Upgrade (1)

Sunday.

The Training Center.

I was sitting propped against one wall of the training room.

Leaning against my shoulder was a gimbap rolled up snug in a blanket, and from its end peeked a wisp of gray hair and the crown of a head.

It was Seo Ye-in, faithfully recharging her sloth batteries yet again today.

I let her be and shifted my gaze to the front of the room.

There, two iron dummies stood locked in a standoff, weapons leveled at one another—one hefting a massive two-handed hammer, the other gripping a thick greatsword.

The pair inched toward each other, and the greatsword dummy moved first.

Whoom—!

The greatsword ripped through the air, carving in on a diagonal.

I stood Deep Root upright, held [Branch Line], and stretched out a hand toward the hammer-wielder.

Whish—

A stream of wind breathed into the training room.

It wrapped the hammer dummy in a rounded membrane, and the moment the greatsword touched it, the blade's speed dropped for an instant—then it passed straight through all the same, finishing the cut it had begun.

Shkrrrak!

A long diagonal gash scored itself across the hammer dummy's upper body.

Not that a training dummy had any capacity for pain.

It instantly swung its whole frame into a huge overhead hammer strike.

Whish—

I reached out again, and this time the wind barrier wrapped itself around the greatsword dummy's head.

But as before, it was hopelessly insufficient to stop a hammer falling with all that weight behind it.

Clang—!

"...?"

At the clear, ringing chime, the blanket gimbap stirred faintly, and a little more gray hair poked out at the end.

I addressed it directly.

"That's a sound you've heard somewhere before, isn't it?"

"......"

The blanket gimbap hunched in on itself, and the gray hair slunk back out of sight.

After that, it didn't move again.

She fled.

Taking my eyes off Seo Ye-in, who had departed for dreamland, I went back to layering Wind Barriers over the iron dummies in turn.

Whish—

Wind Barrier currently sat at F+ rank.

Even carrying a double bonus from [Blessing of the West Wind] and [Branch Line], it kept letting the dummies' attacks through.

That's how it is at the start.

The higher the rank climbed, the more its defense would keep growing alongside it.

Shkrrrak!

Clang!

The two dummies fought so ferociously that they reduced each other to heaps of scrap.

I promptly summoned two fresh ones to carry the battle on, and kept weaving Wind Barriers without a pause.

After repeating that cycle countless times—

It wasn't a skill with a punishing training curve, so it had escaped F rank in no time.

That'll do for today.

It was about time to get moving.

I froze the iron dummies in place and rose from my seat.

At that, the blanket gimbap, left sitting all alone, rustled, and Seo Ye-in stuck her face out, hair an absolute bird's nest.

"Come baaack..."

"Up you get first. We have somewhere to be."

"One more hour..."

"Miss, you really have no shame, do you."

"Ten minutes..."

Whether the jab had landed, her requested extension had shrunk dramatically, from an hour all the way down to ten minutes.

Even so, I shook my head without a shred of mercy.

"It went into the negative ages ago."

"That can't be..."

"Up. Now."

Cooperate willingly, or there would be no more Kim Ho Pillow in the future.

For Seo Ye-in, there was no choice to make.

The [Multicolored Scale Box] we'd obtained from the dungeon run with Dang Gyu-young.

Opening it dropped a random number of scales—no fewer than one, no more than three.

And when I left the honors to my lucky charm—

She breezed right through and pulled all three.

One apiece for Go Hyeon-woo, me, and Seo Ye-in—a perfect split.

The main use for a Multicolored Scale was armor.

To be precise, for 'upgrades.'

When I raised the matter with Ahn Jung-mi, she came back bearing glad tidings: a Hyeseong Group scholarship student could solve this problem for us.

Which was why the place I took Seo Ye-in was the Tailor Club, where that scholarship student could be found.

Inside the clubroom, clothing racks stood packed shoulder to shoulder, every one of them hung with garments of every description.

Students were indeed seated at the desks, working away, but they were so thoroughly hidden behind mountains of materials that you could scarcely make them out.

Busy here too, I see.

Production-type classes get worked half to death everywhere you go.

Tailors most of all, since they craft armor—the most sought-after gear after weapons—so being buried ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in work came with the territory.

Before long, sensing visitors, a third-year male student came out to receive us.

He was thin to the point of gaunt, with dark circles hollowing the skin under his eyes.

He was evidently the scholarship student Ahn Jung-mi had mentioned, for he picked us out at a glance.

"Kim Ho, Seo Ye-in?"

"Yes, sunbae."

"Got your message. You'd like something upgraded?"

"That's right."

I held out the two pairs of sneakers first.

White base, trimmed with sky blue.

Identical in every respect but size.

Two pairs of Cloud Walkers, two people.

The scholarship senior sent an odd look back and forth between us.

"So, um... what exactly would you two be to each other...?"

We answered in the same breath.

"We're friends."

"He's my butler."

"?"

"?"

And we turned to stare at each other.

She'd pulled this at the downtown market too—once again, slyly trying to claim me as her butler.

I drew the line with the utmost firmness.

"Not a butler."

"...Prospective butler?"

"Not even prospective."

At that, Seo Ye-in rummaged through her inventory and held out a thick black card.

"...?"

"...I said no."

This offer was a little harder to turn down, but no was still no.

A black card gained at the price of butlerhood was a losing trade.

The scholarship senior, evidently eager to simply get the job done, cut the exchange short.

"Anyway—what am I upgrading them with?"

"Please use these."

I held out two [Multicolored Scales].

He accepted them without fuss, then asked again.

"That's everything?"

"One more favor, if I may."

With that, I drew the last remaining Multicolored Scale and a cuirass from my inventory.

Bronze, and shaped like the shell of a crustacean.

The armor Go Hyeon-woo had bought at the downtown market.

I'd had him hand it over in advance, meaning to use it here.

A rare armor known as the Transparent Carapace, currently burdened with a pointless bronze upgrade layered on top.

Far too heavy for a martial artist like Go Hyeon-woo to wear, and its defense was nothing to write home about either.

Which was why the request I intended to make was—

"I'd like you to overwrite the bronze upgrade with this scale."

The scholarship senior's brow creased slightly.

"But why bring armor to me? That's a blacksmith's job."

"I didn't think an upgrade would give you much trouble."

Granting or stripping an upgrade was something anyone could do, regardless of production specialty, so long as their skill level cleared a certain ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bar.

And a third-year like the man before me would naturally be well past it.

There was another reason as well: commissioning a blacksmith meant paying a separate fee.

As the back-and-forth over Root's crafting had shown, even getting a job accepted in the first place was no small feat.

Why drag a one-stop errand into two cumbersome transactions when a scholarship student could settle it in one?

That said, from the senior's point of view, watching his workload pile higher could not have been less welcome.

He waved a hand, irritation written across every inch of his face.

"Ugh, fine. I'll sort it out when I have a moment and let you know. Off you go."

Then Seo Ye-in regarded him steadily for a moment, tilted her head slightly, and posed a question.

"Are you busy?"

"...!"

The senior's pupils wavered left and right; he swallowed dryly and stared back at her.

She probably asked without a thought in the world.

She'd simply noticed he looked busy and said so—but to that senior, it would ring like something else entirely.

The young heiress of Hyeseong Group makes a request, and a mere scholarship student brushes it off as 'too busy,' or lets it sit until later?

What if word of that found its way to the Future Strategy Office?

'How busy you must be. I understand perfectly. Then I take it you're far too busy to work with us, either.'

'N-no, wait—!'

Along those lines, both his scholarship and his post-graduation seat at Hyeseong Group might sail clean out the window.

By my reckoning that was an outrageous leap of logic—but from where that senior stood, it would be no leap at all.

And so the scholarship senior, as though a second personality ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had taken over, transformed completely and addressed us in a tone of pure honey.

"Busy? Who's busy? Don't be ridiculous. Three item upgrades—I'll have them done right away. Come Wednesday. No—come back tomorrow."

"Thank you."

"There we go. Get home safe now~"

Right up to the very end, he saw us off with impeccable courtesy.

Seo Ye-in and I traded a look as we stepped out of the Tailor Club.

"Stay strong."

"Stay strong."

Having thrown the Tailor Club into a fresh uproar with a bout of wholly unexpected tyranny—

our next destination was the Magic Engineering Workshop.

I found myself recalling a conversation I'd shared with Dang Gyu-young a few days prior.

"Bong Jaeseok's been looking for you."

"About what, may I ask?"

"No idea. Just said to drop by when you find the time."

Bong Jaeseok, president of the Magic Engineering Club.

Like every crafting-type class, he was a man perpetually starved for time.

So much so that he begrudged even the minutes spent pushing and pulling across a negotiating table.

For a man like that to carve out time specifically to see me meant—

he'd come across something he needed that badly.

Which meant he wouldn't give me the cold shoulder when I came calling, either.

He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was the brisk, forthright sort to begin with.

Besides, I had a fair guess as to what the errand was.

There hadn't been all that many dealings between Bong Jaeseok and me to speak of.

And it would be a problem only I could properly solve.

For my part, that made it welcome news on every count.

Hence I'd sent word ahead through Dang Gyu-young, made our stop at the Tailor Club, and then come straight here.

When Seo Ye-in and I arrived in front of Magic Engineering Workshop 1, a familiar face came into view.

Park Na-ri, the Nature Club's rising prospect, and the miniature tiger Beomi.

"H-hello...?"

"Meow."

Park Na-ri waved a timid hand, as she always did, and Beomi slowly paddled a front paw through the empty air in greeting.

Then it sprang down from her arms in a single bound and rubbed its forehead against my leg.

I accepted the greeting as a matter of course.

"Hey. What are you here for?"

"Unni— no, the president told me to come right away..."

"And who'd you come to see?"

"Um... the president here...?"

She'd been dispatched by the Nature Club itself, and as it happened, Park Na-ri had business with Bong Jaeseok as well.

On top of that, her send-off had been timed to match my arrival to the minute.

My certainty about what Bong Jaeseok wanted from me only deepened.

"Oh, you made it."

"Good afternoon."

Just then, Bong Jaeseok walked out of Workshop 1.

A third-year female student was at his side—I remembered her as the one who'd worked so earnestly to recruit me before.

The vice president, presumably.

"Let's head in and talk."

As though every single second were too precious to waste, Bong Jaeseok wheeled around almost before the greetings were done.

And set off at the head of the group, toward Workshop 4.