Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: Long-Awaited Delivery
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"Quick to arrive, I see."
"Work wrapped up early today."
"Ha ha, splendid."
He rushed straight to the Supreme Forge.
Doil greeted him with a smile.
Yujeong, who had already exchanged greetings in the same manner, came out from inside carrying the items Jeong-hyeon had ordered, as if everything had been arranged beforehand.
A mace similar in size and shape to the one he was currently using.
And a wooden case containing the long-awaited dagger set.
As Jeong-hyeon fixed his gaze on the items in Yujeong's hands with eyes full of eager anticipation, Doil spoke with a slightly darkened expression.
"I must apologize in advance."
"!"
What did that mean?
Apologize in advance?
Dozens of thoughts flashed through Jeong-hyeon's mind the moment he heard Doil's words.
Seeing Jeong-hyeon's expression, as if he might not hold back if the reason wasn't explained right away, Doil continued.
"It took longer than expected. The Onyx Golem's byproducts are precious materials, and using the golem's core made it impossible to work carelessly."
"Phew..."
Jeong-hyeon let out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, it wasn't that the core had been shattered or that extra costs had arisen or that the equipment's quality had fallen short.
He had a list of about 300 worst-case scenarios in his head, but a mere delay wasn't even among the bad ones.
"I can wait as long as it takes. It's fine."
It had been about two months since he handed over the materials.
He wasn't sure, but considering Doil's skill and the speed at which he had crafted the Demi Drake leather armor, this might indeed be quite delayed.
Still, the item he had made this time must have required an even more intricate process.
Seeing Jeong-hyeon's reaction, Doil's expression relaxed a bit, and Yujeong teasingly chimed in to back up her grandfather.
"Grandpa, you haven't slept properly this whole time. If you'd worked at your normal pace, it would've taken at least another month."
"Oh, really?"
"What's a little lost sleep? It was a happy time."
"I'll have to take similar materials elsewhere from now on."
Doil, who would normally deny it due to his personality, didn't object this time, showing just how much he'd struggled.
"No, you can't."
"That's not allowed!"
When Jeong-hyeon playfully pretended to mull it over, Doil and Yujeong raised their voices in unison.
The two, who always showed their care for each other, looked exactly like a grandfather and granddaughter in moments like this, bringing a smile to his face.
'Come to think of it, I've never met Yujeong's parents.'
Yujeong's parents, who were likely Doil's son and daughter-in-law.
He visited the Supreme Forge quite often, but he'd never seen them even once.
However, Jeong-hyeon didn't bring it up.
Since gates appeared, people had an unwritten rule not to ask about the absence of those who should be there.
Jeong-hyeon himself was a party to that unwritten rule.
He smoothly changed the subject.
"I'd like to take a look at the items, but we'll need a more spacious spot, right?"
"Indeed. I've borrowed one of the testing rooms."
It felt oddly awkward thinking that Doil and Yujeong were at a place other than the workshop.
After all, they handled crafting and weren't frontline hunters.
But if he continued commissioning equipment, he'd likely end up handling gear in testing rooms more often.
And so, Jeong-hyeon, Doil, and Yujeong moved to the testing room.
Click-
Doil placed the dagger case on the table and opened the lid.
"Let's start with the important daggers. Take a look."
"Wow."
Jeong-hyeon couldn't help letting out an exclamation at the twenty daggers revealed inside.
To be honest, the daggers laid out before him didn't pale in comparison to the flagship products from online shopping malls.
As the name Onyx suggested, the blades had a texture similar to Earth's obsidian.
Smooth on the outside, with a luxurious sheen in their black hue, and above all, incredibly light.
'Of course, they can't be too light...'
"Since they're for throwing, I figured they couldn't be purely lightweight, so I used plodium for the weight balance."
"Perfect."
Jeong-hyeon nodded at Doil's explanation, which seemed to read his thoughts.
In truth, with onyx as the main material, plodium felt like a sidekick, but it was no low-grade material either.
Shields, armor, weapons made entirely of solid plodium were used even in level 6-plus gates, commanding sky-high prices.
He wondered how Doil had embedded plodium inside the onyx, but that was precisely Doil's craftsmanship.
The result was flawless, beyond reproach.
Even though it was his first time holding one, it fit perfectly into Jeong-hyeon's grip, melting into his hand.
'Honestly, it looks better than Black.'
He thought it carefully to himself, in case Black overheard, but it was the truth.
Artifacts generally had plain appearances with no aesthetic consideration.
Black was the same.
Its dark color was unique, but otherwise, it had nothing eye-catching about its looks.
It resembled the most ordinary dagger from a typical fantasy game.
In contrast, the Onyx daggers bore Doil's antique style unmistakably.
The handle and blade were unified at the same width, but there was a wider donut-shaped space in the middle containing a bead about 3cm in diameter, blending onyx's black with an unknown green.
For some reason, Jeong-hyeon felt he knew what that bead was.
"Is this the golem's core?"
"Correct. It's the golem's core, processed for use in equipment."
The green, which hadn't been there originally, must have emerged during processing.
Moreover, the Onyx Golem's core, slightly larger than Jeong-hyeon's fist, couldn't have been divided evenly enough to fit into twenty daggers and a mace, no matter how finely cut.
It spoke volumes about how tricky handling a golem's core was.
"To use equipment with a golem's core, there's a registration process required."
"A process?"
"Yes. Otherwise, it's just an ordinary dagger."
Though puzzled, Jeong-hyeon nodded for now.
Whatever the process, if it unlocked the equipment's full potential, he'd endure it.
"First, draw some blood and feed it to the golem's core."
Drawing blood was easy.
Jeong-hyeon drew Black and lightly sliced his left index finger, then pressed the emerging blood to the bead core.
A noticeable change immediately appeared in the Onyx dagger.
'Insane!'
With eyes watching, he couldn't show it, but which hunter wouldn't get excited over this?
Hum-
With a faint but clear vibration, the blood-soaked golem core began to move slowly.
The amazing part was how the blood, applied to just one spot, spread on its own along tiny grooves invisible to the naked eye.
Finally, confirming the core's green section had fully turned dark red, Doil nodded.
"Success."
"...So failure is possible?"
'This old man, what have you been hiding?'
Jeong-hyeon felt a chill, but Doil replied innocently.
"We couldn't test it first, after all. Ha ha."
True enough, but how much better if he'd mentioned it beforehand.
Of course, if Doil had, Jeong-hyeon might not have dabbed the blood so casually.
In any case, Doil added that with one success, the others were unlikely to fail.
Registration success or failure hinged on minute differences in material composition, not some novel-like recognition by the core.
'Tch, no romance in that.'
Jeong-hyeon had hoped for the latter, so it felt a bit deflating.
Perhaps seeing through him, Yujeong muttered.
"Childish."
"...It's romance."
In any event, registering the remaining daggers and mace went smoothly.
For daggers, apply blood to the bead between handle and blade; for the mace, to the bead at the end of the haft.
"But what does registration do?"
Now for the main point.
Doil had only said to register without explaining the effects.
There had to be some tremendous hidden function.
Jeong-hyeon, having never seen Doil drag it out like this, eagerly awaited the explanation.
"As I mentioned before, equipment with a golem's core enables automatic repair."
"Yes, right."
Golems themselves were monsters capable of auto-repair.
And the power source was obviously the core.
"In theory, even if snapped in two, as long as the broken parts are held together, it will reattach."
"How long do you need to hold them together?"
"About a month?"
A month was longish, but for repairing a bisected weapon, it was actually fast.
At minimum, he wouldn't need to invest more money due to damage on these new daggers.
Onyx equipment's performance limits wouldn't come quickly either, so with a bit of greed, they could serve as final gear.
But the golem's core didn't stop there.
"And, on a very, very minor level, the more blood it absorbs, the slightly stronger it gets."
"My god..."
Jeong-hyeon gasped, utterly unprepared for this.
His hand trembled as he gazed down at the obediently placed Onyx dagger atop it.
Auto-repair and growth potential.
He instantly understood why a golem core cost 10 billion.
'10 billion? Who's the idiot selling it that cheap?'
The seller seemed foolish for only 10 billion.
Doil chuckled heartily and shook his head.
"Of course, the increase is truly minuscule. Still, since onyx's weakness is durability, it'll help to that extent."
Exactly as he said.
Onyx's unrivaled mana conductivity and sharpness had one flaw: durability.
Even that surpassed ordinary metals, but among gate minerals, stronger ones existed aplenty.
Any supplement to onyx's weakness was a godsend.
"And this applies only to the daggers—"
'More?'
With benefits piling up, he started worrying.
How hard did he plan to work these daggers and mace to shower such luck?
Just thinking about it choked him.
And finally, after hearing Doil's full explanation.
"Gah—"
"Eek! Grandpa, what's wrong with him!"
"Jeong-hyeon Hunter! Jeong-hyeon Hunter!"
Jeong-hyeon toppled backward.
By handing over the golem cores so readily to Doil, he'd paid dearly for the fainting spell they caused.