episode_0117

“What designation request?”

Jeong Yu-shin asked back.

Although the promotion was just around the corner, right now it was a beginner party.

“So what’s the content? Who gave the request? Frankly, I don’t think we are at a level to receive someone’s designation.”

“First, listen. It’s a request from a temple that serves the Wind Spirit God.”

Jeong Yu-shin crossed his arms at the Iron Mask’s reply.

A temple that serves the Wind Spirit God.

I definitely heard it was somewhere in the central area. I’ve never been there.

It was also the order to which Spirit Teacher Luke and Simus belonged.

“You look like you don’t like it.”

Iron Mask stared at Jeong Yu-shin quietly and said a word.

Jeong Yu-shin raised two fingers and rubbed his eyes.

“It’s a bit like that. I’m barely going to be intermediate, and suddenly a designation request comes in, it’s normal to be suspicious.”

The rat beastman, Masse, agreed with a sullen face.

“Sca is right. Priests are scary! They wear shady underwear!”

Jeong Yu-shin turned his head and looked at Priest Kubo.

The dwarf priest was mindlessly drinking alcohol from a wooden cup.

“Kubo, do you have anything to say?”

“What to say? If it doesn’t seem right, as Iron Mask said, just refuse. Don’t overthink it.”

Jeong Yu-shin stroked his chin and leaned back in his chair.

“Is that so.”

“We don’t know the details of the request and the reward yet. We’ll have to meet and talk. And Sca, I’m going to get promoted tomorrow, will you come along?”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Good.”

The party roughly finished the meeting and spent time talking about the stories from the festival.

They didn’t realize how time was passing as they sat and giggled.

Eventually, the drinking party ended in the evening.

The party members left the inn, slightly drunk.

“By the way, hasn’t that guy Sca’s face brightened up a bit?”

Kubo muttered while walking down the street.

“Certainly, the venomous look on his face seems to have disappeared a bit.”

Iron Mask smiled and took the words.

“Hmm…I don’t know. Something…I feel something dangerous.”

Masse tilted his head and said.

Kubo nudged Masse’s shoulder.

“Masse, you’ve been locked up in prison for too long, have you got some kind of mental weakness?”

“Hmm. Is that so? I’m not sure.”

Masse scratched his head.

* * *

Jeong Yu-shin finished sparring with Karin early in the morning and met Iron Mask to head to the Explorer’s Guild.

While walking down the street together and having a conversation.

A strange gaze from people was felt.

Jeong Yu-shin doesn’t know, but Karin has made tremendous efforts over the past week.

She gathered the captain of the guard and the villagers and begged them to be quiet.

People who had been helped by Jeong Yu-shin naturally followed. No. From the beginning, they hushed it up. It was too vulgar a smell for ordinary people to handle.

They were afraid that rumors would spread and curious people would go looking and get hurt, so they didn’t say it out loud.

They also didn’t want to undermine their benefactor’s reputation.

Karin didn’t stop there.

She spent her own money to buy pheromone removers and fed them to Jeong Yu-shin. Of course, the fact that it had magic recovery function was not a lie.

And she asked Anne to keep Jeong Yu-shin in the kitchen for a week.

Thanks to running around with sweat in her bra, the pheromone smell left on Jeong Yu-shin’s body had been largely removed.

Only a few beastmen with good noses twitched and touched their stinging noses.

Iron Mask nudged Jeong Yu-shin.

“People are looking at you a lot.”

“They are the people who received help this time.”

Jeong Yu-shin replied to Iron Mask and waved to the merchants who were far away.

The merchants also waved back with awkward smiles.

“Excellent.”

“I’m a bit like that.”

Jeong Yu-shin and Iron Mask arrived at the Explorer’s Guild in the southern district.

The guild was crowded with explorers.

After waiting in line for about 40 minutes, they stood in front of the dog beastman receptionist.

“Hello. Explorer, what brings you here today…Heuwoooot?!”

The dog beastman greeted with a smile and then stiffened.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah…it’s nothing. Whimper.”

As soon as the dog beastman receptionist smelled the scent coming from this black-haired man, she felt her thighs involuntarily close and her heart began to pound.

‘Why…why is this happening?’

The dog beastman tilted her head for a moment at a question she could not answer herself.

There was something dangerous and sticky lurking in the smell. If she smelled it closely, she felt like she would know, but her body instinctively rejected it.

“Wh…what brings you here?”

The dog beastman asked, wriggling her body.

“I came because of the promotion. Here’s my ID.”

The dog beastman received the IDs from the two men and nodded.

“S, Sca and Iron Mask, I see. Please wait a moment.”

The dog beastman staggered up, went inside the office, and came out.

“He, here’s the silver badge. Congratulations. You are now intermediate explorers. I will collect the iron badge. And from now on, you can use the Explorer’s Headquarters in the center.”

“I see. Still, there’s no problem using this place, right?”

“Of course. But half of the requests posted on the bulletin board are for beginner explorers. It’s good to consider this part.”

“I understand.”

The dog beastman looked up at Jeong Yu-shin with teary eyes, but Jeong Yu-shin, overwhelmed with emotion, didn’t notice.

‘Finally.’

He was as happy as if he had the world when he looked at the sparkling silver badge.

On the other hand, Iron Mask held his silver badge and carefully touched it.

Jeong Yu-shin smiled and patted Iron Mask’s shoulder.

“Why the sullen face?”

“Sca, can you see the face behind the mask?”

“What’s there to not see?”

“Is that so.”

Iron Mask chuckled and opened his mouth again.

“Kubo and Masse will have to wait a few days to get promoted. It would be good for us to hear the details of the request and pass them on to the other party members.”

“How long does it take to get promoted?”

“We were at the festival, so the Explorer’s Guild’s work was spacious, so the promotion examination ended quickly. Usually, it takes well over a week.”

“If that guy Masse hadn’t only massaged the strict priest’s butt, it would have ended sooner.”

“He didn’t massage the butt, he took off the underwear. Actually, that’s harder. He’s good at it.”

“Was that a joke just now?”

“No.”

Jeong Yu-shin stared at Iron Mask for a moment.

He’s a pretty decent older brother with good personality. Unlike royalty, he was humble and quick to acquire information.

‘Where does he pick up this information?’

I was a little curious.

“Sca, don’t stare like that and decide. Are you going to come listen to the request together?”

“No, I’ll leave it to you this time. I need to prepare to enter the labyrinth. I need to repair my equipment and buy necessary supplies.”

“Take your time and prepare as much as you need. Depending on the request, what you need to bring and how much you need to bring will be different.”

“I understand.”

Jeong Yu-shin parted ways with Iron Mask, returned to the inn, packed his money and equipment, and walked towards the western district.

The goal is Boron’s smithy. He bought a bottle of alcohol on the way.

* * *

Boron looked down at the iron scraps with trembling eyes.

“Wh…what is this?”

“Armor?”

At Jeong Yu-shin’s answer, Boron blankly looked up at Jeong Yu-shin’s face.

“Crazy.”

Boron scraped up the iron scraps with his hands and held them in front of Jeong Yu-shin’s eyes.

“Does this make any sense? I’ve never seen a guy in my life who brings iron scraps and calls it armor. Is that really what you were wearing? Didn’t you just pick it up from a junkyard or something?”

“That’s what I was wearing.”

Boron slumped back in his chair in disbelief.

“If armor is this damaged, shouldn’t you be dead? How are you alive?”

“Well, a weak Sca died and a strong, cool Sca was born.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Let’s not talk nonsense. Can you fix it? Can’t you? Just tell me that.”

“You were the one talking nonsense. And I can’t fix it without the original shape. Even the blacksmith god can’t fix this. Just buy a new one.”

“You’ll give me a good price, right?”

“Heo. I heard you made a good profit from the cream slime bread this time? Buy a good one generously.”

The fame of the cream slime bread has spread to the western district.

I was a bit dazed.

“The rumors have spread this far?”

“It’s famous. You’ve become a bit famous too.”

“Yes?”

What is this?

“Didn’t you save people in danger? Everyone who saw you fighting was shaking their heads.”

Jeong Yu-shin smiled pleasantly.

They are people who have an eye for it.

“Because I fought too well?”

“No?”

???

“Then?”

“You’re rumored to be a vicious fighter full of anger. A person who doesn’t even flinch when his finger is cut off. There was even someone who peed their pants watching you wave your broken arm and dance with a sword.”

“The rumors are a bit exaggerated. I think there are some people who are weak-hearted.”

“But you did fight like that, right? You did nail a human to the street floor with your sword, right?”

“Well, I did.”

“Then it’s right, isn’t it?”

“Ah, please stop. Show me the armor blueprints.”

Jeong Yu-shin followed Boron into a small room, spread out various armor blueprints on the table, and looked through them.

‘Isn’t there anything good?’

The plate armor blueprint looked good, but it seemed too heavy.

‘Wear chainmail over a gambeson and wear plate armor?’

Not bad.

But if the equipment is heavy, the moving speed slows down and stamina is quickly depleted.

‘I need to reduce the weight as much as possible.’

Basically, he was assuming he would enter the forest area, but he wanted to make it versatile.

Jeong Yu-shin grabbed his head and struggled with his thoughts.

“Why is it taking so long?”

Boron came in, gulping down alcohol.

Jeong Yu-shin picked up the plate armor blueprint and showed it.

“Boron, this blueprint, right?”

“Why?”

“Can you reduce the parts that can be reduced and make it?”

“I’m fine with it. How are you going to do it?”

Jeong Yu-shin grabbed Boron and explained.

“For the shoulder part, let’s make one spaulder and one pauldron each.”

“You’ll make the pauldron part thicker and attach a bumper. You’ll throw away the shield and block with your body in case of emergency. Is that it?”

As expected of a blacksmith, he understood perfectly even if I spoke roughly.

“Yes. And I’ll wear a one-piece plate top that blocks the chest and back at once.”

“Then what about the lower body?”

“I’m thinking of wearing pants made of monster leather and wearing steel greaves. I’ll keep these work boots as they are.”

“Your crotch looks dangerous.”

“…”

Does he always have to say it vulgarly?

“I’m thinking of wearing chainmail a little longer.”

“I guess you’re thinking of adding leather to the gauntlets with steel. Okay, I understand. If you had a little more, I would have thought you were going to war. What about the helmet?”

Jeong Yu-shin thought about the last fight carefully. Too much blood and poison splattered.

It was right to prevent such accidents as much as possible during the fight.

“Show me. The helmets I saw last time are all good, but things get in my eyes too easily.”

Boron stroked his beard.

“I have something I made, look at it later. What are you going to do about the shield?”

“Heater shield.”

“It looks too heavy?”

“It’ll be fine. Probably.”

Physical abilities have been improved through this level up.

There was a calculation that he could wear plate armor and wander around the labyrinth for a long time. First of all, he was going in the direction of reducing weight as much as possible.

No matter how light the armor is, you’ll die if you make a mistake.

But if you wear heavy armor, you’ll run out of stamina.

He thought it was important to find the right balance.

“What about weapons? You didn’t break the longsword, did you?”

“I’m cherishing it. 2 daggers. And give me an arming sword.”

The dwarf nodded.

“Sca, did you make some money? You’re unstoppable.”

“Ah…”

I didn’t think about the price because I was so excited to explain.

Jeong Yu-shin slowly opened his mouth.

“···How about settling all of this for just 3 gold coins?”

Boron’s eyes bulged out as if they would pop out.

“No…you crazy bastard! Do you have no conscience? Do you have no heart?! Ah…I think I’m dreaming.”

The dwarf put his hand on his forehead and staggered.

“Then let’s make it 4 gold coins.”

The dwarf slumped to the floor.

“Just take it as you please?! Even a thief wouldn’t do this.”

“Haa. I helped you a lot when you were in trouble, didn’t I? Don’t do this.”

“Are you going to eat me now that I’ve gotten fat?”

“Isn’t it better to have good things? Then let’s make it 5 gold coins.”

“Heo…!”

The dwarf pulled at his beard as if he would tear it off.

“You bastard! One chainmail is 3 gold coins!”

“···Yes?”

I definitely spent 1 gold coin and 25 silver coins to get the light armor made last time.

“Why is chainmail so expensive?”

“Why? Because it takes a lot of work!”

“Even if it takes a lot of work, this is a bit…”

“The armor that covers the chest and abdomen, and the shoulder armor are also plate, so the price is different from the armor that adds small steel plates to the leather armor base like last time.”

“So what is the appropriate price?”

“I should get 6 gold coins for everything.”

“…”

It was about 5 times the amount of money I used last time.

Jeong Yu-shin thought for a moment and nodded.

“Let’s do that.”

Boron’s mouth dropped open.

“···You’re not going to haggle? You’re giving in this easily?”

Jeong Yu-shin smiled softly and handed over the gold coin pouch.

“It’s armor that protects life, so I think it’s a bit stingy to cut the price. Here, take it.”

The dwarf received the pouch with a blank face. He looked like he was dreaming.

“···Then why did you do that all this time?”

“My old self came out for a moment.”

“What is that? No, I don’t want to know. Come in 5 days. Are you going to take the weapons first?”

“No. I’ll pick them up all at once. By the way, where is Ainhofer?”

“He’s on vacation for a while.”

“I see. Then see you later.”

“O…okay.”

Boron stared at Jeong Yu-shin’s back as he left the smithy and scratched his little hair.

“Why is he doing this? They say you die if a person suddenly changes.”

Boron grabbed his dazed mind and brought the bottle of alcohol to his lips and gulped it down.

“Hoo. It’s a useless thought. I need to work.”

The peak of summer.

In a building engulfed in hot heat.

The dwarf picked up his hammer.