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chapter-43

Our Rookie King Has Changed (3)

When he woke up, Kang Shin-hyuk’s consciousness was once again in that cramped workshop. He couldn’t recall how many times he had seen the blacksmith’s memories in a dream by now.

-Janus’s whisper: Anvil, is it a little challenging to control your emotions?

-Noisy.

Words and actions that he could not control; a flow of thoughts that were simultaneously his own and someone else’s went through his mind. He could feel them all so realistically before they slipped away. He no longer felt uncomfortable with it, wondering if that was because he was getting used to that sense of unity with Anvil.

-Janus’s whisper: Still, you’re making more and more these days. Yes, it feels like I’m invincible with these armless armaments. Oh my, I’m laughing too hard! Hahahaha!

-I will block you.

-Janus’s whisper: Wait, I was wrong! I just wanted to compliment Grandpa on a talent you wouldn’t find even by searching the whole world!

Janus was talking intimately with Anvil, who felt as if the hammer had become lighter as he conversed.

-I should call you Grandpa; you must be older.

-Janus’s whisper: You’re Grandpa because you use such an old tone of voice! The title follows the spirit.

The relationship between the two was particularly good, or rather, Janus was oddly interested in him. He didn’t express his emotions very well, but Janus would still laugh and be happy despite that.

-Tsukuyo’s whisper: Ah, Anvil. The armor you made today was even better.

Meanwhile, Tsukuyo was even stranger, sending him messages that made it almost sound like they loved him.

-Tsukuyo’s whisper: I want to meet you soon. If only the barriers between us disappeared, I would run to meet you right away.

No, rather, Kang Shin-hyuk thought that they definitely loved him.

-What a useless idea. I am only a filthy old man.

-Tsukuyo’s whisper: No way! When I close my eyes, I can imagine how wonderful you look. Alas, I want to meet you soon.

Anvil regarded Tsukuyo as a strange person, just as Shin-hyuk did upon seeing his memories, but he figured it was just her own way of expressing herself.

-Tsukuyo’s whisper: Are you a VIP yet? If you aren’t, you will definitely be one soon!

He didn’t know what a VIP was, so he responded carefully.

-When the time comes, I will be.

-Tsukuyo’s whisper: Huh…well, I’ll be waiting until then, Anvil.

Mixing with the cheerful sound of his hammering, Tsukuyo’s message appeared in his retina.

-Tsukuyo’s whisper: Until then.

Kang Shin-hyuk opened his eyes wide. It seemed like the message was still there, causing him to shudder, but then a familiar message instead covered his eye.

-You received 1 Roulette coin for today’s log in bonus.

“Phew…good thing, that was kind of scary…” He stood up from his bed, trembling. That was the first time he had a real memory of Tsukuyo. The last time she sent a message he couldn’t understand, he got quite nervous.

“If possible, I shouldn’t get involved…”

-Tsukuyo’s whisper: Hey, you. If you claim to be Anvil, why aren’t you even posting any items on the trading board?

As soon as he thought about it, she sent him a whisper. Maybe she had the ability to spy on him? Kang Shin-hyuk thought deeply about whether he should ignore her or not, but there was what she was saying about him erasing his ID.

-I’m a lot different than the person you remember, but I was planning on posting some soon anyway.

Tsukuyo didn’t answer, but ultimately, Shin-hyuk didn’t care about it and instead went to the huge bag he had in the corner of the room. Onyx, having risen earlier, was whining and slammed his head against it.

“Hey, I gave you something to eat.”

-Myu!

“No, how…alright, I got it.” Kang Shin-hyuk decided to throw out the lowest grade item he had in the bag to Onyx. Although it was still a D class artifact, despite being the lowest grade. Onyx raised his voice in joy and began to eat excitedly.

-Myuuu!

“I can’t live like this.” No matter how much he had grown, he still couldn’t produce artifacts as Anvil had. He had stayed in Kieron for more than three weeks, hammering away the entire time, but in the end, he was only able to create three artifacts aside from the Brenite Spear and the Trap. One of them was just eaten by Onyx, so he only had two left.

“I don’t think I’ll use the trap much in practice anyway, so let’s put that on the trading board.” There was no trap in his inventory, so he wondered if he had accidentally taken it out while organizing yesterday and forgotten about it. He wasn’t as careful with it as he was the Godslayer sword.

“But, it’s not even in the bag…?”

-Myuuu!

“Hey!” In the end, Onyx confirmed he had eaten it yesterday. Shin-hyuk couldn’t forgive him so easily, picking him up and pinching his nose.

-Myu!!!

“…uh?” The next moment, Onyx’s body became transparent. Onyx, who had escaped his hand while he was surprised, screamed and began to roll around.

-Myu! Myu!

“But you were the one in the wrong. Even if it seemed like delicious food to you, it is an object that can help me in an important moment. Are you really not going to reflect on it?”

-Myuu…

As Shin-hyuk lowered his voice, Onyx curled up and laid his thorns down in reflection. He was sincerely asking for forgiveness for his inability to overcome his appetite. He didn’t appear to have any malice in him, and he hadn’t touched the really valuable artifacts. He was just like a child, unable to control himself in front of food.

“…It’s my fault for going about this the wrong way.”

-Myu?

“But I won’t forgive you again. If you want to keep eating delicious things, do better next time.”

-Myu!

Satisfied with his answer, he let Onyx crawl up his shoulder as his anger began to cool. He decided to check in on Onyx’s status while he was at it.

[Onyx: D Rank]

[Physical ability]

Power: E

Agility: C

Health: D-

[Special ability]

Gold Magic: E+

[Skill]

Iron Predation (S+): D-

Implementation (SS): F+

Defensive Position: C

Stealth (A): F

[State]

Loyalty to Kang Shin-hyuk: 58

“What…?” He assumed the statuses rose due to eating the artifact, but he also acquired a surprising skill- Stealth. That must have been from him eating the trap and was how he became transparent in his hand. Ultimately, Shin-hyuk was sure it wasn’t a bad thing that Onyx was growing.

‘An A-rank skill from eating a C-class artifact is also a steal.’ Artifacts, no matter how good they were, were just objects that retained skills. Kang Shin-hyuk pinched Onyx’s nose a little again to confirm his pledge that he would never eat another artifact without permission again.

“Okay, then…” He posted the two remaining artifacts on the trading board: an ordinary longsword and a shield he had put his heart into making after seeing the Heroic Shield. He was embarrassed because the sword was D+ rank, and the shield was C-, but he thought it was better than nothing.

“Then, what would you like to do?”

-Vwoom

The will of the Heroic Shield was weak, probably due to being used as bait for so long. Its will had been strong when they fought the monster, but like an old man waiting for death after his final wish had been fulfilled, that will had gradually weakened since then.

-Vwoom

The Godslayer hummed this time, offering the idea of accepting the Heroic Shield. Shin-hyuk was silent for a moment, considering this as he stroked the Heroic Shield.

“What do you think?”

-Vwoom

It was a weak affirmative. Kang Shin-hyuk shook his head and held the shield in his arms, but it only cried out louder. He couldn’t understand it, the difference between humans and armaments being too wide for him to cross.

“It’s enough for you just to be here. Why do you need to prove your worth?”

-Vwowoom

The shield appeared to harden its mind, and the Godslayer sword became quiet as it read Shin-hyuk’s intent. He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh as he unsheathed the sword.

“Damn it.”

-Vwoom

“Sorry…and thank you.” He thought about what he should do but had come too far to pretend he didn’t know what needed to be done. Shin-hyuk raised the sword high and brought it down upon the shield. It was sucked into the sword without breaking, and he felt a strange emotion welling up inside of him as he watched the Heroic Shield vanish.

-The Godslayer sword ate the Heroic Shield and regained some of its strength as the shield had a large amount of spiritual power. It will take a considerable amount of time to fully digest the power of a strong armament.

Perhaps this was the moment the dimensional quest truly ended. Kang Shin-hyuk thought this with a bitter smile as he sheathed the sword.

***

The second group training happened after school the next day. Kang Shin-hyuk brought his javelin, and Karen brought her bow, but Baek In-ha and Do Woojin had nothing in hand. Shin Eunah calmly evaluated all of them.

“The bow is difficult to master.”

“I’ve practiced with it before, and I have the ability to strengthen my nervous system, so I am quick. Additionally, Shin-hyuk is good at handling all types of weapons and has enough skill to keep in check the oncoming monsters.”

“…” Kang Shin-hyuk thought Karen had a good response, but Shin Eunah stared at her as if to decide that she didn’t like her. Kang Shin-hyuk felt embarrassed, choosing to speak up first.

“What if we try some target practice?”

“Okay.”

Shin Eunah fiddled with a hologram device installed into the multipurpose room, and several targets popped up into the air near one side of the room. This was a state-of-the-art training facility that could detect actual blows with sensors. Karen pulled back to an appropriate distance and then began to fire her bow. The result was five hits out of five, and Kang Shin-hyuk couldn’t help but nod.

“What about that?”

“Next, let’s make it move.”

“Ugh.” It was natural that they wouldn’t be dealing with a stationary object. Shin Eunah manipulated the hologram again, and Karen, now less confident, could only hit four out of the five.

“You missed too much. But first, we should move on to measuring damage. The key is how much damage can be done to a D-class monster with your arrows.”

“I’m confident when it comes to my magic control!” As she had claimed, she successfully shot successive arrows with enough mana to complete the task. It was a difficult technique to keep enough magical power in a ranged weapon like an arrow or bullet. Kang Shin-hyuk softly applauded her skill and wondered if he could make a bow for himself instead, but Shin Eunah sounded even stricter.

“No matter how good your magic control is, if you miss an important shot, it’s over. If you really plan to carry a bow, practice until your accuracy is at least ninety-five percent. That’s the condition for your practice.”

“That’s tougher than being a special shooter…”

“Until you can, practice.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Shin Eunah’s bitter expression finally sunk into Karen as Shin-hyuk wondered how a British student knew about the Korean army’s special shooting conditions. Next up was Kang Shin-hyuk, who Shin Eunah regarded with a softer expression.

“The javelin has a big range of movement, can you manage it?”

“Yes, non-stop.” The javelin needed the weight of the entire body behind it to be incredibly powerful. Certainly, an ordinary person or even a trained thrower would feel the burden of repeating such a movement multiple times. However, Kang Shin-hyuk was hardly the same person he had been a short while ago. His physical strength had increased to B, even though it was still negative. It was of a level that could produce severely destructive power and speed without needing the use of the whole body. Added to that was his D-rank regenerative power, which helped his muscles recover from fatigue more than twice as fast.

“Then prove it.”

“Yes.” He proved it wasn’t too difficult, throwing much faster than Karen, who was practicing with her arrows. She stopped to run over and check on him after a while, concern ridden on her face.

“Shin-hyuk, is your shoulder okay? You were really throwing them. Like consecutively.”

“I’m fine.”

“Wow, that was cool. I need to pick up the pace myself.”

“Karen Stringfield, go back to training.”

“Yes!”

“And Kang Shin-hyuk, you’ve passed. Let’s think about how to work in sync with the other members in a real-world scenario.”

“Okay.” Shin Eunah passed on her decision without hesitation, skipping Baek In-ha, who was waiting with an open heart and went right to Do Woojin.

“What are you planning on doing?”

“I’m planning on learning a provocation skill.”

“A skill stone?”

“Yes, I learned it recently.” A skill stone was a crystal that forcibly awakened a skill, and it was an extremely rare type of mana stone possessed by a monster. The vast majority of them had a ridiculously expensive price range, and just possessing one wasn’t enough to obtain the corresponding skill. Depending on the compatibility with other skills, it was possible to fail acquiring the skill but still destroy the stone. However, Do Woojin was an obvious tank type with matching characteristics, so the probability of him successfully acquiring a provocation skill was high.

“You’re going to bring the enemy to the ground with your provocation.”

“There will be some enemies who attack with range, but the other two can deal with them.”

“You spent money instead of using your head?”

“I’m not confident in my ability to fight at a range. Rather than taking the clumsy way, I decided to force the enemy into my territory.”

“That’s also a good answer, but I can’t allow it until I check the level of provocation. I’ll bring equipment tomorrow, so train yourself until then.”

“Thank you.” Do Woojin looked proud, happy to be recognized by Shin Eunah.

“Okay, everyone is starting off in the right direction. Train on your own, and tomorrow I will educate you about simple formations in the dungeon.”

“Uh, ma’am. What about me? I haven’t shown off my ranged abilities yet!” Baek In-ha raised his hand high, and Shin Eunah replied with a profound feeling that conflicted with her expressionlessness.

“Do you need to?”

“Please!”

“Yes, then…” Shin Eunah opened a window with her telekinesis and then launched a can of coffee out of her bag into the sky. It soared out of the window, quickly becoming a distant point.

“If you catch that, you will pass.”

“Okay!” Surprisingly, the next moment Baek jumped through the window that was clearly narrower than him and soared into the sky. Shin-hyuk thought it was a speed-based ability, but it was like even his body had transformed. His eyes were open wide in amazement as Shin Eunah handed each of them a can of coffee.

Only

“Everyone worked hard. Good job.”

“Uh…thank you…?”

“What about Baek?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll be heading off on my own.” Shin-hyuk decided not to mention it as the rest of them disbanded and decided to head to the club room without waiting.

[Don’t forget about tomorrow.]

[Baek In-ha: Oh yeah!]

He sent him a text message and received an immediate reply. In the end, he decided not to worry about it.