Chapter 676: Mithril-Orichalcum Greatsword (2)

As soon as I arrived at Areum’s workshop, the first thing that caught my eye was the rather rowdy scene inside the shop.

Unlike Areum’s workshop, which usually felt quite calm and leisurely, the noisy voices were loud enough to be heard even outside the shop.

The spacious shop interior felt cramped due to the sheer number of gathered customers, and unusually, Areum was busy at the counter dealing with them, which caught my eye.

“Excuse me~! By any chance, do you not sell daggers~?”

“The daggers are at the very end of the sword rack, don’t you know!”

“Why are the prices different for this spear and this spear? They look the same from the outside…”

“Do you think the price would be the same for one where only the spearhead is handmade versus one where even the shaft is entirely handmade by me?! Are your eyes just knot-holes, you brat?!”

“Where are the guns! Firearms…”

“Why have you been looking for guns in a Dwarf’s workshop since a while ago? Are you really an idiot?!”

It felt like I was seeing Areum working this busily for the very first time.

In fact, even when I met her before, she seemed to have quite a bit of work piled up. Perhaps she started getting gradually busier ever since it became known that I was an awakened male Hunter.

Although I never mentioned Areum’s workshop directly to the press, it probably wouldn’t have been that difficult for someone to tail me and investigate the workshop I frequented.

Now that the mysterious mask was gone, it wasn’t easy to move around hiding my identity either. So, after people found out through word-of-mouth, there was a high possibility it became explosively famous following the announcement that I had become an S-rank Hunter.

And that result is the situation I’m seeing right before my eyes now.

It was a scene of Hunters, specifically only male Hunters, gathered and causing a noisy commotion, bustling about.

The scene felt almost like looking at a luxury brand store in a department store.

‘Seeing that not a single red heart or estimated acquisition point value is popping up, they must all be male Hunters.’

Occasionally, there were female Hunters whose physical training reached such extremes that they were indistinguishable from men, but at least the Hunters before my eyes seemed far from such cases.

Judging by their appearances, it was highly likely they were male Hunters active within Seoul. Glancing around, I even saw several male Hunters I’d made eye contact with once or twice at the company.

Actually, male Hunters and the weapons sold at Areum’s workshop had very poor compatibility.

I think I mentioned this before, but typical male Hunters in this world mostly used high-powered firearms like guns or bazookas.

For male Hunters without awakened abilities, melee weapons were just heavy and not very efficient when dealing with monsters.

Up to D-rank monsters, one could somehow handle them by wielding swords or axes, but from C-rank monsters onwards, except for a few, it wasn’t even easy to inflict wounds. This was a fact I experienced firsthand before I awakened, without a doubt.

The only means to deal with such monsters were firearms like guns or bazookas. Of course, the stronger the firepower, the more the material got damaged along with it, making it a weapon truly only used by male Hunters.

The reason I use Areum’s workshop is simply because I am a male Hunter with awakened abilities. There were almost no suitable weapons there for other male Hunters to use.

Despite that, the reason only male Hunters flocked to this shop is probably because I, a male Hunter, frequent Areum’s workshop.

Perhaps they blindly gathered, thinking it was a weapon that could make even male Hunters stronger or awaken them.

Roughly snatching the longsword from the hand of one of the male Hunters who seemed to be the cause of the commotion, I first sorted out the situation.

“So, something lighter than this…”

“…Let me see it.”

“Huh?!”

“This is heavy? Just this longsword made of Damascus steel?”

“Who, who are you to butt in…”

“Even before I awakened, I carried and swung a greatsword 10 times heavier than this. Without even training your own body, you’re finding fault in the wrong place?”

“Uh, uh…”

“What, what is that? Isn’t that Sung Taekyung?”

“Was it true that he frequents this place…?”

The male Hunter, who had been acting tough wielding a longsword completely unfitting for his build, looked up at me with a bewildered expression.

Voices mentioning me could be heard around the guy, who could only manage a single exclamation.

It was the moment I realized these people here had visited Areum’s workshop for exactly the reason I expected.

For now, I needed to quickly deal with these people, who were closer to troublemakers than actual customers.

“Anyone who just wandered in without intending to buy weapons, get out. Don’t bother our Areum.”

Deliberately using phrasing that emphasized the intimacy between Areum and me caused the atmosphere inside the shop to become strangely tense.

In that situation, about half of the guys whose eyes met mine hurriedly put down their weapons and slipped out of the shop.

The other half seemed like ‘real customers’ still, so I didn’t particularly chase them out, though.

“Ah, Oppa…. You’re here…?”

“Yeah. It’s been a while, Areum.”

“Sorry the shop is a bit chaotic. Lately, it’s been chaotic every day with tons of male customers pouring in…”

“It’s good if your shop does well. Business seems good these days?”

“It’s just average. Out of all the customers who come all day, only two or three actually buy something.”

“Huh?”

Is a weapon workshop business normally one with such a low sales rate?

Even though she’s a half-elf, Areum’s workshop, being a Dwarf’s forge, couldn’t possibly have such low sales.

As I was quietly guessing the cause in my mind, one of the male customers who hadn’t left approached the counter, struggling to hold a greatsword with both arms.

Only after watching the way Areum treated male customers there could I grasp roughly why business wasn’t doing well.

“This…. With this, huk, I’ll, pay…”

“…I feel sorry seeing how hard you struggled dragging it here, kking kking, but I’m not selling this to you, young man.”

“…Huk, What…?”

“What do you intend to use a greatsword for, which looks hard to even carry and move with? I think I mentioned it last time too, it’s better for you to wield a slightly lighter weapon, isn’t it?”

“Are, are you looking down on me because I’m a guy?! I’ll become an S-rank Hunter who wields a greatsword someday! A male Hunter like Sung Taekyung, who coolly swings a greatsword without flinching even in front of monsters like the Three-headed Basilisk…”

Given Areum’s personality, she’d probably refuse to sell weapons that don’t seem suitable for the person, even if it killed her.

In the first place, most Dwarf artisans had similar personalities. They were probably waiting for someone who could properly use the weapons they made.

A boy around middle school age, strangely fixated on greatswords and emphasizing that he would become a male Hunter.

This kid also appeared to have watched ‘that video’ of me defeating the Three-headed Basilisk.

For some reason, hearing praise right in front of me, through someone else’s mouth, was a bit embarrassing.

…Come to think of it, the reason I first decided to become a Hunter wielding a greatsword was also because I was influenced by seeing Eunyoung Noona wield a greatsword right before my eyes.

Perhaps because of that, I felt a strange sense of kinship towards the aspiring male Hunter before me. Unlike my usual self, I subtly interjected into their conversation and carefully offered advice.

“You seem to still be a student, so it would probably be better to just listen to Areum at first.”

“…”

“I didn’t start out swinging a greatsword either. Until I first awakened at 22, I really tried swinging all sorts of weapons before eventually settling on the greatsword.”

“…Really?”

“If you don’t believe me, you can go ask at the Hunter training middle or high school in Gangdong District. It hasn’t been that many years since I graduated, so there will be teachers who remember.”

“…”

The teachers during my high school days, except for the health teacher, were ones I have few good memories of, but still, they would remember that I swung all sorts of weapons around.

Of course, even amidst that, I always carried a 20kg greatsword on my back as a form of training.

Perhaps because it was advice from an active male Hunter who wielded a greatsword, the aspiring male student Hunter seemed to be listening a bit more seriously than when Areum spoke.

“First, build up your stamina. If you try to swing a greatsword right away without a built-up body, you’ll injure yourself completely.”

“…”

“If you’re a male Hunter, first train your body to its limits. Choosing the weapon comes after that.”

“…Okay, then.”

With an answer that suggested understanding, the aspiring male Hunter returned the greatsword he had struggled to bring to its original place and left after buying a two-handed sword of appropriate weight and length.

Seeing him reminded me strangely of my own childhood, and for some reason, I felt unusually sentimental.

“Oppa, you’re amazing. Usually, guys have stubborn pride that outweighs their ability, and no matter what I say, they never back down.”

“I’m also a guy, Areum.”

“Of, of course, I’m speaking excluding you. When have you ever argued back against my words while I was managing the weapons, Oppa?”

“Well, that area is much more your specialty than mine, Areum.”

Entrusting professional matters to an expert was the best solution.

Rather than stubbornly insisting with half-baked knowledge picked up unnecessarily.

“Excuse me, may I try swinging the daggers here?”

“Ah, sure. There’s also a training ground behind the workshop, so it’s better to try swinging it yourself before using it…”

After about 30 minutes of chatting with Areum and appropriately dealing with the customers still remaining in the shop.

Once the roughly storm-like wave of customers had all left, the shop interior suddenly became quiet.

“That’s enough. From now on, customers probably won’t come until after lunch.”

“Really? Then now we can talk a bit more leisurely.”

“By the way, you didn’t even tell me beforehand, Oppa. If you had told me, I would have just closed the shop today and called only Seongcheol Oppa.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. You don’t need to go to that much trouble.”

It wouldn’t do to disrupt Areum’s shop business just because I decided to visit the workshop.

With that thought, I quietly took a pouch containing fragments of Orichalcum ore from my subspace pocket and handed it to Areum.

Because it was in a leather pouch, Areum couldn’t recognize it at first and tilted her head to ask.

“What’s this?”

“Take a look.”

“…You won’t even tell me what’s so great about it…”

Areum quietly opened the pouch I handed her without much thought to check the contents.

It didn’t take long for her expression to change to bewilderment after checking the item inside.

“Is, is this Orichalcum ore? How on earth did you get something like this, Oppa?!”

…Well, I didn’t know I’d get it this quickly either.