Chapter 299

A few hours later.

Ou Seohyeong's workshop.

"Done..."

A weary voice drifted through the spacious room, brightly lit from above.

"It's finished."

The words came from the worker, Goo Seohyeong. The D-rank enchanter had just endured an intense five-hour marathon after accepting a request from an acquaintance.

Before processing the [Fragment of Midnight], Giryeo had made two specific requests:

① The soft black fabric he had brought was to be used as the main material for the gloves, and

② that same fabric was not to be visible from the outside.

So Gu Seohyeong decided to use the [Midnight Shard] as the inner lining and cover it with leather from an A-rank magical beast—a unicorn—whose hide had recently earned considerable praise in the Hunter fashion industry.

"I'm going to die... Having to get leather dyed when I never even planned for it, calling people over..."

There had been quite a few obstacles along the way.

"This is insane. A whole day just to make one pair of gloves..."

Seohyeong let out a deep breath as she tidied her cluttered workshop. But the real reason she was exhausted wasn't because she had personally crafted the item.

The moment she realized that her middle school classmate—well, at least the shell that had once belonged to him—didn't truly acknowledge her abilities, frustration flared up inside her. For a brief moment, she had even considered making the gloves herself.

But if the fabric had been personally purchased and entrusted to her by an S-rank Hunter from Korea, there was no way it could be cheap.

Besides, the only gloves she had ever made in her life were a pair of woolen Christmas gloves she'd knitted out of boredom while waiting around on set.

And so, Seohyeong made the most realistic decision possible.

"Ugh, no. This won't work. I really need to call someone else in."

Thanks to that decision, the expensive raw material was processed without so much as a single thread being damaged.

In any case, everything had gone smoothly thanks to the professional item craftsman she'd hired.

"K-Kim Giryeo. You recognized the person who just left too, right? He's on TV all the time. Anyway, he's practically one of the two most famous awakened craftsmen in the entire country. And because this was your request, I actually went out of my way to find someone like him—"

Without realizing it, Seohyeong began to boast.

She wanted to show him, of all people, just how firmly established she had become in the industry, and how many impressive connections she had gained through her work.

"You know, I used to be interested in opening an accessory workshop. So when that master craftsman stopped by the Association for a while, I asked him all sorts of questions out of curiosity, and somehow we hit it off. If you want, I could introduce you sometime too."

But contrary to Seohyeong's intentions, the alien listening to her focused on an entirely different aspect of what she had said.

"I'm glad to see you're satisfied with your work."

A slight psychological distance opened between them as he watched the other person take such obvious pleasure merely from having her labor acknowledged.

'How can a living creature gain energy from labor, no matter how much money it gets paid?'

Anyway, the Earthling who had once gone so far as to jump from a rooftop now seemed to be living well, smiling every day.

That was a good thing.

His stray thoughts didn't linger for long.

Giryeo soon turned his attention to the gloves resting on the workbench, completed through the burning passion of two artisans.

So this was a leather accessory with a subtle sheen, made from the hide of a monster called a Unicorn.

"Oh."

They had carefully measured his hands before beginning the work.

And since he had even tried them on before the final stitching, there shouldn't have been anything to worry about.

"How do they feel?"

Giryeo slipped the finished gloves onto his hands.

Then, opening and closing his leather-clad fists several times, he gave his verdict.

"They're good."

Perfect customer satisfaction.

Not even the slightest correction was necessary.

And with that, the great sorcerer's new equipment was finally complete.

If a PIXY-type analyzer were to scan the lining, it would probably display something like this.

[Earth-type gloves]

[Rank:???]

An artifact so incomprehensible that even the most skilled appraiser couldn't discern a single aspect of its structure.

A true manifestation of miracles, layered atop the knowledge of Earthlings—genuine and without equal.

As the distinctly mammalian accessory, sturdy even at a glance, settled snugly around the wearer's hands, a thought crossed his mind.

"Not bad."

The black fabric he had purchased in Japan was, in fact, exactly as one Alphaur had described it—a canvas remarkably well suited to certain forms of sorcery.

As long as it was fashioned into the proper shape, the dark cloth would absorb a completed spell as easily as a sponge simply by coming into contact with the edges of the magic.

Then what, exactly, was the complementary magic meant to work in tandem with this fabric?

"The texture isn't bad either. This should work just fine!"

[Fragment of Midnight].

In truth, even on Alphaur, this was a rare information-storage medium with exceptionally low volatility.

In other words, the miracle that resonated particularly well with this special canvas was...

"Magic Memory!"

At last, the item's true purpose was revealed.

The genuine power of the Fragment of Midnight manifested only when one attempted to wield that particular kind of force.

Once embroidered with Alphaur-style spell patterns, this fabric, reminiscent of the hem of the night sky, could astonishingly allow even the weak to cast magic with ease.

"Come to think of it, Earth had something similar too. The small problem is that the technology isn't real... It only exists in games?"

This technique possessed the extraordinary ability to store and release magic!

From now on, Giryeo could completely nullify any opponent's skill that came into contact with these gloves.

And more than that, he could even spit the absorbed power back out within twenty hours.

"Goal achieved!"

Naturally, there were conditions.

After a certain period of time, the stored spell would disappear.

Only one spell could be stored at a time.

And if the process was repeated too frequently within a short period—without allowing sufficient intervals between uses—the small, literally palm-sized magic circle inscribed into the fabric would become distorted.

In other words, there needed to be an interval of roughly twenty hours between uses, among several other restrictions.

"As expected, it was too small..."

The severely limited width of the fabric found on Earth imposed numerous restrictions.

Even so, this was still an unbelievable windfall.

Giryeo opened and closed his gloved hand once again.

For the time being, the intricately inscribed, so-called 'Memory-type' spell would probably remain utterly incomprehensible to Earthlings.

"Even on Earth, starting this year, people have apparently begun covering items with outer layers to conceal the names of their equipment. Maybe they've discovered some new material that appraisers have trouble seeing through..."

Giryeo walked over to a nearby window to get a better look at how the finished gloves appeared on his hands.

However, just as he was examining his reflection in the glass, Goo Seohyeong spoke from behind him.

And for some reason, what she said sounded oddly familiar.

"Hey. You know, when I look at you dressed like that... you really do resemble those actors people talk about online."

Actor.

He was certain he had heard something like that somewhere before...

"Hmm?"

More importantly, was it really all right for someone who had actually been a child actor herself to say something like that to someone else?

Curiosity suddenly getting the better of him, Giryeo asked what on earth she meant.

Ou Seohyeong calmly adjusted her round glasses before replying in a casual tone.

"What else could 'looking like an actor' mean? It's a compliment."

"A compliment?"

So it wasn't some sophisticated insult implying that he looked particularly good at pretending to be something he wasn't?

"Which actor do I supposedly resemble, exactly?"

"Oh, so you really don't search your own name online very often, huh?"

The alien had only just begun to feel relieved when Seohyeong's following explanation complicated his feelings all over again.

"You kind of have that sort of vibe, you know? That actor, Woo OO—remember? They recently played a Chinese organ trafficker on Netflix..."

"Who's Woo OO?"

"Y-you don't know? Then what about Park OO sunbae-nim? They even won an award last year for playing a loan shark in that drama..."

"And who's Park OO?"

"What? You don't know him either? Then at least tell me you know the character Lee Chang. He's supposed to be a gangster, and anyway, the movie was a ten-million-viewer hit!" ℯ

"Yeah, Lee Chang. Fortunately, that's one name my amnesia didn't erase this time. But I'm sorry—why are all the roles you just mentioned... like that?"

What was that supposed to mean?

The alien sorcerer, still unfamiliar with Earthly expressions, remained visibly puzzled for a while.

"Oh—don't misunderstand me. I absolutely don't mean you give off a bad impression or anything... How am I supposed to explain this? It just sort of came out that way while I was trying to describe you."

"Oh? I wasn't even thinking about that, but you're the one who brought up me having a bad impression first?"

"Gasp."

But there was no time for her to sit there frozen.

Flustered, the appraiser standing before him immediately tried to change the subject.

"Ah—anyway! Anyway, that's enough of that! Hey, the gloves are finished, so let's get out of here already."

"Why are you still giving me a hard time when I just threw in the finishing enchantment and unicorn leather for free? I'm starving. Let's just go eat already!"

Urged along by Seohyeong's impatience, Kim Giryeo started walking without giving it much thought.

As he went, he checked once more to make sure the gloves fit properly.

Men's leather gloves with buttoned cuffs around the wrists.

Having his extremities wrapped up like this felt slightly uncomfortable—but if discomfort was the price of power...

Well.

It was worth it.

"Huh?"

It was then.

Swish.

Just before they left the workshop, Ou Seohyeong, who had been checking the security system, turned around.

She had been about to ask Giryeo what he wanted to eat.

But the sight before her caught her off guard, and the words that came out instead were completely different.

"Wait a minute. Your nose is bleeding."

Gulp.

A certain Hunter was currently suffering from a minor nosebleed.

But the person whose name had been called merely walked quietly into a nearby restroom to clean himself up.

"I'm fine. I guess I've just been a little tired this week."

After all, only a few hours earlier, his internal organs had taken a beating from the coral's retaliation.

At this point, was a few drops of blood really worth making a fuss over?

***

A tranquil atmosphere.

Beige-toned wallpaper.

And an epic-level air-purifying creature placed beside the window.

This was the home I had finally arrived at.

To make one thing clear from the beginning, I wasn't talking about Jung Haseong's modern luxury apartment.

"Phew!"

This was a newly built studio apartment of roughly eight pyeong, similar in size to the place I'd had before.

"Anyway, taking care of my body every single time really isn't easy."

Due to certain circumstances, I was currently far away from the temporary residence that had been prepared by the number-one-ranked player.

After all, what good would it do to warn Earthlings about the terrifying dangers of the [Sacred Tree Seedling]?

"Of course, I'll need to be careful once the incubation period for the protective magic ends."

Besides, even without that particular reason, there were far too many restrictions on what I could do inside an apartment under Jung Haseong's watch.

A sorcerer's most fundamental duty.

If I wanted to continue my research, I needed a secluded private space of my own.

That was why, as soon as I returned from Japan, I made one excuse after another to Jung Haseong and got myself out of there.

‘Before buying a genuinely spacious and comfortable home, I also needed to experience how housing transactions worked on Earth.’

The monthly rent was barely 500,000 won.

Besides, I only intended to run light simulations here—nothing particularly serious—so no matter what happened, cleaning up the traces afterward would be simple enough.

‘As long as I don't install something like a perpetual energy core, maintaining this space shouldn't cost much at all.’

Perfect.

This was more than enough for a temporary hideout.

Satisfied, I looked around the private space I had newly secured.

‘The portable bathtub is set up nicely too.’

But as I went over the things I needed to accomplish in this studio, I realized that quite a few of them felt strangely familiar...

[To Do]

• Gather materials for the solid-type appearance-grade modifier

• Pay compensation for the overdue books borrowed from the city library

The corners of my mouth immediately drooped.

As you can see from the schedule, yes.

In fact, all the research materials that this scholar hadn't been able to fit into his item box had been left behind in someone's collapsed studio apartment.

But even Kang Changho had never gotten the chance to see those materials before they sank along with the barrier.

Which meant that, in the end, I suddenly had to gather everything again from scratch.

"Kang Changho, you b*stard..."

The curse slipped out instinctively, but I quickly brought my emotions back under control.

"Ugh, this isn't the time for this."

Time is money, after all.

And if that was the case, preparing for the future was far more productive than dwelling on the past.

"Let's see... It should be somewhere around this part of the item box..."

As of now, I had newly acquired equipment made from fabric worth one hundred billion won.

More importantly, I was finally free from the ambition pact, which had been the greatest obstacle standing in the way of my retirement plans.

But even with all that, it was still too early to disappear into the countryside.

The arrival of the Gismche was happening far too quickly.

So if I wanted to survive in this unpredictable world, then more than anything else, I needed to finish my research into that overarching problem—and fast.

• Figure out a method to stimulate Kim Giryeo's mana growth potential.

Fortunately, there was some good news.

To study the awakening potential of this possessed body, I obviously needed to measure the ever-changing amount of mana inside it on a daily basis.

"I'll need to draw a few graphs too."

And only a few hours ago, in Japan, I had gotten my hands on the perfect tool for those measurements!

Believe it or not, they had been selling a reagent at a Tokyo expo capable of measuring mana levels with considerable accuracy—even without using a Pixie prize machine.

It cost around 800,000 won per use, roughly twice as much as an ordinary measuring device.

You also had to draw blood every single time you used it.

And for institutions such as the Hunter Association, it wasn't particularly practical because the reagent was extremely sensitive to nearby mana flows generated by surrounding items.

"This list really never ends, does it?"

Above all, most awakened individuals rarely experienced any significant fluctuation in their mana in the first place.

"They even threw in all the test tubes as a thank-you for buying so much. Whew... Getting every last one of them here without breaking anything was a real pain."

However, this trash reagent, which seemed less efficient than a machine in nearly every respect, was nothing short of a savior to me.

Well then.

Since I was already thinking about it, why not test it immediately?

‘Back in Japan, I couldn't even try it on-site because I was afraid the whole world would find out I was an N-F-rank...’

Haha.

If the results ended up differing from a machine later, I'd call a lawyer and sue the seller on the spot.

With that determination, I placed the sample into the narrow glass tube.

Colorful translucent crystals.

Pure water.

And 2ml of the sorcerer's blood.

Once everything had been added, I gently shook the tube.

The water turned blue.

Without giving it much thought, I followed the Korean instructions that had been provided with the Japanese product and dripped a small amount of the completed solution into the slot of the portable measuring device.

[Measuring...]

But a few seconds later.

Beep-

"Huh?"

The display of the mana meter I'd bought in Japan showed a number I had absolutely not expected.