Han Soo-yeon's Mentality Won't Break
Han Soo-yeon's Mentality Won't Break
Suyeon tilted her head.
"Well... they don't seem like items for sale."
"Excuse me, customer."
The employee from earlier approached from behind.
A face forced into a twisted expression. It was closer to a twitch than a smile.
The employee held out a receipt to Suyeon.
"The broken Silver Edge C-7 model has been deemed irreparable, and full compensation has been processed. That's 2.48 million won."
Suyeon's expression darkened. The hand holding the receipt lost its strength.
Her lips moved, but no words came out.
2.48 million won.
It was an amount nearly equal to a C-class hunter's monthly income.
But Gray had no interest in the receipt or the amount she had to pay. She pointed to the wooden crate in the corner.
"What's that?"
The employee turned his gaze. An 'Ah' expression.
"Those are items that hunters discovered inside the Gate and sold through the Association. They've been appraised as having no practical use or their purpose could not be determined, so they're gathered in a temporary storage bin."
The employee explained matter-of-factly.
"They contain a faint amount of mana, so when a certain quantity accumulates, they're sent to the mana extraction plant as scrap metal. To be honest, they're practically trash—"
Gray was already walking over.
She knelt in front of the crate. Reached out.
Picked up a dusty piece of metal.
The sensation transmitted to her fingertips made her stop breathing.
Mana circuit.
It was worn. Under the rust on the metal surface, the circuit engraving was almost gone.
But she could read the structure. A double-helix circuit for circulating mana.
The core's location was at the bottom of the handle, and the quality of the metal mana infusion—
This is the Empire's forging method.
She picked up another piece. And another. Rusted, broken, worn, but the framework was alive.
The circuit composition that traps mana, the placement of cores, the mana infusion technique that permeates metal with mana.
Things that could only be made by an Empire artisan.
These came out of a Gate?
No, more than that, they're sending these to be scrapped?
Gray's hand trembled.
What she felt was certainly not anger.
Astonishment.
The circuit is just worn. The metal is just rusted.
If she just reconnects the mana circuits, just scrapes off the rust, these can regain their original performance.
A simple repair. At a level an apprentice blacksmith could do.
'Is it crazy? This world.'
Gray stood up. Turned to the employee.
"These. Are you selling them?"
The employee had a bewildered expression.
"Yes? Ah, those... well, we can sell them, but it's priced at about 3,000 won per kilogram as scrap resource market rate... Honestly, I never imagined anyone would want to take them."
"I'll buy them all."
"...Yes?"
"All of them."
The employee opened and closed his mouth.
Suyeon was the same. The employee tapped on a calculator.
Total weight 47 kilograms. 141,000 won.
It was a laughably small amount compared to the 2.48 million won broken sword.
Suyeon held out her card. The employee handed over the receipt.
His expression read 'I've seen all kinds of crazy customers,' but he didn't say it out loud.
"Thank you. Please visit us again."
The employee's greeting faded behind them.
Gray stuffed the mountain of junk into the borrowed leather bag, slung it over her shoulder, and left the building.
It was heavy. But her steps were lighter than when she entered.
Suyeon followed alongside, panting, and spoke.
"Hey."
"What."
"Can you really use those? Spending 2.62 million won on rust-covered scrap metal—"
"The 2.48 million won is the price of the trash I broke, and that's 140,000 won."
"...Together they came out of my wallet, you know."
Gray adjusted the bag on her shoulder. A dull clang of metal hitting metal rang out.
"You'll find out soon. Maybe I can even replace your crappy equipment?"
.
.
.
The issuance of a hunter license was disappointingly simple.
Photo, fingerprint registration, signature. The receptionist handed over two cards.
Han Soo-yeon, C-class re-registration. Gray, E-class new.
"The orc subjugation record cannot be reflected due to lack of evidence."
The receptionist said matter-of-factly.
"You need either the monster's core, video evidence, or a third-party testimony for it to be recognized as prior achievement. Following a discretionary evaluation, you'll start at the new registrant's base grade, E-class."
Gray took the card. The letter 'E' was clearly visible.
It was a treatment worse than Iron grade, but anyway, a piece of paper doesn't determine skill.
As they left the Association building, the sun had fully set.
The shining street lamps were pushing back the night.
"Ah~ The loot!!"
Suyeon pressed her forehead.
"I forgot. If I'd at least picked up the orc core and hide, we could have started at C-class. But the situation was what it was..."
She sighed.
Gray was not particularly impressed.
Hobgoblins—no, orcs as they're called in this world—she didn't see much value in their spoils.
In the Empire, they were merely routine prey for Iron-grade adventurers.
"Do you have somewhere to go?"
Suyeon asked.
"...Do I look like I do?"
"I figured as much."
Suyeon started walking as she spoke.
"Sleep at my place. I live alone anyway."
.
.
.
Suyeon's house was peculiar.
The moment Gray stepped through the door, her eyes moved ceaselessly. It was cramped.
Narrower than an Empire lower-ranked soldier's barracks.
But what was inside was beyond her comprehension.
A black panel taking up one wall. When Suyeon pressed something, light came on and images began to move.
Was it a magic tool? The floor was covered in a soft, flat material that wasn't wood or stone.
In the kitchen, there was a flat panel instead of a stove, and when she turned the tap, clean water endlessly poured out.
Without a well. Without magic.
The night scenery visible through the window was even more surreal.
Thousands of lights were arranged like a grid, sparkling beneath the night sky.
It was as if the stars had descended to the ground.
Even the Empire's capital couldn't show such a sight.
They created all this without mana.
Just how did the humans of this world do it?
"Hey."
Suyeon said as she took off her shoes.
"I'll ask just one thing."
Gray turned around.
"Don't make too much of a mess. I really hate cleaning."
Gray nodded.
And then she untied the leather bag's cord.
It spilled out.
Rusted daggers, cracked vambraces, unidentified metal shards, chipped axe heads, discolored leather pieces cascaded onto the living room floor in a heap.
The sound of metal clashing echoed, amplified within the cramped studio.
Rust dust and dirt spread over the soft material covering the floor.
Gray was already sitting on the floor, beginning to sort the pieces one by one.
Ones with circuits still alive, ones with cores remaining, ones with effective metal mana infusion.
Her hands moved quickly, sorting them into three piles.
Suyeon stood at the entrance.
Frozen in the posture of having taken off one shoe.
"...Hey."
"Yeah."
"What did I just say?"
"You said not to make a mess."
"And you knew that?"
"This isn't making a mess, it's organizing."
Suyeon's eyelid twitched...
Letting Suyeon's protests drift behind her back, Gray picked up one item from the debris spread on the floor.
A straight sword.
The most intact in form.
Rust covered the entire blade, and the leather of the handle was rotten and frayed, but the sword's silhouette was clearly alive.
Compared to the other pieces that were broken and twisted, this was exceptional.
There was one reason. Evidence that the mana core inside was still alive, consuming mana for self-preservation.
It had endured for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.
Gray placed the sword on her lap. Closed her eyes.
She drew mana from her fingertips.
But it wasn't a method of spreading it broadly.
A thin thread.
She created a strand of mana thinner than a hair and flowed it over the surface of the rusty blade.
Groping for the circuit's entrance, like looking for a needle's eye.
Someone with the blacksmith job class would have done it in one go.
Reading the circuit's structure, finding the optimal entry point, infusing mana like flowing water.
But Gray had no such skill.
An adventurer uses equipment, not makes it.
The thread squeezed between the rust.
Blocked. Retreated. Blocked again. Retreated again.
Sweat beaded on her forehead.
Silence settled in the cramped studio, and Suyeon had stopped nagging and was watching Gray's fingertips.
Found it.
The circuit's opening.
Both ends of the worn and severed mana pathway were caught by her fingertips.
She let the mana flow through in one breath.
Jjeojeojeok--!!
A blue flash ran along the blade.
Mana permeated the circuit, traveling backward along the circuit toward the source at the bottom of the handle—the mana core.
The sleeping core awakened as it accepted the mana. It became full. So full it overflowed.
The rust on the blade began to peel off.
No, the expression 'peel off' was inaccurate. The mana was reviving the metal's memory.
Its original polished form. The edge it once held.
The ravages of time washed away.
Silver emerged from under the rust, and a solid handle regained its shape beneath the rotten leather.
Paaang--!
An intense light filled the cramped studio.
Suyeon covered her eyes with her arm.
When the light subsided, something entirely different lay on Gray's lap.
It was serene. Not flashy. No decorations, no gems, no exaggerated patterns.
It was on a different level from the flashy ornamental swords she'd seen in the shop.
Compressed mana spread thinly over the blade, holding a faint glow.
The straight sword of an Imperial regular knight.
A weapon born for actual combat.
The corners of Gray's mouth lifted.
Her hands sped up.
She picked out armor pieces with the same circuit structure and awakened them one by one in the same way.
Jjeojik, jjeojeojik.
Every time light burst, Suyeon flinched, and as rust and dust peeled away, the original form revealed itself.
With a leather armor base, plates of polished mana-metal encased the upper and lower body.
Chainmail tightly woven in every gap.
Above all, a mana shield enveloping the entire armor pulsed faintly.
It was of the Empire. Without a doubt.
She put on everything. She wore the straight sword at her waist.
And then
Standing there was a fully armored knight, completely out of place in the cramped studio.
Gray clenched and unclenched her fingertips. Reflected.
If these armaments were discovered inside Gates.
If traces of the Empire lie dormant in this world's so-called Gates. If she herself had awakened from a Gate in the first place.
The reason she became like this—the reason she became a woman—is inside the Gates.
She clenched her own small fist, solidifying her resolve.
Alright.
Then in this world, as a hunter, I will thoroughly conquer these so-called Gates.
Not a single one left behind. To the very end.
The moment the resolve was hardening firmly in her chest.
Ppaak--!!
A dull impact hit the back of her head.
"Stop it, you crazy bastard!!"
It was Suyeon. She was holding a slipper. Her eyes were rolled back in rage.
"Rust dust!! On the floor!! Crazy!!! The rust dust!! It's all soaked into the carpet!! Do you know that's coming out of the deposit?! What if the neighbors report us with all those flashing lights!! Why are you wearing armor indoors and causing a commotion!!"
The slipper flew again.
Gray ducked to dodge.
Resolve or whatever, first priority was to calm this woman's anger.
And so, the first night in this world came to a close.