I observed the octopus, which had calmed down again after splashing a bunch of water, and asked Lee Jikyung.

“That’s, uh, that … we found it behind the bingsu store in the market.”

By the bingsu store in the market, did he mean Lee Soojin’s store? If so, could it be….

“Did you cause the power outage?”

Whether it understood my words or not, the octopus showed no reaction.

Then, was this octopus also responsible for the Hunter Channel error and the broken duck boat?

Eh, no way. It’s so small and cute, there’s no way it had enough power to destroy Ether ore or a duck boat.

“Ah, octopus!”

Suddenly, the octopus slipped out of my hand. I tried to grab it again, but this small octopus was surprisingly quick. It slid smoothly across the sandy beach and into the seawater, where it opened its mouth and sucked in the seawater.

“HUH, Yoohyun-ssi, look … look at that!”

The more seawater the octopus swallowed, the larger it grew. It didn’t even take a few minutes for the octopus, which used to be small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, to grow to twice the size of a person. It truly had a great appearance, worthy of the name “Great Kraken“.

What is it trying to do? The tension reached its peak at the unexpected turn of events.

“’Huh? It’s an octopus! Wow, it’s so cute! An octopus!”

A nearby swimmer was intrigued by the octopus and approached it. I didn’t have time to tell him to be careful, because I didn’t know what to expect.

The octopus looked at the person approaching and…….

Splaaaash!

It spewed out water. The swimmer screamed as he was suddenly splashed with water, and this time the Octopus used its massive size to create waves.

Swoosh, splash!

“Hahaha! This is fun! Do it again!” A child, swimming while holding onto a float board, shouted in an excited voice.

The octopus splashed water at the kid, swallowed some seawater, and splashed it again. As I watched the sight, I could only think of one thing.

Is this a water park……?

“It seems like … it’s just playing around, doesn’t it?” Ki Yoohyun said as he kept his eyes on the octopus, which was creating waves for the surfers, “It doesn’t seem to have much strength. It doesn’t appear to be dangerous, so there doesn’t seem to be a need to deal with it right away.”

It’s cute, it’s not dangerous, and it’s a great source of water fun, so it’s truly a useful octopus. It’s useful, but…….

I already had three animals in my house that were good eaters but never listened to me. I also didn’t have a tank, so it would be difficult to keep an octopus.

[Please take good care of this ancient creature so that it can live happily.]

The phrase in the system window appeared clearly before my eyes.

What did they want me to do with this octopus…….

I had a headache.

***

A 3-nights, 4-days summer vacation.

Contrary to my plan to spend the time leisurely doing nothing, the remaining days of the vacation passed by in a blur.

The octopus, with its not-so-mismatched name, Great Kraken, stayed at the beach and showcased various tricks. The beachgoers also enjoyed playing with the octopus. Particularly, its action of spraying a large amount of seawater at once became so popular that starting the next day, people lined up in front of the octopus.

“Kraken from the Abyss, summon the waves!”

“You idiot, I’m going first!”

“I’m first in line, you idiot!”

Ash and the twins especially loved it.

And the appearance of this octopus was even reported in the news under the headline “An Unique Sight at the Late Summer Beach“.

Was it just my imagination, or did Reporter Choi Sera’s face look tense as she held the microphone? Despite being afraid of cephalopods, she had to report in front of the octopus. I felt bad for her because she must be having a tough time.

According to the investigation, it was revealed that the power outage at the bingsu shop, the Hunter Channel going down, and the duck boat breaking all happened because of the octopus. It took a considerable amount of time to resolve the issue.

But there was one more problem the octopus caused.

“Mieum-ah, stop! No, no. You took a bath the day before yesterday. Stop!”

“Great Kraken, play with me too! Nyaaaaah!”

Swiiiish! The octopus fired a powerful water jet at the cat running towards it. The problem was that the octopus not only sprayed seawater, but also ink.

“Kyakyakyaogh?!”

Mieum, who was attacked by ink, turned completely black.

In the end, I had to bathe Mieum again. As I wiped away the ink that kept coming off no matter how much I wiped, I muttered to myself, “Should I take the octopus home and leave Mieum here?”

“Wa-waeung…..”

Mieum’s eyes darted around as if she knew she’d done something wrong.

I said that to tease Mieum, but no matter how I thought about it, it seemed impossible to take the octopus home. Even if I prepared a tank, it would be hard for the octopus to live in our store, so far from the sea. There was no seawater in the space either.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Look at that kid. It couldn’t stay still for a moment and kept spraying water. With such an active personality, it would be so frustrating for it to be stuck in our store.

That said, it was also difficult to find someone suitable to adopt the octopus.

Since it was an ancient creature, a kind of wild octopus, I thought about releasing it into the sea. However, it was too cute and had become famous among the beachgoers. So, unless I leave it in a trustworthy place, I wouldn’t feel at ease.

[Please take good care of this ancient creature so that it can live happily.]

I kept getting notifications like this, so it seemed like they wanted me to do something.

“What do you want me to do with this….”

As I agonized over the octopus, a saving hand reached out to me. It was the Tamer, the owner of the Gangneung Natural Monster Ranch.

“Is that true? You’re going to take care of the Great Kraken?”

“Yes, our ranch’s large tank is still empty. If it’s alright with you, I would like to take care of it on a deposit basis.”

I took the octopus to the ranch and inspected the tank. I couldn’t just leave the octopus there without checking the living conditions, so I planned to examine everything carefully.

The tank was large and sturdy enough for the active octopus to swim and play in. In addition, the ranch owner was well-versed in the ecology of marine monsters. He would even take the octopus on walks to the sea three times a week, so it was the perfect arrangement.

I signed a deposit contract to leave the octopus at the ranch, paying a fixed monthly fee.

“Please take good care of our Great Kraken.”

“Please trust me and leave it with us.”

It seemed like I had grown attached to it after seeing it for three days. I turned my steps away after watching the octopus happily swimming in the tank.

By the time I finished these various tasks and returned to the resort, night had fallen. Ki Yoohyun was waiting for me at the beach.

The ocean at night was beautiful. We walked slowly until we found a cozy spot to sit down.

Just then, a fireworks display started not far away. The colorful sparks beautifully embroidered the dark sky. I stared at the fireworks blankly and muttered to myself.

“I can’t believe we have to go back home tomorrow morning….”

Completely opposite to my summer vacation plan of doing nothing and lazing around as much as my heart desired, it was a very busy and hectic 3-nights, 4-days trip.

But wasn’t there something magical about the late summer night sea and fireworks?

Nevertheless, as I sat here watching the fireworks, I started to feel like it was okay to just go with the flow and accept that things were just fine the way they were.

I raised my arms and did some light stretches.

Haha, anyway, I had a good time.

<SIDE STORY 1&2 COMPLETED>

If you enjoy this translation, you can buy me cup of coffee through /cabinfour!

Translator’s Corner:

Omg this chapter made me miss water park…. (I last visited like … 7 years ago maybe? for school lesson? I cant swim).

Aaaaand that’s it. We’re finished omg this time for real_completely_final_fixed_ending. Maybe I will come back when there’s a new side story but for now there doesn’t seem to be any, so this is the time we part ways~

As I already ranted a lot in TN before, I started this when I just started attending university in an unfamiliar city, but now I’m already graduated. Time really passed so fast … is it just me or time actually pass faster these days…. I blinked and suddenly it’s a new month.

Thank you so much for reading this with me all this time, sorry I’m still lacking and made a lot of typos! I disappeared a lot of because of, you know the usual college students difficult and depressing phase, so it was such a relief I could finish it to the very end T_T I will go to read the comments after this…… Please don’t forget to show the original works with a lot of love too! We need that manhwa adaption….

And since was already the first of December, in advance, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish you all have a good end-of-year moments, and I wish you will continue to be happy and healthy in 2025! Until next time!

Thank you Kel for the Coffee!

(EDIT: Since I couldnt do a shout out for the chapters on next chapter anymore since there’s no next chapter, any coffees for this series that received after this chapter will be put down here. Thank you so much for your support!)