God's Weapon (2)

"...Say that again. Trainee Paladin Kenis. What did you just say?"

A low, grinding pressure filled the room.

Was this how a frog felt standing before a serpent's jaws? The moment Evan's single eye locked onto her, cold sweat slicked the back of Kenis's neck and her entire body began to tremble.

She drew a sharp breath.

The color drained from her face under the full weight of a battle-hardened veteran's aura, yet she clenched her violently chattering teeth and forced the words out once more.

"Th-this time... the, hah, the traces of a god! I want to join the expedition searching for them!!"

"Fine. Understood."

"...Pardon?"

Kenis blinked back at him with a blank expression. The crushing pressure that had been squeezing the life out of her moments before had already been reined in, leaving only stillness.

"You're turning down leave that was given to you for rest, just so you can ship out again. If you're that determined to make trouble for yourself, I've got no reason to stop you."

"Ah—no. Th-thank you..."

A sudden sense of injustice welled up in Kenis. If he was going to approve it anyway, why had he glared at her like he meant to kill her—!

Whether he read that look in her eyes or not, Evan let out a short snort of laughter.

"The reason I treated Trainee Paladin Kenis a little... roughly... well, an old man got bored and decided to mess with you a bit."

"Wh—what?! What on earth do you mean by that!"

Kenis raised her voice so loudly she seemed to have forgotten the man in front of her was a knight-commander. Evan's brow twitched for an instant, then smoothed out again.

"...It was a joke. Young people these days have no sense of humor."

"...Haa."

The sigh that slipped out of her was soft enough that it never reached Evan's ear.

"The real reason was the danger. I ran a simple test."

"Danger... sir?"

"Right. Those damned heretics and demon bastards are going to show up on this expedition. If Trainee Paladin Kenis couldn't even hold up under a bit of pressure just now, she'd clearly be dead weight for the unit."

Evan fixed her with a question.

"You know what this expedition is after, don't you?"

"Yes, sir! I understand it is to investigate traces of a god."

Evan turned his head toward the sky beyond the window.

"That's right. We're going out to find the traces of a god. Perhaps the last one left on this earth."

"Naturally, that holds enormous meaning for our Pantheon. And the heretics and demons who will try to exploit those traces for their own ends will come crawling after them as well."

Kenis asked with a puzzled look.

"H-how exactly would heretics make use of a god's traces..."

"I don't know."

Evan turned back, his single eye settling on Kenis.

"But when there's honey that sweet sitting out in the open, heretics who've already sold their souls to demons will find some way to put those traces to use and stir up something filthy."

"Just like the time they manifested a demon legion commander on the surface..."

Evan's eye was no longer looking at Kenis. His focus had gone soft, as if he were staring at something far behind her.

Kenis's gaze slowly traced the scar that cut across Evan's face. The rough, brutal mark still remembered that battlefield, looking as though it might start bleeding again at any moment.

"Just as we paladins grind our teeth at the mere mention of heretics, heretics shudder at the thought of paladins. On this expedition, the odds of running into them are high."

Evan continued.

"When you meet heretics, combat follows. And if they take you alive... you won't die cleanly. You'll be lucky if they don't strip your soul for the demons."

Ah—

A quiet gasp escaped Kenis before she could stop it. To be robbed even of a soul's rest...

"Finding the god's traces would be ideal. But even without them, fine. Whatever this power is, it's clearly nothing ordinary. And we stop the heretics from using that power to pull their garbage stunts."

"So the expedition must find those traces faster than anyone else—and protect them."

"Do you understand the weight of this mission now?"

Kenis swallowed hard, then answered. The scale of it all might have frightened anyone else, but Kenis was a trainee paladin bolder and braver than most.

"Yes, sir! I understand!"

"Good spirit. The expedition departs in three days. Rest well and report for duty in peak condition."

"Yes, sir!"

Kenis was not afraid—not even if heretics and demons came swarming in droves.

She was a trainee paladin of the Five Gods, after all—!

"Wonder how much the dwarves have raked in today~"

I logged into the weapon-raising game a couple times a day, chipping away at it in spare ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠moments. Adventurers had been dropping by the inn fairly often, buying up weapons as they went.

"Only one today, huh."

I tapped the adventurer and sold him a freshly crafted dagger.

The adventurer vanished along with that unreadable line of dialogue. I'd posted on the official café asking about the translation, but nothing changed, so I just gave up. Dead games are all like that, I guess.

I collected the resources the dwarves had stockpiled and mindlessly cranked out daggers and longswords.

Then I sold every last weapon for cash.

"Should I put up a new building, dig a mine, or hire more workers..."

I settled into the pleasant dilemma of how to spend my overflowing wealth.

Ding-dong—

The chicken I'd ordered on the way home had arrived. I tossed my phone onto the bed and bolted for the door.

"Coming out now!"

I set the warm chicken on my desk, lined up two cold cans of beer in front of me, and sat down. One hand for the chicken, the other for my phone.

"Now this is living."

Solo bliss in a studio apartment. I tore into a piece of chicken coated evenly in sauce and checked my phone.

"Ah, right—gotta put up a building."

I opened the building list and checked what I could unlock.

Chew, chew.

"Oh, three buildings available?"

I scrolled.

Scrolled some more.

"Ore Smelter, Tavern, Mine Cart Railway? Can't build all of them?"

I had just enough money for maybe two. A little debate over which of the three to drop.

Gulp, gulp.

Ahhh—

All that chicken left my mouth feeling dry and sticky, so I washed it down with a cold can of beer. Chicken and beer—nothing better.

Then I glanced at the screen and saw the dwarves hard at work. And dwarves without booze? Unthinkable. I suddenly wanted to introduce these hardworking little guys to the glory of alcohol.

"Yeah, dwarves deserve a drink too. Tavern and Smelter it is."

I built the tavern a short distance from the temple, and the smelter automatically went up next to the forge.

A countdown appeared on the screen.

This insane game wanted me to wait fifteen whole minutes just because I'd put up a couple buildings. I was dying to see the finished structures, and the frustration was boiling over.

"Screw it—I'll just buy a package and finish them instantly!"

Feeling a little tipsy, I took another swig of beer, opened the shop, and scrolled through the packages.

"Monthly package, weekly package, newbie welcome package... you absolute shameless bastards. Sell them in moderation, for crying out loud!"

True to form for a Korean game, the package list was absurdly long. Then I found the one I wanted.

"There it is. Building Completion Package."

For 19,900 won, unlimited instant building completion. A thought flickered through my brain—is this really worth twenty bucks?—but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my finger was already moving for a price that didn't even hit twenty thousand.

"Hell, it's not even more expensive than the chicken I'm eating right now!"

The completion package and a handful of resources sat waiting in my mailbox. Looking at them, a wave of self-loathing hit me—I'd just dropped twenty thousand won on a pile of data scraps—but a purchased package never comes back. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠No undoing it now.

"I'll just make good use of it going forward. Building times are only going to get longer, so unlimited instant completion is actually a steal."

Muttering to myself, I finished the half-built structures sitting on the empty lot.

Tap—

"I built a tavern—why does worker efficiency go up?"

I muttered, dumbfounded. Whoever designed this game was clearly a master of the Drunken Fist who worked better after a few drinks.

With that idle thought, I tapped the smelter nestled beside the forge. A UI for transferring ore appeared on the screen.

"So I just dump ore in here?"

I moved one piece of Crude Iron into the smelter. A dwarf popped out of the mine and slipped straight into the building, busily stoking the fire and hammering away at the ore.

Oh—the "Crude" prefix was gone. So the smelter could raise the grade of my ores.

Next I fed it some Inferior Copper. The dwarf hammered away again with the same enthusiasm.

While I was at it, I dumped the rest of my iron into the smelter and refined it all. I'd use this Refined Iron to craft a Short Dagger.

"That should give me something better than E-grade, right?"

Higher-grade materials meant a higher-grade weapon—no question. Holding onto that small hope, I queued up the craft.

A cheerful fanfare rang out from my phone.

A D-Grade weapon. I was short on materials, so that was all I could make for now.

"I'll save this for when a higher-ranked adventurer shows up."

I locked my first D-Grade item safely in the inventory and closed the game.