Chapter 100
The broker stood in front of a building in Gangnam, Seoul.
What caught his eye was the modest sign reading Jang In-hyuk Workshop.
But this building was by no means the property of an ordinary man.
This was the private workshop of Jang In-hyuk, the best gear specialist in Korea—no, in all of Asia.
Jang In-hyuk.
Korea's only equipment-crafting master.
With a single appraisal from him, an item's value could go from heaven to earth.
He rarely deigned to even look at an item.
Only a guild with an A-rank hunter could barely get its name onto the end of the reservation list.
This time, using the A-rank identities of Jeong Man-ho and Kim Han-byeol had let them get an appointment quickly.
The broker checked the reservation and went inside.
A little later, a middle-aged man with a sharp expression appeared.
It was Jang In-hyuk.
He swept the broker from head to toe, then said in a curt voice,
"An item appraisal request, huh. So, where's the item?"
Without a word, the broker placed the case he had prepared on the table.
Jang In-hyuk checked the documents before even opening the case.
"Anonymous maker...?"
Jang In-hyuk's brow twitched slightly.
"I don't accept anonymous pieces. If you can't reveal the maker's name and affiliation, then there's a 99% chance it's worthless trash not even worth looking at."
His voice was laced with blatant contempt.
The broker didn't care.
After all, his nitpicking and sharp tongue were already famous in the industry.
There were even ominous rumors that he'd smash a flimsy item brought in by some incompetent fool right in front of them.
As if he'd expected that, the broker opened his mouth.
"That's why we wired twenty times the usual fee."
"Are you trying to buy me with money right now? Do you intend to insult me?"
But there was too much money to refuse.
Grumbling, Jang In-hyuk nevertheless walked over to the case.
"Fine. Let's see just how amazing this thing really is."
When he opened the lid, a white shield came into view.
A shield whose material was obvious at a glance.
Jang In-hyuk snorted.
"Hmph, the looks are convincing enough."
With a gloved hand, Jang In-hyuk carefully lifted the shield out.
He set it directly on the appraisal machine.
"First, let's analyze the material... hmm?"
When the analysis results appeared on the monitor, his expression shifted ever so slightly for the first time.
"Dragon bone? The purity of the material is top-grade... You must have spent a fortune."
The broker merely smiled without bothering to answer.
Jang In-hyuk still grumbled, clearly dissatisfied.
"Hmph, don't mistake that for praise. Do you think slapping together expensive materials makes good equipment? The combination of the materials matters more!"
Crafting equipment was like cooking.
You didn't make a good dish just by throwing in expensive ingredients.
The ingredients had to work together, and more than anything, the cook's skill mattered.
"What, is some conglomerate trying to launch a new brand? Hmph, as if."
Rich upstarts who didn't know any better would cling to expensive materials and waste precious ingredients.
Jang In-hyuk had always hated that.
This wasn't a field you could simply bulldoze through with money.
Jang In-hyuk studied the monitor's graph more closely.
"Now then, let's take a look at the material fusion rate."
It was a test to see how firmly the materials from different objects had fused, and how well they harmonized.
A test that weeded out all equipment crudely assembled with money.
Eight out of ten failed at this stage.
"What? A fusion rate of 99%?"
Jang In-hyuk checked the monitor over and over, unable to believe it.
The metal and bone were fused together almost perfectly, as if they were the same material.
Something that was absolutely impossible to achieve artificially.
"Ha, a Tower drop item. And one that looks like it'd only come from around the 40th floor."
The first theory that flashed through his mind was that this was an item from the Tower.
But of all the Tower drop items revealed so far, Jang In-hyuk knew every single one.
There was no way there could be an item he didn't know.
"Looks like you found a new hidden piece. Congratulations."
With that conclusion, Jang In-hyuk sneered at the broker.
The broker replied as if it were nothing.
"This is indeed a crafted item. We've already made ten of them."
"Ah, of course. I'm sure you have."
"Well, you don't have to believe me. We only need the certificate."
"Don't worry. I'll appraise it with perfect precision. But you should keep in mind that my mood is absolutely terrible right now."
The broker shrugged without answering.
Jang In-hyuk curled his lip and moved on to the next stage.
He'd been paid, so he had to do the job.
Besides, he was also secretly curious about the performance of an item he'd never seen before.
Next was the magic resistance test.
Jang In-hyuk fed mana stones into the machine.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
Several kilograms of mana stones poured from the sack, feeding the mana cannon.
"Let's start with B-rank output."
KWAANG!
A flash with B-rank destructive power burst from the mana cannon.
Naturally, the shield didn't budge.
"Hmm."
He cranked it up one level.
It was roughly on par with a spell cast at full power by an A-rank mage.
KWAANG-!
The shield still didn't have a single scratch on it.
Jang In-hyuk's expression stiffened slightly.
As if he'd made up his mind, he pushed the machine's output lever all the way up.
Energy comparable to the lower end of an S-rank Hunter.
"Let's see you withstand this."
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG-!!!
A deafening roar loud enough to shake the entire appraisal room erupted with a flash.
The broker unconsciously covered his eyes.
After a moment, the light faded and the smoke cleared.
"What...!"
Jang In-hyuk couldn't believe his own eyes.
The shield was perfectly fine.
No, it wasn't just fine.
As if it had absorbed the enormous mana just now, the patterns on its surface were shining brightly.
"Th-this crazy..."
A rough curse burst from Jang In-hyuk's mouth.
He hurriedly prepared the final test.
Physical durability measurement.
A huge compressor slowly descended toward the shield.
"Pressure, 50 tons... holding. 100 tons... 150 tons...!"
The numbers kept climbing.
As the numbers climbed, Jang In-hyuk's voice grew louder and louder.
The shield didn't budge, as if mocking that pressure.
At last, the number reached its maximum.
"200 tons! 200 tons? This is completely insane!"
At last, his sanity was completely shattered.
Jang In-hyuk wandered around the shield like a madman, muttering to himself.
"You're completely ignoring the laws of physics! Are you still going to insist this is a crafted item?"
"Please just write the appraisal report."
"Of course I will. I'm jealous. You hit the jackpot, big time. This thing—what floor did you get it from? There can't be many people in Korea who've made it past the 40th floor."
Jang In-hyuk sneered in a cold tone.
"It is indeed a crafted item, though."
"You can't tell me where it came from, can you? Hmph. I understand. So I'm supposed to take your money and spit out an appraisal report, is that it...."
"Why don't you believe me?"
"Honestly, then make sure to introduce me to the person who made this. I'll become their disciple!"
"That would be amusing. Please be sure to remember that."
"What, should I write up some kind of pledge?"
"That would be great."
"Hmph, think I can't? You're really toying with me to the very end!"
Jang In-hyuk suddenly bristled, huffing as he scrawled his signature on the paper.
"There! Bring that person you call the maker to me later. Don't you dare fail to bring them!"
The broker smirked without saying a word.
Jang In-hyuk grumbled for quite a while after that, before finally writing up an appraisal report.
A perfect report, with every value marked as S-rank.
The broker picked up the paper with a satisfied expression.
***
I was lying on the sofa eating snacks, hearing all of those reactions over the phone.
There was a cheerfulness in the broker's voice that he couldn't quite hide.
Honestly, it was the first time I'd ever heard the old man sound this happy.
[Anyway, that Master Jang In-hyuk said he absolutely wants to meet the maker. He even said he'd become their disciple.]
"Oh dear, this is a one-man lineage, so even if he came as a disciple, I still couldn't teach him."
[You should definitely meet him sometime later. He already wrote the pledge, too.]
"He won't change his mind later, will he?"
[A man like that would keep his word out of pride alone. He doesn't need to be taken on as a real disciple, but we could cooperate in all sorts of ways.]
I chuckled and brushed the snack crumbs off.
Everything was going smoothly, just as expected.
But we'd only just cleared the first step.
There was still a lot to do.
"Looks like not making it into a weapon was the right call after all."
After hanging up, I spent a moment staring at the ceiling and thinking.
It really was a relief.
That I'd made a shield, not a weapon.
If I'd made a cannon with S-rank attack power?
At that point, there would have been restrictions not only on selling it, but even on making it.
"Honestly, if you could churn out nuclear weapons at home, who would just sit still?"
The government, of course, and all sorts of overseas organizations would never leave me alone.
And after selling it, the trouble wouldn't end there.
I didn't want some crazy bastard with a lot of money causing trouble with something I made. That would be truly awful.
But a shield won't do that.
It's defense gear, pure and simple.
Its defense was beyond common sense, but it couldn't be used to threaten others.
Surely there wouldn't be some lunatic who'd attack people with a shield, right?
"Damn it, why do I feel like there might be?"
For a moment, I shook my head and brushed off the ominous thought that had flashed through my mind.
There was no way such a weird person existed. No, there couldn't be.
It was time to move on to the next step.
The promotion for the new brand.
Promotion had to be handled carefully.
What I was making was basically a luxury brand.
SNS or TV commercials didn't suit it at all.
"I told him to invite only VIPs and do a showcase or preview party...."
That process required a lot of preparation.
For example, packaging the brand's lore and symbolism.
Of course, that was impossible for me.
For that, the broker was busily running around, gathering the people involved.
Of course, the broker knew nothing about design or art, and he didn't have a single connection, either.
But we now had a rock-solid guarantee of the product's quality, plus capital.
The plan was to use that to build connections and prepare the showcase.
"I should do what I can on my end too."
What I could do.
That was inviting guests.
No matter how outstanding a product I made, and no matter how nicely a top-tier designer packaged it, in the end it would still just be a brand nobody had heard of.
Even if such a brand sent invitations to VIPs, who would care?
But I had my own connections.
The best connections that no one else had.
The Mage Gallery.
I entered the Mage Gallery and wrote a post.
[Title: I'm quitting as a Hunter. Giving away all my gear]