Chapter 67
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Challenge (4)
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The moment the puppet's head turned toward her, a golden tsunami of mana appeared before her eyes.
['Rechargeable Mental Barrier (A-)' has been destroyed!]
Time until recharge: 12 days, 17 hours, 35 minutes
『Who...? Are...? You...?』
A pure, unverbalized will engulfed her mind.
"…Huh?"
She tried to speak, but her voice only rumbled like it was submerged underwater. And then, a massive eye fixed its gaze on her.
A golden iris with a vertical slit pupil—an infinitely vast eye. The piercing stare of the great and immense being, the true master of this world, the mother of all—
Bang!
In that instant, her mind was flung back into her body.
"Ugh…!"
Clara let out an involuntary scream and squeezed her eyes shut. As her body swayed, the attendant beside her hurriedly supported her.
"Miss Pierce! Are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine…."
She steadied herself against the glass wall with trembling hands. Her heart pounded like it might burst, and tears mixed with mana streamed from her eyes. To anyone with mana sight, it would have looked like she was weeping blood.
"Should I call the medical team?"
Clara shook her head at the attendant's urgent voice. Forcing her blurred vision to focus, she wiped away the tears with shaky fingers.
'What… was that just now?'
Even when she'd peered into an S-Rank Hunter, nothing like this had happened. That meant the opponent's level far surpassed an S-Rank Hunter by an unimaginable margin.
The vision she'd just seen, and the being within it, possessed an unbelievable presence. In that moment, she—who had reached S-Rank level—felt like a firefly before the sun.
'What's inside that puppet…? No, better not to think about it.'
The more Clara dwelled on that instant, the dizzier her head became. It wasn't a memory she could afford to revisit in her current state.
"No. No need for the medical team."
With her face drained of color, Clara stared beyond the glass wall.
The attendant's anxious gaze soon softened at her demeanor.
Meanwhile, Yi Da-yun inside the glass wall was completely oblivious to the commotion outside.
'Hmm, as expected of an S-grade material.'
Yi Da-yun pressed down on the otherworld tree's root with the puppet's blunt hand. She bent it, tapped it, but it showed no sign of breaking.
Even a blacksmith hammering it or a mage casting transformation magic wouldn't budge it.
There was a reason Midas had been so confident. He'd mobilized dozens of Awakeners and cutting-edge equipment to process this material.
But Yi Da-yun had a far more efficient tool.
'Artisan's Touch.'
Artisan's Touch
Golden mana gathered at the puppet's fingertips.
Yi Da-yun placed both of the puppet's hands on the otherworld tree's root and pressed down firmly on the center with her weight.
Crunch!
With a gruesome bursting sound, the shell—tough enough to repel steel—shattered like cookie crumbs.
The onlookers beyond the reinforced glass gaped in shock.
"W-What's that?"
"Broke it by pressing with her hand? Is that really the otherworld tree root? Not styrofoam?"
It was already well-known that the otherworld tree's root boasted astonishing durability. Yet the cat puppet peeled it away like tree bark.
'No need for the shell. Just use the inner heartwood.'
Soon, the black shell peeled away, revealing the inner flesh. The crystal-like heartwood rippled with an eerie, pitch-black light, as if peering into another dimension's cosmos.
The astonishment didn't end there.
Yi Da-yun placed the root on a flat plate and began kneading it with her hands.
Knead. Knead. Knead.
The yellow cat puppet rhythmically pressing its paws alternately on the massive log. It was the perfect image of a cat's "knead-knead."
Lmaoooo what the hell is that insane knead-knead?!
It's cute but kinda terrifying lol.
Fuck, America's gonna cut all support now. We're screwed. Government's lost it.
That's S-grade material? Gets processed like that?
Grip strength is insane. Bare-handed? No way that's real. I've done item crafting for 10 years and never heard of processing like that lol.
All sorts of chatter flew around. Especially the civilians who couldn't sense the mana fluctuations on-site had no choice but to suspect it was CG or trickery.
But the Awakeners present fell silent, feeling the mana waves pulsing through the reinforced glass.
Of course, Yi Da-yun was unaware of any of this, utterly focused on her work.
The otherworld tree's root now looked entirely different. Gone was the twisted shape; it stretched straight like a staff.
Yi Da-yun smiled in satisfaction.
'Perfect. Time to make the staff.'
She pulled prepared materials from the pouch on the doll costume's belly.
Gold dragon scales collected over days, processed by Yeon Geum-hee into ingot form.
No performance boost, but to conceal the "scale" info. Even so, the ingot gleamed with a texture unlike ordinary gold.
Yi Da-yun set it beside the root and rummaged the warehouse for more materials.
Top-tier stuff like mithril powder and premium mana stones, down to return stones and gate remnants that barely qualified as materials.
Then Yi Da-yun began fusing them one by one onto the root.
Sprinkling mithril powder over the ingot like salt, holding mana stone and return stone in each hand to merge into a new gem. A crafting process that defied all common sense.
Yi Da-yun picked up the ingot with the puppet's blunt hand.
The ingot, now platinum-hued with embedded mithril.
A typical smith would melt the metal for plating or carve grooves to inlay. But Yi Da-yun's method transcended sanity.
Knead. Knead.
She kneaded the ingot onto the sturdy otherworld tree root like it was playdough.
Artisan's Touch (A)
The solid ingot stretched like taffy and began seeping into the black wood's surface.
She fitted a large crystal on top and bent the residual roots.
"Phew…."
Yi Da-yun took a short breath inside the puppet costume. Only the final step remained.
She summoned a familiar system window and infused mana.
[Treasure Forging]
Squish.
As the puppet's finger pressed an invisible button, the observation equipment beyond the reinforced glass blared alarms like mad.
Weeeeeeng!
- Mana levels at 372% of critical threshold.
The golden mana bursting from the puppet's hand clashed with the otherworld tree's black darkness.
Golden light and pitch-black void swirled in a vortex, filling the workshop. The cameras whited out, capturing nothing, and on-site personnel had to shield their eyes.
In the midst of the chat and staff seeing nothing, Yi Da-yun felt a thrilling shiver.
The omnipotence of subduing S-grade new material with her own power brought a smile to her face, even as it drained vast mana in the forging process.
The storm of mana winds gradually died down.
The whited-out camera lenses regained focus, and the on-site staff cautiously lowered their hands from their eyes.
The first thing that came into view was the yellow cat puppet standing alone in the workshop's center.
And the object in its hand, radiating an overwhelming presence.
"……."
No one could open their mouth. Perfect silence, without even gasps of awe.
The crude root was nowhere to be seen.
In its place, a sculpted staff rested in the puppet's hand.
Platinum metal coiled up the obsidian-black body like veins or vines.
The opposing colors harmonized bizarrely perfectly, extending toward the staff's tip.
At the head, a massive crystal was embedded. Roots extended like claws gripping it tight. Within the crystal, mysterious light swirled like nebulae in the cosmos.
[Phew….]
Yi Da-yun exhaled in relief inside the puppet costume.
'Success.'
Fatigue washed over her, but greater accomplishment propped her up.
She readjusted her grip on the staff with the puppet's blunt hand.
The staff over two meters long—taller than the puppet itself—she hoisted triumphantly overhead.
The yellow cat puppet proudly displaying its trophy like war spoils. It could have been comical, but no one could laugh.
Weeeeng—
The workshop door opened. Verification time approached.
Pale-faced Clara Pierce entered the workshop. Director Joo Deok-hwan and several staff followed with tense expressions.
"Verification… will begin."
[Here you go.]
A mechanical voice emanated from the puppet costume.
Clara cautiously reached out and grasped the staff's handle. The moment her fingertips touched, a heavy sensation coursed through her body.
'So heavy…!'
Not physical weight. The mana density condensed within transcended imagination—like holding a black hole.
She swallowed dryly and took the staff.
The otherworld tree's root. Grown in dimensional rifts, the worst-difficulty material that repels mana.
But what she now held didn't repel mana—it greedily sucked in the surrounding mana.
'How was this even processed?'
An unbelievable result. Already mentally exhausted, she decided to simply accept it. Taking a deep breath, she activated her skills.
[Eye of Truth (A+)]
[Item Appraisal (A)]
Blue mana gathered in her pupils.
And silence stretched on without a word.
The staff beyond the glass, the viewers watching the live stream—all held their breath at her reaction.
The longer the silence, the more anxiety built.
What? Why's she like that?
Failed? Her face looks bad.
What’s happening?
Guess it was a scam after all lol
I knew it was a scam.
All that hype for trash?
Unable to bear it any longer, an American staffer asked.
"Miss Pierce. What's wrong?"
She stared blankly into space before slowly turning to face the camera. Then, in a low voice, she said.
"This staff… is not S-grade."