The 31st Piece Turns the Tables
chapter-100

Hamun was the first to react to Seol’s words.

“Could I take a look?”

“Sure.”

As the weapon proved to be slightly heavy, Karen carefully set it down on a suitable table for Hamun.

First, Hamun was in awe of Fire Serpent’s unique shape, and afterward, he was in awe of its material.

"This is undoubtedly fire spirit stone. The energy... the energy is concentrated in a remarkably unique manner. It seems I'll need to dedicate some time to studying this, as well."

“Then…”

Hamun continued while touching Fire Serpent.

“I will make Karen’s weapon.”

“How long will it take?”

“If all of my tools are still in their right places… roughly fifteen days.”

“Fifteen days… Understood.”

Since Seol had roughly twenty days until his next Adventure, it was plenty of time.

After finishing their business, Karen yawned while exiting Hamun’s smithy.

“Haah… It’s mostly solved now, right? What do we do next?”

“Next is to figure out where we’ll head next.”

In truth, Seol came to Nobira solely because of this problem.

His problem being that he didn’t know what to do for his next Adventure.

‘Is Chao… still here?’

Chao granted Seol three months to procure a particular sleeping medicine for her. Accepting her request, Seol ventured out and accomplished his mission.

However, on his way back to Nobira, he discovered that it was attacked and completely destroyed. As such, all of his plans went awry.

It was possible that Chao had also been swept up in that incident and had to change her plans.

‘Chao was Gregory’s disciple too… Is my connection to him going to disappear like this?’

Gregory was one of the three most influential Shadow Summoners of this age. He was notorious for his cruelty and ill-temperament, but he was more known for his exceptional skills. Consequently, few dared to defy him.

Furthermore, most of his disciples were known to be skilled individuals themselves.

‘It’s my first time hearing about Chao, though…’

Even for Seol, understanding Gregory's disciples’ exact number and individual strength was impossible unless he lived with them.

Even so, Seol had never heard about Chao. And as such, he grew curious.

‘Her powers were the real deal though… And what’s important right now isn’t whether Chao was Gregory’s disciple or not.’

The only important thing was whether Seol could find her.

“Is that why we’re here again?”

“It’s a familiar place, Master.”

“Huh? It’s not as destroyed as I thought it would be.”

Seol’s party arrived at the manor, a familiar place they had visited numerous times in search of Chao.

'Did this building survive the attack because it was on the outskirts?'

The manor stood there in silence, fully intact as it always was. When Seol first arrived, the place seemed ominous, but now, with the other buildings reduced to ashes, it appeared strangely pristine.

- Now, this is the real Diamond Hands…

- BECOMING THE BEST BUILDING BY DOING NOTHING???!!!

- When you look at it like this, it looks pretty nice haha

Seol’s party tried entering the building.

Click…

Click… Click…

It seemed Chao had fixed the door during that time. Now, it hung on its hinges normally.

“Should I break it again…”

“No, Karen,” said Karuna.

He gave her a serious look while stopping her.

Karen pouted before quickly following after Karuna.

- I feel so much better now.

- Phew, LOL Karuna, thanks for coming back!

Seol’s party then entered through the window in a carefree manner.

Slide…

The manor was the same as always.

The lobby still lacked the warmth of life.The only difference was that it was dustier than before.

Seol’s party left it as it was and headed to Chao’s research room.

Creak…

“Sigh…”

“It’s the same?”

“That was a waste of time.”

Everyone in Seol’s party was a bit disappointed with the unfortunate lack of progress.

They looked at the walls, hoping she would have left something behind, but it was still the same.

‘I should give up then.’

Seol realized that trying to meet Chao again in Nobira would be asking for too much.

Obviously, this would be the result as he had missed their promised time by a lot.

“Master.”

“Yeah?”

“Didn’t she tell you something else too?”

“She did. I’m pretty sure she said…”

- Once you come back, tie a white cloth on the pillar near the main door and come back here every midnight.

Those were the words that Chao had left for Seol.

She had told him to hang a white cloth on the pillar next to the main door.

“Why don’t we… wait just a bit more.”

That day, Seol tied a white cloth to a pillar.

And despite waiting all night, Chao didn’t arrive.

Seol’s party visited the manor every night, hoping for Chao’s return.

“Maybe… she was just playing with us, Master?”

Even Seol was starting to lose hope now, as there was no change.

Still, life in Nobira had definitely improved while Seol waited for Chao.

Though a lot of Nobira had burned down, even more things had been built on top of it in the city.

Seol was beginning to see transferees in the city, too.

“Hey, isn’t it practically an empty house now?”

“What is?”

“Ruins hunting. Isn’t it a blue ocean now that the people in charge are all gone? And more importantly… couldn’t monopolize everything like them if we’re the first to join?”

“It’s your first time in Nobira, isn’t it, you idiot?”

“Yeah, why, though?”

The man with a loud voice, who enthusiastically tried to persuade his partner to go ruins hunting, audible enough for Seol to overhear, promptly fell silent once his partner responded.

“The two of us won’t be enough to go ruins hunting. We need at least twenty people, archaeologists, porters, and hunters, to achieve anything. That’s why the transferees who first ended up here all ended up following after the other ruin hunters like little ducklings.”

“I’ll do ten people’s worth and you’ll do ten people’s worth. Wouldn’t that be enough?”

“You can’t even eat ten people’s worth, what makes you think you can do that?”

“Hm… then would it be better for the ruins hunters to return then?”

“If they’re still alive, then yeah. I’m sure a few of them survived and went to Kongory, though.”

“Ah, did you hear the news about Kibo being alive?”

“I did. Apparently, some transferees returned to Nobira because of that.”

“Why? What’s he like? Is it that important that he’s back? Why would the transferees come back?”

“Because if he returns, the ruins hunter groups would return, too. And they’d probably try to monopolize the Adventures that result because of him, no?”

It seemed like the news about Kibo losing both his legs hadn’t reached this far yet.

Seol stopped listening to their conversation and left the restaurant.

“Master, did you see that?”

“See what?”

“That bakery from back then! It’s reopened!”

“...Let’s buy some bread on our way back then.”

Karen nodded multiple times like a little child.

- She loves bread so much…

- Bread is important, though.

- Isn’t today the fifteenth day now?

Fifteen days.

While staying in Nobira, Seol did two things while performing maintenance on his equipment.

First was preparing the Adventures he would go on next in case he couldn’t meet Chao.

The second, obviously, was waiting for Chao at the manor.

And despite fifteen days passing, she had not arrived.

“We should give up. I know it’s a shame that we went all the way to Wet Fog Town because of her, but we also helped the people there, so it’s not the end of the world,” said Karen while tapping on Seol’s shoulders.

- Cheer up, dude.

- Straighten out that back! 😉

- Hang in there, buddy!

Seol was now headed to Hamun to see the results of his work.

Hamun notified Seol that the weapon was complete. So even though Seol was a bit disappointed by what happened with Chao, he headed to the smithy in good spirits.

“Hello.”

“Hamun.”

“The sword is complete.”

Seol looked behind Hamun.

A red sword was on a display stand.

Even at a glance, Seol could tell the red sword’s extraordinary energy.

This feeling…

He felt it recently before…

It was the same feeling he received when he looked at Fire Monkey, his cape.

‘Don’t tell me…’

Karen approached the red sword.

She slowly approached it, like she was possessed by something.

She then raised the sword, still in its scabbard.

“...It’s beautiful.”

“It wasn’t ordinary spirit stone either. I assume that it was acquired outside of the reach of humans.”

Click!

Unsheathe…

A clear sound rang while Karen unsheathed the sword.

The blade had become thinner. Surprisingly, the sword emanated a considerable amount of energy, surpassing expectations set by its unassuming decorations.

‘It’s hot.’

Seol could feel the heat emanating from the sword even though all he did was watch Karen.

He could feel its intense heat despite the cool air.

Karen observed the sword for a while, like she liked it, before sheathing it back.

Click.

She then handed it to Seol.

[You have acquired ‘Peerless: Flare’.]

[You have acquired an item that didn’t exist in the world previously.]

[[Peerless: Flare]

Quality: Peerless

Recommended Level: 20-30

Damage: 100-115

Durability: 220/220

Weight: 3.0kg

A sword birthed through the meeting of the sword that Karen, the Red Lotus Knight, used and the miracle of Hamun, Orgo’s Successor. It has been enhanced through melting down the weapon that Magra, the Scorching, used, Fire Serpent. The sword's power has improved to another level through the infusion of the blood of an ominous existence and fire spirit stone.

Basic Effect: +28 Strength, +25 Dexterity, +35 Constitution, +8 to All Stats

Bonus Effect: Forced Breakthrough (Unique), Single-Point Breakthrough (Unique). Deal 30% of your physical damage as additional fire damage. The cooldown of your skills that deal fire damage are reduced by 20%.]

[‘WTFFFF’ has donated 300 Madness!]

[Another Peerless item? I heard he got something amazing and came running to this stream.]

- Snowman - Avengers-Level Threat.

- I can’t believe I’m starting my morning with this LMFAOO

- This is crazy hahaha

[‘You again, Hamun?’ has donated 700 Madness!]

[What do you think about making Hamun open to the public? This guy has made two Peerless items already. He’s back in form]

- Info) It was obvious that this would be a result based on the items Snowman gave him.

- Seriously, are Atarak and Magra jokes to you?

- World of Eternity: 2 Peerless-Quality Items, Any% Run.

- I feel like he’s going to deck out his summons in Peerless quality items at this rate LMFAO

- Don’t raise any flags, you fuck. I’ll kill you.

Seol then looked at Flare’s unique effects.

The first unique effect was ‘Forced Breakthrough’.

Its effect made it so that when the target blocked the user’s attack, the user still dealt 50% of their damage.

‘You would still deal damage even when they block it?’

Normally, blocking an attack successfully reduces the damage it deals by at least 90%. So now, Karen was practically piercing through their defenses.

- That’s crazy.

- You can’t block her anymore LOL

The second unique effect was ‘Single-Point Breakthrough’.

Each additional hit by the user increased the damage dealt by 10%. Also, each successful attack after that would increase this damage increase.

It maxed out at ten hits, so it still had its limits.

- So if she continuously attacks, she deals 200% of her original damage?

- So, getting hit by her would only make it worse LMFAOOOO

- How is this weapon real?

- And Karen’s the one using this too?

The other bonus effects were perfect for Karen, as well, so Seol looked at Hamun with shocked eyes.

“It is a great sword. I hope you use it well.”

“...Thank you. How could I pay…”

"You've done more than enough by coming all the way to Yognatun to save me."

- That’s true…

- Yeah, he was almost monkey food LOL

Hamun turned around after handing over the sword.

He wobbled. It was clear that he stayed up all night.

Karen’s eyes shone while looking at the sword in Seol’s hands.

“Could I… carry that sword for you?”

- LMFAOOOO Maybe if you carried the box.

- Look at how blatant she is! That’s her charm!

Seol smirked and handed over the sword to Karen.

“Haha… thank you. I’ll be good from now on. If anyone’s bullying you, let me know, alright? Who’s bullying you, is it him?”

“I get that you’re excited, but calm down a little.”

Karen laughed embarrassingly at Jamad, who scolded her from the Shadow Space.

She really did look happy.

- I wonder if this is what it feels like to buy your niece a present.

- You don’t buy your niece a sword… right?

With this, Seol had gathered four Peerless-quality items.

Seol didn’t expect to gather this many so quickly. He then recalled something he hadn’t been paying attention to.

‘If I gather one more…’

Seol remembered what would happen.

He knew exactly what would happen once he gathered five Peerless-quality items.

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

For one final time, Seol waited until midnight for Chao.

“She didn’t come…”

“Let’s give up.”

“Yeah, I think this is where it ends.”

His connection with the mysterious woman named Chao had ended here.

Seol decided to let go of his regrets now.

‘I’ve prepared a good second alternative Adventure anyway.’

Seol was a bit annoyed that he had to look for a new master for his Awakening, but there was nothing he could do.

Still, Seol could count the number of times he went through Awakening the moment he hit level 10 on one hand. There were even times when he went through it at level 18, after all.

‘The problem is that I’m almost at level 18 now.’

Seol was currently level 15.

It was troublesome to delay it any further.

But what could he do?

Things had not gone the way he intended to.

Not too long after, he saw some options.

[[Despite it being midnight, Chao still has not arrived. What do you do?]

1. Wait until morning.

2. Search around the manor.

3. Write down where you will be heading and leave.

4. Burn the research room.

……]

- If there aren’t any issues, I’ll come back within three months. But if I don’t come back, you know that room over there, right? Burn that room down.

Chao left instructions for Seol, just in case. And Seol planned on using that last resort.

“Karen, burn this room down.”

“Ah, are you talking about what she said that time? You really believe her?”

“Who knows. It’s the only method I have left.”

“Alright! Leave the room then.”

Fwip!

Buuuurn…

As Karen reached out her two hands, the research room was engulfed in flames.

Crackle…

Crackle…

Seol was filled with regrets and lingering feelings.

Well, he thought he was.

Burn…

The walls suddenly began absorbing Karen’s heat.

“Huh?”

“What the…”

“It’s not burning?”

“Again! Quickly!”

Burn…

Burn…

“Argh, that’s so annoying! I’ll put in a bit more strength, alright?”

Blaaaaaze…

Karen created a massive fire, one big enough to turn the room to ash.

However, the walls absorbed the flames once more.

Fwooosh…

But this time… words began forming on the wall that absorbed Karen’s fire.

Seol's eyes snapped open in shock. He slowly began to read the words, starting with the first sentence.

“I’m… still alive. Come… find me?”

Seol then received a message.

[Adventure ‘Tardy’ is scheduled.]

[This Adventure is very dangerous.]