Artisan's Touch (1)

Grrr!

With a scream that could have torn my eardrums apart, the boss rolled across the muddy ground.

Whether the poison was taking effect or not, it had been writhing in pain for quite a while, having thrown its spear and shield aside.

This was my only chance.

Tap, tap.

My body sprang off the ground and charged straight at the boss's face.

I swung my mace roughly at the boss's empty torso.

The boss sensed the danger and only belatedly raised one arm into a defensive stance.

Under normal circumstances, steel armor might have blocked it and kept me from dealing any real damage.

But the armor wrapped around its arm had already been destroyed by the earlier sniper drone.

Whoosh! Crack—

"Kruk!"

Thanks to that, the instant my mace landed, the boss's arm bone snapped with a sickening crunch.

With one arm and one ankle badly injured,

the creature still didn't go down easily, as befitted the ruler of the dungeon.

It swallowed the pain, rolled roughly across the muddy ground, grabbed the spear it had dropped with its unharmed hand, and struck at me.

Whoosh!

But the spear's arc, forced with only one hand, was slower and sloppier than before.

I lightly ducked my upper body to dodge the spear and, at the same time, launched a second counterattack.

My mace, swung upward from below, smashed squarely into the boss's chest.

Kraack!

The thickest layers of steel armor on its chest shattered and flew apart in all directions.

"Kruk...!"

The moment the giant body staggered badly, I looked up at the sky and quickly stepped back.

The recon drone, waiting overhead for its chance, opened its remaining mechanical arm the moment I retreated to safety and threw the last bone bomb at the boss.

KWAANG-!

With the explosion, the sharp, spinning bone fragments mercilessly tore through the boss's unarmored upper body.

"Kruk..."

Thud!

The Lizardman boss finally dropped to its knees and slumped onto the swamp floor.

I readjusted my grip on the mace and slowly approached.

The steel equipment that had covered it was now all broken, beyond recognition.

Its exposed body was covered all over with scars.

"..."

"..."

The boss, breathing hard, lifted its head and looked at me.

The killing intent in its eyes had completely vanished.

Instead, as if acknowledging me, it slowly nodded and raised a hand to carefully offer me something.

It would have been normal to suspect a trap, but for some reason I felt I could trust it.

I cautiously accepted the item it offered.

What touched my hand was a sharp, thorn-shaped item radiating a brilliant glow.

I looked down to confirm what it was, then looked back up.

"...Huh?"

The boss, kneeling before me, had already turned into gray smoke and scattered into the air.

On the ground, only the large magic stone it had left behind remained.

"The boss really gives you all the items directly."

I put away the shining thorn I'd picked up and let out a short, relieved sigh.

Either way, this meant the dungeon run had been safely cleared.

"I'll repair you."

I picked up the battle drone lying on the floor, still creaking, and activated Repair to smooth out its dented shell.

Fortunately, the repair must have gone through, because it immediately flew back up.

After collecting the magic stones the dungeon had left behind and the scattered drop items, we headed out at an easy pace.

Once I returned to the train, I headed straight for the armory in Car 2.

The first thing I took out was the shining thorn and the magic stone the Lizardman boss had left behind.

"This time, not a blunt weapon..."

There was only one reason I had made a mace in the armory before.

Swords and spears seemed to require skill to handle, but blunt weapons looked like the easiest weapons to use.

But the situation had changed.

"After actually fighting, I can tell."

Weapon Mastery was surprisingly effective.

I felt like I could quickly adapt even to difficult weapons.

Once I adapted, I wanted to use a spear for its long reach.

"...Because my arms are short."

And the thorn I'd picked up as loot had a long, sharp shape that was perfectly suited to serving as a spearhead, too.

I began combining the thorn, magic stone, iron, and wood in the armory.

Artisan's Touch activated immediately, filling Car 2 with red light.

"This time the red light came out right away..."

While the weapon was being crafted, I turned toward the battle drone beside me, which was staring at me intently.

"You were waiting, right? Come over here."

The battle drone, as if it had been waiting, took its place in a corner of the hangar.

I dumped in the magic stones I'd gathered while clearing the dungeon, along with the ones I'd collected earlier.

With clattering mechanical sounds, the mechanical arms began dismantling the battle drone's armor to start the upgrade.

[Battle Drone upgrade initiated.]

[Time remaining : 05 hours 59 minutes]

"It's taking quite a while this time."

Unlike with the recon drone, a message even appeared saying it would take a full six hours.

I wasn't sure if that was just how it normally was, or if it was because of my skill.

Seeing it glow faintly red like the weapon, it seemed Artisan's Touch was being applied to the drone too.

"Then, while that's going on...."

While the equipment and weapon were upgrading, I returned to the cockpit in Car 1 and operated the panel.

I activated the monster attractor and switched on the turrets.

"Since I used it, I have to make it earn its keep."

Hearing the special waves emitted by the attractor, the hidden monsters began swarming toward the train.

"They're coming in droves..."

Whether there were more monsters than before or this area simply had especially many of them, the moment I activated the attractor, monsters started rushing over.

Rat-a-tat!

But before they could even leave a scratch on the train, they were shredded by the turrets and left scattering magic stones across the ground.

No matter how loudly the gunfire roared outside, I had already gotten used to the commotion, so I walked around inside the train while glancing out the window now and then.

"Donggeuli."

I stared at the large tank quietly.

The siblings who had stood guard in front of the tank were gone now, but the various expressive pictures the kids had drawn clumsily with pens still remained on the transparent glass wall.

Donggeuli, slowly floating up and sinking down inside the tank, happened to come to a perfect stop behind the smiling face Su-ah had drawn.

"Hehe..."

I smiled.

With a marimo that smiled like that, it felt like the siblings' absence was filled in a little.

"...Am I crazy?"

Suddenly remembering what I'd heard earlier in Yeouido, I turned on my smartphone and opened the Gallery.

Then I quietly sent Signal a private message.

After telling them that some people were looking for them, a short reply came back at once.

[Thank you. I will be careful.]

I also told them to contact me anytime if anything happened.

In this apocalypse world, the Gallery was an important information network and marketplace.

I had to prevent Signal from being captured and this useful site from being corrupted or disappearing.

After finishing my conversation with Signal, I got up and started rearranging the train from the control room.

I put away the bunk bed Su-ah and Jiu had been using, and tidied up the little odds and ends they'd scattered around.

"Was it always this spacious?"

The train, now emptied of the children's warmth, felt far broader and quieter than I'd expected.

I moved Donggeuli's tank into Car 1.

Now, even if I lay in bed, Donggeuli was right in view.

"For now, let's stay here together, Donggeuli."

Putting Donggeuli near my bed made the loneliness feel a little less severe.

I used the steady firing sounds of the turrets I could hear faintly outside as a lullaby, and slipped into a deep sleep.

***

"Is this really the right area? I heard there was a huge dungeon here."

"I checked the Gallery several times. The dungeon entrance was a size I'd never seen before—"

"Damn it... do you really believe everything you read on the internet?"

"Hey! We've survived this long thanks to the Gallery. How can you say that!"

"Sigh..."

Five people were walking carefully, checking the market stalls throughout Soraepogu.

They were a team belonging to the Yeouido Awakener Union, but they had come to Incheon to farm for food and items using a movement-related skill.

"There aren't any monsters...?"

"Hmm... you're right?"

They were moving cautiously so as not to draw monster aggro, but even so they still weren't encountering nearly enough monsters.

Just as they were wondering about that—

BOOM! KWAANG!

"Damn it!"

"...What was that sound?"

"What? Speak up, I can't hear you if you talk like that."

"I said, what sound was it!"

"Ah... who knows?"

At the ear-splitting noise, everyone instinctively flattened themselves against the ground and raised their weapons.

"...Did the military finally get dispatched or something?"

"As if those guys would..."

"Aren't people fighting over there?"

Everyone slowly walked toward the direction the noise had come from.

"W-what... what on earth is that..."

A jet-black train was standing tall in the middle of the tracks.

Turrets on the roof and sides of the train were spinning nonstop, spewing fire, and for some reason the monsters were charging at the train like it had personally wronged them.

Even so, the turrets' firepower was turning the monsters into minced meat before they could even reach the train.

"...What is that?"

"What?"

"What the heck is that, I'm asking!"

"Ah, that's a train..."

"Sigh... as if you don't know that..."

The man who seemed to be the leader laughed at the woman's sigh.

Because even he couldn't properly answer the question of what that thing was.

'When I heard about it, I thought it was only about that level...'

He had read a post in the Gallery about a train like that.

But seeing it in operation in person, he was left speechless.

The train's mobility was one thing, but that firepower—

'...I really can't let that become my enemy...'

The man firmly resolved never to make the owner of the train his enemy.