Chapter 9
Shin Ha-gyeon brought me a new contract the very next day.
"An additional contract?"
"Yes. The existing contract will remain unchanged. If you're comfortable with it, I'd also like to support your work as an artist."
"...Why?"
"To put it simply, it's an investment."
"..."
That morning, I'd stared at the payment for the sculpture commission in my bank account and felt like I was dreaming.
At this point, though, it was starting to get a little scary.
It felt as though things were moving forward without me knowing exactly what was happening.
What am I missing?
A private company wasn't a charity.
Even if Yeonwoo Guild invested in my sculpting career and I eventually became a famous sculptor, how would that benefit a Hunter guild?
At most, it would strengthen our relationship.
And the previous contract had already done that to a certain extent.
From what I could tell, Yeonwoo Guild had initially been satisfied with nothing more than the protection agreement and the right to commission items.
No more, no less.
Yet Shin Ha-gyeon didn't react at all to my wary gaze.
He simply smiled with satisfaction.
It was such a kind, almost grandfatherly smile that I never would have associated it with Shin Ha-gyeon.
For the first time, his age suddenly felt real to me.
"I became a fan after seeing your work. Isn't that what being a fan is like? You end up wanting to do just one more thing for the person you admire."
"A fan...?"
"That's right. Ah, and don't worry. This contract has nothing to do with repaying you for the keychain you gave me."
Now I could practically hear the unspoken message.
I haven't forgotten about the keychain.
That only made me more uneasy.
What are you planning to do for me later...?
Back then, I'd only mentioned a favor as a precaution because the Hunter world was unpredictable.
I'd practically treated it like an empty promise.
"Haha... All right. Could I at least look over the contract first?"
A dry laugh escaped me.
Well, considering his reaction yesterday and the relieved expression he wore now...
At the very least, it didn't seem like he planned to use our closer relationship to pressure me into using Pygmalion on Yeonwoo's sculpture.
And once I read the contract, I understood why he'd called this fan support.
"...If I combine this with our previous agreement, isn't this practically a management contract?"
The contents really could be described as support.
The first things that stood out were assistance with sales, organizing exhibitions, and promotion.
"You could certainly see it that way. But since you're not actually a member of Yeonwoo Guild, there are limits to how much staff we can assign to you. So I don't think we can call it full management."
"...That's not the problem. The price I'm paying in return is far too small."
"Hmm."
"All you're asking is to occasionally see the sculpting process and completed works, and to receive VIP treatment if I hold an exhibition, aren't you?"
There was even a clause stating that if Yeonwoo Guild was found to have pressured me into sculpting something during the term of the contract, they would be required to compensate me for damages.
Of course, there was also a clause stating that I couldn't completely abandon sculpting while the contract remained active.
But after looking at it closely, all I needed was evidence that I hadn't quit sculpting.
In other words, I could take as long a break as I wanted.
Not that I had any intention of quitting in the first place.
"You seem to think of me as more of a businessman than I really am. I'm actually quite far from one. This position doesn't suit me very well."
Last time, he'd said they were businesspeople too.
Watching him contradict himself without so much as blinking was honestly impressive.
"You already seem quite good at it."
"Haha! I'm only saying that you don't need to overthink this. That's how much your work meant to me."
"Ah..."
"Enough that I don't want you to abandon sculpture because the item business becomes more profitable."
"I have no intention of doing that. No matter what happens, sculpting is more important to me."
"Perhaps. But there will probably be countless people in the future who want you to do exactly that. When that happens, you may find it useful to point to your contract with me."
I quietly studied Shin Ha-gyeon.
Only then did I notice that he'd been holding the frog keychain I'd given him the entire time.
Every so often, his eyes drifted down toward it.
...Fine. I'll stop playing hard to get. This is nothing but a benefit for me anyway.
The moment I asked for a pen, the deal was practically finished.
There wasn't even much to negotiate.
The terms were so generous that I couldn't help wondering where Yeonwoo Guild expected to make its money.
It's amazing that Yeonwoo Guild is actually listed as the weaker party in the contract. That means Kim Sang-hyeon approved this too, doesn't it?
I suppose that was how much the child named Yeonwoo had been loved.
As Shin Ha-gyeon gathered the documents, he spoke again.
"Is there anything else you'd like Yeonwoo Guild to support you with?"
Something immediately came to mind.
I'd originally planned to pay for it using the commission fee, but...
Judging by the atmosphere, maybe it wouldn't hurt to take advantage of my wealthy fan while I had the chance.
"Um... If it's all right, could I use Yeonwoo Guild's training facilities?"
"The training facilities?"
"Yes. I may need somewhere to test the items I create. And I think I should start exercising properly myself."
"Is this because of your stats?"
"You really do know this stuff well. Haha. I'll probably start sculpting with monster materials in the future, but in my current state I can't even properly work with high-rank monster materials."
Now that I knew how to increase Aura, I thought it was time to start paying attention to my other stats too.
The Ice Giant's torso had made that painfully clear.
Eom Seok-hwan had warned me at the time.
And once I'd calmed down and thought about it rationally, reality had become obvious.
An Ice Giant was a B-Class monster.
Not just any monster either, but a mid-boss.
Even if it was already dead and all I had was its remains, the hardness of its body wasn't something a rookie Awakened like me could casually work with.
It's not like I can sculpt with a sword.
The kind of ice carving you could do with a sword mostly involved cutting straight lines or shaving broad curves.
But I wasn't planning to merely trim off corners.
I wanted to carve irregular, natural shapes.
Using a sword for that would be ridiculous.
Not to mention, I'd never properly held a sword in my life.
Even if someone handed me a blade as long as my upper body, there was no guarantee I'd be able to control it.
In the end, I'd need to turn my carving tools into items strong enough to at least scratch monster materials.
And I would also need to raise my own physical stats to a certain degree.
So that Hunter who sculpted as a hobby wasn't posing with a longsword and dagger in front of his monster-material sculpture just to look cool.
I suddenly remembered an SNS post I'd seen a long time ago.
The man had stood proudly in front of his work with a longsword in one hand and a dagger in the other.
At the time, I'd thought he was simply advertising the fact that he was a Hunter sculptor.
Apparently, he'd had no other choice.
After thinking for a moment, Shin Ha-gyeon nodded lightly.
"What are your current stats? You can leave out Mana. Just Stamina, Strength, and Agility."
"Stamina 5, Agility 3, Strength 8."
"Since your skill is production-type, your physical stats are slightly below average. I assume your Mana is fairly high."
"Huh? Ah... yes. Something like that."
The real reason was my special stat, Aura.
But I didn't mention it.
If Aura only affected works after I used Pygmalion on them, I might have considered telling him after seeing the enthusiasm of my new fan.
But Aura had become something much more important.
It was practically the final piece that completed my sculptures.
And the man sitting in front of me was someone who claimed he'd become my fan after seeing one of those sculptures.
Magicians don't explain every trick to the audience after the show.
It was a trade secret.
"Raising your physical stats is a good idea. In the Hunter industry, sometimes fists come before the law."
"What?"
"Sang-hyeon would probably tell you that obtaining a high-rank license would also be useful as a marketing tool."
"...I can see why."
"For most people, a Hunter's license rank is the simplest way to understand their capabilities."
Shin Ha-gyeon explained that most people looked at a Hunter's license rank first when judging them.
License rank was determined by combining skill rank, achievements, and stats.
The exact criteria were known only to the Hunter Association.
Most Hunters simply guessed that it was based on things like how high-ranked someone's skill was, the rarity of the achievements listed in their System window, and the overall level of their stats.
