Secondary Profession (3)
Free time after the evening's work was done.
The usually quiet meeting room had grown loud. The members were venting about how grueling their tasks had been.
The meeting room sat right next to Hyun Si-woon's personal quarters, so even though he had planned to rest, he inevitably got swept into the conversation.
"No way! Hyung-nim, noonas! This doesn't make any sense, okay? I have to make a hundred wooden arrows, but it says I need planks from logs. So I sawed my heart out! But the planks won't come out right. Keeps failing 'cause they're crooked... Why the hell do I need perfect planks just to make wooden arrows?!"
"You're not the only one suffering... Dae-un. At least you're just sawing. This noona's scraping raw hides just to make leather straps. Sewing? Screw that—I'm stuck learning tanning from scratch."
"I'm trying to make low-grade healing potions, but I can't even purify the herbs. At this rate... wouldn't it be better to just buy potions from Lumi?"
"Please, all of you quiet down in front of me. I have to bake a hundred loaves of bread, but the dough I kneaded is still fermenting. I don't even know if it'll succeed..."
"Haa."
Even the normally quiet Si-a was rubbing her eyes with a dejected look. Worry filled every face.
A completely different kind of despair from climbing the Tower.
Do we really have to keep doing this?
I'm doing it because the leader ordered it, but this really seems pointless.
If there'd at least been some results...
Hmm.
Hyun Si-woon couldn't just laugh off the sight of his members like this. Because...
Even I'm finding it hard.
Ordinary people struggled with things Si-woon did easily. So if he was struggling, how much harder must it be for the others?
What should I do?
He couldn't just leave them slamming their heads against the wall like this.
"I know you're all working hard."
Hyun Si-woon encouraged them.
"I have to make a low-grade hammer myself, and just producing one iron ingot took me half a day. Without Old Man Kang's help, I'd still be floundering."
"Old Man Kang? Ah, that blacksmith grandfather?"
"Yeah. Got lucky. He knows traditional smelting methods."
"Ohhh..."
The members' eyes widened. There was a way to get help from a craftsman?
"I'll contact the Owl Guild for now. Tell them to find people who could be called masters in each profession, along with their families, and recruit them to Eden Camp."
"You're going to get us teachers?"
"Yeah. Until then, do your best on your own as much as you can. There'll definitely come a day when it pays off."
After that, Hyun Si-woon assigned a mission to Yoon Tae-shik: track down the absolute best craftsmen still surviving in Korea in every field. They didn't need to be Climbers—in fact, non-Climber masters who had devoted their entire lives to their craft would be even better.
As a former profiler, he would surely pick the right people.
The next day as well.
"Good, this is the rhythm."
Clang! Clang!
Hyun Si-woon hammered away, sweat pouring down.
"Hwah!"
A completely different sensation from swinging a sword. The hammer was heavier and blunter than a blade. Instead of keen edge, he had to subdue the metal with sheer, solid force.
It felt awkward at first, but the more he repeated it, the more he discovered a new kind of joy.
It's not boring.
This, too, felt like an extension of martial arts training. Yes. When you hit a wall, setting it aside for a while and trying something new was good. Sometimes you found the clue to a stuck problem from a completely different perspective.
Hard Qi...
The realm Si-woon needed to reach next. The eighth stage among the twelve stages of Moon Spirit. The stage of Sword Hardness that Ha-wol called the level of a Transcendent Master.
Sword Hardness...
He had seen Yoon Seo-a use it in a previous regression. Similar to sword energy yet different... pure destructive force that cut through everything. A realm where you could slice boulders like tofu and carve letters into iron.
From here on, time supposedly didn't matter. Some would train their whole lives and never reach it; others might step up right away...
Even in Ha-wol's world, they called those who reached this level "beyond human."
Claaang!
Huh?
He had hammered without noticing the time, and another ingot was already stocked. The work grew faster and faster.
After a day or two had passed?
It had almost turned into a factory.
"Sylphe."
- Kyarr?
"Don't slow down on the bellows."
- Kyarr...
The salamander stoked the fire in silence while Sylphe blew in the wind. And the impurities on the molten iron?
Splash, splash!
Undine precisely skimmed them off with streams of water.
- ...A-am I doing well?
Clang, clang!
Even the hammering was handled by Gnome.
- I strike. Hammer. Strongly.
Complete division of labor!
Where a single ingot had once taken half a day, he could now churn out three or four an hour with ease. And this was still the early stage... Later he planned to drill them until they could pump out as many as he wanted.
Members passing by watched the scene with envy.
"Whoa."
"...So unfair, doing it alone."
"I don't envy our leader for much else, but I seriously envy that."
"I want cute spirits too..."
Hyun Si-woon deliberately pretended not to notice.
So while the spirits handled the smelting, what was Si-woon doing?
He was properly crafting the hammer itself.
Three sturdy iron ingots, one tough wooden handle, one low-grade hardener.
He placed the materials on the anvil and took up the hammer again.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The hammering never stopped. Whenever he got stuck he sought Old Man Kang's advice, and when he failed he tried again as many times as needed.
Only after a full month had flown by—
"Hwaaaah!"
At last he held a hammer that looked decently usable. One month. The first fruit of relentless repetition.
He had gained a great deal along the way. The first ten days were spent solely on shaping the hammer head. Getting the heated iron ingot into the right form was the problem. He would misjudge the force and flatten the metal too thin, or misalign the angle and end up with a crooked shape more often than not.
I tried just ignoring it and pushing on, but it was useless.
If there was even a 1% deviation from the blueprint? Instant failure judgment. It wouldn't turn into an item. Then? Melt it down and start over.
The next week he wasted on fitting the handle. Driving the wooden handle into the hole of the hammer head and fixing it with a precise wedge was its own ordeal. Hit too hard and the handle cracked; hit too soft and it stayed loose, the head wobbling.
The final quenching was the peak.
The process of dunking the hammer into cooling water mixed with low-grade hardener. Put it in while too hot and the metal cracked; put it in after it cooled too much and the hardness wouldn't rise.
"It's done, it's finally done...!"
Hyun Si-woon was moved. Moved, yet also despairing.
I have to make a hundred of these?
He could see why Rankers had given up. No matter how you looked at it, spending this time climbing another floor of the Tower and training to get stronger seemed like the better path to survival.
Still.
Now that he had succeeded once, the time would gradually decrease next, right?
Hyun Si-woon proudly gifted the low-grade hammer to Old Man Kang.
"Heo, after all that making and tossing them out, this is a real finished product?"
"Yes, Elder."
"Mind if I give it a try?"
"Of course. It's my first work, offered to you. Once I get famous later, it might even be worth something."
You know that story—how a young Picasso once painted a piece for the owner of his regular restaurant and joked, "This'll be worth a house someday!" Si-woon felt exactly like that right now. Master Blacksmith Hyun Si-woon's debut piece!
"Heh heh, let's have a look, shall we?"
Old Man Kang took the hammer and examined it from every angle. His eyes grew wider and wider.
"Heo, you made this yourself?"
"You came by and watched sometimes, didn't you?"
"This is the real deal! The grain of the iron is perfectly alive. Completely different at the root from those factory-made hammers these days! You called this a low-grade hammer, right? Don't joke with me. If this is low-grade, what's mid-grade and what's upper-grade supposed to be?"
In Old Man Kang's eyes the balance was perfect and the handle was no ordinary piece of work.
"Really... can I take this?"
"I told you. I still have to make ninety-nine more of these."
"Heh heh, thank you kindly. From now on every job I do will be with this."
One more day after that.
- Kirururu!
Yoon Tae-shik returned with Pungjo.
"Boss!"
"Oh, Mister."
"As you ordered, I tracked down the masters of each field."
"There really were some?"
"There were more applications and tips than expected... but it took a bit to have them verify each other's skills and pick two per field. Their ability, at least, should be solid."
"Nice."
As expected of the Owl. Clean and swift work.
"They're coming to Eden?"
"They didn't even believe a place like this existed at first. Then they said if such a place was real, they'd work for free for life—just bring their families in."
"Then call them."
"Yes sir! We have space, right?"
"Plenty for now."
The research complex was fairly large, so room existed. The problem was... if the family kept growing this way, it would fill up someday. Opinions were already floating around about expanding the camp beyond the research institute.
We'll have to later.
Hwang Dae-un was the carpenter. According to Ha-wol, carpenters would eventually build houses too.
Looking at the hammers, I get it.
The "low-grade" standard for secondary jobs was probably the Rankers'. The standard of those transcendent beings from every other world who gathered under the name of the Tower and finally succeeded in ascending.
In that case? The houses Hwang Dae-un would build later would clearly be magnificent.
Not long after, a small commotion rose at the camp's outskirts. The craftsmen and their families had arrived! Pungjo had apparently made five round trips to the outskirts of Seoul just to ferry them all.
"Heo, truly."
"A place like this existed!"
"My god, they're farming!"
"Mom! Cows over there! Chickens too! Pigs!"
They stared around, dazed, as if they couldn't believe the scene before their eyes. A peaceful landscape they had never even imagined could exist in this hellish world. That landscape was more than enough to melt the hardened hearts of the craftsmen and their families.
"Uhhuhk."
"Thank you for inviting us. Truly, thank you!"
They wept with emotion. But there was no time to cry. Because the members came rushing out.
"Elder! You're a carpenter, right? Hwang Dae-un here! I greet you! The planks! The planks won't listen! I sawed them perfectly straight, you know? But it doesn't work! Why won't it work? Why! Why! Why!"
"Teacher. How on earth do you soften this raw hide? The book I found said to use salt and ash..."
"Herb purification... herb purification..."
Madness poured from the members' eyes.
"Uh... uh."
"I-if you suddenly ask like that..."
"Let's go take a look first. We'll talk after seeing it."
The craftsmen were bewildered at first, but soon adapted and began offering help. Teaching, in fact, made them feel alive again. They had discovered the passion burning in the members' eyes.
About two more months passed that way.
Clang! Clang!
Hyun Si-woon no longer looked at the blueprint.
Claaang!
Familiar motions and rhythmic hammering! With a clear, pure final ringing, the hundredth hammer was completed in his hands.
"Finally!"
Hyun Si-woon flung the hammer away with a refreshing throw and pumped his clenched fist.
Then a pleasant status window rose into his vision.
Beginner Quest - The Start of Tempering
Quest successfully completed.