Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Ch. 26 .｡.:✧ Basel (3) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“The purpose… Hmm.”
Leaving the stunned Tay and artisans in silence, I pondered. Where would be a good place to use it? Since it was originally large, it would still have a considerable volume even after processing.
It would be too heavy to attach to a ring or bracelet. And I wasn’t a mage, so making it into a jewel to attach to a staff was iffy. There was no other way.
“I’ll have it embedded in a sword hilt.”
The only option was to embed it in a sword as a decoration. A necklace or pendant was possible too, but I disliked the idea of wearing something like that out of embarrassment.
As I was thinking that, people around me seemed to have something to say, mumbling with their lips.
Ah. Come to think of it, I had forgotten to say something.
“I refuse any intervention from other craftsmen. I’d like it to be completed solely by this child’s hands.”
“C-customer. You seem to be misunderstanding something. This child is not yet an official craftsman, but an apprentice…”
“Doesn’t matter. Is 100,000 gold enough for the commission fee?”
“Pardon? Customer. That’s not the issue…”
“I was asking this girl.”
“…”
Tay was still vacantly looking up at me. Forget answering my question, she was just frozen stiff. At this point, Tay was probably called an incompetent craftsman and had lost a lot of self-esteem. She must have been going crazy wanting to accept this commission.
She was probably just unable to speak from being too flustered.
“I’ll take that as a yes. I’m counting on you. When it’s finished, contact me at this address.”
“Customer!”
Tossing the mana stone and a paper with the hotel address to Tay, I left the workshop. There was a commotion behind me, but that wasn’t my business. The genius craftsman Tay would handle everything well anyway. No need to worry.
“Now. Shall we go earn some money?”
So where did I get the 100,000 gold commission fee, or 100 million won, you ask? Of course I didn’t have that much. Selling all the low-grade and mid-grade mana stones only got me about 30,000 gold.
In other words, I had to earn the commission fee from now on. There were plenty of dungeons around Basel, so no problem.
[Trait: Reputation]
[Check your reputation score.]
[Yoo-jin: 0.02%]
[Known by a small number of people. Very low presence.]
[???: 12.0%]
[Starting to gain notoriety. Presence is growing. Meanwhile, the reputation score of ‘???’ had increased again. It seemed the passengers on the carriage were enthusiastically spreading rumors about the nameless swordsman.
I could confirm the reputation score rising in real-time like this even in unseen places. Although it said I was starting to gain notoriety, I had no intention of further increasing the notoriety of this unidentified swordsman. This much was enough to confirm the performance of the Reputation trait.
From now on, I would properly create fake identities and operate them.
“Customer! At least tell us your name!”
The receptionist’s urgent voice came from behind.
“Put it down as Undecided.”
“Undecided, you say?”
“Yes. Well then, I’m busy so…”
“Customer! If you just leave like this…”
[Undecided: 3.8%]
[Receiving mild admiration.]
[*Warning. Impersonating someone else.]
Okay. Confirmation complete. Even when impersonating someone else, the reputation score showed up. This trait seemed to have infinite ways to utilize it.
***
“What is this commotion?”
“I heard a human man suddenly handed a top-grade mana stone to Tay and left…”
“Just what kind of person is he?”
I was dumbfounded. What had just happened? While I was flustered and stammering, that human tossed me the mana stone and vanished in an instant.
“Is this really a top-grade mana stone?”
“It is. I appraised it, so there’s no mistake. It’s one with considerable purity even among top-grade ones.”
“But then why would he give it to Tay…”
“Could he have mistaken her for someone else?”
“That’s plausible…”
The artisans gathered and continued their discussion among themselves. They were spouting words that couldn’t be more rude, but I agreed with everything. They were right. That human must have made a serious mistake.
Otherwise, there was no way he would entrust a top-grade mana stone to me.
“I’ll say it again. I think you’re mistaken.”
“Huff, huff… I went to this address, but the hotel room is currently empty. Should I wait until he returns?”
“Hey. You stupid girl. A commission came in, but what are you doing not moving promptly?”
“Par…don…?”
At that moment, Teacher’s reprimand made my eyes widen. What are you talking about?
“Hahaha. Sir. The customer seems to have misunderstood Tay for someone else…”
“Misunderstood my foot! Didn’t he look straight at this leech’s face and talk to her! Where was there room for misunderstanding! It’s a craftsman’s failure to waste time after receiving a commission! The rest of you stop blabbering and return to work too!”
“T-Teacher! You’re saying I should take on this mana stone? Really?”
“It’s not me telling you to take it. It’s that unlucky-looking human who told you to.”
“Ah, no. Something’s strange. I’m an apprentice. I can’t even handle high-grade stones properly, so how can I do a top-grade one…”
“Shut your trap! If you’re not confident, just refuse the commission!”
That’s right. I can refuse. No, I should refuse. There must have been some kind of mistake. What’s the point of someone like me taking on such a precious mana stone? I’ll just ruin it.
“But Tay.”
“Yes?”
“If you refuse that commission, you’ll have to leave the workshop now. We can’t keep a parasite who can’t even do the work of one person forever.”
“T-Teacher…!”
A bolt from the blue. If I refuse the commission, I’ll be out on the streets. But if I accept the commission, I’ll turn this mana stone with boundless potential into a worthless rock.
I fell to my knees in front of Teacher, weeping. Begging him not to kick me out. But Teacher just turned his head away with a resolute face. Once Teacher made a decision, he never wavered. It was already decided.
If I didn’t want to be thrown out and starve to death on the streets, I had no choice but to process this top-grade mana stone.
“Sniff, Teacher. If you could just help me a little…”
“No. Didn’t that guy say it? You have to carve it with your hands alone.”
“Then at least give me some advice from the side…!”
“Tay. I won’t say anything to you. Forget everything I’ve taught you until now. Just touch the mana stone as your hands guide you. Understood?”
“Ah…”
Tears welled up. I had been completely abandoned by Teacher. As if he was ashamed of having a apprentice like me, he even forbade me from utilizing his teachings. If I ruin this mana stone, it will be entirely my fault.
It will be all my responsibility, without any intervention from other craftsmen. Only then did I feel the pressure of that responsibility, and my body felt suffocatingly stifling.
“Aren’t you going to start working!”
“I, I will. I will, Teacher…”
Trembling and shaking, I ran to my workstation. A spot open to everyone, without even a partition. The only tools were the ones in my old toolbox…
I sat at my spot and placed the top-grade mana stone on the workbench. Just looking at it made me space out again, such a beautiful mana stone. I had to touch this now. With my own hands, I had to mercilessly shatter the value of this mana stone.
Thinking that, tears flowed down my cheeks.
“I heard the old man has been angry a lot lately. Looks like you became his punching bag.”
“He exploded after holding it in for so long. Tay must have been frustratingly slow.”
“Tsk. What a waste of a mana stone. Top-grade ones are so precious these days. To think it has to be ruined.”
Whispers from around me. I froze at them, shedding tears endlessly. But no matter how much I did that, no one helped me. It was only natural.
They wouldn’t want to share the responsibility of failure by saying a word about a job that was bound to be ruined.
‘Why… Why me of all people…’
That human was probably an insanely rich tycoon. So rich that he enjoyed the hobby of tossing a top-grade mana stone to a child who looked like a maggot and watching their reaction.
Unfortunately, I was the one who got picked today.
“Sob…!”
There was no other way. Wiping away my tears, I began working. Since I had never seen a top-grade mana stone or learned about its properties, I could only recklessly dive in. I started by figuring out and grasping the unique wavelength of the mana stone one by one.
‘I have no idea what to do. I’m at a total loss.’
I didn’t know. I had no clue how to process the beauty created by this irregularity. Tears kept dripping down, and unpleasant thoughts kept crossing my mind.
My hands had been cursed from the beginning. Cursed to not be able to let go of things I should finish roughly and move on, and to only feel satisfied after seeing them through to the end.
When everyone said it was good enough and finished processing low-grade mana stones, I couldn’t let go and kept fiddling with them. I couldn’t understand at all the standard of ‘good enough’ that everyone spoke of.
What was good enough? Wasn’t it a craftsman’s job to draw out the maximum potential of a mana stone, enhance its strengths, and smooth out its weaknesses? Wasn’t that the spirit of craftsmanship?
How could you hand over an unfinished mana stone and take money for it? I could never do that even if it killed me. My cursed hands, my temper wouldn’t let me do that. It was the same when handling high-grade mana stones.
My personality of having to see things through to the end ruined everything. High-grade mana stones were structured in a way that they could only be finished in an incomplete state in the first place.
Unable to bear the incompleteness, my cursed hands kept carving here and there, and in the end, they produced a result much smaller than the raw ore. No matter how high the completion level, if the size itself decreased and lowered the output, it was meaningless.
My hands were not meant to handle high-grade mana stones.
‘Why are they so unrestrained…’
This was a mana stone with a commission fee of 100,000 gold alone. It should be handled with care, but these damn cursed hands were moving on their own, carving away at the mana stone.
This beautiful color was gradually being distorted by my hands. Although they were similar in having irregular crystals and distinct characteristics, top-grade and lower-grade mana stones were on completely different levels aside from that.
Yet my hands moved without hesitation, as if they were used to it, like when handling low-grade and mid-grade mana stones. Despite knowing nothing, the hand movements alone looked plausible. These hands moving like a fish in water were simply absurd.
“Ah.”
Then at some point, my hands froze. Hands wandering aimlessly in the air, having lost their way. I quickly realized what the problem was. I was missing a tool. A tool to precisely work on the inside, which I didn’t have.
“Here.”
“Teacher?”
Thud.
Startled by the loud noise, I looked to the side and saw Teacher’s shelf placed next to me. Wondering why it was here, I looked up and saw that Teacher had brought the entire shelf from his workshop.
Before I could even say a word, Teacher turned his back and left.
“Work instead of blabbering, you maggot-like girl!”
Teacher was right. There was no time to waste on gratitude. Because even devoting my soul to this mana stone, which was far too good for me, wouldn’t be enough.
It would probably be my last work as a craftsman, so I had to pour my everything into it without any regrets.
“What? Did Tay work all night?”
“Tsk. How pitiful. Spending so much time ruining a top-grade mana stone…”
“Huh? Is that really Tay’s work? The color looks odd.”
Of course it would look odd. I was working completely on my own. 18 hours into the work. My eyes were getting hazy, but I maintained my focus. Even a small mistake would mean 100,000 gold flying away.
After working diligently for a few more hours, my cursed hands that had been moving on their own finally stopped. It wasn’t because something was lacking this time. There was nothing left to touch. It was complete.
The moment I realized that, tears gushed out.
“This isn’t it…”
I ruined it. I knew from the start that I would ruin it, but I really messed it up properly. I could have done much better. I could have drawn out the potential and beauty of this mana stone better.
If I did it again, I felt like I could really do well. I felt like I could process a mana stone far superior to this. But it was too late. Because there would be no place left for me who had ruined a top-grade mana stone. Because I would be kicked out of the workshop now.
“Sir! Please take a look at this! Tay processed it!”
“Tay!”
“Sob, sob! I’m sorry! For being incompetent! For being a girl who can’t even do what she learned! Waaah…”
Surprised by my result, Teacher and the artisans gathered around me. They probably had no expectations of me anyway, so why did it feel so bitter?
Perhaps deep down, I had harbored the expectation that I would create a mana stone amazing enough to shock everyone. Perhaps I had dreamed an impossible dream.
“Ah, customer.”
“I thought the work would be finished around this time, so I came to check.”
Then, with the sound of the door swinging open, a familiar voice reached my ears. It was that dashing human man. I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head.
I was too ashamed and sorry to show my face. As I sat like that, sobbing endlessly, the human’s fancy boots stopped right in front of me. And then the mana stone on the workbench was picked up.
“Is this the finished product? Hmm. It’s more shoddy than I thought.”
“Spoken like a true human! Are your eyes crooked? Where can you find a mana stone with a completion level superior to this!”
“Teacher?”
At the human man’s indifferent remark, Teacher suddenly flared up. Why was Teacher…?
“Even I can’t make anything better than this! No, none of the artisans here can! Even disregarding the fact that it’s Tay’s first time handling a top-grade mana stone, this is clearly a work of art that far surpasses excellence no matter who looks at it, so what nonsense are you spouting, human!”
Teacher passionately ranted, spitting everywhere. I had never seen Teacher like this before. Only then did I raise my head to take in the color of the mana stone I had created.
To appreciate its appearance, which I hadn’t seen even once while immersed in the work. The mana stone released a brilliant light as it caught the sunlight. The galaxy trapped inside was now released, drawing a three-dimensional picture in the air.
My mouth slowly fell open. Then the human man also smiled and looked down at me.
“Ah. It seems like I said it in a way that would cause misunderstanding. When I said it was shoddy, I meant in comparison to the works this girl will create in the future.”
“What? What does that…”
“Here. The next commission. This time, make it into a ring, so process it to the best of your ability.”
“Ah…!”
Plop.
I caught the sack the man tossed to me nonchalantly. Lifting the sack and peeking inside, I almost lost consciousness. Without even needing appraisal, it was clearly a top-grade mana stone.
“You have to make it even better this time. Understood?”
“Ah, aah…”
Tears welled up in my eyes. After that, I don’t remember well what I did. I was so sleepy, flustered, and emotionally stirred up…
One thing I clearly remember is the scene of me hugging the human’s waist and bawling my eyes out.
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