Chapter 44

Chapter 44

The beginning of the trip went smoothly.

Jeongmyeong was still part of the metropolitan region.

Road repairs weren't delayed like they were in small provincial cities.

There were no Gates bursting because of manpower shortages.

No monsters running freely through mountains and fields.

Of course...

The atmosphere in Jeongmyeong itself was still rather bleak.

There weren't many people around.

And the pedestrians I did see usually moved in groups of four or five.

The sky happened to be filled with heavy clouds too, making the whole place look like some crime-ridden city from a movie.

At the same time, because the city had been rebuilt from ruins left by Gates, the roads and buildings were almost unnaturally clean.

That contrast made the place feel even stranger.

"We've arrived."

Still, the center of the city, Jeongmyeong's only real downtown district, looked lively enough.

"This place feels strange."

Choi Hyeong-seok muttered as we stepped back out after dropping our luggage at the hotel.

He looked toward me.

"You said the pottery village is on the outskirts of the city, right?"

"Yes. Maybe because of the clay, I heard it's at the foot of a mountain."

"I'm still not sure whether this place is actually dangerous or not."

Choi Hyeong-seok tilted his head repeatedly.

In Yeonhae, on the other hand, was busily tapping at her phone as though preparing for the worst.

"Just in case, I'll look into Jeongmyeong City's current situation in more detail. Also, I heard that during your previous trip you hid your identity. This time, I think it would be better if we openly looked like Hunters."

"If that helps with security, go ahead."

The more obviously they presented themselves as Hunters, the more distance it might create between us and the locals.

But that couldn't be helped.

Unlike Eumgil Village, I hadn't come here to gather information.

It probably wouldn't matter.

In Yeonhae openly strapped a long sword to her waist, then handed me a self-defense dagger.

"Just in case. Our job is to make sure you never need to use this, Artist Do. But there's no harm in preparing."

"This all feels a little too serious, but... thank you."

"Security work starts with preparing for the worst. Thank you for understanding."

"...Aren't you being a little stiff? It's still supposed to be a trip."

Choi Hyeong-seok jokingly complained from beside us.

In Yeonhae opened her mouth as though she was about to scold him.

Then, apparently reconsidering, she merely nodded.

"...It is a trip. If we're too grim about everything, it won't be enjoyable either."

And so, the three of us got back into the car and headed toward the pottery village on the outskirts.

The drive was calm.

Like the stillness before a storm.

Aside from the occasional sight of armed people moving through the streets outside the window.

It didn't feel like this when I saw Glory Guild members in the provinces.

There, silver armor had flashed under bright sunlight between vast fields.

If anything, it had been dazzling.

Here, everyone wore black and walked through narrow city streets.

It was simply intimidating.

The pottery village was no different.

Unlike the rest of the city, the roads here had never been properly repaired.

Ceramics were placed here and there almost carelessly.

At a glance, this part of town looked abandoned.

Maybe because the wind passed through the hollow pottery, whenever a breeze came down from the mountain, the village filled with a strangely empty whistle.

"...People actually live here?"

Choi Hyeong-seok asked while looking at the houses near the entrance.

One place had its shutters completely pulled down.

Then another.

Then another.

On the other hand, just as many buildings had their doors wide open, exposing completely empty interiors.

"Let's still look around."

"You don't want to turn back?"

"The pottery is still intact."

Even if this city was technically part of the metropolitan region, this was still the outskirts.

Only one small or medium guild was stationed here.

The city's atmosphere was already rough.

There was no way pottery left abandoned for a long time would remain untouched.

That meant the owners visited regularly.

Or someone was maintaining the empty village.

We walked deeper inside.

By the time the mountain behind the village was clearly visible, we spotted someone coming down with an A-frame carrier on his back.

I immediately approached the direction he was heading.

When the man noticed strangers coming toward him, he stopped near the mountain path.

His face was full of wariness.

His gaze quickly swept over the weapons at In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok's waists.

He had recognized them as Hunters.

"Who are you?"

Seeing his expression, I immediately decided that asking him a bunch of questions wouldn't work.

Even the first villagers we'd met in Eumgil had been friendlier than this.

I'll have to approach this differently.

At the very least, he probably wouldn't ignore a customer looking to buy pottery.

"I came because I wanted to buy some ceramics, but I couldn't find anyone in the village. Is it no longer possible to buy pottery here?"

"...You came to buy ceramics?"

"Yes. I heard this was a famous pottery village."

"It is famous. But you probably won't be able to look at pottery today."

The man rubbed his chin.

"The village has been unsettled lately. Everyone's evacuated. You'd be better off coming back another day. Or just buying something nice at a department store."

"I didn't hear any Gate warning in the area."

"It's not a Gate..."

CRASH! CLANG!

As though waiting for that exact moment, a violent noise erupted behind us.

The man carrying the A-frame froze stiff.

His legs trembled so hard it looked like he might drop the load on his back.

I slowly turned around.

In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok were already standing in front of me with their weapons drawn.

"What are you? Phoenix Guild?"

Hack, spit!

A man appeared with several suited underlings behind him.

He planted his feet crookedly and stood with his weight on one side.

"...We're Hunters from Yeonwoo Guild. We entered Jeongmyeong on a security assignment. We have no intention of interfering with whatever is happening here, so stop causing trouble and leave."

In Yeonhae stepped forward.

The tip of her sword was still pointed toward the ground.

The man openly sneered.

"We're working too. If you're outsiders, you should know when to stay out. Saying you won't interfere while drawing a sword doesn't exactly inspire trust."

"If you hadn't acted threatening, I wouldn't have drawn it."

"What did we do?"

In Yeonhae let out a long sigh.

Then she spoke.

"So. You're not planning to back off? You're really stupid enough to make an enemy of Yeonwoo Guild?"

"Yeonwoo Guild? What about it? Can your guild master teleport here or something?"

The man flexed his upper body as though showing off.

Then he kicked one leg of a wooden table beside him.

The smooth ceramic sitting on top crashed to the ground and shattered loudly.

"And you over there. You must be someone important if Yeonwoo Guild is guarding you."

His unusually thick tongue flicked over his lips.

I couldn't stop myself from frowning.

"If I'm important, what? You'll let me go?"

"As if. If you're important, we thought we'd treat you properly too."

"Don't need it."

I couldn't understand where these people got the nerve to act like this.

I simply sighed in annoyance.

That was when In Yeonhae placed her left hand behind her back and gave me a signal.

She wants me to move back and get out of the way.

I silently turned around.

Then I grabbed the villager's arm and pulled him along with me.

The sack on his A-frame swayed dangerously.

Once we'd moved far enough back, In Yeonhae immediately used a skill.

Choi Hyeong-seok raised his sword from the ground as though preparing for anything.

This should be over quickly.

I trusted In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok's skill.

But more importantly...

Even if those guys were gangsters, they were still civilians, weren't they?

The next instant proved me wrong.

"Hyraaah!"

With a strange shout, a flashy skill effect burst from one of the thugs.

The men who had stiffened under In Yeonhae's debuff instantly broke free.

"Damn. Of all things, they have an Awakened with a buff skill too."

As I heard the trouble in In Yeonhae's voice, I belatedly remembered that these gangsters had supposedly been clashing with a small guild for a long time.

At first, I'd assumed they were simply abusing corruption, connections, and loopholes in Hunter law.

At most, I thought they interfered with Gate raids or intimidated people.

But this gang had Awakened too?

Judging from the situation, they probably weren't licensed Hunters.

Then this wasn't merely a fight over interests between a guild and a criminal organization.

It was a battle between registered Hunters and unregistered Awakened.

Something this serious should have become public knowledge long ago.

How had they hidden it until now?

The conflict inside Jeongmyeong was more dangerous than I'd expected.

And that Awakened has a buff skill?

Why was someone with such a rare skill working as a gangster?

If he'd managed to block an A-Class debuff, then his buff skill was probably at least A-Class too.

The situation wasn't good.

Even though In Yeonhae had an A-Class Hunter license, her skill had effectively been neutralized.

And there could be more Awakened among the dozen or so gangsters.

Even from a distance, I could see the tension gathering in In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok's bodies.

The man who had been smashing pottery earlier smiled unpleasantly.

"Now I remember who that important person is. Do Hwa-in, right? Hm? The guy with the world's only S-Class production skill."

"..."

"Boys. Bring our honored guest over here. We should use some nice weapons too, shouldn't we?"

Watching him, I honestly couldn't believe it.

Even if In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok lost and I got captured, there wasn't the slightest chance I'd make weapons for these people.

He was already celebrating something that would never happen.

Maybe this is what happens after spending years bullying a Hunter guild inside one city.

Their arrogance is incredible.

And even if something did happen to me right now, the moment word got out, there were plenty of people who would come running.

The aftermath would be enormous.

These idiots didn't seem to have considered that at all.

It was impressive they'd survived this long while being this stupid.

Even if they had someone protecting them, touching me was a terrible move.

Maybe ruling Jeongmyeong however they pleased for so long had destroyed their ability to understand reality.

Not that I'm planning to watch my guards lose or politely wait to be rescued.

I immediately shouted to In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok.

"How long can you hold them?!"

"Long enough for you to evacuate, Artist Do!"

"Then buy me as much time as possible!"

Choi Hyeong-seok glanced back at me as though asking what I meant.

But I had already torn off a lump of hard clay from the sack on the villager's A-frame.

His face, which had practically screamed What are you doing?, gradually changed as realization dawned.

"W-We will! We'll hold them somehow! Yeonwoo is the strongest!"

"Hahaha! The mighty Yeonwoo Guild!"

In Yeonhae, who had kept her eyes on the gangsters the entire time, played along immediately.

Trusting the two of them, I moved quickly.

The dean said clay is one of the most basic materials in sculpture.

Even though both were three-dimensional arts, modeling and carving followed opposite processes.

Modeling built up clay to form a shape.

Carving removed material to reveal a shape.

Thankfully, the clay in my hands was fairly hard.

Apparently there was naturally occurring clay suitable for ceramics somewhere nearby.

There were impurities mixed into it, but that didn't matter.

Because I'm not going to model it.

I'm going to carve it.

My skill was specifically related to sculpture.

But I didn't have enough time to carve stone or wood.

Clay, even hard clay, was still softer than either.

And I happened to have excellent tools.

"Chaeri. Give me the carving knives."

"Okay!"

Chaeri hurriedly rummaged through her feathers and quickly pulled out the carving-knife set.

I selected a round chisel of a suitable size.

Push.

As expected, the material was much softer than what I usually worked with.

Its hardness reminded me of the rubber blocks we'd carved in elementary-school art class.

"Guys, wipe them out!"

"Let's go!"

"Yes, Team Leader!"

"Uaaah!"

Meanwhile, In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok began properly holding back the gangsters.

Now that both sides knew the others were Awakened, the fight became rough.

Even though they were heavily outnumbered, In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok skillfully parried and redirected their attacks.

Crash! BOOM!

The already poorly maintained concrete road became even more ruined.

"W-What are you doing?"

The villager, who had slowly started recovering his senses from the moment I took the clay, had somehow moved close beside me.

His gaze kept darting between the fight ahead, my hands, and the road leading toward the mountain.

"Just wait. I'm a production-type Hunter."

"...A production-type Hunter?"

He was so frightened that he apparently hadn't properly heard our earlier conversation.

Rather than explain at length, I simply raised what I was holding.

Given the circumstances, I couldn't make anything particularly complex.

What filled both my hands was a round mass of clay shaped like a bundle of rope coiled like a snake.

I planned to place a Story inside this simple sculpture.

"Pygmalion."

I called the story to mind.

A moment of concentration so intense that nothing could interrupt it.

Imagination began layering itself over the sculpture.

Crack!

The villager sucked in a breath when cracks appeared across the still-moist clay.

A faint light leaked through the cracks.

Then it exploded brightly enough to briefly blind us.

[A "Large Story" is being contained within the item!]

[Story Type: Fenrir]

[!WARNING! The size of the Story is decreasing due to insufficient Aura!]

[Large Story → Moderately Large Story]

[!WARNING! Insufficient "Story Material"!]

[An incomplete Story is being contained!]

[!WARNING! The incompleteness of the Story exceeds the threshold! The Story size is decreasing again!]

[Moderately Large Story → Small Story]

[!WARNING! The item's function has been greatly weakened due to the rapid reduction in Story size!]

Clang!

It was the exact same sound I'd heard when I first tried to create Durandal.

Even the warnings were similar.

The difference was that the missing materials had made this Story even more incomplete than Durandal.

The Story itself had shrunk.

And the item's function had been additionally weakened.

Will any Story effect even survive?

[Crude Gleipnir (F+)]

[The magical rope that once bound Loki's child, Fenrir... perhaps?

It looks like an ordinary rope.

Created by Do Hwa-in.]

[!WARNING! The item's function has been greatly weakened! → ??? Rank Decrease.]

[!WARNING! An incomplete Story has been contained! → An incomplete characteristic has been created!]

*Crude Binding

Once the dwarves' magical rope is tied, it will probably remain impossible to untie for about 5 minutes.

Uses Remaining: (0/1)]

Single-use.

And it would disappear after five minutes.

But depending on how those five minutes were used, the result of the fight could completely change.

"Chaeri!"

In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok already looked exhausted, barely swinging their swords.

But neither I nor the villager had any combat experience.

Chaeri, who could freely fly through the air, was our only hope.

"See that pole?"

"Yes!"

I pointed toward a streetlight beside the battlefield.

"Tie one end of this rope there, then make a wide circle around those men in black suits. At the end, tie the other end back to the one on the pole. Fast. Can you do it?"

Chaeri slowly flapped both wings.

"I can. Chaeri is fast!"

She nodded confidently and took the rope in her beak.

Her large wings spread wide compared to her tiny body.

Then, as though proving her own words, Chaeri shot forward faster than I'd ever seen.

She wasn't riding the wind.

She was cutting through it.

The fight was so chaotic that no one noticed her tying the rope around the streetlight.

Or rather...

In Yeonhae seemed to notice.

The moment Chaeri entered the battlefield, In Yeonhae deliberately started shouting louder to draw everyone's attention.

Using both claws and beak, Chaeri tied the rope neatly around the pole.

Then she grabbed the other end and flew up again.

For something I'd carved from a lump of clay, the rope was absurdly long.

There was a reason I'd told her to trap more than a dozen people at once.

Chaeri made a wide circle over their heads.

The long rope fluttered downward, drawing a line between the black-suited men and the two Yeonwoo Hunters.

"What the hell is that?"

"Look up!"

"Where did that bird come from?"

The gangsters shouted in confusion.

The battle stalled by force.

And in that instant...

Chaeri whipped around and tied the two ends together.

Once the gangsters realized what had trapped them was nothing more than a loose rope attached to a streetlight, they only laughed.

Several dramatically tried to step free of it.

"Huh...?"

"B-Boss! This is weird! The rope won't come off my body!"

"I think it's an item! Everyone check your status windows!"

Naturally, In Yeonhae and Choi Hyeong-seok had already checked theirs from the moment Chaeri dropped the rope between the two groups.

The instant their opponents panicked, they moved.

"Choi Hyeong-seok! I'll buff you, so show them what you've got!"

"Yes, Team Leader!"

A huge movement that would have been impossible in the chaos followed.

Choi Hyeong-seok pulled his shoulder far back.

With his blade laid nearly flat, he swung his entire arm in a massive arc.

BANG!

The air itself seemed to explode.

...As expected, five minutes is more than enough.

Unable to properly counter because of the rope restricting them, the gangsters toppled over one another in a pile.

"Artist Do! Take the villager and move!"

Even so, there was no way they could completely subdue more than a dozen Awakened in five minutes.

So we quickly left the area.

At least it seemed the man we'd met was the only villager still remaining in the village.

That was one small mercy.