I Make Them (3)
“......I make what?”
[Dungeons.]
He asked just in case he heard wrong, but he didn’t hear wrong. Yu IlHan asked Erta with worried eyes.
“Are you okay? ......I can cook if it’s porridge, shall I?”
[I’m extremely normal! On heaven’s orders! I’m giving you! A quest to help with the creation of dungeons!]
Yu IlHan sofly sighed. Then he asked while sharply raising his eyes.
“This quest, it’s not for me but for you guys, isn’t it?”
[......I, it’s for Earth too, so it’s for you as well?]
“Acting cute now won’t deceive me.”
Didn’t he hear the full story from her yesterday already? That the traps, in other words, dungeons, that God scattered before was unsuccessful in luring monsters.
“How can I do what even God can’t?”
[We’re thinking that the reason why the dungeons aren’t successfully functional is because the majority of the monsters were swept by God’s power when Lord God stopped the time on Earth. So, the monsters, which have gained immunity to God’s power, won’t approach the dungeons where God’s power is dwelling strongly.]
“You are keep going to saying that it’s because the time stopped, aren’t you!?”
[Yes!]
She was so shameless that he was about to fall for her!
[In contrast, you have polished all sorts of techniques in the 1000 years of stopped time despite being an Earthling. In conclusion, your blacksmithing skills have reached a level of marvel that even us, as higher existences, have a hard time believing. Your only fault is that you cannot use mana, but the mana crafting skill will solve that. ......The only existence on Earth who can create dungeons in our place is you.]
At the praise baptism that poured all over him to the point that he became itchy, Yu IlHan narrowed his eyes more. His instincts as a loner which reacted extremely sensitively to intentions that were trying to use him, was warning him.
That this woman will dump him with a huge piece of work!
“Now you’re just directly dumping me work, eh?”
[It’s in everyone’s interests. We do our mission, and you receive a quest befitting of your ability and even earn a suitable reward!]
“You can talk well. Even though you’re a scammer.”
However, did the fact that Yu IlHan wanted to do it because of all that make Yu IlHan a pervert?
Was it a perverted mind which can be coated with the words ‘challenging mind’, and ‘confidence’?
Wait, doesn’t this make him a pervert anyway?
Yu IlHan asked her lightly.
“What happens if I don’t do it?”
[Heaven will create another set of dungeons. Of course, as God’s power will dwell in it, it has a higher chance of failing, and as a result, humanity will have to survive in a slightly more wild evironment.]
“If I make it, will the monsters really fall for it?”
[At least, with a much higher chance than the one made by heaven, yes. They will.]
“......This is the most important question, though.”
He looked at his body, which didn’t look anything special, and the workshop, which only had basic equipment.
And turned back to see the angel who was unprecedentedly glowing her eyes.
“I can make dungeons?”
[Of course. If you have the blueprint and the necessary materials. And those, we have.]
Yu IlHan smiled.
“Good, I’ll do it.”
[Let’s begin right away.]
Erta poured out huge piles of metal from nowhere inside the workshop.
She took out chunks of refined metal, ‘Harkanium’, which emitted a wondrous black light; chunks of another metal, ‘Fecinom’, from which one could feel a red and rough energy; following that, a bottle containing the liquid, ‘El Hazra’, which emitted faint blue light; and finally, equipments such as a hammer, chisel, anvil and the like, which looked plain but not unpleasant.
[These three metals are materials in higher system worlds. If the current Earth levels up 2 more times, then these will also appear on Earth in extremely small amounts.]
“So this liquid is metal as well? Then I can just think that it’s similar to mercury, right?”
[.......It seems you didn’t listen to me at all.]
Continuing on, she poured out countless numbers of magic stones that would become the ingredients for mana crafting, but they were incomparably bigger and emitted incomparably more brilliant light than the Direwolf’s one.
Weren’t these perhaps the magic stones from the ‘higher existences’ that Erta likes so much? Yu IlHan asked with a careful voice.
“The will of the craftsman is important though in mana crafting, is it not? I don’t have any experience in making dungeons, and I don’t even know how to make them. Are you fine with me handling all these precious-looking magic stones?”
[In the applying process, angels will help you. Did you perhaps think that you will do everything from start to finish?]
“Yes.”
Loners always worked alone from start to finish as they hated communicating with other people and hated working together! Yu IlHan was also planning to do everything alone so he was a little bit surprised when Erta implied working together.
[Other than the used materials, they are all for rent, so you have to give them back. For the reward, we will prepare something else.]
“For the reward, can’t you give me that 4 dimensional pocket you were using?”
[Inventory is magic.]
“Fuck......”
This was the moment he was the most frustrated after the time he heard that beds were science. (T/N: ACE, a company that makes beds, said that beds weren’t furniture but science in their commercial, and this saying became famous in Korea.)
However, his switch flipped automatically while he was clearing away the existing anvil (it was extremely light) and fixed the anvil that Erta brought (It was extremely heavy). A master may not dwell on his tools, but Yu IlHan did.
Whether it was the hammer, or the anvil, and even the tongs, were all in a different dimension to the one he had used until now. He resolved that he would definitely procure tools that wouldn’t lose out to these in the future.
[The basic processing is already done, so what we’re asking of you should be the form creation and the inlaying. We’re not thoughtless to the point that we’ll make you make a dungeon from start to finish.]
“With the materials here, just how can I make a dungeon in this workshop? You’re not telling me to make pottery but a dungeon, right??”
Yu IlHan spat out the question he had the moment he saw the materials. This was reasonable, as inlaying meant etching the surface and filling it with another material.
Amongst them, as an intricate and beautiful technique which ran at the peak of metalworking, metal inlaying was just basically a very very difficult and annoying work.
Creating a dungeon with a technique that’s used in accessories – just how? Did they make some magic which can make goblins pop out if he drew a goblin with inlaying?
[A dungeon is a huge space. There’s no way that we’ll directly make them, is there? Specifically, the thing you have to make is a magic tool that would attract the monsters and change the surrounding environment to make a dungeon. This is called the Trap of Destruction.]
“Tell me that from the beginning! Then is that inlaying perhaps......”
[It can be called a type of a magic array.]
Erta held out a paper which was made from unordinary materials. After he had a look at it, he paled in fright. After he heard that it was a magic array, he thought that the form creation wouldn’t be very difficult, but that was his misunderstanding.
With one cube at the center, countless metal rings were enwrapping it, and not only on the cube itself, there were indecipherable letters everywhere on each and every one of those rings.
If someone saw the finished magic tool created according to this blueprint, then that person would shout ‘This artifact looks like it may appear on the last volume of a fantasy novel!’.
This was definitely an object with a higher difficulty in creation than any of the things he had created before. Rather than blacksmithing, it seemed like his worksmanship would play a bigger role too...... He sighed before he even started.
Yu IlHan clenched his teeth and muttered.
“The quest reward......It should be good, right......?”
[I promise. I will prepare something that you will be surprised about. According to the level of achievement in the quest, you will be given the most suitable reward.]
Erta, who knew the difficulty of this work, confirmed with her most serious voice.
Then it was okay. Didn’t he know that the reward of this quest from heaven was unordinary just by looking at the Eternal Flame? In this way, they were trustable.
Yu IlHan recognized that the work he thought to be difficult surpassed his imagination in a direction that he didn’t think about, and accepted it.
He wore a cloth that could absorb sweat well on his forehead, and he picked up the metal tong which looked plain but its hardness could be well-felt from it. Then, he picked up a chunk of the black colored metal, Harkanium, and pushed it inside the fireplace and muttered as if he resolved himself.
“Let’s begin.”
This was the first joint work of the Eternal Flame and Yu IlHan.
Erta had alook at the steel spear that Yu Ilhan made before so she knew how amazing his techniques were. However, she had never seen him working on the metallurgy process directly with her own eyes.
However, his figure, focusing on the flame and the metal after his switch was completely flipped, made her a bit surprised.
“......The flame is still a bit weak. Does it get stronger if you feed it magic stones?”
[Yes.]
“Hm......Good. this is sufficient.”
He should have only worked with the ores that existed on Earth before the Great Cataclysm. Also, even materials like titanium were difficult to be worked on inside a small work shop, so there should have been a clear limit to the number of ores he had actually worked on. As proof, his master piece, the steel spear, was in the end, just ‘steel’.
However.
However, just how was he showing movements like a master smith who had handled harkanium for about 100 years?
“Fuu......Hap!”
When harkanium was sufficiently heated up by the Eternal Flame, whose temperature increased exponentially after absorbing a magic stone, he started welding with a serious face.
He knew of the metal’s hardness at the melting point, so he hammered down with all his strength from the beginning. The moment the hammer and the harkanium produced a violent clash, he felt it.
‘I can probably do this.’
His original strength would have been insufficient, but it seemed like this hammer had the ability to increase its user’s strength temporarily. Yu IlHan, who got used to the feeling after striking a few more times, hammered the harkanium with sufficient strength.
Clang, clang, clang, claaaang.
Harkanium tried its best to resist the change, but in this small workshop, there was everything prepared to handle that. The flame of eternity, anvil, hammer, and lastly, an exceptinal smith.
In the end, it slowly, but surely collapsed.
The metal was changing. Yu IlHan, who perfectly memorized the blueprint after seeing it once, changed the position of the tong, as he heated the metal and struck with the hammer continuously.
A contradicting movement – intricate but strong, unrestrained but controlled – that was impossible for a even for a machine. From some time, harkanium was being played around as Yu IlHan willed.
Just who would believe when told that this was harkanium? Did the Eternal Flame make this? The hammer?, The anvil?
No, tools cannot make miracles. It was the human. That human was calling for a miracle that did not happen in the past, and wouldn’t happen again in the future, right now.
Erta looked at that scene breathlessly.
‘Did I perhaps make a mistake? Shouldn’t this human have become a blacksmith instead of a lancer? Then... he might have made something that could challenge against God... Yes, something that can challenge God.’
Just why do all the angels become blasphemous after coming into contact with Yu IlHan. Right now, Erta acknowledged that Yu IlHan had the potential to suprass God. And in technique and not fighting power.
The form creation was finished after not a long period of time. After having finished shaping the the central cube, and the countless metal rings connected with a thin metallic line, Yu IlHan picked up the small chisel, also prepared by Erta. Now it was time to do the inlaying.
Despite thinking that he was sufficiently resolved, when he was about to go into the process, he sighed subconsciously.
“Fuck. I don’t know if I fail.”
[If you fail, then you can just melt it down and make it again from scratch. Of course, it will take an extremely long period of time.]
While completely ignoring Erta’s words, he put the knife against the ‘Trap of Destruction’ which now had its form.
This was the moment where an overwhelming ‘record’ which could not be expressed in experience, was engraved in the world.
Author’s notes
The tanning, the processing of the leather and bones, processing the metals, metallurgy, and the like is from the author’s research. There may be unavoidable flaws or errors. I will fix what I can, but please overlook some of those that I may not be able to fix.
Dungeon management won’t happen whether it’s soon or later! No, I clearly told you that I won’t do it righ!? This novel is about Yu IlHan, who became OP in various fields, adapt to the changed world! It’s not dungeon management!
Erta pulls the date where Yu IlHan can use mana, just by existing! And her quest is a win-win! It definitely helps Yu IlHan!! The angels aren’t just scammers!
Translator’s notes.
....Thank you for reading......