Han-ryeong sighed like he agreed.
[…..it’s at least a masterpiece.]
Under normal circumstances it wouldn’t have been completed even in half a year. Had Henova pulled all-nighters making this?
[Those crazy bastards, though. They offered what? 60,000? Are they blind, or are they trying to rip him off? That’s what they’re living in the outer sections of the Tower!]
Shanon looked like he was ready to leave any moment. Because he quickly blocked him so he couldn’t move, but a murderous intent flowed from his shadow.
The players all turned pale. Some even wet themselves and plopped themselves. Some even quickly ran away so Yeon-woo couldn’t see them.
Yeon-woo stood there for a while like that.
Then Han-ryeong spoke in a trembling voice.
[Sir…..]
‘What?’
[Is it possible for you to…..check mine?]
He wanted to quickly see his swords as well.
Yeon-woo bitterly smiled and put the sword breaker and the other swords into Intrenian.
Two shadows stretched out and entered the subspace.
They would probably be busy for a while.
Yeon-woo shook his head and opened the door to the smithy.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Henova was hammering some metal down in front of the fire.
“Fuck! Why are you here?”
“I brought items for 10,000,000. I think you’re being too rude to your customer.”
“This bastard again…..?”
Henova really felt like he would throw the hammer in his hand away.
Yeon-woo grimaced and smiled. He had subconsciously teased him. It was like a passive skill now.
He dipped his head.
“Sorry.”
Henova’s hand stopped midair while trying to throw the hammer. His forehead was wrinkled.
“What?”
“Sorry for not delivering news about me. I could’ve let you know that I was gonna be late, but it was my mistake.”
“…..”
It was hard for Henova to throw the hammer since this was how Yeon-woo was coming out. He put down the hammer and put his pipe in his mouth.
While he inhaled the smoke, it was silent.
“I.”
It was Henova who broke the silence.
“No longer want to lose anyone.”
“…..”
“I don’t want to be bothered by those things, and have to go through that again.”
Yeon-woo shut his mouth.
“Just keep that in mind.”
He returned to his hammer.
Yeon-woo silently looked at him and went to stand next to him in front of the fire.
He picked up a hammer as well.
Some time later, the sound of the two clanging metal together could be heard from the smithy.
***
Yeon-woo pulled out his Carshina’s Dagger.
It was a short sword that he had used well since his newbie days in the Tutorial.
If it didn’t have the option of ‘User’s Will’ he would’ve thrown it away already.
It was only a D+, and the blade was extremely dull from the use.
But he was used to it, so he tried to fix it and use it. However, it was now hard to do anything more with it now, perhaps because his training on the 20th floor had been too intense.
Normally, Yeon-woo would have thrown it away without any hesitation. He had plenty of other swords inside Intrenian, and he could probably make a better sword than this.
But he wasn’t able to throw away Carshina’s Dagger.
Probably because he still had lingering feelings for it. He had gotten fond of it. This was probably because it was a sword he had used from the Tutorial.
So Yeon-woo was determined to try to fix the dagger even if it would take some work.
He even had good materials now, especially the Tail Snake’s shedding.
It was tough and study, and it had the property of poison immunity.
He thought it would go nicely with Carshina’s Dagger for some reason.
[Draconic Eyes]
He opened his new eyes and observed the flaws along the dagger.
Then, he separated the blade from the handle and adjusted the blade on the table with the tool. When it was tightly in place, he brought down the hammer powerfully.
After repeating the hammering several times, the blade was divided into 5 pieces. He put them each into the fire and watched them redden with heat.
He silently watched the process and then pulled out the shedding from his bag, shaking it lightly so it would become more neat and tough.
Yeon-woo continued pulling out things from Intrenian. There were minerals he had received as hidden pieces, and of them, there were the few Orichhalcons he managed to get.
Orichhalcon was extremely tough, so it was traded expensively.
He halved it and put it into the fire.
Then he waited for it to melt.
Orichhalcon didn’t melt easily, so he didn’t forget to input his Holy Fire into the fire as well.
With this, Henova, who was trying to ignore Yeon-woo, couldn’t focus on what he was doing and observed Yeon-woo.
He was just upset at Yeon-woo, not too mad. And when Yeon-woo had apologized, he was feeling better now.
He couldn’t find the opportunity to speak to Yeon-woo because of his pride.
But when Yeon-woo started getting those materials out, his gaze immediately focused on them.
He was curious about how Yeon-woo had gotten them, as he was also worried as well.
Yeon-woo slightly smiled seeing Henova peek at him. He could just ask if he was curious. He really was a prideful person.
And that was probably why he was so easily teased.
Since Yeon-woo had been the one to make the mistake, he decided to lower himself.
“Uh, Henova.”
“Hmph! What?”
Henova quickly whipped his head around, pretending like he wasn’t watching, and snorted. But Yeon-woo didn’t miss how his ears twitched.
Yeon-woo barely pushed down the laughter coming up and spoke.
“I want to make a dagger. Could I ask for some help?”
“How can someone who learned metallurgy from me not be able to make something as simple as this?”
“It’s because I lack the skills. I can fix things or make simple items, but creating something is completely new territory.”
Yeon-woo put some emphasis on his words.
“But aren’t you my metallurgy teacher? And you’re an artisan as well. Of course I need your help.”
Twitch twitch. Henova’s ear continued to move up and down. His ear was slightly red. It seemed he was embarrassed.
Like it was nice for him to hear the words ‘teacher’ and ‘artisan,’ he lightly coughed.
“Ahem! Well, if you say so. Fine. So what are you curious about?”
“Actually, I got some good materials this time.”
“Hm? Materials?”
Yeon-woo realized that Henova was starting to move closer to him and began to prepare the bait.
“Would you like to see?”
“Pull it out.”
Yeon-woo pulled out the shell pieces and the Void Dragon’s abyss, along with some minerals.
Momentarily, Henova’s gaze changed.
“You, is this…..?”
“This is what I got as a reward from the Abyss Turtle and Void Dragon. And these minerals are…..”
Henova had heard roughly about what Yeon-woo went through on the 11th floor from Edora and Phante.
But his eyes were widened because he didn’t expect this to happen.
Minerals like Orichhalcons weren’t actually that hard to come by. They might be expensive, but he could get if if he needed to.
But shell pieces and void were different. These were priceless.
Because they were things that you couldn’t get unless you killed Legendary Beasts.
But Yeon-woo nonchalantly put them in front of him. Of course, Henova would be flipped out by something like this. He could feel the artisan’s passion in him burning up. His fingers were itchy.
“Ahem! What…what are you going to do with these?”
Henova tried to hide his excitement and asked in the most serious voice he could muster. But he couldn’t help how his voice trembled a bit.
Yeon-woo lightly grinned seeing that Henova had taken the bait. He was thankful he was wearing a mask at times like this.
“I want to re-equip my overall equipment.”
Henova’s gaze sunk.
“Re-equipment, you say.”
“Yes. It’s been a while, and I’ve changed a lot as well.”
“I guess. It is time to re-equip.”
It had been a long time since Yeon-woo first got his equipment when he entered the Tower.
Even if you took care of your equipment, it would become ruined, and as a player’s fighting style changed, their equipment needed to change as well.
So players usually re-quipped their equipment every 5 floors on average.
They got rid of equipment they didn’t need and found new options that their property and abilities fit the best.
Since Yeon-woo hadn’t re-equipped once, he was a bit late now.
Of course, Yeon-woo’s equipment was much better than what players on the lower floors had.
Vigrid, Aegis, and the Despair of the Black King. Gyes’s Eyes and the Magic Bayonet also went along well with his skills as well.
The Carshina’s Dagger and Goblin King’s eye from the Tutorial were a bit old now, but Yeon-woo still used them well.
‘Since my battle methods are pretty varied. Although I intended to make my skill tree go this way.’
This was what Yeon-woo had intended from the beginning.
Yeon-woo had planned on awakening his Dragon Body anyway, so he had tried to grow his strength with that in mind. He focused on his dexterity, movement, and senses.
Because he had trained in the military in Africa, he knew how to judge himself rationally.
And the Despair of the Black King had just landed in his lap.
Also, Yeon-woo was strong because he didn’t focus on his magic artifacts and tried to train himself instead.
But now, he was feeling the need to switch it up.
When he learned Aura on the 20th floor, his body had gone through immense growth.
He needed something to support it. He felt like his body needed something else..
He also wanted to have it done before he challenged the 21st floor, but the desire to change himself was the greatest.
“…..that’s how it happened.”
Yeon-woo explained what happened to him to Henova.
Honova would probably be able to tell him the answer.
“Hm.”
Yeon-woo waited for Henova to finish organizing his thoughts. And after a few hours passed, Henova slowly lifted his pipe from his mouth.
“So you’re saying since you have a lot of money, you change to change everything about you, is that right?”
“Yes.”
“And to want to be involved in some of it?”
“I know it’s greedy, but I think that what I make for myself will be best for me.”
Henova burst out laughing.
“That’s a good idea. An item has to fit with their owner.”
Yeon-woo didn’t just bring up fixing Carshina’s dagger to turn Henova’s mind around.
He also had the desire to make an artifact for himself.
Since this was one of the wishes of a player who learned metallurgy.
Also, to learn mechanical magic, he would have to train his metallurgy as well.
“That’s why you gave me that much money.”
Henova looked at Yeon-woo like he was dumbfounded.
“I can’t say that it’s not.”
“You damned…..”
Henova cursed at what Yeon-woo said, but he lightly smiled.
He knew that if Yeon-woo said that, it meant he trusted him. Henova didn’t feel bad at all.
Then he narrowed his eyes.
“Anyways, you leave changing everything to me?”
“Yes.”
“Are you saying that knowing what you’re saying?”
“Yes. I know.”
Yeon-woo heavily nodded his head.
Henova shook his head.
“No. You don’t know. How important this is.”
Making new equipment that fit a player. It might seem simple, but actually, it was outright outrageous.
It meant that a player was revealing everything about himself.
Attributes, stats, properties, skill tree, physique, level of magic power, and future growth…..
It meant that you were showing your weaknesses to the artisan you chose.
If the artisan you chose decided to turn against you, or if the information was leaked, you were done for.
Henova was talking about that.
The being receiving the most attention in the Tower right now was Yeon-woo. After he reached the 50th floor, he would get more attention, but most people knew his name.
But the information known about him was comparatively little.
It was only known that he was skilled in martial arts and facts about his skill tree weren’t known.
There were a lot of places that asked for information about Yeon-woo.
Henova pointed that out and wanted Yeon-woo to think about it a bit more. From what he could tell, Yeon-woo didn’t know how much attention he was receiving as a rookie.
But.
“No. I know well.”
Yeon-woo spoke firmly.
And from his expression, Henova thought of someone else.
A little child who had absolute trust in him.
“…..fine. I’ll help you. But the main is me. You assist me from the side. If you laze off, I’m gonna break your head into pieces with the hammer.”
Under his mask, Yeon-woo laughed.
“I leave it to you.”
And.
From that day, the fire in Henova’s smithy wasn’t extinguished.
