Upgrade (2)

Following Bong Jaeseok, we arrived at Workshop 4.

I'd ducked in and out of the place plenty of times while making Root, but right now it sat completely empty, not a soul in sight.

I gave the interior a quick once-over and asked, "Senior's not in today?"

"Moved up to Workshop 3."

So all his grinding away in that corner had apparently paid off with results of its own.

We stepped inside and settled around a large table.

Bong Jaeseok looked between me and Park Nari and came straight to the point. "You've probably guessed already, but the reason I asked you two here is the Life Cube."

The Life Cube. An item crafted by fitting together the 10x10x10 cube blueprint.

Its current owner was Park Nari, its resident was Beomi, and the Nature Club held a certain stake in it as well.

I had traded with Bong Jaeseok for that cube's blueprint — the one documenting each of the thousand unit cubes in meticulous detail.

Building on it toward a complete 10x10x10 blueprint, and then on to finishing the Life Cube itself — that had to be his goal. And yet,

"Looks like you've run into a wall somewhere."

"That's right." Bong Jaeseok nodded.

The Life Cube was a bona fide S-rank item. Drawing the blueprint was merely the opening stretch of a long chain quest.

And Bong Jaeseok was stuck even in that opening stretch — since he hadn't drawn the blueprint himself, his grasp of it was shaky at best.

Which was why he'd called the two of us here, in search of a breakthrough.

Bong Jaeseok addressed Park Nari first. "Mind showing me the cube, if it's no trouble?"

"Oh — yes. Of course..." Park Nari rummaged through her inventory and produced the Life Cube, then fished out the various life-attribute items stored inside and tucked them away into her inventory.

Even though the cube was one of her assets, showing it off didn't seem to burden her in the least — no doubt because she'd already cleared things with the Nature Club side.

They must be plenty interested over there too.

The Life Cube Park Nari currently held was, in effect, a prototype. Built from a crude blueprint, its quality was bound to be a notch below.

Even so, it was a full B-rank with staggering performance, and word was it had done much to push Park Nari ahead in the prospect race.

Then what would a cube of true caliber — an S-rank cube — be capable of? Or what if they managed to mass-produce even B-rank versions and distribute them to the members?

The Nature Club, and by extension the Nature Guild, would see its capabilities soar. Small wonder the club wasn't stingy with its cooperation and investment — in exchange, they would have secured a stake in the finished cube, or priority rights to any trades, and the like.

But the moment Park Nari moved to hand the Life Cube over —

"Myah."

The miniature tiger Beomi wedged itself between them and slipped inside the cube, then smacked the lid shut with a front paw.

A flustered Park Nari tried to open it back up. "B-Beomi, come out for just a second. I need to show it to the senior."

"Myaang!" A front paw shot out and swatted her hand away.

Showing off one's home required the homeowner's permission, after all. And the homeowner at the moment looked to be in a frightful mood.

"J-just one moment, please."

While Park Nari fidgeted anxiously, doing her earnest best to talk Beomi around, Bong Jaeseok seemed to decide he'd wrap up his business with me first. He pulled a bundle of papers from inside his jacket and held it out.

"Give these a look. I wrote down only the tricky bits."

I read through them slowly, one page at a time. From Bong Jaeseok's standpoint they were bound to be thorny, but to a grizzled veteran of countless playthroughs like me, the answers stood out at a glance.

Still, slapping the answers down too quickly would only knock down my market value. So I put on a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠deliberately grave face, stewed over it for a good long while, and then replied.

"I believe I can be of help."

"Sweet. And obviously I'm not just going to say 'help me' for free. If there's anything you need, name it."

Bong Jaeseok, settling the payment up front. Given how much he hated push-and-pull haggling, he'd grant my request barring something extreme. His handling of business was refreshingly brisk, same as always.

I didn't dawdle either, and named what I wanted. "I'm after ingots."

The most pressing item on my agenda was [Deep Root]'s lack of reach. In my fight with the Kim Gap-du Fish, I'd had to bend my knees every single time I used a skill — and that was only workable because the brute had been such a pushover. Raise the difficulty even a little and the extension itself would be unusable.

For now I'd linked on an F-rank iron bar purely for extra length, but I wanted out of that half-baked arrangement as soon as possible. I needed to craft the next proper segment and attach it, and fast.

Bong Jaeseok asked again. "Grade?"

"C+ rank at minimum — B-rank, if I can get it."

"...!" The vice president, who'd been listening in beside us, knitted her brow for an instant. It wasn't as if B-rank ingots could be dug out of the ground, and he wanted one as payment for untangling a few sticking points?

But before she could open her mouth to protest, Bong Jaeseok raised a hand and cut her off. "Fine, I can stretch that far. In return, I trust you'll help with real dedication."

"Thank you. I'll give it my best."

"Go ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on, pick one out." Bong Jaeseok brought up a sizable window in front of me — a list of the ingots and ingot boxes held in the club warehouse.

Even filtered down to B and C+ ranks alone, the list ran on without end — a telling glimpse of the reserves of a mid-tier production club.

They're bound to have grades above that, too. But even a club president couldn't hand those out carelessly. Look at the vice president already eyeing me like a common thief over a mere B-rank. If I demanded one he wouldn't refuse, but in exchange I'd have to wade that much deeper into this whole affair. Compromising on a solid B-rank was the smart play.

Yet as I kept scrolling down the list, something caught my eye. Well, what do we have here?

[Ghost Captain's Ingot Box (B)]

An ingot box dropped as a B-rank dungeon reward. The catch was that this dungeon's central rule was "underwater combat," which made clearing it incomparably more grueling than the Black Snake Gang. However it had ended up here — dropped by their own run, or traded in from another club — they had apparently been stockpiling it in the warehouse.

Hard to come by means it's worth having. The exact drop rates were never made public, but compared to other random boxes of the same grade, this one tended to yield higher-ranked ingots. At worst, C+; at best, all the way up to A-rank.

Rank aside, the ingots it produced also skewed mage-friendly. Meaning there'd be no need to fold in Black Mithril the way Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron had demanded.

There was no need to browse any further. "I'll take this one."

"Ghost Captain? Suit yourself." Bong Jaeseok agreed without a hitch and flicked a glance at the vice president. She still looked less than thrilled, but it was too late to object now. Off she went as instructed, returning a short while later with a jet-black box in hand.

"...?" Seo ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ye-in had been poking through the assorted junk in a corner; seeing me receive the ingot box, she drifted over. I tossed out an offhand question.

"Lady Lucky Mascot, you think a jackpot's waiting if I open this?"

"..." Seo Ye-in gazed down at the box. Her head tilted slightly to the left, then to the right. And the answer that came out was,

"...Later?"

"So it'll pop if I open it later?"

"...?" Seo Ye-in answered with another tilt of her head. Apparently she wasn't so sure herself.

Either way, there was no rush to open it, so I tucked the ingot box into my inventory for the time being.

"Myaow."

By then, Park Nari's hands and arms were liberally decorated with bite and scratch marks. Even so, she seemed to have all but succeeded in talking Beomi around.

"S-Senior says he'll renovate it for you. Renovate."

"...?" Since the cube would be getting its own repairs while Bong Jaeseok studied the Life Cube, "renovation" wasn't exactly a lie.

And when Park Nari played her trump card —

"Snack time, Beomi. Snack. Hmm?"

"Myaow."

Beomi — no, forgive me, Lord Beomi — at long last deigned to step out of his private villa. Truly, whatever the industry, butler was a profession of extremes.

Bong Jaeseok seemed to feel much the same, shooting Park Nari a pitying look before promptly carrying the cube — now blanketed in cat hair and scratches — over to his side of the table. Then, tapping through his prepared documents one sheet at a time, he began firing off questions.

"Let's begin. Why doesn't this part fit?"

"Yes, senior. To start with, this section—"

Cross-referencing the papers against the cube, I fed him answers step by careful step.

After a long stretch of questions and answers, Bong Jaeseok had managed to clear up most of what had been puzzling him. He turned to the vice president with a satisfied face.

"Knew it was worth calling you in. That ingot's more than paid for itself, hasn't it?"

"...I suppose it has."

Even the vice president, who'd kept firing off disapproving looks, looked considerably softened now.

Eager, it seemed, to put what he'd learned to use even an hour sooner, Bong Jaeseok swept himself up from his seat.

"Thanks for today. If anything else comes up, I can call on you again, right?"

"Of course. Anytime."

"Sweet, then I'm heading off first!"

With nothing more than that, Bong Jaeseok bolted out of Workshop 4 like a gust of wind. The vice president gave us a light nod and followed after him.

Well, that was a tidy little profit.

I'd answered a few questions and walked away with a B-rank ingot box. And as Bong Jaeseok had made a point of confirming at the end, more snags were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bound to crop up from here on out. Each time, we'd be able to trade something that left both sides satisfied.

The moment we stepped out of the Magic Engineering Workshop, Seo Ye-in asked, "Where to now?"

"Let's go see the Tailor senior again."

The scholarship senior who'd told us to come tomorrow had gotten in touch barely any time later. Apparently he'd shoved everything else aside to sort out the upgrade first.

The power of authority truly is a fearsome thing. To think a single offhand "Are you busy?" could carry this kind of ripple effect.

So musing, I set my course for the Tailoring Club. Before long, the scholarship senior waiting out front of the clubroom came into view, wearing the same world-class kindly smile he'd had when seeing us off.

"Hey, kids, you made it. It got done faster than I expected, so I called you over. I'm not busy at all."

And, with a pointed emphasis on "not busy at all," he handed over two pairs of sneakers and one set of armor.

As for the sneakers, the overall white scheme was intact, but the accent colors shifted now and then — a pale red here, a blue or a yellow there.

The Multicolored Scale upgrade had tacked a + onto its base rank and added a C-rank Multicolor Defense trait. With the trait's rank carried over untouched, he clearly hadn't cut corners in his rush.

I dipped my head. "I had no idea you'd have it done this quickly. Thank you."

"Oh, don't mention it. It wasn't anything difficult — why let it drag on?"

"I'll be sure to put in a good word with your team leader."

"Haha, no need to go that far. Much appreciated."

A genuinely warm and cordial air had settled between the scholarship senior and me. And yet, every so often, he would carefully steal a glance at Seo Ye-in.