When I opened my eyes, I was at the summoning circle outside the tower.
The moment of being summoned in and out of the tower was always hazy, like the morning after a night of drinking.
I habitually checked on the members.
Guys gasping for breath, guys who couldn’t get up because their bones were broken.
Broadcast station cameras wormed their way between them, trying to get a shot.
This much is a decent result.
We survived, and that’s what matters.
Now I should worry about myself.
“Hey, Haiseon.”
An ominous voice.
My neck turned with a creak.
There was Pyo Yeojeong, looking at me with eyes as disoriented as if she were still inside the dungeon.
“Just how did you….”
“Commander Pyo Yeojeong! Do you have a moment for an interview?”
Right then, a large camera pushed its way between us.
The Commander made a displeased face but eventually agreed to the interview.
In the meantime, I tried to slip away, but Yeojeong grabbed my collar, making that impossible.
“How was today’s raid?”
“Since it was our first time fighting with cold weapons, there were definitely some awkward parts. We faced crises during the raid as well. It wasn’t something I could be satisfied with, and I think it was an opportunity to realize that more training is needed—”
Pyo Yeojeong rattled off her answers like prepared statements.
“But thanks to the barrier rings, everyone was able to return safely. I’d like to express my gratitude to the Mercenary Administration and Friedwen for the opportunity.”
“Yes! I think that’s enough!”
You’ve really become a politician.
Just as I was thinking that.
Pyo Yeojeong grabbed me as if telling me to follow her.
I had a feeling I shouldn’t go.
“Excuse me, can I get an interview too?”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s my dream to be on TV.”
“Ahaha, then could you say a few words?”
“Yes, I’m Haiseon, Vice Commander of the Claymore Mercenary Corps. I have a lot to say, but I think I need to start explaining from when I was about eight years old. Whenever my teachers asked what I wanted to be when I grew up—”
As if that would work.
Naturally, I was dragged away by Pyo Yeojeong, who had waited until the lengthy interview ended.
[What do I do?]
Author: Python
Busted.
Currently being taken away to be interrogated by the Commander.
What excuse should I make….
└Metallurgist: It’s ‘what do I do,’ you bastard, ‘what do I do!’
└└Metallurgist: Did you forge your head too;;
└└Metallurgist: Looks like you didn’t get hurt in the tower though. Good job.
└DidntBuyAShield: What do you mean what do you do, you’re fucked.
└DarkMageGoesHeh: Oh dear, you’re dead, what else. I’ll still put you to good use, darling.
└YoiYoi: Repeat after me, ‘what do I do,’ Yoi!
└└DaggerLord: Repeat after me, Lord!
Even the gallery had no solutions.
They were veterans of forum life, not life itself, so there wasn’t much to expect anyway.
I was dragged to a deserted place like a student being called to the teacher’s office.
Pyo Yeojeong opened her mouth.
“Is it true? What I saw?”
“What did you see?”
“Don’t play dumb. Did you Awaken?”
Did I Awaken?
Yeah, I can’t hide it anymore.
I unfastened the weight-reduction pouch from my waist.
I took out a warhammer from the fluttering pouch and threw it on the ground.
The warhammer fell with a thud.
Pyo Yeojeong’s eyes widened.
Then I rummaged through the pouch and grabbed a fistful of rings.
They were all issued rings with patterns engraved on them.
I took off her spent ring and threw it away, then put new rings on her fingers.
“That’s right. There, done.”
“….”
“I actually made the rings too.”
She looked confused.
Claymore Mercenary Corps.
A place where those who had made Hunters their enemies gathered, each for their own reasons.
How great a lump of resentment must their leader have harbored in her heart?
And yet today, she owed her life to an Awakened. Twice, even.
“…Since when?”
“Is that important?”
“It is. To me.”
Pyo Yeojeong’s face contorted.
An expression close to tears.
“Was it like that from the start? Did you join to laugh at us pathetic bastards while we consoled each other?”
“Sigh…. What are you talking about, no.”
“Then what! Did you come here to play spy or what!”
“I Awakened on the 20th floor. Around the time we were escaping.”
“…….”
“Do you think I wanted to! Did I know I would Awaken! I wanted to stop it, so I reported it even though I knew! But they said it wouldn’t work. They said I have to live like this forever. What am I supposed to do.”
Pyo Yeojeong kept her mouth tightly shut without a word for a while.
She barely parted her lips.
“Then…. what are you going to do now. Are you going to leave us behind…?”
“Where would I go? Just keep it a secret from the others.”
“But the regulations have exceptions….”
“I can’t tell if you want me to leave or stay.”
“…….”
“If you keep the secret, I’ll keep supplying you with rings.”
“Do you think I’m doing this because I want the rings?”
“I’m giving you a practical excuse. You saw today. How much the climbing efficiency improves.”
The Commander’s gaze shifted to the cluster of rings clenched in my hand.
What would have happened without the barrier rings?
I would have lost many comrades to the Snowmen.
We might have been wiped out.
The fierce battle against the Frost Wolves might have been impossible without the psychological stability the rings provided.
The mercenary corps needed the rings to move forward.
She was probably thinking the same thing.
I took Yeojeong’s hand.
“I want to stay here.”
“…Okay.”
In the end, she nodded.
I lived…!
On the way back to the mercenary corps members.
I opened the gallery and delivered the news of victory.
[Ta-da]
Author: Python
I’m back.
└EmpireHammer: How many hits did you take?
└└Python: I didn’t get hit once~
└IntangibleHeritage: How did you do it? And you came back alive.
└└Python: No…. She asked with teary eyes if I was going to leave them behind. So I said I wanted to stay. Then she reluctantly forgave me.
└└Metallurgist: Hmm….
└└Python: Gave her a bunch of rings as bribes.
└└Metallurgist: Hmm….
└└WearingCold: Mng….
└└FrostedWatermelon: Mmh….
***
There was a cute little slip-up where I nearly died, but we achieved all the goals we had planned.
The transition to a cold weapons system and real combat experience. It was a climb where we caught two rabbits at once.
We even achieved a goal we didn’t know we had: a showcase for the mana barrier rings.
The reaction was explosive.
The video we shot on bodycams and edited by the ghost company Friedwen set social media on fire.
Shield soldiers firmly holding the line, and spear soldiers acting as their limbs.
─ Throw!
─ First row, thrust!
Mercenaries moving in perfect unison to the signals.
They were scenes more than enough to get the blood pumping.
└Wow, the dopamine is hitting hard dddd
└Ppappappa ppappe~ this is awesome~
└It’s only the 11th floor though? Isn’t that a floor regular people clear too? Really don’t know.
└└They are regular people too.
└└Anyone can clear it with guns. The impressive part is climbing with only cold weapons as non-Awakened to break through the high floors.
└Info) While other mercenary corps were grinding below the 19th floor, only Claymore challenged the 20th.
The battle with the Snowmen that we had worried about also came alive splendidly thanks to the power of editing.
The scenes of the front line collapsing from the ambush were completely cut.
They were replaced by intense close-combat scenes.
Scenes of jumping off a comrade’s back to plunge a spear, and throwing oneself to grab a Snowman’s ankle.
Mercenaries who threw themselves at a Snowman’s fist to save a comrade whose barrier had disappeared appeared one after another.
Naturally, the power of the barrier rings was revealed in the process.
└The close combat is really desperate….
└So they didn’t just slay wolves for nothing. Snowmen really are a different difficulty level.
└Wait, they’re charging in trusting just one ring? I couldn’t do that even if you paid me;;
└Those people. Thanks to them, magic stone prices are stabilizing. They are true heroes.
└By the way, the ring performance is insane lolol. The Snowman is beating the shit out of them but not a scratch lolol
└└At that level, I don’t think they’d get murdered in our country?
└└Let’s just not piss off the Hunters lol. Dying of natural causes isn’t a dream anymore lolol
└└ It’d probably block most wild magic beasts too?
Public opinion formed exactly as we had hoped.
At this rate, no one would consider Friedwen a scammer or feel hostility toward the rings.
The number of people applying for the support program would definitely increase.
For that, we’d have to increase production.
I stretched my stiff body and headed toward the forge.
Vrrr─
Vrrr─ Vrrr─ Vrrrr─ Vrrrrrrrrrrr─
Just then, my smartphone began ringing violently.
[Pyo Yeojeong_Claymore_Commander]
└(link)
└Did you see this.
└No, are they crazy for real. So fucking annoying.
[Lee Minyeong_MercAdmin_Communications]
└Vice Commander, big trouble!!!!!
└(link)
└You need to see this quickly!!
Texts flew in from Pyo Yeojeong and Lee Minyeong at the same time.
The links they sent were the same.
[Friedwen, Make Way! Hunter Alliance Releases Barrier Ring]
[On the 5th, the Hunter Alliance announced that D-rank Hunter Gu Cheonhwan, an alliance member, had released the mana barrier ring through independent research.]
[It has been only one week since Friedwen unveiled the mana barrier ring.]
[A Hunter Alliance official criticized, “Friedwen’s ring has an excessively high price point,” and “They bandy about the common people’s safety, but control the supply to make it an exclusive luxury for the wealthy.”]
[They continued, “The Alliance’s ring was produced as a low-cost model so that everyone can benefit,” emphasizing, “Please trust in the value of Hunters who have protected the people’s safety for the past 30 years.”]
“They copied it already?”
I had expected a similar product to appear someday.
But I didn’t know it would be this fast.
Magical metallurgy is such that if you connect even one node wrong, the ring transforms from a protective shield into a self-destructing explosion.
I learned the production method from the gallery, but the Hunter side shouldn’t have the knowledge to make barrier rings.
Scroll the article with doubt.
At the end of the article, demonstration footage of the Hunter ring was attached.
It was a video of a Hunter who looked to be about D-rank striking a ring with a sword.
The ring spewed out a barrier against the attack imbued with sword energy.
Chaeng─!
The barrier flickered upon being hit by the sword strike. It blocked the attack.
“Hmm.”
I watched the video over and over.
I analyzed the scene where the barrier unfolded frame by frame.
I examined the shape and mechanism of the protective shield deploying as closely as possible.
After doing so for a while.
I sent replies to Pyo Yeojeong and Lee Minyeong.
─ This is a bit weird.
─ Isn’t this fake?
─ Let’s go beat them up together.
─ Please find out where they’re making them.
─ Let’s go find them together tomorrow.