Chapter 77
The goblin and I stepped inside the bank and exclaimed at the same time.
"This place improves every time we come here."
The admiration in his voice was genuine.
The bank interior, which had looked so bare the last time I came, had been transformed into something quite impressive, and this time it was even neatly divided into sections.
"Is that the other races' room...?"
On one side, there was an obvious dwarf section, with a blazing-red forge, an anvil, and a hammer strewn about.
On the other side was an equally obvious elf room, where lush green vines and plants grew thickly over a tiled floor.
"Is that the kitchen?"
Near the counter sat a small refrigerator that was still working, along with a capsule coffee machine, though I had no idea where they'd found them.
Looking closely, I could even see a cutting board hanging on the wall.
That seemed to be the kitchen, though I was a little curious about the sight of someone cooking on top of the bank counter.
This bank was starting to feel like a place where people actually lived.
Just then, the dwarf stroked his braided beard and cleared his throat.
"Hmph! The goblin fellow is fine, I suppose. But that box fellow still seems suspicious. I need to conduct some additional checks to make sure it's completely under control."
At those words, the goblin raised his hand and shouted as if he'd been waiting for this moment.
I couldn't tell exactly what he was saying without the trumpet at his mouth, but Tongtong moved whenever the goblin gestured.
"@#&^$!"
Thud—!
The giant mimic flattened itself against the floor.
"Ooh..."
Everyone gaped at the sight, then broke into applause.
Clap clap clap—!
I clapped too.
I already knew that the mimic listened well to the goblin, but there was such a thing as matching the mood.
The goblin's gestures grew more vigorous, and the mimic moved just as quickly.
Screech! Tap! Craack!
The mimic flicked its tongue, opened and closed its lid, and rolled around the bank floor.
The dwarf, who had been eyeing it suspiciously, finally burst out laughing as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Hahaha! The furniture fellow moves like a puppy! All right, all right! I believe you."
"Thank you! Thank you very much!"
Only then did the goblin and Tongtong let out sighs of relief.
Then the goblin approached me, pulled a tightly rolled piece of tough leather from his clothes, and held it out.
"Here, this is the treasure I promised you back in the dungeon! You didn't seem interested in the shoes, so... this leather hardly tears, and it's excellent for reinforcing armor. And..."
The goblin glanced at my reaction, then gave an awkward smile and pointed at the trumpet.
"I've been feeling bad because you seemed to admire my trumpet earlier, Conductor. Whenever I'm taking a break from business, I'll lend you this trumpet free of charge! I don't need it when I'm not doing business anyway."
"Oh..."
I nodded in admiration.
It was exactly the reward I had wanted most: monster materials and a rental pass for the trumpet.
It was then.
Creak—
From the room wafting with the fresh scent of grass, an elf walked out with light footsteps.
She coolly walked past the suited goblin and the mimic that had appeared in the bank, as if she didn't even see them, and came straight over to me.
"@#&$^%!"
She lightly took hold of my sleeve, smiled brightly, and began chattering away in Elvish without pause.
Normally, I would have barely understood the one word meaning she was glad to see me and awkwardly laughed it off, but the goblin was holding a trumpet right beside me.
"...May I borrow the trumpet for a moment?"
"...Ah! Of course."
The goblin noticed my intention and handed me the trumpet.
At last, the moment had come when I could clearly understand what she chattered about so cheerfully whenever she saw me, and what she thought of me.
With my heart pounding, I brought the trumpet to my ear.
Then I heard the elf's voice.
"Ahh, you've come back. After you left, I spent all night using magic to make vines bloom somehow, trying to breathe life into these bleak stone floors. But that old dwarf keeps belching smoke from his forge, and my precious sprouts and vines were hurting, so I was a little upset, though it's all right since he doesn't mean any harm—and besides, do you know what happened this morning? I looked out the window and saw the monster hordes continuing to grow, so I decided I couldn't just stand by any longer and quicklyㅡ"
"..."
The moment I put the magical trumpet to my mouth, I regretted it bitterly.
The elf's words poured out in crisp Korean that struck my ears with perfect clarity, an actual waterfall of speech.
No, I was certain it hadn't been anywhere near this long. It seemed Elvish condensed countless meanings into a few words.
I was completely overwhelmed by the flood of words when—
"Ahem. Then we'll be off, we're busy."
"Take care, Conductor."
The dwarf and the survivors, who were growing tired along with me from the torrent of speech, naturally averted their gazes, picked up their weapons, and began sneaking out of the bank.
"Uh, huh? Where is everyone going?!"
When I hurriedly interrupted the elf and asked, Haneul turned around and answered.
"We're going to expand the safe zone."
"I-I'll go too! Sorry, but I'll hear the rest of that story later!"
When I spoke into the trumpet, it automatically translated my words into Elvish.
I did my best to ignore the elf's disappointed gaze and hurried after Haneul.
Come to think of it, even though the survivors of Elf Town had possessed the strength to do so, they hadn't gone out of their way to risk expanding the safe zone until now.
For a small number of people, the bank alone had been enough for both defense and daily life.
But the situation was different now.
Following the dwarf and the elf, a goblin and a mimic had joined the family starting today.
The time had come to leave this cramped bank and seriously expand Elf Town's territory.
'The timing is pretty good.'
I had come here because the Yeouido safe zone had asked me to deliver something.
They had asked me to support this place in exchange for expanding and reinforcing the safe zone.
And as it happened, they were just about to expand the safe zone.
Once we took to the streets, the work was divided among everyone and began.
The combat team and the safe-zone construction team split up.
There were four people assigned to combat at the front.
The dwarf wielding the enormous hammer, Haneul, and two male Awakened supporting them.
Apparently, undead creatures—skeletons and ghouls—had recently begun appearing in this area.
That made the dwarf the perfect person to take the lead.
"Out of my way, you pathetic bags of bones!"
Kwaaaang—!
Every time the dwarf swung his hammer, the upper bodies of the skeletons and monsters wandering nearby went flying as neatly as rice stalks being cut during harvest.
Haneul followed behind, swiftly finishing off the stragglers.
Whenever the wind blew against her back, she accelerated and surged forward.
"Oh..."
I didn't even need to step in and help.
Once the vanguard had cleanly opened a path, the remaining survivors followed behind, gathering rubble from collapsed buildings and pieces of steel frame to build makeshift fences and barricades.
They were working to secure the safe zone they had cleared.
For reference, the elf's role was to snipe dangerous monsters from the rooftops.
There were basically no dangerous monsters, and meaningful conversation with her was impossible anyway, so the elf was more or less being left to herself.
The street was cleared, and the survivors began running around to set up the barricades.
However, since they had to move the heavy materials using nothing but their strength, they weren't making much progress.
"Damn it..."
"Push it a little farther this way!"
"Let me catch my breath..."
It was then that the survivors were grunting as they pushed a junked car.
Just as I was wondering whether the golem and I should help—
"Wait! Leave that kind of manual labor to us!"
The goblin, having gotten his trumpet back, stepped forward boldly with his suit vest flapping.
"We'll have it finished in the blink of an eye!"
"It's awfully heavy for a goblin to move... Hngh...!"
Before the survivors could even give him a suspicious look, Tongtong, following the goblin's instructions, returned to its giant mimic form and stomped forward with heavy thuds.
Screeech—! Craaack!
Tongtong opened its house-sized jaws as wide as they would go and bit down on enormous street trees and discarded construction materials.
Then it began spitting out the materials it had bitten off without pause at the places where the barricades were needed.
Kwoong—! Thud!
That wasn't the end of it.
Tongtong grabbed the wooden posts and rubble it had spat out with its enormous mouth again and slammed them into the ground repeatedly, driving them in like stakes.
The asphalt shattered under its brute strength, firmly securing the wooden posts and debris in place.
"Tongtong! That's enough there. Bite the junked cars and follow the combat team!"
At the goblin's command, Tongtong picked up the junked cars in its enormous mouth, followed the combat team, and set each one down perfectly wherever a barricade was needed.
"...It looks like a sentient excavator..."
"...Right. It looks like all we need to do is fill in the broken asphalt."
The survivors, who had been working while drenched in sweat, stared at the scene with their mouths hanging open.
A sturdy barricade that would have taken anywhere from a few dozen minutes to several hours to build was completed in a mere five minutes thanks to the mimic.
"I'm glad I could be of help."
The goblin shrugged and smiled proudly.
Tongtong also stuck out its long tongue and panted.
"Damn, is something wrong with me? The goblin looks handsome."
"I think the mimic looks cute too."
The survivors already seemed to have fallen under their spell.
I let out a hollow laugh and applauded as well.
In the end, we cleared out the monsters in an area extending roughly one block around the bank.
And finally.
"We've blocked off everything except the passage leading to the station."
The survivors, covered in dust and sweat from building barricades and fighting monsters, quietly caught their breath and looked around the street.
Only mana stones and loot lay scattered across the road, and not a single monster could be seen.
We could hear the monsters beyond the barricades, but none of them dared to approach the new defenses.
Someone dropped the metal pipe they had been holding onto the ground with a clunk and muttered in an overwhelmed voice.
"Whew... it's over."
Those words served as the spark that set everything off.
Everyone sank to the ground or lowered their weapons and caught their breath.
The bank was nice, but people really needed to get out and see the light of day, and now they were savoring the street.
Someone even lay flat on their back in the middle of the road.
Even though I had only watched, I felt a little refreshed.