Assistant Manager Han Did It for Me
Bweeeep—!
The end-of-training buzzer split the air. Seo Jia dragged in a ragged breath and lifted her eyes to the board overhead.
A tenth of a second. That was all. Even so, a deep smile hung at the corner of her mouth, sweat beading along her lip.
The sword fits my hand too well.
Once could have been luck. Twice was another matter entirely. It wasn't that her condition had been unusually good, or that some sudden enlightenment had come over her. Since yesterday the sword had simply felt right in her grip — and with that, it felt as if she herself had grown stronger.
A post she had once seen on a hunter community board drifted back to her.
Back then she had written it off as self-justification from hunters who had sunk too much money into their gear. Now, though, she thought she understood a little of why the ones above obsessed so hard over custom equipment.
Forget coffee... should I get him some other gift? And she was beginning to grasp, too, just how much care Assistant Manager Han had shown her.
From beyond the glass, the raid leader's voice came riding the speaker.
"Jia."
"Want to run it one more time? Feels like you could shave that record down further if you did."
"......No. I'm good. I think I've confirmed enough."
Seo Jia closed her sweat-slick palm around the grip.
A sword that was hers alone. Unlike before, the feel of it sealing flush against her skin sent a thrill up her arm. To think that only a few days ago this was the same blade that had sat ever so slightly wrong and left her wrist aching.... The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
How on earth did Assistant Manager Han know?
He had said he lowered the output. He had said he adjusted the grip and the balance to her hand. Put into words, it sounded like the most ordinary job in the world. But if it had really been that easy, there was no way she would have gone back to the equipment team as many times as she had.
No — more than that. Wasn't Assistant Manager Han only an E-rank Polisher?
And yet the result was anything but ordinary. At any rate, her training record had improved, so next came a live test. As it happened, Raid Team 1 — her team — was scheduled for a regular clear of the Tower's fifteenth floor, two days starting tomorrow morning.
The Tower's fifteenth floor. By Association standards, one of the recommended farming floors a C-rank party could clear with stability. Stable, of course, was not the same as safe. It meant something closer to this: if you didn't let your guard down, you could bring money home without falling behind.
"Left—!"
At the leader's urgent shout the thick brush split, and a black shape burst out.
Grrrk...!
A large wolf monster, hide matted in black fur. Along the vicious spines rising from its backbone, long tentacles writhed, and its gaze swung toward the healers and the supporters.
"Seo Jia!"
"I'm on it!!!"
Seo Jia drove power into her thighs and shot forward.
Kaaak—!
At her approach the monstrous wolf gaped its jaws and leapt, aiming to tear out the back of her neck. Normally she would have backstepped to open the distance, then beaten the charge aside. This time her instincts answered differently.
I can do this.
She dropped low, set the blade at an angle, and let the thing's jaw skid off it.
Kak-kak-kak—!
Huge fangs scraped along the steel and threw sparks. Seo Jia immediately rolled her wrist up in a smooth twist.
Shhk!!!
Steel steeped in blue mana drew a clean arc and split the creature's jaw. She didn't have to force strength into her wrist; the sword traced the line and followed through on its own. The attack didn't end there.
Jaw. Throat. Flank.
Three cuts flowed without a break and opened the monstrous wolf's body.
Thud!
The huge carcass rolled emptily across the ground.
"Hah...."
Seo Jia let out a rough breath and came to a stop. Then, as if spellbound, she stared at her sword, blood pattering from the edge. A pleasant chill tore up her spine.
It's the same as training.
No — because this was live combat, where anything might happen, the difference felt even sharper. It wasn't only the wolf. Even in the melee, when several monsters rushed her at once, the sword never once sat wrong in her hand. Her mana didn't spit and throw the arc off, and her wrist didn't buckle. If anything, she could cut and thrust at a monster's vitals with less strength than before, hold the pace longer, and land them with an accuracy that prickled her skin.
"Well, now... Seo Jia."
When the fight ended, the leader stared at her, eyes round.
"You didn't awaken again, did you? We might need to put you through another rank test."
"...I don't think it's quite that much."
"No. Your movement is much better than before."
At his words Seo Jia gave a small nod, then looked at her sword once more. It was plainly an ordinary blade, the kind anyone could get without much trouble. But after Assistant Manager Han had put his hands on it, it no longer felt ordinary at all.
"I think the sword just fits my hand. I had the setup changed a little this time."
"Yeah? Mind if I take a few swings?"
"Go ahead."
Seo Jia passed him the sword, scabbard and all. The leader drew it, gave it a few light cuts, and immediately tilted his head.
"...Hmm."
"What is it?"
"No, it's nothing."
It wasn't a bad sword. The balance was stable, and the grip seated firm in the hand. And yet, strangely, it didn't seem to suit him. The grip was subtly flat, and the balance sat higher than he preferred. Worst of all, when he pushed a little mana into it, the response was so docile it felt stifling.
"Guess the sword picks its person. Weird how it won't stick to my hand. Can a setup really make this much difference?"
He was about to go on, head still cocked, when a man's voice cut in between them.
"Come on. We all know exactly what our guild's equipment team can do...."
Choi Gitae. A C-rank hunter on Raid Team 1, a year older than Seo Jia — and a man who made a point of talking to her more than anyone else.
"This is just Jia getting better, right? She always had potential to spare. Born a C-rank hunter, after all."
"......"
At that, Seo Jia's brow twitched, just slightly. Choi Gitae paid it no mind and kept going.
"You'll hit B-rank before you know it, won't you?"
"B-rank doesn't strike me as a rank you can take lightly."
"Hey, I'll bet on it. You're that good, I'm telling you. Look at you now. You're already fighting like a B-rank hunter."
At Gitae's fussing, the leader shook his head.
"Anyway, lock in how this feels. If you can hold onto that sense, aiming for B-rank the way Gitae says wouldn't be unreasonable."
"Yes, Leader."
Seo Jia dipped her head, took the sword back, and hung it at her waist. Watching her, the leader spoke again.
"Still, to think a small setup change would actually improve your movement this much.... Who'd you leave it with?"
"Assistant Manager Han."
Just then, a woman sorting magic stones a short distance away lifted her head.
"Assistant Manager Han?"
Long dark-brown hair falling past her shoulders. Eyes drawn thin at the corners like a cat's, and a combat suit that clung to her body with unfair precision — a hunter it suited far too well. Yoo Serin. Her class was Dagger Specialist. A C-rank hunter with Daon who, by the nature of that class, managed to break at least one dagger on every clear.
"The Polisher with the nice body?"
"...Pardon?"
The sudden remark made Seo Jia blink. Choi Gitae, beside her, cut in as if he couldn't believe what he'd heard.
"Assistant Manager Han — you mean that guy? The one right up front when you walk into the workshop?"
"That's him."
"He's got a nice body? Isn't he just some guy with a gut? He's thirty, isn't he?"
At Choi Gitae's snort, Yoo Serin turned her head.
"You're only two years apart. And for a normal person, that build is plenty good. Oh — a Polisher isn't exactly a normal person, is he."
"What are you talking about? I'm still in my twenties."
"By that logic, Assistant Manager Han is in his twenties too."
"Twenty-nine is halfway to thirty."
"Hey, you're twenty-seven yourself. Look in a mirror before you talk."
"Puhahaha—!"
The leader finally burst out laughing at Yoo Serin's jab. A smile slipped out of Seo Jia before she knew it. Then, slowly, she opened her mouth.
"Assistant Manager Han is a good person."
"Huh?"
Choi Gitae's face stiffened for an instant. Seo Jia went on as if nothing were wrong, patting her sword.
"I couldn't speak to anything else, but he really does seem to look after equipment."
That was the truth. She had bothered him with fussy requests more than once, and Han Doyun had taken every one of them without showing it on his face. In the end he had even made her a sword that fit her hand perfectly.
"Mmm...."
At that answer Yoo Serin narrowed her eyes, interest plain on her face.
"That good?"
"Sorry?"
"Then maybe I should ask him, too."
Yoo Serin tapped the weapon at her hip.
"You know this thing's been giving me a headache lately. I break them all the time, and the repair bills eat my whole payout."
"Ah... you're going to leave it with Assistant Manager Han?"
"Mm."
The short reply made Seo Jia pause. She had no real grounds to object. Han Doyun worked on Daon's equipment support team, and he wasn't assigned as her personal gear handler. A company hunter leaving equipment with the support team was the most natural thing in the world. It was only that hunters at small guilds, as a rule, preferred famous outside workshops to the in-house team. Yoo Serin had been one of them.
"Go ahead. He really does put a lot of care into the work."
"Guess I should. Mmm.... Think I can go find him today?"
"...I'm not sure."
Seo Jia closed her mouth, just a little. For a while now, the nasal lilt Yoo Serin kept threading through her voice had been catching on her ear. She couldn't have said why, but it left her feeling a little off.
Raid Team 1 came back from the Tower, and a small rumor began to turn over inside the company.
"Han."
"Yes?"
"Word is you poured your soul into repairing Hunter Seo Jia's gear."
"Sorry? I just did what I was told."
"Riiight."
The team leader, who had developed a taste for needling me, snickered. It was no roaring hero's tale. My name was only coming up as small talk in front of the break-room coffee machine, or while someone stepped out for a smoke. Hunter Seo Jia's showing in the Tower had been that impressive, and people were laying the credit at my feet.
Five years at Daon, and this was a first. The equipment support team at a shitty little company like this never had cause to be noticed. Let a weapon break and the hunters griped that you'd fixed it like shit; fix it well and they decided their own condition was simply good. That was the nature of hunters in this line of work. On top of that, anyone with real skill usually skipped the support team for a famous outside workshop or a high-rank production class.
I had been nothing but an E-rank Polisher, and I had thought that was only natural.
Up until a few days ago, that is....
"......"
I looked at the mana-steel longsword resting at one end of the workbench. The same mass-produced factory model Seo Jia used. I hadn't set an expensive magic stone into it, and I hadn't clad it in any special metal you could only get from the Tower. I had only fitted it to one person's body — Seo Jia's — exactly as the Maker told me to.
That alone had shortened a record that hadn't budged in half a year, and it had shown real results on a Tower clear.
This is different from a Polisher. This isn't... simply a class that makes good equipment.
Putting in good materials didn't automatically make good gear. A high rank didn't mean a piece would fit everyone, either. But the Maker showed the answer that person needed. At least, that was what I had confirmed of the ability so far.
"......"
Something itched, strangely, in a corner of my chest. For five years, all I had done was put broken things back the way they were, jury-rig the missing parts, and change setups however the hunters wanted. But if I could actually use this ability properly?
...I might be able to make some real money.
It was too soon for grand dreams. There was still far too much I didn't know. Still, I might at least get out of a life where I got dumped with other departments' work because we were short-handed, and spent my days running around with coffee.
The problem was—
Seo Jia's Sync Rate: 0.3%
The hurdle on that sync rate sat high.
I have a rough idea of what it takes to raise the sync rate....
Putting the method to use was another matter. I could hardly walk up to Seo Jia out of nowhere and ask if she wanted to try some of my saliva.
If I'd known it would come to this, I should've at least lined up a hunter girlfriend.
A sigh came out on its own. And then another question surfaced.
Don't tell me this only works on Seo Jia?