Gaeul fitted the broken Woodcalibur together like a puzzle.

It looked somewhat convincingly joined, but unfortunately, Woodcalibur had no self-restoration ability.

“Attack…!”

With a battle cry, she raised Woodcalibur high.

But when she extended her arm, Woodcalibur split in two again and fell onto her head.

Bonk-

With the light impact, Gaeul’s eyes widened.

Her eyebrows drooped sadly as she looked at Woodcalibur on the ground.

“Gaeul…?”

“…”

Quietly staring at the broken half, Gaeul took a deep breath that made her stomach puff out.

I could instinctively predict what would happen next.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAEEEENG.”

Gaeul’s emergency siren echoed throughout the ruins.

The golems had no ears so they wouldn’t come looking because of the sound, but I decided to stop the siren anyway.

“Gaeul, stop!”

“Stop!”

Gaeul stopped her siren at my firm command.

Unfortunately, her dejected expression remained.

“Owner.”

Gaeul handed me the broken halves of Woodcalibur.

I could see her hope that I would fix it, along with her faith that I could do something about it.

“Bom should be able to fix this. She’s good at repairing things.”

“Yeah. I’ll fix it for you.”

Bom used her black mana to repair the broken Woodcalibur.

Gaeul smiled brightly at the now-perfect Woodcalibur.

“Thank you.”

“Yeah. Just tell me if it breaks again.”

With Bom’s help fixing Woodcalibur, we resumed hunting.

But Gaeul’s hunting style had changed a bit from before.

“Attack! Attack!”

After throwing lemons, she only pretended to swing Woodcalibur.

Then, perhaps feeling that even pretending to swing it was dangerous, she hugged it tightly.

The breaking of Woodcalibur seemed to have been quite traumatic for her.

“Gaeul, aren’t you going to use Woodcalibur? We can fix it again if it breaks.”

“No.”

“No?”

Despite knowing it could be fixed, she was extremely wary of it breaking again.

It was somehow disappointing not seeing her vigorously swinging Woodcalibur.

“Hmm… should we clear the dungeon first?”

“Yeah…!”

The children and divine beasts.

Thanks to everyone’s combined efforts, we easily cleared the Level 4 dungeon.

We handled the dungeon’s boss, the iron golem, with ease.

It didn’t feel much different from the rock golems.

Boom-!

When the iron golem collapsed after losing its power source, a startled Gaeul hid Woodcalibur behind her back.

Since realizing Woodcalibur’s durability wasn’t great, she had been treating it even more preciously.

“Hmm…”

I wondered if there was a way to make Woodcalibur sturdy enough not to break even when swung vigorously.

Master’s adventurer specialty shop had a section for handling weapons, so I thought we should go there.

**

In an era where everyone dreamed of becoming an adventurer, there was a profession that adventurers revered.

Blacksmiths—those who made or repaired equipment essential for adventurers.

Depending on their skill, blacksmiths could receive even greater respect than adventurers.

Among them, Kwak Cheol was one of the few in the world who had earned the title of master craftsman.

Renowned adventurers from around the world flocked to meet him.

Unfortunately, like many geniuses, Kwak Cheol had one eccentric trait.

He only worked with weapons when he wanted to.

“Master Kwak Cheol, are you taking the day off again today?”

“Yeah, gotta rest.”

“…I understand.”

A large department store for adventurers owned by Kang Jinho.

Kwak Cheol belonged there, but he didn’t move on Kang Jinho’s orders.

His contract stipulated that he would only work when he wanted to.

“These days there’s no fun or fulfillment in making things…”

Perhaps it was because of his age.

His passion and energy felt like they had sunk to the depths of the sea.

He wanted to train his disciples well so he could retire without worries.

But seeing how his disciples were doing, it seemed they couldn’t make a decent weapon even with a hundred years of training.

“Haah…”

As his concerns deepened, he could only sigh.

Today he’d have to drill his disciples.

Just as Kwak Cheol opened the door to the underground forge:

“Hello…”

Kwak Cheol’s eyes met with a group of children.

Though Kwak Cheol wasn’t interested in worldly affairs, he knew who these children were.

They were the children who received full support from Yeomyeong Guild.

However, even such children couldn’t escape Kwak Cheol’s gruff manner of speaking.

“Why are you here?”

“Well, we want to strengthen a weapon…”

“A weapon?”

Since they were Yeomyeong’s children.

They must have extraordinary weapons.

Perhaps a child’s weapon could rekindle his cooled passion.

Just as Kwak Cheol’s gaze fixed on Gyeoul’s bow:

Gaeul held out Woodcalibur to Kwak Cheol.

“This is just a tree branch…”

“No!”

“Hmm?”

“Gaeuri weapon.”

Kwak Cheol looked down at the branch Gaeul offered.

It was remarkably sword-like, but nothing more than an ordinary branch.

Had they come to ask him to turn this into a real weapon?

While part of him wanted to preserve the children’s innocence, his faded passion left him troubled.

Kwak Cheol could only respond gruffly.

“Hey, kids, how am I supposed to turn an ordinary branch into a weapon?”

“Is it not possible…?”

Not possible?

If touched by a master craftsman’s hands, even an ordinary branch could become the world’s finest weapon.

Of course, it would cost an astronomical amount.

“It’s possible, but you’d need to bring materials worth the effort.”

“Materials like…”

“Special materials that hold mana.”

“…You mean like mana stones?”

“Mana stones work, as do monster byproducts.”

“I see.”

So the higher the quality of mana stones and byproducts, the better the weapon that could be made.

I’d need to go back and think about which mana stones and byproducts to use.

“Thank you. I’ll be back later.”

Bow-

Gyeoul bowed from the waist and left.

Kwak Cheol stared at Gyeoul and the children as they walked away.

“…”

Surely they wouldn’t actually return with incredible materials.

Turning an ordinary branch into the world’s finest weapon.

The mere thought was exciting.

Enough to bring back his lost passion.

‘…No.’

Even Yeomyeong wouldn’t go that far just for a child’s innocence.

Kwak Cheol, with his gray-filled hair, dismissed the encounter with Gyeoul and headed toward his disciples.

Lost passion wasn’t something that returned so easily.

**

Back at the park, I sat near the swimming pool playground, deep in thought.

I was pondering what materials to use to strengthen Woodcalibur.

“Hmm…”

The core we got from defeating the iron golem.

Would this be enough to make Gaeul’s weapon better?

Having never crafted weapons before, I didn’t know what kind of weapon would result from a core of this quality.

I couldn’t tell if it was too much or too little.

Maybe I should just bring various materials?

As I was wiggling my feet in the swimming pool playground while thinking:

Marin, who had been playing with the children, approached me quickly.

“You look deep in thought.”

“Yes, I want to make a weapon, but I don’t know what materials to use.”

“I do have something good if you need materials.”

Water began to condense in Marin’s palm.

The water took shape and soon transformed into a black, hard, shield-like object.

“Wow.”

It was an impressive magic trick, but what was it?

I examined the black shield in Marin’s hand from various angles.

“It’s a dragon scale.”

“A dragon scale? Isn’t that extremely rare?”

“Not particularly rare by my standards. I have many of them.”

Since Marin had served the previous dragon, it wasn’t strange for her to have many scales.

“Would this make a good weapon?”

“Yes. After all, it’s a scale from a dragon.”

“Wow, thank you Marin.”

“Don’t mention it. If you need anything, just let me know. I can give you everything I have.”

“Hehe.”

I held the dragon scale tightly against my chest.

Being as large as a shield, I had to hold it with both arms.

Since it was a precious gift from Marin, I should take it home first.

Just as I was heading to the guild building with the dragon scale:

I spotted two Masters coming out of the guild building.

It was our Master and Chae Juyeon, the Sacred Guild Master.

“Oh my, Gyeoul.”

“Hello.”

I approached the two Masters while holding the dragon scale.

Both Masters showed interest in the scale I was carrying.

“What’s that? It looks extraordinary.”

“It’s a dragon scale.”

“Dragon scale?”

“Yes. I’m going to use it to make a strong and durable weapon.”

“I see.”

Master Chae Juyeon smiled, and our Master reached into his suit.

When he extended his hand again, there was a mana stone on it.

“Use this.”

“Isn’t this something precious…?”

“It’s something easily obtainable.”

“Wow, thank you.”

I could feel tremendous magical power from it.

Was this level considered common for our Master?

As I received the mana stone with both hands, Master Chae Juyeon held something out to me.

“Here, I’ll give you this. Use it for making your weapon.”

“What is this…?”

Light continuously leaked from a white orb.

It was an orb that even felt sacred.

“Holy… I mean, this is also something easily obtainable.”

“Wow…”

I wasn’t sure what it was, but would it make the weapon better?

I accepted the orb that Master Chae Juyeon handed me with both hands.

While I didn’t know what the orb did, the mana emanating from it was beyond refined—it was incredibly pure.

With materials like these, an exceptionally good weapon might be created.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep