Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Part 14

Pour.

Tap.

Whoosh!

After pouring oil over the hammer and touching the burning Godslaying Sword to it.

Flames began blazing from Mincheol’s hammer as well.

“Ohhh!”

“Let’s go.”

“Yes!”

Dash!

Yugeon kicked off the ground and leapt into the forest of vines.

“Kieeeek!”

The vines sensed the intruders and lashed out from all directions like whips.

Dozens, hundreds of thorny vines.

It was a defensive wall that ordinary Awakened would not even be able to approach.

But Yugeon did not stop.

Whirl.

Slash!

As the Godslaying Sword traced an arc, the incoming vines were effortlessly severed.

Instead of dark red sap, flames surged from the cut surfaces.

“Hup!”

Mincheol followed behind him.

Smaller branches crashed into Mincheol, but thanks to his shield and Steel Skin, he took no damage.

Clang! Clang!

Ice spikes flew toward him, but they could not even pierce him and simply bounced away.

Whenever an entire stem flew toward him to coil around his body, he immediately struck it with his flaming hammer.

“Good, let’s pick up the pace. Just watch my back and follow me.”

Rustle.

‘What is that movement Brother is using...?’

He moved swiftly and smoothly as though gliding over ice, without even leaving footprints in the snow.

Treading Snow Without a Trace.

Gliding forward, Yugeon immediately began climbing the tower.

Mincheol also followed tenaciously, making sure not to fall behind.

____________

Before long, they had reached a height of ninety meters.

The observation deck was right in front of them.

At that moment.

Rumble!

The entire tower shook, and the observation deck windows shattered apart.

Then something enormous burst out from inside.

A gigantic eyeball easily three meters in diameter.

A grotesque monster floating in the air, suspended by countless blood vessel-like strands.

【Level 21】Abyss Watcher

Its pupil glowed red as it stared at Yugeon and Mincheol.

At the same time, a piercing ringing tore into their minds.

[Intruders... have... no future...]

A mental attack.

It was a vicious monster that read an intruder’s brainwaves, showed them the most horrifying future as an illusion, and drove them to suicide.

“Aaaagh!”

Mincheol, who had been following behind, screamed and clutched his head.

A horrifying vision unfolded before his eyes.

A despairing future where his mother’s throat was cut by Lee Hyeoksu, and Yugeon abandoned him and left.

“No... Mom... Brother...”

Mincheol’s eyes grew unfocused, and he began letting go of the tower railing he had been gripping.

If he fell from here, he would die instantly.

“Cha Mincheol, snap out of it!”

A thunderous shout.

The cry infused with internal energy struck Mincheol’s eardrums hard.

“Gasp?!”

Mincheol abruptly came to his senses and gripped the railing tightly again.

Cold sweat poured down him like rain.

“What... did I just see...?”

“That was its trick. Just keep your eyes on my back.”

Yugeon glared at the enormous eyeball floating in the air.

It was already playing tricks from the beginning.

Normally, it did not become hostile this quickly.

Curiosity and doubt.

With those emotions, it would quietly wait until someone approached.

But this time, it had launched a mental attack the moment it appeared.

‘Probably because we came here cutting down all the vines.’

The creature’s red pupil now turned toward Yugeon.

[I can... see... your death...]

With a buzzing sound, the Abyss Watcher pushed an illusion into Yugeon’s mind as well.

Ding!

【No-Mind】 resists the Abyss Watcher’s illusion.

[Wh... at... is this...]

Smirk.

When the Abyss Watcher became flustered, Yugeon gave a vicious smile.

“Too bad. That kind of bullshit doesn’t work on me.”

Bzzzzzz.

Killing intent flowed from Yugeon’s eyes.

Ding!

【One Sword of Heavenly Destruction】 has been activated.

[Consumes 1 Feat.]

Slaaaaash!

KRAAAAAAAAAAANG!

The moment Yugeon’s sword moved, a tremendous sword aura cut through the Abyss Watcher in a single stroke.

“Wow...”

And when even the sky split apart.

Mincheol, standing behind him, unconsciously let out a cry of admiration.

The sword aura that had cut through the Abyss Watcher continued onward and split the sky.

Yugeon had already reached the creature’s face.

“This is the future where you die.”

Whooooosh.

Grab!

As a red crystal fell from the sky, Yugeon quickly snatched the item.

【Item: Single Eye of the Abyss Watcher】

Rank: Heroic

Type: Auxiliary Weapon

Shows the opponent’s weakness and reveals the future one second ahead.

An extremely simple item description.

But the power possessed by the item was anything but simple.

“Brother! Are you all right?”

Mincheol finally climbed up and checked Yugeon’s condition.

“I’m fine. We got what we came for, so let’s go down.”

“Already? Aren’t we taking anything else?”

Perhaps other Awakened had come up here in the past, because various items were scattered across the observation deck.

Some of them even looked extremely valuable.

“Those are useless.”

They had been exposed to the poisonous energy for so long that their durability was probably completely depleted.

Moreover, the poisonous energy itself had already seeped into those items.

Just as objects in a radioactive zone also emitted radiation.

“We’re done here. And what we need to find next is down below.”

“Ah, then let’s head down!”

Without any hesitation, Yugeon and Mincheol descended the tower.

______________

Two blocks away from the TV Tower.

Among old commercial buildings on the verge of collapse stood a single wooden building that looked unusually intact.

At the edge of the Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade.

A shabby blacksmith shop with no signboard, only a drawing of an iron hammer.

Step. Step.

“Is this the place?”

When Yugeon stopped walking, Mincheol, who had been following him, looked to the side.

A strange shop with no signboard and no indication of what kind of place it was.

Grab.

Crack!

Yugeon tore off the closed shutter and entered.

The interior was much colder than outside.

The poisonous energy and cold had pooled inside the building, freezing everything white.

An anvil, tongs, a quenching trough.

The blacksmith’s tools had been abandoned, covered in frost.

And in the center.

A skeleton sat in front of the forge.

As though he had never let go of his hammer until the moment he died, the skeletal hand still tightly gripped the handle of the hammer resting on the anvil.

“Did you know him...?”

“No, I didn’t.”

However, he knew the story of this blacksmith.

He had heard it in the future.

“He never let go of his hammer until the very end... He was a true craftsman.”

“Yeah. He was Japan’s greatest blacksmith. I heard that when the poison spread, he refused to flee and tried to complete his final masterpiece.”

Yugeon approached the skeleton and silently paid his respects.

Even though they were of different nationalities, the man’s devotion to his craft deserved respect.

Yugeon carefully removed the hammer from the skeleton’s hand.

Heavy.

A weight difficult for an ordinary person to lift with one hand.

Constellations were engraved into the hammerhead, while the handle was made from a dragon’s bone and gave off a faint glow.

【Item: Hammer that Strikes the Stars】

Rank: Mythic

Type: Enhancement Item

The gods engraved a limit into every weapon from the moment it was first created.

But one blacksmith believed that even those limits could be hammered apart.

When he brought his final hammer blow down upon an old sword, the hammer shattered into pieces, and an undetermined future was imbued within the sword.

-Unique Authority-

Can enhance an item into a growth-type item.

“Found it.”

A smile spread across Yugeon’s lips.

“Is that really such an incredible item?”

Seeing Yugeon’s expression, Mincheol looked at the hammer curiously.

It was not even a hammer meant for combat, merely a craftsman’s tool, yet Yugeon seemed extremely pleased.

“It isn’t just an ordinary hammer.”

It was a blacksmith’s hammer carved from a fragment of a meteor.

So what effect did this hammer possess?

It drew the potential of whatever it struck to its absolute limit.

“To be precise, if you strike equipment with this, it becomes a growth-type item.”

“Pardon?? A g-growth-type item?!”

“Yeah. Even if it isn’t a Mythic item, it can be turned into something capable of growing all the way to Mythic rank.”

However, it could not be used indefinitely.

Five times.

This hammer could be used five times.

“Th-There’s an item like that...”

“I’m going to use this on one of your items.”

“On this shield?”

“No, not that shield.”

The shield Mincheol was currently holding.

More precisely, the Bastion Shield, was fairly useful.

It would become even better if it grew to Mythic rank.

But it would remain merely useful.

That was its limit.

For example, suppose he used this hammer on a Common-rank scrap-iron sword.

And suppose the scrap-iron sword continued growing until it reached Mythic rank.

Would that scrap-iron sword truly become equal to the Godslaying Sword he was holding?

Absolutely not.

In short, the item itself needed to possess the potential to become worthy of Mythic rank.

“I’ll replace the shield you’re using later. I plan to use this hammer on that one.”

“I think it would be better to use all five charges on your own items instead of mine...”

Mincheol scratched his head.

Why would Yugeon waste an opportunity to grow an item to Mythic rank on him?

He had already received so much from Yugeon that accepting more felt shameless.

“Don’t think about pointless things. I can obtain Mythic items whenever I want anyway.”

Tap.

Yugeon patted Mincheol’s shoulder as he started walking.

‘Hammer acquired.’

He had accomplished two of his objectives for coming to Sapporo.

The Single Eye of the Abyss Watcher, which allowed him to see one second into the future, and the Hammer that Strikes the Stars, which could turn items into growth-type items.

There were now two things left to obtain in Sapporo.

“Two. We just need to find the last two.”

Before leaving the blacksmith shop, Yugeon looked up at the sky.

Through the collapsed ceiling, purple snow was still falling.

“What are the last two items?”

“A lantern and a lotus.”

“Hmm? A lantern? You mean a light like this?”

Mincheol pointed at a light mounted on the wall of the shopping arcade.

A light that was currently unlit.

With Sapporo abandoned, electricity no longer flowed through this place at all.