177 – Target – 2

“For now, the divine beast’s materials are mostly processed.”

Could one imagine a dwarf with dark circles?

Gi-jun had no need to make such a wild stretch of imagination in the future.

For there was actually such a dwarf right in front of him.

“First, the daggers completed by mixing the fangs of the divine beast with orichalcum.”

Glittertoss held out two daggers, looking extremely exhausted, yet showing an expression overflowing with pride in his work by that same amount.

Two red metallic daggers boasting a sleek luster that made it unbelievable that they were based on a creature’s fangs.

At the sight of them emitting a golden light that strangely drew people’s attention, Gi-jun could not help but let out an exclamation of admiration.

“They look completely like metal.”

“The materials used are what they are. As long as you can harmonize the two, this much is easy.”

Glittertoss did not miss the chance to boast, adding that harmonizing them was the difficult part, of course.

“Are these really mine? Even the divine beast was barely hunted with the help of Hyung and Ms. Scintilla, so to get this much…”

“Do you intend to reject Lord Jun’s sincerity?”

“No, I will accept them gratefully.”

Eun-shin, who had felt burdened in front of the dual daggers that were clearly legendary-grade or higher no matter how he looked at them, immediately changed his attitude at Laura’s quietly spoken words and quickly picked them up.

While Gi-jun tilted his head at the hierarchy established between Laura and Eun-shin without his knowledge, the blacksmith presented the next works.

“Next is the item ordered by the priestess lady. First is the sword, which I reinforced with the divine beast’s fangs and added a bit of orichalcum. Now it’s a complete legendary-grade.”

“Though it is an item I ordered as a vampire, not a priestess.”

Replying with a gentle smile, Laura received her sword and slowly ran her fingers along the blade.

This sword, inherited from Carmilla, had accumulated karma in the process of fighting its original owner, and it completely reached the legendary realm during the process of being reforged with new materials added.

In a way, it could be said to be an item created by mixing the blood of Carmilla and Laura together…

As she, showing an expression of mixed emotions, let out a sigh and sheathed the sword, Glittertoss held out a container filled with something.

“Next is this. It was made by grinding the bones of the divine beast and plating only the tips with a bit of orichalcum, but I dare say I am confident in its completion.”

“Thank you. It contains the exact power I imagined.”

Inside the container Laura accepted were dozens of long, sharp skewers.

It was an item she had ordered after hesitating for a moment when he repeatedly urged her—who claimed she needed nothing but chains—to make a request without burden since they had plenty of the divine beast’s materials left over.

But to think they would be skewers.

‘……Come to think of it, Laura had also sucked the Lord of Thorns’s blood at the last moment.’

Suddenly thinking of a piece of loot he had obtained long ago, Gi-jun asked Laura.

“Do you happen to need a blood magic book, Laura? It’s called Bloody Thorns.”

“You must be speaking of the secret magic of the Lord of Thorns’s kin. I am deeply moved by Lord Jun’s consideration for me, but…”

Looking so regretful as if she might actually shed tears, Laura continued.

“Since I naturally mastered Bloody Thorns during the process of sucking the Lord of Thorns’s blood…”

“I see. Then by any chance, are those skewers also for that?”

“Yes. Since I am not of the Lord of Thorns’s kin after all, I plan to use them as a medium to cast Bloody Thorns more smoothly.”

Since Laura originally had a lot of experience handling mediums to cast holy spells, she seemed to be trying to apply that to blood magic as well.

A nun who freely wielded blood magic, holy magic, and even Taoist arts—if she were a game character, people everywhere would have risen up, crying that she broke the balance.

—Contractor, you shouldn’t offer to give what you do not have.

At that moment, Lucy suddenly called Gi-jun out.

‘What do you mean, Lucy? Don’t you remember when I got the Bloody Thorns spellbook back then? It was the first unique-grade spellbook I ever obtained, and I wailed that there was absolutely no way to make use of it.’

—But you don’t have it.

There was no way Lucy would lie about such a thing, so Gi-jun, wondering what was going on, checked his inventory first and realized that the Bloody Thorns spellbook had indeed vanished at some point.

To mention a very trivial matter, the earrings he had kept stored in the corner of his inventory were also missing.

……There was no need to even ask who the culprit was.

‘Is it the evil spirit?’

—Perhaps she needed that spellbook to digest the Lord of Thorns’s soul.

It was a relief that she had not touched the other valuables in his inventory at all, of which there were many.

Sighing lightly at the thought that he had a lot to ask the evil spirit once she woke up, he turned his head to see Eun-shin, Laura, and Scintilla receiving armor made from the divine beast’s hide.

Even leaving Eun-shin and Scintilla aside, making even Laura’s habit out of leather was, no matter how he thought about it, a million light-years away from the appearance of a normal priestess, yet Laura looked extremely happy as she accepted it.

“It is very pretty. I don’t know if it suits me… how does it look, Lord Jun?”

“Of course it suits you, unconditionally.”

He barely swallowed the words that were about to come out: ‘Because you have a great figure.’

Because saying that would be no different from admitting that the tight, sexy habit did not perform its role as a ‘monastic robe’ in the slightest!

“Since you harvested the divine beast’s hide so thoroughly, why on earth couldn’t you bring back the dragon’s hide?”

Even though the items made from the divine beast’s hide were already excellent enough, Glittertoss grumbled, as if feeling regretful that he had not been able to handle dragon hide.

Gi-jun snorted at his words and replied.

“If you had been in that chaos, you would have known. It was not a situation where we could fight while worrying about the hide. Be grateful that we managed to bring back the wings intact.”

“Then, I would like you to show them to me now.”

Glittertoss, who only a few days ago had looked at Gi-jun with an expression as if facing an abusive employer forcing him to work, was now looking at him with the expression of a new employee who wanted to start working overtime immediately.

No, it was probably just Gi-jun’s misunderstanding, though.

“Here.”

“Ooh…”

“Wow.”

Gi-jun took out the dragon’s wings, which had become a complete epic-grade pair, and placed them in the workshop.

Those incredibly massive wings were originally of a size that could never fit inside the workshop, but mysteriously, their size adjusted to fit the space.

Gi-jun was thinking that they might already be equivalent to an artifact in their own right, and Glittertoss confirmed his thought.

“It is a very extreme method, but with a little adjustment, we can attach them to the VVIP’s back. You would be able to fly in the sky.”

“It sounds like it would be cool, but it’s fine. Can we make something with this?”

If he wanted to fly, it was already possible to some extent using Lucy’s ability.

Furthermore, since he also had a griffin that would appear immediately from anywhere if he called, he had no need to go so far as to attach wings to his own body.

“To be frank, I don’t know.”

“Give me back the hammer.”

“Wait just a moment.”

The dwarf resisted desperately, hugging Vulcan’s Hammer to his chest.

Receiving a look that warned him there would be no next time if he spoke nonsense once more, Glittertoss pouted his lips unpleasantly and continued his excuse.

“Just as the VVIP himself said, this is already close to a finished artifact. Even if we dismantle this to make something, the probability of an epic-grade item coming out infinitely converges to zero. Considering that risk, I’m saying we can’t just tear it apart recklessly.”

“Keep going.”

“If we are to talk about possibilities, there are shoes or a cloak. Stories of winged shoes or cloaks that turn into wings are famous, aren’t they? If we make something that allows one to intuitively project its image, there is a high probability that a good result will come out. But VVIP already…”

“……Indeed.”

The gazes of the two men fell in unison on the metal boots covering the area below Gi-jun’s knees.

Mirage, one of the artifacts Gi-jun had obtained from the Gratia royal treasury as a reward for the Grand Quest.

Just wearing them increased movement speed by 50%.

Upon being hit, it could consume mana to create an illusion to evade.

It could consume mana to swap the positions of the target and oneself.

With even the ability to consume a large amount of mana to create a clone possessing physical force, it was a rare treasure that anyone—whether a damage dealer, a tank, or a magician—would desperately desire.

Honestly, because it had too many outstanding abilities, even Gi-jun was not yet able to utilize it properly…

“So, if you really want to make one, it would be a cloak. To be frank, rather than going through the trouble of erasing the resentment dwelling in the wings and converting them into a cloak, the performance would be better if you just wore them as wings. So, how about it?”

As a side note, because the evil dragon’s malice dwelling in the wings was so powerful, anyone other than Gi-jun, who held the title of Dragon Slayer, would not even dare to place them on their body.

“Still, I can’t do that yet.”

However, at the tempting offer to make him his own exclusive wings, Gi-jun shook his head repeatedly.

This was because he believed that putting wings on one’s back when one was not even a flying beast was a realm permitted only to experts.

If Gi-jun, who had not even reached legendary-grade yet, appeared with wings, the veterans of this continent would never forgive him.

For reference, Biche could be cited as a representative example of such an expert wearing wings.

Glittertoss wore an expression as if he had realized something at his reaction.

“I see, meaning you might put them on your back someday. I should make the preparations so that you can wear them whenever you change your mind. It would be a waste to leave them idle in the meantime, so I should also find a way to utilize the authority dwelling in these wings.”

Finally finding his direction, Glittertoss made various notes, saying he should contact an artifact craftsman, then suddenly raised his head and asked him.

“Do you happen to have a gem containing wind mana? I want to use it as a catalyst to draw out the wings’ power.”

“Wind mana? If I search through the gems looted from the vampire castle, one might turn up… no, wait.”

Something flashed in his mind at those words.

The wyvern that had squeezed out the power of the wind to save its master at the very last moment; the fragment of the King of the Well that it had swallowed.

After a brief thought, Gi-jun took out a blue-tinted metal fragment from his chest and held it out, and Glittertoss, recognizing the wind mana dwelling in it at a single glance, accepted it with a bitter smile.

“Where did you get such an item again… no, wait. It’s resonating.”

Just as Glittertoss said, as the fragment and the evil dragon’s wings drew closer, they simultaneously began to emit a faint vibration along with a weak flow of mana.

“Ah—there is a story behind it, but to summarize it briefly, it’s an item that was used in the battle against the evil dragon.”

“I can glimpse a deep resentment and potential that cannot be explained by just that much talk—well, whatever. At any rate, there is no change in the fact that it is a top-grade catalyst. I will make you a perfect wind-attribute artifact, so you can look forward to it.”

Like that, the processing method of the most precious material was roughly wrapped up.

All that remained was Gi-jun’s shield and full plate, Laura’s chains, and Tilla’s whip.

After questioning Eun-shin, who was satisfied with just the dual daggers and leather armor, they decided to prepare a few throwing daggers for him as well.

“Except for the VVIP’s shield, all of them will be made in a similar way. We will establish the foundation with orichalcum, then grind and sprinkle the dragon’s scales to increase mana and cutting power.”

“At first, you went on about how processing the evil dragon’s materials was dangerous and whatnot.”

“But now we have Lord Ptah’s blessing and the hammer. Plus, if I dare add to it, the flame imbued with divinity that VVIP created.”

Perhaps because he had completely grasped the feel of divine items after handling them a few times already, Glittertoss’s expression was full of confidence.

“Meaning that while processing the wings is hard, you can now at least erase the resentment dwelling in the scattered scales.”

“Then, what about the bones?”

“Thanks to the divine items and orichalcum, a way has opened up. First, I will mix them with orichalcum to make them as soft and workable as possible, then forge a solid plate armor excluding the boots. Even so, the only one who can handle it is VVIP himself. Even if we make anything else with these bones, the others won’t be able to handle it. Give up.”

Even if he said that, even after setting aside the portion for Gi-jun’s armor, hundreds of kilograms of the evil dragon’s bones would still remain.

And there was no way to utilize this?

There was a limit to how wasteful things could be.

Meeting Gi-jun’s gaze, which carried such a meaning, head-on, Glittertoss replied.

“The bones are simply impossible. I guarantee that it would be the same no matter what craftsman you brought, not just me. In my opinion, the best way to utilize these bones is to build a fortress. As long as the owner of that fortress is VVIP himself, you will be able to build an impregnable fortress that no one can invade, so look for a skilled architect.”

“It’s advice that I have no use for right now, but I will keep it in mind…”

Indeed, unless Gi-jun built a guild house that he managed directly, it was meaningless.

Maybe he could use it when building a house to live in with Biche after retiring in the future.

—Contractor, didn’t you just think of something very cute?

‘No way.’

Gi-jun brushed off Lucy’s suspicious gaze with a nonchalant expression.

Glittertoss’s words were not finished yet.

“The last thing left is… yes, VVIP’s shield.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Orichalcum Heart (Epic), Essence of Uralta (Epic), Unicorn’s Horn (Unique+), Holy Relic (Legendary), Divine Beast Skoll’s Bone (Legendary-), Evil Dragon’s Bone and Scale (Legendary+)…”

They were materials that could be called the very essence of the Lumen party’s activities.

However, because Gi-jun’s role was decisive in the process of acquiring each and every one of them, no one felt dissatisfied that all of these numerous materials were being used to make a single shield for Gi-jun.

……No, in fact, they felt apologetic enough just with what they had received so far.

“You did well to gather such monstrous materials together. Honestly, it’s not an easy task, but fortunately, the compatibility of each one is good, and the mana contained in the Holy Relic is so harmonious…”

“Wait a minute, there’s also the Burning Ogre Destroyer’s Spine (U+).”

At Gi-jun’s cold retort, the dwarf narrowed his eyes and countered.

“That falls short of being included here. Even if it goes in, it will only degrade the outcome.”

“Hmm, the Unicorn’s Horn is also only Unique+ in grade itself.”

“If you mean that sincerely, I will speak to Lady Unika—no, the Lord—and have your head split open.”

Sighing, Glittertoss began to explain about the Unicorn’s Horn in great detail, looking like a father teaching a foolish child.

“Even setting aside the fact that a unicorn’s horn is always a material boasting rarity and utility beyond its grade, you received an item that the extremely rare true-blood Monoceros clan can produce at most twice in a lifetime—and moreover, the horn of a virgin who maintained her purity until it grew to the Unique grade. And what? You compare it to something like an ogre’s spine? In terms of value, this is daresay worth more than legendary-grade! Do you intend to mock Lady Unika’s devotion?!”

“Look at the guy who demanded I bring that horn back speaking like that.”

Moreover, if the conversation that just took place were conveyed to Unika, the one who would suffer a loss would probably be Glittertoss, not Gi-jun!

Glittertoss, who immediately realized he had made a slip of the tongue, also quickly showed an ‘oops’ expression and turned the topic back.

“Ahem, anyway, it will take at least a month to mix these materials together and make the shield. Originally, it’s a job that would take years, but with this hammer and the flame sparked by VVIP, we can somehow reduce it to a month.”

“Then, if we include the other members’ items…”

“It will take two months, to be safe.”

He had prepared himself to some extent, but it was indeed ridiculously long.

Gi-jun sighed and muttered.

“It’s going to be a long vacation.”

“There are plenty of hunting grounds around Uralta as well, after all.”

“Right. First, shall we make raising Shin’s grade to Unique our immediate goal?”

Watching the Lumen party discuss their future schedule, the dwarf frowned for a moment.

Although he worried about what might happen if they stayed in Uralta for a long time,

“Hmm—well, it will be fine.”

Uralta would always protect Gi-jun and his companions with all its might.

No matter who appeared.

Smiling with satisfaction at the conclusion he had reached on his own, the dwarf prepared to return to the hell of work once again.