Chapter 25
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Weight (1)
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“Come back for it around this time tomorrow.”
After Sancheon’s insistence led me to sign the contract.
Having finished his explanation, the craftsman spoke as he carefully wrapped the Bloodflow Stone in a cloth.
“Is one day really enough time?”
“A Bloodflow Stone is like a heart. You have to work on it while it’s as fresh as possible, before its potency fades. Don’t you worry, it’ll be made into a fine item.”
“You don’t need to worry.”
Sanarae, who was standing beside me, whispered as well.
I nodded.
There was no need to worry about the Bloodflow Stone.
A man wouldn’t shove a contract with his life on the line under your nose unless he was supremely confident.
However, my mind was on something else entirely.
“Shall we get going, then?”
“Yes, I’ll be in your care, Master Sancheon.”
Cradling the Bloodflow Stone, the craftsman gave a curt nod.
* * *
“Get in. I’ll give you a ride.”
At a parking lot on the outskirts of Mullae-dong.
Sanarae opened the door to her Benz and spoke.
But I waved my hand.
“No, that’s alright. I think I’ll stay the night around here.”
“You’re getting a room? I thought you lived alone in Seoul, Hanul?”
“A close friend of mine lives nearby. I figured I’d catch up with him while I’m here and crash at his place.”
Sanarae narrowed her eyes.
But soon, a languid smile formed on her lips as she said.
“Alright, then. Just try not to get too excited and cause a scene. You know as well as I do that you’re not an ordinary civilian anymore.”
I understood the hidden meaning in her words perfectly well.
My face wasn’t widely known to the public.
But most people in this world would recognize me.
Just like Hong Hansol did at Cafe Artorium.
And no one was more aware of that fact than I was.
“I know. You don’t have to worry.”
“Good. See you tomorrow, Hanul.”
Just as Sanarae slid her long legs into the Benz.
I called out to her softly.
“Guild Master Sanarae.”
“Hm?”
“Are the people here precious to you?”
A slight wrinkle formed between Sanarae’s brows.
She didn’t seem to grasp the point of my question.
I continued smoothly.
“It’s just that you seem different from how you usually present yourself. The way you treated Master Sancheon earlier, for example. I was just a little curious.”
Even if she was deceiving people with illusions.
The way she acted here was completely different from her dreamy public image.
“If I answer that, it would be crossing the line of simple kindness. Are you okay with that?”
Sanarae asked.
I shrugged.
“That’s an ambiguous response. Then I’ll give you an ambiguous answer.”
A different emotion suddenly flickered in Sanarae’s eyes.
“!”
I instinctively gripped the beads woven around my arm.
A flash of killing intent had just brushed past me.
It was only for a moment.
But it was a killing intent so sharp it didn’t just send a chill down my spine; it felt like it would rip it out.
“If anyone other than you had asked that question, Hanul, I would have had a lot of thoughts.”
That was all Sanarae said.
She never explained what kind of thoughts those might have been.
* * *
The narrow, quiet alley in Mullae-dong was draped in a thick curtain of darkness.
From its deepest corner, a faint light glowed.
The workshop of the craftsman, Sancheon.
“Truly astonishing.”
Sancheon, who was shaping the Bloodflow Stone with a small carving knife, let out another gasp of admiration.
For the past thirty years, he had processed countless monster byproducts.
He had crafted just as many items.
After contracting with Sanarae, he had regularly handled byproducts that cost hundreds per gram.
“This is the first time I’ve seen such a perfect Bloodflow Stone.”
But the gem now in his hands was enough to render all his past experience tasteless.
Monster byproducts typically contained a mysterious energy called mana.
This mana was involved in enhancing an Awakened Being’s stats or skills.
His job was to create the optimal vessel that could release that mana to its fullest potential.
But this Bloodflow Stone was different.
The mana it held was so vast that he had to process it in a way that would control the energy, preventing it from running rampant.
‘Considering its freshness, I don’t have time. But I want to work on this as slowly as possible. I want to handle it for even a moment longer.’
If he truly poured his soul into it.
He might even be able to create an S-rank crafted item, something no one had ever succeeded in making before.
‘Just what kind of ridiculous thing is this?’
In the first place, extracting a Bloodflow Stone of this quality was an impossible feat.
And that young man who had pulled it out like a piece of candy stuffed carelessly in his pocket, who was he?
‘He must be the Hunter who cleared the Garden of the Abyss… She’s really brought a monster with her.’
Just as he brought the carving knife to the Bloodflow Stone once more.
A glint flashed in Sancheon’s eyes.
“…Who’s there?”
His sharp gaze was fixed on the closed shutter of his workshop.
“…”
No answer came.
But Sancheon put down the Bloodflow Stone and slowly rose from his seat.
“I know you’re there. What is your business?”
Only then did he get a response.
*Drrrk.*
The tightly shut shutter rolled upward, revealing several figures.
It was still dark, so their faces were hidden.
But Sancheon picked up a hammer from his workbench.
He hadn’t been the one to open the shutter.
And for some reason, the lights wouldn’t turn on either.
“Good evening, sir.”
A slick voice flowed from the darkness.
“I’m the mentor assigned to Hunter Kim Hanul, who recently joined our guild.”
“Mentor?”
“Yes. The thing is, I heard that Hunter Hanul left a byproduct he acquired with you. It seems there’s been a misunderstanding, so I’ve come to retrieve the Bloodflow Stone on his behalf.”
“…”
Sancheon remained silent.
He had no intention of believing those words.
Anyone with a grasp of the situation would know it was a lie a seven-year-old wouldn’t fall for.
The problem was who he was dealing with.
He couldn’t even begin to guess the identities of these people who had tailed Hanul with malicious intent.
“You have the Bloodflow Stone, don’t you, sir?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. This is just one of the many ordinary blacksmith shops in this alley. I’ve never once crafted an item for a Hunter. And I certainly don’t have something as valuable as a Bloodflow Stone.”
“Is that so? Just an ordinary blacksmith shop.”
One of the figures tilted its head.
“Then how would an ordinary blacksmith know that a Bloodflow Stone is valuable?”
“!”
He’d made a mistake.
Nothing like this had ever happened before, and he had let something slip that he shouldn’t have.
“We saw everything, old man. Hunter Hanul came here, flirting with some woman. Stop denying it and just hand it over. It’s already been decided that we’ll be handling the Bloodflow Stone.”
The figures began to approach.
Sancheon slowly backed away in response.
“That’s not what I was told. I’d like to make a quick call to the young man.”
Sancheon’s hand moved toward the smartphone on his workbench.
“Cheoljung.”
“Yes, sir!”
[Air Bullet]
*Pang!*
“!”
Before he could grab it, a hole appeared in the smartphone, letting out a large spark.
“Don’t try anything funny, gramps. You said you’re an ‘ordinary’ craftsman, right? Then you should know to value your life.”
“…”
The unidentified figures drew closer.
The light from the lamp on the desk illuminated one of them.
The man who had called himself the ‘mentor’.
Only then did Sancheon recognize them.
“Hong Hansol…!”
“Well, well, looks like you’re not just any old blacksmith. Ordinary old geezers don’t care much about Hunters.”
A bald head, a vile face, large earrings, and a leather jacket.
It was Hong Hansol of the Bone Breaker Guild.
Sancheon knew nothing of the feud between Hong Hansol and Kim Hanul.
But he did know that Hong Hansol was a scumbag who would lose his mind the moment he was crossed.
‘From the way he’s talking, it seems he didn’t recognize Narae.’
If that was the case, he was more than capable of pulling a stunt like this.
To him, it must have looked like the clueless Kim Hanul had been duped by a street peddler into leaving the Bloodflow Stone.
Stealing the stone and pinning the blame on the craftsman would be nothing to him.
“Since you know my name, you must know how great our guild is. So you know what you have to do, right? Just hand over that Bloodflow Stone.”
“…”
“Who knows? Maybe he’ll understand if you say you lost it. The Indomitable Guild, was it? From what I heard from the losers who fell behind in the Garden of the Abyss, Hunter Kim Hanul is quite the pushover.”
Hong Hansol said with a smirk.
The other three Hunters also approached him with vile grins.
“No.”
But their smiles vanished at Sancheon’s firm reply.
“I’ve already accepted the commission. I cannot hand it over to you. If you want the Bloodflow Stone, bring the young man himself here.”
“Ha, this old man really doesn’t get it.”
Hong Hansol’s face twisted in anger.
“Drop the pathetic pride and hand it over. You want to lose a wrist?”
Instead of answering, Sancheon tightened his grip on the hammer.
- *Why don’t you just work comfortably from our guild headquarters?*
- *No, child. How many years have I been hammering away here? This place is my home.*
- *Then at least let me leave a shadow here.*
- *Those squirmy things in this neighborhood? Forget it, child. Besides, who would attack a shabby old man like me? If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll leave this business for good.*
- *…I understand. Just don’t say things like that.*
The image of Sanarae, her head bowed, flashed through his mind.
‘If she hadn’t made that face, I would’ve left this business long ago.’
She would probably cry a lot if he got hurt.
Still.
To a craftsman, protecting his craft was more important.
“Fine. You won’t get it until you break my wrist. Especially not from trashy thugs like you.”
“Gramps, you really wanna die?”
“I don’t want to die. My daughter would be very sad if I did.”
“Ha. Boys.”
One corner of Hong Hansol’s mouth curled up.
“It seems our guild is being seriously underestimated.”
“…”
“Give the old man a little massage. Just enough so he doesn’t die.”
And so he waited, arms crossed.
Waited for the three henchmen beside him to rush the old man and beat him to a pulp.
Sancheon, his face resolute, tightened his grip on the hammer.
But.
“…”
Five seconds, ten seconds passed after he gave the order, yet no one moved.
“What’s wrong? Why are you just standing there? Move it!”
Hong Hansol, his face contorted, kicked the Hunter next to him.
It was Yu Cheoljung, the one who had destroyed Sancheon’s smartphone.
“Hey, you punk, you think you can defy me just because you ranked up to C-class? Stop messing around and…”
Hong Hansol, who had been repeatedly kicking the man’s shin, suddenly froze.
‘Huh?’
Something was strange.
His foot hurt.
It wasn’t the dull ache you feel when kicking a person.
It was more like kicking a rock, or a log.
“Uh, bo-boss.”
Only then did he see Yu Cheoljung’s face.
He wore a look of utter shock, his body rigid.
He was poised as if about to lunge forward.
But he wasn’t moving.
As if he had turned to stone in that very pose.
A slow, hissing sound escaped his open mouth.
“Bo-boss, I-I ca’t moobe.”
“What the hell is wrong with this guy?”
Hong Hansol looked around in a panic.
The other two were the same.
Frozen unnaturally, like statues.
One of them was so overcome with fear that tears were streaming down his face.
“What is this? Did you do this?”
He finally realized something was wrong.
He whipped his head around, but the old craftsman still looked as tense as ever.
It wasn’t the old man.
“What the hell, who is it?!”
Just as Hong Hansol frantically scanned his surroundings.
“Good work, Sage.”
A voice echoed from behind him.
At the same time, Hong Hansol couldn’t believe his eyes.
A will-o’-the-wisp-like presence suddenly flickered into existence next to the craftsman.
But he had no time to be distracted by the bizarre phantom.
“Hmm, so Baby’s Petrification doesn’t work on A-ranks. A bit of a shame.”
Hong Hansol’s eyes slowly turned to look behind him.
And standing in front of the raised shutter.
As soon as he saw the face of the figure illuminated by the moonlight.
His pupils dilated.