82 – The…Revival? (1)
*Kwak!* A sound like a rock falling on his head with the caption ‘Shock!’ above it, and the dwarf’s rich expression made Kim Hyun-woo bewildered.
‘Who is this?’
Kim Hyun-woo stared at the girl in front of him.
With passionate red hair and red eyes, the small dwarf expressed, with a rich expression, ‘I’m really shocked.’ Despite considering the dwarf’s natural short stature due to their race, she looked quite beautiful.
‘Was she one of my heroes?’
He quickly shook his head.
More precisely, ten years ago, Kim Hyun-woo had started researching the memories of the heroes who worked hard as blacksmiths in Lartania.
But the more he thought about it, the more Kim Hyun-woo fell into a labyrinth.
At least, as far as he knew, most blacksmiths with a rank of around 4-stars in the territory of Lartania, which he operated, were mostly men and human.
Even if he assumed that the blacksmiths had grown in the past ten years, there were no blacksmiths at the level of 2 or 3 stars.
If he could directly choose and put in heroes, there would have been many female blacksmiths. But strangely, Arteil had to use randomly entered heroes just like blacksmiths.
So, as Kim Hyun-woo earnestly turned his head to research, now, looking at the tearful dwarf, he began to read her expression.
“You forgot?! Me?! River!?”
“Huh?”
In response to the dwarf’s following words, he asked, puzzled.
“…River?”
“Yeah! River!”
“…A 1-star hero, but a blacksmith who didn’t master blacksmithing skills, only focused on research – that Renade River?”
“Yeah, that’s right! Even though I don’t know what a 1-star hero is, I always got a lot of advice from Renade to create amazing things with my comrades! Now I remember!?”
With an extremely hopeful expression, her words left Kim Hyun-woo involuntarily gaping.
And it was understandable. Upon coming this far, Kim Hyun-woo had identified who the blacksmith in front of him was.
‘…The blacksmith who brought me despair… is that it?’
Ten years ago, enjoying Arteil, Kim Hyun-woo always wanted a dwarf blacksmith, but he couldn’t obtain one until the late stages of the game. The reason was simple – within Arteil, players couldn’t arbitrarily choose and place blacksmith hero units.
Of course, there was a method to repeatedly break down the forge and rebuild it, hoping for a different hero to appear each time, but Kim Hyun-woo didn’t bother doing that.
No, he couldn’t.
By the time Kim Hyun-woo learned that blacksmiths entered randomly, the forge level was already over 4. Breaking it down and rebuilding it from scratch wasn’t feasible, considering the tears he shed just thinking about it from the perspective of someone earnestly enjoying the game.
So, he diligently raised the blacksmiths he had and expanded the Larthania Territory considerably.
When the forge reached level 10, among the heroes that entered, one was right before him – the dwarf, Renade River.
For Kim Hyun-woo, Renade River was a ray of hope that fell into the forge.
Strangely, due to heavy racial discrimination in Arteil towards support heroes, unless it was a dwarf, the possibility of a blacksmith reaching 5 stars – the signature tier in the game – significantly diminished.
Anyway, receiving Kim Hyun-woo’s expectations, Renade River (1-star) appeared in the forge, and he treated her exceptionally well.
With utmost sincerity during meals.
With utmost sincerity during conversations.
With utmost sincerity while raising affection levels.
And even with utmost sincerity during nonsense talk…!!
He showered her with all sorts of utmost sincerity.
Kim Hyun-woo wanted to give the heroes the so-called world-class items that other rankers already had one or two of.
Unfortunately, Renegade River began to grow in a strange way, contrary to Kim Hyun-woo’s expectations and care for her.
“Why isn’t she learning blacksmithing suddenly and doing something strange?”
Kim Hyun-woo wanted Renegade River to learn blacksmithing.
Her talent was good enough to be called a dwarf, if not better.
However, strangely enough, the talent she developed in earnest was not related to blacksmithing, but rather the talent of an inventor, who had some talent but not as much as the engineers in magic engineering.
Of course, Kim Hyun-woo tried to persuade her in various ways, but every time, she started to develop her talent in inventing, rather than the future military technology that Kim Hyun-woo brought up during their conversations.
In the end, he gave up on raising the star of the dwarf at some point.
But.
“…Are you Renegade River?”
“Now you recognize me?”
Seeing the blacksmith laughing confidently right in front of him, Kim Hyun-woo could only open his mouth in surprise.
####
“Therefore, the current Guildmaster of the Blacksmith Guild is me!”
How’s that? I’m amazing! Kim Hyun-woo said with a proud expression, extending his chest forward quite differently from the swift delivery dwarf.
“That’s impressive.”
“Right!?”
“Then, will a branch of the Blacksmith Guild be established in Lartania?”
“Correct! And I’ll be in charge of the branch!”
“You? Weren’t you the Guildmaster?”
“Even if you’re a guild leader, it’s not that important where you work! Besides, you have to keep the promise with your sworn friend! Didn’t I promise? I said I would reproduce the technique you mentioned!”
As she spoke, Kim Hyunwoo recalled the words he had said to her when she was diligently raising her talent for invention.
[Wait and see, my friend! I’ll reproduce the technique you mentioned!!]
“Oh, that.”
Kim Hyunwoo mentioned the message that had floated up in a small dialogue balloon.
Of course, reproducing modern technology within Arteil, whether in a game context or at the level of the era, was absurd. He chuckled momentarily, remembering the time he had despaired, thinking, ‘My only dwarf in the world!!!’
Kim Hyunwoo glanced curiously and asked, “Still, you’ve become an amazing blacksmith, right?”
“Of course! Being the guild leader of the blacksmith guild means being almost top-tier in terms of skill!”
Nodding proudly as if she herself was impressive! Kim Hyunwoo felt a strange irritation creeping up.
No wonder, considering that ten years ago, she hadn’t even thought of improving her blacksmith talents even if he begged her to. Now, she was comfortably a 4-star hero.
“It would have been really nice if you had diligently developed your blacksmith talent ten years ago…”
Kim Hyunwoo expressed regret with a sad expression, and River responded to the story.
“Well, the blacksmith could have been done anytime, so at that time, I was more interested in the technique that Myungwoo talked about. And in the end, it turned out to be a good thing, right?”
“Why?”
“Because if I worked hard as a blacksmith and got recognition from the world, Myungwoo would have given me a weird nickname. It’s a good thing for me.”
River spoke with a confident voice.
“…Huh? No, even if I wasn’t good at making nicknames at that time, it wasn’t that bad, was it?”
Kim Hyunwoo said with an expression that suggested disbelief.
“Myungwoo, you surely know, right? The heroes who worked at the blacksmithy back then cried because of the nickname you gave them?”
“Cried? What are you talking about? I remember that my efficiency actually went above the baseline for a certain period when I was given the nickname ‘Deaf.'”
“Because you were pissed off?”
“…Really?”
“Really.”
For a moment, Kim Hyunwoo unconsciously made a puzzled expression as he realized the truth of the improvement in the blacksmithing skills he didn’t know about ten years ago.
Returning to the main point, Kim Hyunwoo talked about what Reaver wanted.
“So, you’re asking for land for a blacksmith branch… something like that?”
“Yeah, but it’s not like I’m asking for it for free! More precisely, I want you to make it possible for me to operate in the blacksmith guild’s branch in Larvantea territory!”
“…In the blacksmith guild’s branch in Larvantea?”
“Yeah, first, the guild leader of the blacksmith guild becomes the guild leader first, and after that, they can’t step down for three years. That’s the tradition.”
Reaver, talking as if it were troublesome, laughed and continued.
“But if my friend provides the land for a guild branch?”
“As a price, can I work legally in Larvantea?”
“Exactly! Even though I’m the guild leader of the blacksmith guild, I can’t do everything I want on my own. What do you think? Now that my friend is back, I want to work under my friend…!”
Kim Hyunwoo nodded without much hesitation at Reaver’s talk, glancing up.
The proposal she made wasn’t something Kim Hyunwoo would refuse; rather, it was a story he could thank her for, even if he shouted out loud.
“Really!? Wow! Thanks!!”
With a bright smile, Reaver said, and shortly after finishing a somewhat detailed conversation.
“Then, see you next time! It might take some time because I have to gather materials and do various things, but it won’t take more than a week!”
“Yeah. See you then.”
Kim Hyun-woo, showing a bright smile, stepped out of the office and closed the door. River let out a deep sigh.
“Ah…”
And then.
“It’s a success…! I can return to Maeng-woo…!”
Her face, which had turned red up to her ears, was now filled with a flush as she made a small fighting pose with both hands and smiled.
“…”
Unbeknownst to her, the hero known as Seollyeong had been secretly watching her.
####
Just a moment ago, Merilda was in a very good mood.
The reason being that she had found out that by catching notorious criminals right away, she could return to her master as soon as possible.
In addition, as she caught the criminals as they came, Merilda’s infamous reputation had decreased, and she could check it in real-time through an artifact that changed color according to her reputation.
The fact that the red color, still as red as blood, became lighter even by the smallest degree each day made her feel even happier, as it seemed like the path back to her master was opening up quickly.
That’s why Merilda was in a good mood when she had just discovered a slave trader and was about to save the slaves and crush the trader’s skull.
But.
“…”
Merilda looked at the skull of the slave trader that had just exploded in front of her.
Looking at the ledger right away, she saw that the number of humans sold was a whopping 1,000, and when combined with various demi-humans and elves, it exceeded 3,000, making him the scum of scums with a significantly reduced reputation.
But his skull, which was supposed to lower his infamous reputation, had exploded.
Just as Merilda’s hand was about to touch it, it was pierced by a flying sword.
“…”
Merilda turned her gaze towards the direction the sword had come from.
There was an absolute ruler of darkness.
A woman who had a wicked smile on her face.
And.
“Well, not bad.”
“What are you up to?”
From Noble mtl dot com
“I didn’t pick a fight, unlike some dog who recklessly steals other people’s belongings. I just took something that didn’t have an owner.”
In response to the words of the absolute ruler of darkness.
“Let’s try it once, shall we?”
Merilda replied.
“Go ahead and try. Let’s see if you can kill more villains.”
With the unmistakable presence of the absolute ruler of darkness dispersing magic, the two divine beings disappeared simultaneously.