Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Master Craftsman - 8
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Sylvia touched my shoulder.
Thanks to her, I was able to snap out of my long reminiscence.
"Oppa, doesn't the candy taste good?"
"Huh?"
"You don't look happy."
The orange candy that had been rolling around in my mouth had long since melted away, losing its shape.
I couldn't remember if I'd been rolling it around with my tongue or if I'd crunched it up with my teeth.
Sylvia placed a lollipop in my hand.
Though it was a snack bought with my money, she generously shared it with me.
It was the oversized kind, so only one had fit in the bag.
"This one's tasty."
My mouth was already filled with sweetness, but since I wanted to empty my mind even more, I didn't refuse and popped it in.
I had no idea how much sugar they'd coated it with; my tongue was tingling from the sweetness.
"It's good."
"Right?"
I couldn't distinguish the smile on the child's face at all.
Was it that the candy's sweetness had made her forget the bitterness,
or was she smiling even brighter to hold back her tears?
I couldn't tell.
It was because of the tingling sweetness of the lollipop in my mouth.
"Once you're done with the candy, how about we head to the park?"
Sylvia nodded eagerly, as if she wanted to move her body.
Kids her age won't run out of energy unless they've been running around for dozens of minutes.
By now, the crowds loitering around the park would have thinned out, so she could run around to her heart's content.
That way, Sylvia's stamina would bottom out, she'd be exhausted, and naturally fall asleep from fatigue.
I'd originally planned to wander outside only until Harman started teaching Rien.
I wasn't going to miss the second challenge that would follow, and while I wasn't expecting success, I wasn't being pessimistic either.
It would bring endless headaches and flailing screams just like before, so Sylvia couldn't be awake when we returned to the smithy.
"I told you, didn't I? He'd come back right on time on his own."
"Oh... you're right."
"Do you think I'm some kind of prophet? I figured it was about time and came back."
Rien's lesson had just ended.
Fortunately, I'd arrived without being late.
Since I'd personally learned how to wield a hammer from him, I figured it would take a bit longer for Rien, who wasn't used to physical work.
After living so long, I had a gut feeling about these things.
"What about Sylvia?"
"She fell asleep on my back on the way here. I put her down on the bed."
"Good. Thanks for your trouble."
Trouble, my foot.
The real ordeal was just beginning for Harman and Rien.
"Senior! How was it? Not bad for a first try, right?"
【Decent Sword《COMMON》】
⚔ Attack Power:7 (28▼)
🛡️ Durability:6 (26▼)
✨ Special Effects:None
"Hm, 'decent'... Still, looks like she has some real knack for it."
"Why's your reaction so lukewarm? Praise her a bit more. It's a 'decent' sword, you know."
The ones Harman made were dubbed 'crude',
and the ones I made were 'shoddy'.
Rien's sword had slightly higher attack and durability stats than both of those.
Of course, being COMMON grade, it was clearly inferior in performance to the sword from the first challenge.
Comparing first attempts, she might have more talent for this than I do.
"Senior, what's next?"
There was no need to explain.
More precisely, no need to egg Rien on.
She saw this smithy as having some hidden piece quest, and wouldn't dream the reward was just a COMMON-grade sword.
Naturally, she imagined there was a next stage.
So, there was no obstacle to starting the second challenge.
"I'm not helping with anything."
"Huh?"
"Think of me as just here to watch. Me interfering would only be poison."
I couldn't interpret Harman's illogical impressions.
I didn't understand them, couldn't reproduce them.
In my line of thinking, it was impossible, so it seemed better if my thoughts didn't influence Rien's work.
That judgment only made sense assuming Rien could succeed, though.
"Just make the sword as Harman explains it to you."
I swallowed the rest of what I'd been about to say.
Harman's expressions changed constantly, so don't overthink them.
Make it as it comes to mind.
You don't have to succeed.
Since all those were my judgments, I decided to scrap them all and leave it entirely to Rien's own judgment.
The point of the second challenge was to teach Rien that there were no lucky shortcuts in the tower, unlike Harman's memories.
Above all, Rien was an adventurer who needed to head to the second floor right away.
She couldn't afford to sink weeks into this like I had.
There was no quest for this task.
The tower wouldn't provide one; if anything, it went against the tower.
Even investing dozens of days, there'd be no reward matching the effort.
No experience, no pay.
Just taking one self-made sword was all.
Clearly, pouring long hours into this was a path to falling behind others.
I planned to share useful info in exchange for the time I'd taken from her, but it wasn't worth weeks of effort.
"Tell me if you need more materials. I'll give you whatever I have."
I glanced at the ores and unprocessed green-tinted gems taking up space in my subspace.
A little over a day remained as the second challenge began.
Watching this scene from an outsider's perspective, as someone not directly involved, was even more frustrating than experiencing it myself.
Harman's abstract expressions hadn't improved a bit.
"The blade of the sword was more beautiful than anything else."
What blacksmith—what master craftsman, no less—describes a sword with beauty instead of numbers?
In her bewilderment, Rien periodically glanced my way with pleading eyes, but I just shook my head slightly and watched silently.
"What shape should it be?"
"......"
"What about the hilt?"
"......"
"Roughly, at least......"
The answers to questions like that were predictably vague.
"Sorry. I don't remember anything like that anymore......"
"Ah, no! I'll give it a try!"
...
"So, it was shaped like this, right?"
I sensed something off when Harman stopped spouting impressions that were hard to understand.
Rien described the form first, and Harman nodded, saying it matched his memory.
The novice adventurer seemed to have grasped the old blacksmith's expressions.
"Yes. That's definitely how I made it. I can't believe I forgot something this simple......"
Harman was recalling something too.
Rien's eyes were shining.
With a color close to gold.
It was truly strange.
We were making progress.
...
Three times.
On the third attempt to shape it, Rien noticed the green gem.
I'd never mentioned it first, nor had Harman hinted at it.
I'd gathered plenty of ores colored with slime cores.
I pulled out an appropriate amount and handed it to Rien.
She immediately started the engraving work.
No hesitation.
She moved as if she knew exactly what to make.
"Haa... It keeps splitting in weird directions."
Visualizing it in her head and having her hands follow were different matters.
Even after roughly grasping the sword's shape, her unskilled hammering sometimes ruined the form.
This only extended the work time.
Engraving the gem was an even bigger gap in proficiency.
Cracks often formed in the center from applying uneven force at the end.
Rien's patience wasn't deep.
"Argh! I was almost done!"
I was the complete opposite.
Despite building enough proficiency on the first floor to craft an EPIC-grade sword, I'd never even gotten close to the right answer.
Rien was still a novice at blacksmithing, but far closer to the answer than I ever was.
In other words, with enough proficiency, she might actually succeed.
The problem was she had no time to build skill.
"Senior."
"You already used up the ore? I gave you plenty, but there's still more left, so it's fine."
"No, I have materials."
What Rien wanted wasn't items from my subspace, but me...
I was the manpower to compensate for her lack of proficiency.
"My handiwork just can't cut it. I clearly know how it should be made, but it keeps getting ruined."
She wanted my help.
Despite brazenly saying I wouldn't interfere, I joined in without a second thought.
Harman expressed, Rien interpreted and directed.
My role was to be Rien's skilled hands.
"How on earth do you know...? Harman's description had nothing concrete except for this gem. Am I the weird one for not getting it?"
"No. I wouldn't have figured it out from the description alone either."
Rien brought up traits again.
Record Viewer.
Rien's COMMON-grade trait that let her see records I'd given up on.
"I thought my trait only worked on adventurers, but apparently not."
The tower only told us the trait's name and grade.
It didn't explain effects, conditions, usage, limits—nothing.
Figuring it out was entirely up to the adventurer.
"There are 'records' like this too."
Rien seemed to have experienced a new use for her trait.
I wasn't sure exactly how, but our approach to the right answer was definite good news.
The fact that my first attempt wasn't meaningless—that the proficiency I'd gained made this second try meaningful—gave me an inexplicable sense of stability.
"I didn't fail."
It was just a success that took a long time.
Not yet, but the end was clearly approaching.