Chapter 13
1.
“A hammer, huh? Brings back memories, Henrik.”
“Haha… It’s not quite like that.”
“I see. Well, that works out, then.”
Doloris clenched her fist and lightly tapped it against her palm.
- Tap.
“Take your time choosing, Lionel. I’ll go to Book Street with Ruby.”
“Yes.”
“I need to buy her some magic books.”
Actually, it was more convenient when Doloris wasn't around.
Ruby's eyes were sparkling beside Doloris.
Chicken skewers and candy, followed by books. This little brat was having a birthday today.
“Wait here once you've chosen everything. Henrik? Mia? Please look after Lionel.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Don’t worry~”
Doloris and Ruby left.
- Jingle.
The bell rang, and the shop fell quiet.
Then the display stands, filled with the smell of dust, were covered with countless nameless hammers.
From here on, it was my time.
‘Let’s choose.’
Henrik silently took a hammer from the display, and.
I examined each one, one by one, as he took them out.
The first hammer was….
─────────────────
[Bone Hammer][★★☆☆☆]
[Compatibility][—/40]
─────────────────
『No one knows whether it is the bone of some beast, or the bone of ‘someone.’』
- The Mage Who Wanders the Canyon of Lament -
─────────────────
What the fuck.
Why was it so creepy right from the start?
“…That hammer is a Bone Hammer. It is meant for forging, but unfortunately, it has a strong curse attribute.”
Oh.
This man had a good eye.
He was seeing exactly what I was seeing.
“I see. You may speak casually to me.”
“No, it’s all right.”
A flat rejection, huh…. I reconsidered the situation.
A noble—moreover, a duke—was insisting that a child claiming to be family speak casually to him….
Right. Asking for that might actually be a nuisance.
“…Yes.”
I simply obediently examined the hammers Henrik took out.
However, the more we repeated the process, the less appealing the hammers became.
Either their Origin Scripts were unsettling, or their star ratings were simply too low.
I wanted to take the best one I could find, at least….
People say a master doesn’t blame their tools, but every master who said that was using good equipment anyway.
Still, Henrik was quite entertaining when he explained things.
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[Ash Forge Hammer][★☆☆☆☆]
[Compatibility —/20]
─────────────────
『The last heat left behind when a volcano died.』
— Author unknown —
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“This hammer was made by compressing volcanic ash. Its thermal conductivity is good, so it’s suitable for metallurgy, but the handle is a little weak.”
“Ooh.”
─────────────────
[Mine Repair Hammer][★☆☆☆]
[Compatibility —/20]
─────────────────
『The walls struck by this hammer never collapsed. Not once.』
— Lutz, Overseer of Mine Shaft Three —
─────────────────
“This one was used by miners to repair mine shafts. It’s sturdy, but for precision work, it’s a little….”
“Ooooh….”
They were all bad in the end, but.
I was still pretending to examine each one as I held it when.
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[Basic Enchant Hammer][★☆☆☆☆]
[Compatibility][—/20]
─────────────────
『Do not dare mistake enchantment for luck. It is effort.』
- Ogeron, Fourth Master Craftsman -
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An Enchant Hammer?
I was wondering about the ominous term when.
“Master Craftsman?!”
I blurted it out without meaning to when I saw the writing underneath.
Why was a Master Craftsman showing up here?
“Ah, this hammer… isn’t actually for forging.”
The corners of Henrik’s mouth trembled.
“Do you know about enchantment?”
“Ah, well, I-I don’t really.”
He opened his mouth with an expression that said, ‘I’ve got you now,’ while twitching his mustache.
“Equipment has grades. They’re represented by the number of stars.”
“Yes.”
“Enchanting is the act of raising an item’s tier separately from its stars.”
Henrik picked up one of the hammers beside him.
“Let’s assume this is a one-star piece of equipment. When you enchant it, its one-star performance remains the same, but new power is layered over it, one layer at a time. And this is called an enhancement level.”
“You mean +1, +2, and so on?”
“Exactly. An item’s stars are decided when it is created. The materials, the maker’s ability, the process. They cannot be changed.”
What was this incredibly familiar system?
It was the sort of system most men from the world I had lived in would know.
The enhancement system from a hugely popular RPG.
And then.
“But what makes that possible is enchantment… Please wait a moment.”
Henrik squeezed his eyes shut, then suddenly headed toward the counter.
Then he ducked his head beneath the table.
- Creak, creak.
What was that sound?
I tilted my head slightly and looked down.
What the hell.
He was turning the dial on a safe.
[8918, Teehee.]
No, Yuna. You’re not supposed to look at things like that.
The safe opened, and Henrik took something out.
A small pouch wrapped in cloth.
He carefully untied the pouch, then pinched some of whatever was inside between his fingers.
It was blue powder.
“This powder is the heart of enchantment.”
Henrik held up the fingers carrying the powder for me to see.
“You sprinkle the powder over the equipment, then strike it with a hammer to make the energy seep in.”
He carefully sprinkled the powder over the hammer we had seen earlier.
- Sprinkle, sprinkle….
Blue particles settled onto the hammer’s surface.
For a moment, it looked as though he had sprinkled stardust over it.
Henrik picked up the Enchant Hammer.
- Clink.
He brought it down.
The powder glowed faintly. I thought it was seeping in, but.
- Clink.
“……”
“……”
- Clink.
Nothing changed, and.
It disappeared.
The powder didn’t seep in. It simply scattered and flew away from the surface.
Henrik set down the hammer and gave a bitter smile.
“Yes. If that had worked, I could have made a living as an enchanter.”
What? So it hadn't worked?
“Enchanting in the modern era mostly uses the Dwarf Company’s Enchantment Rooms. They create strikes at the level of the finest master craftsmen, giving enchantments the best possible odds. It’s difficult with the human body and senses.”
“…I see.”
It was quite interesting.
I was a Descendant of Fire, after all, so I was somewhat distanced from enchanters. Yes, yes.
Still, perhaps it was force of habit.
Since I had held every hammer once, I naturally reached out again.
- Swish.
The moment I grabbed the Enchant Hammer.
─────────────────
[Enchant Interface Activated]
─────────────────
[Target Equipment: Unspecified]
[Powder Held: Not Detected]
[User Proficiency: None]
─────────────────
[Would you like to attempt an enhancement?]
─────────────────
“Huh?”
What? Could I enchant things?
I flinched in surprise.
Was spring finally coming for me, too?
If enchanting really could be this easy….
- Honey, wait a moment~
Just then, the woman from the back called for Henrik.
“Ah, please wait a moment.”
“Yes, go ahead.”
If possible, take your time.
Henrik disappeared into the back.
I was alone.
I looked around while holding the Enchant Hammer.
The Bone Hammer Henrik had sprinkled and struck earlier was sitting there, with the cloth pouch still open beside it, but.
Thankfully, some powder must still have been clinging to the Bone Hammer.
─────────────────
[Target Equipment: Bone Hammer]
[Residual Powder: 2g]
[User Proficiency: None]
─────────────────
[Would you like to attempt an enhancement?]
─────────────────
It looked like an enhancement was possible.
“Yes.”
I wondered what form the enhancement would take.
Just as I was waiting expectantly.
[0: 00: 10]
“Huh?”
What was this supposed to mean?
Numbers appeared in the air.
And then.
A blue circle appeared over the Bone Hammer in front of me. It was about the size of a 500-won coin.
Then an even larger blue circle appeared outside it.
The outer circle slowly shrank toward the inner circle.
Little by little, little by little.
The two circles drew closer.
The outer circle shrank until the two nearly overlapped, then intruded into the original circle before disappearing.
I just watched it without even knowing what it was.
[Uh, wait, wait a second… this is]
Yuna suddenly began trembling.
What was wrong with her?
[0: 00: 09]
[0: 00: 08]
What? A countdown?
Another circle appeared in a different spot.
Another shrinking circle followed from outside.
The Korean specialty: when given a time limit, you have to do something.
Without thinking, I struck the Bone Hammer with the hammer in my hand.
The second circle was shrinking. The moment of overlap had already passed, and the outer circle had become smaller than the inner one and was about to disappear when.
- Clang!
And then.
[Terrible]
A brutally blunt insult suddenly flew at me.
That was a little harsh.
[0:00:05]
Time continued to pass, and since nothing much changed.
A fourth circle appeared. The outer circle shrank.
I struck again, but.
[Terrible]
I stopped hammering for a moment at the criticism flying at me once more.
And then.
- Clang!
This time, I struck when the two circles completely overlapped, and.
Along with a rainbow-colored light appearing before my eyes.
[Marvelous!]
Praise finally appeared.
Wait, this feel in my hand….
[0:00:02]
[0:00:01]
[0:00:00]
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[Total Strikes]
[Marvelous][1]
[Excellent] [0]
[Normal] [0]
[Bad] [0]
[Terrible][2]
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[Final Success Rate 3%]
[Failure Rate 97%]
─────────────────
【Attempting……】
─────────────────
Mr. Terrible.
This was starting to piss me off.
[O-oppa, it says terrible? Do you really have to do this?]
Along with Yuna’s criticism, the result appeared.
【Enhancement Failed】
The powder that had been glowing faintly until just now lost all its light.
“……”
So.
Did I just enchant something?
I replayed the scene from a moment ago in my head.
First, a blue circle appeared over the equipment. A larger circle shrank from outside and approached it.
There was a moment when the two circles overlapped perfectly. Then the circles grew smaller and disappeared.
Wait, wait….
This was that thing.
Without realizing it, a smile began to spread across my lips.
[…Oppa.]
Yeah.
[That’s not it.]
No, it was.
Yuna, I saw it differently.
It really did seem like that, didn’t it?
When the outer circle perfectly overlapped the inner circle, pressing then gave you a good score.
If you pressed too early, too late, or missed it entirely, it was a miss.
In other words, both times I struck well after the circles had overlapped.
And that was why I got ‘Terrible.’
“It’s a rhythm game.”
It really was terrible.
When I saw the word ‘Terrible’ twice in quick succession just now.
I worried that I might lack the talent to enchant anything.
But that worry disappeared in an instant.
I don’t worry about things like that.
Because… I’m.
“I can do it legally now, can’t I?”
I had devoted fifteen years solely to rhythm games.
A fanatic.
A malignant one.
A vicious player.
[Aaaaaaah! How did you quit that, oppa!!!]
And to put it another way.
I was a rhythm-game addict and.
A rhythm-game demon.