Chapter 71

< Blacksmith Debut (1) >

“Auntie, Auntie, Auntie!!”

As soon as I turned the corner of the hallway, I ran into Yelim, who had just gotten off the elevator. She said she was going to tackle a B-grade dungeon, but it seems she’s already finished. She must have come up after cleaning up in the maintenance room; she’s wearing a light tracksuit and her hair is still damp.

“That’s the new monster you brought back, right?”

“Yeah, this is Blue, the Golden Griffin.”

“So cute! Can I hold it?”

Pis might be averse to it, but Blue should be fine. He’s already looking at Yelim with curious eyes.

- Squeak!

When I lifted the creature in my arms and extended it towards her, Blue approached her on his own. Yelim opened her arms wide and hugged Blue.

“Really cute! The fur is so soft! It smells like ice cream?”

She must have just finished eating a big tub of it.

- Squeak, Squeak!

“Pis was golden jelly, but this one is pink jelly? Let me see your paws, I want to bite them! Blue~.”

Blue’s tail is wagging like a fan, as if he knows he’s being pampered. Despite being a mix of an eagle and a lion, he’s as friendly as a puppy.

“To be honest, your naming sense is so typical, Uncle.”

“······What?”

“Sure, Pis is fine, but what’s with Piyak and Blue? The unicorns are White and Black, right? Even a country dog wouldn’t be called Whitey and Blacky. It’s totally like an uncle.”

“Well, it’s straightforward, short, and good.”

Easy to recognize and comfortable... Is that what you think is the best, Uncle? No, even before the regression, I was only thirty.

“But where were you going? To the training room?”

“To meet someone from the Hunter Association.”

“Oh, then I’ll go with you! Lately, I’ve only been going out with the Guild Master! I’m the one who promised to protect Uncle Seal.”

“You’ve been busy with the dungeon, though.”

And you’ll be even busier in the future. You need to form your own S-grade team. I should help you a bit.

After entrusting Blue to the hunter on duty today, we went downstairs. When I saw Yoo-hyun, I felt that he hasn’t been doing much work lately compared to Yelim. Especially the most important dungeon strategies.

“Haven’t you been going to the dungeon lately? Don’t you need to manage the S-grade dungeons?”

If the strategy information for a lower S-grade dungeon is complete, an A-grade team can handle it, but otherwise, an S-grade hunter is needed. Although the number of S-grade dungeons managed by Hae-yeon is still small, it’s not as if he can play around.

“I have to go in within ten days.”

Yoo-hyun looked at me with a worried expression.

“Once you start an S-grade dungeon, you have to be away for at least a week, so I’ve been putting it off as much as possible. The reason I kept my distance from you was also due to the S-grade dungeon strategy period. I can’t pay attention to anything once I’m in the dungeon.”

The strategy period for an S-grade dungeon is at least a week if there’s strategy information, but it can take over a month for the first attempt. Even with sufficient information, it can take over two weeks if the compatibility is bad.

Regularly being away for such a long time is one of the biggest weaknesses of a guild with an S-grade hunter as the guild master. Not just the guild master, but even the elite senior hunters have to leave en masse. Moreover, you can’t contact them or have them come out midway. Later, large guilds had at least two S-grade hunters, so this weakness disappeared.

“Now that I’m here, you should go in soon, Yoo-hyun.”

Yelim clung to my arm and said.

“I’ll take good care of Uncle. Since he’s been working hard in the dungeon, he can take a ten-day vacation and stay by my side. This is a good time to see my skills, and we can go to a dungeon together? Or how about an escape room cafe? I’ve wanted to go for a long time, but it’s too expensive.”

An escape room cafe. I’ve never been to one.

“Have you been, Yoo-hyun?”

“···What’s that?”

······Oh my, is that something a twenty-year-old should say? I feel like crying. Isn’t this the time to enjoy the latest trends?

“You should come with us.”

“Oh, I was planning to go with Uncle alone!”

“He hasn’t been either.”

“······Alright. We don’t have to go just once. How about we go today while we’re at it?”

“Sure, if there’s no problem.”

I nodded lightly and got into the car.

After a long drive, we arrived not at the Hunter Association but at the Awakening Center, which was still not open. Unlike the Association building, this place, located on the outskirts of Seoul, is designed to take over the Association’s functions in emergencies.

The building attached to the round, dome-shaped Awakening Center is the second Hunter Association. Technically, the Awakening Center was added later, but to the public, it’s still known as the new Hunter Association building.

“I’ll look for a good cafe!”

Yelim waved her arms and said.

Looking at the new building under the sunlight, my stomach felt a bit uneasy. It’s a place with no good memories, quite the opposite. The stairs, which haven’t been walked on much, are still shiny. There’s nothing around. No fluttering banners, no gathered reporters.

It’s quiet.

“What are you waiting for?”

When I stopped, Yoo-hyun looked at me curiously.

“I was just looking around.”

I answered casually and continued walking. I never wanted to come here again, but it’s not as unpleasant as I thought. Maybe it’s because it’s like it never happened, or maybe it’s due to my resistance to fear.

“Why did you start a fight with Myeong-woo when I told you to be nice to him?”

I asked as we climbed the stairs. What were you planning to do if he didn’t make the weapon?

“It wasn’t a fight; I was checking how he feels about you. Since you’ve been hiding something. If he resented you over that, I couldn’t just leave it be.”

“You answered well when I told you not to provoke him.”

“His skills are too good, making him dangerous.”

“Myeong-woo isn’t that kind of person, and I’ll tell him everything first.”

“If anything goes wrong, you must tell me. Don’t hide it.”

“······Okay.”

I don’t think our relationship will become hostile, but if it does, Myeong-woo could be a dangerous opponent, as Yoo-hyun said.

It might be fine, but... maybe I should have handled it better.

I opened the door and went inside. The building was empty. The long desk was still covered in plastic. I wondered if it was necessary to call me here. We could have just met at the nearby Association building. Apart from the guide standing at the entrance to the corridor, there was no one.

“This is the core of the Awakening Center, the Awakening Room.”

The guide stopped in the round lobby and said. There are five doors on all sides except for the entrance. It seemed small back then, but it’s quite spacious now that it’s empty.

The inside of the Awakening Room was still incomplete. After taking a quick look around, we headed to where the Hunter Association President and other high-ranking officials were waiting.

“The A-grade and B-grade hunters sent by Hunter Han Yu-jin have successfully awakened.”

The Vice President, who looked a bit younger than the President, said. Two hunters’ profile materials were placed in front of me.

I had sent the A-grade and B-grade combat-type unawakened individuals I found while looking for special skill owners to the Association to prove my skills and get cooperation for the Awakening Center.

Looking at the materials, the A-grade hunter got two out of the three optimized skills, and the B-grade hunter got all three. Indeed, combat-type individuals are relatively easier to optimize.

“As you can see, five out of the six skills I mentioned in advance have successfully awakened. Following your advice, I created situations based on the predicted abilities from the skill names. Although Hunter Kang Dong-hoon’s B-grade skill is a bit disappointing, I clearly felt the power of Hunter Han Yu-jin’s unawakened status window check skill.”

“Then we can expect a positive response.”

Since I’ve given them high-grade hunters, they should live up to it.

“If Hunter Han Yu-jin successfully awakens the special skill, we can’t refuse to cooperate.”

This time, the President spoke.

“Moreover, establishing a system where visits to the Awakening Center are only possible after status window verification by Hunter Han Yu-jin is also welcome. How about making it a center for unawakened aptitude confirmation?”

“···I think that’s a bit excessive.”

Are you trying to put me in a difficult position?

“First, I can’t handle a large number of people with my current abilities. My skill level is high, but my stat level is low. If I set a restriction that I must check everyone first, I’ll be the one getting the most complaints... Surely that’s not your intention.”

“Ha ha ha, of course not.”

The President waved his hand, but I didn’t believe him. As long as there are choices and it’s private, even if I only accept two hundred people a day, I’ll get fewer complaints.

“It’s their own choice, so there’s nothing I can do. I can’t take care of everyone individually.”

I’ve done enough.

Apart from trying to give me more unnecessary work, the Association was cooperative. They only told me not to destroy the escape room cafe a hundred times. Is it just my eyes, or do I see Yelim and Blue overlapping? Still, Yelim can understand what I’m saying.

“Uncle, let’s come together next time! Just the two of us!”

Stop joking.

Returning to Hae-yeon, I went to the unicorns in the training room before going up to the dormitory floor. Yelim followed me, saying she wanted to see.

“Whitey, Blacky, hello~. Which one is the girl?”

“The black one.”

“Hey, you’re cute. Come here.”

Yelim reached out her hand to the black unicorn, Black. The unicorn perked up its ears and bit her hand.

“Ahaha, ticklish, Blacky~.”

“You should tell him not to bite. If he gets used to it, it could become a habit. For you, it might be ticklish, but for an unawakened person, a finger could be bitten off.”

“Oh no. No, Blacky!”

- Puff!

Black jumped back in surprise at Yelim’s light slap. He looked around and then came to hide behind me. The white one followed.

“Hey, why are you hiding? That Uncle is weaker than my pinky!”

The pinky was a bit much. He might be weak, but not that much.

After taking care of the unicorns’ food, I also picked up Blue. The hunter who took care of him looked at me with a sympathetic expression, saying, “You must have had a hard time.” At least I don’t have to worry about money, or I might have cried if I were poor.

“Pis, Piyak. How have you been?”

- Kyeong!

- Piyak!

When Pis barked sternly, Blue slipped out of my arms. Our Blue, it seems, has learned something.

After bringing the side dishes Yelim asked for and taking care of the kids, it was evening, and Myeong-woo still hadn’t shown up. Even when Blue and Piyak fell asleep and Pis started dozing off, there was still no news.

‘I can’t contact him either.’

The Golden Blacksmith’s Forge is like a subspace, so the phone doesn’t work, just like in a dungeon. There’s no way to contact him unless he comes out first.

Is he really in the forge? He sometimes stays up all night, but he always comes out for meals. Don’t you need to eat properly to do hard work? Why isn’t he coming out?

Worried, I couldn’t sleep all night. When morning came, I let Blue out, who crowed like a rooster on time. I was thinking about finding a way to contact him in the subspace when Myeong-woo finally appeared.

“Hey! If you’re going to be in the forge for so long, you should at least say something! I was worried something might have happened inside!”

“Sorry.”

He said he was sorry, but his face was beaming. His eyes were dark from lack of sleep, but his expression was bright. Something good must have happened, obvious enough to tell.

“I couldn’t stop halfway.”

As he said this, Myeong-woo took something out of his inventory. It was a spear about two meters long. The coldness emanating from the blade to the shaft was not ordinary.

“Is this...”

“Here.”

When I took the spear Myeong-woo offered, a simple item description window appeared.

[Parmini’s Ice Tree Spear ? S-grade

A spear made by a skilled craftsman from an old ice tree branch. It contains powerful cold energy.]

An S-grade weapon.

The ratio increase didn’t raise my stats much, but I gained a new skill.

[Ice Attribute Enhancement (S)]

Ice attribute enhancement, and it’s S-grade. When I used the ‘My Baby’ skill on Yelim, it showed A-grade ice attribute enhancement. An S-grade attribute enhancement.

······Has Yelim saved a lot?

“Finally, you’ve made an S-grade weapon!”

I gave him an admiring look, and Myeong-woo shrugged.

“Luckily, it succeeded on the first try. It was tough, staying up all night. It should be easier from the second time.”

“I didn’t expect you to grow so fast. At this rate, you’ll make an SS-grade weapon soon.”

“That might be a bit difficult. Ismuar can only assist up to S-grade weapons. But I do have something in preparation.”

Indeed, SS-grade equipment is tough. Still, this is impressive. It’s really amazing.

“There’s no more reason to delay. You should reveal your name.”

Originally, I suggested debuting as a blacksmith hunter when he made an A-grade weapon, but Myeong-woo refused. He said he would come out after making an S-grade weapon.

“Right. Now I can come out confidently.”

Myeong-woo nodded with a smile. I smiled back, then remembered something I had put off.

I need to pay taxes before it’s too late.

“Myeong-woo. There’s something I haven’t told you.”

“What is it?”

“Actually, we weren’t originally acquaintances. I think I was mistaken.”

I added an excuse and confessed.

“Is that so?”

Myeong-woo replied. And that was it. Wait, what? Why is his reaction like this?

< Blacksmith Debut (1) > End

ⓒ Geun-seo