The Dismantling Workshop

I went straight to the dismantling workshop after leaving the gate.

I'll be seeing the old man again after all this time.

The master of the workshop I was heading to was one of the few people who had stood by me when my sponsors turned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their backs.

"Is anyone here?"

I knocked on the door of Chul-in Dismantling Workshop, and it slid open without a sound.

"What brings you here?"

"I'd like to request a dismantling job."

"A d-dismantling job? ...Father!"

The man who opened the door went to call his father, and soon a white-haired, powerfully built man with a familiar face stepped out.

"I'm Jung Chul-in, master of Chul-in Dismantling Workshop."

"I'm Han Jin, a C-rank awakener."

Jung Chul-in. The only person I could trust with a dismantling job.

"So, you want our workshop to handle the dismantling?"

"Yes."

"Quite the audacious young man, aren't you."

Among ordinary awakeners, Chul-in Dismantling Workshop was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠practically unknown. But among high-ranking awakeners and the first generation, there wasn't a single person who hadn't heard the name.

Is he testing me?

The old man could read a person at a glance. He was probably sizing me up right now—villain or decent man, strong or weak.

"You... you're a very interesting kid."

"Father?"

"Come on in."

With that, the old man walked into the workshop, and I followed him naturally.

Swish! Bang! Clang!

Every sound imaginable rang out from inside the workshop, but I simply trailed after him in silence.

"So, what monster do you want dismantled?"

The moment we arrived at the private dismantling yard, he asked point-blank. He still hated beating around the bush, just as I remembered.

"This."

I pulled the hunted monster carcasses out of my inventory: ten goblins and a goblin king, five knolls and an elite knoll.

"These are... ha!"

The old man stared at the carcasses, then burst into an incredulous laugh and turned to look at me.

"I didn't expect you to be ordinary, but I didn't think you'd be this much of a lunatic."

"I'm not a lunatic."

"Haha! I'll take your word for it."

He laughed heartily, clearly in a good mood. Just then, the man I'd seen at the entrance opened the door and came in.

"Father?"

He froze, taken aback at the sight of the old man laughing. I studied the man closely.

Did the old man have a son?

In my memory, he had no son. So who was this man?

Wait...

Right before I went into the mountains, when I came to say my last goodbye to the old man, a fragment of a sentence had drifted past my ears.

If ... were still alive, he'd be about your age.

It had been a murmured remark heavy with regret, so I remembered it clearly. The tone of a man recalling a child who was already dead and buried.

Was the person he said was my age... this kid?

The man's hands were thick with calluses, and his whole body was packed with lean, dense muscle.

Has he been working at the workshop since he was a child?

Traces like those couldn't form in a few months. They took at least a year, sometimes years, of labor to build up.

"Seo-jin, come here."

Then the old man called the man over. Jung Seo-jin approached without a word.

"Take a look at these carcasses. It'll be good practice."

"What's there to learn from mere goblin and kobold carcasses—"

Jung Seo-jin swallowed the rest of his sentence. Like his father, he must have noticed something when he looked at the corpses.

Noticing it at all means he's no second-rate hack.

A dismantler my age who was better than second-rate would become famous someday. And yet I had never once heard the name Jung Seo-jin.

The old man's words trouble me too...

For now, I simply filed the name away in the back of my mind.

A little later, the old man and Jung Seo-jin, having finished examining every corpse, came back over.

"We'll take the job."

The old man declared it abruptly, standing before me. Simply by saying that, I'd passed his test.

"How long will the dismantling take?"

"Should be done by tomorrow."

"Then I'll leave my account number and be on my way."

I wrote down my account number and handed it over, and the old man tucked the paper into the small pouch hanging from his chest.

"Oh. My son and I would like to work on this together, if that's no trouble?"

As I was leaving the workshop, the old man stopped me with the question. I nodded.

"As long as you do it well, it's no problem at all."

With that answer, I left the workshop straight away and hailed a taxi.

"To Myeongdong, please."

"Sure."

My next destination was Myeongdong. It was five in the afternoon—barely four hours since I'd parted ways with Seo Inha. The reason I was going out of my way to Myeongdong was to deliver the black iron.

The method of crafting changed depending on the ore you were working with and its shape.

If I show him the black iron, Grandmaster Seo Jincheol will figure something out, one way or another.

I settled quietly into the seat and let the car carry me.

"Young man, what exactly have you done to my granddaughter?"

"Excuse me?"

The moment I walked into the smithy, Grandmaster Seo Jincheol demanded an answer.

"Ever since she came home, she started practicing her gem cutting out of nowhere. Practice she never used to do."

His eyes were full of curiosity and, unmistakably, envy. I answered under the weight of that unsettling stare.

"All I did was ask her to cut the Earth Stone when the time came. That's it."

"..."

Seo Jincheol kept eyeing me with naked disbelief. Just then, Seo Inha emerged from the back of the smithy.

"Boss? What are you doing here?"

"..."

Hearing that, Seo Jincheol stared at me even harder, as if interrogating why my title had changed.

"Your grandfather suspects I did something strange to you. I was clearing it up."

"Grandfather?"

At my answer, she glared at the old man with eyes that looked ready to devour him.

"Raising a granddaughter is a waste of effort, I see how it is..."

The old man deflated all at once. Watching him, I pulled the black iron from my inventory and handed it over.

"This is why I came."

"Hm? This is black iron? How on earth did you get this?"

"I cleared a gate and received it as a reward."

He looked at me as if he couldn't believe it. Retired or not, the craftsman in him made his eyes gleam at the black iron.

"I'd like you to make an accessory set with the Earth Stone set into it."

"An accessory, eh..."

"Wouldn't a ring be better, Grandfather?"

From that point on, granddaughter and grandfather, two craftsmen, fell into conversation. I slipped out of the smithy so as not to get in their way.

Judging by the state of them, they'll handle it just fine on their own.

Me sitting there glued to my chair would have been more of a hindrance than anything.

"Maybe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'll grab some fried chicken while I'm at it."

Swish!

My dagger sheared through the gray wolf's neck.

"Awoo!"

The moment the gray wolf's head fell, the silver wolf—the boss monster—summoned more of them.

With no ranged damage dealer, this part really is a pain.

By the textbook, the tank and melee dealers would hold back the gray wolves while the ranged dealers killed the silver wolf. But I had entered this gate alone.

Basic footwork. Dark.

I used the footwork to smother my presence. Even a wolf-type monster with a keen nose couldn't find me.

Basic footwork. Speed.

Layered on top of that, I raised my velocity even higher, and at that speed I charged straight for the silver wolf. It was roughly three times the size of an ordinary gray wolf.

Basic footwork. Break.

Bang!

The instant I reached the silver wolf's feet, I used the footwork to shatter the ground it stood on.

"Awoo!"

Losing its balance, the silver wolf hastily called the gray wolves back to it.

"Too slow."

Basic footwork. Speed.

I rode the footwork in a single breath and landed on the silver wolf's nape, then swung my dagger.

Swish!

The silver wolf's head went flying in an instant.

A blue gate formed before my eyes along with the system message. I checked the gate, then looked at the gray wolves that had gathered at the silver wolf's call.

"Grrr."

Fear was plain in their eyes. Since I had no particular need to hunt the other gray wolves, I stepped out through the gate.

The settlement messages appeared the moment I left the gate, and I immediately opened my status window.

I had chosen the invincibility skill and the Divinity stat. I picked invincibility because I'd need it when I reached level 100. I picked Divinity because it was a power I knew nothing about.

Before I regressed, I'd never even heard of Divinity.

Even isolated in the mountains, I'd had some access to information from the outside when I wasn't training. But I had never so much as heard of a stat called Divinity.

Going by the name alone, you'd think I'd have to go to a church and pray or something.

What came to mind at the word Divinity? A god.

I closed the status window. The reason I wasn't spending stat points now was that I would need them later.

Once I get that skill, that is.

Whether I could even obtain the skill I wanted was still an open question. And with 500 stat points, I could acquire a new trait as well.

For that day, it's best to stockpile as many achievements as I can.

Ring!

Just then, my phone went off.