Wings of the Cosmos
"Believe it or not, I actually have decent talent as a mage. I showed potential in three different attributes. It's just that my combat sense is terrible... and my legs start shaking whenever I see blood..."
"......"
"Ahem. Anyway, perhaps because of that modest talent, I sometimes catch glimpses of beings connected to mages... and the last thing I saw from that summon of yours was..."
"What did you see...?"
"...It was a pair of truly absurdly massive wings. They were so enormous they seemed to stretch across the cosmos itself. I could only make out a tiny fraction of them, but I clearly saw the feathers—kuh—kuh!"
The man suddenly gushed a bucketful of nosebleed after saying that.
"Hah— hah— Just thinking about that existence... makes me like this. Whew... Just what in the world... are you..."
The man muttered while staring at me, then finally dropped his head. Thud! He slammed his forehead into the table and passed out cold.
After calling over a café employee to look after the unconscious man, I used a potion to help him recover. Of course, I remained hidden in stealth the whole time, and thanks to the employee's calm handling, no commotion broke out in the café.
"There he goes again..."
The employee clutched his forehead as if he had a headache.
"Does he do this often?"
"Well, he sometimes says he's dizzy and sits down, but this is the first time I've seen him foam at the mouth and collapse. He mentioned it was trauma from some dungeon..."
"Ah..."
After lying there like a corpse for about thirty minutes, the man opened his eyes again. When he saw us staring down at him, he spoke.
"Hm? Who... are you?"
"...Pardon?"
"Ah! Are you perhaps the summoner who made a reservation earlier? Ah, please wait just a moment. I have these episodes sometimes. I really need to lose some weight, hahaha!"
"......"
Since the reservation fee had already been paid, Yeonhee told him she had urgent business and would come back another time, then left the café without hesitation.
"That startled me. What was that? Was he really like that because of some chronic condition?"
"Tap..."
A being with enormous wings. Whether what that man saw was real or not, there was no way to be completely certain he possessed such an ability. Still, one thing was now clear: my inability to properly handle Fireball wasn't because I lacked talent in the fire attribute.
"Still, don't you feel refreshed now that we've opened that door?"
Nod nod—
Of course, the original question had vanished only to be replaced by a new one, but it still felt like we'd taken a step forward.
"Anyway, you're amazing, our Ilwol~ That light attribute is actually undead... Well, anyway, it can't be helped, so I guess we can just assume you can use everything! You might even become a great mage someday! Hehehe—"
"Clack clack clack!"
"Then I need to become someone worthy of that too... I wonder if I can manage it, ugh..."
"Clack clack clack!!"
"Right, instead of thinking like that, let's hurry up and commission that greatsword."
With her energy restored, we headed to the blacksmith this time. While riding in the taxi, I mulled over the mage's words. If the being with those massive wings he saw was truly connected to me...
'How am I supposed to commune with it? Please help me just once? Please save me?'
I wasn't even sure if that tremendous existence was aware of me. I'd used plenty of skills already... Was that not enough?
'O being of the wings... please grant me the ability to use magic as I intend...'
......
I offered a vague prayer, but as expected, no answer came. Maybe a response only arrived when I faced a truly desperate situation, or perhaps there was another method entirely.
'If I get the chance, I should talk to Jua-rang again.'
The blacksmith wasn't far from the café, so we arrived quickly by taxi.
'A blacksmith in a place like this?'
The first thing that caught my eye was the rusty, decades-old junkyard-like scenery. Countless blades were scattered haphazardly, forming a long path stretching left and right. At the end of the path stood a massive container building perched precariously on a slope.
'...Does he even want to sell anything?'
No matter how I looked at it, I never expected a blacksmith to be operating inside such a rusted container. How had Yeonhee mustered the courage to come here last time? Sometimes she had a brave streak that put me to shame.
Following the narrow path of blades, we reached the container door—a massive iron gate firmly shut. How theatrical.
"Tap—!"
"Hang in there, Ilwol! Last time the uncle opened it from inside, but I wonder where he is now?"
Thud—!
Even with my 200 Strength, opening the heavy iron door took effort. Once inside, we were greeted by a surprisingly respectable shop displaying various weapons and armor. Yet the temperature inside felt even lower than outside—perhaps it wasn't just my imagination.
Hoo— Yeonhee exhaled a long breath and smiled. "It's just like last time~"
If I'd still possessed a human body, I would've been wearing a bitter smile right about now. The damn shop had taken no measures against the cold, so Yeonhee immediately zipped her long padded coat all the way up to her chin. Even though it was an equipment shop conducting business, it showed zero consideration for customers.
Whether our arrival was noticed or not, I soon sensed someone climbing up from the basement. A man emerged from a small passage in the corner of the shop, wiping himself with a towel.
"Whew— It's damn hot in here. Heh— Isn't it?"
"Excuse me? Uh... well, I suppose so..."
People who acquired the blacksmith trait supposedly developed similar temperaments. And traditionally, they had no talent for jokes. It was clearly meant to be funny, but Yeonhee didn't show even the slightest hint of a smile.
The man had come up shirtless. Even as his sweat rapidly cooled, he didn't seem to feel the cold at all. Did gaining muscle grant immunity to the cold? Maybe. Those who acquired the blacksmith trait gradually resembled the dwarves we commonly imagined. They didn't shrink to dwarf size, but their height decreased by over 10%, their noses became thick and pug-like, and their torsos grew stocky with muscles so dense they looked like they'd been packed with stones.
The man who'd just emerged from his workshop was still over 180cm tall and rather lean. That meant he hadn't been awakened for long, had originally been close to 190cm, and had been extremely skinny.
'The armor quality was quite good... I didn't expect the person who made it to have so little experience.'
"So, what did you come to commission? If you're here to order another lowest-grade piece of armor like last time, you can just leave, miss. I don't make that line of equipment anymore."
"Not that. I came to commission a greatsword."
"Oh? For the fellow beside you?"
"Yes, that's right."
The man didn't even blink at the sight of me. Instead, he formed a hand-frame with his fingers and examined me from various angles before nodding in satisfaction.
"That's quite different from what I heard last time, miss? Judging by how you opened that iron door, this one's got some real strength. Will an ordinary greatsword satisfy you? I can make an oversized one too, you know."
"O-oversized?"
"A normal greatsword usually has a blade around 1.5 meters. But how about going big with a 2-meter blade? Hm?"
The man asked with sparkling eyes, as if he'd finally found an interesting project after a long time.
'No matter how much my Strength has increased, my height is only a little over 180cm. A 2-meter blade would be too unwieldy. Maybe later, but not now.'
A 2-meter blade plus the hilt and pommel would bring the total length close to 2.4 meters. While my Strength could handle it, it would be inefficient in combat. Just look at the fight at dawn—how could I have swung something like that properly in such a cramped space? Too much of anything was worse than not enough. I shook my head firmly, and in the end, we commissioned a greatsword of standard length.
A greatsword with a 1.5-meter blade. The blacksmith's eyebrows formed a perfect 八 shape, openly displaying his disappointment. Since he was still early in his career, most commissions he received probably didn't stray far from normal sizes. It was like a D-grade hunter who only ever fought low-level monkeys. I could understand his desire to add some variation to his work. I hoped the material I was about to present would at least give him some enthusiasm. If he enjoyed the work, it might have a positive effect on my weapon as well.
"Th-this is?!"
When I took out several chunks of the rare mineral Kardinite from my inventory and placed them on the counter, the blacksmith frantically reached out to examine them.
"Kardinite!! Where in the world did you get this? I heard it's barely being mined these days!"
"...We were lucky enough to discover a small mine..."
"That's incredible! You hit the jackpot! If you have any more, sell it all to me! I'll buy everything!"
Yeonhee looked at me, and I shook my head.
"That's a bit..."
"Hah— I'll pay you well!"
"This is all we brought today. I'll think about the rest."
"Kuhmm... You're really missing out on a good price... Fine! Let's focus on this weapon for now!"
"By the way, have you ever made a weapon using Kardinite before?"
"About three times... when I was learning from my master. And even then, it wasn't alone, so I suppose this will be my first time doing it myself."
He stroked his chin as if recalling fond memories, gazed into the air for a moment, then continued.
"I heard this stuff used to appear quite often in early-generated dungeons. That's why some unused pieces are still circulating in the shadows, though the quantity is tiny. They say it doesn't drop in recently generated dungeons anymore. So even if I wanted to use it, it's not easy to obtain."
Of course, that didn't mean Kardinite was so expensive it was worth a fortune. When it came to crafting top-tier equipment, there were better auxiliary minerals than Kardinite. Its upper limit of utility was clear, so the price wasn't unlimited, yet supply was scarce—making it a mineral even blacksmiths had rarely handled.
The blacksmith was so absorbed in examining the mineral with a small magnifying glass that he didn't even notice the drool at the corner of his mouth.
"The quality is excellent too. Which dungeon did you get this from?"
"Wolf Cave..."
"Huh? That place has been around so long I figured nothing worthwhile would come out of it anymore. You managed to find some, huh!"
"Heh— W-we were lucky..."
"Wolf Cave, Wolf Cave... Hmm, hmm..."
The blacksmith repeated "Wolf Cave" several times as if committing it to memory. When Yeonhee saw he was too distracted, she cleared her throat a few times and handed him a mana stone.
"Ah, my apologies. Once I get fixated on something, I can't focus on anything else. Let's see... This is an Orc Advanced Warrior's mana stone? You hunted it yourselves?"
"Yes... We hunted it ourselves."
"I thought you were only D-grade?"
"During the dungeon break at Lizardman Swamp..."
Clap! The blacksmith clapped his hands loudly at Yeonhee's words.
"You two took that down? The second son of the Ilseom Guild was supposed to have finished it off, or so I heard..."
'So that's how the story spread...'
