Chapter 134
“Huh?”
I tapped at my smartphone screen as I made my way to the stadium’s main gate.
There, standing in front of the entrance, was Yu Jae-i.
Hong Su-jeong, Kim Ji-yeon, and Sim Yun-jin were with her.
Given that they were under protection, I hadn’t expected Jae-i to come alone, of course.
I hadn’t expected Hong Su-jeong to come along, either.
Still, if they split up, it would only make guarding them harder.
That must be why they’d decided to move together.
More to the point…
the women were chatting in a friendly manner with the male police officers standing in front of the stadium.
“……?”
Jae-i had clearly sent me a text saying, Can you hurry? Things got kind of annoying here.
But the scene in front of me didn’t match that message at all.
Far from annoying, it was overflowing with warmth.
Of course, it was Kim Ji-yeon and Sim Yun-jin who were taking the lead in the conversation with the police.
Jae-i and Hong Su-jeong stood a little apart from them, listening quietly.
“Oh, over here!”
Jae-i spotted me and raised a hand.
Hong Su-jeong gave me a small nod, too.
I returned the gesture and asked Jae-i, “What’s going on? You said it was annoying.”
“It was annoying until five minutes ago.”
“Exactly. The mood was terrible,” Hong Su-jeong added.
Terrible?
I shifted my gaze away from them and looked at the men and women chatting so amicably with one another.
The pairings made them look like they’d been arranged for a blind date.
Kim Ji-yeon was even smiling in a way that was almost unnervingly friendly, unlike her usual self.
Where had the woman who’d snapped at Woo Yeon-hoo at Hongyureung Gate gone?
Did she have a type among police officers?
That was how out of place the whole thing felt.
Curious, I listened in for a moment.
“It’s an honor to meet you.”
“Hahaha, the honor’s ours.”
“We were worried because it seemed like you hadn’t been active lately…”
“Ah, I’ve been busy with other things.”
“Ah, I see. That’s a relief. We were worried we might not get to see the two of you again.”
“Oh? Were you now?”
Hm.
From the sound of it, the police officers were fans of Kim Ji-yeon and Sim Yun-jin.
It made sense that the atmosphere was good if this was a meeting between stars and their fans.
So that bright expression on Ji-yeon’s face was fan service after all?
“This is really too much….”
Hong Su-jeong muttered under her breath, staring at the officers.
When I looked at her, she gave an awkward laugh and whispered, “They weren’t even listening when Jae-i spoke, and they were trying to kick us out.”
“At least they recognized those two, so we didn’t get thrown out,” Jae-i said.
“They wouldn’t even spare us a glance when we talked…”
“Still, it worked out. Once those two started talking, they let us wait here.”
“Ah.”
So that was it.
Kim Ji-yeon’s unusual friendliness had been calculated.
It wasn’t because she’d found someone she liked, and it wasn’t just fan management, either.
“Can’t really blame them, I guess…”
The police were only doing their jobs, controlling access.
Trying to throw people out without even hearing what they wanted might seem excessive, but it wasn’t impossible to understand.
News had already spread that S-class hunters were here.
People kept showing up just to catch a glimpse of them, so of course the police would have gotten on edge.
That was why Han Jin-hwan had come to Seoul World Cup Stadium in advance and set up a barrier.
This would be where the S-class hunters stayed for a while.
So what was the barrier for, if not to protect something?
It was to keep unwanted people out.
“I get it, too.”
“Doesn’t mean I like it,” Hong Su-jeong said.
Jae-i and Hong Su-jeong each grumbled a little.
Then, with displeased looks, they glanced at the police officers.
Unlike the women, the officers were grinning from ear to ear.
Right now, they were getting autographs in their black police notebooks.
“Hoo…”
They say you can’t spit at a smiling face.
Jae-i let out a long sigh and turned away from them.
Then she pulled a magic pouch from the tool bag at her waist.
Inside that pouch was surely the shield she’d made for Taecheon.
Holding the pouch, she asked, “Do you want to take it like this, or do you want to see the real thing first?”
“Obviously I need to see the real thing first.”
“Thought so.”
Rustle.
Jae-i loosened the pouch’s drawstring.
Then she reached in and pulled out the item inside.
“Oh…”
The admiration escaped me before I could stop it.
The shield that came out of that magic pouch, no bigger than a fist, was enormous.
It looked like it could easily hide three grown men.
With Jae-i holding it up, her body was completely concealed, leaving only her face floating there as if detached from the rest of her.
The shield itself looked like a round pinecone spread wide open, which made it seem a bit like a tortoise shell, too.
Anyone who didn’t know better might assume it had been made from the shell of a Gwisusan.
This was probably…
“Did you two do that on purpose—”
“Shh.”
Jae-i, her face the only thing visible behind the shield, pressed a finger to her lips.
Hong Su-jeong giggled softly, too.
Just as I thought.
The two of them had definitely made it to resemble a Gwisusan shell on purpose.
The pinecones had become something of a tourist attraction while I was hospitalized, and plenty of people had gotten a close look at them.
If they’d made the shield while preserving the pinecone’s appearance exactly as it was…
it would have become a nightmare.
The government and the Association would have come knocking, asking where she’d found the pinecone.
“Thanks.”
“You’re thanking me a little early.”
“What?”
She pointed at the side of the shield with a tap of her index finger.
Hanging from it was a stiff laminated sheet of paper.
What was that paper for?
“Ah…”
It was a quality guarantee certificate.
“If you really want to thank me, you should check the performance first.”
“Fair enough.”
Design was one thing, but performance came first.
Products with pretty designs and no performance were nothing but empty shells.
[Quality Guarantee Certificate]
[This certificate guarantees that the product is a genuine J.Y. item.]
[Product Name - Mendax Testudo, shortened to Mente]
[Product Grade - S-class]
“Huh…?”
What was this?
Was I seeing things?
I rubbed my eyes and read the certificate again.
[Product Grade - S-class]
“…….”
I’d read it right.
Even on the second reading, the grade field still said S.
S-class….
As far as I knew, there had never been a case of S-class armor being made in Korea.
Weapons were produced from time to time, perhaps because the number of requests was higher.
Arca had been an S-class weapon, too.
But armor was a first.
That meant the Mendax Testudo Jae-i was holding was the first S-class shield ever produced in Korea.
As expected of a pinecone from the former World Tree…
[The sapling World Tree says it wants to make pinecones of its own someday.]
A pinecone from little Saessak?
Now that was something to look forward to.
[The little tree says the caretaker can look forward to it.]
“Seeing how surprised you are, I guess I’m glad I listened to Su-jeong after all,” Jae-i said.
“Hehe.”
Hong Su-jeong held up two fingers.
Pride radiated off her.
She was probably the one who’d suggested writing the grade on it.
No, the whole idea of giving it a quality guarantee certificate probably came from her.
Jae-i had been the type to roughly scribble her name and the performance on a note when she made Arca and the Eye of Shadow before.
She wasn’t the sort to come up with a thoughtful idea like this.
“The grade is only the beginning.”
“That’s right. Hurry up and keep reading!”
Could the beginning really be S-class…?
That thought rose in me, then ebbed away.
In its place, anticipation swelled.
Looking at the confident faces of Jae-i and Hong Su-jeong, it really did seem possible.
I went on reading the product description.
[Product Description - Crafted from the former World Tree pinecone (A-class)]
[Defense: S-class]
[Durability: S-class]
[Can purify surrounding miasma]
[Resists mana pressure within a certain range]
[Can absorb and store the energy of attacks it blocks]
[Energy storage capacity: 10 million]
[Can use A-class Healing with absorbed energy]
[Can use A-class Magic Missile with absorbed energy]
[Note - This shield evaluates the qualifications of its wearer]
[AS period: for life from the date of purchase.]
“W-What is this….”
What on earth were these monster-like specs?
It purified the miasma around it just by existing, and it resisted mana pressure?
So that meant…
it was basically like carrying around the mobile mana generator Ildae Guild had used on their expedition.
I had no idea how wide the range was, though.
The next part of the certificate was even more absurd.
[Can absorb and store the energy of attacks it blocks]
[Energy storage capacity: 10 million]
[Can use A-class Healing with absorbed energy]
[Can use A-class Magic Missile with absorbed energy]
It could absorb attack energy and use that to cast skills.
The storage capacity of ten million was astonishing enough, but the skills it could use were what really caught my attention.
A-class Healing.
With just this one ability, Taecheon could practically switch careers and become a healer.
At the very least, he’d be a B-class healer.
A knight who could heal…
If this were a game, Taecheon would have effectively changed class into a paladin after obtaining Mente.
But what was this Magic Missile supposed to be…?
Magic Missile was an F-class spell, a non-attribute energy projectile.
It was also the basic spell Do-hee used whenever she was scolding Taecheon and me.
I had never even heard of an A-class Magic Missile.
Well, skills did vary wildly in performance depending on their grade, so I figured it had to be good somehow.
Just like the same weaving skill could be very different at F-class and A-class.
An A-class weaving skill could probably spin thread out of gold.
“…….”
Even so, it still seemed like Magic Missile to me…
Well, I could always have Taecheon test it later.
Still…
“What do you mean it evaluates the wearer’s qualifications?”
“Oh, that. It’s the same as Arca.”
“Like Arca?”
“Yeah.”
“Then….”
Kim Mu-yeon had been completely unable to lift Arca.
Taecheon had managed to lift it, but he’d complained about its weight and said, “I’d rather just carry a Gwisusan around.”
So the weight must have felt different depending on the wearer.
This shield was probably the same.
“Su-jeong and those two couldn’t lift it, either.”
Jae-i pointed to the side with her thumb.
Kim Ji-yeon and Sim Yun-jin.
They were looking our way.
The police officers they’d been talking to were also completely distracted by the shield in Jae-i’s hands.
Probably because it looked like it had been made from a Gwisusan shell.
“But you can lift it easily?”
“I have no idea why…”
She tilted her head, as if genuinely puzzled over why she alone could carry it.
Hong Su-jeong might not have the right qualifications as a potion maker.
But Kim Ji-yeon and Sim Yun-jin were both A-class hunters.
Even if the two of them were an archer and a mage, respectively, they should have been able to handle the shield better than Jae-i could.
And yet Mente had chosen her.
Thinking about it, Arca had been the same way.
Was that some sort of blacksmith buff…?
Ah.
This wasn’t the time to be thinking about that.
I bowed my head to Jae-i and Hong Su-jeong.
“Thanks, Jae-i. Thanks, Su-jeong. Because of you two, I can give Taecheon a really good shield.”
“Mm… you don’t need to thank me that much. It was only possible because the materials were so good…”
“That’s right. Lift your head. If we’d used different materials, we couldn’t have made a shield with those specs.”
“Honestly, the materials did most of the work…”
“That’s embarrassing, but it really is the right way to put it.”
Jae-i scratched her cheek, and Hong Su-jeong waved her hands in protest.
Their saying the materials did most of the work felt, to me, like excessive modesty.
No matter how good the materials were, if the person handling them lacked skill, there was no way a shield this incredible would have been made.
Handling excellent materials properly was a skill in itself.
It wasn’t for nothing that hunters who thought highly of themselves would humble themselves before blacksmiths who did things their own way and ask them to make their equipment.
“Here.”
One of those blacksmiths held out the magic pouch containing the shield.
The pouch in my hand felt wonderfully soft.
Probably because it was made of high-grade fabric.
It almost felt like I was squeezing a slime…
“…Ah.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I had something I wanted to ask for an appraisal.”
“Ohhh! What is it!”
Hong Su-jeong’s face lit up instantly.
She hurried over to me and held out both hands as if telling me to take it out right away.
“Just a second. Let me organize things first.”
“Okay!”
Hong Su-jeong nodded, looking as though she’d wait as long as it took.
She looked exactly like a dog that had been told to wait.
Watching her, I tucked the magic pouch into my inventory.
Since the inventory could only hold one item per slot, Mente automatically came out of the pouch and settled into the adjacent slot.
Then I took out the sap.
“Sap.”
I muttered the word, and the sap popped into view.
Orange World Tree sap settled into my palm.
“I-It’s so cuteee…!”
Seeing the sap, Hong Su-jeong immediately started squealing as usual.