Should I Try Selling It?
“No... this... no, really. This doesn’t make any sense.”
I muttered to myself, staring blankly at the __STRONG__Blade of Unyielding Resolve
Honestly, even by my standards from my previous life.
In other words, from the eyes of a Grand Smith... this was just rough workmanship.
The blade was crooked, and the mana conduction wasn’t great.
Most of all, its clunky and unappealing appearance was a severe insult to my aesthetic sense.
If this had been in the other world, it would have been something like a kitchen knife you use in the kitchen. That level of “well-made knife”?
“But.”
I continued muttering without taking my eyes off the blade. The real problem wasn’t the performance.
“To forge this... ”
I looked down at the hammer in my hand. Even for a weapon of this level, you’d have to stay at the anvil for at least half a day.
Thousands or tens of thousands of strikes and dozens of forges.
Only after going through that process would it even take shape.
But this...
“In one hit?”
The half a day it took in the other world ended in a single strike here.
Such an unbelievable thing happened without a hint of surprise.
And.
LT__strong__Special Feature: 'Influence of the Other World
Crafting proficiency has skyrocketed: 1,200 / 100.
Crafting [E] skill level has increased: Lv.1 → Lv.12.
“...I’m out of my mind.”
A hollow laugh escaped my lips.
I had only swung it once, yet the crafting level jumped twelve stages?
“Games don’t do things like this.”
It was too absurd to stop the laugh.
“It works. This one.”
I looked at the pile of remaining kitchen knives on the floor. There were still ninety-nine left.
“Good. Let’s see how far it goes.”
I immediately picked up the next knife. There was no reason to hesitate.
The answer had already come out.
Clang!
The second strike rang out.
LT__strong__Item creation successful.
Crafting proficiency has increased.
“...Hmph.”
I picked up the newly made knife and examined it.
LT__strong__Identify.
The result was E-grade.
Not a massive success like the first time.
“It’s not bad.”
I lightly shook the blade in my hand. It felt oddly light.
The balance was also off. It was obviously inferior to the first one.
“I guess I just got lucky.”
A chuckle escaped me. The probability of a massive success was only 1%.
It wouldn’t happen consecutively just because it had happened once. Right now was actually the normal state.
Thud.
I set the blade down beside me.
“Then again.”
Clang!
The third strike echoed. This time it was an E-grade weapon.
Clang!
Fourth.
Same as before, an E-grade weapon.
Clang!
Fifth.
E-grade.
As the hammering continued, I grew short of breath.
My arms sank heavily, and dull pain built up in my shoulders.
“As expected, stamina and strength... ”
I looked at my hand; there was a faint tremor.
“Could it be that mental strength is being consumed too?”
My head throbbed so painfully that my stomach churned.
I understood. In the other world, crafting also drained concentration.
But then, it was because I had the body of a 300-year veteran dwarf, so I could endure it. Now, as a regular human, I couldn’t.
“My body and mind are both lacking. Tch.”
I clicked my tongue briefly.
I never thought I’d miss the dwarf body that never hesitated to curse in the other world.
That crude build and insane endurance of those short, stubby arms were almost like a distant memory.
Still, the results were more than enough. Next to the anvil, five finished knives were already stacked up.
“Three E-grades, one D-grade blade, one C-grade blade... ”
For the first time on Earth, this was pretty good.
I set the hammer down.
At that moment.
“...Huh?”
My vision in front of me tilted for a moment.
“Whoa. This is...”
I collapsed straight onto the bed without any support team.
Blankets? Moldy smell? I had no time to care about those things.
It felt like my brain was being completely worn away and erased.
*
“...Ugh.”
I opened my eyes. The familiar mold stains on the ceiling greeted me.
I fumbled for my smartphone and checked the time: 2 PM.
“I wasted an entire day.”
Thanks to how deeply I had slept, my body felt surprisingly light.
But the strange emptiness in my head didn’t disappear.
“It’s definitely not just a physical issue.”
A 300-year dwarf’s experience told me this. It wasn’t just the body; it was a symptom caused by lacking mental strength or mana.
“Tch. The technique is the same, but the engine is only economy-car level. That’s why.”
If it had been my dwarf days, I could have hammered away for a whole month without a problem.
“There’s still a long way to go, really.”
A mountain of things to do flashed through my head.
But instead of feeling blocked, my body burned with a strange exhilaration.
“Hehehehehe.”
I picked up one blade, and a dazzlingly sharp light flashed.
I didn’t know how much I’d get, but even just selling it would bring in money.
“But who should I sell it to?”
Master blacksmiths with strong artisan spirit often said this.
‘Even a divine sword is just heavy scrap metal if it can’t find its master and is locked away in a corner.’
‘The weapon chooses its owner.’
Honestly, even that cliché was wrong.
If my skill wasn’t confident, they were just rationalizing it with nonsense.
Anyone who saw my weapon would want to buy it desperately, right?
“I’ll go back to the Hunter Administration Office first.”
The place that handled overall hunter affairs would definitely have information on weapon distribution.
I had chosen the next destination.
I hurriedly prepared the bag that had been rolling around on the floor.
There wasn’t even a proper sheath, so I rolled the blades tightly with newspaper like a last resort and stuffed them into the bag.
“If I make money, I’ll buy some necessary things.”
But this was the first weapon I had ever made upon returning to Earth, wrapped in newspaper.
Self-reproach surged up.
“Right now, even pocket money is precious, so it can’t be helped.”
With my old sneakers tightly tied, I stepped outside.
“By the way, this scenery isn’t getting familiar.”
The remnants of the massive gates peeking between the skyscraping black towers.
The sight of hunters strolling the streets made me realize this was no longer the peaceful Earth I remembered.
“Sigh. Do I have to go inside one of those someday?”
I shook my head side to side.
Thinking about those things now would only make my mouth sore.
The top priority task was visiting the Hunter Administration Office.
Even if the law was different in the other world, weapon distribution had a strict order.
I needed to check whether formal equipment sales required separate permits, or if the administration office had a consignment sales system.
In the dwarf days, distributing various equipment also required negotiation with merchant guilds.
After walking while still in thought for a while, the Hunter Administration Office finally came into view in the heart of the bustling city.
The flashy electronic sign on the building’s exterior wall was flashing advertisements, but I clicked my tongue once and walked into the marble lobby.
‘Ah, but it’s a national administration office, so there’s no way they’d just throw a master blacksmith like me away, right?’
I had secretly expected that.
The title of Grand Smith was absolute in the other world.
Even though I was now just an E-grade hunter, if they knew the rarity of my skills, they would at least give me a professional consultation.
But that expectation shattered the moment I stepped into the lobby.
“Please pick up a number card and wait.”
The air in the Hunter Administration Office was cold.
The stale paper smell mixed with disinfectant, the typical public institution scent.
As instructed, I picked up a number card and waited.
– Number card 351 is requested to come to Window 4.
It took one hour.
After stubbornly sitting on a hard plastic chair for a full hour, I finally reached the window. No, exactly, I couldn’t reach it.
“Hey. Let me use it first? I’m kind of busy, you know.”
A thick hand rudely shoved my shoulder aside.
I turned my head, and a man in flashy armor was flashing a lecherous smile.
Behind him, four men who seemed to be his companions were laughing loudly.
“Who are you?”
My question was completely ignored.
“Oh? It’s the Steel Guild’s Park Taesu Hunter! I heard there’s a tower raid today, so you’re here early, huh?”
The receptionist’s face, which had been expressionless, suddenly lit up.
It wasn’t a forced mechanical smile; it was a sincere welcome as if they had met a truly precious person.
“Yes. I came to get some supplies for the raid. You know, right? Our guild is busy.”
“Ah, of course. It’s only natural. Hunters like you put in all the hard work, so we regular people can kick back and relax. Here, please fill out the documents?”
I, the person, was treated as if I didn’t exist.
My number card, which had been waiting for an hour, was nothing more than a scrap of paper in front of the man’s flashy guild emblem.
“Excuse me. I thought I was first.”
I spoke as calmly as possible, but the response was a chilly gaze like looking at a bug from the receptionist.
“Right now, Park Hunter is a national-priority tower raid target. Of course we have to give you priority. Please wait over there for a moment.”
The receptionist’s eyes flicked up and down.
Beyond just expressionless, it was a contemptuous look.
‘Hah.’
In the other world, during my dwarf days...
The memory of the knight commander who blocked my path and whose head I crushed with my hammer flashed through my mind.
‘Just these guys.’
I wanted to swing my hammer right then and there, teach them what manners were and just how heavy the hammer’s weight was.
But wasting my precious hammering on such trash was humiliating, so I held back.
“Hmph. No matter what, even if it’s basic supplies, how is this condition? At this rate, you’ll just be scraping monster leather inside the tower.”
Park Hunter’s voice soon grew louder as he rummaged through the supplies.
He slammed his sword onto the counter.
‘Clearly.’
Even I could see the weapon’s condition was in a mess.
No, the word ‘mess’ was too mild.
The forging was rough, the edges were wavy, and the grains were all shattered.
Even the mana circuit design looked messed up, so it seemed it couldn’t even hold mana.
If you tried to infuse mana like that, before you could even scrape monster leather, the blade would scream and break first, right?
‘How sloppy could you get. Tch.’
It looked like I had put up a barricade on the highway entrance.
‘If you saw the things I made, you’d be completely dumbfounded.’
In the bag, my rolled-up blades seemed to be laughing at the same time.
Scrap metal like that being called the Hunter Administration Office supplies.
It was clear they had sold the Earth’s artisan spirit across the tower.
But the laughter was brief. A realistic problem gripped my back.
If something like this trash was officially a supplied item, where exactly should my weapons be sold to receive proper treatment?
“Hmph.”
Just as I was thinking for a moment.
“Ha. I’ll take it then. Please pay attention to the quality, okay?”
After Park Hunter sighed deeply and packed the supplies, the receptionist turned back to me with an empty face.
“Next.”
“I have a question about item creation distribution permits and consignment sales.”
Before my sentence was even finished, the receptionist cut me off.
“Distribution permits are not needed, and there is no related department.”
“...None?”
The unexpected answer made me ask back.
Was it even reasonable for a national institution like the Hunter Administration Office to have no department related to equipment?
“Yes. This place is focused on combat and gate response. Use guild contracts or private transactions for creation items.”
“Private... what?”
As if my question was bothersome, the receptionist pointed with his chin to the notice posted on the wall and answered quickly.
“The Hunter Gallery Marketplace. That’s where the domestic transaction volume is the highest. Next!”
The interview was so empty it was almost meaningless.
The administration office had no interest in a low-tier crafter like me, not even the tip of a hair.
I was the idiot for expecting a warm welcome as a crafting hunter.
But it didn’t feel bad. No, it was clearer.
If the national system was like this, there was no need to be polite and beg for permits.
I adjusted the old bag on my back and muttered.
“Maybe it’s good that it happened this way. No need to read the atmosphere.”
I fiddled with the smartphone that had been in use for more than ten years.
After a long struggle, I opened the Hunter Gallery Marketplace window.
And immediately started scanning the posts about equipment and weapons.
“Let me take a look at what other guys can do.”