Chapter 15
Part 14
Splash.
Drop.
FWOOSH!
Yugeon poured the oil over Mincheol's hammer.
Then he touched the burning Godslayer Sword against it.
Flames erupted across the hammer.
“Oh!”
“Let's go.”
“Yes!”
Dash!
Yugeon kicked off the ground and entered the forest of vines.
“KIEEEEEK!”
The vines sensed the intruders.
They attacked from every direction like whips.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
A wall of thorny vines that an ordinary Awakener could never approach.
Yugeon did not stop.
Whirl.
SLASH!
The Godslayer Sword traced a clean path through the air.
Every incoming vine was cut apart.
Instead of dark red sap...
Flames erupted from their severed ends.
“Hup!”
Mincheol followed behind him.
Smaller branches struck Mincheol.
His shield and Steel Skin prevented any real damage.
CLANG! CLANG!
Ice thorns flew at him.
They bounced off without piercing his body.
Whenever an entire vine tried to coil around him...
Mincheol struck it with his burning hammer.
“Good. Let's speed up. Keep your eyes on my back and follow me.”
Swish.
What kind of movement is that...?
Yugeon's feet left no prints in the snow.
He moved smoothly and quickly as though sliding across ice.
Trackless Snow Steps.
Yugeon reached the tower and immediately began climbing.
Mincheol desperately followed, refusing to fall behind.
Before long...
They reached a height of ninety meters.
The observation deck was close.
Then...
RUMBLE!
The entire tower shook.
The observation deck windows shattered.
Something gigantic burst out.
A huge eye.
Nearly three meters in diameter.
It floated in the air, hanging from countless vein-like strands.
[Lv. 21] Abyss Watcher
Its pupil glowed red.
It stared directly at Yugeon and Mincheol.
At the same time...
A piercing ringing sound invaded their minds.
[Intruders... have... no future...]
A mental attack.
The Abyss Watcher read an intruder's brainwaves.
Then it showed them the most horrifying future imaginable through hallucinations.
Many victims ended up killing themselves.
“AAAAAAAGH!”
Mincheol screamed.
He grabbed his head.
A horrifying vision filled his mind.
His mother.
Lee Hyeoksu cut her throat.
Then Han Yugeon abandoned Mincheol and walked away.
A future filled with absolute despair.
“No... Mom... Hyung...”
Mincheol's eyes became unfocused.
His grip on the tower railing loosened.
If he fell from here...
He would die instantly.
“CHA MINCHEOL! WAKE UP!”
A thunderous shout.
Yugeon's voice, filled with Inner Energy, slammed into Mincheol's ears.
“Gasp?!”
Mincheol suddenly regained his senses.
He tightly grabbed the railing again.
Cold sweat poured down his body.
“What... What did I just see...?”
“Its trick. Only look at my back.”
Yugeon glared at the gigantic eye floating ahead.
It was already using tricks from the beginning.
Normally...
The Abyss Watcher did not attack immediately.
At first, it watched with curiosity.
It waited quietly until an intruder approached.
But this time...
It had used a mental attack as soon as it appeared.
Probably because we cut through all the vines on the way here.
The monster's red pupil turned toward Yugeon.
[Your... death... I can see it...]
The Abyss Watcher produced a buzzing sound.
Then it forced a hallucination into Yugeon's mind.
Ding!
[Empty Mind has resisted the Abyss Watcher's hallucination.]
[Wh... at... is this...]
Yugeon smirked when the monster became confused.
“Too bad. That kind of bullshit doesn't work on me.”
Bzzzzzz.
Killing intent flowed from Yugeon's eyes.
Ding!
[You have activated Heaven-Annihilating One Sword.]
SLAAAAASH!
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Yugeon's sword moved.
An enormous sword aura cut through the Abyss Watcher instantly.
“Whoa...”
The sword aura continued forward.
It split even the sky.
Mincheol stared in amazement.
Yugeon had already reached the monster.
He looked at the severed creature.
“That's the future where you die.”
Whoosh.
A red crystal fell from the sky.
Yugeon quickly caught it.
[Item: Abyss Watcher's Eye]
Grade: Heroic
Type: Auxiliary Weapon
Reveals the target's weaknesses.
Allows the user to see one second into the future.
The description was extremely simple.
But the item's power was anything but simple.
“Hyung! Are you okay?”
Mincheol finally reached him and checked his condition.
“I'm fine. We got what we came for, so let's head down.”
“Already? Aren't we taking anything else?”
Various items were scattered around the observation deck.
Other Awakeners had probably reached this place in the past.
Some of the items even looked valuable.
“They're useless.”
They had been exposed to poison for too long.
Their durability was probably completely gone.
Worse...
The poison had seeped into the items themselves.
Just as objects in a radioactive area became contaminated with radiation.
“We're done here. And the next thing we need is down there.”
“Ah! Then let's go.”
Without hesitation...
Yugeon and Mincheol descended the tower.
Two blocks away from the TV Tower...
Among several half-collapsed commercial buildings...
One wooden structure remained strangely intact.
It stood at the edge of the Tanukikoji Shopping Street.
There was no sign.
Only the picture of a hammer.
An old blacksmith's workshop.
Step.
Step.
“Is this the place?”
Mincheol looked around when Yugeon stopped.
There was no sign.
Nothing explaining what kind of business it had been.
Yugeon grabbed the closed shutter.
CRACK!
He ripped it away and entered.
The interior was even colder than outside.
Poison and freezing air had remained trapped inside.
Everything was covered in white frost.
An anvil.
Tongs.
A quenching tub.
Blacksmithing tools remained abandoned beneath layers of ice.
And in the center...
A skeleton sat in front of the forge.
Even at the moment of death...
The blacksmith had apparently refused to release his hammer.
The skeletal hand still gripped the handle resting on the anvil.
“Did you know him?”
“No.”
But Yugeon knew his story.
He had heard about it in the future.
“He held onto his hammer until the end... He really was a craftsman.”
“Yes. He was considered Japan's greatest blacksmith. I heard that when the poison spread, he refused to flee because he wanted to complete his final masterpiece.”
Yugeon approached the skeleton.
He silently paid his respects.
Nationality did not matter.
A craftsman with that level of dedication deserved respect.
Yugeon carefully removed the hammer from the skeleton's hand.
Heavy.
An ordinary person would struggle to lift it with one hand.
Constellations had been engraved into the hammerhead.
The handle was made from dragon bone.
A faint light shone from it.
[Item: Star-Forging Hammer]
Grade: Mythic
Type: Enhancement Item
The gods engraved limits into every weapon from the moment it was created.
But one blacksmith believed even those limits could be shattered through his hammer.
When he delivered his final strike upon an old sword, the hammer broke apart.
And the sword gained a future that had never been decided.
[Unique Authority]
Can transform an item into a Growth-Type item.
“Found it.”
A smile appeared on Yugeon's face.
“Is that thing really that incredible?”
Mincheol looked curiously at the hammer.
It was not a weapon.
Only a craftsman's tool.
Yet Yugeon looked genuinely pleased.
“It's not an ordinary hammer.”
It had been forged from fragments of a meteor.
And what ability did it possess?
It could bring out the maximum potential hidden inside an item.
“More precisely, striking equipment with this turns it into a Growth-Type item.”
“W-What?! Growth-Type?!”
“Yes. Even if the item isn't Mythic grade now, it can become something capable of growing all the way to Mythic.”
Of course...
The hammer did not have unlimited uses.
Five.
It could only be used five times.
“An item like that actually exists...”
“I'm going to use it on your equipment.”
“On this shield?”
“No. Not that shield.”
Mincheol's current shield...
The Bastion Shield...
Was decent.
It would become much better if raised to Mythic grade.
But that was all.
It would only become decent.
Imagine using the Star-Forging Hammer on an ordinary scrap sword.
Then imagine raising that scrap sword all the way to Mythic grade.
Would it ever become equal to Yugeon's Godslayer Sword?
Of course not.
In other words...
The original item needed enough potential to deserve becoming Mythic.
“I'll replace your current shield later. That's when I'll use the hammer.”
“I think you should use all five chances on your own equipment instead of me...”
Mincheol scratched his head.
Why waste a chance to create Mythic-grade equipment on him?
He had already received far too much from Yugeon.
“Stop thinking pointless things. I can get Mythic items whenever I need them.”
Yugeon patted Mincheol's shoulder and began walking.
Star-Forging Hammer acquired.
He had now achieved two of his objectives in Sapporo.
The Abyss Watcher's Eye, which allowed him to see one second into the future.
And the Star-Forging Hammer, which could turn suitable equipment into Growth-Type items.
Two things remained.
“Two more. Once we find the remaining two, we're done here.”
Before leaving the workshop, Yugeon looked up.
Purple snow continued falling through the ruined ceiling.
“What are the other two items?”
“A lantern and a lotus.”
“A lantern? You mean something like that light over there?”
Mincheol pointed toward a light fixture attached to the wall of the shopping street.
Naturally...
It was dark.
After Sapporo was abandoned, electricity no longer reached this place.
