Episode 21: Searching through the rubbish (1)
Even though it was the first day of the semester, the Magic Engineering Workshop was extremely busy.
Just as combat classes stake their lives on winning or losing in PvP and scoring high in strategy battles, production classes do their best to create high-quality items.
Well-made items are included in catalogs and used to earn points, and some are sold outside of Yongsal Academy.
It is to make up for the lack of practical evaluation scores due to insufficient combat power by achieving results.
So, from day one, you can’t help but be desperate to create something more.
There are not just one workshop, but several, and the first workshop used by the 1st Army has the best facilities and is therefore also used by the most people.
Just getting close to it will make your ears hurt from the loud mechanical noises that will buzz around, and your eyes will feel dazzled by the blue lights flashing everywhere.
On the other hand, as the number of people in front of the workshop increases, the level of the facilities also decreases and naturally the number of people decreases.
So by the time I got closer to the 4th workshop, the noise had almost died down and it was quiet.
The door to the fourth workshop was half open.
Inside, you can feel the waves of mana along with the small mechanical sounds.
I peeked through the open door and saw a student with his back turned, absorbed in fiddling with something.
He holds a different tool in each hand, and all ten fingers are transparent blue.
[Magic Engineering] This means that the skill is being developed.
– Smart,
I raised my hand and knocked.
Loud enough to break concentration, but quiet enough to not be annoying.
“who are you.”
The student turned his upper body from where he was sitting to check the door, and our eyes met.
I started by bowing in greeting.
If you’re in a place like this at this time, you’re 100% a senior.
I checked the color of the tie pin and it is definitely a third grader.
“Hello, senior.”
“freshman?”
“yes.”
“You want to join the magic engineering club?”
“I am interested.”
It sounds like the same thing, but it’s different.
Because I’m only interested and have no intention of joining.
The third-year senior either didn’t notice the difference or didn’t care, as he just seemed to want to finish what he was doing.
“Then why didn’t you go to Workshop 1 and take a look? Why did you come all the way here?”
I made an embarrassed expression.
“Actually, I started from there, but my seniors told me to go around the 4th workshop first… … .”
“Ah… … Really.”
The third-year senior’s face was crumpled as it was.
Who would like it if someone pushed the work onto them?
It’s something that can’t be avoided since it’s something that was passed on from the first team.
Actually, I have never set foot in the first workshop, but I felt like they would ignore me if I didn’t tell a lie like this, so I had no choice but to tell a joke.
I asked with an innocent face, pretending not to know anything.
“Can I take a look around?”
“… … Just take a quick look around and go. I’m busy, so don’t bother me.”
“Thank you~ I’ll watch quietly.”
“… … .”
He waves his hand and goes back to his work.
The tools restart and your hands turn blue.
I watched from the corner of my eye and gauged the level of [Magic Engineering].
‘B-rank army.’
Even if it’s rotten, it’s still a good tooth. Even if I’m stuck in the corner of the 4th workshop, I’m a 3rd year student at Yongsal Academy.
The main skill level is B rank.
That was my first goal when I came here.
[Use ‘Copy-Skill’.]
[Register the target’s skill ‘Magic Engineering (B)’ in the slot.]
▷Copy-Skill [2/2]
1. Hummingbird (E)
2. Magic Engineering (B)
If it was below B rank, I would have had to go back to the first workshop and copy the skill separately, but thanks to this senior’s unexpectedly high achievements, I didn’t have to do it twice.
‘Now the next goal.’
I pretended to be a freshman who was really here to tour the workshop, and I looked around diligently.
While repeatedly exclaiming, ‘Wow! What is this?’, ‘This is so amazing!’
After going around like that, the place we arrived at was a mountain of junk filled with unidentified items.
The piled up height reaches up to the shoulders, showing how many sheep there are.
I asked with my eyes sparkling brightly.
“Senior, what is this?”
“They’re just failures.”
A pile of items that were left unfinished for various reasons, such as parts being damaged during production, the final product not being as good as the original, or not having enough materials.
The 4th workshop also serves as a semi-dump.
I was openly curious.
“Wow, it looks like there’s a lot inside. Can I take a look?”
“Either way.”
Permission has been granted.
I have a strong feeling that I’m just rambling on about whatever’s coming out of my mouth because I’m too lazy to handle things, but I’ll give it my permission anyway.
I started to dismantle the mountain of clutter.
Starting from above, I pick up pieces of junk one by one and pile them next to me, then continue digging deeper.
As several small mountains began to pile up around me, something came into my hand.
‘Found it.’
A cube slightly smaller than a soccer ball.
But if you look closely, you’ll see that it’s made up of countless cubes the size of fingernails.
‘Cube’ is one of the ways to create magic engineering items.
It is a kind of three-dimensional blueprint where each of the tiny cubes has a complex magical circuit engraved on it, and the cubes are placed in the right places to complete the item.
However, cubes are usually designed in 27 3x3x3 and 64 4x4x4 configurations, with three sides, three lengths, and three heights.
What I held in my hand was 10x10x10.
A thousand little cubes.
It means that it is a super high-grade blueprint that even skilled craftsmen cannot dare to touch.
As soon as I picked up the cube, a quest window popped up.
[Sub Quest: The Mysterious Cube]
I found a very unusual schematic in the Magic Engineering Workshop.
▷Objective: Investigate the blueprint.
▷Reward: Ability to complete linked quests
[Accept/Reject]
This is the beginning of a long chain of quests.
I ran around here and there researching the blueprints,
Ask for advice from seniors, teachers, and alumni,
Gathering artisans to participate in production,
Going into this dungeon and that dungeon to get materials as if eating a meal,
To obtain special materials, you must hunt boss monsters… … .
It is completed after such a long journey.
It is the S-rank item, [Cube of Life].
A very powerful item, called ‘Saeng-kun’ among players.
‘Yeah, I won’t.’
The problem is that once you accept it, you are stuck with this quest for at least a year.
I immediately declined the quest and put it away.
My only goal is the cube blueprint.
I took the cube to a third-year senior who was just trying to concentrate again.
“Excuse me, senior. I found this over there… … .”
“… … ?”
My senior, who was about to get angry because I kept interrupting him, noticed the cube in my hand.
But judging from his still indifferent attitude, I guess he thinks it’s an item that would be found in a junk drawer.
“It’s a blueprint. What is this?”
“10x10x10, isn’t that amazing? A legendary item?”
“It’s a legendary item if you complete it. That’s just trash. It’s hard to complete even 6x6x6, so I don’t know what kind of greedy person would do it.”
As the saying goes, a blueprint that will never be completed is just garbage.
That’s why I’m looking at it like that.
I pretended to be a freshman with a burning desire to learn.
“This looks so fun, can I take it and open it?”
“I told you, even if you take it, it won’t be finished. If that’s the case, we already made it.”
“Even if I can’t make them all, I’m going to study them while looking at them. I also have a hobby of collecting these kinds of things… … .”
The senior was about to say something like, ‘No, you punk!’ but then closed his mouth again.
I looked at the items I took out of my inventory at the right time.
[Heat Catalyst Reagent] purchased for 1,000 points.
For someone who is into magic engineering, this is an item that is never enough no matter how much you have.
“I would feel bad about just taking it, and I have no shame in doing so… … Instead, I was thinking of giving you this. Is that okay?”
“… … .”
The senior’s eyes wavered.
Your head is probably spinning furiously by now.
[Heat Catalyst Reagent] costs 1,000 points.
These are points you get by clearing low-level dungeons once or twice.
But from another perspective, if you give me this potion, you’ll save yourself a dungeon or two.
This means that you can save time, effort, and stress and focus entirely on magical engineering.
On the other side of the scale, on the other hand, is a bunch of junk that has nothing to do with you.
I’m a little concerned that it’s a high-grade cube blueprint, but won’t anyone be able to complete it anyway?
It’s trash that no one will look for or care about if it disappears from here.
1,000 points worth of materials that will help you right now, and one piece of trash.
It’s a question with a set answer.
The senior quietly reached out and grabbed the [Heat Catalyst Reagent].
“… … I’m doing this just this once in a while. You can’t just take something like this.”
“Thank you, senior!”
“Don’t tell anyone else. It should be kept between us. If the manager finds out, he’ll take it away.”
“of course.”
No matter how trashy these odds and ends may be, only the club president has the authority to hand them over to outsiders.
You’ll probably want to keep it a secret if possible, since you’re handing it over to me to save some minor points.
I nodded to my senior who kept asking me to do so.
“Then I will go in. Thank you.”
“Okay.”
I greeted them politely until the end and left, closing the door to the 4th workshop behind me.
A voice shouting, “Aya! A thousand points!” is heard from beyond the door.
It’s understandable to be excited when you sell trash to some inexperienced freshman like it’s water from the Daedong River.
but…….
‘Is it really trash?’
The first reason I declined the Cube’s linked quest was because it took up too much time.
It is no exaggeration to say that the first year is the most important period for laying the foundation, but if you become too absorbed in quests, you will miss the opportunity to obtain the more important hidden pieces.
My own growth is also slowing down, and I have less time to take care of Koh Hyun-woo and Seo Ye-in.
And the second reason is.
Because I’m such an old hand that I don’t need any linked quests.
‘If you know how to make it.’
The supporters ate it all
