Chapter 94: Craftsman rank E

Kai was dragged out of the shop by Do Ae Young amid ear-piercing screams, his tall body clinging tightly to the door, causing it to creak and groan as if about to break apart.

"Kei! Save me! I don’t want to go anywhere!"

"Stop making so much noise! You still have to deal with the Guild’s paperwork!" Do Ae Young gritted her teeth, grabbed Kai by the collar, and pulled him along.

"Kei! I’ll be back soon! You have to wait for me!"

Kei stood in front of the shop, only able to wave his hand at him.

"Okay, travel safe."

The car door slammed shut. The vehicle quickly left the street, carrying Kai’s cries farther and farther away.

Kei stood there for a while longer.

Only after making sure Kai was gone did he let out a sigh of relief.

At least for the next week, Kai would be busy with the new Dungeons. By then, Kei figured he would have calmed his own emotions down as well.

The fact that he actually had feelings for a man... Kei needed time to digest that.

"Are you hoping he doesn’t come back? Or are you regretting letting Hunter Kai leave?"

Kim Sora stood beside him, looking at Kei with a knowing gaze.

"No, you’re overthinking it, Sora-ssi!"

Kei immediately denied it.

Sora said nothing, only staring intently at his neck.

Kei followed her gaze downward and saw the band-aid neatly stuck on his throat. He had tried to pick the one closest to his skin tone, but clearly that hadn’t done any good.

Sora leaned in close to Kei, lowering her voice to a whisper:

"Putting a band-aid on your neck isn’t going to hide anything."

"..."

"Anyone who looks will know there’s definitely something underneath that band-aid that needs to be concealed!"

Kei’s face flushed bright red. Instinctively, he raised his hand to cover his neck, then snapped his head toward Sora.

"Don’t you have work to do?"

"I do. I’m just concerned about the boss’s condition, and also curious about who’s going to be the future madam of this shop."

"Then go open the store. Customers are about to arrive."

Kei immediately shooed her off to work.

"But—"

"Go now!"

Sora was pushed out by Kei, chuckling to herself as she walked away.

Kei stood in the middle of the storage room, listening to the doorbell ring as Sora opened up for customers. He rubbed his forehead, trying to push the chaotic thoughts out of his mind.

He needed to find something to do.

Something complicated enough to keep himself from thinking about Kai, about last night, or about the embarrassing mark on his neck.

Kei quickly walked into the workshop.

On the desk was already placed a cleanly processed rank E energy stone. It was more transparent than the rank F stones, with faint blue streams of light slowly moving inside. The weak glow it emitted made the stone look like a piece of frozen sky.

Kei picked up the stone, carefully examining each facet.

Rank E energy stones had a more stable structure, but precisely because of that, the requirements for crafting were much higher. If one line was carved wrong, the energy flow inside would be thrown off course. In mild cases, the item would fail; in severe cases, the stone could shatter right in the crafter’s hands.

Kei set the stone down, then took out a silver ring frame that had been prepared beforehand.

His goal this time was to craft a rank E spatial ring.

The first rank F ring had confirmed Kei’s crafting ability. But ten cubic meters of space was only just enough for everyday life and work use. If he succeeded, he would be able to create spatial rings that could hold far more materials, while also starting to craft items with higher requirements.

Kei picked up the carving knife.

The blade touched the silver frame, producing a very faint sound.

Keng.

The first pattern line slowly appeared.

Kei was completely focused. His fingers were so steady they barely trembled; one stroke after another connected to form perfect energy-conducting lines on the ring.

Perhaps because he had crafted so many spatial rings, Kei now felt he had fully mastered these engravings, able to carve them without deviating a single millimeter.

Outside, the sounds of customers and Sora chatting occasionally drifted in.

But all of it gradually grew distant.

In Kei’s eyes, only the silver frame remained,The energy stone and the patterns on it were gradually taking shape.

Time passed quietly.

By the time the sunlight outside the window shifted from pale yellow to bright and clear, Kei placed the energy stone at the exact center of the silver frame.

The energy inside the stone immediately spread outward.

The engravings on the ring lit up line by line, a faint blue light running along the patterns like tiny streams. The space in front of him warped slightly, then quickly stabilized again.

Kei didn’t dare blink.

He adjusted each thread of energy, forcing them to merge into the energy stone and the patterns on the silver ring frame. One small fluctuation caused a mistake, and the entire structure would collapse.

Sweat ran down Kei’s temples, but the hand holding the carving knife never stopped moving.

It wasn’t until noon, when Kim Sora brought food into the workspace, that Kei finished the final stroke.

"Keng!"

A crisp sound rang out.

Kei immediately set down the knife in his hand.

The silver ring lay still on the table, with an E-rank energy stone at its center emitting a soft glow. No explosion, no cracks, that meant no sign of failure.

Kei sat back in his chair, letting his shoulders, stiff from hours of tension, relax. He slowly turned his head to look at the clear blue sky outside the window.

Just then, Sora, who had brought lunch up to find Kei, set the tray down and looked at the ring, then at Kei.

She was about to ask something when Kei burst into laughter.

His eyes sparkled, filled with a joy he couldn’t hide.

"It worked."

Immediately after, Kei’s personal system panel appeared before his eyes.

[Successfully crafted your first E-rank item.]

[Congratulations, you have become an E-rank Craftsman.]

Kei stared at the notification for a long time.

From someone who could only craft F-rank items, he had finally stepped up to the next level. At last, Kei felt a sense of accomplishment in this new profession.

Outside the window, the sky remained clear and cloudless.

Kei clenched his hand gently, feeling the joy spreading through his chest.

Kei’s path to becoming a legendary Craftsman, from this moment on, had truly begun.