Rune Business (2)

A week slipped by. Then two more.

CLANG! CLANG!

As mentioned before, Baek Jinwoo had plenty of other matters to attend to, but Lund sat at the very top of his priorities.

— Lund, how's the work coming along?

— Ohh, Hungyo! Bwahah! Going splendidly!

— You there. Your hammer grip is twisting again. I mentioned it last time; you must attend to it. Hmm, the heat is acceptable, but you understand? The fire must be replenished at regular intervals.

— Bwahah! I know, I know! The grip slipped my mind again. Much obliged for the advice!

That was why he dispatched Hungyo at regular intervals, making sure the training never slackened either.

It was all for the sake of awakening latent potential.

Come to think of it, it was fascinating.

Hungyo, a swordsman to the marrow, instructing a dwarf born and bred to the forge—a natural-born smith. There was something surreal about the sight.

CLANG! CLANG!

The materials stacked before Lund grew by the day. He was swinging that hammer around the clock now, without a moment's rest—and still the pile kept rising. Word had spread through the Big Three that anyone who farmed runes for himself was a fool, that gathering materials and having new ones made beat buying off the market by a mile.

Having watched for a while, Baek Jinwoo finally tossed out a remark.

"Lund, take a break once in a while."

— Hmm? What sort of hurtful talk is that, my friend!

"Huh?"

Lund's face crumpled with genuine, wounded sorrow.

— How can you speak such dreadful words, with all that material stacked before me, telling me to rest! Who knows when I might be quarantined again! I shall swing this hammer one more time for every swing I have left in me!

"...All right, fine."

It appeared to be a kind of trauma. The dwarf had made the swing of his hammer his one great joy in life, and that joy had been locked away from him for so long... Now he lived in dread of it happening again.

"Well then. Do as you please."

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It's all profit as far as I'm concerned.

In any case, the aftermath of the affair proved unexpected: rune prices dipped slightly, while material prices began to skyrocket. Every player in the Big Three had stopped buying runes and started hoarding materials instead. And as domestic material prices climbed, overseas prices rose in tandem—Korean players were turning foreign markets inside out in their buying frenzy! And of course, every last one of those materials...

— Kehah! Bwahahahah! Is this real? Tell me it isn't a dream! Wuhahahah!

...was piling up in front of Lund.

And it kept on piling.

Then a month went by.

Crafting had finally climbed to level 4, and the success rate had been pushed all the way up to 2 percent.

For reference, the success rate by level ran as follows:

Max level capped at 25 percent. Reaching that point would likely take years. In truth, level 7 or so was where things became truly workable—from there on, he could keep producing top-grade runes without burning through much material.

Of course, enhancement was another story entirely.

Short of a Rare rune, substats almost never landed the way you wanted them to... so the demand was bound to continue. Every player alive nurtured the desire to complete their "graduation runes"—the perfect endgame set.

In any case, over that one month, Yubaek sold its top-shelf masterwork runes to buyers at home and abroad alike, raking in enormous profits. Naturally, headquarters grew busy as well.

"The orders are insane! They just keep flooding in!"

"There really aren't any more runes? Supply can't keep up!"

"Strength rune orders are through the roof!"

"I think we need to bring on more staff!"

CLANG! CLANG!

Supply ran so short that they had resorted to taking pre-orders, but there was nothing to be done about it. Lund's hammer moved at exactly one speed.

At one point, Jinwoo wondered whether Ramba might be used to raise that speed, and gave it a try—

— Uwaaagh! What is this! Undo it! Undo it this instant! How am I supposed to craft properly when my own body won't obey me!

Lund's shrieking panic meant Ramba had to be recalled on the spot.

Riding the boom, Yoo Jia hired additional staff for the sales team and went so far as to establish branch offices on overseas markets. The business had begun in earnest.

At that hour, in the United Kingdom.

A blonde woman stood before the supertall skyscraper known as The Shard in London. Her name was Rachel.

Ping!

The group chat was ablaze. Rachel had just broken a long silence by declaring that she would climb the Tower of Ordeal.

She had spent the downtime preparing with meticulous care. In Battle of Summoners, failing a tower climb carried no particular penalty. But reality? Fail here, and you died.

And so Rachel had strained to reconstruct the tower's inner workings from the memories of her past life, concretizing every strategy down to the last detail. And then, at last, the preparations were complete.

This was the very moment she had gained the unshakable conviction that nothing could go wrong.

News?

Rachel smirked and made to pocket her phone. Once Baekcheon started chattering, there was no end to him.

Looks like he's dug up another entertaining tidbit.

She was about to tune it all out and focus on the tower when—

Hm?

Rachel stopped mid-motion, phone half-lowered.

Baek Jinwoo...

The one person she alone half-suspected of being Jinugod. A figure of supreme interest!

Runes? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠What kind of runes?

Oh? Even Sugoi knew? He had even bought some?

The two rankers communed in perfect, wordless understanding. These punks! Not saying a single thing outright!

Exasperated, Rachel typed.

Sugoi supplied the answer.

As expected of deep-water veterans. That single line told her everything.

That was enormous.

Honestly, she felt the lack too. Her gear was set with Rare runes for the most part, but still—the difference between having the Rune Dwarf's craftsmanship and going without was staggering.

Wow. And here she had thought it impossible. He had gotten his hands on even that?

Not only did he have him—he was already running a business off him? The man's instinct for leverage was astonishing.

He really is Jinugod, isn't he?

Truthfully, she wanted to approach him. She wanted to ask. But—

There isn't much time left anyway.

Barely four months remained until the World League. When that time came, they would meet whether she liked it or not.

No need to go provoking a man who wants to be left alone.

Still, one thing gnawed at Rachel.

Sugoi said he bought a few recently, didn't he?

Which meant even the usually silent Five Emperors of the chat window were more or less in the know.

If the Rune Dwarf truly was a summon only Baek Jinwoo could wield? The value of those runes could only climb with time. If Baek Jinwoo was wise, he would throttle the supply accordingly.

And if so?

Stockpiling now was a guaranteed win!

Before challenging the tower, Rachel placed a call—to the vice guild master of Red Rose, the guild she led.

Just as she had thought. The quick-fingered vultures had already snapped up everything! Rachel groaned.

Red Rose's intelligence team... these people. A complete turnover might be in order. How did they sit on intel this critical without reporting it?

"For now, pre-order everything we can, and the moment stock appears, buy all of it."

Shaking her head once, Rachel strode into The Shard. The tallest building in Europe. The British Tower of Ordeal.

"Unbelievable!"

Baek Ajin cried out.

She had known the newly launched rune sales business was booming. But this—

Among the countless guilds and rankers reaching out through her inbox, she had just laid eyes on something enormous.

"Red Rose... isn't that Rachel's guild?"

"That's right."

The employee beside her nodded.

"The red rose is the emblem of England. Mention the rose badge, and everyone thinks of Rachel first."

"Wow, a mega-guild like that is buying our company's runes?"

It was deeply moving. This was the moment her brother's class was spreading beyond Korea to the world—how could she not be!

And that was not all.

"Japan's Yoshida Hikaru says he would like to purchase even more runes."

"W-we've been contacted by Xenos of the United States as well!"

"Baekcheon of Taiwan, too!"

Orders were pouring in all at once—from the nations known as the world's Big Five, and from renowned rankers alike. Documents requesting regular, ongoing trade appeared with some frequency as well.

This is really something, isn't it?

Baek Ajin clicked her tongue in awe. It felt like only yesterday that she had been slinging runes under the low-class label of "rune peddler"—never in her dreams had she imagined a moment like this would come.

All of these people seeking them out meant one thing, and one thing only: the runes Yubaek handled were the finest masterworks in existence.

And she personally pocketed a 20 percent commission on every sale.

Jackpot.

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She was sitting on a downpour of money, plain and simple.

Still.

With demand at this level, it was probably time to start nudging prices upward. That was simply how economics worked: when demand ran high and supply ran short, prices had to rise to bring the balance back.

She had no way of knowing how Yubaek's rune business would unfold from here.

But at this level?

For a first step, the results were staggering. Little by little, the word would spread from here on—the house that dealt in masterwork runes even money couldn't always buy.

And at that very moment.

— At last!

CLANG!

Lund, mid-hammering, flung his hammer aside with a mighty heave and roared with laughter.

— I've finally learned it!

The very thing the player who had summoned him wanted so desperately! The flowering of latent potential!

Masterwork Crafting!

Lund had gone and mastered it.

One month—and two weeks on top of that—had passed.