Chapter 70
When Dina Kruger shouted, “Masked pervert,” Yoon Sang-hyuk shot Michael Chang a sidelong glare. Michael Chang was the only one who ever called him a masked pervert.
“No way! The heart of a White Knight?”
Michael Chang turned his head as if he were trying to look elsewhere, then whipped around at Dina Kruger’s cry.
“That’s the White Knight’s heart? Are you insane? How did you even get this?”
“The White Knight’s heart? Don’t tell me you mean that golem’s heart?”
“This is huge! It’s legendary. This is insane. Completely insane.”
Dina Kruger, Michael Chang, and the magic engineer Andrei Ivanov kept repeating the same word as they stared at the golem’s heart between them: insane.
Before long, Lee Chul-woo joined them as well. Even though there were chairs, the four of them sat down on the floor of the reception room and kept flinging words at one another without pause.
“Look at this, the way they’ve drawn the magic circles here. It’s art. Real art. Is it even possible to maintain this kind of thinness evenly while drawing the circles?”
“And the material mix? These are top-grade mana stones and top-grade gems. If the placement of the gems and mana stones is even slightly off, it all falls apart. How did they shape the mithril?”
“Who cares about that right now? Do you even realize how much magical machinery is packed into this little thing? How does something like this become legendary-grade?”
“You guys are missing the big picture. The circles matter, sure, and the material mix matters too. Of course the magic engineer’s skill matters. But in the end, the one who puts it all together and makes this thing is the blacksmith. Damn, the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it gets. If there’d been even a tiny error during shaping, this thing would have exploded.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk shook his head at the basement family, who had forgotten he was even there and were chattering among themselves.
“I want to take it apart.”
“Right? I was just thinking the same thing.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a dry laugh.
“You want to tear it apart?”
“No, I just meant it like that.”
Dina Kruger quickly hid the golem’s heart behind her back.
“Can you even imagine what kind of value this thing has?”
“Trying to put a value on it is stupid in the first place.”
“If you know that, then don’t get weird ideas about dismantling it. More importantly, what can we do with it?”
Dina Kruger sprang to her feet.
“If we study the magical mechanisms used here, we can apply them in other places too.”
Next came Andrei Ivanov.
“The magic circles drawn into the heart don’t just drive the golem. If we study this properly, it could revolutionize enchantment for magical weapons.”
Michael Chang snatched the golem’s heart out of Dina Kruger’s hands.
“We need to find the formula behind the combination. Then we might find the key to making elixirs, the alchemist’s dream.”
After draping an arm over Michael Chang’s shoulder, Lee Chul-woo spoke in a meaningful tone.
“Maybe this is how the first golem ever made by human hands is born.”
* * *
After the basement family carried the golem’s heart down to the basement, Yoon Sang-hyuk was left thinking about what to do with the people involved in the Incheon Overflow.
They had provoked him, so they needed a fitting punishment. If he showed mercy, there was a high chance it would happen again. That was exactly why everyone in Eternal World had feared the Masked Lord. Yoon Sang-hyuk never ran from a challenge, and any provocation was answered with a price severe enough to match it.
The greatest offense had been committed by the Holy Knights of England.
England. The Holy Knights.
It was more likely Michael Buren’s personal fault than the fault of the organization as a whole. But even if the head had the thought of stealing, that did not mean the hand that actually stole the thing was innocent.
“Maybe this turned out for the best.”
They were going to have to clash with England sooner or later anyway. And this idiot named Michael Buren had gone and handed him a perfect opening.
“Should I thank him?”
He was muttering to himself when a voice rang out from afar.
“Lord.”
“Lord.”
A moment later, the one who came into the reception room was Lee Jae-sung of the Dark Merchant. The first day they met, he had rolled the miraculous dice and gotten 1, 2, 3, then stayed in an empty room at the Masked Castle, rolling once a day ever since.
Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a wry smile at the sight of Lee Jae-sung rushing in. It was because of the things hanging all over his body. Several furry trinkets dangled from both wrists. They were the rabbit’s foot talismans Yoon Sang-hyuk and the Masked Mercenary Group had obtained by opening Chaos Boxes.
He had a cross necklace around his neck, a string of prayer beads in his right hand, and a large piece of yeot in his left.
As Yoon Sang-hyuk was seriously wondering whether Lee Jae-sung’s mental state was still intact, the man ran right up to him and shouted, “Lord! It came up!”
“Came up?”
“Yes, Lord! I rolled all sevens!”
“You rolled 7, 7, 7?”
“Yes! Hahaha, what did I tell you? I told you it would come up for sure, didn’t I?!”
According to Lee Jae-sung, three 7s were the highest result on the miraculous dice. Beyond simply being the highest number, rolling the same number three times was considered even luckier, and he had rolled the best possible one of all: three 7s.
He pulled a Chaos Box out of his subspace. Even though the Masked Mercenary Group had hunted in the Castle of Chaos for quite some time, they had only obtained a handful of Chaos Boxes.
“Open it,” Yoon Sang-hyuk said.
Lee Jae-sung took the Chaos Box with trembling hands.
“I have something to say before I open it.”
“Keeping the contents of a Chaos Box secret is a given.”
Since he was from the Dark Merchant, there was no need for a long explanation.
“Shall I open it now?”
“Whatever’s comfortable for you. For reference, if something good comes out of the box, I’ll appraise its value in cash and give you ten percent of that amount.”
“What! Really?”
“Has the Masked Lord Lee Jae-sung knows ever been the sort of man to say one thing and do another?”
“Hah, haha. No, of course not. Then I’ll open it right away.”
With trembling hands, Lee Jae-sung opened the Chaos Box. Light spilled out from inside. Yoon Sang-hyuk’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Whenever he and the Masked Mercenary Group opened a box, only white light had surged out. But now a riot of multicolored light was pouring forth.
“Huh? What is this?”
Lee Jae-sung frowned in confusion. Yoon Sang-hyuk took the box from his hands. Inside sat a single book that looked old at a glance.
There was no title on the cover. Only something drawn on it that resembled a human figure. He took the book out and immediately used Item Appraisal.
“Hah, haha.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a hollow laugh.
“Is it not good?”
Lee Jae-sung asked cautiously, thinking Yoon Sang-hyuk had been disappointed by whatever was inside the box. Yoon Sang-hyuk shook his head.
“No. It’s incredible.”
“What? Incredible? It just looks like a skill book to me.”
Come to think of it, calling the book inside the Chaos Box a skill book would not have been wrong.
“Hahaha. Lee Jae-sung. You really do have an absurdly ridiculous skill. I’ll need to assess its exact value to know for sure, but at the very least, the reward that goes to you will start in the ten-billion-won range.”
“T-ten billion?”
Lee Jae-sung’s hands began to shake violently.
“You’re not joking, right?”
“I’m not the kind of man who jokes about things like this. This is worth a trillion, maybe even more. Hah, you really are amazing.”
Lifting the book in his hand, Yoon Sang-hyuk laughed out loud.
Golem Construction Blueprint of the Ancient Magic Empire (L)
Material: Paper
A golem construction blueprint from the ancient magic empire, so old that even its record had vanished from the history of the continent.
* * *
Yoon Sang-hyuk sat across from Park Tae-hoo in the chairman’s office at Yuseong Group headquarters.
“Aren’t you giving me too many Black Knight corpses?”
“I have a separate favor to ask.”
“The Masked Lord already has me feeling burdened, and I don’t even know what you’re going to ask yet. Please, go on.”
“You have connections with an American aircraft manufacturer, don’t you?”
“Of course. Our group owns an airline, and we’ve even purchased two private jets.”
“I’d like to ask a favor regarding those private jets.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk took a sip of the coffee in front of him.
“You’re planning to buy private jets?”
“Yes. Both the Masked Mercenary Group and I travel overseas often, so we can’t keep borrowing other countries’ private jets forever, can we? I’m thinking of buying a few.”
“How many are you planning to buy?”
“Three should be enough.”
Park Tae-hoo asked, sounding genuinely puzzled.
“Why not just buy them yourself?”
As he said, buying them directly would be easier in many ways. How many people out there wanted to build friendly ties with Yoon Sang-hyuk? Especially an aircraft manufacturer. They had surely already heard news of Sky Island Braheim through players belonging to various countries. Someday the skies above Earth would be ruled by monsters. To prepare for that day, they would need new materials that could withstand monster attacks.
So they had to maintain a good relationship with Yoon Sang-hyuk. Just look at the Black Knights in the Steel Mountains; weren’t they basically in Yoon Sang-hyuk’s grasp already? Even if a nation had been granted permission to conquer it, if Yoon Sang-hyuk changed his mind, he could bring them under control whenever he pleased.
But even so, there was only one reason Yoon Sang-hyuk had asked Park Tae-hoo for this favor.
Park Ho-sung.
He wanted to create a connection to the chairman’s son. Of course, there was also the intention of using Yuseong Group to fill in what the Masked Castle lacked.
“Since you know those people, wouldn’t you be able to get better terms? The additional Black Knight corpses are the brokerage fee for introducing me to the aircraft manufacturer.”
“Hah, is that so? That’s a bit much for a broker’s fee. Very well, I understand. I’ll look into it. Since it’s the private jet the Masked Lord will be riding in, I’ll make sure to buy the very best.”
Chairman Park Tae-hoo had no doubt guessed that Yoon Sang-hyuk was trying to build a link with him. Since Yoon Sang-hyuk was the one reaching out first, the old saying fit perfectly: this was a case of receiving what he had wished for, even if he had not dared to ask.
“Is Ho-sung doing well?”
“The Masked Mercenary Group commander praises him a great deal. He seems to have spent his time in that other world a little differently from ordinary players.”
“Ah, so he didn’t get along well with other people there either. He doesn’t like talking about that sort of thing with me, so I didn’t know. The boy has a somewhat unusual personality.”
“That personality actually helped Ho-sung.”
“Pardon? I’m not sure I follow.”
“Heh. You’ll have to hear it directly from Ho-sung later. More importantly, I’m planning to go abroad soon. I’d like to take Ho-sung with me then. Would that be all right?”
Park Tae-hoo answered as if he did not even need to think about it.
“Hahaha, all right? It’s more than all right. If it’s the Lord taking him, then he has to go. People say things like this, you know. That the safest place on earth is by the Lord’s side. I truly hope that boy’s unusual personality improves even a little.”
“I can’t promise that, but I’ll do what I can.”
* * *
Back at the Masked Castle, Yoon Sang-hyuk was talking with Lilith.
“Is it possible?”
“I haven’t tried it yet, but I think it might be.”
“Really? Marianne.”
Marianne bowed her head.
“Yes, Lord.”
“Go and bring Park Ho-sung from the Masked Mercenary Group.”