“I want to make a bow. It shone in the shape of a bow.”
I had no idea why she kept bringing up light.
In any case, Hanna wanted to make a bow out of the tree branch.
“You probably don’t know how to make a bow…”
Hanna shook her head.
“Should we take it back to Earth?”
“Taking it to Earth won’t do any good.”
At my words, Magreta waved her hand.
“That stick was found on this planet, wasn’t it? Items that can hold energy have to be processed differently. If an ordinary person handled it, it would break in no time.”
She told us about several cases where people had tried to process such things on Earth and failed.
“That’s why items like weapons that use energy ended up being made on-site. Attaching monster bones to tree branches to make spears, and building a forge here, were both done for the same reason.”
I looked toward the cave where smoke was rising.
“So processing is possible in that forge?”
“They even refined the junk Hyeon brought into spears. Anyone who can do that is quite skilled.”
Hanna asked carefully.
“Do you think that person could make a bow too?”
Ever since Hanna had said something so absurd, Magreta had been treating her a little curtly.
“We can just ask.”
Even so, she answered properly.
We were tired, but there was nothing urgent to do right away, so we headed for the forge cave.
The inside of the cave where smoke was drifting out was different from what I had imagined.
The forge I had pictured was a place filled with a furnace, bellows, an anvil, and all sorts of iron tools.
But this place was only hot. I couldn’t see any of those things.
There was a place where stones had been piled up that looked like a furnace, but there were no bellows, no anvil, and no iron tools.
There were only finished spears lined up on one side, while three people moved busily around the empty cave.
Two Koreans and one American.
One Korean had his hand pressed to the furnace that was radiating tremendous heat, pouring out his strength, and the other was diligently carrying spears.
The American was sitting in the center of the cave, glaring at a metal rod floating in midair.
The shape of the metal rod was gradually changing.
It seemed to have softened because of the intense heat, but for it to change like that on its own…
Hanna and I stared blankly at the sight.
After some time passed, the red-hot rod had become a long spear.
‘Don’t tell me they’re using abilities to stoke the furnace and using abilities to make spears?’
If not, there was no way they could create such a scene without tools.
“I never imagined this. To think you could make spears from junk without any tools.”
“Amazing, right? It really wasn’t easy bringing Smith here.”
Magreta shrugged as if she had done it herself.
“What’s so amazing about a blacksmith putting on a show like this? If I had anything to work with, I wouldn’t be doing this ridiculous performance.”
The middle-aged man who had completed the spear grumbled as he looked at us coming in.
The spear floating in the air descended to the floor.
Perhaps because the spear was still hot, the man who had been carrying the other spears did not touch it.
“If that guy hadn’t obtained energy this time, we wouldn’t have been able to make a forge at all. We got lucky this time. I knew we should have brought a heat ability user when we came here.”
Smith pointed at the Korean young man, who was panting with his hand still pressed to the furnace.
‘Is he one of the six later members who obtained dark energy?’
I observed him closely.
“Heat ability users are as rare as Smith.”
“Well, heat ability users can be used in all sorts of places…”
At Magreta’s words, Smith clicked his tongue.
Just then, the young man took his hand off the furnace.
“I’m tired!”
When he shouted in English, Smith yelled back at him.
“Heat it up more!”
But it was no use.
“Done. Dark energy done.”
After spitting out a few English words, the young man lay down on the floor.
“Tsk. Guess that’s it for today.”
Wiping his hands on the cloth around his waist, Smith spoke to Magreta.
“What brings you here? The bellows are broken, so I can’t do any more today.”
At Smith’s words, the bellows lying on the floor shouted.
“I’m not bellows.”
“Then should I call you the furnace?”
The young man grumbled in Korean.
“Maybe I should just join the hunting team instead. I’m dying from exhaustion, and I have to sit here listening to crap like that.”
Smith did not understand the young man’s last words.
Unaware of his employee’s escape plan, he continued talking to us.
“If it’s a request from Magreta, I’d put other work aside and do it, but it’s impossible right now.”
“This doesn’t need the furnace.”
When Magreta gestured, Hanna held out the tree branch she had been carrying.
Seeing the long branch that was well over a meter, Smith raised his eyebrows.
“What on earth did you bring?”
“It’s wood we found in the ruins.”
At my answer, Smith tilted his head.
“This isn’t ordinary wood.”
At those words, I glanced at Magreta.
Magreta smiled.
“Don’t worry. I’ll report it as a somewhat unusual tree, not artifact-level. Hyeon has become an expedition leader now too, so others won’t be able to touch it carelessly.”
It seemed there were more benefits to being an expedition leader than I had expected.
Of course, having Magreta as my backing was far better than that.
Then Magreta said to Smith,
“She wants to make this into a bow. Do you think it’s possible?”
“Give it here for a second.”
Smith held out his hand.
Hanna reluctantly stretched out her hands and handed over the branch.
“The energy it contains is no joke… Still, since it isn’t metal, I should be able to reshape it. With that guy out of commission, it’s hard to work on metal right now.”
At those words, I glanced sideways at the spear.
Perhaps he noticed, because Smith furrowed his brows.
“Even if that guy were fine, I couldn’t touch that. So don’t even bring it up.”
I had no intention of asking him to, but hearing that it couldn’t be reshaped made me smack my lips.
When I had seen it in the footage, this staff had looked really incredible too.
[It is the staff of a great mage. It is not something that someone who cannot even use magic can meddle with. To return it to its old form, proper magic is required. If you want that, learn magic.]
At Sof’s words, I threw up both hands. There was no reason to cling to something impossible.
Smith took the branch and sat back down on the floor.
After examining the branch, he asked us,
“By the way, what are you going to do about the bowstring and arrows?”
“For the string… ant tendons were pretty sturdy. Could we use those?”
“Ant tendons? There was such a thing?”
“We caught them in the ruins.”
I took out the ant tendons I had sorted separately from my backpack.
The tendon I pulled out was a long, tough cord that could not possibly be considered an insect tendon.
Smith nodded.
“The name doesn’t match the item at all, so I can’t tell unless I see it. Anyway, the material looks decent.”
After taking the tendon I had brought out, he called the man standing to one side.
“There are a few spear shafts left over from changing the spears, so I’ll make a few arrows too. There won’t be many.”
At those words, Magreta sent him a wink.
“Thank you. When I go to Earth and come back, I’ll bring you some good liquor.”
“I need cigarettes too.”
“All right.”
“Okay. Under those conditions, I’ll do my best.”
Contrary to my expectation that it would take a long time, the work of making the bow ended quickly.
The branch floating in the air changed into a long bow.
He tied on a bowstring made from the ant tendon and even whipped up arrows.
Though the energy it had contained was completely used up, Hanna was able to get a splendid bow.
She hugged the bow and arrows to her chest and kept bowing her head to Smith.
With a tired face, Smith said to us,
“I don’t know what ability has attached itself to it, but this bow is at the point where you could call it an artifact now.”
“I’ll bring two bottles.”
“My mouth is shut.”
Smith mimed zipping his lips.
“In any case, something far more impressive than expected was made. The arrows and bowstring probably won’t last long. I don’t think it’ll be easy on the person shooting the bow either…”
“I used to be an athlete. I’m confident.”
At Hanna’s bold attitude, Smith shrugged.
“If you say so, then I guess that’s that.”
Smith waved us out.
We came out of the cave where the fire had gone out, then each headed into our own caves.
If I had my way, I would have set off for the ruins immediately, but I couldn’t.
All the expedition members had stayed up through the night and were in no condition to think straight.
I also went to sleep in the afternoon, and when I came to my senses, it was the next morning.
“I heard Hanna joined the new team. Why didn’t you call me?”
“You were injured.”
Sergeant An had improved as well, so we could talk normally.
He regretted that so much had happened while he was injured, but he was still grateful that he had survived instead of dying.
“I should treat everyone. I don’t know if there’s anything I can get here. Once my body gets better, I’ll have to look around.”
Whenever the sergeant major back at my unit said something like that, he would come back the next day with something strange.
I had no idea what Sergeant An might bring back from this place.
In any case, Tom no longer needed to stay by Sergeant An’s side.
The new member’s weapon was ready, and now only one thing remained before our preparations to depart were complete.
I took my spear and went out of the cave.
And outside the cave, I ran into Magreta.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to do a bit of maintenance.”
She was nodding at my words when her expression changed, as if she had remembered something.
“Ah, right. This expedition won’t take more than a week, will it?”
“It isn’t that far.”
She stroked her chest in relief.
“That’s good. I heard from the person in charge of the ruins here that we’ll be able to go to Earth in a week.
If it takes too long, I’d have to drop out, but I can’t do that. It’s the first expedition of the new exploration team. I should take part.”
I agreed with her.
Honestly, there was no one as helpful as she was.
After saying goodbye to the relieved Magreta, I headed to a corner of the rocky mountain where there were no people.
This place, a little distance away from the cave, was hidden by rocks and perfect for avoiding people’s eyes.
[An excellent place for a secret tryst.]
Ignoring Sof’s absurd remark, I lifted the spear.
Before me stood Sof’s staff with a metal tip fixed to it.
When I set the spear upright, the mage opened his mouth.
[We still cannot restore the staff to its original form, but we are now capable of strengthening it by the tiniest amount.]
After seeing Hanna receive her bow yesterday, Sof seemed to have realized something as well.
That if he did not make an effort himself, he might be discarded too.
In any case, it meant my weapon would be strengthened, so I intended to do as he instructed diligently.
[I will now cast magic. Since you cannot use magic, do your utmost to serve as a fuel tank.]
So he had been holding onto what I said yesterday.
As expected, he was a mage with a serious grudge problem.
**
The new exploration team departed after noon.
We reported to David and left the base.
Our direction was west, the direction Sof had taught us.
“The road west isn’t good, so we haven’t been able to explore much that way.”
Just as Magreta said, the farther west we went, the worse the path became.
Unlike the dry ground around the base, the earth gradually turned into mud.
At this rate, we might end up running into tidal flats or a swamp.
“Is there groundwater? I don’t see any streams or rivers…”
Sof answered my question.
[If you keep going west, there is a mountain range. The snowmelt from the perpetual snow on those peaks flows down.]
I couldn’t even see the mountains from here, so they had to be incredibly far away.
As we continued walking with effort, we encountered monsters.
They were monsters resembling the rabbits we had met before.
However, this time, there weren’t just one or two of them.
There were close to ten monsters.
But I wasn’t worried.
Just as the number of monsters had changed, we had changed too.
Though the distance was still great, Hanna drew her bow first.
I could feel energy gathering in the bow as she pulled it back with all her strength.
To my senses, I felt the bow shining.
Tung.
Hanna released the bowstring.
Shweeeeeek!
The arrow flew at tremendous speed.
It was a long distance and the arrow was fast, but the monsters were different.
At the sound of air being split, the rabbits scattered in all directions.
The rabbit monster Hanna had aimed at also dodged to the side.
But it did not escape unharmed.
Shwaaak!
Because the arrow changed direction and followed it.
I didn’t know whether this was the ability of the new bow or Hanna’s skill, but Hanna could now shoot guided arrows.
Thud!
The arrow pierced through the monster.
One down.
I followed the rabbit monsters scattering in every direction with my eyes one by one and raised my spear.
At the tip of the raised spear, instead of a metal point, something else was attached.
A roughly carved translucent black stone—the black stone obtained from the terraforming ruins, now modified.
My spear had gone from a bone spear to a metal spear, and now it had become a stone spear.
I threw the spear with all my might.
Shwaaaak!
The spear flew at tremendous speed.
[A stone spear, you say! At least call it a jeweled spearrrr…]
Along with the spear, Sof’s voice grew farther and farther away.