The Perfect Repairman’s Craft

While forging Soul Swords out of professional-grade high-quality steel, I discovered a few new things. After infusing the souls of Goblin Knights several times, the option to add them simply vanished from the list. "...Does this mean I can only imbue souls equal to the number of sentient beings I’ve killed myself?" I held your souls captive, denying you even the path to hell. Suffer for eternity, you monsters. That is what you deserve.

I mass-produced a bunch of steel swords using the casting method. Their performance was slightly lower than those made through forging, but I had to do it to stuff the souls of those damn Goblins into them! As I diligently imbued the souls, my Soul Sword Crafting skill rank rose significantly, but the proficiency had started to stagnate. It was as if low-grade souls like those of Goblins were no longer enough to grant me any more experience. "I want to grind, but why won't it let me?" I keep buying materials for magic swords, but learning the magic to engrave them is a chore in itself. "Ugh, I'm sure my future self will figure it out."

For the first time in a while, I stepped out of the Dimensional Workshop and started my day job at the workshop beneath my family home. Perhaps word had spread that if you leave repairs to me, not only does the maximum durability recover, but the maximum attack power sometimes increases as well—my Perfect Repairman inbox was always full. It was a relief that it was separate from my All-Purpose Crafter account, at least.

There were requests from the government, as well as messages from mid-to-high-floor climbers. "All five mandatory repairs this month are swords." I checked and processed the messages from the official Korean Climbing Department account, for which I had set up priority notifications. Any leftover special materials were all mine to keep. This ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is why being a professional is great. I sent a text to Department Head Lee Seungjun letting him know I’d sent the last of this month’s mandatory equipment repairs. Afterward, I exchanged 1,000 points through the government website and received the full amount in my bank account. Christmas is only a few days away; I should give my parents some pocket money so they can at least go on a domestic trip.

It’s practically my first paycheck, and honestly, I’ve been too indifferent to them lately. Yes, indeed. The amount deposited was 105 million won. Checking the won-to-dollar exchange rate, it had already dropped to 1,050 won. I sent 50 million won each to my parents, and I’ll have to take care of my younger siblings later. I wasn't exactly a stellar student, but both of my younger siblings are incredibly smart, taking after our father, so I’m curious about what they’ll end up doing. "Jaein said she wanted to inherit Father’s work, and Jaehee said she wanted to work at Mother’s restaurant or become a climber."

My father’s company, which handles monster byproducts, is a very solid and profitable business that processes and incinerates monster materials. My father, who possesses the Butchery skill, is renowned for having the lowest loss rate when processing monster byproducts from gate clears, overflows, and the Northern Restoration Operation, so he never runs out of work. Seeing him work overtime until late at night these days, he seems as busy as ever. Jaein is smart and has great dexterity, so I think she’d do quite well even without a skill. Jaehee is the same. All three of us inherited Father’s good hands, so I think we’d be good at whatever manual work we chose.

With the mandatory repairs finished, I started digging through my messages. I received a few repair requests for weapons and armor made of special materials. "I'm busy enough with crafting, so why do I take repair requests..." Well, it helps build relationships with mid-to-high-floor climbers. The points are a side benefit, but the most important reason is to get my hands on these special materials. The variety of special materials in the Tower is endless, and there are some truly unique ones. Only a fraction of materials are released for sale in the gallery. Especially the materials brought by the highest-floor climbers—they’ve never been revealed before. It feels like only materials from about ten floors below the top are being released little by little.

The first item up was a dagger with a sinister-looking, blood-red blade, along with some ore.

"The first one out of the gate is already something strange." Look at that abnormally high attack power despite the low durability. Most climbers with melee jobs are of the warrior class, but an assassin... Monsters usually instinctively avoid dangerous places and always have at least one superior sense—hearing, sight, or smell—so it’s very difficult to hide and launch a surprise attack. When a surprise attack is necessary, they rely heavily on items and skills, but if you keep clearing floors like that, you’ll eventually reach a point where you can’t handle it and will likely give up climbing. Perhaps the climber who sent this dagger is someone who has grown very steadily?

"Well, they might have just gotten lucky and snagged something like a stealth robe." They might have rolled some good skills, too. They say job skills are unlocked every 15 floors for Easy, every 10 for Normal, and every 5 for Hard, so maybe they were lucky. "I didn't have my job skill unlocked until I cleared the 4th floor..." It shouldn't unlock later than Hard, so maybe a job skill opens up once I clear the 5th floor? Thinking this and that, I tossed the dagger and the Bloodstone into the furnace in the workshop. Three hours passed in the roaring furnace, but other than the rusted parts flaking off, the lumpy, cracked blade and the Bloodstone showed no reaction.

While making steel swords for Soul Sword Crafting in the small furnace next to it, I gradually raised the temperature and checked the dagger and Bloodstone from time to time, but even after the flames turned white, then blue, seven hours passed without a reaction. "It’s not even budging, so it must be something else." Since it said it wasn't a naturally occurring mineral, I’d have to use a special fuel. I sent a text to the climber who requested the repair, with the nuance of, 'Your weapon and ore won't melt, so I'll be using special fuel and charging you for the extra cost,' and a very short 'OK' came back. Good, I got permission, so I tossed the special fuel I took out of my sub-space backpack into the furnace.

It’s a pretty expensive fuel, which I had put in my sub-space backpack when I first entered the Dimensional ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Workshop. Actually, I rarely use it. It’s only for minerals with extremely high melting points... I could see the dagger and Bloodstone heating up little by little, but it looked like it would take a while. I grilled some vitality potatoes in the furnace to eat and spent 12 hours crafting steel swords for Soul Sword Crafting in the small furnace next to me. After a full day, the dagger and Bloodstone were completely heated.

"What kind of metal is this?" A mineral created by a curse... I don't know much about curses or magic, so I'm not sure. Most repairs are sufficient with just sharpening the blade with a whetstone. Even if it’s more than that, just heating the blade and tapping it with a hammer is enough. But the equipment sent to me for repair is all so worn out that it’s practically at the level of re-forging. Clang! Clang! I forged the dagger, tapping it with my hammer. Then, after adjusting the temperature, I added the Bloodstone little by little. As if it had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠found its rightful place, the Bloodstone merged perfectly with the dagger the more I hammered it. After a long six-hour repair, I was able to restore the dagger to its original state.

"Appraise."

Hmm, I even managed to keep half of the Bloodstone, and it was a good request since I got to handle a mineral I’d never touched before. I invested enough time to make 30 swords if I had used the casting method, but new experiences ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are always necessary to create good equipment. Using special minerals and materials is always my top priority. Still, the durability and attack power aren't as high as I thought. Maybe it’s because I used an ore I’d never handled before, so there was no attack power increase... But I didn't fail, so it doesn't matter. I sent the repaired dagger to the climber who requested it, charging 180 points for the repair and 200 points for the Manawood Charcoal, for a total of 380 points via cash-on-delivery. I spent over a day on it, but I got to touch and hammer away at materials and equipment I wouldn't be able to see otherwise, got paid in points, and even kept some materials? Being a blacksmith is definitely a professional job.