Chapter 5
“His side?”
What would this guy know, trying to give advice?
Hunters were fighting each other, and some blacksmith nobody was butting in.
Normally, Park Youngjun would’ve ignored him outright.
He despised the weak.
Even among hunters, if someone didn’t have something he acknowledged, he wouldn’t listen to a word they said.
A barely-socialized beast of a man—that was Park Youngjun.
And yet, something strange happened.
BANG!
Naturally, his fist followed Kangcheol’s words and slammed into the opponent’s side.
The beast-like instincts backing his violent temperament screamed that listening to this advice would solve the situation.
And the result…
“Ghk!”
Unbelievably, the punch had impact!
“Huh?!”
Why did that work?
Confused, he punched the exact same spot again.
BANG!
“KRAAAAGH!”
“Oh! Hah! Hah! Hah!”
He didn’t know why it worked, but it really did.
The iron armor that hadn’t budged until now was caving in perfectly in the shape of his fists.
Certain now, Park Youngjun gleefully dug into the enemy’s side.
“Ghk!”
“Where d’you think you’re running, huh? Suddenly scared of this old man?”
The scammer hurriedly tried to create distance, but Park Youngjun moved faster and seized the better position first.
BANG!
He struck again—
“Huh?”
Youngjun reacted in confusion.
No matter how many more times he attacked, the result was the same.
The scammer wasn’t just dodging anymore. He looked like he’d tried something—and succeeded.
He changed the location of the weak steel!
Even Kangcheol could no longer see the reddish glow on the side.
“Boss! Boss! Warranty service! My punches suddenly stopped working!”
Park Youngjun and the scammer went back to exchanging blows.
Kangcheol searched for another weak point.
And not long later, he found another reddish glow.
“I think… I can see another weak point!”
“Where?!”
“Lower back! Right above the waist!”
The reactions split immediately.
“Hah. Seriously. How am I supposed to hit his back?”
Park Youngjun grumbled.
Meanwhile, the scammer flinched, then glared viciously at Kangcheol.
“You little bastard… been yapping and getting on my nerves for a while now.”
His eyes hardened as though he’d made up his mind.
The scammer, who had been busy defending until now, suddenly tilted his body and rushed past Park Youngjun straight toward Kangcheol.
“Huh?”
“You die first!”
The fist reached right in front of Kangcheol’s face.
Then—
Grab.
“…When an adult talks, you’re supposed to listen.”
The giant figure wrapped in layers of metal stopped as if frozen in place.
Holding the scammer around the waist was a monstrous arm bulging with muscles and veins.
“N-no way?!”
It’s hard to hit someone while hugging them.
Well, maybe it’s possible somehow.
But if someone uses a move from this position…
“HYAAAH!”
—Whoa. He lifted him, student.
At the very least, the man-metal hybrid had to weigh several hundred kilograms.
Yet during live combat, Park Youngjun lifted him off the ground with a single shout.
“You can’t punch civilians, you punk!”
Youngjun hoisted the scammer over his shoulder.
Then—
Tap!
He leapt upward, and before anyone realized it, his feet had planted themselves on the ceiling.
Like someone doing a reverse squat, he crouched deeply upside down.
“W-what are you trying to do?! Mister! No, teacher!!”
“Too late~”
Cracks spread across the ceiling like a spiderweb.
A powerful leap. Tremendous speed.
Using the ceiling as a springboard, the accelerating descent became—
KWA-BOOOOM!
Like a meteor impact, it carved a massive crater into the floor.
Through the rising cloud of dust, Park Youngjun stood up.
Kangcheol glanced toward the center of the crater and muttered,
“Isn’t he actually dead this time? Shouldn’t we report a murder?”
“Aw, come on. He won’t die. The guy made a career out of getting hit by monsters. That was just a regular German suplex.”
“Leaving aside whether that was actually a German suplex… I think you’re stronger than the monsters.”
“Uh… well… huh?”
Could he actually have died?
After making a puzzled face for a while, Park Youngjun lightly smacked Kangcheol’s shoulder.
Because there was no hostility in it, Kangcheol took the hit head-on and grimaced.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“You’re pretty good, huh?”
“At what? Say something people can understand.”
“You look like you can fight. Earlier too—you knocked my hand away, and you dodged that guy’s first attack.”
Ah.
Kangcheol sucked in a breath.
Things had happened too quickly.
Without thinking, he’d reacted using the enhanced physical abilities he gained after awakening.
Knocking away Youngjun’s hand had honestly been more recklessness and irritation than skill.
—Huh? Why’s that guy suddenly sharp? You can’t get caught.
Can’t I just somehow explain it away if things get bad?
—Nope!
Unless you were a special case like Kangcheol, revealing your awakening and registering with the Hunter Association was always beneficial.
But if someone asked why he hadn’t revealed it…
Could he really hide the fact that he’d awakened into a mythical-class profession nobody had ever heard of—a Metallurgist?
“You didn’t dodge the last punch, but you still tracked it with your eyes. Oh, right—and you pointed out that guy’s weak points too. Could it be…”
Gulp.
Kangcheol tensed up completely.
Then—
“…Woof.”
“…What?”
That wasn’t a human answer.
It was too short for that.
Then did he really hear correctly?
Woof?
Like a dog barking?
As Kangcheol stared in confusion, Park Youngjun started barking.
“Woof woof! Woofwoofwoofwoof! Grrrrrr… WOOF! Bark bark bark!”
—A human… is barking?
Before the system window could even finish reacting in disbelief, Park Youngjun crouched down and planted both hands on the floor.
On all fours.
“W-what are you doing?! Are you insane?! Sir! Did you hit your head?!”
“You said if you were right, I’d become your dog. Crawl around on all fours, act cute, bark ‘woof’—remember? Grrrrrr! Pant pant!”
Even though harsh language slipped out accidentally, Park Youngjun didn’t care.
As soon as Kangcheol finished speaking, Youngjun spun in circles on all fours like a puppy chasing its tail.
Maybe because he was such a simple beast of a man, the imitation was disturbingly accurate.
—Student, this is bad. At this rate, that man’s gonna start acting cute too.
“N-no thanks! Stop it already! Stop!”
“Oof, thanks. I can stop now, right?”
The moment Kangcheol desperately tried to stop him, Park Youngjun stood back up as if nothing had happened.
“Wow. Was that acting just now?”
“Haha. You’ll understand once you get older. A family man can endure anything for the sake of social life. But…”
Youngjun straightened himself and bent his waist into a perfect ninety-degree bow.
“I spoke far too harshly. I wanted to gift a sword to my superior, but because of my own personal circumstances and greed, I unfairly pressured you.”
A completely serious attitude.
Nothing like the man who had been barking moments ago.
At least, it was the most mature and respectful side of Park Youngjun that Kangcheol had seen.
“I sincerely apologize for everything I said out of pride. Not only for the damage to the forge and equipment, but also for the pride of yours that I hurt. I promise to make proper amends according to your wishes.”
Honestly, Kangcheol himself found it strange.
Just minutes ago they’d been hurling insults at each other.
Yet somehow… he felt like he could understand him.
A family man… huh.
As if making up his mind, Kangcheol spoke.
“First, raise your head.”
“…Will you accept my apology?”
Kangcheol grimaced several times before answering gruffly.
“Damn it. Thinking about what I heard still pisses me off, but what can I do? Getting angry won’t undo anything. Instead…”
“There’s a condition, huh? Let’s hear it.”
“Yes. One second.”
Kangcheol entered the office and brought out a box.
When Park Youngjun opened it and saw what was inside, his eyes widened into fists.
“Knives? Wait, didn’t you say you hadn’t even touched them earlier?”
“Right. But I did work hard on the steel I already had.”
Inside the box lay two knives side by side.
They looked almost identical, as though copied directly from a blueprint using a printer.
Unless someone carefully compared the wood grain on the handles, they’d mistake them for the same knife.
“It’s not on the level of CPM steel, but I used a good material for smaller blades. AEB-L. A high-toughness stainless steel used for razor blades.”
“What if I rejected it because it wasn’t the steel I ordered?”
He hadn’t made them specifically for the order.
It had merely been part of three straight days of indulging his own obsession.
He’d actually made five more knives of similar size, but there was no reason to mention that.
“Well, if you knew enough about steel to complain properly, you probably wouldn’t have bought material off a secondhand marketplace in the first place. And…”
Kangcheol grinned at the twitching Park Youngjun.
“A blacksmith knows knives best. If a customer places the wrong order, isn’t it the blacksmith’s job to make it correctly anyway?”
For a long time, Park Youngjun said nothing.
He looked like someone whose understanding of the world had just been overturned in an instant.
“…I think today might be the first time in my life I’ve met a real blacksmith.”
“Don’t know about that. Anyway, take the knives. You said they’re a gift for your boss.”
“Right.”
“I did my best, but since the steel changed, I didn’t follow every detail of the original request. So take them, give them to your superior, and tell me the feedback afterward. I’ll decide the price based on their satisfaction. That’s my first condition.”
In other words:
I know I’m right, but since I didn’t follow your request exactly, I’ll leave the pricing to you.
“What if I lie?”
“Man, you really love testing people. If you do, you’re banned. You’ll never use another knife I make again.”
“Okay. Understood. I’ll evaluate them a bit more generously than my conscience allows.”
To Park Youngjun, Kangcheol’s words sounded less like confidence in the knife’s price and more like:
Losing access to my work will hurt you more than saving money ever could.
And strangely enough, it resembled the confidence he’d seen in hunters who walked the line between life and death.
Like a final safeguard.
A belief that if I have this, I’ll survive somehow.
That same scent of conviction existed in Kangcheol’s mindset as a blacksmith.
“And the second condition. Keep your promise to compensate for the damages.”
“That’s obvious.”
“Good. As long as you do those two things, we’re fine.”
“Alright. This time I’ll finally preserve my dignity as a team leader.”
Judging by the extent of the destruction, it would cost him a fortune.
Surprisingly, though, Park Youngjun agreed without hesitation.
“Then I’ll contact you soon. Oh, and this scammer—I can take him with me, right?”
“You have to. Were you planning to leave him here? And next time you contact me, keep your voice down.”
“Hahaha! Sure! I’ll remember that! No yelling!”
Park Youngjun personally wrote and stamped a written agreement before leaving.
Carrying the scammer over his shoulder while humming, he somehow looked much lighter than when he first arrived.
—Whew. That was noisy.
“Seriously. I’m exhausted.”
Did catching a scammer really have to become such a spectacle?
No matter how he thought about it, a scammer throwing punches felt completely unfair.
As Kangcheol grumbled—
—If you worked hard, there should be rewards.
The system window displayed a meaningful message before going quiet.
Then—
Pop!
—Job Quest: Improve the perception of a (potential) customer who expressed negative opinions. (1/1) Complete!
—Job Quest: Use the Skill “Eye of Insight.” (3/3) Complete!
—Job Quest: Use the Skill “Eye of Insight.” (10/10) Complete!
—Job Quest: Forge Remodeling: Demolition. (1/1) Complete!
—Job Quest: Create a product using the “Eye of Insight” skill. (1/1) Complete!
A flood of quest completion notifications appeared.
Clearing five job quests rewarded him with 50 coins.
Then came another message.
—Level Up! Reward: 200 coins.
Kangcheol’s eyes widened.
A total of 250 coins appeared right after the system said there should be compensation for hard work.
Thinking back to the fried chicken pricing comparison from before, it was like suddenly gaining five million won from a single sentence.
“What the hell? Suddenly?”
—I get benefits too when you level up quickly, student.
“Benefits?”
—Meaning if I get the chance to spoil you, I’m gonna spoil you properly. Like a grandma feeding her grandkid.
Then another massive system window appeared.
Decorated with special characters and arrows, it looked exactly like the kind of flashy ad even Park Youngjun would ignore.
—♨♬♨ LIMITED-TIME SPECIAL OFFER ♨♬♨
—First Skill Purchase ONLY ↘50% OFF↓ INSANE CLEARANCE SALE
As though urging Kangcheol onward, the system asked:
—So then, which skill are you buying first?
