Chapter 533: Mirror Lake (3)

As I wished, what Benignore had said about the darkness and other things had already been deeply instilled inside the minds of the empire’s party members and the public citizens.

Of course, the public wasn’t aware that I could freely change to Doom Kiyoung if I wanted, but the party members seemed to have noticed. However, to be precise, I was the one who hinted at it so they could know.

I wasn’t as direct as saying, ‘I can change to Doom Kiyoung. I will change to Doom Kiyoung now’ then summoning my mask.

With a lot of insecurity, I revealed the possibility that I might be able to change to my other form while maintaining my mind. As I said that, Kim Hyunsung and the other guild member’s faces darkened.

After that, I didn’t necessarily have to lead them to fill in the rest of the blanks. Considering that I wasn’t even sure about the situation, they made a couple of speculations amongst themselves.

If I summarized the speculations, they were basically the following:

1. Lee Kiyoung could change from mythic-grade class ‘Light Alchemist’ to the same mythic-grade class ‘Plaguelord of Darkness.’

1. The condition for that change was his mind being impacted negatively to the point that it would cause a great strain on his mind. In such a state, he would transform.

1. It was possible to change from ‘Light Alchemist’ to ‘Plaguelord of Darkness,’ but to revert, help from the goddess was needed.

2. If he used too much power as the Plaguelord of Darkness or used his power for too long, there was a strong chance that his mind might become completely dominated by the darkness like last time.

3. At the moment, there was no proper cure for the curse. The only solution was to take care of Lee Kiyoung’s mental health.

That was about it.

It was what I exactly wanted, and the condition and solutions were perfect clichés.

My character’s complexity increased due to the detail that my mind got a bit tainted the more I used my powers. That also restrained Jung Hayan and other troublemakers from acting recklessly.

The more I felt negative thoughts, the more I lost my sanity.

I was sure that they were starting to plan various events to care for my mental health. I bet the picnic was also an event to evoke positive emotions in me.

It also perfectly aligned with Kim Hyunsung’s desire to give the other guild members a bit of rest, but I didn’t think it would be that helpful for me.

When I looked back, I saw an enormous ship.

A ship.

It wasn’t just a boat. It was a ridiculous sight to see a large ship being pulled by a carriage.

I thought I might get used to such a ridiculous sight after a while, but I still couldn’t get used to it even after some time passed.

Looking at my shocked expression, Park Deokgu spoke proudly to tell me the same story he already told me so many times before.

“We made it in our spare time. Do you remember when we once made a boat next to one of the tutorial dungeons?”

“I remember, but… wasn’t it much smaller? You can’t even say that ’that’ is a boat.”

“Well, I did boat-making as a hobby, and now I reached this level. I borrowed a big workshop in Lindel, and as I kept making this, the scale got bigger and bigger. And Ah-young also came at the right time and was a big help.”

“But still…”

“You will never imagine how much money I poured into that one boat, hyung-nim.”

‘Of course, I wouldn’t know, you bastard.’

“Jeong-yeon-ssi has helped us in various ways and did the last remaining details on the boat, so you will probably be surprised by the number of hidden options it has.”

‘ Shit, it sure looks like it.’

The empire’s best blacksmith, best craftsman, Yoo Ah-Young, and the empire’s most knowledgeable magic scholar Hwang Jung-Yeon all worked on that “boat.”

Moreover, boat master Park Deokgu poured his passion and sweat into it, so it would have been basically impossible for the boat not to become a masterpiece.

[Checking information on Mythic-level item ‘Nice Boat’]

[Nice Boat – Mythic Grade]

[The Nice Boat is a masterpiece made by the master blacksmith, magic scholar, craftsman, and shield of belief.

The enormous boat couldn’t be merely described as a transportation vessel but a valuable art piece made from magical monsters’ bones, skulls, leather, and light magic.

Every single part of the boat had strong magic instilled in it, and it was able to withstand any waves or wind.

It could even withstand a dragon’s breath while all of its passengers received continuous buff and energy from it.

It also has the option to go underwater for a certain amount of time, and…]

I didn’t need to keep reading. The most important thing was that Park Deokgu had just made a very scary item.

Even from just a glance, I could see that it was made from monsters and extremely rare items. My jaw dropped at the puzzling scene. How could I not be shocked while looking at that?

All the boat creators seemed really pleased with themselves, seeing as they couldn’t stop talking about it.

“After Lindel got destroyed, I thought our work might have also been destroyed, but thankfully, it’s fine.”

‘Ah-young, f**k, it says on the description box that it can withstand a dragon’s breath. Also, it’s covered head to toe with magical monsters’ skin and was stored deep in our basement; of course, it’s going to be fine.’

“During that untimely event, we didn’t get to work the boat, so it didn’t get verified as an item yet. After you woke up, Park Deokgu used up all his spare time to finish it, saying that he wanted it finished before we were to go off to the Mirror Lake.”

“Actually, I didn’t do much. No matter how I look at it, we were able to finish thanks to Jeong-yeon-ssi. If she didn’t establish the foundation with her magic in the beginning, we wouldn’t even be able to make the boat this big.”

“But we were able to finish thanks to you, Deokgu-ssi. While you were sweating so much, you finished it up inch by inch. Vice Guild Master, you don’t know how much care he put to each nail.”

‘I know, so stop bragging about your boyfriend.’

“Wow… that’s amazing.”

“With this boat, we can rest assured in any lake or ocean. In the first place…”

‘In the first place, that’s not an item you simply use on a lake.’

“I thought the scale might have been too big for just a hobby of mine, but now that it has been finished, I feel very pleased. At first, I just wanted to bring you and Hayan on board, but somehow it turned out like this.”

Park Deokgu’s friend and partner, Ahn Ki-mo, also joined in.

“I bet we’re the only ones in the empire to possess this kind of boat. I also heard that even empires that are known for shipbuilding don’t have a boat anywhere near its quality. From what I know, shipbuilders and ship-building-related magazines are requesting information on this boat… Am I right?

“I did get some requests, but I’m not going to let out information about our guild’s private property carelessly. I even turned away requests from art magazines that wanted to talk about the designs on the boat. There are even people telling me to sell the boat, but this boat is like a kid to me.”

“If you do sell it, you will become very rich….”

“You are right, Ye-ri-ssi. But it’s a priceless item to me, so selling it would…”

“Humph! There’s a lot of different reasons. However, the main reason is that I already decided on who’s going to be the boat’s master.”

“…”

“…”

“In the first place, I built this boat for Kiyoung-hyung and Hayan-nunim. From the design and structure, I planned to use this as a gift.”

Jung Hayan, who clung tightly to my arm like a cicada, reacted for the first time because of that statement She opened her eyes wide, and her delighted face began to make me nervous.

“Actually, I didn’t… hmph… want to make it known like this, but since everyone is here, I will say it. Lee Kiyoung-nim, here. Take the master key.”

“Ah, ugh… okay, thanks.”

“It wasn’t in my plan for everyone to use it during the first time it’ll embark, but I hope you and Hayan-nunim use it to travel around different places.”

Jung Hayan looked more eager than I was as she nodded her vigorously, and she began to whisper in my ear.

“W-with this, w-we can go on our honeymoon. Somewhere far, far away.”

‘But you can teleport…’

“Okay, now, everyone clap! Clap!”

“Congratulations, Vice Guild Master.”

“C-Congratulations, Miss Jung Hayan.”

“Congratulations, Kiyoung-ssi.”

The assassin Kim Chang-Ryul, black magician Han Sora, and even Kim Hyunsung sent their congratulations due to the following order.

Everyone’s reactions were pretty much the same. It seemed as if many people were surprised by the generosity of Park Deokgu’s gift. Kim Hyunsung had on an expression as if he was determined not to lose, but he did seem happy for me overall.

The last time I was in that kind of lively atmosphere felt so long ago.

I couldn’t remember how long it had been since all the guild members gathered together like that, laughing and talking with each other.

In the past, we used to at least spend time in the same way after going through a dungeon. We would set up a huge campfire and drunk just until we felt giddy.

As our guild got bigger and busier, we lost the ability to do things like that. Since it had been so long, no person wore a dark expression.

Elena and Sun Hee-young played chess inside the carriage, and Kim Changryul was reading a book in the corner as usual.

Han Sora was sitting as far apart as she possibly could from Jung Hayan and playing a board game with Kim Ye-ri.

Kim Hyunsung and Cho Hyejin sipped wine, laughed, and chatted at the mini-bar.

It had certainly been a while since we all relaxed together. Not even considering the ‘Nice Boat’ I just got, I couldn’t help feeling happy. It felt like we were just a normal group of friends having fun, doing different things, in a local pub.

‘So peaceful.’

I thought it might be a ‘calm before the storm’ situation, but I couldn’t help but enjoy the moment.

The view outside was beautiful and watching my guild members relax and have fun made me feel that way even more.

The carriage was not fast, but the Mirror Lake wasn’t far off either. Everyone was beginning to look excited since we were going to reach our destination soon.

It wasn’t only Park Deokgu and Jung Hayan who were singing eagerly for Mirror Lake.

At the time when we were almost at our destination…

While we were talking about various topics such as past stories of our journey and then finally going back to talking about the Nice Boat in the back, Ahn Ki-mo, who usually talked a lot, spoke.

“Hmmm, if we had the chance, it will be nice to go to the ocean.”

Deokgu replied, “I’m also a bit regretful, but the Mirror Lake won’t be so different. It’s so big that some people usually mistake it as an ocean.”

“But you know, I had an image of fighting against the ocean wind and going through the harsh currents. It’s been my dream since I was a kid to imagine myself in a pirate boat or fight as a shipping crew. Most of the places here have already been discovered, though, so I doubt we can go on a proper shipping adventure…”

“Hmmm…”

“If it was up to me, I want to use this ship to go to a dungeon.”

“Is that possible?”

“Yes, for high-level dungeons, the map of their location can completely change. The horror garden recorded in the Blue diary was actually something like that. A dungeon found a few years ago was discovered to be on top of the water.”

“Wow, it must have been a dilemma.”

“Yes, they had to make a lot of sacrifices, and completing the dungeon took about half a year, but with this kind of item, it won’t be a pipe dream for us to complete dungeons like that. We might even find similar dungeons in Mirror Lake.

“Well, that would be great, but that’s not the purpose of our trip. It doesn’t make sense that a tourist spot like Mirror Lake would have that kind of dungeon. Even if you don’t say that, I’m sure Kiyoung-nim would take this item out to the ocean anyway.”

“Hahahaha. I guess I just spouted out some meaningless wishes. Then we will be in your care, Vice Guild Master.”

‘Wow, it’s been a while since the plush bastard made a sound argument.’

How could he say such a sound argument? It was not like him to speak so seriously too.

‘Ahn Ki-mo, you’re too imaginative.’

Pirates and sea adventures were so out of fashion…

Kim Ye-ri kind of looked excited due to those words, but most of the adults couldn’t understand her imaginative wishes. A dungeon hidden inside of Mirror Lake… It made me chuckle that he had such a cute thought with that stern face of his. However…

It did not take long for my thought to change in a couple of seconds.

“Kiyoung-nim, I think we’ve just entered a dungeon….”

“…”

“…”

Even Kim Hyunsung looked completely lost.

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