“I didn’t.”
At those words, she let out a sigh of relief.
“Phewww, you scared me, nya. I thought that Giant God Soldier was coming out again, nya.”
“Ah~?”
Seeing that she seemed to know something about the golem, Sinhyeok casually probed her.
“This golem still hasn’t found its name, has it?”
“That’s right, nya. That Giant God Soldier has yet to find its rune word of fate, nya. Hihihit. That’s too hard with your abilities, nya! Hihit.”
Sinhyeok smiled faintly.
The catkin flinched at Sinhyeok’s smile.
“Did I, maybe… say everything, nya?”
He silently ignored her.
“She says the name is a rune word. I don’t know who that person is, but for now, if we plug in rune words and try calling it something…”
The catkin jumped up in alarm.
“No, nya! The Giant God Soldier mustn’t appear yet, nya!”
Aurumstone and Elysia quietly stepped away from the workbench.
Not knowing what was going on, Sinhyeok looked at the two of them as they fell silent and moved away, then asked.
“What’s wrong? Why did you suddenly get so quiet?”
The catkin came pattering over and inspected the workbench.
“Hmmm.”
She stuck her face forward and examined it closely.
“This isn’t that Giant God Soldier, nya. Phew, I got scared for nothing, nya!”
“Huh?”
Sinhyeok looked at her and asked.
“So it doesn’t matter?”
“Well, it might be fine? Mm… or maybe not—nya.”
The awkwardly tacked-on “nya” grated on his ears quite a bit.
“Could you maybe not make that awkward nya-nya sound?”
“No, nya. I like it, nya.”
“……”
“Anyway, if you’ve seen all you need to see, please step aside.”
“No, nya. This is interesting, so I’m going to watch, nya.”
Something strange had latched onto him.
Sinhyeok looked at her with a wary gaze.
“Just be quiet, please. If you’re not going to help.”
“Nya.”
Sinhyeok tried again for now.
‘So there is a correct name?’
Thinking of the name, he attempted the synthesis again.
[Attempting synthesis.]
‘For now, let’s try the existing name once.’
[Beginning golem synthesis.]
“Observer?”
[Failed.]
Crack, crumble.
“Pfft. Pffft.”
An obvious laugh rang out.
“Kkkp, that’s a rune word, nya? Kkgegeup.”
Annoyed by the blatant laughter, Sinhyeok sighed and gathered up all the materials.
“Where are you going, nya!”
“To the next room!”
“Hihihit!”
Sinhyeok came to Aurumstone’s workshop and spread out the materials to try again.
Creak.
At the sound of the door opening, he turned around and saw Aurumstone.
“No, old man, what is that woman? Why does she keep going nya-nya and getting on my nerves?”
“A god.”
His body froze at that brutally simple yet overwhelming word.
“A god?”
He spoke sincerely to the shocked Sinhyeok.
“She’s commonly known as the cat who peeks at fate. She’s pretty strong in her own way.”
“I mouthed off to a god? What were you doing, not stopping me?”
Aurumstone chuckled and said,
“You should’ve read the room. Why do you think we stepped back and stayed quiet?”
“Damn it. I nearly lost my head.”
Sinhyeok found it strange to hear that the catkin he had just seen was a “god.”
“But in novels and stuff, aren’t gods not supposed to be able to just appear like this?”
“Come on now. Who says that? If there’s somewhere a god can’t go, is that really a god? That’s a knockoff.”
“Ah.”
Aurumstone sat down on a chair in the corner and added,
“But it is hard for them to move around as they please. Depending on the power they possess, there are cases where a world can’t endure it, so they tend to refrain from letting themselves be seen or anything like that.”
“Oh.”
Sinhyeok thought over those words.
He asked about the dimensional integration phenomenon happening on Earth.
“Then will they come to this Earth someday too?”
“They will. There’s no avoiding the end of a dimension.”
“When that time comes, will we be able to remain intact?”
“It’ll be difficult. But Yggdrasil has attached itself to you, so maybe you’ll be all right, to some extent.”
“Hmm.”
Sinhyeok worried for a moment, then shook it off.
“Well, won’t someone solve that? What’s urgent right now is this thing. This damned golem. A damned thing that won’t operate or synthesize just because it doesn’t have a single name.”
He opened the crafting method again and checked the production order once more.
“Old man. Do you know anything? It says to call its name in a rune word.”
“Not sure. But if that crafting method is right, shouldn’t you have to call the name of the thing outside too?”
“Ah.”
He hurriedly checked the crafting method in detail.
Something was written in the far corner of the page.
“Only an alchemist who can see fate can complete it.”
“Damn it.”
Sinhyeok laughed in disbelief.
“What the hell, did we get baited?”
“Sigh, I don’t know anymore.”
Aurumstone simply flopped down.
Sinhyeok planted his head on the workbench and muttered,
“Ah~ being an alchemist is haaaard~!”
The sprawled dwarf burst into laughter.
“Can’t I just be an ordinary soldier who shoots guns? I used to live just fine like that.”
The dwarf rolled in a circle, reached the bed, and crawled up as he said,
“Who told you to awaken as an alchemist?”
“Damn it.”
Sinhyeok sprang to his feet and headed somewhere.
Aurumstone looked at Sinhyeok and asked,
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to beg the cat. To let me see fate.”
“Kekekekeup, you think that’ll work?”
“I won’t know until I try!”
He immediately knocked on the only room in this workshop he had yet to enter.
“I’m coming in!”
Risking his life, he charged in without waiting for an answer.
“Nyaaang?”
She greeted Sinhyeok while lying on the grassy floor, rolling around.
“What is it, nya?”
Sinhyeok immediately knelt down politely and begged.
“Please let me see fate, Lord God, sir?”
“Nyaaang? That sounds weird, nya. Just call me you, nya.”
“What?”
Ignoring him, she inhaled the smell of the grass deeply.
“Haaaaa, this is killer, nya.”
The way her eyes trembled was anything but ordinary.
“Why did you come, nya?”
Sinhyeok found the sight deeply odd.
‘Why is there not a single normal person in this workshop?’
It was a question no one could answer.
“The method to see fate…”
“There isn’t one, nya. If you could do that, you’d be a god, not a human, nya.”
He was kicked away in a single blow.
“Could you at least tell me a little? I’ll offer fish or some kind of tribute.”
She looked at him with eyes that had gone cold.
“Do I look like a real cat to you, nya? Not that. Give me money, nya. Money, nya!”
“Mo, money?”
The catkin instantly sprang up and pounced on Sinhyeok.
“Oof?!”
Pinned down beneath her foot, Sinhyeok struggled.
“Y-you can’t do this!”
“Huhihihihit! There is nothing I can’t do, nya!”
Before he knew it, her tail swished and searched through Sinhyeok’s pocket.
“Ugh?! My wallet!”
She opened the wallet and slipped out the cash.
“I’ll take this gratefully, nya! Ice cream!”
Before he knew it, she had scampered away.
“That nyangster!”
“Hihihit!”
She slid the door open and said,
“For the record, if you don’t transcend, you can’t see fate in the first place, nya~”
“What?”
“Mm, I’ll tell you one more thing as a bonus, nya. Just trust your intuition, nya. That’s the only way a being who hasn’t transcended can sense fate, nya.”
Bang.
She slammed the door shut.
She ran off with the 50,000 won that had been in Sinhyeok’s wallet.
“That damned nyangster.”
Bang!
Just as he was about to leave this space with no real gains, she opened the door again and, with an urgent expression, said,
“You! Don’t make the golem, nya!”
“What?”
Her expression quickly changed, and she said something different.
“No, nya. It’s a flow that can’t be stopped anyway, nya. Just do whatever you want, nya.”
“What?”
Not understanding what she meant, he shouted after her as she ran off again.
“What are you talking about!”
“Hihihit! Bleh, nya!”
Slide.
The side door opened.
Bloom, the enchanter, looked at him with a familiar expression and said,
“I told you not to try to understand. When the time comes, you’ll know everything.”
“Even when she’s like that? She even ran off with 50,000 won.”
“Tsk, that damned nyangster again.”
The nyangster, Miss Nya, returned once more and clung to the workshop door as she shouted,
“For the record, if you make that, the Deviants will sense it, nya!”
“Hey! You, come here! What is that! What is it! Explain—”
Bang.
Again, she ran away.
“That, that…!”
Bloom shook his head and slipped back into his own workshop.
“Wow, am I the weird one here?”
He headed back to Aurumstone’s workshop.
The dwarf, who had been resting on the bed, asked,
“Did she tell you?”
“She did say something, but basically, I just got 50,000 won ripped off.”
At those words, Aurumstone laughed like a madman.
“Kekekeup! That so-called god is also famous as a thug. She’s good at fleecing people.”
“Argh! What kind of being is that!”
Sinhyeok opened the book he had received from Bloom and looked through the rune words one by one.
“So you didn’t hear a method?”
“She did say something, but it was all vague nonsense. Something about trusting my intuition. Seriously, even I could say that.”
“Hmm.”
Aurumstone watched him scrutinizing the book and asked,
“But what are you doing?”
“I’m going to try even that. She’s still a god, so I doubt she was only talking nonsense. She did take my 50,000 won too.”
He sat up on the bed, leaned crookedly against the wall, and watched.
“What did that nyangster god tell you?”
“I don’t know the details. Trust your intuition, she says. Good grief, I could say that too.”
Aurumstone gave a piece of advice to him as he grumbled.
“Why not try believing it for now?”
“What? Why?”
“Why do you think that god is called a nyangster? Because she takes money and runs.”
“Ah, is she normally even worse?”
Aurumstone nodded.
“She took half of my blood-and-sweat works.”
“Wow, why did you let her live? She lives right next door.”
“Because I can’t kill her. She’s a god, isn’t she? A god. Even if I kill her, she’ll just resurrect in another body anyway.”
“Ah…”
“She’s a strange god. She barely has any power—only a little stronger than normal. But her origins are unknown, and she goes on sustaining her life by endlessly repeating resurrection and death.”
Sinhyeok shook his head at those words.
“Ugh, even if I were a god, I couldn’t live like that. How does anyone live that way?”
“Who knows. Or what she’s waiting for.”
* * *
Sinhyeok continued focusing on the book.
Then, suddenly, his hand stopped on one rune word.
Tingle.
“Obsir.”
[Golem synthesis is beginning.]
[Constructing body.]
[Life core is being imbued.]
[Rune word is being engraved.]
[Absorbing soul crystal for ego.]
[Lastly, determining the golem’s fate.]
[Golem: The Observing One has been born.]
[Obsir][Heroic][Life][Golem]
=======================
An artificial life-form created through an ancient golem crafting method, equipped with tracking and observation functions.
Creator: Bu Sinhyeok
Ego Level: 3
Functions: Search, Observation, Recording, Stealth, Levitation
Available activity time: 12 days
=======================
[Warnings]
If not charged on time, it will cease operation as is.
It possesses a Level 1 ego, which is close to completely manual. It performs only exactly what it is ordered to do.
It responds only to the creator’s commands.
=======================
“Huh?! Yes! I lucked into it!”
An eye the size of a human face slowly rose above the workbench.
The golem stared blankly at Sinhyeok.
‘Please input a command.’
“Holy crap. This thing talked to me.”
Aurumstone rubbed his eyes and pushed himself off the wall.
“That thing! It moves!?”
“Yes! It moves!”
“Oh! Now we can finally deliver it!”
* * *
“Nya-nya-nya~”
The catkin visited a convenience store with an excited face.
“It’s been a while, nya!”
The convenience store owner smiled when he saw the catkin and said,
“It has. What will you have today?”
“Melon ice cream, of course, nya!”
She confidently handed over the 50,000 won and bought ice cream.
Sitting in a chair in the corner, she peeled off the wrapper with a bright face.
“Hihit. This looks delicious, nya.”
When she took a bite, a blissful expression spread across her face.
“Is it that good?”
“Nya~”
With a happy expression, she spoke of something even happier.
“Mister owner, I saw something I missed, nya.”
The owner sitting at the counter listened to her words.
“What was it?”
“Father, my creator. It was quite similar, nya.”
“Really? You must have missed him a lot.”
“That’s right, nya. This time, I’m truly looking forward to it, nya.”
The catkin smiled and placed the change on the table with a tap.
“This is a tip, nya!”
“Oh my.”
“Bye-bye~nya.”
With a carefree face, the catkin bounced away and headed back toward Hongik.
Her steps were strangely light.
“Finally, he has returned, nya! Finally! He’s here, nyaaaang!”