Origin
The workshop had already settled into the hush left behind by a typhoon, or rather, into the kind of tension that lived at the exact center of the storm. Ddakddaki, who had just succeeded with a +9 enhancement and become a Bone-White Attendant, was rattling his bones in a corner as he danced, but Woojin and Sangjin couldn’t tear their eyes away from the red doll on the workbench.
The little goblin Himari had given him as a present, Hyeongrang, was no longer some crude wooden toy. A low, rolling hum pressed down on the room as a crimson aura poured from its body and weighed on the air.
Name: Goblin King Hyeongrang (+12)
Grade:Mythic
Description: The king of goblins from forgotten eastern folktales has descended into the world through this doll as his vessel. His club works miracles, and his flames command wandering spirits.
“Wow... look at that description. That’s insane.”
There really wasn’t any better word for it.
Woojin let out a dry laugh and scrolled through the skill list.
Goblin Mantle
Hyeongrang exists and does not exist at the same time. He has a 90 percent chance to evade physical strikes, and while hidden, he remains permanently undetectable to anyone without a Detection skill.
Gold, Come Out!
Consumes the mana he has on hand to temporarily alter the structure of matter. Transformed materials revert to their original form after one hour.
Ssirum King
Forces the chosen target into a one-on-one bout. In this space, all magic and skills are sealed, and the match is decided only by strength and technique. The loser becomes Hyeongrang’s subordinate for twenty-four hours.
“Holy crap... you can change matter any way you want? And it forces people into wrestling matches?”
Sangjin stared in horrified disbelief, his mouth hanging open.
This wasn’t just balance-breaking. It was the sort of skill that changed the entire genre of the game.
Imagine being in the middle of a serious fight and suddenly getting dragged onto a wrestling mat by the belt. The enemies would be taking mental damage before anything else.
“That’s completely busted.”
The doll’s wooden texture had already given way to skin that looked soft and elastic, almost human.
But its eyes still burned a deep red, unmistakably goblin-like as they searched the room for something to tease.
Woojin looked satisfied as he patted Hyeongrang on the head.
“At this point, I think even Eileen and Jihyun would pass out. Ddakddaki and Hyeongrang both.”
Sangjin let out a long sigh and collapsed into a chair.
“Hoo... Hyung, you really worked yourself to the bone. Let’s stop enhancing for now and rest a bit. We should take a proper look at these guys too. Enhancement is terrifying, seriously.”
He had a point. Stopping now was the rational, reasonable thing to do.
But Woojin’s eyes still wouldn’t leave Hyeongrang.
His pupils trembled ever so slightly.
It was the instinct of an enhancer.
No, it was the mad, gambling-born part of him beginning to seize control of his brain.
Is this the moment?
From +7 all the way to +12, he hadn’t failed once, hadn’t even slipped.
It was as if some invisible hand were pushing at his back.
If this was what people called flow, then Woojin was riding a massive tidal wave.
Would he get off this swell now, or surf it even higher?
His hand slowly went into his jacket.
They were the Gate-sourced enhancement items Eileen had secured for the Asian campaign.
He already had her permission to use them as freely as he liked.
When Woojin fished the materials back out and laid them on the table, Sangjin’s eyes bulged so hard they looked ready to pop out of his skull.
“H-Hyung? What are you doing now? Why are you taking those out again?”
“Sangjin.”
Woojin’s voice was far too calm.
“I’ve got a feeling.”
“What kind of horse shit feeling?! Are you insane? It’s +12! Mythic grade! If it blows up here, it drops back down to Legendary!! You’re really going to gamble that away??!”
Sangjin cried out and grabbed Woojin’s arm.
But Woojin only grinned and shook him off.
“Hey, I’ve got enhancement-rate boosters, don’t I? If I’m not using them now, when am I supposed to use them?”
His eyes gleamed.
“I’m telling you, the God of Enhancement has descended to my fingertips.”
“Hyung, please! This is really not right! Let’s be satisfied with Mythic grade!”
“Aren’t you curious? What’s above Mythic? Even the God of Enhancement has to be curious about that.”
Ignoring Sangjin’s desperate pleas, Woojin set Hyeongrang back on the table.
The red goblin, now a king, seemed to know its fate and trembled faintly.
“Grrr...”
Was that fear, or hunger for greater power?
Woojin took a deep breath.
“Here goes thirteen.”
Uuuuuung—!
Mana flared and light wrapped around Hyeongrang.
“Shit! I can’t watch!”
Sangjin screamed and covered his eyes.
+13 enhancement successful!
“...Holy shit.”
Sangjin peeked through his fingers and immediately swore.
“It went through?”
“See? I told you it would work!”
Woojin’s forehead was slick with cold sweat now.
But he still couldn’t stop.
Like a ten-ton truck with broken brakes, he had forgotten how to hit the wall.
“Straight to fourteen.”
“Aaaagh! Hyung! Please breathe first and then do it!”
Light flashed again.
+14 enhancement successful!
Warning: The target’s vessel has reached its limit. If enhanced again, the target may change into an entirely different being.
The system’s warning word, change, was one Woojin had never seen before.
Normally, this was where he should have stopped.
But instead of fear, he saw possibility in it.
Changing means it’s breaking out of its shell.
Woojin pulled out the last of the materials.
“Sangjin.”
“......Yeah.”
Sangjin looked like he no longer had the strength to stop him. He simply slumped against the wall and sat there in resignation.
“If this blows up, we’re holding hands and going to the Han River.”
“The Han River? No, we should head for the sea off Singapore.”
Woojin snickered and unfolded the last enhancement scroll.
“This is the end. Fifteen enhancement. Let’s go!!!”
His hand touched Hyeongrang’s forehead, right where the horn rose.
The moment he poured in his mana, every sound in the world vanished.
What the hell...?!
With a roar like the workshop ceiling—or maybe space itself—was being torn apart, pitch-black darkness swallowed Hyeongrang whole.
And from within that darkness, a blinding white flash exploded, too bright to look at directly.
Fwaaaash—!!
“Aaaaghhh!!”
Woojin and Sangjin were both hurled backward at the same time.
They couldn’t open their eyes.
An overwhelming storm of energy was spinning around Hyeongrang as its center.
How much time passed?
The storm gradually faded, leaving only a soft halo of light behind.
And where that light remained, the red doll was gone.
“...Did it explode?”
Sangjin asked in a crawling whisper.
Woojin couldn’t answer. He could only stare into the glaring light.
His heart felt like it might stop.
Failure? No way! With an effect like this, how could it be a failure?!
That was when it happened.
The target’s grade cannot be measured.
Data reconstruction... complete.
“......What?”
A stupid, dazed sound slipped out of Woojin’s mouth.
There was no doll where Hyeongrang had been.
In its place sat a tiny little girl who looked to be about three or four, dressed in a modified hanbok patterned like a rainbow-colored sash.
She had jet-black hair, skin white as snow, and a single adorable horn rising from the center of her forehead.
The child was flexing her fingers and toes with obvious fascination.
This was no wooden joint anymore, no crude puppet; this was a real body with soft skin and flowing blood.
“...Origin?”
There was a rank above Mythic?
Even Woojin, a veteran of Unriworld, had never seen a grade like this before.
Origin.
The beginning of everything.
Before he could even fully process that meaning, Gabi’s skill window caught his eye.
She had only one skill.
Goblin Call
Every object in the world carries a soul. Gabi’s voice awakens sleeping things and lets them be reborn as goblins. Inanimate objects can be transformed into goblins permanently.
“What... what the hell?”
“Hey... Sangjin. Take a look at this.”
Woojin called him over, his whole body trembling.
Sangjin staggered over, checked the status window, and immediately sat down hard on the floor.
“It turns inanimate objects... into goblins? Permanently?”
This wasn’t on the same level as a necromancer raising corpses or a puppeteer controlling dolls.
This was just... creation.
It meant she could turn anything in the world into a goblin.
Then the child sitting on the workbench turned her head and looked at Woojin.
Her eyes were pure, mischievous, and somehow so clear they were almost eerie.
She opened her mouth.
A bright child’s voice rang out, not the mechanical sound of a doll.
“Kim Seobang!”
“...Huh?”
Gabi flashed a sunny smile, hopped down from the workbench, and sprang straight at him.
She clung to Woojin as if she were going to fly into his arms.
“Kim Seobang! Hehe! Gabi likes Kim Seobang!!”
Woojin froze.
Kim Seobang.
The address goblins in old Korean folktales used when speaking to humans.
The goblin creation that had reached Origin grade was rubbing her face all over Woojin’s, calling him Kim Seobang.
Feeling the squishy warmth of her body, Woojin asked, “You... you’re alive?”
“Yep! I’m alive! Kim Seobang gave me breath, didn’t you? Fwoosh!”
Gabi looked up at his face and giggled.
She was warm. He could feel her body temperature. He could hear her heart pounding away.
“What on earth did I make?” Woojin muttered, his mind blank.
“Hyung...” Sangjin whispered in a daze. “It feels like you didn’t just enhance something... it feels like you created an entire species.”
He might not have been wrong.
Gabi looked up at Woojin with sparkling eyes, then pointed at a crushed tin can lying in the corner.
“I’m bored. Can I make a friend?”
Before Woojin could even answer, Gabi snapped her fingers.
“Let’s plaayyy—!!”
Crack!
The crushed can straightened out with a shriek, limbs bursting out of it one after another.
That was the moment the Tin Can Goblin was born.
“Squeee! Master!”
The tin can goblin dropped to its knees before Gabi.
Woojin and Sangjin looked at each other.
“......Holy shit......”
“Is this for real...?”
They were both speechless.
“Looks like we didn’t just cause a little trouble,” Woojin said at last, laughing weakly. “We caused a truly spectacular disaster.”
“Not we, Hyung. You caused it. You caused a disaster and ended up with a daughter.”
“You little bastard...”
Woojin looked down at the most dangerous and adorable daughter in the world hanging off his chest, and let out another helpless laugh.