The Wind Silk Robe (3)
So began Seo Hwarang's one-man massacre.
1st Circle.
Master Ice Needle.
Kwadeudeudeuk!
Five tiny ice needles materialized in the air above him.
And the moment they did—
Swaaaaak!
The needles fanned out in every direction, punching clean through the foreheads of the kobolds.
"What the hell is this bastard?!"
Yoo Seon-ah was dumbfounded.
"Didn't you learn Ice Needle with me? Why do you get five of them?!"
Meanwhile.
The Ice Needle floating above her numbered exactly one.
Which was, of course, the way it was supposed to be.
Ice Needle was a spell that struck a single target with cold damage, freezing them in place or slowing their movements!
One target, one needle. It only made sense.
But then again?
It wasn't for nothing that a Master was called a Master!
"Isn't it about time you just accepted this and moved on?"
"...You monster. God, I'm so jealous of you!"
Yoo Seon-ah glared at Seo Hwarang like he was something creepy-crawly.
Was it because he was a cheater?
No.
It was because of what he was doing right now.
"Aaand there's our pretty kobold leather."
Lulu.
Humming a little tune, he twirled his skinning knife with practiced grace.
Shhk, shhk!
Every time his hands moved—swift and fluid—another sheet of kobold hide peeled away cleanly.
And even as he worked, his magic kept rolling.
1st Circle.
Master Wind Cutter.
Ssssak, sseogeogeok!
Wind blades lopped the kobolds' heads off in neat, surgical strokes.
Kobold hides didn't need to be taken from the face anyway. Belly and back leather was more than enough.
Yoo Seon-ah, who had been watching his grim one-man show, grabbed her chin and thought.
'There's literally nothing for me to do.'
She wanted to grind out her skill proficiency, but Seo Hwarang was so absurdly strong that she couldn't even get her spells off.
And if she was going to gather leather anyway, she'd rather get the good stuff while she was at it.
Huh?
A thought flickered through her mind out of nowhere!
"Hey, hey, hey."
"Yes?"
"What if we did this instead?"
"What do you mean?"
"You honestly don't want to go into E-rank dungeons, do you."
"...No."
That was genuinely frustrating for him.
His heart wanted to plow through D-ranks and C-ranks nonstop, but the government imposed all sorts of limits.
And revealing his real strength was more trouble than it was worth.
"I learned that Veil of Deception skill too, remember? It's at 80 proficiency right now. What if I just used it to bump up my Awakener rank instead?"
"Oh?"
Wait a second!
He was right!
Why had that never occurred to him?
"That actually works great. You could jump straight to C-rank, and then we could just cruise through dungeons at our leisure. I'll just tag along as your porter."
Ooooooh.
This noona.
She'd already been doing this the whole time, hadn't she?
Thud!
Seo Hwarang dropped the goblin carcass he'd been harvesting.
He didn't need this anymore.
"Shall we head over right now?"
"Just the two of us in a C-rank though... You sure about that?"
"I've been in one already, remember?"
That druid whatever-his-name-was.
"Seemed manageable enough to me."
In truth, 'manageable' was a gross understatement. It was laughably easy.
"Really? Then let's get it sorted right now."
"Oh, noona."
"Yeah?"
"If we're going to sell the lie, tell them your Tailoring skill is high-grade too."
"...Tailoring?"
"Yes. The robe we just made—tell them you were the one who crafted it."
"You little... You really are turning me into your full-time body double."
Hoo.
Yoo Seon-ah let out a long sigh, then nodded.
"Fine."
Claiming high-grade would stir up a storm for sure... but what could she do?
The boss had spoken.
She'd have to play along.
Less than an hour after Park Juhee posted the listing on the auction board, it had already caught fire.
When the group sale of Unique items was first announced, not a single soul believed it.
Crafting a Unique item?
That took at least an intermediate-grade skill to even attempt, and conventionally only high-grade artisans could manage it.
But here was the thing:
There weren't ten people on the entire planet with high-grade craft skills.
The first wave of comments was overwhelmingly skeptical—until people clicked through and noticed the Association's official endorsement stamped right on the listing.
A few people were starting to whistle in genuine admiration. And as word of mouth spread and spread, the post began climbing toward hot-topic status.
And then.
Someone left a reply on the official bidding comment.
The White Tiger Guild was one of the solid mid-tier guilds—known as the place whose guild master was a fairly famous B-rank Awakener.
With one guild entering the fray, the post grew hotter by the minute. It made the news, and the details started spreading across social media as well.
"Great start."
Park Juhee smirked.
Even if they won the auction at 19 billion, they'd already come out ahead—this was a bulk sale, after all.
Thud.
She set her phone down.
Minimum revenue was secured. No need to keep watching.
She'd check again in a week.
As Park Juhee scouted locations left and right, she found a vacant storefront on Garosu-gil's main drag.
Fifty pyeong. A 400 million KRW deposit, with monthly rent of 30 million.
Exactly the going market rate, with three months of rent-free period.
Not bad at all.
With 19 billion about to land in their account, was there any reason to hesitate?
'We'll start here,' she thought, 'and push straight up through Gangnam all the way to Cheongdam.'
"Oh, thank you so much!"
The real estate agent bowed deeply with a friendly, trustworthy face.
She had just come out after putting down a 30 million KRW earnest payment. If the auction wrapped up smoothly, they'd be able to deck out the interior in nothing but the finest finishes.
A week later.
While Park Juhee was busy preparing for the shop's grand opening, her phone buzzed.
The listing has been awarded at a final price of 28.5 billion KRW to 'White Tiger Guild Master' (Lv.60).
"Oh!"
28.5 billion!
Wow.
So that meant each robe sold for 1.5 billion?
She rushed to open the page.
The auction board was in absolute chaos. The comment thread bore the traces of a three-guild bidding war, and the final exchange—Blue Guild's master calling 1.4 billion per robe, only to be countered by White Tiger at 1.5 billion—had closed things out.
For a moment, she'd been terrified.
What if Seo Hwarang couldn't make the remaining 19 robes?
Filing a fraudulent auction listing was a serious felony!
Pfft.
Better to assume that was never going to happen.
Anyway.
A message had arrived from the White Tiger Guild Master.
We are the White Tiger Guild, winners of this auction. Please allow us to relay our requests. Of the 19 robes we have ordered, 2 will be used by myself and the vice guild master—please make those in a deep navy blue. The remaining 17 will go to our guild members; sky blue will suffice for those. We have attached a file containing our guild emblem, so please apply it to the design. Given the considerable funds involved, we ask that you handle this order with the utmost care. Thank you.
"Hoooooh."
Winning the auction meant the payment had already been completed through the Awakener Market. No advance deposit was required; once the goods were delivered, the market deducted taxes and wired over the remainder immediately.
The tax rate was 20%.
Under the High-Value Item Transaction Special Tax Law, any transaction over 500 million KRW was taxed at a flat 20%. Below 500 million, it was 10%.
Frankly, that was quite reasonable. The government had needed to ease the tax burden to attract Awakeners, but it couldn't exactly waive taxes entirely—so this middle ground had been struck.
First things first, Park Juhee decided to notify Seo Hwarang right away.
How on earth was he going to produce this many robes, and on what timeline?
She worried about a great many things.
"Holy crap! 28.5 billion! Even after taxes that's 22.8 billion. That's insane!"
Yoo Seon-ah bounced around the room.
Seo Hwarang pumped his fist too.
'1.5 billion each—not bad.'
For the effort involved, that price was more than fair. At his current skill level, he could churn out about one robe a day.
Daily wage of 1.5 billion, huh?
'First, White Tiger's order.'
He'd make theirs first. Now that the auction had given him a rough price benchmark, the 'Seona 1' robes sold in the shop would go for around 1.8 billion going forward.
Heh heh.
That extra 300 million was, of course, pure premium.
"Let's head back over. We've got robes to make."
Seo Hwarang would be staying on the other side for a long stretch, but no time would pass here at all.
He'd probably be able to deliver the order by tomorrow.
This was the true cheat—holding the advantage of time.
'First, though.'
Over the past week, they had smashed through countless dungeons—far more than they could count. He'd harvested enough leather to push his Intermediate Leatherworking proficiency nearly to 50, and above all, his coins had ballooned.
If F-rank dungeons occasionally dropped 1 coin?
E-rank dungeons occasionally tossed out 5. D-ranks gave 10, and C-ranks 20.
"Whew."
Over a hundred dungeon runs had piled up more than 2,000 coins.
Excusing himself for a quick bathroom break, Seo Hwarang stepped outside and pulled up the shop window.
"Coin Shop."
"Huh?"
Hold on.
Numbers 9 and 10 were still sitting there, unsold.
"Wait—repeat purchases are allowed?!"
...This was a genuine jackpot.
He could sell them if he wanted. He could build entire spider or sheep factories. The applications were practically endless!
'But.'
That could wait.
Sating his curiosity came first.
Right now, there were exactly four things he could realistically afford:
[3. Random Normal Blueprint Box – 1,000]
[4. Random Crafting Skill Book Box – 1,000]
[7. Summon Rock-back Turtle – 1,000]
[8. Summon Incense Bird – 1,000]
A Normal blueprint? Useless.
The crafting skill books were mildly tempting, but... hmm. With the money coming in, he figured he could just buy up every crafting-related skill book he wanted down the line.
So first.
Shouldn't he at least find out what a Rock-back Turtle and an Incense Bird even were?
Sssk.
Seo Hwarang's finger moved.