The next day.
Daehyun left the school and walked around outside.
On his back was a bag, and in his hand, a small note.
Instead of the school uniform he always wore, he was dressed in jeans and a black hoodie. That was because Kang Shinhyuk had forced him to wear his own clothes, saying that no one wore a school uniform when going out.
“It should be around here.”
After getting off the bus, Daehyun lightly looked around.
An old workshop located in a mountain valley.
There were few people walking around nearby, and even by bus, he had traveled for quite a long time.
According to the location Kang Shinhyuk had written down, he seemed to have gotten off at the right place.
“Brother, is there really a Gate around here?”
“……?”
At that moment, Daehyun turned his head at the sudden voice he heard.
“Shh! What if someone hears you? Do you know how much this information is worth?”
“……You know that if this one is a bust too, we will be starving for a while, right?”
“It is certain. He said there is definitely one if we just climb this mountain.”
“I will trust you and go for now, but can the two of us clear it?”
“Even if it is D-rank, we are only going to bring back the Magic Stone. Surely we will not die, right?”
Sure enough.
When he turned his head, two shabby-looking men holding worn-out weapons were walking along.
When he sensed the faint mana coming from them, they did not seem very strong.
‘Are they Superhumans?’
Seeing Superhumans outside the school felt somewhat novel.
It seemed there was a Gate somewhere nearby.
Leaving the men climbing the mountain behind, Daehyun turned the note in his hand over and back again.
On the front was the route to the workshop Kang Shinhyuk had found for him, and on the back were a few personal comments he had written.
I told you where it is for now, but the owner has an awful personality. Try to persuade him if possible, and if it does not work, call me. Understood, Daehyun?
“Hmm.”
A foul-tempered workshop owner living in a mountain valley.
In truth, personality did not matter to Daehyun at all.
‘If what he said is right, then his skill is excellent.’
What mattered was how much technical ability the owner of that old workshop possessed.
And how well he could carve “this thing” with that skill.
Daehyun put the note in his pocket, lightly patted his bag,
“Well, I will think about the money later.”
and opened the workshop door.
***
The inside of the workshop was cleaner than expected.
Unlike the exterior, which had looked as if it might collapse at any moment, the interior was surprisingly well organized, and weapons of fairly decent grade were lined up in the corners.
To put it simply, it was closer to a neighborhood weapon shop than the workshop of a master craftsman.
“…….”
Daehyun briefly looked around the entire workshop.
Whether the owner was absent or had gone out somewhere, there was no one to greet Daehyun, even though he was a customer.
“Is no one…….”
“There is. Do not shout noisily for no reason.”
Just as Daehyun was about to call for someone, an elderly man emerged from between the curtains ahead.
Perhaps because of his sharp eyes and protruding lips,
he was an old man to whom the phrase “nasty-looking” suited perfectly.
“I wondered who it was when I heard the voice, but you are just a fledgling. What have you come here for?”
“I came regarding an artifact.”
“……An artifact.”
The old man lightly looked Daehyun up and down, then seemed to notice something from his bag and face. He continued speaking bluntly.
“At a glance, you look like one of those so-called Superhuman school brats. Everything here is too expensive for a student to buy. Stop wasting time and leave.”
As he said that, the old man’s gaze was directly locked with Daehyun’s eyes.
Daehyun could see the distinctive annoyance in the old man’s eyes, as well as his disgust toward students.
Apparently, the man was fundamentally unsuited to accepting requests in the first place.
‘Saying his personality is awful was somewhat correct.’
His manner of speaking to a customer was no joke.
But had this not been an expected result from the beginning?
In the end, Daehyun decided that a light greeting was enough and immediately moved to the main point. He took off his bag and placed it on the old man’s workbench.
“I have no intention of buying anything. I came to commission a craft.”
“A commission? I refuse student commissions even more. Stop bothering me and get out.”
The old man shouted with a distorted face, but Daehyun opened the bag faster than that and held its contents out in front of him.
“I am not looking. It will be obvious even without seeing…….”
“With this.”
Suddenly, the old man’s gaze, which had been about to flare with anger, turned toward the object Daehyun was holding out.
“Please make a weapon with this.”
“A weapon?”
For an instant, the old man’s pupils dilated.
“…….”
A tooth of a size that could by no means be thought to belong to an ordinary animal.
He looked back and forth between Daehyun and the object Daehyun had brought several times.
“……Where did you get this?”
“Does the person accepting the commission need to know that much?”
Daehyun responded to the old man’s question with an expressionless face.
One met discourtesy with discourtesy.
There was no need to emphasize to this man that it was a gift he had received from the “Crimson Witch.”
Above all, was this not a situation where he did not even know whether the man would accept the commission?
“Please decide quickly.”
Daehyun could not afford to waste time in a place like this either.
If it worked, it worked. If it did not, it did not.
A single word telling him which it would be was enough.
“……You bring such excellent material and want me to make the same sort of rubbish again?”
The old man muttered.
“……There are plenty of swords and spears over there. Put this back in, and choose anything from those.”
The old man spoke sarcastically while pointing at the swords displayed on the wall.
He was trying to change the subject and quickly drive Daehyun out.
However.
Slide—.
“I do not need those.”
“……What did you say?”
“The reason I came to you is for a special custom order.”
Daehyun held out the tooth and met the old man’s eyes head-on.
Afterward, he clenched his fist toward the old man.
“Gauntlets. I need gauntlets that fit these hands perfectly.”
Even when Daehyun had been Bariel, the Fist King, and even after he returned to his original body, the reason he used only his fists was because to him, his fists were his strongest weapons.
‘This is my talent.’
It was a fact he had realized while fighting as the Fist King.
Swords or unnecessary blades only interfered with battle.
The thing that always produced the greatest efficiency when he fought was his own fists.
“Not ordinary ones. Gauntlets made using this.”
“……Gauntlets?”
Not a sword, not a spear, and not even something like a boomerang, but gauntlets.
“You prefer a reckless combat style. Are you someone’s disciple?”
“That is not for you to know.”
An arrogant brat.
A smile briefly appeared on the face of the old man, who had seemed solemn until just now, and he immediately opened his mouth.
“It will be difficult.”
“Is that so?”
As expected.
At the firm answer, Daehyun nodded and tried to take back the tooth, but the old man was placing his hand on it with interest.
No matter how one looked at it, these were not the words and actions of someone who had firmly refused the commission.
“To be precise…… I have never made one before.”
“You are not saying you cannot do it.”
“I mean exactly what I said. I have never made one before.”
Saying that, the old man lifted the tooth Daehyun had brought with considerable difficulty.
“It is heavy and hard.”
The tooth was quite heavy for its size, so the old man’s weak arms trembled.
“This thing is too good to make into a sword.”
But if it were gauntlets, it might suit them. They were weapons he had never made before, but for some reason, they felt fitting. That was what the old man thought.
“Hey, student.”
Thirty years as a blacksmith. Ten years crafting artifacts.
His senses were telling him so.
“A custom order, and a special custom order at that, is expensive.”
“That does not matter.”
“It is not an amount you can say does not matter about. It is not something a student can handle with pocket money.”
“If it is money, I can quickly…….”
It was at that moment.
Ding—!
[Newly Unlocked Quest: ……]
“…….”
When a quest window appeared before his eyes with perfect timing, Daehyun reached out as if drawn to it.
Then he looked at the newly appeared quest window, let out a small hum, and showed a faint smile on his face.
“Hmm.”
“What is it? Did something happen?”
The old man, sensing something strange, asked him again, but Daehyun lightly gestured toward him as if telling him not to mind it.
“The money does not matter.”
In effect, this had already solved the money problem.
“I am curious how long it will take.”
“Who do you think I am? At the latest, next month will be enough.”
Perhaps irritated by the tone that seemed to question his skill, the old man looked at Daehyun and smiled faintly.
“In that case, when can you prepare the money?”
It was the cost of a custom order, and a special custom order at that.
It was impossible for a mere student to prepare alone, and even if his parents were fairly well-off, it would be enough to burden them.
The old man’s price was by no means cheap.
“As for the money…….”
But instead of panicking, Daehyun carefully reread the quest window before his eyes and spoke to the old man.
“I will prepare it within a few hours.”
***
After entrusting the commission and leaving the workshop, Daehyun immediately opened the quest window.
[Quest]
[Gate Purification]
[Details: A problem has occurred at a nearby Gate. Stop it before the monsters come out of the Gate.]
[Completion Conditions: Close the Gate]
[Reward: +25 Stat Points. (Choose one from Strength, Agility, and Divine Power.)]
‘……A problem has occurred at a Gate.’
The Gate’s exact location and grade were not shown.
On top of that, it was a quest that had appeared out of nowhere.
However…….
‘A nearby Gate.’
For some reason, that single phrase seemed to tell him enough.
“He said there is definitely one if we just climb this mountain.”
“Even if it is D-rank, we are only going to bring back the Magic Stone. Surely we will not die, right?”
The two male Superhumans he had seen earlier.
There was a high chance that the problem had occurred at the Gate they had been heading toward.
‘I heard Magic Stones sell for quite a high price.’
That was likely why those fools had gone off to do something reckless while risking their lives.
In any case, this had worked out nicely.
It was not common for the school to permit going out,
and if he spent every day doing nothing but classes and training, he could not earn money.
“Shall I go for now?”
Tap, tap—!
Daehyun lightly loosened his body and kicked off the ground.
***
Daehyun’s feet came to a stop in front of a cave that suddenly appeared after he crossed about three mountains.
It looked roughly similar to the cave where the orc had lived during the virtual Gate exam, but no matter where he looked, he could not see a Gate.
‘Hmm.’
Something was strange.
Daehyun gathered Divine Power in his hand and brightly illuminated the inside of the cave.
Whoooosh—.
Then, as if it had been hiding inside the cave, a rift revealed itself.
‘I see.’
A Gate that had appeared inside a cave.
It was not a common case.
‘So that is why they were talking about information and its price.’
Few people passed through this area, and even fewer would look inside this cave.
It was the ideal place to monopolize the Magic Stones inside the Gate.
“U-uaaaaargh!”
“D-do not come! I said do not come!”
Of course, only if one had the skill to survive.
“Tsk.”
The fact that sounds from inside were leaking out meant that it would not be long before monsters came out of the Gate.
‘At this rate, it will be soon.’
It seemed to have been a Gate that had existed long before those two fools came here.
“D-rank, is it?”
The first Gate he had cleared had been E-rank.
Considering that it had been a virtual Gate, and that this time he would have to move alone again, he could not guarantee his safety.
“Not bad.”
Daehyun pulled up his hood and stepped into the Gate.