Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 36

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (36)

Foreigner

When Lee Si-hyeok regained consciousness and opened his eyes, he found himself on a bed in some inn room.

Frowning, he calmed his chaotically swirling mana before slowly sitting up.

‘…What the hell is going on?’

The situation wasn’t making much sense.

He remembered the Deep Zone Access Key reacting at the end, and multiple messages appearing in succession, but suddenly falling into a place like this.

It was a case he’d never heard of before.

A double Gate? He tried speculating that, but it didn’t seem right.

For two Gates to overlap simultaneously, there were no commonalities with any cases that had appeared so far.

Lee Si-hyeok was stroking his chin, continuing his contemplation.

—Flash. A message appeared before his eyes.

 

[The place where you crash-landed is 〈Orbes〉.]

[This place, Orbes, is constantly growing by accepting numerous visitors centered around advanced Magical Engineering.]

[However, recently, an ominous energy of unknown identity has been randomly settling into people, causing considerable harm throughout the entire city.]

[An ominous energy that even Magical Engineering cannot identify. Therefore, wariness toward foreigners has recently become extremely severe.]

 

“…”

Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes narrowed after reading the message.

After reading it, he had one impression.

‘So what am I supposed to do about it?’

It was telling him about what this place called ‘Orbes’ was like, but there was nothing about what he should actually do.

Content that seemed kind but was actually quite unkind.

Still, Lee Si-hyeok calmed his mind.

Even if the situation itself was frustrating, this kind of situation actually suited him well from the start. Pioneering the correct answer amidst complex problems was one of Lee Si-hyeok’s strengths.

Besides, there was some useful information to glean from the message.

Creak.

He got up from the bed and walked toward the window.

Though it was said to be a city with advanced Magical Engineering, it seemed not every part had kept up with that development, as the inn was quite run-down.

The wooden floor screaming with every step he took, and the spider webs on the dusty, hazy window were probably in a similar context.

Clatter.

But when he opened the window, the scenery revealed was quite different.

Steam flowed out from magic devices placed throughout the streets.

Red or blue circuits were carved into each building, making the entire area shimmer with light, and when he looked up, he could even see floating trains powered by mana crossing the sky.

And around them, dozens of Aerial Gardens were positioned.

‘So this is why.’

A brilliant kingdom that had been at the forefront of Magical Engineering.

The meaning of the message he had seen just before falling into this place became much clearer.

Lee Si-hyeok was genuinely impressed.

As he was calming his excited heart, he suddenly heard small sounds coming from outside the door.

Creak… Creeeeak…

The screams of the wooden floor were getting closer.

Someone was coming to this room.

Realizing this, the message he had seen earlier flashed through his mind.

‘Foreigner.’

Black hair, black eyes, and even foreign clothing.

Right, his current appearance was unmistakably that of a foreigner.

Anxiety crept in.

But even during this, the footsteps kept getting closer.

And then, bang!

“…”

The door opened.

The visitor was a man covered in scars all over his body.

Before he could say anything, the man spoke first in a heavy tone.

“Hey there, mister.”

Lee Si-hyeok swallowed and quietly slipped his hand into his pocket.

He tried to grasp a Magic Stone to activate Clear Mirror Still Water, but the Magic Stones he had brought were nowhere to be found.

…Did they disappear when he crossed over here? Questions flooded his mind for a moment. But Lee Si-hyeok clenched his fist and shook off those doubts.

Now wasn’t the time to think.

Feeling cold sweat running down his back, he answered cautiously.

“What’s wrong?”

“Didn’t I clearly tell you? That I’d be watching, so be careful.”

“Did you?”

Naturally, he had no memory of it. However, Lee Si-hyeok twisted the corner of his mouth, pretending to be calm.

“Ha! You’re going to act all confident? You must know how tense the atmosphere has been lately.”

“…”

“Because of people like you, mister, only we end up having a hard time. The Security Guard that has to arrest you suffers like hell. Damn it. I knew from the first time I saw you that I didn’t like those pitch-black eyes.”

The mention of black eyes. Lee Si-hyeok felt his anxiety becoming reality.

“So let’s just end this between us, mister.”

The man began drawing up his mana.

It was the moment Lee Si-hyeok was about to pull out the Emergency Artifact he had hidden.

 

[The special benefit 《Three Times When Important》 of the ‘Deep Zone Access Key’ activates.]

[《Three Times When Important》 – When you face a dangerous moment, you will be given an opportunity to escape that crisis. There are three opportunities in total. Luck is with you.]

[A moment of crisis has been detected.]

 

‘Faster…!’

Mana gathered in the man’s hand.

It was obvious. He must be a combat-type Awakened. No matter how much Lee Si-hyeok had an Emergency Artifact, the outcome was uncertain when the opponent’s capabilities weren’t assessed.

In his impatience, Lee Si-hyeok bit his lip hard and glared at the message.

 

[The passive 『Discomfort Removal』 is temporarily generated.]

[The discomfort characteristic of foreigners disappears from you. People will think of you not as a foreigner to be wary of, but as a ‘somewhat peculiar neighbor.’]

 

“…Hm?”

The man’s actions came to an abrupt halt. The swirling mana began to gradually calm down, and then disappeared entirely.

But that wasn’t the end.

 

[The special skill 『Blooming』 has succeeded in observing a past ‘experience’ from you.]

[You have a previous experience of disguising your identity as the ‘Pale Artist.’ With this, you amazed countless people and continuously drew explosive reactions.]

[Experience influences the special benefit! 『Discomfort Removal』 grows by one level.]

[『Discomfort Removal』 → 『Foreigner Adaptation Contract』]

 

“…?!”

Lee Si-hyeok quickly read through the description of 『Foreigner Adaptation Contract』.

And immediately his pupils dilated. It was an unbelievably tremendous special benefit.

Its performance could be confirmed right away.

The man who had suppressed his mana dusted off his palms and said.

“Mister, I clearly told you. To check out before it gets too late.”

“….”

“Geez, you’ve been acting so frustratingly since earlier. Like I said before, it’s because of people like you that we end up having a hard time for no reason. If you agreed to check out by a certain time, you should keep that promise!”

It was clearly the same growling tone he had used just moments ago, but the meaning behind those words had completely changed.

All the warnings about foreigners had transformed into a nuance of scolding Lee Si-hyeok for being late to check out.

“I’m also tired of calling the security guards every time. It’s awkward, you know.”

“…I’ll leave quickly.”

“Now you’re finally making sense. People like you should wrap things up quickly on our end like this to make it comfortable, don’t you think? Anyway, move aside so I can start cleaning.”

Lee Si-hyeok stepped aside and gathered his belongings from the table.

Though the table had been empty earlier, it now had several new items including an ID card and a small amount of currency.

“Ho. You used it more neatly than I thought. Looking at how the spider webs on the window have completely disappeared. Looks like you did the cleaning I was supposed to do in advance, huh?”

The man grinned with his rough-looking face.

“I thought someone with such dark eyes would use the room messily too.”

Then he patted Lee Si-hyeok’s shoulder a couple times before leaving the room. The murderous atmosphere from earlier was nowhere to be found.

While feeling relieved that he had survived, Lee Si-hyeok read through the special benefit’s description once more.

 

[『Foreigner Adaptation Contract』 – A contract to help with your adaptation. You will be given a temporary ID and several necessary items. And unless you make a major mistake, people will always feel favorably toward you.]

 

Even when the sky falls, there’s always a hole to escape through.

For now, it seemed like he could put aside his survival worries.

 

* * *

 

‘There’s nothing particularly helpful here.’

Lee Si-hyeok thought this as he closed the book he had been reading.

He was currently in an old library located near the inn.

He had come here to gather various information.

When you don’t know where to start, it’s best to collect information by reading first.

Fortunately, Orbes had many libraries.

Most had cutting-edge systems where you could access information through holograms instead of books.

But there was a problem.

Those very documents were strictly managed, and Lee Si-hyeok, with his temporary status, lacked the access permissions to view them at all.

It turned out that all the prestigious libraries operated this way.

So Lee Si-hyeok wandered around and eventually ended up at this library.

Since it was located in a relatively underdeveloped area, it was filled with books instead of holographic documents.

‘Who would have thought I’d be seeking out analog.’

Anyway, Lee Si-hyeok had spent quite a while searching for information, which brought him to this moment.

“Hmm….”

He glanced at the dozens of books piled on the desk.

〈Kingdom History Through Orbes Chronology〉, 〈Orbes’ Magical Administration and Social Structure〉, 〈500 Years of History Through Major Events〉, and so on.

At least through these books, he had gotten some sense of what kind of place Orbes was.

A completely independent world with no relation to Earth whatsoever.

Another world—or rather, it was vast enough to be properly called another dimension.

It was far too inadequate to simply dismiss it as the ‘inside of a Gate.’ No matter how large a Gate might be, it wasn’t to this extent. This was literally world-class in scale.

‘Also, it developed based on magical engineering.’

For example, it felt like this:

Just as humanity discovered fire in ancient times and developed civilization around it.

Similarly, the people here had discovered mana first.

That meant this was a world where mana naturally existed in nature, unlike Earth.

No matter how he looked at it, this was indeed somewhere completely removed from Earth.

Lee Si-hyeok’s gaze swept over the upper portion of the stacked books.

The books there had no writing on them at all. The places where titles should have been were completely empty.

‘…They’ve been erased without a trace.’

These books had all been placed in the section related to magical engineering theory.

Naturally, Lee Si-hyeok had first felt excitement about what he might be able to learn here above all else.

To satisfy that curiosity, he had tried to search through various papers, but all the text in the books had disappeared.

As if someone had intentionally erased them.

In the end, he had no choice but to move around more.

Well, that wasn’t bad. Lee Si-hyeok also wanted to walk around more and see this place filled with excellent technologies rivaling that Legacy Artifact.

Just as he was about to get up from his seat.

“What’s your name, young man?”

It was a middle-aged man in shabby clothes, and recognizing that he was the library’s librarian, Lee Si-hyeok hesitated briefly before answering.

“I’m Pale Artist.”

“Pale Artist? That’s an unusual name.”

“It’s not my real name.”

“Hmm, I see. I’m called Elec.”

He casually shook the hand Elec extended. When he sent a questioning look, Elec added more words.

“I’ve been watching you since earlier. Has it been about 7 hours? During that entire long time, you’ve been staring at books without lifting your bottom once. That’s impressive concentration.”

“….”

“Ah, don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t looking at you with strange eyes or anything. As you can see, our library doesn’t have many people. Actually, saying ‘not many’ is a bit much. It’s just you and me, the two of us. Ahem…!”

It seemed to be the effect of the special benefit. It said people would feel favorably toward him—was this how it worked? Come to think of it, whenever he asked for directions, he always received kind responses.

“Passion like yours is hard to find. I’ve lived for quite a long time, but it was truly heartwarming to see.”

“You don’t look that old though.”

“Oh? Is that so? Ahem! Thank you. But there are such things as invisible years, aren’t there.”

Elec’s smile, which had been somewhat eccentric, became momentarily strange.

“Anyway, the reason I’m being so bothersome is simple. Would you like to work at my workshop?”

“Workshop?”

“That’s right. Though it’s not in great condition, I operate a personal workshop. I started running it a very long time ago….”

Elec’s words were long but simple.

He said he was inspired by seeing Lee Si-hyeok’s concentration and asked how about visiting his workshop to work briefly.

He also added that it would be fine to stay just for a few days as if experiencing it, without working for a long time.

‘This seems fine.’

As long as the 『Foreigner Adaptation Contract』 existed, there wouldn’t be any major danger. It was a special benefit guaranteed by none other than the status window.

And above all, excitement about wanting to observe this advanced world’s magical engineering up close tickled one corner of his heart.

Though he couldn’t get any information from books, seeing it directly might be different.

Lee Si-hyeok nodded.

“Understood. I’ll try it for a few days.”

“Good. Look forward to it. It won’t be easy though.”

 

* * *

 

A short while later.

Orbes Royal Capital outskirts, Elec’s personal workshop.

“It’s finished.”

Lee Si-hyeok declared while holding up the completed artifact.

Elec muttered with his mouth hanging open as if his jaw might drop.

“Y-you already finished it…?”

However, Elec didn’t know yet.

That this shock was only the beginning.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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