Lifting the Angel

The moment Corneline's spectacular Divine Punishment show wrapped up, the stream cut out.

It died the instant she collapsed, so Seo-yoon had probably killed the broadcast herself.

"Looks like things are fine over there, too."

The hydra had gone down in a single hit, so there wasn't anything particularly dangerous left to worry about.

While Seo-yoon gathered up the fallen Corneline and brought her back, I figured I might as well check the gallery.

If even I had been stunned watching it, I was dying to know how hard those gallery rats had been hit.

"Unddung's cute too, though. Why're they like that."

"Huh? Why're you sayin' that all of a sudden, sir?"

I'd been reading the gallery posts and the words just slipped out.

Sure, Unddung's looks and personality were a little... much. But he was a good kid, honestly.

"……"

"Eek! Lady Mitsu, why're you lookin' at me like that?!"

Unddung shot me a look of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pure betrayal, but I pretended not to see it.

I half expected his wrist to get sliced off again, but luckily no blood was spilled this time.

"Why is this person so heavy?"

"This body is not heavy! This one is no mere human — this one is an angel!"

Perfect timing. Seo-yoon had come back with Corneline slung over her shoulder.

"Good work. You're not hurt anywhere?"

"Ohoho! As if this angel would be wounded by such paltry fiends!"

I hadn't been talking to her, but as long as nobody was injured, that was fine.

"Seo-yoon?"

"Yes? I didn't really do anything, though."

With that, Seo-yoon set Corneline down on the floor.

"I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

She let out a long sigh and hung her head.

"It's fine."

This whole raid had been an experiment from the start — to see whether just being in the party was enough to earn experience.

"Want to open your status window for a second?"

Seo-yoon showed me her status without a word of complaint.

"My level went up compared to before."

Good. At least we hadn't run into a situation where she got zero experience at all.

"What level are you?"

"Level 3."

The problem was that the amount of experience was way lower than I'd expected.

She'd cleared the Hard-difficulty Tower — something nobody except me had ever managed — and she'd only gone up two levels.

So leeching really doesn't work, huh?

The level-up info I'd seen online had been right. You just barely got any experience if you didn't fight yourself.

"Well, if carrying people actually worked, the government would've snatched her up a long time ago."

"I'm sorry..."

Seo-yoon apologized and handed me the first-clear rewards.

Three S-rank magic stones and one A-rank artifact gacha ticket. I tucked them into my inventory.

If I gathered just a few more S-rank magic stones, I'd be able to lock in Unddung's Exclusive Weapon enhancement in no time.

"Guess I need to rework the plan from scratch."

My familiars would run the high floors of the Tower, and Seo-yoon would run the low floors on her own. That was the right call.

Which meant I needed to make Seo-yoon an artifact first.

"Seo-yoon, what kind of weapon do you like?"

"Huh? I..."

She hesitated for a moment, then spoke carefully.

"If possible... I'd like to fight with my fists."

Not the answer I'd expected. I'd figured she'd go for a regular longsword or a spear.

I started turning over what kind of artifact would work well for a fist-fighter, and a good weapon came to mind.

"Alright, that's it for today. Get home safe."

I was about to send Seo-yoon on her way when—

"I don't have anywhere to go back to."

She said it so calmly that for a second I didn't even process it.

"What do you mean?"

"I've been staying at a 24-hour spa lately."

In other words, she was homeless.

Even so, living in the same room as someone who wasn't even a familiar felt a little... off.

"Princess, perhaps she might stay in this humble one's chambers?"

"Are you sure that's alright?"

"Indeed. This humble one must remain at Princess's side, and thus has little use for the room."

I put Mitsu's offer to Seo-yoon, and she nodded.

"Lucky for us Mitsu's so nice."

"For this humble one, such a thing is of no consequence."

I ignored Mitsu's inner voice and put in a commission with the blacksmiths we'd recruited into the guild.

"First commission since founding the guild."

Alright. Just how many artifacts were going to show up?

"I didn't think this many would actually come in..."

I said that looking at the mountain of artifacts piled high in Corneline's cathedral.

"Why must it be this angel's chambers! The goblin has a room, and so does Mitsu Unni!"

"It's a room you don't even use anyway."

"This one's cathedral has been defiled!"

I ignored ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Corneline without a second thought and went live.

The moment I went live, viewers poured in.

"Hey everyone! What we're enhancing today is an artifact I'm making for our new guild member!"

I greeted the stream and lifted my hammer.

Maybe it was because I was doing a proper, orthodox enhancement for the first time in a while — my hands were itching for it.

"Alright, let's jump right in!"

I started with the artifacts that already had solid base stats.

Figures. At 3%, it wasn't going to land on the first try.

I blew through most of the artifacts that way, left with a handful of +1 pieces. Those were just a stopgap — I'd detonate them all eventually anyway.

The real core of this session was the mountain of artifacts still piled up like a hill. Their base stats were garbage, but the plan was to paper over that with raw enhancement luck.

I burned through a huge number of them, but the hit rate was better than I'd expected.

Every so often a great success would pop, too.

And then, as the artifacts steadily dwindled, the status message I'd been waiting on for a long ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time finally appeared.

I paused the enhancements and sank into thought.

"What should I raise first?"

Ordinarily, boosting the enhancement success rate itself would be the correct play. But...

What would happen if I enhanced Corneline — an EX-rank?

"Corneline. Come here for a second?"

"W-why are you looking at this one with those strange eyes! How frightening! Stay away!"

It's 100% anyway. Perfectly safe.