Chapter 119. Who Are You? (1)
-Vanda!
Yerinah declared powerfully.
A neat, simple, and beautiful veil flew in.
The video was cut off right away.
At the same time, I felt that the blood pact that was connected to me was also broken.
“······Connection. It’s, broken.”
“It’s really absurd power······.”
I found the core of the formation, dug it out, and neutralized it.
The formation whose core was destroyed collapsed and could no longer function.
That’s why it’s common to hide the core to prevent the formation from being destroyed.
However, since the opponent was Yerinah, who could hardly feel magic, I didn’t think she would ever see the core of the formation, so I didn’t hide it separately.
I never imagined that Yerinah would find the core and destroy it.
‘Is that the power of Beast Mode?’
Until now, I had only seen Yerinah’s Beast Mode, which was possessed by anger and scattered magic and power everywhere.
However, it seems that if you focus on one target, you can also gain a level of vision that you could not normally see.
Of course, as a reaction, you won’t be able to use your eyes for a while, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s an incredible ability.
‘If you learn the Vast Heart Method, it will become even stronger?’
The Vast Heart Method that I passed on to Yerinah through Alicia.
If you practice and master it, Beast Mode will not disappear, but rather become easier to control.
In other words, Yerinah will become stronger here······.
Suddenly, I get chills.
I wonder why I gave it to her for nothing.
‘It was something I had to do someday.’
Still, I have no regrets.
There was no other way to restore Alicia’s safety and suppress Yerinah’s madness.
In the middle, there was a misunderstanding that I was caught by an evil sorcerer and exploited······.
Alicia will explain it well.
If not, you’ll be trapped in an ice cave.
From now on, I have to trust Alicia and leave it to her.
“I won’t be able to see Alicia for a while.”
“······Okay, that’s fine.”
It’s my sister’s trust that I’ve just regained, so I don’t want to break it again.
I think it’s safe to say that this is the end of my relationship with Alicia.
Surely, when I go to the Clockwork City later, Alicia won’t be kicked out again and cry and sit down, right?
Oh, come on.
“Let’s go back after destroying the nearby Black Star Dungeon. The energy here is suffocating.”
“······Yeah. I’m hungry.”
“Suck blood?”
“······Yeah.”
I stayed in the north for quite a while.
If I stay any longer, I think I’ll get caught in Yerinah’s radar, so I should hurry down and see.
I put the scabbard on my neck and carried Mijeong and walked out of the mountain.
“Is it time to change the sword?”
As I walked around the market, I saw well-sharpened swords on display.
My sword is not good enough to be called a bluff, but it is definitely a sturdy sword.
However, I used it so roughly that I had to sharpen the blade so often that the blade became visibly thinner.
It’s time to sharpen the sword.
Then why don’t you just buy it? Why are you worried?
It’s because of the various swordsmanship I’ve learned.
This sword is now a strange sword that is neither a two-handed sword nor a one-handed sword.
It was made by my custom order, and it is a sword that can be used without difficulty in Dakia, Merida, and Frost.
So, in order to implement all three swordsmanship with one sword, you need to make a custom order.
This also takes too long.
It’s a huge loss to have to stay in one place for a long time when you have to move around the area quickly.
If I buy any sword and use it, I have to buy and equip 3 swords for each swordsmanship.
It would be very awkward.
“It’s a headache.”None of the choices are appealing.
But since this old sword has held up well so far, I might as well abuse it a little more.
I caressed the sword disguised as an umbrella and walked through the market.
***
Clang, clang!
The spacious workshop echoed with noise.
Nimble hands handling tools.
Eyes full of confidence.
Tey, a girl with copper-colored skin who had been moving her hands without hesitation, pushed up her goggles.
“Whew! I’m done!”
Clank!
The magic stone attached to the tongs was placed in a cold water tank.
The heated surface cooled down, and the original color and light of the magic stone shone through the water’s surface.
Tey, who had been watching it contentedly for a while, picked up the magic stone again, carefully wiped off the moisture, wrapped it in a luxurious cloth, and put it in a wooden box.
This made it the 10th wooden box piled up in the corner of the workshop.
While other top craftsmen painstakingly processed one or two top-grade magic stones a year, Tey was processing magic stones of a quality that no one in the world could match at an astonishing speed, as if she were stamping them out in a factory.
‘If I think about it, it doesn’t seem much different from when I was handling low-grade magic stones?’
I wake up, spend all day cutting magic stones, fall asleep exhausted, wake up again, and process them again.
It was like a machine.
Lately, this routine had been going on and on.
Of course, it wasn’t boring.
Well, every time I made a mistake, money came and went in units of a million gold, so it was bound to be thrilling.
But apart from that.
Tey felt like she was in a slump lately.
When she first started touching top-grade magic stones, her skills improved by leaps and bounds every day.
In particular, after processing the black magic stone that Eugene had brought, rumors spread that her skills had evolved to another level.
But that was the extent of her skill improvement.
Since then, she had been stuck in a rut until today.
She received new magic stones every day and processed them in new ways, but somehow the difficulty level was always the same, so her skills never improved.
-I need a black magic stone······.-
She had to process a black magic stone.
That desire was growing stronger and stronger by the day.
To the point where she couldn’t control it.
-Tey-nim. Interview request. In the VIP waiting room······
“Is it an investor?!”
-Yes. That’s right.
“Yay! Tell them to wait a little bit!”
With a cheer, Tey threw down all the tools she was holding.
An investor has arrived!
As soon as she heard those words, her fatigue seemed to vanish and her body felt lighter.
Tey was about to throw herself into the elevator, but then she stopped.
“Oh. Is it too dirty······.”
She turned back, wiped the soot off her face.
She tidied up her disheveled hair.
Of course, there was no way her hair, which hadn’t been washed in over a week, would be tidy, so she had to wash it properly.
“Well, let me just get dressed?”
After washing her hair and body, she noticed her work clothes.
Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be polite to go in such dirty clothes.
She tried to look for something else to wear, but as the name implied, there was nothing but pajamas and work clothes in the workshop where she only slept.
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In the end, Tey had no choice but to change into a new set of work clothes with a sullen face.
As she kept looking in the mirror, her untrimmed nails, her messy eyebrows, her unruly bangs, everything seemed to bother her, so Tey had to quickly look away from the mirror.
She didn’t have time to do all that.
She had already kept the investor waiting for a long time······.
“Ugh. My eyes feel heavy.”
Suddenly, her head throbbed and Tey’s body swayed.
This often happened after long hours of work.
Tey, as if it were nothing, popped a fatigue reliever into her mouth and got on the elevator.”Ehehehe! I’m so excited!”
-Excited? Black stone, can you see it?-
“Yes! Maybe!”
I’m excited.
While the elevator was going down, the operating sound was ringing.
Tae couldn’t keep her feet still for a moment and just rolled around.
And finally, with a ding, the elevator stopped.
The moment the door opened, Tae let out the excitement she had been holding back and ran straight ahead.
“Investor! Haa!”
“······Where. Dirty, with clothes.”
“It’s not dirty! I washed it clean and changed into new clothes! So get out of the way! Ugh! The little one is so strong!”
“······Where. Sniff. It’s real.”
However, the one who greeted Tae at the door was the girl vampire, Mijeong.
Tae was held by Mijeong and struggled for a long time before she could barely get out.
Tae’s eyes, which had been breathing hard because she had used her strength in an unexpected place, turned to the sofa.
And the moment she found Eugene, Tae couldn’t hold back her laughter and ran to him.
“Investor! I missed you!”
“······Like a dog.”
“What?!”
If Tae had been a dog, she would have been wagging her tail endlessly by now.
Mijeong thought so as she watched Tae, who was hugging Eugene and making a happy expression.
“You’ve grown a lot.”
“Really? Me?”
“Yes. When I used to hold you before, you were similar in size to Mijeong, so it felt light. Now, when I hold you, you hit my chest hard and it’s hard to breathe. It’s a different dimension.”
“hehehehe!”
Tae burst into laughter at Eugene’s honest impression.
There was only one meaning to the fact that a dwarf who had been stagnant in growth had grown.
It meant that her skills and achievements in her work had definitely increased.
Therefore, for a dwarf, growing up a lot is the same as being praised for increasing her skills.
The person who saved me from hell and made me the best craftsman.
The person who recognized me early and believed in me.
There was nothing more precious than the praise of such a person.
“Now that you’re bigger, how about you get off me?”
“Yes? Why?”
“Hmm. Because it’s embarrassing?”
“Are you embarrassed? Why? No one’s watching?”
“······I’m. Not a person. Speech?”
“You’re not really. This little vampire.”
“······I’m mad.”
“What are you going to do if you’re mad? This is my building? Do you want to be kicked out?”
“Hey, hey. Stop fighting.”
Eugene looked down at Tae, who was hugging her waist even harder without paying attention, and felt a headache.
In the past, this level of skinship didn’t matter.
It was an age difference that anyone would see as a young nephew and uncle.
However, it was not easy to act the same way after such a stormy growth.
I wish I had grown into a fully adult form, but that’s not the case either.
She looked like she was in an ambiguous and awkward age in many ways, so it seemed like she would be put in an iron collar if she showed up outside like this.
“Don’t worry. I’m aware of it, so I’ll take special care of you outside.”
“Th, that’s. Thank you. And this is the magic stone I brought today.”
“Where, where can I see it!”
Only after Eugene took the sack out of her bag did the arms wrapped around her waist loosen.
The innocent and playful dwarf girl was gone.
What remained next to Eugene was a serious and passionate craftsman.
The inside of the box was filled with colorful raw stones.
It was only a moment before she looked at each one with joy.
Tae’s face gradually began to fill with anxiety.
“Are they all the best magic stones?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t bring you anything less than the best.”
“What about the black stone? Is there a black stone?”
“No. That’s not there.””Why? Why? Why don’t you bring me the black stone these days? Are you giving it to another craftsman? Is it because I failed twice and became ugly······?”
“Tay.”
Tay’s pupils shook.
His hands trembled, and his breath became shallow.
He could barely speak coherently.
He looked as if he was possessed by something.
‘I need the black stone! I need the black stone! I need the black stone!!!’
Tay had no time to think about anything else now.
He had to get his hands on the black stone.
That was all he could think about.
He had to get the black stone in his hands by any means necessary, as the voice in his head told him to do. He had to extract a large amount of magic from the black stone and use it to heal the body of the great one.
“Please bring me the black stone! To improve my skills······ No, no. I don’t care about that anymore! Just give me the black stone! If I just have that, I don’t care about anything else. Hurry up and give me the black stone! I just need to hold it in my hands once! Hurry up! Quickly!!!”
“You······.”
Tay’s speech gradually became faster.
Eugene was only briefly taken aback by this.
Eugene’s expression became quite serious as he carefully observed Tay’s bloodshot eyes, trembling body, and unusual speech.
“Who are you?”
“What?”
This is not Tay.
Eugene came to that conclusion.