Chapter 266 – Apprentice Blacksmith (3)

“Sister, a weapon?”

Upon hearing my suggestion, Su Areum tilted her head and asked.

“Yes.”

“Looking at it earlier, it seems like you’re using a good one. Wouldn’t it be better to entrust that to someone who is blind to arms rather than me?”

“It’s because I can’t contact the person who made this weapon for various reasons. If I want to use it for a long time even for the person who made it, I think it will need to be managed by another professional blacksmith.”

“I’m not an expert, I’m an apprentice, that’s right.”

“If you can make a weapon like this, you are an expert enough for me. In the first place, other than Mr. Su Areum, there is no other blacksmith to entrust.”

“Ha, no…”

“I can’t help it if you don’t like it. I won’t be stubborn either.”

“… Take a look.”

Nodding her head at the gesture she extended, I handed the handle of the mithril greatsword to Suareum, and as soon as she saw my weapon, she suddenly asked me in a voice of interest.

“Huh? I hope this…”

“Why, Mr. Areum?”

“I can’t believe it, was it made of mithril?”

“So what?”

“No, you have to tell me that first!”

“Yes?”

I asked again, wondering if the material of the sword was that important, but she didn’t pay attention to my reaction and started looking around the mithril greatsword.

Suareum, who looked around the sword in an instant, immediately gave me several evaluations.

“First of all, it looks pretty good from the outside, but Mithril is a metal that doesn’t get damaged that much even if you don’t pay much attention to handling it. The scratches on the gears aren’t that serious either. This can be fixed in the blink of an eye.”

“Really?”

“Roughly, take it to the workshop, clean it once, remove the scratches with mithril abrasive, apply oil once and dry it, and it will be finished within three days.”

“… Three days?”

“Is it really a blink of an eye?”

… Well, come to think of it, this person was also a long-lived species.

The concept of time from the perspective of Jang Su-jong, as well as senior Hwa-yeong, was certainly an embarrassing concept for mediocre people in many ways.

Still, three days isn’t really enough time.

First of all, the next group departure was four days later, so there was no big problem with time.

Tomorrow, I probably won’t have much time to use the sword because of my magic research and practical tests.

The day after tomorrow, Hwayoung will take a magic test, but since she’s not a swordsman master, she probably won’t need a greatsword.

If you can entrust it now, it was the most appropriate time.

“It is fortunate that there is no dullness or crookedness. That would have taken at least a few months.”

“Then, excuse me, but can I ask Mr. Su Areum to take care of it?”

“To make it this solid, it seems that even if one craftsman couldn’t do it, it would have taken decades. You really won’t regret leaving it to me, right?”

“In the first place, there is no one to entrust except Mr. Areum. It doesn’t matter how much it costs, so just make sure you take care of it.”

“The money is done. People have to be shameful.”

“… Yes?”

“No matter how much I am a merchant, I will not try to undercut the cost of my own life. I’ll just take a look at this. It’s a separate child.”

Although he was only half a dwarf, he was proud of his lineage.

“By the way, sister, are you busy right now?”

“No, I was originally going to go home early today.”

“It’s just fine. Then, let’s go to my workshop or something together. Even the horns were sweet, so when you remember, it’s good to get rid of them quickly!”

“Is that okay?”

“The union is not very far. Go in an hour.”

An hour wasn’t such a short time, but I had plenty of time anyway, so I nodded my head at her suggestion without much hesitation.

“Okay, let’s go together.”

“Okay, let’s go, sister!”

… I’m not sure when I’ll get used to the title of ‘sister’.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

As we left the guild and walked to her studio, we talked about this and that a few more times.

I expected it to a certain extent from the first impression, but after getting closer to a certain extent, I was able to confirm that he was definitely talkative.

… It was because I talked for almost 50 minutes out of an hour of walking alone without taking a break.

“The other day, there was a guest who came with a loud sword as if he had gone through some kind of battlefield. No matter how hard he swung it, all the blades were scratched, all the blades were dull, and even the blade was bent. It was so devastating to see that neither the handle nor the scabbard were intact.”

“Yes…”

“I said it would be better to buy a new one than to repair it, but Kira insists on fixing it and using it. What do you want me to do? But later, I found out that the intaglio engraved on the inside of the handle…”

To put it a little exaggeratedly, I listened to Suareum’s voice so loud that it made my ears bleed, and half resigned, I moved toward her workshop.

In the meantime, I suddenly had a chance to speak, so she asked her about a fact she had been curious about a while ago.

“… And before, what a stocky kid…”

“By the way, Mr. In fact, she has been curious about something for a while.”

“Hmm, what?”

“I think Areum is much older than me, but why is she calling me ‘sister’ from earlier?”

“Huh? I don’t have much I’m only in eighth grade now.”

“… If you put it that way, I’m only in the second year.”

“Ew? Did it really just happen that way? Humans really age really fast…”

Even though he had lived for 80 years, he asked with his eyes wide open as if he really knew for the first time whether he was not very interested in the lives of other races.

“Anyway, isn’t your older sister more like Areum than me?”

“Muggle but… I call unnie not only because of my age, but also because of my respect for her…”

“Yes?”

“Seeing how he slashes down a B-class monster with just one knife, isn’t he at least a better person than me, a trainee blacksmith? Then you’re like an older sister to me, Mo…”

“Ah, that’s why I’m a sister…”

“Are you in a bad mood… ? Stop if you feel bad…”

“… No, it’s okay If you’re calling me for that reason, it doesn’t matter.”

In the first place, the one I was concerned about was the one who felt ashamed of the past when Soo-reum, who heard my real age, called her sister.

If she had no hesitation in calling from her side, I didn’t even bother to correct it.

Compared to the titles such as oppa and older brother that I heard from Jina and Suna, it was fresh in many ways.

… Even so, I think my brother would have been a little better.

“Ah, I’m glad. Then I will continue to call you unnie from now on!”

“Yes, yes.”

“You can talk to me too! Isn’t it strange that unnie says something respectful when I’m talking about it!”

“Is that okay?”

“Yeah, dog hits! That’s how I can call you unnie, too!”

There was no reason to reject Soo-reum’s long-awaited offer, so I nodded her head and accepted her offer at once.

“Then, I’ll speak more comfortably from now on, beautiful.”

“Yeah, it’s much better! Now my heart is a little pierced.”

Certainly, taking off my surname and calling me by my first name was much more friendly and less awkward.

It was because her surname ‘Soo’ was not very common in Korea.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t even heard your name. What’s her name?”

“… Seongcheol Kim.”

“Something like Musma… Oh, sorry. Did you make a mistake on this?”

“It’s okay, because I’ve heard so many stories like that.”

If I had to ask, it’s actually a man.

After a while of chatting with Arum-yi, who had reorganized her title and tone, I was able to find the signboard of her workshop.

『Flame of Creation』

As soon as I entered the shop with a signboard reminiscent of a blacksmith’s workshop, Areum stood me in the shop for a while and said,

“Sister, wait here for a while. I’ll just drop my things and come down right away.”

While she left me on the first floor of the store and went upstairs, I took a quick look at the exhibits in the studio.

In the area where swords seemed to be gathered, various types of swords were displayed, including great swords, and as if handling spears, axes, and even bows, quite a variety of weapons were displayed for a blacksmith claiming to be a trainee.

On the other hand, the type of iron armor seemed relatively small, but considering the armor used by hunters in this world, of course it was worth it.

In a human-to-human battle, of course, full plate mail that tightly covers the whole body would be reasonable, but the general perception of hunters was that such armor was a little uncomfortable for hunters fighting monsters.

Against weak monsters, it was enough to dodge or parry the attack, and against strong monsters, the degree of injury was not significantly different whether or not they were wearing full body armor.

The prevailing opinion was that it would be much better to make the body lighter or wear other functional hunter clothes, and that making the body heavy and slowing down the movement was foolish.

Likewise, I rarely use helmets because they obstruct my vision.

Of course, most of the hunter suits themselves have additional functions, so it was beneficial to wear them.

In fact, the full body tights worn by Hyeeun and the magician’s suit worn by Yuri Cha each have additional effects.

That part was not usually a blacksmith, but a role made by a job group called ‘maker’. People who make things using monster materials in general, such as hunter clothes or magic tools.

That’s why I looked around the armor section, which was relatively uninteresting, and while I was looking at her, I felt her presence again as I went upstairs.

“Hey, sister. Did you wait a long time?”

She put down her pack and, relatively light, walked down her steps.

“I didn’t wait long as I was looking around.”

“Sister, came to the back of the store with a sword. She’ll show you how to trim your sister’s sword.”

“… Huh?”

“It’s a sword, but you still have to see it with your own eyes to see how it’s handled.”

“… That’s right.”

… I think I said it would take about three days.

Watching from the side for three days until the sword maintenance is over… Hopefully not.