Leatherworking (2)
Another high-grade leather.
Another······.
Another···.
And another.
“Whoa.”
One of the ahjussis gaped open-mouthed in awe.
“What's with this kid? A leather artisan—no, the god of leather?”
“How can a young whelp move his hands like that······.”
“And here we were, failing to recognize greatness when we saw it.”
Every single cut yielded high-grade leather worth a million won. And worse, his speed kept climbing. What took him thirty minutes at first dropped to twenty-five, then twenty······. It kept shrinking, until by the end no one could tell whether he was skinning a carcass or performing a dance.
Once he'd finished all twenty, Seo Hwarang dusted off his hands.
“Phew, that was rough.”
His whole body was trembling, muscles quivering like they'd been wrung dry.
This burns way more stamina than it looks.
Weaving, leatherworking—it was all the same. Come to think of it, this counted as a decent workout, didn't it?
“There we go—twenty pieces of high-grade leather. So? I'm pretty useful, right?”
“······.”
Did he even need to ask?
Hwang Cheol-woo nodded with a look of genuine admiration. And then—
Swish.
He pushed half of the leather over to Seo Hwarang. Ten pieces in total.
“Why are you giving me this?”
Seo Hwarang's eyes went wide. By contract, ownership of every hide obtained from the dungeon belonged to Hwang Cheol-woo. That was the whole deal—he was being paid a million won per dungeon for it.
“If I'd known you were this good, I never would've offered a measly million won per dungeon in the first place.”
“Really?”
“Obviously. How many skinners in this country can pull high-grade leather without wasting a single carcass? When someone's got the talent, you pay them what they're worth.”
Swish.
Hwang Cheol-woo drew a sheet of paper from his breast pocket—the contract they'd signed before entering the dungeon. And then—
Riiip!
He tore it up without a moment's hesitation.
“Let's write a new contract. White Tiger provides the dungeon and guarantees your safety, plus lends you that knife······. In exchange, we split the leather you produce down the middle.”
Oh.
Seo Hwarang looked at Hwang Cheol-woo with surprise written across his face. The man's face looked fierce enough to rob you blind at knifepoint, yet here he was acting honorable and courteous?
I like a man with manners.
Originally, the plan had been to enjoy himself for a single day, then cross over to Etherion as soon as Park Juhee found the skill books······. But his mind had changed. He might as well stick around and play a little longer.
Besides.
He did need leather. Once he seriously started tailoring, he'd need mountains of material······. Better to start stockpiling now.
“Sounds good. It happens to be a forest today—shall we camp out here for a few days and farm some hides?”
“Yeah!”
“Works for us!”
“Yippee! Yeah!”
The ahjussis whooped and hollered with excitement.
And so the operation began.
The funny thing was—these ahjussis were no amateurs at dungeon camping. Not by a long shot. Each of them rummaged something out of their pack, and in the blink of an eye they'd erected a full-scale campground. And that wasn't all. One of them pulled out makgeolli from gods-knew-where, chuckling low in his throat.
Pssht, pop!
The sound of plastic lids snapping open.
“Look at this guy, feeding us! Alright, everyone, one round before bed!”
“Ahh, now we're talking!”
“Nothing beats makgeolli after a hard day's work! Where's the jerky?”
“You even need to ask? Of course I brought it!”
Wow.
Seo Hwarang had never seen anything like it—not even online. What kind of lunatics in this world threw a drinking party inside a C-rank dungeon?
Glug-glug-glug-glug-glug.
A white waterfall poured beautifully into a basin the size of a fist. Gulp. It looked so delicious that Seo Hwarang swallowed without realizing.
“Don't worry about it.”
Hwang Cheol-woo walked over and explained.
“We glossed over it earlier since it's a forest region, but this place is druid territory.”
“······Druid territory.”
“Yeah. See those old trees over there?”
Tap, toook!
Hwang Cheol-woo knocked on the trunk with his knuckles.
“They've been dead for ages. And yet look—they still look alive, don't they? That's the residue of the magic druids cultivated over centuries of communing with the forest. And druids are mobs that never attack first, unless you mess with them directly.”
“Yes, I've heard that.”
Or to be precise, he'd read it. He'd read plenty of books about dungeons, after all.
“One week, exactly.”
Hwang Cheol-woo grinned.
“Let's grind out the farming for a week and head out.”
One week. Perfect timing.
Clink.
Seo Hwarang smiled back at him.
Roaming the forest with the ahjussis, they harvested an enormous amount of leather—wild boar hide, black bear hide, even snake skin.
“Aigoo, this kid. No matter how many times I watch, he's just brilliant.”
“His leatherwork is a thing of beauty!”
“And look—his method changes every time. Wolf, bear, snake—the whole approach is different for each one. How does he even do that?”
Every time the species changed, his proficiency leaped up in generous chunks, and a skill upgrade followed.
Congratulations.
Basic Leatherworking has reached proficiency 100.
Basic Leatherworking will be upgraded to Intermediate Leatherworking.
You can now handle leather of a somewhat more refined quality.
Hot damn, excellent!
It was a bit of a shame, though. With all the knowledge piled up in his head, he could handle oak, troll, and even ogre hide—yet here he was, limited to mere forest beasts. As a result, his proficiency gains had slowed considerably after Intermediate Leatherworking.
- Kehung! Krrung!
- Awoooooooo!
A howl echoed from far in the distance.
“Wolves!”
“Wolf hides!”
“Those hides are mine!”
“Hey, hey, get a grip—that's not a hide! That's a live wolf!”
“Oi, Mr. Kim! Be careful, don't damage it! Handle it gently, you hear?”
The ahjussis came sprinting at the faintest sound, tearing through the vast forest after it. Thanks to them, Seo Hwarang could harvest his leather with total peace of mind.
And—the monster most abundant in this forest was, without question, the Gray Wolf (D-rank)! Thanks to that, he'd stockpiled a mountain of leather over the week.
Only after killing nearly every living thing in the forest did the ahjussis set off to hunt the druid—and, true to their veteran reputation, they wrapped it up in no time.
After leaving the dungeon—
“Thank you.”
Hwang Cheol-woo extended his hand in greeting.
“We got a lot of leather thanks to you.”
“Same here. I leveled up my proficiency in comfort thanks to you all. Oh, here—I should return the knife.”
Just as Seo Hwarang held out the skinner knife—
“No.”
Hwang Cheol-woo shook his head.
“If I had a conscience, I couldn't possibly take it back.”
“Excuse me? This knife?”
Seo Hwarang's eyes went wide yet again. These ahjussis—why had they been so ridiculously cool lately?
“Doesn't this thing go for around a hundred million won?”
“The leather we pulled out is worth more than that. Besides, we didn't gather hides to make money.”
“That's right.”
“We were collecting them to make our own armor. Take them to a workshop and they'll craft you something gorgeous. Heh heh.”
The ahjussis grinned smugly. And then—
“We gathered every last hide we were originally after, in a single dungeon run. We don't need that knife anymore.”
Fair enough—he had gathered quite a lot. Should he check what was piled up in his inventory?
◈ High-Grade Gray Wolf Hide × 70
◈ High-Grade Black Bear Hide × 15
◈ High-Grade Charging Boar Hide × 32
◈ High-Grade Ochre Serpent Hide × 24
Whoof!
He'd harvested an absolute fortune. A hundred and forty-one pieces, no less. Roughly speaking, anything stamped 'high-grade' went for about a million won apiece······.
Whoa.
That was 141 million won. And the ahjussis had walked away with just as much······. Yeah, this was more than worth accepting.
“In return, would you mind adding us on the Awakener Net? Call it a hunch, but I get the feeling knowing you is going to lead to a lot of good things.”
A friend request, huh. Well, that much he could do. The man seemed honorable enough.
Add Hwang Cheol-woo, was it? The moment he tapped to accept, a profile popped up.
Vice Guild Master?
There was an emblem depicting a white tiger, and beneath it the label Position: Vice Guild Master.
So that's why he handed over expensive items so casually. The man held a fairly high seat, didn't he?
Either way—refusing what was freely offered had never been Seo Hwarang's style.
“······I'll gratefully accept, then.”
He bowed his head slightly and took it, and the ahjussis beamed with good-natured warmth.
Yeah. That had been genuinely fun. Where else would he get to drink makgeolli inside a dungeon?
Alright!
Seo Hwarang cheered inwardly. A pile of leather and a free knife on top—quite the profitable day!
When he emerged from the dungeon after so long, a stack of texts was waiting for him.
Well then. Texts from Yoo Seon-ah, fully strung out on Etherion.
Go without her?
Even if he did, Earth time wouldn't be flowing, so she'd never know anyway.
She must be pretty desperate.
Wasn't it supposed to be that mana pooled there at five times the density? That had to be it.
And then—
Oh.
Ohhhhhhh!!
Books. Books! She'd gotten every single one of them!
Once he'd learned all of those, he could clear the Foundations of Tailoring (D-rank) quest.
Learn everything first.
The grunt work could come after.
Seo Hwarang received the books from Park Juhee.
“You worked hard.”
When Seo Hwarang put on a genuinely delighted expression, Park Juhee tilted her head. Strange. He looked happier receiving books than receiving money.
“Don't mention it. Though—what are these skill books for? Are you planning to learn them yourself?”
“Yes.”
“······Sorry, what? These? Were you a production-class all along?”
“Well, you could say that.”
How to put it exactly······. He was something of an all-master. Give him any skill to learn, and he could master it perfectly.
“Huh.”
Park Juhee was taken aback. She'd never imagined Seo Hwarang was a production-class.
“Keep working with me a little longer. I'll make you one mind-blowing product.”
Very soon now. If he could just talk Edwin around properly, he'd be able to get his hands on the blueprint for a Unique-grade item called the Wind Silk Robe! That would be the true beginning. The starting point where they'd amass wealth to rival the chaebols themselves!
First things first.
Time to go read some books. Between spinning thread, cutting cloth, and harvesting nothing but leather lately······. Ugh. Book-deprivation syndrome was about to hit hard.
Having crossed over to Etherion alone, Seo Hwarang began tearing through the books one by one.
He could have finished them in two or three hours, but he deliberately hadn't brought Yoo Seon-ah along.
“Haah, haah. This is too good.”
Reading the deciphered text felt like dopamine that had been held back for weeks now gushing out without end.
You have read the skill book, Dyeing, in full.
Basic Dyeing has been added to your skill window.
Read one, pop back to Earth. Cross over again, read another.
You have read the skill book, Embroidery, in full.
Basic Embroidery has been added to your skill window.
And so on, and so on.
Once he'd read through every book he'd received—
His production skills were stacking up nicely now. And—! He had perfectly satisfied the requirements of the quest he'd received long ago. The result!
“Whoa!”
At last! The Coin Shop was open!
Let's see.
Coins accumulated so far: 1,050 in total. Set aside the 5 needed to cross over to the continent, and what could he buy with the rest?
Heart fluttering with anticipation, Seo Hwarang arrived at the Gaemi Village courtyard once more and carefully parted his lips.
“Coin Shop!”