Chapter 44 – Questions (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Hoakin Academy.

A seven-hundred-year-old tradition and the signboard of being the finest prestigious institution in the world.

Since it was a place where the children of world-class nobles gathered, all of its attached facilities were likewise of the highest level in the industry.

One major advantage was that the cadets, with their exceptional sense for spending money, opened their wallets easily no matter what prices were like.

Maybe because of that, whether it was the campus mart, the gym, the cafe, or the cafeteria, they could barely manage to move in only after passing strict screening and rigorous inspections. The same went for the smithy attached to Hoakin Academy.

Byullant, a blacksmith from Norway, had already been established here for fifteen years.

Among academy cadets, there was even talk that every cadet entrusted their weapon to Byullant at least once during their time at the academy. Countless weapons had passed through his hands.

He was somewhat worldly by nature, but Byullant’s skill alone was at the very top of the field, so even the most demanding customers were satisfied with the weapons he handled.

But then an unpleasant mark was placed on what had seemed like a smooth blacksmithing career.

About two weeks ago, a boy came to Byullant’s forge carrying a long single-edged sword.

A first-year cadet with rare black eyes and black hair. For some reason, the tips of his hair had gone gray. Judging by the black color of his name tag, he was from the special advancement track.

To Byullant, who was not from a heroic lineage, a cadet’s pedigree was not all that important in the first place.

If someone was a customer who would stuff his pockets nicely, he was the sort who could happily hammer away at a mere brat’s weapon while humming to himself.

Anyway, wearing his usual business smile, Byullant was tending to him when the black-haired special advancement cadet came and requested refinement and strengthening of his weapon.

At a glance, he looked short on money, and his weapon was a strangely made single-edged sword. If the hammer was mishandled, there was a high chance it would snap with just a puff. But Byullant accepted the job without a second thought.

The reason was naturally the payment. The boy had said he would hand over the remaining lump of metal left after trimming down a B-rank weapon, so how could he possibly refuse? Even just by auction-market standards, it would pull in at least thirty to forty million won.

So, licking away the greed welling up inside him, Byullant smiled broadly and fanned the forge fire to life. Byullant, who was called one of the best in the business, had confidence in his own skills beyond even self-belief. It was the pride of a blacksmith.

B-rank was certainly still a high-tier weapon, but the weapons Byullant usually handled ranged from A-rank all the way to treasure-class S-rank weapons.

He had nothing to lose. Besides, Byullant did not do business that was not profitable.

Even if he somehow botched the job, he was confident he could smooth things over with some brat whose peach fuzz had barely even grown in. That was the confidence of a businessman.

But that confidence had lasted only until a week ago. As for the current him….

“Mister, strengthen this for me.”

“……”

That black-haired male student had come carrying an entire bundle of materials. Byullant found the brazen boldness of his attitude almost absurd.

According to him, his name was Kang Geom-ma.

‘How can that be a person’s name….’

Letting out a small laugh, Byullant untied the bundle Kang Geom-ma had brought. Buffalo horns spilled out in a heap. There were at least twenty of them.

“Did you hunt all these yourself?”

“Not alone. I did it with my party members.”

Among the materials, one horn in particular gleamed with unusual allure. For a derived material from the same C-rank buffalo monster, it was anything but ordinary.

From a blacksmith’s eye, it looked to be at least from a B-rank, no, maybe even an A-rank monster. Its origin was unclear, but in this line of work, the unspoken rule was not to ask.

Byullant glanced back and forth between the conspicuous horn and Kang Geom-ma.

Kang Geom-ma was smacking his lips, tired. Irritated by the brat’s insolent attitude, Byullant clicked his tongue inwardly.

He wanted to punch him and throw him out of the sacred forge, but instead he only let out a deep sigh and lamented his own lot in life.

Then Kang Geom-ma took out Murasame, which he had tucked into his pocket, and held it out.

“And the weapon. It ended up like this, but since you’re strengthening it anyway, you can repair it too, right?”

The moment Byullant received Murasame, anger flared in his eyes. The blade that had once held a sheen was now crisscrossed with cracks, and the finest paulownia scabbard had been charred black like burnt charcoal.

The sword that Byullant had refined with all his effort had been reduced to complete rags.

The thick vein at Byullant’s temple, which had endured Kang Geom-ma’s insolent attitude until then, bulged violently.

“You brat! Just what the hell did you do to turn a weapon into this kind of state?!”

His already red face flushed even more, like a bomb on the verge of exploding.

“I was fighting monsters and it just sort of happened.”

Kang Geom-ma answered shortly, cutting off the ending as if he could not be bothered.

Byullant started to add something, then barely swallowed it back down with his spit. He felt a lump in his throat like a rough fishbone had gotten stuck there.

“……”

Looking into the sunken eyes of the boy, he remembered the grin he had worn while holding the blade a week ago. He rubbed at his brown forearm, where goosebumps had risen at the oppressive killing intent.

Byullant forced the muscles of his face with superhuman willpower and shaped them into a bright business smile.

“…You should’ve handled it more carefully. What if you’d gotten hurt yourself?”

“Maybe because it’s E-rank, the durability’s weak. There’s also A-rank monster material in there, so I trust you’ll handle it well. Later.”

Saying that, Kang Geom-ma turned his back and waved lazily in farewell.

‘That rude little brat. Satan himself would stand up and applaud that one.’

Byullant mouthed a string of curses silently at the back of his head.

At that very moment, Kang Geom-ma suddenly turned around. Their eyes met.

“Ah, right. And.”

At that sudden reaction, Byullant swallowed hard. Whether because of the dry heat of the forge or not, his lips were drying out completely.

The life-insurance money that left him without affection at the end of every month flashed across Byullant’s mind. An uncomfortable silence flowed briefly, and then Kang Geom-ma gave a short sneer and opened his mouth.

“Use the leftover materials from the strengthening as a little extra for drinks or something. Anyway, I’m really leaving now.”

After yawning widely enough to tear his mouth open, Kang Geom-ma closed the heavy forge door and left. Byullant stared blankly at the place where Kang Geom-ma had passed.

Then Byullant shook his head side to side and picked up his hammer.

Clang. Clang.

The rough sound of metal being struck spread even beyond the forge door. It was the ringing of steel where joy and sorrow crossed.

* * *

Two days after clearing Buffalo Dungeon.

The day after we came back from Cheorwon, I handed Murasame over to the blacksmith. He frowned, apparently displeased, but what could he ? A man had to clean up the mess he himself made.

In the first place, both that man and I would’ve had it easier if he hadn’t messed up the weapon to begin with.

Still, since we would be seeing each other often from here on, I did not want to leave unnecessary resentment behind, so I also gave him a little extra.

The remaining buffalo horns were not especially useful to me anyway. It was not like they were hunting trophies to hang on the wall at home.

Buffalo horns were C-rank derived materials, so they were only really used when ranking up from E-rank to D-rank.

There was still a chance strengthening could fail, but the Cow King material should greatly reduce that failure rate.

Surely it wouldn’t fail after I even handed over A-rank material, right? If it did, I really was going to take his wrist.

Before morning homeroom began, I finished sorting out my thoughts and opened the status window with the green chalkboard as my backdrop.

== ==

[Blessing of the Sword God]

If you cut, it would be severed.

◎ Flesh Rank: (8▶9) ▷ The permitted sword specifications were relaxed.

◎ Spirit Rank: (4▶5) ▷ Your words and actions gain pressure.

◎ Weapon Rank: 3 ▷ When the blessing manifests, the pain was reduced by (1) level.

☆ Synchronization Rate: 9.3% ▶ 12.7% ▷ One line of the 【???】 Line could be read.

→[Upon reaching a Synchronization Rate of 15%, the next unlock condition will be met.]

★【???】

[※ The blessing only activates when the sword is no longer than (38+1) centimeters and narrower than (9+1) centimeters.]

== ==

The most immediately noticeable change was, first of all, the synchronization rate that had climbed in no time.

Unlike the other values, which had stagnated at some point, this one jumped upward every time I went through an incident.

The Flesh and Spirit ranks mentioned above had risen as well. The problem was simply that their increase was so pitiful compared to the beginning.

Still, they were not completely useless stats. I could feel that a sturdy body and healthy spirit had taken root.

And when those values rose a little more, there was always the possibility that unlock conditions might appear step by step.

At the current point, the most urgent thing was still the Weapon Rank. But there was no need to rush.

The reason I was looking at the Blessing of the Sword God in such depth was not simply for the sake of getting stronger, but because of a more fundamental issue.

I had never expected to figure it out quickly in the first place. I shook off the stray thoughts and lowered my head a little.

‘Upon reaching a Synchronization Rate of 15%, the next unlock condition will be met.’

By contrast, the synchronization rate would probably meet the unlock condition as soon as I cleared just one more dungeon.

Would it add something other than simply showing one more line? If it did, that would be absurdly overpowered.

No, honestly, even right now, as someone who had played Miracle’s Blessing M, the subtlety of the synchronization rate was already ridiculous enough to leave me speechless.

Besides, instead of slowing down, its upward trend was accelerating, as if trying to stab through the ceiling of the graph.

‘A stat that keeps drawing a steady upward curve….’

Compared with the three ranks written above, each of which clearly gave a target value, the synchronization rate seemed to have no particular consumption value. Was that really only a good thing?

Nothing in this world came for free. An immutable law that, if you were Korean, your parents etched into your mind before even the grinding of your teeth was finished.

The fact that its numbers were especially irregular also felt meaningful. Even if I calculated the average of the three ranks on my own, I could not reach a conclusion.

There was definitely something there.

“Touching my chin, I carefully retraced what had changed so far.”

The starting point of the rise in synchronization rate was the practice duel with Chloe. Taking that time as the branch point, the physical change was that gray hairs had started growing at the ended of my hair.

At first those gray streaks had been about two centimeters long, but now they had grown to around five centimeters. I had thought about dyeing them, but since they did not really bother me much, I had left them alone.

‘No way gray hair itself is the price for the rise in synchronization rate.’

And the strange symptom that had overwhelmed me right after the duel had never happened again since that day. So calling that the price for the synchronization rate, which was in the middle of a steep rise, would not make sense.

‘…If I had to go through that every time the synchronization rate went up, I would’ve thrown the blade away immediately.’

From the moment I had been thrown into this world up until now, I retraced everything one by one.

Not only thoughts related purely to the Blessing of the Sword God, but also as a way of sorting out everything that had happened so far. It felt like only now had I gained the breathing room to reflect on the situation.

Of course, I also needed to think again about the elders targeting me and the instructor that the checkpoint employee had mentioned, but that was beyond what a mere first-year student was allowed to do.

Even so, I should prepare as thoroughly as possible. My first master had always told me to keep a better-safe-than-sorry attitude.

And besides, dealing with the immediate problem rather than picking through each point one by one was more my style.

That man who had hammered home better safe than sorry at every turn had not even been able to prevent baldness….

My fingers drifted to the line of my forehead without meaning to.

The thick abundance sitting just at the edge of danger.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I shook my head ‘lightly’ and scattered away the stray thoughts.

For now, I was also planning to think over how to use the Blessing of Transference, which had been the unintended reward from this dungeon. It was not as though I could spit out a blessing once I had gained it.

Since it was a synergy-type blessing, its performance would vary wildly depending on how it was used. I felt a little sorry for Leon, but that bastard would be draped in even better abilities later anyway.

Stretching long, I leaned my back against the chair. As homeroom time drew close, the noisy sounds of cadets coming to class gradually soaked into my ears.

I turned my head carelessly and looked out the window. It had become a habit before I knew it.

The weather was good enough to make reality itself feel distant for a moment. A sky so clear it seemed pristine, and the warmth of the sunlight pouring in through the window announced the beginning of summer.

‘Soon it’ll be time for summer uniforms.’

Back before I received my admission notice, after I had fallen here about a year and a half ago, daily life had been fairly uneventful.

The life I now desperately wanted could no longer be grasped, no matter how much I reached out for it, like a mirage. A faint sadness knotted in my chest.

When I first entered the academy, I think I had dreamed of a fairly promising future, but life here had been tougher than I expected.

Threats to my life were constant, the prices were murderous, and my standard of living had scraped the bottom.

Still, life at the academy had not been made up of nothing but misfortune.

In my previous life, I had worked from my youth onward and never had any meaningful friendships, but this life was different. I had gained two classmates I could call friends. Speed Weapon and Chloe.

Though with Chloe, I was not sure whether she thought of me as a friend….

After sharing two life-and-death ordeals with Speed Weapon, who was clearly friendly toward me, the camaraderie between men had grown fairly deep.

He was also a dependable guy, clever enough to grasp situations and think things through.

Not only that, Chloe and Weapon were not major figures in Miracle’s Blessing M, so there was no reason to distance myself from them.

Come to think of it, Chloe had said she was out sick today because of a sudden seasonal cold. No matter that she came from a family of assassins, she was still an ordinary human before illness.

‘…Though getting admitted to a VIP room because of a cold isn’t exactly ordinary.’

While I was sorting out my thoughts like that and spacing out for a long time, I heard the classroom door slide open with a rattling sound. The atmosphere in class grew even noisier.

It seemed that today, too, the Sword Emperor had come in together with Instructor Lee Won-bin for homeroom. Without even turning my head, I quietly received the warm sunlight.

Bzzzz.

Then my phone, which was usually silent, buzzed.

‘What is it?’

I only tilted my head slightly and checked the screen.

[Hey, what are you doing.]

A text from an unknown number. Immediately, the phone vibrated again before I could do anything.

[Look up front.]

My gaze slowly turned forward, and at the same time my eyes opened wide.

Saki Ryozo, holding a phone in one hand, was smiling brightly and waving at me with a soft flutter.