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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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“What kind of designated request?”
Jeong Yoo-shin asked again.
Although his promotion was imminent, they were still officially a novice party.
“So what’s the content? Who made the request? Honestly, we’re not at the level where we’d receive designated requests.”
“Just listen. The request came from the Temple of the Wind Elemental God.”
Jeong Yoo-shin crossed his arms at Iron Mask’s reply.
The Temple of the Wind Elemental God.
He had heard that it was somewhere in the Central District. He had never been there before.
It was also the temple Luke Wiseman and Simus belonged to.
“You don’t seem pleased.”
Iron Mask observed Jeong Yoo-shin quietly and commented.
Jeong Yoo-shin rubbed his eyes with two fingers.
“It’s a bit… concerning. We’re barely scraping by as intermediate-rank explorers, and suddenly we receive a designated request. It’s only natural to be suspicious.”
Mars, the rat beast-person, frowned in agreement.
“Skar is right. Priests are scary! They wear creepy underwear!”
Jeong Yoo-shin turned to look at Kubo.
The dwarf priest was drinking from a wooden mug, oblivious to their conversation.
“Kubo, don’t you have anything to say?”
“What’s there to say? Like Iron Mask said, if we don’t like it, we can refuse. Don’t overthink it.”
Jeong Yoo-shin stroked his chin and leaned back on his chair.
“I guess so.”
“We don’t know the details of the request or the reward yet. We’ll have to meet with them and discuss it. And Skar, we’re going for our promotion tomorrow. Will you be joining us?”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Good.”
The party wrapped up their brief meeting and spent the rest of the time chatting about what had happened during the festival.
They lost track of time while laughing and joking.
Finally, their drinking party ended in the evening.
The party members left the inn, slightly drunk.
“Say, doesn’t Skar seem a bit brighter now?”
Kubo muttered as they walked down the street.
“Indeed, the usual venom in his expression seems to have dissipated.”
Iron Mask replied with a smile.
“Hmm… I’m not sure. Something… Something smells dangerous.”
Mars said while tilting his head.
Kubo nudged the guide’s shoulder.
“Mars, did you lose your mind in jail?”
“Tsk. Is that so? I don’t know.”
Mars scratched his head.
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Early the next morning, Jeong Yoo-shin finished his training with Karin and headed to the Explorer’s Guild with Iron Mask.
As they walked down the street while chatting…
He sensed strange glances directed at him.
Jeong Yoo-shin didn’t know, but Karin had been working tirelessly for the past week.
She had gathered the guard captain and the townspeople and pleaded with them to keep quiet.
The people who were indebted to Jeong Yoo-shin naturally complied. Or rather, they had already been keeping quiet. The scent was too vulgar for ordinary people to handle.
They were afraid that rumors would spread, and curious people would seek him out and suffer the consequences.
They also didn’t want to damage their benefactor’s reputation.
Karin hadn’t stopped there.
She had spent her own money to buy pheromone removers and made Jeong Yoo-shin consume them. Of course, it was true that they also had mana recovery properties.
And she had asked Anne to keep Jeong Yoo-shin busy in the kitchen for a week.
Thanks to her efforts, the pheromones on Jeong Yoo-shin’s body had faded considerably.
Only a few beast-people with keen noses flinched and touched their twitching noses.
Iron Mask nudged Jeong Yoo-shin.
“People are staring at you.”
“They’re the people I helped.”
Jeong Yoo-shin replied to Iron Mask and waved to the merchants in the distance.
The merchants waved back with awkward smiles.
“You’re quite popular.”
“I have a certain charm.”
Jeong Yoo-shin and Iron Mask arrived at the Explorer’s Guild in the Southern District.
The guild was bustling with explorers.
They waited in line for about 40 minutes before reaching the dog beast-person receptionist.
“Hello, Explorer. What can I do for… gasp?!”
The dog beast-person greeted them with a smile, then froze.
“What’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing. Whimper.”
As soon as the dog beast-person receptionist smelled the scent emanating from the black-haired man, her thighs involuntarily clenched, and her heart began to race.
‘Wh-Why…?’
Unable to answer her own question, the dog beast-person tilted her head.
There was something dangerous and lewd hidden within the scent. She felt like she could figure it out if she sniffed more deeply, but her body instinctively recoiled.
“W-What can I… do for you?”
The dog beast-person asked while fidgeting.
“We’re here about our promotion. Here are our IDs.”
The dog beast-person took their IDs and nodded.
“S-Skar and Iron Mask, right? Please wait a moment.”
The dog beast-person stumbled away, entered an office, and then returned.
“H-Here are your silver cards. Congratulations, you are now intermediate-rank explorers. I’ll take your iron cards. And from now on, you can use the Explorer Headquarters in the Central District.”
“I see. But there’s no problem with continuing to use this guild, right?”
“Of course not. But half of the requests on our board are for novice explorers. Please keep that in mind.”
“Alright.”
The dog beast-person looked up at Jeong Yoo-shin with teary eyes, but Jeong Yoo-shin, overwhelmed with joy, didn’t notice.
‘Finally.’
He felt like he had conquered the world as he looked at the shiny silver card.
Iron Mask, on the other hand, carefully held his silver card as he turned it over in his hands.
Jeong Yoo-shin smiled and patted Iron Mask on the shoulder.
“Why the long face?”
“Skar, can you see my face behind my mask?”
“Of course not.”
“I see.”
Iron Mask chuckled and continued.
“Kubo and Mars will have to wait for a few days for their promotion. We should hear the details of the request for now and relay them to the other party members.”
“How long does it usually take to be promoted?”
“Our promotion was processed quickly because the Explorer’s Guild wasn’t busy due to the festival. It usually takes well over a week.”
“If Mars hadn’t groped that priestess’ ass, we could have finished it quickly.”
“He didn’t grope her ass. He pulled down her panties. That’s actually more difficult. He’s quite skilled.”
“Was that a joke?”
“No.”
Jeong Yoo-shin stared at Iron Mask for a moment.
He was a good person. Unlike other royalty, he was down-to-earth and quick to gather information.
‘Where does he get all this information from?’
He was a bit curious.
“Skar, stop staring and make up your mind. Are you coming with me to hear about the request?”
“No, I’ll leave it to you this time. I need to prepare for the labyrinth. I have to repair my equipment and buy supplies.”
“Take your time and prepare only the essentials. What you need and how much will depend on the request.”
“Alright.”
Jeong Yoo-shin parted ways with Iron Mask, returned to the inn, gathered his money and equipment, and headed towards the Western District.
His destination was Boron’s smithy. He bought a bottle of alcohol on the way.
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Boron stared at the pieces of metal with trembling eyes.
“Wh-What is this?”
“Armor?”
Boron stared blankly at Jeong Yoo-shin’s face at his reply.
“Crazy.”
Boron scooped up the metal fragments and held them up to Jeong Yoo-shin’s face.
“Does this even make sense? I’ve never seen anyone bring me scraps of metal and call it armor. Are you sure you were wearing this before? You didn’t just pick this up from a junkyard, right?”
“I was wearing it.”
Boron sat back down on his chair, dumbfounded.
“If your armor is this damaged, shouldn’t you be dead by now? How are you still alive?”
“Well, the weak Skar died, and the strong and awesome Skar was born.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“Cut the crap. Can you fix it or not? Just tell me.”
“You’re the one spouting nonsense. And I need the original to fix this. Even the god of blacksmiths couldn’t fix scrap metal. Just buy a new one.”
“You’ll give me a discount, right?”
“Huh. I heard you made a killing with those Cream Slime Bread. Buy something nice.”
The fame of the Cream Slime Bread had spread even to the Western District.
He was a bit surprised.
“The rumors have reached even here?”
“You’re famous. You’ve become quite popular.”
“Huh?”
What was he talking about?
“Didn’t you save the people in danger? Everyone who saw you fight was in awe.”
Jeong Yoo-shin smiled proudly.
They had good taste.
“Because I fought so well?”
“No.”
???
“Then?”
“You’re known as a venomous, hardcore fighter. You didn’t even flinch when your fingers were cut off. Some people even wet their pants as they watched you dance with a broken arm dangling uselessly.”
“The rumors are a bit exaggerated. Some people are just faint-hearted.”
“But it’s true that you fought like that, right? You pinned a guy to the ground with a sword, didn’t you?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Then it’s not an exaggeration, is it?”
“Let’s stop this. Just show me the armor blueprints.”
Jeong Yoo-shin followed Boron into a small room where several armor blueprints were spread out on a table.
‘Is there anything decent?’
He liked the plate armor blueprint, but it looked too heavy.
‘Wearing chainmail over a gambeson and then plate armor on top of that?’
Not bad.
But heavy equipment slowed you down and drained your stamina quickly.
‘I need to minimize the weight.’
He wanted versatile armor, although he primarily planned to enter the Forest area.
Jeong Yoo-shin clutched his head and groaned.
“Why is this taking so long?”
Boron entered while gulping down his alcohol.
Jeong Yoo-shin picked up the plate armor blueprint and showed it to Boron.
“Boron, this blueprint…”
“What about it?”
“Can you make it with fewer parts to reduce the weight?”
“Sure. How do you want it?”
Jeong Yoo-shin explained to Boron.
“For the shoulders, let’s go with separate spaulders and pauldrons.”
“You want thicker pauldrons with ridges so you can use your shoulder to block if you lose your shield, is that it?”
As expected of a blacksmith, he understood immediately.
“Yes. And a single-piece plate cuirass for the chest and back.”
“What about the lower body?”
“I’m thinking of wearing beast-person leather pants with metal greaves. I’ll keep the walker boots.”
“Your dick seems vulnerable.”
“…”
Did he always have to be so vulgar?
“I’m thinking of wearing a longer chainmail skirt.”
“And leather gauntlets reinforced with metal. Alright. If you had a bit more equipment, I’d think you were going to war. What about the helmet?”
Jeong Yoo-shin thought about his last fight. Too much blood and poison had splattered on him.
He had to minimize such inconveniences during battle.
“Show me what you have. The helmet I had last time was good, but things kept getting in my eyes.”
Boron stroked his beard.
“I have one I made. You can see it later. What about a shield?”
“A heater shield.”
“That seems too heavy.”
“It’ll be fine. Probably.”
His physical abilities had improved with his recent level up.
He calculated that he would be able to move around in the labyrinth for a longer period of time even with plate armor. He had also minimized the weight as much as possible.
No matter how light the armor, one wrong move could be fatal.
But if he wore heavy armor, he would run out of stamina fast.
He thought it was important to find a balance.
“What about weapons? You didn’t break your longsword, did you?”
“I’m keeping it safe. I’ll take two daggers and an arming sword.”
The dwarf nodded.
“Skar, did you make some money? You’re quite confident.”
“Ah…”
He hadn’t thought about the price as he was caught up in his explanation.
Jeong Yoo-shin spoke slowly.
“…How about we settle for three gold coins for everything?”
Boron’s eyes bulged.
“Are you crazy?! Do you have no conscience?! I… I think I’m dreaming.”
The dwarf placed his hand on his forehead and swayed.
“Then let’s make it four gold coins.”
The dwarf slumped to the ground.
“Why don’t you just take everything for free?! Even thieves have more decency.”
“Come on. I helped you a lot when you were struggling.”
“Now that I’ve gained some weight, you’re going to eat me alive?”
“Let’s just make it five gold coins. A win-win situation.”
“Huh…!”
The dwarf tugged at his beard as if he wanted to rip it out.
“Chainmail alone costs three gold coins!”
“…Huh?”
He had only spent one gold coin and 25 silver coins on his light armor last time.
“Why is chainmail so expensive?”
“Why? Because it’s labor-intensive!”
“Even so…”
“The cuirass and shoulder armor are also plate armor. The price is different from your previous leather armor with the small metal plates.”
“So, what’s a reasonable price?”
“Six gold coins for everything.”
“…”
It was about five times more than what he had spent last time.
Jeong Yoo-shin thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Let’s do that.”
Boron’s jaw dropped.
“…You’re not even going to haggle? You’re giving in so easily?”
Jeong Yoo-shin smiled gently and handed over his pouch of gold coins.
“It’s armor that protects my life. Haggling over the price seems petty. Here you go.”
The dwarf took the pouch with a dazed expression, as if in a dream.
“…Then why did you put on that whole act?”
“My old self resurfaced for a moment.”
“What does that even…? Never mind. I don’t want to know. Come back in five days. Are you taking the weapons now?”
“No. I’ll take everything at once. By the way, where’s Einhorfer?”
“He’s on vacation.”
“I see. Then I’ll see you later.”
“Y-Yeah.”
Boron watched Jeong Yoo-shin leave the smithy and scratched his sparse hair.
“What’s wrong with him? They say people die when they change suddenly.”
Boron, still bewildered, lifted the bottle of alcohol to his lips and took a long swig.
“Sigh. Nonsense. I should get back to work.”
At the peak of summer…
In the sweltering heat of the smithy…
The dwarf picked up his hammer.
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T/N – Not much happened in this chapter. Just setting up for the next arc. I wonder what the designated request is about? The request coming from the temple Luke and Simus belongs to also seems suspicious.
Also, lol at the MC haggling for a moment. His Korean side came out to haggle before his chill side took over again.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
thx
Well in a sense something in Skar died.
Hmmm i see, i see. man i have much to catch up on