Four Business Cards
I have four business cards.
Evergreen Guild
YN Company Research Institute
Sejong Academy
Awakeners Association
And then there's a fifth title that doesn't even come with a card. It just circulates as rumor.
"Fixing S-Rank gear? Nobody touches that stuff except him. One wrong move and the materials go berserk."
Not long ago I was just another guy scraping by on a tight paycheck, dumping what little joy I had into mobile game microtransactions. Now heroines take turns knocking on the forge door, the president of the Awakeners Association personally asks after me, the Academy headmaster summons me, and the second anything breaks anywhere, the first phone that rings is mine.
The titles sound impressive. Director. Advisor. Researcher. Stack them all together and I look like some four-crown executive at a major conglomerate.
But the truth is, every last one of them just means this:
[Person Who Can Be Called Immediately When Something Goes Wrong]
I'm a twenty-four-hour standby unit with flashy titles slapped on top. At least the business cards look shiny. Small mercies.
Lately, though, another strange rumor has started sticking to me.
"You hear about that blacksmith? They say he only crafts really well for people he's close with."
"Yeah, I heard that too. Isn't that just discrimination?"
It's unfair.
Genuinely unfair — and the fact that I don't have a decent rebuttal makes it even more unfair.
Because.
It was true.
"…When do I actually get to rest?"
I muttered it without thinking as I pulled up the appraisal window.
Grade:S
— Latent Options —
◈ Spirit Power: +27
◈ Spirit Power: +15
◈ Spirit Power: +18
◈ Spirit Power: +13
That was the commission, exactly as it stood. Grade S — and every single latent option was Spirit Power. Four lines of Spirit Power on a sword meant for someone who swings steel. This wasn't gear. This was trash. The hammer hadn't ruined it; the gacha had sucker-punched the owner.
Normally, clawing out of a state like this meant pouring in adamantium, dedicated mana stones, even legendary-grade materials. And you got exactly ten shots. Fail to roll the options you wanted inside those ten, and that was the end of it.
I didn't work that way.
All I had to do was burn mana into it. As many times as it took.
The problem was that I wasn't fixing them one line at a time. The moment mana flowed in, all four lines rerolled as a set.
Twelfth attempt.
— Latent Options —
◈ Attack Power: +9%
◈ Attack Power: +11%
◈ Attack Power: +9%
◈ Spirit Power: +22
Three lines of the right type. The numbers, though — garbage. Spirit Power might honestly have been better.
Hundred and fiftieth.
— Latent Options —
◈ Attack Power: +13%
◈ Magic Resistance: +17
◈ Attack Power: +13%
◈ Attack Power: +13%
The numbers were perfect. One line had just decided to be something other than Spirit Power — wait, no, something other than Attack. At this point I couldn't even laugh.
They broke in rotation. Nail the types and the numbers tanked. Nail the numbers and the types leaked. I could feel the mana pouring out of me like water into a bottomless jar.
Three hundred and twenty-fifth.
I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes. I heard the soft chime of the next options rolling in, but I didn't have the strength left to check them.
"…When do I actually get to rest."