Chapter 7
“What, you can really make a golem?”
“I told you it’s true?! Geez... why is this happening...?”
It’s like a rare metal ingot. It’s a little smaller, but the only difference is that a blue mana stone is set in the center.
“For now, it looks like the skill is working. So you weren't lying?”
“O-of course not..!”
While I was talking with Han Dohee, a notification popped up in front of my status window.
[ I created a fragment of the Fallen Kingdom. {Synthesizable objects : 3 / Completion : 26%} ]
“Huh! The number of things I can synthesize changed to three!”
“What do you mean...? Ah, you mean combining the things you made?”
“Right! I'll try merging them for now?”
“Yeah, go ahead. And tell that cellphone golem of yours to keep the camera steady.”
“Oh, okay!”
After slightly turning Daengdaeng's head, I used the skill again. This time, it was the sword and the rare-metal ingot.
“Golem synthesis..!”
As I shouted “synthesis,” just like when I had fused Minyum and the cockroach, the two pieces began to cling together. Meeting in midair, the two melted and twisted into one.
“O-ohh..!”
[ A power-source connection has been detected in the fragment of the Fallen Kingdom. Synthesizing a temporary form. {Synthesizable objects : 2 / Completion : 38%} ]
“T-temporary form?!”
“What? What's going on?”
Bathed in blue light, the rare metal and the sword began changing into a slightly more complex form than before. Along with the notice that it had gained a power source, what came down onto the floor was....
“This is.. a bird?”
“An eagle? A hawk?”
A body made of bright, clean white metal, with a blue mana stone embedded in its chest shining brightly.
A bird of prey with blue eyes set into its face and a sharp beak. An eagle? A hawk...? I wasn't sure, but either way, it was a raptor.
“W-whoa..!! It worked ㅡ !!?”
The eagle was coolly preening one wing with its beak. It felt very different from dumb-looking Daengdaeng and featureless Minyum.
For one thing, the glossy white feathers and the blue eyes looked like they’d been made to match the mana stone.
It had a face that somehow looked scary, yet it was exactly like a real animal. The fact that it was made entirely of metal was incredible.
And it could move, too! It was even made of rare metal? A thing that looked this cool had to be insanely good at fighting!
“This..! Look at this! It’s an eagle!”
“Yeah, it really does look like an animal, doesn't it?”
So happy that I hugged the rare-metal eagle to my chest and rubbed my cheek against it, the eagle tapped the top of my head with the tip of its sharp beak.
“Ow?!”
After pecking the top of my head, the eagle waddled away for a bit, then spread one wing wide and even bowed its head to me in greeting.
“Uh... hi?”
“It even knows how to greet people.”
“Yeah....”
Had I ever seen an eagle bow its head to greet someone? No, come to think of it, it wasn't a real eagle to begin with. Then... that just meant it was that smart, right?
“I think I can do hunter work now too!”
Our eagle... more precisely, the raptor golem that looked exactly like a bald eagle, spread its wings again and toddled around the house in tiny steps with its sharp talons before taking a full lap around the interior.
ㅡKiiit....
“Huh? Why? Is something wrong?”
At my call, the raptor golem turned its head to look at me. I didn't know whether animals even had expressions, but somehow I felt like I understood what the bald-eagle golem wanted to say to me.
‘Pathetic.’
“Gah...!”
* * * * *
“I'm depressed.... And I'm hungry....”
The golem made from 6 kg of rare-metal ingot and a sword with a mana stone embedded in it, nicknamed “Suri,” looked at me lying on the mattress and shook its head.
It was probably thinking, “So that's my master? My life is ruined.”
In a house where the only thing to eat was tap water, my depression and hunger had reached their peak, and I collapsed, losing the will to go on.
“Ah... I'm hungry....”
At this rate, I could definitely die. The tap water was clean and fine, so there wasn't really any problem with drinking water, but there was the issue that unless I went outside in broad daylight, I couldn't get food.
What if I went out in a body like this and got kidnapped by some weird person nearby? My original body was worthless, so there had been no reason to kidnap it, but honestly, my current body was so pretty and cute that it wouldn't be weird at all if I got kidnapped.
Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it.
“Uuugh... I'm cute....”
I cheered myself up and sat down at the desk to write a post on Hunter Gallery, but the reaction this time was pretty underwhelming.
[Life's ruined: I'm hungry, guys
Will anyone seriously give me just one burger]
-ㅇㅇ : This bastard's at it again
ㄴ인셍망헷음 : I might not be around starting tomorrow; I'm seriously on the brink of starvation
-ㅇㅇ : Go outside and get a job, idiot lol
ㄴ 인셍망헷음 : No mean words to the baby
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : (♿♿♿)
-메소공장 : It's cheap if you post a face pic
ㄴ 인셍망헷음 : Is this really true?
ㄴ 메소공장 : (♿♿♿)
ㄴ 인셍망헷음 : Hey;
“Absolutely not.”
If I verified my face right now, it'd be no different from selling my life for a single Cyburger. Right now, my looks were pretty much one of a kind in South Korea.
“Well, can't be helped.”
If I tied back my hair so the white strands wouldn't show as much and tucked it neatly into the hood, wouldn't that be fine?
In the end, after throwing on my clothes haphazardly, I rolled up my hair and stuffed it under the hood. Except for my bangs, there was no sign of white hair.
The hood was a little big too, so if I pulled it forward a bit more, my face wouldn't be visible either. I even put on shorts this time. The only ROKA shorts in our house with a waist tie still attached...
“Phew... let's go.”
Luckily, I had my wallet. There was a debit card in it that originally only had 80,000 won on it, plus 1,800 won in coins.
Thanks to Daengdaeng, I could pay this month's rent, and I could afford to buy at least some food right now too.
“Daengdaeng. By any chance, what's the balance?”
[Account balance : 605,447 won]
“O-ohh....”
Heh-heh... Daengdaeng really was the best golem I had ever made. This was national power-level stuff.
“Come with me. Just in case.”
Suri was way too big and would draw a lot of attention, and there was no particular reason to bring Minyum along. Daengdaeng might get a call, after all.
“Phew, stay calm. Calm down.”
After calming my pounding heart, I carefully opened the door and went outside. A short corridor and, beyond it, a staircase leading down. Room 404 in a tiny studio building. Thankfully, our place doesn't actually error out.
“Minyum, Suri. Don’t cause trouble and wait here, okay? Got it?”
ㅡSqueak!
ㅡKiiit
After hearing the replies from the two golems, I carefully went down the stairs. The stairs felt taller than usual to my thin, soft body with not a single muscle on it.
As I had felt when I went to pick up the beer can, I absolutely could not fight in this body. The distinct feeling of certain defeat. I'd even bet that one punch would send me flying like Team Rocket.
“But... where should I go..?”
Come to think of it, I still hadn't even thought about where to buy food. This was a residential area packed with shabby one-room and two-room villas. Put nicely, it was a hillside slum.
Or, I guess, you could call it by other words with bad meanings—ghetto, shantytown, slum, the hood, hell, the abyss, the underworld, limbo, the netherworld, the afterlife, Tartarus, Niflheim (winter only), and so on.
Luckily, there was a convenience store close by.
‘It’s the convenience store where I used to work part-time….’
That's right. That one nearby place was my workplace. The place that had now become my former workplace. Though, honestly, I still didn't know whether it would stay my former workplace or whether I'd end up working there again.
‘Yeah, this doesn't seem right.’
Honestly, even if I went there, they probably wouldn't notice me. But still, it's a bit much. I just don't want to go....
In the end, after walking the long distance to the main road and reaching the flatter part of the neighborhood, there were tons of people.
It was around 1 p.m. I had gone about 14 hours without eating anything.
Or maybe I had drunk a little of the bathwater mixed with electricity. Maybe that was why I wasn't thirsty.
Daengdaeng, tucked into the pocket of my hoodie, peeked its head out and looked around. Apparently it found the scenery amusing, because its tail was wagging wildly inside the pocket.
It's been quite a while since I'd come out this way, so I don't really know what's around here.
I habitually reached into my pocket to open the map app on my phone, but all I could feel was Daengdaeng's USB tail.
“Haah.... Daengdaeng, is there anywhere nearby that sells food? Like a convenience store? Open the map app and tell me....”
ㅡBeep!
Daengdaeng shoved its face back into my pocket and started checking around here and there on the map app.
Not long after, Daengdaeng peeked its head out again, then suddenly stretched out and dropped down onto the street.
“D-Daengdaeng?! Where are you going?!”
ㅡBeep!!
“I-I’m coming with you!”
Daengdaeng served as a living navigation system. As other people's eyes focused on Daengdaeng, I pulled my hood down low and caught up to the running Daengdaeng from behind.
“Huff... huff..! A-ah, the convenience store..!! Haa….”
Fortunately, we arrived at the convenience store safely. Wow, it was really far from home.
* * * * *
Shopping was a lot easier than I'd expected. I'd just look like some short kid, and if I didn't even open my mouth and just held out my card, checkout would be over.
Inside the black plastic bag were five hot bars, three cup-bap meals, and one pack of non-spicy ramyeon.
“This should keep me going for a few days, right..?”
Just as I finished paying and was about to head out, Daengdaeng started acting up again.
“W-where are you going?! We don't need to go to the convenience store anymore ㅡ ?!”
Ignoring my calls, Daengdaeng kept moving farther away. It really was like a phone with feet was running away from me.
The tension in my body, which had been all shriveled up from the shopping, suddenly let go, and running again in that state left me desperately out of breath.
“P-please..! Daengdaeng, come back..!!”
Daengdaeng getting farther and farther away, and my vision growing blurry.
ㅡAaaah!! Run!!
ㅡGate! A gate opened!!
My heartbeat was so loud my ears felt stuffed up. The plastic bag in my hand was heavy, and my arms and legs hurt.
While I was resting my hands on my knees and trying to catch my breath, someone slammed into me shoulder-first as they rushed past.
ㅡCrash!!
“Ughk..!”
The heavy shoulder of an adult knocked my whole body aside and sent me sprawling backward. The moment my head, which had been bent low, was jerked up to the sky, I finally saw the scene right in front of me.
“Uh, hee..?”
A gate. A gate had appeared, spewing monsters out.
“Gasp..!!”
I'd run so much I couldn't run anymore. I wanted to flee, but my body wouldn't listen.
ㅡGrrr..!
A wolf-shaped monster about the size of a sturdy man, wrapped in a deep purple aura.
The moment my eyes met its, I had a gut feeling.
‘I'm going to die..!’
Just as it twisted its body toward me and kicked off the ground.
ㅡSwoooosh!!!!
Thud ㅡ !!!
“Ughh….”
The impact was enough to buckle the stone bricks laid in the sidewalk. With a loud crash, dust billowed up in clouds.
And from within it, a certain shape waddled out.
“S-Suri..?”
ㅡKiiit..!
A bald-eagle golem made of rare metal, weighing about 8 kg. The impact of plunging down from the sky at tens of kilometers per hour with those hard, sharp talons out front could never possibly be weak.
“Waaah.. Suri..!!”
You’re the best. You’re truly number one in my heart.